Professional Documents
Culture Documents
.^'
'.-
'i^::J-
[*
APR
8 1908
*!
BL 41
.A53
~
V.6
Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/americanlectures06newy
I.
dhism.
II.
Peoples.
III.
Jewish
Religions.
By Karl
BUDDK,
D.I).
V. Ancient Egyptians.
Egyptians.
By G. Steindorkf, Ph.D.
of
Re-
the Veda.
By
In active preparation
VIII.
By Iguaz
G.
P.
PUTNAM'S SONS
906- 907
1
BY
V MAURICE BLOOMFIELD,
Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative
Ph.D., LL.D.
University,
Baltimore
G. P.
Copyright, iqo8
BV
G. P.
PUTNAM'S SONS
'Hew
Worli
PREFACE.
THIS
Veda
little
ampli-
The
amount
;
of literature
embraced
moreover any
name
ConIt
must
my
was
not
difificult
it
make the
selection.
have not
thought
of
of priestly ritual
and
religious folk-practices
seem
to
me
and under the circumstances of a popular treatment On the other hand, it seemed of Vedic religion.
both interesting and
important to
bring out as
markedly
ligious
as
distinction
from
iv
Preface
The
how
the religion
of
the
Veda
is
rests
upon a
prehistoric
;
foundation
which
largely nature
myth how it continues in hymns as hieratic ritual worship of gods how this religion grew more and
;
in the
Yajur-Vedas and
was
the
practically
abandoned
how
and when
thought
;
arose
germs of higher
religious
and, finally,
how
ciples that
mental
events landed
Hindu thought,
Upanishads which
at a comparatively
and pessimistic
it
re-
abandoned.
Maurice Bloomfield.
Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, April, 1907.
ANNOUNCEMENT.
THE
for the
American
Lectures on
the
History of
This Committee was organised in 1892, purpose of instituting " popular courses in
somewhat
Brooklyn, Chicago,
others."
New
The terms
1.
of association
The object
be delivered in various
2.
cities.
The Association
shall
be composed of delegates
not possible.
These delegates
one
vi
Announcement
Local
Board
shall
constitute
of the "
themselves a
name
American Com-
The Council
shall elect
out of
its
number a
left
Chair-
to the In-
may
The
funds,
(c)
each
city,
may be
8.
necessary.
ment
9.
The
by the Council
at
least ten
course of lectures.
10.
in
The copyright
: ;
Announcement
12.
vii
be paid
at the
The compensation
in
14.
The
which he
is
engaged by the
Committee.
The Committee
Prof.
as
now
constituted
is
as follows
St.,
Cambridge, Mass.
urer, 225
West 99th
Jr.,
;
New York;
Prof. Morris
Jastrow,
phia, Pa.
Prof. Francis
;
R. F. Harper,
;
111.
Prof. Paul
Haupt, 25 1 1
Prof. F.
N. Y.
Prof.
cal
W. Hooper, Brooklyn Institute, Brooklyn, W. Hopkins, New Haven, Conn. Edward Knox Mitchell, Hartford TheologiProf. E.
;
Prof.
George F.
K. Sanders,
Rev.
F.
Pres.
F. C. Southworth, Meadville
The
American Lectures
viii
Announcement
titles of their
W.
Rhys-Davids,
Ph.
D.
Buddhism.
1
LL.D.
1897-1898 Rev.
Prof. T.
K. Cheyne,
D.D. Jewish
of
D.D. Religion
1904-1905
Prof.
Georg
Steindorff, Ph.D.
The
1905-1906
The
on Vedic Literature.
His
hymns and
Harvard
manent place
this
ritual
in
Besides
known
as the Kau^ika-Sutra
published
in-
a translation of the
cluded
in
Professor
of
Announcement
ix
the East (Oxford, 1897); written a volume on the Literature and History of the Atharva-Veda, entitled
:
the Gopatha-Brahmana
"
and
of
vols.,
Baltimore, 1901).
He
Europe num-
erous papers on linguistic, mythological, and ethnological topics in general, in addition to a large
num-
and
religion of the
Veda
in particular.
The
Union
Drexel Institute,
Mead-
and Hartford
John
C. H.
P.
Peters,
Committee
on
Publication,
Toy,
I
;
Morris Jastrow,
January, 1908.
CONTENTS.
LECTURE THE FIRST.
dhism
life
institu-
life
institu-
rta,
and Persia
Slight connection between India and Persia in secular history The Parsis in India Close relation
between Veda and Avesta The Veda and the IndoEuropean period The Veda as a whole The date of the Veda Its great uncertainty Nature of Vedic
tradition
The (^rotriyas, or "Oral Traditionalists" Uncertain character of Vedic life and institutions Origin of the Veda Contents of Vedic literature as a whole The four Vedas The Rig- Veda The books of the Rig- Veda Theme and character of the Rig- Veda A hymn to Goddess Dawn The YajurVeda Character of the yajus-iovm\i\a.s The SamaVeda Origin and purpose of the Sama-Veda The Atharva-Veda Contents of the Atharva-Veda Religious Quality of the Atharva-Veda Two Atharvan hymns The Brahmana Texts Some legends of the Brahmanas The Aranyakas, or " For-
est Treatises"
The
Upanishads
Literary
history
xii
Contents
PAGES
in
of the
Upanishads
The Upanishads
the
West
1-59
Upanishads
The Rig- Veda as of the nature of Vedic poetry Difficulty of understanding the sacrificial poetry
False view ritual character of the Rig- Veda Poetry addressed to the Goddess Dawn A hymn to the sacrifice postThe Goddess Dawn as the symbol of liberality at the sacrifice Some erroneous estimates of Goddess Dawn Agni the son of "Baksheesh" Practical purposes of Vedic poetry The Rig- Veda contains the religion of the upper classesThe ritual of the Rig- Veda The dpri-hymns Nature-worship the keynote of the Rig- Veda India's climate and nature- worship Vedic and Hellenic mythology
traits of early
Vedic religion
compared
Arrested
tion of the
Faulty
classifications
logy of the gods Different degrees of certainty about the origin of the gods Classification of the 60-98 gods in these lectures
words for god Father Sky and I\Iother Earth The Thunderer The Vedic A^vins, or "Horsemen," the two Sons of Heaven The Dioscuri in Greek
Contents
xiii
PAGES
The Lettish myth of the two "Sons of God' 'Common kernel of the myth of the two Sons of Heaven" The Aryan, or Indo-Iranian period Important religious ideas common to the two peoples The dual gods Varuna and Mitra Ahura or Mazda and Varuna The conception of "cosmic order" The Adityas Aditi, the mother of the Adityas Mitra, a sun god The sun, the moon, and the planetsThe Adityas and Amesha Spentas Early ethical concepts among the IndoEuropeans Varuna and Greek Ouranos (Uranus) The origin of man Sundry parents of man "Father Manu Yama and YamI, the "Twins" man The Interlacing of the myths of the human character of Manu and Yama Yama, the drink of the god of the dead Soma, the gods The myth of Soma and the Heavenly Eagle
mythology
'
'
rta,
"
first
sacrificial
99-149
THE TRANSPARENT, TRANSLUCENT, AND OPAQUE GODS RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS AND RELIGIOUS FEELING IN THE
VEDA.
The transparent gods:
religion
Father
fire
a god of
sacrifice
Fire Agni as the Prehistoric gods of Birth and youth of Agni Agni as god of the morning New the agent of the births of Agni Agni on the gods Priesthood and divinity of Agni A hymn to Agni Other myths of the Fire GodThe translucent gods: definition of the term God Vishnu God Pushan God Indra, as an example of an opaque god Traditional explanation of the myth of Indra and Vritra Professor Hillebrandt's inter-
Sky and Daughter Dawn Surya, the sun Vata and Vayu, gods of wind
fire
altar,
xiv
Contents
pretation of the same myth Renewed definition of the religion of the Rig- Veda Renewed definition of Vedic practicalities Conflicting prayers and sacrifices
The conception of faith Faith related to Truth and Wisdom Faith personified Faith and works The reward for faith postponed to heaven {^raddha) and later Contrast between early "faith " devotion (bhakii) "Gift praises," another sop to The religious feeling of the Rig- Veda. the The sense The glory of the gods Absence of real sentiment towards the gods Poetic inspiration the true religious feeling The complacent master-singers The poets' own estimate of 150-207 their workThe divine quality of devotion.
" "
sacrificer
utilitarian
Gotterdammerung " Failure of God Varuna Monism, or the idea of unity The creation hymn Translation and analysis of the creation hymn Attempts at Monotheism Prajapati, the Lord of
"
CreaturesVifvakarman, creator of the universe, and kindred conceptions Purusha, the world man Brihaspati, the Lord of Devotion Transcendental
monotheistic conceptions: "Time," "Love," etc. Defects of the earlier monotheistic and monistic 208-248 attempts
Contents
xv
PAGES
transmigration The doctrine of karma, or spiritual evolution How transmigration and karma appear to Western minds The pessimist theory of life Cause of Hindu pessimism Pessimism and the per-
fect
Professor Huxley's critique of ism Pilgrim's progress under the religion of Brahma Investiture and disciplehoodThe of the householderThe of the forest-dweller and wandering ascetic Ultinaa Thule 249-289
asceticism
ascetilife life
(Brahma) Dualistic pessimism Salvation through realisation of one's own Brahmahood The conception of the atman, "breath," as life principle Atman, the soul of the Universe Brahma, the spiritual essence of the Universe Fusion of Atman and Brahma Maya, or the world an illusion The unknowableness of Brahma Emerson's poem on the Brahma The fulness of Brahma: a story of Yajnavalkya and his wife Maitreyi Transition from philosophy to piety Hindu
principle
Index
291
LECTURE THE
India the
Multiplicity of
FIRST.
Land
Hindu
of Religions
religions
The Veda.
institutions Continuity of India's religious or "cosmic Date of the conception of order" Close relationship of the religions of India and Persia Slight connection between India and Persia in secular history The Parsis in India Close relation between Veda and Avesta The Veda and the IndoEuropean period The Veda as a whole The date of great uncertainty Nature of Vedic trathe Veda ditionThe Qrotriyas or "Oral Traditionalists" Unand institutions Origin certain character of Vedic of the Veda Contents of Vedic literature as a whole The four VedasThe Rig- VedaThe books of the Rig- Veda Theme and character of the Rig- Veda hymn to Goddess Dawn The Yajur-Veda Character of the j'a/iis-formulas The Sama-Veda Origin and purpose of the Sama-Veda The Atharva-Veda Contents of the Atharva-Veda Religious quality of the Atharva-VedaTwo Atharvan hymns The Brahmana Texts Some legends of the Brahmanas The Aranyakas, or "Forest Treatises" The Upanishads Literary history of the Upanishads The Upanishads in the West Critical estimate of the Upanishads.
religious
Profound hold of religion upon the Hindu mind Hindu The four stages life dominated by religious institutions The institution of caste Caste then and now of life Symptoms of revulsion against caste Other pernicious
Brahmanism Buddhism
rta,
history
Its
life
The
is
Relifrion of the o
Veda
INDIA
*
sense.
its
own
resources
number
at
of distinctive systems
least,
and
sects,
two
of
which,
are of
world-wide
interest
and
importance.
Brahmanism,
in its
manifold aspects,
is
to this
in
it.
day But
India
known
are
respectively as
two
and human
a
life.
way
as to place
in so
penetrating
side of
the most
The beginnings
so-called
The Upanishads contain the higher religion of the Veda. The essence of higher Brahmanical religion is Upanishad religion. The
part
of
religion of the
Upanishads
is
part of the
theme
of
these lectures.
Buddhism
Its
started in the
bosom
of
Brahmanism.
practical
are directed in
manism.
Yet Buddhism
a religion
genuinely
India the
Land
of Religions
Hindu
in its texture.
It shares
with Brahmanism
its
dominant reHgious
leased from
ideas.
Transmigration of souls,
re-
Buddhism crossed
passed
to
To
the north
it
various forms
it
is
number
;
of Buddhists
upon
re-
300 millions
may be
who
whose
religion
Brahmanism
and Buddhism, both Hindu products, together supply the religious needs of 500 millions of the earth's
inhabitants.
is
Nowhere
else
is
the texture of
so
much
im-
At
of souls (metempsychosis),
whose
precise origin in
itself
India
is
still
The
in the
Religion of the
Veda
and funda-
down
future
Hindu mind
all
as the basis
mental axiom of
life.
This of
merely a theory.
is,
The
it
practical
that
is
According to
is
this the
existences
an
imperative necessity.
would be
difficult to find
anywhere
the
which has
pervades
real
It
Hindu consciousness
in
far
more
and
intimate
way than
life,
its
eternal future
of the
Western world.
the beginning of India's history religious
From
ment of its people to an extent unknown elsewhere. Hindu life from birth to death, and even after death
in
the fancied
is
life
of the
Fathers, or
Manes
in
heaven,
is
religious, or
sacramental throughout.
It
surrounded
by
institutions
and
practices,
and
by them
that have
worked
their
way
to the highest
The
religious life of
is
India the
Land
of Religions
fearing
forest
-
and
sacrificing
;
householder
contemplative
dweller
ascetic.
law.
this
Such at least is the theory of their religious Even though practice at all times fell short of
allowed that
claim
life
is
an essentially solitary
There
is
no provision
the State
in
the interests
of the race.
effectively,
of
they are
Over
Its
this hovers,
like
black
cloud, another
gone
make
the
Hindu what he
is.
The
corro-
more than
ment
of India into
a nation.
governed by the
of
the Brah-
man, or
caste
;
priestly caste
the
Kshatriya, or warrior
and the
cross-castes, the
of
intermarriages between
The
members
are
Religion of the
Veda
Such marriages
now
Gradually, differences of
occupation, trade, and profession, and, to a considerable extent also, difference of geography, established
At the present time there are nearly 2000 Brahman castes alone. According to an intelligent Hindu observer of our own day the Sarasvata Brahmins of the Panjab alone number 469 tribes the Kshatriyas are split
of castes
legion.
'
;
number
became
up into 590; the Vai^yas and (^udras into even more. There is a Hindustani proverb, "eight
Brahmins, nine kitchens."
In the matter of food
and intermarriage
off
all
castes are
now completely
not, as
is
shut
the
A tailor may
may
custom with
The
the
blooming daughter
deviation,
of the barber.
Even a minor
once breed
some new
a new caste. In certain parts of India fisher-folk who knit the meshes of their nets from right to left may not intermarry with them that knit from left to
right.
'
very interesting
1889), p. 9-
'
India the
Land
of Religions
Bengal, there
is
make
for the
manufacture of large
certain class of
Even
way
man
defiles the
higher
While a Nayar can pollute a man of a higher cast only by touching him, people of the Kammalan group, including masons, blacksmiths, carpenters, and workers in leather, pollute at a distance of twenty-four feet, toddy
drawers
vators
at thirty-six
feet,
Palayan or Cheruman
;
culti-
at
forty-eight
feet
while
in
the
case of the
Paraiyan (Pariahs)
is
who
stated to be
no
less
than sixty-four
is
Thus Hindu
society
small
its
exclusiveness as com-
Members
;
the individual
is
restricted
To
Quoted from
New
Ideas in India,
p. 33.
The
shut forever.
Religion of the
Veda
is
There
is little
patriotic combination.
Moreover the
the
mind
of the average
The
marry
of
really concerns
;
him
in his daily
;
to eat correctly
to drink correctly
to
correctly.
religion,
The
broader,
more
usual, dictates
secondary place.
India has at
all
stamp
of religion
not,
and
in
matters of
abstract belief
tyrannous,
social pracreligion.
tices as
i
may
be
Fortunately there are not wanting signs of a revulsion of feeling which bids fair to sweep the entire
all its
The
great
Hindu reformer
Raja
Rammohun Roy
India the
Land
of Religions
brilliant representative of
the "ParHament of Religions," held in Chicago in connection with the Universal Exposition in 1893, passed
life
The
voices of other
reformers are
lifting.
the Panjab, different as are their aims in other respects, are marshalled
caste, as
on the
side of opposition to
social
The
of
government
Thugs; and
Hindu
religion,
it
has
of overshadowing individual sanity and public inThere has been, and there still is, too much terest.
lo
The
Religion of the
Veda
Brahmanical hierarchy,
;
infinitely diversified
Hindu
religions,
or
mere
from
which
is
their profession.
On
of India the
Anyhow
Hindu
down
to the
we may question whether India's salvacome that way, rather than through the
social
is
growth of
and
political intelligence
which so
gifted a people
The student
good
out of
its
own mental
many important
it
religions
has carried
small
number
Mohammedan
conquest,
India the
Land
of Religions
ii
West
of India.
is
no record of permanent
scale, until, in
the
last
Brahma Samaj,
upon a universal
a kind
spirit,
theis-
Hindu
found
ligion
may be
re-
other religions.
In this
way Hindu
more
strictly native
religions of
mankind.
This
is
We may
say that a
body
Hes
of,
3500 years
or
less
of
organic
religious
growth
of
more
open before
the eyes
the
student of
India's
religions, to dissect,
upon.
Within recent
tablets contain-
from
tributary
kings
of
Babylonia,
12
The
Reliijion of the
Veda
Egyptian Pharaohs,
These
a letter
of Western Asia.
There
is
among them
written
by a king
by
name.
among
and
others the
names
tama.
(Persian),
back to
at least
c'
and
familiar to
as part of
Western
Achemenidan
"
We
shall find
one
most important
Rig- Veda.
We
it is
likely to
have existed
the point of
in fact
From
we must, begin
'
the history of
Hindu
religion at
F.
Hommel
See the author, American yournal of Philology, xxv., p. 8 in Sitzungsherichte der Koniglich Bohmischen Gesell;
Number
vi.
India the
Land
of Religions
13
least
Broad
as
sweep there
religious
people
in the history of
Now
begins
much
In the
life
place,
it
common
in a prehistoric time,
^ryaJi^-period.'
The
mon
religious properties
purely prehistoric.
it
It
is
it
Yet, such as
may be achieved
in this
way.
It is
relationship
between
No
common
other.
am
meaning
ment
will
14
The
Religion of the
Veda
It
to
controls
It is to
them
down
before Greece.
I.
In the
day
Hystaspes carved
which
To
his
all
own.
Among
loosely attached
But
this
But
this politi-
A
of
the
small
number
Mohammedan
German Oriental
p.
49^.
India the
Land
of Religions
15
conquest of Persia,
sacred
fire,
fled to India
holy scriptures.
number,
I
still
They
form one of the most esteemed, wealthy, and philanthropic communities on the west shores of India,
notably in the city of Bombay.
It is
not of record
that they had even the faintest idea that they were
fleeing into the hospitable
bosom
of a people related
knew that they were receiving their very own kin. As far as we know, the Aryan
them
shelter
Hindus
entirely
at
any
rate,
across the
country, dwelt at
own
stock
or Aryans.
And
the
dialects of the
same speech.
may be
turned into
is
less dif-
Veda and
6
1
The
Religion of the
Veda
Hindu
Epic, the
later
This
it
is,
in
my
opinion, an
exag-
is
significant that
all.
the statement
could be
made
at
The
early religions
and the
show, to be sure,
far greater
another than their languages, but they are, nevertheless, at the root
much
the same.
So
it
has
come
mean
Yet
further,
of the
still
remoter
is
the
common Indo-European
Persians
time
still
shared their
remaining
Hellenes,
mem-
of
the
Italians,
historic
religion,
The
religion of the
Veda
is
is
not negligible.
We shall
prehis-
The Veda
the shaping of Vedic thought.
it
17
will
be advantageous to
historic
turn
that
the
Vedic
religion of
times, so
there
may be
is
some
between what
it
old
gra-
and what
new.
And
as
would not be
theme
as the
monument
all
of India, the
most ancient
Indo-European peoples
the
foundation for
THE VEDA
The word veda means
is,
literally "
knowledge," that
It is
" to know."
The
sacred
of
of
the
as
entire
oldest
of
India,
or
the
specific
name
single
books
belonging
to
that
literature.
So
we speak
;
of the
Veda
as the
or,
individual
of
collection.
The number
books which,
as
in
Veda
2
is
a hundred or
The Hindus
8
1
The
Religion of the
Veda
we should
at
say,
Pseudo-
when the
spiration
which
it
has been
my
fate to publish
Vedic.
is
"
We
don't know."
by
in
actual dates
Egypt.
The
late Professor
WilHam D. Whitney
left
invaded India
in
326
B.C.
his
name,
in Pataliputra,
The Veda
19
that of
Candragupta's
grandson,
the
famous
ruled
who
His
all
show us the
who
upon
pillars
;
virtue,
warn against
sin,
and plead
is
and
love of humanity.
This
an important date
in the
good manners.
We
real
are, therefore,
We
much
and
religion of the
Veda.
three.
is
certain.
very old.
20
"
The
Religion of the
Veda
in cut
is
found
and dried
Iranian
I
names
in
am, for
my
part,
think I voice
many scholars,
B.C., for
production, and to a
much
earlier
date
for
the
Anyhow, we must
thinking that
merely salves
there
1500,
is
the
conscience into
for
B.C.,
better proof
or
any
1200,
1000
rather than
frankly,
the earlier
Once more,
is in
we do
most
not
know.
