Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/239

 INDIA (RELIGIONS AND RELIGIOUS LITERATURE) 227 Asparases ; the sixth Brahmans, pious peni- tents, gods, and the great Rishis; and finally above them all is Brahma. There is no re- deemer in ancient Brahmanism ; everybody must redeem himself. But sacrifice, asceticism, and philosophy sometimes succeed in reducing the number of transmigrations by leading to higher stages of existence. Most transgres- sions are of the nature of pollutions. Each cnste is within itself a holy, distinct, and pure people, but contact with a person of a lower caste than one's own is unclean. The dead, every excretion of the body, birth, and every- thing connected with sexual life, are pollu- tions. Fortunately the cow is so holy that what from all other beings would be the most unclean of all serves the Hindoos as a purify- ing agent. Water and cowdung purify every- thing. Penitence consists in fasting for three days, or even for a month, in conjunction with various mortifications of the body or numerous recitations of prayers and portions of the Ve- da. In Manu's code the penalty for intoxica- tion is dreadful; the drunkard is condemned to drink boiling rice water or boiling juice of cowdung or urine till he dies. The killing of a cow is more criminal than the murder of a person belonging to a lower caste. When a Kshatriya or Vaisya unintentionally slays a Brahman, he shall, without waiting for the sentence of the king, walk 100 ynjana, reci- ting one of the three Vedas, or build a hut in the woods, live on alms for 12 years, and carry in his girdle the skull of the slain. But if the slaying of a Brahman was intentional, then the Kshatriya shall himself demand to be shot, or hold his head three times in a fire and die. Sacrifice was still greatly practised during this period, though modern Brahmanism has for the most part abandoned all but the household sacrifices. Ancient Brahmanism distinguished four kinds of sacrifice: havw, havir-yajna or ishti, oblation ; pafu, or pafu-bandha, animal offering ; tnma or saumya-adhvara, drink offer- ing; and pdka-yajna, minor offerings, subse- quently called grihya-lcarma, house offerings, consisting partly of food and partly of animals. The sacrifice of animals soon fell into disuse, and the Sutras name the two classes of meat and animal offerings as one. These sacrifices were faithfully performed by the people, but the higher castes began to philosophize on their religion, and added to the Brahmana scriptures the Aranyakas and Upanishads, as containing the essence or the orthodox interpretation of the entire Hindoo religion. Manu's book of laws sanctioned them. They are mainly expo- sitions of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. They teach that greater than all gifts to the fire of Agni is internal self-combustion, the tapas, glow or fire of asceticism. This is the new basis. Man is, through asceticism, meditation or philosophy, and penitence, migh- tier than all gods ; and if he fulfils" the laws prescribed for these exercises, he is immediate- ly released from any further transmigration of his soul, and he enters at once into Brahma. This asceticism is permitted only to the three highest castes, the twice born, dvijas, or Aryans. A Sudra can at best, and with the highest possible degree of self-denial, attain only to a rebirth into these fortunate castes. Legends like those of Vicv&mitra and Vasish- tha, which portrayed the wonderful power which the ascetic possessed over the gods, filled the masses also with enthusiasm for the doctrine of asceticism. The great aim of the Aryan race was no longer to conquer the earth, but to subdue every natural impulse, and to be swallowed up by Brahma, as a drop is by the ocean. Though this asceticism caused an enor- mous waste of human life, it also gave birth to some of the greatest intellectual achievements of which man is capable. This leads us to a new period in the history of the religion and literature of India, which is eminently one of philosophy. Ancient Hindoo philosophy, the precursor of that of Greece and Rome, was an outgrowth of that meditation which was en- joined as a means of securing a quick passage into the great Brahma. This philosophy is in its aims much loftier and in its processes much more ingenious than that of the Greeks. In- deed, in spite of the wonderful abstruseness in which it is sometimes buried, it might bear fa- vorable comparison with the philosophies of the 18th and 19th centuries. There are especially six philosophical systems which are still con- sidered to be orthodox, as they recognize the authority of the Vedas. They may be re- duced also to three, Vedflnta, Sankhya, and Nyaya, each of which is represented by two forms. Vedanta signifies the aim or end of the Veda. Its legendary author is Badarayana or Veda-Vyasa, who is said to be the author also of the divine Vedas themselves and of the Mahabharata. The development of Vedan- tism, however, reaches into the time of modern Brahmanism. The Vedanta-Sara, a small book which draws the ultimate conclusions of the system, is probably of a date later than the 8th century A. D. The Purva-Mimansa phi- losophy is less an independent system than a collection of addenda for the Vedas, showing how they ought to be used. There is a theis- tic Sankhya or Yoga system by Patanjali, and an atheistic Sankhya system by Kapila. The Nydya system, by Gautama, is principally oc- cupied with the principles of logic. Gautama lays down a syllogism of five members : Prop- osition, pratijnd, the forest is burning; rea- son, hetu, for it is smoking ; example, uddha- rana, whatever smokes is burning; applica- tion, vpanaya, the forest is smoking; infer- ence, nigamana, (hence) the forest is burning. The Vaiceshika system, by Kan&da, is an inde- pendent branch of the Ny&ya philosophy. It teaches the eternity of matter in the form of atoms, and also the atomistic eternity of the soul. There is a curious dilemma in the Ve- danta, which however is more clearly express- ed in the Ved&nta-Sara, viz. : either Brahma