In the Vedic hymns two classes of society, the royal (or military) and

the priestly classes, were evidently recognized as being raised above

the level of the _Vis_, or bulk of the Aryan community. These social

grades seem to have been in existence even before the separation of the

two Asiatic branches of the Indo-Germanic race, the Aryans of Iran and

India. It is true that, although the _Athrava, Rathaestao_, and

_Vastrya_ of the _Zend Avesta_ correspond in position and occupation to

the _Brahman, Rajan_ and _Vis_ of the Veda, there is no similarity of

names between them; but this fact only shows that the common vocabulary

had not yet definitely fixed on any specific names for these classes.

Even in the Veda their nomenclature is by no means limited to a single

designation for each of them. Moreover, _Atharvan_ occurs not

infrequently in the hymns as the personification of the priestly

profession, as the proto-priest who is supposed to have obtained fire

from heaven and to have instituted the rite of sacrifice; and although

_ratheshtha_ ("standing on a car") is not actually found in connexion

with the _Rajan_ or _Kshatriya_, its synonym _rathin_ is in later

literature a not unusual epithet of men of the military caste. At the

time of the hymns, and even during the common Indo-Persian period, the

sacrificial ceremonial had already become sufficiently complicated to

call for the creation of a certain number of distinct priestly offices

with special duties attached to them. While this shows clearly that the

position and occupation of the priest were those of a profession, the

fact that the terms _brahmana_ and _brahmaputra_, both denoting "the

son of a brahman," are used in certain hymns as synonyms of _brahman_,

seems to justify the assumption that the profession had already, to a

certain degree, become hereditary at the time when these hymns were

composed. There is, however, with the exception of a solitary passage in

a hymn of the last book, no trace to be found in the _Rigveda_ of that

rigid division into four castes separated from one another by

insurmountable barriers, which in later times constitutes the

distinctive feature of Hindu society. The idea of caste is expressed by

the Sanskrit term _varna_, originally denoting "colour," thereby

implying differences of complexion between the several classes. The word

occurs in the Veda in the latter sense, but it is used there to mark the

distinction, not between the three classes of the Aryan community, but

between them on the one hand and a dark-coloured hostile people on the

other. The latter, called Dasas or Dasyus, consisted, no doubt, of the

indigenous tribes, with whom the Aryans had to carry on a continual

struggle for the possession of the land. The partial subjection of these

comparatively uncivilized tribes as the rule of the superior race was

gradually spreading eastward, and their submission to a state of serfdom

under the name of _Sudras_, added to the Aryan community an element,

totally separated from it by colour, by habits, by language, and by

occupation. Moreover, the religious belief of these tribes being

entirely different from that of the conquering people, the pious Aryas,

and especially the class habitually engaged in acts of worship, could

hardly fail to apprehend considerable danger to the purity of their own

faith from too close and intimate a contact between the two races. What

more natural, therefore, than that measures should have been early

devised to limit the intercourse between them within as narrow bounds as

possible? In course of time the difference of vocation, and the greater

or less exposure to the scorching influence of the tropical sky, added,

no doubt, to a certain admixture of Sudra blood, especially in the case

of the common people, seem to have produced also in the Aryan population

different shades of complexion, which greatly favoured a tendency to

rigid class-restrictions originally awakened and continually fed by the

lot of the servile race. Meanwhile the power of the sacerdotal order

having been gradually enlarged in proportion to the development of the

minutiae of sacrificial ceremonial and the increase of sacred lore, they

began to lay claim to supreme authority in regulating and controlling

the religious and social life of the people. The author of the so-called

_Purusha-sukta_, or hymn of Purusha, above referred to, represents the

four castes--the _Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya_ and _Sudra_--as having

severally sprung respectively from the mouth, the arms, the thighs and

the feet of Purusha, a primary being, here assumed to be the source of

the universe. It is very doubtful, however, whether at the time when

this hymn was composed the relative position of the two upper castes

could already have been settled in so decided a way as this theory might

lead one to suppose. There is, on the contrary, reason to believe that

some time had yet to elapse, marked by fierce and bloody struggles for

supremacy, of which only imperfect ideas can be formed from the

legendary and frequently biased accounts of later generations, before

the Kshatriyas finally submitted to the full measure of priestly

authority.

The definitive establishment of the Brahmanical hierarchy marks the

beginning of the Brahmanical period properly so called. Though the

origin and gradual rise of some of the leading institutions of this era

can, as has been shown, be traced in the earlier writings, the chain of

their development presents a break at this juncture which no

satisfactory materials as yet enable us to fill up. A considerable

portion of the literature of this time has apparently been lost; and

several important works, the original composition of which has probably

to be assigned to the early days of Brahmanism, such as the institutes

of Manu and the two great epics, the _Mahabharata_ and _Ramayana_, in

the form in which they have been handed down to us, show manifest traces

of a more modern redaction. Yet it is sufficiently clear from internal

evidence that Manu's Code of Laws, though merely a metrical recast of

older materials, reproduces on the whole pretty faithfully the state of

Hindu society depicted in the sources from which it was compiled. The

final overthrow of the Kshatriya power was followed by a period of

jealous legislation on the part of the Brahmans. For a time their chief

aim would doubtless be to improve their newly gained vantage-ground by

surrounding everything relating to their order with a halo of sanctity

calculated to impress the lay community with feelings of awe. In the

Brahmanas and even in the Purusha Hymn, and the Atharvan, divine origin

had already been ascribed to the Vedic _Samhitas_, especially to the

three older collections. The same privilege was now successfully claimed

for the later Vedic literature, so imbued with Brahmanic aspirations and

pretensions; and the authority implied in the designation of _Sruti_ or

revelation removed henceforth the whole body of sacred writings from the

sphere of doubt and criticism. This concession necessarily involved an

acknowledgment of the new social order as a divine institution. Its

stability was, however, rendered still more secure by the elaboration of

a system of conventional precepts, partly forming the basis of Manu's

Code, which clearly defined the relative position and the duties of the

several castes, and determined the penalties to be inflicted on any

transgressions of the limits assigned to each of them. These laws are

conceived with no sentimental scruples on the part of their authors. On

the contrary, the offences committed by Brahmans against other castes

are treated with remarkable clemency, whilst the punishments inflicted

for trespasses on the rights of higher classes are the more severe and

inhuman the lower the offender stands in the social scale.

The three first castes, however unequal to each other in privilege and

social standing, are yet united by a common bond of sacramental rites

(_samskaras_), traditionally connected from ancient times with certain

incidents and stages in the life of the Aryan Hindu, as conception,

birth, name-giving, the first taking out of the child to see the sun,

the first feeding with boiled rice, the rites of tonsure and

hair-cutting, the youth's investiture with the sacrificial thread, and

his return home on completing his studies, marriage, funeral, &c. The

modes of observing these family rites are laid down in a class of

writings called _Grihya-sutras_, or domestic rules. The most important

of these observances is the _upanayana_, or rite of conducting the boy

to a spiritual teacher. Connected with this act is the investiture with

the sacred cord, ordinarily worn over the left shoulder and under the

right arm, and varying in material according to the class of the wearer.

This ceremony being the preliminary act to the youth's initiation into

the study of the Veda, the management of the consecrated fire and the

knowledge of the rites of purification, including the _savitri_, a

solemn invocation to _Savitri_, the sun (probl. Saturnus),--as a rule

the verse _Rigv_. iii. 62. 10, also called _gayatri_ from the metre in

which it is composed--which has to be repeated every morning and evening

before the rise and after the setting of that luminary, is supposed to

constitute the second or spiritual birth of the Arya. It is from their

participation in this rite that the three upper classes are called the

twice-born. The ceremony is enjoined to take place some time between the

eighth and sixteenth year of age in the case of a Brahman, between the

eleventh and twenty-second year of a Kshatriya, and between the twelfth

and twenty-fourth year of a Vaisya. He who has not been invested with

the mark of his class within this time is for ever excluded from

uttering the sacred _savitri_ and becomes an outcast, unless he is

absolved from his sin by a council of Brahmans, and after due

performance of a purificatory rite resumes the badge of his caste. With

one not duly initiated no righteous man is allowed to associate or to

enter into connexions of affinity. The duty of the Sudra is to serve the

twice-born classes, and above all the Brahmans. He is excluded from all

sacred knowledge, and if he performs sacrificial ceremonies he must do

so without using holy mantras. No Brahman must recite a Vedic text where

a man of the servile caste might overhear him, nor must he even teach

him the laws of expiating sin. The occupations of the Vaisya are those

connected with trade, the cultivation of the land and the breeding of

cattle; while those of a Kshatriya consist in ruling and defending the

people, administering justice, and the duties of the military profession

generally. Both share with the Brahman the privilege of reading the

Veda, but only so far as it is taught and explained to them by their

spiritual preceptor. To the Brahman belongs the right of teaching and

expounding the sacred texts, and also that of interpreting and

determining the law and the rules of caste. Only in exceptional cases,

when no teacher of the sacerdotal class is within reach, the twice-born

youth, rather than forego spiritual instruction altogether, may reside

in the house of a non-Brahmanical preceptor; but it is specially

enjoined that a pupil, who seeks the path to heaven, should not fail, as

soon as circumstances permit, to resort to a Brahman well versed in the

Vedas and their appendages.