Vedic tradition
markable
in
some
respects the
re-
recorded history.
From
the entire
anti-
property
monument
precious
not a
nothing
of
these
we know
their authority to be
on inner
We
do
know when
Even
if
first
committed to
writing.
The Veda
Vedic period
itself,
21
Indian climate.
They must,
in that case,
have been
and recopying.
The
Hindu
religious
life.
The adherents
of a certain
Veda
know the^_texts by
this day, being, as
it
heart.
so-called
live to
They
respective Vedas.
late
Shankar Pandurang
Bombay
Atharva-Veda out of a
time
still
were
alive in the
Dekkhan
and how
These
were
Jivanram
and Ven-
kan
22
The
in
Religion of the
Veda
cites
Vaidika
the Dekkhan."
Mr. Pandit
them by
sigla, quite in
respectively, as Bp,
K, and V.
for the
They
are, I believe,
now
all
dead.
We
are waiting
now
existence
of the shovel
shall
make
it
it
possible to
period.
If so,
will
be somethat
Mycenean age
was found
Until
and
institutions, reported
only
by word
tity.
of mouth,
The hymns
of the
Veda
are to a considerable
;
taken by them-
human
that
fits
any time or
place.
We
entire
by
priests.
It
as
though we
relied
upon
for
a certain time.
son, as
conditions of a
The
poets,
The Veda
or priestly writers of the
23
are entirely preoccu-
Veda
;
own
interests
if
we want anything
to a later
we must look
time.
We
iliar
meant
in
Was
chieftain
We
know
was a
lovely
cattle-raising age.
The lowing
in
of kine
was
But
gation of
is
some
This
all
too vague,
At an unknown date then, as we have had to confess reluctantly, Aryan tribes or clans {vtg^) began
to migrate from the Iranian highlands to the north
of the
Hindu-Kush Mountains
Indus and
its tribu-
'
From
agricultural
*
later
name
of the third, or
Professor E.
W. Hopkins, yournal of
the
American Oriental
Society,
modern
city of
Ghuggar.
24
The
river
Religion of the
Veda
The
all
in historical times,
scarcely
is full
mentioned
of
the Rig-Veda.
allusions to
the struggles of
fair-skinned
The
struggle
is
likely
to have
been
bitter.
The
whose
spread of Aryan civilisation was gradual, and resulted finally in the up-building of a people
civilisation
/quality
whelmingly
population.
native, dark-skinned,
India
we
ical literature,
metres.
This
is
crude on
classical
it
the
whole,
even
Sanskrit literature of
Yet,
shows,
naivete
and
semi-barbarous
of
bordering on the
and metre.
That
this product
Indian
soil follows
of
See above,
p.
13.
The Veda
Vedic
literature, in its first intention,
it
25
is
through-
out religious, or
includes
by
charms
men,
later
practices,
in
From
sacrifice, illus-
trated
by legends,
in
the manner of
the Jewish
Talmud.
Then
speculations of
a considerable
body
life,
at
home and
and
abroad, that
is,
a distinct literature
of customs
laws.
This
is
the
Veda
as a whole.
The Veda
ably
consists, as
we have
styles.
Some
if
of the
unearthed.
At
it,
we
may
so call
lie
some cases, prayers in sacred, solemn prose. These are known as the Four Vedas in the narrower
tion, or in
sense
26
The
a
Rclicrion of the
Veda
;
come from
somewhat
later
Vedic time
they do
The
earlier
names
They
sdnimii, "mel-
the
name
in its later
stanzas," mostly
worked over
for its
well as
its
very
own
" blessings
addition to
is
its
main
Sama-Veda
some
indicated
by musical
The
as the
Rig- Veda
is,
most important
is
language
speech.
a priestly,
This we
may
call
by
The Veda
language of the Veda.
It is
27
own
speech-forms.
is
far
A
the
prtanyati), rather
than
"fight";
"
"cultivate
";
be pious
"
show
A little over
first,
the number of hymns addressed to a particular god, beginning with the largest number and continuing in Next, each god's hymns are a descending scale.
of the collection.
Each
of these
is
supposed to
by some family
of poets
who would
28
The
Religion of the
Veda
The
and
:
hymns themselves
such
hymn
the
The names
Books
the
ii-vii,
have a good
ring in India at
times.
They
Grtsamada,Vi5vamitra,Vamadeva, Atri,
The
first
to the family of
superficially
hymns of Kanva
the
;
book
are ascribed
off
even
from the
rest,
strophically in groups of
two or three
These
The
They
it
are supposed to
The remainder
of the
entire tenth
and arrangeen-
ment.
tirely,
To some
by no means
That
is,
'
The Veda
much hke and
Atharva-Veda.
often identical with the
29
hymns
of the
On
Rig- Veda
a collection of priestly
the main, as
hymns
is
regularly accompanied
by
libations
and of melted
interest of
ghee {ghrfa).
The enduring
lies in
power
of the gods,
and
in the
of them, or,
more
often,
merely alluded to
the Rig-Veda
plulosophy.
is
Its
mythology represents a
clearer,
even
if
to be
side at
in
is
any
parallel
literature.
On one
how
by
personification
the
The
analy-
opaque
characters
makes up a chapter
of
Vedic science as
\o
The
it
Religion of the
Veda
enough
is
difficult as
is
important.
In any case
known
worship of
make good this last statement, and at the same time by way of fore-taste of the Rig-Veda, I present here some stanzas of one of its finest hymns.'
In order to
It is
fied,
Dawn
person-
whom
light
warmth
The brilliant brightness hath been born, far-shining. Urged on to prompt the sun-god's shining power. Night now hath yielded up her place to morning.
The
is
the
same unending.
it.
linger.
Dawn
shines effulgent.
Wide open
Arousing
all
Dawn
'T
is
Heaven's Daughter hath appeared before us, The maiden dazzling in her brilliant garments.
Thou
'
sovereign mistress of
flash
all
earthly treasure,
!
Auspicious Dawn,
Rig-Veda 1.113
his History
of Sanskrit Literature,
slight alterations.
of
making a few
The Veda
On
heaven's frame she hath shone forth in splendor
cast off the robe of darkness.
;
31
horses,
Upon
Dawn
approacheth.
blessings,
many bounteous
brilliant lustre
all
may
see her.
morns
to
arisen.
Arise
the breath of
life
Dread darkness slinks away and light is coming She hath blazed a pathway for the sun to travel, We have found the place where men prolong existence.
!
The
or scheme of priestly
hymns addressed
read between the
to the gods.
lines of the
How
on.
this
may be
I
Rig-Veda's poetry
clearly later
The Yajur-Veda
by.
time
went
Gradually
is
the
main
object,
:
lost sight of
sol-
emn,
lip
This per-
formance
of
its
own, so that
every detail
is
all-important.
It regulates
man
to the
divine powers
by
its
own
intrinsic
32
The
Religion of the
Veda
power controlled and guided by the wonderful technique of the priests, and their
insight into the
still
more wonderful
meaning
of
all
is
the largest
full
number
of
conduct
bolic
priests
an interminable ceremonial
its
sym-
meaning down to
seat
smallest minutiae.
sacrificial
The
themselves on the
ground
fires
are built.
sacrificial
And
gods
his
and
proper share.
Even the
least
and most
trivial
is
blessed
with
its
own
particular blessing.
These
the
more or
make up
in
numerous redactions
of this
Veda.
the main,
is
The Yajur-Veda
though
Vedic
it
is
a later collection
contains
much
substance that
old, old
all
But Hke
any
other
redaction, at
rate, pre
of
not
in
foreign to the
mind
of the
"
The Veda
original composers.
in the
33
There are
also
many new
main
verses
in the
ritualistic
But the
characteristic
element of
this
Veda
are
rhythmic prose.
They
are,
prose on record
Indobrief
European
and
concise,
mere dedications or
action,
companying an
"
Thee
for
Agni
Agni
"
{idam
to the
an object
is
dedicated
is
god Agni.
Or, "
Thee
the
may
give strength
may
at best be expected
upon
silly
at the sacrifice.
When
an animal victim
tied to
words,
"Do
34
The
Religion of the
Veda
serpents
whom
literature.
A
is
Hindu
For
of
comparison
in
"
is
As
a rope which
is
the dark
enlightened
self."*
mistake the
is
own
and
That
to say, they
self.
sensible,
there
is
Therefore, at the
ceremony
down upon
But often
other
fol-
"
me, nor
let
me
injure thee!"
literature.
:
The
lowing
is
an
all
sacrifice!
sacrifice
! !
prosper
prosper
through
the
May
May
{Sacred Books of
Mandukya-Karika,
17.
Cf. the
"a
The Veda
rifice
!
35
"
And
finally
sacrifice
'
accessory literature
in
now
time collected
sure that
my
Vedic
Concordance.
am
The
practices
which
accompany these
is
formulas,
up by silly
details of formalism,
so that
it is
often
It is
difificult
meaning.
as
though
itself
phase of
its
Hindu
In
its
religion
had prepared
by
and complacent
the very same
hara-kiri.
outcome,
all
in
ing philosophies.
The Upanishads
in reality,
though
far
from choked
P- 155
36
The
Religion of the
Veda
The Sama-Veda
as regards
its
is
of
all
origin
and purpose.
As
a literary pro-
duction
it is
The Sama-Veda is interesting chiefly, because it is the Veda of music. In addition it contains some original practices to which tradition has attached a number of legends unknown in the other Vedic schools. There are no connected hymns in this Veda, only
more or
less
of these verses
set.
The
strophes which,
when
accompanied by
" melodies."
three forms.
known
as sdmdni,
iri^
j
The
First,
by melodies.
They
of the
first fifty
hymns
Most
book, and
in
Books
viii
and
ix.
composed
in the
metre gdyatrl, or
strophes
known
as pragdtha,
derived
verb
gai,
" sing,"
and show
in
these
The Veda
Secondly, they occur
in
37
itself in
the
is,
Sama-Veda
"collection of stanzas."
for
"making
of
upon
Hindus
is
say, the
sdma7t-mt\od{e5.
accents,
still
Here
in
also
its
there
a system
peculiar
ently
we
sdmans
be sung.
musical
Here
notes
not
only the
text but
the
are given.
Still this is
him ; and
at
the end of the stanzas certain concluding exclamations, the so-called nidhanas,
sdt.^
such as atha,
a,
im, and
They remind us
in
way
of the Swiss
and
songs of these
intended
to^
countries as a sort of
effect.
cadenzas,
The Sama-Veda
who
a
"
The vford. gdna, again, is derived from the root gat, " sing." The Pancavin9a Brahmana relates that the poet Kanva was for
to find a
nidhana for his sdman, until he heard Then he took ash for the nidhana of his
38
lias
The
Religion of the
Veda
He, and he
"
he
for
whom
the rks''
or, as
we should
rksT
'
It
seems
Sama-Veda
built
up out
of
the
well
resemblance
accidental.
Shamanism,
as
is
known,
at-
blending their
tions with a
habit of
concep-
good deal
found current
dies, too,
among
the
solstitial festivals.*
The
ex-
clamations interspersed
among
It is
perhaps
in later
my articles, On Rcishatna, an Epithet of Indra, myotirnal of American Oriental Society, vol. xxi., p. 50 ff. ami. The God Indra and the Sdina-Veda, \r\Vienna Oriental yournal, vol. xvii., p.
;
156/-.
'
See A.
schrift fiir
^and
34^.
of the reprint.
The Veda
Sama-Veda
ical
is
39
The Brahman-
Veda and Yajur-Veda must stop whenever the shout of sdnians is heard. One of these law-books,
for instance, counts the
asses, the
sdman
as
so
obnoxious
of
or
defiling
that,
when
stop.*
The interest of the Sama-Veda for the history of Hindu religion and literature amounts to very little. It represents in fact little more than the secondary employment in the service of religion
of popular
ritual
of
Brahmanism
and emotion.
The oldest name of the Atharva-Veda is atharvdngirasah, a compound formed of the names of two
semi-mythic families of
Angirases.
priests,
At
as
was regarded
'
synonymous with
"
holy charms," or
in
Compare on
Ludwig's remark
Der Rig-
xvii., p. 162.
40
The
;
Religion of the
Veda
Veda.
One
is
bhrgvangirasah, that
Bhrigus
and Angirases.
family of
vans.
of the
fira
The
other
Brahma-Veda, probably
is
Veda
Brahman," that
the
Veda
of the supervising
The
to
to
some extent
number
brahina,
hymns which
the
pantheistic
its
personification
holy
shall
thought and
see later on,^
pious utterance.
in
This, as
we
becomes
The Atharvan
taining
is
a collection of
stanzas.
2y^ hymns,
its
contheo-
some 6000
Aside from
little
strange in a
hieratic
is
almost entirely of a
popular character.
'
It consists of
hymns and
stanzas
Cf. Caland,
Vienna
p,
w^ff.
''
See below,
273.
^See Caland
The Veda
for the cure of diseases
;
41
Hfe
charms and
home and
children,
cattle
fields;
guilt;
from
life
sin
and
in
the
of families and
and enemies
charms
and
for
them the
abundant baksheesh
The Atharva-Veda
practices.
is
and popular
the so-called
Related
(
in
character are
Grhya-Sutras).
as
in-
lives.
even daily
as birth,
moments, such
of the
sanctified
in
the
42
"
The
preci-
hum-
For many
a Hindu, through
many
centuries,
fathers,
these
the scJibne
religion, w^hich
turned
whose masses
live the
life
of dark toil
and do
own
elect.
To
the
religion of
Veda
these homely
little.
practices
and superstitions
contribute very
Charm
1.
against Jaundice.
Up
: !
to the
jaundice
thee
2.
do we envelop
We
tints,
unto long
life.
May
!
this
3.
divinity
is
over,
in
thee.
their every
form
we
i.
22.)'
the Atharva-Veda {Sacred Books of For the very interesting symbolic practices that accompany the recital of this charm against jaundice, see p. 2^2, ff. of the same work.
Hymns of
'
The Veda
43
A
1.
Wotnans Incantation
as a
wreath
sit
have taken unto myself her fortune and her glory^ As a broad-based mountain may off a tree.
a long time with her parents
!
she
2.
This
woman
till then let her be fixed house of her mother, or her brother, or her father
to the
!
3.
woman
:
shall
King Yama
long
May
she
head
4.
With the incantation of Asita, of Kagyapa, and of Gaya do I cover up thy fortune, as women cover things
within
a chest,
{Atharva-Veda,
i.
14.)
The
name
poetic stanzas of
all
sorts,
and the
ritualistic
Veda
collectively
go by the
hymn."
In
how
given way.
The
the
In the case
also
all
See the same work, pp. 107 and 252 .ff For the distinction between Black and White Yajur-Veda see Mac.
donell, History
of Sanskrit Literature,
p. 177.
'
44
arate works
The
Religion of the
Veda
to
whose
of the
it
object, again,
is
expound the
sacrifice.
ritual at the
is
The meaning
clear.
word brdJunana
not altogether
Either
means
performance"
in
distinction
means the
theological explanation
by Brahman
regards both
are
As
Brahmanas
Hebrew Talmud.
In the
of the details
Vedic
sacrifices,
meaning.
And
first
In the
connected prose
entire field of
the
earlie st
na rratii^ie-prose-m-thg
little less
They
in this
far
Hindu speech
The Veda
are distracted
45
restrictions that
go
and the
institutions of
priesthood.
These
institutions in time
became
so
make
the names
for
and priesthood.
Thirdly, the
Brahmana
texts
not only describe and expound the sacrifice, but they illustrate and enhven it by numerous stories
and legends.
technicalities
While engaged
of
in
expounding the
at
the
ritual,
they
the
same
expositions of
ritual
Hallacha,
from
lore.
garden of
its
Haggada,
less
or
legendary
The Brahmanas no
make
drafts
of her time.
stories
The
poetic value of
many
of these
Hindu poets
Here we
find, first
of
all,
especially the
account of the
46
book
The
Religion of the
Veda
of Genesis.'
Many
is
Then he punishes
by creating
Like an oasis
in
Already the
knows the
one of
story,
which con-
tains the
same motif
stories.
Lohengrin
heavenly
nymph
(Apsaras),
the conditions of
this
intrinsically
this
ill-assorted
legend in the
(j^atapatha
vol. xii., p.
For the
(Bonn, 1899) Andree, Die Flutsagen (Brunswick, 1891) ; and Winternitz in Mitlheilutigen der Anthropologischen Gcsellschafi in
IFien, vol. xxxi (iqoi), p. 305.
'
(^atapatha
See,
last,
Brahmana
4. i. 5. i
^.
Society,
the author in
The Veda
union.
47
own
fault,
but on
He must
not be
Kurus, until he
in
comes to a
of
lotus
pond
in
which nymphs
the form
is
One
of
them
is
Urvagl.
They engage
without the
dialogue which
preserved
This
relieves
the
:
The Brahmana
story
tells
Then
'
:
And
;
she
spake
come
then
that
me one
night.
whom
am
And
Then they
And
she spake
;
'
:
To-morrow the
Gandharvas will grant thee a wish choose one.' He said, Choose thou for me.' She advises him to say, I desire to become one of you.' The next morning the Gandharvas grant him a wish. And he says, I
' '
'
"
particular
fire-
by means
;
of
Gandharva
thus he
becomes a
fitting
mate
for
'
48
Urvagl.
is
The
Religion of the
Veda
is
Now the
reason
why
is
this story
preserved
that the
Brahmana text
engaged
in describing
this
this sacrifice
Here
and
clear-
cut as cameos.
early gods
The
of these snatches'
may be
entitled
A
"
are the
first
man and
console
to
When
In this To-day he hath died.' They said said, way she will never forget him. Let us create night Day only at that time existed, not night. The gods Then morrow came into being. Then .created night. Hence, they say, Days and nights she forgot him. make men forget sorrow,'"
!
'
entitled
(the Creator).
flying forth
'
"The mountains are the eldest children They were winged (birds).
and
settling
I. i.
of Prajapati
They kept
At
that
wherever they
12. cf.
liked.
Maitrayani Sanhita
Maitrayani Sanhita
5.
10. 13.
Pischel,
Vedische Studien,
i.,
174 #.
The Veda
time this earth was unstable.
wings.
earth.
49
off their
of the mountains he
made
For
firm the
clouds.
Therefore these
this is their
At
texts
name
is
not altogether
clear.
It
more
precisely, those
who went
when they
less
Hindu
life,
preparatory
According to another,
than
village
in the
:
this
because
the
quiet of
the
forest
In either view
is
difficult to see
later
than
the
Brahmanas
this
On
top of
here
we have
symbolism of the
the most
sacrifice
and
priestly philosophy of
real ritual
fantastic order.
p. 288.
The
perform.
See below,
4
50
The
Religion of the
Veda
disquisition.
of
;
the
on the
Thus the
Taittirlya
Aranyaka deals
in its first
book
and
Veda study
and
its
its
third, fourth,
and
fifth
sacrificial cere-
sixth
old Vedic
varie-
more
What
"
In any case
religion,
of
paramount importance
transitional.
symptom,
if
we understand
as
the
matter aright,
of the sacrifice to
we might
say,
spiritual-meaning.
Veda has to offer along this line of They are the famous Upanishads, the
India,
The Veda
which have become
fateful for all
51
subsequent higher
Hindu thought.
delicate innu-
The
the Aranyakas
or,
to the
end of these
texts.
From very early times, therefore, they have the End of the name Vedanta, "End of the Veda." Veda they are, as regards their position in the re'
and
comin a
of the
Veda
They
In particu-
controls at
the higher
the
thought
of
Brahmanical
there
is
India
bears
name
is
Vedanta.
And
The
philosophic and
will
religious
quality
of
the
Upanishads
when we come
the
'
Veda
3. 2. 6.
in
fifth
For the
^veta9vatara Upanishad
22
Mundaka Upanishad
52
The
Religion of the
Veda
some
facts in
present
we may content
ourselves with
As
we can say
at least this
continued,
however,
many
centuries
after
Next
to the
For
Hindu
Dara Shukoh
who
built at
favourite Sultana, the Taj Mahal, perhaps the most beautiful edifice on earth.
He was
afterwards dehis,
the
Dara
the
Shukoh was
spiritual
man
of another
sort.
He was
follower of
the
famous
liberal
Emperor
Hence
ledge of
writings.
Three years
after
The Veda
53
dangerous to the
;
as a
matter of
first
suggestions of a comparative
had the
spirit
of perfect
religious
freedom.
Rammohun Roy
book
are
another
the
enjoyment"; expressed
;
belief in the
divine
aaithonty.-oi. Christ
study
gentile
religions
in
of
sympathy
connection
and
I
fairness.
in this
my
'
Max
Miiller,
one of the
as
translators of the
Upanishads
Mokshamulara,
Max
See Elphinstone, History of India (edited by Cowell), p. 6ro Miiller, Sacred Books of the East, vol. i., p. cvii.
