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Literary    History 


®hc  tibrarg  of  titerarg  liatorg 


A     LITERARY     HISTORY     OF     INDIA.       By    R.    W. 
Frazer,  LL.B. 

Other  Voluines  in  Preparaaon. 

A    LITERARY    HISTORY    OF    FRANCE.       Volume    I. 
From  the  Origin  to  1550.     By  Marcel  Schwob. 

A  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.    By  Douglas 
Hyde. 

A     LITERARY     HISTORY    OF    THE      JEWS.       By 
Israel  Abrahams. 

A  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 
By  Barreit  Wendell. 

ETC.  ETC.  ETC. 

In  Demy  8j/o,  Cloth,  gilt. 

There  is  for  every  nation  a  history,  which  does  not  respond  to  the 
tiumpet'Call  of  battle,  which  does  not  limit  its  interest  to  the  coufiict  of 
dynasties.  This— the  history  of  intellectual  growth  and  artistic  achievement 
— if  less  romantic  than  the  popular  panorama  of  kings  and  queens,  finds  its 
material  in  imperishable  masterpieces,  and  reveals  to  the  student  something 
at  once  more  vital  and  more  picturesque  than  the  quarrels  bf  rival  parlia* 
ments.  Nor  is  it  in  any  sense  unscientific  to  shift  the  point  of  view  from 
politics  to  literature.  It  is  but  a  fashion  of  history  which  insists  that  a 
nation  lives  only  for  her  warriors,  a  fashion  which  might  long  since  have 
been  ousted  by  the  commonplace  reflection  that,  in  spite  of  history,  the  poets 
are  the  true  masters  of  the  earth.  If  all  record  of  a  nation's  progress  were 
blotted  out,  and  its  literature  were  yet  left  us,  might  we  not  recover  the  out- 
lines of  its  lost  history  ? 

It  is,  then,  with  the  literature  of  nations,  that  the  present  series  is 
concerned. 

Each  volume  will  be  entrusted  to  a  distinguished  scholar,  and  the  aid  of 
foreign  men  of  letters  will  be  invited  whenever  the  perfection  of  the  series 
demands  it. 


2HE  LIBRARY 
OF 
LITER  JRT  HISJORT 


A  Literary  History  of  India 


A   Literary  History 
of  India 


By 

R.    W.    Frazer,    LL.B. 

Lecturer  in  Tehigii  and  Tamil  at  University  College,  and  the  Imperial  Institute . 

Awards  from  Govemmettt  o/ Madras  for  High  Proficiency  in  Sanskrit, 

Vriya,  and  Telugu ;  Member  of  Council,  Royal  Asiatic  Society, 

Author  of  ■* 

Silent  Gods  and  Sun-Steeped  Lands  '' 

and 
British  India  ("Story  of  the  Nations"  Series) 


New    York 
Charles    Scribner's    Sons 

MDCCCXCVIII 


PREFACE 


-■♦■ ■■- 


In  essaying  to  set  forth  a  connected  history  of  India  from 
such  evidences  as  I  have  selected  from  its  literature,  I  have 
been  obliged  to  evade,  and  not  to  emphasise,  difficulties 
everywhere  patent  to  the  scholar  or  specialist.  In  most 
cases,  however,  I  have  accepted  the  conclusions  of  those 
who  are  recognised  authorities.  In  those  cases  where 
scholars  still  disagree  I  have  indicated  in  footnotes  the 
evidences  on  which  I  had  to  form  conclusions  of  my  own. 

On  many  points,  especially  those  relating  to  the  signi- 
ficance of  the  early,  sacrificial  systems,  to  the  origin  and 
purport  of  the  Epics,  and  to  the  Grseco-Roman  influence 
on  the  form  of  the  Indian  Drama,  it  was  manifestly  im- 
possible, in  a  work  such  as  this,  to  enter  on  any  prolonged 
discussion. 

The  main  outlines  of  the  history  are  never  likely  to  be 
materially  affected  by  future  decisions  on  these  debatable 
points. 


X  PREFACE 

The  early  incursion  of  fair-skinned  Aryan  tribes,  amid 
the  darker  aboriginal  inhabitants,  forms  the  starting-point 
Of  these  Aryans,  the  only  literary  record  we  possess  is  that 
preserved  in  the  Vedic  Hymns,  for  it  does  not  seem 
probable  that  an  unaided  Science  of  Philology  will  ever 
throw  much  light  on  their  past  history  or  religious  beliefs. 
The  early  course  of  these  invading  tribes  can  be  traced  as 
they  forced  their  way  among  the  aborigines,  and  made 
their  settlements  in  the  most  favoured  river  tracts  north  of 
the  Vindhya  range  of  mountains.  The  vast  area  over 
which  the  tribes,  whose  members  can  never  have  been  very 
numerous,  spread  themselves  prevented  them  from  forming 
a  united  and  compact  nationality  of  their  own  among  the 
ruder  aboriginal  races.  The  tribal  deities  lost  their  im- 
portance and  failed  to  coalesce  into  the  ideal  of  one 
national  God. 

As  the  early  sacrificial  cult  drifted  from  its  primitive 
significance  the  idea  was  evolved  of  a  Brahman,  or  self- 
existent  Cause  or  Force,  underlying  the  Universe.  The 
nature  of  this  Brahman  was  ultimately  declared  to  be 
Unknowable  to  reason,  but  to  have  been  revealed  in  the 
sacred  Vedic  literature  to  the  Brahmans,  or  descendants  of 
the  early  poet-priests  who  composed  the  hymns,  prayers, 
or  incantations  to  their  tribal  deities. 

The  first  hope  that  Aryans  and  aborigines  might  become 
infused  with  a  common  ideal  and  faith  dawned  with  the 
personality  and  teachings  of  the  Buddha  at  a  time  when  the 


PREFACE  xi 

full  strength  of  Aryan  intellectual  vigour  was  about  to  cul- 
minate in  phases  of  thought  which  gave  rise  to  the  schools 
of  formulated  philosophic  reasoning.  I  have  endeavoured 
to  trace  the  political  effects  of  these  forces,  and  to  indicate 
the  causes  which  prevented  the  great  civilising  power 
of  early  Aryanism  in  India  from  saving  the  people  from 
divisions  and  dissensions,  which  left  them  an  easy  prey  to 
foreign  invaders.  The  divisions  of  the  people  were  stereo- 
typed by  a  system  of  caste  originally  based  on  racial  and 
intellectual  differences.  The  intrusion  of  Scythian,  Persian, 
Arab,  Afghan,  and  Mughal  hordes  but  increased  the 
diversity  of  the  factors  into  which  the  community  was 
divided.  The  primary  forces  which  prevented  even  an 
Akbar  from  implanting  vital  principles  of  union  among 
the  people  were  religious  fanaticism,  class  distinctions, 
and  race  hatred.  While  these  forces  still  exist,  the  in- 
troduction of  printing  into  India,  and  the  higher  education 
of  the  natives  through  the  medium  of  English,  are  im- 
planting new  modes  of  thought  and  new  principles  ot 
action  among  the  class  which  claims  to  represent  public 
opinion.  The  orthodox  Brahmans,  and  the  high-caste 
natives  of  the  old  conservative  school,  however,  remain 
hostile  to  all  innovations,  determined  to  maintain  the 
fundamental  doctrines  of  their  religion,  and  preserve  the 
best  of  their  ancient  social  customs.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  more  advanced  natives  of  the  new  school,  whose 
trend  of  thought  is,  for  the  most  part,  towards  agnosticism 


xii  PREFACE 

and  freedom  from  all  caste  and  social  restraints,  strive 
more  and  more  to  assume  the  position  of  leaders  of  the 
people  and  exponents  of  their  views.  The  position  is 
one  produced  by  the  deliberate  and  consistent  policy  of 
education  in  India.  The  stage  is  a  stage  of  transition 
and  unrest  but  happily  for  India  it  seems  to  be  fraught 
with  fewer  elements  of  danger  than  the  stage  through 
which  the  nations  of  the  West  seem  destined  to 
pass. 

Throughout  the  work  the  transliteration  of  native  words 
has  been  of  great  difficulty.  Cerebrals  and  nasals  are 
unmarked,  as  the  omission  will  not  confuse  any  one 
acquainted  with  Eastern  languages,  and  my  experience, 
after  many  years  teaching  of  Sanskrit,  Tamil,  and  Telugu, 
is  that  it  is  impossible  for  any  one  unfamiliar  with  the 
sound  of  the  languages  as  spoken  in  India  to  acquire 
even  an  approximate  pronunciation  of  these  letters. 

I  regret  that  it  is  impossible  for  me  fully  to  acknow- 
ledge my  indebtedness  to  the  many  works  I  have 
consulted.  To  the  delegates  of  the  Clarendon  Press  I 
am  especially  indebted  for  permission  to  quote  from  the 
Series  of  the  "  Sacred  Books  of  the  East " — a  monumental 
undertaking  full  of  evidence  of  the  scholarship,  untiring 
"industry  and  wide  sympathies  in  all  matters  connected 
with  the  East  of  Professor  The  Right  Honourable  F. 
Max  Miiller. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr  Pope,  the  Oxford  Professor  of  Tamil 


PREFACE  xiii 

my  sincere  thanks  are  due  for  having  placed  valuable 
original  translations  at  my  disposal,  and  I  trust  that  I 
have  not  too  freely  availed  myself  of  his  permission  to 
quote  from  them.  To  the  Editor  of  the  Series  in  which 
this  history  appears  I  owe  much  for  valuable  suggestions 
and  literary  criticism,  all  of  which  I  have  most  gladly 
accepted.  To  Miss  C.  M.  Duff  I  am  grateful  for  having 
kindly  allowed  me  to  peruse  the  proof  sheets  of  her  forth- 
coming "Chronology  of  India."  Had  I  seen  her  work 
earlier  I  should  have  been  spared  several  months  of  un- 
congenial labour  in  preparing  a  chronological  framework 
for  the  present  history. 

R.  W.  FRAZER. 


London  Institution, 
^th  November  1897. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  The  Aryans     ......  i 

II.  The  Grey  Dawn  Mists        .  .  .         lo 

III.  The  Early  Bards      .....         17 

IV.  The  Twilight  of  the  Older  and  the  Dawn 

OF  Newer  Deities        ....         40 

V.  Brahmanism     ......         63 

VI.  From  Brahmanism  to  Buddhism   ...        94 
VII.  Buddhism  .  .  .  .  .  .114 

VIII.  The  Power  of  the  Brahmans       .  .  .148 

IX.  The  Final  Resting-Place  of  Aryan  Thought         188 

X.  The  Epics         ......       210 

XI.  The  Attack      ......       242 

XII.  The  Drama       ......       263 

XIII.  South  India      ......       300 

XIV.  The  Foreigner  in  the  Land        .  .  .332 
XV.  The  Fusing  Point  of  Old  and  New  .       384 


Frontispiece.— From  "  Manners  in  Bengal,"  by  Mrs  Belnos. 


LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE  arya:ms. 


No  invasion  of  India  is  feasible  in  the  present  day  save  by 
a  maritime  nation  holding  the  supremacy  of  the  seas,  or  by 
a  force  advancing  from  Central  Asia  with  strength  sufficient 
to  break  its  way  through  the  defences  on  the  west  and 
north-west  frontiers.  From  Chitral  in  the  extreme  north, 
where  the  Ikshkamun  and  Baroghil  Passes  show  the  way 
across  the  Hindu  Kush  to  the  lonely  heights  of  the  Pamirs, 
southwards  to  where  the  Khaibar  Pass  gives  access  to 
Kabul,' the  Gumal  and  Tochi  Passes  lead  to  Ghazni,  and 
the  Bolan  still  further  south  to  Quetta  and  Chaman,  on  to 
the  seaport  town  of  Karachi  in  Sind,  a  distance  of  1200 
miles,  the  whole  north-west  and  west  frontiers  are  held 
by  British  troops,  backed  by  defensive  entrenchments  and 
batteries,  prepared  to  meet  the  first  advancing  armies  that 
venture  to  tread  the  historic  paths  of  old  that  so  often  led 
the  nomad  hosts  of  Central  Asia  to  the  conquest  of  India. 
From  time  immemorial,  bands  of  warlike  invaders  have 
swarmed  down  from  beyond  these  barrier  passes  to  conquer 
the  effete  inhabitants  of  the  fertile  river  -  valleys  of  the 
plains  of  India,  only  themselves  in  turn  to  fall  subdued 

A 


2  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

by  the  enervating  influence  of  the  climate,  and  be  swept 
away  by  succeeding  bands  of  hardier  invading  races. 

When  the  history  of  India  first  dawns  in  literature,  it  is 
through  these  same  bleak  mountain  passes  that  tribes 
of  warrior  heroes,  bred  in  cold  and  northern  climes,  are 
seen  slowly  advancing  to  seek  new  homes  beneath  the 
warm  and  southern  sun.  Proud  in  their  conquering  might, 
these  tribes  called  themselves  Arya,  or  "Noble,"  a  term 
denoting  the  contempt  they  felt  for  the  dark-skinned  races 
they  found  in  possession  of  the  land.  Full  four  thousand 
years  ago,  these  first  historic  invaders  of  India  must  have 
stood  gazing,  in  wonder  and  amazement,  from  the  lofty 
heights  of  some  one  of  these  northern  passes,  on  the  rich 
valleys  lying  smiling  at  their  feet.  To  their  gods  they 
sang  their  songs  of  thanksgiving  that  at  length  their  weary 
journey  from  colder  realms  was  at  an  end,  and  that  victory 
had  been  given  them  over  their  foes,  who  lurked  amid  the 
mountain  forests,  and  opposed  their  progress  with  fierce 
cries  and  rude  weapons.  These  invading  tribes  were  a 
fair-skinned  race  ^  with  whom  all  Brahmans  and  twice-born 
higher  castes  of  India  now  claim  kindred,^  holding  them- 
selves aloof  from  the  darker-skinned  descendants  of  the 
aboriginal  inhabitants.  The  birthright  of  the  Brahmans 
of  India  is  to  keep  preserved  in  their  memories  the  early 
hymns  sung  by  their  Aryan  forefathers.  These  hymns — 
every  stress  and  accent  marked  as  in  days  long  past,  every 
syllable   and  word   intoned  according  to  ancient   usage, 

'  "  A  tall  feir-complexioned  dolichocephalic  and  presumedly  lepterhine  race. '' 
— Risley,  "Study  of  Ethnology  in  India,"  p.  2^<j ;  Jottmal  Anthropological 
Institute  (February  1891). 

2  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  using  the  term,  "  Arj'an,"  with  reference  to 
modem  India,  it  merely  refers  to  those  people  who  speak  Aryan  languages, 
no  suggestion  being  made  that  these  people  are  necessarily  of  Aryan  descent. 
As  clearly  stated  by  Max  MuUer,  in  a  letter  to  Mr  Risley  ("Biographies  of 
Words,"  p.  245) :  "  Aryas  are  those  who  speak  Aryan  language,  whatever 
their  colour,  whatever  their  language.  In  calling  them  Aryas,  we  predict  nothing 
of  them  except  that  the  grammar  of  their  language  is  Aryan." 


THE   ARYANS  3 

remain  the  sacred  treasure  of.  their  hereditary  custodians, 
so  that  the  utterances  of  the  early  Aryan  invaders  of  India 
live  to-day  as  clear  and  distinct  as  when  first  sung  by  the 
Vedic  poets.  These  treasured  verses,  as  collected  together 
in  the  1028  hymns,  known  as  the  "  Hymns  of  the  Rig  Veda," 
are  all  that  are  left  to  enable  us  of  to-day  to  pierce  the  mists 
of  the  long  past  history  of  India.  To  all  orthodox  Hindus, 
they  are  held  as  having  been  breathed  forth  as  a  divine 
revelation  from  before  all  time.  The  reducing  of  them  to 
writing,  and  even  the  hearing  of  their  recitation  by  foreigners, 
or  by  any  but  the  twice-born  castes,  is  still  looked  upon  as 
sacrilege  and  profanation  by  those  who  claim  the  sole  right 
to  hear  their  sacred  sound. 

The  iirst  of  a  long  line  of  priestly  legislators  who  strove 
to  reduce  all  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  people  of  India 
to  ideals  founded  on  priestly  ordinances  declared  ^  that  a 
Sudra,  or  one  of  non-Aryan  blood,  who  dared  to  listen  to 
the  recitation  of  the  Vedic  Hymns,  should  have  his  ears 
filled  with  molten  tin  or  lac ;  should  the  Sudra  repeat  the 
words  he  had  heard,  his  tongue  should  be  cut  out;  should 
he  remember  the  sound,  his  body  should  be  split  in  twain. 

These  Hymns,  though  they  are  still  held  as  revelations 
from  the  Creator  of  the  universe,  tell  nothing  of  the  long, 
dark  night  that  preceded  the  advent  of  these  Aryan  tribes, 
who  loom  so  indistinct  on  the  horizon  of  the  literary  history 
of  India. 

To  the  Vedic  bards,  standing  as  they  did  on  the  threshold 
of  a  new  world,  the  story  of  their  nation's  past  faded  into  in- 
significance before  the  brightness  of  its  present.  Enthroned 
in  the  pride  of  race,  the  poet  sang  of  the  might  of  his 
people,  of  his  own  power  to  win,  by  the  magic  of  his  words 
and  cunning  of  his  spells,  the  favour  of  the  gods,  so  that 
they  might  lead  the  Aryan  tribes  to  victory.  For  him  the 
hand  of  time  passed  by  unnoticed.     To  have  told  of  the 

'  "Gautama,"  chap  xii.  4-6,  S.B.E.  vol.  ii. 


4  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

past  in  the  intoxicated  fervour  of  his  imagination,  as  he 
alone  could  have  done  it,  would  have  dimmed  the  glory 
of  the  present.  The  time  had  not  come  when  his  mind, 
grown  full  of  halting  fears,  would  brood  in  misgivings  over 
the  future.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  the  very  words  over  which 
the  poets  lingered  in  syllables  of  soft  cadence,  or  which 
came  rushing  from  their  lips  with  the  sound  of  the  heavy 
roll  of  war  chariots,  held  the  secret,  not  only  of  their  own, 
but  of  many  other  people's  past. 

The  torch  of  learning,  set  aglow  by  the  first  Aryan 
invaders  of  India,  was  kept  for  long  alight  by  an  hereditary 
line  of  Brahman  priests,  poets,  and  philosophers,  who 
ministered,  sang,  and  reasoned  far  and  wide — from  the 
holy  land  of  Aryavarta,  to  the  distant  seminaries  in  the 
South ;  from  the  Buddhist  monasteries  in  the  West,  to  the 
renowned  schools  of  logic  in  the  East  Fresh  conquerors 
appeared  in  the  land,  but  still  the  Brahmans  kept  on  their 
even  way.  At  length  the  advancing  wave  of  a  Western 
civilisation,  founded  on  new  ideals,  crept  up  the  banks 
of  the  sacred  rivers  of  India,  and  spread  all  over  the  land. 
In  the  eager  race  for  wealth  that  ensued  on  the  entry  of 
these  new  invaders,  the  whole  foundations  on  which  the 
fantastic  structure  of  the  religious  and  social  life  of  India 
was  based  remained  unnoticed,  as  though  Vedic  song  had 
never  been  sung  in  the  land,  and  Brahman  had  never 
existed. 

The  first  to  take  note  of  the  ancient  learning  of  the  land 
was  the  English  Governor-General  Warren  Hastings,  who 
summoned  eleven  Brahmans  to  Calcutta,  there  to  compile 
for  their  new  rulers  a  code  of  Hindu  religions  and  customs.^ 
The  reasons  set  forth  by  the  Governor-General  for  thus 
desiring  to  ascertain  somewhat  of  the  laws  of  the  Brahmans 

^  The  first  published  translation  from  Sanskrit  into  any  European  language 
was  "  Bhartrihari's  Satakas,"  by  Abraham  Roger,  first  Dutch  chaplain  at 
Pulicat  (1631-1641),  Grierson,  "Satsaiya  ofBihari,"  p.  2. 


THE  ARYANS  5 

was,  that  "the  Hindus  had  for  long  fallen  under  the 
Muhammadan  rule,  so  that  terror  and  confusion  had 
found  a  way  to  all  the  People,  and  Justice  was  not 
impartially  administered."  ^  The  work  compiled  by  these 
eleven  Brahmans  reached  England  in  the  year  1776,  but 
still  the  Sanskrit  on  which  it  had  been  founded  held  its 
secret  safe.  Nine  years  later  (1785)  a  young  merchant, 
J.  Wilkins,  sent  forth  his  translation  of  the  Indian  Song  of 
Songs,  the  "  Bhagavadgita,''  and  two  years  later  (1787),  the 
collection  of  Hindu  stories,  known  as  the  "  Hitopadesa,"  the 
original  source  of  the  famed  fables  of  Bidpai.  Yet  the 
West  woke  not  up  to  the  fact  that  India  possessed  aught 
of  more  value  than  bales  of  calico,  rich  spices,  and  gems. 
Two  years  later,  a  drama  of  Kalidasa,  the  Shakespeare  of 
India,  was  given  to  the  West  by  Sir  William  Jones.  This 
drama,  the  now  well-known  "  Sakuntala,"  showed  that  India 
possessed  a  literature.  To  Kalidasa  Alexander  von 
Humboldt  allotted  "  a  lofty  place  among  the  poets  of  all 
ages,"  and  of  the  drama  itself  Goethe  sang  in  raptures  in 
his  well-known  lines  : — 

"  Willst  du  die  Bluthe  des  friihen,  die  Friichte  des  spateren  Jahres, 
Willst  du  was  reizt  und  entziiekt,  willst  du  was  sattigt  und  nahrt, 
Willst  du  den  Himmel  die  Erde,  mit  einem  Namen  begreifen  ; 
Nenn'  ich  SakuntaM  dich  und  so  ist  alias  gesagt." 

The  attention,  not  only  of  men  of  taste  but  also  of 
scholars,^  was  naturally  attracted  to  these  works,  and 
efforts  were  made  in  Europe  to  study  and  master  the 
Sanskrit  in  which  they  were  composed.  So  far  an  interest — 
an  interest  of  curiosity — was  aroused  in  the  literature  of 
India,  but  no  expectations  were  entertained  that  the  West 
had  anything  further  to  learn  from  the  lore  of  the  East. 

^  Halhed's  Introduction  to  "The  Code  of  Gentoo  Laws"  (London,  1776). 
2  F.  Schlegel  (1808),  "  Upon  the  Language  and  Wisdom  of  the  Hindus," 
where  he  derives  the  Indo-Germanic  family  from  India, 


6  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Soon,  however,  it  came  to  light^  that  India  not  only  possessed 
a  sacred  literature,  that  of  the  Vedic  Hymns,  but  that  the 
Sanskrit  of  these  hymns  was  of  a  primitive  and  archaic 
type,  preserving  in  structure  and  grammatical  forms 
affinities  with  the  Aryan  languages  of  Europe.  At  once 
the  belief  arose  that  this  Vedic  Sanskrit  was  the  primitive 
language  of  humanity ,2  and  the  old  belief  that  the  East 
was  the  cradle  of  the  human  race  gained  new  strength. 
It  was  fondly  hoped  that  the  Brahmans  of  India  had 
preserved  the  parent  speech,  out  from  which  had  grown 
the  Greek,  Latin,  Iranian,  Celtic,  Lettic,  Teutonic,  and 
Slavonic  languages.  Soon  these  hopes  were  doomed  to 
disappointment.  Sanskrit  was  found  to  be  but  one  branch 
of  the  great  Indo-European  family  of  languages,  and  not 
even  as  such  to  have  preserved  a  structure  which  can  be 
considered  more  primitive  than  that  of  the  other  known 
branches.^ 

The  plea  for  India  as  the  lost  home  of  primitive  man 
died  away,  and  in  its  place  the  belief*  that  the  nations  of 
Europe  had  migrated  in  early  days  from  the  Bactrian  plains 
of  Central  Asia,  was  held  as  a  fundamental  axiom  in  all  en- 
quiries into  the  origin  of  the  Indo-European  races.  Even  the 
routes  by  which  these  early  people  spread  from  their  Asiatic 
home  towards  Europe  were  clearly  traced  out,^  and  acknow- 
ledged as  correct.   The  ablest  scholars^  accepted  this  Asiatic 


1  F.  Rosen  (1838),  "  Rig  Veda,  Sanhita  Sanskrite  et  Latine." 

2  Weber,  "Modern  Investigations  on  Ancient  India"  (1857). 

'  "  Although  no  historic  conclusions  may  be  drawn  from  the  primitiveness 

of  Sanskrit,  that  primitiveness  itself  remains  the  same  as  ever." Max  Muller 

"Biographies  of  Words,"  p.  99. 

"  Of  all  the  existing  tongues  of  the  whole  great  family,  the  Lithuanian  or 
the  Baltic  retains  by  far  the  most  antique  aspect." — Whitney,  "Language 
and  the  Study  of  Language,"  p.  203. 

<  Grimm,  "Geschichte  der  Deutschen  Sprache,"  pp.  113-122. 

^  Pictet,  "Origines  Europ^ennes,"  1859. 

°  Max  Muller,  "  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language." 


THE  ARYANS  7 

theory,  while  Sayce^  agreed  that  "it  is  in  the  highlands 
of  Middle  Asia,  between  the  sources  of  the  Oxus  and 
Jaxartes,"  that  the  first  traces  of  the  Aryan  languages 
appear  in  history. 

The  most  pathetic  instance  of  the  unrelenting  vindictive- 
ness  meted  out  by  orthodoxy  to  originality,  is  to  be  seen 
in  the  ridicule  showered  on  Dr  Latham,  when  he  ventured  ^ 
upon  the  enunciation  of  a  new  suggestion,  that  the  original 
home  of  the  Aryans  might  be  sought  in  Europe  rather  than 
in  Asia.*  Various  theories  followed  in  rapid  succession.  It 
was  not  long  before .  grounds  were  found  for  locating  the 
primitive  Aryans  somewhere  to  the  north*  of  the  Black 
Sea,  from  the  Danube  to  the  Caspian,  while  again  on  further 
investigation,  the  home  was  shifted  to  Central  and  West 
Germany.^  The  habitat  was  then  removed  to  the  whole  of 
North  Europe,*  from  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  to  the  con- 
fines of  the  Ural  range  of  mountains,  until  at  length  the  theory 
was  propounded  that  the  Aryan  people  have  always  occupied 
the  same  relative  position  they  now  hold,  and  that  linguistic 
varieties  arose  in  situ!' 

In  1878,  Poesche,^  met  by  the  difficulty  arising  from 
connoting  unity  of  race,  with  unity  of  language,  called  in 

1  "Principles  of  Comparative  Philology"  (1874),  p.  101. 

*  First  in  "Native  Races  of  the  Russian  Empire,"  1854.  See  Rendall, 
"Cradle'of  the  Aryans,"  p.  8.     6'«e  Schrader,  "  Prehistoric  Antiquities,"  p.  85. 

5  Max  Miiller  still  declares  himself  "  more  inclined  to  the  Asiatic  hypothesis  " 
XAthencBum,  April  4,  1896). 

*  Benfey's  Introduction  to  Fichte's  "  Worterbuch  der  Indo-Germanischen- 
Grundsprache  "  (1868),  p.  ix.  and  "Geschichte  der  Sprachwissenschaft,"  1869. 

^  Geiger,  "Zur  Entwickluiigsgeschichte  der  Menschheit"  (1871).  See 
Schrader,  p.  87. 

s  Cuno,  "Forschungen  in  Gebiete  der  alten  Volker-kunde ''  (1871).  See 
Schrader,  p.  89. 

'  See  Taylor,  "  Origin  of  the  Aryans,"  p.  36. 

8  "Die  Arier,  Ein  Beitrag  zur  historischen  Anthropologie"  (1878).  In  the 
marshes  of  Pinsk,  "the  phenomenon  of  depigmentation  or  abhnism  is  of 
extremely  common  occurrence,  and  is  clearly  marked  in  men,  animals,  and 
plants,"  and  accounts  for  the  blonde  colour  of  Indo-Europeans.  See  Schrader, 
p.  100. 


8  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

the  aid  of  anthropology  and  archaeology,  and  propounded 
his  theory  that  there  was  but  one  true  Aryan  race,  a  race 
tall,  blue-eyed,  fair-skinned,  with  a  dolichocephalic  skull, 
whose  ancestral  home  he  assigned  to  a  clime  where  plants, 
animals,  and  men  soon  became  bleached,  to  the  Rokitno 
swamps  of  Russia.^ 

More  plausible  and  fascinating  was  the  theory  ^  that 
Scandinavia  was  the  original  home  of  the  typical  Aryans, 
who  are  now  only  to  be  found  in  North  Germany  and 
Scandinavia,  language  alone  being  left  in  other  parts  of 
Europe  and  in  India  as  a  sign  of  an  Aryan  conquest,  the 
Aryan  race  itself  having  succumbed  in  Southern  climes  to 
climatic  influences.  That  there  did  exist  a  people,  living 
united  somewhere,  probably  in  Europe,^  known  to  us  as 
Aryans,  who  spoke  a  language  from  which  the  modern 
languages  of  Europe  have  diversified,  as  well  as  the  languages 
spoken  by  the  Zend-speaking  Iranians  of  Persia,  and  the 
Sanskrit-speaking  peoples  of  Vedic  times  in  India,  admits  of 
but  little  doubt.  That  these  Aryan-speaking  people  separated 
the  one  from  the  other  in  some  ancient  period,  the  ancestors 
of  the  Indo-Iranians  travelling  East  to  seek  new  pasture- 
lands  and  homes,  the  Europeans  holding  together  until  they 
reached  a  halting  ground,  probably  bordered  on  *  the  South 

^  Taylor,  "Origin  of  the  Aryans,"  p.  43. 

2  Penka,  "  Origines  Ariacae"  (1883) ;  "  Die  Herkunft  der  Arier"  (1886). 

"The  Ice  Age  drove  the  majority  of  the  human  race  from  central  Europe. 
The  Aryans  remained,  and  it  is  "  the  climate  of  the  Ice  Age,  and  the  struggle 
with  their  environment  that  they  have  to  thank  for  their  blonde  hair,  blue 
eyes,  gigantic  limbs,  and  dolichocephalous  skulls." — Schrader,  p.  102. 

^Huxley,  Nineteenth  Century,  1890,  pp.  750-777: — "As  to  the  'home' 
of  the  Aryan  race,  it  was  in  Europe,  and  lay  chiefly  east  of  the  central  high- 
lands and  west  of  the  Ural."  Van  den  Gheyn  has  in  "  L'Origine  Europeenne 
des  Aryas  "  (1885),  analysed  all  these  theories. 

R.  von  Iheringin  "The  Evolution  of  the  Aryan"  (tr.  A.  Drucker,  1897), 
has  adopted  "the  prevailing  opinion  that  the  original  home  of  the  Aryans 
was  in  Ancient  Bactria  (Central  Asia),"  and  holds  that  "the  ancient  Aryans 
lived  in  a  hot  zone  "  (see  pp.  i,  2). 

*  Schrader,  "Prehistoric  Antiquities,"  chap.  xiv.  p.  434. 


THE  ARYANS  g 

by  the  Danube,  and  on  the  West  by  the  Carpathians,  where 
they  evolved  the  elements  of  their  future  civilisation,  seems 
now  the  most  reliable  conjecture.  From  the  Celts  who 
followed  their  ever-waning  fortunes  towards  the  Main  and 
Rhine  ;  from  the  Teutons  who  stolidly  marched  along  the 
Vistula  and  Oder ;  from  the  Greeks  who  found  a  resting- 
place  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Olympus,  thence  to  send  South 
tribes  of  lonians,  .^olians,  Achseans  and  Dorians ;  from  the 
Latin,  Slav  and  Lithuanian  races,  the  Indo-Iranians  parted 
for  ever,  to  carry  to  the  East  the  intellectual  vigour  and 
physical  energy  they  inherited,  in  common  with  all  races 
bred  and  nurtured  amid  the  harsh  necessities  of  a  northern 
clime.  Of  the  long  pilgrimage  of  these  eastward-travelling 
tribes,  along  the  pasture-lands  of  the  Oxus  and  Jaxartes — 
the  only  natural  route — neither  archaeology  nor  philology 
can  throw  any  light.  On  this  long  march  the  eastern-going 
tribes  first  became  known  as  Aryans. 

Speaking  some  language,  older  in  its  primitive  form  than 
Zend  or  Sanskrit,  the  Indo-Iranians  held  long  together,  until 
at  length  a  feud,  probably  religious,  arose  and  divided  them 
for  ever.  All  that  is  certainly  known  is,  that  one  division 
of  the  tribes,  the  Iranian,  sought  a  home  in  Persia,  the  other, 
the  Indo- Aryans,  passed  onwards  towards  the  Indus,  to  seek 
new  homes  in  the  sunlit  plains  of  India. 


CHAPTER  11. 

THE  GREY  DAWN   MISTS. 

For  long  it  was  hoped  that  the  Science  of  Compara- 
tive Philology  might  weave  out  a  history  of  the  period 
before  the  Aryan  people  separated  to  build  up  their  own 
distinctive  languages  and  civilisations.  In  spite  of  the 
brilliant  results  at  first  obtained/  it  is  now  recognised  that 
only  here  and  there  a  few  faint  clues  can  be  found  as  to  the 
mode  of  life  of  these  Aryans  before  the  time  when  their 
literary  records  rise  from  out  the  dim  mists  of  the  pre- 
historic days. 

The  Science  of  Language,  in  the  words  of  Dr  Schrader, 
"  can  only  give  us  a  skeleton,  and  to  cover  the  dry  bones 
with  flesh  and  blood  is  the  prerogative  of  the  Comparative 
History  of  Culture.  That  the  Indo-Europeans  did  possess 
the  notion  of  a  house  the  philologists  show  us,  for  the 
Sans,  damd,  Lat.  domus,  Greek  Sd/zos,  Slav.  domU,  corre- 
spond ;  but  how  these  houses  were  constituted  the  historian 
of  primitive  culture  alone  can  ascertain."  ^ 

For  the  construction  of  such  a  skeleton,  the  strict  rules  of 
philological  research  demand,  in  order  that  a  word  may  be 

^  The  earliest  list  of  common  Aryan  words  was  by  Colebrooke  (1803).  See 
Max  MuUer's  "  Biographies  of  Words,"  p.  iz8;  Schrader,  "  Prehistoric  An- 
tiquities," p.  149. 

°  Schrader,  p.  149. 


THE   GREY  DAWN  MISTS  ii 

taken  as  a  fossil  of  prehistoric  life,  that  it  should  not  only 
be  represented  in  at  least  one  section  of  the  European  and 
one  of  the  Asiatic  groups,  but  that  it  should  also  agree  in 
suffix  as  well  as  root.^  Care  must  also  be  taken  to 
eliminate  from  consideration  such  concepts  as  may  possibly 
have  been  borrowed  by  one  language  from  another.^ 

Allowing  for  all  these  and  similar  restrictions,  which  hold 
the  imagination  ruthlessly  bound  to  the  dry  accuracy  of 
scientifically-proved  fact,  some  flickering  gleam  of  light  can 
still  be  shed  on  the  dim  past  of  the  Indo-Aryans — before 
history  dawns  in  the  Vedic  Hymns — as  they  emerge  on  the 
North-West  passes,  thence  to  descend  down  the  river- 
valleys  of  the  Ganges  and  Jumna,  take  up  their  abodes  in 
the  fertile  plains,  send  their  warriors  and  missionaries 
across  the  Vindhya  range  of  mountains,  only  to  see  their 
vaunted  pride  droop  before  the  eternal  decrees  of  Fate, 
which  ever  bid  the  Aryan  succumb,  as  he  drifts  further 
from  the  cold  realms  wherein  his  warlike  manhood  was 
first  nurtured. 

Philology,  however,  affords  but  vague  and  uncertain 
evidence  respecting  the  thoughts,  beliefs,  and  ideals  of 
the  primitive  Aryans  before  they  left  their  cold  northern 
homes.  It  may  be  assumed  that,  as  human  beings,  they 
had  their  own  aspirations  towards  the  ideal,  and  longings 
for  a  knowledge  of  the  Divine.  It  may  be  held  for  certain 
that  they  had  not  sunk  their  heritage  as  reasoning 
creatures  to  the  level  of  the  brute  instincts  of  the  flocks 
they  pastured. 

The  chilling  hand  of  science,  however,  lies  heavy  on 
those  who  fain  would  paint  a  brilliant  sunlit  background 
to  light  up  the  simple  picture  of  the  life  and  homes  of  our 
earliest  historic  forefathers. 

1  Schrader,  p.  30  ;  Rendall,  "Cradle  of  the  Aryans,"  p.  9. 
=  See  also  Max   MuUer,   "  Contributions  to  the  Science  of  Mythology," 
vol.  i.  p.  xi. 


12  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

It  has  even  been  held^  that  the  early  Aryans  were 
devoid  of  all  religious  ideas.  Again  they  are  declared 
merely  to  have  "  believed  in  a  multitude  of  ghosts  and 
goblins,  making  offerings  to  the  dead  and  seeing  in  the 
bright  sky  a  potent  deity."  ^ 

Professor  Max  Miiller,  however,  still  contends  ^  that  not 
only  had  the  Aryans,  before  their  arrival  in  India,  gods  who 
were  the  personified  representations  of  the  phenomena  of 
Nature, but  thatthey,in  common  with  the  undivided  branches 
of  the  Aryan  family,  had  an  abiding  faith  in  deitieis  known 
as  "  asuras,"  or  "  devas."*  These  were  the  gods  of  whom  the 
myths  were  told,  chief  of  them  all  being  the  supreme  deity 
of  the  sky ;  for,  as  the  same  authority  says :  "  Even  the 
most  stubborn  opponents  of  all  attempts  at  tracing  Greek 
and  Indian  gods  back  to  a  common  source  seem  to  have 
yielded  an  unwilling  assent^  to  the  relationship  between 
the  Greek  Zeus-^rar^p,  the  Vedic  Dyaush-pitar,  the  Latin 
Jupiter,  and  the  Teutonic  Tyr^  ® 

Yet  in  India  in  the  first  utterances  of  the  Vedic  Hymns, 
Dyaus  appears  merely  as  a  designation  of  the  visible  sky, 
his  personality  as  a  supreme  god  having  faded  before  the 
purely  Vedic  "  devas,"  or  bright  ones.'^     According  to  Dr 


1  Otto  Gruppe,  "Die  Griechischen  Kulte  und  Mythen."  See  Schrader, 
p.  410. 

^  Sayce,  p.  890,  British  Association  (1887). 

'  Max  Miiller,  "  Contributions  to  Science  of  Mythology,"  vol.  i.  p.  74. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  448,  arguing  from  Lat.  crSdo,  etc.,  "the  idea  of 
faith  also  must  have  been  realised,"  etc.  See,  however,  Schrader,  p. 
415. 

5  "  Many  equations  of  names  once  made  in  the  first  enthusiasm  of  discovery 
and  generally  accepted,  have  since  been  rejected,  and  very  few  of  those  that 
remain,  rest  on  a  firm  foundation.  Dyaiis — Tievi,  is  the  only  one  which  can  be 
said  to  be  beyond  the  range  of  doubt." — A.  A.  Macdonell,  "  Vedic  Mythology  " 
(Grundriss),  p.  8. 

*  Max  MUUer,  "Contributions  to  Science  of  Comp.  Mythology,"  vol.  ii. 
p.  498. 

'  Sans,  devds,  Lat.  deus,  O.  N.  tivdr  and  div.  Lat.  flamen  Sans. 
brahman — worshipping.     Schrader,  "  Prehistoric  Antiquities,"  p.  416. 


THE   GREY  DAWN  MISTS  13 

Schrader,!  "  the  personification  of  the  sky  cannot  have  gone 
very  far  in  that  prehistoric  period,  else  it  would  be  difficult 
to  see  why  the  meaning  of '  sky '  should  have  got  the  upper 
hand  again  in  later  times."  The  Aryans,  in  fact,  present 
in  their  Vedic  Hymns  the  first  literary  landmarks  in 
the  history  of  India,  and  beyond  those  same  Vedic  Hymns, 
little  can  be  definitely  asserted  as  to  their  mythology  or 
their  beliefs  in  God  or  the  after  life. 

Philology  can,  however,  tell  that  the  Aryans  came  from  a 
land  where  the  climate  was,  for  the  most  part,  cold,  although 
a  summer  was  known.^  Time  was  there  measured  by  the 
moon ;  the  year  was  lunar,  unadjusted  to  a  solar  year, 
and  time  itself  was  computed  by  the  night,  a  reminis- 
cence of  which  computation  still  lives  in  the  English 
fortnight  and  sennight.^ 

That  they  had  made  some  advance  towards  civilisation 
is  clear.  Copper  was  probably  known,  but  it  is  doubtful 
if  iron,  gold,  or  silver  were  in  use.* 

The  people  were  grouped  together  in  clans  ;  each  member 
within  the  separate  clans  bearing,  as  a  distinctive  appellation, 
the  name  of  some  common  ancestor  or  father,  under  whose 
patriarchal  authority  the  "sib,"  or  clan  would  have  remained 
if  he  were  living.^  The  clans  united  together  for  warfare, 
defence,  or  corporate  management,  formed  the  tribe. 
Strangers  were  held  as  enemies,  so  that  with  them  no  trade 
or   commerce  was  possible.      Inside  the  tribe,  exchange 

'  Schrader,  "  Prehistoric  Antiquities,"  p.  417. 

^  "That  the  Aryans  did  not  come  from  a  very  southern  clime  has  long 
been  known,  since  they  possessed  common  names  for  winter,  such  as  Sanskrit, 
hima,  Greek,  x^'-l^'^^'  Latin,  kiems,  Old  Slav,  eima,  Irish,  gam."— Ma.x. 
Miiller,  "  Biographies  of  Words,"  p.  103. 

"  See  Schrader,  "Prehistoric  Antiquities,"  p.  311 ;  Tacitus,  "Germ."  XI.  : 
JVec  dieruin  numerum  sed  noctium  computant.  See  Schrader,  chap,  vi ;  Sayce, 
British  Association  (1887),  p.  889. 

*  Max  Miiller,  "Biographies  of  Words,"  p.  180;  Kendall,  "Cradle  of  the 
Aryans,"  p.  12. 

*  Schrader,  "  Prehistoric  Antiquities,"  pp.  398-9. 


14  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

was  carried  on  by  barter,  the  standard  of  value  being  the 
cow.  Marriage  was  as  a  rule  monogamous,  the  bride  being 
purchased  from  a  neighbouring  tribe,  or  captured  by  force 
from  a  hostile  tribe.  On  entering  her  new  home,  the  wife 
fell  absolutely  under  the  dominion  of  the  patriarchal  head 
of  the  household.  The  term  "  daughter  "  may  be  derived 
from  a  common  root,  which,  according  to  one  view,  would 
pleasantly  depict  her  as  filling  up  the  outlines  of  an  idyllic 
picture,  as  the  milkmaid  of  the  household,^  or,  according 
to  the  more  probable,  though  more  prosaic,  rendering, 
would  view  her  as  nothing  more  than  a  mere  nourisher 
of  offspring.^  However  this  may  be,  the  husband's  power 
over  his  wife  was  absolute.  He  had  the  right  to  decide 
if  her  offspring  should  be  allowed  to  live,  or,  in  consequence 
of  infirmity  or  sex,  be  exposed  to  die.  In  the  words  of 
Dr  Schrader,  "the  wife  belongs  to  the  man,  body  and 
soul,  and  what  she  produced  is  his  property,  as  much  as 
the  calf  of  his  cow  and  crop  of  his  fields."*  Philology 
affords  no  evidence  of  any  matriarchate  system  under 
which  the  children  and  property  would  belong  to  the 
mother,  the  father  being  a  subsidiary  element  in  the  family 
life.* 

The  word  "father"  itself  may  be  traced  back  through 
a  series  of  equations  which  would  represent  him  as  the 
protector  of  the  family,  and  the  word  "  mother  "  ^  through  a 
parallel  series,  representing  her  as  a  mere  maker  or  fashioner 
of  children,  or,  according  to  Sir  John  Lubbock  and  others, 
those  very  terms  "Pa"  and  "Ma,"  which  denote  protection 
and  fostering,  may  have  been  evolved  from  the  earliest  spon- 

'  Grimm,  "Geschichte  der  Deutscben  Sprache,"  p.  694;  Max  Muller, 
"  Selected  Essays,"  I.,  p.  124. 

*Rendall,  p.  11  :  "The  derivation  iiom  duh,  'suck,'  has  rather  better 
phonetic  warrant." 

»  Schrader,  p.  388. 

*  Max  Muller,  "  Biographies  of  Words,"  p.  xvii. 

»  Schrader,  p.  371 ;  Max  Muller,  "  Biographies  of  Words,"  p.  xvi. 


THE   GREY  DAWN  MISTS  15 

taneous  utterances  of  a  child  by  mere  labial  or  dental 
suppression  of  its  breath.^ 

In  their  original  habitat  the  early  Aryans  were,  for 
the  most  part,  pastoral,  though  agriculture  ^  was  practised 
to  some  extent  The  ploughs,  however,  were  primitive 
and  simple,  being  made  of  bent  wood  shod  with  stone. 
Seeds  were  sown,  the  cereal  rye  at  least  was  grown,  the 
reaping-hook  and  mill-stone  were  used,  as  was  the  yoke 
for  oxen.  Cows  were  milked ;  oxen  drew  such  rude 
waggons  as  were  fashioned.  Horses  were  kept  in  droves 
for  milk  or  food,  but  not  until  Vedic  and  Homeric  times 
were  they  ridden. 

The  tribes,  for  the  most  part  pastoral  nomads,  drove  their 
flocks  from  grazing-ground  to  grazing-ground,  ever  ready 
to  migrate  and  seek  more  favoured  pasture-lands.  Their 
houses  were  domed,  of  basket-work,  daubed  with  mud,  or 
else  the  family  lived  underground.  Scraped  skins  sewn 
together  by  bone-needles,  or  wool  close  pressed  together 
and  made  with  glutinous  fat  into  felt,^  formed  their  cloth- 
ing, while  a  mead  made  from  honey  was  an  intoxicating 
beverage  to  which  they  seem  to  have  been  addicted. 

Such  is  the  main  outline  of  the  meagre  skeleton  which 
philology  builds  up  of  the  life  lived  in  common  by  the 
primitive  ancestors  of  the  European  peoples,  and  by  those 
of  the  first  Aryan  invaders  of  India.  It  shows  them  tied 
down  to  a  neolithic  primitiveness,  preparing  for  an  advance 
to  an  Age  of  Bronze. 

At  what  period  these  Aryans  entered  India  is  unknown. 

1  Lubbock,  "Origin  of  Civilisation,"  p.  427;  Westermarck,  "  History  of 
Human  Marriage,"  p.  88. 

2  "When  we  say  that  the  Aryas  before  their  separation  were  agricultural, 
we  mean  no  more  than  that  they  did  not  depend  for  their  food  on  mere  chance, 
but  cultivated  the  soil  and  grew  some  kind  of  corn."— Max  Miiller,  "Biographies 
of  Words,"  p.  134. 

3  "All  the  other  arts  which  we  ascribe  to  the  Ancient  Aryans,  such  as 
plaiting,  sewing,  spinning,  weaving,  must  all  be  conceived  as  most  simple  and 
primitive."— Max  MUUer,  "Biographies  of  Words,"  p.  135. 


i6  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Pride  of  race,  and  pride  of  birthright  still  hold  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  pious  and  orthodox  Brahman  of  to-day  to  the 
fond  belief  that  the  Vedic  Hymns  were  a  revelation  from 
before  all  time.  Even  though  this  be  considered  no  longer 
worthy  of  credence,  yet  the  Brahman  views,  with  impassive 
face,  the  efforts  of  historic  enquiry  to  pierce  through  the 
mists  of  an  antiquity  he  still  feels  to  be  beyond  the  ken  of 
man.  To  the  unbiassed  enquirer  the  period  of  civilisation, 
which  witnessed  the  composition  of  the  Vedic  Hymns, 
seems  to  fade  further  into  distant  time,  instead  of,  as  might 
be  hoped,  drawing  nearer  to  such  historic  dates  as  fall  within 
the  limits  even  of  Homeric  time.  From  1 200  to  1 500  years  ^ 
before  the  Christian  era  was  for  long  held  the  earliest 
period  to  which,  with  safety,  the  composition  of  the  Vedic 
Hymns  could  be  assigned.^  Should  the  latest  theories,  based 
on  astronomical  data,  fail  to  win  adherents  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  period  of  Vedic  civilisation  extended  back 
as  far  as  4500  years  B.C.,  and  the  Hymns  themselves  to 
2500  B.C.,  it  seems  daily  to  grow  more  probable  that  the 
whole  period  of  early  Sanskrit  literature  must  be  placed 
at  a  much  earlier  date  than  that  to  which  it  has  until  lately 
been  allotted.* 

Be  the  date  what  it  may,  it  is  in  these  Hymns  that  must 
be  sought  the  evidences  as  to  what  were  the  hopes  and 
ideals  of  the  times,  for  in  them  is  contained  all  that  the 
tribe,  sib,  or  family  of  the  poets  who  composed  them 
deemed  worthy  of  being  preserved  as  a  record  of  the  best 
the  age  knew,  as  a  record  of  tlie  literature  of  their  race. 

1  Max  Milller,  "India:  What  Can  It  Teach  Us,"  p.  202  (1500  B.C.); 
Kaegi,  "Rig  Veda,"  p.  11  (2000  to  1500  B.C.);  Haug,  "  Introd.  to  Ait 
Brah.,"i.  47(2400-14003.0.). 

2  Max  MuUer,  "Bi<^raphies  of  Words,"  p.  153  :—"  Within  sight  of  the 
Indus  and  its  tributaries,  the  undivided  South-Eastern  Aryas  spoke  a  language 
more  primitive  than  Sanskrit  or  Zend,  about  2000  B.C." 

*  See  Earth,  "  Ind.  Ant.,"  September  1894. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  EARLY  BARDS. 

On  the  first  dawn  of  Vedic  history,  the  Aryans  appear 
amid  the  bleak  mountain  ranges  in  the  north-west  of  India, 
where  the  Swat,  Kabul,  Kumar,  and  Kuram  rivers  find  their 
way  through  unfrequent  fertile  valleys  to  the  lowland  plains 
and  land  of  the  Five  Rivers  of  the  Panjab.  These  rivers 
the  Aryans  had  to  cross  before  they  could  set  aside  their 
conquering  arms,  and,  beyond  the  sacred  Sarasvati,  seek 
rest  in  the  holy  land  of  Brahmavarta,^  thence  to  spread 
their  civilising  mission  down  the  rich  river-valleys  of  the 
Ganges  and  Jumna,  and  claim  all  India  north  of  the 
Vindhya  as  the  abode  of  their  race — as  the  renowned 
Aryavarta.^  For  weary  centuries  the  tribes  had  journeyed 
on  towards  the  rising  sun,  their  hopes  buoyed  up  by  stories 
told  of  the  warm,  sunlit  plains.  These  once  gained, 
no  longer  would  the  sacred  and  first  duty  of  each  head 
of  a  family  be  to  nourish  and  cherish,  as  the  chief  great 
friend  of  their  race,  the  heaven-sent  "Agni,"  the  God 
of  Fire. 

^  "  Manu,"  II,  17  : — "  Between  the  two  divine  rivers,  Sarasvati  and  Drish- 
advatl,  lies  the  tract  of  land,  which  the  sages  have  named  "  Brahma varta," 
because  it  was  frequented  by  gods." — G.  C.  Haughton. 

^  Ibid,,  II,  22: — "As  far  as  the  eastern,  and  as  far  as  the  western 
oceans,  between  the  two  mountains,  Himalaya  and  Vindhya,  lies  the  tract  which 
the  wise  have  named  Arya  varta,  or  "abode  of  the  learned." 

B  " 


i8  LITERARY  HISTORY   OF  INDIA 

Then  there  would  be  time  for  peace,  and  rest,  and  sleep, 
and  thought ;  for  once  the  dark  aborigines  were  conquered 
or  propitiated,  to  them  could  be  allotted  all  manual  labour. 
No  wonder  that  the  imagination  of  the  Vedic  poet  was 
stirred  to  its  deepest  depths  as  he  stood  amid  the  moving 
times.  From  the  shadowed  recesses  of  the  silent  forests 
bordering  the  mountain  ranges,  murmuring  echoes  answered 
back  the  poet's  exulting  song  of  joy  and  the  tribesmen's 
fiercer  notes  of  warlike  might.  From  the  far-off  plains  the 
rain-clouds  rolled  on  towards  the  mountain  passes,  in  black 
and  heaving  billows,  while  from  out  them  dashed  the  vivid 
gleam  of  an  Indian  lightning  as  the  thunder  sent  its  peals 
from  mountain  peak  to  peak.  It  was  down  in  the  arid, 
lowland  plains  that  Indra,  the  God  of  Rain,  became  the 
Aryan  tribesmen's  champion — the  god  who  won  their 
battles,  broke  open  the  heavenly  fortresses,  and  let  the 
waters  forth  to  cool  the  parched  fields.  It  was  Nature  ^  that 
held  spell-bound  the  imagination  of  the  new-come  Aryans, 
and  it  was  to  glorify  her,  and  seek  the  aid  of  her  powers — 
vaguely  personified  as  "devas,"  "deities,"  or  "  bright  ones," — 
that  the  Vedic  poets  composed  their  songs  of  praise.  Of 
history,  pure  and  simple,  the  hymns  tell  but  little.  The 
comings  and  goings  of  the  people,  the  trivial  life  of  mankind, 
appeared  but  as  a  breath  when  compared  to  the  mystery  of 
the  unchanging  vault  of  Heaven,  the  depths  of  the  clear, 
starlit  nights  ever  soothing  to  rest,  the  sad  rise  and  wane 
of  the  moon,  the  glad,  red  blush  of  the  dawn  as  it  awoke 
all  Nature  to  life,  the  unchanging  passings  of  the  sun 
in  its  three  steps  across  the  sky,  until,  in  the  silence  of 
eventide,  it  descends  towards  the  land  of  the  fathers,  there 
to  abide  until  it  again  rises  towards  morn  over  the  land 
of  the  living. 

»  See  Regnaud,  p.  64,  for  the  theory  that  the  adoration  of  Nature  in  Vedic 
times  was  only  an  illusion  produced  by  the  phraseology,  or  rather  by  the 
rhetoric  of  the  hymns. 


THE  EARLY  BARDS  19 

To  those  whose  ears  are  not  attuned  to  the  sound  of  the 
music  that  throbs  through  every  stanza  of  the  Vedic  Hymns, 
the  whole  secret  of  the  power  they  held  over  the  hearts  of 
the  people  will  be  lost.  Held  as  sacred  treasures  of  the  race, 
they  have  been  handed  down  from  generation  to  generation, 
as  all  that  has  been  deemed  worthy  of  preservation,  as  the 
best  the  age  brought  forth.  In  verses  full  of  the  sound  of  the 
rush  of  moving  waters,  the  poet  tells,  with  swelling  pride, 
the  glories  of  the  new-found  land  his  race  had  come  to 
claim  and  make  its  own,  as  far  as  from  the  Sindhu  or 
Indus  in  the  West,  away  to  the  distant  Ganges  in  the 
then  unknown  East : — 

"  Let  ^  now  the  poet,  here  waiting  in  the  place  of  sacrifice,  tell,  O  rivers, 
your  chief  glories.  The  Rivers  have  come  forth  by  seven  and  seven 
from  three  quarters,  the  Sindhu  surpassing  all  in  her  glory.  From 
the  mountains  onward  towards  the  sea,  the  Sindhu  hasteneth  in  her 
strength,  rushing  in  the  path  that  Varuna  had  smoothed  out ;  eager 
for  the  prize,  she  surpasses  in  the  race  all  that  run.  Above  the  earth, 
even  in  the  heavens,  is  heard  the  sound  of  her  rolling  waters ;  the 
gleam  of  bright  light  lengthens  out  her  unending  course.  From  the 
mountain-side  the  Sindhu  comes  roaring  like  a  bull,  as  from  the  clouds 
the  waters  rush  amid  the  roll  of  thunder.  The  other  rivers  run  to 
pour  their  waters  into  thee. 

"From  both  sides  thou  drawest  on  the  flowing  streams  like  to  a 
conquering  king  rushing  to  the  front,  leading  his  following  hosts. 
O  Ganges,  Jumna,  Sarasvati,  Sutlej,  and  Ravi,  and  you  also,  O 
Asiknl,  Marudvridha,  hearken  O  Vitasta  and  Arjiklya  with  the 
Sushoma,  listen  now  to  this  my  praise.  Flashing,  sparkling,  gleam- 
ing, in  her  majesty  the  unconquerable,  the  most  abundant  of  streams, 
beautiful  as  a  handsome,  spotted  mare,  the  Sindhu  rolls  her  waters 
over  the  lands. 

"  Mistress  of  a  chariot,  with  noble  horses  richly  dressed,  golden, 
adorned,  yielding  nutriment,  abounding  in  wool,  youthful,  gracious, 
she  traverses  a  land  full  of  sweetness.  May  she  grant  us  vigour  in  this 
struggle ;  for  greatly  celebrated  is  the  glory  of  that  unconquered, 
illustrious,  and  much-lauded  Sindhu.^ 

1  Re-translated  with  the  aid  of  Muir's  "Sanskrit  Texts,"  vol.  v.  p.  343; 
cf.  R.V.,x.  75,  andMaxMuUer,  "India:  What  Can  It  Teach  Us?  "pp.  164-5 
(1892);  Griffith,  R.V.,  p.  251. 

'  Muir,  vol.  V.  p.  344. 


20  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

It  was  in  the  extreme  north-west  of  India  that  the  Aryans 
first  made  their  homes.  Thence  tribes  spread  South  as  far 
as  the  junction  of  the  Indus,  with  the  rivers  of  the  Panjab;* 
Yet  all  those  who  remained  there,  as  well  as  all  those  who 
formed  alliances,  matrimonial  or  political,  with  the  aboriginal 
inhabitants,  were  held  by  the  orthodox  Aryan  of  later  times 
as  impure.  They  were  considered  as  having  fallen  from  the 
ranks  of  those  Aryans  who  left  the  plain-land  of  the  Five 
Rivers  behind  them,  and  passed  onwards  to  the  Sarasvati, 
Ganges  and  Jumna,  there  to  rest  and  collect  the  treasured 
hymns  of  their  forefathers  into  what  is  now  known  as  the 
Sanhita  of  Vedic  Hymns.  Centuries,  not  years,  represent 
the  period  of  the  composition  of  these  verses,  but  1017  or 
1028  ^  in  number,  which  contain  1 5  3,826  words,  and  now  hold 
all  that  will  ever  be  known  of  the  past  of  the  Aryan  fore- 
fathers of  the  great  priestly  families  of  India. 

Of  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  whom  the  Aryans  found  in 
possession  of  the  land  history  has  preserved  no  record.  The 
Vedic  Hymns  merely  mention  their  existence  in  order  to 
revile  them  as  Dasyus '  (foes),  as  slaves.  To  the  fair-skinned 
Aryans  these  dark  aborigines  were  no-nosed  and  fierce, 
eaters  of  raw  flesh,  and  godless.  Yet  of  their  forts  and  castles 
there  is  mention,  and  of  their  wealth  there  are  clear  indica- 
tions,* while  there  is  ample  evidence  that  with  many  of 
them  the  Aryans  made  matrimonial  connections,  and  that 
the  offspring  formed  a  new  cleiss,  considered  as  of  more  or 
less  pure  blood  and  social  position.     The  Aryans,  however, 

'  In  the  North,  probably  in  Kashmir,  tribes  known  as  the  Kuru-Krivis  (in 
later  times  renowned  as  the  Panchalas),  are  held  to  have  taken  up  their  abode ; 
to  the  further  West,  in  the  valleys  of  the  Kabul  and  Kuram,  the  tribes  known 
as  the  Gandhara  found  a  home ;  while  even  as  far  South  as  Sind,  tradition 
tells  of  the  tribe  known  as  the  Yadavas  (see  Baden-Powell,  "Ind.  Vill. 
Com.,"  p.  97;  and  Zimmer,  "Alt.  Ind.  Leben.,"  pp.  122-124). 

*  Max  MUller,  "Hibbert  Lectures,"  p.  153. 

s  Ste  Muir,  O.S.T.,  voL  i.  p.  174  (ed.  1890) ;  Zimmer,  "  Alt.  Ind.  Leben.," 
pp.  115-118. 

*  R.V.,  3,  34,  9. 


THE  EARLY  BARDS  21 

for  the  most  part  lived  as  joint  families,  united  in  their 
ancient  sibs,  or  clans,  into  settlements  1  under  a  common 
chief.2  When  the  clans  or  settlements  joined  together  for 
war  or  defence,  they  formed  the  tribe.*  The  king,  or  "  raja," 
was  elected  from  among  the  chieftains,*  as  their  chosen 
representative,  though  the  office  soon  became  practically 
hereditary. 

By  the  king's  side  stood  his  priestly  counterpart,  the 
"purohita,"^  who,  by  his  solemn  invocations  and  charms 
of  noted  potency,  held  his  position  secure.  On  the 
election  of  a  chieftain  to  be  king,  the  chosen  poet  of  the 
people  poured  forth  his  benediction  in  flowing  verse,  such  as 
has  been  so  aptly  translated  by  Mr  Griffith  :  * — 

"  Be  with  us  ;  I  have  chosen  thee  ;  stand  steadfast  and  immovable. 
Let  all  the  people  wish  for  thee  :  let  not  thy  kingdom  fall  away. 
Be  even  here ;  fall  not  away  :  be  like  a  mountain  unremoved. 
Stand  steadfast  herelike  Indra'sself,  and  hold  thekingship  in  thygrasp. 

Firm  is  the  sky,  and  firm  the  earth,  and  steadfast  also  are  these  hills. 
Steadfast  is  all  this  living  world,  and  steadfast  is  this  king  of  men. 

On  constant  Soma  let  us  think  with  constant  sacrificial  gift. 

And  then  may  Indra  make  the  clans  bring  tribute  unto  thee  alone.'' 

Other  verses  tell  of  the  power  and  influence  of  the  king's 
"  purohita,"  or  domestic  chaplain : — 

"  May  this  prayer  of  mine  be  successful ;  may  the  vigour  and  strength 

'  "V\i,"  Schrader,  pp.  399,  403. 

"  "Vi^  pati,"  Zimmer,  "Alt.  Ind.  Leben.,"  p.  172. 

'  Baden-Powell,  "Ind.  Vill.  Com.,"  p.  204  (cf.  R.V.,  2,  26,  3),  in  which 
the  tribe,  clan,  or  minor  clan,  or  connected  single  families  held  together  by 
some  tie  of  descent.     Robertson  Smith,  "  Religion  of  the  Semites,"  p.  34. 

*  Jevons,  "  Introduction  to  History  of  Religion, "  for  separation  of  Kingly  and 
Priestly  Functions,  originally  united,  p.  275. 

"  Probably,  as  a  rule,  an  Atharva  priest  (cf.  "Yajnavalkya,"  i.  312),  Bloom- 
field,  S.B.E.,  vol.  42,  p.  xlvi,  also  Iviii. 

«  R.V.,  X.  173. 


22  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

be  complete,  may  the  power  be  perfect,  undecaying,  and  victorious  of 
those  of  whom  I  am  the  priest  (Jiurohita).  .  .  .  May  all  those  who 
fight  against  our  wise  and  prosperous  (prince)  sink  downward,  and  be 
prostrated.  With  my  prayer  I  destroy  his  enemies,  and  raise  up  his 
friends.  May  those  of  whom  I  am  the  priest  be  sharper  than  an  axe, 
sharper  than  fire,  sharper  than  Indra's  thunderbolt.  I  strengthen  their 
weapons  ;  I  prosper  their  kingdom  rich  in  heroes.  .  .  .  Ye  with  the 
sharp  arrows  smite  those  whose  bows  are  powerless ;  ye  whose  weapons 
and  arms  are  terrible  (smite)  the  feeble.  When  discharged,  fly  forth, 
O  arrow,  sped  by  prayer.  Vanquish  the  foes,  assail,  slay  all  the  choicest 
of  them ;  let  not  one  escape."  * 


To  their  kings  the  people  rendered  obedience.  The 
offerings  or  tribute  to  the  chosen  chief  were  held  to  be 
voluntary,  though  there  are  verses  ^  that  liken  a  king  unto  a 
fire  that  burns  up  the  forest,  in  the  way  he  sweeps  up  the 
goods  of  the  rich.  There  are  also  hymns,*  which  tell  how 
the  king  sat,  decked  with  gold  and  jewels,  in  what  is  described 
as  a  palace,  with  a  thousand  pillars  and  a  thousand  doors. 
Headed  by  their  chosen  king  or  chieftain,  the  tribes 
advanced  to  battle,  and,  as  they  marched,  the  proud  song  of 
the  king's  elected  "purohita,"  or  poet-priest,  rang  in  their  ears. 
Not  by  the  king's  valour  nor  by  his  well-known  heroic 
might,  not  by  the  impetuous  rush  of  the  conquering  tribes 
was  the  victory  to  be  gained.  It  was  the  incantations  of 
the  haughty  purohita  who  summoned  the  gods  to  hover 
near  and  win  the  day,  that  cheered  on  the  clansmen  and 
made  them  sure  of  victory.  The  knowledge  that  the  gods 
fought  on  their  side,  added  to  the  war-chant  of  the  chosen 
poet-laureate,  inspired  the  god-intoxicated  enthusiasm  of 
all  ranks  alike,  and  held  the  Aryans  united  against  their 
darker  foe.  The  weird  influence  of  the  magic  of  the 
priestly  spell,  the  sound  of  the  blast  of  the  tempest,  and  the 


iMuir,  O.S.T.,  pp.  283-4;  "  Atharva-veda,"  iii,  19,  r. 

"  R.V.,  I,  6S.  4- 

s  Zimmer,  "Alt.  Ind.  Leben.,"  p.  167;  R.V.,  8,  5,  38;  1,  83,  8;  10,  78,  i. 


THE  EARLY  BARDS  23 

howl  of  battle-rage  subtly  mingled  in  the  inspiring  chant  of 
the  purohita,  who  proudly  sings  the  song  of  war :  ^ — 

"  Increased  is  now  this  prayer  {brahmd),  the  might,  the  power.  In- 
creased the  wan-ior  sway  of  which  I  am  the  conquering  Purohita. 
I  lengthen  out  the  lordly  rule  with  heaven  ascending  smoke-incense, 
I  hew  asunder  the  foemen's  arms.  Let  those  who  rage  against  our 
mighty  king  sink  low,  with  this  my  prayer  {brahmd)  I  vanquish  all 
who  are  not  friends  and  raise  up  those  near.  Advance  and  conquer, 
heroes  !  Let  now  your  arms  be  fierce.  Strike  down  with  pointed  arrows 
the  weak  bowmen,  strike  with  fierce  weapons  the  powerless  foe." 

No  translation  could  give  the  full  force  of  these  lines, 
changing  as  they  do  in  the  original  from  sound  to  sound  to 
suit  the  sense.  In  the  last  verse,  calling  on  the  tribes  to 
advance  and  conquer,  the  fierce  passion  of  battle  strife 
seems  to  shake  the  utterances  of  the  inspired  poet,  as  he 
repeats  again  and  again  the  harsh  sounds  which  thrill 
through  the  last  two  sounding  lines,^  calling  on  the  Aryans 
to  strike  down  the  foe. 

Though  there  were  kings  and  purohitas  and  sacrificial 
priests  {brahmans) ;  though  there  were  warriors  and  the 
great  body  of  the  people,  cultivators,  artisans,  or  dealers 
in  articles  of  food,  in  grain  or  merchandise,  there  is  no 
evidence  that  anywhere  were  the  people  tied  down  to 
the  rigidity  of  a  caste  ^  system  where  a  fixed  hereditary 
occupation  was  allotted  to  the  members. 

The  composers  of  the  Vedic  Hymns,  or  Brahmans,  as 
they  were  called,  belonged  to  no  one  class  or  order.  He 
on  whom  the  gift  of  song  had  fallen  became  the  poet- 
priest.     One  poet  *  tells  how  that,  although  he  is  a  maker 

'  "  Atharva-veda,"  in,  19. 

^     "  Preta  jayanta  nara  ugra  vah  santu  bahavah. 

Tiksnesavo  abala  dhanvano  hata  ugra  ayudha  abalan  ugrabahavah." 

*  "  Caste  is  a  European  word,  but  it  has  become  so  completely  naturalised  in 
India  that  the  vagueness  of  its  meaning  seems  to  have  reacted  on  the  native 
mind..  The  Sanskrit  word  for  caste  is  vama,  literally  'colour'  or  iati, 
literally  'breed,'  or  'kith.'" — Max  Miiller,  "Biographies  of  Words,'' p.  247. 

4  "  Rig  Veda,"  ix.  112,  3. 


24  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

of  the  hymn  he  sings,  yet  his  father  was  a  physician,  while 
his  mother  ground  grain  between  millstones.  Every  one, 
he  says,  has  a  different  occupation  and  varied  opinions — the 
carpenter  seeks  something  to  mend,  the  physician  some 
one  in  distress,  the  priest  one  who  has  an  offering  to  make. 
All  in  the  world  stand  waiting  for  wealth,  even  as  the  cow- 
herd stands  watching  his  cattle.  The  horse  longs  for  a 
cart  that  runs  smoothly ;  those  who  love  talking  long  for 
those  who  talk ;  frogs  long  for  water,  and  desire  roameth 
wild  after  that  which  it  desireth.  In  one  well-known  hymn,^ 
of  which  the  language  and  tenor  is  modern,  compared 
with  the  rest  of  the  collection,  the  people  are  described 
as  divided  into  four  distinctive  classes. 

The  hymn  tells  of  the  creation  of  all  things  from  the 
sacrifice  of  a  fabulous  monster-man,  or  "Purusha,"  his  severed 
limbs  giving  birth  to  the  world.  As  is  pointed  out  by  Mr 
Andrew  Lang,^  the  same  primitive  mode  of  accounting  for 
creation  is  found  in  the  Norse  legend,  where  the  earth,  the 
seas,  water,  mountains,  clouds,  and  firmament,  are  formed 
by  dividing  up  the  body  of  the  Giant  Ymir.  So  also  in  the 
Chaldaean  story  a  monster  woman  is  divided  in  twain  by 
Bel,  to  form  the  heavens  and  earth.  The  same  story  runs 
through  the  myths  of  the  Iroquois  in  North  America, 
as  well  as  through  those  of  Egypt  and  Greece.  In  the 
Vedic  legend  the  monster  Purusha  has  a  thousand  heads, 
a  thousand  eyes,  and  a  thousand  feet.  So  great  was  this 
primeval  being,  that  he  spread  over  the  earth  and  yet  ten 
fingers'  breadth  beyond.  By  the  gods  he  was  offered  up  in 
sacrifice.  From  him  sprang  forth  all  the  creatures  of  the 
air  and  all  animals,  wild  or  tame,  also  the  three  Vedas — the 
"  Rig,"  "  Saman,"  and  "  Yajur" — horses,  and  all  creatures 
having  two  rows  of  teeth,  goats,  and  sheep. 

So  far  the  story  runs  close  to  those  of  other  folk.    The 

1  R.V.,  X.  90. 

*  "Myth.  Ritual  and  Religion,"  vol.  i.  p.  243. 


THE  EARLY  BARDS  25 

conception  points  back  to  a  very  early  phase  of  thought, 
almost  to  the  childhood  of  mankind.  The  Vedic  account, 
however,  goes  on  to  add  that  from  Purusha  also  sprang 
four  castes  or  classes  of  the  people.  There  is  no  escape 
from  the  conclusion  that  this  is  an  attempt  to  force  an 
antiquity  for  a  modern  social  system  by  connecting  it  with 
an  undeniably  ancient  legend.  The  four  castes  are  held  to 
have  existed  from  before  all  time.  The  Brahmans,  as  a 
distinct  class  of  priests  who  recited  the  brahman,  or  "prayer," 
are  said  to  have  been  created  from  the  mouth  of  Purusha ; 
the  "Rajanya,"  or  warriors,  to  have  sprung  from  his  arms ;  the 
"Vai^ya,"  or  main  body  of  the  Aryan  people,  agriculturists  or 
tradesmen,  were  born  from  his  thighs,  while  last  and  lowest 
born  were  the  Sudras,  the  servile  conquered  foes,  created 
from  the  feet  of  Purusha.  The  Brahman  priesthood  were 
thus  held  to  have  been  divinely  created,  according  to  the 
revealed  evidence  of  the  Vedic  text,  as  supreme  above 
kings,  warriors,  or  servile  workers.  All  alike  were  made 
to  feel  the  power  thus  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
Brahmans. 

In  the  "  Atharva-veda,"  where  much  more  of  the  life- 
throb  of  the  people  is  felt  than  in  the  more  dignified 
and  stately  "Rig  Veda,"  clear  evidence  is  given  of  the 
unrelenting  vengeance  of  the  Brahman  priests  towards 
those  who  intrigued  against  them  or  sought  to  take  their 
wealth : — 


"  He  who  thinks  the  Brahman  mild,"  declares  one  hymn,i "  and  slays 
him,  he  who  reviles  the  gods,  lusts  after  wealth  without  thought,  in  his 
heart  Indra  kindles  a  fire;  him  both  heaven  and  earth  hate  while 
he  lives." 

More  fierce  than   this   is  the   invective    poured    forth 

1  "Atharva-veda,"  v.  18,  S  (Bloomfield) ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xlii;  Muir,  O.S.T., 
vol.  i.  p.  285. 


26  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

against  those  unbelieving  oppressors  of  the    priest  who 
holds  the  magic  spell : — 

"  The  Brahman's  tongue  turns  into  a  bow-string,  his  voice  into  the 
neck  of  an  arrow  ;  his  windpipe,  his  teeth  are  bedaubed  with  holy  fire  ; 
with  these  the  Brahman  strikes  those  who  revile  the  gods,  by  means 
of  bows  that  have  the  strength  to  hurt,  discharged  by  the  gods." 

"  The  Brahmanas  have  sharp  arrows,  are  armed  with  missiles,  the 
arrow  which  they  hurl  goes  not  in  vain,  pursuing  him  with  their  holy 
fire  and  their  wrath,  even  from  afar  do  they  pierce  him."  * 

The  earlier  Vedic  Hymns  show  the  Aryans  free  from  all 
caste  restraint,  priestly  aggression  or  kingly  oppression. 
The  poet  or  maker  of  the  Vedic  Hymns  merely  calls  upon 
the  king  and  people  to  be  liberal  in  gifts,^  for  those  who 
are  liberal  sink  not  into  sin  nor  sorrow ;  they  abide  for  ever 
glorious,  living  long  lives  and  reaping  rich  rewards  here- 
after. One  poet  praises  the  liberality  of  a  chieftain  who 
dwelt  on  the  bank  of  the  Sindhu,  or  Indus,  from  whom 
one  hundred  horses,  sixty  thousand  kine,  eight  cows, 
all  good  milkers,  and  one  hundred  necklaces  had  been 
received. 

Between  the  two  famed  poet-priests,  Vasishta  and 
Visvamitra,  of  whom  every  Hindu  household  in  India 
to-day  holds  legends,  the  rivalry  was  great  to  secure 
the  favour  of  the  renowned  king  Sudas,  who  led  the 
white-robed  Tritsu  tribe  to  battle  against  ten  other  kings 
who  had  raised  the  standard  of  revolt.* 

Visvamitra  at  length  was  obliged  to  retire  before  his  rival 
Vasishta,  who  remained  to  sing  the  praise  of  his  patron,  the 
conquering  Sudas.  It  was  Vasishta  who,  by  his  mystic 
prayers,  brought  the  aid  of  Indra  to  the  king,  and  hurled 

»  S.B.E.,_vol.  xUi.  p.  170;  Mulr,  O.S.T.  (1890),  p.  258,  for  use  of  word 
br^mSn,  first  as  "  a  sage,  a  poet,"  next  as  an  officiating  priest,  and  later  as  a 
special  description  of  priest,  or  even  as  "  a  priest  by  profession,"  and  Brahmana 
as  the  son  of  a  brahman,  denoting  the  hereditary  transmission  of  the  function. 

2  R.  v.,  X.  107,  2 ;  7,  33,  6  ;  3,  53,  12. 

'  Zimmer,  "Alt.  Ind.  Leben.,"  p.  170 ;  R.V.,  vii.  18,  23. 


THE  EARLY  BARDS  27 

back  Visvamitra  and  his  warlike  friends  the  Bharatas.  To 
Vasishta  wealth  and  honour  were  poured  forth ;  two 
chariots  with  mares  were  given  him,  along  with  four  horses 
decked  with  pearls,  so  that  the  seven  rivers  of  the  Panjab 
might  spread  abroad  the  liberality  of  Sudas.  No  greater 
glory  could  the  devout  Aryan  win  than  to  bestow  his 
wealth  on  the  tribal  laureate.^  Those  who  gave  rich 
garments  lived  long ;  those  who  gave  gold  enjoyed 
undyingness  :  ^  liberality  was  held  the  best  armour  for  a 
wise  man  to  wear.  The  coming  of  the  rich  man  is  awaited 
with  joy  by  maidens  gleaming  in  fine  garments  ;  the  abode 
of  the  liberal  man  is  a  lake  of  enjoyment  spread  with  lotus 
leaves.  The  brdhman,  or  maker  of  the  prayer,  became,  as 
time  rolled  on  and  the  sacrifices  to  the  gods  more  frequent, 
complicated,  and  relied  on,  of  greater  importance.  The 
"  purohita,"  or  domestic  chaplain,  swayed  the  policy  of  the 
tribe  and  ruled  the  king's  thoughts.  The  purohita  was 
elected  from  among  the  ranks  of  the  poet-priests  ^  or 
Brahmans,  who  knew  or  had  composed  hymns  honoured 
as  of  special  merit  or  potency.  In  course  of  time,  as  the 
ritual  developed,  other  sacrificing  priests  were  appointed  to 
chant  the  hymns,  perform  the  sacrifice,  or  assist  in  various 
subsidiary  duties. 

The  Brahmanas  or  Brahmans,  sons  or  descendants  of  the 
early  poet-priests,  were  trained  to  hold  in  their  family  the 
general  supervision  over  the  entire  sacrificial  system. 

Changes  such  as  these  came  not  until  the  Aryans  had 
advanced  far  into  India,  and  found  time,  leisure,  and 
opportunity  to  develop  the  primitive  system  of  worship  of 
their  deities  by  mystic  prayers. 

In  the  early  hymns  of  the  "  Rig  Veda"  the  Aryans  are, 

'  R.V.,  10,  107,  2. 
^  Amritatwam. 

3  For  the  plea  raised  by  the  Atharvan  priest  that  from  amongst  them  the 
Brahman  should  be  chosen,  see  S.B.E.,  vol.  xlii.  p.  Ixv. 


28  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

for  the  most  part,  pastoral  tribes.  These  tribes  are  often 
referred  to  as  five  in  number,^  references  that,  however,  can 
hardly  be  taken  to  denote  any  special  division  of  the 
people,  since  the  word  "  five  "  ^  is  often  used  to  express  any 
indefinite  number.  Although  the  pastoral  habits  of  the 
tribes  are  often  described — horses,  kine,  sheep  and  ewes  * 
being  frequently  mentioned — yet  agriculture  was  common. 
Wheat  and  barley  were  sown  and  reaped,  though,  strange 
to  say,  there  is  no  reference  to  rice.  Watercourses  are 
mentioned,  and  it  seems  as  though  they  had  been  specially 
constructed  for  the  purpose  of  irrigation.  In  course  of 
time  the  Aryans  allowed  all  direct  agricultural  operations 
to  lapse,  for  the  greater  part,  into  the  hands  of  the 
aboriginal  darker  race,  becoming  themselves  landlords  *  and 
co-sharers  of  the  lands  where  they  found  a  home,  the 
darker  races  being  then,  as  the  Dravidians  are  to-day, 
skilled  builders  of  irrigation  reservoirs  or  "  tanks,"  and  apt 
in  terracing  sloping  land  for  cultivation.  In  the  Veda  the 
plough  and  ploughshare  are  addressed  as  objects  of  Divine 
worship.  One  hymn  *  is  addressed  to  a  deity,  vaguely 
personified  as  the  lord  who  presides  over  the  fields,  he 
being  prayed  to  direct  the  plough  straight  in  the  furrow,  or 
"stta,"  to  keep  the  land  sweet,  so  that  the  husbandman 
may  cheerfully  drive  the  oxen  with  his  goad. 

Trade  was  carried  on  by  barter,  and  although  the  medium 
of  exchange  was  the  cow,  gold  pieces  are  referred  to,  as  are 
also  usurers,  yet  there  was  no  recognised  system  of  coinage. 

'  Muir,  Original  Sanskrit  Texts  (3rd  ed.),  vol.  i.  p.  177. 

"  Hid.,  p.  179. 

'  R.V.,  X.  91,  14: — "Horses,  bulls,  oxen  and  barren  cows  offered  for  sacri- 
fice," also  (x.  89,  14),  "  a  place  of  slaughter  mentioned  "  (Muir,  vol.  v.  p.  463). 

*  Baden-Powell,  "  Ind.  Vill.  Com.,"  p.  89  :— "  Whatever  customs  regarding 
lajid  are  of  Aryan  origin,  they  are  the  customs  of  a  conquering  race,  or  at  least 
of  a  race  which  took  the  superior  position  in  everything.  The  tenures  that 
arose  from  their  State  arrangements,  and  their  locations  of  Chiefe,  were  all 
essentially  overlord,  or  at  least  landlord  tenures." 

"  R.V.,  iv.  57. 


THE  EARLY  BARDS  29 

Weaving  and  working  in  leather  were  well-known,  garments 
being  made  from  the  wool  of  sheep.^  Women  are  described 
as  well  adorned,  as  wearing  jewels,  having  their  hair  braided, 
and  well-oiled.  The  white-robed  tribe  of  the  Tritsus  adorn 
their  hair  in  special  coils,  as  do  also  the  deities,  Rudra 
and  Pushan. 

The  raging  storm-deities  ^  are  described  as  having  gold 
breastplates  and  anklets,  and  as  wearing  gold  crowns,  while 
their  white  horses*  are  depicted  as  caparisoned  with  gold 
chains  and  trappings. 

Like  unto  a  barber  shaving  a  beard,*  so  fire  is  said  to 
clear  the  stubble  from  the  earth,  while  the  pious  pray  that 
they  may  be  sharpened  even  as  a  razor,  or  pair  of  scissors 
is  sharpened  by  a  barber. 

It  is  doubtful  if  the  early  Aryans  ever  knew  of  the  ocean. 
The  seas  of  water  they  mention  may  have  referred  to  the 
wide-stretching  Indus.  Ships,  however,  are  frequently 
referred  to,  and  one  oft-quoted  incident  records  how 
Tugra  abandoned  in  the  midst  of  the  waters  his  son 
Bhujyu,  who  was  rescued  by  the  Aivins  in  a  ship  with  a 
hundred  oars.® 

From  the  earliest  Vedic  Hymns,  making  all  allowances 

for  poetic  exaggeration,  a  picture  of  social  life  is  seen,  far 

removed  from  primitive  simplicity.     The  Aryans,  in  fact, 

emerge  on  the  horizon  of  Indian  history  as  entering  through 

the  North-west  Passes,  in   well-organised   tribes,   holding 

their  popular  assemblies,  led  by  renowned  chieftains  or 

kings,  honouring  their  bards  and  priests,  free  from  social 

distinction,  and  possessing  many  of  the  arts  and  refinements 

of  civilisation.    Even  physicians  ®  are  mentioned,  who  collect 

herbs  for  the  curing  of  diseases,  magic  spells  being  recited 

when  the  herbs  were  applied  to  the  patient.'' 

1  See  Muir,  O.S.T.,  pp.  462/:  <  Bid.,  viii.  4,  16;  x.  142,  4. 

=1  R.V.,  V.  54,  II.  ^  Muir,  vol.  v.  245,  465. 

» Ibid.,  V.  54,  II ;  iv.  2,  8 ;  iv.  37,  4.     «  R.V.,  x.  97,  6. 
'  Ibid.,  X.  97,  19. 


30  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

To  the  A^vins  laud  is  given,  for  that  when,  in  the 
time  of  battle,  a  leg  was  severed  like  a  wild  bird's  pinion, 

"  Straight  ye  gave  Vispala  a  leg  of  iron  that  she  might  move  what 
time  the  conflict  opened."* 

Stranger  still,  the  ASvins  restore  the  eyesight  of  one 
blinded   for  his  evil  deeds. 

Other  traits,  however,  both  social  and  religious,  are  to  be 
found,  recalling  faint  reminiscences  from  a  distant  past 
The  aged  ^  were  left  forlorn  and  deserted,  and  their  property 
divided,  a  custom  not  far  removed  from  that  of  the  ancient 
Germans,  where  the  useless  father,  when  over  sixty,  was 
either  killed  or  turned  to  menial  work  by  his  son,  who  took 
possession  of  his  property ;  or  from  that  of  the  Romans 
who  threw  the  aged  into  the  Tiber.^  The  position  of  woman 
had  in  many  respects  improved  from  that  of  the  Indo- 
Germanic  period,  when  she  was  treated  as  a  chattel,  the 
absolute  property  of  her  lord  and  master.  Possibly  the 
many  hardships  encountered  during  the  long  march  of  the 
Aryans  towards  India,  the  losses  and  opposition  met  with 
from  opposing  tribes,  may  have  given  woman  time  and 
opportunity  to  work  out  her  own  individuality,  whilst  her 
lessened  numbers  must  have  gained  fpr  her  a  consideration 
she  would  not  otherwise  have  received.  The  further  fact 
that  the  conquered  were  made  slaves,*  must  have  given 
the  women  of  the  Aryan  tribes  a  dominant  position, 
independent  of  household  drudgery,  the  full  benefit  of 
which  they  naturally  would  not  be  slow  to  avail  them- 
selves. 

'  R.V.,  i.  n6, 15. 

^ Ibid.,  viii.  51,  2;  Zimmer,  "Alt.  Ind.  Leben.,"  327;  R.V.,  L  70,  5 : 
"  Parting  as  'twere  an  aged  fether's  wealth." 

3  Kaegi  (note  50),  p.  112  ;  Zimmer,  "Alt.  Ind.  Leben.,"  pp.  326-32S. 

*For  women  being  made  slaves,  viii.  46,  33;  ix.  67,  10,  11.  For  whole 
subject  of  slavery  in  India,  see  Article  by  W.  Lee  Warner,  "Jour.  Soc  Arts," 
February  1897. 


THE  EARLY  BARDS  31 

Polygamy  was,  no  doubt,  common  in  Vedic  times, 
yet  the  general  custom  seems  to  have  favoured  mono- 
gamy, either  from  necessity  or  from  the  growth  of  a 
refined  sentiment. 

The  woman  who  was  handsome  is  recorded  to  have  been 
allowed  to  choose  her  own  friend  or  lover ;  ^  and  the  hymn 
which  records  the  custom,  states,  with  dry  humour,  that  no 
one  would  object  to  a  man  carrying  off  the  blind  daughter 
of  another. 

There  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  women  were  in  these 
early  times  curtailed  of  their  freedom  or  confined  to  the 
solitude  of  their  own  homes,  as  is  the  custom  now  in  India 
among  the  respectable  Hindu  families,  a  custom  primarily 
due  to  the  fear  of  insult  from  foreign  conquerors.  In  one 
Vedic  hymn  ^  the  story  is  told  of  the  wrath  of  the  wife  of 
Indra,  whose  path  was  obstructed  by  an  offending  demon. 
The  goddess  rails  that,  great  as  were  her  swelling  charms, 
great  as  her  joy  in  Indra's  love,  the  demon  had  checked 
her  course,  although  she  urges  that  it  was  the  custom  for 
women  to  go  openly  to  the  festival,  and  to  the  place  of 
sacrifice. 

Again  the  Dawn  is  depicted  as  coming  forth,  as  women 
throng  to  a  festal  meeting,  while  in  many  cases  it  was  the 
custom  for  husband  and  wife  to  perform  the  necessary 
sacrifices  together.  Not  only  was  this  so,  but  one  hymn 
to  Agni  *  is  ascribed  to  a  poetess  Vi^vavara,  in  which  she 
prays  the  deity  to  maintain  the  well-knit  bonds  of  wife 
and  husband. 

More  suggestive  of  the  true  position  held  by  woman  in 
this  early  period  are  the  verses  *  recited  at  the  wedding  of 
Soma  and  Surya,  the  Moon  and  Sun,  an  idealised  type  of 
all  earthly  ones.  For  the  bride  and  bridegroom  fortune, 
prosperity,  and   sons   are   besought;    for  the   bride  it  is 

1  R.V.,  X.  27,  12.  2  Ibid.,  X.  86. 

Ibid.   V.  28.  */6id,x.  85. 


32  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

prayed  that  she  may  rule  over  her  household  and  bear 
affection  to  her  husband.  The  assembled  people  are 
prayed  to  bid  the  bride  good  fortune,  and  as  the  bride- 
groom takes  her  by  the  hand,  he  declares  that  the  gods 
have  appointed  her  head  of  his  household,  to  share  his  joys, 
to  twine  her  arms  around  him,  and  love  him  fitly,  so  that 
they  both  may  reach  old  age  together.  At  the  threshold 
of  her  new  home  the  bride  is  bidden  to  enter,  and  bring 
down  a  blessing  on  all  who  dwell  there,  so  that  the  home 
may  grow  full  of  happiness,  full  of  joy  and  mirth,  full  of 
sons  and  grandsons. 

In  some  respects  the  life  in  these  archaic  times  seems  to 
have  been  not  far  different  from  that  to  be  seen  in  many 
parts  of  India  to-day.  One  hymn^  tells  of  the  vintner's 
house,  and  of  the  wine-skins  kept  within.  The  Aryans 
then  ate  flesh  and  drank  deep.^  The  intoxicating  juice 
of  the  Soma  plant  was  poured  out  at  the  sacrifice  until  it 
came  to  be  worshipped  as  a  loved  deity.  The  Indo-Aryans, 
wandering  in  search  of  new  homes  and  gods,  may  well 
have  cried  out  in  the  words  of  the  Persian  poet:* — 

"  Yesterday  this  Day's  madness  did  prepare 
To-morrow's  Silence,  Triumph,  or  Despair, 
Drink !  for  you  know  not  whence  you  come,  nor  why, 
Drink  !  for  you  know  not  why  you  go,  nor  where." 

Drinking,  fighting,  and  living  free,  despising  the  darker 
skinned  aborigines,  the  Vedic  Aryans,  except  for  their 
belief  in  their  gods  and  sacrifices,  stand  out  as  a  race  in 
many  points  akin  to  the  Greeks  of  Homeric  days.  No 
gloomy  speculations  are  to  be  found  over  the  mystery 
of  the  soul  and  terrors  of  an  hereafter.     To  the  Aryan, 

'  R.V.,  i.  191,  10. 

^  Ibid.,  viii.  58,  11,  refers  to  all  the  gods  as  being  intoxicated.      "Ait. 
Brah.,"  v.  ii,  states  that  at  the  mid-day  libation  the  gods  are  totally  drunk. 
'  Omar  Khayyam. 


THE  EARLY  BARDS  33 

Nature  was  instinct  with  joy,  while  love  was  bold   and 
untamed. 

Gambling  in  ancient,  as  in  modern,  India,  was  a  favourite 
vice.  One  despairing  gambler  pours  forth  his  lament  in 
terms  which,  in  spite  of  their  archaic  setting,  might  well 
find  an  echo  in  many  a  modern  Rajput  household.  He 
bemoans^  how,  though  his  wife  had  never  shamed  him, 
had  never  blamed  him,  had  never  turned  away  from  him 
or  from  his  friends,  but  had  been  ever  gentle,  yet  for  one 
throw  of  the  dice  he  had  for  ever  turned  his  face  from  her. 
He  then  continues :  ^  "  My  mother-in-law  detests  me,  my 
wife  rejects  me,  I  cannot  discover  what  is  the  enjoyment  of 
the  gambler.  Others  pay  court  to  the  wife  of  the  man 
whose  wealth  is  coveted  by  the  impetuous  dice.  Yet  as 
soon  as  the  brown  dice  when  they  are  thrown  make  a 
sound,  I  hasten  to  their  rendezvous  like  a  woman  to  her 
paramour.  Hooking,  piercing,  deceitful,  vexatious,  delight- 
ing to  torment,  the  dice  dispense  transient  gifts,  and  again 
ruin  the  winners.  They  appear  to  the  gambler  covered 
with  honey.  They  roll  downward,  they  bound  upward, 
having  no  hands,  they  overcome  him  who  has.  The 
destitute  wife  of  the  gambler  is  distressed,  and  so,  too,  is 
the  mother  of  a  son  who  goes  she  knows  not  whither.  It 
vexes  the  gambler  to  see  his  own  wife,  and  then  to  observe 
the  wives  and  happy  homes  of  others.  In  the  morning  he 
yokes  the  brown  horses  (the  dice) ;  by  the  time  when 
the  fire  goes  out  he  has  sunk  into  a  degraded  wretch. 
Never  play  with  dice,  practise  husbandry ;  rejoice  in  thy 
property,  esteeming  it  sufficient." 

There  is  no  doubt  evidence,^  for  those  who  care  to  pursue 
the  subject,  that  women's  vows  were  as  frail   in   ancient 

1  R.V.,  X.  34. 
"  Muir,  V.  426-7. 

'  Pischel  and  Geldner,  "  Vedische  Studien."  (1889-92),  for  evidence  of  exist- 
ence  of  hetairai. 

C 


34  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Vedic  times  as  they  are  to-day,  and  that  monogamy,  the 
ideal  bond  of  earthly  union,  carried  in  its  wake  some  far 
from  submissive  swains.  Charms  against  rival  wives, 
charms  to  hold  the  flickering  love  of  man  or  woman,  are 
given  in  the  hymns  of  the  "  Atharva-veda,"  which  evidently 
goes  back  in  its  underlying  basis  as  far  as  do  the  hymns  of 
the  more  stately  "Rig  Veda."  Bloomfield,  in  his  recent 
translation  of  the  Atharvan  Hymns,  has  given  a  number 
of  these  spells,  some  of  which  are  said  in  the  spells 
themselves  to  have  travelled  from  distant  places.  One  of 
these  spells  ^  is  as  follows : — "  From  folk  belonging  to  all 
kinds  of  people,  from  the  Sindhu  thou  heist  been  fetched, 
the  very  remedy  for  jealousy.  As  if  a  fire  is  burning  him, 
as  if  the  forest  fire  bums  in  various  directions,  this  jealousy 
of  him  do  thou  quench,  as  a  fire  is  quenched  by  water.'' 

More  pleasing  is  the  love-charm  for  a  bride  and  bride- 
groom, as  translated  by  Griffith :  ^ — 

"  Sweet  are  the  glances  of  our  eyes,  our  faces  are  as  smooth  as  balm, 
Within  thy  bosom  harbour  me,  one  spirit  dwell  in  both  of  us." 

Another  potent  charm  tells  how  to  bind  the  love  of  a 
reluctant  maiden  : ' — 

"  My  tongue  hath  honey  at  the  tip,  and  sweetest  honey  at  the  root. 
Thou  yieldest  to  my  wish  and  will,  and  shalt  be  mine  and  only  mine. 
My  coming  in  is  honey  sweet,  and  honey  sweet  my  going  forth  ; 
My  voice  and  words  are  sweet  :  I  fain  would  be  like  honey  in  my 
look. 

Around  thee  have  I  girt  a  zone  of  sugar-cane  to  banish  hate. 
That  thou  may'st  be  in  love  with  me,  my  darling,  never  to  depart." 

There  are  verses  of  the  "  Rig  Veda  "  *  which  allude  to  the 

>  A.V.,  vii.  45  ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xlii.  p.  107. 

*  Ibid.,  vii.  36. 
^  Ibid.,  i.  34. 

*  R.V.,  iv.  19,  9;  iv.  30,  16;  II,  29,  I. 


THE  EARLY  BARDS  35 

sons  of  unwedded  women,  sometimes  to  the  birth  of 
children  in  secret  shame.^  The  union  of  a  widow  in 
"levirate"  marriage  ^  with  her  brother-in-law,  for  the  purpose 
of  raising  up  offspring  to  the  deceased  husband,  gives 
evidence  in  itself  of,  at  least,  the  non- universality  of  the 
ancient  Aryan  custom  of  the  widow  being  put  to  death 
on  the  decease  of  her  husband.  On  death  the  body 
of  the  deceased  was  burned,*  though  burial  was  also  in 
vogue.  In  one  hymn*  it  is  prayed  that  both  those  who 
are  burned  and  those  who  are  not  burned  may  here- 
after gain  the  perfect  path,'  and  a  body  such  as  they 
desire.  One  hymn  gives  the  entire  funeral  surroundings 
when  the  tribe  brings  forth  its  deceased  kinsman  to 
restore  him  to  mother  earth.  Round  the  burial-place  the 
friends  and  relatives  of  the  deceased  assemble  aind 
commence  their  wail  to  death. 

From  amid  the  throng  the  cry  of  the  bard  goes  forth  to 
Death  :— 

"  Go  thou  now  far  away,  I  speak  to  thee  who  seest  not,  and  hearest 
not,  injure  thou  not  our  children  nor  our  fighting  men.  These  all 
standing  here  are  now  divided  from  the  dead.  We  look  to  dance  and 
song,  we  long  to  lengthen  out  our  days.  Let  all  here  live  a  hundred 
years.  Between  those  living  and  him  now  dead  we  heap  up  stones  ;  let 
none  advance  beyond  them  ;  by  this  stone  we  now  set  up,  let  death  be 
kept  away.  Let  first  the  women  not  yet  widowed,  those  with  noble 
husbands  go  hence,  weeping  not,  strong,  adorned  with  jewels,  let  them 
go  first  towards  the  house."  Now  let  the  wife  of  the  dead  man  arise. 
Let  her  go  to  the  world  of  the  living.  Your  husband's  life  is  fled,  you 
are  now  the  widow  of  him  who  grasps  your  hand  and  leads  you  forth.' 
Take  now  the  bow  from  the  hand  of  him  who  lies  dead.     Enter,  O 

»  Zimmer,  "Alt.  Ind.  I^ben.,"  p.  324. 

2  Deuteronomy,  ii.  5,  5 ;  R.  V.,  x.  40,  2. 

3  Oldenberg,  "  Rel.  des  Vedas,"  p.  570. 

4  R.V.,  X.  IS,  14. 
'  AsunitT. 

«  "  Arohantu  janayo  yonim  agre." 

'  "  Du  bist  die  gattin  dessen  geworden,  derjetzt  deinc  Hand  ergreift  und  dich 
aufstehen  macht."— Oldenberg,  "Rel.  des  Vedas,"  575  {note). 


36  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

lifeless  one,  the  mother  earth,  the  widespread  earth,  soft  as  a  maiden  ;  in 
her  arms  rest  free  from  sin.  Let  now  the  earth  gently  close  around  you, 
even  as  a  mother  gently  wraps  her  infant  child  in  soft  robes.  Let  now 
the  fathers  keep  safe  thy  resting-place,  and  let  Yama,  the  first  mortal 
who  passed  the  portals  of  death,  prepare  for  thee  a  new  abiding-place." 

It  would  be  rash  to  affirm  from  this  hymn  that  widow- 
burning  was  totally  unknown  in  Vedic  times.  The  custom 
was  an  old  one,  and  survived  in  India  down  to  very  recent 
days.  In  the  "  Atharva-veda,''  ^  it  is  referred  to  as  an  ancient 
custom,  so  that  it  will  be  safer  2  to  accept  the  conclusion  that 
the  custom  was  not  one  belonging  to  the  family  or  tribe  of 
the  poet  who  composed  the  Vedic  Hymn.  The  fact,  too, 
that  the  bow  was  taken  from  the  hand  of  the  deceased  and 
gold  substituted,  shows  an  advance  on  the  older  custom, 
where  the  belonging?  of  the  dead  man  were  burned  with 
him,^  and  may  tend  to  support  the  suggestion  that  the 
widow  was  similarly  rescued  by  a  special  rite. 

The  one  great  perplexing  question  for  all  mankind — ^the 
question  as  to  what  becomes  of  man  after  death — still 
remained  to  perplex  the  Indo- Aryan  mind,  if  haply  it  might 
find  some  solution,  and  then  hand  on  the  weary  quest  as 
a  heritage  to  occupy  the  subtle  thought  and  untiring  efforts 
of  succeeding  generations.  Death,  so  far  as  can  be  learned 
from  the  Vedic  literature,  was  held  to  be  the  going-forth 
from  the  living  of  his  breath,*  or  of  the  thinking  part,  the 
mind,  which  was  held  to  reside  in  the  heart.  Yama  was 
the  first  mortal  to  find  the  after  world. 

Those  who  had  done  good  in  this  world  ;  those  who  had 

'A. v.,  xviii.  3,  I. 

'  "  Dharma  purana  "als  uralte  sitte.'" — Zimmer,  "Alt.  Ind.  Leben.," 
pp.  329-31. 

'  "Nicht  anders  steht  es  mit  der  Wittwe — sie  besteigt  den  Scheiter 
haufen,  und  es  bedarf  eines  eignen  rituellen  Actes  vim  sie  von  dort  zur  Welt 
der  Lebenden  zuriickzufiihren, " — Oldenberg,  ' '  Rel.  des  Vedas,"  p.  587. 

*  For  this,  the  asu,  or  physical  breath,  see  Oldenberg,  p.  525  {note  2).  For 
the  manas,  the  subtle  body  of  the  Sanhhya,  R.V.,  x.  15,  i.  See  Barth  for  the 
ajobhagas,  x,  16,  4. 


THE  EARLY  BARDS  37 

performed  sacrifices,  been  liberal,  warriors  or  ascetic  saints, 
gained  the  happy  heaven  where  dwell  Yama,  the  fathers  ^ 
and  the  gods  who  have  passed  to  the  land  similar  to  that 
described  in  the  Odyssey :  ^ 

"To  the  plain  Elysian,  where  light-haired  Rhadamanthus  doth  dwell. 
Where  restful  is  life  and  ever  with  men  it  goeth  full  well." 

There  they  met  with  Yama,  who  was  guarded  by  two 
four-eyed  brindled  dogs,  with  broad  nostrils,  Death's 
messengers  among  men,  though  again  the  Dove*  is  men- 
tioned as  Death's  envoy.  They  dwell  with  Yama  as  the 
Fathers  who  have  again  gained  spirit  or  breath,*  knowing 
right,  and  returning  to  earth  to  eat  the  funeral  oblations,  to 
which  they  are  periodically  summoned.  These  Fathers  are 
prayed  ^  not  to  injure  the  living.  It  is  they,^  who,  with 
Soma,  have  stretched  out  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  set 
the  stars  in  the  firmament,  and  given  the  great  light. 

In  this  happy  after-life  the  body  of  the  deceased,  though 
not  in  the  form  it  bore  during  life,  takes  part,  and  pines  for 
raiment  and  nourishment,^  provided  for  it  by  devout  sons  at 
the  funeral  oblation.  So  when  the  deceased  is  cremated  the 
deity  of  the  Fire  is  besought  ^  not  to  consume  him  entirely, 
not  to  scatter  his  body  or  skin,  but  to  give  to  the 
fathers,  endowed  with  breath  and  clothed  with  a  new  body, 
any  portion  that  may  have  been  injured  by  bird,  ant,  serpent 
or  beast  of  prey,  fully  restored. 

^  "Ancestor  worship  and  the  cult  of  the  dead  have  no  place  in  the  Homeric 
world,  and  can  have  none." — Schrader,  p.  424. 

"Avia,  "Odyssey,"  X.  561. 

s  R.V.,  X.  I6S,  4- 

«  Ibid.,  X.  IS,  I  :  "  Asum  ye  iyuh"  (Muir,  v.  295). 

6  Ibid.,  iii.  SS,  2. 

6  Ibid.,  viii.  48,  13. 

'  Oldenberg,  "Rel.  des  Vedas,"  v.  p.  529.  For  a  later  idea,  see  "Sat. 
Brah.,"  x.  4,  4,  4,  where  the  deceased  has  human  passions  in  Heaven.  "  ^at. 
Brah.,"  xi.  2,  7,  33,  good  and  evil  deeds  are  weighed,  and  recompense  given 
accordingly  ("  Sat.  Brah.,"  vi.  2,  z,  27  ;  x.  5,  4,  15). 

8  R.V.  X.  16,  1. 


38  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

The  home  of  the  dead  is  said  to  lie  at  the  back  of  the 
sky  :  1  it  is,  again,  a  place  where  there  is  uncreated  light,^  a 
world  wherein  the  sun  is  placed ;  it  is  within  the  skj^s 
deepest  depths.  Again,  it  is  in  the  third  firmament,*  in  the 
third  sky,  where  there  is  joy  and  delight,  attainment  of  all 
wishes,  where  one  dwells  immortal,  and  the  fathers  wander 
as  they  will.  Another  verse*  tells  how  those,  who  have 
given  rich  offerings  to  the  priests  during  life,  go  to  the 
highest  heaven ;  those  who  have  given  gifts  of  horses  dwell 
by  the  sun.  Yet  again  the  deceased  is  addressed  in  a  hymn  ^ 
which  tells  the  good  deeds  done  by  those  who  have  won 
the  happy  shores,  where  a  mead  made  from  honey,  or  Soma, 
awaits  those  who,  by  their  penance,®  have  become  invincible 
and  gained  the  light.  There  dwell  warriors  who  in  the 
fight  have  given  up  their  bodies,  and  those  who  have  on 
earth  upheld  the  right. 

Heaven,  a  happy  hereafter,  was  all  that  was  looked 
forward  to  by  these  Vedic  Aryans.  Throughout  the 
hymns  there  is  no  weariness  of  life,  no  pessimism.  The 
day's  work  had  to  be  done,  a  new  home  won  with  sword 
in  hand,  and  there  were  friendly  gods  to  cheer  on  the 
warriors.  The  time  had  yet  to  come,  as  come  it  does  to 
all,  when  the  sword  is  laid  aside,  and  man  shudders  at 
the  thought  that  in  the  fight  for  advance  and  progress  he 
must  take  his  weaker  brother's  life,  and  blast  all  the  ideals 
which  set  peace  and  goodwill  to  all  men  as  the  prototype 
of  heavenly  mercy. 

As  to  the  future  of  the  evil-doer  and  the  sinful,  there  is 


'  R.V.,  i.  125,  5. 

^  Ibid.,  X.  14,  7. 

'  R.V. ,  ix.  113,9:  "In  the  third  sphere  of  inmost  heaven,  where  lucid 
worlds  are  full  of  light "  (Griffith). 

*  Ibid.,  X.  107,  2. 

"  Ibid.,  XV.  4. 

'  Tapasa,  "  durch  askese  "  (Oldenberg,  534).  "Through  religious  abstrac- 
tion "  (Muir,  O.S.T.,  vol.  v.  p.  310).     "  By  fervour  "  (Griffith). 


THE  EARLY  BARDS  39 

but  faint  allusion.  In  one  verse  ^  Indra  and  Soma  are 
prayed  to  cast  the  wicked  into  the  depths,^  into  a  darkness 
profound,  from  which  they  emerge  not.  Again,  in  another 
verse,  it  is  said  that  a  deep  place  *  has  been  made  for  those 
maidens  without  brothers  who  wander  about  doing  evil; 
for  women  who  deceive  their  husbands,  who  are  sinful, 
unrighteous,  and  untruthful. 

'  R.V.,  vii.  104,  3. 

2  "Abyss"  (Muir,  p.  312);  "In  den  Kerker"  (Oldenberg,  p.  538). 

3  R.V.,  iv.  S,  S- 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  TWILIGHT  OF   THE  OLDER   AND   THE   DAWN   OF 
NEWER  DEITIES. 

As  the  Aryan  tribes  wandered  on  through  mountain  passes, 
gloomy  forests,  and  scantily  cultivated  river-valleys  towards 
the  lowland  plains  of  India,  the  sacred  duty  of  each  house- 
holder was  to  preserve  bright  within  his  homestead  the 
once-kindled  spark  of  fire.  In  Greece,  Hestia,  the  goddess 
of  the  domestic  hearth,  had  the  sacred  fire  ever  kept  lighted 
in  the  Delphic  Temple.  Vesta  had  her  temple  at  Lavinium, 
and  there  the  sacred  fire  brought  first  from  Troy  by  ^neas 
was  kept  burning  with  pious  care.  To-day,  in  India,  when 
the  sedate  Hindu  awakes  to  feel  the  cold,  grey  dawn  creep 
slowly  through  the  early  morning  mists,  he  rises,  and  from 
amid  the  ashes,  carefully  heaped  together  the  night  before 
on  the  household  hearth,  unfolds  the  glowing  spark,  and 
■  with  his  palm-leaf  fan  kindles  again  the  friendly  fire.  No 
defiling  breath  from  his  impure  mouth  is  ever  wafted  on 
the  sacred  friend  of  man.  No  Hindu,  however  low  or 
fallen,  would  dare  to  extinguish  a  burning  light  by  pro- 
fanely blowing  on  it  as  do  the  foreigners. 

Should  once  the  life  go  from  the  gleaming  spark,  and  it 
lie  cold  as  man  lies  cold  in  death,  then  the  kindling  sticks  of 
ArunI  wood  are  brought  forth,  one  twirling  piece  is  placed 

40 


THE   OLDER  AND  NEWER  DEITIES       41 

in  the  bored-out  hollow  of  the  other,  and  twirled  round 
so  that  the  skilled  hand  of  a  native  soon  brings  again  to 
life  the  sacred  flame.  Here  to  the  primitive  mind,  untrained 
in  scientific  terminology,  is  an  exact  type  of  all  birth  and 
re-creation.  To-day  everywhere  may  be  seen,  in  households 
and  by  the  roadside,  emblems  outwardly  phallic  in  their 
form,  yet  symbolic  of  the  wooden  implements  whereby  a 
new  birth  takes  place,  whereby  something  is  produced 
which  is  endowed  with  a  vital  life.  The  new-born  fire 
has  a  will,  a  potency  of  its  own,  as  much  as  has  man.  It 
is  animated  by  a  soul,  it  breathes,  it  goes  free,  rejoicing, 
laughing,  crackling  ;  it  is  a  friend  in  the  household,  a  friend 
as  it  rushes  through  the  undergrowth,  drives  the  foe  from 
his  hiding-places,  and  burns  down  his  strongholds.  It  is 
a  god  resembling,  more  or  less,  in  the  thoughts  of  the 
perplexed  observer,  something  which  must  be  human, 
endowed  with  human  powers  and  attributes,  the  assistance 
of  which  must  be  courted,  the  great  power  of  which  must 
be  won  as  an  aid  to  the  conquering  Aryans.  So  all  the 
phenomena  of  Nature  become  more  or  less  vaguely  per- 
sonified in  one  form  or  another,  and  prayers,  charms,  and 
incantations  are  composed  and  sung  to  sway  these  deities, 
to  make  them  more  propitious  and  extend  their  aid  to 
their  worshippers. 

In  times  of  danger  from  increasing  foes,  in  times  of 
victory  or  public  rejoicing,  in  times  of  drought,  in  times 
when  the  storms  burst  forth,  the  thunder  rolls,  and  the 
terror-striking  lightning  gleams  along  the  clouds,  bursts 
through  the  heavens,  and  sends  its  thunderbolts  to  tear 
with  heavy  crash  the  sobbing  earth  asunder,  then  the  people 
turn  to  their  gods,  and  the  tribal  sacrifice  is  made.  Those  of 
the  tribe  on  whom  the  gift  of  music  and  of  song  have  fallen 
are  then  called  forth  to  carry  out  the  sacrifice,  so  that  the 
gods  may  be  drawn  near. 

In  Vedic  sacrificial  times,  an  open  space,  or  large  thatched 


42  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

hall  was  first  prepared.  There  the  sacrificial  altar  was  set 
up,  and  the  posts,  to  which  the  sacrificial  victims  were 
bound,  adorned.  Priests^  move  busy  to  and  fro  amid 
the  scene.  Seven  officiating  priests  ^  are  named.  The  duty 
of  the  Brahman,  who  in  later  ritual  becomes  the  chief  over- 
seeing priest  of  the  entire  sacrifice,  is  referred  to  as  that  of 
kindling  *  the  fire,  and  the  recital  of  the  hymns  to  Indra.* 
Three  fires  were  the  number  to  be  prepared  within  the 
sacrificial  hall.  The  first  represented  the  household  fire, 
always  lighted  from  fire  obtained  by  drilling  one  piece  of 
hard  Aruni  wood  into  another.  It  was  the  fire  before 
which,  in  the  private  sacrifices,  each  householder  recited 
such  Vedic  Hymns  as  were  held  in  his  family  to  have 
special  potency  to  summon  the  deities,  to  whom  chiefly  the 
intoxicating  Soma  juice  was  offered,  so  that  it  might  please 
and  exhilarate  them  as  it  did  man.  The  second,  known 
as  the  "  Southern  Fire,"  stood  to  the  eastward ;  it  was  kindled 
from  the  household  fire.  From  the  South  were  held  to 
come  unclean  spirits,  malignant  influences,  and  the  spirits 
of  the  departed  ;  these  the  "  Southern  Fire  "  was  supposed 
to  ward  off  from  the  sacrifice  held  sacred  to  the  gods  alone. 
The  third  fire  stood  yet  further  to  the  East  It  was  the 
chief  fire  of  the  ceremony. 

First  used  and  kept  ready  to  destroy  all  of  the  offering 
not  consumed  by  the  gods,  it  came  to  be  the  place  whence 
amid  the  flames  and  incense,  nourishment  was  wafted 
towards  the  heavens  and  eager  deities.  Near  at  hand  were 
placed  seats  of  sacred  grass,  on  which  the  gods  were  prayed 
to  be  seated,  and  partake  of  the  offering.  One  strange 
relic  of  bygone   days  was  the  offering  of  human  blood. 

'  R.V.  i.  162,  5  (Griffith),  for  sixteen  priests. 

=  The  "Hotir,"  "Potdr,"  "  Neshtar,""Agntdh,"  "Pra&star," " Adhvaryu," 
and  "Brahman"  {see  x.  91,  10;  Haug,  p.  12  ;   "Ait.  Brah."). 

3  R.V.,  X.  52,  2. 

*  Oldenberg,  p.  396,  holds  him  to  be  the  Brahmanacchamsin.  Wise  sons 
of  Brahmans  are  mentioned  in  eight  hymns. 


THE   OLDER  AND  NEWER  DEITIES      43 

Only  this  year  the  natives  fled  from  Bombay  in  thousands, 
not  for  fear  of  the  plague,  but  because  the  whisper  had 
gone  forth  ^  that  their  foreign  rulers  had  prepared  a  holo- 
caust of  human  victims,  to  appease  the  divinity  of  the 
Queen-Empress,  whose  statue  in  Bombay  had  been  insulted. 
Among  the  Khonds  of  the  wild  hill-tracts  of  Ganjam,  human 
victims,  purchased  from  the  lowland  traders,  were  until 
lately  sacrificed,  and  their  blood  and  flesh  given  to  the 
earth  to  ensure  its  fertility,  and  increase  the  redness  of  the 
turmeric  by  its  magical  and  physical  influence.^ 

In  the  Vedic  Hymn  the  story  is  told  of  how  the  youth 
Sunashepa  was  bound  as  a  victim  to  the  sacrificial  post, 
and  by  his  supplications  to  the  gods  released  from  his  fate. 
In  another  hymn  *  the  order  of  procession,  when  a  horse 
is  led  forward  to  be  sacrificed,  is  detailed.  The  horse  itself 
goes  first,  then  follows  a  cart,  then  a  human  being  {rnartyd) 
succeeded  by  cows  and  troops  of  maidens. 

In  the  more  refined  Vedic  Hymns  there  are  few  traces 
to  be  found  of  human  sacrifice,  the  commonest  form  of  all 
savage  rites.  In  later  days,  when  the  details  of  the  fully 
developed  sacrificial  system  were  set  forth  in  the  prolix 
and  wearisome  prose  manuals,*  it  is  declared  that  in  the 
beginning  the  sacrifice  most  acceptable  to  the  gods  was 
man.  The  text  then  goes  on  to  tell  how,  for  the  man  a 
horse  was  substituted,  then  an  ox,  then  a  sheep,  then  a 
goat,  until  at  length  it  was  found  that  the  gods  were  most 
pleased  with  offerings  of  rice   and  barley.     Here  in  the 

'  The  evidence  for  this  is  founded  on  indisputable  authority,  and  was  referred 
to  by  Lord  Reay  in  the  course  of  remarks  on  Surgeon-Captain  Burton  Brown's 
Paper  at  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  on  the  "  Ruins  of  Dimapur  "  (March  1897). 

"  See  Fra/;er,  J.G.,  "  Golden  Bough,"  vol.  i.  pp.  384-390. 

3  R.V.,  i.  163,  8;  Macdonell,  J.R.A.S.  (1895),  p.  960.  See  Oldenberg, 
"  Rel.  des  Vedas,"  p.  365  : — "  Was  sonst  fiir  die  Existenz  vedischer  Men- 
schenopfer  angefuhrt  wird,  scheint  mir  nicht  jeden  Zweifel  auszuschliessen." 
Barth,  "Rel.  of  India,"  p.  35,  for  the  offerings  of  melted  butter,  curdled 
milk,  rice,  soups,  and  cakes,  and  Soma  mixed  with  water  or  milk. 

4"Sat.  Brab.,"xii.  3,  5. 


44  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

ancient  manual,  is  clearly  set  forth  the  gradual  passing  of 
mankind  through  the  early  stages  of  primitive  culture. 

First,  they  start  as  wild  and  savage  hunters,  then  turn 
to  pasturage,  tending  horses  to  be  used  for  food  and  milk, 
then  to  taming  the  wilder  animals,  and  at  last  settle  down 
to  agriculture,  from  which  laborious  mode  of  life — the  most 
laborious  of  all  save  mining — they  gained  those  habits  of 
perseverance  and  patient  industry  which  led  them  onwards 
to  the  invention  of  mechanical  appliances. 

One  other  great  offering  to  the  deities  was  the  intoxicating 
Soma  juice,  squeezed  from  the  succulent  stems  of  a  plant 
now  unknown  in  India.  This  offering  of  the  Soma  juice 
became  in  time  the  type  of  all  true  sacrifices.^ 

From  the  Vedic  Hymns  may  be  imagined  the  hall  or 
open  space  strewn  with  grass ;  the  sacrificial  stakes  well 
decorated ;  the  trembling  animals  led  near ;  the  altars 
built  and  prepared  ;  the  three  fires  flaming  upwards.  The 
Soma  plants  are  standing  ready  in  a  cart,  to  which  are 
harnessed  two  goats ;  the  officiating  attendants  prepare  the 
straining  presses  and  goat-hair  strainer,  through  which  the 
juice  drops  down  like  glistening  rain  ;  the  sacrificing  priest 
waits  ecstatic,  he  is  already  in  communion  with  the  gods, 
he  is  indeed  a  god  himself  The  Vedic  Hymns  are  being 
murmured  or  chanted,  every  accent,  stress,  and  intonation 
carefully  marked,  for  the  least  mistake  would  vitiate  the 
whole  ceremony,  and  bring  danger  to  all  present. 

The  gods  are  invited  to  take  their  places,  eat  of  the 
viands  or  drink  the  Soma  juice,  yet  nowhere  can  the  forms 
of  gods  be  seen.  There  are  no  idols  present,  the  time  was 
yet  to  come  when  the  sacrificial  post,  well-carved  and 
ornamented,  would  be  brought  within  a  temple  as  the  idol 
or  form  of  the  god,  to  be  honoured,  fed  with  offerings  and 
worshipped.  Who  then  are  the  gods  invoked  by  these 
early  Aryans  at  the  domestic  altar,  or  before  the  triple 
'  Stevenson's  "  Preface  to  the  '  Sama  Veda,'  "  p.  vii. 


THE   OLDER  AND  NEWER  DEITIES       45 

fires  ?  Each  god  has  his  defined  rank,  each  has  his  allotted 
ritual.  In  the  mind  of  the  Vedic  priest  there  was  no  hazi- 
ness as  to  the  god  he  adored.^  Yet  the  gods  all  move 
to  and  fro,  so  far  as  the  hymns  depict  them,  in  nebulous 
anthropomorphic  forms.  The  singer,  as  he  recites  the  praise 
of  each  god  in  turn,  lauds  and  exaggerates  the  attributes 
of  the  deity  he  carries  for  the  moment  before  him  in  his 
imagination.  The  deity  at  its  highest  is  some  personified 
phenomenon  of  Nature.  It  is  addressed  as  if  it  were  man- 
like, endowed  with  human  will  and  potency,  yet  in  the 
mystic  utterances  of  the  poet,  it  never  assumes  the  objective 
reality,  with  which  it  would  have  been  endowed  by  a 
Semitic  or  Greek  dramatic  genius. 

So  indistinct  is  the  delineation  of  the  gods,  as  fashioned 
by  the  Vedic  poet,  that  Professor  Max  Miiller,^  with  all 
his  vivid  imagination,  has  but  been  able  to  trace  the 
shadowy  forms  of  various  gods,  each  rising  in  turn  to  be 
supreme  and  highest  god. 

First  of  all  the  gods  is  Fire,  or  "  Agni."  He  is  the  great 
loved  god  of  the  Aryans,  to  whom  the  opening  hymn  of  the 
Vedas  is  addressed  as  the  deity  praised  by  new  poets  as 
well  as  by  old.  Yet  though  Agni  is  father  of  all  the  gods, 
he  is  but  a  younger  deity ,^  for  originally  Fire  merely  con- 
sumed the  offerings  left  from  the  repast  of  the  other  gods ; 
so  he  is  son  *  to  all  the  other  gods,  and  had  no  part  in  the 
drinking  of  the  Soma  juice.  Thrice  born  was  Agni. 
From  the  heavens  he  fell  to  earth  as  lightning,  on  earth  he 
is  produced  by  the  rubbing  of  the  firesticks,  in  the  water  ^ 
also  he  finds  his  birth  as  lightning  in  the  clouds,  or  as 
sprung  from  the  wood  which  holds  water  as  its  essence.^ 

'  Oldenberg,  "Rel.  des  Vedas,"  p.  loi  (note  i). 

»  Max  MuUer,  "  India  :  What  Can  it  Teach  Us,"  p.  147. 

'  Oldenberg,  p.  104. 

*  Muir,  vol.  V.  p.  221 ;  Oldenberg,  p.  44;  R.V.,  vii.  i  ;  iii.  13,  4. 
"  Oldenberg,  p.  1 08. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  114. 


46  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

He  finds  his  place  in  the  three  sacrificial  fires,*  and  at  the 
domestic  hearth  he  is  worshipped  three  times  a  day  by  all 
Hindus.  Strong  when  born^  he  never  ages,  he  never 
sleeps,'  he  is  ever  beautiful,  he  has  ruddy  limbs,  yet  he  is 
not  to  be  touched  *  for  his  locks  are  flames.'  He  is  the 
guest  in  every  dwelling ;  *  he  is  the  bearer  of  messages  ;  his 
ears  are  ever  listening,  he  carries  the  sacrificial  food  to  the 
gods.  He  is  the  charioteer  of  the  worshipper.  As  he  goes 
on  his  way,  rich  in  splendour,  and  adorned  with  gold  and 
glittering  ornaments,  he  carries  his  banner  of  smoke  and 
his  flames  of  war,  "  like  the  roaring  waves  of  the  Sindhu."  "^ 
His  black  trail  is  to  be  seen  in  the  brushwood  ;  he  is  never 
tired  and  ever  greedy ;  when  the  butter  is  poured  over  him 
his  back  shines  like  that  of  an  anointed  youth  who  runs  a 
race.*  His  jaws  are  fiery,  his  strength  is  as  that  of  a  bull, 
he  breaks  down  the  stronghold  of  the  Dasa  foe.®  To  win 
his  aid  "  wise  men  fashion  forth  spells,"  i"  for  "  he  upholds 
the  sky  by  his  efficacious  spells."  To  him  "  three  hundred 
gods,  and  three  thousand  and  thirty  more  did  honour."  '^ 
As  the  poet  composes  his  best  song  he  prays :  "  May  this 
well-composed  prayer,  O  Agni,  be  more  welcome  than  a 
badly  composed  one."  *^  It  is  Agni  who  protects  the  man  who 
speaks  the  right  and  the  truth.^  To  Agni  the  sinner  prays : — 

"Whatever  sin,  O  youngest  god,  we  have  committed  against  thee 
in  thoughtlessness,  men  as  we  are  make  thou  us  sinless  before  Aditi ; 
release  us  from  guilt  on  all  sides,  O  Agni."  " 

1R.V.,  V.  3,  I.  •^Ibid.,iv.J,io.  » /i5ai ,  i.  143,  3. 

♦  R.V.,  ii.  10,  5.  =  Ibid.,  i.  141,  8. 

» Ibid.,  V.  4,  5.  "As  dear  house  friend,  guest  welcome  in  the  dwelling" 
(Griffith). 

'  Ibid.,  V.  44,  12  (tr.  Oldenberg,  p.  38). 

'  See  Pischel,  "  Vedische  Studien.,"  vol.  i.  p.  151. 

9  R.V.,  iii.  12,  6. 
"  Ibid.,  i.  67,  4. 
"  Ibid.,  iii.  9,  9;  x.  52,  6. 
^'-  Oldenberg,  S.B.E.,  vol.  xlvi.  p.  142. 
"  "Rita,"  S.JB.E.,  vol.  xlvl.  p.  316;  R.V.,  iv.  2. 
"  R.V.,  iv.  12,  4  {,lr.  Oldenberg,  S.B.E.,  vol.  xlvi.). 


THE   OLDER  AND  NEWER  DEITIES       4; 

Agni  is  four-eyed ;  he  watches  his  worshippers  on  all 
sides ;i  he  accepts  the  praise  of  the  poor;  to  him  the 
prayer  goes  up : — 

"  Have  mercy  upon  us  ;  thou  art  great."  ^ 
And  again — 

"  Forgive,  O  Agni,  this  our  fault,  look  graciously  on  the  way  which 
we  have  wandered  from  afar."  ^ 

He  is  prayed  to  carry  the  sacrifice  to  the  gods,  "  for  when- 
ever we  sacrifice  constantly  to  this  or  to  that  god, to  thee  alone 
the  sacrificial  food  is  offered."  *  He  flames  forth  against  all 
those  who  are  wicked,  and  against  all  sorcerers.^  He  drives 
away  sickness,  and  ever  stays  near  his  worshippers  as  a 
father  stays  near  to  a  son  ;  and  he  is  chief  of  all  the 
clans. 

He  is  the  god,  indistinct,  and  clothed  in  all  the  subjec- 
tive mysticism  of  his  worshippers,  who  is  prayed  to  come 
to  the  sacrifice,  and  take  his  place  on  the  sacred  grass 
among  the  gods  as  Hotar,  Priest  and  Purohit,  and  giver  of 
treasure. 

Such  are  the  Vedic  gods  of  whom  it  may  be  said,  in  the 
chastened  language  of  Andrew  Lang :  ^  "  The  lights  of 
ritualistic  dogma,  and  of  pantheistic  and  mystic  and  poetic 
emotion,  fall  in  turn  like  the  changeful  hues  of  sunset,  on 
figures  as  melting  and  shifting  as  the  clouds  of  sunset." 

In  such  forms  the  gods  everywhere  crowd  through  the 
three  regions  and  hover  round  the  altars.  Some,  abstract 
conceptions,^  such  as  Wrath,  Faith,  Speed,  and  Abund- 
ance ;    others,    the    personifications    of    active    agencies, 

iR.V.,i.  31,  13. 

'^  Oldenberg,  i.  36,  12  ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xlv.  I. 

»  R.V.,  i.  31,  16;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xlvi. 

*•  Oldenberg,  i.  26,  6 ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xlvi. 

6  R.V.,  i.  12,  5 ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xlvi. 

*  "Myth.  Ritual  and  Religion,"  vol.  i.  p.  161. 

■<  Macdonell,  J.R.A.S.  (1895).  P-  948. 


48  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

as  Tvashtar,  the  lord  ^  who  forms  all  things,  who  fashions 
the  sun  in  the  heavens  and  the  child  in  the  mother  ;  Pushan, 
the  Guide,  who  shows  the  path  of  death  to  the  sacrificer ;  and 
Savitar,^  the  Quickener  or  Inspirer,  who  with  his  raised  arms 
holds  forth  his  blessing  and  giveth  hope  to  all.  Brihaspati 
or  Brahmanaspati,the  lord  of  the  Brahman,  or  "prayer,"  takes 
shape  and  form  as  does  Prajapati,  the  lord  of  all  creatures, 
for  "  the  image  of  the  Creator  floats  hazily  among  others  in 
the  great,  grey,  shapeless  mist  which  surrounds  the  world  of 
creation."  * 

As  the  imagination  strives  to  pierce  through  the  mists, 
and  form  out  one  by  one  the  Vedic  gods,  a  figure  glides 
gently  out  from  amid  the  rest,  rising,  clothed  in  garments 
of  purest  light,  as  the  loved  maiden-goddess,  the  gleaming 
bride,  the  Dawn.  As  she  draws  near,  the  youth  with 
ruddy  limbs  and  locks  of  flame,  grows  pale  and  fades  away, 
while  the  dark  Night  rises  to  make  place  for  her  loved  sister, 
the  glowing  ever-welcome  light,  the  first-bom  daughter  of 
the  Sky.  Seated  on  her  car  she  cometh ;  ruddy  horses 
speed  her  over  the  land  of  her  worshippers.  At  her 
coming  the  birds  fly  up  from  their  nests,  and  man  rises 
from  sleep  to  gaze  in  solemn  wonder  at  the  fair  goddess 
who  steals  forth  as  a  dancer,  never  resting,  her  breasts 
bared,  her  garments  adorned,  for  he  remembereth  how — 

"  All  those  who  watched  for  thee  of  old 
Are  gone,  and  now  'tis  we  who  gaze 
On  thy  approach  ;  in  future  days 
Shall  other  men  thy  beams  behold." 

With  the  Dawn  rise  two  horsemen,  the  A§vins,  her  twin 
brothers  or  husbands,*  sons  of  Dyaus.  They  are  ever 
inseparable,  like   to  the   Dioscuri,  sons  of  Zeus,  who  in 

^  Wallis,  "  Cosmology  of  the  Veda,"  p.  9. 

2  Macdonell,  J.R.A.S.  (1895),  p.  951 ;  R.V.,  i.  93,  7. 

»  Oldenberg,  "Buddha,"  p.  22. 

«  Hopkins,  "  Rel.  of  India,"  p.  80. 


THE   OLDER  AND  NEWER  DEITIES      49 

Attica  freed  their  sister  Helena  from  Theseus.  They  yet 
dwell  ever  apart ;  they  are  wonder-workers.i  of  "  golden 
brilliancy."  Swift  as  young  falcons,  wearing  lotus  garlands, 
their  chariot  is  triple-wheeled  and  threefold  in  its  parts, 
with  golden  reins  and  drawn  by  swift-flying  birds.*  The 
Asvins  are  the  physicians  of  the  gods,  bringing  health  to 
all :  they  are  the  friends  of  all  lovers.*  Yet  so  indistinctly 
do  they  loom  in  their  forms  and  attributes,  that  they  have 
been  held  to  be  the  morning  and  evening  star,*  and  yet 
again  the  blending  light  and  darkness  of  morning  dawn,  or 
else  the  Heaven  and  Earth,  the  Sun  and  Moon,  or  Day  and 
Night.5 

Before  Surya,  the  Sun-god,  who  supports  the  sky  even 
as  truth  supports  or  upholds  the  earth,  who  springs  from 
Aurora,  his  mother,^  and  speeds  forth  on  his  chariot,  drawn 
by  seven  swift  steeds,  the  Dawn  fades  away  : — 

"  But  closely  by  the  amorous  Sun, 
Pursued  and  vanquished  in  the  race, 
Thou  soon  art  locked  in  his  embrace, 
And  with  him  blendest  into  one."  ' 

It  is  as  Savitar,  the  Quickener,  the  Inspirer,^  that  the  Sun 
"  stands  forth  as  the  golden  deity,  yellow-haired,  surrounded 
by  a  golden  lustre,'  and  with  upraised  arms  holds  forth 
blessings  and  hope  to  his  worshippers."  As  he  arises  the 
chant  bursts  forth  : — 

'  R.V.,  viii.  5. 

'  Muir,  vol.  V.  p.  241. 

'  Ibid. 

*  Oldenberg,  "Rel.  des  Vedas,"  p.  213. 

«  Macdonell,  J.R.A.S.  (1895),  p.  953,  et  seq.;  Muir,  vol.  v,  p.  234. 

'  R.V.,  iii.  61,  4  ;  vii.  63,  3 ;  Hopkins,  "  Rel.  of  India,"  p.  42. 

'  Muir,  vol.  v.  p.  196. 

8  Macdonell,  J.R.A.S.  (189S),  p.  951. 

»  Muir,  vol.  V.  pp.  162,  163. 

D 


so  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

"  Uprisen  is  Savitar,  this  god  to  quicken,  Priest  who  neglects  not 

this  most  constant  duty. 
To  the  gods,  verily,  he  gives  rich  treasure,  and  blesses  him  who  calls 

them  to  the  banquet. 
Having  gone  up  on  high,  the  God,  broad-handed,  spreads  his  arms 

widely  forth  that  all  may  mark  him. 
Even  the  waters  bend  them  to  his  service  ;  even  this  wind  rests  in  the 

circling  regions." ' 

In  later  mythology  the  solar  deity  emerges  from  the 
brotherhood  of  all  the  Vedic  gods  as  Vishnu,  the  preserv- 
ing god  of  the  world,  who  moves  in  three  steps  over  the 
universe,^  bearing  in  his  hand  as  symbol  of  his  origin  the 
solar  disc,  and  having  by  his  side  the  heavenly  bird, 
Garuda. 

So  Rudra,  the  bearer  of  the  thunderbolt  and  father  of  the 
"  Maruts  "  or  Storm-gods,  arising  clear  from  the  seething  flux 
of  changing  thought,  lives  to-day  in  Indian  worship  as  the 
dread  god,  Siva,  the  "  Auspicious,"  *  the  potential  Destroyer 
of  the  Universe.  In  Vedic  times  he  was  the  demon  bred  in 
forests  and  in  mountains,  bearer  of  his  dreaded  message  of 
fever  and  disease.* 

From  around  the  altars  of  the  Vedic  Aryans  older  deities 
pass  away  and  are  forgotten  ;  for  them  hymns  are  no  more 
fashioned.  Newer  deities  inspire  the  poets'  praise  as 
fulfilling  new  functions  in  the  course  of  the  people's  chang- 
ing life.  Dyaus,  the  Sky,  the  Father  of  the  Silent  Heavens, 
and  Mother  Earth  herself  early  vanish  from  the  scene.  So 
also  Trita  sinks  to  rest,  while  the  great  encompassing  Sky, 

»  Griffith,  R.V.,  ii.  38 ;  i.  2. 

2  Macdonell,  J.R.A.S.  (1895),  pp.  170,  et  sef.  Oldenbeig  ("Rel.  des 
Vedas,"  p.  228)  holds  Vishnu  to  be  the  vast  wideness  of  space,  and  names 
him  the  "Wanderer."  Macdonell  (J.R.A.S.,  1895)  holds  his  three  steps  to 
be  in  air  and  earth,  and  the  last  leading  to  his  dwelling-place  in  Heaven. 

»  Hid.,  p.  957. 

*  Oldenberg,  "  Rel.  des  Vedas,"  p.  223 :— "  Auf  Berge  und  Wilder  sowie 
seine  schadliche  krankheitbringende  Macht  begiUndet  zu  sein. " 


THE   OLDER  AND  NEWER  DEITIES      51 

the  ancient  Varuna/  the  Avestan  Ahura  Mazda,  gives  place 
as  a  popular  deity  to  Indra,  as  the  Sun-god  Mitra,  the 
Avestan  Mithra,  does  to  Savitar.  Even  the  hymns  to  the 
Dawn  pale  before  those  to  Agni  and  Soma  when  fire 
became  the  symbol  of  sacerdotal  power,  and  Soma  the 
personified  deity  of  the  intoxicating  beverage  from  whence 
the  seers  derived  their  inspiration. 

Yet  Varuna  was  the  deity  who  rose  nearest  to  the  heights 
of  monotheistic  greatness  as  sole  ruler  of  the  universe.  It 
was  he  who  by  his  magic  measured  out  the  earth  with  the 
sun,  and  he  was  the  god  who  saw  into  the  hearts  of  all, 
knowing  the  guilty  as  they  came  trembling  before  him  to 
confess  their  guilt : — 

"  If  we  have  sinned  against  the  man  who  loves  us,  have  ever  wronged 

a  brother,   friend  or  comrade,  the  neighbour  ever  with   us,   or 

a  stranger 
O  Varuna,  remove  from  us  the  trespass.     If  we  as  gamesters  cheat  at 

play,  have  cheated,  done  wrong  unwittingly  or  sinned  of  purpose 
Cast  all  these  sins  away  like  loosened  fetters,  and  Varuna,  let  us  be 

thine  own  beloved."  ^ 

The  poet  prays  to  Varuna  to  forgive  man  for  the  laws 
broken  day  by  day.  He  seeks  to  bind  the  deity  with  a  new 
song,  as  he  wails  sadly  in  soft,  pleading  tones,  the  full  sense 
of  which  lies  only  in  the  sound  of  the  Sanskrit : — 

"  Para  hi  me  vimanyavah  patanti  vasya  ishtaye. 
Vayo  no  vasantir  upa.'' 

No  translation  can  give  the  full  throb  which  beats 
throughout  the  lines.     Like  all  the  rest  of  the  Vedic  Hymns 

'  Hopkins,  "Rel.  of  India,''  pp.  71,  72.  The  equation  Varuna  (Oupavos) 
is  not  accepted  by  Oldenberg;  but  see  Macdonell,  J.R.A.S.  (1894),  p.  528; 
also  Grundriss,  d.  I. -A.  Philologie  u.  Altertumskunde,  "Vedic  Mythology," 
A.  A.  Macdonell  (1897) : — "The  equation,  though  presenting  phonetic  diffi- 
culties, seems  possible ;  "  also  Earth,  "  Rel,  of  India,"  p.  17. 

2  Griffith,  R.V.,  v.  85,  7,  8. 


52  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

the  meaning  alone  can  be  given  : — "  Yet  my  wearied  mind 
turns  only  to  thoughts  of  gaining  wealth,  even  as  a  bird 
flies  to  its  resting-place."  But  the  beauty  and  spirit 
of  the  Vedic  Hymns  can  only  be  known  or  judged 
when  heard  recited  in  the  land  of  their  birth.  The 
poet  having  in  the  above  lines  attuned  the  sound  of  his 
verses  to  the  lament  of  his  soul  over  its  own  impotent 
strivings  to  reach  the  ideals  he  had  ever  set  before  him, 
again  bursts  forth  in  a  triumphant  peal  of  ringing  melody, 
skilfully  designed  to  echo  forth  the  glory  of  the  god  on 
whom  all  efforts  of  man  depend  : — 

"  Kada  Kshatra  sriyam  narrama  Varunam  Karamahe, 
Mrillkaya  urucakshasam." 

("  When  shall  we  turn  him  the  Lord  of  Strength,  the  Hero, 
the  Beholder  of  All,  the  god  Varuna.") 

Or  as  the  same  idea  is  expressed  later  on  in  the  trans- 
lations, so  often  here  chosen  for  the  fidelity  with  which  they 
express  the  sense  of  the  original : — 

"  Thou,  O  wise  god,  art  Lord  of  all,  thou  art  the  king  of  earth 
and  heaven  : 
Hear,  as  thou  goest  on  thy  way."  * 

The  great  heroic  deity  of  the  conquering  Aryans  was  not 
the  passive  Varuna,  the  judge  of  good  and  evil,  the  god  who, 
with  his  gentler  attributes  toned  down  by  philosophic  refine- 
ments, escaped  the  vulgar  gaze ;  it  was  Indra,  the  god  of 
battle  and  of  storm,  the  Soma-drinking  boon-companion  of 
rough-and-ready  warriors.  Indra  rose  to  power  when  the 
Dasyu  foes  had  to  be  driven  from  their  stronghold,  when 
the  Aryans  settled  in  the  lowland  plain,  and  prayed  for  the 
Thunde;rer  to  sound  throughout  the  heavens,  and  bring  the 
rain-clouds  near.    When  the  lands  were  parched,  and  the 

1  Griffith,  R.V.,  i.  25,  20. 


THE  OLDER  AND  NEWER  DEITIES       53 

cattle  driven  to  the  forest-clad  mountains  there  to  graze — as 
they  are  to-day  in  India  in  all  villages  during  the  long,  hot 
weather,  or  when  famine  rages — the  people  longed  to  see 
the  coming  of  the  rain,  and  watch  with  glad  joy  the  herds- 
men drive  back  again  their  well-fed  herds.  Indra  was  the 
great  deity  who  slew  the  dreaded  Drought  Sushma,  which 
held  back  the  light  and  waters.  In  heaven  and  on  earth.i 
the  combat  raged.  The  Panis  were  the  robber  chieftains, 
who  held  the  clouds,  or  cows,  deep  hidden  in  the  cave, 
where  Vala,^  the  Demon  of  the  Cave,  had  concealed  them, 
and  Sarama  was  the  messenger  sent  by  Indra  to  demand 
their  release.  As  the  combat  rages,  and  the  sacrificing 
priests  call  on  Indra  to  take  his  seat  before  the  altar  and 
quaff  the  invigorating  Soma  juice,  there  grows  to  life  no 
clear  figure  of  this  great  deity.  If  Indra  be  sought  amid  the 
assembled  throng  of  Vedic  deities,  the  first  clue  to  his 
identity  is  his  great  thirst.  How  much  more  is  typical 
of  Indra,  as  distinguished  from  the  other  gods,  so  that  he 
might  be  painted  as  a  dramatic  figure  of  life-like  interest, 
would  be  hard  to  say.  So  when  Sarama  gives  her  message 
to  the  Panis,  with  doubting  laughter  they  reply : — 

"  Who  is  he  ?    What  does  he  look  like,  this  Indra, 
Whose  herald  you  have  hastened  such  a  distance, 
Let  him  come  here,  we'll  strike  a  friendship  with  him, 
He  can  become  the  herdsman  of  our  cattle." ' 

In  his  hand  Indra  carries  the  flaming  lightning ;  he  is 
seated  upon  a  golden  chariot,  and  by  his  side  the  Storm- 
gods,  or  "  Maruts,"  H-de  through  the  heavens,  with  all  the 
rush  and  fury  of  tempests.  As  he  advances  to  slay  Sushma 
the  Drought,  and  Ahi  the  Snake,  and  Vritra  the  Demon, 

1  Oldenberg,  "  Rel.  des  Vedas,"  p.  151. 

2  For  connection  of  Paris  with  the  Panis,  etc.,  see  Oscar  Meyer,  "  Qusstiones 
Homericse"  (1867),  p.  10,  et  seq.;  also  Kaegi,  "Veda,"  p.  137. 

'  Kaegi,  p.  42  ir.  of  x.  108,  3. 


54  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

he  shines  with  all  the  beauty  of  the  dawn,  with  all  the 
glory  of  the  sun;  he  "speaks  in  thunder;  "^  he  "gleams 
like  the  lightning  "  : — 

"  Yet  not  one  form  alone  he  bears, 
But  various  shapes  of  glory  wears, 
His  aspect  changing  at  his  will, 
Transmuted,  yet  resplendent  still."  " 

By  the  side  of  Indra  hasten  the  Maruts,  with  phantom, 
anthropomorphic  shapes  as  created  in  the  lyric  effusions  of 
the  Vedic  Soma-inspired  bards. 

The  cracking  of  their  whips  is  heard  as  they  advance  to 
the  hall  of  sacrifice.  The  earth  trembles  as  the  roll  of  their 
chariot  wheels  is  heard  ;  they  drive  spotted  deer,  with  a  red 
one  for  leader.  They  are  slayers  of  demons,  tall  and  manly 
like  unto  giants.^  They  are  seven,  thrice  seven,  and  again 
thrice  sixty  in  number.*  They  are  born  from  the  clouds, 
and  Rudra  was  their  father.  They  are  like  wild  elephants 
who  eat  up  the  forests,  yet  they  are  handsome  like  gazelles, 
and  the  golden  tyres  of  their  chariot  gleam  as  they  glide 
down  to  take  their  seats  before  the  sacrificial  altar  and 
drink  the  Soma  juice.  They  have  golden  helmets  on  their 
heads,  golden  daggers  in  their  hands,  golden  chains  on 
their  breasts,  quivers  on  their  shoulders  and  glittering 
garments.  To  few  is  their  birth  known ;  it  is  a  secret, 
possessed,  perhaps,  only  by  the  wise.^  They  are  prayed  to 
grant  strong  sons  to  their  worshippers,  and  to  lead  the  way 
across  the  waters  towards  new  lands,  to  be  won  by  their 
conquering  aid.  The  Soma  juice  they  drink  was  the  loved 
drink  of  all  the  deities  and  of  men.  As  its  drops  fall  to  the 
ground,  pressed  forth  from  the  straining  pans  by  the  gold- 

1  Hopkins,  "Rel.  of  India,"  p.  92. 
^  Muir,  "  Metrical  Sketch  of  Indra,"  vol.  v.  p.  129. 
»  R.V.,  i.  64,  2. 

*  Hopkins,  "  Rel.  of  India,"  p.  98. 

"  R.V.,  vii.  56,  2,  4  : — "Verily  no  one  knoweth  whence  they  sprang  :  they 
and  they  only,  know  each  other's  birth  "  (Griffith). 


THE   OLDER  AND  NEWER  DEITIES       55 

adorned  hands  of  the  sacrificial  priests,  it  fell  to  earth  like 
the  glistening  rain,  and  so  was  held  to  induce  the  clouds 
to  shed  their  moisture  by  the  sympathetic  magic  of  its 
charm,  just  as  in  our  later  days  the  frame  of  man  is 
supposed  to  fade  when  his  waxen  image  was  placed  before 
a  fire  and  melted  away.  The  mystery  of  the  Soma  plant 
may  never  be  disclosed.  No  one  knows  whence  it  came ;  ^ 
no  one  knows  truly  how  the  intoxicating  juice  was 
fermented  and  prepared,  although  the  great  Soma  sacri- 
fices are  asserted  to  be  still  occasionally  performed  in 
India,  as  are  other  great  fortnightly  and  four-monthly 
offerings  before  the  three  sacred  fires.^  As  on  earth  the 
Soma  juice  was  poured  forth,  so  was  it  in  the  heavens,  where 
the  gods  themselves  were  supposed  to  sacrifice.  The  yellow 
moon,  the  reservoir  of  the  dew,  was  held  to  be  the  source 
of  the  heavenly  Soma  juice,  and  as  such  to  represent  the 
earthly  Soma.^  Yet  in  the  Vedic  Hymns  this  is  a  secret 
known  only  to  the  wise,  so  the  identification  of  the  Soma 
with  the  moon,  alluded  to  in  the  later  hymns,*  can  hardly  be 
taken  to  signify  that  the  moon,  and  not  the  earthly  Soma 
plant,  personified  as  a  deity,  was  the  centre  of  the  Vedic 
worship.* 

Each  poet  as  he  sang  the  praises  of  his  favoured  deity 
strove  in  his  song  to  magnify  its  attributes.  To  him  the 
main  conception  of  each  deity  was  determined  and  defined, 
yet  its  glory  was  enhanced  byascribing  to  it  universal  powers, 
and  giving  to  it  praises,  couched  in  sounding  words  and 
sentences,  applied  equally  to  it  and  all  the  other  deities. 
The  entire  worship  is  pervaded  by  a  common  and  early 

1  Max  Muller,  "Biographies  of  Words,"  p.  234,  for  a  suggestion  that  "hops 
and  soma"  were  one  and  the  same  thing  (Academy,  1885). 

2  See  Bhandarkar,  "Ind.  Ant."  (1874),  p.  132. 

3  Hillebrandt,  "  Vedische  Mythologie,"  vol.  i. 
<  R.V.,  *.  8S,  3- 

»  Oldenberg,  "  Rel.  des  Vedas,"  pp.  599-612. 


56  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

pantheistic  phase  of  thought.     Nature  in  all  its  phenomena 
was  held  to  be  endowed  with  soul  life. 

With  patient  strife  and  long  pondering  the  poets  strove  to 
pierce  the  secret  of  the  Universe,  tear  from  the  moaning 
tempests  the  message  they  bore,  catch  the  whispered  voices 
that  stole,  as  the  evening  fell,  through  the  deepening  still- 
ness of  the  forest : — 

''  Goddess  of  wild  and  forest  who  seemest  to  vanish  from  the  sight, 
How  is  it  thou  seekest  not  the  village  ?  Art  thou  afraid  ? 

Here  one  is  calling  to  the  cows,  another  there  has  felled  a  tree. 
At  eve  the  dweller  in  the  wood  fancies  that    somebody  hath 
screamed." ' 

This  is  Nature  worship ;  the  expression  of  the  vague 
unaided  intuitions  of  the  soul  as  it  seeks  for  some  solution 
of  that  which  lies  beneath  the  reality  of  things.  It  is 
expressed  throughout  the  stately  Vedic  Hymns,  the  earliest 
recorded  answer  of  man,  in  rhythmic  lines,  which  wail  to  us 
still,  with  all  their  echoing  charm  of  solemn  and  majestic 
resonance. 

To  these  poet-priests  Nature  had  indeed  manifested 
herself  in  all  her  solemnity,  in  all  her  glory  and  beauty,  so 
that  their  voices  burst  forth  in  poetic  raptures  over  their 
new  deities,  and  such  of  their  old  as  had  come  to  dwell 
in  the  new-found  homes,  with  renewed  brightness  and 
vigour. 

Old  deities  fade  away  amid  the  moving  times ;  the  forms 
of  others  become  more  clear,  while  the  faint  outlines  of 
gods,  such  as  Rudra  and  Vishnu,  loom  but  barely  recog- 
nisable as  the  prototypes  of  those  personifications  of 
Destruction  and  Preservation,  now  worshipped  everywhere 
in  Hindu  India.  At  times,  as  the  fervour  of  some  singer 
bursts  forth  in  the  vague  raptures  of  his  Soma-inspired 
song,  it  seems  as  if  the  many  gods  were  about  to  blend  into 

>  Griffith,  R,V.,  x.  146,  1-4. 


