The dance of Síva. : Fourteen Indian essays
Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. (Ananda Kentish), 1877-1947
(Fo ae ae SS ——- Saas a5 Sa ite \ OF PRIN <n “Tp NOV 3- 1927 Lye s Locigar seh Division Does Chae Section i fn a a a Ria we Ser a i j y * Coates 5 Lraiiyas 2oSfaite 7 : sa rire te © wae (a ee TS ee ee, THE DANCE CF SIVA. Cosmic Dance of Nataraja. Brahmanical bronze. South Indian. 12th Century, Madras Museum. THE DANCE OF SIVA FOURTEEN INDIAN ESSAYS BY ANANDA ‘COOMARASWAMY WITH AN INTRODUCTORY PREFACE BY ROMAIN ROLLAND THE SUNWISE TURN, INC. 51 EAST 44TH STREET NEW YORK LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & Co. Ltd., E.C.4 1924 PRINTED BY LOXLEY BROS. LTD. WHITEFRIARS HOUSE, LONDON, E.C.4 COPYRIGHT, 1918 THE SUNWISE TURN, INC. CONTENTS Foreword What Has India Contributed to Human Welfare? Hindu View of Art: Historical Hindu View of Art: Theory of Beauty That Beauty is a State Buddhist Primitives The Dance of Siva Indian Images With Many Arms Indian Music. Status of Indian Women Sahaja Intellectual Fraternity Cosmopolitan View of Nietzsche Young India Individuality, Autonomy and Function ... PAGE LIST OF PLATES BETWEEN PAGES Frontispiece—Cosmic Dance of Nataraja, 12th Century. Figure a—AvalokiteSvara Bodhisattva, 8th Century. Figure b.—Siva and Parvati on Mt. Kailisa, 8th Cen- tury . 24-25 . Figure a—Deer. era eresres Sth Cores Figure b—Elephants, Mamallapuram, 8th Century 26-27 . Krishna Disguised as a Milkmaid, 17th Century 28-29 . Ajanta Fresco, 6th or 7th Century 40-41 Figure a.—Temple at Badami, 8th Century. Figure Baek Oey Seese Mamallapuram, 8th Gey tury 42-43 7 Figure Aer Buddha, Gandhi a Beran Ke D. figure b—Dryad, Sanchi, 2nd century, B.C. Figure c-—Lay MODE | at a Buddha Shrine, 2nd Century 46-47 . Buddha in Samadhi E 48-49 . Standing Bodhisattva, 2nd Cane i D. 50-51 . Standing Buddha, Ceylon, 2nd Century, A. D. 52-53 Standing Buddha, 2nd century, A.D. é 52-53 . Standing Images of Buddha, 2nd Century, A. D. 54-55 . Brahma, Elephanta, 8th Century : , 66-67 . Durga as Chandi slaying Mahista, 11th Cnn : 68-69 . Death of Hiranyakasipu. Elira, 8th Century 70-71 . ‘Chamber-music of an aristocratic society: 18th Cen- tury SARE Ga Vets tet op ee pees ea ey FAK: . Ratan Devi . 74-75 . Todi Ragini (a eae aa oaey: 16th Cone . 16-77 . Madhu-madhavi peau (a iene: ee 16th ee tury. 78-79 . Todi Ragini (a eet ney 18th Cones 80-81 . A Hindu lady at her toilet, 18th Century 84-85 . Chand Bibi, called Chand Sultan, 18th Century 86-87 . Hindu Marriage, about 1600 A. D. yf . 88-89 . Radha in her junttes Krishna at ak wine lst Cen tury . 90-91 . “Where each is at " : Sth Cotte A: Tetoeres ce err  b—Layingawarpin Madura . .. . . 132-133 athe Pathing’ Ghat at; Benares . 5+. | slaw s » 104-1399 = =. sg 1 — o2 ao, © 33 nt ie wg hare | oe FON Cn ALA ke ir Tae RPh, *hiugabett sosarty) A rita (pee) oe cede ier att FOREWORD There are a number of us in Europe for whom European civilisation no longer suffices—dissatisfied children of the spirit of the West, who feel ourselves cramped in our old abode, and who, without depreciating the subtlety, the brilliance, the heroic energy of a philosophy which conquered and ruled the world for more than two thousand years, nevertheless have had to confess its insufficiencies and its limited arrogance. We few look towards Asia ! Asia, the great land of which Europe is but a peninsula, the advance guard of the army, the prow of the heavy ship, laden with a thousand wisdoms . . . from her have always come to us our gods and our ideas. But, in the course of the many circuits made by our peoples who followed the track of the sun, losing contact with our native East, we have deformed, for our own ends of violent and limited action, the universality of her great thoughts. And now the Western races find themselves trapped deep in a blind alley, and are savagely crushing each other out of exist- ence. Let us snatch our souls from the bloody rout! Let us strive to win back to the great crossways whence flow out to the four points of the sky the streams of human genius. Let us climb back to the high plains of Asia ! It is true that Europe has never scorned the roads of Asia when the business in hand was pillage or extortion, or exploita- tion of the material riches of her countries under the banner of Christ or of Civilisation. But what benefit has she drawn from Asia’s spiritual wealth? That has lain buried in collections and in archeological museums. A few brilliant tourists, members of Academies, have nibbled at its crumbs, but the spiritual life of Europe has derived no benefit from it. Who, amid the disorder in which the chaotic conscience of the West is struggling, has sought whether the forty-century-old civilisations of India and China had not answers to offer to our griefs, models, it may be, for our aspirations? The Germans, with their more exacting and unhappy vitality, have been the first to ask of Asia that food which their starved spirit can no longer find in Europe; and the disasters of these last years il FOREWORD have precipitated this moral evolution, arising out of the dis- illusionment