Shastah, or Bedang, the name of a sacred book, in high estimation among the idolaters of Hindostan, containing all the dogmas of the religion of the bramins, and all the ceremonies of their worship; and serving as a commentary on the Vedam.
The term Shaster denotes "science" or "system;" and is applied to other works of astronomy and philosophy, which have no relation to the religion of the Indians. None but the bramins and rajas of India are allowed to read the Vedam; the priests of the Banians, called Shuderers, may read the Shaster; and the people, in general, are allowed to read only the Paran or Pouran, which is a commentary on the Shaster.
The Shaster is divided into three parts: the first containing the moral law of the Indians; the second, the rites and ceremonies of their religion; and the third, the distribution of the people into tribes or classes, with the duties pertaining to each class.
The principal precepts of morality, contained in the first part of the Shaster, are the following: that no animal be killed, because the Indians attribute souls to brute animals as well as to mankind; that they neither hear nor speak evil, nor drink wine, nor eat flesh, nor touch any thing that is unclean; that they observe the feasts, prayers, and washings, which their law prescribes; that they tell no lies, nor be guilty of deceit in trade; that they neither oppress nor offer violence to one another; that they celebrate the solemn feasts and fasts, and appropriate certain hours of ordinary sleep to cultivate a disposition for prayer; and that they do not steal or defraud one another.
The ceremonies, contained in the second part of the Shaster, are such as these: that they wash often in the rivers, hereby obtaining the pardon of their sins; that they mark their forehead with red, in token of their relation to the Deity; that they present offerings and prayers under certain trees, set apart for this purpose; that they pray in the temples, make oblations to their pagodas or idols, sing hymns, and make processions, &c.; that they make pilgrimages to distant rivers, and especially to the Ganges, there to wash themselves and make offerings; that they make vows to particular saints, according to their respective departments; that they render homage to the Deity at the first sight of the sun; that they pay their respect to the sun and moon, which are the two eyes of the Deity; and that they treat with particular veneration those animals that are deemed more pure than others; as the cow, buffalo, &c.; because the souls of men have transmigrated into these animals.
The third part of the Shaster records the distribution of the people into four classes: the first being that of the bramins or priests, appointed to instruct the people; the second, that of the kotters or nobles, who are the magistrates; the third, that of the shudderers or merchants; and the fourth, that of the mechanics. Each person is required to remain in the class in which he was born, and to pursue the occupation assigned to him by the Shaster. According to the bramins, the Shaster was imparted by God himself to Brahma, and by him to the bramins; who communicated the contents of it to the people.
Modern writers have given us very different accounts of the antiquity and importance of the Shaster. Mr Holwell, who had made considerable progress in the translation of this book, apprehends, that the mythology as well as the cosmogony of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, was borrowed from the doctrines of the bramins, contained in it, even to the copying of their exteriors of worship, and the distribution of their idols, though grossly mutilated and adulterated. With respect to the Vedam and Shaster, or scriptures of the Gentoes, this writer informs us, that Vedam, in the Mala bar language, signifies the same as Shaster in the Sanscrit; and that the first book is followed by the Gentoes of the Malabar and Coromandel coasts, and also of the island of Ceylon. The Shaster is followed by the Gentoes of the provinces of Bengal, and by all the Gentoes. Gentooos of the rest of India, commonly called India Proper, along the course of the rivers Ganges and Jumna to the Indus. Both these books (he says) contain the institutes of their respective religion and worship, as well as the history of their ancient rajas and princes, often couched under allegory and fable. Their antiquity is contended for by the partisans of each; but he thinks, that the similitude of their names, idols, and great part of their worship, leaves little room to doubt, nay plainly evinces, that both these scriptures were originally one. He adds, if we compare the great purity and chaste manners of the Shaster with the great absurdities and impurities of the Vedam, we need not hesitate to pronounce the latter a corruption of the former.
