Reading section 52

The form of Jewish mysticism known as Kabbala, which in Indian terminology might be described as Jewish Tantrism, has a historical connection with Sufiism and a real analogy to it, for both arise from the desire to temper an austere and regal deism with concessions to the common human craving for the interesting and picturesque, such as mysticism and magic. If the accent of India can sometimes be heard in the poems of the Sufis we may also admit that the Kabbala is its last echo.

Experts do not assign any one region as the origin of the Kabbala but it grew on parallel lines in both Egypt and Babylonia, in both of which it was naturally in touch with the various oriental influences which we have been discussing. It is said to have been introduced to Europe about 900 A.D. but received important additions and modifications at the hands of Isaac Luria (1534-72) who lived in Palestine, although his disciples soon spread his doctrines among the European Jews.

Many features of the Kabbala, such as the marvellous powers assigned to letters, the use of charms and amulets, the emanations or phases of the deity and the theory of the correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm, are amazingly like Indian Tantrism but no doubt are more justly regarded as belonging to the religious ideas common to most of Asia[1171]. But in two points we seem able to discern definite Hindu influence. These are metempsychosis and pantheism, which we have so often found to have some connection with India when they exist in an extreme form. Their presence here is specially remarkable because they are alien to the spirit of orthodox Judaism. Yet the pre-existence and repeated embodiment of the soul is taught in the Zohar and even more systematically by Luria, in whose school were composed works called Gilgûlim, or lists of transmigrations. The ultimate Godhead is called En soph or the infinite and is declared to be unknowable, not to be described by positive epithets, and therefore in a sense non-existent, since nothing which is predicated of existing beings can be truly predicated of it. These are crumbs from the table of Plotinus and the Upanishads.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1164: But see on this point _Census of India_, 1911, vol. I. part I. p. 128.]

[Footnote 1165: Another instance is the shrine of Saiyad Salar Masud at Bahraich. He was a nephew of Mahmud of Ghazni and was slain by Hindus, but is now worshipped by them. See Grierson, _J.R.A.S._ 1911, p. 195.]

[Footnote 1166: See for examples, _Census of India_, 1901, Panjab, p. 151, _e.g._ the Brahmans of a village near Rawal Pindi are said to be Murids of Abdul-Kadir-Jilani.]

[Footnote 1167: _Census of India_, 1911, vol. I. part I. p. 195. The Mâlkânas are described on the same page.]

[Footnote 1168: Such as Ghazi Miyan, Pir Badar, Zindha Ghazi, Sheikh Farid, Sheikh Sadu and Khwaja Khizr.]

[Footnote 1169: E.G. Browne, _Literary History of Persia_: R.A. Nicholson, _Selected Poems from the Divan of Shems-i-Tabriz_.]

[Footnote 1170: He describes how he discovered the mechanism by which the priests made miraculous images move. See Browne, _Lit. Hist. Persia_, II. 529.]

[Footnote 1171: But there is something very Indian in the reluctance of the Kabbalists to accept creation _ex nihilo_ and to explain it away by emanations, or by the doctrine of limitation, that is God's self-withdrawal in order that the world might be created, or even by the eternity of matter.]

INDEX

Abbot. _See_ Monasteries, and Organisation--ecclesiastical

Abdul Kadir Jilani, III. 459

Abhakta, III. 426

Abhayagiri, I. 292, 293; III. 16, 19, 33, 297

Abhayakara, II. 112; III. 360, 387

Abhaya Râjâ, II. 113

Abhidhamma, I. 208, 256, 258, 276 _sq._, 280, 289, 291, 299, 300; II. 47 _sq._, 80, 82, 102; III. 30, 39, 61, 71, 372, 374

Abhidhammattha-sangaha, III. 71 sangraha, III. 39, 45

Abhidharma, III. 292, 299 Kośâ, II. 89; III. 213, 286, 314 Pitaka, II. 59, 81; III. 285, 373 vibhâshaśâstra, II. 78, 81; III. 213 vyâkhyâ, II. 89

Abhimukhi, II. 11

Abhinava Gupta, II. 223, 224

Abhiñña, I. 317

Abhirâjâ, III. 50

Abhîras, II. 156

Abhisheka, II. 122, 275; III. 355

Ablur inscription, II. 225

Aboriginal deities, I. xxxvi, 6; II. 126, 127, 138, 285; III. 68, 97, 112, 182, 185, 224, 343, 382

Absolute Godhead. _See_ Brahman

Abu (Mount), I. 115, 120; II. 203

Abul Fazl, III. 417

Acala, II. 11; III. 392

Açaranga, I. 116

Acâriyaparamparâ, III. 306

Acârya, II. 114, 221, 257; III. 121 bhimâna, II. 237 Pâśupata, III. 114 Śaiva, III. 114 vada, I. 262

Achæmenian reliefs, III. 449

Aciravati, I. 150

Acit, II. 316

Acts of the Apostles, I. 255

Acyuta, III. 114

Acyutânanda Dâsa, II. 115

Adam, III. 217

Adam's Bridge, II. 150 Peak, I. 7; III. 13, 43

Adhâra Kârikâs, II. 224

Adharma, I. 106

Adhicitta, I. 313, 315; III. 310

Adhipañña, I. 313; III. 310

Adhyâtma Râmâyaṇa, II. 152, 187, 194

Adi-Buddha, II. 13, 26, 31, 57, 117, 118, 119, 129; III. 173, 387

Adi-granth, II. 263, 268

Adityas, I. 61; II. 146

Adityavarman, III. 163

_Adonis, Attis and Osiris_, II. 285

Advaita (philosophy), I. cii, 74, 82, 235; II. 40, 74, 204, 225, 238, 258, 289, 307, 312 _sq_.; III. 305,421

(P. N.), II. 254

Advaya, III. 173-181

Adyar Library, II. 195, 210, 270, 322

_Aeltere vedanta_, II. 315