History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c91.132

v7.c91.132

*Bhakti*—The Purāṇas lay very great emphasis on bhakti (religion of loving faith in God). This is not the place to dilate on the history of the cult of *Bhakti* from the earliest times to modern days. For that purpose there are special treatises (some of which are noted below) that may be consulted. But a few words on bhakti in general may be said here before going into the question as to what the Purāṇas have to say thereon. Traces of the doctrine of *bhakti* may be discovered even in the Ṛgvedic hymns and mantras, some of which are full of loving faith in God, particularly in some of the hymns and verses addressed to Varuṇa and also to Indra. A few examples may be cited. 'All my thoughts¹⁵³⁶ (or hymns) praise Indra in unison, seeking light, longing for him, as wives embrace their husband, their fair young lover, they (thoughts) embrace him (Indra), the divine giver of gifts'; 'your friendship¹⁵³⁷ (with your devotee) is indestructible (everlasting); to him who desires a cow, you become a cow, to him who longs for a horse, may you be a horse;' 'O Indra, you are far better (or richer) than my father or my brother who does not feed me; (you) and my mother, O Vasu, are equal and protect (me) for (conferring) riches and favours'; 'You gave to Kakṣīvat, who offered a hymn and Soma libation to you and who had grown old, Vṛcayā, who was a young woman; you became the wife of Vṛṣaṇaśva; all these (favours) of yours deserve to be loudly proclaimed during the offerings of soma libations'; 'you who, shining brilliantly, come to each house assuming the form of a small man, (O Indra!) drink this Soma juice (produced) by being crushed with my teeth and mixed with fried grains, gruel, cake and laud'. Compare Ṛg. III. 43. 4, X. 42. 11, X. 112. 10 (in all of which Indra is called 'sakhā' friend) and I. 104. 9, VII. 32. 26 (in both Indra is said to be like a father). It will be clear from these passages that the Vedic sages had reached the stage of *sakhya-bhakti*, that the sages believed that Indra was like a mother, that he assumed the form of a wife for the sake of a devotee, that Indra partook soma juice from a devotee who, in the absence of the proper implements for crushing soma stalks, extracted soma juice from soma stalks crushed with the devotee's own teeth. These stories in the far-off ages of the Ṛgveda remind us of the stories in the works of the medieval ages about Rāma having accepted *badara* fruit from a Śabarī (Bhil woman) devotee who first tasted them with her teeth to see whether they were sweet or sour and the story of the God Vithobā of Pandharpur, having assumed the form of a *mahār* (an untouchable) and paid up to the Moslem king of Bijapur the money equivalent to the price of corn which, Dāmājī (a great devotee), who was in charge of the royal granary, allowed people distressed by famine to take away. Some mantras addressed to Varuṇa show the same kind of *sakhya-bhakti*. Vasiṣṭha1537a prays 'O Varuṇa! what is that great offence (committed by me) on account of which you desire to harm me, your friend and bard; declare that to me, O invincible and self-willed God, so that (after propitiating you) I shall be free from sin and may be able quickly to approach you with adoration'; 'where are those friendships of ours (of you and me) which we safely enjoyed in former times, O self-willed Varuṇa?; I (then) went to your big dwelling house that has a thousand doors; whatever offence we mortals commit against the divine hosts, O Varuṇa, whatever laws of yours we may have violated in our ignorance (or heedlessness), do not, O God, harm us on account of that sin'. It is remarkable that in the Ṛgveda there is a verse in which there is an apotheosis¹⁵³⁸ of '*namas*' (*namaskāra*, adoration or homage); 'Adoration itself is mighty, I offer service with adoration; adoration upholds the heaven and the earth; adoration to the gods, adoration rules these gods, whatever sin is committed (by me) I worship it away with adoration'.