On the 2d of February occurs a feast to Çr[=i], or Lakshm[=i], Vishnu's bride, patroness of all prosperity to her worshippers. At present it is a literary festival on which all books, inkstands, pens, etc., are cleaned and worshipped, as adjuncts to Sarasvat[=i], the goddess of learning. This is rather significant, for Sarasvat[=i] is properly the wife of Brahm[=a], but the Vishnuites of Bengal have made her the wife of Vishnu, and identified her with Çr[=i]. It is to be noticed that in this sole celebration of abstract learning and literature there is no recognition of Çiva, but rather of his rival. Çiva and Ganeça are revered because they might impede, not because, as does Sarasvat[=i], they further literary accomplishment. Sarasvat[=i] is almost the only fair goddess. She is represented not as a horror, but as a beautiful woman sitting on a lotus, graceful in shape, a crescent on her brow.[47] The boys, too, celebrate the day with games, bat and ball, prisoner's base, and others "of a very European character." The admixture of sectarian cults is shown by the transference to this Vishnuite feast of the Çivaite (Durg[=a]) practice of casting into the river the images of the goddess.[48] When applied distinctly to Sarasvat[=i] the feast is observed in August-September; when to Lakshm[=i], in October-November, or in February. There is, however, another feast, celebrated in the North and South, which comes on the exact date fixed by the Romans for the beginning of spring, and as an ending to this there is a feast to K[=a]ma, Cupid, and his bride Rati ('Enjoyment'). This is the Vasanta, or spring festival of prosperity and love, which probably was the first form of the Lakshm[=i]-Sarasvat[=i] feast.
Another traditional feast of this month is the 10th[49] (the eleventh lunar day of the light half of M[=a]gha). The eleventh lunar day is particularly holy with the Vishnuites, as is said in the Brahma Pur[=a]na, and this is a Vishnuite festival. It is a day of fasting and prayer, with presents to priests.[50] It appears to be a mixture of Vedic prayers and domestic Vishnu-worship. On the 11th of February the fast is continued, and in both the object is expiation of sin. The latter is called the feast of 'six sesamum acts,' for sesamum is a holy plant, and in each act of this rite it plays a part. Other rites of this month are to the Manes on the 14th, 22d, and 24th of February. Bathing and oblation are requisite, and all are of a lustral and expiatory nature. Wilson remarks on the fact that it is the same time of year in which the Romans gave oblations to the Manes, and that Februus is the god of purification. "There can be no reasonable doubt that the Feralia of the Romans and the Çr[=a]ddha (feast to the Manes) of the Hindus, the worship of the Pitris and of the Manes, have a common character, and had a common origin."[51]
The 27th of February is the greatest Çivaite day in the year. It celebrates Çiva's first manifestation of himself in phallic form. To keep this day holy expiates from all sin, and secures bliss hereafter. The worshipper must fast and revere the Linga. Offerings are made to the Linga. It is, of course, a celebration formed of unmeaning repetitions of syllables and the invocation of female Çaktis, snapping the fingers, gesticulating, and performing all the humbug called for by Çivaite worship. The Linga is bathed in milk, decorated, wrapped in bilva leaves, and prayed to; which ceremony is repeated at intervals with slight changes. All castes, even the lowest, join in the exercises. Even women may use the mantras.[52] Vigil and fasting are the essentials of this worship.[53]
The next festival closes these great spring celebrations. It bears two names, and originally was a double feast, the first part being the Dol[=a] Y[=a]tr[=a], or 'Swing-procession,' the second part being the execrable Holi. They are still kept distinct in some places, and when this occurs the Dolotsava, or Dol[=a] Y[=a]tr[=a], follows the Holi. They are both spring festivals, and answer roughly to May-day, though in India they come at the full moon of March. We have followed Wilson's enumeration of all the minor spring feasts, that they may be seen in their entirety. But in ancient times there was probably one long Vasantotsava (spring-festival), which lasted for weeks, beginning with a joyous celebration (2d of February) and continuing with lustral ceremonies, as indicated by the now detached feast days already referred to. The original cult, in Wilson's opinion, has been changed, and the Dol[=a] Y[=a]tr[=a] is now given over to the Krishna-cult, while the Hol[=i] divinity is a hobgoblin. The Dol[=a] Yatr[=a] begins with fasting and ends (as Hol[=i]) with fire-worship. An image of Krishna is sprinkled with red powder (ab[=i]r), and after this (religious) ceremony a bonfire[54] is made, and an effigy, Holik[=a], is put upon it and burned. The figure is carried to the fire in a religious procession headed by Vishnuite or Brahman priests, of course accompanied with music and song. After seven circumambulations of the fire the figure is burned. This is the united observance of the first day. At dawn on the morning of the second day the image of Krishna is placed in a swing, dol[=a], and swung back and forth a few times, which ceremony is repeated at noon and at sunset. During the day, wherever a swing is put up, and in the vicinity, it is the common privilege to sprinkle one's friend with the red powder or red rose-water. Boys and common people run about the streets sprinkling red water or red powder over all passengers, and using abusive (obscene) language. The cow-herd caste is conspicuous at this ceremony. The cow-boys, collecting in parties under a koryphaios, hold, as it were, a komos, leaping, singing, and dancing[55] through the streets, striking together the wands which they carry. These cow-boys not only dress (as do others) in new clothes on this occasion,[56] but they give their cattle new equipments, and regard the whole frolic as part of a religious rite in honor of Krishna, the cow-herd. But all sects take part in the performance (that is to say, in the Hol[=i] portion), both Çivaites and Vishnuites. When the moon is full the celebration is at its height. Hol[=i] songs are sung, the crowd throws ab[=i]r the chiefs feast, and an all-night orgy ends the long carousal.