INDIA. PART V. been described; Indra as the type of sovereignty HISTORY OF and conquest, the giver of rain, and sometimes the creator of the rivers and mountains; and Agni, as light or fire in all its varied manifestations, as the creative or vivifying spirit which animated the entire universe like a Supreme Soul. of the Vedic It is perhaps difficult in a philosophic age to Genial character sympathize in the deep religious fervour with which ceremonial. the Aryan psalmists invoked such deities as those which have been described. But the natural selfishness which lies at the root of such religious enthusiasm, sufficiently explains the cause of the vitality of their devotion. So long as the people believed that material blessings were to be obtained by offerings of food and wine, and hymns of praise and prayer, so long they would continue to prepare the feast for the gods, and pour forth their souls in passionate laudation and supplication. The nature of the Vedic worship would also be specially acceptable to a convivial community; for its rites would be associated with every joyous gathering, if not with every family meal; and it would naturally be popular so long as the community believed that they could procure plenteous harvests, prolific cattle, abundance of sons, health, vigour, and long life, by the simple process of feasting and singing in the presence of their kind-hearted and generous deities. At the same time the genius of the bard would be Popularity and stimulated to a pitch never reached by the poet of a Vedic psalmists. more enlightened and incredulous age. Riches, fame, and glory would be the reward of that Rishi, who personified a new deity or composed a new hymn, if his poctical flights only reached the ears of the god, and procured earthly blessings for the con power of the INDIA. PART V. Daughters of Rajas bestowed in marriage upon Rishis. HISTORY OF gregation of worshippers. Sometimes a fair daughter was given in marriage to a young and successful bard. Thus the legend has already been related of the Raja of Anga, who gave his daughter in marriage to a young Rishi, who brought down the rain after a long-continued drought. In like manner a legend has been preserved in the hymns of the RigVeda of another Raja, dwelling on the banks of the Sindhú or Indus, who gave ten daughters in marriage to a young psalmist named Kakshívat, together with rich dowries of cows, horses, and chariots.2 Wide interval between Vedic ical ideas. It thus seems impossible to identify these ancient and Brahman- Vedic bards or Rishis with the more modern Bráhman priests. The hymns contain many references to priests or cooks, and some isolated allusions to Bráhmans; but the god Brahma scarcely ever appears to have been recognized or worshipped. Again, while some of the hymns comprise speculations about the soul, the relative priority of earth and heaven, and the creation of the universe, which is ascribed to Indra or Agni, there is no expression of Brahmanical ideas, and no reference to the creation of the universe by Brahmá. Judging therefore brew psalmists. from the analogy furnished by Hebrew history, the hymns might be referred to a class of minstrels of whom king David was a type, rather than to a sacerdotal class. But there is an opposition in the Vedic bards re semble the He 1 See ante, Part IV. chap. ii. 2 Rig-Veda, Mand. I. Hymn 126. There are several legends of a later date of Rajas giving their daughters in marriage to Brahmans who are identified with Rishis; but the stories appear to have passed through a Brahmanical crucible, for the husbands in such cases appear as decrepit old Brahmans rather than as youthful Rishis. Notwithstanding all the efforts of the Puranic authors to represent the young wives as loving and faithful under such circumstances, the idea is neither agrecable to poetical sentiment, nor to human nature, which finds a healthier expression in such ballads as "Auld Robin Gray." INDIA. PART V. the Vedic a peaceful com warlike com hymns of the Rig-Veda between a peaceful com- HISTORY OF munity and a warlike community which might possibly indicate an opposition between the ancestors Opposition in of the men who afterwards became Bráhmans and hymns between the ancestors of the men who afterwards became munity and a Kshatriyas. Such an opposition must be referred munity. to a period long before the Aryans had crossed the Saraswatí, and entered Brahmárshi-desa; and consequently long before the names of Bráhman and Kshatriya had been applied to the priest and warrior castes. It has already been seen that the majority of the hymns of the Rig-Veda are the expression of a