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The Religions of India c22: Chapter XVI. The Purāṇas. Early Sects, Festivals, the Trinity

The Religions of India c22

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Chapter XVI. The Purāṇas. Early Sects, Festivals, the Trinity

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ARCHAEOLOGIA, ‘ancient lore,’ is the meaning of Purāṇa (*purāṇa*, ‘old’). The religious period represented by the extant writings of this class is that which immediately follows the completion of the epic.¹ These works, although they contain no real history, yet reflect history very plainly, and since the advent and initial progress of Puranic Hinduism, with its various cults, is contemporary with important political changes, it will be necessary briefly to consider the circumstances in which arose these new creeds, for they were destined to become in the future the controlling force in the development of Hindu religion.

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¹ Parts of the epic are called Purāṇas, as other parts are called Upaniṣads. These are the forerunners of the extant Purāṇas. The name, indeed, is even older than the epic, belonging to the late Vedic period, where are grouped together Purāṇas and Itihāsas, ‘Ancient History’ and ‘Stories’; to which are added ‘Eulogies.’ Weber has long since pointed out that even when the ‘deeds of kings’ were sung at a ceremony they were wont to be so embroidered as to be dubbed ‘fiction’ by the Hindus themselves. India has neither literary history (save what can be gleaned from genealogies of doubtful worth), nor very early inscriptions. The ‘archaeology’ of the Purāṇas was probably always what it is in the extant specimens, legendary material of no direct historical value.

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In speaking of the extension of Buddhism we showed that its growth was influenced in no small degree by the fact that this caste-less and, therefore, democratic religion was adopted by post-Alexandrine rulers in the Graeco-Bactrian period. At this time the Aryans were surrounded with foreigners and pagans. To North and South spread savage or half Hinduized native tribes, while soldiers of Greece and Bactria encamped in the valley of the Ganges. Barbarians had long been active in the North, and some scholars have even claimed that Buddha's own family was of Turanian origin. The Brahmans then as now retained their prestige only as being repositories of ancient wisdom; and outside of their own ‘holy land’ their influence was reduced to a minimum by the social and political tendencies that accompanied the growth of Buddhism. After the fourth century B.C. the heart of India, the ‘middle district,’ between the Himālaya and Vindhya mountains from Delhi to Benares,¹ was trampled upon by one Graeco-Bactrian horde after another. The principal effect of this rude dominion was eventually to give political equality to the two great rival religions. The Buddhist and the Brahman lived at last if not harmoniously, at least pacifically, side by side. Members of the same reigning family would profess Buddhism or Brahmanism indifferently. One king would sometimes patronize both religions. And this continued to be the case till Buddhism faded out, replaced by that Hinduism which owed its origin partly to native un-Aryan influence (paganism), partly to this century-long fusion of the two state religions.

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¹ Strictly speaking to the present Allāhābād, where is the Prayāga, or confluence of Yamunā and Gangā (Jumna and Ganges).

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To review these events: In the first decades of the fourth century (320 or 315–291 B.C.) Candragupta, Sandrocottos, had built up a monarchy in Behār² on the ruins left by the Greek invasion, sharing his power with Seleucus in the Northwest, and had thus prepared the way for his grandson, Açoka, the great patron of Buddhism (264 or 259). This native power fell before the hosts of Northern barbarians, which, after irruptions into India in the second century, got a permanent foothold there in the first century B.C. These Northern barbarians (their nationality is uncertain), whose greatest king was Kanishka, 78 A.D., ruled for centuries the land they had seized; but they were vanquished at last in the sixth century, probably by Vikramāditya,¹ and were driven out. The breathing-space between Northern barbarian and Mohammedan was nominally not a long one, but since the first Moslem conquests had no definitive result the new invaders did not quite overthrow Hindu rule till the end of the tenth century. During this period the native un-Aryan tribes, with their Hinduizing effect, were more destructive as regards the maintenance of the old Brahmanic cult than were outsiders.²

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² Māgadha; called Behār from its many monasteries, *vihāras*, in Açoka's time.

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¹ So, plausibly, Müller, *loc. cit.* below.

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² The tribes became Hinduized, their chiefs became Rājputs; their religions doubtless affected the ritual and creed of the civilized as much as the religion of the latter colored their own. Some of these un-Aryan peoples were probably part native, part barbaric. There is much doubt in regard to the dates that depend on accepted eras. It is not certain, for instance, that, as Müller claims, Kanishka’s inauguration coincides with the Çaka era, 78 A.D. A great Buddhist council was held under him. Some distinguished scholars still think with Bühler that Vikramāditya’s inauguration was 57 B.C. (the date that used to be assigned to him). From our present point of view it is of little consequence when this king himself lived. He is renowned as patron of arts and as a conqueror of the barbarians. If he lived in the first century B.C. his conquest amounted to nothing permanent. What is important, however, is that all Vikramāditya stands for in legend must have been in the sixth century A.D. For the drama, of which he is said to have been patron, represents a religion distinctly later than that of the body of the epic (completed in the sixth or seventh century, Bühler, *Indian Studies*, No. ii.). The dramatic and astronomical era was but introductory to Kumārila’s reassertion of Brahmanism in the seventh century, when the Northern barbarian was gone, and the Mohammedan was not yet rampant. In the rest of Northern India there were several native dynasties in different quarters, with different eras; one in Surāshtra (Gujarāt), one again in the ‘middle district’ or ‘North Western Provinces,’ one in Kutch; overthrown by Northern barbarians (in the fifth century) and by the Mohammedans (in the seventh and eighth centuries), respectively. Of these the Guptas of the ‘middle district,’ and the Valabhīs of Kutch, had neither of the eras just mentioned. The former dated from 320-321 (perhaps 319), the latter from 190 (A.D.). The word *samvat*, ‘year,’ indicates that the time is dated from either the Çaka or Vikramāditya era. See IA. xvii. 362; Fergusson, JRAS. xii. 259; Müller, *India, What Can It Teach Us?* p. 282; Kielhorn, IA. xix. 24; xxii. 111. The Northern barbarians are called Scythians, or Huns, or Turanians, according to fancy. No one really knows what they were.

