The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 2 (of 3) translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations

SECTION THE FIRST――CONCERNING THE ORTHODOX HINDOO SYSTEM. As inconstant fortune had torn away the author from the shores of Persia, and made him the associate of the believers in transmigration and those who addressed their prayers to idols and images and worshipped demons, therefore the tenets held by this most subtle class of reasoners come to be considered next after those of the Parsees. It is however necessary to premise, that among the Hindus there are many systems of religion, and innumerable creeds and ceremonies: but there is one principal class of this people (as will be shown in the tenth chapter), and its rank and dignity will be brought into evidence.

Like Zardusht and the sages of antiquity, they have recourse to metaphorical and enigmatical figures of speech, as will appear evident in the course of this narration. Long before the present work, the author had from books ascertained their various systems, according to a plan which he now voluntarily abandons; as in the year of the Hejirah 1063 (A. D. 1653), whilst sojourning at Srikakul, the capital of Kalinga,[1] certain eminent persons who were the author’s intimate friends, had travelled in that direction for the purpose of visiting their holy stations; one day a conference took place, on which the author reviewed anew what he had before heard, and with the pen of accuracy drew the line of erasure over all that was doubtful; so that there was found a wide difference between the first and second work on these points.

SUMMARY OF THE DOCTRINES CONTAINED IN THE BUDAH MIMANSA.[2] The whole world is not governed by the orders of a real Lord, and there is in truth no reality in his actual existence. Whatever of good or evil, reward or punishment, attaches to created beings, is entirely the result of their acts, deeds, and words; mortals are altogether captive in the trammels of their own works, and confined in the chains of their own deeds: without previous acts they are liable to no consequences. The sovereign, Brahma, the creator of all things; the angelic Víshnu, their preserver; and Mahesh, or Siva, the destroyer of existences, attained to this exalted eminence through means of righteous acts and holy deeds; nay, Brahma, through the efficacy of worship, the power of obedience, the might of his religious austerities, and by his good actions, created the world; agreeably to the express declaration of the Véda,[3] which according to the belief of the Hindus is a celestial revelation, every dignity of the celestial orders is inseparably connected with meritorious works and holy deeds; and as the intellectual soul is of the same nature as the angelic essence, the possessor may, by the exercise of angelic qualities, become one of those exalted dignities, and during a lengthened but definite period, be invested with power and glory. For instance, the human spirit, which in knowledge and good works has attained to a degree accounted worthy of the rank of Brahma, is, on the termination of the period of sovereignty assigned to the present Brahma, appointed to that predestined dignity: the same principle also applying to the other angelic degrees.

This tenet therefore leads to the same inference as the opinions entertained by the distinguished Parsee sages, namely: that the spirits of men, on attaining complete perfection, become united to the heavenly bodies, and after many revolutions, the celestial souls are blended with the divine intelligences. According to the Mobed:

“The cup-bearer poured into the goblet the wine of the celestial soul, And filled the nine empyreal domes with the beverage of human spirit.”

The world has neither beginning nor ending; moreover all spirits are enchained in the bonds of their own acts and deeds; so that the spirit of high rank which adopts the practices of the inferior, cannot attain to the sublime rank peculiarly assigned to exalted conduct; and the inferior spirit, sedulously given up to the works of those eminent in dignity, is enabled to obtain that glorious pre-eminence; so that their meritorious works confer on them knowledge; and the purity of their intellects, in proportion to their elevation, conducts them to high degrees and praiseworthy deeds. The dominion obtained by an animal body over the human soul arises from works; as in their members, physical structure, and senses, all men are fashioned after one model; but through the cause of becoming or unbecoming deeds, one is a sovereign ruler, and another a destitute dependent. Thus, through the influence of praiseworthy acts, one is honored and opulent; and owing to a subservience to foul deeds, another lives degraded and indigent; the high and dignified agent of opulence and honor falls not into the depths of poverty, nor does the wretched slave to acts of covetousness and avarice ever attain the dignity of honor and riches. The world is the root and productive soil of works, and time is their developer; because, when their time comes, it brings the fruit, just as every season produces the flowers, sweet-scented plants, and fruits suitable to the period; in like manner, the result of every act, whether deserving of praise or censure, is made to adhere to its agent, in whatever revolution that may be proper for it. Works are divided into two kinds: those which are to be performed; the other, those which are to be avoided: under the first, come those acts, the performance of which is enjoined in the Vedas, or the celestial revelation, such as the established worship and the requisite acts of obedience which prevail among the Hindoos; under the second head come those acts, the committing of which is forbidden by the text of the celestial code; such as shedding blood, theft, immoral practices, and other similar acts there enumerated. The supreme Lord stands not in need of our adoration and obedience, nor is he in any want of us for the performance of the above-mentioned duties at our hands; but the results of our acts and deeds, in reference to rewards and punishments, accrue and adhere to us. For instance, if the invalid should adopt habitual moderation, he obtains that health which is the object of his wishes, and his existence is thereby rendered happy; but should he, from a bias to reprehensible pleasures, the concomitants of disease, withdraw from the restraints of abstinence, his life becomes embittered; the physician, in either case, being totally independent of the patient’s welfare and sufferings. Moreover, the world is the abode of disease, and human beings are the patients: if they acquit themselves in the most perfect manner of their prescribed duties, and strenuously avoiding what ought not to be done, they attain the state of health, the most elevated degree of which is liberation from this degraded body, and union with the ambrosial sweets of paradise; which state is called Mukti by this sect; and the mode of attaining the highest degree of Mukti is not being immersed in the pleasures of this world, plucking away the heart from the gratifications of sense, being content with mere necessaries, abstaining from food, breaking the fast with viands not relished by the vile appetite, and such like: just as in sickness, for the sake of dissolving the morbid matter, it becomes necessary to fast one day, and to swallow bitter draughts.

