HISTORY OF INDIA: PART I. INTRODUCTION. INDIA. the history of New phases of the religions. THE history of India is of universal interest from HISTORY OF the light which it throws upon the annals of the human race; but it is of paramount importance to the Importance of people of Great Britain. It illustrates many phases India. of civilization which are at present but imperfectly civilization. apprehended, but which yet add largely to our knowledge of man. It refers to religions which express Significance of almost every aspiration in human nature, from the lowest animal instinct to the most elevated moral sentiment, and from the worship of the vilest images to the conception of One Being, spiritual and supreme. Above all, however, it indicates the past and present Indicates the conditions of vast and varied populations, who may condition of a be regarded as a sacred trust confided to the British to Great Britain nation by what may be termed an irresistible destiny, or, in other words, a divinely ordered law. past and present people confided as a trust. History of Brit tion distinct The history of the British administration of India ish administrahas frequently been written, but the history of the from the history of the INDIA. PART I. Difficulties in the history of apprehending the Hindús. ⚫ation of com in HISTORY OF Hindús themselves is almost a blank to the European. Indeed the subject is generally regarded as perplexing and wearisome. The religion appears complicated, unmeaning, and often repulsive. The caste system excites no sympathy. The whole framework of society is opposed to European ideas. The names of persons and places are strange, and remembered with difficulty. The result has been, that whilst the ruling powers have ever exhibited a genuine desire to promote the well-being of the governed, they have many cases but imperfectly apprehended the ideas Personal observ- and aspirations of the masses. Englishmen who paratively small have passed the greater part of their lives in India, would yet find it difficult to draw up an imaginary dialogue between two Hindús which should approxImperfect know imate to truth. Even Oriental scholars, who have familiarized themselves with the stores of Brahmanical learning, are but partially acquainted with the thoughts and ways of the many millions who are living under British rule. Nor will this ignorance be surprising when it is considered how little Englishmen knew, until late years, of the middle and lower classes of their own countrymen, although bound to them by a common language, a common literature, a common faith, and a common nationality.1 ledge of Oriental scholars. Knowledge of the masses in England of re cent growth. 1 The extent to which European residents in India are ignorant of the domestic life of the Hindús was thus indicated by Lord William Bentinck sixty years ago; and the conditions specified are at least as true in the present day. "The result of my own observation during my residence in India is, that the Europeans generally know little or nothing of the customs and manners of the Hindús. We are all acquainted with some prominent marks and facts, which all who run may read; but their manner of thinking, their domestic habits and ceremonies, in which circumstances a knowledge of the people consists, is, I fear, in great part wanting to us. We understand very imperfectly their language. They perhaps know more of ours; but their knowledge is by no means sufficiently extensive to give a description of subjects not easily represented by the insulated words in daily use. INDIA. to be found in rata and RámáComprehensive character of the two poems. length and con tions and ideas. The history of India, properly so called, is to be HISTORY OF found in the two voluminous Epics known as the PART I. Mahá Bhárata, or "Great War of Bhárata," and the History of India Rámáyana, or "Adventures of Ráma." These ex- the Maha Bhátraordinary poems comprise the whole of what re- yana mains of the political, social, and religious history of India, and may be regarded as the reflex of the Hindú world. But at the same time they are of Interminable such an interminable length, and exhibit such a fusion of tradicomplicated intertwining of traditions and fables, referring to widely different periods, races, and religions, that the student is frequently lost in a literary jungle. It is certain, however, that a familiarity Familiarity with with these two poems is as indispensable to a know- indispensable to ledge of the Hindús, as a familiarity with the Old the Hindus. Testament is indispensable to a knowledge of the Jews. They form the great national treasuries out of which the bards have borrowed the stories of their ballads, the eulogists and genealogists have taken the materials for their so-called histories, and the later Bráhmans have drawn the subject-matter of their religious discourses and the groundwork of their moral teaching; whilst nearly every plot in a Hindú drama, or sculptured group in a Hindú pa We do not, we cannot, associate with the natives. We cannot see them in their houses, and with their families. We are necessarily very much confined to our houses by the heat. All our wants and business which