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History of non-Christian Religions — Topic 5

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History of non-Christian Religions — Topic 5

5.1 Introduction: The Proto-Indian Civilization

The term “Hinduism” is contested and does not denote a single religious phenomenon or structure. Hinduism has no unified dogmatics, and it is more accurate to speak of a conglomerate of sects and diverse religious currents, united only by certain shared ideas and held together by their common region of origin. The self-designation of Hinduism is hindu sanatana dharma, which may be rendered approximately as “the eternal religion of the Indians.” More commonly, simply hindu is used. The word dharma is employed not only with reference to Hinduism but also to Buddhism and Jainism, and is variously translated as law, teaching, order, religion, or precept. In India this word is in fact applied to any religion.

However, there is a considerable difference between contemporary Hinduism and its ancient predecessors, and historians of Hinduism customarily distinguish the Early Vedic period as the most archaic, the Late Vedic (or normative Vedic) period—the period of the classical Upanishads—Brahmanism as the developed orthodoxy, and so on.

According to the standard scholarly “Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT)”, Indian religious culture has two sources: the first is the Vedic stratum of the Aryan tribes (Aryans being their self-designation, literally “the noble”), which took shape in India in the middle of the second millennium BC; the second is the stratum of indigenous, pre-Aryan or proto-Indian beliefs that existed before the Aryans and subsequently exerted a powerful influence on the formation of Hinduism. This second stratum is usually associated with the Harappan civilization.

Alexander Cunningham (1814–1893) collected ancient artifacts found in India, including seals and inscribed statuettes (the Proto-Indian script has not been deciphered). In 1921–22 excavations began under the direction of John Marshall (1876–1958). It emerged that prior to the arrival of the Aryans in India a highly developed urban civilization had existed, comprising some 1,000 cities and covering an area greater than Egypt and Mesopotamia combined. The ethnic composition of the Harappan civilization was predominantly Caucasoid (Mediterranean type), with minor Negroid and Mongoloid admixtures. It is an autochthonous civilization which, in Marshall’s view, took shape in the fourth millennium BC. (In the Porali River valley in the 1960s proto-urban settlements of the fifth–fourth millennium were discovered: stepped pyramids surrounded by as many as a hundred houses (3 by 8 m), roads, and paved squares; apparently no one lived there permanently, but pilgrims came to perform rituals and then dispersed back to their villages.) The largest cities had populations of around 100,000. The chief centers were Mohenjo-daro (“Mound of the Dead,” covering 85 hectares), Harappa (65 ha), and the more recently excavated Ganweriwala (81.5 ha). The cities had a clear layout, were typically built on the plain, and were enclosed by a wall. They were all constructed of brick of a single type (though in various sizes). Their level of comfort surpassed that of all their contemporaries, including Egypt and Crete, with sewerage systems, water supply, swimming pools (public baths), and the like.

There is, however, one striking feature: no temple exists within the city, nor anywhere in its vicinity. Furthermore, little attention was given to the funerary cult (cemeteries exist, of course, but they are uniform and simple). At the same time, on the basis of the surviving drawings, ceramics, and seals, it is clear that there was a religion, and that the style of representation is characteristically Indian. Religion was not outwardly displayed: there are no pyramids, no ziggurats. (The Laws of Manu, one of the principal legal texts of orthodox Hinduism, state that only those who venerate demons adorn their dead.) The Aryans invaded this territory in the 1600s–1500s and met the local civilization with hostility: the Rigveda recounts how Indra destroys the cities of the Dasyus. The Aryans destroyed this civilization, but apparently many characteristic features of the local mentality persisted under Aryan rule as well, and when in time the Vedic religion went into decline, the old pre- Aryan beliefs began to revive. It is possible that the strong rejection of the material and the bodily, the emphasis on asceticism and yoga, and the doctrine of reincarnation entered Hinduism precisely from the earlier proto-Indian civilization.

A brief summary of the standard scholarly theory of invasion may be put as follows. The Indo-Aryans entered the territory of India in 1700–1500 BC, destroyed the core of the original Harappan civilization, and gradually took possession of almost all of India. To the Aryans is attributed the Early Vedic period of Hinduism, reflected above all in the Vedas. Subsequently, Dravidian and Harappan religious influences began to be incorporated into the Early Vedic religion, and these are reflected already in the Brahmanas and Upanishads.

In fairness, however, it should be noted that there is also an alternative version, popular among many Indian scholars, according to which the Aryans did not invade India but were its indigenous inhabitants, living within the Harappan civilization itself.

5.2 The Sacred Structure of Traditional Indian Society

The social organization of Vedic society was based on the varnas—the term varna meaning “color, form, appearance.” To the present day there exist in society four estates, or varnas:

brahmanas (priests and scholars),

kshatriyas (princes and warriors),

vaishyas (merchants, craftsmen, and herdsmen);

shudras (servants, originally non-Aryans).

The first three varnas were considered free (a man could take as his wife a girl of his own varna or of one immediately below it), but stood in a hierarchical relation: highest were the brahmanas, then the kshatriyas, then the vaishyas. To this day the shudras are not initiated into the knowledge of the Vedas; they are not “twice-born.” Each varna is further divided into jatis—castes; thus there are castes of brahmanas, castes of kshatriyas, and so on. Each caste has its own additional internal laws, and these may differ greatly even between castes within a single varna. Jatis are in turn divided into gotras (families, lineages).

There was originally no monarchy; rule was exercised by the rajas (kshatriya princes), with the aid of the sabha—the popular assembly (analogous to the Slavic tribal council - veche). Religious life was governed by the sacred word (shabda, sacred word; vach, sacred speech), which proceeded from the brahmanas—the rishis, or sacred poets. The sacred speech was embodied in the Vedas (see below).

