Hinduism / by Monier Williams.

  • Monier Monier-Williams
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hinduism / by Monier Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    39/254 page 31
    Are that which is immortal in the sky. From him, called Purusha, was born Viraj, And from Viraj was Purusha produced, Whom gods and holy men made their oblation. With Purusha as victim, they performed A sacrifice. When they divided him, How did they cut him up ? What was his mouth ? What were his arms ? and what his thighs and feet? The Brahman was his mouth, the kingly soldier Was made his arms, the husbandman his thighs, The servile Siidra issued from his feet. Be it observed, in conclusion, that the above ex- amples would, if taken alone, encourage a very false estimate of the merits of the Vedic Mantras. Although the majority of the Hindus believe that the several Samhitas of the Veda, and especially that of the Rig- veda, contain all that is good, great, and divine, yet these collections of hymns will be found, when taken as a whole, to abound more in puerile ideas than in striking thoughts and lofty conceptions. Nor will they be found to support any of those objectionable practices, superstitions, and opinions of the present day for which they were once, through ignorance of their contents, supposed to be an authority. The Vedic hymns contain no allusion to the doctrine of transmigration of souls, which is a conspicuous cha- racteristic of the Hindu creed in the later system. Nor do they afford any sanction to the prohibition of widow-marriages, the encouragement of child- marriages, the iron rules of caste, and the interdiction of foreign travel. Nor is there in them any evidence that the personifications of the forces of nature were represented by images or symbols carved out of wood
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