HINDUISM. The earliest form of Indian religious observance derived from the ancient literature is known as Brahmanism. The term Hinduism is applied to later and modern developments. " Brahmanism, founded on these sacred books and claiming to fulfil their precepts. is the religion of Brahma, the Creator, or of the Brah mans, the priestly and privileged class, charged with the preservation of doctrine and the maintenance of the rites " (A. S. Geden, Studies). The revealed literature of the Veda was succeeded by a sub-Vedic literature, which is hardly inferior in authority. This is related to six recognised philosophical systems, which trace their origin more or less directly to the Upanishads. The systems are known as the Vedanta. founded by Vyasa: the Mimamsa. founded by Jaimini; the Sankhya, founded by Kapila: the Yoga, founded by Patanjali; the Nyaya, founded by Gotama; and the Vaiseshika, founded by Kanada. The names of the founders or authors, it should he added, are only traditional. Other literary sources of the religious usages and beliefs are the two great epic poems. the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. To these the later Puranas owe much of their information and inspiration. The Bhagaradgita (later Bhagavata Purina) was the religious text-book of the Bhagaratas, the worshippers of Bhagarad, the Lord or Blessed One— a body which represented, not a sectarian form of re ligion, but a more mystical kind of devotion. The origins of the movement may be hardly less ancient than the orthodox ritual and creed of the Brahmans. In any case, Brahmanism was confronted in course of time by many more popular forms of belief and worship. Hinduism " is the general title for all the forms under which the religious consciousness of the people of India has found expression; and the link or internal connection between the diverse creeds which pass under this name is of the very slightest—a recognition of common divini ties and temples, and of the rights and prerogatives of their priests, the Brahmans. There is no common article of faith or obligation of morality, and the adherence to forms or religious duties is often superficial, and in recent times especially is greatly relaxed. The real and most Powerful bond of union is social. A Hindu is born, not made. Caste has been, and is at the present time, the compelling influence which welds into the semblance of a unity the multitude of diverse and often conflicting professions which claim to be parts of the Hindu faith " (Geden). Of the many sects which have arisen, the two great groups are known as the Vishnuite and the Sivaite. In the year 1800—which marks the beginning of quite new developments—Hinduism, which, according to J. N. Farquhar, was the religion of at least three
fourths of the population of the peninsula, consisted, in the main, of these two great groups of sects of a mass of wandering celibate ascetics, who were held to be outside society. " The Vishnuite sects were very numerous, both in the North and in the South, and they were perhaps, on the whole, more homogeneous than the worshippers of Siva. The leading Vishnuite sects declare Vishnu to be the one God, and yet they recognize the existence of all the other divinities of the Hindu pantheon. They also hold that Vishnu has been incarn ate among men a great many times, the latest and chief incarnations being Rama and Krishna. Worshippers of Siva declare that Siva is the one God, but recognize also all the other gods. A special group of Sivaite sects has to be noticed, namely, those who pay honour to the wife of Siva as Kali or Durga. Both Vishnuites and Sivaites worship idols, but among Sivaites the phallic symbol is more usual than images of the god. Both sects worship their gurus, that is, their teachers, as gods. Both are fully orthodox in the sense that they retain and enforce with great strictness the ancient Hindu roles of conduct which are summed up under the word dharma. Both sects claim to be Vedantists, but each has its own inter pretation of the philosophy " (J. N. Farquhar). Perhaps the most celebrated of Vishnuite teachers was Ramanuja, who lived about 1100 A.D., and opposed the doctrine which denied the real existence of the phenomenal world and identified all souls with the one Brahma. Accord ing to Ramanuja, Brahma is " an all-penetrating, all powerful, all-knowiug, all-merciful Being. He is not an undifferentiated Unity, for the manifold world of reality exists in Him; souls and the material elements form His body but not His nature; they are subordinate to Him as our body is to our spirit, and exist in Him with a relative independence. All that lives is in process of transmigration (samsdra), from which the soul can free itself—through the knowledge of Brahma, not through good works; the soul is then raised into the world of Brahma, to an eternal, blessed life, and partici pates in Brahma's divine qualities, except in His power to emit and to rule the world and to receive it back into Himself " (F. von Htigel, E.L.). See, in addition to the works already mentioned, E. W. Hopkins; W. Bousset; G. A. Barton, Rel., 1917; F. W. Bussell. Various castes, sects, reform-movements, etc., are treated under separate headings.