The History of Indian Literature c9.88

c9.88

The Lyrical branch of Sanskrit poetry divides itself, according to its subject, into the Religious and the Erotic Lyric. With respect to the former, we have already seen, when treating of the Atharva-Saṃhitá, that the hymns of this collection are no longer the expression of direct religious emotion, but are rather to be looked upon as the utterance of superstitious terror and uneasy apprehension, and that in part they bear the direct character of magic spells and incantations. This same character is found faithfully preserved in the later religious lyrics, throughout the Epic, the Puráṇas, and the Upanishads, wherever prayers of the sort occur; and it has finally, within the last few centuries, found its classical expression in the Tantra literature. It is in particular by the heaping up of titles under which the several deities are invoked that their favour is thought to be won; and the 'thousand-name-prayers' form quite a special class by themselves. To this category belong also the prayers in amulet-form, to which a prodigious virtue is ascribed, and which enjoy the very highest repute even in the present day. Besides these, we also meet with prayers, to Śiva† especially, which for religious fervour and childlike trust will bear comparison with the best hymns of the Christian Church, though, it must be admitted, their number is very small.