THE   OLDER  AND  NEWER  DEITIES       57 

the  conception  of  one  supreme  god  who  for  a  time  stands 
forth  as  sole  deity. 

Thus  one  hymn  tells  how 

"  They  call  him  Indra,  Mitra,  Varuna,  Agni,  and  he  is  the  heavenly 
winged  Garutman. 
To  what  is  one,  the  Sages  give  many  a  title,  they  call  it  Agni,  Yama 
Matarlsvan."  * 

And  again  when  the  question  is  asked 

"  What  pathway  leadeth  to  the  gods  ?  Who  knoweth  this  of  a  truth, 
and  who  will  now  declare  it  ? "  ^ 

The  answer  quickly  comes  back  :*  — 

"  One  All  is  Lord  of  what  is  fixed,  and  moving,  that  walk,  that  flies, 
this  multiform  creation." 

Yet  soon  the  soul's  triumph  dies  away  in  the  moan  of 
despair,  as  the  Hymns  declare  that  all  the  gods  are  unreal, 
that  the  Universe  must  have  existed  before  the  gods,  or 
any  of  the  gods  arose  from  out  the  mundane  darkness,  that 
still  the  weary  search  remains  to  find  "kasmai  devaya 
havisha  vidhema "  ("  to  what  god  shall  we  now  offer  our 
sacrifices '  ").* 

So  in  vague  and  mysterious  fancies  ^  the  thought  of  the 
poet  wandered.  Hymns  there  are  which  peal  with  the 
sound  of  fiercest  battle-strife ;  others  which  tell  in  softer 
strains  of  the  daily  life  of  the  people  ;  others  which  echo  with 
the  triumphant  note  of  some  new-born  prophet  who,  in  his 
lofty  pride,  declares  the  will  of  the  gods  and  the  secret  of 
this  and  the  after-life. 


'  Griffith,  R.V.,  i.  164,  46. 
2  Ibid.,  iii.  54,  5  (Griffith's  translation). 
'  Wallis,  "  Cosmology  of  the  Veda,"  p.  51. 
*Muir,  R.V.,  X.  121,  i  ;  vol.  iv.  pp.  15,  16. 
s  Earth,  "  Rel.  of  India,"  p.  28. 


58  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

From  the  Vedic  Hymns  of  these  Indo-Aiyans,  proud 
in  their  intellectual  power  and  subduing  strength  over 
alien  foes,  glorying  in  their  conquests,  standing  on  the 
threshold  of  creating  a  philosophy  which,  in  its  metaphysical 
subtleties,  has  seen  as  deep,  though  perhaps  not  so  clear, 
as  any  Western  philosophies,  there  arises  the  sad  wail,  set 
to  sadder  music,  of  the  soul's  lament  over  the  defeat  of 
human  hopes  to  pierce  the  secret  of  the  Omniscient 
and  Omnipotent  Cause,  which  existed  from  before  all 
time : — 

"Then  there  was  not  Being,  and  Non-Being  there  was  not;  there  was 

not  Air,  nor  yet  beyond  that  Sky. 
What  covered  all  ?    What  held  all  safe  ? 
Where  was  the  deep  abyss  of  waters  ? 
There  was  not  Death,  and  Non-Death  there  was  not,  and  change 

neither  of  Day  nor  Night. 
One  alone  then  breathed,  calm  and  self-contained,  naught  else  beyond 

nor  other. 
Darkness  first  was  hid  in  darkness,  all  this   was   one   Universe 

unseen. 
What  lay  void  and  wrapt  in  darkness,  that  by  fervour  grew. 
Desire  then  in  the  beginning  arose,  the  first  germ  of  the  mind. 
The  bond  'twixt  Non-Being  and  Being,  as  knowledge  wise  men  find 

hid  in  their  hearts. 
The  Bond  that  knit  all  things,  was  it  below  or  up  above  ? 
First  source  of  life  sprang  forth,  and  all  was  heaving  unrest. 
Who  knows  this  ?    Who  can  here  tell  whence  all  this  issued  forth  ? 
The  gods  themselves  came  afterwards. 
Who  then  knows  whence  it  all  became  ? 
Who  knows  it  all,  if  it  was  made  or  not  ? 
He  who  rules  it  all  in  the  highest  realms,  He  indeed  knows,  or 

perchance  He  knows  it  not." 

The  gods  were  but  created  in  mobile  anthropomorphic 
form  out  of  the  lyric  raptures  of  the  poet's  heart  None 
springs  to  birth  instinct  with  the  same  dramatic  reality 
with  which  the  genius  of  a  Hebrew  prophet,  a  Homer,  an 
yEschylus  or  Sophocles  would  have  endowed  their  fancies. 


THE  OLDER  AND  NEWER  DEITIES       59 

It  was  the  mystic  ecstatic  song,  often  poured  forth  under 
the  influence  of  the  intoxicating  Soma  juice,  just  as  the 
Delphic  oracles  were  declared  by  the  priestess  "  maddened 
by  mephitic  vapours,"  ^  that,  for  weal  or  woe,  held  sway  over 
the  imagination  of  the  people,  who  deemed  that  the  cry 
went  forth  with  power  to  influence  even  the  gods  themselves. 
The  poet-priest  was  held  to  be  in  actual  communion  with 
the  deity  invoked.  The  Hymns  were  considered  as  prayers, 
which  not  only  swayed  the  deities  and  held  them  bound, 
but  compelled  them,  when  strengthened  and  invigorated 
by  the  sacrificial  food,  to  hearken  to  the  people's  call,  and 
do  their  bidding.  Without  the  prayer  the  sacrifice  was  in 
vain.^  The  prayer,  the  brahman  (neuter)  had  to  be  intoned 
with  exact  precision  by  the  brahman  (masc),  or  offerer  of 
the  prayer ;  one  word  wrongly  pronounced  or  misplaced 
would  vitiate  its  whole  magic  influence.  The  prayer  could 
be  offered  by  any  who  knew,  or  who  composed  the  spell,  for 
though  sons  and  descendants  (brahmanas)  of  brahmans  are 
mentioned,  it  is  not  until  later  times  that  the  Brahmans 
became  a  hereditary  and  professional  class  of  overseeing 
priests.  So  words,  when  poured  forth,  either  in  the  rhap- 
sodies of  a  Delphic  oracle ;  in  the  wild  broken  accents  of 
a  savage  chieftain,  who  sacrifices  all  to  emotion,  that  he 
may  raise  his  tribesmen's  untamed  instincts  ;  in  the  mystic 
effusions  of  a  Vedic  seer ;  or  in  the  chastened  utterances 
of  an  absolute  poet,  where  the  forms  assimilate  more  and 
more  to  the  "  concrete  and  artistic  expression  of  the  human 
mind  in  emotional  and  rhythmical  language,"^  will  ever 
ensure  to  him  who  holds  the  divine  gift  of  poetry  and 
eloquence,  a  certain  power  over  the  emotions  and  thoughts 
of  man. 


'  G.  L.  Dickinson,  "The  Greek  View  of  Life,"  p.  29. 

'  Muir,  vol.  i.  (1878),  p.  241  ;  vol.  iii.  pp.  128-144;  R.V.,  x.  105,  8. 

'  "Encyclopaedia  Britannica"  {Poetry), 


6o  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

In  the  Vedic  Hymns  themselves,  Speech  became 
personified  as  the  goddess  Vac,  who  declares  of  her- 
self: 1— 

"  I  am  the  greatest  of  all  deities.'  I  am  the  Queen,  the  first  of  all 
those  worthy  of  worship.  I  am  she  to  whom  the  gods  have 
given  many  places,  set  in  many  homes,  and  sent  for  abroad.  He 
who  hears  and  breathes,  who  listens  to  the  spoken  word,  eats 
food.  They  know  me  not,  and  yet  live  near.  Let  the  wise  man 
hear.     I  tell  that  which  is  to  be  believed. 

I  sing  myself  the  truth  dear  to  gods  and  men. 

Whom   I  love  I  make  mighty,  I  make  him  a  Brahman,  Seer  and 

Wise. 
I  for  Rudra  bend  the  bow,  so  that  the  arrow  may  pierce  the  hater  of 

the  hymn. 
I  make  the  people  join  together,  I  have  entered  both  Heaven  and 

Earth. 
I  have  revealed  the  heavens  to  its  inmost  depths,  I  dwell  in  waters 

and  in  sea. 
Over  all  I  stand,  reaching  by  my  mystic  power  to  the  height  beyond. 
I  also  breathe  out  like  the  wind,  I  first  of  all  living  things. 
Beyond  the  heavens  and  this  earth  here,  I  have  come  to  this  great 

power." 

One  more  hymn  to  Vac,  or  "  Speech,"  declares  that  when 
she  was  first  sent  forth,  all  that  was  hidden,  all  that  was 
best  and  highest,  became  disclosed  through  love.  Through 
sacrifice  Speech  was  sought  out  and  found,  yet  though 
some  looked,  they  saw  her  not,  and  though  some  listened, 
they  heard  her  not ;  her  beauty  she  keeps  closed,  as  the 
loving  wife  shows  hers  but  to  her  lord  alone.  He  wanders 
about  in  vain  delusion  who  knows  not  the  flower  and  fruit 
of  Speech. 

With  the  conscious  pride  and  haughty  tone  of  a  nation 
which   has   won   its  way  to  victory,  these  vague  guesses 


1  R.V.,  X.  125. 

''In  the  "6at.    Brah.,"   Vac  becomes  "the  mother  of  the  Vedas''  (iii. 
8,  8.  S)- 


THE   OLDER  AND  NEWER  DEITIES      6i 

swell  in  solemn  resonance  through  the  stately  periods  of 
the  Vedic  Hymns :  yet,  under-lying  all  is  no  uncertain 
sound  of  the  sad  wail  that  ever  and  again  murmurs  from 
the  seer's  soul,  declaring  that  man's  proud  answers  but 
mock  at  its  yearning  cry  to  know  the  invisible,  the  un- 
bound. The  true  end  of  the  struggle  is  found  in  the  one 
verse  handed  down  from  Vedic  times,  and  murmured  by  all 
orthodox  Hindus  of  to-day,  as  they  wake  to  find  the  reality 
of  the  world  rise  up  around  them,  and  still  know  that 
beyond  the  reality  is  that  which  they  still  yearn  to  know. 
Like  all  the  best  of  Vedic  Hymns,  this  hymn,  known  as  the 
"  Gayatrl,"  has  its  form  in  its  sound,  and  therefore  remains 
untranslatable  in  words,  even  as  does  music  which  rouses, 
soothes,  and  satisfies  in  its  passing  moods.  It  still  holds  its 
sway  over  the  millions  who  daily  repeat  it,  as  it  also  held 
entranced  the  religious  fervour  of  countless  millions  in  the 
past.  The  birthright  of  the  twice-born  was  to  hear 
whispered  in  their  ear  by  their  spiritual  preceptors  this 
sacred  prayer  of  India  : — 

"  Om.'  Tat  Savitur  varenyam  bhargo  devasya  dhimahi 
dhiyo  yo  nah  pracodayat."  ^ 

Once  heard  in  the  land  of  its  own  birth,  once  learned 
from  the  lips  of  those  whose  proudest  boast  is  that  they 
can  trace  back  their  descent  from  the  poets  who  first 
caught  the  music  which  it  holds  in  every  syllable, 
it  rings  for  ever  after  as  India's  noblest  tribute  to  the 
Divine,  as  an  acknowledgment  of  submissive  resigna- 
tion to  the  decrees  which  bid  man  keep  his  soul  in 
patience  until  the  day  dawns  when  all  things  shall  be 
revealed. 

1  The  syllable  is  a  syllable  of  permission,  for  whenever  we  permit  anything 
we  say,  om,  "  yes."     "Taitt.  Erah.,"  ii.  p.  i. 

2  Let  us  meditate  on  the  to-be-longed-for  light   of  the  Inspirer ;   may  it 
incite  all  our  efforts. 


62  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

As  the  life  of  the  nation  is  traced  in  its  literature,  it  will  be 
found  that,  down  to  the  present  day,  the  ceaseless  cry,  first 
heard  in  Vedic  times,  has  ever  since  sent  its  echo  down 
through  the  ages,  so  that  now  it  sounds  as  clear  as  it  did 
when  first  moaned  sadly  forth — 

"  To  what  god  shall  we  now  offer  up  our  sacrifice?"' 

^  R.V.,  jk.  12,  I ;  Muir,  voL  iv.  pp.  ii,  i6. 


CHAPTER    V. 

BRAHMANISM. 

From  the  arid  mountains  and  the  intervening  fertile 
valleys  lying  to  the  north-west  of  India,  the  Aryans  slowly 
made  their  way  down  to  the  plains  of  India.  Along  the 
rivers  and  close  to  the  mountains  they  formed  their  settle- 
ments, even  as  far  South  as  Sind  on  the  lower  Indus  Valley, 
sometimes  engaging  in  conflict,  sometimes  forming  alliances 
with  the  ruder  races.  In  the  Vedic  Hymns  those  who 
opposed  the  new-comers  are  described  as  demons  and 
goblins.  It  was  the  god,  Indra,  who  conquered  those 
slaves,  as  they  are  also  called,  and  who  gave  their  land  to 
the  Aryan  tribes.  To  the  Aryans,  these  dark,  flat-nosed 
aborigines  were  without  sacrificial  rites  or  gods ;  they 
were  revilers  and  despisers  of  Indra,  haters  of  brahman,  or 
"prayer";  they  were  fierce  foes  and  cannibals.^  The  colour, 
or  "  varna  "  of  the  aborigines,  their  "  black  skins  "  ^  became 
the  sign  of  servitude,  and  Indra  was  prayed  to  drive  it  far 
away  from  the  sight  of  the  fair-skinned  invaders.  There 
are  no  valid  grounds  for  holding  that  the  dark-com- 
plexioned and   broad-nosed    people,*   whom   the  Aryans 

1  R.V.,  X.  87,  2ff. 

2  Muir,  ii.  p.  391  ;  R.V.,  ix.  41,  i ;  i.  130,  8. 

'  Risley,  "  Tribes  and  Castes  of  Bengal,"  vol.  i.  (Preface),  p.  32. 


64  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

found  in  possession  of  the  river-valleys,  and  cultivating  the 
cleared  lands  on  the  forest  sides,  differed  in  essential 
characteristics  or  in  the  fundamental  framework  of  their 
social  relationships,  from  the  present  Dravidian  races  of 
India. 

At  the  present  day  the  process  whereby  the  rude 
aborigines  who  inhabit  the  highlands  of  Central  India,  the 
forest  tracks  above  the  eastern  and  western  ghats,  and  the 
slopes  of  the  more  important  mountain  ranges,  gradually 
receive  the  impress  of  civilisation  from  settlers  who 
immigrate  from  the  lowland  tracts  ^  can  be  clearly  traced, 
and  it  cannot  be  far  different  from  that  of  Vedic  times. 
All  traces  of  social  intercourse  with  the  darker  races  have 
in  the  Vedic  Hymns  been  eliminated  perhaps  by  the  vanity 
of  the  early  Aryan  immigrants. 

In  the  later  literature  evidence  is  everywhere  forth- 
coming to  show  how  a  compromise  was  made  between  the 
more  advanced  religious  notions  of  the  Aryans  and  the 
more  primitive  cults  of  the  earlier  inhabitants.^  To 
discriminate  now  in  how  far  the  religious  practices  of 
modern  Hinduism  have  been  derived  from  the  elements 
introduced  by  the  Aryan  invaders,  and  how  much  is  an 
accretion  from  the  savage  rites  of  the  more  primitive 
aborigines,  would  be  a  task  leading  to  but  slight  profitable 
results,  except,  perhaps,  to  the  augmentation  of  the 
reputation  of  the  enquirer  for  ingenuity.  Even  in  the 
simple  question  as  to  the  social  position  assumed  by  the 
Aryans  among  the  earlier  inhabitants,  the  evidence  is 
equally  evasive  and  delusive. 

In  North  India  of  the  present  day,  where  the  Aryan 
influence  is  more  strongly  marked  than  in  the  South,  those 

'  Hewitt,  "  Ruling  Races  of  Prehistoric  Times,"  p.  46. 

2  For  phallic  worship,  the  "  sisna  deva  "  of  R.V.,  jt.  27,  19 ;  x.  99,  3  ;  vii.  21, 
5,  see  Hewitt,  p.  207,  and  Zimmer,  "Alt  Ind.  Lehen.,"  p.  116;  also  Muir, 
vol.  ii.  p.  3911. 


brAhmanism  65 

races  who  approach  most  to  the  typical  Aryan  type  are 
found  to  be  in  landlord  1  possession  of  the  villages,  or  to 
hold  the  land  in  joint-partnership,  or  under  a  late  developed 
system  of  joint-family  ownership,^  the  actual  cultivation 
of  the  soil  being  relegated  to  the  dark-skinned  folk.  In 
the  South  of  India,  where  the  Aryan  infusion  is  of  a 
relatively  late  date,  the  land  remains,  for  the  greater  part,  in 
the  hands  of  the  Dravidian  people,  who  themselves  own  it 
and  cultivate  it,  acknowledging  no  over-right  except  that 
of  the  ruling  power,  to  exact  its  share  of  the  produce  in 
exchange  for  its  protecting  rule. 

There  are  evidences  that  even  in  the  Vedic  times  the 
aborigines  had  attained  to  a  considerable  degree  of  material 
civilisation. 

The  Sambara,  a  race  living  amid  the  mountains,  against 
whom  the  Aryan  chieftain,  Divodasa,  father  of  the  re- 
nowned Tritsu  king,  Sudas,  waged  many  a  war,  are  said  to 
have  possessed  castles  of  stone,  one  hundred  in  number.* 
Against  the  cities  and  castles  of  these  Sambara  the  Aryans 
advanced  again  and  again,  until  Indra  came  to  the  aid  of 
his  chosen  people,  and  broke  in  pieces  the  iron  strongholds 
of  the  aboriginal  foes  with  his  thunderbolts.*  The  Hymns 
tell  how  it  was  to  gain  the  land  and  cows  *  of  these  foes  that 
the  Aryans  advanced  with  their  horses  and  chariots,  and 
more  striking  evidence  still  of  the  wealth  of  the  aborigines 

^  The  whole  subject  has  been  treated  by  Hewitt  in  Essay  11,  pp.  106-131, 
"  Ruling  Races  of  Prehistoric  Times,"  where  he  brings  a  store  of  erudition  to 
evolve  his  theory  that  "village  communities  originated  in  India,  and  that 
this  communal  system,  together  with  the  matriarchate  form  of  government 
instituted  by  their  founders,  was  brought  by  the  Indian  cultivating  races  and 
their  allies  into  Europe."  The  main  outline  of  this  movement  is  stated  as 
follows  : — "  It  was  immigrants  from  the  South,  who,  during  the  Neolithic  Age, 
introduced  into  Europe  the  agriculture  they  had  learned  in  these  Southern 
villages,  while  North-Western  Europe  was  made  uninhabitable  to  tillers  of  the 
soil  by  the  rigorous  climate  of  the  Palaeolithic  period"  (Preface,  pp.  vi.,  vii.). 

"  Baden-Powell,  "  Ind.  Vill.  Com.,"  p.  241  : — "  The  joint-village  is,  in  fact, 
coterminous  with  the  range  of  Aryan  and  later  conquests. " 

^  R.V.,  iv.  30,  20.        ••  Ibid.,  ii.  20,  8.        ^  Muir,  vol.  ii.  p.  384. 

E 


66  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

is  an  account  given  of  how  they  possessed  treasures  of  gold,^ 
and  of  rich  jewels. 

Across  the  Five  Rivers  of  the  Panjab  the  Aryans  pressed 
until  they  reached  the  land  to  the  East, .  renowned  ever 
afterwards  as  Brahmavarta,  and  described  as  a  land 
"  created  by  the  gods,  lying  between  the  two  divine  rivers, 
the  SarasvatI  and  Drishadvatl."*  There  the  Vedic  Hymns 
were  collected  together,  and  the  entire  sacrificial  system 
elaborated.  The  land  of  the  Five  Rivers  was  then  no  longer 
looked  to  as  a  fit  abiding-place  for  the  Aryan  race.  The 
later  literature  of  the  Epic  period  declared  that  "in  the 
region  where  the  Five  Rivers  flow  ...  let  no  Aryan  dwell 
there  even  for  two  days.  .  .  .  There  they  have  no  Vedic 
ceremony  nor  any  sacrifice."  * 

The  Panjab  evidently  saw  no  extensive  settlement  of  the 
Aryan  tribes ;  it  was  in  the  land  further  to  the  East,  in 
Brahmavarta  and  Kurukshetra,  that  the  rise  of  the 
Brahmans  to  power,  and  the  glorification  of  their  priestly 
office  can  be  traced.  The  land  left  behind  became  accursed, 
the  abiding-place  of  impure  tribes,  such  as  the  Bahlkas, 
"  who  are  outcasts  from  righteousness,  who  are  shut  out 
from  the  Himavat,  the  Ganga,  the  SarasvatI,  the  Yamuna, 
and  Kurukshetra,  and  who  dwell  between  the  Five  Rivers."  * 
"  The  women  who  dwell  there  are  addicted  to  incestuous 
practices,  and  are  without  shame ; "  ^  they  are  "  drunk  and 
undressed,  wearing  garlands,  and  perfumed  with  unguents, 
sing  and  dance  in  public  places,  and  on  the  ramparts  of 
the  town."  ^ 

As  the  Aryans  advanced  further  into  the  plain -country  the 
time  was  forgotten  when  they  were  designated,  as  in  the 
Vedic  Hymns, "  the  five  "  people,'^  or  people  of  the  five  tribes. 

1  R.V.,  iu.  34,  9;  Baden-Powell,  "Ind.  Vill.  Com.,"  84. 

^  "  Manu,"  ii.  17,  19.  «  "  Mahabharata,"  v.  20,  63. 

*  "  Mahabharata,"  viii.  202,  gff.       ^  Muir,  vol.  ii.  p.  4S3. 

*  /iui.,  V.  20,  35 ;  Jiid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  4S2. 
'  Pancajandh. 


brAhmanism  67 

When  they  passed  beyond  the  sacred  abode  lying  between 
the  SarasvatI  and  Drishadvatl,  and  reached  the  fertile  land 
along  the  Jumna, praised^  as  the  country  where  wealth  in  kine 
and  wealth  in  steed  was  to  be  gained,  and  thence  made 
their  way  onward  to  the  high  banks  ^  of  the  Ganges,  they 
no  longer  preserved  their  ancient  tribal  names.  The  Tritsus, 
loved  of  Vasishta,  and  the  Bharatas  to  whom  Visvamitra 
turned  in  his  wrath,  had  united  as  friends,  and  with  the 
third  great  Vedic  tribe,  the  Purus — whose  king,  Kutsa,  had 
led  the  Bharatas  and'  allied  ten  tribes  *  in  Vedic  war  against 
Sudas,  king  of  the  Tritsus — fused  together  to  form  the  great 
alliance  of  theKurus,*  who  dwelt  in  the  plains  ofKurukshetra, 
and  who  afterwards  built  their  renowned  capital  at  Hastina- 
pura  on  the  Ganges,  sixty-five  miles  north-east  of  Delhi. 

South-east  of  the  land  claimed  by  the  Kurus,^  a  second 
Aryan  tribe,  who  early  in  Vedic  times  dwelt  in  the  valleys 
of  Kashmir,  and  was  there  known  as  the  Krivi,  took  up 
its  abode,  and  became  renowned  as  the  Panchalas,  with 
its  capital  at  Kampilya  on  the  Ganges.  Kurukshetra® 
became  the  great  place  of  sacrifice  for  the  Aryans,  the  place 
where  the  sacred  literature  was  compiled  and  elaborated, 
the  place  where  the  Brahmans  consolidated  their  power, 
established  their  schools  of  learning,  and  thence  spread 
abroad  their  civilising  influence. 

From  the  Brahmanic  families  of  the  'Kuru  Panchalas 
trained  scholars  went  abroad  to  the  outlying  tracts  where 
adventurous  Aryans  had  made  their  settlements,  until 
gradually  the  whole  of  India  fell  subdued  to  the  sacerdotal 

1  R.V.,  V.  52,  17.  2  Ibid.,  vi.  45,  31. 

'  &«  Oldenberg,  "  Buddha,"  pp.  404-5,  for  original  identity  of  Tritsus  and 
Bharatas,  and  Ludwig,  "Mantra  Literatur,"  p.  175. 

*  For  identification  of  these,  see  Hewitt,  p.  115.  For  the  allies  of  the 
Tritsus,  see  Zimmer,  "Alt.  Ind.  Leben.,"  p.  434  ;  Hewitt,  p.  114. 

»  Zimmer,  p.  102  ;  Oldenberg,  "Buddha,"  p.  401 ;  "6at.  Brah.,"xiii.  S,  47  ; 
Eggeling,  p.  xli. 

»  Oldenberg,  "Buddha,"  p.  395. 


68  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

ordinances  of  their  priestly  guides.  The  succeeding  history  of 
India,  as  preserved  in  its  literature,  is  one  unending  struggle 
of  the  Brahmanic  power  to  assert  its  supremacy,  and  to 
promulgate  far  and  wide  the  ordinances  it  laid  claim  to 
formulate  under  Divine  sanction.  Never,  since  the  Kuru 
Panchalas  first  settled  on  the  upper  reaches  of  the  Ganges 
and  Jumna,  has  the  struggle  ceased,  and  never  has  the 
Brahman  failed  to  take  from  the  hands  of  his  opposing  foes 
the  weapons  they  used,  and  add  them  to  his  already 
skilfully-arranged  armoury.  Against  the  priestly  ordinances 
free  thought  and  philosophy  revolted ;  against  the  long 
array  of  Vedic  texts,  on  which  the  existence  of  a  soul  to 
man  and  a  Divine  Ruler  to  the  Universe  was  postulated, 
the  agnosticism  of  Buddhism  strove  in  vain  in  its  efforts 
to  win  the  allegiance  of  man,  born  to  live  in  wonder  and  die 
in  hope. 

The  power  of  the  Brahmans,  temporal  and  spiritual, 
remained  supreme,  so  that  Manu  ^  was  able  to  declare  that, 
from  a  Brahman  born  in  the  plain  of  Kurukshetra,  "im- 
mediately after  Brahmavarta,"  where  dwell  the  Kurus,  the 
Panchalas,  the  Matsyas,  and  the  Surasenas,  all  men  on 
earth  should  learn  their  duties,  for  it  was  the  ever-famed 
abode  of  the  Brahmarshis  or  Brahmanical  sages. 
,  From  the  collection  of  hymns  known  as  the  "  Rig 
Veda,"  such  hymns  as  were  chanted  by  the  Udgatar 
priest  at  the  sacrifices,  where  the  clarified  juice  of  the 
Soma  plant  was  offered  to  the  deities,  were  collected 
together  into  a  "  Sanhita,"  or  metrical  text,  known  as  the 
"  Sama  Veda,"  the  verses  of  which  were  set  to  a  tune  or 
melody  in  "  Gana,"  or  Song-books.  The  entire  sacrificial 
system,  with  varied  explanations  of  the  significance  of  each 
act,  were  set  forth  in  a  third  Veda,  named  the  "  Black 
Yajur  Veda,"  a  text-book  compiled  for  the  instruction  of 
the  Adhvaryu  priests,  whose  duties  were  connected  with  the 

^  "Manu,"  ii.  17,  19,  20,  21. 


BRAHMANISM  69 

performance  of  the  practical  details  of  the  great  Horse 
and  Soma  sacrifices.  The  "Black  Yajur  Veda"  was  later 
simplified  and  systematised  in  a  clearer  arrangement, 
called  the  "  White  Yajur  Veda." 

All  this  extensive  literature  was  not  considered  sufficient 
for  the  exposition  of  the  religious  history  of  the  Aryans, 
and  the  elucidation  of  the  mysteries  of  the  sacrificial 
system.  To  each  of  the  Vedas  were  attached,  by 
succeeding  generations  of  priests,  long,  wearisome  dis- 
courses, often  in  prose,  describing  in  minute  detail  the 
entire  Brahmanic  ritual,  so  far  as  its  origin  could  be  traced, 
or  its  significance  understood,  by  the  sacrificers  themselves, 
whose  minds  were  intent  more  on  its  practical  import  at 
the  time  than  on  its  historical  purpose  or  development. 

These  treatises  are  known  as  the  "Brahmanas.''  The  centre 
of  the  period  during  which  they  were  composed  may  be 
placed  at  somewhere  not  far  removed  from  the  tenth 
century  before  our  era.i 

In  these  "  Brahmanas ''  it  is  found  that  not  only  had  the 
Aryans  spread  across  the  Sarasvati,  and  reached  the  banks 
of  the  Ganges  and  Jumna,  but  that  adventuring  bands  had 
penetrated  as  far  to  the  East  as  Oudh,  Benares,  and  North 
Behar.  The  Kasis  had  gone  as  an  advance  guard,  and 
made  the  land  around  Benares  their  own,  and  the  Magadhas 
had  gone  even  further  East.  The  KoSalas  settled  in  Oudh, 
and  the  Videhas  established  themselves  in  North  Behar, 
where  they  were  destined  to  take  a  prominent  position  in 
the  history  of  India,  though  in  the  early  period,  when  the 
Brahmanic  system  was  being  developed  in  the  homes  of 
the  Kuru  Panchalas  to  the  West,  they  had  no  part  in  the 
Vedic  culture  or  sacrificial  rites.^ 

During  the  Brahmanic  period  the  centre  of  Vedic  culture 

*  Oldenberg,  "  Buddha,"  p.  i8  : — "  Somewhere   between   the   ninth   and 
seventh  centuries  before  the  Christian  era." 
2  Ibid.,  p.  391. 


70  LITERARY  HISTORY   OF  INDIA 

lay  from  the  divine  Sarasvati  beyond  Kurukshetra  to  the 
Jumna  in  the  East.  It  was  there  that  the  Kuru  Panchalas 
and  allied  tribes  had  their  homes :  it  was  there  that  Vac,  or 
the  divine  "  Speech,"  was  held  to  be  purer  than  elsewhere;  it 
was  the  place  where  the  great  Vaidik  or  6rauta  sacrifices 
were  performed  before  the  three  sacred  fires.  The  full 
number  of  these  sacrifices  reached  to  upwards  of  a  thousand, 
and  some  of  the  more  important  extended  to  long  sessions 
of  from  ten  to  one  hundred  years  in  length.^ 

According  to  the  classification  of  the  "  Srauta  Sutras,"  the 
shorter  rules  formed  for  the  preservation  of  the  Brahmanic 
teaching,  the  chief  sacrifices  fall  within  three  chief  groups, 
each  of  seven  typical  sacrifices.  The  first  seven  were  the 
great  Soma  sacrifices,^  performed  with  three  fires,  at  one  of 
which,  the  Vajapeya,  chariot  races  and  games  ^  took  place, 
and  the  intoxicating  "sura"  was  drunk.  The  next  seven 
sacrifices  consisted  of  oblations  of  butter,  milk,  rice,  and 
meat.  These  were  known  as  the  Havir  sacrifices.  The 
first  was  performed  on  the  setting  up  of  the  sacred  fires  in 
the  home  of  a  new  householder.  This  rite  lasted  for  two 
days,  and  required  the  presence  of  the  four  priests,  the 
Brahman,  Hotar,  Adhvaryu  and  Agnldh.  The  other  six 
Havir  sacrifices  were  those  of  daily  oblation  ;  those  on  days 
of  full  and  new  moon ;  those  in  times  of  harvest ;  four 
monthly  sacrifices ;  animal  sacrifice ;  and  lastly,  a  special 
expiation  for  over-indulgence  in  drinking  the  Soma. 

These  fourteen  were  the  types  of  Vaidik  ceremony. 
The  third  group  of  seven  sacrifices  consisted  of  rites  per- 
formed before  the  domestic  hearth  with  oblation  of  cooked 
food.       These    seven   were    called   the    Paka*   sacrifices, 

*  "The  legendary  history  of  India  knows  of  such  sessions,  which  are  said  to 
have  lasted  for  one  hundred  and  even  for  a  thousand  years." — Haug,  "Ait, 
Brah."  (Introd.),  6. 

^  The  great  type  was  the  Agnishtoma  sacrifice,  which  lasted  five  days. 
3  Weber,  "  Ueber  den  Vajapeya  "  Sitz.  ber.  Berlin  Acad.,  1892. 

*  "Sankhayana  Grihya  Sutra,"  i.  i,  15  ;  "Gautama,"  viii.  15. 


BRAHMANISM  71 

performed  in  winter,  on  new  and  full  moon  days,  at  times 
of  the  Sraddha,  or  funeral  sacrifices,  and  four  falling  due 
in  specified  months — ^ravana,  Agrahayani,  Chaitra,  and 
A^vina. 

For  all  sacrifices  there  had  first  to  be  a  sacrificer,  and  by 
him  were  selected  the  priests  to  whom  gifts  and  presents 
were  given.  The  place  of  sacrifice  was  usually  a  room 
within  a  Brahman's  house.  For  important  sacrifices,  such  as 
the  Soma  sacrifices,  a  large  shed  was  erected  in  an  open  place, 
the  floor  in  all  cases  being  covered  with  the  sacred  Kuia 
grass,  the  favourite  food  of  the  black  antelope.  The  East, 
or  Ahavanlya  fire-place  was  square ;  the  South,  or  Dak- 
shinagni,  was  spherico-triangular,i  the  West,  or  Garhapatya, 
was  round.  The  altar  itself  was  a  low  wall  running  in  a 
serpentine  curve  from  fire-place  to  fire-place.  One  direction  ^ 
for  the  construction  of  an  altar  for  a  Havir  sacrifice  stated : 
"  Let  the  Altar  measure  a  fathom  across  on  the  west  side ; 
they  say  that  namely  is  the  size  of  a  man,  and  the  Altar 
should  be  of  the  man's  size  ...  let  him  make  it  as  long  as 
he  thinks  fit  in  his  own  mind." 

A  significant  description  is  given  as  to  the  shape  of  the 
altar  in  the  same  text :  *  "  The  altar  should  be  broad  on  the 
west  side,  contracted  in  the  middle,  and  broad  again  on  the 
east  side ;  for  thus  shaped  they  praise  a  woman,  broad  about 
the  hips,  somewhat  narrow  about  the  shoulders,  and  con- 
tracted in  the  middle  (or  about  the  waist).  Thereby  he 
makes  it  (the  altar)  pleasing  to  the  gods." 

A  further  essential  feature  of  the  altar  follows  imme- 
diately after  the  above  direction.  "  It  should  be  sloping 
towards  east,  for  the  east  is  the  quarter  of  the  gods  ;  and 
also  sloping  towards  north,  for  the  north  is  the  quarter  of 
men.  To  the  south  side  he  sweeps  the  rubbish  (loose  soil), 
for  that  is  the  quarter  of  the  deceased  ancestors.     If  it  (the 

'  Stevenson,  "Sama  Veda"  (Introd.),  viii. 
"  "  6at.  Brah.,"  i.  2,  5,  14.  '  Ibid.,  i.  2,  5,  16. 


72  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

altar)  were  sloping  towards  south,  the  sacrificer  would 
speedily  go  to  yonder  world." 

In  the  case  of  the  sacrifice  of  animals,  besides  the  three 
fires  and  altar,  a  sacrificial  pillar,  for  the  tying  of  the  animal, 
has  to  be  hewn  and  erected,  for  it  is  directed :  ^  "  There  are 
both  an  animal  and  a  sacrificial  stake,  for  never  do  they 
immolate  an  animal  without  a  stake.  And  as  to  why  this 
is  so — well,  animals  did  not  at  first  submit  thereto  that 
they  should  become  food,  as  they  are  now  become  food ; 
for  just  as  man  here  walks  two-footed  and  erect,  so  did  they 
walk  two-footed  and  erect." 

The  pillar  was  hewn  with  an  axe,  care  being  taken  to 
utter  the  incantation  :  "  O  axe,  hurt  it  not."  ^ 

As  a  further  precaution,  a  blade  of  "  darbha  "  grass  was 
placed  between  the  axe  and  the  tree,  so  that  it  might 
receive  the  first  blow.  When  the  tree,  out  of  which  the 
sacrificial  part  had  to  be  hewn,  was  cut  down,  offerings  were 
made  upon  the  stump,  "  lest  evil  spirits  should  arise  there- 
from." *  The  sacrificial  stake  was  then  carved  eight-sided, 
ornamented  with  a  top  ring,  anointed  and  dedicated  to 
Vishnu.*  The  Adhvaryu  priest  then  girds  (the  stake  with 
a  rope  of  KuSa  grass).  Now  it  is  to  cover  its  nakedness 
that  he  girds  it,  wherefore  he  girds  it  in  this  place  (viz.  on 
a  level  with  the  sacrificial  navel)  for  it  is  thus  that  this 
(nether)  garment  is  (slung  round).  He  thereby  puts  food 
into  him,  for  it  is  there  that  the  food  settles ;  therefore  he 
girds  it  at  that  place."  ^  One  of  the  chips  hewn  off  the  post 
was  then  placed  beneath  the  rope.  In  the  description  of  the 
ceremonies,  as  given  in  the  "  Aitareya  Brahmana,""  the  Hotar 
priests  recited  the  Vedic  Hymn,  and  adored  the  sacrificial 
post  as  a  youth '  well  robed,  fastened  by  the  sacrifice  to  the 

'  "  Sat.  Brah.,"  iii.  7,  3,  l.       *  Ibid.,  iii.  6,  4,  10.       ^  /^^-^^  {jj   g_  ^^  ,  j 

*  IbiJ.,  iii.  7,  I,  19.  °  Ibid.,  iii.  7,  19. 

"  Haug,  "Ait.  Brah.,"  p.  77. 

'  R.V.,  iii.,  8,  4-6;  see  Oldenberg  (^?-. ),  S.B.E.,  vol.  xlvi.  pp.  252,  253. 


BRAHMANISM  73 

earth,  fashioned  by  the  axe,  as  divine,  as  standing  before 
the  worshippers  to  grant  them  treasures  and  offspring. 

To  the  ancient  Brahmanic  expounders  of  the  sacrificial 
system  the  whole  primitive  significance  of  the  sacrifice  had 
been  lost.  The  protracted  ceremonies  are  minutely 
described,  and  laboured  explanations  of  them  are  given,  but 
nowhere  is  there  any  clue  given  as  to  the  true  history  of 
their  primitive  origin.  The  altar  itself  was  clearly  but  a 
developed  table,  or  hearth,  arising  out  of  the  primitive 
altar,  which,  as  "  among  the  northern  Semites  as  well  as 
among  the  Arabs,  was  a  great  stone  or  cairn  at  which  the 
blood  of  the  victim  was  shed  "  ^ 

The  importance  of  these  details  of  the  early  sacrificial 
system  in  the  history  of  India  is  self-evident.  The  ten- 
dency would  have  been  for  an  advance  from  the  worship 
of  the  Vedic  deities  to  a  grand  conception  of  monotheism, 
if  the  Aryan  tribes  had  remained  combined  into  united  and 
compact  bodies,  with  a  commonly  accepted  ideal  of  one 
tribal  God.  The  actual  result  was  a  lapse  into  idolatry 
and  unrestrained  polytheism  after  the  political  forces 
widened  and  weakened  themselves  by  compromises  with 
worshippers  of  strange  idols  and  fetishes.  Of  peculiar 
significance  are  the  words  in  which  Jehovah  directed  Moses 
to  deliver  unto  the  children  of  Israel  His  ordinances  as  to 
the  setting  forth  of  the  altar : — 

"An  altar  of  earth  thou  shalt  make  unto  me,  and  shall  sacrifice  thereon 
thy  burnt-offerings,  and  thy  peace-offerings,  thy  sheep  and  thy  oxen.  .  .  . 
And  if  thou  wilt  make  me  an  altar  of  stone,  thou  shalt  not  build  it  of 
hewn  stone  :  for  if  thou  lift  up  thy  tool  upon  it,  thou  hast  polluted  it."  ^ 

In  the  Canaanite  and  Hebrew  sanctuaries  was  the  altar, 
and  also  near  at  hand  the  pillar  of  stone,  such  as  Jacob  set 
up  and  anointed,  so  that  it  "  shall  be  God's  house."  The 
altar  was  the  place  on   which   the   sacrificial   blood   was 

•  Robertson  Smith,  "  History  of  the  Semites,"  p.  185. 
^  Exodus  XX.  24,  25. 


74  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

drained,  so  that  its  sanctity  should  not  pass  into  the  earth, 
and  the  pillar  on  which  the  blood  was  sprinkled  ''was 
a  visible  symbol  or  embodiment  of  the  presence  of  the 
deity  "^  which,  in  process  of  time,  came  to  be  fashioned 
and  carved  in  various  ways,  until,  ultimately,  it  became  "  a 
statue  or  anthropomorphic  idol  of  stone,  just  as  the  sacred 
tree  or  post  was  ultimately  developed  into  an  image  of 
wood."  ^  It  can  be  traced  ^  how  the  pillar  or  post  became 
gradually  more  artistically  developed,  was  placed  in  a  house, 
or  temple,  and  became  the  idol. 

According  to  the  Brahmanic  theory,  the  sacrifice  on  earth 
took  place  merely  as  a  counterpart  of  a  divine  sacrifice 
held  periodically  by  the  gods.  Prajapati,  the  Lord  of  all 
Creatures,  was  held  *  to  have  been  the  first  sacrificer,  the 
reason  given  for  the  motive  which  impelled  him  to  sacrifice 
being,  that  he  "  having  created  living  beings,  felt  himself,  as 
it  were,  exhausted."  Eleven  were  the  sacrifices  he  offered, 
so  that  "  the  creatures  might  then  return  to  me ;  the 
creatures  might  abide  with  me,  for  my  food  and  joy."  * 

In  imitation  of  the  sacrifice  by  Prajapati,  all  sacrificers 
were  directed  to  offer  eleven  victims.  The  first  victim  was 
sacrificed  to  Agni,  chief  of  all  the  gods,  the  father  of  the 
gods,  and  by  that  sacrifice  the  offerer  becomes  reunited  with 
Agni.  By  a  second  sacrifice  to  Sarasvati,  the  goddess  Vac, 
or  Speech,  the  sacrificer  "  becomes  strong  by  speech,  and 
speech  turns  unto  him,  and  he  makes  speech  subject  unto 
himself."*  By  a  third  sacrifice  to  Soma,  food  becomes 
subject ;  by  a  fourth  to  Pushan  cattle  become  subject ;  by  a 
fifth  to  Brihaspati,  the  priesthood  becomes  subject ;  by  a 
sixth  to  the  Vi^ve  Devas,  or  all  gods,  the  sacrificer  becomes 

'Jevons,  Introd.  to  "  History  of  Religion,"  pp.  13,  178. 
"  Robertson  Smith,  "  History  of  the  Semites,"  p.  187. 
3  Jevons,  p.  135.  *  "  Sat.  Biah.,"  iii.  9,  i,  i. 

=  Ibid.,  iii.  9,  1,  2.     In  "Sat.  Brah.,"  xi.  7,  i,  3,  flesh  is  called  the  highest 
food.     Raj.  Mitra,  "  Indo- Aryans,"  vol.  i.  pp.  361-374. 
'  Ibid.,  iii.  9,  I,  7. 


BRAHMANISM  75 

"strong  by  everything;  everything  turns  to  him,  and  he 
makes  everything  subject  to  himself."  By  a  seventh 
sacrifice  to  Indra,  the  God  of  Warrior  Might,  the  sacrificer 
gained  valour  and  power.  By  the  eighth  sacrifice,  that  to  the 
Maruts,!  who  are  said  to  personify  the  clan  and  abundance, 
abundance  was  made  subject;  by  a  ninth  to  Indra  and  Agni 
the  double  energies  of  these  gods  were  made  subject ;  by  a 
tenth  to  Savitri,  the  Impeller  of  the  gods,  all  wishes  were 
made  subject  to  the  sacrificer,  while  by  the  eleventh  and  last 
sacrifice,  that  to  Varuna,  the  sacrificer  freed  himself  "  from 
every  noose  of  Varuna,  from  every  guilt  against  Varuna." 

So  far,  it  can  be  seen  that  the  sacrifice  of  an  animal  was 
supposed  to  be  efficacious  in  endowing  the  sacrificer  with 
both  natural  and  supernatural  powers,  similar  to  those  he 
sacrificed  to  obtain.  There  was  but  a  slight  advance  on 
the  primitive  idea,  generally  found  at  some  stage  in  the 
history  of  humanity,  of  the  sacrifice  of  an  animal,  and  the 
actual  drinking  of  its  blood  and  partaking  of  its  flesh  in 
order  that  the  sacrificer  might  become  endowed  with  the 
supernatural  powers  of  the  animal  he  thus  sought  to 
become  kin  with.  The  phase  of  thought  on  which  these 
ideas  are  based  has  risen  naturally  from  the  primitive 
construction  of  society. 

Everywhere  primitive  man  is  found  to  hold  together  in 
sibs,  or  clans,  where  the  bond  of  blood  relationship  is  the 
sole  security  from  attack  or  treachery.  Should  a  stranger 
seek  to  join  the  brotherhood,  the  blood  of  the  adopted 
kindred  must  be  made  to  flow  in  his  veins  by  actual 
inoculation.^  This  is  the  blood  covenant,  and  outside  its 
limits  there  is  neither  friendship  nor  kindred.  Not  only 
with  his  brother  man  does  primitive  humanity  in  the  early 
struggle  for  existence  find  himself  at  variance,  but  he  is 

^  Jevons,  p.  242,  for  Mars  as  a  vegetable  deity ;  and  Haug,  p.  92,  for  the 
Maruts  being  the  "  Vaisyas,"  or  subjects  of  the  gods. 
^  Ibid.,  p.  97. 


^6  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

confronted  with  the  whole  supernatural  powers  of  Nature, 
with  which  he  would  willingly  be  in  alliance.  Man  finds 
himself  surrounded  by  strange  manifestations  of  an  un- 
known power,  over  which  his  mind  knows  not  how  to 
reason.  The  very  animals  have  strange  cunning,  and  in 
all  savage  folk-tales  they  speak  naturally  as  human  beings. 
For  defence  or  attack  animals  unite  together ;  their  kinship 
within  their  own  species  is  as  that  of  man  within  the 
brotherhood.  Should  an  animal  be  slain,  the  enmity  of  its 
species  is  aroused  against  the  slayer ;  it  can  be  equally  a 
friend  or  a  foe,  though  different  from  man,  its  powers  are 
outside  the  reach  of  primitive  intelligence. 

So  the  savage  seeks  to  be  on  good  terms  with,  and  win 
the  friendship  of,  such  animals  as  he  is  most  brought  into 
contact  with,  or  regards  with  special  fear  and  reverence. 
To  do  this,  there  is  but  one  way,  and  that  is  to  follow  the 
analogy  of  the  human  race  and  claim  a  blood  relationship. 
The  savage,  therefore,  wears  the  skin  of  some  animal  loved 
or  feared  of  his  sib ;  he  decorates  his  head  with  its  horns, 
and,  similarly  to  its  body,  he  mutilates  or  paints  his  own,  so 
that  he  may  become  endowed  with  its  virtues  or  super- 
natural powers.  There  is  but  one  step  further,  and  that  is 
to  cement  a  blood  covenant  with  the  clan  *  or  species  to 
which  the  animal  belongs.  The  animal  or  object  whose 
alliance  is  thus  sought,  then  becomes  the  "  Totem  "  ^  of  the 
common  brotherhood.  A  social  bond  has  been  made  with 
the  species.  The  animal  and  the  human  clan  are  regarded 
as  having  sprung  from  a  common  ancestor,  the  animal,  and  as 
being  of  one  kindred.  More  important  is  the  aspect  of  the 
religious  bond  which  binds  the  human  clan  in  affection  to 

1  Frazer,  J.  G.,  "  Golden  Bough,"  p.  26. 

^  Ibid.,  "Totemism,"  p.  I : — "  A  Totem  is  a  class  of  natural  objects  which 
a  savage  regards  with  superstitious  respect,  believing  that  there  exists  between 
him  and  any  member  of  the  class  an  intimate  and  altc^ether  special  relation." 
See,  however,  Frazer,  J.  G.,  "Golden  Bough,"  vol.  ii.  p.  38  : — "  It  is  not  yet 
certain  that  the  Aryans  ever  had  Totemism." 


BRAHMANISM  -jj 

the  animal  supposed  to  be  supernaturally  endowed.  There 
can  be  no  more  fitting  way  to  cement  these  bonds  than  for 
the  human  clan  periodically  to  assimilate  to  themselves  all 
the  qualities  of  the  animal,  by  actually  partaking  of  its  flesh 
and  blood. 

The  animal  is  of  necessity  slain  for  this  purpose,  yet  the 
act  of  killing  is  one  arising  from  affection,^  not  from  lust  or 
desire  for  food.  The  act  itself  is  sacrilegious.  The  blood 
as  it  falls  is  "  taboo "  ;  it  is  received  on  the  altar,  no  part 
must  touch  the  ground.  Everywhere  throughout  the 
Brahmanic  sacrifice,  traces  are  to  be  found  of  the  repug- 
nance to  shed  the  blood  of  the  victim,  and  scrupulous  care 
is  taken  to  remove  all  traces  of  it,  the  pillar  being  left  as  a 
sign  that  the  ground  is  to  be  avoided.  One  peculiar  result 
is  recorded  in  the  "  Brahmanas  "  : — "  Now  those  who  made 
offerings  in  former  times  touched  the  altar  and  the 
oblations  while  they  were  sacrificing.  They  became 
more  sinful,  and  those  who  sacrifice  not  become  righteous, 
they  said."  ^ 

It  was  the  sacrificer  who  struck  the  first  blow  and  who 
partook  of  the  flesh  and  blood  that  became  endowed 
with  the  supernatural  qualities  of  the  animal  slain.  He 
became  reborn  with  the  powers  of  the  animal  slain.  He 
emerged  from  the  sacrifice  as  the  god  himself,  possessed  of 
all  the  powers  which  the  alliance  of  the  animal  had  brought. 
The  sacrifice  in  its  primitive  signification  in  no  way 
indicated  a  gift  or  payment  by  the  worshippers  to  their 
deities.  It  was  a  bond,  an  act  of  communion®  between 
the  worshippers  and  the  animals,  or  any  natural  object  they 
held  possessed  of  supernatural  powers,  whose  aid  they 
sought  to  win  for  themselves. 

>  The  cow,  though  sacred,  was  slain  for  sacrifice. 

2  "  Sal.  Brah.,"  I,  2,  S,  24. 

'  Robertson  Smith,  "  History  of  the  Semites,"  pp.  365,  442  : — "  The  sacrifice 
was  in  no  sense  a  payment  to  the  god,  but  simply  an  act  of  communion  of  the 
worshippers  with  one  another  and  their  god." 


78  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

The  sacrifice  had  its  foundation  laid  securely  in  the 
mental  structure  of  all  mankind.  It  was  the  highest 
expression  of  religious  instincts  which  at  all  times  and  in 
all  places  impelled  the  individual  to  seek  close  union  with 
the  ineffable  mystery  of  the  Divine,  in  which  no  powers  of 
reason  will  ever  persuade  him  he  has  no  part  With  the 
forces  which  he  sees  underlying  all  Nature — animals,  trees, 
and  plants — he  hopes  at  first  to  form  a  bond  of  friendship. 
As  the  animals  become  domesticated,  and  agriculture  is 
introduced,  the  sacrifice  assumes  the  form  of  a  gift  of 
an  animal,  or  harvest  offerings  to  the  god  whose  aid  it  was 
sought  to  secure,  the  primitive  idea  of  the  necessity  of 
incorporating  it  as  kin  to  the  clan  fading  away.^ 

In  India,  even  down  to  the  time  of  Manu,  it  was  held 
that  the  land  "where  the  black  antelope  naturally  roams, 
one  must  know  to  be  fit  for  the  performance  of  sacrifices  ; 
the  tract  different  from  that  is  the  country  of  the  "  Mlecchas  " 
(barbarians).^  It  would  be  hazardous*  at  present  to 
assert  that  the  Aryans  in  India  held  the  black  antelope 
for  a  Totem,  or  that  it  ever  was  a  Totem  for  them,  inasmuch 
as  they  had  for  long  passed  beyond  the  early  stage  of 
civilisation  out  of  which  the  primitive  ideas  of  sacrifice 
arise.  Nevertheless,  the  place  taken  by  the  black  antelope 
during  the  Brahmanic  ceremony  shows  that  it  had  assumed, 
metaphorically  at  least,  the  position  which  would  have  been 
devoted  to  a  tribal  Totem.  The  great  sacrifices  were,  in 
these  Brahmanic  times,  performed  for  the  benefit  and  at  the 

1  See  Jevons,  Inlrod.  to  the  "History  of  Religion,"  p.  331,  et  seq.,  for  the 
introduction  into  Greece  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.  of  the  North  Semitic 
tendency  to  abandon,  under  stress  of  national  calamity,  the  gift  idea  of  sacrifice, 
and  to  revert  to  the  primitive  conception  of  the  sacrificial  meal  being  an 
actual  participation  of  the  essence  of  the  god  by  the  worshippers. 

2  "  Manu,"  ii.  2,  3. 

'  Hewitt,  "  Ruling  Races  of  Prehistoric  Times,''  p.  367 ;  Max  MiUler, 
"  Mythology,"   vol.    i.   pp.    8,    200  : — "  Sanskrit    scholars    would    certainly 

hesiiate  before  seeing  in  Indra  a  Totem,  because  he  is  called bull." 

Sei  Oldenberg,  "Rel.  des  Vedas,"  pp.  85,  415. 


BRAHMANISM  79 

cost  of  some  pious  householder,  who  had  first  to  prepare 
himself  by  a  ceremony  of  initiation/  through  which  he 
became  re-born  into  a  condition  in  which  he  was  supposed 
to  enter  into  actual  communion  with  the  deity  worshipped. 
The  ceremony  as  described  in  the  "Brahmanas"  is  conclusive 
on  the  subject.  The  sa.crificer  is  first  sprinkled  with  water, 
"  for  water  is  seed."  ^  He  is  then  anointed  with  butter,  for 
by  such  anointing,  "  they  make  him  thrive."  His  eyes  are 
then  darkened  with  collryrium  by  which  lustre  is  imparted, 
and  he  becomes  a  "  Dikshita."  They  then  "  rub  him  clean 
with  twenty-one  handfuls  of  darbha  grass,"  they  thus  make 
him  pure.  He  then  enters  a  place  prepared  for  him,  which 
represents  a  place  of  birth  ;  he  is  thus  supposed  to  become 
an  embryo.  "  In  this  place,  he  sits  as  in  a  secure  abode, 
and  thence  he  departs.  Therefore  the  embryos  are  placed 
in  the  womb  as  a  secure  place,  and  thence  they  are  brought 
forth  (as  fruit).  Therefore  the  sun  shoiild  neither  rise  nor 
set  over  him,  finding  him  in  any  other  place  than  the  spot 
assigned  to  the  Dikshita;  nor  should  they  speak  to  him." 
The  succeeding  portion  of  the  ceremony  is  so  clear  as  to 
the  underlying  significance  of  the  rite,  and  points  out  so 
unmistakably  the  origin  of  the  triple  thread  still  worn  by 
all  people  of  India  to-day,  who  call  themselves  twice-born, 
that  it  is  quoted  in  full  from  Dr  Haug's  valuable  translation, 
which  unfortunately  is  now  out  of  print.  The  sacrificer 
remains  in  the  place  chosen  for  the  new  birth,  while  the 
priests  "  cover  him  with  a  cloth.  For  this  cloth  is  the  cowl 
of  the  Dikshita  (with  which  he  is  to  be  born  like  a  child). 

^  Max  Miiller,  in  his  "  Comp.  Mythology,"  p.  227,  contending  against 
Oldenberg's  views  that  this  Diksha,  or  initiatory  ceremony,  was  "  to  excite  an 
ecstatic  state  which  helps  forward  an  intercourse  with  gods  or  spirits,"  con- 
cluded by  stating  his  opinion  "that  this  initiatory  ceremony  was  meant  as  an 
act  of  propitiation  and  sanctification ;  or,  like  the  Upanayana,  as  a  symbolical 
representation  of  that  new  birth  which  distinguishes  the  three  upper  classes  as 
fit  for  sacrifice." 

SHaug,  "Ait.  Brah.,"p.  8., 


So  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Outside  (this  cloth)  there  is  (put  by  them)  the  skin  of  a 
black  antelope.  For  outside  the  cowl  there  is  the  placenta. 
Then  they  cover  him  (symbolically  by  the  skin  of  the 
antelope)  with  the  placenta.  He  closes  his  hands.  For 
with  closed  hands  the  child  is  born.  As  he  closes  his 
hands,  he  thus  holds  the  sacrifice  and  all  its  deities  in  his 
two  hands  closed."  i 

The  ceremony  ends  by  the  sacrificer  removing  the  skin 
of  the  black  antelope,  and  then,  still  wearing  the  cloth, 
purifying  himself  by  bathing. 

A  similar  account  of  the  initiatory  ceremony  is  given 
in  the  well-known  "  Satapatha  Brahmana,"  ^  attached  to  the 
"  White  Yajur  Veda." 

Here  the  place  of  sacrifice  is  where  the  ground  is  higher 
than  any  surrounding  ground,  "for  it  was  thence  that 
the  gods  ascended  to  heaven,  and  he  who  is  consecrated 
indeed  ascends  to  the  gods." 

An  enclosed  shed  is  erected,  with  its  beams  running 
West  and  East,  for  the  gods  come  from  the  East,  and  the 
sacrifice  is  to  be  performed  facing  East  The  sacrificer 
must  be  one  of  the  Aryan  race,  a  Brahman,  Kshatriya,  or 
Vaisya,  for  the  gods  have  no  commerce  with  Sudras. 

The  sacrificer's  hair  and  beard  is  shaved,^  the  hair  being 
first  touched  with  the  sacred  grass,  both  the  hair  and  grass 
being  laid  in  water ;  his  nails  are  cut,  and  he  then  bathes, 
so  as  to  become  pure.  He  then  clothes  himself  in  a  new 
linen  garment,  and   is   anointed   five  times,  for   the   five 

^  The  original  is — "jajnam  ca  eva  tat  s^rvas  ca  devata  mushtyo  kurute." 

2  "6.it.  Brah.,"ui.  i,  I. 

^  The  explanation,  according  to  the  Biahmana,  of  the  shaven  head  is  as 
follows : — "  Then  as  to  the  Sacrificer  shaving  his  head  all  round.  Now  yonder 
sun,  indeed,  faces  every  quarter ;  it  drinks  up  whatever  moisture  it  dries  up 
here ;  hence  this  Sacrificer  thereby  faces  every  quarter,  and  becomes  a  con- 
sumer of  food." — "isat.  Brah.,"  ii.  6,  3,  14.  An  objector  to  this  theory 
remarks : — "What  in  the  world  has  it  to  do  with  his  face,  even  if  he  were  to 
shave  off  all  the  hair  off  his  head  ?  .  .  .  let  him  therefore  not  trouble  himself 
about  shaving  his  head." — "Sat.  Brah.,"  ii.  6,  3,  17. 


BRAHMANISM  8i 

seasons,  from  head  to  foot  with  fresh  butter ;  his  eyes  being 
touched  with  a  reed  stalk.  When  further  purified  by  being 
stroked  with  one,  seven,  or  twenty-one  stalks  of  sacred 
grass,  he  then  enters  the  hall  of  sacrifice,  and  walks  about  at 
the  back  of  the  Ahavanlya  fire,  which  faces  the  east  door, 
and  in  front  of  the  Garhapatya  fire,  which  faces  the  west 
door,  the  altar  lying  between  these  two  fires.  "  The  reason 
why  this  is  his  passage  until  the  Soma  pressing  is  this  :  the 
fire  is  the  womb  of  the  sacrifice,  and  the  consecrated  is  the 
embryo ;  and  the  embryo  moves  about  in  the  womb."  i 

Two  black  antelope  skins  are  then  spread  on  the  ground, 
on  which  the  sacrificer  sits  down  with  his  hands  folded,  like 
unto  an  embryo.  He  then  places  round  himself  a  triple 
hempen  cord,  in  which  is  twined  a  reed  ;  he  covers  his  head, 
ties  a  black  deer's  horn  to  his  garment,  and  lays  hold  of  a 
staff  of  Udambara  wood  {JFicus  glomeratd)  ^  and  so  remains 
silent.  "  Thereupon  someone  calls  out, '  Consecrated  is  this 
Brahman,  consecrated  is  this  Brahman,'  him  being  thus 
announced,  he  thereby  announces  to  the  gods :  '  Of  great 
vigour  is  this  one  who  has  obtained  the  sacrifice ;  he  has 
become  one  of  yours,  protect  him.' "  ^ 

The  sacrificer  remains  silent  until  sunset,  when  he 
becomes  reborn,  a  god  himself,  and  is  fed  with  milk  and 
barley  to  which  vegetables  are  sometimes  added.  The 
reason  why  the  food  must  be  cooked  is  because  "  he  who  is 
consecrated  draws  nigh  to  the  gods  and  becomes  one  of 
the  deities.  But  the  sacrificial  food  of  the  gods  must  be 
cooked,  and  not  uncooked :  hence  they  cook  it,  and  he 
partakes  of  that  fast-milk  and  does  not  offer  it  in  the 
fire."* 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  speculations  of  the 

1  "  Sat.  Brah.,"  iii.  I,  3,  28 ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xxvi.  (Eggeling's  translation). 

"  For  the  Ficus  glomerata  as  the  parent  tree  of  the  trading  races  who 
introduced  the  Soma  sacrifice,  see  Hewitt,  "Ruling  Races  of  Pre-historic 
Times,"  p.  367- 

3  "  Sat.  Brah.,"  iii.  2,  i,  39.  ^Ibid.,  iii.  2,  2,  10. 

F 


82  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

priestly  compilers  of  the  "  Brahmanas  "  were  earnest  and 
sincere  efforts  to  explain  the  hidden  meaning  of  the 
complicated  ritual  that  had  in  process  of  time  grown  up 
around  the  sacrifice.  Not  only  are  the  rules  which  bear  on 
fhe  ceremony  set  forth,  but  every  effort  is  made  to  give 
rational  explanations  of  every  step  of  the  ritual. 

Philosophic  disquisitions  abound  as  to  the  intention  of 
the  early  sacrificers,  and  philological  reasons  are  given  for 
special  uses  of  Vedic  texts.  Stories  of  ancient  sacrificers 
and  legends  of  former  sacrifices  are  introduced,  with  an 
evident  intention  of  expounding,  so  far  as  it  was  understood, 
the  necessity  for  the  due  performance  of  the  religious 
ceremonies  in  the  new-found  homes  of  the  Aryans.  In  the 
course  of  ages  the  true  meaning  of  much  of  the  ritual  had 
been  lost  to  the  priesthood,  much  remained  obscure,  and  on 
many  points  in  the  ceremony  there  were  held  varied 
opinions  and  practices. 

At  times  the  sacrifice  is  declared  to  be  man ;  it  is  the 
representation  of  the  sacrificer  himself;  i  therefore  the  altar 
extends  as  far  as  a  man's  outstretched  arms  on  the  West 
side,  and  it  is  in  human  shape.  Again  the  sacrifice  is 
prayer,  or  speech,^  for  it  is  handed  down  from  priest  to 
priest  by  speech.  It  was  first  taught  by  the  gods  to  man, 
who  handed  it  on  from  father  to  son.*  By  the  sacrifice  the 
gods  gained  their  place  in  Heaven,  and  then  fearing  that 
man  by  the  same  means  might  conquer  their  celestial 
home,  they  concealed  it  until  man  found  it  again  for 
himself.* 

The  most  striking  and  most  important  account  of  the 
ancient  sacrifice  is  that  given  in  connection  with  the 
legend  of  the  Flood,  as  preserved  in  the  "  Satapatha 
Brahmana."     The  account  differs  in  so  many  respects  from 

1  "Sat.  Brah.,"  i.  3,  2,  I ;  Eggeling,  S.B.E.,  vol.  xii. 

2  Ibid.,  i.  5,  2,  7.  3  Ibid.,  i.  6,  2,  4. 
*  Ibid.,  iii.  4,  i,  17 ;  iii.  9,  4,  22. 


BRAHMANISM  83 

the  Biblical  record  of  the  deluge,  that  at  present  there  is  no 
evidence  to  connect  the  Indian  with  the  Semitic  tradition. 

In    the    Brahmanic    story,   Manu^   takes    the    part  of 
Noah  in  the  Old  Testament,  though  with  striking  dissimi- 
larities.    The  story  commences  with  a  description  of  how 
when    Manu  was   one  day  washing  his   hands   he  found 
that  he  had  seized  a  small  fish.     To  his  surprise  the  fish 
spoke,  and  prayed  to  be  saved  from  destruction,  promising 
in  return  that  he  would  in  time  to  come  preserve  Manu 
from  a  great  danger.     The  danger  that  was  to  come  was 
foretold  by  the  fish  to  be  a  flood,  that  would  sweep  away 
all  creatures.     So  Manu  kept  the  fish  and  placed  it  in  a  jar. 
When  the  fish  grew  large  it  told  Manu  the  year  in  which 
the  flood  would  come.     It  then  counselled  Manu  to  build 
a  great  ship,  and  enter  into  it  when  the  waters  rose,  saying, 
"  I  will  save  thee  from  the  flood."    Manu  accordingly  built 
the  ship,  and  as  the  fish  had  grown  too  big  to  remain  in  the 
jar,  he  placed  it  in  the  sea.     As  the  fish  had  foretold,  the 
flood  came.      When  Manu  entered  into  his  ship  the  fish 
swam  towards  him,  and  Manu  tied  the  ship  to  a  horn  on 
the  fish's  head,  and  was  towed  to  the  Northern  Mountain 
where  he  tied  the  ship  to  a  tree.    Then  the  waters  receded 
and  Manu  was  left  alone.     The  narrative  is  simple,  natural 
according  to  primitive  ideas,  and,  as  annual    floods   are 
common    in    all    tropical   lands,   there   is   at   present  no 
necessity  for  holding  that  it  contains  more  than  the  record 
of  a  wide-spread   catastrophe.     The  real   interest  of  the 
story   is   not  in   the   suggested  connection   of  the  words 
Manu,  ship,  flood,  with  Noah,  ark,  deluge,  but  in  the  side 
light  which  is  thrown  on  the  primitive  history  of  the  sacri- 
ficial cult.     This  is  to  be  seen  in  the  steps  taken  by  Manu 
to  acquire  supernatural  power  and  reproduce  creation. 
At  first    Manu,  "being  desirous  of  offspring,  engaged 

1  "^at.  Brah.,"i.  8,  I,  i. 


84  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

in  worshipping  and  austerities ;  during  this  time  he  also 
performed  a  'paka '  sacrifice :  he  offered  up  in  the  waters 
clarified  butter,  sour  milk,  whey,  and  curds.  Thence 
a  woman  was  produced  in  a  year."  The  woman  then 
announced  to  Manu  that  she  was  his  daughter,  that  she 
had  been  produced  through  his  offerings,  declaring  to  him  : 
"  I  am  the  blessing :  make  use  of  me  ^  at  the  sacrifice  ;  thou 
wilt  become  rich  in  offering,  and  cattle."  With  the  woman 
"  Manu  went  on  worshipping  and  performing  austerities. 
Through  her^  he  generated  this  race,  which  is  the  race  of 
Manu  ;  and  whatever  blessing  he  invoked  through  her,  all 
that  was  granted  to  him."*  A  further  important  reference 
to  the  position  of  the  woman  *  in  the  sacrificial  ritual  is  the 
injunction  given  that  after  the  rice  had  been  poured  from 
the  winnowing  basket  into  a  mortar  ^  preparatory  to  its 
being  ground  between  the  two  mill-stones  *  as  an  offering, 
the  sacrificer  should  be  summoned  forward,  an  injunction 
followed  by  the  important  remark,  so  full  of  significance  in 
the  history  of  the  development  of  the  ritual,  that,  "  now  in 
former  times  it  was  no  other  than  the  wife  of  the  sacrificer 
who  rose  at  this  call." 

The  ancient  custom  of  the  participation  of  women  ^  in 
harvest  offerings,  as  well  as  harvest  festivals — a  custom  to 
be  traced  in  much  of  the  folk-lore  of  India  to-day — is  in 

1  "6at.  Brah.,"  i.  i,  4,  16-17,  for  the  actual  sacriSce  of  Manu's  wife  :— 
"  When  she  had  been  sacrificed  the  voice  went  out  of  her,  and  entered  into  the 
sacrifice."     Also  Ibid.,  i.  8,  I,  9. 

2  "Ida.  6at.  Brah.,"i.  8,  1,  11. 
3"6at.  Brah.,"i.  8,  i,  10. 

*  "  As  a  rule,  the  wife  of  the  sacrificer  was  present,  with  hands  joined  to  her 
husband"  ("Taitt.  Brah.,"  iu.  3,  10).  "The  wife  has  to  confess  at  the 
sacrifice"  ("Sat.  Brah.,"  ii.'  5,  2,  20). 

''"^at.  Biah.,"i.  i,  4,8. 

^  Ibid.,  i.  I,  4,  13. 

'  "  Gobhila  Grihya  Sutras,"  i.  3,  15  :_'<  if  they  like,  his  wife  may  offer  the 
morning  and  evening  oblations  over  the  domestic  fire.  For  his  wife  is  (as  it 
were)  his  house,  and  that  fire  is  the  domestic  fire."  Su  also  Hillebrandt 
"  Rituel  Litteratur,"  p.  7a  ' 


brAhmanism  85 

the  above  texts  clearly  referred  to  as  being  remembered 
at  the  time  of  the  Brahmanic  sacrifice,  although  for  priestly 
reasons  it  was  overlooked,  or  but  obscurely  hinted  at. 

The  explanation  of  this  appearance  of  women  on  the  scene 
arises  from  the  fact  ^  that  in  primitive  times  the  duties  of 
agriculture  lay,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  hands  of  women. 

The  historical  development  of  this  portion  of  the  sacri- 
fice is  tersely  summed  up  in  the  words  of  Mr  Jevons  :  "  It 
is  therefore  an  easy  guess  that  the  cultivation  of  plants 
was  one  of  women's  contributions  to  the  development  of 
civilisation ;  and  it  is  in  harmony  with  this  conjecture  that 
the  cereal  deities  are  usually,  both  in  the  Old  World  and 
in  the  New,  female." 

Agriculture,  however,  when  its  benefits  became  thoroughly 
understood,  was  not  allowed  amongst  civilised  races  to  con- 
tinue to  be  the  exclusive  prerogative  of  woman,  and  the 
Corn  Goddess,  maiden  or  mother,  had  to  admit  to  the  circle 
of  her  worshippers  the  men  as  well  as  the  wives  of  the 
tribe.  The  gradual  transition  from  the  early  sacrifice  of 
human  beings,  to  the  stage  in  which  horses,  kept  in  droves 
and  tended  by  man  during  the  pastoral  stage,  were  sacri- 
ficed, thence  on  to  the  substitution  of  various  animals  as 
they  became  domesticated,  ending  with  the  offering  of  the 
fruits  of  the  earth  when  agriculture  became  known,  is  set 
forth  as  a  recognised  fact  in  the  "  Aitareya  Brahmana."  The 
account  given  is  that  man  was  the  primitive  form  of  sacri- 
fice, but  that  in  time  the  sacrificial  essence  went  out  of  man 
and  passed  into  the  horse.^  From  the  horse  the  sacrificial 
essence  went  to  the  ox,  which  was  sacrificed  ;  in  the  same 
manner  for  the  ox,  sheep  were  substituted,  for  sheep,  goats, 
which  remained  the  best  suited  for  sacrifice.  From  the 
goat  the  sacrificial  essence  passed  into  the  earth,  and  so 

1  Jevons,  Introd.  to  "The  History  of  Religion,"  pp.  240-1. 

2  For  the  great  Horse  Sacrifice,  see  "Taitt.  Brah.,"  iii.  8.  For  the  year 
the  horse  was  allowed  to  roam,  sacrifices  being  performed  by  day. 


86  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

finally  the  sacrificial  part  turned  into  rice.^  It  is  also  laid 
down  as  an  injunction  that  no  one  of  these  animals,  out  of 
which  the  sacrificial  essence  had  gone,  should  be  eaten. 
This  special  prohibition  evidently  indicated  that  the  eating 
of  flesh  was  a  custom  in  ancient  India.  In  the  "  Satapatha 
Brahmana "  there  is  a  direction  that  the  flesh  of  cows  or 
oxen  should  not  be  eaten,  although  Yajnavalkya  declared  : 
"  I  for  one  eat  it,  provided  that  it  be  tender." 

When  the  animal  was  killed  for  the  sacrifice,  every  limb 
was  preserved,  the  offal  being  buried  in  the  earth. 
According  to  the  later  custom,  the  animal  was  killed  by 
beating  it  to  death.^  The  priest  during  the  slaying  averted 
his  eyes ;  *  any  blood  that  fell  was  received  on  the  sacred 
grass,  and  considered  an  offering  to  the  Rakshasas,  or 
demons.  To  the  officiating  priest,  and  to  the  sacrificer, 
allotted  parts  of  the  cooked  food  were  presented.  In  the 
"  Aitareya  Brahmana  "  *  the  animal  had  to  be  divided  into 
thirty-six  portions,  for  the  priests,  the  sacrificer,  and  his 
wife. 

To  those  who  thus  divided  the  offering  into  thirty-six 
parts,  the  animal  "becomes  the  guide  to  Heaven.  But 
those  who  make  the  division  otherwise,  are  like  scoundrels 
and  miscreants,  who  kill  an  animal  merely  for  gratifying 
the  lust  after  flesh." 

The  origin  of  human  sacrifice  may  be  traced  back 
to  early  Aryan  times,^  when  a  chieftain's  wives  and  at- 
tendants were  slain,  in  order  that  they  might  accompany 
him  to  the  after-world.  Its  introduction  into  the 
Brahmanic  ritual  as  an  atonement  for  the  guilt  of  some 

»  Haug,  "Ait.  Biah.,"  p.  91.  2  Ibid.,  p.  85. 

s  "6at.  Brah.,"iii.  8,  I,  15:  "Then  they  step  back  to  the  altar  and  sit 
down — lest  they  should  be  eye-witnesses  to  its  being  strangled." 

*  Haug,  "Ait.  Brah.,"  p.  443. 

'Tylor,  "Primitive  Culture,"  vol.  i.  p.  464;  Jevons,  Introd.  to  "The 
History  of  Religion,"  p.  161. 


BRAHMANISM  87 

member  of  the  community^  is  indicated  in  the  well- 
known  story  of  Sunah§epa,  as  narrated  in  the  "Aitareya 
Brahmana." 

The  story  is  one  always  to  be  recited  with  an  accom- 
paniment of  one  hundred  Vedic  verses  before  a  king,  so 
that  his  blood-guiltiness  as  a  warrior  may  be  removed. 
The  Hotar  who  recites  it  must  be  rewarded  with  a  gift  of 
a  thousand  cows  and  a  silver  ornamented  carriage  drawn  by 
mules.  To  the  Adhvaryu  priest  who,  during  the  recital 
makes  the  fitting  responses,  a  hundred  must  be  given,  and 
upon  Adhvaryu  and  Hotar,  as  an  additional  reward,  a  gold- 
embroidered  carpet  must  be  bestowed.  To  all  who  hear 
the  story,  the  gods  will  allot  long  days  and  offspring. 
The  story  is  as  follows : — 

Hari^chandra  of  the  Ikshvaku  race,  mighty  king  though 
he  was,  had  no  son.  To  his  household  priests  he  poured 
forth  his  sorrow,  asking  them  why  it  was  that  every  one 
had  so  great  a  desire  for  male  offspring.  The  answer, 
ancient  though  it  may  be,  is  one  that  would  be  given  by 
all  pious  Hindus  of  modern  India.  "  A  son  is  ever  to  be 
desired,  for  a  son  hands  down  his  father's  life  ;  the  wife  who 
bears  a  son  re-creates  the  father :  a  son  shines  as  a  light 
in  Heaven.  He  is  the  greatest  of  all  earthly  possessions  ; 
he  gains  immortality  for  the  father.  A  daughter  is  but  an 
object  of  compassion"  The  holy  advisers  of  the  king  told 
him  that  the  desire  was  unconquerable,  that  all  wondered 
at  such  Brahmans  as  turn  from  a  family  life,  and  go  forth 
as  wanderers  over  the  earth  to  live  as  hermits  in  the  forest, 
or  as  religious  mendicants. 

So  the  king  prayed  to  Varuna,  the  god  who  fulfils  all 
wishes,  and  swore  that  were  he  but  permitted  to  see  the 
face  of  a  son,  he  would  sacrifice  the  child  when  born  to 


'  "This  was  probably  the  origin  of  the  sacrifice  of  human  beings  to  the 
gods  amongst  the  Mediterranean  peoples.  Amongst  the  Americans  it  was  .  .  . 
due  to  the  lack  of  domesticated  animals." — Jevons,  p.  l6i. 


88  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Varuna.  The  god  granted  the  king's  desire,  and  a  child, 
Rohita,  was  born.  The  king  put  off  from  day  to  day  the 
fulfilment  of  his  vow,  until  Rohita  grew  to  manhood,  and 
became  a  warrior.  When  his  father's  vow  was  made  known 
to  Rohita,  he  fled  into  the  wilderness,  and  there  hid  himself, 
whereupon  Varuna  caused  a  grievous  illness  to  fall  upon 
the  king.  Rohita  remained  concealed  for  the  space  of  six 
years,  at  the  end  of  which  time  he  met  a  Brahman  sage, 
who  had  three  sons,  the  second  of  whom  was  named 
SunahSepa.  For  a  gift  of  one  hundred  cows,  the  Brahman 
gave  his  son  Sunah^epa  as  a  ransom  sacrifice  to  Varuna. 
The  good  god  Varuna  on  hearing  of  this,  bowed  his  head 
and  accepted  Sunahtepa  as  a  sacrifice  in  place  of  the  king's 
son,  for  he  knew  that  the  offspring  of  a  Brahman  was  of 
more  value  than  the  son  of  a  king. 

At  this  time  the  great  priest  Visvamitra  was  the  Hotar 
to  King  Hari^chandra,  and  the  renowned  Vasishta  was  the 
"  purohita,"  yet  no  one  could  be  found  to  bind  SunahSepa  to 
the  sacrificial  post.  Then  the  father  of  Sunahsepa,  on 
receiving  a  further  gift  of  one  hundred  cows,  consented  to 
bind  his  own  son  to  the  sacrificial  post.  The  sacrificial  fire 
was  prepared,  the  Vedic  texts  ordained  for  such  a  sacrifice 
were  duly  recited,  yet  no  one  could  be  found  to  slay 
SunahSepa.  For  a  fourth  gift  of  one  hundred  cows,  the 
father  of  Sunahsepa  agreed  to  slay  his  own  son. 

When  the  sharpened  knife  was  raised,  Sunahsepa  prayed 
to  Prajapati,  to  Agni,  to  Savitri,  to  Varuna,  to  the  All 
Gods,  to  Indra,  to  the  Asvins,  and  to  the  Dawn,  and  as  he 
prayed,  the  fetters  which  bound  him  fell  off  one  by  one, 
and  King  Harl^chandra  was  restored  to  heedth. 

The  evidence  for  the  actual  existence  of  human  sacrifice ' 

*  The  "Taitt.  Brah.''  gives  a  list  of  various  men  and  women  fit  fur  sacrifice 
to  one  hundred  and  seventy-nine  gods." — Earth,  "  Rel.  of  India,"  pp.  57,  58. 
"  Der  Furushamedha  ist  eben  der  Uberrest  eines  barbarischen  Zeitallers  des 
wir  fur  Indiens  so  evenig  wie  fur  andere  Lander  zu  leugnen  haben." — HjUe- 
brandt,  "  Rituel  Lilteratur,"  p.  153. 


BRAHMANISM  89 

during  the  Brahmanic  period,  rests  on  accounts  such  as 
that  of  ^unahSepa,  where,  however,  as  in  the  Biblical  ac- 
counts of  Abraham  and  Isaac,  the  victim  is  released,  show- 
ing that  the  rite  was  one  then  no  longer  in  use.  In  the 
"  Satapatha  Brahmana  "  ^  it  is  stated  that  the  animals  used 
for  sacrifice  are  "  a  man,  a  horse,  a  bull,  a  ram  and  a  he-goat." 

With  regard  to  these  the  direction  to  the  sacrificer  is :  ^ 
"  Let  him  slaughter  those  very  five  victims  as  far  as  he 
may  be  able  to  do  so ;  for  it  was  those  Prajapati  was  the 
first  to  slaughter,  and  Syaparna  Sayakayana  the  last,  and 
in  the  interval  also,  people  used  to  slaughter  them.  But 
nowadays  only  these  two  are  slaughtered,  the  one  for 
Prajapati,  and  the  one  for  Vayu."  The  two  animals  here 
referred  to  are  he-goats.^  The  fact  that  the  compiler  of 
the  texts  records  the  name  of  the  last  sacrificer  who  per- 
formed a  human  sacrifice,  shows  that  the  practice  had  died 
out  in  the  home  or  family  of  the  compiler. 

It  would  be  futile  to  seek  for  clear  matter-of-fact  state- 
ments or  commonplace  explanations  of  the  sacrificial  system 
in  the  early  Brahmanic  literature. 

The  entire  ritual  was  a  cult  falling  more  and  more  into 
the  hands  of  a  hereditary  class  of  priests,  determined  to 
hold  the  power  they  thus  obtained  free  from  outside 
criticism  or  attack.  The  commanding  position  the  priest- 
hood obtained  in  the  community  by  their  exclusive  know- 
ledge of  the  complicated  details  of  the  sacrificial  system, 
which  so  closely  hemmed  in  the  whole  life  of  every  Aryan 
householder,  would  naturally  incline  them  to  attach  to  their 
office  and  to  all  its  duties  not  only  an  esoteric  significance, 
but  further  in  every  way  to  heighten  and  exaggerate  the 
supernatural  basis  on  which  they  were  primitively  founded. 
Over  the  whole  ceremony  the  superintending  Brahman 
priest  hovered,  as  a  man  possessed  of  divine  knowledge  and 
divine  power. 

1  "Sat.  Etah.,"  vi.  2;  I,  1.5.       ^  Ibid.,  vi.  2;  I,  39.       ^  Ibid.,  vi.  2,  2,  I. 


90  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

He  was  the  central  figure,  looming  mysterious  in  his  care- 
fully preserved  silence,  yet  held  to  possess  powers  potent 
enough  in  their  overshadowing  might  never  to  call  for 
their  actual  manifestation.  For  days  or  for  years  the  rites 
might  drag  on  their  mysterious  ways ;  it  was  the  Brahman 
alone  who  held  the  knowledge  and  power  to  set  in  motion 
the  whole  performance ;  his  nod  or  word  could  break  the 
thread  of  the  ceremony,  and  bring  the  direst  results  to  all 
engaged.!  At  the  morning  libation  he  gave  permission 
that  the  Vedic  Hymns  might  be  chanted  by  uttering  the 
words, "  Bhur !  ye  may  sing ! "  ^  So  at  the  mid-day  libation 
he  muttered,  "  Bhuvah !  ye  may  sing ! "  and  at  the  evening 
libation  he  says,  "Svar!  ye  may  sing!"  He  stood  over- 
seeing all  as  a  very  god.  "  Verily  there  are  two  kinds  of 
gods,  for  indeed  the  gods  are  the  gods,  and  the  Brahmans 
who  have  studied  and  teach  sacred  lore  are  the  human 
gods.  The  sacrifice  of  these  is  divided  into  two  kinds; 
oblations  constitute  the  sacrifice  to  the  gods ;  and  gifts  to 
the  priests  that  to  human  gods." 

The  Brahman  wisely  left  all  the  outward  signs  of  power 
in  the  hands  of  his  serving  priests.  At  the  bidding  of  the 
Brahman,  the  reciting  priest,  the  Hotar,  a  class  from  which 
the  Brahmans  were  chiefly  recruited,*  commenced  the 
recitation  of  such  Vedic  Hymns  as  were  ordained  for  use. 
As  the  stately  music  of  the  words,  intoned  by  the  Udgatar 
priest,  rose  and  fell,  it  cast  around  its  spell  of  magic  power, 
moving  amid  the  people  as  though  it  subtly  bound  their 
souls  to  the  gods  who  thronged  around  them.  Should  the 
Hotar  desire  to  deprive  a  sacrificer  of  life,  or  sense,  limb, 
strength,  or  speech,  he  had  but  to  omit  a  Vedic  verse  in  his 

'  A  special  remark  made  by  the  renowned  Aruni,  who  composed  many  of 
the  sacrificial  formute,  is  as  follows:  "Why  should  he  sacrifice  who  would 
think  himself  the  worse  for  a  miscarriage  of  the  sacrifice  ?  I  for  one  am  the 
better  for  a  miscarriage  of  the  sacrifice." — "  6at.  Brah.,"  iv.  5,  7,  9. 

=  Haug,  "Ait.  Brah.,"  pp.  377,  37S. 

^S.B.E.,  vol.  xii.;  Eggeling  (Introd.),  xx. 


BRAHMANISM  91 

recitation,  or  pronounce  it  confusedly,  it  was  held  that  by 
his  so  doing  the  union  of  the  sacrificer  with  the  gods  would 
at  once  be  broken,  and  the  whole  sacrifice  rendered  futile,^  the 
wish  of  the  Hotar  alone  resulting.  To  deprive  a  sacrificer 
of  his  wealth,  or  a  king  of  his  subjects,  the  Hotar  had  but  to 
recite  a  hymn  out  of  its  proper  order,  and  so  great  was  the 
inherent  power  of  the  sacred  word  that  the  required  result 
would  inevitably  follow.  Should  the  priest  desire  to 
deprive  a  sacrificer  of  the  whole  fruit  of  the  sacrifice,  he  had 
but  to  pronounce  a  verse  in  a  different  tone  from  that  in 
which  it  should  be  pronounced,  and  the  sacrifice  would  fall 
useless.  Not  only  did  the  priestly  power  reign  supreme 
over  the  religious  life  of  the  people,  but,  politically  it 
extended  side  by  side  with  that  of  the  tribal  chieftain  or 
king.2  No  king  could  succeed  in  deeds  that  were  not 
founded  on  priestly  advice,  and  the  gods  are  said  to  turn 
away  from  the  food  of  a  king  who  has  no  "  purohita "  or 
Brahman  guide. 

It  is  said  that  a  king  who  appoints  no  family  priest  or 
"purohita"  is  cast  out  from  Heaven,*  deprived  of  his  heroism, 
of  his  dignity,  kingdom,  and  subjects.  To  the  king  who 
has  a  "  purohita,"  Agni  Vaisvanara  gives  protection ;  he 
surrounds  the  king  *  as  the  sea  surrounds  the  earth ;  such  a 
king  dies  not  before  he  has  lived  one  hundred  years ;  he 
dies  not  again,  for  he  is  not  reborn ;  his  subjects  obey 
him  "  unanimously  and  undivided."  ^ 

Imprecations  almost  fiendish  in  their  malignity  are  called 
down  on  one  who  should  curse  the  Hotar  at  any  part  of 
the  ceremony,  all  being  finally  summed  up  :  ®  For  in  "  like 

'  The  various  means  for  rectifying  blunders  are  given  in  the  "  Kauskitaki 
Brahmana,"  vi.  II.  One  opinion  is  given :  "As  far  as  the  blunder  extends,  so  far 
let  him  say  it  again,  whether  a  verse,  a  half  verse,  a  foot,  a  word,  or  a  letter." 

2  For  union  of  the  two  offices,  king  and  priest,  as  the  first  sacrificer,  see 
J.  G.  Frazer,  "  Golden  Bough,"  vol.  i.  pp.  8,  223. 

^  Eggeling,  xiv.  *  Ibid.,  S.B.E.,  vol.  xii.  p.  xii. 

5  Haug,  p.  530.  "  "  Sat.  Brah.,"  i.  4,  3,  22 ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xii. 


92  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

manner,  as  one  undergoes  suffering,  on  approaching  the  fire 
that  has  been  kindled  by  means  of  the  kindling  verses,  so 
also  does  one  undergo  suffering  for  cursing  a  priest 
(brahmana)  who  knows  and  recites  the  kindling  verses."  ^ 

With  the  "  purohita  "  swaying  the  councils  of  the  king  by 
his  sacerdotal  power,  backed  as  it  was  by  an  assumed 
knowledge  of  sorcery  and  incantation  ;  with  the  priesthood 
enclosing  the  whole  daily  life  of  the  people  with  com- 
plicated religious  rites,  the  efficacy  of  which  depended  on 
the  supposed  supernatural  influence  of  the  Brahmans  over 
the  gods  themselves,  the  national  independence  of  thought 
and  exuberant  free-play  of  imagination,  which  in  earlier 
times  had  produced  the  poetry  and  visions  of  the  "  Rig 
Veda,"  passed  away  for  ever,  to  give  place  to  fatalism  and 
the  quiescence  of  pantheism. 

To  their  growing  powers  the  priesthood  failed  not  to  add 
that  of  wealth.  For  each  sacrifice  the  officiating  priests 
demanded  their  "  dakshina,"  or  reward  of  gold  and  kine ; 
one  text  ^  mentions  the  liberality  of  a  worshipper  who  gave 
85,000  white  horses,  10,000  elephants,  and  80,000  slave 
girls  adorned  with  ornaments,  to  the  Brahman  who 
performed  the  sacrifice. 

Throughout  the  early  history  of  India,  tradition  tells 
of  fierce  conflicts  between  the  Brahmans  and  the  warrior 
class,  out  from  which  the  Brahmans  ever  emerged  victorious. 
Prajapati,*  the  lord  of  all  creatures,  was  held  to  have 
created  divine  knowledge  and  the  sacrifice  for  Brahmans, 
not  for  warriors.  At  the  inauguration  of  a  king,  when  he 
was  anointed  by  the  sprinkling  of  water  and  admitted  to 

'  The  ancient  mode  of  destroying  an  enemy  by  making  an  image  of  wax  and 
placing  it  before  a  fire  is  narrated  in  the  "  Samavidhana  Brahmana"  : — "The 
image  of  the  person  to  be  destroyed  or  afiSicted  is  made  of  dough,  and  roasted, 
so  as  to  cause  the  moisture  to  exude,  and  then  cut  in  pieces  and  eaten  by  the 
sorcerer." — Burnell  (Introd.)  p.  xxvi. 

2  Weber,  "  Ind.  Stud.,"  x.  p.  54.  See  also  "  Sat.  Brah.,"  ii.  6,  3,  9 ;  iv.  5, 
I,  II ;  iv.  3,  4,  6;  "Taitt.  Brah.,"  iii.  12,  5,  11-12. 

»  Haug,  "Ait.  Brah.,"  p.  471  (Ir.). 


BRAHMANISM  93 

the  drinking  of  the  Soma  juice,  he  had  for  the  time  being 
to  lay  aside  the  signs  of  his  warriorhood.^  his  horse,  his 
chariot,  his  armour,  his  bow  and  arrow,  and  take  up  the 
signs  of  the  sacerdotal  power,  the  sacrificial  implements, 
and  become  a  Brahman  so  long  as  the  inauguration  lasted. 
With  the  natural  tendency  of  a  class  rising  to  almost 
supreme  power,  the  priesthood  sought  in  every  way  to 
consolidate  its  position  and  enforce  its  rules  and  ordinances 
on  those  whom  it  could  force  to  submit. 

The  king  and  his  "  purohita,"  originally  holders  of  a  joint 
ofifice,2  stood  apart  and  separate  in  their  functions,  both  a 
type  of  the  class  or  caste  division  into  nobles  and  priests, 
of  those  who  held  power  over  the  labouring  community.* 

The  agricultural  or  trading  members  of  the  Aryan  clans 
held  themselves  proudly  aloof  from  the  despised  black- 
skinned  and  broad-nosed  aborigines,  with  whom  for  the  most 
part  they  abstained  from  intermarriage  or  social  inter- 
course. 

The  road  was  gradually  being  prepared  for  the  division 
of  the  people  into  distinctive  classes,  a  system  ultimately 
to  develop  into  a  modern'  theory  of  caste,  founded  on 
differences  of  colour,  descent,  occupation,  or  livelihood. 

The  Aryans  by  the  close  of  the  Brahmanic  period  had 
spread  far  to  the  East,  where  those  tribes  or  clans,  who  were 
furthest  removed  from  the  homes  of  the  Kuru  Panchalas 
and  the  sacrifice,  were  to  rise  in  opposition  to  the  whole 
theory  on  which  Brahmanic  supremacy  was  founded,  and 
inaugurate  a  revolt  which  culminated  in  the  formulated 
doctrines  of  Buddhism. 

»  Haug,  "Ait.  Brah,"  p.  472  (tr.). 

2  Frazer,  "  Golden  Bough,"  vol.  i.  p.  224. 

'  Senart,  "  Castes  dans  I'Inde,"  p.  149. 


CHAPTER  VL 

FROM  BRAHMANISM  TO  BUDDHISM. 

THE"Brahmanas"  tell  how,  from  the  plains  of  Kurukshetra, 
from  the  abodes  of  the  Kuru  Panchalas,  Brahman  priests 
went  to  carry  to  the  homesteads  of  those  adventuring 
warriors,  who  had  gone  further  east  to  seek  new  fortunes, 
the  knowledge  of  the  sacrificial  mysteries,  the  power  they 
held  to  sway  the  gods,  and  to  claim  in  return  some  share 
of  the  wealth  that  had  fallen  to  the  Aryan  race.  To  the 
East,  as  far  as  to  the  banks  of  the  Sadanira,  or  Modem 
Gandak,  which  flows  into  the  Ganges  near  Patna,  the 
Ko^alas  had  made  their  homes,  while  the  Videhas  had 
ventured  to  cross  the  cold  water  of  the  same  stream,  and 
take  up  their  abode  in  the  rich  land  beyond. 

The  ancient  literature  of  India  still  tells  how  once  the 
land  to  the  east  of  the  Sadanira,  "  she  who  is  always  filled 
with  water,"  was  for  long  "  very  uncultivated  and  very 
marshy,"  ^  and  how  no  Brahmans  dwelt  there.  By  the 
advancing  Aryans  the  sacred  fire  was  at  length  carried 
across  the  deep  stream,  and  by  it  the  undergrowth  burned 
away  and  the  forest  trees  cleared.  The  story  as  told  in  the 
"  Brahmana  of  One  Hundred  Paths,"  is  one  of  the  few  facts 
regarding  the  people  and  their  movements  that  the  times 
thought  it  worth  while  recording. 

1  "  6at.  Brah.,"  i.  4,  i,  15. 


FROM  BRAHMANISM   TO  BUDDHISM     95 

"  Nowadays,"  narrates  1  the  chronicler  of  the  advance 
of  the  Aryans  eastward  to  Videha,  "  the  land  is  very  culti- 
vated, for  the  Brahmans  have  caused  Agni  to  taste  it 
through  sacrifices.  Even  in  winter  that  river,  as  it  were, 
rages  along :  so  cold  is  it,  not  having  been  burned  over 
by  Agni  Vaisvanara." 

"  Madhava,  the  Videgha,  then  said  to  Agni, '  Where  am 
I  to  abide ? '  'To  the  east  of  this  river  be  thy  abode,'  said 
he.  Even  now  this  river  forms  the  boundary  of  the 
Ko^alas  and  Videhas ;  for  these  are  the  Mathavas  or 
descendants  of  Madhava." 

The  wandering  course  of  tribes  other  than  the  Ko§alas 
and  Videhas  can  also  be  traced  in  early  Vedic  literature. 

Tribes  known  as  the  Kasis  found  an  abiding-place  round 
the  modern  city  of  Benares,  the  sin-destroying  Kasi,  within 
sight  of  whose  myriad  temples  all  who  die  are  said  to  pass 
straight  to  the  heavens  of  the  Hindu  gods.  Beyond  the 
Kasis  lived  the  Magadhas  and  Angas,  tribes  who  wandered 
far  beyond  the  pale  of  Aryan  civilisation  ^  to  venture  their 
fortunes  amid  the  fever-smitten  tracts,^  where  they  might 
live  free  from  the  strict  rnles  of  sacerdotal  orthodoxy. 

In  the  history  of  the  times  there  is  no  evidence  that  over 
any  of  these  tribes — far  as  they  may  have  gone  to  the  East, 
or  long  as  they  may  have  settled  in  the  fertile  valleys  of 
the  Ganges  and  Jumna — the  enervating  influence  of 
climate,  sloth,  or  luxury,  had  cast  its  fatal  spell.  The  wild 
untrammelled  play  of  fancy  that  had  inspired  the  lyric  out- 
burst of  early  Vedic  song  gave  place,  it  is  true,  to  the 
reasoned  and  more  ordered  train  of  thought,  seen  in  the 
prose,  diffuse  and  artificial  though  it  be,  of  the  "Brahmanas," 

1  S.B.E.,  vol.  xii. ;  "Sat.  Brah.,"  i.  4,  i,  16-17. 

=  See  Oldenberg,  "  Buddha,"  p.  400. 

3S.B.E.,  vol.  xlii.;  " Atharva-veda,"  p.  2:— "Destroy  the  fever  that 
returns  on  each  third  day,  the  one  that  intermits  each  third  day,  the  one  that 
continues  without  intermission,  and  the  autumnal  one.  To  the  Gandharis,  the 
Mujavantas,  the  Angas,  and  the  Magadhas,  we  deUver  over  the  fever,  like  a 
servant,  like  a  treasure." 


96  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

" Aranyakas,"  and  "  Upanishads."  Full  as  the  "  Brahmanas  " 
are  of  evidences  how  the  Kuru  Panchala  Brahmans  sought, 
for  the  purpose  of  their  own  aggrandisement,  to  gain  a 
temporal  and  spiritual  dominion  over  the  superstitious 
mass  of  the  people,  yet  in  Magadha,  in  the  far  East,  the 
almost  sublime  figure  of  Buddha  stands  forth,  not  only  as 
a  personification  of  stately  self-restraint,  but  also  of  heroic 
protest  against  the  usurpation  by  men  of  power  over  the 
eternal  destinies  of  their  fellow-creatures.  In  the  leading 
principles  of  the  "Upanishads,"  which  contain  the  free  and 
earnest  speculations  of  a  rising  class  of  philosophers — priestsi 
kings,  and  warriors  alike — ^who  thronged  to  the  courts  of 
the  chieftains  of  KoSala  and  Videha,  there  is  to  be  found 
the  bursting  forth  of  an  advanced  order  of  thought,  and 
though  this  may  be  peculiarly,  and  exclusively  Indian 
in  the  deeply  religious  and  intensely  subtle  mode  of  its 
expression,  yet  as  a  phase  of  thought,  it  was  a  natural 
growth  from  the  preceding  religious  history  of  the  people, 
and  as  such  shows  nothing  unworthy  ot  taking  a  foremost 
place  in  the  intellectual  history  of  the  world  at  the  period 
in  which  it  arose.  That  the  Aryans  advanced  into  India 
in  numbers  suflScient  to  oust  the  aboriginal  tribes,  and  them- 
selves to  colonise  the  vast  area  over  which  their  influence 
can  be  traced,  has  never  been  held  as  probable,  or  even 
possible.  The  previous  inhabitants  were  numerous,  and 
more  or  less  civilised.  At  the  present  day,  the  only  evidence 
India  affords  of  an  invasion  of  Aryan  people  in  Vedic 
times,  outside  the  literary  record  and  existence  of  the 
great  group  of  northern  Aryan  languages,  derived  from 
Sanskrit,  is  the  presence  of  an  upper  stratum  of  fair-skinned 
and  refined  families  in  the  great  mass  of  the  dark-skinned, 
and   more  illiterate    agricultural    population.^     The  very 

1  The  case  of  South  India,  where  the  Aryan  influence  spread  later,  is  typical. 
"  It  has  often  been  asserted,  and  is  now  the  general  belief  of  ethnologists,  that 
the  Brahmans  of  the  South  are  not  pure  Aryans,  but  are  of  mixed  Aryan  and 
Bravidian  race." — H.  A.  Stuart,  "  Madras  Census  Report"  (1891).     Mr  Edgar 


FROM  BRAHMANISM    TO  BUDDHISM     97 

denunciations  in  the  early  Sanskrit  literature  against 
matrimonial  relationship  between  members  of  the  Aryan 
community  and  those  of  the  aboriginal  tribes,  as  well  as 
the  relegation  of-  any  offspring  to  despised  or  inferior 
classes  of  mixed  descent,  show  plainly  that  the  intermingling 
of  the  newcomers  with  the  earlier  inhabitants  was  far  from 
uncommon.  Even  though  this  may  have  been  so,  to  a 
greater  extent  than  at  present  it  would  be  safe  to  assert, 
it  is  certain  that  the  Aryans,  in  the  course  of  their 
migrations  from  the  SarasvatI  to  the  limits  of  Western 
Bengal,  left  the  impress  of  their  language  and  culture  over 
the  whole  of  this  extensive  area,  assuming,  as  must  be 
done  for  the  present,  that  Buddhism,  in  its  primary  signifi- 
cance, was  a  legitimate  outcome  of  Aryan  thought.  These 
Aryans,  as  they  spread  far  and  wide,  remained,  for  the  most 
part,  united  into  clans  and  tribes,  each  under  its  own 
local  chieftain.  As  in  the  earliest  Vedic  times  so  down  to 
the  time  of  Buddha  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  and  even 
later,  these  scattered  tribes  show  no  inability  to  push  their 
way  amid  opposing  foes,  or  even,  if  opportunity  afforded,  to 
take  possession  of  the  territories  of  those  of  their  own  race 
than  whom  they  found  themselves  more  powerful.     The 

Thurston,  who  has  taken  a  series  of  anthropological  measurements  ("  Madras 
Government  Museum  Bulletin,"  No.  418,  1896),  states  that  the  Brahmans  of  the 
South  "are  separated  from  all  the  classes  or  tribes  of  Southern  India  which  I  have 
as  yet  investigated,  with  the  exception  of  the  Kongas  of  Coimbatore,  by  the  relation 
of  the  maximum  transverse  diameter  to  the  maximum  antero-posterior  diameter 
of  the  head  (cephalic  index).  Though  the  cephalic  index  of  the  Kongas  is 
slightly  greater,  the  mean  length  and  breadth  of  their  heads  are  considerably 
less  than  these  of  the  Brahmans,  being  I7"8  cm.  and  137  cm.  against 
l8'6  and  I4'2."  Again:  "The  length  of  the  head  of  Brahmans,  Kam- 
malans,  Pallis,  and  Pariahs  show  that  the  average  length  is  the  same  in 
all  except  the  ICammalans,  in  whom  it  is  slightly  ('2  cm.)  shorter."  Also  :  "  In 
all  except  the  Paniyans  the  average  width  of  the  nose  is  the  same,  but  the 
length  is  slightly  greatest  in  the  Brahmans."  "I  came  across  many  dark- 
skinned  Brahmans  with  high  nasal  index."  Finally,  he  sums  up  his  results : 
"  The  Brahmans  are  characterised  by  the  greatest  weight,  greatest  breadth  of 
head,  greatest  distance  from  the  middle  finger  to  the  patella,  and  the  largest 
hands  "  (p.  229). 

G 


98  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

more  the  once-united  and  compact  body  of  Aryans  dif- 
fused themselves  over  the  vast  extent  of  Northern  India, 
separating  into  groups  under  chieftains,  each  desirous  of 
extending  his  possessions  and  influence  by  conquest  over, 
or  by  alliances  with,  other  rich  and  powerful  chieftains, 
aboriginal  or  Aryan,  the  more  their  life-history  becomes 
disseminated  into  devious  courses,  never  again  to  re-unite 
into  one  combined  nationality. 

Popular  religious  movements,  such  as  those  of  Buddhism 
and  Jainism,  which  appealed  to  the  understanding  and 
sympathies  of  the  mass,  had  undoubtedly  an  influence  in 
infusing  the  community  with  a  common  purpose  and 
enthusiasm. 

These  movements  had  their  results  in  ancient  India, 
as  similar  popular  religious  movements  have  had,  and 
undoubtedly  will  have  in  the  future,  in  modern  India, 
and  were  taken  advantage  of  by  chieftains  anxious  to  seize 
the  opportunity  of  extending  their  local  influence.  Yet 
from  their  very  nature  they  proved  powerless  to  unite  for 
long  the  diverse  elements  which  went  to  make  up  the 
community  into  a  combined  body,  powerful  and  coherent 
enough  to  resist  the  disintegrating  effects  of  a  rude  shock 
from  foreign  invasions.  These  movements  left  their  own 
peculiar  literary  record,  though  the  history  of  the  phase  of 
thought  out  of  which  they  arose,  preserved  as  it  is  in  the 
earlier  "  Brahmanas  "  and  "  Upanishads,"  is  one  of  the  most 
obscure  in  the  whole  range  of  Indian  literature. 

While  the  Aryan  people  were  bereft  of  all  hope  of  ever 
seeing  a  great  national  leader  arise  among  them  to  combine 
the  scattered  elements,  into  which  the  people  were  drifting, 
into  one  political  unity,  it  would  be  as  vain  to  seek,  in  the 
history  of  the  times,  for  the  growth  of  any  tendency  to 
evolve  a  clearly-defined  conception  of  a  monotheism,  as  it 
would  be  to  seek  for  any  great  literary  outburst  in  which 
could  be  read  the  national  expression  of  the  desire  of  the 


FROM  BRAHMANISM   TO  BUDDHISM     99 

race  for  expansion.  At  the  most,  it  must  be  expected  that 
the  literary  history  of  the  period  is  one  in  which  all  that 
was  left  of  the  past  was  fostered  and  elaborated  or  developed 
along  its  own  inherent  lines  by  the  peculiar  genius  of  a 
gifted  race,  able  to  preserve  its  intellecual  power  amid  the 
crumbling  ruins  of  its  political  career.  In  the  literature 
we  find  not  the  record  of  an  intellectual  movement,  sinking 
deeper  into  despondency  and  despair  from  climatic  or 
priestly  influences,^  but  rather  the  free  discussion  among 
the  outlying  portions  of  the  community  of  the  whole 
religious  tradition  and  new-founded  claims  of  the  priest- 
hood, the  enunciation  of  doctrines  in  many  cases  sub- 
versive of  such  claims,  and,  unhappily,  in  many  cases 
showing  evidences  of  the  incorporation  of  beliefs,  super- 
stitions, and  debasing  cults  of  alien  races,  with  whom  the 
more  orthodox  Aryans  had  entered  into  social  and  political 
relations. 

The  evidences  for  the  changing  order  of  things  are  to 
be  sought  in  the  philosophic  disquisitions  of  the  earlier 
"Upanishads."2 

At  the  court  of  the  renowned  Janaka,  the  patron  of  all 
wise  men  and  chieftain  of  Videha,  there  stands  forth  the 
figure  of  a  celebrated  Brahman  priest,  Yajnavalkya,^  who 
was  deeply  versed  in  all  the  ritual  of  the  sacrificial  cult  as 
practised  in  the  holy  land  of  the  Kuru  Panchalas.  The 
fame  Yajnavalkya  brought  to  the  land  of  the  Videhas* 

*  Garbe,  "Monist,"  p.  5°  (1892): — "India  was  governed  by  priests,  and 
the  weal  of  the  nation  was  sacrificed  with  reckless  indifference."  The  same 
learned  writer  also  remarks  that  "it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  priest-rule 
was  the  ruin  of  India."  It  should  not,  however,  be  forgotten  that  the  drifting 
of  the  destinies  of  a  nation,  or  even  of  a  movement,  into  corrupt  or  incompetent 
hands,  is  but  one  of  the  symptoms  of  decay,  not  the  cause. 

2  P.  Regnaud,  "  Mat^riaux  pour  servir  a  I'Histoire  de  Philosophic  dans 
I'Inde,"  p.  30. 

s  For  his  instructor,  ArunI,  see  Oldenberg,  "  Buddha,"  p.  396  («»/'«) ;  "Sat. 
Brah.,"  iii.  3,  4,  19. 

"  Where  he  compiled  the  "White  Yajur  Veda"  and  its  "  Satapatha  Brahmana." 


100  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

even  aroused  the  anger  and  jealousy  of  Ajatasatru,  the 
chieftain  of  the  distant  Kasis. 

Janaka,  proud  of  the  fame  he  had  won,  held  a  great 
sacrifice,!  and  offered  a  reward  of  one  thousand  cows, 
bearing  each  ten  pieces  of  gold  fastened  to  their  horns,  to 
the  wisest  of  all  the  assembled  Brahmans,  who  had 
gathered  together  at  his  court  from  the  western  lands  of 
the  Kuru  Panchalas.  Then  Yajnavalkya  directed  his 
pupil  to  drive  away  the  cows,  for  he  held  himself  to  be 
the  wisest  of  all  wise  men.  Challenged  as  to  his  knowledge, 
he  silenced  all  enquirers  by  repeating  the  whole  sacrificial 
cult.  Yet  there  was  one  question  put  to  him  he  would  not 
answer  before  the  assembled  warriors,  or  in  the  hearing  of 
those  who  placed  their  salvation  in  the  hands  of  the  priest- 
hood and  in  the  efficacy  of  the  duly  performed  sacrifice. 
So  Yajnavalkya  turned  to  his  enquirer  with  the  remark : 
"  Take  my  hand,  O  friend,  we  two  alone  shall  know  of 
this ;  let  this  question  of  ours  not  be  discussed  in  public."  ^ 
The  question  Yajnavalkya  would  not  answer  before  the 
assembled  crowd  was  for  him  a  perplexing  one,  an  answer 
to  which  it  was  the  mission  of  Buddha  to  proclaim  openly 
before  all  men.  It  was  the  question  as  to  what  became  of 
man  after  he  departed  from  this  world,  and  in  the  heavens 
had  received  the  reward  of  all  his  labours. 

In  the  hands  of  the  Brahmans  the  rites  of  the  sacrifice 
lay.  It  was  solely  on  the  efficacy  of  the  sacrifice  that  the 
welfare,  here  and  hereafter,  of  all  depended.  The  practical 
result  of  the  disquisition  was  that  the  two  friends  arrived 
at  the  conclusion  that,  from  all  good  deeds,  sacrifice 
included,  only  good  results  would  flow,  and  from  bad  deeds, 
non-sacrifice  included,  only  bad  results  would  flow.  The 
words  of  the  "Upanishad"  state : — "  Then  these  two  went  out 

'  "Sat.  Brah.,"  i.  4,  i,  10;  Oldenberg,  p.  398;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xii.  p.  xUii.; 
"  Brih.-Aian.  Up.,"  iii.  i,  2,  i :— "  Many  presents  were  offered  to  the  priests  of 
the  Aivamedha." 

2  "Brih.-Aran.  Up.,"  iii.  2,  13. 


FROM  BRAHMANISM  TO  BUDDHISM   loi 

and  argued,  and  what  they  said  was  Karman  ("work");  what 
they  praised  was  Karman  ;  viz.  that  a  man  becomes  good 
by  good  work,  and  bad  by  bad  work." 

The  soul  might  pass  after  death  into  different  habitations 
according  to  its  acts ;  but  the  question  referred  to  the 
position  of  those  who  had  gained  a  knowledge  that  was  to 
lead  to  the  overthrow  of  the  whole  sacrificial  system.  It 
opened  up  the  whole  question  of  the  knowledge  which 
man  possesses  of  the  true  nature  of  the  world  as  it  is 
presented  by  the  senses,  including,  as  it  necessarily  does, 
the  relationship  of  man  to  the  changing  scene  of  birth  and 
re-birth,  of  ever -ceaseless  becoming  and  never-abiding 
being,  in  which  he  finds  himself  move  as  a  factor  in  the 
great  scheme  of  creation. 

The  weary  cry  raised  by  the  Vedic  poets  that  their  gods 
were  many,  and  that,  amid  them  all,  they  still  wondered  to 
what  god  they  should  offer  their  sacrifice,  had  died  away  in 
echoing  murmurs  that  though  all  the  gods  are  of  equal 
might  and  majesty,  yet  no  man  knew  where  stood  the  tree, 
nor  where  grew  the  wood  out  from  which  the  heavens  and 
earth  were  fashioned.^  At  the  close  of  the  early  Vedic 
times,  when  all  the  sacerdotal  learning  of  the  priestly  caste 
of  Kurukshetra  had  been  brought  to  the  Eastern  lands, 
where  dwelt  the  Videhas,  Ko^alas,  Kasis,  and  Magadhas, 
there  to  be  sifted  by  the  ruthless  logic  of  more  independent 
minds,  the  triumphal  answer  came  that  "  Brahman  "  was 
the  tree,  that  "Brahman"  was  the  wood  out  from  which 
the  world  was  hewn.^ 

When  Yajnavalkya  was  again  questioned  at  the  court  of 
Videha  by  a  proud  woman,  GargI  Vachakanavl :  "  In  what 
are  the  worlds  of  Brahman  woven,  like  warp  and  woof? " 
he  answered :  "  O  Gargi,  do  not  ask  too  much  lest  thy  head 

•  R.V.,  X.  8l,  4  :— "  Ye  thoughtful  men  enquire  within  your  spirit  whereon 
He  stood  when  He  established  all  things"  (Griffith). 

^  "Taitt.  Brah.,"  ii.  8,  9,  6  ;  see  Deussen,  "Das  System  des  Vedanta," 
p.  SI- 


I02  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

should  fall  off.  Thou  askest  too  much  about  a  deity  about 
which  we  are  not  to  ask  too  much."  ^  When  the  woman 
cried  out  against  the  learned  priest : — "  O  Yajnavalkya,  as 
the  son  of  a  warrior  from  the  Kasis  and  Videhas  might 
string  his  loosened  bow,  take  the  pointed  foe -piercing 
arrows  in  his  hand,  and  rise  to  battle,  I  have  risen  to 
fight  thee."  ^  He  was  forced  to  reply  to  the  question  she 
put  to  him :  "  That  of  which  they  say  that  it  is  above 
the  heavens,  beneath  the  earth,  embracing  Heaven  and 
earth,  past,  present,  and  future,  tell  me  in  what  it  is 
woven,  like  warp  and  woof?"  The  answer  given  forms 
the  basis  of  the  whole  philosophic  thought  of  the  time. 
The  sacrificial  system  was  once  for  all  placed  in  a  sub- 
sidiary position  in  relation  to  a  new  doctrine  of  salvation 
which  looked  upon  the  performance  of  religious  practices, 
and  the  doing  of  good  deeds,  merely  as  a  basis  whereon 
should  be  founded  the  true  aim  of  mankind  :  the  attain- 
ment of  a  true  knowledge  of  the  relationship  of  the  Self 
to  the  Self  of  the  Universe. 

Yajnavalkya  declared  to  Gargi,  of  him  who  did  not 
possess  this  true  knowledge,  that "  though  he  offer  oblations 
in  this  world,  sacrifices,  and  performs  penances  for  a 
thousand  years,  his  works  will  have  an  end."  He  "  departs 
this  world  ;  he  is  miserable,  like  a  slave." 

There  remained  but  two  simple  concepts  for  the  future 
of  India  to  brood  over  with  all  the  fervour  and  subtlety 
of  its  unrivalled  powers  of  insight  into  the  true  nature  of 
things.  First,  the  whole  reality  of  the  world,  as  perceived 
by  the  senses,  had  to  be  pierced  through,  and  that  which 
underlay  it,  that  which  gave  it  being,  ascertained  and 
defined.  So  when  Gargi  questioned  Yajnavalkya  as  to 
what  underlay  all  objective  reality,  what  permeated  all, 
what  wove  all  together,  like  warp  and  woof,  there  came 
the  answer  that  there  remained  only  "  Brahman,"  that  which 

1  "  Brih.-Aran.  Up.,"  iii.  6,  I.  2  Jbid.,  iu.  8. 


FROM  BRAHMANISM   TO  BUDDHISM  103 

"  is  unseen  but  seeing ;  unheard  but  hearing ;  unperceived 
but  perceiving  ;  unknown  but  knowing.  There  is  nothing 
that  sees  but  it ;  nothing  that  hears  but  it ;  nothing  that 
perceives  but  it ;  nothing  that  knows  but  it."  ^ 

So  far  there  remained,  as  the  result  of  the  earliest 
phase  of  philosophic  thought  in  India,  nothing  but  the 
Unconscious  Brahman,  yet,  as  the  Indian  sage  himself 
asserts,  he  knew,  too,  that  he  himself  also  exists,  for  no 
man  says,  "  I  am  not." 

It  was  not  given  to  the  East  to  undertake  an  analysis  of 
the  human  thinking  faculties,  and  see  how  far  the  external 
appearances  of  things  were  thereby  conditioned..  It  therefore 
became  necessary  to  explain  in  what  relationship  that  which 
man  postulates  the  existence  of — his  own  Self,  his  own  Soul 
— stood  in  regard  to  the  Imperishable,  the  Brahman.  The 
Indian  mind  had  to  seek  for  knowledge  that  was  of  more 
value  than  sacrifice  or  good  deeds,  the  knowledge  not  only 
of  Brahman,  but  of  that  which  told  all  men  that  even  if 
their  perceptions  of  the  objective  reality  of  the  world  be 
founded  on  nescience,  there  yet  remained,  calling  for  some 
explanation,  the  subjective  evidence  man  possesses  of  his 
own  Self,  of  his  own  existence. 

Whilst  the  Indian  mind  was  thus  searching  for  the  Cause 
from  which  issued  the  objective  form  of  the  world,  it  was, 
at  the  same  time,  seeking  out  from  the  subjective  reality 
the  underlying  Self  or  Soul  by  which  man  knows  he 
exists.    The  answer  respecting  the  Cause  was  clear. 

From  "  Brahman  "  proceeded  the  creation  of  the  world,  the 
form  of  whose  arrangement  no  mind  can  grasp,  where  all 
becoming  has  its  own  time,  and  place,  and  cause.^  The 
word  Brahman  itself  is  formed  from  a  root,  brih,  signifying 
bursting  forth,  expanding,  spreading,  growing.*     From  brih 

1  "  Brih. -Aran.  Up.,"  iii.  8,  II  ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xv. 
-  "  Brahma  SStras,"  i.  i,  2. 

3  "  Ibid.,  i.  1,  I :— "  Root  iriA=to  be  great  "  ;  see  Gough,  "  Philosophy  of 
the   Up'inishads,"  p.  38;  Max  MuUer,  "  Vedanta,"  pp.  21,  148. 


I04  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

the  word  Brahman  was  first  formed  ;  it  was  the  prayer  sent 
forth  by  the  Vedic  seer  to  invoke  the  near  presence  of  the 
deities.  Brihaspati  was  the  lord  of  prayer,^  the  lord  of 
speech.^  From  the  prayer,  from  the  creative  fervour  of  the 
poet's  imagination  and  aspiration,  all  the  gods  had  sprung 
to  birth,  the  triple  "  Vedas,"  on  which  all  truth  is  founded, 
had  sprung  to  life.  "  Brahman  "  was  that  from  which  all  the 
universe,  extended  in  name  and  form,  was  issued  forth. 
It  was  the  tree  and  the  wood  from  which  the  heavens  and 
earth  were  hewn ;  it  was  that  in  which  all  things  are  woven, 
like  warp  and  woof.  In  its  full  definition,  as  later  given,* 
"  Brahman  "  was  held  to  be  that  Omniscient  and  Omnipotent 
Cause  from  which  came  the  birth,  the  stay,  and  the  decay 
of  this  Creation,  as  seen  spread  out  by  name  and  form, 
wherein  abide  many  actors  and  enjoyers,  wherein  arises 
the  fruit  of  good  and  evil  deeds,  all  having  their  own  time, 
and  place,  and  cause ;  a  Creation,  the  planning  of  whose 
form  no  mind  can  grasp.  The  answer  respecting  the  Soul 
or  Self  had  further  to  be  formulated. 

From  earliest  times  the  wondering  powers  of  the 
primitive  mind  were  set  to  fathom  sleep  and  death,  and 
their  surrounding  mysteries.  In  sleep  are  seen  visions  of 
well-known  faces ;  scenes  are  fancied  forth ;  joys  and  fears 
come  and  go ;  yet,  as  man  moves  not,  the  first  solution  is 
that  something — the  breath,  the  spirit,  or  the  soul — has  gone 
forth  to  wander  free.  From  death  there  is  no  awakening ; 
the  shade,*  the  breath,  soul,  or  spirit  has  gone  forth  and 

1R.V.,  ii.  23,  I:— "Als  Priestlicher  Schachtgott"  ;  Oldenberg,  "Rel.  des 
Vedas,"  p.  67,  as  "sacerdotal  side  of  Agni's  nature";  Macdonell,  J.R.A.S. 
(1895).  P-  948- 

=  R.V.,  A.  98,  2,  3;  X.  71,  I.  Vachaspati,  see  Max  Miiller,  "  Vedanta,"  p.  149. 
For  Brahman  as  Logos  of  Fourth  Gospel,  see  Deussea,  p.  51 ;  Max  Miiller, 
"Vedanta,"p.  148:— "He  created  first  of  all  the  Brahman  ";«/:  S.B.,  vi.  i,  -., 
8,  which  is  translated  : — "  He  created  first  of  all  the  word." 

3  "Brah.  Sutras,"  i.  1,2. 

*  Huxley,  "  Romanes  Lecture,"  p.  40 ;  Rhys  Davids,  "  Hibbert  Lectures," 
p.  83. 


FROM  BRAHMANISM   TO  BUDDHISM   JOS 

returns  not.  The  lifeless  body  is  still  loved  by  friends,^ 
and  feared  by  those  who  were  foes.  Efforts  are  made  by 
friends  to  recall  the  soul,  to  guide  it  to  the  place  where 
it  once  dwelt,  food  is  placed  near,  offerings  made,  and  all 
the  means  so  familiar  to  students  of  folk-lore,  taken  to 
hasten  it  on  its  journey.  To  these  spirits,  Pitris,  or  fathers, 
who  had  gone  away  ^  ("  preta  ")  along  the  path  first  trodden 
by  Yama,  the  Vedic  Soma^  was  poured  forth,  and  they 
were  summoned  to  take  their  place*  among  the  assembled 
gods,  and  partake  of  the  sacrifice.  In  the  "Taittiriya 
Brahmana  "  the  souls  of  the  deceased  are  said  to  dwell  in 
the  heavens  above  as  stars,^  and  again®  in  the  stars  are 
"  the  lights  of  those  righteous  men  who  go  to  the  celestial 
world."  In  the  "  Satapatha  Brahmana  "  ^  death  is  the  sun 
whose  rays  attach  to  mortals  their  life  breath,  yet,  as  the 
"  Katha  Upanishad  "  ^  declares  :  "  No  mortal  lives  by  the 
breath  that  goes  up  and  the  breath  that  goes  down.  We 
live  by  another  in  whom  these  two  repose." 

There  was  something  which  went  out  of  man  in  sleep 
and  death  ;  something  underlying  the  Ego,  the  I,  the  vital 
breath,  more  subtle  than  life. 

In  the  "  Rig  Veda," »  the  sun,  though  it  holds  the  life 
breath  of  mortals,  is  something  more.  It  is  the  Self,  or  the 
"Atman,"  of  all  that  moves  and  moves  not,  of  all  that  fills 
the  heavens  and  the  earth.  So  of  man  there  is  also  the 
Atman,!"  « the  Self,  smaller  than  small,  greater  than  great, 
hidden  in  the  heart  of  that  creature."     A  man  who  is  free 

^  Jevons,  "  History  of  Religions,"  pp.  46,  54. 

2  Max  Mliller,  "  India  :  What  Can  It  Teach  Us?"  p.  220. 

'  R.V.,  X.  IS,  I  : — "The  fathers  who  deserve  a  share  of  the  Soma." 

'■Ibid.,  X.  15,  II  :— "Fathers  whom  Agni's  flames  have  tasted,  come  ye 
nigh:  in  proper  order  take  ye  each  your  proper  place.  Eat  sacrificial  food 
presented  on  the  grass  "  (Griffith). 

5  "  Taitt.  Brah.,'-  v.  4,  13.  «  "  6at.  Brah.,"  vi.  S,  4,  8. 

'  "  Sat.  Brah.,"  x.  3,  3,  7,  8.        ^  <<  Katha  Up.,"  ii.  5,  3  ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xV. 

9  R. v.,  i.  115,  I.  ,  "  "Katha  Up.,"  i.  2,  20. 


io6  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

from  desires  and  free  from  grief  sees  the  majesty  of  the 
Self  by  the  grace  of  the  Creator.  ^ 

It  is  this  Atman,  or  Self,  more  abstract  in  its  conception 
than  soul,  Psyche,  or  "anima,"  that  becomes  also  the 
Universal  Self,  the  Self  of  the  World,  "  bhumiyah  atman," 
of  which  the  "  Veda  "  ^  speaks :  "  When  that  which  had  no 
bones  bore  him  who  has  bones,  when  that  which  was 
formless  took  shape  and  form." 

The  Indian  sage,  seeking  out  the  primal  cause  of 
creation,  had  first  to  sweep  away  all  that  which  had  been 
produced,  even  the  gods  themselves,  and  to  his  gaze  there 
remained  but  the  neuter  essence.  Brahman,  from  which 
all  things  issued  forth,  and  into  which  all  things  resolve 
themselves.  There  remained  also  the  Self,  the  Soul,  the 
Atman  of  man.  There  was  but  one  step  further  to  be 
reached  by  the  Indian  mind,  and  that  was  taken  when  all 
duality  vanished,  and  the  Brahman  became  the  Great  Self, 
the  "  Paramatman,"  the  Universal  Self,  into  which  was 
merged  the  Atman,  or  Self,  of  man. 

In  the  closing  scenes  of  the  teachings  of  the  priest, 
Yajnavalkya,  at  the  court  of  Videha,  this  doctrine  of  the 
Atman,  which  was  to  have  so  great  an  influence  on  the 
future  of  India,  is  set  forth  in  clear  and  plain  language. 

Maitreyi,  the  wife  of  Yajnavalkya,  appeared  and  prayed 
her  husband,  who  was  preparing  to  go  forth  from  his  home 
and  end  his  days,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  time, 
as  a  hermit  in  the  forest,  to  expound  unto  her  the  secret 
of  death  and  immortality.  Yajnavalkya  replied  to  his  wife : 
"  Thou  art,  indeed,  dear  to  me,  therefore  I  will  explain  it  to 
you,  and  mark  well  what  I  say."  * 

So  he  told  her  that  to  all  the  world  was  dear ;  that  wives 
and  sons  were  dear ;  wealth,  the  gods,  sacrifice,  and  know- 
ledge, for  the  simple  reason  that  they  were  all  held  in  the 

•  "Dhatu  piasadat,"  see  Max  Muller,  "  Vedanta,''  p.  50. 
2  R.V.,  i.  164,  4.  »  "  Brih.-Aran.  Up.,"  iv.  5,  5. 


FROM  BRAHMANISM  TO  BUDDHISM   107 

Self,  that  they  were  all  permeated  by  the  Self,  that  they 
were  all  one  in  the  Self.  "  Verily,  the  Self  is  to  be  seen, 
to  be  heard,  to  be  perceived,  to  be  marked,  O  Maitreyl ! 
When  the  Self  has  been  seen,  heard,  perceived,  and  known, 
then  all  this  is  known."  ^ 

The  futility  of  the  efforts  to  inculcate  these  philosophic 
speculations  among  the  people,  so  that  they  might  become 
potential  principles  of  a  new  religious  movement,  a  con- 
summation only  effected  by  Buddha  with  respect  to  the 
doctrines  he  taught,  is  dramatically  set  forth  and  artistically 
foreshadowed  by  generally  putting  forth  women  such  as 
GargI  and  Maitreyl  to  receive  instruction.  This  can  be 
seen  in  the  answer  made  to  Yajnavalkya  by  his  wife. 
Then  Maitreyl  said :  "  Here,  sir,  thou  hast  landed  me  in 
bewilderment.     Indeed,  I  do  not  understand."* 

The  remark  gave  Yajnavalkya  the  opportunity  for  setting 
forth,  in  the  simplest  language,  the  doctrine  of  the  unity 
of  the  Self  of  Man  and  the  Self  of  the  Universe,  the  peculiar 
Eastern  mode  of  expressing  "  the  Monistic  doctrine  of  the 
All  in  One  which  has  had  the  greatest  influence  on  the 
intellectual  life  of  modern  times."*  In  the  answer  of 
Yajnavalkya  there  is  no  exulting  cry  of  one  seeking,  by 
the  keenness  of  his  intellect,  to  overthrow  rival  creeds; 
there  is  no  vaunting  boast  that  the  riddle  of  existence  had 
been  solved  ;  there  is  but  the  sad  wail  that  the  mind  had 
pierced  as  keenly  into  the  nature  of  things  as  it  was  able, 
and  that  even  then  there  was  room  for  wonder — room  not 
only  for  wonder,  but  room  for  doubt  that  any  reasoned 
thought  of  man  would  ever  satisfy  the  eager  thirst  of 
humanity  to  seek  out  a  living  faith  in  keeping  with  the 
instincts  which  make  its  manhood.  Nowhere  in  the 
history  of  the  world's  thought  can  there  be  found  more 
earnest  efforts   to   seek  out   for  suffering   mankind  some 

1  "  Bnh.-Aran.  Up.,"  iv.  S,  6.  =  j^f^^^  ■„_  5^  j^. 

5  Garbe,  "The  Monist,"  p.  58  (Oct.  1894). 


io8  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

solution  of  the  perplexing  questions  which  surround  his 
life  than  in  those  sedately  and  reverently-expressed  specu- 
lations of  the  awakened  thought  of  India.  Yet,  strange  to 
say,  these  speculations  never  touched  the  hearts  of  the 
people.  They  worked  no  such  revolution  as  did  the  crude 
agnosticism  of  Buddha. 

From  the  sedate  and  learned  priest,  prepared  as  he  was 
to  leave  wealth  and  fame,  wives  and  sons,  and  end  his  days 
in  subdued  submission  to  the  scheme  of  things  which  held 
him  powerless,  and  was  soon  to  claim  his  life,  came  the 
gentle  answer  to  his  wife  Maitreyl : — 

"  O  Maitreyl,  I  say  nothing  that,  is  bewildering.  Verily,  beloved, 
that  Self  is  imperishable  and  of  an  indestructible  nature.  For  when 
there  is,  as  it  were,  duality,  the  one  sees  the  other,  one  smells  the 
other,  one  tastes  the  other,  one  salutes  the  other,  one  hears  the 
other,  one  perceives  the  other,  one  touches  the  other,  one  knows 
the  other ;  but  when  the  Self  alone  is  all  this,  how  should  one  see 
another,  how  should  one  smell  another,  how  should  one  taste  an- 
other, how  should  one  salute  another,  how  should  one  hear  an- 
other, how  should  one  touch  another,  how  should  he  know  another  ? 
How  should  he  know  him  by  whom  he  knows  all  this?  That 
Self  is  to  be  described  by  no,  no !  He  is  incomprehensible  for 
he  cannot  be  comprehended;  he  is  imperishable  for  he  cannot 
perish ;  he  is  unattached  for  he  does  not  attach  himself;  unfettered, 
he  does  not  suffer,  he  does  not  fail.  How,  O  beloved,  should  he 
know  the  knower?  Thus,  O  Maitreyl,  thou  hast  been  instructed. 
Thus  far  goes  immortality.  Having  said  so  Yajnavalkya  went  away 
into  the  forest." 

The  Indian  mind  had,  however,  long  to  wait  before  it 
clearly  saw  its  course  to  Monism,  notwithstanding  the 
answer  here  given  by  Yajnavalkya  as  the  last  result  of  his 
long  efforts  to  rest  within  the  dreamy  depths  whence  the 
reality  of  the  world  fades  away  into  the  Universal  Self, 
outside  of  which  there  is  no  duality. 

As  yet  this  Self  is  but  that  which  pervades  and  under- 
lies all  things ;  it  stands  apart,  yet  from  out  it  springs 
Creation.      Close  to  a  pure  idealistic   conception  of  the 


FROM  BRAHMANISM   TO  BUDDHISM    109 

Universe  and  the  unreality  of  everything,  the  perception 
of  which  by  our  senses  is  mere  delusion,  comes  the  well- 
known  teaching  of  Uddalaka  to  his  son  ^vetaketu  in  the 
"Chandogya  Upanishad''^  where  it  is  declared:  "In  the 
beginning,  my  dear,  there  was  that  only  which  is  (to  oV) 
one  only  without  a  second.  Others  say,  in  the  beginning 
there  was  that  only  which  is  not  (rb  /t^  ov),  one  only  without 
a  second,  and  from  that  which  is  not,  that  which  is,  was 
born." 

"  But  how  could  it  be  thus,  my  dear  ? "  the  father  con- 
tinued. "  How  could  that  which  is,  be  born  of  that  which 
is  not?  No,  my  dear,  only  that  which  is,  was  in  the 
beginning,  one  only  without  a  second." 

So  far  it  might  seem  as  if  there  could  exist  no  reality 
nor  duality  from  which  the  creation  of  anything  outside  the 
One  Universal  Self  could  rise.  Yet  the  teaching  goes  on 
to  declare  that  what  in  the  beginning  was  one  only  without 
a  second  thought,  "may  I  be  many,  may  I  grow  forth. 
It  sent  forth  fire." 

It  remains  still  that  Self  out  of  which  the  heavens 
and  earth  were  made.^  It  is  still,  as  the  one  piece  of  clay 
gives  its  name  to  the  whole  piece  of  clay,*  that  from  which 
all  creation  derives  its  name  and  form.  It  still  has  thought,* 
and  from  its  thought  plurality  springs  forth,  first  fire,  then 
water,  food,  and  earth.  It  is  still  the  Self  which  Death 
declares  to  Nachiketas,  who  had  gone  to  the  realms  of  Yama 
to  redeem  a  vow  made  by  his  father.^  From  Yama 
Nachiketas  claimed  a  boon,  for  Death,  who  had  been  busy 
among  mortals,  had  kept  him  waiting,  and  the  boon  he 
claimed  was,  that  Yama  should  declare  to  him  what  was 

'  "  Ch.  Up.,"  vi.  z  I.     2"Taitt.  Brah.,"ii.  8,  96.     »  «  ch.  Up.,'"  vi.  i,  4. 

*  Ibid.,  vi.  2,  3  : — "  It  thought,  may  I  be  many,  may  I  grow  forth.  It  sent 
forth  fire."  S.B.E.,  vol.  i.;  Oldenberg,  "Buddha,"  p.  41 :— Therefore  "in- 
volving the  duality  of  the  subject  and  object." 

s  "  Katha  Up.,"  p.  54,  for  which  Oldenterg  claims  a  pre-Buddhistic  origin. 


no  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

the  great  secret  beyond  the  grave.  In  vain  Death  prayed  * 
not  to  be  asked  the  question.  He  offered  to  Nachiketas  fair 
maidens,  and  chariots,  and  song.  Yet  of  them  Nachiketas 
cried :  "  They  last  till  to-morrow,  O  Death ;  they  wear  out 
the  vigour  of  all  the  senses.  Even  the  whole  of  life  is 
short.  Keep  thy  horses ;  keep  dance  and  song  to  thyself." 
'Nachiketas  but  desired  to  know  the  mystery  of  death.  So 
Death  told  him  all  that  the  mind  of  man  had  been  able 
to  fathom  of  the  unknown  the  portals  of  which  had  been 
fashioned  out  from  fantastic  dreams  of  evanescent  fancy, 
still  more  dear  to  the  mystic  mind  of  the  East  than  the 
stately  portals  of  Western  constructive  thought,  where  each 
line  is  laboriously  laid  down  to  serve  a  purpose.  So  Death 
weaves  a  web  through  which  one  may  seek  the  infinite, 
fine-spun  and  vague  as  the  thread  of  thought  which 
stretched  from  Vedic  times  towards  Buddha's  feet. 

"  Fools  and  blind  leaders  of  the  blind,"  ^  Death  says,  "  are 
they  who  fall  into  my  hands.  They  are  those  who  deem 
there  is  no  world  but  theirs,  who  know  not  the  truth  of 
Self.  The  Self  is  not  to  be  known  by  the  '  Veda,'  nor  by 
the  teaching.  It  is  not  born  ;  it  dies  not ;  it  sprang  from 
nothing ;  nothing  sprang  from  it*  It  is  hidden  in  the  heart 
of  every  creature.  The  wise  who  knows  the  Self  as  bodiless 
within  the  bodies,  as  unchanging  among  changing  things,* 
as  great  and  omnipresent,  does  never  grieve,  but  he  who  has 
not  turned  away  from  his  wickedness,  who  is  not  tranquil 
and  subdued,  or  whose  mind  is  not  at  rest,  he  can  never 
obtain  the  Self  (even)  by  knowledge."  Amid  all  these 
strange  guesses  which  the  enquiring  mind  of  the  Indian 
philosopher  hazarded  respecting  the  nature  of  Soul  and 

'  Max  Miillec,  "Hibbert  Lectures,"  p.  335. 

"  S.B.E.,  vol.   XV.   pp.    10-12 ;    Oldenberg,   "  Buddha,"  pp.   53-7 ;    Max 
MUUer,  "  Hibbert  Lectures,"  pp.  333-7. 
»"KathaUp.,"i.  2,  18. 
*  Ibid.,  i.  2,  23: — "He  whom  the  Self  chooses,  by  him  the  Self  can  be 


FROM  BRAHMANISM   TO  BUDDHISM   iii 

Supreme  Being,  and  their  connection,  in  which  all  of  the 
old  is  held  fast,  for  as  yet  the  sage  is  not  satisfied  that  he  has 
pierced  to  the  truth,  there  comes  one  belief  stranger  to  our 
ears  than  all  others,  declared  as  follows :i  "Self  cannot  be 
gained  by  the  'Veda,'  nor  by  understanding,  nor  by  much 
learning.  He  whom  the  Self  chooses,  by  him  the  Self 
can  be  gained.    The  Self  chooses  him  (his  body  as  his  own)." 

So  from  thought  to  thought  the  mind  wandered  on  in  its 
own  course,  over  the  anxious  questions  never  to  be  solved 
yet  never  silenced.  "  Breath  to  air,  and  to  the  immortal,"  ^ 
cries  the  dying  soul ;  "  then  this  my  body  ends  in  ashes. 
Om !  mind,  remember !  Remember  thy  deeds.  Mind, 
remember !     Remember  thy  deeds." 

"  He  who  knows  at  the  same  time  both  the  cause  and  the 
destruction  of  the  perishable  body,  overcomes  death  by 
destruction,  and  obtains  immortality  through  knowledge  of 
the  true  cause." 

"  When  to  a  man  who  understands  the  Self  has  become 
all  things,  what  sorrow,  what  trouble  can  there  be  to  him 
who  once  beheld  that  unity  ?  "  *  "  And  he  who  beholds  all 
beings  in  the  Self,  and  the  Self  in  all  beings,  he  never  turns 
away  from  it."  *  "  All  who  worship  what  is  not  the  true 
cause  enter  into  blind  darkness ;  those  who  delight  in  the 
true  cause  enter,  as  it  were,  into  greater  darkness." " 

The  full  doctrine  of  the  "Brahman"  and  the  "Atman"  is 
set  forth  in  the  well-known  "  ^andilyavidya,"  ^  or  sayings 
of  the  sage,  Sandilya,  so  often  quoted  in  succeeding 
disquisitions : — 

"All  this  is  Brahman  (neuter).    Let  a  man  meditate  on  that  (visible 
world)  as  beginning,  ending,  and  breathing  in  it  (the  Brahman). 
Now  man  is  a  creature  of  will.    According  to  what  his  will  is  in  this 

1  "Katha  Up.,"  i.  2,  23.     "  Mandukya  Up.,"  iii.  2,  3,  gives  the  same. 
»  "  Isa.  Up.,"  17  ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  i.  p.  313.        =  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  312. 
*  "  Isa.  Up." ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  i.  p.  312.  "  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.312. 

«  "Ch.  Up.,"  iii.  14;  "Vedanta  Sutras,"  iii.  3,  31. 


112  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

world,  so  will  he  be  when  he  has  departed  this  life.  Let  him  therefore 
have  this  will  and  belief. 

The  intelligent,  whose  body  is  spirit,  whose  form  is  light,  whose 
thoughts  are  true,  whose  nature  is  like  ether  (omnipresent  and 
invisible),  from  whom  all  works,  all  desires,  all  sweet  odours 
and  tastes  proceed  ;  he  who  embraces  all  this,  who  never  speaks, 
and  is  never  surprised ;  he  is  my  Self  within  the  heart,  smaller 
than  a  corn  of  rice,  smaller  than  a  com  of  barley,  smaller  than 
a  mustard  seed,  smaller  than  a  canary  seed  or  the  kernel  of  a  canary 
seed.  He  also  is  my  Self  within  the  heart,  greater  than  the  earth, 
greater  than  the  sky,  greater  than  Heaven,  greater  than  all  these  worlds. 

He  from  whom  all  works,  all  desires,  all  sweet  odours  and  tastes 
proceed,  who  embraces  all  this,  who  never  speaks,  and  who  is  never 
surprised — he,  my  self  within  the  heart,  is  that  Brahman  (neuter).  When 
I  shall  have  departed  from  hence,  I  shall  obtain  him  (that  Self).  He 
who  has  this  faith  has  no  doubt ;  thus  said  ^andilya,  yea,  thus  he 
said." 

This  is  the  teaching  which  has  ever  had  the  deepest 
fascination  for  all  succeeding  thought  in  India.  It  was  the 
teaching  in  which  Ajatasatru,  King  of  the  Videhas, 
instructed  the  proud  Brahman,  Gargya  Balaki,  remarking 
as  he  did  so :  "  Verily,  it  is  unnatural  that  a  Brahmana 
should  come  to  a  Kshatriya  hoping  that  he  should  tell  him 
the  Brahman."^ 

It  was  the  knowledge  of  the  Self  and  its  oneness  with 
Brahman  that  inspired  Brahmans  to  give  up  all  desire  for 
sons,  for  wealth,  and  a  life  amid  the  gods,  to  go  forth  from 
their  homes  and  wander  as  mendicants.^  The  knowledge 
was  not  one  to  be  obtained  by  argument,^  and  "  he  who  has 
not  first  turned  away  from  his  wickedness,  who  is  not 
tranquil  and  subdued,  or  whose  mind  is  not  at  rest,  he  can 
never  obtain  the.  Self  even  by  knowledge."  *  The  path  to 
the  Self  is  difficult  to  pass  over ;  it  is  sharp  as  the  edge  of  a 
razor.*  The  Self  is  seated  in  the  body  as  if  in  a  chariot ;  the 
intellect  drives,  the  mind  becomes  the  reins,  yet  the  senses 

^  "  Brih.-Aran.  Up.,"  ii.  I.  15  :— "Then  let  me  come  to  you  as  a  pupil." 
2  Ibid.,  iii.  s,  I.  s  '•  Katha  Up.,"  i.  2,  9. 

^  Ibid.,  i.  2,  24.  "  Ibid.,  i.  3,  14. 


FROM  BRAHMANISM   TO  BUDDHISM   113 

are  as  vicious  horses  which  speed  it  along,  over  a  road 
strewn  with  the  objects  of  sense.^ 

The  Agnihotra,  the  new  moon,  the  full  moon,  the  four- 
monthly,  the  harvest  sacrifices  ^  lead  to  the  heaven  of  the 
gods.  They  lead  the  sacrificer, "  as  sun  rays,*  to  where  the  one 
Lord  of  the  Devas  dwells ;  they  lead  him  to  where  there  is 
rejoicing  *  over  his  good  deeds."  But  they  are  ^  "  fools  who 
praise  this  as  the  highest  good  ;  (they)  are  subject  again  and 
again  to  old  age  and  death." 

"  Fools,  dwelling  in  darkness,  wise  in  their  own  conceit, 
and  puffed  up  with  vain  knowledge,  go  round  and  round, 
staggering  to  and  fro  like  blind  men  led  by  the  blind. 
Considering  sacrifice  and  good  works  as  the  best — these  fools 
know  no  higher — and  having  enjoyed  (their  reward)  in  the 
height  of  heaven,  gained  by  good  works,  they  enter  again 
this  world  or  a  lower  one." 

Yet,  before  the  teaching  of  the  "  Vedas"  and  "Upanishads'' 
was  systematised  in  the  "  Brahma  Sutras,"  and  commented 
upon  by  the  greatest  of  all  commentators,  Sankaracharya,  a 
strange  belief  had  arisen  in  India,  which  for  upwards  of  one 
thousand  years  set  its  impress  on  the  history  of  the  land, 
and  gave  to  its  literature  a  rich  wealth  of  treasure,  the  full 
value  of  which  is  but  now  dawning  on  the  nations  of  the 
world.  The  belief  was  that  known  as  Buddhism,  claiming 
for  its  founder  the  Sakya  chief,  Siddartha,  greater  than 
whom  there  came  but  One  other  among  the  sons  of  men  to 
preach  the  gospel  of  peace  and  goodwill  unto  all. 

1  "  Katha  Up.,"  i.  3,  4.         "  "^andukya  Up.,"  i.  2,  3.       ^  Ibid.,  i.  2,  S- 
*  Ibid.,  i.  2,  6.  5  Ibid.,  i.  2,  8,  10. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

BUDDHISM. 

The  sacrificial  fires  still  burned  in  India.  From  the  three 
altars  still  arose  to  the  gods  the  incense-bearing  smoke. 
The  Brahmans  still  chanted  their  Vedic  Hymns,  and  pre- 
served the  ancient  traditions  of  their  race ;  still  strove  to 
hold  their  place  amid  the  councils  of  the  local  chieftains, 
and  gain  rich  lands,  kine,  and  wealth. 

The  sacrificial  victims  were  still  slain,  harvest-offerings 
made  to  all  the  gods.  Priestly  ordinances  hemmed  in  the 
life  of  each  Aryan  householder  to  fixed  and  immovable 
rites,  to  customs  all  bearing  a  divine  sanction.  There 
were  Brahmans  and  laity,  men  and  women  alike,  who  had, 
however,  turned  their  gaze  from  the  sacred  fires,  and  no 
longer  saw  their  gods  personified  as  in  days  of  yore. 
Beyond  the  heavens,  beyond  the  gods,  beneath  the  throb 
of  life,  there  lay,  not  one  great  personal  God,  Creator  of 
the  World,  but  the  imperishable  Brahman, "  the  Unconscious 
Self  of  the  Universe,"  "  never  contaminated  by  the  misery 
of  the  world."  ^  Deeper  than  the  transmigratory  soul,  which 
reaped  the  reward  of  good  and  evil  deeds,  lay  the  Self  of 
man,  that   moved   free,  undivided   from   the   Self  of  the 

i"KathaUp.,"ii.  5,  11. 
Hi 


BUDDHISM  115 

Cosmos,  when  man  rests  in  dreamless  sleep,^  when  he  no 
longer  distresses  himself  with  the  thought :  "  Why  did  I 
do  what  is  good  ?  Why  did  I  do  what  is  bad  ? "  By  a 
knowledge  of  the  true  nature  of  Brahman,  and  Self,  all 
duality  vanishes  ;  2  the  Self  of  man  recognises  itself  as  but 
temporarily  separate  from  the  Self  of  the  Universe.  "  All 
the  world  is  animated  by  the  supersensible.  This  is  true ; 
this  is  Self.     That  art  thou."  ^ 

The  mystic  charm  of  idealistic  Monism  stole  over  the 
minds  of  many  with  all  the  soothing  rest  of  a  mid-day 
siesta  in  a  tropical  clime,  where  the  heavens,  the  waters,  the 
earth,  and  all  that  it  contains,  the  very  air  itself,  seems  to 
rest  profound  and  calm  in  the  unison  of  sleep. 

From  the  earliest  Vedic  times*  there  had  been  ascetic 
sages  who  had  cut  themselves  adrift  ^  from  all  the  cares 
of  life  to  wander  free  from  observance  of  sacrificial  rites 
or  priestly  ordinances.  In  the  laws*  set  forth  by  the 
Brahmans  for  all  the  Aryan  community,  the  position  of 
these  ascetic  dreamers  had  to  be  considered,  and  their 
claims  to  sever  themselves  from  the  duties  of  a  house- 
holder acknowledged. 

So  it  was  held  ^  that  the  ascetic  might  leave  his  home, 
and  discontinue  the  performance  of  all  religious  ceremonies, 

1  "Ch.  Up.,"  vi.  8,  4;  Huxley,  "Romanes  Lecture,"  p.  18  :—"  Practical 
annihilation  involved  in  merging  the  individual  existence  in  the  unconditioned, 
the  Atman  in  Brahman." 

2  "  In  zahlreiche  Gleichnissen  suchen  die  Upanishads  das  Wesen  des 
Brahman  zu  beschreiben,  aber  diese  Betrachtungen  gipfeln  in  dem  Satze,  dass 
das  innerste  Selbst  des  Individuums  eins  ist  mit  jener  alles  durch  dringenden 
Urkraft  (tat  tvam  asi,  das  bist  du)."— Garbe,  "  Sankhya  Philosophic,"  p.  109. 

8  "Ch.  Up.,"  vi.  IS;  Gough,  "Phil,  of  the  Upanishads,"  p.  90. 

*  R.V.,  i.  154,  2  ;  i.  69,  2 ;  see  Earth,  "  Rel.  of  India,"  p.  34. 

»  For  the  existence  of  women  ascetics,  s^e  Oldenberg,  "Buddha,"  pp.  62, 
154 ;  Fichte,  "  Die  Sociale  Gliederung  in  N.O.  India,"  p.  42,  et  seq.;  Arrian, 
"Indica,"xii.  8,  9. 

s  "There  can  be  no  doubt,  from  the  laws  laid  down  respecting  them,  that 
they  had  a  recognised  position  about  the  eighth  century  B.C."  (Jacobi). 

'  "  Vasishta,"  x.  i,  4. 


ii6  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

"  but  never  let  him  discontinue  the  recitation  of  the  '  Veda.' 
By  neglecting  the  '  Veda '  he  becomes  a  Sudra,  therefore  he 
shall  not  neglect  it." 

