Tempo:
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20
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
chap, ii
During this period the genius of
Hinduism became fully developed, and the Brahmans
rivalled the Greeks in the greatness and the variety
of their triumphs. Epic poems show high imaginative
and descriptive powers, and the Ramayana and Mahabharata- still move the feelings and affect the character
Mathematical science was so perfect,
of the people.
and astronomical observation so complete, that the
paths of the sun and moon were accurately measured.'^
The philosophy of the learned few was, perhaps, for the
the burning sun.^
time, firmly allied with the theology of the believing many, and Brahmanism laid down as articles of
faith, the unity of God, the creation of the. world, the
immortality of the soul, and the responsibility of man.
The remote dwellers upon the Ganges distinctly made
first
1 'There seem to have been no images and no visible types
of the objects of worship,' says Mr. Elphinstone, in his niost
useful and judicious History (i. 73), quoting Professor Wilson,
Oxford Lectures, and the Vishnu Puran; while, with regard to
fire, it is to be remembei-ed that in the Old Testament, and
even in the New, it is the principal symbol of the Holy Spirit
(Strauss, Life of Jesus, 361.) The Vedas, however, allude tc
personified energies and attributes, but the monotheism of
the system is not more affected by the introduction of the
creating Brahma, the destroying Siva, and other minor powers,
than the omnipotence of Jehovah is interfered with by the
hierarchies of the Jewish heaven. Yet, in truth, much has to
be learnt with regard to the Vedas and Vedantism, notwithstanding the invaluable labours of Colebrooke and others, and
the useful commentary or interpretation of Ram Mohan Roy.
(Asiatic Researches, viii; Transactions Royal Asiatic Society,
The translation
i and ii; and Ram Mohan Roy on the Vedas.)
of the Vedant Sar in Ward's Hindoos (ii. 175), and the improved version of Dr. Roer (Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal,
February 1845, No. 108), may be consulted with advantage.
If translators would repeat the Sanskrit terms with expanded
meanings in English, instead of using terms of the scholastic
or modern systems which seem to them to be equivalent, they
would materially help students to understand the real doctrine
of the original speculators.
[- These epics are rarely read in extenso by a modern
generation, owung to a lack of knowledge of Sanskrit and also
to their enormous length and the numerous later interpolations.
literal translation in English of the Mahabharata was made
by Mr. P. C. Roy in 1894. But it is intolerably lengthy and,
for a simple summary of this Indian epic, the reader is
referred to The Great War of India, by Thakur Rajendra Singh,
published in Allahabad in 1915. ^Ed.]
^ The so-called solar year in common use in India takes
no account of the precession of the equinoxes, but, as a sidereal year, it is almost exact. The revolution of the points of
intersection of the ecliptic and equator nevertheless appears
to have been long known to the Hindus, and some of their
epochs were obviously based on the calculated period of the
phenomenon. (Cf. Mr. Davis's paper in the As. Res., vol. ii,
and Beritley's Astronomy of the Hindoos, pp. 2-6, 88.)
A
20
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
chap, ii
During this period the genius of
Hinduism became fully developed, and the Brahmans
rivalled the Greeks in the greatness and the variety
of their triumphs. Epic poems show high imaginative
and descriptive powers, and the Ramayana and Mahabharata- still move the feelings and affect the character
Mathematical science was so perfect,
of the people.
and astronomical observation so complete, that the
paths of the sun and moon were accurately measured.'^
The philosophy of the learned few was, perhaps, for the
the burning sun.^
time, firmly allied with the theology of the believing many, and Brahmanism laid down as articles of
faith, the unity of God, the creation of the. world, the
immortality of the soul, and the responsibility of man.
The remote dwellers upon the Ganges distinctly made
first
1 'There seem to have been no images and no visible types
of the objects of worship,' says Mr. Elphinstone, in his niost
useful and judicious History (i. 73), quoting Professor Wilson,
Oxford Lectures, and the Vishnu Puran; while, with regard to
fire, it is to be remembei-ed that in the Old Testament, and
even in the New, it is the principal symbol of the Holy Spirit
(Strauss, Life of Jesus, 361.) The Vedas, however, allude tc
personified energies and attributes, but the monotheism of
the system is not more affected by the introduction of the
creating Brahma, the destroying Siva, and other minor powers,
than the omnipotence of Jehovah is interfered with by the
hierarchies of the Jewish heaven. Yet, in truth, much has to
be learnt with regard to the Vedas and Vedantism, notwithstanding the invaluable labours of Colebrooke and others, and
the useful commentary or interpretation of Ram Mohan Roy.
(Asiatic Researches, viii; Transactions Royal Asiatic Society,
The translation
i and ii; and Ram Mohan Roy on the Vedas.)
of the Vedant Sar in Ward's Hindoos (ii. 175), and the improved version of Dr. Roer (Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal,
February 1845, No. 108), may be consulted with advantage.
If translators would repeat the Sanskrit terms with expanded
meanings in English, instead of using terms of the scholastic
or modern systems which seem to them to be equivalent, they
would materially help students to understand the real doctrine
of the original speculators.
[- These epics are rarely read in extenso by a modern
generation, owung to a lack of knowledge of Sanskrit and also
to their enormous length and the numerous later interpolations.
literal translation in English of the Mahabharata was made
by Mr. P. C. Roy in 1894. But it is intolerably lengthy and,
for a simple summary of this Indian epic, the reader is
referred to The Great War of India, by Thakur Rajendra Singh,
published in Allahabad in 1915. ^Ed.]
^ The so-called solar year in common use in India takes
no account of the precession of the equinoxes, but, as a sidereal year, it is almost exact. The revolution of the points of
intersection of the ecliptic and equator nevertheless appears
to have been long known to the Hindus, and some of their
epochs were obviously based on the calculated period of the
phenomenon. (Cf. Mr. Davis's paper in the As. Res., vol. ii,
and Beritley's Astronomy of the Hindoos, pp. 2-6, 88.)
A
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