The chief objects of worship (except for the influence of the sectarian religions) were priests, Manes, and, for form's sake, the Vedic gods. These gods, with the addition of the Hindu Plutus (Kubera, the god of riches), are now called the eight 'world-guardians,' viz., Indra, Yama, Varuna, Kubera, Agni, Sūrya, Vāyu, Soma, and are usually simple and shadowy subordinates of the greater new gods.

In the shifting of religious opinion and in the development of theological conceptions what difference can be traced between the same gods as worshipped in the Veda and as worshipped in the epic? Although the Vedic divinities have been twice superseded, once by the Father-god and again by the ātmā, Lord, they still remain adorable and adored, active in many ways, though passive before the great All-god. It is, indeed, extremely difficult, owing to the superstruction of sectarian belief, to get down to the foundation-religion of the epic. The best one can do is to see in what way the old gods differ, as represented in the poem, from their older selves of the Rig Veda. From this point of view alone, and entirely irrespective of the sects, manifold changes will be seen to have taken place. Great Soma is no more. Soma is there, the moon, but the glory of the Vedic Soma has departed. His lunar representative is of little importance. Agni, too, is changed. As Fire in the Rig Veda is not only the altar-fire, but also common, every-day fire, so, too, in the epic this god is the material flame, and as such even performs his greatest deeds for his worshippers. He takes on every form, even becoming a priest, and a dove. He remains the priest of the gods, but his day of action in war is over. He no longer wins battles. But he burns down a forest to aid his party. For the Vedic gods are now but weak partizans of the combatants. In the sectarian parts of the epic Agni is only a puppet. His new representative, Skanda, is the chief battle-god, a name almost unknown before. He himself is either the son of Vishnu or a form of Civa. He is the All-god, the ātmā. It is he who burns the world when the time shall have come for the general destruction.

The high and mighty Varuna of the Rig Veda is no longer great. He is no longer serene. He descends and fights on earth. Indra, too, battles with Vritra as of old, but he is quite anthropomorphic, and of no marked value in the contest of heroes. Not only this, but all the gods together are represented as weaker than a good hero, not to speak of a priestly ascetic. In a word, the gods are believed in, but with what a belief! They no longer, as natural powers, inspire special respect. Their nature-origin is for the most part lost. They are thoroughly anthropomorphic. Even Sūrya, the sun, in action if not in laudation, is often more man than god. This gives a strange effect to the epic battle-scenes as compared with those of Homer. Unless Vishnu is active on the field the action is essentially human. No great god or goddess stands ready to save the fainting warrior. He fights and falls alone. Save for the caresses and plaudits of the half-gods, the most that the Vedic gods can do is to wipe away the sweat from the hero's brow.[12] The All-god does not take the place of the band of watchful and helpful gods pictured by Homer. Vishnu fights on the field; he saves only his proteges, and much as a mortal warrior would do it. But the Vedic gods hang like a mist upon the edge of battle, and are all but idle spectators of the scene. Abstractions, as well as the All-god, have routed them, and Dharma or Duty is a greater god than Indra. But there is an older side to this, as we shall presently show. On the moral side the heroes of the epic profess great belief in the power and awfulness of this god Duty. And so far as go rules of chivalry, they are theoretically moral. Practically they are savage, and their religion does not interfere with their brutal barbarity. The tendency to cite divine instances of sin as excuse for committing it is, however, rebuked: "One should neither practice nor blame the (wrong) acts of gods and seers," xii. 292. 17-18.

From an eschatological point of view it is most difficult to get back of the statements made by the priestly composers,[13] who, in their various reeditings of the epic, uniformly have given the pantheistic goal as that in which the characters believe. But it is evident that the warriors were not much affected by this doctrine. To them there was one law of righteousness exceeding all others—to die on the field of battle. And for such as did so, over and over again is the assurance given that 'happiness in Indra's heaven' is their reward. And probably a true note is struck in this reiterated promise. To the mass of the vulgar, union with brahma would have been no attractive end.

It is interesting to see the remains of the older belief still flourishing in midst of epic pantheism. Although Indra has no such hymn as has Sūrya, yet is he still lauded, and he is a very real person to the knight who seeks his heaven.[14] In fact, so long as natural phenomena were regarded as divine, so long as thunder was godly, it was but a secondary question which name the god bore; whether he was the 'chief and king of gods,' or Vishnu manifesting himself in a special form. This form, at any rate, was to endure as such till the end of the cycle. There are other Indras. Each cycle has its own (i. 197. 29). But sufficient unto the age is the god thereof. If, relinquishing the higher bliss of absorption, the knight sought only Indra's heaven, and believed he was to find it, then his belief practically does not differ much from that of his ancestor, who accepts Indra as an ultimate, natural power. The question arises whether, after all, the Indra-worship of the epic is not rather popular than merely old and preserved. Certainly the reality of the belief seems quite as strong as that of the ever-newly converted sectary. It may be doubted whether the distribution of theological belief is very different in the epic and Vedic ages. Philosophical pantheism is very old in India. The priest believes one thing; the vulgar, another. The priest of the Vedic age, like the philosopher of the next age, and like the later sectarian, has a belief which runs ahead of the popular religion. But the popular religion in its salient features still remains about the same. Arjuna, the epic hero, the pet of Krishna, visits Indra's heaven and stays there five years. It is the old Vedic gods to whom he turns for weapons, till the Civaite makes Indra send the knight further, to Civa himself. The old name, king of the Vasus, is still retained for Indra; and though the 'divine weapons,' which are winged with sacred formulae, are said to be more than a match for the gods; though in many a passage the knight and the saint make Indra tremble, yet still appear, through the mists of ascetic and sectarian novelties, Indra's heaven and his grandeur, shining with something of their old glory. Vishnu still shows his solar origin. Of him and of the sun is it said in identical words: "The sun protects and devours all," and " Vishnu protects and devours " (of Vishnu, passim; of the sun, iii. 33. 71). A good deal of old stuff is left in the Forest Book amongst the absurd tales of holy watering places. One finds repeated several times the Vedic account of Indra's fight with Vritra, the former's thunderbolt, however, being now made of a saint's bones (ii. ch. 100-105). Agni is lauded (ib. ch. 123). To the Acvins[15] there is one old hymn which contains Vedic forms (i. 3). Varuna is still lord of the West, and goes accompanied with the rivers, 'male and female,' with snakes, and demons, and half-gods (dāityas, sādhyas, dāivatas). Later, but earlier than the pseudo-epic, there stands with these gods Kubera, the god of wealth, the 'jewel-giver,' who is the guardian of travellers, the king of those demons called Yakshas, which the later sect makes servants of Civa. He is variously named;[16] he is a dwarf; he dwells in the North, in Mt. Kāilāsa, and has a demoniac gate-keeper, Macakruka. Another newer god is the one already referred to, Dharma Vāivasvata, or Justice (Virtue, Right), the son of the sun, a title of Yama older than the Vedas. He is also the father of the new love-god, Kāma. It is necessary to indicate the names of the gods and their functions, lest one imagine that with pantheism the Vedic religion expired. Even that old, impious Brahmanic fable crops out again: "The devils were the older brothers of the gods, and were conquered by the gods only with trickery" (in. 33. 60), an interesting reminiscence of the fact that the later name for evil spirit was originally the one applied to the great and good spirit (Asura the same with Ahura).[17] According to a rather late chapter in the second book each of the great Vedic gods has a special paradise of his own, the most remarkable feature of the account being that Indra's heaven is filled with saints, having only one king in it—a view quite foreign to the teaching that is current elsewhere in the epic. Where the sectarian doctrine would oppose the old belief it set above Indra's heaven another, of Brahmā, and above that a third, of Vishnu (i. 89. 16 ff.). According to one passage Mt. Mandara[18] is a sort of Indian Olympus. Another account speaks of the Himālayas, Himavat, as 'the divine mountain, beloved of the gods,' though the knight goes thence to Gandhamādana, and thence to Indrakīla, to find the gods' habitat (III. 37. 41). Personified powers lie all around the religious Hindu. And this is especially true of the epic character. He prays to Mt. Mandara, and to rivers, above all to the Ganges. Mt. Kolāhala is divine, and begets divine offspring on a river (I. 63). The Vindhya range of mountains rivals the fabled Meru (around which course the sun and all the heavenly bodies), and this, too, is the object of devotion and prayer.[19] In one passage it is said that in Behār (Māgadha) there was a peak which was continuously 'worshipped with offerings of flowers and perfumes,' exactly as if it were a god. The reason why flowers are given and worn is that they bring good luck, it is said in the same chapter (II. 21. 15, 20, 51).

