Indian theism from the Vedic to the Muhammadan period

Front matter

i>.vi«cc BL200I

THE RELIGIOUS QUEST OF INDIA

EDITED BY

Preface

The greater part of this book was submitted as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Letters of the University of Glasgow. As it is now published it has been considerably enlarged, several chapters having been added. In its preparation I have not had the advantage of consulting Sir Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar’s detailed treatment of most of the subject in his Vaisnavism, Saivism and Minor Religious Systems , which appeared a year ago. By that time the manuscript was already complete, and it was only possible to make use of this work in one or two footnotes. That is the more to be regretted as this is a subject on which no one can speak with such authority and such knowledge as this venerable scholar, who is himself an adherent of the school of bhakti. No one who knows ‘Dr. Bhandarkar as his friends still prefer to call him, could treat with anything but deep respect a religious movement of which at its highest he may be said to be the representative.

I desire to acknowledge with much gratitude the assistance given in the preparation of this volume by Mr. J. N. Farquhar, one of the editors of the series to which it belongs. Were it not for the guidance that his wide knowledge of all aspects of Indian religion has afforded, the defects of this book would be still greater than they are. He has also by the pains he has taken in the correction of the proofs done much to bridge the wide interval that lies in this case between the author and the printer.

Poona, India.

October , 1914.

N. M.

TO MARGARET

Chapter I. The Theism Of The Rig Veda

Sense in which this religion can be described as Theism. Its conceptions necessarily those of a primitive age. Difficulty of determining the chronology of the Hymns and the causes and course of the development of their religious ideas. Varuna. His Hebraic character and moral greatness. A religion of nature passing into a religion of spirit. Varuna and the rita. The fall of Varuna and the victory of Pantheism over Theism. Hindrances to Theism in the Indian spirit. Contrast with Greece. Signs of the pantheistic tendency in Vedic polytheism. Henotheism. ‘Polytheistic Pantheism.’ The influence of philosophy. The way of abstraction ending in Agnosticism .... pp. 7-24

CHAPTER II. THEISTIC ELEMENTS IN THE POPULAR RELIGION IN THE PERIOD OF THE BRAHMANAS AND THE UPAN ISADS

The change from the Vedic to the Brahmanic period. The difficulty of finding anything that can be called theistic here. The fetichism and demonolatry of the Atharvan. Its relation to the higher religion of the Rig Veda. The Brahmanas aristocratic and priestly in character. The rise of Visnu and his relation to devotional religion. The connexion of sun gods and vegetation gods with such religion. Visnu and the hope of immortality. Visnu as a deliverer of mankind from distress. The origin and universality of the feeling of bhakti. Vasudeva and Krisna. Conjectures as to the origin of Krisna worship. The identification of Vasudeva-Krisna with Visnu by means of avataras ... . pp. 25-41

v CHAPTER III. THE THEISM OF THE UPANISADS

The Upanisads largely antagonistic to the sacerdotalism of the Brahmanas, but not necessarily anti-Brahmanical. Nor are they necessarily xii

opposed to the Bhagavata religion. The monistic tendency of Indian religious thought. The conflicting religious currents of this period. In those Upanisads where the speculative interest is less than the practical one of deliverance, theistic ideas are to be found more clearly expressed. The earlier Upanisads. Tests of the Theism of the Upanisads. (i) Is the world real ? The doctrine of maya unknown to the Upanisads. The universe is a reality produced and sustained by Brahman. But reality is reached by a process of abstraction. (2) Is the means to attaining Brahman an unethical knowledge? Excessive intellectualism opposed to Theism. Tendency of the Upanisads in this direction, but knowledge often includes ethical elements. (3) Does union with Brahman mean absorption ? Statements of seers not to be interpreted too literally. Not Pantheism but Mysticism pp. 42-61

CHAPTER IV. THEISM WITHIN BUDDHISM

Theistic elements to be found even within Jainism and Buddhism. In Jainism they are few and feeble. The search for deliverance. Visnuite elements in Buddhism. Its practical and non-metaphysical character. Its ethical character. Its asceticism a discipline. In those respects it is theistic and makes room for faith. The place of Buddha in Buddhism. Buddhism as a phase of Hinduism. Its doctrine of the ‘mean’ and of grace pp. 62-74

