DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0242
CHAPTER IX.
Demon-worship and Spirit-worship.
This subject has already been to some extent anticipated
in the previous chapter. There I have endeavoured to point
out that the universal prevalence of the worship of tutelary
deities among the great mass of the population in India is
the result of a perpetual dread of evil demons—a dread which
haunts Hindus of all ranks and stations, from the highest
to the lowest, with the exception of those fortunate persons
whom a European education has delivered from the dominion
of superstitious ideas.
My object in the present chapter will be to show that
the very demons and evil spirits are as much objects of wor-
ship as the gods who defend men from their malice; just as
the tutelary deities may themselves under aggravating cir-
cumstances turn into angry demons who require to be
propitiated (see p. 245).
In fact, a belief in every kind of demoniacal influence has
always been from the earliest times an essential ingredient
in Hindu religious thought. The idea probably had its origin
in the supposed peopling of the air by spiritual beings—the
personifications or companions of storm and tempest. Cer-
tainly no one who has ever been brought into close contact
with the Hindus in their own country can doubt the fact
that the worship of at least ninety per cent, of the people
of India in the present day is a worship of fear. Not that
the existence of good deities presided over by one Supreme
Demon-worship and Spirit-worship.
This subject has already been to some extent anticipated
in the previous chapter. There I have endeavoured to point
out that the universal prevalence of the worship of tutelary
deities among the great mass of the population in India is
the result of a perpetual dread of evil demons—a dread which
haunts Hindus of all ranks and stations, from the highest
to the lowest, with the exception of those fortunate persons
whom a European education has delivered from the dominion
of superstitious ideas.
My object in the present chapter will be to show that
the very demons and evil spirits are as much objects of wor-
ship as the gods who defend men from their malice; just as
the tutelary deities may themselves under aggravating cir-
cumstances turn into angry demons who require to be
propitiated (see p. 245).
In fact, a belief in every kind of demoniacal influence has
always been from the earliest times an essential ingredient
in Hindu religious thought. The idea probably had its origin
in the supposed peopling of the air by spiritual beings—the
personifications or companions of storm and tempest. Cer-
tainly no one who has ever been brought into close contact
with the Hindus in their own country can doubt the fact
that the worship of at least ninety per cent, of the people
of India in the present day is a worship of fear. Not that
the existence of good deities presided over by one Supreme