HINDULSM AND BUDDHISM.*
HALF the population of the globe, massed in Eastern and Central Asia, professes various fen= of Hinduism and Buddhism. In attempting an historical sketch of these religions Sir Charles Eliot undertook a formidable task, involving a wide knowledge of Oriental languages and Oriental thought and custom, as well as of tho history of Asia. Wo can congratulate him on the literary skill with which he has surveyed this vast field in three most readable volumes. Like the Buddhist worshippers, ho has certainly " acquired merit " by this learned, sympathetic and interesting account of the religions of the East, which the West, as he says, cannot afford to treat with indifference. Readers will wonder at times whether the author has not carried impar- tiality to an extreme, and whether, indeed, in his anxiety to deal fairly with Eastern faiths he has not been unfair to Christianity. It is characteristic of him to say, for instance :-
" I do not think that Christianity will over make much progress in Asia, for what is commonly known by that name is not the teaching of Christ, but a rearrangement of it made in Europe, and like most European institutions, practical rather than thoughtful. And as for the teaching of Christ Himself, the Indian finds it excellent but not ample or satisfying. There is little in it which cannot be found in some of the many scriptures of Hinduism, and it is silent on many points about which they speak, if not with convincing authority, at least with suggestive profundity."
This seems to us to be wholly mistaken, but we cite it to show that Sir Charles Eliot is, on the whole, biased in favour of the East as against the West. He does not try to gloss over the weaknesses of Hinduism nor to ignore its evil aspects, but he emphasizes its good qualities and even maintains that " Indian religions have more spirituality and a greater sense of the Infinite than our Western creeds and more liberality."
The book is skilfully planned. It opens with a brilliant essay of a hundred pages, in which the whole subject is outlined. The reader, thus familiarized with the elements, may then proceed to the detailed exposition. First, we have a sketch of early Indian religion, as seen in the Vedas. In the sixth century before Christ there was a great movement of dissent from the priestly code. One branch of this movement is still represented in India by the Jains ; another and more important branch is Buddhism, which has spread all over Eastern Asia, but is no longer practised in India itself. The author gives a particularly
• Hinduism and Buddhism : an Iiidorioa Sketch, By 81r Charles Blot. I vols. London : Arnold. 1843. net.]
interesting account of the Buddha and his teaching, and coal. pares him in a thoughtful chapter with the other great religious teachers of the world. He describes the spread of Buddhism through India, under the guidance of Asoka, in the third century before Christ, and discusses the early Buddhist canon. Then we have an account of the Mahayana, the later Buddhist school of thought, and of the gradual decay of Buddhism in India. This is followed by a most instructive survey of later Hinduism, which absorbed much of the Buddhist teaching and much of the primitive and non-Aryan beliefs extant in India. Tho author then examines in considerable detail the spread of Buddhism outside India, especially in China and Tibet ; he omits all but a fragment of what he had written on Japanese Buddhism because, as British Ambassador to Japan, ho has felt it desirable to refrain from public comments on the institutions of the country to which he is accredited." The book ends with a discussion of the influence of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Islam in India and of India's influence on the West.
Here we can only direct attention to one or two points in this comprehensive and fascinating treatise. Sir Charles Eliot insists that in India, " more than in any other country, the national mind finds its favourite occupation and full expression in religion." But " this quality is geographical rather than racial." " The chief characteristics of mature Indian religion are characteristics of an area, not of a race," and outside India Hinduism has made no lasting conquests, though Buddhism has endured everywhere save in its original home. The typical Hindu doctrines are polytheistic pantheism and reincarnation— the belief " that a he does not begin at birth or end at death, but is a link in an infinite series of lives, each of which is con- ditioned and determined by the acts done in previous existences (Karma)." But Hinduism is more than a religion. " It is analogous not to Christianity but to European civilization, which produces side by side philanthropy and the horrors of war, or to science, which has given us the blessings of surgery and tho curse of explosives." It is a whole social system, in which are embedded innumerable beliefs, both good and evil, and customs that are beneficent and repulsive. The fundamental defect of Hinduism from our point of view is that, as the author admits, religion and the moral law are not identified. It is a religion which has its saints but which also has many devil-worshippers. The author's chapter on Saktism throws some light on the foul paganism which still has millions of adherents in India, and which respectable Hindus do not try to suppress. The position of the Brahmans is simply this, " that whatever is the creed of India, they must be its ministers." But they are not necessarily priests in the ordinary sense. On the contrary, " in many ways the Brahmans dissociate themselves from popular religion," while " those of good family will not perform religious rites for Sudras and treat the Brahmans who do so as inferiors." The idea current among certain optimistic politicians that caste is dying in India and giving place to democracy finds no support from Sir Charles Eliot. He says that few Brahmans " would dispute the proposition that a man cannot be a Iiindu unless ho belongs to a caste." And he shows that castes, far from declining, are always multiplying, even the Indian Moslems are divided into groups with much the same restrictions " as the Hindu castes. No one has yet shown how the caste system is to be reconciled with democratic institutions, based on the vote of a majority. We may mention, too, the admirable account of the rise of the Sikhs, a sixteenth-century sect, whose founder conceived the idea of reconciling Hinduism and Islam and who have developed into what may be regarded as a separate race. Finally, we would commend to the reader the shrewd and penetrating account of religion in China, where Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism exist peacefully aide by side and have many common adherents—an attitude of mind which the author finds " eminently sensible," inasmuch as " Confucianism is an admirable religion for State ceremonies and College chapels," while " if you wish to water the aridity of Confucianism you can find in Buddhism or Taoism whatever you want in the way of emotion or philosophy."
Previous page
