Confucius, who was born ten years after Gosâlä, in 551 B.C., and died five years after him, in 479 B.C., was an agnostic who was against Taoism and sought to resolve all difficulties in the world through morality. He was, according to Max Weber, "a rationalist absolutely free of the metaphysical and of any religious tradition who ... built up a morality based on the nature of man and the needs of society." His meeting with Lao-tse would have been in 517 B.C. It is apparently a Jaïnä influence that caused the appearance of the notion of transmigration in later Taoism.
With the development of urban, industrial, and capitalist societies, the doctrines of the kind attributed to Arihat—moralistic, materialistic, and atheistic—filtered through into all subsequent religions, including modernized forms of Hinduism and Shaivism. We find their influence in Zoroastrianism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and even Marxism, the last of the religions of the Kali Yugä.
The Shaiva Revival
THE period that corresponds to the beginning of the Christian era was everywhere a time when the official religions were being challenged. In India, Buddhism, which had considerably weakened the Vedic tradition, was on the decline, yet the authority of the Brahmans was not restored. Mendicant ascetics, despised and ignored by the ruling classes, had also undergone attacks from Buddhism, and it is only in the age of the decline of Buddhism, that is, at the beginning of our era, that we see the ancient pre-Aryan culture and its religion, Shaivism, reappear gloriously, scarcely affected by centuries of clandestine existence. The moment seemed favorable to the representatives of the ancient tradition to openly reestablish its precepts and react against all the foreign cults, including Vedism, and the new religions, Buddhism and Jainism.
Lakulishä
IT was an jîvikä called Lakulishä, one of those wandering monks who maintained the heritage of the ancient knowledge in an occult tradition, who judged the moment opportune to reveal it, causing a great revolution in society. This corresponds to the greatest period in Indian civilization, which was to last for more than a millennium. Lakulishä (the name means the "Club-bearing Lord") restored an extraordinary impetus to Shaivism, reestablished the pre-Aryan culture, and united, under the name of the Pâshupatä(s) (followers of Pâshupati, Lord of the Animals), the different sects that had survived in semisecrecy for centuries.
According to tradition, Lakulishä probably lived a little before and at the beginning of our era. He would be contemporary with john the Baptist. He is considered by his disciples to be the last of the twenty-eight manifestations of Shiva mentioned in the Purâna. The Kurmä Purânä (chap. 53), the Vâyu Purânä (chap. 23), and the Lingä Purânä (chap. 24) predicted that the Great God (Maheshvarä) would appear in the form of a wandering monk called Lakulin or Nakulishä, and that he would have four disciples named Kushikä, Gargä, Miträ, and Kanrushyä, who would reestablish the cult of Pâshupati and would therefore be called pâshupatä(s). Lakulishä would have had a predecessor called Ulûkä. After teaching Maheshvarä Yogä, Lakulishä would return to the paradise of Rudrä (Shivä).
Lakulishä descended from a dynasty of non-Aryan priests called jangamä. He belonged to the Kâlâmukha (Black Face) sect. He embarked on a work that conflicted with that of Gosâlä, reestablished the strictest conventions of the ancient religion, and violently opposed Vedism, jaïnism, and most particularly Buddhism. Lakulishä reinstituted sacrifices, including human sacrifices, and restored respect for the practices of Hathä Yogä and Tantrism and the cosmological theories of the ancient Sâmkhyä.
According to M. R. Sakhare (The History and Philosophy of Lingayat Religion), the influence of Lakulishä was immense and spread like wildfire, first in the north and then in the south of India. The Shaiva revival, supported by the Bhârashivä and Vakatakä dynasties in central and northern India, gradually spread in the south under the impetus of Shaiva mystics, the Nâyanâr, who all belonged to the artisan classes. During the first eleven centuries of the Christian era, Shaivism thrived and Buddhism was uprooted. This Shaivai and Tantric revival coincides with one of the most important periods of Indian civilization on a mystic, philosophical, artistic, and literary plan, which was to last until the Muslim invasions of the twelfth century.
In the time of Lakulishä, the Akhâdâ(s) (regiments), which were religious military orders, reassumed a great importance. The order of the Dashanâmi Nâgä, which still exists, is the oldest. Their organization had much in common with that of Mithraism, which developed at the same time among the soldiers of the Roman Empire, and which includes the cult of the bull, sacrifices, Dionysian initiations, and communal sacred meals.
