DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0035
14 INTRODUCTION.
earliest disciples were Brahmans, still, like Christianity, Buddhism
was never really adopted by those by whom and for whom, it first
was promulgated. It was, however, eventually adopted by vast
masses of the casteless tribes of India, and by mere weight of
numbers they seem for a long time to have smothered and kept
under the more intellectual races of the land. It always was,
however, and now is, a religion of a Turanian people, and never was
professed, to any marked extent, by any people of pure Aryan race.
As we do not know exactly what the form of the religion of the
Dasyus really was, we cannot positively assert, though it seems most
probable that it was the earliest existing in India; but at the same
time, it is quite certain that the Vedic is the most ancient cultus of
which we have any written or certain record in that country. It was
based on the worship of the manifestations of a soul or spirit in nature.
Their favourite gods were Indra, the god of the firmament, who
gave rain and thundered; Varuna, the Uranos of the Greeks, the
" all-enveloper," the king of gods, upholding and knowing all, and
guardian of immortality; Agni, the god of fire and light; Ushas, the
dawn; Vayu and the Maruts or winds; the Sun, addressed as Savitri,
Surya, Vishnu; and other less distinctly defined personifications.
The service of these gods was at first probably simple enough, con-
sisting of prayers, praises, libations, and sacrifices. The priests,
however, eventually elaborated the most complicated ritual probably
ever invented, and of course, as in other rituals, they arrogated to
themselves, through the proper performance of these rites, powers,
not only superhuman, but even super-divine, compelling even the
gods themselves to submit to their wills.
The system of caste—an essential feature of Brahmanism—had
become hard and fast as early at least as the sixth century before
Christ, and was felt, especially among the lower castes, to be an
intolerable yoke of iron. Men of all castes—often of very low
ones—in revolt against its tyranny, separated themselves from their
kind, and lived lives of asceticism, despising caste as something
beneath the consideration of a devotee who aspired to rise by the
merits of his own works and penances to a position where he might
claim future felicity as a right. The Tirthakas and others of this
class, perhaps as early as the seventh century B.C., threw aside all
clothing, sat exposed to sun and rain on ant-hills or dung-heaps, or,
clothed in bark or in an antelope hide, sought the recesses of forests
earliest disciples were Brahmans, still, like Christianity, Buddhism
was never really adopted by those by whom and for whom, it first
was promulgated. It was, however, eventually adopted by vast
masses of the casteless tribes of India, and by mere weight of
numbers they seem for a long time to have smothered and kept
under the more intellectual races of the land. It always was,
however, and now is, a religion of a Turanian people, and never was
professed, to any marked extent, by any people of pure Aryan race.
As we do not know exactly what the form of the religion of the
Dasyus really was, we cannot positively assert, though it seems most
probable that it was the earliest existing in India; but at the same
time, it is quite certain that the Vedic is the most ancient cultus of
which we have any written or certain record in that country. It was
based on the worship of the manifestations of a soul or spirit in nature.
Their favourite gods were Indra, the god of the firmament, who
gave rain and thundered; Varuna, the Uranos of the Greeks, the
" all-enveloper," the king of gods, upholding and knowing all, and
guardian of immortality; Agni, the god of fire and light; Ushas, the
dawn; Vayu and the Maruts or winds; the Sun, addressed as Savitri,
Surya, Vishnu; and other less distinctly defined personifications.
The service of these gods was at first probably simple enough, con-
sisting of prayers, praises, libations, and sacrifices. The priests,
however, eventually elaborated the most complicated ritual probably
ever invented, and of course, as in other rituals, they arrogated to
themselves, through the proper performance of these rites, powers,
not only superhuman, but even super-divine, compelling even the
gods themselves to submit to their wills.
The system of caste—an essential feature of Brahmanism—had
become hard and fast as early at least as the sixth century before
Christ, and was felt, especially among the lower castes, to be an
intolerable yoke of iron. Men of all castes—often of very low
ones—in revolt against its tyranny, separated themselves from their
kind, and lived lives of asceticism, despising caste as something
beneath the consideration of a devotee who aspired to rise by the
merits of his own works and penances to a position where he might
claim future felicity as a right. The Tirthakas and others of this
class, perhaps as early as the seventh century B.C., threw aside all
clothing, sat exposed to sun and rain on ant-hills or dung-heaps, or,
clothed in bark or in an antelope hide, sought the recesses of forests