off,1 and of its return after a stay there. This was in the 5th century A.D.; but the account applies so exactly to the Car Festival at the present day, that Fergusson pronounces the latter to be 'merely a copy.'2 A similar festival is still celebrated with great rejoicing in Japan. As in the Indian procession of Jagannáth, the Japanese use three cars; and Buddha sits in his temple, together with two other figures, like the Jagannath triad of Orissa.3 It is needless to add, that while Jagannath is historically of Buddhist or composite origin, he is to his true believers the one supreme 'Lord of the World.' val of In another work, I have exposed the calumnies in which Car Festi some English writers have indulged with regard to his worship. Jagannáth. I carefully examined the whole evidence on the subject from 1580, when Abul Fazl wrote, through a long series of travellers, down to the police reports of 1870. I came to English the conclusion which H. H. Wilson had arrived at from quite calumnies. different sources,5 that self-immolation was entirely opposed to the worship of Jagannath, and that the rare deaths at the Car Festival were almost always accidental. In a closely packed, eager throng of a hundred thousand men and women at Purí, numbers of them unaccustomed to exposure or hard labour, and all of them tugging and straining to the utmost at the car, under a blazing sun, deaths must occasionally Occur. There have doubtless been isolated instances of pilgrims throwing themselves under the wheels in a frenzy of religious excitement. At one time, several unhappy people Self-imwere killed or injured every year, but they were almost in- molation variably cases of accidental trampling. At an early period, tised. indeed, the priests at Purí, probably by permitting a midnight sacrifice once a year within their precincts to the wife of Siva, had fallen under suspicion of bloody rites. But such rites arose from the ambition of the priests to make Purí the sacred city of all worships and all sects. They represent the efforts made from time to time towards a coalition of the Sivaite and Vishnuvite worship, like the chakra or sacred disc of Vishnu 1 From the chapel at Anuradhapura to Mehentele. 2 History of Architecture, vol. ii. p. 590 (ed. 1867). 3 See, among many interesting notices by recent travellers, Miss Bird's Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, vol. i. pp. 111, 115, etc. (ed. 1880). * See my Orissa, vol. i., particularly pp. 306-308; also pp. 132-136. Namely, the descriptions of the Car Festival or Rath-Játra in the work of Krishna Dás. 6 Bimalá, the 'Stainless One.' 'See statement from the Haft-iklim (1485-1527 A.D.) in my Orissa vol. i. p. 306. not prac less worship. which surmounts the prehistoric temple to Kálí at Tamluk.1 These compromises had nothing to do with the worship of His blood- the true Jagannath, and a drop of blood even accidentally spilt in his presence would pollute the officiating priests, the people, and the consecrated food. The few suicides that at rare intervals occurred at the Car Festival were for the most part diseased and miserable objects, who took this means to put themselves out of pain.2 The official returns now place the facts beyond doubt. Nothing could be more opposed to Vishnu-worship than self-immolation. Any death within the temple of Jagannáth renders the place unclean. The ritual suddenly stops, and the polluted offerings are hurried away from the sight of the offended god. Evidence about Jagannath against self slaughter. According to Chaitanya, the Orissa apostle of Jagannath, the destruction of the least of God's creatures is a sin against the Creator. Self-slaughter he would have regarded with abhorrence. The copious religious literature of his sect frequently describes the Car Festival, but makes no mention of self-sacrifice, and contains not a single passage which could be twisted into a sanction for it.3 Abul Fazl, the minister of Akbar, who conducted the survey of India for the Mughal Emperor, is silent about self-immolation to Jagannath, although, from the context, it is almost certain that had he heard of the practice he would have mentioned it. In 1870, I compiled an index to all accounts by travellers and others of self-immolation at the Car Festival, from the 14th century downwards. I think it is clear that such suicides did at rare intervals occur, although they were opposed to the spirit of the worship. An Indian procession means a vast multitude of excitable beings ready for any extravagance. Among Indian processions, that of Jagannath to his countryhouse stands first; and the frenzied affrays of the Muharram might as fairly be assigned to the deliberate policy of the British Government, as the occasional suicides at the Car Festival may be charged against the god. I find that the travellers who tell the most sensational stories are the ones whose narratives prove that they went entirely by hearsay, or that they could not themselves have seen the Car Festival at 1 Vide Imperial Gazetteer, vol. viii. pp. 517, 518. 2 See authorities quoted in my Orissa, vol. i. p. 134; Stirling's Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. p. 324; Calcutta Review, vol. x. p. 235; Report of Statistical Commissioner to the Government of Bengal, 1868, part ii. p. 8; Puri Police Reports; Lieut. Laurie's Orissa, 1850. 3 H. H. Wilson's Religion of the Hindus, vol. i. p. 155 (ed. 1862). 