Notwithstanding the barriers placed between the four castes, the

practice of intermarrying appears to have been too prevalent in early

times to have admitted of measures of so stringent a nature as wholly to

repress it. To marry a woman of a higher caste, and especially of a

caste not immediately above one's own, is, however, decidedly

prohibited, the offspring resulting from such a union being excluded

from the performance of the _sraddha_ or obsequies to the ancestors, and

thereby rendered incapable of inheriting any portion of the parents'

property. On the other hand, a man is at liberty, according to the rules

of Manu, to marry a girl of any or each of the castes below his own,

provided he has besides a wife belonging to his own class, for only such

a one should perform the duties of personal attendance and religious

observance devolving upon a married woman. As regards the children born

from unequal marriages of this description, they have the rights and

duties of the twice-born, if their mother belong to a twice-born caste,

otherwise they, like the offspring of the former class of

intermarriages, share the lot of the Sudra, and are excluded from the

investiture and the _savitri_. For this last reason the marriage of a

twice-born man with a Sudra woman is altogether discountenanced by some

of the later law books. At the time of the code of Manu the intermixture

of the classes had already produced a considerable number of

intermediate or mixed castes, which were carefully defined, and each of

which had a specific occupation assigned to it as its hereditary

profession.

The self-exaltation of the first class was not, it would seem,

altogether due to priestly arrogance and ambition; but, like a prominent

feature of the post-Vedic belief, the transmigration of souls, it was,

if not the necessary, yet at least a natural consequence of the

pantheistic doctrine. To the Brahmanical speculator who saw in the

numberless individual existences of animate nature but so many

manifestations of the one eternal spirit, to union with which they were

all bound to tend as their final goal of supreme bliss, the greater or

less imperfection of the material forms in which they were embodied

naturally presented a continuous scale of spiritual units from the

lowest degradation up to the absolute purity and perfection of the

supreme spirit. To prevent one's sinking yet lower, and by degrees to

raise one's self in this universal gradation, or, if possible, to attain

the ultimate goal immediately from any state of corporeal existence,

there was but one way--subjection of the senses, purity of life and

knowledge of the deity. "He" (thus ends the code of Manu) "who in his

own soul perceives the supreme soul in all beings and acquires

equanimity toward them all, attains the highest state of bliss." Was it

not natural then that the men who, if true to their sacred duties, were

habitually engaged in what was most conducive to these spiritual

attainments, that the Brahmanical class early learnt to look upon

themselves, even as a matter of faith, as being foremost among the human

species in this universal race for final beatitude? The life marked out

for them by that stern theory of class duties which they themselves had

worked out, and which, no doubt, must have been practised in early times

at least in some degree, was by no means one of ease and amenity. It

was, on the contrary, singularly calculated to promote that complete

mortification of the instincts of animal nature which they considered as

indispensable to the final deliverance from _samsara_, the revolution

of bodily and personal existence.

The pious Brahman, longing to attain the _summum bonum_ on the

dissolution of his frail body, was enjoined to pass through a succession

of four orders or stages of life, viz. those of _brahmacharin_, or

religious student; _grihastha_ (or _grihamedhin_), or householder;

_vanavasin_ (or _vanaprastha_), or anchorite; and _sannyasin_ (or

_bhikshu_), or religious mendicant. Theoretically this course of life

was open and even recommended to every twice-born man, his distinctive

class-occupations being in that case restricted to the second station,

or that of married life. Practically, however, those belonging to the

Kshatriya and Vaisya castes were, no doubt, contented, with few

exceptions, to go through a term of studentship in order to obtain a

certain amount of religious instruction before entering into the married

state, and plying their professional duties. In the case of the

sacerdotal class, the practice probably was all but universal in early

times; but gradually a more and more limited proportion even of this

caste seem to have carried their religious zeal to the length of

self-mortification involved in the two final stages. On the youth having

been invested with the badge of his caste, he was to reside for some

time in the house of some religious teacher, well read in the Veda, to

be instructed in the knowledge of the scriptures and the scientific or

theoretic treatises attached to them, in the social duties of his caste,

and in the complicated system of purificatory and sacrificial rites.

According to the number of Vedas he intended to study, the duration of

this period of instruction was to be, probably in the case of

Brahmanical students chiefly, of from twelve to forty-eight years;

during which time the virtues of modesty, duty, temperance and

self-control were to be firmly implanted in the youth's mind by his

unremitting observance of the most minute rules of conduct. During all

this time the student had to subsist entirely on food obtained by

begging from house to house; and his behaviour towards the preceptor and

his family was to be that prompted by respectful attachment and implicit

obedience. In the case of girls no investiture takes place, but for them

the nuptial ceremony is considered as an equivalent to that rite. On

quitting the teacher's abode, the young man returns to his family and

takes a wife. To die without leaving legitimate offspring, and

especially a son, capable of performing the periodical rite of obsequies

(_sraddha_), consisting of offerings of water and balls of rice, to

himself and his two immediate ancestors, is considered a great

misfortune by the orthodox Hindu. There are three sacred "debts" which a

man has to discharge in life, viz. that which is due to the gods, and of

which he acquits himself by daily worship and sacrificial rites; that

due to the _rishis_, or ancient sages and inspired seers of the Vedic

texts, discharged by the daily study of the scripture; and the "final

debt" which he owes to his _manes_, and of which he relieves himself by

leaving a son. To these three some authorities add a fourth, viz. the

debt owing to humankind, which demands his continually practising

kindness and hospitality. Hence the necessity of a man's entering into

the married state. When the bridegroom leads the bride from her father's

house to his own home, and becomes a _griha-pati_, or householder, the

fire which has been used for the marriage ceremony accompanies the

couple to serve them as their _garhapatya_, or domestic fire. It has to

be kept up perpetually, day and night, either by themselves or their

children, or, if the man be a teacher, by his pupils. If it should at

any time become extinguished by neglect or otherwise, the guilt incurred

thereby must be atoned for by an act of expiation. The domestic fire

serves the family for preparing their food, for making the five

necessary daily and other occasional offerings, and for performing the

sacramental rites above alluded to. No food should ever be eaten that

has not been duly consecrated by a portion of it being offered to the

gods, the beings and the _manes_. These three daily offerings are also

called by the collective name of _vaisvadeva_, or sacrifice "to all the

deities." The remaining two are the offering to Brahma, i.e. the daily

lecture of the scriptures, accompanied by certain rites, and that to

men, consisting in the entertainment of guests. The domestic

observances--many of them probably ancient Aryan family customs,

surrounded by the Hindus with a certain amount of adventitious

ceremonial--were generally performed by the householder himself, with

the assistance of his wife. There is, however, another class of

sacrificial ceremonies of a more pretentious and expensive kind, called

_srauta_ rites, or rites based on _sritu_, or revelation, the

performance of which, though not indispensable, were yet considered

obligatory under certain circumstances (see BRAHMANA). They formed a

very powerful weapon in the hands of the priesthood, and were one of the

chief sources of their subsistence. However great the religious merit

accruing from these sacrificial rites, they were obviously a kind of

luxury which only rich people could afford to indulge in. They

constituted, as it were, a tax, voluntary perhaps, yet none the less

compulsory, levied by the priesthood on the wealthy laity.

