The Religions of India Part 39

[Footnote 39: Weber finds in the Asuras' artisan, Asura Maya, a reminiscence of Ptolemaios. He is celebrated in I.

228. 39, and II. 1, and is the generai leader of the _d[=a]navas_, demons, perhaps originally a folk-name of enemies.]

[Footnote 40: See below. The formal division is, _d[=a]iva, hatha, karma, i.e._, man's fate depends on G.o.ds, Fate, and his own acts; although _hatha_, Fate, is often implied in _d[=a]iva_, 'the divine power.' But they are separated, for example, in iii. 183. 86.]

[Footnote 41: Compare the tales and xii. 148. 9, _sat[=i]_ (suttee). In regard to the horse-sacrifice, compare Yama's law as expounded to Gautama: "The acts by which one gains bliss hereafter are austerities, purity, truth, wors.h.i.+p of parents, and the horse-sacrifice." xii 129. 9, 10.]

[Footnote 42: Compare III. 200. 88, even _pr[=a]k[r.]ta_ priests are divine and terrible (much more in later books).

Here _pr[=a]k[r.]ta_, vulgar, is opposed to _samsk[r.]ta_, refined, priests.]

[Footnote 43: III. 185. 26-31.]

[Footnote 44: "My father and mother are my highest idol; I do for them what I do for Idols. As the three and thirty G.o.ds, with Indra foremost, are revered of all the world, so are my parents revered by me" (III. 214. 19, 20). The speaker further calls them _paramam brahma_, absolute G.o.dhead, and explains his first remark by saying that he offers fruits and flowers to his parents as if they were idols. In IV. 68. 57 a man salutes (_abhivadya_) his father's feet on entering into his presence. For the wors.h.i.+p of parents compare XII. 108. 3; 128. 9, 10; 267. 31, XIII.

75. 26: "heroes in obedience to the mother."]

[Footnote 45: The marked Brahm[=a] Creator-wors.h.i.+p is a bit of feminine religious conservatism (see below).]

[Footnote 46: Weber has shown that men of low caste took a subordinate part even in the _r[=a]jas[=u]ya_ sacrifice.]

[Footnote 47: In II. 18. there is a brand-new festival appointed in honor of a female fiend, etc.]

[Footnote 48: III. 84. 83 (87. 11). We see the first idea in the injunction of Indra to 'wander,' as told in the tale of Dogstail in the Brahmana (see above).]

[Footnote 49: The usual formula (also Avestan) is 'pure in thought, speech, and act.' The comparison of the six senses to unrestrained wild horses is familiar (III. 211. 24).]

[Footnote 50: There is, further, no unanimity in regard to the comparative value of holy places. In XII. 152. 11, Sarasvat[=i] is holier than Kurukshetra, etc.]

[Footnote 51: At Pushkara is Brahm[=a]'s only (?) shrine--the account is legendary, but half historical. The modern shrine at Ajm[=i]r seems to be meant.]

[Footnote 52: Ganges, according to epic legend, was a G.o.ddess who sacrificed herself for men when the earth was parched and men perished. Then Ganges alone of immortals took pity on men, and flinging herself from heaven became the stream divine. Her name among the G.o.ds is Alakanand[=a], the 'Blessed Damosel.']

[Footnote 53: In iii. 87.10, "ten descendants and ten ancestors." The epic, i. 170. 19, regards the Sarasvat[=i]

and Jumna as parts of the sevenfold Ganges, which descends from the heavens as these three, and also as the Vitasth[=a]

(Rathasth[=a]), Saray[=u], Gomat[=i], and Gan[d.]ak[=i]; being itself 'V[=a]itara[n.][=i] among the Manes.' So xii.

322. 32.]

[Footnote 54: According to the commentator the "(northern altar of the Father-G.o.d) Kurukshetra-Samantapancakam, between Tarantuka, Arantuka, R[=a]mahrada, and Macakruka,"

mentioned in iii. 83. 208, lies in Benares; but this must be a late addition, as Kurukshetra's position is without doubt.

Compare i. 2. i ff.; ix. 53. i, 23-25.]

[Footnote 55: In _ib_. 47, _mah[=a] d[r.]tiriv[=a]dhm[=a]ta[h.]

p[=a]pas_, there is an interesting reminiscence of Rig Veda, vii. 89. 2. The rules of virtue are contained in Vedas and law-books, and the practice of instructed men, _ib_. 83 (the 'threefold sign of righteousness'). A cruti cited from _dharmas_ is not uncommon, but the latter word is not properly used in so wide a sense. See note below, p. 378.]

[Footnote 56: Some scholars see in the use of the verb, _pic_, a Vedic picturing of G.o.ds; but in all instances where this occurs it may be only the poet's mind-picture of the G.o.d 'adorned' with various glories.]

[Footnote 57: In VII. 201. 69, civa wears an _aksham[=a]l[=a]._ In XII. 38. 23, the C[=a]rv[=a]ka wears an _aksha_, for he is disguised as a _bhikshu_, beggar.]

[Footnote 58: It must be remembered that the person using the _mantra_ probably did not understand what the words meant. The epic says, in fact, that the Vedas are unintelligible: _brahma pracuracchalam_, XII. 329. 6. But an older generation thought the same. In Nirukta, I. 15, K[=a]utsa is cited as saying that the _mantras_ are meaningless.]

[Footnote 59: Compare xii. 174. 46: "The joy of earth and heaven obtained by the satisfaction of desire is not worth one-sixteenth of the bliss of dead desire."]