Ashram—a word that today denotes a temple, hermitage or prayer hall in which people gather—among the Aryans designated the stage of life for community of people sharing a common circle of religious duties. The whole of society was divided into varnas (social status) and ashramas (stages of life), vertically and horizontally respectively.

The ashramas as stage of life are: brahmacharya, grihasthya, vanaprastha, and sannyasa.

Brahmacharya: studentship. All Aryan males of the higher varnas became students. During the period of instruction the Vedic texts and rituals were memorized. Only boys studied: the sons of brahmanas from the age of 6 or 7, kshatriyas from about the age of 12, and the sons of vaishyas from about the age of 16. Instruction ended for all at the age of 21. Pupils studied away from their native home, in the house of a teacher, where they also lived, except in cases where the children of priests studied under their fathers. Two vows were imposed for the duration of studentship: sexual abstinence and obedience to the teacher. “Thy teacher is thy God” is repeated many times in Indian literature. Teachers were obeyed without question, as the dharmasutras state on many occasions. The word “teacher” is traditionally rendered as guru or acharya. “Although the word ‘guru’ is often used as a synonym for ‘acharya,’ there are certain differences between them. There can be only one guru; the disciple lives in the house of the guru after the upanayana. Unlike ‘guru,’ the word ‘acharya’ may be used in the plural,” notes N.A. Korneeva, the translator of the Apastamba-sutra (Apastamba-dharmasutra. Apastamba- grihyasutra. Mantrapatha / introductory article, translation from Sanskrit, commentary, and appendix by N.A. Korneeva. Moscow: Nauka—Vostochnaya Literatura, 2015, p. 342).

The central moment of instruction was the upanayana, the ritual through which the boy received a second, spiritual birth into eternity and was initiated as a student of the Vedas, receiving the sacred thread, the upavita:

“[On the attitude toward the teacher]

(15) Let him never do him harm.

(16) For he gives him birth through the sacred knowledge of the Vedas.

(17) This [second] birth is the best.

(18) Father and mother give birth only to the body.

(19) The upanayana for a brahman should be performed in the spring, for a kshatriya in the summer, for a vaishya in the autumn; the brahman in the eighth year from conception, the kshatriya in the eleventh year from conception, the vaishya in the twelfth year from conception” (Apastamba- dharmasutra).

After his instruction the student returned home and became a grihasthya, a householder. This is a time of labor, in which each man works at his profession, though he may also take up a lower occupation (a brahman may engage in agriculture, and so on; in special circumstances vaishyas might perform the duties of kshatriyas). This is the only ashrama that produces wealth. For vaishyas this is the final ashrama, but for the first two varnas there was a further stage: when the eldest grandson returned from his studies, kshatriyas and brahmanas (aged 65–67) could pass on the sacred fire of the domestic hearth to their son and become ascetics, withdrawing into the forest—this is vanaprastha. They took their wives with them and went into the forest, living communally; their task was prayer, and the brahmanas additionally taught children. Sannyasa is full hermitage. Elderly brahmanas and kshatriyas entered it after the death of their wife. Sannyasa is the vow of renunciation: complete silence (apart from prayer and teaching); the hermit could not remain in one place for more than three days; he could not ask for anything, could not cook anything, and could eat only what was offered to him. The meaning of sannyasa is complete devotion to God. Hermits were considered the best instructors. In later times sannyasa came to be accepted directly after studentship, bypassing all the intermediate stages of life.

5.3 The Religious Literature of Ancient India

The principal language of Indian religious literature is Sanskrit in its various forms, from the most ancient—Vedic—to classical Sanskrit, whose grammar was codified by the grammarian Panini (approximately fifth century BC), whom the Indians sometimes count among the Vedic rishis.

The entire body of religious literature is divided into two corpora, which may provisionally be related to one another as Revealed Texts (Shruti) and Remembered Tradition (Smriti).

Shruti—literally “that which is heard.” These are texts of the highest authority for orthodox Hindus. The term is often used as a synonym for the Vedas. Shruti does not belong to any single historical period but spans various stages of Hinduism, from the time when the most ancient Vedic texts were composed down to the period of the Upanishads. In Hinduism, the shruti texts are considered apaurusheya—divinely revealed and without a particular human author.

The shruti comprises above all the four samhitas (collections) of the Vedas (veda, literally “knowledge,” in the sense of supernatural knowledge; cf. Slavic vedat’, ved’ma; Eng. wit, wise, wisdom; Lat. videre):

The Rigveda—the Veda of hymns (1,028 hymns divided into ten mandalas). It is the most ancient: the formation of the individual hymns is assigned in modern Indology to the third millennium BC, and the final formation of the text to the middle of the second millennium BC.

The Yajurveda—the Veda of sacrifices. It has two recensions: the White Yajurveda (shukla) and the Black Yajurveda (krishna).

The Samaveda—the Veda of chants.

The Atharvaveda—the Veda of incantations. It contains ritual texts for various life occasions, such as marriage, the birth of a child, death, and so on.

To each of these samhitas (collections of mantras) were later added commentaries from various Vedic schools (shakhas)—the Brahmanas—as well as philosophical treatises, the Aranyakas and the Upanishads. All these texts belong to the shruti canon.

Smriti—literally “that which is remembered.” The term is typically used of texts that supplement the shruti. The smriti comments on, explains, and supplements the shruti, and in fact the smriti reflects to the greatest degree the ideas of classical rather than ancient Hinduism. There are many variant classifications of the smriti writings. As a rule, the smriti is taken to include:

Dharmashastras, or law codes. They comprise 18 books, each corresponding to a particular era.

