Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/242

 230 INDIA (RELIGIONS AND RELIGIOUS LITERATURE) monly known as Fakirs, are worshippers of Siva. Modern Brahmanism lias also a female trinity, composed of the wives of Brahma, Vish- nu, and Siva. Sarasvati, Brahma's wife, is the only goddess of arts, of which language is one, and she is said to punish liars, but not very heavily. Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu, is the giver of temporal happiness ; it is through her that mortals obtain wives, children, dwellings, friends, harvests, wealth, health, and strength. Parvati, the wife of Siva, who is the most generally worshipped of the three, has the same attributes as Lakshmi in the Sivaitic Puranas ; but in Bengal and in southern India she is, under the name of Kali, a bloodthirsty goddess, and her images depict her as truly horrid. She is -the goddess of cholera and all other epidemics. She can be appeased only with bloody sacrifice, and even human beings are offered up to her wherever the English authorities do not interfere. In the south Brahman mythology represents the aboriginal grdma-devatds to be a ninefold development of Parvati, or rather of the universal pro- ductive energy of the deity. The Qakti wor- ship is, like Lingaism, based on sexual rela- tions. The former has chosen the female principle, the lap of the mother of nature, instead of the male, which receives the ven- eration of the latter. The various sects be- longing to it rival each other in obscenity and voluptuousness. Among the other gods of modern Brahmanism, Ganeca and Karttikeya, the sons of Siva, are also prominent. The former is the god of wisdom and cunning, on whom it is well to call before undertaking any- thing. He has the head of an elephant, and his image is found everywhere, even in temples not dedicated to him, by the wayside, and in many private houses. The Ganapatyas are a sect who make him an object of special worship. Karttikeya or Skanda, called Subrahmanya and Shanmukha in the Deccan, is the six-headed god of war, whose office is to subdue the demon Sura or Taraka, and who by doing penance for 2,000 years obtained the power of governing the whole world without being put to death either by Siva or by any other god. Six nymphs quarrelled for the privilege of nursing him when he was born on the river Ganges, and in order not to vex any of these Krittikas he took six heads and fed on them all. His feast in the month of Karttika or October is principally attended by music, and fires are lit upon the hills as a token of the return of the victorious warriors. Daksha also is important. He is one of the ancient Adityas, and the Vish- nu Purana tells a wondrous story of how he came to be in the train of the Mahadeva Siva. Ganga, the celebrated goddess of the river, is a lovely person with a lotus flower in her hand. Bathing in the Ganges cleanses from all sins, and whoever dies in the river is at once dis- solved in the great Brahma. Near the source, at the junction of the Jumna near Allahabad, near Benares, and at the mouth of the river, her powers are especially effective on account of certain legends connected with these places. Among the eight Lokapiilas or guardians of the world enumerated above, Yama now employs messengers, Yamadutas, whose duty it is to pull the souls out of corpses and lead them to him bound with ropes. But when people have been very pious Yama himself calls for their souls. The messengers are depicted as de- formed, chid in skins of wild animals, and as having eyes of fire and long hair and teeth. When they have brought a soul before the judge of the dead, the first clerk Chandra- gupta is commanded to read the list of the good and evil deeds of the deceased which is contained in the book TJgrasandhani. Then sentence is passed whether the soul shall be placed in hell, or reinhabit an earthly form, or rise to a higher sphere. Kuvera is lord of the treasures hid in the earth, and he resides in the mines of Kailasa, where his dwarfish, ugly servants keep watch, and can be induced by magic charms to reveal where treasures are concealed. Kuvera himself is a frightful hu- man form, with three heads, three legs, eight teeth, a single ring through the ears, green eyes, and white sores on his body. Kama or Man- matha rides on a parrot, and wounds with his arrow those who love. He belongs to the family of Vishnu. The fire of Siva's eye re- duced him to ashes, and he will not be born again before Siva marries Parvati, and then he will be a son of Krishna. His companion is the beautiful Rati, whom he captured from the house of the giant Sambara. In com- parison with the dissolute worship of Qakti, the worship of the elevated and poetic side of human love as represented by Kama is quite in- significant. The distinctions of caste are rapid- ly disappearing. The Kshatriyas and Vaisyas long since lost their separate existence, and many of the occupations originally exclusively theirs are now followed also by the Brahmans. Though the superior castes may engage in the pursuits properly belonging to the lower, the latter are not permitted to usurp the functions of the former. Brahmans now hold government offices, act as soldiers, and enter the services of Europeans and Mohammedans, and even of the Sudras. But whatever their position, they try not to transgress the rules and observances anciently prescribed for them. They avoid, for example, trafficking with certain commod- ities, such as leather, contact with which is considered polluting; they do not eat or touch certain kinds of food, nor eat with or in the immediate presence of one of an inferior caste. There are classes so degraded that their mere shadow falling on a man of higher caste causes pollution. In Malabar when under na- tive rule it was not uncommon for a man of high caste to strike dead on the spot a man of low caste for having touched him, even if ac- cidentally : the act was regarded as justifiable homicide, and was not punished by the authori- ties. The condition of the lowest castes un-