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RELIGION AMONG THE GREEKS.
a Sanskr. ahand, tlie “ dawning,” and Athenaia to ahania, the “ day-bright,” as Max Muller supposes, we should have to regard her also as an Indo-Germanic goddess. The adoption of foreign elements into the conception of her becomes probable when it is considered that a Pheni- cian Atbenl was worshipped on the Isthmus, and that she came from Salamis to Attica, and it is made further evi- dent by a comparison of her attributes and cultus with those of the Phenician Tanith.
On the whole subject of this section compare the very interesting essay of E. Curtius, “ Die Griechische Gotter- lehre vom Geschiclitlichen Standpunkt,” in the Preuss. Jahrbb., July 1875, though some of the conclusions must be accepted with reserve.
124. The poetic and philosophical feeling of this richly- endowed people, the creative power of the Greek mind, is displayed, for instance, in their treatment of the myth of Prometheus, which became in their hands the vehicle for profound and elevated thoughts, or in the manner in which they raised the nature-myths of Demeter and Persephone to be the expression of a genuine human feeling, and ennobled the mystic significance which had already been attached to it in other lands. But it no- where comes more clearly into view than in a comparison of deities such as Hermes or Aphrodite with the divine beings of Indo-Germanic or Semitic origin, from which they have sprung. Hermes or Hermeias, once the hound of the gods, the god of the wind and the changes of light and darkness which it produces, the great enchanter and conductor of souls, becomes among the Greeks the mes- senger and right hand of Zeus, the mediator between him and men, the ideal herald, the god of graceful speed, of TREATMENT OF NATURE-MYTHS.
-II
music, of eloquence, and philosophy. Aphrodite is no other than the Plienician and Mesopotamian AstartS ('Aslitoreth, Istar), but while it was the aim of philo- sophy to infuse a deeper meaning into the naturalistic myths of her birth out of the waters, her sovereignty over the monsters of the ocean, and her intercourse wTith Adonis, they were transformed by Greek poetry and art into the loveliest of images, and she herself, though retaining many features which recalled her origin, was raised to be the goddess of beauty and grace, of spring and flowers, of family peace and social harmony.
Hermeias is identical with S&ranieyas, the name of the two dogs of Yama, the god of death, the mythic watch- dogs in the Veda. Max Muller doubts whether Saramd, their mother, the messenger of Indra, who goes to fetch back the stolen cows, was a dog. But the Sdrameyau certainly were so. Hermes possesses no Semitic trait. His original physical significance as a god of wind perfectly explains all the myths about him, such as the stealing of Apollo’s cows, the slaying of Argus, his combat with Stentor, and all his attributes, as guardian of the flocks (the clouds), guide of the shades, herald of the gods, god of music and eloquence, his magic power, his swift- footedhess, &c. As god of eloquence, he naturally became in Greece the god of philosophy as well.
That the Greeks originally possessed a goddess of spring, beauty, and love, of their own, whose name, however, disappeared, is highly probable; indeed, the Latin Venus may be said to prove it. Aphrodite, how- ever, whose name is perhaps a corruption of 'Atliar atha, is certainly the Phenician goddess of Cyprus and Cythera, who passed from there to the Greeks, bringing with her Kinyras, Adonis, and Pygmalion. But all these myths, 212
RELIGION AMONG THE GREEKS.
which were once coarsely sensual, and for the most part cosmogonic, were touched with the magic wand of their poetry.
125. The first-fruits of this mingling of the Phenician, Phrygian, and Hellenic elements was the brilliant civili- sation which preceded that of Greece proper, and spread over the whole of the west coast of Asia Minor and Crete. It was the era when the old Lydian supremacy flourished, together with Troas and Lycia, and the powerful kingdom in Crete named after Minos. There it was, and then, that the Greek mind first gave signs of possessing sufficient strength to appropriate the Semitic elements independently, and endow them with a new form. Then it was that the myth of Zeus received its shape in Crete, and his cultus was established, in the mode which soon became the pro- perty of all Hellenes, and supplanted that of the Pelasgian Zeus. Then it was that the Greek Herakles arose, pro- bably in Lydia, out of the Assyrian Samdan, brought thither by conquest. Then it was that the knightly people of the Lycians, kinsmen of the Greeks, and their forerunners in civilisation, after coming under the influence of the Semitic spirit, wrought out the noble figure of Apollo, the god of light, the son and prophet of the most high Zeus, saviour, purifier, and redeemer, whose cultus, lifted high above all nature-worship, spread thence over all the lands of Greece, and exerted on the religious, moral, and social life of their inhabitants so profound and salutary an influence.
In Crete, several forms of Phenician cultus still pre- vailed. This is the scene of the chief myths of Zeus, DIFFUSION OF FOREIGN ELEMENTS.
213
which have a Semitic origin. This does not prove that Crete was also the place of their rise, hut simply that they there attained the form which became dominant among the Hellenes.
The mingling of various elements may still be very clearly traced in the Trojan tradition. By the side of the Assyrian names Ilos (Ilv) and Assarakos stand Phry- gian, like Kapys, Dymas, Askanios, and Kasandra, and pure Greek names such as Andromache, Astyanax, and others. Some heroes even bear double names—Paris- Alexandros, Dareios-Hektor—of which only the second are Greek. The first have a pure Eranian form (Paris, from par, “ deserter ”), but they are doubtless really Phrygian, as this language was connected alike with Er&nian and with Greek. On this subject see further Curtius, History of Greece, vol. i. pp. 47-68.
126. Last of all, the higher civilisation made its way to Hellas, Greece proper, both by direct colonisation on the part of the Phenicians, and to a greater extent by Greek settlements from Asia Minor and Crete. The point attained by the religious development of the Acheans, before the supremacy of the Dorians, is shown by the Homeric poems. The gods are no longer half-conscious nature-powers; they are beings possessing moral liberty and freedom of action like men—they are in the same way subject to pain and grief, and they are obliged to support life by food. But their food is of a heavenly kind, which secures them immortality; in theory, at least, all things are known and possible to them, and the chief of them rule no more over a limited realm. Although they are not themselves raised above passions and selfish desires, they are nevertheless the guardians and avengers 214
RELIGION AMONG THE GREEKS.
of the moral order of the world, the violation of which excites their wrath more than an injury offered to them- selves. The world of the gods is arranged after the pattern of the households of earth. To the council (/3o\IKy\) of the kings, mustered round their leader, corre- sponds the assembly of the high Olympian gods, under the presidency of Zeus, their superior, not by privilege of birth, but, like the chief of the princes of the earth, by his greater power and ability. The popular assembly (dyopd) has its heavenly counterpart in the convocation of all divine beings on certain occasions to learn the will of the king. Their supremacy is established; the contest with the rude powers of nature has long been finished, and they have been subdued for ever. In this respect they have advanced beyond the Yedic and Germanic gods.
On this and the following sections compare. Nagelsbach,
Homerische Theologie.
Between the religion of the Acheans and their adver- saries, the Dardanians, there is no essential difference. But the gods which protect the latter stand, like their heroes, at a perceptibly higher level than those of the former, which correctly commemorates the fact that the inhabitants of Hellas were still behind those of Asia Minor in civilisation.
The difference between gods and men is very naively indicated, among other signs, by the doctrine that it is no human blood, but a peculiar fluid which runs in
the divine veins.
127. High above all the other gods stands Zeus, whose power is unlimited, who is not bound by any recognised restraint, and is alone not subject to the will of the THE HOMERIC THEOLOGY.
majority. Even his consort Hera, who generally opposes him, can effect nothing but by and with him. Vainly does his brother Poseidon strive to establish similar pre- rogatives. Most closely connected with him are Athena and Apollo, who constitute with him a supreme triad.
As Atheua is the personified Metis, the “ reason,” the wisdom of the divine Father, who withstands him, yet to whom he always yields, Apollo, no less beloved of Zeus, is his mouth, the revealer of his counsel, the son, who, ever and in all things, is of one will with him. For it is one of the features which distinguishes Zeus from the other gods, that he never communicates directly with men, but only through his messengers, Iris or Hermes. In reality, all the gods are little else than representa- tives of Zeus, each in his own realm which he has received from him. Thus, monarchism has touched the borders of monotheism.
The dependence of the gods and of the whole world on Zeus is finely described in the well-known passage, ____ *~27-
The circumstance that Dionysos and Dem6t6r have but little significance in the Homeric poems does not war- rant the conclusion that their worship was not yet generally diffused. But they were chiefly popular 'gods, worshipped by the tillers of the soil, and they did not, therefore, figure in the aristocratic Homeric society.
128. The conviction that the world was not ruled merely by an arbitrary will, was expressed by the doc- trine of destiny (atcra, fioipa), though the representation of it was deficient in clearness, and the question whether the 2:6
RELIGION AMONG THE GREEKS,
supreme god determined the course of destiny, or whether lie, like all the other gods, was subject to it, so that he had only to consult and to execute it, was answered now in one way and now in another. The deity makes known his will to men by personal revelation, by miracles and signs, or by inspiration and dreams, but most clearly of all by his works. Yet the trustworthiness of signs is already called in question, and once even the noble sentiment is uttered that they are insignificant compared with the divine voice in the heart of man, which com- mands him to do right without thought of the conse- quences. Morality and religion are already in intimate connection, but psychology and the belief in immortality still stand on the animistic level.
Zeus and Moira frequently coalesce in the description of the poet; what she does is also ascribed to him and to the other gods; good and evil gifts are allotted by him. On the other hand, he is represented as knowing nothing of the will of destiny by himself; he is obliged to consult it with his scales, and is bound to fulfil it com- pletely.
In the Homeric psychology a noteworthy separation is made between the understanding and the soul
the former of which dies with the body; an idea which we also meet with among the Ilindhs.
Eetribution after death is as yet scarcely mentioned. The shades continue the occupations which they dis- charged during their lifetime: in the kingdom of the departed, Teiresias is still a soothsayer, Minos a judge, Orion a huntsman.
129. The rise of Delphi marks a new and important era in the history of the Greek religion. Dodona con- INFLUENCE OF DELPHI.
217
tinued to be spoken of with reverence, but its influence had long been limited to a small and backward portion of the country. The other religious centre, also, the Thessalian Olympus, was gradually abandoned by the more gifted tribes which had surrounded it, and lay in the midst of a land of barbarians. At Delphi, lying at the foot of Parnassus, there was in existence already before Homer a famous oracle, first of the Earth-goddess, afterwards of the Pythian Apollo ; and it was located in a temple where Zeus and Dionysos were worshipped together with the deities already named. When the Dorians had quitted Thessaly to seek new homes, they attached themselves as ardent worshippers of Apollo to the Delphic sanctuary, and wherever they settled they established the cultus of the Pythian deity. Delphi became the chief seat of a new Amphiktyonic league, and was, in fact, for a considerable time, the centre of the nationality of the Hellenes. The power exercised by the Delphic priesthood in the centuries between the Doric migration and the Persian wars was very great Ho new political institutions, no fresh cultus, no additional games, were established without the sanction of the Pythian oracle, and it was carefully on the watch against the neglect of the old and the introduction of new gods, while it strove to maintain peace between the different Hellenic states. It had its representatives and exponents in the chief cities of the principal states, and foreign princes or states which sought to enter into relations with Greece applied to the Delphic Apollo, who spoke all languages. The colonies, whose despatch was always determined and directed by him, spread his worship far 2iS RELIGION AMONG THE GREEKS.
and near. It was not a new religion, destined to replace the worship of Zens, for Apollo was simply the revealer of his holy will; it was a higher stage Of the development of this same religion, by which some bounds were set to polytheism, and the ethical took the place of the physi- cal. It accepted no outward actions as satisfactory; only with a pure heart might the deity be approached, and self-examination and self-knowledge were the first and loftiest of his demands. The false and double-minded gained no light from Apollo, the evil-doer no help; but / on the weak he bestowed protection, and on the repentant ' grace. Truth and self-control, without self-mortification or renunciation of nature, a steady equilibrium between the sensible and the spiritual, moral earnestness com- bined with an open eye for the happiness and the beauty of life, such were the characteristic features of the Del- phic Apollo-worship, in which the Greek religion almost reached the climax of its development.
Other places besides Delphi served as the centres of these leagues of states; for example, the sanctuary of the Ephesian Artemis.
The legislation bearing the name of Lycurgus originated in Delphi, and received its sanction from there. "When the sanctuary at Olympia in Elis had acquired a higher significance by the protection of Sparta, it was consecrated by the Delphic oracle, and Apollo was placed beside Zeus as the guardian of the Olympic games and institutions.
No Hellenic state might consult the oracle with hostile intentions against another Hellenic state. The memory of a civil war might not be perpetuated at Delphi by any permanent trophies. It was not till the period of decline after the Persian wars that this principle was infringed. INFLUENCE OF DELPHI.
219
It is well known that the Pythian oracle was consulted by Phrygian and Lydian princes, and by Italian peoples, amongst others, even by the Komans. Foreign nations were regarded at Delphi as guests.
For him who approached 'with a pure heart, so it was said, a single drop of the consecrated water of the well of Castalia sufficed; but he who came with an evil mind could not wash away with a whole ocean the pollution of his sin. It was a mark of the ethical character of the Delphic religion that the doctrine of retribution after death accompanied it. This doctrine never, it is true, became really a matter of popular belief among the Greeks, but it was promoted by men of earnest views, and it was proclaimed by poets and sages connected with Delphi, such as Hesiod, Solon, Pythagoras, and Pindar.
130. The general diffusion of civilisation and knowledge among the Greeks, which resulted from their splendid gifts, their love of freedom, and other accessory causes, prevented the rise of a dominant class of priests or literati, like that which existed among the Brahmans. Moreover, the priesthoods were generally in the hands of the nobles, and were not mutually dependent on each other. Priests and prophets (jiavreii), however, received high honour, for it was they who expounded the signs of the divine will, interpreted the utterances of the deity, and bestowed for- giveness of sins. Above all, however, the Delphic priests contrived to maintain their position at the head of civili- sation, and of everything which went on in Greece and the neighbouring states. The form of the ancient oracle uttered by the Pythia in ecstasy was retained, but the real answer was given by them, and as their decisions were as a rule wise and practical, they were largely 220
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CHAPTER Y.
RELIGION AMONG THE INDO-GERMANS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE SEMITES AND HA MITES.
Literature.—M. W. Heffter, Die Religion der Griechen und Romer, 4 vols., Brandenburg, 1845. W. H. Eoscher, Studien zur Vergleich. Mythologie der Griechen und Romer, I. Apollon und Mars, Leipzig, 1873. IL Juno und Hera, ibid., 1875 (deficient in exactness of method, the conclu- sions, therefore, being insufficiently confirmed). A. Preunek, Hestia-Vesta, Tubingen, 1864, a monograph of great importance. Emile Burnouf, La Legende Athen- ienne, Rtude de Mythol. comparde, Paris, 1872 (sets forth a doubtful and improbable theory). W. Grimm, Die Sage von Polyphem, Berlin, 1857 (also in the Alhandll. der Kaiserl. Akad. zu Berlin, 1875, p. 1 sqq.).
I.
RELIGION AMONG THE GREEKS.
Literature—History.—G. Grote, History of Greece, 8 vols., London, 1862, vol. i., describes the Greek religion objectively, without any attempt to explain it. E. CuRTitrs, History of Greece, transL by A. W. Ward, 5 vols., London, 1868-73, admirably adapted for exhibit- ing the connection between the history of the people and the development of its religion. J. P. Mahaffy, Social Life in Greece from Homer to Menander, London, 1874, 202
RELIGION AMONG THE GREEKS.
ingenious but one-sided. Comp, further Schomann’s Griech. Alterthiimer, 2 vols., 3d ed., and A. H. G. P. VAN den Es, Grieksehe Antiguiteiten, 2d ed., Groningen, 1873.
Mythology and Religion.—F. G. Welcker, Griech. Gotterlehre, 3 vols., Gottingen, 1857-62. J. A. Har- tung, Die Religion und Mythologie der Griechen, 4 vols., 3:865—73. k- Preller, Griech. Mythologie, 2 vols., 2d ed., 1860-61 (a 3d ed. of vol. i. has since appeared). J. W. G. van Oordt, De Godsdienst der Grieken en hunne Volksdetnkbedden, Haarlem, 1864. Id., Grieksche Mytho- logie. Eene schets, ’s Gravenh., 1874. For the older'works comp. Preller, i. pp. 19-24.
Important Monographs.—J. Overbeck, Beitrage zur Erkenntniss und Kritik der Zeusreligion, Leipzig, 1861 (also in the Ahhandll. der Sachs. Gesellsch. der Wissensck, iv. No. 1). Nagelsbach, Die Homer. Theologie, 2d ed. by Autenrieth, Niimberg, 1861. J. Girard, Le Senti- ment Religieux en Grece d’ Homlre d Eschyle, Paris, 1869.
F. Leitschuh, Die Entstehung der Mythologie und der Entwickelung der Griech. Religion nach Hesiods Tlieogonie, Wurzburg, 1867. E. Buchholz, Die Sittliche IVeltan- schamng des Pindaros und Aeschylos, Leipzig, 1869. E. Zeller, Die Entstehung des Monotheismus hei den Griechen, Stuttgart, 1862. J. Ma.hly, Die Schlange im Mythus und Cultus der Classischen Volker, Basel, 1867. H. F. Perthes, Die Peleiaden zu Dodona, Moers, 1869. E. Dohler, Die Orakel, Berlin, 1872. H. D. Muller, Ares, ein Beitrag zur Entwickelung der Griech. Religion, Brunswick, 1848. J. Buskin, The Queen of the Air (AthlnS), 2d ed., London, 1869.
121. The Greek religion, which was destined one day to attain a higher development than the other Indo-Ger- man religions, was not at first separated from them by THE PELASGI.
203
any great differences. The proof of this may be found in what is still known of the religion of the Pelasgi, whose name denotes rather a period than a race. The statement that they worshipped the God of heaven on their sacred mountains without images and under no definite name, does not warrant the inference that their cultus was purer than that which succeeded it and was monotheistic, but simply means that they still regarded and worshipped their gods, even the highest of them, as nature-beings, and if they made no images of them, they were nevertheless not without fetishes. Some sanctuaries of this Pelasgian Zeus continued to exist in later times, and one, that at Dodona in Epirus, even remained in high honour. There, the will of the deity of the sky was learned from the rustling of the sacred oak, his fetish, or by other purely animistic methods. In Arcadia and Messenia, human sacrifices even were offered to him. It was not till afterwards that the institution of, the Olympic games, and the protection of Sparta, gave to the ancient Zeus-worship in Elis the high significance which made this region itself a holy land, and raised the temple to he one of the principal sanctuaries of all the Hellenes.
It appears that Asia Minor was the last place in which the Greeks, the Phrygians, and the later Italian races were united in one people. Phrygian worship and arts were naturalised in Hellas from the remotest times.
The Pelasgians were not a special Greek race, hut the name denotes all the first settlers in Greece who were , found already in the new fatherland by tribes which entered it subsequently, such as the Dorians and Ionians. They were not, therefore, regarded as barbarians, and RELIGION AMONG THE GREEKS.
their gods were invoked together with the Hellenic. The attempt (made by P. Volkmuth, among others, Die Pelasger als Semiten, Schaffhausen, i860) to prove that they were Semites, and more specifically, Phenicians, must be treated as a complete failure. The points of agreement between the Syro-Phenician and the Greek religions, which are called in to support this conclusion, must be viewed in quite another light (see below).
A deity without name or image, belonging to the re- motest times, denotes a nature-power which has as yet received no human form. The Pelasgic cultus cannot have advanced to monotheism, for by the side of Zeus there was certainly a female deity, whose place was occupied at Dodona by Dione, who was brought from elsewhere, and at Olympia by Hera; and it is equally certain that the Pelasgi also worshipped other gods, such as Pan, the god of pastures, an ancient deity of light.
The fetishes remaining from this remote period, besides the oak at Dodona and other trees, consisted in sacred stones, such as that of Delphi, sticks, like the so-called sceptre of the Pelopidse at Chaeronea, the most ancient Hermee, and various animals, subsequently dedicated to the gods, but originally regarded as their incarnations, as the eagle of Zeus, the wolf of Apollo, the owl of Athene, &c. Metamorphoses are an attempt to bring the oldest representation of the gods into harmony with the later.
Zeus revealed himself at Dodona by his breath, or rather by his voice, heard in the rustling of his oak or in the thunder, the latter being imitated in a peculiar way. It was the oracle of an agricultural people. His servants were the sacred Selloi, from 'whom the name Hellenes, even, has been derived. At the time when Dodona flourished, the people still called themselves Graikoi, Greeks. CAUSES OF ITS DEVELOPMENT.
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In Arcadia the chief ancient sanctuary of Zeus was on Mount Lyltaion, and in Messene on Mount Ithome. In the former locality and at Elis, the sacred mountain bore the name, as in Thessaly, of Olympus.
122. But whatever he the resemblances of the Greek religion in origin and character to kindred religions, especially to the Vedic and Germanic, and though in the Pelasgian period, at any rate, it reached no higher level, it soon advanced in development beyond them all. The ancient nature-deities are replaced more and more by gods endowed not only with the shape of men, but with real humanity, who continually rise in moral dignity and grandeur, and to whom the Greeks transferred the divine element in man. The causes of this development are the same as those of their great progress in general civilisa- tion, which was due (among other circumstances) to the nature of the country which they inhabited, their splendid natural gifts, and the many-sided intercourse of the several tribes both among themselves and with the re- presentatives of an older and very rich culture. The last of these may indeed be regarded as the foremost cause of- all. In the Greek religion we see the first fair fruits of the fusion of the Indo-Germanic and Aryan with the Semitic and Hamitic elements,—the dawn of a new era.
Herodotus, i. 131, draws a distinction between the Egyptian and Hellenic gods, the former of whom he designates avOioivoudu;, the latter d^ws-opusa;.
The peculiarity of the countries occupied by the Greeks, which consisted chiefly of coasts and islands, has been rightly specified as a cause of their advanced civilisation. 206
RELIGION AMONG THE GREEKS.
But it is necessary to avoid the one-sidedness which derives everything from this circumstance. That the genius of the people was another factor, is proved by the low stage occupied by the later inhabitants of the same regions.
A highly important stimulus to the development of religion among the Greeks came, however,, from the active sea traffic to which their country gave occasion, and which brought the backward Greek races into contact not only with their more advanced kinsmen, but also with the Semites and Hamites. Besides this, they were obliged in some cases, as in Asia Minor, in Crete and Cyprus, to divide the country with the Phenicians and Syrians already settled there. Although it is supposed from the evidence of the Egyptian monuments, that they took part as early as the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries in military expeditions against Egypt (which still appears very doubtful, at any rate), the influence exerted on them by the inhabitants of this country seems to have been mediate rather than direct.
