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The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 1
or, ‘Those that wear black (the Akālis), white (the Nirmalas), red (the Udāsis) or yellow, are all members of the brotherhood of the Sikhs.’
“The Akālis do not, it is true, drink spirits or eat meat as other Sikhs do, but they are immoderate in the consumption of bhāng. They are in other respects such purists that they will avoid Hindu rites even in their marriage ceremonies.
“The Akāli is full of memories of the glorious day of the Khālsa; and he is nothing if he is not a soldier, a soldier of the Guru. He dreams of armies, and he thinks in lakhs. If he wishes to imply that five Akālis are present, he will say that ‘five lakhs are before you’; or if he would explain he is alone, he will say that he is with ‘one and a quarter lakhs of the Khālsa.’ You ask him how he is, and he replies that ‘The army is well’; you inquire where he has come from, and he says, ‘The troops marched from Lahore.’ The name Akāli means ‘immortal.’ When Sikhism was politically dominant, the Akālis were accustomed to extort alms by accusing the principal chiefs of crimes, imposing fines upon them, and in the event of their refusing to pay, preventing them from performing their ablutions or going through any of the religious ceremonies at Amritsar.”
7. The Sikh Council or Guru-Māta. Their communal meal
The following account was given by Sir J. Malcolm of the Guru-Māta or great Council of the Sikhs and their religious meal:393 “When a Guru-Māta or great national Council is called on the occasion of any danger to the country, all the Sikh chiefs assemble at Amritsar. The assembly is convened by the Akālis; and when the chiefs meet upon this solemn occasion it is concluded that all private animosities cease, and that every man sacrifices his personal feelings at the shrine of the general good.
“When the chiefs and principal leaders are seated, the Adi-Granth and Dasama Pādshāh Ka Granth394 are placed before them. They all bend their heads before the Scriptures and exclaim, ‘Wah Guruji ka Khālsa! wah Guruji ka Fateh!’395 A great quantity of cakes made of wheat, butter and sugar are then placed before the volumes of their sacred writings and covered with a cloth. These holy cakes, which are in commemoration of the injunction of Nānak to eat and to give to others to eat next receive the salutation of the assembly, who then rise, while the Akālis pray aloud and the musicians play. The Akālis, when the prayers are finished, desire the Council to be seated. They sit down, and the cakes are uncovered and eaten by all classes of the Sikhs, those distinctions of tribe and caste which are on other occasions kept up being now laid aside in token of their general and complete union in one cause. The Akālis proclaim the Guru-Māta, and prayers are again said aloud. The chiefs after this sit closer and say to each other, ‘The sacred Granth is between us, let us swear by our Scriptures to forget all internal disputes and to be united.’ This moment of religious fervour is taken to reconcile all animosities. They then proceed to consider the danger with which they are threatened, to devise the best plans for averting it and to choose the generals who are to lead their armies against the common enemy.” The first Guru-Māta was assembled by Guru Govind, and the latest was called in 1805, when the British Army pursued Holkar into the Punjab. The Sikh Army was known as Dal Khālsa, or the Army of God, khālsa being an Arabic word meaning one’s own.396 At the height of the Sikh power the followers of this religion only numbered a small fraction of the population of the Punjab, and its strength is now declining. In 1911 the Sikhs were only three millions in the Punjab population of twenty-four millions.
Smārta Sect
Smārta Sect.—This is an orthodox Hindu sect, the members of which are largely Brāhmans. The name is derived from Smriti or tradition, a name given to the Hindu sacred writings, with the exception of the Vedas, which last are regarded as a divine revelation. Members of the sect worship the five deities, Siva, Vishnu, Sūraj or the sun, Ganpati and Sakti, the divine principle of female energy corresponding to Siva. They say that their sect was founded by Shankar Achārya, the great Sivite reformer and opponent of Buddhism, but this appears to be incorrect. Shankar Achārya himself is said to have believed in one unseen God, who was the first cause and sole ruler of the universe; but he countenanced for the sake of the weaker brethren the worship of orthodox Hindu deities and of their idols.