What is, perhaps, the most striking feature of Hindu religious thought, as a whole, is the steadfastness with which survive, even in the epic and in Buddhism, the forms and formulae of the older faith. At a time when pantheism or nihilism is the avowed creed the ancient gods still exist, weak, indeed, yet infused with a true immortality. This is noticeable even more in unnoticeable ways, in the turns of speech, in little comparisons, in the hymns, in short, in the by-play of the epic. 'Withered are the garlands of the gods, and their glory is departed,'[20] but they still receive homage in time of need. And in that homage is to be seen, and from the same cause, the revived or surviving worship of the Veda. Each god in turn is mighty, though Agni is the mightiest of the old divinities. In an epic hymn to him it is said: "Thou art the mouth of the worlds; the poets declare thee to be one and three-fold; as carrier of the sacrifice they arrange thee eight-fold. By thee was all created, say the highest seers. Priests that have made reverence to thee attain the eternal course their acts have won, together with their wives and sons. They call thee the water-giver in the air, together with lightning. On thee first depends water. Thou art the creator and Brihaspati, thou art the two Horsemen, the two Yamas, Mitra, Soma, Wind" (i. 229. 23 ff.).[21] And yet this is in a pantheistic environment! The Rig Veda is directly invoked, though, of course, not directly cited, in the old hymn to the Horsemen, who are, however, elsewhere put with low animals and Guhyakas, demons (i. 66).[22] They are the "physicians of the gods," the "first-born" the golden birds which weave the white and black of time, create the wheel of time with all its seasons, and make the sun and sky (i. 3. 55 ff., "vāgbhir ṛgbhis"). Indra himself is extolled in Kadrū's hymn; he is the slayer of Namuci, the lord of Cacī; he is the great cloud, cloud and its thunder, creator and destroyer; he is Vishnu, 'Soma, greatly praised,' as well as fire, air, time in all its divisions, earth and ocean; when lauded he drinks the soma, and he is sung in the Vedāngas (i. 25. 7 ff.). Praised with this hymn in time of need of rain, Indra "commanded the clouds, saying, 'rain down the ambrosia'" (26. 2); where there is still the rain as synonymous with ambrosia, and Indra not very differently conceived from his Vedic self. Thus in comparisons: "As Indra standing in heaven brings bliss to the world of the living, so Vidura ever brought bliss to the Pandus" (i. 61. 15). But at the same time what changes! The gods assemble and sing a hymn to Garuda, the epic form of Garutman, the heavenly bird, who here steals the soma vainly guarded by the gods. Garuda, too, is Prajāpati, Indra, and so forth.[23] The gods are no longer divinities distinct from the dead Fathers, for they are "identical in being." So Agni says when the latter is cursed by Bhrigu: "The divinities and the Manes are satisfied by the oblation in fire. The hosts of gods are waters, so, too, are the Manes. The feasts of the new and full moon belong to the gods with the Manes; hence the Manes are divinities and the divinities are Manes. They are of one being (ek[i]bhūtās). I (Fire) am the mouth of both, for both eat the oblation poured upon me. The Manes at the new moon, the gods at the full, are fed by my mouth" (i. 7. 7 ff.).[24] Such gods the epic hero fears not (i. 227. 38 ff.). Hymns to them are paralleled by hymns to snakes, as in i. 3. 134 ff., against whom is made the "sarpasattram (snake sacrifice) of the Purānas" (i. 51. 6). Divinity is universal. Knights are as divine as the divinest god, the All-god. Arjuna, the god-born man, to whom Krishna reveals the Divine Song, is himself god.[25] In this case whether god becomes human, or vice versa, no one knows.

Under the all embracing cloak of pantheism the heart of the epic conceals many an ancient rite and superstition. Here is the covenant of blood, the covenant of death (represented by the modern 'sitting'[26]), and the covenant of water, which symbolizes both friendship and the solemnity of the curse. The former are illustrated by Bhima's drinking blood as a sign that he will fulfil his vow,[27] and by Rāma lying by Ocean to die unless Ocean grants his wish. Of the water-rite that of offering water in hospitality and as a form in reception of gifts is general; that of cursing by 'touching water' (vāry upaspṛcya), occurs in iii. 10. 32. For this purpose holy-grass and other symbols are known also,[28] and formulae yield only in potency to love-philters and magic drugs. Another covenant besides those just noticed seems to lie concealed in the avoidance of the door when injury is intended. If one goes in by the door he is a guest who has anticipated hospitality, and then he dares not refuse the respect and offering of water, etc, which makes the formal pact of friendship. If, on the contrary, he does not go in by the door he is not obliged to receive the offering, and may remain as a foe in the house (or in the city) of his enemy, with intent to kill, but without moral wrong. This may be implied in the end of the epic, where Acvatthāman, intent on secret murder of his foe, is prevented by god Civa from entering in at the gate, but going in by stealth, and 'not by the door' of the camp, gets to his foe, who lies asleep, and kills him (x. 8. 10). This might be thought, indeed, to be merely strategic, but it is in accordance with the strict law of all the law-books that one, in ordinary circumstances, shall avoid to enter a town or a house in any other way than through the door (Manu, iv. 73; Gaut. 9. 32, etc.), and we think it has a moral significance, for this a-dvāra (non-door) rule occurs again in the epic in just the circumstances we have described. The heroes in this case are not afraid of their foe, who is in his town. They insult every one as they approach, but they find some other way of getting in than by passing through the gate, for the express purpose of being morally able to make the king fight with them after they have entered his city. And they cite the rule 'according to law,' which is that one may enter his foe's house by a-dvāra, 'not by door,' but his friend's house only 'by door.' As they have not entered 'by door' they say they may refuse the hospitality which the king urges them to accept, and so they kill him (ii. 21. 14, 53). Stepping in through the door seems, therefore, to be a tacit agreement that one will not injure the resident.[29]

In the epic, again, fetishism is found. The student of the 'science of war,' in order to obtain his teacher's knowledge when the latter is away, makes a clay image of the preceptor and worships this clay idol, practicing arms before it (i. 132. 33). Here too is embalmed the belief that man's life may be bound up with that of some inanimate thing, and the man perishes with the destruction of his psychic prototype (iii. 135). The old ordeals of fire and water are recognized. "Fire does not burn the house of good men." "If (as this man asserts) he is Varuna's son, then let him enter water and let us see if he will drown" (iii. 134. 27 ff.). A human sacrifice is performed (iii. 127); although the priest who performs it is cast into hell (ib. 128).[30] The teaching in regard to hells is about the same with that already explained in connection with the law-books, but the more definite physical interpretation of hell as a hole in the ground (garta, just as in the Rig Veda) is retained. Agastya sees his ancestors 'in a hole,' which they call 'a hell' (nīrayā). This is evidently the hell known to the law-punsters and epic (i. 74. 39) as puttra, 'the put hell' from which the son (putra) delivers (tra). For these ancestors are in the 'hole' because Agastya, their descendant, has not done his duty and begotten sons (i. 45. 13; iii. 96. 15); one son being 'no son' according to law and epic (i. 100. 68), and all the merit of sacrifice being equal to only one-sixteenth of that obtained by having a son. The teaching, again, in regard to the Fathers themselves (the Manes), while not differing materially from the older view, offers novelties which show how little the absorption-theory had taken hold of the religious consciousness. The very fact that the son is still considered to be as necessary as ever (that he may offer food to his ancestors) shows that the believer, whatever his professed faith, expects to depend for bliss hereafter upon his post mortem meals, as much as did his fathers upon theirs. In the matter of the burial of the dead, one finds, what is antique, that although according to the formal law only infants are buried, and adults are burned, yet was burial known, as in the Vedic age. And the still older exposure of the body, after the Iranian fashion, is not only hinted at as occurring here and there even before the epic, but in the epic these forms are all recognized as equally approved: "When a man dies he is burned or buried or exposed" (nikṛṣyate)[31] it is said in i. 90. 17; and the narrator goes on to explain that the "hell on earth," of which the auditor "has never heard" (vs. 6) is re-birth in low bodies, speaking of it as a new doctrine. "As if in a dream remaining conscious the spirit enters another form"; the bad becoming insects and worms; the good going to heaven by means of the "seven gates," viz., penance, liberality, quietism, self-control, modesty, rectitude, and mercy. This is a union of two views, and it is evidently the popular view, that, namely, the good go to heaven while the bad go to new existence in a low form, as opposed to the more logical conception that both alike enter new forms, one good, the other bad. Then the established stadia, the pupil, the old teaching (upanishad) of the householders, and the wood-dwellers are described, with the remark that there is no uniformity of opinion in regard to them; but the ancient view crops out again in the statement that one who dies as a forest-hermit "establishes in bliss" ten ancestors and ten descendants. In this part of the epic the Punjāb is still near the theatre of events, the 'centre region' being between the Ganges and Jumna (I. 87. 5); although the later additions to the poems show acquaintance with all countries, known and unknown, and with peoples from all the world. Significant in xii. 61. 1, 2 is the name of the third order bhāikshyacaryam 'beggarhood' (before the forest-hermit and after the householder).