In the fourth century, Chandrä Guptä, an adventurer of Scythian origin, who had married a princess of the ancient Shaiva tribe of the Lichavi, assassinated the last monarch of Pataliputra and ruled from A.D. 319 to 330. It is from this period on that representations of Lakulishä are to be found in India. "These portray him as a naked yogin with a staff (lakula) in his left hand and a citron (matu-lingä) in his right, with his penis erect, and either standing or seated in the lotus posture. At about the beginning of the eleventh century, the Lakulishä cult seems to have shifted its activities to southern India.9 In the north, the Kushânä emperors replaced the pictures of Hercules on their coins with ones of Shivä, and of Heracles with images of Lakulishä.
In A.D. 78 commences the Shakä (Scythian) era, which is still in progress in India. The Vikrama era had begun in 58 B.C.
Mahâyanä
IN the second century, the Kushânä emperor Kanishakä embarked on a reform of Buddhism based on the ideas of Tantric Shaivism. The canons of this new Buddhism, which is a disguised Shaivism and is called Mahâyanä (Great Vehicle), were defined in a great synod held in Kashmir. This synthesis of Buddhism and Shaivism was primarily the work of Ashvaghoshä, a Hindu converted to Buddhism. Mahâyana spread mainly in Tibet, where we find numerous practices of the Kâpâlikä(s) (skull-bearers) Shaivas, who also used a human skull to hold their food.
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Rediscovered Tradition
Texts
MANY OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE ANCIENT PRE-ARYAN culture that only survived in oral tradition or in Dravidian texts, now lost, were recovered, reconstructed, transcribed, and translated into various popular languages, but particularly into Sanskrit, which had become the universal language of the culture. It was then that numerous historical, philosophical, and scientific works appeared, mingled with legends, popular beliefs, and myths. Some versions of the Purânä(s) in the Tamil language are older than the Sanskrit versions.
Using this restored material as a point of departure, Shaiva monks and some traditional scholars have been able to reconstruct part of what survived of the ancient pre-Aryan heritage, rediscovering the bases of a wisdom, a way of living, and a path of knowledge originating in a golden age of humanity that had been for a long time safeguarded in an occult tradition.
This return to ancient knowledge and wisdom, advocated by Lakulishä, is considered by followers of Shaivism to be the last effort to check the evolution of a humanity racing toward destruction. Therefore, it was from the beginning of our era onward that the fundamental texts of pre-Aryan philosophical and religious tradition were reconstituted and translated into a fairly crude Sanskrit, with the aim of establishing a set of sacred texts to set up officially against the Vedä(s), which had themselves been recently transcribed.
The most important of these texts are called the gamä(s) (traditions) and Tanträ(s) (rules and rites). To these must be added the Purânä(s) (ancient chronicles), which deal with mythology and history, and philosophical and technical works about cosmology (Sâmkhyä), Yogä, linguistics (Vyâkaranä), astronomy (Jyotishä), medicine (Ayurvedä), mathematics (Ganitä), and so on—a vast literature, which, despite having been transcribed in a relatively recent era, nevertheless has sources in distant antiquity. Their rediscovery provoked a phenomenal revival of cultural, philosophical, religious, and artistic activity.
Almost all of wha
t has come down to us of the religious and philosophical thought of India, including the texts and commentaries of the Vedä(s), Brahmä Sûträ(s), and Upanishades), as well as those of Buddhism and Jaïnism, was only transcribed during the great age of liberalism and civilization which characterize the Shaiva revival.
The Hindu religion, as it is practiced today, is tantric in character, based almost exclusively on the gamä(s). Virtually nothing remains of the Vedic religion. The same applies to the Tibetan religion, itself also entirely tantric.1 Hindu philosophy is wrongly considered to be of Vedic origin. Through contrivances of exegesis, attempts were made to link concepts originating from an older and more developed culture to Vedic texts.
If we wish to understand Indian thought, we must return to its sources, that is, to the great civilization that preceded the arrival of the Aryans, which has continued to the present time and of which the Shaiva religion, the cosmological theory called Sâmkhyä, the practices of Yogä, as well as the bases of what we consider to be the Hindu philosophy, are part.