When the householder is advanced in years, "when he perceives his skin

become wrinkled and his hair grey, when he sees the son of his son," the

time is said to have come for him to enter the third stage of life. He

should now disengage himself from all family ties--except that his wife

may accompany him, if she chooses--and repair to a lonely wood, taking

with him his sacred fires and the implements required for the daily and

periodical offerings. Clad in a deer's skin, in a single piece of cloth,

or in a bark garment, with his hair and nails uncut, the hermit is to

subsist exclusively on food growing wild in the forest, such as roots,

green herbs, and wild rice and grain. He must not accept gifts from any

one, except of what may be absolutely necessary to maintain him; but

with his own little hoard he should, on the contrary, honour, to the

best of his ability, those who visit his hermitage. His time must be

spent in reading the metaphysical treatises of the Veda, in making

oblations, and in undergoing various kinds of privation and austerities,

with a view to mortifying his passions and producing in his mind an

entire indifference to worldly objects. Having by these means succeeded

in overcoming all sensual affections and desires, and in acquiring

perfect equanimity towards everything around him, the hermit has fitted

himself for the final and most exalted order, that of devotee or

religious mendicant. As such he has no further need of either

mortifications or religious observances; but "with the sacrificial fires

reposited in his mind," he may devote the remainder of his days to

meditating on the divinity. Taking up his abode at the foot of a tree in

total solitude, "with no companion but his own soul," clad in a coarse

garment, he should carefully avoid injuring any creature or giving

offence to any human being that may happen to come near him. Once a day,

in the evening, "when the charcoal fire is extinguished and the smoke no

longer issues from the fire-places, when the pestle is at rest, when the

people have taken their meals and the dishes are removed," he should go

near the habitations of men, in order to beg what little food may

suffice to sustain his feeble frame. Ever pure of mind he should thus

bide his time, "as a servant expects his wages," wishing neither for

death nor for life, until at last his soul is freed from its fetters and

absorbed in the eternal spirit, the impersonal self-existent Brahma.

The tendency towards a comprehension of the unity of the divine essence

had resulted in some minds, as has been remarked before, in a kind of

monotheistic notion of the origin of the universe. In the literature of

the Brahmana period we meet with this conception as a common element of

speculation; and so far from its being considered incompatible with the

existence of a universal spirit, _Prajapati_, the personal creator of

the world, is generally allowed a prominent place in the pantheistic

theories. Yet the state of theological speculation, reflected in these

writings, is one of transition. The general drift of thought is

essentially pantheistic, but it is far from being reduced to a regular

system, and the ancient form of belief still enters largely into it. The

attributes of Prajapati, in the same way, have in them elements of a

purely polytheistic nature, and some of the attempts at reconciling this

new-fangled deity with the traditional belief are somewhat awkward. An

ancient classification of the gods represented them as being

thirty-three in number, eleven in each of the three worlds or regions

of nature. These regions being associated each with the name of one

principal deity, this division gave rise at a later time to the notion

of a kind of triple divine government, consisting of _Agni_ (fire),

_Indra_ sky) or _Vayu_ (wind), and _Surya_ (sun), as presiding

respectively over the gods on earth, in the atmosphere, and in the sky.

Of this Vedic triad mention is frequently made in the Brahmana writings.

On the other hand the term _prajapati_ (lord of creatures), which in the

_Rigveda_ occurs as an epithet of the sun, is also once in the

_Atharvaveda_ applied jointly to Indra and Agni. In the Brahmanas

Prajapati is several times mentioned as the thirty-fourth god; whilst in

one passage he is called the fourth god, and made to rule over the three

worlds. More frequently, however, the writings of this period represent

him as the maker of the world and the father or creator of the gods. It

is clear from this discordance of opinion on so important a point of

doctrine, that at this time no authoritative system of belief had been

agreed upon by the theologians. Yet there are unmistakable signs of a

strong tendency towards constructing one, and it is possible that in

yielding to it the Brahmans may have been partly prompted by political

considerations. The definite settlement of the caste system and the

Brahmanical supremacy must probably be assigned to somewhere about the

close of the Brahmana period. Division in their own ranks was hardly

favourable to the aspirations of the priests at such a time; and the

want of a distinct formula of belief adapted to the general drift of

theological speculation, to which they could all rally, was probably

felt the more acutely, the more determined a resistance the military

class was likely to oppose to their claims. Side by side with the

conception of the Brahma, the universal spiritual principle, with which

speculative thought had already become deeply imbued, the notion of a

supreme personal being, the author of the material creation, had come to

be considered by many as a necessary complement of the pantheistic

doctrine. But, owing perhaps to his polytheistic associations and the

attributive nature of his name, the person of Prajapati seems to have

been thought but insufficiently adapted to represent this abstract idea.

The expedient resorted to for solving the difficulty was as ingenious as

it was characteristic of the Brahmanical aspirations. In the same way as

the abstract denomination of sacerdotalism, the neuter _brahma_, had

come to express the divine essence, so the old designation of the

individual priest, the masculine term _brahma_, was raised to denote the

supreme personal deity which was to take the place and attributes of the

Prajapati of the Brahmanas and Upanishads (see BRAHMAN).

However the new dogma may have answered the purposes of speculative

minds, it was not one in which the people generally were likely to have

been much concerned; an abstract, colourless deity like Brahma could

awake no sympathies in the hearts of those accustomed to worship gods of

flesh and blood. Indeed, ever since the primitive symbolical worship of

nature had undergone a process of disintegration under the influence of

metaphysical speculation, the real belief of the great body of the

people had probably become more and more distinct from that of the

priesthood. In different localities the principal share of their

affection may have been bestowed on one or another of the old gods who

was thereby raised to the dignity of chief deity; or new forms and

objects of belief may have sprung up with the intellectual growth of the

people. In some cases even the worship of the indigenous population

could hardly have remained without exercising some influence in

modifying the belief of the Aryan race. In this way a number of local

deities would grow up, more or less distinct in name and characteristics

from the gods of the Vedic pantheon. There is, indeed, sufficient

evidence to show that, at a time when, after centuries of theological

speculations, some little insight into the life and thought of the

people is afforded by the literature handed down to us, such a diversity

of worship did exist. Under these circumstances the policy which seems

to have suggested itself to the priesthood, anxious to retain a firm

hold on the minds of the people, was to recognize and incorporate into

their system some of the most prominent objects of popular devotion, and

thereby to establish a kind of catholic creed for the whole community

subject to the Brahmanical law. At the time of the original composition

of the great epics two such deities, _Siva_ or _Mahadeva_ ("the great

god") and _Vishnu_, seem to have been already admitted into the

Brahmanical system, where they have ever since retained their place; and

from the manner in which they are represented in those works, it would,

indeed, appear that both, and especially the former, enjoyed an

extensive worship. As several synonyms are attributed to each of them,

it is not improbable that in some of these we have to recognize special

names under which the people in different localities worshipped these

gods, or deities of a similar nature which, by the agency of popular

poetry, or in some other way, came to be combined with them. The places

assigned to them in the pantheistic system were coordinate with that of

Brahma; the three deities, _Brahma, Vishnu_ and _Siva_, were to

represent a triple impersonation of the divinity, as manifesting itself

respectively in the creation, preservation and destruction of the

universe. Siva does not occur in the Vedic hymns as the name of a god,

but only as an adjective in the sense of "kind, auspicious." One of his

synonyms, however, is the name of a Vedic deity, the attributes and

nature of which show a good deal of similarity to the post-Vedic god.

This is _Rudra_, the god of the roaring storm, usually portrayed, in

accordance with the element he represents, as a fierce, destructive

deity, "terrible as a wild beast," whose fearful arrows cause death and

disease to men and cattle. He is also called _kapardin_ ("wearing his

hair spirally braided like a shell"), a word which in later times became

one of the synonyms of Siva. The _Atharvaveda_ mentions several other

names of the same god, some of which appear even placed together, as in

one passage _Bhava, Sarva, Rudra_ and _Pasupati_. Possibly some of them

were the names under which one and the same deity was already worshipped

in different parts of northern India. This was certainly the case in

later times, since it is expressly stated in one of the later works of

the Brahmana period, that Sarva was used by the Eastern people and Bhava

by a Western tribe. It is also worthy of note that in the same work (the

_Satapatha-brahmana_), composed at a time when the Vedic triad of Agni,

Indra-Vayu and Surya was still recognized, attempts are made to identify

this god of many names with Agni; and that in one passage in the

_Mahabharata_ it is stated that the Brahmans said that Agni was Siva.