Wherever the Phenicians established their colonies, they at once founded a sanctuary for their national deities, whom the native Greeks then either adopted or blended with their own gods. Mdkart of Tyre was naturalised as Melikertes or Makar, or was combined with Herakles. The luxurious Sidonian Ashtoreth was transformed into Aphrodite, and the stem Tanith was united with other goddesses. Under the influence of Baal-Shalam the Pelasgian Zeus of Salamis became Zeus Epikoinios, &c. The Greeks were further indebted to the Phenicians for the cultus of the planets and the doctrine that the stars are deities which rule the world, both these, as we know, having been in their turn derived from the Akkadians. We may refer also to the Samothracian gods. The wor- NATIONAL AND FOREIGN ELEMENTS. 207
ship of images, likewise, passed from the Semites to the Greeks.
The elements received by the Greeks from their own kinsmen have been to a large extent personified by tradi- tion, in the band of gods and heroes who came from the East into the later civilisation of Hellas, such as Herakles, Dionysos, Danaos, Argos, Agenor, and others, while Ivadmos, the brother of Kilix or Phoinix, represents rather the Semitic civilisation. It is probable that the worship of the sea-god Poseidon (an Ionic name), and certain that the cultus of Apollo, was introduced among the inhabitants of Greece proper by their kindred in Asia Minor.
The history of the Greek religion is one of the most striking examples of the great law that the richness and elevation of religious development are proportional to the opportunities of intercourse on the part of one nation with others, and the completeness of the fusion of races.
123. It is often possible in the myths and forms of the Greek gods still to distinguish very clearly between the national and the foreign elements. Thus in the myth of Zeus, his contest with Kronos, like that of Kronos with Ouranos, his absolute victory over the powers of nature, his unlimited sovereignty, are of Semitic origin; while his contest with Prometheus and his human passions and attributes come from Indo-Germanic sources. The bene- ficent Demeter, the fruitful mother-earth, with her daughter Kore, the blooming spring begotten by Zeus, protector of agriculture and giver of abundance, is genuinely Greek; while the sombre queen of the under- world, who becomes by Poseidon the mother of Perse- phone, goddess of death, must be a foreign deity. 208
RELIGION AMONG THE GREEKS.
In the same way Greek theology also possesses two representations of the world of the dead. According to one, the Semitic, it lay within the earth, and there the departed led a life of shadows without spirit or conscious- ness, which was, however, a melancholy continuation of their earthly careers. The other, the Indo-Germanie, placed it in the west, at the setting of the sun, where the privileged were admitted to Elysium or the islands of the blessed. These different representations it was endeavoured as far as possible to combine.
In some cases the union of these dissimilar elements was never successfully effected. The difference between the chaste maidenly Artemis, protectress of innocence and modesty, hostile to everything savage and lewd, and the blood-thirsty and sensual goddess of Tauris, Asia Minor, and Crete, was always vividly felt even by the Greeks. Generally, however, the fusion is so complete that it is hardly possible to separate the foreign from the national elements. This is the case, for example, with Dionysos, Apollo, and Athene.
What we have designated briefly Semitic, is strictly speaking only north-Semitic, after it had been modified by intercourse with the oldest occupants of Mesopotamia. The myths adopted by the Greeks from the Semites were as a rule Akkadian, but they reached the Greeks in the form given to them by the Northern Semites.
Whatever be the meaning of the name Kronos (to the unfortunate derivations which have been proposed Kuhn has recently added another by the suggestion of a doubt- ful Sanskrit word krdna, “ creating, for himself,” Ueber Enlwicidungsslufm der Mytheribildung, Berlin, 1874, UNION OF DISSIMILAR ELEMENTS.
209
p. 148), it is certain tliat he has nothing to do with Chronos, “time,” and that the god who mutilates his father and eats his children is of genuinely north Semitic origin. A satisfactory explanation of his myth is still wanting, but that he is a god of the dark, and particu- larly of the nightly sky, is proved by the representation that he eats up his own children, all of them light-gods. The stone, the form in which he devours his son Zeus, is supposed by some scholars to be the sun, which the god of night is afterwards obliged to vomit forth again, after which the other gods whom he swallowed, also return to life.
The Indo-Germanic character of the Prometheus myth has been shown by Kuhn, Die, Herabkunft des Feuers und des Gottertranhs lei den Indogermanen. The spirit of the myth also, as it was worked out by the Greeks, is com- pletely non-Semitic.
The world of the dead beneath the earth with the shadows that cannot feel, is obviously Sheol with the Kephatm. For this reason (if for no other) the rape of Persephonl and her descent into hell must be a non- Greek myth; and accordingly we find the exact parallel to it in the old Akkadian epos.
Perhaps even the chaste Artemis is not a Greek god- dess at all; but she is, in any case, Indo-Germanic. Her name points to a Phrygian origin. Arlamas, comp, the Er&nian arta, areta, “perfect,” arelhamat, “lawful,” “ legitimate.”
In Dionysos lurks an Indo-Germanic deity of the drink of immortality and the vintage, with which is connected the myth of his birth from SemelS. The god of the seasons, to whom a festival was celebrated in the winter, is probably a foreign sun-god. On the Lycian god, Apollo, see below. If the name of Athena really corresponded to
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underworld, properly speaking the twilight, both darkness and light, the goddess of death and life.
Loki, who was first of all the brother, then the bosom- friend of Odhinn, was the contriver of frequent tricks by which he brought the Aesir into danger, but he always rescued them again by his cunning. He counsels aii alliance with the winter-giant, the architect (Smidhr, “smith,” Find off Feder, “wind and storm”), with his horse Svadilfari, which was to overthrow the god, but he manages to frustrate it. He carries Idunn to Thrym- heim, but he brings her back, and is one of those who go thither to recover the stolen hammer of Thorr.
When, however, the conflict of the powers of nature came to be transferred to the domain of ethics, he be- came the father of the destructive powers, the wolf Fenrir, the serpent of Midligardh, and Hel, and it was he who instigated the murder of Baldr. He abuses the gods as their evil conscience, he is pursued, chained, then he breaks loose again in the last contest, only to be finally altogether overthrown. The myth is exactly parallel to the Prometheus myth, which is, however, worked out in a completely opposite sense, with sympathy for the hero.
Hel (Goth, halja, connected with the Sanskr. k&U, the “black”), has an equally ambiguous meaning as “twi- light,” but the further she can be traced into antiquity, the higher is the position which she occupies.
119. The clearest manifestation, however, of the ethical character of this religion is seen in the description of the great drama of the world, which corresponds both in general and in some detail with the Persian, and, like its parallel, rests upon ancient nature-myths. Its chief features are as follows. In the beginning innocence and 126 RELIGION AMONG THE GERMANS.
freedom from care everywhere prevail. But lying and sin soon make their appearance, and even steal within the circle of the gods. The gods are indeed constantly victori- ous in the conflict with the giants ; hut the adoption of giantesses into then- community, the birth of violent mon- sters, children of Loki, his falsehoods and deceptions, are all the forerunners of a future fall. The death of Baldr, the best and wisest of the Aesir, one of the disasters brought about by Loki, is the great turning-point of the drama, for it proves the mortal nature of the gods. The wicked god and the dangerous monsters are for a time subdued and put in chains, but at last they burst their bonds. The break-up of all institutions and ordinances (Bagnarok, commonly the “ twilight of the gods ”) begins. For three years there is winter, and an unnatural war rages. The gods wrestle with the collected forces of cold, fire, and dark- ness, and in this strife they perish with their adversaries. Then, however, everything renews its life; the chief of the Aesir are now hallowed and purified; mankind lives again, no longer subject to the miseries of existence; and the earth recovers its power of growth. Baldr returns from the underworld, and beneath the sway of the supreme but unnamed god, all beings in the renovated world lead a life of freedom from care, and peace.
The basis of this representation in nature may still be clearly traced. Like all ancient nations, the Germans made at first no sharp distinction between moral and physical good and evil. But for the study of the develop- ment of religion, it is of the highest interest to observe how the same nature-myths underwent an ethical trans- formation among both Germans and Persians, quite inde- THE DRAMA OF THE WORLD.
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pendently of each other, and with characteristic differences among each people; and how, consequently, while the forms remain the same, the development of religion advances with that of the nation.
The myth mentions three female Thurses, or giantesses (Old Engl, thurst, goblin or wood-demon, A. S. thyrs), which were adopted into the circle of the Aesir, and thus became the primal cause of their fall. These three are not the three Korns (Simrock), but Angurbodlia, Gerda and Skadhi, the wives of Loki, Freyr, and Njordhr. Beneath these three there lay originally (1) a thunder- myth (Loki, the god of fire, by Angurbodlia [“ messenger of fear”], the thunder-cloud, begets Fenrir and Hel, i.e., darkness, and the serpent of Midhgardh, the shower); (2) a myth of the sunset (Freyr, the sun-god, sinks into the arms of Gerdha, the earth-girding sea); and (3) a winter- myth (Njordhr, the god of the sea, is married to Skadhi).
Baldr is Baldag, the white god of day, the Byelbog of the Slavs, having probably been adopted from them. Ilddhr, his blind brother, who slays him, agrees in that case with Czerno bog, and was originally the god of darkness.
Ragnarok, interpreted by Grimm as Gbtterdammerung “ twilight of the gods,” and formerly translated by others “ elementorum dissolutio," in connection with Aldar log, “ ruptura sjeculi,” is properly the break-up or dissolution of the ordinances and regulating powers in nature and the world.. All the chief Aesir take part in the contest, and each has his special adversary, whom he overcomes, though he himself is in his turn overthrown. Odhinn fights against Fenrir, Tyr against Managarm, Thorr against the serpent of Midhgardh, Heimdall against Loki. Vidliar alone, the god of the forest and of revival, sur- vives Fenrir, whom he slays. 198 RELIGION AMONG THE GERMANS.
The same myths which at first expressed simply the conflict between light and darkness, night and day, and were afterwards transferred to the succession of the seasons, became then blended into one whole, and were applied to the entire course of the history of the world. It was the necessary consequence that they were at the same time elevated by moral conceptions.
120. It is remarkable that while the conception of the gods among the Germans stands so much higher than that of the Letto-Slavs, their psychology, their doctrine of immor- tality, and their cultus, are in the same backward condi- tion. The representation of the soul and its destiny after death is still largely animistic, though the idea of retri- bution after death is not wholly wanting. Magic was still very general. The cultus was on the whole exceed- ingly rude; even human sacrifices were not infrequent. It was conducted among the Germans chiefly in sacred groves, or at least in very small and simple temples. But some progress is, nevertheless, to be traced. The Normans had larger sanctuaries, and among them some of great celebrity. The cultus of animals and trees was only kept up because it had been brought into connection with the worship of the higher deities, and a deeper signi- ficance began to be sometimes attached to sacrifice. The priests acquired a very high rank. They belonged, among the Germans at any rate, to the nobility, and had peculiar influence as heralds and judges. Even their names indicate rather an exalted conception of their office.
All these considerations prove that the Germanic re- ligion was in a state of transition and temporary decay ITS IMPERFECT DEVELOPMENT.
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?when Christianity began to make its way to the North. The new faith was itself no longer entirely pure, as it was already mingled with a number of Greek and Roman elements, and it was unable wholly to supplant the ancestral religion, hut it blended with the popular beliefs, and breathed a new spirit into the old forms. And it is certainly not a matter of chance that it was among these same Germans, who, even in barbarous times, had intro- duced moral conceptions into their theology, that the reformation was most earnestly taken to heart, and most triumphantly carried out, and that its prevailing character was not intellectual, but ethical.
The reception of the heroes in Odhinn’s Valholl implies already the passage from the theory of continuance to that of retribution. For though they continue there the occupations of their past lives, their reception is a-^ reward for their valour. There are, moreover, traces of a place of punishment.
Human sacrifices consisted not only of criminals and prisoners of war, but even of widows and slaves. In epidemics even children were offered, and they were also immured in the foundations of new buildings, in regularly animistic fashion, with food and toys.
In the development of religion, the forms of worship, which are very tenacious, are the slowest and the last to undergo modification.
An O.H. Germ, title for priest was Ewarto, from fiwa, the “divine and human law.” Another, Old-Norman, was Godi, fern. Gydja, from Gudh, “ god.” Among the Normans the priests exerted influence even over war, and indeed the priesthood and the kingship were combined among them. 200
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In the fusion of Christianity -with the popular beliefs, the myths and traditions became legends; the place of ( Wodan was occupied by Christ, St. Michael, or St. Martin; for Donar appeared Christ or St. Peter; Fro was supplanted by St. Andrew, mitissirnus sanctorum, St. Stephen, or St. Nicholas; the place of the goddesses was taken by Mary; St. Gertrude represented Gerd’ha, &c. Loki, of course, became the devil. ( 201 )
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writers regard Perun as a deity adopted from the Scan- dinavians. Among them he appears under the name of Fiorgyn, in a very subordinate position. If there was any borrowing at all, the originalty is not in this instance on the side of the Germans. This is true also of the Lettic triad, which has been supposed to be derived from the Goths. From what source, in that case, came the purely Lettic names of these deities ? Comp. Gottesidee und Oultus der alt. Preuss. p. 39 sqq. Patrimpo, the joyous harvest-god, and Pjecollo, the ripener of the grain, are both sun-gods, hut the latter dwells in the underworld, and is the god of the dead, a part which he also plays in the beautiful Lithuanian myth of Nijola (the Letto- Slavic Kora-Proserpina). His name, which is applied among the Russians to the underworld itself, comes from pjec, to “hake,” to “warm,” the Sanskr. pack, to “burn,” to “ cause to ripen.” Patrimpo I am inclined to connect with the Sanskr. trimp (from trip), to “ enjoy to satiety.” Svarog comp, with Sanskr. svarga, the sky.
Lado or Did-Lado, “ the great Lado ” and his consort, “ the great goddess,” are, like Freyr and Freya, gods of love, marriage, and fertility.
Jim, 'Zywie, comp. Sanskr. and Bactr. jiv, “ life,” old- Pers. ziv, personified hy the Parsis as Jtsti, father of the double unity AsMhwra. Byel and Czerno bog are parallel with the two Zarathustrian spirits Spefito-mainyus and Anro-mainyus. Svanto or Sveto in Svantovid = Spfefito, being identical in form and meaning (i.e., “ holy ”).
114. The relation between man and the higher powers, also, so far as we know, still stood, at any rate among the Slavs, at a very low stage of development. The spells in which they believed, the amulets which they wore to secure or avert the presence of spirits, the peculiar oracles ITS IMPERFECT DEVELOPMENT.
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by which they sought to discover the future, all belong to the animistic view of life. This is also true to a cer- tain extent of their feasts, in which the magic purport was not wholly obscured, and the life of nature was as yet scarcely elevated by any ethical conception, though poetic and dramatic elements were not wanting. The East-Slavs appear to have had neither temples nor priests, nothing but sacred places and wise men and women, a land of enchanters and enchantresses, who had power over the elements, and were at the same time gifted with prophetic utterance.
The Lettic branch was somewhat more advanced. At least the Lithuanians had a priestly order, and the old- Prussians even a sort of high-priest, who lived apart in a sacred place, surrounded by the veiled images of the gods, and from this retreat issued his commands through his subordinate priests.
The amulets, composed of all kinds of charms, have always the form of a button, a lock, or a net, nduzui, which is connected with uzui, “bands,” and uzit’, to “fasten these are clearly fetishes, serving to secure the presence of the guardian spirit by binding him, and to keep off hostile spirits. The oracles, both those by which it was sought to learn the coming weather, and the result of the harvest, as well as those concerning the issue of a war or of personal destiny, are marked by the accidental and magical character of the lot, which is genuinely animistic. The feasts also were supposed to possess a magical efficacy on the elements, as in the case of the ceremony of pouring water on a girl decked with leaves at the summer festival of the Servians, “ that the heavenly women (the cloud-spirits) may give rain,” as they said. i S3
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Among the East-Slavs this feast still retained a bac- chanalian and even phallic character.
It was customary among them for the head of the family or the tribe to offer sacrifices on behalf of all beneath a sacred tree (an oak was preferred), or on the bank of a running stream. But the Vyedun, the “enchanter,” literally, the “knowing one" (vyedaf, to “ know ”), and especially the Fyeshchaya Zhena, the “ wise woman,” were held in high honour among them, at any rate in times of prosperity.
The old-Prussian high-priest was called Kriwe or Griwe (from hrych, to “ hide ” ?), and dwelt at a place named Romowe (rozmowa, “ conversation” t), which the dead also were obliged to pass upon their journey.
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See the literature in K. Simrock, Handbuch der Deut- schen Mythologie mit Einschluss der Nordischen, 3rd ed., Bonn, 1869, p. 7 sqq., and L. S. P. Meyboom, JDe Gods- dienst der oude Noormannen, Haarlem, 1868, p. 19 sqq. Indispensable, Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 3rd ed., 2 vols., Gottingen, 1854, and J. W. "Wolf, Beitrdge zur Deutsch. Mythologie, Gottingen, vol i., 1852, vol. ii., 1857. Comparative, AY. Mannhardt, Germanische Mythen- Forschungen, Berlin, 1858. For Dutch mythology, L. Ph. C. van den Bergh, Proeve van een Kritisch Woordenboek der Nederland. Mythol., Utrecht, 1846.
115. Among the Germans religion reached a much higher development than among the Wends, which must he ascribed rather to the richer endowments of their race RELATION TO OTHER RELIGIONS. 1S9
than to the influence of a more advanced civilisation. With this circumstance is connected the fact that, with the exception perhaps of the Keltic, there is not one of the Indo-Germanie religions which has departed so far, in respect of the names of the chief deities, from its kindred as the Germanic. In doctrine it most resembles the Persian, and, like the Persian, it is inferior in philosophi- cal contemplation to the Vedic religion, though it equally surpasses it in its moral standard. Our fullest knowledge of it is derived from the two Eddas, of which the older contains a collection of very ancient and chiefly mytho- logical songs, while the younger is composed of prose traditions, together with fragments of older poems. They are the sources for the religion of the Scandinavians or Normans, from which, however, that of the Germans proper does not essentially differ. German mythology must be studied chiefly through the medium of oral traditions.
The superiority of the German religion over that of the Slavs is evinced by the fact that it made so much more out of the same materials. The fundamental con- ception in all the Indo-Germanic religions is the conflict between the higher deities who control nature, and the rude forces of nature, especially between light and dark- ness. No nations of this race have realised this dualism with such clearness as the Letto-Slavs, the Germans, and the Persians, but while with the first it remained purely physical, the two latter alone, and certainly independently of each other, gave to it an ethical character, and wrought it, as it were, into a sublime drama.
The older Edda (“ grandmother,” here, however, in a 190
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special sense, as the guardian of the ancient poesy) is ascribed to Saemuudr, the wise, and is therefore called Edda Saemundar kins fr6da: the latter was collected and written by Snorri, the son of Sturla, and bears in con- sequence the name Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Among the best translations is that of Simrock (3rd ed., Stuttgart and Tiibingen, 1863). How much still remains to be done for the criticism and correct interpretation of the Edda- sagas is proved, for instance, by the important disserta- tion of Barend Symons, Untersuchungen tiler die sogenannte Volsunga Saga, Halle, 1876. In the Story of the Volsungsand Niblungs, London, 1870, Morris & Magniisson have repro- duced some portions of the elder Edda for English readers.
116. The cycle of the Germanic gods is not entirely deficient in names derived from Indo-Germanic antiquit}', but they are not numerous, and the deities which bear them only occupy in the system a subordinate place. The ancient Dyaus still survives in Tyr, who is still among some tribes a god of the sky; but in the system of the Edda he is not a little degraded, for he has become the god of the sword and of fraternal strife. The Letto- Slavic Peruns or Perkunos may he recognised in Fiorgyn (Goth. Fairguni) who has furnished a name to several mountain-forests, but he has seen his sovereignty pass to his son Odhinn and his grandson Thorr, who are purely Germanic gods. The very ancient and general name for deity, Deva, is not quite forgotten, hut it has been obliged to give way to the more usual designations Aesir and Vanir, which are found exclusively among the Germans. The deities belonging to these orders, derived probably from different tribes and only afterwards united, opposed ITS CYCLE OF GODS. 191
the ‘wild powers of nature which were represented as giants. These, under the names of the “ eaters ” (jotunn) or the “ thirsty ” (thurs), were worshipped as powers of violence and terror, and human sacrifices even were offered to them. They were at first neither good nor bad, but they came gradually, and with increasing definite- ness, to be regarded as evil beings, foes of the good deities. Between them and the Aesir and Vanir stand the Elves, divided into three classes, two of which consist largely of dwarfs. They are the lower, less dreaded demons of an earlier period, and therefore, though they are at peace with the gods, they often play a very mischievous part They also, like gods and giants, were the objects of sacrifice.
Tyr, genit. Tys, Goth. Tins, old high Germ. Zio, is the Yedic Dyaus, the Greek Zeus. In compounds it often occurs with the general meaning of “ god.” Among the Semnones or Suabians Tyr is still the god of the sky, among the Scandinavians the god of the sword and of unnatural war, but the sword was originally the lightning, and the war the strife of the heavenly powers.
Fiorgyn is the Perkunos of the Letto-Slavs, and was probably adopted from them. The elves it has further been proposed to identify with the Vedic Ribhavas, and the Maren with the Vedic Maruts, but, like Tyr and Fiorgyn, they have no prominent place in the German system.
The plural Itvar, “ gods,” which occurs now and then, corresponds to the Vedic deva. The Aesir (As, pi. Aesir, Goth, and old high Germ, ans) are commonly explained to mean the “ beams,” the supports of the universe, which seems to me very doubtful. It is far more probable, in accordance with the opinion kindly communicated to me 192
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by my friend Prof. Kern, that the word, of which the original form is ansu, is connected with the Er&nian anhu (and thus also with the Ahuras and Asuras), and means, therefore, the “beings,” the “spirits.” The Vanir are originally the “ waters,” and hence also the “ beautiful,” the “lovely;” comp. Venus.
The three classes of elves are the Lios-(“ light ”), Svart- (“black”), and Ddck-(“ dark”) Alfar; the two last kinds dwell in the ground, and to them belong the dwarfs. That they were not mere productions of poetic imagina- tion, but beings in whose existence and power men really believed, is proved by the sacrifices dedicated to them.
117. By the union of Aesir and Vanir, the elevation of single attributes of the gods to independent beings, and other causes, the German polytheism grew richer and richer, hut it is a mistake to suppose that it issued from monotheism. It was not till afterwards that an approach was made to this in the representation of the highest god as the All-Father. Far above the other Aesir stand Odhinn, Th6rr, and at first also Loki. Odhinn or "VVodan was originally a nature-god, the personification of the violent movements of the air, of the breath which blows through the universe. Then, as a deity controlling nature, he was the warlike patron of princes and heroes, whom he gathers after their death into his Walhalla; and finally he rose to he the king of the gods, lord of the
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world, and god of the soul. Thorr or Donar, the Asa par excellence, with his wonderful hammer Miolnir, was, as his German name implies, the thundering god of the sky. As such he was the summer-god, who contends ?with and overcomes the dreaded powers of winter; and, THE AES1R AND VANIR.
