ads is enough to show how ambiguous are the
declarations of the latter.]

[Footnote 33: Compare Barth, _Religions_, p. 76.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER XI.

THE POPULAR BRAHMANIC FAITH

For a long time after the Vedic age there is little that gives one an
insight into the views of the people. It may be presumed, since the
orthodox systems never dispensed with the established cult, that the
form of the old Vedic creed was kept intact. Yet, since the real
belief changed, and the cult became more and more the practice of a
formality, it becomes necessary to seek, apart from the inherited
ritual, the faith which formed the actual religion of the people.
Inasmuch as this phase of Hindu belief has scarcely been touched upon
elsewhere, it may be well to state more fully the object of the
present chapter.

We have shown above that the theology of the Vedic period had
resulted, before its close, in a form of pantheism, which was
accompanied, as is attested by the Atharva Veda, with a demonology and
witch-craft religion, the latter presumably of high antiquity.
Immediately after this come the esoteric Br[=a]hmanas, in which the
gods are, more or less, figures in the eyes of the priests, and the
form of a Father-god rises into chief prominence, being sometimes
regarded as the creative force, but at all times as the moral
authority in the world. At the end of this period, however, and
probably even before this period ended, there is for the first time,
in the Upanishads, a new religion, that, in some regards, is esoteric.
Hitherto the secrets of religious mysteries had been treated as hidden
priestly wisdom, not to be revealed. But, for the most part, this
wisdom is really nonsense; and when it is said in the Br[=a]hmanas, at
the end of a bit of theological mystery, that it is a secret, or
that 'the gods love that which is secret,' one is not persuaded by the
examples given that this esoteric knowledge is intellectually
valuable. But with the Upanishads there comes the antithesis of
inherited belief and right belief. The latter is public property,
though it is not taught carelessly. The student is not initiated into
the higher wisdom till he is drilled in the lower. The most unexpected
characters appear in the role of instructors of priests, namely,
women, kings, and members of the third caste, whose deeper wisdom is
promulgated oftentimes as something quite new, and sometimes is
wh