CHAPTER V. THE THEISM OF THE BHAGAVADGITA

The unique position of the Gita in Indian Theism. The question of its date and growth. It is comprehensive in its character. Two theistic streams unite in it. Its teaching not systematic. The immanent God brought into relation with men. The relation of a personal God to karma. The doctrine of grace. Works that do not fetter. The doctrines of grace and faith also in the Awakening of Faith in the Mahay ana. The teaching of both books springs from a common need . pp. 75-85

CHAPTER VI. THEISM DURING THE MAHABHARATA

PERIOD

The ‘jungle of the Mahabharata'. The rival gods of the Epic. The forces opposed to Theism. Its association with Visnu. The avatara idea. Methods of linking up the gods. The doctrine of the grace of God. Yoga. Its alliance with bhakti. The easy compromises of the Mahabharata not sufficient pp. 86-95 xiii

CHAPTER VII. THE THEISM OF THE VEDANTA SUTRAS AND OF RAMANUJA

What the Sutras are. Their obscurity. Sankara’s exposition of

them. Ramanuja. His predecessors. Yamunacarya. Characteristics ,

of Ramanuja’s Vaisnavism. His theology based on the Vedanta. Brahman as the 'embodied' soul. His doctrines of God and man leave room for Theism. His teaching in regard to karma and the persistence of personality after release. The Creator and kartna. His incarnations and manifestations. The Tengalai and Vadagalai schools . pp. 96-111

CHAPTER VIII. LATER VAISNAVITE CULTS

Madhva. The influence of his teaching. Ramananda. TulsI Das. The Indian Theistic reformation. Its limitations and its weakness. The ‘name’. The Maratha saints : Jnanesvar, Namdev, Tukaram. Character of this movement. Vallabhacarya. Nimbarka. The influence of the Vallabha sect. The Sahajia cult in Bengal. Caitanya. The emotionalism of his sect. Mira Bal pp. 112-34

CHAPTER IX. KABIR AND NANAK

The new element in Indian religion. Kablr. The character of his teaching. Its opposition to Hinduism and its monotheism. The need of mediation. His doctrine of sabda and its meaning. His doctrine of the guru. Kablr as the chief guru. Rites of initiation and communion. Nanak and the Sikhs. His life. Hindu and Muhammadan elements in his teaching. T^ie transcendence and unknowableness of God. The mediation of the guru and the name. The guru as God. The Granth Saheb. Guru Govind. Nanak as a reformer. The Udasls and Nirmalas. The Akalls. Other Sikh sects. Dadu and the Dadu Panthls. The Baba Lalls. The Caran Dasls. The SivanarayanTs . pp. 135-59

CHAPTER X. 3lVA BHAKTI

The repulsive character of Siva. The origin of the god. The Svetasvatara Upanisad. Saivism associated with bhakti. Saivism in the Mahabharata. Saivism in South India. The Saiva Siddhanta.

Its sources. The Agamas. Its doctrines. The grace of Siva. The fsaivite saints and poets. Manikka-vasagar. The unknowable has drawn near. ‘ The black-throated one.’ The influence of the Gita. The Sivavakyar. The Vlra Saivite or Lingayat movement. Its failure.

XIV

CHAPTER XI. THE ^AKTA SECT

A parallel growth in Saivism to erotic Vaisnavism. Its relation to aboriginal ideas and worships. The worship of female deities. This type of worship within Buddhism. Its relation to the cult of the Unmanifested. Its relation also to deep-seated human instincts and passions. Poison as the antidote for poison. Its relation to Yoga and Sankhya. Sexual ideas predominate throughout . . pp. 180-89

Part II. Theology

The later, more reflective period to be dealt with. The change from Vedic to more specifically Hindu religion. The mystical speculation of the Upanisads. Its abstract and intellectual character. Is God here immanent or transcendent ? Ambiguous answer of the mystical writers Tf the Upanisads. Impersonal character of much of India’s spiritual historyT The doctrine of avataras. The ethics of the Bhagavadgita. Its theology. The ambiguity of its teaching. Its final goal. The meaning of bhakti and Bhagavat. Ramanuja’s theology. Bhakti and prapatti. ~Madhva’s Dvaita system. The Suddhadvaita system of Vallabhacarya. The Ramanandls and the Nimbarka sect. The fsandilya and Narada Sutras.

