Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c19: Chapter X: General Nature of the Cult

Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c19

Language
English

Chapter X: General Nature of the Cult

c19.2

Another popular religious cult developed in Bengal out of the admixture of some relics of decaying Buddhism, popular Hindu ideas and practices, a large number of indigenous beliefs and ceremonies, and ingredients derived also from Islam. This cult may be held responsible for the rise and growth in Bengal of a type of literature which deserves attention because of its quantitative as well as qualitative importance. This minor religious cult is aptly styled as the Dharma cult; for, the main deity, around whom the paraphernalia of worship, ceremonies and practices have gathered, and whose boundless grace and unquestionable supremacy have been sought to be demonstrated by a large number of poets in their semi-epical poems, is the Lord Dharma, or, as popularly known, the Dharma-ṭhākura. Credit must be given in this case also to the late MM. H. P. Śāstrī, who played the pioneer's part in bringing to the notice of the public the existence of such a religious cult and the literature on it.

c19.3

Dharma cult is a local cult of Western Bengal and is prevalent even in the present days in some districts. The fact that the Dharma cult originated and spread only in some parts of Western Bengal is proved beyond doubt by the local references found in the ritualistic works and the Dharma-maṅgalas; and the sacred places and rivers mentioned in these works have already been localised in different parts of West Bengal, known as Rāḍha.¹ The stone-images of Dharma-ṭhākura are still found in West Bengal and are still worshipped in the temples of Dharma. Again, all the poets of the Dharma-maṅgala literature, whose works have been discovered up till now, belong to the districts of West Bengal. Moreover, in connection with the salutations, found in the opening chapter of some of the Dharma-maṅgalas, to the different gods and goddesses worshipped in the temples of the different localities all over Bengal, we find that Dharma-ṭhākura, in all his names and forms, belong only to the villages of West Bengal.¹ It is also clear from the references that are found in the texts that this cult of Dharma was current among the low-class people like the Hāḍis, Domas, Bāgdis, Fishermen, Carpenters and the like. Archeological investigations have revealed that ideas and practices similar to those of the Dharma cult are to be found also in some parts of Orissa, particularly in Mayurbhanja and its vicinities.² From a comparative study of the thoughts, beliefs and practices of the crypto-Buddhistic cults of Orissa (as Mr. N. N. Bose calls them) and the various forms of the Dharma cult found in the South-Western part of Bengal, it will appear that they are essentially the same in so far as all of them represent only a mixture of later Buddhistic ideas and practices with the popular Hindu beliefs and practices including the beliefs and practices of the Non-Aryan aborigines.

c19.4

¹ *Vide Discovery of Living Buddhism in Bengal* by MM. H. P. Śāstrī; and also the introductory articles by Dr. M. Shahidullah, Mr. Basantakumar Chatterjee

c19.5

¹ Vide MS. entitled Dharmer Bandanā (C. U. 2470), pp. 1(B)-2 (B). Also see Sarva-deva Bandanā in the Śrī-dharma-maṅgala of Māṇik Gāṅguli, edited by MM. H. P. Śāstrī and Dr. D. C. Sen, pp. 6-7. Cf. also the Anādi-maṅgala or Śrī-dharma-purāṇa of Rām-dās Adak, edited by Mr. B. K. Chatterjee, M.A., from the Sāhitya-pariṣat, pp. 5-6.

c19.6

² Vide Modern Buddhism And Its Followers In Orissa by Mr. N. N. Bose.

c19.7

In our present study we are not very much interested in the ceremonial aspect of the cult; we are concerned with it only in so far as it concerns our literature, or in so far as it

c19.8

and Mr. Charuchandra Banerjee in the Śūnya-purāṇa, edited by Mr. Charuchandra Banerjee.

c19.9

supplied inspiration to a good number of poets to compose fairly bulky poetical works to eulogise the sovereign power of Lord Dharma. A detailed account of the extent and the nature of the literature that bears the stamp of this cult, with a discussion on the controversy over the time of composition and the authorship of the works, will be found in the appendix (D).

