CHAPTER VIII. THE BRAHMANICAL REVIVAL, A.D. 600-1600. seventh to the seventeenth centuries. THE seventeenth century ushers in the history CHAP. VIII. of modern India. In the Punjab and Hindustan India from the the Mussulmans had founded the Mogul empire, and established its ascendancy from the mountains of Bactria and Cashmere to the delta of the Ganges. In the Dekhan the lesser Mussulman sovereignties had overthrown the last of the old Hindú empires, and were engaged in wars amongst themselves, or in extending their arms into the southern Peninsula. Meantime a new power appeared in the Eastern seas, which was destined to hold an imperial sway over the whole Indian continent. In 1600 the East-India Company obtained its first charter from Queen Elizabeth. In 1605 the emperor Akber died at Agra, and was succeeded by his son Jehángír, the grandfather of Aurangzíb. In 1613 the English built their first factory at Surat, and concluded their first treaty with emperor Jehángír. In 1639 they founded Madras; in 1661 they obtained Bombay; and in 1678 they settled at Calcutta. These factories grew into cities, and became the centres of trade; they are now the capitals of the AngloIndian empire. CHAP. VIII. Stagnation in ment. The early English adventurers appeared in India Hindu develop. exactly ten centuries after the pilgrimage of HiouenThsang. In England it is comparatively easy to realize the vast interval which elapsed between the seventh century and the seventeenth. The wars of the early English, their townships and gemots, had been succeeded by the manufacturing cities, the parliaments, and the political and religious activity of the Elizabethan era. But in India the interval is scarcely appreciable; in all essentials the people were the same in the seventeenth century as in the seventh. Buddhism had been overthrown, but the religion of the Jains remained. Islam again had planted mosques and schools throughout Hindustan and the Dekhan; but it could not modify the general idolatry. The social and religious life of the great bulk of the Hindú population underwent no perceptible changes. In the days of Alexander and Megasthenes, the masses worshipped the sun and the rivers, sacrificed to Vishnu and Siva, paid reverence to naked Yogis, and burnt living widows with their dead husbands. Ten centuries later Hiouen-Thsang beheld similar scenes; and ten centuries later still the early English adventurers were gazing upon the same mysterious world. Expulsion of The most important event in the history of the interval is the expulsion of the Buddhist monks from India. Of the revolution which subverted 1 The annals of Mussulman India are chiefly valuable for the illustrations they furnish of the political and religious life of the Mussulmans themselves. They throw little or no light upon the civilization of Hindustan; and but little on that of the Dekhan and Peninsula. They may be said to commence in A.D. 665, twenty years after the departure of Hiouen-Thsang, when the Arabs conquered Scinde. But it was not until 1001 that Mahmud of Cabul invaded Hindustan ; and it was not until 1205, or two centuries after Mahmúd, that Kootub-ud-din, the first Mussulman sovereign of India, was crowned king at Lahore. Buddhism very little is known. No tradition of CHAP. VIII. any value has been preserved. But still it is not difficult to arrive at the fact. In the seventh century, when Hiouen-Thsang visited Benares, the city was already more Brahmanical than Buddhist. It was the centre of the worship of Iswara or Siva, and swarmed with naked fanatics, who rubbed themselves with ashes, and practised religious austerities. Magnificent temples were built of stones richly carved, and wood choicely painted; whilst a brass colossal statue of the god, nearly a hundred feet high, filled the Chinese pilgrim with respectful awe. The centre of Buddhism was at Sárnáth in the immediate neighbourhood. This was the old deer-forest in which Gótama Buddha had first turned the wheel of the law. On this holy spot a vihára had been erected in the life-time of the apostle; and when Hiouen-Thsang visited the locality, stupas and viháras were to be seen in all directions. Here also had been founded one of those magnificent colleges or Sanghárámas, which were so famous in Buddhist India. But the Sangháráma at Sárnáth was not a flourishing institution in the seventh century. It only contained fifteen hundred Srámans, and they were all followers of the little Vehicle. In the present day Sárnáth is in ruins. Two great towers are still standing, and traces of the old college are still to be found; whilst relics and images of great variety have been discovered within the mounds. The ashes and charred remains sufficiently indicate that the whole was destroyed in some sudden conflagration; and as Buddhist pagodas have been converted into Brahmanical temples, suspicion points to a sudden outbreak instigated by the Bráhmans. Possibly CHAP. VIII. Some bitter disputation had been brought to a violent close; and a nest of infuriated fanatics had poured out of Benares to destroy the heretics and atheists of Sárnáth as enemies of the gods. Possibly, also, the popular veneration and respect for the holy men had been blunted by charges, such as those which a woman brought against Gótama, and which were freely levelled against the English clergy prior to the destruction of the monasteries. At present, however, the story lies beneath the mounds; Sárnáth was sacked and burned at the instigation of the Brahmans. 