DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0364
352 The Hindu Religion in Ancient Family-life.
fellow-men. He has no conception of performing the kind
of religious act which a Christian performs when he ' goes to
church.' Occasionally, it is true, and on stated days, he visits
idol shrines. But he does so with no idea of praying with
others, or, indeed, of praying for himself in the Christian sense
of the word. He goes to the temple to perform what is called
Darsana; that is, to look at the idol, the sight of which, when
duly dressed and decorated by the priest, is supposed to confer
merit. After viewing the image he may endeavour to pro-
pitiate the favour or avert the anger of the god it represents
by prostrations of the body, repetitions of its name, or pre-
sentation of offerings. But this is not an essential duty. His
real religion is an affair of family usage, domestic ritual, and
private observance. Not that his domestic worship is free
from priestly interference. Sacerdotalism exerts as strong a
power over family religion in India as it does in other coun-
tries over congregational religion. Every incident, every cir-
cumstance, every operation in Indian home life is subject to
ecclesiastical law. Each man finds himself cribbed and con-
fined in all his movements, bound and fettered in all he does
by the most minute regulations. He sleeps and wakes, dresses
and undresses, sits down and stands up, goes out and comes
in, eats and drinks, speaks and is silent, acts and refrains from
acting, according to precise rule. And the action of the priestly
caste commences with the first instant of his unconscious ex-
istence as a living organism. From that moment to death,
and even long after death, every Hindu is held to be the law-
ful property of the priests, who exact fees for innumerable
offices performed on his behalf.
It is on this account that nearly every village has first
its religious teacher (Guru), who teaches the Vedic Gayatrl or
the initiatory prayer (p. 61) to those whose caste or sect re-
quires them to repeat it, and secondly its ceremonial priest, who
serves as a domestic chaplain (Purohita) to all the families of
the village. Not a single religious rite can be performed
fellow-men. He has no conception of performing the kind
of religious act which a Christian performs when he ' goes to
church.' Occasionally, it is true, and on stated days, he visits
idol shrines. But he does so with no idea of praying with
others, or, indeed, of praying for himself in the Christian sense
of the word. He goes to the temple to perform what is called
Darsana; that is, to look at the idol, the sight of which, when
duly dressed and decorated by the priest, is supposed to confer
merit. After viewing the image he may endeavour to pro-
pitiate the favour or avert the anger of the god it represents
by prostrations of the body, repetitions of its name, or pre-
sentation of offerings. But this is not an essential duty. His
real religion is an affair of family usage, domestic ritual, and
private observance. Not that his domestic worship is free
from priestly interference. Sacerdotalism exerts as strong a
power over family religion in India as it does in other coun-
tries over congregational religion. Every incident, every cir-
cumstance, every operation in Indian home life is subject to
ecclesiastical law. Each man finds himself cribbed and con-
fined in all his movements, bound and fettered in all he does
by the most minute regulations. He sleeps and wakes, dresses
and undresses, sits down and stands up, goes out and comes
in, eats and drinks, speaks and is silent, acts and refrains from
acting, according to precise rule. And the action of the priestly
caste commences with the first instant of his unconscious ex-
istence as a living organism. From that moment to death,
and even long after death, every Hindu is held to be the law-
ful property of the priests, who exact fees for innumerable
offices performed on his behalf.
It is on this account that nearly every village has first
its religious teacher (Guru), who teaches the Vedic Gayatrl or
the initiatory prayer (p. 61) to those whose caste or sect re-
quires them to repeat it, and secondly its ceremonial priest, who
serves as a domestic chaplain (Purohita) to all the families of
the village. Not a single religious rite can be performed