The SaRa Siddhanta. Its conception of a purpose of deliverance as governing the relation of God and the universe. Its theological breadth. The popular movements not theological. Bhakti in the later poets becoming moralized. Its ability to overcome the power of transmigration and of caste • . pp. 190-219

Part III. Criticism And Appreciation

Christianity as the standard of comparison. Parallelisms between Indian Theisms and Christianity. The karma and transmigration theory as the differentia of Indian thought pp. 220-25

I. The place of God alongside of karma. The effect of this doctrine on Theism. Similar problem in the relation of Christianity to the laws of nature. The attempt of the Saiva Siddhanta to solve the problem.

II. The relation of the free ethical activity of Theism to the legalism of the karma doctrine. The way of escape in the Gita from the bondage of karma. The karma bondage and the bondage of law as described by xv

St. Paul. God as a centre of negation. The imperfectly ethical character of the karma doctrine. It cannot enter into the full kingdom of Theism. Freedom as the note of a fully ethical Theism . pp. 229-36

III. The question of the deliverance of the fettered soul. Deliverance from the world as the end rather than union with God. Righteousness as normative in Christian Theism. Absence of a moral ideal in Indian Theism. Law not taken up into the divine personality. Legal penalty and the chastisement of a Father. The domination of the karmatransmigration doctrine. The emancipated soul as God . pp. 237-42

IV. The excessive intellectualism of Indian religion. The way of

abstraction. Its aristocratic character. Indian religious thought not ethical but ontological. The ethical path to God. Indian passivity. Christian Theism a ‘ gospel of salvation by joy ’ . . . pp. 242-7

V. The reaction from intellectualism to excessive emotionalism. Theism

enlists the emotions on the side of righteousness. Many bhakti religions strong in their appeal to the heart. Danger of uncontrolled emotionalism. The emotion in Indian Theisms creating its own object. A religion of feeling needs an ideal realized in a person. That is supplied in Christianity by Jesus Christ. How He differs from Krisna and Rama. The tales of divine grace and their authenticity. Grace and holiness to be reconciled in God. How this is done in the Cross of Christ. The service of God as service of man ........ pp. 247-60

VI. Other aspects of the Indian Theisms. The longing for communion

with God. The Eternal must be manifested in time. The easy tolerance of Indian Theism. Its failure in relation to polytheism, idolatry, and caste. The fundamental difference between them and Christianity lies in its possession of Christ. Summary .... pp. 260-67

APPENDIXES

A. Historical Table pp. 268-9

B. Ekanath (sixteenth century) on Bhakti .... pp. 270-1

C. The Alleged Indebtedness of Indian Theism to Christianity pp. 272-9

D. The Manbhau Sect pp. 280-1

E. Bibliography pp. 282-4

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

S. B. E. Sacred Books of the East.

J. R.A. S. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.

E. R. E. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics.

A. V. A than> a Veda.

Sat. Brah. Satapatha Brahmana.

Ait. Aran. Aitareya Aranyaka.

Brihad. Up. Brihadaranyaka Upanisad.

Chand. Up. Chandogya Upanisad.

Svet. Up. Svetasvatara Upanisad.

Mund. Up. Mundaka Upanisad.

Mbh. Mahabhdrata.

Bhag. Bhagavadgita.

Ved. Silt. Vedanta Sutras.

Hopkins, R. I. Hopkins , Religions of India.

Barth, R. I. Barth, Religions of India.

Ind. Ant. or I. A. Indian Antiquary.

Poussin, Opinions. Poussin, Bouddhisme, Opinions sur I Histoire de la Dogmatique.

Suzuki. Suzuki, Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana.

D. C. Sen. D. C. Sen, History of Bengali Language and Literature. Westcott. Westcott, Kabir and the Kabir Panth.

Macauliffe. Macauliffe, The Sikh Religion.

Trumpp. Trumpp, The Adi Granth.