c19.10

The Dharma cult being the result of a popular commingling of a host of heterogeneous beliefs and practices, it will be incorrect to style it purely Buddhistic or Hindu or indigenous either in origin or in nature,—it is as much a hotch-potch in its origin as it is in its developed form and nature. Critical analysis of the constituent elements will reveal that, as a popular religious cult, Dharma cult owes many of its elements to that form of later Buddhism, which is known as Mantra-yāna and laterly, and most commonly, as Vajra-yāna. The liturgical texts, *viz.*, the *Śūnya-purāṇa* and particularly the compendium entitled the *Dharma-pūjā-vidhāna*¹, will at once remind one of the liturgical texts of Mantra-yāna or Vajra-yāna. Of course, in these vernacular works we find but a very faint trace of the earlier practices, we mean those of Tāntric Buddhism, they being replaced by innumerable local and indigenous practices. In the process of assimilating the local indigenous practices the liturgical works of the Dharma cult show the same tendency as is found in the liturgical works of Tāntric Buddhism. With the *Śūnya-purāṇa* and the *Dharma-pūjā-vidhāna* of the Dharma cult (excluding the portions on cosmogonical speculations) we may compare more particularly one well-known compendium of the religious practices of Vajra-yāna Buddhism, *viz.*, the *Kriyā-saṃgraha*.² This text begins with the details of the construction of the Vihāra (which is not here the monastery of the monks or the nuns, but frankly the temple of gods and goddesses) ¹, worship of various gods and goddesses, and hundred other ceremonies and practices including placing of the jar (kalasa), ablution, fire-sacrifice, etc. These are found also in the Śūnya-purāṇa. The Kriyā-samgraha, however, assumes a pseudo-Buddhistic form by professing occasionally that the final aim of all these rituals and ceremonies is the realisation of Bodhicitta with a view to attaining liberation not merely of the self but of the whole universe. But along with this avowedly Buddhistic purpose even the performance of fire-sacrifice and the sacrifice of animals to the goddesses are also prescribed in this text in complete oblivion of the fact that Lord Buddha began his religious career as a living protest against the sacrificial religion of the Vedas and the cruelty to animals involved therein. The chapters on fire-sacrifice (Homa or Yajña) found in the liturgical texts of the Dharma cult may be a faint echo of this prototype. In the Kriyā-samgraha we find that the offering to the goddess Hāriti consists of fish, blood of animals, meat along with all other articles; in the Śūnya-purāṇa also we find that the goddess associated with Dharma is very fond of animal-sacrifice. ²

c19.11

¹ Edited by Mr. Nani-gopal Banerjee, Sāhitya-pariṣad-granthāvali, No. 56.

c19.12

² We have not been able to discover this text; we have at our disposal in rotograph a commentary on the text by Kuladatta, entitled *Kriyā-saṃgraha-pañjikā* (manuscript preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Sanscrit 31). A copy

c19.13

¹ Cf. the details of constructing the temple of Dharma or Nirañjana, found in the Śūnya-purāṇa. See the chapters on Atha Dvāra Mocana, Atha Ghar Dekhā, Atha Dānapatir Ghar Dekhā, etc

c19.14

² See the chapter on Atha Devir Manui in the Śūnya-purāṇa. It is a noticeable fact in this connection that goddess Hāriti occupies an important position in some of the Buddhist Tāntric texts and in Nepal images of goddess Hāriti are frequently found side by side with the supreme Lord in the

c19.15

of the manuscript of this commentary is also preserved in the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal (MS. Nos. 3854, 4728). In the Dharma-koṣa-samgraha of Vajrācārya Amṛtānanda of the Mahābodhi-Vihāra in Lalita-pattana (MS. preserved in R.A.S.B., No. 8055) we find, in connection with the enumeration of the types of Buddhistic literature found in Nepal, mention of this Kriyā-samgraha and also a brief note on the nature of its contents. The nature and the contents of the text, however, can fully be known through the perusal of the commentary of Kuladatta.

