INDIAN PATTERN OF LIFE AND THOUGHT

A GLIMPSE OF ITS EARLY PHASES

It is customary to regard the Veda as the starting point of the entire ancient Indian way of life and thought. A critical consideration of the question regardiog the genesis of several significant concepts and practices which had prevailed in ancient India would, however, show that they could by no means be traced back to the Veda, either ideologically or from the point of view of literary documentation. It would appear that, long before the Vedic Aryans migrated into the land of the seven rivers on their avowed mission of conquest and colonisation, a distinct socio-religious pattern had evolved in the Indian sub continent. Unfortunately do direct literary sources are now available to enlighten us on this pre-Vedic non-Aryan pattern of life and thought. But the cumulative evidence of archaeology, anthropology, ethnology, and linguistics yields a more or less vivid picture in this respect. Moreover, this pre-Vedic pattern of life and thought had extended so far and wide and had become so firmly established on the Indian soil tbat it did not fail – indeed, it could not have failed – to influence the Vedic Aryan ideology itself in an uomistakable manner. In spite of the obviously deliberate attempts on the part of the Vedic (Brahma Dic) hierarchy to suppress these intuences, it was compelled, presumably on account of sheer popular pressure, to accommo date into its own pattern of life and thought some aspects of what was to it an alien way of life and thought, albeit in a modified - in some cases vitally and substantially modified - form. It is, indeed, only on such an assumption that the Occurrence in Brahmanism of certain concepts and practices, which are obviously non-Vedic in character, can be accounted for. By way of illustration, attention may be drawn to the Siva religion and the practices and cults associated with it. The fact 338 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY that the existence of this religion is clearly evidenced in the Indus valley civilisation is sufficient to prove its pre Vedic non Aryan provenance Indeed, it can be shown that the worship of Siva, the red” god, had spread in several parts of India long before the penetration of the Vedic Aryans in those parts - different features of the character and the cult of that god having been emphasized in different regions The Sıva religion was essentially non Vedic in character It was obviously an iconic religion, while idol worship was entirely unknown to the Veda The formal worship of this pre Vedic god consisted, among other things, in besmearing his icon with some substance (püja) and offering raw oblations (balı directly before it As against this the typical Vedic form of worship was honia, that is, offering of ablations to gads through fire – the gods themselves not beiog actually present in the form of idols and it being believed that those oblations were conveyed to them by fire who was therefore called havja vahana carrier of oblations’ Further there were usually associated with the Sıva religion cults which glorified a life of repunciation, asceticism, wandering mendicancy, and severe austerities Some kind of yoga practices also seem to have figured prominently in these cults The Vedic Aryan ideal, on the other hand, was one of a materially secure and prosperous family life Similarly, the early Veda does not show any traces of joga In this connection we may indeed speak, 10 very broad terms, of two traditions – the pre Vedic non Aryan Muni Yatı tradition and the Vedic Aryan Rsi tradition The non Vedic character of the cults sponsored by the Siva religion is clearly sodicated by the antagonistic attitude, towards Yaris, of lodra, the chief god of the hieratic Vedic religion But it may be presumed that the Siva religion had been so very deeply rooted among large sections of the people that the protagonists of the hieratic Vedic religion found the pressure of that popular religion almost irresistible They were, therefore, obliged to accept, how soever reluctantly the Sıva religion and the cults associated with it The Vedic god Rudra for instance, is but an aryanised version of the proto Indian Siva It is significant that the various references to Rudra in the Vedic mythology and ritual isolat INDIAN PATTERN OF LIFE AND THOUGHT 339 that god from the other gods of the Vedic pantheon in a very conspicuous magner, One also gets the unmistakable impression that the cults of the Vrātyas, the Munis, and the Brahmacārins, which were closely allied to the Rudra-Siva-worship, followed a way of life which was fundamentally different from that of the Vedic Aryans. All this would indicate how very inadequate it was to seek in the Veda the only or even the main fountain-head of Indian thought as a whole, It is, indeed, possible to point