"resides in fire, walks on the earth, enters like a guest into sacrificial vessels; dwells in man, in gods, in sacrifices; moves throughout the sky, seems to be born in water." A man who has this knowledge escapes from grief, and acquires absorption; but those who are ignorant of the universal Soul are born again as animals or trees. This was not however the fate of Nachiketa, for he acquired the divine doctrine, became freed from the consequences of good and evil acts, and acquired in consequence absorption into Brahme.*

Thus vaguely do these interesting speculations terminate. To be absorbed into an infinite abstraction was the rare privilege of the few who attained the highest knowledge; but for men in general the promise of future life was, to be born again as trees or beasts, as kings or gods, but only for a time of short duration. It may be said that the Hindu gasped for immortality, and that at a distance he beheld the blessed vision; but when he strained every nerve to bring it near and realize it to himself, the vision changed, and it was not immortality, but transmigration. The Hindu's belief in immortality is chained to transmigration like the rocket to the blackened stick, and when it leaves the stick it explodes into total darkness. The Hindu believed,

not that man shall live again, but that man shares in a soul which cannot die.

66

Though a hundred bodies like iron chains hold me down," says one of their Upanishads, "yet like a falcon I quickly rise."+

generally represent the difficulty of understanding the infinite soul by assigning to it contradictory predicates."-Bibliotheca Indica, Brihad Aranyaka, p. 73.

* Rammohun Roy, 'Translation of Passages from the Vedas,' p. 59. + Colebrooke, vol. i. p. 51, Aitareya Aranya.

80

CHAPTER III.

"As little children lisp and tell of heaven,

So thoughts beyond their thought to those high Bards were given."

KEBLE.

WHILST the

narrow strip

of land on

the Saraswati was the especial residence of studi

ous Brahmans, all the fertile plains

of the Ganges, including in fact the whole country between the Himalaya and the Vindhya hills, was considered

the fitting abode of Hindus under Brahmanical guidance. Between these mountains "lies the tract which the wise have named Aryavarta," says the Law-book; Aryavarta meaning the abode of Aryas, or respectable men. On a tributary of the Ganges, called the river Gogra, to the south-east of this district, was placed the oldest or earliest

Hindu city, Ayodhya, occupying nearly the same site as the modern city of Oude, where remains of the ancient buildings are yet visible.

The first king who reigned at Ayodhya was Vaivaswata, a descendant of the sun, called in consequence the founder of the Solar race. One of his posterity, named Ikshwaku, was Raja of Mithila, a kingdom nearly corresponding with the modern Tirhut; and other monarchs of the Solar line were established at Vesali, in the district now known as Little Tirhut. The branch of the royal family called the Lunar dynasty colonized more adventurously, beginning with Benares and extending their kingdoms across the Vindhya hills to Berar, along the Nerbudda to Guzerat, and thence northwards to Mathura on the Jumna, and to Hastinapura on the Ganges.* The Lunar dynasties however appear to have had more of Scythian manners, and less of Brahmanical civilization, than the Solar line of Ayodhya.

In the time of King Vaivaswata, Caste had not become hereditary, for it is reported that whilst some of his sons were Kshatriyas and kings, one founded a tribe of Brahmans, one was a Vaisya, and another a Sudra. Some of the early kings are distinguished as having themselves established Caste amongst their subjects, and instances are even recorded of Brahmanical families proceeding from Kshatriya races or families. By degrees however Brahmans propounded their scheme of Hereditary Caste with great authority, as recorded in their Law-book, called the Code of Manu. This Code is a later composition than the Upanishads, and adopts the same religious doctrine, with additions, giving new links to the chain by which they con

* H. H. Wilson, Vishnu Purana, Introd., pp. lxvii.-lxix.

G

nect the visible world with the self-existent universal Soul. First, Brahme created the waters and placed in them a seed, which became an egg; and in that egg, "bright as gold and blazing like the luminary with a thousand beams,"* Brahma was born; Brahmá being as it were an isolated portion of Brahme, assuming individuality in order to create the world; this was not however accomplished by any direct process, for Brahmá produced Viraj, and then retired into inactivity. Viraj in like manner produced Manu, and upon him devolved the further duty of creation. Manu produced the Rishis, or Sages, of the Rig-Veda, Angiras, Bhrigu, etc., ten in number. The ten Rishis produced semidivine beings of various degrees, and the whole vegetable and animal creation, endowed with internal consciousness, and sensible of pleasure and pain by means of past actions.† The work of creation was thus nominally attributed to many agents; but practically the scheme of the Code makes Brahme give place to the more active Brahmá, and Viraj retire to make room for his successor, Manu.

This celebrated Law-book commences in the following strain of dignity :- "Manu sat reclined with his attention fixed; the divine sages approached, and making salutations delivered the following address: 'Deign, sovereign ruler, to apprise us of the sacred laws in their order, as they must be followed by the four classes.'" Thus solicited, Manu replied, that for the sake of preserving the universe Brahmá had produced four classes of men, and allotted separate duties to each. These four classes were Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras, who sprang respectively from the mouth, the arm, the thigh, and the foot of Brahmá.‡ * Code of Manu, i. 9. + Ibid., iv. 49. Ibid., i. 87.

Manu makes no allusion to the five classes of the Rig-Veda, says nothing of any changes, nothing of Brahmá as a new object of worship, or of kings having once had equal rights with Brahmans to minister in sacrifice; but he enunciates Brahmanical supremacy as a fact coeval with creation. The duties of the four Castes are thus defined :-Brahmans are to read the Veda and to teach it, to sacrifice, to conduct sacrifices for others, to give alms if rich, and to receive gifts when poor; Kshatriyas are to defend the people, give alms, and read the Veda; Vaisyas are to keep cattle, carry on trade, lend at interest, and cultivate the land; whilst to Sudras one principal duty is assigned, namely, to serve the before-mentioned classes.

The education of the first three Castes is most sagaciously consigned to Brahmans, and a series of auspicious acts prescribed, which commence even before a child is born. In the first or third year of his infant life he must be tonsured; and in his eighth year for a Brahman, or later for the two other Castes, or at any age up to sixteen for Brahmans, and twenty-two and twenty-four for Kshatriyas and Vaisyas, he must be invested with the mark of the Caste to which he owes his birth.* This is a most important ceremony, conferring, in Brahmanical language, a second birth it is performed by passing what is called a sacrificial thread about the neck and beneath one shoulder of the youth; whilst the Brahman teacher, called Acharya, pronounces the sacred Gayatri, preceded by the mysterious triliteral syllable Om, the import of which will be considered when the systems of Brahmanical philosophy become the object of our study. Until this investiture or second birth has taken place, the

*Code of Manu, ii. 26-36.