Itihasas—the epics. There are four books in this category. The Mahabharata and the Ramayana are customarily included here.

Puranas, or legendary narratives. There are 18 great Puranas (maha-puranas) and 18 supplementary Puranas (upa-puranas). The Puranas mainly recount stories of the gods, in which Vishnu, Krishna, or Shiva are extolled as the supreme forms of God.

Vedangas—“limbs of the Vedas.” These are texts on six disciplines: phonetics, metrics, grammar, etymology, astrology, and ritual.

Agamas—literally “those that have come.” They are divided into three main parts: Vaishnava, Shaiva, and Shakta. They mainly set out the ideas of sectarian Hinduism.

5.4 Monotheism and Polytheism in the Vedic Religion. The Category of God

The problem of defining the Vedic religion has existed since the nineteenth century. Max Müller, the translator of the Rigveda, noted as early as the end of the nineteenth century that the Vedas contain both a multiplicity of gods and the idea of their unity. The Vedic gods, like the Egyptian, are often described as parts of one being, manifestations of one, proceeding from one, or themselves described as one and supreme. Max Müller proposed the convenient term henotheism.

At the foundation of Early Vedic theology stands the concept of Aja, “the Unborn,” and that which proceeds from him, Tad Ekam (“That One”). At times these two concepts are conveyed through the image of the primordial divine waters in which a golden embryo (hiranyagarbha) arises as the primordial deity. In later commentaries the two are correlated as the unmanifested and the manifested God. RV X.82:

“(That) which is beyond the sky, beyond this earth,

Beyond the gods (and) the asuras—

What sort of first embryo did the waters receive,

Where all the gods were seen together?

This first embryo the waters received,

(There) where all the gods came together.

On the navel of the Unborn is fastened Something (One),

On which all beings stand” (5–6).

Likewise in RV X.81:

“Having eyes everywhere and a face everywhere,

Everywhere—hands, and everywhere—feet.

He fuses (all) together (with His) arms, (with His) wings,

Giving birth to heaven and earth, the one God.

What sort of wood was it, and what sort of tree,

Out of which were hewn heaven and earth?

O you who are able to think, ask then with (your) thought:

On what did he (God) stand, while establishing the worlds?” (3–4; in the final shloka there is wordplay on the paradox: on what did God stand while creating the world, if nothing existed?).

The idea of the unity of the gods is most clearly expressed in hymn I.164:

“The unseeing one of the seeing prophets concerning this

I ask, the unknowing one—that I may know.

What then is this One in the form of the Unborn,

Which established separately these six spaces?… (6)

Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni they call (him),

And it, the divine, is the bird Garutman.

There is One, and the sages call him variously.

Agni, Yama, Matarishvan they call (him)” (46).

The first and tenth mandalas of the Rigveda, from which the examples cited above are drawn, are among the later strata; however, similar ideas are expressed also in the ancient family mandalas (II–VII)—for example, III.54.8, a hymn dedicated to all the gods, which nevertheless contains the lines: “One rules over all: what moves, what is firm, what wanders, what flies, what is varied, what is variously born.” Thus, already in the period of the Rigveda one can discern the idea, later fully developed in Hinduism, of a God of many incarnations. The Vedic gods are not in the full sense independent gods; they are rather manifestations, incarnations, or forms of Tad Ekam—that is, of the One. Subsequently the most widespread term for naming him will be Brahman.

As a consequence of such a theological model, the multiplicity of gods loses its ontological status, since the deity is one. Yet in accordance with the ancient axiom that “a part of the infinite is identical with the infinite,” any Vedic god may be called the supreme and named the only one, since “all of them are He.” This paradigm is preserved within orthodox Hinduism as well.

5.5 The Vedic Conception of the Origin of the World

The most famous hymn of the Rigveda devoted to cosmogony declares:

1. THEN was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.

What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?

2 Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day’s and night’s divider.

That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.

3 Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos.

All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.

4 Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit.

Sages who searched with their heart’s thought discovered the existent’s kinship in the non-existent.

“The principal types of cosmogony that inspired the Vedic poets and theologians come down to four, which may be designated as follows: 1) creation through fertilization of the primordial waters; 2) creation through the dismemberment of the primordial giant Purusha; 3) creation proceeding from the One-Whole (being and non-being simultaneously); 4) creation through the separation of Heaven from Earth” [Eliade M. A History of Religious Ideas: 3 Vols. Vol. 1: From Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries. Chicago, 1978]. Eliade does not provide the fullest typology of Vedic cosmogonic motifs, but the greater part is accounted for here.

  1. In a hymn of the Rigveda (X 121) a god called Hiranyagarbha (the golden embryo) hovers over the surface of the waters, then plunges in and fertilizes them, as a result of which the fire-god Agni comes into the world. In the Rigveda (X 82.5) the first embryo, having matured in the water, is identified with the “Cosmic Craftsman,” Vishvakarman. In classical India the image of the golden embryo is transformed into the world Egg born of the waters (so already in the Upanishads: Katha Upanishad IV 6; Shvetashvatara III 4.12).

  2. The second cosmogonic theme is developed in the well-known hymn RV X 90. The primordial cosmic man Purusha brings forth the feminine creative energy viraj, and himself becomes her son, after which the gods offer him up in sacrifice, and thus the world arises:

” When the Gods, offering sacrifice, bound, as their victim, Puruṣa.

Gods, sacrificing, sacrificed the victim these were the earliest holy ordinances..”

That is, Purusha was at once the sacrifice and the deity to whom this sacrifice was dedicated; at once the primordial being and a being that came to be born. It follows from the hymn that Purusha precedes the act of creation and transcends it, while the universe, life, and man have their origin in his body.

