THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND
SAINTS OF INDIA

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS,
AND SAINTS OF INDIA

11 Study of Sad/zuiym, with an flccount of the Togix,

Sanyasis, Bairagis, and other strange Hindu Sectariam

BY

JOHN CAMPBELL OMAN

FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF NATURAL SCIENCE IN THE GOVERNMENT COLLEGE, LAHORE

AUTHOR 0?

“INDIAN LIFE, nmcxous AND SOCIAL ” “ THE GRtA'I‘ INDIAN EPICS ”
“warm: THREE CREEDS MEET ” z'rc.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS B?”
WILLIAM CflMPBELL OMAN, A.R.I.B.A.

 

LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN
PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1903

[A ll Rig/1f: Reserved]

 

  

 

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BIOLOGISTS teach that the body of every human being is
an aggregation of various and innumerable protoplasmic
cells which are ever undergoing changes, constructive and
destructive. And yet we can plainly see that each man,
though perceptibly changing with the passing years, per-
sistently retains to the end a marked individuality, together
with corporeal and mental characteristics peculiarly his
own. So, too, is it with each race of men and the
comparatively short-lived units of which it is made up.
Of the latter, some are, at every moment of time, passing
away and giving place to newer and slightly modified
ones; but the race as a whole, though thus steadily
undergoing mutation—perhaps suffering decay—with the
fleeting centuries, still holds fast certain physical and
psychological traits, its special heritage and possession,
which have in the past differentiated it from all other
races, and will continue to do so as long as it enjoys a
separate existence.

Thus it happens that every distinct ethnicdivision of
the world’s population has its own peculiar ideals and

V

PREFACE

aspirations, its own philosophy and religion, and also its
own intellectual and moral limitations.

Obviously, then, nothing can be more helpful for the
comprehension of the history, condition, and prospects of
any people than the discovery and recognition of those
salient and persistent habits, mental peculiarities and
tendencies, which it has uninterruptedly exhibited through
a long period of time.

Now the study of Indian Asceticism and Mysticism
affords, I believe, not only an admirable, but the very
best means of obtaining such desirable information in
regard to the great Hindu race. I hope, therefore, that
the present volume, which is concerned with the results
of the most deep-seated and abiding ideas and sentiments
of the Indian people, may, notwithstanding its necessary
imperfections, meet with appreciation in some quarters at
least, and help to interpret the people of India to that
section of the English public which is, more or less,
interested in a little - understood but most fascinating
land, with whose fortunes are irrevocably linked, for good
or evil, the destinies of Great Britain and the Anglo-
Saxon race.

At the threshold I ought to explain that a description
of the peculiarities and minor differences of the innumer-
able Hindu ascetic sects and sub-sects has not entered
into my plan, though all the more important sectarian
divisions have been noticed, and such details as seemed
essential for the comprehension of the whole subject have
not been omitted.

A great many curious myths, legends, and stories
about ascetics of various sects have been included in this
volume; but I make no apology on this account, because
such myths and stories reveal, far better than any disserta-
tions could possibly do, the true nature of Indian asceticism,

vi

PREFACE

as well as the intellectual level and ethical ideals of the
Hindus from times immemorial.

A word as to the plan of the book may perhaps
be acceptable. In the first place, I should state that
throughout this volume the word sadhu stands as a
general name for any Hindu ascetic, monk, or religious
mendicant, without reference to sect or order; and fagm’r
as the corresponding term for ascetics, etc., who profess
Islam. The earlier chapters (I. to IV.) are designed to
acquaint the reader with the leading or root ideas of
Indian asceticism, or sad/misfit as I call it, and to
introduce him to the sadhus themselves as they appear
at the present day. Old Indian dramas and tales and
the accounts of European travellers are drawn upon in
Chapters V. and VI., to shOw that sad/mism has been an
ancient and persistent feature of Indian life. And as
Hindu asceticism is not to be understood without some
knowledge of the principles which underlie the philosophico-
religious ideas of the Brahmans, these are succinctly ex-
plained in Chapter VII., and supplemented with a brief
summary of the modifications which Hinduism has under-
gone in the progress of its development through more than
a thousand years.

In Chapter VIII. the principal ascetic sects and their
subdivisions are described, the Y ogis, commonly called jogz's,
and the yoga system receiving especial attention. In
Chapters IX. to XI. the reader is taken into the company
of many sad/ms I have known, and within the precincts of
a few of the monasteries I have visited. Probably these
last-named chapters may help to bring European readers
into actual touch, as it were, with sad/mism as it exists
to-day; and, if so, I shall not regret the time and the
trouble, by no means inconsiderable, involved in collecting
the particulars which I have embodied in them.

vii

PREFACE

The concluding chapter is devoted to general observa-
tions upon the past effects, present state, and future
prospects of smlhm'sm.

For all the illustrations and for many of the photo-
graphs reproduced in this volume I am indebted to my
son, Mr. William Campbell Oman.

J. C. 0.

LONDON.

\iii

CONTENTS

PAGE
PREFACE . . . . . . . . v

INTRODUCTION

Early Recollections of Sadhus and Faquirs—They are and have
always been conspicuous Figures in India—May be seen every-
where wandering over Plain and Mountain, through Cities and
Jungles—Neither understood nor appreciated by Europeans—

They are of various Sects, hold peculiar Opinions, and indulge in
strange Practices—The very Spirit of the East is embodied in the
Sadhu . . . . . . . . 1

CHAPTER I
ASCETICISM: I'rs ORIGIN AND nicanopmcxr

Asceticism a common Feature in all Religions—Ideas underlying
Asceticism—Sinfulness—The Doctrine that Matter is inherently
bad—The Belief that the Human Body is the great Hindrance
to the Attainment by the Soul of its proper Destiny—Ascetic
Practices, and the Conditions, geographical, political, and social,
which are most favourable to their adoption by a large propor-
tion of any Community—The Existence of such Conditions in
India from the earliest up to recent times . . . 7

CHAPTER II

SOME PECULIAR AND DISTINC'I‘IVE (‘HARACTERIS'I'ICS OF
HINDU ASCETICISM

Hindu Idea of the unbounded Power over Nature attainable through
Ascetic Practices—The Rationale of this Notion—Examples of
Power acquired by Asceticism cited from the Mahabharata, the
Ramayana, the Siva Purana, and the Vishnu Purana—The
Supreme Being Himself practises Austerities—Rivalry of Scots
gives rise to Legends of Conflicts, based on successful Ascetic
Practices between rival Leaders—Titanic Conflict between Va-
shishta and Visvamitra, also between Nanak and the Siddhas—
Hindu Asceticism has usually no relation to Ethics . . 18

ix

CONTENTS

CHAPTER III

SADIIL’S BEFORE THE PUBLIC AT FAIRS AND ELSEWHERE
PAGE
Sadhus as seen at F airs—Their Dress—Sect Marks and their Explana-
tion—Hairdressing—Rosaries——Various Ornaments and their
Significance—Sadhus’ Alms-bowls, Tongs, Arm-rests, Charas-
various Iiiiids and Degrees—Minor Asceticisms—Posturings—
Strange Purificatory Rites . . . . . 36

CHAPTER IV

THE WONDERS THAT PRESENT-DAY SADIIUS AND FAQUIRS
ARE SAID TO PERFORM

 

Visionists like the San yasi Ramakrishna .Sadhus to some extent what
the Magicians and Neeromancers have elsewhere been—Tales and
Anecdotes of the Wonders performed by Sadhus and of Calamities
brought on or averted by them—Transmutation of Metals by
Sadhus—Story of Muslim Thaumaturgist who was the Disciple of
a Sadhu—Claims of Superiority over Sadhus made by F aquirs—
Strange Treatment of a Faquir by a co-Religionist—Sadhus as
Physicians, Palmists, Fortune-tellers, and Acrobats . . 02

CHAPTER V
some GLIMPSES 0F SADHI’S IN INDIAN FICTION

Eight Stories from famous Sanskrit Dramas and other Sources:
(1) Sakoontala; (2) Malati and Madhava; (3) Disillusionment;
(4) The Horned Rishi; (5) The lost Son restored; (6) A Kind-
hearted Lady ; (7) The Father duped ; (8) Woman’s Cunning . 68

CHAPTER VI
SADIIUS AS DESCRIBED BY some EUROPEAN VISITORS TO INDIA

Greek and Roman Accounts of Sadhus and their Practices—Observa-
tions regarding Sadhus and their Peculiarities recorded in the
Works of the Jeweller Tavernier, the Physician Bernier, the
“Senior Merchant” James Forbes, the Missionary Ward, Colonel
Slecman, and Bishop Heber . . . . . 92

CONTENTS

CHAPTER VII

A VIE\V OF THE SUCCESSIVE I’HASES OF MODERN IIINDUISM AND
OF THE ORIGIN OF THE MORE IMPORTANT HINDU SECTS, IN
RELATION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF SADIIUISM IN INDIA

SECTION I.—Some fundamental Doctrines of Hindu Theology: Mya
—Pantheism—Metempsychosis—Karn1a . . . .

CHAPTER VII—continued

SECTION II.—Modern Hinduism—Principal Divisions—The Sivite
Reformer, Sankara Acharya—His Crusade against Buddhism——
Sakti Worship—Mahmoud of Guzni’s successful Invasion of India.
—Islam a stimulating Factor in the Origination of new and rival
Siva and Vishnu Sects—The Puranas—Ramanuja’s Campaign
against Sivaism—Basava and his Doctrines—Krishna Worship
preached by Madhavacharya—His Theological Views—Rainanand
preaches at Benares the Worship of Rama and Sita—Tendency
towards Anthropomorphism in the later Sects . . .

CHAPTER VII—continued

SECTION III.—Modern Democratic Reformers—Iiabir, his peculiar and
important position as a Reformer—Vallabhacharya sets up the
Worship of Krishna as Bala Gopala— Chaitanya the Mystic
preaches the Worship of Krishna cum Radha—Baba Nanak and
his Teaching—The Sikhs—Dadu and his Sect—Rain Charm and
the Ram Sanehis founded by him—The Raj put Princess Mirabai
a Devotee of Krishna—The Trend of Latter-day Hinduism— Brief
Summary . . . . . . .

CHAPTER VIII
HINDU ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

SECTION I.--Introductory Remarks—The Multiplicity of Hindu Sects
by no means Abnormal—Jain Monks or Yatis interviewed—Their
Opinions and Habits

CHAPTER VIII—continued

SECTION II.-——Principal Hindu Sects: _S\aivas,_Vaishnavas, and Sikhs
—Particulars regarding Sanyasis, Dandis, Paramahansas, Brah-
macharis, Lingaits, and Aghoris . .

xi

PAGE

109

122

142

CONTENTS

CHAPTER VIII—continued

SECTION III.—Yogis and Yoga Vidya—Yogis attracting attention
in the West—Philosophico-religious Ideas underlying Yogaism—
Emancipation of the Soul the supreme Object of Hindu religious
Aspiration—Yoga Vidya teaches how Union of the individual Soul
with the All-Spirit may be accomplished—Details and probable
Origin of the Discipline and Practices Of Yoga Vidya—The Pre-
tensions of the modern Yogis—History, Customs, and Rules of the
Yogi Sect . . . . . . . .

CHAPTER VIII—cont imwd

SECTION IV.—Vaishnava Sects : Sri Vaishnavas, Madhavas, Raman-
andis, Kabir Panthis, Ballavacharyas, and Chaitanites .

CHAPTER VIII—continued

SECTION V.—Three Sikh Mendicant Orders: Udasis, Nirmalis, Akalis

CHAPTER IX
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS, GOOD AND BAD

1. The Swinging Bairagi. 2. The Sanyasi Swami Bhaskarananda of
Benares. 3. Gareeb Das, an Urdhabahu Bairagi. 4. A Yogi who
protected Amritsar from the Plague. 5. A Bralnnachari from the
Tamil Country. 6. A Sadhu of European Descent at Simla. 7. A
Naked Sanyasi and his Companion, a Princess of B 8. A
Sadhu of Royal Lineage, Prince Bir Bhanu Singh. 9. A Sadhu
who had found God. 10. A Sun-worshipping Bairagi. 11. Yogis
and Pious Women. 12. A pseudo-Sadhu and his Adventures.
13. Yogi Guests. 14. A Sadhu as Restaurateur. 15. A Saint in
Chains . . . . . . .

 

CHAPTER X
SOME SADHVIS OR FEMALE DEVOTEES
1. A public Lecturer, Srimati Pandita Mai J ivan Mukut. 2. Shri Maji,

the Recluse of Annandgupha. 3. Prcmi, a young Sadhvi who
embraced Christianity

PAGE

168

194

242

m. -——__-.__‘._..._... .../

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XI

HINDU MONAS'I‘ERIES

PAGE
Monasteries have existed in India. since the earliest times, and are at
present to be found scattered all over the Country—Religious and
Worldly Motives which prompt the Foundation of Monasteries—
Management of Monastic Properties—Monks not expected to labour
in any way—Installation of an Abbot described—A Visit to the
Udasi Akhara of Santokh Das ; the Presence of Women tolerated
there—The Treasures of the place and their History—Respect
entertained by the Sect for Ashes—Interview with another Abbot
who had not a single good word for Sadhus—Visit to a Dharnlsala
of the Nirmali Sect; Sanskrit Literature read and expounded
there—The great Monastery at Jogi Tilla; Interview with the
Abbot ; meet some Acquaintances—A romantic Story associated
with Tilla—Particulars about certain places of Pilgrimage com-
' municated by a talkative itinerant Yogi—Sadhus’ Pa1t1a11ty for

Nudity . . . . . . 248

CHAPTER XII
CONCLUSION
National Ideals of Life as indications of National Character—European
and American Ideals contrasted with that of India—A Life
involving Renunciation regarded by the Hindus as the only
possible Holy Life—Sadhuism in its Religious, Social, Political,

Intellectual, and Industrial Aspects—The p1obable Future of
Sadhuism considered . . . . . 270

INDEX . . . . . . . . . 285

xiii

FIG.

10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

HINDU ASCETICS . . . . . . Frontispz‘ece
A BAIRAGI AND HIS HERMITAGE . . Facing page 42
SADIIUS AT HOME . . . . . ,, 44
AN URDIIAMUKIII SADHU . . . ,, 46
FAQUIR WEIGIITED WITH HEAVY CHAINS . ,, 48
SADHUs IN VARIOUS PRESCRIBED POSTUREs . . ,, 50
HINDU ASCETICS UNDERGOING AUSTERITIES. RE-

PRODUCTION OF AN OLD ILLUSTRATION . . ,, 94
A SOLITARY . . . . . . ,, 100
PROCESSION IN HONOUR OF THE VEILING OF A JAIN

NUN . . . . . . . ,, 150
SANYASIS AT A RELIGIOUS GATHERING . . . ,, 154
A YOGI FROM MIRzAPUR . . . . ,, 186
THE SANYASI BHASKARANANDA OF BENAREs . . ,, 210
A SADIIU OF EUROPEAN DESCENT . . . ,, 222
A SANYASI AND A SANYASIN WITH THEIR COMPANIONS ,, 226
A SADHU 0F PRINCELY LINEAGE . . . ,, 228
A SUN-WORSHIPPING BAIRAGI . . . . ,, 232
THE SADIIVI SRIMATI PANDITA MAI JIVAN MUKUT . ,, 244
THE MONASTERY 0F JOGI TILLA . . . ,, 266

GRAVES OF YOGI MAIIANTS AT BIIAIRON-KA-TIIAN,
NEAR LAHORE . . . . . . ,, 268

XV

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND
SAINTS OF INDIA

 

 

 

 

 

   
    

Early Recollections of Sadhus and Faquirs—They
are and have always been conspicuous Figures
in India—May be seen everywhere wandering
over Plain and Mountain, through Cities and
J ungles — Neither understood nor appreciated
by Europeans — They are 'of various Sects,
hold peculiar Opinions, and indulge in strange
Practices—The very Spirit of the East is
:9 embodied in the Sadhu.

LINGERING in the far background of my memory is a vivid
picture of certain sadhus, and of a winter evening long
years ago on the banks of the sacred Ganges—a picture
which the lapse of over half a century has not been able
to dim, much less to obliterate.

Clear though the picture is, I almost fail at this
distance of time to fully identify myself with it, and yet
I certainly took part in the little episode which is
enshrined in my recollections. With the mind’s eye I
see two children, a girl anda boy, rambling hand in
hand at some distance from their dear old home hard by
the sunny hills of Colgong, and as they wander back
together through the fields in the quickly deepening

A I

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

twilight a feeling of trepidation seems to take possession
of them, for, infants though they are, they know full
well that murderous thugs 1—a fearsome .name in those
days—infested the countryside. Their eyes strain with
anxiety towards the dim outlines of a gigantic banian
tree which serves them as a homeward landmark; but
it seems very far away, and even receding, as a thin
veil of white smoke steals gradually over the landscape
in the rapidly failing twilight. Suddenly two gaunt
sad/ms appear not ten yards off before the astonished
children. So unexpected is their presence, so unaccount-
able the apparition, that it was as if the unwelcome
intruders had sprung up out of the ground beneath their
own feet. Clothed in salmon-coloured robes are these
meagre, sharp-featured smlhus, with clean-shaven heads
and faces. They advance, and with soft words and
insinuating smiles endeavour to entice the startled
children to approach them, offering, with various alluring
promises, to show them the wonderful contents of the
ugly wallets which hang from their shoulders. Good
Lord! how the little boy and girl did race towards the
river when all at once there flashed upon their minds the
horrible suspicion that the men before them might possibly
be villainous {hugs disguised as sad/ms! How rejoiced
were the children to find themselves at last safe amongst
the wondering and sympathetic boatmen on the river
bank, after a breathless run across country, and after
what seemed a hot pursuit, though probably it was so
only in their own excited imaginations!

Belonging to the same early period of my life I recol-
lect well the highly picturesque rocks of Colgong, standing
like bold intruders in the noble river, with the faquir’s
lone hermitage perched amidst their gigantic boulders.
Many tales of wonder were told of the recluse who dwelt
amongst those crags; and when every year, in due season,
the rocks and the hermitage were completely cut off from
the river bank by the mighty flood, roaring, fretting, and

1 The thugs are a secret sect, votaries of the goddess Kali, banded
together for the purpose of robbery by means of cold-blooded assassinations
perpetrated with religious rites and under religious sanctions.

’)

on!

INTRODUCTION

swirling around the unwelcome barrier, the one inhabitant
of those desolate islands, the isolated fagmjr, the solitary
wonder-worker, would become to us little folks an interest-
ing subject of solicitude and childish speculation.

Out of that old India, so different, so remote in every
way from the playground of the present-day winter tourist,
I recall to mind a long journey by palanquin ddlc, a halt
under some shady trees in a straggling thatched village,
an apparently dying infant in my mother’s arms, and a
white-bearded faquir with many strings of beads about
his neck, offering some medicine, contained in a mussel-
shell, which, with Allah’s blessing, would save the child’s
life. I recall to mind also how some hours later the
venerable old man, respectfully but firmly, declined a
handful of rupees, and, indeed, any reward whatever, for
the help which Allah had graciously enabled him to afford
the distressed mother and her sick infant.

Ever since those now far-off days the Indian ascetics
have been to me objects of special curiosity and interest,
not diminished in maturer years by more extensive know-
ledge of them and their strange beliefs, practices, and
pretensions.

Sad/bus are and have always been too conspicuous
figures in India to escape the notice of any intelligent
European traveller in that country—from Megasthenes
to Mark Twain and Pierre Loti—and their accentuated
outward peculiarities have proved so attractive to the
ubiquitous modern camera-man that his photographs and
snapshots reproduced in popular pictorial magazines have
made them, at least in their more uncouth forms, familiar
to the Western world.

Wherever at the present time the tourist in India
may go, he meets sadhus and faqmlrs in the guise of one
or other of the many existing sects, orders, or fraternities.
He comes across them in the busy mart, in the quiet grove
by the river, in the gay and crowded fair, on the lonely
hill track, and in the dense forests, where many perish
miserably, devoured by wild beasts. Indefatigable rovers,
they usually depot linger. long .in . anywone’placej‘bfit'are
ever on themlikeutheingipsy kindred in the West.

3

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

From about November, when the autumn harvest
is gathered and the seed for the spring crop committed
to the soil, till March, when the first-fruits of the year
are ready for the sickle, the Hindus—men, women, and
children—spend much of their time in joyous pilgrimages
to their innumerable sacred places, sometimes hundreds
of miles away from home. Hardly, indeed, could it be
otherwise, for a cloudless sky, a crisp exhilarating atmo-
sphere, and bright genial sunshine call them forth with
a summons that is irresistible. During this period every
year there is a lively and healthy circulation throughout
the land of all ranks and classes, and in these currents of
life a large proportion of the sadlms fully participate,
often moving about from place to place in considerable
parties under leaders and teachers of reputation. And
far beyond the boundaries of their own vast country do
the Hindu ascetics wander, as indeed they have done
since remote antiquity, carrying to distant lands their
subtle speculations about the origin, nature, and destiny of
man and'the universe to which he belongs.

As a rule sad/W8 are cautiously reticent, but they may
occasionally be induced to tell of long wanderings and
strange experiences. I have met some of them in Kashmir
on their way from Puri by the Bay of Bengal to the lone
ice-caves of Amarnath, and it need not be doubted that
men who range the whole Indian Peninsula, as these do,
and wander over the eternal snows of Himalaya, find
food for lofty thought and deep emotion in the mystery
and grandeur of the scenes which often meet their gaze.
Indian poets early appreciated the aesthetic charms of
nature and the soothing calm of solitude; and we may
be sure that even the unsocial sad/m in his journeyings
amongst the giant mountains looks with wondering
admiration upon the vagueness and inscrutability of their
wayward moods, their vast silent snowfields, their whisper-
ing rills, and furious torrents. It is impossible for any
man not to experience an indefinable feeling of elation, of
buoyancy, as he breathes the pure, light, pine-scented air
of the higher mountain ranges, and watches the rising sun
paint with rosy flush the icy pinnacles around him; nor

4

INTRODUCTION

can he avoid a weird sense of complete isolation and utter
helplessness when the cloud-wreaths, surging up from the
valleys, blur and blot out the fair world from view and
wrap surrounding nature in a pall impenetrable to human
vision. But not only do the far-ranging sad/ms commune
with Nature in all her various humours and aspects, their
peregrinations bring them also into touch, in crowded
cities, with their fellow- -men, and, by winning the confidence
of people of all ranks, they become a potent agency for the
circulation of news, true or false, arid the dissemination of
ideas, religious, political, o1 othe1, which might be ferment-
ing in the world with which they come in contact.

Yet though the sad/ms as they may be seen have come
to be familiar to European eyes, theyare rarely understood
by the foreigner, be he temporary visitor or permanent
resident. . Of the beliefs‘ and subtle philOSophical ideas. Of
these men the stranger, as a rule, knows nothing, while
their ill-clad forms, and too often grotesque appearance,
only excite his aversion and unreasoning contempt.

How much, and how deeply, the Indian people have
suffered, for habilitory reasons, in the estimation of
Europeans it would be hard to say; but of this I have
no doubt, that the style of their national dress, and
particularly the extreme scantiness of their garments,
which in most cases hardly pretend to cover the persons
of the wearers, reduce the intellectual and civilised Indians
to the level of naked savages in the eyes of the majority of
the peOple of the West. And the Indian sadlms, frequently
all but nude, and rubbed over with ashes, undoubtedly
incur the amused disdain of Europeans, who commonly look
upon these ascetics as droll fellows or sorry simpletons.

The sadhu, such as he is, is no recent importation, no
modern excrescence, but has been flourishing in India, a
veritable indigenous growth, from a timewf'rich dates marry
centuries before the advent of Christ, or even the preaching
by Buddha of the eightfold path leading to enlightenment
and deliverance. Alexander of Macedon, in his wonderful
march across the plains of the Punjab in the fourth century
B.C., saw, and took an interest in, the Indian sad/m; but
sad/ta'ism in his day was already hoary with antiquity.

5

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

Sad/ms as we find them are of various sects, hold
peculiar opinions, indulge in strange practices, and subject
themselves in many cases to cruel hardships and fantastic
disciplines. They come from all ranks of life and from all
the hereditary castes into which Hindu society is divided.
Amongst them we find all shades of religious opinion and
philosophical Speculation, and dietary habits ranging from
the most fastidious vegetarianism to revolting cannibalism
in the case of the egregious erg/Loris described later on.

Though exceedingly numerous, the Indian sadhus
command the respect and even the superstitious veneration
of the vast multitude of their countrymen, who believe
that they are often, if not always, possessed of almost
unlimited supernatural power for good or evil.

The common proverb, Gerri Kapron sc jogi vzahm ham,
attests the fact that the Indians, quite as much as
Europeans, are well aware that the habit does not make
the monk, and stories to the discredit of the religious
ascetics are current all over India; but they have not
shaken the faith of the people in the sadlms, at any rate
not more than the tales about the gaily immoral behaviour
of the mediaeval monks have injuriously affected the
position of the llomish clergy.

In the ancient legislation of India the sad/Lu bulks
largely, and he has a unique place in the romantic tales of
more recent date. The very spirit of the East is embodied
in the sad/m, and it is perhaps not too much to assert that
he is so important a feature in the life and civilisation of
India that a study of his characteristics and his relations
to the general population will not only afford considerable
light for the comprehension of the Indian people as they
are, and have been since the earliest historic times, but
will also, perhaps, be found to have attractions of an even
wider and more general nature.

CHAPTER I

ASCETICISMI ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

Asceticism a common Feature in all Religious—Ideas underlying Asceticism
———Sinfulness—The Doctrine that Matter is inherently bad—The Belief
that the Human Body is the great Hindrance to the Attainment by the
Soul of its proper Destiny—Ascetic Practices, and the Conditions, geo-
graphical, political, and social, which are most favourable to their ‘—
Adoption by a large Proportion of any Community—The Existence of
such Conditions in India from the earliest up to recent Times.

SCETICISM is a common feature in
all religious systems, and is the
practical expression of certain
definite phases of religious
sentiment and philosophical
speculation. Probably
the earliest promptings
towards ascetic practices
came from a desire of-
self - humiliation before
the Unseen Powers, in ;
order to propitiate them, and to make atonement for
neglected duties,1 and, consequently, in times of great
national troubles, when the protecting gods seem to have ,- ~
turned away in wrath, ascetic practices become more 0
common, widespread, and intense, till sometimes whole
communities seem to be smitten by a mania for self-
abasement, self-imposed hardships, and severe austerities.2

 
  
  

1 The same feeling is manifest in “the Christian idea of self-sacrifice
and the Christian doctrine that it is through such sacrifice that God reveals
Himself in man.”—Caird’s Evolution (y’ Religion, vol. ii. p. 258.

2 The causes which favoured the development of asceticism amongst the
Christians of the primitive Church are well stated in Pressensé’s Ilia-£05m des
T7058 Premiers Siécles, Quatri‘eme Série, pp. 523—39.

7

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

Similar results are also sometimes produced when intense
religious excitement has awakened thrilling expectations,
as in the early Church, when entire congregations, believing
the end of all earthly things to be imminent, gave up their
possessions and retired to the desert to await the second
Advent of the Lord; and as, indeed, that peculiar sect, the
Russian Doukhobors, have done in the broad daylight of
our own time, to the amusement of an unbelieving genera-
tion.

An ardent desire on the part of religious enthusiasts
to imitate the life of the founder of their own religion or
sect, such founder being almost inmriably an ascetic and a
contemner of the things of this world, has also been a potent
influence in originating and perpetuating schemes of life,
or particular practices Which savour of self-denial more or
less rigid.

It would appear that all religions hold that in the
thoughts, desires, and actions of every individual there are
present elements which, unless conquered, modified, or
neutralised in some way or other, disqualify him from
attaining that unending rest or that most desirable beati-
tude in a future state of existence which the world-prophets
have so freely promised mankind. The disqualifying
elements above referred to as hindering the religious in
the realisation of their aspirations, although differing
remarkably in the various cults, may for convenience be
included in the one term sinfulness.

Now, what is the cause of this sinfulness so disastrous
to the highest interests of humanity? That is a question
which has perplexed the ages; but of all the doctrines
which men have propounded in their endeavours to solve
this permanent enigma of existence, probably none has
had more subtle and potent influence than that which holds
that spirit is eternally“ pure and matter inherently bad.

These ideas, of immemhrialua‘n-ti—q‘uity and far-reaching
influence in the East, found their way to Europe in the
early centuries of our era in connection with Manichzeism
and Gnosticism, and though condemned and suppressed by
the Papacy, aided by the strong arm of the secular power, did
not fail to make a deep impression on \Vestern thought.

ASCETICISM: ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

If the doctrine in question be accepted, it is plain that
man’s corporeal frame comes directly under condemnation,
and it also follows that spirit being pure, the flesh and its
lusts are responsible for the sins which man commits.
Hence, for the preservation of the soul and the furtherance
of its aspirations, it is necessary that the body, with its
senses, appetites, and desires, should be kept under restraint,
should be mortified and suppressed; the logical outcome
of this train of reasoning being the ascetic practices so
highly honoured in all the great religious systems.1

By the Hindu speculative theologians, asceticism with
a view to the repression of the animal passions is regarded,
in accordance with their dualistic theories, as a means to
the purification of the mind, such purgation being, as they
say, an essential condition for the attainment of a complete
knowledge of Brahman, with its attendant freedom from
samsara, that is, embodied existence,2 which freedom, we
shall find, is the great aim and object of Hindu religious,
life. And the purification of thc body by ascetic practices is”
also held by Hindu theologians as a necessary condition for
even that temporary communion, in this life, of the human
soul with the Divine Spirit, which is the object of the
ecstatic hope of many a religious man in India.

In the East generally, and in India particularly, man’s
corporeal frame has been for ages considered the great
hindrance to the attainment by spirit of its proper destiny,
whether that destiny be, as the Buddhists teach, a release
from the evils of successive rebirths with ultimate nirvana,
or, as the Hindus hold, direct union with and absorption into
the Universal Spirit. And whatever other views may have
been held, the human body has, under religious zeal, been
sacrificed in almost all countries to the supposed advantage
of the soul; and this suppression of natural desires, often
combined with positive ill-treatment of the body, for

1 True, the Christian Church prescribed penances on other grounds also,
holding that even for sin duly repented of a temporal penalty was still due,
and, in order to afford a means for the satisfaction of this obligation, the
penitential discipline of the Church made provision in the form of fastings,
flagellations, pilgrimages, and fines.

2The Upanishads and Sri Sankara’s Commentary, translated by S.
Sitarama Sastri, B.A., vol. i. especially p. 85.

9

“A

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

spiritual ends, is what We now usually call asceticism,1
though, curiously enough, amongst the Greeks it meant
that abstinence from sensual indulgences which was neces-
sary for the prescrmtion of the body in a fit state for
athletics.

Of those who undergo mortifications, the majority, what-
ever their creed may be, probably confine their austerities
to an occasional fast or a periodical abstinence from par-
ticular kinds of food; but everywhere a minority can be
found of sensitive natures, who, more deeply affected by
world-weariness, and spurred on by the uncontrollable
excitement of intense religious enthusiasm, willingly exhaust
ingenuity in afflicting themselves with cruel pains and
penalties. Early Christian history provides abundant
examples of this latter type; but they are not peculiar to
Christendom, as we shall presently see. Such heroic con-
tempt of pain and pleasure as these extreme ascetics
display commands the wondering attention and respectful
homage of the multitude. ThWWe
objects of veneratign; fame makes itsefiwbusygvith their' '
doings; wonders areTEttributedmto'thEm, and, by a curious
irony, spiritual pride and vanity play no unimportant part
in encouraging religious asceticism. The reason is obvious.
The reputation for sanctity which accompanies self-re-
pression and detachment from .the world brings with it
not only popular admiration, but often so much substantial
power also, that many ambitious men and seekers after
publicity are attracted into the ranks of the ascetics in
order to enjoy these congenial and by no means incon-
siderable advantages.

It happens not infrequently that the spectacle is
presented of the contemporaneous existence of unbounded
luxury and the most austere asceticism; one being the
result of the success of the few, the other of the failure
of the many. In such times the ascetic, the renunciant,

1 Strange as it may seem, sufferinginitselfcomes, in the case ofsome highly
emotional natures, to be regarded as desirable. St. Theresa, for example,
says, “Suffering alone can make life tolerable to me. My greatest desire
is to suffer. Often and often I cry out to God from the depths of my soul,
‘ Either to suffer or to die is all I ask of Thee.’ ”—Joly’s Psychology of the
Sainis, p. 168.

IO

ASCETICISM: ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

becomes the popular ideal of a great man, the guide and
leader of the people, the friend of the poor, and the scornful
contemner of the exalted. In such times the spirit of
asceticism may penetrate into the very highest grades of
society, where it could least be expected to find admission,
though the reasons for this would not be difficult of com-
prehension in most cases, could one but get a glimpse
behind the curtains of private life. For it is not only
discomfiture in the open world-strife that brings men to
despondency; domestic disappointments and the ordinary
disillusionments of life may drive even the rich and highly
placed to seek peace in the retirement of the cloister or
in philosophical resignationconpled with contemptuous in-
difference to worldly advantages.1

Even when dominated by ascetic zeal and the spirit of
self-sacrifice, the majority of men are gregarious in their
instincts. So it happens that many brethren in misfortune,
renouncing the world and what they call its hollow sinful
pleasures, gather together, for mutual improvement and
encouragement, in religious communities, which later on
develop into conventual establishments or monasteries
governed by fixed rules. Hither gravitate the disappointed,
the world-weary. Here in troubled times many seek peace
and protection, and here too a few, attracted by the tran-
quillity of the cenobitic life, come from a sheer love of
God and a desire for silent and constant communion with
Him.

Like other ideas and other sentiments which have for a
time obtained general currency or acceptance, those con-
nected with practical asceticism have a tendency to languish
when the causes which stimulated them into special activity
have died out. But though the spirit of asceticism may
seem at certain flourishing periods of history to be extinct,
it can never be quite so while the tedium of existence
presses upon weary souls, and while sorrow, want, and

1 An interesting Indian instance of this is the poet and Prime Minister
Manaka-Vasagur, who in" the eighth century A.D. gave up his high position
to devote himself in seclusion and penury to the worship of Siva, as the
supreme ruler of the universe. His poems preserved in Southern India. are

said to breathe a true emotional piety—Journal, Royal Asiatic Society,
April 1901, pp. 346—48.

II

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

misery exist in this world. It slumbers, perhaps, but is-
ready to quicken Whenevercircumstances happen which
make the burden of life for the majority too heavy for
patient endurance. In prosperous times the attractions of
the far-off heavens lose something of their force in the
presence of the nearer and more tangible allurements of
the day, but, as soon as the fierce struggle for existence
becomes calamitous to the major portion of any community,
the discomfiture of the many once more revives from its
still warm embers the dormant spirit of asceticism; and
then, new religions, or at least new religious leaders, arise
amongst the wretched and downtrodden, to teach again the
expediency and beauty of the renunciation of all worldly
desires, and to point the way, perhaps a new way, to a
delectable existence beyond the grave. Even the rushing
stream of modern European life has its quiet backwaters
into which the world-weary drift silently and unobserved,
resigning themselves, in dismal monasteries and religious
establishments, to such austerities as they believe will
enhance the heavenly reward to which they look forward
with childlike confidence or timid hope.

Nothing is more certain than that, when individuals or
communities are suffering from Widespread calamities and
great national troubles of whatever nature, their thoughts
turn imploringly towards their gods and longingly towards
heaven, as surely as the magnetic needle seeks the Pole.
For the prosperous this earth has its attractions and its
rewards, but for the unfortunate and downtrodden there
is only the promised hereafter. Hence it is obvious that
religion flourishes best where the conditions of life have
been most unfavourable for the majority. Now, India

has-for_decades of centuries suffered in no slight degree

fiom certain depressing circumstances most conducive to
the production of individual and national despondency.
ReligiOn of the gloomy type has consequently always
flourished there, and with it asceticism also, exaggerated
and intensified by the fact that India is the head-centre
of the doctrine of the eternal antagonism between spirit
and matter.

The most cursory consideration of facts will bear

12

ASCETICI‘SMé ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

out the above statement. Too often, for example, have
the invasion and conquest of the wide open plains of
Northern India proved a comparatively easy operation,
harmful to the dwellers there and baneful even to the
conquerors; for, enervated by an indolent life in those
warm productive valleys, each successful race of invaders
has had to give way before new and more energetic
conquerors, destined in their turn to a similar fate. Again,
vast stretches of level country like those which lie beneath
the mighty Himalayan mountain range are undoubtedly
suited for, are indeed the natural homes of, despotisms,
under which individualism and many of the finer qualities
of men and races get gradually smothered. And despotic
governments, whether native or foreign, have for many.
centuries ruled over these lands. From very early times,
too, a rigid system of hereditary castes was adopted in
India, by which the spheres and occupations of all classes
of the community were strictly defined and enforced,
thereby limiting the ambitions and cramping the energies
of the entire Hindu people.

Geographical and climatic conditions have also favoured
the occurrence, at longer or shorter intervals, of appalling
pestilences and famines ”of stupendous proportions, while,

as the Sanskrit epics cleaily show, for ages dense forests

'and malarial swamps covered a considerable portion of
the land. Under such circumstances it necessarily came
to pass that in the warmth of the steamy plains of India
successive generations of men and women were stimulated
into early maturity and doomed to early decay, afflicted
perpetually with a morbid fatigue both physical and
mental.

It is true we cannot recall details of the prolonged
night of trouble through which the Indian people have
passed, for they have written no history of themselves,
left behind them no chronicles. But this fact itself is
the most impressive, convincing, and pathetic proof of
their state of depression and hopelessness through long
ages, since flourishing nations endued with energy,
buoyed up with hope, and enjoying reasonable liberty,
never fail to hand down to admiring posterity the record

13

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

of their doings; while, on the other hand, in gloomy
periods of stagnation and oppression, not only is the
healthy stimulus to the production of historical writings
absent, but there is also ever present a powerful deterrent
in the dread of offending the oppressors which paralyses
the hand of the would-be historian.

Besides the already noted causes predisposing the
Indians to habits of despondency and religious quietism,
there are others which have also contributed towards
the same end. One of these is the strictly vegetarian
diet of a majority of the people, which diet, even if
always sufiiciently nutritious, would certainly have, in
the course of successive generations, a cumulative tendency
to induce a patient, inaggressive, and probably despondent
habit of mind, with physical indolence and apathy in its
train. Then, again, the Indian people have always had
amongst them in profusion the soporific poppy and the
hemp plant, whose narcotic products were discovered early,
and their drowsy fascinations extensively appreciated.1

Finally, the study of the psychology of the Indian.
people reveals to us that, combined with intellectual
qualities of the highest order, their most striking char-
acteristics are imaginativeness, emotionalism, mysticism,
credulity, religious fervour and impressionability,2 all in
a very exaggerated degree.

1 There is a popular belief that the habit of smoking originated with the
use of tobacco after the discovery of America at the end of the fifteenth
century ; but, whatever may be the fact as regards tobacco, there is ample
evidence to show that the barks and leaves of certain plants, also sawdust
and mushrooms of sorts, as well as opium and hemp, have since remote
antiquity been smoked in the East and Africa, and in Europe too. Some-
times, as in the case of the Seythians described by Herodotus, the smoke
was used simply as a fumigant in a closed tent for producing exhilarating
effects, but more commonly the pipe, with a bowl as we know it, was used,
and, as might have been expected, archaeologists have not failed to obtain
an ample supply of these articles from ancient tumuli and deposits which
date back many centuries—Revue Encyclopc’dz'que, 3rd April 1897.

3 Dr. James Esdaile, so well known in India some fifty or sixty years
ago as a most successful surgical operator under mesmerie influence, came
to the conclusion, after ceitain experiments in Scotland, that only “the
depressing influence of disease will be found to reduce Europeans to the
inipressible condition 01 the nervous system so common among the Eastern
nations. '—Dictzonary of National Biography.

I4

ASCETICISM: ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

To sum up, then, it would appear that, under the
combined influence of the physical, political, and social
conditions referred to, aided powerfully by the intellectual
and'moral peculiarities of the people, a dull stagnation
has been for__ages,the.,unenviable lot of “97771563303 of the
Indian people—a state very conducive to mental depression
and gloomy 'religious speculations, leading naturally to
abnegation and ascetic living, _HQnQe it came to pass
that the ancient lawgiver was able, with a reasonable hope
of success, to model the ordinary life of the Hindu upon
a wide basis of poverty, renunciation, and retirement from
the world. As prescribed in the sacred Shastras of the
Hindus, the ideal life for the three superior castes begins
with mendicancy and ends with asceticism, according
to the following scheme, which divides the ordinary span
of a man’s existence into four well-marked periods.

1. Early youth, which should be passed as a
Brahmachari or religious student living on alms.

2. Manhood, during which period the “twice-born”
man should, as a G’rihasta, devote himself to household
duties and the rearing of a family.

3. Middle age, which should be spent as a Bana-
prastha or forest recluse, with or without one’s wife. In
regard to food, the hermit should restrict himself to the
spontaneous products of the earth obtained by himself,
and should abstain, under all circumstances, from partaking
of'anything grown in towns or the produce of any man’s
labour.

4. The closing period of life, during which final stage
the good Hindu should become a Sanyasi, abandoning all
sensual desires and living by mendicancy on the charity of
others.

This is not the place to discuss what baneful effects
such a scheme for the conduct of individual life, if acted
upon generally, would inevitably produce upon national
character and national resources, and such considerations
would, in all probability, have been of quite insignificant
importance in the eyes of the Hindu lawgiver. Nor need
we pause to estimate the extent to which this ideal scheme of
life has brought about the accepted low standard of comfort

. 15

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

and the extreme simplicity of living in India. But it is
necessary to draw attention to the encouragement and
sanction which the divinely appointed Hindu ideal of
life gives to vizendz'canc‘z/ as well as retirement from the
world, because the inevitable result of this has been that
no Hindu feels ashamed to beg or to abandon the duties
of citizenship at an age when he might be a productive
worker for the general good.1

It has been argued that the ideal scheme of life with
its fourfold division was instituted really in opposition to
sadlzuz'sm, as it postpones the adoption of the ascetic life
to a time when a man would, in ordinary course, be too
feeble to endure all its hardships. But, while it is doubtful
whether there is any truth whatever in this contention,
no unprejudiced person will deny that the scheme itself
countenances and enjoins a system of asceticism of un-
paralleled scope, for it embraces every superior individual
within the pale of Hinduism.

It may be added that the strong restraint which
natural solicitude for the comfortable maintenance of one’s
family would ordinarily exercise upon the decision of. a
parent, husband, son, or brother disposed to abandon his
home, is considerably weakened amongst Hindus by the
co-operative system which prevails amongst them, under
which, in ordinary circumstances, the burden of supporting
the family—this term being understood in a wide sense—
would fall upon and be shared alike by all the male
members thereof. Indeed, this joint system, although not
without its advantages, does undoubtedly encourage un-
profitable idleness, leading in many cases to the adoption
of a life of respectable vagrancy under the convenient
mask of religion.

\Vithout any pretence of an exhaustive analysis of
the various and complex motives which underlie religious
asceticism, I may before concluding this chapter draw
attention to what appear to me to be the more general
reasons which prompt men to ascetic practices: (1) A
desire, which is intensified by-all personal or national

1 “ The Power and Beauty of Beggary ” is the subject of an article by an
Indian journalist in East and "'esl for December 1901 (Bombay).

16

ASCETICISM: ITS O'RIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

troubles, to propitiate the Unseen Powers. (2) A longing
on the part of the intensely religious to follow in the
footsteps of their master, almost invariably an ascetic.
(3) A wish to work out one’s own future salvation, or
emancipation, by conquering the evil inherent in human
nature, 7:.6. the flesh. (4) A yearning to prepare oneself
by purification of mind and body for entering into present
communion with the Divine Being. (5) Despair arising
from disillusionment and from defeat in the battle of life.
And lastly, mere vanity, stimulated by the admiration
. which the multitude" bestow upowthe' ascetic:

I have, I hope, made. it sufficiently clear that the
political and other causes which induce the frame of mind
wherein the above—stated reasons are most operative, have
for ages existed in India in a more than ordinary degree.

What other powerful, and peculiarly Indian, motives
stimulate the ascetic practices of the sadlms will be
mentioned in the next chapter.

CHAPTER II

SOME PECULIAR AND DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS

OF HINDU ASCETICISM

Hindu Idea of the unbounded Power over Nature attainable through Ascetic
Practices—The Rationale of this Notion—Examples of Power acquired
by Asceticism cited from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Siva
Purana, and the Vishnu Purana-—Thc Supreme Being Himself practises
Austerities—Rivalry of Sects gives rise to Legends of Conflicts, based
on successful Ascetic Practices, between rival Leaders—’I‘itanic Con-
ilict between Vasishta and V isvamitra, also between Nanak and the
Siddhas—Hindn Asceticism has usually no relation to Ethics.

0-
l
4.

1?:

‘Sfim'fiamumaa... . ..
, .

:3:
‘l
1
g

“sz

. v'
2-,.

. ‘I.‘
v_ : In!"

 

ENDEAVOURED to show in the last

chapter that asceticism was fostered in
India by causes which have given birth
to similar developments elsewhere, and
that owing to special circumstances,
referred to in some detail, it has
assumeda chronic form in the country
.to...th,enso_uth of the Himalayas. But
there are striking peculiarities about
Hindu asceticism which differentiate
it from that associated with Buddhism,
Christianity, or Islam; and to these
peculiarities, and the motives under-
lying them, I now invite attention.
All the most esteemed sages of
India are believed to have practised
austerities. The great poets, too, even
the more modern ones, such as Tulasi

Das, author of the Hindi Ramayana, and J ayadeva, author
of the Gita-Govinda, were religious devotees and thauma-
turgists of the highest order.1 Martial heroes, and demigods

1 Sknlch 0f the Religious Scots of the Hindus, by Professor H. H. Wilson,

pp. 41—43.

18

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF HINDU ASCETICISM

like Arjuna and Rama, are credited with ascetic practices;
but it is decidedly startling to learn that the gods them-
selves have undergone self-inflicted tortures for the attain-
ment of the objects of their desires. Referring to this
point, the [late Professor Sir Monier Williams wrote as
followszl“ According to Hindu theory, the performance
of penances was like making deposits in the bank of
heaven. By degrees an enormous credit was accumulated
whichpehabled the depositor to draw to the amount of
his savings, without fear of his drafts being refused
payment. The power gained in this way by weak mortals
was so enormous, that gods as well as men were equally
at the mercy of these all but omnipotent ascetics, and
it is remarkable that even the gods are described as
engaging in penances and austerities, in order, it may be
presumed, not to be outdone by human beings. Siva was
so engaged when the god of love shot an arrow at him m2

The genesis of these notions, so extravagant and far-
fetched in appearance, is, I think, susceptible of explanation.
From the accepted doctrine that ascetic practices, by con-
quering the evil tendencies of matter—that is, the flesh,
———purify the imprisoned spirit, and render it fit for re-
union with the Absolute Being, the Hindu thinker might
reasonably argue that as the austerities were increased and
intensified the probability of the wished-for reunion of the
-ascetic’s soul with the Absolute Being would become
greater and greater, and that by virtue of such approaching
reunion the power of the soul over matter and natural
phenomena generally would also grow more and more
effective. This being conceded, the next step would be to
gauge a man’s unknown supernatural powers by his self-
inflicted tortures; and conversely, if one desired superhuman

1 Indian. Epic Poetry, note to p. 4.

2 To the Indian notion of merits hoarded up for future use, a curious
resemblance may be traced in the idea that “the Church possessed a
‘ treasure ’ in the merits of Christ and of the saints and martyrs, from which
‘treasure’ could be drawn upon, from time to time, satisfaction for the
penalties of sin ;” an idea which underlay the Romish practice of granting
indulgences. See Canon Knox Little’s St. Francis of Assisi, chap. viii.
Going a step further, “the friars took upon themselves to distribute the

surplus merit of their order.”—-Social England, by Traill and Mann, vol.
ii. p. 372.

I9

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

power for the accomplishment of any definite object, he
would resort to austerities to gain his end. What a
plentiful crop of extravagant myths and legends could,
and did, spring out of such ideas, is clearly shown in Hindu
literature, which may now be drawn upon for a few typical
examples requisite for the exposition of the subject.

In the Mahabharata it is related of two brothers,
daityas of the race of the great Asura, that they under-
took a course of severe austerities with the momentous
object “of subjugating the three worlds.” They clothed
themselves in the bark of trees, wore matted hair, be--
smeared themselves with dirt from head to foot, and in
solitude, upon the lone mountains, endured the greatest
privations of hunger and thirst. They stood for years on '
their toes, with their arms uplifted and their eyelids wide
open. Not content with these sore penances, they, in
their zeal, cut off pieces of their own flesh and threw
them into the fire. The Vindhya mountains, on which
these determined ascetics had placed themselves, became
heated by the fervour of their austerities, and the gods
beholding their doings, and alarmed for the consequences
that might ensue, did everything in their power to divert
them from the strict observance of their vows. The gods
“tempted the brothers by means of every precious
possession and the most beautiful girls,”1 but without
success. Then the celestials tried “their powers of
illusion,” making it seem to the ascetics that “their sisters,
mothers, wives, and other relatives, with dishevelled hair
and ornaments and robes, were running towards them in
terror, pursued and struck down by a Rakshasa with a
lance in hand. And it seemed that the women implored
the help of the brothers, crying,‘ O, save us ! ’ ” 2

Even this harrowing scene of domestic affliction failed
to shake the constancy of the ascetics to their vows, and

1 Mahabharata—Adi Parva, section ccxi. Babu Protap Chandra Roy’s
translation.

2 This temptation of the earnest ascetic, especially when engaged in severe
austerities, is not confined to Hinduism, instances being easily found in the
history of all the religions of Asiatic origin, not excluding Christianity,
and is an unmistakable indication of the general and widespread belief in
the potency of self-mortifications.

20

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF HINDU ASCETICISM

Brahma was at last obliged to grant them very extensive
powers and privileges, including complete immunity from
danger except at each other’s hands. When these suc-
cessful ascetics returned home they arrayed themselves in
costly robes, wore precious ornaments, “caused the moon
to rise over their city every night,” and from year’s end
to year’s end indulged in continual feasting and every
kind of amusement. Evidently, no thought of sin or ex- ,.
piation nor any regard for virtue entered into, the "
consideration Emit" "in View ' by ' these reso-,
lute‘d'aityai‘brothers. The above story shows clearly the
existence of an underlying idea that the practisers of
austerities, whoever they might be, appropriate energy, as
it were, from some universal store, and that they are thus
strengthened at the expense of the rest. Consequently,
when their voluntary penances exceed certain limits they
become a terror to all other beings. Hence we learn,
Without surprise, that, when one of these dangerous
ascetics eventually met his death, all nature was exceed-
ingly relieved and rejoiced accordingly.

Another story in the same sacred epic tells of a king
who underwent ascetic penances to obtain a child.1 It is
also recorded of a certain monarch that he did the same to
secure the assistance of the god Rudra in the performance
of a great sacrifice.2

One might, the mum} Aurva of the Brighu race, in-
fluenced by a fierce craving for vengeance on account of
some wrongs suffered by his ancestors, subjected himself to
the direst penances for “ the destruction of every creature
in the world,” and was only persuaded to desist from his
terrible purpose by the intercession of the Pitm's or souls
of his forefathers.3

We have also the case of Princess Amvfi. of
Benares, who practised the most terrible austerities for
many years for the destruction of Bhishma, and was gratified
by the god Mahadeva, who promised that in her next life
she should be “a fierce warrior who would destroy the
hated Bhishma. Upon this, that faultless maiden of ,the

1 Mahabharata—Adi Parva, section ccxvii.
21W. section ccxxv. 31bid. section clxxxi.
21

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

fairest complexion, the eldest daughter of the King of
Kaci, procured wood from that forest in the very sight
of those great rishz's, made a large funeral pyre on the
banks of the Yamuna, and having set fire to it, herself
entered that blazing fire with a heart burning with wrath,
uttering the words, ‘I do so for Bhishma’s destruction ! ’ ” 1
The princess was reborn in due course, and, needless to say,
was the instrument of Bhishma’s death.

The Ramayana affords us many instances of exceptional
powers and privileges acquired by ascetic practices. For
example, the ten-headed Bakshasa, Ravana, had, by long
and painful austerities, obtained from Brahma the boon
that neither god nor demon should be able to deprive him
of his life. Protected by this decree of the Creator, the
ten-headed Rakshasa became a terror to the world, but he
had, in his pride, omitted to ask for protection against men.
Taking advantage of this oversight, the god Vishnu be-
came incarnate as Rama, and, after wonderful adventures,
eventually destroyed the troublesome demon-king.

A somewhat similar story is told in the same epic
about the Rakshasa Viradha, who had by his asceticisms
obtained the privilege of being proof against every kind of
weapon. However, he met his fate at the hands of Rama,
who overcame him, not with weapons, but with his fists, and
flung him into a deep pit.

In the Siva Purana there is a story of a dwitya (demon)
named Tarika, who, by voluntarily undergoing eleven dis-
tinct forms or methods of self-mortification, each extend-
ing over a period of one hundred years, so alarmed Indra
and the lesser gods that they went to Brahma to beseech
him to frustrate the ambitious designs of this terrible
ascetic. The Supreme Being had to admit that he could
not resist such austerities, and was constrained to reward
them; but he told his petitioners that, after granting the
boon for which Tarika had inflicted so much sufl‘ering upon
himself, he (Brahma) would devise a plan of ultimately
neutralising the demon’s long labours. What Tarika sought
was, “that he should be unrivalled in strength, and that
no band should slay him, but that of a son of Mahadeva

1 Babu l’rotap Chandra Roy’s translation.
22

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF HINDU ASCETICISM

(the god Siva).” This boon having been conceded, as
indeed it had to be, the demon, in his pride of power,
tyrannised over the lesser gods, and kept the entire
universe in terror, himself feeling perfectly safe, as he
reckoned confidently that the austere Mahadeva would
never be the father of a son. In this, however, he mis-
calculated, and in the fulness of time his destruction was
accomplished.1

The above three legends of Havana, Viradha, and
Tarika, besides being good examples of privileges wrung by
ascetic practices from the reluctant gods, illustrate the
appreciation which the Eastern has always felt for the
crafty overreaching of a dangerous foe.

It is related in the Vishnu Purana2 that a certain
King Uttanapada had two wives, each of whom bore him
a son. One day the king, seated on his throne, was fond-
ling on his knee the son of his favourite wife, while his
other son, Dhruva, a child of only five years of age, who
happened to be present, attempted, quite naturally, to
share the same privilege. The favourite queen, Suruchi,
who was at hand, lectured the little one rather haughtily
on his unbecoming presumptuousness, telling him that the
throne was a fit seat for her son, but certainly not for him.
Abashed and indignant, little Dhruva withdrew to his own
mother’s apartments, and there unburdened his bursting
heart of its feelings of anger and mortification. His dis-
tressed mother tried to console the sulky child, and
recommended, with true Indian feeling, the exercise of
patience and the cultivation of a spirit of contentment;
but Dhruva was too deeply hurt to accept his mother’s
well-meant advice, and, infant though he was, said,
“ Mother, the words that you have addressed to me for
my consolation find no place in a heart that contumely
has broken. I will exert myself to obtain such elevated
rank that it shall be revered by the whole world. Though
I be not born of Suruchi, the beloved of the king, you
shall behold my glory, who am your son. Let Uttama, my
brother, possess the throne given to him by my father; I

1 Moor’s Hindu Pantheon, London, 1810, pp. 51—53.
2 Professor H. H. Wilson’s translation, bk i. ch. xi. and xii.

23

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

wish for no other honours than such as my own actions
shall acquire, such as even my father has not enjoyed.”
Cherishing these aspirations, the very precocious infant
prince, in quest of the highest honour and glory, followed
a course which no European child or man, with a similar
object in view, could dream of entering upon. Dhruva,
who, it will be remembered, was only five years of age,
left the city “and entered an adjoining thicket, where he
saw seven mnnis 1 sitting upon hides of the black antelope.”
Explaining to these holy sages the circumstances which
had drawn him forth from his royal home, and his ardent
wishes for the attainment of a lofty position, he respectfully
asked for their advice. The saints were good enough to
listen to the child, to recommend the worship of Vishnu
and to instruct him in the path he should pursue.
“Prince,” said the rishis, “ thou deservest to hear how the
adoration of Vishnu has been performed by those who have
been devoted to his service. His mind must first be made
to forsake all external impressions, and a man must then
fix it steadily on that being in whom the world is. By
him whose thoughts are thus concentrated on one only
object and wholly filled by it, whose Spirit is firmly under
control, the prayer that we shall repeat to thee is to be
invariably recited: ‘ Om! glory to Vasudeva, whose essence
is divine wisdom, whose form is inscrutable, or is manifest
as Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.’ ” .

To work out his great project, the little prince repaired
to a holy place on the banks of the J umna, and there
followed very carefully the instructions he had received
from the rishis, with the gratifying result that Vishnu
became manifest in his mind. When this occurred, the
earth itself was unable to bear the weight of the diminutive
ascetic. The celestials took alarm, and tried every art to
disturb and distract his meditations, but all their efforts
were ineffectual. Still more alarmed by their want of

1“Mani—a holy sage, a pious and learned person, endowed with more
or less of a divine nature, or having attained to it by rigid abstraction and
mortification. The title is applied to the Tishis, and to a great number of
persons distinguished for their writings considered as inspired, as Panani,
Vyasa, etc.”——Dawson’s Dictionary of Hindu Mythology.

24

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF HINDU ASCETICISM

success, the lesser gods appealed to Vishnu, addressing him
thus: “ God of gods, sovereign of the world, god supreme
and infinite spirit, distressed by the austerities of Dhruva,
we have come to thee for protection. As the moon
increases in his orb day by day, so this youth advances
incessantly towards superhuman power by his devotions.
Terrified by the ascetic practices of the son of Uttanapada,
we have come to thee for succour. Do thou allay the
fervour of his meditations. We know not to what station
he aspires, to the throne of Indra, the regency of the solar
or lunar sphere, or to the sovereignty of riches or of the
deep. Have compassion on us, lord; remove the affliction
from our breasts, divert the son of Uttanapada from per-
severing in his penance.”

To allay the fears of the gods, and for the general good,
Vishnu at last came down to earth in person and granted
the boy ~ascetic’s wish to obtain “an exalted station,
superior to all others, and one that shall endure for ever.”
This ambitious desire was gratified by Dhruva’s exaltation
to the skies, as the pole-star of the visible universe.

This legend differs somewhat from the previous ones,
inasmuch as it brings out very clearly the idea of the
almost unimaginable efficacy of mental abstraction from
human affairs when coupled with profound concentration
of attention upon the Supreme Being alone. This is a
decided modification of the original doctrine, and will be
referred to again.

Myths and legends similar to those already given in
the preceding pages of this chapter may be indefinitely
multiplied, showing that, accordingi the beliefs of the
Hindus, if one ardently coveted anything, the most e ec
“.COQISBLOMMSW rigid austerities, self- denial,
and suffering, till, in spite of the lesser gods, the Supreme-
Being W‘O’iil'd'b'e constrained, by immutable and primordial
laws, to grant the desired boon. But, more than that, we
- also learn that even the Supreme Being,“ the cause of the
creation and its course,’ ’endu1ed, 1n the form of a mimi,
the greatest self-inflicted penances for thousands of years
on the Gandhamadana mountains by the lake l’ushkara
and on the banks of the Saraswati, apparently to obtain

25

 

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

sovereignty over all created things.1 F antastical as these
statements and notions, no doubt, appear to European
apprehension, we may profitably pause to note that if the
Hindu were to point out that a kindred idea seems to be
at the root of the story of the Crucifixion, as well as of the
motive assigned for that astounding voluntary humiliation
on the part of the Deity, it would be impossible for the
unbiassed seeker after truth to deny the validity of the
contention, since in the “cross and passion” of the
Redemption we distinctly find the notion of the efiicacy
of voluntary hardships, poverty, physical suffering, and
death, for the attainment of a great object otherwise 2m-
aehz'evable even by the Deity I‘limself.2

I have no wish to labour this point, but I may in
passing emphasise the fact that it is upon faith in the
efficacy__of__.s_elfrinfli_QlL€dwhardships that -Hindu asceticism,
with its strange and cruel practices and its marvellous
legends of superhuman feats, really rests, and that,
according to Christian doctrine, mankind could not have
been rescued from the Powers of Evil by any other means
than the bitter sufferings and the supreme self-sacrifice of
the second person of the Triune-God.

No doubt, the Hindu has arrived at ideas of asceticism
and its fruits other than those embodied in the legends
cited in the foregoing pages: as, for example, when
Sanatsujata said to Dritarashtra, “The words esteem and
asceticism (practices of munis) can never exist together.
Know that this world is for those that are candidates for
esteem, while the other world is for those that are devoted
to asceticism,”3 the object of the asceticism contemplated
in this passage being spiritual emancipation, not worldly
advancement or the gratification of desires of any kind.
But the value of austerities for the attainment of practical
ends, commendable or the reverse, and the power for good

1 Mahabharata—Vana Parva, section xii. A zinc statuette in the India
Museum, South Kensington, figured in Moor’s Hindu Pantheon, plate 3,
represents the four-headed Brahma as an ascetic with a rosary in one hand,
a mendicant’s water-pot in another, a sacrificial spoon in a third, and
SO 011.

2 The usual accompaniment of temptations is also not wanting.

3 Mahabharata—Udyoga Parva, section xli.

26

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF HINDU ASCETICISM

or evil possessed by the ascetic, are the considerations
connected with asceticism which are most deeply graven
on the Indian mind; and this fact enables us to appreciate
the standpoint from which the Hindu looks up to the
sadha who has practised, or may pretend to have practised,
austerities, as one who might help him to gain his ends,
or, on the other hand, might hurl a curse at him with the
most direful consequences.

Although I should hesitate to aver that the possibility
of attaining power for good or evil has at any time been,
for the majority of sad/ms, the sole inducement for
embracing the ascetic life, yet there can be little doubt
that this possibility has always had a considerable fascina-
tion for Hindus of all classes. But there are, and always
will be, amongst good Hindus, many timid ones, weaker
vessels, who shrink from pain or physical hardships of a
severe kind, and yet long to attain and enjoy the sub-
stantial fruits of asceticism ; and others also, mystics and
dreamers, whose fervent emotionalism would discover a
ready method for the reunion of the soul with the Infinite
Spirit, without necessarily disdaining the possession of the
much-coveted power over man and nature which such
mystic union with the All— —Spirit might involve. A case‘
in point is the Dhruva myth narrated above. But the
aspiratigns_nf the less resolute or more emotional spirits<
find most complete expression in tlgyoga system, —d—escribed
in a Tater chapter, its m_qs_t,salientfeatur.es bemgposturmors
abstraction, and concentration of mind.

Where all believe in the efficacy of ascetic practices
for the attainment of extraordinary powers, it is inevitable
that the rivalry of classes and of sects should be productive
of competing claims for their respective leaders in regard
to superiority in supernatural potency. A characteristic
example of this is the more than titanic old-world conflict
of which Vasishta and Visvamitra . are the heroes, between
whom, says the Mahabharata,1 “there existed a great
enmity, arising from rivalry in austeritics.” At the same
time, since the two men named belonged to the sacerdotal
and warrior castes respectively, their antagonism illustrates

1 Cust’s Original Sanskrit Texts, vol. i. p. 420.
27

 

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

the early and vigorous struggle for supremacy between the
castes they represented.

The marvellous legend of their enmity and warfare
is to be found variously related in both the great Indian
epics, as well as in the Puranas; but only the main out-
lines of the story need be reproduced here. According to
the chroniclers, King V isvamitra had in one of his ordinary
hunting expeditions been entertained very sumptuously
by the Brahman sage Vasishta in his forest hermitage.
Discovering that the hermit was enabled to thus provide
a magnificent feast, and costly presents too, in the midst
of the wilderness, because he was the fortunate possessor
of a wondrous “cow of plenty,” the king became covetous,
and expressed a wish to purchase the animal, ofi’ering no
less than a hundred million cows, or even his entire
kingdom, for her.

Vasishta, however, declined to part with his “cow of
plenty” on any terms whatever

At this unexpected rebuff, Visvamitra was so offended
that he haughtily resolved to exercise his kingly pre-
rogative and forcibly appropriate the object of his cupidity.
But he had miscalculated. The marvellous cow, after a
wonderful colloquy with her master, refused to move,
and, when assailed by the king’s attendants, created out
of her own sweat, urine,’ excrement, etc., such hosts of
strange warriors armed to the teeth that the royal army
could not stand before them. In the battle which took
place one hundred of the king’s sons rushed upon Vasishta,
but were at once reduced to ashes by a blast from the
sage’s mouth. Defeated and humiliated by the Brahman,
the king turned to the only resource open to him, and
resolved to acquire superhuman power by ascetic practices,
solely with a view to an eventual triumph over the Brahman
Vasishta. For this purpose be abandoned his kingdom,
proceeded to the Himalaya mountains, and there for a long
period subjected himself to the severest austerities. As a
consequence, the great god Mahadeva appeared to him,
presented him with celestial weapons, and instructed him
in the use of these terrible instruments of destruction.
Elated with pride, confident in his newly acquired powers,

28

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF HINDU ASCETICISM

and thirsting for vengeance, Visvamitra hurried off to punish
his victorious foe. He burnt down Vasishta’s hermitage, and
drove away, in headlong flight, all the dwellers in that quiet
retreat. But the Brahman sage was not to be overcome
even by the wondrous weapons of the gods. A battle
ensued, and once more was demonstrated the unapproach-
able superiority of the sacerdotal caste, even in the use of
the deadly weapons of war. Visvamitra might now have
been destroyed; but, at the earnest intercession of the
munis, the victorious Brahman stayed his hand and spared
his vanquished enemy. Taught by bitter experience,
Visvamitra now fully realised that only the acquisition of
Brahmanhood could place him on an equality with Vasishta,
and so once more he resorts to that infallible source of
power, austeritz'es. By self-inflicted hardships for a thousand
years he earned a place in the heaven of royal sages, but
was intenselydissatisfled with this reward ; yet, seeing no
other way of attaining his object, he renewed and intensi-
fied his mortifications, which were, however, interrupted by
various episodes, one of them being an exploit on the part
of the royal ascetic in translating to the celestial regions
in his human body one Trisanku, who, banned by the
priesthood, had appealed to Visvamitra for help. It was
a terrific affair this introduction of Trisanku into heaven,
for it was actively opposed by the celestials themselves, and
it was not accomplished until Visvamitra had terrified the
astonished gods by creating new stars and constellations of
stars, and had even threatened, in his rage, that he would
create another god Indra, or leave the world without any
Indra at all. Indeed, the masterful ascetic actually began
to call new gods into being, when the celestials yielded the
point in dispute, and came to terms with him. After this
incidental war against heaven, the royal ascetic renewed
his austerities for a thousand years, when Brahma
announced to him that he had attained the rank of a mm.
By no means contented with this reward, the king con-
tinued his self-inflicted penances, but for a short time fell
into the snares of a lovely nymph of heaven, Menaka by
name, who had been sent down to earth by the celestials
expressly to attract Visvamitra’s attention and spoil his

29

'0.