of political action and the exaltation of the interior life. A few noble pioneers, like Count Kayserling, have popu- larised the wisdom of Asia. And certain of Germany’s purest poets, as Hermann Hesse, have so far fallen under the spell of Eastern thought as to subside into silence among the souls of the artist-sages of the Celestial Empire. France, although similar currents have begun to make them- selves felt within her, and although certain little-known Frenchmen are counted among the pioneers of the Re-Awakening of Asia— has held back from this movement of fruitful sympathy and curi- osity. Nowhere in Europe have Tagore’s recent journey and his appeal for communal work in European-Asiatic culture been heeded less. <A wall of self-satisfied indifference separates this - country from the life of the rest of the world. Not long ago the fiery Bjérnson made a justifiable reproach against France on this count. But he was unjust in not recognising the ceaseless efforts of a small number of Frenchmen to open a breach in the wall. And even that little group, led by the staunch Bazalgette—the brotherly friend, in Whitman’s meaning, of all that is human— bears splendid testimony. Let us widen the breach! And through the opening may the message of India make itself heard in France ! Ananda Coomaraswamy is one of those great Hindus who, nourished like Tagore on the culture of Europe and of Asia, and justifiably proud of their splendid civilisation, have conceived the task of working for the union of Eastern and Western thought for the good of humanity. The spectacle of the recent war, which has rendered manifest the signs of the approaching ruin of the whole fabric of European life, has shown them the urgency of their mission. Even while the harmonious voice of Tagore is inviting us to collaborate in his International University of San- tiniketan, Coomaraswamy raises his cry of alarm. He says to us: ‘f Save Asia! Her idealism is in danger. If you do not save her, beware lest great Nemesis turn back on you, by the hand of Asia, the imperialism of wealth and of violence with which you will have armed her. The degradation of Asia will be the cause of your ruin. In her uplift lies your safety.” But Europe in her arrogance does not admit that she can have need of Asia, whom for centuries she has trampled under foot, without once the suspicion stirring that she was playing the part of Alaric on the ruins of Rome. But Rome has vanquished the FOREWORD ill conquering barbarians, as Greece has vanquished Rome, as India and China will finally vanquish Europe—a victory to the soul. The purpose of Coomaraswamy’s book is to show the power of this soul, to show all the riches that it holds stored up, with which to ennoble and render happy the human race. In a series of Essays, which are apparently detached, but all of which spring from the same central thought and converge into one design, the vast and tranquil metaphysic of India is unfolded; her conception of the universe, her social organisation, perfect in its day and still capable of adaptation to the demands of modern times; the solution which she offers for the feminist problem, for the problems of the family, of love, of marriage; and lastly, the magnificent revelation of her art. The whole vast soul of India proclaims from end to end of its crowded and well-ordered edifice the same domination of a sovereign synthesis. There is no negation. All is harmonised. All the forces of life are grouped like a forest, whose thousand waving arms are led by Nataraja, the master of the Dance. Everything has its place, every being has its function, and all take part in the divine concert, their different voices, and their very dissonances, creating, in the phrase of Heraclitus, a most beautiful harmony. Whereas in the West, cold, hard logic isolates the unusual, shutting it off from the rest of life into a definite and distinct compartment of the spirit, India, ever mindful of the natural differences in souls and in philosophies, endeavours to blend them into each other, so as to re-create in its fullest perfection the complete unity. The matching of opposites produces the true rhythm of life. Spiritual purity may not shrink from allying itself with sensual joy, and to the most licensed sexualism may be joined the highest wisdom. (The amazing Sahaja is an extreme example, a paradoxical challenge to forces opposed and mated.) In the masterpieces of art we see beauty wedded to science or to religion, for the harvest of the intensely lived life is invariably garnered from the intermingling of many different seeds. And always, from the depths of millions of eyes, we meet the look of the One. Tagore has sung this thought in deathless lines : ‘I shall find hidden Thy infinite joy In every splendour of smell and vision and sound; Even while a thousand fetters still bind me to the wheel I shall taste Thy infinite liberty.” Of course, this entire fabric of Indian life stands solidly on faith, that is to say (as can be said of all faiths), on a slender and li FOREWORD have precipitated this moral evolution, arising out of the