3 Aditya.1 Thus the Asuras and the Aryas were pictured as descended from two sisters, hence cousins. And female deities Durga, Kāli, etc. found recognition in the new Hindu Pantheon, The legal position of a woman became firmly established. The mother-right made room for father-right but with the popular proviso-yatra nāryaḥ pūiyante ramante Sarvadevatäh.6 5 Thus the Asura in India taught the Indo-European Vedic Arya respect for woman. The matricide Orestes was a rude reminiscence for the Indo-European. Gradually man grew more moral than his gods. Even then the timid palliations of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides 10 lack assurance, if not conviction. The initial instinct was intact. It is not yet dead. Nietzschell dreamed of a "good European."11 And forthwith he fell into a nightmare about woman-Du gebst zu Frauen? Vergiss die Peitsche nicht!"12 The Vedic Arya attitude is similar to the Greek.13 Matricide is a grave crime but admits of expiation. 14 Much later 15 develops genuine disapprobation—mātṛhā saptamam narakam praviset.16 Schiller's "wein, 1 Macdonell, Vedic Mythology. 2 Brhadar. Upan. Br. 3. MBh. xii. 1184. 8 Gopinath Rao, Elements of Hindu Iconography. • Ibid "The offence of killing a woman is equal to that of killing a Brahman.”— Hopkins, The Four Castes, p. 98. Actual respect paid to women in a Hindu household fully bears out this position. ↑ Homer, Odyssey, III. 303-312. Aeschylus, Oresteia. Sophocles, Electra. 10 Euripides, Electra and Orestes. 11 Barker, Nietzsche and Treitschke, Oxford Univ. Pamphlets, 1916, p. 9. "Nietzsche, Also Sprach Zarathustra, erster Theil, Von alten und jungen Weiblein.' 18 "The Delphic religion regarded matricide as a crime requiring expiation, but also a sacred duty." Wedd. The Orestes of Euripides, p. xxi. 14 Kausitaki Upanisad, iii. 1. 10 Ibid. weib und gesang continues the dictum of the Maitrāyaṇī Samhita that "women, dice and drink" are the three chief evils of life. The Taittiriya Samhita sums up contemporary conceptions" a woman is inferior even to a bad man."2 1 The Asura changed all this. It brought forth the claim of mother-right and made a woman the sovereign of the South. He called Magadha after the great mother-goddess of the city. Latest research has demonstrated the non-Aryan character of Varuna-" At the present stat of knowledge it is possible only to observe that it is uncertain whether the god Varuṇa-the forerunner of Ahura-Mazda—is really IndoEuropean." Sidney Smith's The Relation of Marduk, Ashur and Osiris, indirectly helps in the realisation of Indian Asura Varuna. Usas, Vasini and Nṛtu are obvious prototypes of Durgā, Kāli and their various forms. The Dravidian A sura countries of the South have perpetuated this mother-goddess. "This concept of maternity is expressed in the main Gopuram of the temple of Madura, in an unending series of superstructures of milk-laden breasts."8 The Mahabharata enforces it in the svayamvara of Draupadi with an expiring glimpse of polyandry. The Rāmāyaṇa exalts this virtue of respecting a woman in the ekaptnītva of Rama besides the patidevatā Sītā. The real exponent was Rāvaṇa, Herodotus9 never minimises the prowess of the Persians; as a shrewd historian be realised the risk of a corresponding diminution of Greek valour. The naïve Indian scholiasts forget that if it is highly creditable for a helpless woman like Sitā to remain chaste in the house of a hostile despot like Rāvaṇa, a part of the credit is due also to the hostile host 1 Maitr. Sam. iii. 6.3. 2 Tait. Sam. vi. 5.8.2. 8 C.H.I., p. 424. ▲ C.A.H., Vol. II. p. 401. * J.B.O.R.S., op. cit., p. 119. Rv. i. 24. 14. "Oldham, op. cit. 53-68. 8 Keyserling, The Travel Diary of a Philosopher, 1925 (Reece), Vol. I. p. 99° • History of War between the Greeks and Persians. and his innate respect for a woman however completely at his mercy. Descent through a great mother means descent through women1 and the descendants of Diti, the Asuras of India, had not forgotten the Sumerian-Egyptian-Babylonian-Assyrian legacy of matrilinear institutions, though slowly giving way to a patri linear system.3 "Spirit," said Brewster, " is the last thing we will concede; it upsets the work of fifty years." Asura in India is even less admissible, he represents an unrecognised undercurrent of fifty centuries. But if, as has been justly claimed, a country's culture should be judged by the position it accords to its women, then in the words of Oldham, "it would seem, indeed, as if the Asuras had reached a higher degree of civilisation than their Aryan rivals." For to these Asuras, the too-long misunderstood decendants of Diti and her sisters, belongs the credit not only of an intelligent quiescence in the neo-Aryan Hindu Arya-AsuraDāsa body-politic 5 but a composite patrilinear body-social recognising at the same time the mother-right and the Mothergoddess. 