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An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c7: Chapter II. Transmigration and Release: y to 200 B.C.

An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c7

Language
English

Contents

Chapter II. Transmigration and Release: y to 200 B.C.

i. Transmigration and Karma.

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§ 32. The immense influence which the doctrine of transmigration and karma has exercised on almost every element of Indian thought renders its appearance an event of such extreme significance as to make it the natural starting-point of a new period. The date is not known even approximately. Indian history in the stricter sense opens only with Alexander the Great's invasion of the Punjab in 326 B.C. ; so that all previous events possess only a relative chronology. The life of the Buddha, now approximately dated 560-480 B.C., forms the starting-point for the conjectural dating of earlier occurrences. Behind his activity we can descry the rise of the philosophy of the Upanishads, and behind that again the emergence of the belief in transmigration and karma.¹ The whole of the literature of the chapter shares this uncertainty ; only a relative chronology is possible.

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¹ See Keith, *JRAS.* 1909, 574; *SS.* 15; Oldenberg, *LU.* 288; Poussin, *WN.* 10 ff.; Waddell, *JRAS.* 1914, 661 ff.

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It is a very remarkable fact that the belief of the early people with regard to birth, death, and the other world underwent such a complete change at this period in their history. There is no trace of transmigration in the hymns of the Vedas ; only in the Brāhmaṇas are there to be found a few traces of the lines of thought from which the doctrine arose. In the Upanishads, however, and in all later Hindu literature, the doctrine is universally accepted, and enters as an active force into almost every element of Hindu thought.

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Through the spread of Buddhism the doctrine was accepted by the population of the centre, the east, and the south of Asia. It is thus impossible to exaggerate the importance of the change with which this chapter opens.

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It has been clearly demonstrated that the immediate sources of both the conceptions—transmigration and karma—are to be found in the Brāhmaṇas;¹ yet the two are found linked together in a doctrine of moral requital for the first time in the Upanishads. The creation, therefore, of this master-conception is unquestionably the work of the Aryan mind. Yet the suggestion which many scholars have made, that the idea of transmigration must have come from totemistic aboriginals who believed that after death their souls lived in animal bodies, may be, after all, partly true; for the Aryan people were not only in daily contact with aboriginals but had already suffered large infusions of aboriginal blood.

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¹ Oldenberg, *LU.* 26-35.

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§ 33. The theory is that souls are born and die many times, and that a man's conduct in one life determines his position in the next, good conduct being rewarded, and evil conduct punished. In the earliest passages² in which the doctrine appears, that is all that is stated; but soon it received a more definite form:

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² *Brihadāraṇyaka*, U. III. 2, 13; IV. 4, 5.

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Those whose conduct has been pleasing, will quickly attain a pleasing birth, the birth of a Brāhman, or a Kshatriya, or a Vaiśya; but those whose conduct has been abominable, will quickly attain an abominable birth, the birth of a dog, or a hog, or an Outcaste.³

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³ *Chhāndogya*, U. V. 10, 7.

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and this form it was which became the basis of the orthodox Hindu belief. Caste is the chief element of the requital of one's action. The word for action, *karma*, is used for the mysterious power which, according to this doctrine, causes all action to work itself out in requital in another life. The conception was soon deepened and broadened. It was recognized that a man's body, mind, and character, and also all the details of his experience were elements of the requital. Men also recognized that, since each life is the requital of foregoing action, and since the actions of each new life demand another for their reward or punishment, the process of birth and death, *saṃsāra*, can have had no beginning, and can have no end. The soul was therefore eternal.

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It would be well to notice that the theory took form among polytheists, and included gods, demons, animals, and plants in its sweep as well as men: there was no living being that was not subject to the law of rebirth. Nor was there any divine power that controlled the process: the concept of a Supreme, exalted high above all the gods, had not risen on the minds of the men who created the doctrine.

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The doctrine would seem to have met a need of the time, for it steadily spread among cultured men throughout North India. Clearly the belief was a moral advance on earlier ideas; for it gave all conduct a moral meaning, and made every man realize the seriousness of life and his personal responsibility. Its evil effects did not become evident at once. For centuries this conception of the world sufficed for multitudes of thinking Hindus, and it still suffices for the unthinking masses; but for others, very soon, an addition became necessary.

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§ 34. We have seen that in the age of the Brāhmaṇas a few men were already struggling to reach philosophic conceptions of the world which might form a more satisfactory basis for the religious life than the gross ritual and magic of the sacrifice. Terror-struck at the prospect of repeated death in the other world (an idea frequently referred to in the Brāhmaṇas), men longed for release from that fate; and some believed they had found it in the conviction that the gods and all the spiritual powers of the world are deathless, and that the man who, knowing this, brings his own spirit into union with these powers, wins a sure immortality.¹ The doctrine of transmigration now seemed to explain the grip which the things of sense have on the human spirit; it also quickened the desire for release from the bondage of sense and death; but the unbroken series of births and deaths seemed to make the achievement of immortality and release more difficult than ever. How was escape possible? Hence there arose a passionate desire to find some means of deliverance; and from that passion sprang all the noblest forms of Hindu religious thought, and Buddhism and Jainism as well. Indeed, it is but the simple truth to say that karma and rebirth, with release, have given Indian religious thought its peculiar flavour.

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¹ Oldenberg, *LU.* 31 ff.

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§ 35. One of the chief historical facts to be realized at this point is this, that, during this period, South India was gradually inoculated, and at last thoroughly interpenetrated, with the religion and culture which had been taking shape in the north. Three political events must also be mentioned, the conquest of the Punjab by Darius, Alexander's raid, and the rise of the Maurya empire; for the third, which was a direct reaction from Greek domination and an imitation of the Persian system, proved of very large significance for the history of Buddhism.

ii. The Twice-born and their Literature.

