Many Threads of Hinduism: Selected Essays

By Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya is well-known as the creator of India's national song, 'Bande Mataram', and as a novelist who pioneered the art form in India with acclaimed classics like Ananda Math, Bishabrikha and Devi Chaudhurani. As critics have recognized, few writers in world literature have been so accomplished in both philosophy and art. So extensive was his output on religion and Hinduism, and so erudite his articulation, that Aurobindo Ghosh called him a rishi, while Nirad C. Chaudhuri believed that Bankim had 'one of the greatest Hindu minds, perhaps equalled in the past - whole of the Hindu past - only by the great Samkara'. Many Threads of Hinduism brings together some of Bankim's important writings on religion, Hinduism in particular, and includes his thoughts on the Vedas, nationalism, the origins of religion, the conflict between one god and many gods, and the need for mass education. There are also pieces comparing the Brahmins of yore to India's colonial masters at the time, the British, and excerpts from his translation of and commentary on the Bhagavadgita, which remained incomplete when he died. Beautifully translated by Alo Shome, this is an introduction to a different facet of a celebrated novelist and an important addition to the corpus of books on religion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Element India
• Release date: Oct 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9789351365488

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya was one of India's best known writers, with novels like Ananda Math, Bishabrikha and Devi Chaudhurani, among others. His British superiors honoured him with the titles of Rai Bahadur in 1891 and Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire (CMEOIE) in 1894. Alo Shome is a homemaker. She has taught foreign students at the English Language Teaching Institute, Symbiosis, Pune, for three years and from time to time coached adults and youngsters at home in English. Her hobbies are reading, cooking and spending time with her granddaughters.

Book preview

MANY THREADS OF

HINDUISM

Selected Essays

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya

Translated by Alo Shome

This book is for Amalina and Nivedita

Contents

Dedication

Translator’s Disclaimer

A Short Biography of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya

Translator’s Introduction

Part I: Roots of Hinduism

1.What Does Religion Mean to the Hindus?

2.Demystifying the Vedas

3.The Glory of the Gayatri Mantra

4.The Origin of Religion

5.From Many Gods to One God

6.The Hindu Trinity

7.Passages from Dharmatattwa

8.Sankhya Darshan and the Hindu Character

9.Durga

Part II: Bankim Chandra’s Unfinished Gita

Translator’s Introduction

1.Srimadbhagavadgita: Introduction

2.Srimadbhagavadgita: Canto I

3.Srimadbhagavadgita: Canto II

4.Srimadbhagavadgita: Canto III

5.Srimadbhagavadgita: Canto IV

Part III: Religion and Society

1.Babaji Gaurdasa’s Bag of Alms

2.Is Nationalism a Good Thing?

3.Brahmins of Yore Versus India’s British Masters

4.The Rise and Fall of the Brahmins

5.Mass Education

6.A Letter to Kumar Binay Krishna Dev

Translator’s Notes

Notes

Translator’s Acknowledgements

About the Book

About the Authors

Copyright

Translator’s Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in this collection of essays are the opinions of Sri Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya. The translator does not take any credit for the interpretations recorded in this volume.

The translator’s own comments on various issues appear only in the footnotes and translator’s notes.

A Short Biography of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya

Bankim Chandra was born in Kanthalapara, near Kolkata, on 26 June 1838. He was the second of three sons of Durgasundari Devi and Jadav Chandra Chattopadhyaya, a senior government officer.

After an English-medium education in a Medinipur convent school and six years in Mohsin College, Hooghly, Bankim joined Presidency College, Kolkata, and prepared for his BA examination. In 1858, along with Jadunath Basu, he was one of the first two candidates to graduate from Calcutta University.

After his studies, Bankim Chandra served the government as a hard-working deputy collector and deputy magistrate. His British superiors acknowledged his proficiency in work and the uprightness of his character in spite of their differences of opinion with him on several matters. Bankim was even honoured with the titles of Rai Bahadur in 1891 and Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire (CMEOIE), in 1894.

Bankim had to marry a five-year-old girl when he was eleven years old to oblige his elders who believed in the deplorable Hindu custom of child marriage. However, this marriage lasted only about ten years, as the bride died at a tender age. Bankim’s second marriage with Rajlakshmi Devi was happy and fulfilling. They had three daughters. Unfortunately, the youngest of them committed suicide a few years after her wedding.

Bankim’s first novel, Rajmohan’s Wife (1864), was written in English. His first Bengali novel, Durgesh Nandini, was published in 1865. Some of his other masterpieces are Kapal Kundala, Mrinalini, Devi Chaudhurani and Ananda Math. Including Rajmohan’s Wife, he wrote sixteen novels. He also composed poems, most of them at a young age.

Besides being an outstanding novelist and a poet, Bankim Chandra was a prominent intellectual of his time who contributed thought-provoking articles to various newspapers and magazines, some of which he edited for many years. His work covered various subjects including politics, economics, social sciences, religion, philosophy and popular science. Religion was one of his main areas of interest.