It was said above that the departed Fathers could assume a mortal form. In the formal classification of these demigods seven kinds of Manes are enumerated, the title of one subdivision being 'those embodied.' Brahmā is identified with the Father-god in connection with the Manes: "All the Manes worship Prajāpati Brahmā," in the paradise of Prajāpati, where, by the way, are Civa and Vishnu (II. 11. 45, 50, 52; 8. 30). According to this description 'kings and sinners,' together with the Manes, are found in Yama's home, as well as "those that die at the solstice" (II. 7 ff.; 8. 31). Constantly the reader is impressed with the fact that the characters of the epic are acting and thinking in a way not conformable to the idea one might form of the Hindu from the law. We have animadverted upon this point elsewhere in connection with another matter. It is this factor that makes the study of the epic so invaluable as an offset to the verisimilitude of belief, even as belief is taught (not practiced) in the law. There is a very old rule, for instance, against slaughtering animals and eating meat; while to eat beef is a monstrous crime. Yet is it plain from the epic that meat-eating was customary, and Vedic texts are cited ( iti crutis) to prove that this is permissible; while a king is extolled for slaughtering cattle (III. 208. 6-11). It is said out and out in iii. 313. 86 that 'beef is food,' gāur annam. Deer are constantly eaten. There is an amusing protest against this practice, which was felt to be irreconcilable with the ahimsā (non-injury) doctrine, in III. 258, where the remnant of deer left in the forest come in a vision and beg to be spared. A dispute between gods and seers over vegetable sacrifices is recorded, XII. 338. Again, asceticism is not the duty of a warrior, but the epic hero practices asceticism exactly as if he were a priest, or a Jain, although the warning is given that a warrior 'obtains a better lot' (loka) by dying in battle than by asceticism. The asceticism is, of course, exaggerated, but an instance or two of what the Hindu expects in this regard may not be without interest. The warrior who becomes an ascetic eats leaves, and is clothed in grass. For one month he eats fruits every third day (night); for another month every sixth day; for another month every fortnight; and for the fourth month he lives on air, standing on tiptoe with arms stretched up. Another account says that the knight eats fruit for one month; water for one month; and for the third month, nothing (III. 33. 73; 38. 22-26; 167). One may compare with these ascetic practices, which are not so exaggerated, in fact, as might be supposed,[32] the 'one-leg' practice of virtue, consisting in standing on one leg, ekapādena, for six months or longer, as one is able (I. 170. 46; III. 12. 13-16). Since learning the Vedas is a tiresome task, and ascetic practice makes it possible to acquire anything, one is not surprised to find that a devotee undertakes penance with this in view, and is only surprised when Indra, who, to be sure has a personal interest in the Vedas, breaks in on the scene and rebukes the ascetic with the words: "Asceticism cannot teach the Vedas; go and be tutored by a teacher" (III. 135. 22).

One finds in the epic the old belief that the stars are the souls of the departed,[33] and this occurs so often that it is another sign of the comparative newness of the pantheistic doctrine. When the hero, Arjuna, goes to heaven he approaches the stars, "which seen from earth look small on account of their distance," and finds them to be self-luminous refulgent saints, royal seers, and heroes slain in battle, some of them also being nymphs and celestial singers. All of this is in contradiction both to the older and to the newer systems of eschatology; but it is an ancient belief, and therefore it is preserved. Indra's heaven,[34] Amarāvati, lies above these stars[35]] No less than five distinct beliefs are thus enunciated in regard to the fate of 'good men after death. If they believe in the All-god they unite with him at once. Or they have a higher course, becoming gradually more elevated, as gods, etc, and ultimately 'enter' the All-god. Again they go to the world of Brahmā. Again they go to Indra's heaven. Again they become stars. The two last beliefs are the oldest, the brahmaloka belief is the next in order of time, and the first-mentioned are the latest to be adopted. The hero of the epic just walks up to heaven, but his case is exceptional.

While angels and spirits swarm about the world in every shape from mischievous or helpful fairies to Rāhu, whose head still swallows the sun, causing eclipses (I. 19. 9), there are a few that are especially conspicuous. Chief of the good spirits, attendants of Indra, are the Siddhas[36] 'saints,' who occasionally appear to bless a hero in conjunction with 'beings invisible' (III. 37. 21). Their name means literally 'blessed' or 'successful,' and probably, like the seers, Rishis, they are the departed fathers in spiritual form. These latter form various classes. There are not only the 'great seers,' and the still greater 'brahma-seers,' and the 'god-seers,' but there are even 'devil-seers,' and 'king-seers,' these being spirits of priests of royal lineages.[37] The evil spirits, like the gods, are sometimes grouped in threes. In a blessing one cries out: "Farewell (svasti gacchahy anāmayam); I entreat the Vasus, Rudras, Ādityas, Marut-hosts and the All-gods to protect thee, together with the Sādhyas; safety be to thee from all the evil beings that live in air, earth, and heaven, and from all others that dog thy path."[38] In XII. 166. 61 ff. the devils fall to earth, mountains, water, and other places. According to I. 19. 29. it is not long since the Asuras were driven to take refuge in earth and salt water.[39]

These creatures have every kind of miraculous power, whether they be good or bad. Hanuman, famed in both epics, the divine monkey, with whom is associated the divine 'king of bears' Jāmbavan (III. 280. 23), can grow greater than mortal eye can see (III. 150. 9). He is still worshipped as a great god in South India. As an illustration of epic spiritism the case of Ilvala may be taken. This devil, dāiteya, had a trick of cooking his embodied younger brother, and giving him to saints to eat. One saint, supposing the flesh to be mutton (here is saintly meat-eating!), devours the dainty viand; upon which the devil 'calls' his brother, who is obliged to come, whether eaten or not, and in coming bursts the saint that has eaten him (iii. 96). This is folk-lore; but what religion does not folk-lore contain! So, personified Fate holds its own as an inscrutable power, mightier than others.[40] There is another touch of primitive religious feeling which reminds one of the usage in Iceland, where, if a stranger knocks at the door and the one within asks 'who is there?' the guest answers, 'God.' So in the epic it is said that 'every guest is god Indra' (Parjanyo nnānusaṁcaran, iii. 200. 123. In the epic Parjanya, the rain-god, and Indra are the same). Of popular old tales of religious bearing may be mentioned the retention and elaboration of the Brahmanic deluge-story, with Manu as Noah (iii. 187); the Acvins' feats in rejuvenating (iii. 123); the combats of the gods with the demons (Namuci, Cambara, Vala, Vritra, Prahlāda, Naraka), etc. (iii. 168).

Turning now to some of the newer traits in the epic, one notices first that, while the old sacrifices still obtain, especially the horse-sacrifice, the rājasūya and the less meritorious vājapeya, together with the monthly and seasonal sacrifices, there is in practice a leaning rather to new sacrifices, and a new cult. The soma is scarce, and the pūtika plant is accepted as its substitute (iii. 35. 33) in a matter-of-course way, as if this substitution, permitted of old by law, were now common. The sacrifice of the widow is recognized, in the case of the wives of kings, as a means of obtaining bliss for a woman,[41] for the religion of the epic is not entirely careless of woman. Somewhat new, however, is the self-immolation of a man upon the pyre of his son. Such a case is recorded in iii. 137. 19. where a father burns his son's body, and then himself enters the fire. New also, of course, are the sectarian festivals and sacrifices; and pronounced is the gain in the godhead of priests, king, parents, elder brother, and husband. The priest has long been regarded as a god, but in the epic he is god of gods, although one can trace even here a growth in adulation.[42] The king, too, has been identified before this period with the gods. But in the epic he is to his people an absolute divinity,[43] and so are the parents to the son;[44] while, since the elder brother is the same with a father, when the father is dead the younger brother worships the elder. So also the wife's god is her husband; for higher even than that of the priest is the husband's divinity (III. 206). The wife's religious service is not concerned with feasts to the Manes, with sacrifice to the gods, nor with studying the Veda. In all these she has no part. Her religion is to serve her husband (III. 205. 23), and to die, if worthy of the honor, on his funeral pyre. Otherwise the epic woman has religious practices only in visiting the holy watering-places, which now abound, and in reading the epic itself. For it is said of both practices: "Whether man or woman read this book (or 'visit this holy pool') he or she is freed from sin" (so in III. 82. 33: "Every sin committed since birth by man or woman is absolved by bathing in 'holy Pushkara"). It may be remarked that as a general thing the deities invoked by women are, by predilection, female divinities, some of them being mere abstractions, while 'the Creator' is often the only god in the woman's list, except, of course, the priests: "Reverence to priests, and to the Creator ... May Hrī, Crī (Modesty and Beauty), Fame, Glory, Prosperity, Umā (Civa's wife), Lakshmi (Vishnu's wife), and also Sarasvatī, (may all these female divinities) guard thy path, because thou reverest thy elder brother," is a woman's prayer (III. 37. 26-33).[45]

