EARLY HINDUISM.
While the great heresies that we have been describing were agitating
the eastern part of India,[1] the old home of Brahmanism in the West
remained true, in name if not in fact, to the ancient faith. But in
reality changes almost as great as those of the formal heresies were
taking place at the core of Brahmanism itself, which, no longer able
to be the religion of a few clans, was now engaged in the gigantic
task of remodelling and assimilating the indigenous beliefs and
religious practices of its new environment. This was not a conscious
act on the part of Brahmanism. At first it was undertaken almost
unwittingly, and it was accomplished later not without repugnance. But
to perform this task was the condition of continued existence.
Brahmanism had to expand, or shrink, wither, and die.
For a thousand years almost the only source of information in regard
to this new growth is contained in the epic poetry of the time, with
the help of a few additional facts from the law, and some side light
from inscriptions. It is here that Vishnuism and Çivaism are found as
fully developed sectarian beliefs, accepted by Brahmanism with more or
less distrust, and in more or less fulness of faith. It is to the epic
that one must turn to study the budding and gradual flowering of the
modern religions, which have cast strict orthodoxy into the shade.
Of the two epics, one, the R[=a]m[=a]yana,[2] has become the Old
Testament of the Ramaite Vishnuites of the present day. The
Bh[=a]rata,[3] on the other hand, is scriptural for all sects, because
it is more universal. The former epic, in its present form, is what
the Hindus call an 'art-poem,' and in its finish, its exclusively
romantic style, and its total lack of nervous dramatic power, it is
probably, as the Hindus claim, the work of one man, V[=a]lm[=i]ki, who
took the ancient legends of Eastern India and moulded them into a
stupid sectarian poem. On the other hand, the Bh[=a]rata is of no one
hand, either in origin or in final redaction; nor is it of one sect;
nor has it apparently been thoroughly affected, as has the
R[=a]m[=a]yana, by Buddhistic influences. Moreover, in the huge
conglomeration of stirring adventure, legend, myth, history, and
superstition which goes to make up the great epic there is contained a
far truer picture of the vulgar custom, belief, and religion of the
time than the too polished composition of V[=a]lm[=i]ki is able to
afford, despite the fact that the latter also has many popular
elements welded into it. There are, in fact, only two national works
in India, only two works which, withal, not in their entirety, but in
their nucleus, after one has stripped each of its priestly toggery,
reflect dimly the heart of the people, not the cleverness of one man,
or the pedantry of schools. For a few Vedic hymns and a few Bh[=a]rata
scenes make all the literature, with perhaps the exception of some
fables, that is not markedly dogmatic, pedantic, or 'artificial.'[4]
So true is this that even in the case of the R[=a]m[=a]yana one never
feels that he is getting from it the genuine belief of the people, but
only that form of popular belief which V[=a]lm[=i]ki has chosen to let
stand in his version of the old tale. The great epic is heroic,
V[=a]lm[=i]ki's poem is romantic; the former is real, the latter is
artificial; and the religious gleaning from each corresponds to this
distinction.[5]
Ths Bh[=a]rata, like other Hindu works, is of uncertain date, but it
was completed as a 'Great Bh[=a]rata' by the end of the sixth century
A.D., and the characters of the story are mentioned, as well known, by
P[=a]nini, whose work probably belongs to the fourth century B.C.
Furthermore, Dio Chrysostomos, probably citing from Megasthenes,
refers to it; and the latter authority describes the worship of the
chief gods of the epic; while the work is named in one of the domestic
S[=u]tras, and a verse is cited from it in the legal Sutra of
B[=a]udh[=a]yana.[6] On the other hand, in its latest growth it is on
a par with the earlier Pur[=a]nas, but it is not quite so advanced in
sectarianism as even the oldest of these writings. It may, then, be
reckoned as tolerably certain that the beginnings of the epic date
from the fourth or fifth century before the Christian era, and that it
was quite a respectable work by the time that era began; after which
it continued to grow for five centuries more.[7] Its religious
importance can scarcely be overestimated. In 600 A.D., far away from
its native home, in Cambodia, it was encircled with a temple, and an
endowment was made by the king providing for the daily recitation of
the poem. Its legal verses are authoritative; its religion is to-day
that of India as a whole. The latest large additions to it were, as we
think, the Book of Laws, the Book of Peace, and the genealogy of
Vishnu, which together form a sort of pseudo-epic. But portions of
other books, notably the first, fourth, and seventh, are probably
almost as recent as are the more palpable interpolations.
The Bh[=a]rata (or the epic [Greek: _kat exochên_] gives us our first
view of Hinduism in its sectarian developments. But no less does it
show us a changing Brahmanism. The most typical change in the
Brahmanism of this period, which covers all that time called by Müller
the era of the Renaissance, and ends with the pedantically piquant
literature of the drama,[8] is the abnormal growth of the ascetic
religious exercise. Older Brahmanism, like the sects, admitted Yogis
and ascetics of various kinds, but their aim was to attain oneness
with God; and 'union' (with God) is the _yoga_ (Latin _jugum_ has the
same origin) which they sought. But it was not long before the starved
ascetic, with his wild appearance and great reputation for sanctity,
inspired an awe which, in the unscrupulous, was easily turned to
advantage. The Yogi became more or less of a charlatan, more or less
of a juggler. Nor was this all. Yoga-practices began to take
precedence before other religious practices. In the Br[=a]hmanas it is
the sacrifice that is god-compelling; but in the epic, although
sacrifice has its place, yet when miraculous power is exerted, it is
due chiefly to Yoga concentration, or to the equally general use of
formulae; not formulae as part of a sacrifice, but as in themselves
potent; and mysterious _mantras_, used by priest and warrior alike,
serve every end of magic.[9] Apart from acquisition of power, this
Yoga-training is, moreover, all that is needful from the point of view
of righteousness. Physical prowess here is the one thing admirable. To
stand for years on one leg, to be eaten by ants, to be in every way an
ascetic of the most stoical sort, is the truest religion. Such an
ascetic has no ordinary rules of morality. In fact, his practices are
most peculiar, for to seduce young women is one of his commonest
occupations; and in his anger to cause an injury to his foes is one of
the ends for which he toils. The gods are nothing to him. They are
puppets whom he makes shake and tremble at will. As portrayed in the
epic, in terms of common sense, the Muni (silent saint) is a
morose[10] and very vulgar-minded old man, who seeks to intimidate
others by a show of miraculous power. In the matter of penances those
of the law are extended beyond all bounds. The caste-restrictions are
of the closest, and the most heinous crime is to commit an offence
against caste-order. On the other hand, the greatest merit is to give
gifts to priests. This had already proceeded far enough, as was
indicated by a passage cited above from Manu. But in the epic the
greed and capacity of the priest exceeds all imaginable limits. He
takes whatever he can get and asks for more. He has, by his own
showing, scarcely one estimable trait. Avarice, cupidity, sensuality,
gluttony, love of finery, effeminacy, meanness, and pride--everything
charged against him by the Buddhist--are his most marked
characteristics. He appears, however, to be worse than he always was.
For nothing is plainer, from this very epic, than that the priests,
although united as a caste, were sharply distinguished in their lives.
The ascetic described above represents the fourth period of the
priestly life. Below these stood (apart from students)[11] hermits and
householders. The householders, or such of them as the epic
unfortunately is busied with, the royal priests, seem to be those that
are in reality priests only in name. In the king's palace, his
constant advisors, his most unscrupulous upholders in wickedness, they
gave themselves up to quest of wealth and power. But one would err if
he thus dismissed them all. There were others that had no preferment,
who lived in quiet content in their own houses, and deserved none of
the opprobrium rightly bestowed upon their hypocritical brothers. The
hermits, too, appear to have been a mild and inoffensive race, not
presuming too much on their caste-privileges.
To offset rapaciousness there are tomes of morality of the purest
sort. Even in the later additions to the epic one reads: "Away with
gifts; receiving gifts is sinful. The silkworm dies of its wealth"
(xii. 330. 29). One should compare, again, the exalted verse
(Buddhistic in tone) of _ib_. 321. 47: "The red garment, the vow of
silence, the three-fold staff, the water-pot--these only lead astray;
they do not make for salvation." There were doubtless good and bad
priests, but the peculiarity of the epic priest, rapacious and
lustful, is that he glories in his sins.
The chief objects of worship (except for the influence of the
sectarian religions) were priests, Manes, and, for form's sake, the
Vedic gods. These gods, with the addition of the Hindu Plutus (Kubera,
the god of riches), are now called the eight 'world-guardians,' viz.,
Indra, Yama, Varuna, Kubera, Agni, S[=u]rya, V[=a]yu, Soma, and are
usually simple and shadowy subordinates of the greater new gods.
In the shifting of religious opinion and in the development of
theological conceptions what difference can be traced between the same
gods as worshipped in the Veda and as worshipped in the epic? Although
the Vedic divinities have been twice superseded, once by the
Father-god and again by the _[=a]tm[=a]_, Lord, they still remain
adorable and adored, active in many ways, though passive before the
great All-god. It is, indeed, extremely difficult, owing to the
superstruction of sectarian belief, to get down to the
foundation-religion of the epic. The best one can do is to see in what
way the old gods differ, as represented in the poem, from their older
selves of the Rig Veda. From this point of view alone, and entirely
irrespective of the sects, manifold changes will be seen to have taken
place. Great Soma is no more. Soma is there, the moon, but the glory
of the Vedic Soma has departed. His lunar representative is of little
importance. Agni, too, is changed. As Fire in the Rig Veda is not only
the altar-fire, but also common, every-day fire, so, too, in the epic
this god is the material flame, and as such even performs his greatest
deeds for his worshippers. He takes on every form, even becoming a
priest, and a dove. He remains the priest of the gods, but his day of
action in war is over. He no longer wins battles. But he burns down a
forest to aid his party. For the Vedic gods are now but weak partizans
of the combatants. In the sectarian parts of the epic Agni is only a
puppet. His new representative, Skanda, is the chief battle-god, a
name almost unknown before. He himself is either the son of Vishnu or
a form of Çiva. He is the All-god, the _[=a]tm[=a]_. It is he who
burns the world when the time shall have come for the general
destruction.
The high and mighty Varuna of the Rig Veda is no longer great. He is
no longer serene. He descends and fights on earth. Indra, too, battles
with Vritra as of old, but he is quite anthropomorphic, and of no
marked value in the contest of heroes. Not only this, but all the gods
together are represented as weaker than a good hero, not to speak of a
priestly ascetic. In a word, the gods are believed in, but with what a
belief! They no longer, as natural powers, inspire special respect.
