While in Ceylon we had had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the influence exercised by Buddhism over the political and social condition of the island; here we, for the first time, found ourselves confronted with the followers of Brahmah. At the moment of our arrival, the principal festival of the year was being celebrated in honour of Vishnù, one of the three godheads of the Brahminical faith. It lasted fourteen days, and was celebrated with much pomp. Temples were improvised, and some dancing platforms erected for the female servants of the temple and "bayadères." In one of these dancing saloons, adorned in the most marvellous manner, a sort of altar rose in the background, richly hung with gold filagree work and stained cut-glass, and fringed with singular representations of the god. In the doorway stood, on the left hand side, a copy of the statue of the Venus de' Medici; on the right, of the Apollo Belvedere; on a small table were visible butterflies, fire-flies, and conchs, in ornamental glass cases. On the walls, of plain deal boards, were suspended on one side, adjoining the portrait of Anthony da Padua, a number of representations of voluptuous Oriental "odalisques;" on the other, near an engraving in copper of Carlo Barromeo, all sorts of obscene engravings, such as are offered for sale only in the most abandoned quarters of Paris and London, and then under the cover of night. For that matter, we believe that the Hindoo priests, who superintended the erection of this hall consecrated to the worship of Vishnù, gave themselves less anxiety respecting the subjects treated of in the pictures suspended round, than that the walls should appear richly decorated with engravings and pictures. Adjoining this half-open dancing booth for the women in attendance on the temple, rises the chief Hindoo temple in Madras, a stately edifice of blocks of syenite, and surrounded by a lofty wall painted with the usual white and red streaks; and on which a fleecy-coated long-tailed baboon was performing his antics. Two gloomy pyramidal towers shoot up from the wall of the temple, and a beautiful colonnade leads to the entrance porch. A huge tank, almost resembling a pond, in which the Hindoos thrice daily performed their ceremonies, and went through their ablutions, lies in front of the temple, surrounded on its remaining sides by buildings for various purposes, while a stately elephant, specially consecrated to the service, is kept on the side next the temple, which carries up a pitcher of water every forenoon from the pool in front of the pagoda, one of the servants attached to the temple sitting on his back holding it, while a second, seated behind him, keeps waving a fan in either hand. The elephant is first conducted round the temple and then inside, in order to present the water to the god. This elephant (which animal it seems is itself an incarnation of Vishnù) had the distinguishing mark of the sect, as also several other indications of a similar nature richly tatooed upon his huge broad forehead. Every evening during the continuance of the fourteen days' festival, the various temples and dancing booths were brilliantly illuminated with wax tapers and oil lamps, but admission was refused to the profane, and in the eyes of Brahmah, unbelieving Europeans, a rule which was everywhere enforced with much politeness but unvarying firmness. Moreover, everything that the hand of a European has touched is unclean to the Hindoo. Only the Pariah, or "outcaste," the very lowest class of the people, eats any food that has been prepared in the kitchen of a Christian.
The most substantial part of the festival, however, was fortunately not confined to the interior of the temple, but took place in the streets, through which, during the period the festival lasted, immense processions of Hindoos, praying, singing, and dancing, used to pass every evening about 11 p. m. on their way from one temple to another, so that we were in no want of picturesque objects. First, a band of musicians would lead the way, with the peculiar little drum or tom-tom, whining pipes, and blaring clarinets. It was more like the noise of a lot of children's instruments than music. Next came a Hindoo riding on a gaily-bedizened ox, after whom appeared a number of girls and "Bayadères," dressed in white clothes, their hair richly dressed, and with rings through their nostrils, while the flaps of their ears were adorned with richly-gemmed ear-rings hanging down to the neck, and moving both hands and feet as they danced before the sacred figure, which was drawn along by 24 sturdy believers in Vishnù. The image was placed on a daïs thickly overspread with flowers, filagree work, and small mirrors, approached by steps, and with a parasol outspread overhead; in a vehicle in front was a sort of figure dressed up in flowers. On either side a multitude of torch-bearers strode along, with sulphurous lights and other means of illumination, or iron frames, on which were disposed in pyramidal form or like a bow, from 7 to 13 fireballs, which, let off at intervals alternately with Bengal lights and rockets, formed a veritable ocean of light. A tub filled with cocoa-nut oil was dragged behind, from which the cotton wicks were kept constantly replenished, so