dis- illusionment of political action and the exaltation of the interior life. A few noble pioneers, like Count Kayserling, have popu- larised the wisdom of Asia. And certain of Germany’s purest poets, as Hermann Hesse, have so far fallen under the spell of Eastern thought as to subside into silence among the souls of the artist-sages of the Celestial Empire. France, although similar currents have begun to make them- selves felt within her, and although certain little-known Frenchmen are counted among the pioneers of the Re-Awakening of Asia— has held back from this movement of fruitful sympathy and curi- osity. Nowhere in Europe have Tagore’s recent journey and his appeal for communal work in European-Asiatic culture been heeded less. A wall of self-satisfied indifference separates this country from the life of the rest of the world. Not long ago the fiery Bjérnson made a justifiable reproach against France on this count. But he was unjust in not recognising the ceaseless efforts of a small number of Frenchmen to open a breach in the wall. And even that little group, led by the staunch Bazalgette—the brotherly friend, in Whitman’s meaning, of all that is human— bears splendid testimony. Let us widen the breach! And through the opening may the message of India make itself heard in France ! Ananda Coomaraswamy is one of those great Hindus who, nourished like Tagore on the culture of Europe and of Asia, and justifiably proud of their splendid civilisation, have conceived the task of working for the union of Eastern and Western thought for the good of humanity. The spectacle of the recent war, which has rendered manifest the signs of the approaching ruin of the whole fabric of European life, has shown them the urgency of their mission. Even while the harmonious voice of Tagore is inviting us to collaborate in his International University of San- tiniketan, Coomaraswamy raises his cry of alarm. He says to us: ‘f Save Asia! Her idealism is in danger. If you do not save her, beware lest great Nemesis turn back on you, by the hand of Asia, the imperialism of wealth and of violence with which you will have armed her. The degradation of Asia will be the cause of your ruin. In her uplift lies your safety.” But Europe in her arrogance does not admit that she can have need of Asia, whom for centuries she has trampled under foot, without once the suspicion stirring that she was playing the part of Alaric on the ruins of Rome. But Rome has vanquished the FOREWORD ill conquering barbarians, as Greece has vanquished Rome, as India and China will finally vanquish Europe—a victory to the soul. The purpose of Coomaraswamy’s book is to show the power of this soul, to show all the riches that it holds stored up, with which to ennoble and render happy the human race. In a series of Essays, which are apparently detached, but all of which spring from the same central thought and converge into one design, the vast and tranquil metaphysic of India is unfolded; her conception of the universe, her social organisation, perfect in its day and still capable of adaptation to the demands of modern times; the solution which she offers for the feminist problem, for the problems of the family, of love, of marriage; and lastly, the magnificent revelation of her art. The whole vast soul of India proclaims from end to end of its crowded and well-ordered edifice the same domination of a sovereign synthesis. There is no negation. All is harmonised. All the forces of life are grouped like a forest, whose thousand waving arms are led by Nataraja, the master of the Dance. Everything has its place, every being has its function, and all take part in the divine concert, their different voices, and their very dissonances, creating, in the phrase of Heraclitus, a most beautiful harmony. Whereas in the West, cold, hard logic isolates the unusual, shutting it off from the rest of life into a definite and distinct compartment of the spirit, India, ever mindful of the natural differences in souls and in philosophies, endeavours to blend them into each other, so as to re-create in its fullest perfection the complete unity. The matching of opposites produces the true rhythm of life. Spiritual purity may not shrink from allying itself with sensual joy, and to the most licensed sexualism may be joined the highest wisdom. (The amazing Sahaja is an extreme example, a paradoxical challenge to forces opposed and mated.) In the masterpieces of art we see beauty wedded to science or to religion, for the harvest of the intensely lived life is invariably garnered from the intermingling of many different seeds. And always, from the depths of millions of eyes, we meet the look of the One. Tagore has sung this thought in deathless lines : ‘* I shall find hidden Thy infinite joy In every splendour of smell and vision and sound; Even while a thousand fetters still bind me to the wheel I shall taste Thy infinite liberty.” Of course, this entire fabric of Indian life stands solidly on faith, that is to say (as can be said of all faiths), on a slender and iv FOREWORD emotional hypothesis. But amid all the beliefs of