Shraddha

“ That Atman which nothing can destroy, in It is infinite power only waiting to be called out. For here is the great difference between all other philosophies and the Indian philosophy. Whether dualistic, qualified monistic, or monistic, they all firmly believe that everything is in the soul itself; it has only to come out and manifest itself. Therefore, this Shraddha is what I want, and what all of us here want, this faith in ourselves, and before you is the great task to get that faith. ”

“ It is considered an act of merit to perform shrāddha in honour of the pitriyas on the banks of a river or tank at midday on the 8th day of the dark half of a month.
From the 13th to the 15th day of the dark half of Shrāvan, after their morning ablutions, orthodox people pour water over the Pipal, the Bābul, the Ber (Zizyphus jujube) and durvā grass, and on those places where cows are known to congregate, in the belief that by so doing the thirst of the spirits of the deceased is quenched. ”

“ It seems therefore a word of a more modern origin. There is a passage in Âpastamba's Dharma-sûtras which betrays, on the part of the author, a consciousness of the more modern origin of the Srâddhas: [306]
"Formerly men and gods lived together in this world. Then the gods in reward of their sacrifices went to heaven, but men were left behind. Those men who perform sacrifices in the same manner as the gods did, dwelt (after death) with the gods and Brahman in heaven. Now (seeing men left behind) Manu revealed [255] this ceremony which is designated by the word Srâddha." ”

“ We have learnt that our daughter, who was carried off by some being in the night, has come into the hands of thy son, and we rejoice thereat. Make an effort, thou and thy son Súryaprabha, to come with her to our house, without raising any objection, in order that we may behold our daughter, returned as it were from the other world, and perform for her at once the ceremony required for marriage.” When this letter was read by Siddhártha, the king Chandraprabha, consenting, welcomed the messenger and rejoiced. ”

“ By this very qualitative caste system which obtained in India in ancient days, the Shudra class was kept down, bound hand and foot. In the first place, scarcely any opportunity was given to the Shudra for the accumulation of wealth or the earning of proper knowledge and education; to add to this disadvantage, if ever a man of extraordinary parts and genius were born of the Shudra class, the influential higher sections of the society forthwith showered titular honours on him and lifted him up to their own circle. ”

“ But no bell calls the Hindu to worship. She worships when she will, not necessarily in groups; she rarely passes a temple without worship, most often just silent prostration: sometimes she will creep in and ring the bell that hangs beside the bull, her timid call of ceremony on the god: or she will run in to leave a flower, or to comfort her heart, poor soul, with prayer for the moment’s need. ”

“ Kālidāsa and Bhavabhūti are Hindus of the Hindus; the Shakuntalā and the Latter Acts of Rāma could have been written nowhere save in India: but Shūdraka, alone in the long line of Indian dramatists, has a cosmopolitan character. Shakuntalā is a Hindu maid, Mādhava is a Hindu hero; but Sansthānaka and Maitreya and Madanikā are citizens of the world. In some of the more striking characteristics of Sanskrit literature—in its fondness for system, its elaboration of style, its love of epigram—Kālidāsa and Bhavabhūti are far truer [xvii] to their native land than is Shūdraka. ”

“ And the case of King Shūdraka is by no means unique in India; in regard to every great Sanskrit writer,—so bare is Sanskrit literature of biography,—we are forced to concentrate attention on the man as he reveals himself in his works. First, however, it may be worth while to compare Shūdraka with two other great dramatists of India, and thus to discover, if we may, in what ways he excels them or is excelled by them.
Kālidāsa, Shūdraka, Bhavabhūti—assuredly, these are the greatest names in the history of the Indian drama. ”

“ The king took Siddhartha by the hand and led him to the hall where stood the statues of the Gods. As the child stepped across the threshold the statues came to life, and all the Gods, Siva, Skanda, Vishnu, Kuvera, Indra, Brahma, descended from their pedestals and fell at his feet. And they sang:
"Meru, king of the mountains, does not bow before a grain of wheat; the Ocean does not bow before a pool of rainwater; the Sun does not bow before a glowworm; he who will have the true knowledge does not bow before the Gods. ”

