Reading section 24

The gist of the matter is that, since a taste for speculation is far more prevalent in India than in Europe, there exist many systems of popular philosophy which, being a mixture of religion and metaphysics, involve two mental attitudes. The ordinary worshipper implores the Lord to deliver him from the bondage of sin and matter: the philosopher and saint wish to show that thought is one and such ideas as sin and matter partial and illusory. The originality of the Saiva Siddhanta lies less in its dogmas than in its devotional character: in the feeling that the soul is immersed in darkness and struggles upwards by the grace of the Lord, so that the whole process of Karma and Maya is really beneficent.

5

As already mentioned Sivaism has an important though unorthodox offshoot in the Lingayats[558] or Lingavants. It appears that they originated at Kalyan (now in the Nizam's dominions) at the time when a usurper named Bijjala (1156-1167) had seized the throne of the Chalukyas. Their founder was Basava (the vernacular form of Vrishabha) assisted by his nephew Channabasava,[559] whose exploits and miracles are recorded in two Puranas composed in Kanarese and bearing their respective names. According to one story Bijjala, who was a Jain, persecuted the Lingayats and was assassinated by them. But there are other versions and the early legends of the sect merit little credence. The Lingayats are Puritans. They reject caste, the supremacy of the Brahmans, sacrifices and other rites, and all the later Brahmanic literature. In theory they reverence the Vedas but practically the two Puranas mentioned are their sacred books.[560] They are strict vegetarians and teetotallers: they do not insist on child marriages nor object to the remarriage of widows. Their only object of worship is Siva in the form of a lingam and they always carry one suspended round the neck or arm. It is remarkable that an exceptionally severe and puritanical sect should choose this emblem as its object of worship, but, as already observed, the lingam is merely a symbol of the creative force and its worship is not accomplished by indecent rites.[561] They hold that true Lingayats are not liable to be defiled by births or deaths, that they cannot be injured by sorcery and that when they die their souls do not transmigrate but go straight to Siva. No prayers for the dead are needed.

Though trustworthy details about the rise of the Lingayats are scarce, we can trace their spiritual ancestry. They present in an organized form the creed which inspired Pattanattu Pillai in the tenth century. About a hundred years later came Ramanuja who founded a great Vishnuite Church and it is not surprising if the Sivaites followed this example, nor if the least orthodox party became the most definitely sectarian.

The sectarian impulse which is conspicuous after the eleventh century was perhaps stimulated by the example of Mohammedanism. There was little direct doctrinal influence, but a religious people like the Hindus can hardly have failed to notice the strength possessed by an association worshipping one god of its own and united by one discipline. Syrian Christianity also might have helped to familiarize the Lingayats with the idea of a god not to be represented by images or propitiated by sacrifices, but there is no proof that it was prevalent in the part of the Deccan where they first appeared.

The Lingayats spread rapidly after Basava's death.[562] They still number about two millions and are to be found in most Kanarese-speaking districts. They are easily recognizable for all carry the lingam, which is commonly enclosed in a red scarf worn round the neck or among the richer classes in a silver-box. It is made of grey soapstone and a Lingayat must on no account part with it for a moment. They are divided into the laity and the Jangams or priests. Some of these marry but others are itinerant ascetics who wander over India frequenting especially the five Simhasanas or Lingayat sees.[563] They are treated with extreme respect by the laity and sometimes wear fantastic costumes such as plates resembling armour or little bells which announce their approach as they walk.

In doctrine the Lingayats remain faithful to their original tenets and do not worship any god or goddess except Siva in the form of the Lingam, though they show respect to Ganesa, and other deities as also to the founder of their sect. But in social matters it is agreed by all observers that they show a tendency to reintroduce caste and to minimize the differences separating them from more orthodox sects. According to Basava's teaching all members of the community both men and women are equal. But though converts from all castes are still accepted, it was found at the last census that well-to-do Lingayats were anxious to be entered under the name of Virasaiva Brahmans, Kshatriyas, etc., and did not admit that caste distinctions are obliterated among them. Similarly though the remarriage of widows is not forbidden there is a growing tendency to look at it askance.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 511: In various allusions to be found in the Kadambari and Harshacarita.]

[Footnote 512: The best known of these is the Tantravarttika, a commentary on the Purva-mimamsa.]

[Footnote 513: This is the generally accepted date and does not appear to conflict with anything else that is at present known of Sankara. An alternative suggestion is some date between 590 and 650 (see Telang, _I.A._ XIII. 1884, p. 95 and Fleet, _I.A._ XVI. 1887, p. 41). But in this case, it is very strange that I-Ching does not mention so conspicuous an enemy of the Buddhists. It does not seem to me that the use of Purnavarman's name by Sankara in an illustration (_Comm. on Vedanta Sut._ II. i. 17) necessarily implies they were contemporaries, but it does prove that he cannot have lived before Purnavarman.]

