The strange far-off oriental words which today scholars
discuss, theosophists manipulate, and charlatans employ as catchpennies
were common words in the every-day speech of the Hindu people, two or
three thousand years ago.
Glancing rapidly at the condition of religion in the era ushering in the
birth of Buddha, we note that the old joyousness of life manifested in
the Vedic hymns is past, their fervor and glow are gone. In the morning
of Hindu life there was no caste, no fixed priesthood, and no idols; but
as wealth, civilization, easy and settled life succeeded, the taste for
pompous sacrifices conducted by an hereditary priestly caste increased.
Greater importance was laid upon the detail of the ceremonies, the
attention of the worshipper being turned from the deities "to the
minutiae of rites, the erection of altars, the fixing of the proper
astronomical moments for lighting the fire, the correct pronunciation of
prayers, and to the various requisite acts accompanying a sacrifice."[6]
In the chapter of decay which time wrote and literature reflects, we
find "grotesque reasons given for every minute rite, dogmatic
explanation of texts, penances for every breach of form and rule, and
elaborate directions for every act and moment of the worshipper.
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