Although such attempts at an identification of the two gods remained

isolated, they would at least seem to point to the fact that, in

adapting their speculations to the actual state of popular worship, the

Brahmans kept the older triad distinctly in view, and by means of it

endeavoured to bring their new structure into harmony with the ancient

Vedic belief. It is in his character as destroyer that Siva holds his

place in the triad, and that he must, no doubt, be identified with the

Vedic Rudra. Another very important function appears, however, to have

been early assigned to him, on which much more stress is laid in his

modern worship--that of destroyer being more especially exhibited in his

consort--viz. the character of a generative power, symbolized in the

phallic emblem (_linga_) and in the sacred bull (_Nandi_), the favourite

attendant of the god. This feature being entirely alien from the nature

of the Vedic god, it has been conjectured with some plausibility, that

the _linga_-worship was originally prevalent among the non-Aryan

population, and was thence introduced into the worship of Siva. On the

other hand, there can, we think, be little doubt that Siva, in his

generative faculty, is the representative of another Vedic god whose

nature and attributes go far to account for this particular feature of

the modern deity, viz. _Pushan_. This god, originally, no doubt, a solar

deity, is frequently invoked, as the lord of nourishment, to bestow

food, wealth and other blessings. He is once, jointly with Soma, called

the progenitor of heaven and earth, and is connected with the marriage

ceremony, where he is asked to lead the bride to the bridegroom and make

her prosperous (_Sivatama_). Moreover, he has the epithet _kapardin_

(spirally braided), as have Rudra and the later Siva, and is called

_Pasupa_, or guardian of cattle, whence the latter derives his name

_Pasupati_. But he is also a strong, powerful, and even fierce and

destructive god, who, with his goad or golden spear, smites the foes of

his worshipper, and thus in this respect offers at least some points of

similarity to Rudra, which may have favoured the fusion of the two gods.

As regards _Vishnu_, this god occupies already a place in the Vedic

mythology, though by no means one of such prominence as would entitle

him to that degree of exaltation implied in his character as one of the

three hypostases of the divinity. Moreover, although in his general

nature, as a benevolent, genial being, the Vedic god corresponds on the

whole to the later Vishnu, the preserver of the world, the latter

exhibits many important features for which we look in vain in his

prototype, and which most likely resulted from sectarian worship or from

an amalgamation with local deities. In one or two of them, such as his

names Vasudeva and Vaikuntha, an attempt may again be traced to identify

Vishnu with Indra, who, as we have seen, was one of the Vedic triad of

gods. The characteristic feature of the elder Vishnu is his measuring

the world with his three strides, which are explained as denoting either

the three stations of the sun at the time of rising, culminating and

setting, or the triple manifestation of the luminous element, as the

fire on earth, the lightning in the atmosphere and the sun in the

heavens.

The male nature of the triad was supposed to require to be supplemented

by each of the three gods being associated with a female energy

(_Sakti_). Thus _Vach_ or _Sarasvati_, the goddess of speech and

learning, came to be regarded as the _sakti_, or consort of Brahma;

_Sri_ or _Lakshmi_, "beauty, fortune," as that of Vishnu; and _Uma_ or

_Parvati_, the daughter of _Himavat_, the god of the Himalaya mountain,

as that of Siva. On the other hand, it is not improbable that

_Parvati_--who has a variety of other names, such as _Kali_ ("the black

one"), _Durga_ ("the inaccessible, terrible one"), _Maha-devi_ ("the

great goddess")--enjoyed already a somewhat extensive worship of her

own, and that there may thus have been good reason for assigning to her

a prominent place in the Brahmanical system.

A compromise was thus effected between the esoteric doctrine of the

metaphysician and some of the most prevalent forms of popular worship,

resulting in what was henceforth to constitute the orthodox system of

belief of the Brahmanical community. Yet the Vedic pantheon could not be

altogether discarded, forming part and parcel, as it did, of that sacred

revelation (_sruti_), which was looked upon as the divine source of all

religious and social law (_smriti_, "tradition"), and being, moreover,

the foundation of the sacrificial ceremonial on which the priestly

authority so largely depended. The existence of the old gods is,

therefore, likewise recognized, but recognized in a very different way

from that of the triple divinity. For while the triad represents the

immediate manifestation of the eternal, infinite soul--while it

constitutes, in fact, the Brahma itself in its active relation to

mundane and seemingly material occurrences, the old traditional gods are

of this world, are individual spirits or portions of the Brahma like men

and other creatures, only higher in degree. To them an intermediate

sphere, the heaven of Indra (the _svarloka_ or _svarga_), is assigned to

which man may raise himself by fulfilling the holy ordinances; but they

are subject to the same laws of being; they, like men, are liable to be

born again in some lower state, and, therefore, like them, yearn for

emancipation from the necessity of future individual existence. It is a

sacred duty of man to worship these superior beings by invocations and

sacrificial observances, as it is to honour the _pitris_ ("the

fathers"), the spirits of the departed ancestors. The spirits of the

dead, on being judged by _Yama_, the Pluto of Hindu mythology, are

supposed to be either passing through a term of enjoyment in a region

midway between the earth and the heaven of the gods, or undergoing their

measure of punishment in the nether world, situated somewhere in the

southern region, before they return to the earth to animate new bodies.

In Vedic mythology Yama was considered to have been the first mortal who

died, and "espied the way to" the celestial abodes, and in virtue of

precedence to have become the ruler of the departed; in some passages,

however, he is already regarded as the god of death. Although the

pantheistic system allowed only a subordinate rank to the old gods, and

the actual religious belief of the people was probably but little

affected by their existence, they continued to occupy an important place

in the affections of the poet, and were still represented as exercising

considerable influence on the destinies of man. The most prominent of

them were regarded as the appointed _Lokapalas_, or guardians of the

world; and as such they were made to preside over the four cardinal and

(according to some authorities) the intermediate points of the compass.

Thus _Indra_, the chief of the gods, was regarded as the regent of the

east; _Agni_, the fire (_ignis_), was in the same way associated with

the south-east; _Yama_ with the south; _Surya_, the sun ([Greek:

Haelios]), with the south-west; _Varuna_, originally the representative

of the all-embracing heaven ([Greek: Ouranos]) or atmosphere, now the

god of the ocean, with the west; _Vayu_ (or _Pavana_), the wind, with

the north-west; _Kubera_, the god of wealth, with the north; and _Soma_

(or _Chandra_) with the north-east. In the institutes of Manu the

_Lokapalas_ are represented as standing in close relation to the ruling

king, who is said to be composed of particles of these his tutelary

deities. The retinue of Indra consists chiefly of the _Gandharvas_

(probably etym. connected with [Greek: kentauros]), a class of genii,

considered in the epics as the celestial musicians; and their wives, the

_Apsaras_, lovely nymphs, who are frequently employed by the gods to

make the pious devotee desist from carrying his austere practices to an

extent that might render him dangerous to their power. _Narada_, an

ancient sage (probably a personification of the cloud, the

"water-giver"), is considered as the messenger between the gods and men,

and as having sprung from the forehead of Brahma. The interesting office

of the god of love is held by _Kamadeva_, also called _Ananga_, the

bodyless, because, as the myth relates, having once tried by the power

of his mischievous arrow to make Siva fall in love with Parvati, whilst

he was engaged in devotional practices, the urchin was reduced to ashes

by a glance of the angry god. Two other mythological figures of some

importance are considered as sons of Siva and Parvati, viz. _Karttikeya_

or _Skanda_, the leader of the heavenly armies, who was supposed to have

been fostered by the six _Krittikas_ or Pleiades; and _Ganesa_ ("lord of

troops"), the elephant-headed god of wisdom, and at the same time the

leader of the _dii minorum gentium_.

Orthodox Brahmanical scholasticism makes the attainment of final

emancipation (_mukti_, _moksha_) dependent on perfect knowledge of the

divine essence. This knowledge can only be obtained by complete

abstraction of the mind from external objects and intense meditation on

the divinity, which again presupposes the total extinction of all

sensual instincts by means of austere practices (_tapas_). The chosen

few who succeed in gaining complete mastery over their senses and a full

knowledge of the divine nature become absorbed into the universal soul

immediately on the dissolution of the body. Those devotees, on the other

hand, who have still a residuum, however slight, of ignorance and

worldliness left in them at the time of their death, pass to the world

of Brahma, where their souls, invested with subtile corporeal frames,

await their reunion with the Eternal Being.

