l. The absence of the hierarchical idea
in Hinduism is striking. Not only is there no Pope, but there is hardly
any office comparable with a Bishopric[127]. The relationships
recognized in the priesthood are those springing from birth and the
equally sacred ties uniting teacher and pupil. Hence there is little to
remind us of the organization of Christian Churches. We have simply
teachers expounding their sacred books to their scholars, with such
combination of tradition and originality as their idiosyncrasies may
suggest, somewhat after the theory of congregational churches. But that
resemblance is almost destroyed by the fact that both teachers and
pupils belong to clans, connected by descent and accepted by the people
as a superior order of mankind. Even in the most modern sects the
descendants of the founder often receive special reverence.

Though the Brahmans have no ecclesiastical discipline, they do not
tolerate the interference of kings. Buddhist sovereigns have summoned
councils, but not so Hindu monarchs. They have built temples, paid
priests to perform sacrifices and often been jealous of them but for the
last two thousand years they have not attempted to control them within
their own sphere or to create a State Church. And the Brahmans on their
side have kept within their own province. It is true that they have
succeeded in imposing--or in identifying themselves with--a most exacting
code of social, legal and religious prescriptions, but they have rarely
aimed at temporal power or attempted to be more than viziers. They have
of course supported pious kings and received support--especially
donations--from them, and they have enjoyed political influence as
domestic chaplains to royal families, but they have not consented to any
such relations between religion and the state as exist (or existed) in
England, Russia, Mohammedan countries or China. At the ancient
coronation ceremony the priest who presented the new ruler to his
subjects said, "This is your King, O people: The King of us Brahmans is
Soma[128]."

2

These facts go far to explain some peculiar features of Hinduism.
Compared with Islam or Christianity its doctrines are extraordinarily
fluid, multiform and even inconsistent: its practice, though rarely lax,
is also very various in different castes and districts. The strangeness
of the phenomenon is diminished if one considers that the uniformity and
rigidity of western creeds are due to their pol