“ Truly, the Hindus regarded him as the ninth and hitherto last incarnation of Vishnu, the Lying Spirit let loose to deceive man until the tenth and final descent of the god, on the white horse, with a flaming sword like a comet in his hand, for the destruction of the wicked and the renovation of the world, but he was reckoned with and acknowledged in their mythology, and the remarkable conformity between Prince Sarvarthasiddha’s lineage, adventures and achievements, and those of the seventh avatar of the Hindu deity in the Ramayana are certainly more than accidental. ”

“ We have seen that the Drâvidians also regard the rite as merely domestic and to be performed by the house-master.
The orthodox Hindu, besides the usual Srâddha, in connection with his daily worship, offers the Tarpana or water oblation to the sainted dead. The object of the annual Srâddha is, as is well known, to accelerate the [181] progress (gati) of the soul through the various stages of bliss, known as Sâlokya, Sâmîpya and Sârûpya, and by its performance at Gaya the wearied soul passes into Vaikuntha, or the paradise of Vishnu. ”

“ Milk, sugar and cakes are offered to her every morning in a thāl or dish, and milk and sugar every evening. There is a festival in honour of Rājbāi during the Navarātra holidays.59
The temple of Swāmi-Nārāyan at Charadwa contains the images of Shrikrishna, Baldev, Rādhā, Rāma, Lakshman and Sītā. The ceremony of ārati is performed before the images five times every day. The first is called mangalārati or the auspicious ārati and is performed early in the morning. The second is Shangār (Shringār) ārati, when night garments are taken off the images and new ones are put on for the day. ”

“ And [39] another hundred he devoted to the worship of Vishnu and Shiva, after taking the ceremonial bath. And the two hundred which were left he gave to Brahmans and the unhappy and the poor. This was the way he divided and spent the money every day. Then after he had sacrificed and eaten dinner, he stood every night alone at the palace gate with his sword and shield. All this King Shudraka learned from his spies and was greatly pleased and forbad the spies to follow him again. For he thought him a wonderful man, worthy of especial honour. ”

“ In any case, all orthodox Hindus regard the Shradda ceremonies as possessing great virtue and high importance. And this is one of the principal reasons why every Hindu man and woman is so eager for the birth of a son in their family. ”

“ Maya had a sister, Mahaprajapati, who in beauty and virtue was almost her equal. The prince was given into Mahaprajapati's care, and she looked after his wants as tenderly as if he were her own child. And like fire fanned by an auspicious wind, like the moon, queen of the stars in the luminous skies, like the morning sun rising over the mountains in the East, Siddhartha grew in strength and stature.
Everyone now delighted in bringing him precious gifts. They gave him toys that would amuse a child of his age: tiny animals, deer and elephants, horses, cows, birds and fish, and little chariots ”

“ First, the enjoyments of Svarga are held out before the rising vision of men as an allurement. Man admires those enjoyments and makes every effort to attain them. The Vedic sacrifice is revealed to Pururavas, who becomes mad after Urvasi, the nymph of Svarga. Later on, the heavenly cow, Surabhi, attracts Visvâmitra. And he becomes the chief actor in the promulgation of Vedic sacrifice. ”

“ Without a son, who is there to relieve their soul from destruction, and to bring to them future peace and rest through the Shradda ceremony? Thus parents ever pray for male offspring; and the greatest disappointment in the life of a Hindu woman is not to be able to present her lord a son to solace him in this life and to assist him through the valley of death. One of the questions asked by the dutiful son, as he performs this laborious ritual, is ”

“ In Wardha the bridegroom’s head is covered with a blanket, over which is placed the marriage-crown. On the arrival of the bridegroom’s party they are regaled with sherbet or sugar and water by the bride’s relatives, and sometimes red pepper is mixed with this by way of a joke. At a wedding of the Gujarāti Tells in Nimār the caste-priest carries the tutelary goddess Kāli in procession, and in front of her a pot filled with burning cotton-seeds and oil. A cloth is held over the pot, and it is believed that the power of the goddess prevents the cloth from taking fire. ”