[57] In the south the Dol[=a] takes place later, and is distinct from the Hol[=i]. The burning here is of K[=a]ma, commemorating the love-god's death by the fire of Çiva's eye, when the former pierced the latter's heart, and inflamed him with love. For this reason the bonfire is made before a temple of Çiva. K[=a]ma is gone from the northern cult, and in upper India only a hobgoblin, Hol[=i], a foul she-devil, is associated with the rite. The whole performance is described and prescribed in one of the late Pur[=a]nas.[58] In some parts of the country the bonfire of the Hol[=i] is made about a tree, to which offerings are made, and afterwards the whole is set on fire. For a luminous account of the Hol[=i], which is perhaps the worst open rite of Hinduism, participated in by all sects and classes, we may cite the words of the author of Ante-Brahmanical Religions: "It has been termed the Saturnalia or Carnival of the Hindus. Verses the most obscene imaginable are ordered to be read on the occasion. Figures of men and women, in the most indecent and disgusting attitudes, are in many places openly paraded through the streets; the most filthy words are uttered by persons who, on other occasions, would think themselves disgraced by the use of them; bands of men parade the street with their clothes all bespattered with a reddish dye; dirt and filth are thrown upon all that are seen passing along the road; all business is at a stand, all gives way to license and riot."[59]
Besides these the most brilliant festivals are the R[=a]s Y[=a]tr[=a] in Bengal (September-October), commemorating the dance of Krishna with the gop[=i]s or milk-maids, and the 'Lamp-festival' (D[=i]p[=a]l[=a]), also an autumnal celebration.
The festivals that we have reviewed cover but a part of the year, but they will suffice to show the nature of such fêtes as are enjoined in the Pur[=a]nas. There are others, such as the eightfold[60] temple-worship of Krishna as a child, in July or August; the marriage of Krishna's idol to the Tulasi plant; the Awakening of Vishnu, in October, and so forth. But no others compare in importance with the New Year's and Spring festivals, except the Bengal idol-display of Jagann[=a]th, the Rath Y[=a]tr[=a] of 'Juggernaut'; and some others of local celebrity, such as the D[=u]rg[=a]-p[=u]j[=a].[61] The temples, to which reference has often been made, have this in common with the great Çivaite festivals, that to describe them in detail would be but to translate into words images and wall-paintings, the obscenity of which is better left undescribed. This, of course, is particularly true of the Çiva temples, where the actual Linga is perhaps, as Barth has said, the least objectionable of the sights presented to the eye of the devout worshipper. But the Vishnu temples are as bad. Architecturally admirable, and even wonderful, the interior is but a display of sensual immorality.[62]
HISTORY OF THE HINDU TRINITY.
In closing the Puranic period (which name we employ loosely to cover such sects as are not clearly modern) we pause for a moment to cast a glance backwards over the long development of the trinity, to the units of which are devoted the individual Pur[=a]nas. We have shown that the childhood-tales of Krishna are of late (Puranic) origin, and that most of the cow-boy exploits are post-epic. Some are referred to in the story of Çiçup[=a]la in the second book of the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata, but this scene has been touched up by a late hand. The Vishnu Pur[=a]na, typical of the best of the Pur[=a]nas, as in many respects it is the most important and interesting, represents Krishnaite Vishnuism as its height. Here is described the birth of the man-god as a black, k[r.][s.][n.]a, baby, son of Nanda, and his real title is here Govinda, the cow-boy.[63] 'Cow-boy' corresponds to the more poetical, religious shepherd; and the milk-maids, gopis with whom Govinda dallies as he grows up, may, perhaps, better be rendered shepherdesses for the same reason. The idyllic effect is what is aimed at in these descriptions. Here Krishna plays his rude and rustic tricks, upsetting wagons, overthrowing trees and washermen, occasionally killing them he dislikes, and acting altogether much like a cow-boy of another sort. Here he puts a stop to Indra-worship, over-powers Çiva, rescues Aniruddha, marries sixteen thousand princesses, burns Benares, and finally is killed himself, he the one born of a hair of Vishnu, he that is Vishnu himself, who in 'goodness' creates, in 'darkness' destroys,[64] under the forms of Brahm[=a] and Çiva.[65]
In Vishnu, as a development of the Vedic Vishnu; in Çiva, as affiliated to Rudra; in Brahm[=a], as the Brahmanic third to these sectarian developments, the trinity has a real if remote connection with the triune fire of the Rig Veda, a two-thirds connection, filled out with the addition of the later Brahmanic head of the gods.
To ignore the fact that Vishnu and Rudra-Çiva developed inside the Brahmanic circle and increased in glory before the rise of sectaries, and to asseverate, as have some, that the two chief characters of the later trinity are an unmeaning revival of decadent gods, whose names are used craftily to veil the modernness of Krishnaism and Çivaism,—this is to miscalculate the waxing dignity of these gods in earlier Brahmanic literature. To say with Burnouf that the Vishnu of the Veda is not at all the Vishnu of the mythologists, is a statement far too sweeping. The Vishnu of the Veda is not only the same god with the Vishnu of the next era, but in that next era he has become greatly magnified. The Puranic All-god Vishnu stands in as close a relation to his Vedic prototype as does Milton's Satan to the snaky slanderer of an age more primitive.