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§ 36. The three twice-born castes—Brāhmans, Kshatriyas, Vaiśyas—formed now a large educated community, sharply divided among themselves, yet far more deeply cut off from the vast Śūdra community which served them, and from the unclean Outcastes with whom they would have nothing to do. The whole of the literature described in our first chapter was their exclusive possession, and much more was destined to come into existence during the period. But, though they kept themselves rigidly separate from Śūdras in all religious matters, it seems probable that Śūdra worship soon began to exercise an influence on them.

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We deal, first of all, with what is, strictly speaking, the literature of the twice-born, namely works written in exposition of the earlier literature. In all these books the doctrine of karma and rebirth is accepted as true, and here and there the Upanishad theory of release also finds reflection.

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§ 37. We mention first what is clearly the earliest form of Indian philosophy, although its earliest surviving document cannot be dated earlier than the fourth century after Christ, and although in its inception it was in no sense philosophical It is clear that the Karma Mīmāṃsā in some form came into existence quite early during this period. It is, as will be explained later, a method of Vedic exegesis, dealing primarily with the sacred texts which give injunctions for the sacrifices. Its interest for us at this point is twofold, first because it is to this day the special system of the orthodox twice-born man, and secondly because it retained for many centuries certain features characteristic of the time of its birth, and indeed retains some of them to this day. The Mīmāṃsā reflects the time when the average educated man was frankly polytheistic, and thus atheistic from the point of view of theism or pantheism, when he accepted rebirth and karma but felt no need of release, and when, like the average unreflecting man, he took a realistic view of the world. For the understanding of the developments of this period it is of great importance to realize that this was the state of mind of nearly all educated men¹ in the earlier, and probably of the vast majority in the later, part of the period also.

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¹ Cf. Oldenberg, *LU.* 31.

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§ 38. We take next the literature of the Vedic schools. The basis of all the training is still the process of laying up in the memory the hymns of the Veda of one’s school and the long chapters of the Brāhmaṇa. But a large amount of ancillary material has now to be mastered by the student as well as the fundamental texts. The sciences of Vedic exposition, phonetics, grammar, metre, etymology, &c., the beginnings of which are found in the Brāhmaṇas, have each grown in width and complexity as well as in accuracy. The sacrifices, both minor and major, have grown steadily more intricate and more numerous, and the *dharma*, i.e. the law of conduct, has become a large body of detailed injunctions. Hence, to enable the student to carry in his mind the vast and varied masses of information which he required to know, a new method of teaching was created, the *sūtra*-method. The essential feature of the method is the committing to memory of a long series of very abbreviated phrases, which serve as a sort of classified index of the particular subject dealt with. The method was of service in proportion to the care with which the subject was arranged, and to the skill with which the mnemonic phrases were composed. A series of *sūtras* is more or less incomprehensible by itself; it has always a commentary attached to it, either oral or written, which fills up the gaps and expounds the thought.

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There are four types of *sūtras* which are of large significance for the religious life, namely the *Śrauta*, the *Gṛihya*, and the *Dharma* manuals, and the magic-books. The *Śrauta-sūtras* get their epithet *Śrauta* from the fact that they are directly founded on the hymns and the *Brāhmaṇas*, which are *śruti*, i.e. revelation in the highest sense. The *Gṛihya* manuals are called *gṛihya*, i.e. domestic, because they describe the minor sacrifices and the ritual acts obligatory on the family. The *Dharma* manuals lay down the rules of the *dharma*, i.e. the Hindu law of conduct. Of the *Śrauta-sūtras* a dozen survive, of the *Gṛihyas* also a dozen, or thirteen, if the *Kauśika* be included, and of the *Dharma* manuals six; while there are four noteworthy books on magic.

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It is as yet impossible to give any definite chronology of the *sūtras*; but all the surviving works of the *Śrauta*, *Gṛihya*, and *Dharma* classes (called as a group the *Kalpa-sūtras*) probably belong to the fifth, fourth, or third centuries.¹ Nor is it yet possible to set them out in the order of their origin.²

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¹ See the discussions by Keith, *AĀ*. 21-5; *TS*. I. xlv-xlvi.

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² But see Keith, *TS*. I. xlv.

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§ 39. The *Śrauta-sūtras* are hand-books prepared for the use of priests with reference to the greater Vedic sacrifices, i.e.

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those for which three or more sacrificial fires, and priests belonging to each of the three orders, were necessary. Thus each Śrauta-sūtras depends on one of the three Vedas, and contains instructions only for the order of priests corresponding to that Veda. Hence in order fully to understand the ceremonial of any single sacrifice, it is necessary for the student to read together the sections on that sacrifice in three Śrauta-sūtras. For this certain other manuals, called Paribhāṣās, which show how the three strands of the sacrifice fit together, are used.

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§ 40. The Gṛihya-sūtras deal with three groups of subjects. The first group contains general and detailed rules for the simpler sacrifices, which were performed on the domestic fire by the householder himself, if he were a Brāhman, or by a priest appointed by him for the purpose. These offerings are of three types: (a) melted butter, oil, or milk poured on the fire; (b) cooked cakes; and (c) animal sacrifices. The second group of subjects are the eighteen sacraments, solemn ceremonies connected with the great moments of life, such as birth, the first solid food given to the child, his tonsure, his initiation as a religious student, his return home after his education, and marriage. The third is a mixed group, including house-building rites, the funeral ceremony, the śrāddhas, or offerings to the spirits of deceased ancestors, and minor observances. As in all these ceremonies there is but one series of ritual acts and liturgic utterances, the Gṛihya-sūtras of the three Vedas differ very little from each other except in the Vedic stanzas they quote.