  1. In the hymn of the Rigveda X 129 cited above, cosmogony is presented in a metaphysical aspect. The poet asks how Being could have arisen from Non-being, for originally “there was no non-existent and there was no existent” (I 1). The gods were created later (6); consequently, they did not create the world.

“This hymn represents the high point of Vedic theoretical thought. The axiom of the existence of an unknowable Higher Essence (‘the One,’ ‘That’) that precedes both the gods and the act of Creation will later be developed in the Upanishads and in various philosophical systems. ‘The One,’ like Purusha of the Rigveda (X 90), precedes the Universe and creates the world out of itself without thereby losing its transcendence” [Eliade M. A History of Religious Ideas: 3 Vols. Vol. 1: From Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries. Chicago, 1978].

  1. The fourth cosmogonic motif tells of the separation of heaven and earth. For example, the story of Indra, who kills the dragon Vritra and creates the world by separating heaven from earth.

We may add one further cosmogonic version: the wild boar dives into the water (the primordial waters of transcendent being) and brings up silt on its snout, and this mud is the universe, which begins to grow. When the sacrificial fire is laid, a small amount of earth is placed beneath it, symbolizing the world—the prototype of the universe in the ritual. Sometimes the boar is identified with Prajapati: Prajapati hovered over the water, and then, as a wild boar, he dived into the water (adivaraha, the primordial boar). A similar narrative occurs in other Indo-European mythologies as well.

5.6 Rita

Rita (ŗta) is translated literally as “law, order.” It is a key concept of the Rigveda. Rita signifies “law” (rita being the past participle of the verb “to correspond, to fit”). Rita is the divine order of being. Rita is the all- pervading, cosmos-unifying principle. The Rigveda speaks of several manifestations of rita:

As the cosmic law that the gods follow. The gods follow rita, fulfill it, and from it receive immortality. That is, rita is that by virtue of which the gods are gods.

As social law—that is, the division of society into varnas and ashramas.

As morality.

As the proper order of ritual.

Thus the violation of rita in any one of these spheres leads to the destruction and perishing of all spheres of the cosmos. Anrita (lawlessness) destroys the divine in the world, and after it the world itself. Niriti is the disintegration, discord, and perishing of the world (maha pralaya)—the destruction of the world. In the Rigveda the word rita is used more than 300 times; it is said that the gods are born of rita—rishaspa (VIII 34.8 states that the gods are invoked by rita, not by sorcery); they are the fulfillers of rita. RV V 62.1: “The law hidden by law”—the outer law is the manifestation of the inner; they must correspond; the inner is concealed by the outer. If they do not coincide, then there is disharmony, a violation of the order of life.

5.7 Early Vedic Gods

In the Rigveda we encounter mention of various “kinds” of gods. There are asuras and there are devas. On the whole the word asuras is used both in a positive and in a negative sense and denotes the first gods, some of whom take the side of the devas. The devas are gods in the broad sense (devas, “the shining ones”). Later in Hinduism the devas are gods and the asuras are demons, but in the early period there was no such clear-cut distinction. A second name for the gods is Adityas, and for the demons, dasyus. The Rigveda does not contain a myth explaining the causes of the conflict between gods and demons; it is clear only that the gods observe rita and the dasyus do not.

The Rigveda mentions a great many gods; here we shall cite only the principal ones:

Indra is the chief hero of the Rigveda. He is called brihaspati, “the lord of prayer.” The principal episode associated with Indra—and essentially the only one celebrated in various versions—is his victory over the dragon Vritra. Indra is called Vritrahan, “the slayer of Vritra.” Vritra (vri, “to obstruct, to hinder, to close”) is a limit, an obstacle. This is one of the chief cosmogonic legends of the Aryans. According to Rigveda I.50 even the sky itself shrank back in fear at the roar of this dreadful serpent, who oppresses both worlds, earthly and heavenly. Indra possesses a weapon, the vajra (thunderbolt, club), with which he defeats Vritra.

M. Eliade: “The central myth concerning Indra, which is also the most important myth of the Rigveda, recounts his victorious battle with Vritra, the gigantic dragon who held the waters in a ‘mountain cleft.’ Strengthened by soma, Indra strikes the serpent down with his vajra (vajra, ‘lightning’), forged by Tvashtar, splits his skull, and frees the waters, which rush forth to the sea ‘like lowing cows’ (RV I 32)” [Eliade, M. A History of Religious Ideas. Vol. 1. Chicago, 1978]. The waters that Indra frees are not ordinary waters but human waters (manu ruhanu).

Let us cite part of the hymn:

” 1 I WILL declare the manly deeds of Indra, the first that he achieved, the Thunder-wielder.

He slew the Dragon, then disclosed the waters, and cleft the channels of the mountain torrents.

2 He slew the Dragon lying on the mountain: his heavenly bolt of thunder Tvaṣṭar fashioned.

Like lowing kine in rapid flow descending the waters glided downward to the ocean.

3 Impetuous as a bull, he chose the Soma and in three sacred beakers drank the juices.

Maghavan grasped the thunder for his weapon, and smote to death this firstborn of the dragons.

4 When, Indra, thou hadst slain the dragon’s firstborn, and overcome the charms of the enchanters,

Then, giving life to Sun and Dawn and Heaven, thou foundest not one foe to stand against thee.

5 Indra with his own great and deadly thunder smote into pieces Vṛtra, worst of Vṛtras.

As trunks of trees, what time the axe hath felled them, low on the earth so lies the prostrate Dragon.” (RV I.32).

