History of the Devil: Brahmanism and Hinduism

BRAHMANISM AND HINDUISM.

INDIA, the primitive home of religion and philosophy, exhibits as strong a tendency for monism as the Persian nation has shown for dualism. But the ancient monism of India is apt to lose itself in pantism,--a theory according to which the All alone (or rather the conception of the absolute as the All) is possessed of reality, while all concrete existences are considered as a mere sham, an illusion, a dream. 1

The polytheism of the popular Hinduism 2 is practically a pantheism in which the various deities are regarded as aspects of the One and All in which a discrimination between good and evil is entirely lost sight of. Thus the struggle between good and evil is contemplated as a process of repeated God-incarnations made necessary, according to the idea of the Brahmans, by the appearance of tyranny and injustice, lack of reverence for the priests, encroachments of the warrior caste

on the supremacy of the Brahmans, or some other disorder. While the enemies of the gods-giants, demons,

the Brahman gods in their turn are by no means the representatives of pure goodness. Not only do they frequently assume shapes that to the taste of any Western nation would be exceedingly ugly and diabolical, but the same deities who in one aspect are beneficent powers of life, are in another respect demons of destruction.

Brahm, the highest god of Brahmanism, represents the All, or the abstract idea of being. He is conceived as a trinity which is called Trimurti, consisting of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.

order in the Hebrew Genesis, where Elohim creates first the body and then breathes the life into the body, which makes of man a living soul.

In the first incarnation, called the Matsya-Avatar, Vishnu assumes the form of a fish in order to recover the Vedas stolen by evil demons and bidden in the floods of a deluge that covered the whole earth. This incarnation

is of interest because we read in the Pistis Sophia (one of the most important gnostic books) that the books of Ieou, which were dictated by God to Enoch in paradise, were preserved by Kalapatauroth from destruction in the deluge." 1

In order to enable the gods to procure the immortality-giving drink, amrita, Vishnu appeared as an immense

began to churn the ocean, which produced Vishnu's gem, Kaustubha; Varunani, the goddess of the sea; the Apsaras, lovely sprites, corresponding to the Greek nymphs; Indra's horse, with seven heads; Kamadhenu, the cow of plenty; Airavata, Indra's elephant; the tree of abundance; Chandra, the god of the moon; Sura, the goddess of wine; and, filially, Dhanvantari, the Indian Æsculapius, who is in possession of the water of life. The serpent began now to spit venom, which blinded the demons, while the gods drank the Amrita.

Vishnu. The unnatural father tried to kill his son, but the latter escaped all danger because he did not cease to pray to Vishnu. When Hiranya-Kasipu expressed a doubt of Vishnu's omnipresence, mockingly declaring that he could not possibly be in a column to which he pointed, the wrathful god decided to punish the scoffer. The column rent in twain, and Vishnu, proceeding from its interior in the shape of a monster half man half lion, tore Hiranya-Kasipu to pieces. This fourth incarnation is called the Narasinha-avatar. Its moral is to impress upon the people the sad fate of those who do not believe in Vishnu.

the second over the atmosphere, with the third into the infinity of the heavens. This is the reason why Vishnu is called Tripadas, or Trivikramas, the three-paced god. Thus Balis was prevented completing the hundredth sacrifice, and Indra was again safe on his throne. This dwarf incarnation is called the Vamana-avatar.

wealth of the Brahman, tries to take the cow from him, but the cow kills all who dare to approach her, and rises into heaven, whereupon Karttavirya in his wrath slays the pious Jamadagni. Râma, the son of the murdered Brahman, invokes Vishnu's help for the punishment of the wicked king, and the god not only presents him with a bow and a battle-ax, which latter is called in Sanskrit paracus, the Greek πέλεκυς (hence the name of this avatar), but also incarnates himself in Râma. Karttavirya is described as being in possession of a thousand arms, wielding a thousand weapons, but Râma, endowed with the divine powers of Vishnu, conquers him after a decisive struggle.

with giants and demons, how the monkey kings, Lugriva and Hanuman, became his allies, how Hanuman jumped

pursued Ravana to Lanka, and finally how he vanquished Ravana and recovered his faithful wife Sita.

Like the sixth avatar, the Rama Chandra avatar probably contains historical reminiscences. It also resembles both the Trojan War and the Gudrun Saga, the epics of Western nations that relate the story of an abducted wife. The mythical part of all these stories describes the wanderings of the sun god in search of his consort, the moon.

1 both descendants of Bharata and both grandchildren of Vyasa. Dhritarashtra, the father of the Kurus, was king of Hastinapur, but being blind, Bhishma, his uncle, reigned in his stead. After a test of the faculties of the young princes, in which the Pandu Arjuna, the skilled bowman and the Hindu Tell, showed himself superior to all the others, the oldest Pandu-prince, Yudhishthira, was installed as heir apparent. The Kurus, however, who managed to remain in power, tried to burn the Pandus, but they escaped and lived for some time in the disguise of mendicant Brahmans. Having allied themselves, by marriage with Draupadi, 2 the daughter of Drupada, king of Panchala, with a powerful monarch, the Pandus reappeared at Hastinapur and induced Dhritarashtra to divide the kingdom between his sons, the Kurus, and his nephews, the Pandus; but at a festival, held at Hastinapur, Yudhishthira, the chief

of the Pandus, staked in a game of dice his kingdom, all his possessions, and Draupadi herself, and lost everything. The Kurus promised their cousins to return their share of the kingdom after thirteen years, if they would live twelve years with Draupadi in the forest and remain another year in exile; but when this period had elapsed the Kurus refused to give up the country or any part of

choice between his (Krishna's) company as a mere adviser or his (Krishna's) army of a hundred million warriors.

of his adventures, such as his escape from the Hindu Herod, the massacre of babes, his transfiguration, etc., reappear in a modified form in Buddhist legends and bear some resemblance to the events told of Christ in the New Testament.