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§ 41. The Dharma-sūtras deal not with sacrifice but with conduct. The word dharma means that which is obligatory, and is thus similar to the Latin *religio*. It is used in several

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The Karma Mīmāṃsā, we may remind ourselves, existed in order that every injunction covered by the Śrauta and Gṛihya sūtras should be faithfully performed. Learned Mīmāṃsakas were usually present at the greater sacrifices to guide everything.

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senses, which vary chiefly in their scope: first, Hinduism as a whole is the *dharma*, just as to Buddhists Buddhism is the *dhamma*; second, the whole religious law, as expressed in the Śrauta, Gṛihya, and Dharma codes; third, the laws of conduct: this is the ordinary meaning, as in the Dharma-sūtras and the later Dharmaśāstras; and fourth, the law of a caste, as in the *Gītā* frequently. The Dharma-sūtras contain regulations for the four *āśramas* or forms of Hindu life, viz. the student, the householder, the hermit, and the ascetic, and the following special subjects: the king, civil law, criminal law, marriage, inheritance, funeral rites, penances, and excommunication. Originally the Dharma-sūtras were each meant to be used only by members of its own school, but later a number of them became recognized as valid for all twice-born men.

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The basal principle upon which this law of conduct rests is the supreme obligation of the caste system. By that a man's profession and religious duties are determined, as well as his place in Hindu society. The Brāhman is the priest, teacher, and judge; the Kshatriya is the ruler and warrior; the Vaiśya turns to agriculture, industry, or trade; the Śūdra is the servant of these three twice-born castes. The Outcastes are untouchable and are shut out in their filth and their poverty. All the provisions of the laws of property and crime are conditioned by caste: the higher a man's caste, the greater his rights; the higher the caste of the criminal, the less his punishment; the higher the caste of the wronged party, the greater the penalty. It is well to note that in the time of these sūtras each man chooses his own āśrama, i. e. whether he is to remain a student, or become a householder, a hermit, or a sannyāsī: these modes of life have not yet become a series through which each man is expected to pass. Amongst the fresh regulations, we note two of supreme importance for the family—the rule that a girl should be married before puberty,¹ and the rule that no widow who has borne children should remarry.¹

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¹ Gautama DS. XVIII. 21-23; Vāsiṣṭha DS. XVII. 69-70; Baudhāyana DS. IV. 1, 11-12.

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¹ Gautama DS. XVIII. 4-17; Vāsiṣṭha DS. XVII. 55-68, 74.

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§ 42. The religion reflected in the sūtras ² is polytheistic and ritualistic. There is no trace of divine incarnation in them, and no approach to theism. The philosophy of the Ātman is mentioned as a subject of meditation for the sannyāsī; and in one sūtra it is heartily commended to the student on the ground that there is no higher object than the attainment of the Ātman.³ Necessarily, the whole of the Vedic religion is represented—the soma-cult, the fire-cult, animal sacrifice, and the numerous magic rites. Temples and images also appear side by side with these ancient methods of worship, but we are told nothing about the temple-cult, the reason seemingly being that it stands outside the Vedic faith. The old pantheon remains, but several new divinities appear, chiefly abstractions—Dharma, religious law; Kubera, wealth; Kāma, Cupid. Brahmā, whom we meet in the Āraṇyakas, has also an honoured place. The worship of snakes, mountains, rivers, and pools is also found; and cow-pens are reckoned among holy places. The doctrine of transmigration and karma is recognized as true by every one, but the old eschatology is still in use; so that there is no unity of treatment. Readers will note how close the resemblance is to the religion of the original Epics.

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² See the careful sketch by Hopkins, RI. 242-63.

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³ Āpastamba DS. I. 8, 22-3.

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§ 43. The appearance during this period of the sūtra-texts on Magic shows that the practice of the old methods of magic was still a very living part of the religion; but we must notice that these ceremonies did not form part of the obligatory ceremonial law (kalpa), but are extra and voluntary. The chief text, the Kauśika-sūtra which belongs to the Atharvaveda, is first of all a Gṛihya-sūtra, but also gives a great deal of detailed information about magical ceremonies, and makes much that is far from clear in the Atharvan quite comprehensible. The *Rigvidhāna* describes the magical effects produced by the recitation of hymns or single verses of the *Rigveda*; while the *Sāmavidhāna Brāhmaṇa* shows how the chants of the *Sāmaveda* may be used for superstitious practices.¹ The *Adbhuta Brāhmaṇa* also belongs to the *Sāmaveda*, and deals with portents and the means to avert their evil influence. We may also mention here the *Gopatha Brāhmaṇa* of the *Atharvaveda*, which is a late text of very varied character, depending on the *Vaitāna-sūtra*.

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¹ For the date of these texts, see Keith, *TS.* I. clxvii.

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§ 44. Subsidiary sūtras also existed on the measurement of altars and were called *Śulva-sūtras*, from the word for a measuring line, on Phonetics, *Śikshā*, Grammar, *Vyākaraṇa*, Etymology, *Nirukta*, Prosody, *Chhandas*, and Astronomy, *Jyotisha*. There were also special forms of the text of the *Rigveda* and various ancillary works on minor matters.