There  were  other  rules  laid  down,  even  before  the  time 
of  Buddha.i  for  these  wanderers  from  village  to  village  and 
hermit-dwellers  in  the  forest.  Those  who  chose  to  wander 
free  from  all  bondage  or  restraint,  from  all  Vedic  observ- 
ances, had  first  to  take  five  great  vows.  The  first  great 
vow  was  not  to  injure  any  living  thing.  The  other  four 
vows  were  to  be  truthful,  to  abstain  from  the  property  of 
others,  to  be  content  and  liberal.  Besides  these  five  chief 
vows  there  were  five  lesser  for  all  these  saddened  sages 
who  withdrew  themselves  from  the  busy  ways  of  men,  and 
turned  their  backs  for  ever  on  the  blind  struggle  to  live  as 
others  lived,  preferring  to  go  to  the  forest  and  dream  out 
their  own  lives  apart,  or  wander  from  land  to  land  seeing  if 
any  knew  or  had  heard  the  truth  of  the  Brahman  and  the 
Self.  Many  of  these  wandering  folk  were,  no  doubt,  corrupt 
and  vicious,  given  to  the  practice  of  unholy  rites,  hoping 
to  obtain  insight  into  the  unknown  and  gain  supernatural 
powers  by  self-imposed  tortures,  by  mesmeric  trances,  and 
by  all  the  varied  means  so  common  in  later  India.  For 
the  guidance  of  these  strict  rules  were  necessary,  so  it  was 
held  that  a  true  ascetic  should  take  the  vows  to  be  free 
from  all  anger,  to  be  obedient,^  not  rash,  cleanly,  and  pure 
in  eating. 

The  ground  had  been  well  prepared  for  the  growth  of 
new  beliefs*  and  new  doctrines  outside  the  orthodox 
bulwarks  of  Brahmanism. 

^  "  He  who  has  finished  his  studentship  may  become  an  ascetic  im- 
mediately."— "  Baudhayana,"  ii.  lo,  17. 

"  To  his  guru. 

>  See  BUhler,  "Ind.  Ant."  (1894),  p.  248:— For  the  worship  of  Narayana,  as 
taught  by  the  Bhagavatas  or  Pancaratras,  had  taken  root,  a  cult  afterwards  to 
develop  into  the  deification  of  the  heroic  Krishna.  For  reference  to  Krishna 
and  dramatic  representations  of  scenes  in  his  life  by  Patanjali  (take  as  second 
century  B.C.),  see  Bhandarkar,  "Ind.  Ant."  (1874),  p.  14. 


BUDDHISM  117 

It  was  amid  this  changing  flux  of  thought  that  Buddha 
moved,  and  wove  out  for  himself  the  solution  of  the  riddle 
of  the  Cosmos,  which  placed  man's  fate,  for  weal  or  woe, 
here  and  hereafter,  in  man's  own  hands,  and  taught  him  to 
look  not  beyond  himself  for  hope  or  aid. 

The  birthplace  of  Buddha  has  lately  been  sought  and 
found  in  the  now  forest-grown  and  fever-laden  tract  of 
country  lying  along  the  southern  slopes  of  the  Himalayas, 
almost  200  miles  to  the  northward  of  Benares.^  Burial 
topes  and  mounds,  inscriptions  carved  on  stones,  all  still 
lie  buried  beyond  the  dense  jungle  that,  during  the  last 
fifteen  hundred  years,"  has  crept  over  the  rich  land  where 
once  the  Buddha  lived  happily. 

According  to  the  account  of  the  Chinese  traveller, 
Hiouen  Tsang  who  left  his  own  country  in  629  A.D.,  to 
learn  in  India  the  tenets  of  Buddhism,  the  country  of 
the  Sakya  people,  among  whom  Buddha  was  born,  "is 
about  4000  li  (sixty-four  miles)  in  circuit.  There  are 
some  ten  deserted  cities  in  this  country,  wholly  desolate 
and  ruined.  The  capital,  Kapilavastu,  is  overthrown  and 
in  ruins.  The  foundation  walls  are  still  strong  and  high. 
It  has  been  long  deserted.  The  people  and  villages  are 
few  and  waste.  .  .  .  The  ground  is  rich  and  fertile, 
and  is  cultivated  according  to  the  regular  season.  The 
climate  is  uniform,  the  manners  of  the  people  soft  and 
obliging."  ^ 

Different  from  the  account  of  the  Chinese  traveller  is 
that    recorded    in    the    Pali    Scriptures    by  a    Brahman, 

^  Biihler,  Athenaum  (March  6,  1897) : — Where  Nigllva  is  placed  13  miles 
from  Paderia,  the  site  of  Buddha's  birth,  8  miles  from  Kapilavastu. 
Earth  {Jour,  des  Savants,  Feb.  1897)  places  Nigliva  "a  37  miles  au  nord- 
ouest  de  la  station  Ushka  du  North  Bengal  Railway,  par  83°  E.  of  Greenwich." 

"  "  In  Fa  Hian's  time,  about  a.d.  400,  the  country  was  already  a  wilderness, 
with  very  few  inhabitants,  and  full  of  ancient  mounds  and  ruins." — Biihler, 
Atkeneeum  (March  6,  1897). 

=  Beal,  "  Budd.  Rec.  of  West.  World,"  vol.  ii.  p.  14. 


ii8  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Ambattha,!  who  visited  Kapilavastu,  and  there  found 
that  the  rude  warrior  clan  had  no  respect  for  the  lofty 
claims  advanced  by  the  haughty  priest.  "The  Sakyan 
race,"  the  young  Brahman  angrily  complained,  "is  fierce, 
violent,  hasty,  and  long-tongued.  Though  they  are  naught 
but  men  of  substance,  yet  they  pay  no  respect,  honour,  or 
reverence  to  Brahmans." 

More  full  of  interest  is  the  Buddha's  recorded  reply  to 
the  Brahman,  pointing  out  that  there  was  no  occasion  for 
wrath,  for  it  was  well  known  that  the  Sakyas,  as  Kshatriyas, 
held  themselves  aloof  from  the  Brahmans ;  that  they  refused 
to  acknowledge  the  offspring  of  one  of  their  class  and  a 
Brahman  as  a  true  Sakyan,  while  the  Brahmans  accepted 
such  as  pure  Brahmans.  In  the  important  article  by  Mr 
Chalmers  here  quoted,  it  is  further  pointed  out  that  "  the 
young  Brahman  is  forced  to  admit  that,  if  a  Kshatriya  is 
expelled  by  his  fellows,  the  Brahmans  will  welcome  him  as 
one  of  themselves,  and  he  will  rank  ^  as  a  full  Brahman  ; 
whereas,  an  expelled  Brahman  is  never  received  by  the 
Kshatriyas."  The  position  of  Brahmanism  in  relation  to 
Buddhism  is  clearly  indicated  in  the  words  of  the  "  Sutta,"  ^ 
where  it  is  declared  that  "it  is  mere  empty  words  to 
give  it  out  among  the  people  that  the  Brahmans  are  the 
best  caste,  and  every  other  caste  is  inferior;  that  the 
Brahmans  are  the  white  caste,  every  other  caste  is  black  ; 
that  only  the  Brahmans  are  pure,  not  the  non-Brahmans  ; 
that  the  Brahmans  are  the  legitimate  sons  of  Brahma,  born 
from  his  mouth,  Brahma  born,  Brahma  made,  heirs  of 
Brahma." 

The  land  of  the  Sakyas  lies  within  the  Nepalese  Terai, 
north  of  the  district  of  Gorakhpur.    To  the  south  of  it  lay, 

>  Chalmers,  "Madhura  Sutta,"  J.R.A.S.  (April,  1894):— Where  he  quotes 
above  from  the  "  Ambattha  Sutta  of  the  Digha  Nikaya." 

^  See  Rhys  Davids,  "  Hibbert  Lectures"  (1881),  p.  24;  "In  Valley  of 
Ganges": — "No  Kshatriya  could  any  longer  become  a  Brahman." 

»  Chalmers,  J.R.A.S.  (1894),  p.  360. 


BUDDHISM  119 

in  the  time  of  Buddha,  the  land  of  the  Ko^alas,  before  whose 
power  it  was  soon  to  fall  subject.  The  Sakyas  themselves 
were  a  warrior  clan,  and  if  of  Aryan  descent,  had,  in  their 
distant  retreat,  mingled  their  blood  with  non-Aryan  folk, 
and  accepted  many  of  their  habits.  They  refrained  from 
intermarriage  with  other  Aryan  families,  being  forced  from 
their  isolation  "to  develop  the  un-Aryan  and  un-Indian 
custom  of  endogamy."  ^  The  tradition,  however,  still 
remains  that  they  claimed  descent  from  Ikshvaku,^  the 
fabled  first  king  of  Oudh,  the  son  of  Manu,  and  progenitor 
of  Purukutsa,  the  king  of  the  Purus.  With  the  Vedic  sage, 
Gotama,  they  also  claimed  alliance,  so  that  the  great  glory 
of  their  race  was  known  not  only  as  Buddha,  "  The 
Enlightened,"  and  Siddartha,  "one  whose  aim  has  been 
accomplished,"  but  as  the  ascetic  Gautama,  the  descendant 
of  Gotama,  the  reputed  founder  of  his  family. 

In  the  land  of  the  Sakyas,  the  father  of  Buddha  owned 
some  part  of  the  fertile  lands  that  now  lie  waste,  and  there 
he  became  renowned  as  Suddhodhana,  "  the  possessor  of 
pure  rice."  These  are  but  dull  facts.  Better  tradition  with 
its  imagination,  its  romance,  and  poetry,  that  tells  how  the 
Buddha's  father  was  a  king,  and  how  the  queen,  Mayadevi, 
conceived  miraculously.  Facts  seem  now  to  support 
tradition  so  far  that  in  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century 
B.C.  the  Buddha  was  born  to  Mayadevi  in  the  garden 
Lumbini.  The  route  to  this  spot  was  marked  out  towards 
the  close  of  the  second  century  by  a  row  of  pillars  stretching 
north  from  Patna,  the  capital  of  Asoka,  the  Constantine  of 
Buddhism,  who  journeyed  to  Kapilavastu,  there  to  see  for 
himself  the  place  where  the  Sakya  prince  was  born. 

It  was  to  the  West,  with  all  its  stern  love  for  realism, 
that  the  honour  fell  of  discovering  the  long-fabled  garden 

1  Buhler,  Athenaum  (March  6,  1S97). 

^Zimmer,  "Alt.  Ind.  Leben.,"  p.  130;  Oldenberg,   "Buddha,"  p.   403; 
"Sat.  Brah.,"  xiii.  S,  45- 


I20  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

where  MayadevI  housed  on  her  journey  to  her  father's 
home,  and  where  the  Buddha  was  born.  The  news  came 
to  England  in  a  brief  telegram  of  the  Times  of  December 
28,  1896,  and  there  it  passed  unnoticed  and  unremarked. 
From  the  time  when  Hiouen  Tsang  and  Fa  Hian  visited 
the  spot,  the  miasma  of  the  forest  had  warded  off  all 
stray  travellers,  and  left  the  deserted  ruins  a  grazing-place 
for  cattle  until,  in  the  strange  vicissitudes  of  time,  the 
mystery  was  unravelled  that  had  so  long  hung  round  the 
birthplace  of  the  sage,  whose  teaching  held  India  spellbound 
for  one  thousand  years,  and  is  now  accepted,  in  more  or 
less  perverted  forms,  by  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  human 
race  in  Ceylon,  Siam,  Burma,  Nepal,  Tibet,  China,  and 
Japan.^ 

Asoka,  who  visited  the  spot  in  his  own  day,  erected  a 
pillar  there,  engraved  with  an  inscription.  This  pillar  was 
seen  and  described  by  Hiouen  Tsang  during  his  travels. 
Since  then  all  memory  of  the  pillar  and  its  inscription  faded 
away  from  memory  until  it  was  found  by  Dr  Fiihrer,  and 
the  inscription  thereon  interpreted  by  Hofrath  Professor 
Biihler  as  follows :  "  King  Piyadasi  (or  Asoka),  beloved 
of  the  gods,  having  been  anointed  twenty  years,  himself 
came  and  worshipped,  saying :  '  Here  Buddha  Sakyamuni 
was  born,'  .  .  .  and  he  caused  a  stone  pillar  to  be 
erected,  which  declares,  '  Here  the  worshipful  one  was 
born.' "2 

In  his  father's  home  the  future  Buddha  must,  like  all 
other  Kshatriyas,  have  been  trained  to  take  his  part  in 
defence  of  his  home  and  homestead.  All  had  to  join  in 
the  tribal  fights  against  surrounding  clans  or  encroaching 
principalities.  Hiouen  Tsang  states  that  when  he  visited 
the  ruins  of  Kapilavastu,  "  within  the  eastern  gate  of  the 
city,  on  the  left  of  the  road,  is  a  stupa  (burial  mound); 

'  Set  Max  MfUler,  "  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop,"  p.  214. 
'  BUbler,  Athenaum  (March  6,  1897) 


BUDDHISM 


121 


this  is  where  the  Prince  Siddartha  practised  athletic  sports 
and  competitive  arts."  ^  The  tribe,  not  able  to  hold  its  own, 
was  soon  subdued  by  another  more  powerful,  and  the 
tradition  tells  how  the  Kshatriyas  murmured  because 
Siddartha  neglected  to  train  himself  as  a  warrior  and 
prepare  himself  to  fight  in  case  of  war.  Thus  challenged, 
Siddartha  came  forth  and  "contended  with  Sakyas  in 
athletic  sports,  and  pierced  with  his  arrows  the  iron 
targets." 

Round  all  the  early  life  of  the  Buddha,  tradition  loves 
to  set  a  halo  of  mystery  and  miracle.  Hiouen  Tsang 
states  that  he  himself  had  seen  a  fountain,  the  clear  waters 
of  which  had  miraculous  powers  of  healing  the  sick,  for, 
as  he  says,  "  there  it  was,  during  the  athletic  contest,  that 
the  arrow  of  the  prince,  after  penetrating  the  targets,  fell 
and  buried  itself  up  to  the  feather  in  the  ground,  causing  a 
clear  spring  of  water  to  spring  forth."  ^  So  succeeding 
ages  have  woven  into  the  early  life  of  Buddha  a  fantastic 
web  of  legends,  which  find  their  source  in  the  poetic  and 
pious  imagination  of  those  who  saw  in  all  the  deeds  of  the 
ascetic  sage  something  more  than  human. 

From  all  this  legend  may  be  sifted  out  the  fact  that,  at 
the  age  of  sixteen,  the  Buddha  was  married  to  his  cousin, 
Yasodhara,  daughter  of  the  Koliyan  chief,  and  ten  years 
later  a  child,  Rahula,  was  born.  The  story  has  been 
framed  in  poetic  fancy  of  how,  to  Buddha,  the  woes 
of  life  were  borne  home  by  visions  of  decrepitude,  of 
old  age,  of  palsied  sickness,  and  of  death.  Buddha 
at  length  saw  a  means  to  escape  these  haunting  terrors 
in  the  vision  of  an  ascetic  sage  who  had  wandered 
forth  from  his  home,  resolved  that  never  more  should 
his  eyes  behold  the  unaided  sufferings  of  those  to  whom 
he  had   knit   his   soul.      So    Buddha    rose    and    in    the 

'  Beal,  "  Hiouen  Tsang,"  vol.  ii.  p.  23. 
"  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  211. 


122  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

night-time  passed  forth  from  his  wife  and  child,  from  his 
home  and  homestead,  to  find  if,  amid  the  fair  villages 
and  peaceful  groves  of  India,  where  sedate  and  learned 
Brahmans,  ascetic  hermits,  and  strange  recluses  dwelt, 
there  were  any  who  knew  the  secret  of  the  mystery  of  life 
and  death,  of  sorrow  and  suffering. 

The  time  was  one  when  strange  unrest  and  strange  fore- 
bodings had  everywhere  been  borne  to  the  soul  of  man. 
Near  at  hand  in  Persia,  Zoroaster  had  proclaimed,  as  some 
solution  of  the  bitter  wail  of  mankind,  the  existence  of 
the  two  ever-conflicting  principles  of  good  and  evil.  In 
Palestine,  Jeremiah  poured  forth  his  lament  "that  all  his 
days  are  sorrow,  and  his  travail  grief  That  which  befalleth 
the  sons  of  men  befalleth  beasts."  At  Ephesus,  Thales 
had  struck  the  first  note  of  independent  thought  and  un- 
orthodox belief  by  declaring  that  water  was  the  primal 
germ  of  all  things,  to  be  followed  by  Heraclitus,  who  saw 
everywhere  evidences  of  unresting  change,  the  mere  glow 
and  fading  away,  like  unto  fire,  of  all  things,  an  eternal 
becoming,  and  a  never-existing  Being,  as  of  flowing  water, 
wherein  no  firm  resting-place  remained  for  man  but  in 
some  negation  of  change,^  some  cessation  of  the  entire 
scheme  of  Creation. 

So  to  the  soul  of  Buddha  crept  the  sad  murmur  of  the 
bitter  wail  that  "  the  millions  slept,  but  a  hushed  and  weary 
sound  told  that  the  wheel  of  life  still  revolved."^  There 
was  a  question  Buddha  had  perforce  to  face — a  question 
to  which  if  there  came  no  answer,  to  the  soul  of  man  all 
joys  and  pleasures  fade  as  transient  dreams.  What  to 
Buddha,  what  to  all  men,  are  the  rewards  of  life,  the  love 
of  wife,  of  parents,  offspring,  the  fond  memory  of  those 
who  have  passed  the  chilling  gates  of  death ;  what  the 
hopes  and  aspirations  that  hover  round  life  if  they  are  all 

'  Huxley,  "Romanes  Lecture,"  p.  39  (note  2). 
2  E.  Garnett,  "An  Imaged  World,"  p.  91. 


BUDDHISM  123 

but  mockeries  of  man's  vain  efforts  to  raise  himself 
above  the  brute  beasts?  All  had  better  be  relinquished 
than  be  retained  at  the  relentless  nod  of  a  jeering 
destiny,  than  grow  bright  only  to  be  severed  by  the 
decrees  of  an  impotent  Cosmos,  that  answers  back  the 
moan  of  suffering  with  the  cold  stare  of  nescience,  wherein 
can  be  read  no  gleam  of  purpose  working  to  an  omniscient 
end.  Better  for  Buddha  that  he  should  have  cast  from  him 
all  ties  which  daily  grew  closer  round  him,  and  made  life 
more  dear,  than  that  they  should  clasp  him  tighter  and 
drag  him  down  to  a  darkness  profound  amid  his  unavailing 
cries  for  help,  when  neither  from  Brahmans  nor  from  burned- 
offerings  could  he  find  the  aid  for  which  his  soul  cried  out. 

For  Buddha,  and  for  all  men  in  whom  reasoned  thought 
had  risen,  the  religious  systems  of  the  time  held  forth  no 
hope.  The  Vedic  gods  were  gods  for  a  conquering  folk 
whose  future  had  but  dawned.  They  were  friendly  gods 
who  led  the  way  to  victory,  and  so  long  as  victory  was 
assured,  a  united  people  sang  their  praise. 

The  Sakyan  land  was  far  removed  from  homes  where 
the  Aryan  brotherhood  held  its  traditions  firm  amid  alien 
foes.  The  echoes  of  an  Aryan  past  that  came  to  its 
borders  were  vague  and  uncertain  ere  they  fell  on  Buddha's 
ears.  He  may  have  heard  of  the  doctrines  of  the  early 
"  Upanishads,"  ^  how  rest  was  to  be  sought  by  knowledge  of 
the  Brahman  and  Self.  His  efforts,  after  he  had  left  his 
wife,  and  child,  and  fatherland,  seem  to  have  been  to  gain, 
by  asceticism,  morbid  fancies,  and  religious  austerities, 
some  supernatural  or  mystic  power  whereby  his  soul  might 
rise  free  from  all  the  trammels  of  the  desires  of  the  body, 
and  be  no  longer  subject  to  the  domain  of  death.  If 
Buddha  was  versed  in   Brahmanic   lore,^  as   many  have 

*  Rhys  Davids,  "American  Lectures,"  p.  29. 

^  Ibid.,  p.  102,  states  that  Buddha,  iti  his  early  probation  at  Rajagriha, 
received  a  teaching  on  the  problems  "discussed  by  such  /«<«;- schools  as  the 
^ankhya  and  Vedanta."    He  continues :  "  It  is  certainly  evident  that  Gotama, 


124  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

sought  to  prove,  he  must  have  been  appalled  not  only  by  the 
visions  of  a  hereafter,  which  confronted  himself  and  those 
he  held  dear,  but  by  the  drear  future  which  lay  before  all 
mankind.  Long  before  his  days  the  weird  doctrine  of  the 
transmigration  of  the  soul  through  endless  births  and  re- 
births had  crept  its  way  into  the  beliefs  of  the  people. 

In  the  early  Vedic  times  there  seems  to  have  been  no. 
gloom  or  despair  surrounding  the  idea  of  death  or  the 
hereafter. 

Agni  ^  was  besought  to  bear  those  who  died  to  the  abode 
of  the  Fathers,  where  there  was  joy  and  happiness.  Later  ^ 
Agni  was  declared  to  be  the  bond,  the  bridge  leading  to 
the  gods,  with  whom  the  dead  dwell  in  friendship.  The 
man  who  sacrifices  goes  *  after  death  to  abide  with  the  gods. 
The  more  he  sacrificed,  the  greater  was  his  piety,  the 
closer  he  became  in  his  nature  to  that  of  the  gods.*  As 
the  thought  grew,  it  was  with  his  own  true  body^  that 
man  gained  immortality,  and  great  became  the  care*  in 
Indian  life  that  none  of  the  bones  of  the  deceased  were 
missing  when  his  funeral  rites  were  performed. 

There  were  some  who  sacrificed,  and  some  who  neglected 
the  sacred  duty,  some  who  gave  rich  rewards  to  the  priests, 
some  who  were  niggardly,  against  whom  the  sacred  texts 
are  vehement  in  their  denunciations.     So  for  the  Aryan 

either  during  or  before  this  period,  must  have  gone  through  a  very  systematic 
and  continued  course  of  study  in  all  the  deepest  philosophy  of  the  time."  I 
agree  with  the  learned  Professor,  with  the  exception  that  I  do  not  see  that  any 
evidence  is  forthcoming  that  Buddha  had  any  such  knowledge  when  he  left 
Kapilavastu ;  he  obtained  it  in  Magadha.  Even  if  the  ^ankhya,  as  a  philosophy, 
existed  before  the  time  of  Buddha,  there  is  no  evidence  that  it  was  known  to, 
or  influenced,  Buddha.  See  Oldenberg,  "Buddha,"  p.  64;  Rhys  Davids, 
"American  Lectures,"  p.  29;*  and  for  opposite  view,  Garbe,  "SanlAya 
Philosophie "  ;  and  Huxley,  "Romanes  Lectures,"  p.  17. 

1  R.V.,  ix.  133,  66.  "  "Taitt.  Brah.,"  iii.  10,  ii.  i. 

»  "6at.  Brah.,"  ii.  6,  4,  8.  <  Rid.,  x,  i,  5,  4. 

^  Ibid.,  iv.  6,  ti,  xi.  1,8,  6,  xii.  8,  3,  31  ;  Weber,  Z.D.M.G.,  ix.  237^; 
quoted  in  Muir,  "  Sans.  Texts,"  vol.  v.  314-15. 

"  "  6at  Brah.,"  xi.  6,  3,  11,  xiv.  6,  9,  28. 


BUDDHISM  125 

householder  there  grew  to  be  the  rewards  and  punishments 
in  the  next  world  according  to  how  he  performed  his 
duties  in  this  world,  according  as  he  completed  the  full 
course  of  the  stated  sacrifices.  The  idea  was  that  in  the  next 
world  his  deeds  were  weighed  in  a  balance,^  and  according 
to  the  result  his  award  was  meted  out,  for  he  "  is  born  into 
the  world  which  he  has  made."  ^ 

So  the  thought  wanders  hazily  along.  The  whole  world, 
to  the  primitive  mind,  is  animated  with  soul  life.  The  trees, 
animals,  the  running  brook  and  solitary  mountain,  the 
petrified  fossil  over  which  man  wonders,  the  dreaded  snake 
and  abhorred  reptile,  are  all  endowed  equally  with  souls 
or  spirits ;  there  is  no  broad  line  drawn  between  man  and 
the  rest  of  that  into  which  the  Divine  has  breathed  life.  So 
the  bewildering  idea  is  set  forth — bewildering  only  to  the 
learned,  not  to  those  who  love  to  watch  the  flowers  in  the 
changing  warmth  and  cold  of  Spring-time,  who  conjure  up 
the  eager  contest  between  St  George  and  the  dragon,  and 
who  dread  to  see  in  May  the  "Three  Great  Ice  Kings." 
"Now  the  Spring  assuredly  comes  into  life  again  out  of 
the  Winter,  for  out  of  the  one  the  other  is  bom  again ; 
therefore,  he  who  knows  this  is,  indeed,  born  again  in  this 
world."  3 

Not  in  modes  of  formal  thought,  but  in  the  dreamy  fancy 
of  one  who  loves  to  walk  in  the  fallacious  paths  of  specious 
analogy,  comes  the  reasoning  over  the  soul  of  him  who  has 
not  won  by  his  acts  release  from  the  common  course  of 
Nature's  working.  "  Whoever  goes  to  yonder  world  not 
having  escaped  Death,  him  he  causes  to  die  again  and 
again  in  yonder  world."  *  Of  all  good  acts  that  man  could 
do,  the  performance  of  the  sacrifice  was  highest,  and  of  all 
sacrifices  the  Agnihotra  sacrifice  was  best.     So  "  verily  he 

'  "^at.  Brah.,"  xi.  2,  7,  33,  xi.  7,  2,  23. 

2  IMd.,  vi.  2,  2,  27  : — "  Man  is  bom  into  the  world  made  by  him." 

» Ibid.,  i.  5,  3,  14. 

*  i^^also  Ibid,,  ii.  3,  3,  i. 


126  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

that  knows  that  release  from  death  is  the  Agnihotra,  is 
freed  from  death  again  and  again."  ^ 

The  full  tragedy  of  this  phase  of  thought,  of  this  des- 
tiny of  mankind — a  destiny  to  which  the  direst  of  Greek 
tragedies,  pursuing  to  its  relentless  end  the  result  of  act  or 
omission,  presents  but  a  pale  and  colourless  contrast — ^is 
summed  up  in  the  appalling  words  of  the  "  Chandogya 
Upanishad,"  ^  believed  not  only  in  Buddha's  time,  but  also 
in  India  to-day :  "  Those  whose  conduct  here  has  been 
good  will  quickly  attain  some  good  birth — the  birth  of  a 
Brahman,  or  of  a  Kshatriya,  or  a  VaiiSya.  But  those  whose 
conduct  here  has  been  evil  will  quickly  attain  an  evil  birth 
— the  birth  of  a  dog,  or  a  hog,  or  a  chandala" *  Another 
"  Upanishad,"  having  allotted  the  place  of  the  Soul  to  the 
Moon,  sets  forth  the  same  idea  of  transmigration,  in  more 
laboured  fashion :  "  According  to  his  deeds  he  is  born 
again  here  as  a  worm,  or  as  an  insect,  or  as  a  fish,  or  as  a 
bird,  or  as  a  lion,  or  as  a  boar,  or  as  a  serpent,  or  as  a 
tiger,  or  as  a  man,  or  as  a  something  else  in  different 
places." 

Probably  no  scholar  has  shown  more  dogged  deter- 
mination to  view  Buddhism  from  a  purely  historical  and 
philosophic  standpoint  than  Professor  Rhys  Davids,  yet, 
when  he  approaches  the  realms  of  metempsychosis,  he 
seems  almost  to  shudder  at  the  monstrous  aberrations  of 
thought  which  beset  man  in  his  cherished  beliefs  over  the 
soul  theory :  "  Thus  is  the  soul  tossed  about  from  life  to 
life,  from  billow  to  billow,  in  the  great  ocean  of  trans- 
migration. And  there  is  no  escape  save  for  the  very  few 
who,  during  their  birth  as  men,  obtain  to  a  right  knowledge 
of  the  Great  Spirit  and  then  enter  into  immortality,  or  as 

*  "  Sat.  Biah.,"  ii.  3,  3,  9  ;  see  also  u.  3,  3,  8  :— "  Whoever  goes  to  yonder 
world  not  having  escaped  Death,  him  he  causes  to  die  again  and  again  in 
yonder  world." 

"  «  Ch.  Up.,"  V.  lo,  7  ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  i. 

'  O&pring  of  a  Sudra  and  a  Brahman  woman. 


BUDDHISM  127 

the  later  philosophies  taught,  are  absorbed  into  the  Divine 
Essence."  ^ 

Some  such  doctrines  the  Buddha  must  have  learned 
during  his  early  probation  near  Rajagriha,  the  capital  of 
Magadha.  It  was  his  mission  to  view  with  his  own  master- 
mind all  the  current  phases  of  thought  that  were  struggling 
forth  among  the  scattered  people,  as  the  expression  of  what 
the  ages  had  produced,  and  combine  them  into  the 
structure  known  as  Buddhism.  This  master-work  of 
Buddha  stands  out  colossal  in  awe-inspiring  loneliness  as 
a  memorial  that  the  Eastern  world  had,  for  the  time,  closed 
itself  in  from  all  hope  of  knowledge  of  the  Divine.  It  is  well 
typified  by  the  dome-shaped  mounds  of  Sanchi,  Bharhut, 
and  Amravati,  wherein  were  shut  all  that  was  left  for 
the  Buddhist  to  reverence,  the  relics  of  the  Sakya  prince. 
These  mounds  remain  the  outward  form  of  Buddhist 
thought,  just  as  the  Parthenon  and  the  memory  of  Pallas 
Athene  remain  the  memorials  of  Grecian  ideals  of  beauty 
and  of  reasoned  thought ;  just  as  Shah  Jahan's  Taj  Mahal 
and  Akbar's  tomb  shadow  forth  the  hopes  that  were  burst- 
ing forth  in  India  in  Mughal  times,  only  to  fade  away  in 
dreams,  as  soft  and  pleasing  as  those  of  the  sister  Taj 
Mahal  and  stately  bridge  that  was  designed  to  span  the 
waters  of  the  far-stretching  Jumna. 

So  the  dome-shaped  mounds  in  India,  left  as  memorials 
of  the  artistic  conception  of  Buddha's  mission,  tell  their  own 
story — the  story  of  how  man  turned  his  gaze  from  the 
heavens  above  and  entombed  his  soul,  so  that  never  more 
might  his  aspiring  hopes  be  roused  to  fancied  dreams  by 
stately  minarets  or  soaring  spires. 

The  new  reformer  had  been  bom  into  the  world  to  view, 
from  a  lonely  standpoint,  and  weave  into  an  artistic  whole, 
the  thoughts  the  age  had  brought  forth.     From  the  earliest 

1  Rhys  Davids,  "  Hibbert  Lectures,"  p.  86. 


128  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Vedic  times  there  were  those  who  had  denied  the  existence 
of  even  the  Vedic  deities.^ 

The  Vedas  themselves  had  been  denounced,  reviled,  and 
held  as  unworthy  the  consideration  of  wise  men.^  Atheists 
(fidstikas  =  na  asti,  i.e.  non  est)  flourished  and  spread 
abroad  their  unbelief.  A  worldly  sect  known  as  the 
Lokayatas  had  freely  declared :  ^ — 

"  There  is  no  heaven,  no  final  liberation,  nor  any  soul  in  another 
world. 
Nor  do  the  actions  of  the  four  castes,  or  orders,  produce  any  real 
effect. 

While  life  remains  let  man  live  happily,  let  him  feed  on  ghee  even 

though  he  runs  in  debt. 
When  once  the  body  becomes  ashes,  how  can  it  ever  return  again  ? 
If  he  who  departs  from  the  body  goes  to  another  world. 
How  is  it  that  he  comes  not  back  again,  restless  for  love  of  his 

kindred  ? 
Hence  it  is  only  as  a  means  of  livelihood  the   Brahmans  have 

established  here 
All  these  ceremonies  for  the  dead — there  is  no  other  fruit  anywhere. 
The  three  authors  of  the '  Vedas '  were  buffoons,  knaves  and  demons.'' 

There  is  yet  another  phase  of  thought  which  must  be 
considered  in  connection  with  the  underlying  factors  out  of 
which  grew  Buddhism. 

In  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  a  great  reforming  preacher, 
Mahavira,  had  spread  abroad  the  doctrines  of  Parsva,  the 
founder  of  the  Jaina  sect,  who  had  lived  in  the  eighth 
century  B.C.*  He,  like  Buddha,  was  a  Kshatriya.  His 
father  is  said  to  have  been  named  Siddartha,  a  chieftain  of 
the  Kundagrama  village,  his  mother  being  a  sister  of  the 
chieftain  of  Vaisali,  the  chief  town  of  the  Licchavis,  and 
also  related  to  Bimbisara,  King  of  Magadha.     At  the  age  of 

1  R.V.,  ii.  12,  5  :— "  They  ask,  Where  is  He  ?  Or  verily  they  say  of  Him, 
He  is  not "  (Griffith). 

2  Monier-Williams,  "Buddhism,"  p.  8. 

'  Cowell  and  Gough,  "  Sarva  Darsana  Sangraha,"  p.  lo. 
<  "  Ind.  Ant,"  p.  248  (Sept.  1894). 


BUDDHISM  129 

twenty-eight   he  set   forth  on   his   mission,  and   became 
known  as  the  Jina,  "The  Conqueror,"  and  his  teaching  as 
Jainism,  just  as  Buddha  is  l<nown  as  "  The  Enlightened," ' 
and  his  teaching  properly  as  Bauddhism. 

By  the  Jains  the  world  is  held  to  be  eternal,  and  made 
up  of  atoms.  Time  revolves  in  two  ever-recurring  cycles 
of  fabulous  age,  in  the  first  of  which  goodness  increases  only 
to  decrease  in  the  next.  Twenty-four  Jinas  appeared  in 
the  past  cycle ;  they  are  now  reigning  as  gods  ;  twenty- 
four  have  appeared  in  the  present  cycle — a  cycle  in  which 
goodness  is  ever  decreasing — and  twenty-four  are  yet  to 
appear  in  a  future  cycle. 

The  great  object  of  the  Jain  is  to  attain  victory  over  all 
worldly  desires  ;  to  free  his  soul  and  so  become  divine  like 
unto  the  Jinas.  These  were  known  as  Nirgranthas.i  "  those 
who  have  no  bonds,''  and  in  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century 
B.C.  they  parted  into  two  great  sects,  those  known  as  the 
Svetambaras, "  who  are  attired  in  white  raiment,"  and  those 
known  as  the  Digambaras,  or  "sky-clad,"  who  show  how  they 
have  cast  off  from  themselves  everything  of  the  world  by 
wandering  about  unclothed.  The  Jains  are  still  numerous  in 
India,^  the  faith  being  followed  by  the  wealthj'  Seths,  the 
great  banking  families.  The  costly  Jaina  temples,  where 
the  images  of  the  Jinas  live  in  lonely  isolation  on  the 
summit  of  Mount  Abu,  still  preserve  the  highest  ideals  of 
pure  Hindu  architecture.  In  many  points  the  history  of 
Jainism  closely  resembles  that  of  Buddhism,  a  system  from 
which  it  was  for  long  considered  an  offshoot.  The  Jains,  like 
the  Buddhists,  have  lay  members," Sravakas,"  who  are  in  and 
of  the  world,  and  also  ascetic  monks,  "  Yatis,"  who  live  apart 
in  monasteries.  For  the  Jaina  generally  there  were  three 
"  gems  "  by  which  the  soul  obtained  liberation,  or  "  Moksha." 

'  Jacobi,  Z.D.M.G.,  xxxviii.  17  ;  Hopkins,  "  Rel.  of  India,"  p.  284. 
^  "  Census  of  India,"  (1891)  : — "Jains  now  number  409,715  ;  Buddhists  only 
243.677-" 

I 


I30  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

These  three  were,  right  insight  {darSana),  right  knowledge, 
and  right  conduct.  In  the  observance  of  the  last  injunction 
the  monastic  Jaina  monks  were  vowed  never  to  tell  lies ; 
never  to  steal ;  never  to  be  immoderate  in  thought,  word  or 
deed;  never  to  desire  too  much;  but  above  all,  never  to  kill 
or  injure  any  living  thing.  So  the  Jaina  monk  to-day  up- 
holds hospitals  for  the  care  of  all  animals,  even  for  the 
nurture  of  foul  insects.  The  water  they  drink  they  first 
strain  in  hopes  of  removing  all  life ;  they  sweep  the  ground 
before  them  as  they  walk,  so  that  their  feet  may  not  fall 
on  any  living  thing ;  they  even  wear  veils  over  their  mouths 
that  nothing  with  life  may  be  drawn  in  by  their  breath. 

Even  if  Buddha  had  not  heard  in  his  own  home  of  any 
of  these  doctrines  of  the  Vedantic  or  Sankhyan  philosophies, 
of  Jainism,  of  agnosticism,  or  of  the  Brahman  and  Atman, 
nevertheless,  the  spirit  of  the  times  was  moving  towards 
them,  and  the  practical  success  of  his  mission  shows  that 
he  had,  with  true  insight,  set  forth  an  ideal  which  in  the 
East  received  assent  from  wondering  myriads  of  men  and 
women  who  lived  and  died  in  simple  and  devout  reverence 
of  his  teaching  and  his  Order.  The  force  he  sent  forth 
was  sufficient  for  a  time  to  overshadow  that  on  which  the 
rising  power  of  Brahmanism  was  based. 

Inasmuch  as  Buddhism  found  its  truest  abiding  home 
in  Scythian  or  Turanian  lands,  it  might  be  held  that  it  was 
not  the  true  outcome  of  Aryan  thought,  yet  a  parallel  is  to 
be  seen  in  the  spread  of  Christianity  among  Teutonic  races. 

When  Buddha,  at  the  age  of  twenty-nine,  departed  from 
the  northern  home  of  the  Sakyas,  he  made  his  way  towards 
Rajagriha,  where  ruled  Bimbisara,  the  chieftain  of  the 
Magadhas,  over  a  district  extending  over  one  hundred  miles 
south  of  the  Ganges,  and  one  hundred  miles  east  of  the 
Son.  To  the  north  of  the  Ganges  were  the  Licchavis, 
whose  chieftain,  Kataka,  ruling  at  his  capital,  Vaisali,  was 
brother  to  Trisala,  the  mother  of  the  Jaina  saint,  Mahavlra. 


BUDDHISM  131 

Still  further  to  the  east  of  Magadha  was  the  land  of  the 
Angas,  with  their  capital  at  Chompa,  while  away  to  the 
north-west  lay  the  Kosalas,  whose  king,  Prasenajit,  ruled 
at  Sravasti,  whither  the  ancient  capital  had  been  removed 
from  Ayodhya.  At  Rajagriha  Buddha  met  two  Brahmans,' 
Udraka  and  Alara,  and  from  them  he  learned  the  means 
whereby  they  sought  to  vanquish  all  that  held  them  bound 
to  take  their  part  in  life — a  part  which  at  its  best,  many  of 
to-day  would  say,  is  not  worth  taking  unless  some  firm 
faith  or  trust  in  its  Divine  purpose  be  the  guiding  light. 

From  the  two  Brahmans  Buddha  could  have  obtained 
no  such  light.  They  could  but  point  to  their  wasted  frames, 
to  their  own  sunken  eyes.  They  could  but  have  told  him  of 
their  austerities,  of  their  hopes  that  light  might  some  day 
come,  when  the  mystery  which  shrouded  their  lives  would 
pass  away,  and  they  become  as  gods  with  insight  more 
than  human. 

From  the  two  Brahmans  Buddha  parted.  His  quest 
still  lay  before  him,  for  still  he  knew  and  felt 

"  I  am  as  all  these  men 
Who  cry  upon  their  gods  and  are  not  heard, 
Or  are  not  heeded. — Yet  there  must  be  aid  ! 
For  them,  and  me,  and  all,  there  must  be  help !  "  * 

From  Rajagriha  he  wandered  on  to  the  lonely  forests  of 
Uruvela,  near  to  the  present  temple  of  Buddha  Gaya,  south 
of  Patna,  where  pilgrims  now  bring  from  far  lands  their 
votive  gifts  to  lay,  in  lowly  reverence,  on  the  spot  where  the 
feet  of  their  master  and  teacher  once  pressed. 

For  five  weary  years  Buddha  strove  to  seek  out  his  own 
salvation.  Penances,  austerities,  fastings  and  contemplation 
brought  neither  superhuman  knowledge  nor  power.  Five 
ascetic  sages  sat  by  and  watched  the  lengthened  struggle, 

1  Oldenberg,  "Buddha,"  p.  106;  Hopkins,  "Rel.  of  India,"  pp.  303-4 
Rhys  Davids,  "American  Lectures,"  p.  102. 

2  Edwin  Arnold,  "  Light  of  Asia." 


132  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

wondering  if  at  last  one  mortal  might  pierce  the  Infinite, 
and  grasp  eternal  knowledge  of  the  Divine. 

From  the  lips,  thin  and  bereft  of  colour,  there  came  no 
murmur;  from  the  eyes,  sunk  deep  beneath  the  arching 
brows,  there  came  no  gleam  to  show  that  the  soul  of  the 
sage  had  been  quickened  by  a  knowledge  more  sustaining 
than  earthly  food.  The  Buddha  remained  silent  and  suffer- 
ing. At  length  in  despair  he  turned  from  his  asceticism, 
and  his  five  companions  left  him. 

One  night — the  sacred  night  of  Buddhism — while  Buddha 
dreamed  on  alone  beneath  the  sacred  Bo-tree,i  whose  shade 
yet  falls  on  Buddhist  pilgrims,  he  clearly  grasped  in  his 
own  mind  the  whole  cause  of  the  world's  sorrow,  and  the 
means  whereby  the  soul  might  free  itself  for  ever  from  the 
continued  course  of  birth  and  re-birth.  The  attainment  of 
enlightenment  by  Gotama,  who  by  it  became  the  Buddha, 
"  The  Enlightened,"  has  been  surrounded  by  later  tradition  ^ 
with  miraculous  events  and  supernatural  portents.  When 
the  powers  of  darkness  struggled  to  hide  the  light  from 
Sakya  Muni,  the  mountains  trembled,  the  earth  shook,  the 
storms  broke  loose,  the  sun  hid  itself  away,  and  the  stars 
moved  from  their  spheres.  The  truth,  however,  slowly 
worked  its  way  to  Buddha's  soul.  Then  Mara,  "  the  Evil 
One,"crept  close  and  sought, with  soothing  words  and  visions 
of  delight,  to  stay  The  Enlightened  from  proclaiming  abroad 
the  knowledge  he  had  attained.  Muchalindra, "  the  King  of 
the  Snakes,"  folded  itself  as  a  safeguard  round  the  Buddha's 
body.  Brahma  Sahampati  descended  from  his  heaven 
and  bade  the  Muni  go  forth  and  free  all  mankind  from  the 
bondage  of  birth,  old  age,  and  death.  While  Buddha 
wondered  to  whom  he  should  first  proclaim  his  doctrine, 
he  learned  that  his  two  former  teachers,  Alara  and  Udraka, 
were  dead,  so  he  turned  towards  Benares  to  seek  out  the 

*  Ficus  religiosa. 

'  Rhvs  Davids,  "American  Lectures,"  p.  104. 


BUDDHISM  133 

five  ascetics  who  had  watched  his  early  struggles.  He 
found  them  seated  in  the  Deer  Park,  three  miles  north  of 
Benares,  then  known  as  Varanasi.  But  as  he  approached 
they  said  one  to  another :  ^  "  Friends,  yonder  comes  the 
ascetic,  Gotama,  who  lives  in  self-indulgence,  who  has  given 
up  his  quest  and  returned  to  self-indulgence.  We  shall 
show  him  no  respect,  nor  rise  up  before  him,  nor  take 
his  alms-bowl  and  his  cloak  from  him ;  but  we  shall  give 
him  a  seat,  and  he  can  sit  down  if  he  likes."  Their  sub- 
sequent conduct,  however,  shows  how  it  was  Buddha's  own 
personal  influence,  an  influence  founded  on  an  absolute 
belief  in  himself  and  in  his  own  mission,  supported  and 
extended  by  his  overpowering  eloquence,  and  the  mesmeric 
charm  a  powerful  and  determined  mind  has  over  others, 
that  won  for  him  success  as  a  teacher  and  propagator  of 
his  doctrines.  When  all  this  had  departed,  Buddhism  lived 
in  its  purity  only  so  long  as  those  who  remembered  his 
personality  exercised  their  influence  to  preserve  the  faith 
simple  and  uncorrupted. 

He  was  the  first  to  show  that  the  races  of  India  were 
capable  of  being  infused  by  a  firm  master-mind  with  a 
common  purpose,  and  of  being  held  together  by  a  common 
bond  of  union.  It  was  through  the  work  commenced  by 
Buddha  that  Asoka,^  the  first  temporal  Chakravarti,  or 
emperor,  was  able  to  unite  the  scattered  Aryan  tribes  and 
alien  races  beneath  his  sceptre. 

Once  Buddha's  personality  faded  away,  his  religion  found 
its  chief  rallying-point  in  the  cohesion  of  a  mendicant 
order  of  monks,  who  transformed  their  Buddha  into  a 
god,'   and   mingled   legend,  miracles,  idolatrous   practices 

1  Oldenberg,  "Buddha,"  p.  125  (quoted  from  "Mahavagga,"  i.  6-10). 

*  Neither  Chandragupta  nor  Bimbisara  were  Buddhists,  nor  Asoka  until  the 
twentieth  year  of  his  reign. 

3  Rhys  Davids,  "Buddhism,"  pp.  200-1,  for  the  rise  of  the  worship  of  the 
Buddhist  trinity,  Maitreya  Buddha,  Manju  Sri,  and  Avalokitesvara ;  also 
p.  128: — "  Gautama  was  very  early  regarded  as  omniscient,  and  absolutely 
sinless"  ;  p.  189  : — "After  his  death  the  miracles  and  exaggeration  increase." 


134  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

and  debasing  beliefs  with  the  moral  teachings  of  the 
founder  which  they  had  forgotten  to  follow. 

When  Buddha  approached  nearer  to  the  five  ascetics, 
who  watched  his  approach  in  the  Deer  Park  near  Benares, 
they  could  no  longer  abide  by  their  resolution  to  show  him 
no  respect.  They  rose  and  prostrated  themselves  before 
him,  and  as  they  listened  to  his  burning  words,  poured 
forth  in  the  soft  and  pleading  Pali,  each  of  the  ascetics  felt 
as  though  the  Master  addressed  him  alone.  These  five 
were  his  first  disciples,  so  that,  "  at  that  time  there  were 
six  Arahats  (persons  who  had  reached  absolute  holiness) 
in  the  world."  ^ 

To  the  five  ascetics  the  Master  first  declared  that  he 
had  at  length  found  the  great  truth  which  all  had  sought 
— a  truth  giving  freedom  from  bondage  and  from  re-birth, 
leading  to  enlightenment,  to  Nirvana  in  this  life,  and  then 
to  Parinirvana,  when  the  body  falls  to  decay  bereft  of  all 
Karma.  He  then  told  them  how  the  truth  could  not  be 
found  in  wordly  pleasures  nor  yet  in  morbid  asceticism. 
There  was  but  one  path  whereby  it  could  be  reached. 
This  was  the  Middle  Path,  journeyed  through  by  the 
following  of  the  Eightfold  Precepts,  whereby  he  had 
obtained  emancipation  of  the  mind  which  "cannot  be 
lost ;  this  is  my  last  birth ;  hence  I  shall  not  be  born 
again."  2  This  Eightfold  Path  consisted  of  Right  Views,^ 
Right  Aspirations,*  Right  Speech,^  Right  Conduct,*  Right 
Living,^  Right  Effort.^  Right  Thought,^  and  Right  Self- 
Concentration.i*     Such  was  the  simple  Middle  Path  for 

*  "  Mahavagga,"  i.  7,  3 ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xi.  (Rhys  Davids'  translation). 

^  S.B.E.,  "  Mahavagga,"  i.  6,  29.        '  Free  from  superstition  and  delusion. 

*  High  and  vf  orthy  of  the  intelligent,  earnest  man. 

°  Kindly,  open,  and  truthful.  «  Peaceful,  honest,  pure. 

'  Bring  hurt  or  danger  to  no  living  thing. 

*  In  self-training  and  self-control.  '  The  active,  watchful  mind. 

'» In  deep  meditation  on  the  realities  of  life. —  Rhys  Davids,   "  American 
Lectures,"  pp.  137-38. 


BUDDHISM  135 

those  to  follow  who  desired  to  obtain  peace,  enlighten- 
ment, and  freedom  from  re-birth. 

The  centre  point  of  Buddha's  faith,  round  which  all  his 
teaching  revolves,  was  the  doctrine  of  Karma,  one  of  the 
most  important  and  far-reaching  philosophic  theories  ever 
reached  by  the  intuitive  reasoning  powers  of  man.  It  was 
a  new  and  enormous  contribution  to  the  sum  of  human 
speculation.  Its  importance  in  the  history  of  Indian  social 
and  political  life  cannot  be  over-estimated.  No  other 
theory  at  all  similar  to  it  was  ever  enunciated  by  any  of 
the  philosophic  schools  of  India  with  the  same  clearness, 
the  same  breadth  and  depth  of  view  regarding  its  bearings, 
and  absolute  certainty  regarding  its  transcendent  import- 
ance, as  was  this  master-stroke  of  one  who  "  saw  deeper 
than  the  greatest  of  modern  idealists."  1 

Two  of  the  most  important  philosophic  theories  which 
the  thought  of  India  has  produced — important  not  only  in 
their  practical  influence  in  the  past,  but  in  being  the  two 
theories  forming  the  whole  basis  on  which  the  orthodox 
classes  in  India  at  present  confront  the  advances  of 
Christianity — are  theories  which  rest  on  assumptions  in- 
capable of  substantiation  or  proof.  They  have  to  be 
taken  on  faith,  and  therein  consists  the  strength  of  their 
position.     The  first  is  the  doctrine  of  Karma. 

The  ancient  doctrine  of  transmigration  of  the  soul 
had  taught  the  Indian  sage  that :  "  Every  sentient  being 
is  reaping  as  it  has  sown,  if  not  in  this  life,  then 
in  one  or  other  of  the  infinite  series  of  antecedent 
existences  of  which  it  is  the  latest  term."^  It  was  the 
act,  or  character,  of  individuals  "which  passed  from  life 
to  life  and  linked  them  in  the  chain  of  transmigrations; 
and  they  held  that  it  is  modified  in  each  life,  not  merely 
by  confluence  of  parentage,  but  by  its  own  acts.     They 

1  Huxley,  "  Romanes  Lecture,"  p.  19. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  14. 


136  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

were,  in  fact,  strong  believers  in  the  theory,  so  much 
disputed  at  present,  of  the  hereditary  transmission  of 
acquired  character."^ 

Inasmuch  as  Buddha  denied  the  existence  of  a  Soul, 
for  which  his  scheme  had  no  place,^  he  had,  by  some 
other  theory,  to  account  for  that  which  was  continually 
taking  place,  the  ever-becoming,  the  never-being. 

Buddha  had  to  show  a  cause  for  the  condition  of  sorrow 
into  which  man  is  born ;  he  had  to  give  some  reason  for  the 
necessity  of  following  his  Eightfold  Path,  which  had  four 
stages  leading  from  acceptance  of  his  doctrines  on  to 
greater  and  greater  freedom  from  re-birth  to  absolute 
Arahatship.  If  there  were  no  soul,  and  all  enquiry 
respecting  the  existence  of  God  were  but  vain  labour,  as 
Buddhism  asserted,  then  there  must  be  some  cause 
to  condition  the  becoming,  the  re-birth,  which  Buddha 
admitted.  This  re-birth  was  that  of  a  sentient  being  in 
no  way  connected  by  bonds  of  blood  with  the  previous 
being ;  it  had  no  bond  with  the  past  except  through 
the  one  mystery  of  Karma,  or  act.      It   must,  however, 

*  "That  the  manifestation  of  the  tendencies  of  a  character  may  be  greatly 
facilitated  or  impeded  by  conditions  of  which  self-discipline,  or  the  absence  of 
it,  are  among  the  most  important,  is  indubitable  ;  but  that  the  character  itself 
is  modified  in  this  way  is  by  no  means  so  certain.  It  is  not  so  sure  that  the 
transmitted  character  of  an  evil  liver  is  worse,  or  that  of  a  righteous  man 
better,  than  that  which  he  received.  Indian  philosophy,  however,  did  not 
admit  of  any  doubt  on  this  subject;  the  belief  in  the  influence  of  conditions, 
notably  of  self-discipline,  on  the  Karma,  was  not  merely  a  necessary  postulate 
of  its  theory  of  retribution,  but  it  presented  the  only  way  of  escape  from  the 
endless  round  of  transmigrations." — Huxley,  "  Romanes  Lecture,"  p.  15. 

'  "Granting  the  premises,  I  am  not  aware  of  any  escape  from  Berkeley's 
conclusion,  that  the  '  substance '  of  matter  is  a  metaphysical,  unknown  quantity, 
of  the  existence  of  which  there  is  no  proof.  What  Berkeley  does  not  seem  to 
have  so  clearly  perceived  is  that  the  non-existence  of  a  substance  of  mind  is  equally 
arguable,  and  that  the  result  of  the  impattial  application  of  his  reasonings 
is  the  reduction  of  the  AH  to  co-existences  and  sequences  of  phenomena, 
beneath  and  beyond  which  there  is  nothing  cognoscible.  It  is  a  remarkable 
indication  of  the  subtlety  of  Indian  speculation  that  Gautama  should  have 
seen  deeper  than  the  greatest  of  modern  idealists." — Huxley,  "Romanes 
Lecture,"  p.  19. 


BUDDHISM  137 

be  clearly  borne  in  mind  how  this  theory  differs  from 
the  modern  theory  of  evolution  and  the  disputed  theory 
of  transmission  of  character  from  parent  to  offspring. 

When  a  man  died,  when  the  elements  which  Buddha 
held  to  constitute  man  passed  away — and  in  these  elements 
there  was  no  abiding  soul — all  that  remained,  according  to 
Buddha,  was  his  Karma — his  doing,  the  result  of  his  good 
and  evil  actions,  of  his  words,  and  of  his  thoughts.  This 
Karma  had  to  work  out  its  potentiality ;  it  had  to  receive 
punishment  or  reward ;  so  a  new  conscious  existence,  un- 
connected with  the  old,  was  produced  as  a  habitation  for 
its  working. 

The  assumption  was  an  ingenious  hypothesis  to  account 
for  transmigration  without  the  necessity  of  assuming  the 
existence  of  a  soul,  or  of  any  underlying  substance  of 
matter  or  of  mind. 

It  is  but  seldom  that  the  weakness  of  the  entire  system 
of  Buddhism  is  recognised.  Professor  Rhys  Davids,  who 
has  so  clearly  recognised  the  historical  importance  of 
Buddhism,  has  pointed  out^  the  factors  which  inspired 
the  faith  of  its  followers :  "  On  one  side  of  the  key- 
stone is  the  necessity  of  justice,  on  the  other  the  law 
of  causality."  At  the  same  time  he  clearly  recognises 
how  they  "have  failed  to  see  that  the  very  keystone 
itself,  the  link  between  one  life  and  another,  is  a  mere 
word."  2 

According  to  Buddha,  man  is  made  up  of  aggregates,  or 
Skandas,  of  "  material  qualities,  sensations,  abstract  ideas, 
tendencies  of  mind,  and  mental  powers"  * 

Nowhere  amid  these  Skandas,  nor  in  their  sub-divisions, 
is  there  any  such  thing  as  Soul.  The  Skandas  exist  alone, 
ever  passing  from  change  to  change,  leaving  no  abiding 

1  Rhys  Davids,  "  Buddhism,'"  p.  105.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  106. 

'  Ibid.,  p.  go;  or  Oldenberg,  "  Buddha"  p.  128  (note) : — "  Corporeal  form, 
sensations,  perceptions,  conformations  (or  aspirations),  and  consciousness." 


138  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

principle  whatsoever.  When  a  sage  attains  Nirvana,  when 
there  is  no  result  of  his  Karma  calling  for  new  existence 
to  work  out  its  effects,  the  body  truly  remains,  and  "  while 
his  body  shall  remain,  he  will  be  seen  by  gods  and  men 
but  after  the  termination  of  life,  upon  the  dissolution  of 
the  body,  neither  gods  nor  men  will  ever  see  him." 

The  first  of  the  "Four  Noble  Truths"  laid  down  by 
Buddha  shows  that  sorrow  is  inseparable  from  birth,  old 
age,  disease,  and  death ;  from  union  with  those  not  loved, 
and  separation  from  those  loved ;  from  non-attainment  of 
what  one  desires — in  fact,  a  clinging  to  all  that  springs  from 
the  five  Skandas. 

The  second  "Truth"'  was,  that  the  thirst  {Trisknd)  for 
existence  led  to  new  becomings  "  accompanied  by  pleasure 
and  lust,  finding  its  delight  here  and  there."  i 

The  third  "  Truth "  was,  that  sorrow  comes  only  from 
"  the  destruction  in  which  no  craving  remains  over,  of  this 
very  thirst ;  the  laying-aside  of,  the  getting-rid  of,  the  being- 
free  from,  the  harbouring  no  longer  of,  this  thirst."  * 

The  fourth  "  Truth  "  was,  that  if  the  Eightfold  Path  of 
Right  Discipline  be  followed,  suffering  will  be  extinguished. 
By  following  the  Eightfold  Path,  the  Buddhist  first  frees 
himself  from  all  delusion  of  Self,  from  doubt  as  to  the 
teachings  of  Buddha,  from  trust  in  rites  and  ceremonies, 
and  reaches  a  stage,  "  better  than  universal  empire  in  this 
world,  better  than  going  to  heaven,  better  than  lordship 
over  all  worlds."  ^  By  further  progress  in  the  Right  Path 
the  Buddhist  becomes  almost  freed  from  all  bodily  passion, 
from  ill-feelings  towards  others,  from  desire  to  live  on 
earth ;  his  Karma  will  but  act  to  produce  one  new  birth. 
So  the  course  goes  on,  until  all  remnant  of  longing  for  life 
on  earth  or  in  heaven,  all  pride,  ill-feeling,  bodily  passion, 

1  S.B.E.,  "  Mahavagga,"  i.  6,  20. 

^  Rhys  Davids,  "  American  Lectures,"  p.  137. 

'  Ibid.,  "  Buddhism,"  p.  108. 


BUDDHISM  139 

self-righteousness,  and  ignorance  vanish,  the  man  becoming 
a  perfect  Arahat  having  attained  Nirvana.^ 

The  Nirvana  gained,  there  ensues  the  one  great  sinless 
and  actionless  state  of  mind,  in  which  the  Karma  is  deprived 
of  "  potential."  The  "  wheel  of  life  "  ^  stands  poised,  there 
being  no  longer  a  motive  force,  springing  out  from  igno- 
rance and  leading  on  to  despair,  to  speed  it  on  its  saddened 
round  of  desire,  attachment,  birth,  death,  and  re-birth. 

It  was  strength,  and  daring  strength,  that  sent  Buddha 
forth  to  seek  out  for  his  times  some  solution  of  the 
question  of  how  the  Creator 

"  Would  make  a  world  and  keep  it  miserable, 
Since,  if,  all  powerful,  he  leaves  it  so. 
He  is  not  good,  and  if  not  powerful. 
He  is  not  God?"3 

It  was  genius  unequalled  among  the  sons  of  men  that 
inspired  the  Buddha's  teaching.  It  was  genius,  command- 
ing in  its  dictatorial  strength,  that  held  together  his  Order. 
It  was  genius,  the  first  and  last  that  India  saw,  that,  in  its 
lofty  aims  and  universality,  foreshadowed  the  possibility 
of  uniting  the  people  into  one  great  nationality,  if  such  had 
ever  been  possible. 

It  cast  no  shadow  over  Indian  thought.  It  gave  it  in  the 
doctrine  of  Karma  the  best  and  surest  motive  it  could  ever 
reach  unaided  for  the  deepening  of  a  sense  of  individual 
responsibility,*  for  act,  thought,  deed,  or  speech. 

*  It  is  neither  annihilation  nor  everlasting  bliss,  it  is  "but  an  epithet  of  a 
state  of  mind  to  be  reached  and  enjoyed  only  in  the  present  life." — ^J.R.A.S. 
(1S97),  p.  407. 

^  Rhys  Davids,  "American  Lectures,"  pp.  120-21. 
3  Arnold,  Sir  E.,  "  Light  of  Asia." 

*  See  an  important  article  (J.R.A.S.  1897,  p.  410)  by  Mrs  Rhys  Davids, 
pointing  out  the  danger  of  introducing  "  ill-fitting  Western  terminology  "  into 
questions  dealing  with  Eastern  modes  of  thought.  It  may  be  generally  said 
that  all  the  plausible  similarities  pointing  to  connection  between  Eastern  and 
Western  modes  of  thought,  are  either  fallacious  or  unhistorical.  Their  dis- 
cussion would  entail  a  considerable  space,  and  the  result,  in  nearly  all  cases, 
would  be  so  problematic  that  they  have  been  unnoticed  to  a  great  extent  in 


I40  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

In  viewing  Buddhism  in  its  historical  significance,  in  its 
being  the  culminating  point  to  which  the  wave  of  Indian 
thought  had  reached,  the  wreckage  of  the  past  that  still 
clung  around  it,  and  was  carried  on  with  it,  must  not  be 
confused  with  the  wave  itself.  Amid  this  wreckage  much 
can  be  found  to  delight  the  prurient  mind,  much  from  which 
a  system  could  be  framed  for  morbid  mysticism,  and  much 
to  encourage  those  who  seek  for  themselves  a  reputation 
for  the  possession  of  prophetic  and  supernatural  powers, 
such  as  were  undoubtedly  ascribed  by  the  common  mind 
to  Buddha,  if  not  in  his  own  days,  at  least  shortly  after 
his  decease.  To  those  who  study  the  past  of  India  down 
through  the  ages,  and  look  for  the  future  which  is  yet  to 
dawn,  when  all  her  latent  intellectual  and  spiritual  forces  will 
once  again  awaken  to  add  their  strength  to  the  history  of 
the  world's  progress,  the  chief  point  of  interest  in  Buddhism 
is  to  ascertain  how  high  the  wave  of  thought  reached  in 
Buddha's  time,  not  to  probe  how  low  to  the  earth  the 
instincts  and  superstitions  of  the  mass  could  creep. 

Buddha,  in  his  own  life-time,  could  defend  his  teaching 
and  maintain  his  Order  by  his  own  power  of  eloquence 
and  by  the  force  of  his  own  character  and  personal 
influence.  Of  these  the  Order  was  deprived  on  his  death. 
The  stately  structure  that  the  architectonic  genius  of 
Buddha  had  raised  to  impress  and  fascinate  the  Eastern 
world  had  to  be  sustained  by  means  other  than  those  which 
the  master-builder  could  alone  employ.  So  long  as  he 
lived  he  claimed  no  Divine  birth,  no  miraculous  power, 
no  supernatural  insight 

From  the  literature  as  we  now  possess  it — for  we  possess 

the  body  of  this  manual.  The  author  is  not  prepared  to  admit  any  classical 
influence  on  the  Indian  drama,  and  can  only  see  very  special  and  exceptional 
evidences  of  Greek  or  Roman  art  having  affected  Indian  architecture.  The 
whole  of  Indian  thought  and  art  is  impressed  indelibly  with  an  individual 
stamp  of  its  own,  and  for  the  present  the  evidences  of  this  must  remain  more 
a  matter  of  feeling  than  one  for  profitable  discussion. 


BUDDHISM  141 

no  work  of  which  even  the  author  or  date  is  known  before 
the  middle  of  the  third  century  B.C.,*  and  books  in  manu- 
script* are  not  known  until  long  afterwards — it  is  almost 
impossible  to  extricate  the  real  teachings  of  Buddha  as  he 
formulated  them,  yet  the  earliest  burial  mounds  erected  to 
his  memory,  and  temples  wherein  his  sayings  were  recited, 
show  plainly  that  the  whole  system  is  free  from  superstition, 
idolatry,  or  the  worship  of  Buddha  as  a  divine  being  to 
whom  miraculous  or  supernatural  powers  were  ascribed. 

For  forty- four  years  Buddha  wandered  to  and  fro, 
enrolling  Brahmans,  Kshatriyas,  Vai§yas,  low-caste  men, 
and  even  women  within  his  Order.  There  was  no  dis- 
tinction made  on  account  of  caste ;  the  Buddhist  monks 
had  but  to  declare  that  they  desired  to  take  refuge  in 
Buddha,  his  Law,  and  his  Order.  Once  they  donned  the 
orange  -  coloured  robes  of  Buddhism  and  assumed  the 
Eastern  form  of  tonsure,  they  abandoned  their  families,  went 
forth  as  mendicants  to  live  a  life  of  seclusion,  meditation, 
chastity,  and  moderation  in  all  things.  Far  and  wide  the 
monks  were  sent,  yet  never  in  twos,  to  preach  the  fame  of 
Buddha,  and  proclaim  the  knowledge  that  had  dawned 
from  out  the  Sakyan  race.  Buddha  himself  journeyed  all 
through  the  Aryan  homes  inculcating  everywhere  his 
Four  Great  Truths,  his  Eightfold  Path,  and  Four  Stages 
leading  to  Nirvana.  To  those  who  sought  his  help  and 
counsel  he  told  the  stories  of  the  good  deeds  done  in 
former  births  by  good  or  evil  livers,  the  Karma  of  which 
was  but  working  out  its  results  in  the  joys  and  sorrows  the 
people  suffered.  From  Magadha  to  Kapilavastu,  from 
Koi^ala  to  Videha,  his  fame  went  forth :  it  was  soon  evident 

1  "The  Katha  Vatthu  :  or,  Account  of  Opinion,"  "  written  by  Tissa,  son  of 
Mogali,  about  the  year  250  B.C." — Rhys  Davids,  "American  Lectures,"  p.  64. 

'^  Professor  Bendall,  whose  search  for  Sanskrit  MSS.  in  Nepal  have  yielded  such 
valuable  results,  informs  me  that  an  MS.  of  the  third  century  a.d.,  in  Kliarosthi 
character,"^as  been  found  recently  by  a  Russian  Consul  in  Kashgaria.  See 
also  J.R.A.S.  (April,  1897). 


142  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

that  a  new  power  had  arisen  among  the  Aryan  people, 
and  that  strange  changes  would  arise  from  out  the  new 
awakened  life.  At  Magadha,  the  chieftain,  Bimbisara, 
listened  to  the  words  of  Buddha,  and  gave  him  a  grove  ^ 
close  to  his  capital.  At  Kosala  the  chieftain,  Prasenajit, 
received  him  at  his  capital  Sravastl,^  and  there  a  wealthy 
merchant,  Anathapindika,  purchased  land  for  golden  pieces 
sufficient  to  cover  its  extent,  and  gave  it  to  Buddha,  and 
there  the  monastery,  Jetavana,  arose. 

At  Kapilavastu  he  enrolled  his  son,  Rahula,  in  the  Order, 
but  conceded  to  the  request  of  his  father,  Suddodhana,  that 
no  more  would  sons  be  admitted  to  the  Order  without  the 
consent  of  their  parents.  At  first  the  people  cried  out 
against  Buddha  and  his  Order,  for  the  system  meant  the 
destruction  of  family  life.  This  Buddha  could  not  help. 
The  Buddhist  had  to  remain  celibate,  for  a  woman  was, 
above  all  things,  to  be  avoided  ;  she  was  as  "  a  burning  pit 
of  live  coals."  *  At  length  the  Buddha  gave  way  so  far  as 
to  allow  women  to  enter  the  Order,  and  his  widowed  wife, 
Yasodhara,  was  admitted  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  travels, 
and  in  the  following  year,  Kshema,  the  wife  of  Bimbisara. 

In  temporal  affairs  Buddha's  influence  was-  soon  felt. 
In  a  dispute  between  the  Sakyans  and  Koliyans  respecting 
their  claims  to  the  waters  of  their  boundary  river,  Kohana, 
he  had  to  adjudicate.  When  Ajatasatru*  ascended  the 
throne  of  Magadha — it  is  said  by  the  murder  of  his  father, 
Bimbisara — ^he  consulted  Buddha  as  to  the  success  of  an 
expedition  he  was  about  to  undertake  against  the  advanc- 
ing tribe  of  Wajjian  Turanians,  north  of  the  Ganges,  and 
Buddha's  answer  was  that  those  who  remained  united, 
and  held  to  their  ancient  customs,  would  retain  their 
independence. 

^  Veluvana,  identified  in  Cunningham's   "Ancient  Geography  of  India," 
p.  451. 
" Ibid.,  p.  407.  »  "  CuUavagga."  <  485  to  453  B.C. 


BUDDHISM  143 

Towards  the  end  of  his  career,  in  the  forty-fourth  season 
of  his  itinerary,  Buddha  crossed  the  Ganges  at  the  site  of 
the  modern  city  of  Patna.  There  he  found  the  ministers 
of  Ajatasatru  laying  the  foundations  of  Pataliputra,  the 
modern  Patna,  a  city  destined  to  become  the  capital  of 
the  rising  kingdom  of  Magadha,  and  the  centre  of  Indian 
life  for  almost  one  thousand  years,  a  greatness  foretold  by 
Buddha.  Thence  he  passed  on  to  Vaisali,  the  chief  town 
of  the  Licchavis,  whose  proud  nobles  he  insulted  by 
receiving,  in  preference  to  theirs,  the  hospitality  of  the 
dancing-girl,  Ambapall,  who  refused  to  give  up  to  her 
rivals  her  right  to  feed  the  Buddha  :  "  My  lords,  were  you 
to  offer  all  Vaisali,  with  its  subject  territory,  I  would  not 
give  up  so  honourable  a  feast." 

From  Vaisali  he  journeyed  on  to  Belugamaka,  and 
thence  to  Kusinagara,  a  town  eighty  miles  east  of 
Kapilavastu,  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  north-east  of 
Benares. 

To  his  favourite  disciple,  Ananda,  he  poured  forth  his 
last  injunctions  :  "  I,  too,  Ananda,  am  now  grown  old  and 
full  of  years  ;  my  journey  is  drawing  to  its  close.  I  have 
reached  my  sum  of  days  ;  I  am  turning  eighty  years  of  age. 
Therefore,  O  Ananda,  be  ye  lamps  unto  yourselves.  Be 
ye  a  refuge  to  yourselves.  Betake  yourselves  to  no 
external  refuge.  Hold  fast  to  the  truth  as  to  a  lamp. 
Hold  fast  as  a  refuge  to  the  truth.  Look  not  for  refuge 
to  any  one  besides  yourselves." 

To  Ananda  he  also  declared  :  "  I  have  preached  the 
truth,  Ananda,  without  making  any  distinction  of  exoteric 
or  esoteric  doctrine ;  for,  in  respect  of  the  truths,  the 
Tathagata  has  no  such  thing  as  the  clenched  fist  of  a 
teacher  who  keeps  some  things  back."  ^ 

To  his  disciples  Buddha  left  no  other  guide  save  the 
Law  and  Rules  of  his  Order.    They  were  to  work  out  their 

'  Rhys  Davids. 


144  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

own  salvation,  ever  following  the  Eightfold  Path.  His  last 
words  for  the  Mendicant  Brotherhood  were  an  exhortation 
that  they  should  remember  how  "  everything  that  cometh 
into  existence  is  ever  passing  on ;  permanency  abideth 
nowhere ;  and  so  strive  without  ceasing."  ^ 

The  clearer  the  simplicity  of  Buddha's  teaching  stands 
out,  the  more  sublime  rises  the  figure  of  the  Eastern  sage 
with  saddened  face  and  folded  hands,  a  man  born  of 
woman,  not  divine  nor  arrogating  to  himself  any  divinity, 
sending  forth  his  plaintive  wail  that  man  is  for  ever  shut 
out  from  piercing  the  mysteries  of  creation  so  long  as  he 
hopes  to  find  the  clue  through  his  own  limited  intuitions  of 
time,  space,  and  cause. 

It  was  not  long  after  the  death  of  Buddha  that  strange 
changes  crept  over  the  land  as  well  as  over  the  spirit  of  his 
religion.  The  year  before  Buddha's  death,  Ajatasatru,  the 
King  of  Magadha,  conquered  Sravasti,  the  chief  town  of 
the  Ko^alas  and  centre  of  Buddhism,  and  razed  to  the 
ground  Kapilavastu. 

Not  much  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
from  the  date  of  the  death  of  Buddha,  Chandragupta,^ 
with  whom  the  successor  of  Alexander  the  Great  in 
the  East  was  forced  to  make  a  treaty,  became  King  of 
Magadha,  and  Emperor  of  all  North  India,  an  empire 
consolidated  by  the  greatest  native  ruler  India  has  seen, 
the  famed  Asoka,  the  Constantine  of  Buddhism,  whose 
\  Ijfe^  and  deeds  have,  strange  to  say,  founcl^  no  place  in 
the  "  Rulers  of  India  "  Series^  Though  Asoka  adopted  the 
'Buddhist  faith,  many  changes  had  taken  place  in  it  since 
it  had  lost  the  guiding  hand  of  its  founder. 

On  the  death  of  Buddha,  five  hundred  of  his  disciples 
gathered  together  in  a  cave,  known  as  the  Satapanni  Cave, 
near  Rajagriha,  where  all   the  teachings,  the  rules,  and 

"  Oldenberg,  "  Buddha,"  p.  202 ;  see  also  Rhys  Davids,  "  Buddhism,"  p.  83. 
'  315  to  291  B.C. 


BUDDHISM  145 

precepts,  as  remembered  by  those  who  had  listened  to 
Buddha's  words,  were  collected  together,  learned,  and 
recited  by  the  whole  Council,  so  that  they  should  ever  be 
remembered.  The  stricter  Buddhists  of  Ceylon  hold  that 
in  these  Pali  books  of  the  three  Pitakas,  they  possess  the 
full  doctrines  of  Buddha  as  chanted  at  the  first  Council. 

One  hundred  years  rolled  on  during  which  time  but  little 
more  is  known  of  the  Buddhists.  India  was  on  the  verge 
of  revolution.  The  Empire  of  the  Magadhas  had  not  only 
broken  in  pieces  the  separate  power  of  the  outlying 
chieftains,  and  brought  them  under  its  own  sway,  but  low- 
caste  usurpers  1  were  to  seize  the  empire  for  themselves, 
while  the  time  was  approaching  when  Alexander  the 
Great  was  to  break  through  the  isolation  which  separated 
India  from  communion  with  the  thought  and  beliefs  of  the 
Western  world. 

The  second  great  Buddhist  Council  met  at  Vaisali,  the 
ancient  capital  of  the  Wajjians,  in  377  B.C.,  and  signs  of 
coming  changes  were  apparent.  The  edifice  raised  by 
Buddha  was  to  receive  the  first  rude  shock  which  ultimately 
shattered  it  to  pieces  in  India,  and  left  its  crumbling  ruins 
to  form  a  relic  of  the  past  in  Ceylon,  Burma,  and  Siam,  and 
an  ignoble  and  debasing  refuge  for  the  myriad  peoples 
classed  as  Buddhists  in  China  and  Tibet.  The  Wajjians 
of  Vaisali,  at  the  Council,  strove  to  formulate  ten  indulgences, 
including  the  right  of  the  Buddhists  to  receive  gold  and 
silver,  and  over  these  ten  indulgences  the  Council  divided. 
With  the  Wajjians  the  Buddhists  of  Malwa  joined,  while 
the  representatives  of  the  more  remote  outlying  Southern 
and  Western  countries  clung  to  the  older  and  more 
orthodox  teaching  of  Buddha.  But  of  the  orthodox  and  un- 
orthodox parties,  eighteen  sects  arose,  all  belonging  to  the 

1  The  Sisunaga  dynasty  of  Magadha  lasted  from  600  B.C.  to  370  B.C.,  and 
then  the  Sudra  dynasty  of  the  Nandas  held  possession  for  fifty  years,  till  the 
time  of  Chandragupta,  32  B.C. 

K 


146  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Little  Vehicle,  or  Southern  school,i  and  not  to  the  Northern, 
or  Turanian  school,  which  followed  what  came  to  be  known 
as  the  Great  Vehicle,  a  debased  form  of  Buddhism.  The 
unorthodox  party  subsequently  formed  a  council  of  their 
own,  known  as  the  Great  Council,  and  by  the  Southern 
school  their  proceedings  were  denounced  as  heretical : — 

"  They  broke  up  the  old  scriptures  and  made  a  new  recension. 
A  discourse  put  in  one  place  they  put  in  another. 

These  monks,  who  knew  not  what  had  been  spoken  at  leng^th. 
And  what  had  been  spoken  concisely. 
What  was  the  obvious,  and  what  the  higher  meaning. 
Attached  new  meaning  to  new  words  as  if  spoken  by  the  Buddha, 
And  destroyed  much  of  the  spirit  by  holding  to  the  shadow  of 
the  letter."  2 

Henceforth  the  history  of  Buddhism  in  India  no  longer 
touches  the  life-history  of  the  thought  of  the  people.  It 
merges  itself  into  the  political  history  of  the  time,  being 
used  as  a  state  religion  to  support  the  authority  and 
position  of  emperors  whose  existence  it  had  made 
possible. 

In  the  early  burial  mounds,  such  as  that  of  Bharhut, 
where  the  freest  and  most  artistic  indigenous  work  in 
sculpture  that  India  has  ever  produced  is  to  be  found, 
the  bas-reliefs  merely  depict  the  good  deeds  done  by 
Buddha  in  previous  births ;  and  in  the  early  temples,  such 
as  those  of  the  Lomas  Rishi,  and  those  at  Bhaja,  and 
Karli,  between  Bombay  and  Poona,  there  is  no  trace  of 
idolatrous  worship  of  Buddha  or  infusion  of  debasing 
superstition  or  primitive  native  cults.  All  is  severe  and 
simple,  such  as  Buddha  himself  might  have  designed.     In 

1  Rhys  Davids,  J.R.A.S.  (1892-3) ;  Dutt,  "  Ancient  India,"  vol.  ii.  p.  295, 
where  he  states  that  the  "  Eastern  opinions  were  subsequently  upheld  by  the 
Buddhists  of  the  Northern  (Turanian)  school." 

^  Rhys  Davids,  "Buddhism,"  p.  217  (quoting  the  " Dipavamsa "). 


hUDDHISM  t47 

the  later  burial  mounds,  such  as  those  at  Sanchi,  some- 
where about  250  B.C.  to  the  first  century  A.D.,  and  Amravati, 
perhaps  one  hundred  years  later — domes  adorned  with  all 
the  art  which  India  could  furnish  forth  or  bring  to  her  aid 
from  foreign  lands — Buddha  is  fashioned  as  a  god,  not 
man,  crowned  with  a  nimbus,  guarded  by  snakes,  while 
near  at  hand  are  sculptured  trees  and  snakes  all  equally 
entitled  to  worship.  In  time  the  old  forms  of  spirit-worship 
grew  again  and  claimed  the  people's  superstitious  awe.  The 
Soul  of  man  assumed  its  old  place.  Buddha  became  the 
immaculate  offspring  of  his  mother,  Maya ;  he  was  enthroned 
a  god  in  the  highest  heaven,  there  to  be  adored  in  an  out- 
ward form  of  worship,  more  simple  in  its  forms,  and  more 
congenial  to  the  monks  and  laity  than  the  tedious 
following  of  his  precepts.  Bodhisatvas — those  enlightened 
saints  who  have  deemed  it  best  not  to  follow  Buddha's 
path  and  gain  Nirvana,  but  allowed  their  Karma  to  work 
so  that  their  good  deeds  might  benefit  humanity — were 
placed  side  by  side  with  Buddha,  and  claimed  the  rever- 
ence once  paid  solely  to  the  founder  of  the  Buddhist 
doctrines.  The  whole  future  history  of  Buddhism  in 
India  is  the  history  of  the  receding  of  the  wave  of  thought 
that  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.  had  reached  its  culminating 
point.  The  surging  force  that  sent  it  onward  was 
Brahmanism,  and  that  was  a  force  with  strength  enough 
to  sweep  Buddhism  from  before  its  path,  and  drive  it  to 
its  natural  resting-place  amid  the  Scythian  race.  The 
final  wave  of  Brahmanism  covered  in  its  course  all  India, 
and  there  it  still  rests,  so  that  the  dove  may  wing  its  way 
to  and  fro  and  never  find  a  resting-place  from  which  it  can 
discern  any  sign  that  the  flood  may  pass  away,  and  leave  the 
land  and  people  free  from  its  depths  of  brooding  waters. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   POWER  OF  THE  BRAHMANS. 

While  Buddha  held  aloft  the  standard  of  revolt  against 
priestly  hierarchy,  endeavouring  to  establish  among  the 
people  of  the  land  through  which  he  passed  a  religious 
order,  whose  rallying  point  was  a  disregard  of  all  dis- 
tinction founded  on  race,  class,  or  caste,  the  Brahman 
pojver  was  carrying  on  the  ancient  tradition  of  its 
own  past. 

The  Brahmans  had  been  for  long,  the  sole  custodians 
of  the  treasured  wealth  of  Aryan  lore.  They  had  grown 
to  power  side  by  side  with  kings  and  chieftains.  They 
held  the  sacred  guardianship  of  the  mysteries  of  the 
sacrificial  cult,  the  necessity  of  which  was,  from  an 
unknown  past,  implanted  in  the  very  mental  fibre  of 
those  who  gathered  round  the  smoke-ascending  incense 
The  power  which  Buddha  strove  to  eradicate  had  its  roots 
implanted  in  the  religious,  social,  and  racial  instincts  of 
the  Aryan  folk.  So  long  as  this  was  so,  and  so  long  as 
Brahmanism  allowed  not  its  strength  to  be  wholly  sapped 
by  the  ever  -  increasing  foreign  elements  with  which  it 
was  surrounded,  its  vitality  remained  unimpaired. 

Down  to  the  present  day  Brahmanism  preserves  its 
power    through    all   the   wreck   of   ages  —  possibly  as   a 

148 


THE  POWER    OF   THE  BRAHMANS      149 

mere  .  phantom  shadow  of  its  past  —  because  those  it 
admits  within  its  ranks  acknowledge  not  only  the  high 
claims  of  the  Aryan  priesthood  to  be  the  custodians  of 
Divine  ordinances,  but  also  bow  before  the  laws  and 
customs  of  caste,  which  ever  tend  to  preserve  them  from 
change  in  creed,  thought,  or  mode  of  life. 

Buddhism,  viewed  from  its  political  aspect,  strove  to 
break  through  those  mighty  barriers  which  separated 
race  from  race  and  caste  from  caste.  It  was  a  con- 
summation which  even  centuries  of  advanced  thought 
have  been  unable  to  accomplish  in  the  West,  even 
between  the  neighbouring  Celts  and  Teutons,  where 
none  but  a  Celt  feels  how  deep  the  separation  lies. 

India  saw  the  fatuity  of  Buddha's  efforts,  not  in  the 
thrusting  out  of  his  religion  by  the  Brahmanic  power,  but 
in  the  impossibility  for  an  Asoka,  a  Sivaji,  or  Ranjit 
Singh,!  to  combine  the  varied  peoples  of  India  into  one 
united  whole,  capable  of  sending  forth  the  message  that, 
as  their  land  holds  one-fifth  of  the  human  race,  they  can 
demand  a  recognition  of  their  right  to  stand  forth  as  more 
than  a  subject  people. 

From  the  extreme  north-west,  in  early  days,  the  Aryans 
had  spread  their  influence  from  the  sacred  Sarasvati  to  far 
beyond  Magadha  in  the  east,  so  that  the  land  where  they 
settled  became  renowned  as  Aryavarta,  "  the  land  of  the 
Aryans,"  where  "  the  rule  of  conduct  which  prevails  is 
authoritative."^  From  the  Himalayan  mountains  south 
to  the  Vindhya  range,  over  the  rich  land  where  the  black 
antelope  wanders,*  the  Brahmans  established  their  sway, 

'  The  failure  of  Akbar  is  not  a  case  in  point. 

2  "  Baudhayana,"  i.  I,  2,  9  ;  "  Vasishta,"  i.  lo. 

^  Ibid.,  i.  13;  "Baudhayana,"  i.  i,  2,  12.  "The  Oryx  cervicapra  selects 
for  its  home  the  well-cultivated  rich  plains  of  India  only,  and  is  entirely 
wanting  in  the  sandy,  mountainous,  or  forest  districts,  which  are  now,  just  as 
in  ancient  times,  the  portion  of  the  aboriginal  tribes." — Biihier,  S.B.E,,  vol. 
xiv.  p.  3  [note). 


ISO  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

holding  that  where  they  dwelt  could  alone  be  found 
"  spiritual  pre-eminence."  ^  Down  the  valley  of  the  Indus 
other  tribes,  such  as  the  Yadava,  went  and  made  their 
settlement  in  Sind ;  others  took  up  their  abode  in  the 
Panjab,  the  Land  of  the  Five  Rivers.  For  long  the 
Vindhya  range  shut  out  the  south  from  the  Aryan  advance. 
As  time  went  on,^  even  this  geographical  barrier  to  all 
incursion  from  the  north  gave  way  before  the  fair-skinned 
race  that  spread  along  the  Narbada  and  Tapti,  across  the 
Deccan,  so  that  even  before  the  Christian  era  a  great 
kingdom — that  of  the  Andhra  * — was  established  between 
the  Krishna  and  Godavari,  with  its  capital  at  Amravati, 
not  fifty  miles  from  the  eastern  sea.  As  the  Aryan  people 
spread  to  the  further  east  and  to  the  south,  the  Brahmans 
followed  in  the  wake  of  the  conquering  chiefs,  gaining 
reward  in  land  and  wealth  for  their  learning,  sacred 
knowledge,  and  the  right  they  held  to  dictate  the  laws 
and  ordinances  of  the  people.  Writing  must  have  been 
known  in  those  days,*  but  the  Brahmans  preferred  to  hold 
their  sacred  texts  preserved  in  their  own  memories,  so  that 

^  "  Baudhayana,"  i.  i,  2,  12  ;  "  Vasishta,"  i.  13. 

^  Even  earlier  than  the  sixth  century  B.C.  Earth,  "  Ind.  Ant."  (1894), 
p.  246  ;  see  Bumell  quoted,  p.  91 ;  Nelson,  "  View  of  Hindu  Law  "  ;  Biihler, 
S.B.E.,  vol.  ii.  p.  xxxvi.  i  "  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  South  of  India 
has  been  conquered  by  the  Aryans,  and  has  been  brought  within  the  pale  of 
Brahmanical  civilisation .  .  .  long  before  the  authentic  history  of  India  begins,  at 
the  end  of  the  fourth  century  B.C."  Baden-Powell,  J.R.A.S.  (1897),  p.  247  ; 
' '  Study  of  the  Dakhan  Villages  "  : — "  At  the  western  extremity  the  '  Vindhy  an ' 
barrier  ceases,  some  way  before  the  coast  is  reached,  and  thus  the  interesting 
country  of  Gujarat  is  open  .  .  .  and  once  in  Gujarat,  it  would  not  be  difficult 
to  dominate  the  Narbada  valley,  and  to  extend  to  the  Tapti  valley,  to  Berar, 
and  to  the  Dakhan." 

'  S.B.E.,  vol.  ii.  p.  xxxvi. 

^  For  the  Northern  alphabet,  known  as  Kharosthi,  used  in  Asoka's  inscrip- 
tions, and  on  the  Graeco-Indian  coins,  and  derived  from  the  Aramaic  alphabet, 
used  by  the  Achaemenlan  dynasty,  ruUng  N.W.  of  India  from  550  B.C.  to  the 
time  of  Alexander  the  Great,  327  B.C.,  as  well  as  for  the  Brahmi  alphabets, 
derived  from  Phoenician  traders,  see  BUhler,  "  Indische  Palseographie,"  p.  19, 
(t  siq. 


THE   POWER   OF  THE  BRAHMANS      151 

as  far  as  possible — for  Aryans  other  than  the  Brahmans 
claimed  a  right  to  be  taught  the  texts — their  power  and 
influence  should  remain  in  their  own  hands. 

Trained  as  the  memories  of  the  Brahmans  were — and 
even  yet  there  are  Brahmans  able  to  repeat  the  Vedic  text 
of  their  own  school  by  heart,  and  others  who  learn  the 
whole  grammar  of  Panini,  with  all  the  "Vartikhas,"  or 
explanation  of  Katyayana,  and  the  interpolations  of  the 
"Mahabhashya"  of  Patanjali — it  would  have  been  impos- 
sible thus  to  preserve,  free  from  corruption,  the  long  prose 
ramblings  of  the  Brahmans,  and  the  later  sacred  literature. 
At  every  centre  of  Brahmanism  there  were  schools  for 
imparting  instructions  in  the  sacred  texts,  and  from  these 
schools  trained  Brahmans  went  forth  to  act  as  priests, 
advisers,  and  counsellors  of  kings  and  chieftains,  or  to 
become  teachers  of  their  particular  recension  of  the  "  Veda," 
and  subsidiary  treatises  founded  thereon.  The  rules  for 
the  Vedic  sacrifices,  for  the  domestic  rites,  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  altars,  and  for  the  duties  and  customs  of 
the  Aryans,  were  therefore  reduced  to  the  most  concise 
and  condensed  form  possible,  and  strung  together  in 
leading  aphorisms,  or  "  Sutras,"  so  that  they  might  be  easily 
carried  in  the  memory.  These  "  Sutras  "  were  not  held,  like 
the  previous  literature,  to  be  of  Divine  revelation.  They  were 
professedly  compiled  by  human  authors  for  the  convenience 
of  teaching  the  essential  elements  of  the  subjects  they 
expound.  So  there  grew  to  be  different "  Sutras  "  ascribed 
to  different  authors,  who  followed  in  their  teaching  one  or 
other  of  the  recensions  of  the  four  "  Vedas  "  preserved  in 
their  family.^ 

1  See  Max  Muller,  letter  to  Prof.  Henry  Morley,  S.B.E.,  vol.  ii.  (Preface) 
pp.  ix.,  X.  The  "Sutras"  relating  to  the  Vedic  sacrifices  were  known  as  the 
"Srauta  Siitras";  those  of  the  domestic  rites,  the  "Grihya  Sutras";  those 
relating  to  laws,  the  "  Dharma  Sutras  "  ;  and  those  relating  to  the  building  of 
the  altars,  which  dealt  with  geometry,  the  "Sulva  Sutras."  The  whole  four 
being  known  as  the  "  Kalpa  Siitras.'' 


152  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

It  may  be  safe  to  take  the  whole  of  this  Sutra  period  as 
extending  from  the  fifth  to  the  first  century  B.c.i 

One  Brahmanic  family,  known  as  the  Manavas,  followed 
their  own  recension  of  the  "Black  Yajur  Veda,"  and  though 
the  Sutra  Aphorisms  of  their  laws  are  now  lost,  they  are  often 
quoted,  and  from  them  the  later  metrical  law  book,  popu- 
larly known  as  the  "  Laws  of  Manu,"  was  compiled.  The 
earliest  work  in  which  an  account  of  the  laws  and  customs  of 
the  Aryans  is  to  be  found,  is  that  known  as  the  "  Aphorisms 
of  Gautama,"  a  Brahman  law-giver,  who  followed  the 
recension  of  the  "  Sama  Veda  "  of  his  own  school.  Gautama 
was  succeeded  by  Baudhayana,  whose  teaching  is  accepted 
in  India,  south  of  the  Vindhyan  range  ^  of  mountains,  after 
whom  came  Apastamba  in  the  fifth  century,  B.C.,*  who, 
like  Baudhayana,  followed  the  "  Black  Yajur  Veda,"  and 
is  of  authority  in  the  south.*  The  school  of  the  fourth 
great  law  compiler,  Vasishta,^  who  followed  the  ^'Rig 
Veda,"  was  probably  that  in  vogue  in  a  school  of  North 
India.^  From  the  Brahmanic  codes  of  law,  it  can  be 
clearly  seen  that,  wherever  the  Brahmans  spread  over  India, 
north  of  the  Vindhya,  and  south  to  the  Godavari,  the  ideal 
aimed  at,  whatever  the  practice  may  have  been,  was  to 
preserve  the  sharp  distinction  between  the  Aryan  race  and 
the  aboriginal  inhabitants ;  to  stereotype  for  ever  the 
traditions  that  had  set  the  priestly  clans  as  custodians  of 

^  Max  Miiller  fixes  the  date  of  the  Sutra  period  between  600  and  200  B.C. 
Biihler  places  the  origin  of  the  Apastambiya  school  probably  "in  the  last  five 
centuries  before  the  banning  of  the  Christian  era." — S.B.E.,  vol.  ii.  p.  xviii. 
See  "Jaina  Sutras,"  p.  30;  "Encyclopaedia  Britannica," p.  279;  "Ind.  Ant." 
(1894),  p.  247  ;  Jolly,  "  Recht  und  Sitte,"  pp.  3,  6. 

""There  are  also  some  faint  indications  that  the  Andhra  country  is  the 
particular  district  to  which  Baudhayana  belonged." — Biihler,  S.B.E.,  vol.  xiv. 
p.  xliii. 

'  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  43.  *  Ibid. 

*  For  connection  with  the  Vasishta  of  the  "Rig  Veda,"  see  S.B.E.,  vol.  xiv. 
p.  12. 

"  Ibid.,  vol.  xiv.  p.  22. 


THE   POWER   OF  THE  BRAHMANS      153 

the  Divine  decrees  and  expounders  of  the  laws  and  customs 
of  the  people. 

The  dark-skinned  Sudras,^  the  aboriginal  settlers,  were 
outside  the  Aryan  pale.  If  the  Sudra  "  assumes  a  position 
equal  to  that  of  a  twice-born  man  in  sitting,  in  lying 
down,  in  conversation,  or  on  the  road,  he  shall  undergo 
corporal  punishment."  ^ 

No  pride  of  conquering  race,  or  pride  of  white-skinned 
birth  could  run  higher  than  it  did  in  India  over  two 
thousand  years  ago.  Should  a  Sudra  dare  raise  his  eyes 
to  an  Aryan  woman,  the  law  declared  that  he  should  be 
slain  or  mutilated.  If  he  listened  to  a  recitation  of  the 
Vedic  texts  his  ears  were  to  be  filled  with  molten  lac  or 
tin  ;  if  he  repeated  the  sacred  words  his  tongue  was  to  be 
cut  out ;  if  he  remembered  them,  "  his  body  shall  be  slit 
in  twain."  ^  The  penalty  for  the  slaughter  of  a  Sudra  was 
the  same  as  that  for  killing  "  a  flamingo,  a  crow,  an  owl,  a 
frog,  or  a  dog."  *  Elsewhere  a  higher  price  was  placed  on 
the  dark  man's  skin,  the  penalty  for  slaying  a  Sudra  being 
placed  at  ten  cows.^  The  sole  object  for  which  the  Sudra 
was  created  was  servitude ;  yet  contact  with  him  was  so 
abhorred  that  "  a  Brahman  who  dies  with  the  food  of  a 
Siidra  in  his  stomach  will  become  a  village  pig  in  his  next 
birth,  or  be  born  in  the  family  of  that  Sudra."  ^  Food 
touched  by  a  Sudra  becomes  unfit  for  eating.^  Should  an 
Aryan,  when  eating,  even  be  touched  by  a  Siidra,  he  had 
to  abandon  his  food.^ 

'  "  Nous  ne  saurions  discerner  si  la  population  comprise  sous  la  denomination 
de  Sudras  ^tait  uniquement  compos^e  de  ces  ^I^ments  aborigtees  qui  rencon- 
trerent  les  Aryens  en  immigrant  du  nord  -  ouest  dans  I'Inde,  ou  si  elles 
englobaient  des  ^I^ments  melangfe.  La  point  est  secondaire.  D'Aryens  a 
Sudras  il  y  a  certainement  a  I'origine  une  opposition  de  race,  qu'elle  soil  plus 
ou  moins  absolue." — Senart,  "Les  Castes  dans  I'Inde,"  p.  146. 

2  "  Gautama,"  xii.  7  ;  "  Apastamba,"  S.B.E.,  vol.  ii.  10,  27,  16  ;  "  Manu," 
viii.  281. 

'  "  Gautama,"  xii.  6.  *  "  Baudhayana,"  i.  10,  19,  6. 

'  "Baudhayana,"  i.  10,  19,  2.  '  "  Vasishta,"  vi.  27. 

'  "Apastamba,"  i.  5,  16,  22.  '  li/id.,  i.  5,  17,  i ;  ii.  2,  3,  4. 


IS4  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Apastamba,^  however,  also  declares  that  a  Sudra  may 
prepare  the  food  of  a  householder  if  he  is  under  the 
superintendence  of  men  of  the  three  higher  castes. 
Gautama,^  while  laying  down  that  the  duty  of  a  Sudra 
is  to  serve  the  three  higher  castes,  to  wear  their  cast-off 
shoes  and  garments,  to  eat  the  remnants  of  their  food, 
shows  that  the  rules  of  class  differences  had  not  in  his  time 
crystallised  themselves  into  the  strict  laws  of  the  pro- 
fessional and  trade  castes  of  later  times.  His  laws  state 
that  the  Sudra  may  live  by  mechanical  arts.  The  laws  of 
Manu,  some  three  hundred  years  later,  declare  that  a 
Sudra  could  only  support  himself  by  handicraft  when  he 
was  unable  to  find  service  under  a  twice-born  Aryan,  or 
when  he  was  in  danger  of  dying  from  hunger. 

From  intermarriage,  and  from  all  fellowship  and  contact 
with  the  Sudras,  the  three  Aryan  classes  of  Brahmans,  and 
Kshatriyas,  and  Vai^yas  were,  above  all  things,  exhorted 
to  abstain.  The  Sudra  race  was  a  burial-ground,'  there- 
fore "let  one  not  give  advice  to  a  Sudra,  nor  eat  what 
remains  from  his  table,  nor  let  him  explain  the  holy  law  to 
such  a  man,  nor  order  him  (to  perform)  a  penance."  *  The 
twice-born  Aryan  who  "  declares  the  law  to  such  a  man, 
and  he  who  instructs  him  in  (the  mode  of)  expiating  (sin), 
sinks  together  with  that  very  man  into  the  dreadful  hell." 

The  practical  tendency  of  such  rules  was  to  exclude  the 
great  mass  of  the  population  from  entering  into  combination, 
or  alliance,  with  the  Aryan  race  to  form  a  new  nationality.* 

1  "  Apastamba,''  x.  SS-67. 

"  See  also  Ibid.,  x.  40,  where  a  Sudra  of  eighty  years  of  age  was  to  be 
honoured. 

2  Ibid.,  i.  3,  9,  9  ;  "  Vasishta,''  xviii.  II. 

*  "Vasishta,"  xviii.  14,  15  ;  "  Manu,"  iv.  80-81. 

'  "  The  Indian  caste  system  is  a  highly  developed  expression  of  the  primitive 
principle  of  taboo,  which  came  into  play  when  the  Aiyans  first  came  into  peace- 
ful contact  with  the  platyrhine  race,  which  we  may  provisionally  call  Dravidian. 
This  principle  derived  its  initial  force  from  the  sense  of  difference  of  race  as 
indicated  by  difference  of  colour,  and  its  great  subsequent  development  has 


THE   POWER   OF   THE  BRAHMANS      155 

The  division  between  race  and  race,  thus  stereotyped  by 
the  Brahmanic  laws,  was  to  penetrate  even  further  as  the 
tendency  became  stronger  for  each  separate  group  to 
formulate  for  itself  its  own  peculiar  laws  and  customs,  and 
to  engage  only  in  such  occupations  as  were  hereditary. 
Intercommunication,  eating  or  drinking  with  members  of 
outside  groups  was  surrounded  with  the  same  Divine 
sanction  as  the  Brahmans  fulminated  against  those  of  the 
Aryan  race  who  mingled,  ate,  or  drank  with  the  darker- 
skinned  Sudras. 

The  offspring  of  a  Sudra  with  a  Brahman  woman  became 
a  Chandala,!  whom  "  it  is  sinful  to  touch  ...  to  speak  to, 
or  to  look  at."  2  The  son  of  a  Brahman  and  a  Sudra 
woman  is  as  "  that  of  one  who,  though  living,  is  as  impure 
as  a  corpse."  *  By  the  Brahmanic  law  the  varied  peoples 
and  races  of  India  sprang  from  the  forbidden  union  between 
those  of  a  different  class.  The  offspring,  for  instance,  of 
a  Sudra  and  Vai^ya  became  a  Magadha,*  with  whom  the 
Yavanas,  the  lonians,  or  Bactrian  Greeks  were  classed 
likewise  as  descendants  of  a  Sudra  woman. 

been  due  to  a  series  of  fictions  by  which  differences  of  occupations,  differences 
of  religion,  changes  of  habitat,  trifling  divergences  from  the  established  standard 
of  custom,  have  been  assumed  to  denote  corresponding  differences  of  blood,  and 
have  thus  given  rise  to  the  formation  of  an  endless  variety  of  endogamous 
groups." — Risley, ' '  Study  of  Ethnology  in  India"  {Anthropological Journal, \%<)i, 
p.  260).  Mr  J.  Kennedy,  in  a  peculiarly  instructive  review  of  "  The  Tribes  and 
Castes  of  the  North- Western  Provinces  and  Oudh,"  by  W.  Crooke,  has  sum- 
marised the  results  of  Mr  Crooke's  laborious  work  by  his  conclusion  : — "  The 
cephalic  index  proves  that  the  whole  population  has  a  large  intermixture  of 
Dravidian  blood  ;  the  nasal  index  shows,  with  equal  clearness,  that  the  higher 
castes  are  of  purer  blood  than  the  lower. "  The  question  of  caste  and  nationality 
therefore  reduces  itself,  according  to  Mr  Kennedy,  to  this  position : — "  We  know 
on  historic  and  linguistic  grounds  that  the  Dravidian  population  which  covered 
Northern  India  were  invaded  at  various  times  by  Aryan  and  Turanian  tribes. 
These  invaders  were  exogamous,  and  intermarried  freely  with  the  aborigines ; 
they  subsequently  formed  themselves  into  endogamous  groups,  and  the  whole 
social  hierarchy  now  professes  to  be  based  on  a  superiority  of  descent." — 
J.R.A.S.,  July  1897. 

1  "  Vasishta,"  xviii.  I.  =  "  Apastamba,"  ii.  I,  2,  S. 

8  "Vasishta,"  xviii.  10.  ■*  " Eaudhayana,"  i,^9,  7. 


156  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

To  Baudhayana,!  the  inhabitants  of  Malwa,  Behar, 
Guzarat,  the  Deccan,  Sind,  and  the  South  Panjab  were  all 
of  mixed  origin  and  not  pure  Aryans.  For  an  Aryan 
who  visited  the  people  of  the  Panjab,  those  of  South  India, 
or  those  of  Bengal,  a  penance  had  to  be  performed ; 
while  "  he  commits  sin  through  his  feet  who  travels  to  the 
country  of  the  Kalingas.^  This  prohibition  against  visiting 
tribes  held  to  be  degraded,  such  as  the  Kalingas,  the  people 
dwelling  south  of  Orissa  to  the  mouths  of  the  Krishna, 
shows  clearly  how  the  Aryan  law-givers  strove,  with 
what  at  first  sight  seems  an  infatuation  almost  suicidal,  to 
curb  any  tendency  towards  cohesion  of  the  varied  people, 
or  intrusion  of  outside  influence  which  might  have  infused 
the  old  with  new  life.  The  power  of  these  Brahmanic  laws 
in  their  own  sphere  was  no  mere  phantom.  Down  to  to-day, 
no  Brahman  can  dwell  among  the  nations  of  the  West 
without  risk  of  forfeiting  his  social  rank,  or  without  being 
obliged  to  perform  costly  and  irksome  penances  on  his 
return  home.  The  history  of  this  subject  is  dismal,  and 
would  be  trivial  were  it  not  that  it  forms  the  turning-point 
for  the  future  of  India.  It  shows  how  the  Aryans  spread 
among  inferior  races  in  numbers  insufficient  to  exterminate 
them,  or  drive  them  from  before  their  path,  as  was  done 
by  the  Aryans  in  America  or  Australia.  They  dared  not 
chance  the  risk  of  intermingling  with  them,  and  depend  on 
their  own  physique  and  constant  recruitment  from  new 
arrivals  to  preserve  their  own  racial  characteristics  pre- 
dominant. As  a  consequence,  the  Brahmans  followed  the 
only  course  open  to  them  if  they  were  to  preserve  their 
own  national  characteristics,  and  impress  their  language 
and  culture,  such  as  it  was,  over  the  lands  where  they 
spread.  They  had  to  hold  themselves,  as  far  as  possible, 
free  from  any  contaminating  influence  which  might  pro- 
bably have  undermined   their  very  existence  as  a  more 

'  "  Baudhayana,"  i.  I,  2.  ^  Ibid.,  i.  i,  2,  15. 


THE  POWER   OF  THE  BRAHMANS      157 

gifted,  more  refined  race,  with  higher  developed  mental 
tendencies  than  the  dark-skinned  people  with  whom  they 
found  themselves  in  contact.  As  the  Brahmans  spread  in 
ever-diminishing  numbers  to  the  extreme  south,  into  Bengal 
and  Orissa,  the  disaster  followed  which  the  race  foresaw, 
and  in  their  own  wisdom  sought  to  provide  against,  for  in 
these  lands  it  would  often  be  impossible  to  discern  how 
those  dark-skinned  Brahmans,  who  claim  Aryan  ancestry, 
have  preserved  any  of  the  typical  Aryan  characteristics ; 
they  have,  in  fact,  been  swamped  by  intermarriage  with 
other  peoples.! 

One  very  important  statement  of  Baudhayana^  shows 
how  confusion  had  already  sprung  up  in  his  time,  and  how 
carefully  it  had  to  be  guarded  against.  He  states  that  in 
the  south  the  custom  was  for  Brahmans  to  eat  in  the 
company  of  one  uninitiated,*  "  to  eat  with  one's  own  wife, 
to  eat  stale  food,  or  marry  the  daughter  of  a  maternal 
uncle  or  of  a  paternal  aunt."  He  also  states  that  in  the 
north,  Brahmans,  as  they  do  now  in  Kashmir,*  were  wont 
to  deal  in  wool.  There  were  also  those  who  drank 
spirituous  liquors — an  evil  which  is  becoming  all  too 
prevalent  in  India — and  of  which  Apastamba  declared,  "  A 
drinker  of  spirituous  liquor  shall  drink  exceedingly  hot 
liquor  so  that  he  dies."  ^ 

Another  custom  of  the  northern  Brahmans  was  to  go  to 

'  Senart  refers  to  Mr  Nesfield  in  the  following  words  : — "  La  communaut^  de 
profession  est,  ^  ses  yeux,  le  fondement  de  la  caste — il  exclut  d^lib&^raent 
toute  influence  de  race,  de  religion.  C'est  pour  lui  illusion  puie  que  de  dis- 
tinguer  dans  I'lnde  des  courants  de  populations  diverses,  aryens  et  aborigines, 
etc."—"  Les  Castes  dans  I'lnde,"  p.  1 86. 

'^  "  Baudhayana,"  i.  i,  ii,  3. 

'  "  A  Rome  il  suffit  de  la  presence  d'un  Stranger  une  sacrifice  de  la  gens 
pour  oflfenser  les  dieux.  La  Sudra  est  une  ^trangere  elle  n'appartenent  pas  a 
la  race  qui  par  I'investiture  du  cordon  sacre,  nait  a  la  plenitude  de  la  vie 
religieuse." — Senart,  "Castes  dans  I'lnde,"  p.  212. 

*  Biihler,  "Baudhayana,"  note  to  i.  i,  2,  4. 

6  "Apastamba,"  i.  9,  25,  3. 


1 58         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

sea.^  Another  was  "  to  follow  the  trade  of  arms,"  a  custom 
which  at  the  time  of  the  Mutiny  led  to  fatal  results.  With 
respect  to  this  northern  custom  of  Brahmans  becoming 
warriors,  Gautama  held  that  a  Brahman  might  only  use 
arms  if  his  life  were  threatened,  while  Apastamba  declared 
that  a  Brahman  shall  not  take  a  weapon  into  his  hand 
though  he  be  only  desirous  of  examining  it.^  The  follow- 
ing of  any  other  practices  in  any  country  except  where 
they  prevail  is,  according  to  Baudhayana,*  a  sin.  The 
standard  rule  of  conduct  was  that  which  obtained  in 
Aryavarta.*  Gautama,  on  the  other  hand,  held  that  the 
laws  of  countries,  castes,  or  families,  are  of  authority  if 
they  are  not  opposed  to  the  teachings  of  the  "  Vedas,"  and 
subsidiary  sacred  books ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  "  culti- 
vators, traders,  herdsmen,  money-lenders,  and  artisans  have 
authority  to  lay  down  rules  for  their  respective  classes.  * 

From  the  time  of  Warren  Hastings  the  Brahmanic  law 
books  consulted — or  such  of  them  as  were  known  to  the 
Brahmans — have  been  held  to  set  forth  the  laws  and 
customs  of  the  people  of  India.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
great  mass  of  the  population  has  never  heard  of  the 
sacred  law  books  of  the  Aryans.®  These  law  treatises 
were  separately  compiled  as  the  received  tradition  of  a 
school  or  class  of  Brahmanical  families,  who  strove,  by 
all  means  at  their  command,  to  inculcate  their  teaching 
among  the  community,  and  impress  the  importance  of 
their  observances  at  the  courts  of  the  kings  or  chieftains 
with  whom  they  had  gained  influence.  As  for  the  mass 
of  the  people,   the  dark-skinned   aborigines,   they  could 

'  "  Apastamba,"  ii.  I,  2,  l.  A  custom  which  he  afterwards  declares  entails 
loss  of  caste. 

"  Ibid.,  i.  lo,  29,  6.  '  "  Baudhayana,"  i.  I,  2,  5. 

*  "  Baudhayana,"  i.  I,  2,  II,  12.  '  "  Gautama,"  xi.  21. 

8  "  That  any  class  of  Hindus,  sive  perhaps  the  Manavas,  at  any  time  re- 
garded the  "  Manava  Dharma  Sastra  "  as  a  law  book  of  paramount  authority, 
no  person  who  has  the  most  elementary  knowledge  of  thingsHindu  can  for  a 
moment  suppose. "-  -Nelson,  "View  of  Hindu  life,"  p.  13. 


THE   POWER   OF  THE  BRAHMANS      159 

preserve  their  own  habits  and  customs  so  long  as  they 
remained  in  a  servile  condition.  When  these  non-Aryan 
folk  became  of  social  importance,  or  wealthy  enough  to 
demand  recognition  of  their  position,  they  themselves 
tended  to  rise  to  an  Aryan  status  and  amalgamate  their 
customs,  cults,  and  superstitions,  on  such  terms  as  the 
Brahmans  were  inclined,  from  prudence,  to  offer,  with  the 
laws  and  religions  of  the  ruling  class.^ 

On  the  Brahman,  as  well  as  on  the  king,  the  whole  moral 
welfare  of  the  world  was  held  to  depend.^  So  the  king 
chose  as  a  "  purohita  "  a  Brahman  austere  and  righteous,  and 
of  a  noble  family.®  The  man  who  raised  his  hand  against 
a  Brahman  was  declared  to  be  shut  out  from  Heaven  for 
one  hundred  years.*  If  he  struck  a  Brahman  he  lost 
Heaven  for  one  thousand  years.  The  shedder  of  a 
Brahman's  blood  was  debarred  from  entering  Heaven  for 
the  number  of  years  to  be  counted  by  the  particles  of 
dust  held  together  by  the  shed  blood.^ 

According  to  Baudhayana,^  "  the  murderer  of  a  Brahman 
shall  practise  the  following  vow  during  twelve  years : 
"  Carrying  a  skull  and  the  foot  of  a  bedstead  (instead  of  a 
staff) ;  dressed  in  the  hide  of  an  ass  ;  staying  in  the  forest ; 
making  a  dead  man's  skull  his  flag  ;  he  shall  cause  a  hut  to 
be  built  in  a  burial  -  ground  and  reside  there ;  going  to 
seven  houses  in  order  to  beg  food ;  while  proclaiming  his 
deed,  he  shall  support  life  with  what  he  gets  there,  and 
shall  fast  if  he  obtains  nothing."  Vasishta  '^  held  that  the 
expiation  for  Brahman  murder  was  the  burning  by  the 
murderer  of  his  own  body  piecemeal.     A  milder  penance  ^ 

1  See  Nesfield,  "Caste  Systems,"  pp.  171-2. 

''■  "Gautama,"  viii.  I  : — They  "uphold  the  moral  order  in  the  world." 

s  Ibid.,  xi.  12.  ^  Ibid.,  xxi.  20-21. 

5  "  Baudhayana,"  iii.  i,  2,  3.  '  Ibid.,  ii.  i,  i,  3. 

'  "Vasishta,"  xx.  25-26. 

8  "  Les  r^dacteurs  des  livres  ont  simplement  soude  en  ce  systeme  des  faits 
isoles,  plus  ou  moins  exceptionnels  qu'un  ideal  de  perfection  rarement  r^alis&," 
— Senart,  "  Castes  dans  I'Inde."  p.  126. 


i6o  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

set  forth  by  the  same  law-giver  for  the  murderer  was:  "Let 
him  fight  for  the  sake  of  the  king  or  for  the  sake  of  the 
Brahmans,  and  let  him  die  in  battle  with  his  face  turned  to 
the  foe."  1 

There  are  clear  evidences,  however,  that  between  the 
four  ideal  classes  no  insurmountable  barriers  had  grown 
up  at  the  time  of  the  earliest  law-giver,  Gautama,^  who 
fnay  be  ascribed  to  before  the  sixth  century.  His  laws 
lay  down  the  rule  that  a  Brahman,  in  time  of  distress, 
might  assume  the  occupation  of  a  Kshatriya,  Vai^ya,^  or 
Sudra,*  though  in  no  case  should  he  mix  with,  or  eat  with, 
a  Sudra.  The  ordinary  duties  of  a  Brahman  were,  how- 
ever, held  to  be  sacrificing  for  others,  accepting  gifts,  and 
teaching.5  Apastamba^  similarly  allowed  a  Brahman  to 
trade,  although,  ordinarily,  trade  was  not  lawful  for  a 
Brahman.  Vasishta  held,  that  those  who  were  unable  to 
live  by  their  own  occupations  might  adopt  those  of  the 
lower  classes,  but  never  those  of  a  higher  class. 

The  one  great  permanent  division  between  the  Brahmans, 
Kshatriyas,  Vaisyas,  and  Sudras  was  the  rite  of  initiation 
into  the  Aryan  brotherhood.  This  was  the  consecration, 
in  accordance  with  the  texts  of  the  "  Veda,"  of  a  male  who 
"  is  desirous  of,  and  can  make  use  of,  sacred  knowledge."  ^ 
It  was  this  initiation  which  made  the  three  higher  classes 
twice-born.  It  excluded  Sudras  and  women  from  ever 
taking  part  in  the  religious  life  of  the  Aryans ;  the 
knowledge  sufficient  for  them  was  dancing,  singing,  and 
such  arts. 

The  initiation  for  a  Br  hman  took  place  from  the  age 

1  "Vasishta,"  XX.  27. 

""Apastamba"  is  placed  by  Buhler  (S.B.E.,  vol.  ii.p.  43)  two  hundred 
years  before  the  third  century  B.C. 
3  "  Gautama,"  vii.  6-7. 

*  Ibid.,  vii.  22-23  ;  "  Manu,"  x.  Si  ;  "  Yajn.,"  iii.  35. 
5  "Vasishta,"  ii.  14. 

*  "Apastamba,"  i.  7,  20,  10. 
'  Ibid.  i.  I,  I,  8. 


THE  POWER   OF  THE  BRAHMANS      i6i 

of  eight  to  sixteen.  He  was  then  invested  with  the  girdle 
of  sacred  grass  and  taught  the  holy  verse  to  Savitri.  The 
age  of  initiation  for  a  Kshatriya  was  from  eleven  to  twenty, 
when  he  received  a  girdle  made  from  a  bow-string.  The 
age  for  a  Vai^ya  was  from  twelve  to  twenty-two ;  his  girdle 
was  of  wool.  Before  the  initiation  took  place  the  neophyte 
was  viewed  as  a  SQdra,  and  as  such  was  presumed  to  act, 
speak,  and  eat  as  he  felt  inclined.^  After  the  initiation  the 
twice-born  Aryan  passed  from  the  care  of  his  father  to  the 
care  of  a  teacher,  or""  guru,"  with  whom  he  dwelt  for  the 
purpose  of  being  instructed  in  his  sacred  duties,  for  as 
Apastamba  held :  "  Virtue  and  sin  do  not  go  about  and 
say,  '  Here  we  are ; '  nor  do  gods,  Gandharvas,  or  Manes 
say,  •  This  is  virtue,  that  is  sin.'  But  that  is  virtue,  the 
practice  of  which  wise  men  of  the  three  twice-born  castes 
praise  ;  what  they  blame  is  sin."  ^ 

Twelve  years  was  the  time  fixed  ^  for  a  student  to  remain 
under  tutelage.  This  was  the  time  required  for  learning 
by  rote  one  of  the  "  Vedas,"  so  that  if  the  four  "  Vedas  "  had 
to  be  learned,  the  time  had  to  be  extended  to  forty-eight 
years.*  This  rule  was,  no  doubt,  an  injunction  which  it 
would  be  meritorious  to  obey.  It  was  no  doubt  followed  in 
many 'cases,  yet,  like  nearly  all  the  laws  of  the  Brahmanic 
order,  it  was  an  ideal  counsel  of  perfection,  to  be  modified 
according  to  circumstances ;  one  law-giver  declaring  that 
studentship  might  last  only  so  long  as  it  was  necessary 
to  impart  the  sacred  instruction.  During  his  training  the 
pupil  should  remain  restrained  in  all  his  acts,  be  chaste, 
refrain  from  all  spirituous  liquor,^  and  live  only  on  food 
obtained  by  begging. 

The  student,  during  his  pupilage,  was  under  the  absolute 

1  "  Gautama,"  ii.  I.  »  "  Apastamba,"  i.  7,  20,  6,  8. 

3  "Gautama,"  ii.  45. 

^  "Apastamba,"  i.  I,  2,  12;  "  Manu,"  iii.  I  ;   "Gautama,"  ii.  46. 
5  "A  Brahman  always,   a  Kshatriya  and  Vaisya  during  studentship." — 
Ibid.,  ii.  20  {note). 

L 


i62  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

control  of  his  Guru,  who  was  to  be  revered  and  reverenced 
as  holy.  Apastamba,  while  explaining  that  a  Brahman 
could  alone  be  chosen  as  a  teacher,  clearly  shows  that  no 
great  rigidity  of  class  distinction  had  taken  place  up  to  his 
time,  for  he  allows  that,  in  a  matter  of  such  great  import- 
ance as  that  of  choosing  a  spiritual  preceptor,  a  Brahman 
might,  in  times  of  distress,  study  under  a  Kshatriya  or 
Vaisya.^  More  striking  still  is  the  injunction  that  the 
Brahman,  "  during  his  pupilship  must  walk  behind  such  a 
teacher.  Afterwards  the  Brahman  shall  take  precedence 
of  his  Kshatriya  or  Vai^ya  teacher." 

The  course  of  study  ended,  the  Guru  received  a  fee,  and 
the  pupil  underwent  a  new  rite,  that  of  ceremonial  bathing, 
a  ceremony  that  set  him  free  to  face  the  world.  He  then 
became  a  householder,  and  took  to  himself  a  wife.  Three 
wives  2  were  allowed  for  a  Brahman,*  two  for  a  Kshatriya, 
one  for  a  Vaisya. 

By  all  Aryan  householders  there  were  forty  great  sacri- 
fices to  be  performed,  including  the  nineteen  domestic 
ceremonies,  the  seven  Paka  sacrifices,  the  seven  Havir 
sacrifices,  and  the  seven  Soma  sacrifices.  Once  the  sacred 
fire  was  lighted  in  the  householder's  home,*  his  chief  daily 
duty  was  to  worship  the  gods,  the  manes,  the  goblins  and 
sages  of  old,  to  daily  recite  such  portions  of  the  "  Veda  "  as 

^  "Apastamba,"  ii.  2^  4,  25-26. 

*  The  wife  should  not  belong  to  the  same  Gotra,  nor  be  a  Sapinda  relative 
of  his  mother." — Gobhila,  "Grihya  Sutras,"  iii.  4,  4,  5.  "Gautama," 
xiv.  13;  "Manu,"  v.  60,  ii.  4,  5 ;  Jolly,  "  Recht  und  Sitte,"  p.  62:— "Da 
diese  exogamische  Princip  schon  in  den  Grihyasutras  auftiitt  so  besteht  kein 
Grund  an  den  hohen  Alter  desselben  zu  zweifeln  wenn  die  Fotderung  hinsieht 
sich  und  erst  allmahlig  gesteigert  haben."  The  term  "caste,"  as  used  in 
the  "Census  Report,"  p.  182,  is  defined  as  "the  perpetuation  of  status  or 
function  by  inheritance  and  endogamy." 

3  "The  Census  of  India"  (1891),  p.  254,  states  of  polygamy  that  "the 
extent  to  which  it  exists  among  the  Brahmanic  section  of  the  people  must  be 
very  slight." 

«  "  Gautama,"  v.  7. 


THE  POWER   OF  THE  BRAhMANS      163 

he  had  learned  from  his  Guru,  and  as  far  as  possible  perform 
the  sacrifices.  Yet,  although  he  performed  these  duties,  it 
was  declared  that,  "  all  the  four  '  Vedas '  together  with  the 
six  Angas  and  sacrifices,  bring  no  blessing  to  him  who  is 
deficient  in  good  conduct."  ^ 

The  whole  forty  sacrifices  were  vain  if  the  Aryan  house- 
holder was  not  endowed  with  the  eight  good  qualities  of  the 
soul.  These  eight  good  qualities  comparable  to  the  Eightfold 
Path  of  Buddha  are:  Compassion  on  all  creatures,  for- 
bearance, freedom  from  anger,  purity,  quietism,  auspicious- 
ness,  freedom  from  avarice,  and  freedom  from  covetousness.* 
The  path  for  the  Aryan  was  made  easy ;  he  had  but  to  take 
the  place  allotted  to  him  by  the  Brahmans  and  all  would 
go  well  with  him.  "  He,  forsooth,  who  is  sanctified  by  a  few 
only  of  these  forty  sacraments,  and  whose  soul  is  endowed 
with  the  eight  excellent  qualities,  will  be  united  with 
Brahma,  and  will  dwell  in  his  Heaven."  * 

The  guest  was  ever  to  be  welcomed  in  the  Aryan  home- 
stead, honour  being  first  paid  to  old  age,  then  to  learning, 
after  which  followed  in  due  order,  birth,  occupation,  rela- 
tions, and  lastly,  wealth.  When  life  was  drawing  to  its 
close*  the  householder  passed  out  from  amid  his  people 
to  take  upon  himself  the  fourth  stage  of  life,  and  prepare 
his  soul  for  its  final  doom.  He  then  became  either  a 
hermit  {yaikhanas),  living  in  the  forest  on  roots  and  fruits, 
practising  austerities,^  yet  still  keeping  up  the  sacred  fire, 
and  worshipping  the  gods,  the  Brahmans,  the  forefathers, 
men  and  goblins,  or  else  he  passed  at  once  into  the  last 
stage  of  all,  that  of  the  ascetic  sage  {bhikshu).    The  ascetic 

'  "  Vasishta,"  vi.  4. 

^  See  "  Apastamba,"  i.  8,  23,  6. 

'  See  Hopkins,  ' '  Rel.  of  India,''  p.  255. 

*  "Gautama,"  iii.  I  ;  "Vasishta,"  vii.  3;  " Baudhayana,"  ii.  10,  17,  2,  for 
the  student  after  his  studentship  directly  assuming  the  life  of  a  hermit  or 
ascetic. 

5  "  Baudhayana,"  ii  10,  17. 


i64  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

sage^  was  to  be  dead  to  all  around  him.  He  entered 
the  haunts  of  men  but  to  beg  for  food,  and  then  only 
when  all  others  had  finished  eating.  He  was  merely  to 
wear  a  rag  to  cover  his  nakedness,  and  to  have  no 
regard  to  either  his  temporal  or  spiritual  welfare.  For 
him  the  scene  was  ended  and  was  fading  into  the  dimness 
of  the  past. 

So  every  man's  lot  in  life  was  mapped  out  by  the 
Brahmans.  Those  enfolded  within  the  twice-born  Aryan 
ranks  were  stamped  for  all  eternity  as  separated  from  the 
Sudra^  and  far-removed  alien  races.  Rules  forbidding 
intermarriage,  eating  and  drinking,  or  habits  of  social 
intercourse  between  the  ever-increasing  divisions  among 
the  people  were,  under  Brahmanic  guidance,  given  the 
sanctity  of  Divine  ordinances.  As  with  the  sacrificial  rites, 
customs  that  had  sprung  from  principles  underlying  all 
primitive  social  life  became  stereotyped  and  preserved  for 
ever,  as  sacred  and  inviolable  laws  of  caste. 

The  Aryans  of  Vedic  times  were  divided  into  their  tribes, 
and  clans,  and  groups  of  families.^  The  great  binding  tie 
of  the  family  was  descent  from  some  common  ancestor. 
The  sacrifice  was  alone  for  the  benefit  of  the  group  that 
held  together  in  the  very  closest  bonds  of  descent  from  the 
same  blood.  No  one  outside  of  these  bonds  could  partake 
of  the  sacrificial  feast*  The  feast  became  a  sign  of  relation- 
ship, and  the  very  act  of  eating — among  primitive  people 
restricted  to  the  family  for  whom  the  food  is  laboriously 

'  "Gautama,"  iii. 

''Zimmer,  "Alt.  Ind.  Leben.,"  p.  204;  Caldwell,  "Gram,  of  Dravidian 
Languages,"  p.  112: — "Whatever  may  have  been  the  origin  of  the  word 
'  Sudra,'  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  it  was  extended  in  course  of  time  to  all  who 
occupied  or  were  reduced  to  a  dependent  condition ;  whilst  the  name  '  Dasyu ' 
or  '  Mleccha '  came  to  be  the  appellation  of  the  unsubdued  non-Aryanised 
tribes." 

=  Baden-Powell,  "  Ind.  VUl.  Com.,"  194,  206. 

*  "  A  Rome  il  sufEt  de  la  presence  d'un  Stranger  au  sacrifice  de  la  gens  pour 
offenser  les  dieux." — Senart,  "  Castes  dans  I'Inde,"  p.  214. 


THE  POWER   OF   THE  BRAHMANS      165 

acquired,  and  carried  on  with  a  reserve  and  secrecy  which 
civilisation  but  slowly  breaks  down — became  surrounded 
with  greater  importance  and  significance.  It  grew  to  be 
a  sign  of  blood-fellowship.  The  drinking  of  water  together 
typified  a  family  union ;  the  accepting  of  salt  made  the 
accepter,  for  the  time,  one  with  the  sib  of  him  from  whom 
it  was  accepted.  The  prohibitions  and  restrictions  that 
hemmed  round  intermarriage  were  founded  on  primitive 
customs.  In  savage  life,  in  many  cases,  female  infanticide 
is  a  common,  if  not  a  necessary,  custom,  when  food 
is  hard  to  obtain.  From  this  cause  it  is  difficult,  if  not 
impossible  to  find  a  wife  within  the  clan  or  family ;  ^  one 
has  to  be  stolen  or  bought  from  an  outside  group  more 
favourably  circumstanced.  The  group  possessing  female 
children  naturally  looked  upon  them  as  valuable  articles  of 
merchandise. 

The  tendency  was  to  place  strong  restrictions  on  these 
females  being  acquired  or  married  by  young  men  of  their 
own  group.  Robbery  of  a  bride  can  only  take  place  from 
a  hostile  tribe,  the  purchase  of  a  bride  in  primitive  society 
only  by  barter  with  a  friendly  tribe.  The  principle  would 
thus  be  soon  established  that  a  marriage  could  only  take 
place  outside  a  specified  group,^  and  within  the  limits  of 
a  .nore  extended  group. 

These  primitive  restrictions  as  to  communality  and 
connubuism  are  at  the  very  foundation  of  the  divisions 
which  separate  the  different  castes  in  India  from  one 
another  at  the  present  day.  They  grew  deeper  as  the 
racial  and  class  divisions  became  of  greater  import  in  the 

^  "  Au  temoignage  de  Plutarque  les  Romains  dans  la  p&iode  ancienne  n'^pou- 
saient  jamais  de  femmes  deleur  Sang." — Senart,  "Castes  dans I'lnde,"  p.  209. 

^  "  Vielleicht  ist  die  Exogamie  uberhaupt  zuerst  bei  den  Rajputen  (Kshat- 
triyas)  aufgekommen,  bei  denen  sie  sich,  wie  dies  Sir  A.  Lyall  anziehend 
schildert  ('Asiatic  Studies,' pp.  219-21)  in  Rajputana  in  verbindung  mit  den 
noch  jetzt  ubiichen  Schein  raub  und  dem  ehemaligen  Frauenraub  und  der 
Geschlechter  verfassung  noch  in  ihren  urspriinglichsten  Form  studieren  lasst," 
—Jolly,  "  Recht  und  Sitte,"  p.  63. 


i66  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

social  life  of  the  people  under  the  fostering  care  of  the 
Brahmanic  hierarchy.  In  the  books  of  law  and  domestic 
custom,!  the  limits  within  which  the  twice-born  may  marry 
within  their  own  groups  are  restricted^  more  and  more 
between  those  where  no  traces  of  common  descent  from 
accepted  ancestors,  saintly  or  heroic,  can  be  recognised ;  just 
as  among  the  lower  races  intermarriage  is  forbidden 
between  those  who  trace  their  genealogy  from  the  same 
animal,  or  totem.' 

So  in  the  present  day,  although  marriage  is  forbidden 
between  members  of  the  varied  groups  into  which  the 
people  of  India  have  been  subdivided  under  the  persistent 
pressure  of  the  hierarchial  pretensions,  yet,  within  these 
groups,  marriage  has  its  exogamous  limits.* 

In  the  metrical  law  book,  ascribed  to  the  fabled  Manu, 
"First-born  of  the  Creator,"  composed  at  a  late  date,  probably 
about  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era,  the  law  of 
marriage  within  the  caste  is  stated  to  be  in  the  northern 

^  "Manu,"  iii.  5;  "Apastamba,"  ii.  5,  ii,  15;  "Gobhila,''  iii.  4,  3-5; 
"Vishnu,"  xxiv.  9  ;  "  Baudhayana,"  i.  I,  2,  3.  In  "  Recht  und  Sitte,"  Jolly 
gives  the  full  reference  to  the  literature  of  the  subject.  Grierson,  "  Bihar 
Peasant  Life,"  §  1354. 

2  Hopkins,  "  Rel.  of  India,"  p.  270. 

'  Risley  ("Caste  Systems  of  N.W.  Provinces  and  Oudh"),  in  discussing 
Nesfield's  statement  that  "function,  and  function  alone,  has  determined  the 
formation  of  the  endogamous  groups  which  in  India  are  called  castes,"  pro- 
pounds his  theory,  that  "community  of  race,  and  not,  as  has  been  frequently 
argued,  community  of  function,  is  the  real  determining  principle,  the  true 
causa  causarum,  of  the  '  caste  system ' "  (p.  254).  "  In  Bengal  proper,  castes 
with  a  platyrhine  index  have  totemistic  exogamous  divisions  "  (p.  253).  "  The 
Brahmanical  system  which  absolutely  prohibits  marri^e  within  the  gotra" 
(p-  245)- 

*  "  Differences  of  religious  practice,  within  the  limits  of  Hinduism,  do  not 
necessarily  affect  thenar  connubii." — Risley,  p.  241,  he.  cit.  "In  Southern 
India  differences  of  religion  (Vaishnavism,  Saivism,  etc.),  and  even  narrower 
divisions,  are  a  bar  to  marriage  between  members  of  what  is  strictly  called  the 
same  caste." — Burnell,  note  to  "Manu,"  iii.  12-13.  -S^e  Grierson,  " Bihar 
Peasant  Life,"  §  1354,  for  the  custom  of  the  Soti  Brahmans  of  East  Tirhut 
keeping  registers  of  genealogical  descent,  and  giving  certificates  of  lawful 
marriage  to  show  that  "the  patres  are  not  within  prohibited  degrees  of  affinity." 


THE   POWER   OF   THE  BRAHMANS      167 

country  where  the  rules  were  in  vogue  as  follows :  "  A 
damsel  who  is  neither  a  Sapinda  on  the  mother's  side,  nor 
belongs  to  the  same  family  {gotrd)  on  the  father's  side,  is 
recommended  to  twice-born  men  for  wedlock  and  conjugal 
union."  1  According  to  the  two  great  commentators  of 
Manu,  Medhatithi  and  Kulluka,  the  bride  must  be  one 
"  between  whose  father's  and  the  bridegroom's  family  no 
blood  relationship  is  traceable."  2  Buhler  further  expands 
the  meaning  by  stating  that  it  is  very  probable  that  the  full 
meaning  of  the  text  is,  "  that  in  the  case  of  Brahmanas, 
intermarriage  between  families  descended  from  the  same 
Rishi,  and  in  case  of  other  Aryans,  between  families  bearing 
the  same  name  or  known  to  be  connected,  are  forbidden." 
It  is  sufficiently  clear  that  the  people  were  subdividing  up 
into  groups,  separated  from  each  other  by  restrictions  in- 
evitably tending  to  prevent  the  creation  of  any  national 
life  or  spirit,  whereby  social,  sectarian,  and  racial  distinctions 
might  become  obliterated  or  give  place  to  higher  ideals. 
From  violation  of  the  laws  of  marriage,  from  intermarriage 
or  illicit  union  of  members  of  the  original  four  theoretical 
groups,  that  of  Brahmans,  Kshatriyas,  Vai^yas,  and  Sudras, 
it  was  held  that  the  confusion  of  castes  had  arisen  as  the 
offspring  had  to  be  relegated  to  inferior  positions,  there  to 
intermarry  and  form  new  sub-groups.  The  law  book  of 
Manu,*  having  described  the  baser  castes  which  had  been 
created  from  the  abhorred  irregular  union  between  members 
of  the  four  castes,  proceeds  to  point  out  how  to  each  caste 
there  were  specific  functions.  "  These  races,"  he  declares, 
"which  originate  in  a  confusion  of  the  castes,  and  have 
been  described  according  to  their  fathers  and  mothers,  may 
be  known  by  their  occupations,  whether  they  conceal  or 

1  "Manu,"  iii.  5  (S.B.E.,  vol.  xxv.).  See,  as  mentioned  in  the  note  to 
"Apastamba,"  ii.  S,  II,  15-16  ;  "Gautama,"  iv.  2-5  ;  "  Vasishta,"  viii.  1-2  ; 
"Baudhayana,"  ii.  11,  37  ;  "  Yajn.,"  i.  53. 

2  Note  to  "  Manu,"  iii.  S  (S.B.E.,  vol.  xxv.). 
^  Ibid.,  X.  40. 


i68  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

openly  show  themselves."  "Those  who  have  been  men- 
tioned as  the  base-born  offspring  of  Aryans,  or  as  produced 
in  consequence  of  a  violation  of  the  law,  shall  subsist  by 
occupations  reprehended  by  the  twice-born." 

It  is,  in  fact,  the  life-history  of  a  struggling  group  of 
foreigners  shut  out  from  aid,  vainly  fighting  that  their 
life's  strength  should  not  be  slowly  sucked  from  out  them 
by  parasitic  growths. 

The  world  is  strewn  with  monuments  of  the  past,  and  the 
saddest  tomb  the  world  has  ever  reared  is  the  tomb  of 
despairing  Aryanism  in  India.  Stone  by  stone,  as  the  tomb 
is  built,  it  tells  its  own  story,  and  down  through  the  pages 
of  history  the  same  story  runs  that,  in  conquering,  the 
Aryan  always  succumbs.^ 

In  India  the  Aryan  threw  round  himself  the  bulwark 
which  his  genius  told  him  could  alone  ward  off  final  decay 
— the  bulwark  of  caste.  Down  to  the  present  day  the 
Aryan  has  preserved  much  of  his  heritage  from  being 
entombed  in  the  structure  he  has  raised,  and  the  great 
problem  for  England  to  face  is  whether  she  has  brought 
aid  to  the  beleaguered  camp  in  time  to  infuse  it  with  new 
life.  If  England  has  not  succeeded  in  warming  into 
vitality  the  latent  spirit  of  Aryanism,  in  spreading  new 
hope  amid  the  cultured  classes  of  India,  that  they  may 
come  out  from  their  caste  restrictions  to  aid  her  without 
fear  of  defeat  in  the  crusade  against  superstition  and 
ignorance,  her  mission  is  a  failure  and  her  past  in  the  East 
must  inevitably  be  entombed  in  the  same  grave  as  that  over 
which  she  found  Aryanism  hovering  on  her  advent  into 
India.  For  this  reason  alone  it  is  necessary  to  note  the 
faintest  light  that  breaks  through  the  mists  shrouding  so 
much  of  the  past  history  of  India  from  our  ken.  So  much 
remains  steeped  in  the  doubt  that  a  Brahmanic  genius,  keen 
enough  to  rise  and  respond  to  the  beating  mark  of  time 

1  Kendall,  "Cradle  of  the  Aryans." 


THE  POWER   OF   THE  BRAHMANS      169 

would  not  have  been  equally  subtle  to  screen  its  deeper 
movements  from  vulgar  gaze.  The  suspicion  of  wilful 
reticence,  of  predesigned  purpose,  stays  the  mind  as  it 
ventures  to  trace  the  lines  of  Brahman  ic  thought  in  the 
pages  of  its  own  literature. 

A  vague  gleam  of  light  from  Western  sources  flickers  for 
a  moment  over  the  social  and  political  life  of  India  during 
the  few  centuries  preceding  the  Christian  era.  From  the 
time  when  the  Aryans  first  sang  their  victorious  songs  of 
praise,  as  they  marched  in  their  manhood  and  tribal 
strength,  down  to  the  days  when  the  Brahman  theocracy 
strove  to  isolate  the  scattered  fragments  of  the  I'ace  from 
the  contaminating  influence  of  more  uncivilised  people,  the 
unhappy  remnant  of  the  great  Indo-European  family 
remained  closed  off  from  all  share  in  the  heritage  that  had 
fallen  to  its  brethren  in  the  West.  The  fables  that  are  told 
by  Diodorus  of  the  expeditions  of  Sesostris  or  Semiramis 
to  the  far  East  may  serve  to  adorn  a  tale  told  in  hopes  of 
rousing  the  youthful  interest  in  the  past  history  of  India, 
but  nowhere  can  the  sober  historian,  as  he  views  the 
teak  found  in  the  city  of  Ur,  the  indigo  or  porcelain  found 
in  ancient  Egypt,  discern  evidences  that  the  east  and  west 
Aryan-speaking  people  had  joined  hands  in  these  early 
days.^  Herodotus  shows  that  India  was  not  unknown  by 
repute  to  the  West.  He  narrates^  how  Dareios,  son  of 
Hystaspes  sent  Skylax  of  Karyanda  on  an  expedition 
of  discovery  down  the  Indus,  and  how  Skylax  reached 
the  ocean  and  returned  home  by  way  of  the  Red  Sea. 
Herodotus,  in  enumerating  the  possessions  of  Dareios,  who 
had  advanced  his  conquests  as  far  as  the  Panjab,  states 
that  India  formed  the  twentieth  satrapy  of  the  Persian 
monarch  whence  he  drew  a  tribute  of  three  hundred  and 

i.SseM'Crindle,  "Homeric  Use  of  ICassiteros and  Elephos,"  p.  3;  Birdwood, 
Athenceum;  Griinwedel,  "Buddh.  Kunst,"  p.  8;  M'Crindle,  "  Ancient  India 
as  Described  by  Megasthenes  and  Arrian,"  p.  5. 

2  "Herodotus,"  book  iii.  98. 


I70  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

sixty  talents  of  gold  dust,  a  tribute  exceeding  that  paid  by 
all  other  people.^  Indian  soldiers^  marched  with  the 
Persian  troops  of  Xerxes  into  Thessaly  and  fought  under 
Mardonius *  at  Plataea* 

Ktesias  of  Knidos,  a  physician  who  remained  in  Persia 
for  seventeen  years,  from  416  B.C.  to  398  B.C.,  learned  there 
something  of  India,  and  the  fragments  of  his  "Indika," 
preserved  by  later  historians,*  give  marvellous  tales  of  the 
mysterious  home  of  fables.  They  tell  of  a  fountain  from 
which  could  be  drawn  pitchers  full  of  gold,  fluid  when 
drawn  but  soon  solidifying.  The  sun  appeared  ten  times 
larger  in  India  than  in  other  lands,  and  the  sea,  for  four 
fingers  in  depth,  was  so  hot  that  fish  never  came  to  the 
surface. 

His  fragments  of  history  also  give  a  graphic  account  of 
a  man-eating  monster  living  in  India,  with  a  face  like  a 
man,  with  double  rows  of  teeth,  with  a  tail  like  a  scorpion's, 
a  cubit  long,  from  which  it  discharged  darts  capable  of 
killing  every  animal  save  the  elephant. 

They  are  full  of  stories  of  burning  mountains,  miraculous 
lakes,  and  healing  fountains,  four-headed  birds  which 
guarded  the  gold  of  the  desert,  slaying  all  who  came  in 
quest  of  the  precious  metal  that  had  to  be  sought  for  in 
the  night-time  by  bands  of  men,  one  and  two  thousand 
strong.  They  also  describe  a  race  of  pygmies  less  than 
two  cubits  high,  and  a  tribe  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  in  number,  who  are  men,  and  yet  have  heads, 
teeth,  and  claws  like  those  of  dogs,  their  speech  being 
carried  on  by  barking  and  signs,  yet  they  are,  "  like  all  the 
other  Indians,  extremely  just  men."  The  stories  of  Ktesias 
are  not  unlike  many  which  delight  a  credulous,  wonder- 
loving  public,  who  still  believe  that  Yogis  remain  buried 

>  "  Herodotus,"  iii.  94  ;  M'Crindle,  "  Ancient  India  as  Described  by  Ktesias, 
the  Knidian." 
« /Wr/.,  vii.  65.         ^  Ibid.,  s\\\.  \\i.         * /iid.,  in.  31.         = /i«f.,  iii.  94. 


THE  POWER    OF   THE  BRAHMANS      171 

beneath  the  earth  for  long  spaces  of  time,  without  food  or 
nourishment ;  who  believe  that  Mahatmas  can  rival  the 
feats  of  Maskelyne  and  Cooke  ;  that  magicians  can  remain 
suspended  in  the  air  without  support  and  make  mango  trees 
grow  from  out  a  juggler's  bag ;  that  scorpions  sting  them- 
selves to  death  with  their  own  poison ;  and  that  the 
mongoose  when  smitten  by  a  cobra  knows  of  a  plant  to 
free  itself  from  death. 

The  remark  of  Strabo  ^  that,  "  generally  speaking,  the  men 
who  have  hitherto  written  on  the  affairs  of  India,  were  a 
set  of  liars,"  was  harsh,  for  there  was  much  of  truth  in  the 
accounts  he  had  before  him.  These  accounts  were  derived 
from  the  description  of  the  country  by  the  trained  historians 
who  accompanied  Alexander  the  Great  in  the  first  effort 
of  the  West  to  pierce  through  the  mysteries  that  had  so 
long  separated  it  from  the  East.  Alexander  the  Great,  son 
of  Philip  of  Macedon,  found  himself  in  336  B.C.,  at  the 
early  age  of  twenty.  King  of  Macedonia,  with  the  fortunes 
of  Greece  at  his  disposal.  Within  one  year  he  had  curbed 
the  Northern  barbarians,  put  Attalos  to  death,  reduced 
Thebes  to  submission,  and  stood  prepared  to  set  forth  as 
the  conqueror  of  the  world,  and  fulfil  the  mission  of  his 
father  as  humbler  of  the  proud  Persian. 

The  Persian  Empire,  founded  by  Cyrus,  stretched  from 
the  shores  of  the  Aegsean  and  Levant  to  the  far  east 
Jaxartes  and  Indus.  Its  king,  Dareios  Kodomameos,  how- 
ever, lacked  the  power  to  hold  beneath  his  sway  the  satraps 
who  longed  to  have  for  themselves  the  provinces  into  which 
the  kingdom  had  been  divided,  and  over  which  they  held 
a  more  or  less  independent  rule.  On  the  plains  of  Issgis, 
the  King  Dareios  fled  in  his  chariot  from  before  the  new- 
risen  Conqueror  of  the  World,  and  left  his  treasures,  his 
wife,  children,  and  mother,  at  the  mercy  of  the  Macedonian 
king.     Alexander    turned   aside    for   a   season   to  reduce 

1  M'Crindle,  p.  i8. 


172  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Phoenicia,  and  crowned  himself  with  glory  by  capturing  the 
island  fortress  of  Tyre,  though  he  tarnished  his  fame  by 
slaying  and  selling  into  captivity  its  inhabitants  and 
merchant  princes.  In  Egypt  he  founded  Alexandria  so 
that  the  commerce  of  the  world  should  follow  the  path  which 
he  saw,  with  commanding  genius,  was  marked  out  for  it, 
and  then  turned  again  to  follow  his  relentless  purpose.  On 
the  field  of  battle  known  as  Arbela,i  Dareios  fled  in  dismay 
to  perish  by  the  treachery  of  his  own  kinsman,  the  Satrap 
of  Bactria.  Into  Babylon  Alexander  entered  in  triumph, 
gave  back  to  the  people  their  own  gods,  and  restored  to  the 
priesthood  the  wealth  they  had  enjoyed  under  their  Assyrian 
kings.2  At  Susa^  he  found  wealth  greater  than  he  had 
left  behind  him  in  Babylon,  and  as  he  passed  on  toward  the 
far  East,  he  left  naught  to  tell  of  the  wealth  and  power  of 
the  Persian  nation  save  the  burned  ruins  of  Persepolis,  and 
the  rifled  tomb  of  Cyrus.*  A  new  Alexandria  was  built  by 
him  at  the  gateway  of  India,  now  known  as  Herat,  whence 
he  over-ran  Bactria  and  Samarkhand,  piercing  to  the 
Jaxartes,  along  the  banks  of  which  he  established  his  own 
soldiers  in  fortified  positions,  in  order  to  shut  out  from  his 
possessions  the  Northern  Scythian  hordes. 

Early  in  the  year  327  B.C.  his  troops  marched  down  on 
the  plains  of  India.  Crossing  the  river  Indus  near  Attock, 
on  a  bridge  of  boats,  he  passed  unopposed  through  the  land 
of  a  Turanian  people  called  the  Taxilas,  there  being  no  one 
between  the  Indus  and  the  Jhelum  (Hydaspes)  to  com- 
bine the  petty  chieftains  and  tribes  against  the  invading 
force.  Beyond  the  modern  battle-field  of  Chilianwala, 
Alexander  the  Great  crossed  the  Jhelum,  and  was  there 

iM'Crindle,  p.  31.  ^  Ibid. 

3  "The  sums  contained  in  the  treasury  amounted  to  40,000  talents  of 
uncoined  gold  and  silver,  and  9000  talents  of  coined  gold,  and  there  was 
other  booty  besides  of  immense  value,  including  the  spoils  which  Xerxes  had 
carried  off  from  Greece." — M'Crindle,  p.  32. 

'  See  CuTzon,  "  Persia,''  vol.  ii.  p.  76. 


THE  POWER   OF  THE  BRAHMANS      173 

met  by  Poms,  a  Paurava  chieftain  of  the  Lunar  race,  the 
first  Indian  prince  to  come  forward  and  defend  his 
dominions.  In  the  battle  that  ensued  Porus  was  wounded, 
his  son  slain,  and  his  troops  trampled  down  by  his  own 
elephants.  With  Alexander,  the  Indian  chieftain  made 
an  alliance,  and  received  back  his  territories.  Near  the 
battle-field  Alexander  founded  a  new  city,  and  called  it 
Bucephala,  after  his  famed  charger,  Bucephalus,  slain  during 
the  fight.  He  thence  marched  through  the  land  of  the 
Arashtra,  made  alliance  with  the  king  of  the  Sophytes, 
pierced  as  far  as  Amritsar,  and  then  razed  the  city  of  the 
Kathians,  who,  in  the  history  of  Diodorus  the  Sicilian,  are 
recorded  to  have  possessed  the  custom  that  widows  should 
be  burned  with  their  husbands,  so  that  the  men  might 
not  go  in  fear  of  being  poisoned  by  their  wives  during  their 
lifetime.  Strange  rumours  soon  reached  the  Macedonian 
camp  of  the  desert  lands  and  fierce  tribes  to  the  far  East. 
Outcast  adventurers,  however,  told  Alexander  the  truth,  that 
there  was  no  chieftain  powerful  enough  to  stay  his  conquer- 
ing the  land  as  far  as  the  Ganges.  The  Macedonian  soldiers 
were  laden  with  wealth  and  weary  from  travel ;  they  longed 
to  see  their  homes  once  again.  On  the  banks  of  the  Beas 
(Hyphasis),  Alexander  saw  the  visions  he  had  dreamed — of 
piercing  to  the  eastern  seas,  and  enrolling  the  whole  world 
under  one  sceptre — fade  away  as  his  troops  refused  to 
follow  him  further  past  the  Sutlej,  towards  the  broad  Jumna 
and  river- valleys  of  the  Ganges. 

The  Conqueror  of  the  World  turned  from  the  rich  prize, 
and  led  his  troops  down  the  banks  of  the  Indus  towards 
the  unknown  ocean.  In  an  impetuous  assault  at  Multan, 
on  the  fortress  of  the  fierce  tribe  of  the  Malloi,  Alexander 
was  wounded  almost  to  death  by  an  arrow,  yet  he  founded 
another  Alexandria  at  the  modern  Ucch,  before  he  left 
India  to  commence  his  perilous  journey  across  the  sandy 
deserts  of  Gedrosia  towards  Babylon,  where  he  died  at  the 


174  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

early  age  of  thirty-two  from  fever  and  drink.  The  records 
of  the  historians  and  scientific  men  who  accompanied  the 
Macedonian  king  on  his  expedition  into  India  have 
perished,  and  the  accounts  given  of  them  by  later  writers, 
such  as  Arrian,  Strabo,  and  Pliny,  remain  the  only  light 
that  comes  from  the  West  regarding  the  social  life  of 
the  people  of  India  during  the  period. 

