History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.2

v5.c74.2

All religions have laid great emphasis on the sacredness of certain localities and have either enjoined or recommended with great insistence pilgrimages to them. Among the five incumbent practical religious duties¹²³⁷ of a Moslem, pilgrimage at least once in his life to Mecca and Medina, the birth place and burial place of the prophet Mohammad, is one. The four places of pilgrimage for Buddhists have been the place of the birth of Buddha (Lumbinī or Rummindei), the place where he attained perfect enlightenment (Bodh Gayā), the place where he set in motion the wheel of *dharma* by delivering his first sermon (at Sārnāth near Benares) and the place where he passed away into the state of *nirvāṇa* (Kusinārā). Vide Mahāparinibbānasutta (S B. E vol. XI. p 90). For Christians Jerusalem has been the holiest place and no religious community except the Christians undertook in historic times several great military pilgrimages. The crusades were launched to free the Holy Land of Christians from the domination of Moslems. In spite of what Gibbon says¹²³⁸ somewhat cynically about those who joined the crusades, it must be admitted that there were thousands among the crusaders who risked their lives and fortunes in the pursuit of an ideal. In India holy places have played a very important part. Large rivers, mountains and forests have always been venerated as sacred¹²³⁹ and as the abodes of gods. In ancient and medieval India pilgrimages brought many advantages to the community as well as to the pilgrims themselves. Though India was divided into many kingdoms and the people of India followed several cults and sub-cults, pilgrimages tended to foster the idea of the essential and fundamental unity of Indian culture and of India also. Benares and Rāmeśvara were held sacred by all Hindus, whether they hailed from the north of India or from the peninsula. Though the Hindu community was broken up into numerous castes and suffered from caste exclusiveness, pilgrimages tended to level up all men by bringing them together to the same holy rivers or shrines. The traditions associated with holy places, the discipline through which the pilgrims passed, association with holy and philosophic men and the whole atmosphere and environment at *tīrthas* made it easy for pilgrims to remain at a high spiritual level and inculcated in them a mood of reverence that lasted long even after they returned from the pilgrimage. Pilgrimages supplied the much needed stimulus to draw ordinary men away from selfish pursuits and to make them think of the higher and more enduring moral and spiritual values. These obvious benefits and the belief that a holy place was the abode of some divinity led ancient dharmaśāstra writers to lay emphasis on visits to tīrthas. The Viṣṇu Dh. S. provides ¹²⁴⁰ that the *dharma* common to all men comprises the following: forbearance, truthfulness, restraint of the mind, cleanliness, charity, control of the senses, *ahiṁsā*, obedience to elders, *visiting holy places*, compassion, straightforwardness, freedom from avarice, honouring gods and brāhmanas and freedom from jealousy. Modern men whose faith in some of the aspects of the religious beliefs of our forefathers has been weakened or altogether sapped by the sight of the professional ministrants at the tīrthas and their rapacity and ignorance should not judge the ancient attitude towards tīrthas harshly.