Varuna is the sovereign (samraj). Indra and Varuna are the chief protagonists of the Vedic spiritual cosmos. Indra conquers; Varuna preserves the truth. Indra destroys falsehood; Varuna preserves rita. Varuna is omnipresent and all-knowing. Varuna binds the sinner. He hears a man wherever the man turns to him. But he hates sin, falsehood, and all that is connected with the violation of rita. He instructs the gods, and the gods heed him. It is said of him that he created the world—the world is upheld by rita. He is thousand-eyed (I 50, that is, all-seeing). He is the lord of the waters (the waters of transcendent being). The Vedic texts often present Varuna as the supreme Deity: he rules the world, the devas, and humankind. It is precisely to him that all the penitential hymns of the Rigveda are addressed. As an example let us cite hymn VII.89:

” 1. LET me not yet, King Varuṇa, enter into the house of clay:

Have mercy, spare me, Mighty Lord.

2 When, Thunderer! I move along tremulous like a wind-blown skin,

Have mercy, spare me, Mighty Lord.

3 O Bright and Powerful God, through want of strength I erred and went astray

Have mercy, spare me, Mighty Lord.

4 Thirst found thy worshipper though he stood in the midst of water-floods:

Have mercy, spare me, Mighty Lord.

5 O Varuṇa, whatever the offence may be which we as men commit against the heavenly host,

When through our want of thought we violate thy laws, punish us not, O God, for that iniquity!”

Mitra appears mainly together with Varuna. In the Rigveda only one hymn is addressed to him personally. Like Varuna, he guards rita and its fulfillment, but specifically in human relations. By his name oaths were sworn, treaties concluded, peace agreements signed, and so on.

Vishnu is the friend and ally of Indra, helping him in the struggle with Vritra and afterwards separating Heaven and Earth (VI 69.5). He traversed space in three strides, the last of which he set in the heavens (I 155.6). The mythologem of the three strides is central; it is mentioned in the Rigveda repeatedly, although there is no integral myth in the Rigveda. Vishnu—a god destined to become one of the most venerated in India—is in the Rigveda extolled chiefly in the aspect of the three strides that unite all things. Let us give as an example a hymn to Vishnu, I.154:

” 1. I WILL declare the mighty deeds of Viṣṇu, of him who measured out the earthly regions,

Who propped the highest place of congregation, thrice setting down his footstep, widely striding.

2 For this his mighty deed is Viṣṇu lauded, like some wild beast, dread, prowling, mountain-roaming;

He within whose three wide-extended paces all living creatures have their habitation.

3 Let the hymn lift itself as strength to Viṣṇu, the Bull far-striding, dwelling on the mountains,

Him who alone with triple step hath measured this common dwelling-place, long, far extended.

4 Him whose three places that are filled with sweetness, imperishable, joy as it may list them,

Who verily alone upholds the threefold, the earth, the heaven, and all living creatures.

5 May I attain to that his well-loved mansion where men devoted to the Gods are happy.

For there springs, close akin to the Wide-Strider, the well of meath in Viṣṇu’s highest footstep.

6 Fain would we go unto your dwelling-places where there are many-horned and nimble oxen,

For mightily, there, shineth down upon us the widely-striding Bull’s sublimest mansion. ”

Rudra will later be called Shiva. In the Vedas Shiva (gracious, dear) was the propitiatory epithet of the wrathful god—that is, the god was invoked in his benevolent aspect by calling him dear, Shiva. Rudra is a singular being; sacrifice is offered to him on the northern and northwestern sides, since these directions were considered the most inauspicious. Moreover, sacrifice was offered to him not upon an altar but cast upon the ground.

He has black hair (RV II.33.5); it is braided in plaits (I 114.1.5); he has a black belly, a blue neck, and a red back. He is armed with a bow and arrows, clothed in animal skins, and dwells in the mountains. He is a great ascetic and recluse, the patron of hermits. He is the lord of beasts, Shiva pashupati. He heals, but he also brings death; he is the destroyer (hara) and the slayer, but he kills only those deserving of death—he kills according to merit. He is the god of ascetics, constantly reminding them of the transience, fleetingness, and mortality of being.

Soma is the sacred drink. Soma was set in opposition to the ordinary intoxicating drink (sura, alcohol, and also the name of a demon). At the same time Soma is a great deity, who bestows this gift, the soma, which is the blood of the gods. A person who has drunk soma is transformed into the proto- man, Purusha; soma confers upon a person his true stature. Hymn X.119 is composed after the partaking of soma. According to Gonda, soma is the center of sacrifice. The drops of soma kill demons. The entire ninth mandala is dedicated to Soma. Soma may, for example, be identified with Indra (VI.72). Hymn IX.113 is devoted to the soteriological aspect of soma; it concludes with an indication of the place in which Soma places the one who drinks:

“7 O Pavarnana, place me in that deathless, undecaying world

Wherein the light of heaven is set, and everlasting lustre shines. Flow, Indu, flow for Indra’s sake.

8 Make me immortal in that realm where dwells the King, Vivasvān’s Son,

Where is the secret shrine of heaven, where are those waters young and fresh. Flow, Indu, flow for Indra’s sake!”

In the second millennium BC the plant ephedra desert (which has no hallucinogenic properties) was used for soma; it is a mountain plant. It was crushed at dawn with stones, strained through a woolen filter (to bar demons), and the clear juice was poured into wooden vessels and diluted with milk; the soma had to be consumed on the day of its preparation before noon (so that the process of fermentation would not have time to begin).