Such is the substance of the tenets professed by the sect entitled Budah-Mimansá, which coincide exactly with those of the Yezdáníáns, except that the latter admit the being of the self-existent God, the sole and true object of adoration; regarding the acts and deeds performed in this world as the means of elevation and degradation in the next; holding the angelic dignities to be imperishable; and esteeming human perfection to consist in attaining to the society and service of the sublime assembly in the court of heaven; whilst the followers of the Budah Mimansa do not admit the existence of the eternal and infinite Lord; but according to them, the term “Almighty” signifies the human soul, acts, and deeds. They also assert, that the blessings of paradise are transitory, and that the angelic dignities are liable to perish. However, the orthodox opinion, which is most prevalent at this time, is this: they admit the being of the truly-existing God, by whom the world subsists; but account his holy essence altogether exalted, and exempt from whatever effects created beings. They also believe that human beings are confined by the yokes of their own works, and enchained by their deeds, in the manner before stated.

[1] The name of a country: this name is applied in the Puranas to several places, but it usually signifies a district on the Coromandel coast, extending from below Cuttack to the vicinity of Madras.――D. S.

[2] بوده ميمنس is the reading of the edition of Calcutta; the same spelling of Budh, or Budah, is found when the name of the legislator, properly Buddha, is introduced, as in p. 175 of the same edition, and elsewhere. But Budah may also signify “past, gone,” and therefore “prior;” on that account D. Shea rendered the above name by Purva (or “prior”) Mimansa. According to Colebrooke and Mr. Wilson, मीमांसा Mímánsá, signifies one of the philosophical systems of the Hindús, or rather a two-fold system, the first part of which is the Purva Mímánsá, or Mímánsá, simply; the second part, the Uttara Mímansa. “The prior Mímánsá, founded by Jaimini, teaches the art of reasoning, with the express view of aiding in the interpretation of the Vedas. The Uttara, or “latter,” commonly called the Vedanta, and commonly attributed to Vyasa, deduces from the Vedas a refined psychology, which goes to the denial of a material world.”――(Colebrooke’s Essays.)

But the above account of the Dabistán is not strictly and fully in accordance with this definition of the first Mímánsá, because it exhibits more of the Puranic than of the Vedáic doctrine, not without some particular notions. It appeared therefore best to adhere to the reading of the original text.――A. T.

[3] Védá, the generic term for the sacred writings, or scriptures, of the Hindús. See a subsequent note about the four Védas.

SECTION THE SECOND TREATS OF CERTAIN OPINIONS ENTERTAINED BY THIS SECT CONCERNING THE CREATION: A SUBJECT WHICH IS ALSO DISCUSSED IN THEIR PURANAS OR HISTORIES.――In the second part of the Bhagavat, one of their most esteemed Puránás, it is recorded that the Almighty Creator, in the beginning, first placed the mantle of existence on the bosom of Prakriti,[4] or “nature,” and produced the fourteen Bhuvanas,[5] or “worlds.” The first sphere is that of the earth, which has been estimated by some of the ancients at five Kotes (50 millions) of Yojans,[6] each Kote being equal to one hundred Lakhs (10 millions) and each Jojun to one Parasang and one-third; above the terrestrial is the aqueous sphere; above which is that of fire; beyond which is the aërial, over the celestial; beyond which is the Ahankar,[7] or that of “consciousness;” and higher than this is the Mahat-tat (Mahat-tatwam)[8] or “essence,” which is equal to ten of those below it; and Prakrit having enveloped it, intelligence penetrating through all the things before said, rises above: on earth it becomes knowledge; by means of water, there is taste; by means of fire, form; by means of air, the touch of cold and dry; by means of the heavens, there is the perception of sound; and the organs of perception, are the exterior senses; and the internal sense is the seat of consciousness. In the same part of the Bhagavat it is stated that, by nature, the heavens are the vehicle of sounds; and consequently, the nature of the air gives the perception of sound and touch; in all other bodies the air is spirit, and from it arises the energy of the senses. To the nature of fire belongs the perception of sound, touch and form; to the nature of water, that of sound, touch, form, and savor; and to the nature of earth, that of sound, touch, form, savor, and odor.