While  Alexander  remained  in  the  Panjab,  a  base-born 
adventurer,  one  Chandragupta,  destined  to  become  the 
first  Emperor  of  North  India,  is  said  ^  to  have  told  the 
monarch  how  he  might  advance  down  the  Ganges  and 
spread  his  conquests  over  all  the  divided  tribes  and  people. 
Chandragupta,  finding  his  advice  not  taken,  left  the  Mace- 
donians and  sought  refuge  in  Magadha.  There  he  offended 
the  reigning  Nanda  king,  and  again  returned  to  the 
Panjab,  where  he  found  that  the  Greek  governor,  Eudemos, 
left  by  Alexander,  had  foully  murdered  Porus,  and  that 
the  greater  part  of  the  Greek  garrison  had  been  withdrawn 
from  the  cities  of  the  Panjab  to  join  in  the  dissensions 
that  had  broken  out  in  the  West  on  the  death  of  Alexander. 
Chandragupta  at  once  headed  an  uprising  of  the  native 
tribes,  and  soon  found  himself  in  power  as  sole  ruler  over 
the  Panjab  and  lands  of  the  lower  Indus. 

Remembering  the  weakness  of  the  kingdoms  in  the 
valley  of  the  Ganges,  he  returned  to  Magadha,  and  there 
by  his  intrigues  secured  for  himself  the  throne  by  the 
assassination^  of  the  last  of  the  Nanda  dyucisty.  India, 
for  the  first  time,  saw,  in  the  low-caste  Chandragupta,*  a 
ruler  whose  empire  extended  from  the  Indus  to  the  lower 
Ganges. 

In  the  meantime,   Seleukos   Nikator,  the   successor  to 

'  "  Sandrakottos  (Chandragupta)  was  of  obscure  birth,  and  from  the  remark 
of  Plutarch  that  in  his  early  years  he  had  seen  Alexander,  we  may  infer  that  he 
was  a  native  of  the  Panjab." — M'Crindle,  p.  405. 

^  The  story  is  told  in  the  "  Mudrarakshasa,"  by  Visakadatta,  see  p.  294  (post). 

'  His  accession  dates  from  315  b.c,  or  312  b.c. 


THE  POWER   OF  THE  BRAHMANS      175 

the  eastern  dominions  of  Alexander,  marched  from  Syria 
and  Asia  Minor  to  re-establish  his  power  in  Bactria  and 
Western  India.  With  the  new  Maurya  Emperor  of 
Northern  India,  Seleukos  Nikator  found  it  prudent  to 
make  an  alliance.  The  Syrian  king  gave  his  daughter  in 
marriage  to  Chandragupta,  and  sent  his  ambassador, 
Megasthenes,  to  reside  at  Pataliputra,  the  city  whose 
foundations  Buddha  had  seen  laid  by  the  generals  of 
Bimbisara  as  a  fortress  to  check  the  raids  of  the  Wajjians. 
At  Pataliputra,  Megasthenes  resided  for  eight  years,  from 
306  to  298  B.C.  In  what  remains,  in  the  writings  ^  of  later 
Greek  and  Roman  writers,  of  the  "  Indika  of  Megasthenes," 
the  Western  world  has  preserved  its  only  literary  record 
of  the  condition  of  India,  at  a  period  of  time  when  the 
Aryan  race  was  approaching  a  doom  from  which  it  was, 
for  a  time,  saved  by  the  dread  of  the  Macedonian  soldiery 
to  penetrate  further  into  the  East  and  raise  the  veil  which 
the  priestly  chronicles  have  drawn  over  the  political  life 
of  the  times. 

From  Strabo  ^  it  is  learned  that  Megasthenes  held  that  no 
reliance  could  be  placed  on  any  previous  Western  account 
of  India,  for  "  its  people  he  says  never  sent  an  expedition 
abroad,  nor  was  their  country  ever  invaded  or  conquered 
except  by  Herakles  and  Dionysus  in  old  times,  and  by 
the  Macedonians  in  our  times." 

The  belief  held  by  the  Indians  themselves  evidently 
was  that  they  were  autochthonous,  and  for  some  reason, 
perhaps  to  gratify  the  pride  of  Megasthenes,  they  also 
asserted  that  their  gods,  myths,  and  philosophies  were 
similar  to  those  of  Greece. 

The  history  of  Megasthenes  was  evidently  founded  on 

^"/Ancient  India  as  Described  by  Megasthenes  and  Arrian,'  being  a 
translation  of  the  fragments  of  the  'Indika  of  Megasthenes,' collected  by  Dr 
Schwarbach,  and  of  the  first  part  of  the  'Indika  of  Arrian'"  (M'Crindle). 

2  Strabo,  xv.  I,  6-8;  M'Crindle,  p.  107.  See  Pliny,  "Hist.  Nat.,"  vi., 
x.\i.  4-5- 


176  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

facts  he  had  himself  observed,  or  on  the  evidence  of  witnesses 
he  deemed  credible.  The  more  it  is  examined  the  more 
it  is  found  to  be  trustworthy,  while  the  whole  account  of 
Indian  social  and  political  life  falls  in  with  what  might 
have  been  imagined  forth  from  the  vague  references  of  the 
sacred  literature  of  India.  Pataliputra,  the  capital  of 
Chandragupta,  the  walls  of  which  have  recently  been 
unearthed  12  to  15  feet  beneath  the  modern  city  of  Patna, 
is  described  as  the  greatest  city  in  all  India,  stretching 
80  stadia  along  the  river  to  a  breadth  of  15  stadia.  The 
ditch  surrounding  its  wooden  palisades— for  all  cities  near 
rivers  were  of  wood,  those  on  eminences  alone  being 
constructed  of  mud  and  brick — was  600  feet  broad, 
and  30  cubits  in  depth,  the  walls  of  the  city  having  sixty- 
four  gates  and  five  hundred  and  seventy  towers.  To  the 
king  there  were  six  hundred  thousand  foot  soldiers,  thirty 
thousand  cavalry,  and  nine  thousand  elephants.  It  would 
be  difficult  to  enumerate  all  the  different  tribes  scattered 
over  India  who  were  mentioned  by  the  ambassador  of 
Seleukos  Nikator  and  of  whom  many  cannot  now  be  identi- 
fied. It  is  evident  that  over  the  vast  continent  separate 
stable  governments  existed,  many  holding  vast  resources 
at  their  command.  The  King  of  Kalinga,  although  he 
was  subject  to  Chandragupta,  held  independent  possession 
of  his  own  dominions  along  the  eastern  coast,  while  a 
branch  of  the  race  he  ruled  over  seems  ^  to  have  been 
the  people  of  Lower  Bengal,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Ganges.  The  capital  of  this  great  eastern  viceroy  was 
at  Parthalis,  and  the  army  consisted  of  sixty  thousand 
foot  soldiers,  one  thousand  horsemen,  and  seven  hundred 
elephants. 

The  great  Andhra  kingdom  between  the  Godavari  and 
the  Krishna,  where  the  law  books  of  Baudhayana  and 
Apastamba  were  revered,  stretched  far  and  wide,  having 

"  M'Crindle,  "Alexander,"  p.  364;  " Megasthenes,"  p.  155. 


THE   POWER    OF  THE  BRAHMANS      177 

numerous  villages,^  thirty  walled  and  defended  towns,  and 
a  king  having  an  army  of  one  hundred  thousand  foot  men, 
two  thousand  cavalry,  and  a  thousand  elephants. 

On  the  west  coast  were  varied  tribes,  now  more  or  less 
identified,  while  in  the  basin  of  the  Chambal  were  the 
Pandae,  a  branch  of  the  famed  Pandus,^  "  the  only  race  in 
India  ruled  by  women.  They  say  that  Herakles  having 
but  one  daughter,  who  was,  on  that  account,  all  the  more 
beloved,  endowed  her  with  a  noble  kingdom.  Her 
descendants  ruled  over  three  hundred  cities,^  and  com- 
manded an  army  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  foot, 
and  five  hundred  elephants." 

Many  of  the  stories  told  by  Megasthenes  seem  incredible, 
but  then  it  would  be  unwise  to  stigmatise  the  historian  as 
wilfully  setting  forth  false  statements.  Some  of  the  stories 
he  relates  were  furnished  by  credulous  narrators,  and  when 
these  are  eliminated  there  is  generally  a  solid  substratum  of 
historic  facts  in  the  remaining  portions  of  his  writings.  The 
danger  into  which  a  too  incredulous  reader  might  fall  in 
rejecting  everything  as  false,  the  evidence  for  which  lies 
not  on  the  surface,  may  be  seen  from  a  single  example. 
Pliny  narrates  *  that,  according  to  Megasthenes,  there  lived 
a  race  in  India  whose  feet  were  turned  backwards.  This 
palpably  cannot  be  accepted  as  a  true  statement  of  fact. 
Nevertheless,  the  historian  merely  recorded  statements  he 
had  heard  from  what  he  deemed  reliable  sources,  and  the 
very  fact  that  he  mentions  this  strange  race  shows  that  his 
sources  of  information  must  have  been  numerous  and 
varied. 

1  M'Crindle,  "  Megasthenes,"  p.  138. 

^2  See  Ibid.,  p.  147  {note). 

^  Ibid.,  p.  147: — "They  further  assert  that  Herakles  was  also  bom  among 
them.  They  assign  to  him,  like  the  Greeks,  the  club  and  the  lion's  skin.  .  .  . 
Marrying  many  wives  he  left  many  sons,  but  one  daughter  only."  See  also 
p.  39  {note),  "apparently  Siva  is  meant." 

*  Pliny,  "Hist.  Nat.,"  tii.  11,  14,  22. 

M 


178  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

This  belief  in  the  existence  of  spirits  and  witches  who 
wander  about  with  their  feet  turned  backward  is  common 
not  only  in  India  but  elsewhere.^  The  following  account 
of  one  of  this  race  of  Churels,  as  they  are  called,  is  told  by 
Mr  Crooke,  who  has  done  much  to  probe  the  depths  of 
primitive  belief  in  India,  and  no  doubt  the  Greek  historian 
had  heard  somewhat  similar  stories  on  which  he  based  his 
record.  One  of  the  race  of  Churels  generally  "  assumes 
the  form  of  a  beautiful  young  woman  and  seduces  youths 
at  night,  particularly  those  who  are  good-looking.  She 
carries  them  off  to  some  kingdom  of  her  own,  keeps 
them  there  till  they  lose  their  manly  beauty,  and 
then  sends  them  back  to  the  world  grey-haired  old  men, 
who,  like  Rip  Van  Winkle,  find  all  their  friends  dead 
long  ago.  I  had  a  smart  young  butler  at  Etah,  who 
once  described  to  me  vividly  the  narrow  escape  he  had 
from  the  fascinations  of  a  Churel  who  lived  in  a  pipal  tree 
near  the  cemetery.  He  saw  her  sitting  on  a  wall  in  the 
dusk  and  entered  into  conversation  with  her,  but  he 
fortunately  observed  her  tell-tale  feet  and  escaped.  He 
would  never  again  go  by  that  road  at  night  without  an 
escort." 

The  sources  of  information  at  the  disposal  of  Megas- 
thenes,  and  the  accordance,  for  the  greater  part,  of  the  facts 
narrated  by  him  with  what  is  known  to  have  been  the 
state  of  affairs  at  the  period  during  which  he  visited  India, 
make  his  statements  of  peculiar  value  for  the  purposes 
of  adding  reality  to  the  hazy  outline  of  the  Brahmanic 
texts. 

The  population  of  India  is  by  him  divided  into  seven 
main  classes.  At  the  head  of  all  in  dignity  and  importance 
were  those  whom  he  called  the  philosophers,  easily  recog- 
nised as  the  Brahmans.     They,  according  to  Megasthenes, 

'  Crooke,  "  Popular  Religion  and  Folk-lore  in  Northern  India,"  p.  169 ; 
Tylor,  "  Primitive  Culture,"  vol.  i.  p.  307. 


THE   POWER   OF  THE  BRAHMANS      179 

are  of  great  benefit  to  the  people,  for,  "when  gathered 
together  at  the  beginning  of  the  year,  they  forewarn  the 
assembled  multitudes  about  droughts  and  wet  weather,  and 
also  about  propitious  winds,  and  diseases,  and  other  topics 
capable  of  profiting  the  hearers."  ^ 

Should  a  philosopher  make  any  error  in  his  prognostica- 
tions, he  incurs  "  no  other  penalty  than  obloquy,  and  he 
then  observes  silence  for  the  rest  of  his  life."  These 
philosophers  not  only  confer  great  benefits  on  the  people, 
they  also  "  are  believed  to  be  next  door  to  the  gods,  and  to 
be  most  conversant  with  matters  pertaining  to  Hades." 
They  perform  all  sacrifices  due  by  the  people ;  they 
perform  the  funeral  rites,  and,  in  "  requital  of  such  services, 
they  receive  valuable  gifts  and  privileges." 

The  philosophers,  according  to  Megasthenes,  were 
divided  into  two  orders.  First,  the  Brahmans  proper,  who 
live  as  students  for  thirty-six  years,^  and  then  become 
householders,  when  "  they  eat  flesh,  but  not  that  of  animals 
employed  in  labour."  "  The  Brahmans  keep  their  wives 
— and  they  had  many  wives — ignorant  of  all  philosophy,  for 
if  women  learned  to  look  on  pleasure  and  pain,  life  and 
death,  philosophically,  they  would  become  depraved,  or 
else  no  longer  remain  in  subjection."  ^  This  statement  is 
in  accord  with  the  teaching  of  the  "Vedanta,"  which  ex- 
cludes all  women  from  its  scheme  of  salvation.  The  basis 
of  much  of  Indian  thought  is  contained  in  his  summing-up 
of  the  Brahmanic  speculations  of  his  time :  "  They  consider 
nothing,"  he  records,  "  that  befalls  man  to  be  either  good 
or  bad  ;  to  suppose  otherwise  being  a  dream-like  illusion."  * 
Their  views  regarding  the  soul  and  creation  were  declared 
to  be  the  same  as  the  Greek,  and  "they  wrap  up  their 
doctrines  about  immortality,  and  future  judgment,  and 
kindred  topics,  in  allegories,  after  the  manner  of  Plato." 

1  M'Crindle,  "Megasthenes,"  p.  41.  =  "Manu,"  iii.  I. 

s  See  M'Crindle,  "  Megasthenes,"  p.  100,  *  Ibid.,  p.  lOO. 


i8o  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

The  second  order  of  the  Brahmans  was  the  Sarmanes,  or 
"  ascetics,"  of  whom  the  most  honoured  were  the  Hylobioi,^ 
who  "live  in  the  woods,  where  they  subsist  on  leaves  of 
trees  and  wild  fruits,  and  wear  garments  made  from  the 
bark  of  trees."  ^  Besides  the  orthodox  Brahmans,*  there 
were  numerous  diviners  and  sorcerers  living  on  the  super- 
stitions of  the  people,  begging  their  way  from  village  to 
village,  and  even  women  were  said  in  some  cases  to 
"pursue  philosophy." 

The  second  class  into  which  Megasthenes  divided  the 
population  was  that  of  husbandmen.  They,  as  they  do 
to-day,  formed  the  gross  mass  of  the  population  living  in 
scattered  villages. 

The  land,  according  to  the  Greek  account,  was  the 
property  of  the  king,  to  whom  a  land  tribute  was  paid, 
as  well  as  a  fourth  part  of  the  produce  raised  by  each 
cultivator.  The  husbandmen  are  depicted  as  remaining 
supremely  indifferent  to  the  change  of  their  rulers,  to  the 
coming  and  going  of  new  invaders :  even  in  those  days  they 
were  as  they  are  to-day,  when,  "  the  Mogul,  the  Afghan,  the 
Pindari,  the  Briton,  and  the  mutinous  Sepoy,  with  others, 
have  swept  to  and  fro,  as  the  dust  storm  sweeps  the  land, 
but  the  corn  must  be  grown,  and  the  folk  and  cattle  must 
be  fed,  and  the  cultivator  waits  with  inflexible  patience  till 
the  will  of  Heaven  be  accomplished,  and  he  may  turn  again 
to  the  toil  to  which  he  is  appointed."  * 

The  picture  of  the  agricultural  labourer  was  much  the 
same  over  two  thousand  years  ago.     The  Greek  historian 

1  Haradatta,  in  his  tiote  to  "  Gautama,"  iii.  2,  says  : — "  The  Vanaprastha 
is  called  the  Vaikhanasa,  because  he  lives  according  to  the  rule  promulgated  by 
Vikhanas ; "  and  adds,  ' '  for  that  sage  chiefly  taught  that  order. "  See  Buhler, 
"  Manu,"  p.  xxviii.;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xxv. 

^M'Crindle,  "  Megasthenes,"  p.  102. 

5  "  Among  the  Indians  are  those  philosophers  also  who  follow  the  precepts 
of  Boutta,  whom  they  honour  as  a  god  on  account  of  his  extraordinary 
sanctity."— M'Crindle,  p.  105. 

^  lyockwood  Kipling,  "  Man  and  Beast  in  India,"  p.  154. 


THE  POWER   OF  THE  BRAHMANS      i8i 

narrates  how,  when  soldiers  fought  their  way  to  over- 
lordship  of  the  soil  the  cultivators  remained  silent 
spectators.  "While  the  former  are  fighting  and  killing 
each  other  as  they  can,  the  latter  may  be  seen  close  at 
hand  tranquilly  pursuing  their  work,  perhaps  ploughing 
or  gathering  in  their  crops,  pruning  the  trees,  or  reaping 
the  harvest."^ 

The  shepherds,  artisans,  soldiers,^  and  overseers  formed 
the  next  four  classes  into  which  the  people  were  divided ; 
the  seventh  and  last  being  that  of  the  councillors,  or 
assessors,  to  whom  belonged  "  the  highest  posts  of  govern- 
ment, the  tribunals  of  justice,  and  the  general  administra- 
tion of  public  affairs."  * 

The  salient  features  of  the  system  of  caste  division  of 
the  people  into  distinct  groups,  ranging  from  the  Brahman 
downwards,*  is  described  in  an  extract  from  Megasthenes 
preserved  by  Arrian :  "  No  one  is  allowed  to  marry  out  of 
his  own  caste,  or  to  exchange  one  profession  or  trade  for 
another,  or  to  follow  more  than  one  business.  An  ex- 
ception is  made  in  favour  of  the  philosopher,  who,  for  his 
virtue,  is  allowed  this  privilege."  ^ 

The  Indians,  as  a  nation,  are  depicted  as  frugal  and 
abstemious  in  their  habits.  Wine  was  only  drunk  at  sacri- 
fices. They  seldom  went  to  law.  Theft  was  rare ;  houses 
and  property  were  left  unguarded.  The  women  were 
purchased  as  wives  for  a  yoke  of  oxen.^      The   care   of 

'  M'Crindle,  "  Indika  of  Arrian,''  p.  210. 

^  "The  fifth  class  consists  of  fighting  men,  who,  when  not  engaged  in  active 
service,  pass  their  time  in  idleness  and  drinking.  They  are  maintained  at  the 
king's  expense,  and  hence  they  are  always  ready,  when  occasion  calls,  to  take 
the  field,  for  they  carry  nothing  of  their  own  with  them  but  their  own  bodies." 
—M'Crindle,  p.  85. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  85. 

*  See  also  Ibid.,  p.  213: — "It  is  permitted  that  the  sophist  only  be 
from  any  caste ;  for  the  life  of  the  sophist  is  not  an  easy  one  but  the  hardest 
of  all." 

'■>  Ibid.,  p.  86.  8  Ibid.,  p.  70. 


i82         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

the  king's  person,  in  his  palace  and  when  hunting,  was 
entrusted  to  female  guards.  Famine  is  affirmed  never  to 
have  visited  India.  "The  greater  part  of  the  soil,  more- 
over, is  under  irrigation,  and  consequently  bears  two 
crops  in  the  course  of  the  year."  ^ 

Arrian,  in  his  history,  gives  a  realistic,  matter-of-fact 
account  of  the  form  of  marriage,  so  often  poetically  and 
prettily  alluded  to  in  the  epics  and  drama  as  that  of  the 
Svayamvara,  or  "  choice  by  the  bride  of  a  bridegroom " : 
"  The  women,  as  soon  as  they  are  marriageable,  are  brought 
forward  by  their  fathers  and  exposed  in  public,  to  be 
selected  by  the  victor  in  wrestling  or  boxing  or  running, 
or  by  some  one  who  excels  in  any  other  manly  exercise."  ^ 
Differing  from  Strabo,  who  fixed  the  ordinary  price  of  a 
bride  at  a  yoke  of  oxen,  Arrian  says  that  there  was  no 
dowry  given  or  taken. 

The  worship  of  the  god  6iva,  or  his  counterpart — a  deity 
finding  its  birthplace  among  the  fiercer  Scythian  tribes, 
and  then  accepted  into  Brahmanism  as  a  form  of  the  Vedic 
Rudra — as  well  as  the  worship  of  Krishna,  born  amid 
shepherd  folk,  are  both  described  by  Megasthenes  as  having 
been  fully  incorporated  into  Brahmanism. 

Writing  of  the  philosophers,  Megasthenes  records,  that 
"such  of  them  as  live  on  the  mountains  are  worshippers 
of  Dionysos,  showing,  as  proofs  that  he  had  come  among 
them,  the  wild  vine  which  grows  in  their  country  only,  and 
the  ivy,  and  the  laurel,  and  the  myrtle,  and  the  box-tree,  and 
other  evergreens.  .  ,  ,  They  observe  also  certain  customs 
which  are  Bacchanalian.  Thus  they  dress  in  muslin,  wear 
the  turban,  use  perfumes,  array  themselves  in  garments  dyed 
of  bright  colours ;  and  their  kings,  when  they  appear  in 
public,  are  preceded  by  the  music  of  drums  and  gongs.  But 
the  philosophers  who  live  in  the  plains  worship  Herakles." ' 

'  Diodorus,  "  Epitome  of  Megasthenes,"  ii.  36  ;  M'Crindle,  "  Megasthenes,'' 
P-3'- 

2 /ii/.,  p.  222.  '/«M'.,p.  97. 


THE  POWtm.    OF  THE  BRAHMANS      183 

While  these  and  other  strange  changes  had  crept  into 
Brahmanic  orthodoxy,  there  was  one  task  remaining  for  it 
to  accomplish  before  it  had  to  withdraw  within  the  defences 
it  had  reared,  and  there  await  the  attacks  soon  to  be  made 
against  it,  the  last  of  which  has  come  from  all  the  forces 
at  the  command  of  a  Western  civilisation. 

The  enormous  mass  of  sacred  literature  of  the  varied 
schools,  the  knowledge  of  which  led  towards  Heaven,  made 
it  almost  impossible  that  it  could  be  all  remembered,  or 
serve  as  a  guide  through  life.^ 

The  special  rules  of  the  early  "  Sutras  "  were  more  guiding 
principles  of  life  than  practical  expositions  of  the  civil  and 
criminal  law.  Some  authoritative  statement  of  the  practical 
relationship  of  the  varied  classes,  and  of  the  civic  duties  of 
each  member  of  the  Aryan  community,  had  to  be  set  forth 
with  a  prestige  sufficient  to  inspire  the  allegiance  of  all. 
Father  Manu  was  a  name  wherewith  to  conjure.  It  was 
a  name  held  sacred  throughout  the  pages  of  literature. 
From  him  all  men  had  sprung.  At  the  time  of  the  Flood 
he  had  preserved  in  his  own  self  the  human  race  for  re- 
creation. He  was  ruler  of  all  law  and  order,  father  and 
revealer  of  the  sacrifice,  the  author  of  Vedic  Hymns,  and  the 
great  legendary  forefather  and  guide  of  all  Aryan  people. 

Among  the  varied  Brahmanic  schools  for  the  preservation 
and  teaching  of  Vedic  texts,  the  ritual,  and  subsidiary 
branches  of  learning,  there  was  one  great  school  of  the 
Manavas — a  branch  of  the  Maitrayanlya  Black  Yajur  Veda 
school — whose  founder  became,  in  time,  identified  with  the 
primeval  Manu. 

The  ancient   Sutra    law   book    of   the    school   is  lost. 

'  See  the  exhaustive  and  learned  treatise  on  the  whole  subject  prefixed  by 
Buhler  to  his  translation  of  "  Manu  "  (S.  B.E.,  vol.  xxv.  p.  xlv.),  under  the  four 
heads  : — (l)  What  circumstances  led  to  the  substitution  of  a  universally  binding 
"  Manava  Dharma  ^astr.--. "  for  the  manual  of  the  Vedic  school?  (2)  Why 
was  so  prominent  a  position  assigned  to  the  remodelled  "  Smriti "  ?  (3)  How 
was  the  conversion  effected  ?    (4)  When  did  it  probably  take  place 


i84  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

This  was  the  text  seized  on  by  the  Brahmans,  out  of 
which  they  composed  a  systematic  treatise^  on  law  and 
order,  free  from  sectarian  strife,  so  that  it  might  stand 
forth  as  a  code  of  civil  and  criminal  jurisdiction  for  all 
Aryan  people.  The  well-known  law  book  of  Manu  has  thus 
obtained  the  sanction  of  an  antiquity  held  to  date  back  to 
primeval  days,  when  the  Divine  decrees  were  revealed  by 
Manu,  the  offspring  of  the  Self-Existent,^  the  mythical 
progenitor  of  the  human  race.  The  date  of  the  composition 
of  the  work  can  now  be  confidently  placed  somewhere  near 
the  commencement,  of  the  Christian  era.^ 

Tradition,  however,  holds  that  the  Creator,  having  created 
the  universe,  composed  the  law,  and  taught  it  to  Manu, 
who  taught  it  to  the  ancient  seers.  The  work  itself  was  for 
the  Aryan  community,  for  the  use  of  those  Brahmans  *  who 
assisted  kings  and  princes  to  administer  the  law.  The 
peculiar  customs  of  countries,  peoples,  and  families  lying 
outside  the  sphere  of  Brahmanism  were  always  acknow- 
ledged to  have  retained  their  own  validity.*  Not  until 
much  later  did  the  idea  grow  up  that  local  laws  ^  should 
give  place  to  Brahmanic  ideals,  and  not  until  English 
lawyers  fell  into  the  error  of  seeing  in  the  law  books  of 
Manu  the  sacred  and  common  source  from  which  the 
habits  and  customs  of  the  entire  people  of  India  had  sprung, 
did  it  become  the  text  by  which  disputes  between  people, 
who  had  never  heard  of  its  existence,  were  decided. 

^  In  the  easy  metre  of  the  late  epic  "  Anushtubh  Sloka." — Biihler,  p.  mx. 

2  "Yaska,  Nirukta,"  iii.  4;  Buhler,  p.  Ixi.;  "Manu,"  i,  102. 

'  Buhler,  p.  cxvii.  : — "  It  certainly  existed  in  the  second  century  a.d.,  and 
seems  to  have  been  composed  between  that  date  and  the  second  century  B.C." 
Burnell,  "Ordinances  of  Manu,"  p.  xxiv.: — "Between  about  i  A  D.  and  500 

A.D." 

^  "Manu,"'  viii.  1. 

^  Ibid.,  i.  118;  Burnell,  p.  xxxvi.  ;  "  Baudhayana,"  i.  i,  2,  1-7;  "Apas- 
tamba,"  ii.  6,  15,  I  ;  "Gautama,"  xi.  20-21. 

« Burnell,  p.  xxwi!.  .S^ee  Lee  Warner,  W.,  "Jour.  Soc.  Arts"  (February 
1897),  p.  170. 


THE  POWER    OF  THE  BRAHMANS      185 

In  the  words  of  the  late  profound  scholar  and  jurist, 
Dr  Burnell,  the  result  is  that  "we  shall  soon  see  'Jack 
the  Giant  Killer '  cited  as  an  authority  on  the  law  of 
homicide."  1  The  laws  of  Manu  grew  out  of  a  natural 
development  in  the  political  and  social  life  of  Brahmanic 
India.  The  ruder  races,  as  they  rose  in  the  social  scale, 
naturally  fell  under  the  influence  of  the  system  formulated 
by  the  learned  and  priestly  classes,  and  modified  their  own 
usages  and  customs  so  that,  as  far  as  possible,  they  might 
conform  to  the  ideals  of  the  higher  castes.  It  was  the 
Brahmans  ^  alone  who  could  expound  the  laws  of  Manu, 
and  it  was  to  the  three  higher  castes  alone  that  the  right 
of  studying  them  was  given.* 

All  women,  Sudras,  and  tribes  outside  the  Aryan  pale, 
were  excluded  from  "  these  Institutes  "  by  the  very  words 
of  the  text*  The  pretensions  of  the  Brahmans  were  rising 
higher,  and  signs  of  change  are  evident  in  the  laws  them- 
selves. In  one  verse  the  ancient  custom  of  the  sale  of 
women  in  marriage  is  condemned,  for  "no  father  who 
knows  the  law  must  take  even  the  smallest  gratuity  for 
his  daughter."* 

The  Greek  historian  narrated  how  brides  were  sold  for 
a  yoke  of  oxen,  and  Manu  bears  witness  to  the  fact  that 
the  sale  was  in  vogue,  for  "some  call  the  cow  and  bull 
given  at  an  Arsha  wedding  a  '  gratuity,'  but  that  is  wrong, 
since  the  acceptance  of  a  fee,  be  it  small  or  great,  is  a  sale 
of  the  daughter."  « 

Again  the  same  want  of  consistency,  showing  how  varied 
the  local  customs  were,  is  seen  from  the  fact  that  in  the 
law  book  it  is  declared  that  not  even  a  Sudra  ^  should  sell 
his  daughter,  that  such  a  custom  had  never  been  heard  of 
in  any  creation.    And  again,  in  a  different  chapter,  ^  treating 

'  Burnell,  "Manu,"'  p.  xxxviii.     -  Ibid.,  i.  103.  '  Ibid.,  ii.  16. 

*  Ibid.,  A.  126.  "  Ibid.,  iii.  51.  «  Ibid.,  iii.  53. 

''Ibid.,  ix.  98.  ^  Ibiil.,  viii.  204. 


i86  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

of  the  sale  of  chattels,  the  text  lays  down  :  "  If  after  one 
damsel  has  been  shown,  another  be  given  to  the  bride- 
groom, he  may  marry  them  both  for  the  same  price  ;  that 
Manu  ordained." 

The  confusion  arose  from  the  fact  that  the  laws  and 
customs  of  the  people  were  changing  in  the  course  of  time, 
and  were  varied  among  the  different  sections  of  the  people. 
The  Brahmans,  however,  hoped  to  stereotype  the  conditions 
of  life  and  society  to  which  they  owed  their  position,  wealth, 
and  power ;  and  so  far  they  have  succeeded,  for,  from  the 
time  Warren  Hastings  drew  from  the  Brahmans  their 
"Gentoo  Code,"  down  to  the  time  when  the  Queen 
issued  her  proclamation  after  the  Mutiny,  declaring  that 
the  "  ancient  rights,  usages,  and  customs  of  India "  should 
be  duly  regarded,  it  has  been  held  that  "  Manu  "  and  later 
law  books  were  codes  wherein  to  find  a  sure  and  safe 
guide  for  the  administration  of  civil  law  to  all  Hindus. 
There  were  Sudras  and  Sudra  kings  in  India  at  the  time 
of  the  compilation  of  the  laws  of  Manu,  who,  according  to 
its  tenets,  would  have  been  excluded  from  its  purpose,  while 
the  Kshatriyas  and  Vaisyas,  for  whom  it  was  compiled, 
find  few  or  no  representatives  in  India  of  to-day.i  The 
Brahmans  sought  but  to  frame  laws  for  the  preservation 
of  the  usages  and  customs  of  the  people  with  whom  they 
were  concerned,  and  whom  they  recognised  as  within  the 
sphere  of  Aryanism.^ 

These  efforts  of  Brahmanism  have  received  a  finality  and 
sanction  which  not  even  Brahmanism  itself  now  would 
claim,  or  if  it  did,  be  powerful  enough  to  sustain.  The 
law  but  follows  and  recognises  the  changing  course  of 
social  life.    In  accepting  the  Brahmanic  law  books  as  final, 

'  Nelson,  "  Scientific  Study  of  the  Hindu  Law,"  p.  5. 

^  ' '  The  authority  of  the  inferior  castes  to  make  their  own  laws  was  early 
admitted "("Baudhayana,"i.  I, ;:,  1-7  ;  "Gautama,"xi.  20,  21 ;  "Apastamba," 
ii.  6,  iSi  l).  "Neither  were  the  Sanskrit  Brahman  laws  forced  on  them,  nor 
were  their  own  customs  ignored,  as  is  now  the  case. " — Burnell  ( Pref. ),  p.  xxxvi. 


THE  POWER   OP  THE  BRAHMANS      187 

the  whole  transition  of  the  society  from  its  ancient  con- 
dition to  that  of  an  advancing  civil  community  has  been 
retarded,  if  not  frustrated,  while  much  of  its  progress  has 
been  reduced  to  a  chaos,  out  of  which  few  can  see  any 
possibility  of  restoring  law  and  order. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE  FINAL  RESTING-PLACE  OF  ARYAN   THOUGHT. 

The  Brahmans  had,  with  all  the  care  and  pains  granted 
only  to  high  genius,  with  all  the  insight  bred  of  long 
hereditary  training,  striven  manfully  in  the  fight  they  had 
to  fight — the  fight  for  the  consolidation  and  preservation  of 
their  own  race,  class,  and  power. 

They  were  to  abide  immutably  the  intellectual  guides  of 
the  people,  for  so  Divine  ordinance  had  decreed.  Kings 
and  warriors  had  their  appointed  places  as  upholders  of 
the  State,  and  favoured  allies  of  the  Brahmanic  might. 
The  varied  classes  of  those  who  were  Aryan  by  descent, 
or  had  been  admitted  within  the  ranks  of  Aryanism,  were 
one  and  all  allotted  their  appointed  place  in  life,  and  bid 
look  for  their  spiritual  welfare  in  obedience  to  the  priestly 
dictates. 

The  very  gods  had  come  on  earth  to  dwell  personified 
as  the  Brahmans.  The  Creator  of  the  Universe  had 
resigned  his  earthly  sceptre  to  the  high  keeping  of  those 
whose  hands  and  feet  still  show  that  their  ancestors,  for 
generations  past,  have  never  sullied  themselves  by  sub- 
mission to  vulgar  toil  and  labour,  and  whose  features  bear 
the  stamp  of  conscious  knowledge  of  their  high  calling. 
All  alien  races  and  tribes  were  the  polluted  offspring  of 


THE  FINAL  RESTING-PLACE  189 

those  who  had  confounded  the  divinely-decreed  divisions 
between  class  and  class. 

The  Brahmans  based  their  claim  to  rule  supreme  solely 
on  their  traditional  lineage  from  Vedic  bards,  on  their 
high  intellectual  power  and  sacred  calling.  It  was  thought, 
not  action,  mind  alone,  not  mind  working  out  its  ideals 
in  dramatic,  sculptured,  or  artistic  forms,  that  enslaved 
the  nation.  The  architect,  the  builder,  or  sculptor,  were 
relegated  to  the  lower  classes,  in  common  with  all  those 
who  worked  with  their  hands.  No  great  architectural 
buildings,  no  temples,  no  works  of  sculpture,  whose  origin 
can  be  traced  back  to  Brahmanic  genius,  remain  in 
India.  The  Aryan  had  set  before  him  but  one  ideal, 
and  that  was  to  unravel  the  secret  that  set  strife  on  earth 
as  the  stepping-stone  to  law  and  order,  to  solve  the 
mystery  of  the  seeming  endless  struggle  wherein  the  evil 
and  the  strong  men  often  prosper  while  the  good  and 
weak  are  swept  away.  It  is  a  problem  yet  unsolved,  a 
problem  Nietsche  has  newly  set  forth  with  the  all  too- 
overpowering  earnestness  of  one  born  into  a  world  out 
of  joint  to  set  it  right. 

Even  the  weak,  diseased,  and  contaminated  are  nurtured 
and  left  free  to  send  their  taint  to  future  generations  by 
civilisations  which  hold  forth,  as  their  highest  ideals,  sym- 
pathy towards  the  suffering,  and  protection  towards  the 
feeble.  Yet  these  same  civilisations  take  heed  to  stand 
armed  at  every  point,  straining  every  nerve  to  add  to  their 
strength,  knowing  well  that  speedy  decay  and  dissolution 
await  the  nation  not  stern  enough  to  fling  its  boasted 
shibboleths  of  peace  and  goodwill  to  the  winds  when 
assailed  by  stronger  foes.  India,  subdued  to  her  own 
ideals,  fell,  and  so  remains  fallen.  Before  she  fell,  all 
that  she  held  of  intellect  or  genius  had  prepared  her  course 
down  to  a  soothing  resting-place.  If  she  ever  rises  it 
will   be   because  those   before   whom   she   fell  will   wake 


i90  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

her  from  a  peaceful  sleep  and  send  her  forth  to  find  new 
leaders,  who  no  longer  seek  to  see  their  fitting  end  in 
striving  to  reconcile  man's  ethical  notions  of  right  and 
wrong,  justice  and  injustice,  with  the  struggle  and  strife 
of  life,  but  simply  rest  assured  that,  while  they  take  their 
part  in  the  battle  of  the  world's  strife,  the  lofty  ideals  they 
held  aloft  when  Europe  was  plunged  in  barbarism  will,  in 
the  appointed  time,  be  fully  realised,  and  until  then  can 
but  be  held  as  guiding  hopes. 

While  Brahmanism  was  cradling  its  wasted  strength  in 
the  summit  of  the  many-storeyed  wicker-work  edifice  of 
caste,  into  which  all  outsiders  might  creep  from  below,  and 
work  their  way  upward  from  storey  to  storey,  it  sent 
abroad  throughout  the  land  those  bright  rays  of  thought 
which  are  the  sole  guiding  stars  to  those  who  still  in  India 
love  to  tread  the  paths  of  old. 

The  cry,  the  incessant  cry  sent  forth  by  Aryan  India, 
was  that  life  was  pain — pain  from  the  body,  pain  from  the 
world,  pain  from  the  heavens,  and  the  gods.* 

The  cry  went  up  from  Brahmanism.  The  first  answer 
philosophy  had  to  give  is  ascribed  to  Kapila,  said  to  be  the 
founder  of  the  Sankhya  philosophy.  By  him  the  Aryan 
people  were  directed  to  fix  their  gaze  on  two  facts — the 
world  as  they  saw  it  spread  out  before  them,  and  their  own 
souls.  So  far  they  knew  and  no  more.  The  phenomenal 
world  was  self-evident.  Kapila  undertook  to  prove  the 
existence  of  soul  in  five  ways.  Firstly,  he  held  the  soul  to 
exist  from  an  inverted  doctrine  of  design.^  If  one  beholds 
a  bed,  he  naturally  concludes  there  must  be  a  sleeper ;  so, 
when  one  sees  the  world,  he  must  conclude  that  there  is 
soul  to  enjoy  it.  Secondly,  soul  is  shown  to  exist  because 
every  one  is  conscious  of  something  inside  himself  distinct 
from  ma,tter.    Thirdly,  soul  must  exist  as  a  superintending 

''  -  See  Garbe,  "Sankhya  Philosophie,"  p.  133. 
"  Davies,  "  Hindu  Philosophy,"  p.  46. 


THE  FINAL  RESTING-PLACE  191 

power.  Fourthly,  it  must  exist  to  enjoy ;  and  fifthly,  and 
lastly,  because  all  men  feel  within  themselves  that  the  soul 
exists,  yearning,  striving  to  free  itself  from  the  contamina- 
tion of  matter.  So  far  the  existence  of  soul,  soul  transmi- 
grating from  birth  to  re-birth,  having  been  proved,  the 
connection  between  it  and  the  world  had  to  be  traced,  for 
in  this  connection  lay  pain  and  sorrow.  Freed  from 
matter  the  soul  would  remain  isolated,  inactive,  and 
uncreative,  unconsciously  self-existent  and  self-contained. 
It  would  remain  quiescent,  placid  as  a  lake  on  whose 
surface  no  ripples  break.  The  Indian  sage  loves  to  brood, 
in  a  dreamy  semi-hypnotic  trance,  over  that  calm  resting- 
place  to  which  the  soul  might  take  wing,  having  shaken 
off  from  itself  all  bonds  that  keep  it  fettered.  The  soul, 
however,  is  constrained  to  rouse  itself  from  painless  isola- 
tion. The  allurements  of  the  flesh  and  the  evidences  of  the 
senses  constrain  it  to  lend  its  reluctant  consent  to  join 
in  the  drama  sent  forth  by  matter.  Primordial  matter, 
unmanifested,  is,  according  to  Kapila,  that  which  originally 
existed  outside,  and  independent  of,  soul.^  This  matter, 
the  primordial  germ  substance,  eternal,  indivisible,  self- 
developed,  ever  invisible,  had  potentially  to  send  forth 
real  existence.^  This  primal  matter  has,  as  its  nature,  the 
three  modes  ^  of  goodness,  passion,  and  darkness.  The 
system  knows  no  idealistic  monism ;  germ  matter  and 
soul  remain  distinct — the  soul,  when  separated  from 
matter,  being  self-existent,  with  no  object  of  thought. 

So  far  Kapila  held  forth  before  the  astonished  gaze  the 
Prakriti,  into  which  he  had  resolved  all  objective  reality, 
and  the  inward  light,  the  soul,  having  an  existence  of  its 

'  The  Prakriti  or  Pradhana. 

2  "After  all,  what  do  we  know  of  this  terrible  '  matter,'  except  as  a  name 
for  the  unknown  and  hypothetical  cause  of  states  of  our  own  consciousness." — 
Huxley,  "  Lay  Sermons,"  p.  142,  quoted  Davies  {note),  p.  19. 

'  These  three  modes,  or  gunas,  are  not  to  be  taken  as  qualities  of  Prakriti ;  the 
clear  distinction  between  substance  and  its  qualities  had  not  been  marked  out 
at  this  period.     The  three  gunas  are  the  very  constituents  of  Prakriti. 


192  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

own.  From  Prakriti  he  had  to  create  a  rival  world 
wherein  the  soul  would  find  its  sorrow.  With  all  the 
limitation  of  man's  knowledge  of  time,  and  space,  and  cause, 
the  Eastern  Frankenstein  had  to  set  to  work  and  evolve  the 
spectral  vision  of  a  world,  and  then,  haunted  by  the  terror 
of  the  scene  of  woe  and  desolation,  point  out  a  means  to 
mankind  how  they  might  escape  from  their  brooding  fears. 
A  change  had  to  take  place  in  primordial  matter,  so  that 
the  different  forms  of  matter  might  become  manifest. 
Prakriti  had,  as  its  essential  nature,  but  the  three  equipoised 
qualities  of  goodness,  passion,  and  darkness.  From  the 
proximity  of  soul  to  matter  a  disturbance  takes  place  in 
matter.  The  quality  of  passion  is  roused,  matter  no  longer 
remains  quiescent.  She  manifests  herself  to  soul  i  so  that 
soul  may  contemplate  creation,  and  learn  for  itself  the  bliss 
of  its  primeval  condition  of  isolated  self-existence.  In  this 
action  of  Prakriti  there  is  no  intelligent  design.  The 
system  knows  of  no  Creator,  matter  is  unintelligent.  The 
favourite  simile  is  that  matter  manifests  itself  unconsciously, 
without  intelligence,  just  as  milk  is  secreted  without  any 
design  on  the  part  of  a  cow.^  Prakriti  is  blind,  it  cannot 
see ;  the  soul  is  lame,  it  cannot  act.  So  "  it  is  that  the  soul 
may  be  able  to  contemplate  Nature,  and  to  become  entirely 
separated  from  it,  that  the  union  of  both  is  made,  as  of  the 
halt  and  the  blind,  and  through  that  (union)  the  universe 
is  formed."  8 

In  the  tragedy  evolved  by  unconscious  Nature  for  the 
soul's  training,  the  soul  remains  inactive,  receiving  as  a 
sovereign  all  that  is  presented  to  it,  yet  preserving  its 
freedom  from  contact  with  matter.  Prakriti  first  sends 
forth  intellect  {buddhi)  for  the  benefit  of  soul.  From 
intellect,  consciousness,  or  egoism,  is  evolved,  and   from 

'  "  As  the  loadstone  is  attracted  by  iron  merely  by  proximity,  without  re- 
solving (either  to  act  or  to  be  acted  upon),  so  by  the  mere  juxtaposition  of  the 
soul,  Nature  {Prakriti)  is  changed." — Davies  (note),  p.  37  ;  see  Garbe,  p.  222. 

"  See  Davies,  p.  93.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  51. 


THE  FINAL  RESTING-PLACE  193 

consciousness  the  mind  (manas)}  The  mind-matter  receives 
from  the  senses  such  sensations  as  are  to  be  passed  on  to 
consciousness,  thence  to  the  intellect,  for  presentation  to 
the  soul,  so  that  the  pulsating  and  heaving  life  may  be 
viewed  by  Soul,  as  though  all  passed  before  it  like  objects 
seen  in  a  mirror.  From  consciousness  are  evolved  five  subtle 
elements — sound,  touch,  odour,  form,  and  taste.^  From 
these  five  subtle  principles  proceed  the  five  gross  elements 
— ether,  air,  earth,  light,  and  water.  From  consciousness 
also  proceed  the  five  organs  of  sense  and  the  five  organs 
of  action.  Intellect,  consciousness,  and  mind,  with  the 
five  subtle  elenjents^  form  a  subtle  body,^  which  covers  in 
the  soul,  and  remains  connected  with  it,from  transmigration 
to  transmigration,  passing  in  its  course  to  celestial  abodes, 
ranged  in  order  of  rewards  for  virtue  or  vice.*  The  soul 
is  thus  held  in  bondage,  subject  to  imperfections,  disease, 
decay,  and  transmigration.  Until  it  sees  the  sadness  of 
life  spread  out  before  it,  in  all  its  hopeless  gloom,  it  is 
unconscious,  with  no  object  of  thought,  knowing  nothing 
of  the  unfruitfulness  of  desire.  To  reach  again  this  self- 
existent,  unborn,  and  undying  stage,  it  has  but  to  gain 
knowledge  of  itself,  of  Prakriti,  of  intellect,  consciousness, 
mind,  the  five  subtle  elements,  the  five  gross  elements,  the 
five  senses,  and  the  five  organs  of  action.  The  soul  then 
becomes  freed  from  pain,  freed  from  the  subtle  body  which 
sinks  back  into  Prakriti ;  for  "  as  a  dancer,  having  ex- 
hibited herself  on  the  stage,  ceases  to  dance,  so  does 
Nature  (Prakriti)  cease  (to  produce)  when  she  has  made 
herself  manifest  to  Soul."  ^ 

Such  was  the  new-found  solution  held  forth  for  man  who, 
looking  within  himself,  found  there  the  problem  raised 
which  is  the  mission  of  all  higher  art,  philosophies,  and 
religion  to  present  in  one  form  or  another. 

1  iea  Davies,  p.  io8.  ''Ibid., -p.  19.  ^  The  linga  sdrh  a. 

*  See  Davies,  p.  82.  "  Ibid.,  p.  94. 

N 


194  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

The  great  aim  for  the  Eastern  sage  was  to  obtain  rest 
from  transmigration,  from  re-birth,  wherein  the  higher  castes 
might  descend  to  lower  ranks,  and  thence  into  bestial  and 
degraded  forms.  The  problem  was  set  forth,  worked,  and 
solved,  in  methods  peculiarly  Eastern,  and  therefore  evasive 
in  their  subtle  mysticism.  Nature,  or  Prakriti,  abstract  and 
self-existent,  was  beyond  the  ken  of  the  Sankhyan  sage. 
It  could  but  be  connoted  by  its  triple  gunas  ^  of  goodness, 
passion  or  energy,  and  darkness — the  threefold  essence 
afterwards  personified  in  the  triple  gods,  Vishnu,  "  The  Pre- 
server," Brahma, "  The  Creator,"  and  6iva, "  The  Destroyer." 
The  Eastern  mind,  trained  from  Vedic  times  to  trace  all 
creation  from  human  analogy,  could  not  escape  the  fatal 
step,  and  so  Soul  had  to  approach  close  to  Nature,  with  the 
result  that  passion  was  aroused  and  creation  ensued — a  hazy 
generalisation  that  could  only  find  its  fitting  place,  not  in 
a  philosophy  to  be  couched  in  occidental  phraseology,  but 
in  the  half-man,  half-woman  symbolic  form  in  which  the 
god  Siva  came  to  be  represented.  The  Eastern  sage 
wandered  on  in  a  priori  guesses,  here  and  there  betraying 
his  trend  of  thought  when  he  likens  Nature  to  a  female 
dancer  who  exposes  her  charms  ^  that  Soul  may  satiate 
itself,  and  then  send  forth  the  wail  that  its  yearnings  for 
the  Infinite,  the  Ideal,  the  Absolute,  have  been  mocked,  with 
the  result  that  Nature  retires  abashed,  leaving  Soul  to  its 
own  loneliness. 

The  mystic  charm  is  everywhere,  gently  persuading  the 
mind  to  accept  the  analogy  by  which  Nature  is  represented, 
retreating  from  the  gaze  of  wearied  Soul  "as  a  modest 
maiden  who  may  be  surprised  in  deshabille  by  a  strange 
man,  but  takes  good  heed  that  another  shall  not  behold 
her  off  her  guard."  * 

^  These  gunas,  or  qualities,  are  taken  as  the  actual  substance  of  Prakriti. 
See  note  to  p.  208. 
a  "  Sankya  Kar.,"  p.  59.  »  VVUson,  " Tattwa  Kaumudi,"  p.  173. 


THE  FINAL  RESTING-PLACE  195 

The  descent  from  the  high  idealistic  beauty  of  the  poet's 
dream  is  apparent  in  the  setting  of  ^ankhyan  fine-spun 
thought  in  terms  of  formal  philosophy,  as  well  as  in  the 
hazy  speculations  of  the  Eastern  dreamer,  who,  in  his  hopes 
to  cast  a  halo  of  reality  about  his  visions,  sends  them 
forth  as  a  guide  towards  the  unknown,  with  the  declaration : 
"  He  who  knows  the  twenty-five  principles,  whatever  order 
of  life  he  may  enter,  and  whether  he  wears  braided  hair, 
or  a  top  knot  only,  or  be  shaven,  he  is  free ;  of  this  there 
is  no  doubt."  ^ 

This  doctrine  was  one  too  far  removed  from  the  yearn- 
ing hopes  of  humanity  to  find  acceptance  outside  the 
schools  of  esoteric  thought.  Its  theological  completion, 
however,  found  expression  in  a  system  by  Patanjali,  who 
in  the  second  century  B.C.  compiled  his  "  Yoga  Sutras,"  in 
which  the  idea  of  a  Supreme  Being  is  introduced.  This 
Supreme  Being,  or  Lord,  is  an  Omniscient  Soul,  addressed 
as  the  mystic  syllable  "  Om,"  infinite,  directing  and  presiding 
over  Nature,  yet  living  far  away,  untouched  by  good  or 
evil  and  their  results.  With  this  Divine  Essence  the  indi- 
vidual soul  hopes  to  gain  union  (yoga),  and  in  it  find 
absorption.  By  self-restraint,  religious  observances,  by 
sitting  in  strange  postures,  by  suppression  of  the  breath, 
subduing  the  senses,  fixing  the  mind  by  contemplation  and 
meditation,  the  senses  become  stayed,  the  will  falls  into  a 
mesmeric  trance  in  which  the  soul  is  supposed  to  wander 
free  with  occult  powers,  finding  nearness  and  ultimate 
union  (joga)  with  the  Supreme  Soul.  The  far-famed 
Yogis  2  of  India  identify  this  Supreme  Spirit  with  the 
dread  god  6iva,  and  in  their  austerities  and  self-inflicted 
tortures  give  ample  evidence  of  how  slight  the  partition 
is  'twixt  sanity  and  reason. 

'  Davies,  p.  $$. 

^  For  Yogis,  astral  bodies,  Mahatmas,  etc.,  see  the  interesting  account  in 
"  Indian  Life,"  by  Professor  Oman. 


196  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

The  great  crown  and  glory  of  Indian  thought  is  to  be 
found  in  the  tenets  of  the  system  known  as  the  "  Vedanta," 
or  the  summing-up  of  all  the  revealed  knowledge  of  the 
Vedic  literature. 

Believers  in,  and  expounders  of,  the  "Vedanta"  are  to  be 
found  in  every  Hindu  village.  Of  all  philosophies  of  the 
East  it  is  the  only  one  which  presents  a  seemingly  unassail- 
able front  to  metaphysic  doubt,  and  at  the  same  time  extends 
its  principles  far  enough  to  win  the  adherence  of  those  who 
would  seek  some  simple  explanation  of  the  lonely  cravings 
of  their  soul  for  peace  and  rest  in  the  moving  changes  of 
life.  So  the  most  learned  admirer  of  the  "  Vedanta  "  in  the 
West  has  recently  declared,  in  the  course  of  an  address  to 
the  Bombay  branch  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  that  "  the 
'  Vedanta,'  in  its  unfalsified  form,  is  the  strongest  support  of 
pure  morality,  is  the  greatest  consolation  in  the  sufferings  of 
life  and  death.     Indians,  keep  to  it."  * 

The  full  "  Vedanta  "  doctrines  were  systematised  and  re- 
duced to  terse  leading  phrases  in  the  "  Brahma  Sutras  "  of 
Badarayana,  which  probably  date  from  the  fourth  century 
B.C.  ^  The  full  meaning  of  the  "  Sutras  "  was  commented  on 
by  various  commentators,  the  greatest  of  whom  was  the  re- 
nowned reformer  of  the  eighth  century,  6ankara  Acharya.* 
The  iirst  "Sutra"  of  Badarayana  gives  the  keynote  to 
the  system  in  the  short  rule :  "  Then,  therefore,  a  desire  to 
know  Brahman."     This  rule  as  well  as  the  remaining  rules 

'  Deussen,  "  Elements  of  Metaphysics,''  p.  337. 

2  See  Telang,  "  Bhagavad  Gita,"  p.  52 ;  Max  MttUer  ("  Vedanta  Philosophy," 
note,  p.  29)  assigns  Badarayana  to  400  a.d. 

'  It  would  be  out  of  place  to  enter  here  upon  the  question  as  to  whether 
Sankara  Acharya's  interpretation  of  the  "  Siitras"  b  most  consistent  with  the 
framework  of  the  system.  His  commentary  sets  forth  the  accepted  view  of 
at  least  75  per  cent,  of  Vedantists  in  India,  and  though  the  system  of 
Ramanuja  may  be  more  in  accordance  with  the  letter  of  the  "Sutras,"  it  is  more 
to  the  purport  of  this  history  to  accept  the  more  advanced  and  typical  rendering 
of  6ankara.  The  four  schools  of  Vedantic  teaching  are  known  as  Advaita, 
Visishthadvaita,  Dvaita,  and  Suddhadwaita,  having  as  tiieir  representatives 
Sankara,  Ramanuja,  Madhava,  and  Vallabha, 


THE  FINAL  RESTING-PLACE  197 

are  to  be  carried  in  the  memory  ;  tlieir  full  meaning  must 
be  expounded  and  explained  by  a  competent  teacher. 
Each  word  had  to  be  commented  on,  and  in  course  of  time 
new  commentaries  and  explanations  arose.  The  word 
"then  "  denotes  that  something  is  antecedent  to  all  enquiry 
into  the  "  Vedanta."  The  person  who  desires  to  obtain  the 
full  benefit  of  the  salvation  promised  by  the  system  must, 
before  he  commences  the  enquiry,  be  in  the  frame  of  mind 
which  the  word  "  then  "  presupposes  him  to  have  acquired. 
This  antecedent  qualification  draws  the  line  closely  round 
those  select  few  who  are  competent  to  enter  on  the  enquiry. 
It  limits  all  enquiry,  and  resulting  salvation,  to  those  whose 
minds  have  been  chastened  by  long  training,  to  those 
who  can  claim  the  same  heritage  of  refined  thought  and 
religious  instincts  that  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  the  twice- 
born  Aryans  of  India.  The  essential  requisites  are  that 
the  enquirer  should  discriminate  between  eternal  and  non- 
eternal  ;  that  he  should  be  free  from  all  desire  for  the  reward 
of  his  acts  here  or  hereafter ;  that  he  should  be  tranquil  and 
self-restrained  ;  that  he  should  renounce  the  performance  of 
all  religious  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  have  patience  in 
suffering,  concentration  of  mind,  and  lastly,  faith.  These 
essentials  are  all  the  products  of  Eastern  modes  of  life  and 
thought ;  they  strike  at  the  basis  on  which  are  founded  most 
of  the  great  religious  systems  of  the  world.  This  much 
springs  from  the  first  word  "  then  "  of  the  "  Brahma  Sutras." 
The  word  following  is  "  therefore,"  on  which  depend  equally 
important  results.  The  whole  of  the  teaching  of  the 
"Vedanta"  is  professedly  founded  on  the  sacred  and  revealed 
character  of  the  Vedic  literature  in  which  were  recorded  all 
the  past  hopes  and  aspirations  of  the  Aryan  race,  now 
called  upon  to  venture  on  a  hope  of  a  higher  salvation 
than  that  to  be  obtained  from  good  deeds  or  burned  offer- 
ings of  the  priesthood.  The  word  "therefore"  indicates 
that,  as  the  revealed  texts  themselves  declare,  "as  here 


198  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

on  earth  whatever  has  been  acquired  by  action  perishes,  so 
perishes  in  the  next  world  whatever  is  acquired  by  acts  of 
religious  duty."  ^  There  must  be  some  higher  aim  for  man- 
kind. This  highest  aim  is  itself  declared  in  one  Upanishad 
to  be  the  knowledge  of  Brahman,  for  "  he  who  knows  the 
Brahman  attains  the  highest."  ^  From  this  it  "  therefore  " 
naturally  follows  that  one  has  "  a  desire  to  know  Brahman," 
and  the  object  of  the  whole  system  is  to  show  that  the 
nature  of  Brahman  is  revealed  in  the  sacred  literature 
of  India;  and  that  he  who  knows  the  true  nature  of 
Brahman  obtains  release  from  the  weary  transmigration  of 
Soul. 

From  the  use  of  the  word  "  Brahman  "  in  the  "  Sutra,"  it 
is  intended  that  the  derivation  of  the  term  from  its 
verbal  root  brih,  which  indicates  its  chief  attributes  of  per- 
vading and  eternal  purity,  will  be  brought  to  mind.  It  is 
further  stated  that  there  is  "  a  desire  "  for  a  knowledge  of 
Brahman.  This  implies  that  the  desire  will  not  be 
frustrated  ;  that  the  nature  of  Brahman  will  be  fully  ex- 
plained, and  an  exhaustive  analysis  made  of  all  subjects 
necessary  for  its  comprehension,  so  that  ignorance  may  be 
removed  and  the  soul  be  prepared  to  reach  freedom  from 
the  causes  leading  on  to  transmigration.  The  second 
aphorism  of  the  "  Vedanta"  is,  shortly :  "  From  which  the 
origin,  etc.  of  this."  The  expanded  meaning  is  that  Brahman 
is  that  from  which  the  origin,  stay,  and  decay  of  this  world 
proceed.  From  out  this  aphorism  springs  the  starting- 
point  of  cleavage  between  the  varied  schools  holding 
diverse  opinions  as  to  the  true  interpretation  of  the 
Vedantic  teaching.  In  the  system  of  Sankara  Acharya — a 
system  of  uncompromising  monistic  Advaita,  or  "non- 
duality  " — Brahman  is  held  to  be  sole  entity,  defined  as » 

iThibaut,  S.B.E.,  vol.  xxxiv.  p.  12;  also  "Ch.  Up.,"  viii.  i,  6. 

="'Taitt.  Up.,"ii.  I. 

*  S.B.E.,  "Vedanta,"  vol.  xxxiv.  p.  16. 


THE  FINAL  RESTING-PLACE  199 

"that  omniscient,  omnipotent  cause  from  which  proceeds 
the  origin,  subsistence,  and  dissolution  of  this  world — 
which  world  is  differentiated  by  names  and  forms,  contains 
many  agents  and  enjoyers,  is  the  abode  of  the  fruits  of 
actions,  these  fruits  having  their  definite  places,  times,  and 
causes,  and  the  nature  of  whose  arrangement  cannot  even 
be  conceived  by  the  mind — that  cause  we  say  is  Brahman." 
Still  the  question  remains  unanswered  as  to  what  is  the 
nature  of  Brahman  before  the  production  of  the  world  takes 
place,  and  what  caused  it  to  produce.  According  to 
Sankara,  the  above  definition  of  Brahman  applies  to  a 
Universal  Being,  of  the  nature  of  pure  thought  or  in- 
telligence as  its  sole  constitution,  beyond  which  nothing 
exists  save  an  illusive  principle  called  Maya.^  With  this 
Maya,  Brahman  is  associated,  and  through  it  sends  forth  an 
imaged  world,  just  as  a  magician  produces  illusive  effects,  or 
a  man  in  sleep  fashions  forth  appearances  of  animate  and 
inanimate  beings.^ 

Brahman,  the  Supreme  Soul,  which  alone  existed  in- 
divisible, in  the  beginning,  as  pure  thought  without  any 
object  of  thought,  had  no  desire  nor  purpose  to  create 
until  Maya  produced  the  illusive  appearance  of  divisibility, 
through  which  individual  souls  {Jlvas)  seem  separated 
from  the  Supreme  Soul.  In  its  ignorance  Soul  knows  not 
its  true  nature,  which  is  veiled  from  its  knowledge  by  Maya, 
and  the  web  of  seeming  reality  which  Maya  has  woven.  Not 
only  is  the  creation  unreal  and  delusive,  but,  moreover,  it  is  a 

^  Avidya,  or  "ignorance."  The  subject  has  been  ably  handled  in  the  "Doctrine 
of  Maya :  its  Existence  in  the  Vedantic  Siitra,  and  Development  in  the  Later 
Vedanta,"  by  Raghunath  N.  Apte  (Bombay,  1896).  His  conclusions  are,  that 
the  doctrine  of  Maya,  although  it  had  its  germ  in  the  "  Upanishads,"  does  not 
exist  in  the  "Siitras,"  and  that  it  arose  from  the  fourth  century  A.  D.  on  a 
revival  of  Brahmanism  and  vigorous  speculation  of  Gaudapada  and  Sankara. 
"  Gaudapada  explained  and  formulated  the  doctrine,  and  Acharya  worked  out 
its  details." 

■■i  Thibaut,  S.B.E.,  xxxiv.  p.  xxv. 


200  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

profound  error  consequent  on  the  action  of  Maya.  Once 
the  individual  soul  holds  for  true  its  surrounding  environ- 
ment of  mind,  body,  and  organs  of  sense,  it  becomes  a 
partaker  in  their  merits  and  demerits,  unable  to  shake  itself 
clear  from  the  necessity  of  birth  and  re-birth  as  the  result 
of  its  acts.  At  the  end  of  each  period,  or  "kalpa,"  of 
creation,  the  Supreme  Soul  rests  free  from  the  power  of 
Maya,  and  all  individual  souls  merge  back  into  the  pure 
Brahman.  The  great  object  of  the  "  Vedanta"  therefore  is  to 
teach  the  individual  souls  the  true  knowledge  of  Brahman 
and  the  delusive  working  of  Maya.  From  knowledge  the 
individual  soul  recognises  itself  truly  as  Brahman — a  know- 
ledge which  nullifies  the  delusion  of  Maya  and  obtains  for 
the  soul  immediate  release  and  freedom,  or  union  and 
identity  with  Brahman.  The  great  cry  of  Vedantic  release 
from  transmigration  is :  "  Tattwam  asi"  ("  Thou  art  That")  ; 
or  in  Western  phraseology.  Thy  soul  is  not  merely  Divine 
or  God-like,  it  is  Divine,  it  is  God ;  and  there  is  no  real  exist- 
ence anywhere  save  God  and  Soul  which  are  identical. 
The  world  is  a  dream,  presenting  passing  visions  of  sin 
and  sorrow  amid  which  the  soul  moves  in  lonely  separation 
until  it  finds  its  safe  abiding-place  in  eternal  union  with 
Brahman.  The  "  Vedanta  "  further,  according  to  Sankara, 
teaches  a  twofold  knowledge.  It  teaches  that  there  is  a 
Lord,  or  "I^vara,"a  lower  Brahman,  conditioned  by  attributes 
and  related  to  the  world  so  long  as  the  delusive  action  of 
Maya  subsists.  By  following  the  practices  of  meditation 
and  devotion,  as  laid  down  in  the  Vedic  texts,  which  declare 
the  nature  of,  and  the  conduct  to  be  pursued  in  relation 
to,  the  lower  Brahman,  the  individual  gains  his  reward  here 
and  hereafter,  and  rises  to  higher  and  higher  spheres  of 
activity  and  enjoyment.  Yet  these  are  but  preparations  for 
the  knowledge  of  the  higher  Brahman  ;  pure  consciousness 
without  any  object  to  be  conscious  of;  pure  joy  without 
anything  to  rejoice  over  ;  pure  being  without  anyvsecond, 


THE  FINAL  RESTING-PLACE  201 

which   is  taught  also  in  Vedic  texts,  the  expounding  of 
which  is  the  purport  of  the  "  Vedanta."  ^ 

Kant,  followed  by  Schopenhauer,  showed  how  the 
phenomenal  world,  as  existing  in  space,  and  time,  and 
moved  throughout  ^  by  causality,  is  but  a  representation  of 
these  three  innate  perceptive  forms  of  our  intellect.  So 
Sankara  Acharya  held  that  the  highest  Brahman,  being 
devoid  of  all  these  three  innate  perceptive  forms  of  time, 
space,  and  cause,  can  only  be  defined  by  negation.  The 
one  loved  answer  to  all  enquiries  as  to  the  qualities  of 
Brahman  is,  "  No,  no,"  for  there  is  no  power  of  mind  that 
can  fathom  its  true  nature.  Sankara  simply  held  that  the 
human  intellect  had  not  arrived  at  that  stage  of  develop- 
ment in  which  it  could  postulate  that  its  innate  perceptive 
form  of  time,  space,  and  causality  were  applicable  in 
dealing  with  the  nature  of  a  Brahman  and  its  mani- 
festations, transcending,  as  these  do,  all  finite  limitations.' 
The  world  seen  is  but  the  shadowed-forth  form  of  the  sub- 
jective forms  of  intellect,  and  therefore  but  realised  so  far 
as  the  imperfectly-developed  condition  of  the  intellect 
permits  it  to  be  conceived.  The  man  who  dreams,  and  an 
organism  imagined  as  moving  in  space  of  two  dimensions, 
or  even  of  one  dimension,  have  as  limited  a  knowledge  of 
the  true  mysteries  of  life  and  existence  as  the  man  whom 
the  Vedantist  holds  to  be  bound  by  the  spell  of  Maya. 

The  "  Sutras  "  *  themselves  declare  that,  in  the  pursuit  of 
knowledge,  reasoning  which  disregards  revelation  is  of  no 
value.  Sankara,  in  his  interpretation  of  the  "Sutra," 
declares  that  arguments,  ingenious  in  themselves,  are  but 

^  Sad-cid-dnanda,  the  triple  constitution  of  Brahman,  just  as  saiwas,  raja, 
■  tamas  was  the  triple  constitution  of  the  ^ankyan  Prakriti. 

2  Deussen,  "Metaphysics,"  p.  331. 

3  S.B.E.,  vol.  xxxviii.;  "  Sutras,"  iii.  2,  3  :— "  But  the  dream-world  is  mere 
illusion— Maya,  on  account  of  its  nature  not  manifesting  itself  with  the  totality 
of  the  attributes  of  reality." 

*  S.B.E.,  vol.  xxxiv.  2,  I,  II. 


202  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

advanced  by  clever  men  to  be  afterwards  found  fallacious 
by  others  more  clever.  He  holds  that "  the  true  nature  of  the 
cause  of  the  world,  on  which  final  emancipation  depends, 
cannot,  on  account  of  its  excessive  abstruseness,  even  be 
thought  of  without  the  help  of  the  holy  texts."  ^ 

As  sources  of  knowledge,  the  "  Upanishads  "  ^  are  held  by 
Sankara  to  be  the  chief  works,  and  as  confirmation  for  their 
import,  the  "  Smriti."  The  lower  Brahman,  as  limited  by 
attributes,  and  as  seen  by  ignorance,  is  but  an  object  of 
worship.  "According  as  a  man  worships  him  that  he 
becomes."  ^  The  highest  Brahman,  as  free  and  pure,  can  be 
only  an  object  of  revealed  knowledge.  Yet  remains  the 
question  as  to  why  Brahman,  through  this  association  with 
Maya,  should  be  under  any  necessity  to  create  the  world, 
for  it  acts  just  as  a  "  person  when  in  a  state  of  frenzy 
proceeds,  owing  to  his  mental  aberration,  to  action  without 
a  motive."  *  The  answer  is  that  "  Brahman's  creative 
activity  is  mere  sport,  such  as  we  see  in  ordinary  life."  * 
Even  then  comes  in  the  question  why  the  Creator  has 
cruelly  awarded  merit  and  demerit  indifferently.  Eastern 
pessimism  holds  that  the  gods  are  happy,  men  less  happy, 
and  animals  eminently  unhappy ;  yet  the  Scriptures  declare 
the  Lord  to  be  of  essential  goodness.  The  answer  given 
is  similar  to  that  given  by  Hamlet,  unable  to  explain  to 
himself  why  he  should  be  thrust  into  a  world  out  of  joint 
to  set  it  right :  "  For  if  the  sun  bred  maggots  in  a  dead 
dog" — is  that  to  be  argued  as  against  the  purity  of  the 
sun  ?  Sankara  answers  : «  "  The  position  of  the  Lord  is  to 
be  looked  upon  as  analogous  to  that  of  Parjanya, '  The  Giver 
of  Rain.'  For  as  Parjanya  is  the  common  cause  of  the 
production   of  rice,   barley,  and  other   plants,   while   the 

'  See  S.B.E.,  vol.  xxxiv.  p.  316. 

-  Not  only  the  older   "  Upanishads,"  but  also  the  later,   as  well  as  the 
"  Mahabharata  "  and  "  JBhagavad  Gita.'' 
»S.B.E.,  vol.  xxxiv;  "Sutra,"  i.  i,  11. 
*  Ibid.,  ii.  I,  32.  6  Ibid.,  ii.  I,  33.  6  jbi^_^  p  358_ 


THE  FINAL  RESTING-PLACE  203 

difference  between  the  various  species  is  due  to  the  various 
potentialities  lying  hid  in  the  respective  seeds,  so  the  Lord 
is  the  common  cause  of  the  creation  of  gods,  man,  etc., 
while  the  differences  between  these  classes  of  beings  are  due 
to  the  different  merit  belonging  to  the  individual  souls." 
If  the  enquirer  ask  further  how  the  Lord  came  to  be 
bound  in  His  creation  by  a  regard  for  past  merit  and 
demerit,  the  answer  is,  that  it  is  known  from  the  revelation 
of  Vedic  texts,  that "  a  man  becomes  good  by  good  work,  bad 
by  bad  work."  1  And  the  "  Gita"  declares  in  confirmation : 
"  I  serve  men  in  the  way  in  which  they  approved  me."  ^ 
The  answer  is,  in  fact,  that  the  emanation  of  the  trans- 
migratory  world  is  without  a  beginning,  and  that  merit  and 
demerit  arise  like  seed  and  sprout,  without  which  no  one 
could  come  into  existence.* 

If  the  Brahman  alone  exists  "'without  parts,  without 
actions,  tranquil,  without  fault,  without  taint,"*  and  his 
nature  is  only  to  be  described  by  silence,  or  by  the  ever- 
repeated  formula,  "  No,  no,"  ^  it  may  be  asked  how  it.  One 
only  without  a  Second,  can  cause  the  creation  of  the  world, 
which  existed  from  before  all  time.  The  only  answer  is,  that 
it  is  by  a  "  peculiar  constitution  of  its  causal  substance,  as 
in  the  case  of  milk  "  which  turns  into  curds,^  or  analogous 
to  the  manner  in  which  the  "  female  crane  conceives  with- 
out a  male,  and  as  the  lotus  wanders  from  one  pool  to 
another  without  any  means  of  conveyance."^  It  is,  in  short, 
impossible,  without  the  aid  of  Scripture,  to  conceive  "  the 
true  nature  of  Brahman,  with  its  powers  unfathomable  by 
thought." 

If  the  objector  answers  that  he  cannot,  from  holy  texts, 

»  "BiTh.-Aran.  Up.,"  iii.  2,  13  ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xv. 
2  "  Bhagavad  Gita,"  S.B.E.,  viii.  iv.  p.  59. 

*  S.B.E.,  vol.  xxxiv.  p.  360.  *  "  Svetas.  Up.,"  vi.  19. 

5  "  Brih.-Aran.  Up.,"  vi.  6,  15  : — "  That  Self  is  to  be  described  by  No,  no  ! " 

*  Ibid.,  ii.  I,  24;  "Vedanta  Sutras,"  S.B.E.,  vol.  xxxiv.  p.  346. 

'  "Brih.-Aran.  Up.,"ii.  i,  25;  "Vedanta  Sutras," S.B.E.,  vol.  xxxiv.  p.  347. 


204.         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

understand  what  is  apparently  contradictory,  the  reply  is 
that  the  apparent  inconsistency  is  due  to  the  fact  that  all 
these  questions  are  mere  matter  of  names  and  forms,  for 
Brahman  itself  is  raised  above  the  world  and  the  "  element 
of  plurality  which  is  the  fiction  of  nescience." 

The  individual  soul  remains,  according  to  Sankara, 
ever  eternal.  Its  essence  is  intelligence  or  knowledge.  It 
is  identical  with  Brahman,  from  which  it  is  separated  at  the 
time  of  creation  by  its  illusive  connection  with  its  adjuncts. 
"  It  is  not  born ;  it  dies  not ;  it  is  immortal.  It  is,  indeed. 
Brahman."  * 

So  long  as  the  soul  gains  not  freedom  by  knowledge 
of  its  true  nature,  it  passes  ^  to  reap  its  reward  for  good 
deeds  to  the  moon,  and  then  descends  to  earth  again.' 

By  meditation  on  Brahman,  and  by  Divine  knowledge, 
the  soul  "  shakes  off  all  evil  as  a  horse  shakes  his  hair,  and 
shaking  off  the  body  as  the  moon  frees  herself  from  the 
mouth  of  Rahu,  obtains,  self-made  and  satisfied,  the 
uncreated  world  of  Brahman."  * 

The  wise  man  who  sees  through  the  unreality  of  pain 
and  sorrow,  and  recognises  that  this  whole  fabric  of  a 
vision  will  vanish  as  a  dream,  will  find  that  "  the  fetter  of 
the  heart  is  all  broken,  doubts  are  solved,  extinguished 
are  all  his  works."  ®  And  yet  again,  "  as  water  does  not 
cling  to  a  lotus  leaf,  so  no  evil  deed  clings  to  him  who 
knows  this."®  The  full  sublimity  of  this  freedom  from 
the  results  of  even  past  acts  on  the  attainment  of  know- 
ledge is  shortly  summed  up  as  follows :  "  Brahman  am  I, 
hence  I  neither  was  an  agent  nor  an  enjoyer  at  any 
previous   time,  nor  am   I  such  at   the  present  time,  nor 

1  "  Vedanta  Sutras,"  ii.  iii.  17. 

^  Surrounded  by  subtle  elements  {bhuta  sukshma),  the  abode  of  the  eleven 
pranas  (bitddhindriyas,  Karmedriyas,  and  the  manas). 
3  "  Brihad.  Up.,"  iii.  I,  8-10.  <  "  Ch.  Up.,"  viu.  13. 

'  "Mandukya.  Up.,"  ii.  28.  «  "Ch.  Up.,"  iv.  143. 


THE  FINAL  RESTING-PLACE  205 

shall  I  be  such  at  any  future  time."i  More  definitely 
and  tersely  is  summed  up  freedom  from  all  results  of  good 
or  evil  deeds  in  the  verse : ^  "If  one  should  recognise 
the  Soul  saying,  I  am  Brahman,  desiring  what,  or  for  the 
love  of  whom  should  he  trouble  himself."  As  enunciated 
by  ^ankara,  the  crown  and  glory  of  his  system  is,  that  once 
Brahman  is  comprehended  all  duties  come  to  an  end,  all 
work  is  over. 

It  is  not  meant  here  that  the  Vedantic  system  is  non- 
moral  in  its  essence  ;*  it  simply  means  that  when  the  soul 
becomes  free  from  the  delusion  of  belief  in  a  world  as  set 
forth  by  Maya,  it  is  one  with  Brahman.  It  rests  in  sovereign 
isolation,  untouched  by  the  sin  or  sorrow  of  the  world, 
"watching  over  all  works,  dwelling  in  all  beings,  the 
witness,  the  perceiver,  the  only  one,  free  from  all 
qualities." 

The  system  of  ^ankara  stands  supreme  as  the  loftiest 
height  to  which  Eastern  intuitive  thought  has  reached. 
It  has  more  influence  in  India  than  all  other  phases  of 
thought.  It  is  part  of  the  life-blood  of  the  nation.  It  is 
as  natural  to  the  land  as  the  miasmic  vapours  which  rise 
and  permeate,  with  their  heavy  taint,  the  brain-matter  of 

1  "^ankara  Com.,"  p.  355  ;  S.B.E.,  vol.  xxxiv. 

2"Brihad.  Up.,"  iv.  4,  12. 

'  See  Deussen,  p.  433  : — "  Die  Erlosung  durch  keine  Art  von  Werk,  auch 
nicht  durch  moralische  Besserung,  sondern  allein  durch  die  Erkenntniss — 
vollbracht  wird."  An  objection  to  the  teaching  is  given  by  Prof.  R.  K. 
Bhandarkar  in  his  "  Visit  to  the  Vienna  Congress"  (J.R.A.S.,  Bombay,  vol. 
xvii.  p.  76),  where  he  narrates  a  conversation  he  had  on  the  subject  with  Prof. 
Max  Miiller  : — "As  I  am  not  an  admirer  of  the  doctrine  in  the  form  in  which 
it  is  taught  by  Sankara  Acharya,  and  which  is  now  the  prevalent  form  in  India, 
I  observed  that  though,  according  to  his  system,  a  man  must  rise  to  the  know- 
ledge, '  I  am  Brahma,'  previous  to  his  entering  on  the  state  of  deliverance  or  of 
eternal  bliss,  still  it  is  essential  that  the  feeling  of  me  or  egoism  should  be  destroyed 
as  a  necessary  condition  of  entrance  into  that  state.  The  me  is  the  first  fruit  of 
ignorance,  and  it  must  be  destroyed  in  the  liberated  condition.  A  soul  has  no 
individual  consciousness  when  he  is  delivered,  and  in  that  state  he  cannot  have 
the  knowledge,  '  I  am  Brahma.' " 


2o6  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

the  dwellefs  in  the  land  where  man  has  thought  much  that 
at  times  astounds  for  its  deep  and  clear  insight,  and  much 
that  astounds  for  its  lack  of  freedom  from  the  trammels 
of  a  time-worn  past.  In  the  Vedantic  philosophy  there 
lies  one  assumption — that  of  Maya — which  pervades  and 
vitiates  the  whole  philosophic  purport  of  the  teaching. 
Once  accepted  as  a  working  hypothesis  it  solves  the 
problem  that  Kant  and  Kapila  had  to  take  for  granted 
— the  objective  reality  of  the  perceptions  of  the  senses. 
With  this  doctrine  the  school  of  Ramanuja,  who  follows 
the  more  exoteric  teaching  of  qualified  non-duality,  will 
have  naught  to  do.  Brahman,  according  to  his  rendering,  is 
truly  the  deity  Vishnu,  or  Narayana,  who  is  endowed  with 
all  good  qualities,  intelligence  being  but  its  chief  attribute. 
He  is  all-knowing,  all-merciful,  all-pervading,  and  all- 
powerful,  matter  and  soul  being  the  very  essential  elements 
of  his  nature,  though  in  but  a  germinal  state  till  creation 
occurs.i  At  the  beginning  of  great  "  kalpas,"  or  periods  of 
creation,  this  Lord,  by  his  own  volition,  acts  on  unevolved 
matter  and  non-manifest  soul,  so  that  the  former  becomes 
manifest,  and  souls  acquire  material  bodies  corresponding 
to  their  good  or  bad  deeds  in  previous  existences.  Ac- 
cording to  this  doctrine  of  modified  non-duality,  Vishnu, 
Brahma,  or  the  Lord,  is,  by  nature,  a  personal  deity,  evolv- 
ing the  world  and  individual  soul  out  from  himself.  The 
soul  remains  personally  existent,  and  on  its  release  from 
migration,  passes  into  an  undisturbed  bliss  in  Heaven. 

The  systems  of  the  "6ankhya,"  "Yoga,"  "  Vedanta,"  and 
that  of  the  "  Bhagavad  Gita,"  stand  naturally  together  as 
seeking  to  free  the  soul  from  its  ceaseless  transmigration. 
Starting  from  the  ^ankhya  assumption  that  matter — 
Pradhana,  or  Prakriti — is  roused  to  action  by  the  near 
proximity  of  Soul,  just  as  a  magnet,  by  its  inherent  nature, 
acts  on  the  keeper  brought  close  to  it,  the  constant  yearning 

'  Thibaut,  S.B.E.,  vol.  xxxiv.  p.  xxix. 


THE  FINAL  RESTING-PLACE  207 

of  the  Indian  mind  is  to  seek  some  means  whereby  the  act 
of  creation  may  be  nullified,  and  the  soul  once  more  set  free 
from  the  force  which  condemned  it  to  conscious  existences, 
compelling  it  to  proceed  from  birth  to  birth,  through  long 
periods,  or  "  kalpas,"  during  which  the  initial  force,  set  in 
action  at  the  commencement  of  creation,  continues  its 
potentiality. 

All  these  systems,  down  to  that  of  the  "Bhagavad  Gita," 
which  takes  a  more  strictly  theological  than  philosophical 
view  of  the  question,  are  allied  as  consecutive  phases  of 
investigation  by  the  same  order  of  mind,  tied  down  by  its 
environment,  physical  and  climatic,  to  a  mode  of  viewing 
life  and  reasoning  thereon  in  a  manner  essentially  Eastern. 

Everywhere  there  is  an  exuberant  play  of  fancy,  as 
though  the  soul  was  but  dreaming  dim  visions  of  a 
mirrored  life,  and  the  mind  was  not  sternly  laying  down  cold 
and  logical  facts  concerning  the  injustice  of  God,  and  the 
deeps  of  despair  into  which  His  act  has  hurled  the  pleading 
soul.  The  whole  treatment  of  the  subject  is  mystic, 
unemotional,  except  in  so  far  as  the  theoriser  is  concerned. 
The  mind  has  reached,  by  the  deepest  intuitive  stretch  of 
thought  that  the  history  of  the  world's  philosophy  knows  of, 
to  an  a  priori  solution  of  some  of  the  profoundest  problems 
before  science  of  to-day.  Nevertheless,  when  the  mind 
turns  back  to  trace  the  course  by  which  it  arrived  at  these 
conclusions,  it  is  constrained  to  linger  ever}rwhere  along 
the  path,  and  lose  itself  in  dreamy  ponderings  over  some 
idea  conjured  up  by  the  fancy  or  lose  itself  in  play  over 
its  own  marvellous  guess-work. 

Even  when  the  whole  subject  has  been  reduced  to  dry 
and  formal  aphorism,  it  is  the  ingenuity,  and  the  craft,  and 
delicate  manipulation  and  cunning  whereby  everything  is 
so  set,  as  in  mosaic  that  no  flaw  is  left  to  found  thereon  a 
hostile  criticism,  that  remains  as  the  chief  charm,  and 
constrains  the  admiration  rather  than  the  dignity  of  the 


2o8  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

subject-matter  or  importance  of  the  facts  set  forth. 
Though  a  deeper  ring  of  earnestness  runs  through  the 
cogitations  of  the  Indian  philosopher  than  through  the 
corresponding  schools  of  Greek  philosophy,  yet  this  is 
purely  subjective  and  not  objective.  Never  could  it  pass 
beyond  the  observer,  and  become  actively  interested  in  the 
practical  application  of  his  methods.  To  the  Vedantist 
all  nature  is  GOD ;  nothing  truly  exists  except  God. 
Man  is  God  if  man  but  chooses  to  recognise  himself  as 
such ;  yet  all  Sudras,  all  women,  all  not  twice-born,  were 
absolutely  shut  out,  after  careful  consideration,  from 
participation  in  the  knowledge  of  the  "Vedanta,"  and  from 
any  hope  of  arriving  at  that  knowledge. 

Two  schools  of  philosophy — those  known  as  the  Nyaya 
and  Vai^eshika — stand  apart  from  the  more  orthodox  schools 
as  individual  in  themselves,  and  are  more  allied  to  the 
purely  scientific  order  of  thought  that  produced  such  works 
as  the  "Grammatical  Aphorisms  of  Panini,"and  those  dealing 
with  the  subjects  of  medicine,  geometry,  or  astronomy. 

The  "  Nyaya  of  Gautama  "  deals  not  only  with  the  general 
subjects  of  human  knowledge,  but  also  gives  an  analytical 
exposition  of  the  laws  of  thought  and  reasoning. 

The  Vaiteshika  system  of  Kanada^  obtains  its  name 
from  the  doctrine  that  the  world  is  supposed  to  be  formed 
from  the  aggregation  of  atoms,  each  atom  having  an 
eternal  essence,  Vi^esha,  of  its  own  ;  the  atoms,  which  are 
eternal   and   existing  without  a  cause,  uniting,  form  the 

'  Jacobiintracing(S.B.E.,  vol.  xlv.  p.  xxxiv.)  the  relative  position  of  Jainism 
with  reference  to  other  systems,  points  out  the  unscientific  phraseology  of  the 
"Vedanta"and"Sankhya,"arisingfirom  the  confusion  of  the  category  of  substance 
with  that  of  the  category  of  quality  :  "  Things  which  we  recognise  as  qualities 
are  constantly  mistaken  for  and  mixed  up  with  substance."  Alluding  to  the 
more  scientific  and  philosophic  arrangement  of  the  "  Nyaya- Vai^eshika,"  he 
further  remarks  that  "  the  categories  of  substance  and  qualities  had  been 
already  clearly  distinguished  for  one  another,  and  had  been  recognised  as 
correlative  terms  ...  in  the  Vaiseshika  philosophy  which  defines  substance  as 
the  substratum  of  quality,  and  quality  as  that  which  is  inherent  in  substance." 


THE  FINAL  RESTING-PLACE  209 

world.  Colebrooke  describes  the  process  of  creation  as 
follows  :  ^ — "  Two  earthly  atoms  concurring  by  an  unseen 
peculiar  virtue  (adrishtd)  or  by  the  will  of  God,  or  by 
time,  or  by  other  competent  cause,  constitute  a  double 
atom  of  earth  ;  and  by  concourse  of  these  binary  atoms  a 
tertiary  atom  is  produced,  and  by  concourse  of  four  triple 
atoms  a  quaternary  atom,  and  so  on  to  a  gross,  grosser,  or 
grossest  man  of  earth,  the  great  earth  is  produced." 

By  the  side  of  this  atomic  theory  is  the  theory  of 
existence  of  eternal  souls,  and  a  Supreme  Soul  of  the 
Universe.  "  The  seat  of  knowledge  is  the  Soul.  It  is  two- 
fold— the  living  and  the  Supreme  Soul.  The  Supreme 
Soul  is  Lord,  omniscient,  one  only,  subject  to  neither 
pleasure  nor  pain,  infinite  and  eternal." 

•  Monier- Williams,  "  Indian  Wisdom,"  p.  83. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   EPICS. 

One  great  task  remained  in  India  for  Brahmanism  to  set 
its  hand  to.  If  in  that  task  Brahmanism  may  be  said  to 
have  failed,  the  failure  cannot  be  ascribed  to  lack  of  genius. 
In  all  spheres  of  higher  art,  genius  is  ever  confined  to  work- 
ing on  the  lines  along  which  it  is  impelled  by  its  own 
instincts.  Outside  these  limits  it  may  venture  and  attain 
to  results  that  astound  and  compel  admiration,  but  in  those 
results  there  will  be  ever  found  wanting  the  true  touch  of 
that  inspiration  which  demands  the  universal  and  abiding 
recognition  of  humanity  that  something  has  been  pro- 
duced that  the  world  would  not  willingly  let  die. 

India  has  sent  forth  work  stamped  with  all  the  peculiar 
impress  of  its  own  genius — works  such  as  the  lyric  outbursts 
of  the  "  Vedas,"  the  mystic  ponderings  of  the  "  Upanishads  " 
and  "  Vedanta,"  as  well  as  the  highly  dramatic  productions 
of  Sur  Das  and  Tulsi  Das  in  the  later  days  of  Akbar — 
which  will  ever  demand  a  place  in  the  very  first  ranks  of  the 
world's  literature,  but  this  place  could  never  be  claimed  for 
the  two  great  Herculean  labours  of  Brahmanism — ^the  con- 
struction of  the  two  Indian  so-called  epics,  the  "  Maha- 
bharata,"  and  "  Ramayana."     These  two  vast  poems  were 


THE  EPICS  211 

compiled  by  Brahmans  for  the  purpose  of  giving  sacerdotal 
recognition  to  the  floating  folk-lore  and  epic  traditions  of 
the  people,  which  have  thus  been  preserved  in  the  only 
form  that  Aryan  genius  could  have  preserved  them,  and 
that  is  a  form  curtailed  of  nearly  all  that  was  realistically 
and  dramatically  essential  to  the  true  epic. 

Side  by  side  with  the  Vedic  literature  ^  there  existed  in 
India,  from  times  that  may  stretch  back  to  the  mists  of 
Indo-Germanic  antiquity,  the  legends  of  tribal  warriors 
and  their  heroic  deeds.  These  were  held  among  the  people 
as  their  national  folk-songs,  and  were  sung  from  court  to 
court,  from  homestead  to  homestead,  by  travelling  bards. 
Even  to-day  the  professional  bard,  with  his  store  of  songs, 
is  known  everywhere  in  India,  from  north  to  south,  from 
east  to  west.  Not  only  are  the  tales  of  Rajput  chivalry 
and  Maratha  daring  recited  in  the  homes  where  those  of 
Rajput  or  Maratha  descent  dwell,  but  even  the  wars, 
victories,  and  defeats  of  the  French  and  English,  in  their 
conquests  over  the  petty  chieftains  and  great  feudatories, 
are  sung  from  village  to  village.  All  of  these  ruggedly- 
versed  stories  are  instinct  with  dramatic  power.  With 
true  epic  genius  they  are  more  concerned  in  the  characters 
than  in  the  historic  setting.  It  is  impossible  to  generalise 
for  a  vast  continent  such  as  India,  especially  when  there 
are  no  written  records  dealing  with  the  subject,  so  it  can 
only  here  be  asserted  that,  so  far  as  South  India  is  con- 
cerned, where  the  author  has  listened  to,  and  copied  the 
songs,  of  many  travelling  bards,  these  narratives  are  of 
absorbing  dramatic  reality.  So  deeply  do  the  bards  enter 
into  the  moving  scenes  they  so  vividly  picture  forth,  and, 
strange  to  say,  their  imagination  seems  to  dwell  more,  so 
far  as  the  West  is  concerned,  on  the  exploits  of  French 
generals,  such  as  Dupleix,  Bussy,  and'  Labourdonnais,  than 
on  the  deeds  of  the   English,  that  the  emotions  of  the 

1  Holtzmann,  "  Mahabharata  "  :— „  Epos  und  Veda  sind  gleich  alt," 


212  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

reciters  follow  in  quick,  changing  moods  each  scene  and 
incident.  So  intensely  are  the  feelings  of  these  impulsive 
Eastern  bards  aroused,  that  as  their  tears  fall,  and  their 
feelings  rise  at  the  most  pathetic  lines — such  as  those 
describing  how  the  women  of  Bobbili  sought  death  in  the 
flames  to  escape  from  the  French  conquest,  and  their  fight- 
ing men  rushed  forth  to  die,  arms  in  hand — they,  to  conceal 
the  deep  hold  the  narrative  has  taken  over  them,  often 
burst  forth  for  a  moment  into  a  jingling  verse  of  meaning- 
less import,  or  even  of  ribald  nonsense. 

Throughout  the  two  great  compositions  known  as  the 
"  Mahabharata  "  and  "  Ramayana,"  there  lies  a  substratum 
of  this  old,  true,  epic  narrative. 

In  the  West,  in  the  lands  of  the  Kuru  Panchalas,  and  in 
the  East,  in  the  land  of  the  Ko^alas,  the  local  bards,  from 
time  unknown,  had  sung  the  heroic  deeds  of  the  tribal 
heroes  and  deities,  mingling  fact  and  fiction,  natural  and 
supernatural,  into  short  and  disconnected  dramatic  pictures, 
wherein  the  characters  move  free  and  life-like.^  All  these 
folk-songs  and  supernatural  legends  of  local  aboriginal 
deities  were  outside  the  stately  purposes  for  which  early 
Brahmanism  had  set  itself,  in  sovereign  isolation,  apart 
from  the  mass  of  the  people.  The  time,  however,  came 
when  it  had  to  recognise  the  existence  of  traditions, 
thoughts,  and  aspirations,  other  than  its  own.  Some 
compromise  had  to  be  made ;  a  bond  of  friendship  and 
alliance  had  to  be  entered  into  with  the  mass  of  local 
history,  superstition,  and  religion,  so  that  they  might  be 
assimilated  into  Brahmanic  literature,  and  pass  as  part  of 
the  armoury  of  priestcraft.     The  compromise  was  one  of 

1  Professor  Ker,  in  his  "  Epic  and  Romance,''  says  that  "  to  require  of  the 
poetry  of  an  heroic  age  that  it  shall  recognise  the  historical  incoming  and 
importance  of  the  events  in  which  it  originates,  and  the  persons  whose  names 
it  uses,  is  entirely  to  mistake  the  nature  of  it.  Its  nature  is  to  End  or  make 
some  drama  played  by  kings  and  heroes,  and  to  let  the  historical  framework 
take  care  of  itself." 


THE  EPICS  213 

bondage  ill-suited   to  the  Aryan  genius,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence, the  traces  of  it  are  patent  everywhere.  ^ 

The  cultured  and  learned  Brahmans — the  "Mahabharata  " 
is  ascribed  to  one  Vyasa — accordingly  wove  into  two 
colossal  verse  poems,  one  for  the  West  of  India,  one  for 
the  East,  all  the  floating  mass  of  epic  tradition,  demonology,! 
and  local  hero-worship,  essaying,  in  the  effort,  to  unite  the! 
whole  into  connected  stories.  So  far  as  the  epic  portion 
was  concerned,  its  movements  were  foreign  to  Brahmanic 
instincts  and  genius.  The  Brahmans  were  subtle  dreamers 
and  thinkers.  They  had  drawn  themselves  apart  from  the 
warrior  class  and  warrior  ways,  yet  they  now  found  them- 
selves called  upon  to  glorify  and  dramatise  the  acts  of 
heroes,  and  to  depict  the  stirring  scenes  of  strife  and 
bloodshed.  So  far  as  demonology  and  hero-worship  were 
concerned,  the  Brahmans  had  long  since  ceased  to  build 
up  for  themselves  even  the  indistinct  outlines  of  the  Vedic 
gods,  and  yet  they  essayed  to  clothe  the  local  heroes, 
demons,  goblins,  and  fierce  deities,  with  the  cast-off 
armoury  and  attributes  of  their  Indra,  Surya,  Rudra,  and 
following  train  of  Devas.  The  task^  has  been  accom- 
plished ;  the  "  Mahabharata ''  runs  to  20,000  lines  in  eighteen 
sections,  and  the  "  Ramayana"  to  no  less  than  48,000  lines. 

In  the  "  Ramayana "  the  legends  of  the  hero  Rama,  as 
sung  by  the  Eastern  bards  in  their  vernaculars,  were  strung 
together  in  the  classical  Sanskrit  verse  by  the  Brahman 
poet,  Valmiki.    Rama,  a  local  conquering  warrior  and  deified 

1  Here  I  part  altogether  from  Mr  Dahlmann's  theory  that  the  union  of  epic 
and  law  is  a  chemical  union  and  not  a  mechanical  union.  J.  Dahlmann,  "  Das 
Mahabharata  als  Epos  und  Rechtsbuch"  (Berlin,  1895-98);  see  BShler  and 
Kirste,  "Ind.  Stud."  (1892). 

2  "Not  re-edited  or  re-published  in  the  polished  Sanskrit  language  till  the 
adaptation  of  Sanskrit  to  profane  literature  somewhere  about  thirteenth  century 
of  our  era." — Grierson,  "  Ind.  Ant."  (December  1894),  p.  55.  "It  has  been 
conclusively  shown"  (Buhler  and  Kirste,  "Contribution  to  Study  of  Maha- 
bharata") "that  the  poem  was  recognised  in  300  A.D.,  and  by  500  A.D.  was 
essentially  the  same  as  it  now  exists." 


214  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

hero,  rises  in  the  "  Ramayana  "  to  be  exemplar  of  all  morality 
and  duty,  a  descent  on  earth  or  incarnation  of  the  god 
Vishnu  for  the  repression  of  wrong  and  the  inculcation  of 
virtue.  This  didactic  element  is  the  Brahmanic  infusion 
which  in  the  "  Ramayana,"  as  well  as  in  the  "  Mahabharata," 
strings  the  detached  epic  elements  and  disconnected 
episodes  together,  to  the  unavoidable  weakening  of  the 
dramatic  force  and  epic  character  of  the  narrative. 

In  the  "  Ramayana  "  the  deeds  of  Rama,  the  descendant 
of  the  Solar  race  of  Ikshvaku,  form  the  epic  background. 
Rama,  the  eldest  son  of  Da.saratha,  the  fabled  king  of 
Ayodhya,  or  Oudh,  was  banished  from  his  father's  kingdom 
in  consequence  of  Da^aratha's  submission  to  Kaikeyl,  the 
wicked  mother  of  Rama's  younger  brother  Bharata,  for 
whom  she  longed  to  procure  the  crown.  Rama  and  his 
gentle  wife,  Sita,  departed  from  Ayodhya  to  spend  their 
term  of  fourteen  years'  banishment  in  the  southern 
forests.  The  unity  of  the  narrative  centres  round  the 
adventures  in  the  forest  and  heroic  deeds  of  Rama  to 
regain  his  wife,  Sita,  who  was  forcibly  borne  away  by  a 
fierce  ten-headed  monster,  Ravana,  King  of  Lanka,  an 
island  which  some,  forgetting  the  unhistorical  motive  of  the 
early  preservers  of  epic  tradition,  have  identified  with 
Ceylon.  In  the  hands  of  Tulsi  Das,  the  Shakespeare  of 
Akbar's  time,  the  characters  rise  from  out  their  didactiffl 
surroundings  and  live  not  in  their  lost  original  epic 
reality,  but  with  a  dramatic  vividness  that  has  raised  them 
into  romantic  ideals.  Whatever  of  interest  for  a  study  of 
the  history  of  the  Indian  people  is  preserved  in  the  ancient 
Sanskrit  so-called  epic, "  Ramayana,"  will  therefore  be  found 
in  the  much  more  popular  vernacular  rendering  of  Tulsi 
Das,  where  it  can  be  best  considered.^ 

The"Mahabharata" remains  unaltered  from  its  chaotic  and 
early  Sanskrit  redaction.     Whatever  historic  value  it  may 
*  See  p.  367  (post). 


THE  EPICS  215 

have  lies  not  in  its  scattered  and  subdued  epic  fragments,^ 
loosely  strung  together  by  didactic  teachings,  irrelevant 
episodes,  artificial  battle  scenes,  and  classic  descriptions  of 
scenery,  but  in  the  evidences  it  affords  of  the  existence  of 
beliefs  and  creeds  that  were  aspiring  to  the  patronage  of 
Brahmanism,  with  which  they  were  to  unite  to  form  the 
popular  religion,  known  as  Hinduism,  of  the  mass  of  Aryan 
and  non-Aryan  people  classed  as  Hindus. 

The  central  story  of  the  epic  revolves  round  the  rivalries 
between  the  Kurus,  the  hundred  sons  of  Dhritarashtra, 
descendant  of  Bharata  of  the  Lunar  dynasty,  the  fabled 
conqueror  of  all  India  north  of  Delhi,  and  the  five  Pandava 
princes,  said  to  be  sons  of  Dhritarashtra's  ^  elder  brother, 
the  pale -skinned  Pandu.  The  "  Mahabharata "  is  thus 
made  to  represent  a  great  contest  between  the  descendants 
of  Bharata  for  the  possession  of  North  India,  ever  known 
as  the  land  of  Bharata,  or  Bharata  Varsha. 

The  rivalries  of  the  warrior  heroes  end  in  eighteen  battles 
fought  on  the  plain  of  Kurukshetra,  in  which  the  Kurus  are 
exterminated  and  the  Pandavas  gain  the  kingdom,  perform 
the  great  horse  sacrifice,  denoting  their  universal  sway,  and 
finally,  after  a  glorious  reign,  take  their  long  and  lonely 
journey  towards  Mount  Meru,  there  to  enter  the  Heaven  of 
Indra.  Asinthe"Ramayana"and" Iliad," thewrongs suffered  / 
by  a  woman  supply  the  motive  force  to  rouse  the  heroism ; 
of  the  warriors,  for  the  true  epic  ever  rises  free  above  all  the/ 

'  "  I  believe  that  the  Hindu  epic  is  ancient,  as  ancient  in  its  origin  as  the 
earliest  traditions  of  the  nation."— Barth,  "  Ind.  Ant."  (1895),  p.  71. 

2  Holtzmann  ("Das  Mahabharata,"!.  156;  ii.  174)  has  advanced  weighty 
reasons  for  concluding  that  Bhishma,  the  uncle  of  the  Pandavas,  was  the  real 
father  of  the  five  princes,  having  been  appointed  to  marry  his  brother's  wife. 
The  Niyoga,  similar  to  the  Levirate,  allowed  the  sonless  widow  to  bear  a  child 
to  her  brother-in-law  on  her  husband's  death,  so  as  to  continue  the  femily.  In 
the  early  law  books  the  custom  was  restricted  by  very  definite  directions.  It 
was  not  until  the  time  of  the  revised  epic  that  the  Brahmans  made  efforts  to 
become  the  chosen  partners  of  sonless  wives  or  widows.  The  meaning  is  quite 
obvious,  and  totally  opposed  to  Mr  Dahlmann's  theory  of  the  epic  as  a  law  book. 


2i6  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

restraining  facts  of  prosaic  history.  Draupadi,  the  common 
f  wife  of  the  five  Pandava  brothers  is,  in  the  "Mahabharata," 
the  cause  of  the  great  slaughter  on  the  plain  of  Kuruk- 
shetra,  where,  as  the  narrator  of  the  poem  tells,  "  in  that 
great  battle  of  the  Kurus  came  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  monarchs  for  fighting  against  each  other.  The  names 
of  that  innumerable  host  I  am  unable  to  recount  even  in 
ten  thousand  years."  Kurukshetra,  the  scene  of  slaughter, 
where  the  ancient  race  of  Kurus  was  defeated  by  a 
confederacy  of  hostile  tribes,  headed  by  a  band  of  non- 
Aryan  warriors,  to  whom  Brahmanic  power  was  obliged 
to  submit  and  assign  a  fictitious  relationship  with  Aryan 
folk,  became  one  of  the  holiest  places  of  pilgrimage 
for  all  Hindus.  This  holy  place  of  sacrifice,  the  plain 
on  which  Aryanism  and  Brahmanism^  suffered  their  first 
crushing  defeat  at  the  hands  of  the  despised  non-Aryan, 
probably  Dravidian,  races,  was  the  very  spot  over  which 
Brahmanism  sang  its  loudest  songs  of  triumph,  so  that 
all  record  of  the  defeat  might  be  passed  over  in  the 
pages  of  history.  The  battle-field  was  lauded  as  so  sacred 
that  "  he  is  freed  from  all  sins  who  constantly  sayeth,  '  I 
will  live  in  Kurukshetra.'  The  very  dust  of  Kurukshetra, 
conveyed  by  the  wind,  leadeth  a  sinful  man  to  a  blessed 
course  in  after  life.  They  that  dwell  in  Kurukshetra, 
which  lieth  to  the  south  of  the  SarasvatI  and  the  north  of 
the  Drishadvatl,  are  said  to  dwell  in  Heaven.  O  hero,  one 
should  reside  there,  O  thou   foremost  of  warriors,  for  a 

'  Even  if  this  defeat  be  held  not  to  be  conclusively  shown  to  have  happened 
at  the  hands  of  an  un-Aiyan  foe  (see  Jolly,  "  Recht  und  Sitte,"p.  48),  and  even 
if  it  be  contested  that  there  is  not  sufficient  evidence,  though  I  do  not  see  that 
the  weight  of  the  evidence  does  not  establish  it,  that  a  custom  such  as  polyandry 
may  be  no  more  than  a  family  custom,  still  this  does  not  affect  the  main  point 
which  it  is  here  the  object  to  lead  up  to,  the  intrusion  of  Krishna  and  6iva 
worship  into  Brahmanic  circles.  The  whole  history  is  doubtful  and  obscure. 
The  view  that  presents  itself  as  most  plausible  and  readily  understood  is  here 
accepted,  though  I  am  perfectly  aware  of  the  insecurity  of  the  position.  In  the 
"  Lalita  Vistara  "  the  Pandavas  are  a  rude  tribe.  See  Weber,  "  Indian  Litera- 
ture," pp.  136-35. 


THE  EPICS  217 

month.  Thou,  O  Lord  of  the  earth,  the  gods  with  Brahma 
at  their  head,  the  Rishis,  the  Siddhas,  the  Charanas,  the 
Gandharvas,  the  Apsaras,  the  Yakshas,  the  Nagas,  often 
repair,  O  Bharata,  to  the  highly  sacred  Kurukshetra.  O 
foremost  of  warriors,  the  sins  of  one  that  desireth  to 
repair  to  Kurukshetra,  even  mentally,  are  all  destroyed, 
and  he  finally  goeth  into  the  region  of  Brahma."  The 
"  Mahabharata  "  is  steeped  in  exordiums  such  as  this,  in- 
culcating sacred  duties  and  expounding  moral  principles, 
all  necessary  for  a  Brahmanic  purpose  ej^er  desirous  of 
extending  its  influence  over  established  systems  and 
supporting  de  facto  principalities. 

The  Pandavas  are  stated  in  the  poem  to  have  been  in- 
structed, at  Hastinapur,  in  the  use  of  arms  and  in  warrior 
feats,  along  with  their  fictitious  cousins,  the  Kuru  princes, 
by  Drona,  a  Brahman  preceptor.  When  the  time  came  for 
Yuddhisthira,  the  leader  ever  firm  in  war,  the  eldest  of  the 
Pandava  brothers,  to  be  crowned  King  of  Hastinapur,  he 
and  his  brothers  were  persuaded  by  the  intrigues  of  the 
one  hundred  Kuru  princes,  to  depart  from  the  city  on  a 
visit  to  a  town  eight  days'  distance.  The  Pandavas  were 
thus  removed  from  Hastinapur,  where  it  was  necessary,  for 
the  purpose  of  the  poem — to  give  them  a  relationship  with 
the  Kurus — that  they  should  spend  their  childhood.  It 
was  further  necessary  to  account  for  the  mode  whereby 
they  afterwards  appeared  as  leaders  of  a  great  national 
movement  against  the  exclusive  system  built  up  by 
Aryanism.  The  Pandavas,  as  ultimately  the  winning  side, 
are  glorified  as  models  of  all  virtue,  law  and  justice.  It  has 
even  been  held  that  the  whole  poem  is  an  allegory  sym- 
bolising the  ever-recurring  strife  between  the  might  of 
righteousness  and  the  evil  of  passion,  between  justice  and 
injustice,  between  right  and  wrong,^  justice  being  personi- 

^  Dahlmann,  ' ' Das  Mahabharata  als  Epos  und  Rechtsbuch "  (Berlin,  1895-98). 
Although  the  theory  of  Dahlmann  is  ingeniously  worked  out,  I  am  unable  to 
accept  it  as  in  any  sense  setting  forth  the  purport  of  the  poem. 


2i8         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

fied  in  Yuddhisthira,  the  leader  of  the  Pandavas,  injustice 
being  personified  in  Duryodhana,  the  eldest  of  the  Kurus. 
It  could  not,  however,  have  been  until  long  after  these  events 
— until  the  Pandavas,  in  fact,  had  won  their  cause,  and  estab- 
lished their  position — that  they  wereglorified  by  the  Brahmans 
as  incarnations  of  divinity,  and  all  evidence  of  their  rude 
habits  and  alien  descent  obliterated  as  far  as  possible.  The 
Pandavas,  with  their  mother,  are  represented  as  leaving 
Hastinapur  for  their  pleasure-trip  to  the  eight-days'-away 
town,  amid  the  weeping  and  wailing  of  all  the  inhabitants. 
The  Kurus,  in  the  meantime,  prepared  for  their  reception 
a  house,  into  the  walls  of  which  had  been  skilfully  built 
"hemp,  resin,  heath,  straw,  and  bamboo,  all  soaked  in 
clarified  butter."  The  Pandavas  found  out  the  details  of 
the  plot  laid  against  their  lives  and  at  once  prepared  to 
escape.  They  dug  an  underground  passage  from  the  house 
to  the  outside  forest,  and  then  enacted  a  part  more  fitting 
to  rude  savages  than  to  incarnations  of  justice.  They  pre- 
pared a  feast,  "  and  desirous  of  obtaining  food,  there 
came,  as  if  impelled  by  the  fates,  to  that  feast,  in  course 
of  her  wandering,  a  Nishada  woman,  the  mother  of  five 
children,  accompanied  by  all  her  sons.  And,  O  king,  she 
and  her  children,  intoxicated  with  the  wine  they  drank, 
became  incapable."  The  cunning  of  the  Pandavcis  had 
succeeded.  They  set  the  house  on  fire,  and  disappeared 
through  the  underground  passage.  The  low-caste  woman 
and  her  five  children,  whom  Brahmanic  justice  sees  no 
moral  wrong  in  slaying,  were  burned  to  death,  and  when 
their  charred  bodies  were  recovered,  the  rumour  was  spread 
abroad  that  the  Pandavas  had  vanished  off  the  scene. 
The  trick  is  one  of  stage  melodrama.  The  Pandavas  were 
cut  adrift  from  Hastinapur,  and  free  to  commence  their 
true  career.  The  entrance  of  the  brethren  on  the  new  scene 
has  a  true  epic  touch,  although  it  be  in  the  uncertain 
realms  of  the  supernatural.    The  figure  of  Bhlma,  the  fierce 


THE  EPICS  219 

and  savage  warrior,  the  smasher,  in  the  last  great  fight,  of 
the  thigh  of  Duryodhana,  emerges  from  the  underground 
passage,  with  all  the  avenging  might  of  a  demon  foe  let  loose 
to  pursue  his  relentless  course.  He  was  the  fierce  Vrikodara, 
the  "Wolf  Stomached,"  who  hovered  near  his  brethren 
endowed  with  more  than  human  powers,  and  armed  with 
magic  missiles.  The  supernatural  shrouds  him  round,  but 
from  it  he  rises  clear  and  distinct,  the  life-like  creation  of 
true  epic  genius.  The  wooden  hut  is  burning  fiercely ;  the 
first  links  uniting  Aryanism  with  its  new  fetters  are  being 
forged ;  while  from  out  the  darkness  of  the  cavern  arises 
Bhima,  "  taking  his  mother  on  his  shoulders,  the  twin- 
brothers,  Nakula  and  Sahadeva,  on  both  his  arms,  Vriko- 
dara, of  great  energy  and  strength,  and  endowed  with  the 
velocity  of  the  wind,  commenced  his  march,  breaking  the 
trees  with  his  breast,  and  pressing  deep  the  earth  with  his 
steps." 

The  s£erLe_£rov^s  darker  _anjd  .Roomier.  Brahmanism 
has  to  watch  the  coming  struggle,  note  its  course,  and  side 
with  the  winning  force.  New  ways  and  customs  have  to 
be  temporised  with,  new  gods  accepted,  and  new  super- 
stitions made  room  for.  The  storm  the  Pandavas  and 
their  allies  were  to  raise  was  coming  fast.  The  epic  fades 
away  as  the  Brahmans  set  the  story  to  a  purpose.  BhIma 
hastens  on,  bearing  his  mother  and  his  brothers,  to  seek 
the  deep  recesses  of  the  forest,  whence  he  and  the  Pandavas 
emerge  on  their  true  career.  "  The  twilight  deepened,  the 
cries  of  birds  and  beasts  became  fiercer;  darkness  sur- 
rounded everything  from  view,  and  an  untimely  wind 
began  to  blow  that  broke  and  laid  low  many  a  tree,  large 
and  small,  and  many  a  creeper  with  dry  leaves  and  fruit."  ^ 

Brahmanism  had  for  long  remained  in  sovereign  isolation. 
As  Bhima  cried  out  in  his  wrath  against  the  Kurus  :  "  He 
who  hath  no  jealous  and  evil-minded  relatives,  liveth   in 

1  "AdiParva,"§iS3. 


220  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

happiness  in  this  world,  like  a  single  tree  in  a  village.  The 
tree  that  standeth  single  in  a  village  with  its  leaves  and 
fruits,  from  absence  of  others  of  the  same  species,  becometh 
sacred  and  is  worshipped  and  venerated  by  all."  ^ 

The  first  great  friendship  made  in  the  forest  by  the 
Pandavas,  was  with  the  sister  of  a  demon  Rakshasa.  This 
Rakshasa  was  a  cannibal,  an  eater  of  raw  flesh,  such  as  the 
early  Aryans  described  their  Das)^!  foes  to  have  been. 
This  fierce  dweller  in  the  forest  recesses,  where  dwelt  the 
rude  aboriginal  races,  "  was  now  hungry  and  longing  for 
human  food."* 

A  long  fight  ensued  between  Bhlma  and  the  fierce 
Rakshasa,  until  at  length  "the  Rakshasa  sent  forth  a 
terrible  yell  that  filled  the  whole  forest,  and  deep  as  the 
sound  of  a  wet  drum.  Then  the  mighty  Bhlma,  holding 
the  body  with  his  hands,  bent  it  double,  and  breaking  it 
in  the  middle,  greatly  gratified  his  brothers."  * 

The  sister  of  the  demon  stood  by  watching  the  fight, 
for,  at  the  bidding  of  her  brother,  she  had  assumed  the  form 
of  a  fair  woman  to  entice  the  Pandavas  into  her  brother's 
power,  but  had  relented  of  her  purpose  on  beholding  the 
beauty  of  the  fierce  Bhlma.  For  one  year  she  remained 
with  Bhlma,  and  then  her  son  was  born,  and  named 
Ghatotkacha,  or  "pot-headed,"  for  his  head  was  bald. 
Ghatotkacha  became  the  famed  warrior,  an  incarnation 
of  Indra,  who  fought  in  the  foremost  rank  against  the 
Kurus,  only  to  be  slain  by  Kama.* 

The  further  allies  of  the  Pandavas  had  now  to  be 
accounted  for.  News  came  to  them  that  DraupadI,  the 
daughter  of  the  King  of  the  Panchalas,  was  about  to  hold 
her  Svayamvara.  DraupadI  is  described  as  having  "eyes 
like  lotus  leaves,  and  features  that  are  faultless ;  endued 
with  youth  and  intelligence,  she  is   extremely  beautiful." 

1  "Adi  Parva,"  §  153.  =  Ibid.,  p.  446.  '  Hid.,  p.  454. 

*  Son  of  KunU — the  son  miraculously  conceived  before  her  marriage  with 
Fandu. 


THE  EPICS  221 

She  is  "the  slender-waisted  DraupadI,  of  every  feature  per- 
fectly faultless,  and  whose  body  emitteth  a  fragrance  like 
unto  that  of  a  blue  lotus  full  two  miles  round."  ^ 

To  her  Svayamvara  came  monarchs  and  princes  from 
various  lands,  and  "from  various  countries,  actors,  and 
bards,  singing  the  panegyrics  of  kings  and  dancers,  and 
reciters  of '  Puranas,'  and  heralds,  and  powerful  athletes."  ^ 

All  failed  to  bend  a  wondrous  bow,  the  test  of  the  skill  and 
strength  of  the  competing  suitors.  The  five  Pandu  princes 
advanced,  disguised  as  Brahmans,  and  Arjuna,  the  ideal 
type  of  manly  heroism  and  knightly  courtesy,  drew  the 
bow  and  pierced  the  mark,  so  that  DraupadI  became  his 
prize,  and  the  Pandus  won  the  alliance  of  the  Panchalas. 
So  far  the  poem  is  free  from  taint,  but,  unfortunately  for 
Brahmanic  purposes,  the  early  epic  preserved  the  unfettered 
truth  that  the  Pandavas  were  of  a  polyandrous  race,  like 
many  of  the  present  aboriginal  races  of  India.  DraupadI, 
in  the  original  epic,  was  the  common  wife  of  the  five  Pan- 
dava  brethren.  This  was  a  custom  opposed  to  all  Aryan 
habits,  for,  as  the  present  poem  itself  contends,  "it  hath 
ever  been  directed  that  one  man  may  have  many  wives, 
but  it  never  hath  been  heard  that  one  woman  may  have 
many  husbands.  O  son  of  KuntI,  pure  as  thou  art,  and 
acquainted  with  the  rules  of  morality,  it  behoveth  thee 
not  to  commit  an  act  that  is  sinful,  and  opposed  to  usage 
and  the  '  Vedas.' "  This  is  the  Brahmanic  objection  urged 
by  the  father  of  DraupadI  to  Yuddhisthira,  the  eldest  of  the 
Pandu  brothers.  The  Pandus  and  their  polyandry,  and 
all  the  aboriginal  customs,  superstitions,  and  tribal  deities, 
had,  nevertheless,  to  be  brought  within  the  fold  of  Brah- 
manism.  The  marriage  of  DraupadI  to  the  five  brothers 
is  explained  away  by  the  Brahmanic  apology  that  it  arose 
out  of  a  mistake.  The  Pandus,  when  they  brought  DraupadI 
home  to  their  mother,  who  resided  in  a  potter's  house,  a 

'  "  Adi  Parva,"  p.  525.  » Ibid.,  p.  528. 


222  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

house  in  which  a  Brahman  may  still  take  up  his  residence, 
are  represented  in  the  poem  to  have  cried  out  that  they  had 
obtained  alms  that  day.  The  mother,  not  understanding 
that  her  five  sons  referred  to  Draupadi,  directed  them  to 
share  together,^  and  as  the  command  of  a  mother  could  not 
be  recalled  or  broken,  Draupadi  had  to  consent  to  wed  the 
five  Pandus.  With  their  new-won  allies  the  Pandavas 
appeared  again  in  Hastinapur  and  demanded  their  share 
in  the  kingdom.  Their  claim  was  compromised,  and  they 
received  the  land  lying  along  the  Jumna,  where  they  laid 
the  foundations  of  the  ancient  Delhi,  known  from  of  old 
as  Indra-prastha. 

At  Indra-prastha  the  five  princes  measured  out  the 
limits  of  their  new  abode.  There  they  cleared  the  forest, 
reclaimed  the  land,  and  raised  the  walls  of  India's  great 
capital,  "  and  surrounded  it  by  a  trench  wide  as  the  sea, 
and  by  walls  reaching  high  into  Heaven,  and  awhile,  as  the 
fleecy  clouds  or  the  rays  of  the  moon,  that  foremost  of 
cities  rose  adorned  like  the  capital  of  the  nether  kingdom, 
encircled  by  the  Nagas.  And  it  stood  adorned  with 
palatial  mansions  and  numerous  gates,  each  furnished  with 
a  couple  of  panels  resembling  the  outstretched  wings  of 
Garuda.  And  the  gateways  that  protected  the  town  were 
l^igh  as  the  Mandara  mountain,  and  massy  as  the  clouds. 
And    furnished  with    numerous    weapons   of  attack,   the 

*  "  Adi  Parva,"  IT  193.  The  whole  accounts  in  the  poem  are  disjointed  and 
disconnected.  Three  solutions  are  set  forth  to  explain  the  action  of  the  five 
brothers,  all  equally  evasive  of  the  main  issue.  I  fail  to  follow  the  fantastic 
theory  of  Dahlmann,  that  the  united  marriage  of  the  five  brothers  symbolised 
the  undivided  unity  of  a  joint  family.  The  subject  of  the  joint  family,  as  well 
as  of  the  Niyoga,  have  been  so  far  carefully  avoided.  The  whole  evidence  on 
the  subject  is  fully  in  the  hands  of  scholars,  and  as  yet  no  historical  treatise  on 
the  subject  is  forthcoming.  The  law  books  ("  Gautama,"  xxvii.  4)  show  that 
division  was  favoured  by  the  Brahmans,  as  encour^ing  an  increase  of  responsi- 
bility and  rites.  The  undivided  family  exists  in  India  down  to  the  present  day 
(j«^  Jolly,  "Tagore  Law  Lectures"  (1883),  p.  90).  It  is  the  one  dividing  line 
between  Aryans  and  non- Aryans  in  India  (su  Baden- Powell,  "Ind.  Vill. 
Com."  (1896). 


THE  EPICS  223 

missiles  of  the  foe  could  not  make  the  slightest  impression 
on  them.  And  the  turrets  along  the  walls  were  filled 
with  armed  men  in  course  of  training.  And  the  walls 
were  lined  with  numerous  warriors  along  their  whole  length. 
And  there  were  thousands  of  sharp  hooks  and  machines 
slaying  a  century  of  warriors,  and  numerous  other  machines 
on  the  battlements.  And  there  were  also  large  iron  wheels 
planted  on  them.  And  with  all  these  was  that  foremost 
of  cities  adorned.  And  the  streets  were  all  wide,  and 
laid  out  excellently.  And  there  was  no  fear  in  them  of 
accidents.  And,  decked  with  innumerable  white  mansions, 
the  city  became  like  unto  Amaravati,  and  came  to  be 
called  Indra-prastha  ('like  unto  Indra's  city').  And  in  a 
delightful  and  auspicious  part  of  the  city  rose  the  palace 
of  the  Pandavas  filled  with  every  kind  of  wealth.  And 
when  the  city  was  builti  there  came,  O  King,  numerous 
Brahmans  well  acquainted  with  all  the  '  Vedas '  and  con- 
versant with  every  language,  wishing  to  dwell  there."  1 

As  the  Pandavas  reared  their  city,  the  gods  whose  aid 
they  sought  were  not  the  Aryan  gods  of  old,  though  they 
were  to  become  the  gods  of  the  people,  and  the  gods  before 
whom  Brahmanism  had  to  bow  down.  To  fuse  these  new 
deified  heroes  and  fierce  deities  into  Brahmanism,  Arjuna 
is  represented  as  going  forth  from  Indra-prastha  to  seek 
their  aid  for  the  Pandava  brethren.  The  Brahmanic  poem 
tells  its  own  tale. 

"  Then  Arjuna,  of  immeasurable  prowess,  saw,  one  after 
another,  all  the  regions  of  sacred  waters  and  other  holy 
places  that  were  on  the  shores  of  the  Western  ocean,  and 
then  reached  the  sacred  spot  called  Prabhasa."^  Here 
Arjuna  meets  Krishna,  the  deified  hero  destined  to  become 
the  loved  deity  whose  name  is  heard  in  every  village,  at 
'  every  festival,  at  every  place  of  pilgrimage,  throughout  all 
India.      "And   Krishna    and   Arjuna   met  together,  and, 

1  "  Adi  Parva,"  pp.  577-78.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  602. 


224  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

embracing  each  other,  enquired  after  each  other's  welfare. 
And  those  dear  friends,  who  were  none  else  than  the  Rishi 
Nara,  and  Narayana  of  old,  sat  down."^  The  meeting 
ends  with  the  establishment  of  a  great  fellowship  between 
Krishna  and  Arjuna,  the  Pandu  prince  ultimately  falling 
in  love  with  Krishna's  sister.  Arjuna  told  Krishna  of  his 
love,  and  the  Western  chieftain,  whose  love-adventures  are 
the  favourite  themes  of  all  Indian  women,  placed  his 
experience  at  the  disposal  of  his  friend.  "  O  thou  bull 
amongst  men,  the  Svayamvara  hath  her  ordained  for  the 
marriage  of  the  Kshatriyas.  But  that  is  doubtful,  as  we 
do  not  know  this  girl's  temper  and  disposition.  In  the  case 
of  Kshatriyas  that  are  brave,  a  forcible  abduction  for 
purposes  of  marriage  is  applauded,  as  the  learned  have 
said.  Therefore,  carry  away  this,  my  beautiful  sister,  by 
force,  for  who  knows  what  she  may  do  in  a  Svayamvara  ?  "  ^ 
This  translation  of  the  poem,  by  the  pious  and  charitable 
Protap  Chandra  Roy,  clearly  shows  how  impossible  it 
would  be  for  a  Western  to  attempt  to  understand  the  true 
spirit  of  the  Brahmanic  redaction.  It  requires  a  simplicity,  a 
directness,  a  firm  faith  in  the  perfect  unison  of  the  whole, 
to  avoid  the  fatal  error  of  so  manj'  Western  adaptations 
in  endeavouring  to  improve  on  the  tone  of  the  original. 
There  is  no  attempt  here  to  trifle  with  the  loved  personality 
of  Krishna,  the  deity  glorified  as  a  very  incarnation  of 
the  Vedic  Vishnu,  who  strode  through  the  three  spaces, 
placing  his  last  footstep  over  the  heavens.  In  the  poem 
itself  Krishna  takes  his  place  as  highest  among  the  gods. 
When  Yuddhisthira  was  finally  established  as  sovereign 
over  all  known  India,  and  had  performed  the  great  horse 
sacrifice,  symbolic  of  his  universal  sway,  he  bowed  down 
before  Krishna  as  chief  of  all  the  gods.  Krishna  was  then 
declared  to  be  the  first  of  all  warriors,  the  regent  of  the 
universe,  therefore  "  do  we  worship  Krishna  amongst  the 

-  "  Adi  Parva,"  §  ?20.  =  Bid.,  p.  605. 


THE  EPICS  225 

best  and  the  oldest  and  not  others."  1  Krishna  is  he  who 
"is  the  origin  of  the  universe,  and  that  in  which  the 
universe  is  to  dissolve.  Indeed,  this  universe  of  mobile  and 
immobile  creatures  hath  sprung  into  existence  from  Krishna 
alone.  He  is  the  unmanifest  primal  matter  (avyakta 
prakriti),  the  Creator,  the  eternal,  and  beyond  the  ken  of 
all  creatures.  Therefore  doth  he  of  unfailing  glory  deserve 
the  highest  worship."  * 

The  legends  and  character  of  Krishna  ^  stand  out  clear 
in  the  underlying  epic.  He  was  the  son  of  DevakI,  and 
was  saved  by  his  father,  Vasu-deva,  of  the  Lunar  race,  from 
the  wrath  of  the  King  of  Mathura,  whose  death  had  been 
foretold  would  take  place  at  the  hands  of  a  descendant  of 
Vasu-deva.  In  his  youth  he  was  sent  to  be  nursed  by 
Yaioda,  the  wife  of  a  cowherd  of  the  Yadava  race,  in  whose 
home  he  lived  first  at  Gokula  or  Vraja,  then  at  Vrinda- 
vana,  now  the  holy  places  of  pilgrimage  for  all  worshippers 
of  Krishna.*  There  he  loved  the  "gopis,"  or  milkmaids,  de- 
stroyed a  great  serpent,and  held  upthe  mountain  Govardhana 
on  his  finger  to  save  the  "  gopis  "  from  the  anger  of  Indra. 
There  he  also  lived  happy  with  Radha,^  his  favoured  and 
often  forsaken  loved  one,  and  it  was  from  there  that  he  took 
the  inhabitants  of  Mathura  to  his  holy  city  of  Dvaraka* 

'  "Sabha  Parva,"  p.  lo8.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  109. 

'  ' '  The  earlier  legends  represent  Indra  as  created  from  a  cow.  .  .  .  Krishna 
was  probably  the  clan  deity  of  some  powerful  confederacy  of  Rajput  tribes. 
Cow-worship  is  thus  closely  connected  with  Indra  and  with  Krishna  in  his 
forms  as  the  'herdman  god'  .  .  .  and  it  is  at  least  plausible  to  conjecture 
that  the  worship  of  the  cow  may  have  been  due  to  the  absorption  of  the  animal 
as  a  tribal  totem  of  the  two  races." — Crooke,  "Religions  and  Folk-Lore  of 
N.  India,"  vol.  ii.  p.  229. 

^  Monier- Williams,  "  Ind.  Wisdom,"  p.  334. 

'  See  Hewitt,  ist  Series,  p.  450  : — "  Radha  means  the  maker  {dhd)  of  Ra, 
the  darkness  or  chaotic  void  from  which  the  sun-god  of  light  was  bom,  and  is 
thus  another  form  of  Rama,  the  darkness,  the  mother  of  Ra." 

^  "  This  story  telling  of  the  removal  of  the  Yadavas  to  the  sea-shore  is  the 
mythical  form  assumed  by  national  history,  when  it  told  how  the  inland  race  of 
the  sons  of  the  tortoise  had  settled  on  the  sea-shore  and  become  a  race  of 
mariners." — Hewitt,  1st  Series,  p.  469. 

P 


226  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

in  Guzarat.  Krishna  had  to  win  his  way  slowly  to  Brah- 
manic  recognition  and  favour.  Even  in  the  "Maha- 
bharata,"  Sisupala,  King  of  Chedi,  reviled  him,  asking 
how  is  it  that  they  i  "  who  are  ripe  in  knowledge  are  eager 
to  eulogize  the  cowherd  who  ought  to  be  vilified  even  by 
the  silliest  of  men.  If  in  his  childhood  he  slew  Sakuni,  or 
the  horse  and  the  bull  who  had  no  skill  in  fighting,  what 
is  the  wonder?  ...  If  the  mountain  Govardhana,  a  mere 
anthill,  was  held  up  by  him  for  seven  days,  I  do  not 
regard  that  as  anything  remarkable.  .  .  .  And  it  is  no 
great  miracle  that  he  slew  Kansa,  King  of  Mathura,  the 
powerful  king  whose  food  he  had  eaten."  For  this  speech 
the  King  of  Chedi  had  his  head  smitten  off  by  Krishna 
with  a  discus,  so  that  he  "fell  like  a  mountain  smitten 
by  a  thunderbolt."  To  Krishna  the  place  of  honour  at 
the  Rajasuya,  or  "  coronation  ceremony,"  performed  by 
Yuddhisthira,  had  been  given,  and  before  Krishna  the 
Pandava  chief  bowed  down  and  claimed  him  as  the  one 
great  deity  of  the  people.  "  Owing  to  thy  grace,  O  Govinda, 
have  I  accomplished  the  great  sacrifice ;  and  it  is  owing  to 
thy  grace  that  the  whole  Kshatriya  world,  having  accepted 
my  sway,  have  come  hither  with  valuable  tribute.  O  hero, 
without  thee,  my  heart  never  feeleth  any  delight"  ^  So 
the  black,  deified,  hero  of  a  shepherd  clan,  fabled  king  of 
Dvaraka,  and  chief  of  the  Yadavas,  became  the  adored 
incarnation  of  Vishnu,  who  came  on  earth  to  aid  the 
Pandavas  and  allied  alien  tribes  in  their  struggle  for 
supremacy,  and  in  their  demand  for  recognition  of  their 
cults  and  customs  at  Brahmanic  hands.  The  Pandavas 
had  to  pass  through  sore  tribulation  and  trial  before  they 
gained  their  ends.  Yuddhisthira,  the  eldest  brother  among 
the  Pandavas,  the  righteous  guide  and  apotheosis  of  all 
virtue,  fell  before  the  guile  of  the  Kurus.  A  challenge  to 
war  or  gambling  was  a  challenge  no  warrior  could  with 
>  Muir,  "Sanskrit  Texts,"  vol.  iv.  p.  210.  *  "  Sabha  Parva,"  p.  iz6. 


THE  EPICS  227 

honour  refuse,  so  Duryodhana,  chief  of  the  Kurus, 
challenged  Yuddhisthira,  chief  of  the  Pandavas,  to  show 
his  skill  with  dice.  The  Kurus,  over  whom  Brahmanism 
had  to  pour  forth  its  condemnation  in  its  praises  of 
the  Pandavas,  are  said  to  have  played  unfairly.  At  each 
fall  of  the  dice  Yuddhisthira  lost  to  Duryodhana  his 
wealth,  his  kingdom,  his  brothers  one  by  one,  and  then 
himself  There  remained  but  one  more  stake — the  fair 
figure,  trailing  hair,  beauty  and  love  of  Draupadi.  The 
stroke  was  made,  the  dice  rolled  and  fell,  and  Draupadi 
became  the  prize  of  the  exulting  Duryodhana.  The 
scene,  in  its  underlying  pathos,  is  the  finest  picture  of  the 
poem.  One  can  imagine  the  vivid  reality  of  what  must 
have  been  the  original  epic  as  sung  in  the  vernacular  by 
the  rude  and  impulsive  wandering  bard.  There  the  deep 
pathos  of  the  reciter,  as  he  told  the  shame  and  sorrow  of 
the  noblest  type  of  womanhood  that  Indian  literature  knows, 
found  its  relief — in  a  manner  seen  constantly  in  Western 
drama — in  rude  and  ribald  jeers  and  gibes  even  against 
Draupadi  herself  In  the  Brahmanic  poem,  as  we  now 
possess  it,  pathos  and  obscenity  all  have  been  mingled 
together  by  the  Brahmanic  redactor  into  the  most  repulsive, 
cold,  and  unrealistic  description  of  suffering  womanhood  that 
the  literature- of  any  country  has  preserved.  The  scene 
has  been  described  in  English  adaptations  over  and  over 
again  as  typifying  the  Indian  ideal  of  womanhood, 
and  as  showing  from  the  manner  in  which  her  sufferings 
were  respected,  the  high  place  she  had  acquired.  This 
ideal  probably  did  underlie  the  original  epic  story.  The 
"  Mahabharata  "  version  is  untranslatable,  unreadable,  with- 
out feelings  of  horror.  Draupadi  has  been  degraded,  accord- 
ing to  all  sane  thought,  by  her  Brahmanic  redactors  to  depths 
from  which  she  never  again  can  rise.  She  has  become  the 
centre  figure  of  a  scene,  once  realised  from  the  Sanskrit, 
that  could  only  be  willingly  forgotten  for  ever.     If  she  is  to 


228  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

be  remembered  it  must  be  by  striving  to  recreate  her  as  she 
lived  in  the  lost  epic  of  the  rough  and  ready  minstrels,  who 
first  sung  her  moving  story  to  crowds  of  simple  folk.  The 
god  Krishna,  in  the  preserved  version,  is  drawn  into  the 
scene  to  clothe  the  outraged  woman  with  numerous 
celestial  robes,  as  her  single  raiment  was  torn  repeatedly  off 
her  suffering  body  in  the  gambling  room  before  the 
humbled  Pandavas  and  one  hundred  rejoicing  sons  of 
Kuru.  There  is  some  excuse  for  the  horrors  which  follow. 
The  fierce  and  raging  Bhima  swore  to  hew  the  head  of 
DuhSasana — ^who  dragged  DraupadI,  a  woman  who  had 
never  seen  the  sun,  from  her  private  apartments  to  the 
assembly — from  off  his  body  and  drink  his  heart's  blood,  a 
vow  he  fulfilled  on  the  plains  of  Kurukshetra.  He  also 
vowed  that  he  would  smash  Duryodhana's  thigh,  and  this 
he  did  by  a  foul  stroke  in  the  final  fight,  and  left  the  vile 
Kuru  to  die  amid  his  brethren  on  the  avenging  battle- 
field. 

The  Pandavas  had  to  wait  long  for  their  revenge.  In 
the  gambling  hall,  Dhritarashtra,  the  aged  and  blind  father 
of  the  Kurus,  stayed  the  rising  wrath  of  the  assembled 
heroes.  The  Pandavas  were  judged  to  have  lost  all,  yet 
they  were  not  to  be  treated  as  slaves.  DraupadI  they 
received  back,  but  only  on  their  promising  that  they  would 
go  with  her  for  twelve  years  into  exile,  and  then  remain 
concealed  for  one  year  longer,  when,  if  they  were  undis- 
covered, they  should  receive  back  their  kingdom.  The  story 
of  the  exile  is  the  crowning  glory  of  the  "  Mahabharata." 
Here,  in  the  classic  beauty  of  its  language,  in  its  depth  of 
thought,  and  in  its  incident,  and  to  an  Eastern  in  its  descrip- 
tion of  scenery  and  didactic  teaching,  the  poem  is  unrivalled 
in  the  history  of  India's  literature.  All  the  beauty  of  the 
poem,  however,  pertains  to  the  form  of  the  literature  itself 
and  not  to  epic  narrative,  dramatic  reality,  or  even  the 
prosaic  history  told  by  that  literature.     Outside  its  form 


THE  EPICS  229 

the  "  Mahabharata  "  is  only  valuable  ^  as  showing  the  change 
from  Vedic  Brahmanism  towards  the  tangled  growth  of 
modern  Hinduism.  The  older  Vedic  deities — Agni,  and 
Surya,  Vayu,  Varuna,  and  Indra — truly  remain,  but  shorn 
of  their  ancient  power  and  brilliancy.  Indra  still  has  his 
Heaven,  the.  Valhalla  of  the  warriors.  Yama  is  no  longer 
Death,  but  grows  more  akin  to  Justice.^  The  great  Vedic 
sacrifices,  and  the  occasional  sacrifices,  are  performed,  but 
by  their  side,  equally  sacred,  are  pilgrimages  to  hoiy  places, 
sacred  rivers  and  bathing  in  streams,  the  worship  of  snakes 
and  trees,  idolatry  and  bowing  down  before  painted  images.^ 
The  great  deities  of  modern  Hinduism  rise  distinct  and 
clear  as  the  sole  personal  objects  of  worship,  in  whom  all-  the 
subsidiary  deities  of  India  merge,  and  are  held  to  have  their 
source.  The  Supreme  Spirit  *  assumes  the  triple  form  of 
the  personal  Creator,  Brahma,  the  personal  protector,  Vishnu 
or  Krishna,  and  the  fierce  Siva,  the  potential  destroyer. 

6iva,  to  the  Brahmanic  mind,  is  the  Rudra  of  the  Vedas.^ 
In  the  underlying  epic  of  the  "  Mahabharata,"  he  was  even 
greater  than  Krishna ;  he  was  the  wild,  fierce  deity  of  an 
aboriginal  folk,  and  the  chief  aid  of  the  Pandavas.  When 
the  five  brethren  stayed  with  their  restored  wife,  DraupadI, 
in  the  forest,  Arjuna  was  directed  by  Indra  to  go  to  the 
Himalayas  and  seek  the  aid  of  the  fierce  deity,  Siva.  The 
abode  of  6iva  was  in  the  Heaven,  Kailasa,  where  he  was 
waited  on  by  the  Yakshas,  once  gods  among  men,  and  had 
as  his  consort,  the  goddess.  Kali,  or,  as  she  is  otherwise 
known,  Uma,  the  gracious,  Devi,  Durga,  Gauri,  Bhairava, 
the  various  names,  along  with  her  many  others,  that  still  echo 

'  "  Let  the  reader  attach  no  value  to  the  names  which  are  mostly  myths,  or 
to  the  incidents  which  are  mostly  imaginary." — Dutt,  "Ancient  India,"  vol.  i. 

p.  189- 

2  Hopkins,  "Religions  of  India,"  p.  380  (note  2). 

3  Ibid.,  p.  374- 

«  See  Holtzuiann,  Z.D.M.G.,  xxxviii.  p.  204;  Hopkins,  p.  412. 
=  >Tuir,  "Sanskrit Texts,"  iv.  p.  283. 


230  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

from  the  weary  bands  of  pilgrims  who  travel  to  her  many 
shrines  all  over  India.  It  was  not  until  Arjuna  saw  and 
submitted  to  the  might  of  6iva  that  he  obtained  the 
divine  missiles  which  were  to  scatter  the  Kuru  force.  The 
promise  held  out  by  Indra  to  Arjuna  declared  the  rising 
sway  of  ^iva.  "When  thou  art  able  to  behold  the  three- 
eyed,  trident-bearing  6iva,  the  lord  of  all  creatures,  it  is 
then,  O  child,  then  I  will  give  thee  all  the  celestial  weapons. 
Therefore,  strive  thou  to  obtain  the  sight  of  the  highest  of 
the  gods,  for  it  is  only  after  thou  hast  seen  him,  O  son  of 
KuntI,  that  thou  wilt  attain  all  thy  wishes." 

Arjuna  set  forth  to  seek  the  deity,  and,  being  defeated 
in  a  fierce  fight,  acknowledged  the  power  of  Siva,  fell 
down  before  him,  and  sang  the  Brahmanic  song  of  re- 
cognition of  the  fierce  god  of  his  race.i  "  I  am  unable  to 
declare  the  attributes  of  the  wise  Mahadeva,  who  is  an  all- 
prevailing  god,  yet  is  nowhere  seen,  who  is  the  creator  and 
the  lord  of  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Indra,  whom  the  gods  from 
Brahma  to  the  demons  worship,  who  transcends  material 
natures  as  well  as  spirits,  who  is  meditated  upon  by  sages 
versed  in  contemplation  i,yoga)  and  possessing  an  insight 
into  truth,  who  is  the  supreme,  imperishable  Brahman,  that 
which  is  both  non-existent,  and  at  once  existent  and  non- 
existent. He  is  the  deity  who  has  a  girdle  of  serpents,  and 
a  sacrificial  cord  of  serpents,  in  his  hand  he  carries  a 
discus,  a  trident,  a  club,  a  sword,  and  axe — the  god  whom 
even  Krishna  lauds  as  the  supreme  deity." 

Deep  as  the  worship  of  Siva  is  steeped  in  the  underlying 
epic,  it  fades  away  before  the  worship  of  Krishna,  the 
incarnation  of  Vishnu,  who  led  the  Pandavas  to  victory, 
and  whose  adoration  is  inculcated  more  than  that  of  Siva 
by  the  Brahmanic  framers  of  the  "  Mahabharata." 

The  dark  figure  of  Krishna  hovers  mysteriously  in  the 
background  of  early  Indian  history.    In  the  "  Mahabharata  " 

1  Muir,  "Sanskrit  Texts,"  vol.  v.  p.  187. 


THE  EPICS  231 

Krishna  rises  to  such  prominence,  that  it  has  been  held  that 
the  whole  poem  must  have  been  written  to  extend  his  wor- 
ship, and  establish  it  for  ever  as  the  true  faith  for  all  India. 
The  entire  conception  of  a  religion,  founded  on  a  faith  in 
the  saving  grace  of  Krishna,  is  declared  by  some^  to  be 
merely  the  Hindu  mode  of  inculcating  the  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  which  first  reached  India  in  the  second  and 
third  centuries  of  our  era. 

It  has  been  asserted  that  in  the  "  Mahabharata  "  itself,  a 
clear  reference  is  made  to  Christian  doctrines  and  Christian 
worship  in  an  account  of  a  pilgrimage  made  to  the  White 
Country,  or  Svetadwipa.^  In  the  White  Country  the 
pilgrims  are  said  to  have  "  beheld  glistening  men,  white, 
appearing  like  the  moon,  adorned  with  all  auspicious 
marks,  with  their  palms  ever  joined  in  supplication, 
praying  with  their  faces  turned  to  the  East.  The  prayer 
which  is  offered  up  by  these  great-hearted  men  is  called 
the  '  mental  prayer.' " 

The  pilgrims  further  heard  those  who  in  the  White 
Country  offered  oblations  to  the  god,  singing  their  song  of 
praise.  "  Thou  art  victorious,  O  lotus-eyed  one.  Hail  to 
thee,  O  Creator  of  the  Universe !  Hail  to  thee,  thou  first- 
born Supreme  Being ! "  * 

There  is  nothing  to  show  that  the  worship  of  Krishna 
had  not  arisen  in  India  as  the  natural  outcome  of  the  life 
and   thought   of   the    period    immediately   preceding,   or 

'  Lorinser  (1869) ;  Weber,  "  Krishna  Gebilrts  Fest.,"  p.  316;  see  Hopkins, 
' '  Religions  of  India, "  p.  429.  The  whole  subject  is  luminously  treated  in  J.  M. 
Robertson's  "  Christ  and  Krishna  "  (Freethought  Publishing  Company,  1890). 

'^  "The  ancient  Bhagavata,  Satvata,  or  Pancharatra  sect,  devoted  to  tha 
worship  of  Narayana  and  its  deified  teacher,  Krishna  Devakiputra,  dates  from 
a  period  long  anterior  to  the  rise  of  the  Jains  in  the  eighth  century  B.C." 
— Earth,  "Ind.  Ant.,"  p.  248  (September  1894).  Krishna  Devakiputra  is 
referred  to  in  "Ch.  Up.,"iii.  17,  6,  though  no  effort  is  made  afterwards  to 
connect  him  with  Krishna,  the  son  of  Vasu-deva.  See  "^andilya  Satras" 
(ed.  Ballantyne,  tr.  Cowell),  p.  51 ;  S.B.E,,  vol.  i.  p.  52  {note). 

8  See  Hopkins,  "  Religions  of  India,"  p.  432. 


232  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

subsequent  to,  the  Christian  era.  Throughout  all  early 
thought  in  India  there  runs  an  individuality  of  its  own, 
removing  it  far  from  all  lines  of  thought  with  which  it  is 
so  frequently  compared.  Fresh  inspirations  have,  un- 
doubtedly, for  a  time,  acted  in  the  past  from  outside,  and 
influenced  certain  phases  of  Indian  literature  and  art,  but 
the  Indian  mind  soon  sinks  back  to  its  own  accustomed 
mode  of  thought  and  expression,  so  that,  when  the  first 
motive  force  of  the  new  influences  fades  and  dies  away, 
little  is  left  in  the  essential  form  that  the  keenest  eye  of 
the  scholar  or  artist  can  detect  as  not  truly  native  in  its 
execution,  genesis,  or  tendency.  Resemblances  between 
phases  of  Indian  philosophic  thought  and  those  of  the 
West,  from  the  time  of  Xenophanes^  down  to  that  of 
Schopenhauer  and  Von  Hartmann,  have  been  sought,  and 
though  there  are  coincidences  everywhere,  none  has  been 
shown  not  to  have  been  evolved  by  independent,  though 
similar,  orders  of  thought.  The  whole  case,  on  the  side 
of  those  who  claim  an  Eastern  source  for  certain  Western 
forms,  has  been  recently  examined  in  connection  with 
certain  practices  referred  to  in  the  Buddhist  Canon,  as 
settled  in  the  Council  at  Pataliputra,  or  Patna,  in  259 
B.C.,  by  order  of  Asoka.  Yet  even  here^  failure  has  to 
be  confessed :  "  If  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  if  con- 
fessions, fasting,  nay,  even  rosaries,  were  all  enjoined  in  the 
Hinayana  Canon,^  it  followed,  of  course,  that  they  could 
not  have  been  borrowed  from  Christian  missionaries.  On 
the  contrary,  if  they  were  borrowed  at  all,  the  conclusion 

'  Garbe,  "Sankhya  Philosophie  "  ;  Davies,  "Hindu  Philosophy,"  p.  143. 
Huxley  {"  Romanes  Lecture,"  p.  19)  comparing  Buddha  and  Berkeley.  Better 
would  be  a  comparison  with  Hume. 

2  Max  MUUer,  "Coincidences"  {Trans.  R.S.L.),  vol.  xviii.  part  2, 
p.  16. 

'  "  To  avoid  all  controversy,  we  may  be  satisfied  with  the  date  of  VattagSmani, 
88  to  76  B.C.,  during  whose  reign  the  Buddhist  Canon  was  first  reduced  to 
writing." — Max  Miiller,  Ibid.,  p.  14. 


THE  EPICS  233 

would  rather  be  that  they  were  taken  over  by  Christianity 
from  Buddhism.  I  have  always  held  that  the  possibility 
of  such  borrowing  cannot  be  denied,  though,  at  the  same 
time,  I  have  strongly  insisted  on  the  fact  that  the  historical 
reality  of  such  borrowing  has  never  been  established." 

The  form  in  which  the  worship  of  Krishna  is  set  forth 
and  inculcated  in  the  "  Mahabharata"  precludes  any  possi- 
bility of  its  historical  connection  with  the  West  ever  being 
established,  if,  indeed,  there  are  any  grounds  why  it  should 
be  suspected.  The  same  doubts,  the  same  efforts  to  seek 
for  the  soul  a  secret  hiding-place  from  the  injustices  of  the 
world,  the  same  black  pall  of  despairing  pessimism  that 
can  only  be  rent  by  belief  or  faith  in  the  teachings  of 
revealed  truths  by  a  qualified  preceptor,  all  are  woven  into 
the  very  texture  of  the  "  Mahabharata,"  even  more  than 
they  are  throughout  the  fuller  exposition  of  Indian 
thought  as  seen  in  the  "  Vedanta."  In  India  of  the  past, 
humanity  had  to  tread  the  path  that  leads  through  life  to 
death,  and  mark,  as  it  marched,  how  the  road  was  narrow, 
and  the  pitfalls  many,  how  those  who  wandered  from 
the  track  sank  deep  and  were  for  ever  lost  to  human 
aid  or  help.  The  whole  of  the  best  of  Indian  thought  was 
one  ceaseless  effort  to  mark  each  snare  and  pitfall,  to  map 
the  line  out  clear  and  plain,  so  that  the  age  might  pass 
from  off  the  scene  with  something  of  hope  and  certainty. 
The  beacon  lights  that  were  set  ablaze  to  direct  the 
quivering  soul  in  its  flight  through  time  may  appear 
dim  and  uncertain  to  us  of  to-day,  who  stand  listening 
wearily  to  thfe  muffled  sound  that  comes  from  the 
chambers  of  science,  in  vain  expectation  that  it  may 
break  forth  into  a  cry  that  the  secret  of  the  Universe 
has  been  disclosed  and  matter  reigns  supreme.  Never- 
theless, those  beacon  lights,  that  in  India  guided  those 
now  passed  away,  and  still  guide  many,  were  all  the 
outcome  of  the   deep   and    earnest  brooding  thought  of 


234  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

generations  of  devout  and  holy  men,  who  placed  on 
record  in  their  literature  the  efforts  they  had  made 
to  direct  all  things  for  the  best,  although  those  efforts 
often  bear  the  taint,  as  all  human  efforts  must,  of  selfish 
interest. 

