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Egyptians Flourished through Faith
KETAN SHAR
The predominant characteristics
The peculiar characteristics of of the Egyptian religion were
the land in which the Egyptians animism, fetishism and magic. In
lived influenced their religion by less primitive times, theories were
diversifying it. There were two promulgated that turned magic into
distinct halves, Upper and Lower religion. Being an agricultural
Egypt, and different ethnic groups people, the ancient Egyptians were
such as the Semites and Africans. brought into daily contact with
All forty-two provinces had differanimals and birds. It was not
ences in speech, ways of life, surprising that they should turn such
customs and religion. In each creatures into objects of worship.
province, town and village, religion There was also the belief that certain
took on a special form peculiar to animals possessed divine powers -
that particular place. Each locality the cow, for example, represented
had its own local deity who was fertility, the bull virility - which led
often worshipped in a way that was to the cult of sacred animals, birds
special to him or her, and was often and reptiles, each of which was
equipped with myths and legends considered to be the manifestation
of his or her own. of a divine being on earth. Hence
The characteristics peculiar to the thousands of mummified ibises,
the land of Egypt - long narrow baboons and crocodiles that have
valley surrounded by a desert, a been found all over Egypt. Inside
river which ensured a plentiful the temples, they kept real live
The world famous funerary mask of King Tutankhamun supply of water and the fertile soil cats, bulls, ibises or hawks and
made the ancient Egyptians into a worshipped them as gods; and when they died the Egyptians highly conservative, parochial, even complacent society. mummified and buried them as they did their kings.
They lived in a land that was productive, but nevertheless The inherent difficulty of inanimate or animal gods unable demanded constant hard work, and forced its inhabitants to to speak and make their wishes known led the priests to wear be practical. The Egyptians therefore tended not to indulge masks fashioned in imitation of the heads of the animal gods. in any great flights of fancy. They were parochial: their From within these they gave their voice to the gods' wishes, a eyes were turned on their neighbourhood. In spite of their practice which resulted in the noted Egyptian custom of narrow, inward-looking way of life, many Egyptians must representing gods with human bodies and animal heads. The have posed the eternal, universal questions: Who created the Great Sphinx of Giza, that most illustrious symbol of ancient world? And the sun and the stars? Who created life on Egypt, is the reverse. It has a body of a crouched lion and the earth, both animal and human? What happens when one head of Pharaoh Khafre representing Horus, who is usually dies? They found acceptable answers to their questions by depicted as a falcon-headed man.
conceiving gods and the religion developed directly from The third type of god worshipped by the ancient Egyptians their own experience of life in the land of Egypt. was the cosmic god - moon, storm, wind and especially the sun. The great number of gods worshipped in ancient Egypt This type of deity represents a higher order of divine being meant that there was no one version of the answer posed by since it is difficult to personalise a cosmic god, with the result these questions. Egyptian religion seems to comprise many that comprehending this type of god demands a greater degree religious beliefs. One of the reasons for this is that the of intellectual effort. Whereas the fetish and local gods were Egyptians, conservative as they were, never discarded any developed prior to 3050 BC, the cosmic gods were properly of their old beliefs in favour of new ones, they simply developed during the historic era after 3000 BC as is evidenced assimilated them. They were quite content to have several by the stunning monuments and temples at Karnak, Luxor and different explanations for the same thing, beacuse each Abu Simbel.
explanation might serve different contexts. During this historic period, the sun in particular became a Perhaps we could learn from this openness and tolerance. universal god worshipped throughout the land. With the founding of the Egyptian state during Dynasty I with the union of Upper and Lower Egypt, it was elevated to the status of a Ketan Kiran Shah has been active in the Jain community in state god. Despite the existence of both a state god and local
Kenya and presently lives in London. He is a Jain gods, the Egyptians thought it perfectly normal to worship all at Egyptologist once.
June - August 2001. Jain Spirit 55 Jain Education International 2010_03
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