INDIAN MYTH AND LEGEND
_MYTH AND LEGEND IN LITERATURE AND ART_
CLASSIC MYTH AND LEGEND
_By A. R. Hope Moncrieff_
CELTIC MYTH AND LEGEND
POETRY AND ROMANCE
_By Charles Squire_
TEUTONIC MYTH AND LEGEND
_By Donald A. Mackenzie_
ROMANCE AND LEGEND
OF CHIVALRY
_By A. R. Hope Moncrieff_
EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND
_By Donald A. Mackenzie_
INDIAN MYTH AND LEGEND
_By Donald A. Mackenzie_
MYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
_By Donald A. Mackenzie_
MYTHS OF CRETE
AND PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE
_By Donald A. Mackenzie_
THE GRESHAM PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD.
[Illustration: SITA FINDS RAMA AMONG LOTUS BLOOMS
_From the painting by Warwick Goble_]
INDIAN MYTH
AND LEGEND
DONALD A. MACKENZIE
_With Illustrations in Colour
by Warwick Goble
and numerous monochrome
Plates_
THE GRESHAM PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED
66 CHANDOS STREET COVENT GARDEN LONDON
PREFACE
This volume deals with the myths and legends of India, which survive to
us in the rich and abundant storehouse of Sanskrit literature, and with
the rise and growth of Brahmanism, Buddhism, Jainism, &c. The reader
is introduced to the various sacred works of the Hindus, including
the ancient invocatory hymns of the four Vedas, the later speculative
and expository “Forest Books” in which “the Absolute is grasped and
proclaimed”, and those great epic poems the _Rámáyana_, which is three
times longer than the _Iliad_, and the _Máhábharata_, which is four
times longer than the _Rámáyana_. In no other country have the national
poets given fuller and finer expression to the beliefs and ideals and
traditions of a people, or achieved as a result wider and more enduring
fame. At the present day over two hundred million Hindus are familiar
in varying degrees with the legendary themes and traditional beliefs
which the ancient forest sages and poets of India invested with much
beautiful symbolism, and used as mediums for speculative thought and
profound spiritual teachings. The sacred books of India are to the
Hindus what the Bible is to Christians. Those who read them, or hear
them read, are believed to be assured of prosperity in this world and
of salvation in the next. To students of history, of ethnology, and of
comparative religion they present features of peculiar interest, for
they contain an elaborate sociology of the ancient Aryo-Indians, their
political organizations, their codes of laws, their high ethical code,
and above all their conceptions of God, the soul, and the Universe.
Some knowledge of them is necessary for those who desire to approach
with sympathy the investigation of the religious beliefs of our Hindu
fellow men and to understand their outlook upon life and the world.
The Introduction deals with various aspects of the study of these
ancient myths and legends which have been the inspiration of a national
literature infused with much grandeur and sublimity. The historic
Aryan controversy, of which the science of comparative mythology is
a by-product, is passed under review, and it is shown to what extent
philological theories regarding race problems have been modified during
recent years as a result of the adoption of broader and more exact
methods of ethnic and archæological research and the ever-extending
study of comparative mythology. There has also been condensed
much important data dealing with the early phases of Aryo-Indian
civilization accumulated for historical purposes by industrious and
painstaking Sanskrit scholars who have been engaged in investigating
and systematizing the internal evidence of the various religious poems
and treatises. It will be found that no general agreement has yet been
reached regarding Aryo-Indian chronology, but it now appears to be well
established that although there were early cultural as well as racial
“drifts”, fresh invasions, which had far-reaching results in the social
and religious life of northern India, occurred at a late period in
what is known as the Vedic Age. In consequence, the problem presented
by this ancient civilization tends rather to grow more complex than to
become simplified. Its origin is still wrapped in obscurity. At the
very dawn of history Aryo-Indian culture had attained a comparatively
high state of development, and a considerable period must be allowed
for its growth. Even some of the ancient Vedic hymns, addressed by
priests to the deities, are styled “new songs”, which suggests the
existence of an older collection. Many of them also afford indications
that immemorial beliefs were in process of change and fusion. The
sublime deities, Varuna and Mitra (Mithra), for instance, were already
declining in splendour. Yet they must have been closely associated with
Indra, king of the gods, in the unknown Aryan homeland, as is made
evident by an inscription recently deciphered at Boghaz Köi, in Asia
Minor, which refers to them as deities of the mysterious Mitanni people
who were of Aryan speech like the settlers in the Punjab. There is no
evidence, however, that the Mitanni rulers gave recognition to the fire
god Agni, who in India was exalted as the twin brother of Indra. The
problem involved may not be devoid of ethnic significance, although the
identity of the Agni-worshipping section of the early raiders remains
obscure.
During the early Vedic Age in India prominence was given to the gods:
the social organization was of patriarchal character; the goddesses
remained shadowy and vague, some being, indeed, little more than
figures of speech. A great change took place, however, after the
invasions of the Bharata and other tribes who are now referred to
as “late comers”. Profound and speculative thinkers attained to the
pantheistic conception of the world soul; new doctrines, which are not
referred to in the Vedic hymns, regarding the ages of the universe
and transmigration of souls, received wide acceptance as the result
of missionary efforts: the Vedic gods were reduced to the position of
minor deities and new goddesses rose into prominence, one indeed being
Bharati, the tribal deity of the Bharatas, who became associated with
the Saraswati river and under her new name was ultimately made the
wife of the supreme god Brahma. It is significant to note that the
new culture radiated from the “Middle Country”, the area controlled
by the “late comers”. That it contained elements which were not of
Indian origin is made clearly evident when we find that the doctrines
of the ages of the universe and transmigration of souls were shared
by other peoples, including the Greeks and Celts and a section of the
ancient Egyptians. Sumero-Babylonian and Egyptian resemblances may
also be traced in post-Vedic religious literature, the former, for
instance, in the Deluge legend, and the latter in the myth regarding
the avenging goddess Kali, who slaughters the enemies of the gods
like Hathor-Sekhet, and has similarly to be restrained by one of
the deities. The worship of goddesses was also prominent among the
Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Celts, as contrasted with the worship
of gods among broad-headed mountain and wandering peoples. In this
connection special interest attaches to the conclusions of prominent
ethnologists, who include in the Mediterranean or “Brown” race of
brunet “long heads” the early Egyptians and Neolithic Europeans, the
Sumerians and present-day “Aryan” types in India, and especially in the
old “Middle Country” and Bengal. On the other hand, a broad-headed type
is still prominent in the Punjab, the area occupied by the earliest
invaders who worshipped the Vedic gods. Dr. Haddon suggests that these
pioneers of civilization were mixed with peoples of Mongolian and other
affinities. Some such ethnic explanation must be urged to account
for the differences between Vedic and post-Vedic mythologies. The
invasions of the “late comers”, who entered India by a new route, no
doubt stimulated thought and promoted culture after settled conditions
were secured, as was undoubtedly the result of the mingling of races
elsewhere.
“It may be put down as an axiom”, says Professor Jastrow, “that nowhere
does a high form of culture arise without the commingling of diverse
ethnic elements. Civilization, like the spark emitted by the striking
of steel on flint, is everywhere the result of stimulus evoked by the
friction of one ethnic group upon another”: and he supports his theory
with the evidence afforded by Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, Rome, France,
Germany, and Great Britain, as well as the present-day United States of
America, “the melting pot” of many peoples.
Throughout this volume comparative evidence is provided to assist the
reader towards the study of this most interesting aspect of the Aryan
problem. We trace the cremation custom, which has prevailed in India
since Vedic times, to countries as wide apart as Great Britain, into
which it was introduced during the Bronze Age, and Southern Siberia,
where it is still practised by the Mongolian Buriats. Over the areas
occupied by representatives of the Mediterranean race it was unknown
prior to the invasions of unidentified fire-worshippers. Special
interest also attaches to the horse sacrifice, which was also an
Aryo-Indian ceremony even in Vedic times. It is not yet unknown among
the Buriats. At one time the horse sacrifice was widely prevalent.
White horses were sacrificed to the sun in Ancient Greece; the sun
horses are referred to with horror by Ezekiel; the ceremony was also
connected with the mysteries of Aricia grove. Indeed, as is pointed
out in Chapter V, various ancient peoples offered up this domesticated
and historic animal. In the Indian epics and religious treatises there
are illuminating references to the horse sacrifice which throw much
light on the significance of the immemorial practice. White and black
horses were alternately favoured, and it is evident that the practice
was not only associated with solar worship, but was also intended
to secure fertility—crops, and therefore rain in the first place,
increase of flocks, herds, human offspring, &c.—as is undoubtedly
the case among the modern-day Buriats. In India the horse was also
offered up as a sin offering, a late conception, evidently. A prominent
feature of this sacrifice in most countries was the decapitation of
the sacrificial victim. Recent evidence from Egypt suggests that the
sacrifice of the ass may have preceded the sacrifice of the horse.
Professor Flinders Petrie has found in a triple tomb in the early
dynastic Tarkhan cemetery the skeletons of three asses with the heads
cut off and placed beside them. He suggests that the animals were
killed to accompany their owner to the other world. The Buriats still
sacrifice horses at graves, professedly for the same reason. As this
custom was not prevalent throughout Ancient Egypt, it may have been an
importation, connected, perhaps, with the myth about the sun-ass which
gallops round a hill-surrounded world followed by the pursuing night
serpent. An isolated reference is also made to the sacrifice of the
ass in a Twelfth Dynasty story about a Naga-like demigod, a fact which
emphasizes the historical importance of the material embedded in folk
tales and mythologies. In this connection it may be noted that certain
developed myths suggest there may have been either a cultural contact
of Ancient Egypt with India, through an unidentified medium, or an
infusion of religious ideas into both countries from a common source.
In an Indian creation myth Prajápati weeps creative tears like the
Egyptian sun-god Ra, whose rays are tears from which all things spring,
as Maspero shows.
In India the juice of the soma plant was identified with the vital
principle, and the demons were the poisoners of crops and plants;
in Egypt honey-flowers and sacred trees sprang from the fertilizing
tears of deities, while the tears of demons produced poisonous plants,
diseases, &c. Like the Egyptian Horus, the Indian Prajápati, or Brahma,
sprang from a lotus bloom floating on the primordial waters. The
chaos-egg myth is also common to both mythological systems. Brahma
issues from a golden egg like Ra, and a similar myth is connected with
the Egyptian Ptah and Khnumu, and with the Chinese P'an Ku, while the
egg figures in Eur-Asian folk tales which contain the germs of the
various mythologies. All mythologies have animistic bases; they were,
to begin with, systematized folk beliefs which were carried hither
and thither in various stages of development by migrating and trading
peoples. Each separate system bears undoubted traces of racial or local
influences; each reflects the civilization in which it flourished, the
habits of thought and habits of life of the people, and the religious,
ethical, and political ideals of their rulers and teachers. When
well-developed myths of similar character are found in widely separated
districts, an ethnic or cultural contact is suggested. Such myths may
be regarded as evidence of remote racial movements, which, although
unsupported by record or tradition, are also indicated by ethnological
data. It is hoped that the reader will find much suggestive material
in this connection in their study of the myths and legends of India.
They will also find that many of the tales retold in this volume have
qualities which make universal appeal, and that some are among the most
beautiful which survive from the civilizations of the ancient world.
Not a few, we are assured, will follow with interest the development
from primitive myths of great and ennobling ideas which have exercised
a culturing influence in India through many long centuries, and are
still potent factors in the domestic, social, and religious life of
many millions of Hindus.
DONALD A. MACKENZIE.