Of the sectarian cults just mentioned the brahmamaha, I. 164. 20, elsewhere referred to, is the all-caste[46] feast in honor of Brahmā (or of the Brahmans); as ib. 143. 3 one finds a samāja in honor of Civa; and distinctly in honor of the same god of horror is the sacrifice, i.e., immolation, of one hundred kings, who are collected "in the temple of Civa," to be slaughtered like cattle in Māgadha (II. 15. 23); an act which the heroes of the epic prevent, and look upon with scorn.[47] As a substitute for the rājasūya, which may be connected with the human sacrifice (Ind. Streifen, I. 61), but is the best sacrifice because it has the best largesse (III. 255. 12), the Vaishnava is suggested to Duryodhana. It is a great sattram or long sacrifice to Vishnu (ib. 15 and 19); longer than a Vishnuprabodha (26 Oct.). There is a Smriti rite described in III. 198. 13 as a svastivācanam, a ceremony to obtain a heavenly chariot which brings prosperity, the priests being invoked for blessings (svasti). Quite modern, comparatively speaking, is the cult of holy pools; but it is to be observed that the blessings expected are rarely more than the acquirement of brahma-worlds, so that the institution seems to be at least older than the sectarian religions, although naturally among the holy pools is intruded a Vishnu-pool. This religious rite cannot be passed over in silence. The custom is late Brahmanic (as above), and still survives. It has been an aspect of Hindu religion for centuries, not only in the view taken of the pools, but even occasionally in the place itself. Thus the Ganges, Gayā, Prayāga, and Kuru-Plain are to-day most holy, and they are mentioned as among the holiest in the epic catalogue.[48] Soma is now revamped by a bath in a holy pool (IX. 35. 75). As in every antithesis of act and thought there are not lacking passages in the epic which decry the pools in comparison with holy life as a means of salvation. Thus in III. 82. 9 ff., the poet says: "The fruit of pilgrimage (to holy pools)—he whose hands, feet, and mind are controlled;[49] he who has knowledge, asceticism, and fame, he gets all the fruit that holy pools can give. If one is averse from receiving gifts, content, freed from egoism, if one injures not, and acts disinterestedly, if one is not gluttonous, or carnal-minded, he is freed from sin. Let one (not bathe in pools but) be without wrath, truthful, firm in his vows, seeing his self in all beings." This is, however, a protest little heeded.[50] Pilgrimage is made to pool and plain, to mountain, tree, and river. Even then, as now, of all pilgrimages that to Ganges was most esteemed: "Originally all were holy; in the second age Pushkara[51] was holy; in the third age the Plain of the Kurus was holy; and in this age Ganges is holy" (III. 85. 90).[52] Besides Ganges, the Plain of the Kurus and Prayāga, the junction of Ganges and Jumna, get the highest laudation. Other rivers, such as the Gomal and Sarasvatī, are also extolled, and the list is very long of places which to see or to bathe in releases from sin. "He who bathes in Ganges purifies seven descendants.[53] As long as the bones of a man touch Ganges-water so long that man is magnified in heaven." Again: "No place of pilgrimage is better than Ganges; no god is better than Vishnu; nothing is better than brahma—so said the sire of the gods" (iii. 85. 94-96). The very dust of Kuru-Plain makes one holy, the sight of it purifies; he that lives south of the Sarasvatī, north of the Drishadvatī (i.e., in Kuru-Plain), he lives in the third heaven (iii. 83. 1-3=203-205[54]). This sort of expiation for sin is implied in a more general way by the remark that there are three kinds of purity, one of speech, one of act, and one of water (iii. 200. 82). But in the epic there is still another means of expiating sin, one that is indicated in the Brahmanic rule that if a woman is an adulteress she destroys half her sin by confessing it (as above), where, however, repentance is rather implied than commanded. But in the epic Purāna it is distinctly stated as a Cruti, or trite saying, that if one repents he is freed from his sin; na tat kuryām punar is the formula he must use, 'I will not do so again,' and then he is released from even the sin that he is going to commit a second time, as if by a ceremony—so is the Cruti in the laws, dharmas (iii. 207. 51, 52).[55] Confession to the family priest is enjoined, in xii. 268. 14, to escape punishment.

Two other religious practices in the epic are noteworthy. The first is the extension of idolatry in pictures. The amiable 'goddess of the house' is represented, to be sure, as a Rākshasī, or demoniac power, whose name is Jarā. But she was created by the Self-existent, and is really very friendly, under certain conditions: "Whoever delineates me with faith in his house, he increases in children; otherwise he would be destroyed." She is worshipped, i.e., her painted image is worshipped, with perfumes, flowers, incense, food, and other enjoyable things (II. 18).[56] Another practice that is very common is the worship of holy trees. One may compare the banyan at Bodhi Gayā with the 'worshipful' village-tree of II. 24. 23. Seldom and late is the use of a rosary mentioned (e.g., III. 112. 5, akshamālā, elsewhere aksha), although the word is employed to make an epithet of Civa, Akshamālin.[57]

As has been said already, an extraordinary power is ascribed to the mere repetition of a holy text, mantra. These are applied on all occasions without the slightest reference to the subject. By means of mantra one exorcises; recovers weapons; calls gods and demons, etc.[58] When misfortune or disease arrives it is invariably ascribed to the malignant action of a devil, although the karma teaching should suggest that it was the result of a former misdeed on the victim's part. But the very iteration, the insistence on new explanations of this doctrine, show that the popular mind still clung to the old idea of demoniac interference. Occasionally the naivete with which the effect of a mantra is narrated is somewhat amusing, as, for instance, when the heroine Krishnā faints, and the by-standers "slowly" revive her "by the use of demon-dispelling mantras, rubbing, water, and fanning" (iii. 144. 17). All the weapons of the heroes are inspired with and impelled by mantras.

Sufficient insight into the formal rules of morality has been given in the extracts above, nor does the epic in this regard differ much from the law-books. Every man's first duty is to act; inactivity is sinful. The man that fails to win a good reputation by his acts, a warrior, for example, that is devoid of fame, a 'man of no account,' is a bhūmivardhana, [Greek: achthos aroures] a cumberer of earth (iii. 35. 7). A proverb says that man should seek virtue, gain, and pleasure; "virtue in the morning; gain at noon; pleasure at night," or, according to another version, "pleasure when young, gain in middle-age, and virtue in the end of life" (iii. 33. 40, 41). "Virtue is better than immortality and life. Kingdom, sons, glory, wealth, all this does not equal one-sixteenth part of the value of truth" (ib. 34. 22).[59] One very strong summing up of a discourse on virtuous behavior ends thus: "Truth, self-control, asceticism, generosity, non-injury, constancy in virtue—these are the means of success, not caste nor family" (jāti, kula, iii. 181. 42).

A doctrine practiced, if not preached, is that of blood-revenge. "The unavenged shed tears, which are wiped away by the avenger" (iii. 11. 66); and in accordance with this feeling is the statement: "I shall satiate my brother with his murderer's blood, and thus, becoming free of debt in respect of my brother, I shall win the highest place in heaven" (ib. 34, 35).

As of old, despite the new faith, as a matter of priestly, formal belief, all depends on the sacrifice: "Law comes from usage; in law are the Vedas established; by means of the Vedas arise sacrifices; by sacrifice are the gods established; according to the rule of Vedas, and usage, sacrifices being performed support the divinities, just as the rules of Brihaspati and Ucanas support men" (iii. 150. 28, 29). The pernicious doctrine of atonement for sin follows as a matter of course: "Whatever sin a king commits in conquering the earth is atoned for by sacrifices, if they are accompanied with large gifts to priests, such as cows and villages." Even gifts to a sacred bull have the same effect (iii. 33. 78, 79; ib. 35. 34; iii. 2. 57), the occasion in hand being a king's violation of his oath.[60] Of these sacrifices a great snake-sacrifice forms the occasion for narrating the whole epic, the plot of which turns on the national vice of gambling.[61] For divine snakes are now even grouped with other celestial powers, disputing the victory of earthly combatants as do Indra and Sūrya: "The great snakes were on Arjuna's side; the little snakes were for Karna" (viii. 87. 44, 45).[62] They were (perhaps) the local gods of the Nagas (Snakes), a tribe living between the Ganges and Jumna.