2 A legend of Divodás, a king of Benares, has been related in several Puránas, which may possibly refer to this revolution. Siva is said to have been desirous of occupying Benares, and sent Nikumbha to persuade the prince to embrace Buddhism. Accordingly Divodás became a follower of Buddha, and was expelled from Benares, and founded another city on the banks of the Gomatí.-Vishnu Purána, Wilson's translation, edited by Hall, vol. iv., pp. 33, 40. General Cunningham, who conducted many excavations around Sárnáth in 1835-36, writes as follows:-"From the fifth to the seventh century the decline of Buddhism was gradual and gentle. But from the eighth century the fall was rapid and violent. New dynasties arose who knew not Sákya Muni; and the Tuars of Delhi, the Rahtors of Kanouj, and the Chándels of Mahoba, succeeded to the vast empire of Siladitya. The rise of all these families has been traced to the eighth century; and both coins and inscriptions remain to attest their Brahmanical belief. But Buddhism continued to linger in Benares, Malwa, and Guzerat; and was not finally extinguished until the eleventh or the twelfth century, when the last votaries of Buddha were expelled from the continent of India. Numbers of images, concealed by the departing monks, are found buried near Sárnáth; and heaps of ashes still lie scattered amidst the ruins to show that the monasteries were destroyed by fire." Major Kittoe, who in 1851 carried on more extensive excavations in the same neighbourhood, confirmed the conclusions of General Cunningham. He wrote:"All has been sacked and burned; priests, temples, idols, all together; for in some places bones, iron, wood, and stone are found in huge masses; and this has happened more than once."-Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, chapter xii. See also Archæological Reports. Probably it was at this time, or at some earlier period, that Kanouj abandoned Buddhism and embraced the religion of the Brahmans. The fact is dimly indicated in the legend of Viswamitra, the son of the king of Gadhi or Kanouj, who is said to have been originally a Kshatriya, and subsequently to have become a Brahman. See History, vol. ii., Rámáyana, chap. iv. Kanouj was subsequently the centre of orthodox Brahmanism, and supplied Brahmanical teachers to Bengal, whose descendants are still known as Kulin Bráhmans. India. The appearance of the Jains is another revolu- CHAP. VIII. tion of which no record has been preserved. The Jains of western religion of the Jains had for its object the liberation of the soul from the trammels of existence. It did not, however, accept the doctrine of annihilation or Nirvána, but assigned a spiritual life to the liberated soul in some undefinable mansion of the blessed. It taught certain precepts of strict morality which would seem to identify it with that school of Buddhism which was known as the little Vehicle." The Jains worshipped saints who had effected their deliverance from the universe, rather than deities. who ruled the universe, and the names of their twenty-four saints or Tirthankaras, commencing with Adináth and ending with Parisnáth and Mahávíra, are held in the profoundest veneration. The Jains were divided like the Buddhists into monks and laymen. Originally some of the sects abandoned all clothing, like the gymno-sophists of old; but the Jain monks in general are not only clothed, but distinguished as the "white-robed." Their shrines are stately and mysterious buildings of marble, generally standing in remote and secluded situ 3 The eight deadly sins of the Jains are somewhat puerile; they were as follows.—(1) Eating at night. (2) Slaying an animal. (3) Eating the fruit of trees that give milk. (4) Tasting honey or flesh. (5) Taking the wealth of others. (6) Committing adultery. (7) Eating flowers, butter, or cheese. (8) Worshipping the gods of other religions.-Asiatic Journal, vol. xvii., 1824; vol. xvi., 1834. It is difficult to say how far the Jains were connected with the little Vehicle. It has already been seen that Síláditya, king of Kanouj and Magadha, was a follower of the great Vehicle, and held a famous public disputation between the two Vehicles. A legend has been preserved in the Mahatma, or sacred chronicle of the mountain Satruniya, that the Buddhists held a public disputation with the Jains and gained the victory, whereupon Síláditya became a Buddhist; but that subsequently the Jains defeated the Buddhists, whereupon Síláditya became a Jain. See Forbes's Ras Mala, vol. i. |