The Religions of India Part 42

[Footnote 16: One of the Jaina traits of the epic, _brahm[=a]di[s.]u t[r.]u[=a]nte[s.]u bh[=u]te[s.]u parivartate_, in distinction from the Buddhistic metempsychosis, which stops short of plants. But perhaps it is rather borrowed from the B[.r]ahman by the Jain, for there is a formal acknowledgment that _sth[=a]var[=a]s_ 'stationary things,' have part in metempsychosis, Manu, xii.

42, although in the distribution that follows this is almost ignored (vs. 58).]

[Footnote 17: It is rather difficult to compress the list into this number. Some of the names are perhaps later additions.]

[Footnote 18: In contrast one may note the frequent boast that a king 'fears not even the G.o.ds,' _e.g._, i. 199. 1.]

[Footnote 19: Later there are twenty-one worlds a.n.a.logous lo the twenty-one h.e.l.ls.]

[Footnote 20: Elsewhere, oh the other hand, the islands are four or seven, the earlier view.]

[Footnote 21: iii. 142. The boar-shape of Vishnu is a favorite one, as is the dwarf-incarnation. Compare V[=a]mana, V[=a]manaka, Vishnupada, in the list of holy watering-places (iii. 83). Many of Vishnu's acts are simply transferred from Brahm[=a], to whom they belonged in older tales. Compare above, p.215.]

[Footnote 22: In i. 197, Praj[=a]pati the Father-G.o.d, is the highest G.o.d, to whom Indra, as usual, runs for help. civa appears as a higher G.o.d, and drives Indra into a hole, where he sees five former Indras; and finally Vishnu comes on to the stage as the highest of all, "the infinite, inconceivable, eternal, the All in endless forms." Brahm[=a]

is invoked now and then in a perfunctory way, but no one really expects him to do anything. He has done his work, made the castes, the sacrifice, and (occasionally) everything. And he will do this again when the new aeon begins. But for this aeon his work is accomplished.]

[Footnote 23: Thus in XII. 785. 165: "Neither Brahm[=a] nor Vishnu is capable of understanding the greatness of civa."]

[Footnote 24: Or "three eyes."]

[Footnote 25: Compare III. 39. 77: "The destroyer of Daksha's sacrifice." Compare the same epithet in the hymn to civa, X. 7. 3, after which appear the devils who serve civa.

Such devils, in the following, feast on the dead upon the field of battle, though, when left to themselves, 'midnight is the hour when the demons swarm,' III. 11. 4 and 33. In X.

18 and XIII. 161 civa's act is described in full.]

[Footnote 26: civa, called Bhava, carva, the trident-holder, the Lord ([=I]c[=a]na), cankara, the Great G.o.d, etc., generally appears at his best where the epic is at its worst, the interpolations being more flagrant than in the case of Vishnuite eulogies. The most devout wors.h.i.+pper of Vishnu is represented as an adherent of civa, as invoking him for help after fighting with him. He is "invincible before the three worlds." He is the sun; his blood is ashes.

All the G.o.ds, with Brahm[=a] at their head, revere him. He has three heads, three faces, six arms (compare iii. 39. 74 ff.; 83. 125); though other pa.s.sages give him more.]

[Footnote 27: civa has as sign the bull: Vishnu, the boar.]

[Footnote 28: ZDMG. x.x.xviii. pp. 197, 200.]

[Footnote 29: _Lit. u. Cultur_, p. 461.]

[Footnote 30: Holtzmann now says (in _Neunzehn Bucher_, p.

198) that the whole episode which terminates with Baladeva's visit an addition to the original. Holtzmann's monograph on Brahm[=a] is in ZDMG. x.x.xviii. 167.]

[Footnote 31: A good example is that of the two visions of Arjuna, first the vision of Vishnu, then another vision of civa, whom Arjuna and Vishnu visit (vii. 80).]

[Footnote 32: cankara and civa mean almost the same; 'giver of blessings' and 'prospering' (or 'kindly'), respectively.]

[Footnote 33: _Brahma[n.]as sumahotsavas_ (compare the commentator). The _sam[=a]ja_ of Brahm[=a] may be explained by that of civa mentioned in the same place and described elsewhere (iv. 13. 14 ff.; i. 164. 20).]

[Footnote 34: Not _sleeping_, Vishnu, despite _svapimi_, does not slumber; he only muses.]

[Footnote 35: Man (divine) and G.o.d human, but N[=a]r[=a]yana is a new name of Vishnu, and the two are reckoned as two inseparable seers (divinities).]

[Footnote 36: This is the only really trinitarian pa.s.sage in the epic. In i. 1. 32; xiii. 16. 15, the belief may be indicated, but not certainly, as it is in Hariv. 10,662. See on this point Holtzroann, ZDMG. x.x.xviii. p. 204. In xiv. 54.

14 the form is V[=i]shnu, Brahm[=a], Indra.]

[Footnote 37: Compare 339. 114, "thou art _pancamah[=a]kalpa_." The commentator gives the names of five sects, S[=a]ura, c[=a]kta, G[=a]neca, c[=a]iva, Vaishnava. The 'five times,' implied in Pancak[=a]ta, he says are day, night, month, seasons, and year (_ib_. 66). In 340. 117 (which chapter is Pancar[=a]tric), Brahm[=a] "knows that Vishnu is superior."]