Agni is fire. Agni was once with the asuras, but Indra won him over to the devas, and after this they prevailed. Agni is the son of Dyaus (Dyaus-Pitar, Heaven-Father—a word etymologically related to Greek Zeus, Latin Deus, Germanic Tiu, Latin Jupiter). Agni burns in every hearth. Agni is called the embryo in the waters; he established the foundation of the world in transcendent being. The funeral pyre is what makes possible the return to the divine world. Agni is called Jatavedas, “the knower of births.” Without a person (the firewood) he cannot blaze, since it is the person who kindles the sacrificial fire. The funeral pyre is kindled from the fire of the domestic hearth. An epithet of Agni is pinda-dana, “restorer of the flesh,” or kravya- vahana, “carrier of the flesh.” Hymn X.16 begins thus: “Burn him not to the bottom, O Agni, scorch him not! Do not reduce his skin and body to ashes! When thou hast made (him) ready, O Jatavedas, then send him to the fathers!” Thus the deceased is “baked” and dispatched to the fathers.

5.8 Yama and the Conceptions of the Lot Beyond the Grave

Yama is not directly named in the Rigveda as a god; however, he is the son of the sun. The Rigveda states that he was the first to die and the first to find the way to heaven:

“Yama first found for us a passage—

This pasture cannot be taken back.

Whither (once) our ancient fathers went,

Thither (all) the born shall follow by their own paths” (X.14).

Yama fulfilled rita, was the first to perform sacrifices, and through this attained divinity [Dandekar, R.N. From the Vedas to Hinduism. Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura, 2002]. His path is called ŗtasya pantha, “the path of righteousness.” Hymn X.10 describes a dialogue between Yama and his sister Yami. Yami urges her brother to incest, suggesting that he violate the law of rita, but Yama refuses. This hymn is placed among the funerary hymns, and it is evidently an example of the affirmation of brahmanic morality, in which heavenly life is attained through the fulfillment of rita.

In a funerary hymn the deceased is addressed:

“Be united with the fathers, with Yama,

With sacrifices and (good) deeds in the highest heaven!…

Pass by the two dogs, the offspring of Sarama,

The four-eyed, spotted ones, by the true path,

And attain unto the fathers, who are easy to find,

Who rejoice at the common feast with Yama!” (X.14).

Later in Hinduism Yama, from being the benevolent gatherer of the dead and the lord of the heavenly kingdom, will be transformed into a terrifying image of death.

Thus the Rigveda, the oldest religious text of India, does not in fact contain a doctrine of rebirth, and only a few lines have Indologists attempted to interpret as hints of the idea of reincarnation. A coherent exposition of the doctrine of rebirth is encountered only in the later literature, the Brahmanas and Upanishads; in the Rigveda the image of the world beyond is depicted unambiguously—it is the world of the worthy ancestors, of the righteous, located in heaven. Moreover, it is depicted in a manner similar to representations of the otherworld among other Indo-European peoples, in particular as a feast (cf. the Germanic feast in Valhalla).

5.9 The Upanishads

At the beginning of the first millennium BC the decline of the old Vedic religion begins. Vedic theology develops in the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. The Upanishads are philosophical texts in Sanskrit that summarize the teachings of particular chapters of the four Vedas. The most ancient of them are found as parts of the Brahmanas and Aranyakas. They are mainly concerned with philosophy, meditation, and the nature of God. The Upanishads are held to set forth the essential content of the Vedas—for which reason they are also called Vedanta (“the end, the completion of the Vedas”). “Upanishad” is a verbal noun derived from upa-ni-sad, literally “to sit near,” probably because disciples in India sit near the feet of their teachers.

The Upanishads are difficult to assign to any single period. The oldest of them, such as the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and the Chhandogya Upanishad, are traditionally dated to the eighth century BC, while the majority of the remainder, in the view of scholars, arose between the seventh and the third century BC, and some appeared in the medieval period.

There exists a traditional canon of Upanishads, the muktika, meaning “liberation” (that is, that which brings liberation from ignorance and rebirth). It comprises 108 Upanishads:

10 form the principal canon, the mukhya. These are the most ancient and authoritative;

21 are Upanishads of Vedanta;

23 are Upanishads of sannyasa (eremitic);

17 are Yoga Upanishads;

9 are Shakta Upanishads, in which the true reality appears as the Great Goddess (sectarian Upanishads);

13 are Vaishnava Upanishads (sectarian Upanishads);

14 are Shaiva Upanishads (sectarian Upanishads).

In the context of Hinduism the term “sect” is not pejorative and indicates only the non-orthodox character of a branch or school. For this reason the sectarian Upanishads are included in the principal canon.

In the tradition of Hinduism as a whole the Upanishads are regarded as “heard” divine revelation (shruti), through the apprehension of which knowledge of Brahman (the Absolute) is attained. As belonging to the shruti, the Upanishads are considered timeless and apaurusheya (without a particular human author). For this reason, the dating of the composition of the various Upanishads has no real significance for Hindus and is even regarded by them as meaningless.

The following ten Upanishads are most often acknowledged as the “principal” (in the order in which they are listed in the Muktika Upanishad): Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Chhandogya, and Brihadaranyaka. All ten were commented upon by the great Vedantist philosopher Shankara, whose commentaries have been preserved to the present day. His commentary on the Shvetashvatara Upanishad has likewise been preserved; this Upanishad is also frequently equated in importance and authority with the ten “principal” Upanishads, although it formally belongs to the group of Shaiva Upanishads. In terms of authority, tradition also equates the Maitrayani and Kaushitaki Upanishads with the “principal” Upanishads. Together with the ten enumerated above and the Shvetashvatara, they are regarded as the principal Upanishads of Vedanta and are considered the most authoritative [Lobanov, S.V., and Fedorov, S.S., Selected Upanishads. Moscow, 2009, pp. 6–16].