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

labours. After recovering his self-command and dismissing
the fascinating nymph kindly, the king went through
another course of penances for a thousand years, and at
the end of that period received from Brahma the dignity
of 7ndhdmishi (great M's/ti). He learned from the Supreme
Being that he had not yet acquired that perfect control
over his senses which would entitle him to the exalted
distinction of Brahman-Twin which he coveted and
had striven for. So the indomitable king, and mdhdrishi
now, put himself through a more rigorous course of
austerities, involving the most painful bodily tortures, the
maintaining of absolute silence, and the suspension of
breathing for hundreds of years.

“ As he continued to suspend his breath, smoke issued
from his head, to the great consternation of the three
worlds. The gods, r-ishis, etc., then addressed Brahma.
‘The great 72mm; Visvamitra has been allured and provoked
in various ways, but still advances in his sanctity. If his
wish is not conceded, he will destroy the three worlds by
the force of his austerity. All the regions of the universe
are confounded, no light anywhere shines; all the oceans
are tossed and the mountains crumble, the earth quakes
and the wind blows confusedly. We cannot, O Brahma,

, guarantee that mankind shall not become atheistic. Before

the great and glorious sage of fiery form resolves to destroy
(everything), let him be propitiated.’ ” 1

Accordingly, the gods, headed by Brahma, approached
the mighty ascetic, hailed him as “Bm/wnan-rishi,” and
pronounced a blessing upon him. The Kshatriya king had
thus, by thousands of years of intense mortification and
stern self-discipline, attained the exalted rank of Brahman-
hood. Yet, curiously enough, his special and final hope of
triumphing over Vasishta, for which in fact he had volun-
tarily suffered and endured torments of body and mind
through successive millenniums, was never gratified; for,
through the mediation of the gods, he was eventually
reconciled to his still unvanquished foe.

For us, the noteworthy points of this madly extravagant
legend are: (1) the excellent illustration it affords of the
1 Muir’s Sanskrit Texts, vol. i. p. 409.

30

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF HINDU ASCETICISM

firm faith of the Hindus in asceticism as a means of obtaining
superhuman power of the most astonishing kind; (2) the
all but unapproachable dignity of Brahmanhood, which was
the lesson the Brahman inventors of the story expressly
desired to impress upon their grossly credulous countrymen.

As the above fantastic story relates to mythical events
of an extremely remote past, it might well be thought that
the old world of marvels therein depicted has long ceased
to exist for the Hindu; but, to show that this is not the
case, I shall now outline another legend which purports to
record wonders of quite recent date, arising out of the
pretensions of the modern Silo/L sect, in the person of
its original founder, Baba Nanak (1469—1539 A.D.), as
against the far older sect of the Y ogis}

During a halt in one of those extensive wanderings
which Baba Nanak loved to take in quest of wisdom, his
faithful attendant Mardanah went about collecting fuel
for their d/woncc or smoky fire. Not far from their
temporary camping-ground there apparently lived some of
those perfect Yogis known as Siddhas,2 and, as soon as
Mardanah had got together a small quantity of fuel, one
of these Siddhas came up and wantonly snatched it all
away. Mardanah, deprived of the fruits of his labour,
went back to his august master and related what had
occurred. Nanak, without any exhibition of temper,
immediately produced some fuel out of the folds of his
flowing garments, and with these miraculously acquired
combustibles Mardanah kindled the vesper fires. Baffled
and vexed, the Sicld/Las raised a violent storm. in order to
extinguish Nanak’s dhoonee; but its only effect was to
scatter their own fuel and quench their own hearths.
Notwithstanding their superhuman powers, the Sicld/Las
were now reduced to wandering about to get wood and fire
for themselves; but as Baba Nanak had commanded the

1 Chap. VIII.

2 Siddhas—a class of semi-divine beings of great purity and holiness,
who dwell in the regions of the sky between the earth and the sun. They
are said to be 88,000 in number.—Dawson’s Classical Dictimary of Hindu
illythology, etc.

The Siddhas referred to in the text are some of the eighty-four pmfect
Y 09233 specially venerated by the Y ogi sect described in Chap. VIII.

31

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

spirit or genius of fire to abstain from helping them, in
the end the Siddhas were obliged to come to the Baba
himself, and humbly entreat him to ignite their fuel for
them. However, Nanak would consent to their request
only on condition that Goraknath, their much-venerated
chief, should send him one of his own ear-rings and one
of his wooden shoes, as, presumably, tokens of acknowledg-
ment of defeat. In order to test Nanak further, the
Siddhas, smarting under their discomfiture, asked him to
give them milk there and then. He did so immediately
by merely commanding the water in a well close by to be
converted into milk. The transmutation took place in
obedience to the saint’s behest, the milk thus produced
welling up to the surface.

Nanak’s next miracle in this contest was bringing
water from the Ganges, as the Sidd/Las had challenged him
to provide them with fresh river-water for their morning
bath. Mardanah was sent with a spade to trace a con-
tinuous line from the distant river, and was instructed
not on any account to look back. As he drew the spade
along behind him a stream of water followed it, but,
when he neared the spot where his master was seated,
his curiosity prevailed over his habit of obedience, and,
like Lot’s wife, he turned his head round to look over his
shoulder. The stream which had flowed so far ceased to
advance any farther.

“Now,” said the Siddhas boastfully, “ we shall, by our
own power, cause it to come along,” but their efforts were
all in vain.

Chagrined by these displays of Nanak’s superiority, his
opponents resolved to perform certain marvels of their
own. Some of the Siddhas began to fly about, or make
their deerskins skim through the firmament, like ordinary
denizens of the air. One boastful Siddha would ride on
flames of fire, and another on a bit of a stone wall as if it
were a horse. N anak’s stolid indifference to their displays
of extraordinary power exasperated these thaumaturgists
greatly, and they openly challenged him to do something
similar to the wonders they had shown him, if only for
his own credit’s sake; but the Baba protested that he

32

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF HINDU ASCETICISM

was a humble man, and had nothing startling to show
them, adding, however, that if they would hide themselves,
he would find them wherever they might be.

The Siddhas accepted the guru’s challenge to the
proposed game of hide-and-seek. One of them flew up
into the heavens and hid there, another sought conceal-
ment in the recesses of the far Himalayas, a third secreted
himself in the bowels of the earth; but Nanak soon
found them, one and all, and dragged them forth from
their hiding-places by the scalp-locks which adorned the
crowns of their heads. Then it was N anak’s turn to hide
himself, and that of the others to seek for him. What he
did was to resolve his corporeal frame into its pristine
elements—fire, air, earth, and water—while his soul was
reunited with God. The Siddhas, of course, could not
find the disintegrated guru; but he had told them before
his disappearance how they might get him to come back
if they were unable, as he foresaw they would be, to dis-
cover him. They were to place a small offering at the foot
of the tree where he usually sat, and to pray to'God for
the return of Nanak, when he would reappear. Utterly dis-
comfited, they did so, and the Baba graciously came back.1

There are, in both Hindu and Buddhist story, no
end of similar marvellous contests, which, strange and
whimsical as they may appear to the modern European,
are, after all, only the deliriously extravagant Indian
equivalents of the biblical contests between Moses and
the Egyptian magicians (Ex. vii. 8—12), and between
Elijah and the priests of Baal (1 Kings xviii. 21—40), or
, of the traditional struggle between St. Peter and St. Paul
on the one side and Simon Magus on the other.2 Muslim

1 Janam Sakhee. Guru Angad Sahib received the account from Bala
(another of N anak’s devoted attendants), and had Piramookha to write it
down.

2 In this trial of strength, carried out in the presence of the Roman
Emperor Nero, the test consisted in raising a dead man to life and in putting
to practical proof the claim of the magician that he could fly. In the first
case Simon Magus failed utterly, while the apostles, of course, succeeded.
Then the magician, to prove his power of sustaining himself in the air, leaped
from a high tower, and seemed, for a time, to float in the atmosphere, no

doubt supported by invisible demons; but, eventually overcome by the
superhuman power of the apostles, he fell to the earth, and, being mortally

C 33

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

hagiography also abounds in trials of strength between
rival leaders of the people, attended with striking displays
of miraculous power on the part of the opponents.1 It is
not too much to say that religious literature everywhere
affords examples of appeals to striking works in attestation
of the truth of the mission of the prophet or the holiness
of the saint.2

From the myths and legends cited above, a fair idea
can be formed of the motives which the Hindu mind has
deemed sufficient and proper for the most protracted and
terrible self-mortifications imaginable, and it is also as
clear as day that these motives have no conscious or un-
.conscious.relatioth ethics._ “ A

Moreover, there is no denying the fact that, regarded
from the ordinary standpoint of morals, the celebrated
Hindu sages do not generally command especial admiration
outside the charmed circle of their own countrymen._ This,
naturally enough, the Christian missionary was not slow
to discover. On this subject the Rev. Mr. Ward of
Serampore says——

“These tupushivéés (ascetics) are supposed to have
been the authors of the most ancient of the Hindoo
writings, in some of which, it is admitted, sentiments are
to be found which do honour to human nature. But it is
equally certain that these sages were very little affected

 

injured, died a few days later. This story is told by St. Justin (second
century) and several others amongst the early Christian writers.

It may be added that we learn from tradition that St. Matthew
defeated certain redoubtable magicians in Ethiopia, and that his brother
evangelist, St. John, came out triumphant from a contest with the high
priest of Diana at Ephesus—Lives and Legends of the Erangelists, Apostles,
and other Early Saints, by Mrs. Arthur Bell (George Bell & Sons, 1901).

1 A good example of this is the very wonderful story of Sidi Ikhlef
given in chap. x. of Colonel Trumelet’s Les Saints de Z’Islam.

2 A recent writer says, “ The monkish historians pit their heroes against
each other. W'hat Moschus tells us of orthodox monks is balanced by the
tales of John of Ephesus about the Monophosytes, and Thomas of Marga is
not outdone by either when he recounts the performances of his N estorians.
The monks competed against each other individually, and their achieve- -
ments were boasted of by the adherents of the various parties into which
the later Christological controversies rent the Church.”—The Spirit and
Origin of Christian Monasticism, by James O. Hannay, M.A., pp. 172, 173
(Mcthuen, 1903).

34

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF HINDU ASCETICISM

by these sentiments ; and perhaps the same might be said of
almost all the heathen philosophers. Vushishthu inflicted
on himself incredible acts of severity; but in the midst of
his devotions he became attached to a heavenly courtesan,
and cohabited with her five thousand years. Purashuru,
an ascetic, violated the daughter of a fisherman who was
ferrying him over a river, from which intercourse sprang
the famous Vyasu and the author of the Muhabharutu.
Kupilu, an ascetic, reduced King Sagurus’ sixty thousand
sons to ashes, because they mistook him for a horse-stealer.
Brigoo, in a fit of passion, kicked the god Vishnoo in the
breast. Richeeku, for the sake of subsistence, sold his
son for a human sacrifice. Doorvasa, a sage, was so
addicted to anger that he was a terror both to gods and
men. Ourvvu, another sage, in a fit of anger destroyed
the whole race of Hoihuyu with fire from his mouth, and
Doovasa did the same to the whole posterity of Krishnu.
Javalee, an ascetic, stands charged with stealing cow’s
flesh at a sacrifice: when the beef was sought for, the
saint, to avoid detection, turned it into onions; and hence
onions are forbidden to the Hindoos. The Pooranus,
indeed, abound with accounts of the crimes of these saints,
so famous for their religious austerities: anger and lust
seem to have been their predominant vices.” 1

Ward’s indictment of the rishis partakes of the obvious,

yet the Christian missionary, while right as to his facts,

has entirely failed to understand the mental constitution; .
of the pantheistic Hindu, and has consequently been unable s
to appreciate the exalted position of the successful asceticl’

as compared both with his fellow-men and celestial beings”

or to perceive his complete enfranchisement from ethicalf

laws which might be binding upon ordinary humanity. ‘
These points will become clear as we proceed.

1 A View of the History, Literature, and Religion of the Hindus, pp. 286,

287. Mr. Ward’s spelling of the Sanskrit names has been retained, although
it differs much from the modern style.

35

CHAPTER III

SADHUS BEFORE THE PUBLIC AT FAIRS AND ELSEWHERE

Sadhus as seen at Fairs—Their Dress—Sect Marks and their Explanation—
Hairdressing—Rosaries—Various Ornaments and their Significance—
Sadhus’ Alms-bowls, Tongs, Arm-rests, Charas-pipes, Bhang-mortars,
etc.—Hermitages—Ascetic Practices of various Kinds and Degrees—
Minor Asceticisms—Posturings—Strange Purificatory Rites.

1“

 

the vast army of
sadlms who roam
about India, either
alone or with com-
panions, not many
have any settled
home. There are, it
is true, scattered all
over the country, sub-
stantial monasteries,
but these afford only
temporary abodes, and,
so far as I know, are
available as residences
only to a privileged
few, who have some

hereditary claim or pecuniary interest in the establish-

ment.

As a rule, the sadlms adopt a life of easy, irresponsible
indolence and mendicancy. Their calendar of fairs and
festivals is comprehensive and accurate. They know well
how to time their devious wanderings so as to make them
fit in with the festal events of each locality within their
usual annual round of pilgrimages to sacred places, where,
on all important occasions, they congregate in hosts, and

36

SADHUS BEFORE THE PUBLIC AT FAIRS

where they may be studied to advantage as regards the
peculiarities of their costume and external appearance
generally.

Leaving out of account, for the present, the thoughts,
motives, beliefs, hopes, and aspirations of the sad/ms, let
us take a superficial survey of these interesting repre-
sentatives of Indian mysticism, as they appear at, say, a
great religious gathering on the Ganges.

Amidst the bustle of the fair, amongst the moving
crowd of ordinary pilgrims and cheerful holiday-makers,
in the flying dust and round about the booths and
tents, may be seen quaint figures robed in peculiar
salmon-coloured garments. These are usually sadhns,
salmon-colour .being the prevailing though not universal
tint of the raiment worn by such Hindu ascetics as care
at all about clothing themselves, even in the somewhat
scanty fashion of Brahmanic India. It is not, however,
always on foot that the sadhus are to be seen. Some-
times they appear in more lordly fashion, borne aloft
on the backs of tall elephants in company with, or in
attendance upon, the abbot of some considerable
monastery or the high priest of some important
temple. .
A great number of sadhus discard all attire but the
scantiest of rags; and amidst so much nudity one is not
surprised to find that in their case the skin, for its mere
protection from the sun’s rays and insect pests, is usually
rubbed over with ashes, prepared by some ascetics with
the greatest care, being sifted repeatedly through folds of
cotton cloth till quite as impalpable as any toilet powder.
The application of this greyish-white powder to a dark
skin gives a peculiar effect, which, I believe, is not without
attractiveness in Indian eyes.1 "

Wherever many sad/ms congregate, close inspectio‘K
will soon reveal the fact that on their foreheads and noses
most of them have white or coloured marks, neatly painted.
Some have symbols also depicted on the breast and arms.

1 Some folk-lorists suggest that Indian ascetics rub their bodies over
with dust and ashes because these substances are potent scarers of demons.
—W. Crookes, Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India, pp. 29,30.

37

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

The tila/ss, or films, as the forehead marks are called, may
not be beauty spots, but they are worth looking at, for
they serve as insignia of different sects. For example, one
sadhu bears on his forehead the tm’fala, three lines drawn
upwards from near the meeting of the eyebrows, the central
line red, and the outer ones white, this being the sect
mark of the Ramats. The red line is painted with rolz',
a preparation of turmeric and lime, the white lines with
gopichcmdana, a calcareous clay procured from Dwarka out
of a pool in which, according to the Krishna legend, the
frail gopz's (milkmaids) drowned themselves in despair
upon hearing of the death of their lover, the divine
Krishna. The triple lines of the trifala are not without
significance, being emblematic of the three gods of the
Hindu triad, the central line representing Vishnu, and
those on the right and left respectively Siva and Brahma.1
Thus the trz’fala suggests and recalls to mind not only the
Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer, but also, at the
same time, the amours of the gay god Krishna on the
banks of the Yamuna.

If for the red line in the trifala a black one (painted
with charcoal from incense offered to Narayana) appears
on a sadlm’s forehead, he is one of the peculiar sect of
the .Madhac'cwharis.

Again the tripundm, three lines along the forehead
from side to side, painted with m’buti or sacred ashes,
distinguishes the Sivaite followers of Sankaracharya.
“The 1(0sz (extreme salstas) usually betray their cult by
painting their foreheads with vermilion dissolved in oil.
The Dalshinachmis have generally an mdhapmzdm, or
perpendicular streak, in the central part of the forehead,
the colouring material being either a paste of sandalwood
or a solution in ghi of charcoal obtained from a ham
fire.”2

More examples of sect marks need not be given now;
but it is necessary to state that such 'marks are not

1 That other interpretations of the trifala are also offered, and accepted,
need not surprise 11s. V z'de Mr. C. \V. King's The Gnostz'cs and their
Remains, p. 301.

2 Dr. J. N. Bhattacharjee, Hindu Castes and Sccts, pp. 411, 412.

38

SADHUS BEFORE THE PUBLIC AT FAIRS

peculiar to professed sadhus, and appear also on the fore-
heads of Hindus who have not abandoned secular life.

One has only to look in the most casual way at an
assemblage of sadltus to find out that amongst them some
have their hair braided and coiled upon the anterior part
of the crown of the head, and that others have their
matted locks loose and shaggy. Men who wear their hair
coiled up carefully upon the head are, irrespective of sect,
called j/tuttarlarees; those who wear their hair falling in
disorder about the face, bhoureeahs. This latter style is
adopted by a great number of monks, who, if we may
judge by appearances, evidently desire to give themselves
a forbidding and formidable look. 1

Shaven pates may also be seen wherever Hindu
ascetics, particularly of the more advanced orders, con-
gregate.

Most sadlms wear strings of beads about their necks
or carry rosaries in their hands, reminding one that it was
from the East, probably during the time of the Crusades,
that Christendom borrowed these aids to devotion. From
the nature of the prayer-beads worn by them it is usually
easy to distinguish between the followers of the gods
Vishnu and Siva respectively, according as they favour
beads of the holy basil wood (ocymum sanctum) or the
rough berries of the rudraksha tree (eloeocarpus ganitrus).
If they wear two necklaces made of the wood of the basil
plant (the tulsi or tulasi of the Indians), they are probably
of the sect of the Swami Narayanis, who worship Krishna
(Vishnu) and also his mistress Radha.

It has been stated by the late Sir Monier Williams2
and others, that the rosary Q'apa-mdla or muttering Chaplet)
of the votary of Siva consists of 32 or 64 rudraksha berries,

1 “Magistrates in Northern India are often troubled by people who
announce their intention of ‘letting their hair grow’ at someone whom
they desire to injure. This, if one can judge by the manifest terror
exhibited by the person against whom this rite is directed, must be a very
stringent form of coercion. For the same reason ascetics wear their hair
loose and keep it uncut, as Samson did ; and the same idea probably accounts
for the rites of ceremonial shaving of youths, and of the mourners after
death.”—\V. Crookes, Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India,
i. 239.

2 Modern India—Art : Indian Rosaries.

39

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

and that the follower of Vishnu affects one of 108 beads
of basil wood. But, as I have seen rudraksha rosaries of
108 berries, I presume the rule referred to is not very
closely observed.1
The sad/tus’ self-adornment is not restricted to neck-
laces and rosaries. Some of them wear phallic emblems
depending from the neck by woollen threads, or fastened
on the arms. A few have small bells attached to their
arms. Others wear great ear-rings. Armlets of iron,
brass, or copper may also be seen adorning these ascetics.
Necklaces of little stones glitter on the throats of a small
number. Occasionally one may be met having his hair
embellished with a metallic substance called swamna males/z,
golden fly). Again one has a conch shell tied on to his
wrist, and another various quaint figures and devices,
painted, or even branded, on his arms.2
“What very queer, eccentric, and barbarous attempts

at beautification!” says the European, with a contemptuous
smile, as he takes stock of these strange-looking philosophers.
Yet, quaint and simple as their adornments undoubtedly
are, the sarllms have evident pride in them; and with good
reason too, for to them and to their fellows they are, like
the palm-leaf in the hand of the Christian friar returned
from Palestine, and like the different pewter medals with

1 In the discussion which followed the reading of a paper by the Rev.
Herbert Thurston, S.J., before the Society of Arts on “The History of
the Rosary in all Countries,” Sir George Birdwood said, “Nothing can be
simpler than the art of the Hindu rosary, the Saiva rosary of 84 beads and
the Vaishnava of 108; but when you learn that the sacred number 84
(chaurasi) is made up of the number of the 12 signs of the zodiac, multiplied
by the number of the 7 planets; and that the sacred number 108 is simi-
larly made up, the moon being counted as three—the rising, full, and waning
moon—instead of one, then you understand that every Hindu rosary sym-
bolises the whole circuit of the hosts of heaven; and this knowledge
henceforth transligures them in your eyes. He was satisfied from the
numbers of the beads strung on them, and their mode of division, in 12
groups of 7, that the earliest Christian rosaries, like the Baudha and
Islamitic rosaries, were originally derived from the rosaries of the Hindus.”
—J0urnal of the Society of Arts, 21st February 1902, p. 275.

3 “It appears, however, that stamping the mark with a hot iron is
commonly in use in the Dekhin. A similar practice seems to have been
known to the early Christians, and baptizing with fire was stamping the

cross on the forehead with a hot iron.”—Professor Wilson’s Religious Scots
of the Hindus, footnote, 1). 28.

4o

SADHUS BEFORE THE PUBLIC AT FAIRS

which the mediaeval visitors to celebrated shrines adorned
their hats and dresses,1 precious souvenirs and legible signs
of holy pilgrimages accomplished by plain and mountain.
Those rude armlets of iron, brass, and c0pper recall to
mind and are well-known badges of visits to the lofty
Himalayan monasteries of Pasupatinath, Kedarnath, and
Badrinath. The necklace of little gleaming stones and
the “golden flies” tell of far wanderings to the shrine of
Kali at Hingalaj in distant Beluchistan ; the white conch
shell on the wrist indicates a pilgrimage to Rameshwar in
the' far south; and the symbolical marks branded con-
spicuously upon the arm may be the evidence of the
favour of Krishna obtained by a visit to Dwarka by the
sea, where the incarnated god ruled in the olden days.2

Having renounced the world, the Hindu ascetics have
reduced their belongings to a minimum; yet being human,
they have not been able to cast everything aside. As
wandering mendicants depending for their daily food upon
the charity of their fellow-countrymen, and often traversing
long distances in the course of their annual tourings, most
of them, though not all, have in practice recognised the
necessity of possessing an alms-bowl and a water-pot.
These consist of, perhaps, a mere cocoanut-shell or a
calabash, but in many instances the shell, if examined, will
be found provided with a lid, a handle, and a spout; the
gourd will also present evidences of improvement, being
cut into a convenient shape for easy carriage, while brass
imitations of the gourd will not be uncommon. Some
taste, too, is often displayed in adorning these very homely
vessels.

Amongst many races iron is believed to have the
virtue of soaring away demons and evil spirits; it is
certainly both friend and foe to evil-doers. As a protection
against more substantial enemies than wicked spirits—wild
beasts, for example—the iron fire-tongs to be found in the

1Social England, edited by H. D. Traill and J. S. Mann, vol. ii.
pp. 374, 375.

2 Marking or branding the body with the Vishnu symbols is known as
bhajana. Amongst the early Christians, many branded the name of Christ
upon their foreheads.

41

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

possession of a majority of these ascetics ought to be
effective, since in many cases they are so exaggerated in
both size and weight as to become formidable weapons
in strong hands,1 especially when they happen to have
been sharpened along the edges.

Amongst the sadhu’s impedimenta will be noticed tau-
staves used as chin-rests and arm-rests, known as ba'img-zms,2
of different sorts, adapted to the various positions favoured
by the contemplator when silently engaged in his profound
and pious meditations. I understand that occasionally one
of these bairaguns may conceal a sharp dagger. I have
not myself come across any of this dangerous kind, but
have no reason whatever to doubt their existence, especially
when I call to mind that even the crucifix itself (the
crucifix of Crema) has been sacrilegiously used as a
receptacle for a cruel and treacherous poniard.3

As narcotic drugs are in favour with Hindu ascetics,
charas-smokers amongst them will naturally have their
e/Lillums (pipes) stowed away somewhere about their persons ;
and confirmed bhang-drinkers will not find a stone mortar
and wooden pestle too burdensome, even when wayfaring.
It would be an interesting philosophical study to endeavour
to trace the influence of these powerful narcotics on the
minds and bodies of the itinerant monks who habitually
use them. We may be sure that these hemp drugs, known
since very early times in the East, are not irresponsible for
some of its wild dreamings,4 whilst there is good reason to
believe that they have often given the user protection from
malarial and other diseases.

Diminutive idols in stone and metal or pictorial re-
presentations of the deities will be found in the miniature
chapels which some sadhus set up when they halt for a
while at any convenient spot; and, along with the idols

1 Vide initial letter, Chap. VII. Section II.

2 An arm-rest is used as the initial letter of Chap. VIII. Section II.

3 Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, by John Addington Symonds,
vol. i. pp. 219—21.

‘ The Christian missionary sarcastically remarks, “A great number of
Hindu modern saints live in a state of perpetual intoxication, and call this
stupefaction, which arises from smoking intoxicating herbs, fixing the mind
on God.”—Ward’s Hind-us, p. 283.

42

 

A BAIRAGI AND HIS HERMITAGE.

FIG. 1, To face page 42.

SADHUS BEFORE THE PUBLIC AT FAIRS

and pictures, various objects specially associated with the
divinities in the holy legends of Hinduism. Of course the
gods and the sacred objects present will, in each case,
depend upon the particular sadhu’s sect, his beliefs and
preferences. In this connection it may be mentioned that
amongst Swims the following are likely to be found: a
lingam, a human skull, a tiger’s skin, a trisula or trident,
and a dame'ru or drum. Among Vaislmavas may be looked
for the saligmm stone (a kind of ammonite), the tulas'i
plant, the conch shell (sankha), and the discus (chakm),
emblematic of the sun.

Sadlms vary their extensive peregrinations by halts,
often very long ones, especially when old age is creeping
insidiously upon them and long journeys become fatiguing
and distasteful. A hermitage of some sort by the river-
side, or a cool place in the shade of a spreading peepul or
banian tree near a temple, may be the sadhu’s quiet home
for months or even years. Here, on the selected spot, he
maintains in the open air the wood fire, whose soft smoke,
most useful in keeping off mosquitoes and other trouble-
some insects, seems an indispensable accompaniment, as
well as an outward and visible sign, of the sadhu’s abode.
Here he usually sets up a tiny altar to his favourite or
tutelar deity, and is himself visited regularly by the religious
who wish to earn merit by charity to holy men. Persons
desirous of securing his good offices for the attainment of
more definite worldly ends also find their way to his
hermitage, and here he lives on the alms of the neighbour-
hood till his own caprice, or inexorable death, puts a period
to the sojourn. Whether resting or on the march, sardines--
who are strict observers of the rules of the order or sect
they belong to would have their time well occupied from
sunrise to sunset in the performance of the many detailed
ritualistic duties and exercises prescribed for them; and as
most of the present-day ascetics are ignorant men, rarely
under the direct control of any superior, they usually
neglect or curtail their ceremonial obligations, or, at any
rate, discharge them quite perfunctorily.

The illustrations (Figs. 1 and 2) will give a fair idea
of the hermitages of Indian sad/ms, which, picturesque

43

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

though they may be, a1e ceitainly not comfortable, and
could be habitable only 1n a warm climate.

To account f01 his long rest at the foot of the peepul
tree (Ficus vclig'iosa) wherbe he had established himself, the
man depicted in Fig. 1, a sadlm of the Bairagi order, informed
me that he had come there in obedience to a gracious
summons from the goddess Devi, whose temple was alongside,
and that he would move on when the divinity, of her good
pleasure, should direct him in a vision, as before, to leave
the place. Within his shed he had installed an image of
Rama Chandra, before which he was enabled, through the
kindness of friends and admirers, to heap up every day a
small pile of rose petals. Outside, as the illustration
shows, there lies a rather suspicious-looking bottle, while
the hermit himself is seen busy grinding, in a stone mortar,
some dried leaves of the hemp plant (cannabis Indica)
preparatory to infusion in' cold water, in order to enjoy his
favourite appetiser and intoxicant bhang.

Of the men in the group, Fig. 2, the one with averted
face was not actuated by any feeling of modesty or
self-depreciation from facing the camera. He joined the
others casually while the instrument was being adjusted,
and, when asked to assume a suitable attitude, pompously
replied that be obeyed no man’s behests, recognising no
master save Rama Chandra. It required some little
persuasion on the part of his brother sadhus to induce him
even to take up the ungracious and ungraceful pose in
which he was photographed. He might, perhaps, have
been a shady character wanted by the police, and might
have actedas he did for prudential reasons, or, which
is quite as probable, his rudeness may have been due
merely to an objection to be photographed, on the ground
that any likeness taken carries away with it some virtue
from the original—possibly a portion of the living soul——
this being by no means an uncommon superstition.

Lay Hindus are often subjected by the Brahmans
to penances for offences such as the ill-treatment or
killing of a cow, or for some other equally serious breach
of the ethical or ceremonial law. And occasionally sad/ms,
for reasons of their own already indicated, voluntarily

44

 

k.

HOMI

SADII US AT

To face page 44.

FIG. 2.

SADHUS BEFORE THE PUBLIC AT FAIRS

undergo inconveniences, pains, and even terrible tortures.
In doing so they follow the traditiOnal path, and do not
exercise any special ingenuity in the invention of methods
of self-torment.

One favourite mode of mortifying the flesh is to sit
under the open canopy of heaven girt about with five
small fires.1 Sometimes only four fires are lighted, the
sun overhead being regarded as the fifth one; and an
intolerable fire he is, too, on a cloudless summer day
in the plains of India. As a rule this arrangement is
devoid of sincerity, and is indeed a mere performance or
show. Yet the fires, insignificant though they be, serve
the very practical object of advertising the sad/m and
attracting admirers and clients. Sadhus who follow this
practice are known as panchadhnnis.

Another way of afflicting and subduing the body is
to sit and sleep on a bed of spikes. I have even seen a
sad/m’s wooden shoes bristling inside with a close crop
of pointed nails. That the discomfort in such cases due
to the constant contact of acute spikes with some portion
or other of the almost naked body is real, there can be
little doubt, but it need not be very injurious to health.
Referring, in connection with this practice, to Bhishma,
one of the heroes of the Mahabharata, Mr. W. Crookes
writes: “To the Hindu nowadays he is chiefly known
by the tragic circumstances of his death. He was
covered all over by the innumerable arrows discharged at
him by Arjuna, and when he fell from his chariot he was
upheld from the ground by the arrows and lay on a couch
of darts. This sara-sayya or ‘arrow-bed’ of Bhishma
is probably the origin of the kantaka—sayya or ‘thorn-
couch’ of some modern Bairagis, who lie and sleep on a
couch studded with nails.”2 To the discredit of human
nature it must be admitted that deceptions and impostures
even in asceticism are unfortunately inevitable. An
Indian gentleman, not, however, too favourably disposed
towards the ascetics, assured me that he once found out
that a sadhu whose practice it was to sit in public on

1 For illustrations of this and [other forms of asceticism 'vide Frontispiece.
2 The Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India, vol. i. p. 92.
45

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

spikes had cunningly taken the precaution to protect his
buttocks with thin iron plates so artfully made with irre-
gular surface as to deceive almost any onlooker into the
belief that his flesh was being pitted by the cruel points.

There are sadhus—thamsm’ they are called—who
will stand leaning on some kind of rest for days or weeks
together, with what painful fatigue and hardship it is easy
to imagine. Occasionally in this form of self-torture only
one leg is used, the other being drawn up.

A prominent feature in the ascetic practices of some
saclhus is hanging head downwards suspended from the
bough of a tree or a suitable framework, for perhaps half
an hour at a time. Such sadhus are known as urdhamukhi,
Fig. 3, but must be exceedingly rare, as I have come across
only a single example of this class, described later on in
Chap. IX.

Severer forms of voluntary torture are also known,
as when a man ties his arm to a support such as a light
bamboo, so as to keep it erect overhead, till, at last, the
disused limb, reduced to a shrunken and rigid condition,
refuses to be lowered again to its natural position. When
both arms are so dealt with, the subject becomes a help-
less cripple entirely dependent for everything upon the
kindness of others. Sad/ms who practise this form of
austerity are known as urdhabahus. A modification of
the last-mentioned practice is the closing of the hand till
it becomes useless and the long nails grow like curving
talons from the cramped and atrophied fingers, or even
find their way through the flesh between the metacarpal
bones of the hand.

Burying alive, or performing samadh as it is called,
is a very rare yet well-known practice amongst Hindu
religious devotees. The period of inhumation may be from
a few days to five or six weeks, and, if the buried man
lives out the fixed time, he emerges from his temporary
grave an undOubted saint and an object of popular venera-
tion eVer afterwards. The advantages in view are great
enough to tempt the more ambitious sadhu; but samadh
is attended with the‘.gravest risks, even when undertaken
by cunning and designing impostors for their own

. 46

 

 

Photo]

FIG. 3.

AN

URDHAMUKHI

[A. J. Combridge & Co., Bombay.

t'AJJllU.

To face page 46.

 

 

SADHUS BEFORE THE PUBLIC AT FAIRS

glorification and profit. Two recent instances, both
ending fatally, are described by Sir Monier Williams in
his Modem India. (pp. 50—5 3).

A well-known and well-authenticated instance of a
samadh lasting forty days and ending satisfactorily is the
case of the yogi Haridas in the time of Ranjit Singh of
the Punjab 1 (A.D. 1792—1839).

Great hardship attends what is known as the ashtaiiga
danddwat, or prostration of the body, involving the per-
formance: of a pilgrimage by a slow and most laborious
mode of progression,——in fact, the application of eight parts
of the body—the forehead, breast, hands, knees, and insteps
—to the ground. The vower determines to traverse the
distance to his destination, a shrine or some noted place of
pilgrimage, by prostrating himself full length on the road,
then crawling along till his heels touch the spot where his
forehead last rested, then prostrating himself again, and so
on, with repetitions on repetitions, till his goal is reached.
The performance savours of great humility, and is not con-
fined to short distances. I once met a youthful sadliu at
Burdwan in Bengal, on the Grand Trunk Road of Northern
India, moving in this leech-like fashion from Juggernaut
to Benares, a distance of about six hundred miles, and I
have heard of pilgrims thus measuring, as it were, their
toilsome way towards the sacred source of the Ganges,
amongst the eternal snows of the Himalayas, pursuing for
months, and even years, with patient courage a journey
almost impossible of accomplishment in such inhospitable
regions under the imposed conditions.2

There are others also who climb the mighty Himalayas,
not to visit the source of the Ganges, but to reach the far-
off heavens beyond. In the olden time, so the story goes,
King Yudhisthera, weary of life and its disappointments,
journeyed towards Mount Meru, and, after many painful
vicissitudes on the way, arrived at the celestial mountain,

1 Described after Dr. Honigberger in my Indian Life, Religious and
Social (T. Fisher Unwin), pp. 28-30.

2 It is a curious fact that ashtanga. is sometimes undertaken simply with
the object of collecting money for a daughter’s dowry. I came across an
instance of this kind in December 1898.

47

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

and was finally admitted into swarga, the abode of bliss ,1
and ever since then many a sadha has resolutely directed
his footsteps towards the same goal, has gone alone upon
the same great journey across the rugged mountains, and
has not tamed back.

Fasting is too obvious a penance to have been over-
looked by sadlms as a means of macerating the body; and
abstinence, combined with vigils and meditations, carried to
excess, must in many cases have led amongst them to those
hallucinations and ecstasies of an enfeebled constitution
which are as familiar in the history of the saints of
Christendom as in that of other Asiatic religions.

Vows of silence are not uncommon, and, however trying
in the observance, may be very convenient under easily
conceivable circumstances.

Once only I made the acquaintance of an ascetic who
had afflicted himself by loading his person with massive
iron chains, weighing in the aggregate about five hundred
pounds, and he was a Muhammadan. On the opposite
page is a photograph (Fig. 4) of this man, to whom I shall
refer again in a later chapter.

Sadhas sometimes mutilate themselves cruelly, as one
did, to my knowledge, in an ungovernable fit of temper.
His deserted wife had followed him to a great gathering
of ascetics, and, in the hearing of many, entreated him to
return home with her. A few of the ascetics within ear-
shot made jeering observations in regard to the new sadhu
and his predicament, which stung him into a fever of rage,
to be cooled only by the sharp edge of a knife and a
dangerous hzemorrhage. I learned subsequently that the
case was by no means an unusual one.2

1 The story is retold from the Mahabharata in my Great Indian Epics

(1899), pp. 194, 195.
2 Self-mutilation prompted by religious fanaticism is not even now a

thing of the past in Christian Europe. As an example, I may cite the
following instance recorded in the Daily Mail of 7th May 1901.

FANATICAL SELF-MUTILATION

(From our own Correspondent).

ST. PETERSBURG, Friday, 3rd May.

Ivan Plotnikofl', a peasant, twenty-eight years of age, residing at
Bielovodsk, in the government of Kharkolf, called at the public library there

48

 

'f

r; “M“. n W. x

.. av.“

 

A FAQI‘IR “‘EIUIITED \\'l1‘lI HEAVY (‘1I;\]NS.
Io faca page H.

FIG. 4.

SADHUS BEFORE THE PUBLIC AT FAIRS

At certain periods of the year, particularly in the
month of April, many men of the lower castes observe
temporarily the discipline of the ascetic sects, and may
then be seen to cheerfully undergo self-inflicted tortures
of a cruel kind, as, for example, passing thick metal skewers
through the tongue, the cheeks, or the skin of the arms,
the neck, and the sides,1 walking upon live charcoal, and
rolling upon thorns. Amongst the motives most commonly
ascribed to these temporary low-caste ascetics are the
gratification of vanity and the desire for the pecuniary gain
which their pmformanccs usually bring them; but there
can be no doubt that many of them hope, and look for,
other and less obvious rewards for their self-inflicted
sufferings.

Not to all men is it given to submit voluntarily to the
more trying austerities, and therefore, as might have been
expected, we find a number of minor asceticisms indulged
in for the sake of attracting attention and perhaps gaining
some pecuniary advantage. For example, a sadlm whom I
saw at a religious festival, a big and powerful fellow, had
a strong wooden framework erected to support a huge
earthenware jar provided with a perforation at the bottom,
from which a stream of water could flow out. Round about
there were at least twenty-five large pots of water, to
replenish the great jar when in use. Under the jar the

and asked for a book which would teach him “to live in truth,” as he
expressed himself. He was given the Holy Gospel. A few days afterwards
a rumour spread about the place that Plotnikoff had cut off his hand.

When Plotnikoff had read in the Gospel that popular text, “ And if thy
right eye offend thee, pluck it out ” (Matt. v. 29), he took it in a literal
sense, and, being in a state of exaltation, decided then and there to proceed
with the operation of removing his own cye. Not finding, however, an awl
with which he could do it, he got hold of an axe, and with remarkable cool-
ness began to chop the wrist of his hand, which he cut off after the fourth
blow.

Plotnikofi' is now lying in the Starobielsky Hospital, whither he went
on foot. It is amazing that he could manage to walk a distance of about
fifteen or twenty miles after having lost so much blood.

1 These piercings, although very real, and seemingly cruel, do not, I must
admit, appear to be attended with serious inconvenience. I have always
seen them carried out by a master upon his chelas or disciples, and on every
occasion the impression I received at the time was that the chelas were under
hypnotic influence—an idea strengthened by my knowledge of the fact that
practical hypnotism is not a new thing in India.

D 49

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

sadliu was in the habit of sitting during the night, par-
ticularly in the small hours, from about three o’clock till
daybreak, with a stream of water falling on his head and
flowing down over his person to the ground. It was winter
time, and very cold work no doubt, but the sad/Lu had his
reward in gratified vanity; for in the eyes of his numerous
admirers he was Siva himself with the Ganges falling from
heaven upon his head and flowing thence to bless and
fertilise the earth.1 This man, on account of his peculiar
ascetic practice, would be known as a jaladhara tapas/ii.
Sadhus who sit all night immersed in water are called
jalas/iayi, but, as my night wanderings have not been very
extensive, I have not seen any of these peculiar nocturnal
soakers.

‘ i I once came across a sad/Lu, or pseudo-sadliu, who
would put pieces of live charcoal into his mouth and chew
them, pretending that they were savoury morsels and his
usual food. He was an agriculturist and an ignorant
fellow, whose only claim to notice was this stupidpractice.
There are some ascetics who pretend to live only on wheat
bran, others who give out that the water they drink is
invariably mixed with wood ashes. Some of these cases
are merely instances of deprcwed appetite of a kind not
unknown in the West. Some sad/ins there are (known as
farari) who eat fruits and nothing else, others (dudhahari)
who subsist on milk alone, while those known as almia
never eat salt with their food.

. Amongst the devices for attracting attention which
take the form of self-inflicted penances, all are not so
innocuous or unobjectionable as the ones just referred to.
For example, lusty fellows often go about affecting to
keep a restraint upon their sexual desires by mechanical
arrangements which they do not conceal. A sect given
to this practice is noticed by Professor H. H. Wilson under
the name of 7mm lingia2 On the other hand, certain
sadlius (Bairagis) are credited with effectually keeping their
desires under control by subjecting themselves to a cruel

1 The story of the descent of the Ganges, reproduced from the Ramayana,
is given in my Great Indian Epics (1899), pp. 87—90.
2 Religious Seals of the Hindus, p. 151.

50

5m. 23% Bax oh. .m. .35

.mmmpamom QHmHmoflfia mpogzfl' VA wbdflfim

 

 

 

 

 

 

SADHUS BEFORE THE PUBLIC AT FAIRS

discipline entirely destructive of particular nerves and
muscles of the body.1

As aids to meditation, possibly also in some cases as
means for the mortification of the flesh, a great number of
asans, or postures, with such fantastic names as, for in-
stance, the paclma dean or lotus posture, have been devised.‘2
Some of them are really very difficult contortions, only to
be acquired by a long and painful apprenticeship to the
art, as will be readily understood from a consideration of
the attitudes of the sadhus in Fig. 5.

This chapter cannot be closed without a reference to
certain purificatory rites, which are practised by some
sadhas: for example——

1. Drawing a thread through the mouth and one of
the nostrils, with the object of cleansing the nasal fossae:
this process is called net?) kamn.

2. Swallowing a long strip of cloth, and after it has
reached the stomach drawing it out again: this process of
cleaning out the stomach is dhoti lemma.

3. Cleaning the throat with a long brush called Brahma
datan.

Two purificatory processes known as brajolri leav'm and
ganesh [orig/a are, to say the least, so peculiar that I will
not particularise them beyond stating that the'latter is a
process of flushing the colon without instrumental aids.
I only allude to these practices, in order to lay stress on
the fact that the cleansing of all the reachable interior
portions of the body seems to have been nothing short of
a mania with some sectarians in India.

le'ndu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies, by the Abbé J. N. Dubois,
part ii. chap. xxxiii.

2 There are dsans and dsans known to the Indian people, and they are not
all connected with sadhm'sm nor with religious practices; many of them

quite the reverse. A book descriptive of these latter exists, but it is, I
believe, on the Index libroram prohibitorum of the Indian police.

SI

CHAPTER IV

THE \VONDERS THAT PRESENT-DAY SADHUS AND
FAQUIRS ARE SAID TO PERFORM

Visionists like the Sanyasi Ramakrishna—Sadhus to some extent what the
Magicians and Necromancers have elsewhere been—Tales and Anecdotes
of the Wonders performed by Sadhus and of Calamities brought on
or averted by them—Transniutation of Metals by Sadhus—rStory of
Muslim Thaumaturgist who was the Disciple of a Sadhu—Claims of
Superiority over Sadhus made by Faquirs—Strange Treatment of a.
Faquir by a co-Religionist—Sadhus as Physicians, Palmists, Fortune-
tellers, and Acrobats.

M O N G S T the
Indian ascetics
of our day there
are some—like
t h e h i g h I y
emotional and
tearful Bengali
Sang/(£373 Rama-
krishna,1 subject
to hysteria,
trances, and

‘ , .. .. ' . . catalepsy—who

3..., Egg. ~"j; : see visions, are

' . ' "'5' believed to have
been favoured
with personal

'lu'\\ N

 

1,,

5/; visits from the

if: very gods and
at...“ .. r goddesses them-
~?}::"~‘"P .- _ .. .. selves, and are

uo.->.{-«__..:;: reputed to be

1 Of this sadhu, who died in 1886, a good deal has recently been heard both
in Europe and America. Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings, by Professor
Max Muller.

52

WONDERS SADHUS AND FAQUIRS PERFORM

able to work miracles, though indisposed to do so, thinking
that such performances are hindrances in the way to per-
fection. But apart from such neurotic saints, who always
excite attention and sometimes found new sects, every
Hindu knows that, though not nearly so powerful as the
ancient risk-is, whose fame has grown with the centuries,
many sad/ms do, even in our degenerate days, work
wonders, and these not always of a beneficent kind.
What the magician is, or has been, in other countries,
that, to some extent, is the sadhu in India. Elsewhere
the necromancer and the witch have been in antagonism
with, and under the ban of, the hierarchy, but in India the
ecclesiastical mantle has proved elastic enough to cover
even some sorcerers, though certainly not all.

The Christian Church has always admitted, on biblical
authority, the existence of wizards and witches. It has
abhorred their dread power, and, when the vengeance of
Heaven did not directly overtake them for their deeds,1
persecuted them to the death, in obedience to the divine
command, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Ex.
xxii. 18; Lev. xx. 27):

Medizeval history is painfully blurred with the smoke
of the penal fires which attest the zeal of the Church in
the suppression of witchcraft, whose successes were
attributed to diabolical agency; but in India, since the
earliest times, magic and sorcery, however much dreaded,
have not been without a certain acknowledged respecta-
bility. 5

Of course there has been in India the inevitable rivalry
between the hereditary priesthood and the lay professors
of witchcraft, but the Brahmans, with their wonderful
faculty of adaptation to circumstances, themselves adopted,
at a very early date, the role of sorcerers (as the Atharva
Veda amply proves), and by so doing have inevitably,

1 The wicked, if we may believe the chroniclers, were sometimes visited with
the vengeance of God in a startling manner. For example: “Matilda was
a great and potent witch, whose summons the devil was bound to obey.
One day she aspired, alone of all her sex, to say mass; but when the
moment came for sacring the elements, a thunderbolt fell from the clear sky

and reduced her to ashes.”—,S'kclchcs and Studies in Italy and Greece, by J.
A. Symonds, ii. 179.

53

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

though unintentionally, dignified the calling of the lay
magician; since spells for the attainment of much which is
elsewhere stigmatised as base, immoral, and impious have
not been excluded from the sacred canon of the Hindus.

“Even witchcraft,” says Mr. Bloomfield, “is part of the
Hindu’s religion; it has penetrated and become intimately
blended with the holiest Vedic rites; the broad current
of popular religion and superstition has infiltrated itself
through numberless channels into the higher religion that
is presented by the Brahman priests, and it may be
presumed that the priests were neither able to cleanse
their own religious beliefs from the mass of folk-belief with
which it was surrounded, nor is it at all likely that they
found it in their interest to do so.” 1

What the sad/m is credited with doing or being able to
do, what the people think of him as a wonder-worker and a
person capable of signally and very unpleasantly resenting
any disrespect from worldlings, will be apparent from the
following characteristic little stories picked up in my
wanderings in India.

In the Deccan a certain sardar, or chief, who openly
expressed disbelief in the existence of bhuts (goblins) was
assured by a sadlm that they really did exist. The sardar
wanted some tangible evidence in proof of this assertion, so
the sadhu offered to give the sceptic ocular demonstration
of the truth of his statement, on condition of his receiv-
ing one hundred rupees for his trouble. The offer was
accepted. A lonely spot in the jungle was selected for the
exhibition. Here, at midnight, the sardar and two or
three of his friends, together with the sadlm, assembled
within a space ringed in with a conspicuous line traced on
the ground. Outside this boundary or magic circle no one
was to move on pain of death or the most serious trouble.
When all were seated and were peering anxiously into the
darkness which surrounded them, the sad/Lu kept repeating
his mantras (spells), till, 10! in the mirk, at the distance
of a musket-shot, there appeared a lot of fantastic bald-
headed urchins, jumping about with lighted pieces of wood

1 Introduction (pp. xlv, xlvi) to Bloomfield’s translation of the Atharva
Veda—Sacred Books of the East, vol. xlii.

54

WONDERS SADHUS AND FAQUIRS PERFORM

in their hands. In a little while, however, the capering
bhuts all disappeared. Even after this demonstration the
sardar was sceptical, and challenged the sadhu to reproduce
his uncanny sprites again. The wise man excused himself;
but, in consideration of the present of a valuable gold Iczm'a
(bracelet), repeated the performance the following night.
On this second occasion the imps of darkness who appeared
were girl-binds, and instead of lighted sticks carried lighted
chamghs (terra-cotta lamps) in their hands. These they
waved about in the darkness, but no inducements could
make them approach the spectators within the enchanted
enclosure nearer than the distance of a musket—shot.
Needless to add that, as my informant, a learned pundit,
assured me, the sardar’s scepticism on the important
subject of the existence of goblins was entirely dispelled
by this second demonstration.

The following extract from an Anglo-Indian newspaper
will serve as another example of what is currently re-
ported about sadlms in our time.

“EXTRAORDINARY TALE or A J OGI.

“ The orthodox Hindus of Trevandrum, a correspondent
writes to a Southern contemporary, have lately been much
excited about a jogi or sanyasi who for some time past has
been literally worshipped and reverenced as a god come
down to men. N 0 one appears to know where this man came
from, or to what particular race or caste he belongs ; but he
was supposed to be a Hindu. On his arrival he sat under
a banyan tree, on the northern bank of the Padmatheertham
tank, and there he remained for three years. For the first
week or so after he had taken up his arboreal residence, he
partook of some milk or a plantain or two twice or three
times a week. Then he gradually extended the intervals,
till after three or four months he took no food at all, spoke
to no one, and passed his time huddled up before a fire
night and day for three long years. He looked no one in
the face; he heeded no sounds, no question, nothing. The
Maharajah of Travancore on one occasion stopped near the
sanyasz' and addressed him, without, however, obtaining the

55

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

slightest recognition. Exposed to the cold and wet, to the
heat and dust, the sanyas'i, without partaking a morsel of
food, passed his three years’ existence in divine contempla-
tion, and, although every morning and evening numbers of
people paid him homage, he appeared oblivious of all
external circumstances. A few days ago he died.”—
Civil and Military Gazette, Lahore, 23rd April 1895.

Calamities are often due to sadlms. For example,
a serious- and extensive fire broke out one night in June
1899 in a bazaar at Amritsar, causing great loss of
property and of a few lives too. It appears a sadhu
had been asking for alms from one shop to another in this
bazaar. The luhatri merchants, puffed up with the pride
of wealth, repelled him with sharp words, one of them
saying to him, “ You are dressed grandly enough! why
do you pester me for pica ? ”

Now the sad/m was robed in a new sheet which some
liberal person, most likely a woman, had kindly presented
to him. Irritated by the mahajun’s (merchant’s) taunts,
he removed the cloth from his shoulders, and, having
procured a bit of fire, deliberately burnt the offending
sheet to ashes in the open street, and then went his way.
Hardly had the mendicant sad/m disappeared from the
scene of his operations when flames broke out in the shop
of the merchant who had affronted him. Realising at
once that the calamity was the result of the sad/Lia’s
displeasure, the Matri merchant hurriedly despatched
messengers in all directions to find the offended man,
in order that he might propitiate him if possible; but. the
saint was not ~30 be discovered anywheregso the shop
of the niggardly bmmc’bah and those of his immediate
neighbours were all‘buront down to 'the'ground.'

The person who kindly put me in possession'of these
interesting facts narrated to me also another story of a
past generation, one likewise connected with Amritsar and
well known to his own father, who, at the time to which
it relates, was himself a dweller in that city.

A. sad/Lu, as is not unusual with these gentlemen,
entreated a pansciri (druggist or herbalist) to give him the

56

WONDERS SADHUS AND FAQUIRS PERFORM

wherewithal to have a good smoke of his favourite charas.
“I am on fire,” pleaded the sadhu, “do give me a little
charas to cool my tortured body.” “Go and burn,” was
the sh0pkeeper’s churlish reply. “No,” responded the
enraged sad/m, “let the fire seize you! ” and he left the
spot in anger. Within a minute of his departure the
druggist found his store on fire, and, realising that this
calamity was due to the holy sadhu’s curse, made no vain
attempt to combat the flames, but ran hurriedly after the
saint in order to appease his wrath. He found the object
of his search in a crowded thoroughfare, and, falling prone
at his feet, entreated him to extinguish the flames he had
caused. Promising never to refuse a sadhu’s request
again, the distressed pansdri humbly begged the offended
mendicant’s pardon, adding, “Come, maharaj, let me give
you the charas now.” Mollified by the attentions of the
druggist, the sadhu said to him, “Your shop will be
burnt down—that is inevitable now; but as you have
humbled yourself before me, and are sorry for your unkind
treatment of a poor sadhu, you may go your way with the
comforting assurance that the fire will redound to your
advantage.” Relieved of all anxiety by those gracious
words, in which he placed the most implicit confidence,
the druggist went back to his store and watched with a
contented heart the fire doing its work of destruction—
though, as the shop with its contents disappeared in the
flames, he was sorely puzzled to imagine where his
promised luck was to come from. However, the mystery
was soon cleared up. On inspecting what little remained
of the gutted premises, a mass of hot and almost molten
silver was discovered, to the great joy of the pansdri. How
it came there was not difficult of explanation. It seems
the druggist had a considerable quantity of solder in his
store. This, during the intense heat of the conflagra-
tion, had been acted upon by some drug or combination
of drugs also present there, with the happy result that the
cheap solder had been transmuted into fine silver.

Not only trifling and temporary but even widespread
and permanent troubles may be caused by the curse of
an offended sadhu. To believers in these things it is a

57

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

matter of common knowledge that the scanty water-supply
in one of the cities of Upper India—Umballah, if I
remember rightly—is the result of the curse of a
wandering faqm'v'. He had gone from house to house
asking for a drop of water. No one had attended to his
modest request. One, indeed, had said, by way of excuse,
“I have only a little water for my own use.” The
faqzm, knowing the statement to be quite untrue, became
incensed and immediately uttered this malediction, “Little
water shall you henceforth have in the wells of your city!”
and the curse was duly fulfilled.

How very advantageous such stories must be to the
wandering sacllms in their peregrinations does not need to
be pointed out.

Beneficent actions are also, though rarely, connected
with sadhus. ,One case came under my own observation.

When in 1898 the bubonic plague made its appear-
ance in the J ullundar district of the Punjab, and the
precautionary measures of the sanitary authorities, much
more than the fell disease itself, created a great excitement
and anxiety amongst the people, a saclhu of the sect of
the yogis came to Amritsar and established himself near
a great tank outside the city. He let it be known,
through his followers, that the object of his visit was to
avert the dreaded pestilence, and to this end he called
upon the religious and charitable to afford him the means
of carrying out that most meritorious of actions, feasting
the poor. An account of my visit to this worthy yogi
will be found in a later chapter, but I may mention here
that, so far as I know, the plague did not appear in
Amritsar that year, though one doubtful and subsequently
discredited case was reported to the officials.

The transmutation of metals, alluded to in the story
about the herbalist on a previous page, is one of those
mysterious subjects which still fascinate the Oriental
mind. A learned Hindu related to me, in all good faith,
the following experiences of one of his intimate friends and
a sadhu-alchemist.

This friend, when a young man, was most anxious to
become a sad/m, and attached himself to a Bairagi who

58

WONDERS SADHUS AND FAQUIRS PERFORM

had come from the solitudes of the Himalayas beyond
Hurdwar and Rikhikesh. The sadhu seemed a very
holy man, and the youth waited assiduously upon him.
At last the sadhu noticed him so far as to hand him a
piece of silver, giving him at the same time instructions
to sell the bullion and buy what was necessary for their
food. From time to time he intrusted the boy with bits
of uncoined silver in this way, only requiring him to bring
back, with the purchased food-stuffs, some copper coins.
The regular supply of silver never failed, and at last the
boy’s curiosity was aroused to such a degree that he
ventured to ask the gum where the treasure came from.
The sadhu thus questioned smiled and said, “There is only
one man in Hindustan who is my superior. I am a
Rajah, but he, indeed, is a Maharajah. I can manufacture
silver out of copper; but he can convert silver into gold.”

The boy was all eagerness to learn this valuable art,
with its glittering possibilities of future pleasures, but his
ardour was rebuked by the guru, who told him he was not
yet morally fit to be admitted to so great a secret—one
indeed so fraught with mischief if intrusted to an unworthy
man, that it had better be lost entirely than revealed to
such a one.

The youth’s humble and assiduous attentions to the
sadhu did not flag, but never having been allowed to sleep
in or near the master’s abode, probably because it was in
the hours of darkness that the transmutations were effected,
he had to shift for himself in the town; and one unfortu-
nate night, tempted by the meretricious charms of a loose
woman, he committed a very grave indiscretion. When
he presented himself next morning before the sadlm, he
was promptly and peremptorily ordered to go away. It was
useless to attempt any concealment from the omniscient ,
sadhu, so the youth begged earnestly for forgiveness; but
the sadhu spurned his unworthy disciple, and With his
own hand set fire to the little hut which had afforded him
temporary shelter and contained all his worldly possessions.
Carrying his huge chimpta (tongs) in his hand, which had
been sharpened along the edges so that it might make a
very formidable weapon, the alchemist strode away towards

59

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

the abode of the eternal snows. The chcla ventured to
follow him for a while, but the Bairagi, looking back, threat-
ened him with his keen—edged tongs, and the fallen youth
thought it prudent to retrace his steps, haunted more than
ever with an unsatisfied craving to know the great sccrct of
making silver out of baser metal.

A granthi 1 told me of an equally unfruitful experience
he had with a gold-making Nirmali sadlm. This man
made friends with the granthi, and insinuated himself into
his confidence. He first cautiously hinted, and afterwards
revealed, under the seal of secrecy, that he was acquainted
with the occult art of transmuting metals. The granthz‘,
notwithstanding his scriptural knowledge and semi-sacerdotal
functions, was much excited at finding that his new friend
was a potent alchemist, and he felt the bonds between
them strengthen; for, after all, this sort of man is not to
be picked up in a day’s journey. The transmuter of metals
seemed to live very well, yet occasionally borrowed money,
showing special favour to the gmnthi in this matter; for
he had no hesitation in placing himself under temporary
obligations to his most confidential friend. And, of course,
it was all right; he was a gold-maker, and, when his
arrangements were matured, would resume his profitable
business, and, better still, teach the grant/ml the secrets of
his mysterious art. One day the sad/m showed the granthi
a common bronze double price, or half-anna coin, and then
in his presence put it into a small furnace along with
various leaves and roots he had collected. After an hour
or so he produced from his crucible a golden fac-simile of
the double picc. The granthi, not to be taken in even by
his dear friend, asked to be allowed to have it tested by a
goldsmith. Permission was given and acted upon, with the
result that the experts in the bazaar pronounced it gold of
the purest quality. The grantlml was now agog to learn
the important secret of gold-making, and many were the
rupees he willingly lent the sad/m, in the hope that he
would accept him as a pupil. But the saintly man of
science suddenly and unexpectedly decamped.

“Alas!” said the granthi after he had narrated these

1 One learned in the Scriptures of the Sikh sect.

6.0

WONDERS SADHUS AND FAQUIRS PERFORM

circumstances to me, “ I lost more than sixty rupees through
that impostor. I have since learnt how be fooled me, but
never a N irmali sad/Lu has, since those days, had so much

as a drop of water from my hand I ” '

Some thirty years ago, or thereabouts, Calcutta knew
and took much interest in one Hassan Khan, who had the
reputation of being a great wonder-worker, though I believe
only in one particular line, and his story may be fitly re-
corded here, as it was through the favour and initiation
of a Hindu sadhu that this Muhammadan acquired the
peculiar and very remarkable powers attributed to him.

Several European friends of mine had been personally
acquainted with Hassan Khan, and witnessed his perform-
ances in their own homes. It is directly from these gentle-
men, and not from Indian sources, that I derived the details
which I now reproduce.

Hassan Khan was not a professional wizard, nor even
a performer, but he could be persuaded on occasion to
display to a small circle his peculiar powers, and this with-
out any pecuniary reward. For example, he would call
upon any person present at such a meeting to ask for some
ordinary wine, and on .the particular one being named
would request him to put his hand under the table, or
maybe behind a door, and, lo! a bottle of the wished-for
wine, with the label of some well-known Calcutta firm,
would be thrust into the extended hand.

Similarly he would produce articles of food, such as
biscuits or cakes, and cigars too, enough for the assembled
company. On a certain occasion, so I was informed by
one who was present, the supply of comestibles seemed to
be exhausted. Several members seated round the table
raised a laugh against Hassan Khan, and jeeringly challenged
him to produce a bottle of champagne. Much agitated
and stammering badly—he always had an impediment in
his speech—Hassan Khan went into the verandah, and in
angry tones commanded some unseen agent to bring the
champagne at once. He had to repeat his orders two or
three times, when, hurtling through the air, came the re-
quired bottle. It struck the magician on the chest with

force, and, falling to the floor, broke into a thousand pieces.
61

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

“There,” said Hassan Khan, much excited, “I have
shown my power, but I have enraged my djinn by my im-
portunities.”

A European friend of mine happened to travel, quite
casually, in a railway carriage with Hassan Khan, and,
having some acquaintance with him, asked him to produce
something to drink.

“ Put your hand out of the Window,” said the Muslim,
while the train was travelling along.

His request was complied with, and a bottle of excellent
wine thrust into the outstretched hand rewarded this slight
exertion.

Another of my friends, exceedingly anxious to learn
the modus opemndi of these strange performances, took a
special interest in Hassan Khan, and with this important
object in view cultivated his society. Driving on one
occasion along with him in the bazaar, the wizard expressed
a wish to alight at the shop of a money-changer. The
carriage was stopped, and Hassan Khan, attended by his
companion, asked the money-changer if he had any sover-
eigns. An affirmative answer being given, he requested
that they should be produced, and, when they were brought
out of the money—changer’s strong box, Hassan Khan, after
asking the price at which they might be purchased (for in
those days their value had not been fixed by law), thought-
fully passed the gold coins through his fingers, saying he
would call for them on the morrow, if he could not make
a better bargain elsewhere. The following morning he
went to the shop, attended as before by my friend—but
only to learn that the sovereigns which he had seen and
handled the day before had all mysteriously disappeared
after being placed in the strong box. Hassan Khan
affected to disbelieve the story, but, as he did so, slyly cast
so significant a glance at his companion, that the latter
prudently resolved never to be seen in such suspicious
company again.

Yet this incident only put a keener edge upon Mr.
’s curiosity, and he assiduously plied Hassan Khan
with questions till he obtained from him the following

story, for the sake of which, more than anything else, I
62

 

WONDERS SADHUS AND FAQUIRS PERFORM

have set forth in this narrative particulars which, if
correctly reported, are seemingly quite incredible, and
possibly not explicable by even the cleverest legerde-
mainists. However, not having witnessed the Muslim’s
strange performances myself, and not being a wizard, I
leave the matter without further comment, to pass on to
the story of how Hassan Khan acquired the wondrous
powers with which he was credited.

“ When I was a mere lad,” said this remarkable man,
“ there came one day to my native village a gaunt sad/Lu
with matted locks and altogether repulsive aspect. The
boys crowded round him and mocked him, but I re-
proved their rudeness, telling them that they should
respect a holy man, even though a Hindu. The sad/m
observed me closely, and later on we met frequently, for
he took up his abode in the village for some little time.
On my part I seemed to be drawn towards the strange
man, and visited him as often as I could. One day he
offered to confer on me an important secret power, if
I would follow his instructions faithfully and implicitly.
'I promised to do whatever might be required of me, and
under the sadhu’s directions commenced a system of
discipline with fasting which lasted many, perhaps forty,
days. My instructor taught me to repeat many mystic
spells and incantations, and, after imposing a very strict
fast, commanded me to enter a dark cavern in the hillside
and tell him what I saw there. With much trepidation
I obeyed his behests, and returned with the information
that the only thing visible to me in the gloom was a
huge flaming eye. ‘That is well—success has been
achieved,’ was the sad/W’s remark, and I began wondering
what power I had acquired. Pointing to some stones
lying about, the sad/Lu made me make a particular
mystical sign upon each one. I did so. ‘ Now go home,’
said my mentor, ‘shut the door of your room, and
command your familiar to bring these stones to you.’
Away I went, in a state of nervous excitement, and,
locking myself in my chamber, commanded the unseen
dji'nn to bring those stones to me at once. Hardly had

my mandate been uttered, when, to my amazement and
63

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

secret terror, the stones lay at my feet. ’I went back
and told the sadliu of my success. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘you
have a power which you can exercise over everything
upon which you can make the mystical sign I have taught
you, but use your power with discretion, for my gift
is qualified by the fact that, do what you will, the things,
whatever they may be, acquired through your familiar
spirit, cannot be accumulated by you, but must soon pass
out of your hands.’ And the sadlm’s words have been veri-
fied in my life, and his gift has not been an unmixed bless-
ing, for my (ljiim resents my power, and has often tried to
harm me; but happily his time is not yet come.”

This explanation brings out very clearly the high
esteem in which the occult powers of the sadlius are
still held even by Muslims, since a follower of Islam
could be found to acknowledge, voluntarily, that his own
remarkable thaumaturgic abilities were conferred upon him
by a Hindu religious mendicant.

But the Indian Muhammadan, as becomes a member
of a once dominant race, usually loves to claim superiority
even on this ground.

A Mussulman, speaking to me on the subject, admitted
that the Hindu sad/ms, by their austerities and peculiar
practices, acquire a strange mastery over the forces of
nature. “But,” said he, “they are never able to enter
the Divine Presence, unless by the favour of a faquii'.”
Persons well acquainted with such matters had told him that
on one occasion a sadhu flying through the air recognised,
by the aroma which filled the atmosphere, the proximity
of some great faquir. He stayed his flight, alighted on
the ground, but was unable to approach the Muslim saint,
about whom was diffused, although invisible, the glory
of the Almighty. The sad/m sent word to the faquir
that he would like to meet him, but that he could not
pass beyond the threshold of the baithak, or saloon
where visitors were received, for he perceived that God
Himself was there.

