History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c10.2

v1.c10.2

Hiuen Tsang’s description of the several kingdoms in the country shows that the people of India, generally speaking, were at this time equally divided between the orthodox and the heterodox faiths. Of course Jainism was not yet a prominent religion, its adherents being found chiefly in small tracts in the Panjab, in Bengal and in the south. In the map appended hereto has been depicted the condition of the prevalence of the different religions at this time in India, the religions being marked in separate colours and it will appear therefrom that while in the extreme North-- west in Kapiśa or Kafiristan there was practically no other religion but Buddhim prevalent and in the extreme North-east that is in Assam no other but Hinduism, in the rest of the country with few exceptions, Hinduism and Buddhism claimed equal adherents as well among the people as among the ruling kings; and this equal prevalence of the two religions among the peoples and the princes was another cause which preserved their amicable relations. Such relations were also preserved by another fact. Both Hinduism and Buddhism were equally idolatrous at this time. If anything, Buddhism perhaps beat the former in its intense idolatry. That religion started, indeed, with the denial of God, but ended by making Buddha himself the Supreme God. Later developments of Buddhism added other gods like the Bodhisatvas and the idolatry of Buddhism especially in the Mahāyāna school was firmly established. It flourished in and out of India so much that the word for an idol in the Arabic has come to be Buddha itself. No doubt idolatry was at this time rampant all over the world. From the Atlantic to the Pacific the world was immersed in idolatry, Christianity, Semiticism, Hinduism and Buddhism vying, so to speak, one with another in their adoration of idols*. The natural result was, of course, the birth of an idol-denying and an idol-breaking religion at this time, but that religion had not yet reached India. India was thus, at this time, studded over literally with thousands of temples raised to the principal gods of the two or rather three religions. There were temples in which immense statues of Buddha and Bodhisatvas and of the Jain Tirthankaras were worshipped by thousands of devotees and there were other temples in which the Hindu gods chiefly Śiva, Vishnu and the Sun were adored by the Hindu devotees. The historical work, Rājataranginī testifies to how hundreds of temples were raised in Kashmir to Śiva and Buddha by pious kings of either religion, and from epigraphic records may be gathered that idols of Śiva, Vishnu, the Sun and the Buddha were set up by kings and merchant princes in other parts of India also. It would be impossible to describe all the famous temples, Hindu and Buddhist, which existed at this time and many of which have been described in detail by Hiuen Tsang. But two Hindu temples of great fame described by him may well be mentioned here. In Mūlasthānapura ( Multan ) there was a magnificent temple to the sun. "The image was of gold, ornamented with precious substances. It had marvellous powers. There was a constant succession of females performing music. Lights were kept burning all night and incense and flowers were continually offered. The kings and grandees of all India gave precious substances as offerings and erected free rest-houses with food and drink and medicine for the sick and needy. At this temple there were constantly 1000 pilgrims from various lands offering prayers. All round the temple were tanks and flowery woods making a delightful resort." (Watters, Vol. 2 p. 254). Along with this famous temple of the sun at Multan may be noticed a temple of Śiva at Benares, "where there were 10,000 professed adherents of Śiva," and "where there was a metal image of the Deva (probably Śiva) nearly 100 feet high which was life-like in its awe-inspiring majesty".