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When Tamerlane invaded India his was the fourth invasion after the conquest of the Punjāb by the Moslem in 664.³ In 1525 the fifth conqueror, Baber, fifth too in descent from Tamerlane, founded the Mogul empire that lasted till the fall of this dynasty (nominally till 1857). But it must be remembered that each new conqueror from 997 till 1525 merely conquered old Mohammedan dynasties with new invasions. It was all one to the Hindu. He had the Mohammedan with him all this time; only each new rival's success made his lot the harder, But Baber's grandson, the Great Mogul, Akbar (who reigned from 1556 to 1605), gave the land not only peace but kindness; and under him Jew, Christian, Hindu, and Mohammedan at last forgot to fear or fight. After this there is only the overthrow of the Mohammedan power to record; and the rise of the Mahratta native kingdoms. A new faith resulted from the amalgamation of Hinduism with Mohammedism (after 1500), as will be shown hereafter.

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³ The first host was expelled by the Hindus in 750. After a period of rest Mahmud was crowned in 997, who overran India more than a dozen times. In the fol-

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In the pauses before the first Mohammedan invasion, and between the first defeat of the Mohammedans and their successful second conquest, the barbarians being now expelled and Buddhism being decadent, Brahmanism rallied. In the sixth century there was toleration for all faiths. In the seventh century Kumārila renewed the strength of Brahmanism on the ritualistic side with attacks on Buddhism, and in the ninth century Çankara placed the philosophy of unsectarian pantheism on a firm basis by his commentary on the Vedānta Sūtra.¹ These two men are the re-makers of ancient Brahmanism, which from this time on continued in its stereotyped form, adopting Hindu

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¹ Çankara himself was not a pure Brahman. Both Vishnuites and Çivaites lay claim to him.

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lowing centuries the land was conquered and the people crushed by the second great Mohammedan, Ghori, who died in 1206, leaving his kingdom to a vassal, Kutab, the 'slave sultan' of Delhi. In 1294, this slave dynasty having been recently supplanted, the new successor to the throne was slain by his own nephew, Allah-ud-dîn, who is reckoned as the third Mohammedan conqueror of India. His successor swept even the Dekhan of all its Hindu (temple) wealth; but his empire finally broke down under its own size; preparing the way for Timur (Tamerlane), who entered India in 1398.

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gods very coyly, and only as spirits of small importance, while relying on the laws as well as the gods of old, on holy ācāra or ‘custom,’ and the now systematized exposition of its old (Upanishad) philosophy.¹ Its creative force was already spent. Buddhism, on the other hand, was dying a natural death. The time was ripe for Hinduism, which had been gathering strength for centuries. After the sixth century, and perhaps even as late as 1500, or later, were written the modern Purāṇas, which embody the new belief.² They cannot, on account of the distinct advance in their cult, have appeared before the end of the epic age. The breathing spell (between barbarian and complete Mohammedan conquest) which gave opportunity to Kumārila to take a high hand with Buddhism, was an opportunity also for the codification of the new creeds. It is, therefore, to this era that one has probably to refer the first of the modern sectarian Purānas, though the ritualistic Tantras and Āgamas of the lower Çivaite sects doubtless belong rather to the end than to the beginning of the period. We are strengthened in this belief by the fact that the oldest of these works do not pretend to antedate Kumārila’s century, though the sects mentioned in the epic are known in the first centuries of the Christian era. The time from the first to the seventh centuries one may accordingly suppose to have been the era during which was developing the Brahmanized form of the early Hindu sects, the literature of these and subsequent sects being composed in the centuries succeeding the latter term. These sects again divide into many subdivisions, of which we shall speak below. At present we take up the character of the Purānas and their most important points of difference as compared with the sectarian parts of the earlier pseudo-epic, examining especially the trinitarian doctrine, which they inculcate, and its history.

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¹ Coy as was the Brahman in the adoption of the new gods he was wise enough to give them some place in his pantheon, or he would have offended his laity. Thus he recognizes Kālī as well as Çrī; in fact he prefers to recognize the female divinities of the sects, for they offer less rivalry.

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² There was a general revival of letters antedating the Brahmanic theological revival. The drama, which reflects equally Hinduism and Brahmanism, is now the favorite light literature of the cultured. In the sixth century the first astronomical works are written (Varāhamihira, who wrote the Bṛhat Saṃhitā), and the group of writers called the Nine Gems (reckoned of Vikramāditya’s court) are to be referred to this time. The best known among them is Kālidāsa, author of the Çakuntalā. An account of this Renaissance, as he calls it, will be found in Müller’s India, What Can It Teach Us? The learned author is perhaps a little too sweeping in his conclusions. It is, for instance, tolerably certain that the Bhārata was completed by the time the ‘Renaissance’ began; so that there is no such complete blank as he assumes prior to Vikramāditya. But the general state of affairs is such as is depicted in the ingenious article referred to. The sixth and seventh centuries were eras that introduced modern literature under liberal native princes, who were sometimes not Rājputs at all. Roughly speaking, one may reckon from 500 B.C. to the Christian era as a period of Buddhistic control, Graeco-Bactrian invasion, and Brahmanic decline. The first five centuries after the Christian see the two religions in a state of equilibrium, under Scythian control, and the Mahā-Bhārata, the expanded Bhārata, is written. From 500 to 1000 is an era of native rulers, Brahmanic revival in its pure form, and Hindu growth, with little trouble from the Mohammedans. Then for five centuries the horrors of Moslem conquest.

