Essays Lectures on Religion of Hindu Vol 01

Author(s): H H Wilson
Publisher: Trubner and Company London

Page 22

RELIGIOUS SECTS
manical class, of which latitude of opinion is a very common characteristic. The founder of the Atheistical school, however, VKIHASPATI, attacks both the Vedas and the Brahmans, and asserts that the whole of the Hindu system is a contrivance of the Priesthood, to secure a means of livelihood for themselves', whilst the Bauddhas and Jainas, equally disregarding the Vedas and the Brahmans, the practice and opinions of the Hindus, invented a set of gods for themselves, and deposed the ancient pantheon: these aggressions provoked resentment: the writings of these sects are alluded to with every epithet of anger and contempt, and they are all anathematised as heretical and atheistical; more active measures than anathemas, it may be presumed, were had recourse to: the followers of
Vřihaspati has the following texts to this effect, [quoted in the Sarva Darsana, Calcutta edition, pp. 3 and 6, and with a r. l. Prabodhach. ed. Brockhaus, p. 30]:
अग्निहोत्रं चयो वेदास्त्रिदण्डं भस्मगुण्ठनम् ।
बुद्धिपौरुषहीनानां जीविकेति वृहस्पतिः ॥ "The Agnihotra, the three Vedas, the Tridaúda, the smearing of ashes, are only the livelihood of those who have neither intellect nor spirit.” After ridiculing the Sraddha, shrewdly enough, he says:
ततश्च जीवनोपायो ब्राह्मणैर्विदितस्त्विह।
मृतानां प्रेतकार्याणि न वन्यद्विद्यते क्वचित् ।। Hence it is evident, that it was a mere contrivance of the Brahmans to gain a livelihood, to ordain such ceremonies for the dead, and no other reason can be given for them. Of the Vedas, he says: gatazei TT H YTTTTTTT: 11
The three Authors of the Vedas were Buffoons, Rogues, and Fiends-and cites texts in proof of this assertion.