Their nature-origin is for the most part lost. They are thoroughly
anthropomorphic. Even S[=u]rya, the sun, in action if not in
laudation, is often more man than god. This gives a strange effect to
the epic battle-scenes as compared with those of Homer. Unless Vishnu
is active on the field the action is essentially human. No great god
or goddess stands ready to save the fainting warrior. He fights and
falls alone. Save for the caresses and plaudits of the half-gods, the
most that the Vedic gods can do is to wipe away the sweat from the
hero's brow.[12] The All-god does not take the place of the band of
watchful and helpful gods pictured by Homer. Vishnu fights on the
field; he saves only his protégés, and much as a mortal warrior would
do it. But the Vedic gods hang like a mist upon the edge of battle,
and are all but idle spectators of the scene. Abstractions, as well as
the All-god, have routed them, and Dharma or Duty is a greater god
than Indra. But there is an older side to this, as we shall presently
show. On the moral side the heroes of the epic profess great belief in
the power and awfulness of this god Duty. And so far as go rules of
chivalry, they are theoretically moral. Practically they are savage,
and their religion does not interfere with their brutal barbarity. The
tendency to cite divine instances of sin as excuse for committing it
is, however, rebuked: "One should neither practice nor blame the
(wrong) acts of gods and seers," xii. 292. 17-18.
From an eschatological point of view it is most difficult to get back
of the statements made by the priestly composers,[13] who, in their
various reëditings of the epic, uniformly have given the pantheistic
goal as that in which the characters believe. But it is evident that
the warriors were not much affected by this doctrine. To them there
was one law of righteousness exceeding all others--to die on the field
of battle. And for such as did so, over and over again is the
assurance given that 'happiness in Indra's heaven' is their reward.
And probably a true note is struck in this reiterated promise. To the
mass of the vulgar, union with _brahma_ would have been no attractive
end.
It is interesting to see the remains of the older belief still
flourishing in midst of epic pantheism. Although Indra has no such
hymn as has S[=u]rya, yet is he still lauded, and he is a very real
person to the knight who seeks his heaven.[14] In fact, so long as
natural phenomena were regarded as divine, so long as thunder was
godly, it was but a secondary question which name the god bore;
whether he was the 'chief and king of gods,' or Vishnu manifesting
himself in a special form. This form, at any rate, was to endure as
such till the end of the cycle. There are other Indras. Each cycle has
its own (i. 197. 29). But sufficient unto the age is the god thereof.
If, relinquishing the higher bliss of absorption, the knight sought
only Indra's heaven, and believed he was to find it, then his belief
practically does not differ much from that of his ancestor, who
accepts Indra as an ultimate, natural power. The question arises
whether, after all, the Indra-worship of the epic is not rather
popular than merely old and preserved. Certainly the reality of the
belief seems quite as strong as that of the ever-newly converted
sectary. It may be doubted whether the distribution of theological
belief is very different in the epic and Vedic ages. Philosophical
pantheism is very old in India. The priest believes one thing; the
vulgar, another. The priest of the Vedic age, like the philosopher of
the next age, and like the later sectarian, has a belief which runs
ahead of the popular religion. But the popular religion in its salient
features still remains about the same. Arjuna, the epic hero, the pet
of Krishna, visits Indra's heaven and stays there five years. It is
the old Vedic gods to whom he turns for weapons, till the Çivaite
makes Indra send the knight further, to Çiva himself. The old name,
king of the Vasus, is still retained for Indra; and though the 'divine
weapons,' which are winged with sacred formulae, are said to be more
than a match for the gods; though in many a passage the knight and the
saint make Indra tremble, yet still appear, through the mists of
ascetic and sectarian novelties, Indra's heaven and his grandeur,
shining with something of their old glory. Vishnu still shows his
solar origin. Of him and of the sun is it said in identical words:
"The sun protects and devours all," and " Vishnu protects and devours
" (of Vishnu, passim; of the sun, iii. 33. 71). A good deal of old
stuff is left in the Forest Book amongst the absurd tales of holy
watering places. One finds repeated several times the Vedic account of
Indra's fight with Vritra, the former's thunderbolt, however, being
now made of a saint's bones (ii. ch. 100-105). Agni is lauded (_ib_.
ch. 123). To the Açvins[15] there is one old hymn which contains Vedic
forms (i. 3). Varuna is still lord of the West, and goes accompanied
with the rivers, 'male and female,' with snakes, and demons, and
half-gods _(d[=a]ityas, s[=a]dhyas, d[=a]ivatas_). Later, but earlier
than the pseudo-epic, there stands with these gods Kubera, the god of
wealth, the 'jewel-giver,' who is the guardian of travellers, the king
of those demons called Yakshas, which the later sect makes servants of
Çiva. He is variously named;[16] he is a dwarf; he dwells in the
North, in Mt. K[=a]il[=a]sa, and has a demoniac gate-keeper,
Macakruka. Another newer god is the one already referred to, Dharma
V[=a]ivasvata, or Justice (Virtue, Right), the son of the sun, a title
of Yama older than the Vedas. He is also the father of the new
love-god, K[=a]ma. It is necessary to indicate the names of the gods
and their functions, lest one imagine that with pantheism the Vedic
religion expired. Even that old, impious Brahmanic fable crops out
again: "The devils were the older brothers of the gods, and were
conquered by the gods only with trickery" (in. 33. 60), an interesting
reminiscence of the fact that the later name for evil spirit was
originally the one applied to the great and good spirit (Asura the
same with Ahura).[17] According to a rather late chapter in the second
book each of the great Vedic gods has a special paradise of his own,
the most remarkable feature of the account being that Indra's heaven
is filled with saints, having only one king in it--a view quite
foreign to the teaching that is current elsewhere in the epic. Where
the sectarian doctrine would oppose the old belief it set above
Indra's heaven another, of Brahm[=a], and above that a third, of
Vishnu (i. 89. 16 ff.). According to one passage Mt. Mandara[18] is a
sort of Indian Olympus. Another account speaks of the Him[=a]layas,
Himavat, as 'the divine mountain, beloved of the gods,' though the
knight goes thence to Gandham[=a]dana, and thence to Indrak[=i]la, to
find the gods' habitat (III. 37. 41). Personified powers lie all
around the religious Hindu. And this is especially true of the epic
character. He prays to Mt. Mandara, and to rivers, above all to the
Ganges. Mt. Kol[=a]hala is divine, and begets divine offspring on a
river (I. 63). The Vindhya range of mountains rivals the fabled Meru
(around which course the sun and all the heavenly bodies), and this,
too, is the object of devotion and prayer.[19] In one passage it is
said that in Beh[=a]r (M[=a]gadha) there was a peak which was
continuously 'worshipped with offerings of flowers and perfumes,'
exactly as if it were a god. The reason why flowers are given and worn
is that they bring good luck, it is said in the same chapter (II. 21.
15, 20, 51).
What is, perhaps, the most striking feature of Hindu religious
thought, as a whole, is the steadfastness with which survive, even in
the epic and in Buddhism, the forms and formulae of the older faith.
At a time when pantheism or nihilism is the avowed creed the ancient
gods still exist, weak, indeed, yet infused with a true immortality.
This is noticeable even more in unnoticeable ways, in the turns of
speech, in little comparisons, in the hymns, in short, in the by-play
of the epic. 'Withered are the garlands of the gods, and their glory
is departed,'[20] but they still receive homage in time of need. And
in that homage is to be seen, and from the same cause, the revived or
surviving worship of the Veda. Each god in turn is mighty, though Agni
is the mightiest of the old divinities. In an epic hymn to him it is
said: "Thou art the mouth of the worlds; the poets declare thee to be
one and three-fold; as carrier of the sacrifice they arrange thee
eight-fold. By thee was all created, say the highest seers. Priests
that have made reverence to thee attain the eternal course their acts
have won, together with their wives and sons. They call thee the
water-giver in the air, together with lightning. On thee first depends
water. Thou art the creator and Brihaspati, thou art the two Horsemen,
the two Yamas, Mitra, Soma, Wind" (i. 229. 23 ff.).[21] And yet this
is in a pantheistic environment! The Rig Veda is directly invoked,
though, of course, not directly cited, in the old hymn to the
Horsemen, who are, however, elsewhere put with low animals and
Guhyakas, demons (i. 66).[22] They are the "physicians of the gods,"
the "first-born" the golden birds which weave the white and black of
time, create the wheel of time with all its seasons, and make the sun
and sky (i. 3. 55 ff., "_v[=a]gbhir [r.]gbhis_"). Indra himself is
extolled in Kadr[=u]'s hymn; he is the slayer of Namuci, the lord of
Çac[=i]; he is the great cloud, cloud and its thunder, creator and
destroyer; he is Vishnu, 'Soma, greatly praised,' as well as fire,
air, time in all its divisions, earth and ocean; when lauded he drinks
the _soma_, and he is sung in the Ved[=a]ngas (i. 25. 7 ff.). Praised
with this hymn in time of need of rain, Indra "commanded the clouds,
saying, 'rain down the ambrosia'" (26. 2); where there is still the
rain as synonymous with ambrosia, and Indra not very differently
conceived from his Vedic self. Thus in comparisons: "As Indra standing
in heaven brings bliss to the world of the living, so Vidura ever
brought bliss to the Pandus" (i. 61. 15). But at the same time what
changes! The gods assemble and sing a hymn to Garuda, the epic form of
Garutman, the heavenly bird, who here steals the _soma_ vainly guarded
by the gods. Garuda, too, is Praj[=a]pati, Indra, and so forth.[23]
The gods are no longer divinities distinct from the dead Fathers, for
they are "identical in being." So Agni says when the latter is cursed
by Bhrigu: "The divinities and the Manes are satisfied by the oblation
in fire. The hosts of gods are waters, so, too, are the Manes. The
feasts of the new and full moon belong to the gods with the Manes;
hence the Manes are divinities and the divinities are Manes. They are
of one being (_ek[i]bh[=u]t[=a]s_). I (Fire) am the mouth of both, for
both eat the oblation poured upon me. The Manes at the new moon, the
gods at the full, are fed by my mouth" (i. 7. 7 ff.).[24] Such gods
the epic hero fears not (i. 227. 38 ff.). Hymns to them are paralleled
by hymns to snakes, as in i. 3. 134 ff., against whom is made the
"_sarpasattram_ (snake sacrifice) of the Pur[=a]nas" (i. 51. 6).
