Tales of Bengal | Page 2

established its evolution always
follows similar lines. Ritual becomes increasingly elaborate:
metaphysical dogma grows too subtle for a layman's comprehension.
Commercialism spreads from the market to the sanctuary, whose
guardians exploit the all-pervading fear of the unknown to serve their
lust of luxury and rule.
Brahminism has never sought to win proselytes; the annals of ancient
India record none of those atrocious persecutions which stained
mediaeval Christianity. It competed with rival creeds by offering
superior advantages: and the barbarous princes of India were kept
under the priestly heel by an appeal to their animal instincts. A fungoid
literature of abominations grew up in the Tantras, which are filthy
dialogues between Siva, the destroying influence in nature, and his
consorts. One of these, Káli by name, is the impersonation of slaughter.

Her shrine, near Calcutta, is knee-deep in blood, and the Dhyán or
formula for contemplating her glories, is a tissue of unspeakable
obscenity. Most Hindus are Saktas, or worshippers of the female
generative principle: happily for civilisation they are morally in
advance of their creed. But it is a significant fact that Káli is the
tutelary goddess of extremist politicians, whose minds are prepared for
the acceptance of anarchism by the ever-present ideal of destruction.
It was Bengal's misfortune that its people received Brahminism in a
corrupt and degenerate form. According to legend, King Adisur, who
reigned there in the ninth century of our era, imported five priests from
Kanauj to perform indispensable sacrifices. From this stock the
majority of Bengali Brahmins claim descent. The immigrants were
attended by five servants, who are the reputed ancestors of the Kayasth
caste. In Sanskrit this word means "Standing on the Body," whence
Kayasths claim to be Kshatriyas. But the tradition of a servile origin
persisted, and they were forbidden to study the sacred writings. An
inherited bent for literature has stood them in good stead: they became
adepts in Persian, and English is almost their second mother-tongue
to-day. Kayasths figure largely in Mr. Banerjea's tales: their history
proves that the pen is mightier than the sword.
Economic necessity was the cause of the first invasion of India: the
second was inspired by religion. The evolution of organised creeds is
not from simple to complex, but vice versa. From the bed-rock of
magic they rise through nature-worship and man-worship to
monotheism. The god of a conquering tribe is imposed on subdued
enemies, and becomes Lord of Heaven and Earth. Monotheism of this
type took root among the Hebrews, from whom Mohammed borrowed
the conception. His gospel was essentially militant and proselytising.
Nothing can resist a blend of the aesthetic and combative instincts;
within a century of the founder's death his successors had conquered
Central Asia, and gained a permanent footing in Europe. In the tenth
century a horde of Afghan Moslems penetrated Upper India.
The Kshatriya princes fought with dauntless courage, but unity of
action was impossible; for the Brahmins fomented mutual jealousies
and checked the growth of national spirit. They were subdued
piecemeal; and in 1176 A.D. an Afghan Emperor governed Upper India
from Delhi. The Aryan element in Bengal had lost its martial qualities;

and offered no resistance to Afghan conquest, which was consummated
in 1203. The invaders imposed their religion by fire and sword. The
Mohammadans of Eastern Bengal, numbering 58 per cent., of the
population, represent compulsory conversions effected between the
thirteenth and seventeenth centuries. Eight hundred years of close
contact have abated religious hatred; and occasional outbursts are due
to priestly instigation. Hindus borrowed the Zenana system from their
conquerors, who imitated them in discouraging widow-remarriages.
Caste digs a gulf between followers of the rival creeds, but Mr.
Banerjea's tales prove that a good understanding is possible. It is now
imperilled by the curse of political agitation.
In 1526 the Afghan dynasty was subverted by a Mongol chieftain
lineally descended from Tamerlane. His grandson Akbar's reign
(1560-1605) was India's golden age. Akbar the Great was a ruler of the
best modern type, who gave his subjects all the essentials of civilisation.
But he knew that material prosperity is only the means to an end. Man,
said Ruskin, is an engine whose motive power is the soul; and its fuel is
love. Akbar called all the best elements in society to his side and linked
them in the bonds of sympathy.
Religion in its highest phase is coloured by mysticism which seeks
emblems of the hidden source of harmony in every form of life.
Anthropomorphic conceptions are laid aside; ritual is abandoned as
savouring of magic; hierocracy as part of an obsolete caste system;
metaphysical dogma because the Infinite cannot be weighed in the
balances of human reason. The truce to fanaticism called by Akbar the
Great encouraged a poet and reformer named Tulsi Dása (1532-1623)
to point a surer way