The pantheistic doctrine which thus forms the foundation of the

Brahmanical system of belief found its most complete exposition in one

of the six orthodox _darsanas_, or philosophical systems, the _Vedanta_

philosophy. These systems are considered as orthodox inasmuch as they

recognize the Veda as the revealed source of religious belief, and never

fail to claim the authority of the ancient seers for their own

teachings, even though--as in the case of Kapila, the founder of the

materialistic Sankhya system--they involve the denial of so essential a

dogmatic point as the existence of a personal creator of the world. So

much, indeed, had freedom of speculative thought become a matter of

established habit and intellectual necessity, that no attempt seems ever

to have been made by the leading theological party to put down such

heretical doctrines, so long as the sacred character of the privileges

of their caste was not openly called in question. Yet internal

dissensions on such cardinal points of belief could not but weaken the

authority of the hierarchical body; and as they spread beyond the

narrow bounds of the Brahmanical schools, it wanted but a man of moral

and intellectual powers, and untrammelled by class prejudices, to render

them fatal to priestly pretensions. Such a man arose in the person of a

Sakya prince of Kapilavastu, Gotama, the founder of Buddhism (about the

6th century B.C.). Had it only been for the philosophical tenets of

Buddha, they need scarcely have caused, and probably did not cause, any

great uneasiness to the orthodox theologians. He did, indeed, go one

step beyond Kapila, by altogether denying the existence of the soul as a

substance, and admitting only certain intellectual faculties as

attributes of the body, perishable with it. Yet the conception which

Buddha substituted for the transmigratory soul, viz. that of _karma_

("work"), as the sum total of the individual's good and bad actions,

being the determinative element of the form of his future existence,

might have been treated like any other speculative theory, but for the

practical conclusions he drew from it. Buddha recognized the institution

of caste, and accounted for the social inequalities attendant thereon as

being the effects of _karma_ in former existences. But, on the other

hand, he altogether denied the revealed character of the Veda and the

efficacy of the Brahmanical ceremonies deduced from it, and rejected the

claims of the sacerdotal class to be the repositaries and divinely

appointed teachers of sacred knowledge. That Buddha never questioned the

truth of the Brahmanical theory of transmigration shows that this early

product of speculative thought had become firmly rooted in the Hindu

mind as a tenet of belief amounting to moral conviction. To the Hindu

philosopher this doctrine seemed alone to account satisfactorily for the

apparent essential similarity of the vital element in all animate

beings, no less than for what elsewhere has led honest and logical

thinkers to the stern dogma of predestination. The belief in eternal

bliss or punishment, as the just recompense of man's actions during this

brief term of human life, which their less reflective forefathers had at

one time held, appeared to them to involve a moral impossibility. The

equality of all men, which Buddha preached with regard to the final

goal, the _nirvana_, or extinction of _karma_ and thereby of all future

existence and pain, and that goal to be reached, not by the performance

of penance and sacrificial worship, but by practising virtue, could not

fail to be acceptable to many people. It would be out of place here to

dwell on the rapid progress and internal development of the new

doctrine. Suffice it to say that, owing no doubt greatly to the

sympathizing patronage of ruling princes, Buddhism appears to have been

the state religion in most parts of India during the early centuries of

our era. To what extent it became the actual creed of the body of the

people it will probably be impossible ever to ascertain. One of the

chief effects it produced on the worship of the old gods was the rapid

decline of the authority of the orthodox Brahmanical dogma, and a

considerable development of sectarianism. (See HINDUISM.)

See H.H. Wilson, _Essays on the Religion of the Hindus_; J. Muir,

_Original Sanskrit Texts_; M. Muller, _History of Ancient Sanskrit

Literature_; C. Lassen, _Indische Alterthumskunde_; Elphinstone,

_History of India_, ed. by E.B. Cowell. (J. E.)

BRAHMAPUTRA, a great river of India, with a total length of 1800 m. Its

main source is in a great glacier-mass of the northernmost chain of the

Himalayas, called Kubigangri, about 82 deg. N., and receives various

tributaries including one formerly regarded as the true source from the

pass of Mariam La (15,500 ft.), which separates its basin from the

eastern affluents of the Mansarowar lakes, at least 100 m. south-east of

those of the Indus. It flows in a south-easterly direction for 170 m.,

and then adheres closely to a nearly easterly course for 500 m. more,

being at the end of that distance in 29 deg. 10' N. lat. It then bends

north-east for 150 m. before finally shaping itself southwards towards

the plains of Assam. Roughly speaking, the river may be said so far to

run parallel to the main chain of the Himalaya at a distance of 100 m.

therefrom. Its early beginnings take their rise amidst a mighty mass of

glaciers which cover the northern slopes of the watershed, separating

them from the sources of the Gogra on the south; and there is evidence

that two of its great southern tributaries, the Shorta Tsanpo (which

joins about 150 m. from its source), and the Nyang Chu (the river of

Shigatse and Gyantse), are both also of glacial origin. From the north

it receives five great tributaries, namely, the Chu Nago, the Chachu

Tsanpo and the Charta Tsanpo (all within the first 200 m. of its

course), and the Raka Tsanpo and Kyi-chu (or river of Lhasa) below. The

Chachu and the Charta are large clear streams, evidently draining from

the great central lake district. Both of them measure more than 100 yds.

in width at the point of junction, and they are clearly non-glacial. The

Raka Tsanpo is a lateral affluent, flowing for 200 m. parallel to the

main river course and some 20 to 30 m. north of it, draining the

southern slopes of a high snowy range. It is an important feature as

affording foothold for the Janglam (the great high road of southern

Tibet connecting Ladakh with China), which is denied by the actual

valley of the Brahmaputra. The great river itself is known in Tibet by

many names, being generally called the Nari Chu, Maghang Tsanpo or Yaro

Tsanpo, above Lhasa; the word "tsanpo" (tsang-po) meaning (according to

Waddell) the "pure one," and applying to all great rivers. Fifty miles

from its source the river and the Janglam route touch each other, and

from that point past Tadum (the first important place on its banks) for

another 130 m., the road follows more or less closely the left bank of

the river. Then it diverges northwards into the lateral valley of the

Raka, until the Raka joins the Brahmaputra below Janglache. The upper

reaches are nowhere fordable between Tadum and Lhasa, but there is a

ferry at Likche (opposite Tadum on the southern bank), where wooden

boats covered with hide effect the necessary connexion between the two

banks and ensure the passage of the Nepal trade. From Janglache (13,800

ft.) to Shigatse the river is navigable, the channel being open and wide

and the course straight. This is probably the most elevated system of

navigation in the world. From Shigatse, which stands near the mouth of

the Nyang Chu, to the Kyi-chu, or Lhasa river, there is no direct route,

the river being unnavigable below Shigatse. The Janglam takes a

circuitous course southwards to Gyantse and the Yamdok Cho before

dropping again over the Khambala pass to the ferry at Khamba barje near

Chushul. Thence the valley of the Kyi-chu (itself navigable for small

boats for about 30 m.) leads to Lhasa northwards. At Chushul there is an

iron chain-and-rope suspension bridge over the deepest part of the

river, but it does not completely span the river, and it is too insecure

for use. The remains of a similar bridge exist at Janglache; but there

are no wooden or twig suspension bridges over the Tsanpo. At Tadum the

river is about one half as wide again as the Ganges at Hardwar in

December, i.e. about 250 to 300 yds. At Shigatse it flows in a wide

extended bed with many channels, but contracts again at Chushul, where

it is no wider than it is at Janglache, i.e. from 600 to 700 yds. At

Chushul (below the Kyi-chu) the discharge of the river is computed to be

about 35,000 cub. ft. per second, or seven times that of the Ganges at

Hardwar.

For about 250 m. below Kyi-chu to a point about 20 m. below the great

southerly bend (in 94 deg. E. long.) the course of the Brahmaputra has

been traced by native surveyors. Then it is lost amidst the

jungle-covered hills of the wild Mishmi and Abor tribes to the east of

Bhutan for another 100 m., until it is again found as the Dihong

emerging into the plains of Assam. About the intervening reaches of the

river very little is known except that it drops through 7000 ft. of

altitude, and that in one place, at least, there exist some very

remarkable falls. These are placed in 29 deg. 40' N. lat., between

Kongbu and Pema-Koi. Here the river runs in a narrow precipitous defile

along which no path is practicable. The falls can only be approached

from below, where a monastery has been erected, the resort of countless

pilgrims. Their height is estimated at 70 ft., and by Tibetan report the

hills around are enveloped in perpetual mist, and the Sangdong (the

"lion's face"), over which the waters rush, is demon-haunted and full of

mystic import. Up to comparatively recent years it was matter for

controversy whether the Tsanpo formed the upper reaches of the Dihong or

of the Irrawaddy. From the north-eastern extremity of Assam where, near

Sadya, the Lohit, the Dibong and the Dihong unite to form the wide

placid Brahmaputra of the plains--one of the grandest rivers of the

world--its south-westerly course to the Bay of Bengal is sufficiently

well known. It still retains the proud distinction of being unbridged,

and still the River Flotilla Company appoints its steamers at regular

intervals to visit all the chief ports on its banks as far as Dibrugarh.