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A large part of this literature is of no interest for our subject, as, from the modern standpoint, it is purely secular. But there is one of these secular books which we must mention, because of the immense influence it has exerted over language in India, and its consequent importance for Indian history. We refer to the *Ashṭādhyāyī* or Eight Chapters of Pāṇini on *Vyākaraṇa*, Grammar. Pāṇini lived at Taxila in the far north-west, seemingly about the middle of the fourth century B.C.² He may have been alive when Alexander and his army were entertained in the city with royal magnificence. In him culminated the movement to make the speech of the Vedic schools a thoroughly musical, trustworthy, intelligible, and polished instrument; and his book has been the norm of the *Saṃskṛita*, i.e. the cultured, speech ever since. Down to his time this language had gradually changed; but from the moment when in the schools of India his book became the standard, Sanskrit became an unchangeable language. By his day great differences had already arisen between the polished tongue and the current forms of speech: Sanskrit was becoming incomprehensible to the uneducated man. Herein lay its disadvantage and still lies. But, on the other hand, it remains permanently intelligible to all cultured men throughout India, while each vernacular is restricted to its own domain, and also changes so rapidly that usually in three or four hundred years its best literature is as foreign to the vulgar as Sanskrit itself.

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² Keith, *TS.* I. clxviii.

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The whole of this sūtra-literature was recognized as revelation of the second grade and was called smṛiti, remembrance, in contrast with literature of the highest grade, which, as we have already seen, was called śruti.

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§ 45. A famous work on politics, Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra, which has recently come to light, though not a religious work, must be mentioned here on account of the large amount of detailed information it affords incidentally as to the condition of religion and morals in Magadha, towards the end of the period. According to tradition, Kauṭilya is another name for Chāṇakya, Chandragupta’s Brāhman minister; but critical inquiry tends to lead to the conclusion that the work is the text-book of a school of politics, and that, while probably part of it is the work of Chāṇakya, it has been redacted and interpolated.¹ Yet its evidence is of great value, if we give its date rather wide limits, say from 300 to 100 B. C. It is a work which no one dealing with Hindu ethics can afford to neglect. The information it gives about government, law, crime and its punishment, and the social and economic state of the country is of very great importance. Its evidence with regard to the religion of Magadha is most interesting. The popular belief was a wide and varied polytheism; for not only are the great gods and many of the minor divinities of Hinduism mentioned, but the worship of mountains, rivers, trees and fire, of birds, snakes, and cows and other animals, is regarded as of great value as a prophylactic against pestilence, cattle-disease, demons, fire, floods, drought, famine, and other calamities. Numerous ceremonies, incantations, and magical arts are recommended for such purposes also. Readers will note how well this fits in with the evidence of the epics and the sūtras. Another aspect of the book is its eschatology. It does not seem to mention transmigration, karma, or release at all. In all these features the work is very similar to the edicts of Aśoka. The following is the basis of the moral and religious teaching of the treatise:

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¹ Keith, JRAS. 1916, p. 130. But see also K. V. Rangaswami Aiyangar, Some Considerations on Ancient Indian Polity, Madras, 1916.

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The observance of one's own duty leads one to heaven (*svarga*) and infinite bliss (*ānantya*). When it is violated, the world will come to an end owing to confusion of castes and duties. Hence the king shall never allow people to swerve from their duties. . . . For the world, when maintained in accordance with the injunctions of the triple Veda, will surely progress, but never perish.¹

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¹ l. iii.

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This is precisely the position of the Karma Mīmāṃsā. The work recommends the Sāṅkhya, Yoga, and Lokāyata philosophies. The first and the last of the three are atheistic, and it is practically certain that at this date the Yoga was so also.

iii. The Epics.

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§ 46. The epics of India, the *Mahābhārata* and the *Rāmāyaṇa*, which were originally heroic narratives, became in the course of their history religious works, and are of extreme importance as evidence on the subject of the religion of the common people and with regard to the rise of the sects of Hinduism. But they are so vast that they are apt to fill the virgin inquirer with utter dismay; and in the case of the *Mahābhārata*, the contents present such an extraordinary medley—explained to us as arising from interminable interpolations and the operations of countless editors each with a policy of his own—that they deepen the feeling to blank despair. Yet, taken in the right way, they ought to prove very fruitful. The parts of each poem must be read at the points of the history where they appeared.

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Scholars seem to be coming steadily nearer unanimity as to the three essential moments in the history of the epics. They are practically the same for both. All three stages are very fully represented in the *Mahābhārata*, but it is in the *Rāmāyaṇa* that the first and the second can be most easily studied, while the third, which is only faintly represented in it, attains enormous proportions in the *Mahābhārata*. They are as follows:

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A. The epics composed as popular poems: sixth, fifth, or fourth century B. C.

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B. The epics changed into sectarian poems by Vaiṣṇava priests: second century B. C.

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C. Vaiṣṇava theism in both epics: the *Mahābhārata* becomes a huge encyclopaedia of theology, philosophy, politics, and law: first and second centuries A. D.

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There is perhaps not quite so much unanimity with regard to the dates suggested as to the three distinct movements.¹ All would acknowledge further that fragments of material found their way into the *Mahābhārata* in still later centuries.

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¹ Holtzmann, *MBH.* I. 5 ff.; 126 ff.; 152 ff.; Jacobi, *R.* 24 ff.; 60 ff.; 100 ff.; Macdonell, *SL.* 285-6; 305-12; Hopkins, *GE.* 397-8; Winternitz, I. 389 ff.; 423 ff.

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§ 47. In this chapter, then, we deal only with the first stage. The roots of popular epic poetry lie very far back, in dramatic stories in the Vedic hymns and narratives in the Brāhmaṇas;² and it is probable that the first attempts at actual epics (possibly indeed a rudimentary *Mahābhārata*, or *Rāmāyaṇa*) go back as far as the age of the Brāhmaṇas; for since the epic is popular, and its language is Sanskrit, it must have originated at a time when the warriors in the chieftain's hall understood heroic songs in Sanskrit, that is, a time when the popular and the cultured speech were still near enough to be practically one. That in India, as in Greece, the epic arose from the song that glorified the noble deed, stands out clearly in the ancient evidence. The early songs were sung; and the more elaborate compositions founded on them were either sung or recited with eloquent declamation and dramatic gesture.¹

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² Macdonell, 280-1; Keith, *AA.* 196 n. 19.