Divinity is universal. Knights are as divine as the divinest god, the
All-god. Arjuna, the god-born man, to whom Krishna reveals the Divine
Song, is himself god.[25] In this case whether god becomes human, or
_vice versa_, no one knows.
Under the all embracing cloak of pantheism the heart of the epic
conceals many an ancient rite and superstition. Here is the covenant
of blood, the covenant of death (represented by the modern
'sitting'[26]), and the covenant of water, which symbolizes both
friendship and the solemnity of the curse. The former are illustrated
by Bhima's drinking blood as a sign that he will fulfil his vow,[27]
and by R[=a]ma lying by Ocean to die unless Ocean grants his wish. Of
the water-rite that of offering water in hospitality and as a form in
reception of gifts is general; that of cursing by 'touching water'
(_v[=a]ry upasp[r.]çya_), occurs in iii. 10. 32. For this purpose
holy-grass and other symbols are known also,[28] and formulae yield
only in potency to love-philters and magic drugs. Another covenant
besides those just noticed seems to lie concealed in the avoidance of
the door when injury is intended. If one goes in by the door he is a
guest who has anticipated hospitality, and then he dares not refuse
the respect and offering of water, etc, which makes the formal pact of
friendship. If, on the contrary, he does not go in by the door he is
not obliged to receive the offering, and may remain as a foe in the
house (or in the city) of his enemy, with intent to kill, but without
moral wrong. This may be implied in the end of the epic, where
Açvatth[=a]man, intent on secret murder of his foe, is prevented by
god Çiva from entering in at the gate, but going in by stealth, and
'not by the door' of the camp, gets to his foe, who lies asleep, and
kills him (x. 8. 10). This might be thought, indeed, to be merely
strategic, but it is in accordance with the strict law of all the
law-books that one, in ordinary circumstances, shall avoid to enter a
town or a house in any other way than through the door (Manu, iv. 73;
Gaut. 9. 32, etc.), and we think it has a moral significance, for this
_a-dv[=a]ra_ (non-door) rule occurs again in the epic in just the
circumstances we have described. The heroes in this case are not
afraid of their foe, who is in his town. They insult every one as they
approach, but they find some other way of getting in than by passing
through the gate, for the express purpose of being morally able to
make the king fight with them after they have entered his city. And
they cite the rule 'according to law,' which is that one may enter his
foe's house by _a-dv[=a]ra,_ 'not by door,' but his friend's house
only 'by door.' As they have not entered 'by door' they say they may
refuse the hospitality which the king urges them to accept, and so
they kill him (ii. 21. 14, 53). Stepping in through the door seems,
therefore, to be a tacit agreement that one will not injure the
resident.[29]
In the epic, again, fetishism is found. The student of the 'science of
war,' in order to obtain his teacher's knowledge when the latter is
away, makes a clay image of the preceptor and worships this clay idol,
practicing arms before it (i. 132. 33). Here too is embalmed the
belief that man's life may be bound up with that of some inanimate
thing, and the man perishes with the destruction of his psychic
prototype (iii. 135). The old ordeals of fire and water are
recognized. "Fire does not burn the house of good men." "If (as this
man asserts) he is Varuna's son, then let him enter water and let us
see if he will drown" (iii. 134. 27 ff.). A human sacrifice is
performed (iii. 127); although the priest who performs it is cast into
hell (_ib_. 128).[30] The teaching in regard to hells is about the
same with that already explained in connection with the law-books, but
the more definite physical interpretation of hell as a hole in the
ground (_garta_, just as in the Rig Veda) is retained. Agastya sees
his ancestors 'in a hole,' which they call 'a hell' (_n[=i]ray[=a]_).
This is evidently the hell known to the law-punsters and epic (i. 74.
39) as _puttra_, 'the _put_ hell' from which the son (_putra_)
delivers (_tra_). For these ancestors are in the 'hole' because
Agastya, their descendant, has not done his duty and begotten sons (i.
45. 13; iii. 96. 15); one son being 'no son' according to law and epic
(i. 100. 68), and all the merit of sacrifice being equal to only
one-sixteenth of that obtained by having a son. The teaching, again,
in regard to the Fathers themselves (the Manes), while not differing
materially from the older view, offers novelties which show how little
the absorption-theory had taken hold of the religious consciousness.
The very fact that the son is still considered to be as necessary as
ever (that he may offer food to his ancestors) shows that the
believer, whatever his professed faith, expects to depend for bliss
hereafter upon his _post mortem_ meals, as much as did his fathers
upon theirs. In the matter of the burial of the dead, one finds, what
is antique, that although according to the formal law only infants are
buried, and adults are burned, yet was burial known, as in the Vedic
age. And the still older exposure of the body, after the Iranian
fashion, is not only hinted at as occurring here and there even before
the epic, but in the epic these forms are all recognized as equally
approved: "When a man dies he is burned or buried or exposed"
(_nik[r.][s.]yate_)[31] it is said in i. 90. 17; and the narrator goes
on to explain that the "hell on earth," of which the auditor "has
never heard" (vs. 6) is re-birth in low bodies, speaking of it as a
new doctrine. "As if in a dream remaining conscious the spirit enters
another form"; the bad becoming insects and worms; the good going to
heaven by means of the "seven gates," viz., penance, liberality,
quietism, self-control, modesty, rectitude, and mercy. This is a union
of two views, and it is evidently the popular view, that, namely, the
good go to heaven while the bad go to new existence in a low form, as
opposed to the more logical conception that both alike enter new
forms, one good, the other bad. Then the established stadia, the
pupil, the old teaching (_upanishad_) of the householders, and the
wood-dwellers are described, with the remark that there is no
uniformity of opinion in regard to them; but the ancient view crops
out again in the statement that one who dies as a forest-hermit
"establishes in bliss" ten ancestors and ten descendants. In this part
of the epic the Punj[=a]b is still near the theatre of events, the
'centre region' being between the Ganges and Jumna (I. 87. 5);
although the later additions to the poems show acquaintance with all
countries, known and unknown, and with peoples from all the world.
Significant in xii. 61. 1, 2 is the name of the third order
_bh[=a]ikshyacaryam_ 'beggarhood' (before the forest-hermit and after
the householder).
It was said above that the departed Fathers could assume a mortal
form. In the formal classification of these demigods seven kinds of
Manes are enumerated, the title of one subdivision being 'those
embodied.' Brahm[=a] is identified with the Father-god in connection
with the Manes: "All the Manes worship Praj[=a]pati Brahm[=a]," in the
paradise of Praj[=a]pati, where, by the way, are Çiva and Vishnu (II.
11. 45, 50, 52; 8. 30). According to this description 'kings and
sinners,' together with the Manes, are found in Yama's home, as well
as "those that die at the solstice" (II. 7 ff.; 8. 31). Constantly the
reader is impressed with the fact that the characters of the epic are
acting and thinking in a way not conformable to the idea one might
form of the Hindu from the law. We have animadverted upon this point
elsewhere in connection with another matter. It is this factor that
makes the study of the epic so invaluable as an offset to the
verisimilitude of belief, even as belief is taught (not practiced) in
the law. There is a very old rule, for instance, against slaughtering
animals and eating meat; while to eat beef is a monstrous crime. Yet
is it plain from the epic that meat-eating was customary, and Vedic
texts are cited (_ iti çrutis_) to prove that this is permissible;
while a king is extolled for slaughtering cattle (III. 208. 6-11). It
is said out and out in iii. 313. 86 that 'beef is food,' _g[=a]ur
annam_. Deer are constantly eaten. There is an amusing protest against
this practice, which was felt to be irreconcilable with
the _ahims[=a]_ (non-injury) doctrine, in III. 258, where the remnant
of deer left in the forest come in a vision and beg to be spared. A
dispute between gods and seers over vegetable sacrifices is recorded,
XII. 338. Again, asceticism is not the duty of a warrior, but the epic
hero practices asceticism exactly as if he were a priest, or a Jain,
although the warning is given that a warrior 'obtains a better lot'
(_loka_) by dying in battle than by asceticism. The asceticism is, of
course, exaggerated, but an instance or two of what the Hindu expects
in this regard may not be without interest. The warrior who becomes an
ascetic eats leaves, and is clothed in grass. For one month he eats
fruits every third day (night); for another month every sixth day; for
another month every fortnight; and for the fourth month he lives on
air, standing on tiptoe with arms stretched up. Another account says
that the knight eats fruit for one month; water for one month; and for
the third month, nothing (III. 33. 73; 38. 22-26; 167). One may
compare with these ascetic practices, which are not so exaggerated, in
fact, as might be supposed,[32] the 'one-leg' practice of virtue,
consisting in standing on one leg, _ekap[=a]dena_, for six months or
longer, as one is able (I. 170. 46; III. 12. 13-16). Since learning
the Vedas is a tiresome task, and ascetic practice makes it possible
to acquire anything, one is not surprised to find that a devotee
undertakes penance with this in view, and is only surprised when
Indra, who, to be sure has a personal interest in the Vedas, breaks in
on the scene and rebukes the ascetic with the words: "Asceticism
cannot teach the Vedas; go and be tutored by a teacher" (III. 135.
22).
One finds in the epic the old belief that the stars are the souls of
the departed,[33] and this occurs so often that it is another sign of
the comparative newness of the pantheistic doctrine. When the hero,
Arjuna, goes to heaven he approaches the stars, "which seen from earth
look small on account of their distance," and finds them to be
self-luminous refulgent saints, royal seers, and heroes slain in
battle, some of them also being nymphs and celestial singers. All of
this is in contradiction both to the older and to the newer systems of
eschatology; but it is an ancient belief, and therefore it is
preserved. Indra's heaven,[34] Amar[=a]vati, lies above these
stars[35]] No less than five distinct beliefs are thus enunciated in
regard to the fate of 'good men after death. If they believe in the
All-god they unite with him at once. Or they have a higher course,
becoming gradually more elevated, as gods, etc, and ultimately 'enter'
the All-god. Again they go to the world of Brahm[=a]. Again they go to
Indra's heaven. Again they become stars. The two last beliefs are the
oldest, the _brahmaloka_ belief is the next in order of time, and the
first-mentioned are the latest to be adopted. The hero of the epic
just walks up to heaven, but his case is exceptional.