Although the gamä and the Purânä texts that have come down to us are relatively late writings, we find their mark in all the philosophical and religious conceptions of the Aryans from the Atharvä Vedä onward. The disdain shown toward these texts by most of the modern Orientalists, who wanted to relate everything back to the Vedä(s) (as, moreover, the Western world does to the Greeks), has led them to make monumental errors in dating and describing the evolution of religious and philosophical concepts. Many passages of the best-known texts of philosophical and religious brahmanic literature written in the Sanskrit language are derived from the gamä(s). This is the case with, for example, the Bhagavat Gîtâ, of which over half the verses are borrowed from the Parameshvarä gamä and three of which passages are quotations from the Shvetâshvatarä Upanishad, which is itself based on the gamä(s).2
Sakhare also points out that already during the age of Vedic domination, five authors, considered to be Shaiva saints, called Arrivars, had compiled (in all likelihood in ancient Dravidian script) some elements of the pre-Aryan tradition in twenty-eight works, of which the subsequent gamä(s) are translations into fairly coarse Sanskrit. The four Brahmans mentioned in the Chhândogyä Upanishad turn to one of these Arrivars for teachings.
The gamä(s), taken together, constitute an independent literature that has no relation to the Vedä(s). The originals, in ancient Dravidian, are lost today. Some elements of doctrine and vocabulary have been inserted into subsequent versions to establish apparent similarities with the Vedic religion. In any case, the differences between the Vedä(s) and gamä(s) were recognized from then on, since the ritual practices of the gamä(s) are in conflict with Vedic rites, although, in the course of the centuries, a certain amalgamation has been achieved.3
In the everyday practice of current Hinduism, the Brahmans use the Vedic rite or the Tantric rite, established in the gamä(s), depending on the circumstances.
There are twenty-eight Shaiva gamä(s) and numerous secondary gamä(s) (Upâgamä). Thus, the Kamikägama is followed by three Upâgamä(s) called Uttarä, Bhairavottarä, and Narashimhä. The Yogâgamä is supplemented by five Upagâmä(s), called Vinashirottarä, Târaka, Sâmkhyä, Shânti, and tmayogä.
The gamä(s) (traditions) and the Tanträ(s) (rules and rites) are part of a single system. In general, the texts that give preeminence to the cult of Shiva are called gamä(s) (Kâmikâgama, Sukshmâgamä, etc.), and those dealing with the cult of the goddess, Shaktism, are called Tanträ(s) (Shakti Tanträ, Mahânirvâna Tanträ, etc.). Those who venerate the conscious principle of the world in a masculine form are Shaivas. Those who venerate the divine power in a feminine form are Shaktä(s).4
The Tanträ(s) are classed in four groups: Shaïvä, Pâshupatä, Saumyä, and Lagudä, corresponding to four Shaïvä sects called Shaïvä, Pâshupatä, Kâpâlikä, and Kâlâmukhä.
Already the Mahâbhâratä, which recounts the struggles that brought the Aryan invaders into conflict with the native populations of the second millennium, but which was only written down in its present form at the time of the Shaïvä revival, lists the great philosophical and religious traditions of India in the age of its compilation. These are the Sâmkhyä, Yogä, Pâñcharâträ, Vedä, and pâshupatä. We can see that the Vedic tradition does not occupy a predominant position: the other traditions are connected with Shaivism. This enumeration does not include sects considered to be atheistic, such as the Materialism of Chârvâkä and Jaïnism. The numerous sects stemming from Shaivism are, in principle, included among the pâshupatä.
Few texts in ancient Dravidian languages still exist. The most important are the works of a sort of club of Tamil poets called the Sangam. These texts are neither philosophical nor religious but contain allusions to Shaiva mythology. The literature of the Sangam is divided into two periods: Puram (ancient) and Aham (more recent). In the Puram, we find references to the destruction of the three cities, the blue neck of Shivä, his third eye, and the crescent of the moon adorning the god's brow.