Here, however, a new feature has been introduced in the local railway,

which extends for some 80 m. to Sadya, with a branch to the Buri Dihing

river at the foot of the Patkoi range. The Patkoi border the plains of

Upper Assam to the south-east, and across these hills lies the most

reasonable probability of railway extension to Burma.

The following are the "lowest level" discharges of the principal

affluents of the Brahmaputra in Upper Assam, estimated in cubic feet per

second:--

Lohit river, 9 m. above Sadya 38,800

Dibong, 1 m. above junction with Dihong 27,200

Dihong " " Dibong 55,400

Subansiri 16,900

The basins of the Dibong and Subansiri are as yet very imperfectly

known. That of the Lohit has been fairly well explored. Near Goalpara

the discharge of the river in January 1828 was computed to be 140,000

cub. ft., or nearly double that of the Ganges. The length of the river

is 700 m. to the Dihong junction, and about 1000 in Tibet and eastern

Bhutan, above the Dihong. The Brahmaputra, therefore, exceeds the Ganges

in length by about 400 m. The bed of the great river maintains a fairly

constant position between its extreme banks, but the channels within

that bed are so constantly shifting as to require close supervision on

the part of the navigation authorities; so much detritus is carried down

as to form a perpetually changing series of obstructions to steamer

traffic.

An enormous development of agricultural resources has taken place within

the Brahmaputra basin of late years, chiefly in the direction of tea

cultivation, as well as in the production of jute and silk. Gold is

found in the sands of all its upper tributaries, and coal and petroleum

are amongst the chief mineral products which have been brought into

economic prominence. During the rains the Brahmaputra floods hundreds of

square miles of country, reaching a height of 30 to 40 ft. above its

usual level. This supersedes artificial irrigation, and the plains so

watered yield abundantly in rice, jute and mustard.

See _Reports_ of the native explorers of the Indian Survey, edited by

Montgomery and Harman; _Imperial Gazetteer of India_ (1908); Sir T.H.

Holdich, _India_ ("Regions of the World" series, 1903); Ryder,

_Geographical Journal_, 1905; Rawlings, _The Great Plateau_ (1906).

(T. H. H.*)

BRAHMA SAMAJ, a religious association in India which owes its origin to

(Raja) Ram Mohan Roy, who began teaching and writing in Calcutta soon

after 1800. The name means literally the "Church of the One God," and

the word _Samaj_, like the word Church, bears both a local and a

universal, or an individual and a collective meaning. Impressed with the

perversions and corruptions of popular Hinduism, Ram Mohan Roy

investigated the Hindu Shastras, the Koran and the Bible, repudiated the

polytheistic worship of the Shastras as false, and inculcated the

reformed principles of monotheism as found in the ancient Upanishads of

the Vedas. In 1816 he established a society, consisting only of Hindus,

in which texts from the Vedas were recited and theistic hymns chanted.

This, however, soon died out through the opposition it received from the

Hindu community. In 1830 he organized the society known as the Brahma

Samaj.

The following extract from the trust-deed of the building dedicated to

it will show the religious belief and the purposes of its founder. The

building was intended to be "a place of public meeting for all sorts and

descriptions of people, without distinction, who shall behave and

conduct themselves in an orderly, sober, religious and devout manner,

for the worship and adoration of the eternal, unsearchable and immutable

Being, who is the author and preserver of the universe, but not under

and by any other name, designation or title, peculiarly used for and

applied to any particular being or beings by any man or set of men

whatsoever; and that no graven image, statue or sculpture, carving,

painting, picture, portrait or the likeness of anything shall be

admitted within the said messuage, building, land, tenements,

hereditament and premises; and that no sacrifice, offering or oblation

of any kind or thing shall ever be permitted therein; and that no animal

or living creature shall within or on the said messuage, &c., be

deprived of life either for religious purposes or food, and that no

eating or drinking (except such as shall be necessary by any accident

for the preservation of life), feasting or rioting be permitted therein

or thereon; and that in conducting the said worship or adoration, no

object, animate or inanimate, that has been or is or shall hereafter

become or be recognized as an object of worship by any man or set of

men, shall be reviled or slightingly or contemptuously spoken of or

alluded to, either in preaching or in the hymns or other mode of worship

that may be delivered or used in the said messuage or building; and that

no sermon, preaching, discourse, prayer or hymns be delivered, made or

used in such worship, but such as have a tendency to the contemplation

of the Author and Preserver of the universe or to the promotion of

charity, morality, piety, benevolence, virtue and the strengthening of

the bonds of union between men of all religious persuasions and creeds."

The new faith at this period held to the Vedas as its basis. Ram Mohan

Roy soon after left India for England, and took up his residence in

Bristol, where he died in 1835. The Brahma Samaj maintained a bare

existence till 1841, when Babu Debendra Nath Tagore, a member of a

famous and wealthy Calcutta family, devoted himself to it. He gave a

printing-press to the Samaj, and established a monthly journal called

the _Tattwabodhini Patrika_, to which the Bengali language now owes much

for its strength and elegance. About 1850 some of the followers of the

new religion discovered that the greater part of the Vedas is

polytheistic, and a schism took place,--the advanced party holding that

nature and intuition form the basis of faith. Between 1847 and 1858

branch societies were formed in different parts of India, especially in

Bengal, and the new society made rapid progress, for which it was

largely indebted to the spread of English education and the work of

Christian missionaries. In fact the whole Samaj movement is as distinct

a product of the contest of Hinduism with Christianity in the 19th

century, as the _Panth_ movement was of its contest with Islam 300 years

earlier.

The Brahma creed was definitively formulated as follows:--(1) The book

of nature and intuition supplies the basis of religious faith. (2)

Although the Brahmas do not consider any book written by man the basis

of their religion, yet they do accept with respect and pleasure any

religious _truth_ contained in any book. (3) The Brahmas believe that

the religious condition of man is progressive, like the other

departments of his condition in this world. (4) They believe that the

fundamental doctrines of their religion are also the basis of every true

religion. (5) They believe in the existence of one Supreme God--a God

endowed with a distinct personality, moral attributes worthy of His

nature and an intelligence befitting the Governor of the universe, and

they worship Him alone. They do not believe in any of His incarnations.

(6) They believe in the immortality and progressive state of the soul,

and declare that there is a state of conscious existence succeeding life

in this world and supplementary to it as respects the action of the

universal moral government. (7) They believe that repentance is the only

way to salvation. They do not recognize any other mode of reconcilement

to the offended but loving Father. (8) They pray for _spiritual_ welfare

and believe in the _efficacy_ of such prayers. (9) They believe in the

providential care of the divine Father. (10) They avow that love towards

Him and the performances of the works which He loves, constitute His

worship. (11) They recognize the necessity of public worship, but do not

believe that communion with the Father depends upon meeting in any fixed

place at any fixed time. They maintain that they can adore Him at any

time and at any place, provided that the time and the place are

calculated to compose and direct the mind towards Him. (12) They do not

believe in pilgrimages and declare that holiness can only be attained by

elevating and purifying the mind. (13) They put no faith in rites or

ceremonies, nor do they believe in penances as instrumental in obtaining

the grace of God. They declare that moral righteousness, the gaining of

wisdom, divine contemplation, charity and the cultivation of devotional

feelings are their rites and ceremonies. They further say, govern and

regulate your feelings, discharge your duties to God and to man, and you

will gain everlasting blessedness; purify your heart, cultivate

devotional feelings and you will see Him who is unseen. (14)

Theoretically there is no distinction of caste among the Brahmas. They

declare that we are all the children of God, and therefore must consider

ourselves as brothers and sisters.

For long the Brahmas did not attempt any social reforms. But about 1865

the younger section, headed by Babu Keshub Chunder Sen, who joined the

Samaj in 1857, tried to carry their religious theories into practice by

demanding the abandonment of the external signs of caste distinction.

