CHAPTER VI.

Daily ordinary ceremonials.

OF THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS.

WHERE religious observances form a great part of the ordinary daily life of all Hindoos, it seems necessary to explain the motive, and as far as possible the tenets or principles upon which they depend; and, indeed, without this key, as it were, to the feelings of the people, many important points in their character could not be understood; nor, in a religious sense, the difference between mere superstition and a deep reverence for sacred things. Perhaps because Hindoos are pagans and idolators, it has been, and still is, the practice of writers to contrast their religion with the Christian faith; and, trying it by that standard only, to reject it as abominable. In this chapter it is proposed to review modern Hindoo religion as it is, leaving any comparison out of sight altogether, or to be supplied by the student; as a religion professed by 150,000,000 of souls, with a place of its own in the world's history apart from any other, and from its great antiquity, and preservation during centuries of change and revolution, being entitled to consideration.

To every European resident in India it will be evident that Hindoos perform a number of daily religious ceremonies. If he study the customs of the people, he will come to understand their purport; otherwise they will be necessarily unintelligible. A few of these may be briefly detailed. If a Brahmin, the Hindoo, as he wakes from sleep, repeats a sacred text, to guide him during the day. Many of these texts, chosen from the Védas, are of a highly devotional and supplicatory character. He then bathes, either in his house or by preference at a well, or in a stream, when he repeats the liturgy of the ceremony with invocations to the elements; and he pours libations to the manes of his progenitors. He then puts on clean garments which have been freshly washed, and returns home, where, in the room or closet in which, in every family, the household gods are kept apart, he reads a portion of the scripture, or repeats hymns and texts, in company with the women of his household and his children, who have also bathed. He then marks his forehead with the sacred emblem of his caste, and afterwards those of his wife and children. In some families, rich enough to maintain one, these ceremonies are performed by the family priest; and, after their conclusion, the morning meal is eaten, and the worldly business or calling can be

pursued. It is the custom among many Hindoo families to worship daily at the public temple of their tutelary divinity, and present flowers or other offerings as part of their morning service; this follows the bathing, which is indispensable. In a necessarily brief sketch, the minute details of Brahminical worship cannot be followed; and what has already been stated may serve rather to represent the ordinary observances of those middle classes of Hindoos who have been educated sufficiently to read the liturgies, or to repeat them by rote. With the lower orders of Hindoo artisans and labourers, the details differ only as being less complete, in consequence of less instruction, or less capability of observance; but there is not a Hindoo farmer, artisan, or even common labourer, who does not possess household gods, who does not worship them in his house, and thus purify himself before he, or his family, can eat, or he goes to his daily labour, whatever it may be. During the day, a devout Hindoo will repeat the name of his tutelary divinity upon his rosary; no one gets up, sits down, enters or leaves a room, yawns, sneezes or coughs, without invoking his protection. No Brahmin opens his book for study, no merchant or trader his day-book or ledger, no blacksmith, carpenter, weaver or other artisan or labourer uses his tools, without the same form. But it is by no means necessary to follow the Hindoo through every act of his daily existence, which, from morning till night, is a continual series of religious observances; it is only intended to show that a system of religion pervades every Hindoo's life in its most ordinary and matter-of-fact relations, and, however humble or unpretentious that life may be, cannot be separated from it.

This, however, becomes largely magnified when more particular ceremonials are considered, which form epochs in the Hindoo's life; nor is there a single domestic occurrence which has not one appropriated to it from birth until death. Betrothals, marriages, birth of children, purification after childbirth, birthdays, performance of vows made on any special occasion, sacrifices, oblations, penances, pilgrimages, cremations, or burials and rites for the repose of the souls of relations-all, and many more events of life which it is needless to detail, involve the performance of religious ceremonies. Added to these, are the high festivals of the gods, visitation of particular temples and shrines, the worship and entertainment of Brahmins by Brahmins themselves and inferior castes; and there are many others, which have their place in turn, while of all, comparatively few are neglected or evaded.

It would be out of place to discuss the influence which the outward observances of Hindooism have upon the people. Effects of The great processions, the often gorgeous and imposing observancetemple ceremonies, no doubt excite them to enthusiasm,

ceremonial

Faith

if not to fanaticism; but the religious lives and impressions of Hindoos rest upon a deeper and more enduring foundation than this. They are based upon faith, which, as the main doctrine of their religion, is the motive from which their practical religion springs. It does not concern them that the lives of the gods they believe in, as represented in the Puranas and other popular scriptures, are cruel, capricious, immoral, or on the other hand benevolent; or that the legends regarding them are filled with events which are utterly incredible or absurd. It is enough that the gods are believed to be as they are represented; that their actions cannot be tried by human standards, and that they have the power and the will to grant what is besought of them. Absolute, unconditional faith in them rises superior to all objections or impossibilities; reverence, even amounting to childish credulity, holds the believer in thrall; and a practical devotion follows, which is the habitual condition of mind in which the devout Hindoo desires to live. In the new system of doctrine promulgated by the Brahmins, on the resuscitation of Hindooism and the decline of Boodhism, the quickening influence of faith was undoubtedly the most important. The new doctrines are founded on the tenets of the Védas, but are simplified and purged from metaphysical subtleties, which had become, under these great amplifications, incomprehensible by the ordinary masses of the people, and the discussions on which are confined to the Brahmins themselves. Faith in the mercy and power of God, or of any divinity, male or female, as part of the divine principle or essence, efficacious to hear and grant prayer; the assurance that prayer addressed would be heard by one who had sympathies with human life and its needs, was a doctrine which accorded with the cravings of human souls, entered into their daily lives, and became part of their being. No matter who, of the whole Pantheon might be adopted as the tutelary divinity of a man and of his family, to that being they gave unreserved faith, and through all vicissitudes, he, or she, as it might be, became the object of adoration and of confidence. Knowledge of sacred works, of the Védas, the Shastras, and Puranas may belong almost exclusively to the Brahmins, influence of and out of them the people are instructed in the popular legends of the gods, and fragments of philosophy and moral principles; but the influence these exercise upon Hindoo life is of a secondary character to the faith or belief which has just been noticed. Tenets and texts, in the form of precepts, may be learned by rote, and the repetition of them be esteemed highly meritorious; but comparatively few, except Brahmins, understand them-ignorance prevents their application to the necessities of life, and thus they become of little or no avail in the guidance of

