Vol. 4 · pages 186–190

175 APPENDIX III 20. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Sha-drach, Me-shach, and A-bed-ne-go and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. 21. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 22. Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Sha-drach, Me-shach, and A-bed-ne-go. 23. And these three men, Sha-drach, Me-shach, and A-bed-ne-go, fell bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnance.” Why did the Brahmins give up the first Trinity? There is no indication that they were compelled to foreswear those Gods. Was it love of gain or lucre? The second question is why did the Brahmins who became the votaries of the three Gods follow the principle of live and let live? Why was one sect bent on destroying the other. There was no doctrinal difference between these sects worth the name. Their theology, cosmology and philosophy were all one and the same. The riddle becomes all the great. Was this sectarian quarrel political? Did the Brahmins make religion a matter of politics? Otherwise what is the explanation of this quarrel ? zz

APPENDIX IV II SMARTH DHARMA The Sacred literature of Smarth Dharma consists of the Smritis or the Law Books. These law books contain what may be called the Canon Law. This Canon Law as will be seen later on is vast in its compass and treats of such subjects as law, government, civic rights and duties of the different classes in society, penances for sins and punishments for offences. The purely secular part of this Dharma is not relevant for the purpose in hand. What is relevant is that part, of it which is accepted as belonging strictly to religion. The Smarth Dharma i.e. Dharma based on Smritis is based on five dogmas. The first dogma of Smarth Dharma is the belief in Trinity of Gods, composed of three Gods: Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh or Shiva. In this Trinity, Brahma is the creator of the world, Vishnu is the preserver and Shiva is the destroyer. Instead of the thirty-three Gods of the Srauta Dharma, Smarth Dharma limits the pantheon to only three. The second dogma of the Smarth Dharma is the recognition of the purificatory ceremonies which are called Sanskaras or sacraments. According to the Smarth Dharma every householder must perform certain ceremonies. If he does not he becomes a patit i.e. one who is fallen from grace and therefore......... (The above text is on a typed Page No. 21. Further pages of this chapter are missing. The following text is from the loose sheets enumerated in blue pencil from page No. 55 to 65 only, except page No. 56. All these pages have corrections and instructions in the handwriting of the author. )—Ed. There are few loose pages on ‘ Smarth Dharma and Tantrik Dharma’. Smarth Dharma is numbered as Part II while Tantrik Dharma is numbered as Part III. It seems that Part I consisted of Srauta Dharma. There is only one page of Smarth Dharma numbered as 21. The Tantrik Dharma starts from page 55 and ends at page 65 except page No. 56 with three more handwritten pages added by the author.—Ed.

177 APPENDIX IV Punishments and Penances occupy very prominent place in Pauranik Dharma. In the Srauta Dharma Yama has nothing to do with the future punishment of the wicked. The idea of penal retribution after death for sins committed during life is unknown. But the Puranas have considerably enlarged the Powers of Yama in this respect. “Yama fulfils the office of judge of the dead, as well as sovereign of the damned; all that die appearing before him, and being confronted with Chitragupta, the recorder, by whom their actions have been registered. The virtuous are thence conveyed to Swarga, or Elysium, whilst the wicked are driven to the different regions of Naraka, or Tartarus”. “ The dreadful Chitragupta with a voice like that issuing from the clouds at the mundane dissolution, gleaming like a mountain of collyrium, terrible with lightning like weapons, having thirty-two arms, as big as three yojans, red-eyed, long-nosed, his face furnished with grinders and projecting teeth, his eyes resembling oblong ponds, bearing death and diseases.” Sin will be punished after death. So also there is expiation for sin if the- sinner wishes by performing certain penances for removing sin. But what is sin? According to the Pauranik Dharma it does not mean the commission of a moral wrong. It means the non-performance of the observances prescribed by the Puranas. Such is Pauranik Dharma. III TANTRIK DHARMA What is known as the Tantrik Dharma centres round the worship of Shakti. Shakti literally means power or energy. But in Tantrism it means the female partner of a male God. The literature of the Tantrik Dharma is quite vast and forms quite a separate branch of the Hindu Religious literature. It is necessary to observe that the Shakta form of Hinduism is equipped with a vast mythological personnel of its own, an immense array of female personalities, constituting a distinct division of the Hindu Pantheon. In its origin the Tantrik Dharma is only an extension of the Pauranik Dharma. It is the Puranas which first began with the recognition of the female unmarried goddesses or as objects of worship. This was followed by the recognition of married females who were the wives of the Gods. It is in support of their recognition of the right of the wives of the Gods to be worshipped as goddesses that the Puranas set out the principle of Shaktism. According to the Puranas