54
the
The
Hindus
Religion of the
Veda
It
sal-
called
him during
is
Root-of-salvation," or, as
do not
in
the
Hindu
lives
salvation,
which
in
is
release
and deaths
freedom of
But
if
mind partakes
and writer
Max
Miiller's
eminence as a scholar
;
well
known
is
to
you
understood, perhaps,
his thought,
more than
fairness
half a century.
for
Among
Europeans he
was pre-eminent
the spirit of
sympathy and
of
Hindu
The
shad
is
Persian
Oupnekhat.
man Anquetil du
on made a
This
(vol.
i.
was published
in 1801
;
in Strassburg in
ii.
two volumes
vol.
in
1802).
At
The Veda
55
Notwithstanding
Persian,
its
double
disguise,
first
the
Upanishads.
As
hauer,
who
is
more
tem
in
His own
sys-
really
Schopenhauer used
his table,
Oupnekhat
from
lie
open upon
and
was
his devotions
pages.
preserved to us
to the original
it
"
Next
life
It
my
it
will
be the
tells
solace of
my death."
Schopenhauer himself
us
The
what has
at all
fools
only apparent
in
that in
individuals of
world,
whatsoever
endless
number they
56
The
Religion of the
Veda
present themselves, one after another, and one beside another, there
is
true being.
eyes the
fruit
world has ever seen almost superhuman thought, whose authors can scarcely be imagined to have been mere men.
Schopenhauer unquestionably caught with lynxHke perspicacity, through the murky medium of the
Oupnekhat, the
spirit of
now
before us in
It is
many
what
is
originals.
known
in
philosophy as
perfervid
monism
monism
the
most
uncompromising,
Nor
is
his
Proliving
Deussen,
one
of
the
profoundest
students of
philosopher,
a trained
far
behind
Schopenof
hauer
I
when
he
says
its
that
the thought
the
equal in
the world
the
;
in
these
came,
not
most
yet
into
the
most
insight
is
being.
;
This
not far
both
estimates
Hindus
The Veda
themselves,
revelation.
57
who
With
soberer
all
due respect
for'
estimate of
the
Upanishads.
With the
Hindu view
of revelation
we need
not quarrel.
As
we may
spirit of
present time
everywhere
is,
in
to the point
of
We
The
commanding thought
or the doctrine of
in
of the
Upanishads
monism,
unfortunately
how many
years or centuries.
all
in transmigration
of the
Upanishads
is
After
all,
58
of the
The
Religion of the
is literary
Veda
historical,
Upanishads
and
We
are captivated
From
they
are
but
power and
From
human
is
enduring respect
mind engaged
after truth
in the
let
and
me add
interests,
search
is
carried
on
without fear of
entirely
free
offending established
and
doomed
early
man
in the
is
that
is
what
the endearing
true that,
Therefore
it
human sympathy,
I
if
not
finaUnteUectual consent.
How this is so
shall
hope
The Veda
to
59
in
show
later, at
the development
we
Hindu
idea.
The
Pantheon
of the Veda.
Fundamental
poetry
traits of early
Vedic religion
Difficulty of Poetry addressed to the Goddess post The goddess DawnA hymn to the Some at the Dawn as the symbol of erroneous estimates of Goddess DawnAgni the son of "Baksheesh Practical purposes of Vedic poetryThe Rig- Veda contains the religion of the upper classes of the Rig-Veda The apri-hymns NatureThe worship the keynote of the Rig- Veda India's climate and nature-worship Vedic_and J^ellenic mythology comparedArrested anthropomorphism Definition of the word Pantheon as applied to the Veda Faulty of the Vedic gods Chronology of the degrees of certainty about the origin gods of the gods Classification of the gods in these
sacrifice
The
False
view of
liberality
sacrifice
"
ritual
classifications
Difiierent
lectures.
THE
religion
which
is
contained
in
the bulk of
litera-
in the
Brahmanas,
gards
its
is
As
re-
mechanism, or
external practices,
it is
unmistakably
liturgic or rituaJistic.
60
As
regards
its
The
Hieratic Religion
6i
immediate purpose, or
thoroughly
utilitarian
its
economic aspect,
practical.
Its
it
is is
and
purpose
life
rich
man, while
living
upon the
earth
and
thrifty class
men
and
so on
and
invisible, beneficent
that
is,
finally, to
company
-^
For a generation or two since the real beginnings of fifty years ago, and endur-
more
of scholars thought
saw
in
the
hymns
of the Rig-
Veda
itive
The
and moon
of sky, thunder,
and hghtfire.
The Rig-Veda was the "Aryan Bible," containing the earliest flashes of the religious thought of awakening
62
The
Relicrion of the
Veda
humanity.
poets, so the
and redactorial
monuments
delight of posterity.
to
what
station
I
can
by the divine
frenzy, perchance
some
old and semi-religious functionary in the Hindu village or some village Hans Sachs,
village barber
'
'
shoetoo
"
as
we may translate
less Hkely,
the
German
poetry
doggerel.'
Unless,
child
of
still
Vedic
was the
he took
the
to
muse
one
of
laureate,
"given
the
air
infinite tobacco,"
as
under
of
those
huge
banyan-trees
large
enough
to hold a
village, to
Delightful as might be
Macher
The
of a lifetime,
it is
Hieratic Religion
63
My own moved along these lines. I am not sure but what some such conception of Vedic literature, faulty as I now believe it to be,
not the correct view.
fancy
in
drew me
I shall
into
these studies
more
enticingly than
endeavor
later
hymns
in
the abstract.
shall also
in
texts themselves.
not be to
show
way,
and along
all
its
become
final for
time
in
India,
At
say.
present
we
its
epidermis, as
we might
The
tion
purposes.
definite occasions
The main
books,^ represents in
See above, p. 27.
64
The
Religion of the
Veda
same or
similar
even
if
we
poetry.
it
It
is
a little
cannot express
better
than by saying,
is
the sacrifice
In
to
course treated
poetically.
poems
poet
The Vedic
day.
rises in
sacrificial
The very first natural phenomenon he sees with his own eyes, the glorious maiden Dawn, is at once
pressed into service.
to the world that this
fice
She trumpets
is
forth, so to say,
sacri-
going to be a day of
wealth and comforts.
scaffolding, or ladder
which
shall result in
The
upon
Morn-
day goes
on, being a
mere
whose rungs
ing,
rable kind of
hymnal
praise,
Rig- Veda.
As
is
the gods
come
day.
upon a
stage.
The
stage
the
sacrificial
They
are figures in
Take them
singly,
and
Rig-Veda, as does
show
most of them
ries
in
India
is
nothing
if
The
not singular.
the earliest
Hieratic Religion
65
Hindu poetry
idyllic,
sacrifice.
life,
The sacrifice
it is
is
as far as
The
in so
far as
revealed
by the
their chief
gods
at the sacrifice.
The
is
fattens
is
them
into contentment.
soma
plication.
least the
So much so that
Rig-Veda
religion
in a technical sense at
may be
designated as a
religion ol,.y(?;-practices.
that at
formalism.
flies
66
The
Relif^ion of the
Veda
gods
whom
The most
the Goddess
hymns
of
Dyaush
Pitar
{Ze-u? TtaTr'jp),
Homer's Rose-finger
Eos.
A poet
"We
have crossed to the other side of darkness, Gleaming Aurora hath prepared the way. Delightful as the rhythm of poem,' she smiles and shines, To happiness her beauteous face aroused us." (Rig-Veda i. 92. 6.)
We
feel that
we
-"^e
we
are
sobered
(stanza 5)
"
by
another
stanza of
the same
hymn
Her
snown
itself to us;
She spreads, and strikes the black dire gloom. As one paints the sacrificial post at the sacrifice, So hath Heaven's daughter put on her brilliance."
What
{svaru),
a comparison
The
petty
sacrificial
post
destined
to
hold
fast
an animal victim,
it is
described tech-
sundry other
beauties
brings
for
us
down
The
expression chdndo
nd here and
There
is
at 8. 7. 36 is to
so, or
no occasion
like,
be rendered an adjectival
as the lexicons
and
'
The
sacrifice.
Hieratic Religion
67
is
Our good
after all a
monger
in technical rites
who
moment Lest we
nodded
the,
The
bright
Dawns have
Like sacrifice posts uplifted at the sacrifice. Luminous, pure, and clear, they have unbarred
The
(Rig-Veda
4.
51. 2.)
We may
the example.
tween glorious
so
it
Dawn and
is
for
ment.
We
but
are
in
I
symbolism
ritual,
Rig-Veda 3.
I.
8.
That
is,
made.
68
The
Grant wealth
Religion of the
Veda
And when
2.
" Set
up in front of the enkindled fire, Accepting tireless prayer, that brings strong sons. Driving far from us away all noisome sickness, Lift thyself up to bring us great good fortune!
is
4.
Springing to
life his
fly in
ordered line
sages, eastward.
Have come
They,
lifted
up on high by
Go
10.
"
earth, with ornate knobs, horns of horned cattle. Upraised by priests with rival invocations, Let them assist us in the rush of battle
Seem
11.
'*
Lord of the world, rise with a hundred branches With thousand branches may 7ue rise to greatness
Thou whom
For great
I
felicity
am reminded
in
which
my
first
Max
Miiller
was engaged
I
admit, at
The same
beautiful
Daughter of Heaven,
>
Mother Earth.
The
in
Hieratic Religion
69
another hymn,
is
called Dakshina.
i/(?/^^/!/;/^
means
it is
it
mind that
theme by such
Up
the shining strands of Dawn have risen, Like unto glittering waves of water All paths prepareth she that they be easily traversed Liberal goddess, kind, she hath become baksheesh." (Rig-Veda64. 6. 1.)
!
" liberal
used con-
In
its
feminine form
{magkonl)
is
it
Dawn.
Ushas
is
Here
dakshina.
is
she
herself
the sacrifice
sacrificial
day
when
both
liberal
asleep.
If I
could get
mor,
touch
of
humor
I
anyhow
sacrifice,
is
unconscious
humor
in the
See Rig-Veda
7. 78. 3,
Sun, the
and Agni
where the Dawns are said to beget the ajljanan siiryam yajiiam agnim.
70
The
Religion of the
"
Veda
Arouse,
Ushas, liberal
unawakened
"
!
'
That
is
what
is
the use of
emphatically
desses,
shining
Dawns, ye
liberal
god-
rich that
they shall
in
give bounty
Let the
stingy,
unawakened, sleep
^
!
The very
first
hymn
in
is
ad-
opening
in
strain the
economic goddess,
an inextricable
feel
I
Almost do we
much
"
the
same thing
With pleasant things for us, O Ushas, Shine forth, O Daughter of Heaven, With great and brilliant wealth, of which,
"
!
(Rig-Veda
i.
68.
i.)
And
immediately
after,
in
And
To
these
patroness
Dawn,
'
to
them
i.
Rig- Veda
Rig- Veda
Rig- Veda
124. 10.
* ^
4. 51. 3,
5.
79. 6.
The
shabby
"
!
Hieratic Religion
71
And
once again,
;
'
"
God
after
god urge
thou on to favor us
our way
;
make
all
pleasant things
come
inspiration that
"
it
That
is
to say,
so clever that
We
above
can
now understand
main
poet-priest
all
anxious
that the
be neglected.
first,
title
down
to a very nice
And
The Has
"
friendly
risen
mounted on it, Dawn, wide-spread, from out of darkness up to care for the abode of mortals,
arose before
all
the creatures,
She wins the booty and always conquers riches; The Dawn looks forth, young and reviving ever, She came the first here to our morning offering." (Rig-Veda i. 123. i, 2.)
I
think
my
it
is
not
Max
in
1
Miiller, as a
Nor need we
79. 5.
Auld Lang
223^.
72
The
Religion of the
Veda
in this
of the
Vedic Hindu
He
is
sees clearly
means
that
of
and nothing
but opines
is
Dawn
the
gift
all
can
we
assent
and
enlight-
ened
critic of
who
poetry of the
to
;
Dawn
waft to us the
and
charm that
*
is
wanting
in
the sac-
hymns
proper."
would
hymns
to
Dawn,
their
many
intrinsic beauties
first,
mood
upon the
La
i.,
p.
\2'i ff.
p. 237.
The
inspiration
Hieratic Religion
73
who must
first live
Once more I must tax your patience and return In to Dawn's epithet dakshind, or "baksheesh." Dawn, the i under name DakRig- Veda 3. 58. of
shina
is
called the
of Fire,
really
God What is
the
called the
is,
Son
Agni
ritual
of
is
Dakshina.
the son of
meant
that
Dawn.
becomes
We
touch which
clear only
economy
and
of the sacrifice.
Why
that
be the son of
Dawn?
I
Is
it
Dawn means
**
light,"
light is fire?
;
poetic derivation
having
made
it.
Poetically
we
I
think of
fire
espe-
cially as
non
of
the
the son of
But
it
who must
and
god Agni
is
also a prized
act of the
74
sacral
The
day
is
Religion of the
Veda
to kindle the
fire
This
is
so familiar a
illustration.
The
that
it
creates a
theme
in the poetic
treatment of the
sacrifice,
namely
Agni
is
the son of
is
Goddess Dawn
a beautiful
beheld
to
hymn
God
Savitar, the
motive or
morn
her work.
He
"
riseth
from
his
couch and
With
fitting
plan
God
Savitar hath
come
hither."
The scattered homes and all life The mighty flame of household fire pervadeth. The largest share the Mother has decreed unto her Son; To do his own desire god Savitar hath sped hither."
(Rig- Veda
2.
38. 4, 5.)
the
Mother here
to
it
is
the unselfish
that her
may
is
the
as a matter of
all
I
anyway, because
fire.
obla-
tions are
We
must,
think,
The
acknowledge
that
Hieratic Religion
75
had
such
of the
endowment
strayed so
as to fritter itself
away
upon the ancient hocus-pocus of the fire-priest and medicine-man. Of course, what finally saves this
poetry from banahty
is
the presence in
brilliance
it
of those
is
obscured
We
are
now
first
moment
practical
and
utilitarian,
what there
of
is
in
it.
its
of the Yajur-Vedas
of the
Brahmanas.
The poetry
Rig-Veda
in
the
main
and
all
the
of
we
modern times
its
are
accustomed to see
shut
at
work with
considera-
eyes shut
or half
to practical
tions.
We
76
The
Religion of the
Veda
great
his
upon
whom
country,
lian,
may be
and yet be
a real patriot.
trivial as
Even
these works
may appear
Nor does
practical
and poetic
inspiration.
it,
their
And
so they are in
if
we
left in
the Vedic
hymns enough
the string
that
of
beauty
in the world's
ties
Forget
but
the
sacrificial post,
and you
heights,
at least,
thought
fly.'
flit
far
away
to great
becomes what we
call
how,
it
emancipates
itself
from
along with
Rig- Veda,
i.
155.
5-
The
Hieratic Religion
']']
hieratic religion of
manas,
this
is
Even
was
to
day only
in the
in
position to perform
Vedic
sacrifices.
So
it
olden times.
The popular
and
its
humble
rites,
upon sorcery and the medicine-man, runs from the start side by side with the hieratic religion. It is
the religion of the Atharva-Veda and the so-called
"House-books."'
It
happens to
I
lie
outside of the
have for
my
part
been drawn on by
its
The
religion
a wealthy
and
liberal
householder
elaborate
and expensive
materials
and many
^ees.
In fact the body of the Rig- Veda presupposes the ordinary form of the soma sacrifice which extends
in
hymns composed by
my
vari-
on
this
).
literature
see
book
The Atharva-Veda
(Sliassburg, 1899
78
The
Religion of the
Veda
sacrifice.
:
The
soma drink
are
is
morning,
The gods
of the
Vedic Pantheon
;
each has a
fairly definite
share in them.
who
figures
all
three pressings
to
him
exclusively.
Agni,
God
Fire,
in
play,
important part
the morning.
clever-handed elves,
in
the evening,
host of
hymns
natural
liturgic
divinities
whose
special
coupling
upon any
affinity
upon purely
Indra and
association
One important
hymns, that
is,
class of
dpri-
" songs of
invitation," consist of
divinities
individual stanzas
utensils, preliminrites.'
God
is
especially called
129.
upon under
different,
See below,
See
p.
of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p, xxxvi ff Weber, Indische Studien, x. 89^; Grassmann, ZVaw^Az/wz of the Rig-Veda, vol. i., Bergaigne, Journal A siatique, 1879, p. 17. p. 6
*
Max
Miiller, History
463 ff\
Roth,
Ydska's Nirukta, p.
The
partly
Hieratic Religion
79
articles,
mystic designations;
of
sacrificial
and the
sacrificial
animal
ten
is
tied
dpri-hymns.
These
sets
of
books
has
its
dprl-hymn.
these
In later times,
in
of the
hymns
books
is still
made according
time
still
to family.
The
ritual
at that
the
whom
likely,
he would
fain derive
seems
therefore and
for
same
class of
'
See (^ankhayana^rautasutra
(^^rautasutra 6. 7.
16
A9valayana
(j^rautasutra 3. 2
Latyayana
8o
The
Religion of the
Veda
of the later Ve-
hymns, somewhat
dic
in the
manner
same Veda.
Large numbers
of technical, ritualistic
words and
Its
they are
also, to
some
god.
extent, distributed
is
among
gdyatrl
associated
especially with
is
certain
For
;
instance, the
the trishtubh
They are
also distributed
of the
day
Above
all,
the advanced
itself
the large
number
of
priests.
the
names
though not
the
later
entirely,
the
names
of
the priests
of
ceremonial.'
And
is,
in a
deeper
if
sense, original.
inspiration.
all,
The
final
judg-
ment
of
its
character, after
p.
and the
literature
on
p. 17 of
The
Hieratic Religion
8i
upon the economic motives, or the all-around personal character of its authors as upon the extent
and quahty
ficial
of their
in the
mental
vision.
To
treat sacri-
themes
of us hollow
mockery.
acts in part
sym-
trivial intrinsically.
Then
semi-bar-
After
all
that
have said to
may be
called
a padded or swollen
importance.
is
not
lit-
urgy butjny^thology.
of hearts,
servers of
are not mere technicians, but tense obthe great facts and acts of nature, and
whom
phers.
There
in this
surprise.
We
definite past of
shall
in the
next
lect-
ure
when we come
6
82
of
The
Religion of the
Veda
comparative mythology.
all
time for
mere admiration,
and adulation
of personal
by a more
or less com-
That
this
was not so
is
due, in
my
nature.
glowing sun,
its terrible
yet
life-
hardly
fail
to
lation of the
What
gree
is still
more important,
elsewhere.
it
could hardly
fail
to
new nature-gods
It
is
to a de-
unknown
this
unforgetting
know
to this
is
the
first
man
life
dynamic
the
man from
his eyes
phenomena.
mythology
our day.
is
in its
in
The
Hieratic Religion
83
We
This
is
also
is
soon forgotten,
not
entirely
forgotten,
much obscured by
to
a
after-born
movements.
Owing
curious
slip,
Poets, artists,
in their
it,
each
own way.
sordidness
a notable absence
human
Veda who, with all their too and all their Hindu fancifulness
One
The
nai
Being which
is
is
the idea of
the Upanishads.
whom
ndvra
knows
"
The eye
of
all
and
all,"
or of
whom
hymn
sings,
ijteaffa,
Aiog S^su
is
navra Tsrvmaiy
flippant,
foibles
Zeus
is
is
all
founded,"
at the
breezy Jove to
whom
the
ascribe
modern bon-vivant
84
The
Religion of the
Veda
Too
finished personification
in
whom we
above
who
in general fancy
and say just enough, but not too much, run a close
race with the most extravagant fancies of semi-civilised peoples in the description of
their
primeval
gods.
his
is
own
son,
Kronos
also
an unnatural
For he swallows
whole brood.
his
own
him
alive.
Homicide
No wonder
"The
And
is
them
to be.
Not he
an infidel
who
denies the
Nothing so much
of
as
Greek mythology
deeply ethical
teachings,
Judaeo-
Christianity,
among the Indo-European peoples. You may remember how skilfully Kingsley's novel,
The
Hieratic Religion
85
it
confronts
aheady
in
future, as
the Homeric
that
is,
occasional
but
troubled
visions
of
better
things.
The
the cen:
Of Mithraism Ernest
and
Renan once
Christianised
said that
it
if
Manicheism,
its
dualistic,
appealing asceticism,
rival of
We
know from
in
unknown
elsewhere, until
we come
to the
modern nature
This results
in
poets.
Even
so,
the transparency of
what we may
this
is
the
Nothing so much
86
The
Religion of the
Veda
says
of
God
life
:
Savitar,
"
God
beholding
rises
all
the worlds."'
It is
the
fierj'
ball that
hills,
nothing more
of
mythology
would be to make
Instead,
this process
is,
as
say, arrested.
The
phenomenon remains the repository of renewed and deepening thought. Even in the RigVeda itself the conception of the sun makes great
natural
onward
strides as the
Anthat
The sun
is
the
moves
or stands.""
Savitrl,
all
And
or
yet
another,
the
fam-
ous so-called
sacro-sanct at
times, and
recited daily
^
even
now by
Savitar
again
turns to
'
Rig- Veda
i.