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¹ Holtzmann, *MBH.* I. 52 ff.; Hopkins, *GE.* 363-7.

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Scholars agree that the first rounded *Mahābhārata* and the first completed *Rāmāyaṇa* arose from these earlier efforts, and that they both appeared in the same age, between 600 and 300 B. C.;² but unanimity has not yet been reached on the question as to which came first.³ For our purpose, however, the question is of little importance. We need merely recognize that both were already in existence by 300 B. C. and that both may have arisen a good deal earlier. The features of the two epics, the place where they arose, the way in which they were formed from earlier pieces and other interesting problems, are discussed by the critics.⁴ Strictly speaking, the original epics ought not to come into our survey; for they were not composed as religious works, but as heroic poems. Yet their subsequent history changed them into religious works of very great importance, and the original material is a source of religious history all the more valuable because it is indirect.

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² Macdonell, *SL.* 285; 306-7; Hopkins, *GE.* VI; Keith, *JRAS.* 1915, 318 ff.

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³ Jacobi puts the *Rāmāyaṇa* first, *R.* 60 ff.; so Macdonell, *SL.* 306, but see also *ERE.* X. 576; Hopkins sets the *Bhārata* epic first, then the *Rāmāyaṇa*, then the *Pāṇḍu* epic, *GE.* 60-1; 238-9.

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⁴ Jacobi, *R.* 119 ff.; Holtzmann, *MBH.* I. 15 ff.; Macdonell, *SL.* 310; Hopkins, *GE.* 79 and *passim*.

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§ 48. We shall take the shorter epic first, as it is easier to detach the original *Rāmāyaṇa* from its accretions than to reach the genuine *Bhārata* amidst the immeasurable masses of extraneous material in which it is buried. Scholars agree that of the seven books of which the *Rāmāyaṇa* consists, the whole of the first⁵ and the seventh books are later additions. Thus Books II–VI represent the genuine old epic. But even in these books there are numerous passages that have been foisted on the text by reciters. Most of them are either variants, which make the details of the story harder to follow, or repetitions, which weary the reader intolerably; so that, before scanning text or translation, it would be well to put up a danger-signal beside each morass.¹ Estimates of the date of Vālmīki’s work vary from the sixth to the fourth century B. C.²

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⁵ With the exception of verses 5 to 8 of Canto V, which Jacobi, *R.* 55, believes formed the first lines of Vālmīki's work.

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¹ The following are the chief interpolations recognized by Jacobi: II. 41-9, 66-93, 107, 17-111, 117, 5-119; III. 1-14; IV. 17-18, 40-43, 45-7; V. 41-55, 58-64, 66-8; VI. 23-40, 59-60, 69, 74-5. Besides these, there is one very late canto which would confuse the reader seriously, viz. VI. 119.

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² Jacobi, R. 100-112, inclines to the sixth, or even the eighth century. The latest careful review of the question is by Keith, JRAS. 1915, 318. He inclines to the fourth century as the true date, and Macdonell agrees: ERE. X. 576.

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Vālmīki’s poem helps us to understand the religion the more because it is a secular work; for it gives us an undisturbed reflection of some aspects of the popular faith. And we do well to look at it carefully; for from a very early date the work has been read as a mirror of character; and in its enlarged form the Rāmāyaṇa is still the first of all Vishṇuite scriptures. Religion, then, in the original work is still frankly polytheistic and external. There are no sects. Every one acknowledges all the gods; and worship is made by means of sacrifice, usually animal sacrifice. There is no mention here of the philosophy of the Ātman. The sannyāsī never appears; but at every turn the ancient vānaprastha. There is no approach to anything like a theism. The idea of divine incarnation never occurs; Rāma from beginning to end is a man and only a man: he is a great hero, but there is no suggestion that he is in any sense a god. Most of the old gods of the Veda are mentioned; and there is no monarch among them, although Indra may receive a little more recognition than the others. A number of new divinities have taken their places among the famous early gods, especially Kāma, Kubera, Śukra, and Kārttikeya, and the following goddesses: Gaṅgā, the Ganges, with Lakshmī and Umā, the wives of Viṣṇu and Śiva. Semi-divine animals, Śeṣa, the snake, Hanumān, the monkey, Jambavān, the bear, Garuḍa, the eagle, Jaṭāyus, the vulture, and Nandī, Śiva’s bull, are quite prominent. Viṣṇu and Śiva, who in the later Vedas and the Brāhmaṇas are far more important than they are in the Rik, here maintain that prominence. Snakes, trees, rivers, and lakes are also worshipped. It is of importance to note that temples and images of the gods are common, and that animal sacrifice is the usual offering. There is no allusion to the phallus of Śiva. Innumerable superstitions haunt the religious consciousness. The doctrine of transmigration and karma is everywhere accepted and applied to life, but it is not yet full grown. Men do not understand all its implications, and parts of the old scheme of things still survive.

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§ 49. The original heroic Mahābhārata is much harder to isolate, chiefly because it was redacted with greater care and persistence by the priests than the companion poem. It is referred to in the epic itself; for in the first section of the first book as it stands to-day, we are told that the Bhārata consists of 8,800 verses, of 24,000 verses, and of 100,000 verses. These three computations correspond to the three stadia in the composition of the poem referred to above. Thus the work we are thinking of here contained 8,800 verses. No scholar has yet undertaken to separate out the component passages, and reform the ancient work; so that it cannot be studied precisely in the same way as the original Rāmāyaṇa; but the student may form some idea of its character by reading one of the oldest episodes, Nala,¹ or Sāvitrī,² or the famous gambling scene,³ or some of the battle-scenes from Book VIII or IX, though even in these the trail of the redactor will be crossed here and there.