“Come!” said the fag/air confidently, and under his
protection the sadhu was able to approach. When the

two ascetics met, the Muslim recognised in his visitor a
64

WONDERS SADHUS AND FAQUIRS PERFORM

worthy kindred spirit, and imparted to him freely ,the
grace of God which he (the sadlm) had not been able to
acquire by all his penances and ceremonies. I

There is a widespread belief that when the faqm'?’
is mast (mad, or in an ecstatic condition) he is under the
influence of the Divine Spirit, and that what he then
gives utterance to is of the greatest significance. Very
strange, indeed, are some of the practices of which this
belief has been the parent. When, as is usual, the mast
,faqm’r is reticent and will not speak the word that is
wanted of him, one inquirer will strive to gain his favour
by patient service and constant attendance, while another,
more impulsive and imperious, will try to bully the good
man to answer his questions. It came to my knowledge
that a native police constable went to a well-known
faqmlr to browbeat him into promising something which
he wanted; but the fagm’r would not be hectored, so the
enraged constable, accustomed to take the law into his
own hands, struck the holy man a blow with a stout
stick. The faguiv', thus assaulted, only said, “You are
a whim I ” (a tyrant, an oppressor), and not another word.
On the next day the constable, to his great joy, was
promoted to the grade of Deputy Inspector of Police.
He came without delay to pay his respects to the fagm‘r,
and, on reaching the saint, fell at his feet and placed
his turban on the ground—a mark of the greatest
deference and humility.

“ What have you come for ? ” asked the faqu'ir.

“To thank you, sir, for what you have done for me.
By your favour I have been appointed Deputy Inspector
of Police.”

“Oh,” said the laughing faqm'r, not without a sus-
picion of irony, “I see! I called you a zal'im, and you have
got that position conferred on you officially.”

“Even so,” responded the happy officer.

This story and the one preceding it, far-fetched and
trivial though they be, throw a sidelight on the ideas of
Indian Muslims, and may therefore have some interest
for students of Indian life.

Between the marvels wrought by the ancient Hindu

E 65

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

sages, as recorded in the old books, and those attributed
to their modern representatives, there is, as the reader will
doubtless have noticed, an immeasurable difference, with a
sad falling off. But, as in medizeval Europe, the air in India
is full of marvels and mysteries, and, if we may believe
Hindu apologists, there still live, even in this sinful age,
very potent wonder-working sadlms, only they are not to
be met with in bazaars and the ordinary haunts of men,
but where Madame Blavatsky discovered her elusive
Koot Hoomi and other mahmfmas,1 in the lone solitudes
of mysterious Tibet, or the grim snow-fastnesses of the
unexplored Himalayas. However, since exhibitions of
miraculous powers are necessarily of rare occurrence in
these degenerate times, the abilities of many sadhus are
displayed in less striking ways: for example, as
physicians administering, to the sick, drugs and simples
of which they have acquired a knowledge in their
wanderings, or had solemnly communicated to them by
perhaps a dying gum. Many remarkable cures are justly
attributed to sadhas, but they make a mystery of their
knowledge, and jealously guard their therapeutic secrets
from the common herd. Sometimes their practice is
connected with ailments and weaknesses which call for
the exhibition of love-philtres and a resort to spells
calculated to influence a cold, impassive heart. In such
cases, no doubt, the sadha’s skill can easily command a
considerable pecuniary reward.

Many religious mendicants earn a meal or a penny by
disclosing, as fortune-tellers, palmists, and interpreters of
dreams, the hidden things of the future. Others astonish
the world by acrobatic feats—as the following extract
from the Allahabad Pioneer will show :—

“ A wonderful faguz’r was in view in the main street,
who all the time he says his prayers goes through acrobatic
performances that would earn him a fortune in England.

1 “Mahatman means literally great-souled, then high-minded, noble,
and all the rest. It is often used simply as a complimentary term, much
as we use reverend or honourable, but it has also been accepted as a
technical term, applied to a class of men who in the ancient language of
India are well known to us by their name of Samnydsin.”—Professor Max

Miiller, Life and Sayings of Ramakrishna, pp. 2, 3.
66

WONDERS SADHUS AND FAQUIRS PERFORM

As we approached he was standing on one leg with the
other curled round his waist; in another second he was on
his hands, head downwards, and his legs round his neck;
when we left him he was tied up in something resembling
a reef knot and clove hitch combined.” 1

One of these religious posturists, named Bava Lachman
Das, was induced a few years ago to come across the ocean
to exhibit himself at the Westminster Aquarium to admir-
ing thousands. The man and the very strange attitudes
he could assume form the subject of a well-illustrated article
in the Strand Magazine for February 1897.

1 From “A March through the Cow-rioting Districts,” Pioneer (Alla.
habad), 7th February 1894.

57

CHAPTER V

SOME GLIMPSES OF SADHUS IN INDIAN FICTION

Eight Stories from famous Sanskrit Dramas and other Sources: (1) Sa-
koontala; (2) Malati and Madhava; (3) Disillusionment; (4) The
horned Rishi; (5) The Lost Son restored; (6) A Kind-hearted Lady ;
(7) The Father duped ; (8) Woman’s Cunning.

 
 
   
 

S in Indian life, so in Indian
fiction, sadhus and faguz’rs are
familiar forms. It has al-
ready been shown (Chap.
II.) how largely sadhus
bulk in the sacred litera-
ture of the Hindus,—
epics, Puranas, etc.,—
but I shall now draw
upon secular, or I
should perhaps say
less sacred, sources for
pictures of the saints
of the Indian world. The following eight stories, in which
sad/bus and pseudo-sardines figure prominently, will serve
my purpose, while at the same time affording some inter-
esting glimpses of the inner world of Hindu ideas and
sentiments.

The celebrated story entitled Sakoontala, or the Lost
Ring, may come first on account of its intrinsic charm and
its being chronologically the earliest of those selected,
together with the fact that its very atmosphere is sur-
charged with sentiments of peaceful retirement and mild
asceticism.

  

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68

GLIMPSES OF SADHUS IN INDIAN FICTION

I. THE STORY or SAKOONTALA, on THE LOST RING,
BY KALIDASA.1

From the Ramayana we learn, as already stated in
Chap. 11., that there was once a Kshatrya king named
Visvamitra, who, for the purpose of overcoming a famous
Brahman sage, Vasishta, with whom he had come into
unequal conflict, underwent, for thousands of years, the
most terrible austerities, which eventually led to the un-
precedented honour of his advancement to the Brahmanical
caste. While the king was engaged in the rigours of his
self-imposed tortures, the god Indra became jealous of his
increasing power, and sent a lovely nymph of heaven
named Menaka to distract his meditations and to seduce
him from his vows. Visvamitra, unable to resist her
allurements, had the beautiful temptress to share his
hermitage for many years.

According to the great Hindu dramatist Kalidasa,2
the result of this union was a daughter, Sakoontala, the
heroine of his now world-famous play. The girl was
reared in a picturesque and delightful hermitage, or colony
of hermits, under the guardianship of Kanwa, the chief
of the anchorites. In this retired spot Dushyanta, of the
lineage of the renowned Purus, king of India, when out
on one of his frequent hunting expeditions, discovered
Sakoontala, now grown into a lovely graceful maiden in
her early prime. Although the king had many royal
consorts, he was large-hearted enough to fall desperately in
love with the fair recluse when he met her with two girl-
companions, Priyamvada and Anasuya, under the most
charming and opportune circumstances; for Sakoontala at
the moment was in trouble from the too aggressive and
persistent attentions of an angry bee whom she had
disturbed amongst the flowers she was gathering. With
the maiden too it was a case of love at first sight.

1 Sakoontala, or the Lost Ring, an Indian drama, translated into
English prose and verse from the Sanskrit of Kalidasa by Monier Williams,
M.A. (Hertford, 1855).

2 Kalidesa was one of the “ Nine Gems” of the court of Vikramaditya, a

famous king, who, according to the most recent reckonings or guesses of
European chronologists, lived in the sixth century of the Christian era.

69

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

Both victims to Kama’s darts suffered badly from love-
fever, as their emaciated forms only too clearly and too
quickly evinced. Through the affectionate, if officious, in-
terference of Priyamvada and Anasuya, a pair of delightful
little schemers, it came about quite casually that the
lovers were by mutual confessions of affection relieved
from all the haunting doubts that had till then disturbed
their susceptible hearts.

It would seem that, while the hermit colony was under
the control of a chief or abbot, there was also a holy matron
there, named Gautami, who had especial charge of the
women and girls of this rural settlement. But, perhaps
because of her reverence for royalty, her watchfulness
seems to have been at fault in the present case, for very
soon, by mutual consent, quite secretly and without cere-"
monies or formalities of any sort, the king and Sakoontala
were united in wedlock “by the form of marriage prevalent
among Indra’s celestial musicians.” The king, after a brief
honeymoon, returned to his capital (Hastinapur), leaving
his new wife with her friends in the hermitage.

Naturally, Sakoontala was much depressed at this early
separation from her lord, and, while lost in absent-minded
reverie near her cottage, no less a person than the great
sage Durvasas arrived to claim the usual hospitality.
Apparently, Sakoontala did not notice his coming, an
omission which so incensed the affronted and irascible
sage that he vented his angry feelings in this terrible
curse—

“Woe to thee, maiden, for daring to slight a guest like me!
Shall I stand here unwelcomed; even I,
A very mine of penitential merit,
\Vorthy of all respect? Shalt thou, rash maid,
Thus set at nought the ever sacred ties
Of hospitality? and fix thy thoughts
Upon the cherished object of thy love,
While I am present? Thus I curse thee, then—
He, even he of whom thou thinkest, he
Shall think no more of thee, nor in his heart
Retain thy image. Vainly shalt thou strive
To waken his remembrance of the past;
He shall disown thee, even as the sot,

Roused from his midnight drunkenness, denies
The words he uttered in his revellings.”

7o

GLIMPSES OF SADHUS IN INDIAN FICTION

Sakoontala, too deeply absorbed in her own thoughts,
did not even hear the sage’s malediction; but her shrewd
and ever-watchful girl-friends did, and, fearful of the
consequences, pleaded with the terrible Durvasas to pardon
the young and inexperienced offender. Their entreaties so
far mollified him that he condescended to say—

“ My word must not be falsified, but at the sight of the
ring of recognition the spell shall cease.”

Having said this, he disappeared. The girls were
reassured by his words, recalling to mind the fact that
when taking his departure from the hermitage the king
had placed on Sakoontala’s finger a ring with his own
name engraved upon it.

“ She has therefore,” as Anasuya sagely said, “ a remedy
for her misfortune at her own command.”

However, with wonderful reticence the two girls kept
from their dear friend all knowledge both of Durvasas’
curse and the extent to which he had been prevailed upon
to modify it.

While these incidents were taking place, Kanwa,
Sakoontala’s foster-father, and chief of the hermits, was
away from home, having “ gone to Soma-tirtha to pro-
pitiate Destiny, which threatened his daughter with some
calamity.”

When Kanwa returned and learned what had happened
during his absence he fully approved of the marriage which
had been consummated, and, deeming it the proper course,
sent Sakoontala,'escorted by some hermits, to join her
royal husband. As became a saint, Kanwa gave his foster-
child much good advice, including such rules of life as the
following—

“Honour thy betters, ever be respectful
To those above thee; and should others share
Thy husband’s love, ne’er yield thyself a. prey
To jealousy; but ever be a friend,
A loving friend, to those who rival thee
In his affections.”

As Sakoontala took a most touching farewell of the
hermitage where she had passed the springtime of her
days, those dear companions of her girlhood, Priyamvada

7I

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

and Anasuya, mindful of Durvasas’ curse, whispered to her
that should the king, by any chance, have forgotten her,
she should on no account fail to produce the ring, his
parting present to her.

Attended by a few hermits, Sakoontala proceeded to
her husband’s capital and was admitted to his presence;
but, in fulfilment of Durvasas’ malison, the king had lost
all recollection of her, and, conscientious man that he was,
declined to receive her, though he was not insensible to
the personal charms of the beautiful woman who stood
before him claiming to be his wife. Indignant at his
conduct, one of the hermits thus addressed the king in
lofty strain—

“ Beware !
Beware how thou insult the holy sage!
Remember how he generously allowed
Thy secret union with his foster-child:
And how, when thou did’st rob him of his treasure,
He sought to furnish the excuse, when rather
He should have cursed thee for a ravisher."

But Dushyanta’s memory was really clouded, and he
would neither acknowledge nor receive Sakoontala. In
her great sorrow and deep humiliation the poor girl
referred to the signet ring her royal lover had given her;
but, on being asked to produce it, discovered, to her inex-
pressible dismay and the king’s ill-concealed amusement,
that it was lost.

The hermits who had accompanied Sakoontala to the
king’s presence now refused to conduct her back to the
hermitage; while, on the other hand, the virtuous king,
who had noticed her condition, would not be guilty of
receiving into his house one who was evidently the wife of
another man.

In this most painful dilemma the king’s domestic
priest generously offered to give the lady an asylum in his
own house until the birth of her child. Sakoontala while
being led away bewailed her cruel fate,

“When suddenly a shining apparition
In female shape descended from the skies,
Near the nymph’s pool, and bore her up to heaven.”

72

GLIMPSES OF SADHUS IN INDIAN FICTION

It was the girl’s mother, the celestial nymph Menaka, who
had come to the rescue of her child.

' Of course the ring was found in due course, and on
beholding it the king at once recovered his memory of
the events connected with his happy courtship of
Sakoontala in the flowery glades of her foster-father’s
hermitage. Between the feelings of passionate love now
reawakened in his heart and the bitterest remorse for his
cruel treatment of his now lost darling he was beside
himself with grief. His mental torment lasted for years,
till at length, in their own good time, the gods kindly
interposed. On the pretext of requiring Dushyanta’s help
against a troublesome race of giants, Indra’s charioteer
waited on him and took him away through the air in a
celestial car. After being received by the ruler of heaven,
he was carried to “Golden Peak,” the abode of the attend-
ants of the God of Wealth, where

‘ ‘ Kasya pa,
\Vith Aditi his wife, in calm seclusion,
Does holy penance for the good of mortals.”

The king asks his guide——
“In which direction, Matali, is Kasyapa’s sacred retreat?”

To which the charioteer, pointing with his hand,
replies—

“Where stands yon anchorite towards the orb
Of the meridian sun, immovable
As a tree’s stem, his body half concealed
By a huge ant-hill. Round about his breast
No sacred cord is twined, but in its stead
A hideous serpent’s skin. In place of necklace,
The tendrils of a withered creeper chafe
His wasted neck. His matted hair depends -
In thick entanglement about his shoulders,
And birds construct their nests within its folds.”

In this sacred region of quiet hermitages, “where the
holiest sages devote themselves to penitential rites,” and
where mortals, unless favoured by the higher powers, could
never obtain admission, King Dushyanta was designedly
brought into contact with. his own son, a daring wayward
infant, who, as becomes a scion of Purus’ famous race, loves

73

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

to play, not with timid pets, but with lusty young lions.
The king feels himself strangely drawn towards the fearless
handsome child, and after a little while, in accordance
with the will of the gods, meets Sakoontala herself arrayed
in the garb of a widow. To her he now explains his
strange repudiation of her on that memorable day when
she sought his protection at Hastinapur. He obtains her
forgiveness, and with the permission and blessing of
Kasyapa reascends the car of Indra, taking his wife and
son also, to return to his own capital. The pious king
leaves “Golden Peak,” breathing the characteristically
Hindu prayer—

“And may the purple self-existent god,
Whose vital energy pervades all Space,
From future transmigrations save my soul.”

How saturated with the feeling of peaceful asceticism
this charming drama is, does not need to be pointed out;
yet I may recall to the reader’s memory that it was the
terror of the gods at Visvamitra’s dreadful austerities
that led to the temptation of the ascetic and the birth of
the heroine, whose early years were passed blamelessly
amidst a quiet restful group of well—ordered hermitages,
a sort of pastoral monastery under an easy tolerant rule.
The heroine’s misfortunes were the result of the curse pro-
nounced by an afl'ronted ascetic, and, when she is rejected
by the king, it is to the haven of a celestial hermitage that
she is translated from Dushyanta’s capital.

Throughout the poem the undoubted power of the
ascetic and the unquestioned dignity and importance of his
calling are amply recognised.

II. MALATI AND MADHAVA.1

In Bhavabhuti’s famous drama, Malati and Madham,
written probably in the eighth century A.D., we have a
glimpse of one aspect of Indian asceticism which still has
a great and permanent fascination for the Hindus, viz. the

1Select Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindus, translated from the
original Sanskrit by Horace Hayman Wilson, vol. ii. (Calcutta, 1827).
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GLIMPSES OF SADHUS IN INDIAN FICTION

exercise of superhuman power acquired by ascetic practices.
If only to illustrate this important point, the plot of
Bhavabhuti’s charming drama may be briefly sketched in
this place.

The curtain rises upon Kamandaki revealing to her
disciple Avalokita her desire to bring about a union between
Madhava and Malati. These two, as mere infants, were,
by a solemn but secret compact, destined for one an-
other by their parents. The projected arrangement was
never revealed to the parties most interested; and now
a difficulty arose, for the king’s favourite, an old and ugly
fellow named N andana, had applied to his royal master for
the hand of Malati, and the sovereign had demanded her
of her father. To frustrate this project, without giving
offence to his majesty the king, Madhava’s father enlisted
the services of Kamandaki, priestess of Buddha, nurse of
Malati and preceptress of Madhava. The plan was to
bring about a purely love affair between the young people,
and effect a clandestine marriage without the direct inter-
position of the parents, and to all appearance without their
knowledge. To this end it was artfully contrived to make
opportunities for the young people to see each other; and,
to help in carrying out the plot, Kamandaki bethinks her
of a former pupil of hers, one Sandamini, residing on Mount
Sri Parvata,

“—where, won by desperate penances,

Power more than earthly waits upon her will.”

The priestess and her disciples, though themselves
vowed to celibacy, take an ardent and truly feminine
interest in bringing about the desired result. The action
of the play extends over only a few days, but they are
brimful of incident.

In pursuance of the plot, it is contrived that Malati
should see Madhava from her window. Of course she
falls desperately in love with him, and solaces herself by
drawing a likeness of him. This her foster-sister, who is
in the plot, cleverly makes over to Mandarika, the servant
of the convent (wham daSi), who naturally transfers it to
the hands of her own lover Kalahansa, Madhava’s servant.

7S

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

Thus one step is gained. Now, by the advice of one of
the female disciples of the priestess, Madhava goes to
Kamadeva’s temple, where he sees Malati in all her virgin
beauty, and straightway falls in love with her. Her
appearance shows unmistakably that she is herself in love
with some fortunate youth or other; but her female
attendants, when they cast eyes on Madhava, laughing and
whispering amongst themselves, seemed to say—

“Thc Fates have favoured us,
Lady—behold him there !”

The lady on her part did not fail to reveal her admira-
tion and her feelings towards the young man by expressive
glances, mute yet eloquent. As she moved away with her
train of attendants, one of them, her foster-sister Lavangika,
on pretence of admiring the garland of flowers Madhava
was wearing, let him know the name and rank of the lady
he had been admiring so passionately. At the maid’s
request, he presented the garland to Lavangika for the
acceptance of her fair mistress.

Madhava relates these events to his friend Makaranda,
and, while he is doing so, Kalahansa approaches and shows
them the portrait of Madhava painted by Malati.

At Makaranda’s suggestion, Madhava now draws a
portrait of his inamorata. Mandarika, the rcham dasi,
appears opportunely on the scene, pretending to be in
search of the picture which Kalahansa had carried off,
and is given, instead of it, the portrait of Malati just
drawn by her ardent lover. Thus, through the instrumen-
tality of Lavangika and the others, the hero and heroine
fall in love with one another, and also have their mutual
passion revealed each to the other.

Thus far all goes well; but the proverbial lovers’
troubles have infallibly to come, the king having duly
arranged, with the formal consent of her father, to give
Malati in marriage to Nandana without delay.

To frustrate the accomplishment of this undesired
union, Kamandaki and her disciples insidiously instil into
Malati’s mind feelings of revolt against her father, and art-
fully suggest that Sakoontala and other ladies in the past

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GLIMPSES OF SADHUS IN INDIAN FICTION

had selected their own husbands. The conspirators also
bring about a meeting, at which Madhava makes a personal
declaration, offering his lady-love his heart and life, an offer-
ing which Lavangika accepts for her bashful friend, saying—
“I answer for my friend—she deems the gifts
Deserving her acceptance.”

Besides the king’s desire to confer the hand of Malati
upon his own favourite, there were other and even more
serious dangers threatening the accomplishment of the
union of the two lovers. There was

“—a skull-bearing seer, Aghora Ghanta,
A wandering mendicant, but dwelling now
Amidst the neighbouring forest,”
who, for the fulfilment of a powerful rite which would
terminate all his toils, had decided, in accordance with a
solemn vow, to sacrifice to the goddess Chaumandra “the
gem of womankind.”

To fulfil this dreadful object, he had enlisted the
services of his disciple Kapala Kundala, herself a priestess
of Chaumandra. This priestess of the dread goddess is
described as “freed from all perishable bonds,” and she
obviously possessed wonderful powers, for she first appears
upon the scene riding through the air in a heavenly car,
dressed in a hideous garb and girdled with human skulls.
The temple of Chaumandra stood alongside a cremation
ground, into which Madhava had gone in the dead of night
with a. lump of human flesh in his hand to win the favour,
or compel the assistance, of the goblins who infested that
gruesome spot. While pursuing his object a cry of dis-
tress comes to him from within the temple, and, recognising
with horror the voice of Malati, he hurries thither.

Inside the temple, dressed in scarlet and adorned with
a garland, stands Malati, the destined sacrifice, and round
about her circles Aghora Ghanta with quick steps, addressing
the dread goddess in such prescribed terms of praise as would
be acceptable to her. Kapala Kundala was in attendance,
and at the proper moment,facing the trembling victim,said—

“Fair maid,
Think upon him whom thou in life hast loved,
For pitiless death is near thee.”

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

But, before Aghora Ghanta’s sword could fall upon the
unhappy girl, her lover had sprung to her side and forcibly
prevented the bloody rite. Meanwhile, by the command
of Kamandaki, the aged priestess of Buddha, and quite
unconnected with Madhava’s interposition, the fane was
surrounded, and the exciting temple scene comes to a
close with an unfinished fight between Aghora Ghanta and
Madhava. However, we learn incidentally, in the next
act, that the result of this conflict was fatal to the wander-
ing mendicant, and we find Kapala Kundala vowing
vengeance against Madhava for the death of her venerable
guru}

The artful resources of Kamandaki are not exhausted.
Malati, dressed for her marriage with Nandana, the king’s
favourite, is conducted in state to a temple, where, un-
known to her, Madhava and his friend Makaranda are
concealed. The girl is in despair, and, wishing to take her
own life, reveals her purpose to Lavangika and asks her to
consent. As the fair and distracted lady kneels to her,
Lavangika moves away, and Madhava takes her place.
The deception is presently detected, and a pretty love
scene results. The priestess Kamandaki now steps up,
and, interposing as the instrument of Fate and Love,
confers Malati upon her enamoured swain. Makaranda
dresses up in the bride’s attire and personates Malati.
The lovers are then bid to proceed quickly to the garden
of the sanctuary, where, in anticipation of events, the
necessary provision had already been made for the per-
formance of their bridal ceremonies.

Makaranda plays his part as a woman so well that he
quite deceives Nandana, but, when installed as his bride,
handles the astonished bridegroom so severely that he
leaves the house in a rage. Nandana’s sister Mada-
yantika comes to remonstrate with her dear friend upon
her unseemly conduct, but to her astonishment, and secret
delight, finds in the supposed Malati the youth who had,

1 That Aghora Ghanta and his disciple should have failed in their object,
after propitiating the goddess as they did, is attributed by the Hindu
commentator either to their wickedness or their inaccurate pronunciation
of some part of the ritual.—Note to p. 60 of Professor Wilson’s translation.

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GLIMPSES OF SADHUS IN INDIAN FICTION

at the risk of his life, gallantly rescued her from a
ferocious tiger. They were mutually in love these two,
and their strange meeting in Nandana’s palace ends in an
elopement—the lovers making for the place to which
Madhava and Malati had already gone. Fate, however,
had yet more adventures in store for them. On the way
they were stopped by the town guard. Makaranda singly
keeps the guard in check while his bride and attendants
get away. On learning the state of affairs, Madhava
hurries off to help his friend. Malati thoughtfully
despatches a couple of attendants to apprise Kamandaki
of the course of events, and directs Lavangika to overtake
her lord and implore him to shun all needless danger.
Lavangika does not return as quickly as Malati could wish,
and after a while the bride, unable to bear the absence of
her lord, follows him. She is met, alone and unprotected,
by her arch-enemy Kapala Kundala. Malati, terrified, in-
stinctively cries in an undertone, “Ah! husband!” To
which the cruel priestess of Chaumandra replies tauntingly—
“Yes, call upon him.

Where is your love—the murderer of the pious,

The youthful paramour of wanton girls?

Let him—your husband—save you, if he can.

Bird of the wild, that tremblest to behold

The hovering hawk—what canst thou hope, long marked

My prey? I bear thee with me to Sri Parvata,

There to consign thee to a painful death,
Torn piecemeal—victim of my just revenge.”

With these taunting and menacing words the ruthless
priestess carried Malati off.

While this abduction was taking place, the two heroes
who had routed the town guard were nevertheless taken
before the king, charged with having borne away the
Minister’s daughter.

The king, however, being rather pleased at the prowess
displayed by the two young men, treated the matter
lightly, and the offenders were set at liberty, to find on
their return that Malati had disappeared mysteriously.

Overwhelmed by his loss, Madhava wanders away to
the mountains in a fit of despair which knows no consola-
tion, accompanied by his ever-faithful friend Makaranda.

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

On the breezy mountains he indulges his grief till both
reason and life are threatened. Makaranda is so deeply
moved by his companion’s sad fate and desperate condition
that he distractedly contemplates suicide, and is in the
very act of precipitating himself from the rocks when he
is arrested by Sandamini. In reply to his inquiry who
she might be, Sandamini tells him that she is a yogim',
“the mistress of supernal power,” and she shows him the
garland which Malati had been wearing when she dis-
appeared. A few minutes later Madhava learns from her
that Malati had been carried off by Kapala Kundala, that
she still lived, and that for her protection Sandamini would
exert

“The powerful knowledge which mystic rites and prayers,
Devout observance, and a saintcd teacher
Had armed her with.”

As a matter of fact, she’ had actually rescued the girl
from the vengeful hands of her inveterate enemy.

Calling upon Madhava to accompany her, they both
instantly disappeared. A little later, at a most critical
moment, when Malati’s father was about to commit suicide
on a funeral pyre on account of her supposed death,
Sandamini, the wonder-working yogini, conveyed the lovers
to their friends, and, by securing the consent of the king
and their respective parents to the union of Madhava and
Malati, brings about a happy denouement.

Many are the reflections which this charming drama
awakens. We find all the usual devices of the modern
European romancers resorted to in the plots and counter-
plots of this old Hindu play. We have the hero and
heroine driven by untoward circumstances and fiendish
conspiracies to the very brink of despair, and then oppor-
tunely rescued just in time to obviate the most serious
consequences. Scarcely do we rejoice with them in their
safety and happiness, when they are involved in new and
even more serious troubles than before; yet we feel con-
fident that all will end well, and our expectations are not
disappointed. So far we are on familiar ground. But as
we watch the drama unfolded we are always conscious that

the framework of society and the conditions and modes of
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GLIMPSES OF SADHUS IN INDIAN FICTION

social intercourse depicted in the play, as well as the
religious sentiments pervading it, are alien to the West.
The weird scenes in the cemetery at night and in the
temple hard by are essentially and characteristically Indian,
and so also are the thaumaturgies of the wandering
mendicant, the priestesses, and the yogini, who have acquired
their superhuman power only through the practice of severe
austerities.

III. DISILLUSIONMENT.

In a certain village, within the dominions of a famous
Rajah, there lived a poor Brahman woman with her only
child, a little boy of tender years. By the labour of her
hands, particularly by grinding corn for her neighbours,
the widow earned a bare subsistence for herself and her
son. Of course their fare was of the simplest and coarsest
kind.

One day a prosperous villager who was celebrating a
happy domestic event gave the Brahman boy a hearty meal
of rice cooked in milk and sweetened with sugar, luxuries
to which, till that time, the child had been a stranger.
Next day, when his usual cake of coarse brown bread was
offered to him, the boy, mindful of the dainties of the
previous day, refused to eat it. He wanted milk and rice
and sugar!

“ That,” said his mother, “is more than I can give you.
Devi alone can gratify your wishes.”

Now, not far from where these indigent people lived
there stood a temple of Devi, but in so ruined and
neglected a condition that no one visited it. Its walls
were rent from top to bottom, and even Devi’s image
was cracked and mutilated.

To this dilapidated shrine repaired the Brahman boy,
and prayed the presiding goddess to grant him rice and
milk for his meals. For four days he lay in the temple,
refusing to partake of the food offered him by his mother.
At last, taking compassion on the infant suppliant, the
eight-armed goddess appeared before him in person and
asked what favour he sought.

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

“ Only rice and milk every day,” replied the child.

“ You shall have it,” responded the benign goddess, “ but
ask for something more important than that.”

The little Brahman, the horizon of whose ideas was
extremely limited, had no other request to prefer, so Devi
graciously handed him an am-rz'tphal or fruit conferring
immortality.

The widow, deeming this gift much too good for one
in their humble circumstances, advised her boy to present
it to the Rajah, who would doubtless make such a pecuniary
return for it as would enable them to live the remainder
of their lives in peace and comfort. Ushered into the
king’s presence, the child handed him the wonderful fruit
and told the story concerning it.

After accepting the offering and rewarding the little
donor in a suitable manner, the Rajah put the wonderful
fruit aside, thinking in his heart that the cares of his
position were too great to make it worth while to prolong
his life indefinitely, but he decided mentally that his
'beloved Rani should be presented with the amrz’tphal, and
having eaten it enjoy perpetual youth. To her, therefore,
he gave the fruit that same day; but she, consumed with
love for a certain darogah, secretly made it over to that
officer. Though he was the paramour of the Rani, this
(larogah really loved a courtesan in the town, and that
same night she was made the possessor of the Devi’s gift.

To prolong her sinful life did not seem a very inviting
prospect to this ~lahab, and thinking over the matter she
arrived at the conclusion that the Rajah, who was a kind
and just ruler, and the father of his people, would be the
most worthy recipient of such an important gift as a fruit
of immortality; so, in the morning, she carried it to his
majesty and laid it respectfully at his feet.

“Where did you get this?” inquired the astonished
Rajah, recognising the strange fruit which was raised in no
terrestrial orchard.

“ From the dm'ogah of the horses,” was the courtesan’s

reluctant reply.
In an instant the whole painful truth flashed upon the

disillusioned king.
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GLIMPSES OF SADHUS IN INDIAN FICTION

“ What,” mused he, “is human happiness or kingly
dignity, when my Rani can thus betray my honour, and
when her plebeian paramour can prefer the favours of a
courtesan to those of a queen!”

Overwhelmed by these bitter reflections upon that
well-worn theme “ all is vanity,” the good king abandoned
his throne, and, turning his back upon the world, became a
sadhu;1 and this step of his is the reason why the present
story appears here, affording as it does a characteristically
Hindu illustration of a sentiment—cruel disillusionment—
which probably more than any other has driven men in all
countries to join the ranks of the discontented contemners
of the world’s hollow pleasures.

IV. THE HORNED RISHIF’

There was once a sad/Lu named Shringhi Rikh (having
horns). He lived in a dense forest, worshipping God and
knowing nothing of the life of towns and villages, or of the
ways of men. In this manner the solitary hermit passed
many years, till at length a dire famine visited the land.
When this calamity came, the king naturally asked his
vazir (prime minister) what was to be done to alleviate
the sufferings of his people, and that high officer prudently
advised that the Brahmans should be formally consulted
with a view to the adoption of some suitable course of action.

They were accordingly sent for by the king, and re-
quested to say how the famine was to be stayed, and how
the much-needed rain was to be obtained to fertilise the
thirsty fields. '

The wise Brahmans, having considered the matter, re-
plied that the famine was not a judgment from Heaven
due to any sins committed by the king himself, and that
the earth would certainly be blessed with rain if the
“ horned Tish/é ” who dwelt in the forest could by any means

1 Substantially the same story, but in a. somewhat different form, is told
in the Baital Pachisi.

2 This and the four following stories are from the Granth of Guru Govind
Singh, which contains no less than four hundred and four tales respecting the
wiles qf wowwn.

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

be induced to take up his abode in the city, for so was it
written in the holy Shastms.

The Rajah, losing no time, sent messengers to induce
the ascetic to come to his capital; but the horned saint
heeded them not, so the sovereign went in person to the
anchorite; but even he could not prevail upon Shringhi
Rikh to leave his forest-home and the asceticisms in which
he was engaged.

In this difficult crisis, a harlot, gaudily dressed and
with her lips reddened with the chn she was eating, pre-
sented herself before the Rajah and said to him jauntily—

“ 0 king, I will bring Shringhi tikh to you, on
condition that when I do so you will give me one half of
your kingdom. If you agree to this I shall make the
saint shave off his matted locks and put on a turban, and,
having quite subdued him, I shall lead him into your
majesty’s presence,” adding confidently, “With my beauty
I can do anything I like.”

The worthy Rajah, acting for the benefit of his lieges,
accepted these extravagant conditions, and the fair wanton
went off to the jungles where the sadhu lived. Taking with
her a party of beautiful women arrayed in finery and
dressed to perfection, she prepared a habitation for herself
in the woods, and on the trees around her temporary abode
she hung luoloos1 and other delicacies, and, when all her
arrangements were complete, commenced singing to the
dulcet accompaniment of musical instruments.

The wishi, seeing these unaccustomed sights, and
hearing sweet sounds, the like of which had never before
reached his ears, became astonished, and in his perplexity
came to the conclusion that they must be due to visitants
from another world. Feeling hungry, he ventured to pluck
some of the novel fruits (ludoos) he discovered growing on
the trees near by. He found them deliciously sweet and
quite to his taste, and, wondering how such “fruits ” had
appeared there, attributed them to the god Indra. .

“ Perhaps,” soliloquised the sadhu, “ the god has
been graciously pleased with my austerities and has come
down in person to witness them.”

1 A ludoo is a well-known Indian sweetmeat.

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GLIMPSES OF SADHUS IN INDIAN FICTION

While thus reflecting, he noticed a woman beautifully
dressed and decked with costly jewellery standing a little
way off. So lovely was she that the mere sight of her
removed all his cares. He wondered who she could
possibly be, and asked himself, “From what distant world
is this enchanting visitant ? ”

Suspending his austerities, he approached the woman,
and, filled with wonder, sat down near her; then growing
bolder went up to her, and, bowing low, said to her—

“Tell me, who art thou? Art thou the consort of
Shiv-ji or of Vishnu? Tell me.”

She said, “ I am not a goddess, but the wife of Oodaluk
rishi. Hearing of you—for your fame has spread far and
wide—I have come to make you my husband.”

Having thus spoken, she lavished flatteries upon him,
and in a short time, by exercising her seductive charms
upon the recluse, she subdued him to her purpose, and
before long brought him away, a willing captive, to the
nearest village. When she conducted Shringhi Rikh into
the Rajah’s domains the rain began to fall, as the Brahmans
had predicted, and the hearts of the people rejoiced greatly.

The rishi was then married to one of the I’rajah’s
daughters, and continued to live in his father-in-law’s
territories, which for a long time derived the greatest
benefit and good fortune from his presence. However, it
came to pass that eventually his residence in the land
caused an excess of rain, and it was thought desirable to
lure him back to his old mode of life. So the services of
the courtesan were once again called into requisition, and
she successfully persuaded the sadlm to return to his
former woodland haunts, where he resumed his long-inter-
rupted austerities.1

1 Faith in the help of saintly sadhus during seasons of drought is not
extinct amongst the Hindus even of our own times.

“With the progress of the season the area of crop failure in India is
becoming narrowed and defined. Northern Bombay, some of the native
States in Central India and Rajputana, with adjoining portions of the
Punjab, are involved, though it is still doubtful whether the loss of both
harvests will be complete over very considerable tracts. There are sufficient
food stocks in the country, and rising prices will secure economy in their
consumption. Relief measures are ready. One feudatory State discovered

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

V. THE LOST SON RESTORED.

There was at one time a very great Rajah named Sukret
Singh. His Rani’s name was J ewankala. To them a son
was born ; but for some reason or other the infant was not
satisfactory to his unnatural mother, so she quietly flung
the baby into the sea, and informed her husband that a
tiger had carried him off. The Rajah, believing his wife’s
story, comforted her, saying, “ Permashwar (God) will
give you more sons.” Yet twenty-five years passed
after this event, and the Rani was not blessed with
another child.

One day about this period—that is, twenty-five years
after the disappearance of her infant—the Rani saw a very
handsome young man, and, her heart becoming captive to
his beauty, she sent a bichaulz'g/a (a female go-between) to
invite him to a clandestine interview. He came at the
{ani’s request, and gratified her wicked desires. With the
cunning of the serpent she confided to her new lover the
true story of her baby’s disappearance, and how she had
falsely stated that he had been carried off by a tiger.

“Now,” said the Rani to her paramour, “ I want you
to understand that you were carried away by a jogi in the
form of a tiger, that instead of destroying you the sadhu
reared you himself, and that, knowing you to be a king’s
son, he had disclosed to you these important facts of your
history before going away on a journey to a very distant
land.”

The Rani thus taught the young man, and he agreed to
act in accordance with her wishes.

A day or two afterwards the Rani said to her husband,

a resource denied to the British Government, and thereby secured a special
rainfall all to itself while surrounding districts remained drought-stricken.
A wandering Brahman of peculiar sanctity was followed by crowds, who
gave him no peace till he consented to apply his occult powers to the relief
of their parched fields. Worn out by their importunities, the holy man at
last sat down and vowed he would not rise till the water flowed over his feet.
In two hours the brazen sky was overcast, rain set in, and twelve hours
later the Brahman was ankle-deep. The situation was saved—and the man.
This, at least, is the report semi-ofiicially furnished by the State to the
political officer.”—Saturday Review, 7th October 1899.

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GLIMPSES OF SADHUS IN INDIAN FICTION

“I have strange but very important news for you. Our
baby son, who was carried away by a tiger, was really taken
by a jogi in the form of a tiger, but he did not devour our
child. His chelas brought him other children for his
feasts, and he spared ours because he was a king’s son. I
have myself seen and recognised our lost child.”

The Rajah, listening with astonishment to these wonder-
ful assertions, said—

“ Send for him, and let me hear the story from. his own
lips.”

Thereupon the young man was summoned to the
palace and questioned.

“What really happened,” said be, “how can I possibly
know ?—but what the jogi told me, that will I truthfully
relate.” And he proceeded to repeat what the Rani had
taught him. She, acting her part well, appeared to be
overcome with emotion at the young man’s statements,
wept false tears copiously, and in the very presence of the
Rajah, making her lover her son, embraced him affection-
ately and, lamenting their long separation, kissed him on
the lips again and again. She had a bed made for him in
her own room, and could not bear her lost darling out of
her sight, even for a few minutes. During the eight
watches of the day and night she guarded him from further
danger, and enjoyed herself right well.

VI. A KIND-HEARTED LADY.

In the city of Sirhand there lived a jogz' named
Swarganath and also a certain woman, Sri Chhah Man
Mati, Who fell desperately in love with him.

One day the jogz' was in her house when it was made
known to her that her husband was on the point of return-
ing home—in fact, was quite close at hand.

Grasping the decidedly serious situation, she thus
hastily addressed her lover—

“ Take up your sword at once and shout angrily, ‘ The
thief who has robbed me has entered here. You have con-
cealed him; drive him away; I will certainly kill him ! ’ ”

At the same time she actually hid upon the premises

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

the jogi’s chela, a fellow who used to come with his master
as his bodyguard and had been appointed to the post of
door-keeper and sentinel during his guru’s surreptitious
visits to the frail, if fair, lady.

While matters were being thus hastily arranged, the
husband arrived at his home. The jogi, with much
simulated wrath, repeated the words he had been taught,
but after a short yet furious howl of rage he went away,
brandishing his sword in a menacing fashion.

“ Dear husband,” said the lady, explaining the situation
to her bewildered lord, “that jogz' was burning with anger
owing to some mistake made by his chela. He was going
to kill him, and would have done so but for the asylum I
have afforded him. I permitted the poor fellow to hide
himself in our house, and thus 'avoid the consequences of
his guru’s wrath. Now let us release him. He is hidden
in that corner,” pointing to the place of concealment.

The husband was very pleased with the thoughtful
kindness displayed by his charming wife. So the man
who had been concealed in the house was quietly hurried
off the premises, and went away joyfully to rejoin his
worthy guru—the amorous jogi, very gratified, indeed, that
matters had in the end turned out so satisfactorily for
himself.

VII. THE FATHER DUPED.1

There was a Rajah named N ilkate of Popeewutee city.
Mangubechater, his wife, was like an incarnation of the
goddess of love, and their daughter, named Sri Algun-
jamuttee, so beautiful that it might be said of her that she
excelled the moon in brilliancy and appeared to have been
fashioned by the hand of Brahma himself. There was a
neighbouring Rajah, Srimantilk by name, too handsome to
be described. So incomparable, indeed, was he that the
sun, seeing his perfection, became ashamed of himself.
Once Sri Algunjamuttee went to a garden to while away

1 In this and the following tale the text of the originals has been
rendered more literally than in the preceding stories, though the grossness
of language which is characteristic of so many of these productions has been
avoided.

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GLIMPSES OF SADHUS ‘IN INDIAN FICTION

her time with other girls of her own age. There she
happened to see Rajah Srimantilk, and became enamoured
of him. She was so affected by this sudden passion that
when she went home she was like a gambler who had lost
all he ever possessed. By a signal from her eyes she
summoned to her side one of her young and trusted
companions, and, giving her gold and jewels, entreated her
to bring about a union between herself and the young Rajah
who had so completely captured her susceptible heart.

“If I do not get him,” said the love-sick princess, “I
shall turn a yogim', and, flinging away all my jewels and
finery, fly to the lonely forests; or, taking a beggar’s
gourd in my hand, I shall wander about the world, living
upon the alms of the charitable. I want him to be the
very apple of my eye, and failing that I shall kill myself.
Alas! why have I lived so long to suffer all this torture,
all this burning pain?”

When the girl-companion saw her distress, she came
close up to her and, laughing, said in her ear—

“Don’t fret; I’ll send some clever woman to him.”

These simple words seemed very sweet to the love-lorn
princess in her great trouble.

In accordance with her promise, the girl-friend sent a
clever b'ichaulz'ya to Rajah Srimantilk, the princess herself
merely saying—

“ Do what is necessary, but save my life.”

The bichaul'iya followed after the Rajah, who was
out hunting. She dressed herself in costly garments, and
decked herself out with jewels of rare beauty and value.
When the Rajah saw such a lovely creature, a being like a
real per/i, in the midst of the jungle, he was astonished.

“ Is this resplendent creature of the race of the Devtas,
Gandharbas, Daityas, or Nagas, or is she really human?
Let me inquire why she has come here. Is she not
lovely ? ”

Thinking thus, the Rajah approached her, and, viewing
her beauty at close quarters, fell in love with her at once.

The bichaulz'ya, on her part, handed him a pearl neck-
lace and a letter from her mistress, and while doing so
said—-

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

“You, sir, I can see, have fallen in love with my
beauty; but she who has written this is a thousand times
more lovely than I. Come with me and feast your eyes.”

The Rajah, enticed by this glowing description of the
charms of the princess, agreed to accompany her faithful
messenger. He forgot all about his own affairs, and, filled
with the idea of the lovely princess, he put the handsome
bichauliya into his chariot and drove where she directed
him to go. The way was long, but at last they arrived
near the palace of the love-sick princess. The Rajah now
disguised himself as a sadhu and lit his fire within sight
of her window. Daily, with the permission of her father,
used the princess to come and piously feed the good sadhu
with her own hands‘. At night, when everyone was asleep,
she would visit him also. In this way the princess was
very happy. No one recognised the disguised Rajah or
suspected what was going on. One day Sri Algunjamuttee
went to her father and deliberately said things which she
knew would excite his anger. She succeeded well enough,
for the king became so enraged that he ordered his vazir
to turn her out of doors into the jungle. When she heard
this royal command Sri Algunjamuttee pretended to be
very unhappy, and cried bitterly, though secretly rejoicing
in her heart. The incensed and implacable father’s
peremptory command, “Take her away at once,” was of
course obeyed implicitly, and the princess was conveyed
to the forest, and left there.

But in a very short time her lover came and joined
her, and, after they had enjoyed themselves to their hearts’
content, he carried her off to his own city.

VIII. WOMAN’S CUNNING.

J ogsain was the name of a certain Rajah, and his Rani’s
name was Sri Sanyaspati. She had a son born to her,
who, When he grew up, was very beautiful. In the city
over which J ogsain ruled there was a J at woman who fell
desperately in love with the young prince, and though she
used, on one pretence or another, to see him every day,
yet she found no opportunity of attaining her wishes. To

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GLIMPSES OF SADHUS IN INDIAN FICTION

gain her object, she disguised herself as a jogz', and went to
the Rajah’s palace, giving out that she was well versed in
janter, manter, tamer (talismans, spells, and magic rites).
Seizing a favourable opportunity, the pretended jog/i said to
the Rajah’s son—

“ If you will come with me to a lonely place, I shall
show you some wonders that will astonish you.”

The prince and jogi talked over the proposal; the
prince’s curiosity was greatly excited, and he said—

“ I have never been out alone at night, but I will
accompany you, since you are a jogz', if you promise to
raise the spirits of the dead in my presence.”

The pretended jogi engaged to perform this great
miracle to pleasure the king’s son, and the two started
out together on their strange, unholy business. When
they had penetrated, side by side, some little way into the
lonely jungles, the jog/i, turning suddenly towards the prince,
and taking him entirely by surprise, said sharply—

“ Now do as I bid you, or I will kill you on this spot.”

The prince, quite unprepared for such a contingency,
became alarmed and lost his presence of mind.

The pseudo-jog'i thereupon stated her wishes without
any circumlocution, and her companion willy-nilly yielded
to her wicked desires.

The depth of woman’s cunning is unfathomable! God
created her; but Himself repents it.

The foregoing tales speak for themselves, and, while
throwing some light upon the conduct of love affairs in
the East, show, amongst other things, that although the
Indians feel that sadhm’sm is honourable and respectable,
they are none the less quite alive to the great convenience
of the sadhu’s habit, as a disguise, for the successful con-
duct of amatory intrigues.

91

CHAPTER VI

SADHUS AS DESCRIBED BY SOME EUROPEAN
VISITORS TO INDIA

Greek and Roman Accounts of Sadhus and their Practices—Observations
regarding Sadhus and their Peculiarities recorded in the Works of the
Jeweller Tavernier, the Physician Bernier, the “Senior Merchant"
James Forbes, the Missionary Ward, Colonel Sleenlan, and Bishop
Heber.

ISTORTION arising from
ignorance and prejudice
is unavoidably present
in all pictures of an
alien civilisation drawn
by visitors coming from
countries remote both
geographically and in-
tellectually; yet these

pictures have their value,
affording as they often do
important facts—wrongly
interpreted, perhaps, but still facts—for the formation
of a judgment in reSpect to the growth and develop-
ment of customs and institutions. For this reason it
seems desirable to recall to mind such particulars and
impressions in regard to sad/ms as European travellers, or
residents in India of a bygone age, have placed on record
for the benefit of their contemporaries and succeeding
generations.

With What admiring wonderment the Greeks and
Romans regarded India and its strange people after the
Macedonian invader lifted the veil which had for ages
separated from the Western nations that mysterious land

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SADHUS DESCRIBED BY EUROPEAN VISITORS

and its tranquil civilisation, classical literature amply
testifies.

Amidst the many nnaccustomcd objects and institutions
which attracted the attention of European visitors beyond
the Indus, the ascetic philosophers (Brahman and Buddhist)
and their peculiar ways were not the least interesting.
Appreciative stories of the wisdom of these philosophers—
gymncsophists the Greeks called them—have come down to
us, with descriptions of some of the curious penances to
which they subjected themselves. From these narratives
we learn that the ascetic sages, who were held in the very
highest honour by both the people and their rulers, lived
an austere life, often in communities; that they studied
self-control, spent much of their time in serious discourses
and in imparting wisdom to others, teaching “that the
best doctrine was that which removed pleasure and grief
from the mind.”1 As to their self-mortifications, the
Greek and Roman accounts show that in their nature they
were very similar to, though probably not so severe as,
those practised in India at later periods. For example,
one of these ascetics would lie naked on his back in the
open air, enduring all the vicissitudes of scorching sunshine
and chilling rain; another would stand for hours on one
leg, supporting with both hands above his head a beam of
wood some three cubits long; a third would fix his gaze
upon the rising sun, and stare at the great luminary all
day till he disappeared below the western horizon. And,
when afflicted with disease or tired of life, these wise men
of India would sometimes erect a pyre and voluntarily
perish in the flames in the presence of the multitude.

Having satisfied ourselves, from Greek and Roman
sources, of the antiquity of the ascetic practices of the
Indian sages, we may, passing over many centuries, profit-
ably take stock, even cursorily, of the facts and impressions
regarding sadhus which some of the comparatively modern
European visitors to India, and official or other residents
there, have recorded in their published works.

When M. Tavernier travelled in the Mogul Empire
as a dealer in precious stones, about the middle of the
1 Strabo, M‘Crindle’s Ancicnt India, p. 71.

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

seventeenth century, the land he saw was very different
in many important respects from that which had met the
eyes of the Macedonian hero.

Many and striking changes had naturally occurred
during the two thousand years which had elapsed since
the fourth century before Christ. New world-religions had
arisen since then, and the followers of the latest born of
these creeds—aliens from Central Asia—were masters
of a great part of India when the Frenchman travelled
there. Yet the sad/m was still a prominent figure in
Indian life, and Hindu ascetics were, as in Greek times,
much in evidence everywhere, for M. Tavernier speaks of
the “infinite multitude of fagm'rs that swarm all over
India,” generally moving about in large parties and quite
naked.

These faquirs—for so he designates sadlms of all sects
——-were, he tells us, followers or imitators of Ravan, the
demon-king of Lanka, who abducted the fair Sita from her
hermitage in the woods of Dandaka. This, of course, is
incorrect; for though, according to the legends, Ravan had
been a great ascetic in his time, and acquired superhuman
power by his austerities, none of the ascetic sects set up
for being his followers. But though Tavernier’s knowledge
of the origin of the sad/ms was on a par with that of most
European visitors to India up to and including our own
time, still he certainly took intelligent note of what
came under his own observation in regard to the severe
austerities practised by some of them. In the English
version of his travels, published in London in 1684, there
is a curious engraving illustrating some of these self-
inflicted tortures.1

This plate appeared to me so interesting for many
reasons that I reproduce it (Fig. 6), together with the
following explanatory notes by our author :—

No. 1 is the part where the Bramins paint their idols ; such as Mamaniva,
Siva, Madedina, and others, whereof they have a great number.

No. 2 is a figure of Mamaniva, which is in the pagod.

N o. 3 is another pagod near the former. There stands a cow at the door,
and within stands the figure of their god Ram.

 

 

1 Travels in India, part ii. book ii. chap. vi.

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SADHUS DESCRIBED BY EUROPEAN VISITORS

No. 4 is another pagod, into which the faquirs that do penance often
retire.

No. 5 is another pagod dedicated to Ram.

No. 6 is a hut into which a faquér makes his retirement several times a
year, there being but one hole to let in the light. He stays there
according to the height of his devotion, sometimes nine or ten days
together, without either eating or drinking ; a thing which I could not
have believed had I not seen it.

No. 7 is a figure of another penitentiary, over whose head several years have
passed ; and yet he never slept day nor night. When he finds himself
sleepy, he hangs the weight of the upper part of his body upon a double
rope that is fastened to one of the boughs of the tree; and by the
continuance of this posture, which is very strange and painful, there
falls a humour into their legs that swells them very much.

No. 8 is the figure of two postures of two doing penance, who, as long as
they live, carry their arms above their heads in that manner; which
causes certain earnosities to breed in the joynts, that they can never
bring them down again. Their hair grows down to their wasts, and
their nails are as long as their fingers. Night and day, winter and
summer, they go always stark naked in the same posture, exposed
to the heat and rain and the stinging of the flies, from which they
have not the use of their hands to rid themselves. In other necessi-
ties they have other faquirs in their company, always ready to assist
them.

No. 9 is the posture of another penitent, who every day for several hours
stands upon one foot, holding a chafing-dish in his hand, into which he
pours incense, as an offering to his god, fixing his eyes all the while
upon the sun.

Nos. 10 and 11 are the figures of two other penitents sitting with their
hands raised above their heads in the air.

No. 12 is the posture wherein the penitents sleep, without ever resting their
arms ; which is certainly one of the greatest torments the body of man
can suffer. .

No. 13 is the posture of a penitent whose arms, through weakness,
hang flagging down upon his shoulders, being dried up for want of
nourishment.

There are an infinite number of other penitents, some who, in a posture
quite contrary to the motion and frame of nature, keep their eyes always
turned toward the sun; others who fix their eyes perpetually upon the
ground, never so much as speaking one word or looking any person in the
face. And indeed there is such an infinite variety of them that would
render the further discourse of them more tedious.

True it is that I have hid those parts which modesty will not suffer to
be exposed to view. But they both in city and country go all as naked as
they came out of their mothers’ wombs.

Although the worthy gem merchant evidently did
not understand the motives or ideas of these “ penitents,”
as he styles them, his testimony is conclusive as to
the fact that sadhuism was flourishing in his day. And

‘ 95

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

strange to relate, the contagion of sad/Luism, indigenous to
the soil, seems to have so affected the Muhammadan rulers
of India, that, besides the peripatetic Hindu ascetics,
Tavernier met bands of almost naked Muslim dervishes
wandering over the country, sometimes, as became mem-
bers of the dominant race, exceedingly haughty and over-
bearing in their demeanour. One such band, consisting
of about forty-seven persons, all well armed, including a
few who had held very high positions in the Imperial
Court, is specially mentioned by our traveller. Although
proceeding on foot, this band of Muslim ascetics had many
fine horses led before them, their saddles and bridles
adorned with gold and silver ornaments, and they had also
ten or twelve oxen to carry their sick. Arriving at the
spot where Tavernier had pitched his camp in the most
convenient position he could find, the armed and wealthy
dervishes desired him to vacate it, as they needed the place
themselves, and the Frenchman thought it prudent to
yield to their request without demur.

Notwithstanding their pomp and self-assertion, these
wandering ascetics lived upon alms obtained by begging,
for were they not faqu’irs? However, in all probability it
was fear which made the people comply, as did Tavernier
himself, with their demands.

This picture of truculent Muslim faquirs, affording
as it does a striking contrast to that of the mild Hindu
ascetics known from the earliest times to our own day,
has, as an index of the inwardness of Islam, an obvious
value.

The physician Francois Bernier, who during the reign
of the Mogul Emperor Aurangzeb travelled extensively
in India, and met M. Tavernier there, does not fail to
mention “the vast number and endless variety of faquz’rs ”
he encountered. Of these the jogis seem to have made
most impression upon him, not by their religious or
philosophical professions, but by their repulsive appearance.
From his narrative it is evident that the practice of
holding the arms perpetually above the head was a
common one with the sadhus in his day,—much more
common, I should say, than it is at the present time,—but

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SADHUS DESCRIBED BY EUROPEAN VISITORS

the only feeling which this cruel self-torture seems to
have awakened in the mind of the French physician was
one of disgust; for, alluding to those who adopt this
unnatural attitude, he says, “No fury in the infernal
regions can be conceived more horrible than the jaugm's,
with their naked and black skin, long hair, spindle arms,
long twisted nails, and fixed in the posture I have
mentioned.” 1

Bernier was so far correctly informed that he realised
that the object of the jogis was union with God; and he
relates that one of the jog/is, evidently a man of some
reputation, assured him that he could at pleasure fall
into a trance, during which he would be blessed with a
ravishing vision of God and transports of holy joy beyond
description. Bernier understood that penances were
commonly endured for the attainment of some definite
advantage in a new birth,—for example, reappearance on
earth as a Rajah,—-and he was also acquainted with the
fact that many sad/ms set up claims to the possession of
magical powers, and that such claims were readily admitted
by the people.

The testimony of this enlightened traveller, corroborat-
ing that of his contemporary Tavernier, leaves no doubt
that two hundred and fifty years ago Hindu religious
devotees abounded in the Mogul Emperor’s dominions;
that they wandered about freely in considerable bands, and
walked through large towns stark naked,—“ men, women,
and girls looking at them,” says Bernier, “ without any
more emotion than may be created when a hermit passes
through our streets.”

In the course of time a Christian power from beyond
the seas supplanted the Muhammadan overlords of India,
yet the sadhu still held his own under the new and
unsympathetic régime.

That sagacious, intelligent, and quaintly, perhaps
unctuously, pious Christian, James Forbes, who spent
seventeen years in Western India—from A.D. 17 66 to
1783—in the Honourable East India Company’s service,

1 Bernier’s Travels (A.D. 1656-68), pp. 316, 317 (Archibald Constable
& 00.).

G 97

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

and having attained the rank of “senior merchant ” in
the employment of that famous corporation, retired at
the early age of thirty-three years with a disordered
liver and an ample fortune, did not fail to observe,
during his exile in the East, the sad/ms and faguirs of
his day.

From his valuable Oriental Memoirs, published in 1813,
we learn that in the latter portion of the eighteenth
century the wandering sadhus were in great force through-
out the western country. “These gynmosophists,” he
says, “often unite in large armed bodies and perform
pilgrimages to the sacred rivers and celebrated temples;
but they are more like an army marching through a
province than an assembly of saints in procession to a
temple, and often lay the country through which they
pass under contribution” (vol. i. p. 68).

Our author was also aware that in their pererrations
these peripatetics went “from the confines of Russia to
Cape Comorin and from the borders of China to Malabarhill
on the island of Bombay” (i. 286), that they had many
marvels to relate of the men and places they had seen,
and were especially lavish in their praise of beautiful
Kashmir (ii. 459). Mr. Forbes found these travelled
ascetics more liberal-minded than the stay-at-home
Hindus, and confesses that he “spent many a pleasant
and improving hour with religious mendicants both Hindus
and Mohammedans ” (ii. 461).

One of these men, a venerable Brahman, informed
Mr. Forbes “that he had lived under different govern-
ments and travelled in many countries, but had never
witnessed a general diffusion of happiness equal to
that of the natives under the mild and equitable adminis-
tration of Mr. Hastings, at that time Governor-General of
Bengal.”

“ I cannot,” adds Mr. Forbes, “forget the words of this
respectable pilgrim; we were near a banian tree in the
durbar court when he thus concluded his discourse: ‘As
the burr tree, one of the noblest productions in nature,
by extending its branches for the comfort and refreshment
of all who seek its shelter, is emblematical of the deity,

98

SADHUS DESCRIBED BY EUROPEAN VISITORS

so do the virtues of the governor resemble the burr tree;
he extends his providence to the remotest districts, and
stretches out his arms, far and wide, to afford protection
and happiness to his people. Such, sahib, is Mr. Hastings 1 ’ ”
(vol. ii. 462).

According to our author, it would seem that the roving
propensities of the sad/bus, however beneficial to themselves
intellectually, were not conducive to right living, for many
of them led a by no means chaste life, being veritable
terrors to husbands wherever they went (ii. 234), and,
though they had professedly renounced the world and its
vanities, the wandering religious mendicants often contrived,
to the great annoyance of the officials, Mr. Forbes included,
to carry on, for their own profit, no little illicit trading in
valuable objects (ii. 214, 215).

We also learn from Mr. Forbes that “many yogecs and
similar professors ” subjected themselves to cruel penances
and mortifications. “Some of them,” he tells 11s, “ enter
into a solemn vow to continue for life in one unvaried
posture; others undertake to carry a cumbrous load or
drag a heavy chain; some crawl on their hands and knees
for years around an extensive empire; and others roll their
bodies on the earth from the shores of the Indus to the
banks of the Ganges, and in that humiliating posture
collect money to enable them either to build a temple, to
dig a well, or to atone for some particular sin. Some
swing during their Whole life, in this torrid clime, before
a slow fire; others suspend themselves, with their heads
downwards, for a certain time over the fiercest flames ”
(vol. i. p. 69).

In his travels Mr. Forbes came across the sadhu who
carries his useless arms above his head, and, reduced to
utter helplessness by his voluntary asceticism, is fed by
pious Hindu women even of good position. He also saw
the men who swing round a lofty pole suspended from a
cross-beam by means of iron hooks fixed in the muscles
of the back.

A far rarer and more curious form of austerity is thus
described: “ I saw another of these devotees, who was one
of the phallic worshippers of Seeva, and who, not content

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

with wearing or adorning the symbol of that deity, had
made a vow to fix every year a large iron ring into the
most tender part of his body, and thereto to suspend a
heavy chain, many yards long, to drag on the ground. I
saw this extraordinary saint in the seventh year of his
penance, when he had just put in the seventh ring; the
wound was then so recent and so painful that he was
obliged to carry the chain upon his shoulder, until the
orifice became more callous” (vol. i. p. 70).

Mr. Forbes, intelligent observer and inquirer that he
was, ascertained that the Hindu devotees were recruited
from all classes of the community “except the caste of
Chandala.” He did not fail to realise that a high standard
of abnegation and self-repression was theoretically demanded
of the professed ascetics, and he was prepared to admit
that, though the majority of the sadhus fell far short of the
requirements of the rules of their sects, there were at least
some enthusiasts who in solitude and meditation passed
blameless lives and were credited with the possession of
miraculous powers.

About a hundred years ago, the well-known Christian
missionary Ward, visiting Saugor Island at the head of
the Bay of Bengal, came across certain Hindu ascetics in
the extensive, dreary, and tiger-haunted jungle which
covered that place. Two of these were Bairagis from the
“Upper Provinces,” who lived in the wilderness in separate
log huts. When Ward saw them their customary fire was
burning on a sandy ridge, and before it, seated on a deer
skin, was one of the ascetics, all but quite naked, preparing
some ganjah, which he presently smoked in his chillum.
The Christian missionary entered into conversation with
the hermit, and learned from him that he had adopted a
life of abstraction and isolation from the world neither to
expiate any sin nor to secure any reward. He averred
that he had no desires and no hopes, but that being re-
moved from the agitations of the worldly life he was full
of tranquil joy.

Near a neighbouring temple Mr. Ward discovered two
other almost naked ascetics covered with ashes, each one
having his long matted hair tied in a knot upon the top

100

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SADHUS DESCRIBED BY EUROPEAN VISITORS

of his head. One of these sad/ms, quite a young man,
was holding up one of his arms; as, indeed, he had been
doing for no less than three years. “The nails of his
hand,” says Ward, “were grown long like the claws of
a bird of prey.” Inquiry elicited from the devotee the
statement that he was indifferent to future rewards, and
that the whole of his time was spent in a succession of
religious ceremonies and in repetition of the name of God.
He had to bathe at least once a day, and a single meal at
midday was all that he might partake of. The conspicuous
fresh footprints of a tiger becoming the subject of remark,
the sad/m mentioned, without displaying the slightest
emotion, that within the preceding three months six persons
had been carried off by tigers, before his eyes as it were,
adding, with apparent indifference, that he would himself
probably suffer the same fate.

The other ascetic by the lonely temple in the jungle,
who it appears held little if any communication with his
neighbours; evinced no desire for intercourse with the
inquisitive strangers, but remained absorbed in his own
devotions. A solitary of this type is depicted in Fig. 7.
{eferring to the physical state of these ascetics, the
Christian missionary remarked, “It appears almost im-
possible for human beings to manifest a greater disregard
of the body ” than was shown by these men; and we may
add that, whether indicative of wisdom or folly, their pain-
ful austerities in a remote fever-and-tiger-haunted swampy
jungle were plainly above any suspicion of imposture.

That remarkably well-informed and agreeable writer
about the India of the early decades of the last' century,
Colonel Sleeman, who in his rambles met a great many’ sadlms
of various sects, formed a correct appreciation of their
position in the Hindu social system, and was fair-minded
enough to recognise their good qualities as well as the
service they could at that time render to the British
Government by carrying a good report of it all over the
country in their extensive wanderings through the remotest
districts of the independent native States. At the same
time, Colonel Sleeman did not overlook the curious fact that
the very excellence of the British organisation, under which

101

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

the soldiers’ work was being efficiently carried out by one-
tenth of the number of men formerly employed by the
rival native rulers, was the cause of swelling very consider-
ably the ranks of the religious mendicants.

Colonel Sleeman records from personal knowledge some
very interesting incidents connected with faquirs and
sad/bus, which, however, need not be reproduced here ;1 but
one peculiar feature of sarl/m'ism of which he affords us a
glimpse is too instructive to be overlooked.

“The Mahadeo sandstone hills,” says Colonel Sleeman,
“which in the Sathpore range overlook the Nerbudda to
the south, rise to between four and five thousand feet above
the level of the sea; and in one of the highest parts a
fair was formerly, and is perhaps still, held for the enjrw
ment of those who assemble to witness the self-devotioi
a few young men, who offer themselves as a sacrifice to
fulfil the vows of their mothers! When a woman is
without children she makes votive offerings to all the gods
who can, she thinks, assist her, and promises of still
greater in case they should grant what she wants. Smaller
promises being found of no avail, she at last promises her
first-born, if a male, to the god of destruction, Mahadeo.
If she gets a son, she conceals from him her vows till he has
attained the age of puberty; she then communicates it to
him, and enjoins him to fulfil it. He believes it to be his
paramount duty to obey his mother’s call, and from that
moment he considers himself as devoted to the god. With-
out breathing to any living soul a syllable of what she has
told him, he puts on the habit of a pilgrim or religious
mendicant, visits all the celebrated temples dedicated to
this god in different parts of India, and at the annual fair
on the Mahadeo hills throws himself from a perpendicular
height of four or five hundred feet, and is dashed to pieces
upon the rocks below! If the youth does not feel himself
quite prepared for the sacrifice on the first visit, he spends
another year in pilgrimage, and returns to fulfil his mother’s
vow at the next fair. Some have, I believe, been known
to postpone the sacrifice to a third fair; but the interval

1 The reader may consult Colonel Slceman’s Rambles and Recollections,
vol. i. chap. xiii., vol. ii. chap. xxvi.
102

SADHUS DESCRIBED BY EUROPEAN VISITORS

is always spent in painful pilgrimages to the celebrated
temples of the god.” 1

Bishop Reginald Heber, who made an extensive tour in
India during 1824—2 6, records his surprise at finding that
the Hindu devotees were not so common as before his
coming to India he had expected to find them (vol. i.
p. 111). Of those the Bishop did actually come across he
has little if anything to say, and his narrative is singularly
deficient in just appreciation or reasonable comprehen-
sion of sadhuism. From the missionary point of view he
certainly recognised the importance of the Hindu ascetics
as hindrances to the conversion of the people to Christianity,
and in this connection refers to one nearly naked man,
“walking with three or four others, who suddenly knelt
“(Hm one after the other, and, catching hold of his foot, kissed
it repeatedly.”