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Save in details, even the special ‘faith-scriptures’ called Tantras go no further than go the Purānas in advocating the cult of their particular divinities. And to this advocacy of special gods all else in this class of writings is subordinated. The ideal Purāna is divided into five parts, cosmogony, new creations, genealogies of gods and heroes, manvantaras (descriptions of periodic ‘ages,’ past and future), and dynasties of kings. But no extant Purāna is divided thus. In the epic the doctrine of trinitarianism is barely formulated. Even in the Harivança, or Genealogy, *vaṅça*, of Vishnu, there is no more than an inverted triunity, ‘one form, three gods,’ where, in reality, all that is insisted upon is the identity of Vishnu and Çiva, Brahmā being, as it were, perfunctorily added.¹ In the Purānas, on the other hand, while the trinity is acknowledged, religion is resolved again into a sort of sectarian monotheism, where the devotee seems to be in the midst of a squabbling horde of temple-priests, each fighting for his own idol. In the calmer aspects of religion, apart from sectarian schism, these writings offer, indeed, much that is of second-rate interest, but little that is of real value. The idle speculations in regard to former divinities are here made cobweb thin. The philosophy is not new, nor is the spirit of religion raised, even in the most inspired passages, to the level which it has reached in the Divine Song. Some of these Purāṇas, of which eighteen chief are cited, but with an unknown number of subordinate works,¹ may claim a respectable age; many of them are the most wretched stuff imaginable, bearing about the same literary and historical relation to earlier models as do the later legal Smritis. In fact, save for their religious (sectarian) purport, the Purāṇas for sections together do not differ much in content from legal Smritis, out of which some may have been evolved, though, probably, they were from their inception legendary rather than didactic. It is more probable, therefore, that they appropriated Smriti material just as they did epic material; and though it is now received opinion that legal Smritis are evolved out of Sūtras, this yet can be the case only with the oldest, even if the statement then can be accepted in an unqualified form. In our own opinion it is highly probable that Purāṇas and later legal Smritis are divergent developments from the same source.² One gives an account of creation, and proceeds to tell about the social side; the other sticks to the accounts of creation, goes on to theology, takes up tales of heroes, introduces speculation, is finally wrenched over to and amplified by sectarian writers, and so presents a composite that resembles epic and law, and yet is generally religious and speculative.

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¹ Har. 10,662. Compare the laudation of ‘the two gods’ in the same section.

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¹ As the Jains have Angas and Upāṅgas, and as the pseudo-epic distinguishes Nishads and Upanishads, so the Brahman has Purāṇas and Upapurāṇas (Kūrma Purāṇa, i. p. 3). Some of the sects acknowledge only six Purāṇas as orthodox.

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² As an example of a Puranic Smriti (legal) we may cite the trash published as the Vṛddha-Hārīta-Saṃhitā Here there is polemic against Çiva; one must worship Jagannāth with flowers, and every one must be branded with the Vishnu disc (cakra). Even women and slaves are to use mantras, etc.

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A striking instance of this may be seen in the law-book of ‘Vishnu.’ Here there is an old base of legal lore, Sūtra, interlarded with Puranic material, and built up with sectarianism. The writer is a Vishnuite, and while recognizing the trinity, does not hesitate to make his law command offerings to Krishna Vāsudeva, and his family (Pradyumna, Aniruddha), along with the regular Brahmanic oblations to older spirits.¹ Brahmanism recognized Hindu deities as subordinate powers at an early date, at least as early as the end of the Sūtra period; while Manu not only recognizes Vishnu and Çiva (Hara), but recommends an oblation to Çrī and Kālī (Bhadrakālī, here, as elsewhere, is Durgā).²

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¹ The lateness of this law-book is evident from its advocacy of suttee (xxv. 14), its preference for female ancestors (see below), etc.

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² Manu, iii. 89; xii. 121.

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In their original form the Purāṇas were probably Hesiodic in a great extent, and doubtless contained much that was afterwards specially developed in more prolix form in the epic itself. But the works that are come down as Purāṇas are in general of later sectarian character, and the epic language, phraseology, and descriptions of battles are more likely taken straight from the epic than preserved from ante-epic times. Properly speaking one ought to give first place to the Purāṇas that are incorporated into the epic. The epic Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, for instance, is probably a good type of one of the earlier works that went by this name. That the present Purāṇas are imitations of the epic, in so far as they treat of epic topics, may be presumed from the fact that although they often have the formulae intact of the battlefield,³ yet do they not remain by epic descriptions but add weapons, etc., of more modern date than are employed in the original.⁴

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³ As, for example, in Kūrma Purāṇa, xvi. p. 186, where is found a common epic verse description of battle.

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⁴ A good instance of this is found in Brihan Nāradīya Purāṇa, x., where the churikā and drughaṇa (24) appear in an imitative scene of this sort; one of these being later, the other earlier, than the epic vocabulary.

