BULFINCH’S MYTHOLOGY

THE AGE OF FABLE

OR STORIES OF GODS AND HEROES

by Thomas Bulfinch

[1855]

CHAPTER XXXVII

EASTERN MYTHOLOGY – ZOROASTER- HINDU MYTHOLOGY – CASTES –
BUDDHA – GRAND LAMA

ZOROASTER

OUR knowledge of the religion of the ancient Persians is principally
derived from the Zendavesta, or sacred books of that people. Zoroaster
was the founder of their religion, or rather the reformer of the
religion which preceded him. The time when he lived is doubtful, but
it is certain that his system became the dominant religion of
Western Asia from the time of Cyrus (550 B.C.) to the conquest of
Persia by Alexander the Great. Under the Macedonian monarchy the
doctrines of Zoroaster appear to have been considerably corrupted by
the introduction of foreign opinions; but they afterwards recovered
their ascendency.

Zoroaster taught the existence of a supreme being, who created two
other mighty beings and imparted to them as much of his own nature
as seemed good to him. Of these, Ormuzd (called by the Greeks
Oromasdes) remained faithful to his creator, and was regarded as the
source of all good, while Ahriman (Arimanes) rebelled, and became
the author of all evil upon the earth. Ormuzd created man and supplied
him with all the materials of happiness; but Ahriman marred this
happiness by introducing evil into the world, and creating savage
beasts and poisonous reptiles and plants. In consequence of this, evil
and good are now mingled together in every part of the world, and
the followers of good and evil- the adherents of Ormuzd and Ahriman-
carry on incessant war. But this state of things will not last for
ever. The time will come when the adherents of Ormuzd shall everywhere
be victorious, and Ahriman and his followers be consigned to
darkness for ever.

The religious rites of the ancient Persians were exceedingly simple.
They used neither temples, altars, nor statues, and performed their
sacrifices on the tops of mountains. They adored fire, light, and
the sun as emblems of Ormuzd, the source of all light and purity,
but did not regard them as independent deities. The religious rites
and ceremonies were regulated by the priests, who were called Magi.
The learning of the Magi was connected with astrology and enchantment,
in which they were so celebrated that their name was applied to all
orders of magicians and enchanters.

Wordsworth thus alludes to the worship of the Persians:

“…the Persians,- zealous to reject
Altar and Image, and the inclusive walls
And roofs of temples built by human hands,-
The loftiest heights ascending, from their tops,
With myrtle-wreathed Tiara on his brows,
Presented sacrifice to Moon and Stars,
And to the Winds and mother Elements,
And the whole circle of the Heavens, for him
A sensitive existence and a God.”
Excursion, Book IV.

In “Childe Harold” Byron speaks thus of the Persian worship:

“Not vainly did the early Persian make
His altar the high places and the peak
Of earth-o’er-gazing mountains, and thus take
A fit and unwalled temple, there to seek
The Spirit, in whose honour shrines are weak,
Upreared of human hands. Come and compare
Columns and idol-dwellings, Goth or Greek,
With Nature’s realms of worship, earth and air,
Nor fix on fond abodes to circumscribe thy prayer.”
III. 91.

The religion of Zoroaster continued to flourish even after the
introduction of Christianity, and in the third century was the
dominant faith of the East, till the rise of the Mahometan power and
the conquest of Persia by the Arabs in the seventh century, who
compelled the greater number of the Persians to renounce their ancient
faith. Those who refused to abandon the religion of their ancestors
fled to the deserts of Kerman and to Hindustan, where they still exist
under the name of Parsees, a name derived from Paris, the ancient name
of Persia. The Arabs call them Guebers, from an Arabic word signifying
unbelievers. At Bombay the Parsees are at this day a very active,
intelligent, and wealthy class. For purity of life, honesty, and
conciliatory manners, they are favourably distinguished. They have
numerous temples to Fire, which they adore as the symbol of the
divinity.

The Persian religion makes the subject of the finest tale in Moore’s
“Lalla Rookh,” the “Fire Worshippers.” The Gueber chief says:

“Yes! I am of that impious race,
Those slaves of Fire, that morn and even
Hail their creator’s dwelling-place
Among the living lights of heaven;
Yes I am of that outcast crew
To Iran and to vengeance true,
Who curse the hour your Arabs came
To desecrate our shrines of flame,
And swear before God’s burning eye
To break our country’s chains or die.”