Amongst other cases which came under his own observa-
tion, the Bishop mentions a man who had vowed to use
only one leg, the other being shrunken from disuse; a
devotee who held his hands above his head till he had
lost the power of bringing them down again (vol. i. 110,
111); and a hermit “ sitting naked with his hands joined
and his eyes half shut ” (i. 266).

The Bishop was told about two yogis who lived apart,
yet quite safely, in a tiger-haunted jungle, and was assured
that one of these men was visited every night by a formid-
able tiger, who came to lick the ascetic’s hands and be
fondled by him (vol. ii. 265—68); but the story did not
make much impression on the prelate.

Heber was also shown, but evinced no great interest in,
“ a small college . . . of religious mendicants or ciragies ”
(ii. 373). Once he came across “a holy yogi, his naked
and emaciated body covered over with white powder, and
an iron implement, like a flesh-hook, in his hand, which
is frequently carried by devotees in this part of India
(Baroda) ” (vol. iii. p. 55).

1 Colonel Sleeman’s Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Oficial,
vol. i. chap. xv. The practice referred to has, of course, died out or been
suppressed.

103

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

The foregoing brief references to the recorded experiences
and impressions of travellers and others show that the
sadhu, who is at the present time too prominent a feature
in the Indian world to escape attention, has also occupied
an honoured place in his native land through all the many
and often painful vicissitudes of fortune which it has
experienced.

Yet the sadhu of to-day is not necessarily the sadhu of
former times. It is true that nakedness, austerities, and
roving habits have been persistent outward characteristics
of the Indian sad/Lu through at least five-and-twenty
centuries; but it has to be noted that these peculiarities
have, by reason of their very obviousness, helped to conceal
from the casual observer the fact, which will be established
in the next chapter, that the religious ideas of which
sad/wism is the outward expression have, in the progress
of time, been undergoing many important changes.

104

CHAPTER VII

A VIEW OF THE SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN
HINDUISM AND OF THE ORIGIN OF THE MORE
IMPORTANT HINDU SECTS, IN RELATION TO THE
DEVELOPMENT OF SADHUISM IN INDIA

SECTION I.—Some fundamental Doctrines of Hindu Theology—Mya—
Pantheism—Metempsychosis—Karma.

 
  
    
   
  
 
 
    
 
   

  

trines we are happily not

left in ignorance.

""" _ ll§ In presence of the mys-
' t ...... ' terious workings of the
phenomena] world and the incomprehensible tragedies of life
around them, the bewildered Hindu thinkers, being human
and intellectual, were driven perforce to conceive some
plausible explanation of the mighty riddle of existence-—
of being, suffering, decay,.and dissolution—which confronted
them in its appalling and majestic silence. To solve their
profound difficulties for themselves, they naturally fell back
upon their imaginations, and, thus far, did not differ much,
except in the nature of their fancies, from their brethren

105

Y [3 3:3}:33 T is necessary for a full com-
0 i; ii: prehension of sadhuism
I :3 ..... i} that the student should
= A """" ,3; approach the subject with
RT 5133‘ some knowledge of the
*2 _ igj fundamental doctrines
:3 """" evolved in India by the
I ’r‘,‘ 3.1”- early Brahmanical theo-
g‘; ‘3"; logians; and of such doc-
= D

1
fi
0 . a.
0 ‘ns‘.\._'

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

of other creeds.1 But it has to be noted that in their un-
bounded confidence in their own dream-world the Hindu
sages pronounced the senses to be the misleading cause of
man’s ignorance, and arrived at the conclusion that the
world, as revealed by the senses, was all pure deception,
illusion (Mya), and that consequently the 'real world, true
knowledge, could only be reached by neglecting, suppressing,
and, as it were, getting behind the senses. To this verdict
of Hindu theological philosophy may be traced the pre-
ponderance of introspective contemplation, which we find
favoured by the various schemes of religious life adopted by
Hindu sectaries. Subtle philosophical speculations about
the origin and destiny of the world, about spirit and matter,
could hardly coexist with the joyous physiolatry of their
earlier cult, and this consequently became gradually con-
verted into an abstract nebulous pantheism, which fascinated
the Hindu mind, and has coloured all its subsequent ideas
—-so much so, that even the very recent and delicate
scientific researches on what he calls the “response of
matter,” carried out by a clever and well-known Bengali
Professor of Science, Dr. J. C. Bose, have very appropriately
led him to say—-

“ It was when I came upon the mute witness of these
self-made records, and perceived in them one phase of a
pervading unity that bears within it all things; the mote
that quivers in ripples of light, the teeming life upon our
earth, and the radiant suns that shine above‘us,—it was
then that I understood for the first time a little of that
message proclaimed by my ancestors on the banks of the
Ganges thirty centuries ago: ‘ They who see but one
in all the changing manifoldness of this universe, unto
them belongs Eternal Truth, unto none else, unto none
else!’ ”

This pantheism,recognising only one indefinite substance
or Being from which everything came and into which

1 Guessing at the origin and constitution of the material universe in its
wonderfully various aspects is a process by no means confined to the theo-
logians and philosophers, but may be traced, with important differences
no doubt, in the host of theories and hypotheses, most of them long since
discredited, which science has presented to the world.

106

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

everything would return, has, naturally, not found favour
with Christians. Professor Caird characterises it as “a
gulf in which all difference was lost,” adding that “the
ethics which could spring from such a faith was only the
negative ethics of an asceticism which renounced the
world and withdrew from it as an empty illusion.”1
Long centuries prior to the Christian era two important
tenets had taken firm root in India, and they are
flourishing there to this day. One of these is belief in
metempsychosis (samsdra), the other what is known as
karma. According to the former, death does not release
the soul permanently from its connection with matter,
for it may have to return again and again, even an
endless succession of times, animating other bodies, human,
bestial, and even vegetal ; 2 while, according to the doctrine
of karma (the Sanskrit word for action), it is upon a
man’s actions in this life that will depend the condition
or state in which the soul will be reincarnated. After
the death of an individual his soul may pass for a time
into a place of enjoyment—a heaven of bliss, in fact; but,
unless its purification has been complete, it will in the
fulness of time be inevitably reincarnated for a new
mundane existence. In a word, the present state is the
result of past actions, and the future depends upon the
present. Now, the ultimate hope of the Hindu should

1 Caird’s Evolution of Religion, vol. i. p. 263. In connection with this
subject, the following will not be without interest :—“As we read in the
Katha Upanishad, ‘The self-existent pierced the openings (of the senses)
so that they turn forward ; therefore man looks forward, not backward, into
himself. Some wise man, however, with his eyes closed and wishing for
immortality, saw the Self behind.’ . . . ‘The wise, when he knows that
that by which he perceives all objects in sleep and in waking is the great
omnipresent Self, grieves no more.’ ‘As the sun, the eye of the whole
world, is not contaminated by the external impurities seen by the eyes,
thus the one Self within all things is never contaminated by the misery of
the world, being himself without.’ ‘ There is one eternal thinker, thinking
non-eternal thoughts, who, though one, fulfils the desires of many. The
wise who perceive him within their Self, to them belongs eternal peace, not
to others.’ ”—Caird’s Evolution of Religion, vol. i. p. 355.

9 The doctrine of the transmigration of souls was held by the ancient
Egyptians. It found a footing in Greece and amongst the Jews—the
Kabbalists. The Manichaeans recognised it, and some heretical Muslim
sccts also adopted it.

107

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

be so to live that his soul may be eventually freed from
the necessity of being reincarnated, and may in the end
be reunited to the Infinite Spirit from which it sprang.
As, however, that goal is very remote, the Hindu not
uncommonly limits his desires and his efforts to the
attainment of a “good time ” now, and in his next
appearance upon this earthly stage.

108

CHA P T E R V I I—continued

SECTION II.—Modern Hinduism—Principal Divisions—The Sivite Reformer,
Sankara Acharya—His Crusade against Buddhism—Sakti \Vorship—
Mahmoud of Guzni’s successful Invasion of India—Islam a stimulating
Factor in the Origination of new and rival Siva and Vishnu Sects—
The Puranas—Ramanuja’s Campaign against Sivaism—Basava and his
Doctrines—Krishna Worship preached by Madhavacharya—His Theo-
logical Views—Ranlanand preaches at Benares the Worship of Rama
and Sita—Tendency towards Anthropomorphism in the later Sects.

f3,“ T the present time Hinduism proper—
“: by which I mean the practical religion
of the Hindu people, not the specula-
tive opinions of Hindu philosophers—
is represented by a bewildering variety
of sects, of which the more im-
portant ones at least may be
”it classified with tolerable accuracy
under the following main
groups :—

1. Saivas, worshippers of
the god Siva.

2. Saktas, worshippers of the female energy and
especially of the goddesses Devi, Durga, and Kali, all
consorts of Siva. ‘

3. Vaishnavas, worshippers of the god Vishnu.

(a) In his incarnation as Rama Chandra with his
wife Sita.

(b) As Krishna with his wives Lakshmi and
Rukmani and his favourite mistress Radha.1

  
  
  

.....

1 It was a peculiarity of the Egyptians, that, like the present Hindus,
they were divided as it were into sects, each of which adopted some one
deity out of the Pantheon for the exclusive object of worship, paying no

109

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

Towards the close of the eighth or the beginning
of the ninth century A.D. Siva worship attained a pro-
minent position and considerable success, mostly through
the exertions of an unmarried Brahman named Sankara
Acharya, who carried on a vigorous crusade against
Buddhism. It would seem that he countenanced every
form of Hinduism, but, “whatever Sankara’s own faith
may have been, his followers are practically Sivites.”1

Of the religious peculiarities of this transition period
we have fortunately many interesting particulars in a
work entitled Sankara thaya, by one Ananda Giri, a
reputed disciple of Sankara himself. The broad divisions
of Saivas, Saktas, and Vaishnavas can all be recognised
as existing at that time, but the sects described by
Ananda Giri can hardly, if at all, be identified with those
of the present day; and it is noteworthy that in no
portion of the Sankara szag/a “is any allusion made to
the separate worship of Krishna, either in his own person
or that of the infantine forms in which he is now so
eminently venerated in many parts of India, nor are the
names of Rama and Sita, of Lakshmana or Hanuman,
once particularised as enjoying any portion of distinct
and specific adoration.” 2

Siva, regarded by his special followers as the Supreme
Being, commands their adoration in many different and
even seemingly contradictory characters; but he is usually
worshipped under the impersonal symbol of the phallus or
l-ingam, an undoubtedly very ancient Oriental cult, though
not confined exclusively to the East. The spiritualisation,
exaltation, and even deification, of natural desire, of the
sexual instinct in fact, has been in the East from the
earliest times an object of certain sect founders, impressed,
no doubt, and fascinated by the mystery of generation.
And so it has come about that this mystery, which the
regard to all the rest. As in modern Hinduism Vishnu and Siva have
engrossed the religion of the country, so in Egypt of the first Christian
century Anubis and Cnuph had become the sole objects of Egyptian
veneratiou.—King’s The Gnostics and their Remains, pp. 101, 102.

1 Hindu Castes and Scots, by Dr. J. M. Bhattacharjec, p. 375.

2 Sketch of the Religious Sect: of the Hindus, by Professor H. H. Wilson,
pp. 11, 12.

I10

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

West has regarded with the greatest suspicion and dread,
has been invested by the subtle mysticism of the Orient
with the sanctifying garment of religion.

In connection with the cult and practices of the
Sankarite ascetic sects, it should be borne in mind that
although Siva is regarded by the Hindus as the Destroyer,
yet throughout India he is worshipped under the symbol
of the lingam, because in the endless round of births and
deaths to which, according to the doctrine of metempsy-
chosis, all sentient beings are subject, it is easy for the
mystic to see in destruction only the precursor of renewed
existence.1

I.

I am the god of the sensuous fire

That moulds all nature in forms divine ;
The symbols of death and of man’s desire,

The springs of change in the world are mine ;
The organs of birth and the circlet of bones,
And the light loves carved on the temple stones.

II.

I am the lord of, delights and pain,

Of the pest that killeth, of fruitful joys ;
I rule the currents of heart and vein;

A touch gives passion, a look destroys;
In the heat and cold of my lightest breath
Is the might incarnate of Lust and Death.

v.

And the strong swift river my shrine below

It runs, like man, its unending course,
To the boundless sea from eternal snow;

Mine is the Fountain, and mine the Force
That spurs all nature to ceaseless strife;
And my image is Death at the gates of Life.

(From Sir Alfred Lyall’s “Siva.”)

Under the influence of the Hindu admiration of the
ascetic life, Siva, the Great God (Maha-dev), stands forth
in the later Hinduism of the Puranas as the great ascetic
(Mahatapah, Mahayogi), a fact of especial significance in

1 For the modern lingam worship the principal authorities are the
Skanda, Siva, Brahmanda, and Linga Puranas.

III

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

connection with the subject of the present work. “In
this character he appears quite naked (digambam), with
only one face like an ordinary human being, with ash-
besmeared body and matted hair (whence his name
Dhurjati), sitting in profound meditation under a banian
tree, and often, like the contemplative Buddha, under a
canopy formed by a serpent’s head. There he is supposed
to remain passionless, motionless, immovable as the trunk
of a tree, perhaps rooted to the same spot for millions of
years.”1

With Siva are also commonly associated his consorts
and his bull N andi.

Siva, as Professor Wilson points out, is stated to have
“appeared in the beginning of the Kali age as sweta for
the purpose of benefiting the Brahmans. He resided on
the Himalaya mountains and taught the yoga.” Now the
word sweta means white, and all images of Siva, as well
as pictorial representations or living presentments of the
god, are always coloured white.

The legend referred to will account for the fact that
Siva is especially the god of the Brahmans.

Sankara Acharya’s crusade against Buddhism originated
in Southern India, but Sankara himself preached his
doctrines far and Wide, travelling from Malabar, where he
was born, to the valley of Kashmir in the Himalayas,
where he died at the early age of thirty-two. He has
been raised by his followers to the dignity of an incarnation
of Siva. “His sanctity was in such repute that he was
held to have worked several miracles—amongst others,
transferring his own soul for a time into the dead body of
a King Amru, that he might become the husband of the
king’s widow for a brief period, and so learn by experience
how to argue on amatory subjects with the wife of a
Brahman named Mandana, who was the only person he
had never conquered in argument. This is described in a
poem called Amaru-Sataka, to which a mystical interpreta-
tion is given.” 2

1 Brahmam'sm and Hinduism, by Professor Sir Monier Williams, p. 83
(third edition).
2 Ibid. p. 56.

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

Sankara’s aim in life seems to have been to' destroy
Buddhism in India and to revive and establish an old
Brahmanic cult. His chief doctrine was the essential
unity of the Divine Spirit and the human soul. He held,
indeed, that all nature is but a manifestation of the
Universal Soul, takes its origin from that soul, and is
eventually absorbed therein. In order to impress this
doctrine upon his mind, “the Sivite is required by his
religion to assert every now and then that he is Siva” ;1
Sivoham—I am Siva. .

For the attainment of final emancipation, muktz’,
Sankara held that realised knowledge of the oneness of
the Atman, or self, with the Absolute, or Brahman, was
essential.

The nature of Hindu views on this subject may be
somewhat elucidated by the following dialogue from the
Nadir unm’kat, a book in Persian, written in the middle of
the seventeenth century, explanatory of the tenets of the
sect known as the Baba Lalis :—

“Are the soul, life, and body merely shadows ?--The
soul is of the same nature as God, and one of the
many properties of universal life—like the sea, and a
drop of water; when the latter joins the former, it also
is sea.

“ How do the Paramatma (supreme soul) and J ivfitma
(living soul) differ ?—They do not differ, and pleasure and
pain ascribable to the latter arises from its imprisonment
in the body—the water of the Ganges is the same
whether it run in the river’s bed or be shut up in a
decanter.

“ What difference should that occasion ?—Great ; a drop
of wine added to the water in the decanter will impart its
flavour to the whole, but it would be lost in the river.
The Paramz‘ttma, therefore, is beyond accident, but the
Jivfttma is afflicted by sense and passion. Water cast
loosely on a fire will extinguish the fire; put that water
over the fire in a boiler, and the fire will evaporise the
water. So the body being the confining cauldron, and
passion the fire, the soul, which is compared to the water,

1 Hindu. Castes and Scots, by J. N. Bhattacharjee, M.A., D.L., p. 371.

H II 3

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

is dispersed abroad. The one great supreme soul is incapable
of these properties, and happiness is therefore only obtained
in reunion with it, when the dispersed and individualised
portions combine again with it, as the drops of water with
the parent stream; hence, although God needs not the
service of His slave, yet the slave should remember that
he is separated from God by the body alone, and may
exclaim perpetually, Blessed be the moment when I shall
lift the veil from off that face. The veil of the face of my
beloved is the dust of my body.

“What are the feelings of the perfect fagm’r ?——They
have not been, they are not to be, described; as it is said,
a person asked me, What are the sensations of a lover? I
replied, When you are a lover you will know.” 1

Sankara founded at least four important monasteries,2
and established various orders of wandering friars, to be re-
ferred to later on; but, unlike Buddha, he did not admit
nuns to his orders.

Sakti worship, that is, the worship of the female energy
in nature, having the gout and yantra for its accepted
symbols, is not perhaps as old in India as the phallic cult
of Siva; but we know it was flourishing there in the
eighth and ninth centuries A.D., and has a very considerable
following at the present time. The written authorities
upon which this cult is based are certain Puranas—for
example, the Brahma Vaivartha, Skanda, and Kalika; but
the most important Scriptures of the Saktas are the
Tantras, which they regard as a fifth Veda.

As worship of the goddesses Devi, Durga, and Kali,
the Sakti cult prevails, sometimes combined with the
grossest immoralities, mostly in the eastern portions of
India,—Behar, Bengal, and Assam,——where emotionalism
and mysticism are very prominent features of the national
character; the instance under consideration being a good
example of the fact that, where these mental qualities are
found in excess, they usually coexist with a deficiency of
self-control which may lead to sexual depravity. However,

1 Wilson, Religious Seats of the Hindus, pp. 225, 226.
2At Sringiri in Mysore, Badrinath in the Himalayas, Dwarka in Katti-
awar, and Jogganuth in Orissa.

114

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

as the Sakti cult naturally produces no ascetics, it is out-
side the scope of this book.

Since as far back as 636 A.D. successive waves of
Mussulman invasion had been beating with more or less
effect against the western boundaries of India. In A.D.
1024: Mahmoud, the Muhammadan ruler of Ghazni, after
eleven successful invasions of India as far as Gwalior and
Kanauj, returned once more, attracted this time by an
avaricious desire to secure the enormous wealth of the
famous temple of Somnath in Guzerat. Mahmoud had
already destroyed the temples of Thaneswar and Nag-
arkote, but Somnath, on account of the fame of its sanctity
and riches, was a prize which excited his fanaticism as
well as his cupidity. Situated by the Arabian Sea, close
to the sacred land where Krishna ruled and died, the
temple of Somnath appealed to the most cherished
religious feelings of the Hindus; but, though desper-
ately defended, it fell into the hands of the invader,
who contemptuously shattered in pieces the object of
worship there—a gigantic lingam—and carried off in
triumph the hoarded treasures of centuries of Hindu
piety.

“ The linga worship of Siva, we know,’ says Professor
Wilson, “was everywhere the predominant form of the
Hindu faith when the Mohammedans first invaded India,” 1
and anyone at all acquainted with the extensive and rest-
less rovings of the Indian sad/ms can easily imagine how
quickly the news of that terrible and striking catastrophe,
the destruction of Somnath, must have been carried
throughout the length and breadth of India by the
wandering Sivite friars and other peregrinating ascetics
of the day. The news as it sped through the land
must have struck dismay everywhere, and awakened
painful doubts in millions of hearts, as when the
sack of the Eternal City by Alaric and his Goths in
the fifth century gave a shock to Roman pride and
the pagan cults of the empire from which they never
recovered.

An ominous storm-cloud was gathering over Hindu

1 Preface to his translation of Malati and Madhava.
115

7

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

India, throwing a dark shadow of distrust over old
cherished beliefs. It was indeed just one of those critical
periods in the history of a nation when universal search-
ings of hearts give rise to revisions of long-established
faiths and to the formulation of new religious hopes and
aspirations. In the gloom of those troublous days the
Vishnu Puranas, with their extravagant legends for the
glorification of their chosen divinity, seem to have been
compiled, somewhere about the middle of the eleventh
century, from old traditions, coeval, no doubt, with Sivaism
and Buddhism. ’

During the hundred years which followed the com-
pilation of these l’uranas the Muhammadan power was
being consolidated in the Punjab, and a feeling of unrest at
the imminent peril which threatened Hinduism must have
been experienced throughout the remainder of India.
Such political conditions are always favourable to the
advent of prophets, reformers, and new religious systems.
In due time, therefore, appeared a rival to Sivaism in the
form of a Vishnu cultus.

Sivaism, as already stated, had received a great im-
petus from the teaching and preaching of Sankara Aeharya,
but had no doubt been discredited in men’s minds by
recent events.

The prophet of the new Vaishnava (Vishnuvite)
religion was Ramanuja, a Brahman of Southern India, who
about 1150 AD. commenced his campaign against Sivaism,
teaching a monotheism hardly distinguishable from pan-
theism. Instead of the much venerated lingmn, symbol of
Mahadev, he presented to the Hindu world, as objects of
special adoration, Vishnu,1 Krishna, and Rama; also their
respective wives, Lakshmi, Rukmini, and Sita. Contrary to
the views of Sankara, he taught that the human soul was
distinct from the Supreme Spirit, and retained its identity
and separate consciousness even when absorbed in the

1 7. ' ' . C O
. The god V ishnu, according to the Puranas, has appeared on the earth in
nine dlflerent incarnations, one of these being Rama Chandra, and he is to
appear once more as Kalki “at the end of the present age of sin for rescuing

the land of the Aryas from their oppressors.”—Bhattacharjee’s Hindu Ucwtcs
and Scots, p. 415.

116

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

Supreme Being. “ As a matter of fact, he believed in
three distinct principles, namely—

1. The Supreme Spirit, ‘ Para-brahma or Iswara.’

. The separate spirits of men, ‘ Chit.’

. N on-spirit, ‘ Achit.’ ” 1

And it may be added that be recognised the merit of good
works for the attainment of final exemption from further
transmigrations.

Ramanuja’s conflict with the worshippers of Siva was
carried on with a great deal of vehemence, and he was him-
self obliged to seek refuge from his enemies in the court
of the Jaina King of Karnata. Two distinct sects claim-
ing to be his spiritual descendants, styling themselves Vada-
galais and Ten-galais respectively, are to be found at present
in Southern India. Ramanuja’s followers affirm that their
prophet was an incarnation of the divine serpent Sesha.

Like other Indian reformers or heresiarchs, {amanuja
established ascetic orders in connection with his sect
known as the Sri Vaishnavas, and founded a large number
of monasteries.

Limam worship, as organised and extended by Sankara
and his immediate followers, was not, however, to be yet
ousted by its rival. Within a century of the promulga-
tion by Ramanuja of his Vishnu cultus, a new movement
in favour of Sivaism was set up by Basava in the southern
Mahratta country. Though a Brahman by birth, Basava
“ denied the superiority of the Brahmans, and tried his best
to abolish the distinction of caste.” 2 He also opposed
many ancient orthodox practices—cremation, for example—
and even questioned the inspiration of the Vedas.

According to his followers, Basava was an incarnation
not of Siva, but of Siva’s bull Nandi, who was sent down
especially to revive the Sivite cultus.3 To Basava are
attributed many remarkable miracles. After his work on
earth was accomplished he disappeared into the Sangames-
wara lingam, and thus returned to the heaven whence he
came.

[0

03

1Hindu Castes and Seats, by Dr. J. N. Bhattacharjee, p. 435.
2 Ibid. p. 396.
3 Professor H. H. Wilson’s Religious Seats of the Hindus, p. 143.

117

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

Basava established an ascetic mendicant order in
connection with his sect, named Jangamas or Lingaits
because they wear a lingam enclosed in a metal casket
suspended from'the neck by a cord. The order referred
to is well known in Southern India, but representatives
of it are rarely met with in the country north of the
Vindhyahs, although some are established at Benares.

But the political clouds continued to gather overhead,
the danger to Hinduism still increased. Islam was steadily
triumphing. What better course was open to the Hindus
than to forget their sectarian differences and unite together
in the worship of the divine Krishna, the central figure of
that great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata,1 and the very
god Vishnu 2 himself, in whom all Hindus could find their
ideals satisfied. And so in the thirteenth century Mad-
havacharya, a Kanarese Brahman, born in A.D. 1199,
vigorously preached the special worship of Krishna, but,
unlike Ramanuja, without displaying any hostility what-
ever to Sivaism, his object being to effect a union of
Sivitesand Vishnuvites under a new religious banner.

To- this end the images of Siva, Durga,3 and Ganesh4
are worshipped along with those of Vishnu in the temples
of the sect established by Madhavachai ya

As in the present time the Krishna cult seems to be
in especial favour amongst the Indian people, and as its
spread in certain forms must affect the practice of_
austerities, it seems desirable to consider the popular
beliefs respecting this god.

In the Mahabharata he is a warrior king, wise, subtle,
and full of guile. He is also the Supreme Being, and
unmistakably reveals himself as such. Some of the
earlier Puranas represent him in the same light. But

1 An epitome of the Mahabharata forms a portion of my Great Indian
Epics (George Bell & Sons).

2 “Krishna is regarded by some as the eighth incarnation (of Vishnu),
but according to the more orthodox view he was Vishnu himself, and was
not a mere incarnation.”—Dr. Bhattacharjee’s Hindu Castes and Sects, ~
I). 415.

3 The wife of Siva.

‘ The god of wisdom, son of Siva and Parvati, represented as a short
corpulent man with four hands and the head of an elephant.

118

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

later and more favourite legends devoted especially to his
youthful years dwell upon the dangers to which in infancy
his life was exposed from the jealous fears of his royal
uncle, expatiate upon his personal beauty, and revel in
the sensuous details of his various amours with the gopis
(milkmaids), amongst whom the most favoured was Radha,
a married woman passionately devoted, body and soul, to
her divine lover. Their loves, not unmixed with jealousies
and tears, as sung by the poets of India, have met with
ecstatic appreciation, while an attempt has been made by
the more sober-minded to cover their unblushing carnality
under a diaphanous veil of devotional mysticism.1 Whither
all this dallying with warm voluptuous passions and
sensuous images would inevitably lead the frailer devotees
does not need to be explained.

When the Krishna cult originated is very doubtful.
Its roots may be very ancient, but there can be no doubt
that it was in a new form that it appeared in India in
the thirteenth century.

Madhavacharya, the prophet who preached Krishna,
believed, like his predecessor Ramanuja, in the independent
existence of the human soul, and denied the possibility of
its absorption into the Universal Spirit either in this life
or after death. He held that there is one Eternal Supreme
Being, Vishnu, and that Siva, Brahma, and all the other
gods are subject to decay and dissolution; that there are
two eternal principles, God and the Human Soul, or rather
souls, the former independent, the latter dependent.
“ With regard to the visible world, he taught that its
elements existed eternally in the Supreme Being, and
were only created by Him in the sense of being shaped,
ordered, and arranged by His power and will.” 2

The sect established by Madhava has, like the rest, its
own mendicant orders and its own monasteries.

The success of Vaishnava doctrines in Southern India
led to their promulgation in the Gangetic valley, princi-

1 With this process we in the \Vest are familiar in the very far-fetched
interpretation which has been put by Christian theologians upon the glowing
scnsuousness of the Song of Songs.

2 Professor Sir Monier Williams, Brahmam’sm and Hinduism, p. 131.

119

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

pally through the preaching and teaching of a Brahman
named Ramanand, who lived at Benares in. the thirteenth
or fourteenth century. It is said that Ramanand, one of
Ramanuja’s successors, having travelled extensively over
India, returned to one of the monasteries of his sect, when
some priest or other raised the objection that in his
wanderings he could not possibly have observed the rule
of the Ramanuja sect, requiring meals to be strictly
private. On these grounds Ramanand was required to
eat apart from the rest of the brethren. In resentment
he founded a new sect, and, to show his contempt for
caste distinctions, freely admitted into it men of all castes,
even the lowest; and this was probably a prudent or even
necessary concession to popular feeling, more than ever
unwilling to accept the old yoke, since Islam was pre-
pared to receive all into its communion on a footing of
equality.

Ramanand’s followers were taught to pay especial
reverence to Rama and his wife Sita; for, with political
dangers looming on the horizon, what more natural than
to turn one’s thoughts to the faultless prince who, while
an incarnation of deity, had been in his human character
a wandering ascetic in the forests of Central India for no
less than fourteen years, and withal a successful warrior,
capable of avenging a wrong even when the evil-doer was
the terrible ten-headed demon-king of the Rakshasas.1

Again, what more charming and more admirable char-
acter could be found to arouse the love and homage of
all good men than that ever-faithful and tender wife, the
peerless Sita.

The cult instituted by Ramanand was an example of
the worship of God incamated in human form, similar to
that which we have in Christianity—a religion which had
already become familiar to the Indian people; for Roman
Catholic missionaries had long been established amongst
them.

If Sivaism was to be superseded by Vishnuism, surely

1 The story of Rama is the subject of the famous Sanskrit epic, the
Ramayana, of which I have given an epitome in my Great Indian Epics
(George Bell 8: Sons).

120

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

the object of adoration should be a god-man like Rama,
a model son and an exemplary husband, but above all a
redoubtable warrior and a leader of avenging hosts.

There are both monks and nuns connected with the
sect of the Ramanandis, who have flourishing monasteries
throughout Northern India.

[21

CH AP TER VI I—contimced

SECTION III.—Modern Democratic Reformers—Kahir, his peculiar and im-
portant position as a Reformer—Vallabhacharya sets up the Worship of
Krishna as Bala Gopala—Chaitanya the Mystic preaches the Worship
of Krishna cum Radha—Baba Nanak and his Teaching—The Sikhs—
Dadu and his Sect—Ram Charn and the Ram Sanchis founded by him—
The Rajput Princess Mirabai a Devotee of Krishna—The Trend of
Latter-day Hinduism—Brief Summary.

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P to this time all the heresiarchs

—for such they really were—
mentioned in this sketch, from
Sankara Acharya to Rama-
nand, were Brahmans and men
of education.

Although they belonged to
the privileged caste of the here-
ditary priesthood, democratic
tendencies became more and
more apparent in the sects
which successively arose under
their guidance, the latter of these
exhibiting a very marked disre-

gard for caste distinctions. At the same time, anthr0po-
morphic leanings are plainly manifest in the extensive
and popular worship of the Kshatriya warriors Krishna

and Rama.

In Kabir we have a low-caste man unacquainted with
Sanskrit literature, and a reformer of such a strikingly
new type amongst Hindu religious leaders that he calls
for more than a passing notice. This man, there is reason

122

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

to believe, may be numbered amongst the principal
disciples of Ramanand, though he was no slavish follower
of the master. It is related that Ramanand lived at
Benares in the strictest seclusion. He stayed all day in-
doors, and only at about two o’clock in the morning went
down to the Ganges to have his bath and perform his
devotions. Kabir, the low-caste weaver, could never
obtain access to the great teacher, because the master’s
followers and disciples drove him contemptuously away.
He knew, however, that Ramanand went nightly to the
sacred river for his bath, and so he used to lie in the
path and watch him as he passed. One night Ramanand,
on his way to the Ganges, stumbled against Kabir, and
instead of asking who he was, or making any apology,
merely said, as he passed along, “ Ooth! Ram ko Ram
bolo ! ” (Rise up! say Ram to Ram I).

Kabir was delighted, and went about telling every-
body he met that Ramanand had accepted him as
his chela, and had communicated the initiatory mantra.
to him. The disciples of the great teacher questioned
him about this, and not without sundry reproaches.
Ramanand denied all knowledge of the man. Kabir on
his part maintained the truth of .his statement, and
desired to be confronted with his guru. He was con-
ducted before Ramanand, and related what had occurred.
The master was pleased, and said, “Yes, he is my chela!
What greater mantra is there than the name of God?”
This is one story, and, though not identical with the one
given in the Dabistan, does not differ very materially
from it. But, according to the Bhaicta mala, Kabir’s
mother was at her own request brought by her father
to see Ramanand, who, without taking note of the fact
that she was a widow, saluted her with a benediction,
to the effect that she might be favoured with a son.
Of course the saint’s words, once uttered, were irrevocable.
The virgin widow in due time gave birth to a male child,
and, overwhelmed with shame, secretly abandoned the
infant, who was found by a weaver and his wife and
reared as their own offspring.

Judging from the works attributed to him and his

123

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

immediate disciples, he was a pronounced mystic,1 gifted
by nature with a great power of emotional influence.
But, mystic though he was, Kabir’s worldly wisdom led
him to advise his disciples to conciliate all men.

“Shabse hiliye, shabsc miliye,
Shabka lijiye nam;
Han-ji han-ji shabse kijiye,
\Vasa apna gam,”

which jingling couplet may be sufficiently rendered—-

“Mix with all, with all associate,
Each man’s name borrow free ;
Let ‘Yes, sir!’ on your lips be ever,
But bide ’ncath your own roof-tree.”

Kabir, though a monotheist after the Indian fashion,
did not deny the existence of the Hindu deities; but he
considered that their worship was not necessary, and he
was clearly anti-idolatrous in his views. What was a
new thing in Hinduism, Kabir insisted that purity of heart
was all-important, and ceremonies or modes of worship of
little account.

Thus said the teacher: “ To Ali and Rama we owe
our existence, and should therefore show similar tender-
ness to all that live: of what avail is it to shave your
head, prostrate yourself on the ground, or immerse your
body in the stream? Whilst you shed blood you call
yourself pure and boast of virtues that you never display.
Of what benefit is cleaning your mouth, counting your
beads, performing ablutions, and bowing yourself in
temples, when, whilst you mutter your prayers or journey
to Mecca or Medina, deceitfulness is in your heart. The
Hindu fasts every eleventh day, the Mussulman during
the Ramazan. Who formed the remaining months and
days that you should venerate but one? If the Creator
dwell in tabernacles, whose residence is the universe?
Who has beheld Rama seated amongst the images, or
found him at the shrine to which the pilgrim has directed

1 Mysticism, Dr. Max Nordan says, “is the expression of the inaptitude
for attention, for clear thought, and control of the emotions, and has for its
cause the weakness of the higher cerebral centres.”—Degencration, p. 536.

124

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

his steps? The city of Hara is to the east, that of Ali
to the west; but explore your own heart, for there are
both Rama and Karim.” 1

A characteristic story told of Kabir, extracted from
Shea and Troyes’ translation of the Dabistan, may not be
out of place here. .

“Kabir showed always great regard for the faquiv's.
One day a number of dervishes came to him. He received
them with respect in his house. As he possessed nothing
to show his generosity and munificence to them, he went
from door to door to procure something; but, having found
nothing, he said to his wife, ‘Hast thou no friend from
whom thou mayest borrow something?’ She answered,
‘There is a grocer in this street who threw an eye of
bad desire upon me; would I from this ‘sinner demand
something, I should obtain it.’ Kabir said, ‘Go im-
mediately to him, grant him what he desires, and bring
something for the dervishes.’ The woman went to the
lewd grocer and requested the loan of what she required.
He replied, ‘If thou comest this night to me, thy request
is granted.’ The woman consented, and swore the oath
which he imposed upon her to come, after which the
grocer gave her rice, oil, and whatever these men might
like. When the faqmlv's, well satisfied, went to rest, a
heavy rain began to fall, and the woman wished to break
her engagement; but Kabir, in order to keep her true to
her word, having taken her upon his shoulder, carried her
in the dark and rainy night through the deep mud to the
shop .of the bad grocer, and placed himself there in a
corner. When the woman had entered into the interior
part of the house, and the man found her feet unsullied,
he said to her, ‘How didst thou arrive without thy feet
being dirty ? ’ The woman concealed the fact. The grocer
conjured her by the holy name of God to reveal the-
truth. The woman, unable to refuse, said what had taken
place. The grocer, on hearing this, shrieked and was
senseless. When he had recovered his senses, he ran
out and threw himself at Kabir’s feet. Afterwards, having

1 Sabda the 56th, quoted in Professor H. H. Wilson’s Sketch of the
Religious Scots of flu: Hindus, pp. 52, 53.
125

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

distributed among the poor whatever he had in his shop,
he became a otmgi.” 1

The cardinal precepts of Kabir are the obligations of
humanity and truth, the desirability of retirement from the
world, and, above all, “implicit devotion in word, act, and
thought to the gum, or spiritual guide.” This last precept,
which did not originate with Kabir, and is by no means
peculiar to his sect, has taken strong hold of the Indian
mind, and has led to gum-worship of a decidedly objection-
able type.

Much of Kabir’s teaching was so greatly to the taste
of his Muhammadan countrymen that they actually claimed
him as a true Muslim. It is narrated that after his death
both Hindus and Muhammadans contended for the posses-
sion of his body, each desiring to do honour to the saint;
but, while they disputed, Kabir himself appeared in their
midst, and directed them to look under the cloth which
was supposed to cover his mortal remains, and after saying
this instantly vanished. When the coverlet was lifted a
heap of sweet-scented flowers was discovered, and nothing
more. The contending parties, astonished and awestruck,
shared the blooms between them, and dealt with them
according to their respective funeral ceremonies.

One half of the flowers was burnt by the Hindus, the
other half was buried by the Muslims, and a cenotaph
erected over it.

It is impossible to overlook the fact that Kabir stands
out in prominent contrast with the Hindu sect-founders
who had preceded him, being a low-caste man and un-
educated, and that in him the influence of Islam and
perhaps also of Christianity are clearly traceable. The
importance of Kabir in the more recent religious history of
India is not to be gauged by the number of his professed
followers—the Kabir-panthts—for they are not a very
considerable body; but Kabir’s teaching has largely in-
fluenced that of subsequent sect-founders—Guru Nanak,
for example.

The books recognised by his followers as embodying

1 The Dabistan of Mosun Fani, translated by Shea and Troyes, vol. ii.

pp. 189, 190.
1 26

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

the teachings of Kabir are known collectively as the Khas
Grantha, and consist of some twenty works in Hindi verse,
some of them of considerable size.

The followers of Kabir regard him as an incarnation of
the deity, and pay him divine honours, and of course
many miraculous circumstances connected with his life and
doings are narrated.

Monasteries for the accommodation of Kabir-panthis
exist in many places, and their mendicant friars may be
met with all over Northern India.

The age of Martin Luther was a time of considerable
religious activity in India, for there were no less than
three founders of leading Hindu sects who were contem-
poraries of the great European reformer, all three belonging
to northern parts of India—viz. Vallabhacharya preaching
at Benares, Chaitanya at Nadya in Bengal, and Nanak in
the Punjab.

Vallabhacharya (or Ballavacharya) was born at Benares
in 1479 A.D. of Brahman parents, and in his mature
years set up in his native city the worship of Krishna, not
as he is represented in the Mahabharata—shrewd statesman
and brave warrior—but as Bala Gopala, the cowherd boy
who indulged in amorous dalliance with the frail milk-
maids of Bindrabun. Philosophically, Vallabha held that
the human soul was a spark of the Divine Essence, and
though separated from was yet identical with it. His
system, which has attained great popularity and has led
in practice to the grossest profligacy, is of great interest,
because, unlike his sect-forming predecessors, Vallabha
(l'iscountcnmwed all mortifications of the flesh, maintaining
that the body should be reverenced and not ill-used. His
revolt against the old ideas and deeply rooted sentiments
of his own people curiously resembles the recoil from
sacerdotalism, and particularly asceticism, which occurred
contemporaneously in Europe under the stimulus of the
spirit which led to that great epoch known as the
Renaissance.

At Nadya, the chief seat of Sanskrit learning in Bengal,
Chaitanya (A.D. 1484-4527), a high-caste Brahman, ini-
tiated a religious movement of considerable importance.

127

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

At the time of Chaitanya’s advent the political state
of Bengal was, from the Hindu point of view, gloomy in
the extreme,1 and the religion of the people seems to have
been for the most part nothing but undisguised licentious-
ness. Surely a reform of morals was essential before any
amelioration of political conditions could be hoped for.
“ The bacchanalian orgies of the Tantrics,” writes a Bengali,
“and their worship of a ‘ shamefully exposed female,’
provoked the abhorrence of Chaitanya and roused his energy
to remove the deep blots upon the national character. He
commenced his labours by holding meetings of his
immediate friends. At these meetings he expounded the
life and acts of Krishna. Passages in Bhagbut which
everyone understood in a literal sense be construed
figuratively; and, by striking upon the emotional chord of
our nature, he thought of putting down sensualism by
sentiment. In a little time his enthusiasm affected
hundreds, and gathered round him a body of disciples.”2

We have ample biographical details of Chaitanya, and
from these it is evident that his was one of those highly
neurotic,.emotional temperaments, bordering upon madness,
which are characteristic of what it is the present fashion
to call the “higher degenerates.” More than once, indeed,
the border line of sanity seems to have been passed by
him, and he met his end by walking into the sea at Puri
in a fit of mental aberration. The essence of the Nadya
reformer’s teaching has been thus summed up by a Bengali .
Brahman: “ Chaitanya taught that bhalcti, or fervent devo-
tion, was the only read towards God, and that b/Laktz' was
of the following kinds :—

1. The devotion of a servant to his master.

2. The devotion of a friend to a friend.

3. The devotion of a parent to a child.

4. The devotion of a lady to her lover.”

1 “About the time when Sree Gauranga (220. Chaitanya) appeared,
Bengal had nearly lost its independence. The ruler was a Mohammedan,
and, though the Hindus succeeded from time to time in occupying the' throne,
they were obliged to embrace Mohammedanism in order to retain their
sovereignty.”——Lord Gauranga, or Salvation for All, by Shisliir Kumar

Ghose (Calcutta, 1897), vol. i. Introduction, p. ix.
2 Travels of a Hindu, by Bholanath Chunder, pp. 29, 80.

128

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

Chaitanya recommended Radha worship, and taught
that the best form of devotion was that which Radha, as
the beloved mistress of Krishna, felt for him.1 The
reformer also inculcated the necessity of strict vege-
tarianism and total abstinence from intoxicants. He
prohibited animal sacrifices, and even communication with
all who performed such sacrifices. The remarriage of
widows found favour with him.

Men of all castes, even the lowest, and Muhammadans
also, were admitted into his sect by Chaitanya. “Three
of his principal disciples, namely, Rup, Sanatan, and
Haridas, were Islamites.”2

An innovation made by Chaitanya was religious
musical processions known as saniuirtans. How powerfully
music—dreamy, sensuous, subtle music—may sway the
emotions of men, even to ecstasy, is well known in the
history of all religions, even Islam; so it is not to be
wondered at that the sank'irtmzs of Chaitanya, appealing
strongly to highly impressionable natures, aided the spread
of his teaching very much, and have become an exceedingly
popular feature in recent religious movements in India.
Chaitanya was fond of theatricals, and, once playing with
other amateurs, took the part of Rukhmini, the chief wife
of Krishna.

The history of religion shows how readily in all
countries emotional natures import the ideas of sexual
relationships .into their mystical longings for union with
the Divine Being a tendency which even the strong hand
of a guiding central authority has not always been able
to restrain from developing into objectionable practices.3

 

1 Bhattacharjee’s Hindu Castes and Sects, p. 469.

21bid. p. 464.

3 Christian Mysticism, by W. R. Inge, pp. 139, 140. \Vriting of St.
Catherine of Siena, “the spouse of Christ,” Mr. John Addington Symonds
says, “ ‘Cristo amore. Cristo amore.’ The reiteration of the word ‘love ’
is most significant. It was the keynote of her whole theology, the
mainspring of her life. In no merely figurative sense did she regard herself
as the spouse of Christ, but dwelt upon the bliss, beyond all mortal
happiness, which she enjoyed in supersensual communion with her Lord.
It is easy to understand how such ideas might be, and have been, corrupted,
when impressed on natures no less susceptible, but weaker and less gifted
than St. Catherine’s.”—Sketches in Italy and Greece, iii. 1). 53.

I 129

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

Now Chaitanya, unhampered by any controlling authority,
preaching earnestly in a warm climate to a highly
emotional people, commended with success the worship
of Krishna cum Radha; and such a combination, in spite
of subtle hermeneutists explaining it as a mystical union,
has not failed to lead to extravagant profligacy amongst
the more ardent followers of the cult.1

Chaitanya, it may be mentioned, was anticipated by
another leader, N imbaditya, who founded a sect known as
the Nimats, with headquarters at Muttra. It is almost
unnecessary to say that the prophet of Nadya was in the
eyes of his disciples nothing less than an incarnation of
Vishnu, and even in his lifetime a temple was erected, in
which his image—an almost naked mendicant painted
yellow—was the object of worship.

The sect founded by Chaitanya nearly four hundred
years ago is still flourishing, and seems latterly to have
been making great progress. Bindrabun, on the banks of
the J umna, identified as the spot where Krishna carried
on his intrigues with the 9010753, owes its existence and its
present flourishing state to Chaitanya and the sect which
originated with him. The prophet himself left no issue,
but he had two Brahman coadjutors in his life’s mission;
and their descendants, now known as gossaz'ns, are the
acknowledged and venerated spiritual heads of the sect.

Writing with reference to the Vaishnavas of Bengal,
and the Chaitanites in particular, Professor H. H. Wilson
says—

“Of all obligations, however, the guru padasmya, or
servile veneration of the spiritual teacher, is the most
important and compulsory. The members of this sect are
not only required to deliver up themselves and everything
valuable to the disposal of the gum, they are not only to
entertain full belief in the usual Vaishnava tenet, which
identifies the votary, the teacher, and the god, but they
are to look upon the guru as one and the present deity,
as possessed of more authority even than the deity, and
as one whose favour is more to be courted and Whose

1 An account of the more disreputable Chaitanite sects of Bengal is given
in Dr. Bhattacharjee’s Hindu Castes and Seals, pp. 480-83.
130

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

anger is more to be deprecated than even that of Krishna
himself.” 1

The Chaitanites, who have long manifested a marked
hostility to the Brahmans, have their own mendicant
orders and their monasteries, many of them flourishing
institutions.

In the wake of the successful teaching of Chaitanya
we have the Radha Ballabis, who afford a curious and
instructive instance—not, it is true, confined to Hinduism
—of the manner in which worship is gradually transferred
from the principal divinity to others associated with him
even in a distinctly subordinate capacity. The sect
referred to was founded, it is said, at the end of the
sixteenth century, with headquarters at Bindrabun in
Northern India, the object in view being to concentrate
attention upon the worship of Radha, even in preference
to that of Krishna himself; the faithful and devoted
human mistress thus superseding, as it were, in men’s
veneration her divine but fickle lover.

Nanak. A spiritual descendant of Kabir was Baba
Nanak, a Hindu of the Kshatriya caste, who was born in
the Punjab in A.D. 1469, and died there in 1539. From his
earliest youth Nanak displayed a strong leaning towards
the society of sad/bus, a disinclination for regular work of
any kind, and a passion for a wandering life. He is said
to have travelled extensively over India, and to have
visited Persia and even Mecca.

Needless to say, many miracles are attributed to him.2
His opinions and teachings—vague and mysterious—are
embodied in the Adi Gran'th (“The First Book”), a
collection of prayers, or rather rhapsodies, compiled some
fifty years after his death by one of his successors, Guru
Arjan Dev. From these it may be gathered that Nanak
acknowledged the existence of the Hindu divinities, over
whom, however, he placed a Supreme Being, Akal Purkh,
the Formless 0716.

From passages in the Japji composed by Nanak
himself, it may be gathered that his philosophical ideas

1 Hindu Castes and Scots, p. 103. 2 V idc supra, pp. 31—33. I

131

 

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

differed little, if at all, from ordinary Hindu pantheism,
his Supreme Being having no separate, conscious existence.
But so much was Nanak. under the influence of Islam
that he often refers to God in terms which might be
appropriately used by a Muhammadan or a Christian. And
he was so far emancipated from the power of Hindu
traditions and practice that he dissuaded his disciples
from the worship of idols and the observance of Hindu
religious ceremonies. Born and reared under a powerful
Muhammadan government, Nanak endeavoured, like his
predecessor Kabir, to assimilate his doctrines to those of
his masters without abandoning the faith of his fathers;
and he strove to conciliate the dominant class by maintain-
ing that there was no material difference between Hindu
and Muslim, this syncretism being only too natural on the
part of the religious Hindu in the face of the powerful
bigotry and proselytising energy of the Islamic rulers.

Nanak claimed that the Supreme Being was his guru,
and had appointed him the guru of mankind. All castes
were admitted into his sect, now well known as the Sikhs
of the Punjab. One of his earliest disciples, Mardana,
was a Mussulman by birth.

Nanak was succeeded by nine gums, and under the
last of these—Govind Singh (A.D. 1675—1708), who
compiled a second Granth known as the Granth of the
Tenth Reign—the peaceful religion of Nanak was trans-
formed into a militant creed. Stimulated by this new
cult, the Sikhs developed later on into a powerful political
organisation. This remarkable metamorphosis was due to
resentment at the religious persecutions and oppressive
exactions carried on by the Muhammadan rulers of India,
and was powerfully aided by the favourable opportunity
for revenge, loot, and self-aggrandisement afforded by the
very palpable decay of the Muslim power in India during
the eighteenth century.

The Sikhs of Govind Singh are permitted to eat flesh,
though not beef, and may drink ardent spirits and bhang,
but are prohibited from using tobacco in any form.

On the whole, Sikhism seems to have been an effort,
prolonged, but by no means quite successful, to do without

I32

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

the gods of the Hindu Pantheon and their Brahman
priesthood, to discard idolatry, and to shake off the fetters
of caste. At the period of its greatest divergence from
Hinduism, the Sikh sect stands forth as a democratic
brotherhood, believing in a sort of vague Indian pantheism
disguised as monotheism. Now, however, many shades
of opinion prevail amongst the Sikhs, and many very
Hindu practices find favour amongst a large proportion of
the brotherhood.

Sikhism has given rise to several mendicant orders,
and a goodly number of flourishing monasteries known as
Akhfiras, belonging to the sect, exist in the Punjab and
Northern India.

Dada (A.D. 1550—1600).——Within a few years of the
death of Baba Nanak, a very low-caste man of the name of
Dadu founded in Rajputana a new non-idolatrous sect of
lama worshippers, and after his mission on earth was
completed he ascended to heaven from the hill Naraina in
J eypore territory, where stands the principal monastery of
his sect, known as the Dadu Panthis.

Ram Cham, belonging to the first half of the eighteenth
century, was another reformer who, resolutely opposing idol
worship, embroiled himself with the Brahmans, and was in
consequence subjected to much persecution at their hands.
The Ram Sanehi sect founded by him is of austere habits,
and freely admits to its fellowship Hindus of all castes.
All members of the sect are vegetarians, and are required
to abstain from intoxicants as well as from narcotic drugs
and tobacco.

Rama is the special god of the sect. Both men and
women take part daily in his worship, though the two
sexes are not permitted to do so at the same time. The
religious services of the. Ram Sanehis are said to have a
strong resemblance to those of the Mussulmans.

Two mendicant orders belong to the sect, which has
its principal monastery at Shahpur in Rajputana.

In addition to the number of examples of Hindu
heresiarchs already given in this volume, one female
133

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

sect-founder, the llajput princess Mirabai, may also be
mentioned.

Of this lady it is related in the Bhakta mala1 that
on account of her refusal to abandon the worship of Krishna,
at the command of her husband, the Rana of Udaypur, she
was expelled from the royal palace, but in consideration
of her rank was allowed a separate residence. The wor-
ship of Ranachor, a form of the youthful Krishna, was the
one which had captivated the imagination of the princess,
and, as a reward for her devotion to the divine object of
her adoration, she was eventually, in a miraculous manner,
received into the image of her especial deity, and thus,
in appropriate fashion, disappeared from the world.

An idea of the transcendental views held by this
lady (and by Krishna-Radha worshippers generally) may
be gathered from the following anecdote told of her :—
“ When Mirabai, the Rajput princess, who left everything
for her love for Krishna, visited the renowned Rup
Goswami of Brindaban, one of the chief bizalctas of Sree
Gauranga (Chaitanya), Rup, an ascetic of the highest
order, refused to see her on the ground that he was pre-
cluded from seeing the face of a woman. As a fact,
Mirabai was a most beautiful young princess, and he
had not much faith in her pretensions. Hearing the
message of Rup, Mirabai replied, ‘Is he then a male?
If so, he has no access to Brindaban. Males cannot enter
there, and, if the goddess of Brindaban comes to know
of his presence, she will turn him out. For does not the
great Goswami know that there is but one male in
existence, .namely, my beloved Kanai Lal (an endearing
name of Krishna), and that all besides are females?’
Rup now understood that Mirabai was really a staunch
devotee of Krishna, and so agreed to see her.”2

What peculiar religious customs spring from such
opinions, the following ext1act showzs ——

“ Suflcc- Mam. ———These mendicants, born 1n the western

1 See Professor Wilson’s Sketch of the Religious Scots of the Hindus, pp.
85—87.

2Lord Gauranga, or Salvation for All, by Shishir Kumar Ghosc,
vol. i. Introduction, 1). x1 (Calcutta, 1897).

134

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

provinces and composed of Bramhuns and other castes,
are followers of Krishna, and, though men, put on the
dress and ornaments and assume the manners of women,
professing the same attachment to Krishna as the milk-
maids are said to have had when Krishna was on earth.
They paint and adorn with flowers an image of Krishna,
and dancing around it, in imitation of the milkmaids,
worship it daily.” 1

A small sect called Mirabais, acknowledging the
leadership of the Rajput princess, is said to be still in
existence in Western India.

Taking a. retrospective survey of Neo-Brahmanism
as sketched in the foregoing pages, one cannot help
being impressed with the following facts. Although the
worship of Vishnu under the forms of Krishna and Rama
spread far and wide, although the primitive phallic cult
of Siva also flourished contemporaneously, although men
in their anxiety paid homage impartially at the shrines of
both these gods of the Hindu triad, and in Eastern India
invoked, with many strange rites, the goddesses Durga and
Kali, yet the Muhammadan Empire went on extending
irresistibly, until at length it became paramount in India.
Islam, indeed, with its uncompromising monotheism and its
abhorrence of idolatry, made itself powerfully feltthroughout
the land, while numbers of the subjugated became converts
to the vigorously proselytising creed of the conquerors, under
which invidious distinctions of caste were not maintained.

Amidst the wreck of Hindu States the question of the
preservation of Hinduism itself became of vital importance.
Diverse methods of achieving this great object naturally
suggested themselves to differently constituted minds.
Hinduism might be made softly alluring, by some means
or other, so as still to retain the allegiance of a dis-
illusioned race, no longer confident in the support of its
gods and its arrogant priesthood; or the national religion
might be reformed to suit the new order of ideas awakened
by the presence and claims of Islam; or it might be
modified so as to resemble, outwardly at least, the Muslim
faith, and thus avoid contempt and evade persecution.

1 \Vard’s Hindus, p. 296.
I35

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

Three distinct effects arose from the circumstances and
conditions to which attention has just been drawn. '

1. The rise of sects combining the worship of Radha,
the favourite mistress of Krishna, with that of her divine
lover—a combination too naturally suggestive of sensuality,
and one lending itself readily to the establishment of
practices calculated ,to attract followers by their veiled
or open immorality. To this class belong the sects of
the N imats, the Radha Vallabhis (sixteenth century), and
the Chaitanites (sixteenth century) of Bengal.

2. The appearance of conciliatory syncretic Hindu
sects intended, at any rate by their original founders, to
bridge over the differences between the religions of the
Hindus and their Muslim rulers—to reconcile them, in
fact. In this category may be placed the sects formed
in Northern India by Kabir (sixteenth century) and by
Guru Nanak (sixteenth century), though the latter sect
was under subsequent spiritual leaders developed along very
different lines from those adopted by the founder.

3. The formation of Hindu sects opposed to idolatry:
for example, the Ram-worshipping Dadu Panthis (A.D.
1550—1600) and Ram Sanehis (AD. 1718), both of
Rajputana.

During the decay of the Muhannnadan and the rise of
the British power in India, the process of sect-formation has
been as active as ever. New and potent factors, such
as Western education and aggressive Christianity, have
come into play in the disintegration of immemorial beliefs
and practices and the formation of new ones. None of
all the main types of post-Buddhist Hinduism can be
said to be actually dying out; indeed, under the complete
religious freedom of British rule they all appear to give
signs of renewed vitality. Many recent sects are of a
decidedly objectionable type; but, whether respectable
or otherwise, nearly all furnish a contingent of mendicants
to swell the hordes of the privileged itinerants who swarm
over the country. -

Under the new conditions of life obtaining in India,
and in response to intellectual stimuli of European origin,
there have recently appeared in our own time certain

I36

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

small theistic, non-idolatrous sects, like the Brahnw-samaj,
whose chief prophet, the eloquent Keshub Chunder Sen,
was a sudm; and the Arya-samaj, founded by a Mahratta
Brahman named Dayanand, a man of commanding talents
and personality. The former of these sects is well known
in Europe and America, through its founder and some
of its prominent apostles having visited the West and
lectured there; but the Brahmo cult has still a quite
insignificant following, perhaps because, by denying the
authority of the Vedas, it has practically drifted away
from Hinduism. The Arya-samaj, though hardly a
purely religious sect, adhered to the Vedas, as interpreted
by Dayanand; but it favours certain practices which are
certain, in the course of time, to undermine its morals,
though possibly these very practices might prove an
attraction and help to swell the numbers of the new sect.

It remains to note the fact that political circumstances
and national aspirations have also, in recent times, called
into being the dangerous sect of the chlras in the Punjab,
and have led quite lately to the very significant deification
in his own country of the Mahratta Chieftain Seva-ji
(A.D. 1627—80), famous for his successes against the
Muhammadans, and for the establishment of the practical
supremacy of the Mahrattas in Southern India.1

And so the kaleidoscope of Indian religious sects
presents at every succeeding period new groups and com-
binations. For each sect, old or new, it is an absolute
necessity that it should have its own temples, to accommo-
date the material representations of its chosen divinities
and to lodge the priests who conduct the worship of the
idols and accept the gifts presented to them. Moreover,
if the sect is to spread and flourish, it must have its own
missionaries, who, in conformity with immemorial Indian
traditions, should be wandering ascetics. Nor could it
have been difficult, at any time, to find such men in

1 Under the auspices of certain Indian politicians, the Sivaji festival
was, for the first time, celebrated in Calcutta in June 1902, and was the
occasion for many significant speeches by no means calculated to promote
harmonious relations between the rulers and the ruled in India—Vide
The Englishman, Calcutta, 26th June 1902.

37

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

abundance owing to the many causes predisposing to world-
weariness, renunciation, and abstention from labour which
have been ever present in India.

Hinduism is certainly very old, and its foundations lie
deep down in the hearts of the Indian people, but even
my brief sketch of its history must have made it abun-
dantly clear that, contrary to the prevailing impression,
it has undergone vast changes in the course of time, and
that it is still as plastic as of old, because neither now nor
at any previous stages of its development, especially since
the Buddhist revolt, has it been subject to that organised
control of a centralised authority which circumstances ren-
dered possible in Europe; hence new sects have arisen,
and have expanded in a way which was not tolerated
by the strong arm of the ecclesiastical authorities in
Christendom.

The Aryan nature-gods have certainly long ceased
to be worshipped. Indra, Kuvera, Yama,Varuna, Garuda,
and Soma. have likewise fallen into the background of
oblivion. It is true that the Brahmans have managed to
secure long-continued veneration for their tutelary deity
Siva, but the people have enthroned two Kshatriya heroes,
Krishna and Rama, as the especial objects of their venera-
tion; the former, for many reasons, being the more popular
of the two, and likely, in one aspect or other, to maintain
his place for ages to come in the hearts of the Hindus.

With the striking changes which the religion of the
Hindus has steadily.undergone there have been concomitant
mutations in the attitude of the worshippers towards the
unseen powers.

Within the pale of Brahmanism the worshipper relied
on complicated rites and ceremonies, on sacrifices, spells,
pilgrimages, and almsgiving—all these being conducted by
or under the strict guidance solely of the Brahman priest-
hood, who practically controlled his destinies, and without
whom there was no possible salvation. Buddhism, reject-
ing such sacerdotal aids, required its followers to trust to
complete detachment from the world as the safest and
surest means of securing happiness here and spiritual de-
liverance hereafter; and Buddhism expected each man or

138

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

woman to work out his or her own emancipation. In
modern Hinduism, which succeeded Buddhism, the
Brahmans never recovered such an ascendant position as
they had enjoyed in earlier days, for the ascetic saints
and sages had acquired too much consideration and
authority to be suppressed or set aside. And at the same
time new ideas had taken hold of men’s minds, causing
them to place less reliance than of yore in the old
ceremonial rites, and leaving them to place their trust and
hope in passionate devotion to or faith in a chosen god.
A great and mighty change this, a momentous revolution.
But since for most men the divinity is too high, too remote,
too transcendent for this devotion, the Hindu has in many
cases accepted as substitute for the chosen deity his
supposed representative, his very incarnation, the living
guru, the saintly sadhu to whom he actually pays his
adoration.1 Only the wilfully blind could fail to see the
parallelism between these developments and those which
have occurred in other more familiar creeds.

In respect to that most important subject, caste, it may
be said that the appearance of each new sect has been
signalised by a renewed struggle against the disabilities
imposed by caste, but with little practical result beyond
the formation of new castes or sub-castes; which is by no
means to be wondered at, since the time-honoured system
has, naturally, the unflinching, whole-hearted support of
the superior classes, and particularly of the still powerful
Brahmanical priesthood.

Recently that most intellectual of rulers, the German
Emperor, was reported to have said “that the germ of
every sectarian movement is political, so is the germ of
every political movement a question of the material welfare
of the people ; ” and there is profound truth in this state-
ment. How frequently in Europe and elsewhere unfavour-
able political conditions have led to general despondency,
and thereafter to religious revivals and the birth of

1 How completely even a highly educated and practical man can sub-
ordinate himself to a living gum is well exemplified in the case of an ex-
Postmaster-General of the North-West Provinces, cited in Professor Max
Miiller’s sze and Sayings of Rama Krishna, pp. 20—22.

I39

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

heretical sects or new monastic orders, is a matter of history.
The fact being admitted that the political background of
each period cannot but colour the minds of the populace
and its leaders, it becomes a factor of too much importance
to be passed over entirely; hence the place given to it in
the foregoing brief outline of the rise and progress of
modern Hinduism seems to need no special justification.

As supplementary to the above condensed account of
the appearance from time to time of new gods and novel
conceptions in Hinduism, and of the genesis of the more
prominent sects under the leadership of religious reformers,
the important fact must not be overlooked that, whatever
the doctrinal views and ultimate hopes of subtle theologians
and earnest religionists may have been, there have never, at
any period, been wanting multitudes of Hindu people indis-
posed to undergo austerities or personal discomforts of any
kind, and yet none the less desirous of securing a prosperous
time in this life, a better time in the next mundane existence,
and eventually also eons of bliss in the various heavens of
the gods. And this worldly-minded class has, on account
of its wealth and influence, been too important and useful
a factor in the community to be really slighted by the
prophets and the priesthood, however much such professors
of religion might rail against riches as such. Renunciation,
as preached by most founders of sects or religions, if univer-
sally practised, could obviously only end in national ex-
tinction; hence it follows that, to preclude such a disaster,
there must always be a class of workers whose special
function it is to produce and provide the necessaries of
life for themselves and also for those who, abstaining from
all labour, desire to live on alms.

And indeed, wherever religion recommends or enjoins
renunciation, it also proclaims, with no uncertain voice, that
liberality to the poor—meaning more particularly the re-
ligious poor—and the priestly classes will be unstintingly
rewarded here and hereafter. Mendicity, on the colossal
scale in which it has existed in India time out of mind,
could only be possible on the condition of widespread and
whole-hearted charitableness on the part of laymen of all
classes; hence it is not surprising to find charity lauded in

I40

SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MODERN HINDUISM

the Hindu Scriptures as the special virtue of this present
age, known to Hindus as the Kali Y aga.

“ In the K’rila Y uga,” says Vrihaspati, “ the prevailing
virtue is declared to be religious austerity; in the Twila,
divine knowledge; in the Divapa’ra, sacrifices; and in the
Kali Yuga, charity, compassion, and restraint of passions.

“Manu, however, beginning with the use of almost
identical words, constitutes charity alone the supreme
virtue in the degenerate Kali Yaga—

“ ‘ In the Krita Yuga the prevailing virtue is declared to
be religious austerity; in the To'ita, divine knowledge; in
the Divapara, sacrifices; in the Kali Y uga, charity alone.’ ” 1

1 The Hindu Law of Endomncnls, Tagore Law Lectures, 1892, by

Pandit Prannath Saraswati, M..A. and B.L., p. 15 (Thackcr, Spink, &
Co., Calcutta).

I41

CHAPTER VIII

HINDU ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

SECTION I.—Introductory Remarks—The Multiplicity of Hindu Sects by
no means Abnormal—Jain Monks or Yatis interviewed—Their Opinions
and Habits.

_ HERE are, as might
have been expected,
a large number of Hindu
sects. Professor Wilson
gives a list of forty-three
of them, and adds that in
popular works on the sub-
ject ninety-six heresies are
ordinarily recognised. It
is needless to say that even
this figure would not nearly
represent the actual num-
- ber existing at the present
:"-l”.=a.i§;~'3;?iv‘-‘-;;‘-;=’-"-3‘7'3'-"3~-"" time. Amongst the sects
studied and described by

Europeans are some whose tenets and practices have filled
pious Westerns with supercilious wonderment or holy
horror; but, if we are to be just, it must be admitted that
such abnormalities may be found, if looked for, in the
by-paths of every religion, not excepting the Christian.
All religions in the course of their existence give rise to a
multitude of heretical separatists. In the case of Chris-
tianity, heresies appeared from apostolic times, and some
sects holding opinions entirely subversive of morality as
we understand it came into existence very early indeed:

I42

 
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
 

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

for example, the Antinomians, who held that the moral
law was not binding upon Christians. Sects possessed
of little inherent vitality died of natural exhaustion, but
many, both in the early centuries and in the Middle Ages,
such as the Gnostics, Manichzeans, N estorians, Albigenses,
Hussites, and others, were forcibly and relentlessly sup-
pressed by Church and State authority. Since the suc-
cessful revolt against the power of the Papacy in the
sixteenth century, a very considerable number of dissenting
Christian sects, some with ideas in regard to political and
sexual morality far removed from those ordinarily accepted
by the established Churches, have appeared and secured a
footing for themselves.1

Similarly, Hinduism in its long history has produced
a great variety of peculiar sects, and, as it differs from
Christianity in not having had a powerful, well-organised,
and resolute central authority to guide for centuries its
theological development, the heresies—often characterised
by great freedom and originality of doctrine and much
latitude in practice—have, in most cases, been able to run
a normal course, and have sometimes grown to be almost
semi-independent religions.