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The sectarian monotheism of the Purāṇas never resulted in dispensing with the pantheon. The Hindu monotheist is a pantheist, and whether sectarian or philosophical, he kept and added to his pantheon.¹ Indra is still for warriors, Maruts for husbandmen, although old views shift somewhat. So for example, in the Kūrma Purāṇa the Gandharvas are added for the Ṣūdras.² The fourfoldness, which we have shown in the epic to be characteristic of Vishnu, is now represented by the military epithet *caturvyūhas* (agmen quadratum), in that the god represents peace, wisdom, support, and renunciation; though, as a matter of fact, he is *avyūha*, *i.e.*, without any of these.³ Starting with the physical ‘god of the four quarters,’ one gets even in the epic the ‘controller of four,’ or perfect person, conceived like ἀνὴρ τετράγωνος. Tennyson’s ‘four-square to all the winds that blow’ is a good connecting link in the thought. The Purāṇas are a mine of legend, although most of the stories seem to be but epic tales, more or less distorted. Nala ‘the great-great-grandson of Rāma’ is described after the history of Rāma himself; the installation of Pūru, when his father had passed over his eldest son, and such reminiscences of the epic are the stock in trade of the legendary writers.⁴

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¹ Perhaps the most striking distinction between Vedic and Puranic, or, one may say, Indic Aryan and Hindu religions, is the emphasis laid in the former upon Right; in the latter, upon idols. The Vedic religion insists upon the law of right (order), that is, the sacrifice; but it insists also upon right as rectitude, truth, holiness. Puranic Hinduism insists upon its idols; only incidentally does it recommend rectitude, truth, abstract holiness.

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² KP. i. p. 29.

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³ Kūrma, xii. p. 102. Contrast *ib.* xxii. p. 245, *caturvyūhadharo Vishnur avyūhas procyate* (elsewhere *navavyūha*). Philosophically, in the doctrine of the epic Pāñcarātras (still held by some sectaries), Vishnu is to be revered as Krishna, Balarāma, Pradyumna, Aniruddha (Krishna’s brother, son, and grandson), representing, respectively, *ātmā*, *jīva*, supreme and individual spirit, perception, and consciousness. Compare Mbhā. xii. 340. 8, 72.

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⁴ KP. xxi. p. 236; xxii. p. 238, etc.

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The origin of the four castes;⁵ the descriptions of hell, somewhat embellished,¹ where the ‘sinful are cooked in fire’;² the exaltation of Vishnu as Krishna or Rāma in one, and that of Çiva in another — these and similar aspects are reflections of epic matter, spirit, tone, and language, only the faith is still fiercer in religious matters, and the stories are fainter in historical references. According to the Purāna last cited: “There is no expiation for one that bows to a phallic emblem,” *i.e.*, Çivaite, and “all the Bāuddhas are heretics”;³ and according to the Kūrma Purāna: “Vishnu is the divinity of the gods; Çiva, of the devils,” although the preceding verses teach, in the spirit of the Divine Song, that each man’s divinity is that which he conceives to be the divinity. Such is the concluding remark made by Vasistha in adjudicating the strife between the Vishnuite and Çivaite sectaries of the epic heroes.⁴ The relation that the Puranic literature bears to religion in the minds of its authors is illustrated by the remark of the Nāradīya to the effect that the god is to be honored “by song, by music, by dance, and by recounting the Purānas” (xvii. 9).

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⁵ *Ib.* i. p. 23.

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¹ Compare Brihan Nāradīya Purāna. xiv. 10, *bahūni kāṣṭhayāntrāṇi* (torture machines) in hell. The old tale of Nāciketas is retold at great length in the Varāha Purāna. The oldest Purāna, the Mārkandeya, has but seven hells, a conception older than Manu’s twenty-one (compare on MP. x. 80 ff., Scherman, *loc. cit.* p. 33), or the later lists of thousands. The Padma Purāna, which celebrates Rāma, has also seven hells, and is in part old, for it especially extols Pushkara (Brahmā’s lone shrine); but it recommends the *taptamudra*, or branding with hot iron.

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² Nār. xiv. 2.

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³ xiv. 54 and 70.

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⁴ KP. xxii. pp. 239-241.

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Some of the epic religious ceremonies which there are barely alluded to are here described with almost the detail of a technical handbook. So the Nāradīya (xix.) gives an elaborate account of the raising of a *dhvaja* or standard as a religious ceremony.⁵ The legal rules affecting morality and especially caste-intercourse⁶ show a laxity in regard to the rules as formerly preached. Even the old Puranic form of the epic is reproduced, as when Mārkaṇḍeya converses again with Yudhis-tris, exactly as he does in the epic.¹ The duration of the ages; the fruit of sacrifices, among which are still mentioned the rājasūya, aṣvamedha, and other ancient rites;² the virtue of holy-places;³ the admixture of pure pantheism with the idea of a personal creation⁴ — these traits are again just those which have been seen already in the epic, nor is the addition of sections on temple-service, or other more minute details of the cult, of particular importance in a history of religious ideas.

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⁵ As will be shown below, it is possible that this may be a ceremony first taken from the wild tribes. See the ‘pole’ rite described above in the epic.

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⁶ Compare for instance *ib.* xxviii. 68, on the strange connection of a Çūdrā wife of a Guru.

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¹ KP. xxxvi. It is of course impossible to say how much epic material is come from the literary epic and how much is drawn from popular poetry, for the vulgar had their own epoidic songs which may have treated of the same topics. Thus even a wild tribe (Gonds) is credited with an ‘epic.’ But such stuff was probably as worthless as are the popular songs of to-day.

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² KP. xxx. p. 305; xxxvii. p. 352.

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³ Ib. p. 355.

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⁴ Compare Nāradīya, xi. 23, 27, 31 ‘the one whom no one knows,’ ‘he that rests in the heart,’ ‘he that seems to be far off because we do not know,’ ‘he whose form is Çiva, lauded by Vishnu,’ xiii. 201.

