Religion.—In Hindustan, amongst races ordi arily classed as Hindus, including 20 millions non -Aryan aborigines, there is practised every for of idol-worship, nature-worship, spirit-worshi fetishism, and demon-worship ; but the great ma follow what Europeans designate as Brahmanisr which is a reverence for deities described in t] Vedas, Puranas, Tantras, religious books wrist( by the Brahman teachers. The ancient history India shows that there were four great religio eras. The Vedic, in which Agni, Indra, and oth personifications of spiritual existences were pr pitiated with feasts and invoked in the hym of the Rig Veda, and in which maidens select their husbands in the Swayamvara, and monarc sacrificed in the Aswa Medha. In the Brahma' period the Kshatriya feasts were converted ir sacrifices for the atonement of sins against Bra manical law, and divine worship was reduced tc system of austerities and meditations upon t Supreme Spirit as Brahma. It was in this c that the Brahmans assumed the character of great ecclesiastical hierarchy, and established ti priestly dominion which still extends over t minds and senses of the Hindus of India. Third the Buddhist period, in which Sakya Muni a peared ; and fourthly, the Brahmanical reviv during which Brahmans abandoned the worst.
of their god Brahma, and, with books styled t Puranas, reverted to the old national gods a heroes of the Vedic Aryans. In this era Vish came to be regarded as the Supreme Beir and Rama and Krishna as his incarnatioi Followers of this form of belief are known the Vaishnava, of whom there are numero sects. Another deity, Siva, of whose orig nothing definite is known, is now largely we shipped by the Saiva religionists, of whom al there are many sects ; and there are besid these, many smaller, active monotheistic sec Mahomedans of Hindustan, 50,121,585 in numb( are mostly of the Sunni sect, the Shiah se tarians being few in number. Christians, of sects and denominations, do not number t,1 millions ; Joins, fire-worshippers or Zoroastrian known as Parsees and Sikhs, are over thr millions, and aboriginal races, with local cults ai others, are 7,575,946 souls.—Treaties, Engay Sunnuds, etc. ; Annals of Indian Admin. tration ; Census Reports for 1871 and 188: Elphinstone's History of India ; Hooker and Thom SOWS Flora Indica ; Royle's Productive Resourc of India ; TVils. Gloss.