Europe, and of Asia, that of the Indian Brahmins seems to me infinitely the most alluring. I do not at all despise the others. The ecstatic intellectualism of the primitive Buddhist, or the radiant serenity of the void inhaled in Lao-Tse, are infinitely dear to me; but I find in them only rare, exceptional moments, only the dizzying peaks of the spiritual life. And the reason why I love the Brahmin more than the other schools of Asiatic thought is because it seems to me to contain them all. But after having allowed myself to be swept away by the power- ful rhythm of Brahmin thought, along the curve of life, with its movement of alternating ascent and return, I come back to my own century, and while finding therein the immense projections of a new cosmogony, offspring of the genius of Einstein, or deriving freely from his discoveries, I yet do not feel that I enter a strange land. For, in the journey of the spirit across stellar space, even to the deeps of the planetary void, amid the Islands of the cosmos, the nebular spirals, the countless Milky Ways, and through the millions of creations which sweep along down Space-and-Time, that endless, limitless arc, the rays of whose suns, revolving eternally, could light up phantom, insubstantial worlds, I yet can hear resounding still the cosmic symphony of all these planets which forever succeed each other, are extinguished and once more illumined, with their living souls, their humanities, their gods— according to the law of the eternal To Become, the Brahmin Samsara—I hear Siva dancing, dancing in the heart of the world, in my own heart. I do not suggest that Europeans should embrace an Asiatic faith, I would merely invite them to taste the delight of this rhythmic philosophy, this deep, slow breath of thought. From it they would learn those virtues which above all others the soul of Europe (and of America!)* needs to-day: tranquillity, patience, manly hope, unruffled joy, ‘‘ like a lamp in a windless place, that does not flicker.’’+ * Since, of course, all I have written here about Europe applies equally to those European races which have peopled the New World. + Bhagavad Gita. FOREWORD Vv The Western world, abandoning itself utterly to its search ot individual and social happiness, maims and disfigures life by the very frenzy of its haste, and kills in the shell the happiness which it pursues. Like a runaway horse who from between his blinkers sees only the blinding road before him, the average European can- not see beyond the boundaries of his individual life, or of the life of his class, of his country, or of his party. Within that narrow pale he imprisons of his own will the realisation of the human ideal. At all costs he must be assured that he will see it, with his own eyes, or (supreme sacrifice which he must needs concede to the slow movement of human progress !) that his children at least will harvest its fruits. Hence these eternal and tumultuous hopes, lent out on short credit and inevitably to be lost, hence these dreams of Picrocholes, these social Paradises realised on earth, with maxim guns and ruthless edicts, hence this short-sighted hurrying, this violence. And as deception must of necessity follow, the enthusiasts think that all is lost; and their brief hour of feverish exaltation gives way to a long term of morbid dexression. In the great philosophy of Brahma, such violent turns of the scale are quite unknown. It does not expect that the world will be suddenly and miraculously transformed by a war or a revolution, or an act of God. It embraces vast stretches of time, cycles of human ages, whose successive lives gravitate in con- centric circles, and travel ever slowly to.-ards the centre, the Place of Deliverance—already attained in certain of the souls of the Prophets. Such a philosophy knuws no discouragement; it is never impatient. It knows that there is time. The disasters of the journey bring forth neither anger nor defeat. Error for it is not sin but only youth. The full cycle of Time must be accomplished. It watches the turn of the wheel and it waits. And its vision, penetrating far beyond the shifting horizons of good and evil, judges clearly and calmly the stream of passing souls— gentle with the frailties of the weak, stern only with the strong. For this proud philosophy demands most of those who are capable of most; and its whole conception of the hierarchy of castes, which at first sight seems so scornfully aristocratic, is based on this lofty principle (diametrically opposed to that of the self-seeking democracies of the West), that the higher we climb, less become our rights, greater our obligations! . .. In fine, everyone, however low his status, shall climb higher, everyone knows that, sooner or later, in the normal unfolding of his lives, vi FOREWORD he will be able to attain to the culminating point on the curve, whence, along the way of Return, the soul will escape from Time and its vicissitudes. Thus the infinite diversity of souls and of desires is brought into accord with the eternal rhythm which holds them in the one great current which travels on to Unity. But