Tempo:
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
22
CHAP. II
soul was indeed encumbered with the doctrine of transmigration/ the active virtues were perhaps deemed less
meritorious than bodily austerities and mental abstraction, and the Brahman polity was soon fatally clogged
with the dogma of inequality among men, and with
the institution of a body of hereditary guardians of
religion.2
Brahmanism vic-
The Brahmans succeeded in expelling the Buddhfaith from the Indian peninsula, and when Shankar
torious
ist
over
Acharj journeyed and disputed nine hundred years
after Christ, a few learned men, and the inoffensive
half-conforming Jains,'' alone remained to represent the
Buddhism.
stood to be binding on men, and to constitute their duty and
obligation; and probably the Indian may merely have the
advantage of being a theological teacher instead of an ontological speculator.
The more zealous Christian writers on Hindu theoloey
upon the doctrine of transmigration as limiting the freedom of the will and the degree of isolation of the soul, when
1
seize
thus successively manifested in the world clouded with the
imperfection of previous appearances. A man, it is said, thus
becomes subject to the Fate of the Greeks and Romans. (Cf.
Ward on The Hindoos, ii; Introductory Remarks, xxviii, &c.)
But the soul so weighed down with the sins of a fonrfer
existence does not seem to differ in an ethical point of view,
and as regards our conduct in the present life, from the soul
encumbered with the sin of Adam.
Philosophically, the notions seem equally but modes of accounting for 4he existence
of evil, or for its sway over men.
[See also note 7, p. 39.
J.D.C.] [Socrates, who inculcated every active virtue, nevertheless admitted, 'that he who wanted least was nearest to the
Divinity; for to need nothing was' the attribute of God.'
{Memorabilia, b.l,c.vi,s.lO.) J.D.C.]
See Appendix IV, on 'Caste'.
The modern Jains frankly admit the connexion of their
faith with that of the Buddhists, and the Jaini traders of
Eastern Malwa claim the ancient 'tope' near Bhilsa, as virtually
a temple of their own creed. The date of the general recogni-
3
tion of the Jains as a sect is doubtful, but it is curious that
the 'Kosh', or vocabulary of An^ar Singh, does not contain
the word Jain, although the word 'Jin' is enumerated among
the names of Mayadevi, the regent goddess of the material
universe, and the mother of Gautama, the Buddhist patriarch
or prophet. In the Bhagavad, again, Baudh is represented as
the son of Jin, and as about to appear in Kikat Des, or Bihar.
(See Colonel Kennedy, Res. Hind. Mythol., pp. 243-50.) Amar
Singh, the author of the Sanskrit 'Kosa', or vocabulary, was
himself a Buddhist; and he is differently stated to have flourished in the first century before, or in the fifth after, Christ
(Colonel Kennedy, as above, pp. 127, 128), but in Malwa he
traditionally said to have been confuted in argument by
Shankar Acharj, which would place him in the eighth or ninth
century of our era. J.D.C.] ['Jainism is professed by a comparatively small sect, and it tends to shade off into ordinary
Hinduism. Many Jains employ Brahmans in their domestic
worship, venerate the cow, and often worship in Hindu temis
—
22
CHAP. II
soul was indeed encumbered with the doctrine of transmigration/ the active virtues were perhaps deemed less
meritorious than bodily austerities and mental abstraction, and the Brahman polity was soon fatally clogged
with the dogma of inequality among men, and with
the institution of a body of hereditary guardians of
religion.2
Brahmanism vic-
The Brahmans succeeded in expelling the Buddhfaith from the Indian peninsula, and when Shankar
torious
ist
over
Acharj journeyed and disputed nine hundred years
after Christ, a few learned men, and the inoffensive
half-conforming Jains,'' alone remained to represent the
Buddhism.
stood to be binding on men, and to constitute their duty and
obligation; and probably the Indian may merely have the
advantage of being a theological teacher instead of an ontological speculator.
The more zealous Christian writers on Hindu theoloey
upon the doctrine of transmigration as limiting the freedom of the will and the degree of isolation of the soul, when
1
seize
thus successively manifested in the world clouded with the
imperfection of previous appearances. A man, it is said, thus
becomes subject to the Fate of the Greeks and Romans. (Cf.
Ward on The Hindoos, ii; Introductory Remarks, xxviii, &c.)
But the soul so weighed down with the sins of a fonrfer
existence does not seem to differ in an ethical point of view,
and as regards our conduct in the present life, from the soul
encumbered with the sin of Adam.
Philosophically, the notions seem equally but modes of accounting for 4he existence
of evil, or for its sway over men.
[See also note 7, p. 39.
J.D.C.] [Socrates, who inculcated every active virtue, nevertheless admitted, 'that he who wanted least was nearest to the
Divinity; for to need nothing was' the attribute of God.'
{Memorabilia, b.l,c.vi,s.lO.) J.D.C.]
See Appendix IV, on 'Caste'.
The modern Jains frankly admit the connexion of their
faith with that of the Buddhists, and the Jaini traders of
Eastern Malwa claim the ancient 'tope' near Bhilsa, as virtually
a temple of their own creed. The date of the general recogni-
3
tion of the Jains as a sect is doubtful, but it is curious that
the 'Kosh', or vocabulary of An^ar Singh, does not contain
the word Jain, although the word 'Jin' is enumerated among
the names of Mayadevi, the regent goddess of the material
universe, and the mother of Gautama, the Buddhist patriarch
or prophet. In the Bhagavad, again, Baudh is represented as
the son of Jin, and as about to appear in Kikat Des, or Bihar.
(See Colonel Kennedy, Res. Hind. Mythol., pp. 243-50.) Amar
Singh, the author of the Sanskrit 'Kosa', or vocabulary, was
himself a Buddhist; and he is differently stated to have flourished in the first century before, or in the fifth after, Christ
(Colonel Kennedy, as above, pp. 127, 128), but in Malwa he
traditionally said to have been confuted in argument by
Shankar Acharj, which would place him in the eighth or ninth
century of our era. J.D.C.] ['Jainism is professed by a comparatively small sect, and it tends to shade off into ordinary
Hinduism. Many Jains employ Brahmans in their domestic
worship, venerate the cow, and often worship in Hindu temis
—
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