Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1

126

2In southern India and in Assam the superiors of monasteries sometimes exercise a quasi-episcopal authority.

127

2Śat. Brâhm. v. 3. 3. 12 and v. 4. 2. 3.

128

2The Mârkaṇḍeya Purâṇa discusses the question how Kṛishṇa could become a man.

129

3See for instance The Holy Lives of the Azhvars by Alkondavilli Govindâcârya. Mysore, 1902, pp. 215-216. "The Dravida Vedas have thus as high a sanction and authority as the Girvana (i.e. Sanskrit) Vedas."

130

3I am inclined to believe that the Lingâyat doctrine really is that Lingâyats dying in the true faith do not transmigrate any more.

131

3E.g. Brih.-Âr. III. 2. 13 and IV. 4. 2-6.

132

3This is the accepted translation of dukkha but perhaps it is too strong, and uneasiness, though inconvenient for literary reasons, gives the meaning better.

133

3The old Scandinavian literature with its gods who must die is equally full of this sense of impermanence, but the Viking temperament bade a man fight and face his fate.

134

3But see Rabindrannath Tagore: Sadhana, especially the Chapter on Realization.

135

3Cf. Shelley's lines in Hellas:—

"Worlds on worlds are rolling everFrom creation to decay,Like the bubbles on a riverSparkling, bursting, borne away."

136

3Nevertheless deva is sometimes used in the Upanishads as a designation of the supreme spirit.

137

3E.g. Brih.-Âr. Up. IV. 3. 33 and the parallel passages in the Taittirîya and other Upanishads.

138

3The principal one is the date of Asoka, deducible from an inscription in which he names contemporary Seleucid monarchs.

139

4E.g. a learned Brahman is often described in the Sutta Pitaka as "a repeater (of the sacred words) knowing the mystic verses by heart, one who had mastered the three Vedas, with the indices, the ritual, the phonology, the exegesis and the legends as a fifth."

140

4There had been time for misunderstandings to arise. Thus the S^{.}atapatha Brâhmana sees in the well-known verse "who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifices" an address to a deity named Ka (Sanskrit for who) and it would seem that an old word, uloka, has been separated in several passages into two words, u (a meaningless particle) and loka.

141

4Recent scholars are disposed to fix the appearance of Zoroaster between the middle of the seventh century and the earlier half of the sixth century B.C. But this date offers many difficulties. It makes it hard to explain the resemblances between the Gathas and the Rig Veda and how is it that respectable classical authorities of the fourth century B.C. quoted by Pliny attribute a high antiquity to Zoroaster?

142

4This applies chiefly to the three Samhitâs or collections of hymns and prayers. On the other hand there was no feeling against the composition of new Upanishads or the interpolation and amplification of the Epics.

143

4The Hotri recites prayers while other priests perform the act of sacrifice. But there are several poems in the Rig Veda for which even Indian ingenuity has not been able to find a liturgical use.

144

4Thus the Pali Pitakas speak of the Tevijjâ or threefold knowledge of the Brahmans.

145

4Or it may be that the ancestors of the Persians were also in the Panjab and retired westwards.

146

4R.V. v. 3. 1.

147

4See the Gaṇeśâtharvaśîrsha Upan. and Gopinatha Rao. Hindu Iconography, vol. I. pp. 35-67.

148

4See R.V. III. 34. 9. i. 130. 8; iv. 26. 2. vi. 18. 3; iv. 16. 13.

149

5In one singular hymn (R.V. x. 119) Indra describes his sensations after drinking freely, and in the Satapatha Brahmana (V. 5. 4. 9 and XII. 7. 1. 11) he seems to be represented as suffering from his excesses and having to be cured by a special ceremony.

150

5In some passages of the Upanishads he is identified with the âtman (e.g. Kaushitaki Up. III. 8), but then all persons, whether divine or human, are really the âtman if they only knew it.

151

5A.V. IV. 16. 2.

152

5The Indian alphabets are admittedly Semitic in origin.

153

5See Mahâbhâr. I. xvii-xviii and other accounts in the Râmâyaṇa and Purâṇas.

154

5It has also been conjectured that Sk. Asura=Ashur, the God of Assyria, and that Sumeru or Sineru (Meru)=Sumer or Shinar, see J.R.A.S. 1916, pp. 364-5.

155

5Ṛig V. I. 164. 46.

