Dravidian Gods in Modern Hinduism 145 



while those of Brahmanic Hinduism have something of refine- 

 ment and charm. A closer study shows, however, that while the 

 Dravidian ceremonies are more shocking, their system does not 

 contain so many immoralities as does that of the Brahmans.^" 



In Brahmanical Hinduism we find many most debasing cus- 

 toms which are condemned by no one more strongly than by the 

 leading Hindu reformers themselves. The debauchery of many 

 of their festivals, the shamelessness of many places of pilgrim- 

 age, the attachment of dancing girls to the temples with all which 

 that implies, the lives of many of the religious mendicants, the 

 unmentionable things in connection of the worship of the lingam, 

 the proceedings in temples which women visit to pray for off- 

 spring : all these things are not denied by Hindus. 



None of these immoralities has any counterpart in Dravidian 

 worship. The night orgies may be hideous, but the very nature 

 of the devil worship at night prevents other vice. The coming 

 together of great crowds of people at festival times quite likely 

 leads to more or less sin, but these festivals are pure compared 

 with many of the festivals of Hinduism. The Dravidian pujaris 

 have not the power over the people which the Brahman priests 



^0 Madras Government Museum, Bulletin, V, no. 3, pp. 176, 177. " The 

 Brahmanical system has sunk to lower depths than have been reached by 

 the cruder religion of the village people. The worship of the village deities 

 contains much that is physically repulsive. The details of the buffalo sac- 

 rifice are horrid to read about, and still worse to witness, and the sight 

 of a pujari parading the streets with the entrails of a lamb round his neck 

 and its liver in his mouth would be to us disgusting; and doubtless there 

 is much drunkenness and immorality connected with the village festivals; 

 while the whole system of religion is prompted by fear and superstition, 

 and seems almost entirely lacking in anything like a sense of sin or feelings 

 of gratitude toward a higher spiritual Power. But still it is also true, 

 setting aside a few local customs in the worship of the village deities, 

 there is nothing in the system itself which is so morally degrading and 

 repulsive as the lingam worship of the Sivaites, or the marriage of girls 

 to the god, and their consequent dedication to a life of prostitution among 

 the Vaishnavites. If the worship of Siva and Vishnu has risen to greater 

 heights, it has also sunk to lower moral depths than the less aesthetic wor- 

 ship of the grama- devatas." 



145 



