has a most important bearing on the efficient cultivation of land. The
landowner and the tenant are joint partners in a common business. They
share a common profit--the first portion belongs to the farmer, the
remainder to the landlord. They are both interested in promoting the
success of the agriculturist. If the cultivation of the soil thrives
even under the shortest leases, the rent is not quickly raised in
consequence of the rising profit--whilst under a long lease very
considerable gains may be won before a new settlement of the rent can
come up for discussion. This partnership brings a powerful motive to
act on the landlord to give help in developing the efficiency of the
farming. He knows that if he invests capital in draining and other
improvements, he increases the productive power of his land, he is
laying the foundation of enlarged results, and he cannot fail to
perceive that land thus improved must yield a bigger profit, of which
the surplus part, the rents, must necessarily be greater. Thus, an
important benefit is acquired, not only for the joint partners, but
also for the whole population of the country. Such processes generate
more abundant and cheaper food. The landlord who never visits his
farms, never thinks of them except on rent day, is blind to his own
interest, is forgetting that ownership of land is a partnership in a
business. He neglects his own enrichment, and leaves needed resources
for the nation unused. The active and intelligent landlord, on the
contrary, watches the march of agriculture. He observes where the
machine, the soil, requires improvement, he notices the farming
qualities of the tenant, he lives on friendly relations with him, and
deliberates with him on expanding the productive power of the farm.
His rent becomes larger--not only by obtaining interest on the capital
laid out, but also by sharing in the additional profit which that
capital is sure to engender; and that addition will not be grudged by
the tenant. He, too, will have prospered by the help of more powerful
machinery in his trade, for he is certain of getting an augmented
profit from the capital laid out by the landlord. Whatever may be said
of the system of land-revenue which prevails in England, one merit
it certainly possesses: it tends to bring the capital of a wealthy
landowner to take part in enlarging the power of the land and the
amount of its produce.
BONAMY PRICE.
[Footnote 1: It is much to be regretted that Professor Jevons
in his "Primer of Political Economy" should have omitted in
his explanation of rent the action of the forces which Ricardo
and Mill sum up in the word situation. He affirms "that rent
arises from the fact that different pieces of land are not
equally fertile," and that "the rent of better land consists
of the surplus of its produce over that of the poorest
cultivated land." How is it then that inferior land near great
towns pays a much higher rent than very good land in the
heart of a rural district, far away from railways or canals,
burdened with high poor-rates, and sorely in want of lime or
other distant manures? Ricardo himself admits, and so does
Mill, that if all lands were equally fertile, and, it may be
added, equally well situated as to other forces, they would
still pay rent to their owners.]
BUDDHISM AND JAINISM.
In previous papers I have traced the progress of Indian religious
thought through the various stages of Vedism, Br[=a]hmanism,
Vaishnavism, S´aivism, and S´[=a]ktism, and have pointed out that
all these systems more or less run into, and in a manner overlap, one
another. We have seen that among the primitive [=A]ryans the air,
the fire, and the sun, were believed to contain within themselves
mysterious and irresistible forces, capable of effecting tremendous
results either for good or evil. They were therefore personified,
deified, and worshipped. Some regarded them as manifestations of
one Supreme Controller of the Universe; others as separate cosmical
divinities with separate powers and attributes.
If the religion of the ancient Indo-[=A]ryans was a form of Theism,
it was a Theism of a very uncertain and unsettled character. It was a
religious creed based on a vague belief in the sovereignty of unseen
natural forces. Such a creed might fairly be called monotheism,
henotheism, polytheism, or pantheism, according to the particular
standpoint from which it is regarded. But it was not, in its earliest
origin, idolatry. Its simple ritual was the natural outcome of each
man's earnest effort to express devotional feelings in his own way.
Unhappily it did not long retain its simplicity. The Br[=a]hmans
soon took advantage of the growth of religious ideas among a people
naturally pious and superstitious. They gradually cumbered the
simplicity of worship with elaborate ceremonial. They persuaded the
people that propitiatory offerings of all kinds were needed to secure
the favour of the beings they worshipped, and that such sacrifices
could not be performed without the repetition of prayers by a
regularly ordained and trained priesthood. But this was not all.
