English
The PItrshada is a much smaller work, as may be seen from a MS. in the Royal Library at Berlin, Chambers 378. 9. The Rigyajiinshi is the only Pari^ishta that can- not be verified in MS. ; there is no reason for sup- posing that it was an Anukramani either of the Yajur-veda or Rig-veda. 10. The Ishtak&piiranam has been preserved in MS. Chambers, 66. < MS. Chambers, 66. ' Called Fratishthalakshanam in MS. Chambers, 66. 256 PARIlSlSHTAS. MS. Chambers 389 with a commentary by Karka, and in MS. Chambers 392, with a commentary by Y&jnikadeva. 1 1 . The Pravar&dhy &yah is found again in our own MS., and is followed by a small tract, the Gotranir- nayah. The seven principal Pravaras are those of the Bhrigus, Angiras, Vi^yd^mitras, Yasishthas, Ea^ya- pas, Atris, and Agastis. The eight founders of Gotras or families are Jamadagni, Bharadvdja, Yi^vd^mitra, Atri, Gautama, Yasishtha, KaSyapa and Agastya.^ The whole treatise, of which more hereafter, is ascribed to K&ty&yana.^ 12. The Uktha-^tram is found in our MS. So is 13. The Eratusankhyd., which gives an enumeration of the principal sacrifices. 14. The Nigamarpari^ishta is the last in our MS. It contains a number of Yedic words with their ex- planations, and forms a useful appendix to Y&ska's Nirukta. It alludes not only to the four castes, but the names of the mixed castes also, according to the Anuloma and Pratiloma order, are mentioned. The four last Pari6ishtas are wanting in our MS. The fifteenth, however, the Yajnapd^rsvam is found in MS. E. I. H. 1729, Chambers, 358 ; the sixteenth, the Hautrakam, exists with a commentary in MS. Chambers 669. The two last Pari^ishtas have not yet been met with in MS, but we may probably DECLINE OF BRAHMAKISM. 257 form some idea of the last, the Eiirmalakshanam, from some chapters of Yar&hamihira's Brihatsanhit^, where we find both a KArmavibh&gah and a Kiirmala- kshanam, the last being there followed by a chapter, called by the same name as the second Pari^ishta, Ghhagalakshanam. Although there is little of real importance to be learned from these PariSishtas, the fact of their exist- ence is important in the history of the progress and decay of the Hindu mind. As in the first or Chhandas period, we see the Aryan settlers of India giving free utterance to their thoughts and feelings, and thus creating unconsciously a whole world of religious, moral, and political ideas ; as we find them again during the second or Mantra period, carefully collect- ing their harvest ; and during the third or Br&hmana period busily occupied in systematising and interpret- ing the strains of their forefathers, which had already become unintelligible and sacred ; as in the fourth or Sfltra period we see their whole energy employed in simplifying the complicated system of the theology and the ceremonial of the Br&hmanas ; so we shall have to recognise in these Pari6ishtas a new phase of the Indian mind, marked by a distinct character, which must admit of historical explanation. The object of the Pari^ishtas is to supply information on theological or ceremonial points which had been passed over in the Siitras, most likely because they were not deemed of sufficient importance, or because they were supposed to be well known to those more immediately concerned. But what most distinguishes the Pari^ishtas from the Siitras is this, that they treat everything in a popular and superficial manner ; as if the time was gone, when students would spend ten or twenty years of their lives 258 DECLINE OF BBAHMANISM. in fathoming the mysteries and mastering the intrica- cies of the Br&hmana literature. A party driven to such publications as the Pari^ishtas, is a party fighting a losing battle. We see no longer that self-compla- cent spirit which pervades the Brfi.hmanas. The authors of the Brfi.hmanas felt that whatever they said must be believed, whatever they ordained must be obeyed. They are frightened by no absurdity, and the word " impossible " seems to have been banished from their dictionary. In the Siitras we pee that a change has taken place. Their authors seem to feel that the public which they address will no longer listen to endless theological swaggering. There may have been deep wisdom in the Br&hmanas, and their authors may have sincerely believed in all they said ; but they evidently calculated on a submissiveness on the part of their pupils or readers, which only exists in countries domineered over by priests or pro* fessors. The authors of the Siitras have learned that people will not listen to wisdom unless it is clothed in a garb of clear argument and communicated in in- telligible language. Their works contain all that is essential in the Brd.hmanas, but they give it in a practical, concise and definite form. These works were written at a time when the Brahmans were fighting their first battles against the popular doctrines of Buddha. They were not yet afraid. Their lan- guage is firm, though it is no longer inflated. " Buddhism," as Bumouf says,^ " soon grew into a system of easy devotion, and found numerous recruits among those who were frightened by the difficulties of Brahmanical science. At the same time that * Burnouf, Introduction k rilistoire du Buddhisme. Roth, Abhandlungen, p. 22. DECLINE OF BRAHMANISM. 259 Buddhism attracted the ignorant among theBrahmans, it received with open arms the poor and the miserable of all classes." It was to remove, or at least to sim- plify, the difficulties of their teaching, that men like l§aunaka and Ed.tyd.yana adopted the novel style of the Siitras. Such changes in the sacred literature of a people are not made- without an object, and the ob- ject of the Siitras, as distinct from that of the Br&h- manas, could be no other than to offer practical manuals to those who were discouraged by too elabo- rate treatises, and who had found a shorter way to salvation opened to them by the heretical preaching of Buddha. After the S^Ltras there is no literature of a purely Yedic character except the Pari^ishtas. They still presuppose the laws of the Siitras and the faith of the Br&hmanas. There is as yet no trace of any definite supremacy being accorded to Siva or Vishnu or Brahman. New gods, however, are men- tioned; vulgar or popular ceremonies are alluded to. The castes have become more marked and multiplied. The whole intellectual atmosphere is still Yedic, and the Vedic ceremonial, the Vedic theology, the Vedic language seem still to absorb the thoughts of the authors of the Pari6ishtas. Any small matter that had been overlooked by the authors of the Siitras is noted down as a matter of grave importance. Subjects on which general instructions were formerly con- sidered sufficient, are now treated in special treatises, intended for men who would no longer take the trouble of reading the whole system of the Brah- manic ceremonial. The technical and severe lan- guage of the S&tras was exchanged for a free and easy style, whether in prose or metre ; and however near in time the Brahmans may place the authors of 8 2 260 RISE OF BUDDHISM. the Siitras and some of the Pari6ishtas, certain it is that no man who had mastered the Siitra style would ever have condescended to employ the slovenly dic- tion of the PaiiSishtas. The change in the position and the characters of the Brahmans, such as we find them in the SMras, and such as we find them again in the Pari&ishtas, has been rapid and decisive. The men who could write such works were aware of their own weakness, and had probably sufi^ered many de- feats. The world around them was moving in a new direction, and the old Vedic age died away in im- potent twaddle. Considerations like these, in addition to what we found before in inquiring into the age of K&tyfi,yana, tend to fix the Sfttra period, as a phase in the literary history of India, as about contemporaneous with the first rise of Buddhism; and they would lead us to recognise in the Parifiishtas the exponents of a later age, that had witnessed the triumphs of Buddhism and the temporary decay of Brahmanic learning and power. The real political triumph of Buddhism dates from A^oka and his council, about the middle of the third century B.C., and while most of the Vedic Sfttras belong to this and the preceding centuries, none of the Pari&ishta were probably written before that time. Before the Council of P&taliputra the Buddhists place, indeed, 300 years of Buddhist history, but that history was clearly supplied from their own heads and not from authentic documents.