Tempo:
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
10
Brahmanism likewise
extending
in the
wilder
parts of
the plains.
But the
peasantry
and mechanics
generally
are becoming seceders from
Brahmanism.
CHAP.
I
to increase, and every Bhil, or Gond, or Kohli who
acquires power or money, desires to be thought a Hindu
rather than a 'Mlechha';i but, on the other hand, the
Indian laity has, during the last few hundred years,
largely assumed to itself the functions of the priesthood, and although Hinduism may lose no votaries,
Gusains and secular Sadhs usurp the authority of
Brahmans in the direction of the conscience.- The Sikhs
continue to make converts, but chiefly within the limits
of their dependent sway, for the colossal power of the
English has arrested' the progress of their arms to the
eastward, and has left the Jats of the Jumna and
fianges to their old idolatry.
1
Half of the principality of Bhopal, in Central India, was
founded on usurpations from the Gonds, who appear to have
migrated in force towards the west about the middle of the
seventeenth century, and to have made themselves supreme in
the valley of the Narbada about Hoshangabad, in spite of the
exertions of Aurangzeb, until an Afghan adventurer attacked
them on the decline of the empire, and completely subdued
them. The Afghan converted some of the vanquished to his
own faith, partly by force and partly by conferring Jagirs,
partly to acquire merit and partly to soothe his conscience, and
there are now several families of Muhammadan Gonds in the
possession of little fiefs on either side of the Narbada. These
men have more fully got over the gross superstition of their
race, than the Gonds who have adopted Hinduism.
[- The recent spread of the 'Marwari' traders over the centre, and to the south and east of India, may also be noticed,
for the greater number of them are Jains. These traffickers of
Rajputana seem to have received a strbng mercantile impulse
about a hundred years ago, and their spirit of enterprise gives
them at the same time a social and a religious influence, so that
many families of Vaishnava or Brahmanical traders either
incline to Jainism or openly embrace that faith. Jainism is thus
extending in India, and conversion is rendered the more easy
by the similarity of origin and occupation of these various
traders, and by the Quietism and other characteristics commort
to the Jains and Vaishnavas.—JJD.C]
10
Brahmanism likewise
extending
in the
wilder
parts of
the plains.
But the
peasantry
and mechanics
generally
are becoming seceders from
Brahmanism.
CHAP.
I
to increase, and every Bhil, or Gond, or Kohli who
acquires power or money, desires to be thought a Hindu
rather than a 'Mlechha';i but, on the other hand, the
Indian laity has, during the last few hundred years,
largely assumed to itself the functions of the priesthood, and although Hinduism may lose no votaries,
Gusains and secular Sadhs usurp the authority of
Brahmans in the direction of the conscience.- The Sikhs
continue to make converts, but chiefly within the limits
of their dependent sway, for the colossal power of the
English has arrested' the progress of their arms to the
eastward, and has left the Jats of the Jumna and
fianges to their old idolatry.
1
Half of the principality of Bhopal, in Central India, was
founded on usurpations from the Gonds, who appear to have
migrated in force towards the west about the middle of the
seventeenth century, and to have made themselves supreme in
the valley of the Narbada about Hoshangabad, in spite of the
exertions of Aurangzeb, until an Afghan adventurer attacked
them on the decline of the empire, and completely subdued
them. The Afghan converted some of the vanquished to his
own faith, partly by force and partly by conferring Jagirs,
partly to acquire merit and partly to soothe his conscience, and
there are now several families of Muhammadan Gonds in the
possession of little fiefs on either side of the Narbada. These
men have more fully got over the gross superstition of their
race, than the Gonds who have adopted Hinduism.
[- The recent spread of the 'Marwari' traders over the centre, and to the south and east of India, may also be noticed,
for the greater number of them are Jains. These traffickers of
Rajputana seem to have received a strbng mercantile impulse
about a hundred years ago, and their spirit of enterprise gives
them at the same time a social and a religious influence, so that
many families of Vaishnava or Brahmanical traders either
incline to Jainism or openly embrace that faith. Jainism is thus
extending in India, and conversion is rendered the more easy
by the similarity of origin and occupation of these various
traders, and by the Quietism and other characteristics commort
to the Jains and Vaishnavas.—JJD.C]
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