2. Modern Hinduism and the Unitarian Movements

The tendency toward monotheism, or

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rather toward unitarianism, which is traceable in the latter portions of the Rig-Veda and, increasing steadily through the Upanishads and Vishnuite sectarianism, finds its culmination in the modern unitarianism of India. It is not impossible that this movement was aided by Mohammedanism. In a historical novel of the seventh century Bana portrayed King Harsha as presiding over a sort of

religious conference attended by Brah:. Origin. mans, Buddhists, Jains, and other sec-

tarians, and in the sixteenth century the Emperor Akbar proposed a religious composite made out of Hinduism, Mohammedanism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity. It was not until the early part of the nineteenth century, however, that a religion of such diverse elements, though with a distinctly Hindu basis, was able to sustain a permanent existence. In the year 1830 Rammohun Roy (q.v.) founded at Calcutta the BrahmoSomaj (see India, III.,1), in which selections were read and expounded from the sacred books of all the great religions. He was followed by Devendranath Tagore (see Tagore, Devendranath) and by Keshub Chunder Sen (see Sen, Keshav Chandra), who developed the principles laid down by Rammohun Roy and advocated still more radical reforms. The Brahmo-Somaj is now one of the most important religious agencies of India among the cultured classes.

Side by side with orthodox Hinduism and with such heretical sects as the Jains (q.v.) and the Sikhs (q.v.), there exists the religion of the people,

both Aryan and non-Aryan. Here is s. The found in richest profusion the worship

Popular of trees, serpents, animals, ghosts, both Religion. malevolent and benevolent, disease,

and all the phenomena of nature, while totemism, fetishism, and animism each finds countless adherents.

Bibliography: The best work on the sects of modern India in W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folk Lore of Northern India, 2 vols., London, 1898; idem, Tribes and Castes of the North-West Provinces and Oudh, 4 vols., Calcutta, 1898; next to these the best general work on India is It. W. Frazer, Literary History of India, New York, 1898. Consult further: E. Burnouf, Le Bhagavata purana, ou histoire poitique de Krichna, 4 vols., Paris, 1840-1884; M. Williams, Hinduism, London, 1878; W. J. Wilkine, Modern Hinduism, ib. 1887; A. Barth, The Religions of India, ib. 1890; F. W. Thomas. Mutual Injumoe of Mohammeda- and Hindus, Cambridge, 1892; A. Lyall. Natural Religion in India, London, 1891; idem, in ReligioW Systems of as World, ib. 1893; J. N. Bhattaeharya, Hindu Castes and Sects, Calcutta, 1898; J. A. Dubois, Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Oxford, 1897; E. Hardy, Indiwhe ReligionagewAirhte, Leipsic, 1899; C. Von Orelli Allgemeine Religionegeschichte, pp. 394-526, Bonn, 1899; General Report of the Census of India. 1901, pp. 349-420, Calcutta, 1904 (valuable for Indian animism and for statistics); J. Happel, Die religi6mn . . . Grundanachauungen der Inder, Giessen, 19o2; P. D. C. de Is Saussaye, Ldrbuch der ReligionsgeseUchte, ii. 122 sqq., Freiburg, 1905; J C. Oman, The Brahmins, Deisfa and Muslim# of India. London, 1907; Das Saurapuranam. Ein Kompendium apdtindischer Kulturgeschichte and des Sivaismus. Einleitung, Inhaltagabe, nebat ueberaetzungen, Erkidrungen wnd Indices ton W. Jahn, Strasburg, 1908.