The Hindoos as they Are Part 16

NOTE B.

THE G.o.dDESS SOOBACHINEE.

The following is the story of this G.o.ddess:--In a certain village there lived a poor Brahmin boy, whose poverty was well-known throughout the neighbourhood. One day a fisherman came to sell some fish, on seeing which the boy began to cry for them. His mother, a poor aged widow, though very desirous to satisfy the craving of her son, had unfortunately no means to buy them, whereupon the fisherwoman affected by the cries of the boy, offered to give her credit and said she would come for the price on her way home. Meantime the mother cooked the fish; but before her son had time to eat them, the fisherwoman, according to her promise, returned for the price. The old woman being still unable to pay, the fish vendor demanded the return of the fish, which, though cooked, she was willing to take back. This being done, the boy, however, had the advantage of tasting the soup made of the fishes and was so much pleased with the taste of animal food that he could not resist the temptation of stealing one day a _lame_ duck belonging to the king, and eating it privately. Investigation being made, the theft was traced to the poor Brahmin boy, who being summoned before the king, was tried, convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned, at which the mother became inconsolable. Seeing her distress and despondency, the G.o.ddess Doorga, in the form of _Soobachinee_, appeared to her in a dream, and, giving her hopes of consolation and better luck for the future, eventually advised her to perform the wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.ddess _Soobachinee_. In obedience to the above injunction, she did as she was directed.

Seventeen ducks made of rice-paste (sixteen with two perfect legs and one with a lame leg) formed a part of the ceremony. After the performance of the wors.h.i.+p and the expiatory rite of _homa_ (burnt offering) which expiates all sin, the holy water being sprinkled on the feathers of the stolen _lame_ duck, that were concealed under the ashes, the devoured duck was at once restored to life and sent back to the king's poultry-yard. The miraculous resuscitation of the duck was brought to the notice of the king, who immediately sent for the poor old woman and questioned her how the dead _lame_ duck was made alive again; the old woman, trembling through fear, related all the particulars about the appearance of the G.o.ddess in a dream. The king, being satisfied as to the truth of the tale, ordered the captive boy to be released at once and brought to his presence, concluding that the G.o.ddess must have been very propitious to the old woman and her son. Consulting his ministers on the subject, he said within himself he could not have a better match for his daughter, who was of marriageable age, than the late delinquent.

So the nuptials were duly solemnized with becoming pomp, and the poor Brahman family lived ever after in a state of great affluence and happiness. Hindoo ladies of the orthodox school learn this tale almost in their nursery, and feel a peculiar delight in reciting it on certain occasions.

NOTE C.

The writings of the ancient Hindoo sages, as handed down to us by history and tradition, incontestably prove that they were chiefly theists; but as their religious ideas were supremely transcendental, ill suited to the comprehension of the great ma.s.s of the people, and consequently not adapted to bring joy, peace and rest to the mind, their descendants learnt to modify those ideas and practically reduce them to the level of the popular understanding. They gradually created a Trinity, _i. e._, the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer. But as this triad was not sufficiently attractive or intelligible to the unlettered ma.s.s, who wanted something in the shape of real, tangible personification of the deity, in place of indistinct, invisible supernatural beings, a designing priesthood subsequently attempted to satisfy their wishes by foisting upon them a whole rabble of G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses, which are almost as innumerable as the pebbles on the sea sh.o.r.e. In numerical strength the Pantheon of the Hindoos far surpa.s.ses that of the Egyptians, Greeks, and the Romans. What ancient system of mythology contained so many as 330 million G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses? As in mythology, so in chronology, the Hindoos stand unrivalled. Their pantheon is as capacious and extensive as their antiquity[135] is unfathomable and prehistoric. The origin of the Puranic mythology is to be attributed to this national predilection; and the wors.h.i.+p of the female deities with b.l.o.o.d.y sacrifices is intended to terrify the ignorant populace into superst.i.tious beliefs still grosser than were habitual to them.