5.10 Brahman in the Upanishads

“The one indestructible [Brahman] manifests Himself here (in this world) in imperishability, in the soma, in the sushumna. He is unchanging, one.

Thou art the One Keeper of the world, Parjanya, the Ancient, Lord of the universe, of the earth and of [all] living beings. Thou abidest in all; [according to] the sages, Thou, Lord of the world, art Fire.

In the beginning Thou art the Unborn, the possessor of the golden seed; Thou art Yajna [-purusha] and Thou art the ancient Lord. 3. Thou art life (prana), Thou art the womb (yoni) that gives birth to the world. With one step Thou coverest the universe.

[From] Thee comes the birth of the universe. Thou abidest in the yoni. Thou art a child [abiding] in its own womb, armed with bow and arrows. One” [Ekashara Upanishad 1–4].

Thus the Ekashara Upanishad describes the Absolute, the supreme divine reality, called in the Upanishads Brahman. And further:

“Thou [encompassest] past, future, and present; Thou art kriya (the power of action), kala (time), and krama (the succession of emanations); Thou art the Highest Indestructible [Brahman]… The golden [sun] in the sky, illumining all with its rays, is His navel.

He is omniscient, Keeper of the world, caring for people and [all] living beings. [He is] all-pervading Consciousness, manifesting Himself as the succession of emanations (krama). [He is] the Lord of people, extolled in the Vedas, the Unborn.

Thou art He whom those who have known Brahman extol in sacrifices with the hymns of the Samaveda and the Yajurveda. Thou art the ultimate Consciousness, sung of in the Samaveda, the Sun [of Truth], devoid of [any] darkness.

Thou art woman and man, Thou art boy and girl. Thou art the Earth, Thou art the Keeper of the world, Varuna; Thou art the King, [Thou art] Time, Agni (fire), the Best. [Thou] art all” [Ekashara Upanishad 6–11].

The Ekashara Upanishad provides a fine example of the description of Brahman—God, the Absolute of the Upanishads—broadly corresponding to the views of orthodox Hinduism. The God of the Upanishads is not personal but supra- personal, and in this sense it would be inaccurate to characterize the worldview of the Upanishads as monotheism; it is rather monism—that is, Brahman is the Absolute, whose personal attributes are temporary and situational.

Brahman is all, and all is He. This is neither monotheism nor pantheism, since the world is only a manifestation of Brahman and possesses no proper ontological status. The only true reality is Brahman alone, devoid of attributes.

5.11 Atman in the Upanishads

Atman is essentially identical with Brahman and ontologically indistinguishable from him. Yet atman is that which abides within a being and represents the “particle” of Brahman within man. The soul (jiva) of man is in its essence divine. Let us cite a passage from the Atma Upanishad in which the knowledge of the highest atman, who transcends birth and death, is described. The method offered by the Atma Upanishad is also known as shakha-chandra- nyaya, “the method of the branch and the moon.” Just as the moon, although distant from the branch of a tree, nonetheless appears to be upon the branch, as if it were a fruit hanging from it, so too the highest atman, although in reality not bound to the body and mind of man, can nonetheless be discovered through them. For this reason, the body and mind are called in the text the outer and inner atman, since through ignorance man identifies them with the highest essence. However, despite the fact that this is an illusion, and that the human mind, senses, and body are not the eternal atman and do not persist after death, man can nonetheless, beginning from them, ascend step by step to the apprehension of the true atman.

“He who possesses two layers of skin, nails [of the hands], flesh, hair, fingers, thumbs, spine, nails [of the feet], ankles, stomach, navel, sexual organ, hips, thighs, cheeks, eyebrows, forehead, arms, sides, head, blood vessels, eyes, ears, [he who] is born and dies—that is named the outer atman.

Now [the discourse is] on the inner atman. Truly he is the human being who [is apprehended] through the perception of earth, water, fire, air, ether, of desire and aversion, of happiness and suffering, of lust, the darkening [of consciousness], thought, and the rest, possessing the mark of memory; [he is the one who] through high, low, brief, long, drawn-out, broken, roaring, explosive, and mixed [sounds], dance, song, music, faintness of memory, yawning, and other [actions similar to them] is the hearer, the smeller, the taster, the thinker, the discerner, the actor… —this is named the inner atman.

Now [the discourse is] on the highest atman, who is to be revered as the syllable [Aum]. And He [reveals Himself] to one meditating upon the highest atman through yoga—pranayama, pratyahara, and samadhi; [like] the seed of the banyan, the grain of millet, and as fine as the hundred-thousandth part of the tip of a hair, He is unattainable, incomprehensible, is not born, does not die, does not dry up, does not burn, unwavering, indestructible, indivisible, attributeless, witness of all that exists; pure, in His essence undivided, the one alone, fine, indivisible into parts, undefiled, unboastful, devoid of sound, of touch, of taste, of form, and of smell, devoid of doubt, devoid of expectation, all-pervading, He is unthinkable and indescribable, purifying the impure and the defiled, inactive; there are no samskaras [of the past] [in Him], there are no samskaras [of the past]—this Purusha is named the highest Atman.”

Thus atman is not a personality and not an “I”; it is that which lies within as the foundation of life, but, like Brahman and being essentially one with him, atman has no attributes; it is distinct from mind, memory, the senses, perception, and mood—from everything that is normally associated with personality. Atman is, as it were, the true nature of man, who through his ignorance identifies himself with his personality, but in reality is pure divine nature. Everything besides atman is mortal.

5.12 Atman is Brahman. Samsara and the Fundamental Identity of the

Upanishads

Brahman = Atman; they are one, they are one and the same; tat tvam asi, “thou art that,” is repeated many times in the Upanishads, with the sole difference that Brahman is free, whereas atman is within man, as it were in a bound state, compelled again and again to be reborn in a new man.

