Page:Works by the late Horace Hayman Wilson Vol 6.djvu/16

 It is not possible to conjecture when this more simple and primitive form of adoration was succeeded by the worship of images and types, representing Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, and other imaginary beings, constituting a mythological pantheon of most ample extent; or when Rama and Krishna, who appear to have been, originally, real and historical characters, were elevated to the dignity of divinities. Image-worship is alluded to by Manu, in several passages,^ but with an intimation that those Brahmans who subsist by ministering in temples are an inferior and degraded class. The story of the Ramayana and Mahabhtirata turns wholly upon the doctrine of incarnations; all the chief dramatis personse of the poems being impersonations of gods, and demigods, and celestial spirits. The ritual appears to be that of the Vedas; and it may be doubted if any allusion to image-worship occurs. But the doctrine of propitiation by penance and praise prevails throughout; and Vishnu and Siva are the especial objects of panegyric and invocation. In these two works, then, we trace unequivocal indications of a departure from the elemental worship of the Vedas, and the origin or elaboration of legends which form the great body of the mythological religion of the Hindus. How far they only improved upon the cosmogony and chronology of their predecessors, or in what degree the traditions of families and dynasties may originate with them, are questions that can only be determined when the Vedas and the two works in question shall have been more thoroughly examined.

1 B. III., 152, 164. B. IV., 214.