Sect. 10. Describes the system of the Tárkikán, who are profound investigators and deep thinkers in theology.
Sect. 11. On the tenets held by the followers of Búdah (Buddha).
Sect. 12. On various religious systems professed by the people of India.
Section the first—concerning the orthodox Hindoo system. As inconstant fortune had torn away the author from the shores of Persia, and made him the associate of the believers in transmigration and those who addressed their prayers to idols and images and worshipped demons, therefore the tenets held by this most subtle class of reasoners come to be considered next after those of the Parsees. It is however necessary to premise, that among the Hindus there are many systems of religion, and innumerable creeds and ceremonies: but there is one principal class of this people (as will be shown in the tenth chapter), and its rank and dignity will be brought into evidence.
Like Zardusht and the sages of antiquity, they have recourse to metaphorical and enigmatical figures of speech, as will appear evident in the course of this narration. Long before the present work, the author had from books ascertained their various systems, according to a plan which he now voluntarily abandons; as in the year of the Hejirah 1063 (A. D. 1653), whilst sojourning at Srikakul, the capital of Kalinga,[1] certain eminent persons who were the author’s intimate friends, had travelled in that direction for the purpose of visiting their holy stations; one day a conference took place, on which the author reviewed anew what he had before heard, and with the pen of accuracy drew the line of erasure over all that was doubtful; so that there was found a wide difference between the first and second work on these points.
Summary of the doctrines contained in the Budah Mimansa.[2] The whole world is not governed by the orders of a real Lord, and there is in truth no reality in his actual existence. Whatever of good or evil, reward or punishment, attaches to created beings, is entirely the result of their acts, deeds, and words; mortals are altogether captive in the trammels of their own works, and confined in the chains of their own deeds: without previous acts they are liable to no consequences. The sovereign, Brahma, the creator of all things; the angelic Víshnu, their preserver; and Mahesh, or Siva, the destroyer of existences, attained to this exalted eminence through means of righteous acts and holy deeds; nay, Brahma, through the efficacy of worship, the power of obedience, the might of his religious austerities, and by his good actions, created the world; agreeably to the express declaration of the Véda,[3] which according to the belief of the Hindus is a celestial revelation, every dignity of the celestial orders is inseparably connected with meritorious works and holy deeds; and as the intellectual soul is of the same nature as the angelic essence, the possessor may, by the exercise of angelic qualities, become one of those exalted dignities, and during a lengthened but definite period, be invested with power and glory. For instance, the human spirit, which in knowledge and good works has attained to a degree accounted worthy of the rank of Brahma, is, on the termination of the period of sovereignty assigned to the present Brahma, appointed to that predestined dignity: the same principle also applying to the other angelic degrees.
This tenet therefore leads to the same inference as the opinions entertained by the distinguished Parsee sages, namely: that the spirits of men, on attaining complete perfection, become united to the heavenly bodies, and after many revolutions, the celestial souls are blended with the divine intelligences. According to the Mobed:
“The cup-bearer poured into the goblet the wine of the celestial soul,
And filled the nine empyreal domes with the beverage of human spirit.”