Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/35

 — INTRODUCTION.

XIT

tlian as a revered master. His successors number their votaries by hundreds of thousands, and exercise over them an undisputed

Members of the higher orders of ascetics^Param hanses, and Dandis— though not wishing to create a following for themselves, are received everywhere as equals or superiors by the wealthiest noblemen, vho honour themselves iu doing them reverence. spiritual sway.

The dogmatic religion of the people is extremely simple. They believe that there is one Supreme Being, who has many distinct aspects and manifestations, n-oAXcov 'ovoftartuv /lop^ij /t^a^and they further believe that in his most benignant aspects he has submitted to several incarnations. In its origin the religion is an anthropomorphised pantheism the unity of nature is recognized in the real unity of God, and all the various and seemingly hostile powers of good and evil of which the natural world

is

made

up, are typified in the different persons of the Divinity

a solution of the problem of life which leaves no place for a devil. To all but their professional devotees it is a matter of complete indifference whether a man selects for the primary object of his devotion the power of destruction or the power of creation ; and though the pure and lovely figure of Vishnu in hia last incarnation has, from its local associations and in virtue of its own surpassing beauty, the first place in the affection and worship of the masses, there are none who do not frequently pour libations of water and hang votive wreaths of flowers before the black stone which symbolizes Mahadeo. The kindred doctrines of transmigration, and of life as a penance for sin Avhere pain can only be avoided by a renunciation of all pleasure, combined with a strono-ly felt fatalism, lie at the root of the ethical conceptions of the people. far the most important of the tenets they hold centre round the institution of caste, and the which are those makes compulsory dwarf into insignificance that which rules Every Hindu of their religious life. elements other all the orders, natural as well defined into are born men that believes difterent as the species of voluntarily change to impossible and as

But by

animals ; but his maintenance of his position depends on the observance of a number of rules extending to the commonest transactions of life, and the stamp set on him at his birth is ifso facto changed or altogether effaced by his infringement of them. Whether or no that forfeit has been incurred it is for The principal of these rules is his caste-fellows to determine. belong to the lowest caste shall men that which ordains that a has broken bread with Brahman a If with which he has eaten. 4