The Religions of India: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris JastrowHopkins, Edward Washburn
Religion
The Religions of India: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris Jastrow
Hopkins, Edward Washburn
India -- Religion
The good dead in the Rig Veda return with Yama to the sacrifice to
enjoy the _soma_ and viands prepared for them by their descendants.
Hence the whole belief in the necessity of a son in order to the
obtaining of a joyful hereafter. What the rite of burial was to the
Greek, a son was to the Hindu, a means of bliss in heaven. Roth
apparently thinks that the Rig Veda's heaven is one that can best be
described in Dr. Watt's hymn:
There is a land of pure delight
Where saints immortal reign,
Eternal day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain;
and that especial stress should be laid on the word 'pure.' But there
is very little teaching of personal purity in the Veda, and the poet
who hopes for a heaven where he is to find 'longing women,' 'desire
and its fulfillment' has in mind, in all probability, purely impure
delights. It is not to be assumed that the earlier morality surpassed
that of the later day, when, even in the epic, the hero's really
desired heaven is one of drunkenness and women _ad libitum_. Of the
'good man' in the Rig Veda are demanded piety toward gods and manes
and liberality to priests; truthfulness and courage; and in the end of
the work there is a suggestion of ascetic 'goodness' by means of
_tapas_, austerity.[52] Grassman cites one hymn as dedicated to
'Mercy.' It is really (not a hymn and) not on mercy, but a poem
praising generosity. This generosity, however (and in general this is
true of the whole people), is not general generosity, but liberality
to the priests.[53] The blessings asked for are wealth (cattle,
horses, gold, etc.), virile power, male children ('heroic offspring')
and immortality, with its accompanying joys. Once there is a tirade
against the friend that is false to his friend (truth in act as well
as in word);[54] once only, a poem on concord, which seems to partake
of the nature of an incantation.
Incantations are rare in the Rig Veda, and appear to be looked upon as
objectionable. So in VII. 104 the charge of a 'magician' is furiously
repudiated; yet do an incantation against a rival wife, a mocking hymn
of exultation after subduing rivals, and a few other hymns of like
sort show that magical practices were well known.[55]
The sacrifice occupies a high place in the religion of the Rig Veda,
but it is not all-important, as it is later. Nevertheless, the same
presumptuous assumption that the gods depend on earthly sacrifice is
often made; the result of which, even before the collection was
complete (IV. 50), was to teach that gods and men depended on the will
of the wise men who knew how properly to conduct a sacrifice, the
key-note of religious pride in the Brahmanic period.
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