The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 2 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Religion
The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 2 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Iran -- Religion; Religions
[204] Professor Wilson (see his Sketch of the Religious
Sects of the Hindus, in the XVIth vol. of the _As. Res._, p.
1-136) has enumerated the religious divisions of the Hindus
as they have been described by the author of the _Sankara
Vijaya_, probably in the 8th century of our era, to which
enumeration he added that of the present divisions of this
people, comprised in three great classes: the _Vaichnavas_,
the _Sâivas_, and the _Saktas_. Very few names of these
sects are to be found in The Dabistán, although both works
agree in general in the account of the opinions, rites, and
customs of the different sectaries; the outlines of their
systems appear to have remained the same during at least the
last thousand years, whatever alterations the details may
have undergone.
[205] _Panthi_ is derived from the Sanskrit पन्थिन्
_panthin_, “who goes the road.” This term occurs only in the
word परिपन्थिन् _pari-panthi_, “an adversary.”
[206] According to the Shah-nameh, Afrasiab, after many
battles, succombed to the fortune of Kaí-Khusro. The king of
Turan fled to the mountains of Berdah, where he concealed
himself in a cavern. It so happened that Hum, a descendant
of Feridun, lived as a hermit in the same desert: there he
heard by night a voice of complaint, which he soon
recognised to be that of Afrasiab. The hermit had not
extinguished the vindictive passion in his breast; he seized
and bound the fugitive king, and conducted him to be
delivered into the hands of Káí Khusró. On the bank of a
large river, Hum, visited by a feeling of pity, loosened the
fetters of his prisoner, who profited by these few moments
of liberty to escape, and dived into the water, where he
remained concealed, as is said above, so that he could not
be discovered. Káí Khusró, having in the mean time arrived
to receive himself the great captive, Hum advised the king
to subject Gorshivez (Afrâsiab’s brother) who was also a
prisoner in his hands, to severe tortures, in order that the
lamentations of the sufferer might draw Afrasiab out of the
water. This stratagem succeeded, and Afrasiab was killed by
the sword of Káí Khusró.
[207] सप्त चक्राः In the best treatises of the Hindu
philosophers, we find only six chakras, or “circles,”
enumerated; these are as follow: 1. _Muládhára_, “the parts
about the pubis;” 2. the _Swádishthánam_, or “umbilical
region;” 3. the _Manipúram_, “pit of the stomach,” or
“epigastrium;” 4. _Anáhatam_, “the root of the nose;” 5.
_Visuddham_, “the hollow between the frontal sinuses;” 6.
_Ajnyákhyam_, “the fontenelle, or union of the coronal and
sagittal sutures.” To these circles, or divisions, are
attributed various faculties and relations with divinities
and physical elements.
[208] मूलाधार.
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