1 Perry, op. cit., p. 241. 1 J.B.O.R.S., op. cit. p. 124. • Indo-Aryan India now follows mainly patrilinear institutions, except in Assam and the South. Oldham, op. cit. 53-4. "J.B.O.R.S., op. cit., pp. 284-5. VI-Ostracism in Ancient Indian Society By Manmotho Nath Ray, M.A. The society leaders of the ancient and the medieval world devised the system of rejecting from their fold such of the members as were guilty of breaking the well-established laws and customs of that particular society. This procedure went by the name of excommunication or social ostracism (afaggie or पातित्यम्) and was mainly intended to serve as the highest censure to be pronounced only on grave offenders; and though not irrevocable in each and every case, it was primarily meant to have a salutary and disciplinary effect upon the soul. The objects that this measure sought to achieve, were i) to maintain the intrinsic purity of the society; (ii) to keep intact its peculiar laws and customs, and (iii) to incapacitate the undesirable elements from creating further mischief. This measure was introduced to punish the worst enemies of the society. Therefore, as an instrument of punishment, it had a corrective as well as a deterrent value. The one influenced the conduct of the individual, while the other acted on the society as a whole. By putting the offender under ban for some time, by depriving him for a certain period of time of all the privileges that the scciety confers on man, it sought to improve the future conduct of the individual; while by making an example of him, it aimed at preventing the repetition of the offence by other members of the society. But as an instrument of punishment there is ever present the danger of its being misused by unscrupulous society leaders. When the self-seeking Satan sits tight on the throne of God, when self-interest completely overshadows the mental vision of man, when, in a fit of delusion and weakness, he puts his self before the soul, then and only then, there is a fear of its being abused; and instances may be cited in support of our contention. In Medieval Europe, for example, when the Empire came into conflict with the Papacy, then the theocracy, we are afraid, blunted the edge of this instrument by making a constant use of it. ور In fact, it appears to me this form of punishment was in vogue in almost all the ancient societies of the world. From the Old Testament we learn that this form of punishment was prevalent in the ancient Hebrew society, (1) and we are told that whole cities or nations were "banned or ex-communicated." (2) The Jewish book of usages, the Talmud, also recognises this form of punishment, and we know for certain that the Prince of Philosophers, Spinoza was expelled from the Jewish communion as late as the middle of the seventeenth century for contempt of law. The early Christian Church of the days of the Apostles and after, also introduced this form of punishment by excluding the offenders from all church privileges. But whatever be the disabilities that a society sought to impose on its refractory children, excommunication was on all hand regarded as being "medicinal " in its character. In the present paper, however, I propose to describe the working of the system s it obtained in Ancient India. The Padma Puran defines a Patita in the following words: महापापो पराभ्या युक्त: पतित उच्यते (3) One guilty of co amitting a major or a minor sin is Patita. Parasara supports the above conclusion in these words: कलौ पतति कर्मणा । (4) In the Kali Age a man becomes a Patita through his actions. Says Gautama: feaufaadat gufa:qasi qa qifafa : (5) "Patana" means incompetence to perform the duties assigned to the twice-born and failure in the next world. |