HINDUISM. 



called the Institutes of Manu, is remarkable for 

 purity and rigour. A complete system of ethics, 

 it has been said, might be made up out of scattered 

 .moral sentences gathered from this work. 



THE PURANIC PERIOD. 



The Purdnas and the Tantras are the two 

 classes of works on which the popular faith of 

 modern India is founded, and from the former 

 set of books comes the name we have applied 

 to this, the modern phase of Hinduism. The 

 Purdnas are eighteen in number ; and while each 

 of them appears to be held in special honour by 

 one or another of the sects into which Hinduism 

 is divided, they all have had for their paramount 

 object to make out the claim to the rank of 

 supreme god of either Vishnu or Siva. The Tantras 

 are very numerous ; they are all the scriptures or 

 text-books of the worshippers of the female energy 

 of the god Siva. For the Purinas (the name sig- 

 nifies 'old '), an age exceeding the period of history 

 is claimed by the Hindus; but from internal evi- 

 dence it is plain that in their present form they 

 -can barely claim an antiquity of a thousand years. 

 The compilation of them is ascribed to Vyasa, the 

 supposed arranger of the Vedas, and author of the 

 Mahabh^rata. The Tantras, by those who believe 

 an them, are held to be of equal antiquity with the 

 Vedas, and of superior authority. The antiquity 

 -ascribed to them is purely imaginary ; their date 

 is involved in obscurity ; but they seem, at all 

 events, to be later than the first centuries of 

 the Christian era. In the Purdnas, the legends of 

 the older scriptures about gods and heroes are re- 

 peated, but with such modifications and additions 

 as the purposes of the compilers required ; and 

 the deeds of every god or hero are freely claimed 

 for the particular deity whom it is the purpose of 

 the work to exalt. Whatever memorable thing 

 the old books reported of any other god, is 

 ascribed to Vishnu or Siva, as the case may be, 

 who, it is alleged, has taken a special form for 

 the accomplishment of the particular act. The 

 form of a Tantra is always that of a dialogue 

 between Siva and his wife, in one of her many 

 forms, mostly as Uma or Parvati, in which 

 the goddess questions the god as to the mode 

 of performing various ceremonies, and the man- 

 tras or prayers and incantations to be used in 

 them. 



It is not to be supposed that the religious 

 movement of Hinduism has been staid since the 

 Purdnas and Tantras became its most authorita- 

 tive scriptures. On the contrary, there has been 

 incessant change. But the leading divisions of 

 modern Hinduism are still indicated by the diverse 

 motives that have been ascribed to those writ- 

 ings. The triad, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, still 

 remains the cardinal point in Hindu theory, but 

 belief in it as it was originally accepted is com- 

 pletely gone. During the Epic period, the worship 

 of Brahma had ceased. Then Vishnu and Siva 

 were competing for the headship of the pantheon, 

 tmt their separate godhood was scarcely doubted. 

 In the I'uranic period, the claim made for each 

 of them excludes the other annihilating him, by 

 .attributing to the one ail that the other was 

 formerly believed to have done. Vishnu and Siva 

 are now each of them, in the belief of his worship- 

 pers, at once the creator, preserver, and destroyer. 



The claims made for them are often conveyed in 

 language which seems to amount to a belief in 

 one God ; all other gods and all nature are some- 

 times spoken of as forms of the deity who is being 

 glorified. On the other hand, the existence of 

 millions of other gods seems never to be really 

 denied. But with Vishnu and Siva, the female 

 energy of Siva has in the modern period divided 

 the homage of the Hindus. Lakshmi, the wife of 

 Vishnu, also, is worshipped, but only in associa- 

 tion with the god. The idea that to each god 

 belongs a female principle through which his 

 energy is exerted, is obviously taken from the 

 analogy of mankind, and accordingly the female 

 energy of the god is popularly thought of simply 

 as his wife. In the modern period, the 'guar- 

 dians of the world,' the elemental gods of the 

 Vedic period, still retain their office and their hold 

 upon the popular mind. Indra, the firmament, as 

 the god who sends rain and wields the thunderbolt, 

 and in whose paradise, Swarga, the inferior gods, 

 and the souls of pious men have their abode, is a 

 special object of adoration. The gods of inferior 

 rank that are or have been conceived of as objects 

 of worship are innumerable. The Hindus them- 

 selves enumerate 330 millions. But to count Hindu 

 deities is like trying to count the objects in a 

 kaleidoscope, for the same deity is known and 

 worshipped under hundreds of names. 



Of the ideas implied by the Vedic rites, scarcely 

 a trace is visible in the Puranas and Tantras. 

 The conception of the nature and character of 

 the gods is lower than it was in the Epic period ; 

 and as regards the popular faiths, we do not find 

 much improvement as we advance towards modern 

 times. The gods of the Purdnas are much im- 

 mersed in worldly affairs, and their divine charac- 

 ter is nearly lost sight of in the narration of their 

 transactions. In short, they are far from being 

 exemplary or edifying personages. In the wor- 

 ship addressed to the leading gods throughout 

 the modern period, great differences occur; but 

 the practices attending it are more debased and 

 cruel than those which are spoken of as prevail- 

 ing in earlier times. The philosophical creed of 

 this period, which is still the creed of the educated 

 classes in India, is based on the belief in one 

 supreme being, which imagination and speculation 

 endeavour to invest with all the perfections con- 

 ceivable by the human mind, but the true nature 

 of which is nevertheless declared to be beyond 

 the reach of thought, and which, on this ground, 

 is defined as not possessing any of the qualities 

 by which the human mind is able to comprehend 

 intellectual or material entity. 



Amid the changes of theology, ceremonial has 

 stood unshaken ; the Hindus of the modern 

 period have submitted to the crushing burden 

 which Brahmanical ingenuity devised for their 

 ancestors. The ceremonial impurities in which 

 he believes, and the commission of which he 

 must avoid, keep the Hindu in perpetual fear. 

 The institution of caste also remains, though 

 greatly modified from the original theory. With 

 the exception of the Brahmans, the pure castes 

 have disappeared, and out of the intermixture of 

 the others, innumerable classes have arisen ; while, 

 except as to some of the holy functions of the 

 Brahmans, the restriction of employments cannot 

 be said to exist Caste now acts chiefly in restrict- 

 ing people from associating together in such acts 