CONTENTS
CHAP. Page
INTRODUCTION xvii
I. INDRA, KING OF THE GODS 1
II. THE GREAT VEDIC DEITIES 19
III. YAMA, THE FIRST MAN, AND KING OF THE DEAD 38
IV. DEMONS AND GIANTS AND FAIRIES 61
V. SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS OF THE VEDIC AGE 76
VI. MYSTERIES OF CREATION, THE WORLD'S AGES, AND SOUL WANDERING 97
VII. NEW FAITHS: VISHNU RELIGION, BUDDHISM, AND JAINISM 119
VIII. DIVINITIES OF THE EPIC PERIOD 138
IX. PRELUDE TO THE GREAT BHARATA WAR 157
X. ROYAL RIVALS: THE PANDAVAS AND KAURAVAS 173
XI. THE TOURNAMENT 185
XII. FIRST EXILE OF THE PANDAVAS 195
XIII. THE CHOICE OF DRAUPADI 213
XIV. TRIUMPH OF THE PANDAVAS 224
XV. THE GREAT GAMBLING MATCH 237
XVI. SECOND EXILE OF THE PANDAVAS 249
XVII. DEFIANCE OF DURYODHANA 270
XVIII. THE BATTLE OF EIGHTEEN DAYS 285
XIX. ATONEMENT AND THE ASCENT TO HEAVEN 310
XX. NALA AND DAMAYANTÍ 328
XXI. WANDERINGS IN THE FOREST 340
XXII. NALA IN EXILE 353
XXIII. THE HOMECOMING OF THE KING 364
XXIV. STORY OF RAMA: HOW SITA WAS WON 374
XXV. THE ABDUCTION OF SITA 394
XXVI. RAMA'S MISSION FULFILLED 408
INDEX 429
PLATES IN COLOUR
Page
SITA FINDS RAMA AMONG LOTUS BLOOMS _Frontispiece_
_From the painting by Warwick Goble_
SHANTANU MEETS THE GODDESS GANGA _facing_ 164
_From the painting by Warwick Goble_
ARJUNA AND THE RIVER NYMPH " 226
_From the painting by Warwick Goble_
THE ORDEAL OF QUEEN DRAUPADI " 242
_From the painting by Warwick Goble_
THE RETURN OF THE HEROES SLAIN IN BATTLE " 320
_From the painting by Warwick Goble_
DAMAYANTI AND THE SWAN " 330
_From the painting by Warwick Goble_
DAMAYANTI CHOOSING A HUSBAND " 336
_From the painting by Warwick Goble_
RAMA SPURNS THE DEMON LOVER " 400
_From the painting by Warwick Goble_
PLATES IN MONOCHROME
Page
THE CREMATION GHAT, BENARES _facing_ xxxvi
KALI " xl
_From a bronze in the Calcutta Art Gallery_
A VYASA, OR PUBLIC READER, RECITING THE MAHABHARATA " xlviii
INDRA " 4
_From the Indra Temple, Ellora_
INTERIOR OF A TEMPLE TO VISHNU (BRINDABAN) " 10
THE PARADISE OF INDRA " 16
_From a rock sculpture at Mâmallapuram_
AGNI, THE FIRE GOD " 20
_From a painting by Nanda Lall Bose_
SHIVA'S DANCE OF DESTRUCTION, ELLORA " 26
SURYA IN HIS CHARIOT " 32
_From the Kailâsa Temple, Ellora_
THE KAILASA TEMPLE OF SHIVA, ELLORA " 40
YAMA AND SAVITRI " 52
_From a painting by Nanda Lall Bose_
THE CITY OF THE GODS, PALITANA " 58
DURGA SLAYING GIANTS AND DEMONS " 64
_From a sculpture at Mámallapuram_
THE CELESTIAL FAIRIES (APSARAS) " 68
_Sculpture on a modern Hindu temple, Benares_
GROUP OF PRESENT-DAY BRAHMANS " 80
SADHUS (RELIGIOUS MENDICANTS) AT BENARES " 82
A YOGI ON A BED OF SPIKES " 84
_An example of present-day austerities_
THE BIRTH OF BRAHMA: SPRINGING FROM A LOTUS ISSUING
FROM VISHNU " 100
_From an original Indian painting_
HANUMAN " 106
_From a bronze in the Victoria and Albert Museum_
THE HINDU TRINITY AT ELEPHANTA " 120
VISHNU UPHOLDING THE UNIVERSE " 124
_From a sculpture at Mâmallapuram_
KRISHNA AND THE GOPIS (HERDSMAIDS) " 128
_From a modern sculpture_
BUDDHA EXPOUNDING THE LAW " 130
THE BOAR INCARNATION OF VISHNU RAISING THE EARTH FROM
THE DEEP " 136
_From a rock sculpture at Udayagiri_
INTERIOR OF A ROCK-HEWN BUDDHIST TEMPLE (AJANTA) " 140
LAKSHMI ARISING FROM THE SEA OF MILK " 144
_From a sculpture at Mâmallapuram_
SHIVA DANCING ON TRIPURA " 148
_From a bronze in the Madras Museum_
GANESA " 150
_From a sculpture in the Victoria and
Albert Museum_
KARTIKEYA, THE WAR GOD " 152
_From a painting by Surendra Nalh Gangoly_
PARVATI, WIFE OF SHIVA " 154
_From a South Indian temple_
A VAISHNAVAITE NUN READING THE RAMAYANA " 374
THE CORONATION OF RAMA AND SITA " 424
_To My Indian Friends_
INTRODUCTION
The triangular sub-continent of India is cut off from the rest of Asia
by the vast barriers of the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush, the Suleiman
mountains, and the Indian Ocean. Its population comprises about two
hundred and ninety-five millions, and is of greatest density on the
fertile northern plain, which is watered by three river systems, the
Indus and its tributaries on the west, and the Ganges and Brahmaputra
with their tributaries which pour into the Bay of Bengal. South of
the Vindhya mountain ranges is the plateau of the Deccan. The climate
varies from temperate on the Himalayan slopes to tropical in southern
India, and over the entire country there are two pronounced annual
seasons, the dry and the rainy.
Our interest abides in this volume chiefly with the northern plain
and the people who are familiar in varying degrees with the sacred
and heroic literature passed under review; that is, with the scenes
of the early Indian civilization known as Aryan and those numerous
inheritors of Aryan traditions, the Hindus, who exceed two hundred and
seven millions of the population of India. Modern Hinduism embraces a
number of cults which are connected with the early religious doctrines
of the Aryanized or Brahmanized India of the past; it recognizes, among
other things, the ancient caste system which includes distinct racial
types varying from what is known as the Aryan to the pre-Dravidian
stocks. Other religious organizations may be referred to in passing.
Buddhists are chiefly confined to Burma, Sikhs number two millions,
the Mohammedans nearly sixty-three millions, while the Parsees number
roughly ninety-five thousand; less than three million natives and
half-castes are Christians.
Like Egypt, India is a land of ancient memories, but its history, or
rather pre-history, does not begin until about a thousand years after
the erection was completed of the great pyramids at Gizeh. Between
2000 B.C. and 1200 B.C. tribes of pastoral and patriarchal peoples of
Aryan speech were pouring over the north-western frontier and settling
in the Punjab. There are no written or inscribed records, or even
native traditions, of this historic migration, but we are able to
follow vaguely, from the references found in religious compositions,
the gradual conquest of northern India, which covered a period of
several centuries. To what extent this invasion was racial, rather than
cultural, it is extremely difficult to discover. But no doubt can be
entertained regarding the influence exercised by the ancient military
aristocracy and their religious teachers. Certain of the Aryan gods
still receive recognition in India after a lapse of over three thousand
years. This fact makes Indian mythology of special interest to the
ever-increasing number of students of comparative religion.
Indian mythology also possesses particular attractions for us on
account of its intimate association with what is known as the “Aryan
problem”. Scholars of a past generation held pronounced views on Aryan
matters, and produced a considerable literature of highly controversial
character. In fact, theories regarding the Aryan languages and the
Aryan “race” are as varied as they are numerous; the wordy warfare
which occupied the greater part of the nineteenth century, was
waged ever strenuously and not infrequently with much brilliance;
occasionally, however, it was not awanting in the undesirable elements
of personal feeling and national antipathy. But, happily, we appear to
have reached a time when this fascinating and important problem can be
considered dispassionately in the proper scientific spirit, and without
experiencing that unnecessary dread of having to abandon decided
opinions which may have been formed when the accumulated data had less
variety and bulk than that which is now available. This change has been
brought about by the extended study of comparative religion and the
wonderful and engaging results which have attended modern-day methods
of ethnic and archæological research.
The Aryan controversy had its origin at the close of the eighteenth
century, when that distinguished Oriental scholar Sir William Jones,
who acted for a period as a judge of the Supreme Court in Bengal, drew
attention to the remarkable resemblances between the Sanskrit, Greek,
Latin, German, and Celtic languages. In 1808, Schlegel published his
_Language and Wisdom of the Hindus_, and urged the theory that India
was the home of an ancestral race and a group of languages that were
progenitors of various European ones. Other scholars subsequently
favoured Zend, the language of Persia, and transferred the “racial
beehive” to that country; rival claims were afterwards set up for Asia
Minor and the Iranian plateau.
The science of Comparative Philology was a direct product of these
early controversies; it was established in the “thirties” when Bopp
published his Comparative Grammar in which a new term, having a racial
significance, was invented: he grouped all European languages, except
Basque, Magyar, Turkish, and Finnish, as “Indo-Germanic”. After the
study of Sanskrit literature revealed, however, that the Aryans
occupied but a small part of India when their sacred hymns, the Vedas,
were composed, the cradle of the Aryan race was shifted to some
uncertain area beyond the Himalayan mountains.
Max Müller, the distinguished Sanskrit authority, who in the words
of an Indian scholar “devoted his lifetime to the elucidation of the
learning, literature, and religion of ancient India”,[1] abandoned
Bopp's patriotic term “Indo-Germanic” and adopted Aryan, which he
founded on the Sanskrit racial designation “Arya”. At first he accepted
the theory of an Aryan race and especially of an Aryan civilization
which originated on the Central Asian plateau, but, as will be seen, he
subsequently modified his views in this regard.
[1] Romesh C. Dutt's _Ramáyana_ dedication.
A new theory regarding the Aryans, who are now more commonly referred
to as Indo-Europeans, was strongly advocated in 1851 and later by Dr.
Robert Gordon Latham, who devoted many years to the study of ethnology
and philology. He argued that as the major part of the peoples speaking
Indo-European tongues was found in Europe, the cradle of the race
might, after all, be transferred westward. This theory was supported
by the fact (among others) that the Lithuanian language was no less
archaic than Sanskrit.
The European hypothesis found in time many able supporters, and the
advocates of rival Teutonic and Celtic claims waxed eloquent and heated
over the exact location of the Aryan homeland. An industrious search
was meanwhile conducted for words common to all Aryan languages which
described the natural features of the racial “cradle”. This work of
reconstruction was certainly not lacking in picturesque results, for
attractive visions were presented of Aryan Arcadias in which the simple
and contemplative ancestors of many bitter controversialists dwelt
together in exemplary unity and peace. The question of location might
remain unsettled, but it was generally agreed that the ancient people
were surrounded by cows, sheep, and goats; sometimes they rode their
horses or yoked them in rough rumbling carts, and sometimes they ate
them. No asses were admitted to the fold because of their decided
partiality for Central Asian plains, which seemed quite reasonable.
Trouble was occasionally caused by wolves and bears, or, mayhap, a
stray lion, but these and other worries associated with the simple
life might be compensated for by the fact that the primitive people,
as one writer[2] put it, “understood the art of drinking”. Mead,
brewed from honey, was found to be “dear to the hearts of the ancient
Aryans”; had the Brahman ever forgotten his “madhu”, the Welshman his
“medhu”, or the Lithuanian his “medus”? Problems arose regarding the
ancients' knowledge of trees: it was found that “bhaga” was applied
indifferently by the family groups to the beech and the oak, and more
than one ingenious explanation was suggested to account for this
apparent discrepancy. Then, suddenly, Professor Max Müller swept into
the background the rival Aryan homeland pictures, pointing out the
while that it is “almost impossible to discover any animal or any plant
that is peculiar to the north of Europe and is not found sporadically
in Asia also”. Destructive criticism proceeded apace, until now nothing
has been left to us of the ancestral Arcadia but “air, water, heat and
cold”. In his review of the widely accepted philological “evidence”
regarding the Aryan homeland, Max Müller declared it to be so pliant
that it was possible “to make out a more or less plausible case for any
part of the world”. The advanced group of philologists held, indeed,
that no racial centre could be located. Ultimately “Delbrück went
so far,” says Professor Ripley, “as to deny that any single parent
language ever existed in fact”.[3]
[2] Rydberg's _Teutonic Mythology_.