Image of the prophet Swāmi Nārāyan in the Teli temple at Burhānpur
Swāmi-Nārāyan Sect
1. The founder
Swāmi-Nārāyan Sect. 397—This, one of the most modern Vaishnava sects, was founded by Sahajānand Swāmi, a Sarwaria Brāhman, born near Ajodhia in the United Provinces in A.D. 1780. At an early age he became a religious mendicant, and wandered all over India, visiting the principal shrines. When twenty years old he was made a Sādhu of the Rāmānandi order, and soon nominated as his successor by the head of the order. He preached with great success in Gujarāt, and though his tenets do not seem to have differed much from the Rāmānandi creed, his personal influence was such that his followers founded a new sect and called it after him. He proclaimed the worship of one sole deity, Krishna or Nārāyana, whom he identified with the sun, and apparently his followers held, and he inclined to believe himself, that he was a fresh incarnation of Vishnu. It is said that he displayed miraculous powers before his disciples, entrancing whomsoever he cast his eyes upon, and causing them in this mesmeric state (Samādhi) to imagine they saw Sahajānand as Krishna with yellow robes, weapons of war, and other characteristics of the God, and to behold him seated as chief in an assembly of divine beings.
2. Tenets of the sect
His creed prohibited the destruction of animal life; the use of animal food and intoxicating liquors or drugs on any occasion; promiscuous intercourse with the other sex; suicide, theft and robbery, and false accusations. Much good was done, the Collector testified, by his preaching among the wild Kolis of Gujarāt;398 his morality was said to be far better than any which could be learned from the Shāstras; he condemned theft and bloodshed; and those villages and Districts which had received him, from being among the worst, were now among the best and most orderly in the Province of Bombay. His success was great among the lower castes, as the Kolis, Bhīls and Kāthis. He was regarded by his disciples as the surety of sinners, his position in this respect resembling that of the Founder of Christianity. To Bishop Heber he said that while he permitted members of different castes to eat separately here below, in the future life there would be no distinction of castes.399 His rules for the conduct of the sexes towards each other were especially severe. No Sādhu of the Swāmi-Nārāyan sect might ever touch a woman, even the accidental touching of any woman other than a mother having to be expiated by a whole-day fast. Similarly, should a widow-disciple touch even a boy who was not her son, she had to undergo the same penalty. There were separate passages for women in their large temples, and separate reading and preaching halls for women, attended by wives of the Achāryas or heads of the sect. These could apparently be married, but other members of the priestly order must remain single; while the lay followers lived among their fellows, pursuing their ordinary lives and avocations. The strictness of the Swāmi on sexual matters was directed against the licentious practices of the Mahārāj or Vallabhachārya order. He boldly denounced the irregularities they had introduced into their forms of worship, and exposed the vices which characterised the lives of their clergy. This attitude, as well as the prohibition of the worship of idols, earned for him the hostility of the Peshwa and the Marātha Brāhmans, and he was subjected to a considerable degree of persecution; his followers were taught the Christian doctrine of suffering injury without retaliation, and the devotees of hostile sects took advantage of this to beat them unmercifully, some being even put to death.
3. Meeting with Bishop Heber
In order to protect the Swāmi, his followers constituted from themselves an armed guard, as shown by Bishop Heber’s account of their meeting: “About eleven o’clock I had the expected visit from Swāmi-Nārāyan. He came in a somewhat different guise from all which I expected, having with him near 200 horsemen, mostly well-armed with matchlocks and swords, and several of them with coats of mail and spears. Besides them he had a large rabble on foot with bows and arrows, and when I considered that I had myself an escort of more than fifty horses and fifty muskets and bayonets, I could not help smiling, though my sensations were in some degree painful and humiliating, at the idea of two religious teachers meeting at the head of little armies, and filling the city which was the scene of their interview with the rattling of gunners, the clash of shields and the tramp of the war-horse. Had our troops been opposed to each other, mine, though less numerous, would have been doubtless far more effective from the superiority of arms and discipline. But in moral grandeur what a difference was there between his troop and mine. Mine neither knew me nor cared for me; they escorted me faithfully and would have defended me bravely, because they were ordered by their superiors to do so. The guards of Swāmi-Nārāyan were his own disciples and enthusiastic admirers, men who had voluntarily repaired to hear his lessons, who now took a pride in doing him honour, and would cheerfully fight to the last drop of blood rather than suffer a fringe of his garment to be handled roughly.... The holy man himself was a middle-aged, thin and plain-looking person, about my own age, with a mild expression of countenance, but nothing about him indicative of any extraordinary talent. I seated him on a chair at my right hand and offered two more to the Thākur and his son, of which, however, they did not avail themselves without first placing their hands under the feet of their spiritual guide and then pressing them reverently to their foreheads.”
