India: What can it teach us? Part 24

[Footnote 264: Hekataeos and Kadmos of Miletos (520 B.C.), Charon of Lampsakos (504 B.C.), Xanthos the Lydian (463 B.C.), Pherekydes of Leros (480 B.C.), h.e.l.lanikos of Mitylene (450 B.C.), etc.]

[Footnote 265: Lewis, "Astronomy," p. 92.]

[Footnote 266: See Hayman, _Journal of Philology_, 1879, p. 139.]

[Footnote 267: See M. M., "History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature,"

pp. 497 seqq., "On the Introduction of Writing in India."]

[Footnote 268: M. M., "History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature," p.

515.]

[Footnote 269: M. M., "Hibbert Lectures," p. 153.]

[Footnote 270: Learning was anciently preserved by memory. The Jewish, or rather Chaldaic _Kabala_, or Tradition was not written for many centuries. The Druids of ancient Britain preserved their litanies in the same way, and to a Bard a good memory was indispensable, or he would have been refused initiation.--A. W.]

[Footnote 271: See my article on the date of the Ka_s_ika in the _Indian Antiquary_, 1880, p. 305.]

[Footnote 272: The translation of the most important pa.s.sages in I-tsing's work was made for me by one of my j.a.panese pupils, K.

Kasawara.]

[Footnote 273: See Bunyiu Nanjio's "Catalogue of the Chinese Tripi_t_aka," p. 372, where arya_s_ura, who must have lived before 434 A.D., is mentioned as the author of the "_G_atakamala."]

[Footnote 274: Wellington, 1880.]

[Footnote 275: De Bello Gall. vi. 14; "History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature," p. 506.]

[Footnote 276: See De Coulanges, "The Ancient City," Book I. II. "We find this wors.h.i.+p of the dead among the h.e.l.lenes, among the Latins, among the Sabines, among the Etruscans; we also find it among the Aryas of India. Mention is made of it in the hymns of the Rig-Veda. It is spoken of in the Laws of Manu as the most ancient wors.h.i.+p among men.... Before men had any notion of Indra or of Zeus, they adored the dead; they feared them, and addressed them prayers. It seems that the religious sentiment began in this way. It was perhaps while looking upon the dead that man first conceived the idea of the supernatural, and to have a hope beyond what he saw. Death was the first mystery, and it placed man on the track of other mysteries. It raised his thoughts from the visible to the invisible, from the transitory to the eternal, from the human to the divine."

The sacred fire represented the ancestors, and therefore was revered and kept carefully from profanation by the presence of a stranger.--A.

W.]

[Footnote 277: "Principles of Sociology," p. 313.]

[Footnote 278: "The Hindu Law of Inheritance is based upon the Hindu religion, and we must be cautious that in administering Hindu law we do not, by acting upon our notions derived from English law, inadvertently wound or offend the religious feelings of those who may be affected by our decisions."--Bengal Law Reports, 103.]

[Footnote 279:

"Earth-wandering demons, they their charge began, The ministers of good and guards of man; Veiled with a mantle of aerial light, O'er Earth's wide s.p.a.ce they wing their hovering flight."]

[Footnote 280: Cicero, "De Leg." II. 9, 22, "Deorum manium jura sancta sunto; nos leto datos divos habento."]

[Footnote 281: See Atharva-Veda XVIII. 2, 49.]

[Footnote 282: Rig-Veda X. 14, 1-2. He is called Vaivasvata, the solar (X. 58, 1), and even the son of Vivasvat (X. 14, 5). In a later phase of religious thought Yama is conceived as the first man (Atharva-Veda XVIII. 3, 13, as compared with Rig-Veda X. 14, 1).]

[Footnote 283: Rig-Veda X. 14.]

[Footnote 284: In the Avesta many of these things are done by Ahura-Mazda with the help of the Fravas.h.i.+s.]

[Footnote 285: See _S_atapatha Brahma_n_a I. 9, 3, 10; VI. 5, 4, 8.]

[Footnote 286: Rig-Veda VIII. 48, 3: "We drank Soma, we became immortal, we went to the light, we found the G.o.ds;" VIII. 48, 12.]

[Footnote 287: Rig-Veda IX. 97, 39.]

[Footnote 288: L. c. X. 14, 6.]

[Footnote 289: L. c. X. 16, 10.]

[Footnote 290: A translation considerably differing from my own is given by Sarvadhikari in his "Tagore Lectures for 1880," p. 34.]

[Footnote 291: Cf. Max Muller, Rig-Veda, transl. vol. i. p. 24.]