The  underlying  current  of  Indian  thought,  leading 
naturally,  as  it  does,  through  faith  in  the  teachings  of  the 
"  Vedas,"  "  Upanishads,"  and  "  Vedanta,"  or  in  a  spiritual  pre- 
ceptor, on  to  faith  in  the  teachings  of  the  divine  Krishna, 
has  its  keynote  fully  set  forth  in  the  song  of  despair 
sung  by  DraupadI  to  Yuddhisthira  when  the  Pandava 
brethren  lived  in  the  forest,  bereft  of  all  hope  or  aid. 
Here  Draupadi  bewailed  to  her  husband  how  he,  the  chief 
of  the  Pandava  brothers,  the  very  incarnation  of  virtue, 
uprightness,  and  fair-dealing,  was  powerless  against  the  will 
of  the  Creator,  who  had  ordained  all  things,  and  in  whose 
hands  all  are  as  playthings.  All  men,  urged  the  despairing 
queen,  are  subject  to  the  will  of  God,  and  not  to  their  own 
desires.i  "  The  humble  and  forgiving  person  is  disregarded, 
while  those  that  are  fierce,  persecute  others.  It  seemeth 
that  man  can  never  attain  prosperity  in  this  world 
by  virtue,  gentleness,  forgiveness,  and  straightforwardness. 
Like  the  shadow  pursuing  a  man,  thy  heart,  O  tiger 
among  men,  with  singleness  of  purpose,  ever  seeketh  virtue. 
Yet  virtue  protecteth  thee  not.  The  Supreme  Lord  and 
Ordainer  of  all,  ordaineth  everything  in  respect  of  the  weal 
and  woe  of  all  creatures,  even  prior  to  their  births.  O 
hero  amongst  men,  as  a  wooden  doll  is  made  to  move  its 
limbs  by  the  wire-puller,  so  are  creatures'  made  to  work 
by  the  Lord  of  all.  Like  a  bird  tied  with  a  string  every 
creature  is  dependent  on  God.  Like  a  pearl  on  its  string, 
or  a  bull  held  fast  by  the  cord  passing  through  its  nose,  or 
a  tree  fallen  from  the  bank  into  the  middle  of  the  stream, 
every  creature  followeth  the  command  of  the  Creator. 
»  "VanaParva,"§28,  30. 


THE  EPICS  235 

They  go  to  Heaven  or  hell  urged  by  God  Himself.  Like 
light  straws  dependent  on  strong  winds,  all  creatures,  O 
King,  are  dependent  on  God.  The  Supreme  Lord,  accord- 
ing to  His  pleasure,  sporteth  with  His  creatures,  creating  and 
destroying  them  like  a  child  with  his  toy.  Beholding 
superior,  and  well-behaved,  and  modest  persons  persecuted 
while  the  sinful  are  happy,  I  am  sorely  troubled.  If  the 
act  done  pursueth  the  doer  and  no  one  else,  then,  certainly, 
it  is  God  Himself  who  is  stained  with  the  sin  of  every  act." 

The  wail  of  condemnation  of  the  Cosmos  was  here  again 
raised.  The  Brahmanic  mind  was  framing,  in  its  own 
mode,  the  expression  of  the  people's  thought.  It  remained 
for  an  answer  to  be  given  which  all  classes  might  recognise 
as  consonant  with  their  own  religious  conceptions,  and 
yet  one  that  blended  in  with  the  prevailing  philosophic 
notions  of  the  age.  This  answer  is  fully  set  forth  in  the 
divine  song,  the  "  Bhagavad  Gita,"  set,  as  a  mosaic,  in  the 
"Bhishma  Parva  "  of  the  "Mahabharata."  It  is  here  declared 
that  those  who  worship  whatever  god  they  choose,  or 
perform  whatever  rites  they  will,  are  all  sure  to  gain 
the  Heaven  they  long  for.  It  is  Krishna  himself  who 
makes  their  faith  firm.  It  is  Krishna  alone  who  grants 
the  desires  of  all,  though  the  foolish,  in  their  ignorance, 
worship  other  deities,  and  fail  to  recognise  him  as 
the  Supreme  Spirit,  and  understand  not  his  saving  help.^ 
Krishna  is  the  sole  Lord,  Divine,  without  a  belief  in  whom 
all  sacrifices  are  in  vain.^ 

In  the  "Bhagavad  Gita,"  this  doctrine  of  belief  or  faith 
in  Krishna  is  distinctly  declared  to  contain  the  whole 
sum  of  man's  duty  on  earth.  When  the  Pandavas,  with 
their  allies  from  all  quarters,  crowded  round  the  Kurus  to 
claim  back  their  kingdom,  they  sought  the  active  aid  of 
Krishna,  as  greater  than  all  human  aid,  an  aid  sought 
also  by  Duryodhana,  chief  of  the  Kurus.     To  both  Krishna 

'  Davies,  "  Bhagavad  Gita,"  vii.  20-5.  -  Ibid.,  vii.  28. 


236  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

gave  the  same  answer.  He  would  take  no  part  in  the 
coming  fight ;  they  could  choose  between  him,  as  passive 
spectator,  and  a  hundred  million  warriors  he  threw  into 
the  other  scale.  Arjuna  chose  Krishna,  Duryodhana  chose 
the  warriors.  On  the  plains  of  Kurukshetra,  the  great 
battle-field  of  India,  the  old  and  new  met  for  the  first 
time. 

Krishna,  though  he  would  not  fight,  appeared  as  charioteer 
to  Arjuna.  When  Arjuna  saw  the  vast  host  of  warriors 
drawn  up  in  hostile  array  his  heart  failed.  The  cry  once 
raised  by  DraupadT  unnerved  his  arm.  He  prayed  to 
Krishna  to  instruct  him  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  strange 
conflict  between  his  innate  conceptions  of  justice  and  the 
deeds  of  blood  towards  which  fate  had  now  drawn  him 
near.  Between  Arjuna  and  Krishna  question  and  answer 
followed,  as  told  in  the  "  Bhagavad  Gita." 

The  object  of  the  poem  might  be  shortly  summed  up, 
according  to  Western  notions,  as  inculcating  that  it  is  best 
for  man  to  do  the  duty  that  lies  nearest  to  his  hand,  and 
to  leave  the  rest  in  God's  keeping.  There  the  poem  might 
be  left,  were  it  not  that  the  whole  guidance  of  India's  future 
has  been  assumed  by  the  English  nation,  and  that  this  is 
a  task  doomed  to  failure  unless  the  leading  principles  are 
understood  which  still  holds  India  tied  to  its  own  past. 
Above  all,  the  wide-spread  faith  in  Krishna,  the  mystic 
broodings  of  the  soul  over  a  longed-for  union  with  the 
Supreme  Spirit,  are  factors  that  missionary  enterprise  in 
India  must  first  probe  down  to  their  roots  before  it  can 
be  said  that  the  ground,  which  it  is  sought  to  clear  and 
prepare  for  the  sowing  of  new  seed,  has  even  been  surveyed. 
Were  the  task  an  easy  one  it  would  have  been  long  ago 
accomplished.  There  is  no  more  illusive  phase  of  thought 
than  that  of  Eastern  mysticism.  To  the  Western  mind  it 
is  evanescent,  and  only  perceived  in  the  peculiar  stage  in 
which  it  passes  from  the  ideal  to  the  real  and  becomes 


THE  EPICS  237 

impossible  of  recognition.  In  the  "  Bhagavad  Glta,"  where 
it  finds  its  chief  source,  it  is  bound  up  with  some  of  the 
most  perplexing  problems  in  the  whole  course  of  the 
history  of  Indian  thought.^ 

To  some  it  would  appear  that  the  "  Bhagavad  Gita  "  pre- 
ceded any  formal  system  of  Sankhyan  or  Vedantic  philo- 
sophic thought,^  while  to  others,  with  what  appears  a  surer 
view,  it  presents  an  unscientific  exposition  of  existing 
philosophies,  simplified  in  order  to  make  them  readily  in- 
telligible to  the  mass  of  the  people. 

All  these  critical  points  fade  away  into  insignificance 
when  the  true  purport,  and  subsequent  influence,  of  the 
teachings  which  the  poem  promulgates  are  fully  realised. 
It  is  sufficient  for  all  practical  purposes  to  direct  the 
attention  to  the  words  of  the  poem  itself,  and  the  doctrines 
therein  laid  down.  The  poem  dates  from  some  time  before 
the  Christian  era,  and  holds  its  place  in  the  imagination  of 
the  people  down  through  the  ages  to  the  present  day. 

Not  by  knowledge  of  the  true  nature  of  matter  and  soul, 
as  in  the  Sankhyan  system,  not  by  piercing  through  the 
misty  film  of  delusion  which  separates  the  individual  soul 

^  "This  much  is  certain,  that  the  student  of  the  'Bhagavad  Glta'  must,  for 
the  present,  go  without  that  reliable  historical  information  touching  the  author 
of  the  work,  the  time  at  which  it  was  composed,  and  even  the  place  it  occupies 
in  literature,  which  one  naturally  desires  when  entering  upon  the  study  of  any 
work." — Telang,  S.B.E.,  vol.  viii.  p.  I. 

^  See  Hopkins,  "  Rehgions  of  India,"  p.  400.  The  question  of  the  date 
of  the  "Bhagavad  Glta,"  and  the  opinions  of  Dr  Thibaut,  Dr  Bhandarkar, 
and  Telang,  are  learnedly  discussed  in  a  small  pamphlet  of  Prof.  T.  R. 
Amalnerkar's  (Bombay  Education  Society's  Press,  1895).  With  his  opinion 
that  the  song  is  Post-Buddhistic,  and  after  the  time  of  the  "  Vedanta  Sutras," 
I  agree.  "The  decay  of  philosophy,  to  which  the  'Gita'  bears  testimony, 
may  be  roughly  estimated  as  having  taken  place  in  the  second  century  B.C., 
which  brings  us  to  the  end  of  the  Siitra  period"  (p.  7).  See  Davies, 
"Bhagavad  Gita,"  p.  194,  fixing  date  "not  earlier  than  third  century  B.C." 
See  Telang,  S.B.E.,  vol.  viii.  p.  34,  for  the  opinion  that  "the  latest  date  at 
which  the  '  Glta '  can  have  been  composed  must  be  earlier  than  the  third 
century  B.C."  Weber  and  Lassen  are  of  opinion  that  the  song  was  not  written 
before  the  third  centuiy  B.C. 


238  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

from  its  own  true  essence,  the  Supreme  Soul,  as  taught  by 
the  Vedantists,  nor  yet  by  pious  meditation,  as  in  the  "Yoga, ' 
is  deliverance  from  the  bonds  of  transmigration  to  be  found. 
The  way  is  declared  by  Krishna,  the  charioteer  to  the 
warrior,  Arjuna  :  ^ — 

"  Hear  now  once  more  my  deep  words,  most  hidden  in  their  meaning. 
Firmly  you  are  desired  of  Me,  therefore  I  will  declare  that 
which  is  for  your  welfare. 

"  Fix  your  mind  on  Me,  praise  Me,  sacrifice  to  Me,  reverence  Me. 

"  To  Me  only  you  shall  come,  truly  to  thee  I  promise,  for  dear  you 
are  to  Me.  All  duties  ^  having  forsaken,  to  Me  only  for  pro- 
tection come. 

"  I  will  release  you  from  all  sins,  do  not  sorrow." 

\This  doctrine  of  salvation,  by  devotion  to,  and  faith  in, 
rishna,  finds  its  conclusion  in  the  instruction  :  ^ — 

"  This  doctrine  is  not  to  be  declared  to  him  who  practises  not  austere 

rites,  or  who  never  worships,  or  who  wishes  not  to  hear,  nor 

to  one  who  reviles  Me. 
"  He  who  shall  teach  this  supreme  mystery  to  those  who  worship  Me, 

he,  offering  to  Me  this  highest  act  of  worship,  shall  doubtless 

come  to  Me. 
"  Nor  is  there  any  one  among  mankind  who  can  do  Me  better  service 

than  he,  nor  shall  any  other  on  earth  be  more  dear  to  Me 

than  he. 
"  .And  by  him  who  shall  read  this  holy  converse  held  by  us,  I  may 

be  sought  through  this  sacrifice  of  knowledge.    This  is  my 

decree.    And  the  man  who  may  hear  it  in  faith,  without  reviling, 

shall  attain,  when  freed  from  the  body,  to  the  happy  region 

of  the  just." 

'  "  Bhagavad  Gita,"  xviii.  64-6. 

^Telang,  S.B.E.,  vol,  viii.  p.  129  {fiote  3): — "Of  caste  or  order  such  as 
Agnihotra,  and  so  forth."     Davies,  p.  176 : — "  All  religious  duties." 

'  The  Eastern  form  of  the  poem  is  given  in  the  translation  by  the  late 
Kasinath  Trimbak  Telang  in  S.B.E.,  vol.  viii.  p.  129,  and  shows  how 
a  very  different  impression  is  left  in  the  mind  as  to  the  relationship  of 
the  song  to  the  New  Testament: — "This  (the  'Gita')  you  should  never 
declare  to  one  who  performs  no  penance,  who  is  not  a  devotee,  nor  to  one 
who  does  not  wait  on  (some  preceptor),  nor  yet  to  one  who  calumniates 
Me.  He  who,  with  the  highest  devotion  to  Me,  will  proclaim  this  supreme 
mystery  among  my  devotees,  will  come  to  Me  fi-eed  from  all  doubts.     No  one 


THE  EPICS  239 

Krishna  further  declares  that,  surrounded  as  he  is  by 
the  delusion  of  his  mystic  power.^  he  is  not  manifest  to  all. 
"This  deluded  world  knows  me  not,  unborn  and  inex- 
haustible. I  know,  O  Arjuna !  the  things  which  have  been, 
those  which  are,  and  those  which  are  to  be.  But  Me  nobody 
knows.  All  beings,  O  terror  of  your  foes,  are  deluded  at 
the  time  of  birth  by  the  delusion."  ^  Krishna  is  represented 
as  the  Supreme  Spirit,  as  Brahman,  the  indestructible 
spiritual  essence,  the  origin  and  cause  of  men  and  gods. 
He  is  the  indivisible  energy  pervading  all  life  and  the 
divisible  forms  of  men  and  things,  so  that  "  he  who  leaves 
this  body  and  departs  from  this  world,  remembering  Me 
in  his  last  moments,-  comes  into  my  essence."  ^ 

The  supreme  object  of  mankind  therefore  should  be  de- 
votion, and  not  action,  just  as  meditation  was  the  supreme 
state  for  the  Yogin.  The  "  Bhagavad  Gita "  accordingly 
holds  a  strange  casuistical  doctrine  respecting  action. 
Krishna  declares,  "the  truth  regarding  action  is  abstruse. 
The  wise  call  him  learned  whose  acts  are  all  free  from 
desires  and  fancies."  Arjuna,  as  a  warrior,  was  directed  by 
Krishna  to  perform  his  duty  as  a  soldier  and  fight,  although 
by  devotion  alone  was  he  to  gain  salvation.  All  acts  must 
therefore  be  done  without  attachment  to  them.  "  He  who, 
casting  off  all  attachment,  performs  actions  dedicating  them 
to  Brahman,  is  not  tainted  by  sin,  as  the  lotus  leaf  is  not 
tainted  by  water."  *  The  man  is  saved,  according  to  the 
words  of  Krishna,  "  who  sees  Me  in  everything,  and  every- 

among  men  is  superior  to  him  in  doing  what  is  dear  to  Me.  And  there  will 
never  be  another  on  earth  dearer  to  Me  than  he.  And  he  who  will  study  this 
holy  dialogue  of  ours  will,  such  is  my  opinion,  have  offered  to  Me  the  sacrifice 
of  knowledge." 

'  "Yoga  maya  samavritah,''  vii.  28. 

^S.B.E.,  vol.  viii.  p.  78. 

'  "  Even  if  you  are  the  most  sinful  of  all  sinful  men,  you  will  cross  over  all 
trespasses  by  means  of  the  boat  of  knowledge  alone." — Ibid.,  p.  62. 

'^  Ibid.,  p.  64. 


240  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

thing  in  me,  I  am  never  lost,  and  he  is  not  lost  in  me." 
The  reply  of  Arjuna  pursues  the  question  still  further.  "  O 
Krishna,  the  mind  is  fickle,  boisterous,  strong,  and  obstinate, 
and  I  think  that  to  restrain  it  is  as  difficult  as  to  restrain  the 
wind."  1  So  Krishna  continues  his  teaching  regarding  re- 
nunciation of  attachment  to  works,  at  length  weighing 
down  all  objection  by  the  cry : — 

"  I  am  death,  the  destroyer  of  the  worlds,  fully  developed,  and  I  now 
am  active  about  the  overthrow  of  the  worlds.  Even  without 
you  the  warriors,  standing  in  the  adverse  hosts,  shall  all  cease 
to  be.  Therefore,  be  up,  enjoy  glory,  and,  vanquishing  your 
foes,  obtain  a  prosperous  kingdom.  All  these  have  been 
already  killed  by  Me.  Be  only  the  instrument,  O  shooter,  with 
the  left  as  with  the  right  hand."  ^ 

All  action  is,  in  short,  tainted  with  evil,  yet,  by  doing 
one's  duty  without  attachment,  one  does  not  incur  sin, 
so  Krishna  holds  that  one,  "  even  performing  all  actions, 
always  depending  on  Me,  he,  through  my  favour,  obtains 
the  imperishable  and  eternal  seat"  Arjuna,  therefore,  has 
to  do  his  duty  and  fight.  For  the  four  castes  the  duties 
to  be  done  are  laid  down  in  the  following  words  :  * — "  Tran- 
quillity, restraint  of  the  senses,  penance,  purity,  forgiveness, 
straightforwardness,  also  knowledge,  experience,  and  belief 
in  a  future  world,  this  is  the  natural  duty  of  Brahmans. 
Valour,  glory,  courage,  dexterity,  not  slinking  away  from 
battle,  gifts,  exercise  of  lordly  power,  this  is  the  natural 
duty  of  Kshatriyas.  Agriculture,  tending  cattle,  trade,  this 
is  the  natural  duty  of  Vai^yas.  And  the  natural  duty  of 
Sudras  consists  in  service.  Every  man  intent  on  his  own 
respective  duties  obtains  perfection."  The  wise  man,  how- 
ever, looks  upon  "a  Brahman  possessing  learning  and 
humility,  on  a  cow,  an  elephant,  a  dog,  and  a  low-caste  man 
as  alike."     Such  are  the  teachings  of  the  "  Bhagavad  Gita," 


1  S.B.E,,  vol.  viii.  p.  71.  ^  y^^_^  p   gj_  3  /i,y_^  p_ 


126, 


THE  EPICS  241 

as  set  forth  by  Krishna,  who  promises  salvation  to  all  who 
believe  in  his  saving  grace. 

"  Devote  thy  heart  to  Me  ;  worship  Me,  sacrifice  to  Me,  bow  down 
before  Me  ;  so  shalt  thou  come  to  Me.  I  promise  thee  truly 
for  thou  art  dear  to  me. 

"  Forsaking  all  religious  duties,  come  to  Me  as  the  only  refuge.  I  will 
release  thee  from  all  thy  sins  ;  grieve  not."  * 

^  Da  vies,  p.  176  (trans.). 


CHAPTER   XI. 

THE  ATTACK. 

India  was  fast  marching  towards  its  doom.  The  monarch 
who  claimed  universal  sovereignty  performed  the  horse 
sacrifice  as  symbolic  of  his  sovereignty.  For  one  year  a 
horse  was  let  loose  to  wander  where  it  would  ;  he  who 
stayed  its  course  was  presumed  to  show  he  did  not 
recognise  the  ruling  right  of  the  sovereign  over  the  lands 
where  the  horse  had  strayed.  Should  the  wanderings  of 
the  horse  not  be  opposed,  it  was  sacrificed  with  due  rites. 
The  Pandava  brethren  were  fabled  in  the  epic  to  have 
performed  a  horse  sacrifice,  a  custom  in  its  origin  essentially 
Turanian  or  Scythian. 

With  the  Pandavas,  and  all  their  surrounding  fierce  and 
heroic  gods,  superstitions,  and  aboriginal  beliefs,  Brahmanism 
had  to  compromise ;  it  could  no  longer  stay  their  course. 
It  had  to  recognise  that  the  great  mass  of  the  people  of 
India  would  never  accept  the  abstract  teachings  of  the 
"  Upanishads''  or  "  Vedanta  "  philosophies  ;  they  would  ever 
follow  their  own  ways  and  gods.  Asoka,  sprung  as  he  was 
from  the  outcast  Chandra  Gupta,  found  it  wise  to  embrace 
the  Buddhist  faith,  so  that  his  renown  and  sway  might 
increase  among  the  people  by  his  standing  forth  as  the 
supporter  of  a  religious  syste^m  recognising  no  distinction 
of  caste  or  family  name. 

Brahmanism  had  marked  its  descent  from  its  lofty  ideals 

212 


THE  ATTACK  243 

when  it  compromised  with  behefs  alien  to  its  own  true 
spirit.  Asoka  showed  the  signs  of  his  empire's  decay  when 
he  set  forth  as  principles  on  which  sovereignty  should  rest 
those  inculcated  by  the  Buddha,  instead  of  those  principles, 
symbolised  by  the  rough  and  ready  defiance  of  horse 
sacrifice,  on  which  his  rule  could  alone  abide  amid  the 
dark  days  it  had  soon  to  face. 

Although  Asoka  succeeded  his  father,  Bimbisara,  son  of 
Chandra  Gupta,  about  259  B.C.,  yet  it  was  not  until  the 
twenty-ninth  year  ^  of  his  reign  that  he  stood  forth  as  the 
champion  of  Buddhism.  From  Kabul  and  Kandahar  to 
Kalinga  on  the  east  coast,  which  he  conquered  in  the  ninth 
year  of  his  reign,^  from  Kapilavastu  in  the  north,  to  Mysore 
in  the  south,  he  had  established  his  fame  and  sovereignty. 
All  over  this  vast  tract  he  gave  orders  that  his  edicts 
should  be  engraven  on  stone  pillars,  on  the  rocky  sides  of 
mountains,  and  in  caves,^  so  that  his  ordinances  should 
abide  for  ever.  The  inscriptions  in  the  north,  such  as  that 
at  Kupardagiri,  or  Shahbazgahri  on  the  Afghan  frontier,  are 
all  written  from  right  to  left  in  a  character  derived  from  a 
Phoenician  source,  known  for  long  as  Northern  Asoka,  or 
Arian,  sometimes  as  Arian  Pali,  Bactro  Pali,  or  Gandharian, 
and  now  called  Kharosthi.  Those  to  the  south,  such  as 
that  at  Girnar  in  Kathiawar  on  the  west  coast  of  India,  run 
from  left  to  right,  and  were  in  what  is  known  as  the 
Southern  Asoka,  Indo  Pali,  Mauriya  writing,  to  which  the 
name  of  Brahml  is  now  applied. 

The  thirteenth  edict  states  that  Asoka  sent  missionaries 
to  Antiochus  II.  of  Syria,  Ptolemy  II.  of  Egypt,  Antigonos 

'  " Epigraphia  Indica,"  vol.  ii.  p.  246  : — "His  conversion  to  Buddhism  fell 
...  in  the  twenty-ninth  year  of  his  reign."  Rhys  Davids  ("Buddhism," 
p.  222,  1894)  says  : — "  After  his  conversion,  which  took  place  in  the  tenth  year  of 
his  reigp,  he  became  a  very  zealous  supporter  of  the  new  religion." 

2  Edict  XIII. 

'  Hunter  ("Indian  Empire,''  p.  190)  gives  the  sites  of  the  fourteen  rock  and 
seventeen  cave  inscriptions  as  described  by  Cunningham. 


244  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Gonatas  of  Macedonia,  Magas  of  Cyrene,  and  Alexander 
II.  of  Epirus. 

On  the  historic  ridge,  near  Delhi,  a  pillar,  broken  in  four 
pieces  by  an  earthquake,  is  inscribed  with  the  most  interest- 
ing of  these  inscriptions  of  Asoka. 

The  edicts  1  tell  their  own  story  of  the  king's  efforts  to 
frame  rules  of  ideal  governance  for  his  kingdom. 

Edict  I. — King  Piyadasi,  beloved  of  the  gods,  speaks  thus  : — "  After 
I  had  been  anointed  twenty-six  years  I  ordered  this  rehgious  edict 
to  be  written.  Happiness  in  this  world  and  in  the  next  is  difficult 
to  gain  except  by  the  greatest  love  of  the  sacred  law,  the  greatest 
circumspection,  the  greatest  obedience,  the  greatest  fear,  the 
greatest  energy.  .  .  .  And  my  servants,  the  great  ones,  the 
lowly  ones,  and  those  of  middle  rank,  being  able  to  lead  sinners 
back  to  their  duty,  obey  and  carry  out  (my  orders)  likewise  also 
the  wardens  of  the  marches.  Now  the  order  is  to  protect 
according  to  the  sacred  law,  to  govern  according  to  the  sacred 
law,  to  give  happiness  in  accordance  with  the  sacred  law,  to 
guard  according  to  the  sacred  law." 

Edict  II. — King  Piyadasi,  beloved  of  the  gods,  speaks  thus  : — "(To 
fulfil)  the  law  is  meritorious.  But  what  does  (the  fulfilment) 
of  the  law  include  ?  (It  includes)  sinlessness,  many  good 
works,  compassion,  liberality,  truthfulness,  purity.  The  gift  of 
spiritual  insight  I  have  given  (to  men)  in  various  ways ; 
on  two-footed  and  four-footed  beings,  on  birds,  and  aquatic 
animals  I  have  conferred  benefits  of  many  kinds,  even  the  boon 
of  life,  and  in  other  ways  I  have  done  much  good.  It  is  for 
this  purpose  that  I  have  caused  this  religious  edict  to  be  written 
(z/z>.)  that  men  may  thus  act  accordingly,  and  that  it  may  endure 
for  a  long  time.  And  he  who  will  act  thus  will  perform  a  deed 
of  merit." 

Edict  III. — King  Piyadasi,  beloved  of  the  gods,  speaks  thus  : — "  Man 
only  sees  his  good  deeds  {and  says  unto  himself),  '  This  good 
deed  I  have  done.'  But  he  sees  in  no  wise  his  evil  deeds  {and 
does  not  say  unto  himself),  '  This  evil  deed  I  have  done  ;  this  is 
what  is  called  sin.'  But  difficult,  indeed,  is  this  self-examination. 
Nevertheless,  man  ought  to  pay  regard  to  the  following  {and 

^  Buhler,  "Epigraphia  Indica,'  vol.  ii.  pp.  248254. 


THE  ATTACK  245 

say  unto  himself),  '  Such  {passions)  as  rage,  cruelty,  anger, 
pride,  jealousy  {are  those)  called  sinful ;  even  through  these  I 
shall  bring  about  my  fall.'  But  man  ought  to  mark  most  the 
following  {and say  unto  himself),  'This  conduces  to  my  welfare 
in  this  world,  that,  at  least,  to  my  welfare  in  the  next  world.' " 

Edict  IV. — King  Piyadasi,  beloved  of  the  gods,  speaks  thus  : — "After 
I  had  been  anointed  twenty-six  years  I  ordered  this  religious 
edict  to  be  written.  My  Lajiikas  are  established  {as  rulers) 
among  the  people,  among  many  hundred  thousand  souls  ;  I 
have  made  them  independent  in  {awarding)  both  honours  and 
punishments.  Why?  In  order  that  the  Za;V//5aj  may  do  their 
work  tranquilly  and  fearlessly,  that  they  may  give  welfare  and 
happiness  to  the  people  of  the  provinces,  and  may  confer 
benefits  {on  them).  They  will  know  what  gives  happiness  and 
what  inflicts  pain,  and  they  will  exhort  the  provincials  in 
accordance  with  the  principles  of  the  sacred  law.  How  ?  That 
they  may  gain  for  themselves  happiness  in  this  world  and  in 
the  next.  But  the  Lajukas  are  eager  to  serve  me.  My  (other) 
servants  also,  who  know  my  will,  will  serve  {me),  and  they,  too, 
will  exhort  some  {men)  in  order  that  the  Lajukas  may  strive  to 
gain  my  favour.  For  as  {a  man)  feels  tranquil  after  making 
over  his  child  to  a  clever  nurse,  saying  unto  himself,  'The 
clever  nurse  strives  to  bring  up  my^child  well,'  even  so  I  have 
acted  with  my  Lajukas  for  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  the 
provincials,  intending  that,  being  fearless  and  feeling  tranquil, 
they  may  do  their  work  without  perplexity.  For  this  reason  I 
have  made  the  Lajukas  independent  in  {awarding)  both  honours 
and  punishments.  For  the  following  is  desirable.  What? 
That  there  may  be  equity  in  official  business,  and  equity  in  the 
award  of  punishments.  And  even  so  far  goes  my  order,  I 
have  granted  a  respite  of  three  days  to  prisoners  on  whom 
judgment  has  been  passed,  and  who  have  been  condemned  to 
death.  Their  relatives  will  make  some  {of  them)  meditate 
deeply  (and),  in  order  to  save  the  lives  of  those  (men),  or  in 
order  to  make  (the  condemned)  who  is  to  be  executed  meditate 
deeply,  they  will  give  gifts  with  a  view  to  the  next  world  or  will 
perform  fasts  !  For  my  wish  is  that  they  {the  condemned),  even 
during  their  imprisonment,  may  thus  gain  bliss  in  the  next 
world;  and  various  religious  practices,  self-restraint,  and 
liberality,  will  grow  among  the  people." 

In   the  year   246   B.C.,  the   eleventh  1  year  of  Asoka's 

'^  See  Monier- Williams,    "Buddhism,"'  p.   59: — "Sixteenth  or  seventeenth 
year."  Oldenberg,  "Vinaya  Pitakaiii"  (Inlrod.),  xxxi.;  S.B.E.,  a.,  xxvi.-xxxix. 


246  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

reign,  the  whole  Buddhist  Canon  was  fully  recited  at  a 
Council  of  one  thousand  Buddhist  monks,  who  assembled 
together  at  Pataliputra.  Missionaries  were  then  sent 
to  far  -  off  lands  to  propagate  the  Buddhist  faith.^ 
Mahendra,  the  son  of  Asoka,  carried  the  three  "  Pitakas," 
or  "books  of  law,"  in  the  Pali  language  to  Ceylon,  and 
was  soon  after  followed  by  his  sister,  Sanghamitta,  who 
brought  a  branch  of  the  sacred  bo  -  tree,  under  which 
Buddha  had  attained  enlightenment,  a  branch  planted 
at  Anuradhapura,  from  which  grew  the  famous  tree,  for 
long  held  to  be  the  oldest  historical  tree  in  the  world.* 

The  alliance  made  by  Asoka  with  Buddhism  brought 
to  him  no  peace,  nor  to  his  empire  security.  His  end 
was  full  of  trouble  and  sorrow.  He  lived  to  see  his  own 
son's  eyes  put  out  by  the  woman  he  loved,  and  himself 
restrained  in  his  pious  gifts  to  the  so-called  Buddhist 
mendicants. 

Buddhism,  though  it  might  tend  to  break  down  the 
racial  and  class  distinctions  of  an  enslaved  people,  and 
unite  them  into  one  nation,  yet  rose  above  all  the 
practical  considerations  of  real  life.  And  so  it  remains 
in  its  ideals  a  dream  for  the  philosopher,  in  its  degraded 
form  a  refuge  for  the  indolent,  in  its  results  a  warning 
to  the  man  of  action.  Those  who  truly  joined  the  Order 
became  celibate  monks,  recluses,  men  of  thought,  not 
action.  When  they  were  slain  or  driven  from  their 
monasteries  by  the  later  Muhammadan  invaders,  and 
possibly  by  the  reforming  Brahmans,  the  religion  died 
out  in  India,  for  the  lay  professors  of  the  faith  had  no 
guides  nor  preceptors,  no  mendicant  monks  to  feed, 
clothe,   or  endow   with   wealth.      The   more   a    temporal 

1  "  Dipavamsa,''  chap,  viii.;  "Mahavamsa,"  chap.  Jtii. 

2  Tennent,  "  Ceylon,"  vol.  ii.  p.  613.  In  the  reign  of  Vattagamini  (88-76 
B.C.)  the  Buddhist  Canon  was  reduced  to  writing,  and  in  450  A.D.  the  faith 
spread  to  Burma  through  the  great  Buddhist  commentator,  Buddha  Ghosha, 
.Jcc  Rhj-s  Davids,  "  Buddhi.sm,"  pp  234,  237. 


THE  ATTACK  247 

sovereign  and  his  subjects  drifted  towards  the  ideals 
inculcated  by  Buddha,  the  more  unfitted  they  became 
for  the  war  and  strife  on  which  alone  an  empire  could  be 
founded  and  maintained,  so  long  as  alien  foes  pressed 
round,  prepared  and  eager  to  carve  out  a  kingdom  and 
heritage  for  themselves  and  their  own  race.  Asoka  had 
framed  an  ideal  state.^  A  minister  of  religion  had  been 
appointed,  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  his  reign,  to  supervise 
morals ;  wells  were  dug,  resting  -  groves  and  wayside 
avenues  planted,  medical  aid  provided  for  man  and  beast. 
All,  Aryans  and  aborigines  alike,  were  to  be  constrained 
to  the  ideals  set  forth  by  Buddha  with  gentleness  and 
kindness,  not  by  force.  The  picture  is  the  most  pathetic 
in  the  whole  vista  of  the  struggles  of  humanity  to  reach 
and  realise  the  ethical  ideal,  regardless  of  the  stern  dictates 
that  decree  the  victory  to  the  best  fitted,  physically  and 
mentally,  to  maintain  his  place  in  the  strife  of  life.  The 
ideal  must  remain  for  the  real  to  strive  towards  and 
never  attain. 

Asoka  strove  to  realise  the  ideals  personified  in  the 
passive  figure  of  the  Buddha,  just  as  many  of  to-day 
would  urge  England  to  do,  and  stay  her  stern  career 
wherein  she  sets  before  herself  no  other  ideal  than  that 
of  justice,  unswayed  by  sentiment  or  emotion. 

In  the  days  of  Asoka  there  were  rough  and  ready 
Northern  hosts,  even  as  there  are  to-day,  should  England 
fall  back  from  her  high  mission,  ready  to  break  down 
from  their  Northern  homes  and  win  a  heritage  for  them- 
selves amid  a  people  unprepared,  and  too  disunited,  to 
defend  their  own  birthright. 

On  the  death  of  Asoka,  the  great  Empire  of  Magadha 
drifted  to  decay.  Of  his  grandson  and  successor, 
Dasaratha,  history  knows  but  little  except  what  is 
contained    in    a    few    inscriptions,    of    interest    alone    to 

'  Hunter,  "  Indian  Empire,''  pp.  190-91. 


248  LITERARY  HISTORY   OF  INDIA 

archaeologists.^  New  dynasties*  arose,  among  which  one 
monarch  figured  as  the  hero  in  Kalidasa's  well-known 
play  Malavikagnimitra.^  By  the  middle  of  the  fifth 
century  Pataliputra,*  the  ancient  capital  of  India,  lost 
its  importance,  and  was  described  by  the  Chinese 
pilgrim,  Hiouen  Tsang,^  as  "an  old  city,  about  70  li 
round.  Although  it  has  been  long  deserted,  its  founda- 
tion walls  still  survive." 

The  history  of  India,  from  Asoka's  time  down  to  the 
dark  days  of  Muhammadan  raids,  is,  in  fact,  a  history  of 
a  disunited  people,  ruled  over  by  local  chieftains,  among 
whom  one  here  and  there  rose  to  a  more  or  less  extended 
sovereignty,  and  of  invasions  from  Northern  foes. 

When  first  the  rapid,  moving,  hardy  horsemen,  known 
as  Turanians,  commenced  their  raids  across  the  Jaxartes, 
nothing  loth  to  leave  their  arid  grazing-ground  of  Central 
Asia  for  the  richer  Southern  lands,  is  a  question  still  out- 
side the  limits  of  historic  evidence.  It  has  been  held,  and 
excavations  at  Kapilavastu  may  prove  the  surmise  true, 
that  the  Sakya  race,  among  whom  Buddha  was  born,  was  an 
early  incursive  band  of  these  Northern  warrior  tribes,  whom 
history  loosely  classes  together  as  Scythian.  Alexander 
the  Great,  before  he  ventured  to  invade  India,  had  estab- 
lished posts  along  the  Jaxartes  to  hold  these  Northern 
barbarians  in  check.  Two  hundred  years  later,  a  Tartar 
tribe  drove  out  the  Greeks  from  Bactria,  and  by  the  first 
century  B.C.  a  yellow  race,  described  as  of  pink  and  white 
complexion,  and  known  to  the  Chinese  chroniclers  as  the 

*  "Mahavam^a,"  cxx.;  Miss  Manning,  "Ancient  India,"  316. 

^  Pushpamitra  overthrew  the  Maurya  dynasty,  and  established  Sunga 
dynasty  (178  B.C.).     See  Burgess,  "  Cave  Temples  of  India,"  p.  25. 

^  Agnimitra,  son  of  Pushpamitra,  who  fought  against  the  Bactrian  Greeks. 
See  Shankar  P.  Pandit,  "  Malavikagnimitra  "  (Preface). 

*  V.  A.  Smith  (J.R.A.S.,  p.  24,  1897)  holds  that  Pataliputra  was  the  early 
capital  of  Samudra  Gupta  (345-380  A.D.).  Fleet,  "Gupta  Inscrip.,"  p.  5; 
Biihler,  "Origin  of  the  Gupta  and  Valabhi  Era,"  p.  13. 

"  Visited  India  629-645  a.d. 


THE  ATTACK  249 

Yueh-Chi,^  came  riding  down  into  the  Panjab  to  take  their 
place  in  the  annals  of  Indian  history. 

In  Kashmir  these  Scythians  established  their  rule.  Of 
the  Scythian  monarchs  little  is  known  from  the  time  they 
poured  their  fierce  bowmen  across  the  north-west  mountain 
passes  until  they  disappear  at  the  close  of  the  sixth 
century  A.D.  Vikramaditya,  the  enemy  of  the  Scythians, 
stands  out  as  the  sole  national  hero  of  North  India  at 
this  period,  and  round  him  is  centred  all  that  was  glorious 
of  the  times  which  commenced  with  the  new  Indian  era  of 
56  B.C.2 

The  greatest  of  all  the  Scythian  conquerors  was  Kanishka,^ 
who  extended  his  rule  beyond  Kashmir,  as  far  south  as 
Guzarat,  and  east  to  Agra,  founding  for  himself  and  his 
race  an  era  known  as  the  Saka  era,  which  dates  from 
78  A.D.  Kanishka,  in  his  new  home,  accepted  Buddhism  as 
his  state  religion.  It  is  known  that  he  summoned  a  great 
council  of  five  hundred  monks  to  a  monastery  at  Jalandra 
in  Kashmir,  and  there  formulated,  in  Sanskrit,  the  doctrines 
of  Northern  Buddhism,  designated  as  those  of  the  Mahayana, 
or  "  Great  Vehicle,"  accepted  by  all  Scythian  races.  The 
full  record  of  this  Council  now  lies  buried  beneath  some 
vast  mound  of  earth.  The  only  guide  left  to  direct  the 
searcher  after  these  lost  treasures  was  given  thirteen 
hundred  years  ago  by  the  Chinese  pilgrim,  Hiouen  Tsang 
as  follows  :  * — 

"  Kanishka-raja  forthwith  ordered  these  discourses  to  be 
engraven  on  sheets  of  red  copper.     He  enclosed  them  in  a 

^  For  connection  of  the  Yueh-Chi  with  the  Goths,  as  well  as  with  the  Jats  of 
India,  and  the  Rajputs,  see  Max  Miiller,  "India  :  What  Can  It  Teach  Us?" 
p.  86.  Also  Hunter,  "Indian  Empire,"  chap,  vii.,  where  the  whole  intricate 
history  is  summed  up.     J.R.A.S.,  N.S.,  xiv.  p.  47. 

'  See  J.  F.  Fleet,  ' '  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Indicarum,"  vol.  iii.  p.  37. 

^  The  "  Raja-Tarangini "  gives  as  predecessors  Hushka  and  Jushka.  See 
Albiruni,  "Sachau,"ii.  II. 

*  Eeal,  "  Buddhist  Rec.  of  Western  World,"  vol.  i.  p.  156. 


2SO  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

stone  receptacle,  and  having  sealed  them  he  raised  over  it 
a  stupa  with  the  Scriptures  in  the  middle." 

The  sheets  of  copper  probably  still  remain  beneath  the 
mound  where  Kanishka  deposited  them,  and  fame  and 
wealth  awaits  him  who  searches  out  the  Scriptures,  and 
reveals  to  the  world  the  long-lost  Canon  of  the  Mahayana 
of  the  Northern  Buddhists.  On  the  death  of  Kanishka 
his  kingdom  fell  to  pieces.  Inscriptions  and  coins  are  all 
that  tell  of  the  fluctuating  fortunes  of  various  dynasties 
that  rose  to  power  and  extended  their  sway  during  the 
succeeding  centuries  through  which  India  passed,  before 
it  fell  a  prey  to  foreign  conquest. 

At  Surashtra,  or  Guzarat,  the  Sena  kings  are  traced  by 
their  coinage  from  70  B.C  to  235  A.D.,  while  in  the  east 
the  Andhras  of  the  Deccan  ruled  over  Magadha  from 
26  B.C.  to  430  A.D.  A  long  line  of  Gupta  monarchs  ^  is 
known  to  have  held  imperial  sway  all  over  North  India 
and  Kathiawar,  from  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  A.D. 
until  530-33,  when  the  empire  passed  to  Yasodharman^  of 
West  Malwa,  who  held  the  whole  north  until  it  fell  to 
a  Varman  dynasty,  that  ruled  down  to  585  A.D.,  from 
whom  it  passed  to  the  Vardhana  kings  of  Thaneswar  and 
Kanauj. 

Among  the  Vardhana  chieftains,  one  monarch  rose  to 
supreme  power,  the  great  Harsha  Vardhana,  known  as 
Siladitya  II.,  ruler  of  Kanauj  from  606  to  648  A.D.*  Down 
to  the  time  of  the  Arab  raid  into  Sind,  in  the  eighth  century, 
the  Vallabhis  held  rule  in  Guzarat  (480-722  A.D.)  among 

"Gupta,  320  A.D.;  Ghatotkacha,  340;  Candra  Gupta  I.,  360;  Samudra 
I  Gupta,  380  (345-380).— Vincent  Smith,  J.R.A.S.  (1897),  part  i,  19.  Candra 
Gupta  II.,  400-414;  Kumara  Gupta  I.,  415-454;  Skanda  Gupta,  455-468; 
Pura  Gupta,  470;  Narasimka  Gupta,  485;  Kumara  Gupta  II.,  530.— 
Hoemle,  "Inscribed  Seal  of  Kumara  Gupta,"  vol.  Iviii.;  J.R.A.S.  (Bengal) 
p.  88. 

'  Hoernle,  Ibid.,  96,  for  connection  with  Hunas. 

^  Cowell  and  Thomas,    "Harsha  Charita,"  p.   x.;     Bendall,   "Catalogue 
Buddhist  Sanskrit  MSS.,"  xli. 


THE  ATTACK  251 

whom  a  new  supreme  emperor,  Slladitya  III.  held  the 
imperial  rule  in  670  A.D. 

How  far  these  later  Indian  rulers  consolidated  their 
conquests,  and  held  under  their  own  sway  the  territories 
over  which  their  sovereignty  is  recorded  to  have  spread, 
would  now  be  impossible  to  ascertain.  So  long  as  tribute 
was  paid,  local  principalities  and  chieftains  might  hold 
and  administer  their  own  territories,  though  the  suzerain 
counted  them  as  subject  states. 

Samudra  Gupta,  who  ruled  first  at  Pataliputra,^  and  then 
changed  his  capital  westward,  until  it  finally  rested  at 
Kanauj,  is  referred  to  in  an  inscription  as  "  the  restorer  of 
the  Aivamedha  sacrifice  "  ^ — the  great  horse  sacrifice.  In 
one  inscription,  still  preserved  on  a  pillar  at  Allahabad, 
the  praises  of  Samudra  Gupta  are  recited,  and  all  his 
conquests  set  forth  in  order.* 

Nine  kings  of  Aryavarta  were  "  violently  exterminated  ; " 
kings  of  forest  countries  became  his  slaves.  Twelve 
kings,  whose  names  are  given  in  the  inscription,  were 
subdued  and  then  set  free.  These  included  the  King  of 
KanchI,  or  Conjeveram,  near  Madras,  the  King  of  all  the 
Western  Malabar  coast,  the  King  of  Central  India  and 
Orissa,  the  King  of  Kottara  in  Coimbatore,  in  South  India, 
as  well  as  kings  over  lands  in  the  present  Godavari  district, 
and  south  of  the  Krishna.  From  the  kings  of  Lower 
Bengal,  Nepal,  and  Assam,  he  is  recorded  to  have  exacted 
homage  and  tribute,  as  he  also  did  from  frontier  tribes, 
while  from  foreign  nations,  and  from  Ceylon,  he  received 
services  and  presents.  More  astounding  than  this  record 
of  the  Empire  of  Samudra  Gupta,  in  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century  of  our  era,  is  the  record  of  the  conquests  of 
his  son  and  successor,  Chandra  Gupta  II.,  who  extended 
the  Gupta  Empire  to  its  furthest  limits.      The  pillar  on 

1  V.  A.  Smith,  J.R.A.S.  (1897),  p.  27  Innate  I). 
'  m^i.,  p.  22  («o.V  2).  "  Tbid.,  p.  27, 


252  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

which  the  fame  of  Chandra  Gupta  is  set  forth,  has  re- 
mained for  long  one  of  the  many  strange  marvels  of 
the  East.  The  pillar  stands  in  the  courtyard  of  a  great 
mosque,  built  by  Katb-ud-din,  about  9  miles  south  of 
modern  Delhi.  The  pillar  rises  22  feet  above  the  ground, 
there  being  i  foot  8  inches  below  ground.  The  whole 
pillar  is  solid,  of  malleable  iron,  wrought  and  welded  into  a 
mass  of  over  six  tons'  weight  The  pillar  was  erected  in  or 
about  the  year  415  A.D.,  by  order  of  Kumara  Gupta  I.,  son 
and  successor  of  Chandra  Gupta  II.  The  construction  of 
such  a  pillar  of  wrought-iron  at  so  early  a  date  seems, 
even  to  the  Western  world,  a  feat  almost  beyond  belief. 
"  It  is  not  many  years  since  the  production  of  such  a 
pillar  would  have  been  an  impossibility  in  the  largest 
foundries  of  the  world,  and  even  now  there  are  com- 
paratively few  where  a  similar  mass  of  metal  could  be 
turned  out."  ^ 

The  inscription  on  the  pillar  has  been  translated  by  Mr 
Vincent  Smith,  in  his  valuable  article  on  the  "  Ancient 
History  of  India  from  the  Monuments  " : — 

"This  lofty  standard  of  the  divine  Vishnu  was  erected  on  Mount 
Vishnupada  by  King  Candra,  whose  thoughts  were  devoted  in 
I  faith  to  Vishnu.  The  beauty  of  that  king's  countenance  was  as 
that  of  the  full  moon  {candra) ;— by  him,  with  his  own  arm, 
sole  worldwide  dominion  was  acquired  and  long  held ; — and 
although,  as  if  wearied,  he  has  in  bodily  form  quitted  this  earth, 
and  passed  to  the  other-world  country  won  by  his  merit,  yet, 
like  the  embers  of  a  quenched  fire  in  a  great  forest,  the  glow  of 
his  foe-destroying  energy  quits  not  the  earth  ; — by  the  breezes 
of  his  prowess  the  southern  ocean  is  still  perfumed  ; — by  him, 
having  crossed  the  seven  mouths  of  the  Indus,  were  the 
Vahlikas^vanquished  in  battle ; — and  when,  warring  in  the  Vanga 
countries,^  he  breasted  and  destroyed  the  enemies  confederate 
against  him,  fame  was  inscribed  on  (their)  arm  by  his  sword." 

^  Valentine  Ball,  "  Economic  Geology  of  India,"  p.  338. 

^  Balkh  or  Baliichistan. 

*  Bengal  Lower  generally.     Vincent  Smith,  J.R.A.S.  (1897),  p.  8. 


THE  ATTACK  .353 

These  details  of  the  reigns  and  deeds  of  the  kings  of  the 
varied  dynasties,  who,  in  the  first  seven  centuries  of  the 
Christian  era  strove,  with  a  success  never  lasting  long,  to 
bend  the  various  chieftains,  races,  and  people  of  India  into 
recognition  of  one  central  power,  capable  of  swaying  the 
destinies  of  an  empire,  are  preserved  in  the  evidence 
recorded  on  coins  and  inscriptions.  The  evidences  are 
not  such  as  to  enable  any  vivid  picture  to  be  drawn  that 
would  present  a  life-like  history  of  the  period.  Such 
results  as  may  be  obtained  are  of  interest  to  the  antiquarian 
and  archaeologist ;  they  can  never  throw  a  clear  light  on  the 
causes  whereby  India  was  advancing  to  her  doom,  as  an 
easy  prey  to  foreign  conquerors. 

The  self-control  of  Buddhism,  the  intellectual  supremacy 
demanded  by  Brahmanism,  the  gross  ignorance  of  super- 
stitious Hinduism,  were  all  but  products  of  the  life  of  the 
times.  The  centre  fact  that  the  historian  longs  to  arrive 
at,  is  the  clue  to  the  subjection  of  the  East  to  the  West. 
The  enervating  iniluence  of  climate  may  afford  a  solution 
when  a  Southern  race  is  debarred  from  recruiting  its  more 
active  and  ruder  instincts  by  hardier  immigrants  from  colder 
climes,  as  Mughal  and  Portuguese  rule  found  to  their  cost, 
and  the  Aryan  has  ever  found  in  his  migrations  south.  This 
may  explain  the  present  condition  of  the  people  of  India ; 
and  if  it  be  so,  then  the  prospect  in  the  future,  both  for 
Bengal  Sikh,  border  Pathan,  and  Southern  Pariah,  is  one 
of  submission,  to  the  dictates  of  Nature.  In  the  early  ages 
there  is  no  evidence  that  in  the  north,  at  least,  the  barriers 
of  India  had  ever  been  closed  to  new-comers. 

Persian,  Greek,  and  Scythian  alike  swarmed  in  and 
made  their  own  settlements,  without  great  show  of 
opposition.  The  Scythian  element  has  been  traced  far  to 
the  east,  among  the  Jats.i  in  Central  India,  and  among 

'  Now  four  and  a  half  millions  in  number.  See  Hunter,  "  Indian  Empire," 
p.  226. 


254         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

the  Rajputs — a  race  that  rose  with  all  its  chivalry  and  man- 
hood to  oppose  Muhammadan  fanaticism,  at  a  time  when 
in  the  land  there  were  no  other  signs  of  any  tendency 
towards  national  life  and  spirit.  North  of  the  Vindhya, 
each  chieftain  and  petty  king  strove  to  secure  his  own 
position,  increase  his  forces,  raid  the  territories  of  his 
neighbours,  and  win  for  himself  the  favour  and  support  of 
Brahmanism  or  Buddhism  as  the  times  inclined  him. 
South  of  the  Vindhya,  great  and  ancient  dynasties 
— Rashtrakuta,  Chalukyan,  Pallava,  Chera,  Chola,  or 
Pandyan — preserved  and  increased,  as  they  could,  the  limits 
of  their  own  kingdoms. 

A  welcome  light  is  thrown  across  the  history  of  this 
early  period  by  the  account  of  the  Chinese  Buddhist 
traveller,  Hiouen  Tsang.  The  great  ruler  of  North  India 
was  then  Sri  Harsha,  or  Harsha  Vardhana,  the  King  of 
Thaneswar  and  Kanauj.  He  is  described  by  the  Chinese 
traveller  as  wavering  between  Buddhism  and  Brahmanism, 
one  day  setting  high  a  statue  of  Buddha,  the  next  that  of 
the  sun,  or  the  great  god,  6iva.  The  "  believers  in  Buddha 
and  the  heretics"^  were  described  as  about  equal  in 
number,  there  being  some  hundred  of  monasteries,  with 
ten  thousand  priests,  studying  both  the  Great  and  Little 
Vehicle,  and  two  hundred  Hindu  temples.  The  king,  in  six 
years,  according  to  Hiouen  Tsang,  conquered  all  the  Five 
Indies,  subdued  all  who  were  not  obedient,  and  his  army 
reached  the  number  of  one  hundred  thousand  cavalry  and 
sixty  thousand  war  elephants.^ 

In  one  great  assembly  held  by  the  king  at  Kanauj,  or 
Kanya  Kubja,  as  it  was  then  called,  kings  of  twenty 
countries  are  described  as  forming  part  of  the  king's  escort, 
as  he  marched  in  procession  with  a  golden  statue  of 
Buddha,  high  as  himself,  carried  in  front.     Not  only  does 

•  Beal,  "  Buddhist  Rec.  of  Western  World,"  vol.  i.  p.  207. 
'  For  his  defeat  by  PuUkesin,  see  Ibid.,  p.  213  {twte  21). 


THE  ATTACK  255 

the  presence  of  the  twenty  kings  indicate  the  divided 
authority  of  Harsha  Vardhana,  but  a  more  serious  element 
of  disunion  is  apparent  from  the  recorded  fact  that  the 
Brahmans,  jealous  of  the  wealth  showered  on  the  Buddhists, 
laid  plots  to  take  the  king  s  life,  so  that  "  the  king  punished 
the  chief  of  them  and  pardoned  the  rest.  He  banished 
the  five  hundred  Brahmans  to  the  frontiers  of  India."  * 

This  account  of  Hiouen  Tsangis  fortunately  supplemented 
by  a  realistic  description  of  the  court  and  camp  of  Harsha 
Vardhana,  by  the  contemporary  poet,  Bana,  whose  work  is 
the  only  romance  of  any  historical  importance  in  the 
literature  of  the  period.  The  work,  so  far  as  it  goes — for  it 
is  unfinished  in  the  original — has  happily  recently  appeared 
in  an  English  translation,  most  skilfully  rendered  from  the 
difficult  Sanskrit  of  the  original.^  There  is  but  one  other 
book  comparable  to  it,  in  the  manner  in  which  it  lays  bare 
the  very  facts  that  are  of  peculiar  interest  and  value  for 
realising  the  exact  chances  of  success  any  of  the  early  so- 
called  monarchs  of  North  India  had  of  uniting  the  scattered 
principalities  and  races  into  a  political  entity,  containing 
permanent  elements  of  stability.  The  position  of  affairs 
is  strikingly  similar  to  the  account  left  in  the  "  Letters 
from  a  Maratha  Camp,"  during  the  year  1809,  by  Colonel 
Broughton,  who  travelled  with  the  predatory  and  irre- 
sponsible forces  of  Maharaja  Scindia,  in  the  raids,  or,  as  a 
native  chronicler  would  describe  them,  victorious  progress 
of  a  universal  monarch,  into  the  semi-feudatory  state  of 
Rajputana. 

The  impression  left  by  the  two  accounts — that  by  Bana, 
contemporary  in  the  seventh  century  with  Harsha 
Vardhana,  and  that  by  the  English  resident  at  the  court  of 
Scindia,  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century — may  be 

'  Beal,  "Buddhist  Rec.  of  Western  World,"  vol.  i.  p.  221. 
2  "The  Harsha  Charita  of  Bana,"  translated  by  Prof.  Cowell   and  F.  W. 
Thomas  (Oriental  Translation  Fund,  1897). 


256  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

summed  up  in  the  words  of  Sir  M.  E.  Grant  Duff,  in  his 
preface  to  the  letters  of  Colonel  Broughton  : — 

"  First,  how  far  away  seem  the  scenes  which  they  describe  .  .  .  and 
secondly,  how  soon  they  would  come  back  if  the  power  which 
saved,  and  saves  India  from  tearing  her  own  vitals,  were  to  be 
withdrawn  for  a  single  lustrum.  .  .  .  Who  can  doubt  that  all 
the  jealousies,  all  the  passions,  all  the  superstitions,  which  are  set 
forUi  ...  are  still  there  ready  to  break  forth  at  any  moment  ? " 

It  seems  almost  sacrilege  to  tear  from  out  their  setting, 
in  a  work  of  beauty  such  as  the  "  Harsha  Charita"  of  Bana, 
such  few  references  as  may  serve  to  furnish  facts  for 
history. 

Bana  wrote  for  a  purely  artistic  purpose,  his  only  effort 
being  to  combine  in  his  narrative  "  a  new  subject,  a  diction 
not  too  homely,  unlaboured  double  meaning,  the  sentiment 
easily  understood,  the  language  rich  in  sonorous  words."  ^ 
The  motives  that  incited  him  to  recount  the  deeds  of  his 
lord  are  plainly  indicated,  and  were  purely  artistic.  He 
tells  how  one  dramatist  ^  "  gained  as  much  splendour  by 
his  plays,  with  an  introduction  spoken  by  the  manager,  full 
of  various  characters,  and  furnished  with  startling  episodes, 
as  he  would  have  done  by  the  erection  of  temples,  created 
by  architects,  adorned  with  several  storeys,  and  decorated 
with  banners  " ;  and  how  all  are  delighted  at  "the  beautiful 
expressions  uttered  by  Kalidasa,  as  at  sprays  of  flowers 
wet  with  honey  sweetness.''  Accordingly  his  narrative  is 
merely  to  be  viewed  as  "  like  a  bed,  which  is  to  wake  up  its 
occupant  happily  refreshed,"  and  how  it  has  been  "  set  off 
by  its  well-chosen  words,  like  feet,  luminous  with  the  clever 
joinings  of  harmonious  letters."  It  would  be  well  if  the 
narrative  could  be  left  in  the  beauty  of  its  own  repose,  for 
"  a  return  of  the  mind  to  itself  from  seeking  fact  after  fact, 

^  Introductory  verse,  p.  2  (Cowell's  Translation). 

'  Bhasa.     See  Weber,  "  History  of  Indian  Liteiature,''  p.  205  {note  213). 


THE  ATTACK  257 

and  law  after  law,  in  the  objective  world  ;  a  recognition 
that  the  mind  itself  is  an  end  to  itself,  and  its  own  law."^ 

This  is  the  proper  realm  of  all  Sanskrit  literature,  indeed, 
of  all  Indian  life  and  thought — a  realm  far  more  seductive 
in  its  pleasant  paths  than  that  furnished  by  unending 
research  in  the  objective  reality  of  the  world's  phenomena. 
The  whole  of  Bana's  narrative  must  therefore  be  taken  in 
its  own  setting,  if  the  true  spirit  of  its  composition  is  to 
be  properly  judged.  Bana  commenced  his  stoty  by  pointing 
out,  to  those  whom  he  addressed,  his  limitation :  "What  man 
could  possibly,  even  in  a  hundred  of  men's  lives,  depict  his 
story  in  full  ?    If,  however,  you  care  for  a  part,  I  am  ready." 

The  descent  of  Harsha  Vardhana  is  first  traced  down  to 
that  of  his  father,  Prabhakara  Vardhana,  King  of  Thanes- 
war,  who  was  "  famed  far  and  wide  under  a  second  name, 
Pratapaclla,  a  lion  to  the  Huna  deer,  a  burning  fever  to  the 
King  of  Indus  land,  a  troubler  to  the  sleep  of  Guzarat,  a 
bilious  plague  to  that  scent  elephant,  the  lord  of  Gandhara, 
a  looter  to  the  lawlessness  of  the  Jats,  an  axe  to  the 
creeper  of  Malwa's  glory."  ^  To  YasovatI,  wife  of  this 
monarch,  two  sons  were  born,  Rajyavardhana  and  Harsha, 
the  hero  of  the  story.  There  was  also  one  daughter, 
Rajya  6ri,  who  married  Grahavarman,  son  of  a  Mukhara 
King  of  Kanya  Kubja,  or  Kanauj.* 

Prabhakara  Vardhana  is  described  as  being  a  sun- 
worshipper.  "  Day  by  day  at  sunrise  he  bathed,  arrayed 
himself  in  white  silk,  wrapped  his  head  in  a  white  cloth,  and 
kneeling  eastwards  upon  the  ground,  in  a  circle  measured 
with  saffron  paste,  presented  for  an  offering  a  bunch  of  red 
lotuses,  set  in  a  pure  vessel  of  ruby,  and  tinged,  like  his  own 
heart,  with  the  sun's  hue."  * 

On   the  birth  of  the   king's   second   son,  Harsha,   the 

1  W.  P.  Ker,  "Essays  in  Philosophical  Criticism,"  p.  173  ;  quoted  in  "The 
Philosophy  of  the  Beautifiil,"  by  William  Knight  (1891). 

2  "  Harsha  Charita,"  p.  loi.  =  See  Ibid.  (Introd.),  p.  xii. 
^  Ibid.,  p.  104. 

R 


258  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

capital  held  high  revel.  A  weird  light  is  thrown  on  the 
scene,  where  the  populace  are  depicted  as  having  lost  their 
sense  with  joy : — 

"  Entrance  to  the  harem  in  no  wise  criminal ;  master  and  servants 
reduced  to  a  level ;  young  and  old  confounded  j  learned  and 
unlearned  on  one  footing ;  drunk  and  sober  not  to  be  dis- 
tinguished ;  noble  maidens  and  harlots  equally  merry.  The 
whole  population  of  the  capital  set  a-dancing."* 

As  the  young  princes  grew  up,  the  king  appointed,  as 
their  companion,  Kumara  Gupta  and  Madhava  Gupta, sons  of 
the  king  of  Malwa.  When  Rajya  ^ri,  the  king's  daughter, 
came  of  age,  it  was  determined  that  she  should  be  married 
to  Grahavarman,  the  son  of  the  Mukhara  King  of 
Kanya  Kubja,  for,  "  now  at  the  head  of  all  royal  houses 
stands  the  Mukharas,  worshipped,  like  diva's  footprint,  by 
all  the  world."  ^ 

The  political  struggles  of  the  time  now  commenced. 
When  Rajyavardhana,  the  king's  eldest  son,  grew  old 
enough  to  wear  armour,  he  was  sent  "  at  the  head  of  an 
immense  force,  attended  by  ancient  advisers  and  devoted 
feudatories,  towards  the  north  to  attack  the  Hunas."* 

During  the  prince's  absence,  the  king,  Prabhakara, 
was  seized  with  illness,  resulting  in  his  death.  Harsha, 
who  had  accompanied  his  brother  towards  the  Himalayas 
to  encounter  the  Hunas,  hastened  back  to  the  capital 
where  the  people  were  plunged  in  grief.  Rarely  has  a 
more  fearful  description  of  Hindu  superstition  been 
summed  up  in  a  few  lines  than  in  the  words  describing  the 
appearance  of  the  grief-smitten  city.  "There  young 
nobles  were  burning  themselves  with  lamps  to  propitiate 
the  mothers.  In  one  place  a  Dravidian  was  ready  to 
solicit  the  Vampire  with  the  offering  of  a  skull.  In 
another  an  Andhra  man  was  holding  up  his  arms  like  a 
rampart  to  conciliate  Chandi.     Elsewhere  distressed  young 

^  "Harsha  Charita,"  p.  m.  ^  3ul.,  p.  122.  •  Tiid.,  p.  132. 


THE  ATTACK  259 

servants  were  pacifying  Mahakala  by  holding  melting 
gum  on  their  heads.  In  another  place  a  group  of 
relatives  was  intent  on  an  oblation  of  their  own  flesh, 
which  they  severed  with  keen  knives.  Elsewhere  again 
young  courtiers  were  openly  resorting  to  the  sale  of  human 
flesh."  1 

The  panorama  referred  to  in  the  drama  of  the  "  Mudra 
Rakshasa"  is  also  described  as  being  displayed.  The 
showman  displays  his  painted  canvas,  whereon  is  depicted 
Yama,  "  the  Lord  of  Death,"  seated  on  his  dreaded  buffalo, 
while  he  recites  his  verses  to  the  assembled  crowd :  * 
"Mothers  and  fathers  in  thousands,  in  hundreds  children 
and  wives,  age  after  age  have  passed  away,  whose  are 
they,  and  whose  art  thou  ?  "  ^ 

The  whole  narrative,  in  fact  the  whole  romance,  in  its 
perfect  translation  by  Professor  Cowell  and  Mr  Thomas, 
gives  more  real  information  respecting  the  inner  life  of  the 
people  than  any  other  work  relating  to  India.  From 
every  page  new  life  dawns,  and  in  every  sentence  some 
unexpected  beauty  lies  half-concealed. 

On  the  king's  death,  Harsha  Vardhana's  grief  was 
assuaged  by  "  Brahmans  versed  in  '  6ruti,'  '  Smriti,'  and 
'  Itihasas,'  anointed  counsellors  of  royal  rank,  endowed  with 
learning,  birth,  and  character;  approved  ascetics,  well- 
trained  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Self;  sages  indifferent  to 
pain  and  pleasure ;  Vedantists  skilled  in  expounding  the 
nothingness  of  the  fleeting  world ;  mythologists  expert  in 
allaying  sorrow."* 

In  the  midst  of  the  city's  grief,  news  arrived  that 
Grahavarman  had  been  slain  by  the  King  of  Malwa,  and 
Rajya  Sri  cast  into  fetters.  Rajyavardhana,  the  elder 
brother,  who  had   returned   to  the  capital   after  driving 

1  "  Harsha  Charita,"  p.  136.   See  also  p.  222 : — "Yet  a  seller  of  human  flesh." 
*  Kipling,  Lockwood,  "Man  and  Beast  in  India,"  p.  123: — "God  looks 
out  of  the  window  of  Heaven  and  keeps  account." 
5  "  Harsha  Charita,"  p.  136  {frans.).  *  flid.^  p.  16?, 


26o  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

back  the  Scythian  Hunas  from  the  north-west,  set  forth  with 
a  mighty  army,  and  defeated  the  King  of  Malwa  only  to 
fall  a  victim  to  the  intrigues  of  the  King  of  Gauda.  Harsha 
Vardhana  now  steps  forth,  as  the  true  hero  of  the  romance, 
to  avenge  the  ill  fate  of  his  race.  Before  starting  on  his 
avenging  expedition  he  vowed  that  he  would  establish  his 
supremacy  as  sole  monarch.  "By  the  dust  of  my  honoured 
lord's  feet  I  swear  that,  unless  in  a  limited  number  of  days 
I  clear  this  earth  of  Gaudas,  and  make  it  resound  with 
fetters  on  the  feet  of  all  kings  who  are  excited  to  insolence 
by  the  elasticity  of  their  bows,  then  will  I  hurl  my  sinful 
self,  like  a  moth,  into  an  oil-fed  flame."  ^ 

Harsha  Vardhana  started  on  his  conquering  career 
amid  the  beat  of  drums,  the  bray  of  trumpets,  the  bustle 
of  an  Eastern  camp,  and  general  lack  of  all  system  or 
controlling  authority  over  the  semi-independent  chieftains 
who  joined  in  the  foray.  "Elephant  keepers,  assaulted 
with  clods  by  people  starting  from  hovels  which  had  been 
crushed  by  the  animals'  feet,  called  the  bystanders  to 
witness  the  assaults.  Wretched  families  fled  from  grass 
cabins  ruined  by  collisions.  Despairing  merchants  saw 
the  oxen,  bearing  their  wealth,  flee  before  the  onset  of  the 
tumult  A  troop  of  seraglio  elephants  advanced  where 
the  press  of  people  gave  way  before  the  glare  of  their 
runners'  torches."  ^  Looting  of  the  standing  crop  goes  on 
at  all  sides.  The  cries  of  the  rabble  are  heard  :  "  Quick, 
slave,  with  a  knife,  cut  a  mouthful  of  fodder  from  this 
bean  field.  Who  can  tell  the  fate  of  his  crop  when  we  are 
gone  ?  "  The  picture  is  dramatically  true  to  life.  "  There 
poor  unattended  nobles,  overwhelmed  with  the  toil  and 
worry  of  conveying  their  provisions  upon  fainting  oxen, 
provided  by  wretched  village  householders,  and  obtained 
with  difficulty,  themselves  grasped  their  domestic  appur- 
tenances, grumbling  as  follows :  — '  Only  let  this  one 
1  "Harsha  Charita,"  p.  187.  2  yj^^  p_  2o,_ 


THE  ATTACK  261 

expedition  be  gone  and  done  with.'  '  Let  it  go  to  the 
bottom  of  hell.'     '  An  end  to  this  world  of  thirst.' "  ^ 

On  all  sides  the  peaceful  villagers  fled,  "others,  despondent 
at  the  plunder  of  their  ripe  grain,  had  come  forth,  wives 
and  all,  to  bemoan  their  estates,  and  to  the  imminent  risk 
of  their  lives,  grief  dismissing  fear,  had  begun  to  censure 
their  sovereign,  crying :  '  Where's  the  king  ? '  '  What  right 
has  he  to  be  king?'     '  What  a  king ! '" 2 

The  king  on  his  march  turned  aside  to  save  his  sister, 
Rajya  Sri,  from  burning  herself  to  death,  and  vowed  that  he 
and  she  would  both  join  the  Buddhist  order  when  all  his 
designs  had  been  accomplished. 

The  narrative  ends  before  Harsha  Vardhana  finally 
overthrew  all  his  opponents,  and  established  himself  as 
one  of  the  few  monarchs  who  essayed  to  build  up  an 
empire  from  out  the  shifting  interests  of  rival  creeds  and 
divided  principalities. 

The  extent  of  India  was,  however,  too  vast ;  the  incon- 
gruous race-elements  it  held  too  diverse  and  scattered ; 
the  caste  restrictions  too  firmly  planted ;  the  religious 
divisions  too  deeply  founded  in  the  life-history  of  the 
people,  to  give  hope  in  those  early  ages  that  India  from 
the  Himalayas  to  the  Vindhyas,  much  less  to  Cape 
Comorin,  from  Dvaraka  to  Kalighat,  would  ever  throb 
with  the  one  great  racial  feeling  and  purpose  that  makes 
a  Fatherland.  It  remains  for  the  future  to  watch  and 
mark  how  the  dividing  lines  of  old  are  breaking  down, 
and  how,  where  race  and  caste  and  creed  no  longer  hold 
the  people  asunder,  they  may  combine  to  demand  the 
ruling  of  their  own  national  life. 

In   the   midst   of  the  changing   scene    Aryanism   and 

Brahmanism  remained  unmoved,  watching  all  and  noting  all 

from  their  own  safe  retreat,  heedless  of  kings  and  warriors, 

battles  and   contests,  greed   for  empire  and   the   coming 

1  "  Harsha  Charita,"  p.  207.  '  Ibid.,  p.  209. 


262  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

storm,  the  tramp  of  passing  bands  of  fighting  men,  the 
flames  of  burning  towns,  the  wreck  of  principalities,  the 
aggrandisement  of  new  conquerors,  and  the  submission  of 
the  people,  all  of  which  were  but  the  crude  factors  where- 
with poets  and  dreamers  might  fashion  their  drama  of  the 
world's  history. 

The  classic  beauties  of  the  early  drama,  the  romances 
and  lyrics  are  all  that  later  Aryanism  has  left  us,  from 
which  may  be  shadowed  out  something  of  the  "  very  age 
and  body  of  the  time." 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE  DRAMA. 

To  understand  the  full  significance  of  the  influence 
Aryanism  had  on  the  language  and  literature  of  India  as 
a  whole,  somewhat  must  be  realised  of  the  actual  results 
attained,  and  the  elements  on  which  these  influences  had 
to  work. 

From  the  last  Census  returns^  the  population  of  India, 
excluding  Burma,  was  numbered  at  nearly  295,000,000 
of  people ;  Indo- Aryan  vernaculars  were  spoken  by 
210,000,000;  the  Dra vidian  languages  by  only  53,000,000, 
the  rest  of  the  populace  speaking  other  languages. 

While  in  the  literature  of  India  the  Vedic  Sanskrit 
became  modified  into  the  later  classical  language,  more 
or  less  artificial  in  its  structure,  it  further,  from  about 
some  five  hundred  years  before  Christ,  broke  down  into  a 
vernacular  known  as  "  Prakrit,"  ^  which  existed  up  to  about 
1000  A.D. 

,  The  Eastern  branch  of  this  Prakrit  was  the  Magadhi, 
spoken  in  Magadha,  or  South  Behar,  while  the  Western 
branch  was  the  Sauraseni,  spoken  in  the  lands  lying  between 
the  Ganges  and  Jumna.  Intermediate  between  these  two 
distinctive  homes  of  the  Aryan  culture  lay  the  land,  the 
vernacular  of  whose  people  showed  traces  of  connection 

'■  Census  of  1891. 

"  Grierson,  "  Indo-Aryan  Vernaculars,"  Calcutta  Review  (October  1895). 

263 


264  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

with  both  the  Magadhi  and  the  Sauraseni,  so  that  it  was 
called  the  Ardha  Magadhi,  or  Half  Magadhi. 

Outside  these  three  distinctive  branches  of  the  Aryan 
vernacular,  the  spoken  language  of  the  North- Western  dis- 
trict was  known  as  the  "  Apabramfia,"  or  decayed  language. 
From  these  four  vernaculars  all  the  modern  Aryan 
vernaculars  of  India  have  descended,  as  shown  in  the 
following  table  taken  from  Mr  Grierson's  article  in  the 
Calcutta  Review,  to  which  reference  heis  been  already 
made. 

Vbdic  Sanskrit 
Old  Prakrit  Vernacular 

i  i 

Wkstern  Prakrit  Kastbrn  Prakrit 

,-^ i  I 

Apabram^a  Sauraseni  Prakrit       ArsmamagadhI  Prakrit    Magadhi  Praksit 

I 

I  I  I  I 
Magadhi    GaudI     UtkalI    VaidarbhI 
I 
MarathI 


SiNDHl    Kashmir!   Sauraseni     GaurjarI    AvantI    MahaeashtrI 


FanjabI    Hindi 

Dialects 

1.  Braj 

2.  KananjI 

3.  Urdii 

4.  Hindustani 

5.  High  Hindi 


The  term  Hindi  is  here  used  by  Mr  Grierson,  not  as 
including  the  dialects  of  Rajputana,  the  Baiswari  of  Oudh, 
and  the  distinct  dialect  of  Behar,  but  more  scientifically 
to  connote  all  the  dialects  of  the  North- West  Provinces 
from  Cawnpur  westwards.^  The  Braj  dialect  is  that  of 
the  Gangetic  Doab,  south  to  Agra,  northward  to  Multan 
and  Delhi,  thence  beyond  the  Sivalik  Hills.  Kanauji 
runs  down  the  lower  Doab  to  the  south-east  of  Cawnpur 
towards  Allahabad,  where  it  merges  into  Baiswari. 

Urdu  is  the  mixed  language  that  grew  up  in  the  camp 

'  Grierson,  "  Indo-Aiyan  Vernaculars,'"  p.  264. 


THE  DRAMA  265 

of  the  Mughal  invaders  of  India  who  used  the  local 
grammar,  chiefly  that  of  Braj,  to  cement  together  a 
vocabulary  mainly  composed  of  Indian  and  foreign  words. 
When  used  for  literary  purposes  by  the  Mussalmans,  the 
vocabulary  employed  was  mainly  Persian  or  Arabic. 
When  used  as  a  lingua  franca  for  the  people  speaking 
the  varied  dialects  of  Hindustan,  the  vocabulary  is  mainly 
composed  of  the  common  words  of  the  market-place,  and 
the  language  itself  called  Hindustani  is  readily  intelligible 
to  Hindus  and  Muhammadans  alike.  High  Hindi  is 
purely  a  book  language  evolved  under  the  influence  of 
the  English,  who  induced  native  writers  to  compose  works 
for  general  use  in  a  form  of  Hindustani,  in  which  all  the 
words  of  Arabic  or  Persian  origin  were  omitted,  Sanskrit 
words  being  employed  in  their  place. 

Great  as  has  been  the  spread  of  languages  finding  their 
source  in  Aryan  Sanskrit,  still  greater  has  been  the  classic 
influence  of  the  Aryan  literature  itself  on  the  whole 
thought  and  mode  of  expression  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
population  with  which  Aryanism  has  come  in  contact. 
Everywhere,  even  to  the  remotest  South,  the  Aryan 
literature  of  India  spread,  and  became  the  model  for  all 
classic  composition,  and  the  means  for  the  education  and 
advancement  of  the  people  towards  trained  and  ordered 
thought.     The  drama  here  exercised  its  own  influence. 

There  is  a  vast  difference  between  the  stately  repose 
of  the  cultured  though  somewhat  artificial  early  Sanskrit 
dramas,  and  the  primitive  revel  of  dance  and  song,  to  be 
seen  in  every  Indian  village,  when  the  temple  deity  is  led 
forth  on  its  high  and  costly  decorated  car,  and  the  dancing- 
girls,^  with  measured  step  and  mystic  gestures,  march  in 
front,  singing  the  deeds  the  god  has  done,  and  the  joys  of 
which  its  worshippers  partake.  In  every  step,  and  every 
motion,  in  every  sign  of  the  upheld  hands  and  movement 
1  "  Rig  Veda,"  i.  lo,  i,  1,924;  "Alharva-veda,"  xii.  1,41. 


266  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

of  the  dancing-girl's  swaying  body,  the  dramatic  gestures 
and  rhythmic  movements  all  denote  an  advance  in  reasoned 
thought  far  beyond  the  fierce  dances  of  the  wild  untamed 
tribesmen,  who  still  live  in  the  hill  tracks  in  their  barbaric 
freedom. 

In  their  remote  mountainous  and  fever-smitten  homes 
the  savage  folk  in  their  tribal  war  dances  love  to  rehearse 
their  fierce  fights  and  the  slaying  of  their  enemies,  or 
sometimes  in  their  gentler  moods  to  imitate  the  dancing 
and  cooing  of  birds,  peacocks,  or  jungle-fpwl.  Even  in 
these  forest  tracks,  it  may  be  seen  how  the  play  instincts 
of  the  rude  untutored  races  are  even  to-day  being 
trained  to  higher  purposes. 

To  the  chance  traveller  in  these  tracks,  perhaps  nothing 
may  be  visible  but  these  imitative  dances  of  the  savage 
folk.  In  the  half-frenzied  dance  the  warriors  still  revel  in 
their  mimic  combats ;  every  now  and  then  some  aged  chief 
falls  into  an  ecstatic  trance,  and  his  gesticulations  show 
that  he  believes  himself  possessed  by  some  evil  spirit  or 
some  god  whose  commands  or  decrees  he  pours  forth  in 
wild  cries  that  rush  incoherently  from  his  foaming  lips. 
The  savage  expresses  in  his  own  way  the  instincts  and 
superstitious  fears  his  reason  has  not  yet  restrained. 
Animism  rules  the  people  who  fancy  that  each  burning 
hill,  haunted  grove,  and  fever-laden  rill  is  endowed  with 
spirit  life. 

These  are  the  factors  Brahmanism  has  to  work  on  and 
mould  to  its  own  purpose. 

As  the  forests  are  cleared  from  the  mountain's  side,  and 
the  land  prepared  for  permanent  cultivation,  Brahmans 
and  lowland  traders  take  up  their  abode  among  the 
ruder  indigenous  races,  and  Hinduism  slowly  works  its 
way  towards  its  own  advancement.  The  Brahmems 
to  be  found  in  such  districts  may  be  schoolmasters, 
village  merchants,  land-owners,  or  agents  for  some  over- 


THE  DRAMA  267 

lord,  to  outward  appearance  coldly  indifferent  to  the 
ways  and  beliefs  of  the  rude  hill  folk  from  whom  they 
hold  aloof  in  their  pride  of  learning  and  pride  of  birth. 
The  influence  of  the  Brahman,  and  the  spell  of  Hinduism, 
is,  nevertheless,  ever  at  work  in  its  tendency  to  turn  the 
people  from  their  more  savage  rites,  and  bring  them 
within  the  fold  of  Hinduism,  with  all  its  gods  and  class 
restrictions. 

The  stranger  may  move  among  the  villages  and  mark 
somewhat  of  outward  change.  The  elder  people  are 
becoming  more  settled  ;  their  axes  may  perhaps  be  losing 
their  ancient  form,  and  changing  gradually  to  forms  suited 
for  agricultural  purposes.  The  belt  of  cultivated  land  is 
extending  deeper  into  the  surrounding  forest,  and  a  school 
perhaps  has  been  established.  Should  the  stranger  desire 
to  see  how  the  Brahman  schoolmaster  trains  the  village 
children,  he  can  note  how  these  children  sit  for  hours 
learning  to  make  letters  and  figures,  by  using  their  fingers 
to  write  in  the  dust,  and  to  read,  reckon,  and  recite  by 
repeating  all  together  sentence  after  sentence  their  simple 
lessons.  There  is,  however,  the  legendary  history  of  the 
god  honoured  by  the  preceptor  to  be  learned,  and  so 
much  as  is  necessary  of  the  myths  and  fables,  on  which 
popular  Hinduism  is  based. 

Here  the  drama  plays  its  part.  In  Vedic  literature,  in 
the  temple  dances,  and  in  the  wild,  savage  war  dances  and 
uncouth  revels  of  the  aboriginal  folk,  its  past  origin  can  be 
traced,  but  nowhere  can  its  course  of  development  into  the 
form  in  which  it  first  appears,  full  grown  in  the  masterpieces 
of  classic  Sanskrit  times,  be  followed.  The  form  in  which 
it  is  found  among  the  people  themselves  can  be  best  seen 
by  asking  the  Brahman  preceptor  to  bid  his  pupils  perform 
an  act  or  two  of  some  drama  he  has  taught  them.  No 
preparations  are  necessary.  The  play  will  take  place  in 
the  centre  of  the  village  or  near  the  traveller's  tents.     There 


268  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

in  the  evening  time  the  villagers  will  assemble,  seat  them- 
selves in  rows,  all  sedate  and  grave,  unnoticing  the  clear 
starlit  canopy  of  Heaven  above,  and  ring  of  fire  that, 
running  along  the  distant  mountain  side,  clears  the  fevered 
jungles. 

In  the  centre  of  the  front  rank  will  be  seated  the 
stranger;  at  his  side,  sitting  on  a  rug,  will  be  the  few 
Brahmans  the  village  contains — it  may  be  only  the 
Brahman  preceptor — the  village  traders,  and  officials. 
Behind,  the  ruder  folk  and  aboriginal  tribesmen  stand 
or  sit  on  their  heels  in  native  fashion. 

There  is  no  scenery.  Two  torch-bearers  stand  to  right 
and  left,  their  flaring  torches  dripping  burning  oil  on  to 
the  ground.  To  one  side  sit  the  musicians,  both  in- 
cessantly and  untiringly  beating  with  their  fingers  a 
hide-covered  drum.  The  actors  stand  at  first  behind 
one  of  the  torch  -  bearers.  Many  are  the  disputes  as 
to  the  setting  of  the  piece  and  arraying  of  the  boy 
actors.  All,  audience,  actors,  and  torch-bearers,  talk  in 
high  tones,  yet  all  goes  pleasantly. 

Slowly  from  among  the  actors  one  boy  moves  forward, 
with  feet  shuffling  along  the  ground  in  unison  with  the 
beat  of  the  drum.  He  wears  a  high  head-dress  covered 
with  tinsel  and  coloured  glass,  which  sparkle  now  and  then 
as  the  torches  flare  up ;  his  face  is  fixed  in  an  immoveable 
stare;  his  hands  are  held  still,  the  palms  turned  towards 
the  audience.  His  part  he  recites  in  prose  and  verse,  his 
voice  ever  in  rhythm  with  the  music.  The  spectators  are 
wrapped  in  dreamy  bliss ;  they  glance  furtively  at  the 
foreigner  to  see  if  he  is  pleased,  yet  they  no  more  than 
the  foreigner  understand  one  word  of  what  is  said,  for 
the  opening  lines  are  in  Sanskrit  verse,  composed  by 
the  preceptor.  The  audience  merely  knows  the  purport 
of  the  story  represented. 

As  the  chief  actor  plays  his  part  the  others  move  to  and 


THE  DRAMA  269 

fro  as  they  will.  Until  the  time  arrives  for  them  to  take 
part  in  the  action  they  hold  a  white  or  coloured  shawl  in 
front  of  them,  to  let  the  audience  understand  that  they 
are  not  supposed  to  be  seen. 

They  now  drop  their  screen  and  commence  their  part. 
They  are  five  in  number,  all  dressed  as  girls.  In  the 
meantime,  the  first  actor,  with  his  shawl  concealing  him,  is 
hoisted  by  some  attendants,  with  much  talking,  on  to  the 
top  of  a  post,  and  held  there,  seated  on  a  cross-piece  of 
wood.  A  light  at  last  dawns  on  the  spectators.  The  first 
actor  is  the  god  Krishna  in  his  youth,  the  five  others  are 
the  five  milkmaids  who  have  come  to  bathe  in  the  river 
Jumna,  not  knowing  that  the  god  is  watching  them.  The 
play  goes  on ;  the  five  milkmaids  lay  their  outer  white  robes 
on  the  ground  and  pretend  to  bathe,  singing  songs  in  the 
local  vernacular,  mingled  with  praise  of  Krishna,  all  now 
more  or  less  intelligible  to  the  audience.  Krishna  descends 
from  the  tree,  creeps  near  where  the  girls  are  supposed  to 
be  talking,  steals  their  clothes,  and  then  is  hoisted  back  to 
the  cross-piece  on  the  top  of  the  pole.  The  milkmaids 
discover  their  loss  and  come  wailing  to  Krishna,  declare 
their  love  and  devotion,  and  beg  the  return  of  their 
garments. 

For  hours  the  play  continues.  The  people  never  weary 
of  the  monotonous  cadence  of  the  actors'  voices,  relieved 
now  and  then  by  the  local  jokes  and  coarse  allusions  of 
the  buffoon,  generally  represented  as  a  Brahman. 

Beneath  the  whole  performance  can  be  seen  the  effort 
to  represent,  as  it  were,  in  the  guise  of  a  mystery  play,  the 
deeds  of  Krishna  and  the  joy  of  those  who  worship  him, 
for  though  "some  knew  him  and  sought  him  as  a  son, 
some  as  a  friend,  some  as  an  enemy,  some  as  a  lover; 
in  the  end  all  obtained  the  blessing  of  deliverance  and 
emancipation."  ^ 

•Wilkins,  "Hindu  Mythology, "p.  176. 


2;o  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

It  is  impossible  to  trace  any  connection  between  repre- 
sentations such  as  these  or  other  dramatic  forms  found 
among  the  people,  and  the  artificial  drama  of  classic 
Sanskrit.  This  classic  drama  appears  in  India  perfected 
and  formed,  affording  no  conclusive  evidence  as  to  whether 
it  arose  indigenously,  or  derived  its  classic  impress  from 
outside  sources.  The  derivation  of  the  terms  "  natya  "  and 
"  nataka,"  applied  to  dramatic  representations,^  from  a  root 
"  nat,"  a  corruption  of  "  nrit,"  "  to  dance,"  brings  no  fresh 
light  to  bear  on  the  subject  The  no  doubt  striking 
resemblances  between  the  best  known  Sanskrit  plays  and 
those  of  Terence  and  Plautus  have  been  held  to  justify  the 
assumption  that  the  Indian  classic  drama  borrowed  its  form 
from  Grecian  and  Roman  sources.^  The  question,  so  far, 
has  received  no  final  answer.* 

The  drama  that  may  be  taken  as  most  typical  of  the 

earliest  form  of  the  classic  school,  and  as  giving  a  picture 

,  of  Indian  life  about  the  commencement  of  the  Christian 

J  era,  more  life-like  and  less  artificial  than  any  other  known 

Indian    drama,   is    the    play    of   the    "  Mud    Cart,"    the 

"  Mricchakatlka,"  of  unknown  date  and  author.* 

The  play  itself  has  movement  enough  and  is  sufficiently 
realistic  to  be   easily  adapted    to    ensure    a    favourable 

'  Wilson,  "  Theatre  of  the  Hindus,"  p.  xix. 
'  Lassen,  "  Indische  Altertumskunde,"  ii.  507. 

*  See  Levi,  "Theatrelndien,"for  the  connection  between  (l)  the  "vidusaka" 
and  "servus  currens"  (p.  358) ;  (2)  the  "vita"  and  "parasitus  edax"  (p.  360) ; 
(3)  the  "sakara"  and  "miles  gloriosus"  (p.  360) ;  (4)  the  Indian  curtain,  or 
"yavanika"  as  derived  from  "yavana";  the  recognition  ring,  prologue, 
division  into  acts,  etc.  (p.  348).  As  the  subject  relates  to  literature,  it  is  not 
further  referred  to  here.  It  still  remains  for  those  who  assert  foreign  influence 
to  prove  it  more  conclusively  than  up  to  the  present  has  been  done.  See 
especially,  " Graeco-Roman  Influence  on  the  Civilisation  of  Ancient  India" 
{J.R.A.S.,  Bengal,  No.  III.  1889). 

*  Ascribed  to  Dandin  of  the  sixth  century  A.D.,  by  PischeL    See  Col.  Jacob 
"Notes  on  Alankara  Literature,"  J.R.A.S.  (1897),  P-  284.     From  internal 
evidence  I  should,  if  discussing  the  work  ficom  a  literary  standpoint,  place  it 
before  the  time  of  Kalidasa. 


THE  DRAMA  271 

reception  in  an  English  theatre.  It  was  played  only  a 
few  years  ago  at  the  Royal  Court  Theatre  in  Berlin,  as 
well  as  at  the  Court  Theatre  at  Munich,  where  it  roused 
enthusiasm  sufficient  to  recall  the  actors  eight  times  before 
the  curtain.  The  play  as  there  acted  was  adapted  for  the 
stage  from  the  well-known  and  accurate  German  translation 
of  Bohtlingk.  For  the  English  student  of  literature,  or  for 
the  lover  of  the  drama,  there  is  a  translation  by  Horace 
Hayman  Wilson,  which,  meritorious  and  skilful  though  it 
be,  fails  to  preserve  the  form  of  the  original. 

The  play  is  in  Sanskrit,  mingled  with  the  Prakrits,  eleven 
of  the  characters  speaking  Sauraseni,  two  AvantI,  one 
Praciya,  six  Magadhi,  the  king's  brother-in-law,  the  keeper 
of  the  gambling  -  house,  the  low  caste  Chandalas  and 
acolytes  speaking  ApabramSa.  The  play  opens  with  a 
benediction  to  6iva,  the  dread  god,  whose  blue  neck, 
when  encircled  with  the  clinging  arm  of  his  wife, 
ParvatI,  gleams  like  a  dark  cloud  crossed  by  a  running 
line  of  lightning. 

The  "  Sutradhara,"  ^  or  stage-manager,  first  enters,  and 
speaks  in  praise  of  the  play  and  its  author.  The  play,  he 
states,  is  to  treat  of  love  and  real  life.  The  name  of  the 
author  is  declared  to  be  Sudraka,  "first  of  warriors,"  with  the 
walk  of  a  noble  elephant,  the  eye  of  a  chakora  bird,  the  face 
of  a  full  moon,  who,  though  a  king,  became  a  poet  of 
unfathomable  learning.  He  knew  well  the  "  Rig  and  Sama 
Vedas,"  mathematics,  the  art  of  singing,  dancing,  and 
wanton  dalliance,  and  the  management  of  elephants.  The 
stage-manager  then  narrates  how  this  kingly  author  lost 
his  eyesight,  had  it  restored  to  him  by  the  favour  of  Siva, 
then  placed  his  son  on  the  throne,  performed  the  great 
horse  sacrificej  and,  at  the  age  of  one  hundred  years  and 
ten  days,  ended  his  life  by  entering  the  fire.  By  this 
Sudraka  the  play  was  written  to  tell  how,  in  the  town  of 
1  Wilson,  "Theatre  of  the  Hindus,"  vol.  i.  p.  xxxv. 


272  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Avanti,  a  young  but  poor  Brahman,  Charudatta,  was  loved 
by  Vasantasena,  a  wanton  like  unto  the  goddess  of  Spring, 
and  how  from  that  pleasant  love-feast  arose  in  the  course 
of  fate  the  triumph  of  right  conduct  over  the  wickedness  of 
judicial  enquiry  and  the  behaviour  of  the  bad.  The  place 
of  action  of  the  drama  is  in  the  wealthy  city  of  Avanti,  or 
Ujjain.  The  time  of  opening  is  a  day  of  festival.  The 
streets  are  decorated  ;  girls  grind  paint  to  adorn  the  house 
fronts ;  flowers  are  being  strung  to  form  festoons  ;  from  the 
houses  comes  the  scent  of  savoury  cooking.  The  giver  of 
the  feast  but  waits  for  a  worthy  Brahman  to  partake  iirst 
of  the  viands  so  that  the  feast  may  commence.  This  gives 
opportunity  for  the  mention  of  Charudatta's  name,  for  no 
actor  may  appear  until  his  name  is  introduced.  Charudatta 
then  at  length  appears,  dejected  and  downcast,  sighing 
deeply  as  he  presents  an  offering  before  the  threshold  of 
his  house  to  the  household  gods.  As  he  scatters  the  scanty 
store  he  sighs,  and  looking  upward  recites  in  Sanskrit  verse 
his  lament  :— 

"The  ample  offering  to  this,  the  threshold  of  my  home,  was  quickl>, 
in  former  days,  borne  away  by  swans  and  cranes ;  now  it  falls 
but  a  mere  handful  on  the  half-grown  grass  to  be  sought  out 
by  worms." 

[His  friend  Maitreya,  a  Brahman,  the  "  Vidushaka,"  or  familiar 
companion  of  the  hero,  then  enters  and  presents  Charudatta 
with  a  jasmine-scented  robe,  sent  by  the  giver  of  the  feast. 
As  Charudatta  receives  the  robe,  he  remains  plunged  in 
thought.] 

"  Bho  ! "  cries  Maitreya,  "why  should  you  now  ponder?" 
"Alas,  my  friend,"  answers  Charudatta,  "happiness  to  one  plunged  in 
sorrows  gleams  but  as  the  glimmer  of  a  lamp  amid  deep  dark- 
ness.    The  man  who  sinks  from  wealth  to  poverty  is  dead 
indeed  ;  he  lives  but  bound  to  the  body." 
Maitreya  \asks\.—"  Is  then  death  to  be  preferred  to  poverty?"    And 
quickly  comes  the  answer : 
"  Death  is  by  me  preferred  to  poverty.     Death  is  but  fleeting  pain, 
poverty  is  unending  sorrow." 


THE  DRAMA  273 

Maitreya. — Nay,  in  you,  your  wealth  all  bestowed  on  loved  friends, 
your  poverty  is  to  be  admired,  just  as  is  the  glory  of  the  waning 
moon  when  its  full  brightness  is  snatched  away  by  the  immortal 
gods. 

Charudatta. — Friend  !  Truly  I  take  no  heed  of  my  lost  wealth.  By 
the  course  of  fate  riches  come  and  go.  One  thought  burns  me, 
and  that  is  how  the  world  falls  off  from  friendship  with  one 
whose  wealth  has  fled.  Then  from  poverty  flows  shame  ; 
wrapped  round  by  shame  one's  fame  is  lost ;  devoid  of  fame 
one  is  despised  ;  then  come  deep  despondency  and  grief.  The 
mind  then  sunk  in  sorrow  grows  weak,  the  man  sinks  low. 
Wealth  once  gone,  all  other  losses  follow. 

Maitreya. — Cease  lamenting,  friend.     Wealth  is  but  a  trivial  thing. 

Charudatta.  —  Friend  !  Poverty  overwhelms  one  with  thought. 
Sneered  at  by  strangers  and  the  true  strength  of  our  enemies, 
it  is  the  jest  of  friends  and  cause  of  scorn  of  one's  own  relations. 
It  makes  one  long  for  the  solitude  of  the  forest,  there  to  be 
free  from  the  reproach  of  one's  own  wife.  The  fire  of  sorrow 
lingers  in  the  heart,  it  burns  not  out.  Friend,  go,  the  offerings 
to  the  household  deities  have  now  been  made  ;  go,  offer  them 
to  the  Mothers  at  the  cross-roads. 

Maitreya.— I  go  not. 

Charudatta. — Why  ? 

Maitreya. — Why  should  one  honour  the  gods  ?  By  you  they  have 
been  long  honoured,  yet  they  are  not  favourable. 

Charudatta. — Friend !  Not  so,  not  so.  Where  the  gods  are  wor- 
shipped by  holy  men  with  offering,  penance,  mind  and  words, 
they  are  ever  pleased.  Consider,  bear  the  offerings  to  the 
Mothers. 

Maitreya. — Bho  !  I  shall  not  go.  Send  some  one  else.  For  me 
everything  appears  turned  the  wrong  way  round ;  right  is  left, 
and  left  right,  just  like  an  image  seen  in  a  mirror.  Besides  this, 
at  this  time  of  night  on  the  high  road  dancing-girls,  lewd  men, 
servants  and  relations  of  the  king  wander  about,  and  I  might 
be  seized  just  as  the  mouse  was  by  the  black  serpent  on  the 
look-out  for  a  frog.    What  shall  you  do  seated  here  ? 

Charudatta. — So  be  it.    Stay  then,  and  I  shall  engage  myself  in 
religious  meditation. 
Woice  is  heard  behind  the  screen]. — Stay,  Vasantasena,  stay. 

[Then  enters  Vasantasena,  followed  by  the  king^s  brother-in-law, 
his  companion  a  lewd  parasite  and  a  servant.] 

The  Companion. — Vasantasena  !  stay,  stay  !    Why,  from  fear,  your 

8 


274  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

gentle  grace  abandoned,  your  feet  ever  gleaming  in  the  dance, 
thrown  here  and  there,  your  eyes  throwing  out  side  glances, 
anxious  and  trembling,  do  you  fly  like  a  deer  startled  by  the 
pursuing  hunter. 

King's  Brother-in-law,  the  Prince. — Stay,  dear  Vasantasena,  stay. 
Why  are  you  going ?  Why  do  you  run?  Why  fly  stumbling? 
Gentle  one,  be  quieted,  you  shall  not  die,  therefore  stay. 
My  heart  with  love  is  burning  like  flesh  fallen  on  the  burning 
coal. 

Attendant. — Stay,  honoured  lady,  stay.  Frightened,  you  go,  sister 
mine,  like  a  hot  weather  pea-hen  with  spread-out  tail,  while 
my  respected  master  quickly  follows  like  a  young  hound  in 
the  forest. 

Attendant. — Vasantasena  !  stay,  stay.  Why  do  you  go  shaking 
like  the  young  plantain  tree,  the  edge  of  your  red  robe  fluttering 
in  the  wind,  scattering  forth  the  opening  buds  from  the  masses 
of  red  lotuses,  just  like  a  cave  of  red  ochre  burst  in  pieces  by 
an  axe. 

Prince. — Stay,  Vasantasena.  stay  !  Inflaming  my  love,  bom  of  the 
bodiless  god  of  love,  cn;ielly  driving  sleep  from  my  couch  by 
night,  you  fly,  stricken  wdth  fear,  stumMing  and  slipping,  you 
have  fallen  into  my  possesgion,  as  Kunti  into  that  of  Ravana. 

Attendant. — Vasantasena !  Why  do  you  with  your  steps  exceed 
mine?  Like  a  snake  dreading  the  king  of  birds  you  speed 
away.  But  I  outstrip  the  rushing  wind.  In  seizing  you,  O 
best  of  limbed,  there  is  to  me  no  effort. 

Prince. — Sir,  Sir  !  I  have  called  her  the  scourge  of  money-stealers, 
the  fish-eater,  the  wanton,  no-nosed,  destroyer  of  families, 
unowned,  the  treasure-casket  of  Cupid,  a  keeper  of  lewd  houses, 
an  adorned  post,  a  parrot,  a  harlot ;  by  me  these  ten  names 
have  been  made  for  her,  yet  she  loves  me  not. 

Attendant. — Why  do  you  fly  disturbed  by  fear  ?  With  your  cheeks 
beaten  by  your  swaying  earrings,  just  as  the  Vina  struck  by  a 
Vita  with  the  finger-nails. 

Prince.— Why  do  you  fly,  like  Draupadii  from  Rama,  all  your 
ornaments  jingling  as  you  go  ? 

Attendant. — Take  now  the  king's  brother-in-law,  and  you  shall 
eat  fish  and  flesh.  Dogs  wait  not  in  a  dead  man's  house  in 
search  of  these.  Honoured  Vasantasena,  why  do  you  fly 
overcome  with  fear,  bearing  on  your  hip  your  garland  of  many 
folds,  gleaming  with  speckled  stars  like  pearls,  with  your  face 
deep  dyed  with  red  paint,  like  the  city  goddess  ? 

'  The  speaker  here,  as  elsewhere,  malces  humorous  blunders. 


THE  DRAMA  275 

Prince. — You  are  now  being  closely  followed  by  us,  as  in  tlie  forest 
the  fox  by  dogs  ;  you  fly  quickly,  hurrying  with  speed,  bearing 
my  heart  with  its  covering. 

[  Vasantasena  cries  for  }ielfi\. 

Prince  \infear\. — Sir,  Sir  !     There  are  men. 

Attendant. — Fear  not,  fear  not. 

Vasantasena. — Madanika  !  Madanika  ! 

Attendant  \laughing\. — Fool,  she  summons  her  attendants. 

Prince. — Sir,  Sir  !     She  seeks  women. 

Attendant.— Then  what  ? 

Prince. — I  am  a  hero.     I  can  kill  a  hundred  women. 

Vasantasena  \seeing  no  one]. — Alas,  alas !  Even  my  attendants 
have  disappeared.     I  must  indeed  protect  myself. 

Attendant.— Search  !  search  ! 

Prince. — Dear  Vasantasena  !  Cry,  cry  out  for  aid.  Who  can  help 
you,  followed  by  me  ?  I,  myself,  having  seized  you  by  the  hair 
of  the  head.  Now  see,  now  see,  the  sword  is  sharp  and  the 
head  ready.  We  ciit  off  the  head  or  we  slay.  There  is  enough 
of  your  running  away.  One  who  is  about  to  die  does  not  truly 
live. 

Vasantasena.^ — Sir,  I  am  but  a  woman. 

Attendant. — For  that  alone  you  will  be  preserved. 

Prince. — For  that  alone  you  will  not  die. 

Vasantasena  [asicie']. — How  even  his  very  courtesy  engenders  fear. 
Let  it  be  so  then  [a/oud] — Then  you  desire  some  jewels. 

Attendant. — Forfend  us,  Lady  Vasantasena.  The  gardener  desires 
not  to  steal  flowers.     Therefore  there  is  no  fear  for  your  jewels. 

Vasantasena. — Then  what  indeed  now  ? 

Prince. — That  I,  a  god-like  hero,  a  man,  an  incarnation  of  wealth, 
am  to  be  loved. 

Vasantasena  [wiih  anger]. — Shame  !  Shame  !  you  speak  unworthily. 

Prince  \clapping  his  hands  and  laughing  gently,  mistaking  the  ex- 
clamation Shame!  (Santa)  for  "sranta"  {weary)]. — Noble  sir,see 
now,  how  courteous  is  this  young  dancing-girl,  since  she  asks 
me.  Are  you  weary,  are  you  tired.  I  have  gone  to  no  other 
village  nor  town.  Lady,  I  swear  by  your  head,  and  by  my 
feet,  that  by  following  close  on  you  I  have  become  weary 
and  tired. 

Attendant. — The  fool  imagines  the  girl  says  "  be  rested,"  when  she 
cries  "forfend  us!"  Vasantasena,  your  house  is  that  of  a 
dancing-girl,  open  to  all.  You,  a  wanton,  are  like  the  wayside 
creeper  swayed  equally  by  peacock  and  crow. 

Vasantasena. — Merit  and  not  power  is  truly  the  only  cause  of  love. 


276  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Prince. — She  is  a  dancing-girl  from  her  birth.  From  the  day  she 
first  saw  Charudatta  in  the  temple  of  the  God  of  Love,  she  has 
become  enamoured  of  him,  and  will  not  bend  to  my  will.  Take 
care,  his  house  is  near,  see  that  she  escape  not  from  our  hands. 

Attendant  on  Prince  \aside\.  —What !  the  fool  blurts  out  what  he 
should  hide.  Vasantasena  in  love  with  Charudatta  !  then  truly 
pearls  match  pearls.  Let  the  fool  go.  I  shall  aid  Vasantasena. 
[Aloud]  Hullo  !  all  in  deep  darkness.  The  house  of  Charudatta 
is  to  the  left  [In  a  whisper]  Vasantasena,  conceal  yourself  in 
the  evening  darkness  like  lightning  shut  in  by  heavy  clouds ; 
let  not  the  perfiime  from  your  garlands  nor  sound  of  your  jewels 
betray  you. 

[Vasantasena  removes  her  garlands  and  jewels,  and  feels  her  way 
by  the  side  wall  of  Charudatta's  house.  Charudatta  is  seen 
inside  his  house  with  Maitreya  and  a  female  servant.] 

Charudatta. — My  prayers  are  now  ended.    Go,  present  the  offerings 

to  the  Mothers. 
Maitreya. — I  go  not 
Charudatta. — Alas  !    From  poverty  of  a  man,  even  his  friends  heed 

not  his  words.     His  power  is  laughed  at ;  none  desires  his 

acquaintance,  nor  speaks  to  him  with  respect     Truly  poverty 

is  the  sixth  great  sin. 
Maitreya. — O  friend,  if  I  must  go,  then  let  the  servant  go  with  me 

as  a  companion. 
Charudatta. — Be  it  so. 

[As  the  servant  takes  a  light,  W'aitreya  opens  the  side  door,  near 
which  stands  Vasantasena,  who,  as  the  servant  approaches, 
blows  out  the  light  with  the  end  of  her  garment] 

Maitreya  [exclaims], — Ah  !  by  the  opening  of  the  door  the  light  has 
been  extinguished.  Pass  out,  servant,  while  I  go  again  inside  to 
relight  the  lamp. 

[The  servant  goes  into  the  street,  where  she  is  seized  by  the  prince 
and  his  attendant.     She  cries  out] 

The  Prince.— See,  see,  I  have  seized  Vasantasena.  Recognising  her 
flying  by  the  perfume  of  her  gariand  I  have  seized  her  by  the 
hair  of  her  head.  Now  let  her  cry,  weep,  and  rage  on  all 
the  gods. 

[ITie  servant  cries  out,  and  Maitreya  returns  with  an  upraised 
stick.] 

Maitreya.— Shame  !  a  dog  in  his  own  house  would  be  outraged  by 
this  violence.    How  much  more  I,  a   Brahman  ?     With  this 


THE  DRAMA  277 

knotted  stick,  rough  as  our  fate,  I  shall  grind  like  dried-up 
reeds  your  heads  with  blows.  {Seeing  the  prince'\  Are,  Are,  bad 
man,  this  is  not  fit.  If  the  honoured  Charudatta  be  poor,  what 
then  ?  Has  he  not  made  all  Ujjayin  renowned  by  his  merits. 
Why,  then,  is  there  this  disgrace  of  strangers  entering  his 
house  ? 

Attendant  on  Prince.— Great  Brahman,  stay,  stay,  we  came  not 
through  insolence  ;  one  loved  by  us  was  sought. 

Maitreya.— Who  ?    This  servant  ? 

Attendant. — Avert  the  sin.  No,  one  who  is  as  fire.  She  is  now 
lost.  By  our  mistake  this  insolence  has  occurred.  Take  now 
this  sword,  and  let  all  be  yours  \offering  sword  and  falling  at 
Maitreyds  feet^ 

The  Prince. — Of  whom  are  you  afraid  ?  Who  is  this  Charudatta  who 
has  no  food  in  his  house  ?  Who  is  he  ?  slave  from  his  birth> 
and  son  of  a  slave  from  her  birth.  Is  he  a  renowned  warrior 
or  one  of  the  heroes  of  old  ? 

Attendant  \rising\.—Yoo\ !  he  is  the  noble  Charudatta.  The  tree  of 
plenty  to  the  poor,  bowed  down  by  its  own  good  fruits.  He  is 
the  support  of  all  good  people,  the  model  of  all  training,  the 
touchstone  of  good  behaviour,  the  boundary  shore  of  decorum, 
the  doer  of  good,  the  despiser  of  none,  a  mine  of  manly  merit, 
courteous,  gentle,  and  strong.  He  alone  is  worthy  of  praise. 
He  alone  lives,  others  merely  breathe.     Let  us  go. 

Prince. — What !  without  Vasantasena  ?  I  shall  not  go  until  I 
get  her.  ^ 

Attendant. — An  elephant  may  be  held  by  a  rope,  a  horse  by  a 
bridle,  but  have  you  not  heard  that  a  woman  can  only  be  held 
by  her  heart  ?     Let  us  go  [departs  by  himself^ 

Prince  [turning  to  Maitreyd\. — Hold !  you  crow-foot  headed  fool. 
Tell  that  beggar,  Charudatta,  that  since  the  day  Vasantasena 
saw  him  in  the  temple  of  the  God  of  Love  she  has  become 
enamoured  of  him.  As  I  sought  to  seize  her  by  force  she  has 
now  entered  his  house.  If  now  he  deliver  her  into  my  hands 
he  wins  my  firm  affection,  if  not,  my  deadly  hatred.  Go  in  and 
tell  him  this,  else  I  shall  chaw  your  head  like  a  nut  crunched 
beneath  a  door  [departs^ 
[Maitreya  commands  the  servant  to  say  nothing  of  the  affray  to 

Charudatta,  so  as  not  to  increase  the  distress  of  his  ill-fate. 
Charudatta  in  his  house  mistakes  Vasantasena,  who  has  entered  in 
the  darkness,  for  his  servant,  and  holds  out  to  her  the  jasmine 
robe,  directing  her  to  take  it  to  his  child,  Rohasena,  as  the 
night  is  cold.] 


27-8  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Vasantasena  \astde\. — He  conceives  that  I  am  one  of  his  servants 

[taking  the  roie.]    Strange,  the  robe  is  scented  with  the  perfume 

of  jasmine  flowers.     Then  he  is  not  yet  indifferent  to  everything. 

[Charudatta,  on  discovering  his  mistake,  apologises.    Vasantasena 

asks  permission  to  leave  her  casket  of  jewels  at  his  house ; 

Charudatta  consents,  and  the  first  act  ends  by  her  being 

escorted  home  by  Charudatta  and  Maitreya.] 

The  second  act  introduces  the  home  of  Vasantasena, 
both  the  inside  of  the  house  being  seen  and  also  a  street 
with  a  small,  empty  temple. 

A  servant  plys  Vasantasena  with  questions  concerning 
Charudatta.  A  cry  is  heard  from  the  street,  announcing  that 
a  gambler  has  fled  from  a  gaming-house  without  having 
paid  ten  gold  pieces  which  he  had  lost.  The  keeper  of 
the  gaming-house  and  other  gamblers  are  pursuing  him  to 
make  him  pay  his  debts.  The  gambler  appears,  bemoan- 
ing his  bad  luck  and  passion  for  gambling.  Seeing  the 
temple  empty  he  enters,  and  stands  there  as  if  he  were  the 
image  of  the  god.  The  pursuers  sit  down  before  the  temple 
and  proceed  to  play.  The  first  gambler,  unable  to  listen  to 
the  rattle  of  the  dice,  rushes  from  his  place  in  the  temple 
to  join  in  the  game.  He  is  seized  and  beaten  ;  a  riot 
occurs,  during  which  he  escapes  and  flies  for  safety  into 
the  house  of  Vasantasena,  who,  on  hearing  that  he  had 
been  in  the  service  of  Charudatta,  sends  out  to  the  keeper 
of  the  gambling-house  and  his  associates  a  bracelet  in 
payment  of  the  debt.  The  gambler,  overcome  by  his 
disgrace,  departs,  declaring  his  intention  of  becoming  a 
Buddhist  mendicant. 

In  the  third  act  a  dissipated  Brahman,  in  love  with  an 
attendant  of  Vasantasena,  steals  the  jewel  casket  confided  by 
Vasantasena  to  the  care  of  Charudatta.  The  midnight  scene, 
depicting  the  cutting  through  of  the  wall  of  Charudatta's 
house,  the  entry  and  seizure  of  the  casket,  is  a  most  subtle 
picture  of  Hindu  ingenuity.  It  is  too  long  and  minute  in 
its  descriptions  for  Western  ideas,  but  in  the  East,  where 


THE  DRAMA  279 

every  restless  want  is  soon  satiated,  an  audience  gladly 
luxuriates  in  these  subdued  effects. 

When  Charudatta's  wife  hears  of  the  loss,  she  sends  all 
that  remains  of  her  wealth — a  wondrous  string  of  pearls — 
to  her  husband,  telling  him  to  save  his  honour  by  forward- 
ing them  to  Vasantasena  in  exchange  for  the  lost  casket. 

The  fourth  act  shows  Vasantasena's  house.  The  burglar 
of  the  night  before  brings  the  casket  of  jewels  to  his 
mistress,  the  attendant  of  Vasantasena,  by  whom  the 
casket  is  restored  to  Vasantasena,  who  rewards  her 
servant  by  giving  her  in  marriage  to  the  now  reformed 
Brahman  robber. 

So  far  the  imagery  throws  a  vivid  light  on  the  people, 
their  thoughts  and  mode  of  life.  The  unity  of  action  is 
now  broken  by  introducing  into  the  main  plot  a  second 
plot,  in  which  is  well  depicted  the  petty  intrigues  surround- 
ing the  downfall  of  a  local  chieftain  and  uprising  of  a  new 
dynasty. 

As  the  Brahman  robber  and  his  wife  depart  from  the 
house  of  Vasantasena  a  herald's  cry  is  heard  : — 

"  Ho  !  ho  !  there,  Bho  !     The  king's  brother-in-law  hereby  proclaims. 

It  has  been  prophesied  that  one  Aryaka,  a  cow-herd,  shall  yet 

become  king.     Now  let  each  one  hear  and  remain  content  in 

his  own  place,  for  the  King  Palaka  has  taken  the  cow-herd 

Aryaka  and  placed  him  in  a  deep  dungeon." 

The  Brahman  Robber. — Alas  !  the  King  Palaka  has  bound  my  dear 

friend  Aryaka,  and  I  am  about  to  marry.     Ah,  fate !     In  this 

world  two  things  are  very  dear  to  a  man,  a  friend,  and  a  wife. 

Better,  however,  than  even  one  hundred  fair  girls  is  one  dear 

friend.     I  go  not  home. 

[The  Brahman  at  once  sends  his  new  wife   to  his   home,  and 

hastens  himself  to  raise  a  band  to  release  Aryaka  from  the 

violence  of  the  reigning  king,  Palaka.     Maitreya  next  enters 

Vasantasena's  house,  and  tells  her  of  the  loss  of  the  casket. 

He  presents  to  her  the  string  of  pearls  in  exchange,  and  she 

smilingly  announces  her  intention  of  visiting  Charudatta.] 

The  fifth  act  ushers  in  the  tempestuous  suddenness  of  a 


28o  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

tropical  storm  preluding  the  love  of  Charudatta  and 
Vasantasena.  Charudatta  is  seated  in  his  pleasure-garden, 
awaiting  the  visit  of  Vasantasena,  who  hastens  to  his  side, 
defying  all  the  evil  omens  that  hover  round. 

"  Let  the  clouds  fall  in  torrents,  thunder  roar, 
And  Heaven's  red  bolt  dart  fiery  to  the  ground. 
The  dauntless  damsel  faithful  love  inspires 
Treads  boldly  on  nor  dreads  the  maddening  storm."  • 

[Charudatta  receives  her  gently,  and  prays  her  not  to  revile  the 
cloud :  ] 

"  Reprove  it  not,  for  let  the  rain  descend, 
The  heavens  still  lour  and  wide  the  lightnings  launch 
A  hundred  flames  ;  they  have  befriended  me, 
And  given  me  her  for  whom  I  sighed  in  vain."  ^ 

In  the  sixth  act  Vasantasena  awakens  in  the  house  of 
Charudatta  to  find  that  he  has  gone  to  a  neighbouring 
pleasure-garden,  having  left  a  message  that  she  is  to  follow. 
Her  carriage  awaits  her.  Before  she  enters,  the  driver 
discovers  that  he  has  forgotten  the  cushions,  and  drives  off 
to  fetch  them.  In  his  absence,  the  carriage  of  the  king's 
brother-in-law  passes  down  the  street.  In  the  press  of  the 
traffic  its  driver  stays  it  at  the  door  of  Charudatta's  house, 
and  descends  to  clear  the  road.  Vasantasena,  taking  it  for 
her  own,  ascends,  and  is  driven  away. 

The  rebel  Aryaka  now  appears  on  the  stage.  He  is 
fettered,  having  escaped  from  the  king's  dungeon.  He 
bewails  his  lot,  and,  seeing  Vasantasena's  empty  carriage, 
ascends  it,  and  is  driven  to  the  pleasure-garden,  where  he  is 
met  by  Charudatta,  who,  pitying  his  condition,  removes  his 
fetters,  gives  him  a  sword,  and  directs  him  to  escape  from 
the  town. 

The  seventh  act  takes  place  in  the  same  pleasure-garden. 
The  gainbler,  who    has    turned  a    Buddhist   mendicant, 

'  Wilson,  "Theatr?  of  the  Hindus,"  vol,  i.  p.  97.        ^  ji,i^_^  p.  280, 


THE  DRAMA  281 

appears,  and  is  met  by  the  king's  brother-in-law.     In  fear 
he  cries  out : — 

"  Alas  !  here  comes  the  king's  brother-in-law.  We  know  that  he  was 
once  insulted  by  a  mendicant,  and  now  he  slits  the  nose  of  every 
Buddhist  beggar  he  sees,  and  drives  him  forth.  Where  shall  I 
unprotected  fly  ?    The  lord  Buddha  is  now  my  only  refuge." 

[As  the  Buddhist  conceals  himself,  Vasantasena  arrives,  and  as  she 
alights  the  king's  brother-in-law  falls  at  her  feet  and  pleads 
his  false  love]  : 

"  Mother,  sister,  hear  my  prayer.  Here,  O  large-eyed  one,  at  your  feet 
I  fall.  With  upraised  hands  I  pray  you,  O  fair-limbed  one,  to 
forgive  the  fault  that  in  my  passion  I  may  have  committed." 

[Vasantasena  spurns  him  with  her  foot,  and  upbraids  him  for  his 
ignoble  behaviour.  In  his  rage  he  drags  her  by  the  hair  of 
her  head  from  the  carriage,  and  calls  on  the  driver  of  the 
carriage  by  threats  and  bribes  to  slay  her.  The  driver  cries 
in  horror  that  Vasantasena  has  done  no  wrong;  she  is  young, 
the  ornament  of  the  whole  town.  Should  she  be  slain,  the  four 
quarters  would  bear  witness  to  the  deed,  as  would  the  sylvan 
gods,  the  Moon,  the  Sun  with  its  bright  rays.  Justice  and  the 
Wind,  the  Inward  Self,  the  Earth,  the  true  witnesses  of  Right 
and  Wrong. 
[The  king's  brother-in-law  beats  the  driver,  who  flies  from  the 
garden.  An  attendant  alone  remains  concealed  close  at 
hand.  The  prince  again  pleads  his  suit,  and  Vasantasena 
answers]  :  ^ 

"  I  spurn  you ; 

Nor  can  you  tempt  me,  abject  wretch  with  gold. 

Though  soiled  the  leaves,  the  bees  fly  not  the  lotus, 

Nor  shall  my  heart  prove  traitor  to  the  homage 

It  pays  to  merit  though  its  lord  be  poor." 

[The  enraged  Prince  taunts  her  for  still  remembering  Charudatta, 
and  she  replies]  : 
"  Why  should  I  not  remember  that  which  is  planted  in  my  heart." 

Prince.— Then  that  which  is  planted  in  your  heart,  and  you  also, 
lover  of  a  mean,  wealth-forsaken  Brahman,  I  shall  slay.  Stay, 
stay. 

Vasantasena. — Speak  again  those  words,  for  they  flatter  me. 

1  Wilson,  "  Theatre  of  the  Hindus,"  vol.  i.  p.  135. 


282  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Prince.— Let  then  that  Charudatta,  son  of  a  dancing-girl,  now  protect 

you. 
Vasantasena. — He  would  protect  me  if  he  could  but  see  me. 

[Prince  seizes  herJ\ 
Vasantasena — Ho  !  mother,  where  are  you  !    Ha,  noble  Charudatta  ! 
The  vile  wretch    slays    me    even  before  my  wish  has  been 
accomplished.    Yet  I  shall  not  cry  out.     No,  that  were  shame 
should  Vasantasena's  cry  be  heard.     Let  there  be  only  this : 
salutation  to  the  noble  Charudatta ! 
Prince. — Again,  the  slave  from  her  birth,  uses  the  name  of  Charudatta 
[seizes  her  by  the  throai].     Remember,  slave  from  your  birth, 
remember. 
Vasantasena. — Salutation  to  the  noble  Charudatta  [falls  senseless"]. 
Prince. — Now,  at  last,  this  bamboo  box  of  wickedness,  this  abiding 
place  of  incivility,  who  came  to  meet  her  lover  Charudatta,  has 
met  her  death. 
[The  prince  covers  Vasantasena  with  leaves,  and  then  departs. 
The  Buddhist  mendicant  appears,  and  discovers  Vasantasena. 
He  pours  water  over  her,  and  she  revives.     Fearing  to  touch 
a  woman,  he  bends  down  a  branch  of  a  neighbouring  tree, 
so  that  Vasantasena  may  seize  it,  and  rise.     They  depart  for 
a  neighbouring  convent,   where  dwells  a  holy  sister,   the 
Buddhist  mendicant  reciting  his  lay  that  the  man  whose  acts, 
and  thoughts,  and  senses  are  subdued,  has  naught  to  do  with 
affairs  of  the  world,  for  he  holds  in  his  grasp  the  next  world 
firm.] 

The  ninth  act  gives  the  only  picture   of  a  Court  of 
Justice  in  Indian  literature.     There  the  prince  carries  all 
before  him.    Charudatta  is  accused  of  the  crime,  condemned, 
and  led  forth  to  execution  sorrowfully  lamenting : — 
"Alas,  my  poor  friend  ! 
Had  due  investigation  been  allowed  me, 
Or  any  test  proposed,  water  or  poison. 
The  scales  or  scorching  fire,  and  I  had  failed 
The  proof,  then  might  the  law  have  been  fulfilled 
And  I  deservedly  received  my  doom. 
But  this  will  be  avenged,  and  for  the  sentence 
That  dooms  a  Brahman's  death,  on  the  mere  charge 
Of  a  malicious  foe,  the  bitter  portion 
That  waits  for  thee,  and  all  thy  line,  O  king, 
Is  Hell — proceed — I  am  prepared."' 

'  Wilson,  "Theatre  of  the  Hindus,"  vol.  i.  p.  159. 


THE  DRAMA  283 

The  tenth  act  occurs  at  the  place  of  execution.  At  the 
last  moment  the  truth  is  made  known,  and  Charudatta  is 
released.  The  news  is  then  announced  that  the  king 
Palaka  has  been  slain,  and  Aryaka  placed  on  the  throne. 
Charudatta  is  raised  to  high  office,  and  signalises  his 
accession  to  power  by  ordering  the  immediate  release  of 
the  prince,  whom  the  mob  would  have  torn  to  pieces.  The 
Buddhist  mendicant  is  made  chief  of  all  the  Buddhist 
monasteries  in  the  land.  Charudatta  is  restored  to  his  wife, 
and  the  last  words  of  the  play  are  uttered  : — 

"  Fate  views  the  world, 
A  scene  of  mutual  and  perpetual  struggle 
For  some  are  raised  to  affluence,  some  depressed 
In  want,  while  some  are  borne  awhile  aloft. 
And  some  hurled  down  to  wretchedness  and  woe."' 

The  play  differs  essentially  from  all  other  plays  of  the 
classic  period.  In  its  dramatic  interest,  in  its  realistic  view 
of  life,  in  its  humour  and  raciness,  it  is  unique  in  the  whole 
literary  history  of  India.  Many  of  the  scenes  are  un- 
doubtedly filled  in  with  all  the  exuberance  and  artificiality 
of  an  Eastern  poet's  imagination,  which  makes  it  rash  to 
assert  that  the  whole  play  is  the  work  of  one  hand. 
Nevertheless,  to  any  one  acquainted  with  the  inner  life  of 
India,  especially  that  phase  of  it  dealt  with  in  the  "  Mud 
Cart,"  the  position  of  the  dancing-girl,  the  surroundings  and 
associates  of  a  debauched  Indian  prince,  the  life  of  the 
merchant  Brahman,  Charudatta,  the  behaviour  of  the  officers 
of  the  household  guard,-  of  whom  two  are  depicted  in  the 
play  as  falling  to  fisticuffs  over  the  escape  of  Aryaka,  the 
condition  of  affairs,  and  appearance  of  effeminate  men,  in  the 
pleasure-garden  of  Vasantasena,  are  all  life-like,  and  founded 
on  what  must  have  been  facts  at  the  period  treated  of.  The 
great  value  of  the  play  is  contained  in  the  side-light  it 
throws  on  the  history  of  the  people,  revealing  them,  not  as 
1  WUson,  "Theatre  of  the  Hindus,"  vol.  i.  p.  iSo. 


284  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

seen  in  the  ideal  descriptions  of  the  law  books  and  more 
recondite  literature,  but  as  types  well  known  to  the  audience 
for  whom  the  play  was  prepared.  Although  the  simplicity 
of  the  style  and  structure  of  the  language  afford  no 
conclusive  evidence  respecting  the  age  of  the  play,  still 
it  may,  in  the  absence  of  any  reliable  evidence  to  the 
contrary,  be  accepted  as  giving  a  poetic  description, 
drawn  from  life,  of  the  manners  of  the  country  where  it 
was  produced,  at  or  about  the  commencement  of  the 
Christian  era. 

/  The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  ascertaining  the  dates  of 
any  of  the  earlier  Sanskrit  dramas  seem  to  be  almost  as 
insurmountable  as  those  for  arriving  at  any  unanimous 
opinion  regarding  the  genesis  of  their  form.  While 
Kalidasa  is  universally  accepted  as  the  Shakespeare  of  the 
Indian  drama,  it  must  be  remembered  that  this  is  merely 
meant  to  indicate  that  his  plays  represent  the  purest  and — 
according  to  Eastern  ideals — highest  artistic  form  of  the 
classic  drama. 

'^  Any  natural  tendency  of  the  classic  drama  to  recognise 
and  assimilate  to  itself  the  common  life-history  of  the 
people,  and  their  modes  of  thought  and  expression,  was 
unfortunately  checked   by  foreign    conquest      Kalidasa,^ 

1  Peterson,  J.  R.  A.  S.  (Bombay),  vol.  xviii.  p.  I  lo : — "For  it  is  certain  now  that 
Kalidasa  must  be  put  earlier  than  has  lately  been  very  generally  supposed. 
He  stands  near  the  beginning  of  our  era,  if  indeed  he  does  not  overtop  it,  and 
dates  from  the  year  one  of  Vikrama's  era."  See  more  particularly  G.  R. 
Nandargikar,  "  Meghaduta  of  Kalidasa  "  (Bombay,  1894),  p.  84 : — "And  it  is 
also  probable,  nay  almost  certain,  that  Kalidasa,  the  Virgil  of  the  Hindus,  may 
have  lived  some  forty  years  before  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  and  may 
also  have  been  a  poet  in  the  imperial  court  of  Vikramaditya,  who  began  to 
reign  from  57  B.C." 

To  Miss  Duff  I  am  indebted  for  the  following  note: — "The  Jaina  poet 
Ravikirti  flourished  610  A.D.,  being  contemporary  with  Pulikesin  II.,  'Early 
Chalukya.'  He  was  the  composer  of  Pulikesin's  Aihole  Meguti  inscription, 
in  which  he  claims  equality  with  the  poets  Kalidasa  and  Bharavi,  thus  inci- 
dentally proved  to-have  flourished  before  this  time.  No  definite  date  can,  as 
yet,  be  fixed  for  Kalidasa,  but,  according  to  Kielhorn,  he  cannot  be  placed  later 
than  472  A.D.,  the  date  of  Kumara  Gupta's  Mandasor  inscriptions,  a  verse  of 


THE  DRAMA  285 

therefore,  remains  the  sole,  unrivalled  exponent  of  the  pure, 
classic  mode  of  representing  life  and  thought  in  the 
early  ages. 

While  with  Wilson  it  may  be  said  that  "  it  is  impossible 
to  conceive  language  so  beautifully  musical  and  so  mag- 
nificently grand  as  that  of  many  of  the  verses  of  Bhavabhuti 
and  Kalidasa,"  the  two  great  dramatists  of  classical  India, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  these  dramas  are  studied 
compositions,  the  Sanskrit  portions  being  intended  ex- 
clusively as  an  intellectual  feast  for  the  learned.  So  much 
of  the  life  of  the  period  as  is  shadowed  forth  in  the 
dramas  of  Kalidasa  can  only  be  fully  understood  in  the 
form  in  which  the  poet's  mind  conceived  it  in  the  original 
Sanskrit.  Bereft  of  this,  the  vision  is  blurred  and  indistinct, 
lifeless  facts  alone  remaining  in  any  translation,  however 
perfect.  In  the  Sanskrit  alone  can  the  lines  be  traced  on 
which  the  poet's  fancy  modelled  a  form  such  as  grew  to 
life  in  "  Sakuntala,"  who  spoke  in  a  music,  each  note  of  which 
was  skilfully  attuned  to  her  own  gentle  grace. 

The  play  itself  is  a  true  Nataka,  considered  the  highest 
form  of  Indian  dramatic  art,  having  for  its  object  the 
representation  of  heroic  or  god-like  characters,  and  the 
presentation  of  good  deeds.  The  play  does  not  profess  to 
give  a  realistic  picture  of  the  life  of  the  people.  It  is 
idealistic  in  its  conception,  full  of  lofty  sentiment,  artificial 
and  wilfully  elaborate  in  its  diction,  the  Sanskrit  portions 
being  unintelligible  to  the  greater  part  of  the  audience  which 
heard  the  play. 

The  play  opens  with  the  appearance  of  the  legendary 
king,  Dushyanta,  of  the  Lunar  Race,  descendant  of  Puru. 

which  so  closely  resembles  Kalidasa's  '  Ritusanhaia '  as  to  justify  ^  the  inference 
that  this  work  was  in  existence  when  the  inscription  was  incised.  Similarly 
the  Buddha  Gaya  inscription  of  Mahavarnam  contains  a  passage  closely  re- 
sembling one  in  the  'Raghuvansa.'" — B.D.,  59,  vol.  iii.  121  ff;  "Ind.  Ant.," 
xix.  285;  XX.  190;  J.B.R.A.S.,  xix.  35. 

^  1  fail  to  see  that  there  are  any  grounds  for  the  conclusion 


286  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

He  is  seated  in  his  chariot  and  is  armed  with  bow  and 
arrow.  The  absence  of  stage  properties  gives  opportunity 
for  the  description  of  the  scenery.  The  king's  horses  are 
being  urged  in  pursuit  of  a  flying  deer.  As  Dushyanta 
gains  on  the  deer  he  prepares  to  shoot  an  arrow,  when  a 
voice  is  heard,  declaring  that  he  is  trespassing  on  a  sacred 
hermitage,  south  of  Hastinapur,  the  dwelling  of  the  sage 
Kanva  and  his  disciples. 

Sakuntala,  the  daughter  of  a  heavenly  nymph  sent  from 
Heaven  by  Indra  to  allure  the  ascetic  sage  Visvamitra 
from  his  penances,  dwells  in  the  hermitage  under  the  care 
of  her  foster-father  Kanva.  Her  lips  gleam  with  the  gleam 
of  the  young  bud,  her  arms  are  twining  like  the  tender 
creeper,  while  over  all  her  limbs  youth  glows  as  in  the 
blossom  of  a  flower.  The  king  stands  in  the  midst  of  the 
hermitage,  the  peace  of  which  he  has  so  rudely  broken. 
The  hermits  move  quietly  to  and  fro  ;  the  smoke  of  sacrifice 
rises  here  and  there  in  the  sacred  grove,  lingering  amid 
the  foliage  of  the  variegated  forest  trees ;  fawns  graze  fearless 
on  the  sacred  griiss  ;  water  led  in  channels  flows  through- 
out the  grove ;  parrots  flit  from  out  the  hollow  trunks  of 
trees ;  the  garments  made  of  bark  for  the  sage's  pupils  hang 
here  and  there.  Kanva,  the  sage,  is  absent  from  the 
hermitage,  having  gone  on  a  pilgrimage  to  the  sea-coast 
near  Gujarat 

As  Sakuntala  appears  on  the  scene  the  king  stands 
watching  her,  wondering  if  he,  a  warrior,  can  ever  hope  to 
win  one  whom  he  takes  to  be  the  daughter  of  a  Brahman. 

Though  the  king  knows  that  among  hermits,  whose  only 
treasure  is  their  store  of  forbearance,  there  lies  deep  hidden 
a  burning  and  passionate  wrath  which  may  blaze  forth 
against  those  who  oppose  their  sacred  calling,  still  he  knows 
that  though  the  maiden  is  in  the  charge  of  the  ascetic  sage, 
his  heart  cannot  turn  back  from  her,  no  more  than  water 
can  from  the  low  land.    The  same  is  true  of  Sakuntala. 


THE  DRAMA  287 

Gentler,  more  winning  in  her  grace,  more  youthful  than 
Gretchen  or  Juliet,  she  has  a  deeper  note,  a  more  human 
charm  than  either.  Eastern,  subtle,  evasive,  throbbing 
with  love,  veiled  with  reserve,  there  yet  grows  within  her  a 
passionate  and  seething  love  for  the  king,  which  she  tries 
to  stifle,  but  from  which  she  can  find  no  peace.  The  king 
learns  the  secret  of  her  descent  from  the  warrior  sage 
Visvamitra,  and  so  all  impediment  to  their  union  is; 
removed.  No  adaptation,  however  skilful,  no  wealth  of^ 
scenery,  however  gorgeous,  could  ever  prevent  the  play 
from  being  laughed  off  an  English  stage.  The  languor  of 
the  movement  as  the  love  scenes  subtly  blend  the 
whole  ascetic  grove  into  throbbing  sympathy  with  the 
drama  of  life  woven  out  by  the  poet  is  too  essentially 
Eastern  to  stay  the  quick  eagerness  of  Western  thought. 

The  king  and  Sakuntala  twine  their  lives  together, 
according  to  the  Gandharva^  form  of  marriage,  a  simple 
plighted  troth,  by  which,  as  Dushyanta  urges,  other 
daughters  of  great  sages  have  been  led  away,  unblamed  by 
their  fathers.  Dushyanta  has  soon  to  leave  Sakuntala, 
on  an  urgent  summons  to  return  to  his  kingdom.  To 
Sakuntala  he  leaves  as  sign  of  future  recognition  his  token 
ring.  She,  dreaming  of  her  departed  husband,  neglects  to 
receive  with  due  rites  of  hospitality  a  great  sage,  whose 
anger  and  imprecations  were  so  feared  that  even  the  gods 
went  in  dread  of  him.  This  fierce  sage,  enraged  by  the 
neglect,  cursed  Sakuntala,  declaring  that  the  king  would 
never  more  recollect  her  face.  He  afterwards  relented  in 
so  far  as  to  declare  that  the  king's  memory  would  be 
restored  on  sight  of  the  token  ring. 

The  remainder  of  the  play  is  the  working  out  of  the 
result  of  the  sage's  curse.  Sakuntala  lost  the  ring  when 
bathing,  and  it  was  swallowed  by  a  fish.  The  king  dis- 
owned her  when  she  arrived  at  the  court  with  her  child, 

1  "Manu,"  iii.  32. 


288  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

the  famed  Bharata.  The  plays  ends  with  the  recovery  of 
the  ring  by  two  fishermen,  the  restoration  of  the  king's 
memory,  and  the  recognition  of  Sakuntala  as  queen,  and 
of  her  son  Bharata  as  heir  to  the  kingdom. 

The  second  great  drama  of  Kalidasa,  the  "  VikramorvasI," 
or  "  Urvasi,  Won  by  Valour,"  depicts  in  five  short  acts  the 
adventures  of  a  heavenly  nymph,  Urvasi,  who  was  rescued 

Jrom  a  demon  by  her  lover,  the  heroic  king,  Pururavas. 
The  third  play  deals  with  history.     It  is  the  story  of 

'Agnimitra,  the  son  of  Pushpamitra,  who  having  put  to 
death  the  last  of  the  Maurya  monarchs,  founded  the 
Sunga  dynasty  of  Magadha.  In  spite  of  the  opposition  of 
his  two  queens,  Agnimitra  falls  in  love  with  a  girl  of  his 
court,  Malavika,  and  ultimately  succeeds  in  marrying  her, 
and  in  having  her  recognised  by  her  rivals. 

The  second  great  romantic  dramatist  of  India  was 
Bhavabhuti,  who  flourished  at  the  end  of  the  seventh 
century  of  our  era.  To  him  three  plays  are  ascribed,  the 
"MalatI  Madhava,"  the  "  Maha-vira-Charitra,"  and  the 
"  Uttara-Rama-Charitra." 

The  over-elaborated  and  fantastic  style  of  Bhavabhuti, 
especially  in  the  "Malati  Madhava,"  has  produced  a  result 
so  artificial  and  purely  literary,  that  Mr  Grierson  declares : 
"  I  do  not  believe  that  there  ever  was  even  a  pandit  in 
India  who  could  have  understood,  say,  the  more  difficult 
passages  of  Bhavabhuti  at  first  hearing,  without  previous 
study." 

The  poet  in  his  opening  prologue  shows  that  he 
wrote  his  play  with  no  attempt  to  appeal  to  any  but 
scholars  and  learned  pandits.  "  How  little  do  they  know," 
he  wrote,  "  who  speak  of  us  with  censure.  The  entertain- 
ment is  not  for  them.  Possibly  some  one  exists,  or  will 
exist,  of  similar  tastes  with  myself,  for  time  is  boundless, 
and  the  world  is  wide." 

Notwithstanding  the  extreme  artificiality  of  much  of  the 


THE  DRAMA  289 

style  of  the  "  MalatI  Madhava,"  it  is  invaluable  for  the  strong 
light  it  throws  on  certain  phases  of  the  more  obscure 
superstitious  rites  of  Hinduism.  In  order  to  produce  his 
effects,  the  dramatist  conjures  up  scenes  that  seize  the 
imagination,  with  a  reality  more  vivid  and  a  spell  more 
weird  and  uncanny  than  even  the  witch's  scene  in  Macbeth, 
or  the  Walpurgis  Night  in  Faust.  In  the  play,  MalatI  is 
the  daughter  of  the  minister  of  Ujjayin,  and  Madhava,  the 
son  of  the  chief  minister  of  the  state  of  Viderbha  or  Berar. 
Malati  is  nursed  by  a  Buddhist  nun  at  Ujjayin.  There 
Madhava  is  also  sent,  for,  as  the  drama  declares,  it  was 
customary  in  these  days  for  students  to  crowd  to  the 
schools  of  the  Buddhists  to  learn  logic.  The  King  of 
Ujjayin  demands  Malati  in  marriage  for  a  favourite  of  his 
own.  The  chief  value  of  the  story,  as  a  revelation  of 
Indian  thought,  consists  not  only  in  the  evidence  it  affords 
as  to  the  position  of  Buddhism  at  the  period,  but  also  in 
the  light  it  throws  on  later  Hindu  beliefs  and  practices.       /" 

In  the  more  important  eighteen  "Puranas"  a  full 
account  is  given  of  Hinduism,  so  far  as  it  is  concerned 
with  the  worship  of  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva,  while 
in  the  numerous  "Tantras,"  the  tenets  of  the  6aktas,  or 
worshippers  of  the  Sakti,  the  active,  creative  side  of  each 
deity,  personified  as  a  female  energy,  bearing  the  Sankhya 
relationship  of  the  Prakriti  to  Purusha,  are  detailed  in  all 
their  forbidding  reality. 

In  the  drama  of  Bhavabhuti,  these  Tan  trie  practices  are 
pictured  forth  in  scenes  which  never  could  have  been 
imagined  unless  they  were  based  on  a  substratum  of  fact. 
Though  these  practices  are  reprobated  in  the  text,  and  set 
forth  in  their  more  unholy  aspect  as  fit  only  for  outcasts 
and  heretics,  yet  there  is  ample  evidence  that  they  were 
not  uncommon. 

The  goddess  whose  worship  is  described  in  the  "  Malati 
Madhava,"  is  Chamunda,  a  form  of  Durga,  the  consort  of 

T 


290  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Siva.'  Her  high  priest  has  vowed  to  present  to  the  dread 
goddess  a  chaste  virgin  as  a  sacrifice,  and  the  choice  falls 
on  Malati.  The  maiden  is  led  by  sorcery  to  the  temple 
of  the  goddess,  there  to  be  slain.  Kapala  Kundala,i  the 
serving  priestess,  sings  the  praise  of  the  goddess,  the 
personification  of  divine  energy.  The  scene  takes  place 
in  a  burning  ground,  near  which  stands  the  temple  of  the 
dread  deity.  Inside  the  temple  Malati  lies  bound.  In 
the  midst  of  the  horrible  scene,  the  most  horrible  that 
genius  has  ever  made  sublime,  Madhava  enters.  Deter- 
mined to  call  in  the  aid  of  foul  demons  and  sorcery  to  win 
Malati  for  his  bride,  he  has  come  to  put  the  unholy  Tantric 
rites  into  practice  on  the  very  ground  where  stands  the 
temple  of  Chamunda.  He  is  unaware  of  the  fact  that 
Malati  has  been  entrapped,  and  lies  bound  near  at  hand. 
The  darkest  aspect  of  Indian  superstition  is  now  revealed  in 
the  play : — 

"  Now  wake  the  terrors  of  the  place,  beset 
With  crowding  and  malignant  fiends  ;  the  flames 
From  fmieral  pyres  scarce  lend  their  sullen  light 
Clogged  with  their  fleshy  prey  to  dissipate 
The  fearful  gloom  that  hems  them  in.     Pale  ghosts 
Spirit  with  foul  goblins,  and  their  dissonant  mirth 
In  shrill  respondent  shrieks  is  echoed  round."  ^ 

Madhava  enters  bearing  the  flesh  of  man,  "  untouched 
by  trenchant  steel,"  to  present  to  the  fell  demons  and 
unholy  spirits,  and  so  gain  their  aid. 

The  priestess  enters, "  in  a  heavenly  car,  and  in  a  hideous 
garb"  to  disclose  the  means  whereby,  some  have  imagined, 
the  Yogis  of  India  acquire  mystic  powers  : — 

"  Glory  to  Saktinath,  upon  whose  steps, 
The  mighty  goddesses  attend,  whom  seek 
Successfiilly  alone  the  firm  of  thought 
He  crowns  the  lofty  aims  of  tho^e  who  know 
And  hold  his  form,  as  the  pervading  spirit, 

'  The  title  chosen  for  one  of  Sankim  Chandra  Chatteiji's  novels, 
'  Wilson,  "Theatre  of  the  Hindus,"  vol.  ii.  p.  55. 


THE  DRAMA  291 

That,  one  with  their  own  essence,  makes  his  seat 

The  heart,  the  lotus  centre  of  the  sphere 

Sixfold  by  ten  nerves  circled.     Such  am  I. 

Freed  from  all  perishable  bonds,  I  view 

The  eternal  soul  embodied  as  the  God, 

Forced  by  my  spells  to  tread  the  mystic  labyrinth, 

And  rise  in  splendour  throned  upon  my  heart. 

Hence  through  the  many  channelled  veins  I  draw 

The  grosser  elements  of  this  mortal  body, 

And  soar  unwearied  through  the  air,  dividing 

The  water- shedding  clouds.     Upon  my  flight, 

Horrific  honours  wait ; — the  hollow  skulls. 

That  low  descending  from  my  neck  depend. 

Emit  fierce  music  as  they  clash  together. 

Or  strike  the  trembling  plates  that  gird  my  loins."  * 

The  scene  that  follows  is  horribly  revolting.  To  those 
before  whom  it  will  bring  up  memories  of  the  true  records 
of  the  Aghoris,  or  human  flesh-eating  religious  maniacs  of 
recent  days  in  India,  it  is  a  scene  of  extreme  interest,  as 
well  as  to  all  students  of  Indian  thought,  who  cannot 
neglect  anything  that  tends  to  throw  light  on  a  subject 
which  is  ever  fascinating — the  strange  diversity  of  the 
wanderings  of  Eastern  beliefs.  Madhava  shakes  off  the 
demon  host  and  unclean  spirits  : — 

"  Race  dastardly  as  hideous.     All  is  plunged 
In  utter  gloom.     The  river  flows  before  me. 
The  boundary  of  the  funeral  ground  that  winds 
Through  mouldering  bones  its  interrupted  way. 
Wild  raves  the  torrent  as  it  rushes  past, 
And  rends  its  crumbling  banks,  the  wailing  owl 
Hoots  through  its  skirting  groves,  and  to  the  sounds 
The  loud,  long  moaning  jackal  yells  reply."  ^ 

Within  the  temple  the  human-sacrificing  priest  dances  his 
Tantric  dance  around  his  victims,  invoking  the  goddess : — 

"  Hail !  hail !  Chamunda,  mighty  goddess,  hail  1 
I  glorify  thy  sport,  when  in  the  dance 
That  fills  the  court  of  ^iv^  with  delight, 
Thy  foot  descending  spurns  the  earthly  globe-. 

1  Wilson,  "  Theatre  of  the  Hindus,''  vol.  ii.  p.  53.  "  Ibid.,  p.  56. 


292  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

"  The  elephant  hide  that  robes  thee,  to  thy  steps 
Swings  to  and  fro  :  the  whirling  talons  rend 
The  crescent  on  thy  brow  ;  from  the  torn  orb 
The  trickling  nectar  falls,  and  every  skull 
That  gems  thy  necklace  laughs  with  horrid  life."* 

Madhava  breaks  in  upon  the  scene.  He  slays  the  priest 
and  rescues  MalatI,  happily  ending  one  of  the  most  awe- 
inspiring  pictures  that  the  history  of  the  literature  of  any 
nation  could  fashion  from  real  life,  and  clothe  in  the 
brilliant  colours  so  typical  of  all  the  work  of  Bhavabhuti. 
The  play  moves  on  through  many  more  incidents,  the 
most  interesting  being  the  appearance  of  a  Buddhist 
priestess  towards  the  end  of  the  drama,  who,  by  practising 
all  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  "  Yoga,"  has  arrived  at  a 
command  over  sorcery  even  greater  than  that  reached  by  a 
Bodhisattva. 

'  The  second  great  play  of  Bhavabhuti,  the  "Mahavira- 
Charitra,"  dramatises  the  first  six  books  of  the  "  Ramayana,'' 
detailing  the  story  of  Rama,  who  rescues  from  the  grasp  of 
the  ten  -  headed  monster,  Ravana,  the  King  of  Lanka 
(Ceylon),  his  wife,  Sita,  the  loved  of  all  Indian  women. 

In  the  "  Uttara-Rama-Charitra,"  the  third  play  of  Bhava- 
bhuti, the  seventh  book  of  the  "  Ramayana  "  is  dramatised,  in 
which  the  chastity  of  Sita  is  questioned,  and  she  is  for 
a  time  divorced  from  Rama,  to  be  reunited  after  many 
trials : — 

"'Tis  Sita:  mark. 
How  lovely  through  her  tresses  dark 
And  floating  loose,  her  face  appears 
Though  pale  and  wan  and  wet  with  tears. 
She  moves  along  like  Tenderness 
Invested  with  a  mortal  dress."  ° 

In  the  "  Uttara-Rama-Charitra  "  is  introduced  the  strange 

1  Wilson,  "Theatre  of  the  Hindus,"  vol.  ii.  p.  58. 
*  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  327. 


THE  DRAMA 


293 


story  of  Sambuka,  a  Sudra,  who  was  slain  by  Rama  for 
that  he,  being  a  Sudra,  dared  to  engage  in  pious  penances. 
To  Rama — 

"...  There  came  a  voice  from  Heaven 
Commanding  him  go  forth  and  seek  Sambuka, 
One  of  an  outcast  origin,  engaged 
In  pious  penance  :  he  must  fall  by  Rama.'' 

In  Manu  ^  the  duty  of  a  Sudra  is  distinctly  laid  down  as 
meekly  serving  the  three  higher  castes.  In  the  "  Raghu- 
vamsa"*  of  Kalidasa  the  same  story  of  Sambuka  is  repeated. 
Here  Rama  finds  the  Sudra  practising  penance  by  hanging, 
head  downwards,  from  a  tree,  his  eyes  full  of  smoke.  On 
Rama  questioning  the  Sudra,  the  "  drinker  of  smoke,"  as  he 
is  called,  replied  that  he  desired  to  attain  the  position  of  a 
god,  whereon  Rama  cut  off  his  head  as  a  punishment  for 
overstepping  the  duties  of  his  caste  and  engaging  in 
penance.  In  both  these  cases  the  Sudra  obtained  the 
heavenly  reward,*  not  because  of  his  penance,  but  because 
he  had  been  slain' by  the  deified  hero,  Rama. 

By  some  the  legend  of  this  punishment  of  the  Sudra 
Sambuka  is  held  to  contain  a  reference  to  Christian 
influences  on  the  west  coast  of  India.* 

The  "  Nagananda "  is  remarkable  as  being  the  only 
Buddhist  drama  known.  It  is  often  ascribed  to  the  king, 
Siladitya  II.,  whom  Hiouen  Tsang,  the  Chinese  pilgrim, 
found  as  King  of  Kanauj  in  the  seventh  century  when  he 
visited  India,  but  it  was  more  probably  the  work  of  a  poet 
Dhavaka.^  The  two  last  acts  of  the  play  are  laid  in  the 
western  Ghats,  where  the  Garuda,  the  king  of  birds,  is 
engaged  in  daily  devouring  a  Naga,  a  man-like  snake. 