They developed and formulated a pantheistic philosophy, based on the
physiolatry of the Veda, and overlaid it with subtle metaphysical and
ontological speculations. They identified the Supreme Being with
all the phenomena of Nature, and maintained that the Br[=a]hmans
themselves were his principal human manifestation, the sole
repositories and exponents of all religious and philosophical truth,
the sole mediators between earth and heaven, the sole link between men
and gods. This combination of ritualism and philosophy, which
together constituted what is commonly called Br[=a]hmanism, gradually
superseded the simple forms of Vedic religion. In process of time,
however, the extravagance of Br[=a]hmanical ceremonial, and the
tyranny of priestcraft, led to repeated reactions. Efforts after
simplicity of worship and freedom of thought were made by various
energetic religious leaders at various periods. More than one reformer
arose, who attempted to deliver the people from the bondage of
a complex ceremonial, and the intolerable incubus of an arrogant
sacerdotalism.
It was natural that the most successful opposition to priestcraft
should have originated in the caste next in rank to the Br[=a]hmans.
Gautama (afterwards called "the Buddha") was a man of the military
class (Kshatriya). He was the son of a petty chief who ruled over a
small principality called Kapila-vastu, north of the Ganges; but he
was not the sole originator of the reactionary movement. He had,
in all probability, been preceded by other less conspicuous social
reformers, and other leaders of sceptical inquiry. Or other such
leaders may have been contemporaneous with himself. We have already
pointed out that the philosophy he enunciated was not in its general
scope and bearing very different from that of Br[=a]hmanism. The
Br[=a]hmans called their system of doctrines "Dharma,"[1] and the
Buddha called his by the same name. He recognised no distinguishing
term like Buddhism. His simple aim was to remove every merely
sacerdotal doctrine from the national religion--to cut away every
useless excrescence, and to sweep away every corrupting incrustation.
His own doctrines of liberty, equality, and general benevolence
towards all creatures, ensured the popularity of his teaching; while
the example he himself set of asceticism and self-mortification,
secured him a large number of devoted personal adherents. For it is
remarkable that just as the Founder of Christianity was Himself a Jew,
and required none of His followers to give up their true Jewish creed,
or Jewish usages, so the founder of Buddhism was himself a Hind[=u],
and did not require his adherents to give up every essential principle
of ordinary Hind[=u]ism, or renounce all the religious observances of
their ancestors.[2]
Yet it cannot be denied that Buddhism was very different from
Br[=a]hmanism, and it is a remarkable fact that, with all his personal
popularity, the atheistic philosophy of Gautama was unsuited to the
masses of the people. His negations, abstractions, and theories of
the non-eternity and ultimate extinction of soul, never commended
themselves to the popular mind.
It seemed, indeed, probable that Buddhism was destined to become
extinct with its founder. The Buddha died, like other men, and,
according to his own doctrine, became absolutely extinct. Nothing
remained but the relics of his burnt body, which were distributed
in all directions. No successor was ready to step into his place. No
living representative was competent to fill up the void caused by his
death. Nothing seemed more unlikely than that the mere recollection
of his teaching and example, though perpetuated by the rapid
multiplication of shrines, symbols, and images of his person,[3]
should have power to secure the continuance of his system in his own
native country for more than ten centuries, and to disseminate his
doctrines over the greater part of Asia. What, then, was the secret
of its permanence and diffusion? It really had no true permanence.
Buddhism never lived on in its first form, and never spread anywhere
without taking from other systems quite as much as it imparted. The
tolerant spirit which was its chief distinguishing characteristic
permitted its adherents to please themselves in adopting extraneous
doctrines. Hence it happened that the Buddhists were always ready
to acquiesce in, and even conform to, the religious practices of the
countries to which they migrated, and to clothe their own simple
creed in, so to speak, a many-coloured vesture of popular legends and
superstitious ideas.