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¹ III. 52 ff.

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² III. 292 ff.

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³ II. 46-73.

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Then scholars are quite able to see the religious characteristics of the old poem, though they cannot extricate it from the clinging mass of fresh growth. The religion is polytheistic and ritualistic through and through; sectarianism has not yet appeared; there is no theism in it, no divine incarnation, no exposition of the Ātman doctrine. The three chief gods seem to be Indra, Brahmā, and Agni, but the whole of the old pantheon survives. Dharma, i. e. Law, and Kāma, Love, appear as divinities, and Kṛṣṇa appears also, but whether as god or man is not yet known with certainty.

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Epic society is dominated by caste; yet there is far more social freedom than at later stages of Hindu history; and women in particular have a good deal of liberty. Brāhmans, in contravention of the regular rule, often become warriors. Hindus have not yet become vegetarians: everybody eats beef. The polyandry of Draupadī is clearly a historical trait which has persisted in the story, despite its naturally repulsive character.

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§ 50. One of the chief problems of this period is the rise of the god Kṛṣṇa, who seems to have had as one of his epithets the title Vāsudeva. Some scholars believe that in the original *Mahābhārata* he was a man and only a man,¹ and that he was deified at a rather later date. Others affirm that he is always a god in the *Mahābhārata*.² Of these some suppose that he was originally a vegetation-spirit, others that he was a sun-god. It is certainly clear that he was already a god of some sort in the fourth century B.C.; for in Pāṇini’s grammar³ Vāsudeva and Arjuna appear as a pair of divinities. Megasthenes, a Greek ambassador at the court of Chandragupta about 300 B.C., has a sentence which seems to mean that Kṛṣṇa was worshipped at Mathurā and Kṛṣṇapur. In the *Mahānārāyaṇa Upanishad*,⁴ which is probably not later than the third century B.C., there is a litany in which the title Vāsudeva is used as an epithet of Viṣṇu, which seems to mean that Kṛṣṇa was already in some sense identified with Viṣṇu. Finally, in the *Mahābhāshya*⁵ of Patañjali, which was probably written about 150 B.C., Vāsudeva is spoken of as a divinity.

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¹ Hopkins, *ION*. 105 (but see below); Grierson, *ERE*. II. 541; Garbe, *IC*. 210.

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² Keith, *JRAS*. 1915, 548; Hopkins, *GE*. 395, n. 3; *RI*. 467–8.

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³ IV. 3. 98.

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⁴ I. 31.

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⁵ On Pāṇini, IV. 3. 98.

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Sir R. G. Bhandarkar¹ has a notable theory of his own on the subject. He distinguishes between Vāsudeva and Kṛṣṇa. He believes that Vāsudeva was originally a man belonging to the Sātvata tribe, that he lived in the sixth century B.C., if not earlier, and that he taught the people of his tribe a monotheistic religion. Some time after his death he was deified by his own people and identified with the one personal God whom he had preached. He was thereafter identified, first with Nārāyaṇa, then with Viṣṇu, and finally with the cowherd god of Mathurā, Gopāla Kṛṣṇa. From the sect which worshipped this god there arose, according to this theory, the famous poem, the *Bhagavadgītā*. Grierson,² Winternitz,³ and Garbe⁴ accept the theory, and support it ardently, but Hopkins⁵ and Keith⁶ hold that it can be shown to be unhistorical; and most scholars seem to follow them. There is certainly no clear evidence of the existence of a monotheistic faith during those early centuries.

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¹ VS. Chaps. IV, VII, VIII, IX.

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² ERE. II. 540 ff.

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³ I. 373.

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⁴ IC. 215 ff.

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⁵ JRAS. 1905, 384.

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⁶ JRAS. 1915, 548; ib. 1917, 173.

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§ 51. In the Epics and the Sūtras we meet the first references to Hindu temple-and-image worship. But it is most noteworthy that, by the side of the minute instructions for the sacrifices given in the Kalpa-sūtras, no directions for the temple-cult appear. The latter seems to be merely tolerated by the side of the orthodox cult. Then, at a later date, when the Vaiṣṇavas and the Śaivas organized themselves as sects, worshipping Viṣṇu and Śiva by temple and image, they were condemned as unorthodox; and the taint remains to some extent to the present day. It is also important to realize that from the earliest times at which we catch glimpses of the organization of Hindu temple-worship, there are stringent rules to the effect that the priests must be Brāhmans, and that the temples are open to all men and women of the four castes—Brāhman, Kṣatriya, Vaiśya, Śūdra—but to no others. What the history behind these facts is, it is as yet impossible to say with certainty.¹ One of the largest interests of the later history of Hindu worship is the slow but steady weakening of the old sacrificial cult under the pressure of the more attractive temple-system.