it is not intended that this stately fabric of the soul should cast over Europe the golden shadow of its dome. No, there is no wish that Europe should become Asia! But she must not try to make Asia become Europe! She must learn to respect this colossal personality to which she herself is complementary. Without seeking (oh, vain dreams!) to restore a fictitious life to the forms of the past, may these two worlds of human beings, allying their distinctive spirits, build up by their union the road of the future. This is the wish which Ananda Coomaraswamy expresses at the conclusion of this book, setting against the nationalism of Young India the high idealism of Asia : ‘‘ Nationalism does not suffice for the great idealists of Young India. Patriotism is but a local interest. . . . Great souls have greater destinies to fulfil. Life, not merely the life of India, demands our great devotion. The happiness of the human race is of more import to us than any party triumph. The chosen people of the future can be no nation, no race, but an aristocracy of the whole world, in whom the vigour of European action will be united to the serenity of Asiatic thought! ...” * We take within our own, this hand which India extends to us. Our cause is one: the saving of human unity and its full accord. Europe, Asia, our strengths are different. Let us unite them for the accomplishment of a common task, for the achievement of human genius. Teach us to understand all things, Asia, teach us your knowledge of life! And learn of us action, achievement! ROMAIN ROLLAND. *]I have taken the liberty of joining together in this sentence two sen- tences from the essays: Intellectual Brotherhood and Young India. eis By Wie WHAT HAS INDIA CONTRIBUTED TO HUMAN WELFARE?’ Each race contributes something essential to the world’s civilization in the course of its own self-expression and self- realization. The character built up in solving its own problems, in the experience of its own misfortunes, is itself a gift which each offers to the world. The essential contribution of India, then, is simply her Indianness; her great humiliation would be to substitute or to have substituted for this own character (sva- bhava) a cosmopolitan veneer, for then indeed she must come before the world empty-handed. If now we ask what is most distinctive in this essential contri- bution, we must first make it clear that there cannot be anything absolutely unique in the experience of any race. Its peculiarities will be chiefly a matter of selection and emphasis, certainly not a difference in specific humanity. If we regard the world as a family of nations, then we shall best understand the position of India by recognizing in her the elder, who no longer, it is true, possesses the virility and enterprise of youth, but has passed through many experiences and solved many problems which younger races have hardly yet recognized. The heart and essence of the Indian experience is to be found in a constant intuition of the unity of all life, and the instinctive and ineradicable conviction that the recognition of this unity is the highest good and the uttermost freedom. All that India can offer to the world pro- ceeds from her philosophy. This philosophy is not, indeed, unknown to others—it is equally the gospel of Jesus and of Blake, Lao Tze, and Rimi—but nowhere else has it been made the essen- tial basis of sociology and education. Every race must solve its own problems, and those of its own day. I do not suggest that the ancient Indian solution of the special Indian problems, though its lessons may be many and valuable, can be directly applied to modern conditions. What I do suggest is that the Hindus grasped more firmly than others the fundamental meaning and purpose of life, and more deliber- 1 First published in the ‘ Athenzeum,’ London, 1915, 2 WHAT HAS INDIA CONTRIBUTED? ately than others organized society with a view to the attainment of the fruit of life; and this organization was designed, not for the advantage of a single class, but, to use a modern formula, to take from each according to his capacity, and to give to each according to his needs. How far the rishis succeeded in this aim may be a matter of opinion. We must not judge of Indian society, especially Indian society in its present moment of decay, as if it actually realized the Brahmanical social ideas; yet even with all its imperfections Hindu society as it survives will appear to many to be superior to any form of social organization attained on a large scale anywhere else, and infinitely superior to the social order which we know as “modern civilization.” But even if it were impossible to maintain this view—and a majority of Euro- peans and of English-educated Indians certainly believe to the contrary—what nevertheless remains as the most conspicuous special character of the Indian culture, and its greatest signifiance for the modern world, is the evidence of a constant effort to understand the meaning and the ultimate purpose of life, and a purposive organization of society in harmony with that order, and with a view to the attainment of