156

5For instance chap. III. of the Chândogya Upanishad, which compares the solar system to a beehive in which the bees are Vedic hymns, is little less than stupendous, though singular and hard for European thought to follow.

157

5I presume that the strong opinion expressed in Caland and Henri's Agnishloma p. 484 that the sacrifice is merely a do ut des operation refers only to the earliest Vedic period and not to the time of the Brâhmaṇas.

158

5Thus both the Vedas and the Tantras devote considerable space to rites which have for object the formation of a new body for the sacrificer. Compare for instance the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa (I. 18-2II. 35-3III. 2 and VI. 27-31) with Avalon's account of Nyâsa, in his introduction to the Mahânirvâṇa Tantra pages cvii-cxi.

159

6There is considerable doubt as to what was the plant originally known as Soma. That described in the Vedas and Brâhmanas is said to grow on the mountains and to have a yellow juice of a strong smell, fiery taste and intoxicating properties. The plants used as Haom (Hum) by the modern Parsis of Yezd and Kerman are said to be members of the family Asclepiadaceae (perhaps of the genus Sarcostemma) with fleshy stalks and milky juice, and the Soma tested by Dr Haug at Poona was probably made from another species of the same or an allied genus. He found it extremely nasty, though it had some intoxicating effect. (See his Aitareya Brdh-mana n. p. 489.)

160

6An ordinary sacrifice was offered for a private person who had to be initiated and the priests were merely officiants acting on his behalf. In a Sattra the priests were regarded as the sacrificers and were initiated. It had some analogy to Buddhist and Christian monastic foundations for reading sûtras and saying masses.

161

6The political importance of the Aśvamedha lay in the fact that the victim had to be let loose to roam freely for a year, so that only a king whose territories were sufficiently extensive to allow of its being followed and guarded during its wanderings could hope to sacrifice it at the end.

162

6R.V. x. 136 and x. 190.

163

6Even the Upanishads (e.g. Chând. III. 17, Mahânâr. 64) admit that a good life which includes tapas is the equivalent of sacrifice. But this of course is teaching for the elect only. The Brih.-Âran. Up. (V. ii) contains the remarkable doctrine that sickness and pain, if regarded by the sufferer as tapas, bring the same reward.

164

6So too in the Taittirîya Upanishad tapas is described as the means of attaining the knowledge of Brahman (III. 1-5).

165

6Any ritual without knowledge may be worse than useless. See Chând. Up. I. 10. 11.

166

6See the various narratives in the Chândogya, Br.-Âran. and Kaushîtaki Upanishads. The seventh chapter of the Chândogya relating how Nârada, the learned sage, was instructed by Sanatkumâra or Skanda, the god of war, seems to hint that the active military class may know the great truths of religion better than deeply read priests who may be hampered and blinded by their learning. For Skanda and Nârada in this connection see Bhagavad-gitâ x. 24, 26.

167

6For the necessity of a teacher see Kâth. Up. II. 8.

168

6See especially the bold passage at the end of Taitt. Upan. II. "He who knows the bliss of Brahman … fears nothing. He does not torment himself by asking what good have I left undone, what evil have I done?"

169

7The word Upanishad probably means sitting down at the feet of a teacher to receive secret instruction: hence a secret conversation or doctrine.

170

7Some allusions in the older Upanishads point to this district rather than the Ganges Valley as the centre of Brahmanic philosophy. Thus the Brịhad-Âraṇyaka speaks familiarly of Gândhâra.

171

7Cat. Adyar Library. The Ṛig and Sâma Vedas have two Upanishads each, the Yajur Veda seven. All the others are described as belonging to the Atharva Veda. They have no real connection with it, but it was possible to add to the literature of the Atharva whereas it was hardly possible to make similar additions to the older Vedas.

172

7Debendranath Tagore composed a work which he called the Brâhmî Upanishad in 1848. See Autobiography, p. 170. The sectarian Upanishads are of doubtful date, but many were written between 400 and 1200 A.D. and were due to the desire of new sects to connect their worship with the Veda. Several are Śaktist (e.g. Kaula, Tripurâ, Devî) and many others show Śaktist influence. They usually advocate the worship of a special deity such as Gaṇeśa, Sûrya, Râma, Nṛi Siṃha.

173

7Br.-Âran. VI. 1, Ait. Âran. II. 4, Kaush. III. 3, Praśna, II. 3, Chând. V. 1. The apologue is curiously like in form to the classical fable of the belly and members.

