Chips from a German Workshop, Volume 4: Essays Chiefly on the Science of LanguageMüller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Religion
Chips from a German Workshop, Volume 4: Essays Chiefly on the Science of Language
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Comparative linguistics; Folklore; Literature -- History and criticism; Mythology; Religions
I ask Mr. Lyall, is this true or is it not? He says himself, “that
Brahmanism may possibly melt away of a heap and break up, I would not
absolutely deny.” Would Mr. Lyall say the same of Buddhism,
Mohammedanism, or Christianity? He points himself to the description
which Gibbon gives of the ancient Roman religion in the second century
of the Christian era, and shows how closely applicable it is to the
present state of Brahmanism in India. “The tolerant superstition of the
people, ‘not confined by the claims of any speculative system,’ the
‘devout polytheist, whom fear, gratitude, and curiosity, a dream, or an
omen, a singular disorder, or a distant journey, perpetually disposed to
multiply the articles of his belief, and to enlarge the list of his
protectors;’ the ‘ingenious youth alike instructed in every school to
reject and despise the religion of the multitude;’ the philosophic class
who ‘look with indulgence on the errors of the vulgar, diligently
practice the ceremonies of their fathers, and devoutly frequent the
temples of their gods;’ the ‘magistrates who know and value the
advantages of religion as it is connected with civil government;’--all
these scenes and feelings are represented in India at this moment,
though by no means in all parts of India.” If, then, in the second
century a student of religious pathology had expressed his conviction
that in spite of the number of its professors, in spite of its
antiquity, in spite of its indigenous character, in spite of its
political, civil, and social influences, in spite of its temples and
priests, in spite of its schools and philosophers, the ancient religion
of Jupiter had lost its vitality, was sick unto death, nay, for all real
purposes was dead, would he have been far wrong? It may be replied, no
doubt, that similar corruptions have crept into other religions also,
that gaudy dolls are carried about in Christian cathedrals, that people
are invited to see tears rolling down from the eyes of images, or to
worship wine changed into blood, to say nothing of even more terrible
hallucinations on the Eucharist propounded from so-called Protestant
pulpits, and that, in spite of all this, we should not call the
Christian religion dying or dead. This is true, and I thought that by my
remarks on the different revivals of Hinduism from the twelfth to the
nineteenth century, I had sufficiently indicated that new life may
spring even from such apparently hopeless corruption. If it is
Brahmanism that lives in the sects of Râmânuja and Râmânanda, in the
poetry of Kabir and the wisdom of Nànak, in the honest purposes of Ram
Mohun Roy and in the high aspirations of Keshub Chunder Sen, then I
quite agree with Mr. Lyall that Brahmanism is not dead, but lives more
intensely than ever.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account