35. 2.
'
p. it>2,ff.
The
"
Hieratic Religion
87
of Savitar,
:
almost the
of
first
ble combination
the
and
one pantheistic
Savitrf
:
all.
As
of the
'
"It
is
one
in
nature's
which
is
the planet
we
daily see in
course."
Katyayana
and
on
earth),
Veda into three types Agni (fire Vayu (air or wind in the atmoin
sphere),
farther
the sky)
is
proceeds
still
there
only one
deity,
the
is,
sun
{siiryd)
he."
* ^
This
of
Upan-
Rig-Veda
3. 62. 10.
tha,
Brdhmana,
p. 24.
88
The
Religion of the
Veda
in
ishad thought,
TaittirTya
in
as
it
the
Upanishad
But
8):
in
"He who
the
dwells
are
dwells
sun
is
one
this later
thought
founded
fed
anew by the
which
is
sight of this
engrossing
nature
force,
not
obscured
trivial
by personification into an
But we shall return to this all-important matter when we come to the highest outcome of Vedic reliIt is now time to take a look at the individual gion. gods of the Veda, or what we may call the Vedic
Pantheon.
we may observe
in
that this
word
ap-
plies to the
is
an analogical sense.
if
no Pantheon
the Veda,
by Pantheon
after a
more or
in
less
which
own
As such
The Pantheon
they have more or
of the
Veda
89
In the
knows
really
of years
in
later,
they
first,
comes a
little,
very
and
of
plastic possibilities
all
human
are
Greek Olympus.
We
that
theme
to
know
many gods
of the
Veda
scarcely
more than
other half
is
Such material
The mind
of the
artistic
Vedic poet
is
the rationalistic
mind
It
mind
en-
is
in
hand
but
of the artist.
On
a pinch
we could imagine
of
a
;
is
hard to
imagine a statue
is
the god
Varuna.
As
no record of
these senses
In
all
no Vedic Pantheon.
90
It
The
Religion of the
Veda
in
the
many
are
find
equally,
We
nearly a dozen
world, and rather
them engaged
in
creating the
in pro-
not easy
to rank them.'
into
not
all
of
them come
existence
the
same
;
time.
Some belong
to Indo-Iranian
earlier,
to
Indo-European
times
others
times.
Of the
rest
some from a
all
we had
all
the dates
we might
simple, but
we do
not have
the
celebrated
ancient
The
last of
tell
us
stage day
morning/
He beVedic
Horsemen
" (the
'
' 3
Nighantu
5.
4-6.
12.
i.
Cy. Nirukta
Brhaddevata
2.
-j
ff.
See below,
p.
112.
The Pantheon
the
**
of the
Veda
91
Sun-Maiden."
'
Many
years' occupation
much by
by Western
scholars,
my
belief
in his authority, or
decreased
my
proces-
sion of the gods along the hours of the day has great
interest for the
Vedic
ritual
Touches
appear in the
hymns
themselves, as
when
"Agni awoke upon the earth, and Surya riseth; Broad gleaming Dawn hath shone in brilliance. The Agvins twain have yoked their car to travel.
God
There
another,
more permanent
traditional
in
Hindu
in
sky, mid-air,
and
earth.
i.
The
1 1
:
classification
is
first
made
in
Rig- Veda
after.
139.
to
some extent it
157.
I-
"
92
end the
belongs
The
later
Religion of
tlie
Veda
" Agni, " Fire
Vedic texts
insist that
to, or is typical of
the earth
"
Vata or Vayu,
mid-air,
and Surya,
Sun," of thesky.'
So
far
it is
They
arrangement.
state
only
the more
important
members
or
of each class
Celestial
gods
Dyaus
"),
or
Dyaush
Pitar ("Sky
" Father
Sky
("
Wind")
Indra,
Agni, and
Soma.
This threefold division,
in
order to be consistent,
to the end, so as to init is
the gods.
places,
As
a matter of fact
uncertain
many
farther.
We
for
we
must admire
Cf. Brihaddevata
i.
5/".
See the index at the end of this book for these and most of the
following gods.
^
See below,
p.
173.
The Pantheon
of the
Veda
93
Our own
will
be
eclectic.
We shall call
which
does not
may
Thus the chronological element must remain immensely important. The chronology of the gods must influence to some extent our judgment of this ancient religion of the Veda. The old prehistoric
gods that have been imported by the Aryas into
India,
no matter how much they have been Hinduhave characteristics of their own.
Next come the gods which have been coined in hot haste out of the phenomena of nature in a glowing subtropical climate, or have been imbued anew
with the vitality of India's imposing nature. These
they
They
sonification or arrested
areThe beacon
tive
lights of
Compara-
Mythology, and of the Science of Religion. They are the rare guides and philosophers on this
labyrinthine and rocky road
;
they have
made
the
Veda
94
The Religion
of the
Veda
the light
way when
becomes hazy.
Again,
it is still
number
of the gods,
whether early or
nature -gods
whose
origin,
we
somewhat
They
again
make up
Veda
theme
of investiga-
of this class.
will
They
have
in
To
some Vedic
scholars
when
we do not know
for certain
No one
settled.
I
Yet, for
my part
that such
remember
mythologic development.
As
as
a rule, a nature-god
:
the opposite
seen, again
happens
far
more frequently,
in
may be
and again,
Hellenic
or
Teutonic mythology.
a rule, mixed myths,
are, as
cer-
The Pantheon
tain
of the
Veda
95
amount
of the compHcations
and entanglements
into
of
human
it
life
must be imported
mythology
it
be-
fore
becomes mythology.
Otherwise
remains
Let ago
me
paraphrase a statement
made some
years
in a learned journal."
Mythological investigation
line
attri-
her,
com-
we
all
Father Sky,"
it
would be
Zeus
or the other
Greek gods
all
Yet he who
myth-
most
of the
any
it
a start.
is
But to be
pres-
96
Further,
The
Religion of the
Veda
the
there
in
are
gods
in
Veda
not
we
too
many
number
about
that
is
whose
either
origin
definite or
Either these
gods
have
been obscured
or
totally
by
or other
sources
about
which we
know nothing
we might
Keeping
divide
in
mind
the
transparent,
translucent, and
opaque gods.
And
being by nature
inclined,
plagued by
these
my
suggestions,
and de-
origin
heads
1.
or obscure.
2.
who
are at
the same time nature objects and mythic persons. 3. Translucent gods, who impose upon the investigator the theory of their origin in nature.
4.
5.
Opaque
gods,
who
To
these
may be
added, as a
fifth
class,
the
who embody an
good or
action, a
evil divinity,
The Pantheon
god, or demon.
furnish
of the
Veda
97
Of
this class
our
abundant
it
illustration.'
Fortunately
does not
fall
My
object
is
Mythology pervades
extent,
so
principles.
this
develop-
ment
to
a very great
its
that
understand
But a mythic
once we know
fabricated,
how mythic
religious
and advancing
important.
The
particular
One
of the
most remarkable
facts in
its legit-
when
carried to
imate conclusion,
is,
This
is
;
the
of
very negation of
*
mythology and
The Symbolic
Pantheons
See also
7
my
essay,
Gods, in Studies in
Honor of
B. L. Gildersleeve,
p. 37_^.
98
sacrificial
The
Religion of the
Veda
And when
fable.
and
real
philosophy begin.
Prehistoric Gods.
bearing
periods
upon Hindu
Scepticism about Comparative Mythology Difficulties Comparative in the way of Comparative Mythology Mythology and Ethnology The myth of Cerberus
religion
Indo-European period Prehistoric words for god Father Sky and Mother Earth The Thunderer The Vedic Agvins, or "Horsemen," the two Sons of Heaven The Dioscuri in Greek mythology The Common Lettish myth of the two "Sons of God" kernel of the myth of the two "Sons of Heaven" The Aryan, or Indo-Iranian period Important reThe dual ligious ideas common to the two peoples gods Varuna and ]Mitra Ahura ]\Iazda and Varuna The conception of rta, or "cosmic order" The Adityas Mitra, a sun god Aditi, the mother of the Adityas The sun, the moon, and the planets The Adityas
The
and Amesha Spents Early ethical concepts among the Indo-Europeans Varuna and Greek Ouranos (Uranus) The origin of man Sundry parents of man "Father Manu" Yama and YamT, the "Twins" Interlacing The human character of of the myths of the first man Manu and Yama Yama, the god of the dead Soma, the sacrificial drink of the gods The myth of Soma and the Heavenly Eagle Value of the preceding
reconstructions. 99
lOO
The
Religion of the
Veda
THE
y
Aryas
the
on of
Com-
parative Mythology.
We
have seen
in
two very
is
different pre-
historic periods."
One
Iranian
still
of these
the period
when
Hindu and
(Persian) peoples,
the so-
called Aryas,
were
does not
lie
Veda
itself,
just
earliest his-
the
the the
Aryan
period.
The second
my
the stock of
In fact,
some
scholars, critics,
and pub-
See above,
The
methods and
Prehistoric
Gods
loi
results
of
Comparative Mythology.
reconstructions,
infer-
Of
course,
safer to re-
to analyse
of each
Indo-European people by
and to
refrain
scholar in his
own
less
hypothetical Indo-European
community, to chase
?
after
So
it
now by some ignored, The writings of many great if not pooh-poohed. scholars during the last fifty years or more are now
declared by
slate.
some
but
It is
fair
same
critics
who
of
Comparative Mythology
are, as
this dislike to
Here
to treat a
myth
Now
all this
sounds very
I02
The
Religion of the
Veda
spirit
research
call
a halt at
is
where
rigid
mathematic certainty
at an
end
The
difficulties
Comparative
the unques-
Mythology
prehistoric
First,
of
scholars
who
prone, by the
very terms of
The
its
first
fascinating that
conclusions
became too
May
the shades
of
Kuhn, and
Max
Miiller
me
if
" where
ological
names because
of the faintest
and shakiest
phonetic resemblances.
tions of the
and
A science
based upon
as to
details
and
its
philosophic generalizations.
In
brief.
from
the
The
Prehistoric
Gods
early friends.
103
its
Since
At
the pres-
very gingerly by
those
who do
grain.
not
know how
to
winnow the
is
But there
still
it is
here to stay.
There
rated at
tle.
is
yet another
difificulty
which should be
not too
lit-
its
much and
is
The primary
and
sift
ogy
pare,
who
Without
in different
quarters,
By
mean such
similarities as trans-
Should
be
handed over
Ethnology
I04
The
investigate
all
Religion of the
Veda
who
Hefs
human
?
entire subject
of the origin
For
instance, the
But so
it is
endowed
at
as
essentially alike,
is
liable
anywhere and
any
time to incorporate
most imposing
and
This
The
is
fact
in
differ-
it is
a historical
fact.
agents and
worshipped or
deified.
We are
less personal-
form the
common
do
I fail
European
the same
case,
religion.
Now
what the
Indo-European, along
this
have to do with
I
particular
The
rational beings,
Prehistoric
Gods
lo^
and that
all
who worship
I
effort
myth
of
who
the
are
first
said
to
Yama was
royal
man who
tice of dying.
He
There he
rules as
Yama,
the
King
of Paradise.
this pair of
dogs
in a
man
has to get
past
them
in
This
is
the
Yama pickout
way
to join
Yama
in
:
heaven.
Now we
it?"
I
"
What
is
is
not present
in this
man
or
woman who
way
can
to heaven,
left
The Vedic
that they are the sun and the moon, or as they are
io6
The
Religion of the
Veda
called,
for speckled
is
qabalas;
fits
in well
names
we
call
popular etymology.
But we
may
disregard
Other Indo-Eunotions
less definite
turned to the
heaven with
its
expo-
this
refer
you to
my
History
of an
regard as
my
program of method
thology.
Now,
to be
sure,
we find
way
of the soul on
its
own way
dog who
to heaven.
may have
by
arisen indepen-
way
somewhere or other
a dog, pure
and
The
Prehistoric
Gods
107
watchdog
in
heaven or
hell.
We
cannot
is
keen
appreciation
of
myth-making opportunity.
Plainly, this
myth
from the usually vague and half-understood analogies that may be found on the broad ground of universal
Far be
it
from
me
to
all I
want to prevent
us
is
one people,
let
first
study their
own minds
in their
own
ing to the Iroquois, the Papuas, or the inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands for sporadic reports that,
more
the
I
connection, or with
their
point bent.
will
When
smoke
certain
shall
be
of this
am
less airy
left
on
ethnological quantities
irrational in
will
ties
be
Indo-European
divini-
interesting, not
more
loS
The
along which
Reliofion of the
Veda
lines
move
of historical times. The main subthough by no means the entire substance, of the mythologies and religions of these peoples this stance,
European peoples
is
as true to-day as
it
was
in
Kuhn
and Muller
is
count Brah-
we may
safely
add
field of re-
of India.
Had we
but
Indo-
would reveal more common myths and religious ideas. The added facts would fill in the necessarily
sketchy picture, but
picture.
it
would
still
be
the same
We
we
shall select
only the
more important.
two
periods, the
We begin
Indo-European period.
for "
god
"
was
as deivqs {deus\
name Devognata,
Lithuanian
d'cvas,
Old Scandinavian
and Sanskrit dcvas.
The
irreproachable etymology
div, dyu.
which connects
this
The
Prehistoric
Gods
109
and
determines
authoritatively the
source
first
from
and
On
more
limited
Indo-European
bogfi.
territory
appears
Avestan bagha
tune."
'
The word
it
means
or blessings."
It contains the
abstract conception of a
The
of the
Indo-European
territory
common
of
attribute
spefita,
divinity,
namely, Avestan
(Persian)
Two
important conthe
ja.':,
gods,
Avestan
Greek
ay
in aCojuai/'revere"),
and that of
belief (Sanskrit
come
have been
'
in
vogue
"
is
in
grapher Hesychios
in Transactions
p. xxxi.
lo
The
Religion of the
Veda
The Hindus,
Greeks,
pitar,
The meaning
It
name
is
is
dyaus
still
both
common and
The Latin
**
proper noun.
expression subjove
in a cold climate,"
word
as a fossil.
is
The
of
slender
myth
that
is
contained here
the visible
that of a
marital relation
between
two halves
''
the cosmos.
affair
The
in
the
was
"
Mother Earth
(Vedic
pritJiivi
mdtar,
known
In the
Veda
The
Horsemen," as we
shall
"
Sons of
at
God
'
In
this instance
that
59
testifies
forthright
the
Scythians,
Aia TE Hairi/Vy
vojui^^ovte'S t?)v
The
least
Prehistoric
Gods
of
1 1
the
Father
Sky
"
is
prehistoric,
The sky
thunders.
another
irrepressible
it
quality
it
became a personal
god with a
name
in prehistoric times,
who
The
chief heathen
derived
identity
The
name with
derer," the
Here
most
hymns, who
culty here.
the evil-doers."
I
There
is
some
diV\d
Jana,
" folk
Homer's Zeus
Thun-
On
is
" far-eyed
Sky'\vpvo7ta)\
on the other he
'
The
original etymology
i.,
doubtful
Forschungen,
436
The
in
Religion of the
Veda
and "rejoices
ning "(Tp;rzK4'pa;fi'05'),
In the
Veda
also' Parjanya
moment
the double of
is
In another passage he
The Veda
the "two
called
known
as
"
Horsemen " {aqviii). They are frequently Sons of Heaven " {divo napdta). Of all
they have the most pronounced
Vedic
divinities
They put
in
appearance regularly
in
maiden
by the name
of ^urya, that
is
is
"Sun-Maiden," or
of the Sun,"
"
Daughter
drawn by
added
^
birds.
A different yet
re-
lated touch
some
brief story
name
>
"^
Vajasaneyi Sanhita,
18, 55 ^/ al.
*
Told
r,
Journal of the
American Oriental
ff.
The
of
Prehistoric
Gods
113
Saranyu.
deviation,
They
The
A^vins
The hymns harp persistently upon the fact that all sorts of men and women have in the past appealed
to
them
for aid,
Even animals
by them.
In one
make modern
hear of
it.
When
race.^
in
The
name
two
>
to a suggestion of Professor E.
syllables contain the
W.
Fay, in
its first
sound
for
sound equivalent
p. S^ ff.
i.,
vol.
p. X'jlff.
114
of the
The
two
first
Religion of the
Veda
syllables of Helena.
Dioscuri,
of horses,
who
and
The Dioscuri
also
were
myth
God
" are
This
calls
up a feature
of the
Greek myth
for
one
as^^
star, or
opposite the
Quirinal
palace in
Rome
the
Maiden Sun,
The Maiden Sun arose betimes, The Moon just then did slink away.
"
He wandered by himself afar. Coquetted with the morning-star. Perkunas hence was greatly wroth He cleft him with his sword in twain
;
The
"
*
Prehistoric
Gods
115
Why
And wander
Why
didst thou
filled
Perkunas
is
In the mythol-
ogy of these peoples he has absorbed the characteristics of the old god of heaven and become the chief
god, just as Zeus, conversely, has taken upon himself
This folk-
Hindu A^vin
all
applicable
the
Hindu myth.
folk-song,
is
But
the
materials,
SunIn
the
morning-star
Maiden
"
==
With
all
the rich
we have
the
common kernel
The
is
of a
almost
thg^t
fessor
This version of the daina, with slight alterations, is that of ProChase in Transactions of the American Philological Associadcs Veda, p. 2X1 ff.
ii6
The
Relio^ion of the
Veda
powers of darkness.
are
We
some
nor
posed which
is
finally satisfactory.'
is
or the "
Sun Maiden
which
I
imagined to
be their
anyu).^
sister (Helena), or
The myth
flits
of
merest outline
ficially
discrepant notions.
with
many
story-teller.
No
make each of the silly " stunts " which the Vedic hymns ascribe to the Agvins part of the organic matter contained in the myth. They are mostly
later fancy.
And
of past interpreters
we must
But
anti-
Professor
on
Vedic Mythology, p. 319 ff2 In Greek mythology also the Dioscuri are placed in the relation
of sons to a mother, namely, Antiope of Bceotia.
The
quarian will
story of the
Prehistoric
Gods
as
ignore such
parallels
"
shows the
two
"
Sons of Heaven
Letts,' or
and the
be so abstemious
myth
that has so
marked a
physiognomy.
In brief, once more, there are two luminous sons
of heaven, conceived as horsemen,
and
as helpers of
men
in all
kinds of sore
straits.
They
are in loving
Sun."
This relation
"
is
crossed
"
by another
affair be-
tween the
Sun-Maiden
advanced.
additions to the
that the
surprising
is,
have retained
ods of time,
in
its
it
by the
fertile
mind
of
man, and
and simple
I
fancies.
in-
terest
1
which attaches
itself to
For possible traces of the same myth among the Teutons see De
la
140^.
The
Religion of the
Veda
Separated
Iranians.'
only by a chain of mountains, they are entirely unconscious of the close relationship of their languages,
literatures,
and
religions.
Nowhere
is
in
the
;
Veda
is
nowhere
going on across
good many
of the
same primitive
beliefs as
were ab-
As time went by
On
God and
modern
Satan
unphilsophical religion
form of
life.
On
monistic, pessimistic,
and speculative
is
without real
present in the
own way
the
Brahma
in
the
universe
and
in
one's
is
self;
world of things
illusory,
See above,
p.
13
The
Prehistoric
Gods
119
from
in
order to release
religions
began
at
approximately the
of the
same
point,
same materials
of each in
some
We
are here
very condivinities,
number
of
important Vedic
religious conceptions,
and sacred
period.'
institutions belong
to this
common Aryan
Their sphere
is
en-
larged, their
their chroif
we keep
man-
in
Hindu
searches
to
show
just
how
were born
on a
different soil.
Two
The first is
the sphere
of
the East,
341
ff\ Hillebrandt,
Rituallitteratur , p, 11,
20
The
Religion of tne
Veda
whom
is
known
as Adityas, to
Varuna, unquestionin
least as far
back
soma, which
gods as their
first
tipple.
was pressed
of
first
by a mythic
his divine
first
man
who
of the
name
Yama, and by
father Vivasvant.
pair,
Yama
the father of
Yama, the
of
progenitor
who
carries this
is,
familiar chain
logic to an end.
He
in
all
probability,
either
or,
mythology presents
most
the
I
brilliant aspects.
We
In
shall
deal with
them
in
order stated.
believe that the
common
god Varuna
faith,
is
if
not identified,
is
"
''
Wise Lord."
Varuna
carries
the
;
title
Asura,
this,
however,
The
tinguishing
title.
Prehistoric
Gods
is
121
But Varuna
is
a close partner in
a partnership which
It
consists of himself
little
is,
however,
bination.
more than
comthe
manner, joins
Ahura and Mithra in the same dual partnership as Since Ahura is the Veda does Varuna and Mitra.'
the paramount divinity of the Avesta his
pairing
left
fossil,
when
It
seems to
me
an
Ahura
it
figures,
however,
by himself
also.