4 See my Orissa, vol. i. pp. 305-308. doctrines. Purí. The number of deaths, whether voluntary or accidental, as registered by the dispassionate candour of English officials, has always been insignificant, indeed far fewer than those incident to the party processions of the Musalmáns; and under improved police arrangements, they have practically ceased. So far from encouraging religious suicides, the gentle His gentle doctrines of Jagannath tended to check the once common custom of widow-burning. Even before the Government put a stop to sati in 1829, our officials observed its comparative infrequency at Purí. Widow-burning was discountenanced by the Vishnuvite reformers, and is stigmatized by a celebrated disciple as the fruitless union of beauty with a corpse.' ous nexUS The worship of Siva and Vishnu operates as a religious The religibond among the Hindus, in the same way as caste supplies of Hinduthe basis of their social organization. Theoretically, the ism. Hindu religion starts from the Veda, and acknowledges its divine authority. But, practically, we have seen that Hinduism takes its origin from many sources. Vishnu-worship and Sivaite rites represent the two most popular combinations of these various elements. The highly cultivated Bráhman is a The pure theist; the less cultivated worships the divinity under some chosen form, ishta-devatá. The conventional Bráhman, devatá. especially in the south, takes as his chosen deity,' Siva in his deep philosophical significance, with the phallic linga as his emblem. The middle classes and the mercantile community adore some incarnation of Vishnu. The low-castes propitiate Siva the Destroyer, or rather one of his female manifestations, such as the dread Kálí. 'chosen god,' ishta Hindus. But every Hindu of education feels that his special object Practical of homage is merely his ishta-devatá, or own chosen form faith of the under which to adore the deity, Param-eswara. He admits that there is ample scope for adoring God under other manifestations, or in other shapes. Unless a new sect takes the initiative, by rejecting caste or the Veda, the Hindu is slow to dispute its orthodoxy. Even the founder of the Brahmá Samáj, or modern theistic church of Bengal, lived Their toland died a Hindu.1 The Indian vernacular press cordially erance. 1 The best short account of this deeply interesting movement, and of its first leader Rammohun Roy, will be found under the title of Indian Theistic Reformers, by Professor Monier Williams, in the Journal Royal Asiatic Society, Jan. 1881, vol. xiii. See also his Modern India (Trübner, 1879); and Miss Collet's Brahmo Year Book (Williams & Norgate, annually). Hindu acknowledges the merits of distinguished Christian teachers, fairness to like Dr. Duff of Calcutta, or Dr. Wilson of Bombay. At first, Chris tianity. Modern Hindu triad. indeed, our missionaries, in their outburst of proselytizing Of the three members of the Hindu triad, the first person, fate of the Brahma, has now but a few scattered handfuls of followers; the second person, Vishnu, supplies a worship for the middle classes; around the third person, Siva, in his twofold aspects, has grown up that mixture of philosophical symbolism with propitiatory rites professed by the highest and by the lowest castes. But the educated Hindu willingly recognises that, beyond and above his chosen person of the triad, or his favourite incarnation, or his village fetish, or his household The One sálagrám, dwells the Parameswara, the One First Cause, whom the eye has not seen, and whom the mind cannot conceive, but who may be worshipped in any one of the forms in which he has made his power manifest to men. God, eswara. Recapitulation. I have endeavoured briefly to indicate how, from materials supplied by the early Aryan and non-Aryan races of India, the Hindu population and the Hindu religion were built up. I now proceed to consider the two series of influences which, within historic times, have been brought to bear, by nations from the west, upon the composite people thus formed. The first set of these influences is represented by the Muhammadan invasions; the second by the European settlements, which culminated in British rule. 1 The Kavi-bachan Sudha, quoted in the Chronicle of the London Missionary Society for November 1880, p. 792. CHAPTER IX. EARLY MUHAMMADAN RULERS (712 TO 1526 A.D.). 712 A.D. settlement WHILE Buddhism was giving place to Hinduism in India, a new faith had arisen in Arabia. Muhammad, born in 570 A.D., Early Arab created a conquering religion, and died in 632. Within a expeditions to hundred years after his death, his followers had invaded the Bombay nations of Asia as far as the Hindu Kush. Here their progress coast, 636was stayed, and Islám had to consolidate itself, during three more centuries, before it grew strong enough to grasp the rich prize of India. But, almost from the first, the Arabs had fixed eager eyes upon that wealthy country. Fifteen years after the death of the prophet, Usmán sent an expedition to Thána and Broach on the Bombay coast (636 A.D.). Other raids towards Sind took place in 662 and 664, with no results. In 712, Muhamhowever, the youthful Kásim advanced into Sind, to claim madan damages for an Arab ship which had been seized at an Indian in Sind, port. After a brilliant campaign, he settled himself in the Indus 712-828? valley; but the further advance of the Musalmáns depended on the personal daring of their leader, and was arrested by his death in 714 A.D. The despairing valour of the Hindus struck the invaders with wonder. One Rájput garrison preferred utter extermination to submission. They raised a huge funeral pile, upon which the women and children first threw themselves. The men having bathed, took a solemn farewell of each other, and, throwing open the gates, rushed upon the besiegers and perished to a man. In 750, the Rajputs are Their exsaid to have expelled the Muhammadan governor, but it was pulsion, not till 828 A.D. that the Hindus regained Sind. 828 A.D. of the The armies of Islám had carried the crescent from the India on Hindu Kush westwards, through Asia, Africa, and Southern the eve Europe, to distant Spain and Gaul, before they obtained a foot- Muhamhold in the Punjab. This long delay was due, not only to madan the daring of individual tribes, such as the Sind Rájputs just 1000 A.D. conquest, mentioned, but to the military organization of the Hindu |