[Footnote 514: Another tradition says he was born at Chidambaram, but the temple at Badrinath in the Himalayas said to have been founded by him has always been served by Nambuthiri Brahmans from Malabar. In 1910 a great temple erected in his honour was consecrated at Kaladi.]

[Footnote 515: His conflicts with them are described in works called Sankara-vijaya of which at least four are extant.]

[Footnote 516: They are called Dasanamis which merely means that each ascetic bears one or other of ten surnames (Sarswati, Bharati, Tirtha, etc.). See for a further account of them Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya, _Hindu Castes and Sects_, pp. 374-379.

The order in all its branches seems to have strong pantheistic inclinations. They mutter the formula Sivo'ham, I am Siva.]

[Footnote 517: I have been told by south Indian Pandits that they think Sankara was bom in a Bhagavata family and that there is some evidence his kinsmen were trustees of a temple of Krishna. The Saktas also claim him, but the tradition that he opposed the Saktas is strong and probable. Many hymns addressed to Vishnu, Siva and various forms of Durga are attributed to him. I have not been able to discover what is the external evidence for their authenticity but hymns must have been popular in south India before the time of Sankara and it is eminently probable that he did not neglect this important branch of composition.]

[Footnote 518: See Bhattacharya, _Hindu Castes and Sects_, p. 16.]

[Footnote 519: This math has an endowment of about L5000 a year, instituted by the kings of Vijayanagar. The Guru is treated with great respect. His palankin is carried crossways to prevent anyone from passing him and he wears a jewelled head-dress, not unlike a papal tiara, and wooden shoes covered with silver. See an interesting account of Sringeri in _J. Mythic Society_ (Bangalore), vol. VIII. pp. 18-33.

Schrader in his catalogue of the Sanskrit MSS. in the Adyar Library, 1908, notices an Upanishad called Mahamayopanishad, ascribed to Sankara himself, which deals with the special qualities of the four maths. Each is described as possessing one Veda, one Mahavakyam, etc. The second part deals with the three ideal maths, Sumeru, Paramatman and Sastrathajnana.]

[Footnote 520: There is some reason to suppose that the Math of Sringeri was founded on the site of a Buddhist monastery. See _Journal of Mythic Society_, Bangalore, 1916, p. 151.]

[Footnote 521: Pracchanna-bauddha. See for further details Book IV. chap. XXI. _ad fin._]

[Footnote 522: The old folk-lore of Bengal gives a picture of Siva, the peasant's god, which is neither Vedic nor Dravidian. See Dinesh Chandra Sen, _Bengali Lang. and Lit._ pp. 68 ff. and 239 ff.]

[Footnote 523: _J.R.A.S._ 1899, p. 242.]

[Footnote 524: See some curious examples in Whitehead's _Village Gods of South India._]

[Footnote 525: Rice, _Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions_, pp. 27 and 204.]

[Footnote 526: The early Brahmi inscriptions of southern India are said to be written in a Dravidian language with an admixture not of Sanskrit but of Pali words. See _Arch. Survey India_, 1911-12, Part I. p. 23.]

[Footnote 527: See Rice, _Mysore and Coorg_, pp. 3-5 and Fleet's criticisms, _I.A._. XXI. 1892, p. 287.]

[Footnote 528: The various notices in European classical authors as well as in the Sinhalese chronicles prove this.]

[Footnote 529: Except in the first chapter.]

[Footnote 530: A complete list of them is given in Foulkes, _Catechism of the Shaiva religion_, 1863, p. 21.]

[Footnote 531: _Tamilian Antiquary_, 3, 1909, pp. 1-65.]

[Footnote 532: Edited and translated by Pope, 1900.]

[Footnote 533: Established opinion or doctrine. Used by the Jains as a name for their canon.]

[Footnote 534: Thus the catechism of the Saiva religion by Sabhapati Mudaliyar (transl. Foulkes, 1863) after stating emphatically that the world is created also says that the soul and the world are both eternal. Also just as in the Bhagavad-gita the ideas of the Vedanta and Sankhya are incongruously combined, so in the Tiruvacagam (_e.g._ Pope's edition, pp. 49 and 138) Siva is occasionally pantheized. He is the body and the soul, existence and non-existence, the false and the true, the bond and the release.]

[Footnote 535: _E.g._ Hymn vi.]

[Footnote 536: Pope's _Tiruvacagam_, p. 257.]