The religion of the epic is multiform. But it stands, in a certain sense, as one religion, and from two points of view it is worthy of special regard. One may look upon it either as the summing up of Brahmanism in the new Hinduism, as the final expression of a religion which forgets nothing and absorbs everything; or one may study it as a belief composed of historical strata, endeavoring to divide it into its different layers, as they have been super-imposed one upon another in the course of ages. From the latter point of view the Vedic divinities claim the attention first. There are still traces of the original power of Agni and Sūrya, as we have shown, and Wind still makes with these two a notable triad,[63] whereas Indra, impotent as he is, hymnless as he is,—save in the oldest portions of the work,—still leads the gods, now godkins, of the ancient pantheon, and still, in theory, at least, off a paradise to the knight that dies nobly on the field.[64] But one sees at once that the preservation of the dignity of these deities is due to different causes. Indra cannot even save a snake that grasps his hand for safety; he wages war against the demons' 'triple town,' and signally fails of his purpose, for the demons are as strong as the gods, and there are Dānavendras as well as Dānavarshis.[65] But Indra is the figure-head of the whole ancient pantheon, and for this reason he plays so constant, if so weak, a role, in the epic. The only important thing in connection with him is his heaven. As an individual deity Indra lives, on the whole, only in the tales of old, for example, in that of his cheating Namuci (ix. 43. 32 ff.). Nothing new and clever is told of him which would indicate power, only a new trick or two, as when he steals from Karna. It is quite otherwise with Agni and Sūrya. They are not so vaguely identified with the one god as is 'Indra and the other Vasus.' It is merely because these gods are prominently forms of Vishnu that they are honored with hymns in the epic. This is seen from the nature of the hymns, and also from the fact that it is either as fire or as sun that Vishnu destroys at the end of the aeons. For it is, perhaps, somewhat daring to say, and yet it seems to be the fact, that the solar origin of Vishnu is not lost sight of.

The pantheistic Vishnu is the ātmā, and Vishnu, after all, is but a form of fire. Therefore is it that the epic Vishnu is perpetually lapsing into fire; while fire and sun are doubly honored as special forms of the highest. It is, then, not so much on account of a survival of ancient dignity[66] that sun and fire stand so high, but rather because they are the nearest approach to the effulgence of the Supreme. Thus while in one place one is told that after seven suns have appeared the supreme gods become the fire of destruction and complete the ruin, in another he reads that it is the sun alone which, becoming twelvefold, does all the work of the Supreme.[67]

Indra has hymns and sacrifices, but although he has no so exalted hymn as comes to his 'friend Agni,' yet (in an isolated passage) he has a new feast and celebration, the account of which apparently belongs to the first period of the epic, when the worship of Indra still had significance. In i. 63, an Indramaha, or 'glorification of Indra,' is described a festivity extending over two days, and marked by the erection of a pole in honor of the god—a ceremony which 'even to-day,' it is said, is practiced.[68] The old tales of the fire-cult are retold, and new rites are known.[69] Thus in iii. 251. 20 ff., Prince Duryodhana resolves to starve to death (oblivious of the rule that 'a suicide goes to hell'), and since this is a religious ceremony, he clothes himself in old clothes and holy-grass, 'touches water,' and devotes himself with intense application to heaven. Then the devils of Rudra called Dāiteyas and Dānavas, who live underground ever since they were conquered by the gods, aided by priests, make a fire-rite, and with mantras "declared by Brihaspati and Ucanas, and proclaimed in the Atharva-Veda," raise a ghost or spirit, who is ordered to fetch Duryodhana to hell, which she immediately does.[70] The frequent connection of Brihaspati with the Atharva-Veda is of interest (above, p. 159). He is quite a venerable, if not wholly orthodox, author in the epic, and his 'rules' are often cited.[71]

That Vedic deity who, alone of pre-Vedic powers, still holds his proud place, Yama, the king of departed spirits, varies in the epic according to the period represented. In old tales he is still quite Vedic in character; he takes the dead man's soul off to his own realm. But, of course, as pantheism prevails, and eschatology becomes confused, Yama passes into a shadow, and at most is a bugbear for the wicked. Even his companions are stolen from another realm, and one hears now of "King Yama with his Rudras" (III. 237. 11),[72] while it is only the bad[73] that go to Yama (III. 200. 24), in popular belief, although this view, itself old, relapses occasionally into one still older, in accordance with which (ib. 49) all the world is hounded on by Yama's messengers, and comes to his abode. His home[74] in the south is now located as being at a distance of 86,000 leagues over a terrible road, on which passes a procession of wretched or happy mortals, even as they have behaved during life; for example, if one has generously given an umbrella during life he will have an umbrella on this journey, etc. The river in Yama's abode is called Pushpodaka, and what each drinks out of it is according to what he deserves to drink, cool water or filth (ib. 46, 58).[75] In the various descriptions it is not strange to find discordant views even in portions belonging approximately to the same period. Thus in contradistinction to the prevailing view one reads of Indra himself that he is Yamasya netā Namucecca hantā 'Yama's leader, Namuci's slayer' (iii. 25. 10.), i.e., those that die in battle go to Yama.

On the other hand, in the later speculative portions, Yama is not death. "Yama is not death, as some think; he is one that gives bliss to the good, and woe to the bad."[76] Death and life are foolishness and lack of folly, respectively (literally, 'non-folly is non-mortality'), while folly and mortality are counter opposites. In pantheistic teaching there is, of course, no real death, only change. But death is a female power, personified, and sharply distinguished from Yama. Death as a means of change thus remains, while Yama is relegated to the guardianship of hell. The difference in regard to the latter subject, between earlier and later views, has been noted above. One comparatively early passage attempts to arrange the incongruous beliefs in regard to samsāra (re-birth) and hell on a sort of sliding scale, thus: "One that does good gets in the next life a good birth; one that does ill gets an ill birth"; more particularly: "By good acts one attains to the state of gods; by 'mixed' acts, to the state of man; by acts due to confusion of mind, to the state of animals and plants (viyonīṣu); by sinful acts one goes to hell" (adhogāmi, iii. 209. 29-32).[77] Virtue must have been, as the epic often declares it to be, a 'subtile matter,' for often a tale is told to illustrate the fact that one goes to hell for doing what he thinks (mistakenly) to be right. Thus Kāucika is sent to hell for speaking the truth, whereas he ought to have lied to save life (viii. 69. 53), for he was "ignorant of virtue's subtilty."[78] A passage (i. 74. 27 ff.) that is reflected in Manu (viii. 85-86) says that Yama Vāivasvata takes away the sin of him with whom is satisfied "the one that witnesses the act, that stands in the heart, that knows the ground"; but Yama tortures him with whom this one (personified conscience) is dissatisfied. For "truth is equal to a thousand horse-sacrifices; truth is highest brahma" (ib. 103, 106).

Following downward the course of religious development, as reflected in the epic, one next finds traces of Brahmanic theology not only in the few passages where (Brahmā) Prajāpati remains untouched by sectarianism, but also in the harking back to old formulae. Thus the insistence on the Brahmanical sacredness of the number seventeen is preserved (xii. 269. 26; iii. 210. 20, etc); and Upanishadic is the "food is Prajāpati" of iii. 200. 38 (Yama in 40). There is an interesting rehabilitation of the primitive idea of the Acvins in the new ascription of formal divinity to the (personified) Twilights (Sandhyā) in iii. 200. 83, although this whole passage is more Puranic than epic. From the same source is the doctrine that the fruit of action expires at the end of one hundred thousand kalpas (ib. vs. 121). One of the oddest religious freaks in the epic is the sudden exaltation of the Ribhus, the Vedic (season-gods) artisans, to the position of highest gods. In that heaven of Brahmā, which is above the Vedic gods' heaven, there are the holy seers and the Ribhus, 'the divinities of the gods'; who do not change with the change of kalpas (as do other Vedic gods), III. 261. 19-23. One might almost imagine that their threefoldness was causative of a trinitarian identification with a supreme triad; but no, for still higher is the 'heaven of Vishnu' (vs. 37). The contrast is marked between this and Āit. Br. III. 30, where the Ribhus with some difficulty obtain the right to drink soma.