Secondary

instruction.

everyday observance of religion. But if Vishnu, or Seeva, or any other god, or demi-god, be the tutelary deity of a house, a father or mother will pray to him for the life of a child, for offspring, or in any sore need. They will make pilgrimages to distant shrines, attended with inconceivable bodily pain or privation; they will swing by hooks, measure their lengths on the ground in journeys of hundreds of miles, burn themselves with fire, and give all they possess, as propitiatory acts for the aid they implore, or for the pardon of sin they have committed. Such acts are the voluntary emanations of the faith professed, which not even failure in the object will lessen.

Faith, degenerated into credulity, becomes at last superstition; and it will be admitted that Hindoos in general, not excepting Brahmins, are deeply superstitious. Among Hindoos the grossest superstitions are as notorious as they are lamentable; but for the most part they have no concern with the professed religion. They are terrors of evil demons, of serpents, of deities and spirits, who have no place in orthodox Hindoo mythology-sprites who can vex and afflict by disease or misfortune. There is no faith in these imaginary beings; they are never prayed to for aid; but terror of their malign influence is universal, and they may be deprecated by sacrifice and appeased. Such superstitions are the remains of the ancient aboriginal faith of India, everywhere observable as underlying Hindooism, and still existent, in its original condition, among the wild tribes of India who are not Hindoos.1 This most ancient belief is as much the basis of the countless superstitions of Hindoos, as faith is of their religious principle; and is for the present uneradicable. Hindooism may even be replaced by Mahomedanism or Christianity, as has indeed occurred in some localities, but it is very questionable whether either has dispelled, or in any way affected, the Shakti superstitions.

?

To enter into a detail of the Pantheon or mythology, or other particulars of Hindoo belief, would far exceed the scope and intention of this chapter, which concerns the popular religion only. Students, curious to follow out the subject, may consult many of the original Hindoo works of which translations have been made. Of these, Schlegel's Latin version of the Bhugwut Geeta,' the most popular exposition of faith; Essays by Sir W. Jones, Colebrooke, Elphinstone, Mill, Ward, Professor Wilson, and many others; in particular, an admirable recent Commentary by Mrs. Manning will be found replete with information and instruction. The metaphysical systems of Patánjula, of Goutama, of the Sankya Sara, the Nyaya, and Visheshika, which are still professed by sections of Brahmins,

1 Hunter's 'Rural Bengal'

may be examined; but these abstruse works, now hardly understood by their professors, form no part of the popular religion of India; they are the principles of schools of philosophy which, like those of the Greeks, were confined to the philosophers themselves and their immediate disciples. Among them will be found as sublime thoughts and aspirations as can be expressed by language, but disfigured by puerilities which are hardly conceivable.

Good works.

Next to faith, good works have a large part in the everyday religion of Hindoo life. To be kind to relatives and dependants; to be charitable to the full extent of means, and to be hospitable, are duties enjoined by every sacred and moral treatise, constantly preached or expounded, and cheerfully obeyed. To perform ceremonials, to make sacrifices and oblations, to present gifts to Brahmins and religious devotees, in the name of a tutelary divinity; to build temples or tanks, plant groves, construct bathing-places on sacred rivers, or dig wells, are works acceptable to divinity, and to be performed therefore as frequently as possible. The merits of such good works are preached by all classes of priests to all classes of people; and they are taught in schools with the more ordinary moral precepts of honesty, sobriety, truth, reverence for elders, justice, and the like, all of which, as antagonistic to sin, are counted as good works, and are believed to be highly acceptable to God. Nor are the consequences of sin—that is, not only positive commission of evil, but neglect of good works-omitted. Here, however, the religion of the people falls into caste discipline, which is a more direct and efficient means of preserving general Hindoo pline and re- morality than is religion in the abstract, as indeed has been previously explained. Without the restrictions of caste, it will be admitted that the religion of faith alone, earnest and vivid as it may be, would prove a weak defence against immorality of all kinds; and it is under the joint action of the two, strengthening and supporting each other, that the Hindoos have not only preserved both, but that there is a vitality in them at present which at no period of Hindoo history would seem to have been exceeded.

Connection between caste disci

ligion.

Sects of

Among Hindoos, sects have sprung up from time to time, which have been secessions from exclusive Brahminical direcHindoos. tion and superiority. Of these the Jains, as the successors of the Boodhists, is perhaps the oldest, and in it many of the Boodhist tenets are incorporated. The Lingáyets, who arose in the Dekhun, in the eleventh century A.D., are extremely numerous in Southern India. They are a pure Seevite sect, worshipping no idols but the Phallic emblem and the bull, and rejecting the ministration of Brahmins for that of priests of their own. The