Even in India, where the Buddha's memory continued to be perpetuated
by strong personal recollections and local associations, as well as
by relics, symbols, and images, his doctrines rapidly lost their
distinctive character, and ultimately, as we have already shown,
merged in the Br[=a]hmanism whence they originally sprang.
Nor is there any historical evidence to prove that the Buddhists were
finally driven out of India by violent means. Doubtless, occasional
persecutions occurred in particular places at various times, and it
is well ascertained that fanatical, enthusiastic Br[=a]hmans, such as
Kum[=a]rila and S´ankara, occasionally instigated deeds of blood and
violence. But the final disappearance of Buddhism is probably due
to the fact that the two systems, instead of engaging in constant
conflict, were gradually drawn towards each other by mutual sympathy
and attraction; and that, originally related like father and child,
they ended by consorting together in unnatural union and intercourse.
The result of this union was the production of the hybrid systems of
Vaishnavism and S´aivism, both of which in their lineaments bear
a strong family resemblance to Buddhism. The distinctive names of
Buddhism were dropped, but the distinctive features of the system
survived. The Vaishnavas were Buddhists in their doctrines of liberty
and equality, in their abstinence from injury (_a-hins[=a]_), in
their desire for the preservation of life, in their hero-worship,
deification of humanity, and fondness for images; while the S´aivas
were Buddhists in their love for self-mortification and austerity,
as well as in their superstitious dread of the power of demoniacal
agencies. What, then, became of the atheistical philosophy and
agnostic materialism of the Buddhistic creed? Those doctrines were no
more expelled from India than were other Buddhistic ideas. They found
a home, under changed names, among various sects, but especially in
a kindred system which has survived to the present day, and may be
conveniently called Jainism.[4] Here, then, we are brought face to
face with the special subject of our present paper: What are the
peculiar characteristics of the Jaina creed?
To give an exhaustive reply to such a question will scarcely be
possible until the sacred books of Buddhists and Jainas (or, as they
are commonly called, Jains) have been more thoroughly investigated.
All that I can do at present is to give a general outline of Jaina
doctrines, and to indicate the principal points in which they either
agree with or differ from those of Buddhists and Br[=a]hmans.[4]
Perhaps the first point to which attention may be directed is that
recent investigations have tended to show that Buddhism and Jainism
were not related to each other as parent and child, but rather as
children of a common parent, born at different intervals, though at
about the same period of time, and marked by distinct characteristics,
though possessing a strong family resemblance. Both these systems, in
fact, were the product of Br[=a]hmanical rationalistic thought, which
was itself a child of Br[=a]hmanism. Both were forms of materialistic
philosophy engendered from separate kindred germs.
For there can be no doubt that different lines of philosophical
speculation were developed by the Br[=a]hmans at a very early period.
All such speculations were regarded by them as legitimate phases of
their own religious system. In some localities where Br[=a]hmanism
was strong and dominant, rationalism was restrained within orthodox
limits. In other places it diverged into unorthodox sceptical
inquiries. In others into rank heresy and schism. Buddhism and Jainism
represented different schools of heretical philosophical speculation
which were in all likelihood nearly synchronous in their origin. That
is to say, Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, and P[=a]rs´van[=a]tha,
the probable founder of Jainism, may have lived about the same time
in different parts of India. Nor is it unreasonable to conjecture
that both these freethinkers may have followed closely on Kapila, the
reputed founder of the S[=a]nkhya system and typical representative of
rationalistic Br[=a]hmanism.[5] By far the most popular of the three
was Gautama, commonly called the Buddha. The influence of his personal
character, combined with the extraordinary persuasiveness of his
teaching, was irresistible. His system spread with his followers and
admirers in every direction, and threw all kindred systems into the
shade. Very soon Buddhistic doctrines leavened the religions of the
whole Indian peninsula, from Afgh[=a]nist[=a]n to Ceylon. They found
their way into every home. They became domesticated in the cottages of
peasants and palaces of kings. As to Jainism, centuries elapsed before
it emerged from the obscurity to which the greater popularity of
Buddhism had consigned it. Nor, even when its rival was extinguished,
did it ever rise above the rank of an insignificant sect. At present
the total number of Jainas in all India does not exceed 400,000, at
least half of whom are found in the Bombay Presidency.
