[292] Herbelot states Baha-ed-Doulah to be son of Adhad-doulat, and brother of Samsameddulat.
[293] Herbelot says, that Abu Alí entitled his great work Canun fil thebi, “Rule of Medicine;” this book has been abridged and commented by Said Ben Hebatallah, by Razi Ben al Khatib, and by another author, who has composed the Mugiaz fil theb.
[294] We read in Abulfeda’s history (vol. III. p. 64): “In the year of the Hejira 414, A. D. 1023, Ala-ed-daula Abu Jafar, commonly called son of Kakuyah, took Hamdam from one of the Búyís, say Sama-ed-doulah Abúl Hasan, son of Shams-ed-Doulah.”
[295] The biography of Avisenna involves a variety of events which cannot be here sufficiently developed for removing the obscurity attending the short account of our author. The name of Tájet-ud-doulah is not found in Abulfeda’s and Herbelot’s notice of the Shaikh Avisenna.
[296] Adopting as true the year of his birth, as stated in the Dabistán (see p. 169), Abu Ali, according to the above date of his death, would have died in his ninety-first year. According to Abulfeda (see vol. III. p. 92), he died in his fifty-eighth year; Herbelot says, he died in the year of the Hejira 428, A. D. 1036, in the fifty-sixth year of his life.
[297] Herbelot says that Avisenna wrote his biography himself; the French author mentions a life of the celebrated Muhammedan doctor, composed by doctor Giorgiani.
Section the eighth: of the Vichnuian (Va ishnavas) worshippers of Vichnu.—Vichnu, who, according to the belief of the followers of the Smriti, is a subordinate divinity, is held by the Vichnuian to be the preserver of all things. The Vedantían maintain him to possess the qualities of virtue and of order, and to be the lord of the five senses; not subject however to the said senses, nor to their influence in any way. According to the Vichnuían, he is the first cause and author of the universe; they believe him endowed with a body, like mankind; he has a wife. Brahma, a deity, is the creator of things; and Mahádéo, another divinity, the annihilator of beings; both are creators of Vichnu, and distinct from his holy being, because the path of union is closed between the creature and the creator; they say, that every body has a soul, but that the soul is not distinct from, but a part of, the body; the body has two forms, the male and female, and the creator and author of their being is the holy nature of Vichnu; the body is composed of five elements; men, conformably with their actions and works, are invested either with animal or human forms; the soul is always confined in the gaol of ignorance and in the fetters of avidity. Further, the spirits are divided according to three qualities, which are: 1. sattvam; 2. rájas; and 3. tamas: the explanation of these three qualities has been before given. The Satya (virtuous) tends towards mukt, that is, “emancipation;” for by the power of this laudable quality, he makes the bakhti, that is, “the worship of Vichnu,” his pursuit; and this bakhti raises him to the highest state, that is, to that of “emancipation;” according to the interpretation of this sect, mukt consists in this: that, after having left the sthúla sarira,[298] or “elementary body,” and the linga sarira,[299] that is, “the visional body,” which has fallen into a vision of appearances, and after having been transformed into the primitive shape, which is either male or female, one enters the Váikunt,[300] that is, “the heaven of beatitude of the Gods,” and the mansion of real life. Rájas, that is, the possessor of this quality, is liable to recompense or punishment; to the consequence of virtue or crime, according to an impartial appreciation of both. Now he holds the price of virtue, another time that of crime; and conformably to his merits or demerits, he migrates invested with a body, and for reward is associated with the blessed, or for punishment suffers witth the damned. Whoever does not, from the circle of the world, reach the shore of those who are united with salvation, he shall certainly never attain to the state of the desired emancipation. Tamas, that is, the possessor of this quality, is an adversary to mukt, and an enemy to liberation; his present and future condition is this: that, having left the sthúla saríra, that is, “his elemental body,” and the linga purusha,[301] or “his visional body,” and having returned to his primitive form, either male or female, he will be tormented in the world of darkness, which they call andhatamasa;[302] from this place of manifold torments he never returns. This is the substance of the creed of the worshippers of Vichnu, called Madhu Acháris.[303]
The belief of another sect of the Vichnavas, called Rámánandis,[304] is in substance as follows: the quality of Satwa tends towards the attainment of the high state of mukt, or “emancipation;” the way of acquiring it is, to lay aside all praises of another divinity; to abstain from the rites of any other sect; and to shun any other worship except that of the holy being of Vichnu, to whom alone all thoughts, all prayers, are to be directed, and whose remembrance is always to be kept. In the same manner as it is not permitted to a husband to desire the wife of another, in the same way they hold it wrong to think of any other deity but of Vichnu. The difference between the beforesaid and this sect is, that the former associates to the worship of Vichnu that of other angels, of the creatures, servants, and companions of this God, which they maintain as meritorious, and perform with magnificence; whilst the latter sect considers the other deities as deformed and hideous.
The characteristical mark of the Rámánandis is a triangle drawn upon their forehead;[305] they never eat their meal before persons of another sect. The Madhu Achárís[306] wear two short strokes of red clay near each other upon the forehead; they do not associate with persons of another creed, but they eat before Brahmans who are not of their own peruasion.