would create a greater intercourse with the natives is done for us, and we are, in fact, strangers in the land." A great deal of information may however be gathered from native students in the Government Schools, who will freely communicate their ideas and experiences to any masters or professor who may have obtained their confidence. During the three or four years that the present writer held the post of Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic at the Madras Presidency College, he is conscious of having acquired many facts respecting Hindú life which are not generally known; as well as a respect for that better and brighter side of the native character which is not generally appreciated, such as the warm attachment which subsists between friends and relatives, and the chivalrous devotion of sons to the wishes of their parents. the two poems a knowledge of INDIA. PART I. exercised by the the masses. Their extraordinary popularity. HISTORY OF goda, refers to some character or scene belonging to one or other of these famous poems. Few Hindús may perhaps be acquainted with the whole of these Epics, and none have ventured to subject them to a Vast influence critical analysis and investigation; yet their influence two poems upon upon the masses of the people is beyond calculation, and infinitely greater and more universal than the influence of the Bible upon modern Europe. The leading incidents and scenes are familiar to the Hindús from their childhood. They are frequently represented at village festivals, whilst the stories are chaunted aloud at almost every social gathering; and indeed form the leading topic of conversation amongst Hindús generally, and especially amongst those who have passed the meridian of life. In a word, these poems are to the Hindús all that the Library, the Newspaper, and the Bible are to the European; whilst the books themselves are regarded with a superstitious reverence, which far exceeds that which has ever been accorded to any other revelation, real or supposed. To this day it is the common belief that to peruse or merely to listen to reading them or the perusal of the Mahá Bhárata or Rámáyana, will ensure prosperity in this world, and eternal happiness hereafter; will give wealth to those who are poor, and children to the woman who is barren. At the same time they are cherished by the Hindús as national property, belonging to the national soil, and containing the records of the deeds of their forefathers in the days when the gods held frequent logical interval communion with the children of men. Belief in bene ficial results of hearing them read. Long chrono between the age in which the events took place and the Before, however, reproducing in a historical form age in which the the main traditions which are embodied in these Mahá Bhárata and Ramayana ancient Epics, there is one point which may be were composed. INDIA. by the ideas of age. ligion during the briefly indicated, especially as it will form a fre- HISTORY OF quent subject of future discussion. The leading events belong to one age; the poems belong to another and a later period. In other words, the Mahá Bhárata and Rámáyana were not composed in their present form until a period long after that in which the heroes of the two poems lived and died. The result has been that the events of one Events coloured age have been coloured by the ideas of another; the subsequent and this chronological interval, which could scarcely have been less than one or two thousand years, is rendered more important from the fact that the re- Changes in religion which flourished in the age in which the interval." events occurred, had more or less passed away, and a new one been established in the succeeding age, in which the poems were composed. The former Distinction bemay be called the Vedic period, the latter the Brah- and the Brahmanic period. The term Vedic is here borrowed from the Rig- The Vedic period Veda, which is a very ancient collection of hymns, or mantras, addressed to different deities who will be presently described. These hymns are of considerable value, inasmuch as they did not originally form part of a laboured and artificial ritual, but are the genuine outpourings of simple minds, eagerly praying to the gods for material and temporal blessings. Evidence will be furnished hereafter to show 2 The Vedas are four in number, but the first and oldest, known as the RigVeda, is the one which principally demands attention, as the other three belong to a subsequent and ritualistic age, and indeed are little more than recasts of the RigVeda. (See Wilson's Rig-Veda, Vol. I. Introduction; also Goldstücker's paper in the English Cyclopædia upon the Vedas.) The four Vedas are respectively termed the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sáma-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda. Each Veda is divided into two parts, viz. 1st, The Hymns, or Mantras, which express the wants and aspirations of the worshippers, and thereby throw some light upon the social condition of the people. 2nd, The Brahmanas, which belong to a ritualistic age, and refer to rites and tween the Vedic manic periods. coeval with the main events re corded in the two Epics. |