peaceful community, who offered simple oblations of butter and milk to the deities of the elements, and other personified abstractions; and this class of priestly worshippers has been identified with the ancestors of the later Bráhmans. In like manner it has been seen that there are other hymns which appear to be the expression of a warlike class of the community; for they are connected with flesh. sacrifices to Indra; and accordingly this class of worshippers has been identified with the ancestors of the later Kshatriyas. Traces are also to be found Opposition bein these ancient hymns of an opposition between the ship of the worship of the Maruts, or winds, by a peaceful com- Indra. munity, and the worship of Indra, as a hero, by a warlike community. In one hymn Indra is represented as expostulating with the Maruts in the following language:-" Where, Maruts, has that food been assigned to you, which was appropriated to me alone for the destruction of Ahi? For I indeed am fierce, and strong, and mighty, and have bowed 3 See ante, Vol. I. Introduction. 4 See Wilson's Rig-Veda, vol. ii. pp. 145–162. tween the wor Maruts and the worship of INDIA. HISTORY OF down all my enemies with death-dealing shafts."5 PART V. Again, Agastya the sage, who appears to have especially upheld the worship of the Maruts, expostulates with Indra thus:-"Why, Indra, dost thou purpose to slay us? The Maruts are thy brethren! Share with them in peace; destroy us not in enmity." In another hymn a worshipper thus expresses to the Maruts his alarm at the jealousy of Indra:-"Maruts, through fear of that violent Indra, I fly trembling; the oblations that had been prepared for you have been put away; nevertheless have patience with s."7 Indeed some of the hymns which are addressed to Indra are wholly of a warlike and triumphant character, like the song of Miriam, or the Song of Barak and Deborah, and can scarcely be identified as belonging to a devotional psalmody. The potent god, the showerer of benefits, is invoked as the destroyer of the cities of the Dasyus, the conqueror of Sambara, the slayer of the black-skinned barbarians who gave him no libations, and who molested the white-complexioned Aryans, that were his friends and worshippers. Further clue to the opposition us.' A further clue to the distinction between Rishis between Rishis and Bráhmans seems to be furnished by the disdistinction be tinction laid down in the Puránas between Rájarshis, Devarshis, shis, or king Rishis; Devarshis, or god Rishis; and furnished by the tween Rájar and shis. Brahmarshis, or Bráhman sages. The king Rishis were probably Kshatriyas, who have always been designated Rajas. The god Rishis, termed Devarshis, or Rishis of the Devatas, were probably Rishis of the 5 Rig-Veda, Mand. I. Hymn 145, v. 6. Ahi is another name for Vrita, who is sometimes treated as a personification of the rain cloud, and sometimes as a Daitya or warrior amongst the aborigines. INDIA. PART V. peaceful community, or rather of the Aryan race in HISTORY OF general, who are often alluded to as Devatas, or gods. Finally, the term Brahmarshis was apparently applied to the early Bráhman sages; and hence their country was distinguished from the Aryan country, or the land of Devatas, by the term Brahmárshi-desa.8 ance of the mercenary sacrificers. originally their The advent of the Bráhmans, and the establish- First appearment of their ascendancy as a great spiritual hier- Brahmans as archy, must have been the work of generations if not of centuries. Traces, however, are not wanting of the circumstances under which they rose. They first appeared among the Aryan community as mercenary priests, or sacrificers, who were prepared to officiate at the great festivals or sacrificial sessions for the sake of hire. Here it should be remarked The Kshatriyas that in the Vedic period the Kshatriyas were their own priests. own priests; the term priest being employed to indicate the performers of sacred rites, as distinct from the Rishis or composers of sacred songs. In other words, the Chiefs of a family, a tribe, or a Raj, appear occasionally as performers of a sacrifice, and even as celebrating the rites of marriage. Thus at the famous Aswamedha of Raja Yudhishthira, the horse was not sacrificed by a Bráhman, but by Bhíma, the second Pándava; whilst the marriage rites of Nala and Damayantí were performed by the Raja of Vidarbha, and those of Ráma and Sítá by the Raja of Mithila. Subsequently the Bráhmans Subsequent hirwere apparently hired by Rajas to perform the laborious ceremonies at the great sacrifices; and in this capacity they were regarded with disdain by ing of Bráh mans. |