While angels and spirits swarm about the world in every shape from
mischievous or helpful fairies to R[=a]hu, whose head still swallows
the sun, causing eclipses (I. 19. 9), there are a few that are
especially conspicuous. Chief of the good spirits, attendants of
Indra, are the Siddhas[36] 'saints,' who occasionally appear to bless
a hero in conjunction with 'beings invisible' (III. 37. 21). Their
name means literally 'blessed' or 'successful,' and probably, like the
seers, Rishis, they are the departed fathers in spiritual form. These
latter form various classes. There are not only the 'great seers,' and
the still greater '_brahma_-seers,' and the 'god-seers,' but there are
even 'devil-seers,' and 'king-seers,' these being spirits of priests
of royal lineages.[37] The evil spirits, like the gods, are sometimes
grouped in threes. In a blessing one cries out: "Farewell (_svasti
gacchahy an[=a]mayam_); I entreat the Vasus, Rudras, [=A]dityas,
Marut-hosts and the All-gods to protect thee, together with the
S[=a]dhyas; safety be to thee from all the evil beings that live in
air, earth, and heaven, and from all others that dog thy path."[38] In
XII. 166. 61 ff. the devils fall to earth, mountains, water, and other
places. According to I. 19. 29. it is not long since the Asuras were
driven to take refuge in earth and salt water.[39]
These creatures have every kind of miraculous power, whether they be
good or bad. Hanuman, famed in both epics, the divine monkey, with
whom is associated the divine 'king of bears' J[=a]mbavan (III. 280.
23), can grow greater than mortal eye can see (III. 150. 9). He is
still worshipped as a great god in South India. As an illustration of
epic spiritism the case of Ilvala may be taken. This devil,
_d[=a]iteya_, had a trick of cooking his embodied younger brother, and
giving him to saints to eat. One saint, supposing the flesh to be
mutton (here is saintly meat-eating!), devours the dainty viand; upon
which the devil 'calls' his brother, who is obliged to come, whether
eaten or not, and in coming bursts the saint that has eaten him (iii.
96). This is folk-lore; but what religion does not folk-lore contain!
So, personified Fate holds its own as an inscrutable power, mightier
than others.[40] There is another touch of primitive religious feeling
which reminds one of the usage in Iceland, where, if a stranger knocks
at the door and the one within asks 'who is there?' the guest answers,
'God.' So in the epic it is said that 'every guest is god Indra'
(_Parjanyo nn[=a]nusa[.m]caran_, iii. 200. 123. In the epic Parjanya,
the rain-god, and Indra are the same). Of popular old tales of
religious bearing may be mentioned the retention and elaboration of
the Brahmanic deluge-story, with Manu as Noah (iii. 187); the Açvins'
feats in rejuvenating (iii. 123); the combats of the gods with the
demons (Namuci, Çambara, Vala, Vritra, Prahl[=a]da, Naraka), etc.
(iii. 168).
Turning now to some of the newer traits in the epic, one notices first
that, while the old sacrifices still obtain, especially the
horse-sacrifice, the _r[=a]jas[=u]ya_ and the less meritorious
_v[=a]japeya,_ together with the monthly and seasonal sacrifices,
there is in practice a leaning rather to new sacrifices, and a new
cult. The _soma_ is scarce, and the _p[=u]tika_ plant is accepted as
its substitute (iii. 35. 33) in a matter-of-course way, as if this
substitution, permitted of old by law, were now common. The sacrifice
of the widow is recognized, in the case of the wives of kings, as a
means of obtaining bliss for a woman,[41] for the religion of the epic
is not entirely careless of woman. Somewhat new, however, is the
self-immolation of a man upon the pyre of his son. Such a case is
recorded in iii. 137. 19. where a father burns his son's body, and
then himself enters the fire. New also, of course, are the sectarian
festivals and sacrifices; and pronounced is the gain in the godhead of
priests, king, parents, elder brother, and husband. The priest has
long been regarded as a god, but in the epic he is god of gods,
although one can trace even here a growth in adulation.[42] The king,
too, has been identified before this period with the gods. But in the
epic he is to his people an absolute divinity,[43] and so are the
parents to the son;[44] while, since the elder brother is the same
with a father, when the father is dead the younger brother worships
the elder. So also the wife's god is her husband; for higher even than
that of the priest is the husband's divinity (III. 206). The wife's
religious service is not concerned with feasts to the Manes, with
sacrifice to the gods, nor with studying the Veda. In all these she
has no part. Her religion is to serve her husband (III. 205. 23), and
to die, if worthy of the honor, on his funeral pyre. Otherwise the
epic woman has religious practices only in visiting the holy
watering-places, which now abound, and in reading the epic itself. For
it is said of both practices: "Whether man or woman read this book (or
'visit this holy pool') he or she is freed from sin" (so in III. 82.
33: "Every sin committed since birth by man or woman is absolved by
bathing in 'holy Pushkara"). It may be remarked that as a general
thing the deities invoked by women are, by predilection, female
divinities, some of them being mere abstractions, while 'the Creator'
is often the only god in the woman's list, except, of course, the
priests: "Reverence to priests, and to the Creator ... May Hr[=i],
Çr[=i] (Modesty and Beauty), Fame, Glory, Prosperity, Um[=a] (Çiva's
wife), Lakshmi (Vishnu's wife), and also Sarasvat[=i], (may all these
female divinities) guard thy path, because thou reverest thy elder
brother," is a woman's prayer (III. 37. 26-33).[45]
Of the sectarian cults just mentioned the _brahmamaha_, I. 164. 20,
elsewhere referred to, is the all-caste[46] feast in honor of
Brahm[=a] (or of the Brahmans); as _ib_. 143. 3 one finds a
_sam[=a]ja_ in honor of Çiva; and distinctly in honor of the same god
of horror is the sacrifice, _i.e._, immolation, of one hundred kings,
who are collected "in the temple of Çiva," to be slaughtered like
cattle in M[=a]gadha (II. 15. 23); an act which the heroes of the epic
prevent, and look upon with scorn.[47] As a substitute for the
_r[=a]jas[=u]ya_, which may be connected with the human sacrifice
(_Ind. Streifen_, I. 61), but is the best sacrifice because it has the
best largesse (III. 255. 12), the Vaishnava is suggested to
Duryodhana. It is a great _sattram_ or long sacrifice to Vishnu (_ib_.
15 and 19); longer than a Vishnuprabodha (26 Oct.). There is a Smriti
rite described in III. 198. 13 as a _svastiv[=a]canam_, a ceremony to
obtain a heavenly chariot which brings prosperity, the priests being
invoked for blessings (_svasti_). Quite modern, comparatively
speaking, is the cult of holy pools; but it is to be observed that the
blessings expected are rarely more than the acquirement of
_brahma_-worlds, so that the institution seems to be at least older
than the sectarian religions, although naturally among the holy pools
is intruded a Vishnu-pool. This religious rite cannot be passed over
in silence. The custom is late Brahmanic (as above), and still
survives. It has been an aspect of Hindu religion for centuries, not
only in the view taken of the pools, but even occasionally in the
place itself. Thus the Ganges, Gay[=a], Pray[=a]ga, and Kuru-Plain are
to-day most holy, and they are mentioned as among the holiest in the
epic catalogue.[48] Soma is now revamped by a bath in a holy pool (IX.
35. 75). As in every antithesis of act and thought there are not
lacking passages in the epic which decry the pools in comparison with
holy life as a means of salvation. Thus in III. 82. 9 ff., the poet
says: "The fruit of pilgrimage (to holy pools)--he whose hands, feet,
and mind are controlled;[49] he who has knowledge, asceticism, and
fame, he gets all the fruit that holy pools can give. If one is averse
from receiving gifts, content, freed from egoism, if one injures not,
and acts disinterestedly, if one is not gluttonous, or carnal-minded,
he is freed from sin. Let one (not bathe in pools but) be without
wrath, truthful, firm in his vows, seeing his self in all beings."
This is, however, a protest little heeded.[50] Pilgrimage is made to
pool and plain, to mountain, tree, and river. Even then, as now, of
all pilgrimages that to Ganges was most esteemed: "Originally all were
holy; in the second age Pushkara[51] was holy; in the third age the
Plain of the Kurus was holy; and in this age Ganges is holy" (III. 85.
90).[52] Besides Ganges, the Plain of the Kurus and Pray[=a]ga, the
junction of Ganges and Jumna, get the highest laudation. Other rivers,
such as the Gomal and Sarasvat[=i], are also extolled, and the list is
very long of places which to see or to bathe in releases from sin. "He
who bathes in Ganges purifies seven descendants.[53] As long as the
bones of a man touch Ganges-water so long that man is magnified in
heaven." Again: "No place of pilgrimage is better than Ganges; no god
is better than Vishnu; nothing is better than _brahma_--so said the
sire of the gods" (iii. 85. 94-96). The very dust of Kuru-Plain makes
one holy, the sight of it purifies; he that lives south of the
Sarasvat[=i], north of the Drishadvat[=i] (_i.e_., in Kuru-Plain), he
lives in the third heaven (iii. 83. 1-3=203-205[54]). This sort of
expiation for sin is implied in a more general way by the remark that
there are three kinds of purity, one of speech, one of act, and one of
water (iii. 200. 82). But in the epic there is still another means of
expiating sin, one that is indicated in the Brahmanic rule that if a
woman is an adulteress she destroys half her sin by confessing it (as
above), where, however, repentance is rather implied than commanded.
But in the epic Pur[=a]na it is distinctly stated as a Çruti, or trite
saying, that if one repents he is freed from his sin; _na tat
kury[=a]m punar_ is the formula he must use, 'I will not do so again,'
and then he is released from even the sin that he is going to commit a
second time, as if by a ceremony--so is the Çruti in the laws,
_dharmas_ (iii. 207. 51, 52).[55] Confession to the family priest is
enjoined, in xii. 268. 14, to escape punishment.
Two other religious practices in the epic are noteworthy. The first is
the extension of idolatry in pictures. The amiable 'goddess of the
house' is represented, to be sure, as a R[=a]kshas[=i], or demoniac
power, whose name is Jar[=a]. But she was created by the
Self-existent, and is really very friendly, under certain conditions:
"Whoever delineates me with faith in his house, he increases in
children; otherwise he would be destroyed." She is worshipped, _i.e_.,
her painted image is worshipped, with perfumes, flowers, incense,
food, and other enjoyable things (II. 18).[56] Another practice that
is very common is the worship of holy trees. One may compare the
banyan at Bodhi Gay[=a] with the 'worshipful' village-tree of II. 24.