“ Then Chandraprabha sent his minister Prabhása, and had king Rambha’s daughter Tárávalí conducted to him from Śákala. Then he departed in the air-chariot with Súryaprabha, being dismissed with great honour by king Vírabhaṭa and all others. And he reached Vajrarátra, which was full of people awaiting his arrival, and was met by Rambha, and entered his palace. There Rambha, having performed the great feast of the marriage ceremony, gave his daughter countless stores of gold, elephants, horses, jewels, and other valuables. ”

“ Those who give a personal origin to the system, now said to be the religion of one-third of the human race, begin with Prince Siddhartha, a young man disposed to be an ascetic, and inclined to retire from the world. In order to wean him from his meditative tendency, his father, in order to cure him, and prevent him from forsaking his caste, married him to a beautiful princess, and introduced him to the splendid dissipation of a luxurious court. ”

“ There is a city called Beautiful, and it deserves the name. There lived a king named Shudraka, of tremendous power and mighty courage. He was so used to victory that the fire of his courage was kept blazing by the wind from the fans in the hands of the wives of his vanquished foes. Under his rule the earth was rich and always good, as in the days of old. And he was fond of brave men.
Now one day a Brahman named Hero came from Malwa to pay his homage to this king. He had a wife named Virtue, a son named Trusty, and a daughter named Heroic. ”

“ Bharata’s march is described at great length by the poet; but only one incident need be mentioned here. On the way the hermit Bharadvaja, desirous of doing Bharata honour, and probably not unwilling to display his power, invited him and his followers, of whom, as we have seen, there were many thousands, to a feast at his hermitage. At the command of the saint the forest became transformed into lovely gardens, abounding in flowers and fruit. Palaces of matchless beauty sprang into existence. Music filled the cool and perfumed air. ”

“ They also should be carefully excluded that are either excessively fair or excessively black, that have diseased nails, that are lepers, that are deceitful, that are born in bastardy of widows or of women having husbands alive; and they also that support themselves by the profession of arms. That Sraddha which is censurable, consumeth the performer thereof like fire consuming fuel. If they that are to be employed in Sraddhas happen to be dumb, blind, or deaf, care should be taken to employ them along with Brahmanas conversant with the Vedas. ”

“ The ugly little daughter-in-law replied, “Afar off my god lives, and the roads to him are hard, and the paths to him are full of thorns. Where snakes abound and where tigers lie in wait, there is his temple.” The third Monday in Shravan, the ugly little daughter-in-law again started from the palace with her flowers and incense, her betel-nut and bel leaves, her rice and sesamum, in order to meet the serpent-maidens of Patâla and the bevy of wood-nymphs, and with them to worship the god in the hidden depths of the forest. ”

“ Ságaradatta the king of the Gandharvas, who lives here, has a daughter named Gandharvadattá, who eclipses the nymphs of heaven; it seems as if the Creator had blended nectar, the moon, and sandalwood, and other choice things, in order to compose her body, as a specimen of his skill in making all that is fair. She is always singing to the lyre the hymn of Vishnu, which the god himself bestowed on her, and so she has attained supreme skill in music. ”

“ By performing the Sraddha on the twelfth day one always beholds, if one desires, diverse kinds of beautiful articles made of silver and gold. By performing the Sraddha on the thirteenth day one attains to eminence over one's kinsmen. Without doubt, all the young men in the family of him who performs the Sraddha on the fourteenth day meet with death. Such a man becomes entangled in war. By performing the Sraddha on the day of the new moon, one obtains the fruition of every wish. ”

“ And at last, having observed the delicate sweetness of her face and her grace and majesty, he said, sighing:
“Noble daughter, you have now been wedded to my son, Siddhartha, for six months. Is all well with you?”
And, stooping to touch his feet, she replied:
“Great father, all is well. And I did not know that in all the world there was such joy as I share night and day with my dear lord. For beyond all beauty he is beautiful and beyond all goodness, good, and his gentleness of speech is not like that of a woman, but with strength behind it like Himalaya when he smiles in sunshine. ”