[Footnote 38: V[=a]j. S. xvi. 1-66; T[=a]itt. S. iv. 5.

1-11.]

[Footnote 39: civa has no ordinary sacrifice: he is (as above) in general a destroyer of sacrifice, _i.e_., of Vedic sacrifice; but as Pacupati, "Lord of beasts," he claims the b.l.o.o.d.y sacrifice of the first beast, man.]

[Footnote 40: The usual opinion is that phallic wors.h.i.+p was a trait of southern tribes foisted upon northern civaism.

Philosophically civaism is first monotheistic and then pantheistic, To-day it is nominally pantheistic but really it is dualistic.]

[Footnote 41: There are indications in this pa.s.sage of some sectarian feeling, and the fear of partisan warfare (229); in regard to which we add from Muir and Holtzmann the pa.s.sage XII. 343. 121, where is symbolized a peaceful issue of war between Vishnuism and civaism.]

[Footnote 42: Grahas are also planets, but in this cult they are not astrological, as show their names.]

[Footnote 43: They are possibly old, as Weber thinks, but they seem to have nothing in common with the ancient female divinities.]

[Footnote 44: Compare another hymn to Durg[=a] in IV. 6. 5 ff. (late). Durgi was probably an independent local deity, subsequently regarded as civa's female side. She plays a great role, under various names, in the 'revived'

literature, as do the love-G.o.d and Ganeca. In both hymns she is 'Vishnu's sister,' and in IV. 6 a 'pure virgin.']

[Footnote 45: One comparatively new G.o.d deserves a pa.s.sing mention, Dharma's son, K[=a]ma, the (Grecian?) love-G.o.d, 'the mind-shaker,' 'the limbless one,' whose arrows are like those of Cupid (I. 66. 32; 171. 34; III. 46. 2). He is an advent.i.tious addition to the epic. His later name of Ananga occurs in XII. 59. 91. In I. 71. 41 and 171. 40 he is Manmatha. The Atharvan G.o.d also has darts, III. 25, a mark of this latest Veda.]

[Footnote 46: Compare ii. 22. 18: "Great holiness, great glory, penance, death in battle, these are each respectively productive of heaven; the last alone is a sure cause."]

[Footnote 47: This description and the sentiments are quite late. The same sort of heaven (without the philosophical bitterness, with which compare above, p. 229) is, however, found in other pa.s.sages, somewhat augmented with nymphs and facile G.o.ddesses.]

[Footnote 48: This doctrine is supposed by some scholars to be due to outside influence, but the doubt is not substantiated, and even in the Rig Veda one pa.s.sage appears to refer to it. Doubtless, however, the later expanded view, with its complicated reckonings, may have been touched by foreign influence.]

[Footnote 49: _Na [=a]san s[=a]ma-[r.]g-yajur-varn[=a]s_. In xii. 342. 8 the order is Rik-Yajus-Atharvan-S[=a]man. The habit of putting S[=a]man instead of Rik at the head of the Vedas is still kept in the late litany to civa, who is "the S[=a]man among the Vedas" meaning, of course, the first and best. In the same place, "civa is the Itih[=a]sa" epic (xiii. 14. 323; and _ib_. 17. 78, 91), for the epic outweighs all the Vedas in its own estimation.]

[Footnote 50: iii. 149. 14; 188. 22; 189. 32; probably with a recollection of the colors of the four castes, white, red, yellow, black. According to xii. 233. 32, there is no sacrifice in the Krita age, but, beginning with the Tret[=a]

age, there is a general diffusion of sacrifice in the Dv[=a]para age. In another pa.s.sage of the same book it is said that marriage laws arose in the Dv[=a]para age (207. 38 ff.).]

[Footnote 51: The teaching varies somewhat in the allotment of years. See Manu, I. 67.]

[Footnote 52: Weber thinks, on the other hand, that the parties represent respectively, civa and Vishuu wors.h.i.+p, _Ind. St_. i. 206.]

[Footnote 53: This book also is closely in touch with the later Pur[=a]nas. For instance, Citragupta, Yama's secretary, is known only to the books of the pseudo-epic, the Vishnu Pur[=a]na, the Padma Pur[=a]na, etc.]

[Footnote 54: _Neunzehn Bucher_, p. 86.]

[Footnote 55: The epic does not care much for castes in some pa.s.sages. In one such it is said that members of all castes become priests when they go across the Gomal, iii. 84. 48.]

[Footnote 56: xii. 319. 87 ff. _(pr[=a]pya j[=n][=a]nam_ ...

_c[=u]dr[=a]d api_); xii. 328. 49 (_cr[=a]vayee caturo var[n.][=a]n_). The epic regards itself as more than equivalent (_adhikam)_ to the four Vedas, i. 1. 272.]

[Footnote 57: Some ascribe the _sams[=a]ra_ doctrine to Buddhistic influence--a thesis supported only by the fact that this occurs in late Brahmanic pa.s.sages and Upanishads.

But the a.s.sumption that Upanishads do not precede Buddha is scarcely tenable. The Katha, according to Weber (_Sits.

Berl. Ak._ 1890, p. 930), is late (Christian!): according to Oldenberg and Whitney, early (_Buddha_, p. 56; _Proc. AOS._ May, 1886).]

[Footnote 58: xii. 295. 5-6.]