English
There are also some celebrated poetical works on ancient history, such as the Bharata, and the Ra- mayana, composed by Vyasa and Valmiki. These works exhibit the glory of heroism; they also teach men the nature of the divine attributes of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; they record the birth and genea¬ logy of gods and demons; they also relate the history of eminent men, such as Yudhishdara, and Rama- chandra. These works also are in strict accordance with the vedas. y Google 18 The three Heterodox Sects. The three sects which reject the Vedas are the Charvaka, the Jeina, and the Buddhist sects. Their tenets are set forth in detail in the writings of Vrihaspati, Arhata, and Sugata. i. The Charvaka Sect. The followers of this sect maintain that in this ■ world of continual changes, which is developed out of four primitive elements, prosperity is heaven, and adversity is hell: and that, there is no other heaven or hell besides them. ii. The Jeina Sect. The books of the Jeinists teach the nature of the three states of man, the beatified state, his present mortal state, and his state of misery in hell. They also relate the history of those great sages j who discovered the art of medicine, wrote their rituals, and revealed the six arts of alchemy. They command | the head to be shaved ; they require their disciples i to go about naked, using their hand as a plate I for their food, and carrying with them a fan made of the feathers of a peacock’s tail to brush away insects. They prohibit the five following sins, murder, theft, drunkenness, lust, and lying. They also require vows and voluntary penances to be made, such as to abstain from eating honey, onions, and other forbidden articles; to sleep on a Digitized by LjOoq le 19 ; bare rock; together with other severities. They contain also the history of their twenty-four beati¬ fied teachers, amongst whom the most eminent were, Hemachandra, Nagachandra, Netnichandra, Mlgha- chandra, Mahachandra, Arhata, Adinatha, Akkala, Parsvanatha, Sougata, Srutikirtti, Samati, Kamara- hita, and Munisvami. They further explain the nature of the seven elementary substances: and finally they explain their seven spiritual categories, namely, pure soul, incarnate soul, the soulless, self¬ mortification, the connexion of soul with sensible ob¬ jects, the bondage of the soul with retributable ac¬ tions, and the emancipation of the soul. iii. The Buddhists. The Buddhist sect is divided into four sub-sects, namely, the Soutrantika, the Veibhashika, the Yoga- chara, and the Madhyamika sects. They maintain that the world is composed of twenty-three elementary substances; and that it has only a momentary existence, like the successive flashes of the flame of a torch. They profess to have the power of counteracting the power of fire, water, the human organs, swords, the tongue, and locomotion. They teach the art of destroying life by means of magical sacrifices; the art of inflicting diseases which shall cause premature death, trances, swoons, and uncontrollable desires; the art of depriving men Digitized by LjOoq le 20 of their usual health; the art of controlling the spirits of the unseen world; the art of causing clothes, jewels, women, and other desirable things, to leave their owners and come into the possession of the operator; and the art of causing enmity be¬ tween the most intimate friends. They also teach the art of causing fever-devils, demons, and goblins, to enter into the bodies of men; the art of com¬ pelling the favour of kings and other great person¬ ages ; the art of compounding transmuting mercury, magical collyrium, and magical pills, and of discover¬ ing magical roots; together with other feats of al¬ chemy. All which arts were taught by the nine chief sages of their sect, Satyanatha, Sathokanatha, Atinatha, Anatinatha, Vakulanatha, Matanganatha, Machendranatha, Kathendranatha, and Kdrakanatha. The Sacteya and Pancharatra Sects. j There are also two other unorthodox sects call¬ ed the Sacteya and the Pancharatra sects, which j were established respectively by an individual called Sactitatwavasi, and by Vasudeva. i. The Sacteya Sect. Of these two the Sacteya forms an extensive I sect whose votaries contend that the entire rational and irrational world is but the form and manifest¬ ation of Sakti, or the personified divine power. ii. The Pancharatra Sect. The disciples of this sect maintain the elementary Digitized by LjOoq le 21 substances to be twenty-four in number, ascending in successive order from earth up to mind. They also teach that transmigratory births and retributable actions are the work of Krishna, Aniruddha, Maka- radhwaja, and Roukineya, who were created by Vasudeva out of his different