INDIA.
The Hindu mind still superstition sways
Still to his Triune God the Brahmin prays;
The laws of “caste” each generous hope restrain,
And bind all mental powers with palsying chain.
Still lives that old belief the Samian taught,
Insects and brutes with human souls are fraught,
Souls doomed to wander for uncounted years,
Till, pure from earthly dross, they seek the spheres.
NICHOLAS MICHELL.
India is almost a continent like Europe. It is shaped like a great
triangle. Its population amounts to 240,000,000. There are different
races in India. First came to the fertile valleys of the Indus and
Ganges the sturdy immigrants from Central Asia, from Tartary and
Thibet. These were Scythians, some of them Mongolians. Then came
_the_ Hindu people, the great family of the Aryans, who separated
themselves from their Persian brethren sometime near 2,000 B.C., and
gradually overspread all India. About 500 B.C., Darius Hystaspes
conquered the Indian Empire. Alexander the Great invaded it as far as
the Indus in 327 B.C. The Mohammedans drove the Parsees from their
Persian home about 1,100 years ago, and a small body of them settled
in India. Then came the Mohammedans (Arabs, Turks, Afghans and Moguls)
and conquered India for a time. There are now 41,000,000 of Mohammedans
in that land. Still later came Europeans, led thither by the prospects
of great commercial gains, the Portuguese, the Danes, the Dutch, the
French and, finally, came the English.
Over one hundred dialects are spoken in India, but there is only one
sacred language and one sacred literature. This is the Sanscrit. All
the Hindu sacred books, all the sacred knowledge of Hindu theology,
philosophy or law, all the Hindu creeds, opinions, customs, etc., are
recorded in this language. This language of their literature does not
change with the course of time, it remains the same now as ever.
SKETCH OF BRAHMINISM.
Brahminism grew out of what is called the Vedic religion. Before
Abraham’s day the people living in Central Asia, being a simple race,
addressed their prayers to the powers of nature, as, for example,
to the storms, the clouds and the sun, seeing the Deity in each of
these. Hymns were written to these gods and this forms the earliest
of all sacred books, only excepting those from which Moses wrote his
account of the early history of the world in Genesis. This people
moved south into India. The priesthood arose and the other Vedic books
of ceremonies, sacrifices and liturgical forms were prepared. Great
commentaries were written on these books, and all were declared to be
inspired.
The priests quarreled with the civil chiefs, but their sacred character
was increased by the conflict, and caste is the result. The priests
are the highest caste (or class), next come the warriors, then the
merchant, the farmer, etc., last of all the tanners, buriers of the
dead, etc. These classes never intermarry or intermingle in any way;
it is contaminating to sit together even. About this time idols
appear, and gods multiply until they reach the number of 330,000,000.
Men groaned under this stupendous system of oppressive idolatry.
Buddha tried in the seventh century before Christ, to reform it, but
he failed, though he succeeded in establishing a new faith which has
numbered its converts by the hundreds of millions. But Brahminism
continues to be the religion of India, even until to-day. The task of
Christianity to supplant it is gigantic, and rendered doubly difficult
by the failure of Buddhism. In later days a new reformer appeared,
Rammohun Roy. He started the Brahmosomaj, or reformed Brahminism,
but under his successor, Keshub Chunder Sen, it is drifting toward
Christianity.
Starting from the Veda, Hinduism has ended in embracing something
from all religions, and in presenting phases suited to all minds. It
is all-tolerant, all-compliant, all-comprehensive, all-absorbing. It
has its spiritual and its material aspect, its esoteric and exoteric,
its subjective and objective, its rational and irrational, its pure
and its impure. It has one side for the practical, another for the
severely moral, another for the devotional and imaginative, another
for the sensuous and sensual, and another for the philosophical
and speculative. Those who rest in ceremonial observances find it
all-sufficient; those who deny the efficacy of works and make faith
the one requisite, need not wander from its pale; those who are
addicted to sensuality may have their tastes fully gratified; those
whose delight is in meditating upon the nature of God and of man,
or the relations of matter and of spirit, the mystery of separate
existence, or upon the origin of evil, may here indulge their love of
speculation. And this capacity for almost limitless expansion causes
almost numberless sectarian divisions even among the followers of any
given particular line of doctrine. Yet there remains much of the old
nature-worship, or more correctly speaking, of the old devil-worship
among the Hindus even at this late day. As in Tinnevelly the people
worship a stone devil, who holds a trident in one hand, and a child
which he was about to devour in the other. The idol generally has a
garland of red and white oleander flowers on its head and shoulders.