There is an aspect of the epic religion upon which it is necessary to touch before treating of the sectarian development. In the early philosophical period wise priests meet together to discuss theological and philosophical questions, often aided, and often brought to grief, by the wit of women disputants, who are freely admitted to hear and share in the discussion. When, however, pantheism, nay, even Vishnuism, or still more, Krishnaism, was an accepted fact upon what, then, was the wisdom of the priest expended? Apart from the epic, the best intellects of the day were occupied in researches, codifying laws, and solving, in rather dogmatic fashion, philosophical (theological) problems. The epic presents pictures of scenes which seem to be a reflection from an earlier day. But one sees often that the wisdom is commonplace, or even silly. In dialectics a sophistical subtlety is shown; in codifying moral rules, a tedious triteness; in amoebic passes of wit there are astounding exhibitions, in which the good scholiast sees treasures of wisdom, where a modern is obliged to take them in their literal dulness. Thus in III. 132. 18, a boy of twelve or ten (133. 16), who is divinely precocious, defeats the wise men in disputation at a sacrifice, and in the following section (134. 7 ff.) silences a disputant who is regarded as one of the cleverest priests. The conversation is recorded in full. In what does it consist? The opponent mentions a number of things which are one; the boy replies with a verse that gives pairs of things; the other mentions triads; the child cites groups of fours, etc., until the opponent, having cited only one half-verse of thirteens, can remember no more and stops, on which the child completes the verse, and is declared winner. The conundrums which precede must have been considered very witty, for they are repeated elsewhere: What is that wheel which has twelve parts and three hundred and sixty spokes, etc.? Year. What does not close its eye when asleep, what does not move when it is born, what has no heart, what increases by moving? These questions form one-half verse. The next half-verse gives the answers in order: fish, egg, stone, river. This wisdom in the form of puzzles and answers, brahmodya, is very old, and goes back to the Vedic period. Another good case in the epic is the demon Yaksha and the captured king, who is not freed till he answers certain questions correctly.[79] But although a certain amount of theologic lore may be gleaned from these questions, yet is it of greater interest to see how the priests discussed when left quietly to their own devices. And a very natural description of such a scene is extant. The priests "having some leisure"[80] or vacation from their labors in the king's house, sit down to argue, and the poet calls their discussion vitaṇḍā, i.e., tricky sophistical argumentation, the description bearing out the justness of the phrase: "One cried, 'that is so,' and the other, 'it is not so'; one cried, 'and that is so,' and the other, 'it must be so'; and some by arguments made weak arguments strong, and strong weak; while some wise ones were always swooping down on their opponent's arguments, like hawks on meat."[81] In III. 2. 15, the type of clever priest is 'skilled in Yoga and Sāṅkhya,' who inculcates renunciation. This sage teaches that mental diseases are cured by Yoga; bodily, by medicine; and that desire is the root of ill.

But by far the most interesting theological discussion in the epic, if one except the Divine Song, is the conversation of the hero and heroine in regard to the cause of earthly happiness. This discussion is an old passage of the epic. The very fact that a woman is the disputant gives an archaic effect to the narration, and reminds one of the scenes in the Upanishads, where learned women cope successfully with men in displays of theological acumen. Furthermore, the theological position taken, the absence of Vishnuism, the appeal to the 'Creator' as the highest Power, take one back to a former age. The doctrine of special grace, which crops out in the Upanishads,[82] here receives its exposure by a sudden claim that the converse of the theory must also be true, viz., that to those not saved by grace and election God is as cruel as He is kind to the elect. The situation is as follows: The king and queen have been basely robbed of their kingdom, and are in exile. The queen urges the king to break the vow of exile that has been forced from him, and to take vengeance on their oppressors. The king, in reply, sings a song of forgiveness: "Forgiveness is virtue, sacrifice, Veda; forgiveness is holiness and truth; in the world of Brahmā are the mansions of them that forgive." This song (III. 29. 36 ff.) only irritates the queen, who at once launches into the following interesting tirade (30. 1 ff.): "Reverence to the Creator and Disposer[83] who have confused thy mind! Hast thou not worshipped with salutation and honored the priests, gods, and manes? Hast thou not made horse-sacrifices, the rājasūya-sacrifice, sacrifices of every sort (puṇḍarika,[84] gosava)? Yet art thou in this miserable plight! Verily is it an old story (itihāsa) that 'the worlds stand under the Lord's will.' Following the seed God gives good or ill in the case of all beings. Men are all moved by the divinity. Like a wooden doll, moving its limbs in the hands of a man, so do all creatures move in the Creator's hands. Man is like a bird on a string, like a bead on a cord. As a bull is led by the nose, so man follows the will of the Creator; he never is a creature of free will (ātmādhina). Every man goes to heaven or to hell, as he is sent by the Lord's will. God himself, occupied with noble or with wicked acts, moves about among all created things, an unknown power (not known as 'this one'). The blessed God, who is self-created, the great forefather (prapitāmaha), plays with his creatures just as a boy plays with toys, putting them together and destroying them as he chooses. Not like a father is God to His creatures; He acts in anger. When I see the good distressed, the ignoble happy, I blame the Creator who permits this inequality. What reward does God get that he sends happiness to this sinful man (thy oppressor)? If it be true that only the individual that does the act is pursued by the fruit of that act (karma doctrine) then the Lord who has done this act is defiled by this base act of His. If, on the other hand, the act that one has done does not pursue and overtake the one that has done it, then the only agency on earth is brute force (this is the only power to be respected)—and I grieve for them that are without it!"

To this plea, which in its acknowledgment of the Creator as the highest god, no less than in its doubtful admission of the karma doctrine, is of peculiar interest, the king replies with a refutation no less worthy of regard: "Thy argument is good, clear and smooth, but it is heterodox (nāstikyam). I have sacrificed and practiced virtue not for the sake of reward, but because it was right. I give what I ought to give, and sacrifice as I should. That is my only idea in connection with religious observances. There is no virtue in trying to milk virtue. Do not doubt. Do not be suspicious of virtue. He that doubts God or duty goes to hell (confusion), but he that does his duty and is free from doubt goes to heaven (becomes immortal). Doubt not scriptural authority. Duty is the saving ship. No other gets to heaven. Blame not the Lord Creator, who is the highest god. Through His grace the faithful gets immortality. If religious observances were without fruit the universe would go to destruction. People would not have been good for so many ages if there had been no reward for it. This is a mystery of the gods. The gods are full of mystery and illusion."

The queen, for all the world like that wise woman in the Upanishads, whose argument, as we showed in a preceding chapter, is cut short not by counter-argument, but by the threat that if she ask too much her head will fall off, recants her errors at this rebuke, and in the following section, which evidently is a later addition, takes back what she has said. Her new expression of belief she cites as the opinion of Brihaspati (32. 61, 62); but this is applicable rather to her first creed of doubt. Perhaps in the original version this authority was cited at the end of the first speech, and with the interpolation the reference is made to apply to this seer. Something like the queen's remarks is the doubtful saying of the king himself, as quoted elsewhere (III. 273. 6): "Time and fate, and what will be, this is the only Lord. How else could this distress have come upon my wife? For she has been virtuous always."

We turn now to the great sectarian gods, who eventually unite with Brahmā to form a pantheistic trinity, a conception which, as we shall show, is not older than the fifth or sixth century after Christ.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The rival heresies seem also to belong to the East. There were thus more than half a dozen heretical bodies of importance agitating the region about Benares at the same time. Subsequently the Jains, who, as we have shown, were less estranged from Brahmanism, drifted westward, while the Buddhist stronghold remained in the East (both, of course, being represented in the South as well), and so, whereas Buddhism eventually retreated to Nepāl and Tibet, the Jains are found in the very centres of old and new (sectarian) Brahmanism, Delhi, Mathurā, Jeypur, Ājmīr.]

[Footnote 2: 'The wandering of Rāma,' who is the sectarian representative of Vishnu.]

[Footnote 3: The 'Bhārata (tale)', sometimes called Mahā-Bhārata, or Great Bhārata. The Vishnuite sectarianism here advocated is that of Krishna. But there is as much Civaism in the poem as there is Vishnuism.]

[Footnote 4: Dramatic and lyric poetry is artificial even in language.]

[Footnote 5: Schroeder, p. 453, compares the mutual relation of the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyana to that of the Nibelungenlied and the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach. Jacobi, in his 'Rāmāyana,' has lately claimed a considerable antiquity for the foundation legends of the Rāmāyana, but he does not disprove the late completed form.]

[Footnote 6: i. 78. 10; see Buehler's Introduction.]

[Footnote 7: Jacobi seeks to put the completed nucleus at the time of the Christian era, but it must have been quite a large nucleus in view of the allusions to it in precedent literature. Holtztmann puts the completion at about 1000 A.D.; but in 700 A.D., it was complete, and most scholars will agree with Buehler that the present Mahā-Bhārata was completed by the sixth or seventh century. In 533 A.D. it contained 100,000 distichs, that is, it was about the size it is now.]

[Footnote 8: By the time the drama began the epic was become a religious storehouse, and the actual epic story represented not a fifth of the whole work, so that, with its simple language, it must have seemed, as a literary production, very wearisome to the minds that delighted in the artificial compounds and romantic episodes of the drama and lyric. But even to-day it is recited at great fetes, and listened to with rapt attention, as the rhapsodes with more or less dramatic power recite its holy verses.]