Again,
mentioned by himself,
appears in the combination Ahura and Mithra, because Ahura Mazda, taken by himself,
is
so very like
In the Zoroas-
trian system Ahura Mazda orders the world, and assigns to all good creatures and entities their reAhura creates the spective places and activities.
plants,
1S5 ff.
122
The
and
the
Relieion of the
Veda
He was
the
first
light, earth,
all
that
is
good.
progenitor,
first
father of divine
order.
He
way for the sun and the stars. It is he that causes the moon to grow or wane.' As guardian of divine order Ahura is not to be deceived, does not sleep he sees all human deeds, overt or covert. The Veda describes Varuna in the same spirit, at
made
He
is
the sup-
the forests
He
He
has opened
seaward
like racers
Even
he sees
the expression of
:
he
is
present as a
;
third
secretly
scheme
his spies
do not
picture
4.
16 presents a rugged
of
Varuna
in
his
role
omniscient and
omnipotent god
Yasna 37. i; 44. 3. Yasna 31. 13 43. 6 45. 4 Vendidad iQ-20. C/. Oldenberg Journal of the Gcrjuan Oriental Society, vol. I, p. 48. 2 Rig- Veda 5. 85. 2 8. 41. 5. 87. i
'
'
in
The
"
Prehistoric
Gods
sees as
if
123
from
anear.
this the
He
that thinketh he
is
moving
stealthily
all
gods know.
stands, walks, or sneaks about,
off,
;
and whoso if two sit towhoso runs to cover gether and scheme, King Varuna is there as the third and knows it.
goes slinking
"
Whoso
King Varuna and yonder broad sky, whose bounds are far away. The two oceans are Varuna's loins yea, in this petty drop of water is he hidden.
also
;
"Whoso
sky his
beyond the heavens far away from King Varuna. From the spies come hither with a thousand eyes they do
should
flee
free
earth.
what
is
between
Numbered
puts
down
7. 86,
depicts
Varuna
as
The
strong
Hebraic
flavor,
and,
like
the
preceding
of the
Psalms
124
The
Religion of the
Veda
I.
"Wise,
truly,
and great
is
his
own
nature.
Who held asunder s])acious earth and heaven. He pressed the sky, the broad and lofty, upward,
Aye, spread the
stars,
" With
my own
self I
hold
communion
How
Varuna
find refuge?
my
offering
When may
" Fain
I
to discover this
my
sin, I
question,
The
'
all in
concert
tell
me;
God Varuna
whom
"
What was my
chief offence,
Varuna,
who
That
may be prompt
to
"
Loose us from
all
sins
committed by our
fathers,
!
From
Loose
those, too,
As from
"
The
Prehistoric
Gods
125
" 'T
was not
my own
sense,
Varuna
The
N^y, sleep
" Let
me do
The
The
wisdom
to the foolish.
He
more
8.
wise, to riches.
"
May
this
our song,
Reach
to thy heart,
O O god
We
are accustomed to
for
should reach so
far.
The connection
is
expressed, how-
supreme
arbiters of the
world and
its
moral law.
dignifies
conception, which
Veda and
of course,
But
126
The
Religion of the
Veda
of the
it is
One
most
is
interesting
parallels
or righteousness."
2.
Varuna
is
kJid rtasya
kJido,
(Rig-Veda
10. 4).
28. 5)
(Yasna
The words
the same.
The
many ways
similar
sence
of
disturbance. that
It
is
unquestionably the
best conception
Aryans.
We
1600
is
have seen
'
that
it
B.C.,
early date,
it
As
far as the
Veda
is
concerned,
it
presents
itself
under the
We
have
in
System
As
The
by
rta.
Those
Above,
p. 12.
^The same
asha.
threefold
character
is
The
Prehistoric
Gods
127
harmony with
rise
rta, or
when they
wake up
in
is is
The sun
rta.
He
frhis
means
of twelve months.
cow yields white, cooked milk is " the rta The gods themthe cow guided by the r/."'
{rtajdtd)
;
know
the rta,
The religion
of the
rests
and
sacrifice.
the blessings
of the gods.
They begin
and harmonies.
Vedas, as
In a later time, the time of the Yajurseen,' the technical acts of the
we have
in the
sacrifice are
But even
kindled
we
should say,
"
Kuh ?"
and so on.
Above,
p. 31.
128
The
Relicfion of the
Veda
fire, is
He
somaAxmV," take
by the
foul
tongue.'"'
Holy
is
sacrifice, in
distinction
from
magic,
performed with
witchcraft.
rta
"
call
I
With
rfa
perform
thought."
its
of
own
itself as
Here
it
takes
closely
hand,
is
anrta,
more rarely asatya, the same two words The two words satya and
lie,"
over by
God
Varuna.*
They remain
the standard
words
Hindu time.
Varuna is the
said in a remarkable
2.
"^
Ibid., 9. 75. 2.
Ibid., 7. 49. 3.
"^
Ibid., 10. 8. 5.
"
The
Truth and
lie
Prehistoric
Gods
129
include,
by an easy
to
is,
transition, right
and wrong-doing.
invites
In a famous hymn'
incestuous
Yam!
(Eve)
Yama (Adam)
first pair,
intercourse.
of course, unavoidable
beings whatsoever.
own
time.
When
Yarn!
Yama
exclaims pithily:
say the anrta"
:
we
shall really
"
When
'right-
we pretend to justify the act as being rta, doing,' we really shall knowingly engage in
'wrong-doing.'"
saying: "
anrta,
finally
We may
imagine
Yama
Anyhow,
!
the stump
pair, are
implicated
name
dditya.
tain.
The number
it is
of these gods
is
very uncer-
Sometimes
two,
three
Aryaman
first
as third.
is
than the
name of Aryaman's Avestan counterpart is Airyama. The name of this not too determinate god seems to mean " comrade "; accordingly Aryaman figures in the Veda as the Beyond typical groomsman at the wedding rites. this triad the name dditya becomes very indefinite,
Indo-Iranian
the
'
lo.
30
The
Religion of the
Veda
it
is
supposed to harbor.
As
Then
;
number
to this
at times
added
rises to twelve.
Veda:
addition
to
is
Bhaga,
"Fortune,"
An^a,
Apis
And
so
Now
the
Veda
who
cuts a consid-
"boundlessness," and
the
"universe."
She
is
finally identified in
be responsible
is
never mentioned.
We
are
own
whom
I
Indpjranian
'
period.
have, for
my
part
little
'
Above, p. 109.
The
Prehistoric
Gods
131
is
a well-executed abstraction
I
some
kind.
In the past
originally
named
" gods
We may
perhaps con-
Brahmana
abstracted.
(2. 2. 10).
From
is
well taken
we must assume
that the Veda had forgotten the meaning of dditya This was necessarily the in the sense of " of yore."
case before
some
the
mother Aditi.
of
He
is
starts
Adityas.
This, he thinks,
origi-
of
such an expression
led to
At
as
all
events Aditi
drippings
Sytnbolic
may be
safely re
garded
'
later
See
my essay, The
Gods, in Studies in
Cildersleeve, p. 45.
*
132
The
of
Religion of the
Veda
Tlic interpre-
myth
sits
great
Aditi
later
terms
and
" earth."
'
The mythic
gion, and,
cycle represented
is
by Mitra-Mithra and
reli-
Varuna-Ahura
more permanently,
There
is
whole history
of Persian religion.
religion
instinct
no chapter of Aryan
ultimate
interpretation
I
more
persist-
am
of those
who
can-
The one
is
these
myths
the
name
of
of the sun.
As
in
pre-
solar
Mithras passed,
the
threatened at
civilisation.
Western
'
Above,
p. 85.
The
Prehistoric
Gods
of
133
that
Now
what
is
the
natural
origin
other
Not very
many
the
that Varunais
Moon, and
a
are
follow to
very
Mitra and
Varuna
They
are
members, as
the
we have
seen, in a
hastily,
number seven
larly in the
as the
sum
Simiso-
Avesta, Ahura
accompanied by the
called "
They
seven.
Mithra,
we may
that
note,
ment.
Now
Oldenberg
believes
not
only
Varuna and Mitra were the Moon and the Sun, but
that the
Adityas,
essentially
identical
with
the
still
Amesha
He
assumes
European
divinities at
all,
far
1.,
enough advanced
See his
latest
43^.
See above,
p. 129.
134
in
The
Religion of
Veda
tions of sun,
planets.
not
by Professor
of
the supreme
twin-gods
Ahura-Mithra,
Varunaare
As
Amesha Spents
in their
ment
in
or even
Several Adityas,
in
the
Either
Macdonell's or
my own
hypothesis
as to the origin
gods
is
The Amesha
I
not
in
me
them anything
as concrete as
of the
"
Good
";
Mind
";
Asha
Righteousness
Khshathra
'
Vairya,
p. 131.
Wished-for
Kingdom,"
or
See above,
The
Prehistoric
Gods
135
Armaiti,
"Holy Harheavenly
is
unmythological, non-aaturalistic
is
If
the place
in the
man-
the
symbolic
creations
in
Bunyan's
Pilgrim
s Progress.
As
for the
system,
aright,
is
Professor Oldenberg,
understand him
character which
group
as
is
at so early a period of
Indo-European history
the
common
He
peans
in
myth
ethical
came
I
But, as
have shown, we
the chief
Aryan
Persian
form Tel-el-Amarna
that date
fessor
lies far
tablets,
Now
should
this idea
if
not
Indo-Europeans
ethical
136
The
Religion of the
Veda
as yet
Professor Oldenberg
is
whom Varuna
think
of that
much
in
favor
beyond the
close
I
dualic connection of
Varuna with
am
any interpretation
of this
some
phonetic
scepticism
ovpavog
is
Indo-European 7wru-nnos or
is
norti-enos
Sanskrit varunas
Indo-European
norii-nos.
The
Vedic
two forms
differ
no more than,
for instance,
nutanas and
nfiinas,
anyavog
met with
interpre-
and Greyvos,
quite often
" covered."
Here
is
a situation
in this
kind of inquiry.
is,
The
tation of the
myth
Few
interpretations of advanced
certain.
many
step
it
no
bonded
guaranty.
The next
that they
who do
The
tation
are
is
Prehistoric
Gods
137
prone to
belittle
the etymology.
But
there
little
gain in pooh-poohing
an
etymol-
ogy which
will
will
The time
current
never be
when any
gards this
free
obvious comparison
pass
All settle-
will
be temporary
It
the
end to be repudiated.
would seem to
me
that
we must
guidance.
It
,
shows that Varuna belongs not only to the IndoIranian (Aryan) time, but reaches back
to
the
tiorti
which
is its
essential
Rig-Veda
8.
Varuna, the
the eye of
its
Varuna.
sun,
is
The dualism
of
Heaven and
eye, the
moon.
Into the gusty discussion which has grown up in
a particular degree
tion I
around
would lead
my
hearers no farther.
There
is
of
Aryan
religion
which
The
is lifted
Religion of the
above doubt.
Veda
have endeavored
entirely
to give a conservative estimate of the varying interpretations, as free from fanciful exaggeration of the
probabilities as
it is
We may
men and One
things
now
Indo-Iranian mythology.
sacrificers,
deals with
the
first
man
as
he grows
He
is
does not
take himself for granted, but assumes that he originated from something or other.
This
as a rule
not as easy as
it
is
in the
myth
of Deucalion.
All
God
is
not always at
hand
An
religious in character,
Totemism.
This
or,
is
founded
fre-
on the
human
race,
more
is
a splendid
The
theme
Prehistoric
Gods
139
religion of India.
The many
hints
be substantiated
than seems at
facts
present available.'
We
them
ceived in early
Occasionally they
human
who
first
men,
He
is,
as the
Vedic
intelligently, the
Sun con-
God Agni,
" Fire," is
There
is
in this
by
friction.
This
Agni
is
first
man.
Certainly
is
Cf.
68
i.,
ff.
' 2
vol.
p.
488
_^.
Rig-Veda
140
The
and man
the
Religion of the
Veda
seems to con'
of fire
alike.
It continues, or
Now
of
Veda
discloses,
and
all
Hindu
tradition
human
race
by the name
Manu, or Manush,
is
Pitar,
"Father Manu."
word manu
there
is
Adam or Noah
this
eponymous man:
show,
Manu
is
in his
worry.
From
myth
of
still
Yama,
This myth
is
myth
is
see no
is
room
Yama
means
earnest.
" twin."
He
as
is
p. 59^. " They [the Germans] honor Tuisto, a god who has sprung from the earth, and his son Mannus, as the originators and founders of the race."
'
Compare
The
Adam.
rian I
Prehistoric
Gods
141
She
is,
As
a truthful histolike
Yama
men.
Yama's
father Vivasvant
probably
pri-
marily
thfi sun,
is,
however, at
is
old as
this
first
twins,
Yama
an attempt to
al-
of course
Yama
for
In the same
way Manu
adopt Vivasvant
all
and he remains so
time.
to interlace very
much,
unexpected directions.
17.
i
A
and
in
cording to
posed':
it is
interpretation
which
it
have pro-
as an
extreme
example
real
myth
Society, xv.,
172^.
142
The
Religion of the
Veda
in
The
who
gains favor
is
Vivasvant, conceived
is
as a mortal.
displeased
had given
Yama
and Yaml.
This
In
order to
make
sure
her escape,
she
flees to
the gods,
who
hide
and
still
YamL
more
The
is
gods, in order to
make matters
safe,
varna,
who
it
affections.
acter "
The word savarnd means " of like chartrickily states that the new female was at
like
Saranyu
in
appearance,
more
we
may
Manu
Manu comes
into pos-
Ultimately
Saranyu
in
the
Horsemen"
also,
or
Dioscuri.
Saranyu
previously
abandons them
'
just
as she
has
The
Prehistoric
Gods
143
Yama
we may
divinity.
The
are
final
outcome
of these
mythic entanglements
:
Yama
and
the
They remind
especially as
Manu way
Adam
Noah,
flood-
Manu
is
Hindu
legend, which
of Genesis. of
them
are
endowed
for a
purely
human
qualities.
men become kings or great sacrificers Manu is the typical first sacrificer. The later
time of the Veda, as he performs on
sacrificer of the
Manu, doing
In
Manu
the
Avesta Vivanhvant
the
first
mortal
who
haoma {soma)
but
in
behalf of the
continued to do
worldly
there
is
Yima
ruler,
He
he
is
Yima Khshaeta;
144
The
Religion of the
Veda
well-known hero
of
the
Persian
Epic, the
is
SJiah
now
in
familiar
Omar
The myth
more important
first
Yama
is
the
mortal king
a heaven
who
men
company
the
first
of the pious
He
is
of mortals
' :
who
is
"
Where
waters,
Vivasvant's
is
heaven's
firm
abode,
where
live
yonder flowing
there let
me
immortal."*
"He
(Yama) went
unfading wish
is
light,
there every
fulfilled
" These
blessed
crooked of limb."
'
Atharva-Veda
iS. 3. 13.
"^
Rig-Veda
9.
113. 8.
3.
'Atharva-Veda
28. 5; 6. 120, 3.
The
Yet
this
in
Prehistoric
Gods
145
is
becomes
and judge
tant
is
may From
Yama
Comwhen
parative
Mythology
now, the
And
sacrificial
substance which,
freely given
Veda
haonia.
this drink
same
it
name
them
that
and that
was regarded
to of them.
men
craved
upon
life
is
and averts
king of the
it
death.
plants,
No wonder
act.
that
Haoma-Soma
it
was
an important
was purified
The
146
The
Religion of the
Veda
Rig- Veda and the Avesta report the names of the same ancient worthies that prepared the fluid for the gods
:
religious literatures.
of the heav-
hidden
in the clouds.
In the
Veda
castle,
is
off to
causes
it
down upon
the earth.
the simple
phenomenon
and
of cloud, lightning,
life-giving rain
and
is
downpour
drink.'
of refreshing
which
The
by a
to
Iranian
bird,
is
haoma
told.
is
also fetched
from heaven
his
though
not
the
manner
In
of
descent
the
earth
both
literatures
god,
his
slays
and gains
in
perfect
wisdom
'
light
for
xvi.,
>
iff.
Rheinisches
Museum,
Ix., 2i,ff.
Der
'Vedic sukratu
= Avestan
hukhratu.
The
men,
" the best
Prehistoric
Gods
147
haoma
:
practices
somewhat
fossilised
its
and symbolic.
In the
Veda j(?w
champagne
inspires
of the gods,
them
to valor-
demon
has his
fights
therefore he
is
He
very
own allowance
at
noontide
in
come
at the other
nodal
en-
The
nhithbook
of
of the
Rig-Veda
tells of
the sacred
;
practice
brewing
this
Bacchanalian drink
it
god
in poetic
and
ec-
we may speak
rites.
in
my power
religious
to sketch
some
of the principal
myths and
of the
148
The
Religion of the
Veda
am
reconstructions
to
they must,
in the
some extent be
prehistoric guesses.
Neverthe-
less, in
me
to treat here,
my own
fossils of
very old
human thought has grown and not shrunk. When I say human I mean, too, that they are so very human. They are of the logic of mental events. The effect upon the higher grade of primitive mind which the facts and events of the visible world may
naturally be expected to have
that
is
the effect
which we have
traced.
We
town
folk,
nomad and
agricultural tribes,
Certainly
if
found:
ble bodies
deivos,
sky, the
" or
ness
thunder, the
commanding
in
;
little less
obvious god
we
The
may say with
after a first
Prehistoric
Gods
149
search
inevitable logic.
first
The perplexed
is
man, a
pair
the propagation of
man
after
death
more
subjective, yet
is
There
no better
way
no
until
we come
less
Because
and on
human
consciousness, therefore
we
are reasonably
This
is
able guaranty than philological exactness and historical sense which, of course,
every detail.
my
Mythology
its
a true science
and
is
Veda
is
the
Religious Con
Translucent, and
of the Fire God The translucent gods: definition of the term God Vishnu God Pushan God. Indra, as an example of an opaque god Traditional explanation of the myth of Indra and Vritra Professor Hillebrandt's interpretation of the same myth Renewed definition of the religion of the Rig- Veda Renewed definition of Vedic practicalities Conflicting prayers and sacrificesThe conception of faith Faith related to Truth and Wisdom Faith personified Faith and works The reward for faith postponed to heaven Contrast between early "faith" (9raddha) and later "devotion" (bhakti) "Gift-praises," another sop to the sacrificer The religious feeling of the Rig-Veda The utilitarian sense The glory of the gods Absence
Agni on the altar, the agent of the gods Priesthood and divinity of Agni A hymn to Agni Other myths
150
Transparent and Opaque Gods
of real sentiment towards the gods
151
the
true
singers
The
religious
feeling
poets'
own
The
Poetic
inspiration
complacent
FOR
gods.
my
part
of
spirit
scientific
They
are
You know from mean by transparent the gods who are at one and the ;>
In other same time nature object and person. words, they are mythic formations whose personification
is
arrested
vivid
memory
is
personification.
when
the chemical
into
removed
from
elements,
it
is
We
and quanti-
and
There
is
of the
Babel
of discordant opinions,
soil of just scepticism,
many
of
of Rehgion,
is
is
possible to
152
trace
TIk;
lv(;liL;i()ii
of
tlic Vctl.i
some
of the
of re-
and
in
human
consciousness.
lias
Comparative
myth()h)gy
influenced
these
we may
it
At
me
point
how
tween prehistoric
" I'^ilhcr
Sky
"
human
poets.
personality of the
Olympian Zeus
Now
We
gods.
Sky
"
(Dyaush
Pitar),
personality of
there submerged
by other formations
We
have
is
Eternally j'oung
and
While doing
day of
this
She
starts the
sacrifice,
her
She
men and
153
She
rises
releases
sister
Night as she
To
is
whom
drawn by
birds.
the type of
it
many
we
but read
aright.
Next Surya(Sol, Helios) appears upon the stage. He is the Sun-God treated as transparently as possible.
Sky
Dawns
On
a car drawn
by seven tawny
guided by other
is
He
is
crea-
moves.
Enlivened
is
their vocations.
He
far-see-
deeds of mortals.
They
in turn look
up to him,
shall
let
speak for
itself
154
1.50,
The
in
Religion of the
Veda
translation
;
(with
John Muir
160,
see his
v., p.
and Metrical
Hymn
to Silrya
By lustrous heralds led on high, The fire Sun ascends the sky
;
The
stars
night,
Now
Quenched by
Thy beams
to
men
Like blazing
fires
Thou makest
all
In sight of gods and mortal eyes, In sight of heaven thou scalest the skies.
fiery
Thou scannest, like God Varuna, The doings of all busy men. Thou stridest o'er the sky's broad space, Thy rays do measure out our days
;
Thine eye
all living
things surveys.
155
Supreme
is
And
in
nature
positively
on the
surface.
So the two
on the
is
likely evidence of
Teutonic Wotan-Odhin,
probably prehistoric.
is
good
in
bit
of profound
human philosophy
Vata
is
contained
Hymn
to
Vata
!
Now
And
Breaking goes
it
it,
thunderous
light
is its
noise.
To heaven
touches.
Makes
lurid,
earth.
