The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s14.4

c10.s14.4

Another proposition of Meyer's runs to the effect that *diese sind ihrem ursprünglichen und irhem eigentlichen Wesen nach Zauberliteratur* (the Smriti works constitute by their origin and essential nature the literature of magic). Unfortunately, the category "magic" carries with it in orthodox Hindu judgment as well as in nineteenth century philosophy something derogatory. But should we once get used to it as just a technical term of modern social science which tries to interpret some of the phenomena of human life bearing on the unseens, the imperceptibles, and their bearings on man's prosperity and conduct even the Hindu will find very little to fight shy of it. Recent anthropology is making it more and more clear that the "elementary forms" of life, the origins of morals, the beginnings of gods, the first manifestations of propriety, decency, good conduct etc. are intimately associated with that vague and elastic word "magic"—and this both in the East and the West. "No magic, no ritual"—can be regarded as the *Sūtra* of modern sociology for the ancient Greeks and Romans as for the ancient Teutons, or the Iroquois and the Hopis of America as for the "Hindus" of all denominations and races in India. "Magic" is just an "X" which like "totem" is improvised to explain almost anything and everything from animism and ancestor worship to the *swastika* and the crucifixion, Hindu *śrāddha* and Roman Catholic "mass." The place of magic in the beginnings of culture is the theme of Coulange's *La Cité Antique*, Frazer's *Psyche's Task* (Discourse concerning the Influence of Superstition on the Growth of Institutions) and Hauer's *Das religiöse Erlebnis auf den unterem Stufen*. As regards even the Chinese people which is conventionally known to be the least magic-ridden and religious, Legge's *Religions of China*, Hirth's *Ancient History of China* and Groot's *Religion in China* are some of the publications in which a sociologist of Durkheim's school will find plentiful references to the presence of magic, superstitions, "initiation," ritualistic hocus pocus and what not, such as may be said to promote the society-forming forces.²³