[Footnote 537: Yet I have read that American revivalists describe how you play base ball (an American game) with Jesus.]

[Footnote 538: Pope's _Tiruvacagam_, p. 101.]

[Footnote 539: It does not seem to me that the legend of Siva's drinking the hala-hala poison is really parallel to the sufferings of the Christian redeemer. At the most it is a benevolent exploit like many performed by Vishnu.]

[Footnote 540: Although Siva is said to have been many times incarnate (see for instance _Catechism of the Shaiva religion_, p. 20) he seems to have merely appeared in human form on special occasions and not to have been like Christ or Krishna a god living as a man from birth to death.]

[Footnote 541: The lines which seem most clearly to reflect Christian influence are those quoted by Caldwell from the Nana nuru in the introduction to his _Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian languages_, p. 127, but neither the date of the work nor the original of the quotation is given. This part of the introduction is omitted in the third edition.]

[Footnote 542: _Tamilian Antiquary_, 4, 1909, pp. 57-82.]

[Footnote 543: _Ib._ pp. 1-57; Sesha Aiyer gives 275 A.D. as the probable date, and 375 as the latest date.]

[Footnote 544: The Saiva catechism translated by Foulkes says (p. 27) that Siva revealed the Tiruvacagam twice, first to Manikka-Vacagar and later to Tiru-Kovaiyar.]

[Footnote 545: Sanskrit, _Siddha._]

[Footnote 546: Space forbids me to quote the Siva-vakyam and Pattanattu Pillai, interesting as they are. The reader is referred to Gover, _Folk-Songs of southern India_, 1871, a work which is well worth reading.]

[Footnote 547: The date of the Skanda Purana creates no difficulty for Bendall considered a MS. of it found in Nepal to be anterior to 659 A.D.]

[Footnote 548: One of his maxims was _adu, adu adal_, that is the mind becomes that (spiritual or material) with which it identifies itself most completely.]

[Footnote 549: It is contained in fourteen sastras, most of which are attributed to the four teachers mentioned above.]

[Footnote 550: For the Kashmir school see Barnett in _Museon_, 1909, pp. 271-277. _J.R.A.S._ 1910, pp. 707-747. Kashmir Sanskrit series, particularly vol. II. entitled _Kashmir Saivism_. The Siva sutras and the commentary Vimar'sini translated in _Indian Thought_, 1911-12. Also Srinivasa Iyengar, _Outlines of Indian Philosophy_, pp. 168-175 and _Sarva-darsana-sangraha_, chap. VIII.]

[Footnote 551: Among them may be mentioned Kallata, author of the _Spanda Karikas_ and Somananda of the Sivadrishti, who both flourished about 850-900. Utpala, who composed the Pratyabhijna-karikas, lived some fifty years later, and in the eleventh century Abhinava Gupta and Kshemaraja composed numerous commentaries.]

[Footnote 552: Kashmirian Saivism is often called Trika, that is tripartite, because, like other varieties, it treats of three ultimates _Siva_, _Sakti_, _Anu_ or _Pati_, _Pasu_, _Pasa_. But it has a decided tendency towards monism.]

[Footnote 553: Also called the Sakti or Matrika.]

[Footnote 554: See _Epig. Carn._ VII. Sk. 114. 19, 20 and _Jour. Mythic Society_, 1917, pp. 176, 180.]

[Footnote 555: To say nothing of Sivaite temples like the Kailas at Ellora, the chief doctrines and even the terminology of Sivaite philosophy are mentioned by Sankara on Ved. Sutras, II. 2. 37.]

[Footnote 556: In the Samyuktavastu, chap. XL. (transl. in _J.A._ 1914, II. pp. 534, etc.) the Buddha is represented as saying that Kashmir is the best land for meditation and leading a religious life.]

[Footnote 557: Chatterji, _Kashmir Saivism_, p. 11, thinks that Abhinava Gupta's _Paramarthasara_, published by Barnett, was an adaptation of older verses current in India and called the Adhara Karikas.]

[Footnote 558: See Thurston, _Castes and Tribes of southern India_, s.v. vol. IV. pp. 236-291 and _Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency_, vol. XXIII. article Bijapur, pp. 219-1884.]

[Footnote 559: An inscription found at Ablur in Dharwar also mentions Ramayya as a champion of Sivaite monotheism. He is perhaps the same as Channabasava. The Lingayats maintain that Basava merely revived the old true religion of Siva and founded nothing new.]

[Footnote 560: They have also a book called _Prabhuling-lila_, which is said to teach that the deity ought to live in the believer's soul as he lives in the lingam, and collections of early Kanarese sermons which are said to date from the thirteenth century.]