Samsara—literally “wandering, journey”—is an idea first clearly formulated in the Brahmanas, that is, in the texts commenting on and reflecting upon the Vedas. It is possible that this idea is a legacy of the Proto-Indian civilization; characteristically, in Iran there is no concept of rebirth, which tells in favor of the non-Aryan genesis of the idea of samsara. The crisis of the Vedas was probably the crisis of sacrifice, and the idea that gave a powerful impulse to the transformation of the Vedic tradition in the Upanishads consisted in this: that eternity cannot be obtained through sacrifice.

According to the Maitri Upanishad (I 2.9–10), a man who entertains illusions about sacrifice is to be pitied: for, having had his fill of pleasure in heaven, to which he comes thanks to his good deeds, he will all the same be compelled to return to earth, or even to descend into the underworld. For a true rishi neither the gods nor the rituals are of great significance. By all appearances, the spiritual crisis that erupted in the Upanishads was above all brought on by reflection on the efficacy of sacrifice.

Mircea Eliade wrote: “In the Brahmanas the term karma denotes ritual activity—that is, sacrifices—and the beneficial consequences flowing from them (since after death the sacrificer comes to the world of the gods). However, it is obvious that, reflecting on the ritual process within the framework of cause and effect, we inevitably arrive at the conclusion that any action leading to some result may be regarded as an integral link in a boundless chain of causes and effects. As soon as the analysis of karma disclosed the law of universal conditionality, confidence in the saving effect of sacrifice disappeared… For the posthumous existence of the soul in heaven is a regular result of the sacrificer’s ritual activity; but where, then, are the results of all his other deeds to be awaited? Clearly, a blessed afterlife—the reward for carefully performed ritual—must one day come to an end. What then will happen to the bodiless soul (atman)? It cannot simply vanish. In his life a man performs countless other deeds, each of which must have some consequence, overtaking him either in a reincarnated state here on earth or in some other world. The conclusion suggests itself: having lived for a time in bliss or in misery in the extra-earthly world, the soul is compelled to be incarnated once again in a body. This is the law of the transmigration of souls, samsara, and once discovered, it immediately occupied a key place in the religious and philosophical thought of India… This discovery led to a generally pessimistic view of existence. The ideal of the man of the Vedic age (to live 100 years, and so on) proved outdated. Life in itself is not ‘evil,’ but only on condition that it is used as a means of liberation from the bonds of karma. The only worthy aspiration of the sage is to attain ‘liberation,’ moksha. Since any deed (karma), whether religious or everyday, entails an endless chain of transmigrations of souls (samsara), one cannot break out of this cycle either through sacrifice or through close ties with the gods” [Eliade, M. A History of Religious Ideas. Vol. 1. Moscow: Progress, 2002, pp. 221–222].

By affirming the unity of atman and Brahman, of man and God, as the ontological principle and as the goal of religious activity (the realization of this unity), the Upanishads set the fundamental paradigm for the development of Hinduism. For the realization of this unity Hinduism has devised many methods, many paths—yoga, bhakti (devotion to the deity), and jnana (knowledge, gnosis)—but the goal, by and large, remains unchanged, at any rate within orthodoxy. Man in his true nature is god; the goal is the proper realization of this and merging with Brahman; the old world of the ancestors, and likewise paradise and hell, are regarded as temporary recompenses, followed by further rebirth.

5.13 The Difference Between the Hindu and Christian Approaches to Religious

Activity

From this follows the principal difference between the Hindu and Christian approaches to religious activity. Christian prayer presupposes that the one praying receives something he does not have apart from God. In Christianity this is usually called grace. Man stands in need of God’s grace for salvation, since in himself he is dust. In orthodox Hinduism, by contrast, man is by nature divine; consequently, Brahman conveys nothing to man—man is Brahman, no less than any god is—and accordingly God fulfills an instrumental function, helping man to disclose what is in him in any case. It is precisely for this reason that the Indian epic contains so many examples in which ascetics in their liberation rose above the gods, and the gods envied the yogins.

Bibliography :

Bloomfield M. The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India, from Rig-Veda to Upanishads. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1908

Dandekar R.N. Vedic Mythology: A Rethinking. In Inside the Texts, Beyond the Texts, New Approaches to the Study of the Veda, ed. by Michael Witzel. Pp. 39-48. Harvard Oriental Series, Opera Minora, Vol. 2. Cambridge, Mass.: Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University. Devasthali, G.V. (ed.). 1985.

Eliade M. A History of Religious Ideas: 3 Vols. Vol. 1: From Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries. Chicago, 1978.

Gonda J. Some Observations on the Relations Between “Gods” and “Powers” in the Veda. Mouton and Co., ‘s-Gravenhage, 1957.

Gonda J. The Dual Deities in the Religion of the Veda. Amsterdam, London: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1974.

Oldenberg H. The religion of the Veda. (Eng. Tr. Shridhar B. Shrotri). Dehli 1988

Macdonell A.A. Vedic mythology. Dehli 1898

Panikkar R. The Vedic Experience: Mantramañjari: An Anthology Of The Vedas For Modern Man. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977

Ramakrishna G. Origin and Growth of the Concept of Ṛta in Vedic Literature. Doctoral Dissertation: University of Mysore 1965

Deussen P. The philosophy of the Upanishads. Alfred Shenington Geden, T. & T. Clark, 1908.

Archibald E. G. The Philosophy of the Upanishads and Ancient Indian Metaphysics. Routledge. 2001.

Radhakrishnan, S. (Sarvepalli). Indian philosophy. London 1923

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  • 5.12-5.13

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