In his ninth incarnation Vishnu appears as Buddha, the enlightened one, to be a teacher of morals, of purity, charity, and compassionate love toward all beings. It is

1 proposes to regard both as quite distinct, and he is right, but we need not for that reason deny that, on the one hand, the ideal of a

Buddha avatar was a prominent factor in the formation of Buddhism, while on the other hand Gautama's teachings have, since the rise of Buddhism, powerfully affected and considerably modified the Buddha ideal of the Brahmans. Whatever may be the historical relation between the Hindu Buddha and the Buddha of the Buddhists, this

The horse has one foot raised, and when it places its foot down, the time of the incarnation will find its fulfilment.

The third person of the Indian trinity is Siva, the Auspicious One, representing the end of the world and its regeneration. He is commonly represented by the linga as a symbol of the creative faculty and by the all-devouring fire, the tongued flame of which is pictured in a triangle turning its point upwards .

and in the hand of the king into a sceptre. The yoni, or female organ, is regarded as the symbol of Siva's consort, Parvati, and is worshipped in connexion with the linga by the sect of the Sactis. Perforated rocks are considered as emblems of the yoni, through which pilgrims pass for the purpose of being regenerated, a ceremony in which Hindus place great faith for its sin-expelling significance. (See Charles Coleman, The Mythology of The Hindus, p. 175.)

speculations, in spite of the omnipresence of Vishnu and his constant reincarnations as told in ancient

is the main recipient of Hindu worship all over the country. As Kali she is identified with time, the all-devourer, and is pictured as enjoying destruction, perdition, and

all other shapes she is frightful, and it is difficult to understand the reverence which the pious Hindu cherishes

The Pantheism which lies at the bottom of the whole Hindu mythology finds expression in the worship of HariHara, who is a combination of Vishnu and Siva. In

"There are heretics among men who reject the Vedas and the Shastras, who live without purificatory ceremonies and established rules of conduct, and are filled with hatred of Vishnu: so also there are heretical followers of Vishnu, who are similarly filled with hatred of Shiva. All these wicked men shall go to hell so long as this world endures. I will not receive worship from any man who makes a distinction between Vasudeva and my own divinity: I will divide every such man in two with my saw. For I have assumed the form of HariHara in order to destroy the teaching that there is a difference between us: and he who knows within himself that HariHara is the god of gods, shall inherit the highest heaven."

Kama, the Hindu Amor, Ganesa, the elephant-headed god of wisdom, 1 and Karttikeya, 2 the leader of the good demons., on the peacock, both sons of Siva, and others. In addition, we have a great number of devas, sprites, and goblins. Some of them are good, as the Gandharvas, others at least not naturally ill-intentioned, as for instance the Apsaras (a kind of Hindu elves), but most of them are dangerous and demoniacal. Such are the general mischief-makers, the Asuras, the Pretas, or ghosts, the Bhutas, or spook-spirits, the baby-killing Grahas, the Rakshasas, who are either giants or vampires, not to mention all the other demons of less power and importance.

Footnotes

74:1 Pantism, the theory of the All (from πᾶν, root ΠΑΝΤ), is different from Pantheism, the theory which identifies the All (πᾶν) with God (ϑεός).

74:2 Sir Monier-Monier Williams distinguishes between Brahmanism, the old faith of the Indian Aryas, and Hinduism, the modern form of this same religion, as it developed after the expulsion of Buddhism from India.

77:1 Since it is our intention to be brief, we do not enter in this exposition of the ten avatars into any details that could be omitted and neglect to mention the variants of the myths.

78:1 MS., P 354, English translation from Schwartze's latest translation by G. R. S. Meade, p. 354.

79:1 All the Avatar pictures are from Picart.

88:1 The Pandus are also called Pandavas, and the Kurus Kamavas.

88:2 That the five Pandus held Draupadi in common as their wife, proves the high antiquity of the story. Polyandry was apparently a practice not uncommon in ancient times. It prevails still to-day among the less cultured hill tribes. But being at variance with the Aryan customs of the age in which the Mahabharata was versified, Vyasa (the Homer or "arranger" of the poem, and its supposed author) tries to explain it allegorically by declaring that Draupadi is Lakshmi, and the five Pandu brothers represent five different forms of one and the same Indra.

92:1 Histoire du Buddhisme, I., 338.

100:1 The legends of the shrine of HariHara, translated from the Sanskrit by Rev. Thomas Foulkes.

103:1 Ganesa, which means the lord (isa) of hosts (gana), is originally Siva himself, and he was invoked under that name by writers of books to drive away evil demons.

103:2 Karttikeya is also called Subrahmanya and Skanda.

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