23. Seldom and late is the use of a rosary mentioned (_e.g_., III.
112. 5, _aksham[=a]l[=a]_, elsewhere _aksha_), although the word is
employed to make an epithet of Çiva, Aksham[=a]lin.[57]
As has been said already, an extraordinary power is ascribed to the
mere repetition of a holy text, _mantra_. These are applied on all
occasions without the slightest reference to the subject. By means of
_mantra_ one exorcises; recovers weapons; calls gods and demons,
etc.[58] When misfortune or disease arrives it is invariably ascribed
to the malignant action of a devil, although the _karma_ teaching
should suggest that it was the result of a former misdeed on the
victim's part. But the very iteration, the insistence on new
explanations of this doctrine, show that the popular mind still clung
to the old idea of demoniac interference. Occasionally the naïveté
with which the effect of a _mantra_ is narrated is somewhat amusing,
as, for instance, when the heroine Krishn[=a] faints, and the
by-standers "slowly" revive her "by the use of demon-dispelling
_mantras_, rubbing, water, and fanning" (iii. 144. 17). All the
weapons of the heroes are inspired with and impelled by _mantras_.
Sufficient insight into the formal rules of morality has been given in
the extracts above, nor does the epic in this regard differ much from
the law-books. Every man's first duty is to act; inactivity is sinful.
The man that fails to win a good reputation by his acts, a warrior,
for example, that is devoid of fame, a 'man of no account,' is a
_bh[=u]mivardhana, [Greek: achthos arourês]_ a cumberer of earth (iii.
35. 7). A proverb says that man should seek virtue, gain, and
pleasure; "virtue in the morning; gain at noon; pleasure at night,"
or, according to another version, "pleasure when young, gain in
middle-age, and virtue in the end of life" (iii. 33. 40, 41). "Virtue
is better than immortality and life. Kingdom, sons, glory, wealth, all
this does not equal one-sixteenth part of the value of truth" (_ib_.
34. 22).[59] One very strong summing up of a discourse on virtuous
behavior ends thus: "Truth, self-control, asceticism, generosity,
non-injury, constancy in virtue--these are the means of success, not
caste nor family" (_j[=a]ti, kula_, iii. 181. 42).
A doctrine practiced, if not preached, is that of blood-revenge. "The
unavenged shed tears, which are wiped away by the avenger" (iii. 11.
66); and in accordance with this feeling is the statement: "I shall
satiate my brother with his murderer's blood, and thus, becoming free
of debt in respect of my brother, I shall win the highest place in
heaven" (_ib_. 34, 35).
As of old, despite the new faith, as a matter of priestly, formal
belief, all depends on the sacrifice: "Law comes from usage; in law
are the Vedas established; by means of the Vedas arise sacrifices; by
sacrifice are the gods established; according to the rule of Vedas,
and usage, sacrifices being performed support the divinities, just as
the rules of Brihaspati and Uçanas support men" (iii. 150. 28, 29).
The pernicious doctrine of atonement for sin follows as a matter of
course: "Whatever sin a king commits in conquering the earth is atoned
for by sacrifices, if they are accompanied with large gifts to
priests, such as cows and villages." Even gifts to a sacred bull have
the same effect (iii. 33. 78, 79; _ib_. 35. 34; iii. 2. 57), the
occasion in hand being a king's violation of his oath.[60] Of these
sacrifices a great snake-sacrifice forms the occasion for narrating
the whole epic, the plot of which turns on the national vice of
gambling.[61] For divine snakes are now even grouped with other
celestial powers, disputing the victory of earthly combatants as do
Indra and S[=u]rya: "The great snakes were on Arjuna's side; the
little snakes were for Karna" (viii. 87. 44, 45).[62] They were
(perhaps) the local gods of the Nagas (Snakes), a tribe living between
the Ganges and Jumna.
The religion of the epic is multiform. But it stands, in a certain
sense, as one religion, and from two points of view it is worthy of
special regard. One may look upon it either as the summing up of
Brahmanism in the new Hinduism, as the final expression of a religion
which forgets nothing and absorbs everything; or one may study it as a
belief composed of historical strata, endeavoring to divide it into
its different layers, as they have been super-imposed one upon another
in the course of ages. From the latter point of view the Vedic
divinities claim the attention first. There are still traces of the
original power of Agni and S[=u]rya, as we have shown, and Wind still
makes with these two a notable triad,[63] whereas Indra, impotent as
he is, hymnless as he is,--save in the oldest portions of the
work,--still leads the gods, now godkins, of the ancient pantheon, and
still, in theory, at least, off a paradise to the knight that dies
nobly on the field.[64] But one sees at once that the preservation of
the dignity of these deities is due to different causes. Indra cannot
even save a snake that grasps his hand for safety; he wages war
against the demons' 'triple town,' and signally fails of his purpose,
for the demons are as strong as the gods, and there are D[=a]navendras
as well as D[=a]navarshis.[65] But Indra is the figure-head of the
whole ancient pantheon, and for this reason he plays so constant, if
so weak, a rôle, in the epic. The only important thing in connection
with him is his heaven. As an individual deity Indra lives, on the
whole, only in the tales of old, for example, in that of his cheating
Namuci (ix. 43. 32 ff.). Nothing new and clever is told of him which
would indicate power, only a new trick or two, as when he steals from
Karna. It is quite otherwise with Agni and S[=u]rya. They are not so
vaguely identified with the one god as is 'Indra and the other Vasus.'
It is merely because these gods are prominently forms of Vishnu that
they are honored with hymns in the epic. This is seen from the nature
of the hymns, and also from the fact that it is either as fire or as
sun that Vishnu destroys at the end of the aeons. For it is, perhaps,
somewhat daring to say, and yet it seems to be the fact, that the
solar origin of Vishnu is not lost sight of.
The pantheistic Vishnu is the _[=a]tm[=a]_, and Vishnu, after all, is
but a form of fire. Therefore is it that the epic Vishnu is
perpetually lapsing into fire; while fire and sun are doubly honored
as special forms of the highest. It is, then, not so much on account
of a survival of ancient dignity[66] that sun and fire stand so high,
but rather because they are the nearest approach to the effulgence of
the Supreme. Thus while in one place one is told that after seven suns
have appeared the supreme gods become the fire of destruction and
complete the ruin, in another he reads that it is the sun alone which,
becoming twelvefold, does all the work of the Supreme.[67]
Indra has hymns and sacrifices, but although he has no so exalted hymn
as comes to his 'friend Agni,' yet (in an isolated passage) he has a
new feast and celebration, the account of which apparently belongs to
the first period of the epic, when the worship of Indra still had
significance. In i. 63, an _Indramaha_, or 'glorification of Indra,'
is described a festivity extending over two days, and marked by the
erection of a pole in honor of the god--a ceremony which 'even
to-day,' it is said, is practiced.[68] The old tales of the fire-cult
are retold, and new rites are known.[69] Thus in iii. 251. 20 ff.,
Prince Duryodhana resolves to starve to death (oblivious of the rule
that 'a suicide goes to hell'), and since this is a religious
ceremony, he clothes himself in old clothes and holy-grass, 'touches
water,' and devotes himself with intense application to heaven. Then
the devils of Rudra called D[=a]iteyas and D[=a]navas, who live
underground ever since they were conquered by the gods, aided by
priests, make a fire-rite, and with _mantras_ "declared by Brihaspati
and Uçanas, and proclaimed in the Atharva-Veda," raise a ghost or
spirit, who is ordered to fetch Duryodhana to hell, which she
immediately does.[70] The frequent connection of Brihaspati with the
Atharva-Veda is of interest (above, p. 159). He is quite a venerable,
if not wholly orthodox, author in the epic, and his 'rules' are often
cited.[71]
That Vedic deity who, alone of pre-Vedic powers, still holds his proud
place, Yama, the king of departed spirits, varies in the epic
according to the period represented. In old tales he is still quite
Vedic in character; he takes the dead man's soul off to his own realm.
But, of course, as pantheism prevails, and eschatology becomes
confused, Yama passes into a shadow, and at most is a bugbear for the
wicked. Even his companions are stolen from another realm, and one
hears now of "King Yama with his Rudras" (III. 237. 11),[72] while it
is only the bad[73] that go to Yama (III. 200. 24), in popular belief,
although this view, itself old, relapses occasionally into one still
older, in accordance with which (_ib_. 49) all the world is hounded on
by Yama's messengers, and comes to his abode. His home[74] in the
south is now located as being at a distance of 86,000 leagues over a
terrible road, on which passes a procession of wretched or happy
mortals, even as they have behaved during life; for example, if one
has generously given an umbrella during life he will have an umbrella
on this journey, etc. The river in Yama's abode is called Pushpodaka,
and what each drinks out of it is according to what he deserves to
drink, cool water or filth (_ib._ 46, 58).[75] In the various
descriptions it is not strange to find discordant views even in
portions belonging approximately to the same period. Thus in
contradistinction to the prevailing view one reads of Indra himself
that he is _Yamasya net[=a] Namuceçca hant[=a]_ 'Yama's leader,
Namuci's slayer' (iii. 25. 10.), _i.e._, those that die in battle go
to Yama.
On the other hand, in the later speculative portions, Yama is not
death. "Yama is not death, as some think; he is one that gives bliss
to the good, and woe to the bad."[76] Death and life are foolishness
and lack of folly, respectively (literally, 'non-folly is
non-mortality'), while folly and mortality are counter opposites. In
pantheistic teaching there is, of course, no real death, only change.
But death is a female power, personified, and sharply distinguished
from Yama. Death as a means of change thus remains, while Yama is
relegated to the guardianship of hell. The difference in regard to the
latter subject, between earlier and later views, has been noted above.
One comparatively early passage attempts to arrange the incongruous
beliefs in regard to _sams[=a]ra_ (re-birth) and hell on a sort of
sliding scale, thus: "One that does good gets in the next life a good
birth; one that does ill gets an ill birth"; more particularly: "By
good acts one attains to the state of gods; by 'mixed' acts, to the
state of man; by acts due to confusion of mind, to the state of
animals and plants (_viyon[=i][s.]u_); by sinful acts one goes to
hell" (_adhog[=a]mi_, iii. 209. 29-32).[77] Virtue must have been, as
the epic often declares it to be, a 'subtile matter,' for often a tale
is told to illustrate the fact that one goes to hell for doing what he
thinks (mistakenly) to be right. Thus K[=a]uçika is sent to hell for
speaking the truth, whereas he ought to have lied to save life (viii.
69. 53), for he was "ignorant of virtue's subtilty."[78] A passage (i.