Yet it is not impossible that the first opposition to sacerdotalism
may have been due to Jaina influences, and that Indian rationalistic
speculation may have been inaugurated by early Jaina leaders. We know
that the Buddhist king As´oka, in his inscriptions--which are referred
to the third century B.C.--mentions the Jainas under the name of
Nirgrantha, as if well established and well known in his time. We
know, too, what has happened in our own country. Not long ago there
was a reaction from extreme Evangelical religious thought in England.
But because that reactionary movement is called by the name of a
particular leader, it by no means follows that he was chronologically
the first to set it in action. In the same way it may possibly turn
out to be a fact that the Jaina P[=a]rs´van[=a]tha, rather than the
Buddha Gautama, was the first excogitator of the heretical ideas and
theories common to both. It seems to me, indeed, not improbable that
Jainism, which is now at length assimilating itself to Hind[=u]ism,
maintained its ground more persistently in India, not only because,
unlike Buddhism, it sullenly refused to fraternize with Br[=a]hmanism,
and to court converts from other creeds, but because the lines of
demarcation which separated it from the orthodox system were in some
essential points more sharp and decided than those which separated
Buddhism. It is, at any rate, a fact that the Jainas claim for their
system a prior origin to that of Buddhism, and even affirm that
Gautama Buddha was a pupil of their chief Jina, Mah[=a]v[=i]ra. Nor
will it surprise us that the legendary history of Mah[=a]v[=i]ra, who
succeeded Pars´van[=a]tha, and was the first real propagator of
the Jaina creed, favours the theory of such a priority. True,
Mah[=a]v[=i]ra is described as the son of Siddh[=a]rtha, which is an
epithet given to the Buddha. But he is also said to have had a pupil
named Gautama, and his death is fixed by the concurrent testimony of
both parties of Jainas, who follow different reckonings, at a date
corresponding to about B.C. 526 or 527, the usual date assigned by
modern research to the Nirv[=a]na or death of Buddha being 477 or 478.
But it must not be supposed that P[=a]rs´van[=a]tha and his successor
Mah[=a]v[=i]ra, are regarded by the Jainas as their first supreme
Jinas. They were preceded by twenty-two other mythical leaders
and patriarchs, beginning with Rishabha,[6] whose fabulous lives
protracted to millions of years, and whose fabulous statures,
proportionally extended, were probably invented in recent times, that
the Jaina system might not be outdone by that of either Br[=a]hmans or
Buddhists.
It is well known that the code of Manu--which is the best exponent
of Br[=a]hmanism--supposes a constant succession of religious guides
through an infinite succession of cycles. These cycles are called
Kalpas. Every Kalpa or Æon of time begins with a new creation, and
ends with a universal dissolution of all existing things--including
Brahm[=a], Vishnu, S´iva, gods, demons, men, and animals--into
Brahm[)a], or the One sole impersonal self-existent Soul of the
Universe. In the interval between each creation and dissolution there
are fourteen periods, presided over by fourteen successive patriarchs
or progenitors of the human race called Manus, who, as their name
implies, are the authors of all human wisdom, and who create a
succession of Sages and Saints (Rishis and Munis), for mankind's
guidance and instruction.
The Buddhists, also, have their cycles of time, presided over by
twenty-four Buddhas, or 'perfectly enlightened men,' Gautama being
(according to the Northern reckoning) the seventh of the series.