[3] _The Races of Europe_, W. Z. Ripley, p. 481.
Meanwhile ethnologists and archæologists were engaged accumulating
important data. It was found that Europe had been invaded at the close
of the Stone Age by a broad-headed (brachycephalic) people, who brought
no culture and even retarded the growth of civilization in their areas
of settlement. A new problem was thus presented: were the Aryans a
brachycephalic (broad-headed) or a dolichocephalic (long-headed)
people? Its solution was rendered all the more difficult when it was
found that living representatives of both racial types were peoples of
Aryan speech. The idea that skull shapes, which are associated with
other distinct physical characteristics, were due to habits of life and
the quality of food which had to be masticated, was in time advanced
to discredit new methods of ethnic research, but it has since been
thoroughly disproved. In many ancient graves are found skulls which do
not differ from those of modern men and women, living under different
conditions and eating different food.
Patriotic controversialists were not awanting again in dealing with the
problem of varying skull shapes. French scientists, for instance, have
identified the “broad heads”, now generally known as the Alpine race,
with the ubiquitous Celts, but as present-day Hindus are mainly “long
heads”, the Aryan racial connection here suggested remains obscure. A
clue to the mystery was sought for in Asia Minor, but no satisfactory
result could be obtained there to support philological theories,
because the Armenians, who are “broad heads”, and their enemies and
neighbours the Kurds, who are “long heads”, are both peoples of Aryan
speech. A scornful scientist has dismissed as a “prehistoric romance”,
the theory that the fair Scandinavian “long heads” are identical
with the brunet “long heads” of India. Both the Celtic (Alpine)
and Indo-Germanic racial theories are as inconclusive as they are
diametrically in opposition.
The science of philology, which, at its inception, “dazzled and
silenced all”, has been proved to be no safe guide in racial matters.
We must avoid, as Professor Ripley says, “the error of confusing
community of language with identity of race. Nationality may often
follow linguistic boundaries, but race bears no necessary relation
whatever to them.”[4]
[4] _The Races of Europe_, W. Z. Ripley, p. 17.
By way of illustration, it may be pointed out in this connection
that English is spoken at the present day by, among others, the Hong
Kong Chinamen, the American Red Indians and negroes, by the natives
of Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, and the Scottish Highlands, besides the
descendants of the ancient Britons, the Jutes, the Angles, the Saxons,
the Norsemen, the Danes, and the Normans in England, but all these
peoples cannot be classified in the racial sense simply as Englishmen.
Similarly, the varied types of humanity who are Aryan in speech cannot
all be regarded as representatives of the “Aryan race”, that is, if we
accept the theory of an “Aryan race”, which Virchow, by the way, has
characterized as “a pure fiction”.
Max Müller, in his closing years, faced this aspect of the problem
frankly and courageously. “Aryas”, he wrote, “are those who speak
Aryan languages, whatever their colour, whatever their blood. In
calling them Aryas we predicate nothing of them except that the grammar
of their language is Aryan.... I have declared again and again that
if I say Aryas, I mean neither blood, nor bones, nor hair, nor skull;
I mean simply those who speak an Aryan language. The same applies to
Hindus, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Celts, and Slavs. When I speak of
these I commit myself to no anatomical characteristics. The blue-eyed
and fair-haired Scandinavians may have been conquerors or conquered,
they may have adopted the language of their darker lords or their
subjects, or vice versa. I assert nothing beyond their language when
I call them Hindus, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Celts, and Slavs, and in
that sense, and in that sense only, do I say that even the blackest
Hindus represent an earlier stage of Aryan speech and thought than the
fairest Scandinavians.... To me an ethnologist who speaks of an Aryan
race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a
linguist who speaks of a dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic
grammar.”[5]
[5] _Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryas_, pp. 120 and 245.
Aryan, however, has been found to be a convenient term, and even
ethnologists do not scorn its use, although it has been applied “in
a confusing variety of signification by different philologists”.
One application of it is to the language group comprising Sanskrit,
Persian, Afghan, &c. Some still prefer it to “Indo-European”, which
has found rivals in “Afro-European”, among those who connect the
Aryan languages with North Africa, and “Afro-Eurasian”, which may be
regarded as universal in its racial application, especially if we
accept Darwin's theory that the Garden of Eden was located somewhere in
Africa.[6] We may think of the Aryans as we do of the British when that
term is used to include the peoples embraced by the British Empire.
[6] _The Descent of Man_, Charles Darwin, chap. vi, p. 155 (1889 ed.),
and _The Ancient Egyptians_, G. Elliot Smith, pp. 63, 64 (1911).
In India the Aryans were from late Vedic times divided into four
castes—Brahmans (priests), Kshatriyas (kings and warriors), Vaisyas
(traders, &c.), and Sudras (aborigines).
Caste (Varna) signifies “colour”, but it is not certain whether the
reference is to be given a physical or mythological application. The
first three castes were Aryans, the fairest people; the fourth caste,
that comprising the dark-skinned aborigines, was non-Aryan. “Arya”,
however, was not always used in the sense that we have been accustomed
to apply “Aryo-Indian”. In one of the sacred books of the ancient
people it is stated: “The colour of the Brahmans was white; that of
the Kshatriyas red; that of the Vaisyas yellow; and that of the Sudras
black”.[7] This colour reference connects “caste” with the doctrine of
yugas, or ages of the universe (Chapter VI).
[7] Muir's _Original Sanskrit Texts_, vol. 1, p. 140.
Risley, dealing with “the leading castes and tribes in Northern India,
from the Bay of Bengal to the frontiers of Afghanistan”, concludes
from the data obtained from census returns, that we are able “to
distinguish two extreme types of feature and physique, which may be
provisionally described as Aryan and Dravidian. A third type, which in
some respects may be looked upon as intermediate between these two,
while in other, and perhaps the most important, points it can hardly
be deemed Indian at all, is found along the northern and eastern
borders of Bengal. The most prominent characters are a relatively short
(brachycephalic) head, a broad face, a short, wide nose, very low in
the bridge, and in extreme cases almost bridgeless; high and projecting
cheekbones and eyelids, peculiarly formed so as to give the impression
that the eyes are obliquely set in the head.... This type ... may be
conveniently described as Mongoloid....”[8]
[8] _The Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, H. H. Risley, vol. 1, xxxi.
According to Risley, the Aryan type is dolichocephalic (long-headed),
“with straight, finely-cut (lepto-rhine) nose, a long, symmetrical
narrow face, a well-developed forehead, regular features, and a high
facial angle”. The stature is “fairly high”, and the body is “well
proportioned, and slender rather than massive”. The complexion is “a
very light transparent brown—‘wheat coloured’ is the common vernacular
description—noticeably fairer than the mass of the population”.
The Dravidian head, the same authority states, “usually inclines to be
dolichocephalic”, but “all other characters present a marked contrast
to the Aryan. The nose is thick and broad, and the formula expressing
its proportionate dimensions is higher than in any known race, except
the Negro. The facial angle is comparatively low; the lips are thick;
the face wide and fleshy; the features coarse and irregular.” The
stature is lower than that of the Aryan type: “the figure is squat and
the limbs sturdy. The colour of the skin varies from very dark brown
to a shade closely approaching black.... Between these extreme types”,
adds Risley, “we find a large number of intermediate groups.”[9]
[9] _ibid._ xxxii-xxxiii.
Of late years ethnologists have inclined to regard the lower types
represented by hill and jungle tribes, the Veddas of Ceylon, &c., as
pre-Dravidians. The brunet and long-headed Dravidians may have entered
India long before the Aryans: they resemble closely the Brahui of
Baluchistan and the Man-tse of China.
India is thus mainly long-headed (dolichocephalic). We have already
seen, however, that in northern and eastern Bengal there are traces of
an infusion of Mongolian “broad heads”; another brachycephalic element
is pronounced in western India, but it is not Mongolian; possibly we
have here evidences of a settlement of Alpine stock. According to
Risley, these western broad heads are the descendants of invading
Scythians,[10] but this theory is not generally accepted.
[10] _The People of India_, H. H. Risley, p. 59.
The Eur-Asian Alpine race of broad heads are a mountain people
distributed from Hindu Kush westward to Brittany. On the land bridge
of Asia Minor they are represented by the Armenians. Their eastern
prehistoric migrations is by some ethnologists believed to be marked
by the Ainus of Japan. They are mostly a grey-eyed folk, with dark
hair and abundant moustache and beard, as contrasted with the Mongols,
whose facial hair is scanty. There are short and long varieties of
Alpine stock, and its representatives are usually sturdy and muscular.
In Europe these broad-headed invaders overlaid a long-headed brunet
population, as the early graves show, but in the process of time the
broad heads have again retreated mainly to their immemorial upland
habitat. At the present day the Alpine race separates the long-headed
fair northern race from what is known as the long-headed dark
Mediterranean race of the south.
A slighter and long-headed brunet type is found south of Hindu Kush.
Ripley has condensed a mass of evidence to show that it is akin to the
Mediterranean race.[11] He refers to it as the “eastern branch”, which
includes Afghans and Hindus. “We are all familiar with the type,” he
says, “especially as it is emphasized by inbreeding and selection
among the Brahmans.... There can be no doubt of their (the Eastern
Mediterraneans) racial affinities with our Berbers, Greeks, Italians,
and Spaniards. They are all members of the same race, at once the
widest in its geographical extension, the most populous and the most
primitive of our three European types.”[12]
[11] _The Races of Europe_, W. Z. Ripley, 450 _et seq_.
[12] _The Races of Europe_, W. Z. Ripley, p. 451.
Professor Elliot Smith supports Professor Ripley in this connection,
and includes the Arabs with the southern Persians in the same group,
but finding the terms “Hamitic” and “Mediterranean” insufficient,
prefers to call this widespread family the “Brown race”, to distinguish
its representatives from the fair Northerners, the “yellow” Mongolians,
and the “black” negroes.
North of the Alpine racial area are found the nomadic Mongolians, who
are also “broad heads”, but with distinguishing facial characteristics
which vary in localities. As we have seen, the Mongoloid features are
traceable in India. Many settlers have migrated from Tibet, but among
the high-caste Indians the Mongoloid eyes and high cheek bones occur in
families, suggesting early crossment.
Another distinctive race has yet to be accounted for—the tall, fair,
blue-eyed, long-headed Northerners, represented by the Scandinavians of
the present day. Sergi and other ethnologists have classed this type as
a variety of the Mediterranean race, which had its area of localization
on the edge of the snow belt on lofty plateaus and in proximity to the
Arctic circle. The theory that the distinctive blondness and great
stature of the Northerners were acquired in isolation and perpetuated
by artificial selection is, however, more suggestive than conclusive,
unless we accept the theory that acquired characteristics can be
inherited. How dark eyes became grey or blue, and dark hair red or
sandy, is a problem yet to be solved.
The ancestors of this fair race are believed to have been originally
distributed along the northern Eur-Asian plateaus; Keane's blonde
long-headed Chudes[13] and the Wu-suns in Chinese Turkestan are classed
as varieties of the ancient Northern stock. An interesting problem
is presented in this connection by the fair types among the ancient
Egyptians, the modern-day Berbers, and the blondes of the Atlas
mountains in Morocco. Sergi is inclined to place the “cradle” of the
Northerners on the edge of the Sahara.
[13] _Man, Past and Present_, A. H. Keane, p. 270.
