nor the fear of results that in his teaching held
him to the inheritance he had received. Gods, ghosts, demons, and
consequently sacrifices, rites, ordeals, and formulae were not
incongruous with his philosophical opinions. He himself believed in
these spiritual powers and in the usefulness of serving them. It is
true that he believed in their eventual doom, but so far as man was
concerned they were practically real. There was, therefore, not only
no reason why the sage should not inculcate the old rites, but there
was every reason why he should. Especially in the case of pious but
ignorant people, whose wisdom was not yet developed to a full
appreciation of divine relativity, was it incumbent on him to keep
them, the lower castes, to the one religion that they could
comprehend.

It is thus that the apparent inconsistency in exoteric and esoteric
beliefs explains itself. For the two are not contradictory. They do
not exclude each other. Hindu pantheism includes polytheism with its
attendant patrolatry, demonology, and consequent ritualism.[8]

With rare exceptions it was only the grosser religion that the vulgar
could understand; it was only this that they were taught and believed.

Thus the old Vedic gods are revered and worshipped by name. The Sun,
Indra, and all the divinities embalmed in ritual, are placated and
'satiated' with offerings, just as they had been satiated from time
immemorial. But no hint is given that this is a form; or that the
Vedic gods are of less account than they had been. Moreover, it is not
in the inherited formulae of the ritual alone that this view is
upheld. To be sure, when philosophical speculation is introduced, the
Father-god comes to the fore; Brahm[=a][9] sits aloft, indulgently
advising his children, as he does in the intermediate stage of the
Br[=a]hmanas; and _[=a]tm[=a] (brahma)_ too is recognized to be the
real being of Brahm[=a], as in the Upanishads.[10] But none of this
touches the practice of the common law, where the ordinary man is
admonished to fear Yama's hell and Varuna's bonds, as he would have
been admonished before the philosopher grew wiser than the Vedic
seers. Only personified Right, Dharma, takes his seat with shadowy
Brahm[=a] among the other gods.[11]

What is the speech which the judge on the bench is ordered to repeat
to the witnesses? Thus says the law-giver Manu: "When the witnesses
are collected together in the court, in the presence of the plaintiff