ideas in India is best shown by the later cosmogony and mythology. In those repositories of the popular Hindu creed, the Purāņas and Tantras, Prakriti becomes a real Mother of the universe. It is true that in some of the Purāņas there is occasional confusion and perversion of Sankhyan doctrines. Thus, for example, in the Vishņupurāņa I. 2. 22, we have the following:

'There was neither day nor night, neither sky nor earth; there was neither darkness nor light nor anything else. There was then the One, Brahma, the Male, possessing the character of Pradhāna (prādhānika) 1? And further on: 'The principles or elements, commencing with Mahat, presided over by Purusha and under the influence of Pradhana, generated an egg, which became the receptacle of Vishnu in the form of Brahmā.'

But generally in the later mythology, especially as represented by the Tantras, the Sankhya principle of Prakriti takes the form of female personifications, who are thought of as the wives or creative female energies of the principal male deities, to whom, on the other hand, the name Purusha, in the sense of the supreme Soul or the supreme Male, is sometimes applied. This is especially the case with the Śakti or female energy of Śiva, worshipped by a vast number of persons as the true Jagadambā, or 'Mother of the universe.'

These proofs of the ancient popularity of the Sankhya and its influence on the later mythology may help us to understand that, although in modern times there are comparatively few students of the Sankhya among the Pandits of India, there is still a common saying current everywhere (which will be found in Mahā-bhārata, Śānti-parvan, 11676), Nāsti Sānkhya-samam jñānam nāsti Yoga-samam balam, there is no knowledge equal to the Sankhya and no power equal to the Yoga.'

1 Compare the Rig-veda hymn, translated at p. 22 of this book.

2 Vishnu or Krishna is called Purushottama, and the name Purusha is equally given to Brahma and Siva.

The Yoga.

The Yoga, commonly regarded as a branch of the Sankhya, is scarcely worthy of the name of a system of philosophy, though it has undoubted charms for the naturally contemplative and ascetical Hindu, and lays claim to greater orthodoxy than the Sankhya proper by directly acknowledging the existence of Isvara or a supreme Being. In fact, the aim of the Yoga is to teach the means by which the human soul may attain complete union with the supreme Soul. This fusion (laya) or union of individual with universal spirit may be effected even in the body. According to Patanjali, the author of the system, the very word Yoga is interpreted to mean the act of 'fixing or concentrating the mind in abstract meditation,' and this is said to be effected by preventing the modifications of Citta or the thinking principle [which modifications arise through the three Pramāņas, perception, inference, and verbal testimony, as well as through incorrect ascertainment, fancy, sleep, and recollection], by the constant habit (abhyāsa) of keeping the mind in its unmodified state a state clear as crystal when uncoloured by contact with other substancesand by the practice of Vairagya-that is, complete suppression of the passions. This Vairagya is only to be obtained by Īsvara-praṇidhāna or the contemplation of the supreme Being, who is defined to be a particular Purusha or Spirit unaffected by works, afflictions, &c., and

1 The Yoga was propounded by Patanjali (of whom nothing is known, except that he was probably not the same person as the author of the Mahā-bhāshya) in Aphorisms called the Yoga-sūtra, a work in four books or chapters, two of which, with some of the commentary of Bhoja-rājā or Bhoja-deva, were translated by Dr. Ballantyne. Other commentators were Vāćaspati-miśra, Vijñāna-bhikshu, and Nāgoji-bhaṭṭa.

having the appellation Pranava or Om. The repetition of this monosyllable is supposed to be attended with marvellous results, and the muttering of it with reflection on its meaning is said to be conducive to a knowledge of the Supreme and to a prevention of all the obstacles to Yoga. The eight means of mental concentration are1. Yama, 'forbearance,' 'restraint.' 2. Niyama, 'religious observances.' 3. Āsana, 'postures". 4. Prāṇāyāma, ‘suppression of the breath' or 'breathing in a peculiar way.' 5. Pratyāhāra, restraint of the senses.' 6. Dhārāṇa, 'steadying of the mind.' 7. Dhyana, 'contemplation.' 8. Samadhi, profound meditation,' or rather a state of religious trance, which, according to the Bhagavad-gītā (VI. 13), is most effectually attained by such practices as fixing the eyes intently and incessantly on the tip of the nose, &c. The system of Yoga appears, in fact, to be a mere contrivance for getting rid of all thought, or at least for concentrating the mind with the utmost intensity upon nothing in particular. It is a strange compound of mental and bodily exercises, consisting in unnatural restraint, forced and painful postures, twistings and contortions of the limbs, suppressions of the breath, and utter absence of mind. But although the Yoga of Patanjali professes to effect union with the universal Spirit by means such as these, it should be observed that far more severe austerities and self-imposed physical mortifications are