c19.16

But admitting the fact of this relation between the liturgical works of the Dharma cult with some liturgical works of Tantric Buddhism, how far will it be correct to say that the nature of the Dharma cult is essentially Buddhistic? In our opinion, though it may be true to call the Dharma cult Buddhistic from a popular point of view, it is not true from the critical point of view; for, the heterogeneous practices which go by the name of Tantric Buddhism have nothing in them Buddhistic but an outward colouring effected through the introduction of some stray Buddhistic terms and ideas used generally in a transformed and deteriorated form, and also through the introduction of a pantheon gradually evolved from the docetic conception of Buddhahood. Some Nepalese Buddhistic practices are, indeed, found in the practices of the Dharma cult;¹ but it is plain to see that these are local practices which are neither Hindu nor Buddhistic either in nature or in origin. The theory propounded by MM. H. P. Śāstrī that the stone-images of Dharma-ṭhākura (Dharma-śilā), which are found abundantly in Western Bengal, and the shape of which approximates the shape of a tortoise, are nothing but the miniature forms of the Nepalese Buddhist representation of the Stūpa with the five Bodhisattvas inscribed on them,² is not, however, clear and convincing. It is not also a fact that all the stone-images of Dharma are of the shape of a tortoise. In the liturgical texts, however, we find occasional reference to the tortoise on whose back the " wooden sandals " of Dharma are to be placed. This tortoise is so well-known a mythological figure in the Hindu

c19.17

¹ As for instance, we may note the use of lime in the worship of Dharma, the worship of goddess Śītalā (generally associated with Dharma) who is taken to be goddess Hāriti of Tantric Buddhism.

c19.18

² See an article by MM. H. P. Śāstrī in the Nārāyaṇa, 1322 B. S., Māgha.

c19.19

Is the Dharma cult Buddhistic in its essential nature?

c19.20

Buddhist temples. In the Dharma cult also Lord Dharma is often found associated with goddess Śītalā, who is supposed by scholars to be the transformed form of the Buddhist goddess Hāriti (both being goddesses of irruption).

c19.21

Purāṇic literature that Buddhistic interpretation of it seems unwarranted. As a matter of fact this importance of the tortoise in a religion may betray its indigenous nature and origin. As for the idea of Dharma, who is the Lord Supreme, it will be more correct to say that he represents the conception of the Lord Supreme found in the religious beliefs of India than to say that he represents the idea of Buddha. The idea of the Lord Supreme, as conceived in all forms of Tāntric Buddhism, is, as we have already hinted, almost the same as conceived in many systems of Hindu theology. The followers of the Dharma cult have proceeded a step farther than the Tāntric Buddhists and Dharma here represents the formless Brahman of the Upaniṣads, the Lord Śiva of the Śaivites and the Tāntrics, Viṣṇu of the general Vaiṣṇavites, Kṛṣṇa of the Kṛṣṇite Vaiṣṇavas and Rāma of the Rāmite Vaiṣṇavas The followers of the Dharma cult seem to have altogether forgotten that this Supreme deity may have something to do with the Buddha of the Buddhists; and excepting two remarks that the original place of Dharma is the land of Ceylon and the Deity Dharma is much revered in the land of Ceylon,¹ there is no direct evidence in the liturgical works or in the Maṅgala literature of the knowledge of the Dharmites that their religion and their deity have anything to do with Buddhism and the Buddha. Even the above remarks seem to be a mere tradition transmitted to the Dharmites and their import may not be clear to the Dharmites themselves.

c19.22

¹ *Vide*, Śūnya-purāṇa, pp. 100, 219. The triangular land (*tekaṇā medinī*) of Dharma referred to in the Śūnya-purāṇa seems to be Ceylon; but we should notice in this connection that in the Dharma-maṅgala of Dvija-rām-candra we find Siṃhala to be a village situated somewhere in West Bengal. Cf. *bālighāṭ surānadi dekhe bāma-bhite* | *rākhila siṃhal grām dekhite dekhite* || MS. C. U. No. 2464, p. 6 (A). But nowhere in the Dharma-maṅgalas do we find any tradition of this Siṃhala's being the original place (*ādya sthāna*) of Dharma.