the purpose? The Brah- manical idea is an Indian “City of the gods”—as devandgari, the name of the Sanskrit script, suggests. The building of that city anew is the constant task of civilization; and though the details of our plans may change, and the contours of our building, we may learn from India to build on the foundations of the religion of Eternity. Where the Indian mind differs most from the average mind of modern Europe is in its view of the value of philosophy. In Europe and America the study of philosophy is regarded as an 1 Lest I should seem to exaggerate the importance which Hindus attach to Adhydimd-vidyd, the Science of the Self, I quote from the ‘ Bhagavad Gita,’ ix. 2: “It is the kingly science, the royal secret, sacred surpassingly. It supplies the only sanction and support to righteousness, and its benefits may be seen even with the eyes of the flesh as bringing peace and perma- nence of happiness to men”; and from Manu, xii. 100: “Only he who knows the VedaSastra, only he deserves to be the Leader of Armies, the Wielder of the Rod of Law, the King of Men, the Suzerain and Overlord of Kings.” The reader who desires to follow up the subject of this essay is strongly recommended to the work of Bhagavan Das, ‘The Science of Social Organization, London and Benares, 1910. WHAT HAS INDIA CONTRIBUTED? 3 end in itself, and as such it seems of but little importance to the ordinary man. In India, on the contrary, philosophy is not regarded primarily as a mental gymnastic, but rather, and with deep religious conviction, as our salvation (moksha) from the ignorance (avidyd) which for ever hides from our eyes the vision of reality. Philosophy is the key to the map of life, by which are set forth the meaning of life and the means of attaining its goal. It is no wonder, then, that the Indians have pursued the study of philosophy with enthusiasm, for these are matters that con- cern all. There is a fundamental difference between the Brahman and the modern view of politics. The modern politician considers that idealism in politics is unpractical; time enough, he thinks, to deal with social misfortunes when they arise. The same out- look may be recognized in the fact that modern medicine lays greater stress on cure than on prevention, 7. e., endeavours to protect against unnatural conditions rather than to change the social environment. The Western sociologist is apt tosay: “The teachings of religion and philosophy may or may not be true, but in any case they have no significance for the practical reformer.” The Brahmans, on the contrary, considered all activity not directed in accordance with a consistent theory of the meaning and purpose of life as supremely unpractical. Only one condition permits us to excuse the indifference of the European individual to philosophy; it is that the struggle to exist leaves him no time for reflection. Philosophy can only be known to those who are alike disinterested and free from care; and Europeans are not thus free, whatever their political status. Where modern Industrialism prevails, the Brahman, Kshattriya, and Sidra alike are exploited by the Vaishya,? and where in this way commerce settles on every tree there must be felt continual anxiety about a bare subsistence; the victim of Industry must confine his thoughts to the subject of to-morrow’s food for him- self and his family; the mere Will to Life takes precedence of the Will to Power. If at the same time it is decided that every man’s voice is to count equally in the councils of the nation, it follows naturally that the voice of those who think must be 1 Brahman, Kshattriya, Vaishya, Siidra—the four primary types of Brahmanical sociology, viz, philosopher and educator, administrator and soldier, tradesman and herdsman, craftsman and labourer. 4 WHAT HAS INDIA CONTRIBUTED? drowned by that of those who do not think and have no leisure. This position leaves all classes alike at the mercy of unscrupulous individual exploitation, for all political effort lacking a philo- sophical basis becomes merely opportunist. The problem of modern Europe is to discover her own aristocracy and to learn to obey its will. It is just this problem which India long since solved for her- self in her own way. Indian philosophy is essentially the cre- ation of the two upper classes of society, the Brahmans and the Kshattriyas. To the latter are due most of its forward move- ments; to the former its elaboration, systemacization, mythical representation, and application. The Brahmans possessed not merely the genius for organization, but also the power to enforce their will; for, whatever may be the failings of individuals, the Brahmans as a class are men whom other Hindus have always agreed to reverence, and still regard with the highest respect and affection. The secret of their power is manifold; but it is above all in the nature of their appointed dharma, of study, teach- ing, and renunciation. Of Buddhism I shall not speak at great length, but rather in parenthesis; for the Buddhists never directly attempted to organ- ize human society, thinking that, rather than concern