Much Ado About Religion by Bhatta Jayanta

Author:Bhatta Jayanta
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

8 Prelude to Act Four: Orthodox Impostures

Then enters the Vedic officiant and the Vedic instructor. officiant: (agitated) What an awful blow! I had one thing in mind and something completely different has hap- pened. I had in mind that when all the extra-Vedic re- ligions are censured, we’ll be able to enjoy the whole country. But what has happened is that the heterodox religions are still just as widespread as they were before. For: Shaivas, Pashu·patas, Pañcha·rátrikas, Sankhyas, Buddhists, Sky-Clad Jains and the rest: all of them remain as they were. Shame on the graduate’s use- less learning! instructor: But, my friend, he is by now the king’s man. And the king is supremely devoted to Shiva, so San- kárshana has to be completely focussed on propitiating Him. For:

In a monarch’s vicinity, his men always repeat his words, but, eager for their own advantage, they do not distinguish between good or bad, like echoes. officiant: Right you are, my friend. Who would disregard his own interests and impartially focus his attention on Dharma alone? But how should we spend our time? Our profession—officiating at sacrifices, teaching and the like—is concerned exclusively with the Veda. instructor: My friend, we shall spend the future just as we have spent the past: content merely with something to eat and wear. For: Without merit one cannot find assemblies exempt from villains’ talk, lovers immune from sulkiness, and treasure not claimed by another. officiant: Quite right. What to do? But this other thing annoys me more. instructor: What is it?

officiant: That these Pañcha·rátrika Bhágavatas should adopt brahminical manners. They mix with brahmins and have no scruples about using the form of greeting that only we may use to our equals. They recite the Pañ- cha·ratra scriptures with a special pattern of accented syllables, as if they were taking the text of Veda as their example.* “We are brahmins,” they say of themselves, and demand that others speak of them in the same way. Take the Shaivas and their ilk: they are not part of the sys- tem of the four social estates, they reject the life-periods determined by the Veda and the Smritis and they set themselves apart by adopting a different doctrine.* But these fellows say that “We have been truly brahmins ever since our birth, for a long succession of ancestors,” and in the same way they imitate the system of the four life-periods: this is a great torment. instructor: How great is this torment, my friend? In officiating, teaching, matrimonial relations or any other context, brahmins learned in the Veda give the Pañcha·rátrikas a wide berth. As for the fact that they label themselves “brahmins”: this is merely the usage of their own sect. officiant: Is this a small nuisance?

instructor: Why, how big is it? They will never get to study the Veda, the Smritis, or Mimámsa, or to perform solemn or domestic rituals. And if they marry some brah- min woman who has strayed from the path of decorum, they will gain a reputation for having married “against the grain.

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