The antiquity of the Brahminical creed and of the religious systems incorporated into, and engrafted on it, has long been a subject of interesting inquiry. It is not my intention to go into the subject more deeply than merely to affirm that it is still a debatable point among the most distinguished orientalists, whether or not the Egyptians and Greeks borrowed their system of mythology from that of the Hindoos, and afterwards improved on it by divesting it of the grosser excrescences.

The character of the Hindoo deities is more or less puerile, impure and unG.o.dly, not possessing any of the cardinal virtues, such as become the living and true G.o.d. Desiring to steer clear of such deformities and impurities, the Greeks and Romans consecrated separate temples to "Virtue, Truth, Piety, Chast.i.ty, Clemency, Mercy, Justice, Faith, Hope and Liberty."

It is a remarkable fact, says Ward, that "the sceptical part of mankind have always been partial to heathenism. Voltaire, Gibbon, Hume &c. have been often charged with a strong partiality for the Grecian and Roman idolatries; and many Europeans in India are suspected of having made large strides towards heathenism. Even Sir William Jones, whose recommendation of the Holy Scripture (found in his Bible after his death,) has been so often and so deservedly quoted, it is said, to please his Pundit, was accustomed to study the Shastras with the image of a Hindoo G.o.d placed on his table; and his fine metrical translations of idolatrous hymns are known to every lover of verse. In the same spirit, we observe, that figures and allusions to the ancient idolatries are retained in almost all modern poetical compositions and even in some Christian writings."

It has been very wisely remarked by a philosophical traveller, Dr.

Clarke, that "by a proper attention to the vestiges of ancient superst.i.tion, we are sometimes enabled to refer a whole people to their original ancestors, with as much, if not more certainty, than by observations made upon their language; because the superst.i.tion is engrafted on the stock, but the language is liable to change." Writing on the same subject, Sir William Jones remarks, "if the festivals of the old Greeks, Persians, Romans, Egyptians and Goths, could be arranged with exactness in the same form with the Indian, there would be found a striking resemblance among them; and an attentive comparison of them all, might throw great light on the religion, and perhaps on the history, of the primitive world."

The Egyptians described the source of the Nile as flowing from Osiris; so the Hindoos represent the holy stream of the Ganges as flowing from the head of Iswara, which Sir William Jones so beautifully describes in his hymn to Ganga:

"Above the reach of mortal ken, On blest Coelasa's top, where every stem Flowed with a vegetable gem, Mahasa stood, the dread and joy of men; While Parvati, to gain a boon, Fixed on his locks a beamy moon, And hid his frontal eye in jocund play, With reluctant sweet delay; All nature straight was locked in dim eclipse, Till Brahmins pure, with hallowed lips And warbled prayers restored the day, When Ganga from his brow, with heavenly fingers free, Sprang radiant, and descending, graced the caverns of the west."

For composing such fine metrical translations of idolatrous hymns, Mr.

Foster finds fault with the conduct of Sir William Jones: he writes, "I could not help feeling a degree of regret, in reading lately the Memoirs of the admirable and estimable Sir William Jones. Some of his researches in Asia have no doubt incidentally served the cause of religion; but did he think the least possible direct service had been rendered to Christianity, that his accomplished mind was left at leisure for hymns to the Hindoo G.o.ds? Was not this a violation even of neutrality, and an offence, not only against the gospel, but against theism itself? I know what may be said about personification, license of poetry, and so on, but should not a wors.h.i.+pper of G.o.d hold himself under a solemn obligation to abjure all tolerance of even poetical figures that can seriously seem, in any way whatever, to recognise the pagan divinities or abominations, as the prophets of Jehovah would have called them? What would Elijah have said to such an employment of talents? It would have availed little to have told him, that these divinities were only personifications (with their appropriate representative idols) of objects in nature, of elements, or of abstractions. He would have sternly replied--'And was not Baal, whose prophets I destroyed, the same?'"