The broad-headed Turki and Ugrians are usually referred to as a blend
of the Alpine stock and the proto-Northerners, with, in places,
Mongolian admixture.
As most of the early peoples were nomadic, or periodically nomadic,
there must have been in localities a good deal of interracial and
intertribal fusion, with the result that intermediate varieties were
produced. It follows that the intellectual life of the mingling peoples
would be strongly influenced by admixture as well as by contact with
great civilizations.
It now remains for us to deal with the Aryan problem in India. Dr.
Haddon considers that the invading Aryans were “perhaps associated
with Turki tribes” when they settled in the Punjab.[14] Prior to this
racial movement, the Kassites, whose origin is obscure, assisted
by bands of Aryans, overthrew the Hammurabi dynasty in Babylon and
established the Kassite dynasty between 2000 B.C. and 1700 B.C. At
this period the domesticated horse was introduced, and its Babylonian
name, “the ass of the East”, is an indication whence it came. Another
Aryan invasion farther west is marked by the establishment of the
Mitanni kingdom between the area controlled by the Assyrians and the
Hittites. Its kings had names which are clearly Aryan. These included
Saushatar, Artatatama, Sutarna, and Tushratta. The latter was the
correspondent in the Tel-el-Amarna letters of his kinsmen the Egyptian
Pharaohs, Amenhotep the Magnificent, and the famous Akhenaton. The two
royal houses had intermarried after the wars of Thothmes III. It is
impossible to fix the date of the rise of the Mitanni power, which held
sway for a period over Assyria, but we know that it existed in 1500
B.C. The horse was introduced into Egypt before 1580 B.C.
[14] _The Wanderings of Peoples_, A. C. Haddon, p. 21.
It is generally believed that the Aryans were the tamers of the horse
which revolutionized warfare in ancient days, and caused great empires
to be overthrown and new empires to be formed. When the Aryans entered
India they had chariots and swift steeds.
There is no general agreement as to the date of settlement in the
Punjab. Some authorities favour 2000 B.C., others 1700 B.C.; Professor
Macdonell still adheres to 1200 B.C.[15] It is possible that the
infusion was at first a gradual one, and that it was propelled by
successive folk-waves. The period from the earliest migrations until
about 800 or 700 B.C. is usually referred to as the Vedic Age, during
which the Vedas, or more particularly the invocatory hymns to the
deities, were composed and compiled. At the close of this Age the area
of Aryan control had extended eastward as far as the upper reaches of
the Jumna and Ganges rivers. A number of tribal states or communities
are referred to in the hymns.
[15] _Vedic Index of Names and Subjects_ (1912), p. viii.
It is of importance to note that the social and religious organization
of the Vedic Aryans was based upon the principle of “father right”,
as contrasted with the principle of “mother right”, recognized by
representative communities of the Brown race.
Like the Alpine and Mongoloid peoples, the Vedic Aryans were a
patriarchal people, mainly pastoral but with some knowledge of
agriculture. They worshipped gods chiefly: their goddesses were vague
and shadowy: their earth goddess Prithivi was not a Great Mother in the
Egyptian and early European sense; her husband was the sky-god Dyaus.
In Egypt the sky was symbolized as the goddess Nut, and the earth as
the god Seb, but the Libyans had an earth-goddess Neith. The “Queen
of Heaven” was a Babylonian and Assyrian deity. If the Brown race
predominated in the Aryan blend during the Vedic Age, we should have
found the Great Mother more in prominence.
The principal Aryan deities were Indra, god of thunder, and Agni, god
of fire, to whom the greater number of hymns were addressed. From the
earliest times, however, Aryan religion was of complex character. We
can trace at least two sources of cultural influence from the earlier
Iranian period.[16] The hymns bear evidence of the declining splendour
of the sublime deities Varuna and Mitra (Mithra). It is possible that
the conflicts to which references are made in some of the hymns were
not unconnected with racial or tribal religious rivalries.
[16] A convenient term to refer to the unknown area occupied by the
Vedic Aryans before they invaded India.
Indra, as we show (Chapter I), bears resemblances to other “hammer
gods”. He is the Indian Thor, the angry giant-killer, the god of war
and conquests. That his name even did not originate in India is made
evident by an inscription at Boghaz Köi, in Asia Minor, referring to a
peace treaty between the kings of the Hittites and Mitanni. Professor
Hugo Winckler has deciphered from this important survival of antiquity
“In-da-ra” as a Mitanni deity who was associated with Varuna, Mitra,
and Nasatya.
No evidence has yet been forthcoming to indicate any connection between
the Aryans in Mitanni and the early settlers in India. It would appear,
however, that the two migrations represented by the widely separated
areas of Aryan control, radiated from a centre where the gods Indra,
Varuna, and Mitra were grouped in the official religion. The folk-wave
which pressed towards the Punjab gave recognition to Agni, possibly
as a result of contact, or, more probably, fusion with a tribe of
specialized fire-worshippers.
If we separate the Indra from the Agni, cremating worshippers, it will
be of interest to follow the ethnic clue which is thus suggested.
Modern-day Hindus burn their dead in accordance with the religious
practice of the Agni worshippers in the Vedic Age. It is doubtful,
however, if all the Aryan invaders practised cremation. There are
references to burial in the “house of clay”, and Yama, god of the dead,
was adored as the first man who explored the path to the “Land of the
Pitris” (Fathers) which lay across the mountains. Professor Oldenberg
considers that these burials referred to the disposal of the bones and
ashes of the dead.
Professor Macdonell and Dr. Keith, however, do not share Professor
Oldenberg's view in this connection.[17] They hold that the epithet
_Agni-dagdhah_, “burnt with fire”, “applies to the dead who were burned
on the funeral pyre”; the other custom being burial—_An-agni-dagdhah_,
“not burnt with fire”. They also refer to _Paroptah_, “casting out”,
and _Uddhitah_, “Exposure of the dead”, which are expressions of
doubtful meaning. These authorities add: “Burial was clearly not rare
in the Rigvedic period: a whole hymn (x, 18) describes the ritual
attending it. The dead man was buried apparently in full attire, with
his bow in his hand, and probably at one time his wife was immolated
to accompany him.... But in the Vedic period both customs appear in a
modified form: the son takes the bow from the hand of the dead man, and
the widow is led away from her dead husband by his brother or nearest
kinsman. A stone is set up between the dead and the living to separate
them.”
[17] _Vedic Index of Names and Subjects_, A. A. Macdonell and A. B.
Keith, Vol. I, pp. 8, 9 (1912).
The Persian fire-worshippers, on the other hand, did not cremate
their dead, but exposed them on “towers of silence” to be devoured
by vultures, like their modern-day representatives the Parsees, who
migrated into India after displacement by the Mohammedans. In Persia
the sacred fire was called Atar,[18] and was identified with the
supreme deity Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd).
[18] Compared with the Latin _atrium_, “the room that contained the
hearthfire”. Agni is cognate with the Latin _ignis_, cf. Lithuanian,
_ugnis szwenta_, “holy fire”—_Early Religious Poetry of Persia_,
Professor Moulton, pp. 38, 39.
Agni of the Vedic Age is the messenger between gods and men; he
conducts the deities to the sacrifice and the souls of the cremated
dead to Paradise; he is also the twin brother of Indra.
Now, it is of interest to note, in considering the racial significance
of burial rites, that cremation was not practised by the western
representatives of the Brown race. In pre-Dynastic Egypt the dead were
interred as in Babylon,[19] with food vessels, &c. Neolithic man in
Europe also favoured crouched burials, and this practice obtained all
through the Bronze Age.
[19] The theory that certain Babylonian graves show traces of cremation
has been abandoned.—_A History of Sumer and Akkad_, L. W. King, pp.
20, 21 (1910).
The Buriats, who are Mongols dwelling in the vicinity of Lake Baikal,
still perpetuate ancient customs, which resemble those of the Vedic
Aryans, for they not only practise cremation but also sacrifice
the horse (see Chap. V). In his important study of this remarkable
people, Mr. Curtin says:[20] “The Buriats usually burn their dead;
occasionally, however, there is what is called a ‘Russian burial’,
that is, the body is placed in a coffin and the coffin is put in the
ground. But generally if a man dies in the Autumn or the Winter his
body is placed on a sled and drawn by the horse which he valued most to
some secluded place in the forest. There a sort of house is built of
fallen trees and boughs, the body is placed inside the house, and the
building is then surrounded with two or three walls of logs so that no
wolf or other animal can get into it.” The horse is afterwards slain.
“If other persons die during the winter their bodies are carried to the
same house. In this lonely silent place in the forest they rest through
the days and nights until the first cuckoo calls, about the ninth of
May. Then relatives and friends assemble, and without opening the house
burn it to the ground. Persons who die afterwards and during the Summer
months are carried to the forest, placed on a funeral pile, and burned
immediately. The horse is killed just as in the first instance.”
[20] _A Journey in Southern Siberia_, Jeremiah Curtin, p. 101.
When the dead are buried without being burned, the corpse is either
carried on a wagon, or it is placed upright in front of a living man on
horseback so as to ride to its last resting place. The saddle is broken
up and laid at the bottom of the grave, while the body is turned to
face the south-east. In this case they also sacrifice the horse which
is believed to have “gone to his master, ready for use”.
Cremation spread throughout Europe, as we have said, in the Bronze
Age. It was not practised by the early folk-waves of the Alpine race
which, according to Mosso,[21] began to arrive after copper came into
use. The two European Bronze Age burial customs, associated with urns
of the “food vessel” and “drinking cup” types, have no connection with
the practice of burning the dead. The Archæological Ages have not
necessarily an ethnic significance. Ripley is of opinion, however,
that the practice of cremation indicates a definite racial infusion,
but unfortunately it has destroyed the very evidence, of which we are
most in need, to solve the problem. It is impossible to say whether the
cremated dead were “broad heads” or “long heads”.
[21] _The Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization_, A. Mosso, London Trans.,
1910.
“Dr. Sophus Müller of Copenhagen is of opinion that cremation was not
practised long before the year 1000 B.C. though it appeared earlier
in the south of Europe than in the north. On both points Professor
Ridgeway of Cambridge agrees with him.”[22]
[22] British Museum _Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age_, pp.
23, 24.
The migration of the cremating people through Europe was westward and
southward and northward; they even swept through the British Isles as
far north as Orkney. They are usually referred to by archæologists
as “Aryans”; some identify them with the mysterious Celts, whom the
French, however, prefer to associate, as we have said, with the Alpine
“broad heads” especially as this type bulks among the Bretons and the
hillmen of France. We must be careful, however, to distinguish between
the Aryans and Celts of the philologists and archæologists.
It may be that these invaders were not a race in the proper sense,
but a military confederacy which maintained a religious organization
formulated in some unknown area where they existed for a time as a
nation. The Normans who invaded these islands were Scandinavians[23];
they settled in France, intermarried with the French, and found allies
among the Breton chiefs. It is possible that the cremating people
similarly formed military aristocracies when they settled in Hindustan,
Mitanni, and in certain other European areas. “Nothing is commoner in
the history of migratory peoples,” says Professor Myres,[24] “than to
find a very small leaven of energetic intruders ruling and organizing
large native populations, without either learning their subjects'
language or imposing their own till considerably later, if at all.”
The archæological evidence in this connection is of particular value.