178 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES a deity though single has a dual character. In one it is quiescent, in the other active. The active nature of the deity is called his Shakti (i.e. his power). This Shakti of the deity is personified by the Puranas as the wife of the deity. This is the foundation of what is called Shaktism or the worship of the wife of certain deities. The essence of Shaktism lies in the exclusive worship of the female deity in her most comprehensive character as the great power (Sakti) of Nature, the one mother of the Universe (Jagan-Mata, Jagad-Amba)— the mighty mysterious Force whose function is to direct and control two quite distinct operations; namely, first, the working of the natural appetites and passions, whether for the support of the body by eating and drinking, or for the propagation of living organisms through sexual cohabitation; secondly, the acquisition of supernatural faculties and magical powers (siddhi), whether for a man’s own individual exaltation or for the annihilation of his opponents. And here it is necessary to observe that the Sakta form of Hinduism is equipped with a vast mythological Personnel of its own—an immense array of female personalities, constituting a distinct division of the Hindu Pantheon. Yet the whole array of the Tantrik female Pantheon spreading out as it does into countless ramifications, Shaktism has its root in the wife of Shiva. By common consent she is held to be the source or first point of departure of the entire female mythological system. She also stands at its head; and it is remarkable that in every one of the male God Shiva’s characteristics, his consort is not only his counterpart, but a representation of all his attributes intensified. We have already pointed out how it came to pass that the male God gradually gathered under his own personality the attributes and functions of all other divinities, and thus became to his own special worshippers the great God (Mahadevah) of Hinduism. Similarly and in a much greater degree did his female counterpart become the one great goddess (Maha-devi) of the Sakta hierarchy: representing in her own person all other female manifestations of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and absorbing all their functions. For this reason even the wives of Brahma and Vishnu were said to be her daughters. As to the opposite and contradictory qualities attributed to her, these are no source of difficulty to a Hindu mind. She is simply in all respects a duplicate of her husband but a duplicate painted in deeper or more vivid colours. And just as Shiva is at one time white (Sveta, Sukla) both in complexion and character, at another black (Kala); so his female

179 APPENDIX IV nature also became one half white (whence one of her names Gauri) and the other half black (whence her name Kali). Then, again, each of these opposite characters became variously modified and endlessly multiplied. The white or mild nature ramified into the Saktis called Uma, Gauri, Lakshmi, Sarasvati, etc., the black or fierce nature into those called Kali, Durga, Candi, Camunda, etc. And just as Shiva has 1008 names or epithets, so his wife possesses a feminine duplicate of nearly everyone of his designations. At least one thousand distinct appellations are assigned to her, some expressive of her benignant, some of her ferocious character. Notably it is declared in the Tantras that if any one repeats eight of her names containing the letter m, kings will become his servants, all men will love him, and all his difficulties come to a happy termination. In short, all the other Saktis came to be included by the Saktas under the Sakti or female energy of Shiva, which eventually developed into innumerable separate manifestations and personifications. But it began in a rather modest way by starting the worship of the Durga along with Shiva, Laxmi along with Vishnu, Radha along with Krishna and Sita along with Rama. The number of Shaktis was not defined. Sometimes only eight Saktis are enumerated and sometimes nine, viz, Vaishnavi, Brahmani, Raudri, Mahesvari, Narasinhi, Varahi, Indrani, Karttiki, and Pradhana. Others reckon fifty forms of the Sakti of Vishnu, besides Laxmi; and fifty of Siva or Rudra, besides Durga or Gauri. Sarasvati is named as a Sakti of Vishnu and Rudra, as well as Brahma. According to the Vayu-purana, the female nature of Rudra (Siva) became two-fold, one half Asita or white, and the other half Sita or black, each of these again becoming manifold. The white or mild nature includes the Saktis Uma, Gauri, Laxmi, Sarasvati, &c, the black or fierce nature includes Durga, Kali, Candi, Camunda, &c. Soon however all the Shaktis were universalized under the Shakti or female energy which eventually developed into innumerable separate manifestations and personifications. These personifications, following the analogy of some of Vishnu’s incarnations, are sometimes grouped according to a supposed difference of participation in the divine energy, such for example as the full energy ( purna sakti), the partial (ansarupini) the still more partial ( kala-rupini), and the partial of the partial (kalansa-rupini), this last including mortal women in various degrees, from Brahman