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The Purāṇas for our present purpose may all be grouped with the remark that what is ancient in them is a more or less fugitive resemblance to the epic style and matter;⁵ what is new is the more pronounced sectarianism with its adventitious growth of subordinate spiritualities and exaggerated miracles. Thus for instance in the Varāha Purāṇa there are eleven, in the Bhāgavat Purāṇa twenty (instead of the older ten) avatars of Vishnu. So too the god of love — although Kāma and his dart are recognized in the late Atharvan — as a petty spirit receives homage only in the latest Sūtra (as Cupid, Āpastamba, ii. 2. 4. 1), and in late additions to the epic he is a little god; whereas in the drama he is prominent, and in the Purāṇas his cult is described at length (though to-day he has no temple). The ‘mother’-fiend Pūtanā, who suckles babes to slay them, is scarcely known to the early epic, but she is a very real personality in the late epic and Purānas.

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⁵ Even Vishnu as a part of a part of the Supreme Spirit in VP. is indicated by Vishnu’s adoration of ātma in the epic (see above).

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The addition to the trinity of the peculiar inferior godhead that is advocated in any one Purāna, virtually making four divinities, is characteristic of the period.

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In proportion as sectarian ardor is heightened religious tone is lowered. The Puranic votary clinging to his one idea of god curses all them that believe in other aspects of the divinity. Blind bigotry fills the worshipper’s soul. Religion becomes mere fanaticism. But there is also tolerance. Sometimes in one and the same Purāna rival forms are honored. The modern Hindu sects are in part the direct development of Puranic doctrine. But most of the sects of to-day are of very recent date, though their principles are often of respectable antiquity, as are too their sectarian signs, as well as the animals of their gods, some of which appear to be totems of the wild tribes, while others are merely objects of reverence among certain tribes. Thus the ram and the elephant are respectively the ancient beasts of Agni and Indra. Çiva has the bull; his spouse, the tiger. Earth and Skanda have appropriated the peacock, Skanda having the cock also. Yama has the buffalo (compare the Khond, wild-tribe, substitution of a buffalo for a man in sacrifice). Love has the parrot, etc.; while the boar and all Vishnu’s animals in avatars are holy, being his chosen beasts.¹

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¹ Compare Williams’ *Brahmanism and Hinduism*.

Early Sects

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A classification of older sects (the unorthodox) than those of the present remains to us from the works of Çankara’s reputed disciple, Ānanda Giri, and of Mādhava Ācārya, the former a writer of the ninth, the latter of the fourteenth century. According to the statements made by these writers there were a great number of sects, regarded as partly heterodox or wholly so, and it is interesting in examining the list of these to see that some of the epic sects (their names at least) are still in full force, while on the other hand the most important factions of to-day are not known at all; and that many sects then existed which must have been at that time of great antiquity, although now they have wholly passed away.¹ These last are indeed to the author of the critique of the sects not wholly heterodox. They are only too emphatic, in worshipping their peculiar divinity, to suit the more modern conceptions of the Hindu reviewer. But such sects are of the highest importance, for they show that despite all the bizarre bigotry of the Purāṇas the old Vedic gods (as in the epic) still continue to hold their own, and had their own idols and temples apart from other newer gods. The Vedic divinities, the later additions in the shape of the god of love, the god of wealth, Kubera,² the heavenly bird, Garuda, the world-snake, Çesha, together with countless genii, spirits, ghosts, the Manes, the heavenly bodies, stars, etc., all these were revered, though of less importance than the gods of Vishnuite and Çivaite sects. Among these latter the Çivaite sects are decidedly of less interest than the corresponding Vishnuite heresies, while the votaries of Brahmā (exclusively) are indeed mentioned, but they cannot be compared with those of the other two great gods.³ To-day there is scarcely any homage paid to Brahmā, and it is not probable that there ever was the same devotion or like popularity in his case as in the case of his rivals. Other interesting sects of this period are the Sun-worshippers, who still exist but in no such numbers as when Ānanda Giri counted six formal divisions of them. The votaries of these sub-sects worshipped some, the rising sun, some, the setting sun, while some again worshipped the noonday sun, and others, all three as a tri-mūrti. Another division worshipped the sun in anthropomorphic shape, while the last awakens the wrath of the orthodox narrator by branding themselves with hot irons.¹

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¹ Çankara's adherents are chiefly Çivaite, but he himself was not a sectary. Williams says that at the present day few worship Çiva exclusively, but he has more partial adherents than has Vishnu. *Religious Thought and Life*, pp. 59, 62.

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² The two last are just recognized in Brahmanic legal works.

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³ See Wilson's sketch of Hindu sects. The author says that there were in his day two shrines to Brahmā, one in Ājmīr (compare Pushkara in the epic), and one on the Ganges at Bithur. The Brahma Purāṇa is known also as Sāura (sun). This is the first in the list; in its present state it is Vishnuite.

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¹ Sun-worship (Iranian?) is especially pronounced in the Bhavishya(t) Purāna. Of the other Purānas the Linga is especially Çivaite (linga is phallus), as are the Matsya and older Vāyu. Sometimes Çiva is androgynous, *ardhanārīçvara*, ‘half-female.’ But most of the Purānas are Vishnuite.

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Ganeça,² the lord of Çiva's hosts, had also six classes of worshippers; but he has not now as he then had a special and peculiar cult, though he has many temples in Benares and elsewhere. Of the declared Çivaite sects of that day, six are mentioned, but of these only one survives, the ‘wandering’ Jangamas of South India, the Çivaite Rāudras, Ugras, Bhāktas, and Pāçupatis having yielded to more modern sectaries.

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² On the Ganeça Purāna see JRAS. 1846, p. 319.