HINDU MYTHOLOGY

The religion of the Hindus is professedly founded on the Vedas. To
these books of their scripture they attach the greatest sanctity,
and state that Brahma himself composed them at the creation. But the
present arrangement of the Vedas is attributed to the sage Vyasa,
about five thousand years ago.

The Vedas undoubtedly teach the belief of one supreme God. The
name of this deity is Brahma. His attributes are represented by the
three personified powers of creation, preservation, and destruction,
which under the respective names of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva form
the Trimurti or triad of principal Hindu gods. Of the inferior gods
the most important are: 1. Indra, the god of heaven, of thunder,
lightning, storm, and rain; 2. Agni, the god of fire; 3. Yama, the god
of the infernal regions; 4. Surya, the god of the sun.

Brahma is the creator of the universe, and the source from which all
the individual deities have sprung, and into which all will ultimately
be absorbed. “As milk changes to curd, and water to ice, so is
Brahma variously transformed and diversified, without aid of
exterior means of any sort.” The human soul, according to the Vedas,
is a portion of the supreme ruler, as a spark is of the fire.

VISHNU

Vishnu occupies the second place in the triad of the Hindus, and
is the personification of the preserving principle. To protect the
world in various epochs of danger, Vishnu descended to the earth in
different incarnations, or bodily forms, which descents are called
Avatars. They are very numerous, but ten are more particularly
specified. The first Avatar was as Matsya, the Fish, under which
form Vishnu preserved Manu, the ancestor of the human race, during a
universal deluge. The second Avatar was in the form of a Tortoise,
which form he assumed to support the earth when the gods were churning
the sea for the beverage of immortality, Amrita.

We may omit the other Avatars, which were of the same general
character, that is, interpositions to protect the right or to punish
wrong-doers, and come to the ninth, which is the most celebrated of
the Avatars of Vishnu, in which he appeared in the human form of
Krishna, an invincible warrior, who by his exploits relieved the earth
from the tyrants who oppressed it.

Buddha is by the followers of the Brahminical religion regarded as a
delusive incarnation of Vishnu, assumed by him in order to induce
the Asuras, opponents of the gods, to abandon the sacred ordinances of
the Vedas, by which means they lost their strength and supremacy.

Kalki is the name of the tenth Avatar, in which Vishnu will appear
at the end of the present age of the world to destroy all vice and
wickedness, and to restore mankind to virtue and purity.

SIVA

Siva is the third person of the Hindu triad. He is the
personification of the destroying principle. Though the third name, he
is, in respect to the number of his worshippers and the extension of
his worship, before either of the others. In the Puranas (the
scriptures of the modern Hindu religion) no allusion is made to the
original power of this god as a destroyer; that power not being to
be called into exercise till after the expiration of twelve millions
of years, or when the universe will come to an end; and Mahadeva
(another name for Siva) is rather the representative of regeneration
than of destruction.

The worshippers of Vishnu and Siva form two sects, each of which
proclaims the superiority of its favourite deity, denying the claims
of the other, and Brahma, the creator, having finished his work, seems
to be regarded as no longer active, and has now only one temple in
India, while Mahadeva and Vishnu have many. The worshippers of
Vishnu are generally distinguished by a greater tenderness for life,
and consequent abstinence from animal food, and a worship less cruel
than that of the followers of Siva.

JUGGERNAUT

Whether the worshippers of juggernaut are to be reckoned among the
followers of Vishnu or Siva, our authorities differ. The temple stands
near the shore, about three hundred miles southwest of Calcutta. The
idol is a carved block of wood, with a hideous face, painted black,
and a distended blood-red mouth. On festival days the throne of the
image is placed on a tower sixty feet high, moving on wheels. Six long
ropes are attached to the tower, by which the people draw it along.
The priests and their attendants stand round the throne on the
tower, and occasionally turn to the worshippers with songs and
gestures. While the tower moves along numbers of the devout
worshippers throw themselves on the ground, in order to be crushed
by the wheels, and the multitude shout in approbation of the act, as a
pleasing sacrifice to the idol. Every year, particularly at two
great festivals in March and July, pilgrims flock in crowds to the
temple. Not less than seventy or eighty thousand people are said to
visit the place on these occasions, when all castes eat together.

