1884.] 
43 
of Religion in the Himalaya. 
Dcsmonism .—Whatever may have been the earliest form of religious 
belief, it is probable that it was followed by a belief in demons or super¬ 
human spirits to which the term ‘ animism’ is now apjdied. The Greek 
word ‘ d^mon’ originally implied the possession of superior knowledge 
and corresponds closely to the Indian word ‘ hJiiUa,’ which is derived from 
a root expressing existence and is applied in the earlier works to the 
elements of nature and even to deities. S'iva himself is called Bhutesa 
or ‘ lord of hhutas.' With a change of religion the word dsemon acquired 
an evil meaning, and similarly the word hJiuta as applied to the village 
gods carries with it amongst Brahmanists the idea of an actively malig¬ 
nant evil spirit. Animism implies a belief in the existence of spirits, 
some of whom are good and some are bad and powerful enough to compel 
attention through fear of their influence. They may be free to wander 
everywhere and be incapable of being represented by idols, or they may be 
held to reside in some object or body, whether living or lifeless, and this 
object then becomes a fetish* endowed with power to protect or capable of 
being induced to abstain from injuring the worshipper. Examples of both 
these forms occur amongst the deemonistic cults of the Indian tribes. As 
observed by Tielef “ the religions controlled by animism are characteris¬ 
ed first of all by a varied, confused and indeterminate doctrine, an un¬ 
organised polydeemonism, which does not, however, exclude the belief in 
a supreme spirit, though in practice this commonly bears but little fruit; 
and in the next place by magic which but rarely rises to the level of real 
worship * *. In the animistic religions, fear is more powerful than any 
other feeling, such as gratitude or trust. The spirits and the worship¬ 
pers are alike selfish. The evil spirits receive, as a rule, more homage 
than the good, the lower more than the higher, the local more than the 
remote, and the special more than the general. The allotment of their 
rewards or punishments depends not on men’s good or bad actions, but 
on the sacrifices and gifts which are offered to them or withheld.” Even 
the Aryan religion held the germs of animism, but it soon developed into 
the polytheism of the Vedas, and this again gave rise to a caste of ex¬ 
pounders whose sole occupation it became to collect, hand down and 
interpret the sacred writings and who in time invented Brahmanism. 
Buddhism, as we shall see, was an off-shoot of Brahmanism, and it is to 
the influence of these three forms of religious belief—Animism, Brah¬ 
manism and Buddhism—that we owe the existing varied phases of Hin¬ 
duism, and paradoxical as it may seem the masses are more Animists and 
Buddhists in their beliefs at the present day than Brahmanists. We 
* See Max Muller’s Hibbert Lectures, p. 56. 
t Outlines of the history of Ancient Eeligions, p. 10, and Wilson in J. R. A. S. 
V., 264. 