74. 27 ff.) that is reflected in Manu (viii. 85-86) says that Yama
V[=a]ivasvata takes away the sin of him with whom is satisfied "the
one that witnesses the act, that stands in the heart, that knows the
ground"; but Yama tortures him with whom this one (personified
conscience) is dissatisfied. For "truth is equal to a thousand
horse-sacrifices; truth is highest _brahma_" (_ib._ 103, 106).
Following downward the course of religious development, as reflected
in the epic, one next finds traces of Brahmanic theology not only in
the few passages where (Brahm[=a]) Praj[=a]pati remains untouched by
sectarianism, but also in the harking back to old formulae. Thus the
insistence on the Brahmanical sacredness of the number seventeen is
preserved (xii. 269. 26; iii. 210. 20, etc); and Upanishadic is the
"food is Praj[=a]pati" of iii. 200. 38 (Yama in 40). There is an
interesting rehabilitation of the primitive idea of the Açvins in the
new ascription of formal divinity to the (personified) Twilights
(Sandhy[=a]) in iii. 200. 83, although this whole passage is more
Puranic than epic. From the same source is the doctrine that the fruit
of action expires at the end of one hundred thousand _kalpas_ (_ib._
vs. 121). One of the oddest religious freaks in the epic is the sudden
exaltation of the Ribhus, the Vedic (season-gods) artisans, to the
position of highest gods. In that heaven of Brahm[=a], which is above
the Vedic gods' heaven, there are the holy seers and the Ribhus, 'the
divinities of the gods'; who do not change with the change of _kalpas_
(as do other Vedic gods), III. 261. 19-23. One might almost imagine
that their threefoldness was causative of a trinitarian identification
with a supreme triad; but no, for still higher is the 'heaven of
Vishnu' (vs. 37). The contrast is marked between this and _[=A]it.
Br._ III. 30, where the Ribhus with some difficulty obtain the right
to drink _soma_.
There is an aspect of the epic religion upon which it is necessary to
touch before treating of the sectarian development. In the early
philosophical period wise priests meet together to discuss theological
and philosophical questions, often aided, and often brought to grief,
by the wit of women disputants, who are freely admitted to hear and
share in the discussion. When, however, pantheism, nay, even
Vishnuism, or still more, Krishnaism, was an accepted fact upon what,
then, was the wisdom of the priest expended? Apart from the epic, the
best intellects of the day were occupied in researches, codifying
laws, and solving, in rather dogmatic fashion, philosophical
(theological) problems. The epic presents pictures of scenes which
seem to be a reflection from an earlier day. But one sees often that
the wisdom is commonplace, or even silly. In dialectics a sophistical
subtlety is shown; in codifying moral rules, a tedious triteness; in
amoebic passes of wit there are astounding exhibitions, in which the
good scholiast sees treasures of wisdom, where a modern is obliged to
take them in their literal dulness. Thus in III. 132. 18, a boy of
twelve or ten (133. 16), who is divinely precocious, defeats the wise
men in disputation at a sacrifice, and in the following section (134.
7 ff.) silences a disputant who is regarded as one of the cleverest
priests. The conversation is recorded in full. In what does it
consist? The opponent mentions a number of things which are one; the
boy replies with a verse that gives pairs of things; the other
mentions triads; the child cites groups of fours, etc., until the
opponent, having cited only one half-verse of thirteens, can remember
no more and stops, on which the child completes the verse, and is
declared winner. The conundrums which precede must have been
considered very witty, for they are repeated elsewhere: What is that
wheel which has twelve parts and three hundred and sixty spokes, etc.?
Year. What does not close its eye when asleep, what does not move when
it is born, what has no heart, what increases by moving? These
questions form one-half verse. The next half-verse gives the answers
in order: fish, egg, stone, river. This wisdom in the form of puzzles
and answers, _brahmodya_, is very old, and goes back to the Vedic
period. Another good case in the epic is the demon Yaksha and the
captured king, who is not freed till he answers certain questions
correctly.[79] But although a certain amount of theologic lore may be
gleaned from these questions, yet is it of greater interest to see how
the priests discussed when left quietly to their own devices. And a
very natural description of such a scene is extant. The priests
"having some leisure"[80] or vacation from their labors in the king's
house, sit down to argue, and the poet calls their discussion
_vita[n.][d.][=a], i.e_., tricky sophistical argumentation, the
description bearing out the justness of the phrase: "One cried, 'that
is so,' and the other, 'it is not so'; one cried, 'and that is so,'
and the other, 'it must be so'; and some by arguments made weak
arguments strong, and strong weak; while some wise ones were always
swooping down on their opponent's arguments, like hawks on meat."[81]
In III. 2. 15, the type of clever priest is 'skilled in Yoga and
S[=a][.n]khya,' who inculcates renunciation. This sage teaches that
mental diseases are cured by Yoga; bodily, by medicine; and that
desire is the root of ill.
But by far the most interesting theological discussion in the epic, if
one except the Divine Song, is the conversation of the hero and
heroine in regard to the cause of earthly happiness. This discussion
is an old passage of the epic. The very fact that a woman is the
disputant gives an archaic effect to the narration, and reminds one of
the scenes in the Upanishads, where learned women cope successfully
with men in displays of theological acumen. Furthermore, the
theological position taken, the absence of Vishnuism, the appeal to
the 'Creator' as the highest Power, take one back to a former age. The
doctrine of special grace, which crops out in the Upanishads,[82] here
receives its exposure by a sudden claim that the converse of the
theory must also be true, viz., that to those not saved by grace and
election God is as cruel as He is kind to the elect. The situation is
as follows: The king and queen have been basely robbed of their
kingdom, and are in exile. The queen urges the king to break the vow
of exile that has been forced from him, and to take vengeance on their
oppressors. The king, in reply, sings a song of forgiveness:
"Forgiveness is virtue, sacrifice, Veda; forgiveness is holiness and
truth; in the world of Brahm[=a] are the mansions of them that
forgive." This song (III. 29. 36 ff.) only irritates the queen, who at
once launches into the following interesting tirade (30. 1 ff.):
"Reverence to the Creator and Disposer[83] who have confused thy mind!
Hast thou not worshipped with salutation and honored the priests,
gods, and manes? Hast thou not made horse-sacrifices, the
_r[=a]jas[=u]ya_-sacrifice, sacrifices of every sort
(_pu[n.][d.]arika,[84] gosava_)? Yet art thou in this miserable
plight! Verily is it an old story (_itih[=a]sa_) that 'the worlds
stand under the Lord's will.' Following the seed God gives good or ill
in the case of all beings. Men are all moved by the divinity. Like a
wooden doll, moving its limbs in the hands of a man, so do all
creatures move in the Creator's hands. Man is like a bird on a string,
like a bead on a cord. As a bull is led by the nose, so man follows
the will of the Creator; he never is a creature of free will
(_[=a]tm[=a]dhina_). Every man goes to heaven or to hell, as he is
sent by the Lord's will. God himself, occupied with noble or with
wicked acts, moves about among all created things, an unknown power
(not known as 'this one'). The blessed God, who is self-created, the
great forefather (_prapit[=a]maha_), plays with his creatures just as
a boy plays with toys, putting them together and destroying them as he
chooses. Not like a father is God to His creatures; He acts in anger.
When I see the good distressed, the ignoble happy, I blame the Creator
who permits this inequality. What reward does God get that he sends
happiness to this sinful man (thy oppressor)? If it be true that only
the individual that does the act is pursued by the fruit of that act
(_karma_ doctrine) then the Lord who has done this act is defiled by
this base act of His. If, on the other hand, the act that one has done
does not pursue and overtake the one that has done it, then the only
agency on earth is brute force (this is the only power to be
respected)--and I grieve for them that are without it!"
To this plea, which in its acknowledgment of the Creator as the
highest god, no less than in its doubtful admission of the _karma_
doctrine, is of peculiar interest, the king replies with a refutation
no less worthy of regard: "Thy argument is good, clear and smooth, but
it is heterodox (_n[=a]stikyam_). I have sacrificed and practiced
virtue not for the sake of reward, but because it was right. I give
what I ought to give, and sacrifice as I should. That is my only idea
in connection with religious observances. There is no virtue in trying
to milk virtue. Do not doubt. Do not be suspicious of virtue. He that
doubts God or duty goes to hell (confusion), but he that does his duty
and is free from doubt goes to heaven (becomes immortal). Doubt not
scriptural authority. Duty is the saving ship. No other gets to
heaven. Blame not the Lord Creator, who is the highest god. Through
His grace the faithful gets immortality. If religious observances were
without fruit the universe would go to destruction. People would not
have been good for so many ages if there had been no reward for it.
This is a mystery of the gods. The gods are full of mystery and
illusion."
The queen, for all the world like that wise woman in the Upanishads,
whose argument, as we showed in a preceding chapter, is cut short not
by counter-argument, but by the threat that if she ask too much her
head will fall off, recants her errors at this rebuke, and in the
following section, which evidently is a later addition, takes back
what she has said. Her new expression of belief she cites as the
opinion of Brihaspati (32. 61, 62); but this is applicable rather to
her first creed of doubt. Perhaps in the original version this
authority was cited at the end of the first speech, and with the
interpolation the reference is made to apply to this seer. Something
like the queen's remarks is the doubtful saying of the king himself,
as quoted elsewhere (III. 273. 6): "Time and fate, and what will be,
this is the only Lord. How else could this distress have come upon my
wife? For she has been virtuous always."
We turn now to the great sectarian gods, who eventually unite with
Brahm[=a] to form a pantheistic trinity, a conception which, as we
shall show, is not older than the fifth or sixth century after Christ.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: The rival heresies seem also to belong to the
East. There were thus more than half a dozen heretical
bodies of importance agitating the region about Benares at
the same time. Subsequently the Jains, who, as we have
shown, were less estranged from Brahmanism, drifted
westward, while the Buddhist stronghold remained in the East
(both, of course, being represented in the South as well),
and so, whereas Buddhism eventually retreated to Nep[=a]l
and Tibet, the Jains are found in the very centres of old
and new (sectarian) Brahmanism, Delhi, Mathur[=a], Jeypur,
[=A]jm[=i]r.]
[Footnote 2: 'The wandering of R[=a]ma,' who is the
sectarian representative of Vishnu.]
[Footnote 3: The 'Bh[=a]rata (tale)', sometimes called
Mah[=a]-Bh[=a]rata, or Great Bh[=a]rata. The Vishnuite
sectarianism here advocated is that of Krishna. But there is
as much Çivaism in the poem as there is Vishnuism.]