INTRODUCTION

India has always been recognized as so determinedly pantheistic in its religious thought that ‘ Indian Theism’ will seem to many an unnatural collocation of words. There are some, no doubt, who will maintain that whatever can be so described is really foreign to the Indian spirit and must be credited to Christian or Muhammadan influences. Were this the case the study of the course of the theistic development in India would lose much of its interest and value. A closer acquaintance with the facts will show, however, that Indian religion has had a far wider range of expression than is here suggested. The spirit of no people — certainly not that of the Indian races — can be summed up in a single formula. Theism, no doubt, assumes various aspects in various environments and as it passes through various minds. For that reason it will be found in India always to bear certain characteristic marks that determine it as Indian. But while that is the case it can hardly be denied that what can be definitely described as theistic is both ancient in the land and indigenous to the soil. It might indeed be maintained, were this the appropriate place to do so, that the common heart and conscience of mankind everywhere has in it the promise and potency of such a religious attitude. 'Without controversy, there are certain profound needs and longings of the heart which a faith in a personal God would seem alone to satisfy, while we are conscious at the same time of the fact that the demand of reason in us is steadily advancing simultaneously towards a conviction of the ground of the universe as onev We shall accordingly find at all periods of the Indian religious development certain elements in it which, far off as they often are from what we understand

B by the Theism of Western theologians and philosophers, yet can justly claim to share with them that designation.

Those cults and systems, often embryonic, often fragmentary, appear sometimes as efforts of revolt from the ceremonialism or the intellectualism of the official religion. In such cases they have their roots in popular piety ; and generally, when the wave of religious emotion has spent itself, they sink back to assume their place among a multitude of scarcely distinguishable sects. The fact that Indian Theism so often has this source renders the task of its historian particularly difficult. Piety seldom expresses itself in the literature and the language of the learned — and in early India practically the only literature that has survived is that which makes use of the learned language — and piety often attracts so little attention as to obtain no permanent recognition. It most often establishes itself in the hearts of the common people ; and it may not infrequently be deepest where it is most inarticulate. In India especially, so barren in historical records, it is difficult to be sure of the character of some of those ancient movements of religious emotion or to estimate their influence. With the more intellectual Theism which has formulated itself in the systems of the philosophers it is easier to deal, though here too the setting of the ideas there expressed, the extent to which they lived in men’s hearts and controlled their lives, remains obscure. As a matter of fact Theism, whether it springs from a root of simple piety or has reached self-consciousness in a formulated theology, always bears so close a relation to the lives of those who profess it that its value can only be rightly estimated by the help of its historical context. It is essentially a personal and experimental religion, and for that reason the obscurity of India’s past renders the task of any one who seeks to trace the course of Indian Theism and to appreciate its influence a peculiarly difficult one. Even the main highway of the Indian religious development often loses itself in the wilderness. How much harder, therefore, it must be to endeavour to follow the innumerable bypaths, the jungle

INTRODUCTION tracks, of theistic devotion, now swallowed up in the dense undergrowth of polytheism, now lost in the pantheistic desert. We may be able to find in the obscure beginnings of a cult, now hopelessly idolatrous, in the suggestion of some ceremonial, or in a fragment of ancient song, traces of the claims that the heart once made to know God in a personal communion, demands of a living conscience in the face of formalism and insincerity. These will form the chief materials out of which the popular theistic faith will have to be reconstructed. The task of piecing together from a shadowy past such hints of what we are seeking is no easy one and gives room for much difference of opinion. It should not, however, be unprofitable, nor without its suggestions for a fuller comprehension of what Theism implies, to follow its wayward course as far as we are able to discern it and to note its reactions in the peculiar Indian environment.

It may indeed be questioned how far the name Theism is appropriate to describe some of the worships and some of the speculations which will come within our purview. It is true, as we shall find, that few, if any, of the popular cults are free from the taint of polytheism and idolatry. It is true also that in India especially it is difficult to demarcate the boundaries of Theism and Pantheism, to say that here one ends and the other begins. The unity of God and the reality of moral relations, the possibility of a fellowship between the Deity and his worshippers which never passes into unconscious absorption, man’s freedom and his immortality, these we may believe to be essential to Theism and to follow inevitably from it. But at the same time we may have implicit Theisms, efforts of the spirit in its direction, which have not reached and may never reach full self-consciousness and yet to which the name need not be refused. We cannot decide by any a priori rule what should be admitted to our survey and what excluded from it. It will be possible for us, however, after the whole field, with whatever it has to present to us — whether we have to pronounce it good or bad, the product of the crude emotions of the half-

