Produced by Thierry Alberto, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net The Wisdom of the East Series EDITED BY L. CRANMER-BYNG Dr. S. A. KAPADIA WISDOM OF THE EAST HINDU GODS AND HEROES STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF THE RELIGION OF INDIA BY LIONEL D. BARNETT, M.A., LITT * * * * * PREFACE The following pages are taken from the Forlong Bequest lectures which I delivered in March last at the School of Oriental Studies. Owing to exigencies of space, much of what I then said has been omitted here, especially with regard to the worship of Śiva; but enough remains to make clear my general view, which is that the religion of the Aryans of India was essentially a worship of spirits--sometimes spirits of real persons, sometimes imaginary spirits--and that, although in early days it provisionally found room for personifications of natural forces, it could not digest them into Great Gods, and therefore they have either disappeared or, if surviving, remain as mere Struldbrugs. Thus I am a heretic in relation to both the Solar Theory and the Vegetation Theory, as everyone must be who takes the trouble to study Hindu nature without prejudice. L. D. B. _May 29, 1922._ * * * * * CONTENTS I. THE VĒDIC AGE: Popular Religion, p. 9--Ṛig-vēda and priestly religion, p. 11--Dyaus-Zeus, p. 14--Ushās, p. 18--Sūrya, p. 19--Savitā, p. 19--Mitra and Varuṇa, p. 19--Agni, p. 22--Sōma, p. 23--Indra, p. 25--The Aśvins, p. 35--Vishṇu, p. 37--Rudra-Siva, p. 42--Summary, p. 42. II. THE AGE OF THE BRĀHMAṆAS: Growth of Brahman influence in expanding Aryan society, p. 45--System of priestly doctrine: theory of Sacrifice and mechanical control of nature thereby, p. 48--Its antinomianism: partly corrected by the growing cult of Rudra-Śiva, p. 53--The Upanishads: their relation to the Brāhmaṇas, p. 59--Brahma the Absolute, p. 60--Karma-Saṃsāra, p. 63--Results: Śaiva Theism, p. 65--Kṛishṇa: early history and legends, p. 66--Teachings, p. 68. III. THE EPICS, AND LATER: I. The Great War and the Pāṇḍavas, p. 70--Vishṇu-Kṛishṇa, p. 74--Nārāyaṇa, p. 76--Bhagavad-gītā and Nārāyaṇīya, p. 77--Growth of church of Vishṇu-Kṛishṇa, p. 79--Worship of Pāṇḍavas, p. 92--New erotic and romantic Kṛishṇaism, p. 94. II. Rāma: legend of Rāma and constitution of Rāmāyaṇa, p. 98.