But all the efforts of Brahmanism could not arrest the natural development of the system.  It passed on into polytheism and idolatry.  The worship of India for many centuries has been divided into a multitude of sects.  While the majority of the Brahmans still profess to recognize the equal divinity of Brahma, Vischnu, and Siva, the mass of the people worship Krishna, Rama, the Lingam, and many other gods and idols.  There are Hindoo atheists who revile the Vedas; there are the Kabirs, who are a sort of Hindoo Quakers, and oppose all worship; the Ramanujas, an ancient sect of Vischnu worshippers; the Ramavats, living in monasteries; the Panthis, who oppose all austerities; the Maharajas, whose religion consists with great licentiousness.  Most of these are worshippers of Vischnu or of Siva, for Brahma-worship has wholly disappeared.

Sec. 8.  The Epics, the Puranas, and modern Hindoo Worship.

The Hindoos have two great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, each of immense length, and very popular with the people.  Mr. Talboys Wheeler has recently incorporated both epics (of course much abridged) into his History of India, and we must refer our readers to his work for a knowledge of these remarkable poems.  The whole life of ancient India appears in them, and certainly they are not unworthy products of the genius of that great nation.

According to Lassen,[81] the period to which the great Indian epics refer follows directly on the Vedic age.  Yet they contain passages inserted at a much later epoch, probably, indeed, as long after as the war which ended in the expulsion of the Buddhists from India.[82] Mr. Talboys Wheeler considers the war of Rama and the Monkeys against Ravana to refer to this conflict, and so makes the Ramayana later than the Mahabharata.  The majority of writers, however, differ from him on this point.  The writers of the Mahabharata were evidently Brahmans, educated under the laws of Manu.[83] But it is very difficult to fix the date of either poem with any approach to accuracy.  Lassen has proved that the greater part of the Mahabharata was written before the political establishment of Buddhism.[84] These epics were originally transmitted by oral tradition.  They must have been brought to their present forms by Brahmans, for their doctrine is that of this priesthood.  Now if such poems had been composed after the time of Asoka, when Buddhism became a state religion in India, it must have been often referred to.  No such references appear in these epics, except in some solitary passages, which are evidently modern additions.[85] Hence the epics must have been composed before the time of Buddhism.  This argument of Lassen’s is thought by Max Mueller to be conclusive, and if so it disproves Mr. Talboys Wheeler’s view of the purpose of the Ramayana.

Few Hindoos now read the Vedas.  The Puranas and the two great epics constitute their sacred books.  The Ramayana contains about fifty thousand lines, and is held in great veneration by the Hindoos.  It describes the youth of Rama, who is an incarnation of Vischnu, his banishment and residence in Central India, and his war with the giants and demons of the South, to recover his wife, Sita.  It probably is founded on some real war between the early Aryan invaders of Hindostan and the indigenous inhabitants.