It seems superfluous to state that the foregoing
remarks and comparisons are merely intended to remove
the erroneous impression which prevails, rather widely,
that there is something abnormal in the multiplicity of
religious sects to be found in India.

Amongst the still existing Indian sects, the J ains, so
interesting in themselves, and also as a link with Buddhism,
claim precedence of attention. This ancient sect,—it is
hardly an independent religion now,— whose origin is
perhaps antecedent to that of Buddhism, and therefore
may date back earlier than the sixth century B.C., exhibits
much of the spirit, the precepts, and the discipline of
monasticism as established or organised by Gautama Buddha,
a full description of which may be read in Mr. Spence
Hardy’s comprehensive work entitled Eastern Monaehz'sm.

1 Amongst sects of quite recent date originating in Protestant countries
may be named the Swedenborgians, Mormons, Shakers, Irvingites, Darbyites,
Sandemanians, Perfectionists, Agapemonites, and Christian Scientists.

I43

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

As, however, I do not desire to deal with the Jain system
in any detail, may I invite the reader to make the acquaint-
ance of the J ains—monks, nuns, and laymen—by following
me as I describe for him my impressions of certain religious
meetings of that most ancient sect held in the'autumn of
1898, at which I had the privilege of being present.

Jain Monks 0r Yatis.—A few high steps rising from
the mud of the narrow overcrowded lane brought me into
a dark hall, which gave access to a straight and steep
flight of brick stairs not a yard wide between its bounding
walls. I ascended these stairs, and, after passing through
a low restricted doorway at the top, found myself on the
flat terrace roof of the main building—an ordinary house
such as may be found in the native quarters of any city
in Upper India. This flat roof, however, had been partially
built upon along three sides, the rooms thus formed being
all doorless and practically open towards the central un-
covered space. The effect was as if three verandahs
opened upon an ample central hypoethral court. For
privacy and convenience in a hot tropical climate, nothing
could be more admirably conceived. In one of the rooms,
or verandahs, which might have been eighteen or twenty
feet long and eight or ten feet wide, there were assembled
a number of well-to-do persons—merchants, shopkeepers,
and others—sitting upon cotton carpets and floorcloths.
At one end was a raised platform made of rough planks,
and on it was seated an elderly Jain monk of some
importance, with two or three others in attendance. I
had been expected, so a small cane chair covered with a
white cloth had, with thoughtful kindness, been placed for
me near the senior monk, on his right hand, neither on
the platform nor under the roof, but just outside.

The whole of the platform was not of uniform height;
the part where the principal monk sat was higher by a
few inches than the part occupied by the juniors. There
is no equality in this world; there never was, and there
never will be! No furniture could be seen in the room,
but, as a concession to the imperious demands of the new
age, a big-faced clock occupied a conspicuous place on the
wall. Behind the monks, and partially concealed from

144

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

view by the platform on which they sat, was a group of
women, amongst whom were at least forty nuns. The
monks presented a peculiar appearance. Clean-shaven
were they all—head, face, and eyebrows. Each man wore a
sort of bib of three or four folds of white cloth, not under
his chin, but over his nose and mouth, held in place by
strings passed above the ears and tied behind the head.
These were characteristic outward symbols of the most
important of Jain tenets,—absolute respect for life in all
. its forms,—and are worn in order to obviate the possible
accidental and unintentional destruction of even the
minutest organisms by being drawn into the nose or
mouth in the ordinary process of respiration. Hence they
are really life protectors. But an inconvenient article like
this could be used by ordinary people only on purely
ceremonial occasions, and not always then, for several men
in the room, instead of wearing their bibs, carried them in
their hands. A picture of a Jain yeti appears at the
commencement of the chapter.

The nuns, of course, had their mouths and noses
covered, and were, besides, so completely veiled as to show
little of their faces but a pair of eyes. .

Only the principal monk spoke, and fortunately he
was by no means disinclined to be communicative. He
interested me greatly by his serene yet pathetic gravity
and a gentle dignity which seemed to pervade his every
word and movement. He sat cross-legged on the platform,
clothed in two white cotton sheets—one round his loins
and the other about his shoulders. No beads, bangles, or
armlets, nor marks ofa ny kind, either ornamented or dis-
figured his person. The two cotton sheets were, as he
told me, all the clothes he might wear or possess, with the
exception of half a blanket in the winter time. Many
other interesting particulars about his order did the
venerable yatt’ communicate to me; and, though these may
be found in European books on Jainism, I was pleased to
receive them from him, and I reproduce them here.

During the four months of the rainy season known as
the ohamasa, the Jain monk may seek shelter and repose
in a dhav'msala of his order, which is a guest-house

K 145

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

established by lay J ains for the accommodation of the monks;
but for eight months in every year he must wander over
the country barefooted and bareheaded, as friars of his
order have done since at least five hundred years before
the birth of Christ. He may on no account avail himself
of any mode of conveyance, whether horse, carriage, boat,
or railway car; nor may he ever sleep in a bed. And
year after year they wander about, these gentle monks,
without staff or scrip, armed only with soft besoms ‘of
cotton threads to tenderly brush away minute insects that
might happen to be in danger of destruction under the
pressure of their persons whenever fatigue necessitates
some rest for their wearied limbs. Many of these besoms
were in evidence amongst the audience, and each monk
present was provided with one for his own especial use.
The only other property any of these men may possess is
a wooden alms-bowl in which to receive food. Monks
who can read may carry about with them their sacred
books in the Prakrit character. Some of these books were
shown to me, beautiful specimens of caligraphy, all in
detached leaves protected by a couple of thin wooden
boards. Metal must on no account be touched by the
monks, except perhaps in the form of a needle, which may
be borrowed when required, but must be returned the same
day before the sun goes down.

Since the most important guiding principle of their
lives is to avoid hurting, leave alone killing, any living
thing, it is obvious that they do not partake of flesh meat
of any kind Whatever; but they carry their self-denial
further, for they never taste fruit and drink no wine of
any sort. From sunset to sunrise they must, on no pretext
whatever, eat or drink anything. Jain sadhus should never
bathe, for if they draw water from tank or well they are
sure to be the cause of death or suffering to living creatures.
They may not drink any water but what has been used for
culinary purposes: for example, water in which rice or
vegetables have been boiled, or warm water used for rinsing
out cooking-pots. Such water was not drawn for them, or
stored for them; it had been used already, so the act of
drinking it could bring no sin to them. They may even

146

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

use such water for sponging themselves. That is the
nearest approach to a bath that is permissible under any
circumstances. _

Jain monks are not to light a fire, for fear of killing
any living thing that may be lodging in the fuel.

When engaged on their annual tramp the monks go
to the houses of Hindus, but preferably to those of
their own sect, generally known as Bhabras, where they
ask for a bit of bread which may be over from the last
meal and about to be thrown away.

The lay members of the sect loyally support the
wandering monks and nuns, some curious rules regulating
the intercourse between them. One of these ascetics
visiting the house of a lay member may enter boldly
without announcing his or her presence, and may help
himself to what food is available; but if the fire is alight
in the room the ascetic should take nothing, and so also
when the pots and pans happen to be in contact with one
another.

Women must on no account be touched by Jain
monks, nor even may their garments come in contact
without serious defilement, only to be atoned for by
fastings and penances. And of course the same rule
applies, ”mtat'is mutandz’s, to the case of Jain nuns.

When the Jain monk dies, his fellows apprise any
members of their sect who may be near at hand of the
event; but they themselves pass on. It is for the stranger
to cremate or bury the corpse, or leave it to its fate.
What matters the body when the soul has deserted it?

There was a suspicion of vanity in the manner of the
old monk as he stated and explained to me these facts
about his order, and I felt that he needed this sustaining
spiritual pride to help him along his difficult way, not
less difficult for being voluntary. His personal appearance
gave the impression of great suffering, and his attendants
all had the same appearance, contrasting very much indeed
with the ordinary sadh'us of other sects. And wherefore
this austere rejection of the world’s goods, wherefore all
this self-inflicted misery? Is it to attain a glorious
heaven hereafter, a blessed existence after death? No!

I47

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

It is, as the old monk explained to me, only to escape
rebirth—for the Jain believes in the transmigration of
souls—and to attain eternal rest.

“It is sin in this life,” said the yati, “and the
consequences of sin in previous existences that clog and
disfigure the pure spirit. These have to be got rid of if
the soul is to be set free. Suppose,” he went on, “we
have a pot of impure butter: how do we purify it, how do
we separate extraneous stuff from the pure substance?
\Ve heat the pot which contains it, and then the ghce and
the impurities part asunder, the latter falling to the
bottom of the vessel. So we must beat (is. afllict) the
body, which is the pot containing both the pure spirit and
the attendant impurities, till on the furnace of asceticism
one is completely separated from the other. Hence our
fastings and our self-denials, all to secure exemption from
future rebirths and to attain blessed narvana.” And as
he said this, the serenity of the old monk’s countenance
and his placid eyes seemed an assurance that he himself
was well on the way to the longed-for goal.

After courteously answering my many questions, the
old man read to the assembly some selections from the
Jain sacred books and expounded the same. He then
addressed his audience, and in the course of his sermon
plainly indicated his disbelief in the existence of God. A
discussion afterwards arose between him and a pandit who
accompanied me, with, as might have been expected, a
resultless display of Sanskrit learning and subtle dialectics.

I am quite sure that the uncompromising atheism of
the yati was not shared by all his hearers; for a day or
two afterwards a Jain layman, who had been present at
the meeting, came to me and explained what he, and
probably a majority of the sect, understood to be the
functions of God in the universe. He said that the
Creator (evidently accepting His existence) was by no
means the cause of or responsible for the wickedness and
suffering in this world. Each individual soul received the
reward or punishment due to its own acts. God through
His sacred law warned'all men against the consequences of
evil-doing, and showed them the right way; but He did not

I48

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

interfere in the afairs of the world.1 Yet the more He and
His commandments were remembered the better for each
separate soul. It was like this: A man’s house is on
fire, and he asleep. A stranger comes and wakens him
up. It is for the owner now to see to the safety of his
own property. So through life it is God’s warning voice
in the sacred books that informs us that our house is on
fire. Each man must, however, look to his own safety
and comfort, here and hereafter, and expect no divine
interpositirm in his favour.

Religion amongst J ains who accept these views would
therefore seem to exclude the idea of prayer for help. It
would resolve itself into a constant recollection of the
divine commands and warnings, and, I have no doubt, of
appreciation of the goodness of God in having given these
warnings for the benefit of short-sighted mortals in their
earthly pilgrimage. Still, as few men would be content
with such a religion, the Jains have come to regard some
twenty-four of their own saints2 practically as principal
deities, and nowadays many, perhaps the major portion of
the sect, venerate also the higher gods of the Hindu
Pantheon.

Whatever point of view we may take, it is still a
matter for wonder that the impulse which set the Jain
sadhns in motion has lasted for five-and-twenty centuries;
that y/atis, bareheaded and barefooted, naked, or with just
two cotton sheets to cover them, have wandered through
India for eight months every year for two or three
thousand years, not seldom without any reliance upon or
oven belief in God, mortifying the frail flesh and all this
in order to ensure a cessation of the evils of rebirth——
wandering ceaselessly to attain rest and' final annihilation ;
wandering blamelessly, generation after generation, while

1 It is not without interest that in this twentieth century the well-
known surgeon, Sir Henry Thompson, has, after twenty years of study,
arrived at much the same conclusions as my Bhabra friends, viz. that the
omniscient and omnipotent Power which rules the universe does not interfere
in the aflairs of mankind. Only the great modern surgeon goes further still,
affirming that the Omnipotent has left mankind without the guidance of any
revelation ichaterei'.—lee Unknown God (Frederick Warnc 8: Co., 1902).

2 Known as J inas or Tirthankaras.

I49

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

dynasties have come and gone, and nations have risen,
decayed, and vanished.

And, while the men have taken up the task of working
out their own emancipation, the women have not been
backward in the same cause, but since times immemorial
have, always in couples, wandered like the monks over the
country, resting like them during the c/Lamasa in the
nunneries of their sect. Many of the women who join
this mendicant order have no doubt done so in middle age,
disillusioned and tired of life. But quite young girls also
follow the path of asceticism. For example, I learned, on
the very best authority, of a married girl of only sixteen
years of age, who, having a strong religious bent, told her
husband a short time previously that henceforth he would
be to her as a brother—a very significant expression in the
mouth of an Indian woman. Her husband accepted her
decision, and with her consent arranged a second marriage.
When the new wife arrived, the first one, prepared to
renounce the vanities of this life, sold her jewels to the
value of two thousand rupees, gave a feast and presents to
the Brahmans, and, adopting the life of a Punjni, left her
home for ever. The ceremony of entering the ascetic
order was attended with a good deal of personal in-
convenience. The girl’s luxuriant black hair had to be
plucked out by the roots; not a vestige of eyebrow or
eyelash was left. After that, she tied a cloth over her
mouth to prevent the possible destruction of minute
organisms, and, armed with a besom of cotton threads,
started with some others of her sex on a round of pilgrim-
ages or wanderings.

I have often met these nuns on the road, and once
quite fifty of them marshalled in order. They must have
been coming from or returning to a nunnery in the neigh-
bourhood.

Sometimes the adoption of the monastic life is made
the occasion for a special demonstration, which always
includes a procession. The postulant, or perhaps more
properly the novice, is decked out in the best of clothes
and the costliest jewels, and carried through the town in
whatever mode of conveyance he or she may select.

150

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ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

When the round is made, the candidate is. taken to some
appointed place, and there, after being disrobed and clad
in the simple vestments of the order, takes the prescribed
vows, and receives from the senior sad/m present the
mantra of the order. The illustration (Fig. 8) represents
such a procession in Ludhiana on the occasion of a Gri—
hast’i woman becoming a Jain nun or saclimz'.

The Jains are divided into two principal sub-sects—
one called chtmnbam (White-robed), the other D’igambam
(sky-clad—m. naked). A yat’i or monk of the latter
denomination does not attach any particular importance
to the aha/ma?- (the besom) or the puttika (mouth veil),
and is not permitted to carry an alms-bowl. He must
receive his food in the palm of his hand.1 The Swetam-
barrels and the Dz’gambar'is are each subdivided into four
orders. The Jain laity belong almost exclusively to the
trading community and the Baniya caste.

1 Hindu Castes and Scots, by J ogendra Nath Bhattacharjee, M.A., D.L.,
pp. 553—55 (Calcutta, 1896).

151

CHA PT E R V I I I—continued

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

SECTION II.—Principal Hindu Sects: Saivas, Vaishnavas, and Sikhs—
Particulars regarding Sanyasis, Dandis, Paramahansas, Brahmacharis,
Lingaits, and Aghoris.

.;, ._“i,_'fr5;r_&__=_;_-:tfj? HE Hindu ascetic sects which

ANKLE... g-REST' make up the great bulk of the
. wandering sad/ms of India,
more particularly Northern
India, and which I propose

‘\ to notice as typical examples,

.,;:,| p w. . Linn)!» ,)
N.

 

n
: . 'l N .
' [Bun/W are the followmg :—
7: . 1/
..... Q . .
gerds Sazms, or worshlppers of
e E /. 50 .
g; 0' Siva—

1. Sanyasis

g ggriiisahansas followers of Sankaracharya.1
4. Brahmacharis J

5. Lingaits, followers of Basava.

6. Aghoris.

7. Yogis.

Vm'shnm-as, or worshippers of Vishnu—

Sri Vaishnavas, followers of Ramanuja.
Madhavas, followers of Madhavacharya.
Ramanandis, followers of Ramanand.
Kabir Panthis, followers of Kabir.
Ballavacharyas, followers of Ballavacharya.
Chaitanites, followers of Chaitanya.

1 Acharya means teacher, or more properly religious teacher.
I 5 2

IQ?“l

99‘5“.

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

Sikhs, followers of N anak—

1. Udasis.
2. Nirmalis.
3. Nihangs or Akalis.

The petty sects known as Dadhu Panthis, Ram
Sanehis, and Mirabais, referred to in the last chapter, do
not call for any further notice here.

1. THE SANYASIS.1

The followers of Sankara, while paying special honour
to Siva, do not, as a rule, reject the other gods of the
Hindu Pantheon, nor do they deny the truth of the
S/Lastras generally. Hence the order is a rather mixed
one, containing many Vaishnavas and even Tantrics. It
is nevertheless a pretentious sect, claiming that its members
are alone the true sad/ms of India, probably because the
closing and strictly ascetic period in the lives of the
“ twice-born” castes (as laid down in Manu’s ordinances)
is known as the sanyasi stage.

It is generally held that the Sanyasr's are divided into
ten sub-orders, the Dasnamis, named as follows :—

(1) Giri. (6) Parvat.
(2) l’uri. (7) Sagar.
(3) Bha’irti. (8) Tirath.
(4) Ban. (9) Ashram.
(5) Auran (Aranya). (10) Saraswati.

But it would seem that the last three names on the list
belong properly to the order of the (land/is.

All Hindus, even Sudras and outcasts, may join this
order, though it is generally held that some of the
sub-orders, such as the Ban, Auran, and Saraswati, admit
Brahmans only. At the annual spring saturnalia low-
caste men actually become Sarzyasis temporarily during the
continuance of the festival. At such times they undergo

1 It would appear that in Benarcs the Sang/asz's are commonly known as
gosaz'ns.—][£ndu Tribes and Castes as represented in Benares, by the Rev.
M. A. Shcrring, part iii. chap. ii.

153

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

a variety of self-inflicted tortures, such as passing thick
metal skewers through their tongues or the flesh of their
arms or sides.

Such facts prove conclusively the democratic character
of the order and its freedom from the caste prejudices of
Hinduism. Granting this, it was still quite startling to
read in the Pioneer of Allahabad, early in 1899, that an
elderly, educated, and well-to-do American lady of French
extraction had come to India as a sang/amt under the name
of Swami Abhayanda, having been admitted to the Puri
sub- order by Swami Vivikananda, the Bengali sad/m who
went to the Congress of Religions at Chicago as the
representative of the Hindus of India. The lady, it would
appear, had studied the Upanishads and been converted
to the pantheistic doctrines of the Vedanta philosophy.
“Her original intention,” says the Pioneer, “was to beg
her way through India. She had a basket for the purpose
instead of the customary bowl. .But she has been
persuaded to relinquish this intention. She wears a high-
necked dress of the plainest possible cut and of a yellow
colour.”

All Sang/asis may eat together, and the majority accept
food from any Hindu. They may not partake of flesh
meat or spirits. They rub ashes over their bodies, wear
salmon-coloured robes, and a tiger skin when they can get
one. About sect marks on the forehead they affect in-
difference, though some paint an eye, like the central eye
of Siva, just above the nose. All wear, as a distinguishing
badge, a necklace of rudraksha berries, or, failing that, at
least one such berry. The hair of their heads, and their
beards also, are allowed to grow freely. In their bands
they usually carry a conch, or a pair of iron tongs—the
latter a very useful article indeed; for whenever they are
seated they light a fire and proceed to smoke gcmja.1

Semyasis pointedly discard those outward symbols of
Hinduism—the jcneu (sacred thread), and the chemd’i or
sled/aha, a tuft of hair ordinarily worn on the crown of
the head.

When, after a period of probation, the postulant

1 The dried hemp-plant, used for smoking like tobacco.

154

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2.338 .30 .3 39:3

 

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

wishes to be received as a chela, he must bring an
offering including a ling/am and a rudraksha berry to the
Sanyasi whose disciple he Wishes' to become. Four
Sang/asis are required for the initiatory ceremony. In
their presence the candidate has to make a declaration of
his determination to observe the rules of the order, to
renounce the world and its vanities—in fact, to abandon
all worldly affections and desires; for the Sanyasi, as the
Bhagavad-gita says, is one who “does not hate and does
not love anything.”

The chief of the four officiating Sanyasis—the selected
gum, in fact—whispers into his ear the mantra of the order ;
another confers a new name upon him, together with a
surname selected from the first seven distinctive appella-
tions of the sub-orders given on a previous page; the third
rubs him over with ashes; the fourth breaks his sacred
thread if he have one, and cuts off his scalp-lock, thus
symbolising his complete severance from worldly life and
ordinary Hinduism.

After his initiation the new chela is expected to serve
his principal gum (preceptor) for a time, in order to learn
wisdom from him, to make certain pilgrimages, and to
follow the rules of the order. When the period of proba-
tion has expired, more ceremonies have to be performed,
including the s/w'adh, or post-funeral rites, of the new
Sang/c1373.

The rules laid down for the guidance of the Sang/05313
have been variously stated to me; but the following six
prohibitions and six commandments, as learned from one
of the order, may be regarded as a fair specimen of the
injunctions they are expected to observe.

Six Prohibit/ions.
Do not sleep on a couch, under any circumstances. _
Do not wear white clothes.
Do not speak to or even think about women.
Do not sleep during the daytime.
Do not at any time ride on a horse or other
animal, or in any vehicle whatsoever.
Do not allow your mind to be agitated in any way.

. 155

57°

 

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

Six Commandments.

1. Leave your abode only for the sake of begging
necessary food.

2. Say your prayers every day.

3. Bathe every day.

4. Contemplate daily the likeness or image of Siva.

5. Practise purity and cleanliness.

6. Perform the formal worship of the gods.

When death overtakes him the Sanyasi is buried in a
grave like a pit, with a side receptacle in which the body
is made to sit up facing east or north-east with its arms
supported on a wooden rest (bymgzm). Sanyasis have -no
after-death or burial ceremonies, no slw'adh ceremonies like
ordinary Hindus, these having been performed when the
Sang/c1375 was finally admitted to the order; and even the
formal feasts which are given on such occasions by
the other ascetic sects, such as Bairagis and Yogis, are
omitted.

One morning at about ten o’clock I overtook a strange
procession—strange even for India—wending its way
slowly along the Lahore Mall between the Chief Court and
the Cathedral. A loud brass band led the way, discours-
ing music—European music, too; for it was not difficult to
make out the tune of the once-popular song—

“Just before the battle, mother,
I was thinking most of you.”

Behind the musicians came some three or four men carrying
smoking censers of sweet incense. They were marching
in front of a litter borne on the shoulders of a few men.
It wasa very unusual-looking litter, the front being in
the form of a moresque arch. There was a cloth hood
over it, but it was open on three sides, so that the occupant
could be plainly seen except from behind. And the
occupant was a dead sadhu, sitting in vacant contemplation
with his legs crossed in the approved manner. He was
tied to the upright back of the litter and was covered with
strings of flowers, which formed a sort of floral veil over
his face but could not conceal the hideousness of death,
156

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

as the unconscious head rolled helplessly from side to
side, keeping time, in a sort of grotesque mockery, to the
measured step of the bearers as they marched slowly along
the wide road.

On one side of the litter was a hired landau with some
respectably dressed natives, who may or may not have
been part of the procession, and on the other a slovenly
policeman in yellow trousers and blue tunic lolling in
a one-horse carriage known as an claim. A little con-
fused crowd, in which the female element predominated,
brought up the rear; while a number of urchins, stimu-
lated by curiosity, accompanied the cortege and pointed
out the dead man to one another. I ascertained that
the party was on its way to a selected spot where the
sad/m, a Sanyasi, would be buried in a circular grave,
sitting upright and covered over with salt. This funeral
procession brought to my recollection a similar one I had
seen many years previously at Rajamundry, in the Madras
Presidency. On that occasion the dead sadlm was placed
in a sitting position in his grave, a quantity of salt was
piled up about him, and earth thrown in till the body was
nearly covered up. Then upon the top of the shaven head,
still exposed to view, a large number of cocoanuts were
broken in order to crack the skull and afford the imprisoned
soul a means of exit from the now useless body. The
fragments of the cocoanuts which had been used for the
liberation of the dead man’s soul were, I remember, eagerly
sought for by the bystanders.1

It should be mentioned that the practice of burial
rather than cremation, in the case of these and certain
other sadhus, is due to the sentiment that the bodies of
such sainted personages do not need to be purified by fire.

Nearly every sadhu, however ignorant he may be of
letters, or however regardless in practice of what are usually
held as the essentials of a moral life, is aware of, and, on
occasion, can parade wise maxims, instructive stories, and
pithy parables intended to point the way to virtue or
dissuade from vice.‘ Amongst Sang/(Isis there is not found

1 The funeral ceremonies of a. Brahman Sang/am: are described in part ii.
chap. xxxvi. of the Abbé Dubois’ Hindu Manners, Customs, and Cercmom'cs.

I57

THE Mvsrlcs, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

any dearth of such ethical guides; as, for example, the so-
called “ twenty-four upa gurus” or assistant gurus of the
famous mum' Dattatreya, which I learned from the mouth
of a Sanyasi, and which, although quaint and artless, seem
sufficiently interesting and characteristic for partial re-
production here.

Out of the twenty - four upa gurus I select the
following :—

1. The Earth—The lesson to be learned from this
game is patient endurance. As the uncomplaining earth
suffers injuries and affronts without any sign of resent-
ment, so should the sadhu be unperturbed by any ill-
treatment and indignities he may be subjected to.

2. The Heavens (Sky).——Into the serene sky ascend the
glad sounds of mirth, the fierce roar of battle, the beating
of drums, and the clash of swords; but it retains none of
them: the sadhu, in the midst of the turmoil of life,
should, in like manner, retain no impression of the events
about him, be they joyous or mournful.

3. Fire—As flame always tends to rise, even if the
lighted torch be reverted, so should the aspirations of the
saclha always be to higher things; and as the pure flame
feeds indiscriminately on all sorts of fuel, the living timber
of the forest as well as the refuse of the dung-heap, so
ought the sadhu to accept willingly whatever food is given
to him, never reflecting upon its value, nor whether it is
stale or fresh.

4. The Pigeons—Dattatreya once watched a pair of
pigeons build a nest and rear a couple of young ones.
When the young were tolerably grown they used to make
short excursions on the wing, but one day were ensnared
by a fowler. The mother bird returning saw the fate of
her brood, and in her anxiety to help them got caught in
the net herself. Her mate, coming on the painful scene,
lost command of himself, and seemed from his excited
flutterings as if he too would get ensnared, and so it soon
happened.

Now, this incident should be a warning to the sadhu
as to what he should not do. Family ties, however tender,
are only transient, and should not affect him, lest they

158

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

bring him to the unfortunate end of the miserable pigeons
in the net of the fowler.

5. The Ocean—The ocean does not rise when the rivers
flow into it nor diminish if water be drawn from it, so the
sadhu should not swell with pride if a number of disciples,
attracted by his fame, gather round him; nor, on the other
hand, should he be concerned in the least degree if they all
depart and leave him companionless.

6. The Harlot—A courtesan was sitting one evening
decked in her best clothes waiting for a visitor. She was
all the while wishing that someone would come to her who
would pay her with a liberal hand. A stream of people
passed by, but not one called in. Midnight at last
arrived, and now the disappointed woman pondered, “If
I were only to give as much thought to God as I do to
unprofitable wickedness, what blessings might He not
vouchsafe to me I ” From that moment the harlot changed
her mode of life, and, turning from evil desires, adopted a
religious life; a fact from which the sadhn should learn
that even the most depraved of mortals may seek God, and
become entirely changed in heart.

7. The Brahman Girl.-—There was once a Brahman
who, as required by Hindu custom, had given his daughter
in marriage to a man of his own caste. The girl was, how-
ever, still residing in her father’s house when a member
of her husband’s family arrived unexpectedly. The child-
wife was alone, and, having requested the visitor to be
seated, retired modestly into the inner apartments to
prepare some food for him. There was no flour in the
house, so she proceeded to pound some wheat in an oklee
(mortar). Her choorees (bangles) made a clatter as she
pursued her labours, and she felt ashamed of thus seeming
to attract the stranger’s attention. She removed some of
the bangles, but still the clatter went on; she took off a
few more, but the tinkle of the metal rings did not cease,
until she had only one left on her wrist. Then there was
peace and quietness. Thus it is in life. The sadhn should
live alone if he desire serenity and contentment of mind.

8. The ma'nghz’.—This creature is said to carry dead
insects to its nest, and then, by humming persistently

I59

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

into their ears for a day or two, to bring them back to
life again.1 “What a lesson for the sadhu!” thought
Dattatreya. Surely he should, by persistent teaching,
bring men who are dead in sin and worldliness back to
God and spiritual life.

2. THE DANDIS.

This sect is recruited exclusively from the Brahman
caste, yet it discards the sacred thread. It derives its
name from the dander, or staff, which each member is re-
quired to carry.

Theoretically, dandiwallahs should not settle down in
one place for a single day, and even the (landa should not
be allowed to rest, but should be stuck erect in the ground
or be suspended from a tree.2 In practice, however, these
rules are neglected, and large numbers of (landis are to be
found at any time in Benares, where an important [171.6% or
bathing place on the Ganges is named after them. The
dandis, I have been assured, do not worship Siva, but only
their own danda. If this be correct, the explanation is
probably that the (landa is regarded by them as the phallic
emblem of the god.

Dr. J. IV. Bhattacharjee says the dmzdi is not required
to worship any god, and that after initiation “ he is supposed

1 My inquiries respecting the very interesting insect referred to have not
met with success. Indians have not been very careful observers of nature,
and it appears to me that the habits of some of the solitary wasps may
possibly have given rise to the belief which gives Dattatreya an opportunity
for a lesson in holiness to the sad/ms. These solitary wasps (ammophila,
for example) are known to sometimes sting their prey into unconsciousness
before carrying them to their nests to serve as food for the family, and it
may well happen that some of these victims revive in the nest and might
seem to have been restored to life by their captors.

'~' In regard to the danda, Sir Monier Williams in his Buddhism (Preface,
p. xiii) says: “Finally, there is the danda. or staff held in the left hand,
and used by a Sang/am: as a defence against evil spirits, much as the dmjc
(or mjra) is used by Northern Buddhist monks. This mystical staff is a
bambn with six knots, possibly symbolical of six ways (gati) or states of life
through which it is believed that every being may have to migrate—a belief
common to both Brahmanism and Buddhism. The staff is called sudarsana
(a name for Vishnu’s cakm), and is daily worshipped for the preservation of
its mysterious powers.”

I60

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

to pass into the condition of a god, and he himself con-
stantly expresses his belief in such transformation by
repeating the Soham formula,” which is Sire/1am, signify-
ing, “ I. am Siva."

The (lam/«'3 wear salmon-coloured clothes, which may
be dyed once only. Some, however, go about the jungles
quite naked. They are not allowed to touch fire, money,
or metal in any form. Their food may be obtained from
the houses of llrahmans, but they may ask for it only when
there is no smoke or fire in the house and the grinding
mill is still; in other words, when the family has already
taken its meal. The dmzdiwallah should not ask for food
when anyone else, even a dog, is waiting for it.

fnitialion.——'l‘he shagird (postulant) who wishes to
become a c/zcla is first obliged to fast for three days,
living only on milk. On the fourth day there is a grand
Izawaxn. (a ceremony in which [/1106 and other combust-
ible substances are consumed in the fire as a sacrifice
to the gods). After this he is shaved, head and all, with
the exception of a few hairs on the crown. Then the
candidate has to stand waist-deep in water—a river, a tank,
or any deep reservoir will answer the purpose. With his
own hands the postulant then plucks out the few hairs
which had been allowed to remain on the top of his head.
His sacred thread is removed and burnt, the ashes thereof
being eaten by the neophyte. While in the water he
receives the mantra of the order from his gum or preceptor,
and also a new name with one ”of the following surnames:
Tirtha, Assama, Bharati, or Saréwati.

When he steps out of the water he is handed a
stall' and a gourd, and is robed in five hits of salmon-
coloured cotton cloth, one piece being wrapped round the
head. {ules for his guidance in life are explained to him :
for example, that he must not touch fire, may take but one
meal a day, must get his food from the houses of Brahmans
only, and so on. He is admonished not to possess any
property at all, to use either a gourd or an earthen vessel
for his water and food, and to cling to the banks of the
Ganges. He is further enjoined to preach to the people
and to practise virtue.

L 161

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

Dandis as a rule bury their dead, or commit the body
to some sacred stream.1

On receiving news of the death of any relative, the
(lmuliwallah, who must be fatherless and motherless, wife-
less and childless, before he can join the sect, has only to
bathe and to wash his clothes and Claude. No further
ceremonies or Observances are required of him.

3. PARAMAHANSAS.

A learned Indian Sanskritist explained to me that
the name of this sect is derived from the words pm'ama,
meaning much or great, and hansa, a certain (mythological)
animal which can separate water from milk; whence, as
my pandit said, it would seem that the Pa'ramahansa is
one who can distinguish truth from falsehood.2

Sang/asis, Jamie's, and other ascetics who have under-
gone a probation of usually not less than twelve years,
may be admitted to this superior' order, in which both
Sivites and Vishnuvites merge their religious differences
in a comprehensive self-worship, based on the presumption
of each I’m'mnahansa’s identity with the Divine Spirit.

Such high pretensions have of necessity to be supported
by some visible proof of superiority to physical discomfort
and the weaknesses that flesh is heir to; and so it
happens that some members of this sect go about naked

1 These practices would seem to be a necessary consequence of the strict
prohibition of the use of fire by these sectaries.

3 Ordinarily hanm means a (tome, a signification which, in view of the
pretensions of the members of the sect, may at least be noted. Kabir the ‘
mystic says, “The goosc and the paddy bird are of one colour and frolic in
the same pool; the goose extracts the milk from the water, and the paddy
bird drinks the mire.”—Wilson’s Sorts of the Hindus, p. 55.

A more fanciful interpretation of the word hansa is to be found in the
following extract :—

“ In the science of breath the technical symbol for inspiration is 3a, and
for expiration ha. It is easy to see how these symbols are connected with
the roots as and uh. The current of the life-wave spoken of above is
technically called hansachasa, that is, the motion of ha and 3a,. The word
ll.\.\'.<.-\, which is taken to mean God, and is made so much of in many
Sanskrit works, is only a symbolic representation of the two eternal pro-
cesses of life—ha and sa."——le.e Scieme'of Breath, by Rama Prasad, M.A.,
l".T.S., London, 1890, p. 22.

162

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

in all weathers, some affect to live without eating food of
any kind, others observe strict silence and do not indicate
even by a sign any physical need or suffering. There
may be impostors among them, but honest ascetics are
certainly not wanting; and so great is the respect and
admiration which the self-denial of these sadhus com-
mands from the Hindus that they are seldom if ’ever
allowed to experience the full measure of the physical
evils which would, in ordinary course, be attached to their
voluntary asceticisms.

Amongst the Pao'amahansas are scholars well versed
in Sanskrit learning. These are usually to be found in
monasteries.

Pav'amahansas bury their dead, or float their bodies
away upon some running stream.

4. BRAHMACHARIS.

In the ideal scheme for the conduct of life prescribed
by the Hindu lawgiver Manu and summarised on p. 15
it will be found that the period of early youth is to be
devoted to vedic study, the student, living on alms, being
known as a Bralmzachari. But Brahmacham's of this sort
have practically disappeared from India; those who now
go by the name belong either to an inferior ministering
order created by Sankara to serve as helps and companions
to Sang/(L823 and Paramahansas, or they form a class apart
amongst the Tantric sects of Bengal.

5. LINGAITS.

Being strongly opposed to Brahmanism, the dis-
tinguishing badge of this sect is a lingam fastened to
the neck or arm by a thread which “is called the linga
sutmm, as opposed to the yajna sutmm or sacred thread
of Brahmans.”1 The mendicant monks of this sect,
known as waders, meaning masters or lords, go about
with small bells attached to their arms or carried in the
“hand to advertise their presence. They receive from the
1 Dr. J. N. Bhattacharjee’s Hindu Castes and Seats, p. 397.

163

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

lay Lingaits the most extravagant veneration and even
worship.

The Jan‘r/amas, who are occasionally seen in Upper
India, are stated by Dr. Bhattacharjee to be “the priestly
Sudo'as of the sect.” They are married men not given to
austerities, and go about well clad, as will be seen from
the illustrations at the commencement of the Preface
and at p. 52 of this volume. In regard to the name
of the sect, “it is said that, when Shiv (Siva) at his
marriage desired to give alms to Brahmans, no Brahmans
appeared; the god thereupon tore open his leg (jam/a)
and produced therefrom a man whom he called Jangama,
to whom he gave his alms,”1 and this man, no doubt,
was the father of the sect. At Kedarnath in Garwal
they have a temple and monastery of their own.

In Southern India, especially in the Malabar and
Coromandel districts, the Lima/its are very numerous.
According to the Abbe Dubois, they abstain from animal
food, bury their dead, and “do not recognise the laws
relating to defilements which are generally accepted by
other castes.” They practise no post-burial rites.2

6. AGHORIS.

Regarding the existence and practices at the present
day of this ancient and repulsive sect, the following
extract from a newspaper conducted entirely by Indians
affords information :—

“The loathsome story of a human ghoul from l’atiala
shows that the influence of the Aglto-rpanthz' has not yet
completely died out in this country. It is said that for
some time past human graves have been found robbed of
their contents, and the mystery could not be solved until
the other day, when the police succeeded in arresting a
man in the act of desecrating a child’s grave some forty
miles distant from the capital (Patiala). The ghoul not
only did not conceal the undevoured portion of the corpse

1 Report on the Census of the Punjab, by E. D. Maclagan, I.C.S., p.
116.
2 Hindu JIIanners, Customs, and Ceremonies, part i. chap. ix.

164

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

he had with him, but‘told his captors the whole story of
his gruesome career. He is a low-caste Hindu named
Ram N ath, and is, according to a gentleman who saw him,
‘a singularly mild and respectful-looking man,’ instead of
a ‘red-eyed and ravenous savage,’ as he had expected to
find him from the accounts .of his disgusting propensities.
He became an orphan at five, and fell into the hands of
two sad/ms of his own caste, who were evidently Aghor-
pant/(is. They taught him to eat human flesh, which
formed the staple of their food. The meat was procured
from the graves in the villages they passed through.
When Ram Nath was thoroughly educated in this taste
the sad/ms deserted him. Since then he has been living
on human carrion only, roaming about the country like a
hungry vulture. He cannot eat cooked food, and therefore
gets two scars of raw meat from the State every day. It
is also reported that Sirdar Shamshere Singh, private
secretary to the Maharajah, has now forbidden to give him
anything but ordinary jail food, with a view to ‘reforming
him.’ The ghoul is, however, determined to starve rather
than eat what he has not been accustomed to.” 1

Strange as it may seem, the disgustingly repulsive
habits of the Agiwm's are a direct and legitimate, if horrible,
outcome of a desire to push the pantheistic doctrines of
the Vedanta philosophy to their logical conclusions in a
certain direction. “If everything in existence is only a
manifestation of the Universal Soul, nothing can be
unclean!” So argues the Aghmjmnthi, and he proves
the uncompromising sincerity of his convictions by his
repellent acts.

Cases, few and far between, of necrophilism, anthro-
pophagy, and coprology are not unknown to mental
pathologists in Europe; but it is, perhaps, only in India
that such perverted instincts could be made the basis of a
religious sect.

The Aghm’panthis can date back to a considerable
antiquity, but, though never at any time of importance
numerically, have not escaped the notice of Europeans in
India. Of these cannibal sad/bus, Moor, who identifies

1 The Tribune (Lahore), 29th November 1898.
I65

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

them, no doubt incorrectly, with the Pammahansas, writes
as follows in his Hindu Pantheon :—

“However difficult it may be for an English reader to
believe the hitherto unrecorded story of the flesh-abhorring
Hindus, not only do other castes of the Hindus, but
even of the Brahmins themselves, eat flesh, and one sect at
least eat human flesh. They do not kill human subjects
to eat, but they eat such as they find about the Ganges
and other rivers, and near Benares they are not unusually
seen floating down the river on a corpse, and feeding upon
its flesh; and the human brain is judged by these
epicurean cannibals to be the most delicious morsel of
their unsocial banquet. They are called Pammahansa,
and are by no means a low despicable tribe; but, on the
contrary, are esteemed, at any rate by themselves, a very
high one. \Vhether the exaltation be legitimate, or
assumed by individuals in consequence of penance or
holy and sanctified acts, I am not prepared to state; but I
believe the latter, as I have known other instances where
individuals of differing sects, by persevering in extra-
ordinary piety, or penance, have been deemed incapable
of sin.”

The present headquarters of the Aghorpanthis appear
to be at Mount Abo. Some of them claim to acquire
magical power by eating human flesh. “The fact is,” says
Dr. J. N. Bhattacharjee, “that as Brahmanism inculcated
cleanliness and the eating of wholesome food, the Ag/Loris,
who formed one of the sects setting up ‘ opposition shops ’
as it were, insisted on the utmost degree of filth, and hoped
to gain ahns by horrifying the people and not by gaining
their respect.” 1

I am not prepared to say how much truth there may
be in this opinion, but certainly there is no denying that
the Aglioris are only too successful in extorting money
from people who have a supreme dread of them, and would
much rather accede to their demands than see them carry

1Hindu, Castes and Scots, pp. 393, 394. On the subject of these
Aglzorpanthis the reader may refer to Ward’s Hindus, p. 296, and Mr.
\V. Crookes’ Popular Religion. and Folk-Zora of Northern India, vol. ii.
p. 172.

166

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

out their threat of eating in their presence disgusting offal
or foul carrion.

Women known as Aghm'im's are often associated with
these ghouls, and are as filthy as and even more shameless
than their male companions.

167

CH A P T E R V I I I—contin’acd

SECTION III.—Yogis and Yoga Vidya—Yogis attracting attention in the
West— l’hilosophico-religious Ideas underlying Yogaism—Emancipa-
tion of the Soul the supreme Object of Hindu religious Aspiration——
Yoga Vidya teaches how Union of the individual Soul with the All-Spirit
may be accmnplished—I)etails and probable Origin of the Discipline and
Practices of Yoga Vidya—The Pretensions ot'thc modern Yogis—History,
Customs, and Rules of the Yogi sect.

.. UDGING from current literature of a
1"" certain class, the lol/isl and their
doctrines have, in 1ece11t years,
somehow attracted attention in both
fiurope and America, and yoga
teachings have come to be regarded
as the highest expression of tran-
scendental Hinduism. In the United
States, notwithstanding their super-
lative industrialism, there is a grow-
ing class of publications in which
prominence is given to such subjects as the rationale
of concentration, psychic breathing, subliminal conscious-
ness, the perception of the Self,9 rapport with the Uni-
versal, and also, without disguise, the Raja Yoga system
of India.

The Yogi, moreover, has been accepted in the \Vest as
the type or representative of the religious ascetics of India.
It 15 the1efo1e ve1y desi1able that the ideas and practices
of the 105123 should be set f01th he1e as fully and cleanly
as may be consistent with brevity.

Hindu philosophico-religious ideas, involved as they

 

1 The Yogi's are in the vernaculars of Northern India. ordinarily called
jog/is.
168

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

are in a tangled labyrinth of mysticspeculations, present
very serious difficulties to the student, particularly as
there are naturally many systems of Hindu philosophy
and, of course, a multiplicity of teachers to be reckoned
with. Yet there are some more or less widely accepted
fundamental notions which when stripped of confusing
details are not beyond ordinary comprehension, and, as
they serve to elucidate the practices of the Y 0512's, will now .
be noticed. At the same time, it may be added that,
amongst the many fantastic dreams which have been
presented to mankind as authoritative explanations of the
universe, these Hindu speculations are not without dignity,
beauty, and originality.

According to the fundamental notions of Hindu
philosophy to which I refer, every living man is made up
of an individual soul, a subtle invisible body, and a gross
body. The soul is of the same essence as the All-Spirit,
although temporarily detached, as it were, from it in some
mysterious way. It is by its nature incorruptible and
unchanging. The subtle body (sszs/Lma-sarim),1 however,
is not so, and while in connection with the gross body is
influenced, affected, and modified through the senses by the
play of the primal forces of nature. The impressions thus
made upon the subtle body, the dispositions engendered in
it by the influences to which it is exposed, affect its nature,
so that, even when separated after death from its grosser

1 “In the Sfimkhya-philosophy this szlkshma-sarfm appears as lingu-
sarira, or the sign-body. Sthflla-sarira, or coarse, material body, consists,
according to some Saimkhya teachers, of the five or four coarse elements
(bhdtas), according to others of the earth only, and is made up of six
coverings —hair, blood, flesh, sinews, bones, and marrow. The subtle or
inner body, sometimes called the vehicle or the (itivdhika-sarim, is formed
of eighteen elements: of (1) Buddhi, (2) Ahamkara, (3) Manas, (4—8) the
five Tanmatras or szlkshma-bhfltas, and (9—18) the ten senses. This body
is of course invisible, but without it the coarse body would be useless. It
forms what we should call our personality, and causes the difference in the
characters of individuals, being itself what it has been made to be by former
works. All fitness for reward and punishment attaches to it, not to the
Pur-ushas, who are all alike and unchanging, and it likewise determines by
means of its acquired dispositions the gross bodies into which it has to enter
from life to life, till final freedom is obtained by the Purusha ; and not only
the gross body, but the subtle body also, is reabsorbed in Prakriti.”—-Thc
Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, by Professor F. Max Muller, p. 395.

169

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

counterpart, it still retains the taint of its corporeal
existence—that is to say, the affinities, proclivities, and
tendencies developed in it during its earthly sojourn.
Now, in the ordinary but eternal interaction of the com-
plex forces of nature—the pranas and tatwas—these
acquired qualities bring about the reincarnation of the
subtle invisible body along with the soul to which it is
united. But for the soul, rebirth is a most undesirable
event, a most terrible hardship. Escape, however, from
this dire calamity is fortunately possible, provided the
subtle body be only freed from the influence of the senses,
so that it may lose all attachment to things mundane—all
earthward tendencies, as it were. But who is to accom-
plish this? Who is to set the sdkshma-sarim free from
the trammels of worldly affections? It is the soul alone
that can do it; it is the soul which must work out its
own salvation.

Before it, then, lies the task of weaning the subtle
body completely from the hopes and fears, the affections
and desires, of earthly life. To regain its freedom it must
succeed in efiacing, the impressions made upon the subtle—
body during its earthly life, in annulling the attractions
of carnality and destroying the forces which make for
rebirth. It may take ages and strenuous efforts in many
successive lives to accomplish this; but, when it is finally
attained, the sszshma-sarz‘m, after the dissolution of the
gross body, will have no tendency to return to this
earth, but will be merged in the soul, and that again,
released from every hampering impediment, will become
reunited with the All-Spirit.

A presentment of the relations of the soul, the body,
and the Great Spirit, which evidently appeals to the
peculiar voluptuous sentimentalism of the Bengali nature,
deserves a passing notice—

“The soul,” says a recent writer, Babu Shishir Kumar
Ghose, “is attached to the body, and naturally feels a
great attraction for it. But its real partner is the Great
Spirit of the universe. The soul of man is likened to a
woman, whose lover is the body, but whose husband is
the Great Soul, viz. God. But she, the soul, undutifully

I70 .

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

forsakes her wedded husband and cleaves to her gallant,
the body. The object of the practice of yoga is to
detach the woman (the human soul) from her lover
(the human body), reunite her with her lawful husband,
the Great Soul, Brahma, or the Great Spirit. . . .

“One way of attempting to detach a faithless woman
from her lover is to reason with her; another way is to
make her gallant disagreeable to her. The Advaitabadees
follow the methods mentioned just now, in order to detach
the soul (woman) from her gallant, the body. (1) They
reason with their souls 1 and persuade them to believe that
their undue attraction for the body cannot conduce to
their happiness, for the body does not endure for ever.
And (2) they practise all sorts of mortifications upon
their bodies, and thereby prevent the soul to derive any
pleasure from its union ' therewith. The soul, thus driven
to detach herself from the body, is slowly and gradually
' led towards the Great Spirit, for the purpose of being
united thereto.”

The accomplishment of the supreme object of Hindu

religious aspiration, as explained in the foregoing para-
graphs, may give occupation to the soul in many successive
transitory lives; but if a struggle in the right direction
be steadily maintained in any one life here below, it
makes the task in succeeding lives all the easier, since
the tendencies cultivated in one embodied existence are
more easily trained in the next one, and so on, till they
are finally established.
. .....E1idently..the endeavour towards...perfection, that is,
towards the emancipation of the soul, involves the
cultivation of apathy (rairagya), with the Crushing out of
all human affections, desires, and lusts, and the complete
detachment of the mind from all earthly things.

This conclusion gives us the key to much of the
higher religious ideas of the Hindus, and also makes

‘ “They reason with their souls ! ” There is a queer confusion of ideas
here, a new third party. intervening between the soul and the body to
reason with and persuade the former. Yet the 'above extract is not without
value, illustrating as it does the very sensuous imagery by which alone even

philosophical doctrines can be brought home to the comprehension of minds
steeped in the ideas of the Sakta worshippers.

I71

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

intelligible their universally accepted doctrine of karma,
according to which, as explained in a previous chapter, all
actions good or bad must bear their fruit at some time or
other in the present or in future lives; a doctrine which
certainly makes, for morality, and accounts intelligently
for the striking ...and apparently unjust inequalities which
human society and individual history present.

After the foregoing explanation, it will be easily
understood that everyone desirous of effecting the final
emancipation of his soul and its reabsorption into the
All-Spirit should follow practices calculated to wean the
mind from the distractions and seductions of its earthly
environment. ' '

These general principles being accepted, some eager

minds impatient of delays, some emotional natures in
love with the Infinite, have deemed it possible to effect
a mystical union between the individual soul and the
All-Spirit, even while the former is imprisoned in its corporeal
frame; and for the attainment of this, the highest of
desirable objects, is the system devised by Patanjali and
accepted as authoritative by the Yogi's.
. The word yoga means union, and first occurs in
the later Upanishads.1 Yoga Vidya is a complex system
of philosophical doctrines and practical exercises for
promoting or effecting union between the individual soul
and the All-Spirit.

“As described by Svamin Rama-Krishnananda in the
Brahmavadin, p. 511 sea, it consists, as practised at
present, of four kinds: Mantra, Laya, Raja, and Hatha-
yoga. Mantra-yoga consists in repeating a certain word
again and again, particularly a word expressive of deity,
and concentrating all one’s thoughts on it. Laya-g/oga
is the consecrating all one’s thoughts on a thing or the
idea of a thing, so that we become almost one with it.
Here again the ideal image of a god, or names expressive
of the Godhead, are the best, as producing absorption in
God. Raga-Mawconsiswm-WW
to control the mind. . It was observed that w en x1ng
our attention suddenly on anything new we hold our

1 Weber’s Indian. Literature, 1). 239.
I 72

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

breath, and it was supposed, therefore, that concentration
of the mind would be sure to follow the holding back of
the breath, or the pranagama. Hatha-goga is concerned
with the general health of the body, and is supposed to
produce concentration by certain postules of the body,
by fixing the eyes 011 one point, particularly the tip of
the nose, and similar contrivances.”

Y ogi p1operly means one who practises yoga with the
object of uniting or blending his soul with the Divine
Spirit or World-Soul.

Very curiously, however, the practice of yoga is not
undertaken by all Y ogis, nor is it confined to the. professed
Yogi. The efiicacy of the system is an article of faith so
universally accepted throughout India, that other sectarians,
including laymen, even married men and householders,
resort to it when so inclined, and it may be added that
the founder even of the quite recent theistic sect known
as the Brahma Samaj, Babu Keshab Chundra Sen, practised
goga.

Now union with the All- Spiiit, if accomplished by any
individual soul, must surely enhance its susceptibilities
and powers. Hence, as I have explained in another
, book, the Yogis naturally claim, and the Hindu world
readily concedes to them, a far- reaching knowledge of the
secrets of natu1e and almost unlimited sway over men
and natural phenomena.2

“When this mystic union is effected,” says Professor
H. H. Wilson, “the Yogi is liberated in his living body
from the clog of material incumbrance, and acquires an
entire command over all worldly substance. He can
make himself lighter than the lightest substances, heavier
than the heaviest; can become as vast or as minute ashe
pleases, can traverse all space, can animate any dead body
by transferring his spirit into it from his own frame, can
render himself invisible, can attain all objects, become
equally acquainted with the past, present, and future, and is
finally united with- Siva, and consequently eiempte'd from
being born again upon earth. The superhuman faculties

1 Professor Max Miiller’s The Life and Sayings of Ramakrishna, p. 8.
2 Indian Life, Religious and Social (T. Fisher Unwin, London).
I7 3

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

are acquired, in various degrees, according to the greater
or less perfection with which the initiatory processes have
been performed.” 1

A recent Indian exponent of Rafa-yoga has summed
up the object of the system in the following comprehensive
statement: “The Yogi proposes to himself no less a task
than to master the whole universe, to control the whole
of nature.” 2

Every Yogi does not set up for being a thaumaturgist,
since such a pretension might easily be tested to the
confusion of the pretender. The claim and the concession
are rather in favour of the system and of any who act
up to its rules. There are, however, some sceptics who
maintain that “ yoga cannot be effective in this kali yuga,
or age of sin.” 3

The apparent origin and development of the practical
system or method of the Yogis is deserving of attention.
Starting from that obviously most important vital function,
respiration, some Hindu sages appear to have observed
and reasoned somewhat in the following way. The air
inhaled is evidently the life, or at least contains the
vital principle in some subtle form; for deprivation of
air means death, and with the last expiration the living
body becomes a corpse. Now this air penetrates the
corporeal frame, and is easily discoverable in the chest,
the stomach, the bowels, and elsewhere. But this life-
breath is apparently not stagnant. It possesses some sort
of motion, being drawn into the chest through the nostrils
and exhaled through the same apertures. Some of the
larger and more obvious structural details of the lungs with
its branching tubes may have been noticed, and possibly
also the chambers of the heart with the great connected
vessels suggesting channels for the movements of prana,
the vital air, and of centres for its concentration. .

Reflecting, in their own peculiar way, on the mysterious '
process of respiration, which was supposed to be a law of

1 Sketch (2f the Religious Sec/s of the Hindus, p. 131.

212dja-goga. Lectures by Swami Vivekananda, p. 11 (Longmans &
Co., London). .

3 Hindu Castes and Seats, by Dr. J. N. Bhattacharjee, p. 402.

I74

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

the entire universe, on the undoubted presence of air in
many parts of the body, and on the meagre stock of
anatomical facts known to them,—possibly also guided by
some dim conception of fluid circulation in the body,——the
founders of Y ogaism have concluded and taught that along
with the air the primal forces of nature, represented by
subtle ethers, circulate in the human body in a multitude
of vessels (nadis) springing from the navel.

The uses and functions of these imaginary nadis con-
veying the subtle ethers through the material system are,
as we might expect, confidently, if somewhat indefinitely,
described." If we are to believe these purely speculative
anatomists, the nadis divide and subdivide as they pro-
ceed, till the sum-total of them, of different degrees of
magnitude, number just 72,000. According to other
equally competent authorities, the number of these nadis
comes up to 727,210,201, and they have their root in the
heart and not the navel. Intersecting at various points,
these ramifying vessels form plexuses known as padmas
or kamalas (lotuses), which act as centres of force for the
performance of the physiological functions. Centres of
moral and intellectual powers also exist in the system.
Thus we read in the Vishram-opnishat—

“ 1. While the mind rests in the eastern portion (or
petal), which is white in colour, then it is inclined towards
patience, generosity, reverence.

“ 2. While the mind rests in the south-eastern portion,
which is red in colour, then it is inclined towards sleep,
torpor, and evil inclination.” 1

Upon this foundation of pure assumption is built a
science for regulating and guiding the currents of the pranas
and tatwas at will, along the multitudinous nadis of the
human organism, so that they might produce the least
harmful effects upon the mind, minimise the evil done by
the fact of the soul and the subtle body being sojourners
in a fleshy tenement, and thus bring the soul to a realisa-
tion of Self; or, in other words, to perceive its identity with
the Supreme Self.2

1 The Science of Breath, by Rama Prashad, M.A., pp. 42, 43.
2 Max Miiller’s Ramakrishna, p. 46.

I75

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

The practices actually described in conformity with the
science above referred to for the attainment of seemed/til
are such as tend to abstract the mind entirely from sur-
rounding objects or events, favouring thereby a condition
of self-hypnotism or trance.

With what insight the exercises have been devised by
the adepts who prescribed them will be apparent when it
is stated that these involve long-continued suppressions of
the breath, and the performance of the functions of respira-
tion by peculiar and minutely prescribed modes of inspira-
tion and expiration through the right and left nostrils
respectively; that they include posturing in no less than
eighty-four different attitudes; also the frequent, even
millionfold, mental repetition of the mystic syllable om,
the prolonged concentration of visual attention on near
objects—for example, the navel or the tip of the nose
combined with an equally severe strain imposed upon the
auditory nerves in protracted efforts to listen to sounds in
the ears themselves.

Then there is meditation, the nature of which may be
illustrated by the following example :—

“ Imagine a lotus upon the top of the head,.several
inches up, and virtue as its centre, the stalk as knowledge.
The eight petals of the lotus are the eight powers of the
Yogi. Inside the stamens and pistils are renunciation.
If the Yogi refuses the external powers he will come to
salvation. So the eight petals of the lotus are the eight
powers, but the internal stamens and pistils are the
extreme renunciation of all these. Inside of that lotus
think of the Golden One, the Almighty, the Intangible, He
whose name is Om, the Inexpressible, surrounded with
ell'ulgent light. Meditate on that.”2

There is no reason to deny that by such meditations,
and by the practices referred to above, carried out in
solitude, a state of self-hypnotisation might be attained,

 

lIn Professor Max Miiller’s Indian. Philosolihg/ (p. 141) samadhi is
defined as “meditative absorption." According to Swami Vivekananda, it
means snper-consciousness. By Sir Monier Williams it is used as the
equivalent of trance.
2 Rafa-yoga, by Swami Vivekananda, pp. 9], 9‘2.
I7 )

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

with mental hallucinations more or less permanent,1 and
that even an ecstatic state might be induced. Now ecstasy,
particularly religious ecstasy, is a well-known pheno-
menon, and is associated with many Christian saints: as St.
Theresa, St. Philip of N eri, and others. It means such a
suspension of consciousness as to cause obliteration, tem-
porarily, of all sense relations with the material world, and
is accompanied with beatific visions in which pain is
curiously blended with unutterable bliss.

What modern science has to say in elucidation of
ecstasy may be judged from the following extract from
Dr. Max N ordau’s well-known work Degeneration, and
such light as it throws upon the subject will doubtless
be welcome to the reader in connection with the claims
which we are now considering of the disciples of Yoga
thya.

“The degree of exclusiveness and insistence in the
predominance of any presentation is in proportion to
the degree of morbid irritability in the particular tract of
brain by which it is elaborated. Where the degree is not
excessive, there arise obsessions which the consciousness
recognises as morbid. They do not preclude the coexist-
ence of healthy functioning of the brain, and consciousness
acquires the habit of treating these coexistent obsessions
as foreign to itself, and of banishing them from its presen-
tations and judgments. In aggravated cases these obses-
sions grow into fixed ideas. The immoderately excitable
portions of the brain work out their ideas with such
liveliness that consciousness is filled with them, and can
no longer distinguish them from such as are the result of
sense-impressions, the nature and strength of which they
accurately reflect. Then we reach the stage of hallucina-
tions and delirium. Finally, in the last stage, comes
ecstasy, which Ribot calls ‘the acute form of the effort

1 Amongst the weird tales of Edgar Allan Poe is one entitled “ Berenice,”
in which the unhappy mental disorder associated with the habit of attentire
and continuous contemplation of some tmfitng object or unimportant subject
leads to consequences replete with the most painful horror. This strange
story, displaying rare insight into a certain unhealthy phase of mental

activity, is aptly suggestive of the abnormal results which certain Yogi
practices must often lead to.

M 177

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

after unity of consciousness.’ In ecstasy the excited part
of the brain works with such violence that it suppresses
the functioning of all the rest of the brain. The ecstatic
subject is completely insensible to external stimuli.
There is no perception, no representation, no grouping of
presentations into concepts, and of concepts into judgments
and reasoning. A single presentation or group of presenta-
tions fills up consciousness. These presentations are of
extreme distinctness and clearness. Consciousness is, as
it were, flooded with the blinding light of mid-day. There
therefore takes place exactly the reverse of what has been
noticed in the case of the ordinary mystic. The ecstatic
state is associated with extremely intense emotions, in
which the highest bliss is mixed with pain. These
emotions accompany every strong and excessive function-
ing of the nerve-cells, every extraordinary and violent
decomposition of nerve-nutriment. The feeling of volup-
tuousness is an example of the phenomena accompanying
extraordinary decompositions in a nerve-cell. In healthy
persons the sexual nerve-centres are the only ones which,
conformably with their functions, are so differentiated and
so adapted that they exercise no uniform or lasting activity,
but, for by far the greatest part of the time, are perfectly
tranquil, storing up large quantities of nutriment, in order,
during very short periods, to decompose this suddenly and,
as it were, explosively. Every nerve-centre which operates
in this way would procure us voluptuous emotion; but
precisely among healthy persons there are, except the
sexual nerve-centres, none which are compelled to act in
this manner, in order to serve the purpose of the organism.
Among the degenerate, on the contrary, particular morbidly
excited brain-centres operate in this way, and the emotions
of delight which accompany their explosive activity are
more powerful than sexual feelings, in proportion as the
brain-centres are more sensitive than the subordinate and
more sluggish spinal centres. One may completely be-
lieve the assurances of great ecstatics, such as St. Theresa,
a Mohammed, an Ignatius Loyola, that the bliss accompany-
ing their ecstatic visions is unlike anything earthly, and
almost more than a mortal' can bear. This latter state-
178

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

ment proves that they were conscious of the sharp pain
which accompanies nerve-action in over-excited brain-cells,
and which, on careful analysis, may be distinguished in
every very strong feeling of pleasure. The circumstance
that the only normal organic sensation known to us which
resembles that of ecstasy is the sexual feeling, explains
the fact that ecstatics connect their ecstatic presentations
by way of association with the idea of love, and describe
the ecstasy itself as a kind of supernatural act of love, as
a union of an inefifably high and pure sort with God or the
Blessed Virgin. This drawing near to God and the saints
is the natural result of a religious training, which begets
the habit of looking on everything inexplicable as super-
natural, and of bringing it into connection with the doctrines
of faith.” 1
Taking all the facts into consideration, I should be
inclined to conclude that from a remote past many of the
phenomena now classed under the general term hypnotism
were known to the Indians, and that the more ardent
emotional religionists amongst them, stimulated by powerful
neurotic impulses, experienced, more frequently perhaps
than in other lands, the indescribable joys of the ecstatic
state, and lost themselves—lost their very identity—in
the marvellous world conjured up in their trance-visions.
Once discovered, "once experienced, these mysteries, and
these strange voluptuous enjoyments, would be so peculiarly
congenial with the character and psychology of ’the Indians,
that the more emotional amongst them would be power-
fully attracted towards these occult phenomena. In their
ardour to gain admittance to the unknown world, whose
echoes reached them, eager men would set themselves the
task of systematically overcoming the intervening obstacles,
and out of such strivings, doubtless, arose the science of
Yoga Vidya. If in ecstasy the Christian saint believed
himself to be in mysterious communion with Christ or the
Virgin, it is only natural, and in accordance with his
beliefs, that the panthc'istz'c Hindu, when he reached the
state in which he became “ insen.s.ible__to’ external stimuli,”
chgcncmtion, by Max Nordau, pp. 63, 64 (William Heinemann,
London, 1895).
I79

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

should, in the inner glorious world of his own imaginings,
find himself (that is, his own. 3.0.1112. 1n complete union with
the Universal Spirit. ‘

Thus far, at any rate, Yogaism is quite intelligible;
but the pretensions of the Yogis to superhuman power
have no justification whatever, and have for ages been a
fertile source of profitable imposture most detrimental to
the healthy development of the Indian people.1

Since all religions, philosophies, and sciences which
have secured wide acceptance, need for their continual
existence in each succeeding age to be interpreted as far
as possible up to the level of the new ideas and increased
knowledge of the times, we may expect that the same
service has been performed for Yoga Vidga.

What can be done by an ardent advocate to explain,
in the phraseology, and by the light of modern scientific
facts and theories, the extremely crude and visionary
notions of the YOy’iS, may be learned by a perusal of the
lectures of Swami Vivekananda on Raga-yoga, delivered
at New York in 1895—96.2

In these lectures are given, with the aid of the modern
conceptions of vibrations, wave motions, electrical currents,
and so forth, a statement of the rationale of Yoga Vidga,
which is ingenious if not convincing. In this contem-
porary elucidation of yoga science we find the Susamna
nadz’ identified with the spinal cord, and that the two
other most important organs of the body are the brain
(sahasrara, the thousand-petalled) and the mfllzidhara
plexus, the latter triangular in form and situated at the
base of the vertebral column, being the seat of the
hundalz’ni, a mysterious reservoir of pent-up force, which
is thus defined: “the coiled up, the sleeping Divine power
in all beings.” The aim and object of all the yoga
practices is, according to the Swami, to successfully tap
this reserve of force, through the susamna (which is
naturally closed and can be opened by the Yog'is only),

1 In another book I have described the complete discomfiture and exposure,
to my knowledge, of one of these Y ogi pretenders to supernatural power.—
Indz'an Life, Religious and Social, pp. 36—41.

3 Longmans & Co., London.

180

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

causing the stored-up energy of the kundalini, thus set
free by the Y ogis’ practices, to flow into the brain. When
this difficult feat is accomplished, samc’cd/ii, or a super-
conscious state, is reached, in which “no more will you‘
need.to .go to books for knowledge; your own mind will
have become your book containing infinite knowledge.”

However edifying Swami-ji’s explanations may be, it
is, to say the least, rather curious that the Yogi should
derive his transcendent enlightenment from an organ in the
neighbourhood of the coccygeals.

Leaving these purely imaginary anatomical and physio-
logical details, we may profitably turn our attention to a
consideration of the actual results of the working of the
system known as Yoga Vidga, and in doing so shall find
that however profound may be the desire of the Yogi for
the union of his soul, hereafter or in the present life,
with the All-Spirit, his own nature craves importunately
for advantages loss remote, less transcendent, and, in
response to this desire, the “science of breath,” i.e. the
regulation of the circulation of the pmnas and tatwas, has,
in the hands of the teachers, resulted in the usual childish
developments and gross irrationalities of which Hinduism
affords such ample evidence.

“ 20. A knowledge more secret than the science of
breath, wealth more useful than the science of breath,
was never seen or heard of.

“ 21. An enemy is killed during the power of the
breath, and also friends are brought together; wealth is
got during the power of breath, and comfort and reputation
during the same.