At a famous site near Salzburg, in upper Austria, over a thousand
Bronze Age graves were discovered, just over half of which contained
unburnt burials. Both methods of interment were contemporary in this
district, “but it was noticed that the cremated burials were those
of the wealthier class, or of the dominant race.”[25] We find also
that at Hallstatt “the bodies of the wealthier class were reduced to
ashes”.[26] In some districts the older people may have maintained
their supremacy. At Watsch and St. Margaret in Carniola “a similar
blending of the two rites was observed ... the unburnt burials being
the richer and more numerous”.[27] The descent of the Achaens into
Greece occurred at a date earlier than the rise of the great Hallstatt
civilization. According to Homeric evidence they burned their dead;
“though the body of Patroklos was cremated,” however, “the lords of
Mycenae were interred unburnt in richly furnished graves”.[28] In
Britain the cremating people mingled with their predecessors perhaps
more intimately than in other areas where there were large states
to conquer. A characteristic find on Acklam Wold, Yorkshire, may
be referred to. In this grave “a pile of burnt bones was in close
contact with the legs of a skeleton buried in the usual contracted
position, and they seemed to have been deposited while yet hot,
for the knees of the skeleton were completely charred. It has been
suggested in cases like this, or where an unburnt body is surrounded
by a ring of urn burials, the entire skeleton may be those of chiefs
or heads of families, and the burnt bones those of slaves, or even
wives, sacrificed at the funeral. The practice of suttee (sati) in
Europe rests indeed on the authority of Julius Cæsar, who represents
such religious suicides as having, at no remote period from his own,
formed a part of the funeral rites of the Gaulish chiefs; and also
states that the relatives of a deceased chieftain accused his wives
of being accessory to his death, and often tortured them to death on
that account.”[29] If this is the explanation, the cremating invaders
constituted the lower classes in Gaul and Britain, which is doubtful.
The practice of burning erring wives, however, apparently prevailed
among the Mediterranean peoples. In an Egyptian folk-tale a Pharaoh
ordered a faithless wife of a scribe to be burned at the stake.[30]
One of the Ossianic folk tales of Scotland relates that Grainne,
wife of Finn-mac-Coul, who eloped with Diarmid, was similarly dealt
with.[31] The bulk of the archæological evidence seems to point to the
invaders, who are usually referred to as “Aryans” having introduced
the cremation ceremony into Europe. Whence came they? The problem is
greatly complicated by the evidence from Palestine, where cremation
was practised by the hewers of the great artificial caves which were
constructed about 3000 B.C.[32] As cremation did not begin in Crete,
however, until the end of period referred to as “Late Minoan Third”
(1450-1200 B.C.)[33] it may be that the Palestinian burials are much
later than the construction of the caves.
[23] Associated, some authorities urge, with Germans from the mouth of
the Elbe.
[24] _The Dawn of History_, J. L. Myres, p. 199.
[25] British Museum _Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age_, p. 98.
[26] British Museum _Guide to the Antiquities of the Early Iron Age_,
p. 8.
[27] _ibid._ p. 6.
[28] _ibid._ p. 8.
[29] British Museum _Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age_, pp.
16, 17.
[30] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, p. 143.
[31] Campbell's _West Highland Tales_, vol. iii, p. 55.
[32] _A History of Civilization in Palestine_, R. A. S. Macalister.
[33] _The Discoveries in Crete_, Professor R. M. Burrows, p. 100.
Dating according to _Crete the Forerunner of Greece_, C. H. and H. B.
Hawes, p. xiv.
[Illustration: THE CREMATION GHAT, BENARES
1 Photo. Johnson and Hoffmann]
It seems reasonable to suppose that the cremation rite originated among
a nomadic people. The spirits of the dead were got rid of by burning
the body: they departed, like the spirit of Patroklos, after they had
received their “meed of fire”. Burial sites were previously regarded
as sacred because they were haunted by the spirits of ancestors (the
Indian _Pitris_ = “fathers”). A people who burned their dead, and were
therefore not bound by attachment to a tribal holy place haunted by
spirits, were certainly free to wander. The spirits were transferred by
fire to an organized Hades, which appears to have been conceived of by
a people who had already attained to a certain social organization and
were therefore capable of governing the communities which they subdued.
When they mingled with peoples practising other rites and professing
different religious beliefs, however, the process of racial fusion must
have been accompanied by a fusion of beliefs. Ultimately the burial
customs of the subject race might prevail. At any rate, this appears
to have been the case in Britain, where, prior to the Roman Age, the
early people achieved apparently an intellectual conquest of their
conquerors; the practice of the cremation rite entirely vanished.
We have gone far afield to find a clue to assist towards the solution
of the Aryan problem in India. The evidence accumulated is certainly
suggestive, and shows that the conclusions of the early philologists
have been narrow in the extreme. If the long-headed Kurds are, as
Ripley believes, the descendants of the Mitanni raiders, then the
Aryans of history must be included in the Brown race. As, however,
cremation was not practised by the Berbers, the Babylonians, the early
Cretans, or other representatives of the ancient brunet dolichocephalic
peoples, it may be that the custom, which still lingers among the
Mongolian Buriats, was not in the narrow sense of Aryan origin. It may
have been first practised among an unknown tribe of fire-worshippers,
who came under the influence of a great teacher like Zoroaster. We
cannot overlook in this connection the possibility of an individual
origin for a new and revolutionary system of religious doctrines.
Buddhism, for instance, originated with Buddha.
As we have said, the Vedic religion of the Aryans in India was
characterized by the worship of male deities, the goddesses being of
secondary and even slight importance. A religious revolution, however,
occurred during the second or Brahmanical Age—the age of priestly
ascendancy. Fresh invasions had taken place and the Aryans were divided
into tribal groups of Westerners and Easterners, on either side of
a central power in Madhyadesa, the “Middle Country” which extended
between the upper reaches of the Saraswati and the Ganges and the
Jumna rivers. The Westerners included the peoples of the Punjab and
the north-western frontier, and the Easterners the kingdoms of Kasi
(Benares) and Maghadha as well as Kosala and Videha, which figure
prominently in the _Ramáyana_ epic, where the kings are referred to
as being of the “Solar race”. The Middle Kingdom was the centre of
Brahmanical culture and influence: it was controlled by those federated
tribes, the Kuru Panchalas, with whom were fused the Bháratas of
the “Lunar race”. It is believed that the military aristocracy of
the “Middle Country” were late comers who arrived by a new route
and thrust themselves between the groups of early settlers.[34] The
Bharatas worshipped a goddess Bharati who was associated with the
Saraswati river on the banks of which the tribe had for a period been
located. Saraswati became the wife of Brahma, the supreme god, and it
would seem that she had a tribal significance.
[34] _Vedic Index of Names and Subjects._
If the Bharatas of the “Lunar race” worshipped the moon and rivers, it
is possible that they belonged to the Brown race. The folk-religion
of the tribe would be perpetuated by the people even although their
priests became speculative thinkers like the unknown authors of the
_Upanishads_. It is significant to note, therefore, that the goddesses
ultimately came into as great prominence in India as in Egypt. This
change took place during the obscure period prior to the revival of
Brahmanism. In the sixth century before the Christian era Buddhism
had origin, partly as a revolt of the Kshatriya (aristocratic) class
against priestly ascendancy, and the new faith spread eastward where
Brahmanic influence was least pronounced. When the influence of
Buddhism declined, the Pantheon is found to have been revolutionized
and rendered thoroughly Mediterranean in character. The Vedic gods had
in the interval suffered eclipse; they were subject to the greater
personal gods Brahma, with Vishnu and Shiva, each of whom had a goddess
for wife. Brahma, as we have said, had associated with him the river
deity Saraswati of the Bharatas; the earth goddess, Lakshmi, was the
wife of Vishnu; she rose, however, from the Ocean of Milk. But the most
distinctive and even most primitive goddesses were linked with Shiva,
the Destroyer. The goddess Durga rivalled Indra as a deity of war.
Kali, another form of Durga, was as vengeful and bloodthirsty as the
Scottish Cailleach, or the Egyptian Hathor, who, as the earlier Sekhet,
rejoiced in accomplishing the slaughter of the enemies of Ra.[35] Kali,
as we shall see (Chapter VIII) replaced the Vedic king of the gods as
a successful demon slayer. As the Egyptian Ra went forth to restrain
Hathor, so did Shiva hasten to the battlefield, flooded by gore, to
prevail upon his spouse Kali to spare the remnant of her enemies.
[35] See _Egyptian Myth and Legend_.
[Illustration: KALI
_From a bronze in the Calcutta Art Gallery_
2]
The rise of the goddesses may have been due in part to the influence
of Dravidian folk-religion. This does not, however, vitiate the theory
that moon, water, and earth worship was not unconnected with the
ascendancy of the Brown race in India. The Dravidian brunet long heads
were, as we have said, probably represented in the pre-Aryan, as well
as the post-Vedic folk-waves, which mingled with pre-Dravidian stocks.
Mr. Crooke inclines to the view that the Aryan conquest was more moral
and intellectual than racial.[36] The decline of the patriarchal
religion of the Vedic military aristocracy may thus be accounted
for; the religious practices of the earlier people might ultimately
have attained prominence in fusion with imported ideas. If the Aryan
racial type was distinctive, as it appears to have been, in colour at
any rate, the predominant people who flourished when the hymns were
composed, may have greatly declined in numbers owing to the ravages
of disease which in every new country eliminates the unfit in the
process of time. Even if Aryan conquest was more racial in character
than Mr. Crooke will allow, the physical phenomena of the present day
can be accounted for in this way, due allowance being made, of course,
for the crossment of types. In all countries which have sustained
the shock of invasion, the tendency to revert to the aboriginal type
is very marked. At any rate, this is the case in Egypt and Crete as
present-day evidence shows. In Great Britain, which was invaded by the
broad heads of the Bronze Age, the long-headed type is once again in
the majority; a not inconsiderable proportion of our people show Stone
Age (Mediterranean) physical characteristics.
[36] _The North-Western Provinces of India_, 1897, p. 60.
In this connection it is of interest to refer to immemorial beliefs and
customs which survive in representative districts in Britain and India
where what may be called pre-Aryan influences are most pronounced. A
people may change their weapons and their language time and again, and
yet retain ancient modes of thought. In Devon, which the philologists
claim to be largely Celtic like Cornwall, the folk-lore shows marked
affinities with that of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, suggesting the
survival of ancient Mediterranean racial influence, for much of what
we call Celtic links with what belongs to ancient Greece and the
Egyptian Delta. Mr. Gomme has shown[37] in an interesting summary
of recorded folk-practices that the “ram feast” of Devon resembles
closely in essential details similar ceremonies in ancient Greece and
modern India. At the beginning of May the people of Devon were wont
to sacrifice a ram lamb to the deity of waters. The animal was tied
to a pillar, its throat was cut, and young men scrambled to obtain
pieces of its flesh for girls. The devourer was assured of good luck
during the year. After the ceremony, dancing, wrestling, and drinking
were indulged in. A comparison is drawn between this and similar rites
among the ancient Semites and ancient Greeks. In India a Dravidian
Paria acts as the temporary village priest. He uses a whip like the
“gad whip” in Lincolnshire, and kills the lamb by tearing its throat
with his teeth. A scramble takes place for the flesh, the people
circulate the village, as some communities in our own country still
perpetuate the ceremony of “riding the marches” of ancient burghs;
then universal licence prevails. Similarly law was suspended at the
ancient Scottish Hallowe'en celebrations; in some districts even in our
own day Hallowe'en and New Year practical jokes and rowdyism is still
prevalent. Herodotus refers to the universal licence and debauchery
which characterized the Isis festival in Egypt.
[37] _Ethnology in Folklore_, George Laurence Gomme, p. 34 _et seq_.
A remarkable feature of post-Vedic religion in ancient India is the
prominence given to the doctrine of metempsychosis (transmigration of
souls) and the conception of the yugas or ages of the universe.
In the _Rigveda_ the soul of the dead proceeds at once, or at any
rate after burial, towards the next world. In one passage only is
it spoken of “as departing to the waters or the plants”, and this
reference, Professor Macdonell suggests,[38] “may contain the germs
of the theory” of transmigration. In the speculative prose treatises,
the _Upanishads_, which were composed in the Middle Country, the
doctrine of metempsychosis is fully expounded. It does not follow,
however, that it originated in India although it may have obtained
there unrecognized by the priestly poets who composed the hymns to
the deities, long before it became an essential tenet of orthodox or
official religion. Other representative communities of the Brown race
professed this doctrine which appears to have evolved from the vague
belief shared by more than one primitive race, that the souls of the
dead, and especially of dead children, were ever on the outlook for
suitable mothers. Even in Central Australia a particular tribe has
perpetuated “the germs of the theory”, which may also be traced in the
widespread custom of visiting standing stones at a certain phase of
the moon to perform a ceremony so that offspring may be obtained. The
Upanishadic doctrine of metempsychosis is less likely to have been
so much coincidental as racial when we find that it is restricted to
those areas where definite racial influences must have been at work.
