Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/885

LITERATURE.] HINDUSTANI 845 was philosophically a form of pantheism, accounting for the existence of phenomena (the reality of which was denied) by the agency of a Mdya, or illusion, emanating from tlie Supreme. The varied lot of men in life, their differences of faith and aim, their desires, fears, hopes, loves, are all the work of this Maya, to know which, and to recognize beneath all the Supreme, is the only means of emancipation from the chains of illusion. Neither austerities, ritual, nor works of any kind are necessary to obtain the highest end ; this is only to be gained by bhakti, " faith," and perpetual meditation on the Supreme His names, Ifari, Ram, Govind, being ever on the lips and in the heart. The highest end is absorption in the Supreme, reunion with Him from whom all proceeded and who exists in all. Little place is left in this somewhat barren doctrine for a sociil code, since works are naught ; but negatively, at least, it is inoffensive, commanding respect for all forms of life, and quiet performance of duty without self-seeking or desire for gain. Of the spiritual followers of Kabir many have left memorials in literature ; one of the most eminent of these was Da r lu, founder of a sect very prevalent in Rajputana. A translation of two chapters from the Granth or scripture of this Bhagat will be found in a note to Wilson s Religious Sects of the Hindus, pp. 106-113, and will repay perusal. But those whose compositions, if not most excellent from a literary point of view, have at any rate wrought most in history, were the Gurus or spiritual heads of the Sikhs of the Panjab. The Adi Granth, or Book of the first five Gurus (from Nanak, who died in 1538, to Arjun, who died in 1601), is described by its translator as "perhaps the most shallow and empty book that exists, in pro- uortion to its size ; " and certainly the translation is not attractive reading. But the doctrines, reiterated with the most painful ditfuseness, are essentially those of Kabir, much of whose writings has been incorporated in the volume. The language is rather Old Hindi than Old Panjabl, and thus the work falls within the scope of this article ; though Panjabl words and idioms frequently occur, the grammar is Hindi ; and the authors evidently aimed at propagating their tenets rather among the Hindi-speaking races of Hindostan proper than (as actually happened) among the Panjabl-speaking tribes of the West and South-West. The Granth consists of six parts : I., the Japjl, the only portion as yet published in Europe in the original Hindi ; II., III., and IV., arrangements for devotional purposes of extracts from Part V., the Rags or body of the Granth ; of these Rags there _are thirty-one, but only four, Sn Rag, Mdjh, Gaurl, and Asa, have been rendered by Trumpp ; the remaining twenty-seven are described as "a second gathering or gleaning, as materials offered themselves, no attention being paid to the contents, but only to the bulky size of the Granth;" VI., the Bhog or conclusion, containing verses by various authors, among them KabTr and Shekh Farld of Pakpattan, a famous Indian Sufi, and panegyrics of the five Gurus by fifteen bhatts or bards. At the end of each Rag is a collection of sayings of the Bhagats, chiefly of Kabir, in confirmation of the doctrines set forth by the Gurus ; and it is in these additions that the literary im portance of the work, as a treasure of specimens of early Hindi, mainly consists. Another of the following of Ramanand, though consider ably later in time than Kabir, was Sur-Das. Of his life little is known : as some of his verses are included in the Granth, he must have lived before its redaction (about 1600) ; if he be the same as a saint of that name mentioned in the Bhaktamald, as is probable, he was a Brahman, amln or revenue collector of the parganah of Sandlla in Oudh during the reign of Akbar, who is related to have appro priated the collections of his district for the service of the temple of Madan-Mohan at Brindaban, sending to the treasury instead chests filled with stones. When his delin quency was discovered, he was pardoned by Akbar, but thenceforth abandoned the world, and, becoming blind, led a wandering life as a singer of the praises of Vishnu. His stanzas, generally of four lines (padas), are said to number no less than 125,000; they are collected in a huge volume entitled the Sur-Sdgar, and are extremely popular. While the sects of which Ramanand may be considered the spiritual father adore the Deity chiefly under the names of Rama, Ifari, Govind, and dwell but little on the avatars or human incarnations of the Hindu god whom they have selected as the type of the Supreme, there is another division of the Vaishnavas which is not less important in Hindi authorship, and counts its adherents by millions, whose worship is of a different character. The sects belonging to this division take Krishna as their favourite type of the godhead, and, accepting the whole mass of legends (most of them probably of comparatively late origin) relating to this incarnation, inspire themselves with fervour by the contemplation chiefly of Krishna s childhood and his youth in the society of the herd-maidens of Braj. As the doctrine and object of worship are, so also is the mode of life. The Ramanandis are for the most part men of ascetic and un worldly life, not indeed given to self-torture or needless rigour, but caring nothing for the wealth of the world, and living quietly and soberly in the possession of what they deem the truth. The worshippers of Krishna and his mistress Radha, or of the infant Bal-Gopal, on the other hand, are no ascetics, but persons of luxurious and often opulent lives ; among women especially this form of devo tion is widespread. The chief sect of this denomination is the Vallalhdcharis, or the following of the Gokulastha Gosalns. Their founder was one Vallabha Swaml, a Brahman from the south, who settled at Gokul near Mathura, probably about the beginning of the 16th century. The best known works of this sect are the Braj-bilas, a description of Krishna s sports with the maidens of Brin daban, by BrajbasI-Das, and the Varttd, a collection of legends regarding eighty-four teachers of the following, resembling the BhaktamMa, which deals chiefly with the other division of Vaishnavas. The popularity oif the Braj- bilas is immense, and it is to be found in a lithographed form for sale in every bazaar. Its contents (as indeed many other productions of the worshippers of Krishna) have been condemned by Europeans as indecent ; but although con taining much that seems at least outwardly licentious and prurient, it is a work the study of which is indispensable to one who would understand the religious temper of the Hindus. The mystic dwelling on the amours of Krishna and the Gopis of Braj has been often compared to the mystical interpretation of the Song of Solomon ; and in most religions we shall perhaps find at least one phase in which the sensual is curiously mingled with the spiritual, and faith and love towards the heavenly stimulated by thoughts and phrases drawn from earthly scenes of passion. Of the Varttd we shall speak under the next division of our subject. 2. Middle Hindi reaches from about 1570 to 1750. To this age belong the best poets of Hindi literature, Kesav- Das, Biharl-Lal, and Tulsi-Das, whose writings are no less remarkable for skill and subtlety of language than for perfection of metrical form. The labours of their prede cessors had wrought the language of western Hindustan into a medium worthy of being put to the highest poetic use ; and we accordingly find in the poets of this period large borrowings from Braj, even where (as with Tulsi-Das) that idiom is not the dialect of their own region. From their day onward Braj-bhakha has been esteemed (in the

words of Lallu-Lal) " the standard language of sentiment