CASTES

The division of the Hindus into classes or castes, with fixed
occupations, existed from the earliest times. It is supposed by some
to have been founded upon conquest, the first three castes being
composed of a foreign race, who subdued the natives of the country and
reduced them to an inferior caste. Others trace it to the fondness
of perpetuating, by descent from father to son, certain offices or
occupations.

The Hindu tradition gives the following account of the origin of the
various castes: At the creation Brahma resolved to give the earth
inhabitants who should be direct emanations from his own body.
Accordingly from his mouth came forth the eldest born, Brahma (the
priest), to whom he confided the four Vedas; from his right arm issued
Shatriya (the warrior), and from his left, the warrior’s wife. His
thighs produced Vaissyas, male and female (agriculturists and
traders), and lastly from his feet sprang Sudras (mechanics and
labourers).

The four sons of Brahma, so significantly brought into the world,
became the fathers of the human race, and heads of their respective
castes. They were commanded to regard the four Vedas as containing all
the rules of their faith, and all that was necessary to guide them
in their religious ceremonies. They were also commanded to take rank
in the order of their birth, the Brahmans uppermost, as having
sprung from the head of Brahma.

A strong line of demarcation is drawn between the first three castes
and the Sudras. The former are allowed to receive instruction from the
Vedas, which is not permitted to the Sudras. The Brahmans possess
the privilege of teaching the Vedas, and were in former times in
exclusive possession of all knowledge. Though the sovereign of the
country was chosen from the Shatriya class, also called Rajputs, the
Brahmans possessed the real power, and were the royal counsellors, the
judges and magistrates of the country; their persons and property were
inviolable; and though they committed the greatest crimes, they
could only be banished from the kingdom. They were to be treated by
sovereigns with the greatest respect, for “a Brahman, whether
learned or ignorant, is a powerful divinity.”

When the Brahman arrives at years of maturity it becomes his duty to
marry. He ought to be supported by the contributions of the rich,
and not to be obliged to gain his subsistence by any laborious or
productive occupation. But as all the Brahmans could not be maintained
by the working classes of the community, it was found necessary to
allow them to engage in productive employments.

We need say little of the two intermediate classes, whose rank and
privileges may be readily inferred from their occupations. The
Sudras or fourth class are bound to servile attendance on the higher
classes, especially the Brahmans, but they may follow mechanical
occupations and practical arts, as painting and writing, or become
traders or husbandmen. Consequently they sometimes grow rich, and it
will also sometimes happen that Brahmans become poor. That fact
works its usual consequence, and rich Sudras sometimes employ poor
Brahmans in menial occupations.

There is another class lower even than the Sudras, for it is not one
of the original pure classes, but springs from an unauthorized union
of individuals of different castes. These are the Pariahs, who are
employed in the lowest services and treated with the utmost
severity. They are compelled to do what no one else can do without
pollution. They are not only considered unclean themselves, but they
render unclean everything they touch. They are deprived of all civil
rights, and stigmatized by particular laws regulating their mode of
life, their houses, and their furniture. They are not allowed to visit
the pagodas or temples of the other castes, but have their own pagodas
and religious exercises. They are not suffered to enter the houses
of the other castes; if it is done incautiously or from necessity, the
place must be purified by religious ceremonies. They must not appear
at public markets, and are confined to the use of particular wells,
which they are obliged to surround with bones of animals, to warn
others against using them. They dwell in miserable hovels, distant
from cities and villages, and are under no restrictions in regard to
food, which last is not a privilege, but a mark of ignominy, as if
they were so degraded that nothing could pollute them. The three
higher castes are prohibited entirely the use of flesh. The fourth
is allowed to use all kinds except beef, but only the lowest caste
is allowed every kind of food without restriction.

BUDDHA

Buddha, whom the Vedas represent as a delusive incarnation of
Vishnu, is said by his followers to have been a mortal sage, whose
name was Gautama, called also by the complimentary epithets of
Sakyasinha, the Lion, and Buddha, the Sage.

By a comparison of the various epochs assigned to his birth, it is
inferred that he lived about one thousand years before Christ.