that the flames continued unintermittently. Wherever the procession passed the by-standers stood with hands reverentially folded. Many had the thresholds of their houses gaily adorned with flags and illuminated with paper lamps, others let off sky-rockets. From time to time, the procession halted for a moment, the female dancers formed two rows, and some of their number went through a sort of dance, in which they performed a set of stereotyped motions with their hands, and chanted the praises of the god in a most monotonous chorus. Thousands upon thousands of Hindoos joined the procession, so that we could hardly make way through the crowds. The yelling, heat, odour of oil, and stink of sulphur were absolutely intolerable. As often as the procession paused, the noise was redoubled, the confusion became tenfold. Itinerant confectioners, who offered for sale all sorts of sweetmeats, prepared either from the kernel or milk of the cocoa-nut, drew back reluctantly when the eye of a stranger was directed towards their piled-up delicacies, through dread lest a mere glance from him should blight their stock in trade. On the other hand, we remarked some of these vendors pressing forward with eagerness to satisfy the curiosity of strangers by offering small samples of their eatables, so as the more easily to propitiate and get rid of these dangerous guests, and leave the poor Hindoo in peace and unharmed! As Christianity makes but slow progress among the Hindoos, and as the tendencies of the English residents in India do not point, as of yore among the Spaniards in America, towards the violent conversion of the heathen natives with the alternative of annihilation, but rather towards political and commercial influences, we find the British Government regarding with placid indifference the abominations of Hindoo worship, which, even to this hour, take the form of laceration of the flesh and self-immolation, rather than, by ruling with the strong hand, fan the religious fanaticism of the multitude, without the possibility of Christianity becoming a gainer. Among the thousands upon thousands who were celebrating the festival of Vishnù in such a heathenish fashion, there undoubtedly were many who are in the employ of Government, which has no scruples about appointing Hindoos of all sorts to the various posts in the public service. The English State Church which held that such appointments tended, not very indirectly, to support heathenism,[102] earnestly remonstrated against the practice, but the Government becoming daily more convinced that the doctrines and homilies of the Christian faith continued to be entirely a dead letter among the Hindoos, seems to hold fast to a policy of seeking gradually to introduce Christianity and European civilization among the Indian races, by means of equality of rights and assimilation of laws, by a system of well-organized national, trade, and industrial education, and, above all, by the influence of personal example. This, to be sure, is a very slow and arduous method of conversion, inasmuch as a life of religious observances is more deeply intertwined with the very foundations of the social system in India than in any other country of the globe, and fairly blocks the way against the expansiveness of European civilization. For as simple as the Hindoo religion appears in its primitive principles, the proper observance of its various rites is proportionately difficult, and full of subtle distinctions for the sincere Hindoo believer.
[102] The East India Company even undertook the maintenance of the Hindoo temples, and defrayed the receipts of the annual festival in honour of Vishnù out of the revenues. There exist in the Presidency of Madras alone 8292 Hindoo temples, with an annual revenue of about £100,000, all under the protection and control of the Company. (See "India, Ancient and Modern," by David O. Allen, Boston, 1856.)
The worship of Brahma, according to the doctrines enunciated by Brahma's own lips in the Vedas, or holy books, took its rise in the adoration paid to the powers of nature, regarded as so many divinities, especially in the exalted transcendentalism of their ideas respecting the sun, the moon, the stars, and the firmament. Thence was readily developed the belief in a sole, eternal, Almighty Creator and Ruler of the world, Brahma, represented as having four faces looking to the four quarters of the globe, and reposing on a swan. This simple monotheistic belief was gradually developed into the divine manifestation of Brahma as a Triune divinity, namely, as the Creating power (Brahma), the preserving power (Vishnù), and the destroying, and at the same time renewing, energy of nature (Siva).
Although the revelation of Brahma has long since been completed, while Vishnù and Siva are still active agencies in the world as Supporter and Augmenter respectively, Brahma is assigned a very inferior rank in the worship of the masses, although, according to the lawgiver Menù, the Moses of India, he created the Brahmins out of the substance of his head, to guide and instruct man; from his arms the Chetriyas, to protect and defend him; from his trunk the Veisigas, to nourish and support him; and, lastly, from his feet the Sadras, to serve and be the property of all the other castes.
