The Religions of India Part 46

[Footnote 49: Between this and the last occur minor holidays, one to avert small-pox; one (February the 4th) sacred to the sun (Sunday, the seventh day of each lunar fortnight, is strictly observed); and one to the Manes.]

[Footnote 50: Fasting is not necessarily a part of civilized religion alone. It is found in the Brahmanic and Hindu cults, but it obtains also among the American Indians. Thus the Dacotahs fast for two or three days at the wors.h.i.+p of sun and moon. Schoolcraft, _Histor. and Statist_., iii.

227.]

[Footnote 51: The last clause (meaning 'common historical origin') were better omitted.]

[Footnote 52: Except the mystic syllable _[=O]m_, supposed to represent the trinity (_[=O]m_ is _a, u, m_), though probably it was originally only an exclamation.]

[Footnote 53: A small Vishnu festival in honor of Vishnu as 'man-lion' (one of his ten _avatars_) is celebrated on the 13th of March; but in Bengal in honor of the same G.o.d as a cow-boy. On the 15th of March there is another minor festival in Bengal, but it is to civa, or rather to one of his hosts, under the form of a water pot (that is to preserve from disease).]

[Footnote 54: The bonfire is made of fences, door posts, furniture, etc. Nothing once seized and devoted to the fire may be reclaimed, but the owner may defend his property if he can. Part of the horse-play at this time consists in leaping over the fire, which is also ritualistic with same of the hill-tribes.]

[Footnote 55: Compare the Nautch dances on R[=a]macandra's birthday. Religious dances, generally indecent, are also a prominent feature of the religions of the wild tribes (as among American and African savages, Greeks, etc., etc.).]

[Footnote 56: The 'Easter bonnet' in Indic form.]

[Footnote 57: In sober contrast stands the yearly orthodox craddha celebration (August-September), though Brahmans join in sectarian fetes.]

[Footnote 58: Wilson draws an elaborate parallel between the Hol[=i] and the Lupercalia, etc. (Carnival). But the points of contact are obvious. One of the customs of the Hol[=i]

celebration is an exact reproduction of April-Fool's day.

Making "Hol[=i] fools" is to send people on useless errands, etc. (Festum Stultorum, at the Vernal Equinos, transferred by the Church to the first of November, "Innocents' Day").]

[Footnote 59: Stevenson, JRAS. 1841, p. 239; Williams, _loc. cit._; Wilkins, _Modern Hinduism_, ch. III.]

[Footnote 60: The daily service consists in dressing, bathing, feeding, etc It is divided into eight ridiculous ceremonies, which prolong the wors.h.i.+p through the day.]

[Footnote 61: The brilliant displays attracted the notice of the Greeks, who speak of the tame tigers and panthers, the artificial trees carried in wagons, the singing, instrumental music, and noise, which signalized a fete procession. See Williams, _loc. cit_.]

[Footnote 62: Such, for instance, is the most holy temple of South India, the great temple of cr[=i]rangam at Trichinopoly. The idol car, gilded and gaudy, is carved with obscenity; the walls and ceilings are frescoed with b.e.s.t.i.a.lity. It represents Vishnu's heaven.]

[Footnote 63: From this name or t.i.tle comes the Gita Govinda, a mystic erotic poem (in praise of the cow-boy G.o.d) exaltedly religious as it is sensual (twelfth century).]

[Footnote 64: VP.l. 2. 63. The 'qualities' or 'conditions'

of G.o.d's being are referred to by 'goodness' and 'darkness.']

[Footnote 65: All this erotic vulgarity is typical of the common poetry of the people, and is in marked contrast to the chivalrous, but not love-sick, Bh[=a]rata.]

[Footnote 66: Compare Duncker, LII^5. p. 327, More doubtful is the identification of Nysian and Nish[=a]dan, _ib_. note.

Compare, also, Schroeder, _loc. cit._ p. 361. Arrian calls (civa) Dionysos the _[Greek: oitou dotera Iudeis]_ (Schwanbeck, Fig. 1.).]

[Footnote 67: This remains always as civa's heaven in distinction from Goloka or V[=a]ikuntha, Vishnu's heaven.

Nowadays Benares is the chief seat of civaism.]

[Footnote 68: The doctrine of the immaculate conception, common to Vishnuism and Buddhism (above, p.431), can have no exact parallel in civaism, for civa is not born as a child; but it seems to be reflected in the laughable ascription of virginity to Um[=a] (Civa's wife), when she is revered as the emblem of motherhood.]

[Footnote 69: In RV. v. 41. 4, the Vedic triad is Fire, Wind, and (Tr[=i]ta of the sky) Indra; elsewhere Fire, Wind, and Sun (above, p. 42), distinct from the triune fire.]

[Footnote 70: In the Rig Veda the three steps are never thus described, but in the later age this view is common. It is, in fact, only on the 'three steps' that the ident.i.ty with the sun is established. In RV. 1. 156. 4, Vishnu is already above Varuna.]

[Footnote 71: cat. Br. xiv. 1. 1. 5.]