“ 52. Any charity given by the Wise while the breath
is in the left nostril, multiplies krores upon krores1 of
times in this world.

“53. Let the Yogi look into his face, with one mind
and with attention, and thus let him know entirely the
motion of the sun 2 and the moon.2

1 A krore equals ten millions.
‘3 The sun and moon here referred to are certain subtle currents in the

human body influenced by the luminaries named, and are also referred to as
positive and negative.

181

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

“ 54. Let him meditate upon the tat/10a when the
prana is calm, 'never when it is disturbed; his desire
will be fulfilled, and he will have great benefit and
victory.

“ 55. To those men who practise, and thus always keep
the sun and moon in proper order, knowledge of the past
and the future becomes as easy as if they were in their
hand.

“225. In distant warfare the moon is victorious, in
near places the sun. When the foot raised first in
going belongs to the flowing mad/i, complete success is
the result.

“ 226. In beginning a journey, in marriage, in entering
any town, etc., in all auspicious acts, the flow of the moon
is good.

“ 227. Putting the enemy’s army towards the empty
nadi, and one’s own towards the full, when the tatu'a is
congenial, one might conquer the whole world.

“ 228. Let me give battle in the direction towards
which the breath flows, victory is certain even if Indra
be in front.

“306. Going to a lonely place and standing with the
back towards the sun, let a man look with attention into
the neck of the shade he throws on the ground.

“ 307. Let him see this for as long a time as he can
calmly repeat the words, ‘ 0m. [Cram parabmhman namah,’
for 108 times. Then let him look up into the sky. He
will thus see Shankara (the figure of a being capable of
appearing in many colours).1

“ 308. By doing this for six months, the Yogi becomes
the lord of those who walk on earth; by two years he
becomes absolutely independent and his own master.

“ 309. He obtains the knowledge of the three times
and great bliss. There is nothing impossible for the
constant practiser of yoga.

“ 328. When the mouth, nose, eyes, and ears are stopped

by the fingers, the tatwas begin to take their rise before
the eyes.

1 This point has been referred to'in my Indian Life, Religious and Social,
pp. 41, 42.

182

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

“ 329. He who knows their colour, their motion, their
taste, their places, and their signs, become in this world
equal to Rudra.”

These extracts from a book entitled The Science of
Breath and the Philosophy of the Tat/was,1 are, I fancy,
quite as much as, if not more than, the patience of
ordinary readers can endure, and they are certainly
amply sufficient to illustrate how even the finest
speculations of the Hindu mind—those, for example, with
which we commenced this chapter—may become, in prac-
tice, mere fatuous puerilities.

The superhuman power claimed by the modern Yogi
who dares to court public attention is naturally something
very limited, indeed modesty itself, when compared with
the pretensions of the sect as a whole. The following
few instances will probably satisfy the curiosity of the
reader on this subject.

In his Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus,
Professor H. H. Wilson quotes from the Asiatic Monthly
Journal for March 1829 an instance of a Madras Yogi
who used to give exhibitions of what was described as
“sitting in the air,” and, as already stated in Chap. III.,
Dr. Honigberger furnishes authentic details of the burial,
without any harmful results, for no less than forty days
of a Yogi at Lahore in the time of Maharajah Iianjit
Singh.2 What stories circulate in India at the present
day about Y ogis and their doings will be understood from
the following extract from an Indian newspaper :—

“Great excitement is being caused amongst the simple
hill folk in some of the villages to the south of Simla by
a certain wandering Yogi. The man’s last reported feat
is really something beyond the ordinary. He is said to
have burnt himself alive on a large pyre in front of a whole
wondering village, and then ten days later to have appeared
in the same village alive and unhurt. The bill people
firmly believe this story, which they' say must be true,
as the 'Yogi can give them a detailed account of the

1 Translated from the Sanskrit by Rama Prasad, M.A.
‘3 Thirty-fire Years in the East, by Dr. Honigberger, Physician to the
Court of Lahore, pp. 126—130, London, 1852.
183

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

topography of heaven. This, of course, settles the matter.
It is manifestly impossible for any man to describe heaven
unless he has been there to see.” 1 .

The instances above cited were all public performances ;
and I may add that Yogi's have always been given, more
than other Hindu sectarians, to exhibitions intended to
impress the people and win their admiration.

So strong has this tendency been that it will be
within the memory of many, that, as mentioned in a
previous chapter, a few years ago a Punjabi, one Bava
Lachman Das, professing to be a Yogi, gave a number
of exhibitions at the Westminster Aquarium of his
wonderful skill as a posturist, eliciting a good deal of
attention on account of the strange and seemingly im-
possible feats he performed in contorting his arms and
legs into most grotesque and unnatural positions.

We have thus far considered the doctrines and pre-
tensions of the Yogi's; it remains now to give some par-
ticulars about the origin and working of the sect as such.
Of the Yogi sect as it now exists one Mahandranath was
probably the real founder, though the fame of his disciple
Goraknfith, who is identified with Siva himself, has
eclipsed that of the master. Of Goraknfith nothing
authentic is known, though his name is associated with
legends dating from a remote past to comparatively
modern times.2

1 Civil and Military Gazette, Lahore, May 1895.

2 “And here mention may be made of a modern deified Hindu teacher
or sage, named Gorakh-Nath, who is said to have gone from India into
Nepal, and is worshipped there as well as at Gorakh-poor and throughout
the Punjab. Very little is known about him, and he belongs more to
Hinduism than to Buddhism. Some say that he was a contemporary of
Kabir (1488—1512), and, according to a Jammsdkhi, he once had an interview
with Nanak, the founder of the Sikh sect. Such legendary accounts as are
current are wrapped in much mystery. One legend describes him as born
from a lotus. Others describe him as the third or fourth in a series of Saiva
teachers, and the founder of the Kanphata sect of Yogi's. The remarkable
thing about him is that he succeeded in achieving an extraordinary degree
of popularity among Northern Hindus and among some adherents of
Buddhism in Nepal. His tomb is in the Punjab, and he is to this
day adored as a kind of god by immense numbers of the inhabitants
of North-Western India under the hills."—Sir Monier Williams’ Buddhism,
pp. 193, 194.

184

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

“ The most .flourishing epoch of the Smnkhya-yoga
belongs,” says Professor Weber, “most probably to the
first centuries of our era, the influence it exercised upon
the development of Gnosticism in Asia Minor being un-
mistakable ; while further, both through this channel and
afterwards directly also, it had an important influence
upon the growth of the Sufi philosophy.”1

The Yogi's as we find them at the present time pay-
especial respect to Siva, who is regarded by some of them
as thefirst Y ogi, and they also honour Bhairon "or Bhairava,
a god or demigod, usually represented pictorially with
a club in one hand, a bottle in the other, and a dog in
attendance at his heels. Members of all castes may
become YOg'iS. There are several sub-orders, but the
more prominent of these appear to be the Jog/cashiers
or Xanp/mtis and the Augm's or Ogliars. All Yogi's wear
rosaries of rudraksha berries. They eat meat, and drink
ardent spirits; it is indeed required of them to do so, and
the result, in many cases, is the formation of habits of
inebriety. Y ctr/is, when clothed at all, wear orange-yellow
garments. They have their hair plaited with threads
of black wool, and coiled on the top of the head. They
do not cremate, but bury their dead in a sitting posture
facing the north. The Kanphatis wear ear-rings (immdi'a),
often huge ones, made of jade, glass, or even wood, by
which token they may be readily recognised. Their
sect-names end in quit/L.

The Augars or 097mm, whose sect-names end in dds,
are usually recruited from the lowest castes, and do not
seem to command the respect of the people. The Augar
does not wear ear-rings, but usually carries a nddh or
small wooden pipe suspended from his neck by a black
thread. This pipe he sounds in the morning and in the
evening, and also before eating or drinking anything.
Yogis often keep dogs.

A Y ogi is shown in the illustration, Fig. 10, lightly
clad, smeared with ashes, and wearing the nddh suspended
from his neck. Besides the gods Siva and Bhairava,
Yogis pay especial honour to nine ndths or immortal

1 Indian Literature, p. 239.
I 8 5

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

saints, who dwell at ease in the inaccessible fastnesses
of the Himalayas. Their names are—

1. Goraknath. 6. Gopinath.
2. Machandernath. 7. Prannath.
3. Charputnath. 8. Surathnath.
4. Mangalnfith. 9. Chambanfith.

5. Ghugonz’ith.

They also hold in special veneration eighty-four Siddltas
or perfect Yogis, some of whom are believed to be still
upon the earth. “The distinctive emblem of the Siclclha
worshippers is a silver singhi or cylindrical ornament
worn on a thread round the neck.”1

Yoga, with its practices and pretensions, has recently
been attracting attention outside India, and the Neiths
and Sidd/zas just referred to, the immortal men-gods of
the Yogis, have probably been the prototypes of the
wonderful Mahatmas of certain European and American
theosophists of our day.

There is no denying the fact that yoga is practised
by many earnest men of unquestionably high character,
yet, unfortunately, it cannot be aflirmed of a majority of
the twentieth-century Yogis, who in the guise of ascetics
peregrinate the country, living on the pious credulity of
the masses, that they are anything better than ignorant
worthless impostors, and even dangerous characters.

1 Census Report (film Punjab, 1891, by E. D. Maclagan, I.C.S., p. 115.

186

£3 wag Si. cs .3 firm

.:PA<N~:§H :Oxum HUGH <

 

C HAP TE R VI I I—continucd

SECTION IV.—-Vaislmava Sects: Sri Vaishnavas, Madhavas, Ramanandis,
Kabir Panthis, Ballavacharyas, and Chaitanitcs.

 

~. -- “THE sects now to be noticed all
‘. .5"; devote themselves specially to
the worship of Vishnu, but differ
from one another primarily in
paying adoration to him in his
human incarnations either as
Ramachandra or as Krishna. As

...... a rule they are all vegetarians
and abstain from spirits.
Rama worshippers may or
may not associate his consort
Sita with their god. Krishna worshippers usually adore
his consorts, or his mistress Radha, along with their
chosen deity.

1. The SM Vaislmavas, as followers of Ramanuja
are called because they worship Sri or Lakshmi as the
consort of Vishnu, are found almost exclusively in the
Deccan, where they have flourishing monastic establish-
ments.

The most marked peculiarity of these sectarians is
their scrupulousness in regard to food. Nothing must
be eaten by a Ramanujite that has not been prepared by
himself and in strict privacy. When actually taking his
meal, the householder of this sect must be clad either in
woollen or silk but not cotton garments. There are two
sub-sects, the Vadagalas and the Tengalas. On the fore-
head the Ramanujas have painted certain White lines,
which in the case of Vadagalas resemble. a W, in that of

187

2

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

the Tngalas a Y. They also paint a red streak up
and down between the white lines. Members of this
sect also adorn themselves with patches of gapi-chcmdana
and red lines on the breast and arms. These patches
are intended to represent the conch, discus, club, and
lotus, emblems of Vishnu, while the red line stands for
Sri, or Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu.

Not'uncommonly, members of both sexes have these
emblems branded on their persons with red-hot metal
stamps.

The necklaces and rosaries of the mendicant orders
are made of tulccsi wood or of lotus seeds, their robes are
dyed of a reddish colour. Some call themselves clandis,
and habitually carry a staff, but, unlike the Sivite
dmulis already described, they do not throw off the sacred
thread.

2. x’lfatllbaUIIS.—Tlll8 sect, founded, as already stated, by
Madhavacharya (A.I). 1199—1278), is confined to Southern
India. The monks are celibates, and live in monasteries.
They wear a single orange-coloured wrapper. Like the
Sivite (Zmulis, they discard the sacred thread, carry a
staff and a water-pot, and shave their heads. They also
brand upon their breasts and arms the symbols of Vishnu.
The sect mark on the forehead is composed of two
perpendicular lines painted with gOPi-cha'ndmm, and one
blaC/u' line between them traced with the charcoal of
incense burnt before the image of Vishnu. The black
line terminates in a round yellow spot of turmeric. All
castes may be admitted to this sect, but their gurus or
preceptors are always Brahmans.

3. The Rmmmandis.——This flourishing Vishnuvite sect,
which is spread all over Northern India, is known also
under the name of Ramawat or JBamat. It was founded
by Ramanand somewhere about the end of the fourteenth
or beginning of the fifteenth century.1

All Rammmmlz’s bear on their foreheads the distinguish-
ing Vishnu sect mark, the trifala, which consists of three

‘ Professor H. 11. Wilson, ,S'lcclch of the Religious Seeds of the Hindus,

p. 31.
188

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

upright lines—the centre one red, and the side ones
white. They also wear necklaces and rosaries of tnlasi
beads.

The Ramanandis have large and wealthy monasteries
in Upper India. There are four sub-sects or orders, all
celibate. (1) Achai'i, (2) Sang/asi} (3) Khaki, (4-) Bairagi.
' The Acha'ris wear silken and woollen garments, the Sang/asis
salmon-coloured cotton clothes, while the Khakis usually
go about naked, their bodies powdered with dust and ashes
and their hair and nails unclipped. The Baimgis are
probably the most numerous order of this sect ; their name
is commonly applied to all Vishnuvite mendicants, hence
they seem to deserve special notice.

The name is derived from bai, without, and Mr, attach-
ment, i.c. without attachment to the world, and is applied
even to the Bengali followers of Chaitanya.2

Hindus of all castes are permitted to become Baimgis,
and, as a matter of fact, the sect is recruited from all castes,
including the Brahmans. Evidently, {amanand’s sectarian
movement was one opposed to, and no doubt intended to
be subversive of, the established, rigid, and immemorial caste
system.

Baimgis do not wear coloured clothes, they allow their
hair to grow long, and paint upon their foreheads the
trifala, consisting of three upright lines radiating slightly
from the top of the nose, the central line being of a red
colour, and the other two white or yellow. As stated in
a previous chapter, the central red line is said to typify
Vishnu, the lines on the left and right respectively
Brahma and Siva. Bairagis wear necklaces and carry
rosaries of basil (inlasi) beads. They do not eat meat or
drink spirits, but are commonly addicted to bhang. All,
whether of the three “ twice-born castes” or not, put on
the sacred thread and wear a tuft of hair on the crown
of the head—practices which would seem intended as
assertions of the equality of all Hindus, effected by a

1 The use of this name to designate quite distinct sects or orders is, to
say the least, somewhat confusing to the inquircr.
2 Travels of a Hindu, by Bholanath Chander, p. 35.

189

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

process of levelling up to the higher strata in the caste
system.

As a head-covering the Bai‘ragi often uses a Ram nam
ka safa, which is a piece of cotton cloth with the names
of Rama and Sita stamped on it, and usually obtained from
Muttra or Bindrabun.

Bairagz's are supposed to be celibates, but the“ monks
of this order have generally a large number of nuns
attached to their convents, with Whom they openly live as
man and wife.” 1

A most elaborate ritual has been laid down for the
guidance of Baimgz’s in the daily routine of the indispensable
business and duties of life, prescribing in minute detail how,
for example, the ascetic should wash, bathe, sit down,
perform pranaymn (stoppage or regulation of respiration),
purify his body, purge his mind,meditate on Vishnu, repeat
the Gayatri as composed for the special use of members of the
sect, worship Rama, Sita, Lakshman, Bharata, and Satringah,
together with Rama’s bows and arrows, and, lastly, the
monkey god Hanuman.2

So many Observances are prescribed and so much
repetition is enjoined that it is evident that the object in
view was to give the Baimgi enough to fully occupy his
thoughts and his waking hours. Of course the mystic
union of the worshipper with his deity is an object kept
prominently before him in these religious exercises, especially
in his meditations, and he is required to realise that Rama
and himself are one, not two. The Bairagi is expected to pay
at least one visit to Dwarka in order to be branded on his
right arm with the Vishnu symbols—the discus, the conch,
the club, and the lotus.

4. The Kabz’r Panthis.——Kabir having practically re-
commended his followers to be all things to all men, and
to conciliate the world at large by outward conformity with
prevailing customs, it has come about, quite naturally, that

1 Hindu, Castes and Seats, by Dr. J. N. Bhattacharjee, p. 445.

'~’ The history of these personages, as narrated in the famous Sanskrit
epic the Ramayana, has been epitomised in my Great Indian Epics (George
Bell & Sons, London).

190

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

the Kabir Pant/L733 have no distinctive dress or ceremonies.
As far as they do affect peculiarities of any kind, they
follow those of the Ramats, wearing tulasi beads and having
the mifala painted on their foreheads. Monks of this sect
may be met with all over Northern and Central India.

It would seem that the Kabir Panthz's hold, in
opposition to the generally accepted Hindu ideas, that
the Creator “has body formed of the five elements of
matter, and that He has mind endowed with the three
gunas, or qualities of being—of course of ineffable purity
and irresistible power; He is free from the defects of
human natures, and can assume what particular shape He
will; in all other respects He does not differ from man, and
the pure man, the Sadh of the Kabir sect, is His living
resemblance, and after death is His associate and equal.” 1

5. The Ballavacharyas, well known in Western India,
worship Bala Gopala, the cowherd boy. All Hindus,
Sudms included, may join the sect, but men of the lowest
castes, such as dhobis (washermen), moc/m's (shoemakers),
darzis (tailors), and napz'ts (barbers), are not received
into it.

Asceticism is practically unknown amongst the
Ballavites, since they hold “the doctrine that the spiritual
progress of the soul is possible only by keeping the body
and its powers in a sound condition.” 2 This being the case,
a consideration of their peculiarities lies outside the scope
of the present book.

6. The C’haitanites.——Even the lowest castes are
admitted into this sect. Chaitanitc mendicant monks are
generally called Bai'ragz's. Both males and females are
admitted, the former being addressed as Babaji and the
latter as Mataji. These Babajis and Matajis commonly
live together as husbands and wives, though the former
affect the usual garments of ascetics and the latter those
of widows.

In all. religious systems the celibate state has, with
good reason, been looked upon as one of supreme

1 Wilson’s Religious Scots 0f the Hindus, p. 51.

2 Hindu Castes and Scots, by Dr. J. N. Bhattacharjee, p. 458.

191

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

self-sacrifice, and therefore as a holy state; but it is so
entirely unnatural that, when embraced as a rule of life by
sects, orders, or professions, it has never been lived up to.
What steady and protracted opposition was experienced
in the Christian Church before celibacy could be enforced
amongst Christian ecclesiastics, and what gross immoralities
and scandals compulsory celibacy led to, are well known.1

“The O/m’itam'tc nuns,” says Dr. Bhattacharjée, “ are
recruited chiefly from the superannuated unfortunates of
the town. The order is joined also by some of the unchaste
widows of the lower classes.” 2

There are, however, some of the Chaitam'tc Baimgz's,
the so-called Bri/cats (men disgusted with the world), who
profess celibacy and live in monasteries, of which 'a great
many have been erected by the liberality of the richer lay
members of the sect.

The dress worn by the Chaitanitc monks is generally
white, but a yellow colour is sometimes adopted. Like
other Vaislmrwas, the (L'haz'lam’tcs paint perpendicular lines
on their foreheads, generally with gopi-c/Lamlana; they also,
by means of engraved stamps dipped in moist gapi-
chandana, print upon their arms and breasts the names
of their deities and often the word gora, which is a
corruption for gamma, one of the many names of their
prophet. Their rosaries and necklaces are made of beads
cut from the tulasi plant, which is held in high venera-
tion by them.

The Chaimnitcs are strict vegetarians, and avoid the
use of all intoxicants. They are required to abstain
from communion with those Hindus who offer animal
sacrifices.3

There are amongst the followers of Chaitanya various
sub-sects well known for their immoralities. For example,
the Spashta. Dag/alerts, amongst whom the monks and nuns
live together in the same monasteries, with results which

’On this subject Mr. H. C. Lea’s full and learned work, Sacerdotal
Cclibacy, is probably the best one in English.

2 Hindu Castes and Scots, p. 467.

3 Ward’s Hindus, pp. 125, 126.

192

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

may well be imagined; the Sahcg'as, who hold that every
man is Krishna and every woman Radha, and consequently
approve of promiscuous intercourse; and the Brads, who,
going one step further, maintain that “sexual indulgence is
the most approved form of religious exercise.”1

1 Dr. Bhattacharjce’s II [ndu Castes and Scots, p. 483.

 

N 193

CHAPTE R V I I l—continucd

SECTION \'.—Three Sikh Mendicant Orders: Udasis, Xirmalis, Akalis.

"~ N the last chapter I noted the more
0” ( essential characteristics of Sikh/ism,
and also the fact that at the present
time it is manifesting a tendency,
real if hardly perceptible, to re-
adopt many of the practices of
Hinduism, out of which it gradu-
ally emerged in the fifteenth, six-
teenth, and seventeenth centuries,
under the stimulus of political
conditions which have long since
ceased to exist.

Of the mendicant orders which
sprang out of Sikhism I have
selected the Udasis, Niwnalis, and
Alcalis for notice here, more especi-
ally on account of the peculiar and
picturesque circumstances to which
the latter two owe their begin-
nings.

l , The Udasis.1—This order of
‘ sad/ms, which is an extremely
numerous one in the Punjab, was
founded by Siri Chand, eldest son
of Baba Nanak. Siri Chand lived
\ : to see the. sixth Sikh gm'u, Har
lf,’ 3 Govind, and, when he was over a

hundred years old, he adopted

 

 

     
 

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194

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

Gurditta, a son of the last-named gum, to succeed him as
abbot of the order of the Udasz's. But Gurditta, being a
sporting character and a married man, was disqualified
from being a proper head of the brotherhood. He there-
fore made over the spiritual leadership of the order to
four men who were to act as his mosamls or deputies, and
these four became the founders of the four principal sub-
orders, called 'd/mmzs, or hearths, into which the Udasis
-are divided.

It is stated that, when Siri Chand’s claims to succeed
his father Baba Nanak in the guruship were passed over
by his venerable parent in favour of Angad, one of his
most devoted followers, the disappointed son threw ashes
on his head and person, in token of his grief and abasc-
ment; and to this day the Udas'is hold ashes in great
esteem in memory of this painful event, the ashes, for
ceremonial purposes mixed with calcareous earth, being
sometimes made into large balls several inches in
diameter.

Udas'is are usually decently clad in salmon-coloured
clothes. They wear a pointed cap on the head and a
black cord known as a sdlec round the neck. They carry
a jlwlz' or bag hanging from the shoulder, and a toomba
or dried pumpkin which serves as a water-pot. A black
asan, or small carpet, often forms a part of their travelling
outfit. Some wear a mass of matted hair on their heads,
others go almost clean-shaven, there being apparently no
general rule on this matter. The use of flesh, spirits, and
tobacco is denied to the Udasz's. Many members of the
order are good Sanskrit scholars. When a 012.6th is
admitted into the order, he is adjured to avoid those two
deadly temptations: gold and women. The initiator-y
ceremony is brought to a conclusion by the chcla drinking
the water with which his guru’s feet have been washed.
He is then taught certain portions of a hymn known as
the jap-fi, and dismissed with this final admonition—

“Chz'm'm sadh kc dho dho pcyo
Urap sadh ko apna jeyo.”

(Drink the water with which the sadhu has washed his
195

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

feet, and give up your soul and body to the sadhu, z'.e. the
guru.)

The Nirmalz's (the pure).—The circumstances under
which this order originated are, I should say, unique. In
AD. 1691, or thereabouts, Govind Singh, the tenth and
last gum of the Sikhs, celebrated with unusual pomp at
Anandpur the gay Hindu saturnalia known as the Half.
Visitors were attracted thither from considerable distances,
and amongst others came a young and beautiful Hindu
widow named Anup Kaur, a Khatmm: by caste, and a
resident of Lahore. Guru Govind Singh, who was only
twenty-five years of age and a particularly handsome man,
captivated the susceptible heart of the young widow, and
she resolved to try her arts upon him. It appears that at
this period the chief object of Govind’s life was to induce,
I might almost say compel, the goddess Devi to appear to him
and promise him her assistance against the Muhammadan
rulers of the land, who were carrying on a bitter religious
persecution of the Hindus. For the attainment of the end
he had in view, Govind had gathered many Brahmans
together,——for, like all Hindus, he believed that if the
appropv'iatc religious ceremonies were com'cctly carried out,
the goddess, however reluctant, would be constrained to
make her appearance.

It is well known to the Hindu that besides the
Brahmans there are others who, by the practice of painful
austerities, have become possessed of great, sometimes
unlimited, power. These thaumaturgists are to be found
only here and there, it is true, amongst the sad/ms of
various sects who abound in India. To the sadhus,
therefore, Govind frequently resorted for advice and
assistance in his endeavours to propitiate the goddess
Devi. Having come to know this, a happy idea entered
the head of the love-sick Anup Kaur. She would person-
ate a sadhu, enter into close relations with Govind, and,
in the end, attract and ensnare the object of her passion.

In pursuance of this plan, she disguised herself as a
sadhu, and, being possessed of ample means, she easily
secured accomplices in her scheme. She took up her
abode at a spot within a short distance of Anandpur, and

196

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

her satellites soon let it be known through the countryside
that a most holy and learned Sanyasi had favoured the
neighbourhood with his presence. It was also given out
that this most saintly Mahatma had a special key to open
the heart of the goddess Devi. The important news, of
course, reached Govind, for whom it had been specially
prepared, and he forthwith instructed a confidential ser-
vant to arrange an early interview with the new-comer.
The youthful sadlm, however, betrayed no eagerness to
meet the gum, and merely sent word to the effect that if
Govind wished to come he might do so, but on condition
that he came without any pomp or following, in an ascetic
garb, at midnight and alone.

These conditions excited the imagination of Govind
Singh, and enhanced the importance of the sadhu in his
eyes. So, having donned the orange-coloured vestments of
an ascetic, he sought the saintly Mahatma in the stillness
of the night at the appointed hour.

He was graciously received, and the usual exchange of
compliments and ideas took place. After a little while,
on some pretext or other the sadlm retired, and then re—
appeared before the astonished gum decked in silks and
jewellery, a young and fascinating woman, with every
attraction that could lure an ordinary mortal to her
embraces. But Govind, like Joseph under somewhat
similar circumstances, kept his virtue, and, after rebuking
Anup Kaur, made good his escape; not, however, before
the disappointed temptress had raised the cry of “Thief!”
Govind, who was never at any time deficient in artfulness,
joined in the cry, and, seizing Anup Kaur’s brother in the
darkness, added greatly. to the confusion, in which he
managed to slip away safely.

When Govind Singh returned home he gave the ascetic
garb he had assumed for the memorable occasion to one
of his followers, Bir Singh, a very holy personage, and
authorised him to found a new sect of sad/ms, to be
called Nirmal'is, or the pure, in commemoration of the
event.

This adventure of Govind’s bore fruit of another kind
also. The wiles of Anup Kaur had made a deep im-

I97

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

pression on him, and he wrote, or more likely collected, no
less than four hundred and four stories on the Wiles of
women, for the timely warning, it is said, of his simple
followers.

The Nirmalz's are, on the whole, a learned order much
given to Sanskrit studies, and are followers of the Vedanta
philosophy. There is a tradition amongst them that five
original members of the order went to study Sanskrit
theology at llenares, but were denied the privilege of such
studies by the Brahmans, because they happened to be
Swims by caste. However, Guru Govind Singh cheered
the disappointed students by the prediction that their
order would be famous for its learned men, from whom
the Brahmans themselves would be glad to receive
instruction.

N irnmlz’s wear their hair long, and dress themselves in
reddish-yellmv garments.

The Ni/m-ngs or AluulzTal—The circumstances which gave
rise to this sect are connected with the flight of Govind
Singh from Chain Kor, famous in Sikh annals. At this
place, in a little fortified enclosure, some forty Sikhs
defended themselves against a large number of the
Mogul soldiers sent against them by the Muhammadan
governor of Lahore. When hard pressed by the Imperial
troops Govind Singh dressed up one of his men in his
own clothes, and, leaving him in charge of the defence,
escaped secretly and alone from the beleaguered post.
The place, though stoutly defended, was eventually cap-
tured by the Moguls, but a few of the brave defenders
managed to get away, and went at once in search of their
revered guru. They found him not far from the village
of Machiwara, asleep near a well, quite overcome with
fatigue.

In this village Govind had some Muslim friends, to
whom he appealed for help in order to conceal himself
from the pursuit of the Mogul soldiery, who would no
doubt be scouring the country in search of him. These
good friends helped him to disguise himself in the blue
dress of a Muslim faguz‘r, known about those parts as an

1 Nihan-g = humble. Akali = immortal.

198

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

Uch ka pi? (a saint of Uch), so named from the village
of Uch near Multan, where lived numerous Sayads or
descendants of the prophet Muhammad. To make the
disguise more effective, Govind Singh was placed on a light
bed, known as a cht’w'pdi, and carried along the road as an
Uch ka pi? would ordinarily be carried. Of the men who
shouldered his chdrpdi two were Sikhs, and two, whose
names are remembered to this day,—Nabi Khan and
Ghani Khan,—were Muhammadans. A third Sikh was in
attendance, farming the pseudo-p757: They had not gone far
when they were overtaken by the Muhammadan troops,
who looked upon l’ir-ji with some suspicion. To test the
case, the soldiers requested the pir to prove that he was
what he professed to be, by eating with them. In reply,
the attendants said that the holy man never ate anything
at all, except perhaps one grain of barley in the month,
but that they themselves would willingly eat with the
Moguls; and they did so, the three Sikhs along with their
two Muslim friends.

When the party reached a village inhabited by
Govind’s own people, he burnt a portion of the blue
clothes he had assumed by way of disguise, and the
remainder he presented to one Man Singh, a favourite
follower of his, to be worn by him as the distinctive
garb of a new order—Nihrmgs or Akal'is—which he
was authorised to found.

The Akalz's, in consequence, wear blue garments, but
the dress they have adopted, in which their veneration of
warlike weapons finds exaggerated expression, is grotesque.
At the commencement of the section is the likeness
of a present-day Akali, in all his war paint, which
speaks for itself. During the Sikh mj, the Akal'is
were the most fanatical followers of the cult of Guru
Govind Singh, and their weapons were steeped in blood
on many a fierce battlefield; but, redoubtable though
they were, their reckless fanaticism was hardly a
match for the steady courage of the Purbia sepoys,
who taught them and their Maharajah Ranjit Singh
the supreme importance of training and discipline, a
lesson which the astute Maharajah laid to heart, and

199

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

turned to good account in the later years of his strenuous
life.1

The manners and customs of these sectaries are as
peculiar as their personal appearance. When an Akalz' is
going to eat, he is required to shout with a loud voice,
“ Is anyone in want of a meal?” and, in the unlikely event
of anybody coming forward in response to this inquiry, he
is to satisfy the hungry stranger before touching food
himself.

At Sikh (UMl-7‘7728ftla8, which are chapels and rest-houses
combined, it is the common practice of the Akalz's to
gather idly and expectantly round a large stone mortar, in
which one of the party busies himself in bruising bhang
(hemp leaves) with a stout wooden pestle. When the
leaves are reduced to a green pulp, this is mixed with
water and sugar and drunk with great appreciation by
these fantastically clad immortals.

Many llllcalz's, wandering about the country in comfort
with horses and camels, do not hesitate to ask for
pecuniary assistance. The leader of one of these bands
once paid me a visit, sending in the following visiting-
card :—

PREM SIXGH
(Numxu ercu)

YAHIRIYA.

(Of the party of Nihangs that travel about and have no fixed abode.)

I began this sketch of the mcndicant orders with an
account of the harmless, unobtrusive J ains wandering over
the country on foot, carrying merely a besom, not of
destruction, but of ultra-tenderness for the lowly life of
insects and lower organisms. I have concluded my
account by introducing to the reader the truculent bhang-
drinking Algal)? roving about, often on horseback or camel-
back, bristling all over with weapons of war.

Although the armed Ali-alt may, by an obvious
association of ideas, recall to mind the famous military
1 Memoirs of Colonel Alexander Gardner, chap. xi.

ZOO

ASCETIC SECTS AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS

orders of the West,—the Templars, Hospitallers, and
Teutonic knights of the Middle Ages,-—the resemblance is
too slight and trifling for even a moment’s consideration.
However, the immense interval, both chronological and
psychological, between the Jains of the fifth century
13.0. and the Alcalz's of the seventeenth century of our
era, may well serve as an emphatic illustration of the
wonderful dissimilitude of some of the ideals which under-
lie the practice of asceticism and mendicancy in India.

201

CHAPTER IX

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES \VITH SADHUS, GOOD AND BAD

1. The Swinging Bairagi. ‘2. The Sanyasi Swami Bhaskarananda of
Benares. 3. Gareeh Das, an Urdhabahu Bairagi. 4. A Yogi who
protected Amritsar from the Plague. 5. A Brahmachari from the Tamil
Country. 6. A Sadhu of European Descent at Simla. 7. A Naked
Sanyasi and his Companion, a Princess of 1’; 8. A Sadhu of
Royal Lineage, Prince Bir Bhanu Singh. 9. A Sadhu who had found
God. 10. A Sun-worshipping Bairagi. 11. Yogis and Pious \Vomen.
12. A pseudo-Sadhu and his Adventures. 13. Yogi Guests. 14. A
Sadhu as Restaurateur. 15. A Saint in Chains.

IFE-XVEARY as well as light-
hearted sad/ms, professional
anchorites both good and bad,
are to be found all over India
to-day just as in times past;
and if in the previous chapters
I have succeeded at
all in awakening the
reader’s interest in
Indian sadhus, he will
not object to a closer and, as it were, more personal
acquaintance with these ascetics, such as is afforded by
the following narratives of actual interviews with them,
and of trustworthy accounts of their doings carefully sifted
and punctually noted down by me as soon as the facts
were placed in my possession.

 

  
 
 
   

1. THE SWINGING BAIRAGI.

Near a large tank known as Ratan Chand’s z‘alao, in the
neighbourhood of a group of Hindu temples in Lahore,
and under some fine old peepul trees, two or three hundred

202

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

people, mostly Hindus of both sexes, were assembled one
fine evening in November, most of them attentively watch-
ing a palanquin which had been placed on the high
platform of a samad/L or cenotaph erected to the memory
of a Hindu lady by her wealthy son. The screens of the
palanquin were drawn back, but I could see nothing
within until I approached quite near, when I discovered
the emaciated figure of an almost naked man sitting with
his knees drawn up against his chin in an attitude common
enough in India, but one which the European would find
it rather difficult to imitate.

Down the length of the palanquin was a board, closely
studded with blunt iron nails, and it was upon a portion
of this most uncomfortable bed of spikes that the Baimgi '
was seated, and was supposed, perhaps quite correctly, to
sleep at night. Above the bony shins and exaggerated
knot-like knees of this seated figure appeared a human
head with an immense shock of hair like a chignon hanging
heavily behind it. Its hollow eyes, peering over a pair of
green glass-and-wire goggles, had a queer hunted look
about them, and its nostrils seemed strangely misshapen,
one being apparently distended with some sort of plug or
other. From this repulsive figure there proceeded, from
time to time, sundry guttural sounds and hollow coughs.

A faithful disciple, conveniently at hand, explained to
me that his master in the palanquin was more than one
hundred and thirty years of age, and had resolved to
- undergo certain penances until he should succeed in
collecting enough money to feast one hundred thousand
Brahmans and to give each one of his guests the present
of at least one rupee, apparently for being good enough to
partake of the banquet provided for him.

As I stood near the palanquin a succession of men and
women, mostly the latter, mounted the platform, approached
the ascetic, and, bowing down before him so that their
heads touched the very floor, placed their offerings, con-
sisting for the most part of pice or of small silver coins,
before the holy man. This done, they passed on without
an audible word, though some silent wish or prayer was
no doubt in each one’s heart. The saint did not con-

203

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

descend to notice anyone, but merely looked absently,
with those queer hunted eyes of his, at his admirers as
they approached his presence and added their contributions
towards the considerable sum necessary for the fulfilment
of his vow.

Presently a stir took place amongst the ascetic’s
attendants. The usual time for him to perform his
ablutions had arrived. A pair of wooden-soled sandals
studded with spikes were placed beside the palanquin, and
upon their prickly surface the poor fellow was helped to
place his bare feet. With the assistance of his men, the
emaciated Baimgz' was brought forward and allowed to
subside on to a low wooden stool about four or five inches
high. When he emerged from his palanquin the onlookers
took up what, according to Indian ideas, is a most
respectful attitude, all present facing the ascetic with
slightly bowed heads and palms joined together before
their breasts. Anyone who may have seen a picture of a
lajah’s d'zw'bar, painted by an Indian artist, will at once
comprehend what I mean. All faces turned in one
(lirection,———the direction of the Bajah,—each man’s feet
set close together side by side, his palms accurately joined
one against the other and the fingers slanting upwards
at an angle of about forty-five degrees—all beautifully
regular, all uniformly respectful.

The saint reputed to be one hundred and thirty years
old, though certainly very rickety and worn, was probably
not more than half that age. He coughed a good deal and
seemed very weak.

When about to perform his ablutions in public, be
requested the people nearest him to stand back a little,
lest the water should reach and inconvenience them. A
slight backward movement was the result, and, when an
attendant poured some water on the Ba/L'mgi’s hands, it
was seen that his wrists were united by an iron chain not
more than six or seven inches long. Now came the
important operation of dislodging the huge plug from his
right nostril. As the sadhu removed it, not without a
little effort, it was followed by a loosely twisted cord of
unspun cotton about eight or nine inches long, which had

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apparently been hanging in the pharynx at the back of
the nose. No wonder the poor fellow coughed so
frequently and so painfully. Two cotton cords, similar
to the one described, but somewhat longer, were handed
to the Baimg’i. Their ends were pointed and perhaps a
little stiffened with wax. With an unpleasant, almost
painful, grunt or moan, he passed them both up his nostrils,
and then, opening his mouth as wide as possible, fished up
with his long skinny fingers the pendent ends of the two
cords. All four extremities were now in his hands, and
he proceeded to draw the strings to and fro through his
nose and mouth five or six times. When Maharaj, as
they called him, had thus cleansed his nostrils and throat,
two narrow bamboo tubes, each about eighteen inches long,
were brought to him. One had a small funnel at its
extremity. The Baimgi having held his head aslant, the
small end of the funnel tube was applied to his right
nostril and one end of the other tube to his left nostril,
the latter being lower than the former. Water was now
poured, from a vessel with a spout, into the funnel, and
came off in a continuous stream at the end of the other
and lower tube—a rather difficult performance this, I
should fancy. It remained to plug the left nostril for the
night as the other had previously been, for they were
stopped turn about. This operation was accomplished by
passing a long wick, or cotton cord, up the nose, and finally
introducing its other and knotted end with a little force
into the much distended nostril. As the stiffened end of
the cord disappeared up the ascetic’s nose, a veracious
disciple assured us that it had gone straight up into the
brain. He repeated this statement many times, and the
Baimgz', who heard it, and knew it was not true, did not
contradict it. .

These operations duly accomplished in the public gaze,
the holy man was helped back once more into his un-
comfortable lodging in the palanquin. I learnt that twice
a day, morning and evening, Maharaj repeated this disgust-
ing and unedifying performance, and that twice a day
people assembled to see and admire it, although it is
neither original in its conception,—for other Baimgis do

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

the like,—nor, I should think, specially agreeable for
anyone to behold.

Had this worn-out ascetic so assiduously devoted to
the regular cleansing of his nostrils and throat ever had a
romance in his life? Had he been deceived, disillusioned,
driven to despair? Had that uncouth figure ever been
acceptable to the fair sex ? Had those strange hunted eyes
ever gleamed with rage or melted with passion? Possibly;
but these are questions more easily asked than answered.
The Baimg'i himself did not speak ; and the motive assigned
for all his severe penance, the desire to feed a hundred
thousand Brahmans, could be accounted rational only on
the supposition that he desired to expiate some sin, or
more likely to acquire merit and power through his
austerities, the feeding of one hundred thousand Brahmans
being set before himself as a definite object to limit the
duration of his self-imposed hardships.

I had leisure now to study my company and surround-
ings. At the foot of one of the peepul trees I found three
sadhus sitting round a small fire, all of them young and
healthy. They had no connection with the Bairagi who
was attracting so much attention, and rather affected to
turn their backs upon him. Two of these men were so
scantily clothed that their united garments would have
hardly made a decent-sized pocket—handkerchief; the third
was absolutely naked, sky-clothed ((l’igambam) he would
himself have said, under broad daylight, in a public place,
and amidst a mixed crowd of both sexes. The sky-clothed
one was, I have no doubt, an abandoned scamp. He
looked it. A grave and well-dressed man ventured to
suggest, in my hearing, the desirability of a rag in the
interests of decency, to which the religious man made
some flippant observation about the trouble of keeping it
tied.

Before I left the spot I learned that the sadhu of the
spiky bed had yet another mode of drawing the wondering
multitude to visit him and to contribute their portion
towards the accomplishment of his vow. Once a day, in
the afternoon, he used to have himself suspended, head
downwards, from a sturdy branch of a great tree, before

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the admiring gaze of a large concourse of people. On the
first suitable opportunity I came to see this part of his
performance. .

It was a lovely day. A crowd of about five hundred
men and women had assembled, and, in Oriental fashion,
were meekly and quietly sitting down on the ground
awaiting the great man’s convenience. A few persons,
mostly women, pressed on to the platform, and I noticed a
girl of about sixteen in bright red clothes sit down and
peer into the palanquin with wondering curiosity. Most
likely she was from the country, and had come to Lahore
from some neighbouring village on purpose to see Maharaj.
A female companion pulled her roughly away, but dis-
engaging herself she came back again to stare with wide-
open eyes at the wonderful sadhu, until she was pushed
aside by others who did not approve of her monopolising
the best position for viewing his saintship.

At about one o’clock an attendant came forward and
set to work preparing a space about ten feet square, under
a large peepul tree, by smearing it over with a mixture of
clay, cow-dung, and water. This done, he placed a pile of
dried cow-dung cakes upon it and applied a light. A cloud
of white smoke was quickly diffused all around. When
the fuel happened to blaze up the attendant moderated its
energy by sprinkling a little water on it, thus bringing it
back to the desired smoky condition. The Bailing/5 now
came forth, helped as before, and, after washing his hands,
had his hair firmly tied up in a cloth which also covered
his face. He next put one foot into a loop of thick
cotton rope depending from a branch of the tree, and was
hauled up, head downwards, till he hung suspended about
three feet above the smouldering fire. With one hand he
grasped the free foot, and with the other he manipulated
a rosary concealed in a bag called a gonmkhi. By a slender
string passed round his body one of his disciples kept him
swaying over the smoky fire, into which a Brahman was
throwing grain, ghee, and other things. For seven-and-
twenty minutes by my watch the Baimg’i was swung head
downwards over that smouldering fire. When he had
counted his beads he dropped the bag and was then

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

immediately taken down, looking perhaps a slight degree
more exhausted for his half-hour’s constant fumigation
feet upwards.

Never a word was spoken throughout the entire
performance about right or wrong, not one syllable about
duty or worship. There was the dumb show, and nothing
more.

As the emaciated figure, resembling a skeleton rather
than a man, swayed to and fro like the pendulum of
some strange old-world clock—the clock of Indian ideas—
°I tried to read on the living dial before me what time of
day it was. The circle of onlookers was a large one,
composed of Orientals, whose thoughts and ideas are very
inscrutable, yet it seemed to me that the face of the very
complicated, but interesting, dial I was studying indicated
that dawn was approaching, though the daybreak had not
yet appeared.

A few generations hence the Baimgi clock I have
described will be unknown, at least in the great cities of
India.

2. THE SANYASI SWAMI BHASKARANANDA OF BENARES.

In the holy city of Beuares there lived for many years
a famous szyasz', Swami Bhaskarananda Saraswati, who
died in 1899, being then sixty-six years of age.

This interesting old gentleman, who was more than a
local celebrity, resided in excellent quarters in a fine
garden placed at his disposal, known as Anundabagh,
belonging to the Rajah of Amity. There, at the end of
1895, I paid him a visit, having been informed that he
was always pleased to receive strangers who cared to make
his acquaintance. When I was announced, the Sang/a375,
who had been sitting stark naked, wrapped a loin cloth
about him as a polite concession to my narrow conventional
prejudices, and stepped forward to welcome me with a most
engaging smile. Strange as it may seem, there was un-
deniably something refined and attractive about the
personality of this naked ascetic with his transparently
benevolent countenance, rather light brown complexion,

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clean-shaven head and face, toothless mouth, and keen,
bright, impressive eyes.

A very learned Sanskrit scholar, and deeply versed in
the Vedanta phiIOSOphy, this sadhu was well known to
and venerated by his Hindu countrymen throughout
Northern India.

The old man asked me many questions about my
occupation and the object of my visit to Bcnares, and in
my turn I ventured to inquire whether his practice of
going entirely naked at all times was not rather trying in
the winter. “No,” he said, smiling pleasantly; “by long
habit my entire person has become accustomed to being
exposed, just as your face and hands are. I really feel no
inconvenience.”

Though a recluse, Swami Bhaskarananda, for whom
the world, which after all is only an illusion, had no attrac-
tion whatever, kept a visitors’ book, and, having directed
an attendant to produce it, turned over the pages, pointing
out in it with evident pride the signatures of two or three
British M.P.’s. After we had conversed for some time on
various subjects, he courteously gave me some Sanskrit
pamphlets, written by himself, on religious and philosophical
matters. I told Swami-ji that I had some idea of publish-
ing a book about Indian ascetics. He expressed his
pleasure at this, and was almost childishly delighted when
[said that I should probably mention him in my book.
Apparently to help me in this matter, he presented me
with a short biography of himself, written in English by
one Gopal Chander Chatterjee, to which was prefixed a
lithographed likeness of Swami-ji. After a pleasant hour
with the ascetic I took leave of him, but had barely left
the premises when an attendant came after me to call me
back.1 I retraced my steps, and Swami-ji most courteously

1 Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch visited a sadhu at Benares, who, though
he does not name him, was no doubt Swami Bhaskarananda. The prince
says with reference to this event: “ As I was leaving, the faqui’r called me
back, asked me to think of him sometimes, and gave me one of the splendid
yellow roses that hung about him like a glory.”—Enchanted India, p. 163.
I wonder if Swalni-ji had a well-thought-out habit of thus courteously
recalling his visitors with the object of impressing himself more strongly
upon their memories.

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

said he felt he must have at least one more word with me
before we parted,perhaps for ever; and he then, with many
good wishes for my welfare, kindly handed me a photo-
graph of himself for my boo/r, as he said, and I have much
pleasure in reproducing it now (Fig. 11), as I have also in
calling to mind the serenity, cheerfulness, and urbanity of
this famous and highly venerated Hindu ascetic.

In a little lodge or chapel near the gate, and within
the walls of the bag/[h where he resided, I noticed a
life-size marble statue of the saint. It was a good like-
ness. Later on I saw for sale in the idol-shops in the
bazaars of the city many stone and brass statuettes, which
appeared to be faithful copies of the statue I have just
referred to.

From the biographical sketch which he gave me I
derived the following characteristic particulars regarding
the Sang/(Isis past history :—

His real name was Matiram Misra. He was born in
1833 of a good Brahman family, was invested with the
sacred thread at the age of eight, and married four years
later. From his eighth to his seventeenth year he was
a diligent and most successful student of the Sanskrit
language and of the Vedanta philosophy. A son was born
to him when he was but eighteen years old. By this
event he was, in his own opinion, freed from any further
social obligations, “he realised the unreality of this world
and its pleasures,” and resolved, contrary to the wishes of
his parents, to renounce the world and become a wandering
ascetic.

So one day he disappeared from his father’s house and
went on foot to Ujjaini, where he put up in a temple of
Siva. Here he continued his Vedantic studies and began
to practise yoga. But the spirit of unrest, which in India
drives so many to embrace the calling of the ascetic, took
imperious possession of him. He accordingly left his
temporary abode and visited the various sacred places of
Malwa and Gujrat. At the latter city, however, he settled
down for a period of seven years, which he devoted to a
further study of the Vedanta philos0phy.

When Matiram had reached the age of twenty-seven,

. 210

 

 

 

THE SANYASI BIIAS‘KARANANDA ()l“ BENARES.

Fm. 1]. To face page 214?.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

“he resolved,” says his Bengali biographer, “to enter the
austere Asram of Sang/as. The true knowledge of gnrm
had dawned in his mind. He saw through the unreal
nature of the world, and felt the existence of one Supreme
Soul all through the universe. . . .

“The world,” continues the philosophical biographer,
“is not real. It never existed, it does not'exist, and it
will not come into existence in future. We all dream,
and, While sleeping, we think that the things we see in
the dream are real, but as soon as we wake up we perceive
the mistake. In the same way we are sleeping in the lap
of ignorance, and as soon as true knowledge will dawn on
us we shall be able to know that the world is but a dream,
a shadow and not the substance.”

On the occasion of his admission to the sect of the
Sang/(Isis, Matiram Misra received the new name by which
he was to be known in after-years, and, according to the
custom of the sect he had joined, discontinued wearing the
sacred thread, which was the proud symbol of his Brah-
manhood.

After some time spent “in the contemplation of the
J ibatma (or the human soul) as being One with the Paratma
or the Supreme Essence,” he started upon a round of
travels, in the course of which he visited his native village
once more.

There he saw his parents, his long-neglected wife, and
the associates of his youth, but the ties which had once
bound him to his relatives and friends had been dissolved
for ever. To such as would listen to him he explained
the utter worthlessness of the world and its hollow
pleasures, and then, the spirit of unrest having again
seized upon him, he took his departure to make an ex-
tensive tour of the tirthas, or holy places, of a land of
shrines. Alone, without any money, clad in a single
garment, did the Sanyasi roam from end to end of India,
visiting Bengal, Behar, Orissa, Madras, Bombay, Central
India, and the Himalayas, experiencing on the long and
weary way many dangers and hardships, such as floods,
snow-storms, and starvation. While on his round of travels,
he received unmoved the news of the death of his only son. -

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

For thirteen years Swami Bhaskarananda travelled
about India, always practising tapasya (penance), and then
feeling, after his long probation and constant striving, that
he had obtained the ineffable knowledge he had desired, he
settled down for the remainder of his life in the sacred
city of Benares.

Here he enjoyed the greatest consideration and dis-
tinction. Pilgrims crowded to adore him. Princes from
afar came to consult him, and bowed their royal heads
down to his holy feet. Miracles, particularly of healing,
were attributed to him, and temples were, even during his
lifetime, built in his honour, and his effigy worshipped in
them. Images of the saint were also set up for private
worship by the Rani of Barhar, the Maharajah of Ajodia,
the Maharajah of N agadh, and other important personages,
and no doubt in many humble Hindu households also,
since, as I have already mentioned, likenesses made of
stone and metal of Swami-ji were plentiful in the idol-shops
of Benares.

In recording the above particulars of what is indeed
a typical case, I have stated enough to show the honoured
position and unstinted veneration with which the ascetic
life in India may, even in this materialistic age, reward
the successful sadh'u.

I will conclude with the following extract from a
newspaper conducted entirely by Indians :—

“DEATH OF S\V'AMI BHASKARANAND SARASWATI.

“The death is announced from cholera, on last Sunday
night at Benares, of Swami Bhaskaranand Saraswati, the
celebrated recluse and devotee of the holy city. He was
buried in a sitting posture in his garden at Durga Kund,
and a monument will be raised over his grave. The
funeral was attended by a large concourse of people, among
whom were the Maharajas of Benares and Ajodhya, the
llajas of Mainpuri and Nagod, and a large number of
Indian gentlemen. The last time that we wrote about the
Swami-ji was when the Hon. Mr. La Touche, then oflici-
ating Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces,

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PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

paid a visit to the venerable recluse and had some con-
versation with him. Mr. La Touche presented the Swami
a nazar of: a gold mohur, which was at once handed over
to the Swami’s dependants. Swami Bhaskaranand was
a most remarkable and attractive personality, and every
distinguished visitor to Benares paid him his respects.
Tourists from America and Europe always tried to see the
Swami, who was frequently accessible, and all Who saw
him were struck by his wisdom and holiness. The Home?
writes: ‘The personality of the venerable Swami-ji
Bhaskaranand Saraswati, who died at Benares shortly
after midnight on Sunday, was one which interested
Englishmen no less than it dominated the Swami’s own
countrymen. This ascetic of ascetics, who had long ago
passed so far on the way to Nirvana that no human con-
tamination could any longer touch him, who was as far
above considerations of caste as the pariah is below, and
who has sat for years at Benares squat, hands crossed and
clotheless, waiting for his deliverance from mortality, was
a man of high intellectual powers, who took a keen interest
not only in the affairs of India, but in the politics of
Europe, and from whom an English visitor always received
a cordial welcome. Among the higher classes of the native
community the Swami was regarded with the utmost
respect and veneration, his advice on all matters mundane
and supramundane being eagerly sought, while among
the lower classes he was already looked upon as a
divine being, and would have been worshipped as such
had he not always sternly forbade any manifestation of
the kind.’

“Swami Bhaskaranand was greatly appreciated and
respected by a large number of Englishmen, and this was
his special advantage. Before his appearance in Benares
the most revered name in the sacred city was that of
Trailangya Swami, who also sat clotheless for years on the
bank of the Ganges. He was profoundly learned and a
Paramahansa of the highest order; but, as he had imposed
upon himself a vow of silence, he was not much known
among Englishmen. But so long as holy men of this type
appear in India—and it is in this country alone that the

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THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

race has never become extinct—we need not despair of the
future.”—The Tribune, 15th July 1899 (Lahore).

3. GAREEB DAS, AN URDIIABAHU BAIRAGI.

Adjoining the famous Golden Temple at Amritsar is a
grove known as Guru Bagh ; and here a saclhu, conspicuous
on account of having both arms rigidly uplifted above his
head, took up his temporary abode attended by a few
disciples. This was in the month of October, at the time
of the Divali festival, which annually attracts a large multi-
tude of people to the holy city of the Sikhs.

When I saw the sadhu, his emaciated arms were
apparently quite rigid, and the clenched hands, which were
about six inches apart, were particularly painful to look at
—wasted and shrunken, with great curved nails growing
like bird’s claws out of the thin fingers.

He had his person rubbed all over with white ashes,
and he wore a small loin cloth and a neatly tied turban.
His features were long, and the expression ' of his face
agreeable. What he looked like, and his utter helplessness,
the portrait of him in the frontispiece will, I think, make
quite clear.

In conversation with him I ascertained that he was a
Ban-age, that he came from Ajudya, and had been the chcla
of a famous guru formerly attached to the Hunaman Gari
monastery in that city, but now deceased. I had visited
Ajudya, and could talk about it and the sacred Surayu
(Gogra), which flows by that ancient town ; and so the sadhu,
touched by old associations, became communicative. His
native place, he told me, was Bas Bareilli in Oudh, and his
name Gareeb Das.

What I wished particularly to ascertain from the
Bairagql was what motive could possibly have induced him
to subject himself voluntarily to such terrible, such almost
inconceivable personal hardships as were plainly involved
in the penance he had adopted. Not only had he deprived
himself of the use of both his arms, but by the awkward
unnatural position which he had forced them to assume he
had made them a source of constant trouble, weariness, and

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PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

inconvenience to himself, both waking and sleeping. His
replies to my inquiries were evasive and unsatisfactory,
probably because he was an illiterate man. At first he
said that from the Scriptures he had received his mandate
to perform this penance—which cryptic statement he
subsequently elucidated by saying that from several pen-
ances recommended in religious books he had selected
this one, as it had been adopted by several members of his
own sect and monastery. His object in thus afflicting
himself was to have communication with Permfishwar
(God), or, as he also said, to obtain mu/cti (salvation).
An unsympathetic and ill-mannered bystander, on hear-
ing the sadhu’s statement of his spiritual aspirations,
contemptuously cited a Sanskrit distich which meant,
“From penance comes a kingdom, and from the kingdom
comes hell ”—in allusion to a common belief that, by such
mortifications of the flesh, sadlms really strive for raj or
power and position in the next mundane life, that they gain
their end,1 and then fall into the hell whither power and
dominion inevitably lead one.

Gareeb Das the ascetic, when I saw him, had had his
arms up above his head for eight long years, and desired to
make no change for a further period of four years, at the
end of which time he hoped to restore them to their former
state, firstly by presents and feasts to the Brahmans, whose
intercession would thus be secured, and secondly by the
application of certain emollients with peculiar stimulating
properties known to the sadhus. “If it be the will of
God,” added Gareeb Das, speaking on this subject, “then
my arms will be restored to their prOper use when the
appointed time comes.”

Referring to such cases, the missionary Ward says:
“When a person wishes to bring the arm to its former
position, he anoints the joints with clarified butter; and
in about two months, by degrees, the arm obtains its

1 As indeed did the Brahman Muconda, who, by undergoing the severest
austerities and a voluntary death by‘fire, with the view of being reborn in the
purple, actually succeeded in coming back to this world as no less a person-
age than the famous Mogul Emperor Akbar.—Wilford’s Essays, cited in
Forbes’s Oriental Jl[67710?:7‘8, vol. iii. pp. 149, 150.

21 5

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

former position, and in time becomes as strong as
before.”1
As there are European thieves who do not hesitate to
rob a church, so there are, it would seem, Indian repre-
sentatives of the same ancient, if disreputable, fraternity,
who have no scruples about appropriating the property of
even a helpless sad/Lu. This was illustrated when Gareeb
Das was deprived by impudent thieves of all his portable
property, including a 6001;, which rumour declared was
actually a bank pass-book, testifying to cash deposits
mounting up to as much as a lulu/o of rupees. The dis-
gusted sarlhu promptly removed himself from the Guru
Bagh Where he had been robbed, and some of my servants
met and conversed with him near the railway station,
waiting for the train which was to take him away to
Jeypore on his homeward journey. Such was the tale
which was current in Amritsar, and which I noted down
on the 26th of October. What was my surprise on the 7th
of November to find my friend Gareeb Das once again
established in the Guru Bagh, the story of the robbery
having been in all probability a mere invention got up to
stimulate public interest in sad/ug’z'. On this occasion the
ascetic had a small private enclosure of his own, made up
of bar'nboos and cloth screens. People were crowding in
and out of this enclosure in goodly numbers. When I
went in I noticed great heaps, literally heaps, of flour, salt,
sugar, and such things—in fact, sacks and sacks full. It
appeared that a few days previously the sad/Lu had given
notice in the city that he would not eat anything until he
had entertained five hundred unmarried girls at a feast.
He hoped to accomplish this before the end of December,
but contributions had come in so quickly that the feast-
day had been fixed for the 9th of November. \Vhile I
was learning these particulars the sad/m rose and walked
a few paces with his arms above his head, and as he
did so the poor fellow looked so utterly and painfully
helpless that I could not but experience a feeling of the
greatest compassion for him, not unmingled with a cer-
1 A View of the History, Literature, and Religion of the Hindus, p. 297
(Madras Edition, 1863).
216

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADI-IUS

tain admiration of his steadfastness and prolonged
endurance.

Before I took my leave of the ascetic, an attendant,
making a very polite speech, offered me a couple of hand-
fuls of raisins and almonds. I took just two raisins
and dropped a rupee on the remainder. The money was
removed and the raisins and almonds given to the police-
man who was in attendance upon me, in accordance with
the rule which prevails at the Golden Temple. The
Punjabi policeman willingly accepted the gift, carefully
tying up the dried fruits and nuts in a very dirty hand-
kerchief.

The sadhu’s feast to the unmarried girls came off in
proper time, and was a complete success, for a great many
Hindu ladies of good position came on the appointed day
and helped to cook and distribute the food amongst the
invited guests. In this way Gareeb Das, without spending
a single rupee out of his own pocket, and himself a cripple,
was enabled, through the liberal contributions and helpful
courtesy of his admirers, to play the host munificently to
five hundred youthful maidens of Amritsar.

4. A YOGI wno PROTECTED AMRITSAR FROM THE PLAGUE.

Evil days had come upon the land. The plague had
made its appearance in the Punjab, and with it stringent
orders for the compulsory segregation of all real and
suspected cases—a measure dreaded by the people far
more than the fell disease itself. Rather than have the
privacy of their homes invaded, rather than have their
loved ones forcibly separated from them in the hour of
their dire need and committed to the unsympathetic care
of hirelings, the pe0ple had risen in armed opposition to
the authorities, and several lives had been sacrificed in
the conflict.

“If it be the will of God that we should die, let us
die together as we have lived together,” was the feeling
which animated the hearts of a people not yet civilised
enough to appreciate the highly prudent sentiments
which elsewhere enable men to unmurmuringly give

217

. THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

up their dearest to the hospitals for infectious diseases,
and save their precious selves from danger for the public
good. .
Well, in the evil days I refer to, a Yogi visited
Amritsar, and it was rumoured that his object was to
avert from the city certain impending calamities.

I found him near the fine tank known as Durgiana,
in a large space enclosed by canvas walls. He was
seated on a slightly raised platform of beaten earth, over
Which a cloth had been spread. He was enveloped in 'a
clean white cotton sheet of good quality. Only a portion
of his face was visible, one eye and cheek being concealed
by his matted locks. His nose was bold and prominent,
but the eye on the visible side of his face was half closed.
Although supposed to be practising yoga, he kept his
ears and half-closed eyes about him. By the Yogi’s side
there were within easy reach two plates, one contain-
ing rose-petals and the other cardamums; there were
also a brass lotah and another brass water-pot shaped
to resemble a gourd. A woman with a young child
was prostrating herself in adoration before the saint
when I first approached him, but seeing me she
timidly withdrew to some little distance, and then, spell-
bound by curiosity, kept her eyes fixed upon me. While
still in apparent meditation, the sadhu was good enough
to give me a handful of rose-petals and some carda-
mums, and in return I put a rupee into a brass salver
just in front of him, where already lay some eight or
ten rupees, together with a lot of small silver and copper
coins.

My companion, a pandit who could speak Sanskrit,
asked the Yogi in most respectful terms to tell me
something about yoga, as I was much interested in the
matter; but all the saint vouchsafed was some Sanskrit
verses on the importance of truth. I inquired how long
he intended to stay at Amritsar.

“ Who knows ? ” was the reply. “I am a bird (perind):
here to-day, gone to-morrow.”

However, his Brahman attendants were more com-
municative. The Y ogt’s mission, they explained, was to

218

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADI—IUS

avert a threatened calamity, and with this end in View he
proposed to feast—

(1) The unmarried girls of Amritsar.
(2) The sodium who might be there.
(3) Muslim faguirs.

Why these last I could not understand. Of course the
feasts were to be given at the expense of the inhabitants
of the endangered city; that is, out of their contributions.

As a preliminary step, the Yogi determined to carry out
daily the bloodless havan or hom sacrifice in the orthodox
style, and in this was, of course, willingly assisted by a
number of Brahmans. When I visited the Yogi, prepara-
tions for the day’s [Lawn were going on under a fine peepul
tree a few yards away. A canopy raised about nine feet
above the ground was stretched over the spot where some
fuel, kindled but not suffered to blaze up, was quietly
smouldering. Two huge iron tongs stuck upright in the
ground gave a ceremonial appearance to the place. The
chief officiating Brahmans were away in the town investing
many twice-born youths with the sacred thread, as it was the
festival of Baisakhi, and their services much in demand for
this purpose. For several days the [moon had been per-
formed regularly, and presents of food-stuffs for the pro-
posed feasts had been gradually accumulating. However,
the results had not been as satisfactory as the Brahmans
had hoped, so proceedings on a larger and more attractive
scale were to be undertaken, and for this purpose a big
trough-like receptacle lined with bricks some six or eight
feet square was being constructed, Where the flames of a
really imposing [moan might attract the attention and
liberality of the public.

My visit was a matter of gratification to the Yogi,
even though he had turned his back upon the world and
its foolish vanities, for the following day he mentioned,
with ill-concealed pride, to some college students that a
sahib had been to see him. He also informed them
incidentally that he had inflicted certain burns upon his
own arm as a gm'bani, or sacrifice, for the safety of the
~ city, which was threatened with serious trouble.

219

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

The Y ogi’s feasts, I believe, came off satisfactorily, and
it is worth mentioning that the plague did not invade
Amritsar that year. To a majority of the ignorant
populace these two facts were plainly cause and effect, and
the claims of sadhm'sm justified once more by irrefragable
results. . ‘

All Yogis are not as public-spirited as this self-
constituted tutelary saint of Amritsar. I knew one man
who sojourned in a big shed usually occupied by members
of the sect, and there he passed his time pretty contentedly,
toping. He was always pleased to see me was this thirsty
soul, for my visits flattered his vanity and brought a rupee
or two to his scanty exchequer. Once I saw a Sang/(132'
with him, apparently on the best of terms, and learnt that
the two lived together and ate together. Whether this was
quite warranted by custom I do not know, but I think
not. There was also a boy- Y ogz' in the company, of about
twelve years of age, with the usual yogi emblems, in-
cluding the large ear-rings. I ascertained that he had
been dedicated to the order by his parents. While I
talked with them, the gum, to refresh himself, poured out
a small cup of ardent country spirits and tossed it off
with evident relish. I was afterwards told that the old
fellow drank pretty freely, but never became quarrelsome.
Of food he partook very sparingly. In the shed which
they inhabited temporarily, the Y ogz's, wild-looking fellows,
were grouped in small parties round two or three fires.
Many lay visitors were there too, squatted about and
respectfully watching the saints. Sunset being the hour
for the adoration of the guru, his own three or four chelas
gathered round my inebriate friend, just as the solar
orb was on the horizon, and bowed their heads down
to their guru’s feet. They blew their little whistles
as if they were sounding trumpets in the presence of
a king, and then, placing their open hands side by
side to form a sort of bowl, waved them before him in
small circles as if performing the Hindu rite of artee
in honour of a god. There were no lights, it is true,
but the ceremony, in its artless imitation, was quite un-
mistakable.

220

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

5. A WANDERING BRAHMACHARI FROM THE TAMIL
COUNTRY.

A young sadlm, about twenty-five years of age, good-
looking, well clad, and in robust health, who said he was a
Bra/unachm'i and a bachelor, visited me at Amritsar. He
spoke broken English, but could make himself understood
fairly well. On his forehead, just above the nose, a bright
red spot was painted. Round his neck he wore a necklet
of rudraksha berries, and in his hand he carried a thin book
or pamphlet in the Tamil language. It was illustrated
with the quaintest woodcuts imaginable — showing the
difficulties awaiting and the punishments inflicted upon the
wicked after death. The last picture in the book was a
by no means inviting representation of Swarga, or the regions
of delight, which looked very like a bad imitation of some
portions of Benares.

