Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/623

* INDIA. 545 INDIA. cially, the moon-plant, with its juice, is invoked as the Ijestowcr of all worlillj' boons. The ani- mal sacrifice, the projKTties of which seem to be more mysterious than the offerings of soma, or of clarifieil butter — is added to the original rites. Mystical allusions and symbolic expressions be- gin likewise to crop out in the later portions of the V'cda, revealing the fact that the Hindu mind was no longer satisfied with the adoration of the elementary or natural powers, and giving evidence that the religion was beginning to deal with the problem of the mysteries of creation. In the tenth and last book of the Rig- Veda, spec- ulations are found with regard to the origin of the universe, the vlience and the whither, the who and the wliat. As soon as the problem implied by hymns like these was raised in the minds of the Hindus, Hinduism must have ceased to be the worship of only elementary powers. Henceforward, therefore, we see it either struggling to reconcile the latter with the idea of one suiircme being, or to emancipate the in- quiry into the principle of creation from the elementary religion recorded in the oldest por- tion of Vedic poetry. Brahmam.sm Proper. The development from the older into the newer, from the elemental and natural into the artificial, ritualistic and philosophic, or from the early Rig-Veda stage of religion into Brahmanism, may be traced through the yajur-'eda, or book of knowledge of the sacrifice and the ritual. The priestly power of the Brahnians is supreme in this sacred book, and in the Yajiir-ypdn may be seen the begin- nings of Brahmanisni, as shown in its fuller de- velopment in the brancli Brahniana.'! (see Ved.v) and in the phijojopliicul wrilings termed Upan- ish/id. (Sec Upanishao.) In the Brahmniuis — a word of the neuter gender, and not to be Con- founded with the similar word in the masculine gender, denoting the first Hindu caste — the mysti- cal allegories which now and (lien appear in what we have called the second class of Vedic hymns, are not only developed to a considerable extent, but gradually brouglit into a systematic form. Epithets given bv the Rig-Veda poets to the ele- mentary gods arc made the bases of legends, as- suming the shape of historical narratives. The simple and primitive worship mentioned in the hymns becomes highly complex and artificial. A ponderous ritual, founded on those legends, and suiiported by a far more advanced condi- tion of society, is brought into a regular system. ■which requires a special class of priests to keep it in a proper working order. Soiii" of the Vedic hymns seem to belong already to the be- ginning of this period of the Brahniana wor- ship, for in the second book of the Rig-Veda several such priests are enumerated in reference to the adoration of Agni, the god of fire; but the full contingent of sixteen priests, such as is required for the celebration of a great sacrifice, does not make its appearance before the composi- tion of the Brahmanas and later Vedas. Yet, however wild many of these legends are. how- ever distant they become from the earlier vencralion of the elementary powers of nature, and however much this ritual betrays the prad- vial development of the institution of castes — unknown to the hymns of the Rig:Veda — there are still two features in them, which mark a progress of the religious mind of ancient India. Miile the poets of the Rig- Veda are chiefly con- cerned in glorifying the visible manifestations of the elementary gods, in the Brahmanas their ethical qualities arc put forward for imitation and praise. Truth and untruth, right and wrong — in the moral sense which these words imply — are not seldom emphasized in the description of the battles fought between gods and demons; iind several rites themselves are described as symbolical representations of these and similar qualities of the good and evil beings, worshiped or abhorred. A second feature is the tendency, in these Brahmanas, to determine the rank of the gods, and, as a consequence, to give promi- nence to one siX!cial god among the rest ; where- as in the old Vedic poetry, though we may discover a predilection of the poets to bestow more praise, for instance, on Indra and Agni than on other gods, yet we find no intention, on their part, to raise any of them to a supreme rank. Thus, in some Brahmanas, Indra, the god of the firmament, is endowed with the dignity of a ruler of the gods; in others, the sun receives the attributes of superiority. This is no real solution of the momentous problem hinted at in the Vedic hymns, but it is a semblance of it. There the poet asks 'whence this varied world arose' — here the priest answers that 'one god is more elevated than the rest;' and he is satis- fied with regulating the detail of the soma and animal sacrifice, according to the rank which he assigns to his deities. A real answer to this great question is at- tempted, however, by the theologians who ex- plained the 'mysterious doctrine,' held in tho utmost reverence by all Hindus, and laid down in the writings known under the name of I'pa- tiishad (q.v.). It must suflice here to state that the object of these important works is to explain, not only the process of creation, but the nature of a supreme being, and its relation to the human soul. In the Upanishads, Agni. Indra, 'ayu, and the other deities of the Vedic hymns become symbols to assist the mind in its attempt to understand the true nature of the one absolute being, and the manner in which this being mani- fests itself in its worldly form. The human soul itself is of the same nature as this supreme or great soul; its ultimate destination is reunion with the supreme soul, and the means of attain- ing that end is not the performance of sacri- ficial rites, but the comprehension of its own .self and of the great soul. The doctrine which at a later period became the foundation of the creed of the educsted — the doctrine that the supreme soul, or (the neuter) Brahman, is the only reality, and that the world has a claim to be noticed only in so far as it emanated from this being, is already clearly laid down in these Upanishads. though the language in which it is expressed still adapts itself to the legendary and allegorical style which characterizes the Brah- niana portion of the Vedas. The U|>anishads became thus the basis of the enlightened faith of India. They are not a system of philosophy, but they contain all the germs whence the three great systems of Hindu philosojihy arose; and like the latter, while revealing the struggle of the Hindu mind to comprehend the one supreme being, they advance sufficiently far to express their belief in such a being, but at the same time acknowledge the inability of the human mind to understand its essence. From the Brahmanic religion with its theology.