Pitt. Nti• II IN The ruranie period, with its various cults. comprises the development of Ilse newer Hinduism from iiliont the sixth ceny tory of our era to the sixteenth century. The Purdpos (q.v.) and the Dint rag (q.v.) repre sent this phase of the religion. which succeeded epic Hinduism and supplanted Buddhism. The old Brahnianie vigor was not dead. but was ready to revive. In the eighth century Kumarila strengthened it on the side and the great Vedantist Sankara. in the Muth cen tury, added to its power on the philosophic side, lint the Puranic period of Hinduism was a period of Beeline, so far as the popular creed is con eerned. Its pantheon is nominally the same as that of the epic period. Brahma. Vishnu, and Siva remain still at the head of its imaginary gods; but whereas the epic Hine is generally characterized by a friendly harmony between the higher occupants of the divine spheres. the ranic period shows discord and destruction of the original ideas whence the epic gods arose. Brahma withdraws. in general, from the popular adoration, and leaves Vishnu and Siva to test in the minds of their worshipers for the highest rank. The elementary principle which originally inhered in these deities is thus pletely lost sight of by the followers of the Parana:. The legends of the epic poents relating to those gods become amplified and distorted, aecording to the sectarian tendencies or thin and the divine element whiell still tinguishes those gods in the L'iiinayana and .11,1habhurata is now more and more mixed tip with worldly concerns and intersected with torical events• distorted in their turn to suit individual interests. Of the ideas implied by the Vedic rites, scarcely a trace is visible in the Puranas and Tantras, which are the text-books of this creed. In short, the unbridled imagina
tion which pervades these works is neither pleas ing from a poetical nor elevating from a phil osophical point of view. Some Purana;, it is true—for instance, the make in some sense an exception to this aberration of original Hinduism; but they are a compromise between the popular and the Vedant lc creed, which henceforward remains the creed of the edu cated and intelligent. They do not affect the worship of the masses as practiced by the various sects; and this worship itself. whether harmless, as with the worshipers of Vishnu, or offensive, as with the adorers of Siva and his wife Durga, is but an empty ceremonial, which, here and there, inay remind one of the symbolical worship of the Vedic Hindu, but, as it whole, has no eon nection whatever with the Vedic Scriptures. on which it pretends to rest. It is this creed which, Nvith further deteriorations, caused by the lapse of centuries, is still the main religion of the masses in India.
The philosophical creed of this period, and the creed which is still preserved by the educated classes, is that derived from the tenets of the Vedanta philosophy. It is based on the belief in one supreme being, which imagination and speculation endeavor to invest with all the per fections conceivable by the 1111111;111 mind, but the true nature of which is, nevertheless. declared to he beyond the reach of thought, and which, on this ground, is defined not possessing any of the qualities by Avhieh the human mind is able to comprehend intellectual or material entity. See VEDANTA.