Then
all
To him
come
as
women
to their trysting
travelling.
creation.
air,
Companion
holy,
'
First-born and
Rig-Veda
lo. i68,
156
The
Religion of the
Veda
he,
The breath of gods and source of life is Vata. This god doth journey whithersoe'er he listeth,
His sound is heard but no one sees his figure. With our oblation let us this Vata honor
!
But there
is
far
above
all
others in ancient
Hindu
religious history
from Veda
how
phenomenon
god
''
of nature
may be
itself
and personal
the god Agni
at
it is
Fire,"
who
is
at the
beginning
fire
Wotan
calls
upon
This
this red-haired,
interesting, because
itself
between the
ulation of myth-makers.
in
their
scholastic
mood
worry over
in
the
Mahabharata
157
*'
There
is
he kindled manifold";'
to say
:
made
fore
" Because
multiply myself
am
fire)."'
Agni
god
is
is,
next
to
Indra,
the
most prominent
of the
He
the theme
and owes
his special
fire
which
is
present at
all
Vedic
from
performances.
the popular)
In the hieratic
(in distinction
hymns
few cases
in
which Agni
sacrifice.
And
step.
it
is
well
now
to
article,
the sacrifice
fire,
and
let it
own
story step
by
How
fire
;
it
turns in
into a mes-
gods; into an
finally
and
into a
god.
of
all
never forgotten
more or
fire
less well-assorted
bundle of
qualities
and
1
">
epithets.
Ibid.,
158
The
Religion of the
Veda
last
The
fire," at all
events,
is
Indo-European; Latin
Slavic ognL
fire,
Some kind
it
and with
some degree
in
likely to
Indo-European times.
when using
it
to
convey
definite
we know
of the Greeks, or
in
In India, as elsewhere,
tion,
fire
was produced by
fire
fric-
and
this
mode
of starting
was obligatory as
was concerned.
The two
fire-
the female.
the
name
of
Ayu "Living";
wood
the god
the type of
or suggests
At once he becomes is born living. human progeny, and faintly figures as, the first man and the originator of the
; ;
159
human
he
is
race.'
The new-born
child
infant
is
hard to catch
give
born of a mother
who cannot
him
suck.
The
as
parents.
With
is
required to produce
Agni by
friction,
he
is
fre-
Interpretations of Rig-
Veda
like the
Nor
view
is
morning
just
no suggestion, perchance,
merry dairy-
in
the
"House-books"
is
But
in the
main Agni
cosmic
and
ritualistic,
and
the
little else.
He
ness, destroys
demons
;
of night.
He He
throws
of darkness
when Agni
'
is
born
in
the morning.
even
See above,
p. 139.
i6o
The
lift
Religion of the
Veda
supposed to
Such
is
On
the
other hand
means "waking
is
at
dawn."
We have seen
son of Dawn.''
the
sacrificial
before that he
Dawn,
morning,
like
is
produced anew
for the
the youngest."
old Agni,
On the other hand he is the same and now comes a good deal of playful or
His new births are
is
;
Thus
" very
it
happens that he
" in the
and
young
same
passage
this
;
kind of
mental see-saw.
The mystery
is
shallow
what
is
meant
Agni
There
is,
life
of the present-day
in
importance
the past.
no
sacrificer older
ducted the
'
first sacrifice.
Above,
p.
73-
16
dawn
many
a great
forefather: Bharata, or
Vadhryagva
Divodasa, or
Trasadasyu.
is
placed upon
we
upon three
altars.'
Fagots are
;
now
big
;
he waxes
;
up he has
he
is
sharp-sighted
and
his teeth
Then
the
changed
;
he
is
flame-haired, tawny-haired,
in all direc-
tawny-bearded
tions.
is
his
Ghee, or melted
his
food:
he
therefore called
haired.
ghee
is
This
is
to take on a
sonality
little
more
At
is
made
to say:
in the
"The
ghee that
poured into
my
2
;
mouth,
5. ii.
10. 105. 9.
7./"=9i7/".
62
The
. . .
Religion of the
Veda
Manes called by my mouth the Gods and the Manes come to eat the ghee."
In fact the gods cannot subsist without him.
two hymns
of the
Rig-Veda
'
how Agni on
Agni has
it
born
in
have worn
like fate.
Whereupon he
es-
Yama
discovers
of
as the
spokesman
sacrifice to the
diction, to
swell
its
With
'
tales of
Agni
lost
Mahdbharata,
^
p. 12 ff.
avah, havyavdhana,
163
grass.
He
thus
becomes
and
heaven
be-
earth,
associated
mythic semi-divine
identical with
Greek
They
also
mediate
is
an
Agni
house-
and
the very
also
first
As such he
speech and
inspires,
very important,
course,
is
he
frees
from
sin.
For the
be
sacrifice, of
the gods
when
they are
supposed
to
angry.
The
idea of
He
and
he
He knows
embraces wisdom as a
The
5.
164
The
Religion of the
Veda
and the epithet
is
sages," applies to
him
particularly,
innate wisdom,"
exclusively
own.
From
sage to godhead
but a step.
Agni
is
the divine
carry
who sweats to
him
iron walls, or
takes across
And
then, finally, he
all
the worlds,
is
superior to
all
who worship
indifferently, or henotheistically, as
it,
praise at
all
the fervor
and
the
marks the
Then hail to Agni on his brilliant chariot. The shining signal of every holy sacrifice, Of every god in might divine the equal, The gracious guest of every pious mortal
Dressed out
in all thy
ornamented garments.
Thou standest on the very navel of the earth, The hearth of sacrifice. Born of the light,
Both
priest
and king,
immortals
For thou hast ever spread both earth and heaven, Tho' being their son thou hast spread out thy parents.
5-7.)
165
life in
order to
make
clear the
meaning
of arrested person-
ification, or arrested
anthropomorphism.
The Vedic
but
in
is
not only
in
:
the sacral
as sun
fire-sticks,
he
is
everywhere
and lightning
of the waters
;
the sky
as glint
on the surface
as
it
up when
rocks
vital
;
in flames in
and the
and even
force latent in
is
living things.
Especially
remarkable
the certainly
Indo-European myth
the descent of
fluid.
fire,
heavenly
fire is
In
its
Agni
"
heavenly
fire)
heavenly
fluid
is
Ma-
who
mythic persons
whom
have reserved
Even
Rig-Veda,
i.
93. 6.
'
Above,
p.
146.
66
The
which the
Religion of the
Veda
Greeks shapes for
act,
all
tragedy, appears to
poets merely as
and soma
for the
myth.
true of
And what
all
in detail
is
is
Veda; he
at
one
moment element and phenomenon, at another person and god, at all times as clear as his own light to
teach the nature of the gods.
I
in
connection
in
human
consciousness
is
Now
it is, I
though
wish to be understood
in its
It refers to
mythic formations
be traced with a
whose
structural outline
may
still
it is
obscured by incrus-
It is often
merely the
of the obscuration.
name which is the cause " Divinities of the name " Dawn
(Agni), bring
(Ushas), "
Sun
the original
all
in
the
167
An
and
all
we must not
by
violence.
Comparative Mythol-
when
nothing
in that line
No
in
a fairy-tale without
becoming party
myth.
to an involved
all
We
have
sobered
much
there
is
now,
of
perhaps, too
much
insistence
gods.
Tho two Agvins, the Dioscuri, are They harbor some phenomenon
one part of their dual character.
translucent
of
morning
other
light as
is
The
But
It is
what
this duality
is
we were unable
find
to say.'
European myth so
seen, belongs
and to
behind
as
it
reason
we have
for
to this class
will turn to
for better or
worse interpretation
'
some phenomenon
See above,
p.
n6.
68
The
Religion of the
Veda
salient quality of
it
of
overseer, be
encompassing sky, be
moon.
in
both cases we
shall
be
This
may
of ex-
is
But
am
nothing daunted
the sun
is
;
important
I shall
and
let
him
own
battles.
I
If I
am
not mistaken,
Vishnu a service
is
in pointing
name
itself
compounded
of the
'
"
The
is
activity in the
Veda
{tredhd vi kravi).
states that "
the earth."
for
'*
through"
is
vi
sdim {snu)
third
the
name Vishnu.
Vishnu
The
of these
strides lands
do not dare to
'
fly.^
There
in the highest
stepping
'
xvii.,p. 42S.
vi
sanavi.
2
155. 3, 5.
169
Vishnu's fount of
honey.*
of
This place
is
Agni
Vishnu
fire
place
it is
in
name him
accordingly.
more
and
the
earth,
atmos-
From
Hindu
records
show the
division of the
universe."
off
that
Vishnu marks
i.
Rig-Veda
154. 5.
.
'^
Ibid., 10. I. 3.
Ibid., I. 22. 20.
*See above,
p. 91.
70
The
Religion of the
Veda
them from
elevated to
and
consequence.
is
he
is
To
But
solar paradise to
whom
go the
spirits of
the departed
to his
pious.
at the
sectarian
"all-soul," with
is
ultimately
destined to unite.
I
that he
protects
in the ravine
brings
;
ture
their coats
is
drawn
or
by
goats.
And
mush
gruel,
soma or ghee^
pretty clear.
" Prospero,"
than
character.
171
The
too numerous
hymns addressed
Rig- Veda
6.
to him:
^4.
Guide us, O Pushan, to a man Who, wise, straightway shall point the way,
And
say to us
"
it is!
to us
"
!
Its seat
His chariot's wheel doth never break doth never tumble down Nor doth his wheel's rim ever crack.
;
Whoso payeth
Him
That man
to gather wealth.
May Pushan follow our kine. May he protect our horses too, And furnish us with solid wealth
May May
Our
cattle
May Pushan
And
The standard
a sun-god.
interpretation of this
is
god
is
again as
This
well supported
by some higher
172
The
traits in
is
Religion of the
which
lord
Veda
is
mythic
this
god
not ahogether
wanting.
;
He
is
He
also
Surya, that
who
carries
on
affairs
with the
He alone has " very the ancient epithet dghrni glowing." This
male Surya, the Agvins, and Soma.
fits
than
Now
fire
Pushan
is
not.
To
consider
him, under these circumstances, a mere " god Prosper," or an abstract "
Lord
of the Paths,"
is
good
Contrariwise his
and restorer of
particularly
we may
I
may be
lamb
permitted to quote
at the yester
even tide
!
I lost
my
little
Oh, who
shall help
me
?
go and seek
My
I
star.
The morning
*'
fire
At morrow's morning
I
star,
*'
bed
tide."
i ']'i^
My
I
The dear sun gave reply "Nine days I '11 seek, and on
I'll
the tenth
The
power
for
a shepherd
fore dress
god
it is
there-
him out
wether of their
flocks.
But
me
to be very
We
a translucent god.
is
The most prominent of the gods of the Rig- Veda Indra. About two hundred and fifty hymns are
all
the
hymns of
the collection.
'
American Philo-
i"H\.ioiTtav6TtTr]'i,Iliad 2,.2T]
74
The
Religion of the
even
Veda
religious conceptions,
if
Veda Indra
nothing positive.
Vedic Pantheon,
Indra
is
arrest
so grossly
anthropomorphic, that
the
is,
he embodies so completely
human
qualities of
drunkenness, and
lust, as to
Vedic study.
except perhaps
biting off
He
in
is
not wanting
in
superlative
cosmic qualities.
come nearer more than they can chew, than when enthe case of Varuna,
gaged
in
lauding Indra.
those born or to be
restrial,
He
More
particularly, he
is
the
4.
Ibid., 2. 15. 2.
175
He
slays dragons
and monsters
he
is
the typical
To
these
is
stimulated by immense
In order to accom-
he drank
has
Accordingly
lips.
He
in his
yet
it
seems
they
were
irresistibly attracted
this, "
Lord
to be the
Aryan invaders
in their struggles
overcome
in
And
own
In a recent war,
on the side
make, by
his
This
176
The
it
Religion of the
Veda
is
But
would be
weak enemy
is
fated
to subjection.
lucent, that
certainty,
is,
Indra's character
we can no
is
but there
somewhere
where.
in visible nature.
The
is
difficulty is to tell
To
no belitthng the
fact
prehistoric.
as
is
earlier Arv-an
he
is
degraded to a demon.
" Slayer of
But
his chief
is
Vritra,"
the same
name
On
the other
hand there
If
is
no
then
we
explain Indra,
we must not
is
Hindu
history'.
i.
The
clearly
32, is
done
show
mind
of the
poets
'
iii.,
p.
188^.
177
Let
me now
tell
which he that wields the club performed of yore. he slew the dragon, broke the way for the waters
;
He
cleft
God
He slew the dragon who lay upon the mountain. Tvashtar forged for him his heavenly club. Like
down came
bull,
roaring cattle,
the sea.
3.
Lusty as a
in
took
of the dragons.
4.
When
the dragons,
when thou
didst
make naught
drunken weakling,
He
so,
go flowing at
13.
him
nor the
When
Indra and
won
the battle.
These stanzas
carn,^
78
The
Religion of the
Veda
them three
?
myth whose
questions
:
First,
what
Secondly,
who
him
is
them
in ?
Thirdly,
who
is
much on
his mettle
Hindu
tradition,
commentators and
The waters
Vritra
;
is
Indra, therefore,
the storm or
his lightning
This interpretation, at
and most
satisfactorily
suggestive,
was
for a
The trouble with it turned out to be that the Veda has the real storm and rain god Parjanya, and that the hymns addressed to him
Mythology.
'
is
very
dif-
for
anything else
The
:
myth
are as follows
who
ains. sea.
'
mountains.
He
kills
The Thus
rivers flow
the texts
"
79
mean
clouds,
and the
symptoms
of
recently advanced
new theory
of
Indra, Vritra,
in-
He
of their waters
is
name
of Vritra, "confiner;"
them
dungeon roof
of crystal ice
So
Count Snoilsky.
And
it
it
Now
winter
it
is
is
We can
'
north counI57#-
iii.,
i8o
The
Reli'eion of the
Veda
try like
Sweden where the conflict is hard and long. Even there these phenomena seem hardly to suggest
is
frost
By
These words
of
Goethe seem
to
come
so
much
in his pro-
He
releases the
who
confine
them and
will
He
:
also performs
he breaks open
demon
It
of the
name
is,
of Vala,
the light of
dawn and
this
the sun.
important
myth from
Cacus.
myths
of
Heracles and
Hercules carries
or, in
off
to the monster,
away
in
his cave.'
To
143^.
i8i
Veda he
is
all
Who
hope
him?"
may
in the
it
for the
present
has
me
in the
I
unanimous Hindu
the cloud.
The
partnership
of Indra with
tively
"
Vayu
is
Wind
"
is
paralleled sugges-
by the association
of Parjanya
and Vata,
of
Wind." Parjanya
It is
possible that
myth
of Indra, Vritra,
storm,
speak,
myth cloud, and rain. The myth may been brought down to earth
:
have, so to
Indra, the
kills
a dragon
who hoards
in
For
in
theme
mythology
future.
it
seems to
me
all,
that
we must look
to the
The
if it
theory,
comes
at
Western Asia.
more
definitely Indra's
82
The
Religion of the
Veda
not from a
If
still
if
these earlier
summer and
I
winter,
The
is
we have
seen,
in
its
most
superficial
personal gods.
sents itself
rifice
is
The
it
presac-
The
with
its
ceremonial formalities
is,
as I have
Veda
is
ex-
offerings.
Hindu conception
for the
is
of inspiration of the
was the
European ancestors.
the nature gods,
183
singularly poetic.
I shall
show
concentrates
itself
upon
their admiration
and
praise,
marks
in fact
the
spirit-
In the end
it
will
be found to be
;
it
is
rather
inspiration.
ritual
Anyhow we must
everything.
has
swamped
The
delight in the
is
genuineness.
am
not
all,
hymns
to the goddess
full
Dawn,
or to
swing of creative
theme's sake,
theme
for the
for the
poems' sake.
We
when
may
of divinities
whose power
to reward
is in-
theme
of song.
these
men
is
practicalities.
184
The
Religion of the
Veda
of
very trade of
theirs,
namely, praise
the gods
and purveyance
their
of the sacrifice.
When
they turn
minds away,
as they constantly
downward.
As middle-men between
men they must, above all. take care of men, their own selves not least of all. Men can subsist and prosper only if the gods return in kind. The gods, on the whole, are good they oo not beat down the
;
requests of
of
soma.
me,
give to thee,"
is
the formula.'
is
The
sacrificing
he must
satisfy
priests,
each of
whom show
a sur-
way
Vedic religion
conceptions
circumstances into a
selves,
by these
Open
to adulation, they
for ad-
vantage, they
dehi
me
dadanii
Cf.
tlie
Roman
do ut des.
: :
185
In the
first
place,
in a sort
in
at the
suppliants.
may
relig-
XlVth
Inter-
The
title
of the paper,
On
Conflicting Prayers
and Sacrifices,
requires art to
tells
The
it
that
hog
and
it is
not a very
point of view.
Yet not
less so
at the
1
'
Or
consider
" Gieb regen und gieb sonnenschein Fiir Reuss und Schleuss und Lobenstein
Und
So mogen
My
Eng-
lish transfusion
" Give rain and sunshine we implo' For us upon the Eastern sho'
If
86
The
for
Religion of the
Veda
family of
So,
instance,
poets of
the
ancient
own soma
Hbations to
latter
had
imprecation
;
man who
and
this
naughty
show us under
men engaged
hindmost
is
in
a sort of universal
game
of tag
the
a
"it."
am
Vedic
sacri-
When
much
clarified
many
places at one
as far as
There
is
scarcely
much from
To
it is
equivalent
of
Latin and
our
this
own
word
credo.
is
The
etymological
meaning
of
absolutely
187
"
transparent.
It
means
upon.
shows
it
full
of ethical possibilities.
The
first
word
Rig-Veda.
It
means
of
all belief in
So, a poet
is
far to
Vedic freethinker.
The
*'
The terrible one of whom they Nay verily they say of him, h^e is not
shrink the goods of his
of his opponent
:
ask,
where
is
he
at all.
He
makes
enemy
like a
Put your
faith in
him
Indra."
(Rig- Veda
2.
12. 5.)
"As
a strong
warrior, he
verily fights
with might
down
"Who, what
thou
art,
Indra
Through
faith
thee,
liberal
strives
obtain
(Rig- Veda
7.
32-
M-)
So there
the
of
is
no doubt that
faith
means the
belief in
man.
It
would be doing
injustice to those
i88
The
Relieion of the
Veda
idea
beyond
this stage of
mere primary
utility.
is
truth,
and unfaith
"
is lies
The
qualities
He
put un-
faith
Next,
faith
is
wisdom
faith
is
The
no god."
In
to
becomes needful
From a later
Vedas.
time
we have very
tion of disciples,
and
in a
:
Veda),
my Lord
"
teach
thee
"
the revealed
books," replieth
tradition,
the teacher.
my
pupil.
the teacher.
my
Wisdom."
addresses
'
7,
and compare
A9valayana
Grihyasutra
189
Do
;
thou,
girdle, as-
and Strength."
(Atharva-Veda
Faith kindles the
turn, the sacred
cal religion,
"
is in
6. 133. 4.)
sacrifice-fire
and, by
way
of re-
fire,
this chief
emblem
of Brahmani-
Wisdom
Through Faith the fire is kindled. Through Faith the oblation is offered. Faith, that stands at the head of fortune, Her do we with our song proclaim."
(Rig- Veda
10. 151. i.)
Agni Jatavedas
(the holy
fire)
to preserve for
him
faith
intact his
memory,
so that
he
may
in well-being.'
That
for the
mechanical character
in
Imagine and
order to
in
Hin-
duism
who
skilfully
exalts the
finally
asks her to
accept oblations
(^ankhayana Grihyasutra
2. lo. 6.
190
"
The
Religion of the
Veda
Through Faith
to our sacrifice. Bring our wish as her child, and grant us immortality!
May
she pleased
come
is
Upholder of all, foundation of the world. That Faith do we revere with our oblations;
May
Brahmanaj.
12. 3.
i, 2.)
2. 8.
8).
So
far so
good.
in
AH
that
is still
a development of
belief in
sinks to a
much lower
plane.
in
the
itself in
who
it
by these works.
In a
In
other words, he
I
'
who
hymn
that
make
his poetic
work
make him
191
persona grata " with him that giveth, and him that
shall give."
'
of the
Atharva-Veda, not
The name
of the lady
is
Arati.
Of course she
as a
is
primarily an abstraction.
fledged person
:
fullis
fact quite
the old
all
it
in
for
Venus.
With
her
coaxed to go away
do not keep from us the sacrificial fee when it is being taken to us! Homage be to the power of grudge, Adoration to Arati! to the power of baffling! "Him whom I implore with holy word (Vac Sarasvati), the yoke-fellow of thought, may Faith enter him to-day, " aroused by the burnished soma drink! (Atharva-Veda 5. 7. i, 5.)
That
is
to say,
sparkles in
when the burnished soma drink the cup, when the pious emotion that
skilful
hymn
stirs
him Faith.
But what
The kind
he gives
long for
'
Then How the Brahmans do to the Brahmans, baksheesh, especially when they are poor!
that drives out niggardliness.
lo. 151. 2, 3.
