Holy Himalaya; the Religion, Traditions, and Scenery of Himalayan Province (Kumaon and Garwhal)
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= \ #S-<^ **v J & HOLY HIMALAYA NATIVE PICTURE OF THE GOD SIVA AND HIS WIFE PARVATI HOLY HIMALAYA The Religion, iraditions, and Scenery of a Himalayan Province (Kumaon and Garhwdl) E. SHERMAN OAKLEY, M.A. Of the London Missionary Society EDINBURGH AND LONDON OLIPHANT ANDERSON & FERRIER i95 i(\/i/ CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTORY . 9 I. THE JOURNEY TO ALMORA 17 II. ALMORA . 36 III. HIGHLAND FAIRS 56 IV. BYWAYS IN KUMAON 62 V. A CHEQUERED HISTORY. 82 VI. AN INDIAN HOLY LAND 128 VII. KEDAR AND BADARI 141 VIII. THE GREATER GODS 162 IX. GHOSTS AND GODLINGS . 201 X. A CHAPTER ON CUSTOMS 233 XI. THE VILLAGE WISEACRE 255 XII. THE ROOTS OF HINDUISM 281 XIII. CONCLUSION 297 INDEX 313 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS I'AGK 1. NATIVE PICTURE OF THE GOD SIVA AND HIS WIFE, PARVATI ..... Frontispiece 2. VIEW OF NAINI TAL . .10 3. A DAK BUNGALOW (DHAULCHINA) . .31 4. THE PANCH CHULE PEAKS . .31 5. VIEW OF ALMORA ...... 50 6. CORNER OF A VILLAGE FAIR IN KUMAON . 59 7. THE PASS INTO TIBET BEYOND MILAM . .81 8. A VILLAGE ON THE WAY TO BAGESWAR . 81 9. AN ALMORA TEMPLE . .102 10. A BAZAAR IN KUMAON ..... 113 11. A BRAHMAN OFFICIAL OF ALMORA . 125 12. BADRINATH AND KEDARNATH PEAKS . 142 13. KUMAON YOGIS . .161 14. ASCETICS RETURNING FROM THE GREAT PILGRIMAGE . 192 15. A BROOK BY THE WAY ..... 225 16. A BANIYA OR SHOPKEEPER IN KUMAON . 259 17. BHOTIYAS AT BAGESWAR ..... 275 18. THE GORI-GANGA KIVER, WITH MISSION CAMP . 295 The Author's best thanks are given, for permission to use photographs by Miss Meachen, Rev. W. R. Le Quesne, Mr. E. G. Hill, and Lalla Gangi Sah of Naini Tal. HOLY HIMALAYA INTRODUCTORY is Britain's great romantic asset, and one of INDIAher chief claims to historical distinction. The nation that dominates the Indian peninsula is, from the standpoint of human interest and culture, the most " enviable nation of the world. The glory that was " Greece and the grandeur that was Rome have passed away, and their sites only are left as relics of the past. India, on the contrary, has the more vivid charm of a treasure yet unexplored, a storehouse of existing marvels, a vast and complex field for research of every kind. Many secrets of bygone races and eras are yet to be wrung from its buried monuments and unpublished manuscripts. Here the ancient world yet lives on in the daily lives of men. Customs, cults, and ideas that have perished from the memory of the rest of the human race are here in full force. India is the land that above all has power to stir the imagination. It has nowadays become a trite remark to say that India is not a single country, but rather a continent an aggregate of many regions, . tribes and tongues TO Holy Himalaya differing widely from one another. This fact must be borne in mind in reading any book on India. The value of works purporting to give a general view of Indian life and religious custom is often seriously lessened by the writer's ignoring of such diversities, and when they have been borne in mind, the attempt to weave a description that should apply to all the peoples of India has sometimes resulted in vagueness and sketchiness and what is vague is always un- interesting. The way to understand India is to take a part of it, gain a clear idea of its history and life, and work outwards from that centre of observation. The history of Kumaon is one of these coigns of vantage from which the wide field of North Indian antiquities and religions can be viewed, and the reader will find that it presents many fresh vistas of interest. The present volume will, it is hoped, have some value as an attempt to show the romance and reality of a corner of India remote from railways and the usual tourist lines, and little known to Europeans in general, though famous in the annals of Hinduism, and a region of great sanctity and popular resort for the people of the country. A residence of fifteen years in the province gives the writer some claim to speak with adequate knowledge, and he has endeavoured to consult the best authorities in bringing out the story of the past and apportioning its interest to the present. The writing of these pages has been the recreation of leisure hours in a busy life under Indian skies. If they express, however faintly, the charm of Himalayan days, to those who have not known them ; if, moreover, they bring back to old friends, dwellers now or formerly in beautiful Kumaon, the memory of mossy oak and Introductory 1 1 rhododendron woods, the sough of the breeze in deodar and