Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch Volume II Part 23

The Lingayats spread rapidly after Basava's death.[562] They still number about two millions and are to be found in most Kanarese-speaking districts.

They are easily recognizable for all carry the lingam, which is commonly enclosed in a red scarf worn round the neck or among the richer cla.s.ses in a silver-box. It is made of grey soapstone and a Lingayat must on no account part with it for a moment. They are divided into the laity and the Jangams or priests. Some of these marry but others are itinerant ascetics who wander over India frequenting especially the five Simhasanas or Lingayat sees.[563] They are treated with extreme respect by the laity and sometimes wear fantastic costumes such as plates resembling armour or little bells which announce their approach as they walk.

In doctrine the Lingayats remain faithful to their original tenets and do not wors.h.i.+p any G.o.d or G.o.ddess except Siva in the form of the Lingam, though they show respect to Gan?esa, and other deities as also to the founder of their sect. But in social matters it is agreed by all observers that they show a tendency to reintroduce caste and to minimize the differences separating them from more orthodox sects.

According to Basava's teaching all members of the community both men and women are equal. But though converts from all castes are still accepted, it was found at the last census that well-to-do Lingayats were anxious to be entered under the name of Virasaiva Brahmans, Kshatriyas, etc., and did not admit that caste distinctions are obliterated among them. Similarly though the remarriage of widows is not forbidden there is a growing tendency to look at it askance.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 511: In various allusions to be found in the Kadambari and Harshacarita.]

[Footnote 512: The best known of these is the Tantravarttika, a commentary on the Purva-mimamsa.]

[Footnote 513: This is the generally accepted date and does not appear to conflict with anything else that is at present known of Sankara. An alternative suggestion is some date between 590 and 650 (see Telang, _I.A._ XIII. 1884, p. 95 and Fleet, _I.A._ XVI. 1887, p. 41). But in this case, it is very strange that I-Ching does not mention so conspicuous an enemy of the Buddhists. It does not seem to me that the use of Pur?navarman's name by Sankara in an ill.u.s.tration (_Comm. on Vedanta Sut._ II. i. 17) necessarily implies they were contemporaries, but it does prove that he cannot have lived before Pur?navarman.]

[Footnote 514: Another tradition says he was born at Chidambaram, but the temple at Badrinath in the Himalayas said to have been founded by him has always been served by Nambuthiri Brahmans from Malabar. In 1910 a great temple erected in his honour was consecrated at Kaladi.]

[Footnote 515: His conflicts with them are described in works called Sankara-vijaya of which at least four are extant.]

[Footnote 516: They are called Dasanamis which merely means that each ascetic bears one or other of ten surnames (Sarswati, Bharati, Tirtha, etc.). See for a further account of them Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya, _Hindu Castes and Sects_, pp. 374-379.

The order in all its branches seems to have strong pantheistic inclinations. They mutter the formula Sivo'ham, I am Siva.]

[Footnote 517: I have been told by south Indian Pandits that they think San?kara was bom in a Bhagavata family and that there is some evidence his kinsmen were trustees of a temple of Kr?ishn?a. The Saktas also claim him, but the tradition that he opposed the Saktas is strong and probable. Many hymns addressed to Vishn?u, Siva and various forms of Durga are attributed to him. I have not been able to discover what is the external evidence for their authenticity but hymns must have been popular in south India before the time of San?kara and it is eminently probable that he did not neglect this important branch of composition.]

[Footnote 518: See Bhattacharya, _Hindu Castes and Sects_, p. 16.]

[Footnote 519: This mat?h has an endowment of about 5000 a year, inst.i.tuted by the kings of Vijayanagar. The Guru is treated with great respect. His palankin is carried crossways to prevent anyone from pa.s.sing him and he wears a jewelled head-dress, not unlike a papal tiara, and wooden shoes covered with silver. See an interesting account of Sringeri in _J. Mythic Society_ (Bangalore), vol. VIII. pp.

18-33.

Schrader in his catalogue of the Sanskrit MSS. in the Adyar Library, 1908, notices an Upanishad called Mahamayopanishad, ascribed to San?kara himself, which deals with the special qualities of the four mat?hs. Each is described as possessing one Veda, one Mahavakyam, etc.

The second part deals with the three ideal mat?hs, Sumeru, Paramatman and Sastrathajnana.]

[Footnote 520: There is some reason to suppose that the Mat?h of Sringeri was founded on the site of a Buddhist monastery. See _Journal of Mythic Society_, Bangalore, 1916, p. 151.]

[Footnote 521: Pracchanna-bauddha. See for further details Book IV.

chap. XXI. _ad fin._]

[Footnote 522: The old folk-lore of Bengal gives a picture of Siva, the peasant's G.o.d, which is neither Vedic nor Dravidian. See Dinesh Chandra Sen, _Bengali Lang. and Lit._ pp. 68 ff. and 239 ff.]