The  hero  of  the  drama,  Jimutavahana,  gives  his  own 

1  "  Manu,"  i.  91.  ^  "  Raghuvamsa,"  15,  50. 

s  "Satamgatim,  15,  S3;  "Raghuvamsa." 

*SeeV.  A.  Smith,   "Civilisation  of  Ancient  India,"  J. B.R. A. S.,  vol.  Ixi. 
part  I,  p.  76. 
•  See  Cowell's  Introduction  to  Boyd's  translation. 


294  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

body  to  be  devoured,  so  as  to  save  the  Naga  race  from 
desecration.  The  Garuda,  recognising  him  as  a  Bodhisattva, 
exclaims  : — 

"  What  a  terrible  sin  have  I  committed !  In  a  word,  this  is  a 
Bodhisattva  whom  I  have  slain." 

Jimiitavahana  revives  and  expounds  to  the  Garuda  the 
Buddhist  doctrine  of  respect  for  all  life. 

"  Cease  for  ever  from  destroying  life  ;  repent  of  thy  former  deeds ; 
labour  to  gather  together  an  unbroken  chain  of  good  actions 
by  inspiring  confidence  in  all  living  beings." 

The  "  Mudra  Rakshasa,''  ascribed  to  one  Visakadatta,  a 
play  of  the  twelfth  century,  is  based  on  the  revolution  that 
placed  Chandra  Gupta,  the  Sandrakottos  of  Megasthenes,  on 
the  throne  of  Pataliputra,  in  the  commencement  of  the 
fourth  century  B.C.,  by  the  aid  of  the  crafty  Brahman 
minister,  Chanakya,  who  slew  the  reigning  Nanda  king.^ 

The  plot  is,  for  the  most  part,  the  winning  over  of 
Rakshasa,  the  minister  of  the  deposed  monarch,  to  the 
party  of  the  new  king,  Chandra  Gupta  I.,  of  the  Maurya 
dynasty.  The  play  opens  with  Chanakya  devising  means 
to  secure  the  kingdom  he  had  won  for  Chandra  Gupta  against 
all  future  intrigues. 

'"Tis  known  to  all  the  world, 
I  vowed  the  death  of  Nanda  and  I  slew  him. 
The  current  of  a  vow  will  work  its  way 
And  cannot  be  resisted.    What  is  done 
Is  spread  abroad,  and  I  no  more  have  power 
To  stop  the  tale.     Why  should  I  ?    Be  it  known, 
The  fires  of  my  wrath  alone  expire 
Like  the  fierce  conflagration  of  a  forest 
From  lack  of  fuel,  not  from  weariness."  ^ 

The  rumour  has  been  spread  throughout  the  city 
that  the  murder  of   Nanda    had    been    perpetrated    by 

^  The  story  of  Nanda,  as  given  in  the  "Brihad  Katha  "  of  Vararuchi,  is 
detailed  in  Wilson's  "  Theatre  of  the  Hindus,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  138-41. 
^Wilson's  translation,  vol.  ii.  p.  157. 


THE  DRAMA  295 

Rakshasa,  the  late  minister,  and  the  cunning  craft  of 
Chanakya  has  now  to  work  to  gain  Rakshasa  to  the 
winning  side.  So  Chanakya  soliloquises  how  to  effect  his 
purpose : — 

"  I  have  my  spies  abroad — they  roam  the  realm 
In  various  garb  disguised,  in  various  tongues 
And  manners  skilled,  and  prompt  to  wear  the  show 
Of  zeal  to  either  party,  as  needs  serve." ' 

One  of  the  spies  is  depicted  as  wandering  through  the 
country  with  a  panorama,^  describing  the  terrors  of  hell, 
and  the  tortures  there  suffered  by  the  wicked.  The  same 
travelling  show*  is  common  in  India  to-day,  and  is  also 
alluded  to  in  the  "  Harsha  Charita  "  of  Bana,  showing  how 
slowly  changes  take  place  in  habits  and  customs. 

This  showman  in  his  travels,  while  displaying  his 
panorama  and  singing  his  ballads,  enters  the  house  of 
one,  Chandana  Das,  where  the  wife  of  Rakshasa  is  concealed. 
The  spy  observes  her,  manages  to  secure  the  signet  ring 
she  wears,  and  bring  it  to  Chanakya,  who  recognises  it  as 
that  of  Rakshasa.  The  wily  minister  has  obtained  the 
clue  he  sought,  and  lays  his  plans  accordingly.  Chandana 
Das  is  cast  into  prison,  there  to  await  his  death  for 
refusing  to  declare  where  he  has  hidden  the  wife  of 
Rakshasa.  The  news  of  his  friend's  danger  is  brought  to 
Rakshasa  by  a  spy  of  his  own,  a  snake-charmer,  who 
obtains  entrance  into  the  houses  he  wishes  to  inspect  by 
his  cry :  "  Tame  snakes,  your  honour,  by  which  I  get  my 
living.  Would  you  wish  to  see  them?  Those  who  are 
skilled  in  charms  and  potent  signs,  may  handle  fearlessly 
the  fiercest  snakes."  In  the  conference  between  the  snake- 
charmer  and  Rakshasa,  the  former  refers  to  the  late  revolt, 

1  Wilson,  "Theatre  of  the  Hindus,"  vol.  ii.  p.  159. 

^  Wilson,  in  his  footnote,  p.  160,  confesses  his  ignorance  of  the  meaning  of 
the  text.  "The  person  and  his  accompaniments  is  now  unknown,"  is  his 
remark. 

'  The  panorama  is  described  in  the  "  Harsha  Charita." 


296  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

in  which  Chandra  Gupta  advanced  against  the  city,  accom- 
panied by  a  wild  multitude 

"  Of  Sakas,  Yavanas,  and  mountaineers  ; 
The  fierce  Kambogas,  with  the  tribes  who  dwell 
Beyond  the  western  streams,  and  Persia's  hosts, 
Poured  on  us  like  a  deluge." 

Rakshasa  still  longs  to  revive  the  hopes  of  the  ancient 
dynasty,  but  against  his  plans  the  subtle  brain  of  Chanakya 
has  devised  counter-plans.  These  plans  Chanakya  works 
out  himself.  The  opponents  of  Chandra  Gupta  are  driven 
to  quit  the  city,  so  that  inside  no  intrigues  may  be  fomented, 
and  Rakshasa  remains  alone  and  unsupported.  Even  the 
king  Chandra  Gupta  is  ignorant  of  his  minister's  intrigues, 
and  when  he  ventures  to  question  the  haughty  Chanakya,. 
the  answer  given  shows  the  proud  consciousness  of  intel- 
lectual superiority  of  the  Brahman  : — 

"  What  I  have  done. 
Is  done  by  virtue  of  the  state  1  hold  ; 
And  to  enquire  of  me  why  I  did  it, 
Is  but  to  call  my  judgment  or  authority 
In  question,  and  designedly  offend  me." 

The  moral  to  be  drawn  is  clear ;  without  Brahmanic  aid 
the  warrior-might,  even  of  a  monarch  such  as  Chandra 
Gupta,  could  be  of  no  avail.  Chandra  Gupta  attempts  to 
rule  unaided.  He  defies  the  Brahmanic  power,  and  in  his 
anger  at  feeling  himself  a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  the 
minister,  dismisses  Chanakya.  He  does  so,  however,  in  fear 
and  trembling  for  the  result.  As  he  watches  the  angry 
face  of  the  Brahman,  he  wonders  in  doubt : — 

I"  Is  he  indeed  incensed  ?  methinks  the  earth 

\  Shakes  apprehensive  of  his  tread,  recalling 

■  The  trampling  dance  of  Rudra,  from  his  eye. 

Embrowned  with  lowering  wrath,  the  angry  drops 

Bedew  the  trembling  lashes,  and  the  brows 

Above  are  curved  into  a  withering  frown." ' 

*  Wilson,  "Theatre  of  the  Hindus,"  vol.  ii.  p.  203. 


THE  DRAMA 


297 


He  has,  however,  made  his  choice,  and  the  third  act  closes 
in  with  his  dejected  forebodings  : — 


"  My  mind  is  ill  at  ease 
Oh,  how  can  those  who  have  indeed  provoked 
The  awful  anger  of  their  sacred  guide, 
Survive  the  terrors  of  such  dread  displeasure." 


The  king's  fears  are  soon  to  be  realised.  The  son  of  the 
late  king  approaches  Pataliputra,  with  a  hostile  force  to 
avenge  his  father's  death.  The  intrigues  of  Chanakya  work 
out  their  purpose.  Dissension  and  distrust  are  sown  in 
the  camp  of  the  advancing  prince.  Spies  spread  the 
falsehood  that  Rakshasa,  not  Chanakya,  had  murdered  the 
late  king,  and  insinuate  that  Rakshasa  was  now  luring  the 
last  of  the  Nanda  race  to  his  doom. 

Rakshasa,  in  disgrace,  is  driven  from  the  cause  of  the 
Nanda  dynasty  he  has  so  long  and  faithfully  supported, 
and  no  course  remains  open  to  him  except  that  prepared 
by  Chanakya,  the  saving  of  his  friend,  Chandana  Das,  who 
is  condemned  to  death  for  sheltering  his  wife  and  family. 
A  scene  similar  to  the  execution  scene  in  the  "  Mud  Cart," 
opens  the  seventh  act.  As  Chandana  Das  is  led  forth, 
followed  by  his  wife  and  children,  to  be  impaled,  Rakshasa 
rushes  forward,  demanding  that  the  penalty  should  fall  on 
him  alone.  He  is  brought  before  Chanakya,  and  there 
acknowledges  how  he  and  the  Nanda  cause  have  fallen 
before  the  subtler  brain  and  power  of  Chanakysu 

"  Mine  ancient  faith 
And  grief  for  Nanda's  race,  still  closely  cling, 
And  freshly,  to  my  heart ;  and  yet  perforce 
I  must  become  the  servant  of  their  foes ! " 

Chanakya  declares  to  Rakshasa  and  to  Chandra  Gupta  the 
intrigues  whereby  the  designs  of  the  discontented  within 


298  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

the  city  were  frustrated,  and  the  advancing  host  from 
outside  broken  to  pieces  by  a  cunningly  devised  stratagem. 
Chandra  Gupta  bows  before  the  Brahmanic  keenness  of 
Chanakya's  intellect : — 


"  And  yet  what  need  of  prowess,  whilst  alert, 
My  holy  patron's  genius  is  alone 
Able  to  bend  the  world  to  my  dominion  ? 
Tutor  and  guide,  accept  my  lowly  reverence."  * 


The  whole  drama  ends  with  the  strangest  and  most 
impressive  strokes  of  genius  that  Brahmanism  could  ever 
have  evolved.  Chanakya  had  firmly  established  the  rule  of 
the  new  monarch  Chandra  Gupta,  won  the  allegiance  of 
Rakshasa,  the  hereditary  minister  of  the  ancient  dynasty, 
but  the  crowning  master-touch  still  was  wanting.  Above 
all  personal  considerations,  Chandra  Gupta,  as  fount  of  all 
honour  and  support  of  the  Brahmanic  power,  has  to  be 
planted  firm.  Chanakya  accordingly  resigns  to  his  rival, 
Rakshasa,  the  right  to  remain  sole  minister,  so  that  all 
friends  and  upholders  of  old  and  new  might  be  reconciled, 
and  the  State  dwell  in  unison. 

From  Vedic  times  down  to  the  dark  days  of  the  Mutiny, 
the  Brahman  power  never  failed  to  work  its  way,  and 
never  lost  its  cunning.  To-day  it  moves  on  in  subtle 
paths,  for  the  Brahman  is  still  prepared,  before  all  his  hopes 
fade  away,  to  watch  unmoved — 


"  From  numerous  pyres,  and  undisturbed,  the  smoke 
Spread  a  long  veil  of  clouds  beneath  the  sky. 
And  blurr  the  light  of  day,  expectant  flights 
Of  vultures  hover  o'er  the  darkness,  and  clap 
Their  wings  with  hope." 

'  Wilson,  "Theatre  of  the  Hindus,"  vol.  ii.  p.  ?48. 


THE  DRAMA  299 

So  the  Brahman  will  yet  remain  as  determined,  proud, 
and  cunning  as  the  crafty  Chanakya. 

"  Rather  let  me  own, 
The  wise  Chanakya  ;  an  exhaustless  mine 
Of  learning — a  deep  ocean  stored  with  gems 
Of  richest  excellence.     Let  not  my  envy 
Deny  his  merits."^ 

^  Wikon,  "Theatre  of  the  Hindus,"  vol.  ii.  p.  247. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

SOUTH   INDIA. 

The  land  claimed  by  the  Aryans  had  for  its  extreme 
northern  boundary  the  Himalayan  range  of  mountains 
stretching  from  extreme  East  to  West  as  far  as  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Thames  to  the  Caspian  Sea.  In  the  centre 
of  this  vast  tract  were  the  districts  now  known  as  the 
North-West  Provinces  and  Oudh,  with  an  area  equal  to 
that  of  Italy,  and  a  present  population  nearly  as  large  as 
that  of  the  German  Empire.  Bengal  to  the  east  has  now 
a  population  almost  equal  to  that  of  the  United  States  and 
Mexico,  while  its  extent  rivals  that  of  the  whole  United 
Kingdom.  Aryanism  had,  however,  to  extend  its  conquests 
still  further  until  they  spread  down  to  Cape  Comorin,  and 
embraced  the  whole  of  India,  a  continent  equal  in  area  to 
all  Europe,  leaving  out  Russia,  and  with  a  present  popula- 
tion of  about  one-fifth  of  the  human  race.  As  a  result  of 
Aryan  influence  in  the  North,  almost  i  two  hundred  millions 
of  people  in  India  to-day  speak  languages  based  on  Sanskrit, 
while  even  raore^  designate  themselves  as  Brahmanic  by 
religion.  Besides  Aryanism,  powerful  though  its  influence 
has  been,  there  are  other  factors  to  be  considered  in  deal- 
ing with  the  problem  of  the  history  of  the  Indian  people. 

^195.463.807-  '307.731.727. 

800 


SOUTH  INDIA  301 

One -fifth  of  the  entire  population  class  themselves  as 
Muhammadan,  and  look  back  to  Mecca  and  Muhammad  as 
their  guiding  lights. 

Again,  over  seven  millions  of  the  people  speak  languages 
known  as  Tibeto-Burman.  These  Tibeto-Burman-speaking 
races  are  the  descendants  of  early  invaders,  who  pressed 
in  through  the  North-East  passes  and  found  abiding-places 
in  the  higher  slopes  of  the  Himalayas,  along  the  upper 
reaches  of  the  Brahmaputra,  or  in  Burma.  Nearly^  three 
millions  of  the  population  speak  languages  classed  as 
Kolarian.  The  ancestors  of  these  so-called  Kolarians 
are  held  to  have  entered  India  through  the  North-East, 
at  some  unknown  period,  and  to  have  fallen  back  from 
the  plain  country  and  river-valleys  before  more  vigorous 
and  civilised  invaders.  At  present  they  dwell  in  isolated 
and  detached  groups,  in  the  more  inaccessible  hill-tracts, 
preserving  traces  of  a  common  origin  in  speaking  dialects 
which,  from  linguistic  similarities,  must  be  classed  as  having 
originally  sprung  from  one  parent  stock.  Of  these  the 
Santals  dwell  along  the  Eastern  edges  of  the  central  plateau, 
where  it  slopes  down  to  the  Ganges,  while  allied  tribes,  such 
as  the  Kurku,^  Mundas,  Kharrias,  and  Bhunjias,  carry  the 
Kolarian  speech  across  India,  until  it  almost  reaches  the 
sea-coast  on  the  West,  where  it  is  spoken  by  the  Bhils.  Far 
away  from  their  own  Kolarian  kinsmen  are  found,  in  the 
hill-tracts  of  Orissa  and  Ganjam  on  the  East  coast,  the  still 
almost  uncivilised  Juangs,  Savaras,  and  Gadabas. 

All  these  rude  races,  as  well  as  the  great  mass  of  the 
labouring  population  of  Indir.,  find  the  natural  expression 
of  their  thoughts  and  feelings  more  in  the  local  folk-songs 
and  folk-lore  than  in  any  formulated  writings  or  records 
that  can  be  classed  as  literature.  There  is  thus  a  whole 
life-history  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  people  which  must 
remain  untold.  For  the  greater  part,  the  literary  history 
1  2,959,CX36.  ""  Census  Report,"  p.  147. 


302  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

of  the  people  of  India  must  be  an  effort  to  note  and  mark 
the  culminating  waves  of  thought  that  rise  on  the  great 
stream  of  Aryan  literature  that  flows  from  Vedic  times 
down  to  our  own  days. 

There  still  remains  to  be  noted  the  wave  of  thought  that 
swept  across  the  central  range  of  mountains  to  rouse  the 
Dravidian  people  of  South  India  to  new  ideals  and  lead 
them  to  claim  the  gods  of  the  Hindu  Pantheon  as  their  own. 

From  Vedic  times,  down  to  late  Brahmanic  days,  the 
South  was  shut  off  from  the  Aryans  of  the  North  by  the 
lofty  range  of  mountains  known  as  the  Vindhycis.  This 
range  is  the  second  great  barrier  to  all  invaders  from  the 
Northward,  a  barrier  that  up  to  the  advent  of  the  English 
had  effectually  prevented  even  an  Aurangzib  from  con- 
solidating his  rule  from  the  South  to  "  Far-off  Delhi." 

To  the  Aryans,  all  beyond  the  Vindhyas  was  for  long  an 
impenetrable  forest  It  was  held  to  have  been  the  abode 
of  Rakshasas,  fierce  demons  and  ape-like  men.  It  was 
the  Dakshina,  or  "  southern  "  part,  a  Sanskrit  word  that  in 
the  Prakrit,  or  broken  vernaculars,  became  corrupted  into 
"  Dakkhina,"  thence  into  the  modern  Dekkan  or  Deccan, 
now  used  to  designate  the  centre  table-land  lying  between 
the  Eastern  and  Western  mountain  ranges.  By  the  people 
of  South  India  the  tradition  still  is  held  that  the  sage 
Agastya  was  the  first  to  cross  the  Vindhyas  and  bring  the 
Northern  language,  grammar,  and  religions,  to  Dravidian 
homes.  At  Agastya's  bidding  the  mountains,  once  loftier 
than  the  Himalayan  peaks,  are  said  to  have  bowed  down, 
so  that  the  sage  might  cross  them.  As  Agastya  passed  on, 
he  bade  the  range  remain  bowed  down  until  his  returning, 
but  as  he  remained  in  the  South,  the  Vindhyas  still  have 
their  heads  lower  than  the  Northern  range. 

The  Dravidians,  however,  probably  once  had  possession 
of  the  whole  of  Indi^  long  before  the  arrival  of  the  fair- 
skinned  Aryans,  and  still  retain  their  own  languages  and 


SOUTH  INDIA  303 

civilisation  in  the  South.  North  of  the  Vindhyas  almost 
all  traces  of  their  former  existence  have  faded  away  before 
the  stronger  forces  of  Aryan  speech  and  culture.  The 
long  pause  given  to  the  fair-skinned  invaders,  who  found 
their  course  and  progress  stayed  by  the  forest  and  central 
mountain  ranges,  preserved  the  indigenous  languages, 
customs,  and  forms  of  land  tenure  of  the  South,  free 
from  the  dominating  force  of  the  Northern  influence. 
So  the  Aryans,  when  at  length  they  reached  the  South, 
found  the  Dravidian  speech  too  well  established  and 
the  literature  too  formed  to  accomplish  more  than  to  enrich 
them  with  words  from  the  new  vocabulary,  and  mould 
them  to  Sanskrit  forms  of  thought,  rules  of  prosody  and 
metre.^ 

Down  to  the  present  day  the  Dravidian  languages, 
such  as  Telugu,  Tamil,  Canarese,  and  Malayalam,  have 
accordingly  preserved  a  rich  literature  of  their  own. 
Long  before  Aryan  influences  commenced  to  work,  the 
Southern  people  sang  their  own  songs  of  love  and  war, 
had  their  own  sacrificial  rites  and  cults,  and  worshipped 
their  own  tribal  gods,  akin  to  the  deities  the  Aryans 
had  in  the  North  accepted  from  the  aborigines  and 
included  in  the  Hindu  Pantheon  as  forms  of  Vishnu, 
Krishna,  or  Siva.  Like  the  Dravidians  of  to-day,  they 
were,  as  can  be  ascertained  from  linguistic  evidences, 
skilled  potters,  weavers,  and  dyers.  They  were  builders 
of  ships,  and  traded  far  and  wide  from  their  coast  villages, 
known  then  as  now,  as  "  patnams"  or  "  pattanams"  (villages), 
seen  in  the  native  termination  of  so  many  towns,  such  as 
Cennapatnam^  (Madras),  and  Masulipatam,  Fish  Village. 

^  The  Sentamil  or  classic  Tamil  has,  however,  preserved  its  own  structure 
and  alliterative  form  of  metre  free  from  any  foreign  mixture.  See  especially 
SenathI  Raja,  "  Pre-Sanskrit  Element  in  Ancient  Tamil  Literature,"  J.  R.  A.  S., 
vol.  xix.  p.  SS^- 

"  For  suggestion  that  it  may  mean  Chinatown,  see  Burnell  and  Yule, 
"  Glossary  of  Anglo-Indian  Words." 


304  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

The  great  mass  of  the  people  were  skilled  agriculturists, 
cultivators  of  rice,  and  builders  of  the  Vcist  tanks  and 
works  of  irrigation,  still  used  and  preserved  under  British 
rule.  Each  cultivator  held  and  cultivated  his  own  clearing, 
as  is  done  to-day  under  the  form  of  tenure  known  as  the 
"Raiatwari,"  or  individual  holding,  of  the  Madras  Presidency. 
The  agricultural  population  crowded  together  in  well- 
watered  tracts,  where  their  town  bore  the  common 
Dravidian  termination  "ur,"  or  village,  a  term  often  seen 
still  in  some  places  as  Nellore,  Tanjore,  Coimbatore,  and 
Mangalore.  The  most  noted  town  in  the  South  was 
Madura,  or  Mudur,  the  old  town.  The  same  form  may, 
perhaps,  be  traced  in  the  Northern  Mathura,^  the  home 
of  Krishna,  the  dark  deity,  who  finds  his  counterpart 
and  probable  prototype  in  the  Dravidian  deity  still 
worshipped  by  the  simpler  folk  of  the  South,  as  Karuppan, 
or  "dark  one."* 

The  management  of  the  external  policy  and  internal 
economy  of  such  villages  fell  naturally  into  the  hands  of 
the  oldest  or  most  renowned  member  of  the  community, 
who  became  known  as  the  "  Kiravan,"  or  "  Pandiyan,"  * 
both  terms  having  the  common  meaning  of  "elder,"  or 
"old  man." 

When  robber  bands  came  sweeping  down  on  the  rich 
villages  the  sturdy  retainers  of  the  land-owners  beat  their 
rude  drums,  or  "  parrais,"  to  summon  the  villagers  forth  to 
man  the  mud-walls  that  enclosed  the  settlement  Down  to 
our  own  days  the  servile  classes  of  South  India  are  known 
as  the  Parriyars,  or  "  beaters  of  drums,"  though  their  Ceiste 
name  has  become  a  term  of  abuse  to  Western  ears  long 

^  See   Madura,  "Glossary  of  Anglo-Indian  Words,"  where  Mathura  of 
North  is  said  to  have  its  name  "  modified  after  Tamil  pronimciation." 
^  SenathI  Raja,  J.R.A,S.,  vol.  xix.  p.  578,  note  3. 

"  For   connection  with    the    Northern  Pandavas,  see  Caldwell,    "  Gram. 
Dravidian  Languages,"  p.  16;  and  "Senathi  Raja,"  p.  577. 


SOUTH  INDIA  30s 

accustomed  to  hear  the  pariahs,  or  "  servile  workers  with 
their  hands,"  reviled  by  those  who  live  on  their  labours.  As 
time  rolled  on  the  forests  around  the  parent  villages  were 
cleared,  and  new  lands  were  brought  into  cultivation. 
Hamlets  and  new  villages  (JPerur)  were  established,  which 
all  looked  back  to  the  old  village  (Mudilr)  and  its  Pandiyan 
as  their  ancient  home  and  chieftain.  So  from  earliest  times 
history  holds  record  of  a  Pandiyan  or  Pandya  chieftain  ruling 
the  far  South  from  his  capital  at  Madura.  Other  chieftains 
claimed  for  themselves  the  open  land  along  the  eastern  and 
western  sea-coast.  The  Cheras,  or  Keralas,  held  the  power 
in  Malabar  and  South  Mysore.  Another  dynasty — that  of 
the  Cholas — had,  from  the  second  century,  their  capital  at 
the  ancient  town  of  Uraiyur,  changed  in  the  seventh  cen- 
tury for  Combaconam,  and  then  in  the  tenth  century  for 
Tanjore.^  The  Cholas  held  the  land  to  the  north  and  east 
of  the  Pandiyans,  leaving  the  land  north  of  Conjeveram  to 
fall  to  the  dynasty  known  as  that  of  the  Pallavas. 

It  was  long  before  the  Aryans  of  North  India  penetrated 
to  these  Southern  villages,  there  to  work  their  way  to 
power  and  spread  abroad  their  civilising  influence.  The 
"  Ramayana,"  according  to  tradition,  is  the  allegorical  story 
of  the  Aryan  conquest  of  South  India.  Sita,  the  loved 
wife  of  the  hero  Rama,  is,  according  to  this  view,  the  "  field 
furrow  "  sung  of  In  the  Vedic  Hymns.  As  she  advanced 
South,  Rama,  the  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  followed  and 
established  the  worship  of  the  Hindu  gods.  The  monkey 
army,  who  aided  him  against  the  fierce  demon  Ravana, 
represented  the  wild  races  of  the  South,  while  Lanka,  the 
island  home  where  Sita  was  kept  bound,  has,  without  any 
support  from  the  epic,  been  held  to  represent  Ceylon.  The 
"  Mahabharata,"  however,  shows  a  greater  knowledge  of 
the  Southern  region  than  even  the  "  Ramayana."  ^ 

1  Sewell,  "  Lists  of  Antiquities  in  Madras,"  vol.  ii.  p.  154. 
"  Bhandarkar,  "History  of  the  Dekkan"  (1895),  p.  10. 
U 


3o6         LITERARY  HISTORY  OP  INDIA 

The  latter  epic,  although  it  mentions  the  Cholas  and 
Keralas,  and  refers  to  the  golden  gates,  adorned  with 
jewels,  of  the  Pandya  city,^  only  knows  the  whole  country 
south  of  the  Vindhyas  as  the  Great  Southern  Forest,  or 
"  Dandakaranya,"  where  Rama  lived  in  his  hermitage, 
Pancavati,  on  the  banks  of  the  Godavari. 

The  "  Mahabharata,"  on  the  other  hand,  mentions  many 
places  in  the  Deccan  as  then  well  known.^  To  both  poems 
the  land  of  the  King  of  Vidarbha,  or  modern  Berar,  wjis 
known,  as  it  had  been  early  entered  by  Aryans  who 
advanced  along  the  eastern  coast. 

In  the  "  Aitareya  Brahmana,"  the  Andhras,  or  Telugu- 
speaking  Dravidians  of  the  Northern  Circars,  probably 
then  dwelling  near  the  mouths  of  the  Godavari,  are 
referred  to  as  the  people  to  whom  the  fifty  sons  of 
Visvamitra  were  banished,  so  that  "  the  Andhras,  Pundras, 
Sabaras,  Pulindas,  and  Mutibas,  and  the  descendants  of 
Visvamitra,  formed  a  large  portion  of  the  Dasyus."  *  It  is 
clear  that  in  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  this  country  of  the 
Andhras  and  the  east  coast,  or  Kalinga,  were  known  in 
North  India.  They  are  mentioned  by  the  grammarian, 
Panini,  who  makes  no  reference  to  the  existence  of  the 
Southern  kingdoms  of  the  Pandyans,  Cheras,  and  Cholas, 
although,  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  these  kingdoms  were  so 
famed  for  their  importance  and  wealth  that  a  king,  Vijaya, 
is  recorded  *  to  have  been  sent  from  Magadha  m  the  north 
to  Ceylon,  and  to  have  married  a  daughter  of  a  Pandya 
monarch. 

^  "Ramayana,"  iij.  13,  13. 

*  Foulkes,  "Civilisation  of  the  Dekkan." 

»  "Ait.  Brah.,"  vii.  18;  Bhandarkar,  "History  of  Dekkan,"  p.  6. 

*  Caldwell,  p.  15,  quoting  Mahavamsa;  Tumour,  pp.  55-57.  Vijaya  of 
Magadha  is  supposed,  on  authority  of  Dipavamsa  and  Mahavam&,  to 
have  conquered  Ceylon  in  543  B.C.  See  "Ind.  Ant."  (October  1872)  for 
Bumell's  view  that  the  Dravidian  people  held  aloof  fiom  Aryan  influence, 
until  at  least  the  advent  of  Kumarila,  who  reached  the  South  on  his  mission  of 
Brahmanic  reform  in  the  eighth  century  of  our  era. 


SOUTH  INDIA         ,  307 

The  first  clear  literary  references  to  the  kingdoms  of  South 
India  occur  in  the  first  half  of  the  fourth  century  B.C.,  in  the 
"  Vartikas,"  ^  or  explanation  to  the  rules  of  Panini  by  the 
commentator,  Katyayana,  who  adds  to  the  examples  given 
by  the  earlier  grammarians,  for  the  formation  of  the  names 
of  tribes  and  kings,  the  two  instances  of  the  Pandyas  and 
Cholas,  showing  that  he  knew  the  Southern  kingdoms  then 
extending  from  the  modern  district  of  Tanjore  to  Madura. 

By  the  middle  of  the  third  century  B.C.,  Asoka,  in  his 
second  and  thirteenth  edicts,  mentions  the  Andhras,  Cheras, 
Cholas,  and  Pandyas,  as  well  as  Maharashtra  along  the 
Godavari,  then  governed  by  the  Rattas  and  Bhojas.  One 
hundred  years  later,  in  1 50  B.C.,  the  grammarian,  Patanjali, 
shows  his  knowledge  of  Behar,  Conjeveram,  and  Kerala  or 
Malabar.  From  this  time  forth  the  political  history  of 
South  India  has  to  be  pieced  together  from  inscriptions 
on  rocks,  temples,  and  in  caves,  from  copper-plate  grants, 
local  traditions,  and  the  uncertain  evidence  afforded  by 
later  Puranic  accounts  of  kings  and  principalities.  South 
of  the  Vindhyas,  in  the  northern  Deccan,  a  dynasty,  known 
as  that  of  the  Buddhist  Andhrabrityas,  ruled  for  a  period 
extending  from  73  A.D.  to  218  A.D.,  during  which  the 
Buddhist  mound  at  Amravati  was  built.^ 

Local  chieftains  succeeded  until,  in  the  sixth  century, 
a  new  dynasty,  known  as  that  of  the  Chalukyas, 
arrived  from  Ayodhya,  or  Oudh,  and  held  sway  up  to 
the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  (747  A.D.).  Under  the 
rule  of  this  new-formed  dynasty  Buddhism  gave  way  to 
Jainism,  and  a  revival  of  the  Brahmanic  sacrificial  system, 
along  with  a  worship  of  the  Hindu  deities,  chief  among 
whom  was  ^iva.  The  greatest  of  all  the  early  Chalukyan 
monarchs  was  "  He  with  the  Lion  Locks,"  or  Pulikesin  II., 
whose  rule,  from  61 1  to  634  A.D.,  forms  a  landmark  in  the 
elarly  political  and  literary  history  of  India.     Some  idea  of 

•  "  Panini,"  iv.  I,  168.     See  Bbandarkar,  p.  7. 
'  '  .?'«  bewell,  "Lists  of  Antiquities  of  Madras,"  vol.  ii.  p.  141. 


3o8  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

the  divided  rule  of  the  various  dynasties  and  principalities 
of  India,  at  the  period  when  this  Chalukyan  monarch  rose 
to  paramount  power,  and  Jainism  and  Brahmanism  gained 
new  life  and  influence,  can  be  obtained  from  the  inscriptions 
setting  forth  the  conquests  of  this  great  Southern  monarch, 
Pulikefiin  II.  He  is  recorded  to  have  subdued  the  prince 
of  the  Ganga  family,  who  ruled  over  the  Chera  kingdom, 
then  extending  over  the  modem  province  of  Mysore,  as 
well  as  the  chieftain  who  held  the  Malabar  coast  "  With 
a  fleet  of  hundreds  of  ships  he  attacked  Purl,  which  was 
the  mistress  of  the  western  sea,  and  reduced  it"  The 
kings  of  Lata,  Malava,  and  Gurjara  were  conquered,  and 
became  his  dependents. 

Harshavardhana,  King  of  Kanauj,  then  endeavoured  to 
extend  his  power  to  the  south  of  the  Narmada,  but  was 
opposed  by  Pulikesin,  who  killed  many  of  his  elephants 
and  defeated  his  army.  Thenceforward,  Pulikesin  received, 
or  assumed,  the  title  of  "  Paramesvara,"  or  lord  paramount 
This  achievement  was  considered  so  important  by  the  later 
kings  of  the  dynasty,  that  it  alone  is  mentioned  in  such  of 
their  copper-plate  grants  as  record  the  deeds  of  Pulikesin  II. 

"  Pulikesin  appears  to  have  kept  a  strong  force  on  the 
banks  of  the  Narmada  to  guard  the  frontiers.  Thus,  by  his 
policy  as  well  as  valour,  he  became  the  supreme  lord  of  the 
three  countries  called  Maharashtrakas,  containing  ninety- 
nine  thousand  villages.  The  kings  of  Kosala  and  Kalinga 
trembled  at  his  approach  and  surrendered.  After  some 
time  he  marched  with  a  large  army  against  the  King  of 
Kanchipura,  or  Conjeveram,  and  laid  siege  to  the  town. 
He  then  crossed  the  Kaverl  and  invaded  the  country  of  the 
Cholas,  the  Pandyas,  and  the  Keralas.  But  these  appear 
to  have  become  his  allies.  After  having,  in  this  manner, 
established  his  supremacy  throughout  the  South,  he  entered 
his  capital  and  reigned  in  peace."  ^ 

*  From  Bhandarkai,  "  History  of  the  Dekkan,"  p.  51. 


SOUTH  INDIA  309 

The  newly-founded  kingdom  of  the  Chalukyas  fell  to 
pieces  in  747  A.D.  Local  Kshatriya  warriors,  the  Rash- 
trakutas,  then  held  sway  for  some  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years.i 

A  new  and  later  Chalukyan  line  again  rose  to  power, 
and  kept  a  divided  rule  down  to  the  end  of  the  twelfth 
century,  during  which  Buddhism  and  Jainism  disappeared 
before  Brahmanism  and  the  rise  of  the  sect  of  Lingayatas.^ 

The  Hoy^ala  Ballalas,  Yadavas  of  Halibid  in  Mysore, 
succeeded  and  ruled  the  whole  Deccan,  contending  with 
the  remaining  dynasties  of  the  South,  the  Pandiyas  and 
Cholas,*  down  to  the  year  1318,  when  the  Muhammadans 
invaded  the  country  from  Delhi,  captured  Devagiri,  the 
Southern  capital,  and  flayed  alive  the  last  Hindu  monarch, 
Harapala.  A  Vijayanagar  chieftain  at  length  succeeded 
in  driving  out  the  Muhammadans,  and  his  successors  main- 
tained native  independence  down  to  the  time  when  it  fell, 
to  rise  no  more,  on  the  fatal  field  of  Talikota  in  1565. 

So  far  history  traces  the  fluctuating  fortunes  of  the  rulers 
who  in  the  early  ages  held  the  sovereign  power  south  of  the 
Vindhyas.  The  literature  of  the  South,  like  that  of  the  North, 
takes  but  little  note  of  the  political  history  of  the  times. 

Before  Brahmanism,  Jainism,  and  Buddhism  came  from 
Aryan  homes  to  Dravidian  villages,  there  exist  no  evidences 
in  literature  from  which  the  previous  religious  notions  of 
the  people  can  be  ascertained.  The  Dravidian  languages 
show  that  there  was  a  word  for  a  god,  and  a  word  for  a 
temple,  still,  all  the  great  temples  of  South  India  are  later 
than  the  days  of  Aryan  influence,  and  are  dedicated  to  the 
Hindu  gods,  Vishnu,  and  6iva.  From  folk-lore,  from  a 
study  of  the  primitive  beliefs  of  the  more  uncivilised  Dra- 
vidian people  of  to-day,  as  well  as  from  noting  the  sacri- 
ficial customs,  the  gbds,  demons,  or  godlings  worshipped 

'  Kielhom  in  "  Epigraphia  Indica,"  vol.  iii.  p.  268,  gives  nineteen  Rashtrakuta 
kings.  '■*  Bhandarkar,  "  Dekkan,"  p.  96. 

'  Sewell,  "Antiquities  of  Madras,"  vol.  ii.  p.  143. 


3IO  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

by  the  wild  hill  races,  some  clue  may  be  gained  as  to  the 
religious  ideas  of  the  Dravidian  people  in  pre-Aryan  days. 
From  such  sources,  however,  little  more  can  be  culled  than 
is  to  be  found  in  all  primitive  life,  that  is,  superstition, 
animism,  demon-worship  and  devil-dancing,  human  sacri- 
fices and  offerings  to  local  deities.  Amid  the  numerous 
deities  worshipped  in  pre-Aryan  times  by  the  Dravidians 
there  may  have  been  prototypes  of  such  gods  as  Siva,  and 
his  son  Skanda,  and  Krishna  or  the  Black  One,  introduced 
in  the  "  Mahabharata  "  by  the  Pandus  into  Brahmanism. 

Brahman  priests,  Buddhist  monks,  and  Jaina  ascetics  must 
have  reached  the  land  before  the  Christian  era,  and  estab- 
lished themselves  at  the  court  of  ruling  princes,  where 
they  founded  schools  of  learning,  and  exercised  their  in- 
fluence on  the  thought  of  the  times.  The  local  gods, 
national  deified  heroes,  and  sacrificial  cults  of  the  people 
became  in  time  absorbed  into  Brahmanism.  At  the  same 
time  the  local  literature  and  poetry  were  assimilated  to 
Sanskrit  models  and  forms,  so  that  the  new  ideas  might 
be  disseminated  among  the  Dravidian  races.  The  oldest 
Tamil  grammars  ^  cite  treatises  evidently  compiled  on  the 
Sanskrit  system  of  Vyakarana,  or  Grammar.  The  ancient 
classic  Tamil  poetry,  in  which  the  epics  and  folk-songs  of 
the  people  were  composed,  had,  however,  sufficient  vitality 
of  its  own  to  resist  the  foreign  influence,  and  so  it  retains 
down  to  the  present  day,  alone  of  the  Dravidian  languages, 
its  own  peculiar  forms  of  alliterative  metre  and  rhythm. 

The  infusion  of  Aryan  thought  and  learning  among  the 
Southern  people  soon  produced  its  effect  in  the  awakening 
of  Dravidian  literature  to  proclaim  the  new  message  it 
had  received  from  Northern  lands.  It  was  through  the 
fostering  care  of  the  Jainas,*  that  the  South  first  seems  to 

1  For  the  "Tolkappiyan,"  «e  J.R.A.S.,  vol.  xix.  p.  550. 

^  Rice  ("  Early  History  of  Kannada  Literature,"  J.R. A.S.,  vol.  xxii.  p.  249) 
holds  that  in  the  first  half  of  the  second  century  the  Jaina  poet,  Samantabhadra, 
preached  from  Kanchi  in  the  south  to  Pataliputra,  Benares,  Ujjayini,  Malwa, 


SOUTH  INDIA  311 

have  been  inspired  with  new  ideals,  and  its  literature 
enriched  with  new  forms  of  expression. 

In  the  words  of  the  veteran  Dravidian  scholar,  Dr  Pope, 
the  "  Jain  compositions  were  clever,  pointed,  elegant,  full  of 
satire,  of  worldly  wisdom,  epigrammatic,  but  not  religious." 

Jainism  has  faded  away  in  South  India  of  to-day,  and 
the  worship  of  Siva  remains  the  prevailing  faith  of  all 
Tamil-speaking  people.  This  worship  of  Siva  is  also  pre- 
valent, in  a  bigoted  form,  among  the  Canarese-speaking 
Vira  ^aivas,  or  Lingayatas,  and  recognised  by  the  Smarta 
sect  of  Brahmans ;  ^  in  the  West,  however,  it  is  popularly 
considered  as  degrading  in  its  outward  forms,  and  revolting 
in  its  rites  and  practices. 

The  phase  of  thought  which  inculcates  a  devout  faith  in 
the  saving  grace  of  this  deity,  6iva,  contains  much  that  is 
worthy  of  study,  not  only  by  the  student  of  humanity  and 
by  the  missionary,  but  also  by  the  administrator. 

India  can  never  be  severed  from  its  own  past  or  be 
drilled  into  entirely  new  modes  of  thought.  Her  past 
must  be  studied  and  understood  before  a  commencement 
can  be  made  in  training  her  genius  into  directions  in 
which  its  tendencies  can  alone  attain  results  beneficial 
to  the  world  at  large.  Mills  and  factories,  science  and 
matter-of-fact  realities  are  products  of  the  West  To 
hope  to  transplant  them  into  the  enervating  plains  of  South 
India,  with  the  prospect  of  attaining  the  advancement  they 
should  court  amongst  races  to  whom  they  are  more  con- 
genial, would  be  a  hope  as  visionary  as  to  expect  that  the 
oak   could   thrive   in   the  East,  overgrow  and  dwarf  the 

and  Panjab  in  the  north.     Fleet,  J.  F. ,  in  his  exhaustive  "  Dynasties  of  the 
Kanarese  Districts  "  (Bombay,  1896),  p.  320,  places  the  authenticated  evidences 
for  the  earliest  Western  Gangas  after  about  750  A.D.;  vol.  xv.  pp.  3-4.     See 
Pope,  Introd.  to  "  Naladiy ar, "  p.  ^.,  also  xiii. 
^  "History  of  Manikka  Vasagar"  (paper  read  at  Victorian  Institute,  May 

17.  1897). 
"  Sundaram  Pillai,  "  Some  Milestones  in  Tamil  Literature,"  p.  j, 


312  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

drooping  grace  of  the  palm-tree.  If  Christianity  can  be 
said  to  have  failed  in  awakening  the  mass  of  the  people 
of  India,  it  is  because  Christianity  has  been,  for  the  greater 
part,  presented  to  them  by  those  who  had  not  grasped  the 
secret  of  their  thoughts  and  feelings,  which  can  alone  be 
read  in  the  literature  they  have  handed  down  to  the  ages 
as  a  record  of  their  deepest  aspirations. 

In  the  West  there  are  patent  evidences  that  the  thoughts 
of  many  are  swinging  back  from  realism,  and  the  hastily- 
raised  hopes  that  the  misunderstood  aims  of  science  were 
to  solve  the  ultimate  truth  of  all  things,  to  old-world  dreams 
of  spiritualism  and  supematuralism,  mysticism,  idealism, 
and  their  ancient  faiths.  In  this  movement  the  thought 
of  India  has  had  no  small  influence.  Eastern  Buddhism, 
mysticism,  spiritualism,  and  Vedantism  have  all  played 
their  part  in  America,  India,  and  France,  affecting  their  art, 
literature,  and  emotions.  Strong  as  this  influence  is,  and 
will  continue  to  be,  the  movements  in  India  itself  have 
drifted  between  an  Eastern  mode  of  idealisation  and 
assimilation  of  Christianity  and  a  reaction  towards  Vedism, 
Vedantism,  and  supematuralism. 

To  the  missionary  who  is  unacquainted  with  the 
"Vedanta,"  with  the  spirit  of  the  true  mysticism  under- 
lying the  worship  of  Krishna,  with  the  "Ramayana"  of 
Tulsi  Das,  with  the  quatrains  of  the  "  Naladiyar,"  the  task 
set  before  him  is  one  that  must  always  lack  somewhat  of 
its  full  promise  of  success.  He  cannot  throw  aside  litera- 
ture such  as  the  Indian  people  love  and  cherish  as  though 
it  were  nothing  but  folly  and  superstition.  Of  the  best 
of  the  Dravidian,  as  well  as  the  Aryan,  literature  it 
can  be  said,  in  the  words  of  the  learned  scholar  and 
missionary,  who  has  assimilated  the  language  and  the 
thought  of  the  people  of  the  South  as  though  they  were 
his  own,  that  "  there  seems  to  be  a  strong  sense  of  moral 
obligation.an  earnest  aspiration  after  righteousness,  a  fervent 


SOUTH  INDIA  313 

and  unselfish  charity,  and  generally,  a  loftiness  of  aim,  that 
are  very  impressive."  ^ 

These  words  refer  specially  to  the  "Naladiyar,"  still 
taught  in  every  vernacular  Tamil  school.  It  consists  of 
four  hundred  quatrains  of  moral  and  didactic  sayings,  each 
one  composed,  according  to  tradition,  by  a  Jaina  ascetic. 
The  story  goes  ^  that  eight  thousand  Jains  came  in  time  of 
famine  to  a  monarch  of  the  Pandiya  kingdom,  who  strove 
to  retain  them  when  the  famine  had  departed,  so  that  he 
might  add  an  additional  lustre  by  their  presence  to  his 
kingdom.  They,  however,  departed  in  secret,  leaving  each 
a  verse  behind.  The  indignant  king  threw  all  the  verses 
into  the  river,  when,  to  his  surprise,  four  hundred  of  them 
floated  against  the  current,  and,  in  consequence  of  this 
miraculous  event,  were  preserved  and  formed  into  the 
present  collection,  dating,  according  to  native  belief,  from 
some  two  thousand  years  before  our  era.  The  whole  of 
the  verses,  however,  treat  of  topics  familiar  to  a  student  of 
Sanskrit  literature,  the  misery  of  transmigration,  the  effects 
of  Karma,  and  the  joy  of  release  from  bondage  and  re-birth.* 
The  unconnected  four  hundred  verses  of  the  "  Naladiyar  " 
present  no  definite  philosophic  or  religious  teaching, although 
generally  they  have  a  didactic  tendency.  Each  aphorism 
is  lighted  up  with  a  brilliant  play  of  fancy  and  revels  in 
an  Eastern  love  for  soothing  sounds,  apt  and  startling 
similes,  quaint  conceits,  and  sensuous  imagery.  The  poem 
deals  with  the  three  great  objects  of  life — virtue,  wealth, 
and  pleasure ;  each  subject  being  treated  in  typical  Eastern 
modes   of  thought   so   skilfully   rendered    in    Dr    Pope's 

'  Pope,  "Naladiyar,"  p.  xii. 

2  See  Rev.  G.  U.  Pope,  Introd.  to  "The  Naladiyar,"  p.  x.  See  also  Rice, 
"Early  Kannada  Authors,"  J.R.A.S.,  vol.  xv.  p.  295  :— "That  an  extensive 
old  literature  exists  in  the  Kannada  (or  so-called  Canarese)  language  is  ad- 
mitted by  more  than  one  eminent  writer  on  Oriental  subjects,  but  of  the  nature 
and  history  of  that  literature  little  or  nothing  is  known,  beyond  the  fact  that 
it  was  of  Jaina  origin." 

'  See  Introd.  to  "  Naladiyar,"  p.  xi. 


3i4  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

translation  here  quoted.  Before  all  things,  the  poet  de- 
clares, let  virtue  be  practised  by  man,  even  as  if  Death 
had  already  seized  him  by  the  hairs  of  the  head : — 

"  Like  a  cloud  that  wanders  over  the  hills,  the  body  here  appears,  and 
abides  not ;  it  departs  and  leaves  no  trace  behind." 

Youth  fades  away,  love  dies,  beauty  sinks  to  decrepitude, 
and  losses  crowd  round  as  man  prepares  to  leave  the  scene 
wherein  his  part  was  played : — 

"  Then  look  within  and  say  what  profit  is  there  in  this  joyous  life  of 
thine  ?    The  cry  comes  up  as  from  a  sinking  ship." 

The  fancy  plays  round  the  same  pessimistic  wail  of  the 
soul's  unsatisfied  longings. 

"Youth  decays.  Desire  not  her  whose  eyes  gleam  bright  as  darts. 
Full  soon,  she  too  will  walk  bent  down  with  a  staff  to  aid 
her  dim  sight."' 

"  Considering  that  all  things  are  transient  as  the  dewdrop  on  the  tip 
of  a  blade  of  grass,  now,  now  at  once,  do  virtuous  deeds. 
'Even  now  he  stood,  he  sat,  he  fell,  while  his  kindred  cried 
aloud  he  died.'     Such  is  man's  history."  ^ 

"Though  worthless  men  untaught  should  fret  my  soul,  and  rave  of 
teeth  like  jasmine  buds  and  pearls,  shall  I  forego  my  fixed 
resolve,  who  have  seen  in  the  burning  ground  those  bones — the 
fallen  teeth  strewn  round  for  all  to  see."  ' 

"  Lord  of  the  sea's  cool  shore,  where  amid  the  wave  swans  sport,  tearing 
to  shreds  the  Adamba  flowers.  When  those  whose  hearts  are 
sore  with  urgent  need  stand  begging,  and  wander  through  the 
long  street  in  sight  of  all,  this  is  the  fruit  of  former  deeds."* 

"  They  went  to  bathe  in  the  great  sea,  but  cried,  '  We  will  wait  till  all 
its  roar  is  hushed,  then  bathe.'  Such  is  their  worth  who  say, 
'  We  will  get  rid  of  all  our  household  toils  and  cares,  and  then 
we  will  practise  virtue  and  be  wise.' " ' 

1  Pope,  "  Naladiyar,"  17.  2  Ibid.,  29.  »  Ibid.,  45. 

^  Ibid.,  107.  ^  Ibid.,  333. 


SOUTH  INDIA  31 5 

The  following  verse  brings  up  a  vision  worthy  to  form 
the  subject  of  an  artist's  picture : — 

"  She  of  enticing  beauty,  adorned  with  choice  jewels,  said  forsooth, 
'  I  will  leap  with  you  down  the  steep  precipice ; '  but  on  the 
very  brow  of  the  precipice,  because  I  had  no  money,  she, 
weeping,  and  pointing  to  her  aching  feet,  withdrew  and  left  me 
alone."  ^ 

The  same  three  subjects  of  virtue,  wealth,  and  pleasure, 
are  further  exhaustively  dealt  with  in  the  two  thousand  six 
hundred  and  sixty  short  couplets  of  the  "  Kurral,"  the 
universally  acknowledged  masterpiece  of  South  Indian 
genius.  These  verses  were  composed  for  the  Tamil  people 
by  Tiruvalluvar,  a  pariah  weaver,  who  lived  on  the  sea-coast 
in  a  suburb  of  Madras  named  St  Thom4  in  memory  of  the 
doubting  Apostle,  St  Thomas,  who,  for  very  long,  was 
supposed  to  have  suffered  death  at  the  hands  of  a  fowler, 
who,  legend  and  tradition  hold,  accidentally  shot  the 
Apostle  when  he  was  engaged  in  prayer.  As  told  in  the 
"  Acts  of  Thomas,"  the  Apostle  declared  to  the  Saviour, 
who  appeared  before  him  in  the  night-time  :  "  Wheresoever 
Thou  wishest  to  send  me,  send  me  elsewhere,  for  to  the 
Indies  I  am  not  going."  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  St 
Thomas  never  did  go  to  India.^ 

That  the  weaver  pariah,  who  lived  within  sound  of  the 
ceaseless  swell  and  break  of  the  waves  along  the  sandy 
shore  near  Mayilapur,  or  St  Thom6,  may  have  heard  of  the 
teachings  of  Christianity  is  not  impossible,  though  there 
is  no  evidence  of  any  Christian  influence  or  doctrines  in  his 
verses.^  Every  Hindu  sect,  including  the  Jains,  claims  that 
the  poet  designed  to  set  forth  in  his  work,  the  dogmas  of 
their  special   creeds.      The   teaching   of  Tiruvalluvar  is, 

1  Pope,  "Naladiyar,"  372. 

2  See  Geo.  Milne  Rae,  "The  Syrian  Church  in  India"  (1892),  p.  24  :— "  In 
short,  we  look  in  vain  among  the  writings  and  monuments  of  the  first  five 
centuries  for  any  attestation  of  the  existence  of  the  '  South  Indian  Church.'  " 

3  See  Pope,  "The  Sared  Kurral,"  p.  iv. 


3i6  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

however,  purely  eclectic,  and  inculcates  such  principles 
as  are  common  to  all  systems  of  morality.  The  first 
couplet  of  the  "  Kurral "  gives  the  poet's  eclectic  view  of 
the  deity  called  Bhagavan,  the  Lord  who  stands  first  in 
all  the  world,  just  as  the  letter  "  A  "  stands  first  in  all  speech. 
As  in  the  "  Bhagavad  Glta,"  they  who  have  faith  in  this 
deity,  "  they  who  dwell  in  the  true  praise  of  this  Lord," 

"Affects  not  then  the  fruit  of  deeds  done  ill  or  well" 

The  poet,  having  thus  first  enunciated  the  cardinal  dogma 
of  faith  in  a  primal  deity,  proceeds  to  build  up  an  entire 
system  of  an  ideal  state,  treating  of  Virtue  under  its  different 
aspects — in  domestic  life,  in  ascetic  renunciation,  and  in  the 
effects  of  fate  or  former  deeds.  Wealth,  or  property,  is 
viewed  as  it  relates  to  royalty,  to  ministers  of  the  king, 
to  the  State  itself,  and  the  individual.  The  third  object 
of  enquiry.  Love,  is  subdivided  into  two  chapters — the  first 
treating  of  concealed  love,  the  second  of  wedded  love. 
Domestic  virtue  is  inculcated  in  a  string  of  short  epi- 
grammatic verses,  rivalling,  in  their  crisp  and  cutting 
vigour,  the  soft  languid  grace  of  the  aphorisms  of  the 
"Naladiyar:"— 

"  In  Nature's  way  who  spends  his  calm  domestic  days, 
'Mid  all  that  strive  for  virtue's  crown  hath  foremost  place."  * 

The  patient  Griselda  of  the  household  stands  out  in  all 
her  plaintiveness,  finding,  in  adoration  of  her  husband,  her 
sole  faith : — 

"  No  god  adoring,  low  she  bends  before  her  lord  ; 
Then  rising  serves  :  the  rain  falls  instant  at  her  word."* 

In  describing,  under  the  division  Wealth,  the  qualities  of 
a  great  king,  a  plea  is  set  forward  for  what  now  would  be 
called  the  unrestricted  liberty  of  the  Press : — 

1  Pope,  "  Kurral,"  47.  a  Ibid. ,  55. 


SOUTH  INDIA  317 

"The  king  of  worth,  who  can  words  bitter  to  his  ear  endure, 
Beneath  the  shadow  of  his  power  the  world  abides  secure."  ^ 

The  minister  of  state  is  provided  with  some  salutary 
advice,  which  might  be  accepted  with  advantage  by  not 
a  few  modern  politicians : — 

"  Though  knowing  all  that  books  can  teach,  'tis  truest  tact, 
To  follow  common-sense  of  men  in  act."  ^ 

The  following  hint,  if  judiciously  acted  on,  might  serve 
to  establish  the  reputation  of  a  man  as  wise  in  council : — 

"  Speak  out  your  speech,  when  once  'tis  past  dispute 
That  none  can  utter  speech  that  shall  your  speech  refute."' 

Although  it  is  full  one  thousand  years  since  Tiruvalluvar 
composed  the  following  aphorism,  it  has  a  strange  homely 
truth  for  us  of  to-day : — 

"  Who  have  not  skill  ten  faultless  words  to  utter  plain. 
Their  tongues  will  itch  with  thousand  words  men's  ears  to  pain."  * 

The  full  power  of  Tiruvalluvar  to  compress  into  the 
intricate  setting  of  the  Vempa,  the  most  difficult  metre  in 
his  language,  some  of  the  most  perfect  combinations  of 
sound,  set  to  the  most  delicate  play  of  fancy,  is  to  be  best 
seen  in  his  verses  on  love.  The  intimate  and  perfect 
acquaintance  of  Dr  Pope  with  the  people  and  their 
language,  has  enabled  him  to  preserve,  in  an  unrivalled 
manner,  the  form  of  the  Eastern  setting.  Every  verse  is 
perfect  in  the  original : — 

"  A  sea  of  love,  'tis  true,  I  see  stretched  out  before. 
But  not  the  trusty  barque  that  wafts  to  yonder  shore." ' 

"  The  pangs  that  evening  brings  I  never  knew. 
Till  he,  my  wedded  spouse,  from  me  withdrew."' 

"  My  grief  at  morn  a  bud,  all  day  an  opening  flower. 
Full-blown  expands  in  evening  hour." ' 

»  Pope,  "Kurral,"  389.        ^  Ibid.,  637.        ^  /^^v;,^  645.        *  Ibid.,  (iA,<3. 
'Ibid.,  11^^.  ^  Ibid.,  122(>.       ^  Ibid.,  iziy. 


3i8  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

"  Or  bid  thy  love,  or  bid  thy  shame  depart ; 
For  me,  I  cannot  bear  them  both,  my  worthy  heart."* 

The  short  sayings  of  the  "Kurral"  end  with  what  may  have 
been  the  poet's  own  experience  of  the  subject  he  treats  so 
gracefully : — 

"  Though  free  from  fault,  from  loved  one's  tender  arms 
To  be  estranged  awhile  hath  its  own  special  charms."  ^ 

"  In  lover  quarrels,  'tis  the  one  that  first  gives  way 
That  in  reunion's  joy  is  seen  to  win  the  day." ' 

•  ■■•••■a 

"  Let  her  whose  jewels  brightly  shine,  aversion  feign. 
That  I  may  still  plead  on,  O  night,  prolong  thy  reigrn."  * 

Unfortunately,  no  certain  date  can  be  ascribed  to  these 
early  outbursts  of  song,  the  first  sign  of  the  awaken- 
ing of  the  Dravidian  genius  after  contact  with  Aryan 
civilisation.  They  are  fabled  to  have  been  issued  from  the 
Sangan,  or  College  of  Madura,  where  the  Pandiyan 
monarch  assembled  learned  Jaina  and  Buddhist  monks. 
Tradition  holds  that  this  famed  seminary  of  learning  at 
-Madura  ceased  to  exist  when  its  chief  members  drowned 
themselves  in  despair,  on  the  miraculous  preservation  of  the 
despised  "  Kurral "  of  the  low-caste  Tiruvalluvar.* 

However  that  may  be,  the  early  Brahmanic  influence 
soon  reasserted  itself,  and  led  to  the  downfall  of  both 
Jainism  and  Buddhism,  which  virtually  disappeared  from 
the  Tamil  country  by  the  eleventh  century  of  our  era. 
The  first  great  sign  of  the  coming  change  was  seen  in  the 
revival  of  the  worship  of  6iva,  the  deity  early  accepted  by 
the  South  as  the  Brahmanic  representation  of  the  ancient 

1  Pope,  "Kurral,"  1247.      2  y^^,^  ^^^S.      '  Ibid.,  1327.       «  Ibid.,  1329. 

•  See  Caldwell,  "  Gram,  of  Dravidian  languages,"  p.  130 : — "  We  should  not 
be  warranted  in  placing  the  date  of  the  '  Kurral '  later  than  the  tenth  century 
A.D."  See  also  p.  122  : — "  There  is  no  proof  of  Dravidian  literature,  such  as 
we  now  have  it,  having  originated  much  before  Kum^rila's  time  (700  A.D.}, 
and  its  earliest  cultivators  appear  to  have  been  Jainas." 


SOUTH  INDIA  319 

Dravidian  god,^  or  gods.  This  revolt,  from  the  dominating 
agnosticism  of  the  times,  found  its  earliest  literary  expres- 
sion in  the  "Tiru  VaSakam,"  or  "  Holy  Word,"  composed  by 
Manikka  Va^agar,^  who  turned  the  thoughts  of  the  people 
once  more  to  the  weary  quest  of  the  suffering  soul  for  rest 
in  a  union  with  a  personal  deity. 

This  fierce  opponent  of  the  heretical  Jains  and  Buddhists 
was  born  near  Madura,  where  his  father  was  a  Brahman  at 
the  court  of  the  Pandya  monarch,  Arimarttanar,  "The 
Crusher  of  Foes."  The  poet  is  said  to  have  acquired  all  the 
Sanskrit  learning  by  the  age  of  sixteen,  when  he  was  made 
prime  minister  at  Madura.  The  dread  god,  Siva,  with  rosary 
round  his  neck,  his  body  smeared  with  ashes,  with  a  third 
eye  in  his  forehead,  is  said  to  have  appeared  before  the 
sage,  while  on  a  journey,  and  revealed  his  true  nature,  as 
the  Divine  Essence,  in  knowledge  of  which  there  is  alone 
enlightenment  and  salvation.  The  poet  at  once  bowed 
down  before  the  deity,  whose  worship  was  to  spread  all 
over  South  India,  and  in  whose  honour  the  great  6aivite 
temples  were  built,  and  in  many  cases  covered  over  with 
plates  of  gold. 

The  longings  of  the  poet's  soul  had  found  no  answer  in 
the  agnosticism  of  Buddhism  or  Jainism.  The  answer  had 
come  to  the  henceforth  bitter  opponent  of  the  dominant 
Jains,  and  to  6iva  he  poured  forth  his  prayer  :^  "Henceforth 
I  renounce  all  desires  of  worldly  wealth  and  splendour. 
To  me,  thy  servant,  viler  than  a  dog,  who  worships  at  thy 

^  Probably  the  earlier  form  was  Skanda.  See  SenathI  Raja,  "  Pre-Sanskrit 
El.  in  Ancient  Tamil  Lit.,"  J.R.A.S.,  vol.  xix.  p.  376  («ofe  i). 

2  See  Pope,  "  History  of  Manikka  Vasagar,"  p.  3  (wofe) : — "  The  date  here 
given  for  the  poet  is  1030  a.d.,  reckoning  two  hundred  years  before  Sundara 
Pandiyan's  time  and  Sambhanda's  time.  If  the  date  of  Sambhanda  be,  how- 
ever, taken  as  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  then  Tiru  Vasagar  must  be  placed 
in  the  fourth  century,  along  with  the  Saivite  revival.  As  these  dates  depends 
largely  on  the  '  Tiru  Vilaiyadal  Purana '  and  '  Periya  Purana,'  no  certainty  can 
be  claimed  for  them."    See,  however,  P.  Sundaram  Pillai's  article  quoted  later. 

3  See  Pope,  Ibid.,  p.  7. 


320  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

feet,  grant  emancipation  from  corporeal  bonds.     Take  me 
as  thy  slave,  O  King  of  my  Soul ! " 

No  finer  picture  could  be  given  of  an  Eastern  enthusiast, 
stirred  by  emotions  that  are  sis  deep  in  India  to-day  as 
they  were  when  the  soul  of  Manikka  Va^agar  was  roused  to 
preach  a  salvation  through  a  faith  in  Siva,  than  that  sketched 
forth  of  the  converted  sage  in  the  earnest  words  of  Dr 
Pope;!— 

"  From  his  head  depends  the  braided  lock  of  the  ^iva  devotee,  one 
hand  grasps  the  staflF,  and  the  other  the  mendicant's  bowl :  he 
has  for  ever  renounced  the  world — all  the  worlds,  save  Sivan's 
self.  And  he  is  faithful  henceforward,  even  to  the  end.  In  the 
whole  legendary  history  of  this  sage,  whatever  we  may  think 
of  the  accuracy  of  many  of  its  details,  and  whatever  deductions 
we  are  compelled  to  make  for  the  exaggerations  that  have 
grown  up  around  the  obscurity  of  the  original  facts,  there 
stands  out  a  character  which  seems  to  be  a  mixture  of  that  of 
St  Paul  and  of  St  Francis  of  Assisi.  Under  other  circum- 
stances what  an  apostle  of  the  East  might  he  have  become  ! 
This  is  his  conversion  as  South  India  believes  it ;  and  in  almost 
every  poem  he  alludes  to  it,  pouring  forth  his  gratitude  in 
ecstasies  of  thanksgiving,  and  again  and  again  repeating  the 
words,  '  I  am  Thine,  save  me  ! '  His  poetry  lives  in  all  Tamil 
hearts,  and,  in  the  main  and  true  essence  of  it,  deserves  so 
to  live  ! " 

Persecutors  of  the  new  reformer  now  succeeded,  and,  as 
is  usual  in  all  Eastern  biographies,  miracles,  more  or  less 
absurd  and  meaningless,  are  recorded  to  have  been  worked. 
The  news  of  the  revived  faith  in  Siva  was  preached  by  the 
reformer  in  the  land  of  the  Cholas,  and  in  Cithambaram, 
where  he  is  still  held  as  the  patron  saint  To  Cithambaram 
the  King  of  Ceylon  is  said  to  have  come,  and  there  with 
all  his  court,  to  have  been  converted  from  Buddhism  to 
Saivism,  by  the  sage's  argument  which  showed  that, 
according  to  the  heretic  monks,  there  can  be  "neither 
god,  nor  soul,  nor  salvation."  * 

The  poems  of  Manikka  VaSagar  are  held  to  have  been 
>  Su  Pope,  "  Manikka  Vasagar,"  p.  7.  2  Ibid.,  p.  16. 


SOUTH  INDIA  321 

transcribed  in  one  thousand  verses  by  the  god  6iva  himself. 
They  still  "  are  sung  throughout  the  whole  Tamil  country 
with  tears  of  rapture,  and  committed  to  memory  in  every 
temple  by  the  people,  amongst  whom  it  is  a  traditional 
saying  that  '  he  whose  heart  is  not  melted  by  the  "  Tiru 
VaSagam  "  must  have  a  heart  of  stone.' "  ^ 

To  learned  and  unlearned  alike,  these  mystic  raptures,  in 
perfect  verse,  over  the  soul's  faith  in  the  deity  are  sacred 
treasures,  and  have  a  deep  importance  to  all  who  would 
seek  to  read  the  spirit  of  the  best  of  Indian  religious 
thought.  Happily  these  are  soon  to  be  published  in  an 
English  translation  by  the  Oxford  Professor  of  Tamil. 
They  are  all  but  unknown  to  the  West,  yet  a  careful  and 
wide-read  scholar,  in  whose  native  language  the  poems 
are  written,  states  :  ^  "  There  are,  indeed,  but  few  poems  in 
any  language  that  can  surpass  '  Tiru  Vaiagam,'  or  the '  Holy 
Word  '  of  Manikka  VaSagar,  in  profundity  of  thought  and 
earnestness  of  feeling,  or  in  that  simple,  child-like  trust 
in  which  the  struggling  human  soul,  with  its  burdens  of 
intellectual  and  moral  puzzles,  finally  finds  shelter." 

The  whole  essence  of  the  teachings  of  the  new  reformer, 
who  did  so  much  to  rouse  an  active  opposition  to  the 
debased  Buddhism  then  in  vogue,  and  whose  followers 
inaugurated  the  temple-building  era  in  South  India,  has  been 
summed  up  as  follows : ' — 

"  He  taught  the  people  that  there  was  one  supreme  personal  God,  no 
mere  metaphysical  abstraction,  but  the  Lord  of  Gods  and  men. 
He  also  taught  that  it  was  the  gracious  will  of  Siva  to  assume 
humanity,  to  come  to  earth  as  a  guru,  and  to  make  disciples 
of  those  who  sought  him  with  adequate  preparation.  He  an- 
nounced that  this  way  of  salvation  was  open  to  all  classes  of  the 

'  Pope,  "History  of  Manikka  Vasagar,"  p.  17. 

2  P.  Sundaram  Pillai,  M.A.,  M.R.A.S.,  Fellow  of  the  Madras  University, 
and  Professor  of  Philosophy,  "Some  Milestones  in  the  History  of  Tamil 
Literature,"  p.  3.  (The  news  of  the  early  death  of  this  able  scholar  was 
received  after  the  above  was  written. ) 

3  Pope,  "Manikka  Va&igar,"  p.  18. 

X 


322  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

community.  He  also  taught  very  emphatically  the  immortality 
of  the  released  soul — its  conscious  immortality — as  he  said 
that  the  virtual  death  of  the  soul  which  Buddhism  teaches 
is  not  its  release.  It  will  be  seen  how  very  near  in  some 
not  unimportant  respects  the  ^aiva  system  approximates  to 
Christianity ;  and  yet,  in  some  of  the  corruptions  to  which  it 
has  led,  by  what  almost  seems  a  necessity,  are  amongfst  the 
most  deplorable  superstitions  anywhere  to  be  found." 

How  popular  are  these  lyric  raptures  of  a  soul  tossed  in 
doubt,  yet  still  seeking  some  answer  to  its  wail  of  loneliness, 
may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  a  whole  series  of  them 
is  still  sung  as  a  rhythmic  accompaniment  to  a  game, 
played  by  six  girls  sitting  in  a  circle,  who  toss  balls  or 
pebbles  from  one  to  the  other.  The  forthcoming  transla- 
tion of  the  poem  will,  it  is  hoped,  give  these  verses ;  at 
present  it  must  suffice  to  quote  one  verse  as  sung  by  the 
six  girls  in  chorus  as  they  play  their  game,  known  as 
"  Ammanay  "  : — 

"  While  bracelets  tinkling  sound,  while  earrings  wave,  while  jetty 
locks 
Dishevelled  fall,  while  honey  flows  and  beetles  hum. 
The  Ruddy  One,  who  wears  the  ashes  white,  whose  home 
None  reach  or  know,  Who  dwells  in  every  place,  to  loving  ones 
The  true.  The  Sage  Whom  hearts  untrue  still  deem  untrue. 
Who  in  Ai  Arru'  dwells,  sing  and  praise,  Ammanay  see  !  "' 

Many  personal  details  of  the  poet's  own  life  are  scattered 
through  his  poems.  The  allurements  of  earthly  love,  which 
drag  the  soul  from  its  calm  repose,  are  fought  against  in 
verses  that  tell  of  the  bitter  grief  of  a  lapse  from  high 
ideals : — 

"  Flames  in  forest  glade,  Sense-fires  bum  fierce  with  smoky  glare. 
I  bum  !    Lo,  thou'st  forsaken  me  !     O  Conquering  King  of  Heaven, 
The  garlands  on  Whose  braided  locks  drip  honey,  while  the  bees 
Hum  softly  'mid   Mandaram    buds,  whence   fragrant   sweetness 
breathes.'' 

'  A  shrine  near  Tanjore,  lit.  "  The  Mve  Rivers." 

'  For  this  and  the  following  verses  I  am  indebted  to  the  great  kindness  of 
the  Rev.  Di  Pope. 


SOUTH  INDIA  323 

And  again : — 

"  Sole  help,  whilst  thou  wert  near  I  wandered,  wanton  deeds  my  help. 
Thou  hast  forsaken  me,  Thou  Helper  of  my  guilty  soul ; 
The  source  of  all  my  being's  bliss  j  Treasure  that  never  fails. 
I  can't  one  instant  bear  this  grievous  body's  mighty  net." 

The  same  theme  is  sung  again,  ending  with  the  prayer 
for  faith : — 

"  Choice  gems  they  wore,  those  softly-smiling  maids  ;  I  failed,  I  fell. 
Lo,  thou'st  forsaken  me.     Thou  gav'st  me  place  'midst  Saints  who 

wept, 
Their  beings  fiU'd  with  rapturous  joys ;   in  grace  did'st  make  me 

Thine  ! 
Show  me  thy  feet,  even  yet  to  sense  revealed,  O  Spotless  One." 

The  monistic  essence  of  the  deity,  Siva,  is  summed  up 
in  one  verse : — 

"  O  King,  my  joy,  mean  as  I  am,  who  know  not  any  path  ! 
O  Light,  Thou  hast  forsaken  me, 
Thou  the  true  Vedic  Lord, 
Thou  art  the  First,  the  Last ! 
Thou  art  this  universal  Whole.'' 

These  poems  of  the  earliest  exponent  of  pure  Vedantic 
teachings  were  included  in  a  renowned  collection  of 
Hymns  which  forms  the  "  Vedas,"  "  Upanishads,"  and 
"  Puranas "  for  the  great  mass  of  Saivas  of  South  India. 
The  first  three  books  of  this  Saiva  Bible  contain  the  three 
hundred  and  eighty-four  hymns  of  a  virulent  opponent 
of  all  heretic  Buddhist  and  Jaina  monks — the  renowned 
patron  saint  and  impromptu  lyric  poet  of  the  Tamil  people, 
the  sage,  Tiru  Nana  Sambandha,^  whose  fame  in  the  South 
is  so  renowned  that  there  is  scarcely  a  Siva  temple  in  the 

'  An  interesting  contribution  towards  the  elucidation  of  the  literary  history 
of  South  India  has  been  recently  made  by  P.  Sundaram  Pillai  in  his  Essay, 
"Some  Milestones  in  the  History  of  Tamil  Literature,"  in  which  he  has 
advanced  very  strong  proof  that  Sambandha  must  have  lived  before  ^ankara 
Achaiya,  i.e.  in  the  seventh  century  a.d. 


324  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Tamil  country  where  his  image  is  not  daily  worshipped. 
In  most  of  them  special  annual  feasts  are  held  in  his 
name,  when  the  leading  events  of  his  life  are  dramati- 
cally represented  for  the  instruction  of  the  masses.^  As 
is  usual  in  the  case  of  poets,  the  life  of  Sambandha  begins 
with  miraculous  events  and  ends  in  mystery.  Born,  as 
there  is  no  reason  to  doubt,  of  Brahman  parents  in  the 
Chola  country,  a  few  miles  south  of  Chidambaram,  he  is 
said  to  have  composed,  when  a  child,  his  earliest  lyric  hymns 
of  praise  to  Siva  which  were  set  to  a  music,  now  lost, 
and  played  on  an  instrument,  the  form  of  which  is  now 
no  longer  remembered.  To  account  for  his  unrivalled 
mastery  over  form  and  verse,  tradition  holds  that,  when  as 
a  child  Sambandha  was  left  alone,  the  local  goddess 
appeared  and  nourished  him  herself,  whereon  the  child 
recited  the  first  of  his  inspired  hymns  and  received  the 
name  of  Tiru  Nana  Sambandha,  or  "  He  who  is  united  to 
the  deity  through  wisdom."  In  all,  three  hundred  and 
eighty-four  hymns  were  composed  by  this  poet,  who,  with 
his  disciples,^  strove  vehemently  to  uproot  the  Jaina  faith 
and  establish  the  worship  of  Siva.  The  reigning  Pandiyan 
king  was  led  by  Sambandha  to  renounce  Jainism,  and  soon 
the  people  of  the  Tamil  land  forsook  Buddhism,  or  at  least 
the  debased  form  of  it  then  existing,  though  the  cult  did 
not  finally  become  extinct  until  the  eleventh  century. 
The  tenth  verse  of  each  hymn  of  Sambandha  was  launched 
against  Buddhists  and  Jains  alike,  though  there  is  no 
certainty  as  to  why  these  heretics  had  aroused  the  hate  of 

1  See  also  "  Epigraphia  Indica,"  vol.  iii.  pp.  277-78 :— "  The  two  great  6aiva 
devotees,  Tirunavukkarayar  (or  Appai),  573  A.D.,  and  Tinmana  Sambandha 
.  .  .  were  contemporaiies  of  the  two  Pallava  kings,  Mahendravarman  I. 
and  Narasimhavarman  I."  "  Tirunana  Sambandhar  was  a  contemporary  of  » 
general  of  the  Pallava  king,  Narasimhavarman  I.,  whose  enemy  was  the 
Western  Chalukya  ki:^,  Pulikesin  II." 

2  ;5'e«  Caldwell,  "Dravidian  Grammar,"  p.  138.  See  P.  Sundaram  Pillai, 
"Milestones  in  Tamil  Literature,"  p.  7  (note  1),  for  the  six  companions  of 
Sambandha,  who  accompanied  his  impromptu  lyric  songs  with  music. 


SOUTH  INDIA  32s 

the  Saivite  sage.  With  the  passing-away  of  Sambandha 
and  his  disciples,  a  new  era  dawned  in  South  India. 
Temples  to  Siva  and  Vishnu  took  the  place  of  Buddhist 
monasteries,  while  a  series  of  Acharyas,  or  theological 
teachers,  spread  far  and  wide  in  one  form  or  another 
the  philosophic  doctrines  of  the  "  Vedanta  "  until  the  close 
of  the  twelfth  century,  when  darkness  settled  down  over 
the  whole  literary  history  of  the  people  with  the  advent 
of  the  Muhammadans. 

It  would  have  been  strange  if  the  extension  and  revival  of 
Brahmanism  and  downfall  of  Jainism  and  Buddhism  had 
not  inspired  those  who  stood  forward  as  victors  with  a  new- 
awakened  fire  of  enthusiasm  for  the  cause  they  championed. 

So  it  came  that  Sankara  Acharya,  the  greatest  revivalist 
of  Aryanism,  and  the  greatest  commentator  that  India  has 
known,  arose  in  the  South,  and  that  at  a  period  when  he 
might  have  been  expected — the  period  round  which  centres 
the  "  Kurral "  and  Brahmanic  revival,  towards  the  eighth 
century  of  our  era.^ 

This  greatest  of  all  great  ascetic  sages  ^  bears  a  name 
revered  by  every  learned  Hindu,  all  over  the  land  where 
he  preached  and  taught  from  his  monastery  of  Badrinath 
in  the  south  to  that  of  Sringiri  in  the  north,  from  Dvaraka, 
the  city  of  Krishna,  in  the  west,  to  Jagannath,  once  the 
Buddhist  place  of  worship,  now  the  common  ground  of 
assembly  for  all  Hindus,  on  the  coast  of  Orissa  in  the 
east.      All  sects  claim  him*  as   their  own   patron   saint 

^  "It  is  certainly  inadvisable  to  assail  Sankaia's  date  {i.e.  788-820  a.d.), 
which  is  given  most  circumstantially  by  his  own  followers." — Yajiiesvar  Sastri, 
"Aryavidya  Sudhakara,"  p.  226,  etc.  etc.;  Biihler,  "Ind.  Ant.,"  xiv.  64. 
Othei:  references  are  : — "Ind.  Ant.,"  xiv.  185  {note  13);  xi.  174;  xiii.  <)<,ff.; 
xvi.  42,  160;  J.B.R.A.S.,  xviii.  88^.,  218,  233;  W.L.,  51;  Bhandarkar, 
Report,  1882-3,  15.  See  Pathak,  J.R.A.S.  (Bombay,  1891),  xviii.  p.  88 ;  also 
Barth,  "Ind.  Ant."  (1895),  p.  35. 

"  For  Kumarila  Bhatta,  see  Hunter,  "  Indian  Empire  "  240,  259,  388 ; 
Cowell  and  Gough,  "  Sarva  Darsana  Sangraha." 

3  Monier-Williams,  "  Brahmanism  and  Hinduism,'' p.  58;  Wilson,  "Rel.  of 
Hindus,"  vol.  i.  p.  28. 


326  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

All  scholars,  Eastern  and  Western,  honour  his  learning 
and  scholarship.  He  seems  to  have  risen  as  an  inspired 
genius  to  throw  a  quick,  bright  light,  like  to  the  momentary 
after-glow  of  an  Indian  sunset  before  darkness  descends 
over  the  land,  on  the  fading  glories  of  Aryanism  before 
they  sink  into  the  dimness  of  the  drear  days  of  Hinduism. 
Of  his  life  almost  nothing  is  known.  In  legendary  lore 
he  appears  everywhere  in  India ;  now  persecuting  the 
Buddhists,  now  vehemently  denouncing  the  sectarian 
differences  whereby  Hinduism  was  being  divided  against 
itself,  so  that  it  could  not  abide.  Again  he  appears  cis 
the  miraculously  -  born  son  of  a  Brahman  woman,  his 
father  being  the  dread  god,  6iva,  and  as  finally  departing 
from  the  world  no  one  knows  how. 

The  "  Great  Conquest,"  ^  or  life  of  ^ankara  Acharya,  was 
told  in  a  work  supposed  to  have  been  composed  in  the 
ninth  or  tenth  century,  while  the  sage's  "  Great  Conquest 
of  the  Quarters"^  was  written  by  the  second  great 
commentator  of  South  India,  Madhava  Acharya,  in  the 
fourteenth  century. 

From  these  accounts  and  others,  no  safe  historical  facts 
can  be  deduced.  At  most,  it  may  be  held  that  Sankara 
was  born  in  Malabar  in  the  eighth  century  of  our  era,  and 
that  he  died  at  Kedernath,  in  the  Himalayas,  at  the  early 
age  of  thirty-two,  after  having  enriched,  in  the  short  course 
of  his  life,  the  literature  of  India  by  commentaries  on  most 
of  its  later  sacred  texts.  He  is  popularly  held  to  have 
been  an  incarnation  of  Siva.  The  Smarta  sect  of  Brahmans, 
recognisable  by  wearing  on  their  foreheads  one  or  three 
horizontal  lines  of  sandal  paste,  with  a  red  or  black  spot  in 
the  middle,  hold  him  to  have  been  the  founder  of  their 
Order.    These  Smartas  look  upon  Siva  as  the  Unconscious 

^  "This  spurious  work." — See  Earth,  "  Ind.  Ant.,"  vol.  xxiv.  (February  1895). 
"  See  Telang,  "  Ind.  Ant.,"  vol.  v.  p.  287,  who  places  it  before  the  fourteenth 
century. 


SOUTH  INDIA  327 

Spirit  of  the  Universe,  with  which  the  soul  unites  to  realise 
its  ideals. 

According  to  the  teachings  of  Sankara,  the  entire  system 
of  Vedantic  thought  finds  its  natural  culmination  in  an  un- 
compromising declaration  that  the  sole  object  of  the  sacred 
literature  of  India  was  to  reveal  the  delusive  appearance 
of  what  appeals  to  the  senses  as  reality  and  the  doctrine  of 
non-duality. 

The  evidences  of  the  senses  are  wiped  away  as  merely 
delusive.  The  question  of  metaphysic  is  solved,  not  as 
Kant  resolved  it,  by  referring  all  objective  reality  to 
perceptions  of  the  intellect  where  he  sought  a  solution, 
but  in  endeavouring  to  pierce,  in  the  manner  of  Plato,  and 
Parmenides,  beyond  the  reality  itself.  This  objective 
form  was  held  by  Sankara  to  be  but  the  mode  in  which 
the  delusion  of  life  was  mirrored  forth.  This  phase  of 
idealistic  monism  which  is  ably  expounded  in  6ankara's 
commentary  on  the  "Vedanta  Sutras,"  finds  a  popular 
exposition  in  a  song  that  can  be  obtained  from  any 
travelling  pedlar  of  books  in  South  India  for  about  one 
twelfth  of  a  farthing. 

The  song  itself  contains  but  twelve  verses,  said  to  have 
been  addressed  by  Sankara  to  a  learned  Brahman,  whom 
he  found  studying  the  rules  of  Sanskrit  grammar  outside 
a  Hindu  temple.  One  or  other  of  these  verses  is  con- 
stantly recited  with  a  smile  or  a  sigh  by  educated  Hindus 
of  the  South.  The  refrain  all  through  is,  "  Bhaja  Govinda ! " 
or  "  Praise  the  Lord  ! "  It  means  to  a  Hindu  what  "  Praise 
God"  means  to  a  Salvationist.  There  is  a  yawning 
gulf  of  thought  and  feeling,  bred  of  race  and  climate, 
between  the  two  modes  of  expression  of  the  aspirations  of 
those  who  in  East  and  West  use  the  words. 

The  verses  of  Sankara  are  so  terse,  hold  so  much  the 
sense  in  the  sound,  that  it  is  impossible  to  give  their 
meaning  in  a  translation.     As  they  are  unknown  in  the 


328  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

West,  and  so  often  quoted  in  the  East,  their  meaning  is 
here  given  as  true  to  the  original  as  possible. 

The  sage  stands  before  the  Brahman,  who  has  paused 
in  his  studies,  and  declares  the  truth  of  the  emptiness  of 
the  vain  dream  of  life,  and  its  struggles  after  wealth  and 
fame. 

"  Give  up  this  greed,"  is  the  sad  reproof,  "  for  storing 
wealth,  O  Fool !  place  in  your  mind  the  thirst  for  know- 
ledge of  the  Existent,  satisfied  with  what  each  day  brings 
forth." 

"  As  the  water  drop  lies  trembling  on  the  lotus  leaf,  so 
rests  our  fleeting  life.  The  world  is  full  of  sorrow,  seized 
by  pain  and  pride  of  self.  Gain  wealth,  and  then  your 
friends  cling  near ;  sink  low,  and  then  no  one  seeks  news. 
When  well  in  health,  they  ask  your  welfare  in  the  house  ; 
when  the  breath  of  life  goes  forth,  then  the  loving  wife 
shrinks  from  that  body.  Gain  leads  but  to  loss ;  in  wealth 
there  is  no  lasting  happiness ;  in  childhood  we  are  attached 
to  play;  in  youth  we  turn  to  love ;  in  old  age  care  fills  the 
mind.  Towards  (para  Brahman)  God  alone  no  one  is 
inclined.  As  the  soul  moves  from  birth  to  birth,  who  re- 
mains the  wife,  the  son,  the  daughter,  who  you,  or  whence  ? 
Think  truly,  this  life  is  but  an  unreal  dream." 

"  With  mind  fixed  on  truth,  one  becomes  free  from  attach- 
ment. To  one  freed  from  attachment,  there  is  no  delusion  • 
undeluded,  the  soul  springs  clear  to  light  freed  from  all 
bondage.  When  youth  goes,  who  is  moved  by  love  ?  When 
wealth  goes,  who  then  follows  ?  When  the  great  truth,  that 
the  Soul  and  Brahman  are  One  is  known,  what  then  is  this 
passing  show?  Day  and  night,  morning  and  evening, 
Spring  and  Winter  come  and  go,  time  plays  and  age  goes, 
yet  desire  for  life  passeth  not.  Take  no  pride  in  youth, 
friends,  or  riches,  they  all  pass  away  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye.  Give  up  all  this  made  of  Maya,  gain  true  knowledge, 
and  enter  on  the  path  to  Brahman." 


SOUTH  INDIA  329 

Such  has  ever  been  the  incessant  cry  of  cultured 
Brahmanic  thought,  and  of  much  of  Western  pessimism. 
It  was  the  cry  with  which  was  to  be  met  the  fierce 
fanaticism  of  Muhammadanism,  soon  to  burst  forth  in 
relentless  warfare  against  all  idolaters  and  unbelievers  in 
God  and  Muhammad  as  His  sole  Prophet. 

Though  the  darkness  of  desolation,  unrest,  rapine,  and 
war  was  to  settle  over  the  land,  the  Brahmans  of  the 
South  could  hold  on  to  the  even  tenor  of  their  ways,  and 
proclaim  that  the  moans  of  the  suffering,  the  gleam  of  the 
sword,  the  lust  of  conquerors,  and  the  rule  of  the  foreigner, 
were  but  the  unreal  visions  of  a  passing  dream,  woven  out 
by  the  fictitious  power  of  Maya. 

The  strict  Advaita  doctrines  of  Sankara  Acharya  were  no 
doubt  useful  in  their  own  way,  as  opposing  the  heretic 
agnosticism  of  Buddhism.  In  their  inculcation  of  ideal- 
istic non -duality,  and  of  non-reality  of  the  intuition 
of  perception,  they  had  also  their  own  charm  for  the 
dreamer  and  religious  mystic  who  turns  away  from  a  crude 
materialism. 

An  intermediate  resting-place  had,  however,  to  be  found 
for  the  mass  of  the  people  who  placed  their  faith  in  the 
saving  grace  of  a  personal  deity.  In  the  system  of 
Sankara,  this  was  supplied  by  the  sectarian  schools,  which 
hold  that  the  god  Siva  was  a  personal  manifestation  of  the 
Unconscious  Spirit  of  the  Universe,  and  claim  that,  by 
a  worship  of  this  deity,  the  soul  finds  its  salvation. 

The  true  revolt  from  the  teachings  of  Sankara,  and  the 
drifting  of  the  thought  of  India  back  to  its  more  orthodox 
beliefs,  came  in  the  reformation  led  by  the  second  great 
commentator  of  South  India,  the  Brahman  Ramanuja,  born 
at  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century.^  Ramanuja  held 
the  doctrine  of  qualified  non-duality,  according  to  which  the 

1  Monier-Williams,   "Brahmanism  and  Hinduism,''  p.   119: — "Born  1017 
A.D.  at  Parambattur." 


330         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Supreme  Spirit  is  both  the  cause  of  the  visible  world  and 
the  material  from  which  it  is  created.  He  further  proclaimed 
the  adoration  of  the  god  Vishnu,  as  representative  of  the 
Supreme  Spirit,  so  that  the  Heaven  of  the  god  might  be 
ultimately  gained,  and  freedom  from  re-birth  obtained. 
Until  this  consummation  was  arrived  at,  when  the  separate 
spirits  are  reunited  with  the  Supreme  Spirit,  re-birth  occurs 
in  its  incessant  round,  there  being  a  plurality  of  form 
continued  in  respect  of  that  which  is  Soul,  and  that  which 
is  non-Soul.^ 

The  final  step  was  taken  by  Madhava,  the  last  of  the 
Southern  Teachers,  a  renowned  Brahman  of  the  Kanarese 
country  in  South  India,  who  died  towards  the  close  of  the 
twelfth  century.^  By  him  the  worship  of  Vishnu,  or  Hari, 
was  preached  as  the  worship  of  one  Supreme  God,  eter- 
nally existent,  the  world  subsisting  as  his  form,  on  Whom 
the  souls  of  men  are  dependent,  though  abiding  themselves 
distinct  So  the  thought  of  India,  North  and  South, 
remained  divided  between  a  salvation,  from  transmigration, 
by  a  faith  in  Krishna,  or  by  a  worship  of  Vishnu,  or  Siva ; 
the  aspiration  of  the  soul  ever  being  to  find  a  closer  union 
with,  or  knowledge  of,  the  Supreme  Cause  that  manifested 
itself  in  the  works  of  Creation. 

Vedism,  and  the  gods  of  the  Vedas,  had  passed  away 
from  the  memories  of  the  people ;  the  South  had  found  the 
exponents  of  its  intellectual  life  in  the  persons  of  the  great 
scholars,  ^ankara,  Ramanuja,  and  Madhava.  The  deep 
moral  tendencies  of  the  age  were  preserved  in  the 
"  Naladiyar,"  and  "  Kurral "  of  Tiruvalluvar,  and  the  Devaran 
Hymns  of  Sambandha  and  his  disciples.  The  crude  super- 
stitions, lusts,  and  ignorance  of  the  mass  of  the  people 
who  passed   from   the  scene,   leaving  no   literary  record 

'  "Sarva  Darsana  Sangiaha,"  p.  75. 

^  Died  1198  A.D.     P.  Sundaram  Pillai,  "Some  Milestones  in  Tamil  Litera- 
ture," p.  27  {note  1). 


SOUTH  INDIA  331 

behind  them,  were  satisfied  with  worship  of  the  village 
godlings,  ghosts,  and  demons,  with  foul  and  obscene 
carnivals  of  Tantric  orgies,  and  with  stray  and  furtive 
visits  and  offerings  to  the  great  temples  of  the  Hindu 
deities.  New  conquerors  had  come  to  guide  the  destinies 
of  the  land  and  leave  the  people  to  work  out  their  own 
ideas. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  FOREIGNER  IN   THE  LAND. 

When  in  631  of  our  era  Muhammad  proclaimed  war 
against  the  civilised  world,  he  had  first  given  to  all 
idolaters  the  choice  between  the  Koran  and  the  sword. 
All  Jews  and  Christians  who  would  not  accept  a  belief 
in  the  unity  of  God,  and  in  Muhammad  as  the  Prophet 
of  that  God,  were  to  be  subdued  and  made  to  pay  tribute. 
The  creed  of  the  Prophet  known  as  Islam,  or  "submission  to 
the  will  of  God,"  was  outwardly  simple — simple  enough  to 
ensure  for  it  an  early  and  speedy  success.  The  creed  is 
shortly:  "There  is  no  God  but  God,  and  Muhammad  is  His 
Prophet." 

There  are  further  five  daily  prayers,  fastings  in  due 
season,  giving  of  alms,  and  a  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  the 
birthplace  of  the  Prophet 

The  fanatics  of  the  Arabian  desert,  inspired  by  the  wild 
rhetoric  of  the  new  Prophet  who  denounced  idolatry, 
licentiousness,  infanticide,  drunkenness,  and  gambling, 
came  swarming  from  their  tents,  drunk  with  zeal,  to 
propagate  the  creed  and  to  revel  in  the  slaughter  and 
plunder  of  their  opposing  foes.^ 

^  See  an  article  by  Sir  Roland  K.  Wilson  in  the  Indian  Magazine  and  Review 
(December  1896),  p.  634,  criticising  Mr  Arnold's  statement  in  ' '  The  Preaching 
of  Islam,"  that  "  it  is  due  to  the  Muhammadan  legists  and  commentators  that 


THE  FOREIGNER   IN   THE  LAND        333 

Against  the  Western  frontier  of  India,  from  Sind  to 
Peshawar,  the  Muhammadan  wave  of  conquest  ilowed  and 
ebbed  for  four  hundred  years.^  In  Sind  the  Rajput 
garrisons,  unable  to  hold  their  strongholds  against  the 
fierce  Arabs,  placed  their  women  and  children  on  the 
funeral  pyre  there  to  find  in  death  safety  from  dishonour, 
and  fell  themselves  in  one  last  despairing  and  avenging 
onslaught  on  their  enemies.  From  Lahore  the  Hindu 
chieftains  chased  back,  through  the  passes  of  Afghanistan, 
the  raiding  Turks  of  Ghazni  only  to  court  their  own 
avenging  fate. 

The  full  wave  of  desolation  spread  over  the  north-west 
when,  in  1002  A.D.,  Muhammad  of  Ghazni,  born  of  a  TurkI 
father  and  a  Persian  mother,  burst  down  on  Lahore, 
that  ancient  meeting-place  of  many  races.  Its  wealth  was 
carried  back  to  Ghazni,  and  its  chieftain,  the  twice-defeated 
Jaipal,  mounted  the  funeral  pyre,  according  to  the  stern 
dictates  of  his  Hindu  subjects.  For  twenty-five  years 
Muhammad  of  Ghazni  continued,  year  by  year,  his  raids. 
From  the  holy  city  of  Thaneswar,  not  far  from  Delhi,  he 
carried  off  to  his  Afghan  home  the  riches  of  its  great 
temples,  and  two  hundred  thousand  of  its  inhabitants  he 
made  slaves  to  his  soldiery.     At  Kanauj,  north  of  Cawnpur, 

jihad  comes  to  be  interpreted  as  a  religious  war  against  unbelievers,  who  might 
be  attacked  even  though  they  were  not  the  aggressors.  .  .  .  But  though  some 
Muhammadan  legists  have  maintained  the  righteousness  of  unprovoked  war 
against  unbelievers,  none  (as  far  as  I  am  aware)  have  ventured  to  justify  com- 
pulsory conversion,  but  have  always  vindicated,  for  the  conquered,  the  right  of 
retaining  their  own  faith  on  payment  oi  jizyah."  He  writes:  "  What  Mr 
Arnold  will  find  it  difficult  to  disprove  is,  that  the  intimate  companions  and 
immediate  successors  of  Mohamet  considered,  without  a  shadow  of  doubt,  that  they 
had  ample  warrant  in  the  Koran,  and  in  the  example  of  their  master,  for 
extirpating  idolatry  and  enforcing  the  whole  law  of  Islam  throughout  Arabia  at 
the  cost  of  a  most  sanguinary  struggle,  and  for  pushing  hostilities  against  the 
two  neighbouring  empires  feir  beyond  any  possible  requirements  of  self-defence 

in  fact,  without  any  other  limit  than  the  enemy's  power  of  resistance."    Sir 

Roland  Wilson,  however,  continues  :  "We  are  willing  to  allow  that  mediseval 
Islam  was,  by  one  degree,  less  tolerant  than  mediaeval  Christendom." 
^  From  647  to  1030,  the  death  of  Muhammad  of  Ghazni, 


334  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

he  received  the  submission  of  its  garrison,  said  to  have 
consisted  of  eighty  thousand  men  in  armour,  fifty  thousand 
cavalry,  and  five  hundred  thousand  foot  men.  With  the 
weahh  of  Muttra — the  rubies,  sapphires,  and  pearls  of  its 
idols — he  raised  Ghaznl  from  a  hovel  of  mud  huts  to  a 
city  of  marble  palaces,  mosques,  domes,  and  pillared  halls. 
From  the  ocean-beaten  temple  of  Somnath  in  Guzarat, 
with  its  vast  array  of  Brahman  priests  and  dancing-girls,  he 
carried  away  the  massive  gates,  twelve  phallic  emblems,^ 
and  a  vast  store  of  treasure,  and  left  nothing  behind  him 
but  the  slain  garrison  and  dejected  priesthood. 

Aryanism  in  India  was  about  to  realise  what,  happily  in 
the  West,  remained  but  the  shadow  of  a  passing  danger. 
The  fate  that  overtook  the  East  was  one  visioned  forth  for 
the  West  in  the  words  of  Freeman :  "  If  Constantinople 
had  been  taken  by  the  Muhammadans  before  the  nations 
of  Western  Europe  had  at  all  grown  up,  it  would  seem  as  if 
the  Christian  religion  and  European  civilisation  must  have 
been  swept  away  from  the  earth." 

Spared  from  Muhammadan  dominion,  a  Sivaji,  or  a 
Ranjit  Singh  might  have  arisen  in  India  and  founded  a 
more  lasting  native  rule  than  even  that  of  Chandra  Gupta, 
Asoka,  or  Harsha  Vardhana.  Even  had  that  been  so,  it 
seems  impossible  that  Maratha  could  ever  have  coalesced 
with  Sikh  or  Rajput  to  bend  the  distant  Easterns  and  far- 
off  Southerns  to  yield  obedience  to  the  supremacy  of  any 
one  indigenous  dynasty.  Even  had  a  Hindu  Akbar,  or 
Aurangzlb  sprung  up  and  extended  his  rule  over  Maratha, 
Rajput,  Sikh,  Bengali,  and  the  clansmen  of  South  India, 
the  sceptre  would  soon  have  passed  from  the  hands  of  one 
or  other  of  his  degenerate  descendants,  and  the  land  been 
plunged  in  anarchy  such  cis  that  from  which  the  Mughal 

*  R.  P.  Kaikaria,  Calcutta  Reuiew  (October  1895),  p.  411  : — "It  is  clear 
from  Albiruni  that  the  idol  of  Somnath  was  merely  a  solid  piece  of  stone, 
having  no  hollow  in  which  jewels  and  precious  stones  could  be  concealed  to 
reward  the  pious  zeal  of  an  iconoclast." 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        335 

Aurangzib,  with  his  army  of  three  hundred  thousand  horse 
and  four  hundred  thousand  men,  could  not  for  long  preserve 
it.  As  it  was,  the  rivalries  between  the  Rajput  Prithivi 
Raja,^  the  last  great  Chauhan  king  of  Delhi  and  Ajmere, 
and  the  Rahtor  prince  of  Kanauj  led,  before  the  close  of 
the  twelfth  century,  to  the  defeat  and  overthrow  of  both  by 
the  Afghans  of  Ghor.  The  new  Muhammadan  Emperor 
raided  the  country  as  far  as  Benares  and  Gwalior,  while  his 
generals  drove  out  (1203)  the  distant  Sen  king  of  Bengal 
from  the  ancient  capital  at  Nadiya.^ 

This  very  lack  of  unity  and  central  authority,  however, 
saved  Brahmanism  from  disappearing  before  the  attacks  of 
a  rival  creed  or  foreign  rulers.  The  whole  fabric  of 
Buddhism  disappeared,  for  when  once  its  mendicant  and 
celibate  monks  were  slain,  and  their  monasteries  burned, 
it  fell  to  decay.  The  idols  and  temples  of  the  Hindus  were 
shattered  to  pieces,  and  their  wealth  carried  off  to  Ghaznl 
and  Ghor ;  the  Brahmans  were  slain  in  Kanauj,  Muttra, 
Benares,  and  at  distant  Somnath.  Nevertheless,  the  roots 
of  Brahmanism  remained  firmly  fixed  in  the  very  structure 
of  Indian  life,  social  observances,  and  in  its  undecaying 
literature.  For  three  hundred  years  the  Muhammadan  rule 
in  India  strove  in  vain  to  hold  the  outlying  nationalities 
subject  to  its  sway.  The  early  Muhammadan  invaders  of 
India  swarmed  into  the  land  in  the  double  rdle  of  religious 
enthusiasts  with  a  mission  to  root  out  unbelief  in  the 
teachings  of  the  Koran,  and  of  roving  bands  of  adventurers 
eager  to  seize  the  wealth  of  the  Hindu  temples.     Disunited 

1  PrithiRaja-Rayasaof  Chand.  Todinhis  "  Rajasthan"(vol.  i.  p.  254,  note) 
states  he  had  translated  thirty  thousand  stanzas.  Grierson  ("Literature  of 
Hindustan ,"  p.  3)  gives  an  account  of  the  work  done  on  this  history ;  but 
in  the  "Padumawati  Bib.  Ind."  (Calcutta,  1894,  Introd.),  he  states  that  the 
genuineness  of  this  work  is  doubtful.  See  also  J.B.R.A.S.  (1868),  vol. 
xxxvii.  p.  119;  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  i. 

2  The  Rajput  clans  of  North  India  departed  to  the  desert  east  of  the  Indus, 
where  they  established  their  chieftainship  over  their  new  homes,  still  known 
as  Rajputana. 


336  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

among  themselves  as  these  raiders  were,  they  were  for  long 
unable  to  gain  a  resting-place  east  of  the  Indus,  and  when 
at  length  they  came  in  numbers  sufficient  to  force  their  way 
to  Delhi,  and  there  establish  a  permanent  centre  for  revenue 
exactions,  they  were  ever  menaced  with  the  swarming-down 
of  new  robber  bands  from  central  Asia;  while  the  basis  on 
which  Muhammadanism  was  founded  precluded  their  com- 
promising with,  or  conciliating  of,  the  Hindu  people  in  order 
to  gain  their  aid  or  support  in  repelling  new  invaders.  The 
Rajputs  might  be  driven  to  the  deserts  of  Rajputana,  their 
proud  reserve  survived  not  only  to  defy  the  august  power  of 
Akbar,but  for  the  best  of  their  chivalry  and  manhood  to  come 
forth  and  parade  the  London  streets  and  grace  the  triumph 
of  their  sovereign  lady,  the  Queen-Empress  of  India. 

Though  the  unwarlike  people  of  Bengal  were  obliged 
to  submit,  in  1203,  to  Bkhtiyar  Khiljl,  the  general  of 
Muhammad  of  Ghor,  the  lower  province  soon  became 
independent  of  the  distant  authority  of  the  Delhi  emperor, 
and  in  1340  set  up  an  independent  ruler  of  its  own,  in  the 
person  of  the  local  governor,  Fakir-ud-din,  who  was  suc- 
ceeded by  a  line  of  twenty  sovereigns  until  Akbar,  in  1 576, 
reconquered  the  revolted  province. 

Muhammad  of  Ghor,  who  may  be  classed  as  the  first 
Muhammadan  ruler  of  India,  fell  before  a  fierce  attack  of  a 
body  of  hill  Gakkars,  from  the  Sewalik  hills,  who  crept  into 
the  monarch's  tent  and,  as  he  lay  sleeping,  stabbed  him  to 
death  with  no  less  than  twenty-two  wounds,  before  the 
gaze  of  his  petrified  attendants.^  On  his  death,  Katb-ud- 
dln,  a  Turki  slave — whose  name  is  remembered  by  the  great 
mosque  he  built  at  Delhi,  and  the  majestic  minar,  rivalling 
in  finish  and  moulding,  though  not  in  height,  the  Campanile 
at  Florence — proclaimed  himself,  at  Delhi,  monarch  of  all 
India.  His  d3masty,  which  lasted  until  1290,  continued 
the  ceaseless  contest  against  Rajput  princes,  fierce  hill 

*  See  Syed  Mahomed  Latif,  "  History  of  the  Panjab,"  p.  94. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        337 

tribes,  revolting  Hindu  principalities,  and  incursive  bands 
of  warlike  Mughals,  who  rode  down  to  pillage  the  plain- 
country  east  of  the  Indus.  The  Khiljl  and  Tughlak 
dynasties  followed,  until  at  length,  in  1 393,  the  lame  Timur, 
or  Tamerlane,  named  by  Ferishta  "  The  Firebrand  of  the 
Universe,"  collected  together  his  wild  horsemen,  swept 
down  through  the  north-west  passes  of  Afghanistan,  and 
marched  towards  Delhi.  "  My  principal  object  in  coming 
to  Hindustan,"  says  Timur,  "  and  in  undergoing  all  this  toil 
and  hardship,  was  to  accomplish  two  things.  The  first  was 
to  war  with  infidels,  the  enemies  of  the  Muhammadan 
religion,  and  by  this  religious  warfare  to  acquire  some 
claim  to  reward  in  the  life  to  come.  The  other  was  a 
worldly  object,  that  the  army  of  Islam  might  gain  some- 
thing by  plundering  the  wealth  of  the  infidels :  plunder  in 
war  is  as  lawful  as  their  mother's  milk  to  Mussulmans 
who  fight  for  their  faith,  and  the  consuming  of  that  which 
is  lawful  is  a  means  of  grace."  ^ 

The  famed  city  of  Delhi  was  captured  by  a  ruse,  and  for 
five  days  the  newly-proclaimed  emperor  sat  in  the  mosque, 
constructed  by  Firoz  Tughlak,  giving  praise  to  God  that 
the  idolaters  had  submitted  like  "  sheep  to  the  slaughter," 
and  that  the  Hindus  lay  dead  in  heaps  so  that  the  streets 
were  impassable.  The  fabulous  wealth  of  Delhi  was  borne 
away;  a  hundred  thousand  Hindu  prisoners  were  slain  "with 
the  sword  of  holy  war " ;  the  women  were  dragged  into 
slavery,  and  the  stone  masons  and  workers  in  marble  were 
driven  across  the  wasted  land  of  the  Panjab,  and  beyond 
the  bleak  passes  of  Afghanistan,  to  build,  for  the  new 
conqueror  of  the  world — from  Delhi  in  the  south  to  Siberia 
in  the  north,  from  Syria  in  the  west  to  China  in  the  east — 
a  mosque  at  Samarkhand.  His  descendants  were  to  found 
the  great  Mughal  Empire  of  India,  and  point  the  lesson 
which  Timur  had  learned  before  he  ventured  on  his  rapid 
1  Ilolden,  E.,  "  Mughal  Emperors,"  p.  52. 

y 


338  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

raids  into  the  country.  The  lesson  was  plainly  taught  to 
Timur  in  the  answer  given  by  those  of  his  court  whom  he 
consulted  on  the  enterprise  :  "  If  we  tarry  in  that  land  our 
posterity  will  be  lost,  and  our  children  and  our  grand- 
children will  degenerate  from  the  vigour  of  their  forefathers 
and  become  speakers  of  the  language  of  Hind."  ^ 

For  over  a  century  after  the  passing-away  of  Timur, 
weak  dynasties,  Sayyid  and  Lodi,  held  a  feeble  rule  around 
Delhi  and  Agra  until  the  so-called  Mughal  invasion  of  Babar. 
During  the  early  centuries  of  Muhammadan  raids  and 
rule,  the  intellectual  life  of  Northern  India  seems  to  have 
been  seized  with  a  paralysis  that  crept  even  as  far  to  the 
east  as  Mithila  or  North  Behar,  which  had  remained  the 
great  centre  of  philosophic  thought  since  the  days  of 
Janaka,  King  of  the  Videhas.  It  was  a  palsy  under  which 
Mithila  sank  to  decrepitude. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  the  great  logician  of  India, 
Raghunath,  had  to  turn  to  where  vitality  alone  re- 
mained—  to  the  land  where  the  torch  of  learning  has 
been  kept  burning  down  to  the  present  day — to  Bengal, 
where  he  established,  at  Navadvip,  the  most  renowned 
school  of  logic  in  all  India.  It  was  Bengal  that  saw 
almost  a  second  Buddha  appear  in  the  ecstatic  dreamer 
and  revivalist,  Chaitanya,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  not, 
as  might  have  been  expected,  in  Magadha  or  South  Behar. 
Here  Kullaka  Bhatta  wrote  his  famous  commentary  on 
"Manu"  in  the  fourteenth  century,  almost  five  centuries 
after  Mithila  had  had  learning  enough  to  send  forth 
Medatithi,  the  second  great  commentator  of  the  same 
sacred  law  book  of  the  Hindus.  It  was  in  Bengal  also 
that  Jimutavahana  wrote,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  the 
"Dayabhaga,"  a  work  which  has  become  there  the  re- 
cognised law  book  on  Hindu  succession  and  inheritance, 

^  "Institutes,  Politicalaiid Military,  writtenoriginallyintheMogulLanguageby 
tJie  Great  Timour,"  published.  Clarendon  Press  (1783),  by  J.  White,  B.D.,p.  131. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN   THE  LAND        339 

a  task  that  Vijnanesvara  had  done  in  his  "  Mitakshara," 
or  "  Commentary  on  the  Law  Book  of  Yajnavalkya,"  in  the 
eleventh  century  for  Behar  and  the  West. 

Bengal  had,  however,  produced  for  itself  a  poet  as  early 
as  the  twelfth  century.  Set  to  the  sweetest  music  of  sound 
and  of  moving  rhythm  of  which  the  Sanskrit  language  has 
been  found  capable,  Jaya  Deva  had  sung  the  theme  that 
became,  in  one  form  or  another,  universal  in  subsequent 
Indian  literature.  It  was  the  mystic  theme  of  the  longing  of 
the  soul  to  find  union  with,  or  absorption  into,  the  Divine 
Essence,  personified  in  one  or  other  of  the  Hindu  deities, 
Rama  or  Krishna.  There  is  no  direct  evidence  that  the 
poem  itself  was  written  with  any  religious  purport.  It 
simply  tells  of  the  longings  and  laments  of  Radha,  the 
favourite  of  Krishna,  for  her  lord  and  lover.  Still,  all 
Vaishnavites  take  the  poem  as  the  mystic  rendering  of  the 
longing  of  the  soul  for  the  Divine.^  Jaya  Deva  ^  was  born 
in  the  Birbhum  district  of  Bengal,  in  the  twelfth  century. 

The  poem  opens  with  the  customary  reverence  to 
GaneSa,  the  opposing  deity  of  all  good  efforts.  The 
praises  of  Vishnu  are  then  sung,  and  the  deeds  recited 
done  during  his  descent  on  earth  in  various  forms,  in  which 
he  still  retained  his  Divine  Essence.  His  first  descent 
was  as  the  Fish  that  bore  to  a  resting-place,  on  the  northern 
mountains,  the  ship  in  which  Manu  escaped  from  the 
Flood.  The  second  form  in  which  Vishnu  appeared  was  as 
a  Tortoise,  on  whose  back  was  suspended  the  mountain 
Mandara,  round  which  was  wound  the  huge  serpent  Sesha, 
to  form  a  rope  that  the  gods  and  demons  might  churn  the 
waters  of  the  flood,  and  bring  to  the  surface  the  fourteen 
precious  treasures   lost   during  the  deluge.      The  last  of 

^  Webf  r,  "  History  of  Indian  Literature,"  p.  210. 

^  Monier- Williams,  "  Hinduism,"  p.  139.  The  Nimbarkas,  a  Vaishnavite 
sect,  without  a  literature,  who  worship  Krishna  and  Radha,  claim  Jaya  Deva 
as  a  follower  of  their  founder,  Nimbarka,  or  Nimbaditya,  of  the  twelfth 
century. 


340         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

these  lost  treasures  was  the  poison  which  would  have 
destroyed  humanity  had  it  not  been  drunk  by  Siva,  whose 
neck  it  burned  so  badly  that  he  still  bears  the  mark — the 
symbol  of  the  sufferings  he  bore  for  man — and  is  therefore 
called  "  The  Blue-throated  God." 

Again  Vishnu  descended  in  the  form  of  a  Boar,  to  raise 
the  earth  from  below  the  waters  and  hold  it  firm.  As  the 
Man-Lion,  Vishnu  came  on  earth  to  tear  to  pieces  the 
monster,  Hiranya  Kasipa,  whom  the  god  Brahma  had 
given  security  from  mortal  injury.  The  fifth  incarnation 
the  poet  reverences  is  that  of  the  Dwarf,  the  form  in 
which  Vishnu  appeared  before  the  demon,  Bali,  who  had 
usurped  dominion  over  the  three  worlds.  Bali,  in  jest, 
offered  the  Dwarf  so  much  of  the  worlds  cis  he  could  stride 
over  in  three  steps,  whereon,  in  three  strides,  the  deity  re- 
annexed  the  three  worlds.  The  sixth  incarnation  is  that 
of  Parasu  Rama,  or  "  Rama  with  the  Axe,"  who  came  to 
extirpate  the  warrior  caste,  and  re-establish  Brahmanical 
might.  The  seventh  was  that  of  Rama  Chandra,  "The 
Moon-like  Rama,"  whose  victory  over  Ravana  is  told  in 
the  "  Ramayana."  The  eighth  form  was  that  of  Krishna, 
"  The  Dark  God,"  the  chief  of  the  Yadus,  the  charioteer  to 
Arjuna  when  the  Pandavas  fought  against  the  Kurus.  The 
ninth  incarnation  was  that  of  Buddha,  who  came  to  free 
the  land  from  Vedic  sacrifices  of  animals.  The  last  in- 
carnation, one  yet  to  come,  is  that  of  Kalki,  who  will 
appear  seated  on  a  white  horse,  bearing  a  sword  to  slay 
all  those  who  in  the  Kali,  or  "  depraved  age,"  do  wrong  and 
work  unrighteousness.  The  Kali,  or  "present  age,"  is 
that  described  in  the  "  Vishnu  Purana"  :^ — 

"The  observance  of  caste,  order,  and  institutes  will  not  prevail  in  the 
Kali  Age,  nor  will  that  of  the  ceremonial  enjoined  by  the '  Sama,' 
'Rik,'  and  'Yajur  Vedas.'  Marriages,  in  this  Age,  will  not  be 
conformable  to  the  ritual,  nor  will  the  rules  that  connect  the 

1  Wilson,  H.  H.,  "Vishnu  Purana,"  pp.  622-23. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        341 

spiritual  preceptor  and  his  disciple  be  in  force.  The  laws  that 
regulate  the  conduct  of  husband  and  wife  will  be  disregarded, 
and  oblations  to  the  gods  with  fire  no  longer  be  offered.  In 
whatever  family  he  may  be  born,  a  powerful  and  rich  man  will 
be  held  entitled  to  espouse  maidens  of  every  tribe.  A  regenerate 
man  will  be  initiated  in  any  way  whatever,  and  such  acts  of 
penance  as  may  be  performed  will  be  unattended  by  any  results. 
Every  text  will  be  Scripture  that  people  choose  to  think  so  : 
all  gods  will  be  gods  to  them  that  worship  them,  and  all  orders 
of  life  will  be  common  alike  to  all  persons.  In  the  Kali  Age, 
fasting,  austerity,  liberality,  practised  according  to  the  pleasure 
of  those  by  whom  they  are  observed,  will  constitute  righteous- 
ness. Pride  of  wealth  will  be  inspired  by  very  insignificant 
possessions.  Pride  of  beauty  will  be  prompted  by  (no  other 
personal  charm  than  fine)  hair.  Gold,  jewels,  diamonds, 
clothes,  will  all  have  perished,  and  then  hair  will  be  the  only 
ornament  with  which  women  can  decorate  themselves.  Wives 
will  desert  their  husbands  when  they  lose  their  property ;  and 
they  only  who  are  wealthy  will  be  considered  by  women  as 
their  lords.  He  who  gives  away  much  money  will  be  the 
master  of  men,  and  family  descent  will  no  longer  be  a  title 
of  supremacy.  Accumulated  treasures  will  be  expended  on 
(ostentatious)  dwellings.  The  minds  of  men  will  be  wholly 
occupied  in  acquiring  wealth,  and  wealth  will  be  Spent  solely 
on  selfish  gratifications.  Women  will  follow  their  inclinations, 
and  be  ever  fond  of  pleasure.  Men  will  fix  their  desires  upon 
riches  even  though  dishonestly  acquired.  No  man  will  part 
with  the  smallest  fraction  of  the  smallest  coin,  though  entreated 
by  a  friend.  Men  of  all  degrees  will  conceit  themselves  to  be 
equal  with  Brahmans.  Cows  will  be  held  in  esteem  only  as 
they  supply  milk.  The  people  will  be  almost  always  in  dread 
of  dearth,  and  apprehensive  of  scarcity,  and  will  hence  ever 
be  watching  the  appearances  of  the  sky ;  they  will  all  live, 
like  anchorets,  upon  leaves,  and  roots,  and  fruit,  and  put  a 
period  to  their  lives  through  fear  of  famine  and  want.  In  truth, 
there  will  never  be  abundance  in  the  Kali  Age,  and  men  will 
never  enjoy  pleasure  and  happiness.  They  will  take  their  food 
without  previous  ablution,  and  without  worshipping  fire,  gods, 
or  guests,  or  offering  obsequial  libations  to  their  progenitors. 
The  women  will  be  fickle,  short  of  stature,  gluttonous  ;  they 
will  have  many  children  and  little  means.  Scratching  their 
heads  with  both  hands,  they  will  pay  no  attention  to  the 
commands  of  their  husbands  or  parents.  Tney  will  be  selfish, 
abject,  and  slatternly  ;  they  will  be  scolds  and  liars  ;  they  will 


342  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

be  indecent  and  immoral  in  their  conduct,  and  will  ever  attach 
themselves  to  dissolute  men.  Youths,  although  disregarding 
the  rules  of  studentship,  will  study  the  '  Vedas.'  Householders 
will  neither  sacrifice  nor  practise  becoming  liberality.  Anchorets 
will  subsist  upon  food  accepted  firom  rustics,  and  mendicants 
will  be  influenced  by  regard  for  fiiends  and  associates.  Princes, 
instead  of  protecting,  will  plunder  their  subjects,  and  under 
the  pretext  of  levying  customs,  will  rob  merchants  of  their 
property.'' 

The  poet,  having  duly  honoured  Vishnu,  commences  the 
special  subject  of  the  poem,  the  love  of  Radha  for  the  dark 
god  Krishna. 

With  all  the  sensuous  languor  of  an  Eastern  mind,  the 
loves  of  the  gopis,  or  shepherd  girls,  who  woo  the  god,  are  set 
to  the  gentle  music  and  soft  sound  to  which  the  Bengali 
poet  has  moulded  the  sounding  Sanskrit.  As  the  love-sick 
shepherdesses  flit  round  the  god,  Radha,  the  favourite  of 
Krishna,  remains  apart  pouring  forth  her  longings  for  the 
near  presence  of  her  lover.  She  conjures  up  to  herself 
memories  of  his  might  and  majesty,  his  once-whispered 
words  of  love,  when  she  alone  was  his  loved  bride. 

The  love  of  Radha  is  also  remembered  by  Krishna  when 
he  has  freed  himself  from  the  allurements  of  the  five 
shepherdesses — perhaps  allegorical  of  the  five  senses.  The 
form  of  Radha  rises  up  before  him  ;  he  prays  her  to  return, 
to  fear  no  more,  for  he  no  longer  bears  the  form  of  the 
fierce  god  who  roams  with  ash-besmeared  and  matted 
locks.  He  has  covered  himself  with  the  dust  of  the  sweet 
sandal-wood,  and  wears  a  dark  lotus  leaf  to  conceal  the 
blue  stain  his  throat  bears.  The  words  of  Radha  are  then 
borne  to  Krishna.  The  messenger  tells  how  she  sits 
beneath  the  moonbeams  weeping  over  her  deep  sorrow, 
and  the  separation  of  her  soul  from  that  of  her  beloved. 
The  soft  south  wind,  as  it  steals  round  her  limbs,  soothes 
her  no  longer ;  it  is  as  though  it  had  crept  through  sandal 
trees  where  it  had  received  the  taint  of  the  poisoned  breath 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        343 

of  serpents.  She  is  languid  and  weary ;  she  pants  to  be 
once  more  near  to  her  beloved  in  whom  alone  her  hopes 
are  centred.  Krishna  cries  for  her  to  come,  but  as  she 
approaches,  adorned  with  all  her  ornaments,  her  steps 
falter.  She  weeps,  she  cries  on  Hari,  her  lord,  to  come  and 
support  her  failing  feet ;  she  sinks  to  the  ground,  to  embrace, 
to  kiss  the  shadow  of  the  passing  dark  blue  cloud,  imagin- 
ing that  it  is  Krishna  who  approaches  near.  Her  strength 
fails  to  bear  her  further.  She  weeps,  she  wails,  for  in  her 
fancy  she  sees  the  lips  of  a  rival  touching  those  of  her 
lord,  the  rival's  long  black  hair  trailing  over  the  dark  god's 
face,  like  to  evening  clouds  sweeping  past  the  clear  moon ; 
the  rival  twines  white  flowers  in  his  dark  locks.  Radha's 
companion  prays  her  to  tarry  not,  to  hasten  to  the  god, 
for  she  has  teeth  with  the  gleam  of  the  moon  ;  she  has  but 
to  fall  at  her  lord's  feet  and  claim  his  love  with  gentle  words 
of  faith. 

Let  the  lyric  raptures  of  the  poem  be  taken  as  they  fliay, 
either  as  an  allegory  of  the  soul  striving  to  pierce  through 
the  bondage  of  the  sense  and  find  rest,  or  else  as  a  love 
song,  too  sensuous  and  unrestrained  for  Western  ideas, 
it  is  a  poem  that  found  its  way  to  the  hearts  of  the  myriads 
of  pilgrims  who  have,  for  centuries  past,  journeyed  to  the 
birthplace  of  Jaya  Deva,  crying  out  the  praises  of  Vishnu, 
Krishna,  Hari,  Lord  of  the  Braided  Locks,  Lord  of  the  World. 
Although  portions  of  the  poem  are  untranslatable  from 
the  poet's  unrestraint,  yet  his  artistic  reserve  saved  him 
from  the  gross  lewdness  which  is  too  often,  especially  in 
Bengalj  the  besetting  sin  of  so  many  of  his  imitators  and 
successors.  The  poem  of  Jaya  Deva  marks  the  gradual 
development  in  the  twelfth  century  of  the  doctrine  of  faith 
iphakti),  of  devotion,  and  personal  love  towards  a  deity  in 
human  form.  The  Krishna  of  the  "  Gita  Govinda "  is  now 
usually  taken  by  all  the  Vaishnavites  as  an  incarnation  of 
the  Divine  Essence.     In  the  poem  itself  there  is  no  direct 


344  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

indication  that  its  object  was  to  found  any  phase  of  religion 
based  on  the  saving  grace  of  a  faith  in  Krishna.  One 
verse  is  often  quoted  in  proof  of  the  poem's  mystic  and 
religious  significance.  Krishna,  in  despair  at  the  anger  of 
Radha,  is  represented  as  kneeling  down,  and  praying  her  to 
place  her  feet  on  his  head.  Later  tradition  holds  that  the 
poet  could  never  have  so  far  forgotten  the  divine  nature  of 
Krishna  as  to  represent  him  thus  addressing  Radha,  and 
asserts  that  Krishna  himself  wrote  these  words.  The  story 
is  that,  in  the  absence  of  Jaya  Deva,  the  god  entered  his 
house  and  inserted  these  words  in  a  half-finished  line. 
The  poet  had  commenced  the  line  with  the  words  :  "  On  my 
head  as  an  ornament,"  and  then,  pausing,  had  gone  out  to 
consider  how  he  could  possibly  represent  the  god  as  having 
a  foot  placed  on  his  head.  In  his  absence,  Krishna,  in  the 
form  of  Jaya  Deva,  appeared  and  finished  the  line,  so  that 
it  now  reads :  "  On  my  head  as  an  ornament  place  thy 
beauteous  feet." 

This  doctrine  of "  bhakti,"  or  faith,  so  often  ascribed  to 
Christian  influence,  became  from  its  inculcation  in  the 
"  Bhagavad  Gita,"  and  fuller  exposition  in  the  "  Bhagavad 
Purana,"  and  "  Bhakti  Sutra "  of  Sandilya  in  the  twelfth 
century,  the  almost  pervading  theme  of  Indian  literature. 
It  passed  from  the  system  of  Yoga,  or  attainment  of 
absorption  of  the  Soul  into  the  essence  of  the  deity  in 
whom  faith  is  placed,  to  its  final  development  in  the  hope 
of  salvation,  following  from  a  faith  or  absolute  belief  in 
the  words  and  doctrines  of  the  great  teachers,  such  as 
^ankara  Acharya,  Ramanuja,  Ramanand,  Bassava,  Vallabha 
Acharya  and  the  Sikh  gurus.i 

From  the  commencement  of   the   fourteenth    century, 

almost  coincident  with  the  disappearance  of  Tamerlane, 

with  his  blood-stained  horsemen  across  the  passes  to  the 

•  For  erotic  literature,  MfiBeames,  J.,  "Ind.  Ant.,"i.  215  ;  "Vishnu  Purana," 
xiv.  (Preface) ;  Wilson,  "  Select  Works,"  vol.  i.  161.  Muir,  "  Metrical  Trans.'' 
(Introd.),  gives  full  account  of  connection  between  Christianity  and  Hinduism. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        345 

north-west,  when  the  Muhammadan  Sayyid^  and  Lodi^ 
dynasties  ruled  from  Delhi  with  what  feeble  power  they 
possessed  until  the  arrival  of  the  Mughal  Babar,  the 
Gangetic  valley  and  the  East  saw  a  great  literary  revival 
centring  itself  around  the  doctrines  of  Vaishnavism. 
Ramanand*  early  heralded  in  the  worship  of  Vishnu,  as 
incarnated  in  Rama,  the  hero  of  the  "  Ramayana,"  and 
in  the  lands  where  he  sang  his  songs,  especially  near 
Agra,  his  sects,  the  Ramavats,  or  Ramanandls,*  still  form 
a  large  community. 

The  most  famous  of  all  Ramanand's  early  disciples 
was  one  Kablr,^  a  weaver  of  Benares,  reputed*  to  have 
been  the  son  of  a  virgin  Brahman  woman.  His  writings, 
especially  the  "Sukh  Nidhan,"  are  quoted  widely  at  the 
present  day,  and  mark  the  tendency  of  the  time,  under 
the  stress  of  contact  with  Muhammadanism,  to  break 
free  from  the  exclusive  bondage  to  Hindu  sacred  litera- 
ture, and  rise  above  the  restrictions  of  caste,  sect,  and  the 
bowing-down  to  idols.  In  place  of  these  there  was 
inculcated  faith  in  one  Vedantic^  conception  of  a  deity 
addressed  as  "Ali"  by  the  Muhammadans,  and  "Rama"  by 
Hindus.  To  this  was  added  a  belief  in  the  guidance  of 
a  guru,  or  spiritual  preceptor,  the  principle  that  in  time 
welded  the  religious  sect  of  Sikhs,  or  disciples  of  Nanak, 
into  a  political  power  under  the  tenth  Panjab  guru,  Govind 
Singh. 

In  the  "  SabdabalT,"  or  "  One  Thousand  Sayings  of  Kablr," 
the  Vedantic  doctrine  of  Maya,  the  Jaina,  Buddhistic,  and 
Brahmanic  doctrines  of  compassion  towards  all  life  were 

1 1414-50.  °  1450-1526. 

3  Grierson,  "  Modem  Literature  of  Hindustan,''  p.  7: — "  I  have  collected 
hymns  written  by,  or  purporting  to  have  been  written  by  him,  as  far  east  as 
Mithila." 

*  Wilson,  H.  H.,  "  Religious  Sects,"  p.  67. 

'  Hunter,  "Indian  Empire,"  p.  269  (1380-1420). 

«  In  the  "  Bhakta  Mala."  '  Earth,  "Rel.  of  India,"  239. 


346  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

brought  side  by  side  with  the  monotheistic  conception  of 
Vishnu :  ^ — 

"  To  Ali  and  Rama  we  owe  our  existence,  and  should  therefore  show 
similar  tenderness  to  all  that  live.  Of  what  avail  is  it  to  shave 
your  head,  prostrate  yourself  on  the  ground,  or  immerse  your 
body  in  the  stream,  whilst  you  shed  blood  you  call  yourself 
pure  and  boast  of  virtues  that  you  never  display.  Of  what 
benefit  is  cleaning  your  mouth,  counting  your  beads,  performing 
ablution,  and  bowing  yourself  in  temples,  when,  whilst  you 
mutter  your  prayers,  or  journey  to  Mecca  and  Medina,  deceit- 
fiilness  is  in  your  heart  ?  The  Hindu  fasts  every  eleventh  day, 
the  Mussulman  during  the  Ramazan.  Who  formed  the  remain- 
ing months  and  days  that  you  should  venerate  but  one  ?  If  the 
Creator  dwells  in  Tabernacles,  whose  residence  is  the  universe  ? 
Wlio  has  beheld  Rama  seated  amongst  images,  or  foimd  him 
at  the  shrine  to  which  the  Pilgrim  has  directed  his  steps  ?  .  .  . 
Behold  but  one  in  all  things,  it  is  the  second  that  leads  you 
astray.  Every  man  and  woman  that  has  ever  been  bom  is  of 
the  same  nature  with  yourself." 

On  the  death  of  Kabir,  the  Hindus  and  Muhammadans 
are  represented  by  tradition  as  disputing  over  their  re- 
spective rights  to  claim  the  body  of  the  teacher.  The 
Muhammadans,  according  to  their  custom,  desired  to 
bury  it,  the  Hindus  to  burn  it.  Kabir,  it  is  said, 
appeared  in  the  midst  of  the  disputants  and  directed 
both  Hindus  and  Muhammadans  to  raise  the  cloth 
covering  his  supposed  remains.  Beneath  the  cloth  they 
found  nothing  but  a  heap  of  flowers.  In  the  holy  city 
of  Benares  half  of  the  flowers  were  burnt  by  the  Hindus, 
and  there  the  ashes  were  kept  as  sacred  relics ;  half 
were  claimed  by  the  Muhammadans,  who  buried  them 
beneath  a  tomb  near  Gorakhpur.^ 

All  over  the  land  the  loves  of  Sita  for  Rama,  of 
Radha  for  Krishna,  were  sung  in  more  or  less  realistic 
or    mystic    significance.       As    all    hopes    of    a    national 

1  Wilson,  H.  H.,  "  Religious  Sects,"  "Sabda,"lvi.  p.  8i. 
^  Flourished  in  1400  a.d. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN   THE  LAND        347 

existence  were  further  fading  away,  the  people  seemed 
in  their  loneliness  to  be  wailing  forth  their  despairing  cry 
for  the  sympathy  of  a  human  or  Divine  love  or  aid. 

To  the  East,  in  Behar,  Bidyapati  Thakur  told  in  his 
passionate  and  never  -  imitated  sonnets,  in  the  Maithili 
dialect,  the  longings  of  the  Soul  for  God,  in  the 
allegorical  form  of  the  love  of  Radha  for  Krishna.  In 
the  songs  of  Chandldas,  the  imitator  of  Bidyapati  in 
Bengal,  a  deeper  note,  though  not  so  sweet,  is  given  of 
the  same  phase  of  thought  which  sent  the  intellectual 
life  of  the  time  in  on  itself  to  brood  over  a  love  of  God 
for  humanity,  and  humanity  for  God,  in  times  when 
Mughal  raids  had,  for  their  rallying  cry,  the  Prophet's 
declaration  of  a  Divine  revelation :  "  Slay  the  unbeliever 
and  infidel  where  he  may  be  found."  ^ 

Chandidas  sang  the  same  wail  of  love  in  which  the 
Soul,  personified  as  Radha,  pours  forth  her  love  for  the 
Divine,  as  incarnate  in  Krishna. 

This  surrender  of  the  Soul  and  the  Self,  as  dreamed  of 
in  all  the  true  mystic  symbolism  of  Jaya  Deva,  reached  its 
tenderest,  though  perhaps  not  its  truest,  depths  in  the 
vision  of  Mira  Bai,^  of  Mewar,  in  the  West  of  Hindustan, 
in  the  fifteenth  century,  as  it  did  in  the  sixteenth  century 
in  Spain  in  the  ecstasies  of  Santa  Theresa.^  Mira  Bai's 
commentary  on  the  "  Gita  Govinda "  shows  her  passionate 
devotion  to  the  form  of  Krishna  she  worshipped,  while 
songs  of  her  own  composition*  are  sung  far  and  wide, 
from  Dvaraka  to  Mithila.  Tradition  loves  to  tell  how, 
as  she  worshipped  the  image  of  Krishna,  pouring  forth 
her  impassioned  appeal  for  its  love,  the  image  opened  and 

^  Timur,  "  Designs  and  Enterprises,"  p.  2. 

2  Wilson,  H.  H.,  "  Sects  of  the  Hindus,"  p.  138  ;  Grierson,  "  Modern 
Literature  of  Hindustan,"  p.  12. 

=*  G.  C.  Cunningham,  "  Santa  Theresa  :  Her  Life  and  Times,"  Edinburgh 
Review  (October  1896). 

^  Tod,  J.,  "  Rajasthan,"  vol.  i.  p.  289. 


348  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

closed  around  her  so  that  she  for  ever  disappeared  from 
earth.^  The  piety  of  Mira  Bai,  the  devoted  follower  of 
Krishna,  and  founder  of  the  Mira  Bai  sect,  did  not  save 
her  from  scandal  and  from  persecution  by  her  family. 
The  theme  she  sang  had  its  own  fascinations  and  dangers. 
The  mystic  brooding  over  the  longings  of  the  Soul  which 
found  expression  in  the  burning  terms  of  human  love  used 
by  Jaya  Deva  in  the  twelfth  century  in  India,  and  by  San 
Juan  de  la  Cruz  ^  in  the  West,  tottered  on  the  verge  of  a 
steep  precipice. 

In  the  soft,  relaxing  lowlands  of  Bengal  the  step  was 
early  taken  that  sped  mysticism  down  to  realism.  The 
safeguard  of  spiritualism  once  abandoned,  all  was  lost  on 
which  the  theme  could  preserve  itself  free  from  the  con- 
taminating taint  of  the  earth  and  earthly.  The  tendency 
of  the  whole  literature  was  to  sink  lower  and  lower  into 
the  abyss  of  lewd  imaginings  and  sensuous  fancies.  The 
outward  and  popular  expression  of  the  same  realistic 
tendency  took  the  form  of  foul  Tantric  orgies,  until  at 
length  literature  and  religion  dragged  down  in  their  fall 
all  the  best  on  which  they  were  founded. 

Both  phases  of  thought,  the  realistic  and  spiritualistic, 
found  their  fullest  expression  and  glorification  in  the 
writings,  teachings,  and  influence  of  two  great  founders 
of  distinct  Vaishnava  sects — the  one,  Vallabha  Achatya,  still 
having  numerous  followers  in  Central  India,  Bombay,  and 
Gujarat,  the  other,  Chaitanya,  a  name  familiar  in  every 
household  of  Bengal. 

Vallabha  Acharya,  the  founder  of  the  Swami  Vallabha 
sect,  is  held  to  have  been  an  embodiment  of  a  portion  of  the 
Divine  Essence  of  Krishna,  and  numerous  are  the  stories 
current  of  his  superhuman  intelligence  and  power.  His 
great  work  was  a  commentary  on  the  "  Bhagavata  Purana." 

1  Tod,  J.,  "  Rajasthan,"  vol.  ii.  p.  760. 

^  Lewis,  D.,  "  St  John  of  the  Cross :  Life  and  Works." 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN   THE  LAND        349 

According  to  his  teachings,  the  human  soul,  though 
separated  from  the  Divine  Essence  of  Krishna,  is  identical 
with  it,  and,  as  such,  is  as  though  it  were  a  divine  spark  of 
the  Supreme  Spirit  itself  The  body,  as  the  abode  of  this 
portion  of  the  Divine  Essence  of  Krishna,  should  be 
honoured  and  revered,  not  subjected  to  asceticism,  but 
nourished  with  every  luxury  in  the  way  of  eating,  drinking, 
and  enjoyment.  The  doctrine  was  one  destined  to  attract 
a  numerous  following.  The  personality  and  undoubted 
genius  of  Vallabha  secured  for  it  the  recognition  of  the 
wealthy  and  influential  members  of  the  community  who 
were  shut  out  from  all  national  life  or  political  power. 
These  Epicureans  of  India  might  be  passed  over  in  silence, 
along  with  all  the  worshippers  of  Sakti,  or  "  force  personified 
as  a  goddess,"  and  followers  of  Tantric  rites,  inasmuch  as 
they  show  no  strife  against  the  more  debasing  factors  of 
human  nature,  were  it  not  that  the  most  remarkable  libel 
case  that  could  ever  have  arisen  in  a  Court  of  Justice 
respecting  the  privileges  of  a  priesthood  was  heard  in  1862 
before  the  Supreme  Court  of  Bombay,  when  a  charge  was 
brought  against  the  Maharajas,  or  modern  successors  of 
Vallabha,  that  they  claimed,  as  actual  manifestations  of 
Krishna,  to  be  entitled  to  receive  from  their  disciples  not 
only  adoration,  expressed  by  submission  of  mind  and 
outpourings  of  wealth,  but  also  by  dedication  of  the  bodies 
of  their  female  worshippers  to  probably  the  most  eccentric 
whims  the  depraved  imaginings  of  a  sect,  working  out 
perverted  ideals,  could  evolve. 

Chaitanya,  held  to  have  been  an  absolute  incarnation  of 
Krishna,  and  a  worker  of  many  miracles,  represents  to  the 
mystic-loving  East  what  Luther  represents  to  the  West. 

Born  at  Nadiya  (Navadvip)  in  1485  A.D.,  this  enthusiastic 
reformer  and  preacher,  Chaitanya,  gave  expression  in  Bengal 
to  the  peculiar  mode  in  which  its  life  and  thought  had 
become  modelled  under  climatic  and  political  pressure,  just 


3SO         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

as  Kabir  before  him  had  proclaimed  the  form  the  religious 
thought  of  the  people  was  taking  in  North  India. 

Of  all  the  varied  phases  of  Indian  thought  arising  within 
the  lull  that  preceded  the  final  conquests  of  the  Mughals, 
that  phase  which  it  was  the  mission  of  Chaitanya  to  proclaim, 
with  all  the  power  of  his  eloquence  and  mesmeric  influence 
of  his  presence,  shows  most  clearly  how  deeply  the  time 
was  moved  by  a  faith  or  devotion  in  a  deity,  with  whom, 
as  a  consummation,  complete  union  is  sought  Chaitanya, 
first  inspired  at  Buddha  Gaya  by  the  universal  sympathy 
of  the  Buddhist  sage,  and  then  roused  to  enthusiasm  by 
the  memories  of  the  thought  of  past  ages  as  they  swept 
round  the  temple  of  Jagannath,  went  forth  from  his  wife 
and  child  as  an  enthusiast,  to  proclaim  the  love  for,  and  of, 
Krishna,  at  a  time  when  Luther  was  preparing  to  rouse 
Europe  by  his  preaching.  Five  hundred  years  have  passed 
away  since  the  time  Chaitanya  spread  a  faith  in  the  saving 
grace  of  Krishna  throughout  the  land,  nevertheless,  down 
to  the  present  day,  the  same  spirit  that  inspired  Chaitanya 
continues  still  to  dwell  among  his  followers. 

In  an  interesting  account  of  the  life  and  precepts  of 
Chaitanya,^  lately^  published  by  his  devout  and  aged 
follower,  Sri  Kedar  Nath  Dutt,  Bhakti  Vinod,  it  can  be 
read  how  this  spirit  preserves  its  vitality  undiminished 
amid  the  changes  that  are  sweeping  over  the  land.  This 
exponent  of  the  hopes  of  the  present  followers  of  the 
teachings  of  Chaitanya  declares  his  firm  faith  that,  from  a 
devoted  love  to  Krishna,  a  love  like  that  of  a  girl  for  a 
loved  one,  shown  by  constant  repetition  of  his  name,  by 
ecstatic  raptures,  singing,  calm  contemplation  and  fervour, 
a  movement  will  yet  take  place  to  draw  to  the  future 
church  of  the  world  "all  classes  of  men,  without  distinction 
of  caste  or  clan  to  the  highest  cultivation  of  the  spirit 
This  church,  it  appears,  will  extend  all  over  the  world,  and 
*  The  standard  life  is  that  of  Krishna  Das  Kavi  Raj.  ^  ,ggj_ 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        351 

take  the  place  of  all  sectarian  churches,  which  exclude  out- 
siders from  the  precincts  of  the  mosque,  church,  or  temple."^ 

The  spirit  that  is  to  animate  this  new  church  is  to  be 
founded  on  the  principle  that  "  spiritual  cultivation  is  the 
main  object  of  life.  Do  everything  that  keeps  it,  and 
abstain  from  doing  anything  which  thwarts  the  cultivation 
of  the  spirit."  A  devoted  love  to  Krishna  is  to  be  the 
guiding  light,  as  preached  by  Chaitanya :  "  Have  a  strong 
faith  that  Krishna  alone  protects  you,  and  none  else. 
Admit  him  as  your  only  guardian.  Do  everything  which 
you  know  Krishna  wishes  you  to  do,  and  never  think  that 
you  do  a  thing  independent  of  the  holy  wish  of  Krishna. 
Do  all  you  do  with  humility.  Always  remember  that  you 
are  a  sojourner  in  the  world,  and  you  must  be  prepared 
for  your  own  home."  ^ 

The  simple  piety  of  this  latest  preacher  of  the  teachings 
of  Chaitanya  holds  that  Chaitanya  "  showed  in  his  character, 
and  preached  to  the  world,  the  purest  morality  as  an 
accompaniment  of  spiritual  improvement.  Morality,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  will  grace  the  character  of  a  bhakta  (one 
who  has  faith)."  ^ 

The  perplexing  question  of  idolatry  receives  its  usual 
explanation  in  the  following  manner  :  "  Those  who  say 
that  God  has  no  form,  either  material  or  spiritual,  and 
again  imagine  a  false  form  for  worship,  are  certainly 
idolatrous.  But  those  who  see  the  spiritual  form  of  the 
deity  in  their  soul's  eye,  carry  that  impression  as  far  as 
possible  to  the  mind,  and  then  frame  an  emblem  for  the 
satisfaction  of  the  material  eye,  for  continual  study  of  the 
higher  feelings  are  by  no  means  idolatrous."  * 

The  words  seem  as  if  they  pointed  to  the  images  Chaitanya 
in  his  trances  used  to  vision  up  before  him  of  the  deity  and 
the  shepherdesses.     In  one  of  these  trances,  Chaitanya  is 

1  Dutt,  K.  N.,  "Chaitanya:  His  Life  and  Precepts,"  p.  60. 
2/i5«<^.,  p.  57.  » /(SjV.,  p.  58.  ^/izV^.,  p.  47. 


352  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

held  by  tradition  to  have  seen  a  vision  of  Krishna  and  the 
shepherdesses,  sporting  in  the  glistening  waters  of  the  sea 
near  Puri,  in  Orissa,  and,  as  he  walked  out  towards  them, 
passed  away  forever  from  the  world,  having  gained  the 
heaven  of  Vaikuntha  in  1527  A.D.,  at  the  age  of  forty-two. 

While  Chaitanya  in  Bengal,  moved  by  the  same  spirit 
that  had  inspired  the  sonnets  of  Bidyapati  in  Behar,  the 
ecstatic  trances  of  Mira  Bai  in  Mewar,  and  the  languid  and 
enervated  sensualism  of  Vallabha  Acharya  in  Benares,  was  . 
pouring  forth  his  mystic  raptures  over  the  loves  of  Radha 
and  Krishna,  a  new  line  of  conquerors,  whose  song  was 
the  "  Song  of  the  Sword,"  and  whose  love  was  a  love  for 
plunder  and  the  firebrand,  was  biding  its  time  until  all 
things  were  prepared  for  the  raid  on  Hindustan,  and  capture 
of  Agra,  where  all  of  the  army  were  to  gain  presents  in 
silver  and  gold,  in  cloth,  in  jewels,  and  in  captive  slaves.^ 

In  1526,  Babar,  "The  Lion,"  fifth  in  descent  from  Timur,  or 
Tamerlane  who  had  conquered  Kabul  in  1 504,  received  an 
invitation  from  the  contending  rulers  of  the  north-west  to 
enter  India  with  his  TurkI  hordes,  and  proclaim  himself 
Emperor  of  Hindustan. 

Babar  and  his  hardy  troops  soon  swarmed  down  through 
the  Khaibar  Pass,  and  on  the  fatal  field  of  Panipat  broke 
in  pieces  the  forces  of  the  last  king  of  the  Lodi  dynasty. 
The  new  emperor,  in  his  "  Memoirs,"  narrates  how  this,  his 
fifth  invasion,  was  crowned  with  success  : — 

"  In  consideration  of  my  confidence  in  Divine  Aid,  the  most  High  God 
did  not  suffer  the  distress  and  hardships  I  had  undergone  to  be 
thrown  away,  but  defeated  my  formidable  enemy  and  made  me 
the  conqueror  of  the  noble  country  of  Hindustan.  This  success 
I  do  not  ascribe  to  my  own  strength,  nor  did  this  good  fortune 
flow  from  my  own  efforts,  but  from  the  fountain  of  the  favour  and 
mercy  of  God." '' 

Though  the  rule  of  Babar  and  his  descendants  is  known 

^  Holden,  E.,  "  Mughal  Emperors,"  p.  87. 
'  Leyden,  John,  "  Memoirs  of  Babar,"  p.  310. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        353 

as  that  of  the  Mughals,  Babar  himself,  as  descended  from 
Tamerlane,  was  a  Turk,  and,  although  his  mother  was  a 
Mughal,  he  speaks  of  that  race  with  disdain  and  contempt, 
as  composed  of  wretches  who  plundered  foes  and  allies 
alike : — 

"  If  the  Mughal  race  were  a  race  of  angels,  it  is  a  bad  race. 
And  were  the  name  Mughal  written  in  gold,  it  would  be  odious. 
Take  care  not  to  pluck  one  ear  of  corn  from  a  Mughal's  harvest. 
The  Mughal  seed  is  such  that  whatever  is  sown  with  it  is  execrable."  ' 

Babar,  having  overthrown  the  power  of  the  Lodi  king, 
found  that,  beyond  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Delhi, 
Hindu  princes  and  Afghan  governors  and  garrisons  held 
independent  rule  over  such  lands  as  yielded  revenue,  while 
the  outlying  tracts  were  left  at  the  mercy  of  marauding 
bands,  and  of  such  petty  chieftains  as  were  capable  of 
raising  themselves  to  power.  Thus,  when  in  1526  Babar 
reached  the  Chenab,  he  recorded  how 

"  Every  time  that  I  have  entered  Hindustan,  the  Jats  (of  the  Panjab) 
and  the  Gujyars  have  regularly  poured  down  in  prodigious 
numbers  from  their  hills  and  wilds  in  order  to  carry  off  oxen  and 
buffaloes.  These  were  the  wretches  that  really  inflicted  the 
chief  hardships,  and  were  guilty  of  the  severest  oppression  on 
the  country.  These  districts,  in  former  times,  had  been  in  a  state 
of  revolt  and  yielded  very  little  revenue  that  could  be  come 
at.  On  the  present  occasion,  when  I  had  reduced  the  whole  of 
the  neighbouring  districts  to  subjection,  they  began  to  repeat 
their  practices.  As  my  poor  people  were  on  their  way  from 
Sialkot  to  the  camp,  hungry  and  naked,  indigent  and  in  distress, 
they  were  fallen  upon  by  the  road,  with  loud  shouts,  and 
plundered."  ^ 

Babar's  own  views  of  the  country,  its  religions  and  people, 
show  how  he  and  his  race  came  to  the  land  as  much 
foreigners  as  the  succeeding  European  adventurers.     His 

^  Leyden,  J.  "  Memoirs  of  Babar,"  p.  93. 
"  Ibid.,  p.  294. 

2 


354  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

accounts  read  almost  as  though  they  were  the  superficial 
observations  of  some  stray  traveller  of  to-day  :  ^ — 

"  Most  of  the  natives  of  Hindustan  are  Pagans.  They  call  the 
Pagan  inhabitants  of  Hindustan,  Hindus.  Most  of  the  Hindus 
hold  the  doctrine  of  transmigration.  The  ofticers  of  revenue, 
merchants,  and  work-people,  are  all  Hindus.  In  our  native 
countries,  the  tribes  that  inhabit  the  plains  and  deserts  have 
all  names,  according  to  their  respective  families ;  but  here 
everybody,  whether  they  live  in  the  country  or  in  villages,  have 
names  according  to  their  families.  Again,  every  tradesman 
has  received  his  trade  from  his  forefathers,  who  for  generations 
have  all  practised  the  same  trade.  Hindustan  is  acfeuntry 
that  has  few  pleasures  to  recommend  it.  The  people  are  not 
handsome.  They  have  no  idea  of  the  charms  of  friendly 
society,  of  frankly  mixing  together,  or  of  familiar  intercourse. 
They  have  no  genius,  no  comprehension  of  mind,  no  polite- 
ness of  manner,  no  kindness  or  fellow-feeling,  no  ingenuity  or 
mechanical  invention  in  planning  or  executing  their  handicraft 
works,  no  skill  or  knowledge  in  design  or  architecture ;  they 
have  no  good  horses,  no  good  flesh,  no  grapes  or  musk-melons, 
no  good  fruits,  no  ice  or  cold  water,  no  good  food  or  bread  in 
their  bazars,  no  baths  or  colleges,  no  candles,  no  torches,  not 
a  candlestick." 