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Some at least among the six sects of the Vishnuite sects, which are described by the old writers, appear to have been more ancient. Here too one finds Bhāktas, and with them the Bhāgavatas, the old Pāñcarātras, the ‘hermit’ Vāikhānasas, and Karmahīnas, the latter “having no rites.” Concerning these sects one gets scanty but direct information. They all worshipped Vishnu under one form or another, the Bhāktas as Vāsudeva, the Bhāgavatas³ as Bhagavat. The latter resembled the modern disciples of Rāmānuja and revered the holy-stone, appealing for authority to the Upanishads and to the Bhagavad Gītā, the Divine Song. Some too worshipped Vishnu exclusively as Nārāyaṇa, and believed in a heaven of sensual delights. The other sects, now extinct, offer no special forms of worship. What is historically most important is that in this list of sects are found none that particularly worship the popular divinities of to-day, no peculiar cult of Krishna as an infant and no monkey-service.

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³ The worshippers of Bhagavat were originally distinct from the Pāñcarātras, but what was the difference between them is unknown. The sect of this name in the pseudo-epic is not Çākta in expression but only monotheistic. Probably the names of many sects are retained with altered beliefs and practices. The Vishnu Purāna, i. 11. 54, gives a model prayer which may be taken once for all as the attitude of the Vishnuite: “Glory to Vāsudeva, him of perfected wisdom, whose unrevealed form is (known as) Brahmā, Vishnu, and Çiva” (Hiraṇyagarbha, Purusha, Pradhāna).

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Infidel sects are numerous in this period, of which sects the worst in the old writers' opinion is the sensual Cārvāka. Then follow the (Buddhist) Çūnyavāds, who believe in ‘void,’ and Sāugatas, who believe that religion consists only in kindness, the Kshapanakas, and the Jains. The infamous ‘left-hand’ sectaries are also well known.

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To one side of the Puranic religions, from the earlier time of which comes this account of heresies, reference has been made above: the development of the fables in regard to the infant Krishna. That the cult is well known in the later Purāṇas and is not mentioned in this list of wrong beliefs seems to show that the whole cult is of modern growth, even if one does not follow Weber in all his signs of modification of the older practice.

Religious Festivals

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For the history of the cult there is in these works much to interest one in the description and determination of popular festivals in honor of the great sectarian gods. Further details of more specific nature are given in other works which need not here be regarded. By far the most important of these festivals are those that seem to have been absorbed by the sectarian cults, although they were originally more popular. Weber in the paper on the rājasūya, to which we have had occasion several times to refer, has shown that a popular element abided long in the formal celebrations of the Brahmanic ritual.¹

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¹ Weber shows for instance, loc. cit., that Indra takes the place of older Varuna; that the house-priest yields to the Brahmā; that in this feast in honor of the king he

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Undoubtedly the original celebration was a popular one. Today the most interesting of these popular fêtes is in all respects the New Year’s Festival and the Spring Festival. The latter has been cut up into several parts, and to show the whole intent of the original ceremonial it is necessary to take up the *disjecta membra* and place them side by side, as has been done by Wilson, whose sketch of these two festivals, together with that by Gover of the New Year’s Feast called Pongol, we give in abstract, premising that, however close be the comparison with European festivals of like nature, we doubt whether there is any historical connection between them and the Hindu celebrations.

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We begin with the more popular New Year’s, the Pongol:¹ The interesting feature of this South India festival is that the Hindus have done their best to alter its divinities and failed. They have, indeed, for Indra and Agni got Krishna formally accepted as the god in whose honor it is supposed to be held, but the feast remains a native festival, and no one really thinks of the Puranic gods in connection with it. Europe also has seen such dynamic alterations of divinities in cases where feasts would persist till patrons of an orthodox kind were foisted upon them to give an air of propriety to that which remained heathenish.² The Pongol is a New Year’s festival lasting for three days. The first day is for Indra; the second, for (Agni) Sūrya;³ the third (to which is

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¹ Gover, *JRAS.* v. 91; *IA.* xx. 430.

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² In Hinduism itself there is a striking example of this. The Jagannāth (‘Juggernaut’) temple was once dedicated to Buddha as *loka-nāth* or *jagan-nāth*, ‘saviour of the world.’ Name, temple, and idol-car are now all Vishnu’s!

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³ That is, Rain and Sun, for all Indra’s warlike qualities are forgotten, absorbed into those of Çiva and his son, the battle-god. The sun crosses the equator at noon of the second day, the ‘Mahā Pongol.’

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is soundly beaten; that gaming creeps into the ceremony as a popular aspect; that there was a special ceremony to cure *katzenjammer* caused by over-drinking; and that the whole ceremony was a popular spring festival, such as is found to-day (but without the royal part in the play).

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added, as a wind-up, a fourth day), for cattle. The whole feast is a harvest-home and celebration of cattle. The chief ceremony is the cooking of rice, which is put to boil with great solemnity, and luck for the next year is argued from its boiling well. If it does so a universal shout arises,¹ all rush about, congratulate, and give presents to each other, and merry-making follows. On the cattle-days the beasts are led about with painted horns and decorated with ribbons, and are then chased and robbed by the boys. The image of Ganeça is the only one seen, and his worship is rather perfunctory. On the evening of the last day the women have a party, paying obeisance to a peacock, and indulging in a family reunion of very simple character. On this occasion the girl-wife may return for a few hours to her mother. It is the only general fête for women during the year.

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¹ "Now every neck is bent, for the surface of the water is disturbed. Then with a heave, a hiss, and a surge of bubbles, the seething milk mounts to the top of the vessel. Before it has had time to run down the blackened sides, the air resounds with the sudden joyous cry of 'Pongol, oh Pongol, Sūrya, Sūrya, oh Pongol.' The word Pongol means "boiling," from the Tamil word pongu, to boil; so that the joyous shout is, 'It boils, oh Sūrya, it boils.' In a moment a convulsion of greetings animates the assembly. Every one seizes his neighbor and asks, 'Has it boiled?' Both faces gleam with delight as the answer comes — 'It has boiled.' Then both shout at the top of their voices — 'Oh Pongol, Pongol, oh Sūrya, oh Indra, Pongol, Pongol.'" Gover, loc. cit.

