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

 which have their Karma Kánda and Jnána Kánda, or Ritual and Theology.

The worship of the populace being addressed to different divinities, the followers of the several gods naturally separated into different associations, and the adorers of BRAHMÁ, VISHŇu, and Siva or other phantoms of their faith, became distinct and insulated bodies, in the general aggregate: the conflict of opinion on subjects, on which human reason has never yet agreed, led to similar differences in the philosophical class, and resolved itself into the several Darśanas, or schools of philosophy.

It may be supposed, that some time elapsed before the practical worship of any deity was more than a simple preference, or involved the assertion of the supremacy of the object of its adoration, to the degradation or exclusion of the other gods : in like manner also, the conflicting opinions were matters rather of curiosity than faith, and were neither regarded as subversive of each other, nor as incompatible with the public worship: and hence, notwithstanding the sources of difference that existed in the parts, the unity of the whole remained undisturbed: in this condition, indeed, the apparent mass of the