B 2 civilized or of a super-refined intellectual subtlety — has been surveyed, to judge of the value of India’s efforts after a theistic faith in the light of such a fully articulated Theism as Christianity. Many of these efforts have proved, as we shall find, abortive. Something in the Indian atmosphere or in the Indian spirit seems again and again to thwart them. Why this is so we shall have to endeavour to explain ; and it will be best explained by a comparison of the Indian theistic development in its waywardness and in its results with the fully ethical Theism of the Christian religion. Christianity provides the standard against which the products of Indian reflection and devotion can most suitably be measured.

The one limitation that it seems advisable to place upon our study is that it be confined as far as possible to phases of theistic religion which are genuinely Indian. Here again it will often be difficult to determine what to include and what to exclude. It is impossible to disentangle the foreign elements from those that are purely indigenous in many of the movements of Indian religious life. When Muhammadanism invaded the country, and still more when Christianity appeared at a later date, supported by all the authority and prestige of Western civilization, the Indian spirit, however deeply rooted in its own soil, and however tenacious of its own peculiar characteristics, could not but be greatly influenced. And such influence tended naturally to strengthen the movement towards a definitely monotheistic Theism and to weaken whatever elements in it were peculiarly Indian. The more the religion has been thus de-Indianized, the more our interest in it diminishes ; for it is with Indian Theism that we are here concerned. We shall accordingly exclude entirely from our study the theistic movements of the nineteenth century. Our purpose is to learn how far theistic worships have actually emerged in the past from the specifically Indian spirit and in what forms they have so emerged. We wish to know whether that spirit has any contribution to make to the interpretation of theistic religion, and especially what

INTRODUCTION points of contact it may have found in its past with the Christian religion, and whether means may be discovered for a fuller reconciliation between it and that supreme theistic faith. First in our treatment of the subject will come an account, mainly historical, of the successive efforts in the direction of Theism which mark the whole course of the development of Indian religion from the Vedic to the Muhammadan period. This historical narrative will be followed by some account of the theology which, whether articulated into a system or only partially conscious of itself, lay behind the cultus and the experience. The record of the theistic facts will thus be succeeded by a survey of the theistic idea, the account of the manifold aspects of theistic life and faith by a presentation of the thought which was implicit in it and which endeavoured to explain it. Finally an attempt will be made to frame an appreciation of the value of this religious movement and its results by means of a comparison of it with the normative ethical Theism of Christianity.

Part I. History I

When one speaks of the Theism of the Rig Veda , it need hardly be explained that one vises the word with less than the full-orbed meaning that it bears for us to-day. There has been much controversy among scholars as to whether these poems are expressions of the religious consciousness of a primitive people, naive utterances of the fears and hopes and fancies of the natural man, or whether they represent an advanced stage of civilization and embody the matured results of long reflection on the meaning of the world. But whichever of those views one inclines to, or whatever other conception one may form of the stage of culture of the Aryans of the Vedic age, it is obvious that the religion of which those hymns are the utterance cannot be described as strictly theistic or monotheistic in the sense in which to-day we understand those words. No single word, indeed, can represent the whole field of religious conjecture that finds expression within the limits of that collection. Theism we generally understand to connote at least three things : first, belief in God as a spiritual Being ; second, the faith that His power is sufficient to secure that at the last the good will conquer ; and third, a conception of the nexus that binds together God and His worshippers as mainly moral. But all this one does not expect to discover fully articulate in that early age. When one looks for Theism within the many-hued complexity of the dreams and fancies of those ancient poets it is not with the idea of finding more than an approximation, in this direction and in that, to what the term has come to signify to the developed thought of modern times.