to some other concepts in Indian thought, such as atomism, for which it is not possible to posit any Vedic origin. Further, a critical study of some later systems of Indian philosophy like Samkhya, Yoga, Vaiśesika, Buddhism, and Jainism would show that there existed in these systems a substratum of common concepts which were definitely not derived from the Veda but which might be traced back to a pre-Vedic Magadhan thought-complex. The traditions regarding the various lives of Gautama Buddha and the twenty three Jaina Tirthamkaras who preceded Mahavira are certainly quite significant in this connection. It would seem that the pre-Vedic current of thought with its many ramifications continued through centuries to serve as a significant source for the later Todjan thought to draw upon. The Vedic Aryan current of thought, which was, in a sense, foreign to the Indian soil, never succeeded - indeed it could not have succeeded - in superseding it completely. As a matter of fact, a large number of elements in the classical Hindu way of life and thought clearly betray a pre-Vedic non-Aryan origin. From this point of view, the Aryan Vedism may be regarded as a graod interlude in the continuity of ancient Indian thought. The earliest literary manifestations of Indian thought are, however, to be found in the Veda. It should be remembered that the Veda, in respect of whose creation tradition denies the operation of any human agency, is not one single book. It has been very aptiy described as a whole library and literature. Its extent in point of the authorship, of the geography and chronology of composition, and of the form and contents is, indeed, vast. But 340 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY a critical student would notice that, in spite of its vastness and variety, there runs through the Veda a thread of logical develop ment which invests it with some kind of unity. From the point of view of literary form and contents, this literature, which is usually called the Veda, is broadly divided into three classes, the Samhitā, the Brāhmaṇa, and the Upanisad. These three classes also correspond to the three successive periods in the history of the Vedic literature and culture - each succeeding literary period being logically and historically the natural - indeed, the inc vitable - outcome of the preceding period. Long before they entered India, the Vedic Aryans, who had been living in the region round about Balkh together with their Iranian and Anatolian brethren, must have started producing prayers (mantras ) relating to their religion. The character of this religion was determined by the kind of life they had been living. At that early stage of their cultural history, the Vedic Aryans lived close to nature - as a part of it rather than apart from it. It was, therefore, the vastness and brilliance of oature, its blessings and maledictions, and, above all, the inexorable and subtly operating law which regulated all its manifestations, that dominated their religious ideology. The earliest mantras of the Vedic Aryans accordingly pertained to this cosmic religion, to which they gave expression through such mythological concepts as those of the divine parents, Dyāvā-Prthivi, the cosmic law, Ria, and the sustainer of that law, Asura Varuṇa Side by side with this cosmic religion, the Vedic Aryans had also developed a kind of simple fire-worship and elementary Soma-cult. The cosmic religion of the Vedic Aryans tended towards anthropo morphism but it was not idolatrous. Fire was, therefore, regarded as the liaison between gods and men. la coursc of time, there occurred a distinct change in the condition of life of the Vedic Aryans and consequently in their religious ideology. They set out towards India on campaigns of conquest and colonisation, fought, on their way, a series of batiles with several antagonistic tribes whom they collectively called Disas and Výtras, and anally emerged as victorious INDIAN PATTERN OF LIFE AND THOUGHT 341 colonisers of that part of India which was known as the land of the seven rivers. In this epoch-making warlike enterprise the Vedic Aryans were led by their heroic leader, Indra, whom they soon made into a god. The individual was gradually institutiona lised, and history came to be transformed into mythology. In this process of the mythologisation of history, several elements derived from the ancient primitive myth of the Hero and the Dragon were made use of. And later, as was but to be expected, the Vedic Aryan war-god also came to be invested with a cosmic character. Naturally enough, this hero-religion superseded the earlier cosmic religion almost completely, and consequently dominated the first regular collection of mantras, made by the Vedic poets and priests on the Indian soil, namely, the Rgveda, Perbaps with a view to counteracting the