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as protector of agriculture, the god of the people and of servants, he was especially a god of civilisation. Loki, probably also a god of the air, was very closely connected in the old myths with these two chief-gods, so that he forms a triad with them, and fights by their side against the winter-giants, whom he generally outwits. In later times he was to acquire a totally different significance. The chief of the Vanir was Freyr or Fro, the Lord, god of the bright sky, source of life and fertility, and there- fore, in the system to which he properly belonged, the creator. After his union with the Aesir, he became the god of peace and love. Of the goddesses, who differ little from each other, the Asynia Frigg, wife of Odhinn, and the Yana Freya, “ the Lady,” sister of Freyr and spouse of Njordr, the god of the sea, occupy the highest rank. Subsequently Freya entirely supplants Frigg, and even takes her place as Odhinn’s consort. Originally a per- sonification of the earth, then of the moon, she becomes the goddess of beauty, fertility, and love. The doctrine of the three Norns or goddesses of destiny covers a deeper thought, which the Greeks embodied in their Moirae, and ' the Eomans in their Parcae, each in their own way.
All-Father, originally (as early as Hrafnag. 1) an epithet of Odhinn. Odhinn, O.H. Germ. Wuotcin, New Germ. IVodan, Fris. TVcda, from watan = to “ wade,” meare, con- nected, with the German wuth (“wrath”) and muth (“ courage ”). — Thdrr (for Thonar, Thom ?), O.H. Germ. Donar, is the Asabrdgr, the Asa-prince. The representa- tion of him contains non-German (Turanian) elements, such as the epithets Atti or Etzel (Attila), i.e., “grand- father.” Loki, whose name is connected by Simrock with 194
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lux, X‘.uxos, Sanskr. Mg, and by Grimm with lukan, to “ shut,” to “ close,” seems rather, as his name Loftr implies, to have been a god of the air (luft). In the myth in which he outwits the winter-giant with his horse Svadilfari (the cold wind), he is the cool spring-breeze.
The triad of the three highest gods corresponds curi- ously with the three chief heroes of the Finnic epos, and so with the three principal deities of the ancient Finns.
The meaning of the name Norns is uncertain. They are three, Urdlvr, the “ past,” Verdhandi, the “ present,” and Skuld, the “future.” The Greek Moirae and the Roman Parcae are both of another character, the domi- nant idea being, in the one group, that of death (fiogor, mors), and in the other that of production {partus). The Norns have it for their function to accomplish destiny, scop (cf. scheppen, schaffen, to “ shape,” to “ create ”), orlog (“fate,” still surviving in the Dutch word oorlog, “ war”).
118. The moral standard of the Germanic religion is shown forth, among other indications, by the history of the Asa Loki and of the goddess HeL The first gradually sinks lower and lower beneath the rank first occupied by him by the side of the two highest gods, and he finally becomes an evil being. As the god of fire he was not to be trusted; for however beneficent he might be, he was at the same time dangerous and treacherous. While the myths were still nothing more than nature myths, this caused no difficulty: but when the attempt was made to detach the Aesir from nature, and measure their character by a moral standard, it was inevitable that Loki should sink and finally be thrust out. Hel encounters the same fate, though she was originally no other than the dark ITS ETHICAL CHARACTER.
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RELIGION AMONG THE WENDS OR LETTO-SLAVS.
Literature.—See I. J. Hanusch, Die Wissensehaft des Slavisehen Mylhus, Lemberg, 1842, pp. 49-62. The Rus- sian sources are enumerated by W. R. S. Ralston, The Songs of the Russian People, London, 1872, pp. x-xii. See further, Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales; Id., KhUof and his Fables; Id., Early Russian Eistory, London, 1874, and Gotlesidee und Culius Id den Ellen Preussen, Berlin, 1870. The work of Hanusch, though rich in material, is ren- dered useless by its want of a critical and historical method of comparison. Ralston is a well-informed and careful guide, who may be safely trusted. Comp, also F. J. Mone, Geschichle des Hddenthums irn Nordl. Europa, 2 vols., Leipzig and Darmstadt, 1822-23.
110. Down to the introduction of Christianity, reli- gion, among the Wends or Letto-Slavs, remained at a i8o
RELIGION AMONG THE WENDS.
point of development far behind even that of the Veche and old German religions. It is very probably older, and it is certainly lower, than any of the Indo-Germanic religions with which we are acquainted. It contains the germs both of the polytheism of the Hindus and of the dualism of the Persians, but without the philosophical colouring which distinguishes the one, or the ethical character of the other. Its cosmogony is still purely mythical, the conflict between the divine beings is simply that between the powers of nature, and with this stage of development its cultus and its doctrine of immortality are in accord.
The Letts, who form one of the two great divisions of this race, include the Letts proper, the Lithuanians, and the old-Prussians. The Slavs are divided into East and West-Slavs. Of the first of these groups the principal members are the Russians, of the second, the Poles and Czechs (Bohemians and Moravians). The Slavs of Southern Austria and European Turkey (Ser- vians, Bulgarians, Croats, &c.) form a separate group of Southern Slavs, different from, yet most closely allied with, the Eastern. The name Wends, now limited to the Slavs of the Lausitz, seems to have been originally the most general.
It is probable that the Letto-Slavs, like the Germans, remained united with the Aryans longer than the Kelts, Greeks, and Romans, and they have preserved the reli- gion of this period in its purest form, while it reached a higher and independent development among the Germans.
The proofs of the other statements in the text will be found in the following sections. ITS ANIMISTIC BASIS.
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111. Like all mythological religions, that of the Wends, also, rests on the doctrine of souls or spirits, which scarcely reaches among them a higher stage than among savages. The soul, of which the ancient Wends formed very different conceptions, though they were such as are found among all other peoples, moves about in freedom, remains for a while after death in the neighbourhood of the body, but then sets off on its journey to the shadow-land, which is sought either in the underworld, or on a happy island in the East, the abode of the sun, or in the sky. The journey is thus either a sea-voyage over the world-ocean, or a journey on foot over the rainbow or the milky-way, or the ascent of a steep and slippery mountain; and the survivors were careful to provide the dead with what they would require on one of these ex- peditions. The idea of retribution has not yet arisen; the life after death is simply a continuation of the life on earth. The dead, therefore, were furnished with every- thing appropriate to their condition, even with wive3 and slaves; for the unmarried a consort was provided at the grave; and second marriages were rare. To the three representations of the kingdom of the dead correspond three modes of disposing of the corpse,—(i), burial, which carried the soul to the underworld; (2), burning, which bore it in the smoke to heaven; and (3), burial or burn- ing in a boat, which transported it to the island of the sun. But the souls of the deceased always continued in relation with the living, and as their return was dreaded, feasts and sacrifices were zealously celebrated to appease them, or all kinds of devices were employed to keep them away. RELIGION AMONG THE WENDS.
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J The soul was represented as a spark kindled by the god of thunder, as a star (as among the Persians), a vapour, a breath of air, a shadow; or, again, as a winged creature, whether an insect or a bird, especially a dove, a crow, or a cuckoo. The butterfly was even called a “ little soul ” (dushichka). It appears also as a mouse, as among other nations; the milky-way is called the “ mouse-path.”
The sky is named Rai (Lithuan. rojus, comp. Sanskr. raj. = “ to be bright or white ”), and the underworld Peklo, which is a regular deity among the old-Prussians. It was only under Christian influence that this afterwards be- came hell. The stories of the island Buydn (“ the burning ”) agree in many respects with one of the chief dogmas of Parsism. The white stone Alatuir (electron 1) found there, is the sun. The world of the dead is also called Nava, a name which has not as yet received an adequate explanation, but which some writers have connected with the conception of the voyage of the ship (navis, vavj).
Burning and burial were both practised by the Slavs as by all the Indo-Germans ; with these, correspond the different representations of the realm of the dead.
The same usages are found among the old-Prussians and the Lithuanians.
112. A peculiar richness characterises the doctrine of spirits among the Letto-Slavs, of which that of the old- Eussians may serve as an example. They divided the demons into spirits of the house, the water, the forest, and the air. The house-spirits are, properly speaking, fire- spirits, and are the objects, in their two-fold character, of great veneration. The house-spirit watches over and protects the house and its inhabitants, not excluding the ITS DEMONOLOGY.
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animals, shares all tlieir fortunes, is, as a rule, friendly; or, when he is angry, is easy to he appeased: but, if he is altogether neglected, shows that he is a spirit of might, who rules not only over the beneficent fire on the hearth, but over the lightning as well All the qualities of water, its fertilising and destructive power, its treacherous beauty and mystic depth, its magic power which sets the mill- wheel in motion, are personified in the beautiful Eusalkas, and their male companions; all the terrors of the forest and the dangers which threaten travellers through it, are embodied in the wood-demons, which are naturally at the same time the spirits of the storm. Koshchei, the genius of winter, is a very evil being, and so are the con- tagious sicknesses which wander about in the shape of old women or hideous men, as well as that multitude of wizards and witches, who, during their lifetime, often become were-wolves, and, after death, bloodsucking vam- pires. All this is purely animistic; but the Slavic demonology is favourably distinguished from that of savages by the poetical guise in which it is arrayed. That it is not mere poetry, but really religious belief, is proved by the awe with which the spirits are regarded, and the often costly sacrifices offered to them.
Domovoij (doma = “ house”), the house-spirit, stood in the closest connection with the domestic hearth, and, in case of removal, had accordingly to be transferred with great cere- mony to the new dwelling. Frequently he assumed the the form of the master of the house. He is found, how- ever, wherever there is fire, even in the lightning. The crowing of the cock, his sacred animal, puts to flight all other spirits, but not him. Only the Domovoy of the same 184
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house is friendly : those from elsewhere are jealous and. dangerous.
To the Vodyanuie, water-spirits, belong the Rusdlkas (rus, old-Slav. = “stream,” rosd, “ dew,” Lat. ros), much dreaded for their deceitful qualities, and in the summer time solemnly chased away. Tsar MorsJcoi, the water-king, with his fair swan daughters, stands at the head of this realm.
The wood-spirits, Lyeshie, bear most resemblance in conception and character to Pan and the Satyrs, and have nothing in common with the clouds, with which a certain school of mythologists attempts to connect them. That they axe also wind-gods appears from the represen- tation of the storm as their marriage-procession, and the whirlwind as their bridal dance.
The Domovoy is content with small domestic sacrifices, but the spirit of the mill-stream requires the first swarm of bees, the other water-spirits demand a horse, the wood- spirits a cow, and all exact a portion of the harvest. In ancient times, also, human sacrifices were certainly offered.
113. Religion did not, however, remain stationary at this point among the Wends any more than among other nations. Besides these spirits they also recognised and worshipped real deities, raised above nature, who were called by the Letts Dewas and by the Slavs Bogu. At their head there once stood among all the peoples of this race the thunder-god Perwn or JPerkuns, the god who smites the demons with his glowing flashes so that the blood pours forth from their wounds in streams upon the earth. In honour of him a perpetual fire of oak-wood was kept up. Among the Lithuanians and old-Prussians, two other gods were placed as his equals by his side, of whom the one, Balrivvpo, must have been a joyous and NA TURE OF ITS DEITIES.
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beneficent sun-god, and the other, Pccollos, the god of the hidden solar fire in the underworld, both being indis- putably of native origin, and not adopted from any other source. Sun-gods were worshipped by the Slavs in great numbers; some being male, such as DazKbog, the god of day, son of Svarog, the god of the sky (Svarozhich), and Zado, always united with Lada, counterparts of Freyr and Freya, and corresponding in character with these German deities; one being female, the spouse of the unfaithful Moon-god, and mother of the stars, who be- longs to another mythological formation. Tire-gods also, —of whom one, Ogon, bears the same name as the Vedic Agni, and another Kuenets, is a sort of Vulcan, a cunning smith, but at the same time a hero who destroys demons —and a multitude of other divine beings, were objects of worship. Among these we may further name the Spirit of Life (Polish, 'Zywie, Russian, Jiva), embodied in the cuckoo, the White and the Black god (Byel hog and Czerno log), gods of light and darkness, of whom the first is also named Svantovich,—representations and names agreeing with some of the Parsi, but destitute of the ethical significance which they received in the Zara- thustrian system, and which none of the Wend deities possesses.
Dewas in Lithuanian signifies “ god,” but the unfavour- able meaning which the word acquired among the Persians attached itself even amongst the Letts to deiwys, “ idol,”
“ ghost.” Bogu is the Sanskr. hhaglia (Bactr. bagha), old- Pers. baga, from bhaj (Bactr. baz), to “ divide,” to “ distri- bute.” I11 the use of this word again the Slavs agree more closely with the Persians than with the Hindus. Some 186
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way, sliall be born by supernatural means. Tbe contest reaches its climax. Everything is in flames, but only the wicked suffer; the pious feel nothing more than an agree- able warmth. By this discipline all creatures are refined; the evil spirits are destroyed; the earth is renovated, and the sole sovereignty of Ahura mazda begins, to be continued without end.
The bridge Chinvat, commonly interpreted as the “ bridge of the gatherer,” an explanation which now ap- pears to me very doubtful, is borrowed from the old Aryan mythology, and was probably originally the rain- bow which unites heaven and earth. The P&rsee eschato- logy represents the judgment of souls as conducted there not only by Sraosha, but also by Mithra, the genius of truth, and Rashnu, the genius of justice. Saoshyas (Pehlv. Sdcidsh, Par si Saosyds), the Saviour, is the son of the virgin mother Eredatfedhri (“ she who possesses a mighty father ”), who conceives him in a miraculous fashion from Zarathustra. He renews the world and resuscitates the dead, after having first destroyed everything. Here, also, in spite of the differences, the correspondence with Jewish and Judseo-Christian ideas is striking. The doctrine of the purification of the wicked is peculiar to Parsism.
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109. The old-Aryan theology and cultus are only in part the source of many of the distinctive features of Parsism. The doctrine of the Fravashis, and the whole system of spirits with the dualism so strictly carried through it, the cosmogony, the sjtecial homage offered to fire, some of the sacrificial customs, and other representa- tions, also remind us of the religion of the Akkadians,
who were so closely connected with the ancient inhabi- 7 M 178 RELIGION AMONG THE ERANIANS.
tants of Media and Elam. It is probable, therefore, that the Zarathustrian religion, especially in its later develop- ment, owed its form to the influence of the native reli- gion of the Medians. The Chaldee religion may also have contributed one element or another to the Median and Persian Aryans, for before their settlement in Media and Persia, the Assyrians had reduced a good deal of Eran under their sway. Some other peculiarities again must be derived from other sources. But to all these foreign elements the Aryan mind has given an independent shape, resulting in a religious communion, whose simple creed and pure practical morality preserved it from the extravagances of its sister communion in India, and stimulated its adherents to an active life and valiant deeds. The less luxuriant climate of Eran and the national character may have co-operated in this direction; but this high development, and especially their almost monotheistic conception of deity, must be to a large extent ascribed to the preaching of a reformer, or at any rate to a little circle of thinkers.
After the Greek conquest Mazdeism fell into decline. It was brilliantly restored in the third century a,d. by the Sasfinidae, but it finally succumbed before the fana- tical violence of Islam. In a few districts of Persia it still drags on a miserable existence, but it continues to flourish with some vigour among the Parsis who emi- grated to India, and there it even appears to be not incapable of reforms.
Amid many rash conjectures, F. Lenormant, La Magie chez les Ghaldeens, pp. 178 sqq., and 191 sqq., has many just remarks on the influence of the old-Median religion on AFFINITIES WITH THE AKKADIANS.
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Mazdeism, and the correspondence between the former and the Akkadian. His idea that the Proto-Medes worshipped a serpent-deity, and that this was Azhi dahaka, and identical with King Astyages, is altogether erroneous. Azhi dahaka is a purely Aryan demon, and Astyages has nothing to do with him.
The strange treatment of the dead, and the great value set on the dog, which distinguish the Eranians from kin- dred races and from their western neighbours, have been found among Tibetan tribes; and these practices, there- fore, they must have adopted from the earlier inhabitants of southern Eran. See among others, Koppen, Religion des Buddha, ii. p. 322 sqq.
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102. Next to Ahura mazda follow six lofty spirits, and these seven make up the number of the sacred immortals (amesha spehta). The representation of seven supreme spirits is old-Aryan, hut the new system raised one of them above the rest, and inserted fresh figures in the ancient frame. For five of these Amesha spenta (Amshas- pands) were originally abstract ideas, their personification being only slightly advanced in the oldest hymns. The first three, Vohu mono, “ the good mind,” Asha rnhista, “ the best purity,” and Kshathra vairya, “ the desired kingdom,” are scarcely more than attributes of Ahura mazda; the last two, JTaurvatat and Ameretat, “ welfare ” or “ health,” and “ immortality,” are eternal powers con-
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ferred by Mazda. Armaiti alone, an old-Aryan deity, has a more definite personality, and denotes at once the wisdom which protects and fosters the earth and the earth itself. Vohu mand became at a later date the genius who protects mankind and receives them into his abode in heaven, as the agent by whom Ormazd’s creation is extended; long afterwards, under the degenerate name of Bahman, he appears as the lord of the animal world. As the genius of purity, Asha vahista is, of course, the spirit of fire, the enemy of sickness and death, the adversary of all evil spirits, and he is always, therefore, closely connected with Atar, “ fire,” the son of Ahura mazda. Kshathra vairya soon becomes the genius, not only of the kingdom but also of riches, lord of the precious metals, who teaches their pro- per employment, and punishes their misuse. Haurva- tat and AmeretS,t are already in the Gathas gods at once of health and long life, and of the waters and plants, and, in general, of plenty, and they are, therefore, most closely THE AMES HA SPENT A.
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connected with Armaiti. They gradually came to be regarded more definitely as the spirits who provided food and drink, the conquerors of hunger and thirst.
The Amesha spenta have a general resemblance to the Vedic Aditya’s, which were originally six or seven in number, and various epithets are applied to them in com- mon. See Spiegel, Er&n. Altherth., ii. p. 31. But in personality they were quite different.
It is remarkable that the names of the Amesha spenta are half neuter and half feminine. Armaiti, in the form Aramati, also occurs in the Veda, and acts among the Hindus as well as among the Er&nians as the genius of wisdom or piety, and also of the earth. Accordingly the founder ofMazdeism has adopted this entire figure from the old-Aryan system.
The relation between Asha and Atar is completely analogous to that between the Babylonio-Assyrian Anu and ijiamdan, though the two pairs of deities are at the same time separated by great diversities.
J. Darmesteter has endeavoured to prove that the abstract significance of the Amesha spenta preceded the material, and, in particular, that Haurvatat and Ameretat originally personified health and long life. Not till a later period, so he supposes, were they set over the waters and plants; and it was from their older attributes that their significance as spirits of plenty was derived. Though the essay contains much that is admirable, and the author has accurately expounded the necessary connection between the various functions of these deities, he has failed, in my judgment, to furnish the proof that the material significance is the derivative. The question is part of the larger subject of the origin of Mazdeism and its connection with the Yedic religion, an inquiry which is still far from being completed. 170
RELIGION AMONG THE ERA ALANS.
103. The general name Yazata, “ worshipful,” served for addressing a number of spirits, partly derived from the Aryan mythology, partly peculiar to the Zara- tliustrian system. The first named deities, which were probably too deeply rooted in the popular faith to be altogether supplanted by new and more abstract repre- sentations, were not, however, adopted among the Yazatas without having undergone some modification, and being made subordinate to Ahura mazda. The chief of them are Mithra, the god of light, Nalryd sanha, the fire-god, Aparn napdt, the god of the fire dwelling in the waters, Haoma, the god of the drink of immortality, and Tistrya, the genius of the dog-star. The goddess of the heavenly waters and of fruitfulness, Anahita (old Pers. Andhata), is of foreign Chaldee origin. When, under the govern- ment of Artaxerxes Mnemon, the cultus of Mithra, com- bined with foreign usages, increased in importance, this goddess, also, was worshipped with special zeal, and in entirely unorthodox fashion. The cultus of both deities spread over Western Asia to Europe, and was on the whole more widely diffused than that of any other deity of antiquity.
It was natural that prominence should be given in Mazdeism to that side of the character of the old-Aryan deities which most harmonised with the spirit of the new doctrine. Thus Mithra became more especially what Varuna had been in the Yedic religion, the god of truth and right, the guardian of leagues; Nairyo ?anha, in the Veda Nara sansa, a surname of Agni and other deities, the messenger between the dwellers in heaven and men; Haoma (the Indian Soma), the genius of life and health, THE YAZATAS.
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the protector against evil spirits and wicked men—the revengeful and licentious; and Apam napat was at any rate brought into connection with the genuinely Maz- dayasnian representation of the heavenly glory. Tistrya alone retained his physical significance pure and simple, like the other star-spirits with Hvare hshaeta, the sun-god, and Mao, the moon-god, at their head, who, however, retire into the background among the Eranians. Moreover, the traditions of the Aryan heroes supplied not a few ele- ments for the Er&nian, some of which were even attached to the person of Zarathustra.
The goddess AnMiita bears the genuine Aryan surname Ardhvi Sdra, and her common name signifies the .“un- spotted.” She is, however, a foreign deity. See my Godsd. van Zarathustra, p. 181, where it is shown that she was adopted from the Semites. It was not then known, and has only come to light since, that the Semites must in their turn have derived her from the Akkadians.
104. The genuine Zarathustrian Yazatas are all, like the majority of the Amesha spelltas, personifications of ideas, as is plain from their very names, such as Bashrm razista, “ the most perfect justice,” Daena, “ the true faith,” or “ the law,” and others. Even the ancient prayers were elevated into personal spirits of this kind, and the most eminent of these, the Ahuna vairya prayer, was even turned into a sort of Logos, a divine creative word. But the highest in rank of all the Yazatas is Sraosha, who was placed nearly on a level with the holy immortals. He is, as his name proves, a fine hold personi- fication of “ hearing,” both of invocation and of listening to the sacred prayers, maxims and sacrificial songs, and he thus naturally becomes the founder of sacrifice, the genius 172
RELIGION AMONG THE ERAnIANS.
of obedience and watchfulness, who contends against evil spirits with spiritual weapons.
Besides Eashnu razista and Daena, there also deserve to be mentioned among this order of Yazatas Mathra spefiia, the sacred sacrificial rubric or magic formula, and Damdis upamand, the “ oath ” or “ curse,” and the Zara- thustrian Question. The entire divine revelation, namely, is clothed in the form of answers given by Ahura mazda to the questions of Zarathustra, and these last are then ascribed to the inspiration of a special genius. The well- known Honover is simply the later form of Ahuna valrya, and was originally the oldest of the Parsee prayers.
Sraosha appears already in the GatMs as a personal being : the tendency to anthropomorphism fastened more strongly on him than on any of the other Yazatas of the same order, and at a later date he was for the most part connected with Mithra.