[Footnote 72: For other versions see Mulr, _Original Sanskrit Texts_, iv. p. 127 ff.]

[Footnote 73: Later interpreted as wives or eyes.]

[Footnote 74: For an epic guess at the significance of the t.i.tle _n[=i]laka[n.][t.]ha_, 'blue-throated,' see Mbh[=a] i.

18. 43.]

[Footnote 75: AV. iv. 28; viii. 2; xi. 2. Thus even in the Rig Veda pairs of G.o.ds are frequently besung as one, as if they were divinities not only h.o.m.ogeneous but even monothelous.]

[Footnote 76: Brahm[=a]'s mark in the lotus; Vishnu's, the discus (sun); civa's, the Linga, phallic emblem.]

[Footnote 77: The grim interpretation of later times makes the cattle (to be sacrificed) _men_. The theological interpretation is that civa is the lord of the spirit, which is bound like a beast.]

[Footnote 78: The commenter, horrified by the murder of the Father-G.o.d, makes Rudra kill 'the sin'; but the original shows that it is the Father-G.o.d who was shot by this G.o.d, who chose as his reward the lords.h.i.+p over kine; and such exaltation is not improbable (moreover, it is historical!).

The hunting of the Father-G.o.d by Rudra is pictured in the stars (Orion), Ait. Br. iii. 33.]

[Footnote 79: See Weber. _Ind. St._ ii. 37; Muir, iv. 403.

carva (caurva) is Avestan, but at the same time it is his 'eastern' name, while Bhava is his western name. cat. Br. i.

7. 3. 8.]

[Footnote 80: The epic (_loc. cit_. above), the Pur[=a]nas, and the very late Atharva ciras Upanishad and M[=a]itr. Up.

(much interpolated). Compare Muir, _loc. cit_. pp. 362-3.]

[Footnote 81: According to the epic, men honor G.o.ds that kill, Indra, Rudra, and so forth; not G.o.ds that are pa.s.sive, such as Brahm[=a], the Creator, and P[=u]shan (xii. 15. 18), _ya eva dev[=a] hant[=a]ras t[=a]l loko 'rcayate bh[=r.]ca[=.m], na Brahm[=a][n.]am_.]

[Footnote 82: Barth seems to imply that Harihara (the name) is later than the _trim[=u]rti_ (p. 185), but he has to reject the pa.s.sage in the Hari-va[.n]ca to prove this. On Ayen[=a]r, a southern G.o.d said to be Hari-Hara (Vishnu-civa), see Williams, _loc. cit_.]

[Footnote 83: RV. viii. 6. 30; 1. 50. 10. Weber refers Krishna further back to a priestly Vedic poet of that name, to whom are attributed hymns of the eighth and tenth books of the Rig Veda (_Janm[=a][s.][t.]am[=i]_, p. 316). He interprets Krishna's mother's name, Devak[=i], as 'player'

_(ib)_ But the change of name in a Vedic hymn has no special significance. The name Devak[=i] is found applied to other persons, and its etymology is rather _deva_, divine, as Weber now admits (Berl. Ak. 1890, p. 931).]

[Footnote 84: In the epic, also, kings become hermits, and perform great penance just as do the ascetic priests.

Compare the heroes themselves, and i. 42. 23 _raja mah[=a]tap[=a]s_; also ii. 19, where a king renounces his throne, and with his two wives becomes a hermit in the woods. In i. 41. 31 a king is said to be equal to ten priests!]

[Footnote 85: In fact, the daily repet.i.tion of the S[=a]vitr[=i] is a tacit admission of the sun G.o.d as the highest type of the divine; and Vishnu is the most spiritualized form of the sun-G.o.d, representing even in the Rig-Veda the goal of the departing spirit.]

[Footnote 86: Skanda (Subrahmanya) and Ganeca are civa's two sons, corresponding to Krishna and R[=a]ma. Skanda's own son is Vic[=a]kha, a _graha_ (above, p. 415).]

[Footnote 87: civa at the present day, for instance, is represented now and then as a man, and he is incarnate as V[=i]rabhadra. But all this is modern, and contrasts with the older conception. It is only in recent times, in the South, that he is provided with an earthly history. Compare Williams, _Thought and Life,_ p. 47.]

[Footnote 88: _Ava-t[=a]ra_, 'descent,' from _ava_, 'down,'

and _tar_, 'pa.s.s' (as in Latin in-_trare_).]

[Footnote 89: In the _Bh[=a]gavata Pur[=a]na_.]

[Footnote 90: The tortoise _avatar_ had a famous temple two centuries ago, where a stone tortoise received prayer. How much totemism lies in these _avatars_ it is guess-work to say.]

[Footnote 91: Balar[=a]ma (or Baladeva), Krishna's elder brother, is to be distinguished from R[=a]ma. The former is a late addition to the Krishna-cult, and belongs with Nanda, his reputed father. Like Krishna, the name is also that of a snake, Naga, and it is not impossible that Naga wors.h.i.+p may be the foundation of the Krishna-cult, but it would be hard to reconcile this with tradition. In the sixth century Var[=a]hamihira recognizes both the brothers.]