With his little book to remind him, both by text and
picture, of the evils attendant upon misconduct in this
world, and to guide his footsteps to the joys of heaven, the
young saclhu was cheerfully earning the merit to be de-
rived from a pilgrimage to the holy places of India,
depending upon such knowledge of English as he could
command to carry him successfully on his way. This
appeared to me a most interesting and noteworthy fact a
sadhu wandering over India with the aid of the English
language. He told me he was from the extreme south of
India,“ near Cape Comorin,” and that Tamil was his native
tongue. However, his appearance showed me he was no
Dravidian, and, on my questioning him a little, he admitted
that he was a Guzrati by race, but was born and reared in
the extreme south of India. Our sad/m felt the import-
ance of his little book so much, that, uninvited, he exhibited
and explained some of the quaint illustrations to me. One
represented a curious river, the Vitami (difficult to be
crossed), barring the way to Swarga, through which, how-
ever, a passage could be successfully made by the spirits of
such men as during their earthly life had prudently made
gifts of cows to the Brahmans, this meritorious act en-
titling the generous donor to take hold of the tail of one of

221

 

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

the sacred cows in the river and to be towed across to the
other bank of this terrible Hindu Styx. On my suggesting
that under these circumstances he should not fail to pre-
sent cows to the Brahmans, the sadhu laughed pleasantly
and said, “You will give to me, and I will give to them,”
a view of the case with which, needless to say, I did not
quite fall in. The Vitarni river is a favourite subject with
the Hindu artist, who loves to impress upon the worldly-
minded the dangers of its swollen flood, and the best, per-
haps the only, way of reaching its farther side.

Another picture in the sad/W’s precious book made
evident how pindas offered to the souls of the dead supply
materials for the gradual reconstruction of the body in nine
consecutive months, the head being the first part to be
re-crcated. The nine stages of reconstruction were all
separately and successively depicted upon the same page.

The Bralwnachao'i said he had come from the south
especially to see the far-famed Devali festival at Amritsar,
and intended going on to Hardwar in order to be present
there at the eclipse of the moon on the 27th of December.
He dreaded nothing in his pleasant wanderings except the
officers on plague duty, who, he said, gave a great deal of
trouble to innocent travellers.

Sanyasis were not held in much esteem by this young
Bmhmachao-i. He considered them “had men,” because
they did not perform the prescribed ceremonies for the
dead, and practised interment instead of cremation. An
Indian gentleman who was present during the interview
said that he had seen Sanyas‘is’ bodies disposed of by
simply sinking them, with stones or bags of sand, in a
flowing stream. He laughed, and so did the Brahmachar'i,
when I remarked that in this way the rivers Were polluted
and rendered insalubrious. They deprecated this notion,
holding that, as the sacred water purified all things, it
could not itself be polluted by anything.

6. A SADHU or EUROPEAN DESCENT AT SIMLA.

Exceedingly rare indeed, as one may well imagine, are
non-Indian sadhus, yet such are not quite unknown.
222

 

A SADIIU OF EUROPEAN DESCENT.

FIG. 12. I To face page 222.

   

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

Some years ago at Simla, the summer capital of the Indian
Government, I interviewed one Charles de Russette, a young
man of French descent, who, although brought up as a
Christian and ' properly educated in Bishop Cotton’s school
in that town, had, while a mere boy, embraced the life of a
sad/Lu. I understood that he had inherited some property,
which he made over to his sisters, reserving nothing for
himself. Why he abandoned Christianity for Hinduism I
(lid not find out, as he was disinclined to talk about the
matter; but, whatever the cause which severed him from
European life and thought, it was evident that he did not
regret the step he had taken, and that he was well satisfied
with his condition and mode of life as a Hindu devotee—
a Sam/a317, I think.

Judging from outward appearances, the man had not
suffered any such physical inconveniences as would affect
his health, and he was particularly well clothed, though not
in any sad/m style that I have ever seen. He informed
me that he lived his solitary life in the neighbourhood of
Simla throughout the year, even in winter, when the snow
lay deep upon the mountains. Of his fellow sad/ms he
spoke in terms of high praise, and assured me' that he had
seen Y og'i adepts perform many most wonderful acts. Of
virtue and vice he discoursed in the usual way, maintain-
ing that it was not necessary to be a Christian in order to
lead a virtuous life. De Russette’s intellectual capacity
seemed of a very ordinary kind, but I have no doubt he
commands the highest respect from the natives, and lives
idly, happy and contented, without any anxiety about the
morrow.

The photograph reproduced here (Fig. 12) is an
excellent likeness of the man as I saw him at Simla
in 1894.

7. A NAKED SANYASI AND HIS COMPANION,
A PRINCESS OF B

 

Information that an interesting group of sadhus was
encamped on the maidcm (open plain) near the Lahore Fort

having reached me, I went there one morning to make the
22

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

acquaintance of the visitors and increase my stock of
knowledge about sad/twism.

The leaders of the party were a naked Sang/(mi, and
an almost naked Sang/«sin who let peOple understand that
she was a widowed and childless daughter of the Rajah of
1} Not many minutes’ conversation with the sadhu
were needed to satisfy me that he was at best a shameless
reprobate, but, as I thought his portrait would enrich my
collection, I expressed a wish to take a photograph of him
and his followers. This suggestion tickled his vanity, and
he had the elfrontcry, though I am sure he did not wish
to be impertinent, to offer to have himself taken in a most
objectionable and unseemly attitude, which would demon-
strate his virility to the greatest advantage. His female
companion was, I should say, under twenty-five years of
age, and not particularly attractive. She were her hair
cut short and bleached a sort of yellow-brown, while the
Sang/(13¢? wore a respectable beard, and had his long, neatly
plaited hair wound round his head, and kept in place by
a bit of a turban of dark-coloured cotton cloth. Both of
them had ashes rubbed over their persons. Three or four
sad/bus, one of them a Ii'mzphata Y ogz', had joined these
worthics as travelling companions. A boy devotee of
about twelve years of age also belonged to the company,
and seemed devoted to the Sang/(73in.

While I conversed with the sad/bus under a group of
trees, there was a small and ever-changing gathering of
about two hundred persons round these queer, though
evidently much respected, wanderers. Most of the visitors
had dropped in, as it were, to pay their respects to the
sad/ms after having had their morning bath in the river.
The naked mendicant and his companion, the almost nude
Nanyasz‘n, were not edifying sights; yet women, girls, and
children of respectable families were all gazing at them
reverentially, without any sign of shame or bashfulness.
They were holy privileged people these smlhus, and not
to be regarded with ordinary eyes or judged by customary
standards. Yet, whilst I was present, a protest was raised
by some AI'g/as—sectarians of a new school against
the Sanyasi’s nudeness. Angry accusations and bitter

224 '

 

 

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

retorts were exchanged, and in the course of the altercation
the Sang/(£375 tried to turn the tables upon his censors by
asking them significantly what they gained by deserting
the religion of their ancestors.1

Meanwhile, as a sort of practical reply to the Arya
objectors, offerings were accumulating near the sadlms—
wheat, flour, rice, lentils, ghee, and also copper and silver
coins. It was plain that the Sang/(L373 and his companions
were in favour and not faring badly. As we conversed, the
leader of the party, followed by the woman and then by the
others, indulged in the luxury of pipes of charas, exhaling
wonderful volumes of dense white smoke from their lungs.
Just a pull or two was quite enough for each one, for the
smoke was so pungent that it had to be drawn through
a wet cloth applied to the bottom of the tall chillum or
pipe which is used in charas-smoking.

At this visit it was arranged that the group should be
photographed by me the next morning. When, at the
appointed time, I came to the camping-ground with my
camera, I found to my surprise that the sadhus had all
disappeared, leaving not a trace behind them. However, I
was bent on having their portraits if possible, and, after
patient inquiries and no little discouragement, followed
them up to a little temple of Siva near one of the city
gates. They were dismayed when they saw me, for they
had been artfully told I was a police officer and wished to
have their photographs in order to get them into trouble.
I learned also that the principal sadhu had been forced
by the Aryas to put on a rag about his loins. He and a
number of Hindu men who were present at the temple——
no women visitors were there—informed me that the ascetics
had been very badly used by the Aryans, who had scattered
and spoiled all the offerings which had been made to them,
and even caused their plates and utensils to be looted.
How much truth there was in these allegations I cannot
say, but the Aryas knew me very well, and no doubt
surmised that I was in quest of materials for a book, and,
possibly, it did not suit these sectarians to have the naked

1 An account of the rise and progress of the Aryas will be found in my
Indian Life, Religious and Social.
P 225

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

sadhu described for European readers, hence their opposi-
tion and interference. However, the soothing influence of
two or three rupees enabled me to dispel the suspicions
aroused in the minds of the Sang/mi and his supporters
and to secure the photograph I wanted. This I have now
much pleasure in reproducing (Fig. 13), as it is, I am
inclined to think, unique in its character.

8. A SADHU or ROYAL LINEAGE—“ PRINCE BIR
BHANU SINGH.”

On the let of May 1899, at the Sankalwalla
monastery, alongside the Golden Temple of Amritsar, I
interviewed a young sadhu of about thirty years of age who
had aroused my interest by claiming to be a son of Maharajah
Duleep Singh. Now, Duleep Singh was the infant King
of the Punjab when that country was annexed by the
British in 1849. He was removed to England, embraced
Christianity there, lived the life of an English gentleman,
and, in his old age, offended by what he considered the
parsimony of the Government towards him, tried to
foment sedition in the Punjab with a view to his own
restoration to the throne of his father, the famous Ranjit
Singh.

The sadhu who claimed to be Ranjit’s grandson said
he was born in England, and stated that, a few months
before his arrival at Amritsar, he had met another son
of the late Maharajah Duleep Singh. The young man,
who had a weak face, mild grey eyes, and did not look
particularly robust, was under the surveillance of two
policemen not in uniform. My advent was the excuse for
a number of idlers to congregate. A chair was brought
for me. Two men who accompanied me squatted with
the sadhu on his mat under the roof of a long vaulted
arcade—a cloister, in fact.

My host, if I may so designate him, informed me that
he had been brought to India when very young, and had
been educated at Benares. Who his mother was I did
not like to inquire. I had a pandit with me who
conversed with the sadhu, and afterwards assured me

226

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PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

that he had some tincture of Sanskrit learning, and that
his pronunciation was that of a native of Bengal. I
ascertained for myself that he had a very imperfect, or
perhaps I should rather say a very elementary, knowledge of
English. He affirmed that he was in faith a Sikh (pro-
nouncing the word seek as the Bengalis do), though he had
not adopted Sikh customs and outward symbols. As to
philosophy, he was a Vedantist of very liberal opinions,
but belonged to no sect; that is, he had not been initiated
into any particular order or brotherhood. He read to us
in Sanskrit from a sheet of ordinary letter-paper the
religious views he had formed, and these were expounded
to me, bit by bit, in Hindi by the pandit who was my
companion.

All the while the sadha was clearly very nervous,
his hands trembling visibly as he stated and explained
his ideas. Lying on the mat near him was a portion of
a copy of the New Testament in English, and when I
made some reference to it the sadhu spoke of Nanak and
Christ with equal reverence; but, a minute after, be
somewhat discounted his admiration by adding that there
were thousands of Nanaks and Christs. According to his
opinion, everyone should have a 9mm; but he admitted
that it was not necessary for Christ to have had one.

The princely ascetic hinted, somewhat darkly, that he
too had a message to deliver to the world, and that it was
connected with the Bible; but apparently the time for
proclaiming it had not arrived.

As I was leaving he mentioned to me that he
practised yoga. “Do you?” I said. “Yes,” was the
smiling reply; “that is the only way to love God with
all your heart.”

The well- dressed saclha and his official escort are
depicted in the annexed photograph (Fig. 14).

A young graduate of the Punjab University who had
accompanied me in my visit to the sadha entertained a
strange suspicion (they are wonderfully suspicious these
educated Indians) that this man was really a Government
spy, playing a character and employed as a sort of decoy
to test the loyalty of the Sikh community. For my part,

227

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

I could not help expressing a hope that the poor fellow
was not a wretched tool in the hands of unscrupulous
agitators.

I subjoin without verbal alteration a curious printed
leaflet in strange English which the sadhu “Prince Bir
Bhanu Singh” was good enough to hand to me as we-
parted.

“ GOOD COMMENDMENTS OF HOLY BIBLE.

“O carnel minded man! thou better clean thy own
flesh and teach other the same salvation said by Lord
Christ. Who- has not enjoyed this; he is not of him.
To whom he hath said to be child to keep his sayings.

“ O carnel minded man! not fail, to keep his sayings;
believe him early. Be sure, he came from Almighty
power. Heaven is witness of this, therefore every Pall,
want to oblige both king to people with this God comend-
ments if they are without this. ,

“O carnel minded man! of this world! believe my
pen that he is above because the heaven can’t entice him,
who hath come to know the best work of Lord Christ.

“ O carnel minded man! Christ hath Bent closely
well all his hearts unto God. And hath fought best
against all world. He is found only teacher of open
heart, who is not of him; therefore he can oblige them
both king to people with good comendments said by him.

“0 carnel minded man! beseech you! that you have
done wrong all without the best knowledge teached by
glorified son of Almighty father. He has nothing with
you but only the same salvation as he taught to his Pall
to purify first his own flesh and then love God with all
hearts; because without this, none can caught the same
light as they did thyself before their advocate Lord
Christ.

“ O carnel mind! you are blind to find out the same
light told by the holy tongue because you are not cleaned
after the same manner as Pall learned with Christ,
therefore you are bound to follow the best work of him.
If you fail to do so, you are obliged to keep his sayings

as child.
228

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PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

“ O carnel minded man! I believe now that you in
net, as the sun light the day, and the moon light the night,
but God is only perfect to enlight the heart of prayer,
therefore thou better taste of this enjoyment.

“O carnel minded man! he enjoy the same salvation
as the holy work of Almighty father and glorified son
Lord’s Lord Christ. Who spoked very boldly that I know
none. 0 my beloved father give them knowledge to be
well wisher unto you.

“O carnel minded man! his father and he both are
of one mind and his l’all enjoy the same salvation as they
did themselves, therefore ye be follower after them; you
shall see no death.

“ O carnel minded man! without this enjoyment you
better be child to keep his sayings without discussion.
He can then take you out from the room of death and can
give you a seat in the house of Almighty father.

“ O carnel minded man! you fear by every step,
because God is creator of all things. Do best for thyself.
Be sure, that a blind man can trouble other’s face with a
burn torch but can not give road exactly, therefore you are
bound to follow the best work of him.”

PRINCE
BIR BIIANU SINGH.

‘ An Advocate of Holy
4B 6- ‘99- English Bible.
earer.. . Songola Akhara
HOI‘ DO)’ 31 Agni H013“ Amritsar
of Kanoos. j Punjab ”

 

 

9. A SADHU WHO HAD FOUND GOD.

He had never had occasion to do a day’s work in his
life, explained a sad/Lu who, in order to make my acquaint-
ance, paid me a visit in 1895. He had inherited sufficient
property in his native village to render any labour for a
livelihood quite unnecessary in his case. He had faithfully
done his duty to his family and to society, having had

sons and grandsons born unto him, and for two-and-twenty
02

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

years he had very strictly performed the ceremonies pre-
scribed by his religion, down to the minutest and most
trying details.

At length one day his steady and prolonged devotion
to.duty met with recognition. A voice came to him
saying, “I am with thee, thou art clean, refrain henceforth
from all these Observances.” The voice was a clear and
audible voice, like that of one man speaking to another, not
a voice in the heart or the inner consciousness.

Convinced that it was the voice of God which spoke
thus unto him, he obeyed its command unhesitatingly.
Some months later the same voice said to him, “Thou
hast nothing to do with property, or with family ties. Go
forth from thy home. I am with thee always.” He
resigned all his pr0perty forthwith to his children, distri-
buted five hundred and twenty-five rupees in cash amongst
the poor, cancelled all debts due to him, and wandered
forth alone.

“I don’t believe in Shastras or Vedas or Mantras,”
said the sadha to me, “I have God!” Catechised on
this point, my visitor admitted that such things as Vedas
and the like were useful for worldlings, but not for one
who had found God. To whom was he to pray when God
was always with him, guiding and instructing him?

However, with all his emancipation from theological
and ceremonial restraints, the sadhu, I found out, was not
prepared to eat food which had been handled or even
touched by me. He had not, as yet, received God’s
permission to do so much as that. The hereditary caste
prejudice was too strongly ingrained in him, too essential
a portion of his very nature, to be lightly set aside even by
this enfranchised Hindu.

My visitor boasted that he took no medicine when
he got sick, and that he recovered his health without
the aid of any physician. “When my appointed time
comes, who can save my life?” said he. “And, till
the predestined moment has arrived, how can I possibly
die?” .

The ascetic was comfortably and cleanly dressed in an
orange-coloured dhoty or loin cloth and a long hurta or

2 3o

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

tunic of the same tint, and wore a small, neatly tied
turban. But for the colour of his clothes, it would not
have been possible to recognise in this man a professed
sad/Lu.

He had discarded the sacred thread although entitled
to wear it, being a Kshatriya by birth; but he had not been
initiated into any of the existing sects or orders of Hindu
ascetics.

He did not speak of Siva or Vishnu, but only of God.

A few days after the sad/W’s visit to me, I learned,
without surprise, that he had not been quite disinterested
in seeking my acquaintance. What he really wanted,
‘ and applied for, was pecuniary help to print and circulate
' a pamphlet or booklet of a religious character of which he
was himself the author.

10. A SUN-WORSHIPPING BAIRAGI.

Not far from the Shahalmi gate of Lahore city, outside
the walls, are some fine peepul trees. About the foot of one
of these a circular earthen platform had been constructed
about three feet above the ground-level, with rude steps
leading up to it. Passing this spot, I noticed three or four
women seated on the platform conversing with a sadlm,
a handsome dark fellow, not over-clothed, with his hair in
a great coil upon his head. Another ascetic was standing
on one leg facing the trunk of the tree, his head enveloped
in a loose cloth resembling a napkin, and his face uplifted
towards the sun, which was shining through the branches
of the tree. Well worth closer study was this group; and
so I paused to regard it, and to learn, if possible, something
about the sad/bus. The man standing on one leg was
going through certain devotions. In his left hand he
held a bag containing a rosary, and, with his right in-
serted in the bag, he counted his beads while he muttered
certain prayers or prescribed religious formulas. I photo-
graphed him in this position (Fig. 15). When he had
finished his prayers, he stood, still on one leg, before a tiny
brass idol of Ramachandra which had been placed against
the tree, almost smothered under a profusion of marigold

231

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

flowers. The sad/Lu now poured out three shells full of
water before the idol, made certain obeisances, and went
. to the other side of the tree. There, again on one leg,
and facing the bright unclouded sun, he muttered his
prayers to the great luminary. At first he held one hand
outstretched towards Surya; then he entwined the fingers
of the two hands together in strange ways; next held his
hands, with palms opposed, towards the sun-god ; and, lastly,
extended both his hands appealingly towards the grand
object of his worship. Uttering some Sanskrit words in
a loud voice, he brought his devotions to an end by a
libation of a conch full of water to the sun. After turning
round three times, he went back to the other side of the
tree and sat down. He was now free to converse with
visitors, so I addressed him, and learned that he was a
Baimgi whose native place was Benares. He said he had
been to Kashmir to visit Amar Nath, that he had been
favoured by the Maharajah of Jummu, and was in the
receipt of a subsistence allowance granted him by that
chief. He also spoke of the favours he had received from
the Rajah of Baroda. All this, of course, to raise him in
my estimation.

The Baimgi had been a year in Lahore, living under
the peepul tree where I found him. His place of abode—
the raised earthen platform—was smooth, clean, and well
swept. On it were piled in one place a lot of wood fuel,
both dry and green. A smouldering fire declared its
presence by the white smoke it gave off into the breezy
atmosphere. There were three or four garments lying in
a heap together, which I presume were the Baimg'i’s bedding
and covering during the night. Near the diminutive idol
stood a gourd-shaped brass vessel, which seemed to be
quite new, and a huge peculiar serpentine trumpet.

When I opened conversation with the Baimgz', my
attendant, well versed in such matters, offered him, very
respectfully, a couple of rupees, which, no doubt, helped to
place us at once on a friendly footing. It is true the
sad/Lu did not touch the money, but indicated by a gesture
that it might be placed on a mat near him. I could see
that he kept a watchful eye on it for a few minutes; he

232

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a
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m

33; Pix. 2.:

 

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PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

then quietly signed to one of his chelas to remove the silver
coins. As to his habits, the Baimgi assured me that he
did not smoke charas nor drink bhang. Tobacco was the
only luxury in which he indulged, and while I’was with
him he disposed of a chillum (pipe) of it to his own
enjoyment.

When I first arrived at the Baimgi’s platform there
were very few people about—only the three or four women
to whom I have already referred, and a small party of
children playing under the trees; but my presence soon
brought a crowd round us, for we were close to a public
thoroughfare. Near by was a women’s bathing-place in
the canal, concealed from public view by a sheet-iron
screen. From behind this enclosure, as I conversed with
the Baimgi, emerged a woman in dripping garments,
exposing a good deal of her shapely person. Two elderly
attendants waited upon her as she changed her wet clothes
without much affectation or ceremony, and seated herself on
a stool in the sunshine to have her long black tresses dried
and otherwise attended to. The woman was certainly fair
to look upon, and the thought struck me that the spot
was well chosen by the Baimgis for their sojourn, if they
wished to conquer, and not flee ignominiously from,
certain temptations against which frail humanity is not
usually very strong. Perhaps, however, the saints were
not quite so heroic, or so foolish, as I have imagined, and
were guided to the selection of that particular place for
their camping-ground merely by a keen eye to pecuniary
results; since, after all, it is the women-folk. who are the
best supporters of sad/mism in India or elsewhere.

11. YOGIS AND PIOUs WOMEN.

A party of half a dozen or more Y ogis came to Lahore
and made themselves somewhat conspicuous by occupying
favourable positions alongside some of the main thorough-
fares. One of these sadhus used to sit at the meeting
of three roads, and was the object of a great deal of
attention, especially from the women, who paid their
respects to Maharaj as they went by him on their

233

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

homeward journey after the daily matutinal bath in the
river Ravi.

These good creatures were much exercised in mind
at seeing the holy ascetics eating pinches of wood ashes
from time to time, and some, more devout or more im-
pulsive than the others, begged one of the Y ogis to permit
them to minister to his wants. He haughtily declined
their assistance; but to one pious lady, more pressing
than the rest in her offers of service, he condescended
to explain that he had taken a vow never to lift a morsel
of food (or anything but ashes) to his mouth with his
own hand. “Permit me, Maharaj,” said the ministrant
fair one, “to feed you with my own hands. It will be
an honour to me and mine.”

The saint good-naturedly, but still reluctantly, yielded
the point. Henceforth the favoured one fed his saintship
daily, and so did one or two other women—amongst them
a beautiful girl of about sixteen years of age. Every day,
when the Yogi had partaken of as much food as he cared
for, he would bless the remainder, bidding his kind friends
to partake of it themselves.

The regular meal-time of the lucky Yogi became an
event of interest to the passers-by, and a certain man,
who probably lived or had his place of business in the
immediate neighbourhood, was in the habit of coming to
watch the proceedings. Observing, perhaps with a pang
of jealousy, the beautiful young girl I have alluded to
feeding the almost naked Yogi with her own delicate
fingers, this discontented spectator ventured to wonder in
audible terms whether she was as attentive to her husband
as she was to the saint. Of course the young.wife,
drawing her veil over her face bashfully, suggested that
the rude fellow might mind his own business; but the
Yogi, irritated by his impertinence, showered a volley of
abuse upon him, desiring him at the same time to take
himself off and not stand there staring at his betters.
Uncomplimentary epithets were freely exchanged, till the
ascetic, losing his temper, threw his stick at the intruder,
but without effect. He next hurled a piece of lighted
firewood at the man, and, more successful this time,

234

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

struck his adversary on the arm, with the result that he
was slightly burnt.

In a rage—literally a burning rage now—the meddle-
some fellow flew at the sadhu and beat him soundly
with a stick. Bystanders in horror hastened'to interfere,
when a new arrival, pressing forward to see what the
excitement was about, grasped the situation and laughingly
exclaimed, “ Oh, , so you have come here, have you? ”

Noticing his familiar mode of address, several present
queried with surprise, “ Do you know the Maharaj?
Whence does he come?” and so on.

“Who is he? Why , the son of , a choomh
(sweeper) by caste, and I see that there are several of
his caste-mates not far off.”

“A choomh? Are you sure?” came from many
voices.

“I should rather think I am sure—he is one of my
own bemderi. Have I not known him since he was
a child ?”

This disclosure was like a bolt out of the blue!

“ Toba ! toba ! ” said the horrified bystanders. “And
these respectable ladies have been feeding choomhs
with their own hands and eating their contaminated
leavings.”

The pious women victimised by the Y ogz' veiled their
faces closely and fled without a word, overwhelmed with
shame and anxiety. “ Toba! toba ! ” passed from mouth
to mouth, and the crowd was moved by mingled feelings
of merriment, indignation, and disgust at the discomfiture
and punishment of the low-caste Yogi} and at the
terrible—how terrible only the Hindu knows—predicament
in which the women zealous of good works had quite
innocently placed themselves and their families.

 

 

 

12. A PSEUDo-SADHU AND HIS ADVENTURES.

At a public meeting I heard a well-dressed man,
evidently a Sikh, referring, not without sly humour and
a touch of conscious pride, to the days when, as a

1 I did not learn whether these men were real Y ogis, or only pretenders.

235

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

pseudo-sadhu, he had successfully eluded the vigilance of
the police, living unrecognised amongst many real sadhus,
men of true piety and estimable character.

Naturally, I wished to know something more about
this man and his experiences. My inquiries eventually
led to my learning the following story of his adventures
from a Sikh gentleman, who assured me that he had heard
it from the quondam-sadhu himself. The details may or
may not be accurate—most likely the latter; but the main
features of the narrative are probably those accepted by
the public and known in the bazaars.

Being implicated in some way in certain seditious
movements in connection with political designs of the late
Maharajah Duleep Singh which caused a flutter in the
Punjab a few years ago, the Sikh in question was arrested
by order of the Government, and detained as a prisoner in
the fort of Lahore in charge of the military authorities.

The cell in which he was confined was in an upper
storey, and opened upon the flat terrace roof of one of
the buildings. It was guarded by British soldiers; but
nevertheless the hope of effecting an escape from his
jailers did not desert the captive. 'It was the custom for
the relieving sentry to open the door of the cell and
satisfy himself of the actual presence of the prisoner there,
before he commenced his watch upon the roof-top.

Day followed day, and the hope of escape became less
and less, when one night the soldier who came to take
over charge, being slightly the worse for liquor, carelessly
omitted to lock the cell door securely. The long-wished-
for hour had come. Listening breathlessly to the
monotonous tramp, tramp of the sentry as he walked to
and fro, the prisoner seized the most favourable moment
to effect his escape, and, moving rapidly and silently with
bare feet across an open space, crept up to the parapet.
The night was clear enough to show him that a jump down
from that position was not to be thought of, but the flat
roof of a less lofty building was much nearer than the
surface of the country outside, and seemed to afford a
gleam of hope to one prepared to take no ordinary risks.
The fine old fort of the Mogul emperors had long since

236

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

seen its best days, and was in many places crumbling
away. The Sikh cautiously dislodged a brick or two; he
then unwound his long turban, and, tying a brick to one
end of it, flung it over the projecting branch of a tree
which most opportunely was growing in a very convenient
position. By the aid of the bough and the long turban
cloth the prisoner reached the roof below. The rest was
comparatively easy work. From the lower roof which he
had gained he dropped into the courtyard of a small
temple, scaled its comparatively low walls, and found
himself on the roadway outside the fortifications.

Already the prisoner was missed, and the hue-and-cry
had been raised in the fort, while the earliest indications
of approaching dawn showing upon the eastern sky warned
him that there was not a moment to be lost.

With all the speed he could command, the escaped
prisoner made for the river side and concealed himself
in the almost impenetrable forest of tall reeds and bul-
rushes which skirts the margin of the Ravi. All day
he lay low, and, when night came on, made his way to a
small village somewhat off the beaten track. There was
no semi or recognised rest-house for travellers here, so, in
accordance with the usual custom in the Punjab, our Sikh
malcontent sought the hospitality of the village barber,
who gave him shelter and some food. The Sikh took
especial note of the place where the barber kept the
instruments of his craft, and during the night quietly
abstracted a razor and a pair of scissors. Provided with
these, he retired to a lonely place, cut off his long hair
and beard as well as he could, and then shaved his head
and face quite clean. N 0 longer was he a Sikh, no longer
a rebel, but only a poor sadhu bound on a pilgrimage to
Hardwar on the holy Ganges. The good folks he met
helped him along, and he at last reached the sacred river
and fell in with many sadlius there. With some of these
he fraternised, and in their company wandered about from
place to place for some months.

In the course of his rovings he came to Meerut, and
at this important town, by putting apparently casual
questions to various visitors who came to pay their respects

237

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

to Sadhu-ji, he learned, to his great delight, that Govern-
ment had granted a free pardon to all who had been
concerned in the Duleep Singh affair. Nothing could
restrain his joy. He repudiated his sadhuz'sm forthwith,
bade his kind companions farewell, and hastened home to
learn all that had occurred amongst his kinsfolk and
friends during his concealment under disguise as a religious
mendicant.

13. YOGI GUESTS.

A pious Hindu, desirous of securing the blessing of
Heaven, went to an encampment of Y ogis outside the city
and humbly invited their reverences to partake of a meal
at his poor house. They graciously accepted the invita-
tion, and preparations were duly made for their entertain-
ment. When the time for their arrival was at hand, the
host bid his wife retire to the upper chambers of the house,
as he did not desire her presence in an assembly of men,
even of Y ogz's. She went upstairs and sat at a window, to
watch the arrival of the guests. She counted them as
they entered, in her anxiety that there should be enough
food for them all. There were twenty arrivals.

The feast being over, and the guests about to depart,
the hostess took her seat at the same window once more,
so that she might know when they were all gone, as she
wished to come down as soon as possible to learn how my
lords had fared. Only nineteen, as she told them off on
her fingers, left the house, and so she remained upstairs,
wondering impatiently what the twentieth man could be
doing.

Her husband called her down; but, remembering how
curtly he had dismissed her when the holy men Were
about to arrive at the house, she replied that she would
descend when. all the guests had gone. Her husband
assured her that all had departed, and desired her to come
at once and look after things, as he wished to show his
respect to the Y 09/53 by attending them back to their en-
campment. She came down, explained the cause of her
hesitation, and, as became a good housewife, commenced at
once attending to the pots and pans and the brass plates

238

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

which had been used by the guests. Her husband then
went out in a hurry to catch up the holy sadhus on their
homeward journey.

Female neighbours, who, curious to hear all about the
feast, had been waiting to visit the hostess as early as the
proprieties would allow, were surprised on approaching the
house to notice a young Y 0913 coming out of it after the
master had gone away. He had a pretty big bundle tucked
away under his arm, and was making off hurriedly. Some
women who were intimate friends of the family, not dis-
inclined for a bit of gossip, ventured to ask him as he
passed along how he happened to stay back after all his
companions had departed followed by the master of the
house.

He explained that two or three men of his party,
though invited, had not been able to attend the feast, and
that his good hostess had kindly cooked a special supply
of food for them, which he was taking with him. Hence
the delay. “But, Maharaj,” remarked the women, still
willing to have a chat, “food is never carried in a bundle
like that, but in plates or baskets. Your hostess should
have thought of that.”

While some were thus interviewing the holy man, who
seemed to be pressed for time and anxious to move on,
others had entered the house, and there, to their horror,
came upon a ghastly scene—the unfortunate hostess lying
dead, in a pool of her own blood, despoiled of the better
part of her clothing and all the valuable gold and silver
ornaments she was in the habit of wearing.

The visitors, shocked and terrified, ran after the Y age),
raising an alarm, and it was not long before he was appre-
hended. The cruel murderer had apparently managed to
cleverly conceal himself somewhere in the house, till his
host’s departure afforded him the opportunity of carrying
out his nefarious design.

14. A SADHU AS RESTAURATEUR.

Sadhus toil not, neither do they spin, and yet they are
fed, and not scantily either, even when they assemble in ~
239

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

large numbers, sometimes in their thousands, at the
religious fairs, held periodically at sacred places through-
out India.

Entering a much visited enclosure at one of these
melas, I found a sad/Lu, with his chelas and some huge
iron cauldrons. The sadhu, I was informed, fed his
ascetic brethren, and whoever else came to him, twice a
day.

My visit was not made at meal-time, but there were
in one of the immense cauldrons some fifteen gallons of
milk being gently warmed. Thinking that the sadhu
might have pecuniary resources of his own, or that the
extemporised kitchen was carried on at the expense of some
moneyed persons, I inquired where the needful funds came
from, and was informed pointedly that everybody contri-
buted towards it; and so, after my inquisitiveness, I felt
constrained to do likewise. It would seem that the sadlm,
having secured the use of 'some huge cauldrons and other
necessary cooking-pots of proportionately large dimensions,
together with the services of a few willing helps, set up,
advertised, and opened, without hesitation or misgiving, his
restaurant for the free supply of food to ascetics and other
hungry souls, for he knew the generous public would do
the rest for him.

His confident expectations were fully realised, and his
kitchen was a great success.

15. A SAINT IN CHAINS.

The ascetic whose portrait is given in an earlier portion
of this volume, p. 48, although a Muslim, deserves a
passing notice here, not only on account of the unusual
nature of his self-inflicted torture, but more particularly
for the motive which prompted it.

Some Indian newspapers in 1891 drew attention to a
faquir who was moving about the country under a heavy
self-imposed burden of massive iron chains. This ascetic
happening to come my way, I found an opportunity of
interviewing him in his temporary abode in the native
quarter of Lahore. He was a tall large-boned man, under

240

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH SADHUS

fifty years of age, and, though much emaciated by his
austerities, retained ample evidence of a naturally vigorous
physique.

Accompanied by my son, I ascended to the upper room
where Sabit Alli Shah, surnamed Sankal -Walah, or the
man of chains, was putting up, and where he was expecting
our visit. We found him stretched upon a mat, heavily
weighted with iron chains.

According to the hasty judgments of some EurOpeans
who had referred to Sankal-Walah in the public prints, the
ascetic, conscience-stricken, was expiating his sins by the
torture of his body; but-I ascertained, in conversation with
him, that the object and motive of his austerities were
something very different indeed. He had, it appeared,
suffered grave injustice at the hands of certain influential
persons, and, unable or unwilling to take vengeance upon
them personally, he imposed this heavy burden upon him-
self, in the hope that God would pity his misery and mete
out just punishment to his enemies.

After some persuasion, I was able to get the fag/lair to
stand to us for his photograph. He was so weak, and his
chains so heavy, that it was no easy matter to get him on
his feet, or to keep him standing, for even a few moments.
However, my son was able to secure a satisfactory photo-
graph of the ascetic, as the reproduction in Chapter III.
will show.

The faqui’r subsequently informed me by letter that he
was raising a subscription for the performance of a cere-
mony at which he would formally lay aside his chains.
These, I understood, would be deposited at the shrine of
the famous saint, Data Ganj Bakhsh. Whether the wished-
for vengeance had overtaken Sabit Alli Shah’s enemies,
or the time limit fixed by himself for carrying the chains
had expired, I cannot tell; but this I know, that the
money required for the ceremony was not forthcoming, and
that the unhappy faguz’r, still burdened with his load of
iron, left Lahore in disgust and despair.

Q 241

CHAPTER X

SOME SADHVIS OR FEMALE DEVOTEES

1. A public Lecturer, Srimati Pandita Mai Jivan Mukut. 2. Shri Maji, the
Recluse of Annandgupha. 3. Premi, a. young Sadhvi who embraced
Christianity.

NCE only have I had the
pleasure of listening to
an Indian woman lectur-
ing with unveiled face
to a mixed audience in
public, and that woman
was a professed sadlwi
or female ascetic, who,
Whatever her real name
may have been, was,
since the adoption of
the new life, known as
Srimati Pandita Mai
J ivan Mukut. She was,

I understood, a native of J ummu in Kashmir territory,

and a widow. She had studied some Sanskrit, was fairly

well read in Hindi and Punjabi literature, and so great
was her zeal for the spread of knowledge that she had
opened a school for girls in her native town.

Her appearance before the world in the character
of a lecturer was very distasteful to her people and to
her late husband’s family; but she, having quite emanci-
pated herself from the prejudices of her countrymen, eared
not for these things.

When I attended her lecture in the spacious courtyard
of a house in Amritsar, her reputation, appreciation of her
rare abilities, or perhaps merely idle curiosity, had brought
242

 

SOME SADHVIS OR FEMALE DEVOTEES

together a large crowd, including a great number of Hindu
ladies of the better classes, with their children, all eager to
listen to the words of Wisdom which might fall from the
sadhvi’s lips.

At first the ladies with their little ones occupied a
place apart, but, as their numbers swelled and their interest
in the proceedings increased, they gradually edged them-
selves into more favourable places, at the same time
observing only a very nominal puv'da/L.

A preliminary speech was made by the chairman in
the ordinary way, and then the lecturer’s game, a portly
middle-aged sadlm, who, if appearances were not decep-
tive, basked in Fortune’s smiles, made some complimentary
remarks about his very interesting pupil. Other speakers
followed in the style usually adopted on such occasions.

When the event of the afternoon was at length
reached, Jivan Mukut took up her position on a raised
platform, and, standing up with unveiled face and a
remarkable absence of self-consciousness, proceeded to
expound the duties of women. To help her, she had
a few notes in the form of couplets or verses cemposed
by herself, which filled, I think, barely a sheet of note-
paper, and served as the texts of the successive portions
of her speech.

She read out, in its proper turn, the appropriate verse,
and then, with reference to it, went on to illustrate the
points she wished to explain or emphasise by frequent
allusions to stories in the sacred epics and Puranas.
For considerably over an hour she held the undivided
attention of her audience, as with wonderful fluency of
expression and apt illustrations she expounded the duties
of her sex and strongly advocated the education of women.
Sad/wt or not, unworl'dly or otherwise, J ivan Mukut, clever
and self-possessed, undoubtedly appreciated to the full the
applause which frequently interrupted her very sensible
speech.

A few days after the lecture I made bold to ask for
a copy of the lady’s photograph, and, through some friends
of hers, was fortunate enough to obtain the one reproduced
on the opposite page (Fig. 16), which I was assured was

243

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

taken expressly for me, and the negative destroyed to
prevent any unauthorised copies being printed.

2. SHRI MAJI, THE RECLUSE 0F ANNANDGUPHA,
NEAR BENARES.

Though common amongst the Jains, female ascetics
are rare amongst Hindus. There was one, however, who
resided near Benares for many years, honoured and re-
spected by the Hindu community. I regret that I did
not see her myself, but the following particulars regarding
her were communicated to me :—

Shri Maji, the Benares Y 05/737113, was born in 1826 A.D.
Her name was Hari Kuer Bai, but the love she inspired
earned for her the affectionate title Maji, by which she
was known to a large public. Her family came originally
from Gujrat, but as her ancestors had been residents of
Benares for some generations, and she herself had been
brought up there, her admirers, connecting her with their
sacred city, gave her the cognomen Bemw'sz'. Maji, who
was the youngest of six children, was but five years old
when her mother died. Her father, Shri Rameshwar
Dev, was a good Sanskrit scholar and a man of strong
religious feelings. The youngest child, inheriting his de-
votional temperament and love of learning, became his
favourite. To her he devoted much of his time, teaching
her Sanskrit and instructing her in religious duties. She
proved an apt pupil, who by her progress amply repaid
the fond instructor for his labours as teacher and spiritual
guide.

When ten years of age, Maji was married at Benares
to a Brahman youth. Three years after her marriage she
went to the house of her father-in-law ; in other words, she
joined her young husband. Hardly two years after that
she became a widow, and returned to her father’s house,
being then only fifteen years old, fully resolved to devote
her life to the study of religious books and the practice
of yoga. Within a short time Maji acquired a fair reputa-
tion amongst the learned pandits of Benares. Her father
made many pilgrimages on foot, and she accompanied him,

244

;. 1H.

 

L

THE SADIIYI SRIM.\'I‘I I’_\NI)|'II\ .‘l;\] JI‘.'_-\.\‘ )IL'KI'T.

To fucv page 2344.

SOME SADHVIS OR FEMALE DEVOTEES

carrying on her head, in Indian fashion, all the simple
necessaries for their journey. In these pedestrian pilgrim-
ages, which occupied some five years, the father and
daughter visited J ugganath, Hardwar, Brindaban, Badrinath,
Kedarnath, and many other holy places. When they
returned to Benares in 1846, Rameshwar Dev’s gum,
Swami Sri Sachda Nand, who used to live in an under-
ground cave or cell known as Annandgupha, situated some
twelve miles to the east of Benares, breathed his last, and
the gupha or cave was left unoccupied. So the father of
Shri Maji took 11p his abode there, and with him Maji
also, always studying the sacred books of the Hindus and
practising yoga. There, in the gupha, they lived together
for fourteen years, till in 1860 the father died, and Maji
was left alone. But she did not desert the spot, and
continued to live her solitary life there till her death in
November 1898, at the age of seventy-two.

Thus it appears that for thirty-eight years this
rely/{ease had lived quite alone in the underground cell,
Annamlgupha, where indeed she had passed in calm tran-
quillity and religious study no less than fifty-two years of
her life.

To her cave came, year after year, people from all
quarters to consult the recluse whose fame had spread
to distant places, and, knowing the respect in which
Hindus hold such a character as Maji, we may be certain
that she endured no real personal want or hardship in
her old age, but passed her declining years honoured
by her co-religionists, and in as much comfort as might
be consistent with her ascetic professions or her self-
denying simplicity would accept. A portrait of this lady,
reproduced from a wood engraving, stands at the com-
mencement of the chapter.

3. PREMI, A YOUNG SADHVI WIIo EMBRACED CHRISTIANITY.

Both the sadlwis referred to in the preceding pages were
widows when they adopted the ascetic profession. A Hindu
widow’s lot is, in accordance with the customs of the country,
so supremely pathetic, so full of restrictions and of cruel

245

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

izmniliatz'mzs, that it is not surprising that such a one
should gladly embrace the freedom and respect which the
religious calling would bring with it. But sadln'is are
not always widows. Miss Fallon, of the F aizabad Zenana
Mission, has in a little booklet of some forty-seven pages,
entitled Premi,1 given a simple but most valuable sketch of
the life of an orphan girl who, although blessed with the
world’s goods and betrothed to a young Brahman, ran away
from a comfortable home and an indulgent grandmother
in order to find God, for whom her infant soul thirsted.

Ten years she spent as the clzelz'n (female disciple) of
a most worthy guru, who, having instructed her in the
right way, and made her practise many austerities, duly
initiated her, in the presence of other sadlms, into the sect
or order to which he belonged, conferring upon her a new
name, meaning “under the shadow of the Almighty,” by
which she should be known thenceforward.

In company with her spiritual guide, and other dis-
ciples of his, she \isited, as a religious pilgrim, many of
the sacred shrines of India and the Himalayas. Lost
one day amongst the mountain forests of Nepal, the
forlorn child cried out in despair, “ O God, Thou knowest
I have given up all for Thee—home and friends and every-
thing; and if it be Thy will that this body should be eaten
by tigers, I do not mind, only let my spirit be with Thee; ”
and there, in the gloomy solitude of those terrible jungles,
she distinctly heard a voice utter these comforting words :
“Thou art My servant, and no harm will come to thee,”
which effectually dispelled all her fears.

This exceedingly self-willed and highly emotional girl
was at the age of eighteen attracted towards the Zenana
missionaries, apparently in the first instance by the desire
for knowledge. This is how Miss Fallon describes her:
“Among the crowd I soon spied a wild-looking bright-
eyed girl, her forehead besmeared with sandalwood, very
little on in the way of clothing, a mala (beads) in her
hand, her hair in a loose knot on the top of her head,

1 Pre'm", the .S'tory of a Hindu Girl, by Miss Fallon, Zenana missionary
at Faizahad: with an Introduction by Sir )Ionier Williams (James Xisbet

& Co., London).
246

SOME SADHVIS OR FEMALE DEVOTEES

and looking every inch a sadhu (Hindu devotee). One
of my teachers whispered to me, ‘That is the girl who
came to our school the other day and said she wanted
to learn to read.’ Of course my interest was aroused,
and at a sign from me the girl jumped up to where we
were sitting, as nimbly as a deer, and, smiling all over,
sat down at my feet.”

This was Bindraban’s first contact with the missionaries,
and, after a bitter and prostrating mental struggle, this
wild, impulsive, emotional child of nature embraced
Christianity, and had once more a new name, this time
Premi (beloved), given to her.

With what pain and sorrow her guru saw the Brahman
girl, his favoured disciple for so many years, give up the
religion of her forefathers, we may easily imagine; yet,
when she elected to stay with Miss Fallon, the old sad/Lia’s
message to that lady was full of a dignified resignation,
conveying as it did the promise of a divine blessing upon
Miss Fallon for her kindness to the young sadhmfi.

That the guru’s teaching had at least made for
righteousness may be illustrated by the following anecdote,
which relates to the occasion of the first meeting between
the wayward impressionable sadhml and Miss Fallon :—

It was growing dark before the girl started for the
convent where she was staying, and Miss Fallon asked
her if she was not afraid to go alone, as there were so
many bad people about who might do her harm.

“ Why should I fear?” said the girl, drawing herself
up. “ My guru said, ‘ Child, sin can never touch you unless
it is in your heart.’ ”

247

CHAPTER XI

HINDU MONASTERIES

Monasteries have existed in India since the earliest times, and are at present
to be found scattered all over the Country—Religious and \Vorldly
Motives which prompt the Foundation of Monasteries—Management
of Monastic Properties—Monks not expected to labour in any way—
Installation of an Abbot described—A Visit to the Udasi Akhara of
Santokh Das ; the Presence of Women tolerated there—The Treasures
of the place and their History—A public Entertainment at the same
Monastery—Respect entertained by the Sect for Ashes—Interview with
another Abbot who had not a single good word for Sadhus—Visit to a
Dharmsala of the Nirmali Sect ; Sanskrit Literature read and expounded
there—The great Monastery at J ogi Tilla ; Interview with the Abbot ;
meet some Acquaintances—A romantic Story associated with Tilla—
Particulars about certain places of Pilgrimage communicated by a
talkative itinerant Yogi—Sadhus’ Partiality for Nudity.

79;; HERE existed in
the Indian forests
in the earliest
ages communities of
hermits, of the type
described in Sakuntala,
all the residents of the
penance- grove being
under one head or
abbot; and since Buddhist times there have been through-
out the country regularly constituted conventual establish-
ments. Most of these are insignificant and likely to escape
the notice of Europeans, but every sacred spot or plain or
mountain and every crowded city knows them.
Sectarianism, always active in India, has, as we have
seen, been particularly so for at least a thousand years
248

  
 

HINDU MONASTERIES

past. Each new sect, as a matter of course, has set up
its temples, and, in connection with all the more consider-
able ones, monasteries also, for the accommodation of the
priests and attendants, and of the wandering ascetics who
carry abroad the tenets of the sect and bring recruits into
the sectarian fold.

The monasteries established by the founder of each
sect are held in great veneration by all his followers, and
it is an object of ambition to the wandering sadhns to visit
them periodically, especially on high ceremonial occasions.1

Pious Hindus have been exceedingly liberal in their
bequests for religious and charitable purposes, sometimes
devoting considerable property towards the establishment
and maintenance of temples with their connected monas-
teries and rest-houses.

“ The religious merit acquired by the construction of a
temple and its dedication to the worship of particular
divinities is extolled in numerous sacred texts.

“Vishnu Rahasya: ‘ Those who in the sports of child-
hood create out of dust a temple for Vasudeva, even they
sojourn in the regions sacred to that divinity.’

“ Agni Purana: ‘ Of those persons who are ever con-
templating the construction of a temple for Hari, the sins
of a previous hundred births are destroyed.’

“ Narasinha Purana: ‘Whoever conceives the idea of
erecting a divine temple, that very day his carnal sins are
annihilated; what then shall be said of finishing the
structure according to rule! Beyond description is the
wealth of religious merit acquired by the person who
makes an abode for Vishnu of eight bricks. The merits

1 “ The mat’hs, asthals, or akharas, the residences cf the monastic com.
munitics of Hindus, are scattered over the whole country. They vary in
structure and extent, according to the property of which the proprietors
are possessed, but they generally comprehend a set of huts or chambers
for the Mahant or Superior and his permanent pupils; a temple sacred
to the deity whom they worship, or the samadh, or shrine of the founder
of the sect, or some eminent teacher; and a dharmsala, one or more
sheds or buildings, for the accommodation of the mendicants or travellers
who are constantly visiting the mat’h. Ingress and egress is free to all ;
and indeed a restraint upon personal liberty seems never to have entered
into'the conception of any of the religious legislators of the Hindus.”—
Professor H. H. Wilson’s Sketch of the Religious Scots of the Hindus, p. 33.

249

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

accruing from extensive buildings can be presumed in
proportion. He who dies after making the first brick (for
the construction of a temple) obtains the religious merit of
a completed Y ajna.’

“Vishnu Purana: ‘ A man attains the regions presided
over by that deity whose temple he erects.’

“Vamana Purana: ‘The establisher of a temple for
Vishnu procures the salvation of himself and of eight
generations above his grandfather!’

“Agni Purana: ‘The man who causes a temple to
be built to Hari, carries to the mansion of Vishnu ten
thousand past and future generations.’

“ Skanda Purana : ‘ On beginning the construction of a
temple for Krishna, the sins committed in seven births are
annihilated, and the ancestors rescued from hell.’ ” 1

Very important, then, are the benefits to be acquired in
other existences by the building of temples to the gods.
But even worldly motives may operate in encouraging
temple-founding, since in populous localities it is a really
profitable business.

When a Hindu has surplus money he has rarely any
desire to purchase the shares of joint-stock companies, or
even to invest his funds in Government securities. If he
is a man of the old school, and past the meridian of life,
he probably talks the matter over with his guru, finds a
suitable spot, and erects a temple, small or large, according
to his means. By this act he reaps a double reward: he
wins the favour of Heaven, and he also nets a not incon-
siderable pecuniary gain for himself in the present time,
and for his family in the future. The daily offerings
of worshippers, together with the alms (mostly food) col-
lected in daily begging expeditions amongst householders,
soon provide sufficient means not only for the support
of the resident priests, scholars, and attendants, but
also for a fair dividend on his outlay to the owner of
the shrine.

As time runs on, suppliants grateful to the local deity
for favourable answers to their petitions make thank-

1 The Hindu Law of Endowments, by Pandit Prannath Saraswati, M.A.,

B.L., pp. 43-45.
250

HINDU MONASTERIES

offerings to the temple, or endow it with funds and lands
for general purposes, or perhaps for the feeding of a fixed
number of poor sadhus or other mendicants. The offerings
of timorous souls to avert calamity also add to the temple
chest. Under favourable conditions or happy accidents,
the revenues of the establishment assume by slow degrees
respectable proportions, and its regular charities provide
food, and commonly shelter of some sort, for a number of
both voluntary and involuntary mendicants.1 Thus under
the stimulus of religious zeal, cupidity, charity, super-
stition, and a love of indolence, spring up temples and
monasteries, their multiplication tending powerfully to
increase the army of wandering mendicants, since they
afford these religious wayfarers harbours of refuge, which
they certainly appreciate, and which they make use of to
the fullest extent.

The object and method of temple-founding being, as
we have seen, not altogether unconnected with prospective
dividends, it follows that the hereditary principle naturally
plays an important part in the arrangements for the
management of such property and the revenues derivable
therefrom.

The equitable partition of the revenues becomes a
fertile source of contention amongst the proprietors. Dis-
honesty and peculation are not unknown, and I have had
described to me some of the ingenious methods by which
on great festivals the liberal offerings deposited before the
idols by the visitors to a temple or shrine are cleverly
purloined by the attendants employing literally both hands
and unshod feet for this dishonest purpose.

Some of the Hindu monastic institutions have, through

1 In some of the large mat’hs a contribution of not less than one hundred
rupees secures one full meal a day for life. Of course more than the amount

just named is usually expected, and paid, for the privilege in question. But,
think of it ! One hundred rupees paid down, and a plentiful dinner secured
for life.

Amongst the Templars, the Afilz‘ati, “in return for a certain sum paid
down, received their daily maintenance (their commons) out of the corporate
fund.” — King’s Gnostics and their Remains, p. 412. And a somewhat
similar custom obtains even now amongst certain lay orders in certain
Roman Catholic countries, more particularly as a provision for sickness and
old age.

251

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

the liberality of princes and rich benefactors, grown so
wealthy that their proper management has become im-
portant enough to claim the attention of the British
authorities, who, in the interests of the public, have some-
times been obliged to interfere, with a view to the revenues
being properly applied in accordance with the wishes of
the donors or the requirements of the case. Yet the
Hindu monasteries are on the whole respectable institutions,
though, as Professor H. H. Wilson said, “there are, it is
true, exceptions to this innocuous character, and robberies
and murders have been traced to these religious establish-
ments.” 1

Discipline, restraint upon freedom, and serious occupa-
tion of any sort, are practically unknown in the conventual
establishments of the Hindus, because the existence of
rival sects, the absence of a central authority, the practice
of daily alms-seeking, and the wandering habits of the
monks, sanctioned by immemorial custom, have made active
interference with the ascetics not only impolitic but very
nearly impossible.

Where there is practically neither restraint nor dis-
cipline, systematic labour towards any end is out of the
question, and, as a matter of fact, no Hindu ascetic is ever
expected to work. He is to live by alms, and he does so.2
It follows that the sadhus do not till the lands that may
have become the property of a monastery, such lands being
always leased out to lay agriculturists—a fact which cannot
fail to recall to one’s mind, by the mere force of contrast,
the laborious diligence of the monks of the West, who, at
any rate in the early days of Christian monkery, often, by
their untiring exertions, reclaimed the wilderness and con-
verted it into smiling corn-fields. At the same time, it
should not be overlooked that the time-honoured encourage-
ment of laborious habits on the part of the Western monks
has, when stimulated by the powerful commercial spirit of

1 Sketch of the Religious Scots of the Hindus, p. 35.

2 In the Christian monasteries of the West, where the rule of St. Benedict
prevailed, all the monks were required to be engaged in manual labour for
seven hours a day, as a duty to God and man ; though it must be admitted
that, when these conventual establishments waxed rich, the obligation to
work with the hands was materially modified, and often set aside altogether.

252

HINDU MONASTERIES

modern times, been productive of those grotesque parodies of
unworldliness, the present industrial and meanly avaricious
monastic institutions in France and elsewhere, with their
dishonesty and their sweating of the weak—features which,
it would seem, are unfortunately inseparable from indus-
trialism even in a convent.1

In respect to the devolution of religious trusts in India,
Mr. John D. Mayne states: “ When nothing is said in the
grant as to the succession, the right of management passes
by inheritance to the natural heirs of the donee, according
to the rule that a grant without words of limitation con-
veys an estate of inheritance. The property passes into
the office, and neither it nor the management is divisible
among the members of the family. Where no other
arrangement or usage exists, the management may be held
in turns by the several heirs. Sometimes the constitution
of the body vests the management in several, as represent-
ing several interests, or as a check upon each other, and
any act which alters such a constitution would be invalid.
Where the head of a religious institution is bound to
celibacy, it is frequently the usage that he nominates his
successor by appointment during his own lifetime or by
will. Sometimes his nomination requires confirmation by
the members of the religious body. Sometimes the right
of election is vested in them.” 2

The election and installation of a new Mahant in the
case of the larger monasteries is a function of great moment,
carried out with much ceremony, extending over several
days, and attended by hundreds and even thousands of
interested persons, particularly wandering ascetics of the
order attracted to the place by the importance of the

occasion.

Installation of a Mahant.—Through the kindness of
some Indian friends, I received a courteous invitation to
witness the installation of Pandit S. N. as Mahant of a

1 I allude, of course, to the grave scandals recently brought to light, more
particularly in connection with the Bon Pasteur order.
2 A Treatise on Hindu Law and Usage, by John D. Mayne, chap. xii.

para. 364.
253

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

small temple of Siva, and I learned that some three
hundred Y ogis who had recently celebrated the Devali
festival at Amritsar had come to Lahore in order to take
part in this function.

A goodly number of these ascetics had assembled under
a great banian tree, and a stranger sight could hardly have
been seen anywhere in the world than that group of wild-
looking men. Some had but little clothing on ; some
covered themselves with dark-coloured blankets; a few
wore their coverings as grave-clothes (kafan) ; many had
their hair bedaubed with a light yellow-coloured mud; all
were powdered over with fine ashes.

For all its strangeness and wildness, the assemblage
was not by any means ugly or repellent. Although their
bodies had been smeared with ashes, the Yogis did not
look dirty or squalid. Many, certainly, were finely
featured men; most of them were in excellent condition,
and there was a certain air of lofty indifference about them
that was quite noticeable, and easily raised them above
the region of contempt. Evidently, if they practised any
asceticism whatever, it was of a kind not inimical to
health.

At the appointed hour they rose up, and in a dis-
orderly procession followed a brass band which had been
sent to escort them, with sundry silver sticks and waving
chowrz'es, to the temple where the installation was to take
place. The brass band commenced with a Christy minstrel
melody, and, after this exhibition of its superior capabilities
and European training, lapsed into strains of indigenous
music.

As the procession passed along the streets, the doors
and windows of the houses on either side became alive
with men, women, and children, who wished to see the
tamasha (show, spectacle). They were accustomed to
processions of all kinds, and looked on with their usual
apathy at the crowd of Yogis, now swelled into a goodly
multitude by the addition of a number of ordinary citizens
induced by curiosity to accompany the sadhus on their
way. I had on the dickey-box of my carriage a Y ogi too
sick to walk, and, when he was noticed, eager faces peered

254

HINDU MONASTERIES

into the carriage to find out who the occupants might be,
and, on seeing sakz'bs, could not restrain at least a facial
expression of astonishment.

As the mixed procession of Yogis and citizens, with
the noisy brass band, made rather a long, circuitous course
through the streets and lanes, I took a shorter way in my
carriage, and reached the temple and adjoining buildings
in advance of the heterogeneous crowd.

At the door of the house Pandit S. N. himself received
us with Oriental courtesy, and had us conducted to seats
upon the flat roof of one of the buildings, in a position
from which the ceremony could be very conveniently
viewed.

When the Yogis arrived they crowded into the place
pell-mell; they filled the small space before the door of
the temple, and took up whatever positions they thought
most suitable. When the available area was occupied,
a number of them came swarming up to the roof where
I was sitting and made themselves comfortable there.

The Mahants of several Siva temples were present, all
well robed in white garments. Pandit S. N. was also
suitably attired, and was decorated with garlands of flowers.
Many well-to-do laymen also attended, and a small party
of women and children had a place to themselves. The
ceremony of installation was conducted with the greatest
decorum. First a large brass alms-bowl encased in soft
white muslin was presented to the pandit by the Mahant
of a temple at Amritsar, who seemed to take the leading
part in the ceremonies; this alms-bowl, which had
belonged to the late Mahant and his predecessors, being
apparently the most important badge of the office of a
Mahant, symbolising poverty and humility.

The bowl was received standing, and, when it had been
placed in the pandit’s hands, he was made to sit on a
cushion in the window with his back to the street, and
various coloured or parti-coloured clothes were presented
to him. A large flat brass dish containing sweetmeats
was then brought forward. The new Mahant, standing up,
held it in his hands for a few seconds, but not without
assistance, for it was too large and heavy for one pair of

255

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

hands. It was then passed on for future distribution of
its contents. The several Mahants and other ecclesiastical
dignitaries present made their obeisances to him, the
temple bells rang out, the trumpets blared, and a shout
was raised in honour of Pandit S. N. Presents in money
were now made to the new Mahant, and, each time the
rupees were received and counted by the parohita, or
family priest, he proclaimed in a loud voice, “So many
rupees have been donated by so-and-so!”

When the presents made by all the dignitaries had
been received and recorded, the followers of Pandit S. N .—
that is, those who regarded him as their especial guru—came
forward one by one, and offered a. rupee with profound
obeisance, sometimes a complete prostration. In return,
each one received in his right hand from the new Mahant
a pinch of something which looked very much like ashes
of some kind. The recipients retired very ceremoniously,
but almost immediately each one put a little of the white
stuff on his tongue. ,

A pretty boy, nicely dressed, was led up to the pandit,
and received a teeka on his forehead. From an adjoining
roof several women and girls in holiday attire bowed low
to the new Malawi-t, while many of the Y 032's about me
sidled off to have a pull at the charms pipe, without which
these habitual smokers could not get along even for a
short while.

Having received gifts from the heads of other temples,
it was now the new Mahant’s turn to repay the compli-
ment with interest. He had also to honour the Yogis, to
each of whom was given two pounds of the confection
known as ludoos and one rupee in silver. They had all
been feasted at his expense the day before.

I was assured that, as a result of this interchange of
compliments, the new Mahant would, in the end, have
spent three or four hundred rupees out of his own pocket.

The akham of Santokh Das is the largest monastery
in Amritsar, and belongs to the Udasi sect. Its founder
was a sadku who, in the troubled times attending the
decline and fall of the Mogul Empire, established himself

256

HINDU MONASTERIES

under a jhopree, or shed, within a small enclosure, where
he harboured Hindu children whose parents had been
murdered by the Muslims, or had fled before them. By
degrees he rallied many followers round him, and eventu—
ally, when the Sikhs succeeded in emerging triumphantly
out of the turmoil and disorder of the times, he obtained
a jaghir, or free grant of land, which enabled him to
found the monastery which preserves his name. This is
a typical example of the circumstances under which
monasteries may come into existence and attain affluence.

When I visited the monastery the resident monks
were few in number, and differed greatly amongst them-
selves in outward appearance. The majority were wearing
their hair wound about the head in a coil like a turban——
these were the jlmttadarees; others carried loose hanging
locks (bho'zw'ccahs); a few had shaven heads, and were the
Paramalzansas of the order. In regard to the j/mttadarees,
the Mahant informed me that their hair was never cut,
and that all the combings were added to the living hair in
a sort of rope or plait, which was coiled neatly round the
head. He naively assured me that, when the hair growing
011 the head became white with age, the portion of dead
hair added to the plait also became white.

Most of the monks wore orange-coloured clothes; one,
however, had a green coat on, which had been given to
him by some charitable person. Only two or three wore
malas of any sort.

The Mahant was not dressed like the sadhus, but
wore a bright pink-coloured turban, a white long-sleeved
kurta or tunic, and a purple Zoongee round his loins. His
feet rested on wooden lchammvs or pattens. In his hand
he carried a short rosary of large beads.

As far as I could see, there was free intercourse
amongst the resident monks, and their bearing towards the
Mrs/rant, though respectful, was not servile. Yet, two or
three men prostrated themselves on the ground, and put
their heads with great humility on the abbot’s feet; but
he took no notice whatever of them.

The building, constructed of brick and mortar, is of con—
siderable size, double-storeyed in some parts. It has two

R 257

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

hypoethral courts of unequal size, and a goodly number of
small rooms for the accommodation of monks. Though
substantially built, the place has no architectural preten-
sions. Its situation is convenient, being just near the
Golden Temple, which, with the great tank surrounding it,
is visible from the upper storey of the monastery.

In one of the open courts was a cluster of four
samadhs, erected in memory of four Mahants who had been
the predecessors of the present abbot. These had all
been cremated in the court itself on a spot which was
pointed out to me.

The four samadhs occupied a pretty considerable
proportion of the court, indicating a want of consideration
for the claims of posterity.1

Near the entrance doorway, but within the precincts,
there was a place where cattle might drink water, also
bathing—places for outsiders—one for men, and another for
women.

This toleration of women is in striking contrast with
the practice of some Christian monasteries under the
control of the Eastern Church. Writing about these,
Mr. Curzon, in his interesting book, fllonastem'es 0f the
Levant, states that he was informed “that no female
animal of any sort or kind is admitted on any part of the
peninsula of Mount Athos; and that since the days of’
Constantine the soil of the Holy Mountain had never been
contaminated by the tread of a woman’s-foot.”2 The
same author also mentions having met a monk thirty or
thirty-five years of age, who, having been brought to one of
the Athos monasteries as an infant, had no recollection of
ever having seen a woman, and was anxious to know if
they resembled the stiff expressionless mediaeval pictures
of the Virgin which adorned the walls of the cenobitic
institutions of the little peninsula which formed his very
restricted world.3

What positive terror the insidious charms of women

1 Where, as at Buddh Gya, the deceased abbots have all been buried,
the spot occupied by their graves makes quite a. small cemetery.

'3 Monasteries of the Levant, by the Hon. Robert Curzon, J un., p. 306.

3 Ibid. p. 347.

258

HINDU MONASTERIES

inspired in the minds of certain Christian anchorites, who,
with Chrysostom, looked upon the sex as “ a necessary evil,
a deadly fascination, and a painted ill,” is well known; but
the circumstances which have Operated in India to make
women there less objectionable in the eyes of the professed
ascetic are not far to seek.

In the first place, in the land of Krishna and of Sakhti
worshippers, the virtue of virginity or even of continence
has never been regarded with the respectful awe with
which it was viewed by religious men in the West, and for
this, in all probability, the influence of climate is largely
accountable;1 and then, in the next place, as the monks
are nearly all wanderers, subject to little if any discipline,
and practically dependent upon the charity of women, it is
naturally undesirable and futile to impose rules prohibiting
women from entering monasteries as visitors, particularly
as some of these conventual institutions serve very con-
veniently as caravansaries where travellers may obtain
lodgings for payment.

Having inspected the more public portions of the
monastery, I was conducted to the Mahant’s sitting-room,
which I found adorned with fresco paintings representing
his predecessors and their doings. While seated here, the
courteous abbot explained that for the maintenance of the
'monastery the chief source is a jaghir or grant, made in
the first instance by the Sikh government of Maharajah
Ranjit Singh,-and confirmed at a later date by the British
Government, though somewhat modified and curtailed.
My host now had the treasures of his reliquary brought
out and arranged for me to see. There were, amongst
other things, a portrait of Santokh Das, a book, a picture
showing the original plan of the Golden Temple, and four
fine bymguns, or rests—two of wood very nicely carved,
one made of ivory finely cut, and the fourth of brass. My
particular attention was also invited to a leaf of the peepul
tree, which, by a very great stretch of imagination, might
be taken to resemble a hand having an exaggerated palm
and dwarf fingers. It was the leaf of a tree which had
been touched with his holy hand by one of the Sikh gurus,

1 Montesquieu, De Z’Esprit dcs Lois, livre xvi. chap. viii.

259

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

and consequently bore leaves resembling in shape a human
hand. It was preserved in a picture-frame under a glass
pane, and had been presented long ago to the akham by a
monk of the order of the Udasis. Another much esteemed
curiosity was a little book written on a number of pieces of
paper joined together like the bellows of an accordion.

A pair of lchamnws in the collection had a story
attached to them. They were made of brass instead of
wood by some infidel or other who wished to put Santokh
Das to the test. “Look here,” said he to the saint. “You
are a great sadlm ; take these from me as a token of my
profound respect.” He had, however, just before presenting
them, maliciously heated them to a high temperature, with
the view of amusing himself with the enlivening effect they
would have upon the sedate ascetic as soon as he put his
feet upon them. But Santokh Das stepped on to the hot
brass Ichawmws without betraying any sign of inconvenience,
miraculously enduring the heat, or perhaps unconscious of it.