The Greeks believed in transmigration. So did also a section of the
Egyptian people as Herodotus has stated and as is proved by references
in folk-tales, temple chants and inscriptions.[39] As we show (Chapter
VI), the Irish conception closely resembled the Indian, and it also
obtained among the Gauls. There is no trace, however, that the
Teutonic peoples were acquainted with the fully developed doctrine of
metempsychosis; the souls of the dead departed immediately to Valhal,
Hela, or the loathsome Nifelhel.
[38] _A History of Sanskrit Literature_, p. 115.
[39] See _Egyptian Myth and Legend_.
The doctrine of the world's ages is common to the Indian, Greek, and
Irish mythologies, but is not found in Teutonic mythology either.[40]
There are indications that it may have at one time obtained in Egypt,
for there was an Age of Ra, then a deluge, an Age of Osiris, an Age of
Set, &c.; but the doctrine, like other conceptions in Egypt, probably
suffered from the process of priestly transformation in the interests
of sectarian propaganda.
[40] The “Golden Age” of the gods, and the regeneration of the world
after Ragnarok, do not refer to the doctrine of the world's ages as
found in other mythologies.
In India the ages are called the yugas, and this term has a totally
different meaning in Vedic and Upanishadic times. Evidently the Bharata
invasion and the establishment of the middle country power of their
allies, the Kuru-Panchalas, was not unconnected with the introduction
of the doctrines of metempsychosis and the yugas, and the prominence
subsequently given to the worship of female deities.
If this theory can be established, we are confronted by an extremely
interesting problem. It would appear that the mythology of the Vedic
period bears a close resemblance to Teutonic, while that of the
post-Vedic period connects more intimately with Greek, Celtic, and
Egyptian. Assuming that the Vedic people were influenced by what we
recognize as Teutonic modes of thought, do we find here proof that
the Aryans came from Europe? In Chapter II it is shown that the Norse
Heimdal displays points of resemblance to Agni. The former, however,
has been developed almost beyond recognition as a fire god, and it is
evident that we find him in northern Europe in his latest and most
picturesque form. On the other hand, there is no dubiety about the
origin of the Vedic Agni.
The evidence afforded by archæology is highly suggestive in this
connection. Scandinavia received its culture from the south at a
comparatively late period in the Bronze Age, and it certainly exercised
no intellectual influence in Europe in earlier times. Bronze is, of
course, of less ethnic significance than beliefs, but it is difficult
to believe, at the same time, that an isolated and poorly armed
people could have imposed its intellectual culture over a wide area
without having received anything in return. It is more probable that
the northern Germanic peoples were subjected to the same influences
which are traceable in their mythology and in the Vedic hymns, from
a common source, and there may be more than mere mythology in the
persistent tradition that the ancestors of the Teutons immigrated from
Asia led by Odin. We need not assume that the movement was so much a
racial as a cultural one, which emanated from a particular area where
religious conceptions were influenced by particular habits of life
and “immemorial modes of thought”. Among the settled and agricultural
peoples of the Brown race, the development of religious ideas followed
different lines, and were similarly controlled by early ideas which
sprang from different habits and experiences.
In the opening chapters we present various phases of Aryan life and
religion in India, beginning with the worship of Indra, and concluding
with the early stages of modern Hinduism. From the ancient tribal
struggles of the Middle Country accumulated the hero songs which
received epic treatment in the _Mahábhárata_, while the traditions of
the “Easterners” were enshrined in the _Rámáyana_. Although neither
of these great works can be regarded as historical narratives, they
contain a mass of historical matter which throws much light on the
habits and customs and beliefs of the early peoples.
These epics were utilized by Brahmanical compilers for purposes of
religious propaganda, and survive to us mainly as sacred books. In
our pages we have given prominence to the heroic narrative which
remains embedded in the mass of doctrinal treatises and mythological
interpolations. The miraculous element is somewhat toned down in the
accounts of conflicts, and the more dramatic phases of the heroic
stories are presented in as full detail as space permits, so as to
afford our readers glimpses of ancient life in northern India at a
time when Vedic religion still held sway. This applies especially to
the _Mahábhárata_, the kernel of which, no doubt, contains the hero
songs of the Bharata and other tribes. The mythical conflicts of the
_Rámáyana_ appeal less to western minds than its purely human episodes.
We cannot help being impressed by the chivalrous character of the
leading heroes, the high sense of honour displayed by the princes,
and the obedience shown by sons to their parents. We may weary of
Rama's conflicts with giants and demons, but will long remember him
as the child who pronounced his name as “'Ama” and cried for the moon,
or sat on his father's knee at meetings of the State Council. Our
interest will also abide with him as a lover and a faithful husband
who suffered wrong. His brothers are noble and heroic characters,
worthy of Shakespeare. But even the Bard of Avon never depicted more
wonderful and fascinating women than the heroines of the _Mahábhárata_
and _Rámáyana_. Our gallery includes, among others, the noble and
self-sacrificing Savitri, who rescued her husband from the clutches of
death by exercise of her strong love and devotion; the faithful and
virtuous Sita, and the sorrowful and constant Damayantí, and beautiful
Shakuntalá. In western literature romance usually ends with marriage;
in India the devotion of wives is of more account than the yearnings of
love-smitten Juliets on moonlight nights.
Another aspect of Sanskrit literature is the feeling of the poets for
Nature. These voluminous writers revelled in the luxuriant loveliness
and splendour of Indian forests, and the charms of gleaming valleys
and serene, snow-capped mountains; even the gods loved to hear the hum
of insects and the songs of melodious birds, and, like mortals, to
gather flowers of sweet scents and brilliant colours. Hundreds of songs
were sung in praise of the lotus blooms that gemmed the clear waters
of lakes and ponds, and Paradise was pictured as a jungle of beauty,
fanned by soft winds, radiant with blossoms, and ever vocal with music
and song. To illustrate this phase of India's classic literature, we
reproduce at length the representative story of Nala with much of its
poetic details.
The civilization revealed by the narrative poems was of no mean
order. The ancient Aryans were chivalrous knights. No such barbaric
incident occurs in the _Mahábhárata_ battles as when in the _Iliad_ the
victorious Achilles drags behind his chariot the body of the slain
Hector. When Arjuna, the Indian Achilles, slays Karna, the Indian
Hector, he honours his fallen foe and performs those rites at the
funeral pyre which assures the dead hero immortal bliss in Paradise.
When, again, Arjuna mortally wounds Bhishma, he procures water to
quench the thirst of his dying opponent. Even the villains are not
without their redeeming qualities. Duryodhana of the _Mahábhárata_,
who consents to the slaughter of his sleeping rivals, dies with grief
because the innocent children of his enemies were slain. Rávana, the
demon king of Ceylon, touches us in the _Rámáyana_ by his grief for his
son, who was slain fighting against Laksmana, brother of Rama.
To appreciate fully the sacred and romantic literature of India, we
should follow the advice of Robert Louis Stevenson. “To learn aright
from any teacher,” he wrote, “we must first of all, like a historical
artist, think ourselves into sympathy with his position.” And if in
endeavouring to understand the religious conceptions of the ancient
forest sages, we, at times, find ourselves in difficulties, it may be
that “if a saying is hard to understand, it is because we are thinking
of something else”—we are looking on India with European eyes and
with European prejudices. “There is always”, said Stevenson, “a ruling
spirit behind the code of rules, an attitude, a relation, a point of
the compass, in virtue of which we conform or dissent.”[41]
[41] _Lay Morals._
We are confident that our readers who peruse with sympathy and, we
hope, with enjoyment, the chapters which follow, will feel themselves
drawn closer than hitherto to the millions of our fellow subjects
in the great dependency of the British Empire, by whom Rama and
Yudhishthira are regarded as ideal types of strong manhood, and Savitri
and Sita as perfect women and exemplary lovers and wives.
[Illustration: A VYASA, OR PUBLIC READER, RECITING THE MAHABHARATA
3]
INDIAN MYTH AND LEGEND
CHAPTER I
Indra, King of the Gods
Types of Hammer Gods—The Aryan Indra—Chinese World Shaper—Scottish
Hunting Deity—Egyptian Artisan God—Greek and Roman Thunder
Gods—Thor—Hittite, Assyrian, and other types—A Wail from
Palestine—Babylonian Influence—Indra's Indian Character—A Nature
Myth—Drought Demon slain—Gods and Demons in conflict—Origin of
Indra's Thunderbolt—Demons' plot to destroy Universe—Babylonian
Creation Myth—How Indra Shaped the World—Elfin Artisans in
India, Egypt, and Germania—Babylonian Artisan God—Indra the
Harvest God—The God of Battle—Comparison with Thor—Aryan Cattle
Lifters—Indra's Queen and Attendants.
The ancient Eur-Asian “hammer god”, bearing the tribal name of Indra,
accompanied the earliest invading bands of hunting and pastoral
Aryans, who hailed with joy the “fresh woods and pastures new” of the
Punjab, the green country of “Five Rivers”. This deity of wanderers
and invaders was already of great antiquity and wide distribution;
his attributes were in accord with the habits and ideals of his
worshippers; they multiplied with the discoveries of man and were ever
influenced by the conditions prevailing in new areas of localization.
He was the Thunderer who brought rain to quicken dried-up pasture
lands; he was the god of fertility, and he became the corn spirit;
he was “the friend of man”; he was the artisan of the Universe which
he shaped with his hammer, the dragon slayer, the giant killer, the
slaughterer of enemies, the god of war. His racial significance must
ever remain obscure. We cannot identify his original home, or even
fix with certainty the archæological period in which he first took
definite shape. It is possible that he may have been invoked and
propitiated by Neolithic, or even by Palæolithic, flint knappers who
struck fire from stone long ere they suspected the existence of metal;
the primitive hunting and pastoral wanderers may have conceived of a
thunder deity engaged in splintering the hills with his stone hammer,
and fighting demons in the rude manner in which they themselves
contended against beasts of prey. Memories of the Stone Age cling to
the hammer god. Indra's bolt was “the all-dreaded thunderstone” of
Shakespeare's lyric; until recently Palæolithic and Neolithic artifacts
were reputed to be “elf bolts” and “thunder bolts” which fell from the
sky; in Scandinavian folklore “the flint hills” are the fragments of
the weapon wielded by the thunder giant Hrungner. The bolt or hammer
ultimately became an axe; and according to the modern Greeks, lightning
flashes are caused by the blows of the “sky axe” (astropeléki);
Scottish Gaelic retains an immemorial reference to the “thunder ball”
(peleir-tarnainaich).
The hammer god's close association with hilly countries suggests that
he was first worshipped on the steppes and then distributed by the
nomads whose migrations were propelled by changing climatic conditions.
He is found as far east as China, where, as P'an Ku, the dwarfish
“first man”, he smites primeval rocks with his thunder hammer while
engaged in the work of shaping the hills; he is found as far west
as Scotland, where, as the hunting giant Finn-mac-Coul, “in height
sixty feet”, he strikes with his hammer, “Ord na Feinne”, such mighty
blows on his shield that he is heard by his followers in Lochlann
(Scandinavia). From ancient Egypt come distant echoes of the world
artisan Ptah, now a dwarf and anon a giant, who hammers out the copper
sky, suggesting the presence in Memphis of early Asian settlers at
the very dawn of history. In southern Europe the deity is Zeus-pater
(Jupiter), the sublime wielder of the thunderbolt; in northern Europe
he is lusty Thor, hurling Mjolner through the air against Jotuns, or
cleaving valleys with it in the mountain range which he mistook for
the giant Skrymer. We find the hammer god as Tarku among the Hittites;
he is Indra in Mitanni as in the Punjab; he is Rammon, or Adad, who
is carried aloft in triumph by the soldiers of Assur-banipal, the
Assyrian Emperor; he is remembered in Palestine by the wail of Naaman,
who cried: “When my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship
there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of
Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon
thy servant in this thing....”[42] The thunder god is also known in
Babylon, which received many of its settlers from the hills of Elam
and where Kassites, associated with Aryans, established a dynasty
after successful invasion, prior to the discovery of the Punjab. The
authorities are agreed that Aryan culture shows traces of Babylonian
influence; it does not follow, however, that Indra is of Babylonian
origin.