His  "  Memoirs "  give  a  vivid  picture  of  the  times  in  his 
famed  siege  of  Chanderi,  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  miles 
south  of  Agra.  He  describes  the  despairing  valour  of  the 
garrison  in  words  which  recall  the  incident  so  proudly 
sung  of  in  the  Rajput  ballads  : — 

The  troops  likewise  scaled  the  walls  in  two  or  three  places.  In  a 
short  time  the  Pagans,  in  a  state  of  complete  nudity,  rushed 
out  to  attack  us,  put  numbers  of  my  people  to  flight,  and 
leaped  over  the  ramparts.  Some  of  our  people  were  attacked 
furiously  and  put  to  the  sword.  The  reason  of  this  desperate 
sally  from  their  works  was,  that  on  giving  up  the  place  for  lost, 
they  had  put  to  death  the  whole  of  their  wives  and  women,  and 
having  resolved  to  perish,  had  stripped  themselves  naked,  in 
which  condition  they  had  rushed  out  to  the  fight,  and  engaging 
with  ungovernable  desperation,  drove  our  people  along  the 
ramparts.     Two  or  three  hundred  Pagans  .  .  .  slew  each  other 

'  Leyden,  J.,  "Memoirs  of  Babar,"  pp.  332-33. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        355 

in  the  following  manner  :  One  person  took  his  stand  with  a 
sword  in  his  hand,  while  the  others,  one  by  one,  crowded  in 
and  stretched  out  their  necks,  eager  to  die.  In  this  way  many 
went  to  hell  ;  and  by  the  favour  of  God,  in  the  space  of  two 
or  three  hours,  I  gained  this  celebrated  fort.'  * 

One  short  couplet  of  Babar  sums  up  the  sentiments  that 
inspired  the  fierce  valour  of  the  new-come,  hardy  Northern 
warriors,  in  their  contests  with  the  gentler  and  less  physically 
capable  Hindus  of  the  East  and  South. 

"  Let  the  sword  of  the  world  be  brandished  as  it  may. 
It  cannot  cut  one  vein  without  the  permission  of  God."  ^ 

His  remark  to  his  son  on  the  subject  of  style  in  letter- 
writing,  shows  how  much  sympathy  Babar  himself  would 
have  had  for  the  sensuous  languor,  the  musical  cadence  of 
word  and  rhythm,  the  use  of  brilliant  metaphor  and  startling 
allegory  so  loved  by  all  Hindu  poets.  In  writing  to  his 
son,  Humayiin,  Babar  records  with  all  the  frankness  and 
unpleasing  truth  of  a  Cobbett :  "  You  certainly  do  not  excel 
in  letter-writing,  and  fail  chiefly  because  you  have  too  great  a 
desire  to  show  your  acquirements.  For  the  future  you  should 
write  unaffectedly,  with  clearness,  using  plain  words  which 
would  cost  less  trouble,  both  to  the  writer  and  reader."^ 

Babar  had  but  short  time  to  do  more  than  extend  his 
rule  from  Multan  to  Behar.  He  died  in  1530,  leaving 
an  empire  which  extended  from  "  the  River  Amu  in  Central 
Asia,  to  the  borders  of  the  Gangetic  delta  in  Lower  Bengal."  * 
His  son  Humayiin,  after  a  troubled  reign,  from  1530  to  1556, 
during  which  he  was  driven  from  India  by  the  previous 
Afghan  settlers  under  Sher  Shah,  the  Governor  of  Bengal, 
left  the  task  of  founding  and  consolidating  the  Mughal 
rule  to  his  son  and  successor,  Akbar. 

During  the  long  and  glorious  reign  of  Akbar  (1556- 
1605),  coinciding  almost  with  that  of  Elizabeth  in  England, 
India,  for  the  first  time,  saw  hopes  that  her  varied  peoples, 

^  Leyden,  J.,  "Memoirs  of  Babar,"  p.  377.      ^  I6id.,  p.  415. 
'  /bid.,  p.  392.  *  Hunter,  "  Indian  Empire,"  p.  344. 


356  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

divided  as  they  were  one  from  the  other  by  race,  language, 
creed,  and  customs,  might,  under  one  sole  ruler,  tolerant  of 
all  beliefs,  and  setting  forth  as  his  ideal  the  principle  that 
"  every  class  of  the  community  enjoys  prosperity,"  ^  lay  aside 
their  differences,  unite  and  acknowledge  "the  suzerainty 
of  one  prince  who  would  protect  and  not  persecute."  ^ 

From  first  to  last  the  endeavour  of  Akbar,  with  the  aid 
of  his  friend  and  biographer,  Abul  Fazl,  was  to  reconcile 
the  contending  claims  of  rival  creeds  and  of  varied  races 
that  clamoured  for  recognition  in  the  body  politic.  Hindus 
and  Muhammadans  were  employed  alike.  To  win  the 
allegiance  of  the  Rajput  princes  he  intermarried  with  their 
daughters.  No  one  was  persecuted  for  conscience  sake, 
and  India  obtained  what  it  had  never  before  possessed, 
some  hope  that  union,  peace,  and  prosperity  might  be 
secured  within  its  borders.  Akbar,  in  the  words  of  one 
of  the  most  brilliant  historians  of  India,  "had  convinced 
his  own  mind  that  the  old  methods  were  obsolete ;  that  to 
hold  India  by  maintaining  standing  armies  in  the  several 
provinces,  and  to  take  no  account  of  the  feelings,  the 
traditions,  the  longings,  the  aspirations  of  the  children  of 
the  soil — of  all  the  races  in  the  world  the  most  inclined 
to  poetry  and  sentiment,  and  attracted  by  the  strongest 
ties  that  can  appeal  to  mankind  to  the  traditions  of  their 
forefathers — would  be  impossible."  * 

He  early  abolished  the  poll  tax  imposed  by  former 
Muhammadan  rulers  on  those  of  their  subjects  who  did 
not  follow  the  faith  of  Muhammad.  In  the  same  year  he 
put  an  end  to  the  inland  tolls  which  each  semi-independent 
local  governor  had  levied  on  the  confines  of  the  separate 
provinces.  He  further  relinquished  a  lucrative  source  of 
revenue  by  refusing  to  continue  the  imposition  of  the 
pilgrim  tax  on   Hindus  whose  religion   necessitated   the 

^  "  Ain-i-Akbari,"  quoted  in  Holden's  "Mogul  Emperors.'' 

^-  Malleson,  "Akbar"  (Ruler  of  India  Series),  p.  98.  '  Ibid.^  p,  154. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LANXl        35; 

performance  of  pilgrimages  to  holy  shrines,  temples,  and 
sacred  bathing-places. 

There  were,  however,  Hindu  customs  and  ancient  rites 
which  Akbar,  tolerant  as  he  was,  refused  to  recognise. 
These  he  strove  vehemently  to  suppress,  and  by  his  efforts 
and  laws  forestalled  the  British  Government  in  some  of 
the  most  important  enactments  by  which  its  administration 
has  been  signalised.  He  put  an  end  to  the  time-honoured 
custom  of  making  slaves  of  those  captured  during  war. 
He  made  the  re-marriage  of  widows  legal,  forbade  infant 
marriage,  and  prohibited,  unless  the  act  was  voluntary  on 
the  woman's  part,  the  practice  of  SatI,  or  the  burning  of  a 
widow  on  her  husband's  death. 

In  his  efforts  to  form  a  state  religion,  wide  enough  to  be 
acceptable  to  all  his  subjects,  he  was  actuated  by  the  spirit 
that  had  already  given  rise  to  the  teaching  of  Kabir,  and 
was  to  infuse  the  army  of  the  Khalsa  with  a  bond  of  Sikh 
unionism. 

He  directed  his  "  king  of  poets,"  and  friend  Faizi,^  the 
brother  of  Abul  Fazl,  to  prepare  a  translation  of  the  New 
Testament  into  Persian,  and  his  historian,  Abul  Kadir 
BadaunI,  the  author  of  the  "  Tarikh-i-BadaunI,"  to  translate 
the  "  Ramayana,"  and  part  of  the  "  Mahabharata." 

To  strict  Muhammadans  Akbar  was  an  apostate  from 
the  true  dictates  of  his  own  religion.  In  his  efforts  to 
frame  a  religion  eclectic  enough  for  both  Muhammadans 
and  Hindus,  he  went  so  far  as  to  erase  the  name  of 
Muhammad  from  the  creed,  "  There  is  but  one  God,  and 
Muhammad  is  His  Prophet."  He  himself  was  to  be  the 
declarer  of  the  more  merciful  decrees  of  the  one  God,  and 
he  was  to  be  the  sole  arbitrator  in  religious  matters  and 
the  source  of  all  legislation. 

1  Raja  Birbal  was  the  Hindu  Poet  Laureate,  and  Faizi,  the  Persian 
Laureate.— Blochmann,  "  Ain-i-Akbari,"  p.  404  {fiott  l).  "Faizi  also 
translated  the  'Lilawati,'  and  Abul  Fail  the  'Kalilah  Damnah.'"— /iJzi, 
p.  xvii. 


358  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

The  full  meaning  and  result  of  this  design  of  Akbar  is 
set  forth  in  the  introduction  to  Blochmann's  translation  of 
the  "Ain-i-Akbari,  or  Account  of  the  Religion,  Politics, 
and  Administration  of  the  Times,"  by.  Abul  Fazl: — 

"  If  Akbar  felt  the  necessity  of  this  new  lav/,  Abul  Fazl  enunciated  it 
and  fought  for  it  with  his  pen  ;  and  if  the  Khan  Khanans  gained 
the  victories,  the  new  policy  reconciled  the  people  to  the  foreign 
rule  ;  and  whilst  Akbar's  apostasy  from  Islam  is  all  but  forgotten, 
no  emperor  of  the  Mughal  dynasty  has  come  nearer  to  the  ideal 
of  a  father  of  his  people  than  he.  The  reversion,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  later  times  to  the  policy  of  religious  intoleration,  whilst 
it  has  surrounded,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Moslems,  the  memory  of 
Aurangzib  with  the  halo  of  sanctity,  and  still  inclines  the  pious 
to  utter  a  '  May  God  have  mercy  on  him,'  when  his  name  is 
mentioned,  was  also  the  beginning  of  the  breaking-up  of  the 
empire."' 

Although  Akbar  encouraged  Brahmans,  Mussalmans, 
Jews,  Parsis,  and  Christians,  to  proclaim  freely  before 
him  their  creeds,  beliefs,  and  faiths,  and  although  tradition 
tells,  though  perhaps  on  no  strong  evidence,  that  one  of 
his  wives  was  a  Christian,  still  the  task  to  which  he  had 
set  his  hand  was  one  impossible  to  accomplish.  His 
desire  to  see  good  in  every  religion  and  good  in  every 
man,  his  very  tolerance  and  efforts  to  extract  the  best 
from  every  faith,  left  him  indifferent  to  the  carping  dis- 
tinctions of  dogmas  and  creeds. 

For  himself  he  fashioned  forth  an  eclectic  creed  of  his 
own.  Not  only  did  he  bow  down  before  the  Sun,  as  the 
representative  and  ruler  of  the  Universe,  but  he  claimed 
for  himself  the  homage  and  adoration  of  his  subjects — a 
worship  which  strict  Muhammadans  held  to  be  due  to  God 
alone.  As  a  result,  the  bigotry  of  Muhammadanism  led  to 
the  assassination  of  Abul  Fazl,  and,  on  the  death  of  Akbar, 
the  contending  interests  of  rival  religions  and  races  broke 
forth  afresh  with'  a  vigour  and  animosity  renewed  from 
their  long  slumber. 

'  Blochmann,  "Ain-i-Akbari,"  p.  xxix.  (Introd.). 


THE  PORBtGNER  IN  THE  LAND        359 

Akbar's  own  Poet  Laureate  Birbal,  was  a  Brahman  Bhat, 
or  minstrel  of  KalpI,  whose  wise  sayings  and  bon-mots  are 
still  remembered  in  North  India.^  In  1583  Birbal  was  sent 
to  fight  against  the  Yusufzais,  and  there,  to  the  grief  of 
his  devoted  friend,  Akbar,  met  his  death.  The  poet  gained 
the  lasting  hate  of  all  orthodox  Muhammadans  for  the 
part  he  was  supposed  to  have  taken  in  influencing  the 
emperor  to  forsake  Islam. 

Badauni,  the  historian,  in  recording  the  defeat  of  the 
army,  the  severest  defeat  suffered  by  Akbar,  grimly  says  : — 

"  Nearly  eight  thousand  men,  perhaps  even  more,  were  killed.  Birbal 
also,  who  had  fled  from  fear  of  his  life,  was  slain,  and  entered 
the  row  of  the  dogs  in  hell,  and  thus  got  something  for  the 
abominable  deeds  he  had  done  during  his  life-time."^ 

The  same  historian,  while  narrating  the  events  of  the 
year  1588,  mentions  : — 

"  Among  the  silly  lies — they  border  on  absurdities — which,  during  this 
year,  were  spread  over  the  country,  was  the  rumour  that  Birbal, 
the  accursed,  was  still  alive,  though  in  reality  he  had  then  for 
some  time  been  burning  in  the  seventh  hell.  The  Hindus,  by 
whom  His  Majesty  is  surrounded,  saw  how  sad  and  sorry  he  was 
for  Birbal's  loss,  and  invented  the  story  that  Birbal  had  been 
seen  in  the  hills  of  Nagarkot,  walking  about  with  Jogls  and 
Sannasis.  His  Majesty  believed  the  rumour,  thinking  that 
Birbal  was  ashamed  to  come  to  court  on  account  of  the  defeat 
which  he  had  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  Yusiifzals  ;  and  it  was, 
besides,  quite  probable  that  he  should  have  been  seen  with 
Jogls,  inasmuch  as  he  had  never  cared  for  the  world." ' 

What  shape  the  course  of  Indian  history  might  have 
taken  had  the  Mughal  dynasty  produced  a  successor 
worthy  of  Akbar  is  now  impossible  to  foresee.  He 
himself,  it  is  said,  had  designed  his  tomb  to  be  crowned 
with  a  dome.*     Perhaps  he  foresaw  in  the  early  death  of 

^ Blochmann,  ' ' Ain-i- Akbari "p.  404  ;  Grierson, ' '  Literature  of  Hindustan," 

P-  35- 

'■^  Ibid.,  p.  204.  '  Ibid.,  p.  404. 

^  Purchas,  "His  Pilgrims,"  vol.  i.  p.  440,  quoted  by  Fergusson,  p.  587. 


36o  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

his  sons,  and  the  debaucheries  of  the  heir-apparent,  Prince 
Salim,  who  had  instigated  the  assassination  of  Abul  Fazl, 
the  speedy  decay  of  the  empire,  and  left  his  design  un- 
completed, dreaming,  as  he  is  pictured  by  the  late  Poet 
Laureate : — 

"  I  watch'd  my  son 
And  those  that  follow'd,  loosen  stone  from  stone 
All  my  fair  work  ;  and  from  the  ruin  arose 
The  shriek  and  curse  of  trampled  millions,  even 
As  in  times  before  ;  but  while  I  groan'd 
From  out  the  sunset  poured  an  alien  race 
Who  fitted  stone  to  stone  again,  and  Truth, 
Peace,  Love,  and  Justice  came  and  dwelt  therein." 

There  is  no  evidence  that  the  hopes  of  Akbar  would 
have  been  realised  even  if  his  work  had  been  continued  by 
successors  gifted  with  a  genius  equal  to  his  own.  The 
rule  of  the  earlier  Muhammadan  emperors  had  shown  how 
impossible  it  was  to  keep  the  land  from  being  turned  into 
a  battle-field  whereon  the  rival  claims  of  divided  chieftciins, 
princes,  and  robber  bands  should  be  for  ever  contested  and 
never  finally  placed  at  rest. 

Guzarat,  in  the  West,  had  thrown  off  the  authority  of  the 
Delhi  Sultan,  and  remained  an  independent  kingdom,  from 
1371  to  1573,  gaining  strength  to  include,  in  1531,  within 
its  dominions  the  territories  of  the  adjoining  ruler  of 
Malwa.  Even  the  independent  Muhammadan  state  of 
Jaunpur,  which  included  Benares,  the  sacred  city  of  the 
Hindus,  continued  independent  from  1393  to  1478. 
In  the  South  the  kingdom  of  Vijayanagar,  until  over- 
thrown at  the  battle  of  Talikot,  in  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century  by  the  Muhammadan  rulers  of  the 
Deccan,  held  independent  rule  from  its  ancient  capital, 
whose  ruins  now  lie  scattered  along  the  banks  of  the 
Tangabhadra,  and  the  last  of  its  kings  had  authority 
enough  to  grant  the  site  of  Madras  to  the  English  in  1639. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        361 

More  convincing  still  of  the  impossibilityof  a  native  central 
authority  being  able  to  preserve  touch  with  all  the  outlying 
states  of  India,  and  to  conquer  and  compel  the  allegiance 
of,  or  to  conciliate,  the  varied  races  and  nationalities,  is  the 
fact  that,  on  the  break  up  of  the  great  Bahmani  dynasty, 
which  exercised  independent  rule  over  the  Deccan  from  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  to  the  end  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  the  five  great  Muhammadan  governor- 
ships, with  their  capitals  at  Bijapur,  Golconda,  Bidar, 
Ahmadnagar,  and  Ellichpur,  founded  dynasties  known  as 
those  of  the  Adil  Shahi,  Katb  Shahl,  Barid  Shahl,  Nizam 
Shahl,  and  Imad  Shahl,  and  preserved  sovereign  indepen- 
dence until  overthrown,  the  first  four  by  Aurangzib,  and 
the  last  two,  which  had  united  in  1572,  by  Shah  Jahan  in 
1636. 

The  whole  of  the  difficulties  of  the  situation  are  indicated 
in  the  summing-up,  by  Sir  W.  Wilson  Hunter,^  of  the 
results  attained  by  the  early  Muhammadan  rulers  at  Delhi, 
where  he  shows  how  "they  completely  failed  to  conquer 
many  of  the  great  Hindu  kingdoms,  or  even  to  weld  the 
Indian  Muhammadan  state  into  a  united  Muhammadan 
empire."  ^ 

By  the  time  of  the  death  of  Babar,  Muhammadan  rule 
had  shown  no  sign  of  obtaining  a  permanent  abiding-place 
in  India.  In  1541,  Humayun  was  a  fugitive  in  Sind,  and 
returned  not  to  Delhi  until  1554,  and  then  only  for  a  few 
months'  reign. 

Four  years  later,  when  Akbar  came  to  the  throne, 
Benares,  Behar,  and  Bengal  were  independent,  and  India, 
South  and  West,  was  beyond  the^  limits  of  his  empire.  It 
was  not  until  he  had  reigned  almost  twenty  years,  that  all 

'  "Indian  Empire,"  p.  343. 

^  In  the  fourteenth  century  Muhammad  Tughlak  had  conquered  the  Deccan, 
but  at  his  death  the  Afghan  dynasty  of  the  Bahmani  kings,  whose  possessions, 
at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  were  divided  into  the  five  kingdoms 
of  the  Deccan,  assumed  possession. 


362  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

India  north  of  the  Vindhyas,  and  Orissa,  acknowledged 
his  sway.  After  subduing  Berar  and  capturing  Ahmad- 
nagar  in  the  Deccan,  he  had  to  be  content  with  tribute 
and  vows  of  friendship  from  the  kings  of  Bijapur 
and  Golconda. 

The  spirit  of  Akbar's  time  and  genius  has  its  memorial 
written  imperishably  in  stone,  in  the  tomb  built  for  him  at 
Sikandra.  In  itself,  it  typifies  the  limit  reached  by 
Muhammadan  and  Hindu  compromise.^ 

The  tomb,  like  Akbar's  eclectic  religion,  represents  the 
conception  his  master-mind  had  worked  out,  of  a  recon- 
ciliation of  all  racial  and  religious  difference,  so  that  the 
best  that  India  held  of  valour  and  genius  might  unite  to 
rule  the  land  for  the  benefit  of  all,  and  evolve  in  peace  and 
rest  new  ideals  of  law  and  order. 

The  early  Muhammadan  architecture,  like  its  rule,  was 
essentially  foreign  to  the  people,  and  to  the  soil  of  India. 
The  dynasty  of  Ghor  built  its  mosques  with  high  front 
walls,  overlapping  courses  and  ogee-pointed  arches.  The 
dynasty  of  Khiljl  lapsed  into  horse-shoe  arches  and  elaborate 
decoration,  while  the  house  of  Tughlak  stamped  the  impress 
of  its  heavy  hand  on  its  great  sloping  walls,  plastered 
dome,  and  pointed  stucco  arches.  The  commencement  of 
the  rule  of  the  Mughals  was  marked  by  their  own  peculiar 
style,  as  seen  in  the  tall  Persian  domes  and  glazed  tiles  of 
the  tomb  of  Humayun.  During  the  long  reign  of  Akbar, 
the  compromise  with  the  Hindu  architecture  ran  parallel 
with  the  development  of  Akbar's  eclectic  religion  and 
philosophic  systems,  the  Hindu  bracket  and  horizontal 
style  of  building  leading  gradually  to  the  disappearance  of 
the  arch.     The  great  fort  and  palace  at  Agra,  and  the 

'  "A  design  borrowed,  as  I  believe,  from  a  Hindu  or,  more  correctly, 
Buddhist  model. "—Fergiisson,  "Ind.  Architecture,"  p.  583.  "The  consequence 
is  a  mixture  throughout  all  his  works  of  two  styles,  often  more  picturesque  than 
correct,  which  might,  in  the  course  of  another  half  century,  have  been  blended 
into  a  completely  new  style  if  persevered  in. " — Fergusson,  p.  574. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        363 

magnificent  ruins  at  Fatehpur  Sikri  tell  the  spirit  of  Akbar's 
reign  as  distinctly  as  do  the  "  Ain-i-Akbari"  of  Abul  Fazl, 
the  history  of  Badauni,  or  the  "  Tabakat-i-Akbari"  of  Nizam- 
ud-dln- Ahmad. 

The  buildei-s  of  the  Mosque  of  Katb-ud-dln  at  Delhi  had 
razed  the  Hindu  temples  to  the  ground,  hewn  the  idolatrous 
decorations  from  the  stately  pillars,  and  then  used  them  as 
supports  for  their  own  arched  colonnades.  The  tombs  of 
the  Ghori  Altamsh  and  his  son,  the  great  majestic  south 
gateway  of  the  Katb  Mosque,  the  Tughlak  Mosque  of 
Khan  Jahan  at  Delhi,  and  the  later  Afghan  Kila  Kona 
Mosque  at  Indrapat,  as  well  as  the  tall,  domed  tomb  of 
Humayun,  all  stand  forth  uncompromising,  in  their  stern 
severity  and  strict  adhesion  to  their  own  ideals  and 
purposes.  The  palaces  of  Akbar,  the  ruins  of  his  build- 
ings at  Fatehpur  Slkri,  and  his  own  tomb,  show,  step  by 
step,  the  weakening  of  the  vigour,  and  simplicity  of  the 
foreign  influence,  the  drooping  of  the  fanaticism  and 
intolerant  spirit  of  Muhammadanism,  until,  finally,  the 
palaces  and  tombs,  with  their  pictured  mosaics  and  lavish 
decorations,  of  the  luxurious  and  pleasure-loving  sensualist. 
Shah  Jahan,  tell  not  of  a  tolerance,  but  of  an  indifference 
and  submission  to  the  bondage  of  climatic  influence,  which 
all  the  bigotry  and  fanatic  Muhammadanism  of  Aurangzlb 
could  not  strive  against.  There  were  elements  of  danger 
and  decay  underlying  the  whole  of  this  spirit  of  toleration. 
The  climate  was  quickly  producing  its  enervating  effect  on 
the  rude  and  rough  soldiers  who  had  won  Babar  his 
empire.  From  beyond  the  frontiers  no  new  recruits  were 
coming  to  preserve  the  pristine  vigour  of  the  ancestors  of 
Aurangzlb.  Bijapur  and  Golconda  had  yet  to  be 
conquered.  The  Marathas,  in  their  mountain  homes,  were 
a  race  waiting  to  rise  to  power,  defy  the  whole  army  of 
Aurangzlb,  and  sorely  try  the  valour  of  British  troops.  The 
proud   Rajputs  would  support  an  Akbar  who   respected 


364  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

their  chivalry  and  honour,  yet  their  aid  could  easily  be 
turned  into  defiance.  The  great  general  of  Akbar, 
Bhagavaa  Das,  the  Raja  of  Jaipur,  gave  his  daughter 
to  the  Mughal  Emperor,  and  bears  a  name  among  the 
Rajputs  which  is  still  "  held  in  execration,  as  the  first  who 
sullied  Rajput  purity  by  matrimonial  alliance  with  the 
Islamite."^  The  successor  of  Akbar,  born  the  son  of  a 
Rajput  princess,  continued  more  from  indifference  than 
toleration  the  policy  of  his  father,  a  policy  followed  by 
Shah  Jahan,  also  the  son  of  a  Rajput  princess,  daughter  of 
the  Raja  of  Manvar.  The  intolerance  and  bigotry  of 
Aurangzlb,  however,  roused  the  Rajputs  to  rebellion,  and 
Hinduism  showed  its  power  and  strength  when  the  stiff- 
necked  Aurangzlb  imposed  again  the  odious  poll  tax,  and 
gave  orders  "  to  all  governors  of  provinces  to  destroy,  with 
a  willing  hand,  the  schools  and  temples  of  the  infidels,  and 
...  to  put  an  entire  stop  to  the  teaching  and  practising  of 
idolatrous  forms  of  worship."*  The  effete  Mughals  were 
left  to  continue  their  work  of  the  conquest  of  the  South, 
with  new  forces  rising  around  them  on  all  sides,  threatening 
to  sweep  away  the  structure  already  undermined  and  sapped 
of  its  strength. 

Brahmanism  remained  with  its  undying  vitality  of 
intellectual  life  to  continue  its  own  course  unmoved. 
The  glorious  reign  of  Akbar  had  seen  an  outbreak  of 
native  genius  that,  in  its  own  lines,  rivals  that  seen  in 
England  in  Elizabethan  times.  In  his  days,  his  great 
finance  minister,  Todar  Mai,  a  Kshatriya  of  Oudh,  not 
only  wrote  vernacular  poems  himself  on  morals  {nlti)} 
but  translated  the  "  Bhagavata  Purana "  into  Persian,  to 
induce  the  Hindus  to  learn  that  language,  in  which  he 
ordered  that  all  government  accounts  should  be  kept,  a 

^  Malleson,  "Akbar,"  p.  182,  quoting  Tod's  "  Rajasthan." 
^  Quoted  in  S.  Lane-Poole's  "  Aurangzlb,"  p.  135. 
'  Grierson,  "  Vemac.  Lit.  of  Hindustan,"  p.  35. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN   THE  LAND        365 

determination    that    soon    gave   rise    to    the   new    Urdu 
dialect. 

Typical  of  the  time  is  the  story  of  Hari  Nath,  a  poet  who, 
having  received  one  lakh  of  rupees  from  Man  Singh  for 
one  verse,  and  two  lakhs  from  another  prince  for  two 
verses,  met,  on  his  way  home,  "  a  mendicant  of  the  Naga 
sect,  who  recited  a  Sloka  to  him,  at  which  he  was  so  pleased 
that  he  gave  the  beggar  all  the  presents  he  had  collected 
and  returned  home  empty-handed."^ 

The  two  poets  who  stand  forth  as  shining  stars  of  the 
period  were  the  blind  bard,  Sur  Das,  and  the  greater  poet, 
Tulsi  Das,  whose  life  and  work  extended  into  the  reign  of 
Jahangir.  Mr  Grierson,  whose  every  word  in  criticism  is 
weighed  and  uttered  after  a  thorough  and  unique  mastery 
of  his  subject  in  all  its  bearings,  classes  the  master-pieces 
of  Sur  Das  and  Tulsi  Das  as  not  far  behind  the  work  of 
Spenser  and  Shakespeare.  These  two  names  in  them- 
selves would  have  made  the  reign  of  Akbar  the  most 
renowned  in  the  history  of  Indian  literature  since  the 
days  of  Kalidasa.  Sur  Das,  the  blind  bard  of  Agra,  sang 
of  the  faith  in  Krishna,  in  his  "  Sur  Sagar," — said  to  contain 
sixty  thousand  verses  ^ — as  the  deity  to  whom  he  was  de- 
voted, and  who,  according  to  popular  tradition,  appeared  and 
wrote  down  the  verses  as  the  blind  poet  spoke  them.  The 
story  goes  that  the  poet,  finding  that  his  amanuensis  wrote 
faster  than  his  own  thoughts  flew,  seized  the  deity  by  the 
hand  and  was  thrust  away,  on  which  the  poet  wrote  a  verse 
declaring  that  none  but  the  deity  himself  could  tear  the 
love  of  Krishna  from  his  heart : — 

"  Thou  thrustest  away  my  hand  and  departest,  knowing  that  I  am 
weak,  pretending  that  thou  art  but  a  man, 
But  not  till  thou  depart  from  my  heart  will  I  confess  thee  to  be  a 
mortal."' 

'  Grjfirson,  "  Literature  of  Hindustan,"  p.  39.  ^  Hid.,  p.  24  {note  j). 

^  Jbid.,  p.  24  (note  4). 


366  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Referring  to  verses^  of  the  later  poet,  Biharl  Lai,  who 
sang,  in  his  incomparable  seven  hundred  lyric  couplets  in 
the  Braj  Basha,  near  Mathura,  the  same  mystic  raptures 
over  the  loves  of  Radha  and  Krishna  as  did  Sur  Das, 
Mr  Grierson^  has  happily  expressed  himself,  with  no 
uncertain  meaning,  as  to  the  importance  of  a  correct 
appreciation  of  Eastern  mysticism  within  its  proper 
limitations.  Dealing  first  with  the  Christian  expression 
of  love  to  God,  and  the  answering  love  of  God  for  his 
creatures,  the  Eastern  mode  of  thought  is  then  fearlessly 
put  forward  in  words  that  must  be  weighed  by  all  who 
would  read  the  native  mind  : — 

"  Hence  the  soul's  devotion  to  the  deity  is  pictured  by  Radha's  self- 
abandonment  to  her  beloved  Krishna,  and  all  the  hot  blood  of 
Oriental  passion  is  encouraged  to  pour  forth  one  mighty  flood 
of  praise  and  prayer  to  the  Infinite  Creator,  who  waits  with 
loving,  outstretched  arms  to  receive  the  worshipper  into  his 
bosom,  and  to  convey  him  safely  to  eternal  rest  across  the  seem- 
ingly shoreless  Ocean  of  Existence. .  .  .  Yet  I  am  persuaded  that 
no  indecent  thought  entered  their  minds  when  they  wrote  these 
burning  words  ;  and  to  those  who  would  protest,  as  I  have  oflen 
heard  the  protest  made,  against  using  the  images  of  the  lupunar 
in  dealing  with  the  most  sacred  mysteries  of  the  soul,  I  can 
only  answer : — 

'  War  den  Dichter  will  verstehen 
Muss  in  Dichters  Lande  gehen.'  "' 

A  deeper,  though  less  mystic,  expression  of  the  deep 
religious  broodings  of  the  people  was  given  by  Tulsi  Das 
in  his  rendering  of  Valmikl's  "  Ramayana,"  a  work  in  which 
he  showed  the  latent  powers  of  Eastern  dramatic  genius. 

The  drifting  of  the  soul  and  self  into  a  mystic  dream  of 
ecstatic  union  with  the  throbbing  life  that  beats  throughout 
the  universe  had  found  in  India  a  congenial  resting-place 

1  For  1617-1667.  For  the  "Sapta  Satika"  of  Hala,  see  Von  Schrader, 
"  Ind.  Literature,"  575. 

®  The  remarks  of  Mr  Grierson  in  his  Introduction  to  the  edition  of  the 
"SatsaiyaofBihari,"bySriLalluLalKavi(Calcutta,  1896),  were  unfortunately 
received  too  late  for  more  than  reference  here. 

'  Grierson,  "  Satsaiya"  (Introd.),  p.  8. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        367 

in  the  spiritualising  by  Jaya  Deva  of  the  pastoral  loves  of 
Radha  and  Krishna.  This  phase  of  thought  rose  to  its 
culminating  point  in  the  raptures  of  such  great  mystics  of 
the  Middle  Ages  as  Vallabha,  Mira  Bai,  and  Bidyapati,  and 
the  greater  poets  of  Akbar's  days  such  as  Krishna  Das  and 
the  blind  bard,  Sur  Das.  A  love  and  faith  in  Rama,  a 
more  human  and  heroic  figure  than  that  of  Krishna,  and 
the  love  of  Sita,  a  more  perfect  and  womanly  love  than 
that  of  Radha,  were  the  themes  that  inspired  Ramanand, 
Kabir,  and  the  great  master  poet  of  North  India,  Tulsi  Das. 

The  Western  mode  of  estimating  the  value  and  influence 
of  the  work  is  given  in  the  words  of  Mr  Grierson : — 
"  Pandits  may  talk  of '  Vedas '  and  of  the  '  Upanishads,'  and 
a  few  may  even  study  them ;  others  may  say  they  pin  their 
faith  on  the  'Puranas,'  but  to  the  vast  majority  of  the 
people  of  Hindustan,  learned  and  unlearned  alike,  their  sole 
norm  of  conduct  is  the  so-called  '  Tulsi  krit-Ramayan.' "  ^ 

The  real  title  of  the  famed  work  is  the  "Rama 
Charit  Manas,"  or  "  Sea  of  Wanderings  of  Rama."  It  was 
commenced  in  1574,  but  the  date  of  its  completion  is  un- 
known. Tulsi  Das,  however,  died  in  1624  A.D.  Rama 
represents  the  Supreme  Being,  through  faith  in  whom  all 
intuition  of  Self  fades  away,  leaving  the  soul  in  a  trance- 
like ecstasy  to  sink  into  placid  oneness  with  the  deity's 
own  true  nature,  the  Universal  Essence  from  which  pro- 
ceeded all  Creation. 

The  poem  of  Tulsi  Das  was  founded  on  the  story  of 
Rama  and  Sita,  as  told  in  the  second  great  epic  of  India, 
the  "  Ramayana  "  of  Valmlki.  In  the  well-known  "  Bhakta 
Mala,"  or  "  Legends  of  the  Saints,"  by  Nabha  Das,  giving, 
in  a  hundred  and  eight  verses,  a  short  account  of  the 
Vaishnavite  poets  who  flourished  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries  in  Hindustan,  one  verse  being  given 
to  each  poet,  it  is  declared  that  the  pronunciation  of  a 
*  Crieison,  "  Literature  of  Hindustan,''  p.  43. 


368  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

single  letter  of  the  "  Ramayana  "  of  Valmiki,  written  as  it 
was  in  the  Treta  Age  for  the  salvation  of  mankind,  would 
suffice  to  save  from  all  sin,  even  that  of  Brahman  murder. 
In  the  same  "  Legends  of  the  Saints,"  Valmiki  is  said  to 
have  appeared  again  on  earth,  in  this  the  vile  Kali  Age,  in 
the  person  of  Tulsi  Das,  so  that  a  new  "  Ramayana  "  might 
be  constructed  to  lead  mankind,  as  if  in  a  boat,  across  the 
ocean  of  endless  births  and  re-births. 

In  the  "  Ramayana "  of  Valmiki,  Rama  was  the  son  of 
Da^aratha,  King  of  Ayodhya  of  the  Solar  dynasty.  As  the 
king  for  long  had  no  son,  a  great  horse  sacrifice  was 
performed,  and  the  gods  thus  propitiated.  Rama  was  bom 
to  the  king's  first  wife,  Kau^alya,  Bharata  to  the  second 
wife,  Kaikeyl,  and  Lakshmana  and  Satrughna  to  the  third 
wife,  Sumitra. 

Rama,  who  possessed  in  the  epic  half  the  essence  of 
Vishnu,  while  still  a  youth,  bent  the  wondrous  bow  of  Siva, 
kept  by  Janaka,  King  of  Videha,  and,  by  doing  so,  won  as 
his  reward  the  king's  daughter,  Sita,  the  type  of  ideal  love 
and  womanly  grace.  Through  the  intrigues  of  Kaikeyl, 
who  desired  the  kingdom  for  her  son,  Bharata,  Rama  was 
banished  by  his  father.  King  Dasaratha,  from  Ayodhya. 
During  the  sojourn  of  Rama  and  Sita  in  the  forest  retreat, 
Ravana,  the  demon  king  of  Lanka,  bore  off  Sita  to  his 
island  home  where  he  in  vain  sought  to  win  her  love. 
The  recovery  of  Sita  by  Rama  and  his  ally,  Sug^Iva,  King 
of  the  Monkeys,  who  built  the  bridge  of  Rama  and  burned 
down  the  stronghold  of  the  demon,  Ravana,  has  been  held 
as  the  metaphorical  rendering  of  the  Aryan  conquest  of 
South  India  and  Ceylon,  the  monkeys  representing  the 
aboriginal  inhabitants.  The  epic  finds  its  fitting  close  in 
the  return  of  Rama  and  Sita  to  Ayodhya,  and  their  corona- 
tion as  king  and  queen. 

The  story,  however,  is  continued   in   a  seventh  book, 
dramatised  by  Bhavabhuti  in  his  "  Qttara-Rama-Charitra," 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        369 

where  Rama  hears  of  the  lying  rumour  spread  among  his 
subjects  of  Sita's  submission  to  the  love  of  Ravana.  Rama, 
though  he  knew  the  falseness  of  the  rumour,  held  that  a 
king's  first  duty  was  the  care  of  his  subjects,  so  he  banished 
Sita  from  his  kingdom,  loth  to  have  her  share  his  throne 
until  all  suspicion  had  been  set  at  rest.  In  the  end  he 
and  Sita  found  once  more  reunion  and  passed  to  final 
rest. 

The  rendering  of  the  epic  story  in  the  "  Sea  of  Wander- 
ings of  Rama,"  by  Tulsi  Das,  stands  as  an  abiding  land- 
mark in  the  literary  history  of  North  India,  for  not  only 
did  it  spread  far  and  wide  the  doctrines  of  Ramanand, 
and  of  a  faith  in  Vishnu,  but  saved  the  people  by  the 
influence  of  its  chastened  style  and  purity  of  sentiment 
and  thought  from  falling  into  the  depths  of  that  lewdness 
and  obscenity  towards  which  the  realistic  rendering  of  the 
mystic  and  spiritual  loves  of  Radha  and  Krishna  was  ever 
tending,  and  reached  in  Tantric  and  ^aivite  orgies. 

The  mission  of  Tulsi  Das  was  simply  to  set  before  the 
people  of  North  India,  in  their  own  vernacular,  the  figure 
of  Rama  as  a  personification  of  the  underlying  Essence  of 
the  Universe,  as  a  revelation  beyond  the  senses  and  reason, 
to  be  received  with  faith,  and  cherished  with  love  and 
piety.  In  the  commencement  of  his  poem,  Tulsi  Das 
deplores,  in  the  orthodox  manner,  his  own  want  of  ability, 
genius,  or  even  capacity,  for  the  theme  he  has  undertaken. 
He,  however,  proceeds  with  the  task  from  the  belief  that 
even  an  enemy  would  turn  from  censure  if  so  exalted  a 
theme  be  told  in  clear  style.^ 

In  terms  of  mysticism  he  then  calls  on  the  reader  to 
repeat  and  ponder  over  the  name  of  Rama,  as  symbolising 
more  than  mere  form,  as  connoting  all  that  shadows 
forth  the  path  along  which  the  soul  must  be  led  before 
every  semblance  of  the  material  is  spiritualised.     By  thus 

'  Growse,  K.  S.,  "  Ramayana,"  p.  lO. 
2  A 


370  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

fixing  the  thoughts,  the  soul  "enjoys  the  incomparable 
felicity  of  God,  who  is  unspeakable,  unblemished,  without 
either  name  or  form."  ^  In  the  first  age  of  the  world  the 
poet  declared  that  salvation  was  to  be  found  in  contem- 
plation; in  the  second  age,  in  sacrifices;  in  the  third, 
Dvapara  Age,  in  worship  in  temples,  "  but  in  this  vile  and 
impure  Iron  Age,  where  the  soul  of  man  floats  like  a  fish 
in  an  ocean  of  sin,  in  these  fearful  times,  the  name  is  the 
only  tree  of  life,  and  by  meditating  on  it,  all  commotion 
is  stilled.  In  these  evil  days  neither  good  deeds,  nor  piety, 
nor  spiritual  wisdom  is  of  any  avail,  but  only  the  name  of 
Rama."  2 

The  deep  sincerity  of  Tulsi  Das,  the  purest  of  all  the 
poets  of  his  day,  in  seeking  this  refuge  for  the  longings 
of  his  soul,  breaks  forth  in  the  words  of  Janaka,  King  of 
Videha,  whose  daughter,  Sita,  is  won  by  the  warrior  Rama : — 

"  O  Rama  how  can  I  tell  thy  praise,  swan  of  the  Manas  lake  of  the 
Saints  and  Mahadeva's  soul,  for  whose  sake  ascetics  practise 
their  asceticism,  devoid  of  anger,  infatuation,  selfishness,  and 
pride ;  the  all-pervading  Brahman,  the  invisible,  the  immortal, 
the  Supreme  Spirit,  at  once  the  sum  and  negation  of  all  qualities, 
whom  neither  words  nor  fancy  can  portray,  whom  all  philosophy 
fails  to  expound,  whose  greatness  the  divine  oracles  declare 
unutterable,  and  who  remainest  the  self-same  in  all  times,  past, 
present,  or  fiiture.  Source  of  every  joy,  thou  hast  revealed 
thyself  to  my  material  vision ;  for  nothing  in  the  world  is 
beyond  the  reach  of  him  to  whom  God  is  propitious."  ^ 

The  true  power  of  Tulsi  Das  as  a  descriptive  poet  is 
shown  in  his  treatment  of  the  intriguing  and  crafty  hunch- 
back maid  of  Kaikeyl,  the  mother  of  Bharata,  who  is  led  to 
demand,  on  the  day  when  Rama  was  to  be  installed  as  heir 
to  his  father's  kingdom,  the  fulfilment  of  a  vow  made  to 
her  by  the  king,  that  her  own  son,  Bharata,  should  receive 
the  inheritance,  and  that  Rama  should  be  banished  from 

1  Growse,  F.  S.,  "  Ramayana,"  p.  15.        "  Ibid.,  p.  18.        '  Ibid.,  p.  167. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        371 

the  kingdom  for  fourteen  years.  The  whole  poem  must 
be  read  if  any  conception  is  to  be  obtained  of  its  artistic 
unity  and  dramatic  power — a  power  unequalled  in  the 
whole  history  of  Indian  literature. 

The  translation  of  Mr  Growse  happily  preserves  the 
spirit  and  the  form  of  this  almost  new  Indian  mode  of 
thought 

The  handmaid  of  the  queen  Kaikey!  thus  prepares  the 
motive  for  the  poem :  ^ — 

"  Taking  Kaikeyi  as  a  victim  for  the  slaughter,  the  Humpback  whetted 
the  knife  of  treachery  on  her  heart  of  stone,  and  the  queen, 
like  a  sacrificial  beast  that  nibbles  the  green  sward,  saw  not 
the  approaching  danger.  Pleasant  to  hear,  but  disastrous  in 
their  results,  her  words  were  like  honey  mingled  with  deadly 
poison.  Says  the  handmaid  :  '  Do  you  or  do  you  not,  my  lady, 
remember  the  story  you  once  told  me  of  the  two  boons  pro- 
mised you  by  the  king  ?  Ask  for  them  now,  and  relieve  your 
soul :  the  kingdom  for  your  son,  banishment  to  the  woods  for 
Rama.  Thus  shall  you  triumph  over  all  your  rivals.  But  ask 
not  till  the  king  has  sworn  by  Rama,  so  that  he  may  not  go 
back  from  his  word.  If  you  let  this  night  pass  it  will  be  too 
late ;  give  heed  to  my  words  with  all  your  heart.'  .  .  .  The 
queen  thought  Humpback  her  best  friend,  and  again  and  again 
extolled  her  cleverness,  saying  :  '  I  have  no  such  friend  as  you 
in  the  whole  world  ;  I  had  been  swept  away  by  the  Flood  but 
for  your  support.  To-morrow,  if  God  will  fulfil  my  desire,  I 
will  cherish  you,  my  dear,  as  the  apple  of  mine  eye.'  Thus 
lavishing  every  term  of  endearment  on  her  handmaid,  Kaikeyi 
went  to  the  dark  room.  Her  evil  temper  being  the  soil  in 
which  the  servant-girl,  like  the  rains,  had  sown  the  seed  of 
calamity  which,  watered  by  treachery,  took  root  and  sprouted 
with  the  two  boons  as  its  leaves,  and  in  the  end  ruin  for  its 
fruit.  Gathering  about  her  every  token  of  resentment,  she 
undid  her  reign  by  her  evil  counsel.  But  meanwhile,  the  palace 
and  city  were  given  over  to  rejoicing,  for  no  one  knew  of  these 
wicked  practices." 

Rama,  with  his  wife  Sita,  and  his  brother  Lakshmana, 
'  Growse,  F.  S.,  "  Ramayana,"  p.  191. 


372  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

go  for  fourteen  years  as  hermits  to  abide  in  the  forests, 
where  Rama  is  represented  as  a  mere  man,  yet,  by  his 
wisdom  and  heroic  virtues,  pointing  out  the  path  of  duty 
and  virtue  by  which  such  of  his  devotees,  as  might  realise 
him  as  truly  Divine,  should  pass  over  the  sea  of  trans- 
migration as  if  by  a  bridge.  Lakshmana,  as  he  watches 
Rama  and  Sita  sleeping  in  the  forest  on  their  bed  of 
leaves,  declares  the  lesson  to  illustrate  which  the  poem  has 
been  composed.  The  doctrine  of  the  delusive  unreality  of 
all  external  form  and  appearance  is  first  expounded,  and 
then  Lakshmana  continues  : — 

"  Reasoning  thus,  be  not  angry  with  any  one,  nor  vainly  attribute  blame 
to  any.  All  are  sleepers  in  a  night  of  delusion,  and  see  many 
kinds  of  dreams.  In  this  world  of  darkness  they  only  are  awake 
who  detach  themselves  from  the  material,  and  are  absorbed  in 
contemplation  of  the  Supreme,  nor  can  any  soul  be  regarded 
as  aroused  from  slumber  tiU  it  has  renounced  every  sensual 
enjoyment  Then  ensues  spiritual  enlightenment  and  escape 
from  the  errors  of  delusion,  and  finally,  devotion  to  Rama. 
This  ...  is  man's  highest  good — to  be  devoted  to  Rama  in 
thought,  word,  and  deed.  Rama  is  God,  the  totality  of  good, 
imperishable,  invisible,  uncreated,  incomparable,  void  of  all 
change,  indivisible,  whom  the  'Veda'  declares  it  cannot  define. 
In  his  mercy  he  has  taken  the  form  of  a  man,  and  performs 
human  actions  out  of  the  love  he  bears  to  his  faithful  people, 
and  to  earth,  and  the  Brahmans,  and  cows,  and  gods."  ^ 

Again,  when  the  pilgrims  visit  Valmiki  2  in  his  retreat  in 
the  forest,  the  ascetic  sage  declares  that  Rama  alone  is 
lord  over  all  gods ;  that  man  is  but  a  puppet,  playing  the 
part  allotted  to  him  in  the  dream  of  life,  not  knowing  the 
eternal  truth  until  Rama,  by  his  grace,  bestows  knowledge 
so  that  all  may  become  united  with  the  deity,  with  Rama 
himself,  pure  joy  and  bliss.  This  grace  is  only  vouchsafed 
to  those  who  simply  love  Rama,  and  not  to  those  who  beg 
for  favours.     The  love  for  Rama  is  summed   up  in  the 

1  Growse,  F.  S.,  "  Ramayana,"  p.  223.  "-  Ibid.,  p.  238. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        373 

words :  "  Perish  property,  house,  fortune,  friends,  parents 

kinsmen,   and   all   that   does   not   help   to   bring  one  to 

Rama."i 

The  universal  salvation  held  out  by  faith  in  Rama  to  all 

classes  of  the  people,  irrespective  of  caste,  is  set  forth  in  the 

words : — 

"  Even  a  dog-keeper,  the  savage  hill  people,  a  stupid  foreigner,  an 
outcast,  by  repeating  the  name  of  Rama  becomes  holy  and 
renowned  throughout  the  world  ^  .  .  .  for  he  is  omniscient, 
full  of  meekness,  tenderness,  and  compassion." ' 

The  best  of  all  that  Hinduism  holds  is  sublimely  rendered 
in  one  grand  hymn  to  Rama  :  * — 

"  I  reverence  thee,  the  lover  of  the  devout,  the  merciful,  the  tender- 
hearted ;  I  worship  thy  lotus  feet  which  bestow  upon  the  un- 
sensual  thine  own  abode  in  heaven.  I  adore  thee,  the 
wondrously  dark  and  beautiful ;  the  Mount  Mandar  to  churn 
the  ocean  of  existence  ;  with  eyes  like  the  full-blown  lotus  ;  the 
dispeller  of  pride  and  every  other  vice  ;  the  long-armed  hero  of 
immeasurable  power  and  glory,  the  mighty  Lord  of  the  three 
spheres,  equipped  with  quiver,  and  bow,  and  arrows  ;  the 
ornament  of  the  Solar  race ;  the  breaker  of  Siva's  bow  ;  the 
delight  of  the  greatest  sages  and  saints  ;  the  destroyer  of  all  the 
enemies  of  the  gods  ;  the  adored  of  Kamadeva's  foe  {i.e.  of 
Siva) ;  the  reverenced  of  Brahma  and  the  other  divinities  ;  the 
home  of  enhghtened  intelligence ;  the  dispeller  of  all  error ; 
Lakshmi's  lord  ;  the  mine  of  felicity ;  the  salvation  of  the  saints. 
I  worship  thee  with  thy  spouse  and  thy  brother,  thyself  the 
younger  brother  of  Sachi's  lord.  Men  who  unselfishly  worship 
thy  holy  feet  sink  not  in  the  ocean  of  existence,  tost  with  the 
billows  of  controversy.  They  who,  in  the  hope  of  salvation,  with 
subdued  passions,  ever  delightedly  worship  thee,  having  dis- 
carded every  object  of  sense,  are  advanced  to  thy  own  sphere 
in  Heaven.  I  worship  thee,  the  one,  the  mysterious  Lord,  the 
unchangeable  and  omnipresent  power,  the  eternal  governor  of 
the  world,  the  one  absolute  and  universal  spirit ;  the  joy  of  all 
men  day  after  day.  I  reverently  adore  thee,  the  king  of  incom- 
parable beauty,  the  lord  of  the  earth-born  Sita  ;  be  gracious  to 
me  and  grant  me  devotion  to  thy  lotus  feet." 

'  Growje,  F.  S.,  "Ramayana,"  264.  "^  Ibid.,  268. 

'  Ibid.,  271.  *  Ibid.,  335. 


374  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Under  the  indifferent  tolerance  of  Jahangir,  the  able, 
though  drunken  and  debauched,  son  and  successor  of 
Akbar,  this  faith  in  the  saving  aid  of  Rama  was  taught 
by  Tulsi  Das  in  North  India,  by  the  disciples  of  Dadu,^ 
a  cotton  cleaner  of  Ahmadabad,  throughout  Ajmere  and 
Rajputana. 

The  long  and  peaceful  thirty  years'  reign  of  Shah  Jahan 
left  to  the  country  prosperity,  and  to  the  emperor,  in  his 
later  days,  wealth  and  leisure  to  build,  at  Delhi,  his  great 
fort  and  palace,  and  the  stately  Juma  Musjid,  or  "  Great 
Mosque."  At  Agra,  the  chastened  beauties  of  the  Gem 
and  Pearl  Mosques,  the  magnificence,  pomp,  and  splendour 
of  the  palaces,  long  the  wonder  of  the  world  for  their 
mosaics  set  in  precious  stones,  depicting  flowers,  and 
fruits,  and  birds,  even  human  faces  and  figures,  some 
the  work  of  Italian  or  Florentine  artists,  the  stories 
left  by  travellers  of  the  Peacock  Throne  and  its  inlaid 
sapphires,  rubies,  pearls,  and  emeralds,  all  give  evidence 
of  the  easy  luxury  of  the  times.  The  Taj  built  by  Shah 
Jahan  to  his  devoted  wife,  Muntaj  Mahal,  the  mother  of 
his  fourteen  children,  remains,  for  the  Mughals,  the  great 
memorial  of  how  their  fierce  wrath  and  lust  for  war  and 
plunder  fell  on  gentle  sleep  in  the  soothing  plains  of  India. 
On  the  death  of  Shah  Jahan,  his  vast  treasures  and  empire 
fell  to  his  third  son,  Aurangzib,  the  ascetic  saint  and 
bigoted  adherent  of  Islam.  The  new  emperor,  in  his 
fanatic  zeal  for  the  Sunni  faith,  changed  the  Deccan  from 
a  Dar-al-Hab  to  a  Dar-al-Islam,  and  by  his  poll  tax  on  all 
Hindus,  whose  idolatry  he  hated,  turned  the  Rajputs  from 
supporters  of  his  throne  to  sullen  foes.  The  Sikhs  he 
changed  from  caste  followers  of  the  meek  and  humble  pre- 
cepts of  the  "  Adi  Granth  "  of  their  first  Guru,  Nanak,  to  a 
race  of  fiercest  fighting  men,  who  gave  up  all  claim  to  caste, 

'  Founder  of  the  Dadu  Panthi  sect,  who  worship  Rama  from  a  Vedantic 
standpoint. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        375 

so  that,  under  their  tenth  Guru,  Govind  Singh,  they  might 
unite  "  to  wreak  bloody  revenge  on  the  murderers  of  his 
father,  to  subvert  totally  the  Muhammadan  power  and  to 
found  a  new  empire  upon  its  ruins."  ^  By  his  cold  contempt 
for  Sivajl, "  the  Mountain  Rat,"  he  allowed  the  wily  chieftain 
— the  protector  of  all  "  Brahmans  and  cows  " — to  weld  the 
Maratha  peasantry  into  roving  bands  of  predatory  soldiers 
with  a  burning  religious  zeal  and  hatred  of  Muhamma- 
danism,  until  they  grew  into  a  power  capable  of  exacting 
a  tribute  of  one-fourth  of  all  the  revenue  up  to  the  limits 
of  the  English  factory  at  Surat,^  away  to  the  "  Maratha 
ditch,"  which  had  to  be  dug  around  Calcutta  as  a  defence 
against  their  raids. 

While  Aurangzlb  wasted  his  strength  and  resources  in 
futile  efforts  to  reduce  the  last  two  strongholds  of  in- 
dependent rule  in  South  India,  hejd  by  the  representatives 
of  the  Katb  Shahi  dynasty  at  Golconda,  and  the  Adil 
Shahi  dynasty  at  Bijapur,  the  people  of  the  Panjab  had 
welded  themselves  into  a  bond  of  the  fiercest  warriors 
the  English  ever  met  in  India,  while  the  Marathas  were 
laughing  at  the  feeble  efforts  of  the  emperor  to  follow 
their  quick  course. 

Nanak,  the  founder  of  the  religious  faith  of  the  Sikhs, 
was  born  of  Hindu  peasant  parents  in  the  year  1469,  at  a 
village  named  Talvandl,  on  the  banks  of  the  Ravi,  not 
far  from  Lahore.  Following  close  on  the  lines  of  his 
predecessor  Kablr,  a  large  number  of  whose  verses  are 
included  in  the  "Adi  Granth,"  the  first  utterances  of 
Nanak  which  stirred  the  fanatic  fury  of  both  Hindu  and 
Muhammadans  against  him  were:  "There  is  no  Hindu 
and  no  Musalman."  *  Of  his  real  life  but  little  is  known. 
He  is  said  to  have  visited  Ceylon,  thence  returned  home 

'  Trumpp,  Ernest,  "Adi  Granth,"  p.  xc. 

*  Burned  as  far  as  the  English  factory  by  Sivaji  in  1664. 

'  Trumpp,  Ernest,  "Adi  Granth,"  p.  iv. 


376  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

performed  miracles,  and  to  have  been  captured  by  the 
troops  of  Babar,  on  the  conquest  of  the  Panjab  in  1524, 
and  then  to  have  been  released.^  Before  his  death,  in 
1538  A.D.,  he  appointed  his  servant  and  disciple,  Lahana, 
to  succeed  him  as  Guru  in  his  teachings,  though  it  was  not 
until  the  time  of  the  fifth  Guru,  Arjuna,  that  the  writings  of 
Nanak  and  his  successors  were  collected  into  the  "  Sikh  Adi 
Granth,"  or  Scriptures,  held  to  be  of  Divine  revelation.  The 
system  inculcated  by  Nanak,  the  first  Sikh,  was,  in  its 
essentials,  that  taught  by  the  "Bhagavad  Gita,"  by  Kabir, 
and  by  Vedantism. 

It  was  the  worship  of  One  Supreme  Being,  manifesting 
itself  in  a  plurality  of  forms,  under  the  power  of  Maya,  or 
delusion,  which  produces  the  fallacious  appearance  of  duality. 
To  the  Sikh,  this  Supreme  Being  was  known  as  "  Brahm, 
the  Supreme  Brahm,  Paramesur, '  the  Supreme  Lord,'  and 
especially  Hari,  Ram,  Govind."^ 

"  All  is  Govind,  all  is  G5vind  ;  without  Govind  there  is  no  other. 
As  in  one  string  there  are  seven  thousand  beads  (so),  is  that  Lord 

lengthwise  and  crosswise. 
A  wave  of  water,  froth,  and  bubble,  do  not  become  separate  from  the 

water. 
This  world  is  the  sport  of  the  Supreme  Brahm,  playing  about  he  does 

not  become  another."' 

Like  all  Vedantic  and  Eastern  Pantheistic  teaching  the 
system  of  Nanak  had  no  quarrel  with  Hindu  idolatry 
and  the  gods  of  the  Hindu  Pantheon.  The  various  forms 
in  which  the  Supreme  Being  manifests  itself  as  sport, 
through  the  delusion  of  Maya,  were,  however,  not  to  be 
mistaken  for  the  real,  uncreated,  invisible,  incomprehensible, 
and  indescribable  Essence : — 

'  Trumpp,  "Adi  Granth,"  p.  v. 
^  Ibid.,  p.  icviii. 
^  Jbid.,  p.  xcix. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        377 

"  Kablr  says :  A  stone  is  made  the  Lord,  the  whole  world  worships 

it.  

Who    remains    in    reliance    on    this,    is    drowned    in    the    black 
stream."  ^ 

The  position  has  been  clearly  put  by  Ernest  Trumpp, 
the  late  learned  translator  of  the  "  Adi  Granth " — a  work 
no  Sikh  Guru  could  read  until  he  had  first  prepared  a 
grammar  and  dictionary  of  the  old  Hindu  dialect,  for, 
as  he  records,  "  the  Sikhs,  in  consequence  of  their  former 
warlike  manner  of  life,  and  the  troublous  times,  had  lost  all 
learning."  ^     According  to  his  view 

"  It  is  a  mistake  if  Nanak  is  represented  as  having  endeavoured  to 
unite  the  Hindu  and  Muhammadan  idea  about  God.  Nanak 
remained  a  thorough  Hindu,  according  to  all  his  views,  and 
if  he  had  communionship  with  Musalmans,  and  many  of  these 
even  became  his  disciples,  it  was  owing  to  the  fact  that  Sufism, 
which  all  these  Muhammadans  were  professing,  was,  in  reality, 
nothing  but  a  Pantheism,  derived  directly  from  Hindu  sources, 
and  only  outwardly  adapted  to  the  forms  of  the  Islam.  Hindu 
and  Muslim  Pantheists  could  well  unite  together  as  they  enter- 
tained essentially  the  same  ideas  about  the  Supreme  ;  the  Hindu 
mythology  was  not  pressed  on  the  Musalmans,  as  the  Hindu 
philosophers  themselves  laid  no  particular  stress  upon  it.  On 
these  grounds  tolerance  between  Hindus  and  Turks  is  often 
advocated  in  the  '  Granth,'  and  intolerance  on  the  part  of  the 
Turks  rebuked."^ 

The  Nirvana,  or  absorption  of  the  Soul  into  the  Supreme 
Essence,  was  to  be  obtained  by  meditation  on,  and  repeat- 
ing of,  the  name  and  qualities  of  the  Supreme  Being,  Hari, 
which  must  be  taught  by  the  Sikh  Guru  : — 

"After  the  true   Guru  is  found,  no  wandering  (in  transmigration) 
takes  place,  the  pain  of  birth  and  death  ceases. 
From  the  perfect  word  all  knowledge  is  obtained,  he  (the  disciple) 
remains  absorbed  in  the  name  of  Hari."  * 


^  Trumpp,  "Adi  Granth,"  p.  ci. 
'•*  Ibid.  (Prejace),  p.  vi. 
'  Ibid. .  D.  ci. 


'  Ibid. ,  p.  ci. 
*  Ibid.,  p.  95. 


378  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Devotion  to  the  Guru  and  faith  in  his  teachings,  lead  to 
the  true  knowledge  of  Brahman  and  the  power  of  Maya, 
whence  flows  freedom  from  all  delusion  of  duality : — 

"  In  whose  heart  there  is  faith  in  the  Guru  : 
Into  that  man's  mind  comes  Hari,  the  Lord. 
That  devotee  is  heard  of  in  the  three  worlds,    ' 
In  whose  heart  the  One  is. 
True  is  his  work,  true  his  conduct, 
In  whose  heart  the  True  One  is,  who  utters  the  True  One 

with  his  mouth. 
True  is  his  look,  true  his  impression. 
That  the  True  One  exists,  that  his  expansion  is  true. 
Who  considers  the  Supreme  Brahm  as  true  : 
That  man  is  absorbed  in  the  True  One,  says  Nanak."  ^ 

Though  Nanak  received  all  men  without  respect  of 
caste,  and  claimed  for  himself  no  divinity,  no  sanctity  of 
learning,  the  power  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Gurus  soon 
led  to  their  very  deification  as  the  form  of  the  Supreme 
Being  itself 

In  the  days  (1581-1606)  of  the  fifth  Guru,  Arjuna,  the 
verses  of  Nanak,  and  the  later  saints  and  Gurus,  were 
collected  in  the  "  Adi  Granth,"  as  the  guide  to  the  people, 
whose  hitherto  voluntary  contributions  to  the  Guru  were 
reduced  to  a  form  of  regulated  taxation.  Arjuna  himself 
grew  in  wealth ;  the  Sikh  faith  spread  fast  throughout  the 
Jat  population  of  the  Panjab,  until  at  length  the  fears  of 
Jahanglr  were  roused.  The  Guru  was  arrested,  imprisoned 
at  Lahore,  and  there,  it  is  said,  he  died  from  torture 
and  ill-treatment.  Guru  Har  Govind  (1606-1638),  the  son 
of  Arjuna,  roused  the  Sikh  disciples  to  arms  against  the 
murderers  of  his  father,  and  sent  them  forth  to  blackmail 
the  local  governors  of  the  Mughal  emperor.  Shah  Jahan,  and 
retaliate  for  the  insults  levied  on  the  Sikh  Gurus.  The 
ninth  Guru,  Teg  Bahadur  (1664-1675),  was  seized  by  the 
fanatic,  Aurangzlb,  at  Delhi,  cast  into  prison,  and  there 
1  "Adi  Granth,"  p.  407. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        379 

cruelly  tortured  along  with  some  Brahmans,  in  hopes  that 
they  might  consent  to  embrace  the  Muhammadan  faith. 
The  Guru  in  despair,  and  wearied  of  his  tortures,  bowed 
his  head  before  the  keen  sword  of  a  Sikh  disciple,  his 
companion  in  misfortune,  sending  word  to  his  son,  GSvind 
Singh,  the  tenth  and  last  Guru,  to  avenge  his  death : — 

"  My  strength  is  exhausted,  fetters  have  fallen  upon  me,  there  is  no 
means  of  escape  left ; 
Nanak  says  :  Now  Hari  is  my  refuge,  like  an  elephant  he  will  become 
my  helper."  ^ 

Guru  Govind  Singh  first  summoned  from  Benares  some 
Brahmans  to  prepare  him  for  the  course  he  had  set  be- 
fore him — a  religious  war  against  Muhammadanism  and 
Aurangzlb.  The  aid  of  Durga,  the  blood-loving  wife  of 
Siva,  the  favourite  deity  worshipped  by  Govind  Singh,  had 
first  to  be  gained.  One  of  his  disciples  offered  himself  as  a 
sacrifice  to  Durga,  and  on  his  head  being  presented  to  the 
goddess,  it  is  fabled  that  she  appeared  and  promised 
success  to  the  sect  of  the  Sikhs.  Five  more  disciples 
offered  themselves  as  further  sacrifices.  Sherbet,  stirred 
by  a  two-edged  dagger,  was  given  them  to  drink.  The 
Guru  drank  himself,  his  disciples  followed,  and  all  were  thus 
initiated  as  the  first  members  of  the  Khalsa,  or  "special 
property  of  the  Guru."  To  every  disciple  the  name  of 
Singh,  or  "  Lion,"  was  given.  Their  vows  were :  Not  to  cut 
their  hair,  to  carry  a  comb,  a  knife,  and  sword,  and  to  wear 
breeches  reaching  to  the  knee.  To  gather  in  all  the 
people  into  one  united  body  opposed  to  Muhammadans, 
Govind  Singh  abolished  caste,  and  wrote  for  his  followers 
a  "  Granth  "  of  his  own  to  "  rouse  their  military  valour  and 
inflame  them  to  deeds  of  courage."  ^ 

Sivajl,  the  welder  of  the  Marathas  of  the  Deccan  and 

^  A  couplet  in  the  "  Granth,"  written  by  Teg  Bahadur,  quoted  by  Thornton 
m  J.R.A.S.,  vol.  xvii.  p.  393. 
2  "  Adi  Granth,"  p.  xci. 


38o  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

West  Coast  into  a  band  of  robbers  and  fierce  fighting  men, 
was  wise  enough  to  use  the  same  power  of  religious  en- 
thusiasm for  his  own  purposes.  Crafty,  fierce,  and  deter- 
mined, he  had  early  taken  as  his  Guru  the  Brahman 
Ramadas,  so  that  he  might  be  the  acknowledged  champion 
of  Brahmanism  against  Islam. 

For  long  the  Marathas  had  slumbered  in  peace,  tilled 
their  fields,  and  worshipped  their  idol,  Vithoba,*  whose  praises 
the  great  emotional  poet  of  the  Marathas,  Tuka  Rama,^ 
a  Sudra  of  Poona,  sang  in  his  five  thousand  hymns  : — 

"  Sing  the  song  with  earnestness,  making  pure  the  heart ; 
If  you  would  attain  God,  then  this  is  an  easy  way. 
Make  your  heart  lowly,  touch  the  feet  of  saints, 
Of  others  do  not  hear  the  good  or  bad  quality,  nor  think  of  them. 
Tuka  says  :  Be  it  much  or  little,  do  good  to  others."  ' 

The  policy  of  Sivaji  was  not  wholly  the  outcome  of 
his  cunning.  Like  all  Hindus,  he  had  his  own  strong 
religious  convictions,  and  these  inspired  many  of  his 
actions.  His  power  he  professedly  held  as  the  gift  of 
his  Guru,  Ramadas.  All  his  wealth  and  kingdom  he 
placed  at  the  feet  of  the  Brahman,  and  would  only  receive 
it  back  as  a  gift,  holding  himself  as  the  disciple  and 
servant  of  his  Guru,  a  position  indicated  by  the  flag  his 
horsemen  carried,  the  "red  ochre-coloured  cloth  worn  by 
Sanyasis."  *  To  Tuka  Rama,  the  Sudra  poet  of  the  Maratha 
nation,  he  sent  a  message,  accompanied  by  a  retinue  of 
servants,  elephants,  horses,  and  the  state  umbrella,  begging 
the  favour  of  a  visit,  only  to  receive  back  the  answer  from 

^  Dr  Murray  Mitchell,  "Hinduism,"'  p.  170,  for  an  account  of  the  deity 
who  derives  his  name  from  standing  on  a  brick,  and  described  by  Tuka  as 
"  beautiful  is  that  object,  upright  on  the  brick,  resting  his  hand  on  his  loin." 

*  "Poems  of  Tuka  Rama,"  edited  by  Vishnu  Parashuram  Shastri  Pandit 
(Bombay,  1869). 

'  Quoted  from  Sir  A.  Grant's  translation  in  Fortnightly  Review  (1867). 

*  "Poems  of  Tuka  Rama,"  p.  16. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        381 

the  preacher  of  a  salvation  to  the  Maratha  nation,  through 
a  faith  in  Krishna,  worshipped  under  the  form  of  Vithoba : — 

"Brahma  has  created  this   Universe,  making  it  the  scene  of  his 

diversion  and  skill. 
I  observe  an  amiableness  in  thy  letter  which  proves  thee 
A  child  of  skilfulness,  devout  in    faith  and  wise,  with  a  heart 

devotedly  loving  thy  spiritual  guide. 
The  holy  name  'Siva'  was  rightly  given  thee,  since  thou  art  the 

throned  monarch  of  the  people,  the  holder  of  the  strings  of 

their  destiny. 

What  pleasure  is  there  in  paying  a  visit?    The  days  of  life  are 

fleeting  past. 
Having  known  one  or  two  duties  which  are  the  real  Essence,  I  shall 

now  live  in  my  own  delusion. 
The  meaning  of  the  whole  which  will  do  thee  good  is  this — God  is 

the  all-pervading  soul  in  every  created  object. 
Live  with  thy  mind  unforgetful  of  the  all-pervading  soul,  and  witness 

thyself  in  Ramadasa. 
Blessed  is  thy  existence  on  earth,  O   king,  thy  fame  and  praise 

extend  over  the  three  worlds." 

Like  all  great  reformers  Tuka  Rama  had  to  suffer  bitter 
persecution : — 

"  It  was  well,  O  God,  that  I  became  bankrupt ;  it  was  well  that  famine 

afSicted  me. 
The  deep  sorrow  which  they  produced  kept  in  me  the  recollection 

of  thee,  and  made  worldly  pursuits  nauseating  to  me. 
It  was  well,  O  God,  that  my  wife  was  a  vixen  ;  it  was  well  that  I 

came  to  such  a  miserable  plight  among  the  people. 
It  was  well  that  I  was  dishonoured  in  the  world  ;  it  was  well  that 

I  lost  my  money  and  cattle. 
It  was  well  that  I  did  not  feel  worldly  shame ;  it  was  well  that  I 

surrendered  myself  to  thee,  O  God. 
It  was  well  that  I  made  thy  temple  my  abode,  neglecting  children 

and  wife." 

Being  a  Sudra,  Tuka  Rama  had  to  win  his  way  against 
Brahmanic  opposition,  and  by  his  preaching,  singing,  and 
simple  life  rouse  the  slumbering  spirit  of  the  Maratha 
nation.     The  potential  force  of  such  a  movement  is  too 


382  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

often  lost  sight  of  by  those  who  judge  Indian  life  from  a 
Western  standpoint. 

In  the  life  of  the  poet  ^  by  a  native  scholar  accustomed 
to  Western  modes  of  thought,  and  trained  to  a  Western 
respect  for  historic  accuracy,  the  living  power  of  a  force 
exercised  by  such  a  character  as  Tuka  Rama  is  clearly 
indicated  by  the  estimation  given  of  his  influence  on  the 
movements  of  the  time : — 

"  By  that  inherent  force  of  truth  to  triumph,  and  to  outlive,  and  by 
that  unforeseen  and  unexpected  succour  which  the  truly  faithful 
and  sincere  receive  from  quarters  unknown,  call  it  miracle  or 
anything  else,  Tuka  Rama  and  his  poemsoutlived  his  persecutors 
and  inculcated  in  the  Maratha  nation  the  great  doctrine  of 
' Salvation  by  Faith.'" 

It  was  Maratha  daring,  Rajput  chivalry,  and  the  stubborn 
heroism  of  Sikh  soldiery  that  England  had  to  meet  before 
it  conquered  India,  and  the  West  may  rest  assured  that  the 
awakening  of  a  spirit  of  revolt  in  India  will  be  first 
presaged  by  a  wide-spread  religious  movement,  broad 
enough  in  its  basis,  and  popular  enough  in  its  forms,  to 
enrol  the  sympathies  of  the  mass  of  the  people.  All  other 
movements  must  fall  to  pieces  for  want  of  strength,  unity, 
or  cohesion,  or  motive  power.^ 

When  the  unloved  and  worn-out  king  crept  back  to 
Ahmadnagar  to  die  in  1707,  after  twenty-six  years'  weary 
efforts  to  hold  the  Deccan  free  from  Maratha  raids,  he 
wailed  forth,  in  a  letter  to  his  son,  Azim,*  the  sad  downfall 
of  all  his  hopes  and  the  wreck  of  his  empire : — 

"  I  am  grown  very  old  and  weak,  and  my  limbs  are  feeble.  Many 
were  around  me  when  I  was  bom,  but  now  I  am  going  alone. 

*  By  Janardan  Sakharam  Gadgil,  B.A.,  prefixed  to  the  "Poems  of  Tuka 
Rama"  (1869),  p.  12. 

"^  This  was  written  before  the  Maratha  outrages  of  Poona,  towards  the  end 
of  June.  Much  uneasiness  might  have  been  assuaged,  and  much  hasty  counsel 
ignored,  if  a  wider  insight  into  Indian  life  and  history  was  more  prevalent  than 
it  seems  to  be  at  present. 

'  Quoted  in  S.  Lane-Poole's  "  Aurangzib,"  p.  203. 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  THE  LAND        383 

1  know  not  why  I  am,  or  wherefore  I  came  into  the  world.  I 
bewail  the  moments  which  I  have  spent  forgetful  of  God's 
worship.  I  have  not  done  well  by  the  country  or  its  people. 
My  years  have  gone  by  profitless.  God  has  been  in  my  heart, 
yet  my  darkened  eyes  have  not  recognised  His  light.  The  army 
is  confounded,  and  without  heart  or  help  even  as  I  am.  .  .  . 
Come  what  will,  I  have  launched  my  bark  upon  the  waters. 
Farewell  ! " 

Not  one  hundred  years  later  the  EngHsh  took  from  out 
the  keeping  of  his  Maratha  captors,  the  blind  Shah  Alam, 
"  King  of  the  World,"  and  the  feeble  remnant  of  Mughal 
supremacy  passed  under  British  power.  The  tragedy  was 
well  played  out.  The  relentless  sword  of  Babar  was 
sheathed  by  Akbar,  its  handle  set  with  precious  gems,  and 
the  scabbard  cased  in  velvet  by  Shah  Jahan.  When 
AurangzTb  once  more  drew  the  blade  to  proclaim  a  Jihad, 
or  "  Holy  War,"  against  all  infidels,  he  found  that  the 
fanatic  faith  that  fired  his  soul  would  call  on  God  in  vain 
to  brighten  up  the  blade  and  steel  the  edge,  for  the  might 
that  clove  a  way  for  Babar's  Mughal  hosts  was  not  the 
arm  of  God,  but  the  fierce  Northern  strength  of  race  and 
clime  that  had  long  since  passed  away  from  the  debauched 
and  effeminate  nobles  and  followers  of  Aurangzib,  who 
were  left  in  their  vain  crusade  without  hope  or  help. 
India  fell  not  from  Mughal  sway  to  the  divided  rule  and 
contending  claims  of  Rajput,  Maratha,  or  Sikh ;  it  fell  to 
a  power  able  to  hold  all  North  India,  from  Calcutta  to 
Bombay,  and  all  south  of  the  Vindhya  range,  secure  from 
inward  strife  of  race,  religion,  caste,  or  sect ;  powerful 
enough  to  protect  it  from  all  foreign  invasion,  and  wise 
enough  never  to  allow  its  manhood  to  decay  by  long 
residence  or  settlement  in  a  clime  where  race  after  race 
of  Northern  conquerors,  Aryan,  Pathan,  Mughal,  Turk, 
and  Portuguese  have  sunk  to  soothing  rest  in  the  sun- 
steeped  plains. 


CHAPTER  XV, 

THE   FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD   AND   NEW, 

Every  ten  years  the  Government  of  India  presents  to  the 
House  of  Commons  a  statement  of  the  "  Moral  and  Material 
Progress  and  Condition  of  India  "  during  the  nine  preceding 
years.  A  similar  statement,  presented  annually,  shows  the 
progress  and  change  made  during  the  year  under  review. 

These  statements  give  a  graphic  description  of  the 
frontiers  and  protected  states.  They  contain  a  detailed 
account  of  the  administration,  of  the  laws,  legislation, 
litigation,  and  crime.  They  give  full  information  regarding 
the  sources  of  revenue,  trade,  commerce,  and  manufactures, 
the  outlay  on,  and  income  from,  public  works,  vital 
statistics,  and  sanitation,  and  include  tables  of  net  revenue 
and  expenditure,  as  well  as  a  short  account  of  public 
instruction,  literature,  and  the  Press.  The  statements  set 
forth  the  salient  features  of  the  administrative  machinery 
working  for  the  advancement  of  the  material  improvement 
of  the  community.  It,  however,  remains  a  task  outside  the 
scope  and  limits  of  a  Blue  Book  to  discern  and  chronicle  in 
how  far  a  Western  civilisation  has  wrought  changes  of  a 
permanent  character  in  the  religious  or  moral  feeling  of  the 

384 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    385 

people,  or  infused  a  new  intellectual  life  into  the 
traditional  modes  of  thought  that  had  satisfied  the 
brooding  spirit  of  Brahmanical  and  indigenous  genius, 
so  long  overwhelmed  by  the  sea  of  Muhammadan 
conquest 

In  how  far,  it  might  be  asked,  would  the  people  of  India, 
if  left  to  govern  themselves,  undisturbed  by  foreign  invasion 
or  internal  anarchy,  carry  out  the  ideals  of  a  progressive 
civilisation,  working  for  the  amelioration  of  the  lot  of 
mankind  ?  Would  commerce  thrive,  or  would  it  drift  into  a 
condition  where  none  of  the  agricultural  produce  would  be 
forthcoming  for  exportation,  in  exchange  for  the  manu- 
factures, metals,  hardware,  etc.,  of  the  West  ?  Would  India 
submit  to  religious  intolerance,  and  a  corrupt  administra- 
tion, after  having  been  accustomed  to  the  impartiality  and 
justice  of  a  British  rule?  Would  the  great  works  of  irriga- 
tion be  neglected  and  allowed  to  fall  into  decay?  Would 
railways,  and  all  efforts  for  sanitary  improvement  be 
abandoned  if  bereft  of  Western  control  ?  Would  famine  be 
allowed  to  devastate  the  land,  and  no  efforts  be  made  for 
a  widespread  organised  relief,  or  medical  skill  be  no 
more  forthcoming  to  combat  the  ravages  of  pestilence  and 
disease?  Would  caste  once  again  forge  its  bonds,  and 
enslave  the  people?  Would  superstition  regain  its  old 
sway,  and  customs,  abhorrent  to  humanity,  be  honoured 
as  in  days  of  old  ?  Would  India,  in  fact,  drift  back  into 
a  stationary  condition  of  society  as  the  final  outcome  of 
three  hundred  years  of  Western  effort  for  its  moral  and 
material  progress,  or  has  she  had  implanted  in  her  any- 
thing of  the  vital  principles  of  energetic  strife  for  advance  in 
the  history  of  the  nations  of  the  world  ?  It  may  be  laid 
down  as  a  truism,  that  nothing  of  permanent  good  that  has 
once  been  brought  into  contact  with  the  East  will  be  wholly 
thrown  away  or  rejected.  The  subtle  brain  of  the  Eastern 
will  patiently,  all  too  slowly  for  unimaginative  and  hasty 

2  B 


386  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Westerns,  sift  everything,  assimilate  what  it  finally  discerns 
to  be  best  suited  for  its  own  purposes,  ultimately  accreting 
nothing  to  itself,  which  with  its  own  unfailing  instinct  it 
feels  to  be  antagonistic  to  the  conditions  whereby  it  has  its 
own  existence. 

Difficult  as  the  task  must  always  be,  even  if  for  the  greater 
part  it  be  not  altogether  impossible,  to  ascertain  in  how  far 
the  literature,  architecture,  science,  and  religions  of  India 
have  been  moulded  or  impressed  by  foreign  influences — 
Accadian,  Macedonian,  Scythian,  Muhammadan,  Mughal, 
or  Portuguese — still  more  difficult  is  it  to  discriminate  in 
how  far  British  rule  in  India  has  worked  towards  im- 
planting new  ideals  destined  to  advance  the  moral  and 
intellectual  condition  of  the  people.  At  the  present 
day  the  evidence  is  so  evasive  and  slight,  so  localised  and 
difficult  to  discern,  that  it  must  remain  more  a  matter  of 
opinion  ^  and  feeling,  than  of  proof,  as  to  how  far  the  people 
of  India  have  been  influenced  by  the  new  world  of  thought 
opened  up  to  the  educated  natives  through  the  medium  of 
English  education.  The  surest  evidence  is  to  be  found  in 
the  literature  which  the  thought  of  the  time  has  produced. 
If  the  best  of  that  literature  indicates  that  new  modes  of 
thought  and  expression  have  been  created,  it  may  with 
confidence  be  expected  that  such  a  literature  is  yet  destined, 
not  only  to  remain  an  inalienable  possession  of  the  people, 
but  also  to  abide  as  an  influence  for  furthering  the  in- 
tellectual and  moral  advancement  of  the  community.  The 
means  taken  by  the  British  Government  to  advance  the 
intellectual  life  of  the  people,  and  what  has  been  recorded 
as  a  result  in  the  literature  of  the  country,  can  only  be 
summarised  and  indicated.      It  must  remain  for  the  future 


'  Sir  Alfred  Lyall  has  recently  held  that :  "  To  no  foreign  observer,  therefore, 
are  sufBcient  materials  available  for  making  any  sure  and  comprehensive  esti- 
mate of  the  general  movement  or  direction  of  ideas  during  the  last  forty  years." 
— Nineteenth  Century  (June  1897). 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    387 

to  disclose  whether,  as  claimed  by  the  natives  them- 
selves, 

"  We  are  just  accommodating  ourselves  to  environment  that  has  hither- 
to been  so  unfavourable  to  the  development  of  creative  power. 
Within  a  quarter  of  a  century  more  we  shall  be  quite  at  home 
in  our  surroundings.  Our  future  is  a  glorious  one.  Let  nil 
desperandutn  be  our  motto,  and  we  shall  yet  show  to  the 
civilised  world  that  we  are  not  only  apt  zxA  facile  imitators,  but 
that  we  have  genius  for  original  intellectual  work,  and  that  we 
can  produce  results  that  will  even  excel  the  past  splendours  of 
Hindu  literature  and  art." ' 

or  whether,  as  has  been  urged,  the  Indian  genius  is 
effete,  and  no  signs  have  as  yet  come  to  show  that  an 
infusion  of  new  life  and  thought  has  had  any  power  to 
rouse  it  to  creative  purposes. 

The  world  presents  no  problem  more  interesting  or  more 
momentous.  On  its  solution  depends  in  history  the  final 
judgment  on  the  success  of  England's  mission  in  the  East. 
The  entire  industrial  resources  of  modern  scientific  days, 
the  best  of  the  intellectual  heritage  handed  down  from 
Semitic,  Grecian,  and  Roman  genius,  are  borne  to  India 
from  the  West,  and  yet  the  result  of  all  these  forces 
seems  to  remain  within  the  realm  of  doubt  and  con- 
troversy. The  forces  are  those  on  which  the  future  hopes 
of  the  world  are  founded,  and  India  can  no  more  refuse 
to  bend  before  them,  than  the  West  can  refuse  to  recognise 
and  accept  the  returning  gift  of  her  long  record  of  how 
humanity,  in  its  rest  and  quiet,  has  wearily  turned  from  all 
that  Nature  can  bestow,  and  probably  all  that  she  can 
disclose  of  her  deepest  mysteries  to  the  intelligence  of  man, 
for  some  solution  of  the  problem  that  lies  nearest  and 
dearest  to  him — that  of  himself,  and  of  his  aspirations 
towards  some  ideal  completeness  of  life. 

As  yet  the  long  past  that  has  culminated  in  a  Western 

1  S.  Satthianadhan,  M.A.,  LL.D.  (Cantab.),  "What  has  English  Education 
done  for  India  ?  "  Indian  Magazine  and  Review  (November  1896). 


388  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

civilisation,  still  on  its  rapid  progress  towards  strange 
changes,  has  but  clashed  with  the  dead  inertia  of  an 
Eastern  civilisation  that  drags  its  heavy  weight  of  tradition, 
time-worn  philosophies,  creeds,  and  customs  behind  it, 
restraining  all  its  best  endeavours  for  progress  and  advance. 

Only  one  hundred  years  ago,  in  1797,  Charles  Grant 
presented  to  the  Court  of  Directors  a  treatise,  written  in 
1792,  in  which  he  laid  down  the  truth  that  "although  in 
theory  it  never  can  have  been  denied  that  the  welfare  of 
our  Asiatic  subjects  ought  to  be  the  object  of  our  solicitude, 
yet,  in  practice,  this  acknowledged  truth  has  been  but  slowly 
followed  up."^  He  further  states  that  "we  have  been 
satisfied  with  the  apparent  submissiveness  of  the  people, 
and  have  attended  chiefly  to  the  maintenance  of  our 
authority  over  the  country,  and  the  augmentation  of  our 
commerce  and  revenues,  but  have  never,  with  a  view  to 
the  promotion  of  their  happiness,  looked  thoroughly  into 
their  internal  state."  He  proposed  a  scheme  for  future 
guidance  which  included  the  gradual  instruction  of  the 
people  in  English  and  their  education,"let  not  the  idea  hastily 
excite  derision,  progressively  with  the  simple  elements  of 
our  arts,  our  philosophy,  and  religions."  By  the  intro- 
duction of  English  into  the  business  of  Government, 
"  wherein  Persian  is  now  used,"  it  was  hoped  that  the  use 
of  the  language  would  by  degrees  become  general;  that 
habits  of  correct  reasoning  on  natural  phenomena  would 
be  inculcated,  natural  philosophy  diffused,  the  art  of 
invention  promoted,  and  finally,  Christianity  would  triumph 
over  superstition,  idolatry,  and  the  universal  depravity  of 
the  native  population. 

In  1781  Warren  Hastings  had  given  evidence  of  his 
statesmanship  by  founding  the  Calcutta  Madrissa,  or 
Muhammadan  College,  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the 

'  Syed  Mahmoud,  "  Observations  on  the  State  of  Society  among  the  Asiatic 
Subjects  of  Great  Britain,  etc.,"  p.  11. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    389 

study  of  Arabic  and  Persian  and  the  Muhammadan  law, 
so  as  to  educate  natives  for  the  Courts  of  Justice.^ 

Three  years  later  Sir  William  Jones  gave  the  inaugural 
discourse  at  a  meeting  of  thirty  gentlemen,  called  in 
Calcutta  for  the  purpose  of  instituting  a  society  for 
enquiring  into  the  history,  civil  and  natural,  the  antiquities, 
arts,  sciences,  and  literature  of  Asia — a  society  established 
under  the  name  of  the  "  Asiatic  Society."  Warren  Hastings 
was  invited  to  be  the  first  president,  an  honour  he  declined, 
whereon  the  office  fell  to  Sir  William  Jones,  who  remained 
president  down  to  his  death,  in  1794.  In  1791,  Mr  Jonathan 
Duncan,  Resident  at  Benares,  endowed  the  Sanskrit  College 
at  Benares  for  the  teaching  of  Hindu  law,  as  well  as  Hindu 
literature. 

The  two  Lithuanian  and  Danish  Lutheran  missionaries, 
Ziegenbalg  and  Plutschau,  both  sent  out  from  the  University 
of  Halle  in  1706  to  the  Danish  Settlement  at  Tranquebar, 
had  translated  the  Gospel  of  St  Matthew  into  the  dialect  of 
Malabar  as  early  as  1714.^  The  efforts  of  these  missions  were 
largely  supported  by  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian 
Knowledge,  under  whom  Schwartz  worked  in  Tanjore, 
founding  the  Tinnevelly  Mission,  from  his  arrival  in  1750. 

More  important  in  its  effects  were  the  efforts  made  by 
the  Baptists,  whose  first  missionary,  William  Carey,  landed 
in  Bengal  in  1794,*  to  be  followed  in  1799  by  the  two 
famed    Baptist   missionaries,    Marshman   and   Ward,  who 

1  "  Previous  to  the  enunciation  of  this  view,  Warren  Hastings  had,  in  1773, 
summoned  eleven  Brahmans  to  Calcutta,  and  directed  them  to  compile  a  text 
comprising  all  the  customs  of  the  Hindus,  so  that  it  might  be  translated  into 
Persian  for  the  use  of  the  Court,  and  he  appointed  Hindu  and  Muhammadan 
advisers  to  the  European  judges  to  expound  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  people, 
the  first  movement  for  an  intellectual  understanding  of  the  literature  of  India 
by  the  Company. " — "  Papers  relating  to  the  affairs  of  India  "  (General  Appendix 
I.:  Public,  1832). 

^  The  translation  of  the  Bible  into  Tamil  was  completed  in  1725  by  Schultze, 
the  successor  of  Ziegenbalg. 

8  Hunter,  "Indian  Empire,"  p.  313. 


390  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

found  a  safe  refuge  from  the  East  India  Company  at  the 
Danish  Settlement  at  Serampur,  fifteen  miles  from  Calcutta,i 
There  their  endeavours  for  the  conversion  and  education 
of  the  natives  in  the  vernaculars  of  the  country  continued 
in  spite  of  the  Despatch  of  the  Court  of  Directors  in  1808 
(7th  December),  declaring  their  policy  of  strict  neutrality 
in  all  matters  religious,  and  in  spite  of  the  contempt  thrown 
on  their  efforts  at  home. 

In  England  ^  it  was  feared  that  any  efforts  at  conversion 
would  lead  to  insurrection  and  a  risk  to  the  Empire.  It 
was  also  urged  that  if  once  the  Hindu  faith  was  undermined, 
no  fresh  principles  of  faith  would  be  engrafted  on  the 
converted  natives,  who  would  become  merely  nominal 
Christians.  In  spite  of  all  these  discouragements  Carey 
and  Marshman  cast  their  own  type,  and,  in  1822,  started 
the  first  vernacular  newspaper  in  India,  the  Samdchdr 
Barpan,  the  first*  English  newspaper,  Ricky's  Gazetteer 
having  appeared  in  1780. 

The  Bible  was  soon  printed  in  twenty-six  vernaculars, 
including  Bengali,  Marathi,  and  Tamil,  and  in  1801  Carey 
was  appointed,  by  Lord  Wellesley,  Professor  of  Bengali, 
Marathi,  and  Sanskrit  at  the  new  college  of  Fort  St 
William.  There  he  continued  his  work,  issuing  numerous 
books  from  the  press,  including  an  edition  of  the 
"  Ramayana  "  in  three  volumes,  the  "  Mahabharata,"  and  a 
Bengali  newspaper,  while  at  the  same  time  he  established 
upwards  of  twenty  schools  for  the  education  of  native 
children.* 

'  It  was  at  this  time  also  that  H.  J.  Colebrooke,  who  had  landed  in  1782  as 
a  writer  in  the  Company's  service  in  Bengal,  commenced  his  series  of  contribu- 
tions to  the  "Researches"  of  the  Asiatic  Society  towards  Oriental  learning. 
In  1794  he  produced  his  treatise  on  the  duties  of  a  "Faithful  Hindu  Widow," 
in  connection  with  the  controversy  on  SatI,  followed  in  1798  by  his  "  Digest 
of  Hindu  Law,"  and  in  1805  by  his  "  Grammar,"  founded  on  the  rules  of 
Panini. 

^  Edinburgh  Review,  1808.  '  Contemporary  Review,  vol.  xxxvii.  458. 

^  R.  C.  Dutt,  "  History  of  the  Literature  of  Bengal,"  p.  136. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    391 

The  clear  and  patent  evidence  that  a  new  spirit  was 
working  among  the  people  was  the  appearance  of  the  first 
great  reformer  and  apostle  of  modern  India.  Ram  Mohun 
Roy,  who  lived  and  died  a  Brahman,  was  born  in  1774  at 
Radhanagar,  in  the  district  of  Hughli.  In  his  own  village 
he  read  Persian,  proceeded  to  Patna  to  learn  Arabic, 
and  thence  to  Benares  to  study,  in  Sanskrit,  the 
"  Upanishads,"  and  "  Vedanta."  In  1790,  at  the  age  of  six- 
teen, he  produced — probably  as  much  under  Muhammadan 
influence  as  any  other — a  treatise  antagonistic  to  the 
idolatrous  religion  of  the  Hindus,^  in  which  he  laid  the 
first  foundations  of  a  prose  literature  in  his  own  vernacular, 
that  of  Bengali.     As  Ram  Mohun  Roy  wrote  himself : — 

"After  my  father's  death  I  opposed  the  advocates  of  idolatry  with 
still  greater  boldness.  Availing  myself  of  the  art  of  printing, 
now  established  in  India,  I  published  various  works  and 
pamphlets  against  their  (the  advocates  of  idolatry)  errors,  in 
the  native  and  foreign  languages.  ...  I  endeavoured  to  show 
that  the  idolatry  of  the  Brahmans  was  contrary  to  the  practice 
of  their  ancestors,  and  the  principles  of  their  ancient  books."  ^ 

After  three  years  spent  in  Thibet  to  study  Buddhism,  he 
returned  home  and  commenced  the  study  of  English,  a 
language  he  afterwards  wrote  with  a  grace,  ease,  and 
precision  that  led  Jeremy  Bentham  to  declare  that  he 
wished  that  the  style  of  James  Mill  had  been  equal  to  it.* 

In  other  phases  of  thought  the  unrest,  the  waking-up  to 
face  the  increasing  pressure  of  the  West,  was  equally 
apparent  and  no  less  real.  The  literature  of  India  at  the 
commencement  of  the  nineteenth  century  was,  for  the  most 
part,  religious,  devoted  to  mystic  raptures  over  Rama  and 
Krishna.     What  may  be  called  a  new  impulse  was  given 

1  Max  Miiller,  in  "Biographical  Essays,"  p.  IJ,  doubts  the  authenticity  of 
the  book  [see  note  l). 

2  Carpenter,  M.,  "  Last  Days  in  England  of  Ram  Mohun  Roy,"  p.  19. 
■    s  Putt,  R.  C.,  "  History  of  the  Literature  of  Bengal,"  p.  149. 


392  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

by  the  introduction  of  printing  into  India,  about  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

In  1803,  Lallu  Ji  Lai,  by  the  advice  of  Dr  John  Gilchrist, 
wrote  his  "Prem  Sagar,"  printed  in  1809,  in  a  new  language, 
Hindi,  in  which  the  Urdu  of  the  camp^  was  taken  as  the 
model,  with  all  its  Persian  and  Arabic  words  omitted,  their 
place  being  supplied  by  Sanskrit  words,  so  that  it  could  be 
used  for  prose  of  a  literary  character  but  not  for  poetry. 

In  Bengal,  Ram  Mohun  Roy  used  the  vernacular  Bengali 
for  his  prose  writings,  commencing  in  1790  with  his  early 
essay  against  idolatry,  but  neither  in  this  nor  in  his  later 
writings  on  the  "Vedanta,"  translations  of  the  "Upanishads," 
in  r8i6  and  1817,  and  subsequent  polemics  on  the  subject 
of  widow-burning,  did  the  language  show  any  adaptability 
for  becoming  a  medium  to  express  his  views  so  clearly  and 
gracefully  as  he  was  enabled  to  express  them  in  his 
Sanskrit  and  English  writings.  He  but  showed  that  the 
vernaculars  were  capable  of  being  used  for  literary  prose 
purposes,  for,  before  his  time,  they  had  been  used  merely 
for  poetic  effusions. 

When  Ram  Mohun  Roy  commenced  to  write,  few 
Europeans,  and  probably  fewer  natives  in  Bengal  outside 
the  Brahman  caste,  knew  anything  of  the  ancient  Vedic 
texts.  Ram  Mohun  Roy  wrote,  in  18 16,  regarding  the 
universal  system  of  idolatry : — 

"  Hindus  of  the  present  age,  with  very  few  exceptions,  have  not  the 
least  idea  that  it  is  to  the  attributes  of  the  Supreme  Being,  as 
figuratively  represented  by  shapes  corresponding  to  the  nature 

^  Urdu  itself  is  the  camp  language,  with  its  structure  and  grammar  framed 
on  that  of  the  North  Indian  dialects ;  most  of  the  substantiTes  are  foreign 
words,  which  were  mostly  Persian  or  Arabic  when  the  language  was  used  by 
the  Muhammadans  for  literary  purposes.  When  this  Urdu  is  deleted  of  most 
of  its  foreign  words,  and  words  of  common  use  from  the  local  vernaculars  are 
inserted,  the  lingua  franca  of  all  India,  the  Hindustani  is  arrived  at,  a  language 
of  common  use  for  speaking  all  over  North  India,  and  also  largely  in  the 
South. — See  Gri?rson,  Calcutta  Review  (October  1895),  p.  265. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NE  W    393 

of  these  attributes,  they  offer  adoration  and  worship  under  the 
denomination  of  god  and  goddess." ' 

His  mission  was  a  wide  one  and  ably  he  filled  it.  He 
had  first  to  create  a  new  prose  literature,  to  raise  his  own 
vernacular  to  the  dignity  of  a  medium  for  inculcating 
among  the  uninstructed  mass  of  the  people  not  only  what 
he  found  suited  to  his  own  national  instincts  in  the 
learning  of  the  West,  but  what  he  deemed  worthy  of 
preservation  in  the  sacred  writings  of  his  own  race. 

The  work  of  perfecting  the  use  of  Bengali  for  literary 
purposes  was  carried  on  by  Isvara  Chandra  Gupta,  who 
started  the  monthly  Sambad  Prabhakar  in  1830,  a  journal 
in  which  his  own  poetry,  not  of  a  very  high  order,  as  well 
as  his  prose  translations  from  the  Sanskrit,  and  lives  of 
Bengali  poets,  appeared  from  time  to  time,  along  with  the 
writings  of  a  class  of  rising  authors.  In  a  Minute  of  181 1 
Lord  Minto  had  drawn  public  attention  to  the  deplorable 
decay  of  literature  in  India,  due  to  a  want  of  patronage 
from  either  the  princes,  chieftains,  rich  natives,  or  the 
Government  itself,  and  advised  the  establishment  of 
colleges  in  various  places  for  the  restoration  of  Hindu 
science,  and  literature,  and  Muhammadan  learning.  At 
the  renewal  of  the  Company's  Charter  in  1814,  for  a  further 
period  of  twenty  years,  it  was  enacted  by  Act  53,  Geo.  III. 
c.  15s,  that  a  sum  of  ;^io,ooo  should  be  allotted  for  "the 
revival  and  improvement  of  literature,  and  the  encourage- 
ment of  the  learned  natives  of  India,  and  for  the  introduction 
and  promotion  of  the  knowledge  of  the  sciences  among  the 
inhabitants  of  the  British  territories  in  India." 

'  "  That  the  early  growth  of  the  native  Press  was  but  slow,  can  be  judged 
from  the  fact  that,  in  1850,  after  twenty-eight  years  of  existence,  there  were  hut 
twenty-eight  vernacular  papers  in  existence  in  all  North  India,  with  an  annual 
circulation  of  about  sixty  copies,  while  in  1878  there  were  ninety-seven  vernacular 
papers  in  active  circulation,  and  in  1880  there  were  two  hundred  and  thirty, 
with  a  circulation  of  150,000.  The  first  vernacular  newspaper  was  printed  in 
1818,  at  Serampur.  In  1890-91  there  were  four  hundred  and  sixty-three 
vernacular  papers." — Contemforary  Review,  vol,  xxxvii.  p.  461, 


394  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

In  1815  Ram  Mohun  Roy  published  a  work  on  Vedanta 
philosophy  in  Bengali,  and  a  treatise  on  it  in  English,  and 
in  the  following  year  his  translation  of  several  "Upani- 
shads."  The  first  decided  step  taken  to  further  English 
education  was  initiated,  strange  to  say,  by  a  watch- 
maker in  Calcutta,  Mr  David  Hare,  who,  in  conjunction 
with  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  inaugurated,  in  18 16,  the  Hindu 
College  of  Calcutta,  with  its  famed  teachers,  Richardson 
and  Derozia,  which  gradually,  in  spite  of  many  dishearten- 
ing failures,  increased  its  number  of  pupils  from  twenty,  in 
18 17,  its  first  opening,  to  four  hundred  and  thirty-six  in 
1820,^  when  the  subjects  taught  were  Natural  Science, 
History,  Geography,  with  Milton  and  Shakespeare. 

The  name  of  Jognarain  Ghosal  of  Benares  deserves  also 
to  be  remembered,  for  having  founded  a  school  at  Benares 
for  the  teaching  of  English,  Persian,  Hindustani,  and 
Bengali.  The  management  of  this  school  was  entrusted 
to  the  Rev.  D.  Corrie  of  the  Calcutta  Church  Missionary 
Society,  and  it  was  endowed  with  a  sum  of  20,000  Rs., 
and  the  revenues  of  certain  lands.  Another  institution 
started  for  the  moral  and  intellectual  improvement  of  the 
natives  was  the  Calcutta  School  Book  Society,  founded 
in  1 8 17,  which  received  an  annual  grant  of  6000  Rs.  from 
the  Government  in  1821,  after  it  had  published  126,446 
copies  of  useful  works. 

The  full  force  of  these  influences  was  soon  apparent 
In  1816,  Ram  Mohun  Roy  had,  with  his  friend  Dvaraka 
Nath  Tagore,  founded  a  society  for  spiritual  improvement 
called  the  Atmlya  Sabha.  In  1820,  he  published,  in  Bengal, 
his  "  Precepts  of  Jesus :  a  Guide  to  Peace  and  Happiness," 
and  raised  a  storm  of  controversy  over,  what  his  chief 
opponent,  Dr  Marshman,  termed,  his  "  heathen  "  adaptation 
of  Christian  doctrines  to  Eastern  modes  of  thought* 

*  Syed  Mahmoud,  "  History  of  English  Education  in  India,"  p.  26. 

2  Ram  Mohun  Roy  replied  with  a  first  and  second  Appeal,  but  the  Baptist 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    395 

In  his  preface  Ram  Mohun  Roy  declares : — 

"This  simple  code  of  religion  and  morality  is  so  admirably  calculated 
to  elevate  man's  ideas  to  high  and  liberal  notions  of  One  God, 
who  has  equally  subjected  all  living  creatures,  without  dis- 
tinction of  caste,  rank,  or  wealth,  to  change,  disappointment, 
pain,  and  death,  and  has  equally  admitted  all  to  be  partakers  of 
the  bountiful  mercies  which  He  has  lavished  over  Nature  ;  and  is 
also  so  well  fitted  to  regulate  the  conduct  of  the  human  race  in 
the  discharge  of  their  various  duties  to  God,  to  themselves,  and 
society,  that  I  cannot  but  hope  the  best  effects  from  its  promul- 
gation in  the  present  form."  ^ 

The  new  religion  has  been  called  Unitarianism.  Its 
monotheism,  however,  was  not  that  of  the  West.  The 
Brahman,  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  went  back  to  the  Unconscious 
Essence,  to  the  Brahman  of  the  "  Vedanta  "  for  his  Supreme 
Deity.  It  was  to  found  an  eclectic  system  of  practical 
and  universal  morality  that  the  apostle  of  the  new  re- 
ligion published  his  "  Precepts  of  Jesus,"  from  which  were 
eliminated  all  abstruse  doctrines  and  miraculous  relations 
of  the  New  Testament. 

Ram  Mohun  Roy  indeed  acknowledged :   "  that  I  have 

found  the  doctrines  of  Christ  more  conducive  to  moral 

principles,  and  better  adapted  for  the  use  of  rational  beings 

than  any  other  which  have  come  to  my  knowledge."  ^    Yet 

the  tendency  of  the  school  of  thought,  out  of  which  arose 

his  new  religion,  was  his  statement  in  his  final  Appeal,* 

that  "whatever    arguments    can   be   adduced    against    a 

plurality  of    Gods,   strike  with   equal   force    against  the 

doctrine  of  a  plurality  of  persons  of  the  Godhead  ;  and  on 

the  other    hand,   whatever    excuse    may  be    pleaded   in 

favour   of  a  plurality   of  persons   of  the   Deity  can   be 

offered  with  equal  propriety  in  defence  of  polytheism." 

Press  refused  to  publish  his  last  Appeal,  the  third,  so  he  had  to  start  a  press  of 
his  own  and  print  his  own  works,  which,  however,  the  Unitarian  Society 
republished  in  1824. 

1  Max  Miiller,  "Biographical  Essays,"  p.  22. 

2  Monier- Williams,  "  Brahmanism  and  Hinduism,"  p.  483. 
s  Ibid.,  p.  484. 


396  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

The  real  commencement  of  the  struggle,  to  decide  the 
general  lines  on  which  the  future  of  the  moral  and  in- 
tellectual development  of  the  natives  of  India  was  to  be 
carried  out,  commenced  from  the  year  1823,  when  the 
General  Committee  of  Public  Instruction  received  the 
lac  of  rupees  allotted  by  the  Act  of  Geo.  III.  of  1813  for 
education.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  average  expenditure 
during  the  twenty  years,  from  181 3  to  1830,  exceeded  two 
lacs  of  rupees.  The  keynote  to  the  situation  was  struck 
in  the  year  1823,  when  Ram  Mohun  Roy  addressed  a 
letter  to  Lord  Amherst  expressing  his  lively  hopes  that 
the  amount  which  Parliament  had  directed  should  be 
applied  to  the  instruction  of  the  natives,  might  be  "  laid  out 
in  employing  English  gentlemen  of  talents  and  education 
to  instruct  the  natives  of  India  in  mathematics,  natural 
philosophy,  chemistry,  anatomy,  and  other  useful  sciences,"* 
for  "the  Sanskrit  system  of  education  would  be  the  best 
calculated  to  keep  this  country  in  darkness."  In  a  few 
sentences,  extolled  by  Bishop  Heber  for  their  good 
English,  good  sense,  force,  and  thought,  he  drew  a  dismal 
picture  of  the  waste  of  time  spent  over  what  he  described 
as  "the  puerilities  of  Sanskrit  grammar,  the  viciousness 
of  the  doctrines  of  Maya  and  Ignorance,  as  expounded 
by  the  Vedantic  philosophy,  the  inherent  uselessness  of 
the  '  Mlmam^a,'  and  the  lack  of  all  improvement  to  the 
mind  in  the  study  of  the  '  Nyaya.' " 

The  Court  of  Directors  had,  however,  made  up  their  own 
minds  on  the  subject.  In  their  Despatch  of  1824,  they 
informed  the  Committee  of  Public  Education  that,  "in 
professing  to  establish  seminaries  for  the  purpose  of  teach- 
ing mere  Hindu  or  mere  Muhammadan  literature,  you 
bound  yourself  to  teach  a  good  deal  of  what  was  frivolous, 
not  a  little  of  what  was  purely  mischievous,  and  a  small 
remainder,  indeed,  in  which  utility  was  not  in  any  way 
'  Trevelyan,  "  Education  of  the  People  of  India,"  pp.  55-71. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    39; 

concerned."  In  their  opinion,  if  there  were  any  documents 
of  historical  importance  to  be  found  in  Oriental  languages, 
they  could  be  best  translated  by  Europeans.  The  great 
objects  to  be  aimed  at  were  the  teaching  of  useful  learning, 
and  the  introduction  of  reforms  in  the  course  of  study, 
anything  being  retained  that  might  be  found  of  use  in  native 
literature. 

To  this  the  Committee  pointed  out  that,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  those  natives  who  studied  English  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  a  livelihood,  the  people,  both  learned 
and  unlearned,  held  "European  literature  and  science  in 
very  slight  estimation,"  and  that,  in  the  Committee's 
opinion,  "metaphysical  science  was  as  well  worthy  of 
being  studied  in  Arabic  and  Sanskrit  as  in  any  other 
language,  as  were  also  arithmetic,  algebra,  Euclid,  law, 
and  literature."  Western  education  and  European  ideas 
had,  however,  permeated  deeper  than  even  the  Committee 
seem  to  have  noted.  The  Brahma^  Samaj,  or  "The 
Society  of  the  Believers  in  Brahman,  the  Supreme  Spirit," 
or,  as  it  is  called,  the  Hindu  Unitarian  Church,  was 
inaugurated,  in  1828,  by  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  and  finally 
established  at  a  house  in  Chitpore  Road,  Calcutta,  in 
1830. 

This  was  the  first  outward  sign  of  the  change  brought 
about  through  the  influence  and  spread  of  Western 
literature  among  the  educated  natives  of  India.  Not 
only  had  Ram  Mohun  Roy  studied  the  "  Veda  "  in  Sanskrit, 
the  "  Tripitaka "  in  Pali,  but  he  had  acquired  Hebrew  to 
master  the  Old  Testament,  and  Greek  to  read  the  New. 
At  the  weekly  meetings,  held  in  the  new  church,  or  temple, 
monotheistic  hymns  from  Vedic  literature  were  chanted, 
and  moral  maxims  from  the  same  source  explained.  A 
new  religion  was  being  evolved  to  fill  up  the  void 
produced  by  the   destruction   of  old   beliefs,  under  the 

'  Adjective  form  from  Brahmi. 


398  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

disintegrating  influence  of  European  teaching,  and  before 
some  new  system  was  developed  to  take  its  place. 

In  the  same  year,  1830,  the  Directors,  in  a  further 
Despatch  expressed  their  satisfaction  that  it  was  evidently 
becoming  clear,  both  from  the  reports  they  received,  and 
from  the  success  of  the  Anglo-Indian  College  at  Calcutta, 
that  the  higher  ranks  of  the  natives  were  prepared  to 
welcome  a  further  extension  of  the  means  of  cultivating 
the  English  language  and  literature,  and  of  acquiring  a 
knowledge  of  European  ideas  and  science.  It  was,  in 
their  opinion,  of  primary  importance  that  English  should 
be  taught,  both  because  of  the  higher  tone  and  better 
spirit  of  European  literature,  and  further,  because  it  was 
"  calculated  to  raise  up  a  class  of  persons  qualified,  by  their 
intelligence  and  morality,  for  high  employment  in  the 
Civil  Administration  of  India." 

In  the  Report  of  the  following  year,  1831,  the  Committee 
of  Public  Education  stated  that,  although  measures  for 
the  diffusion  of  English  were  only  in  their  infancy,  the 
results  obtained  at  the  Vidyalaya,  or  College  of  Calcutta, 
surpassed  all  their  expectations :  "  A  command  of  the 
English  language,  and  a  familiarity  with  its  literature  and 
science  has  been  acquired  to  an  extent  rarely  equalled  by 
any  schools  in  Europe."  They  pointed  out,  in  conclusion, 
that,  "  the  moral  effect  has  been  equally  remarkable,  and 
an  impatience  of  the  restrictions  of  Hinduism,  and  a  dis- 
regard of  its  ceremonies  are  equally  avowed  by  many 
young  men  of  respectable  birth  and  talents,  and  enter- 
tained by  many  more  who  outwardly  conform  to  the 
practices  of  their  countrymen." 

When  the  Company's  Charter  was  renewed  by  Parlia- 
ment in  1833,  it  was  definitely  laid  down,  in  a  resolution 
proposed  by  Mr  Charles  Grant,  that  the  government  of 
British  India  was  entrusted  to  the  Company  for  "the 
purpose  of  extending  the  commerce  of  the  country,  and  of 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    399 

securing  the  good  government,  and  promoting  the  religious 
and  moral  improvement  of  the  people  of  India." 

Lord  Macaulay,  who  was  appointed  President  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Education  on  his  arrival  in  India  as  Member  of  the 
Supreme  Council,  produced  his  celebrated  "Minute"  in  1835, 
which  forever  decided  the  question  so  momentous  for  the 
whole  future  intellectual  history  of  the  land.  According  to 
his  view,  the  action  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Education, 
in  confining  their  attention  to  the  study  of  the  classical 
languages  of  India,  to  the  neglect  of  English,  could  only 
be  paralleled  by  supposing  that  our  own  ancestors,  in 
the  fifteenth,  or  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  centuries,  had 
been  infatuated  enough  to  neglect  all  classical  literature, 
and  continue  the  study  of  Anglo-Saxon  chronicles  and 
Norman-French  romances.  To  the  people  of  India,  the 
language  of  England  was  to  be  their  classic  language.  It 
was  to  do  for  them  what  the  study  of  Greek  and  Latin 
had  done  for  the  West.  To  him  the  demand  for  the 
teaching  of  English  was  imperative.^  Not  only  did  it  give 
access  to  the  vast  intellectual  treasures  of  the  past,  not  only 
was  it  likely  to  become  the  language  of  commerce  in  the 
Eastern  seas,  as  it  was  in  South  Africa  and  Australasia, 
but  further,  "  a  single  shelf  of  a  good  European  library  was 
worth  the  whole  native  literature  of  India  and  Arabia."  ^ 

The  result  was  inevitable.  Lord  William  Bentinck  and 

'  "  Lord  Macaulay's  celebrated  '  Minute,'  which,  in  1835,  determined 
the  Anglicising  of  all  the  higher  education,  is  not  quite  so  triumphantly  un- 
answerable as  it  is  usually  assumed  to  be ;  for  we  have  to  reckon,  on  the  other 
side,  the  disappearance  of  the  indigenous  systems,  and  the  decay  of  the  study  of 
the  Oriental  Classics  in  their  own  language." — Sir  A.  Lyall,  "India  Under 
Queen  Victoria,"  Nineteenth  Century  (June  1897),  p.  881. 

'^  At  this  time,  be  it  remembered,  although  H.  H.  Wilson  had  published  his 
translation  of  the  "Megha  Diita"  in  i5i3,  his  "Sanskrit  Dictionary"  in  1819, 
his  "  History  of  Kashmir,  from  the  Raja  Tarangini,"  and  his  four  dramas  in 
the  "Theatre  of  the  Hindus"  in  1834,  the  essay  of  H.  J.  Colebrooke  on  the 
"Vedas"inthe  "  Asiatic  Researches  "  did  not  appear  until  1837,  and  even  then 
was  the  only  information  possessed  on  the  subject  of  the  ancient  language  and 
religion  of  the  Hindus. 


400         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

his  Council  finally  decided,  in  1835,  that  the  educational 
policy  of  the  Government  should  be  confined  to  the  pro- 
motion of  European  literature  and  science,  and  that  for  the 
future  all  funds  set  apart  for  education  should  be  devoted 
to  that  purpose,  and  no  portion  of  them  be  expended  on 
the  printing  of  Oriental  works. 

One  other  view  of  the  situation  has  been  ably  given  by 
Sir  John  Malcolm,  Governor  of  Bombay,  in  a  Minute  of 
1828,  where  he  advocated,  as  the  wisest  policy,  the  education 
of  a  certain  proportion  of  natives  in  the  English  language 
and  science,  for  the  object  of  enabling  them  to  diffuse  their 
knowledge  through  their  own  vernacular  dialect  to  tiieir 
own  countrymen. 

Although  it  was  finally  decided  that  the  higher  education 
of  the  native  population  should  be  through  the  medium  of 
the  English  language,  it  was  always  acknowledged  and 
understood  that  it  was  but  a  small  class  of  the  most 
advanced  and  educated  natives  who  could  be  so  instructed.^ 
The  hope  and  expectation  was  that  those  natives  who  had 
received  a  liberal  education,  from  a  Western  standpoint, 
would  by  degrees  communicate  their  knowledge  to  the 
mass  of  the  people  through  the  local  vernaculars.  It  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  foreseen  at  the  time  that  natives 
educated  on  English  lines  might  compose  original  works  in 
the  vernaculars,  through  which  ideals  and  forms  of  thought, 
assimilated  under  Western  influences,  would  disseminate 
themselves  among  the  mass  of  the  population.  Whether 
the  immediate  object  of  the  encouragement  of  the  study  of 
English  was  to  raise  a  class  of  natives  fitted  for  carrying 
on  the  duties  of  the  public  service,  so  that  in  time  the 
language  of  public  business  might  be  English,  is  not  of 
immediate  importance.  Be  the  motives  what  they  may, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Directors,  to  obtain  a  class  of 

'  "Printed  Parliamentary  Papers  :  Second  Report  of  Select  Committee  of 
House  of  Lords  "  (Appendix  I.,  p.  481,  1852-53) ;  Syed  Mahmoud,  p.  57. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    401 

servants  to  carry  on  economically  the  duties  of  public  servants, 
and  to  have  ready  means  of  obtaining  accurate  information 
of  details  of  revenue  affairs,  or  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  missionaries,  the  hope  that  a  liberal  education  would 
further  the  advance  of  Christianity,  and  prove  the  most 
effectual  weapon  for  attack  against  what  was  palpably 
vicious,  false,  and  erroneous  in  the  popular  beliefs,  the 
result  was  that  the  study  of  English  was  almost  exclusively 
encouraged.  Lord  Auckland,  in  1839,  somewhat  modified 
Lord  William  Bentinck's  resolution  by  upholding  the 
Sanskrit  and  native  colleges,  and  by  setting  aside  funds  for 
their  encouragement.  Further,  by  the  Despatch  of  1854, 
known  as  that  of  Sir  Charles  Wood,  it  was  fully  acknow- 
ledged that  vernacular  schools  for  elementary  education 
should  be  encouraged,  and  that  funds  should  be  raised  for 
the  purpose  by  a  special  levy  imposed  on  the  land. 

The  object  expressly  desired  by  the  Court  of  Directors 
was  declared  to  be  "the  diffusion  of  the  Improvements, 
Science,  Philosophy,  and  Literature  of  Europe — in  short,  of 
European  knowledge,"  and  this  was  to  be  accomplished  by 
the  establishment,  throughout  India,  of  a  graduated  series 
of  schools  and  colleges,  with  a  central  university  for  each 
of  the  Presidencies. 

Universities,  on  the  model  of  the  University  of  London, 
were  founded  at  Calcutta,  Madras,  and  Bombay  during 
the  dark  days  of  the  Mutiny  in  1857,  and  were  followed 
by  one  for  the  Panjab  at  Lahore  in  1882,  and  one  for  the 
North- West  Provinces  at  Allahabad  in  1887. 

As  a  result  of  an  exhaustive  investigation  into  the 
subject  of  education  made  by  a  Commission  in  1882,  the 
Government  finally  decided  to  retire,  in  all  cases  where  it 
was  possible,  from  competition  with  the  private  manage- 
ment and  control  of  secondary  education.  The  Govern- 
ment steadily  pursued  this  policy,  with  a  result  that, 
although  there  was  a  vast  increase  during  the  succeeding 

2  c 


402 


LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 


ten  years  in  secondary  education,  the  cost  to  Government 
decreased,  the  expense  being  met  from  the  fees  charged. 
The  ten  years'  result  can  be  judged  from  the  following 
table  giving  the  number  of  colleges,  schools,  and  pupils 
under  education  : — 


1881-82. 

1891-92. 

No. 

Pupils. 

No. 

Pupils. 

University  {AjtJ^33;„^^; 

Secondary  . 
Primary 
Normal 
Technical    . 

8 

24 

4>432 

90,700 

135 
189 

8,127 

2,411 

418,412 

2,537,502 

4,949 
8,503 

104 

4,872 

97,109 
152 
402 

12,985 

3,292 

473.294 

2,837,607 

5,146 

16,586 

Total     . 

95,566 

2,979,904 

102,676 

3,348,910 

So  far  as  the  higher  education  is  concerned,  the  following 
statement,  by  Sir  Raymond  West,  in  the  course  of  an 
address  on  "  Higher  Education  in  India "  to  the  Oriental 
Congress  of  1892,  speaks  for  itself: — 


"The  youths  receiving  secondary  education  amoimt,  after  all,  to  only 
some  five  per  cent,  of  the  whole  number  recorded  as  under 
instruction  in  India.  The  students  in  colleges  amount  to  no 
more  than  one  per  cent.  In  England  the  proportion  is  twice  as 
great ;  in  a  German  State  four  or  five  times  as  great,  of  youths 
under  secondary  instruction.  In  a  German  town,  indeed,  fi-om 
a  third  to  a  half  of  the  children  are  in  the  higher  schools  ;  but 
in  Germany  it  is  everywhere  recognised,  in  direct  opposition  to 
the  principle  announced  by  the  Government  of  India,  that  the 
State  is  more  especially  interested  in  the  higher  education,  the 
town  or  locality  in  the  lower.  The  contributions  of  Government 
are  regulated  accordingly. 

According  to  the  last  Census  Returns,  prepared  by  Mr 
Baines,  the  annual  average  of  candidates,  during  the  previous 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    403 

five  years,  presenting  themselves  for  matriculation  at  the 
Presidency  colleges  was  18,150,  of  whom  5,875  pass.  The 
intermediate  examination  is  reached  by  2,213  students,  the 
Bachelor  of  Arts  degree  is  attained  by  761  members,  and 
the  Master  of  Arts  by  only  54. 

At  the  lower  end  of  the  scale  there  are  only  109  males 
and  6  females  in  every  lobo  of  the  population  able  to  read 
and  write,  the  corresponding  numbers  for  the  coloured 
population  of  the  United  States  being  254  males  and  217 
females,  and  for  Ireland  554  males  and  501  females. 

The  formation  of  the  Brahma  Samaj  was  the  first  uneasy 
movement  made  in  slumbering  Brahmanism,  as  the  clear- 
cut  thought  of  the  earliest  recipients  of  English  education 
pierced  through  the  whole  of  Indian  religious  and  philosophic 
speculations,  and  saw  their  strength  and  weakness  when . 
brought  face  to  face  with  new  ideals  and  new  modes  of 
reasoning. 

Ram  Mohun  Roy,  the  first  apostle  of  this  new  gospel,  in 
which  the  old  and  new  were  strangely  fused — the  worship 
of  Brahman  of  the  "  Vedanta,"  with  much  of  Christianity — 
however  lived  and  died  a  Brahman,  tended  by  his  own 
Brahman  servant,  and  wearing  his  Brahmanic  thread.  He 
was  buried  at  Bristol  in  1853  without  any  religious  service. 

He  was  succeeded  by  Debendra  Nath  Tagore  who,  born 
in  18 1 8,  and  educated  at  the  Hindu  College  at  Calcutta, 
joined  the  Brahma  Samaj  in  1843.^  By  him  a  monthly 
periodical,  the  Tattva-bodhinl-patrikd,  was  started  in  1843, 
and  under  the  editorship  of  Akhay  Kumar  Datta,  com- 
menced the  publication  of  Vedantic  literature.  By  1847, 
upwards  of  seven  hundred  and  sixty-seven  Brahmans  had 
joined  the  society,  and  agreed  to  the  essential  Seven  Articles 
of  Faith,  including  the  worship  of  a  God,  One  without  a 

1  Max  MuUer,  "  Biographical  Essays,"  p.  37  {.note  i) :— "  In  1838  or  1841." 
Monier-Williams,  "Indian  Theistic  Reformers,"  J.R.A.S.  (January  i88i), 
gives  1841.  In  1839  he  had  formed  his  own  society,  the  "  Tattva-bodhim- 
Sabha." 


404  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Second,  the  Cause  of  the  Emanation  {srishti),  Stay,  and 
Decay  {pralayd)  of  the  World,  and  the  Cause  of  emancipa- 
tion {mukti  karand).  The  Seven  Articles  of  Faith  were  as 
follows : — 

First  Vow. — "By  loving  God  and  by  performing  the  works  which  He 
loves,  I  will  worship  God,  the  Creator,  the  Preserver,  and  the 
Destroyer,  the  Giver  of  Salvation,  the  Omniscient,  the  Omni- 
present, the  Blissful,  the  Good,  the  Formless,  the  One  only 
without  a  Second." 
Second  Vow. — "  I  will  worship  no  created  object  as  the  Creator." 
Third  Vow. — "  Except  the  day  of  sickness  or  tribulation,  every  day, 
the  mind  being  undisturbed,  I  will  engage  in  love  and  veneration 
of  God." 
Fourth  Vow. — "  I  will  exert  myself  to  perform  righteous  deeds." 
Fifth  Vow. — "  I  will  be  careful  to  keep  myself  from  vicious  deeds." 
Sixth  Vow. — "  If,  through  the  influence  of  passion,  I  have  committed 
any  vice,  I  will,  wishing  redemption  from  it,  be  careful  not  to 
do  it  again." 
Seventh   Vow. — "Every  year,  and  as  the  occasion  of  every  happy 
domestic  event,  I  will  bestow  gifts  upon  the  Brahma  Samaj. 
Grant  me,  O  God,  power  to  observe  the  duties  of  this  great 
faith." 

The  essential  point  to  note  is,  that  the  god  worshipped, 
as  clearly  shown  in  the  four  essential  principles  set  forth  by 
Debendra  Nath,  is  the  neuter  essence,  Brahma  (nom.  of 
Brahman).  The  faith  begins  with  the  declaration  that 
"  before  this  universe  existed,  Brahma  (the  Supreme  Being) 
was,  nothing  else  whatever  was,"  and  then  goes  on  to 
declare  that  "  He  created  the  Universe  "  (tad  idam  sarvam 
asrijai).  The  movement  could  not  rest;  it  had  yet  left 
within  it  a  respect  for  caste,  the  use  of  the  sacred  thread, 
a  leaning  towards  the  old,  and  ancestral  rites.  All  these 
had  to  be  swept  away,  as  were  already  the  belief  in 
transmigration  and  the  Vedantic  doctrine  of  Absorption 
of  the  Soul.i 

'  The  first  change  came  in  184S,  when  Debendra  Nath  Tagore,  and  the 
Brahma  Samaj,  decided  that  the  "Vedas"  could  no  longer  be  held  as  of 
Divine  origin. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NE  W    405 

The  leaven  of  English  education  had  yet  to  sink  deeper. 
In  1838  Keshab  Chandar  Sen  was  born,  a  Vaidya  by  caste, 
of  orthodox  Hindu  family.  He  was  educated  at  the 
Presidency  College,  Calcutta,  and  joined  the  Brahma  Samaj 
in  the  days  of  the  Mutiny. 

It  may  be  safely  prognosticated  that  the  future  great 
reformer  of  Hinduism,  the  reformer  who  will  spread  his 
influence  and  disturbing  power  all  over  India,  and  arouse  the 
enthusiasm  of  Bengali,  Sikh,  Maratha,  and  Tamil,  will  not 
be  a  Bengali.  The  reformer — and  it  seems  probable  that 
one  will  appear — will  arise  without  known  parentage  or 
nationality,  and  it  may  also  safely  be  believed  that  he 
will  be  considered  to  be  infused  with  the  same  spirit  which 
Keshab  Chandar  Sen  is  said  to  have  been  infused  with, 
when  it  is  recorded  that  on  his  marriage,  in  1856,  he 
declared :  "  I  entered  the  world  with  ascetic  ideas,  and  my 
honeymoon  was  spent  amid  austerities  in  the  house  of  the 
Lord."i 

Under  the  guidance  of  Keshab  Chandar  Sen  the  Brahma 
Samaj  gradually  cut  itself  adrift  from  Hindu  rites  and 
customs.  In  1861,  Debendra  Nath  Tagore  allowed  his  own 
daughter  to  be  married  by  a  simple  Brahmic  ceremony, 
without  the  orthodox  Hindu  festivities,  expenses,  and  rites. 
In  1864,  a  marriage  was  performed  between  members  of 
different  castes  by  Keshab  Chandar  Sen,  who  further  insisted 
on  the  leaving-off  of  the  sacred  thread,  the  ancient  birthright 
of  all  twice-born  Aryans.  These  reforms  were  opposed  to 
the  conservative  instincts  of  Debendra  Nath  Tagore  and 
those  of  the  more  orthodox  Hindus  who  soon  repudiated 
their  new  leader.  Keshab  Chandar  Sen,  with  his  cousin, 
Protab  Chandar  Mozoondar,  accordingly,  in  1866,  founded 
a  new  and  advanced  Brahma  Samaj,  with  the  Indian 
Mirror  as  its  organ,  leaving  the  old  society  the  name  of 

^  "Biographical  Essays,"  p.  53. 


4o6  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

the  '■  Adi  Brahma  Samaj,"  which  had  as  its  leader,  Debendra 
Nath  Tagore,  and  as  its  secretary,  Raj  Narain  Bose. 

Between  the  two  societies  there  were  but  few  doctrinal 
differences.  The  old  leaven  of  Vaishnava  bhakti,  or  faith, 
still  permeated  Keshab  Chandar  Sen,  and  brought  him  close 
to  Christianity — a  faith  which  his  pride  in  his  own  heritage 
from  the  past  forbade  him  to  accept.  Brahmanism  might 
be  outwardly  discarded,  nevertheless,  the  new  progressive 
Samaj  held  that 

"  God  Himself  never  becomes  man  by  putting  on  a  human  body.  His 
divinity  dwells  in  every  man,  and  is  displayed  more  vividly  in 
some ;  as  in  Moses,  Jesus  Christ,  Muhammad,  Nanak,  Chaitanya, 
and  other  great  Teachers  who  appeared  at  special  times,  and 
conferred  vast  benefits  on  the  world.  They  are  entitled  to 
universal  gratitude  and  love.  .  .  .  Every  sinner  must  suffer  the 
consequences  of  his  own  sins  sooner  or  later,  in  this  world  or 
the  next.  Man  must  labour  after  holiness  by  the  worship  of 
God,  by  subjugation  of  the  passions,  by  repentance,  by  the  . 
study  of  Nature  and  of  good  books,  by  good  company,  and  by 
I  solitary  contemplation.  These  will  lead,  through  the  action  of 
God's  grace,  to  salvation." ' 

In  England  he  set  forth  his  own  views  as  to  the  Christ 
the  West  had  offered  to  the  East : — 

"  Methinks  I  have  come  into  a  vast  market.  Every  sect  is  like  a 
small  shop  where  a  peculiar  kind  of  Christianity  is  offered  for 
sale.  As  I  go  from  door  to  door,  from  shop  to  shop,  each 
sect  steps  forward  and  offers,  for  my  acceptance,  its  own 
interpretations  of  the  Bible,  and  its  own  peculiar  Christian 
beliefs.  I  cannot  but  feel  perplexed,  and  even  amused,  amidst 
countless  and  quarrelling  sects.  It  appears  to  me,  and  has 
always  appeared  to  me,  that  no  Christian  nation  on  earth 
represents  fully  and  thoroughly  Christ's  idea  of  the  kingdom 
of  God.  I  do  believe,  and  I  must  candidly  say,  that  no  Christian 
sect  puts  forth  the  genuine  and  full  Christ  as  He  was  and  as 
He  is,  but,  in  some  cases,  a  mutilated,  disfigured  Christ,  and 
what  is  more  shameful,  in  many  cases,  a  counterfeit  Christ. 

^  Monicr-Williams,  "  Indian  Theistic  Reformers,"  J.R.A.S.  (January  1881), 
p.  25. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    407 

Now,  I  wish  to  say  that  I  have  not  come  to  England  as  one 
who  has  yet  to  find  Christ.  When  the  Roman  Catholic,  the 
Protestant,  the  Unitarian,  the  Trinitarian,  the  Broad  Church, 
the  Low  Church,  the  High  Church  all  come  round  me,  and 
offer  me  their  respective  Christs,  I  desire  to  say  to  one  and  all : 
'  Think  you  that  I  have  no  Christ  within  me  ?  Though  an 
Indian,  I  can  still  humbly  say,  Thank  God  that  I  have  my 
Christ.'" 

The  first  important  reform  inaugurated  by  the  new 
society  was  the  passing  of  the  Native  Marriage  Act  of 
1872,  introducing,  for  the  first  time,  a  form  of  civil 
marriage  for  persons  who  did  not  profess  the  Christian, 
Jewish,  Hindu,  Muhammadan,  Parsi,  Buddhist,  Sikh,  or 
Jaina  religions. 

Into  the  religious  struggles  of  Keshab  Chandar  Sen's  life 
it  would  be  unprofitable  to  enter,  as  they  show  no  solid 
advance,  drifting,  as  they  did,  between  Christianity,  Yoglism, 
Bhakti,  and  Asceticism,  mingled  with  a  practical  propa- 
ganda for  social  reformation. 

The  times  were  not  ripe  for  the  missionary  work  of 
reformation  he  had  set  before  him,  although  he  possessed 
much  to  sway  the  mass  :  "  A  fine  countenance,  a  majestic 
presence,  and  that  soft  look  which  of  itself  exerts  an  almost 
irresistible  fascination  over  impressionable  minds,  lent  won- 
derful force  to  a  swift,  kindling,  and  practical  oratory, 
which  married  itself  to  his  highly  spiritual  teaching  as 
perfect  music  unto  noble  minds."  ^ 

In  spite  of  all  the  efforts  made  by  Keshab  Chandar  Sen 
for  the  abolition  of  early  marriages,  he  lost  ground  in  1878 
by  permitting  his  own  daughter,  aged  fourteen,  to  be  married 
to  the  young  Maharaja  of  Kuch  Behar,  the  result  being 
that,  in  1878,  a  new  society  called  the  "Sadharana"  (or 
general)  "  Brahma  Samaj "  was  formed.  With  all  the  brilliant 
eloquence  of  his  fervid  imagination,  though  with  a  waning 
of  his  undoubted  intellectual  powers,  Keshab  Chandar  Sen 
^  Indian  Daily  News,   Quoted  in  Max  Miiller's  "  Biographical  Essays,"  p.  72. 


408  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

continued  his  preaching,  declaring  himself  to  be  the 
apostle  of  what  he  called  the  "  New  Dispensation  Church," 
in  which  there  was  to  be  an  amalgamation  of  all  creeds  in 
a  belief  in  the  Unity  of  the  Godhead,  the  acceptance  of 
Christ  as  an  ideal  Yogi,  Oriental  in  His  character  and 
mission,  Hindu  in  faith,  whose  Godhead  he  still  denied. 
In  his  "  Manifesto  "  of  1883,  he  poured  forth,  in  the  spirit  of 
Walt  Whitman,  his  rhapsody  : — 

"  Keshab  Chandar  Sen,  a  servant  of  God,  called  to  be  an  apostle  of 
the  Church  of  the  New  Dispensation,  which  is  in  the  holy  city 
of  Calcutta,  the  metropolis  of  Aryavarta. 

"  To  all  the  great  nations  of  the  world,  and  to  the  chief  religious  sects 
in  the  East  and  the  West ;  to  the  followers  of  Moses,  of 
Jesus,  of  Buddha,  of  Confucius,  of  Zoroaster,  of  Mahomet,  of 
Nanak,  and  the  various  branches  of  the  Hindu  Church,  grace 
be  to  you  and  peace  everlasting.  Gather  ye  the  wisdom  of 
the  East  and  the  West,  and  assimilate  the  examples  of  the 
saints  of  all  ages. 

"  Above  all,  love  one  another,  and  merge  all  differences  in  universal 
brotherhood. 

"Let  Asia,  Europe,  Africa,  and  America,  with  diverse  instruments, 
praise  the  New  Dispensation,  and  sing  the  Fatherhood  of  God 
and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man."  ^ 

More  extraordinary  was  his  "  Proclamation,''  issued,  in 
1879,  in  the  columns  of  the  Indian  Mirror,  which  has 
been  abridged  by  Sir  Monier  Monier-Williams  in  his 
article  on  "  Indian  Theistic  Reformers  "  : — 

"  To  all  my  soldiers  in  India  my  affectionate  greeting.  Believe  that 
this  Proclamation  goeth  forth  from  Heaven  in  the  name  and 
with  the  love  of  your  Mother.  Carry  out  its  behests  like  loyal 
soldiers.  The  British  Government  is  my  Government.  The 
Brahma  Samaj  is  my  Church.  My  daughter  Queen  Victoria 
have  I  ordained.  Come  direct  to  me,  without  a  mediator  as 
your  Mother.  The  influence  of  the  earthly  Mother  at  home, 
of  the  Queen-Mother  at  the  head  of  the  Government  will  raise 
the  head  of  my  Indian  children  to  their  Supreme  Mother. 
I  will  give  them  peace  and  salvation.  Soldiers,  fight  bravely 
and  establish  my  dominion." 

'  Monier- Williatr.s,  "  Hinduism,"  p.  573. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    409 

To  all  who  understand  the  Eastern  mode  of  thought, 
the  following  words  spoken  by  Keshab  Chandar  Sen  in  a 
sermon,  a  masterpiece  of  eloquence,  delivered  in  1879 
before  the  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  other  Europeans,  and  a 
thousand  listeners,  only  represent  what  might  have  been 
expected  as  the  furthest  the  new  reformer  would  proceed 
in  his  fusing  of  Hinduism  and  Christianity : — 

"  It  is  Christ  who  rules  British  India,  and  not  the  British  Govern- 
ment. England  has  sent  out  a  tremendous  moral  force  in  the 
life  and  character  of  that  mighty  prophet  to  conquer  and  hold 
this  vast  empire.  None  but  Jesus,  none  but  Jesus,  none  but 
Jesus  ever  deserved  this  bright,  this  precious  diadem,  India, 
and  Jesus  shall  have  it.  Christ  comes  to  us  as  an  Asiatic  in 
race,  as  a  Hindu  in  faith,  as  a  kinsman,  and  as  a  brother.  .  .  . 
Christ  is  a  true  Yogi,  and  will  surely  help  us  to  realise  our 
n^ional  ideal  of  a  Yogi.  ...  In  accepting  Him,  therefore, 
you  accept  the  fulfilment  of  your  national  Scriptures  and 
prophets." 

Though  the  work  of  Keshab  Chandar  Sen  was  carried  on 
by  his  brother,  Krishna  Behari  Sen,  Gaur  Govind  Roy,  and 
others,  and  received  the  enthusiastic  support  of  the  Maha- 
raja and  Maharani  of  Kuch  Behar,  its  importance  waned 
before  the  Sadharana  Samaj,  which  numbered  amongst 
its  leaders  the  Hon.  Ananda  Mohan  Bose,  the  only  native 
Cambridge  wrangler,  its  able  secretary,  Rajani  Nath  Roy, 
and  its  minister.  Pandit  Sivanath  Sastri. 

The  full  conservative  Hindu  reaction  was  marked  by  an 
effort  to  fall  back  on  Vedic  authority  for  a  pure  Theism, 
where  there  was  to  be  but  one  formless  abstract  God 
worshipped  by  prayer  and  devotion,  with  the  four  "  Vedas  " 
as  primary,  and  later  Vedic  writings  as  secondary,  authorities 
in  all  matters  of  moral  conduct. 

During  the  last  Census  of  1S91  there  were  3,051  who 
t  eturned  themselves  as  followers  of  the  faith  of  Brahman- 
ism,  of  whom  2,596  were  in  Bengal,  while  the  followers 


4IO  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

of  Dayananda  Saraswati,  who,  in  1877,  founded  a  Theism 
based  purely  on  Vedic  authority,  numbered  40,000,  mostly 
writers  or  traders. 

The  recoil  of  orthodox  Hindu  thought  back  to  the  old 
was  led  by  Dayananda  Saraswati,  a  Brahman  of  Katthiawar, 
who  formed  a  new  society  called  the  "  Arya  Samaj."  He 
himself  was  from  his  youth  brought  up  in  the  strictest 
school  of  Hindu  orthodoxy.  As  he  wrote,  in  the  strange 
records  of  his  life :  ^ — 

"I  was  but  eight  when  I  was  invested  with  the  sacred  Brahmanic 
thread  and  taught  the  Gayatri  hymn,  the  Sandhya  (morning 
and  evening)  ceremony,  and  the  'Yajur  Veda.'  As  my  father 
belonged  to  the  §iva  sect,  I  was  early  taught  to  worship 
the  uncouth  piece  of  clay  representing  Siva,  known  as  the 
'  Parthiva  Linga.' " 

Dayananda  Saraswati  early  abandoned  idol-worship, 
but  he  remained  firm  in  his  belief  in  Vedic  revelation, 
the  doctrine  of  metempsychosis,  and  the  worship  of  One 
God,  held  to  be  the  deity  addressed  by  Vedic  Aryans  as 
Agni,  Indra,  and  Surya. 

Whatever  form  these  strange  minglings  of  "Veda," 
"  Upanishad,"  "  Kuran,"  "  Tripitakas,"  "  Zend  Avesta,"  and 
Christian  Bible,  may  assume  in  the  future,  they  all  denote 
an  upheaval  of  thought  among  the  educated  classes  of 
India,  the  result  of  the  meeting  of  the  new  and  old.  To 
claim  that  movement  as  indicating  a  future  triumph  for 
Christianity  would  first  necessitate  a  survey  of  the  whole 
course  of  Christianity  in  India,  the  marking  out  of  its 
success  and  the  causes  for  its  undoubted  failures.  It  is 
hoped  that  time  and  opportunity  may  be  found  for  under- 
taking such  a  task,  for  no  work  yet  published  has  viewed 
the  subject  from  an  Indian  standpoint;  at  present  it 
must  suffice  to  take  refuge  under  the  words  of  the  learned 

'  Max  Miiller,  "  Biographical  Essays,''  p.  172. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    411 

Sir  Monier  Monier- Williams,  who  has  given  deep  thought 
to  the  subject : —  ■ 

"  We  may  be  quite  sure  that  men  like  Debendra  Nath  Tagore,  Keshab 
Chandar  Sen,  and  Ananda  Mohan  Bose,  are  doing  good  work 
in  a  Christian  self-sacrificing  spirit,  though  they  may  fall  into 
many  errors,  and  may  not  have  adopted  every  single  dogma 
of  the  Athanasian  Creed. 

"  Let  us  hold  out  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to  these  noble-minded 
patriots — men  who,  notwithstanding  their  undoubted  courage, 
need  every  encouragement  in  their  almost  hopeless  struggle 
with  their  country's  worst  enemies — Ignorance,  Prejudice,  and 
Superstition.  Intense  darkness  still  broods  over  the  land — 
in  some  places  a  veritable  Egyptian  darkness  thick  enough  to 
be  felt.  Let  Christianity  thankfully  welcome,  and  wisely  make 
use  of,  every  gleam  and  glimmer  of  true  light,  from  whatever 
quarter  it  may  shine." 

All  these  movements,  denoting  as  they  do  the  dis- 
integrating force  of  Western  education,  had  their  own 
influence  in  moulding  the  whole  literature  of  the  people 
to  new  forms  and  uses. 

The  strength  of  the  barriers  that  the  sacerdotal  class 
had  ranged  round  the  sacred  literature,  so  as  to  keep  its 
secrets  from  vulgar  gaze  or  scrutiny,  can  be  judged  from 
the  fact  that  Romesh  Chandra  Dutt's  translation  of  the  "  Rig 
Veda "  into  Bengali  was  looked  upon  as  a  sacrilege,  and 
vehemently  opposed  by  his  own  countrymen.  Amongst 
the  few^  who  dared  to  support  the  undertaking  were 
the  wise  and  enlightened  Isvara  Chandra  Vidyasagar  and 
Akhay  Kumar  Datta,  the  two  great  writers  who  must 
be  placed  in  the  first  rank  of  those  who  ably  seconded 
the  work  of  the  Brahma  Samaj  in  perfecting  Bengali  as  a 
prose  medium  for  a  new  school  of  writers  who,  trained  in 
Western  modes  of  thought,  handed  on  their  impressions 
and  ideas  to  the  mass  of  the  people  in  the  local  vernaculars. 

Akhay  Kumar  Datta,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  commenced 
his  education  in  English  at  the  Oriental  Seminary  at 
1  R.  C.  Dutt,  "The  Literature  of  Bengal,"  p.  178. 


412  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

Calcutta.  He  afterwards  acquired  a  knowledge  of  Sanskrit, 
a  language  he  ably  used,  for  the  purpose  of  enriching 
Bengali  as  a  prose  literature,  in  his  work  in  the  Tattva- 
bodhinl-patrika,  a  monthly  journal  started  in  1873  by 
Debendra  Nath  Tagore.  Isvara  Chandra  Vidyasagar,  on 
the  other  hand,  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  Sanskrit 
in  the  Sanskrit  College  at  Calcutta,  which  he  entered  at 
the  age  of  nine  for  the  orthodox  course  of  study.  For 
three  years  he  studied  grammar,  and  by  the  age  of  twelve 
had  read  the  greater  portion  of  the  best  works  of  the 
classic  period  of  Sanskrit  verse.  Sanskrit  he  afterwards 
read  and  wrote  as  well  as  his  own  vernacular.  Being 
appointed,  in  1841,  head  pandit  of  the  Fort  William  College, 
he  commenced  his  study  of  English  and  Hindi.  By  1847 
he  published,  in  Bengali,  the  "  Betal  Panchavimsati,"  trans- 
lated from  the  Hindi,  a  work  instinct  with  poetic  feeling. 
This  work  raised  him,  in  spite  of  much  that  was  artificial 
and  over-elaborated  in  it,  to  the  position  of  an  acknowledged 
master  of  a  pure  and  classical  prose  style  in  the  vernacular. 
In  1862,  the  publication  of  his  "Exile  of  Slta,""^  based  on 
Bhavabhuti's  "  Uttararama  Charitra,"  showed  how  Bengali 
had  become  a  classic  prose  language,  with  all  the  flexibility, 
dignity,  and  grace  requisite  for  the  purpose  of  interpreting 
to  the  mass  of  the  people  the  old  life-history  of  the  nation, 
and  the  new  phase  of  thought  introduced  from  the  West. 
Isvara  Chandra  Vidyasagar  brought  down  on  his  head  the 
bitter  curses  and  ribald  abuse,  sung  throughout  the  streets 
of  Calcutta,  of  his  more  bigoted  Brahman  brethren  by  his 
writings,  in  1855,  against  the  system  of  enforced  widowhood, 
which  his  deep  learning  in  Sanskrit  lore  enabled  him  to 
prove  beyond  question  was  no  part  of  the  decrees  of  the 
Vedic  Scriptures.  By  his  subsequent  writings  and  efforts,  he 
aided  towards  the  first  step  in  the  course  he  had  marked 

^  Sricharan  Chakravarti,    ".Life  of  Pandit  Isvara  Chandra  Vidyasagar" 
(Calcutta,  i8g6). 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    413 

out,  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  1856,  which  enacted  that 
the  sons  of  re-married  Hindu  widows  should  be  held  as 
legitimate  heirs. 

The  dangers  feared  were  neither  imaginary  nor  trifling. 
The  ancient  traditions  of  Brahmanism  were  being  scattered 
to  the  winds,  and  the  system  itself  called  upon  to  justify 
the  inherent  strength  of  its  position  before  the  newly-arisen 
scepticism.  Ancient  customs,  habits,  and  beliefs,  all  finding 
their  authority  and  sanction  in  the  will  of  the  Creator  of  the 
world,  as  revealed  in  the  sacred  literature  of  India,  were 
being  questioned.  The  hereditary  custodians  of  the  sacred 
lore,  claiming  as  they  did  to  be  the  specially  created 
partakers  of  the  confidence  of  the  deity,  were  being  forced 
to  come  forth  and  defend  their  birthright. 

Ram  Mohun  Roy  had  shaken  to  its  foundations  the 
whole  established  fabric  of  Brahmanic  power  by  his  fierce 
denunciations  of,  and  irrefutable  arguments  against, 
idolatry  and  widow-burning.  One  task  Vidyasagar  had 
set  his  hand  to  he  had  to  leave  unaccomplished.  He 
endeavoured  in  vain  to  put  an  end  to  the  system  whereby 
the  class  known  as  the  Kulin  Brahmans  of  Bengal  entered 
into  marriages,  sometimes  formal,  sometimes  real,  with 
daughters  of  those  of  their  own  class  who,  unable  to  obtain 
husbands,  were  glad  to  pay  a  Kulin  Brahman  large  sums  of 
money  for  forming  a  matrimonial  alliance  which  left  them 
free  to  abandon  the  numerous  women  they  had  thus 
married.  In  1871,  his  famous  work,  "  Whether  Polygamy 
Should  be  Done  Away  With,"  not  only  gave  a  list  of  these 
Kulin  Brahmans,  showing  the  number  of  wives  each  of 
them  had,  but  also  proved  that  the  custom  could  not 
possibly  find  any  support  from  ancient  law  or  history. 

Akhay  Kumar  Datta  at  the  same  time  continued  to 
pour  forth,  in  earnest  and  forcible  prose,  a  series  of  articles 
scientific,  biographical,  and  moral,  printed  in  the  Tattva- 
bodhinl-patrikd,  uncompromising  in  their  sincerity  and  love 


414  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

for  truth  until  he  at  last  saw,  as  the  crowning  reward  of 
his  labours,  the  Brahma  Samaj  reject  the  belief  in  the 
infallibility  and  revealed  authority  of  the  "  Vedanta."  * 

The  work  begun  by  Akhay  Kumar  Datta  and  Isvara 
Chandra  Vidyasagar  was  followed  by  the  efforts  of  a  series 
of  able  writers  who  carried  every  widening  current  of 
reform  further  into  the  social  life  of  the  people  by 
publishing  works  on  history  and  biography,  and  by  writing 
tales  satirising  social  habits  and  customs.^ 

The  spirit  of  the  times  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that 
the  first  Bengali  play,  the  "  Kulina  Kula  Sarvasa,"  composed 
in  1854  by  Ram  Narayan  Tarkaratna,  and  acted  in  1856 
at  the  Oriental  Seminary,  was  a  satire  on  the  Kulin 
custom  of  polygamy.  The  play  was  followed  by  the  "  Nala 
Natak,"  in  which  the  same  author  satirised  the  custom  of 
child-marriage.  Happily,  the  early  efforts  of  the  rising 
school  to  express  their  thoughts  in  English  proved  un- 
successful and  unprofitable.  Madhu  Sudan  Datta  was  the 
first  to  recognise  the  difficulty.  He  was  educated  in  the 
Hindu  College,  founded  in  18 17,  and  at  the  age  of  nineteen 
forsook  his  own  caste  and  religion  and  was  baptised  a 
Christian,  adopting  the  name  Michael.  At  seventeen  he 
had  already  published  some  indifferent  verse,  in  imitation 
of  those  of  Byron.  The  influence  of  Western  ideas  had  so 
permeated  him  that,  after  becoming  a  Christian,  he  married 
an  English  wife,  daughter  of  an  indigo  planter  in  Madras, 
from  whom,  however,  he  soon  separated,  when  he  married 
a  second  English  wife,  the  daughter  of  the  Principal  of 
the  Madras  Presidency  College.  His  "Captive  Ladie," 
published  in  1849,  telling,  in  English  verse,  the  story 
of  Prithivi  Raj,  the  famous  Hindu  King  of  Delhi  and  his 

^  Dutt,  R.  C,  "The  Literature  of  Bengal,"  p.  169. 

