Tempo:
CHAP. 11
OLD INDIAN CREEDS
'Mlechhas', the barbarians or
'gentiles'
23
of
Hinduism.
The Kshattriyas had acquired kingdoms, heathen
princes had been subdued or converted, and the Brahmans, who ever denounced as prophets rather than
preached as missionaries, were powerless in foreign
royal inquirer welcomed them,
countries if no
Loses its
or if no ambitious warrior followed them. Hinduism had unity and
the
with
it
brought
victory
the
and
limits,
its
attained
vigour.
seeds of decay. The mixture with strangers led to a
partial adoption of their usages, and man's desire for
sympathy ever prompted him to seek an object of worship more nearly allied to himself in nature than the
invisible and passionless divinity.^ The concession of a
simple black stone as a mark of direction to the senses,^
no longer satisfied the hearts or understandings of the
pies.
Jainism and Buddhism have
much in common, and up
to be an offshoot of
Buddhism. It is now known that it originated independently
of, though at the same time as, Buddhism; that is, in the sixth
century before Christ.' Holderness, Peoples and Problems of
India. (See Stevenson, The Heart of Jainism. Oxford University Press, 1915.)—Ed.]
1 Mr. Elphinstone (History of India, i. 189) observes that
Rama and Krishna, with their human feelings and congenial
acts, attracted more votaries than the gloomy Siva; and I have
somewhere noticed, I think in the Edinburgh Review, the truth
to
recent years Jainism
was believed
—
well enlarged upon, viz. that the sufferings of Jesus materially
aided the growth of Christianity by enlisting the sympathies
The bitter reof the multitude in favour of a crucified God.
mark of Xenophanes, that if oxen became religious their gods
would be bovine in form, is indeed most true as expressive of
a general desire among men to make their divinities anthro7
(Grote, History of Greece, iv. 523, and Thirlwall,
History, ii. 136.)
- Hindu Saivism, or the worship of the Lingam, seems
to represent the compromise which the learned Brahmans
made when they endeavoured to exalt and purify the superstition of the multitude, who throughout India continue to this
day to see the mark of the near presence of the Divinity in
everything.
The Brahmans may thus have taught the mere
fetichist, that when regarding a simple black stone, they
should think of the invisible ruler of the universe; and they
may have wished to leave the Buddhist image worshippers
some point of direction for the senses. That the Lingam is
typical of reproductive energy seems wholly a notion of later
times, and to be confined to the few who ingeniously or per(Cf.
versely see recondite meanings in ordinary similitudes.
Wilson, Vishnu Puran. preface, Ixiv [and Colonel Kennedy
{Res. Hind. Mythol., pp. 284, 308), who distinctly says the
Lingam and Yoni are not held to be typical of the destructive
and reproductive powers; and that there is nothing in the
Purans to sanction such an opinion. J.D.C.].) [The latter
part of the author's note, which begs the whole question of
phallic worship, is hardly in agreement with modern theory.
pomorphous.
—
—Ed.]
OLD INDIAN CREEDS
'Mlechhas', the barbarians or
'gentiles'
23
of
Hinduism.
The Kshattriyas had acquired kingdoms, heathen
princes had been subdued or converted, and the Brahmans, who ever denounced as prophets rather than
preached as missionaries, were powerless in foreign
royal inquirer welcomed them,
countries if no
Loses its
or if no ambitious warrior followed them. Hinduism had unity and
the
with
it
brought
victory
the
and
limits,
its
attained
vigour.
seeds of decay. The mixture with strangers led to a
partial adoption of their usages, and man's desire for
sympathy ever prompted him to seek an object of worship more nearly allied to himself in nature than the
invisible and passionless divinity.^ The concession of a
simple black stone as a mark of direction to the senses,^
no longer satisfied the hearts or understandings of the
pies.
Jainism and Buddhism have
much in common, and up
to be an offshoot of
Buddhism. It is now known that it originated independently
of, though at the same time as, Buddhism; that is, in the sixth
century before Christ.' Holderness, Peoples and Problems of
India. (See Stevenson, The Heart of Jainism. Oxford University Press, 1915.)—Ed.]
1 Mr. Elphinstone (History of India, i. 189) observes that
Rama and Krishna, with their human feelings and congenial
acts, attracted more votaries than the gloomy Siva; and I have
somewhere noticed, I think in the Edinburgh Review, the truth
to
recent years Jainism
was believed
—
well enlarged upon, viz. that the sufferings of Jesus materially
aided the growth of Christianity by enlisting the sympathies
The bitter reof the multitude in favour of a crucified God.
mark of Xenophanes, that if oxen became religious their gods
would be bovine in form, is indeed most true as expressive of
a general desire among men to make their divinities anthro7
(Grote, History of Greece, iv. 523, and Thirlwall,
History, ii. 136.)
- Hindu Saivism, or the worship of the Lingam, seems
to represent the compromise which the learned Brahmans
made when they endeavoured to exalt and purify the superstition of the multitude, who throughout India continue to this
day to see the mark of the near presence of the Divinity in
everything.
The Brahmans may thus have taught the mere
fetichist, that when regarding a simple black stone, they
should think of the invisible ruler of the universe; and they
may have wished to leave the Buddhist image worshippers
some point of direction for the senses. That the Lingam is
typical of reproductive energy seems wholly a notion of later
times, and to be confined to the few who ingeniously or per(Cf.
versely see recondite meanings in ordinary similitudes.
Wilson, Vishnu Puran. preface, Ixiv [and Colonel Kennedy
{Res. Hind. Mythol., pp. 284, 308), who distinctly says the
Lingam and Yoni are not held to be typical of the destructive
and reproductive powers; and that there is nothing in the
Purans to sanction such an opinion. J.D.C.].) [The latter
part of the author's note, which begs the whole question of
phallic worship, is hardly in agreement with modern theory.
pomorphous.
—
—Ed.]
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