Rig-Veda
192
The
is
Religion of the
Veda
ejac-
There
ulates:
the record
of
"What
will
essions
get us
Who
desireth to
sacrifice,
and who
long
is
willing to
give presents?
Who
desireth
life
from the
gods?"'
Even
side.
this
mean and
by way of being
freely
luscious
away
He
boy
has given
in sacrifice
and attendant
fees all
that he possesses.
Then Faith
Naciketas.
He
band-wagon."
whom
He startles his father by asking: "To me ? " The father rephes " To
:
death"
we
if
his
of Death.
He
the better of
Yama, not only enjoying his but also extracting from him certain
Atharva-Veda 7. 103. i. Cf. Ludwig, Der Rig-Veda, vol. iii., p. 283^; the author, Atnericaji Journal of Philology, vol. xvii, p. 408^.
193
information
concerning
the
riddle
of
Now
I shall
Indeed we
not wholly
mind
upon Faith
promoter
its
mans.
demons
of avarice, the
who
Brahmans.
to put
One
up a chain
Faith, Consecration,
Sacrifice, Baksheesh."
this connection
means
where,
we
may
ask,
is
But what
ask
?
is
there in
we may
It is all
for a while.
else,
He
he
must
in
will balk.
Our
texts, exphcit
if
nothing
minds
as to the
way
i.
in
which
'
See the first book of the Katha Upanishad. Atharva-Veda 15. 16. \. ff. Gopatha Brahmana
;
1.39.
13
194
The
Religion of the
Veda
re-
arrangement.
is
We
have seen
that
Faith,
(^raddha,
ishta,
personified.
Now
name)
They,
reality,
and,
mark you,
to,
after
death as well.
sacrifices
During
life,
who
he adds
for the
does not
But
it
is
most part a
In a well-known funeral
is
hymn
addressed most
realistically
"
Do
thy
ishtdpilrta
thou join the Fathers, do thou join Yama, join (that which thou hast sacrificed and
"
!
(Rig-Veda
And
ment
the following
of
is
is
Know him
ye associated gods in
!
When he shall have arrived by the paths that lead to the gods, disclose
Rig-Veda
6. 28. 2.
"
195
to
his ishtdpilrta
(that
is,
accumulated through
priests
!
sacrifice
and
liberality
to
the
(Taittirlya
Samhita
5. 7. 7.
i.)
And
become famous
in
India
is
The
is
dise)
it is
22. 20.)
At a later time when the Hindus in their highest mood turn the ordinary gods into supernumeraries, when metempsychosis takes the place of a journey to heaven, when they have sloughed off priests, sacriThe fice fire, spoon, and ghee, all that is changed.
degraded Craddha or Faith
" Devotion," that
is,
is
replaced by Bhakti,
is
The
up
savings-bank of heaven,
in ever-
where
Yama
lasting feasts,
spirit.
196
The
Religion of the
Veda
One True
Being.
in
the
bosom
of the
Of
all
and baksheesh seem not to have been regarded by the poet priests as a sufificient guarantee that they
might securely count upon that
faith
which meant
so-called
" gift-praises,"
gdthd
'
ndracahsyah,
men."
In dithyrambic
language exorbitant
gifts
present day.
that
They
and
pollu-
resembles either
'
in
Cf. Ludwig, Der Rig-Veda, vol. iii., p. 1IA ff.; Bloomfield, The Atharva-Veda {Indo-Aryan Encyclopedia), p. 100.
197
Veda
its
the type
is
thoroughly Hindu
Rig- Veda
and
boundlessness.
is
To
begin
with, there
in
the
doubtless late
hymn
It is
consecrated to Dakshina, or
"Baksheesh."
takes, as
only a poetaster
who
it is
under-
he
i.
says, to
e.
Baksheesh,"
giving.
to
" Those that give dakshina dwell on high in the they that give horses dwell with the sun. heavens
;
They
and they
lives."
10. 107. 2.)
Veda
alone
the Veda.
do not mean
to dwell
upon them
beyond a
single example.
We may
remark, how-
it
was
as a rule imaginary
baksheesh
" Listen, ye folks, to this
shall
!
Six thousand and ninety cows did we get be sung (when we were) with Kauruma among the Rugamas
!
"
Kauruma
(Atharva-Veda
20.
127.
i,
3.)
198
The
Religion of the
Veda
way
of collecting cattle.
my
not
now
what, after
I
all
this,
the essence of
Rig-Vedic religion,
in
is
am
for
my
part
unready to answer
It
accordance with
poetry, or rather,
more
and
This
is
at first conceived
of
it
in
The
more
finished
art,
and
its
expression.
fervor
devoted
and
successful
utterance
in
hymns and
which are
the article
At
first
is
But
it
goes on being
it
grows into
To some
extent
we can
it
is.
test this
statement by
Veda
is
what
The
frank system of
199
good
gift
that,
surely,
is
ent
may
the
religion that
free
from
all
is
external considerations,
the
religion
from which
self,
safe-guarding
throw the
stone.
expressed times
without end.
the true ring.
It
me
it is
It is
by
rote.
God
in
after
and gets
They each
;
they
start the
Perhaps, as
the
ritual,
in
kathenotheism or henotheism, as
it.
Max
Midler called
It is
in service,
and un-
nice in
distinctions, leading to
in
an opportunist
monotheism
chanical.
less
Anyhow
in
it
is
No
the
hymns
gods
at times
grow
truly
200
The
Religion of the
theme.
it.
Veda
warm and
feel their
really carried
away by
But
is
no sentimental
rela-
mean
piety that
is
As
In India, as
we have
seen, the
gods have
in
is
mortal.
god Varuna
The poets
own unworthiness
or sinfulness in language
Varuna, however,
the Rig- Veda: he
in
has
no
on India's
relig-
ions.
If
which
it
never
201
Occasionally a start
is
made towards
;
a warmly
the singer
will
help him.
love
But there
no permanent,
clarified, unselfish
such as
lives
down
And we
have seen
that maniare trained
what
faith
is
in
the
fests itself in
works.
" master-singers."
trate
far into
likely to peneis
There
no
real
warmth
no
unsatisfied longing
in
its
own way.
in
Anything
joy
:
fection of the
later
it
is
in their
own
art
in
the exaltation of
composition.
The gods
se-
This
" Like
(a
cow) her
calf so
do the poets
i.
202
then
The
is
Religion of the
Veda
the state of
and
belief
lasting
in
religious
the
Rig- Veda:
ght-
the
beauty
and
fitness
of those
;
tering,
genuine
rapture
over
the
upon the
" inspired "
;
poet.
calls
The
his
poet
calls
himself
vipra,
is
Rig-Veda makes
and
namely
flattery
'
cajo-
is in it.
Soon both
promoting
in
hymns,
cosmic potencies.
And
so
we
finally
find at
the
summit
and impor-
We may
The
comyou
have
cite
hymns often
'
Rig- Veda
"
We
We
Here we
20;
The very
in its
first
hymn
stanza
Rishis
note
second
" Agni,
may
he conduct the
of the family of
gods hither
Kanva
sings
^:
olden times do
dress out
my
Or again
for
Indra,
thee a
new and
mind a
di-
In
more confident or
and
that, in their
mends
his "
forward
all
my
With
due
respect
amounts
good
novelty.
new hymns
are just as
charm
of
we have nothing like beginnings before us. The Rig- Veda is pretty nearly the final expression of its own type of composition. What comes later in the way of sacred poetry
thing
is
One
certain
Rig- Veda
Rig- Veda
8. 6.
ii
c/. 8.
44. 12
8. 76. 6.
8. 95. 5.
204
is
The
Religion of the
Veda
We
are face to
we
is
clarified polytheistic
gods, but
little
advanced beyond
we may
say, taking the fat with the lean, that the pride of
work
is
justified.
Of course we
of a later time,
the poet's
we expect perfectly even results. Anyhow own eyes the Rig-Vedic hymn is a thing ;1
war chariot.
" as
free
from
all
blemish," as grain
winnowed
in the
winnowing-basket,"
fice."
ghee
is
clarified for
is
the sacri-
The
in their
work, they
The
they
poems
are
lift
above their
too
human
interests, in so far as
own
art rather
than
whom
they
spend their
efforts.
Al-
bold
figures
of
205
speech,
They
is
may
"
May
evil
the gods
us
(that
is,
prayer)
furnish
"
!
from
!"
'
"
Sing
exhorts a poet of
is
or devotion,
so
"
lift
up
"
or:
"May
'
stable
Hymnal
beatification
of
*'
Ours
is
(Rig-Veda
'
3. 39. 2.)
Rig-Veda 10.66.
Ibid.,
I.
5.
Ibid.,
i.
37.
8. 32. 7.
^ ^
143. 7; 144. I.
7
Ibid., 4. 56. 2.
Ibid., 3. 12.
and
i.
173. 3.
2o6
The
hist
Relifrion of the
Veda
The
itself
step,
The
is
epithet
"Goddess"
is
freely
given
to
numerous
the
There
Goddess Devotion
" (Dhl)
Thought"
India,
And by
is
an almost comical
possible only in
personage
who might
in the
company
in the
of the other
gods
"
call
ye Agvins,
company
of
in
...
company
of
of the
human mind
The
in
of unusual importance.
its
expression,
word can
on.
is
itself
be god,
will
From
first
was
See Rig-Veda
3.
18.
4.
43.
7.
34. i
and 9
8.
27. 13.
207
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Here the original Greek for " Word " is Logos. This is not quite the same as
the the
we
meet again
in
its
finished expression
as
Brahma.
The Logos
it is
intellec-
alike
mind or heart
than
in its
mechanical manifestations.
is
We shall
see
farther
may
land.
in this
connection,
we
may
seemingly
not obscured by
all
its
mythological
Like almost
the
ideas
of
Hindus
this
when analysed
of other religions.
of
Hindu Theosophy.
Vedic records Place where the higher religion originated Priest philosophy at the The theosophic charade Specimens of the theosophic charade The riddle hymn of Dirghatamas Interreand theosophy On the lation between the supposed origin of theosophy with the royal caste Criticism of this view Transition from polytheism to theosophy Early scepticism Gotterdammerung Failure of God Varuna Monism, or the idea unity ^The creation hymn Translation and analysis of the creation hymn Attempts at monotheism Prajapati, the Lord of Creatures Vigvakarman, creator of the universe, and kindred conceptions Purusha, the world man Brihaspati, the Lord of Devotion Transcendental monotheistic conceptions:
Time when theosophy originated Metempsychosis and pessimism unknown in the
sacrifice sacrifice
ritualistic
"
"
of
of the
earlier
mono-
THE
of
really
The Beginnings
of
Veda
it
is
necessary to twist
It is a
;
many
of
question
each phase of
this question,
As
when higher
religious motives
appear,
would remind
my
The
about
mana
mud,
texts.
These
latter, as
are prose
Hebrew
Tal-
illustrative legend.
And
;
on to the
dead
ritual.
To
part of the
The Upanishads and theosophy are Veda neither Hindu behever nor west;
ern
critic
Now
the thought
all
of the
Upanishads has
clear
forerunners in
parts of
;
Vedic Hterature
'
in
the
See above,
14
p.
43.
2IO
The
it
Religion of the
Veda
Atharva-Veda
We
cannot expect
or the ninth,
the
soma
in
theosophy.
hymns addressed
:
gods at a
It
We
must beware
of too
fol-
one type
am
say
"
The
call it
sages
One Being
in
Agni,
Yama, Matarigvan."
This verse states that the great gods of the Veda
are but
One Being;
occurs in a
therefore
it
at
human
And
first
hymn
book
of that collection.'
is
Another statement
in
the
tenth book^
'
as
follows:
Some
of the Upanishads.
For instance,
lo. 8.
true,
fears
death
*
wise, ageless
46.
The Beginnings
of
than
it,
truly,
nothing whatever
Here
metre
their
are
two
statements in
in
two Brahmanical
hymns, composed
in
upon
is
unmistakable.
that there
is
They
herald
monism
they claim
it is
without
second,
later
Brahman-Atman
of
the
Vedanta philosophy.
to the gods, or
On
whether
be
hymn and
;
sacrifice
no pessimistic view of
life,
which
nodal points
That
this
phase
and to an economic
earliest
and
So we are led
ad-
speculation,
tentative
in
vanced
at the
hymns
of the Rig-Veda.
But
this
2 12
The
Relig-ion of the
Veda
really deter-
mine
its
Hindu
character.
Hinduism
in
of
we may call it, is marked off from all the rest human thought; without these, Hindu speculaall
It
seems to mark
into
the
Veda
two
priestly ritual
or the
varying
real distinc-
are
They do
not, at
any
involve
anything as
vital
as the presence or
to
its
cost
even
at the
The Beginnings
There
is
of
at this time
no centre of learning, no
no monastery, no university.
of the
With
the beginning
nected
There
is
no
We
was
carried
way
which
in
it
different sides
it
and
many
minds.
flitted
of
many
But,
believe,
we can
tell
pretty defi-
received
its
first
pros-
That, curiits
mock
put the
lid
aspiration.
The
rifices,
They
by kings or
class of
by the
214
The
Religion of the
Veda
smaller house-holders
who could
They had
in
them
of
festivals.'
A large
Now we
tribal
number
were present.
We have seen
all
Vedic Kings, or
Rajas, were
sacrifices
undertaken under
Both
in
Up-
the great
sacrificial
Brahmans who
solve for
Whenever
satisfaction,
answered to their
the midst of a
is
" I
King Janaka
Videha
to the great
theosopher Yajnavalkya, as the latter unfolds his marvellous scheme of salvation in the " Great Forest
Upanishad.*"*
'
Cf.
"
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
13. i\ff.
The Beginnings
of
kingdoms on such occasions, and kings became themselves glorious expounders of theosophic religion.
The beginnings
polytheistic
we have
and
preceded the
Upanishad.
Especially in
sacrifices of the
in
found
it
to
their
advantage to
sacrificial tech-
To
discussions in prose,
fulfil
this pur-
This we
is
may
call
such as
Brahmana
inter-
esting
form
by impressive
in
intellectual pyrotechnics.
question
is
literature
known
any other
religion,
its
advancement.
In other
re-
: :
2x6
The
Religion of the
Veda
is,
one of
It is
whom
:
two
know
their
parts to perfection.
At
"
Who,
who,
verily,
is
born
;
what, forsooth,
is
the
?
remedy
for cold
and what
is
The answer
"
quite alone
the
moon
is
born again
;
and again
is
Agni
(fire) is
the
'
remedy
for cold
the earth
The
priest
:
called
priest
called
Adhvaryu
like
is
;
what sea
is
is
there
"
what, verily,
is
earth
what
is
known
.?
The answer
"
Brahma
is
heaven
is
of the Munich Academy, 1875, p. Der Rig-Veda, vol. iii., p. 390 ff.;
tions
the
Americatt Oriental Society, vol. xv., p. 172. 1 Vajasaneyi Samhita 23. 9 and 10.
'
The Beginnings
;
of
(the god) Indra is higher than the unto the ocean earth the measure of the cow is (quite) unknown.
'
summit
;
of the earth
I
ask
heaven of speech." " This altar is the highest summit of the earth this this soma (the insacrifice is the navel of the universe
;
;
is
(God Indra
(that
is
?)
this
Brahman
It is interesting to
phenomena
when the
old
mind
at the
bottom
of nature-worship,
mental
line.
but
yet
The
all
Rig- Veda
(i.
164) contains a
hymn which
is
whose answers
are
not given.
'
There can be
text, 23.
little
The
same
47 and 48.
Ibid., 23. 61
and
62.
2
1
The
Religion of the
Veda
was the
sacrifice.
is,
sion
same
namely, the
The
per;
phenomena
of the universe
mythological, that
is,
psychological, that
;
pertaining to
human
or, finally,
crude
Heaven
;
the
the
;
human
voice, self-consciousfirst
and death
creature
are
such
for
all
the
Here
the suggestion,
symptomatic
future
Only Being
"
of
whom
"
noXlwv
ovojudroav
They
call
The
it
One Being
Matarifvan.
in
many ways
they call
Agni, Yama,
"
How
The Beginnings
importance,
of
we cannot say
all
that
we can say
is,
parted company.
Nor can we
it
the
Hindu
scintil-
to be, independently
from the
lations.
sacrifice
and
its
perverted scholastic
will
come.
But
it
is
religion started
around the
sacrifice,
by
calling out
sacrifice.
and Ajatacatru
at
an earlier time,
development of Hindu
religion
the
thirst
for
We
them got a
The beginnings
sacrifice
theosophy
and,
The Brahmans grew up to their patrons' we may add, to their own higher needs.
to offer these patrons
They began
something more
obla-
220
The
Religion of the
Veda
the long run their
And
in
satisfied,
rose
to
abandonment
The
question, next, as to
who
what
carried
on the
incidentally in
what has
just
been
said.
If
is
stated there
if
is
stated correctly,
we
shall not
go astray
we assume
in the ad-
that the
ceremonial
But
this
stated
more
number
not, as
insight
of the
Royal or Warrior
in
the early
literature of
>
part
2, pp.
ff.\
354^-; Garbe, Beitrdge zur Indischen Kulturgcschichte pp. 3 Winternitz, Geschichte der Indischen Litteratur, pp. iq6^.
,
"
The Beginnings
cate of this view. of
of
Garbe
;
not at
all
an admirer
Brahman
civilisation
on more
than
one ochis
casion has
he
poured out
the vials of
just
cruel-
that,
he believes
way from
summits where grows the higher thought of For centuries the Brahmans were engaged
definitions
ex-
ritualistic
hocus-pocus.
" lofty
sure,
lore,
To be
sacrificial
and
but the
spirit
is
no longer
surround the
sacrificial altar.
passionate desire
its
;
relation to
less
the
own
self
nothing
nay even
familiar.
part,
it
seems to me.
Having
in
222
Kumarila
The
of the
Relleion of the
Veda
fairly
at
would, for
my
part,
at
more
once
" in the
above statement.
all
at once, least
The evidence
shows
its
of India's
remarkably
important
continuous
records
that
every
As
and
regards theosophy,
beginnings
in the
hymns
its
middle
Upanishads
tems
its final
development
of later times.
am
somehow
American Indian.
and cruelty galore
Selfishness, foolish-
ness, bigotry,
left in their
behooves knaves.
The
older
Upani-
same language
and
Brahmana (Talmudic)
risen to the
"
lies
way
of
works
the
The Beginnings
salvation that
is
of
knowledge.
:
Brahman
Even
spiritual
tourneys, and
in the
GargI
Great
Forest-Upanishad
(3.
6 and
8), rise
to a subtler ap-
Brahman men
of the mystery of
The
been attracted to
their position
by the
in
Up-
the ultimate
of royal caste
philosophy was
the keeping of
men
and that these warriors imparted their knowledge to Brahmans. This is put in such a way that the Brahman,
" lays after
own
stock of theosophy
down
The
king
is
Once
or twice,
by claiming that the warrior caste are the thing, and that they alone in all the world are
Thus the extreme example of this kind is narrated in two Upanishads.' The Brahman ^vetaketu Aruni,
ignorant of the doctrine of transmigration,
is
com5. 3.
6. 2
Chandogya Upanishad
24
The
Religion of the
Veda
King Pravahana
pelled
Jaivali,
who
receives
to
become
his teacher.
Brahman
" Because, as thou hast told me, this doctrine ere this
and up to thy time has not been in vogue among the Brahmans, therefore in all the world sovereignty has remained in the hands of the warrior caste. As surely as we desire that thou and ail thy ancestors shall remain well-disposed towards us, so surely has to this day no Brahman ever possessed this knowledge."
I
doubt whether
this
As
regards
King Pravahana
the face of
it.
Jaivali's statement,
it is
specious on
essence the
for
more regard
its
purpose
release
Then
these
exploits
of
questionably Brahmanic.
selfishness of the
Would
preserve and
The
situation
is
somewhat
as follows
there never
The Beginnings
was a time
ia
of
India
castes,
were
Now,
as theoritual,
is
down on the
nothing at
all in it
and aspiring
This
is
men from
member
clerk caste.
4)
narrates
how Satyakama,
for
the
knowledge.
When
of
comes
down
In the
Mokshadharma
(Vanik) caste
the
man
Tuladhara, "
ness to the
Brahman
the the
Brahmans learned
in
Veda
the
Fifth International Congress of Orientalists, vol. ' 12. ^12. 2<^Qff. 261^.
15
p. 2.1^ ff.
226
The
I
Religion of the
Veda
of
Here,
think,
is
whom
The
liberal
Brahman authors
minded Brahmans
enough
as high-
and
to permit all
men
to participate in higher
in
in
religious activity, in
wisdom and
admiration
there was to
piety.
Nay,
such participa-
them something
carried
unexpected
it
in all this.
They were
away by
Europe works
versity.
his
way
to a professorship in a uni-
As
we
the
in
I
must not
all
blessings flowed.
