Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | 页面 545

RULES FOR A VANAPRASTHA
505
features of resemblance between the moral and religious
principles professed by Hindus and those of other ancient
schools of philosophy in other countries.
Several of the
Brahminical rules of conduct correspond closely with those
followed by Zeno and the Stoics
their plan of making
their pupils learn everything by heart resembles that of
the Druids
their taste for a solitary life, like that of the
Vanaprasthas, is also shared by the Rechabites, the Thera-
peutics, the Children of the Prophet, the Magi of Persia,
the Essenes of Egypt.
But what arguments can be drawn
from these feeble analogies to disprove the antiquity and
originality of Hindu philosophy ?
And possibly it was the
Hindus that furnished the original models, while the others
;
;
only imitated them.
The life of a Vanaprastha was founded on the rigorous
observance of certain established rules to which he bound
himself on initiation.
Here are some of the principal, as
found in Hindu books, together with a few remarks of my
own on each
The Vanaprastha must renounce the society of other
I.
men, even of his own caste, and must take up his abode