He was the son of a king; and when in conformity to the usage of the
country he was, a few days after his birth, presented before the altar
of a deity, the image is said to have inclined its head as a presage
of the future greatness of the new-born prophet. The child soon
developed faculties of the first order, and became equally
distinguished by the uncommon beauty of his person. No sooner had he
grown to years of maturity than he began to reflect deeply on the
depravity and misery of mankind, and he conceived the idea of retiring
from society and devoting himself to meditation. His father in vain
opposed this design. Buddha escaped the vigilance of his guards, and
having found a secure retreat, lived for six years undisturbed in
his devout contemplations. At the expiration of that period he came
forward at Benares as a religious teacher. At first some who heard him
doubted of the soundness of his mind; but his doctrines soon gained
credit, and were propagated so rapidly that Buddha himself lived to
see them spread all over India. He died at the age of eighty years.

The Buddhists reject entirely the authority of the Vedas, and the
religious observances prescribed in them and kept by the Hindus.
They also reject the distinction of castes, and prohibit all bloody
sacrifices, and allow animal food. Their priests are chosen from all
classes; they are expected to procure their maintenance by
perambulation and begging, and among other things it is their duty
to endeavour to turn to some use things thrown aside as useless by
others, and to discover the medicinal power of plants. But in Ceylon
three orders of priests are recognized; those of the highest order are
usually men of high birth and learning, and are supported at the
principal temples, most of which have been richly endowed by the
former monarchs of the country.

For several centuries after the appearance of buddha, his sect seems
to have been tolerated by the Brahmans, and Buddhism appears to have
penetrated the peninsula of Hindustan in every direction, and to
have been carried to Ceylon, and to the eastern peninsula. But
afterwards it had to endure in India a long-continued persecution,
which ultimately had the effect of entirely abolishing it in the
country where it had originated, but to scatter it widely over
adjacent countries. Buddhism appears to have been introduced into
China about the year 65 of our era. From China it was subsequently
extended to Corea, Japan, and Java.

THE GRAND LAMA

It is a doctrine alike of the Brahminical Hindus and of the Buddhist
sect that the confinement of the human soul, an emanation of the
divine spirit, in a human body, is a state of misery, and the
consequence of frailties and sins committed during former
existences. But they hold that some few individuals have appeared on
this earth from time to time, not under the necessity of terrestrial
existence, but who voluntarily descended to the earth to promote the
welfare of mankind. These individuals have gradually assumed the
character of reappearances of Buddha himself, in which capacity the
line is continued till the present day, in the several Lamas of
Thibet, China, and other countries where Buddhism prevails. In
consequence of the victories of Gengis Khan and his successors, the
Lama residing in Thibet was raised to the dignity of chief pontiff
of the sect. A separate province was assigned to him as his own
territory, and besides his spiritual dignity he became to a limited
extent a temporal monarch. He is styled the Dalai Lama.

The first Christian missionaries who proceeded to Thibet were
surprised to find there in the heart of Asia a pontifical court and
several other ecclesiastical institutions resembling those of the
Roman Catholic church. They found convents for priests and nuns,
also processions and forms of religious worship, attended with much
pomp and splendour; and many were induced by these similarities to
consider Lamaism as a sort of degenerated Christianity. It is not
improbable that the Lamas derived some of these practices from the
Nestorian Christians, who were settled in Tartary when Buddhism was
introduced into Thibet.

PRESTER JOHN

An early account, communicated probably by travelling merchants,
of a Lama or spiritual chief among the Tartars, seems to have
occasioned in Europe the report of a Presbyter or Prester John, a
Christian pontiff resident in Upper Asia. The Pope sent a mission in
search of him, as did also Louis IX of France, some years later, but
both missions were unsuccessful, though the small communities of
Nestorian Christians, which they did find, served to keep up the
belief in Europe that such a personage did exist somewhere in the
East. At last in the fifteenth century, a Portuguese traveller,
Pedro Covilham, happening to hear that there was a Christian prince in
the country of the Abessines (Abyssinia), not far from the Red Sea,
concluded that this must be the true Prester John. He accordingly went
thither, and penetrated to the court of the king, whom he calls Negus.
Milton alludes to him in “Paradise Lost,” Book XI., where,
describing Adam’s vision of his descendants in their various nations
and cities, scattered over the face of the earth, he says,-

“…Nor did his eyes not ken
Th’ empire of Negus, to his utmost port,
Ercoco, and the less maritime kings,
Mombaza and Quiloa and Melind.”