105. From the Yazatas we must distinguish the Fra- vashis, the divine or heavenly types of all living beings, including the Yazatas and even the Amesha spentas. They are at once the souls of the deceased and the pro- tecting spirits of the living, created before their birth, and surviving after their death, and they are sometimes identified with the stars. This doctrine, arising out of animistic representation of the independence of souls or spirits, and of their immortality, and recurring in one shape or another among all nations of antiquity, received among the Eranians—probably under the influence of a native religion—a special development, and, in a higher form, was adopted into the Zarathustrian system from the very beginning. ITS DUALISM.
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The Fravashis reappear afterwards in Judaism as guardian angels, and from these they passed into Chris- tianity (cf. Matt, xviii. 10). The meaning of the word Fravashi is uncertain. It probably signifies “ the earlier ” (fra) “ grown ” (vaksk).
106. Parsism is decidedly dualistic, not in the sense of accepting two hostile deities, for it recognises no wor- ship of evil heings, and teaches the adoration only of Ahura mazda and the spirits subject to him; hut in the sense of placing in hostility to each other two sharply- divided kingdoms, that of light, of truth, and of purity, and that of darkness, of falsehood, and of impurity. This division is carried through the whole creation, organic and inorganic, material and spiritual. Above, in the highest sphere, is the domain of the undisputed sove- reignty of the all-wise Lord, beneath, in the lowest abyss, the kingdom of his mighty adversary; midway between the two lies this world, the theatre of the contest.
At the head of the evil or dark spirits stands Aiiro mainyus, the “ attacking ” or “ striking ” spirit, the creator of everything physically or morally unclean, and, as such, the opponent of Ahura mazda. Beneath him stand the daevas (the devas of the Aryan and pre-Aryan period), degraded from the rank of good to that of evil spirits. These include some Yedic gods, as well as purely Eranian creations, of which last-named Aeshma, “ anger,” is the chief, or, at auyrate, the best known. To the kingdom of Anro mainyus there belong, further, the Dmjas (Nom. sing, druhhs), the “ liars ” or “ deceivers,” an order of female spirits or monsters, who were already counted as evil spirits before the daevas had become so, and the 174
RELIGION AMONG THE ERAnIANS.
Pairikas, another order of female beings, who seduced the pious by their beauty. It was not till later that some amount of arrangement was introduced among these beings, and each of the principal spirits, for example, each of the Amesha spentas, obtained his distinct coun- terpart. The character of Anro mainyus is opposition, he simply follows the creative activity of Ahura mazda, producing whatever may injure his good creations.
Anro mainyus becomes in Parsi Aharman, in modern Persian Ahriman, among the Greeks ’Ass/.ttdwos. His name signifies the “striking” or “attacking spirit.” He is also called the “wicked” {ahem), or the “most wicked” (iacistem) “spirit” (mand). In the Gath&s he is still a more or less abstract conception, but he very soon comes to be personified.
The Vedic gods enumerated among the Daevas are Indra (Indra or Ahdra), Sarva (Saiirva, originally a fire- god, afterwards an epithet of Agni, later still identified with Siva), and N&satya (Ndohhaithya), the prototype of the Yedic Asvins. Aeshma daeva was adopted in the form of Ashmodeus by the Jews and the Christians. Of the other genuinely Etonian Daevas we must also men- tion Asto-vtdhdtus, the “ bone divider,” a genius of dissolu- tion, and Apaosha. the “ drought.”
Druj, nom. drukhs, denotes literally the “deceiver,” the "liar,” and is really the same word as the old High German gitroc, modem Dutch gedrocht, both signifying “a monster,” “a monstrous conception of the imagina- tion, by which man is deceived.” This order of beings includes old-Aryah spirits of darkness, such as Azhi dah&ka, the “ biting snake,” the AM or cloud snake of the Yeda, and Nasus (ve*6;), the " corpse-demon; ” and purely Eranian spirits, like Btishyansta, a genius of sleep. ITS DUALISM.
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Pdirika is derived from a root (par) which, among other meanings, signifies to fight, to contend, and also to go away, to run off. Even pure nature-beings, such as Duzhydira (old Pers. Dusiydra), the “bad year,” “failure of crops,” are referred to this group.
The classification of the evil spirits places A16 manJu (“evil disposition ”), for example, opposite to Yohu man&, and Ifidra, the king of the Daevas, opposite to Khshathra vairya, the “ desired kingdom.”
Tdrtc and Zdric, the demons of hunger and thirst, or, more correctly, of sickness or death, are the adversaries of Haurvatat and Amerctat.
107. This dualism further dominates the cosmogony, the cultus, and the entire view of the moral order of the world held by the Mazda-worshippers. Not only does Abro mainyus spoil by his counter-creations all the good creations of Ahura mazda, but by slaying the protoplasts of man and beast, he brings death into the world, seduces the first pair to sin, and also brings forth noxious ani- mals and plants. Man finds himself, in consequence, surrounded on all sides by the works of the spirit of darkness and by his hosts. It is the object of worship to secure the pious against their influence. This is of the utmost simplicity, without images or temples: pure fire plays the principal part, and has the power, when com- bined with the sacred spells and sacrificial songs, to break the might of the evil spirits, and purify men from their pollution. The whole life of the believer is a constant conflict with evil, in which, as is universal in antiquity, little difference is made between physical and moral evil. Agriculture, likewise, and the care of clean animals and 176 RELIGION AMONG THE ErAnIANS.
plants are powerful means of weakening the kingdom of impurity. But the love of truth, also, vigilance and activity, are weapons which win the victory in this contest.
The protoplasts of men and animals are the well-known Gaydmart (modern Pers. Kaydmars), i.e., Gayb marelan, “ human ” or “ mortal life,” and Goshurum, i.e., Gilts urvan, the “bull” or “ox-soul,” both of whom were slain by Ahriman. The first men, Gay6mart’s offspring, are seduced by him to sin. The correspondence between the legends of the fall among the Persians and the Israelites is well known.
108. With this fundamental thought the disposal of the dead, and the representations of the destiny of the deceased and the future of the world, are in accord. Purity inheres especially in fire, earth, and water : the bodies of the dead, therefore, must not be burned, nor buried, nor cast into a river; they are exposed on artificial mounds or towers reserved for the purpose (dakhmas), to be devoured by birds of prey. After death the souls of the departed are obliged to cross the bridge Chinvat. For the wicked this bridge is too narrow, so that they fall off, and sink down into the under world (Duzakh), there to be tor- mented by the spirits of evil. The good, however, are welcomed by Sraosha or Yohu man6 into the Abode of Song {yard demand), the dwelling-place of Ahura mazda and the saints. But the joys of heaven and the pains of hell do not last for ever. Hereafter the sovereignty of Anro mainyus shall come to nought. Three thousand years after Zarathustra, the conquering saviour (Saoshyds Vevethragna), preceded by two personages to p 'pare the ITS ESCHATOLOGY.
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BurgA pujA, with notes and illustrations, announced in the Theol. Tijdschr. 1872, p. 344, sqq.
The sect of the Brahmo-samaj founded in 1830 by R&m Mohun Roy, and reformed in a liberal spirit in our own time by Keshab Ghander Sen, recognises the moral grandeur of Jesus, and the truth of the fundamental Christian principles, but does not absolutely abandon the Hindi! tradition. It aims at a religion consisting in the worship of God as the loving Father of all men, and re- sulting in brotherly love to all. Whether it is destined to exercise any great influence in the future, cannot as yet be determined.
III.
RELIGION AMONG THE ERANIAN (PERSIAN) NATIONS. MAZDEISM.
Literature.—General and historical works: F. Spiegel, ErAnisclxe Alterthumskunde, i. Geogr., Ethnogr., und alt. Geschichte, Leipzig, 1871, ii. Religion, Geschichte bis sum, Tode Alexanders des Grossen, ibid., 1873. The third and last voL is in the press. Id., Arische Studien, i. Leipzig, 1874. F. Muller, Zend Studien, i. and ii., Vienna, 1863. Flathe, Art. “ Perser, Geschichte ” in Ersch and Gruber’s Allg. Encydppadie, sect. iii. vol. xviL pp. 370-434. Lassen, Aeltere Geographic, ibid., pp. 435-443. Spiegel, ErAn, Beitr. zur Kenntniss des Landes und seiner Geschichte, Berlin, 1863. F. Justi, Beilrage zur alien Geogr. Per- siens, i. Marburg, 1869, ii. ibid., 1870 (Universitats Fest- schrift).—Sacred Literature. Editions of the Zend-Avesta by Spiegel (with Huzvaresh-translation), Leipzig and MAZDEISM.;
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Vienna, 1851, and following years, and by Westergaaiid, Copenhagen, 1852-54. Of the Vendiddd Sdde, by H. Bkockhaus, Leipzig, 1850. Of the Bundehesk, with transcription, translation, and glossary, by F. Justi, Leipzig, 1868. Latest editions of the Persian cuneiform inscriptions, Spiegel, Die Altpers. Keilinschriften, ini Grundtext mit Uebersetz., Gramm., und Glossar, Leipzig, 1862 : C. Kossowicz, Inscriptions Palaeo - fersicae Ackaemenidarum, ed. et expl., Petropol., 1872. The Ardd- Virdf Ndmalc, with translation, &c., by M. Haug and
E. W. West, Bombay and Loudon, 1872. Further, M. Haug, Die fiinf Gdtlid's . . . Zaratlmstra’s, herausgeg., iibersetzt und erkldrt, i., Leipzig, 1858, ii., ibid., i860, to be used with very great caution. The following chiefly depend on Spiegel: Decern Sendavestae Excerpla, recensuif et latine vertit C. Kossowicz, Paris, 1865, and by the same writer, G&iha aliunavaiti, Petersburg, 1867; Gdtlia ustavaiti, ibid., 1869 ; Saratustricae Gdthae poster, tres, ibid., 1871. Neriosenglis Sanskrit translation of the Yasna, edited by Spiegel, Leipzig, 1861. F. Spiegel, Avesla, aus dem Grundtext iibersetzt, 3 vols., Leipzig, 1852-1863, with which must necessarily be compared his Commentar iiber d. Avesta, 2 vols., ibid., 1865-1869, as it contains a number of emendations and modifications of the translation. Detached pieces: M. Haug, Das aclitzehnte Kapitel des Wen- diddd iibersetzt und erhlart, Miinchen, 1869. Hubsciimann, Ein zoroastrisches Lied (Fagna, 30), ibid., 1872. Comp, further, R. Roth, “ Beitrage zur Erklarung des Avesta,” i.-iii., and F. Spiegel, “Zur Erklarung des Avesta,” both in the Zeitschr. der Deutschen Morgenl. Gesellsch., xxv., pp. 1 sqq., 215 sqq., 297 sqq. M. Breal, “Fragments de Crit. Zende,” Joutn. Asial., 1862 (includes an essay on the first Farg. of the Vendid&d). W. D. Whitney, “ On the Avesta,” Journ. Amer. Orient. Soc., v. 1856, and 162
RELIGION AMONG THE ERANIANS.
Oriental and Linguistic Studies, New York, 1875, and Max Muller, Chips from a German Workshop, artt. v.-viii. (A number of purely philological works cannot be enume- rated here.) Religion.—Th. Hyde, Historia Religionis vet. Persarum eorumgue Magorum, Oxford, 1700, still note- worthy. I. G. Rhode, Die heilige Sage und der gesammte Religionssystem des Zendvolkes, Frankfort, 1820, founded entirely on the translation of the Zend Avesta by Anquetil Duperron, which is no longer of any use. The confusion of elements belonging to different periods, and the want of a good translation, render K. Schwenck’s Mythologie der Perser, Frankfort, 1855, useless. C. P. Tiele, De godsdienst van Zarathustra van haar ontstaan in Baktrie tot den val van het Oud-Perzische Rijk, Haarlem, 1864, requires revision, especially for the history of the origin of Mazdeism. M. Haug, Essays on the Sacred lan- guage, Writings, and Religion of the Parsees, Bombay, 1862 (to be used with caution). F. Windischmann, Zoroastr. Sludien, herausgegeben von Spiegel, Berlin, 1863 (contains among other things a complete translation of the Bunde- hesh and the Farvardin-Yasht). Id., Die Persische Ana- hita oder Andilis, Munich, 1856. Id., “Mithra,” in Abhandll. fur die Kunde des Mmgerd., i., No. r, Leipzig, 1857. I. G. Stickel, De Diance Persiae Monum. Grcecliwyliano, Jena, 1856. J. H. Vullers, Fragmente uber die Religion des Zoroaster, Bonn, 1831. J. Oppert, “ L’Honover, le verb cr^ateur de Zoroastre” (Ann.dePhilos. Chretienne, Janv., 1862). A. Hovelacque, Morale de VAvesta, Paris, 1874. James Darmesteter, Haurvetdt et Ameretdt, Essai sur la Mythologie de VAvesta, Paris, 1875. On the Parsism of the present day, Dadhabai Naoroji, The Parsee Religion, and The Manners and Customs of the Parsees, London, 1862.—See further, “ Contributions towards a Bibliography of Zoroastrian Literature,” in ORIGIN OF MAZDEISM 163
Triibner’s American and Oriental Literary Record, July 20, 1865.
99. After the division of the Aryans into Hindus and Eranians, the latter probably remained for a consider- able time faithful to the ancient Aryan religion, though not without adopting Turanian elements into it. Maz- deism or Parsism is a reformation of this religion, ascribed by its confessors to Zarathustra (Zoroaster). Of the his- tory of this reformer, whose very existence even has been called in question, nothing is known with certainty, though a number of legends have been transmitted of his birth, temptation, and miraculous deeds. It is equally uncer- tain at what time the religion of Zarathustra was founded. It appears from the oldest sources that the religious re- formation accompanied the introduction of agriculture and of settled life. The language in which these documents are composed is an East-Eranian, and Bactria, therefore, must have been the fatherland of Mazdeism, though it was certainly raised to the rank of state religion in the Persian empire from the time of Darius Hystaspis, and perhaps even before him. Taking its rise in East-Eran probably before or during the eighth century before our era, it made its way after that date with the Aiyan tribes over Media and Persia, and there, it would seem, in the hands of the non-Aryan priestly tribe of the Magi, un- known in Bactria, it underwent not unimportant modifi- cations.
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The close relationship of Parsism to the old-Aryan religion is placed beyond all doubt by comparing it with the Vedic and Brahmanic religions. Haug and others RELIGION AMONG THE ERANIANS.
(including the present writer in an earlier work) have defended the opinion that Mazdeism arose at the same time with the old-Vedic religion, and that both were the result of a schism among the followers of the old- Aryan religion. The grounds on which this opinion is based, appear, however, on further inquiry to be . insufficient.
On the question whether Zaratliustra must be regarded as a mythical personage, there is as yet no agreement. Kern, “ Over het woord Zarathustra en den mythischen persoon van dien naam ” (Mededeelingen van de Koninkl. Akad. van Weteifischappen, 1867), answered it in the affir- mative. On the other side, Spiegel, Er&n, Altertk, i. p. 708, and Heidelb. Jahrbb., 1867, No. 43. Justi, Golt. Gel. Ameigen, 1867, No. 51. Cf. Spiegel, “ Ueber das Lebeti Zarathustra’s,” in Sitzungs-Berichla der Kbnigl. Baler. Akad. Fhilos.-PIdlol. Glasse, January 5, 1867. Even the name Zarathustra has received various explanations.
From the inscriptions of Darius I. it appears that Mazdeism was in his time the official religion of Persia. With the exception of the short sepulchral inscription of Cyrus, no such inscriptions remain from his predecessors. It is not improbable that they also were already Mazda- worshippers.
The selection of the eighth century is not arbitrary. In the narratives given by the Assyrian kings of their military expeditions into Media, it is not till the eighth century and onwards that Aryan names begin to appear, and in the first Fargard of the Vendidad only East-Eranian countries are named, while with the exception of the Median city Itaglia, neither Media nor Persia is mentioned. This tradition describes the countries created by Aliura- Mazda, which can have no other meaning than the countries where Mazdeism prevailed. If its origin can- AIAZDEISM. 165
not be brought down later than the eighth century b.C!., Mazdeism must by that time have been in existence.
The Magians were certainly a pre-Semitic and pre- Aryan priestly tribe in West Asia, whose head, Rab-mag, belonged to the court of the Babylonian kings. See Jer. xxix. 3. It is held by some scholars (Lenormant) that, in the form emga, “ glorious,” “ exalted,” the name is already found in Akkadian as a title of honour borne by the learned and the priests, which seems rather doubt- ful to me. The Akkadian word mah, “great, high, principal,” has more likeness to the Semitic Mdg, the Persian Magus, the Bactrian AFughu. Of course the Ertaians must have derived it from their own Maz, “great,” or Maga, “greatness.”
100. Our knowledge of the Zarathustrian religion is chiefly derived from the Avesta (or Zend-avesta), a collec- tion of writings or fragments composed at different dates, the remains of a much richer literature, and from the Bundehesh, a cosmogonic-theological work, written in Pehlevi not earlier than the third century of our era, but preserving many older traditions. The Avesta is divided into Izeshne (yasna), “ sacrifices,” “ sacrificial prayers,” Vis- pend (yispe ratavo, “ all lords ”) praises to the supreme powers, and Vendidad (yi-daevadata), the law “given against evil spirits,” a book which contains, together with ancient traditions, the moral and ceremonial laws, and the prescriptions relating to purity. These three books together, arranged in a peculiar way, constitute the pure Vendidad (Vendiddd-sdde), the Parsee prayer-book. The Yashts, sacrificial songs, resembling some which occur in the books just named, form, with some shorter texts, the 166 RELIGION AMONG THE ErAnIANS.
small Avesta (Khordak-Avesta), and are certainly by far the most poetical portion of the Holy Scripture. The greater part of these books are written in the same East- Eranian or Bactrian dialect, but a portion of the Yasna, chaps. 28-53, like some ancient prayers, is composed in another dialect, and contains the five Gatlias or religious odes and a prose-work, the Yasna of the seven chapters, —certainly the oldest documents of Pars ism.
The Bundehesh was composed under the reign of the Sasanidse, the restorers of Parsism, whose sovereignty began at the commencement of the third century a.d. By that time Bactrian had already become a dead lan- guage. But it is clear that the learned men who wrote this book employed ancient documents in its composition. The Avesta, the Yashts not excluded, must be older, but it is not possible to determine with any certainty the dates of the origin of the different books. Their relative antiquity is all that is settled. Their chronological suc- cession is as follows : the second part of the Yasna, the Vendidad, the first part of the Yasna, the Vispered, the Yashts, &c.
101. Ear above all divine beings stands Ahura mazddo, the all-wise Lord or Spirit. In the oldest hymns and texts, including, for instance, the confession of faith, he is glorified as the Creator and the God of light, of purity and truth; the giver of all good gifts, and in the first place of life,—his praise and worship transcending every- thing. He is invested with the same rank in the inscrip- tions of the old-Persian kings of the race of Hakhamanis, who profess themselves indebted for their sovereignty to him ; and the restorers of the empire and its religion, the AHURA MAZDAo.
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S&stmidffi, vie with them in his worship. With the extension of the world of divine beings as objects of wor- ship, the homage dedicated to him increased rather than declined. The finest names were devised for him, and the latest representation is perhaps the most exalted. The preaching of this god as the supreme, and, indeed, almost as the only deity, is certainly the new and charac- teristic element of the Zarathustrian reformation, the adherents of which even called themselves distinctively Mazdayasnan, worshippers of Mazda. It was an obvious step to identify him -with the good spirit (spento mainyus), one of the two who, according to the Parsee doctrine, existed from the beginning, and this identification took place at an early period; but it was not till a very late modification of the system that he was placed on the same footing with the evil one of the two spirits (anro- maAnyus), and boundless time {zrvan akarana) was set above both.
A large number of Ahura mazda’s titles of honour may be found collected in the Ormazd yasht. The description given of him by the Bundehesh is more elevated than that in the Avesta.
In the combination Ahura-mithra (dual) he takes the place of the old-Aryan Yaruna; but it would be erro- neous on this account to place him on a level with the latter ; he stands infinitely higher.
The system which represents Zrvan akarana as the supreme deity, and Ahura mazda and Anro-maTnyus as his sons, is most probably no earlier than the time of the Sa- sdnidse, and is an attempt to restore monotheism, which was endangered by the application of dualism to the conception of deity also. i68
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supreme deity (.Mahadeva). His character is not to be reproduced in a single word. As Eudra his nature is violent and dreadful; he lives in the wilderness on the loftiest mountains; in asceticism, and, therefore, in power, he surpasses all other beings. But at the same time he is a god of fruitfulness, and thence the creator; and he is from this time, therefore, generally worshipped under the symbol of the power of propagation, the lingam. It is not without reason that it has been supposed that this symbol is not of Aryan origin, and that the Siva of this period has arisen out of the fusion of Agni-Eudra with a native deity. Certainly both the representation of his person and the character of his cultus are thoroughly unbr&hmanic, various foreign elements, such as the worship of serpents and spirits (bhutas) being connected with his worship. He was particularly popular in the mountain districts of the north and in the Dekhan, and the Brahmans saw in Sivaism a welcome ally against Buddhism.
The consort of Siva, who combines in her person the same conflicting characteristics, who is marked out by her self-renouncing piety (tapas) as an ancient fire-goddess, and by her relation to Sarasvati, the goddess of the waters and of knowledge, as a goddess of mountains and streams, was invoked alike under the ancient names Ambika and Uma, the “ mother ” and the “ protectress,” as well as by the titles Kali, the “ black one,” and Durga, the “ terrible.” As Kall-Durga she is the goddess of death, horrible in shape, and worshipped with bloody sacrifices. In the pantheon and in the cultus she takes a much more pro- minent place than all the other goddesses, whose quali- ties and names were transferred to her; and she was POST-BUDDHISTIC BRAHMANISM.
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even connected with Krishna and as Devimahatmya (“ the majesty of the goddess ”) with Vishnu.
Siva means “ the gracious,” one of the euphemisms by which it was endeavoured to appease dreaded deities, in sound somewhat resembling his characteristic name, Sarva, the “destroyer,” the “wrathful.” The epics relate how the supreme gods, Vishnu and Krishna on the one side, and MahSdeva on the other, vied with each other in their compliments. All these passages in which they recipro- cally glorify each other are, of course, interpolations. But the worship of Mah&deva as the supreme god must be the oldest. Passages, however, are not wanting which show that his cultus was not introduced till after the first period of Brahmanism, and then not without resistance. The Lingam is certainly not a symbol of ancient Brah- manism, and Sisnadevas (phallus-gods) are opposed in the Vedas and excluded from pure sacrifices. He was regarded both as destroyer and creator, inasmuch as he was both storm-god and fire-god, and his union with Agni may have served as the point of attachment for the Br&hmans. I conjecture that Siva or Sarva was not original, but was derived from his consort Durga, whose attributes were transferred to Agni-Eudra, when she was united with him. It is in this sense that we designate him a native deity, which cannot be absolutely proved, and is still doubted by many scholars, but is sufficiently clear from the non-Aryan character of his cultus.