[Footnote 292: In a previous note will be found the statement by Professor De Coulanges, of Strasburg, that in India, as in other countries, a belief in the ancestral spirits came first, and a belief in divinities afterward. Professor Muller cites other arguments which might be employed in support of such a theory. The name of the oldest and greatest among the Devas, for instance, is not simply Dyaus, but Dyaush-pita, Heaven-Father; and there are several names of the same character, not only in Sanskrit, but in Greek and Latin also. Jupiter and Zeus Pater are forms of the appellation mentioned, and mean the Father in Heaven. It does certainly look as though Dyaus, the sky, had become personal and wors.h.i.+pped only after he had been raised to the category of a Pitri, a father; and that this predicate of Father must have been elaborated first before it could have been used, to comprehend Dyaus, the sky, Varu_n_a, and other Devas. Professor Muller, however, denies that this is the whole truth in the case. The Vedic poets, he remarks, believed in Devas--G.o.ds, if we must so call them--literally, the bright ones; Pit_ri_s, fathers; and Ma.n.u.shyas, men, mortals. (Atharva-Veda, X. 6, 32.) Who came first and who came after it is difficult to say; but as soon as the three were placed side by side, the Devas certainly stood the highest, then followed the Pit_ri_s, and last came the mortals. Ancient thought did not comprehend the three under one concept, but it paved the way to it.

The mortals after pa.s.sing through death became Fathers, and the Fathers became the companions of the Devas.

In Manu there is an advance beyond this point. The world, all that moves and rests, we are told (Manu III., 201), has been made by the Devas; but the Devas and Danavas were born of the Pit_ri_s, and the Pit_ri_s of the _R_is.h.i.+s. Originally the _R_is.h.i.+s were the poets of the Vedas, seven in number; and we are not told how they came to be placed above the Devas and Pit_ri_s. It does not, however, appear utterly beyond the power to solve. The Vedas were the production of the _R_is.h.i.+s, and the Pit_ri_s, being perpetuated thus to human memory, became by a figure of speech their offspring. The Devas sprung from the Pit_ri_s, because it was usual to apotheosize the dead. "Our ancestors desired," says Cicero, "that the men who had quitted this life should be counted in the number of G.o.ds." Again, the conception of patrons or Pit_ri_s to each family and tribe naturally led to the idea of a Providence over all; and so the Pit_ri_ begat the Deva. This religion preceded and has outlasted the other.--A. W.]

[Footnote 293: _S_atapatha Brahma_n_a XI. 5, 6, 1; Taitt. ar. II. 11, 10; a_s_valayana G_ri_hya-sutras III. 1, 1; Paraskara G_ri_hya-sutras II. 9, 1; apastamba, Dharma-sutras, translated by Buhler, pp. 47 seq.]

[Footnote 294: In the _S_ankhayana G_ri_hya (I. 5) four Paka-ya_gn_as are mentioned, called Huta, ahuta, prahuta, pra_s_ita.]

[Footnote 295: a_s_v. G_ri_hya-sutras I. 3, 10.]

[Footnote 296: Manu III. 117-118.]

[Footnote 297: L. c. III. 85.]

[Footnote 298: See Des Coulanges, "Ancient City," I. 3. "Especially were the meals of the family religions acts. The G.o.d [the sacred fire]

presided there. He had cooked the bread and prepared the food; a prayer, therefore, was due at the beginning and end of the repast.

Before eating, they placed upon the altar the first fruits of the food; before drinking, they poured out a libation of wine. This was the G.o.d's portion. No one doubted that he was present, that he ate and drank; for did they not see the flame increase as if it had been nourished by the provisions offered? Thus the meal was divided between the man and the G.o.d. It was a sacred ceremony, by which they held communion with each other.... The religion of the sacred fire dates from the distant and dim epoch when there were yet no Greeks, no Italians, no Hindus, when there were only Aryas. When the tribes separated they carried this wors.h.i.+p with them, some to the banks of the Ganges, others to the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean.... Each group chose its own G.o.ds, but all preserved as an ancient legacy the first religion which they had known and practiced in the common cradle of their race."

The fire in the house denoted the ancestor, or pit_ri_, and in turn the serpent was revered as a living fire, and so an appropriate symbol of the First Father.--A. W.]

[Footnote 299: "Taittiriyara_n_yaka," Preface, p. 23.]

[Footnote 300: Masi masi vo 'sanam iti _s_rute_h_; Gobhiliya G_ri_hya sutras, p. 1055.]

[Footnote 301: See "Pi_nd_apit_ri_ya_gn_a," von Dr. O. Donner, 1870.

The restriction to three ancestors, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, occurs in the Va_g_asaneyi-sa_m_hita, XIX. 36-37.]

[Footnote 302: There is, however, great variety in these matters, according to different _s_akhas. Thus, according to the Gobhila-_s_akha, the Pi_nd_a Pit_ri_ya_gn_a is to be considered as smarta, not as _s_rauta (pi_nd_a-pit_ri_ya_gn_ah khalv asma_kkh_akhaya_m_ nasti); while others maintain that an agnimat should perform the smarta, a _s_rautagnimat the _s_rauta Pit_ri_ya_gn_a; see Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras, p. 671. On page 667 we read: anagner amavasya_s_raddha, nanvaharyam ity adara_n_iyam.]

[Footnote 303: "uber Todtenbestattung und Opfergebrauche im Veda," in "Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft," vol. ix.

1856.]

[Footnote 304: A_s_valayana G_ri_hya-sutras IV. 4, 10.]

[Footnote 305: Manu V. 64-65.]