A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c8.s3.49

Language: English

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Although there is little of real importance to be learned from these Pariśishṭas, the fact of their existence is important in the history of the progress and decay of the Hindu mind. As in the first or Chhandas period, we see the Aryan settlers of India giving free utterance to their thoughts and feelings, and thus creating unconsciously a whole world of religious, moral, and political ideas; as we find them again during the second or Mantra period, carefully collecting their harvest; and during the third or Brâhmaṇa period busily occupied in systematising and interpreting the strains of their forefathers, which had already become unintelligible and sacred; as in the fourth or Sûtra period we see their whole energy employed in simplifying the complicated system of the theology and the ceremonial of the Brâhmaṇas; so we shall have to recognise in these Pariśishṭas a new phase of the Indian mind, marked by a distinct character, which must admit of historical explanation. The object of the Pariśishṭas is to supply information on theological or ceremonial points which had been passed over in the Sûtras, most likely because they were not deemed of sufficient importance, or because they were supposed to be well known to those more immediately concerned. But what most distinguishes the Pariśishṭas from the Sûtras is this, that they treat everything in a popular and superficial manner;

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as if the time was gone, when students would spend ten or twenty years of their lives in fathoming the mysteries and mastering the intricacies of the Brâhmaṇa literature. A party driven to such publications as the Pariśiṣṭas, is a party fighting a losing battle. We see no longer that self-complacent spirit which pervades the Brâhmaṇas. The authors of the Brâhmaṇas felt that whatever they said must be believed, whatever they ordained must be obeyed. They are frightened by no absurdity, and the word "impossible" seems to have been banished from their dictionary. In the Sûtras we see that a change has taken place. Their authors seem to feel that the public which they address will no longer listen to endless theological swaggering. There may have been deep wisdom in the Brâhmaṇas, and their authors may have sincerely believed in all they said; but they evidently calculated on a submissiveness on the part of their pupils or readers, which only exists in countries domineered over by priests or professors. The authors of the Sûtras have learned that people will not listen to wisdom unless it is clothed in a garb of clear argument and communicated in intelligible language. Their works contain all that is essential in the Brâhmaṇas, but they give it in a practical, concise and definite form. These works were written at a time when the Brahmans were fighting their first battles against the popular doctrines of Buddha. They were not yet afraid.

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Their language is firm, though it is no longer inflated. "Buddhism," as Burnouf says,¹ "soon grew into a system of easy devotion, and found numerous recruits among those who were frightened by the difficulties of Brahmanical science. At the same time that Buddhism attracted the ignorant among the Brahmans, it received with open arms the poor and the miserable of all classes.” It was to remove, or at least to simplify, the difficulties of their teaching, that men like Śaunaka and Kātyāyana adopted the novel style of the Sūtras. Such changes in the sacred literature of a people are not made without an object, and the object of the Sūtras, as distinct from that of the Brāhmaṇas, could be no other than to offer practical manuals to those who were discouraged by too elaborate treatises, and who had found a shorter way to salvation opened to them by the heretical preaching of Buddha. After the Sūtras there is no literature of a purely Vedic character except the Pariśiṣṭas. They still presuppose the laws of the Sūtras and the faith of the Brāhmaṇas. There is as yet no trace of any definite supremacy being accorded to Śiva or Viṣṇu or Brahman. New gods, however, are mentioned; vulgar or popular ceremonies are alluded to. The castes have become more marked and multiplied. The whole intellectual atmosphere is still Vedic, and the Vedic ceremonial, the Vedic theology, the Vedic language seem still to absorb the thoughts of the authors of the Pariśiṣṭas.

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Any small matter that had been overlooked by the authors of the Sūtras is noted down as a matter of grave importance. Subjects on which general instructions were formerly considered sufficient, are now treated in special treatises, intended for men who would no longer take the trouble of reading the whole system of the Brahmanic ceremonial. The technical and severe language of the Sūtras was exchanged for a free and easy style, whether in prose or metre; and however near in time the Brahmans may place the authors of the Sûtras and some of the Pariśiṣṭas, certain it is that no man who had mastered the Sûtra style would ever have condescended to employ the slovenly diction of the Pariśiṣṭas. The change in the position and the characters of the Brahmans, such as we find them in the Sûtras, and such as we find them again in the Pariśiṣṭas, has been rapid and decisive. The men who could write such works were aware of their own weakness, and had probably suffered many defeats. The world around them was moving in a new direction, and the old Vedic age died away in impotent twaddle.