________________
MEENAN KETAN SHAR
INTERFAITH
Wellas slob
novel oel om rogor
aring a grinten vlieb
Tmodi gin
Canidog ani
EGYPTIANS
FLOURISHED
THROUGH FAITH
religion was based on family life. The gods were given wives, goddesses given husbands, and both had children.
Tow bun
Ketan Shah examines the culture and beliefs of one of the oldest recorded civilizations in the world
GYPT IS THE OLDEST TOURIST DESTINATION IN THE WORLD.
The focus of most visits remains the great monuments of
Jain Education International 2010_03
lifeblood is the River Nile whose narrow fertility is in startling contrast with the arid wastes of its flank from the Mediterranean to the Sudan. This stark duality between. fertility and desolation is fundamental to Egypt's character. It has shaped its development since pre-historic times imparting continuity to diverse cultures and peoples over five millennia. Egypt has a sense of permanence and timelessness buttressed by religion pervading every aspect of life. Although the religion of ancient Egypt is as moribund as its legacy of mummies and temples, its ancient fertility rites and processions of boats still hold their place in the celebrations of Islam and Christianity. The result of Egypt's ancient legacy is a multilayered culture which seems to accord equal respect to ancient and modern. Throughout history what has united the Egyptians was the love of their homeland, the extended family ties, dignity, warmth and hospitality towards strangers.
The Egyptians recognised many gods; they did not have one universal system of religious belief. They had no sacred books, there were no theological commentaries or treatises, neither was there any dogma. The well-known Book of the Dead was really a book of the "Underworld" which was thought to be a mirror image of Egypt itself. Like the Hindus, the polytheism of the ancient Egyptians led to tolerance. Apart from two brief periods in their history when there was an attempt to promote a (solar) monotheism analogous to Judaism, Christianity or Islam, the Egyptians never suffered from persecutions carried out in the name of religion; there were no Egyptian saints, no martyrs. The Egyptians were a gentle people for whom the family was important. Hence, their
54 Jain Spirit June-August 2001
Temples continued the domestic theme being called "mansions" of the gods. Architecturally they were based on the house form, with rooms in them for eating and sleeping. The innermost sanctuary was regarded as the bedroom of the god. The daily ritual of the temple was domestic in form: the morning ritual gave the god his breakfast, the evening ritual gave him his dinner. Ancient Egyptian religion did not indulge in bloodbaths with animal or human sacrifices. Instead, each god lived in peace in his home, the temple very often as part of a trinity of deities, a holy family consisting of father, mother and child.
For much of their long history the Egyptians were accommodating other people's gods and always ready to receive additions to their own pantheon. They received but did not feel any great need to give; hence there was no real attempt to persuade non-Egyptians to worship Egyptian gods. In their ancient religion, the basis of religion was not belief but cult, particularly the local cult that meant more to the individual. Thus many deities flourished simultaneously and the Egyptians were seemingly ever ready to adopt a new god or to change their views about the old.
The myriad gods worshipped by the ancient Egyptians fell into three main categories:
Local gods, who were the inanimate objects (fetishes), animals, birds and other living creatures associated with a particular locality.
Personal gods, the objects or creatures chosen by. individuals to receive their allegiance.
Universal gods, cosmic deities who represented the forces of nature - the sun, the moon, the stars, wind and storm.
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