c19.23

So when we should say that the Dharma cult is a crypto-Buddhist cult, we should remember that it can be said to be Buddhistic only in so far as it bears faint relation to that form of later Buddhism, more than ninety per cent of which belong to religious systems other than Buddhism. We have seen in an earlier chapter that various forms of Tāntric Buddhism were prevalent in Bengal up to the twelfth century A.D. The revival of Hinduism with the rise of the Senas of Bengal and the Muslim invasion of Bengal dealt a death blow to all schools of professed Buddhism in Bengal. It is a well-known fact that many of the Vihāras, which were important centres of Buddhism, were mistaken by the Mahomedan invaders to be the forts of the enemy and were ruined. But, as it has rightly been pointed out by MM. H. P. Śāstrī, no religious movement of long-standing cultural influence can be eradicated all at once from a land by any other religious movement or political and religious causes. Buddhism, even in its Tāntric form, was pushed aside and was gradually assimilated into the cognate religious systems among the Hindus and the Muslims, and the Dharma cult is the outcome of such a popular assimilation. It is to be noted that the yogic element, which forms the most important factor of Sahajiyā Buddhism, had no influence on the Dharma cult and save some yogic imageries and phrases found occasionally used in the liturgical works,¹ no reference to yoga of any sort is to be found in the Dharma cult.

c19.24

¹ *Cf. mana haila naukā pavana keraāla |* *sunāra naukā je rūpāra keraāla ||* *Śūnya-purāṇa*, p. 105. "The mind becomes the boat and the vital wind the oar; golden is the boat and of silver is the oar." *mana kara naukā pavana keraāla |* *āpuni to nirañjana hoila kāndāra || Ibid.*, p. 209. "Make your mind the boat and the vital wind the oar; Nirañjana himself has become the helmsman." *Cf. also*—"Make your mind the boat and the vital wind the oar,—and make your mind concentrated, and then only can you expect to go to the

c19.25

Before passing on to the next topic we think it necessary to say here a few words about the probability of some Muslim influence on the Dharma cult. After the Mahomedan invasion of Bengal in the thirteenth century, the Muslims began gradually to settle in the land and to exert political, religious and cultural influence on the people. It seems that the followers of the Dharma cult with their monotheistic belief in the formless God could easily have friendly terms with the Muslims who had the same monotheistic belief in the formless God and who were particularly antagonistic to the politheistic belief of popular Hinduism. There seems to be palpable influence of the Muslims in the description of Dharma of later days.¹ The Muslims of Bengal were in their turn variously influenced by these minor cults of Bengal, and as a matter of fact we find that in the popular Muslim literature of Bengal the Muslims used all the terminology of the Dharma cult and the Nātha cult in their description of God

c19.26

¹ Cf. *hāte lile tira kāmaṭha pāya diyā majā |* *gauḍe balāna giyā dharma mahā-rāja ||* *Dharma-pūjā-vidhāna*, p. 215. As has been suggested by Dr. Shahidullah Dharma is described here just in the image of a Muslim emperor of Bengal.

c19.27

It seems that the followers of Dharma suffered much for their religious beliefs and practices from the Caste Hindus and when the Mahomedans entered Bengal as a conquering power the Dharmites took shelter under them, and when the caste Hindus were being persecuted in the hands of the Mahomedans for their beliefs and practices 'the ancient grudge' which the Dharmites had against the Hindus

c19.28

other shore. When the Dāna-pati (i.e., the man who met all the expenses for Dharm-worship) heard this oracle, his mind became the boat and his vital wind was stopped. Of silver was the boat and of gold was the oar,—and Dharma-rāja himself became the helmisman." Ibid., p. 41.