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¹ So far as the evidence goes, it would seem that for many centuries after their entrance into India the Aryan people used no images, erected no temples, and recognized no sacred places. Their cult consisted of the sacrifices, and these were private and personal, and were carried out within a man's own house or domains, or wherever the performance was desirable. On the other hand, the facts of modern India suggest that the sacred spot, with its local shrine and image or symbol, open to all the people of the tribe, is a very old aboriginal institution. It seems as if the Aryans and the aborigines were very sharply divided in their conceptions of worship as well as in other matters. If this inference then is justifiable, it would be natural to conjecture that, when, at a very early period, masses of the aborigines were admitted to intercourse with the conquering Aryans and called Śūdras, they carried with them into the Aryan community their temple-and-image worship; and that this cult was at some later date regularized, either by the appointment of real Brāhmans as ministrants, or by the recognition of the actual incumbents as Brāhmans. If we could be sure that the second of these alternatives is what actually happened, we should then have a really adequate historical reason for the very curious fact that, to this day and all over India, temple-ministrants are held in much less consideration than other Brāhmans. There is one point which is absolutely clear, namely this, that the essential elements of the temple-cult—the sixteen operations, *ṣoḍaśa upachāra*—are so distinct in character from the sacrificial cult as to betray an alien origin.

iv. Systems of Release.

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§ 52. On the basis of ideas expressed in the philosophic hymns of the *Rigveda* and the *Atharvaveda*, there were evolved in the time of the *Brāhmaṇas* two conceptions of the Absolute, the *Brahman* and the *Ātman*, the Self, the former drawn either from the concept of the supernatural power resident in holy things² or from reflection on the outer world,³ the latter drawn from the subjective life of man. The ideas were then combined, with the result that the Absolute was thought of as both the source of all things and as a spiritual being. The *Brahman-Ātman* thus came to be the phrase for the one spiritual reality, unchanging, universal, free from all earthly bonds, from birth and death, pain and sorrow; and the nobler minds of the time longed to be released from the doom of repeated death in the other world, and to reach immortality and the peace of the Ātman.

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² Oldenberg, *LU.* 44-52; Poussin, *WN.* 22.

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³ Deussen, *AGP.* I. 240 ff.

A. The Upanishads.

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§ 53. When the doctrine of rebirth and karma arose, it made the phenomenal world and human life seem much more unsatisfactory and enslaving than before, and therefore created in the best men a deeper desire than ever for release from all earthly conditions, and especially from rebirth.

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Then some courageous thinker, conscious to the utmost not only of the kinship and similarity of his own ātman to the universal Ātman, but also of the unlimited outlook and desire of the human spirit, took the bold leap and declared the two identical: ‘My ātman is the universal Ātman whole and undivided.’ The immediate consequence of this outreach of conviction was necessarily a vivid consciousness of uplift above all merely phenomenal conditions, of community of life and privilege with God, and an immovable conviction of release from transmigration and all its bonds.

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The conviction spread to others, and soon there was a company of men who regarded themselves as liberated. In their exaltation of mind, and in their fear lest the old worldly life should rob them of their new-found treasure, they gave up completely the life of the family and the world, and became wandering, homeless, celibate ascetics, without possessions, without responsibilities, devoted altogether to the life of the Ātman. They were called parivrājakas, wanderers, bhikshus, beggars, sannyāsīs, renouncers. They found a life that was a fitting expression of their new experience in a complete renunciation of the world and of all the rules of society. They wandered about, giving their time to meditation, discussion, and teaching, sleeping at the foot of a tree, getting their food by begging. In numerous episodes we see them conversing and discussing in the woods, in the villages, at kings' courts, and at sacrifices.

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One of the most remarkable facts about these men is this, that they gave up the old worship completely. This is the point at which they are most clearly distinguishable from the older order of ascetics, the vānaprasthas. The sacrifices were meant to induce the gods to grant to their worshippers health, wealth, and all the other pleasures of life. Of what service, then, could they be to men who, having found the Ātman, had therein found full satisfaction and no longer looked to material things for comfort and consolation? The ancient worship, and with it all the learning on which it rested, had thus become worthless to them.¹ The corroding effect of philosophic thought had thus already gone a long way. Yet, though they took no further part in the sacrifices, they still believed in the gods and demigods and the old mythology. These still formed to them part of the totality of things explained by their belief in the Brahman-Ātman.

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¹ Poussin, *WN.* 9, 29.

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Some scholars hold that the new teaching arose among the Kshatriyas, the warrior caste, and was only at a later date accepted by the Brāhmans;² but most scholars believe that, while Kshatriyas and people of lower castes, and women as well as men, took part in the discussions and rejoiced in the new beliefs, the main part in the evolution of the doctrine was taken by Brāhmans. It is certainly true that the root of every single idea involved in the new philosophy is found in the earlier Brahmanical books.³

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² Deussen, *PU.* 17, 120, 396; Garbe, *Beiträge*, 23; Winternitz, I. 199.

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³ Oldenberg, *LU.* 166; Keith, *AA.* 50, 257; *JRAS.* 1915, 550.

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§ 54. At first the teaching seems to have been carried on exclusively in free discussions anywhere and everywhere, and the new ideas and the new life were open to everybody; but finally the Brahmanical schools began to teach it as the last subject of their curriculum, and there it took root and grew. At first doubtless the teaching was given in extempore freedom, only certain great phrases expressing the central ideas, such as *Tat tvam asi*, ‘Thou art that’, i.e. ‘Thou art the Brahman-Ātman’, being given in fixed form; but gradually the lectures received settled expression; and they were then communicated to the pupils and by them committed to memory, precisely as the hymns and the Brāhmaṇas were handed on. From this time onward, then, only Brāhmans taught the doctrine, and only men of the three twice-born castes were allowed to hear it. From this circumstance, doubtless, the name ‘Upanishad’, ‘secret doctrine’,¹ arose.

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¹ Such is the usual explanation of the word (Deussen, *PU.* 10-11; Keith, *AA.* 239). Oldenberg holds that it means ‘reverential meditation’ (*LU.* 37, 155).