Bankim sensed that India had become divided between the traditionalist orthodox, who were slaves to rigid customs, and the contemporary reformers, who were blindly emulating the West. He believed that both were at fault. To his mind the best choice for India was to draw its inspirations selectively and cautiously from both the traditions.

An incident in 1882 drew Bankim’s attention towards religious studies. A Scottish missionary, Reverend William Hastie, took to publishing a series of articles in The Statesman criticizing Hinduism. Bankim had something to say about these censures and his objections to them appeared in the same newspaper. However, Bankim had used a pseudonym – Ramachandra. This brilliant give-and-take – the debate between the missionary and Bankim – earned much popularity for the paper at that time.

Bankim never ceased to inspire and encourage young authors. He had an eye for talent. When an inexperienced Rabindranath Tagore, at the age of twenty-two, published his first novel, Bou Thakuranir Haat (1883), he unexpectedly received a letter of praise, written in English, from Bankim Chandra.

In 1891, Bankim took voluntary retirement from government service and devoted the rest of his life mainly to the study of religious subjects. He died on 8 April 1894 at the age of fifty-six.

Translator’s Introduction

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya has written extensively on Hinduism, especially from 1870 until his death in 1894. Appreciating his works on religion, Aurobindo Ghose called him a rishi. Nirad C. Chaudhuri believed that Bankim had ‘one of the greatest Hindu minds, perhaps equalled in the past – whole of the Hindu past – only by the great Samkara’.

Bankim has not given any specific definition of Hinduism. Instead, he begins by analysing what religion means to the people who call themselves Hindus. This he does, perhaps, intentionally because Hinduism, unlike the names of other religions, is a vague term. In ancient India there was no religion called Hinduism and there is no reference to the word Hindu in any Vedic scripture. The nouns India and Hindu have the same etymological past but do not mean the same thing in today’s world. Both the words India and Hindu originate from the name of River Sindhu. The ancient Persians could not pronounce the letter S and so called the river and the people living on its banks Hindu. The Zend-Avesta refers to the word Hindu only as a geographical expression. The ancient Greeks called the same river the Indus and the land next to it, India.

Bankim Chandra harboured some animosity for European people – the colonizers who dominated India in his lifetime – and sometimes made angry remarks about them in his writings. However, that did not stop him from sincerely respecting the Western intellectual tradition. Like many prominent Indians of his time, he was deeply and fruitfully influenced by Western thoughts. A well-rounded English education had made him realize the tremendous value of research and analytical work in discovering the truth in any matter. And he applied his energies in a meticulously scientific manner to find out the real significance of his personal religion and culture. His findings led him to believe that Hinduism had enough to give to its followers and the world, if people were ready to respond to its messages with an open mind. At the same time, he was not blind to its faults and limitations.

Unlike many Hindus, Bankim did not have blind faith in the infallibility or agelessness of the Vedas. In this matter his assessment coincides with Dr S. Radhakrishnan who wrote, ‘The Vedas are neither infallible nor all-inclusive. Spiritual truth is a far greater thing than the scriptures.’ Bankim Chandra had jokingly commented that the hold of the Vedas upon the Hindus was much stronger than the hold of the British rulers upon them. He did not believe that mantras had any mystic powers and regretted the abundance of rituals in the Vedic religion.

From beneath the ashes of myths, legends, superstitions, exaggerations and rituals that had lost their contexts, he laboured to restore the quintessential truth of Hinduism piece by piece. His was the delicate work of an archaeologist passionately recovering valuable artefacts.

Methodology

Bankim Chandra has often used the first person plural ‘we’ as the speaker in his essays on religion. In reality, barring exceptional cases, they express his very own personal thoughts based on his individual research. Bankim Chandra’s use of ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ is a way for him to represent the journals in which his essays appeared. His studied approaches to Hinduism were published regularly in the Bengali magazines Navajeevan, Prachar and Banga Darshan in the 1880s. Often, the major portions of these journals consisted of Bankim’s own writings. I, the translator, have generally used the first person singular to represent Bankim.

This is a selective translation of Bankim’s articles on religion. Sometimes a whole article has been translated while in other cases a portion of an essay has been done. This has occasionally demanded some adjustments to the original titles of the articles.

The translated essays of this volume have been loosely arranged in three parts: ‘Roots of Hinduism’, ‘Bankim Chandra’s Unfinished Gita’, ‘Religion and Society’. The last few pages of the book contains my own notes.

Bankim Chandra has mentioned the names of many scholars of his time in his essays. These scholars were so well known at the time that the essayist did not deem it necessary to explain who they were. I regret to say that even though I searched diligently, I could not find any reference for a few of them.