Similarly the Jainas have their vast periods superintended by
twenty-four Jinas, or 'self-conquering sages.' The notion is that
alternate periods of degeneracy and amelioration succeed each other
with symmetrical regularity. Each cycle embraces vast terms of years;
for in the determination of the world's epochs Indian arithmeticians
anticipated centuries ago the wildest hypotheses of modern European
science. A single Kalpa, or Æon, of the Br[=a]hmans consists of
4,320,000,000 years. It is divided into a thousand periods of four
ages (called Satya, Treta, Dv[=a]para, and Kali), under which there is
gradual degeneration until the depths of degeneracy are reached in the
Kali age. The Buddhist Kalpas are similar, but the Jaina cycles have
a distinctive character of their own. They proceed in pairs, one
of which is called 'descending,' (_Avasarpin[=i]_), and the other
'ascending,' (_Utsarpin[=i]_). Of these the descending cycle has six
stages, or periods, each comprising one hundred million years, and
called 'good-good,' 'good,' 'good-bad,' 'bad-good,' 'bad,' 'bad-bad,'
during which mankind gradually deteriorates; while the ascending cycle
has also six similar periods called 'bad-bad,' 'bad,' 'bad-good,'
'good-bad,' 'good,' 'good-good,' during which the human race gradually
improves till it reaches the culminating pinnacle of absolute
perfection. In illustration we are told to imagine a vast serpent,
whose body, coiled round in infinite space in an endless circle,
supports and guides the movement of the earth in its eternal progress.
The head and tail of the serpent meet, and the notion is that the
earth's movement alternates after the manner of the oscillating motion
of a balance-wheel acted on by the coiling and uncoiling of a steel
spring. First the earth moves from the head towards the tail in a
downward course, and then reversing the direction moves upwards
from the tail to the head. At present we are supposed to be in the
descending cycle. Twenty-four Jinas have already appeared in this
cycle, while twenty-four were manifested in the past ascending cycle,
and twenty-four will be manifested in the future.
In Br[=a]hmanism, Buddhism, and Jainism, the idea seems to be that the
tendency to deterioration would very soon land mankind in a condition
of hopeless degeneracy unless counteracted by the remedial influences
of great teachers, prophets, and deliverers. In the legendary
history of the Buddha Gautama, he is described in terms which almost
assimilate his character to the Christian conception of a Redeemer:
he is even reported to have said--"Let all the evils (or sins) flowing
from the corruption of the fourth or degenerate age (called _Kali_)
fall upon me, but let the world be redeemed."
And what are the precise character and functions of a Jina? This
inquiry must, of course, form an important part of our present
subject, and the reply is really involved in the answer to another
question: What is the great end and object of Jainism? Briefly, it
may be stated that Jainism, like Br[=a]hmanism and Buddhism, aims at
getting rid of the burden of repeated existences. Three root-ideas may
be said to lie at the foundation of all three systems:--first, that
personal existence is protracted through an innumerable succession of
bodies by the almighty power of man's own acts; secondly, that mundane
life is an evil, and that man finds his perfection in the cessation
of all acts, and the consequent extinction of all personal
existence; thirdly, that such perfection is alone attained through
self-mortification, abstract meditation, and true knowledge. In these
crucial doctrines, the theory of Br[=a]hmanism is superior to that of
Buddhism and Jainism. According to the Br[=a]hmans, the living soul of
man has an eternal existence both retrospectively and prospectively,
and only exists separately from the One Supreme Eternal Soul because
that Supreme Soul wills the temporary separate personality of
countless individual spirits, dissevering them from his own essence
and causing them to pass through a succession of bodies, till, after a
long course of discipline, they are permitted to blend once more with
their great Eternal Source. With the Br[=a]hmans existence in the
abstract is not an evil. It is only an evil when it involves the
continued separation of the personal soul from the impersonal Eternal
Soul of the Universe.
Very different is the doctrine of Buddhists and Jains. With them there
is no Supreme Being, no Supreme Divine Eternal Soul, no separate
human eternal soul. Nor can there be any true soul-transmigration. A
Buddhist and a Jaina believe that the only eternal thing is matter.
The universe consists of eternal atoms which by their own inherent
creative force are perpetually developing countless forms of being
in ever-recurring cycles of creation and dissolution, re-creation and
re-dissolution. This is symbolized by a wheel revolving for ever in
perpetual progression and retrogression.[7]