pine, the glittering snows, the verdure of the " rains," the rich brown and emerald of the mountain- sides in drier seasons, the bright sunshine over all, or the poetry of winter evenings by the glowing oak-log on the open hearth above all, if they awaken in the mind of any who may chance to read them an abiding interest in our great Indian Empire, its people and their deeper needs his pleasant task will be amply rewarded. The purpose of the work is far from being wholly a controversial one, yet I shall be very glad if it helps to prove that India needs a better faith. I have tried, in describing the forms of religion current in this part of India, to keep well within the bounds of sober truth, and to state nothing that does not admit of the fullest verification. It is easy to paint lurid pictures of the lower types of idol worship and demonisin, but every religion may justly claim to be judged by its best, or at any rate its average, level. Those who have lived among the Hindus on familiar terms and studied their literature in a sympathetic spirit would be the last to deny that there is much that is amiable and worthy of in the life and character of the but I respect people ; think most will confess that such better features are little due to the prevailing types of their religion. Moral precepts abound, and religious books like the popular Eamayan of Tulsi Das are full of the spirit of faith and devotion but when one to examine the actual ; comes forms of religious belief and worship, the wonder grows that the people are half so estimable as they are. As regards India, at any rate, the conviction appears to be forced on one's mind that the outward symbols of 12 Holy Himalaya religious belief have less influence on the daily life of individuals than the social standards that exist independently of the strange and often very unedifying religious cults professed by the people. Yet what a sad confession it is, that the very influence which should be most elevating and inspiring falls here below the common level of moral feeling, and has to be ingeniously explained and interpreted before it can be made to accord with ordinary notions of right ! It is this, more than anything else, that keeps back the Hindus from attaining the place in the world that their intelligence and ability fit them to occupy. They need a high and inspiring ideal, a hopeful and energis- ing faith that will lift them out of the slough of fatalism which their religious creed, under all its manifold forms, has inculcated. A consciousness of this need has made itself felt of late years, giving rise to a desperate and forlorn attempt to revive the belief in Hinduism, with all its ancient practices, among the educated classes. While acknowledging the zeal and self-denial which have led modern workers like Mrs. Besant to aim at the regeneration of the Hindus by a revival of their old religion, one cannot bub regard such efforts as a very questionable service to young India. As a non-Christian Hindu, writing lately in the Kayasth Samdchdr (an ably conducted magazine published " under Hindu auspices in North India), says : The recent Hindu revival is a backward movement, inas- much as it tries to reintroduce into our creed those doctrines of a bygone age which we threw away long ago. To attempt to assert the divinity of the Puranas, to find innumerable beauties and lessons, from the spiritual standpoint, in the obscene farces of Krishna Introductory 1 3 related in the Bhagavat Parana, to defend idolatry with plausible, long-exploded arguments, is to lead us back to the stage from which we started, and to undo the labour of years in the cause of religious reform. I believe the Theosophical School is a great favourite because it panders to the vanity of the young patriots and enthusiasts who want to defend even the Puranic customs, so absurd in themselves. It is the fashion in these days to discover hidden truths in the most trivial, ridiculous practices of Hinduism, to apply all the force of ingenious sophistry and misguided zeal for the purpose of extolling everything ancient. This arises from a mistaken notion of patriotism, which makes our young students forget the wise maxim of the late Sir T. Madhava Eao, ' What is not true is not " patriotic.' It is probable, however, that the belated effort to revive belief in Hinduism among the educated will not have much permanence, and it may serve a useful purpose in showing the uselessness of all such endeav- ours, and in leading to a truer appreciation of spiritual needs. It will be seen that Hinduism, from its very nature, is incapable of supplying the energy for moral and social reformation.