In the case of his spouse we must distinguish with the same care between the mountain goddess Parvatt or Haimavati, the ancient mother-goddess Umfi or Ambika, and Kdli, Karali or Durga, who is certainly not of Aryan origin. In the last who, properly speaking, has no con- sort, we may recognise the goddess of death and of the *52
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under-world, wlio is found both among the oldest inha- bitants of Central Asia and among the Malays. As the spouse of Mahadeva she is, however, the goddess par ex- cellence (Devi), and all the goddesses, therefore, and not only Sarasvati (who was connected with P&rvatl) and Nirjriti (the goddess of evil, resembling Durga in character), but even Maya, Sri (spouse of Vishnu), Savitri, and others, might be identified with her.
93. Among the gods adopted during this period into the Brahmanic system, Ganesa, the god of arts and wis- dom, occupies the principal place. The greatest difficulty was to find room in the same system for all the three chief gods whose worshippers were for the most part hostile to each other. The endeavours to fill up the gulf between the rivals may be speedily traced in dif- ferent mythic narratives of their reconciliation. The first expedient was simply to place the three side by side, and ascribe the same rights to each of them. Generally, how- ever, two of them had to submit to be subordinated to the third. Or Vishnu and Siva were united into one person, Hari-Tuirau, who was then united with Brahma and regarded as the chief god. Last of all arose the doctrine of the Trimurti, according to which the three gods were repre- sented as so many forms or revelations of one supreme deity in his threefold activity as creator, sustainer, and destroyer. Among the people, however, this doctrine made little way. Moreover, it appears not only to have arisen in the South of India, but to have been confined exclusively to that portion of the Peninsula.
Besides the worship of Ganesa, practised by his parti- cular sect, the GAnapalyas, we meet in this period with POST-BUDDHISTIC BRAHMANISM. 153
that of Skanda K&rtikeya, the god of war, and of Kdma, the god of love.
The union of Hari (ie., Vishnu) and Hara (Siva) had its counterpart in the fusion of the male and female deity also into one under the name Ardhanari. All this indi- cates a strong tendency to monotheism.
The first appearance of the Trimurti is in the 14th century A.D., but the idea that the supreme being exer- cises by turns one of the three functions already specified, is of great antiquity. The application of this conception to Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, is entirely arbitrary, the two latter, for example, being creators no less than the first.
94. It is characteristic of this period that it gave rise to a new sacred literature, totally different in character from the Brahmanic. But the Brahmans perceived very clearly that the rich literature of the Buddhists, if its influence was to he rendered harmless, needed something to counterbalance it. With this view, the eighteen Puranas which still exist, and a similar number of Upapuranas, were composed: by the members of the sects they were placed on the same footing as the Vedas, and regarded as of great antiquity; none of them, how- ever, were written till after the eighth century A.D., and the majority even are much later. Their object is nothing less than to give a history of the universe since its origin, and they are concerned not only with theology, but with all departments of knowledge.
At the same time, the two great epics, the Mahfi- bliarata and the Eamayana, in which the ancient gods, already completely transformed into heroes, lived and moved as human beings on the earth,—or rather, in which the old myths were blended with some great historic 154
RELIGION AMONG THE HINDUS.
events into an epic narrative,—were modified and inter- polated by the worshippers of Vishnu and Siva, to make them the vehicles of their particular theology.
Purina signifies “ancient tradition;” the Upapur&nas are the By-Pur&nas, and are of less importance. Both perhaps contain some elements of older Purinas now lost, but they differ totally in spirit and contents from the character of these works, as we infer it by descrip- tion. Following the number of the great gods, they are divided into three groups of six; but the six, which are devoted to the glorification of Brahma, while they con- tain a number of legends about him, chiefly insist on the worship of Siva, and especially of Vishnu.
In the older parts of the epic poems, the principal heroes and heroines are only compared with the chief gods and goddesses. In passages subsequently inserted they are elevated into their amt&ras. Ever and anon the opportunity is seized to thrust in a panegyric on Vishnu or Siva, or to furnish a proof of their supreme power. It is often very easy to separate these additions from the original text, which must have been in existence before the year 300 B.C. It was a master-stroke of the Brahmans to make these epics, which seem to have been originally the peculiar literature of the Kshattriyas, available for their purpose.
95. Meanwhile, the Brahmans surrendered nothing of their claims and privileges. To prevent the people from escaping from their control, they lowered themselves to them, but they were always careful to make it appear what deep reverence was ever paid, even by the highest gods, to a member of their caste. They likewise remained faithful to their over-estimate of knowledge POST-BUDDHISTIC BRAHMANISM.
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(jndna) as a means of deliverance. They therefore opposed the doctrine of Sandilya, which substituted piety (ibhakti) and love to God for knowledge, and vigorously maintained the authority and infallibility of the Yeda, which they now even declared to be eternal and un- created. Practically, however, they made concessions upon this point, and regarded as orthodox every school or sect which acknowledged the authority of the Yeda, even though it denied its eternity.
The dispute about the eternity of the Veda is highly instructive, especially when the Brahmanic doctrine of revelation is compared with the teachings of Christian and Mohammedan theologians on the inspiration of the Bible and the Qoran. In subtlety and absurdity it far transcends anything which either of the latter have ever devised. /
It was simply the recognition of the authority of the Veda that secured even for the Nyaya and the atheistic Sankhya philosophy the credit of orthodoxy by the side of the orthodox Ved&nta.
96. Of the six so-called philosophical systems, only three properly answer to this description. The Vedanta, the “ end of the Veda,” is purely pantheistic and monistic, and is connected (as Uttara-mimdmsd, “later considera- tion ”) with the proper or older Mlmamsa, (Purva- mimdmsd), a more ritualistic system. The Nydya (“ rule,” “ maxim ”) is occupied with the method of philosophical inquiry, and the Vaiseshika (from visesha, “ difference,” “ attribute ”) which is connected with it, applies the method to nature. Analytical in their principles, they are diametrically opposed to the synthetic SdnJchya RELIGION AMONG THE HINDUS.
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(“ reasoning,” “ synthesis ”) a dualistic and atheistic sys- tem, which exercised very great influence not only upon thought but also on religion. The practical side of this system is represented by the Yoga philosophy, which is distinguished from the Sankhya by its decided theism, and undertakes to show how, by concentrating the mind in profound reflection, it is possible to attain union with the divine principle, while its professors surpass in self- torture all the ascetics of the world. The so-called founders of these schools are for the most part mythical persons. Beneath the systems which hear their name, we may discern clearly the animistic view of the universe. In the doctrine of the independent existence of the soul, and the inferences to be drawn from it, they all agree.
The Vedanta, the S&nkhya, and the Nyaya, are the only schools that possess any of the characteristics of philo- sophical systems, and even they only deserve this desig- nation in a limited sense, as the object of them all is not the search for truth, hut the redemption of men.
The PArva-mimarnsa is founded on the Brahmanas, but the Vedanta, on the other hand, on the Upanishads, which suffices to indicate their respective characters. On this system, and on (Jankara, the famous champion of orthodoxy, see A. Braining, Bijdrage tot de Kennis van den Veddnta, Leiden, 1871.
The animistic character of these systems appears in the fundamental conceptions which they all possess in common. As the union of body and soul (which, like the substance of the universe, is eternal) is the cause of all misery, deliverance consists in the complete separation of the soul from the body, and it is to this goal that the different systems are intended to lead. POST-BUDDHISTIC BRAHMANISM. 157
The reputed founders of the Vaiseshikas, Sankhya, and Vedtota schools are certainly mythic beings,—Kanada (the “atom-eater”), Kapila (the “yellow”), and Vyasa (“ extension,” “ separation ”); probably also Gotaraa, the supposed founder of the Ny&ya, is of the same order. Jaimini, the founder of the Pdrva-mtmafnsa, may very well be regarded as a historical personage, and Patanjali, the father of the Yoga, is certainly so.
97. As soon as Buddhism was overcome and driven out, the sects which had only been united by the pre- sence of danger, burst through this artificial union, and were again separated. Vishnu was once more worshipped by the Vaishnavas, Siva by the Saivas, as the supreme deity, and each body split into a number of smaller communities, to which new ones were perpetually being added. The most famous of the later Vaishnava sects are those founded in the twelfth century by Ramanuja in Southern India, and sometime afterwards by Raina- nanda. The first of these is distinguished by great strict- ness, and the avoidance of all profane persons; while to this the second is in many respects diametrically opposed, though its founder Ram&nanda was originally one of the followers of Ramanuja. Expelled because he had eaten with unconsecrated persons, he abstained from imposing on the disciples whom he gathered round him, any com- mands of ceremonial purity, and even taught that the clergy ought to reject all forms of worship. Erom a disciple of Ramananda came, further, the sect of the Kabirpanthi, from whose writings the famous Nanak Shah, the founder of the religious community of the Sikhs (Sishya), derived a large portion of his doctrine. RELIGION AMONG THE HINDUS.
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The K&birpanthi hardly belong to Vishnuism any longer, though they are counted among its adherents, but they have adopted many elements of Mohammedanism, and are zealous Monotheists. Like the followers of Rama- nanda, they employ the vernacular. The repugnance to animal sacrifices is shared by all these communities, and they are all alike open to members of every caste.
The Saiva sects are composed chiefly of clergy or monks, living in solitude, or united in fraternities. Siva is their god, as the protector and the example of self- denying penitents. They have now, however, for the most part degenerated into mere jugglers, and no longer enjoy much respect.
The doctrine of the followers of Ramanuja accords, in many respects, with the Vedanta. Vishnu is in their view the same as Brahmk The adherents of Ramananda worship Vishnu as R&ma or Sita-Eama. K&bir is cer- tainly a fictitious name for the unknown founder of the community of the K&blrpanthi. Much as the author of their sacred books may have derived from the teachings of the Mohammedans, he was certainly far better ac- quainted with the Hindu writings than with the Islamitic, and he must, therefore, have been a Hindu. A complete translation of the Adi Granth, the sacred book of the Sikhs, has been recently published by Dr. E. Trumpp, London, 1877. Comp, also his Festrede, Ndnak, der Stifter der Sikh-Beligion, Munich, 1876.
98. The deep decay of Brahmanism is evinced by the rise and spread of the Sakta-sects, who worship the per- sonified power of the three great gods as female beings. POST-BUDDHISTIC BRAHMANISM. 159
Though these bodies have some points of affinity with the other sects, they constitute really a return to representa- tions and usages belonging to a lower stage of religious development. They are divided into two groups, those of the right hand (DaJcshindchdri), and those of the left hand (V&mdcMri), of whom the first follow a stricter ritual, while the second are characterised by magic cere- monies and disgusting licentiousness. Sometimes, how- ever, they merge in each other. The rise and spread of these sects affords an example of the revival of ancient elements as soon as the bonds of the hierarchy are weakened, and the chain of purified tradition is broken.
Meanwhile, under the influence of Islam and Chris- tianity, a number of mixed sects have arisen, such as that of Xunak Shah already named, and the later Brahmo- samaj, which is perhaps destined to give a new direction to Brahmanism.
To the wives of the three great gods, Durga, Lakshmi, and Sarasvati or Savitri, Rad ha, the spouse of Krishna, must also be added, who is indeed regarded by some sects as the chief goddess.
It is impossible to mistake the striking correspondence between the worship of the Saktis and the primeval nature-worship of the pre-Aryans and pre-Semites, in which the great mother-goddess is the supreme object of worship, and which has left so many traces behind it through the whole of Asia. The Dakshinachari and Vamachari flow into each other, among other places, at Calcutta. At any rate, the sect of the Right-hand estab- lished there follows to some extent the ritual of the Left- hand. On this subject compare Pratdjiachandra Gosha, i6o
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Mahavira. They are mentioned in 587 A.D. by Yara- hamihira.
The clergy or monks are- called SddJms or Tatis, the laymen Sr&vakas, “hearers.” The five (or ten) chief com- mandments of the Jainas and those of the Buddhists exhibit very close agreement. Their great fast, or period of silent meditation, in the rainy season, Paryushana or Pajjfisan, does not differ much from the Buddhist vassa (varsha) or rainy season, in which the followers of Buddha also were accustomed to abstain from travelling, and to stay in some remote spot absorbed in contemplation.
D. The Changes in Br&hmanism under the Influence of its Conflict with Buddhism.
Literature.—For a list of editions and translations of the Ram&yana and Mah&bh&raia up to 1847, see Gilde- MEISTEr’s Bibliothec. Sanscr. Specimen, pp. 29-53. Since that date, the edition by Gorresio has been finished, and a complete translation of both epics by HlPP. Fauche has appeared. The Itamayana has also been translated by Griffiths.
Portions of the poems have been translated by Theod. Pavie, and subsequently by Ph. Ed. Foucaux, Le Mahd- bh&rata, onze episodes, Paris, 1862. Of the Bhagavad-Gttd, the most recent translations are those by Em. Burnouf (Nancy and Paris, 1861), and F. Lorinser, Die Bhag.-Gita, ubersetzt und erlauiert, Breslau, 1869. The latter work has been severely criticised by K. T. Telang, Bhagavad-GUd, translated, with Notes and an Introductory Essay, Bombay, 1875. Cf. A. de Gubernatis, Studie suit’ Epopea Indiana, Firenze (no date).
For the Puranas, see Gildemeister, op. cit., pp. 54-60. The most important translations are those of the Bhdg- avala-Furdna, by Edg. Burxouf, Paris, 1840, and follow- POST-BUDDHISTIC BRAHMANISM.
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ing years, and of the Vishnu-Pur&m, by H. H. "Wilson, London, 1840, re-edited in the complete collection of Wilson’s works by Dr. Fitzedward Hall, 4 vols., London, Triibner & Co., 1865 and foil.
88. The Br&hmans perceived that it was not enough simply to exterminate their dangerous rival, they must also endeavour to provide for the wants which Buddhism had satisfied. To give up their doctrinal system and their hierarchy, to make their esoteric teaching the common property of all, to let go the authority of the Yeda— this was impossible for them, without destroying their order. But it was possible for them to modify that system, to supply a new basis for their hierarchy, to com- bine their own doctrine with the prevailing popular belief, and by setting the claims of orthodoxy very low, to gain allies out of various sects. These methods were applied by them in the days of the ascendency of Buddhism with such success that its power declined more and more, and persecution and violence seem to have been superfluous, if they were practised at all.
89. The first thing needed for this purpose was a popular conception of deity. Neither the somewhat abstract gods of the latest Rik-hymns, nor their own Brahma (masc.), and least of all the impersonal—or at any rate neuter—Brahma, could fulfil this requisite, for not one of them had become a god of the people. Such a deity they found in Vishnu, the worship of whom seems to have increased considerably in the last four centuries B.c. In the old-Vedio time Vishnu was a god of subordinate importance, generally connected with Indra, 144
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and seldom celebrated by himself. He was a sun-god, who traversed the whole world in three steps, hut he was thrown almost entirely into the shade by Surya and S&vitri. He did not rise much higher in the Brahmana period/ at least among the Brahmans and Kshattriyas. Now, however, he is ranked among the twelve Adityas, and is soon elevated to be the supreme god. In this capacity the names and forms of Prajapati, Brahm&, and other creative deities, are transferred to him. By the infinite world-serpent (sesha or ananta) he is drawn over the waves of the primeval ocean, or by the sun-bird Garuda, through the sky, or he appears in human form with four hands, three of which carry a shell, a dart, and a club. In his heaven, Vaikuntha, his consort Lakslimi or Sri, the goddess of love and beauty, of fruitfulness and marriage, dwells by his side ; to her the cow was dedicated, and her symbol was the lotus flower.
The slight estimation in which Vishnu was held by the Br&hmans, even as late as the end of the Brahmanie period, may be inferred from the fact that in the laws of Manu he stands no higher than in the Veda, and that Yaska, 400 B.C., still places him in the second rank. It has even been conjectured (Muir, Sanskrit Texts, iv. p. 165, sqq., and passim; Lassen, Ind. AUerth., i. p. 488, sqq., 2d ed., i. p. 586, sqq.), that in the oldest versions of the epics, which were certainly especially current among the Kshattriyas and reflected their belief, he had not as yet attained the eminent place assigned to him in the later redactions of the poems.
Garuda or Garutmat, who appears already in the Rig- veda as a divine sun-bird, and is also enumerated in the oldest Buddhist Sutras among the lesser gods, was for- POST-BUDDHISTIC BRAHMANISM. 145
merly connected with Indra. How he was transferred from the cultus of this deity to that of Vishnu, is related in the Mahdbh&r. 5, 104, vs. 3674, sqq.
90. Of the Vishnu worship the doctrine of the avatdras or incarnations (literally, “ descents ”), is charac- teristic. Just as the Buddha becomes man whenever the world needs to be redeemed from misery, Vishnu also, if danger threatens the devas or their worshippers, assumes one form or another to bring them deliverance. The number of these avataras was not at first strictly defined, and kept mounting higher and higher. Among the oldest of them is the “ dwarf-incamation ” (vaman&vatura) borrowed from Vishnu’s own sun-myth: then he appears as the fish who saves Manu at the deluge (matsyavatara), as the tortoise who, at the churning of the heavenly ocean (i.e., at the creation), supports the earth (kurmd- vatdra), and as the boar which restores it to equilibrium when it has sunk into the under world (varahdvatara),— three sun-myths which were first applied to Brahma as creator, and were transferred from him to Vishnu. With the last of these myths is connected that of the “ man- lion” (nrsimhdvatdra), under which shape Vishnu freed the world from the sway of a demon-king. Besides this the doctrine of the avataras afforded an opportunity of identifying him with favourite heroes of tradition, who were probably once deities. Such were E&machandra, who, like Buddhism, extended his conquests to Ceylon; Para- surama, the “ axe-Bama,” an ancient deity of fire and lightning, whom the Brahmans raised to be their hero as the slayer of all the Kshattriyas; and Krishna the hidden sun-god of the night, always connected in the 7 K 146
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Epos with the light Arjuna, the visible sun-god, and whose myth forms a counterpart of the legend of Buddha, though they are as far apart as the poles in character. In later times Vishnu was also connected with several other divine beings.
The myth of Vishnu as a dwarf is to he found as early as the Satapatha Brdhmana (see Muir, Sanskrit Texts, iv. p. 122, sqq.) It is noteworthy that in this version Vishnu does not assume the form of a dwarf, but actually is a dwarf. The only use there made of the myth by the Brahmans is to attach to it their theory of sacrifice. It is highly instructive to compare their representation with the much more original story in the Bdmdyana (i. 32, 2, sqq.), and with the form in the Bhdgav. Purdna (viii. 15, r, sqq.), which has been in many respects modified, where Vishnu only needs two steps to traverse earth and heaven, and the Asura prince Bali, whom he dethrones, is placed in a very favourable light.
Some of the avat&ras appear to have been borrowed from the mythology of non-Hindu inhabitants of India. Lassen, Ind. Alterth., iv. p. 583, conjectured that this was the case with the dwarf. The man-lion also appears to me to belong to a system different from the Hindu. The boar is also a form of the sun-god in the Zend-Avesta. Bama-chandra, like Krishna, is a god of night; his name connects him both with the night (rdma, “ night,” “ rest,” “ dark,”) and with the moon (chandra). His spouse is Sita, “ the furrow,” the ploughed earth, which, according to a representation common in antiquity, was fertilised by the moon and by the dew descending from it, or the night wind sent by it (in the Zend-Avesta, R&man is the genius of the air \Vayu, the Sanskr. Vayu], who gives taste to food). That Parasu-Rdma is a god of the solar fire admits POST-BUDDHISTIC BRAHMANISM.
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of no doubt. He springs from the Br&hman race of the Bhrigus (lightning), his father’s name is Jamadagni, “ the burning fire.” Like all gods of solar fire he is the nightly or hidden one, and accordingly he slays Arjuna, the bright god of day. Out of this the myth of the Kshattriya-slayer developed itself spontaneously. In the myth of Krishna, on the other hand, the two sun-gods are friendly, the old pair of deities Vishnu and Indra in a new shape.
91. In the cultus of Krishna the worship of Vishnu reaches its climax. Traces of Krishna-worship indeed make their appearance at an early date; but not till he was regarded as an avatara of Vishnu, especially in the form of Mr&yana, who had previously been identified with Brahma, did it spread through the whole land. In the Epos he is represented as a demi-god, who distin- guished himself by his heroic deeds, his higher know- ledge, and his miraculous power, while later on he took the rank of the highest god. The Bruhmanic theosophists make him a disciple of the Br&hmans, who devotes him- self to mystic meditations, and thus in the Bhagavad- Gita he appears as the preacher of an ethical-pantheistic doctrine, and proclaims himself as the Supreme Being and the Redeemer. At a later date, viz., in the Gita- govinda, special prominence was given to the legends of his miraculous birth, his intercourse with the shepherds, and his luxurious life with the shepherdesses, the remem- brance of which was celebrated by special religious festivals.
When Buddhism had ceased to be dangerous to the Brahmans, the Buddha himself was included among the atavaras of Vishnu, and the sect of the Bauddha- 143
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Vaishnavas arose, which attempted to fuse the two sys- tems together.
At the end of this age (Kaliyuga) Vishnu is to appear as Kalkin, to root out all wickedness.
In all his incarnations Vishnu is a god of salvation and beneficence, and as a human being he is in no way inferior to the Buddha in gentleness, humanity, and self- denial, of which the Brahmans had many striking ex- amples to present. To this Parasurama forms the only exception, hut it is probable that the Brahmans did not connect this form with him till they felt themselves strong enough to re-establish their authority again, if need be, by force.
If the Indian Herakles, of whom Megasthenes speaks, is really Krishna, as Lassen affirms (Ind. Alterth, i. p. 647), the worship of Krishna must have become tolerably general by 300 B.C. But the identification leaves much to be desired. The name occurs in an inscription dating probably from the beginning of our era (Bayley, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 1854, cf. "Weber, Zeitschr. der Deuisch. Morgenl. Gesellsch., ix. p. 631). The figure and the myth of Krishna are certainly of great antiquity, though it was not till later times that his cultus spread over the whole of India.
Nara and Narayana also are ancient gods. Their names signify “ man ” and “ son of man ” (Bohtlingk and Both, JForlerb. Bopp explains NS.rfi.yana otherwise, “ he who goes through the waters ”), and are doubtless con- nected with Nereus and the Nereids. They correspond with Arjuna and Krishna, Indra and Vishnu. In the Brahmanic period, even as late as in the laws of Manu, Nfirfiyana is a surname of Brahma. POST-BUDDHISTIC BRAHMANISM.
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The legends of the Gita-govinda are not of more recent growth than the stories about Krishna in the epics, though they were not adopted into the Br&hmanic system until later. They belong, on the contrary, to the oldest myths of the Aryan race. The representation of the god as a disciple of the Brahmans, which we meet with in the Chandogya-Upanishad, is, however, much more modern.