[42] _2 Kings_, v, 18.
But although his name, which has been deciphered as “In-da-ra” at
Boghaz-Köi in Asia Minor, may belong to the early Iranian period, the
Vedic “King of the gods” assumed a distinctly Indian character after
localization in the land of the “Five Rivers”; he ultimately stepped
from his chariot, drawn by the steeds of the Aryan horse tamers, and
mounted an elephant; his Heaven, called Swarga, which is situated on
the summit of Mount Meru, eclipses Olympus and Valhal by reason of its
dazzling Oriental splendour; his combats are reflections of the natural
phenomena of Hindustan.
When the hot Indian summer draws to a close, the whole land is parched
and athirst for rain; rivers are low and many hill streams have dried
up; man and beast are weary and await release in the breathless
enervating atmosphere; they are even threatened by famine. Then dense
masses of cloud gather in the sky; the tempest bellows, lightnings
flash and thunder peals angrily and loud; rain descends in a deluge;
once again torrents pour down from the hills and rivers become swollen
and turgid. Indra has waged his battle with the Drought Demons, broken
down their fortress walls, and released the imprisoned cow-clouds which
give nourishment to his human “friends”; the withered pastures become
green with generous and rapid growth, and the rice harvest follows.
According to Vedic myth, Indra achieved his first great victory
immediately after birth. Vritra, “the encompasser”, the Demon of
Drought, was holding captive in his mountain fortress the cloud-cattle
which he had harried in the approved manner of the Aryan raiders.[43]
Mankind entreated the aid of the gods, “the shining ones, the world
guardians”:
[43] One of the sections of the epic _Mahabharata_ is called
“Go-Harran”, which signifies “cattle harrying”.
Who will take pity? Who will bring refreshment?
Who will come nigh to help us in distress?
Counsels the thoughts within our hearts are counselling,
Wishes are wished and soar towards the highest—
O none but them, the shining ones, are merciful,
My longing wings itself towards the Eternals.
[Illustration: INDRA
_From the Indra Temple, Ellora_
4]
Indra arose heroically to do battle for the sacrificers. Impulsively he
seized the nectar of the gods, called Soma, and drank a deep draught
of that intoxicating juice. Then he snatched up his thunderstone which
had been fashioned by the divine artisan Twashtri, who resembles the
Germanic Mimer, the “wonder smith”. His “favourite bays”, named the
Bold and the Brown, were yoked in his golden chariot by his attendants
and followers, the youthful Maruts.
Now, at the very beginning, Indra, the golden child, became the king of
the three worlds. He it was who gave the air of life; he gave strength
also. All the shining gods revered him and obeyed his commands. “His
shadow is immortality; his shadow is death.”
The Maruts, the sons of red Rudra, were the spirits of tempest and
thunder. To each of their chariots were yoked two spotted deer and one
swift-footed, never-wearying red deer as leader. They were stalwart and
courageous youths, “full of terrible designs like to giants”; on their
heads were golden helmets and they had golden breastplates, and wore
bright skins on their shoulders; their ankles and arms were decked with
golden bracelets. The Maruts were always strongly armed with bows and
arrows and axes, and especially with gleaming spears. All beings feared
those “cloud shakers” when they hastened forth with their lightning
spears which “shattered cattle like the thunderstone”; they were wont
to cleave cloud-rocks and drench the earth with quickening showers.
When Indra drove forth to attack the Drought Demon, the “hastening
Maruts” followed him, shouting with loud voices: in “a shower” were
the Maruts “let loose”; they dashed towards the imprisoned cows of the
clouds and “chased them aloft”.
The dragon Vritra roared when Indra drew nigh; whereat heaven shook and
the gods retreated. Mother Earth, the goddess Prithivi (prit´hi-vee),
was troubled regarding her golden son. But Indra advanced boldly with
the roaring Maruts; he was inspired by the hymns of the priests; he had
drunken deeply of Soma; he was strengthened by the sacrifices offered
on earth's altars; and he wielded the thunderstone.
The Drought Demon deemed itself invulnerable, but Indra cast his weapon
and soon discovered the vulnerable parts of its writhing body. He slew
the monster; it lay prone before him; the torrents burst forth and
carried it away to the sea of eternal darkness. Then Indra rejoiced and
cried out:
I have slain Vritra, O ye hast'ning Maruts;
I have grown mighty through my own great vigour;
I am the hurler of the bolt of Thunder—
For man flow freely now the gleaming waters.
On earth the worshippers of the god were made glad; the Rishi hymned
his praises:
I will extol the manly deeds of Indra:
The first was when the Thunder stone he wielded
And smote the Dragon; he released the waters,
He oped the channels of the breasted mountains.
He smote the dragon Vritra in its fortress—
Twashtri had shaped for him the thunder weapon—
Then rushing freely like to bellowing cattle
The gladsome waters to the sea descended.
Bull-spirited did Indra choose the Soma,
He drank its juices from the triple ladles;
Then clutched the Bounteous One his thunder weapon,
And fiercely smote the first-born of the Dragons.
The smitten monster fell amidst the torrents,
That pause nor stay, for ever surging onward;
Then Vritra covered by the joyful billows
Was carried to the darksome deeps of Ocean.
—_Rigveda_, i. 32.
A post-Vedic version of the encounter between Indra and the demon
Vritra is given in the “Vana Parva” section of _Mahābhārata_. Although
it is coloured by the change which, in the process of time, passed
over the religious beliefs of the Aryans, it retains some features of
the original myth which are absent in the Vedic hymns. It should be
understood that, at the period referred to, the belief obtained that
the gods derived their powers from the saintly Rishis,[44] who fed them
with sacrifices and underwent terrible penances, which enabled them to
support or destroy the Universe at will.
[44] The deified poets and sages. See Chapter VIII.
It is related that in the Krita Age (the first Age of the Universe) a
host of Dānāvas (giants and demons) were so strongly armed that they
were invincible in battle. They selected the dragon Vritra as their
leader, and waged war against the gods, whom they scattered in all
directions.
Realizing that they could not regain their power until they
accomplished the death of Vritra, the Celestials appeared before their
Grandsire, the Supreme Being, Brahma, the incarnation of the Soul of
the Universe. Brahma instructed them to obtain the bones of a Rishi
named Dadhicha, from which to construct a demon-slaying weapon. So the
gods visited the Rishi and bowed down before him, and begged the boon
according to Brahma's advice.
Said Dadhicha: “O ye gods, I will renounce my body for your benefit.”
Then the Rishi gave up his life, and from his bones the artisan god,
Twashtri, shaped Indra's great weapon, which is called Vajra.[45]
[45] Adolf Kaegi says: “Also Vadha or Vadhar”, which he compares
with German, _Wetter_; O.H. German, _Wetar_: Anglo-Saxon, _Weder_;
English, _Weather_. The original word signifying the sudden change
in atmospheric conditions caused by the thunderstorm was ultimately
applied to all states of the air.
Twashtri spake to Indra and said: “With this, the best of weapons, O
exalted one, reduce that fierce foe of the gods to ashes! And, having
slain the foe, rule thou happily the entire domain of heaven, O chief
of the celestials, with those that follow thee.”[46]
[46] Roy's translation of _Mahabharata_.
Then Indra led the gods against the mighty host. They found that Vritra
was surrounded by dreaded Danavas, who resembled mountain peaks. A
terrible conflict was waged, but once again the gods were put to
flight. Then Indra saw Vritra growing bolder, and he became dejected.
But the Supreme Being protected him and the gods endowed him with their
strength, so that he became mightier than before. Thereupon Vritra was
enraged, and roared loudly and fiercely, so that the heavens shook and
the earth trembled with fear. Deeply agitated, Indra flung his divine
weapon, which slew the leader of the Danavas. But Indra, thinking the
demon was still alive, fled from the field in terror to seek shelter
in a lake. The Celestials, however, perceived that Vritra had been
slain, and they rejoiced greatly and shouted the praises of Indra.
Then, rallying once more, the gods attacked the panic-stricken Danavas,
who turned and fled to the depths of ocean. There in the fathomless
darkness they assembled together, and began to plot how they would
accomplish the destruction of the three worlds.[47]
At length the dread conspirators resolved to destroy all the Rishis who
were possessed of knowledge and ascetic virtue, because the world was
supported by them. So they made the ocean their abode, raising billows
high as hills for their protection, and they began to issue forth from
their fortress to make attacks on the mighty saints.
In the Babylonian Story of Creation the female dragon Tiawath (Tiamat),
whose name signifies “the sea”,[47] desired to possess the world, and
plotted against the gods with her horde of giant serpents, “raging
dogs, scorpion men, fish men, and other terrible beings”. The gods
then selected Belus (Bel-Merodach) as their leader, and proclaimed him
their king. He slew Tiawath and covered the heavens with one part of
her body, and fashioned the earth with the other half. Then he set the
moon and the stars in the sky, and afterwards created man: “he divided
the darkness, separated the heavens from the earth, and reduced the
universe to order”.[48] The sun was the offspring of the moon.
[47] Like the giants and demons of Teutonic mythology, who fought with
the gods in the Last Battle.
[48] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, by T. G. Pinches, LL.D.
The Indian Vedic and Epic dragon-slaying stories have evidently no
connection, however, with a lost Creation myth. It is possible that
they are part of the floating material from which Babylonian mythology
was framed. At the same time Babylonian influences may not have been
absent in the post-Vedic Age. Indra bears points of resemblance to
Bel-Merodach, but he is not a Creator in the sublime sense; he is
rather an artisan god like the Chinese P'an Ku, the lonely hammerman,
and the Egyptian Ptah, who acquired a potter's wheel, in addition to
his hammer, in the Nile valley.
Indra fashioned the universe in the simple manner that the early
Aryans built their wooden houses.[49] How he obtained the requisite
material puzzled the Vedic poets. It may be that there was a World
Tree, however, like the great ash Ygdrasil of Teutonic mythology.
After measuring space with the sun, Indra set up four corner posts and
constructed the world walls; the roof was the cloud-thatched sky. The
wide doors of the world opened to the east, and every morning they
were opened to admit the sun, which Indra flung at evening into the
darkness as a Neolithic man may have flung out a house torch. These
doors are the “gates”, celebrated in the Vedic hymns, through which the
gods entered to partake of the sacrifices and libations. Indra, who
is called “an accomplished artisan”, is lauded as the god who “firmly
secured the dominion of air in the frame of heaven and earth”. In
another hymn it is told: “Indra measured six broad spaces, from which
no existing thing is excluded: he it is who made the wide expanse of
earth and the lofty dome of the sky, even he”. (V. i, 47·3, 4.)
[49] _Cosmology of Rigveda_, Wallis.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A TEMPLE TO VISHNU (BRINDABAN)
5]
In the work of shaping the universe Indra is assisted by the shadowy
deities Savitri, who merged with Surya, the sun god, Brihaspati, “Lord
of Prayer”, who merged with Agni, god of fire, and Vishnu, god of
grace. He was also aided by the Ribhus, the artisans of the gods, who
dwelt in the region of mid-air. Their number is given variously as
three or the multiples of three; they were the sons of Sudhanvan, who
was apparently identical with Indra, because “Indra is a Ribhu when he
confers gifts”; indeed, the artisans are referred to as the children
of the Thunder god. They make grass and herbs, and also channels for
streams. In some respects they resemble the earth-gnomes, the Khnumu,
“the modellers”, the helpers of the Egyptian artisan god Ptah, who
shaped the world. “Countless little figures of these gods are found in
Egyptian tombs; for even as once the Khnumu had helped in the making
of the world, so would they help to reconstruct in all its members the
body of the dead man in whose tomb they were laid.”[50] The Ribhus
similarly renovated aged and decrepit parents; “they reunited the old
cow to the calf”; they are also credited with having shaped the heavens
and the earth,[51] and with having fashioned the “cow of plenty”, and
also a man named Vibhvan.[52]
[50] _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, Professor A. Wiedemann, p.