174

7Br.-Âran. VI. 2, Chând. V. 3

175

7Br.-Âran. II. 1, Kaush. IV. 2.

176

7The composite structure of these works is illustrated very clearly by the Bṛihad-Âraṇyaka. It consists of three sections each concluding with a list of teachers, namely (a) adhyâyas 1 and 2, (b) adh. 3 and 4, (c) adh. 5 and 6. The lists are not quite the same, which indicates some slight difference between the sub-schools which composed the three parts, and a lengthy passage occurs twice in an almost identical form. The Upanishad is clearly composed of two separate collections with the addition of a third which still bears the title of Khila or supplement. The whole work exists in two recensions.

177

7The Eleven translated in the Sacred Books of the East, vols. I and XV, include the oldest and most important.

178

7Thus the Aitareya Brâhmana is followed by the Aitareya Âraṇyaka and that by the Aitareya-Âraṇyaka-Upanishad.

179

8R.V. X. 121. The verses are also found in the Atharva Veda, the Vâjasaneyi, Taittirîya, Maitrâyaṇi, and Kâṭhaka Saṃhitâs and elsewhere.

180

8R.V. X. 129.

181

8IV. 5. 5 and repeated almost verbally II. 4. 5 with some omissions. My quotation is somewhat abbreviated and repetitions are omitted.

182

8The sentiment is perhaps the same as that underlying the words attributed to Florence Nightingale: "I must strive to see only God in my friends and God in my cats."

183

8It will be observed that he had said previously that the Âtman must be seen, heard, perceived and known. This is an inconsistent use of language.

184

8Chândogya Upanishad VI.

185

8In the language of the Upanishads the Âtman is often called simply Tat or it.

186

8I.e. the difference between clay and pots, etc. made of clay.

187

8Yet the contrary proposition is maintained in this same Upanishad (III. 19. 1), in the Taittirîya Upanishad (II. 8) and elsewhere. The reason of these divergent statements is of course the difficulty of distinguishing pure Being without attributes from not Being.

188

8The word union is a convenient but not wholly accurate term which covers several theories. The Upanishads sometimes speak of the union of the soul with Brahman or its absorption in Brahman (e.g. Maitr. Up. VI. 22, Sâyujyatvam and aśabde nidhanam eti) but the soul is more frequently stated to be Brahman or a part of Brahman and its task is not to effect any act of union but simply to know its own nature. This knowledge is in itself emancipation. The well-known simile which compares the soul to a river flowing into the sea is found in the Upanishads (Chând. VI. 10. 1, Mund. III. 2, Praśna, VI. 5) but Śankara (on Brahma S. I. iv. 21-22) evidently feels uneasy about it. From his point of view the soul is not so much a river as a bay which is the sea, if the landscape can be seen properly.

189

9The Mâṇḍukya Up. calls the fourth state ekâtmapratyayasâra, founded solely on the certainty of its own self and Gauḍapâda says that in it there awakes the eternal which neither dreams nor sleeps. (Kâr. I. 15. See also III. 34 and 36.)

190

9Bṛ.-Âraṇyaka, IV. 3. 33.

191

9Cf. Bradley, Appearance and Reality, p. 244. "The perfect … means the identity of idea and existence, attended also by pleasure."

192

9Tait. Up. II. 1-9. See too ib. III. 6.

193

9Bṛ.-Âran. III. 8. 10. See too VI. 2.15, speaking of those who in the forest worship the truth with faith.

194

9Chândog. Up. IV. 10. 5.

195

9It occurs Katha. Up. II. v. 13, 15, also in the Śvetâśvatara and Muṇḍaka Upanishads and there are similar words in the Bhagavad-gîtâ. "This is that" means that the individual soul is the same as Brahman.

196

9The Nṙisiṁhottaratapanîya Up. I. says that Îśvara is swallowed up in the Turîya.

197

9But still ancient and perhaps anterior to the Christian era.

198

9Śvet. Up. VI. 7.

199

Śvet. Up. IV. 3. Max Müller's translation. The commentary attributed to Śankara explains nîlaḣ pataṅgaḣ as bhramaraḣ but Deussen seems to think it means a bird.

200

Chând. Up. vi. 14. 1. Śat. Brâh. viii. 1. 4. 10.