[Footnote 4: Dramatic and lyric poetry is artificial even in
language.]
[Footnote 5: Schroeder, p. 453, compares the mutual relation
of the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata and R[=a]m[=a]yana to that of the
Nibelungenlied and the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach.
Jacobi, in his 'R[=a]m[=a]yana,' has lately claimed a
considerable antiquity for the foundation legends of the
R[=a]m[=a]yana, but he does not disprove the late completed
form.]
[Footnote 6: i. 78. 10; see Bühler's Introduction.]
[Footnote 7: Jacobi seeks to put the completed nucleus at
the time of the Christian era, but it must have been quite a
large nucleus in view of the allusions to it in precedent
literature. Holtztmann puts the completion at about 1000
A.D.; but in 700 A.D., it was complete, and most scholars
will agree with Bühler that the present Mah[=a]-Bh[=a]rata
was completed by the sixth or seventh century. In 533 A.D.
it contained 100,000 distichs, that is, it was about the
size it is now.]
[Footnote 8: By the time the drama began the epic was become
a religious storehouse, and the actual epic story
represented not a fifth of the whole work, so that, with its
simple language, it must have seemed, as a literary
production, very wearisome to the minds that delighted in
the artificial compounds and romantic episodes of the drama
and lyric. But even to-day it is recited at great fêtes, and
listened to with rapt attention, as the rhapsodes with more
or less dramatic power recite its holy verses.]
[Footnote 9: The later law-books say expressly that women
and slaves have a right to use _mantra,
mantr[=a]dhik[=a]ri[n.]as._ But the later legal Smritis are
no more than disguised sectarian Pur[=a]nas.]
[Footnote 10: Compare the visit of the old Muni on the
prince in iii. 262. 8. He is _paramakopana_, 'extremely
irritable'; calls for food only to reject it; growls at the
service, etc. Everything must be done 'quickly' for him. "I
am hungry, give me food, _quick_," is his way of speaking,
etc. (12). The adjective is one applied to the All-gods,
_paramakrodhinas._]
[Footnote 11: Each spiritual teacher instructed high-caste
boys, in classes of four or five at most. In xii. 328. 41
the four students of a priest go on a strike because the
latter wants to take another pupil besides themselves and
his own son.]
[Footnote 12: The saints in the sky praise the combatants
(vii. 188. 41; viii. 15. 27); and the gods roar approval of
prowess "with roars like a lion's" (viii. 15. 33). Indra and
S[=u]rya and the Apsarasas cool off the heroes with heavenly
fans (_ib_. 90. 18). For the last divinities, see
Holtzmann's essays, ZDMG. xxxii. 290; xxxiii. 631.]
[Footnote 13: The original author of the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata
is reputed to be of low caste, but the writers of the text
as it is to-day were sectarian priests. It was written down,
it is said, by Ganeça, 'lord of the troops' of Çiva, i. 1.
79, and some historic truth lies in the tale. The priests of
Çiva were the last to retouch the poem, as we think.]
[Footnote 14: Agni-worship is partly affected by the
doctrine that the Samvartaka fire (which destroys the world
at the cycle's end) is a form of Vishnu. In Stambamitra's
hymn it is said: "Thou, O Agni, art the all, in thee rests
the universe ... Sages know thee as single yet manifold. At
the expiration of time thou burnest up the three worlds,
after having created them. Thou art the originator and
support of all beings" (i. 232. 12). Elsewhere more Vedic
epithets are given, such as 'mouth of the gods' (ii. 31.
42), though here 'the Vedas are produced for Agni's sake.'
In this same prayer one reads, 'may Agni give me energy;
wind, give me breath; earth, give me strength; and water,
give me health' (45). Agni, as well as Çiva, is the father
of Kum[=a]ra K[=a]rtikeya, _i.e_., Skanda (_ib_. 44).]
[Footnote 15: But the Açvins are Ç[=u]dras In the 'cast-hood
of gods' (the caste-order being Angirasas, [=A]dityas,
Maruts and AÇvins), xii. 208. 23-25; and Indra in one
passage refuses to associate with them, xiii. 157. 17 (cited
by Holtzmann, ZDMG. xxxii. 321).]
[Footnote 16: Manibhadra, in iii. 64, is king of Yaksash; he
is the same with Kubera, _ib_. ch. 41 (V[=a]içinavana).]
[Footnote 17: In the Cosmogony the gods are the sons of the
Manes, xii. 312. 9.]
[Footnote 18: When the gods churn the ocean to get ambrosia,
an ancient tale of the epic, Mandara is the twirling-stick.
It is situated in modern Beh[=a]r, near Bhagalpur.]
[Footnote 19: III. 42; 139. 14, where the Ganges and Jumna
are invoked together with the Vedic gods. So in III. 104
(Vindhya); and Damayanti prays to mountains. Mt. Meru is
described in III. 163. 14 (compare I. 17. 5 ff.). In I. 18.
1 ff., is related the churning of the ocean, where Indra
(vs. 12) places Mt. Mandara on Vishnu, the tortoise.]
[Footnote 20: Mbh. I. 30. 37, _mamlur m[=a]ly[=a]ni
dev[=a]n[=a]m_, etc. The older belief was that the gods'
garlands never withered; for the gods show no mortal signs,
cast no shadows, etc.]
[Footnote 21: Compare the four hymnlets to Agni in i. 232. 7
ff.]
[Footnote 22: After the mention of the thirty-three gods,
and Vishnu 'born after them,' it is said that the Açvins,
plants, and animals, are Guhyakas (vs. 40), though in vs.
35: "Tvashtar's daughter, the wife of Savitar, as a mare
(_va[d.]av[=a]_) bore in air the two Açvins" (see above), in
Vedic style. For Çruti compare iii. 207. 47; 208. 6, 11.]
[Footnote 23: i. 23. 15 ff. His name is explained fancifully
in 30. 7.]
[Footnote 24: It is at the funeral feasts to the Manes that
the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata is to be recited (i. 62. 37).]
[Footnote 25: Arjuna is an old name of Indra, and in the
epic Arjuna is Indra's son.]
[Footnote 26: The legal _dharma_ or sitting at a debtor's
door, which still obtains in India, is, so far as we know,
not a very ancient practice. But its application in the case
of heralds (who become responsible) is epic.]
[Footnote 27: This is the covenant (with friends) of
revenge; the covenant of mutual protection in the sacrifice
is indicated by the 'protection covenant' of the gods (see
the chapter on Brahmanism above, p. 192).]
[Footnote 28: See an essay on the Ruling Caste in the epic,
in JAOS. xiii. 232 ff.]
[Footnote 29: Reverend Doctor H.C. Trumbull has kindly
called our attention to Robert's _Oriental Illustrations_,
p. 148 ff., where it is said that in India today the
threshold is sacred. In reference to threshold offerings,
common in the law, Dr. Trumbull's own forthcoming book on
Covenants may be compared.]
[Footnote 30: But these are by no means the last examples of
human sacrifices. Several of the modern Hindu sects have
caused to be performed such sacrifices, even in this
century.]
[Footnote 31: This can hardly mean 'put out on the river' as
has been suggested as an explanation of the corpse 'thrown
aside' in accordance with the earlier text, AV. xviii. 2. 34
(_paropta_), where the dead are 'buried, thrown aside,
burned, or set out.']
[Footnote 32: It is assumed in XII. 364. 2 that "leaves and
air" are food enough for a great saint. Compare below the
actual asceticism of modern devotees.]
[Footnote 33: III. 25. 14: _saptar[s.]ayas ... divi
viprabh[=a]nti_. Compare _ib._ 261. 13, and the apocalypse
in VII. 192. 52 ff., where Drona's soul ascends to heaven, a
burning fire like a sun; In sharp contrast to the older
'thumbkin' soul which Yama receives and carries off in the
tale of Satyavant. Compare also Arundhati in I. 233. 29.]
[Footnote 34: Described, as above, as a place of singers and
dancers, where are the Vedic gods and sages, but no sinners
or cowards (III. 42. 34 ff.).]
[Footnote 35: From another point of view the stars are of
interest. They are favorable or unfavorable, sentient, kind,
or cruel; influential in man's fate. Compare III. 200. 84,
85, where the sun is included with the _grahas_ (planets)
which influence men, and ib. 209. 21,
_tulyanak[.s]atrama[.n]gala_.]
[Footnote 36: Other of Indra's spirits are the singers,
Gandharvas and Apsarasas; also the horse-headed Kinnaras and
C[=a]ranas, who, too, are singers; while later the
Vidy[=a]dharas belong both to Indra and to Çiva. In modern
times the South Indian Sittars, 'saints,' take their name
from the Siddhas.]
[Footnote 37: In _d[=a]nnavar[s.]i_ there is apparently the
same sort of compound as in _devar[s.]i_ and _brahmar[s.]i_,
all associated with the _siddhas_ in III. 169. 23. But
possibly 'demons and seers' may be meant.]
[Footnote 38: III. 37. 32-35 (_prapadye viçvedev[=a]n!_).]
[Footnote 39: Weber finds in the Asuras' artisan, Asura
Maya, a reminiscence of Ptolemaios. He is celebrated in I.
228. 39, and II. 1, and is the generai leader of the
_d[=a]navas_, demons, perhaps originally a folk-name of
enemies.]
[Footnote 40: See below. The formal division is, _d[=a]iva,
hatha, karma, i.e._, man's fate depends on gods, Fate, and
his own acts; although _hatha_, Fate, is often implied in
_d[=a]iva_, 'the divine power.' But they are separated, for
example, in iii. 183. 86.]
[Footnote 41: Compare the tales and xii. 148. 9, _sat[=i]_
(suttee). In regard to the horse-sacrifice, compare Yama's
law as expounded to Gautama: "The acts by which one gains
bliss hereafter are austerities, purity, truth, worship of
parents, and the horse-sacrifice." xii 129. 9, 10.]
[Footnote 42: Compare III. 200. 88, even _pr[=a]k[r.]ta_
priests are divine and terrible (much more in later books).
Here _pr[=a]k[r.]ta_, vulgar, is opposed to _samsk[r.]ta_,
refined, priests.]
[Footnote 43: III. 185. 26-31.]