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The outcome of this teaching was the early Upanishads. Each consists of a great many distinct pieces of teaching, of varying value, character, and length, products of the activity of many minds and of many years of advancing thought. They are in simple discursive prose, and show clearly the process of transition from the old sacrificial teaching of the Brāhmaṇas to philosophy. Amidst the prose, brief passages in verse occur in a few places. To this group of early prose works there belong six treatises, distributed as follows among the Vedic schools:

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| Vedas. | Schools. | Upanishads. |
| I. ṚIK | Aitareyins / Kaushitakins . | *Aitareya* *Kaushītaki* |
| II. SĀMAN | Tāṇḍins / Talavakāras . | *Chhāndogya* *Kena* |
| III. BLACK / YAJUS / WHITE / YAJUS . | Taittirīyas Vājasaneyins | *Taittirīya* *Bṛihadāraṇyaka* |

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Since each Upanishad is a collection of pieces of varying date, it is not possible to arrange these six compilations in order of seniority; yet their relative age may be approximately indicated. Deussen’s order is:² 1. *Bṛihadāraṇyaka*. 2. *Chhāndogya*. 3. *Taittirīya*. 4. *Aitareya*. 5. *Kaushītaki*.

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² *PU.* 23.

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6. *Kena*; and Macdonell¹ and Winternitz² follow him. Keith, however, holds that the *Aitareya* is earlier even than the *Bṛihadāraṇyaka*, and that it does not teach the doctrine of transmigration.³ If that be so, it does not enter into our discussion here. Oldenberg⁴ takes the *Aitareya* along with the *Bṛihadāraṇyaka* and the *Chhāndogya*, and also suggests rather tentatively that the *Īśā*, which other scholars regard as a later text, and the *Jaiminīya Upanishad Brāhmaṇa* should be included among these six early works. In any case it is clear that the *Bṛihadāraṇyaka* and the *Chhāndogya* are by far the most important of the six; for in them all the leading ideas are first clearly developed.

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¹ 226.

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² I. 205.

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³ *AĀ*. 43; *SS*. 16.

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⁴ *LU*. 34.

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It was mainly in the land of the Jumna and the Ganges, from Kurukshetra to Benares, that the original discussions which created the new thought took place; and in the schools of the same regions the Upanishads took form. Since these treatises were formed by a process of slow growth and accretion, and were preserved, not in writing, but in human memories, it is not possible to fix on any definite dates for their composition. Yet it is clear that the teaching had taken very definite form, and was influencing men's thoughts far and wide, when Gautama, the Buddha, began to teach about 525 B.C.; and scholars believe that we may safely assume that by 500 B.C., this body of literature was already in existence in very much the same shape as it has come down to us.⁵

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⁵ Hopkins, *YT*. 336, gives the sixth century as the date. Oldenberg suggests still earlier dates, *LU*. 288, and also Poussin, *WN*. 10.

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§ 55. The essential aim of the Upanishads is to explain reality, to discover the Absolute. All the ideas of the teaching circle round the great conception of Brahman-Ātman, the source, the support, and the reality of the universe. The human self is not a part of the divine Self, but is the Brahman-Ātman whole and undivided. It is knowledge that gives release. The man who in his own self realizes the truth of the Ātman is thereby liberated from the chains of transmigration and from the slavery of worldly things. He is an emancipated spirit, at death will enter into bliss, and will never be reborn. Through his liberation he enters at once upon a blessed experience; for he then begins to know the peace, immortality, and freedom of the supreme Ātman. These lines of belief run through the Upanishads everywhere; and the mass of the teaching seeks to illustrate these positions and to create the conviction that they are true.

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But there is no articulated system taught.¹ Outside the leading ideas, the teaching is by no means uniform. The relation of the Brahman to the material world is expressed in several ways. In many passages the reality of the world is assumed; Brahman created it and entered into it; he pervades it and extends beyond it. In others the reality of the Brahman is stated so forcibly as almost to leave the impression that the world is an illusion. One there is, and there is no second. Only the great spiritual Unity exists; there is no manifold such as our eyes see in nature. He who affirms that the manifold exists does not know the One. In these idealistic passages great stress is also laid on the unknowableness of the Ātman. He is a subject without an object, the universal Subject, far uplifted beyond the need of any object, and therefore far beyond human understanding. Similarly, while the Ātman is usually conceived impersonally, there are many phrases which, if strictly interpreted, imply personality. He is called ‘the inner Guide’; at his bidding sun and moon stay asunder; he causes men to do good works and to do evil works. The truth is, these wonderful treatises were not meant to build up a complete philosophical temple for the human mind, but rather to provide materials to stab the spirit awake, to open the eyes to the spiritual world, and to lead men to realization of God and renunciation of the world.

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¹ Deussen expounds them as teaching an idealistic system: *PU.* 231, 398; but Oldenberg, *LU.* 59-104 and *passim*, and Keith, *SS.* 5, recognize fully the variant conceptions.

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The Ātman is bliss, and the man who realizes his identity with the Ātman enters into peace, but, apart from the Ātman, all else is full of sorrow. All that comes into existence is evil. There is thus in the teaching of the Upanishads a basis for pessimism; but their general tone is by no means pessimistic.¹ Emancipation fills many a passage with a joyous radiance.

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¹ See Keith, *SS.* 13; Oldenberg, *LU.* 115 ff.

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There are many strikingly beautiful and effective passages in these works; here a few sentences which recall the Psalms, there a brief paragraph which reminds one of Plato. There is a simple sincerity about them, and a childlike naturalness of vision which are very attractive. There are parts of these works which will take a high and permanent place in the world's best literature. But, after all, the books are but compilations; and, beside these lofty prophesyings which reveal the Indian mind at its noblest and greatest, there are many passages as futile and worthless as the poorest twaddle of the Brāhmaṇas. The Brāhman compiler had not yet learnt to separate the wheat from the chaff.

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