himself with polity, the wise man should leave the dark state of life in the world to follow the bright state of the mendicant.1 Buddhist doctrine is a medicine solely directed to save the individual from burning, not in a future hell, but in the present fire of his own thirst. It assumes that to escape from the eternal recurrence is not merely the summum bonum, but the whole purpose of life; he is the wisest who devotes himself immediately to this end; he the most loving who devotes himself to the enlightenment of others. Buddhism has nevertheless deep and lasting effects on Indian state-craft. For just as the Brahman philosopher advised and guided his royal patrons, so did the Buddhist ascetics. The senti- ment of friendliness (metteya), through its effect upon individual character, reacted upon social theory. It is difficult to separate what is Buddhist from what is Indian generally; but we may fairly take the statemanship of the great 1 Dhammapada, 87; also the Jatakamala of Arya Siira, xix, 27. WHAT HAS INDIA CONTRIBUTED? 5 Buddhist Emperor Asoka as an example of the effect of Buddhist teaching upon character and policy. His famous edicts very well illustrate the little accepted truth that “in the Orient, from ancient times, national government has been based on benevolence, and directed to securing the welfare and happiness of the peo- ple.”+ One of the most significant of the edicts deals with “True Conquest.” Previous to his acceptance of the Buddhist dharma Asoka had conquered the neighbouring kingdom of the Kalingas, and added their territory to his own; but now, says the edict, His Majesty feels “remorse for having conquered the Kalingas, because the conquest of a country previously unconquered in- volves the slaughter, death, and carrying away captive of the people. That is a matter of profound sorrow and regret to His Sacred Majesty . . . His Sacred Majesty desires that all animate beings should have security, self-control, peace of mind, and joyousness....My sons and grandsons, who may be, should not regard it as their duty to conquer a new conquest. If perchance they become engaged in a conquest by arms, they should take pleasure in patience and gentleness, and regard as (the only true) conquest, the conquest won by piety. That avails both for this world and the next.” In another edict “His Sacred and Gracious Majesty the King does reverence to men of all sects, whether ascetics or house- holders.” Elsewhere he announces the establishment of hos- pitals, and the appointment of officials “to consider the case where a man has a large family, has been smitten by calamity, or is advanced in years”; he orders that animals should not be killed for his table; he commands that shade and fruit trees should be planted by the high roads; and he exhorts all men to “strive hard.” He quotes the Buddhist saying, “All men are my children.” The annals of India, and especially of Ceylon, can show us other Buddhist kings of the same temper. But it will be seen that such effects of Buddhist teaching have their further consequences mainly through benevolent despotism, and the moral order established by one wise king may be destroyed by his suc- cessors. Buddhism, so far as I know, never attempted to 1 Viscount Torio in The Japan Daily Mail, November 19th-20th, 1890. The whole essay, of which a good part is quoted in Lafcadio Hearn’s ‘Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, is a searching criticism of Western polity, regarded from the standpoint of a modern Buddhist. 6 WHAT HAS INDIA CONTRIBUTED? formulate a constittition or to determine the social order. Just this, however, the Brahmans attempted in many ways, and to a great extent achieved, and it is mainly their application of religi- ous philosophy to the problems of sociology which forms the subject of the present discussion, The Kshattriya-Brahman solution of the ultimate problems of life is given in the early Upanishads. It is a form of absolute (according to Sankaracharya) or modified (according to Ramanuja) Monism. Filled with enthusiasm for this doctrine of the Unity or Interdependence of all life, the Brahman-Utopists set themselves to found a social order upon the basis provided. In the great epics? they represented the desired social order as having actually existed in a golden past, and they put into the mouths of the epic heroes not only their actual philosophy, but the theory of its practical application—this, above all, in the long discourses of the dying Bhishma. The heroes themselves they made ideal types of character for the guidance of all subsequent generations; for the education of India has been accomplished deliberately through hero-worship. In the ‘DharmaSastra’ of Manu® and the ‘ Arthasastra’* of Chanakya—perhaps the most remarkable sociological documents the world possesses—they set forth the picture of the ideal society, defined from the standpoint of law. By these and other means they accomplished what has not yet been effected in any other country in making religious philosophy the essential and intelligible basis of popular culture and national polity. 