[Footnote 9: The later law-books say expressly that women and slaves have a right to use mantra, mantrādhikāriṇas. But the later legal Smritis are no more than disguised sectarian Purānas.]

[Footnote 10: Compare the visit of the old Muni on the prince in iii. 262. 8. He is paramakopana, 'extremely irritable'; calls for food only to reject it; growls at the service, etc. Everything must be done 'quickly' for him. "I am hungry, give me food, quick," is his way of speaking, etc. (12). The adjective is one applied to the All-gods, paramakrodhinas.]

[Footnote 11: Each spiritual teacher instructed high-caste boys, in classes of four or five at most. In xii. 328. 41 the four students of a priest go on a strike because the latter wants to take another pupil besides themselves and his own son.]

[Footnote 12: The saints in the sky praise the combatants (vii. 188. 41; viii. 15. 27); and the gods roar approval of prowess "with roars like a lion's" (viii. 15. 33). Indra and Sūrya and the Apsarasas cool off the heroes with heavenly fans (ib. 90. 18). For the last divinities, see Holtzmann's essays, ZDMG. xxxii. 290; xxxiii. 631.]

[Footnote 13: The original author of the Mahābhārata is reputed to be of low caste, but the writers of the text as it is to-day were sectarian priests. It was written down, it is said, by Ganeca, 'lord of the troops' of Civa, i. 1. 79, and some historic truth lies in the tale. The priests of Civa were the last to retouch the poem, as we think.]

[Footnote 14: Agni-worship is partly affected by the doctrine that the Samvartaka fire (which destroys the world at the cycle's end) is a form of Vishnu. In Stambamitra's hymn it is said: "Thou, O Agni, art the all, in thee rests the universe ... Sages know thee as single yet manifold. At the expiration of time thou burnest up the three worlds, after having created them. Thou art the originator and support of all beings" (i. 232. 12). Elsewhere more Vedic epithets are given, such as 'mouth of the gods' (ii. 31. 42), though here 'the Vedas are produced for Agni's sake.' In this same prayer one reads, 'may Agni give me energy; wind, give me breath; earth, give me strength; and water, give me health' (45). Agni, as well as Civa, is the father of Kumāra Kārtikeya, i.e., Skanda (ib. 44).]

[Footnote 15: But the Acvins are Cūdras In the 'cast-hood of gods' (the caste-order being Angirasas, Ādityas, Maruts and ACvins), xii. 208. 23-25; and Indra in one passage refuses to associate with them, xiii. 157. 17 (cited by Holtzmann, ZDMG. xxxii. 321).]

[Footnote 16: Manibhadra, in iii. 64, is king of Yaksash; he is the same with Kubera, ib. ch. 41 (Vāicinavana).]

[Footnote 17: In the Cosmogony the gods are the sons of the Manes, xii. 312. 9.]

[Footnote 18: When the gods churn the ocean to get ambrosia, an ancient tale of the epic, Mandara is the twirling-stick. It is situated in modern Behār, near Bhagalpur.]

[Footnote 19: III. 42; 139. 14, where the Ganges and Jumna are invoked together with the Vedic gods. So in III. 104 (Vindhya); and Damayanti prays to mountains. Mt. Meru is described in III. 163. 14 (compare I. 17. 5 ff.). In I. 18. 1 ff., is related the churning of the ocean, where Indra (vs. 12) places Mt. Mandara on Vishnu, the tortoise.]

[Footnote 20: Mbh. I. 30. 37, mamlur mālyāni devānām, etc. The older belief was that the gods' garlands never withered; for the gods show no mortal signs, cast no shadows, etc.]

[Footnote 21: Compare the four hymnlets to Agni in i. 232. 7 ff.]

[Footnote 22: After the mention of the thirty-three gods, and Vishnu 'born after them,' it is said that the Acvins, plants, and animals, are Guhyakas (vs. 40), though in vs. 35: "Tvashtar's daughter, the wife of Savitar, as a mare (vaḍavā) bore in air the two Acvins" (see above), in Vedic style. For Cruti compare iii. 207. 47; 208. 6, 11.]

[Footnote 23: i. 23. 15 ff. His name is explained fancifully in 30. 7.]

[Footnote 24: It is at the funeral feasts to the Manes that the Mahābhārata is to be recited (i. 62. 37).]

[Footnote 25: Arjuna is an old name of Indra, and in the epic Arjuna is Indra's son.]

[Footnote 26: The legal dharma or sitting at a debtor's door, which still obtains in India, is, so far as we know, not a very ancient practice. But its application in the case of heralds (who become responsible) is epic.]

[Footnote 27: This is the covenant (with friends) of revenge; the covenant of mutual protection in the sacrifice is indicated by the 'protection covenant' of the gods (see the chapter on Brahmanism above, p. 192).]

[Footnote 28: See an essay on the Ruling Caste in the epic, in JAOS. xiii. 232 ff.]

[Footnote 29: Reverend Doctor H.C. Trumbull has kindly called our attention to Robert's Oriental Illustrations, p. 148 ff., where it is said that in India today the threshold is sacred. In reference to threshold offerings, common in the law, Dr. Trumbull's own forthcoming book on Covenants may be compared.]

[Footnote 30: But these are by no means the last examples of human sacrifices. Several of the modern Hindu sects have caused to be performed such sacrifices, even in this century.]

[Footnote 31: This can hardly mean 'put out on the river' as has been suggested as an explanation of the corpse 'thrown aside' in accordance with the earlier text, AV. xviii. 2. 34 (paropta), where the dead are 'buried, thrown aside, burned, or set out.']

[Footnote 32: It is assumed in XII. 364. 2 that "leaves and air" are food enough for a great saint. Compare below the actual asceticism of modern devotees.]

[Footnote 33: III. 25. 14: saptarṣayas ... divi viprabhānti. Compare ib. 261. 13, and the apocalypse in VII. 192. 52 ff., where Drona's soul ascends to heaven, a burning fire like a sun; In sharp contrast to the older 'thumbkin' soul which Yama receives and carries off in the tale of Satyavant. Compare also Arundhati in I. 233. 29.]

[Footnote 34: Described, as above, as a place of singers and dancers, where are the Vedic gods and sages, but no sinners or cowards (III. 42. 34 ff.).]

[Footnote 35: From another point of view the stars are of interest. They are favorable or unfavorable, sentient, kind, or cruel; influential in man's fate. Compare III. 200. 84, 85, where the sun is included with the grahas (planets) which influence men, and ib. 209. 21, tulyanakṡatramaṅgala.]

[Footnote 36: Other of Indra's spirits are the singers, Gandharvas and Apsarasas; also the horse-headed Kinnaras and Cāranas, who, too, are singers; while later the Vidyādharas belong both to Indra and to Civa. In modern times the South Indian Sittars, 'saints,' take their name from the Siddhas.]

[Footnote 37: In dānnavarṣi there is apparently the same sort of compound as in devarṣi and brahmarṣi, all associated with the siddhas in III. 169. 23. But possibly 'demons and seers' may be meant.]

[Footnote 38: III. 37. 32-35 (prapadye vicvedevān!).]

[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 dānavas, demons, perhaps originally a folk-name of enemies.]

[Footnote 40: See below. The formal division is, dāiva, hatha, karma, i.e., man's fate depends on gods, Fate, and his own acts; although hatha, Fate, is often implied in dāiva, 'the divine power.' But they are separated, for example, in iii. 183. 86.]

[Footnote 41: Compare the tales and xii. 148. 9, satī (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, worship of parents, and the horse-sacrifice." xii 129. 9, 10.]

[Footnote 42: Compare III. 200. 88, even prākṛta priests are divine and terrible (much more in later books). Here prākṛta, vulgar, is opposed to samskṛta, 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 gods, 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 godhead, 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 worship of parents compare XII. 108. 3; 128. 9, 10; 267. 31, XIII. 75. 26: "heroes in obedience to the mother."]

[Footnote 45: The marked Brahmā Creator-worship 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 rājasūya 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, Sarasvatī is holier than Kurukshetra, etc.]

[Footnote 51: At Pushkara is Brahmā's only (?) shrine—the account is legendary, but half historical. The modern shrine at Ajmīr seems to be meant.]

[Footnote 52: Ganges, according to epic legend, was a goddess 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 gods is Alakanandā, the 'Blessed Damosel.']

[Footnote 53: In iii. 87.10, "ten descendants and ten ancestors." The epic, i. 170. 19, regards the Sarasvatī and Jumna as parts of the sevenfold Ganges, which descends from the heavens as these three, and also as the Vitasthā (Rathasthā), Sarayū, Gomatī, and Ganḍakī; being itself 'Vāitaraṇī among the Manes.' So xii. 322. 32.]