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Not unlike this festival of the extreme south is the New Year's celebration at the mouth of the Ganges. Here there is a grand fair and jewels are cast into the river as propitiation to the river-goddess. Not long ago it was quite customary to fling children also into the river, but this usage has now been abolished.² Offerings are made to the Manes, general and particular, and to the All-gods. As with the Pongol, the feast is one of good-fellowship where presents are distributed, and its limit is the end of the third day. After this the festivities have no religious character. Thousands of pilgrims assemble for this fête. Wilson, who gives an account of this celebration, compares the ancient Roman New Year’s, with the *mutui amoris pignora* which were sent at that season. The gifts in India are sweetmeats and other delicacies, ominous of good for the next year.¹

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² The crocodile, makara, like the parrot, is sacred to Kāmadeva, Love. But as Ganges also is holy it is difficult to say for which divinity the offering was intended. Some, indeed, interpret makara as dolphin.

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¹ A feast now neglected, though kept up by strict Brahmans, occurs on or about the 20th January. The orthodox adherents of the Çivaite sects and Çāktas also observe it. It is a Çrāddha, or funeral feast to the Manes. Also on the 26th and 30th January there are rites nearly obsolete, the first being signalized by offerings to Yama; the second, a Çivaite feast (to his spouse, as ‘giver of bridegrooms’). The last is more celebrated in the South than in the North. It is interesting chiefly as a parallel to St. Valentine’s day, or, as Wilson says, the nearer feast of St. Agnes (21st January), on the eve of which divination is practiced to discover future husbands. It is this time also that the Greeks call ‘marriage-month’ (Gamelion); and the fourth day from the new moon (which gives the name to this Hindu festival, *caturthī*, “fourth day”) is the day when Hesiod recommends the bringing home of the bride.

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On the 2d of February occurs a feast to Çrī, or Lakshmī, Vishnu’s bride, patroness of all prosperity to her worshippers. At present it is a literary festival on which all books, inkstands, pens, etc., are cleaned and worshipped, as adjuncts to Sarasvatī, the goddess of learning. This is rather significant, for Sarasvatī is properly the wife of Brahmā, but the Vishnuites of Bengal have made her the wife of Vishnu, and identified her with Çrī. It is to be noticed that in this sole celebration of abstract learning and literature there is no recognition of Çiva, but rather of his rival. Çiva and Gaṇeça are revered because they might impede, not because, as does Sarasvatī, they further literary accomplishment. Sarasvatī is almost the only fair goddess. She is represented not as a horror, but as a beautiful woman sitting on a lotus, graceful in shape, a crescent on her brow.² The boys, too, celebrate the day with games, bat and ball, prisoner’s base, and others “of a very European character.” The admixture of sectarian cults is shown by the transference to this Vishnuite feast of the Çivaite (Durgā) practice of casting into the river the images of the goddess.¹ When applied distinctly to Sarasvatī the feast is observed in August-September; when to Lakshmī, in October-November, or in February. There is, however, another feast, celebrated in the North and South, which comes on the exact date fixed by the Romans for the beginning of spring, and as an ending to this there is a feast to Kāma, Cupid, and his bride Rati (‘Enjoyment’). This is the Vasanta, or spring festival of prosperity and love, which probably was the first form of the Lakshmī-Sarasvatī feast.

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² In case any writing has to be done on this day it is done with chalk, not with the pens, “which have a complete holiday” (Wilson).

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¹ The invocations show very well how the worship of Brahmā has been driven out in honor of his more powerful rivals. For Sarasvatī is invoked first as “Thou without whom Brahmā never lives”; but again as “Thou of eight forms, Lakshmī, Medhā, Dhavā, Pushtī, Gāurī, Tushtī, Prabhā, Dhriti, O Sarasvatī.” The great festivals, like the great temples, are not very stricty sectarian. Williams says that in Çiva’s temple in Benares are kept monkeys (sacred to Vishnu).

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Another traditional feast of this month is the 10th² (the eleventh lunar day of the light half of Māgha). The eleventh lunar day is particularly holy with the Vishnuites, as is said in the Brahma Purāna, and this is a Vishnuite festival. It is a day of fasting and prayer, with presents to priests.³ It appears to be a mixture of Vedic prayers and domestic Vishnu-worship. On the 11th of February the fast is continued, and in both the object is expiation of sin. The latter is called the feast of ‘six sesamum acts,’ for sesamum is a holy plant, and in each act of this rite it plays a part. Other rites of this month are to the Manes on the 14th, 22d, and 24th of February. Bathing and oblation are requisite, and all are of a lustral and expiatory nature. Wilson remarks on the fact that it is the same time of year in which the Romans gave oblations to the Manes, and that Februus is the god of purification. “There can be no reasonable doubt that the Feralia of the Romans and the Ṣrāddha (feast to the Manes) of the Hindus, the worship of the Pitris and of the Manes, have a common character, and had a common origin.”¹

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² Between this and the last occur minor holidays, one to avert small-pox; one (February the 4th) sacred to the sun (Sunday, the seventh day of each lunar fortnight, is strictly observed); and one to the Manes.

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³ Fasting is not necessarily a part of civilized religion alone. It is found in the Brahmanic and Hindu cults, but it obtains also among the American Indians. Thus the Dacotahs fast for two or three days at the worship of sun and moon. Schoolcraft, Histor. and Statist., iii. 227.

