A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

CHAP. II

OLD INDIAN CREEDS

27

the worship of Virtues and Powers, and to allow images, Shankar
as well as formless types, to be enshrined in temples. The Acharj
'self-existent' needed no longer to be addressed direct, polytheism,
and the orthodox could pay his devotions to the Preserving A. DVishnu, to the Destroying Siva, to the Regent of the Sun,
to Ganesh, the helper of men, or to the reproductive energy
of nature personified as woman, with every assurance that
his prayers would be heard, and his offerings accepted, by
the Supreme Being.1
The old Brahman worship had been domestic or solitary, Reactionof
and that of the Buddhists public or congregational; the Buddhism
on BrahBrahman ascetic separated himself from his fellows, but manism.
the Buddhist hermit became a coenobite, the member of
a community of devotees; the Brahman reared a family
before he became an anchorite, but the Buddhist vowed
celibacy and renounced most of the pleasures of sense.
These customs of the vanquished had their effect upon the Shankar
conquerors, and Shankar Acharj, in his endeavour to establishes
strengthen orthodoxy, enacted the double part of St. Basil ascetic
orders, and
and Pope Honorius.2 He established a monastery of Brah- gives preeminence
secondary or delegated powers of Heaven saw the degree of virtue to Saivism.
to which man was attaining by upright living and a contemplation
of the Divinity; wherefore Vrihaspati descended to confound the
human understanding by diffusing error. (Cf. Wilson, As. Res., xvii.
308, and Troyer's Dabistdn, ii. 198, note.)
1 The five sects enumerated are still held to represent the most
orthodox varieties of Hinduism, [and of the eighteen Purans, five
only give supremacy to one form of Divinity over others. (Colonel
Kennedy, Res. Hind. Mythol., pp. 203, 204.)-J. D. C.]
2 All scholars and inquirers are deeply indebted to Professor Wilson
for the account he has given of the Hindu sects in the sixteenth and
seventeenth volumes of the Asiatic Researches. The works, indeed,
which are abstracted, are in the hands of many people in India,
particularly the Bhagat Mala (or History of the Saints) and its epitomes; but the advantage is great of being able to study the subject
with the aid of the notes of a deep scholar personally acquainted with
the country. It is only to be regretted that Professor Wilson has not
attempted to trace the progress of opinion or reform among sectaries;
but neither does such a project appear to have occurred to Mr. Ward,
in his elaborate and valuable but piecemeal volumes on the Hindus.
Muhsin Fani, who wrote the Dabistdn, has even less of sequence or of
argument, but the observations and views of an intelligent, although
garrulous and somewhat credulous, Muhammadan, who flourished
nearly two centuries ago, have nevertheless a peculiar value; and