4. Meeting with Governor of Bombay
Owing, apparently, to the high moral character of his preaching and his success in reducing to order and tranquillity the turbulent Kolis and Bhīls who accepted his doctrines, Swāmi-Nārāyan enjoyed a large measure of esteem and regard from the officers of Government. This will be evidenced from the following account of his meeting with the Governor of Bombay:400 “On the receipt of the above two letters, Swāmi-Nārāyan Mahārāj proceeded to Rājkote to visit the Right Honourable the Governor, and on the 26th February 1830 was escorted as a mark of honourable reception by a party of troops and military foot-soldiers to the Political Agent’s bungalow, when His Excellency the Governor, the Secretary, Mr. Thomas Williamson, six other European gentlemen, and the Political Agent, Mr. Blane, having come out of the bungalow to meet the Swāmi-Nārāyan, His Excellency conducted the Swāmi, hand in hand, to a hall in the bungalow and made him sit on a chair. His Excellency afterwards with pleasure enquired about the principles of his religion, which were communicated accordingly. His Excellency also made a present to Swāmi-Nārāyan of a pair of shawls and other piece-goods. Swāmi-Nārāyan was asked by the Governor whether he and his disciples have had any harm under British rule; and His Excellency was informed in reply that there was nothing of the sort, but that on the contrary every protection was given them by all the officers in authority. His Excellency then asked for a code of the religion of Swāmi-Nārāyan, and the book called the Shiksapatri was presented to him accordingly. Thus after a visit extending to an hour Swāmi-Nārāyan asked permission to depart, when he was sent back with the same honours with which he had been received, all the European officers accompanying him out of the door from the bungalow.”
5. Conclusion
The author of the above account is not given, and it apparently emanates from a follower of the saint, but there seems little reason to doubt its substantial accuracy, and it certainly demonstrates the high estimation in which he was held. After his death his disciples erected Chauras or resthouses and monuments to his memory in all the villages and beneath all the trees where he had at any time made any stay in Gujarāt; and here he is worshipped by the sect. In 1901 the sect had about 300,000 adherents in Gujarāt. In the Central Provinces a number of persons belong to it in Nimār, principally of the Teli caste. The Telis of Nimār are anxious to improve their social position, which is very low, and have probably joined the sect on account of its liberal principles on the question of caste.
Images of Rāma, Lachman and Sīta, with attendants
Vaishnava, Vishnuite Sect
1. Vishnu as representing the sun
Vaishnava, Vishnuite Sect.—The name given to Hindus whose special deity is the god Vishnu, and to a number of sects which have adopted various special doctrines based on the worship of Vishnu or of one of his two great incarnations, Rāma and Krishna. Vishnu was a personification of the sun, though in ancient literature the sun is more often referred to under another name, as Savitri, Surya and Aditya. It may perhaps be the case that when the original sun-god develops into a supreme deity with the whole heavens as his sphere, the sun itself comes to be regarded as a separate and minor deity. His weapon of the chakra or discus, which was probably meant to resemble the sun, supports the view of Vishnu as a sun-god, and also his vāhan, the bird Garūda, on which he rides. This is the Brāhminy kite, a fine bird with chestnut plumage and white head and breast, which has been considered a sea-eagle. Mr. Dewar states that it remains almost motionless at a great height in the air for long periods; and it is easy to understand how in these circumstances primitive people mistook it for the spirit of the sky, or the vehicle of the sun-god. It is propitious for a Hindu to see a Brāhminy kite, especially on Sunday, the sun’s day, for it is believed that the bird is then returning from Vishnu, whom it has gone to see on the previous evening.401 A similar belief has probably led to the veneration of the eagle in other countries and its association with the god of the sky or heavens, as in the case of Zeus. Similarly the Gayatri, the most sacred Hindu prayer, is addressed to the sun, and it could hardly have been considered so important unless the luminary was identified with one of the greatest Hindu gods. Every Brāhman prays to the sun daily when he bathes in the morning. Vishnu’s character as the preserver and fosterer of life is probably derived from the sun’s generative power, so conspicuous in India.
As the sun is seen to sink every night into the earth, so it was thought that he could come down to earth, and Vishnu has done this in many forms for the preservation of mankind.