[Illustration: DEVIL WORSHIPED IN TINNEVELLY.]
THE GODS OF HINDUISM.
The three idols sculptured on the walls of Elephanta Cave are found all
over India, and constitute the chief gods which are worshiped by the
Hindus.
[Illustration: INDRA, GOD OF THE ATMOSPHERE.]
[Illustration:
BRAHMA. VISHNU. SIVA.
THE THREE CHIEF HINDU GODS.]
All the human race is said to have come from the highlands of Central
Asia, and the worship of these, our Aryan forefathers, was at first
exceedingly simple. Their manner of life brought them into close
contact with nature, and we learn from the hymns then written, many of
which are still preserved in the Vedas (the sacred book of the Hindus),
that they regarded the powers of nature as manifestations of gods. In
the storms, they supposed these rival gods were quarreling. In the
Vedic hymns, frequent mention is made of the chief god, called Dyaus,
the “Heavenly Father.” Also Aditi, the “Infinite Expanse,” is called
the mother of all gods. Next comes Varuna, the “Sky in its Brightness,”
then Indra, the god of the “Atmosphere;” so running through the whole
list. After a time, the names of the gods are somewhat altered, and a
sort of trinity is formed. Agni, god of fire, becomes Brahma; Surya,
the sun-god, becomes Vishnu, and Indra, the atmosphere-god, becomes
Siva. These constitute what is called the Tri-murti, and are generally
said to represent one god as Creator, Preserver or Destroyer. Hindus
often write in their honor verses like the following:
“In those three persons the one God was shown--
Each first in place, each last--not one alone;
Of Siva, Vishnu, Brahma, each may be
First, second, third, among the Blessed Three.”
As to which of the three gods is to be called the Supreme Being,
opinions differ. The following story is told in one of the sacred books
touching upon this point:
STORY OF THE SAGES’ SEARCH.
A dispute arose among the sages as to which of the three gods was
greatest; so they applied to the great Bhrigu, one of the ten
Maharshis, or primeval patriarchs created by the first Manu, to
determine the point. He undertook to put all three gods to a severe
test, and went first to Brahma; on approaching whom he purposely
omitted an obeisance. Upon this the god’s anger blazed terribly forth;
but, restraining it, he was at length pacified. Next he repaired to the
abode of Siva, in Kailāsa, and omitted to return the god’s salutation.
The vindictive deity was enraged, his eyes flashed fire, and he raised
his trident to destroy the sage; but the god’s wife, Pārvati, fell at
his feet and by her intercession appeased him. Lastly, he repaired to
Vaikuntha, the heaven of Vishnu, whom he found asleep with his
head on his consort Lakshmī’s lap. To make a trial of his forbearance,
he boldly gave the god a kick on his breast, which awoke him. Instead
of showing anger, however, Vishnu arose, and on seeing Bhrigu, asked
his pardon for not having greeted him on his first arrival. Next, he
expressed himself highly honored by the sage’s blow (which he declared
had imprinted an indelible mark of good fortune on his breast), and
then inquired tenderly whether his foot was hurt, and proceeded to rub
it gently. “This,” said Bhrigu, “is the mightiest god; he overpowers
by the most potent of all weapons--gentleness and generosity.” This
idea was not far removed from the genius of Christianity, which
conspicuously encourages the overcoming of evil with good.
[Illustration:
Picart, Painter. Illman Brothers, Engravers & Printers.
HINDU FAKIRS PRACTISING THEIR SUPERSTITIOUS RITES.
ENGRAVED EXPRESSLY FOR ERROR’S CHAINS]
CAN THE GODS DIE?
One of the most remarkable ideas to be found in the Brāhmanas is that
the gods were merely mortals till they extorted immortality from the
Supreme Being by sacrifices and austerities. A natural or inherent
immortality in these deities was never dreamed of, it is said:
“The gods lived constantly in dread of Death--
The mighty Ender--so with toilsome rites
They worshiped and repeated sacrifices
Till they became immortal. Then the Ender
Said to the gods, ‘As ye have made yourselves
Imperishable; so will men endeavor
To free themselves from me; what portion then
Shall I possess in man?’ The gods replied,
‘Henceforth no being shall become immortal
In his own body; this his mortal frame
Shalt thou still seize; this shall remain thy own,
He who through knowledge or religious acts
Henceforth attains to immortality
Shall first present his body, Death, to thee.’”
SECTS OF HINDUISM.