201

The Brahmans are even called low-born as compared with Kshatriyas and in the Ambattha Sutta (Dig. Nik. iii.) the Buddha demonstrates to a Brahman who boasts of his caste that the usages of Hindu society prove that "the Kshatriyas are higher and the Brahmans lower," seeing that the child of a mixed union between the castes is accepted by the Brahmans as one of themselves but not by the Kshatriyas, because he is not of pure descent.

202

He had learnt the Veda and Upanishads. Brih.-Âr. iv. 2. 1.

203

Chând. Up. v. 3. 7, Kaush. Up. iv., Brih.-Âr. Up. ii. 1. The Kshatriyas seem to have regarded the doctrine of the two paths which can be taken by the soul after death (devayâna and pitriyâna, the latter involving return to earth and transmigration) as their special property.

204

Literally set in front, præfectus.

205

Śat. Brâh. ii. 4. 4. 5.

206

Śat. Brâh. iv. 1. 4. 1-6.

207

The legends of Vena, Paraśurâma and others indicate the prevalence of considerable hostility between Brahmans and Kshatriyas at some period.

208

Brahmacârin, Grihastha, Vanaprastha, Sannyâsin.

209

Thus in the Bṛih.-Âraṇ. Yajñavalkya retires to the forest. But even the theory of three stages was at this time only in the making, for the last section of the Chândogya Up. expressly authorizes a religious man to spend all his life as a householder after completing his studentship and the account given of the stages in Chând. ii. 21 is not very clear.

210

Śat. Brâh. xi. 5. 6. 8. Cf. the lists in the Chândogya Upanishad vii. secs. 1, 2 and 7.

211

In southern India at the present day it is the custom for Brahmans to live as Agnihotris and maintain the sacred fire for a few days after their marriage.

212

See Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, vol. v. s.v.

213

The Emperor Jehangir writing about 1616 implies that the Aśramas, which he describes, were observed by the Brahmans of that time. See his Memoirs, edited by Beveridge, pp. 357-359.

214

Śat. Brâh. I. 7. 2. 1. Cf. Tait. Brâh. VI. 3. 10. 5.

215

Such as those built by Jânaśruti Pautrâyaṇa. See Chând. Up. IV. 1.

216

Śat. Brâh. XI. 4. 1. 1.

217

Śat. Brâh. ii. 2. 2. 6 and iv. 3. 4. 4.

218

Śat. Brâh. iv. 3. 4. 2.

219

Vishnu Pur. iii. 5.

220

Śat. Brâh. iii. 8. 2. 24. Yâjñavalkya is the principal authority cited in books i-v and x-xiv of this Brâhmaṇa, but not in books vi-ix, which perhaps represent an earlier treatise incorporated in the text.

221

Or "in confidence." Śat. Brâh. xi. 3. 1. 4.

222

Brih.-Âr. iii. 2. 13.

223

In the Pali Pitaka the Buddha is represented as preaching in the land of the Kurus.

224

These are the Pali forms. The Sanskrit equivalents are Parivrâjaka and Śramaṇa.

225

See for instance Mahâv. II. 1 and III. 1.

226

Dig. Nik. 1.

227

See O. Schrader, Stand der indischen Philosophie zur Zeit Mahâvîras und Buddhas, 1902.

See also Ang. Nik. vol. III. p. 276 and Rhys Davids' Dialogues of the Buddha, I. pp. 220 ff. But these passages give one an impression of the multitude of ascetic confraternities rather than a clear idea of their different views.

228

It finds expression in two hymns of the Atharva Veda, XIX. 53 and 54. Cf. too Gauḍap. Kâr. 8. Kâlât prasûtim bhutânâm manyante kâlacintakâh.

229

3Dîgha Nikâya II. The opinions of the six teachers are quoted as being answers to a question put to them by King Ajâtasattu, namely, What is gained by renouncing the world? Judged as such, they are irrelevant but they probably represent current statements as to the doctrine of each sect. The six teachers are also mentioned in several other passages of the Dîgha and Maj. Nikâyas and also in the Sutta-Nipâta. It is clear that at a very early period the list of their names had become the usual formula for summarizing the teaching prevalent in the time of Gotama which was neither Brahmanic nor Buddhist.

230

3Dig. Nik. I. 23-28.

231

3A rather defiant materialism preaching, "Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die," crops up in India in various ages though never very prominent.

232

3But possibly the ascetics described by it were only Digambara Jains.