2. His incarnations
He is generally considered to have had ten incarnations, of which nine are past and one is still to come. The incarnations were as follows:
1. As a great fish he guided the ark in which Manu the primeval man escaped from the deluge.
2. As a tortoise he supported the earth and poised it in its present position; or according to another version he lay at the bottom of the sea while the mountain Meru was set on its peak on his back, and with the serpent Vāsuki as a rope round the mountain the ocean was churned by the gods for making the divine Amrit or nectar which gives immortality.
3. As a boar he dived under the sea and raised the earth on his tusks after it had been submerged by a demon.
4. As Narsingh, the man-lion, he delivered the world from the tyranny of another demon.
5. As Wāman or a dwarf he tricked the King Bali, who had gained possession over the earth and nether world and was threatening the heavens, by asking for as much ground as he could cover in three steps. When his request was derisively granted he covered heaven and earth in two steps, but on Bali’s intercession left him the nether regions and refrained from making the third step which would have covered them.
6. As Parasurama402 he cleared the earth of the Kshatriyas, who had oppressed the Brāhman hermits and stolen the sacred cow, by a slaughter of them thrice seven times repeated.
7. As Rāma, the divine king of Ajodhia or Oudh, he led an expedition to Ceylon for the recovery of his wife Sīta, who had been abducted by Rawan, the demon king of Ceylon. This story probably refers to an early expedition of the Aryans to southern India, in which they may have obtained the assistance of the Munda tribes, represented by Hanumān and his army of apes.
8. As Krishna he supported the Pāndavas in their war against the Kauravas, and at the head of the Yādava clan founded the city of Dwārka in Gujarāt, where he was afterwards killed. The popular group of legends about Krishna in his capacity of a cowherd in the forests of Mathura was perhaps at first distinct and afterwards combined with the story of the Yādava prince.403 But it is in this latter character as the divine cowherd that Krishna is most generally known and worshipped.
9. As Buddha he was the great founder of the religion known by his name; the Brāhmans, by making Buddha an incarnation of Vishnu, have thus provided a connecting link between Buddhism and Hinduism.
In his tenth incarnation he will come again as Nishka-lanki or the stainless one for the final regeneration of the world, and his advent is expected by some Hindus, who worship him in this form.
Image of Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, the consort of Vishnu, with attendant
3. Worship of Vishnu and Vaishnava doctrines
In the Central Provinces Vishnu is worshipped as Nārāyan Deo, who is identified with the sun, or as Parmeshwar, the supreme beneficent god. He is also much worshipped in his incarnations as Rāma and Krishna, and their images, with those of their consorts, Sīta and Rādha, are often to be found in his temples as well as in their own. These images are supposed to be subject to all the conditions and necessities incident to living humanity. Hence in the daily ritual they are washed, dressed, adorned and even fed like human beings, food being daily placed before them, and its aroma, according to popular belief, nourishing the god present in the image.
The principal Vishnuite sects are described in the article on Bairāgi, and the dissenting sects which have branched off from these in special articles.404 The cult of Vishnu and his two main incarnations is the most prominent feature of modern Hinduism. The orthodox Vaishnava sects mainly differed on the point whether the human soul or spirit was a part of the divine soul or separate from it, and whether it would be reabsorbed into the divine soul, or have a separate existence after death. But they generally regarded all human souls as of one quality, and hence were opposed to distinctions of caste. Animals also have souls or spirits, and the Vishnuite doctrine is opposed to the destruction of animal life in any form. In the Bania caste the practices of Vaishnava Hindus and Jains present so little difference that they can take food together, and even intermarry. The creed is also opposed to suicide.
Faithful worshippers of Vishnu will after his death be transported to his heaven, Vaikuntha, or to Golaka, the heaven of Krishna. The sect-mark of the Vaishnavas usually consists of three lines down the forehead, meeting at the root of the nose or below it. All three lines may be white, or the centre one black or red, and the outside ones white. They are made with a kind of clay called Gopichandan, and are sometimes held to be the impress of Vishnu’s foot. To put on the sect-mark in the morning is to secure the god’s favour and protection during the day.