3

1 Om is supposed to be composed of the three letters A, U, M, which form a most sacred monosyllable (ekākshara), significant of the supreme Being as developing himself in the Triad of gods, Brahmā, Vishņu, and Siva. See Bhagavad-gītā VIII. 13, and especially Manu II. 83, 84.

2 One of these postures is called paryanka-bandhana or paryankagranthi, 'bed-binding' or 'bed-knot,' and is performed by sitting on the hams with a cloth fastened round the knees and back. See line I of the Mṛić-ćhakatikā.

3 See the account of the Bhagavad-gītā, p. 142 of this volume.

popularly connected with the Yoga system. All Hindū devotees and ascetics, especially those who, as forming a division of the Śaiva sect, identify the terrific god Śiva with the supreme Being, are commonly called Yogins or Yogis, and indeed properly so called, in so far as the professed object of their austerities is union with the Deity1.

The variety and intensity of the forms of austerity practised by such Yogis in India would appear to surpass all credibility were they not sufficiently attested by trustworthy evidence. A few illustrations may not be out of place here, or at least may be instructive, especially as bearing upon an interesting field of inquiry, viz. first, how is it that faith in a false system can operate with sufficient force upon a Hindu to impel him to submit voluntarily to almost incredible restraints, mortifications of the flesh, and physical tortures? and secondly, how is it that an amount of physical endurance may be exhibited by an apparently weakly and emaciated Asiatic, which would be impossible in a European, the climate and diet in the one case tending to debilitate, in the other to invigorate?

In the Sakuntala (Act VII. verse 175) there is a description of an ascetic engaged in Yoga, whose condition of fixed trance and immovable impassiveness had lasted so long that ants had thrown up a mound as high as his waist without being disturbed, and birds had built their nests in the long clotted tresses of his tangled hair. This may be thought a mere flight of poetical fancy, but a Mohammedan traveller, whose narrative is quoted by Mr. Mill (British India, I. 355), once actually saw a man in India standing motionless with his face turned towards the sun. The same traveller, having occasion to revisit

1 The name Fakir or Faqir, sometimes given to Hindu devotees, ought to be restricted to Muslims. It is an Arabic word, meaning 'poor,' 'indigent.'

the same spot sixteen years afterwards, found the very same man in the very same attitude. Such men have been known to fix their gaze on the sun's disk till sight has been extinguished. This is paralleled by a particular form of austerity described in Manu VI. 23, where mention is made of the Panca-tapas, a Yogi who, during the three hottest months (April, May, and June), sits between four blazing fires placed towards the four quarters, with the burning sun above his head to form a fifth. In fact, a Yogi was actually seen not long ago (Mill's India, I. 353) seated between four such fires on a quadrangular stage. He stood on one leg gazing at the sun while these fires were lighted at the four corners. Then placing himself upright on his head, with his feet elevated in the air, he remained for three hours in that position. He then seated himself cross-legged and continued bearing the raging heat of the sun above his head and the fires which surrounded him till the end of the day, occasionally adding combustibles with his own hands to increase the flames.

Again, in the Asiatic Monthly Journal for March, 1829, an account is given of a Brāhman who, with no other apparatus than a low stool, a hollow bamboo, and a kind of crutch, poised himself apparently in the air, about four feet from the ground, for forty minutes. This actually took place before the governor of Madras. Nor does there appear to be any limit to the various forms of austerity practised by Hindu devotees. We read of some who acquire the power of remaining under water for a space of time quite incredible; of others who bury themselves up to the neck in the ground, or even below it, leaving only a little hole through which to breathe; of others who keep their fists clenched for years till the nails grow through the back of their hands; of others who hold one or both arms aloft till they become immovably fixed in that position and withered to the bone; of others who roll their