by far the largest share of adoration, and it is in special accounts of the $aiva, Vaishnava, and Sdkta sects rather than in an exposition of the BrUhmanical belief, that the religious history of India from about the beginning of our era can be dealt with satisfactorily. At that time the worship of Vishnu in his most popular avatar, in the person of Krishna, appears to have received much countenance at the hands of the priests, with a view of counteracting the growing influence of Buddhism. The sectarian spirit gave gradually rise to a special class of works, the modern Purdnas composed for the express purpose of promoting the worship of some particular deity. In the 8th or 9th century tfankara-acharya, a Malabar Brahman of the $aiva sect and Vedanta school of philosophy, made an attempt, by engaging in controversy with the leaders of various sects, to restore the Brahmanical system of belief to its former imposing position. His example and teachings seem to haveiinspired the Brahmanical community with a good deal of religious zeal, and even fanaticism, and thus to have greatly contributed to the final overthrow of the Buddhists. In the 7th century the authority of Sakya- muni s doctrine was already on the wane, as is evident from Hiouen Thsang s complaints of the number of ruined temples and deserted monasteries, and the great proportion of heretics. At the time of Sankara its decline must have been still more advanced, and a few more centuries probably sufficed to make the last living remains of the Buddhist faith disappear from the continent of India ; except, indeed, in Nepal, where it prevails to this day. There also still exists in India a very important sect which seems to have early branched off from the Buddhist doctrine, viz., the Jains. Although, in the long run, Buddhism has been unable to maintain the ground it had won from the Brahmans, the humanizing spirit of its doctrines has left a deep impress on the Hindu mind. One of the practical and least salutary effects it has produced is the adoption of monastic institutions by most of the Brahmanical sects. The maths or convents, in which a con siderable portion of the clergy of the various religious bodies reside together, are presided over by mahants or superiors, and are scattered all over India. Sankara founded several establishments of , this kind in various parts, especially one still existing at Sringeri, on the Western Ghats. In spite of its levelling tendencies, Buddhism seems never to have succeeded in checking the further development of the caste system. At the time of Sankara seventy-two mixed classes, or eighteen subdivisions of each of the four original castes, are said to have existed, and ever since they have become more and more numerous. Indeed, there can be no doubt that Hindus do not feel, and perhaps never felt, their class restrictions as being in any way burdensome, or still less a disgrace to them, and that even the lowest man looks upon his caste as a privilege as high as that of the Brahman. In the opinion of the Brahmans only one original caste is now extant, viz., their own, all the others having resulted from
successive intermixtures.Mr Sherring, in his Hindu Tribes and Castes, makes the following remarks on the Brahmanical caste at the present day : " The Brahman occupies the highest rank among Hindus for at least three reasons. The first is his assumed sanctity. By the people generally he is regarded as a pure, stainless, twice-born being, divine as well as human, worthy of unbounded admiration and worship. He is the priest of the Hindu religion, directing the ceremonies performed at the temples, sacred wells, sacred tanks, sacred rivers, and at all hallowed places throughout the land. He is present to sanction, and give effect to, the great social festivals of his countrymen held at marriages, at births of sons, and at deaths. He casts the horoscope, tells the lucky days, gives spiritual counsel, whispers mantras or mysterious words, executes magical incantations and charms, and is at once household god, family priest, and general preceptor and guide in behalf of the many millions of Hindus residing in the vast country lying between the Himalayas and Capo Comorin. The second reason of the Brahman s superiority is that, for many ages, perhaps from the outset of his career, when with other Aryans he first entered the plains of India, he has been intellectually in advance of the rest of the Hindu race. . . . The third reason is a consequent of the second. The Brahman is not only a thinking, but also a reading man. He possesses and, perhaps, reads the holy canon Vedas, Shastras, and Puranas. He has been the author of Hindu literature. . . . Light of complexion, his forehead ample, his countenance of striking significance, his lips thin, and mouth expressive, his eyes quick and sharp, his fingers long, his carriage noble and almost sublime, the true Brahman, uncontaminated by European influence and manners, with his intense self-consciousness, with the proud conviction of superiority depicted in every muscle of his face, and manifest in every movement of his body, is a wonderful specimen of humanity walking on God s earth. Yet the Brahman has lived his day. His prestige is rapidly on the decline, and.is only maintained at its ancient pitch in remote villages and in the fastnesses of superstition in great cities. Here, as of old, it envelopes him like a glory. But the further he moves from such places, the more dim becomes the glory until it fades away altogether. Education and other influences are treating the Brahman roughly. Yet the fault is his own. He has had a better start by reason of his great natural endow ments than any Hindu of the other castes below him ; but he has neglected his opportunities. I fear he has been too proud, too self-satisfied to avail himself of them."
On the modern observance of religious duties Professor Wilson remarks : " Now it is true that in the present con stitution of Indian society the distribution of the periods of life, beyond that of the student, is never regarded except by a few, who prefer a life of lazy mendicity, or by some half-crazed enthusiast, who thinks it possible to realize the letter of the law. The great body of the people, Brahmans included, pursue their worldly avocations as long as their faculties permit, spend the decline of life in the bosom of their families, and die peaceably and decently at home. But although the practice is discontinued, the doctrine remains and influences opinion ; and devotional ceremonies, pilgrimage, penance, and abstract contempla tion have an undue preponderance in the estimation of the people, even the best informed among them, over active duties and the precepts of morality. As to the common people they have a still lower scale, and they find a ready substitute for the inconveniences of all moral restraint in the fervour of that faith which they place in Vishnu, and the unwearied perseverance with which they train a parrot or a starling to repeat his names, to articulate Krishna- Radha, or Sita-Ram."
taught us that some practices which have hitherto, or until recently, prevailed in India, and which have contributed so much to bringing Hindu morals into disrepute, are but comparatively modern innovations. Thus, the rite of suttee (properly sail, i.e., "the faithful wife"), or voluntary immolation of widows, which was abolished some thirty years ago with considerable difficulty, seems to have sprung up originally as a local habit among the Kshatriyas, and, on becoming more and more prevalent, to have at length received Brahmanical sanction. The alleged conformity of the rite to the Hindu scriptures has been shown to have rested chiefly on a misquotation, if not an intentional garbling, of a certain passage of the Eigveda, which, so far
from authorizing the concrcmation of the widow, bids her