growing influence of this essentially warlıke religion, which glorified military prowess, the Vedic poets and priests deified, in the form of Bphaspati-Brabmanaspati, who is in many respects modelled after Indra, the magical potency of their prayers and priestcraft. Sun-worship, which also figures prominently in the Veda, is, in a sense, just an aspect of fire-worship. But a critical study of the Vedic mythology would also show that it had greatly influenced many a mythological concept sa the Veda with the result that dividities, which had originally nothing to do with the solar phenomena, came to be regarded as sun-gods at some stage in the evolution of their personality and character. For instance, Viṣou, who had originally belonged to a popular religious cult but who was later elevated to the hieratic Vedic pantheon through the process of the hierarchisation of popular divinities, belongs to this category. Savitr, Mitra, and Püsan are other gods who have been subjected to the process of the solarisation of the originally non-solar divinities. The religious speculations of the early Vedic Aryans manifest ed themselves mainly in two forms-mythology and cosmology, Like many other primitive communities, the Vedic Aryans believed that the creation of the universe and the procreation 342 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY of the human race were the result of a primeval sacrifice which was of the nature of the self immolation of a cosmic being This cosmic being is represented in the Rgieda as the hermaphrodite god man, Yama, or as the Virāt Purusa Apart from this concept of the primevat cosmic sacrifice as the starting point of creation, there are represepted jo the Rgveda two other significant currents of cosmological thought According to one of them, the source of all powers and existences, divide as well as earthly, was conceived as the ‘golden germ’ - a form assumed by an unnamed ur god This golden germ is obviously the precursor of the golden egg of the later cosmogony The other cosmogonic theory is far more profound It seeks to controvert the generally prevalent view that the world has evolved out of ‘gon betog’ or asat At the same time, this theory asserts that the source of this world cannot be, strictly speaking, characterised as being’ or sat in the beginning there was a certain unapparent condition which, on account of the absence of distinctness, was not an *entity, and which, on account of its being the instrument of the creation of the world, could not also be regarded as a * D01 entity’ Besides these cosmogonic theories, one comes across, even in the early Veda, other theosophic speculations regarding the problem of reality. Side by side with the mythology, the cosmogony, the theo sophy, and the ritual of the classes’ among the Vedic Aryans, which were embodied mainly in the Rgveda, there had also existed what may be called the religion of the masses’ This religion, mainly represented in the Atharvayeda, comprised a variety of charms, imprecations, and exorcistic practices which were primarily intended to appease, to bless, and to curse. The motif recurring throughout this religion was, of course, magic It would be seen that, in the first period of the cultural history of the Vedic Aryans as reflected in the Samhitās of the Rgseda and the Atharsaneda, the religious practices of the Vedic Aryans, in contrast with the manifold character of their religious thought, had been few and quite simple This was, indeed, in full conformity with their nomadic way of life When, how’ INDIAN PATTERN OF LIFE AND THOUGHT 343 ever, they settled down and began to experience a sense of security and prosperity, their religion, naturally enough, tended to become increasingly complex, Out of a primitive form of ritual, which the Vedic Indians, like any other ancient commu nity, had already known, they now developed a very elaborate system of sacrifice. As a consequence of this, there arose, of necessity, a new class of priests who alone could master the many and highly complicated details of the sacrificial procedure and who indulged with great avidity in discussing those details, often in a hair-splitting maqner, in the Brāhmaṇa texts which they produced for that purpose. And, perhaps with a view to maintaining their hold over the contemporary religious thought and practices, these priests continued to load the ritual with still more details. They insisted on a scrupulous observance of all those details, so much so that such observance, iostead of being a means to an end, came to be looked upon as the end in itself. It must, however, be pointed out that the Brabmanic system of sacrifice did make a certain distinct contribution to the specula tive wisdom of India - though in an incidental manner. For instance, it sought to discover all kinds of symbolic tres or mystic bonds, bandhutā, between the various details of the sacrifice on the one hand and the different aspects of the cosmos on the other, and thereby tried to establish a kind of magico. ritualistic advaita. It also helped the growth of many sciences, such as phonetics, grammar, etymology, astronomy, etc., though the Brahmapic lucubrations in these fields can at best be described as pre-scientific science.’ The mechanical sacerdotalism evolved by the Brahmanic priests and represented in the Brāhmanas had its expected reaction. Some sections of the non-priestly classes, which had been reduced to the position of mere passive instruments in the hands of the priests, and the free-thinkers among the priests themselves, now began to question the efficacy of sacrifice as a means for attaining the true spiritual goal, as also to doubt the absolute authority of the scriptures which were pressed into service, often by circumvention, in order to establish that efficacy,344 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY The new shift, which was clearly reflected in the Upapisads, was from an attitude of blind acceptance to that of critical inquiry, from externalism to essentialism, from priestly exclusive ness to equality and freedom in the religio philosophical quest The Upanisadıc thinkers looked outwards’ and inwards’, and, through an analysis of the macrocosm and the microcosm, tried to discover the ultimate reality underlying them. They finally arrived at the grand concept that the ultimate reality underlying the apparent manifoldness in the world was one and permanent, whule the phenomenal world itself was merely a bundle of fleeting names and forms Through ignorance, man forgets his real nature, gets involved in the phenomenal world, and, as the result of the inexorable law of karman, continues to live through the transmigratory existences until he realises the identity of his true self with the ultimate reality and thereby becomes spiritually emancipated, Though the teachings of the Upanisads have dominated Indian philosophical thought as a whole most profoundly, their immediate iniluence cannot be said to have been commensurate with their essentially radical character For one thing. on account of its peculiar mysticism, the philosophy of the Upa niṣads could not be easily comprehended by people at large It, therefore, necessarily represented a way of life and thought intended only for the select few Again, the Upanisadıc thinkers succeeded to a certain extent in dislodging the earlier religions of the Samhitas and the Brābmanas, but they, as it were, left the people in the lurch by their failure to substitute any new religion of their own They apparently did not realise that people could live without a philosophy but that they could never live without a religion The gap thus created by the Upanisads in the religious life of the people was filled in, more than adequately, by such religious movements as Buddhism and Jainism This naturally mcant a serious set back to the old Brahmanism In order, there fore, to counteract this onslaught of the non-Brahmadic religions, the rear guards of the old Brahmanism started a comprehensive movement to consolidate, reorganise, and revitalise the BrahmiDIC INDIAN PATTERN OF LIFE AND THOUGHT 345 way of life and thought This revivalist movement in what might be called the Sutra Vedanga period touched all spheres of human life - religious, academic, domestic and social Indeed, it was then that, for the first time, conscious efforts were made to evolve a definite pattern of Brahmanic society This social aspect of Brahmanism is best represented in the Grhya Sutras and the Dharma Sutras and the later Smçtıs and other texts relating to the Dharma-sastra One of the concepts which was elaborated and emphasised at this stage, in a special mapper, was that of dharma The word dharina has been used in most of the Brahmadic texts from the Rgveda downwards, and in different contexts, it has denoted different ideas, such as Vedic ritual, ethical conduct, caste rules, and civil and criminal law Actually, however, the concept of dharma is all comprehensive and may be, broadly speaking said to comprise precepts which aim at securing the material and the spiritual sustenance and growth of the individual and the society. Another significant characteristic of dharma, which deserves to be specially noted, is that it has always been regarded as sot being static The content of dharma has often changed in the changiog contexts of time, space, and environments In spite of the essentially comprehensive character of dharma, in its most common connotation, it was limited to two principal ideals, namely, the organisation of social life through well defined and well regulated social orders (popularly known as varna dharma) and the organisation of an individuals life, within