III.

RECONSTRUCTION—­MODERN HINDUISM.

[Sidenote:  Revival, in an altered form, of Hinduism.  Only the position of the Brahman and the restrictions of caste retained.] But the Hinduism that grew up, as Buddhism faded from Indian soil, was widely different from the system with which early Buddhism had contended.  Hinduism, as it has been developed during the last thousand or twelve hundred years, resembles a stupendous far-extended building, or series of buildings, which is still receiving additions, while portions have crumbled and are crumbling into ruin.  Every conceivable style of architecture, from that of the stately palace to the meanest hut, is comprehended in it.  On a portion of the structure here or there the eye may rest with pleasure; but as a whole it is an unsightly, almost monstrous, pile.  Or, dismissing figures, we must describe it as the most extraordinary creation which the world has seen.  A jumble of all things; polytheistic pantheism; much of Buddhism; something apparently of Christianity, but terribly disfigured; a science wholly outrageous; shreds of history twisted into wild mythology; the bold poetry of the older books understood as literal prose; any local deity, any demon of the aborigines, however hideous, identified with some accredited Hindu divinity; any custom, however repugnant to common sense or common decency, accepted and explained—­in a word, later Hinduism has been omnivorous; it has partially absorbed and assimilated every system of belief, every form of worship, with which it has come in contact.  Only to one or two things has it remained inflexibly true.  It has steadily upheld the proudest pretensions of the Brahman; and it has never relaxed the sternest restrictions of caste.  We cannot wonder at the severe judgment pronounced on Hinduism by nearly every Western author.  According to Macaulay, “all is hideous and grotesque and ignoble;” and the calmer De Tocqueville maintains that “Hinduism is perhaps the only system of belief that is worse than having no religion at all."[22]

When a modern Hindu is asked what are the sacred books of his religion he generally answers:  “The Vedas, the Sastras (that is, philosophical systems), and the Puranas.”  Some authorities add the Tantras.

The modern form of Hinduism is exhibited chiefly in the eighteen Puranas, and an equal number of Upapuranas (minor Puranas).[23]

[Sidenote:  The Puranas.] When we compare the religion embodied in the Puranas with that of Vedic times we are startled at the magnitude of the change.  The Pantheon is largely new; old deities have been superseded; other deities have taken their place.  There has been both accretion from without and evolution from within.  The thirty-three gods of the Vedas have been fantastically raised to three hundred and thirty millions.  Siva, Durga, Rama, Krishna, Kali—­unknown in ancient days—­are now mighty divinities; Indra is almost entirely overlooked, and Varuna has been degraded from his lofty throne and turned into a regent of the waters.