^  Such  as  the  "  Alaler-gharer  Dulal,"  of  Pyari  Chand  Mitra,  which  has  been 
translated  into  English,  and  the  "  Hutam  Pechar  Naksha,"  of  Kali  Prasanna 
Sinha,  who  also  translated  the  "  Mahabharata "  into  Bengali,  a  work  also 
accomplished  (1885)  for  the  "  Ramayana  "  by  Hem  Chandra  Vidyaratna.  See 
Dutt,  R.  C,  "The  Literature  of  Bengal,"  pp.  182-183. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    415 

wife,  Sanjuta,  clearly  showed  the  impossibility  even  of  ,a 
poetic  genius,  such  as  he  undoubtedly  was,  ever  finding  an 
outlet  for  his  imagination  in  the  uncongenial  trammels  of 
an  English  garb. 

The  task  has  been  essayed  by  nearly  all  the  recent 
native  writers  who  may  be  safely  held  to  have  been 
endowed  with  that  unceasing  striving,  and  indomitable 
perseverance  that  denotes  genius,  but  never  yet  have  they 
reached  a  result  worthy  of  their  efforts.  Michael  wisely 
turned  away  from  English,  and  in  1858  produced  an  original 
play,  the  "Sarmishta,"  a  second  Padmavati,  and  then,  in 
1 859,  set  to  work  on  two  great  works  in  blank  verse.  In  these 
he  abandoned  the  Bengali  rhyme,  and  in  i860  published 
the  "  Tillottama,"  and  in  1861,  the  "  Meghanad  badh  Kavya." 

The  work  of  the  drama,  abandoned  by  Madhu  Sudan 
Datta  for  epic  poetry,  was  resumed  by  others,  the  most 
striking  being  Dinabandu  Mitra,  who  in  i860  produced  his 
"Nil  Darpan,"  a  fierce  satire  on  the  indigo  planters  of 
Jessore  and  Nadiya.  The  Rev.  James  Long  published  the 
play,  as  translated  into  English  by  a  native,  for  which  he 
was  fined  and  imprisoned.  An  exhaustive  enquiry  into  the 
subject  by  an  Indigo  Commission  ultimately  led  to  the 
failure  of  much  of  the  indigo  growing  in  Nadiya,  and  a 
refusal  of  the  cultivators  to  sow  indigo.  As  the  play  has 
now  only  an  historical  and  literary  importance,  and  as  a 
copy  of  it  is  now  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  procure,  no 
fault  can  be  found  if  it  is  used  for  the  purpose  of  throwing 
some  light  on  the  thought  of  the  time,  when  the  drama  had 
travelled  from  its  ancient  classic  repose  to  an  active  power 
for  social  reform. 

The  introduction  to  the  "  Nil  Darpan,"  or  "  Indigo  Planting 
Mirror,"  states  that,  as  the  Bengali  drama  had  exposed 
"  the  evils  of  Kulin  Brahmanism,  widow-marriage  pro- 
hibition, quackery,  fanaticism,"  the  "Nil  Darpan"  pleads 
the  cause  of  those  who  are  the  feeble.    It  purports,  according 


4i6  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

to  the  Introduction,  to  describe  "  a  respectable  ryot,  a  peasant 
proprietor,  happy  with  his  family  in  the  enjoyment  of  his 
land  till  the  indigo  system  compelled  him  to  take  advances" 
for  the  cultivation  of  indigo,  to  the  neglect  of  his  own  land 
and  crops,  so  that  he  became  beggared,  and  reduced  "  to  the 
condition  of  a  serf  and  vagabond."  The  effect  of  all  this 
system  on  his  home,  children,  and  relatives  is  "  pointed  out 
in  language  plain  but  true ;  it  shows  how  arbitrary  power 
debases  the  lord  as  well  as  the  peasant.  Reference  is  also 
made  to  the  partiality  of  various  magistrates  in  favour  of 
planters,  and  to  the  act  of  last  year  penally  enforcing 
indigo  contracts."  ^ 

In  the  play  itself  the  English  planter  is  depicted  as 
upbraiding  his  native  manager  for  want  of  zeal,  and  is 
answered  by  the  retorts :  "  Saheb,  what  signs  of  fear  hast 
thou  seen  in  me?  When  I  have  entered  on  this  indigo 
profession  I  have  thrown  off  all  fear,  shame,  and  honour ; 
and  the  destroying  of  cows,  Brahmans,  of  women,  and 
the  burning-down  of  houses  are  become  my  ornaments."  ^ 
The  cultivators  who  refuse  to  accept  advances  are  dragged 
before  the  planter,  who  twists  their  ears,  beats  them  with  a 
leather  strap,  calls  them  scoundrels,  "  bloody  niggers,"  and 
then,  with  many  "  God  damns!"  and  other  words  of  chastise- 
ment, orders  them  to  be  imprisoned  unless  they  accept 
advances  binding  them  to  grow  indigo  instead  of  rice. 
The  ryots  assemble  together  and  declare  there  is  no  hope 
for  them,  for  they  had  seen  '•  the  late  Governor  Saheb  go 
about  all  the  indigo  factories,  being  feasted  like  a  bride- 
groom just  before  the  celebration  of  the  marriage.  Did  you 
not  see  that  the  planter  Sahebs  brought  him  to  this  factory 
well-adorned  like  a  bridegroom  ?  "  The  whole  despairing 
lot  of  the  village  is  summed  up  in  a  favourite  verse : — 

"  The  missionaries  have  destroyed  the  caste  : 
The  factory  monkeys  have  destroyed  the  rice."  ^ 

'  Long.  Rev.  J.,  "  Nil  Darpan,"  iii.  ^  Bid.,  p.  13.  »  Ibid.,  p.  29. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    417 

The  "  Indigo  Planter  "  declares  the  fate  in  store  for  the 
cultivators:  "We  indigo  planters  are  become  the  com- 
panions of  death ;  can  our  factories  remain  if  we  have 
pity  ?  By  nature  we  are  not  bad  ;  our  evil  disposition  has 
increased  by  indigo  cultivation.  Before,  we  felt  sorrow  in 
beating  one  man  ;  now  we  can  beat  ten  persons  with  the 
leather  strap,  making  them  senseless,  and  immediately  after, 
we  can,  with  great  laughter,  take  our  dinner  or  supper."  ^ 

As  a  result,  tragedy  is  piled  on  tragedy,  to  show  that 
"  the  sorrows  which  the  ryots  endure  in  the  preparation 
of  the  indigo  is  known  only  to  themselves  and  the  great 
God,  the  preserver  of  the  poor."  With  less  of  exaggeration, 
and  less  of  melodrama,  the  play  would  have  served  its 
purpose  better,  and  had  an  independent  artistic  value. 

The  great  interest  of  the  play  is  now  purely  literary. 
The  use  of  it,  for  a  social  purpose,  shows  how  the  new 
weapon,  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  could  serve  a 
double  purpose.  Its  realistic  movement  and  over-wrought 
tragedy  have  been  adapted  from  the  West,  probably,  so 
far  as  can  be  judged,  from  the  vague  idea  a  translation 
necessarily  gives  of  the  original,  from  an  imperfect  reading 
of  the  spirit  of  "  Macbeth,"  "  Hamlet,"  and  the  "  Merchant 
of  Venice." 

Traces  are  here  and  there  to  be  seen  of  truly  Eastern 
poetic  charm  and  idealism.  An  extraordinary  mixture  of 
Eastern  conventional  symbolism,  with  ideas  and  touches 
borrowed  from  Elizabethan  tragedy,  occurs  in  the  final 
scene,  where  the  last  surviving  member  of  a  family  of 
cultivators  pours  forth  his  lamentation  over  his  wife,  Sarala, 
and  all  his  relations,  who  have  been  brought  to  a  tragic 
death  through  the  wickedness  of  the  indigo  planter.  In 
his  deep  sorrow  the  cultivator  cries  out : — 

"  In  this  world  of  short  existence,  human  life  is  as  a  bank  of  a  river, 
which  has  a  most  violent  course  and  the  greatest  depth.     How 

»  "MlDarpan,"p.  53. 
2  D 


41 8  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

very  beautiful  are  the  banks,  the  fields  covered  over  with  new 
grass  most  pleasant  to  the  view,  the  trees  full  of  branches  newly 
coining  out ;  in  some  places  the  cottages  of  fishermen,  in  others 
the  kine  feeding  with  their  young  ones.  To  walk  about  in  such 
a  place,  enjoying  the  sweet  songs  of  the  beautiful  birds,  and  the 
charming  gale  full  of  the  sweet  smell  of  flowers,  only  wraps  the 
mind  in  contemplation  of  that  Being  who  is  full  of  pleasure. 
.  .  .  The  cobra  de  capello,  like  the  indigo  planters,  with  mouths 
full  of  poison,  threw  all  happiness  into  the  flame  of  fire.  The 
father,  through  injustice,  died  in  the  prison ;  the  elder  brother  in 
the  indigo  field;  and  the  mother,  being  insane  through  grief  for 
her  husband  and  son,  murdered,  with  her  own  hands,  a  most 
honest  woman.  .  .  .  The  cry  of  mama,  mama,  mama,  mama,  do 
I  make  in  the  battle-field  and  the  wilderness  whenever  fear  arises 
in  the  mind.  .  .  .  Ah  !  ah  !  it  bursts  my  heart  not  to  know 
where  my  heart's  Sarala  is  gone  to.  The  most  beautiful,  wise, 
and  entirely  devoted  to  me  ;  she  walked  as  the  swan,  and  her 
eyes  were  handsome  as  those  of  the  deer.  .  .  .  The  mind  was 
charmed  by  thy  sweet  reading,  which  was  as  the  singing  of  the 
bird  in  the  forest.  Thou,  Sarala,  hadst  a  most  beauteous  face, 
and  didst  brighten  the  lake  of  my  heart.  Who  did  take  away 
my  lotus  with  a  cruel  heart  ?  The  beautifiil  lake  became  dark. 
The  world  I  look  upon  is  as  a  desert  full  of  corpses ;  while  I 
have  lost  my  father,  my  mother,  my  brother,  and  my  wife  ! "  ^ 

The  play,  however  weak  and  artificial,  marks  the  grave 
dangers  that  must  be  faced  when  England  gives  Indici,  in 
consideration  of  her  political  servitude,  the  fullest  possible 
freedom  of  thought,  of  conscience,  and  of  expression  of  her 
needs  and  aspirations.  If  not  true  to  fact,  the  very  exaggera- 
tion of  such  writings  as  the  "  Nil  Darpan  "  train  the  people 
who  know  the  truth  to  more  sober  views  of  the  situation, 
and  to  gradual  mistrust  of  similar  effusions.  To  establish 
a  new  industry,  and  especially  to  expect  an  agricultural 
population  to  accept  more  profitable  modes  of  cultivation 
than  those  followed  by  their  forefathers,  is  a  task  difficult 
of  success,  and  one  that  must  invariably  lead  to  the 
strongest  opposition  against  those  who  strive  to  move 
habits  which  have  become  almost  instincts.  Perhaps,  for 
many  reasons,  it  was  well  for  India  that  the  cultivation 
»  "Nil  Darpan,"  p.  loi. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    419 

of  indigo  had  a  check,  even  as  had  the  efforts  to  introduce 
the  English  plough,  in  preference  to  the  surface-scratching 
native  one,  for  speedy  results,  in  a  land  like  India,  often 
mean  speedy  exhaustion,  and  permanent  decay.  The  "  Nil 
Darpan  "  was  the  instinctive  reaction  of  a  poetic  mind,  ever 
ready,  through  the  stress  of  its  imagination,  to  exaggerate 
the  meaning  of  passing  changes,  and  revolt  against  a  system 
it  could  not  fit  into  its  conception  of  the  times. 

The  whole  course  of  England's  mission  is  calmly  to  note 
the  power  of  the  old,  mark  its  failing  strength,  and  graft 
any  of  its  lasting  principles  of  vitality  on  to  new  ideals. 

Nowhere  better  than  in  the  novels  of  Bankim  Chandra 
Chatterji  can  the  full  force  of  this  strife  between  old  and 
new  be  traced.  The  novels  themselves  owe  their  form  to 
Western  influences,  but  the  subject-matter  and  spirit  are 
essentially  native.  Bankim  Chandra  Chatterji  himself  was 
the  first  B.A.  of  the  Calcutta  University.  Born  in  1838,  his 
earliest  novel,  "Durges  Nandini,"  ^  appeared  in  1864,  pro- 
fessedly inspired  as  a  historical  novel  under  the  influence 
of  the  works  of  Sir  Walter  Scott.  This  work  was  followed 
by  "  Kopala  Kundala,"  ^  a  tale  of  life  in  Bengal  some  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  and  was  succeeded  by  the 
"  Mrinalini."  In  1872  the  novelist  commenced,  in  his  newly- 
started  magazine,  the  Banga  Darsan,  the  monthly  publica- 
tion of  his  novel  of  social  life,  the  "  Bisha  Brikka,"  translated 
into  English  as  "The  Poison  Tree"  in  1884.8  The  "Debi 
Chaudhurani,"  "Ananda  Mathar,"  and  "Krishna  Kanta's 
Will "  *  followed,  the  last  being  translated  into  English  in 
1895.  The  "Krishna  Charitra,"  published  in  1886,  is,  how- 
ever, the  work  through  which  the  name  of  Bankim  Chandra 
Chatterji  will  probably  remain  famed  in  the  memory  of  his 
own  country-people. 

1  Translated  by  Charu  Candra  Mookerji  (Calcutta,  1880). 

-  Translated  by  H.  A.  D.  Phillips  (Trubner  &  Co.,  1885). 

'  Translated  by  Marian  Knight,  with  Preface  by  Sir  Edwin  Arnold. 

'  TraLslated  by  Marian  Knight,  with  Introduction  by  Prof.  J.  F.  Blunihardt. 


420  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

It  is  the  crowning  work  of  all  his  labours.  It  inculcates, 
with  all  the  purity  of  style  of  which  the  novelist  was  so 
perfect  a  master,  a  pure  and  devout  revival  of  Hinduism, 
founded  on  monotheistic  principles.  The  object  was  to  show 
that  the  character  of  Krishna  was,  in  the  ancient  writings, 
an  ideal  perfect  man,  and  that  the  commonly-received 
legends  of  his  immorality  and  amours  were  the  accretions 
of  later  and  more  depraved  times.  Bankim  Chandra 
Chatterji  is  the  first  great  creative  genius  modern  India  has 
produced.  For  the  Western  reader  his  novels  are  a  revela- 
tion of  the  inward  spirit  of  Indian  life  and  thought. 

As  a  creative  artist  he  soars  to  heights  unattained  by 
Tulsi  Das,  the  first  true  dramatic  genius  India  saw.  To 
claim  him  solely  as  a  product  of  Western  influence  would 
be  to  neglect  the  heritage  he  held  ready  to  his  hand  from 
the  poetry  of  his  own  country.  He  is,  nevertheless,  the  first 
clear  type  of  what  a  fusion  between  East  and  West  may  yet 
produce,  and  the  type  is  one  reproduced  in  his  successor, 
Romesh  Chandra  Dutt,  and  in  a  varied  manner  by  others, 
such  as  Kasinath  Trimbak  Telang,  in  Bombay.  It  is 
names  such  as  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  Keshab  Chandar  Sen, 
Bankim  Chandra  Chatterji,  Toru  Dutt,  and  Telang  that 
would  live  in  the  future  as  the  memorial  of  England's 
fostering  care,  if  all  the  material  evidences  of  Western 
civilisation  were  swept  from  off  the  land. 

To  those  who  would  know  something  of  the  life,  thoughts, 
feelings,  and  religions  of  the  Indian  people,  no  better 
instructor  can  be  found  than  Bankim  Chandra  Chatterji. 
The  English  reader  must  not  be  surprised  if,  in  the 
novels  of  the  greatest  novelist  India  has  seen,  there  is 
much  of  Eastern  form,  much  of  poetic  fancy  and  spiritual 
mysticism  alien  to  a  Western  craving  for  objective  realism. 
Bankim  Chandra  Chatte>ji,  with  all  the  insight  of  Eastern 
poetic  genius,  with  all  the  artistic  delicacy  of  touch  so 
easily  attained  by  the  subtle  deftness  of  a  high-caste  native 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    421 

of  India,  or  a  Pierre  Loti,  weaves  a  fine-spun  drama  of  life, 
fashioning  his  characters  and  painting  their  surroundings 
with  the  same  gentle  touch,  as  though  his  fingers  worked 
amid  the  frail  petals  of  some  flower,  or  moved  along  the 
lines  of  fine  silk,  to  frame  therewith  a  texture  as  unsub- 
stantial as  the  dreamy  fancies  with  which  all  life  is  woven, 
as  warp  and  woof.  So  the  "  Kopala  Kundala  "  opens  with 
a  band  of  pilgrims  travelling  by  boat  to  the  sacred  place 
of  pilgrimage,  where  the  holy  River  Ganges  pours  its 
sin-destroying  waters  into  the  boundless  ocean.  The  frail 
boat,  with  its  weight  of  sin,  is  being  swept  by  the  rushing 
flood  out  towards  the  sea.  The  boatmen  are  powerless ; 
they  cry  for  help  to  the  Muhammadan  saints,  the 
pilgrims  wail  to  Durga,  the  dreaded  wife  of  Siva,  the 
Destroyer.  One  woman  alone  weeps  not;  she  has  cast 
her  child  into  the  flowing  stream,  for  such  was  her  vow  of 
pilgrimage.  In  its  unguided  course  the  boat,  by  chance, 
touches  land,  and  the  hero,  Nobo  Kumar,  volunteers  to 
wander  along  the  sandy  shore  in  search  of  firewood.  The 
tide  rises,  the  boat  is  swept  away,  and  Nobo  Kumar  is 
left  to  gaze  after  it  in  despair.  The  sandy  waste  is  the 
abode  of  an  ascetic  worshipper  of  Kali,  who  is  waited  on  by 
the  heroine,  "Kopala  Kundala,"  destined  as  a  sacrifice  to  the 
fierce  goddess.  The  ascetic  sage  is  clothed  in  tiger  skins ; 
he  is  seated  on  a  corpse,  and  wears  a  necklace  of  rudra 
seeds  and  human  bones ;  his  hair  is  matted  and  unshorn. 
The  wild  scene  is  depicted  with  all  the  dreamy,  poetic 
repose  which  saturates  the  whole  life  of  the  East.  The 
ocean  is  spread  in  front ;  across  it  speeds  an  English  trading 
ship,  with  its  sails  spread  out  like  the  wings  of  some  large 
bird  ;  the  blue  waters  gleam  like  gold  beneath  the  setting 
sun ;  far  out,  in  the  endless  expanse,  the  waves  break  in 
foam  ;  along  the  glittering  sands  there  runs  a  white  streak 
of  surf  like  to  a  garland  of  white  flowers.  The  two  scenes — 
one  the  lonely  pilgrim  and  the  near-seated,  hideous,  human- 


422  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

sacrificing  ascetic,  the  other  of  the  vastness  and  stillness 
of  the  sea — seem  to  picture  forth  the  emptiness  of  man's 
imaginings  and  efforts  amid  the  impassive  immensity  of 
the  universe.  Over  all,  the  murmuring  roll  of  the  ocean, 
echoed  as  it  is  in  the  poet's  words,  seems  as  though  it 
bore  to  the  senses  the  wailing  moan  of  a  soul  lost  in  time 
and  space.  In  the  midst  of  the  mystic  scene  a  woman, 
the  heroine,  appears.  She  is  a  maiden,  with  hair  as  black 
as  jet  trailing  to  her  ankles  in  snake-like  curls.  Her  face, 
encircled  by  her  black  hair,  shines  like  the  rays  of  the 
moon  through  the  riven  clouds.  As  Nobo  Kumar  gazes 
on  her  form,  she  tells  him  to  fly  from  the  ascetic  Yog^, 
who  has  already  prepared  the  sacrificial  fire  and  awaits  a 
human  victim.  Spellbound,  Nobo  Kumar  has  no  power 
to  fly  from  the  devotee  to  Kali ;  he  follows  to  the  place 
of  sacrifice,  and  is  there  bound.  Kopala  Kundala,  in  the 
absence  of  the  priest,  appears,  severs  the  bonds,  and 
releases  Nobo  Kumar.  The  priest  returns,  seeks  the  sacri- 
ficial sword,  then  notes  how  his  victim  has  been  released. 
In  his  rage  he  rushes  to  and  fro  along  the  sandy  dunes, 
from  the  summit  of  one  of  which  he  stumbles  in  the  dark- 
ness, falls,  "like  a  buffalo  hurled  from  some  mountain 
peak,"  and  breaks  his  arms.  The  hero  and  heroine,  before 
they  fly  from  the  waste  of  sands,  are  married.  Kopala 
Kundala,  however,  longs  to  know  the  will  of  the  goddess. 
A  leaf  placed  at  the  foot  of  the  dread  deity  falls  to  the 
ground,  fatal  omen  that  the  goddess  is  displeased. 

So  the  fate  of  man  is,  for  the  poet's  purpose,  as  uncertain 
as  the  face  of  a  trembling  raindrop  on  a  lotus  leaf.  The 
new-made  wife  departs,  weeping,  from  the  shrine.  The 
novelist  has  now  to  follow  her  destiny  to  its  relentless 
course.  The  shadow  of  her  future  soon  throws  its  dark 
gloom  across  the  soul  of  Kopala  Kundala.  Amid  the 
intrigues  of  the  Mughal  court  of  the  time  of  Jahangir  the 
course  is  prepared  for  the  tragedy  to  close  round  Kopala 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    423 

Kundala,  whose  husband  grows  to  doubt  her  love,  and  then 
to  witness  what  has  been  cunningly  devised  to  seem  her 
faithlessness.  The  ascetic  sage,  with  broken  arms,  now 
appears  before  Nobo  Kumar,  and  declares  that  the  angered 
goddess  still  claims  a  sacrifice.  In  his  rage,  Nobo  Kumar 
offers  to  sacrifice  his  wife,  and  so  at  once  to  appease  Kali 
and  his  own  blind  jealousy.  Kopala  Kundala  has  herself 
resolved  to  fulfil  her  fate.  The  relentless  decrees,  that 
hold  the  destiny  of  man  at  their  beck  and  nod,  have  now 
almost  worked  out  their  purposes.  The  voice  of  the  priest 
wails  with  pity  as  he  calls  on  the  victim  ;  her  husband 
seizes  the  sword,  but  his  passion  bursts  forth  in  moaning 
cries  to  his  beloved  to  assure  him,  at  the  last  moment,  that 
she  has  not  been  faithless.  He  hears  the  truth,  that  all  his 
suspicions  were  roused  by  cunning  design.  Fate,  typified 
by  the  will  of  the  goddess,  must  be  worked  out.  Nobo 
Kumar  extends  his  arms  to  clasp  his  love,  but  Kopala 
Kundala  steps  back,  and  the  waters  of  the  Ganges  rise 
to  sweep  her  away  in  its  sin-destroying  flood,  where  Nobo 
Kumar  also  finds  his  death. 

The  novel  throughout  moves  steadily  to  its  purpose. 
There  is  no  over-elaboration,  no  undue  working  after  effect ; 
everywhere  there  are  signs  of  the  work  of  an  artist  whose 
hand  falters  not  as  he  chisels  out  his  lines  with  classic 
grace.  The  force  that  moves  the  whole  with  emotion,  and 
gives  to  it  its  subtle  spell,  is  the  mystic  form  of  Eastern 
thought  that  clearly  shows  the  new  forms  that  lie  ready  for 
inspiring  a  new  school  of  fiction  with  fresh  life.  Outside 
the  "  Mariage  de  Loti "  there  is  nothing  comparable  to  the 
"  Kopala  Kundala"  in  the  history  of  Western  fiction,  although 
the  novelist  himself,  and  many  of  his  native  admirers,  see 
grounds  for  comparing  the  works  of  Bankim  Babu  with 
those  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  probably  because  they  are 
outwardly  historical. 

A  novel  far  surpassing  "Kopala  Kundala"  in  realistic 


424         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

interest  is  the  same  novelist's  "  Poison  Tree."  This  novel 
has  its  own  artistic  merits,  but  its  chief  value,  for  English 
readers,  lies  in  the  life-like  pictures  it  presents  of  modem 
Indian  life  and  thought.  With  subdued  satire  the 
interested  efforts  of  would-be  social  reformers  are  shown  to 
be  founded  often  on  motives  of  self-interest,  dishonesty,  or 
immorality.  The  evil  results  which  too  often  follow  the 
breaking  -  away  from  the  strict  seclusion  and  moral  re- 
straints of  Hindu  family  life  under  the  influence  of 
Western  education  are  indicated  plainly.  These  modem 
movements  are  depicted  as  often  leading  the  native 
more  towards  agnosticism  and  impatience  of  control  than 
towards  the  implanting  of  a  vigorous  individuality,  founded 
on  a  heightening  of  religious  feelings,  and  wider  views  of 
the  necessity  of  self-control  and  altruistic  motives  of  action. 
It  is  a  danger  which  grows  graver  daily ;  it  is  a  movement 
which  must  be  expected  in  the  history  of  a  nation's 
advance  from  bondage  to  freedom,  and  one  to  be  resolutely 
met  with  a  firm  faith  in  the  eternal  elements  underlying 
all  enlightenment  and  social  progress,  and  not  with  a 
hopelessness  of  a  pessimistic  despair.  The  novel  itself  is 
very  simple.  It  deals  with  the  same  few  human  elements 
which  always  form  the  leading  motive  for  any  great  creative 
work  of  universal  and  abiding  interest  The  hero, 
Nagendra  Nath,  is  a  wealthy  landlord,  aged  thirty,  a  model 
amongst  men,  wealthy  and  handsome,  surrounded  by 
friends,  retainers,  and  relations,  all  of  whom  live  an  ideal 
life  of  happiness  through  his  bounty.  He  rejoices  in  the 
possession  of  a  beloved  and  loving  wife,  Surja  Mukhi,  aged 
twenty-six,  who  moves  amid  the  household  with  a  calm 
dignity  and  graceful  gentleness,  an  ideal  picture  of  a  faith- 
ful Hindu  spouse  and  well-educated,  sensible  woman. 
Nagendra,  during  a  journey  to  Calcutta,  befriends  an 
orphan  girl,  Kunda,  aged  but  thirteen — an  age  described  as 
that  in  which  all  the  charm  of  simplicity  is  combined  with 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    425 

the  radiance  of  the  moonbeams  and  scent  of  sweet  flowers. 
Nagendra  brings  the  girl  to  his  married  sister  at  Calcutta, 
but,  as  he  seems  in  no  hurry  to  depart,  his  wife  writes 
playfully  upbraiding  him,  and  suggesting  in  jest  that  he 
should  bring  his  new-found  treasure  home  and  marry  her 
himself,  or  give  her  to  the  village  schoolmaster,  who  has  not 
yet  found  a  willing  bride.  The  child  is  accordingly  brought 
to  the  village  and  married  to  the  schoolmaster.  This 
schoolmaster,  snub-nosed,  conceited,  and  copper-coloured, 
is  represented  as  an  up-to-date  product  of  an  undigested 
surfeit  of  Western  emancipation.  He  has  received  an 
English  education  at  a  free  mission  school,  and  planted 
himself  amid  the  village  community  as  a  very  mine  of 
learned  lore ;  it  was  whispered  abroad  that  he  had  read  the 
"  Citizen  of  the  World,"  and  passed  in  three  books  of  "  Euclid." 
He  extracted  essays  against  idolatry,  against  the  seclusion 
of  women  and  child-marriage  from  the  Tattva-bodhinl, 
and  published  them  under  his  own  name.  He  joined  the 
local  Brahma  Samaj,  established  by  the  spendthrift  of  the 
neighbourhood,  who  had  imbibed  all  the  Western  vices 
and  abandoned  all  the  native  virtues,  who  drank  wine  from 
decanters  with  cut-glass  stoppers,  carried  a  brandy  flask, 
and  ate  roast  mutton  and  cutlets,  and  who,  when  not  drunk, 
occupied  his  time  in  encouraging  the  marriage  of  low-caste 
widows,  so  that  he  might  pose  as  a  local  reformer.  The 
satire  is  perfect,  the  characters  satirised  true  to  life.  The 
new  product  of  Western  influences  encouraged  the  in- 
fatuated schoolmaster  to  read  papers  and  deliver  eloquent 
addresses  on  the  subject  of  the  emancipation  of  women, 
and  the  moralising  influence  of  bringing  women  out  into 
public  life,  but  finds  that  although  the  schoolmaster  can  be 
jeered  into  allowing  him  to  visit  Kunda,  the  outraged  pride 
of  the  timid  beauty  bursts  forth  in  a  flood  of  indignant 
tears. 

Luckily  for  Kunda,  the  schoolmaster  dies.     The  widow 


426         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

returns  to  the  home  of  her  former  protector,  the  all-loving 
Nagendra.  The  gentle  beauty  of  Kunda  sinks  deep  into 
the  heart  of  Nagendra,  whose  want  of  self-control  sows  the 
seeds  of  the  poison  tree,  whose  baneful  fruit  must  be 
eaten.  Nagendra's  wife  looks  on  in  sorrow  until  her 
husband,  unable  to  stifle  his  thoughts  or  bear  her  silent 
reproaches,  seeks  to  drown  his  feelings  in  drink.  At  length 
he  can  bear  the  restraint  no  longer.  Isvara  Chandra  Vidya- 
sagar  has  proved,  from  the  ancient  law  books,  that  widow- 
marriage  is  allowable,  although  no  Hindu  custom.  His 
wife  hides  her  wounded  feelings,  wondering  if  Isvara 
Chandra  Vidyasagar  be  a  pandit,  who  then  is  wanting  in 
wisdom  ?  She  sacrifices  all  her  feelings  to  her  great  love 
for  her  husband  and  prepares  the  marriage  ceremonies,  but 
once  the  marriage  takes  place,  she  steals  away  from  the 
happy  home  where  she  was  once  sole  mistress.  She  had 
made  her  resolve  to  wander  as  a  mendicant  from  place  to 
place,  unable  to  remain  at  home  and  bear  the  pain  of  seeing 
Kunda  claim  her  husband. 

The  suffering  of  Surja  Mukhi,  the  despair  of  Nagendra 
when  he  finds  his  once  loved  wife  has  left,  and  that,  as 
a  consequence,  his  overwhelming  passion  for  Kunda  has 
turned  to  indifference,  almost  to  loathing,  are  set  forth  with 
a  fulness  of  sympathy  and  emotional  feeling  which  a 
native  can  so  deeply  feel  and  express.  To  its  bitterest 
depths  the  novelist  traces  the  stern  course  of  the  unrelenting 
destiny  which  decrees  that  the  seeds  of  sin  once  sown  must 
grow,  and  the  fruit  be  reaped. 

A  welcome  relief  comes  when  the  story  breaks  into  some- 
what laboured  humour.  The  eager  servants  of  Nagendra 
go  forth  with  coaches  and  palanquins  in  search  of  their 
mistress,  whose  face  they  have  never  seen.  Every  good- 
looking  and  high-caste  woman  along  the  road,  by  the 
bathing  tanks,  or  river-side,  is  forcibly  seized  and  brought, 
with  cries  of  joy,  to  the  unfortunate  husband,  to  see  if  he 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    427 

can  recognise  among  them  his  lost  wife,  so  that,  finally,  no 
woman  dare  venture  from  home  for  fear  of  being  brought 
to  Nagendra.  Surja  Mukhi  returns  not.  Her  husband 
leaves  his  new  wife,  Kunda,  to  mourn  alone  over  her  destiny 
in  the  now  deserted  home,  once  so  full  of  joy  and  happiness. 

Nagendra  returns  after  weary  wanderings  to  end  his  life 
in  pious  deeds  and  holy  living.  Kunda  he  is  resolved 
never  more  to  speak  to  nor  to  see.  For  her,  therefore, 
there  is  only  death ;  the  poisoned  fruit  must  be  eaten  that 
grew  from  the  seed  of  sin.  Before  she  dies  the  long-lost  wife 
reappears,  and  Kunda,  in  her  dying  moments,  is  received 
as  a  younger  sister,  and  sinks  to  rest,  her  hands  clasping 
her  rival's  feet,  her  head  supported  by  her  husband,  whose 
love  she  had  once  won,  and  whom  she  now  knows  cannot 
abide  by  her. 

In  Nagendra's  love  for  Kunda  the  novelist  declares  that 
he  wished  to  depict  the  fleeting  love  of  passion,  as  sung  by 
Kalidasa,  Byron,  and  Jaya  Deva,  and  in  his  love  for  Surja 
Mukhi,  the  deep  love  which  sacrifices  one's  own  happiness 
for  the  love  of  another,  as  sung  by  Shakespeare,  Valmiki, 
and  Madame  de  Stael. 

The  Bengali  novelist  could  not  so  readily  shake  himself 
free  from  his  Eastern  form  of  thought,  and  view  all  things 
from  an  objective  point  of  view.  The  love  for  Kunda  is 
still  the  fettering  of  the  soul  by  the  objects  of  sense ;  the 
love  of  the  husband  for  his  first  wife  is  still  the  mystic  love 
of  the  soul  for  God. 

The  wealth  of  material  which  lies  to  the  hand  of  the 
future  great  novelist  of  India  has  been  virtually  untouched. 
Bankim  Chandra  Chatterji,  has  but  led  the  way  and 
indicated  the  material  which  awaits  the  next  great  artist. 

He  leaves  us  in  doubt  whether  he  is  depicting  life  as  it 
throbbed  around  him,  or  whether  he  has  hemmed  in  his 
characters  with  a  surrounding  of  Eastern  mysticism  and 
romantic  reserve  born  of  Western  conventionality. 


428  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

If  Bankim  Chandra  Chatterji  has  struck  a  chord  which 
vibrates  through  the  hearts  of  the  many  women  of  zenanas 
in  India,  whose  eyes  must  have  wept  bitter  tears  over  the 
agony  of  Surja  Mukhi,  deplorable  indeed,  and  worthy  of  all 
his  deep  feeling  as  an  artist,  must  be  the  condition  of  a 
vast  multitude  of  suffering  women  in  the  East,  who  have 
been  nurtured  to  see  their  life  blasted  by  a  rival  love  placed 
by  their  side  to  rejoice  their  lord's  heart,  or  that  a  son  may 
be  born  to  save  their  husband's  soul.  We  are,  however, 
left  in  doubt  as  to  whether  Nagendra  sinned  in  having  a 
second  wife — he  defends  polygamy  in  the  course  of  the 
story — or  whether  his  fault  lay  in  marrying  a  widow  against 
social  custom.  The  motive  for  fatality  of  act  should  have 
been  as  clear  and  unmistakable  as  it  was  in  the  "  Mud 
Cart,"  where  the  jealousies  of  the  two  rival  wives  who 
became  reconciled  do  not  influence  the  action. 

The  same  idea  is  further  worked  out  in  "  Krishna  Kanta's 
Will."  Here  the  true  workings  of  the  novelist's  mind  are 
apparent ;  a  deeper  vein  is  touched.  The  love  of  the  erring 
husband  for  his  wife,  and  the  rival  love  by  which  he  is 
infatuated,  typifies  a  struggle  between  a  Divine  love  and 
the  ever-recurring  phantasmal  attraction  of  the  soul  to  the 
objects  of  sense,  from  which  freedom  can  only  be  reached 
by  centring  the  mind  on  ideal  perfections. 

The  praise  of  Krishna,  as  a  perfected  man,  is  sung  by  the 
poet  in  his  greatest  work,  the  "  Krishna  Charitra,"  published 
in  1862,  as  a  contribution  to  a  Hindu  revival  in  the  ancient 
national  religion,  which  Romesh  Chandra  Dutt  describes  as 
"  the  nourishing  and  life-giving  faith  of  the  '  Upanishads,' 
and  the '  Vedanta,'  and  the '  Bhagavad  Gita,'  which  has  been, 
and  ever  will  be,  the  true  faith  of  the  Hindus."  ^ 

A  worthy  follower  of  India's  first  great  novelist  appeared 
in  Romesh  Chandra  Dutt,  the  ablest  native  member  of 
the  Indian   Civil   Service.     His   novels  have  now  passed 

1  Dutt,  R.  C,  "The  Literature  of  Bengal,"  p.  235. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    429 

through  five  or  six  editions  in  the  Bengali.  He  has  resisted 
all  entreaties  to  translate  them  into  English,  although  he 
is  as  able  with  his  pen  in  English,  as  he  is  in  Sanskrit 
and  Bengali.  The  advice  given  him  by  Bankim  Chandra 
Chatterji  now  no  longer  applies ;  the  Eastern  form  has  fused 
sufficiently  with  the  English  motive  force  to  make  a  prose 
translation  by  himself  of  his  works  not  only  widely  accept- 
able by  the  Western  public,  but  necessary  for  all  students 
of  history  and  literature. 

Bankim  Chandra's  advice  was  given  in  1872,  and  then 
mainly  referred  to  poetry,  not  to  prose :  "  You  will  never 
live  by  your  writings  in  English,"  he  said ;  "  look  at  others. 
Your  uncles,  Govind  Chandra  and  Shashi  Chandra's 
English  poems  will  never  live.  Madhu  Sudan's  Bengali 
poetry  will  live  as  long  as  the  Bengali  language  will 
live." 

In  his  own  time  the  elder  novelist  clearly  recognised  the 
younger  as  a  worthy  rival,  and  on  the  appearance,  in  1874 
of  Romesh  Chandra  Dutt's  first  novel,  "  Banga  Bijeta,"  a 
tale  of  the  times  of  Akbar,  he  wrote :  "  I  am  crowding  my 
canvas  with  characters ;  it  won't  do  for  a  veteran  like  me 
to  be  beaten  by  a  youngster."  ■ 

The  other  five  novels  of  Romesh  Chandra  Dutt  followed 
in  quick  succession.  "Rajput  Jiban  Sandhya"  (1878),  a 
tale  of  the  times  of  Jahanglr;  "Madhalei  Kankan"  (1876) 
a  tale  of  the  times  of  Shah  Jahan ;  "  Maharashtra  Jiban 
Prabhat"  (1877),  a  tale  of  the  times  of  Aurangzib; 
"Sansar''  (1885);  "Samaj"  (1894);  two  social  novels 
continuing  the  same  story.  His  translation  of  the  "  Rig 
Veda  Sanhita"  into  Bengali  appeared  in  1887  ;  his  valuable 
"  History  of  Civilisation  of  Ancient  India,"  in  English,  in 
three  volumes  from  1889;  his  second  edition  of  "The 
Literature  of  Bengal,"  so  often  quoted  in  this  work,  in 
1895  ;  and  his  selection  of  translations  from  the  "  Rig  Veda 
Puranas,"  and  "  Hindu  Sastras,"  from  1895  to  1897. 


430  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

A  whole  library  of  "  Sorrow  and  Song  "  was  poured  forth 
by  this  Dutt  family  of  Rambagan.  Govind  Chandra  Dutt 
and  Shashi  Chandra  Dutt  first  published  the  "  Dutt  Family 
Album,"  in  1870,  in  England,  hoping,  as  they  said,  that  their 
poems  would  be  regarded  in  England  as  curiosities,  and 
the  work  of  foreigners  educated  at  the  Hindu  College  at 
Calcutta  who  had  become  Christians. 

Their  work,  like  much  similar  work  of  the  same  class 
— the  "  Lotus  Leaves  "  of  H.  C.  Dutt,  the  "  Cherry  Blossom  " 
of  G.  C.  Dutt,  the  "  Vision  of  Sumeru,"  and  other  poems, 
by  S.  Chandra  Dutt  and  others — indicate  the  enormous 
difficulties  which  lie  before  even  the  most  gifted  who  work 
in  English  verse. 

A  few  verses  from  "A  Vision  of  Sumeru,  and  other 
Poems,"!  by  tjie  estimable  Shashi  Chundra  Dutt,  a  Rai 
Bahadur  and  Justice  of  the  Peace  at  Calcutta,  strike  a  key- 
note that  wails  of  itself: — 

MY  NATIVE  LAND. 

"  My  native  land,  I  love  thee  still ! 
There's  beauty  yet  upon  thy  lonely  shore  ; 
And  not  a  tree,  and  not  a  rill, 
But  can  my  soul  with  rapture  thrill, 
Though  glory  dwells  no  more." 

"  What  though  those  temples  now  are  lone 
Where  guardian  angels  long  did  dwell ; 
What  though  from  brooks  that  sadly  run, 
The  naiads  are  for  ever  gone — 
Gone  with  their  sounding  shell ! " 

"  Those  days  of  mythic  tale  and  song, 
When  dusky  warriors,  in  their  martial  pride, 
Strode  thy  sea-beat  shores  along. 
While  with  their  fame  the  valleys  rung, 
And  tum'd  the  foe  aside. 

^  Tbacker  Spink  (Calcutta,  1879). 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    431 

"Then  sparkled  woman's  Ijrilliant  eye, 
And  heaved  her  heart,  and  panted  to  enslave; 
And  beauteous  veils  and  flow'rets  shy, 
In  vain  to  hide  those  charms  did  try 
That  flash'd  to  woo  the  brave. 

"  My  fallen  country  !  where  abide 
Thy  envied  splendour,  and  thy  glory  now  ? 

The  Pithin's  and  the  Mogul's  pride, 

Spread  desolation  far  and  wide. 
And  stain'd  thy  sinless  brow." 
•  *•..• 

"  And  beauty's  eye  retains  its  fire, 
What  though  its  lightnings  flash  not  for  the  brave  ; 

And  beauteous  bosoms  yet  aspire. 

With  passion  strong  and  warm  desire, 
To  wake  the  crouching  slave. 

"My  country  !  fallen  as  thou  art, 
My  soul  can  never  cease  to  heave  for  thee  : 
I  feel  the  dagger's  edge,  the  dart 
That  rankles  in  thy  widow'd  heart, 
Thy  woeful  destiny  I  " 

The  full  force  of  the  clashing  of  new  and  old  reached  its 
climax  in  the  short,  sad  life  of  the  "Jeune  et  cdldbre 
Hindoue  de  Calcutta."  ^ 

Toru  Dutt,  the  gifted  daughter  of  a  gifted  family,  was 
born  in  Calcutta  in  1856,  where,  as  she  sings  : — 

"  The  light  green  graceful  tamarinds  abound 
Amid  the  mango  clumps  of  green  profound. 
And  palms  arise,  like  pillars  grey,  between, 
And  o'er  the  quiet  pools  the  seemuls  lean."  ^ 

She  died  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-one,  but  in  her  short 
span  of  life  she  had  crowded  her  imaginative  mind  with 
imagery  gleaned  from  French,  German,  English,  and 
Sanskrit   literature,   and  with  her  retentive  memory  had 

'  "  Le  Journal  de  Mdlle.  d'Arvers  par  Toru  Dutt "  (Paris,  1879). 
»  Toru  Dutt,  "  Ballads  and  Legends  of  Hindustan  "  (1885). 


432  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

stored  up  an  unique  knowledge  which  she  afterwards  showed 
in  "A  Sheaf  gleaned  in  French  Fields,"  published  in  1876, 
containing  unaided  translations  from  the  French,  some  by 
her  sister  Aru,  and  criticisms,  amongst  others,  of  Leconte  de 
Lisle,  Alfred  de  Musset,  Victor  Hugo,  Frangois  Coppde, 
and  Th^ophile  Gautier.  More  remarkable  was  "  Le  Journal 
de  Mdlle.  d'Arvers,"  a  romance  in  French,  published  with 
an  account  of  Toru  Dutt's  life  and  work  by  Mdlle.  Clarisse 
Bader  in  1879.  The  work,  however,  by  which  she  will  be 
best  known  to  English  readers  is  her  "  Ancient  Ballads  and 
Legends  of  Hindustan,"  published  in  1885,  with  an  intro- 
duction by  Edmund  Gosse.  The  poems  often  faultless  as 
they  are  in  technical  execution,  sometimes  the  verse,  as  Mr 
Gosse  truly  says,  being  exquisite  to  a  hypercritical  ear,  can 
never  take  an  abiding-place  in  the  history  of  English  or 
Indian  literature.  The  old  ballads  and  legends  have  lost 
all  their  plaintive  cadence,  all  the  natural  charm  they  bore 
when  wrapped  round  with  the  full-sounding  music  of  the 
Sanskrit,  or  in  what  lay  ready  to  the  hands  of  the  poetess, 
her  own  classical  Bengali. 

The  imagery,  the  scenery  has  even  lost  its  own  Oriental 
colour  and  profusion  of  ornamentation.  The  warmth  of 
expression  and  sentiment  has  of  necessity  been  toned  down 
by  the  very  use  of  a  language  which,  even  had  it  been 
plastic  in  the  hands  of  Toru  Dutt,  could  never  have  afforded 
her  the  delicate  touch  and  colour  which  she  found  in  the 
French. 

In  her  poem  "  Jogadhya  Uma,"  her  own  creative  powers 
have  found  their  fullest  play.  In  her  own  vernacular  the 
poem  would  have  been  sung  to  music  so  weird  and  soothing, 
the  words  would  have  been  attuned  to  feelings  so  deep  and 
sincere,  that,  although  she  had  parted  from  her  ancient 
faith  and  become  a  Christian,  it  would  have  been  a  poem 
destined  to  live  in  the  religious  poetry  of  Hinduism,  and 
take  a  place  among  the  songs  of  the  people.     As  it  is, 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    433 

while  it  shows  all  her  innate  resources,  it  also  shows  the 
lack  of  power  of  her  choice  of  a  medium  to  express  her 
ideals.     The  story  is  one  she  has  learned  for  herself : — 

"  Absurd  may  be  the  tale  I  tell, 
Ill-suited  to  the  marching  tiroes, 
I  loved  the  lips  from  which  it  fell, 
So  let  it  stand  among  my  rhymes." 

In  the  poem  a  pedlar  wanders  to  and  fro  crying  his 
wares  : — 

"  Shell  bracelets,  ho  !     Shell  bracelets,  ho  ! 
Fair  maids  and  matrons  come  and  buy  ! " 

As  he  cries, 

"  A  fair  young  woman  with  large  eyes, 
And  dark  hair  falling  to  her  zone, 
She  heard  the  pedlar's  cry  arise. 
And  eager  seemed  his  ware  to  own." 

A  shell  bracelet  is  bought,  and  the  woman  tells  the 
pedlar  to  go  to  her  home,  a  manse  near  the  village  temple 
where  her  father  is  priest.  The  pedlar  goes  to  the  priest 
and  demands  the  price,  and  from  the  story  he  tells,  the 
priest  discerns  that  it  was  the  goddess  Uma  who  had 
appeared  to  the  pedlar. 

The  priest  cries : — 

"  How  strange  !  how  strange  !    Oh  blest  art  thou 

To  have  beheld  her,  touched  her  hand, 
Before  whom  Vishnu's  self  must  bow, 

And  Brahma  and  his  heavenly  band. 
Here  have  I  worshipped  her  for  years. 

And  never  seen  the  vision  bright. 
Vigil  and  fasts  and  secret  tears 

Have  almost  quenched  my  outward  sight ; 
And  yet  that  dazzling  form  and  face 

I  have  not  seen,  and  thou,  dear  friend. 
To  thee,  unsought-for,  comes  the  grace. 

What  may  its  purport  be,  and  end  ? " 
2  E 


434  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

They  hasten  back  to  the  water-side,  where  the  goddess 
had  been  seen  bathing,  but  there 

"  The  birds  were  silent  in  the  wood, 
Over  all  the  solitude. 
A  heron  as  a  sentinel. 
Stood  by  the  bank.  .  .  ." 

The  goddess   had  disappeared,  but    in    answer  to  tlie 
priest's  prayer  for  her  reappearance 


I 


"  Sudden  from  out  the  water  sprung 
A  rounded  arm  on  which  they  saw. 
As  high  the  lotus  buds  among 
It  rose,  the  bracelet  white.  .  •  ." 

"  It  sinks. 
They  bowed  before  the  mystic  Power, 

And  as  they  home  returned,  in  thought 
Each  took  from  thence  a  lotus  flower, 

In  memory  of  the  day  and  spot. 
Years,  centuries  have  passed  away, 

And  still  before  the  temple  shrine, 
Descendants  of  the  pedlar  pay 

Shell  bracelets  of  the  old  design, 
As  annual  tribute.     Much  they  own 

On  land,  and  gold, — but  they  confess 
From  that  eventful  day  alone. 

Dawned  on  their  industry, — success." 

A  novel  of  great  interest,  entitled  "  Induleka,"  has  passed 
almost  unnoticed  in  England,  although  it  was  translated  by 
the  able  Malayalam  scholar,  Mr  Dumergue  of  the  Indian 
Civil  Service.  It  appeared  in  1889,  and  was  written  in  the 
vernacular  language  of  the  Malabar*  coast,  Travancore,  and 
Cochin  by  Mr  O.  Chandu  Menon.  It  was  avowedly  written 
for  the  purpose  of  introducing  the  Western  form  of  fiction  to 
the  home  of  the  novelist,  so  that  when  "  stories  composed 
of  incidents  true  to  national  life,  and  attractively  and  grace- 
fully written,  are  once  introduced,  then,  by  degrees,  the  old 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    435 

order  of  books,  filled  with  the  impossible  and  the  super- 
natural, will  change,  giving  place  to  the  new." 

In  the  course  of  the  story,  the  newly-acquired  thoughts 
and  habits  of  natives  educated  on  English  lines,  are  con- 
trasted with  those  of  the  old  school  of  conservative  and 
orthodox  Hindus. 

The  inward  life  of  a  Nair  family  or  Tarwad,  ruled,  ac- 
cording to  the  local  custom,  by  the  chief  of  the  house,  or 
"  Karnavan,"  is  laid  bare,  with  the  conflict  waged  by  the 
younger  members  against  their  "  unprogressive  "  elders. 

The  author,  in  his  preface,  describes  the  hero,  Madhavan, 
as  "a  graduate  both  in  Arts  and  Law.  He  is  extremely 
handsome  in  appearance,  and  extraordinarily  intelligent, 
and  a  good  Sanskrit  scholar.  He  excelled  in  sports  and 
English  games,  such  as  cricket  and  lawn-tennis."  As  the 
novel  is  to  be  "a  novel  after  the  English  fashion,"  the 
author  confesses  that  "  it  is  evident  that  no  ordinary 
Malayalee  lady  could  fill  the  role  of  the  heroine  of 
such  a  story.  My  Induleka  is  not,  therefore,  an  ordinary 
Malayalee  lady.  She  knows  English,  Sanskrit,  music,  etc., 
and  is  at  once  a  very  beautiful  and  a  very  accomplished 
young  lady  of  about  seventeen  years  of  age  when  our  story 
opens." 

That  the  reader  should  not  imagine  that  the  character 
is  altogether  untrue  to  life,  the  novelist  hastens  to  add  :  "  I 
myself  know  two  or  three  respectable  Nair  ladies  now 
living,  who,  in  intellectual  culture  (save  and  except  in  the 
knowledge  of  English),  strength  of  character,  and  general 
knowledge,  can  well  hold  comparison  with  Induleka.  As 
for  beauty,  personal  charms,  refined  manners,  simplicity  of 
taste,  conversational  powers,  wit  and  humour,  I  can  show 
hundreds  of  young  ladies,  in  respectable  Nair  Tarwads, 
who  would  undoubtedly  come  up  to  the  standard  of  my 
Induleka." 

The  storj'  of  the  trials  of  the  hero  and  heroine  and  of 


436  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

the  final  triumph  of  their  love,  is  well  worked  out  on  the 
lines  of  English  fiction,  with  the  added  interest  and  charm 
of  Eastern  life  and  Eastern  scenery. 

One  chapter  towards  the  end  of  the  story  gives,  in  the 
form  of  a  conversation  between  Madhavan,  the  hero,  his 
father,  Govinda  Panikkar,  a  "bigoted  Hindu,"  and  his 
cousin,  Govinda  Kutti  Menon,  the  current  native  view  on 
such  subjects  as  religion,  education,  and  the  National 
Congress.  Madhavan's  father  first  upbraids  his  son  with 
want  of  love,  faith,  and  veneration  : — 

"  The  cause  of  all  this,  I  say,  is  English  education.  Faith  in  God 
and  piety  should  rank  foremost  in  the  hearts  of  men,  but  you  who 
learn  English  have  neither.  .  .  .  Your  new-fangled  knowledge  and 
notions  have  ruined  everything.  I  see  you  continually  forsaking  the 
good  old  practices  which  we  Hindus  have  observed  from  time  im- 
memoriaL  .  .  .  All  this  hostility  to  our  time-honoured  rules  of  virtuous 
life,  is  due  to  nothing  but  the  study  of  English.  If  the  acquisition  of 
human  knowledge  and  human  culture  comes  into  conflict  with  faith  in 
things  Divine,  then  they  are  most  utterly  worthless.  It  behoves  each 
and  every  man  to  cling  to  the  faith  of  his  forefathers,  but  you  apparently 
think  that  the  Hindu  religion  is  altogether  contemptible.'' 

The  usual  arguments  on  the  subjects  of  theism,  atheism, 
and  agnosticism  follow.  The  father,  Govinda  Panikkar,  at 
length  retorts  : — 

"  If  you  say  that  God  is  omnipresent,  can  you  therefore  make  up 
your  mind  not  to  go  to  the  temples  ?  Besides,  do  you  really  mean  to 
say  that  there  are  no  saints  upon  earth  who  have  freed  themselves 
from  all  worldly  cares  and  passions  ?  " 

"  I  certainly  do,"  answered  Madhavan.  "  I  maintain  emphatically 
that,  except  when  all  natiual  appetites  and  desires  are  quenched  by 
sickness,  there  is  no  man  devoid  of  the  impulses  and  passions  which 
are  inherent  in  the  flesh." 

"  This  is  dreadful,"  exclaimed  Govinda  Panikkar.  "  Just  think  how 
many  great  devotees  and  ascetics  have  conquered  all  fleshly  lusts." 

"  I  don't  believe  there  are  any  who  have,"  replied  Madhavan. 

"  Then  are  you  an  atheist  altogether,  my  son  ?  " 

"  I  am  no  atheist ;  on  the  contrary,  I  firmly  believe  there  is  a  God." 

"  Then  what  about  the  ascetics  ?  " 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    437 

"  I  do  not  believe  there  are  any  such  men  as  you  mentioned, 
whether  they  are  devotees  or  not." 

"  But  I  saw  an  ascetic  once  who  Hved  on  nothing  but  seven  pepper- 
corns and  seven  neem  leaves  a  day.     He  never  even  drank  water." 

"  He  must  have  been  an  uncommonly  clever  impostor,"  said 
Govinda  Kutti  Menon,  "  and  I  have  no  doubt  he  humbugged  you." 

"  He  stayed  for  nine  days  in  the  lodge  with  me,"  returned  Govinda 
Panikkar,  "  and  ate  nothing  the  whole  time." 

"  You  did  not  see  him  eat  anything,  brother,"  said  Govinda  Kutti 
Menon,  "  and  believed  that  he  ate  nothing  ;  that's  all.  A  man  cannot 
live  without  food.  It  is  so  ordained  by  nature,  and  what  is  the  use  of 
any  one  telling  lies  about  it  ?  " 

"  There,  now,"  said  Govinda  Panikkar,  "  this  perversity  comes  from 
your  intercourse  with  English  people.  You  never  believe  a  word  we 
say." 

Long  extracts  from  the  writings  of  Bradlaugh  are  quoted 
to  break  down  the  faith  of  the  orthodox  Hindu  in  all  his 
ancient  religion.  The  story  of  creation  and  of  Adam,  as 
dealt  with  by  Bradlaugh,  are  next  discussed  : — 

"  But  there  is  no  mention  of  any  man  named  Adam  in  our  '  Shastras ' 
and  '  Puranas,'  and  I  don't  believe  a  word  of  what  you  have  read," 
objected  Govinda  Panikkar. 

"  You  need  not  believe  in  Adam,''  replied  Govinda  Kutti  Menon. 
"  But  the  account  given  by  the  Christian  Scriptures  of  the  curse  which 
is  said  to  have  fallen  on  Adam,  and  the  tribulation  which  is  described 
as  resulting  from  the  wrath  of  God,  is  nothing  compared  with  similar 
accounts  in  our  '  Puranas.'  According  to  them,  it  is  not  only  God,  but 
also  saintly  men  and  minor  deities,  and  Brahmans,  and,  more  than  this, 
women,  that  are  paragons  of  virtue,  who,  in  their  wrath,  take  cruel  and 
manifold  vengeance  on  immortals  and  mortals,  and  the  dumb  brute 
creation  from  one  birth  to  another.  None  of  this  rank,  preposterous 
folly  appears  in  the  Christian  Scriptures." 

"  Don't  speak  like  that,"  said  Govinda  Panikkar.  "  What  do  you 
mean  by  saying  such  things  of  our  '  Puranas,'  Govinda  Kutti  ?  Do  you 
imagine  any  one  will  believe  you  when  you  condemn  as  rank  folly  our 
'  Puranas,'  which  are  as  old  as  the  world  itself,  simply  because  you  have 
read  an  English  book,  a  creation  of  yesterday  ?  But,  apart  from  that, 
if  there  is  no  God,  then  what  you  say  must  amount  to  this,  that  man 
called  himself  into  existence." 

"  It  amounts  to  more,"  repUed  Govinda  Kutti,  "  because  I  say  that 
not  only  man,  but  also  the  whole  world,  came  into  existence  through 


438  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

various  elements  and  forces,  and  is  attaining  complete  development 
spontaneously." 

"  Then,  in  that  case,  when  a  man  dies,  what  becomes  of  the  spirit  of 
life  ?  "  asked  Govinda  Panikkar. 

"  Nothing,"  replied  Govinda  Kutti  Menon.  "  It  simply  becomes 
extinct.  If  you  put  out  a  lighted  candle,  what  becomes  of  the  flame  ? 
Surely  nothing ;  it  is  simply  extinguished,  and  so  it  is  with  the  spirit 
of  life." 

"  Then  man  has  no  ftiture  state  !  All  is  ended  in  death  ! "  exclaimed 
Govinda  Panikkar.     "  Verily,  this  is  a  creed  fit  only  for  devils  ! " 

The  unfortunate  father  has,  however,  to  sit  still  and  listen 
to  a  discussion  over  the  relative  merits  of  the  writings  of 
Darwin,  Huxley,  Herbert  Spencer,  and  other  English 
writers,  and  those  of  the  Indian  sages.  The  case  for  and 
against  the  National  Congress  is  next  considered, 
Madhavan's  cousin  vehemently  opposing  its  purposes 
and  methods : — 

"  Even  for  the  English,  with  all  their  unity  of  caste  and  fusion  of 
race.  Parliamentary  Government  is  a  matter  of  difficulty,  and  how 
preposterous  then  is  the  idea  entertained  by  some  bawling  Babus, 
Brahmans,  and  Mudalis  of  forming,  out  of  the  inhabitants  of  India, 
who  are  divided  by  ten  thousand  differences  of  caste  into  sections 
as  antagonistic  to  each  other  as  a  mongoose  is  to  a  snake,  an 
assembly  like  Parliament  for  the  administration  of  the  country? 
The  project  is  sheer  folly,  nothing  else.  It  is  simply  their  fear  of 
being  knocked  over  by  bullets  and  their  weakness  that  has  made 
the  nations  between  the  Himalayas  and  Cape  Comorin  live  at 
peace  with  one  another  since  the  advent  of  the  Enghsh,  but  let 
the  English  leave  India  to-morrow,  and  then  we  shall  see  the  great- 
ness and  valour  of  the  Babus.  Will  these  open-mouthed  demagogues 
be  able  to  protect  the  country  for  a  single  minute  ?  Why,  if  they 
really  possessed  that  fine  feeling  of  self-esteem  which  they  profess, 
they  would  long  ago  have  obtained  the  privileges  they  so  earnestly 
desire.  But  in  truth  they  possess  neither  courage,  nor  strength, 
nor  energy,  nor  patience.  Clamour  is  almost  everything  with  them. 
Their  sole  object,  their  one  set  ambition  is  to  make  a  fine  speech 
in  English.  If  the  English  Government,  working  on  its  present  lines, 
gradually  introduces  changes  and  reforms  into  India  for  the  next 
generation,  this  is  all  that  is  required.  There  are  thousands  of 
customs  and  institutions  in  India  which  are  wholly  imperfect  or  dis- 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NE  W    439 

graceful,  and  should  be  developed  and  improved.  Why  should  the 
supporters  of  the  Congress  neglect  them  utterly  and  go  beyond  all 
bounds  in  grasping  first  of  all  at  sovereignty  ?  Why,  for  instance, 
do  they  make  no  attempt  to  remove  the  obstacles  to  improvement 
and  progress  which  are  interposed  by  so  many  unnecessary  distinc- 
tions of  caste  ?  Why  do  they  not,  in  order  to  relieve  the  poverty  of 
the  land,  try  to  teach  its  nations  trade  with  foreign  countries,  better 
modes  of  agriculture,  manufacture,  mechanical  engineering?  Why 
not  endeavour  to  spread  education  among  women?  Wliy  not  seek 
to  reform  our  obscure  household  customs  and  barbarous  practices  ? 
It  is  now  many  years  since  the  railway,  and  telegraph,  and  other 
wonderful  inventions,  were  introduced  into  India,  and  why  should 
no  efforts  be  made  to  instruct  Hindus  and  Muhammadans  how  to 
construct  them  and  work  them  ? " 


The  case  for  the  Congress  is  argued  out  by  Madhavan, 
who  sets  forth  its  objects  shortly  in  the  following  words  : — 

"With  the  beginning  of  their  administration  began  not  only  the 
diffusion  of  knowledge  and  education  among  the  natives  of  India, 
but  also  a  desire  to  participate  in  the  privileges  to  which  knowledge 
affords  us  a  title.  Inasmuch  then  as  we  have  every  reason  to 
believe  that  the  English  Government  will,  in  justice  grant  us  the 
fiilfilment  of  this  desire  if  we  ask  for  it,  the  Congress  has  been 
established  in  order  to  prefer  our  request  by  all  lawful  and  reasonable 


In  Madras  the  two  novels  "Saguna,"  and  "Kamala" 
were  written  by  Mrs  S.  Satthianadhan,  whose  fragile  life 
passed  away  in  1894.  She  was  born  in  1862,  her  parents, 
Haripunt  and  Radhabai,  being  the  first  Brahman  converts 
to  Christianity  in  the  Bombay  Presidency.^  Her  novels 
are  now  well  known  in  England.  The  two  conspicuous 
features  of  her  novels — both  derived  from  her  English 
education  and  surroundings — are  seen  in  the  following 
extract  from  "Saguna."  The  scene  is  one  she  witnessed 
with  her  brother  in  the  Deccan.     The  objective  mode  of 

^  "  Kamala :  a  Story  of  Hindu  Life,"  by  Mrs  S.  Satthianadhan,  with  Memoir 
by  Mrs  H.  B.  Grigg  (Madras,  1894).  "Saguna:  a  Story  of  Native  Christian 
Life,"  with  Preface  by  Mrs  R.  S.  Benson  (Madras,  1895). 


440  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

viewing  Nature  is  peculiarly  the  outcome  of  Western  in- 
fluence, to  which  influence  must  also  be  ascribed 
her  sincerely  Christian  piety. 

"  The  mountain  path  with  its  loose  stones,  moss-grown  and  dark,  the 
trees  loaded  with  foliage,  the  twisted,  gnarled  trunks  springing 
from  the  midst  of  granite  rocks  and  stones,  the  huge  serpentine 
creepers  swinging  overhead,  and  over  it  all  the  faint  glimmer- 
ing light  of  dawn— all  this  formed  a  picture  too  fiiU  of  living 
beauty,  light  and  shade,  to  be  ever  forgotten.  We  ascended 
a  little  rocky  eminence,  and  were  looking  at  the  wonders  round 
us,  the  mists  and  the  shadows,  and  the  play  of  the  light  over 
all,  when  suddenly  the  scene  changed,  and  the  sun  emerged 
from  behind  a  huge  rock.  In  a  moment  the  whole  place  was 
bathed  in  light.  Did  the  birds  make  a  louder  noise,  or  was 
the  echo  stronger,  for  I  thought  I  heard,  with  the  advent  of 
light,  quite  an  outburst  of  song  and  merriment  ?  My  brother, 
in  his,  usual  earnest  way,  remarked  that  it  is  just  like  this, 
shadowy,  dark,  mystic,  weird,  with  superstition  and  bigotry 
lurking  in  every  comer,  before  the  light  of  Christianity  comes 
into  a  land.  When  the  sim  rises,  he  said,  all  the  glory  of  the 
trees  and  the  rocks  comes  into  view,  each  thing  assumes  its 
proper  proportions  and  is  drawn  out  in  greater  beauty  and 
perfection.  So  it  is  when  the  sunbeams  of  Christianity  dispel 
the  darkness  of  superstition  in  a  land." 

In  later  years  the  names   crowd   round  of  those  who 

show  that 

During  the  last  two  generations  India  has  gone  through  a  new  and 
unique  development,  fraught  with  momentous  consequences  to 
itself  and  to  the  British  Empire.  Under  Western  influences  the 
former  traditional  moorings  are  already  being  gradually  left 
behind,  and  the  educated  classes  are  drifting  towards  another 
goal."' 

It  would  be  almost  an  endless  task  to  even  enumerate 
the  names  of  those  whose  works  and  labours  show  evidences 
of  this  new  influence,  this  awakening  of  the  torpid  Hindu 
intellect  from  the  sleep  into  which  it  had  been  thrown  by 
the  fierce,  foreign  rule  of  the  Muhammadans  during  seven 
centuries.  Of  all  the  names,  that  of  Behramji  Malabari  is 
'  Karkaria,  "  India  :  Forty  Years  of  Progress  and  Reform,''  p.  13. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    441 

most  familiar  to  English  readers,  from  his  well-known 
work,  "  The  Indian  Eye  on  English  Life,"  and  his  "  Guzarat 
and  the  Guzaratis." 

Malabari,  a  Parsi,  was  bom  in  1853  at  Baroda,  in  the 
dominion  of  the  Gaikwad,  now  one  of  surviving  repre- 
sentatives of  the  great  Maratha  power.  Failing  to  pass 
the  matriculation  examination  at  Bombay,  he  commenced 
a  desultory  course  of  reading  described  by  himself: — 

"  I  have  ranged  aimlessly  over  a  very  wide  field  of  poetry,  English 
as  well  as  Indian ;  also  Persian  and  Greek  translated.  As 
to  English  masters,  Shakespeare  was  my  daily  companion 
during  schooldays,  and  a  long  while  after  that.  Much  of  my 
worldly  knowledge  I  owe  to  this  greatest  of  seers  and  practical 
thinkers.  Milton  filled  me  with  awe.  Somehow  I  used  to  feel 
unhappy  when  the  turn  came  for  '  Paradise  Lost.'  His  torrents 
of  words  frightened  me  as  much  by  their  stateliness  as  by 
monotony.  Nor  could  I  sympathise  with  some  of  the  personal 
teachings  of  this  grand  old  singer.  Wordsworth  is  my  philo- 
sopher, Tennyson  is  my  poet."  ^ 

The  command  Malibari  obtained  over  Guzarati  resulted 
in  the  production  of  his  "  Niti  Vinod,"  or  "  Pleasures  of 
Morality,''  and  his  acquaintance  with  English  emboldened 
him  to  risk  his  "  Indian  Muse  in  English  Garb,"  to  an 
English  public.  From  the  latter  a  few  lines  ^  will  indicate 
the  spirit  in  which  the  new  reformer  commenced  his  work, 
and  the  style  of  his  verse  : — 

"  O  mourn  thou  not  in  vain  regrets 

That  fancied  wrong  thy  peace  alloys  ; 
When  thy  ungrateful  heart  forgets 

What  bliss  thy  conquered  race  enjoys. 
What  if  thy  English  brother  lords 

It  o'er  thee,  with  contempt  implied  ? 
Recall  the  day  when  Moslem  swords 

Cut  thee  and  thine  in  wanton  pride ! 
Think  how  a  generous  nation  strives 

To  win  thee  back  thy  prestige  lost ; 
Of  what  dear  joys  herself  deprives 

To  aid  thee  at  a  frightful  cost ! " 
'  KarHaria,  "  Indiaec,"  p.  40.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  67. 


442  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

During  his  active  life  Malabari  cast  the  whole  of  the 
power  his  command  over  Guzarati  and  English  gave  him 
into  the  tasks  of  endeavouring  to  soften  race  antipathies, 
and  to  introduce  some  of  the  more  obviously  required 
reforms  into  Indian  society.  As  editor  of  the  Spectator 
he  exercised  an  influence  far-spread  and  deep,  being,  in 
the  words  of  Mr  Martin  Wood,  the  editor  of  the  Times 
of  India,  "  peculiarly  fitted  for  being  a  trustworthy  inter- 
preter between  rulers  and  ruled,  between  the  indigenous 
and  immigrant  branches  of  the  great  Aryan  race.  It  is 
easy  to  see  that  he  thoroughly  understands  the  mental 
and  moral  characteristics  of  these  two  great  divisions  of 
the  Indian  community,  not  only  as  presented  in  Bombay, 
but  in  other  provinces  in  India."  In  his  notes  on  "  Infant 
Marriage  and  Enforced  Widowhood,"  Malabari  pointed  out 
forcibly  the  two  gravest  social  blots  in  Indian  life.  As  a 
result  of  his  labours,  both  in  the  Press  and  on  the  platform, 
in  England  as  well  as  in  India,  he  had  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  the  "Age  of  Consent  Bill  of  1891 "  pEissed,  during 
the  administration  of  Lord  Lansdowne,  by  which  the  age 
of  consummation  of  marriage  was  raised  from  ten  to  twelve. 

In  his  "  Sketch  of  the  Life  and  Times  of  Behramji  M. 
Malabari,"  R.  P.  Karkaria  points  out,  from  an  Indian  point 
of  view,  the  tendencies,  so  apparent  to  all,  in  one  direction  of 
the  continued  contact  with  a  new  and  Western  civilisation: — 

"  The  work  of  destruction  is  being  done  efifectively ;  belief  in  the  old 
religion  is  giving  way  among  the  men  who  receive  an  English 
training.  This  may  not  be  perhaps  quite  desirable,  as  it  is 
better  to  be,  in  the  phrase  of  Wordsworth,  '  a  Pagan  suckled  in 
a  creed  outworn,'  than  to  have  no  creed  at  all.  The  old  creeds 
are  found  to  be  outworn  by  them,  but  they  have  taken  definitely 
to  no  new  creed.  The  ground  for  such  a  one,  however,  is  being 
cleared.  What  that  creed  is  to  be  is  a  matter  for  speculation. 
That  it  will  be  Christianity  in  any  dogmatic  form,  one  cannot 
hope.  The  present  agnostic  tendency  of  European  thought 
seems  to  have  a  fascination  for  the  Indian  intellect,  and  there 
are  signs  here  and  there  to  show  that  atheism  is  spreading  and 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    443 

taking  the  place  of  the  old  superstitions.  The  writings  of 
agnostics  and  atheists  are  growing  in  favour  with  our  academic 
youths,  who  seem  to  consider  all  religion  as  superstition,  and 
every  creed  to  be  an  anachronism."  ^ 

In  the  same  work  the  opinion  of  Malabari  is  quoted  on 
this  problem  of  the  future,  the  most  momentous,  not  only 
for  India,  but  for  the  whole  civilised  world  : — 

"  I  know  not  if  India  will  become  Christian,  and  when.  But  this  much 
I  know,  that  the  life  and  work  of  Christ  must  tell  in  the  end. 
After  all,  He  is  no  stranger  to  us  Easterns.  How  much  of  our 
own  He  brings  back  to  us,  refined  and  modernised?  His 
European  followers  seek  Him  most  for  His  Divine  attributes, 
to  me,  Jesus  is  most  Divine  in  His  human  element.  He  is  so 
human,  so  like  ourselves,  that  it  will  not  be  difficult  to  under- 
stand Him,  though  it  is  doubtful  if  the  dogmas  preached  in  His 
name  will  acquire  a  firm  hold  on  the  East."  ^ 

What  may  be  expected  in  the  near  future,  as  a  result  of  a 
contact  between  the  intensely  earnest  and  brooding  thought 
of  the  East  with  the  best  of  what  may  be  called  Western 
civilisation,  can,  in  some  measure,  be  dimly  shadowed 
forth,  as  some  hope  of  encouragement  to  England  in  the 
work  she  has  undertaken,  if  the  lines  are  read  and  re-read 
of  a  brilliant  article  that  has  appeared  on  the  situation  by 
Sir  Raymond  West,  in  his  review  of  the  life  and  work  of 
Kasinath  Trimbak  Telang,  a  Judge  of  the  High  Court  of 
Bombay,  who  died  in  1894. 

Kasinath  Trimbak  Telang  was  born,  in  1850,  of  a  respect- 
able family  in  Bombay.'  He  early  perfected  himself  in 
MarathI  and  Sanskrit,  and  by  1 869  had  taken  the  degree  of 
M.A.  and  LL.B.  in  the  Bombay  University.  In  1872  he 
became  an  advocate,  and  soon,  "  in  all  matters  of  Hindu 
law,  Telang  was,  by  general  &c\i.novr\edgTaent,  facile  frinceps 
of  the  Bombay  Bar." 

To  a  native  alone  can  be  known  the  true  force  of  the 
various  schools  of  Hindu   law  among  the  varied    classes 

-1  Karkaria,  "  Sketch  of  the  Life  and  Times  of  B.  M.  Malabari,"  p.  67. 
^Ibid.,  p.  81. 


444  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

of  the  community,  and  in  how  far  local  circumstances, 
habits,  or  customs  have  the  binding  force  of  law  outside 
all  the  formulated  codes  of  the  Brahmanical  legislators. 
The  English  judge  naturally  accepts  these  Brahmanical 
codes  as  of  universal  authority,  and  as  being  generally 
known  or  accepted  as  such.  That  the  Brahmanical  codes 
were  made  by  a  special  class,  and  for  a  special  class,  of  the 
community  is  evident  to  all  acquainted  with  the  literary 
history  of  India.  To  the  overworked  and  practical  adminis- 
trator, or  advocate,  a  law  is  accepted  as  law,  and  applied 
without  those  restrictions  which  only  an  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  the  past  history  or  present  life  of  the  people 
would  suggest  The  peculiar  province  of  a  native  advocate 
or  judge,  such  as  Telang,  is  to  impress  these  facts  on 
their  English  legislators  and  jurists.  In  the  words  of  Sir 
Raymond  West,^  Telang  "  felt  very  strongly  that  in  Hindu 
Law,  as  elsewhere,  life  implies  growth  and  adaptation.  He 
hailed  with  warm  welcome  the  principle  that  custom  may 
ameliorate,  as  well  as  fix,  even  the  Hindu  law,  and  it  was 
refreshing  sometimes  to  hear  him  arguing  for  moderniza- 
tion, while,  on  the  other  side,  an  English  advocate,  to  whom 
the  whole  Hindu  system  must  have  seemed  more  or  less 
grotesque,  contended  for  the  most  rigorous  construction  of 
some  antique  rule." 

Telang  received,  as  a  fitting  recognition  of  his  position 
as  "the  most  capable  of  Hindus  of  our  generation,"  a 
Judgeship  of  the  High  Court  of  Bombay,  in  1889,  and 
afterwards  the  Vice-Chancellorship  of  the  University.  As 
a  Legislative  Member  of  the  Council  at  Bombay  he  threw 
the  whole  weight  of  his  scholarship  and  power  as  an 
advocate  against  such  of  his  orthodox  countrymen  as 
opposed  the  raising  of  the  age  of  consummation  of 
marriage  for  child -wives.  He  showed  that  by  neither 
Vedic  authority,   nor    by  the    wording    of   the    Queen's 

'  West   Sir  Raymond,  J  R.A.S.  (1894). 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NEW    445 

Proclamation  was  the  English  Government  anything  but 
free  to  legislate  on  the  subject.  "  It  is  the  bounden 
duty  of  the  Legislative,"  he  said,  "to  do  what  it  is  now 
doing  in  the  interests  of  humanity,  and  of  the  worldly 
interests  of  the  communities  committed  to  its  charge, 
and  for  such  a  purpose  as  the  present  to  disregard,  if 
need  be,  the  '  Hindu  Shastras.' "  ^ 

As  a  profound  Sanskrit  scholar,  he  is  known  as  author 
of  many  valued  works.  As  a  debater  whose  "  language 
of  a  limpid  purity  would  have  done  credit  to  an  English- 
born  orator,"  he  is  remembered  for  his  stirring  addresses  on 
such  subjects  as  the  Ilbert  Bill,  Licence  and  Salt  Taxes, 
his  advocacy  for  the  extended  admission  of  natives  to  the 
Indian  Civil  Service,  and  on  many  other  important  measures 
and  topics.  In  these  addresses  "  his  style  was  framed  on  the 
classic  writers,  and  expressed  his  meaning  with  admirable 
force  and  clearness.  It  may,  indeed,  be  doubted  if  any 
native  orator  has  equalled  him  in  lucidity  and  that  re- 
straint which  is  so  much  more  effective  than  exaggeration 
and  over-embellishment."  ^ 

As  a  member  of  the  Education  Commissioners  of  1882 
his  report  is,  "in  some  respects,  the  most  valuable  of  a 
crushingly  voluminous  collection,"  and,  as  Vice-Chancellor 
of  the  University,  he  warmly  supported  all  the  great  efforts 
of  Lord  Reay  *  for  the  establishment  and  encouragement  of 
technical  education,  and  convinced  as  he  was  that  "  success 
in  the  modern  world  was  to  be  obtained  only  by  adaptation 
to  the  needs  of  modern  life,  he  wished  his  fellow-Hindus  to 
unite  an  inner  light  of  Divine  philosophy,  drawn  from  the 
traditional  sources,  and  generously  interpreted,  to  a  mastery 
of  the  physical  sciences,  and  the  means  of  natural  improve- 
ment." Jurist,  statesman,  scholar,  orator,  poet,  lover  of 
Nature,  and  meditative  sage,  he  remains  to  the  West  the 

1  West,  Sir  Raymond,  J.R.A.S.  (1894),  p.  119-  ^  lii^-,  "S- 

»  See  Hunter,  Bombay,  "A  Study  in  Indian  Administration,"  p.  157. 


446  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  INDIA 

convincing  proof  that  "  it  is  by  the  word  and  the  example 
of  him  and  his  like  that  India  must  be  regenerated,  and  the 
moral  endowments  of  her  children  made  noble,  serviceable 
for  the  general  welfare  of  mankind." 

To  his  fellow-countrymen,  he  is  the  example  of  how  "  the 
present  generation  of  cultivated  Hindus  want  only  physical 
robustness  and  public  experience,  or  a  modest  sense  of 
inexperience  and  reasonable  limitation  of  practical  aims, 
to  be  outwardly  distinguished  from  the  mass  of  pushing, 
intelligent  Europeans  with  whom  they  mingle." 

There  are  other  well-known  names  whose  places  and  fame 
future  times  will  have  to  record  and  note,  as  affording  clear 
evidences  that  East  and  West  have  met,  and  sent  new  forces 
out  into  the  world  for  the  solving  of  its  plan  and  mysteries. 
There  are  names,  such  as  Rajendra  lal  Mitra,  Bhagvan  lal 
Indraji,^  Ram  Krishna  Gopal  Bhandarkar,  which  tell  how 
India,  with  a  newly-awakened  respect  for  historical  accuracy, 
and  perspective  combined  with  labour,  can  produce  works 
fuUyable  to  rankwith  those  of  the  best  of  Western  scholarship. 

The  West  has  plainly  recognised  how  the  subtle,  nervous 
temperament,  the  quick  co-relation  between  thought  and 
action  joined  to  untiring  perseverance,  can  produce  a 
cricketer,  probably  the  keenest  the  world  has  seen ;  and  yet 
there  are  doubts  that  the  same  qualities  cannot  produce, 
and  have  not  produced,  their  due  effect  in  the  realms  more 
congenial  to  them,  those  of  thought,  where  for  the  present 
their  true  working  must  remain  more  or  less  hidden  from 
our  gaze. 

Men  such  as  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  Keshab  Chandar  Sen, 
Michael  Sudan  Datta,  Bankim  Chandra  Chatterji,  Kasinath 
Trimbak  Telang  are  no  bastard  bantlings  of  a  Western 
civilisation ;  they  were  creative  geniuses  worthy  to  be 
reckoned  in  the  history  of  India  with  such  men  of  old  as 
Kalidasa,  Chaitanya,  Jaya  Deva,  Tulsi  Das,  and  Sankara 

'  Set  "Memoir"  in  T.B.R.A.S.,  vol.  xvii.  p.  i8. 


THE  FUSING  POINT  OF  OLD  AND  NE  W    447 

Acharya,  and  destined  in  the  future  to  shine  clear  as  the 
first  glowing  sparks  sent  out  in  the  fiery  furnace  where 
new  and  old  were  fusing. 

Year  by  year  the  leaders  of  Indian  thought  in  India 
spread  their  influence  over  ever-widening  circles,  though 
what  the  final  result  may  be  when  these  leaders,  infused 
with  all  the  best  of  the  spirit  of  the  East  and  West,  rise 
up  to  proclaim  that  East  and  West  have  met,  and  from 
the  union  new  forms  of  thought,  new  modes  of  artistic 
expression,  new  ways  of  viewing  life,  new  solutions  of 
religious,  social,  and  moral  problems  have  been  produced, 
as  produced  they  must  be,  is  one  that  the  whole  past  history 
of  the  world  teaches  us  is  to  be  watched  with  hope,  not 
fear  or  doubt.  Slowly  the  movement  will  take  place,  and 
in  each  step  there  will  be  unrest  and  dangers  both  to  State 
and  people,  and  in  a  land  like  India  fierce  commotion, 
taking  all  the  steadying  hand  of  the  English  rule  to  direct 
and  guide  it  towards  a  safe  haven.  The  words  of  one  of 
the  many  of  the  great  thinkers  of  India,  who  has  received, 
in  his  own  sphere  of  thought,  a  recognition  that  might  be 
extended  more  liberally  to  all  those  who  strive  to  find 
expression  for  what  the  West  has  inplanted  in  them,  may 
be  quoted  as  some  hope  for  the  future,  though  not,  perhaps, 
in  the  sense  intended  by  Professor  Bose :  ^ — 

"  How  blind  we  are  !  How  circumscribed  is  our  knowledge  !  The 
little  we  can  see  is  nothing  compared  to  what  actually  is  !  But 
things  which  are  dark  now  will  one  day  be  made  clear. 
Knowledge  grows  little  by  little,  slowly  but  surely.  Patient 
and  long-continued  work  will  one  day  unravel  many  of  the 
mysteries  with  which  we  are  surrounded.  Many  wonderful 
things  have  recently  been  discovered,  much  more  wonderful 
things  still  remain  to  be  discovered.  We  have  already  caught 
broken  glimpses  of  invisible  lights.  Some  day,  perhaps  not  far 
distant,  we  shall  be  able  to  see  light -gleams,  visible  or  invisible, 
merging  one  into  the  other,  in  unbroken  sequence.'"' 

1  Itidian  Magazine  and  Reuiem  (May  1897),  p.  237 ;   S.  J.  L.   Bose,   on 
"  Electric  Waves." 


A    SHORT    LIST    OF   USEFUL   WORKS   RECOM- 
MENDED  FOR   FURTHER   STUDY 


2F 


A   SHORT   LIST  OF  USEFUL  WORKS   RECOM- 
MENDED FOR  FURTHER  STUDY. 


Baden-Powell,  B.  H.     The  Indian  Village  Community.     1896. 
Barth,  a.      The  Religions  of  India.     Authorised  Translation.     By 

Rev.  J.  Wood.     Lonelon,  1&82. 
Bergaigne,  Abel.     La  Religion  Vddique.     3  vols.    Part's,  1878-83. 
Bigandet,  Bishop.      The  Life  or  Legend  of  Gaudama.    Rangoon, 

1858.     London,  1880. 

Campbell,  F.    Index  Catalogue  of  Bibliographical  Works  relating  to 

India.     London,  1897. 
Chatterjee,  B.  C.     Poison  Tree.     Translated.     London,  1884. 

Kopala  Kundala.     Translated.     London,  1885. 

Krishna  Kanta's  Will.     Translated.     London,  1895. 

Colebrooke,  H.  T.    Essays  on  the  Religion  and  Philosophy  of  the 

Hindus.     London,  1882. 
CowELL,  E.  B.,  and  A.  E.  Gough.    Sarva  Darsana  Sangraha. 
Cowell,  Professor  E.   B.,  and  Mr  Thomas    of    Trinity  College, 

Cambridge.    Bana's  Harsa  Carita.    Oriental  Translation  Series. 

1897. 
Crooke,  W.     The  Tribes  and  Castes  of  the  North- West  Provinces 

and  Oudh.     Calcutta,  1896. 
Crooke,  W.     Popular  Religion  and  Folk-Lore  of  Northern  India. 

2  vols.     London,  1896. 

Dahlmann,  Joseph.     Das  Mahabharata  als  Epos  und  Rechtsbuch. 

Berlin,  1895. 
Darmesteter,  J.     English  Studies.     1896. 


452  WORKS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

Davids,  T.  W.  Rhys.     Buddhist  Birth-Stories.     London,  1880. 

Buddhism.     2nd  edit.    London,  1894. 

Buddhism  :     Its  History  and  Literature  (American  Lectures). 

1896. 
Davies,  J.     Bhagavad-gita.    London,  1882. 
Davies,  Rev.  J.     Hindu  Philosophy.     1881. 
Deussen,  p.     Das  System  des  Vedanta.     1883. 
Duff,  J.  G.    A  History  of  the  Mahrattas.     3  vols.    London,  1826. 

Later  Editions. 
DUTT,  J.  C.     Kings  of  Kashmir.     Calcutta.     1879. 
Dutt,  R.  C.    a  History  of  Civilisation  in  Ancient  India.    2  vols. 
London,  1893. 

Literature  of  Bengal.    London,  1895. 

Dutt,  Toru.    Journal  de  Mdlle.  d'Arvers. 

Lays  and  Ballads  of  Hindustan.    London,  1882. 

Education   in   India,  Progress  of.     Second  Quinquennial  Review. 
Calcutta,  1893. 

Fergusson,  Dr  J.   Tree  and  Serpent  Worship.    London,  1 868. 

History  of  Indian  and  Eastern  Architecture.    London,  1876. 

FiCK,   R.     Die    Sociale    Gliederung    in    N.    Ostlichen    Indien    zu 
Bhudda's  Zeit     Kiel,  1897. 

Garbe,  R.     Sankhya  Philosophie. 

GOUGH,  A.  E.    The  Philosophy  of  the  Upanishads.   Oriental  Series. 

1882. 
Griffith,  R.    Sama  Veda.    Benares,  1893. 

Atharva  Veda.     2  vols.    Benares,  1896. 

Growse,  F.  S.   Ramayana  of  Tulsi  Das.    Translated  from  the  Hindi. 

Haug,  Martin.    Aitareya  Brahmana.    Text,  Translation,  and  Notes. 

2  vols.    Bombay,  1863. 
Hibbert  Lectures  : — 
Lectures  on  the  Growth  of  Religion,  as  Illustrated  by  some 

Points  in  the  History  of  Indian  Buddhism.     By  T.  W.  Rhys 

Davids.    London,  1881. 
Lectures  on  the  Origin  and  Growth  of  Religion,  as  Illustrated 

by  the  Religions  of  India.     By  F.  Max  MiiUer.     2nd  edit. 

London,  1878. 
Holtzmann,  a.    Das  Mahabharata,  1892-1895. 


WORKS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY         453 

Hopkins,  E.  W.    Religions  of  India.    Boston,  1895. 

The  Social  and  Military  Position  of  the  Ruling  Caste  in  Ancient 

India.    Reprint.     Newhaven,  1889. 
Hunter,  Sir  William  Wilson.    The  Indian  Empire  :  Its  History, 

People,  and  Products.    London,  1893.    3rd  edit. 

Annals  of  Rural  Bengal.     5th  edit. 

Orissa:  Its  History  and  People.     2  vols.     London,  1872. 

Our  Indian  Musalmans.     3rd  edit. 

Rulers  of  India  Series.     Edited  by  Oxford. 


Indian  Magazine  and  Review.    A  Monthly  Publication.     London. 

JEVONS,  F.  B.    Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religions.    London; 
1896. 

Kaegi,  Professor  A.     The  Rig  Veda.     Translated  by  Arrowsmith,  R. 

1886. 
Karkaria,  R.  P.      India:    Forty  Years  of  Progress  and  Reform. 

London,  1896. 

Lassen,  C.     Indische  Alterthumskunde.    Bonn,  1847-61.     2nd  edit. 

Leipzig,  1867-74. 
Levi,  S.     Th&tre  Indien.    Paris,  1890. 
LuDWiG,  Alfred.     Der  Rigveda,  oder  die  heiligen  Hymnen  der 

Brahmana.    A  Translation  in  German.    6  vols.    Prague,  1876-88. 
Lyall,  Sir  Alfred.    Asiatic  Studies.    London,  1882. 

MacCrindle,  J.  W.  The  Invasion  of  India  by  Alexander  the  Great, 
as  described  by  Q.  Curtius,  Diodorus,  Plutarch,  and  Justin.  With 
an  Introduction  containing  a  Life  of  Alexander.     1893. 

Macdonell,  a.  a.  Vedic  Mythology  (Grundriss  der  Indo-Arischen 
Philologie  und  Altertumskunde,  herausgegeben  von  Georg  Biihler). 
1897. 

Mahabhaeata,  The,  of  Krishna  Dwaipayana  Vyasa.  Translated 
into  English  Prose  by  Pratapa  Chandra  Ray.     Calcutta,  1893-96. 

Manning,  Mrs.     Ancient  and  Mediaeval  India.    London,  1869. 

Mitchell,  J.  Murray.     Hinduism,  Past  and  Present.    London,  1885. 

MoNiER- Williams,  Sir  Monier.  Non-Christian  Religious  Systems : 
Hinduism.    London,  1877. 

Indian  Wisdom.     1876. 


454  WORKS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

MONIER-WILLIAMS,    Sir   MoNlER.      Brahmanism    and    Hinduism. 

1891. 

Religious  Life  and  Thought  in  India.     1893. 

Sakuntala  of  Kalidasa.     1887. 

MuiR,  J.     Metrical  Translations  from  Sanskrit  Writers.     1879. 
Original  Sanskrit  Texts.    Translated  into  English.      5   vols. 

1858-61.     2nd  edit.     1868-73. 
MiJLLEB,  Max.    A  History  of  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature.    London, 

1859. 

Chips  from  a  German  Workshop.     2nd  edit.    London,  1868. 

India  :  What  Can  It  Teach  us.     London,  1892. 

Biographical  Essays.     1884. 

Biographies  of  Words.    London,  1888. 

Sacred  Books  of  the  East.     Translated  by  various  Scholars, 

and  edited  by  Prof.  Max.  Miiller. 

Oldenberg,  H.      Buddha,  sein  Leben,  etc.     Berlin,  1881.     Trans- 
lation.    London,  1882. 

Die  Religion  Des  Veda.     Berlin,  1894. 

Oman,  J.  C.     Indian  Life;  Religious  and  Social     1889. 

Padfield,  Rev.  J.  E.     The  Hindu  at  Home.     1896. 
Pope,  Rev.  G.  U.     Naladiyar.     Oxford,  1893. 

Rae,  G.  Milne.    The  Syrian  Church  in  India.    London,  1892. 
Ragozin,  Z.  A.    Vedic  India :  Story  of  the  Nations.     1896. 
Ramayana  of  Valmiki.     Translated  into  English  Verse,  by  R.  T.  H. 

Griffith.     I  vol.     Benares,  1895. 
Rendall,  G.  H.     Cradle  of  the  Aryans.     1889. 

Samuelson,  James.     India,  Past  and  Present.    London,  1890. 
Schrader,   Dr  O.     Prehistoric  Antiquities  of   the  Aryan   People. 

Translated  by  Jevons,  F.  Byron.     1890. 
Sen  ART,  E.     Les  Castes  dans  I'lnde.     1896. 

Essai  sur  la  Legende  du  Buddha,  son  Caractfere  et  ses  Orig^es. 

Paris,  1882. 
Stevenson,  Rev.  J.    Translation  of  the  Sama  Veda.     1841. 

Tassy,  Garcin  dk     Les  Auteurs  Hindoustanis  et  leurs  Ouvrages. 
2nd  edit.     Paris,  i868. 


WORKS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY  455 

Tassy,   Garcin   DE.     Histoire  de  la  Litt^rature   Hiiidouie  et  Hin- 

doustanie.     3  vols.     2nd  edit.     Paris,  1870-71. 
Taylor,  Isaac.    Origin  of  the  Aryans.    1890. 
Thibaut.G.     Vedanta  Sutras,  S.B.E.    Vols.  XXXIV.  and  XXXVIII. 

1890-96. 
Tod,  Lieut.-Col.  J.     Annals  and  Antiquities  of  Rajasthan.     London^ 

1829-32. 
Trumpp,   E.     The  Adi  Granth.      Translated   from   the   Gurmukhi. 

London,  1877. 
Tuka  Rama,  The  Poems  of.     Edited  by  Vishnu  Parashuram  Shastrl 

Pandit,  with  a  Life  of  the  Poet  in  English.     Bombay,  1869. 

Walus,  H.  W.     The  Cosmology  of  the  Rig- Veda.     London,  1887. 

Warren,  H.  C.     Buddhism  in  Translations.     1896. 

Weber,  Albrecht.     The   History  of  Indian   Literature.    London, 

1878. 
West,  Sir  Raymond.     Higher  Education  in  India  :  Its  Position  and 

Claims.    Transactions  of  the  Ninth  Oriental  Congress.    London, 

1892. 
Wilson,  H.  H.     Translation  of  Hymns  of  the  Rig  Veda,  continued 

by  Professor  E.  B.  Cowell  and  W.  F.  Webster.     1850-88. 
Select   Specimens   of  the   Theatre   of  the  Hindus.     3   vols. 

1835- 

The  Vishnu  Purana.     London,  1840. 

Sketch  of  the  Religious  Sects  of  the  Hindus.     Calcutta,  1846. 

Complete  Works  of.     12  vols.     London,  1862-77. 

WiNDlsCH,   E.     Der    griechische    Einfluss    im    indischen    Drama. 
Berlin,  1882. 

Zeitschrift  der  deutschen  Morgenlandischen  Gesellschaft.     Quoted 
throughout  as  Z.D.M.G. 


INDEX 


Aboriginal  races,  301. 
Abul  Fazl,  356,  et  seq. 
Abul  Kadir  Badaunl,  357. 
Acharyas  in  South  India,  325. 
Adhvaryu  priests,  68,  72,  87, 
Adi  Brahma  Samaj,  406. 
Adi  Granth,  374,  et  seq. 
Adil  Shahi  dynasty,  375. 
Aditi,  46. 
Agastya,  302. 
Aghoris,  291. 
Agni,  17,  9S,  124. 

attributes,  45 -47. 

the  first  victim  always  sacrificed 

to,  74. 

Agnihotra  sacrifice,  113. 

Agnimitra,  288. 

Agni  Vaisvanara,  the  protector  of  the 

king,  who  has  a  purohita,  91. 
Agriculture  performed  by  women,  85. 
Ahavaniya  altar,  71,  81. 
Ahi,  the  snake,  53. 
Ain-i-Akbari,  358. 
Aitareya  Brahmana,  72. 

on  sacrifice,  85. 

story  of  Sunahsepa,  87,  et  seq. 

Ajatasatru,  142,  144. 

instructs  a  Brahman,  112. 

Akbar,  3SS-364- 

Alara,  a.  Brahman  teacher  of  Buddha, 

131-132. 
Alexander  the  Great,  171- 174. 


Alexander  II.  of  Epirus,  244. 
Alexandria  in  Egypt,  172. 

the  modern  Herat,  172. 

the  modern  Ucch,  173. 

All  and  Rama,  346. 
Altamsh,  tomb  of,  363. 

Altar  for  Brahmanic  sacrifice,  71. 

shape  of,  71,  73. 

Ambapall  entertains  Buddha,  143. 
Ambattha  visits  Kapilavastu,  118. 
Amravati,  127,  147,  150. 

Ananda,  Buddha's  injunctions  to,  143. 

Anathapindika,  142. 

Andhra  kingdom,  150,  176. 

Andhrabrityas,  307. 

Andhras,  250,  306. 

Angas,  95,  131. 

Animal  sacrifice  substituted  for  human, 

43.  75- 
Antelope,  black,  78. 
Antigonos  Gonatas  of  Macedonia,  244. 
Antiochus  II.  of  Syria,  243. 
Apastamba,  176. 

law  book  of,  152,  i^^,etsei;. 

rules  for  Siidras,  154. 

rules  for  Brahmans,  160. 

Apsaras,  217. 

Arahat,  139. 
Aranyakas,  96. 
Arashtra,  173. 
Arbela,  the  battle  of,  172. 
Arjuna,  221. 


458 


INDEX 


Arjuna  draws  the  bow,  221. 

meets  Krishna,  223. 

marries  Krishna's  sister,  224. 

submits  to  Siva,  230. 

chooses  Krishna    as    charioteer, 

236. 

addressed  by  Krishna,  238-241. 

Arjuna,  fifth  Sikh  Guru,  376. 

put  to  death,  378. 

Arrian,  181. 

Aruni  wood,  40. 

Arya,  meaning  noble,  2, 

Aryan  vernaculars,  264. 

literary  influence,  265. 

Aryans :  early  ideas  as  to  habitat,  6 ; 
later  theories,  7-9,  13 ;  early  beliefs, 
II;  Nature  worshippers,  12;  entry 
into  India,  2,  17  ;  their  first  home  in 
India,  20;  alliances  with  aboriginal 
folk  held  impure,  20;  settled  in 
Sind,  63;  intercourse  with  darker 
races  eliminated  from  Vedas,  64 ; 
settled  in  Oudh,  Benares,  and  Behar, 
69;  mix  with  aboriginal  races,  97; 
causes  of  their  disunion,  98. 

Aryavarta,  4,  149,  251. 

Ascetics,  115. 

rules  for,  116. 

last  stage  of  life,  163. 

Asoka,  119,  133,  334. 

erected  a  pillar  at  Buddha's  birth- 
place, 120. 

adopted  Buddhism,  144. 

embraces  Buddhism,  242. 

—  publishes  his  Edicts,  243-47. 

sends  foreign  embassies,  243-44. 

death  of,  247. 

Asvamedha,  242,  25 1. 

Turanian  in  origin,  242. 

Asvins,  29. 

physicians  of  the  gods,  48. 

Atharva-veda :  Hymns  setting  forth 
vengeance  on  oppressors,  etc. ,  of  the 
Brahmans,  25-26. 


Atharva-veda,  love-charms,  33. 

on  widow-burning,  36. 

Atheism  in  Vedas,  58. 

in  ancient  India,  128. 

Atman  as  the  sun,  105. 

the  Self  of  man,  105. 

the  universe,  106,   et  seq., 

114. 

Buddha's  knowledge  of,  123. 

Atmlya  Sabha,  394. 

Attock,  172. 

Aurangzib,  364,  374,  e(  seq. 

Ayodhya,  ancient  capital  of  Kosalas,  131. 

the  home  of  Rama,  214. 

Babar,  338,  345,  352-55. 

Babylon,  172. 

Bactria,  172. 

Badarayana,  196. 

Badaunl,  357. 

Badrinath  monastery,  325. 

Bahikas,  66. 

Bali,  the  demon,  340. 

Bana,  255,  257 ;  the  Harsha  Charita, 
255-62. 

Banga  Darsan,  419. 

Baptist  missions,  389. 

Bassava,  344. 

Baudhayana,  176;  law  book  of,  152, 
et  seq.  ;  penalties  on  Siidras,  153  ; 
penalties  for  mixing  of  twice-born 
with  Sudras :  penances  for  Brahman 
murder,  159. 

Belugamaka  visited  by  Buddha,  143. 

Benares,  132. 

Bhagavad  Gita,  203,  207  ;  its  answer  to 
pessimism,  235 ;  its  doctrine  of  faith 
in  Krishna,  235,  238 ;  its  essential 
doctrines,  236  ;  mysticism,  236  ;  its 
historical  position,  237 ;  duties  of  tlie 
four  castes  as  taught  by,  240. 

Bhagavan,  316. 

Bhagavan  Das,  364. 

Bhagavata  Purana,  348. 


INDEX 


459 


Bhairava,  229. 

Bhaja  Govinda,  327. 

Bhaja  temple,  146. 

Bhakta  Mala,  367. 

Bhandarkar,  R.  G.,  446. 
■  Bharata,  brother  of  Rama,  214. 

Bharatas,  67.  t 

Bharata  Varsha,  215. 

Bharhut,  the  mound  at,  127. 

Bhartrihari's  Satakas,  4  (note). 

Bhavabhuti,  288-93. 

Bhima,  218,  et  seq. 

slays  the  demon  Rakshasa,  220. 

vows  vengeance  on  Kurus,  228. 

Bhujyu,  29. 

Bidyapati  Thakur,  347. 

Biharl  Lai,  366. 

Bimbisara,  King  of  Magadha,  128,  130, 
142,  243. 

Birbal,  359. 

Blood  covenant,  75,  164. 

Boar  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  340. 

Bose,  S.  J.  L.,  447. 

Brahma,  194,  217. 

Brahman  (prayer),  23,  230  ;  power  over 
the  gods,  59 ;  evil  effect  if  wrongly 
pronounced,  59 ;  the  neuter  essence, 
106 ;  as  the  cause  of  the  world,  loi, 
103 ;  the  self-existent,  103 ;  in  re- 
lationship to  the  Self,  103 ;  derivation 
of  the  word,  103  ;  as  prayer,  104  ;  in 
Vedanta  Sutras,  198,  et  seq. 

Brahmanas,  69,  96. 

Brahmanic  supremacy  asserted,  68. 

Brahmanical  power,  148,  et  seq.  ;  rules 
have  retarded  advance,  187;  victory, 
l88  ;  claim  to  supremacy,  189;  cry 
of  pain,  190. 

Brahmanism,  310,  335,  364;  its  position 
as  regards  Buddhism,  and  the  Epics, 
210,  212 ;  accepts  Krishna,  226 ; 
Siva,  230  ;  compromises  with  abori- 
ginal beliefs,  243. 


Brahmans,  composers  of  Vedic  Hymns, 
23  ;  no  one  class  or  order,  23-24  ; 
created  from  mouth  of  Purusha,  25  ; 
described  as  gods,  go,  1S8 ;  their 
wealth,  92 ;  conflicts  with  warrior 
class,  92  ;  missionary  efforts,  94 ; ' 
instructed  by  a  Kshatriya,  112; 
looked  down  on  by  Kshatriyas,  118; 
supremacy  of,  148,  et  seq.;  taught  by 
word  of  mouth,  150 ;  their  aim  to 
preserve  themselves  apart  from  ab- 
origines, 152  ;  custom  of  going  to 
sea,  158;  penalties  for  touching, 
'59  ;  permitted  to  perform  duties  of 
a.  lower  caste,  160 ;  described  by 
Megasthenes,  179  ;  accept  the  demo- 
nology  of  the  masses,  213. 

Brahma  Samaj  founded,  397. 

essential  articles  of,  403-4. 

Brahma  Sutras,  196. 

Brahmavarta,  17,  66. 

Biahmi  alphabet,  243. 

Brihaspati,  lord  of  prayer,  74,  104. 

Broughton,  Colonel,  Letters  from  a 
Maratha  Camp,  255. 

Bucephala,  founded  by  Alexander,  173. 

Buddha,  96,  1 17,  119;  his  birthplace, 
117;  his  visions,  121;  leaves  his 
home,  122,  130  ;  his  philosophy,  122, 
et  seq.;  his  knowledge  of  the  Upani- 
shads,  123  ;  of  the  various  philoso- 
phies, 130 ;  his  quest  after  know- 
ledge, 131  ;  gains  knowledge,  132  ; 
goes  to  the  five  ascetics,  133  ;  his 
personality,  133  ;  declares  the  truth, 
134,  et  seq. ;  his  journeys,  143 ; 
worshipped,  147  ;  injunctions  to 
Ananda,  143 ;  changes  after  his 
death,  144 ;  his  ideals,  246-7  ;  as  an 
incarnation  of  Vishnu,  340. 

Buddhism,  113,  323,  324,  335;  a 
revolt  from  Brahmanism,  93  ;  an 
outcome  of  Aryan  thought,  97 ; 
powerless  to  unite  the  masses,  98 ; 


460 


INDEX 


Buddhism  {continued^ — 
position  as  regards  Brahmanism,  118; 
its  philosophy)  izz-z"]  ;  resemblance 
to  Jainism,  129 ;  spread  among 
■  Scythians,  130 ;  doctrines  of,  132- 
139 ;  historical  significance  of,  140  ; 
took  no  account  of  caste,  141 ;  a 
celibate  order,  142 ;  drifts  into 
idolatry,  147 ;  failure  to  break 
through  caste,  149 ;  driven  out  by 
Muhammadans,  246 ;  accepted  by 
Asoka,  243  ;  and  by  Kanishka,  249. 

Buddhist  Canon,  232. 

Councils,  145. 

Edicts  of  Asoka,  234. 

Calcutta  Madrissa,  388. 

Carey,  the  Baptist  missionary,  389, 390. 

Caste,  93,  148-69. 

Census  of  1891,  263. 

Chaitanya,  338,  348,  ei  seq. 

Chalukyas,  307. 

Chamunda,  a  form  of  Durga,  289. 

Chanakya,  294. 

Chandala,  offspring  of  a  Sudra  and  a 

Brahman  woman,  126,  155. 
Chanderi,  siege  of,  354. 
Chandidas,  347. 
Chandogya  Upanishad,  the  teaching  of 

Uddalaka,    109  ;  on  transmigration, 

126. 
Chandragupta,    144,   174,   176,    334; 

makes  alliance  with  Seleukos  Nika- 

tor,  175. 
.  Chandra  Gupta  I.,  242,  294. 

II.,  251. 

Charanas,  217. 

Charudatta,  hero  of  Mricchakatika,  272, 

et  seq. 
Chatterji,    Bankim   Chandra,   and  his 

novels,  419-29. 
Cheras,  or  Keralas,  305,  306. 
Chola  dynasty,  305,  306. 


Christianity,  supposed  traces  in  Bhaga- 
vad  Gita,  231-32;  its  failure  in  India, 
312. 

Civilisation  in  Vedic  times,  27-33. 

Climatic  influence  on  the  people  of 
India,  253. 

Creation  of  man  in  Vedic  Hymns,  24. 

Cyrus  the  Persian,  171-72. 

Dadu,  374. 

Dakshina,  the  reward  to  the  Brahman, 

92. 
Dakshina,  or  southern  part,  302. 
Dakshinagni  fireplace,  71. 
Dareios,  169,  171. 
Das'aratha,  214,  247. 
Dasyus,  52 ;  abhorred  by  Aryans,  20 ; 

their  civilisation,  20, 
Datta,  Akhay  Kumar,  403,  411, 414. 

Madhu  Sudan,  414,  etseq. 

Dawn,  31,  48. 

Dayabhaga,  338. 

Death,  ideas  concerning,  in  Veda,  36-39 ; 

later  ideas  of,  124-26. 
Deccan,  302,  306,  361,  382. 
Dekkan.     See  Deccan. 
Derozia,  394. 

Devald,  mother  of  Krishna,  225. 
Devaran,  Hymns  of  Sambandha,  330. 
Devi,  or  Kali,  229. 
Dhavaka,  probable  author    of    Naga- 

nanda,  293. 
Dhritarashtra,  father    of  the  hundred 

Kurus,  215. 
Dikshita,  79. 
Diodorus,  169,  173. 
Dionysos,  the  worship  of,  182. 
Divodasa,  65. 
Drama,  265-99. 
Draupadi,  216,  220  ;  her  Svayamvara, 

220 ;  marriage  to  the  Pandavas,  221 ; 

staked  and  lost,   226 ;    bewails  the 

power  of  evil,  234. 
Dravidians,  302,  et  seq.,  309. 


INDEX 


461 


Drishadvati,  66, 216. 

Drona,  the  preceptor  of  the  Pandavas, 

217. 
Duncan,    Jonathan,    endows    Benares 

College,  389. 
Durga,  229  ;  as  Chamunda,  289. 
Duryodhana,  218,  et  seq.,  227,  235. 
Dushyanta,  hero  of  Sakuntala,  285. 
Dutt,  Romesh  Chandra,  428. 

his  works,  429. 

Dutt,  Shashi  Chundra,  his  works,  430. 

Dutt,  Torn,  431. 

her  poems  and  novels,  432- 

434- 
Dvapara  Age,  370. 
Dvaraka,  225,  226,  325. 
Dwarf  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  340. 
Dyaus,  12,  50. 

Education  —  Grant's  Treatise,  388; 
college  and  school  founded  at  Cal- 
cutta and  Benares,  394;  Court  of 
Directors  on,  396-98 ;  Macaulay's 
Minute,  399  ;  Lord  W.  Bentinck  on, 
399  ;  Sir  J.  Malcolm's  Minute,  400 ; 
Sir  C.  Wood's  Despatch,  401 ;  uni- 
versities founded,  401 ;  Sir  R.  West 
on  higher,  402 ;  Census  Report  of 
1892,  402. 

Eightfold  Path,  134,  138,  141,  144. 

Endogamy,  165,  et  seq. 

England's  mission  in  India,  168. 

Epics,  210,  et  seq. 

Eudemos  murders  Porus,  174. 

Exogamy,  I^S,  et  seq. 

Fa  Hi  an,  the  Chinese  traveller,  I20. 

FaizI,  357. 

Fakir-ud-din,  336. 

Fire  reverenced  by  Hindus,  40;  the 
three  sacrificial  fires,  42. 

Fish  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  339. 

Five  Rivers  inveighed  against  as  ac- 
cursed, 66. 


Five  People,  epithet  in  Vedic  Hymns 

of  Aryans,  66. 
Five  organs  of  sense  and  action,  193. 
Five  subtle  elements,  193. 
Flood  in  Satapatha  Brahmana,  83. 
Folk-songs,  origin  of  the  Epic,  211. 
Four  Noble  Truths,  138,  141. 
Funeral  ceremonies  in  the  Veda,  35. 

Gambling  in  Vedic  Hymns,  32. 

Gana,  or  song-books,  68. 

Gandharvas,  217. 

Ganga,  66. 

GargI  argues  with  Yajnavalkya,  loi. 

Gargya  Balaki,  a  Brahman  instructed 

by  a  Kshatriya,  112. 
Garhapatya  fireplace,  71,  81. 
Garuda,  50,  222,  293. 
Gauri,  229. 

Gautama,  the  Buddha,  119. 
Gautama,  the  aphorisms  of,  152,  et  seq. 

rules  for  Brahmans,  158-60. 

penalties  on  Siidras  reciting  Vedic 

Hymns,  3. 
Gautama,  author  of  Nyaya  system,  208. 
Gayatii,  61. 
Gentoo  Code,  4,  186. 
Girnar  inscriptions,  243. 
GIta  Govinda,  339-44- 
Gods — Vedic     gods     phenomena     of 

Nature,  45. 
Gotama,  the  Vedic  sage,  119. 
Govind  Singh,  the  tenth  Sikh  Guru, 

345.  375,  379- 

forms  the  Khalsa,  379. 

Grahavarman  of  Kanauj,  257-59. 
Grant,  Charles,  on  education,  388. 
Greeks  in  India,  169-82. 
Gunas,  the  triple,  194. 
Gupta  line,  250. 

Isvara  Chandra,  393. 

Guzarat,  249,  250,  257. 

Hair-drbssing,  29. 


462 


INDEX 


Hare,  David,  394. 

Har  Govind,  sixth  Sikh  Guru,  378. 

Hati,  or  Vishnu,  taught  as  supreme  God 
by  Madhava,  330. 

Hari  Nath,  365. 

Harischandra,  the  story  of,  87. 

Harsha  Charita  of  Bana,  255-62. 

Harsha  Vardhana,  250,  257,  308,  334  ; 
described  by  Hiouen  Tsang,  254 ;  the 
Harsha  Charita,  255-62 ;  his  lineage, 

257- 
Hastinapur,    67 ;     Pandavas    removed 

from,  217 ;  return  to,  222. 
Hastings,     Warren,     founds     Calcutta 

Madrissa,  388. 
Havir  sacrifices,  162, 
Heraclitus,  122. 
Herakles,  177,  182. 
Herat  founded  by  Alexander,  172. 
Hermit,  the  third  stage  of  life,  163. 
Herodotus,  169. 
Hicky's  Gazetteer,  390. 
Hinayana  Canon,  232. 
Hinduism,  289 ;  how  far  aboriginal,  64. 
Hiouen    Tsang,    248,    249,    254 ;    on 

Kapilavastu,  117,  120. 
Hiranya  Kasipa,  the  monster,  340. 
Horse  sacrifice,  242,  251. 

Turanian  in  origin,  242. 

Hotar  priest,  87,  90. 

Imprecations  on  those  who  curse 

.    the,  91. 

Householder,  duties  to  be  performed 

by,  162-63. 
Hoysala  Ballalas,  309. 
Human  sacrifice,  42,  86. 

story  of  Sunahsepa,  88. 

Satapatha  Brahmana  on,  89. 

Humayun,  355. 

Hylobioi  ascetics,  180. 

Ikshvaku,  1 19 ;  the  Solar  race  of,  214. 
Indika  of  Ktesias,  170. 
of  Megasthenes,  175. 


Indian  Mirror,  405. 
Indra,   18,  31,  38,  51,  75  ;  the  rise  of, 
52;  the  slayer  of  Sushma,  53;  Hjmm 
to,  53 ;  the  destroyer  of  the  foes  of 
the  Aryans,  63-65. 
Indraji,  Bh^vanlal,  446. 
Indra-prastha,  222. 
Induleka,  434-39- 

Indus,  or  Sindhu,  Vedic  Hymn  to,  19.- 
Initiation,  79,  160. 

^e  for,  and  duties  after,  161. 

Intermarriage  between  Aryan  and  Su- 
dras  forbidden,  154. 

restrictions  on,  164,  etseq. 

Iron  Pillar  of  Delhi,  252. 
Islam,  332. 

Jainism,  311,323-24;  its  resemblance 
to  Buddhism,  129 ;  the  three  gems, 
129 ;  its  tenets,  129-30. 

Jains,  128,  et  seq. 

the  object  of,  129. 

Svetambaia  and  Digambara  sect, 

129. 

Jalandra,  the  monastery,  249. 
Janaka,  King  of  Videha,  99,  338,  37a 
Jaya  Deva,  339-44- 
Jetavana,  the  monastery  of,  142. 
Jimiitavahana,  hero  of  Nagananda,  293. 
Jimutavahana,  the  author  of  Dayabbaga, 

338- 
Jina,  the  conqueror,  129. 
Jognarain  Ghosal,  394. 
Joint-partnership  in  village  community, 

65. 
Jones,  Sir  W.,  elected  President  of  the 

Asiatic  Society,  389. 

Kabir,  345-46,  376,  et  seq. 

Kaikeyi,  the  wife   of  Dasaratha,  214, 

368,  370,  et  seq. 
Kailasa,  the  heaven  of  Siva,  229. 
Kali,  229. 


INUEX 


463 


Kali  Age,  account  of  in  Vishnu  Purana, 
340. 

Kalidasa  praised  by  Goethe,  5 ;  his 
Malavikagnimitra,  248,  288 ;  Sakun- 
tala,  285,  et  seq. ;  Vikramorvasi,  288. 

Kalki,  the  future  incarnation  of  Vishnu, 

340- 
Kalpas,  207. 
Kamala,  4.39, 

Kampilya,  capital  of  the  Panchalas,  67. 
Kanada,  author  of  Vaiseshika  system, 

208. 
Kanauj,  250,  254,  257,  333,  335. 
Kanishka,  249. 
Kansa,   King    of    Mathura,    slain    by 

Krishna,  226. 
Kant,  327  ;  and  the  Vedanta,  201,  206. 
Kanya  Kubja,  or  Kanauj,  250, 254,  257, 

333.  335- 
Kapala  Kundala,   priestess  in   Malati 

Madhava,  290. 
Kapila,  rgo-206. 

Kapilavastu,  117,  119,  141,  143,  248. 
Karkaria,  R.  P. ,  his  life  of  Malabari,  442. 
Karli  temple,  146. 

Karma,  the  doctrine  of,  135,  147,  313. 
Karman  (work),  lOi. 
Karuppan,  southern  name  of  Krishna, 

304- 
Kasis,  69,  95. 

Kataka,  chief  of  the  Licchavis,  130. 
Katb-ud-din,  252,  336 ;  the  mosque  of, 

363- 
Katb  Shahi  djmasty,  375. 
Kathians  defeated  by  Alexander,  173. 
Katyayana,  the  Vartikhas,  151. 
Kedernath,  326. 
Keralas,  or  Cheras,  305,  306. 
Kharosthi  alphabet,  243. 
Khilji  dynasty,  337. 
King  in  Vedic  times,  21. 
Kiravan,  or  elder,  304. 
Kohana,  the  river,  142. 
Kolarian  languages,  301. 


Koliyans,  142. 

Kopala  Kundala,  a  novel  by  Chatterji, 
421. 

Kosalas,  69,  94,  ng,  131,  144,  212. 

Krishna,  223,  et  seq.,  304  ;  his  worship 
described  by  Megasthenes,  1 82 ; 
meets  Arjuna,  224 ;  his  place  in  the 
Mahabharata,  224  ;  legends,  225  ; 
and  the  gopis,  225 ;  received  into 
Brahmanism,  226 ;  subordinated  to 
Siva,  229 ;  in  Mahabharata,  230 ; 
rises  supreme  in  Mahabharata,  231 ; 
as  the  saviour  in  Bhagavad  Gita, 
235,  23S ;  as  Arjuna's  charioteer, 
236 ;  his  discourse  to  Arjuna,  238-41 ; 
as  Brahman,  239 ;  teaches  duty  of 
the  four  castes,  240  ;  in  village  plays, 
269  ;     as     incarnation    of    Vishnu, 

340- 

Krishna  Charitra,  419. 

Krishna  Kanta's  Will,  428. 

Krivis,  67. 

Kshatriyas,  186 ;  their  conflicts  with 
Brahmans,  92 ;  instruct  Brahmans, 
112  ;  hold  aloof  from  Brahmans,  118. 

Kshema,  wife  of  Bimbisara,  142. 

Ktesias,  170. 

Kulina  Kula  Sarvasa,  414. 

Kulin  Brahmans,  413. 

Kullaka  Bhatta,  338. 

Kumara  Gupta  I.,  252. 

Kurral,  316,  325,  330. 

Kuru  Panchalas,  94,  212. 

Kurukshetra,  66,  70,  215,  «/  seq.  ; 
starting-point  of  Erahmanic  mission- 
ary effort,  94;  the  holy  place  of 
pilgrimage,  216. 

Kurus,  215,  226. 

Kusa  grass,  7  ( . 

Kusinagara  visited  by  Buddha,  143. 

Kutsa,  King  of  the  Purus,  67. 

Lallu  JI  Lal,  author  of  Prem 
Sagar,  392. 


464 


INDEX 


Lanka,  214,  305. 
Law  books,  148,  et  seq. 

notbindingonthemasses,  158,184. 

their  study  forbidden   to    Sudras 

and  women,  185. 
Levitate  marriage  in  the  Veda,  33. 
Licchavis,  128,  130,  143. 
Lingayatas,  309,  311. 
Lodi  dynasty,  338,  345. 
Lokayatas,  an  atheistic  sect,  128. 
Lomas  Rishi  Cave,  146. 
Long,  Rev.  J.,  415. 
Lumbini    Garden,    the    birthplace    of 

Buddha,  119. 

Macaulay's  Minute,  399. 
Madhava  Achaiya,  326. 

-  . —  teaches  Vfelmu  as  supreme  god, 

330- 
Madhura  Sutta,  1 18. 
Magadha,  128,  130,  141,  142. 
Magadha,  the  ofispring  of  a  Sudra  and 

Vaisya,  155. 
Magadhas,  69,  95,  130,  145. 
MagadhI  Prakrit,  263. 
Magas  of  Cyrene,  244. 
Mahabharata,  210,  et  seq.  ;  305. 

its  Brahmanic  purpose,  211. 

Dahlmann's  theories,  213. 

didactic  element  of,  214. 

shows  the  rise  of  Hinduism,  215, 

229. 

the  motive  of,  215. 

as  strife  between  right  and  wrong, 

217. 

fading  away  of  the  Epic,  219. 

polyandry  in,  221. 

Vedic  gods  change  their  attribute;, 

229. 

—  sees  rise  of  the  triple  deity,  229. 

Siva  in,  229-30. 

Krishna  in,  231. 

supposed  Christian  doctrines  in, 


Mahabhashya,  151. 

Mahadeva,  or  6iva,  230. 

Maharajas,  sect  of,  349. 

Maharashtrakas,  308. 

Mahatmas,  171. 

Mahawra  Charitra  of  Bhavabhuti,  288, 

292. 
Mahavira,  the  Jaina  preacher,  128,  130. 
Mahayana  school,  249. 
Maitreyi,  the  wife  of  Yajhafelkya,  106. 
Malabari,  Behramji,  his  works,  441. 
Malati  Madhava  of  Bhavabhuti,  288-92. 
Malavikagnimitra,  248. 
Manas,  193. 

Mandara  mountain,  222,  339. 
Manava  Dharma  sastra,  183. 
Manavas  and  the  Black  Yajur  Veda,  152. 

the  school  of  the,  183. 

Manikka  Vasagar,  320,  322,  et  seq. 
Man-Lion  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  340. 
Man  Singh,  365. 

Manu  and  the  Flood,  83. 
repeopled  the  world,  84.  ■ 

the  law  book  of,  152,  154,  18^. 

Marathas,  375. 

Mardonius,  170. 

Marriage  among  Aryans,  14 ;  forbidden 

between  Aryans  and   Sudras,    154; 

restrictions,  164,  etseq.;  by  sale,  185; 

rules  concerning,    185-86;   Act   of, 

1872,  407. 
ISIarshman,  389. 
Maruts,  50,  53,  75. 

their  attributes,  54. 

Maya,  345,  376 ;  in  the  Vedanta,  199,  ' 

etseq. 
Mayadevi,  the  mother  of  Buddha,  119. 
MayiKpur,  315. 
Mecca,  332. 
Medhatithi,  167,  338. 
Megasthenes,  175,  177-82. 

divides  the  people  of  India,  l79-8a 

Menon,  O.  Chandu,  434-39. 
Meru,  Mount,  215. 


INDEX 


46s 


Mira  Bai,  347-48,  352. 

Mitakshara,  339. 

Mitra,  the  Avestan  Mithra,  51, 

gives  place  to  Savitar,  5 J. 

Mitra,  Dinabandu,  415, 

Mlecchas,  78. 

Moksha,  129, 

Monism,  107,  115, 

Monotheism,   conception   of,  in   Vedic 

Hymns,  57. 
Mount  Abu,  129, 

Mozoondar,  Protab  Cbandar,  4P5, 
Mricchakatlka,  270-84, 
Mrinalini,  419, 
Mud  Cart,  270-84. 
Mydra  Rakshasa,  294, 
Muha,mmad,  332  ;  of  Ghazni,  333 ;  of 

Ghor,  336. 
Muhammadans,  333, 
Mukharas,  257. 

Multan,  Alexander  wounded  at,  173. 
Muttra  sacked  byMuhammad  of  Ghazni, 

334- 
Muntaj  Mahal,  374, 
Mysticism  taught  in  BhagavadGita,  236. 

Nabha  Djvs,  367, 

Nachiketqs  and  Death,  109,  et  seq. 

Nadiya,  335. 

Naga  sect,  365. 

Nagananda,  293, 

Nagas,  217. 

Nakula,  brother  of  Bhima,  219, 

Naladiyar,  313-14,  316,  330. 

Nanak,  the  first  Sikh  Guru,  345,  374, 

el  seq. 
Narayana,  206. 
Narbad^,  150. 
Nataka,  270,  285, 
Native  Press,  rise  of,  391,  ei  seq. 
Nature  worship,  40,  56. 
Navadvip  school  of  logic,  338, 
Nepalese  Ter^i,  (he  land  of  the  Sakyas, 


Nietsche,  189. 

Nil  Darpan,  415,  et  seq, 

Nirgranthas,  129. 

Nirvana,  134,  138,  141,  147. 

Nishada  woman  burnt  by  Pandavas  ,218. 

Niti  Vinod,  441. 

Nyaya  school  of  philosophy,  20$. 

Occupations  in  Vedic  times,  27-28, 
"  Om,"  the  mystic  syllable,  61. 

the  title  of  the  Supreme  Being  in 

Yoga  Sutras,  195. 

Paka  sacrifices,  162, 

Panchalas,  67. 

Parfdae,  177, 

Pandavas,   the  five  princes,    215,  217, 

et  seq. ,  226. 

leave  Hastinapur,  217. 

1^ escape  from  death  by  burning,  218, 

-,-T —  life  in  the  forest,  220. 

at  Draupadl's  Svayamvara,  221, 

take  Draupadl  for  their  common 

wife,  221. 
-^^-  build  Indra-prastha,  222. 

go  into  exile,  228. 

—I- —  have  Siva  for  their  aid,  229, 

perform  horse  sacrifice,  242. 

Pandiyan,  or  elder,     See  also  Pandyan, 

304- 
Pandus,'3io. 

Pandyas,  304,  305,  etseq.,  313,  318,  324, 
Panini,  151,  208,  307. 
Panis,  S3- 

Pantheism  in  Vedic  Hymns,  56. 
Paramatman,  106. 
Parasu  Rama,  340. 
Pariah.     See  Parriyar,  304. 
Parjanya,  202. 
Parmenides,  327. 
Parriyar,  304. 

Parsva,  the  founder  of  the  jains,  128. 
Parthalis,   the  capital  of  tlie   King  gf 

Kalinga,  176, 

G 


466 


INDEX 


Pataliputra,  143,  175,  176,  232,  248, 
251,  294. 

Patanjali,  151,  195. 

Patna,  119,  143. 

Penances  for  Brahman  murder,  159. 

I'itakas  collected,  145. 

Pitris,  or  Fathers,  37,  105. 

had  their  home  in  the  stars,  105. 

Plato,  327. 

Pliny,  177. 

Plutschau,  389. 

Poison  Tree,  by  Chatterji,  424. 

Polygamy  in  Vedic  Hymns,  30. 

Porus  defeated  by  Alexander,  173. 

defeated  Eudemos,  174. 

Prabhakara  Vardhana,  father  of  Harsha, 
257. 

death  of,  258. 

Pradhana,  206. 

Prajapati,  the  first  to  sacrifice  human 
beings,  74,  89. 

Prakriti,  191-93,  2q6,  289. 

Prakrits,  263. 

Prasenajit,  King  of  the  Kosalas,i3l,l42. 

Pralapacila,  name  of  Prabhakara  Vard- 
hana, 257. 

Prayer  (Brahman) :  its  power  over  the 
gods  in  the  Veda,  59. 

evil  eSecl  if  wrongly  pronounced, 

59- 
Prem  Sagar,  392. 
Prithivi  Raja,  335. 
Proclamation  of  the  Queen,  186. 
Ptolemy  II.  of  Egypt,  243. 
Pulike^inll.,  307. 
Puranas,  289. 

Puri  attacked  by  Pulikesin,  308. 
Purohita,  21-23,  9lj  etseq.,  159. 
Purukutsa,  119. 
Purus,  67. 

Purusha,  24,  25,  289. 
Piishan,  74 

Radha,  22s,  339-44.  346-48. 


Rahu,  204. 

Raghunath,  338. 

Rahula,  121,  142. 

Raiatwari  tenure,  304. 

Raja,  or  king,  in  Vedic  times,  21. 

Rajagriha,  127,  130,  131. 

Rajanya,  or  warriors  created  from  arms 

of  Purusha,  25. 
Rajasuya,  coronation  ceremony,  226. 
Rajendra  lal  Mitra,  446. 
Rajputs,  254. 
Rajya  Sri,  sister  of  Harsha  Vardhana, 

257-61. 
Rajyavardhana,  elder  brother  of  Harsha, 

257-60. 
Rakshasa,    the  demon   enemy   of   the 

Pandavas,    220;     character    in    the 

Mudra  Rakshasa,  294. 
Rama,  213,  214,  292,  305. 

Chandra,  340. 

Ramadas,  the  Guru  of  Sivaji,  380. 
Ramanand,  344,  345,  369. 
Ramanandis,  345. 

Ram  Mohun  Roy:  his  essay  on  idolatry, 
392 ;  work  on  the  Vedanta,  394 ; 
founds  the  Atmlya  Sabha,  394 ;  pub- 
lishes Precepts  of  Jesus,  395  ;  founds 
Brahma  Samaj,  397  ;  death,  403. 

Ramanuja,  206,  329,  344. 

Ramavats,  345. 

Ramayana,  210,  292,  305. 

its  Brahmanic  purpose,  211, 

Ramayana  of  Tulsi  Das,  367. 
Ranjit  Singh,  334. 
Rashtiakutas,  309. 

Ravana,  214,  292,  305. 

Richardson,  394. 

Rig  Veda,  3  ;  Hymns  referring  to  levi- 

rate  marriage,  34;  Hymns  referring  to 

funeral  ceremonies,  35. 
Rishis,  217. 

Ritual,  meaning  of  obscured,  82. 
Rohita,  son  of  Harischandra,  88. 
Rudra,  50. 


INDEX 


467 


Saedabai.I,  345. 
Sacrifice,  tribal,  41. 

human,  42. 

animal,  43. 

declared  m  Brahmanas  to  be  man, 

and  again  speech,  82 ;  animal  substi- 
tuted for  human,  85  ;  of  ^unahsepa, 
88  ;  as  a  means  of  salvation,  124. 

Sacrificer,  must  be  twice-born,  80. 

the  food  of,  81. 

disquisitions  on  the  intentions,  82. 

Sacrifices,  70;  funeral,  71;  counter- 
part of  divine  sacrifice,  74 ;  Agnihotra, 
113;  for  householder,  162;  horse 
sacrifice,  242. 

Sacrificial  observances  in  the  Veda,  41, 
etsec^.;  ceremonial,  71;  pillar,  72; 
stake,  72  ;  participation  of  women, 
84;  subordinated  to  knowledge  of  the 
Self,  102. 

Sadanira,  94. 

Sadharana  Samaj,  407. 

Saguna,  439. 

Sahadeva,  brother  of  Bhima,  219. 

St  Thomas,  315. 

Saiva  Bible,  323. 

Saktas,  289. 

6akti,  289,  349. 

Sakuni,  226. 

Sakuntala,  285,  et  seq. 

Sakyas,  113,  n6,  et  seq.,  127,  142. 

Samachar  Darpan,  390. 

Samarkhand,  171 ;  mosque,  337. 

Sama  Veda,  68,  152. 

Sambad  Prabhakar,  393. 

Sambandha.     See  Tiru  Nana,  323-30. 

Sambara,  65. 

Sambvika,  the  story  of,  293. 

Samudra  Gupta,  251. 

^ his  conquests,  251. 

Sanchi,  the  mound  at,  127,  147. 

^andilya,  m,  344. 

Sangan,  or  College  of  Madura,  318. 


Sankara  Acharya,  113,  196-205,  325,*/ 
seq,  344. 

life  of,  326. 

the  Bhaja  Govinda,  327. 

Advaita  doctrine,  329. 

Sankhya  philosophy,  190-206. 
Sankhyan  solution,  193-94. 
Sanskrit  as  primitive  language,  6. 

later  theories,  8-9. 

Sarama,  53. 

SarasvatI,  17,  66,  70,  74,  216. 

Saraswati,  Dayananda,  410. 

Sarmanes,  an  Order  of  Brahman  men- 
tioned by  Megasthenes,  180. 

Satapanni  Cave,  144. 

Satapatha  Brahmana,  80,  83,  86,  89, 
105. 

Sati,  35  7. 

Satsaiya  of  Bihari,  366. 

Satthianadhan,  Mrs,  novels  of,  439. 

Sauraseni  Prakrit,  263. 

Savitar,  the  Quick  ener,  49. 

Savitri,  75. 

verse  to,  used  at  initiation,  161. 

Sayyid  dynasty,  338,  345. 
Schopenhauer,  232  ;  and  the  Vedanta, 

201. 
Schwartz    founds  Tinnevelly  Mission, 

389. 
Scythians,  248-50. 
Self,  the  knowledge   of,   as  means  of 

salvation,  102,  123. 

in  relationship  to  the  Brahman, 

103. 

as  the  Sun,  105. 

of  man,  or  Atman,  105. 

of  the  Universe,  lo6,  et  seq.  ,114. 

Seleukos  Nikator,  174,  176. 

makes    alliance     with     Chandra 

Gupta,  175. 

Semiramis,  169. 

Sen,  Keshab  Chandar,  405,  407,  etseq. 
Serampur,  Danish  Settlement  at,  390. 
Sesha,  the  serpent,  339. 


468 


INDEX 


Sesostris,  169. 
Shah  Alam,  383. 
Shahjahan,  361,  363,  374. 
Ships  in  Vedic  Hymns,  29. 
Sib,  or  Aryan  clan,  13,  21. 
Siddartha,  113,  119,  121. 

the  father  of  Parsva,  128. 

Siddhas,  217. 

Sikhs,  345,  374-80. 

Slladitya    II.,    or   Harsha    Vardhana, 

250 ;  author  of  Nagananda,  293. 
Sindhu,  Hymn  to  the  river,  19. 

compared  to  Agni,  46. 

Sisupala,  King  of  the  Chedi,  226. 
Sita,  Hymn  addressed  to,  28 ;  wife  of 

Rama,  214,  292,  305. 
Siva,  SO,  182,  194,  229,  309,  311,  319, 

326,  33°- 
Sivajl,  334,  375,  379,  380. 
Skanda,  310. 
Skandas,  137. 
Skylax  of  Karyanda,  169. 
Smarta  Brahmans,  326. 
Smriti,  202. 
Soma,  31,   38,   SSi  68>  74 !  sacrifices, 

162. 
Sommath,  334. 
Son,  the  river,  130. 
Sophytes  made  alliance  with  Alexander, 

173- 
Soul,  193. 

Soul  of  the  Universe,  209. 
Speech  personified  in  Vac,  60. 
Spells  used  in  Atharva-veda,  34. 
Srauta  sacrifices,  70. 
Sravakas,  lay  members  ofthe  Jains,  129. 
Sravasti,     capital    of    the    Kosalas   in 

time  of  Buddha,  131,  142,  144. 
Sringiri  monastery,  325. 
Strabo,  171. 

Studentship,  duration  of,  161. 
Subtle  body,  193. 
Sudas,  26,  65,  67. 


Suddhodhana,  the  father  of  Buddha, 
119,  142. 

Siidra,  duties  of,  293. 

Sudraka,  author  of  Mricchakatika,  271. 

Sudras,  3,  25,  IS3-SS.  '86. 

Sukh  Nidhan,  345. 

Sun,  the,  as  holder  of  the  life-breath  of 
mortals,  I05. 

as  the  Self,  or  Atman,  105. 

Sunahsepa,  story  of,  43,  87. 

Supreme  Being,  introduced  in  Yoga 
Sutras,  195. 

Surashtra,  or  Guzarat,  250. 

Sur  Das,  210,  365. 

Siir  Sagar,  365. 

Siirya,  the  Sun-god,  49. 

Susa,  172. 

Sushma.the  Drought,  slain  by  Indra,53. 

Sutradhara,  271. 

Sutras,  Vedic  rules  reduced  to,  151. 

Svayamvara,  182,  221,  224. 

Svetadwipa,  231. 

Svetaketu,  109. 

Svetambara,  sect  of  Jains,  129. 

Syapama  Sayakayana,  the  last  to  sacri- 
fice human  beings,  89. 

Tagore,  Dvaraka  Nath,  394. 

Debendra  Nath,  403,  405.      [406. 

founds  Adi  Brahma   Saroaj, 

Taittiriya  Brahmana  on  the  home  ofthe 

dead,  105. 
Taj  Mahal,  127. 
Talikota,  battle  of,  309,  360. 
Talvandi,  birthplace  of  Nanak,  375. 
Tamerlane,  337,  344. 
Tamil  poetry,  310-31. 
Tangabhadra,  360. 
Tanjore,  later  capital  of  Cholas,  305. 
Tantras,  289. 
Tantric  rites,  289-91. 
Tapti,  150. 

Tarikh-i-Badaunl,  357. 
Tattva-bodhinl-patrika,  403,  412. 


INDEX 


469 


Taxilas,  172. 

Teg  Bahadur,  ninth  Sikh  Guru,  378. 

Telang,  K.  T.,  443-46. 

Thales,  122. 

Thaneswar,  250,  257,  333. 

Tibeto-Burman  languages,  301. 

Timur,  337. 

Tiru  Nana  Sambandha,  323. 

life  of,  324, 

Devaran  Hymns  of,  330. 

Tiruvalluvar,  315,  330. 

Tiru  Vasakam,  319-32. 

Todar  Mai,  364. 

Tortoise  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  339. 

Totemism,  76,  164. 

Transmigration,    126,    135,    193,   206, 

313.  330- 
Tripitaka,  232. 
Trisala,  mother  of  the  Jain  Mahavira, 

130. 
Trita,  50. 

Tritsus,  26,  28,  67. 
Tugra,  2g. 

Tughlak  dynasty,  337. 
Tuka  Rama,  380,  et  seq. 
Tulsi  Das,  210,  213,  365,  387. 
Turanian  raids,  248. 
Tyre,  172. 

Uddalaka,  his  discourse  on  the  Self, 

109. 
Udgiitar  priests,  68,  90. 
Udraka,  it  Brahman  teacher  of  Buddha, 

131-32- 
Uma,  229. 

Universities  founded,  401. 
Upanishads,  96,  99,  123,  202,  210. 
Ur,  169. 

Uraiyur,  ancient  capital  of  Cholas,  305. 
Uttara-Rama-Charitra   of  Bhavabhuti, 

288,  292. 

Vac,  the  goddess  of  speech,  60,  70,  74. 
Vac,  Vedic  Hymn  to,  60. 
Vaidik  sacrifices,  70. 


Vaikhanas,  or  hermit,  163. 
Vaisali,  128,  130,  143. 

Buddhist  Council  at,  145. 

Vaiseshika  school  of  philosophy,  208. 

Vaisyas,  25,  1 86. 

Vala,  S3.  _ 

Vallabha  Acharya,  344,  348. 

Vallabhi  line,  250. 

Valmiki,  author  of  Ramayana,  213. 

Yaranasi,  133. 

Vardhana,    kings    of   Thaneswar    and 

Kanauj,  250. 
Varman  dynasty,  250. 
Vartikas  of  Panini,  307. 
Varuna,  51,  75,  87. 
Vasantasena,  heroine  of  Mricchakatika, 

274,  et  seq. 
Vasishta,  26,  67,  88 ;  the  law  book  of 

152  ;  penances  for  Brahman  murder, 

IS9- 
Vayu,  89. 
Vedanta  philosophy,  179,  196-209,  233, 

323.  325.  327- 

Vedas,  210. 

Vehicle,  the  Little,  146. 

the  Great,  146. 

Vedic  Hymns,  birthright  of  the  Brah- 
mans,  3 ;  penalties  on  Sudras  for 
reciting,  3 ;  date  of  composition, 
16 ;  outcome  of  Nature  worship,  18  ; 
\heir  poetic  power,  19  ;  the  Sanhita 
made,  20 ;  to  Sindhu,  19 ;  of  the 
purohita,  21-23  >  one  describes  the 
people  as  divided  into  four  classes, 
24  ;  showing  vengeance  of  the  Brah- 
mans  on  their  enemies,  25  ;  praising 
liberality  towards  priests,  26-27  > 
people  in  the  early  Hymns  pastoral, 
27 !  one  addressed  to  Sita,  28  ;  occu- 
pations in,  27-28  ;  ships  mentioned, 
29 ;  social  life  not  primitive,  29 ; 
physicians  mentioned,  29 ;  position 
of  woman,  30-32 ;  at  wedding  of 
Soma  and  Surya,  31 ;  gambling  in, 
32  ;  love-charms,  33-34  ;  referring  to 


470 


INDEX 


Vedic  Hymns  {contimKcC) — 

levirate  marri^e,  34. ;  funeral  cere- 
monies, 35 ;  widow-burning,  35-36  ; 
idea  of  death,  36-39  ;  sacrificial  ob- 
servance in,  42,  et  seq.  ;  story  of 
Sunahsepa,  43  ;  substitution  of  ani- 
mal for  human  sacrifice,  43  ;  to  Agni, 
46,  et  seq.j  to  Varuna,  51-52 ;  Indra, 
S3  ;  considered  as  prayers,  59 ;  to 
Vac,  60  ;  the  Gayatrl,  61. 

Vempa  metre,  317. 

Vernaculars,  Aryan,  264. 

Videhas,  69,  94. 

Vidyasagar,  Isvara  Chandra,  411. 

Vijnanesvara,  339. 

Vikramaditya,  249. 

Vikramorvasi  of  Kalidasa,  288. 

Village  plays,  267-70. 

Vindhyas,  a  barrier  to  Aryan  advance, 
151,  302. 

Vira  Saivas,  311. 

Vishhu,  a  solar  deity,  Jo. 

sacrificial  stake  dedicated  to,  72. 

the  worship  of,  194,  206,  309,  330. 

in  Gita  Govinda,  339. 

incarnations  of,  339-40. 

Vispala,  30. 

Visvamitra,  26,  67,  88,  306. 

Visakadatta,    author    of  Mudra    Rak- 
shasa,  294. 

Visesha,  or  eternal  essence,  208. 

Visve  Devas,  74. 

Vithoba,  the  Maratha  idol,  380. 

Von  Hartmann,  232. 

Vrikodara,  name  of  Bhima,  219. 

Vritra,  the  demon,  53. 

Vyasa,  fabled  author  of  Mahabharata, 
213. 

Wajjians,  142,  145. 
Ward,  the  Baptist  missionary,  389, 
Weaving  in  Vedic  times,  28. 
White  Country,  231. 


Widow-burning  in  Veda,  35-36. 
Wife,  position  of,  among  Aryans,  1 5. 
Wilkins,  translation  of  BhagavadGJta,5. 

translation  of  Hitopadesa,  5. 

Woman  in  Vedic  Hymns,  30-32. 

participation  in  sacrificial  ritual, 

84. 

to  be  avoided  according  to  Buddha, 

142. 

admitted  to  the  Buddhist  Order, 

142. 

excluded   from   studying  the  law 

books,  185. 

Xenophanes,  232. 
Xerxes,  170. 

Yadavas  settled  in  Sind,  150. 

of  Halibid,  309. 

Yajnavalkya,  86,  99. 

questioned  by  Gargi,  loi. 

his  wife  Maitreyl,  106. 

Yajur  Veda,  Black.  68,  152,  183. 

White,  69. 

Yakshas,  217,  229. 
Yama,  36,  105. 

and  Nachiketas,  109. 

Yamuna,  66. 

Yasoda,  foster-mother  of  Krishna,  225. 
Yasodhara,  the  wife  of  Buddha,  1:1. 
Yasodhara  admitted  to  the  Order,  142. 
Yasodharman,  250. 
Yasovati,  wife  of  Prabhakara  Vardhana, 

257- 
Yatis,  Jaina  ascetics,  129. 
Yoga,  the  Siitras,  195  j  the  system,  216. 
Yc^is,  195. 
Yuddhisthira,2i7,e/Kg'.,  221,  224,  226, 

234- 
Yueh-Chi,  249. 

ZlEGBNBALG,  389. 
Zoroaster,  122. 


SILENT  GODS  AND  SUN-STEEPED  LANDS. 


With  a  Photogravure  Frontispiece  and  four  other  fuU-pEge 
Illustrations  by  A.  D.  McCORMICK. 

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By  R.  W.  FRAZER,  LL.B,  I.C.S. 

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SOME  PRESS  OPINIONS. 

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"It  is  a  good  long  time  since  I  have  read  a  more  fascinating  book.  .  .  .  Mr 
Frazer's  prose,  simple  and  unelaborated  as  it  is,  has  that  quality  of  imaginative  expressiveness 
which  belongs  only  to  the  prose  of  a  potential  poet,  and  with  it  as  a  vehicle  he  can  rendc  the 
strange  beauty,  as  well  as  the  haunting  terror,  of  the  twilight  in  which  the  old  faiths  of  India 
are  slowly  falling  on  sleep." — New  Age. 

"  An  example  of  far-reaching  research  into  the  inner  and  hidden  life  of  the  Indian  peoples." 
—Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

"  Told  with  such  skill  that  one  goes  on  reading  story  after  story  until  the  hook  is  finished." 
Queen. 

"  The  glamour  of  the  East  is  over  the  whole  book.  Everywhere  the  language  has  the 
languor  and  rhythm  of  slow-moving  leaves  and  heaving  waters." — Sunday  Times. 

"An  impressive  example  is  ^iven  of  the  operation  of  the  social  law  that  forbids  the  re- 
marriage of  Hindu  widows.  Still  more  striking  is  the  story  of  a  human  sacrifice  performed  by 
the  Khonds."— i'//awfj'  Gazette. 

"  Mr  Frazer  is  a  polished  writer,  and  possesses  the  art  of  stoiy-telling  in  a  high  degree." — 
Christian  World. 

LONDON:   T.  FISHER  UNWIN,  Paternoster  Square,  E.G. 


BRITISH     INDIA. 

"STORY  OP  THE  NATIONS"  SERIES. 
By  R.   W.   FRAZER,   LL.B.,   I.C.S. 

(retired.) 

Lecturer  in  Telugu  and  Tamilai  University  College  and  at  ike  Imperial  Institute ;  Awards 
Jrom  Gormmment  of  Madras  for  High  Prt^ciency  in  SansMrit,  l/riya,  and  Telugui 
Secretary  and  Principal  Librarian^  London  Institution. 

Author  of  "  Silent  Gods  and  Sun-Stkeped  Lands." 


SONIE  PRESS    OPINIONS. 

*'  In  this  task  Mr  Frazer  has  succeeded  in  a  remarkable  de|;ree.  For  the  plan  of  the  book 
does  not  confine  itself  to  a  succinct  statement  of  facts.  It  Empires  to  be  something  more  than 
an  accurate  catalogue  of  battles,  kings,  and  dates.     Mr  Frazer  may  fairly  claim  that  he  has 

raisedthestudent'smanualintoastory  of  human  interest  for  grown-up  men  and  women 

Mr  Frazer  selects  his  point  of  view  with  a  real  insight  into  the  essentials  of  history,  and  what 
be  chooses  to  tell  us  he  tells  with  accuracy,  with  fairness  of  spirit,  and  in  good  EnglUh." — 
Times. 

"  The  results  of  a  close  study  of  the  most  helpful  documents.  .  ,  .  The  extent  and 
thoroughness  of  his  reading  may  be  seen  in  every  page." — Atkemeum. 

"  It  is  a  wonderful  story,  and  it  is  written  fittingly,  in  a  spirit  of  grave  historical  accuracy, 
with  balanced  judgment,  and  with  a  strong  faith.  .  .  .  One  rises  from  the  book  with  an 
added  sense  of  dignity,  with  an  added  sense  of  responsibility,  with  a  quickened  consciousness, 
too,  of  the  terrible  possibilities  which  surround  the  situation." — Academy. 

"  II  nous  manquait,  k  Tusage  du  grand  public,  un  r£sum6  bieo  fait,  reposant  sur  de  solides 
recherches  personnelles.  M.  Frazer — vient  de  nous  le  donner — tout  son  r^t,  clair^^  substantiel 
et  forci^ement  impartial,  montre  qu'il  a  fait  de  ces  sources  Tusage  le  plus  consciencieux." — 
M.  ^^'RTH,  Journal  des  Savants. 

"Bright  and  lively  enough  not  to  repel  even  the  mpst  superficial  of  general  readers,  ai^d 
sufficiently  full  and  accurate  to  supply  the  student  with  a  bandy  compendium  for  ordinary 
■  reference."— /(Wrwa^  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society. 

"  His  book  is  of  absorbing  interest,  and  comes  verjr  ^ear  to  being  a  perfect  short  history. 
....  Mr  Frazer  has  given  us  the  best  popular  history  of  British  India  ever  written."-^ 
Saturday  Review. 

"  'British  Iqdia' needs  no  extraneous  ^d  to  become  (he  popuUr  ^t^dard  work  on  tha 
subject." — JVew  Saturday. 

"  To  fully  appreciate  what  we  have  accomplished  iq  Ipdi^  in  spite  of  alnjiost  overwhelming 
difficulties,  ^nd  what  difficulties  have  still  to  he  overcome,  you  frannot  do  better  than  read 
this  admirable  history  of  British  India  by  Mr  Frazer." — Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

"*  British  India,' by  the  author  of  *  Silent  Gods  and  Sun-Steeped  Lands'  is,  as  might  he 
expected  from  the  pen  qf  so  gifted  a  writer  on  Indian  subjects,  a  brilliant  sketch,  and  reads 
with  all  the  ease  of  a  novel." — Dundee  Advertiser. 

*'  In  tracing  the  history  of  India  through  the  administration  of  these  rulers  the  author  has 
shown  remarkable  skill,  and  that  not  ^IereIy  in  the  ordering  of  his  facts,  but  in  his  estimate 
of  policy,  a(.d  his  appreciation  of  character  as  well." — Glasgoru  Heraid. 

"He  has  an  eye  for  the  suggestive  jioints.  He  can  indicate  a  character  without  any 
laborious  word-painting.  ....  It  is  one  of  the  best  volumes  yet  published  in  the 
*  Story  of  the  Nations '  Series," — Daily  Nej/os^ 

"The  old,  romantic,  fascinating  story  of  our  e^ly  commerce  with  the  East  is  told  onoo 
again  m  this  bright  little  history.  — Daily  Mail. 

"  Any  one  who  has  read  Mr  Frazer's  '  Silent  Gods  and  Sun-Steeped  Lands '  must  respect 
the  author's  power  of  literary  expression.  Here  he  proves  that  he  has,  in  a  high  degree,  the 
gifts  of  wide  comprehension  and  condensation." — Sheffield  Independent. 

"  A  volume  which,  while  modest  in  proportion*  indicates  at  once,  clearly  and  vividly,  the 
agencies  and  influences  that  have  been  at  work  in  founding  and  expanding  the  British 
Empire  in  India."— 5ci7^m;w«. 


LOtlOON:    T.  FISHER  UNWIN,  Paternoster  Square,  E.Q.