[Footnote 60: By generosity the Hindu poet means 'to priests.' In III. 200, where this is elaborated, sixteen persons are mentioned (vs. 4) to whom to give is not meritorious.]

[Footnote 61: Little is known in regard to the play. The dice are thrown on a board, 'odd and even' determine the contest here (III. 34. 5) _ayuja and yuja_. At times speed in counting is the way to win (Nala). Dicing is a regular part of the _r[=a]jas[=u]ya_ sacrifice (Weber, p. 67), but not, apparently, an ancient trait.]

[Footnote 62: The snakes belong to Varuna and his region, as described in v. 98. It is on the head of the earth-upholding snake cesha that Vishnu muses, III. 203.12. The reverence paid to serpents begins to be ritual in the Atharva Veda.

Even in the Rig Veda there is the deification of the cloud-snake. In later times they answered to the Nymphs, being tutelary guardians of streams and rivers (Buhler). In i. 36, cesha Ananta supports earth, and it is told why he does so.]

[Footnote 63: These three are the witnesses for the soul at the judgment, xii. 322. 55. V[=a]yu, Wind, is said to be even mightier than Indra, Yama, Indra and Varuna, _ib._ 155.

9, 10.]

[Footnote 64: But (in a later account) not if he dies ign.o.bly; for if one is slain by a man of low caste he goes to h.e.l.l, xii. 298. 7.]

[Footnote 65: Demoniac Indras (_i.e._, demon-leaders) and seers, xii. 166. 26.]

[Footnote 66: 'The G.o.d of G.o.ds,' who rains blood in i. 30.

36, is declared by the commentator to be--Parjanya! The G.o.ds are here defending Soma from the heavenly bird, Garuda, and nearly die of fright.]

[Footnote 67: xii. 313. 1-7, with the same watery finale as is usual.]

[Footnote 68: The morning prayer, etc, to the sun is, of course, still observed, _e.g._, vii. 186. 4. Indra is thanked for victory and invoked for rain (iii. 117. 11; i.

25. 7; Holtzmann, _loc. cit._ p. 326) in an hymn that is less fulsome than those to Agni and S[=u]rya.]

[Footnote 69: 111. 222, Atharvan's rediscovery of fire. As to crutis they are probably no more valuable than Smritis.

The one given in iii. 208. 11, _agnayo in[=a]i[.n]sak[=a]m[=a]s_, seems to be adapted (_cf._ [=A]cv. Gs. iv. 1; the adjective, by the way, is still starred in Pw.). So [=A]cv. Gs. i. 15. 9, is repeated Mbh[=a]; i. 74. 63, as a "Vedic _mantragr[=a]ma_ "

_(ang[=a]d ang[=a]t sambhavasi_, etc.).]

[Footnote 70: The devils are on the Prince's side, and wish to keep him from death. The proverb is found _ib_. 252. 2; _[=a]tmaty[=a]g[=i] hy adho y[=a]ti_. The holy-gra.s.s is used in much the same way when R[=a]ma lies down by Ocean, resolved to die or persuade Ocean to aid him. The rites (vs.

24) are "in the Upanishad."]

[Footnote 71: According to XII. 59. 80-84, the 'treatise of Brihaspati' comes from civa through Brahm[=a] and Indra.]

[Footnote 72: In Buddhism Yama's messengers are Yakkhas.

Scherman, _loc. cit_. p. 57.]

[Footnote 73: Compare II. 22. 26: _gaccha yamak[s.]ayam_, 'go to Yama's destruction'; whereas of a good man it is said, 'I will send Indra a guest' (VII, 27.8).]

[Footnote 74: _Yamasya sadana_. III. 11. 66. He now has h.e.l.ls, and he it is who will destroy the world. He is called 'the beautiful' (III. 41. 9), so that he must, if one take this Rudrian epithet with the citation above, be loosely (popularly) identified with civa, as G.o.d of death. See the second note below.]

[Footnote 75: The old story of a mortal's visit to Yama to learn about life hereafter (_cat. Br._ xi. 6.1; Katha Up., of N[=a]ciketas) is repeated in xiii. 71.]

[Footnote 76: v. 42. 6: _civa[h.] civ[=a]n[=a]m acivo 'civ[=a]n[=a]m_ (compare xii 187. 27: 'only fools say that the man is dead'). Dharma (Justice) seems at times to be the same with Yama. M[=a]ndavya goes to Dharma's _sadana_, home (compare Yama's _sadana_), just as one goes to Yama's, and interviews him on the justice of his judgments. As result of the angry interview the G.o.d is reborn on earth as a man of low caste, and the law is established that a child is not morally responsible for his acts till the twelfth year of his age (i.108. 8 ff.). When Kuru agrees to give half his life in order to the restoration of Pramadvar[=a], his wife, they go not to Yama but to Dharma to see if the exchange may be made, and he agrees (i. 9. 11 ff., a masculine S[=a]vitr[=i]i).]

[Footnote 77: The h.e.l.ls are described in xii. 322. 29 ff.

The sight of 'golden trees' presages death (_ib._ 44).]

[Footnote 78: The ordinary rule is that "no sin is greater than untruth," xii. 162. 24, modified by "save in love and danger of life" (Laws, _pa.s.sim_).]

[Footnote 79: The same scenes occur in Buddhistic writings, where Yakkhas ask conundrums. For example, in the _Hemavatasutta_ and _[=A]tavakasutta_ the Yakkha asks what is the best possession, what brings bliss, and what is swettest, to which the answer is: faith, law, and truth, respectively.]