That the conceptions of a later day are necessarily higher than those of a primeval people need not be maintained ; but they are likely to be more fully elaborated and more conscious of their implications. Religion has been defined in many and conflicting fashions, but one description of it embodies what is certainly a feature that is practically universal in all the various modes of its expression. It has been described as ‘ the highest form of man’s consciousness of himself in his relation to all other things and beings.’ If that be so, then when man views himself as one of a narrow kinship, when the tie of blood is the one bond of union in his society, it is impossible that he should reach the full theistic faith in a God who is the one guide and guardian of the whole race of men. The more limited his view of the social unity of which he is a member, the narrower will be his thought of God./jThe less we comprehend our own personality in the richness of its moral meaning, the less possible is it for us to climb from it to a right conjecture of the supreme Personality of which ours is but a pale reflection. Certainly knowing more of the world in which we live and of the race to which we belong than our Aryan ancestors, realizing as they could not the fibres and filaments that bind all races and all peoples in one wide human brotherhood, we by consequence know what we are better than they could, and therefore should have an ampler thought of God. In these and other ways it is a necessity of nature that any theistic conceptions that may have dawned upon the authors of those Hymns should be narrower and less fully moralized than those of the Theism of a later and a more fully instructed age.

We should not look in the Vedic Hymns for that which it is in no wise possible we should find there, nor should we therefore blame them for its absence. Of religion, certainly it is true — whether or not it be true as well, as William James maintains, of philosophy — that ‘it is more a matter of passionate vision than of logic and it is the vision of an unsophisticated age, the intuitions of seers to whom nature and the unseen world were alike near and vivid, that one looks for and finds in those ancient poems. Glimpses we can discern in them of a God rising out of nature and transcending it, sudden vistas, opening to them and perhaps as quickly closing, of a moral purpose and a moral order. Among the changing shapes of their conceptions we can discern here and there emerging the dim but imposing outlines of a full-orbed Theism. On one side, indeed, their thought seems to sink to the level of fetichism and the grossest superstition ; on the other it loses itself in the arid wastes of pantheistic speculation. But midway between those opposite extremes can be traced forms of theistic devotion such as have never been altogether absent from that day to this from the religious reflection of India. If we piece together into one pattern these fragments of many-hued intuition we may be able to realize how near they approach to the theistic conceptions of to-day.

Among the many difficulties that face one in seeking to formulate the probable course of development of the Vedic theology a chief one is due to the absence of any reliable chronological data by means of which the order of the Hymns can be determined. It is happily unnecessary for our purpose to consider the vexed question of the date of their production. What is of importance for us is to conjecture which Hymns in the collection represent earlier ideas and which later and more fully developed ones. The Hymns of the Rig Veda range, it may be supposed, over a period of seven hundred ^ or a thousand years of changing religious emotion and reflection. During that period the thoughts of men certainly did not stand still. But where can we find the key to the process of their movement and their growth? The Hymns stand for us against no background of experience and environment that we can do more than guess. Behind them there must have lain many things of which we can catch at most only now and then a glimpse — fetichism, ancestor-

IO THE THEISM OF THE RIG VEDA

worship, the dread of evil spirits, magical rites, philosophies, priesthoods, sacrifices. There were the periods when ritual prevailed ; there was the outgrowth of philosophical speculation ; there was the age of faith, of a keen, personal devotion, of love and longing for the face of God. Some parts of the cultus that prevailed within this period must have grown to great power and then decayed and died ; we can see new deities coming above the horizon to supplant the old ; ancient names take to themselves other and perhaps higher meanings. All those changes, corresponding to the ever changing and moving mind of man, we are left only to conjecture. Why Varuna for a time was great until he seems to fill up all the universe of the Vedic poet’s thought, and why he passed speedily to be only the shadow of a mighty name; what the gods brought with them into India -and what the new country and its indigenous conceptions contributed to their development ; when the priest ruled and when the philosopher, and what gods each worshipped and with what rites — to these and many other questions we obtain no answer and can only grope after their solution with much uncertainty and debate. In consequence, the disentanglement of any one mode of thought, such as we conceive to be tending towards Theism, and the attempt to trace its development, can only be of the most tentative and doubtful character. Our main guides, apart from the contents of the Hymns themselves, must be the analogy of the course of evolution of other religions on the one hand, and the subsequent history of Indian thought on the other.

When one surveys the Vedic pantheon, seeking that in it which seems most akin to the theistic conceptions of a later age, there is one imposing figure that at once attracts our attention. Above all the other gods towers in moral grandeur the form of Varuna. And here at the same time is one among that throng of deities of whom we can claim that his worship dates from the very earliest Vedic period. The evidence seems too strong to be rejected that identifies this god of the