Vām-Mārgi, Bām-Mārgi, Vāma-Chari Sect
Vām-Mārgi, Bām-Mārgi, Vāma-Chari Sect. 405—A sect who follow the worship of the female principle in nature and indulge in sensuality at their rites according to the precepts of the Tāntras. The name signifies ‘the followers of the crooked or left-handed path.’ Their principal sacred text is the Rudra-Yamal-Damru Tāntra, which is said to have been promulgated by Rudra or Siva through his Damru or drum at the end of his dance in Kailās, his heaven in the Himalayas. The Tāntras, according to Professor Monier-Williams, inculcate an exclusive worship of Siva’s wife as the source of every kind of supernatural faculty and mystic craft. The principle of female energy is known as Sakti, and is personified in the female counterparts of all the Gods of the Hindu triad, but is practically concentrated in Devi or Kāli. The five requisites for Tantra worship are said to be the five Makāras or words beginning with M: Madya, wine; Mānsa, flesh; Matsya, fish; Mudra, parched grain and mystic gesticulation; and Maithuna, sexual indulgence. Among the Vām-Mārgis both men and women are said to assemble at a secret meeting-place, and their rite consists in the adoration of a naked woman who stands in the centre of the room with a drawn sword in her hand. The worshippers then eat fish, meat and grain, and drink liquor, and thereafter indulge in promiscuous debauchery. The followers of the sect are mainly Brāhmans, though other castes may be admitted. The Vām-Mārgis usually keep their membership of the sect a secret, but their special mark is said to be a semicircular line or lines of red powder or vermilion on the forehead, with a red streak half-way up the centre, and a circular spot of red at the root of the nose. They use a rosary of rudrāksha or of coral beads, but of no greater length than can be concealed in the hand, or they keep it in a small purse or bag of red cloth. During worship they wear a piece of red silk round the loins and decorate themselves with garlands of crimson flowers. In their houses they worship a figure of the double triangle drawn on the ground or on a metal plate and make offerings of liquor to it.
Image of the boar incarnation of Vishnu
They practise various magical charms by which they think they can kill their enemies. Thus fire is brought from the pyre on which a corpse has been burnt, and on this the operator pours water, and with the charcoal so obtained he makes a figure of his enemy in a lonely place under a pīpal tree or on the bank of a river. He then takes an iron bar, twelve finger-joints long, and after repeating his charms pierces the figure with it. When all the limbs have been pierced the man whose effigy has been so treated will die. Other methods will procure the death of an enemy in a certain number of months or cause him to lose a limb. Sometimes they make a rosary of 108 fruits of the dhatūra406 and pierce the figure of the enemy through the neck after repeating charms, and it is supposed that this will kill him at once.
Wahhābi Sect
Wahhābi Sect. 407—A puritan sect of Muhammadans. The sect was not recorded at the census, but it is probable that it has a few adherents in the Central Provinces. The Wahhābi sect is named after its founder, Muhammad Abdul Wahhāb, who was born in Arabia in A.D. 1691. He set his face against all developments of Islām not warranted by the Korān and the traditional utterances of the Companions of the Prophet, and against the belief in omens and worship at the shrines of saints, and condemned as well all display of wealth and luxury and the use of intoxicating drugs and tobacco. He denied any authority to Islamic doctrines other than the Korān itself and the utterances of the Companions of the Prophet who had received instruction from his lips, and held that in the interpretation and application of them Moslems must exercise the right of private judgment. The sect met with considerable military success in Arabia and Persia, and at one time threatened to spread over the Islamic world. The following is an account of the taking of Mecca by Saud, the grandson of the founder, in 1803: “The sanctity of the place subdued the barbarous spirit of the conquerors, and not the slightest excesses were committed against the people. The stern principles of the reformed doctrines were, however, strictly enforced. Piles of green huqqas and Persian pipes were collected, rosaries and amulets were forcibly taken from the devotees, silk and satin dresses were demanded from the wealthy and worldly, and the whole, piled up into a heterogeneous mass, were burnt by the infuriated reformers. So strong was the feeling against the pipes and so necessary did a public example seem to be, that a respectable lady, whose delinquency had well-nigh escaped the vigilant eye of the Muhtasib, was seized and placed on an ass, with a green pipe suspended from her neck, and paraded through the public streets—a terrible warning to all of her sex who might be inclined to indulge in forbidden luxuries. When the usual hour of prayer arrived the myrmidons of the law sallied forth, and with leathern whips drove all slothful Moslems to their devotions. The mosques were filled. Never since the days of the Prophet had the sacred city witnessed so much piety and devotion. Not one pipe, not a single tobacco-stopper, was to be seen in the streets or found in the houses, and the whole population of Mecca prostrated themselves at least five times a day in solemn adoration.”