It must not be supposed that the heathen religions present one unbroken
front against the oncoming ranks of Christianity. Christianity is
divided into sects, it is true; but these sects are but as the
different regiments and divisions of an army. The banner of the Cross
is at the head of the whole of this grand army, and it floats proudly
over each regiment; the regimental banner is always placed beneath, and
not above, the banner of the Cross. Hence the various denominations
of Christians are not so many distinct bodies, fighting each other
as well as fighting the common foe; but they are so many bands of
soldiers, fighting, perhaps, each in its own way, yet all aiming to
destroy the one common enemy, Satan and his works. But the divisions
of heathen religious systems differ greatly from this. Many of them
are so different from each other that there is hardly a trace of
resemblance remaining. Each heathen religious system wages war against
every other one. Buddhism is, perhaps, an exception to this, at least
in its mode of warfare, for it seeks to swallow up every other system,
to incorporate all other religions in its own and to destroy them by
the change. In each of these systems, as well as in Hinduism, which we
have now before us for consideration, there are many different sects.
These vary very much more than the denominations of Christendom, and
are constantly turning their guns upon each other. Thus God is making
Satan to defeat himself, and will bring good to the world even out of
the wicked one’s work.
The sects of Hinduism overlap each other. Many Hindus are attached at
the same time to several sects, and some of the gods are worshiped
by all the sects in common. Following the national tendency of all
heathen religious systems, Hinduism developed downwards. Sect after
sect arose, each calling attention to some one prominent point in
their faith, and setting all the other points far in the background.
[Illustration: BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE HINDU TEMPLE AT
CAWNPORE.]
During all the period from 800 to 500 before Christ, the need of
making peace offerings to the gods was insisted upon by certain sects.
According to the creed of one popular sect, for example, if one should
slay a hundred horses in sacrifice, he would be worthy of being exalted
to the rank of a powerful god. Thousands of animals, principally
horses, cows, pigs, and the like, were slain every day at this time.
The whole land was filled with blood. Then came the reaction, a new
sect arose, who, disgusted and wearied of sacrifices and sacrificing
priests, declared all sacrifices as unnecessary and displeasing to
the gods. The followers of Kali, the goddess of blood, and especially
the Thugs, who came into prominence later on and who are described in
connection with the worship of Kali, of course opposed this idea. Yet
they were unsuccessful, their rival sect rapidly gained the popular
favor, and, except at Kali’s altars, sacrifices almost disappeared. The
great reformer, Buddha, the “Light of Asia,” gave great assistance to
this doctrine. He taught, about the seventh century before Christ, that
it was the duty of man to preserve life, and not to destroy it. The
teaching that the souls of men after death passed into the bodies of
animals also aided in this. Buddha’s teachings gained almost universal
acceptance in India for a time; it looked as though it would root out
Hinduism. But gradually the Hindu priests brought Buddhism back unto
itself again. The priests declared that Gautama, the Buddha, was an
incarnation of the god Vishnu, and by this concession won their way to
the hearts of the people. Each of the gods had their own followers,
and, as may be imagined, the sect that worshiped Vishnu received many
new adherents.
After this, Hinduism rapidly descended to its darkest, deepest
degradation. Priestcraft was extended, rites were multiplied, and
superstitious customs increased. For long years the people groaned
under their heavy burdens, then sought--as, alas! how often they
sought, but only to fail--to get back to the high ground of a purer
religion. Reformers appeared, and the people gladly and quickly
gathered around these reformers, thus forming new sects. To set forth
the whole history of these sects would require volume after volume.
In a general way, we may say that there are five large sects: the
followers of Siva, of Vishnu, of Sakta, the sun worshipers, and the
adherents of Ganesha. We might well add to these, and to the multitude
of minor sects into which they are divided, the greatest of modern
sects, which is called the Brahmo-Somaj.
[Illustration: SCULPTURED IDOLS ON A PILLAR.]
In the year 1774 was born a man of marked ability, named Rammohun Roy.
He sought to suppress the Suttee, the burning of Hindu widows with
the bodies of their dead husbands. He encouraged native education and
the general enlightenment of the whole people. He went back beyond
the teachings of priests and of the modern sacred Hindu books, back
to the Vedas, and sought to prove that they taught that idolatry was
wrong, and that one god should be worshiped. To this Supreme Being he
gave the name of Brahma, and hence his sect of reformed Hinduism was
called the Brahma or Brahmo-Somaj, or Society of God. After his death,
several other leaders arose, the last of whom, the third from Rammohun
Roy, named Keshub Chunder Sen, was, perhaps, most in accord with the
founder’s spirit. He visited England lately. Under his leading the
society is offering an uncompromising opposition to caste, idolatry and
superstition, and is accomplishing the best results.
PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM.
Hinduism as a system has nothing to say about making men better, it
only tells of means to make peace with angry gods. It speaks only
threatening and fear. But worse than this--and it would corrupt our
pages to do more than mention it--much of its worship is vile; vulgar
images are common objects of worship in India.
Its teachings as to the next world and the way to reach it are
remarkable. There is supposed to be a wide stream between this world
and the next, and the only way to cross is by holding on to the tail of
the sacred cow when dying.
[Illustration: DYING BRAHMIN HOLDING THE TAIL OF THE SACRED
COW, SO AS TO ENTER HEAVEN.]
One terrible feature of Hinduism is _Caste_. Every Hindu child
is born within a certain caste, and above or below that it can never
go. It is a most rigid system requiring the members of one caste to
have as little as possible to do with the members of another. The
four principal castes are--the Priest or Brahmin caste; the Warrior
caste; the Merchant caste; the Sudras, or Servile caste; besides
these are the Pariahs, who are below all caste. Some of the castes
distinguish themselves by the cut and color of their dress, some by
the way in which their garments are put on, some by a peculiar mark on
the forehead, some by the jewels or ornaments they wear. The bounds
of these castes are fixed and immovable. No one, however, rich, or
learned, or skillful, can rise above his caste, no one, however poor,
or degraded, or vicious, sinks below his caste. Each caste looks up to
those above it, and concedes its superiority.
[Illustration: A CASTE-MARKED BRAHMIN AT HIS DEVOTIONS.]
A Brahmin who had become a Christian, once told a celebrated traveler,
that the people of lower castes than his own had often asked him
to stop and wash his feet in the water of the street, so that they
might drink it! The whole system, this traveler goes on to say, is
a cold and cruel thing, which hardens the heart against natural
compassion. Against its oppression there is no power of resistance; it
extinguishes every element of human brotherhood. Hinduism is, take it
all and all, one of the vilest, most despotic, most degrading systems
of religion. In almost every other faith there is some redeeming
feature; in Hinduism we seek in vain to find any element of truth.
There is nothing in it worthy of being placed in comparison with
Christianity. Yet the task of persuading the Hindu people of this is
a very difficult one. The missionary seems as but a youthful David
with his sling and stones in the presence of this very Goliath of
Heathenism. But he has God standing with him, and by His aid the work
will finally be successful.
[Illustration: GOD OF HELL, FROM A HINDU PICTURE.]
HUMAN BEINGS KILLED IN SACRIFICE.
Very early in the history of the Hindu religion, human beings were
sacrificed to the gods. Both children and adults were slain before
Kali’s altars, especially. Sacrifice of human beings is referred to in
the sacred books; for instance, it appears in the following Brahmana:
King Hariscandra had no son; he then prayed to Varuna, promising, that
if a son were born to him, he would sacrifice the child to the god.
Then a son was born to him called Rohita. When Rohita was grown up, his
father one day told him of the vow he had made to Varuna and bade him
prepare to be sacrificed. The son declined to be killed, and ran away
from his father’s house. For six years he wandered in the forest and at
last met a starving Brahmin. Him he persuaded to sell one of his sons
named Sunahsepha, for a hundred cows. This boy was bought by Rohita
and taken to Hariscandra and was about to be sacrificed to Varuna as
a substitute for Rohita. At this moment, on praying to the gods with
verses from the Veda, the boy was released. Some of the Hindu gods are,
in accord with this idea, horrible imaginations, as the god of Hell. In
contrast with such, is Amadeo, god of Love, the cupid god of the Hindus.
[Illustration: AMADEO, GOD OF LOVE.]
But the Hindus were averse to human sacrifice, and so they found a way
to get around it. They introduced this passage into their sacred books:
The gods killed a man for their victim. But from him thus killed, the
part which was fit for a sacrifice went out and entered a horse.
Thence the horse became an animal fit for being sacrificed. The gods
then killed the horse, but the part of it fit for being sacrified
went out of it and entered an ox. The gods then killed the ox, but
the part of it fit for being sacrificed went out of it and entered a
sheep. Thence it entered a goat. The sacrificial part remained for the
longest time in the goat; thence, it became pre-eminently fit for being
sacrificed!
WOMAN’S LIFE IN INDIA.
Every one of the heathen religions more or less degrades woman.