[Footnote 523: _J.R.A.S._ 1899, p. 242.]

[Footnote 524: See some curious examples in Whitehead's _Village G.o.ds of South India._]

[Footnote 525: Rice, _Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions_, pp. 27 and 204.]

[Footnote 526: The early Brahmi inscriptions of southern India are said to be written in a Dravidian language with an admixture not of Sanskrit but of Pali words. See _Arch. Survey India_, 1911-12, Part I.

p. 23.]

[Footnote 527: See Rice, _Mysore and Coorg_, pp. 3-5 and Fleet's criticisms, _I.A._. XXI. 1892, p. 287.]

[Footnote 528: The various notices in European cla.s.sical authors as well as in the Sinhalese chronicles prove this.]

[Footnote 529: Except in the first chapter.]

[Footnote 530: A complete list of them is given in Foulkes, _Catechism of the Shaiva religion_, 1863, p. 21.]

[Footnote 531: _Tamilian Antiquary_, 3, 1909, pp. 1-65.]

[Footnote 532: Edited and translated by Pope, 1900.]

[Footnote 533: Established opinion or doctrine. Used by the Jains as a name for their canon.]

[Footnote 534: Thus the catechism of the Saiva religion by Sabhapati Mudaliyar (transl. Foulkes, 1863) after stating emphatically that the world is created also says that the soul and the world are both eternal. Also just as in the Bhagavad-gita the ideas of the Vedanta and San?khya are incongruously combined, so in the Tiruvacagam (_e.g._ Pope's edition, pp. 49 and 138) Siva is occasionally pantheized. He is the body and the soul, existence and non-existence, the false and the true, the bond and the release.]

[Footnote 535: _E.g._ Hymn vi.]

[Footnote 536: Pope's _Tiruvacagam_, p. 257.]

[Footnote 537: Yet I have read that American revivalists describe how you play base ball (an American game) with Jesus.]

[Footnote 538: Pope's _Tiruvacagam_, p. 101.]

[Footnote 539: It does not seem to me that the legend of Siva's drinking the hala-hala poison is really parallel to the sufferings of the Christian redeemer. At the most it is a benevolent exploit like many performed by Vishn?u.]

[Footnote 540: Although Siva is said to have been many times incarnate (see for instance _Catechism of the Shaiva religion_, p. 20) he seems to have merely appeared in human form on special occasions and not to have been like Christ or Kr?ishn?a a G.o.d living as a man from birth to death.]

[Footnote 541: The lines which seem most clearly to reflect Christian influence are those quoted by Caldwell from the Nana nuru in the introduction to his _Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian languages_, p. 127, but neither the date of the work nor the original of the quotation is given. This part of the introduction is omitted in the third edition.]

[Footnote 542: _Tamilian Antiquary_, 4, 1909, pp. 57-82.]

[Footnote 543: _Ib._ pp. 1-57; Sesha Aiyer gives 275 A.D. as the probable date, and 375 as the latest date.]

[Footnote 544: The Saiva catechism translated by Foulkes says (p. 27) that Siva revealed the Tiruvacagam twice, first to Manikka-Vacagar and later to Tiru-Kovaiyar.]

[Footnote 545: Sanskrit, _Siddha._]

[Footnote 546: s.p.a.ce forbids me to quote the Siva-vakyam and Pat?t?an?at?t?u Pil?l?ai, interesting as they are. The reader is referred to Gover, _Folk-Songs of southern India_, 1871, a work which is well worth reading.]

[Footnote 547: The date of the Skanda Puran?a creates no difficulty for Bendall considered a MS. of it found in Nepal to be anterior to 659 A.D.]

[Footnote 548: One of his maxims was _adu, adu adal_, that is the mind becomes that (spiritual or material) with which it identifies itself most completely.]

[Footnote 549: It is contained in fourteen sastras, most of which are attributed to the four teachers mentioned above.]

[Footnote 550: For the Kashmir school see Barnett in _Museon_, 1909, pp. 271-277. _J.R.A.S._ 1910, pp. 707-747. Kashmir Sanskrit series, particularly vol. II. ent.i.tled _Kashmir Saivism_. The Siva sutras and the commentary Vimar'sini translated in _Indian Thought_, 1911-12.

Also Srinivasa Iyengar, _Outlines of Indian Philosophy_, pp. 168-175 and _Sarva-darsana-san?graha_, chap. VIII.]

[Footnote 551: Among them may be mentioned Kallata, author of the _Spanda Karikas_ and Somananda of the Sivadr?ishti, who both flourished about 850-900. Utpala, who composed the Pratyabhijna-karikas, lived some fifty years later, and in the eleventh century Abhinava Gupta and Kshemaraja composed numerous commentaries.]