Before -I left the monastery the abbot invited me to
renew my visit at the time of the Devali festival. He
explained that the permanent residents in the monastery
were few, that at all times there were some wandering
sad/ms receiving the hospitality of the institution, but
that on certain festivals, notably the Devali, the number
to be entertained taxed the resources of the house to the
utmost.

Upon this invitation I came again to the akham in
November 1898, and found the place full of sad/ms and
many other visitors, including not a few women. There
were sadhus moving about the courts and inside the
building in a more or less aimless manner; some,
particularly the nangahs, who do not or ought not to live
under a roof, were clustered round small fires in the
quadrangles, attending idly to their toilets.

Presently a cry was raised, “ Un ke pujah karo, Nanak
nirbani” (Perform the worship of food, (in the name of)
Nanak, who has left the world).

Most of those present began to arrange themselves in
the smaller courtyard in long lines, seated on the floor;
others took up places on the flat roof of a one-storeyed

260

HINDU MONASTERIES

building assigned for the purpose. Women were present
in both places. I was accommodated with a chair on the
roof of a range of rooms, from which I could see the people
in the court as well as those on the roof opposite.

All assembled in the most sober and decorousfashion,
and arranged themselves in regular lines. I noticed
a small boy-sadhu of about eight years of age trying
to find a place for himself. He was, it seems, devoted
to the ascetic life by his own parents. It is a common
thing for childless people to vow that, if a son is born
to them, he shall be devoted to a religious life. And
this is one way in which the rmendicamf sects are swelled
and perennially recruited.

When the guests were all quietly seated—and there
was no unseemly hurry about this—the cooks went round
supplying each person with a sort of cup or small basin
neatly made of dry leaves. Those who had brought their
own brass cups, or lcatomhs, did not of course need the
more primitive leaf-vessels. After this the cooks made
the round, with large baskets, distributing big flat cakes
of hot unleavened bread which had been freshly baked on
' heated iron pans. I noticed that the bread was given
liberally, and that some of the guests evidently took an
additional share for an absent friend. Then the ddl
(lentils) was brought round in a large brass vessel with
two handles, carried by a couple of men. A third, armed
with an iron ladle, helped the savoury yellow food into
the leaf or brass cups, as the case might be. Yet no one
touched a morsel. I now counted, as well as I could, the
assembled guests, and found that they numbered about
two hundred persons. When the requirements of all
present had been met, the order was given, “ Gajo-ji 'waha
Guru,” which may be freely rendered, “Assert yourselves
in the name of God.” Whereupon those who wished to
carry away the food which had been given them, rose and
withdrew; the rest fell to, and ate their morning meal.

Before leaving the monastery I inquired about the
custom of worshipping ashes, which I understood the
Udasis followed. The Mahmt smilingly conducted me to
the threshold of the room where the Granth Sahib—the

26I

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

sacred book of the Sikhs—was kept, and which might be
called the chapel. At the abbot’s request one of the
attendants produced a great ball, or rather a cylinder with
rounded edges, made of the very finest ashes. It was
coloured on the outside of a reddish tint, and looked not
unlike a Dutch cheese. At one end was a small
depression. Into this the attendant who carried it in-
serted his thumb and brought out upon its surface a
fine white powder, which he applied to his forehead.
Several others present followed his example. The
Mahrmt explained that these sacred balls of ashes
were made with much care; that the ashes were well
washed, and only the finest particles which eventually
subsided in the water were taken and then mixed with a.
white clay from the hills, without which the ashes would
not have sufficient coherence.

At the termination of my very pleasant visit I was
conducted by the Mahant to my carriage, and at the
moment of parting he presented me with some sugar
candy, which he politely insisted upon my receiving from
his monastery.

One morning I presented myself at a monastery in
the Punjab, which I need not name. Though my visit was
quite unexpected, the portly abbot, who was reading a
vernacular newspaper when I arrived, was most gracious
in his welcome, and seemed willing to discourse upon all
the ordinary topics of the day.

Being informed by one of my companions that I was
much interested in sad/ms, he forthwith broke out into a
tirade against the whole crew. “There might,” he said,
“ be one in a hundred who had any pretensions to goodness
or virtue, but the rest were vile scum and unmitigated
scoundrels.”

What more especially annoyed him was'that men who
one day were ploughing their fields as ordinary peasants
would the very next day, in the garb of sadhus, claim
the hospitality of an akham, spend the night with loose
women, and then become transformed again into cultivators
of the soil as soon as it suited their convenience to do so.

I have no doubt the Mahant’s complaint was based on

262

HINDU MONASTERIES

actual experience, and that it was not without cause that
he grudged the pseudo-sadhus their board out of the
moderate revenues at his disposal; but, for all that, I felt
sure that my portly host was well able to take care of him-
self. He wished that Government would enact that each
and every sadhu should carry a certificate to show who
and what he really was—a suggestion which might be
commended to the consideration of the authorities, as
its adoption would certainly be convenient at seasons of
general unrest or political tension.

I was subsequently informed that this abbot’s claim
to the headship of the monastery was disputed, and that
the question of his right of possession was engaging the
attention of one of the law courts.

Two monasteries of the Nimnali sect, both known as
Thakur Dyal Singh’s d/Larmsalas, were visited by me on
the 6th of September 1898. Both were of considerable
size though unpretentious in design, and could easily afford
accommodation to a large number of inmates, for whom
several rows of small rooms were provided. Both monas-
teries had their own oxen to draw water and to grind the
corn for the household. They had their own cows also.
At the time of my visits to these establishments most of
the rooms were unoccupied, and only a few monks visible.
These, too, were rather a puzzle to me as regards their
dress and appearance, for the only external characteristic
they seemed to have in common was long hair.

Most of them wore orange-coloured clothes and malas
of little woollen balls resembling beads, and those who
were going out carried chz'ppees (alms-bowls made out of
cocoanut-shells) in their hands. Along with the Granth,
the Bible of the Sikhs, other books held sacred by the
Hindus were read in one of these dharmsalas morning and
evening. Indeed, the Mahabharata was being read and
expounded while I was in the monastery by a Brahman
pandit, who was neither a Nirmali nor a sadhu. In the
other dharmsala an image of Ram Chandra had been set up,
though I did not see it. This thakurdwam had been
founded by a pious woman of means.

Amongst the sadhus I noticed a good-looking boy of

263

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

about fifteen or sixteen years of age, and asked him why
he had become a sad/m and given up the world, of which
he could hardly have seen anything. He promptly re-
plied that one was never too young to enter upon a good
path.

Somewhat different from the establishments described
above is the great math of J ogi Tilla, situated on the top
of a conspicuous hill in the J helum district of the Punjab.
Proceeding towards this monastery in order to be there on
the occasion of a certain Hindu festival, I fell in on the
way with twelve or thirteen Y ogiLs, all young men in the
prime of life, bound for the same place. All of them had
their hair hanging about their necks, but not particularly
long, and bleached a yellow-brown colour. They had the
least quantity of clothing on, and had their bodies
smeared with ashes. All wore the characteristic yogi
whistle depending from the neck. Some carried huge
tongs, others small hoes. Two or three alms-bowls and
some brass imitations of the gourd were also to be seen.
One man was armed with a formidable serpent-shaped
wind instrument. None of the party seemed disposed to
be communicative or even to answer my questions. As I
walked along very leisurely, the Y ogz's passed me by on the
road; but, when I subsequently overtook them on horse-
back, they were sitting beside a pool smoking charras.

Farther on I met a Yogi trudging along alone, and
soon discovered that he was not as reticent as the men I
had left behind in clouds of charras-smoke near the pool.

My new acquaintance came from the military station of
J helum, and so probably knew something about Europeans.
I learned from him that he had served an apprenticeship
to a famous guru for four years before he was per-
mitted to have his ears pierced to receive the huge rings
which the Kanphatti Yogis wear and to have whispered
to him the sacred and secret mantra of the order.

As we approached the mountain—for such it really was
—we passed many groups of pedestrians on pleasure bent.
One party consisted of three boys, the eldest not sixteen
years old, who had come from the town of J helum, several
miles distant. They were all neatly and cleanly dressed

264

HINDU MONASTERIES

in light garments; but, though it was winter, not a scrap
of any sort of luggage did they have with them, nor even
any wraps. Several groups of women and girls, some of
them attended by men, were wending their way upwards
from neighbouring villages. None carried extras, unless
babies be reckoned as such. I ascertained that all these
visitors would be provided with accommodation and cover-
ings by the Y og'is at Tilla, and that the Hindus who visited
the fair would be fed free of expense by the abbot of the
J ogi Tilla monastery.

I rested for the night in the Government rest-house at
the foot of the mountain, and the next morning found that
an excellent, if narrow, road led to the summit, whence
' from different positions extensive prospects might be en-
joyed of a country rich in poetical and historical associa-
tions, amongst the latter being the invasion of India by
Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C.

The monastery on J ogi Tilla, of which I give a photo-
graph, is a substantial group of buildings, and its Mahant,
a handsome, well-dressed, dignified old gentleman, who
gave one the impression of being a man of authority,
received me with much politeness. After the usual ex-
change of civilities, I was shown all over the place, which
was full of visitors who had come up from the villages in
the plains in order to be present at the festival. I was
struck by some dark subterranean chambers which were
shown me, and which I understood had been tenanted by
Y og'i anchorites, whose austerities were still remembered
with awe and wonder. While walking about, I came across a
score of Yogis sitting round a great log fire, and to my pleasure
was recognised by several of them, having met them the
previous year at the installation of Mahant S. N. in Lahore.

I obtained comfortable quarters in the rest-house
erected especially for the accommodation of the Govern-
ment Civil officers of the district, for whom this elevated
spot serves as a pleasant sanatorium during the hottest
time of the year. I had hardly got my things in when
the Mahant sent over to inquire what my orders were in
respect to requisites for my table, as he would have much
pleasure in supplying all the wants of myself and servants

265

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

while I sojourned on the mountain, or at any rate as long
as the festival lasted. I did not avail myself of this kind
offer, having already made my arrangements, but I saw
that the crowd, mostly of village folks, who had come up
the hill, enjoyed themselves right pleasantly at the fair,
and were well cared for by the hospitable abbot. “The
shrine of Tilla,” says Mr. E. D. Maclagan, “is certainly
very ancient, and is possibly a relic of a previous cult; it
is mentioned in the Ain-i-Akbari. There were formerly
large grants of revenue attached to the monastery, but
these were abolished some years ago, when the Mahant
was accused of murdering his rival for the gaddz'. The
Y ogis of Tilla are not an estimable body, but are held in
considerable reputation, even by Mussulmans, and they have
Hindu disciples away beyond the Afghan border.” 1

Roaming about, the hill-top with a local guide, my
attention was directed to various geological features of the
mountain formation, which told of titanic battles between
rival Y ogis and other sadhus in the old time. There was
also pointed out to me a slab of dark-coloured stone, on
which some dozen cowrie shells and sundry pieces of crude
brown sugar had been placed in memory of old events
which are still fresh in the recollections of the village lads
and maidens. It was on this stone, they told me, that
Ranja sat and sounded his whistle, and on this slab he had
been initiated into the secrets and received into the sect
of the Y ogis. The story, as it was told me on the spot, is
worth repeating.

Ranja, hearing the praises of Heer sung by the
wandering minstrels, became enamoured of her, sought
her out, and artfully succeeded in obtaining service as
a cowherd in her father’s house. A mutual attachment
sprang up between the handsome youth and the lovely
girl; but the wife of Heer’s brother had her suspicions
aroused by the behaviour of the lovers, and secured the
cowherd’s dismissal. To prevent scandals and trouble,
Heer was married to another man, and Ranja, disappointed
and dismissed, went off to become a Y am, telling Heer he
would meet her yet. To Jogi Tilla he wended his way,

1 Punjab Census Report, 1891, p. 117.
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HINDU MONASTERIES

and, seating himself upon the stone already referred to,
blew a whistle he had brought with him.

The Illahant, who was no other than the great Gorakh-
nath himself, came out and said, in a loud voice, “Who is
it that blows a whistle outside there? If he is a Jogvj he
is free to come in; if not, how dare he sound a whistle so
near my premises ? ” To this Ranja made suitable answer,
that although not yet a Jam}, he earnestly desired to become
one. His fine manners and handsome person at once won
for him the favour of the great guru, who admitted him,
there and then, into his sect, piercing Ranja’s ears in the
most approved manner. The new Jogi asked as a favour
that he might be reunited to Heer, and the gracious guru
said that his wish would be gratified. Elated with the
blessing of his superior, Ranja hastened away to where his
beloved lived, and lit his five within view of Heer’s home,
but on the opposite bank of the river. The fame of his
exceeding beauty soon spread abroad, and the women were
dying to visit him. Heer suspected it might be her lover,
and winning over her husband’s sister, on some pretext or
other, to visit the famous Jogz' privately, she ascertained
for herself that her surmise was quite correct, and she also
contrived to arrange that Ranja should come across the
river in the darkness to meet her. Night after night he
found his way to her arms, and never came without a small
offering in the shape of some fish caught by himself and
daintily cooked with his own hands. Once the river rose in
a great flood, and in the turbid rushing stream no fish could
be caught. To go empty-handed to his assignation seemed
too dreadful, so the devoted lover cut off a piece of his own
flesh and dressed it for his mistress. “What is this?”
she inquired as she put a piece into her mouth. “ This is
not fish, nor rabbit, nor mutton that you have brought me.
I cannot eat this—what is it?” He displayed the wound
in his thigh. “ Ah!” exclaimed the girl tenderly, quite
overcome with emotion. “ You have fully played your part,
my love; it is for me now to do and dare. I shall come to
you in future. The river shall not part us. I’ll swim
across it on a stout ghurmh 1 every night.” And she did

1 A large water-pot of baked clay.
' 267

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

so regularly, guided in her dangerous course by the love-
light of the Jogi’s fire. But her doings were found out by
a jealous female relative, who one night spitefully replaced
Heer’s trusty glzm'mh by a similar but unbaked vessel.
All unconscious of the substitution, Heer, in the darkness
of the night, entered the river, and, with the treacherous
aid of the fragile ghmv'ah, swam out into the stream. But,
before she had gone half-way across, the pot softened in
the water and gave way. She cried aloud to her lover for
help as she felt herself drowning. Ranja at once plunged
into the stream to her assistance, but the lovers were.
carried away in the darkness and never seen again.

The above story has been reproduced as it was told to
me, but it seems to be a medley of two romances well
known in the Punjab, “Hir and Ranja,” and“ Sohni and
Mahirwal.”

The name “ Hir and Ranja ” is strikingly reminiscent
of Hero and Leander, but, strange to say, it is not in this
one, but in the Sohni and Mahirwal legend, that the lover
swims the river as Leander used to brave the dangers of
the Hellespont for the love of the priestess of Venus.

On my return from J ogi Tilla it was my good fortune
to have, for a part of the way, the companionship of a
young and very talkative Yogi who had travelled a good
deal. He had been, he said, to Hinglaj on the mountains,
and in token of his visit had been duly branded on the
right forearm. This, he explained, was done because the
Devi at Hinglaj used to be worshipped by Muhammadans,
and they enjoyed her special favour; so Siva directed that
Hindus who went there should be branded with his symbol
as a mark of his divine protection. With regard to
Amarnath in Kashmir, where he had also been, the young
Jog/2'. said that till recently it had been the custom for
persons visiting the sacred ice-cave on the mountain-top to
divest themselves (both men and women) of every stitch
of clothing, as it was thus that lord Siva wished them to
appear and dance before him; but my informant added
that now, owing to the wishes of the father of the present
Maharajah of Kashmir, the women were allowed to cover

themselves, but with a single garment only. The men enter
268

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HINDU MONASTERIES

the ice-cave with langotz's or breech-clouts on ; but each man
divests his neighbour of his langot'i, so in the end they
stand in the cave stark naked. Whether these details
about the annual pilgrimage to Amarnath are true or not
I have not been able to ascertain, but they are certainly in
harmony with what we know of Indian sadlms, amongst
whom the tendency to run to nudity is a very marked
characteristic.1 A few years ago an application was made
to the High Court at Bombay to cancel an order of the
District Magistrate prohibiting the Gosam's, a religious
sect of mendicants, from walking in procession naked, and
then bathing at N asik as a religious duty during the Sin-
hasta festival. In support of this appeal, it was urged by
the petitioners that bathing naked had always been allowed
at Hardwar and Allahabad.2

1 Vigne, who visited Kashmir in 1835, states that the Brahmans at
Amarnath divest themselves of all clothing excepting some pieces of birch-
bark which do duty for fig-leaves (Travels in Kashmir, ctc., vol. ii. chap. i.) ;
and Dr. Neve (Picturesque Kashmir, 1900, chap. vii.) says that the wor-
shippers throw themselves naked upon the block of ice in the cave which
represents Siva.

2 Times of India (Bombay), 12th August 1896.

269

CHAPTER XII

National Ideals of Life as indications of National Character—European and
American Ideals contrasted with that of India—A Life involving Renun-
ciation regarded by the Hindus as the only possible Holy Life—Sadhuism
in its Religious, Social, Political, Intellectual, and Industrial Aspects—
The probable Future of Sadhuism considered.

  
  

as} Illeg,’x‘x.x}§xx.” W.-
J‘mmww

.- '
Fr—I .

   

i- F in the ideal of life which claims
especial regard or is the object of
the supreme ambition of any people
their character is discernible, it may
be profitable, in connection with the
subject of this volume, to pause for
a moment to contrast the highest
ideals of the busy p1actica1 West and of the tranquil
dreamy East.

Though Mammon worship prevails largely in England,
the loftiest aspirations of the vast majority of Englishmen
still tend towards aristocratic ideals, the objects of highest
admiration amongst them, after royalty with its old-world
glamour, being the hereditary nobleman or landed gentle-
man who takes a leading part in public life, the strenuous
statesman, and the victorious general. Royalty being
excluded, the hero-type which in each case attracts the
homage of the English world is still the aristocrat
27o

CONCLUSION

successful as a man of action. In the United States of
America, which have no royal court and no hereditary
nobility, which until recently had no foreign relations of
magnitude, where the feeling is intensely democratic, and
where the best energies of the people are untiringly
devoted to industrial pursuits, the prosperous business man
sprung from the ranks of the people, the clever accumulator
of wealth, the plutocrat, the self-assertive millionaire, is
the beau-ideal of the nation, and next after him the wide-
awake pushing politician. Here also, it is evident, popular
admiration is given to What is regarded as the embodiment
of success in fields of activity congenial with the national
taste and leanings.1 For the professedly religious life
there exists both in England and the United States——
perhaps in all Protestant countries—a separate and
distinct ideal of perfection, yet certain it is that the
respect of the pious Protestants of Britain and the States
is commanded by the vigorous active worker for the
good of others, and not by the retiring self-contained
ascetic.

Very different indeed from the business-born ideals we
have been considering is the hero-type which for ages has
drawn the admiring homage of India and the Far East.
The covetous Westerns may have their eyes riveted with
greedy appreciation upon the bejewelled Rajahs of India
and their barbaric pomp, but, for reasons already indicated,
it is the ascetic profession that time out of mind has been
of pre-eminent dignity in the eyes of the Indian people.
The quiet inactive recluse, the retired ascetic detached
from the world and its petty rivalries, has since the
earliest ages occupied the very highest place in the
national esteem—a fact which speaks volumes for the
condition and psychology of the Hindus, because, as
Carlyle has well said, “The manner of men’s Hero-
worship, verily it is the innermost fact of their existence
and determines all the rest.”

That the only possible state of a religious (holy) life is

1 It is interesting that, in Europe, lunatics suffering from the delusion of
self-importance commonly imagine themselves to be princes and kings, and
on the other side of the Atlantic the megalomaniacs are usually millionaires.

271

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

one involving asceticism and renunciation of the world, has
been for ages such a deeply rooted idea in India that
Hindu apologists for the more active life have felt con-
strained to devise apologues which might be cited in
support or justification of men of acknowledged goodness
who did not withdraw themselves from the temptations
and toils of mundane existence. For example, Rajah
Janak, who ruled his kingdom with great ability, had the
reputation also of being a, very religious man; but the
ascetics scouted this notion, and it was arranged by some
sadlms that they should have an interview with the king
in order to test his pretensions. Ten of them accordingly
asked for an audience and received permission to approach
the king, but only on certain prescribed conditions.
Each man amongst them was to carry a large earthen-
ware vase full of water on his head, and should suffer
death if he allowed even a single drop of the contents to
spill.

The stipulations were accepted, and Rajah Janak’s
capital made preparations for the reception of the holy
sadhus. The shops and houses were gaily'decorated, the
multitudes were out in their gala attire, and troops lined
the streets along which the visitors were to pass.

Slowly, and very carefully (for their lives were at stake),
did the king’s guests wend their way to the royal palace,
where they were graciously received by the Rajah, who
asked them, in an affable manner, what they thought of
his capital, through the best streets of which they had
just passed on their way to the presence-chamber. The
indignant sad/ms, perceiving that they were being laughed
at, replied with chagrin that they were unable to express
any opinion on this point, since through the king’s un-
reasonable tyranny they had not been able to look either
to the right or to the left, having to think about the
brimful water-pots on their heads.

The Rajah very politely begged his visitors not to be
annoyed, as what he had done was only to inculcate an
important lesson.

“You most venerable sadhus,” said the king, “have
passed along the streets without any mishap; your eyes

272

CONCLUSION

have directed you and your limbs have carried you while
you wended your way through the streets of this great
city, but your attention was' mostly concentrated upon
the water-pots on your heads. Just in the same way
do I pass along the world’s great highway, doing what
is necessary, but with my attention fixed on things
above.”

After this preamble, we may profitably cast a rapid
glance at the religious, social, political, intellectual, and
industrial aspects of sadhm'sm, and also venture, but not
too boldly, to forecast its future.

SADHUISM IN ITS RELIGIOUS ASPECT.

Sadhuism, whether perpetuating the peculiar idea of
the efficacy of austerities for the acquisition of far~
reaching powers over natural phenomena, or hearing its
testimony to the belief in the indispensableness of detach-
ment from the world as a preparation for the ineffable
joy of ecstatic communion with the Divine Being, has
undoubtedly tended to keep before men’s eyes, as the
highest ideal, a life of purity, self-restraint, and contempt
of the world and human affairs. It has also necessarily
maintained amongst the laity a sense of the righteous
claims of the poor upon the charity of the more affluent
members of the community. Moreover, sad/’ou'ism, by the
multiplicity of the independent sects which have arisen in
India,has engendered and favoured a spirit of tolerance which
cannot escape the notice of the most superficial observer.

SADHUISM IN ITS SOCIAL ASPECT.

Socially, sadhm'sm has, in its spirit and practice, always
tended towards the recognition of the equality of all
Hindus, and has therefore been inimical to the rigid caste~
system so dear to the Brahman priesthood. The warfare
between Brahmanism and Sadhuism has been carried on
with varying fortune for thirty centuries; but the demo-
cratic leanings referred to have proved too strong for the
opposition of the “ twice-born ” classes, and the inevitable

8 27 3

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

result was long since grudgingly admitted, as the following
prophecy, put into the mouth of the Vedic god Indra, shows
clearly enough :—

“When this lurita (or golden) age,” says the god,
“has come to a close, innumerable mendicants and
hypocrites shall arise and the four orders become dis-
organised.” 1

A noteworthy statement this, the fulfilment of which
is amply attested by the foregoing chapters.

That the sad/ta as such should enjoy p0pular considera-
tion has undoubtedly been at all times a very sore trial for
the proud Brahman, and especially hateful to him when
it was a low-caste Sadra who, in virtue of being an
ascetic, received the respect and homage of the people.
But, as already remarked, the Brahmanical opposition,
however strong, has proved unavailing, and the right of
the Sudra to the privileges of sad/Latsm and ascetic
practices, at any rate during the present age, has been
authoritatively, if reluctantly, admitted in the Rama-
yana?

1 Mahabharata—Santiparvan, sec. lxv. Muir’s Sanskrit Texts, vol. i.
p. 485.

'-’ The curious legend which contains this admission is as follows :—A
Brahman youth died suddenly without apparent cause. The father of the
boy, bewailing his loss, came to the king’s palace, and in his lamentations
accused the king, the semi-divine Rama himself, of having, through some
fault of his, as ruler of the land, brought about the untoward event. The
imputation reached Rama’s ears, and he summoned a council of sages to
consider the matter. Narada being present, explained that the death of
the Brahman boy was due to the presumption of a Sudra who was practising
austerities for the attainment of certain objects. Men of his caste, explained
the sage, were not entitled to this great privilege in Rama’s age (the Trcta
yuga), though he admitted prophetically that in the Kali yuga Sadras would
practise austerities freely, and righteously too. Rama, as became the
guardian of his people, set off immediately in quest of the audacious offender.
After searching in many regions, he discovered the ascetic near a tank by
the Saivala mountains, “performing the most austere penances with his
legs upwards and head downwards.” In reply to Rama’s inquiries, the
topsy-turvy ascetic, still standing on his head, said, “ 0 highly illustrious
Rama, Iam born in the race of Sudras, and, with a view to reach the region
of the celestials with my body, I am going through these austere penances.”
On hearing this, the king drew his sword and forthwith cut off the ascetic’s
head. After this act of justice, the Brahman boy was restored to life.—
Ramayana—Uttarakandam, sec. lxxxvi.—lxxxix., Manmatta Nath Dutt’s
translation.

274

CONCLUSION

SADHUISM IN ITS POLITICAL ASPECT.

Politically, sadhuism, through the perennial wanderings
of the ascetics over the length and breadth of the land,
has tended to preserve a certain homogeneity throughout
India, and, so far, has been acting counter to that tendency
to fission and disintegration which is natural in such a
vast country of many languages and races. At the same
time, the detachment from human affairs which sad/tm'sm
demands must have been at all times adverse to patriotism
in any form, and there can be no doubt that it is largely
due to the subtle effects of the spirit of sadhm'sm upon
the character of the people of India that that country is so
easily governed by a handful of foreign officials and a few
thousand White soldiers.

THE INTELLECTUAL ASPECT or SADIIUISM.

Intellectually, the spirit of sacl/tn'ism has unquestion-
ably proved most baneful, its tendency being to regard
' passing events—that is, history in the making—with
undisguised contempt and the study of nature as useless,
since true knowledge and power over phenomena could
be acquired only by contemplation and austerities.

INDUSTRIAL EFFECT OF SADHUISM.

Many estimates have been made, and at different times,
of the proportion which the number of religious mendicants
in India bears to the entire population. Mr. Ward,
the Serampore missionary, writing a century ago and with
special reference to Bengal and Behar, says: “I have
endeavoured to ascertain the probable number of Hindus
who embrace a life of mendicity, and am informed that
scarcely less than an eighth part of the whole population
abandon their proper employments and live as religious
mendicants by begging.” Mr. Crookes, in his North- Western
Provinces of India (1898), puts the figure for that
territory at two millions out of forty millions, or one-
twentieth of the population.

275

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

Naturally, everyone who believes that the chief end of
man is to produce things of various kinds grieves' over the
deplorable waste of productive energy represented by the
sad/Lu population of India. But, after all, is it of no
importance that the country has been able to produce for
a hundred generations whole armies of men able to
practise, with a religious purpose, that contempt of the
world and earthly riches which is, at least theoretically,
one of the most important of Christian virtues?1

No doubt, the philosophy and art, I might say the
cult, of chronic idleness is thoroughly understood and
acted upon in India; still, in estimating the extent to
which its sadhu population is a burden upon the country,
several facts have to be borne in mind which the most
superficial analysis of the composition of the religious
mendicant class brings to light. In the first place,
amongst sadhus are included a very considerable percentage
of what in other countries are merely the destitute paupers
supported by the State out of the proceeds of taxation,
but in India out of. the alms of the people. Again, sadhus
are to no small extent religious teachers (gurus) of the
masses, and this must be recognised in any estimate of
their value or otherwise to the community.

In the ranks of the sadhus, too, there is honourable
room for those men, present in every community, who,
as Bishop Creighton once said, “although as good as
gold and fit for heaven, are of no earthly use.” Further,
the incorrigible idlers who in Europe become intolerable
and dangerous vagrants, pursue a more reputable course in
India. They simply adopt the religious habit of some sect
or order, and enter the ranks of the peregrinating sad/bus.

There are other points, also, which in this connection
deserve attention. For example, sadhus are prominently
in evidence on account of their peculiar dress and
appearance, while their wandering habits taking them,
often in huge parties, from place to place throughout the
circling year, seem to multiply them many times over.
Their necessary daily appeals for a dole of simple food to

11 John ii. 15, 16; James iv. 13, 14; Rom. xiv. 17'; Luke xiv. 26;
Matt. xix. 21.
276

CONCLUSION

sustain life also helps to keep them before the public eye,
and to unpleasantly remind the world of their existence.
But, whether or not sad/ms are too numerous for the
industrial well-being of the country, it should not be
forgotten that, though there are undoubtedly many
worthless sadhus, the converse is also not less true, and
that to the multitude a majority of these religious
mendicants are types and exemplars of a holy life, and, as
such, help them to make for righteousness.

While, in connection with religious mendicancy, so
much attention has been bestowed upon the obvious
withdrawal of a host of men from contributing towards
the work of production, one point, less obvious it is true,
but not less interesting perhaps, has been quite overlooked,
viz. the influence which sadhm'sm, by the alarm which
its violent spread occasioned amongst Indian rulers and
legislators, has indirectly had, and still has, in keeping up
and maintaining the population of the country. This
statement may seem somewhat paradoxical, but there is,
I think, reasonable foundation for it.

Let me explain. Amongst the social and religious
precepts observed by the Hindus, perhaps the most
important in their eyes is the rule which requires that
every man, rich or poor, should have a son or male
descendant to perform his'funeral and post-funeral rites.
Obviously, therefore, every Hindu should marry, and as early
as possible. Hence every Hindu father is strictly bound,
under the sternest social and religious penalties, to find
a wife for his son, and also a husband for his daughter,
even before she attains the age of pubescence. To be
without a son or a male descendant is a terrible curse,
entailing upon the unhappy defaulter the severest
purgatorial suffering. In the case of Hindu women,
childlessness is a dishonour so unendurable that it often
leads to suicide or strange immoralities.1

Whence came these ideas and ecclesiastical ordinances
about the all-importance of male issue? They are the
result, I am inclined to think, of the worldly wisdom

1 Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies, by the Abbe J. A. Dubois,
part iii. chap. iv.

277

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

of the prescient Hindu legislator, seeking to counteract
the depopulating effects of that spirit of asceticism and
renunciation of the world which at its height probably
threatened to lead to national extinction. And so, if I am
right, an ordinance aimed at asceticism has been power-
fully instrumental in keeping up the population of India,
probably far above the limit most advantageous to the
country. During the period when the spirit of asceticism
was most influential in the Christian world, laws were
passed and every hindrance put to the spread of monachism,
and for the avowed reason of its injurious effect upon
population.1 And so also in more modern times, and on
the same grounds, Peter the Great prohibited the adoption
of a monastic life by persons under fifty years of age.
The Brahman legislator secures the same end by a very.
different process. Unable, and in all probability unwill-
ing, to enforce repressive measures against sadhuism, he
appeals to the why/ions feelings and the fears of the people,
insists upon the obligation of every Hindu to have a son,
and threatens punishment in a future life to such as fail
in this duty. As a result, the numerical strength of the
nation is maintained, and at the same time the ceremonies
connected with marriages and births help the clever
hereditary priesthood to keep their hands perpetually in
the purses of their lay brethren.

THE FUTURE or SADHUISM.

If with an eye to the future of saclhm'sm we consider
its present state, the conviction is forced upon us that
it is not in as much favour as at many former periods
in Indian history; or, perhaps, I should rather say that
the thoughts of men in India are now being strongly
attracted to more worldly ideals.

British rule, with its strong bias towards material
improvements, its encouragement of trade, and the facilities
it affords for cheap locomotion and for emigration, has
opened up a variety of careers, official and other, to all
castes alike, and also many new ways to the acquirement

1 Bury’s Later Roman Empire, vol. ii. pp. 466-468.
278

CONCLUSION

of riches, while its stability guarantees the safe possession
of wealth by all races alike. However enamoured of
sad/tutsm Hindu India may have been, there were, of
course, at all times good Hindus who fully appreciated the
advantages of worldly possessions and were assiduous
worshippers of Kuvera, their god of wealth. Merchants,
indeed, are prominent characters in some of the oldest
tales that have come down to us from Buddhist times, but
under despotic rulers the accumulation of riches was not
an easy matter, and certainly their display would have
been dangerous. The ever-present proportion of wealth-
seekers in the population has its opportunity now, and is
reinforced by crowds allured away from their old ideals
by the special attractions of the new age. As in the
West, so in India to-day, the possessors of the world’s
goods, however their treasures may have been acquired,
are objects of popular respect, and receive marked con-
sideration from the ruling powers, sharing with favoured
officials to an appreciable extent the honours which the
State has to bestow. Hence the desire for affluence and
for the ostentatious parade of wealth has become very
pronounced; and the more so since outside the “Native
States ” most of the old hereditary dignities have ceased to
be of much account under the new régime. Hindu caste
distinctions necessarily receive little, if any, recognition
under British rule, and the pride of the “ twice-born”
classes no encouragement at all. Sadhus are not more
fortunate; for, whatever their merits or their claims may
be, they are looked down upon with contemptuous in-
difference by the ruling race, the new th’ee-borns of the
Indian world, now in effect the predominant caste,
exhibiting all the virtues and the vices of its peculiar
position, privileges, and pretensions.

Moreover, While old social landmarks are thus dis-
appearing, it cannot be denied that a new national spirit,
naturally opposed to sadhutsm, is beginning to awaken
and to manifest itself sporadically in acts whose intention
at least is unmistakable.

Another potent factor in determining the fate of
sadhatsm is English education, which, being indispensable

27 9

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

for an official career, is eagerly sought for by all the
ambitious youths of the country; and the alumni of the
Indian schools and universities, inoculated with Western
ideas, and anxious to do credit to their training, generally
affect, though they may not always feel, a supercilious
unconcern about sad/ms and sadhm'sm. The sadhus
themselves, though professing, as heretofore, a life of
complete detachment from the world, feel in an unwonted
degree the effects of the currents of modern activity which
are circulating through the land, and, under this stimulus,
are awakening to combined actions of a very unusual and
noteworthy character. For example, we learn from the
Press, with feelings of satisfaction not unmingled with
grave concern, that at a great bathing fair at Allahabad
the sadhus, “sinking their animosities, joined in prayers
for the success of the British arms, while their leaders
delivered speeches full of loyalty and devotion to the
English Raj.” 1

'Without doubt, then, existing circumstances are tending
in many ways to discredit and undermine sadhm'sm, and
the continuance of these conditions will inevitably affect
its position in the future. Yet, to conclude that the desire
for wealth and position so strongly stimulated by present
circumstances, that the political awakening of these times,
that the spread of education and the general feeling of
unrest in India, will, all combined, prove the death-knell of
sadltuism, would hardly be justifiable. Possibly, the very
reverse might happen; for as long as the common
standards of living in India are low, and the religious
ideas of the people substantially unchanged, a large part

1 Saturday IBericw, 3rd March 1900. The deep significance of this
display of good feeling on the part of the religious ascetics towards their
foreign rulers, few, I fancy, have realised. What a shattering of British
prestige, once heaven-high, all this reveals. Think of it! The mendicant
sadhus offering up prayers to such gods as they worship to come to the
assistance of their defeated English masters. For years to come the story
will be told, with many additions, by Yogis, Sanyasis, and Bairagis in every
village south of the Himalayas, setting the minds of many millions of
people a-thinking in unaccustomed ways. And the presence of a few
thousand Boer prisoners in India will only serve as a testimony to the
eficacy of the intercessions 0f the Hindu saints. Little do people know how
much has been lost on the inglorious battlefields of South Africa.

280

CONCLUSION

of the wealth that under new political and economic
conditions may be accumulated will assuredly be expended
in charity, in accordance with the feeling and practice of
the country, especially in the feeding of Brahmans and
poor religious niendicants. Gifts and bequests to this end,
which the stability of British rule render easy and
permanent, may be looked for, and thus it may come to
pass that a goodly portion of the newly acquired wealth
will provide an unexpected fund for the further support
of idle sadhus. Any way, admiration of the ascetic ideal
is so deeply rooted in the nature of the Indian people,
and their devotion to quietism so completely in harmony
with the physical influences of their environment, that
it will not be easily overcome; hence, notwithstanding the
present state of things, a general revival of sadhuz'sm
at any favourable moment is by no means improbable.
The leaven of imported European ideas now fermenting in
the Indian mind is alien, unnatural, and disquieting, and
though it produces some of the results which the Western
world admires and labels “ progress,” yet there undoubtedly
lurks beneath this progress a very real, if smothered,
discontent.

Well has the poet expressed in the following lines the
true sentiments of the Orient :—

“ The brooding mother of the unfilial world,
Recumbent on her own antiquity,
Aloof from our mutation and unrest,
Alien to our achievements and desires,
Too proud alike for protest or assent,
When new thoughts thunder at her massy door;
Another brain, dreaming another dream,
Another heart, recalling other loves,
Too grey and grave for our adventurous hopes,
For our precipitate pleasures too august,
And, in majestic taciturnity,
Refraining her illimitable scorn.”
WILLIAM WATSON.

Thus would Hindu India willingly live a life of simple,
easy, quiet, uneventful days, steeped in dreamy speculations
and indulging in wild imaginings. But Fate has decreed
otherwise; and this stirring, mechanical age finds the

281

THE MYSTICS, ASCETICS, AND SAINTS OF INDIA

disillusioned descendants of the rishis roughly awakened
, out of their old dream-world. Bewildered, resentful, but
unable to resist the new stimulation from without, they
are galvanised into feverish unhealthy cravings for
material things not always harmless, into new expensive
modes and standards of living, which in their innermost
hearts they do not appreciate, and into enterprises for
which they have no real vocation. Some term this
progress; but, even if it be so, the situation is not without
a certain pathos, for, after all, man’s highest destiny is
hardly realised by his being perpetually engaged in
manufacturing things of various kinds, however useful in
themselves, nor even in helping to distribute such
productions, often with the aid of quick-firing guns, over
the face of the inhabited globe.

Holding as I do that happiness, virtue, dignity,
personal freedom, and reasonable comfort are quite
compatible with modes of life, political institutions,
industrial systems, and religious creeds which are not
those of England or the Western world, the present
transition state of India seems to me a subject of much
more than passing interest.

By no means enamoured of Indian sadhuism, I feel
at the same time no particular admiration for the in-
dustrialism of Europe and America, with its vulgar
aggressiveness, its eternal competition, and its sordid,
unscrupulous, unremitting, and cruel struggle for wealth
as the supreme object of human effort. But, whatever
may be the merits or demerits of these two systems, they
are essentially antagonistic, since the economic ideal of
life, being frankly worldly and severely practical, excludes
imagination, emotionalism, and dreamy sentimentalism, and
consequently religion also, except of the philanthropical or
pharisaical type. Hence a momentous, if unobtrusive,
struggle in India is inevitable under new conditions
between the forces which make for the renunciation of the
world on the one hand and for the accumulation of wealth
on the other; and there is no doubt that, as a consequence,
the immemorial civilisation of the Hindus will undergo
change, both in its spirit and practice, under the stimulus

282

CONCLUSION

of the potent foreign influences to which it is now exposed.
Yet I cannot help hoping that the Indian people, physically
and mentally disqualified for the strenuous life of the
Western world, will long retain, in their nature, enough of
the spirit of sad/Luism to enable them to hold steadfastly
to the simple, frugal, unconventional, leisured life of their
forefathers, for which climatic conditions and their own
past history have so well fitted them, always bearing in
mind the lesson taught by their sages, that real wealth and
true freedom depend not so much upon the possession of
money, or a great store of goods, as upon the reasonable
regulation and limitation of the desires.

283

INDEX

A

Achari, sub-sect of Ramanandis, 189.

Agorinis, female Agoris, 167.

Agoris, Saiva sect, 152; strange and
disgusting habits and explanation
of the same on pantheistic grounds,
164-166.

Agorpanthis. See Agoris.

Akalis, Sikh sect, 153; its origin,
etc., 198—201.

Akhara (monastery) of Santokh Das,
256—262 ; of the Nirmali sect, 263—
264 ; of Jogi Tilla, 264-268.

Alchemy practised by sadhus, 59—
61.

Alexander the Great, acquainted with
Indian sadhus, 5.

Alms-bowls carried by ascetics, 41,
263.

Amarnath in Kashmir, the customs
observed on visiting the ice-caves,
268.

American lady becomes a Sanyasin,
154.

Amva, austerities of, for destruction
of Bhishma, 21, 22.

Arya-Samaj, recent non-idolatrous
sect, 137.

Aryan nature-gods have ceased to be
worshipped, 138.

Asans (postures) described, 51.

Ascetic life, the natural and political
condition of India peculiarly fitted
for the encouragement of the, 13.

Ascetic sects, not abnormal in
number, 142.

Asceticism, a common feature in all
religions, 7—9; ideals underlying,
7—10, 26; for the purification of
the body from sinful desires, 9;
stimulated by political or other
troubles, 12; promoted by certain
habits, 14 ; analysis of the motives
which prompt religious, 16, 17 ; as
a means of attaining power over
nature, 18, 19, 27—30, 31—33, 77;
in Hinduism has no special con-
nection with ethics, 34, 35; an

 

essential of a holy religious life,
271—273.

Ashtanga, dandd'usat, a painful form
of self-mortification, 47.

Augars, a sub-sect of the Yogis, 185.

Aurva, undergoes austerities for the
destruction of the world, 21.

Austerities, various forms of,
practised by sadhus, 44—50; the
right of Sudras to practise, acknow-
ledged, 274.

B

Bairagi, sub-sect of Ramanandis, 189,
190; description of one who used
to swing head downwards, 202—
208 ; description of an Urdhabahu,
214—217; description of one who
worshipped the sun, 231—233.

Bairaguns (arm-rests) carried by
sadhus, 42.

Ballavacharya, founds a sect for the
worship of Krishna as Bala Gopala,
127.

Ballavacharyas, sect of Vaishnavas,
152 ; peculiarities of the sect, 191.

Banaprasta, or forest recluse, 15.

Basava, founds a Sivite sect, 117, 118.

Basil wood used for rosaries, 39.

Baul, a sub-sect of Chaitanites, 193.

Beneficent actions, attributed to
sadhus, 58, 217—220.

Bernier, his account of the Indian
sadhus in the seventeenth century,
his disgust at the appearance of
the Yogis, 97.

Bhaskarananda (Swami), a Sanyasi
of Benares, interview with, 208—
210 ; his biography, 210—214.

Bhishma, Amva’s austerities for the
destruction of, 21, 22.

Bhoureeahs, wear dishevelled hair,
39.

Body, the human body the cause of
sinfulness, 8, 9 ; purification of, by
ascetic practices, 9.

Boer war, Indian sadhus in relation
to, 280.

285

INDEX

Brahmachari, or religious student,
15; Saiva sect, 152, 163; one
from Southern India described, 221,
222.

Brahmo-Samaj, a recent non-idola-
trous sect, 137.

British rule in India, its effect upon
sadhuism, 278—281.

C

Calamities attributed to sadhus, 56-
58.

Cenohitic life, origin of the, 11.

Chains, an ascetic weighted with, 48.

Chaitanite nuns, 192.

Chaitanites, Vaishnava sect, 152;
peculiarities and customs of, 191,
192.

Chaitanya, founds a sect for worship
of Krishna and Radha, 128 ; intro-
duces musical processions known
as sankirtans, 129 ; inculcates
gum padasraya, veneration of the
religious teacher, 130 ; his sect
ilourishinar still, 130.

Chakra, or discus, an emblem of the
Vaishnavas, 43.

Chamar (besom) carried by Jain
monks, 151.

Charity landed in the Hindu Scrip-
tures, 140, 141.

Chippees, alms-bowls made out of
cocoanut shells, 263.

Christian rosaries derived from India,
40.

Christian sects, ancient and modern,
referred to, 142, 143.

Christianity, affords abundant ex-
amples of extreme asceticism, 10 ;
the doctrine of voluntary asceticism
a root-idea of, 26.

Conch shell used as ornament by
sadhus, 40.

Conflicts between the founders and
leaders of cults or sects a common
feature in all religions, 33, 34.

D

Dadu, founds a sect for the worship
of Rama, 133.

Dadu Panthis sect, founded by Dadu,
133.

Daityas, terrible austerities of, 20,
21

Dakliinacharis, their sect mark, 38.
Dameru, or drum, carried by Saivas,
43.

 

 

Danda, a staff carried by Dandis,
160. ,

Dandis, ' Saiva sect, 152; rules,
customs, and beliefs of the sect,
160—162.

Dasnamis, the ten sub-orders of
Sanyasis, 153.

Dattatreya, his 111m. gums, or assist-
ant teachers, 158.

Dayanand, founder of the Arya-
Samaj, 137.

Depraved appetite, instances of, 50.

Dharmsala (monastery) of Thakur
Dyal Singh, 264, 265.

Dhruva, his wonderful austerities,
23—25 ; exalted to the skies as the
pole-star, 25.

Digambara (sky~clothed), a Jain sub-
sect, 151.

Disillusionment, a story of the olden
time, 81—83.

Drugs, the use of narcotic drugs
tends to produce apathy and
quietism, 14 ; favoured by sadhus,
42.

Dudhahari, ascetics who live on milk,
50.

E

Early recollections of sadhus and
faquirs, 1—3.

Ecstasy, scientific explanation of,
177—179.

Ethics has no connection with Hindu
austerities, 34, 35.

Extraordinary tale of a Yogi, 55.

F

Fallon (Miss), her account of Premi,
a young sadhvi, 245—247.

Faquirs, early recollections of, 1—3;
claim superiority over sadhus, 64,
65 ; importance of their utterances,
65—68; described by 'l‘avernier,
95.

Farari, ascetics who live on fruits,
50.

Fasting, 48.

Father duped, a story from the
Granth of Guru Govind Singh, 88—
90.

Fiction, sadhus in Indian fiction,
68—91.

Forbes (James), his account of Indian
sadhus and their asceticisms, in-
cluding some singular ones, 97-
100.

Funeral of Sanyasi, 156, 157.

286

INDEX

G

Gareeb Das, an Urdhabahu Bairagi,
described, 214—217.

Geographical conditions in India
favourable to asceticism, 13.

Gopichandana used in painting sect
marks, 38.

Gopis, the milkmaids of Bindrabun,
38

Goraknath, a deified saint wor-

shi ped in Nepal and Northern

India, 184.

Govind Singh, tenth and last Guru
of the Sikhs, 132.

Greek historians acquainted with
Indian sadhus, 93.

Grihasta or householder, life pre-
scribed for, 15.

Gurupadasmya, servile veneration of
the religious teacher inculcatcd by
Chaitanya, 130.

H

Hansa, its real meaning and its
fanciful interpretation, 162.

Haridas, his samadh or interment,
47.

Hassan Khan, extraordinary story
of his miraculous doings, 61—
64.

Hatha-yoga explained, 172, 173.

Heber (Bishop), his account of some
Hindu ascetics, 103, 104.

Heer and Ranja, the romantic story
ofi 266—268.

Hermitages described and illustrated,
43,44.

Hindu lawgiver, rules laid down by,
for the conduct of life in four pre-
scribed periods, 15.

Horned Rishi, a story from the
Granth of Guru Govind Singh,
83—85.

Ideals of life, English, American,
and Indian compared, 270, 271.
Idols sometimes carried about by

sadhus, 42.

India, conditions prevailing in,
peculiarly favourable for the en-
couragement of the ascetic life,
13.

Industrialism opposed to sadhuism,
282.

Iron fire-tongs carried by sadhus,
41, 42.

 

J

Jain nuns, 145, 150, 151.

Jains, their doctrines and customs,
142—150; divided into two sects,
Swetambara and Digambara, 151.

J aladhara, ascetics who sit under a
stream of water, 50.

J alashayi, ascetics who sit immersed
in water, 50.

Jhuttadarees, wear hair coiled 011
the head, 39.

Jinas, Jain saints, 149.

Jogeeshurs, a sub-sect of the Yogis,
185.

Jogi, ordinary term for Yogi, Pre-
face, vii.

Jogis referred to with disgust by
Bernier, 97.

Joint family system favourable to
sadhuism, 16.

K

Kabir, fonnds a Vaisbnava sect,
122; recommends his disciples to
conciliate all men, 124; preaches
purity of heart, 124; story of his
wife and the wicked grocer, 125 ;
claimed as a Muslim by the
Muhammadans, 126.

Kabir Panthis, followers of Kabir,
127, 152 ; peculiarities and customs
of the sect, 190, 191.

Kanphatis, Yogi sub-sect, 185.

Kantaka-sayya, or thorn couch, 45,

Kara lingis, who restrain their desires
by mechanical arrangements, 50.
Karma (action), Hindu doctrine of,

107,108,172.

Keshub Chnndra Sen, founder ofthe
Brahmo-Samaj, 137 ; practised
yoga, 173. .

Khakis, a sub-sect of Ramanandls,
189.

Kind-hearted lady, a story from the
Granth of Guru Govind Singh, 87,
88.

Kowls (extreme Saktas), their sect
mark, 38. .
Krishna, worship ed by the Valsh-
navas, 109; his cult considered,

118,119. _.

Kukas, a recent politico-rehglous

sect, 137.

L

Lakshmi, wife of Vishnu, worshipped
by Vaishnavas, 109.

287'

INDEX

Laya-yoga explained, 172.

Life of Hindus divided
periods, 15.

Lingaits, Saiva sect, 152 ; origin and
customs of the sect, 163, 164.

Lingam (or phallic emblem)
honoured by Saiva sect, 43.

Lost son restored, a story from the
Granth of Guru Govind Singh, 86,
87.

Luxury and asceticism may exist con-
temporaneously, 10.

into four

M

Madhavacharya, founds a Vishnuvite
sect, 118, 119.

Madhavas (or Madhavacharis), their
sect mark, 38 ; sect of Vaishnavas,
152; peculiarities and customs,
188.

Mahabharata, story of certain
daityas, 20; story of Visvamitra
and Vasishta, 27—30.

Mahant (abbot), installation of one
described, 253—256.

Mahatmas, not to be met with in the
bazaars, 66, 186.

Mahayogi (the great ascetic), name
of Siva, 111, 112.

Maji, a sadhvi of Benares, 244, 245.

Malas (rosaries) described, 39, 40.

Malati and Madhava, the story of,
74—81.

Mantra-yoga explained, 172.

Matter and spirit, antagonism
between, 8.

Meditation as practised by Yogis,
176.

Menaka, a nymph of heaven and
mother of Sakoontala, carries her
off to the celestial regions, 73.

Merits, Christian idea of, hoarded 11p
for future use, 19.

Metempsychosis, Hindu doctrine of,
107.

Mirabai (Princess), worships Krishna
as Ranachor, 134; and founds a
sect, 135.

Monasteries, circumstances under
which they arise, 11; visits to
some, described, 248-269.

Monks, Jain, 144—147; Chaitanite,
I92.

Morals and asceticism, their relations
considered, 34, 35.

Mount Meru, sadhus journey thither
and do not return, 47, 48.

Muhammadan ower in India, its
effect on Him uism, 115, 116.

Mussulman invasion of India, 115.

 

' Mutilation by a sadhu, 48.

Mya (illusion), Hindu doctrine of,
106.

N

Nadh worn by Yogis, 185.

N adis, vessels carrying subtle ethers
through the human body, 175.

Nakedness responsible for low opinion
of Indians held by many Euro-

peans, 5 ; tendency of sadhus
towards, 269.

Nanak, his conflict with the
Siddhas, 31 — 33 ; a spiritual

descendant of Kabir, 131 ; original
founder of Sikhism, his teaching,
132.

Naths, immortal saints honoured by
Yogis, 186.

Neo-Brahmanism reviewed, 135—139.

Nihangs, Sikh sect, 153 ; particulars
regarding them, 198—201.

Nimats, sect founded by Nimbaditya,
130.

N imbaditya, founder of the sect of
the Nimats, 130.

Nirmalis, Sikh sect, 153 ; particulars
regarding the sect and its origin,
195—198.

Nordau (Dr.), his explanation of
ecstasy, 177—179.

Nuns, Jain, 145, 150, 151; Chai-
tanite, 192.

O
Oghars, a sub-sect of the Yogis, 185.

P

Panchadhunis, ascetics who sit amidst
five tires, 45.

Pandita Mai J ivan Mukut, a sadhvi,
242—244.

Pantheism of the Hindus, 106.

Paramahansa, Saiva sect, 152 ; rules,
customs, and beliefs of the sect,
162,163.

Patanjali, author of practical rules
of Yoga Vidya, 172.

Penances of various kinds, 44-50;
described by Tavernier, 94,95;
by Bernicr, 97 ; by James Forbes,
99, 100; by \Vard, 100, 101; by
Heber, 103, 104.

Plague averted by a Yogi, 217—220.

Power over nature obtainable by
ascetic practices, 18, 19.

Prana, the vital air and its circula-
tion, 174, 175.

:288

INDEX

Premi, a young sadhvi who em-i

braced Christianity, 245—247.

8

Prince Bir Bhanu Singh, a sadhu Sadhuism, antiquity of, 5; an em.

interviewed at Amritsar, 226-229. l

Pseudo-sadhu, his adventures, 235—
238.

Psychology of the Indians,
characteristic features, 14.

Purification of the body by ascetic
practices, 9.

Purificatory rites, certain peculiar
kinds of, 51.

Puttika, the mouth-veil used by
Jains, 141.

its

R

Radha, mistress of Krishna, wor-
shipped by certain Vaishnavas,
109

Raja-yoga explained, 172-173, 174.

Ram Charn, founds the austere Ram
Sanehi sect, 133.

Ram Sanehi, sect founded by Ram
Charn, 133.

Rama Chandra, destroys Ravena, 22 ;
destroys Viradha, 22 ; worshipped
by certain Vaishnavas, 109, 119—
121.

Ramakrishna, a Bengali
52.

Ramanand, founds a Vaishnava sect
for the worship of Ram, 119-121.
Ramanandis, Vaishnava sect, 152;

peculiarities and customs, 188—190.

Ramanuja, founds a Vaishnava cult,
116,117.

Ramats, their sect mark, 38.
also Ramanandis.

Ramawat. Sec Ramanandis.

Ramayana, stories from, 22.

Ranachor, a form of the youthful
Krishna, 134.

Ranja and Heer, the romantic story
of, 266—268.

Ravena, his austerities and his doom,
22.

Reunion of the soul with the All-
Spirit, 27.

Rivalry in austerities between the
leaders of classes and sects, 27, 32 ;
well known in other religions,
Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity,
and Islam, 33, 34.

Roli used in painting sect marks, 38.

Rosaries, worn by sadhus, 39, 40;
Christian rosaries derived from
India, 40.

Rudraksha berries used for rosaries,
39.

Sanyas1,

Sce

 

bodiment of the spirit of the East,
6; its religious aspect, 273; its
social aspect, 273, 274 ; its political
aspect, 274, 275 ; its industrial
aspect, 275—278; its probable
future considered, 278—283; op-
posed to industrialism, 282.

Sadhus, early recollections of, 1—3;
conspicuous figures in India, 3—6 ;
indefatigable wandercrs, 3—5 ; at
fairs and public places, 36, 37;
their dress and adornments, 37—
41; their impedimenta, 41, 42;
their hermitages, 43, 44; produce
calamities, 56—58; perform benc-
ficent actions, 58, 217—220; as
alchemists, 58—61 ; as physicians,
66; as fortune-tellers, palmists,
and acrobats, 66, 67; in Indian
fiction, 68—91; of EurOpean
descent, 222, 223; of princely
lineage interviewed, 226—229;
who found God, 229-231; as
restaurateurs, 239—241; and the
Boer war, 280.

Sadhvis (sadhuis), female devotees,
242—247.

Sahaja, a sub-sect of the Chaitanitcs,
193.

Saint in chains, description of, 240,
241.

Saivas, followers of Siva, emblems
favoured by, 43 ; seven sects
named, 152.

Sakoontala, or the lost ring,
story of, 68—74.

Saktas, worshippers of the female
energy, 109.

Sakti worship, 114.

Saligram, a sort of ammonite
carried by Vaishnavas, 43.‘

Samadh, or burying alive, its Ier-
formance often with fatal results
46,47.

Samadhi, definitions of, 176.

Samsara (metempsychosis), Hindu
doctrine of, 106. '

Sankara Acharya, preaches Sivaism
and founds an important sect, 112,
113.

Sankara Vijaya, a work containing
valuable information about the
state of Hinduism in the ninth
century, 110.

Sankha or conch, an emblem of the
Vaishnavas, 43.

Sankirtans, religious musical proces-
sions introduced by Chaitanya, 129.

the

T 289

INDEX

Sanyasi, closing period of Hindu life,
15; one of the Saiva sects, 152;
divided into ten sub-orders, 153;
American lady admitted to the

; worshippers, 152; customs and
peculiarities, 187, 188.

Sthfila-sarira, the gross body, its
nature, 169.

sect, 154; rules and customs of Sudras, their right to undergo aus-

the sect, 154—160; a sub-sect of

the Ramanandis, 189; a naked
Sanyasi and his female companion
described, 223-226.

Sanyasin described, 223—226.

Sarrasayya, arrow-bed of Bhishma,
45.

Sect marks described, 37, 38.

Self - mortifieation, various forms
practised by sadhus, 44—50;
described by Tavernier, 94, 95;
described by Bernier, 97 ; described
by James Forbes, 99, 100; de-
scribed by Ward, 100, 101 ;
described by Heber, 103, 104.

Sentiments of the Orient expressed
by an English poet, 281.

Sevaji, recently deified by the
Mabrattas, 137; festival recently
held in Calcutta in honour of,
137.

Shringhi Rikh, the horned saint, his ;

terities recognised, 274.
Sukee - bhava, a sect of Western
. India, 134. _
i Silkshma-sarira, the subtle body, its
' condition, prospects, and ultimate
i emancipation, 169, 170.
lSun-worshipping Bairagi described,
; 231—233.
? Supreme Being, undergoes austerities,
25.
| Swarga (Heaven) sought by sadhus,
47, 48.
Swetambara (white-robed), a Jain
sub-sect, 151.

l T
I

Tangalas, a sub-sect of the Sri Vaish-
! navas, 187.
i Tarika, his wonderful austerities, 22,
23.

story from the Granth of Guru 2 Tavernier, what he saw of sadhus

Govind Singh, 83—85.

Siddhas, conflict with Nanak, 31—
33.

Sikhism, founded by Baba Nanak
and modified by Guru Govind
Singh, 131—133.

Sinfulness, the hindrance to spiritual
aspirations, 8; attributed to the
corporeal frame, 8.

Singhi, ornament worn by Yogis,
186.

Silence, vows of, 48.

Sita, wife of Rama Chandra, wor-
shipped by the Vaislsnavas, 109,
119.

Siva, regarded by his followers as the

Supreme Being, 110; his worship ;

attained a prominent position in
the ninth century A.D., 110;
associated with lingam worship,
111 ; the great ascetic, 111.

Siva Purana, stories from, 22, 23.

Sleeman (Colonel), his account of i

 

‘ and their austerities during his

travels in India, his description

of Muslim faquirs, and mistaken

account of the origin of sadhuism,

I 93—96.

' Temples, religious merit acquired by

l the construction of, 249, 250.

[ Tharasri, ascetics who stand for long
periods by way of penance, 46.

Tikas, sect marks, 38.

Tilaks, sect marks, 38.

Tirthankaras, Jain saints, 149.

Tobacco, its use in India, 14.

Transmutation of metals, practised
by sadhus, 59—61.

Trifala, sect mark, 38.

Tripundra, sect mark, 38.

; Trisanku, introduced into heaven by

' Visvamitra, 29.

- Trisula (or trident), to be found

' amongst Saivas, 43.

I Tulasi (holy basil) used for rosaries

39.

 

Indian sadhus, 101, 102 ; describes |

curious religious suicides in the
Mahadeo hills, 102.

Sonmath, destruction of, by Mah-
moud, and its effect, 115.

Spashta Dayakas, a sub-sect of the
Chaitanites, 192, 193.

Spirit and matter, antagonism be-
tween them, 8.

Sri Vaislmavas, sect of Vishnu

I U

. Udasis, Sikh sect, 153, 194, 195.

. Urdhabahus, sadhus who keep their

. arms uplifted, 46; description of

. one of these, 214—217.

. Urdhamukhi, sadhus who hang head
downwards, 46.

, Urdhapundra, sect mark, 38.

290

INDEX

V

Vadagalas, sub-sect of the Sri Vaish-
navas, 187.

Vaislmavas (worshippers of Vishnu),
emblems favoured by them, 43;
various forms under which they
worship Vishnu, 109 ; new sect of,
founded b Ramanuja, 116; six
sects name , 152.

Vallabhacharya, founds a sect for the
worship of Krishna. as Bala Gopala,
127.

Vasishta, conflict with Visvamitra,
27—30.

Vegetarianism conducive to indo-
lence and apathy, 14.

Vibuti (sacred ashes), used in paint-
ing sect marks, 38.

Virada, destroyed by Rama Chandra,
22

Vishnu Purana, story of Dhruva, 23—
25

Visvamitra, conflict with Vasishta,
27-30.

W

Ward, his account of Indian sadhus,
100, 101.

 

Watson (William) expresses the senti-
ments of the Orient, 281.

Westminster Aquarium, sadhu's per-
formances at, 67, 184.

Witchcraft, its position in Hinduism,
53, 54.

Woman’s cunning, story from the
Granth of Govind Singh, 90, 91.
Wonders that present - day sadhus

are said to perform, 52—67.

Y

Yatis, Jain monks, 144—147.

Yoga, its meaning, 172.

Yoga Vidya, the system followed by
the Yogis, 172; as explained by
Swami Vivekananda, 180, 181 ;
actual results of the system, 18],
182.

Yogaism (the doctrines and beliefs
of the Yogis), explanation of, 168—
186.

Yogis, Saiva sect, 152, 173; com-
mand obtained over nature by,
173, 174, 183, 184; origin of the
sect, its subdivisions and their
peculiarities, 184—186; a tale of
Yogis and pious women, 233—235 ;
a tale of Yogis as honoured guests,
238, 239.

29:

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Edinburgh

 

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In the Land of the Blue Gown.

By Mrs. ARCHIBALD LITTLE, Author of “Intimate China,”
etc. With over 100 Illustrations. Medium 8vo, cloth,
zIs. net.

“ A readable book, dealing with various phases of life in China, and

affording some interesting information regarding the inner social life of
the Chinese.”—Pall Illa/Z Gazelle.

 

The Best Biography of “Chinese ” Gordon.

The Life of General Gordon.

By DEMETRIUS C. BOULGER. Illustrated. New and
Cheaper Edition. Demy 8vo, cloth, 65.

 

A Novel of China.

The Living Buddha.

By Roy HORNIMAN. Crown 8vo, cloth, 65.
Unwz'n’s It’ca’ Clot/z Library.

“ Mr. Horniman has certainly a great power of representing Chinese
life, and he does so with no prejudice or shadow of superiority . . .

Distinctly a book to read.”——Pall Illa]! Gazette.
301

A 1.21:! of Works Published &y T. Fz's/zer Unwz'n.

Two Chinese Volumes in “ The Pseudonym Library. ”

The Home of the Dragon.

A Tonquinese Idyll. By ANNA CA’I‘HARINA.

The Shen’s Pigtail.

By Mr. M——.

 

The Story of the Nations.
Japan.
By DAVID MURRAY, Ph.D., LL.D., late Adviser to the

Japanese Minister of Education. With Map and numerous
Illustrations. Large crown 8vo, cloth, 55.

‘ ‘ A valuable contribution to our knowledge of Japan and its history.”
——G/asgow Hera/(2’.

 

Japan our New Ally.

By ALFRED STEAn. With an Introduction by the MARQUIS
ITO. Fully Illustrated. Crown 8vo, cloth, 65. net.

“An interesting and important book, published opportunely, and
deserving to be extensively rcad.”—Daz'/y Yk/egrafilz.

 

 

An Artist’s Letters from Japan.

By JOHN LA F ARGE. With Forty-nine Illustrations. Cloth,
163.

Japan portrayed in word and picture.

 

Half=Hours in Japan.

By the Rev. HERBERT MOORE. With over Seventy Illustra-
tions, and Decorated Cover. Crown 8vo, cloth, 63.

“It is not often that into such small compass is so much useful

information compressed as is found in this little volume.”—Srotsman.
302

A List of Works Puélz's/zed by T. Fz's/zer Unwz'n.

 

A Brief History of Eastern Asia.
By I. C. HANNAH, M.A. Crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d.

“Mr. Hannah has carried out his design with skill, and his little
book stands alone in giving a comprehensive, interesting, and careful
survey of the history of the Far East, so far as it is readily accessible.”
—Malzclzester Guardian.

 

Java: The Garden of the East.

By ELIZA RUHAMAH SCIDMORE. With nearly Forty full-
page Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d.

“ Full of animated descriptions of scenery, of comments on the
social life of the people . . . and of shrewd observations on the material
resources of the island.”—.S;z$ea,{'er.

 

Tales of Borneo, etc.

By JOSEPH CONRAD. Each Volume, crown 8vo, cloth, 65.
Almayer’s Folly.
An Outcast of the Island.

Tales of Unrest.

“Mr. Conrad has seen strange things in strange lands, and he can
describe what he has seen impersonally, incuriously, without senti-
mentality, and without wailing. . . . The work is sincere, and it deals
with realities. Mr. Conrad is a writer’s writer. He is for those who
joy in a good sentence, a deft characterisation, or the way the knots of

a definition are tied.”—Academy.

 

The Standard Work on the Far East.

The Peoples and Politics of the
Far East.

By HENRY NORMAN. Popular Edition. .Small demy 8vo,

cloth, 7s. 6d.
303

A List of W'orks Pub/z's/zea’ [I] T. Fz's/zer Unit/£72..

 

Tales of Siberia.

The Saghalien Convict, etc.

By BA KOPOAEHKO, etc. Second Edition. Cloth, 25.;

paper, IS. 6d.
7716 Pseudo/2y”: Library.

 

A Tale of Eastern Magic.
The Insane Root.
By Mrs. CAMPBELL PRAED. Crown 8vo, cloth, 65.

“The fascination of the book remains with us, and is not easily
shaken oiT.”—Daz'/y Telegraph.

 

A Corner of Asia.

By HUGH CLIFFORD. Crown 8vo, cloth, 25. ; paper, 18. 6d.
T lze Overseas Library.
“ Mr. Clifford is a brilliant interpreter of the sombre magic of the

Malay Peninsula, and the mingled charm and savagery of its inhabit-
an ts. ’ '—Speclator.

 

 

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN.

304