Dr. Stiles, President of Yale College in North America, was so highly impressed with the amazing antiquity of the Hindoo Shastras that he wrote to Sir William Jones, asking him to make a search among the Hindoos for the Adamic books. Had he not been a sincere Christian, he would have asked Sir William to send him a translation of a book written some two or three millions of years ago.

General Stewart, who lived in Wood Street, Calcutta, was said to have made a large collection of Hindoo idols, which he arranged in the portico of his house. He was so fond of them that, it was said, a Brahmin was engaged to perform the daily wors.h.i.+p, while he himself led the life of a Hindoo _ris.h.i.+_ or saint, inasmuch as he totally abstained from the use of either wine or meat.

Such instances of partiality on the part of enlightened Christians towards heathenism, we do not see in the present day. In the early times of the British settlement in India, there was a strong mania for exploring the untrodden field of Braminical learning, and the unfathomable antiquity in which it was imbedded. The philosophical theories of the _Munees_ and _Ris.h.i.+s_, their sublime conceptions concerning the origin of the world and the unity of G.o.d, their utter indifference to worldly concerns and sensual gratifications, their living in sequestered _ashrums_, the practice of religious austerities, the subjugation of pa.s.sions, and above all, their pure, devotional spirit, lent an enchantment to their teachings, which was, in the highest degree, fascinating. It was not an ordinary phenomenon in the annals of the human intellect that Europeans, possessing all the advantages of modern civilization, should go so far as to entertain a sort of religious veneration for a system of polytheism, which even the natives of the country now-a-days denounce as puerile and absurd. Deeper researches have, however, subsequently dissipated the delusion, and thrown on the subject a great body of light, which the progress of Western knowledge is daily increasing.

FOOTNOTES:

[135] Such as _Bore_, _Komurpatta_, _Nimfull_, _Neyboofull_, _Ghoomur_ round the waist, _Tabeej_, _Bajoo_, _Balla_, _Jasum_, _Taga_, &c. on the hands, pearl and gold necklaces of various sorts and gold mohurs or sovereigns strung together in the shape of a necklace.

NOTE D.

THE BaMaCHaREE FOLLOWERS OF KALI.

In some parts of Bengal and a.s.sam, there still exists a sect of Hindoos, known by the name of _Bamacharees_, or the followers of the female energy, who practise a series of _Poornabishaka_ orgies in the name of this celestial G.o.ddess which are nothing less than abominable. The following is a rough programme of the rite. The Brahmin who is to perform the ceremony sits upon a sham image of the G.o.ddess in a private room, having beside him at the same time a quant.i.ty of flowers, red sandal paste, holy water, copper pans, plantain and other fruits, green plantain leaves, parched peas, cooked fish and flesh, and a certain quant.i.ty of spirituous liquor. When night approaches he takes the disciple who is to be initiated into the room, with nine females and nine males of different castes, with one female for himself and another for the disciple, and makes them all sit down on the floor. Taking up a small copper pan and a little of the holy water, he sprinkles it on all present and then proceeds with closed eyes to repeat a solemn incantation to the following effect: "O G.o.ddess, descend and vouchsafe thy blessings to Horomohun (the name of the devotee) who has. .h.i.therto groped in the dark, not knowing what thou art; these offerings are all at thy service"; saying this, he whispers in his ear the root of the _mantra_. From that time the G.o.ddess becomes his guardian deity. The Brahmin Gooroo then goes through divers other formulas, pausing for a while to serve and distribute liquor in a human skull or cocoanut sh.e.l.l to all the devotees, himself setting the example first. He next desires the females to lay aside their clothes, and bids his new disciple adore them as the living personifications of the G.o.ddess. Eating and drinking now go on freely, the males taking what is left by the females. Towards the close of the ceremony, the disciple, baptised in liquor, makes presents of clothes and money to the priest and all the men and women present. It is easy to conceive what sort of devotional spirit is evoked by the performance of these abominable orgies. Happily for the interests of morality in this country, the sect is nearly extinct, except in the most obscure parts of a.s.sam and Bengal.