c19.29

was laurelled. We find in the *Yama-purāṇa* of the *Śūnya-purāṇa* that the messenger of Yama assumed the form of a human being and entered the city where Rāmāi lived in the form of a Hindu ghost. Rāmāi came forward and inscribed some mark on the forehead of the ghost (so as to initiate him to the Dharma cult), but the latter chained Rāmāi hand and foot and took him to Dharma-rāja Yama, who ordered Rāmāi to be cut into two with the help of a saw. But Rāmāi began to meditate on the *Karatār* (the Lord) and the saw could not pierce him; he was then successively cast into fire with hands and legs tied up and into the ocean with a slab of stone on his chest; but in each case Rāmāi was saved by the *Karatār*. The historical fact behind the legend is the persecution of the Dharmites by the Caste Hindus.¹ We find that some of the poets of the *Dharma-maṅgalas* at first refused to comply with the request of Dharma to compose any poem in his honour for the fear of social persecution and it was after repeated assurance that the Lord could persuade them to compose poems.² The story of the wrath of Lord Nirañjana (*Nirañjaner Ruśmā*) found in the *Śūnya-purāṇa* as well as in the *Dharma-pūjā-vidhāna* points out the simple fact that the Muslim conquest of Bengal and the persecution of the Hindus by the Muslims were regarded by the Dharmites to be the gracious device of the Lord himself to save the Dharmites from the hands of the persecuting Hindus.³ In the *Dharma-* pūjā-vidhāna the story of the wrath of Nirañjana was followed by many pseudo-Urdu verses, which are ascribed to Rāmāi Paṇḍit. Here Rāmāi eulogises the religion of the Muslims and condemns that of the Hindus and prefers the practices of the former. As a matter of fact there are some customs in the Dharma cult which are essentially Muslim. As for instance, we find in the liturgical texts the custom of sacrificing goats or duck or pigeon before Dharma by cutting their throat in a particular manner (javāi—Arabic Yavah), which is peculiarly a Muslim custom. Again, the animals or the birds are to be sacrificed with their face westward. In other places we find much importance given to the western direction in connection with the worship of Dharma or the accessory ceremonies. The description of the gates invariably begins with the description of the western gate. Much importance is also attached to the moon, who is depicted as the Koṭāla (gate-keeper) of the western direction. This importance given to the western direction and the moon undoubtedly bears testimony to the Muslim influence.¹ It is also to be noted in this connection that one of the most important incidents of the Dharma-maṅgalas is the incident of making the sun rise in the west by Dharma in response to the prayers of Lāusen. The incident is described in detail in all the Dharma-maṅgalas. Instead of taking this incident simply as an instance of the display of supernatural power by the devotee of Dharma, will it be far wide of the mark to infer that the whole incident was construed only to explain from the stand-point of the Dharmites why the west was regarded so important by them? Again, we find that some importance

c19.30

¹ See introduction to the *Śūnya-purāṇa* by Dr. Shahidullah, p. 35.

c19.31

² *Vide* Dhm. of Māṇik-gāṅguli, p. 9.

c19.32

³ There we find that when the Brahminic people of Maldah began to tax the Saddharmis (i.e., the Dharmites who professed to be the Saddharmis), to persecute them and to kill them, Lord Nirañjana got much angry in Vaikuṇṭha and revealed himself as the *Khodā* (God) of the Muslims in the village of Jājpura; he was seated on a horse with a black hat on and with a bow and arrow in hands, and all the gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon gladly put on the dress of Muslim soldiers to accompany the lord. The lord, however, with his army broke all the temples of the Hindus, plundered the Hindus, ravaged them and persecuted them, and the Dharmites were saved. Jājpura, a village in the district of Hugli, is described in the Dharma-maṅgala literature as a very important place of the Dhar-

c19.33

¹ See a discussion by Dr. B. M. Barua, M.A., D. Lit., in the Śanivārer Ciṭhi B.S. 1345, Pauṣa.

c19.34

mites, and there is also the tradition in later Dharma-maṅgalas that Dharma revealed himself as a Muslim (javana-avatāra) in this place. jājapurer dehārā bandiva ekaman | jei khāne avatār haila javan || MS. entitled Dharmer Bandanā (C. U. No. 2470), p. 1 (B).

c19.35

is also attached to Friday which is an auspicious day with the Muslims. All these practices, however, seem to have been introduced into the Dharma cult in later times in course of its evolution.

Linked texts (4)