In the teachings of the Bhagavat-Glta, Lorinser be- lieves he can detect citations from the New Testament, and the stories of Krishna’s birth and childhood appear to Weber to exhibit traces of Christian influence. They are, in my judgment, very doubtful. The works of Lorinser and Telang have been cited above. Comp. A. Weber, “Ueber die Krishnajaum&shtami” (Krishna’s Ge- burtsfest) in Abhandll. der Konigl. Akademie detr Wissensch. in Berlin, 1867. The views of Lorinser and Weber are shared by F. Nfeve, Des Blemenls Btr angers du Mythe et du Culte de Krichna, Paris, 1876. On the whole question see C. P. Tiele, “ Christus en Krishna,” in the Theolog. Tijdschr., 1877, No. 1. p. 63, sqq. Senart is of opinion that the Krishna-myth served as the type for the legend of Buddha. Even if that is correct, it still remains true that the Brahmans took up the old popular representa- tions which had been first adopted by the Buddhists, modified their form, and then employed them again as weapons against their opponents.
The significance of the future Buddha, Kalkin, whose name if translated would mean “ contagion,” “ falsehood," is still very enigmatical.
92. At the same time with Vishnu, perhaps even before him, Kudra also, whose worship had made such advances in the previous period (see § 78), was raised, under his euphemistic name of Siva, to the position of RELIGION AMONG THE HINDUS.
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shadow of the sacred fig-tree (bodhi-tree), seated on the throne of knowledge (bodhi-manda), he actually attains the dignity of Buddha. Upon this he begins to preach, first at Benares (Varanasi) and subsequently all through India; multitudes without number, including not a few princes and Br&hmans, and the Buddha’s own family, are converted, and even women are admitted to discipleship. After triumphing over every obstacle, he is doomed to witness, by the desolation of his native city, the ruin of his whole race, and at last, at the age of eighty year’s, he dies, or rather enters into Nirvana. No fire can burn his corpse, but it is consumed at last by the glow of his own piety, and his bones are collected out of the ashes by his disciples as precious relics, and deposited in eight Stupas.
The dates assigned to Buddha’s death vary widely. That Of the Southern church has been most generally accepted, according to which the attainment of Nirvana falls in 543 B.C. Westergaard, Buddha’s Todesjahr, p. 95, sqq., places it 368-370, with which result A. Weber, Indische Streifen, ii. 216, agrees. Kern, Jaartelling der Zuid. Buddh., p. 1, sqq., assigns Buddha’s entrance into Nirv&na to 388 B.C., and T. W. Rhys Davids, Academy, 25th April 1874, fixes it about 410.
SOnart, Essai sur la Legende du Buddha, endeavours to prove that the whole story of the Buddha is a legend, composed of the ordinary elements of a solar myth, and that we are no longer in a position to extract from it the kernel of historic truth. He is, no doubt, right to a cer- tain extent; further investigation must determine whether his conclusion is not too decidedly negative. He does not, however, like Wilson, deny the existence of the Buddha. The narratives of birth and childhood, inde- 134
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pendently of their supernatural character, are doubtful in the highest degree. Maya is a purely mythical being, and Kapilavastu an altogether unknown city, while its name suggests that of Kapila, the reputed founder of the S&nkhya philosophy, which has so many points of agree- ment with the later Buddhist teaching. The other places named in the legend are familiar enough, R&jagriha, at that time a resort of sages and hermits, V&ranasi (Benares), which continues the holy city to this day, and G&ya (Buddhag&ya), where the bodhi-tree beneath which Buddha sat is still pointed out. This is, however, no guarantee for the historical character of the stories con- nected with these places.
83. Whether the Buddha was really the son of a king or not, it may be regarded as certain that he did not belong to the caste of the Brahmans. There is equally little reason for doubting that he sought for peace first of all among the Brahmans, then in solitary penance,—yet in both instances in vain,—and attained it only by that con- templation absorbing the soul, which became the charac- teristic of his followers. His wandering life in the garb of a mendicant, his preaching that all who followed him in this might be delivered from sickness, pain, old age, and death, and should strive after Nirvana as the highest goal, the great impression which this doctrine made on men of all classes, if not through the whole of India, yet according to the oldest tradition, in particular districts, the opposition which he encountered from many, the loyal devotion of his disciple Ananda, the few details related of his death—all this cannot belong to the realm of fiction. And this suffices to show us in the Buddha a BUDDHISM.
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man, who, whatever may have been the value of his philosophy of life, out of genuine conviction and pity for his fcllowmen, chose a life of self-denial and renuncia- tion to realise a great idea and promote the universal salvation.
Even though we should be obliged to concede that the whole course of Buddha's life is borrowed from the well- known myth of the sun-god, and that the majority of the details of his legend find their explanation in this myth, it will still be impossible to derive the traits we have enumerated from this source.
84. Buddhism, though it is a reaction against the Brahman: c hierarchy, is, in fact, an outgrowth of Brah- manism. It rests upon the so-called dogma of the trans- migration of the soul, and the Buddhist, like the Brahman, seeks for deliverance from the endless succes- sion of re-births. But it pronounces the Brahmanic penances and abstinence inadequate to accomplish this, and aims at attaining, not union with the universal spirit, but Nirvana, non-existence. Without denying the existence of the devas, at any rate at first, it places each Buddha, as the Brahmans ranked every ascetic, above them, but it goes a step further, and makes even the supreme Brahmfi, subordinate to a perfect saint. It differed from Brahmanism, as primitive Christianity differed from the Jewish hierarchy, by rejecting outward works or theological knowledge as marks of holiness, and seeking it in gentleness, in purity of heart and life, in mercy and self-denying love for a neighbour. Above all, it is distinguished by its relation to castes. The Buddha 136 RELIGION AMONG THE HINDUS.
comes neither to oppose them, nor to level everything. On the other hand, he adopts the doctrine that men are horn in lower or higher castes, determined by their sins or good works in a former existence, but he teaches, at the same time that, by a life of purity and love, by becoming a spiritual man, every one may attain at once the highest salvation. Caste makes no difference to him; he looks for the man, even in the Chandala; the miseries of existence beset all alike, and his law is a law of grace for all. The Buddhist teaching is, therefore, quite popular in its character, its instrument is preaching rather than instruction, it is not esoteric like the Brahmanic, or in- tended only for individuals. And while the piety of the Brahman aimed at selfishly securing his own redemp- tion, the Buddhist cannot attain salvation without regard to the well-being of all his fellow creatures. The ideal of the first is a hermit striving to save himself, the ideal of the second a monk, enrolled in a brotherhood, striving to save others. Buddhism, in fact, rejected the authority of the Yeda, the whole dogmatic system of the Br&limans, their worship, penance, and hierarchy, and simply substituted for them a higher moral teaching. It was a purely ethical revolution; but it would certainly have succumbed beneath this one-sided tendency, had it not in the course of time taken up into itself, under another shape, much of what it had first opposed.
There are two degrees of Nirvana, one consisting of ^ the complete sanctification by which a man became an Arhat, or “ venerable person,” and the other being the annihilation of all existence, for which the Arhat strives, and which he cannot attain until death. The first of BUDDHISM.
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these is called in PAli savupddisesanibbdnam,—i.e., “ the annihilation of everything except the five Ichandhas (skandhas) or qualities of being; ” sometimes also kile- sanibbdnam, the “ extinction of passion.” The second is described as anupddisesanibbdnam or JchandanibbdnarK, “extinction of being.” Thus Childers correctly, loco oil.
The sketch which we have presented of the relation of the Buddha to the caste-system, is, of course, founded on the picture of him drawn by his followers. It is possible that this conception belonged to him originally, but it may also have been an inference from his teaching.
Primitive Buddhism ignored religion. It was only when in opposition to its first principles, it had made its founder its god, and had thus really become a religion, that the way was open for its general acceptance.
85. The real history of Buddhism does not begin till the middle of the third century before our era. Of the first century of its existence we know nothing with certainty. It appears to have developed silently hut steadily. Monasteries were founded, and sects were formed. If it had been the original idea of the Master to turn all men into clergy, that is, into mendicant monks, practical reasons, of course, soon rendered it necessary to admit lay brothers and sisters by their side, who were bound only to fulfil the moral law. The foundations of the discipline (vinaya) and of the law or belief (dharma) were laid; even metaphysical problems (abhidharma) were already to some extent discussed. But in the middle of the third century B.C., a great change took place. The expedition of Alexander the Great had brought the Hindus into contact with the Greeks. His rival Chandragupta, following his example, founded a 138 RELIGION AMONG THE HINDUS.
mightier empire than India had ever known before, and, perhaps, favoured Buddhism. Further advance was made by his grandson Asoka, who even became a convert to the new faith, and raised it to the position of the state religion. His numerous inscriptions show us that the Buddhism of this period was still exceedingly simple, and they prove that it had not yet assumed an attitude of hostility towards the Brahmans. The royal protection naturally brought a multitude of converts, especially Brahmans and hermits, who were admitted into the monasteries without instruc- tion in the law and without ordination. The heresy, the laxity of discipline, and the neglect of ordinances, which resulted from these circumstances, rendeed a tribunal for the trial of heretics indispensable, and a council desirable. A council was therefore held under the presidency of Maudgaliputra (Moggaliputto), which, after fixing the canon, resolved on a vigorous effort to spread the true doctrine. Missionaries were now despatched to all parts of the peninsula, and even to Kashmir and Gandhara, west of the Indus. Mahendra, the king’s own son, went to Ceylon, and there founded the Southern Buddhist church, which was destined to remain so much purer than the Northern, and was at a later date to carry Buddhism to Burma and Siam. While the dynasty of Chandragupta was on the throne (till 178 B.c.), Buddhism enjoyed golden days in India. But under King Push- pamitra, the founder of a new dynasty, a violent persecu- tion was commenced, at the instigation of the Brahmans, against the followers of Sakya-muni, so that it became necessary to hold the next council—which followed within two hundred years, and at which the hierarchic BUDDHISM.
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and contemplative school of the Great Passage (Malid- yana) was recognised as orthodox—in Kashmir, under the protection of the non-Hindu king Kanishka. The period of conflict now began.
According to the Buddhist reckoning the council which met under Asoka was the third. The second, said to have been held a hundred years earlier under a certain king Kfilasoka, is as little historic as that prince himself. The convocation of the first council, also, by Aj&ta?atru near Rajagriha, is open to serious doubts.
Vinaya, Dharma, and Abhidharma, together constitute the Tripitaka (Tipitakam), “ the three Baskets,” the com- plete Holy Scriptures. The rise of metaphysical discus- sion before the time of Asoka is proved by the fact that in one of his inscriptions he cites an Abhidharma of Chari- putta.
The dynasty of Chandragupta was called the Maurya, and that of Pushpamitra, the Sunga.
86. The struggle lasted long, and the Brahmans and the Buddhists gained by turns the upper hand. Till the fourth century A.D., the latter seem to have been in the majority. But in the two following centuries, they rapidly declined. In many places still occupied, at the time of the Chinese traveller Pa Hian (400 a.d.) by Bud- dhist temples, towers, and monasteries, his fellow-country- man Hiouen Thsang, in the first half of the seventh cen- tury, found nothing hut ruins, or Brahmanic sanctuaries. Under the protection of the powerful King Siladitya, about this period, Buddhism revived once more for a time, and a great council, even, was held at which the Chinese pilgrim played a distinguished part. Hot long after- 140
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wards it encountered a violent opponent in the celebrated teacher of the Mimansa school, Kumarila-Bliatta, and later still in the great enemy of all heresies, the orthodox Sankaracharya, who was born in 788 A.D. It is com- monly supposed that the Buddhists were the victims in India of bloody persecutions and were exterminated with violence, but of this supposed fact no satisfactory proofs are forthcoming. On the contrary, Buddhism appears to have pined away slowly. It continued to exist for some centuries in some of the remoter districts. In Kashmir it held its ground at all events till 1102, and in the modem Bengal certainly down to 1036, while it has continued in Nepal till the present day. The majority of believers who remained faithful fled to foreign lands, amongst others to Java, and spread their faith there. Others passed into the sect of the Jainas which was not exposed to persecution.
87. The sect of the Jainas derived its name from its veneration of Jinas or eminent ascetics, who had con- quered all the desires of sense, and thus raised themselves above the gods, MaMvira being the most celebrated among them. It is very closely related to Buddhism, and in Sanskrit literature is hardly to be distinguished from it. 'While some scholars regard it as a Buddhist sect, others believe it to have been founded before Buddhism; it is at any rate certain that it existed in the sixth century of our era. Its sacred books, the most important of which, called the Kalpa-Sutra, was written in the same century, are composed in a dialect belonging to the district in which Buddhism took its rise (the THE JAINAS.
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Ardhamdgadhi). Its origin lies hidden in obscurity, but it is not improbable that it proceeded from a compromise between Buddhism and Brahmanism in the first centuries after Christ.
The Jainas are divided into two bodies, those dressed in white robes (Svetambara) and the naked {Diganibara, literally “persons rohed in air”), the latter of whom, however, only lay aside their dress at meals. Like the Buddhists, they look to Nirvana as their goal, they treat the devas as inferior beings liable to rebirth, they divide themselves into clergy and laymen, they reduce their law to a few leading commands, they impose confession on the believer as the preliminary to obtaining priestly abso- lution, and every year they keep a solemn fast (pcmju- shana), They have, however, a great aversion to the Buddhist worship of relics. In their worship of the greater number of the Hindu gods, especially of the three principal deities of this era and of Ganesa, in their main- tenance of a certain division of castes, and even in their application of the name Br&hmans to their priests in Western India, they were not essentially different from the Buddhists, for much the same usages prevailed among them also. The doctrines set forth in their holy Scrip- tures differ in many respects from both the Bralimanic and the Buddhist systems. The toleration extended to them by the Brfthmans even though they were regarded as heretics, led large numbers of Buddhists to take refuge in their community in the days of the persecution.
Jina, “ the conquering,” is also one of the commonest surnames of the Buddha. According to the Jainas, Gautama (Budclha) was a disciple of their great saint, 142
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explain the name “ White Yajush ” (sukla). This would then mean “ the cleared,” “ the purified,” Thereupon, the representatives of the old school, in order that they also might have a Sanhita, simply affixed this by no means appropriate title to the first portion of their Brahmana.
Of the existing Upanishads only a few belong to this period; the rest are of later date.
Following these three kinds of works (Yedas, Brali- manas, and Sfitras), Max Muller has incorrectly divided this age into three sharply defined periods, and on this division has founded his history of ancient Sanskrit literature. Westergaard falls into another extreme, in actually placing the Sfitras before the Brahmanas. It is certain that the composition of Sutras and Upanishads continued when the Yedic Sanhitas were already closed, and no new Brahmanas were composed. Brahmanas only satisfied the requirements of the time when a trifling theology was in the ascendant.
The dread of the reduction of the sacred Scripture to writing may have had its ground in the fear of seeing it fall into unqualified hands, and at the same time in deep reverence for the divine word, which would be thereby polluted.
78. In the doctrine of the gods Br&hinanism made but little change. This was the natural result of the recognition of the Yedas as a book of revelation, and of the prominence of sacrifice, in which the Yedic gods always occupied the highest place. The Brfihmans simply at- tempted to arrange the Yedic gods, whether by the three worlds, earth, air, and sky, or by the nature of the deities, so that, for instance, Indra was the king, Agni the priest, PRE-BUDDHISTIC BRAHMANISM.
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or by some other standard. The Asuras, however, who had been in earlier times the chief of the gods, and in the beginning of this period were still placed along with the Devas, were lowered, perhaps in consequence of their resemblance to the gods of the old hostile occupants of the country, to the rank of evil spirits. The reverence S for the Devas also perceptibly diminished as the Brahmans placed themselves on their level, and the hermits espe- cially, who did penance, regarded themselves as superior to them in power and dignity. The only exception was in favour of Iludra, the violent storm-god, whose worship increased considerably in this period, and served as one of the foundations of the later Siva-worship; he had not yet, however, become the chief god. Men felt, however, the need of such a supreme god as the maker and ruler of the universe, and this need could only be imperfectly satisfied by the creations of the Yedic liishis. Another plan, therefore, was adopted. At first, and this appears even in the later Vedic hymns, some of the surnames of the ancient gods, in particular of the fire-god Agni, were endowed with a separate existence, or such a god under one of these surnames (Visvakarman, “the maker of all things,” Brahmanaspali, “ the lord of spells, or of prayer,” Prajapati, “ the lord of creatures ”) was regarded as the creator and lord of the world. From these speculation ascended to the Brahma, the magic power hidden in the sacred word and in prayer (and as such the special in- heritance of the priests), and regarded this as the imper- sonal, self-existent (svayambhu), supreme cause of the universe. This brahma, though always neuter in the Biahmanas, soon became, in a certain sense, personified; 126
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and finally, as the male Brahma, was exalted to he the all-ruling personal deity, without ever becoming a true national god.
To the three worlds, earth, air, and slcy, correspond the three chief gods Agni, Indra united with Vayu or Vishnu, and Surya. Besides the name Visvakarman, &c., the name Iliranyagarbha, “ the golden world-egg,” was also used to designate the sun fire-god as creator. Kasyapa, also, in the later tradition a famous sage, must be regarded as a universal creator and sun-god of the same kind.
79. In spite of the supreme power of the Brahmans, the right of the head of the family to offer the family sacrifices remained unimpaired. But at the public sacri- fices, with the arrangements and symbolism of which we are still but imperfectly acquainted, the usages and cere- monies became more and more elaborate and involved, requiring a constant increase in the number of minis- trants, all of whom were of necessity Brahmans. The sacrificial ceremonial at the consecration of a king (raja- suya), the very common horse-sacrifice (asvamcdha), the proper human sacrifice (jourushameclhd), and the general sacrifice (sarvamedha), were the most important. At these four sacrifices, human victims were really offered in ancient times, but as manners grew more gentle, this practice began to decline, and at an early date, though not with universal approval, fell into disuse. The idea was even expressed that all sacrifices of blood were unnecessary, though they still prevailed for a long while after this period.
At length men grew weary of pondering on the mean- PRE-BUDDHISTIC BRAHMANISM.
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ing of sacrificial actions and quarrelling over points of theology; and while some, with more practical aims, and contented, therefore, with short Sutras, neglected the study of the Brahmanas, others sought in the Aranyakas and the oldest Upanishads satisfaction for their craving for mystic contemplation and philosophical reflection, and occupied themselves by preference with the ques- tions of the origin of the universe, the nature of the deity and of the soul, the relation of spirit and matter, and other problems of the same kind. These were the beginnings from which Hindu philosophy was afterwards developed.
The commutation of the old human sacrifice by a sub- stitute is certainly alluded to in the legend of Sunahsepa, quoted from the Aitareya Brdhmana by M. Muller, Sanskr. Literature, Append., p. 573, sqq., cf. pp. 408-416. It has some correspondence with that of Abraham and Isaac. The superfluous nature of all sacrifices of blood is taught in the Aitar. Brdhrti., vi. 8, see M. Muller, op. cit., p. 420, and in the Satap. Brdhm. 1, 2, 3,6, cf. Weber, Ind. Streifen, i. p. 55, in an important essay which deserves to be con- sulted on the subject.
80. The moral and social ideal of the Brahmans is known to us from the so-called lawbook of Mann, the main features of which are pre-Buddhistic. Their moral teaching stands relatively very high, though it has not risen above eudaemonism. With much that is genuinely humane, it contains much that is arbitrary and unnatural, and resembles all the laws of antiquity in placing moral purity on a line with the prescriptions of sacerdotalism and magic. 128
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V Purified by various ceremonies from the stains of birth, the Arya, invested with the consecrated cord and girdle, enters as a disciple of the Brahmans on the first stage of his training, and after completing his course, he cele- brates, by the offering of his first sacrifice, the feast of his new birth. He then becomes a householder (griha- paii), and after having discharged his duties in this capa- city, he hands over to his son, who has in the meantime himself attained the same position, the care of all belong- ing to him, and retires into the forest to pass his days undisturbed in religious works and silent meditations. The highest ideal that a man can reach on earth is to become a yati (self-conqueror) or sannyasi (self-renouncer). The latter offers no more sacrifices, he is raised above the things of the world and of sense, and devotes himself exclusively to the contemplative life. Such is the way to final deliverance (moksha) from the bonds of sensual existence.
The majority of men, however, do not as yet attain this goal. The wicked and the impious are condemned to hell, and there suffer dreadful torments. Those who have faithfully discharged their religious duties are re- warded with heaven, and become Devas. Every one, how- ever, who has not yet obtained deliverance must be bom again on earth, in the shape of a plant, an animal, or a man of lower or higher rank, in proportion to the number of his sins. This process continues until he has reached the highest stage of self-abandonment and contemplation (tapas), when, freed from everything material, he sinks away into the soul of the universe and is united with it. This dogma, improperly called that of the transmigration PRE-BUDDHISTIC BRAHMANISM. T29
of tlie soul, is unknown to the oldest Yedic hooks, but it was current before Buddhism, as it is the foundation of the Buddhist doctrine of deliverance.
On the age of the Manavadharmas&stra there is great difference of opinion. Max Muller, Sanskrit Literature, p. 62, sqq., combats the view of Sir W. Jones, who thought that the law-book could not have been drawn up laterthan 800 B.c. A. Barth, Rev. Critique, 1875, No. 48, considers even 500 B.C., as proposed by Monier Williams and others, too early. That those passages which refer to a much later time are interpolations, is conceded by all The main contents of the work may be safely brought down towards the close of the pre-Buddhist period.
For our purpose it is to a certain extent unimportant whether it was ever actually applied in its entirety as a law. It is sufficient that it exhibits to us the ideal of the Br&hmans.
81. The social ideal of the Br&hmans is the unlimited power of the hierarchy and the strict separation of castes. At the end of this period, .owing to mixed marriages and other causes, the old castes were increased by a number of half-pure and impure castes. Various useful callings were thus branded as sinful, and men were prevented from withdrawing even from shameful occupations to which birth condemned them. The highest claims were made by the law-book on the Brahmans, but they also received from it the most extravagant privileges, and it provided that the unlimited authority of the kings should be placed at their service. Woman was kept in complete dependence, the Sudra was despised, and those who stood outside the community (Chdnddlas, Svapdkas) were doomed I
130 RELIGION AMONG THE HINDUS.
to a life of the greatest misery, and were esteemed no higher than sacrificial animals. Such a position could not be long endured, and this serves to explain not only the rise of Buddhism, hut also its rapid diffusion, and the radical revolution which it brought about.
