MAGIC OBSERVANCES IN THE HINDU EPIC. 



By E. WASHBURN HOPKINS. 



{Read April 21, 1910.) 



Various works in Hindu literature provide us with a storehouse 

 of magical observances, from the time of Vedic Hymns onward. 

 The Sutras of one sort or another recognize and inculcate magical 

 arts. But in epic literature, what is formally taught elsewhere is 

 found in active operation. There is lacking, of course, any sys- 

 tematic treatment of these magical rites ; they must be culled piece- 

 meal from epic narration. Further, the relative importance of 

 magical rites is lost, because to the heroes of the epic some magical 

 observances were much more important than others. Finally, it 

 must be said that at the time of the epic there was no sharp dis- 

 tinction felt between the regular sacrifice and the irregular magical 

 sacrifice. All sacrifice was to win power, often from deities opposed 

 to the sacrificer ; but they were constrained to grant his wishes by 

 the (magical) power of the rite. The same is true of the practice 

 of austerities and ascetic observances, which, when persisted in, 

 made the gods uneasy, because by means of such observances the 

 ascetic won power over the gods themselves. Hence the religious 

 devotion of a saint appalled the gods and they tempted him in 

 various ways to fall from his asceticism, not because they disliked 

 him or what he did, but merely as a means of self-defence. 



On the other hand, magic per sc was strictly divided into good 

 and bad magic. The difference lay not in the rite itself so much 

 as in the application of the rite. If one's adversary was a demon, 

 who naturally employed magic, then a good man himself might use 

 the same means. Injurious magic was justified against an injurer. 

 All the gods as well as the demons use such magic and men may 

 do as the gods do, but with the same restriction, that is, that their 

 magic be Aryan or " noble," not for base purposes. Hence we are 



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