[Footnote 44: "My father and mother are my highest idol; I
do for them what I do for Idols. As the three and thirty
gods, with Indra foremost, are revered of all the world, so
are my parents revered by me" (III. 214. 19, 20). The
speaker further calls them _paramam brahma_, absolute
godhead, and explains his first remark by saying that he
offers fruits and flowers to his parents as if they were
idols. In IV. 68. 57 a man salutes (_abhivadya_) his
father's feet on entering into his presence. For the worship
of parents compare XII. 108. 3; 128. 9, 10; 267. 31, XIII.
75. 26: "heroes in obedience to the mother."]
[Footnote 45: The marked Brahm[=a] Creator-worship is a bit
of feminine religious conservatism (see below).]
[Footnote 46: Weber has shown that men of low caste took a
subordinate part even in the _r[=a]jas[=u]ya_ sacrifice.]
[Footnote 47: In II. 18. there is a brand-new festival
appointed in honor of a female fiend, etc.]
[Footnote 48: III. 84. 83 (87. 11). We see the first idea in
the injunction of Indra to 'wander,' as told in the tale of
Dogstail in the Brahmana (see above).]
[Footnote 49: The usual formula (also Avestan) is 'pure in
thought, speech, and act.' The comparison of the six senses
to unrestrained wild horses is familiar (III. 211. 24).]
[Footnote 50: There is, further, no unanimity in regard to
the comparative value of holy places. In XII. 152. 11,
Sarasvat[=i] is holier than Kurukshetra, etc.]
[Footnote 51: At Pushkara is Brahm[=a]'s only (?)
shrine--the account is legendary, but half historical. The
modern shrine at Ajm[=i]r seems to be meant.]
[Footnote 52: Ganges, according to epic legend, was a
goddess who sacrificed herself for men when the earth was
parched and men perished. Then Ganges alone of immortals
took pity on men, and flinging herself from heaven became
the stream divine. Her name among the gods is Alakanand[=a],
the 'Blessed Damosel.']
[Footnote 53: In iii. 87.10, "ten descendants and ten
ancestors." The epic, i. 170. 19, regards the Sarasvat[=i]
and Jumna as parts of the sevenfold Ganges, which descends
from the heavens as these three, and also as the Vitasth[=a]
(Rathasth[=a]), Saray[=u], Gomat[=i], and Gan[d.]ak[=i];
being itself 'V[=a]itara[n.][=i] among the Manes.' So xii.
322. 32.]
[Footnote 54: According to the commentator the "(northern
altar of the Father-god) Kurukshetra-Samantapañcakam,
between Tarantuka, Arantuka, R[=a]mahrada, and Macakruka,"
mentioned in iii. 83. 208, lies in Benares; but this must be
a late addition, as Kurukshetra's position is without doubt.
Compare i. 2. i ff.; ix. 53. i, 23-25.]
[Footnote 55:
In _ib_. 47, _mah[=a] d[r.]tiriv[=a]dhm[=a]ta[h.]
p[=a]pas_, there is an interesting
reminiscence of Rig Veda, vii. 89. 2. The rules of virtue
are contained in Vedas and law-books, and the practice of
instructed men, _ib_. 83 (the 'threefold sign of
righteousness'). A Çruti cited from _dharmas_ is not
uncommon, but the latter word is not properly used in so
wide a sense. See note below, p. 378.]
[Footnote 56: Some scholars see in the use of the verb,
_piç_, a Vedic picturing of gods; but in all instances where
this occurs it may be only the poet's mind-picture of the
god 'adorned' with various glories.]
[Footnote 57: In VII. 201. 69, Çiva wears an
_aksham[=a]l[=a]._ In XII. 38. 23, the C[=a]rv[=a]ka wears
an _aksha_, for he is disguised as a _bhikshu_, beggar.]
[Footnote 58: It must be remembered that the person using
the _mantra_ probably did not understand what the words
meant. The epic says, in fact, that the Vedas are
unintelligible: _brahma pracuracchalam_, XII. 329. 6. But an
older generation thought the same. In Nirukta, I. 15,
K[=a]utsa is cited as saying that the _mantras_ are
meaningless.]
[Footnote 59: Compare xii. 174. 46: "The joy of earth and
heaven obtained by the satisfaction of desire is not worth
one-sixteenth of the bliss of dead desire."]
[Footnote 60: By generosity the Hindu poet means 'to
priests.' In III. 200, where this is elaborated, sixteen
persons are mentioned (vs. 4) to whom to give is not
meritorious.]
[Footnote 61: Little is known in regard to the play. The
dice are thrown on a board, 'odd and even' determine the
contest here (III. 34. 5) _ayuja and yuja_. At times speed
in counting is the way to win (Nala). Dicing is a regular
part of the _r[=a]jas[=u]ya_ sacrifice (Weber, p. 67), but
not, apparently, an ancient trait.]
[Footnote 62: The snakes belong to Varuna and his region, as
described in v. 98. It is on the head of the earth-upholding
snake Çesha that Vishnu muses, III. 203.12. The reverence
paid to serpents begins to be ritual in the Atharva Veda.
Even in the Rig Veda there is the deification of the
cloud-snake. In later times they answered to the Nymphs,
being tutelary guardians of streams and rivers (Buhler). In
i. 36, Çesha Ananta supports earth, and it is told why he
does so.]
[Footnote 63: These three are the witnesses for the soul at
the judgment, xii. 322. 55. V[=a]yu, Wind, is said to be
even mightier than Indra, Yama, Indra and Varuna, _ib._ 155.
9, 10.]
[Footnote 64: But (in a later account) not if he dies
ignobly; for if one is slain by a man of low caste he goes
to hell, xii. 298. 7.]
[Footnote 65: Demoniac Indras (_i.e._, demon-leaders) and
seers, xii. 166. 26.]
[Footnote 66: 'The god of gods,' who rains blood in i. 30.
36, is declared by the commentator to be--Parjanya! The gods
are here defending Soma from the heavenly bird, Garuda, and
nearly die of fright.]
[Footnote 67: xii. 313. 1-7, with the same watery finale as
is usual.]
[Footnote 68: The morning prayer, etc, to the sun is, of
course, still observed, _e.g._, vii. 186. 4. Indra is
thanked for victory and invoked for rain (iii. 117. 11; i.
25. 7; Holtzmann, _loc. cit._ p. 326) in an hymn that is
less fulsome than those to Agni and S[=u]rya.]
[Footnote 69: 111. 222, Atharvan's rediscovery of fire. As
to Çrutis they are probably no more valuable than Smritis.
The one given in iii. 208. 11, _agnayo
in[=a]i[.n]sak[=a]m[=a]s_, seems to be adapted (_cf._
[=A]çv. Gs. iv. 1; the adjective, by the way, is still
starred in Pw.). So [=A]çv. Gs. i. 15. 9, is repeated
Mbh[=a]; i. 74. 63, as a "Vedic _mantragr[=a]ma_ "
_(ang[=a]d ang[=a]t sambhavasi_, etc.).]
[Footnote 70: The devils are on the Prince's side, and wish
to keep him from death. The proverb is found _ib_. 252. 2;
_[=a]tmaty[=a]g[=i] hy adho y[=a]ti_. The holy-grass is used
in much the same way when R[=a]ma lies down by Ocean,
resolved to die or persuade Ocean to aid him. The rites (vs.
24) are "in the Upanishad."]
[Footnote 71: According to XII. 59. 80-84, the 'treatise of
Brihaspati' comes from Çiva through Brahm[=a] and Indra.]
[Footnote 72: In Buddhism Yama's messengers are Yakkhas.
Scherman, _loc. cit_. p. 57.]
[Footnote 73: Compare II. 22. 26: _gaccha yamak[s.]ayam_,
'go to Yama's destruction'; whereas of a good man it is
said, 'I will send Indra a guest' (VII, 27.8).]
[Footnote 74: _Yamasya sadana_. III. 11. 66. He now has
hells, and he it is who will destroy the world. He is called
'the beautiful' (III. 41. 9), so that he must, if one take
this Rudrian epithet with the citation above, be loosely
(popularly) identified with Çiva, as god of death. See the
second note below.]
[Footnote 75: The old story of a mortal's visit to Yama to
learn about life hereafter (_Çat. Br._ xi. 6.1; Katha Up.,
of N[=a]ciketas) is repeated in xiii. 71.]
[Footnote 76: v. 42. 6: _Çiva[h.] çiv[=a]n[=a]m açivo
'çiv[=a]n[=a]m_ (compare xii 187. 27: 'only fools say that
the man is dead'). Dharma (Justice) seems at times to be the
same with Yama. M[=a]ndavya goes to Dharma's _sadana_, home
(compare Yama's _sadana_), just as one goes to Yama's, and
interviews him on the justice of his judgments. As result of
the angry interview the god is reborn on earth as a man of
low caste, and the law is established that a child is not
morally responsible for his acts till the twelfth year of
his age (i.108. 8 ff.). When Kuru agrees to give half his
life in order to the restoration of Pramadvar[=a], his wife,
they go not to Yama but to Dharma to see if the exchange may
be made, and he agrees (i. 9. 11 ff., a masculine
S[=a]vitr[=i]i).]
[Footnote 77: The hells are described in xii. 322. 29 ff.
The sight of 'golden trees' presages death (_ib._ 44).]
[Footnote 78: The ordinary rule is that "no sin is greater
than untruth," xii. 162. 24, modified by "save in love and
danger of life" (Laws, _passim_).]
[Footnote 79: The same scenes occur in Buddhistic writings,
where Yakkhas ask conundrums. For example, in the
_Hemavatasutta_ and _[=A]tavakasutta_ the Yakkha asks what
is the best possession, what brings bliss, and what is
swettest, to which the answer is: faith, law, and truth,
respectively.]
[Footnote 80: _Karm[=a]ntaram up[=a]santas, i.e.,
vir[=a]mak[=a]lam upagacchantas_.]
[Footnote 81: II. 36. 3 ff. The phraseology of vs. 5 is
exactly that of [Greek: _ton êttô ldgon kreittô poithnsi_],
but the Pundit's arguments are 'based on the law.']
[Footnote 82: See above. In a later period (see below) the
question arises in regard to the part played by Creator and
individual in the workings of grace, some claiming that man
was passive; some, that he had to strive for grace.]
[Footnote 83: Perhaps ironical. In V. 175. 32, a woman cries
out: "Fie on the Creator for this bad luck," conservative in
belief, and outspoken in word.]
[Footnote 84: III. 30. 17. The _gosava_ is a
'cow-sacrifice.' The _pu[n.][d.]ar[=i]ka_ is not explained
(perhaps 'elephant-sacrifice').]
* * * * *