C. The Conflict of Brdhmanism with Buddhism.
Literature.—Among editions of Pali texts, the following are the most important: the Mahawansa, edited by Hon. G. Turnour, Colombo, 1S37. Dhamma-pada, ed. by V. Fausboll, Copenhagen, 1855. The Upasampadd-Kamma- vdcha and Pdtimokkha, by J. F. Dickson in the Journ. Boy. As. Soc., 1873 alld 1875. Klmddaka-Pdtha, ibid., 1869, by R. C. Childers. The Jdtaka Commentary, by Faus- boll, vol. i., pt. i., London, 1875. Suttas Palis, ed. by Grimblot, with translations by Burnouf and Gogerly, Paris, 1876. Mahd Parinibbdna Suita, by Childers, Journ. Boy. As. Soc., 1874 and 1876.
E. Burnouf, Introduction a VHistoire du Buddhisme Indien (1844), 2d ed., Paris, 1876. Id., Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi {trad, du Saddharma Pundartka), Paris, 1852. C. F. IvoPPEN, Die Beligion des Buddha und dire Entstehung, Berlin, 1857. Id., Die Lamaische Hierarchicwnd Kirche, ibid., 1859. Barthelemy Saint Hilaire, Le Bouddha el sa Beligion, 2d ed., Paris, 1862. W. Wassiuew, Der Buddhismus, Seine Dogrnen, Gesch. und Liter aim, i860 (translated into French by La Comme, Paris, 1865). A. Schiefner, Tdrandtha’s Geschichte des Buddhismus in Indien, aus dem Tibet., St. Petersburg, 1869. R. Spence Hardy, A Manual of Buddhism in its Modern Development, translated from Singhalese MSS., London, i860. Id., Eastern Mona- chism, compiled from Singhalese MSS., London, i860. Id., The Legends and Theories of the Buddhists compared with History and Science, London, 1866. Histoire du BUDDHISM.
iji
Bouddha Sakya Mouni, trad, du Tibelain par Ph. Ed. Eoucaux, Paris, 1868. Lolita Vistara, Erzdlung von dem Leben und der Lere des Cdlcya Simha, uberselzt von S. Lef- mann, part i., Berlin, 1874. Foe koue Id, ou Fetation des Royaumes Bouddhigues par Chy Fa Ilian, trad, par A. Remusat, Paris, 1836. Stanisl. Julien, Voyages des Pelerins Bouddhisles, vol. i.; “ Yie de Hiouen Thsang,” vols. ii. and iii.; “ Mrinoires sur les Contr^es Occi- dentals, par Hiouen Thsang," Paris, 1853-58. L. Feek, Ftudes Bouddhigues, ire S^rie, Paris, 1870. Id., Etudes Bouddh. L’Ami de la Vertu et VAmitie de la Vertu, Paris, 1873. H. Keen, Over de jaartelling der zuidelijke Buddhisten en de Gedenkstukken van Agoka den Buddhist, Amsterdam, 1873. E. Sen art, Essai sur la Legende du Buddha, son Caractere et ses Origines, Paris, 1875. Popu- lar, C. D. B. Mills, The Indian Saint, or Buddha and Buddhism, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1876. T. W. Rhys Davids, Buddhism, a Sketch of the Life and Teachings of Gautama Buddha, London, 1877.
On the question of Nirvana see J. F. Obry, Du Nirvana Bouddhigue, Paris, 1863 ; R. C. Childers, Dictionary of the Pali Language, s. voc. Nibbdnam, and the authorities cited by these writers; and T. W. Rhys Davids, Contem- porary Review, January 1877, on “The Buddhist Doctrine of Nirvana,” &c.
On the Jainas : J. Stevenson, The Kalpa Sidra and Nana Tatva, translated from the Mdgadhi, London, 1848. A. Weber, “Ein Fragment des Bhagavatl,” Akad. der Wissenscli., Berlin, 26th October 1865, and 12th July and 25th October 1866. S. J. Warren, Over de Godsdienstigc en Wijsgeerige Begrippen der Jaina’s, Zwolle, 1875.
82. Buddhism, which was to prove so dangerous an enemy to Brahmanism, seems not to he much older than 132
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the fourth century before our era. Its founder, who was called Siddharta, according to tradition, though commonly named the Buddha or “ enlightened,” the “ sage ” or the “ lion ” “ of the tribe of Sakya ” (S&kya-muni, Sakya Simha), and also designated by many other titles of honour, lived and worked probably in the second half of the fifth century B.C., but the legends which have sur- rounded his career have completely hidden it from our view. The chief features of this legendary history are as follows:—In order to deliver the world from the misery beneath which it sighs, the sage descends from heaven, where he occupies the highest rank among the gods, to earth. Here he was miraculously conceived in the womb of Maya (“ illusion ”), the wife of the Sakya king Suddhodhana of Kapilavastu, in Ayodhya (Oude), / and there he was born in an equally extraordinary manner. Educated as a prince, and excelling in know- ledge and ability of every kind, he early betrays an inclination to a contemplative life, which is strenuously resisted by his father, who supposes that he has over- come it by inducing his son to marry. He contrives, however, to flee from the luxurious court, and to reach Raj agriha, the capital of Magadha. There he becomes a disciple of the most famous Brahmans, devotes himself to the severest mortifications, triumphs over the repeated temptations of the god of love and death, Mara, but remains inwardly dissatisfied. He then abandons asceti- cism, and endeavours by means of calm and intent con- templation to penetrate to the deepest insight (bodhi), and thus to gain deliverance from the miseries of exist- ence. At Gaya, a little village in Magadha, under the BUDDHISM.
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gods, lord of spells and of prayer. If Indra was rather the god of princes and soldiers, Agni was the special god of the priests. The worship paid to Soma, the god of the drink of immortality, to whom even a whole book of the Rigveda is consecrated, was little inferior.
There are passages in the Yeda which justify the con- jecture that Indra and the Maruts were at first rivals, and were not united until later. See RV. i. 165.
Brahmanaspati is the lord of spells, and Briliaspati the lord of prayer. Both are surnames or forms of Agni. Another very ancient fire-god is the heavenly carpenter Tvashtri.
Almost all the 114 hymns of the ninth Mandala of the RV. are addressed to Soma.
71. That the sun-god should occupy a prominent place among the Devas or light-gods, was natural. He may still be traced in a number of gods and demigods. But the proper sun-god of the Vedic period appears in three forms, Surya, “ the shining one,” Pushan, “ he who makes all things grow,” and Savitri, “ the vivifying.” He was also named briefly Aditya, as son of Aditi, originally, we may suppose, the goddess of the twilight. Aditi, raised to the rank of universal mother, is also regarded, however, as the mother of various other gods, and even of the highest. The chief of these Adityas is the old Aryan Varna a, who maintains during this period likewise his significance as the Asura par excellence, and whose dreadful anger the sinner endeavours to appease by fervid prayers and by sacrifices. Mitra also is still wor- shipped, but he seldom occurs alone, and he is generally THE VEDIC RELIGION.
"5
united with Yaruna. Besides these two, and Savitri, whom we have already named, the old Aryan deities Aryaman and Bagha, and the Yedic gods DaJcsha, “ the power,” and Arhsa, “ the sharer,” were also reckoned among the Adityas, to whom Surya was sometimes added as the eighth. At a later period their number rose to twelve. Some gods, like the Asvins, the heavenly physicians, are so completely raised to the rank of rational beings, with human passions and emotions, that it is hard to say what were the natural phenomena with which they were once connected. The goddesses are still kept in the background, which is a proof of youthful and vigorous religious life. The dawn-goddess Usilas, to whom hymns of extreme beauty are dedicated, the river-goddess Sarasvati, who was afterwards fused with Vetch, the goddess of language, and Sraddhd, the personi- fication of faith, deserve to be specially named. The more abstract divine figures, and the beginnings of a monotheistic or pantheistic creed, which are found in some of the hymns of the Rigveda, probably belong to a later period.
Sarasvati, “ the rich in water,” by whom there some- times stands a male Sarasvat, is probably an old Aryan water-goddess, a conjecture supported by the Baktrian IlaraqaMi and the Persian Harauvati (Arachotos, Aracliosia), and not the deified river-nymph, whether of the Indus, to which her name was perhaps first applied, or of the small river which also subsequently bore it. In the Rig- veda she is also the goddess of the piety which utters itself in prayers and hymns.
72. It cannot be doubted that the ancient Aryan Il5
RELIGION AMONG THE HINDUS.
people at this early date also had their own priests, who were very likely called, as was afterwards the case in Bak- tria, atharvans, or priests of fire. In the Rigveda they hear other names, especially that of brahman, which appears to have originally meant nothing more than a “ singer of sacred songs,” but soon came to designate a religious functionary. Sometimes, though rarely, the word is used to designate a regular priestly order. The office even seems to have become hereditary; at any rate, the older hymns contain occasional references to a brdhmana or Brahman’s son, and in the later hymns these are more numerous. The Brahmans were regarded, though not universally, with high honour, and the poets especially might count on rich rewards. Their claims and preten- sions rose higher and higher, but they did not yet form an exclusive caste, for kings and kings’ sons are also designated as sacred singers, and performed priestly functions, though, like many of the nobles also, they generally had their house-priests (purohita).
Brahman, from the neuter brahma, a prayer or hymn, seems to have been in early times a synonym for Icavi, rishi, and other similar words. On the derivation and original meaning of the word see M. Haug, Ueber die Urspriingl. Bedeutung des JFortes Brahma, Munch., 1868, and Brahma und die Brahmanen, ibid., 1871, the con- clusions of which, however, cannot all be accepted with- out further inquiry.
73. Morality and religion were already closely con- nected. The gods ruled over the moral as well as over the natural order. Some of the hymns, especially those THE VED1C RELIGION.
ii 7
addressed to Varuna, are marked by a deep sense of guilt, and the mighty Indra must be approached in faith (srat). The doctrine of immortality also indicates the ethical character of the Vedie religion. The ideas of the Yedic Hindus about ancestors and their worship were exactly
ythe same as those of savages, and their representations of future bliss were still very sensuous, but they looked for requital of their actions after death. The oldest songs, however, say but little of immortality. Of the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul, the entire Rigveda ex- hibits not a single trace.
B.—Pre-Buddhistic Brdlmamsm.
literature.—Editions of the later Vedas. Th. Benfey, Die Hymnen des Sdma-Veda (with translation), Leipzig, 1848. A. Weber, The JFMte Yajur-Veda, Berlin, 1849, «fcc. R. Both and W. D. Whitney, Atharva-Veda San- hitd, 2 vols., Berlin, 1855. The Aitareya Brdhmana (of the Rigveda), edited by M. Haug, 2 vols. (with translation), Bombay, 1863. Translations from the Satapatha Brdh- mana in Muir’s Sanskrit Texts, passim, and Weber’s Indische Streifen, vol. i. Grhyasdtrdni, Indische Hausregeln, Sanskr. und Deutscli, von A. F. Stenzler, I. Asvalayana, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1865. Manava-dharmasastra; Lois de Manm, trad, par A. LoiSELEUR Deslongchamps, Paris, 1833. Of. Ydjnavalhjadharmasdstram, Ydjn.’s Gesetzbucli, Sanskr. und Deutsch von A. F. Stenzler, Berlin and London, 1849.
C. Schoebel, Btude sur le Rituel du Respect Social dans I’Btat Bralman, Paris, 1870. H. Kern, Indische Theorieen over de Standenverdeding, Amsterdam, 1871.
74. With the diffusion of the Hindu-Aryans over the region south-east of the Seven Eivers, and their settle- n8
RELIGION AMONG THE HINDUS.
ment on the banks of the Ganges and Yamuna, their religion enters upon a new era. The Yedic religion gives birth to Brahmanism or the hierarchy of the Brahmans. The fresh originality of the Vedie age, though not at first entirely extinct, for the most part disappears. A number of hymns, occurring chiefly in the later books of the Rigveda, were certainly not composed till the first portion of this period, and tolerably far down in it too; but they no longer breathe the same spirit as the earlier, and the chief concern was the collection, arrangement, and interpretation of the hymns handed down by tradi- tion, of which the true meaning was but rarely grasped. It is not possible to determine with certainty in what century Brahmanism arose. If, however, as is most probable, Buddhism was founded in the fourth and third centuries before our era, the growth of Brahmanism cannot have begun much later than the eighth century B.C., and perhaps we ought, with some scholars, to carry it considerably further back. The history of Brdhmanism falls properly into three periods—the pre-Buddhistic; that of its conflict with Buddhism; and that which follows its victory over Buddhism; but the last two are too closely connected to admit of sharp distinction from each other. We have, therefore, to trace, first of all, the origin, esta- blishment, and internal development of Brdhmanism, as a national and purely Aryan sect, in contrast with the non- Aryan religion and morals of the older occupants of the country; and next, its contest with Buddhism and other heresies, over which it triumphed, though not till after it had enlarged its own boundaries, adopted much that was not Aryan, and entirely transformed itself into a PRE-BUDDHISTIC BRAHMANISM. 119
religious communion, the character of which was no longer exclusively national.
On the date of the foundation of Buddhism, see below,
§8S.
75- The Brahmanic religion is entirely under the con- trol of what Europeans call the caste system. Between ranks and castes there is an essential difference. Caste is rank with sharp impassable boundaries, which admit no one who is not bom within them. The four Indian castes appear as ranks, with different though corresponding names, in Baktria also, as well as in Europe in tho middle ages, and wherever society stands at the same stage of development. Castes, at any rate with the same rigid separation, are found nowhere but in India. There they were originally four in number, three being Aryan, viz., that of the Brahmans, i.e., the learned; that of the Raj any as or Kshattriyas, i.e., the princes and warriors; and that of the Yaisyas, i.e., the commonalty, the people (vis), and one being non-Aryan, viz., the Sudras, i.e., the natives, who served the Aryans, and especially the Br&hmans, as slaves. The general name which they bore enables us to conjecture how they arose. They were called Varna, which denotes both “ kind ” and “ colour.” This term at first simply indicated the difference between the whiter Aryans and the dark-coloured natives whom they subjugated, and with whom, as though belonging to a different kind, they would hold no intercourse. When settled ways and agriculture had replaced their wandering shepherd-life, the warriors began to keep themselves strictly apart from the working-class, and the learned in 120
RELIGION AMONG THE HINDUS.
the same way separated themselves from both warriors and workers; and although they were all counted mem- bers of the religious community, the idea of varna colour, or kind, was also transferred to them. Thus arose the doctrine, already expressed in a later hymn of the Rig- veda, that not only the two races, but also the four ranks, were of different origin, and had been separately created.
Differences of opinion exist about the anti quit}' of the castes. See the essays already referred to: Kern, Ind. Theo- rieen over de Standenverdceling, and Hang, Brahma und die Brahmanen, and, on the other side, Muir’s Sanskrit Texts, ii. p. 454, sqq. I adopt the view of those who regard the four ranks as ancient, at any rate as a natural division of society at a definite stage of its development, while they consider the castes proper as purely Indian.
The members of the three highest castes are all of them dvij&’s or twice-born, but not so the Sudras.
The hymn of the Rik, in which the four castes proceed out of four parts of Purusha’s body, is the well-known Purusha-sAkla, x. 90.
76. The same causes, combined with the circumstance that writing was unknown, or at any rate was not gene- rally employed for literary purposes, contributed to give increasing influence to the Brahmans. Subject at first to the princes and nobles, and dependent on them, they began by insinuating themselves into their favour, and representing it as a religious duty to show protection and liberality towards them. Meanwhile they endeavoured to make themselves indispensable to them, gradually acquired the sole right to conduct public worship, made themselves masters of instruction and of the most influ- PRE-BUDDHISTIC BR HMANISM.
121
ential civil offices, and set themselves up as the exclusive guardians and interpreters of revelation (sruti) and tra- dition (smriti), in virtue of possessing a higher knowledge, which the mass of the people did not comprehend. They had frequently, however, to encounter grave resistance from the princes. Sometimes they were compelled to acknowledge the spiritual superiority of a rdjanya; on some occasions they were unable even to withhold from him the dignity of Brahman; generally, however, they contrived, either by assumption and arrogance, or by cunning, to attain their end.
On the introduction of the art of writing, see M. Muller, Sanskrit Literature, p. 500, sqq., Westergaard, Aeltesl. Zeitraum, &c., p. 30, sqq. Nearchus (325 B.C.) and Megasthenes (300 B.C.) both state that the Indians did not write their laws, but the latter speaks of inscriptions upon mile-stones, and the former mentions letters written on cotton. From this it is evident that writing, probably of Phoenician origin, was known in India before the third century B.C., but was applied only rarely, if at all, to literature. The oldest known inscriptions, those of Asoka, may be placed about 250 B.C.
Among the princes whose intellectual superiority is recognised by the Brahmans, Janaka, the Prince of Videha, occupies the foremost place. As early as the Satapatka Brdhmana (xi. 6, 2, 1), it is related how he reduced a party of four Br&hmans, among whom was the famous YSjnavalkya, ad terminos non loqui. Another king, Ajatasatru of Kasi, did something similar, and men shouted after him, as he himself complained, “ Janaka! Janaka! ” See these and other examples in Muir’s Sanskrit Texts, i. p. 427, sqq., and Westergaard, op. cit., pp. 13-16. 122
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77. The character of the religion of this period is revealed by what we may call its religions literature. By far the greater number' of the works belonging to it were composed with a view to the sacrificial service. Together they constitute the Veda, the sacred knowledge, or the four Vedas. Of these, it was necessary that the Hymn-Veda (Rig-Veda) should be known by the reciting priest (hotri), the Chant-Veda (Sdma-Veda) by the sing- ing priest (udgatri), and the sacrificial-formula-Veda (Yajur- Veda) by the officiating priest (adhvaryu). The Atharva-Veda was not recognised until later, and was assigned to the presiding and supervising priest, who was, however, required to know much more than this. The Yajur-Veda was divided, after two rival schools, into the “ White ” and the “ Black.”
Each of these Vedas had its Sahhitd or collection of hymns, of which only two, those of the Rik and of the Atharvan, deserve this name. That of the Sama-Veda contains, with two exceptions, only Rik verses, arranged in the order in which they were sung at the sacrifice. Those of the two Yajur-Vedas (Taittiriya- and Vajasaneyi- Sahhita) are simply a portion of, and selection from, the Brahmanas of the Adhvaryu priests, drawn up for the purpose of giving them a Sanhita of their own, though they had no need of one. The two first collections con- tain some very ancient and remarkable remains from a previous period, but poems of the Brahmanic age were not excluded from the Rig-Veda, and in the Atharva-Veda are very numerous.
Further, to each Veda belong different Brahmanas, treatises of ritual and theology, afterwards supplanted PRE-BUDDHISTIC BR.. HMANISM.
123
by the Aranyakas (“ forest treatises ”), and the connected Upanishads (“ confidential communications ”), theological- philosophical treatises, prepared more especially for the use of the hermits. The Brahmanas contain here and there occasional elevated thoughts, and not a few antique traditions of the highest importance, but they are in other respects marked by narrow formalism, childish mysticism, and superstitious talk about all kinds of trifles, such as may be expected where a pedantic and power- loving priesthood is invested with unlimited spiritual authority.
Finally, each Yeda had its sutras (“threads”), short compact guides for public and domestic sacrifices, and the knowledge of the laws.
All these books were handed down orally, and each
school ([charana) had its own text (salchd), both of Sahhitus and of Brahmanas. Even when the art of writing was already known, it was regarded as a grave sin to write them down.
•
The preceding section deals only with the religious writings of this period. That it was not deficient (also) in other literary productions, such as epic narratives, poems, &c., is certain; hut these have perished, or have been in part interwoven and remodelled in later works of this kind. The Big-Veda also contains hymns of a non- religious character.
The schism in the school of the Yajur-Yeda, among the Adhvaryus, is attributed, not without reason, to YSjnavalkya, to whom, therefore, the white Yajush owes its origin. He or his school extracted the poetical quota- tions which occurred in the Brfthmana, and collected them into a Sahhita, whence some scholars (e.g., Max Muller) 124
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CHAPTER IV.
RELIGION AMONG THE INDO-GERMANS, EXCLUD- ING THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.
I.
THE ANCIENT INDO-GERMAN RELIGION AND THE ARYAN RELIGION PROPER.
Literature.—Lieut.-Col. Vans Kennedy, Researches into the Nature and Affinity of Ancient Hindu Mythology, London, 1831. R. Roth, “Die liochsten Gotter der Arischen Vtilker,” in Zeitschr. der Deutsch. Morgeidand. Gesellsch., vi., 1852, p. 67, sqq. A. Pictet, Les Origines Indo-Europdennes, ou les Aryas Primitifs, 2 vols., Paris, 1839-63, now antiquated in some parts. M. Muller, Lectures on the Science of Language, 2 vols., especially lects. viii.-xii. of the second vol., London, 6th ed., 1873. G. V. Cox, The Mythology of the Aryan Nations, 2 vols., London, 1870. A. de Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, or the Legends of Animals, 2 vols., London, 1872. A. Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Gotter-tranks, Berlin, 1859. L. Myriantheus, Die Aqvins oder die Arischen Dioskuren, Munich, 1876. G. Schoebel, Re- citer dies sur la Religion premihre de la Race Indo-Iranienne, Paris, 1872; and K; M. BANERJEA, The Aryan Witness, or the Testimony of Aryan Scriptures in corroboration of . . . Christian Doctrine, Calcutta, 1873, both written under the influence of a theological system, and largely hypothetical. io6 RELIGION AMONG THE INDO-GERMANS.
P. Asmus, Die Indo-Germanische Religion in den Hanpt- punkten ihrer Erdwickelnng, vol. i. Halle, 1875, vol. ii. (part 1st), 1877.
66. Comparative mythology has proved that all Indo-Germans, or Aryans in the broadest sense, including the Indians, Persians, Wends or Letto-Slavs, Germans, Greeks, Komans, and Kelts, once possessed not only the same language, but also the same religion. This religion cannot have differed much in character from the Indo- Germanie religions known to us from historic times. It is certain that they named their gods “ the heavenly,” or the “ shining ones,” (deva, deus, tivar), a name which was preserved among the Indians, Romans, Scandinavians, and Letto-Slavs, and probably also among the Greeks (0eos), being replaced among the remaining races by other desig- nations, and employed by the Persians in an unfavourable sense. Their principal god, or, at any rate, the object of their highest worship, was the heaven-father (Dyaus-pitar, Zevf iraTrip, Jupiter). Among the Greeks and Romans he was maintained in his supremacy; among the Indians he was, to some extent, supplanted by other deities, though even among them he always remained the father of the highest gods; but among the Germans (Zio, Tyr) he was entirely changed in character. By his side was then worshipped another heaven god (Vanina, Ouranos), perhaps a deity of the nightly sky, and probably of higher rank, of whom the Greeks retained only a faint recollection, though the Indians continued at first to stand in great awe of him. In the tempests and thunderstorms they saw, as the correspondence of myths proves, the contest of the gods of light against the powers of darkness, and they already ITS EARLY FORM.