Of the few publications of Bankim Chandra’s collection of essays available in the market, I have chosen the one that is commonly found on people’s personal bookshelves: Bankim Rachanabali, Dwitiya Khanda, edited by Subodh Chakravarty, published by Kamini Prakashan, Calcutta, in 1991. And as the arrangements of the essays are still the same in most, if not all, other publications, they can be tracked down easily in any volume. I have provided notes with each chapter indicating corresponding pages from Bankim Rachanabali, Dwitiya Khanda, edited by Subodh Chakravarty.

PART I

Roots of Hinduism

1

What Does Religion Mean to the Hindus?

¹

Currently,² among the learned Bengalis, we notice some interest in the Hindu religion. On the whole it seems to be a good thing. Only, I have a few questions to ask these cultured gentlemen. First: What is Hindu religion? Many Hindus resist taking a step forward whenever they hear somebody sneeze. They quickly utter some benediction if a lizard calls, to neutralize its harmful effects. They do not start a journey if they happen to see an empty jar and do not shave on certain days of the week. Are the rules they follow a part of Hindu religion? Most of you, I trust, would answer in the negative and insist that such conventions are just superstitions of the ignorant. You would also agree with me that if Hindu religion consists only of such rubbish, its revival should be summarily stopped.

I know a Brahmin who is regarded as a pious Hindu and follows the tenets of the Hindu scriptures regularly. But he is dishonest. I know another person who calls himself a Hindu Vaishnava. But he has no restrictions on what he eats and drinks. He does not even mind eating and drinking with a non-Hindu. He does not perform evening prayers or other religious rituals. However, he speaks the truth and is caring, forgiving and good-natured. But is he really a Hindu?

We notice that our first candidate is unscrupulous (adharmik) and our second candidate is unlawful (in a religious sense). So, is neither of them a Hindu? Does religion consist of following some rigid rules or is it simply the goodness – the piety – of one’s heart?

Many people will say that our second candidate is not a Hindu because he does not follow the tenets of Hindu scriptures. For such people Hindu religion is the product of Hindu scriptures. But are all the pages of Hindu scriptural tomes authentic?

Hindus generally have very high regard for a scripture called the Manusamhita and believe that its instructions should be followed in performing one’s day-to-day religious duties. But can all of its instructions be followed?

At one’s father’s demise, a Hindu needs to feed a group of Brahmins. Now, the Manusamhita instructs us not to feed a Brahmin who is employed by a king or is a trader, a moneylender or a doctor, or has not studied the Vedas, or teaches a Shudra or is taught by one, or doesn’t believe in life after death, or has many dependents.

I can confidently say that if we employ the above process of elimination, no Brahmins will be found to be fed at one’s father’s shradh ceremony today. And I doubt if any such was ever found even in the past!

Yet, how can we call someone a Hindu if he does not observe his father’s last rites correctly?

Innumerable examples can be given to prove that the form of Hindu religion that is entirely based on the scriptures cannot be resurrected today. And I greatly doubt that Hindus relied completely on their scriptures at any point of time even in the past.

Now, if they cannot have a Hindu religion that is squarely based on the scriptures, what course of action should the Hindus take?

To my mind the Hindus can:

Either abandon Hindu religion altogether;

Or follow only the essence of the Hindu scriptures and, based on that, do what is practical and beneficial for the society.

I have a couple of questions for people who would like to abandon Hindu religion entirely:

Do they want us to take up another religion in place of Hinduism?

Or

Do they want us to do away with all religions?

I hold that a society that is not infused with human values which only religion can provide would degenerate.

So far as the issue that another religion can replace Hinduism is concerned, I am not very hopeful. This is because some of the other great religions of the world – Buddhism, Islam and Christianity – have already tried to establish themselves in India without much success. The Indians of Aryan origin have been particularly stubborn in retaining their Hindu identity.

Thus, when a nation’s degeneration is certain without religion and if any other religion cannot take the place of Hinduism in India, I see no other alternative but its retention in this country. Some might argue that a body of ethical rules can work as effectively as a religion of a country. But I claim that such a body of ethical rules is nothing but a new religion, which would presumably find it as difficult to replace Hinduism as the other religions just mentioned.

Nevertheless, Hinduism has this major dilemma of not being able to depend wholly on its scriptures. As a consequence what is practised as Hindu religion today is a mixture of random teachings from the shastras and random elements from popular usages. Hindus themselves will agree that their faith in the current form is not doing much good to society.

A religion, any religion, ought to be beneficial to the community as well as to the individual believer. The essence of every religion comprises resources that aid an individual and the community/society he belongs to. That is, a religion, any religion, should essentially teach us how to improve human life and human habitat. And I strongly feel that even with all its faults, Hinduism is especially rich in such teachings. So I advise the Hindus not to be haphazard but careful in seeking out the real messages of his/her religion from the contents of the scriptures as well as from other avenues of their cultural heritage, and to call those messages their