With regard to the high original of these scriptures, the account of the bramins is as follows. Brahma (that is, "Mighty Spirit"), about 4866 years ago, assumed the form of man and the government of Indostan. He translated the divine law (designed for the restoration of mankind, who had offended in a pre-existent state, and who are now in their last scene of probation, to the dignity from which they were degraded) out of the language of angels into the well known Sanscrit language, and called his translation the Chartah Bhade Shastah of Birnah, or the Six Scriptures of Divine Words of the Mighty Spirit. He appointed the bramins, deriving their name from him, to preach the word of God; and the doctrines of the Shaster were accordingly preached in their original purity 1000 years. About this time there was published a paraphrase on the Chartah Bhade; and about 500 years afterwards, a second exposition, called the Aughtorrah Bhade Shasta, or Eighteen Books of Divine Words, written in a character compounded of the common Indostan and the Shanscrit. This innovation produced a schism among the Gentooos; on which occasion, it is said, those of Coromandel and Malabar formed a scripture of their own, which they pretended to be founded on the Chartah Bhade of Bramah, and called it the Vedam of Birnah, or Divine Words of the Mighty Spirit. The original Chartah Bhade was thrown aside, and at length wholly unknown, except to a few families; who can still read and expound it in the Shanscrit character. With the establishment of the Aughtorrah Bhade, and Vedam, which, according to the Gentoo account, is 3366 years ago, their polytheism commenced; and the principles of religion became so obscure, and their ceremonies so numerous, that every head of a family was obliged to keep a bramin as a guide both in faith and practice. Mr Holwell is of opinion, that the Chartah Bhade, or Original Scriptures, are not copied from any other system of theology, promulgated to or obliterated upon mankind. The Gentooos do not attribute them to Zoroaster; and Mr Holwell supposes that both Zoroaster and Pythagoras visited Indostan, not to instruct, but to be instructed.
From the account of Mr Dow, we learn, that the books which contain the religion and philosophy of the Hindoos are distinguished by the name of Bedas; that they are four in number, and like the sacred writings of other nations, said to be penned by the Divinity. Beda, he says, in the Shanscrit language, literally signifies science; and these books treat not only of religion and moral duties, but of every branch of philosophic knowledge. The bramins maintain, that the Bedas are the divine laws which Brimba, at the creation of the world, delivered for the instruction of mankind; but they affirm, that their meaning was perverted in the first age by the ignorance and wickedness of some princes, whom they represent as evil spirits, who then haunted the earth.
The first credible account we have of the Bedas is, that about the commencement of the Cal Jug, of which era the year 1768 was the 4886th year, they were written, or rather collected, by a great philosopher and reputed prophet, called Beäss Muni, or Beäss the Inspired.
The Hindoos (says Mr Dow) are divided into two great religious sects: the followers of the doctrine of Bedang, which is the original Shaster or commentary upon the Bedas; and those who adhere to the principles of the Neadirsen. The original Shaster is called Bedang, and is a commentary upon the Bedas. This book, he says, is erroneously called in Europe the Vedam. It is ascribed to Beäss Muni, and is said to have been revised some years after by one Serrider Swami, since which it has been reckoned sacred, and not subject to any farther alterations.
Almost all the Hindoos of the Decan, and those of the Malabar and Coromandel coasts, are of this sect. The followers of the Bedang Shaster do not allow that any physical evil exists; they maintain that God created all things perfectly good; but that man, being a free agent, may be guilty of moral evil, which may be injurious to himself; but can be of no detriment to the general system of nature. God, they say, being perfectly benevolent, never punished the wicked otherwise than by the pain and affliction which are the natural consequences of evil actions; and hell, therefore is no other than a consciousness of evil.
The Neadirsen Shaster is said to have been written by a philosopher called Goutam, near four thousand years ago. The bramins, from Mr Dow's account of their sacred books, appear to believe invariably in the unity, eternity, omniscience, and omnipotence of God; and the polytheism of which they have been accused is no more than a symbolical worship of the divine attributes, which they divide into three classes. Under the name of Brimba, they worship the wisdom and creative power of God; under the appellation of Bishen, his providential and preserving quality; and under that of Shibha, that attribute which tends to destroy.
As few of our readers may have an opportunity of perusing the Shaster, we shall, by way of specimen, subjoin a passage from it, which, though it contains some metaphysical mysteries concerning the creation, yet discovers views of God so enlightened that they would not disgrace more refined nations. The passage which we shall quote is the first chapter of the Shaster, which is a dialogue between Brimba the Wisdom of the Divinity, and Narud or Reason, who is represented as the son of Brimba. Narud desires to be instructed by his father; and for that purpose puts the following questions to him:
"Narud. O father! thou first of God, thou art said to have created the world, and thy son Narud, astonished at what he beholds, is desirous to be instructed how all these things were made.