1 Deussen, The Philosophy of the Upanishads, translated by A. S. Geden, London, 1906. 2 The ‘ Mahabharata’ and ‘The Ramayana.’ These can be studied in the prose translations by P. C. Ray and M. N. Dutt, published in Calcutta. 8’ This most important document is best expounded by Bhagavan Das, The Science of Social Organization, London and Benares, 1910; also translated in full in the “Sacred Books of the East,” vol. xxv. “Herein,” says Manu (i. 107, 118), “are declared the good and evil results of various deeds, and herein are expounded the eternal principles of all the four types of human beings, of many lands, nations, tribes, and families, and also the ways of evil men.” *N. N. Law, Studies in Ancient Hindu Polity, London, 1914. The following precept may serve as an example of the text: that the king who has acquired new territory “should follow the people in their faith, with which they celebrate their national, religious, and congregational festivals and amusements.” WHAT HAS INDIA CONTRIBUTED? y What, then, is the Brahman view of life? To answer this at length, to expound the Science of the Self (Adhydtmd-vidya), which is the religion and philosophy of India, would require con- siderable space. We have already indicated that this science recognizes the unity of all life—one source, one essence, and one goal—and regards the realization of this unity as the highest good, . bliss, salvation, freedom, the final purpose of life. This is for Hindu thinkers eternal life; not an eternity in time, but the recognition here and now of All Things in the Self and the Self in All. “More than all else,’ says Kabir, who may be said to speak for India, “do I cherish at heart that love which makes me to live a limitless life in this world.” This inseparable unity of the material and spiritual world is made the foundation of the Indian culture, and determines the whole character of her social ideals. How, then, could the Brahmans tolerate the practical diversity of life, how provide for the fact that a majority of individuals are guided by selfish aims, how could they deal with the problem of evil? They had found the Religion of Eternity (Nirguna Vidya) ; what of the Religion of Time (Saguna Vidya) ? This is the critical point of religious sociology, when it remains to be seen whether the older idealist (it is old souls that are idealistic, the young are short-sighted) can remember his youth, and can make provision for the interest and activities of spiritual immaturity. To fail here is to divide the church from the every- day life, and to create the misleading distinction of sacred and profane; to succeed is to illuminate daily life with the light of heaven. The life or lives of man may be regarded as constituting a curve —an arc of time-experience subtended by the duration of the individual Will to Life. The outward movement on this curve— Evolution, the Path of Pursuit—the Pravyitti Marga—is char- acterized by self-assertion. The inward movement—Involution, the Path of Return—the Nivritti Marga—is characterized by increasing Self-realization.1 The religion of men on the outward 1JTt is a common convention of Indianists to print the world “self” in lower case when the ego (jivditman) is intended, and with a capital when the higher self, the divine nature (paramdtman), is referred to. Spiritual freedom—the true goal—is the release of the self from the ego concept. 8 WHAT HAS INDIA CONTRIBUTED? path is the Religion of Time; the religion of those who return is the Religion of Eternity. If we consider life as one whole, certainly Self-realization must be regarded as its essential pur- pose from the beginning; all our forgetting is but that we may remember the more vividly. But though it is true that in most men the two phases of experience interpenetrate, we shall best understand the soul of man—drawn as it is in the two opposite, © or seeming opposite, directions of Affirmation and Denial, Will and Will-surrender—by separate consideration of the outward and the inward tendencies. Brahmans avoid the theological use of the terms “good” and “evil,” and prefer to speak of “knowl- edge” and “ignorance” (vidydé and avidyd), and of the three qualities of sativa, rajas, and tamas. As knowledge increases, so much the more will a man of his own motion, and not from any sense of duty, tend to return, and his character and actions will be more purely sdttvic. But we need not on that account condemn the self-assertion of the ignorant as sin; for could Self-realiza- tion be where self-assertion had never been? It is not sin, but youth, and to forbid the satisfaction of the thirst of youth is not a cure; rather, as we realize more clearly every day desires sup- pressed breed pestilence. The Brahmans therefore, notwithstand- ing the austere rule appointed for themselves, held that an ideal human society must provide for the enjoyment of all pleasures by those who wish for them; they would say, perhaps, that those who have risen above the mere gratification of the senses, and beyond a life of mere pleasure, however refined, are just those who have already tasted pleasure to the full. 