This, however, the older members opposed, declaring such innovations to

be premature. A schism resulted, Keshub Chunder Sen and his followers

founding the Progressive Samaj, while the conservative stock remained as

the Adi (i.e. original) Samaj, their aim being to "fulfil" rather than

to abrogate the old religion. The vitality of the movement, however, had

left it, and its inconsistencies, combined with the lack of strong

leadership, landed it in a position scarcely distinguishable from

orthodox Hinduism. Debendra Nath Tagore sought refuge from the

difficulty by becoming an ascetic. The "Brahma Samaj of India," as

Chunder Sen's party styled itself, made considerable progress

extensively and intensively until 1878, when a number of the most

prominent adherents, led by Anand Mohan Bose, took umbrage at Chunder

Sen's despotic rule and at his disregard of the society's regulations

concerning child marriage. This led to the formation of the Sadharana

(Universal) Brahma Samaj, now the most popular and progressive of the

three sections of the movement and conspicuous for its work in the cause

of literary culture, social reform and female education in India. But

even when we add all sections of the Brahma Samaj together, the total

number of adherents is only about 4000, mostly found in Calcutta and its

neighbourhood. A small community (about 130) in Bombay, known as the

Prarthna (Prayer) Samaj, was founded in 1867 through Keshub Chunder's

influence; they have a similar creed to that of the Brahma Samaj, but

have broken less decisively with orthodox and ceremonial Hinduism.

See the articles on ARYA, SAMAJ, KESHUB CHUNDER SEN, RAM MOHAN ROY.

Also John Robson, _Hinduism and Christianity_; and the _Theistic

Quarterly Review_ (the organ of the Society since 1880).

BRAHMS, JOHANNES (1833-1897), German composer, was born in Hamburg on

the 7th of May 1833. He was the son of a double-bass player in the

Hamburg city theatre and received his first musical instruction from his

father. After some lessons from O. Cossel, he went to Cossel's master,

Eduard Marxsen of Altona, whose experience and artistic taste directed

the young man's genius into the highest paths. A couple of public

appearances as a pianist were hardly an interruption to the course of

his musical studies, and these were continued nearly up to the time when

Brahms accepted an engagement as accompanist to the Hungarian violinist,

Remenyi, for a concert tour in 1853. At Gottingen there occurred a

famous _contretemps_ which had a most important though indirect

influence on the whole after-life of the young player. A piano on which

he was to play the "Kreutzer" sonata of Beethoven with Remenyi turned

out to be a semitone below the required pitch; and Brahms played the

part by heart, transposing it from A to B flat, in such a way that the

great violinist, Joachim, who was present and discerned what the feat

implied, introduced himself to Brahms, and laid the foundation of a

life-long friendship. Joachim gave him introductions to Liszt at Weimar

and to Schumann at Dusseldorf; the former hailed him for a time as a

member of the advanced party in music, on the strength of his E flat

minor scherzo, but the misapprehension was not of long continuance. The

introduction to Schumann impelled that master, now drawing near the

tragic close of his career, to write the famous article "Neue Bahnen,"

in which the young Brahms was proclaimed to be the great composer of the

future, "he who was to come." The critical insight in Schumann's article

is all the more surprising when it is remembered how small was the list

of Brahms's works at the time. A string quartet, the first pianoforte

sonata, the scherzo already mentioned, and the earliest group of songs,

containing the dramatic "Liebestreu," are the works which drew forth the

warm commendations of Schumann. In December 1853 Brahms gave a concert

at Leipzig, as a result of which the firms of Breitkopf & Haertel and of

Senff undertook to publish his compositions. In 1854 he was given the

post of choir-director and music-master to the prince of Lippe-Detmold,

but he resigned it after a few years, going first to Hamburg, and then

to Zurich, where he enjoyed the friendship and artistic counsel of

Theodor Kirchner. The unfavourable verdict of the Leipzig Gewandhaus

audience upon his pianoforte concerto in D minor op. 15, and several

remarkably successful appearances in Vienna, where he was appointed

director of Ihe Singakademie in 1863, were the most important external

events of Brahms's life, but again he gave up the conductorship after a

few months of valuable work, and for about three years had no fixed

place of abode. Concert tours with Joachim or Stockhausen were

undertaken, and it was not until 1867 that he returned to Vienna, or

till 1872 that he chose it definitely as his home, his longest absence

from the Austrian capital being between 1874 and 1878, when he lived

near Heidelberg. From 1871 to 1874 he conducted the concerts of the

"Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde," but after the later date he occupied no

official position of any kind. With the exception of journeys to Italy

in the spring, or to Switzerland in the summer, he rarely left Vienna.

He refused to come to England to take the honorary degree of Mus.D.

offered by the university of Cambridge; the university of Breslau made

him Ph.D. in 1881; in 1886 he was created a knight of the Prussian order

_Pour le merite_, and in 1889 was presented with the freedom of his

native city. He died in Vienna on the 3rd of April 1897.

The works of Brahms may be summarized as follows:--Various _sacred

compositions for chorus_, op. 12, 13, 22, 27, 29, 30, 37, leading up to

op. 45, the "German Requiem" first performed at Bremen in 1868, and

subsequently completed by a soprano solo with chorus; the "Triumphlied"

in commemoration of the German victories of 1870-71; and some choral

songs and motets, op. 74, 109 and 110. _Secular choral works_, op. 17,

41, 42, 44, 50 ("Rinaldo" for tenor solo and male choir), 53

("Rhapsodie," alto solo and male choir), 54 ("Schicksalslied"), 62, 82

(Schiller's Nanie), 89 ("Gesang der Parzen"), 93, 104, 113. _Concerted

vocal-works_, op. 20, 28, 31, 52 ("Liebeslieder-Walzer"), 61, 64, 65

("Neue Liebeslieder"), 75, 92, 103, 112. _Solo songs_, nearly 300.

_Orchestral works_: four symphonies, op. 68, 73, 90 and 98; two

serenades, op. 11 and 16; two pianoforte concertos, op. 15 and 83, one

violin concerto, op. 77; concerto for violin and violoncello, op. 102;

variations on a theme by Haydn, op. 56; two overtures, "Academische

Festouverture," op. 80, and "Tragic Overture," op. 81. _Chamber music_:

two sextets, op. 18 and 36; quintet, piano and strings, op. 34, strings,

op. 88 and 111, clarinet and strings, op. 115; three string quartets,

op. 51 and 67, three quartets for piano and strings, op. 25, 26 and 60.

Three trios for piano and strings, op. 8, 87 and 101; trio for piano,

violin and horn, op. 40; piano, clarinet and violoncello, op. 114. Duet

sonatas, three for piano and violin, op. 78, 100 and 108; two for piano

and violoncello, op. 38 and 99; two for piano and clarinet, op. 120.

_Pianoforte solos_: three sonatas, op. 1, 2 and 5; scherzo, op. 4;

variations, op. 9, 21, 23, 24, 35; 4 ballads, op. 10; waltzes, op. 39;

two rhapsodies, op. 79; caprices and intermezzi, op. 76, 116, 117, 118

and 119. 5 _studies_ and 51 _Uebungen_ without opus-number, and a

_chorale-prelude and fugue_ for organ, besides four books of _Hungarian

Dances_ arranged for pianoforte duet.

Brahms has often been called the last of the great classical masters, in

a sense wider than that of his place in the long line of the great

composers of Germany. Though only the most superficial observers could

deny him the possession of qualities which distinguish the masters of

the romantic school, it is as a classicist that he must be ranked among

modern musicians. From the beginning of his career until its close, his

ideas were clothed by preference in the forms which had sufficed for

Beethoven, and the instances in which he departed from structural

precedent are so rare that they might be disregarded, were they not of

such high value that they must be considered as the signs of a logical

development of musical form, and not as indicating a spirit of rebellion

against existing modes of structure. His practice, more frequent in

later than in earlier life, of welding together the "working-out" and

the "recapitulation" sections of his movements in a closer union than

any of his predecessors had attempted, is an innovation which cannot

fail to have important results in the future; and if the skill of

younger writers is not adequate to such a display of ingenuity as occurs

in the finale of the fourth symphony, where the "passacaglia" form has

been used with an effect that is almost bewildering to the ordinary

listener, that at least stands as a monument of inventiveness finely

subordinated to the emotional and intellectual purport of the thoughts

expressed. His themes are always noble, and even from the point of view

of emotional appeal their deep intensity of expression is of a kind

which grows upon all who have once been awakened to their beauty, or

have been at the pains to grasp the composer's characteristics of

utterance. His vocal music, whether for one voice or many, is remarkable

for its fidelity to natural inflection and accentuation of the words,

and for its perfect reflection of the poet's mood. His songs, vocal

quartets and choral works abound in passages that prove him a master of

effects of sound; and throughout his chamber music, in his treatment of

the piano, of the strings, or of the solo wind instruments he employs,

there are numberless examples which sufficiently show the irrelevance of

a charge sometimes brought against his music, that it is deficient in a

sense of what is called "tone-colour." It is perfectly true that the

mere acoustic effect of a passage was of far less importance to him than

its inherent beauty, poetic import, or logical fitness in a definite

scheme of development; and that often in his orchestral music the casual

hearer receives an impression of complexity rather than of clearness,

and is apt to imagine that the "thickness" of instrumentation is the

result of clumsiness or carelessness. Such instances as the introduction

to the finale of the first symphony, the close of the first movement of

the second, what may be called the epilogue of the third, or the whole

of the variations on a theme of Haydn, are not only marvels of delicate

workmanship in regard to structure, but are instinct with the sense of

the peculiar beauty and characteristics of each instrument. The

"Academic Festival" overture proves Brahms a master of musical humour,

in his treatment of the student songs which serve as its themes; and the

companion piece, the "Tragic" overture, reaches a height of sublimity

which is in no way lessened because no particular tragedy has ever been

named in conjunction with the work.