"Brimba. Be not deceived, my son! do not imagine that I was the creator of the world, independent of the Divine Mover, who is the great original essence and creator of all things. Look, therefore, only upon me as the instrument of the great will, and a part of his being, whom he called forth to execute his eternal designs.
"Narud. What shall we think of God?"
"Brimha. Being immaterial, he is above all conception; being invisible, he can have no form; but, from what we behold in his works, we may conclude that he is eternal, omnipotent, knowing all things, and present everywhere.
"Narud. How did God create the world?"
"Brimha. Affection dwelt with God from all eternity. It was of three different kinds; the creative, the preserving, and the destructive. This first is represented by Brimha, the second by Bishen, and the third by Shibah. You, O Narud! are taught to worship all the three in various shapes and likenesses, as the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer. The affection of God then produced power, and power, at a proper conjunction of time and fate, embraced goodness, and produced matter. The three qualities then acting upon matter, produced the universe in the following manner: From the opposite actions of the creative and destructive quality in matter, self-motion first arose. Self-motion was of three kinds; the first inclining to plasticity, the second to discord, and the third to rest. The discordant actions then produced the Akash (a kind of celestial element), which invisible element possessed the quality of conveying sound; it produced air, a palpable element; fire, a visible element; water, a fluid element; and earth, a solid element.
"The Akash dispersed itself abroad. Air formed the atmosphere; fire, collecting itself, blazed forth in the host of heaven; water rose to the surface of the earth, being forced from beneath by the gravity of the latter element. Thus broke forth the world from the veil of darkness, in which it was formerly comprehended by God. Order rose over the universe. The seven heavens were formed, and the seven worlds were fixed in their places; there to remain till the great dissolution, when all things shall be absorbed into God.
"God seeing the earth in full bloom, and that vegetation was strong from its seeds, called forth for the first time intellect, which he endued with various organs and shapes, to form a diversity of animals upon the earth. He endued the animals with five senses; feeling, seeing, smelling, tasting, and hearing; but to man he gave reflection, to raise him above the beasts of the field.
"The creatures were created male and female, that they might propagate their species upon the earth. Every herb bore the seed of its kind, that the world might be clothed with verdure, and all animals provided with food.
"Narud. What dost thou mean, O father! by Intellect?"
"Brimha. It is a portion of the great soul of the universe breathed into all creatures, to animate them for a certain time.
"Narud. What becomes of it after death?"
"Brimha. It animates other bodies, or returns, like a drop, into that unbounded ocean from which it first arose.
"Narud. Shall not then the souls of good men receive rewards? nor the souls of the bad meet with punishment?"
"Brimha. The souls of men are distinguished from those of other animals; for the first are endowed with reason, and with a consciousness of right and wrong. If therefore man shall adhere to the first, as far as his powers shall extend, his soul, when disengaged from the body by death, shall be absorbed into the divine essence, and shall never more reanimate flesh; but the souls of those who do evil are not, at death, disengaged from all the elements. They are immediately clothed with a body of fire, air, and akash, in which they are for a time punished in hell. After the season of their grief is over, they reanimate other bodies; but till they shall arrive at a state of purity they can never be absorbed into God.
"Narud. What is the nature of that absorbed state which the souls of good men enjoy after death?"
"Brimha. It is a participation of the divine nature, where all passions are utterly unknown, and where consciousness is lost in bliss.
"Narud. Thou sayest, O father, that unless the soul is perfectly pure it cannot be absorbed into God: now, as the actions of the generality of men are partly good and partly bad, whither are their spirits sent immediately after death?"
"Brimha. They must atone for their crimes in hell, where they must remain for a space proportioned to the degree of their iniquities; then they rise to heaven to be rewarded for a time for their virtues; and from thence they will return to the world to reanimate other bodies.
"Narud. What is time?"
"Brimha. Time existed from all eternity with God; but it can only be estimated since motion was produced, and only be conceived by the mind, from its own constant progress.
"Narud. How long shall this world remain?"
"Brimha. Until the four jugs shall have revolved. Then Rudder (the same with Shibah, the destroying quality of God), with the ten spirits of dissolution, shall roll a comet under the moon, that shall involve all things in fire, and reduce the world into ashes. God shall then exist alone, for matter will be totally annihilated."
Those who desire more information on this subject may consult Dow's History of Indostan, and Holwell's Interesting Historical Events.