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recognised and worshipped a fire-god, the friend of men, who stole fire from heaven. A female deity was regarded as the mediator or messenger between men and gods (Ila, Ida, Ira), or between gods and men (Iris). The sun-god (Surya, Scare, Sol) likewise, and the
dawn-goddess (Ushas, "Hcds, Aurora), were probably objects of adoration. We are not at liberty, therefore, to ascribe to them a kind of monotheism or henotheism at so early a period. It is even very doubtful whether their religion may be rightly called polytheism, or whether it was really more than a very advanced polydsemonism. The stage of development which they had reached, can in any case only be matter for conjec- ture, and does not admit of exact determination.
I keep the ugly hut established designation “ Indo- Germans,” to distinguish the race from the Aryans proper, who were the ancestors of the Indians and Persians. The name Indo-Europeans is to be rejected on every account. The name Aryans may also be applied to the whole race, and the Indo-Persians may then be called East-Aryans. The name Indo-Germans indicates the two peoples between whom all the others belonging to the race are scattered.
The connection of the Greek 6s6;, also, with deva, is disputed by G. Buhler in Orient und Occident, i. p. 508, sqq., by G. Curtius, and others.
Vanina signifies “ the coverer,” or the “ surrounder.” As he becomes later on the god of the ocean, he may originally have been the special ruler of the heaven-ocean, like Hea in Mesopotamia.
On the theft of fire and the agreement of Pramdtha and Prometheus, of the Bhrgu’s with the Phlegians (light- io8
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nings), and of Bhwranyu with Phoroneus, see the work of Kuhn cited above.
The opinion that the Indo-Gennanic races began with monotheism or henotheism, is defended by Max Muller, Introduction to the Science of Religion, London, 1873, p. 170, sqq. See on the other side my essay in De Gids, 1871, No. 1, translated into German, Max Muller und Fr. \J Schultze uber ein Problem, der Religions - Wissenschaft, Leipzig, 1871.
67. At a very early date the Indo-Germans fell apart into a number of nations, which, one after another, quitted their common home, and settled, some in Asia, and some in Europe. They were not at first separated into the nations which afterwards became independent, hut formed groups like the Indians and Persians (to whom the Slavs or Wends remained attached the longest), the Teutons and Scandinavians, or the Greeks, Komans, and Kelts. Of this the agreement of their religions affords evidence, besides the indications of language and history. The Indians and Persians must have remained the longest united as one people, under the name of the Aryans. From the Aryan religion proceeded, on the one hand, the Vedic religion, the parent of Brahmanism and Buddhism, and on the other,—though certainly not by immediate descent, ?—the Mazdeism of the Bactrians and Persians.
Arya (from ari, “devoted,” “faithfully attached”) is explained by some scholars (Bohthlingk-Roth, Worterb. sub voc,, Grassmann, Worterb. mm Rig Veda, sub voc.) as “faithful,” “attached,” “ devoted,” les fideles; by others (Benfey, Bid. sub. voc., Bopp, Gloss.) as “ honourable,” “noble.” It is a general national name of the same kind THE ARYAN RELIGION.
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as Teutons and Slavs, including within it the idea of the entire body of free men, and employed by a conquering nation to distinguish themselves from their neighbours.
68. The Aryan religion is known to us from mutual comparison of the Indian and Persian religions. The elements they possess in common must once have been the joint property of both. The Aryans, like the Indo- Germans, were polytheists. This is proved by a great number of names of deities and semi-deities, which re- mained in use among both Indians and Persians. Among them Varuna, Mitra, and Aryaman, occupied the highest rank, though in Mazdeism the first of these was replaced by Ahura Mazda. Varuna, the heaven-god, and Mitra, the light-god, were very severe, and were especially dreaded by liars and cheats. Aryaman, the companion and bosom friend, who presided over the contracting of marriage, probably a fertilising sun-god, was a more kindly being. With him was connected Bliaga (Bagha), the assigner of destinies, whose name became at an early date a general designation of the gods among the Persians and Slavs. Next to the Devas, who were afterwards degraded in Eran by the Zarathustrian reformation to the rank of evil spirits, the dsuras (dhuras), “ the living ones,” or “ spirits,” were worshipped as chief gods. The most striking characteristics of this period, however, seem to have been the great development of the worship of fire, combined with magic, and the introduction of the drink of immortality (soma,, haoma) at sacrifices as well as into mythology. There is reason to believe that both usages were adopted from a non-Aryan race, since they were IIO RELIGION AMONG THE INDO-GERMANS.
familiar to the original inhabitants of Mesopotamia and Media, and do not occur in this form among the other Indo-Germanic races, though they also found points of attachment to similar genuinely Indo-Germanic myths.
The worship of fire and the ideas and customs con- nected with the drink of immortality, prevalent among Indians and Persians, differ entirely from the usages ot kindred races, and exhibit much more agreement with those of the oldest inhabitants of Mesopotamia, and pro- bably also of Media. Soma (Haoma) is a word belonging to the Aryan period, as it does not occur among the other Indo-Germans. I am only able to explain this pheno- menon by the influence upon the Aryans of the peoples already named.
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General Works.—J. Gildemeister, Bibliothecae Sanscritce Specimen, Bonn, 1847. Th. Benfey, “ Indien” in Ersch and Gruber’s Allg. EncyMopadie, sect. iL part xvii., Leipzig, 1840. On the Literature of India, A. Weber, Acade- mische Porlesungen uber Indisehe Literaturgeschichte, Berlin, 1852; Id., Indisehe Skizzen, Berlin, 18573 Id., Indisehe Streifen, vol. i. “ Zerstreute kleinere Abhandlungen,” vol. ii. “ Kritisch-bibliographische Streifen,” Berlin, 1868-69, Cf. his Indisehe Studien, Zeitsckr. fur die Kunde des Indisch. Alterthums, since 1849. M. Muller, A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature so far as it Illustrates the Primitive Beli- gionof the Brahmans, London, 1859. Monier Williams, Indian Wisdom, or Examples of the Rdigims, Philosophical, and Ethical Doctrines of the Hindus, London, 1875.
On the History of India.—Ch. Lassen, Indisehe Alter- RELIGION AMONG THE HINDUS.
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Ihumskunde, 4 vols., Bonn, 1847-61, 2ded. of vol. i. 1866, and of vol. ii. 1874. J. Talboys Wheeler, The History of India, vols. L-iii., London, 1867, &c. J. Muir. Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and History of the People of India, their Religion and Institutions, vol. i., “ Origin of Caste/’ 2d ed., London, 1868; vol. ii., “ Origin of the Hindus,” 2d ed., 1871: vol. iii., “The Vedas, Opinions on their Origin,” &c., 2d ed., 1868; vol. iv. “ Comparison of Vedic with later Representations of the principal Indian Deities,” 2d ed., 1873; vol. v. “Cosmo- gony, Mythology, Religious Ideas, &c., in the Vedic Age,” 1870. Popular.—Mrs. Manning, Ancient anil Mediceval India, 2 vols., London, 1869.
On Religion.—H. T. Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays, 3 vols., London, 1837, 2d ed., with Life of the Author by his son, T. E. C., 3 vols., ibid., 1873. H. II. Wilson, Essays on the Religion of the Hindus, 2 vols., edited by R. Rost, London, 1862. P. Wurm, Gesch. der Indisch. Reli- gion, in Umriss, Basel, 1874. S. Johnson, Oriental Reli- gions and their Relation to Universal Religion, i. “ India,” London and Boston, 1873. J. Robson, Hinduism and Us Relations to Christianity, Edinburgh, 1874. Cf. also the journals,—Journal of the Royal Asialic Society of London and of that of Calcutta, Zeitschr. der Deutsch. Morgenland. Gesellsch., Benfey’s Orient und Occident, the Rivista Orientate of A. de Gubernatis, &c., and Max Duncker’s Geschichte des Allerthums, vol. ii.
A. The Vedic Religion.
Literature.—Editions of the oldest Veda: F. Rosen, Rigveda-Sanhita, lib. prim. Sanscr. et Lat., London, 1838. hi. Muller, Rigveda Sahhitd, with the commentary of Sayana, London, 1849, and foil., smaller edition in Pada and Sanbita text, 2 vols., London, 1873. Til. Aufreciit, 112
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Die Hymnen des Rigveda, in Roman character, 2 vols., Berlin, r86i, 2d ed., 1877. A. DE Gubernatis, Iprimi Venti Inni del Rigveda, ripulbl, trad, e annot., Firenze, 1865.
Translations.—M. Muller, Rigveda Sanhita, translated and explained, vol i., “ Hymns to the Maruts,” London, 1869 (no further volumes have appeared, but a complete translation is promised). K. Geldner, A. KaGI, and R. Roth, Siebenzig Lieder des RV. iibersetzt, Tubingen, 1875. A. Ludwig, Der Rigveda, zum ersten male vollstandig ins Deutsche iibersetzt mit Comment, und Einleitung, vol. i., Prague, 1876. H. Grassmann (author of the JVinter - buch zum Rigveda,) Rigveda iibersetzt mit hit. und erlaut. Anmerkk., vol. i., parts i.-iv., Leipzig, 1876-77. The translation of Langlois cannot be trusted. That of WILSON only reproduces the commentary of Sayana. H. T. Colebrooke, “ On the Vedas or Sacred Writings of the Hindus,” in Asiatic Researches, voL viii., Calcutta, 1805, pp. 369-476, and in Miscellaneous Essays (see above). R. Roth, Zur Litteratur und Gesch. des JVeda, Stuttgart, 1846. E. Burnouf, Essai sur le Veda, Paris, 1863. N. L. Westergaard, Ueber den altesten ZeUraum der Ind. Gesch., mit Riicksicht auf der Litteratur, Breslau, 1862. F. Neve, Essai sur le Mythe des Ribhavas, Paris, 1857. A. de Gubernatis, La Vita ed i Mirac. del Dio Indra nel RV., Firenza, 1866. A. Ludwig, Die Philosoph. und Religios. Anschauungen des Veda in Hirer Entwkldung, Prague,
1875-
69. After the separation of the Eranian and Indian peoples, the Hindus established themselves in the land of the seven rivers, at the mouths of the Indus, whence their western neighbours called them Hapta Hindu, Sapta Sindhdvas (now the Panjab, Panchanada, the five rivers). THE VEDIC RELIGION.
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There the old Aryan religion gave way before the in- dependent development of the Vedic religion, so called because it is only known to us through the Veda par excellence, the Rigveda. It corresponds- with the toler- ably advanced civilisation which the Hindus had already attained. If in its doctrine of spirits and worship of ancestors, as well as in the childlike nature of some of its ideas, it still exhibits the survivals of an earlier animistic conception, it has on the whole outgrown its influence. The Devas, originally nothing more than the phenomena and powers of the shining heaven, conceived as persons, children of Dyaus, the heaven-god, and Prithivi, the earth-goddess, are no longer simple powers of nature, but to some extent, at least, beings endowed with moral qualities, raised above nature, creators and governors of the world. An idea of deity, which evinces great pro- gress in thought, is applied to the chief gods, so that each in turn is honoured by his worshippers as the highest.
70. Among all these gods, however, India and Agni were the principal objects of praise. Indr a, vritrahan, the slayer of the foe, is the god who in the thunderstorm defeats the cloud-serpent Ahi, and thus makes the fer- tilising rain pour down upon the earth. In this conflict he is surrounded by the Maruts or storm-gods, led by Eudra; or Vayu, the wind-god, stands by his side. He is also frequently united with Vishnu, the god of the solar disc. At a later period his two comrades, Eudra and Vishnu, were destined entirely to overshadow him. Agni, as god of fire (ignis, Slav, ogni), is the soul and origin of the universe, the mediator between men and RELIGION AMONG THE HINDUS.
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60. The favourable circumstances which surrounded Mohammed at Medina operated unfavourably upon his character. Beneath opposition and persecution he had displayed the courage of his conviction, but when he had once gained the mastery, the Prophet became an arbitrary tyrant, who gave the rein freely to all his passions. His vengefulness was felt by the Jews, who would not enrol themselves among his followers, and by those who had 96
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the misfortune to injure him. After the death of Khadijali he began to keep a harem, to which he went on adding new wives, among them even the lawful wife of his adopted son. The scandal which such acts caused even among the faithful, was allayed by revela- tions received just as they were required, which can hardly be ascribed simply to self-deception, and must have been produced with intentional deceit. At Medina Mohammed instituted public worship, but he appears never to have lost sight of his great object, to make Mekka, already the centre of the national religion, the centre of his own religion. He preached the holy war, which was, however, inspired quite as much by desire of revenge and plunder, as by policy and fanaticism. After fighting against the Mekkans with varying success, he demanded permission to take part with his followers in the pilgrimage to the Ka'ba, and his request was granted under certain conditions. Not satisfied, however, with this, he violates the armistice, advances in the year 630 with a very considerable army against his native city, obtains possession of it by treachery, destroys the idols in the Ka'ba, forces the worship there practised into conformity with his own doctrine, and thus transforms the city which had rejected him into the chief seat, and its ancient temple into the principal sanctuary, of the true faith. All the Arab tribes now submitted, at any rate outwardly and simply out of fear, to Islftm, although the general rising after the death of the Prophet proves how superficial was their conversion. The idea of even uni- versal dominion began to be entertained. Shortly after the pilgrimage to Mekka, Mohammed had already sent MOHAMMED.
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letters to different princes, even to the Koman emperor and the Persian king, demanding their submission; soon he despatched small armies beyond the boundaries, sometimes with considerable success, and he planned more and more distant expeditions. But the end approached with swift strides, and he felt that his task was finished. After a few days’ illness, he collected all his strength to address the faithful in the Mosque once more, returned home exhausted, and died the same day, June 8th, 632, on the breast of his favourite wife, Ayesha, daughter of Abu- bekr, amid pious aspirations and in the firm hope of im- mortality.
61. The five pillars of Islam, of which the founda- tions were laid in the teaching of Mohammed himself, are as follows: (1) the acceptance of the two great dogmas; (2) prayer, regarded rather as an outward
religious action than as an impulse of the heart, all its forms therefore being regulated with precision; (3) alms- giving ; (4) fasting, kept strictly in the month of Kama- dhan from sunrise to sunset; (5) the pilgrimage to Mekka, which every free adult was bound to perform once in his life. The first of the two great dogmas is the
doctrine of the unity of God, of whose existence the
Prophet continually adduced proofs, but of whose nature he never attempted, or was not in a position, to form a pure conception. The Qoran is marked by a strong anthropomorphism, and well-attested traditions ascribe to Mohammed the assertion that he had seen the deity in human form. God is almighty and all-knowing, but
terrible in his wrath: he rewards and punishes arbitra- 9S RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.
rily; he hardens the hearts of those whom he destines to destruction; and every one, therefore, must tremble before the fires of his hell. He requires men to sur- render themselves to him with servile submission, yet not even then are they always sure of his "grace. Such a representation of, the deity naturally leads to the doctrine of unconditional predestination, and this was, accordingly, also taught by Mohammed ; but he was too impulsive, and too little of a thinker, not to be untrue to it sometimes. Moreover, the strictness of his mono- theism did not prevent liim from admitting the jinns or spirits into his system; but he transformed them, in imi- tation of the Jews, into good and evil spirits, angels and devils, the latter of whom, however, were, in his view, capable of conversion.
Mohammed was very zealous in prayer and fasting, and spent whole nights in prayer with his disciples. Great value was ascribed to the invocation of the name of God (dzikr), not only mentally but aloud. All the ceremonies to be observed in connection with prayer, the lustrations, gestures, and genuflections, were arranged by the Prophet himself. Much value attached to their public performance. This duty was observed by ‘Omar even in the days of the persecution. Sprenger, i. pp. 318, sqq., 324, sqq.; comp. ii. p. 132.
The god of Mohammed stands no higher than the common Semitic ideal of morality. He is an arbitrary, vengeful, bloodthirsty tyrant, whose sombre traits are only rarely relieved by one of the brighter touches by which the Jewish prophets succeeded in throwing a kindly glow over the image of their Yahveh. Mohammed did not shrink from speaking even of Allah’s cunning. In islAm.
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tlie Qoran, sur. 8, 30, lie is called the craftiest of the forgers of devices, who, by his own wiles, puts to shame those of unbelievers.
For the chief of the evil spirits, Mohammed even pre- served the Hebrew name Satan, as well as the Christian name Iblis (Dialolos).
62. With this gloomy conception of deity corresponds the view taken by Islam of the world. The Qoran gives very frequent utterance to the idea that our earthly life has little value, and is but a passing game, while old traditions ascribe to Mohammed sayings in which the world is compared with all kinds of worthless objects. The door was thus opened for the severe asceticism in which the Moslims were soon to rival Christians and Buddhists. The misery of this world was only surpassed by the unspeakable pains of hell, which were depicted with the blackest colours. But with joyous expectation men might look to heaven, where in beautiful gardens, clothed with splendid garments, and surrounded by black- eyed girls, the blessed would drink the precious unintoxi- cating wine of paradise. The union of gloomy contempt for the world with luxurious sensuality is a characteristic of all Semitic religions, to which only Mosaic prophetism offers a favourable exception.
According to tradition, Mohammed compared the world to a sheep cast away by its owner, nay, even to a dung- heap with rotting bones. For unbelievers only is it a paradise.
While his doctrine looked for joy to the future only, the Prophet, with questionable consistency, contrived to secure here on earth a foretaste of the sensual bliss of IOO
RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.
heaven, a proceeding in which many believers have zealously imitated him.
63. Besides his faith in the unity of God, the Moslim must believe in the divine mission of Mohammed. This is the second main dogma. God has made known his will by thousands of prophets, one after another, of whom Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus are the most eminent, while Mohammed is the last and greatest. God revealed himself in different ways; to Mohammed, how- ever, for the most part through the angel Gabriel. The violent attacks of his chronic disease were regarded by him as divine inspirations, but not till his return to con- sciousness did he give utterance to any words. At first lie undoubtedly believed with complete sincerity iu the reality of these relations; afterwards, however, in the days of his power, they often came just at the right moment to justify him, to remove some scandal, or enable him to attain some definite end. Frequently they con- flicted with each other, and the later were employed to modify or revoke the earlier. The conception was entirely mechanical. But they were always blindly believed and obeyed by his followers. Becorded in part during his life, and in part preserved by memory, they were not collected until after his death. This collection, fixed once for all, bears the name of Qoran, and is regarded by the orthodox as the uncreated word of God, though they also attach great authority to tradition (Sonna).
The modes of revelation also included dreams, such as that of Mohammed’s journey to Jerusalem by night, and of his ascension to heaven. The symptoms of liis disease islAm.
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have led many to regard it as. epilepsy, but Sprenger con- siders it to have been hysteria muscularis. The angel Gabriel is a product of his imagination, not an unknown impostor, as Weil supposes. The form in which the Prophet himself cast his revelations was a rhymed prose, without any poetic value, but not free from rhetorical bombast.
When his numerous harem and his marriage with the wife of his adopted son gave general offence, he imme- diately provided divine revelations to justify himself. When severe vigils, enjoined by God, exhausted him too seriously, came a new command, kept secret all that while by God, to mitigate the old order; and when Mohammed, after having refrained from contending against the idols, began to oppose them with great energy, it was said that God had not desired him to do so until then.
The revelations were called Qordn (to “ read,” to “explain”), or Sdra (“line of a book,” “chapter”). After they were collected, the first name became .the title of the whole, 'while the second was used to designate particular revelations. Both words axe of Hebrew origin. The first collection was made by Mohammed’s secretary, Zaid ibn Thabit, by order of Abu-bekr and ‘Omar, and for their use. The second proceeded afterwards from the same hand, in conjunction with some others. All the texts not inserted in it were then destroyed.
64. The religion founded by Mohammed is exclusively Semitic, for in doctrine and organisation it is purely theocratic. God is the sole, absolute, and arbitrary sovereign, standing in an attitude of hostility against the world, revealing himself mechanically by his prophets, and especially by the last of them, to whose words and com- 102
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mands all must blindly submit. Mohammed himself, also, was both in his virtues and his vices a genuine Semite. His teaching contained nothing original; the whole of his preaching had been already put forth before him, and was adopted by him from Judaism, from Eastern Christianity, and from Hanyfism, and at first he even designated himself a Hanyf. Even the idea of his prophetic calling he borrowed from the Jews. His visions were the result
of his sickly condition. His preaching was not, however, merely an imitation of others, but the result of the over- powering impression which the religion of the Jews and their spiritual kindred made upon his mind, and which impelled him to oppose the worship of idols, and proclaim monotheism. He believed in his calling, accepted it from conviction, and on account of it for a long time courageously bore ridicule and abuse.
Before Mohammed, his older contemporary Zaid ibn ‘Amr, a Hanyf, had vigorously opposed the idolatry of the Mekkans. Mohammed was acquainted with him, and was certainly much indebted to him. See Dozy, Id., p. 14; Sprenger, i. p. 119, sqq. Another view is taken by Noldeke, Geseh. des Qor., p. 14. The influence also of the Christians upon the Prophet must have been considerable (Sprenger, ii. p. 180, sqq.) Waraka, the nephew of Khadijah, was a Christian, and was even canonised by Mohammed (Sprenger, i. p. 124, sqq.)
65. The history of the subsequent development of Islamism lies beyond our compass. It must, however, be observed that the death of the Prophet was followed immediately by a great defection through the whole of Arabia, which was only suppressed by violence, and that islAm.
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the mastery soon came into the hands of the party 'which had the most vehemently opposed Mohammed during his lifetime. In its doctrines, especially in its conception of God, and above all in its moral value, IsMm is far inferior not only to Christianity, hut also to Mosaism and to Judaism. But over the degraded forms of these religions, which prevailed in Arabia and other Eastern countries, it deserves the preference. The elements which qualified it, in distinction from Judaism, to become a universal religion, lay, first of all, in its freedom from the bonds of a particular nationality, and next, in the ease with which it could be summed up in two simple doctrines. What Buddhism possessed in the doctrine of Nirvana, and Christianity in the preaching of love, Islam . found in the formula—“ There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his prophet.” Its triumph in Arabia was due to political considerations, and to the absence of any- thing better to occupy the field. The way for its diffusion beyond was paved by arms, and the pecuniary and civil privileges conferred on believers among vanquished peoples, secured for it a multitude of adherents. True and zealous followers it found only among nations of imperfect development, such as the superficial Christians of Egypt, North Africa, and Spain, among the Berbers, Negroes, Malays, and Turks. In Persia and India it only conquered by force. The Persians were always regarded as heretics, and the Mohammedan are, for the most part, distinguished from the Brahmanical Hindus only by a few forms. Founded among a people which developed late, it is the youngest and also the lowest of the universal religions. Only for a short time, under the stimulus of ro4
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favouring circumstances, and in conflict with its own principles, did it call forth a higher civilisation. When carried out with due strictness it brings all civilisation to nothing.
Monotheism in itself, when the one God does not combine everything that is divine, and the conception of deity is one-sided and limited, by no means possesses the great value commonly ascribed to it.
As a universal religion, Islam did not grow out of the Arabian polydsemonism, but, like Christianity and Bud- dhism, out of a nomistic religion. ( IOJ )
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