137.
[51] _Rigveda_, iv, 34. 9.
[52] _Cosmology of Rigveda_, Wallis.
According to the _Oxford Dictionary_, they are “the three genii of the
seasons in Hindu mythology”. The Sanskrit word “Ribhu” is sometimes
compared with the Germanic word “Elf”. Professor Macdonell considers
it “likely that the Ribhus were originally terrestrial or aerial
elves”.[53] They are evidently of common origin with the Teutonic elfin
artisans who are associated with Thor, the Germanic Indra.
[53] _A History of Sanskrit Literature_, pp. 106, 107.
The mother of the Ribhus was Saranyu, daughter of Twashtri, “the Hindu
Vulcan”, the “master workman”. Twashtri forms the organism in maternal
wombs and supports the races of man.[54] As we have seen, he was the
fashioner of Indra's thunderbolt: similarly the Teutonic elfin artisan
Sindre makes Thor's hammer.[55]
[54] _Rigveda_, ii, 53; iii, 55.
[55] _Teutonic Myth and Legend_, pp. 35-9.
The two groups of Teutonic wonder-smiths were rivals; so were the
Ribhus and Twashtri. The elfin artisans prove their skill in both
cases by producing wonderful gifts for the gods. Loke acts as a
mischief-making spy in Germanic myth, and Dadyak in Indian, and both
lose their heads for wagers, but save them by cunning.
The Ribhus had provided the Celestials with horses and chariots, but
Twashtri fashioned a wonderful bowl which filled itself with Soma
for the gods. In the contest that ensued the Ribhus transformed the
bowl into four cups. “This bowl”, says Professor Macdonell, “perhaps
represents the moon, the four cups being its phases.” One of the Ribhus
was a famous archer, like the elfin artisan Egil of Teutonic mythology.
The artisan of Babylonian mythology is Ea, father of Bel-Merodach. He
is “King of the abyss, creator of everything, lord of all”. He was the
god of artisans in general, and is identified with the sea-deity of
the Persian Gulf—half-fish, half-man—who landed “during the day to
teach the inhabitants the building of houses and temples, the gathering
of fruits, and also geometry, law and letters”. His pupils included
“potters, blacksmiths, sailors, stonecutters, gardeners, farmers,
&c.”[56]
[56] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, T. G. Pinches, LL.D.
The Ribhus and Twashtri were the artisans of nature, the spirits of
growth, the genii of the seasons, the elves of earth and air. Indra's
close association with them emphasizes his character as a god of
fertility, who brought the quickening rain, and as the corn god, and
the rice god. He was the son of Father Heaven and Mother Earth, two
vague deities who were never completely individualized, but were never
forgotten. Heaven was the sky-god Dyaus-pita (from div = to shine), the
Zeus pater of the Greeks, Jupiter of the Romans, and Tivi[57] (later,
Odin) of the Germanic peoples, whose wife was the earth-goddess Jord,
mother of Thor. The Hindu earth-mother (Terra mater) was Prithivi.
Dyaus is sometimes referred to as a ruddy bull, whose bellowing is
the thunder; as the Night heaven he is depicted as a black steed
decked with pearls which are the stars; in one of the Vedic hymns
reference is made to his “thunderstone”. Prithivi, who is sometimes
symbolized as a cow, is the source of all vegetation, the supporter
of earth, the female principle. She never assumes the importance of
the Assyrian Ishtar, or the north Egyptian “earth-mother” Neith, or
the “earth-mothers” of Europe. The Vedic Aryans were Great Father
worshippers rather than Great Mother worshippers: their female deities
were Night, Dawn, Earth, and the Rivers, but they were not sharply
individualized until late; they are vague in the Vedas.
[57] An old Germanic name of Odin related to Divus. Odin's descendants
were the “Tivar”. (Pronounce _Dyaus_ as one syllable rhiming with
_mouse_.)
As the Greek Cronus (Roman Saturn) slew his father Urănus (Heaven), so
did Indra slay his father Dyaus (Heaven). His earth-mother addresses
him, saying: “Who has made thy mother a widow? Who has sought to slay
the sleeping and the waking? What deity has been more gracious than
thou, since thou hast slain thy father, having seized him by the
foot?”[58]
[58] _Rigveda_, iv, 18. Wilson, vol. iii, p. 153.
The Indian father-slaying myth appears to be connected with the
doctrine of reincarnation. In the _Laws of Manu_ it is stated that
“the husband, after conception by his wife, becomes an embryo and is
born again of her; for that is the wifehood of a wife, that he is born
again by her”.[59] In the famous story of Shakuntălā, the husband
is similarly referred to as the son of his wife, the son being a
reincarnation of the father.[60] This belief resembles the Egyptian
conception which is summed up in the phrase “husband of his mother”.[61]
[59] _The Laws of Manu_, ix, 8; p. 329. (_Sacred Books of the East_,
vol. xxv.)
[60] _Adi Parva_, sect. lxxiv of _Mahabharata_, Roy's translation.
[61] See _Egyptian Myth and Legend_.
At the barley harvest in spring and the rice harvest in autumn
offerings were made to the gods. A sacrificial cake of the new barley
or rice was offered to Indra and Agni, a mess of old grain boiled and
mixed with milk and water was given to the other gods, and a cake was
also offered to Father Heaven and Mother Earth in which clarified
butter was an important ingredient; or the offering might consist
entirely of butter, because “clarified butter is manifestly the sap of
these two, Heaven and Earth; ... he (the offerer) therefore gladdens
these two with their own sap or essence”.
The reason for this harvest offering is explained as follows: The gods
and the demons contended for supremacy. It chanced that the demons
defiled, partly by magic and partly by poison, the plants used by men
and beasts, hoping thus to overcome the gods. Men ceased to eat and the
beasts stopped grazing; all creatures were about to perish because of
the famine.
Said the gods: “Let us rid the plants of this.”
Then they offered sacrifices and “accomplished all that they wanted to
accomplish, and so did the Rishis”.
A dispute then arose among the gods as to who should partake of the
offerings of the firstfruits—that is, of the new plants which replaced
those the demons had poisoned. It was decided to run a race to settle
the matter. Indra and Agni won the race and were therefore awarded the
cake. These two gods were divine Kshatriyas (noblemen), the others
were “common people”. Whatever Kshatriyas conquer, the commoners are
permitted to share; therefore the other gods received the mess of old
grain.
After the magic spell was removed from the plants by the gods, men ate
food and cattle grazed once again. Ever afterwards, at the beginning of
each harvest, the first fruits were offered up to Indra and Agni. The
fee of the priest was the first-born calf “for that is, as it were, the
firstfruits of the cattle”.[62]
[62] _The Satapatha Brahmana_, translated by Professor J. Eggeling,
Part I, pp. 369, 373. (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xii.)
The popular Thunder god of the Vedic period bears a close resemblance
to the hard-drinking, kindly, and impulsive Thor, the Teutonic god
of few words and mighty deeds, the constant “friend of man” and the
inveterate enemy of demons. In the hymns Indra is pictured as a
burly man, with “handsome, prominent nose”, “good lips”, and “comely
chin”; he is “long-necked, big-bellied, strongly armed”, and has
a weakness for ornaments. He is much addicted to drinking “sweet,
intoxicating Soma”; he “fills his stomach”; he quaffs “thirty bowls”
at a single draught ere he hastens to combat against “hostile air
demons”. Sometimes he is placed in a difficulty when two tribes of his
worshippers are in conflict: both cry to him for victory, but—
The god giveth victory unto him
Who with generous heart pours out
The draught he thirsts for—
Nor feels regret in giving;
Indra joins with him upon the battlefield.
_Rigveda_, iv, 24. 2-6.
The Aryans, who were as notorious cattle lifters as the Gauls and the
Scottish Highlanders, were wont to invoke the god ere they set out on a
raid, chanting with loud voices:
Indra, whose riches are boundless, O grant us
Thousands of beautiful cows and horses:
Destroy, thou mighty one, all who despise us,
Visit with death all those who would harm us, and
Indra, whose riches are boundless, O grant us,
Thousands of beautiful cows and horses.
_Wilson's translation._
In other hymns the Thor-like character of Indra, the war god, is
naively depicted. A sceptic is supposed to say: “Many men declare that
there is no Indra. Who ever saw him? Why should we adore him?”
The god makes answer: “O singer, I _am_: behold me! I am here now,
and I am greater than any living being. I delight in the performance
of holy rites. I am also the Destroyer; I can hurl creation to ruin.”
_Rigveda_, viii, 89.
I never knew a man to speak so to me,
When all his enemies are safely conquered;
Yea, when they see how fierce the battle rages,
They even promise me a pair of bullocks.
When I am absent in far distant places,
Then all with open hands their gifts would bring me ...
Lo! I will make the wealthy niggard needy,
Seize by the foot and on the hard rock dash him.
_Rigveda_, x, 27.
The lord of both the worlds hates all the haughty,
He cares for those who feel themselves but human.
_Rigveda_, vi, 47.[63]
[63] Arrowsmith's translation.
These verses recall: “Silence, thou evil one,” roared Thor, “or else
with my hammer shall I strike thy head off and end thy life.”
Then did Loke answer humbly: “Silent indeed I shall be now, O Thor, for
I know full well thou wilt strike.”[64]
[64] _Teutonic Myth and Legend_, p. 173.
[Illustration: THE PARADISE OF INDRA
_From a Rock Sculpture at Mâmallapuram_
6]
The human qualities of Indra are illustrated in epic narrative. Arjuna,
the Indian Achilles, is his son, and pays a visit to the brilliant
Celestial city on the summit of Mount Meru, where flowers are ever
blooming, and pretty nymphs dance to pleasure battle-slain warriors.
Arjuna saluted his divine sire. “And Indra thereupon embraced him
with his round and plump arms. And taking his hand, Shakra (Indra)
made him sit on a portion of his own seat.... And the lord of the
Celestials—that slayer of hostile heroes—smelt the head of Arjuna,
bending in humility, and even took him upon his lap.... Moved by
affection, the slayer of Vritra touched that beautiful face with his
own perfumed hands. And the wielder of the thunderbolt, patting and
rubbing gently again and again with his own hands, which bore the
marks of the thunderbolt, the handsome and large arms of Arjuna, which
resembled a couple of golden columns and were hard in consequence of
drawing the bowstring and shooting arrows, began to console him. And
the slayer of Vritra ... eyeing his son of curling locks smilingly and
with eyes expanded with delight, seemed scarcely to be gratified. The
more he gazed, the more he liked to gaze on. And seated on one seat,
the father and son enhanced the beauty of the assembly, like the sun
and moon beautifying the firmament together.”[65]
[65] _Vana Parva_ section of _Mahăbhărata_, sect. xliii, Roy's
translation.
Indra was attended in his heaven by vague spirits, called Vasus, who
appear to have acted as his counsellors. When Bhishma, a hero of the
great Bhărata war, was slain in battle, he was given a place among the
Vasus. The Thunder god's queen is a shadowy personality, and is called
Indrani.
Indra was attended by a dog, as befitted a deity of primitive
huntsmen. After the early Aryan period, he showed less favour for his
bays and chariot, and seated himself upon a great white elephant, “the
handsome and ever victorious”, named Airavata; it “was furnished with
four tusks” and “resembled the mountain of Kailasa with its summits”.