[Footnote 54: According to the commentator the "(northern altar of the Father-god) Kurukshetra-Samantapancakam, between Tarantuka, Arantuka, Rāmahrada, 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, mahā dṛtirivādhmātaḥ pāpas, 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 gods; but in all instances where this occurs it may be only the poet's mind-picture of the god 'adorned' with various glories.]

[Footnote 57: In VII. 201. 69, Civa wears an akshamālā. In XII. 38. 23, the Cārvāka 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, Kāutsa 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 rājasūya 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. Vāyu, 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 ignobly; for if one is slain by a man of low caste he goes to hell, xii. 298. 7.]

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

[Footnote 66: 'The god of gods,' who rains blood in i. 30. 36, is declared by the commentator to be—Parjanya! The gods 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 Sūrya.]

[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 ināiṅsakāmās, seems to be adapted (cf. Ācv. Gs. iv. 1; the adjective, by the way, is still starred in Pw.). So Ācv. Gs. i. 15. 9, is repeated Mbhā; i. 74. 63, as a "Vedic mantragrāma " (angād angāt 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; ātmatyāgī hy adho yāti. The holy-grass is used in much the same way when Rāma 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 Brahmā and Indra.]

[Footnote 72: In Buddhism Yama's messengers are Yakkhas. Scherman, loc. cit. p. 57.]

[Footnote 73: Compare II. 22. 26: gaccha yamakṣayam, '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 hells, 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 god 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 Nāciketas) is repeated in xiii. 71.]

[Footnote 76: v. 42. 6: Civaḥ civānām acivo 'civānām (compare xii 187. 27: 'only fools say that the man is dead'). Dharma (Justice) seems at times to be the same with Yama. Māndavya 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 god 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 Pramadvarā, 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 Sāvitrīi).]

[Footnote 77: The hells 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, passim).]

[Footnote 79: The same scenes occur in Buddhistic writings, where Yakkhas ask conundrums. For example, in the Hemavatasutta and Ātavakasutta 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.]

[Footnote 80: Karmāntaram upāsantas, i.e., virāmakālam upagacchantas.]

[Footnote 81: II. 36. 3 ff. The phraseology of vs. 5 is exactly that of [Greek: ton etto ldgon kreitto poithnsi], but the Pundit's arguments are 'based on the law.']

[Footnote 82: See above. In a later period (see below) the question arises in regard to the part played by Creator and individual in the workings of grace, some claiming that man was passive; some, that he had to strive for grace.]

[Footnote 83: Perhaps ironical. In V. 175. 32, a woman cries out: "Fie on the Creator for this bad luck," conservative in belief, and outspoken in word.]

[Footnote 84: III. 30. 17. The gosava is a 'cow-sacrifice.' The puṇḍarīka is not explained (perhaps 'elephant-sacrifice').]

* * * * *



CHAPTER XV.

HINDUISM (CONTINUED).—VISHNU AND CIVA.

In the epic the later union of the sectarian gods is still a novelty. The two characters remain distinct enough. Vishnu and Civa are different gods. But each in turn represents the All-god, and consequently each represents the other. The Vishnu-worship which grew about Krishṇa, originally a friend of one of the epic characters, was probably at first an attempt to foist upon Vedic believers a sectarian god, by identifying the latter with a Vedic divinity. But, whatever the origin, Krishna as Vishnu is revered as the All-god in the epic. And, on the other hand, Civa of many names has kept the marks of Rudra. Sometimes one, sometimes another, is taken as the All-god. At times they are compared, and then each sect reduces the god of the other to an inferior position. Again they are united and regarded as one. The Vishnu side has left the best literary representation of this religion, which has permeated the epic. It is pantheism, but not an impersonal pantheism. The Blessed Lord is the All. This is the simple base and crown of its speculation. It is like the personal development of Vedantic philosophy, only it is here degraded by the personality of the man-god, who is made the incarnate All-god. The Krishna of the epic as a man is a sly, unscrupulous fellow, continually suggesting and executing acts that are at variance with the knightly code of honor. He is king of Dvārakā and ally of the epic heroes. But again, he is divine, the highest divinity, the avatar of the All-god Vishnu. The sectaries that see in Civa rather than in Vishnu the one and only god, have no such representative to which to refer. For Civa, as the historical descendant of the Vedic Rudra,—although even in his case there is an intrusion of local worship upon an older Vedic belief,—represents a terror-god, either the lightning, the fairest of the gods, or, when he appears on earth, a divine horror, or, again, "a very handsome young man."[1] These two religions, of Vishnu as Krishna and of Civa alone, are not so much united in the epic as they are super-imposed upon the older worship of Brahmā, and indeed, in such a way that Civa-worship, in a pantheistic sense, appears to be the latest of the three beliefs that have influenced the story.[2]

The personal pantheism of the older Vishnuism has in its form and teachings so close a resemblance to the Christian religion that it has always had a great attraction for occidental readers; while the real power of its "Divine Song" gives the latter a charm possessed by few of the scriptures of India. This Divine Song (or Song of the Blessed One) is at present a Krishnaite version of an older Vishnuite poem, and this in turn was at first an unsectarian work, perhaps a late Upanishad. It is accepted by Vishnuites as a kind of New Testament; and with the New Testament it has in truth much in common. It must be pointed out at the outset that there is here the closest connection with the later Upanishads. The verse, like that of the Katha Upanishad (quoted above), which stands almost at the beginning of the Song, is typical of the relation of the Song to the Upanishad. It will be noticed how the impersonal 'That,' i.e., absolute being, brahma, changes almost at once to the personal He (ātmā as Lord). As shows the whole Song, brahma throughout is understood to be personal.[3] The caste-position of the priest in the Gitā is owing to the religious exaltation of the poem; and the precedence of Sāman is not unusual in the latest portions of the epic (see below).]

To understand the religion which reaches its culmination in the epic no better course could be pursued than to study the whole of the Divine Song. It is, however, too long a production to be introduced here in its entirety; but the following extracts give the chief features of the work, than which nothing in Hindu literature is more characteristic, in its sublimity as in its puerilities, in its logic as in its want of it. It has shared the fate of most Hindu works in being interpolated injudiciously, so that many of the puzzling anomalies, which astound no less the reader than the hero to whom it was revealed, are probably later additions. It is a medley of beliefs as to the relation of spirit and matter, and other secondary matters; it is uncertain in its tone in regard to the comparative efficacy of action and inaction, and in regard to the practical man's means of salvation; but it is at one with itself in its fundamental thesis, that all things are each a part of One Lord, that men and gods are but manifestations of the One Divine Spirit, which, or rather whom, the Vishnuite re-writer identifies with Krishna, as Vishnu's present form.

The Divine Song, as it is revealed in the epic by Vishnu (-Krishna) to his favorite knight, Arjuna, begins thus: "Know that the 'That' in which is comprised the 'This' is indestructible. These bodies of the indestructible Eternal One have an end: but whoso knows Him as slayer, and whoso thinks Him to be slain, these two have not true wisdom. He slays not and is not slain. He is not born, he does not die at any time; nor will He, having been born, cease to be. Unborn, everlasting, eternal, He, the Ancient One, is not slain when the body is slain. As one puts away an old garment and puts on another that is new, so He, the embodied (Spirit), puts away the old body and assumes one that is new. Everlasting, omnipresent, firm, unchanging is He, the Eternal; indiscernible is He called, inconceivable, unchangeable."[4]

The Song now turns into a plea that the warrior who is hearing it should, as one born to be a soldier, be brave and fight, lest his sorrow for the slain be taken for fear; since "nothing is better for a warrior than a just fight," and "loss of fame is worse than death." Then follows (with the usual inconsequential 'heaven') "If thou art slain thou wilt obtain heaven, and if thou art victorious thou shalt enjoy earth; therefore, careless of pleasure and pain, get ready for the fight, and so thou wilt not incur sin. This is the knowledge declared in the Sānkhya; hear now that of the Yoga," and the Divine Lord proceeds:

"Some are pleased with Vedic words and think that there is nothing else; their souls are full of desires; and they think that going to heaven is the chief thing. Yet have the Vedas reference only to the three qualities (of which all things partake). Be free from the three qualities (do not care for rewards). In action, not in fruit, is the chief thing. Do thy work, abiding by serene devotion (Yoga), rejecting every tie; be indifferent to success and failure. Serene devotion is called indifference (to such things). Action is lower than devotion of mind. Devotion is happiness. Do thou, wise in devotion, abandon the fruit that is sprung from action, and, freed from the bonds of birth, attain a perfect state."