233

3See especially the article Âjîvikas by Hoernle, in Hastings' Dictionary of Religion. Also Hoernle, Uvâsagadasao, appendix, pp. 1-29. Rockhill, Life of the Buddha, pp. 249 ff. Schrader, Stand der indischen Philosophie zur Zeit Mahâvíras und Buddhas, p. 32. Sûtrakritânga II. 6.

234

3Makkhali lived some time with Mahâvira, but they quarrelled. But his followers, though they may not have been a united body so much as other sects, had definite characteristics.

235

3E.g. Śat. Brâh. v. 4. 4. 13. "He thus encloses the Vaiśya and Śûdra on both sides by the priesthood and nobility and makes them submissive."

236

3See Śânkhâyana Âraṇyaka. Trans. Keith, pp. viii-xi, 78 85. Also Aitareya Âraṇ. book v.

237

3Cf. the ritual for the Horse sacrifice. ['Sat. Brâh, xiii. 2. 8, and Hillebrandt, Vedische Opfer., p. 152.

238

3Supplemented by the Kauśika Sûtra, which, whatever its age may be, has preserved a record of very ancient usages.

239

4E.g. I. 10. This hymn, like many others, seems to combine several moral and intellectual stages, the level at which the combination was possible not being very high. On the one hand Varuṇa is the Lord of Law and of Truth who punishes moral offences with dropsy. On the other, the sorcerer "releases" the patient from Varuṇa by charms, without imposing any moral penance, and offers the god a thousand other men, provided that this particular victim is released.

240

4E.g. VII. 116, VI. 105, VI. 83.

241

4E.g. V. 7, XI. 9.

242

4E.g. V. 4, XIX. 39, IV. 37, II. 8, XIX. 34, VIII. 7.

243

4A.V XI. 6.

244

4See, for instance, Du Bose, The Dragon, Image and Demon, 1887, pp. 320-344.

245

4Aṭânâṭiya and Mahâsamaya. Dig. Nik. XX. and XXXII.

246

4See Crooke's Popular Religion of Northern India, vol. II. chap. ii.

247

4In the Brahma-Jala and subsequent suttas of the Dîgha Nikâya.

248

4See Rhys Davids' Dialogues of the Buddha, vol. I. p. 7, note 4, and authorities there quoted.

249

Krishna is perhaps mentioned in the Chând. Up. III. 17. 6, but in any case not as a deity.

250

See, besides the translations mentioned below, Bühler, Ueber die indische Secte der Jainas 1887; Hoernle, Metaphysics and Ethics of the Jainas 1908; and Guérinot, Essai de Bibliographie Jaina and Répertoire d'Épigraphie Jaina; Jagmanderlal Jaini, Outlines of Jainism; Jacobi's article Jainism in E.R.E.. Much information may also be found in Mrs Stevenson's Heart of Jainism. Winternitz, Geschichte d. Indischen Literatur, vol. II. part II. (1920) treats of Jain literature but I have not been able to see it.

251

In J.R.A.S. 1917, pp. 122-130 s.v. Venkateśvara argues that Vardhamâna died about 437 B.C. and that the Nigaṇṭhas of the Pitakas were followers of Parśva. His arguments deserve consideration but he seems not to lay sufficient emphasis on the facts that (a) according to the Buddhist scriptures the Buddha and Gosâla were contemporaries, while according to the Jain scriptures Gosâla and Vardhamâna were contemporaries, (b) in the Buddhist scriptures Nâtaputta is the representative of the Nigaṇṭhas, while according to the Jain scriptures Vardhamâna was of the Ñata clan.

252

The atoms are either simple or compound and from their combinations are produced the four elements, earth, wind, fire and water, and the whole material universe. For a clear statement of the modern Jain doctrine about dharma and adharma, see Jagmanderlal Jaini, l.c. pp. 22 ff.

253

Jîva, ajîva, âsrava, bandha, saṃvara, nirjarâ, moksha. The principles are sometimes made nine by the addition of punya, merit, and pâpa, sin.

254

Paudgalikam karma. It would seem that all these ideas about Karma should be taken in a literal and material sense. Karma, which is a specially subtle form of matter able to enter, stain and weigh down the soul, is of eight kinds (1 and 2) jñâna- and darśana-varanîya impede knowledge and faith, which the soul naturally possesses; (3) mohanîya causes delusion; (4) vedanîya brings pleasure and pain; (5) ayushka fixes the length of life; (6) nâma furnishes individual characteristics, and (7) gotra generic; (8) antarâya hinders the development of good qualities.