To Brahma, the fulness of whose existence no earthly notions can embrace, there are no temples dedicated, these being rather erected in honour of Vishnù, the Intercessor and Supporter, who manifests himself in the atmosphere and in water, and Siva the destroyer and regenerator of the various races, as also to the other divinities whom the Hindoo religion numbers by millions, although the majority of these have several names, and the lower classes are simply Avatars, that is incarnations or manifestations, of the superior deities. This peculiarity of the Hindoo religion makes it impossible correctly to classify or define Indian mythology. The god Rama, for example, is frequently named for Krishna, and the latter again for Vishnù. Vishnù, on his part, sometimes figures as Rama, when he is to destroy Ravana, the tyrant of Ceylon, or as Buddha, in order to found Buddhism. Like the Proteus of Grecian fable, the Hindoo mythology assumes a thousand different shapes,—it is, in short, Pantheism in its most perfect development.
A zealous Hindoo requires about four hours of each day to get through his religious ceremonies, these being performed at different periods, as he must bathe in the morning, at noon, and again at night, in a tank or pool before the temple, and recite certain prayers. For purposes of recognition, the two chief castes wear special marks, the worshippers of Vishnù having a trident painted on the forehead in either white or yellow, while those of Siva, on the other hand, sport three horizontal stripes, or one round spot marked with the ash of burnt sandal-wood. Many Hindoos write on their foreheads the distinguishing insignia of both Vishnù and Siva, and look thus the more strange and peculiar.
After every ablution these marks are painted afresh, and with much care upon the forehead, so that paint and rouge-boxes play an important part in a native household. No Hindoo can partake of his exclusively vegetable nutriment, if cooked in a European kitchen, such being entirely contrary to the principles of his faith. Every servant, therefore, leaves his master regularly at noon, in order to partake of his simple meal of rice and vegetables, either with his family or in one of the numerous Hindoo cook-shops. The frequent holidays of the Hindoos, of which there are twenty-one within two months, seriously interfere with trade among the natives, and still more with the instruction of the young.
Hindooism, however, appears to have lost much of its originality by constant contact with Europeans, and by the various political revolutions, and although many of these ceremonies are still kept up, and the bodies of their dead are still burned on pyres, yet the modern Hindoo has so far relaxed from his ascetic austerity, as to admit of his being employed in the various pursuits of active life. And it is not a little surprising to see these handsome, tall, brown figures, with their insignia of Vishnù or Siva marked on their foreheads, and dressed in their sweeping plaited togas of pure white, employed on the telegraph, the railway, the arsenal, and even the observatory, all which employments demand the utmost exactness and punctuality, and thus afford the most gratifying evidence of the adaptability of the Hindoo race to be impressed and to benefit by European civilization. With the exception of Major Jacob, the director of the astronomical and magnetic observatory, the whole of the employés are natives, who are not indeed employed in making the actual observations, but are found perfectly competent to compute the various calculations, and make the requisite reductions. The institution itself is at present of but little importance as a place of scientific observation, in consequence of the small support it receives, but it is to be provided with a meridian circle, similar to that in the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope, when it must become an important station. Strange to say, here, as at the Cape, there are no observations made on the Sundays, which in the course of a year gives rise to lamentable deficiencies, especially when some natural phenomenon of rare occurrence happens to fall upon a Sunday.
We were greatly surprised at the flourishing condition of the Central Museum, with which is united a Zoological Garden, both set on foot in 1851. In the spacious rooms of this stately edifice are ranged costly Indian antiquities and sculptures, inscriptions in Sanscrit, in stone, or marble slabs, antique fragments of Indian monuments,[103] as also an instructive collection of technical and ethnographical subjects, models of fortresses, ships, agricultural implements, instruments, tools, machines, and native forts. The geological department of the Museum is the weakest and poorest department; and as spirits of wine and glass jars are expensive articles in India, the greatest number of the animals, even the fish and snakes, are simply stuffed. In the garden which surrounds the museum buildings are a considerable number of cages inclosing living animals, such as monkeys, panthers, bears, giraffes, stags, gazelles, cobras, Indian hens, pigeons, marsh-birds, and singing-birds. In addition there were Aquaria with fishes arranged in groups at various spots all round the garden. Of objects of special interest there was a powerful baboon (Pithecus Satyrus), above 5 feet high, fastened to a chain in a large monkey-house, around whom were gambolling a number of smaller species, as also a number of cobras in a large box with glass sides, so that one could examine them at leisure on every side. Here we witnessed the uncomfortable spectacle of a native engaged in cleaning the panes inside the cage and directly beneath these formidable animals, which thronged around him in such numbers that he was continually compelled with one hand to resist their importunate caresses. Anyone not aware of the fact that these animals have been rendered harmless by the extraction of their poison-fangs, must experience a feeling of terror and astonishment at the sight of this brood of malign, stealthy-moving, hissing serpents, with a naked Hindoo in their midst!