Often she is made the slave of man, or, worse still, the creature to
minister to his appetites. Only Christianity seeks to lift woman to
the level of man. Women in Christian lands rarely ever appreciate the
low condition of their Oriental sisters. In India, woman’s condition
is worse than in China, and in China worse than in Japan. In the early
religious writings of the Hindus, woman is spoken of with respect; but
in later days those teachings have been all but forgotten. Indeed, the
degradation of woman in India--not merely sanctioned, but commanded,
by the Hindu religion--is without a parallel in any age and among any
other race. According to the Code of Manu, the law-book of the Hindu
religion, woman is forbidden to read the sacred books or to offer up
prayers or sacrifices in her own name and person. She may pray and
worship, but only as her father or husband directs. Woman is regarded
as _having no soul_, differing from the beasts only in being more
intelligent than they. Moreover, she is commanded _to revere her
husband as a god_.
[Illustration: TEACHING A CHILD TO WORSHIP GANESHA, THE GOD
OF WISDOM.]
[Illustration: A CHILD BRINGING AN OFFERING TO THE IDOL OF A
BULL.]
If a Brahmin, or priest, happens to be reading the Vedas (the sacred
Hindu books), and a woman happens to come near, he must suspend his
reading until she pass by.
_Her_ ear is not pure enough to hear the sacred word, they say.
They were kept secluded from sight in ill-furnished apartments;
really, they were kept prisoners in the zenanas, as their apartments
were called. Only recently has the condition of the women of India
been exposed. Missionary ladies, by taking the occasion of teaching
women how to knit and embroider, managed to secure an entrance to
the zenanas. Tale after tale was told of the pitiful condition of
the Hindu women. These were doubted, questioned and examined; but
investigation confirmed their truth. What is the picture that is drawn
by these faithful pens of the Hindu woman’s life from the cradle to
the grave? Girls are never welcomed in India. Formerly a large number
were destroyed at birth, but now the British government prevents
that. But they are as badly off, in many cases worse, than if dead.
Their very existence is almost unnoticed by their father. Ask a Hindu
how many children he has--supposing that he have three sons and four
daughters--he will reply, “I have three children,” not thinking it
worth while to count his daughters. Formerly at least seventy-five out
of every hundred female infants were destroyed. These infants were
generally cast to the crocodiles in the Ganges, and, strange to say,
the mother thought she was serving Heaven in doing this unnatural
deed. The great linguist, Dr. John Leyden, has written:
“To glut the shark and crocodile
A mother brought her infant here;
She saw its tender, playful smile,
She shed not one maternal tear.
She threw it on a watery bier;
With grinding teeth sea-monsters tore
The smiling infant that she bore.
She shrunk not once its cries to hear!”
From childhood they are taught to worship the idols, especially
Ganesha, the god of wisdom, and so the stone bulls.
After a little girl has reached her fifth birthday, her parents begin
to look for a husband for her. She can be married when seven years old,
but may wait until she is ten. The idea of marrying for love is never
dreamed of. The little one never makes her own choice of a husband.
Her married life bears not the slightest resemblance to the life of a
wife in a Christian land. The Shasters declare that a wife, “When in
the presence of her husband, must keep her eyes upon her master, and
be ready to receive his commands. When he speaks, she must be quiet,
and listen to nothing else besides; when he calls, she must leave
everything else, and attend upon him alone. A woman has no other god on
earth but her husband. The most excellent of all good works that she
can perform is to gratify him with the strictest obedience. This should
be her only devotion. Though he be aged, infirm, dissipated, a drunkard
or a debauchee, she must still regard him as her god. She must serve
him with all her might, obeying him in all things, spying no defects in
his character, and giving him no cause for disquiet. If he laughs, she
must laugh; if he weeps, she must weep; if he sings, she must be in an
ecstasy.” The wife may never walk with her husband. No other man than
he or her father or brothers must ever look on her face. A Hindu woman
would rather die than to be thus defiled, as they are taught to regard
it.
[Illustration: HINDU WOMAN.]
Woman in India is in the power of her husband completely; she is his
slave, and must wait on his every motion. Worse than this, she is not
the only wife, for Hinduism permits a man to have many wives. When her
husband dies, the wife is more unhappy than ever. All her ornaments and
beautiful clothing are taken from her, and only a poor, coarse, brown
robe is left; her black hair is shorn off, and the tali--answering to
our marriage-ring--is taken from her. Henceforth, if she live, she must
practice the severest penance. Often, before the British government
put a stop to it, the widow was burned alive with the dead body of her
husband. For all this degradation and misery and shameless treatment of
women Hinduism is responsible.