Later, four of the Nâyanâr (Shaiva saints) of the Middle Ages—Tirumular (c. 400–600), Sambandar, Appar (c. 650), and Sundarar (c. 800)—left works in the Tamil language, which are accepted as authoritative, on Shaivism, its principles and practices. The most important is the Tirumandiram of Tirumular, which is the foundation on which the philosophical system called Shaïvä-Siddhantä developed.5
The antiquity of the reconstructed texts of the Purânä(s), Tanträ(s), and gamä(s) has been disputed by the advocates of the Aryan origins of the civilization. However, the recent discoveries of Sumerian or Cretan parallels confirm their authenticity. Recent works have even made possible the identification of plans of Sumerian temples with those, described in the gamä(s), which serve as a basis for the construction of Shaïvä temples.6 A careful study of the texts of the Purânä(s) reveals important elements. From it we discover that at the time certain events occurred, the sages who meditated by the Ganges, at sunrise, saw the daystar substituted for Sirius in the constellation of the Hunter (Mrigavâchä) about 5500 B.C., or Orion in the constellation of the Antelope (Mrigä) (c. 4500), and then the Twins (between 4500 and 3400), or Aldebran (Rohini) in the constellation of the Bull (c. 4000). In other cases, it was the Pleiades (Krittikä) (c. 2500)7—following the precession of the equinoxes, a cycle of 26,000 years. These observations give us a clue that enables us to date the development of the great protohistoric civilization of India.
Hindu Decadence
THE Shaiva euphoria provoked by Lakulishä was to last for almost a millennium; then its expansion was crushed. India was once again in a period of conflict caused by invasions, first by the Huns, then of Islamized Arabs.
The Aryan Brahmans, who for centuries had represented the dominant intellectual class, tried gradually to take over, to their advantage, the philosophical and scientific conceptions inherited from Shaivism, while at the same time conflicting with them on religious grounds. With skillful exegesis, they tried to connect its ideas to a would-be Vedic tradition. As a consequence, from the sixth century onward, we see famous Brahmans present a modified version of the Sâmkhyä, the Vaisheshikä, and other philosophical systems inherited from Shaivism. Continuing the Jaïno-Buddhist moralistic and antiritualistic line, they were to create a philosophical and religious movement with monistic tendencies, which claimed to be connected to the original Vedism, but was profoundly influenced by Buddhism and Islam. Shankarâchâryä, Râmânuja, and Mâdhavä were to reinterpret the ancient texts. It is to them that we owe the great commentaries on the Vedä(s), Brähmanä(s) and Upanishad(s). However, they fought among themselves. Mâdhavä, the latest of this line of new philosophers, said of Sankarâchâryä that he was "a deceitful demon who had perverted the teaching of the Brahmä Sûträ to lead souls astray."
In parallel with what happened in the West with Mithraism or the teaching of Simon the Magician, the disciple of John the Baptist and the rival of Jesus, the Aryan scholars tried to obliter
ate the traces of the teaching of Lakulishä and to minimize the significance of the recovered texts. In this, they have been followed by modern Indologists, whether Indian or foreign.
The majority of gamä and Tanträ texts have still not been published, and only fragments have been translated. This vast amount of knowledge, which reflects the oldest traditions of India, remains systematically ignored. It is often through the writings of his opponents that we have some elementary knowledge about the teachings of Lakulishä.
From the age of Sankarâchâryä onward, a new religion, called Vaishnavism, developed in India, modeled principally on jaïnism and linked to the cult of Vishnu. This devotional, sentimental, and puritanical religion suited an age troubled by the collapsing values brought about by Islamic invasions. "In many parts of India the Vaisnavas replaced the jains in popularity and influence and in the process absorbed many jain beliefs and practices, including hostility to the excesses of Tantric Shaivism."8 What is today accepted to be the basic essentials of the philosophical, religious and moral ideas of India, in particular the Vedantä, and the theory of Karmä and reincarnation, therefore stems from a philosophical trend that, in the West, corresponds to the period following the fall of the Roman Empire and is situated between the eighth and twelfth centuries, inspired by jaïnism, Buddhism, then Islamic and Christian influences. This new Hinduism has only a very theoretical link with the Vedism to which it claims to be related. Vaishnavism was subsequently, in the British period, profoundly influenced by Christianity, Protestantism in particular. New reformist movements attempting to present Hinduism in a form suited to Western prejudices, such as the Brahmosamaj of Râjâ Ram Mohan Roy and Devendranath Tagore (father of the poet), the Aryasamaj of Dayânandä Saravati, as well as doctrines expounded by Vivekânandä, Aurobindo, Tilak, and others, by claiming to return to the purity of a mythical Vedism, has merely succeeded in carrying on the negativist concepts of jaïno-Buddhism, whose popular form was from then on linked to Vaishnavism, which had become the religion of the merchant class and of the new political power, Gandhi in particular. It is these ideas that so-called gurus teach today in the name of Hinduism, in ashrams where the tradition of Arihat is perpetuated.
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