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¹ The last clause (meaning ‘common historical origin’) were better omitted. ² Except the mystic syllable *Ōm*, supposed to represent the trinity (*Ōm* is *a, u, m*), though probably it was originally only an exclamation. ³ A small Vishnu festival in honor of Vishnu as ‘man-lion’ (one of his ten *avatars*) is celebrated on the 13th of March; but in Bengal in honor of the same god as a cow-boy. On the 15th of March there is another minor festival in Bengal, but it is to Ṣiva, or rather to one of his hosts, under the form of a water pot (that is to preserve from disease).

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The 27th of February is the greatest Ṣivaite day in the year. It celebrates Ṣiva’s first manifestation of himself in phallic form. To keep this day holy expiates from all sin, and secures bliss hereafter. The worshipper must fast and revere the Linga. Offerings are made to the Linga. It is, of course, a celebration formed of unmeaning repetitions of syllables and the invocation of female Ṣaktis, snapping the fingers, gesticulating, and performing all the humbug called for by Ṣivaite worship. The Linga is bathed in milk, decorated, wrapped in *bilva* leaves, and prayed to; which ceremony is repeated at intervals with slight changes. All castes, even the lowest, join in the exercises. Even women may use the *mantras*.² Vigil and fasting are the essentials of this worship.³

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The next festival closes these great spring celebrations. It bears two names, and originally was a double feast, the first part being the Dolā Yātrā, or ‘Swing-procession,’ the second part being the execrable Holi. They are still kept distinct in some places, and when this occurs the Dolotsava, or Dolā Yātrā, follows the Holi. They are both spring festivals, and answer roughly to May-day, though in India they come at the full moon of March. We have followed Wilson’s enumeration of all the minor spring feasts, that they may be seen in their entirety. But in ancient times there was probably one long Vasantotsava (spring-festival), which lasted for weeks, beginning with a joyous celebration (2d of February) and continuing with lustral ceremonies, as indicated by the now detached feast days already referred to. The original cult, in Wilson's opinion, has been changed, and the Dolā Yātrā is now given over to the Krishna-cult, while the Holī divinity is a hobgoblin. The Dolā Yātrā begins with fasting and ends (as Holī) with fire-worship. An image of Krishna is sprinkled with red powder (abīr), and after this (religious) ceremony a bonfire¹ is made, and an effigy, Holikā, is put upon it and burned. The figure is carried to the fire in a religious procession headed by Vishnuite or Brahman priests, of course accompanied with music and song. After seven circumambulations of the fire the figure is burned. This is the united observance of the first day.

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At dawn on the morning of the second day the image of Krishna is placed in a swing, dolā, and swung back and forth a few times, which ceremony is repeated at noon and at sunset. During the day, wherever a swing is put up, and in the vicinity, it is the common privilege to sprinkle one's friend with the red powder or red rose-water. Boys and common people run about the streets sprinkling red water or red powder over all passengers, and using abusive (obscene) language. The cow-herd caste is conspicuous at this ceremony. The cow-boys, collecting in parties under a koryphaios, hold, as it were, a komos, leaping, singing, and dancing² through the streets, striking together the wands which they carry. These cow-boys not only dress (as do others) in new clothes on this occasion,³ but they give their cattle new equipments, and regard the whole frolic as part of a religious rite in honor of Krishna, the cow-herd. But all sects take part in the performance (that is to say, in the Holī portion), both Çivaites and Vishnuites. When the moon is full the celebration is at its height. Holī songs are sung, the crowd throws abīr, the chiefs feast, and an all-night orgy ends the long carousal.¹ In the south the Dolā takes place later, and is distinct from the Holī. The burning here is of Kāma, commemorating the love-god's death by the fire of Çiva's eye, when the former pierced the latter's heart, and inflamed him with love. For this reason the bonfire is made before a temple of Çiva.

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Kāma is gone from the northern cult, and in upper India only a hobgoblin, Holī, a foul she-devil, is associated with the rite. The whole performance is described and prescribed in one of the late Purānas.² In some parts of the country the bonfire of the Holī is made about a tree, to which offerings are made, and afterwards the whole is set on fire. For a luminous account of the Holī, which is perhaps the worst open rite of Hinduism, participated in by all sects and classes, we may cite the words of the author of *Ante-Brahmanical Religions*: "It has been termed the Saturnalia or Carnival of the Hindus. Verses the most obscene imaginable are ordered to be read on the occasion. Figures of men and women, in the most indecent and disgusting attitudes, are in many places openly paraded through the streets; the most filthy words are uttered by persons who, on other occasions, would think themselves disgraced by the use of them; bands of men parade the street with their clothes all bespattered with a reddish dye; dirt and filth are thrown upon all that are seen passing along the road; all business is at a stand, all gives way to license and riot.”¹

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¹ The bonfire is made of fences, doorposts, furniture, etc. Nothing once seized and devoted to the fire may be reclaimed, but the owner may defend his property if he can. Part of the horse-play at this time consists in leaping over the fire, which is also ritualistic with some of the hill-tribes.

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² Compare the Nautch dances on Rāmacandra's birthday. Religious dances, generally indecent, are also a prominent feature of the religions of the wild tribes (as among American and African savages, Greeks, etc., etc.).

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³ The 'Easter bonnet' in Indic form.

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¹ In sober contrast stands the yearly orthodox Çrāddha celebration (August-September), though Brahmans join in sectarian fêtes.

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² Wilson draws an elaborate parallel between the Holī and the Lupercalia, etc. (Carnival). But the points of contact are obvious. One of the customs of the Holī celebration is an exact reproduction of April-Fool's day. Making "Holī fools" is to send people on useless errands, etc. (Festum Stultorum, at the Vernal Equinox, transferred by the Church to the first of November, "Innocents' Day").

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¹ Stevenson, JRAS. 1841, p. 239; Williams, *loc. cit.*; Wilkins, *Modern Hinduism*, ch. iii.

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