Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/624

* INDIA. 546 INDIA. its sacrifice, its stilling ritual, and widespread priestcraft tlicre wa;* buuiid later tu come a revolt. Premonitory symptoms of this are plainly to be seen in the Upanishads, which prepared the way for emancipation. The reform wave swept over India in the two great reactionary movements of lUiddliism and Jainism. The character and extent of these reformatory movements arc spoken of under special articles, and need not be dis- cussed here. The eastern part of India was the source from which they sprang;, but .Tainisni gradually spread westward especially, and Hud- dliism expanded itself over other jmrts of India to Ceylon and far beyond the borders of Hindu- stan. Hl.NnnsM. In spite of the reform movements, the old Urahmanism was not destined to disap- pear, liut it was forced to undergo changes which were largely due to the influence of the protesting faiths of iUiildhism and .lainism. During the very time while they were flourishing it ipiictly but firmly held its own. was consciously or un- consciously beini.' rcniodeleil and adjusted to altered conditions and environments, anil was gradually but surely changing into the newer Himluisni. with all that restoratiijn meant. It is this changing Brahnianisin and earlier Hin- duism in its sect-arian developments that is pre- sented to us in the great Hindu epics. The Epic period of Hinduism is marked by a similar development of the same two creeds, the general features of which we have traced in the Vedic writings. The popular creed strives to find a centre round which to group its imaginary gods, whereas the philosophical creed tinds its expression in the ground-works of the Si'iiilcluin, A'yiya, and VSdunta systems of i)liilosophy. In the former, we find two gods in particular who are rising to the highest rank. Vishnu and Siva; for Brahma (the masculine form of lirahman), though he was looked U]ion. now and then, as superior to both, gradually disappears, and be- comes merged into the philoso|ihical Brdhmd (the neuter form of the same wurdl, which is a further evolution of the great soul of the Upanishads. In the Itdmi'nuiiin. the superior- ity of Vishnu is admittcl without dispute; in the great epos, the Mahubhiirata, however, which, unlike the former epos, is the product of suc- cessive ages, there is an apparent rivalry between the claims of Vishnu and Siva to wcupy the highest rank in the pantheon. It is one of the difficult problems of Sanskrit philologj- to un- ravel the chronological position of the various portions of this work, to lay bare its grounil- work. and to show the gradual additions it re- ceived, which must be done before it will be pos- sible to determine the successive formation of the legends which are the basis of classical Hindu mythologj'. A great deal has been done, however, and this much seems to be clear even already, that there was a predilection during this epic period for the supremacy of Vishnu one of whose incarnationswas the much-beloved Krishna (q.v. ), and that the policy of incorjiorating rather than combating antagonistic creeds led mow to a quiet admission than to a warm sup- port of Siva's claims to the highest rank. The philosophical creed of this period adds lit- tle to the fundamental notions contained in the Upanishads; but it frees itself from the legend- ary dross which still imparts to those works a deep tinge of mysticism. On the other hand, it conceives and develops the notion that the union of the individual soul with the supreme spirit may be aided l>y i)enances, such as peculiar modes of breathing, jiarlicular postures, pro- tracted fasting, ancl the like; in short, by those practices which are systematized by the Yogii doctrine. The most remarkable epic work which inculcates this doctrine is the celebrated ])ocm Bhaijiivadgitu, which has been wrongly consid- ered by European writers as a pure Sankhya work, whereas Sankara, the great Hindu theo- logian who commented on it, and other native connnentators after him, have proved that it is founilcd on the Yoga belief. The doctrine of the reunion of llie individual soul with the supremo .soul was necessarily founded on the assumption that the former must become free from all guilt alfecting its purity before it can be re- merged into the source whence it proceeded; and since one human life is apparently too short for enabling the soul to attain its accomplishment, the Hindu mind concluded that the soul, after the death of its temporary owner, hiul to be born again, in order to complete the work it. had left undone in its jirevious existence, and that it must submit to the same fate until its task is fullilled. This is the doctrine of metempsychosis, which is a logical consequence of a system which holds the human soul to be of the same nature as that of an absolute Ood. The beginning of this doctrine may be discovered in some of the oldest Upanishads, but its development belongs to the epic time, where it pervades the legends, and afl'ects the social life of the nation. See J1ktkmp.syciio.sis. PrB..ic HiN'DUiSM. The Puranic period, with its various e>ilt.s, comprises the development of the newer Hinduism from about the sixth cen- tury of our era to the sixteenth century. The I'u'ranas (q.v.) and the Tantras (q.v.) repre- sent this phase of the religion, which succeeded epic Hinduism and supplanted Huddhism. The old Brahmanic vigor was not dead. l)it was ready to revive. In the eighth century Kumarila strengthened it on the ritualistic side and the great Vedantist Sankara. in the ninth cen- tury', added to its power on the philosophic side. Hut the Puranic period of Hinduism was a period of decline, so far as the jiopular creed is con- cerned. Its pantheon is nominally the same as that of the epic period. Brahma. Vishnu, and Siva remain still at the head of its imaginary gods; but whereas the epic time is generally characterized by a friendly harmony between the higher occupants of the divine spheres, (he Pu ranic period shows discord and destruction of the original ideas whence the epic gods arose. Brahma withdraws, in general, from the popular adoration, and leaves Vishnu and Siva to con- test in the minds of their worshipers for the highest rank. The elementary principle which originally inhered in these deities is thus com- jilctely lost sight of by the followers of the I'uranas. The legends of the epic poems relating to these gods become amplified and distorted, according to the sectarian tendencies of the masses; and the divine element which still dis- tinguishes these gods in the lidmai/nna and M ahi'thhi'i rata is now more and more mixed up with worldly concerns and intersected with his- torical events, distorted in their turn to suit individual interests. Of the ideas implied by the Vcdie rites, scarcely a trace is visible in the