DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.640#0039
XXVI
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
sions, he who asks for the completion of all his desires, he who
prays for absorption, and the person free from all desire, worship
Brumha. Hence it appears, that all the Hindoo gods, except
Brumha, are considered as bestowing only temporal favours;
and it has been already observed, that this god has been aban-
doned, and left without either temples or images. Thus the
whole system excites in the mind of the worshipper only cupi-
dity and the love of pleasure; and to this agrees what I have
repeatedly heard from sensible bramhuns, that few if any per-
sons now attend the public festivals with a direct view to a
future state.
Tt is common for the Hindoos to speak of some of their gods
as benevolent, and to treat others as malignant beings0: Shivu,
as well as other gods, unites both these qualities; in one hand
he holds a dreadful weapon, and with two others he blesses a
worshipper, and invites him to approach. Not one of these
images, however, conveys the least idea of the moral attributes
of God.
I. Brumha. This god may be properly noticed first, as he is
called the creator, and the grandfather of gods aad men; in the
latter designation he resembles Jupiter, as well as in the lasci-
viousness of his conduct, having betrayed a criminal passion to-
wards his own daughter. Brumha's image is never worshipped,
nor even made; but the Chiindee describes it as that of a red
man with four faces?. He is red, as a mark of his being full of
the ruju goomi; he has four faces, to remind the worshipper
that the ve"dus proceeded from his four mouths. In one hand he
has a string of beads, to shew that his power as creator was
" Hindoo women, and the lower orders, regard Pfinchanuntt, Diikshinu-
rayii, Munfisa, Sheettda, Shusht'hec, as malignant demons, and worship
them through fear, still praying to them for protection. The superior
deities, though arrayed with attributes of terror, are considered as using
their power only in favour of the worshipper.
* Brumha had five heads, but Shivii deprived him of one, as a punish-
ment for his lust.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
sions, he who asks for the completion of all his desires, he who
prays for absorption, and the person free from all desire, worship
Brumha. Hence it appears, that all the Hindoo gods, except
Brumha, are considered as bestowing only temporal favours;
and it has been already observed, that this god has been aban-
doned, and left without either temples or images. Thus the
whole system excites in the mind of the worshipper only cupi-
dity and the love of pleasure; and to this agrees what I have
repeatedly heard from sensible bramhuns, that few if any per-
sons now attend the public festivals with a direct view to a
future state.
Tt is common for the Hindoos to speak of some of their gods
as benevolent, and to treat others as malignant beings0: Shivu,
as well as other gods, unites both these qualities; in one hand
he holds a dreadful weapon, and with two others he blesses a
worshipper, and invites him to approach. Not one of these
images, however, conveys the least idea of the moral attributes
of God.
I. Brumha. This god may be properly noticed first, as he is
called the creator, and the grandfather of gods aad men; in the
latter designation he resembles Jupiter, as well as in the lasci-
viousness of his conduct, having betrayed a criminal passion to-
wards his own daughter. Brumha's image is never worshipped,
nor even made; but the Chiindee describes it as that of a red
man with four faces?. He is red, as a mark of his being full of
the ruju goomi; he has four faces, to remind the worshipper
that the ve"dus proceeded from his four mouths. In one hand he
has a string of beads, to shew that his power as creator was
" Hindoo women, and the lower orders, regard Pfinchanuntt, Diikshinu-
rayii, Munfisa, Sheettda, Shusht'hec, as malignant demons, and worship
them through fear, still praying to them for protection. The superior
deities, though arrayed with attributes of terror, are considered as using
their power only in favour of the worshipper.
* Brumha had five heads, but Shivii deprived him of one, as a punish-
ment for his lust.