DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.611#0139
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF BENARES. 97
naturally lead one to expect, who approaches the ques-
tion from the outside. There are very many evidences
that they are not heedless of the religious side of life
but what they are, in this respect, they are, mainly, in
and for themselves. They are fairly much what Mahom-
medans are in hundreds of other places in India, there
Is nothing peculiarly characteristic about the Mahom-
medans of Benares, no great movement among them,
or power, which indicates that they are likely to alter
the religious life of the city, or of India. Their religious
life may be much to them, it is not greatly significant
as regards the religious life of India for the future. In
other words, in malting a study of religion as presented
in Benares, there is nothing outstanding in its manifes-
tation here, nothing which suggests that we have special
opportunities of studying it in its special character, and
its influence on the world around.
It is quite different with Hinduism, the whole place
is impregnated and saturated with it. Not only does
it meet the eye at every point, but it appears to domi-
nate well nigh everything. That Benares is a distinctly
Hindu city is not a fact to be deduced from a study of
the statistical tables, and the discovery that about seven-
ty-five per cent, of the population are Hindus; rather
is it a conviction carried home to the mind by a consi-
deration of the totality of the life of the city, in its many
and varied elements.
Jainism is another element which may be left out
of our study. The community is small, prosperous, and
(judging by the number of their temples in comparison
with the number of Jains), religious. But here again
there is the feeling that what they are, they are to and
for themselves ; they are not to any appreciable extent
influencing others, or even contributing to the develop-
ment of their own religion in any special way.
13
naturally lead one to expect, who approaches the ques-
tion from the outside. There are very many evidences
that they are not heedless of the religious side of life
but what they are, in this respect, they are, mainly, in
and for themselves. They are fairly much what Mahom-
medans are in hundreds of other places in India, there
Is nothing peculiarly characteristic about the Mahom-
medans of Benares, no great movement among them,
or power, which indicates that they are likely to alter
the religious life of the city, or of India. Their religious
life may be much to them, it is not greatly significant
as regards the religious life of India for the future. In
other words, in malting a study of religion as presented
in Benares, there is nothing outstanding in its manifes-
tation here, nothing which suggests that we have special
opportunities of studying it in its special character, and
its influence on the world around.
It is quite different with Hinduism, the whole place
is impregnated and saturated with it. Not only does
it meet the eye at every point, but it appears to domi-
nate well nigh everything. That Benares is a distinctly
Hindu city is not a fact to be deduced from a study of
the statistical tables, and the discovery that about seven-
ty-five per cent, of the population are Hindus; rather
is it a conviction carried home to the mind by a consi-
deration of the totality of the life of the city, in its many
and varied elements.
Jainism is another element which may be left out
of our study. The community is small, prosperous, and
(judging by the number of their temples in comparison
with the number of Jains), religious. But here again
there is the feeling that what they are, they are to and
for themselves ; they are not to any appreciable extent
influencing others, or even contributing to the develop-
ment of their own religion in any special way.
13