DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0062
40
HISTORY OF TXDTAX ARCHITECTURE
northern Brahmans induced tliem to adopt either tlie Jaina or the
Vaishnava or Saiva forms of faith. It is possible that among the
Pandu Kolis, and other fonns of 'Rude Stone Monuments' that are
found everywhere in the south, we may find the fossil remains of
the old Dravidian faith before they adopted that of the Hindus,
These monuments, however, have not been examined with anything
like the care requisite for the solution of a problem like this, and
till it is done we must rest content with our ignorance.1
In the north we have been somewhat more fortunate, and enough
is now known to make it clear that, so soon as the inquirers can con-
sent to put aside personal jealousies, and apply themselves earnestly
to the task, we may know enough to make the general outline at
least tolerably clear. When I first published my work on ' Tree and
.Serpent Worship,' seven years ago, no one suspected, at least no one
had hinted in type, that such a form of religion existed in Bengal.
Since that time, however, so much has been written on the subject,
and proof on proof has accumulated with such rapidity, that few will
now be bold enough to deny that Trees were worshipped in India in
the earliest times, and that a Naga people did exist, especially in the
north-west, who had a strange veneration for snakes. It may be too
bold a generalisation to assert, at present, that no people became
Buddhists who had not previously been serpent worshippers, but it
certainly is nearer the truth than at first sight appears, It is, at all
events, quite certain that underlying Buddhism we everywhere find
evidence of a stratum of Tree and Serpent Worship, Sometimes it
may be repressed and obscured, but at others it crops up again, and,
to a certain extent, the worship of the Tree and the Serpent, at some
times and in certain places, almost supersedes that of the founder of
the religion himself.
The five, or seven, or one thousand-headed Naga is everywhere
present in the temples of the Jains, and pervades the whole religion
of the Vaishnavas. In the great act of creation the Naga performs
the principal part in the churning of the ocean, and in almost every
representation of Vishnu he appears either as supporting and watching
over him, or as performing some subsidiary part in the scene. It
is, in fact, the Naga that binds together and gives unity to this
great group of religions, and it is the presence of the Tree and
Serpent worship underlying Buddhism, Jainism, and Vishnuism that
seems to prove almost incontestably that there existed a people in the
mirth of India, whether we call them Dasyus, Nishadhas, or by any
1 A book has recently been published
by the late Mr. Breeks, of the Madras
Civil Service, on the primitive tribes of
the Xilagiris, which gives a fuller account
of these 'rude stone monuments1 than
any other yet given to the public. It can
hardly, however, be accepted as a solu-
tion of the problem, which requires a
wider survey than he was able to
make.
HISTORY OF TXDTAX ARCHITECTURE
northern Brahmans induced tliem to adopt either tlie Jaina or the
Vaishnava or Saiva forms of faith. It is possible that among the
Pandu Kolis, and other fonns of 'Rude Stone Monuments' that are
found everywhere in the south, we may find the fossil remains of
the old Dravidian faith before they adopted that of the Hindus,
These monuments, however, have not been examined with anything
like the care requisite for the solution of a problem like this, and
till it is done we must rest content with our ignorance.1
In the north we have been somewhat more fortunate, and enough
is now known to make it clear that, so soon as the inquirers can con-
sent to put aside personal jealousies, and apply themselves earnestly
to the task, we may know enough to make the general outline at
least tolerably clear. When I first published my work on ' Tree and
.Serpent Worship,' seven years ago, no one suspected, at least no one
had hinted in type, that such a form of religion existed in Bengal.
Since that time, however, so much has been written on the subject,
and proof on proof has accumulated with such rapidity, that few will
now be bold enough to deny that Trees were worshipped in India in
the earliest times, and that a Naga people did exist, especially in the
north-west, who had a strange veneration for snakes. It may be too
bold a generalisation to assert, at present, that no people became
Buddhists who had not previously been serpent worshippers, but it
certainly is nearer the truth than at first sight appears, It is, at all
events, quite certain that underlying Buddhism we everywhere find
evidence of a stratum of Tree and Serpent Worship, Sometimes it
may be repressed and obscured, but at others it crops up again, and,
to a certain extent, the worship of the Tree and the Serpent, at some
times and in certain places, almost supersedes that of the founder of
the religion himself.
The five, or seven, or one thousand-headed Naga is everywhere
present in the temples of the Jains, and pervades the whole religion
of the Vaishnavas. In the great act of creation the Naga performs
the principal part in the churning of the ocean, and in almost every
representation of Vishnu he appears either as supporting and watching
over him, or as performing some subsidiary part in the scene. It
is, in fact, the Naga that binds together and gives unity to this
great group of religions, and it is the presence of the Tree and
Serpent worship underlying Buddhism, Jainism, and Vishnuism that
seems to prove almost incontestably that there existed a people in the
mirth of India, whether we call them Dasyus, Nishadhas, or by any
1 A book has recently been published
by the late Mr. Breeks, of the Madras
Civil Service, on the primitive tribes of
the Xilagiris, which gives a fuller account
of these 'rude stone monuments1 than
any other yet given to the public. It can
hardly, however, be accepted as a solu-
tion of the problem, which requires a
wider survey than he was able to
make.