As with all creative artists of supreme rank, the work of Brahms took a

considerable time before it was very generally appreciated. The change

in public opinion is strikingly illustrated in regard to the songs,

which, once voted ineffective and unvocal, have now taken a place in

every eminent singer's repertory. The outline in his greater works must

be grasped with some definiteness before the separate ideas can be

properly understood in their true relation to each other; and while it

is his wonderful power of handling the recognized classical forms, so as

to make them seem absolutely new, which stamps him as the greatest

musical architect since Beethoven, the necessity for realizing in some

degree what musical form signifies has undoubtedly been a bar to the

rapid acceptance of his greater works by the uneducated lovers of music.

These are of course far more easily moved by effects of colour than by

the subtler beauties of organic structure, and Brahms's attitude towards

tone-colour was scarcely such as would endear him to the large number of

musicians in whose view tone-colour is pre-eminent. His mastery of form,

again, has been attacked as formalism by superficial critics, blind to

the real inspiration and distinction of his ideas, and to their

perfection in regard to style and the appropriateness of every theme to

the exact emotional state to be expressed. In his larger vocal works

there are some which treat of emotional conditions far removed from the

usual stock of subjects taken by the average composer; to compare the

ideas in the "German Requiem" with those of the "Schicksalslied" or

"Nanie" is to learn a lesson in artistic style which can never be

forgotten. In the songs, too, it is scarcely too much to say that the

whole range of human emotion finds expression in noble lyrics that yield

to none in actual musical beauty. The four "Ernste Gesange," Brahms's

last composition, must be considered as his supreme achievement in

dignified utterance of noble thoughts in a style that perfectly fits

them. The choice of words for these as well as for the "Requiem" and

others of his serious works reveals a strong sense of the vanity and

emptiness of human life, but at least as strong a confidence in the

divine consolations.

It has been the misfortune of the musical world in Germany that every

prominent musician is ranged by critics and amateurs in one of two

hostile camps, and it was probably due in the main to the

misrepresentations of the followers of Wagner that the idea was so

generally held that Brahms was a man of narrow sympathies and hard, not

to say brutal manners. The latter impression was fostered, no doubt, by

the master's natural detestation of the methods by which the average

lionizer seeks to gain his object, and both alike are disproved in the

_Recollections_ of J.V. Widmann, an intimate friend for many years,

which throw a new light on the master, revealing him as a man of the

widest artistic sympathies, neither intolerant of excellence in a line

opposed to his own, nor weakly enthusiastic over mediocre productions by

composers whose views were in complete sympathy with him. His admiration

for Verdi and Wagner is enough to show that the absence of any operatic

work from his list of compositions was simply due to the difficulty of

finding a libretto which appealed to him, not to any antagonism to the

lyric stage in its modern developments. How far he stood from the

prejudices of the typical pedant may be seen in the passionate love he

showed throughout his life for national music, especially that of

Hungary. Not only were his arrangements of Hungarian dances the first

work by which his name was known outside his native land, but his first

pianoforte quartet, op. 25 in G minor, incurred the wrath of the critics

of the time by its introduction of some characteristics of Hungarian

music into the finale. His arrangement of a number of children's

traditional songs was published without his name, and dedicated to the

children of Robert and Clara Schumann in the earliest years of his

creative life; and among the last of his publications was a collection

of forty-nine German Volkslieder, arranged with the utmost skill, taste

and simplicity. He had a great admiration for the waltzes of Strauss,

and in many passages of his own works the _entrain_ that is

characteristic of the Viennese dance-writers is present in a striking

degree.

See also W.H. Hadow, _Studies in Modern Music_ (2nd series, 1908); and

the articles MUSIC, SONG. (J. A. F. M.)

BRAHUI, a people of Baluchistan, inhabiting the Brahui mountains, which

extend continuously from near the Bolan Pass to Cape Monze on the

Arabian Sea. The khan of Kalat, the native ruler of Baluchistan, is

himself a Brahui, and a lineal descendant of Kumbar, former chief of the

Kumbarini, a Brahui tribe. The origin of the Brahuis is an ethnological

mystery. Bishop Robert Caldwell and other authorities declare them

Dravidians, and regard them as the western borderers of Dravidian India.

Others believe them to be Scythians,[1] and others again connect them

with Tatar mountaineers who early settled in southern parts of Asia.

The origin of the word itself is in doubt. It is variously derived as a

corruption of the Persian _Ba Rohi_ (literally "of the hills"); as an

eponym from Braho, otherwise Brahin or Ibrahim, a legendary hero of

alleged Arab descent who led his people "out of the west," while Dr

Gustav Oppert believes that the name is in some way related to, if not

identical with, that of the Baluchis. He recognizes in the name of the

Paratas and Paradas, who dwelt in north-eastern Baluchistan, the origin

of the modern Brahui. He gives reasons for regarding the _Bra_ as a

contraction of Bara and obtains "thus in Barahui a name whose

resemblance to that of the ancient Barrhai (the modern Bhars), as well

as to that of the Paratas and Paravar and their kindred the Maratha

Paravari and Dravidian Parheyas of Palaman, is striking." The Brahuis

declare themselves to be the aborigines of the country they now occupy,

their ancestors coming from Aleppo. For this there seems little

foundation, and their language, which has no affinities with Persian,

Pushtu or Baluchi, must be, according to the most eminent scholars,

classed among the Dravidian tongues of southern India. Probably the

Brahuis are of Dravidian stock, a branch long isolated from their

kindred and much Arabized, and thus exhibiting a marked hybridism.

Whatever their origin, the Brahuis are found in a position of

considerable power in Baluchistan from earliest times. Their authentic

history begins with Mir Ahmad, who was their chief in the 17th century.

The title of "khan" was assumed by Nasir the Great in the middle of the

18th century. The Brahuis are a confederacy of tribes possessing common

lands and uniting from time to time for purposes of offence or defence.

At their head is the khan, who formerly seems to have been regarded as

semi-divine, it being customary for the tribesmen on visiting Kalat to

make offerings at the Ahmadzai gate before entering. The Brahuis are a

nomadic race, who dwell in tents made of goats' hair, black or striped,

and live chiefly on the products of their herds. They are Sunnite

Mahommedans, but are not fanatical. In physique they are very easily

distinguished from their neighbours, the Baluchis and Pathans, being a

smaller, sturdier people with rounder faces characterized by the flat,

blunt and coarse features of the Dravidian races. They are of a dark

brown colour, their hair and beards being often brown not black. They

are an active, hardy race, and though as avaricious as the Pathans, are

more trustworthy and less turbulent. Their ordinary dress is a tunic or

shirt, trousers gathered in at the ankles and a cloak usually of brown

felt. A few wear turbans, but generally their headgear is a round

skullcap with tassel or button. Their women are not strictly veiled.

Sandals of deer or goat skin are worn by all classes. Their weapons are

rifles, swords and shields. They do not use the Afghan knife or any

spears. Some few Brahuis are enlisted in the Bombay Native Infantry.

See Dr Bellew, _Indus to Euphrates_ (London, 1874); Gustav Oppert,

_The Original Inhabitants of India_ (1893); Dr Theodore Duka, _Essay

on the Brahui Grammar_ (after the German of Dr Trumpp of Munich

University).