attributes, so as through them to produce the visible world. The five Great Schools. The five great systems of religion are the Lou- kika, the Veidika, the Adhyatmika the Adhimarki- ka, and the Mantra schools. i. The Loukika School. The tenets of this school are taught in the veda of medicine, the moral code, &c., written by Tanman- tra and other writers. It teaches that man’s hap¬ piness is to be derived from visible and material things. ii. The Veidika School. This school is sub-divided into three sects, holding out to man visible and invisible benefits, namely, the Earlier Mimansa, the Ny&ya, and the Veiseshika, founded respectively by the celestial sages Jeimini, Akshapata, and Kanada. (1.) The Purva-Mimansa. This sect teaches the necessity and the mode of performing sacrifices and other religious rites and ceremonies, in accordance with the letter of the sacred Digitized by ^ooQle 22 scriptures, and having reference to the six different Ungas or symbols of divine power. (2.) The Nyaya. This sect maintains that the Lord is the author of creation, by means of arguments founded upon the following sixteen things, namely, proof, object, doubt, advantage, example, ultimate dogma, members, formal controversy, certainty, irregular discussion, de¬ ception, cavil, inconsequence, stratagem, relation, and rejection, (3). The Veiseshika. This sect declares that the visible world has a self- existent form; maintaining this doctrine by means of the following six categories, namely, substance, attri¬ bute, action, equality, difference, and relation. iii. The Adhyatmika School. There are three sects of this school also, holding out to man the advantages of spiritual knowledge, which were founded respectively by Kapila, Patan- jali, and Vyasa; namely, the S&nkhya, the Patan- I jala, and the Vedanta. j (1). The Sankhya. This sect teaches that nature, which is the result I of the three ultimate attributes which make manifest | the eternal pure unassociated soul, and which exists j in the form of the visible world, is composed of j Digitized by LjOoq le 23 W WVWWV vwvw V Wv V VI twenty-five elementary substances, and constitutes the bondage of the soul. It speaks also of the classes and customs of the three divisions of man¬ kind, namely, the higher, the middle, and the lower, who are distinguished respectively by patience, anger, and ignorance, and whose proper temperaments are the phlegmatic, the bilious, and the flatulent; who have sprung in the order now indicated from the three attributes above referred to. (2). The Patanjala. This sect teaches the method of attaining fixed mental abstraction by means of the eight kinds of self-mortification practised by religious penitents. (3). The Uttaramimansa. The later Mimansa or Vedanta inculcates the theo¬ logical portions of the vedas. It declares that the world has only a delusive existence, and shows that god and the human soul are one. It embraces four sub-sects, namely, the Bhaskarya, the Mayavada, the Suttahrahmavada, and the Kridabrahmavada. iv. The Adhimaekika school. There are three sects of this school established by three zealots who maintained that the elementary substances have no real existence. These are, (1). The Pasupata sect, which regards retributa- ble actions and the doctrines which depend upon them as a mere delusion. Digitized by LjOoq le 24 I (2) . The Kapalika sect, which requires its vota¬ ries to live in a state of mendicity, and to gather their alms in a human skull. (3) . The Makavrudha sect, which commands hu¬ man bones to be worn about the person. Opinions eespecting the Soul. We come now to show the differences of doctrine which exist amongst all these sects when compared with each other. 1. The Charvakists maintain that the human body is the soul. 2: Some of the Charvakists maintain that the or¬ gans of knowledge and sense are the soul. 3. The Jeinists maintain that the soul is distinct and of a different nature from the body; and that, while it is naturally of equal dimensions with the body, it is at the same time elastic, and capable of contraction and expansion. 4. The Buddhists maintain that intelligence is the soul. 5. The Kavulists, the Yamalists, and the Sacti- karists maintain that the capacity of man for the enjoyment of happiness is the soul. 6. The Pancharatrists maintain that the soul is in size a mere atom ; and that it is in constant motion between the two breathing tubes which ter¬ minate at the nostrils. Digitized by LjOoq le 25 | 7. The Loukikists maintain that a man’s body, together with his children, family, and circumstances, ; are his soul. 1 8. The Purva-mimansists, and, with some dif¬ ferences, the Pattists and the Prabhakists, maintain that the soul is knowledge evidenced by sound. 9.