those social orders, through well coordinated stages ( = aśrama dharma) Thus, in popular parlance, dharma almost came to mean just varna-aśrama dharma The varna vyavastha has, indeed, come to be regarded as the most essential feature of the Brahmanic society Even later Hinduism, which differs from Brahmanism in many significant respects, has scrupulously preserved this peculiar social organisa tion Though the word varpa vyavastha is generally translated as caste system, it should be remembered that, strictly speaking, 346 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY varna does not denote caste as we understand it today. Caste system is jāti-yyai asthā which no doubt represents a ramification of the original varna-vyavasthä or the system of social orders. From the early Brahmanic texts we can derive but little historical information regarding the origin and development of varnas and jātis. The aim of those texts was avowedly to glorify and defend the social organisation governed by the concepts of varnas and jātis. They, therefore, either speak of the divine origin of those social phenomena or give some mythical accounts in respect of them, A complex social phenomenon such as the caste-system must, indeed, be presumed to be the result of the interaction of a variety of factors. The word varna (= colour, complexion) itself would indicate that one of these basic factors was racial distinction. In the Rgveda we actually come across references to the ārya-varna (= the Vedic Aryans) and the dāsa-varna (which is the name collectively given to all the racial groups other than and antagonistic to the Vedic Aryans). Another important factor was magico-ritualistic in character. The four main social orders were distinguished from one another on account of the specific roles which they were expected to play in connection with the communal sacrifice. These roles were determined by certain definite concepts of taboo, pollution, and purification, Corresponding to their roles in the ritual, these orders were assigned distinct colours, which fact also seems to have confirmed the use of the word varna with reference to them. This magico ritualistic origin of the four social orders is indirectly indicated by their mention in the Puruṣa-sūkta (RV 8.90) as the limbs of the cosmic sacrificial Purusa. Then there was the impact on the social organisation of the Vedic Aryans of the pattern of social life which had been already evolved by the indigenous Indian communities; and this impact must have been responsible for the consolidation of yarna in the form of the social phenomenon which, in course of time, came to be designated as jäti or caste. In the initial stages, the varņas of social orders were more or less Quid and elastic. But, 10 course of time, they hardened into a INDIAN PATTERN OF LIFE AND THOUGHT 347 rigid social system characterised by a large number of castes, sub castes, and mixed castes Elaborate discussions occur in the Dharma sastra texts regarding their respective duties and religious, social, and legal privileges and disabilities Within these social orders (or castes ), an individual’s life was organised into four distinct stages, called asramas, in such a manner that the individual should be enabled to realise, through a properly graded scheme, the four ends of life, namely, kama or aesthetic expression of natural instincts, artha or material prosperity, dharma or ethical conduct, and moksa or spiritual emancipation. These four stages of life are life of a student. life of a householder, life of a hermit or recluse, and life of an ascetic It will be seen that the aśrama dharma seeks to resolve the conflict between the two ideals, namely, the consolidation and the progress of the society on the one hand and the spiritual emancipation of the individual on the other In connection with the scheme of the aśramas, the Dharma sustra texts have stated clearly and at some length the Brahmanic ideals regarding such topics as education, position of woman, and family life Attempts have also been made to render the broad scheme of the aśramas more viable and effective by prescribing various samskaras or sacraments wbich are, as it were, the lamp posts on the road leading to the full fledged growth of man’s personality These samskaras cover man s whole life - actually beginning from its prenatal and ending with its post-morteo phase It will be thus seen that the Brabmanists had developed quite a remarkable social philosophy This philosophy continues to constitute - though in a more or less modified form - the basis of the Hindu society even up to this day The fact of its emergence would also serve as a corrective against the popular misconception that the ancient Indians always thought in terms of fatalism, pessimism, and otherworldliness [ First published IAC 8, 1939 47-59 ]