Even
cleric
who
reads these
the highest
wisdom
in
ness that
really
If
Even
King Janaka
The
Beprinnintrs of
Yajnavalkya's
brilliant
exposition of theosophy by
repeated gifts of a thousand cows we may wonder who counted them, and what Yajnavalkya did with
them
as he
I
King Ajatacatru of
is,
will
ascetic,
Paramahansa
right
light
Ramakrishna,
'
throws
essentially
the
upon the
exceptional
:
"
Men
man who
is
perfection.
mankind there
tone
His
We may
intellec-
down
this statement,
:
and apply
it
to the present
question as follows
Not
all
Brahmans were
at
brilliant
Royal
and
am now come
my
task
is
Hindu theosophy
p. 127.
See
Max
Miiller,
p.
"^
See above,
219.
228
The
Religion of the
Veda
arose.
theosophy
of later times,
many
conceptions
like
lators or seers,
time.
The
air is
thought.
No
in
many
the
Hindu
No
many
edifices of
thought to be
the end.
They have
left
behind them
many
enough have
would
**
finished,
religious thinkers of
many another
habitations.
exacting,
have
cheerfully settled
upon
as
Reason
can-
not show
itself
to leave off
They would
it.
On
the
Remarkable
as this
may
sound,
we have
really
no
The Beginnings
of
Hindu thought
was wanting
in
which we
it
the highest
and most strenuous thought, from the time of the riddle-hymn of Dirghatamas and the creation-hymn,'
to the
of the
type of
To
The
old myth-
of the gods
is
They are not," and, doubtless, there growing number of those who begin to weaken
:
"
and
gifts to the
insists
The way
shows that
in
it
upon
Especially
who
is
a good deal
of a
Bombastes
brummagem
is
god, tricky,
have
his fling.
There
name
of
Ahalya
in
which he
husband
for
his
own
Veda.
Even
in
the Rig-Veda,
if
Rig-Veda
i.
2^o
The
Relieion of the
Veda
who mock
we
lines,
who
one with the he himself be true. Even though one or another says Indra is not, who ever
other,
if
'
is
loo 3.)
Or again
"The Nay
terrible
one of
whom
is
he?'
not at
all'.
He makes
enemy
is
like a
gambler
in
him
He, O
folks,
Indra."
2.
(Rig-Veda
12
5.)
Hence they
of
the
mythological person.
of the gods
this sense
The
is
becomes a thing
minor
interest.
in
In
polytheism
decadent even
It
the
hymns
of
in
of the
shows signs
The gods
turn
perform about the same feats of creating and upholding the world
:
expense of the
Rig-Veda
7. 6. 3
and
5. 2.
3.
10. 48. 7.
The Beginnings
agents.
of
Hindu Theosophy
we must not
forget,
231
The
gods, too,
have
One
thing
is
certain, in
They
are,
if
not ex-
position
and
treated
Every embodiment
or symbolic.
now
abstract
re-
The
side.
to settle
;
man,
the
fore,
little
cosmos
time
space
causality.
There-
gods through poetry, legend, and the art of reproduction remain in India a coarse-grained exercise
of second rate
power
and
call
up
for
in
Greek
It
is
literature
art.
great nature
god
We have seen
common
'.2,2
The
Relig^ion of the
Veda
and order of the
universe.
has a Hebraic
flavor.
By
the
and the
loftiest traits
Dagon.
And
of
comes
Varuna himself
?
in the
velopment
In the straight-lined
left,
illu
is
soriness of
really
no more room
for righteous
clay, unless
Varuna
is
The absence
is felt
Hindu thought.
It is
the cus-
tom
'
to speak rather glibly of " late " and " early " in
The Beginnings
of
we
fronted with
idea.
its
Some
more or
it
can be conceived at
It is a
no suspicion of foreign
Bold, because
is
it
will
but one
sick,
which exall
both
in
else
is illusion.
Whatever
else
we may say
of this con-
emanated from
the brain of
haps,
man
brain of man.
We have become
in
the
hymn
of Dirghatamas'
"
They
call it
Indra, Mitra,
The
it
many ways
Professor
they
call
Deussen,
in his
we come
164.46.
to the
famous
tat
tvain asi,
Rig-Veda
1.
i.,
part
i,
p.
106.
234
The
Relig-Ion of the
Veda
Chandogya Upanishad.
same Dirghatamas
;
hymn
for
instance in stanza 6:
" In ignorance do
I
Who
What
The
(10.129).
it
literature of religion
and philosophy.
sober
critic,
remarked anent
as poetry, were
unlimited praises
as philosophy
and
nauseating.'
twelve years
is
later, in 1894,
Deussen, who,
new
it is
more
"In
noble
philosophic vision
olden times."
And
again, "
No
do
'
justice to the
beauty
of the original.'"
think
cxi.
Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, vol. xi., p. History of Philosophy, vol. i., part i, pp. 119 and 126.
The
we may grant
Yet
it is
importance.
It
occurs in one of
;
it
brushes aside
mythology, and
it
it designates the fundamen" cause of the universe not by a name, but as " that
one thing
" {ekam).
But
let
my hearers
judge
for themselves:
FIRST STANZA.
"
Nor
being
was
was no
and where,
less
by what protected ?
"
The poet
as
in
the ordinary
there
?
What was
to
The
forward
a positive con-
SECOND STANZA.
" Neither death zuas there nor immortality ; there
Cf.
Chandogya Upanishad
6.
2.
2.
236
The
Religion of the
Veda
That
it
was
One
The poet
tively was.
is
what
;
posiexists
It
"
it
That One
it
(literally
"wind") which
is
physical and
It is difficult to
or even a
more
first
and
express a
One
"
is
furnished
with the anthropomorphic attribute of breath, because after all, in the long run, it must be decked out
in
some
sort of flesh
and blood.
The
third stanza
takes up
it
anew
THIRD STANZA.
"
Darkness there
zvas,
The
by the
that one
idea, frequently
According to
p. 240.
being be-
See below,
The Beginnings
of
is
assumed
itself
is
may
seem,
is
Anyhow
machma
as dei ex
after this
FOURTH STANZA.
"Desire arose in the beginning in That ;
first seed of mind.
it
was
the
root
of being
Desire,
"
Kama, the
equivalent of
live
;
Greek
it is
Epoo?
first
the
is
no
is
not preceded
by
life.
The second
more primordial
sages,
the
whose devotion
whence
at this stage
of the drama.
The
here defined as
of "non-being," contradicts,
is
denied
"
How
238
The Religion
of the
Veda
Chandogya Upanishad
terms
(6. 2. 2).
Moreover
it
ignores
its
The poet
in
here un;
sham-profundity
he had better
it
left
out
all
is
a term handled
is
of
deftness which
it.
the
inverse
ratio to their
fondness for
obscure, and
in
any case
unimportant.
Then
takes a wholly
new
philosophic scepticism.
This
quite unexpected in
had sprung
forth
it
ought
to,
aided by
its
own
go on to create the
world,
does anything
at all
SIXTH STANZA.
" W/io truly knowetJi ?
Who can here proclaim it ? whence cometh this creation ? On this side are t lie gods from its creating. " Who knowetli tJien fro7n whence it came to being?
Whence hither
born,
SEVENTH STANZA.
" This creation
from ivJience
itself,
it
came
to being,
Whether
it
made
or whether not
He He
zvho
is its
surely knoweth
The Beginnings
of
philosophy
its
is
to ac-
contents,
something which
is
mere individual
The
creation
hymn
without personality
does not
fall
far
behind the
It fails
where
all
philosophy
fails, in
bridging
no matter
in
a form.
We may
The Veda, as I have hinted before, contains an astonishing number of attempts to establish a supreme monotheistic being who is far
wards the same end.
easier to handle than the monistic "
That Only
"
;
responsibility.
We
have seen
divine action
makes
who
myth
upon
and
how
agent
who was
at
The
it.
' ;
240
to perform
Religion of the
Veda
production of
the sun
that
moves or stands
life.
these
in
some
Even
by the name
of Prajapati
Lord
of Creatures."
Various
earlier divinities of
more or
less abstract
and
specialistic
character,
of the sun,
of divine carpenter
product
it
goes as
far to realise
personal mono-
in India.
One hymn
;
he
it
is
is
him does
not, after
all,
differ
of the polytheistic
2. 12,
god Indra
as
may be
Some
hymn
are as
follows
Rig-Veda
I.
10. 121.
"A
golden germ arose in the beginning, Born he was the one lord of things existing, The earth and yonder sky he did establish What god shall we revere with our oblation ?
10. 121.
vol.
i.,
Rig-Veda
part i,p.
128^.
The Beginnings
2.
of
"Who
gives life's breath and is of strength the giver, At whose behest all gods do act obedient, Whose shadow is immortality and likewise death What god shall we revere with our oblation ?
3.
it
breathes and as
it
shuts
its
eyes.
we
4.
Whose are, they say, the sea and heavenly river, Whose arms are these directions of the space " What god shall we revere with our oblation ?
Not
until
betrayed his
Germ "
10.
'
one
and there
's
no other
!
Who
dost encompass
all
Whate'er we wish while offering thee oblations, May we be lords of riches May that be ours
!
"
!
It is easy to feel
God who
lords
lished
prerogatives.
As compared with
humanly
242
The
Religion of the
Veda
There
are,
as
we
many
fall
symbolic,
ritualistic,
by the way.
conceived as Vigvakarman,
;
of
the
universe"
highest
as Parameshthin, as
summit";
as
Svayambhu, "the
ing being";
Skambha, "Support";
as Dhatar,
others.
"Maker";
as Vidhatar,
"Arranger"; and
tion of
all
His head
is
is
is
cosmic giant,
Ymir
is
in
The
notion that
that, conis
man
is
and
widely
diffused.
10.
Here
some stanzas
of
Rig-
Veda
90
"
1.
The Purusha with thousand heads, With thousand eyes and thousand feet,
And
2.
Surrounds the earth on every side, goes ten digits yet beyond.
is
all this
world.
will be.
The world
that
The Beginnings
He
of
Hindu Theosophy
immortal world
243
even rules
th'
Which must
sustain itself
by food.
3.
"Thus
great
is
this his
majesty
Yet even beyond in strength he goes. A quarter of him all beings are. Three quarters are immortal beyond."
The most
cations
ritual,
is
"
Lord
He
presents him-
self at first as
We
remember a preceding
is in-
own
poetic devotions.
They go
so far as to
this
In Brihaspati
we have
a personification of prayer
in one.
:
and
religious
performance both
*
beautiful
has
it
"
When,
Brihas-
men
first
was disclosed
'
pure."
In another famous
hymn
and
Vac,
"
Holy Speech,"
is
and upholder
'
of the gods,
'^
See above,
p. 206.
10.
71.1
244
all
The
Religion of the
and
Veda
From
religious activity
its
attendant boons.
a later time
Weapon"
(Sena)
is
the wife of
Brihaspati at
of the
first is
more
and Soma,
demons and
stingy unbelievers.
do Hindu men
this
is
a familiar
a greater
still
future and a
abstract
more permanent
is
result in the
more
pres-
Brahma, which
absolute.
Of
For the
of the
Sun and
That hap;
moon's alternate
rise is his
work.
Like a blacksmith
perhaps at the time when " being " was born of " nonbeing."
More transcendental are the exploitations in the direction of monotheism of such conceptions
'
Society,
vol.
xlviii., p.
The Beginnings
as Kala, "
"
;
of
Hindu Theosophy
245
"
Breath of Life
";
more
and tentative.
The conception
we have met above as the first movement One after it had come into life its deification
;
The
is
never an
very pronounced.
it
will
final
occupy our
shaping of
of these
that of
"Time"
namely:
is
Praja-
an abstraction,
power
of
nature.
Now
this generative
power
revealed par-
By
I
easy associa-
tion Prajapati
is
This verily,
have created as
Therefore they
my
say,
Prajapati
is
Thus
the prose
Brahmana texts naively, yet closely, reason. And out of some such reasoning "Time" itself emerges as a monotheistic conception, in whose praise the
Atharva-Veda sings two hymns
'
"Time
The
mount him
'
all
54.
19. 53
and
Veda
also these earths.
be,
246
The
Religion of the
" Time begot yonder heaven, Time That which was and that which shall Time, spreads out." (Atharva-Veda
urged forth by
i
and
5.)
of
them more
grows mightily.
bearing of
That
is, if
we
inti-
man and
the
In so far as they
The
extrava-
one
all
and there
's
no other
Who
dost encompass
Whate'er we wish, while offering thee oblations, May we be lords of riches " May that be ours (Rig-Veda 10. 121. 10.)
!
All this
is
far
final
form of the
The Beginnings
higher religion.
its full
of
Hindu Theosophy
247
When Hindu
limbs
we
find
that
all its
movements
still
keep
on
differing
among themselves
considerably, to the
purpose.
Thfir
final
purpose
is
salvation; release
in
which death
link to link.
This salvation
own
with the
One True
Being.
This
M onis m
The
tion.
earlier
forms of monotheistic
and
monistic
speculation
I
show no
it
thought
mark
all
move-
How
came the
finally
248
ing
The
Religion of the
Veda
we have
sketched to-day
and how
be the
tained
that
will
lecture
on the
religion of the
Death and future life in paradise Early notions of Hell The idea of retribution Limit of reward for good deeds The notion of " death-anew, " or "re-death" How comes the belief in transmigration Hindu doctrine
of
method of transmigration karma, or spiritual evolution How transmigration and karma appear to Western minds The pessimist theory of life Cause of Hindu pessimism Pessimism and the perfect principle (Brahma) Salvation through realisation Dualistic pessimism The conception of the of one's own Brahmahood dtman, "breath," as life principle Atman, the soul Brahma, the spiritual essence of the of the Universe Universe Fusion of Atman and Brahma Maya, or the world an illusion The unknowableness of Brahma Emerson's poem on the Brahma The fulness of Brahma: a story of Yajnavalkya and his wife Maitreyi Transition from philosophy to piety Hindu asceticism Professor Huxley's critique of asceticism Pilgrim's progress under the religion of Brahma Investiture and disciplehood The life of the householder The Ultima life of the forest-dweller and wandering ascetic Thule.
transmigration
of
The
The doctrine
THE
and the
established with
them by means
249
250
praise
The
Religion of the
Veda
of
and nourishing
gifts,
are
a spirit very
simple.
The temper
life.
and future
There
is
Man would
have a share
come
is
to
them
man
their behalf.'
The
ally,
But
this
is
viewed, symbolic-
cooking
of joy.
it
is
called forthright
for that
other
life
Arms
necessi-
and
The
righteous fore-
they
Yam a,
Especially
He
a way for
all
his descendants.
He went
5. 55.
before and
Rig- Veda
i.
31. 7
91.
125. 5, 6
63. 2.
The
Veda
251
mortal man.
The Fathers
of old
have travelled
it,
and
this
in
There
the Goddess
light,
there
Yama
in
;
sits
under a tree
an everlasting bout
the
company
of the
after
death at Yama's
left all
call to
behold Varuna.
They
have
imperfections behind
to their true
home, the
rich
all alike
Yama
and the
gods the
is
Fitfully the
May we
On
way
to
Yama
broad-nosed,
;
myth
pilgrimage.
Soon we
Yama.
Think or do what
See above,
p. 105.
252 you
The
will,
Religion of the
Veda
The
prospect of
hell,
paradise
in
fitted
wall-paintings in the
Campo Santo
is
at Pisa.
From
Yama's
To
only they
may
aspire.
We
sacrificed
in highest
ian
them
in
.
bliss.
On
the other
who
did
sit
.
of blood
roll
O oppressor of
Brahmans, the
'
In
men who are being cut up and devoured by other men who also yell " So they have done to us in yonder world, so we do to them in return in
some
yelling
:
this world.""
at the
same time
Atharva-Veda
(j^atapatha
5.
19. 3.
and
13.
'
Brahmana
11. 16.
The
ical
Veda
253
consistency, as
all
of
life
after
What
if
should not
last
What
if,
instead of the
death again
ity
One
text
fancies a limited
immort alis,
which
lasts
the
man upon
after all
earth.
;
The
the
treasure of
good deeds
is
finite
day and
must
night, or, as
we should
say,
time
In
may exhaust
in
So we read
the Brahmana
There are
same
This
" death-anew," or
call
is
it,
is
not yet
is
As
long as
its
scene
locait is
by the ordinary
sacrifice,
^atapatha Brahmana
Taittirlya
lO. I. 5. 4.
' ^
254
The
is
Religion of the
Veda
But the
If
of that belief
transition
men
can die
in
se-
heaven there
is
in
the im;
too shadowy
It
it
was very
"
home and
men,
He who
so well understood
lo
and deaths
I
in
being.
am
reasoning, taken
by
itself, suffices
The
germs
possil sibly
from\\\
some
of the aboriginal,
non-Aryan
tribes s of India.
from folk
beliefs
and
practices,
aged to impart
to these
belief in transmigration
2 of the
'
iii.
Series
The
flares
it
Veda
255
up
in
many
We
hear of
it
has
wide vogue
is
to
come
to the
mind
of primitive
man.
It is
pure folk-lore.
man
the body.
even inanimate
Thirdly,
tions.
all
The
and
its
belief that
man
Life's breath
is
con-
it
at death.
When
Sec-
ondly, intercourse of the living with the dead continues in dreams and hallucinations.
This shows
all exist.
Primitive
man does
The
belief in
a. S.
1904.
256
The
Religion of the
Veda
is
based upon
breath and
some measure
Nomads,
and
sea-
fable
and
survives the
folk's
:
very real
see Rey-
nard the
Fox and
Bre'r Rabbit.
own
man
is
descended from
rise to
the
and economic
known
as
Totemism.
As
it
Hindu Law-Book
of
Manu
be drunk.'
The
tree
is
supposed to be
alive.
The
wind
in the leaves of
suggest
life in
As
own
246.
The
Veda
257
which pervade, or
seem
to pervade
all
selves to early
man
man
to
man, from
inevitably.
I will
The
full
in wejrfinal
In the
outcome
of
all
these notions
some
peoples, eager to
after death,
man
have
with
assumed
this
And
forward or backward.
in a certain
The
the
next existence.
This
last
bit
of
logic
has
karma
or " deed."
'
As
real
far as India is
is
certain
thought of India,
takably until
we come
to the Upanishads.
finally
When,
in
See below
^7
p. 259.
258
The
Religion of the
Veda
:
it
Every
and
living
is
some
life all
and
all
activity as
This
is
the
Hindu
nation of the
world; cessation
This of
until
Not
mor-
tal
man
We
Like
is
all
Vedic
not sys-
way through
on
in
conflicting beginnings.
The more
rigid conclusions
come
later
even
in the
trine
questions to be asked.
wander from
at
life
to
life
life
to
liable to reincarnation:
;
at
another as
at yet an-
human being
of various degrees
and
The
Veda
259
The celebrated Law-Book of Manu, at a time when this doctrine has become cut and dried, teaches that a Brahman priest who steals the substance which has been enanswer the second question
trusted to
him
gods
will in his
'
Why ?
living/
by
stealing food.
Briefly,
man
is
what he does.
now famous wherever men are interested in evolution of the human mind. Deed and the
or " desire," as the
the
will,
Hindus
call
it,
same
On
desirel
\
man's nature
deavors,
his
is
founded
as his
By
sum
the round
of existences
of his
regulated, for he
If his
is
himself the
own
deeds.
for
accumulated
next
life will
is evil,
him
conversely,
if
his life
character
char-
Manu
II. 25.
26o
The
Religion of the
Veda
Why
The answer
is
No
life
to release from
Aye, to
blossom so the
afar, saith
wafted
the
is
Chandogya Upanishad.'
a thing from
the
finite.
its
It
rewards
accord-
itself
be only
in
fi
nite
says Artabhaga
if,
Upanishad,"' "
speech goes into
man,
his
fire,
eye into
the sun, his mind into the moon, his ear into the directions of space, his
body
body
of his
head into
trees, his
what
man?"
Then spake
Yajnavalkya: "Take
me by
the hand,
my
dear!
And
:
And what
they said
was
'Verily, one
evil
through
>
5. 10. 9.
'
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
3. 2.
13.
"
The
Later
in
Veda
261
its
conse-
quences to man
"
Then
his
knowledge and
his
works
and
As
over to
new
blade), so
does this man, after he has put aside his body, draw
himself over to a
say:
so
is
new
existence.
'Man
is
his desire
his insight as
as
is
deed [karma);
his
deed so
his destiny.'
reader,
when he ponders
in
desire
the question
its
why
the
content with
in
outcome.
The
Brahmanism, as well
sects, is ex-
pended
to existence.
I
Why
is
this so ?
is
gauge him
aright,
garden of
will, desire,
fruits
its
and flowers
at the risk of
its
We want
[more
Here
some
of the points
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
first.
4. 4.
3; see also
Brahma Upanishad,
chapter the
262
The
Love
of
Relifjion of the
Veda
:
1.
life,
transmigration ensures
ever.
2.
some form
for ever
and
are laid.
The twin ghosts of fatalism and predestination Where will and deed, with character as their
every destiny, nothing
is
result, rule
accidental, no-
thing
is
pre-determined.
is
Man
himself, free
from
outside interference,
3.
own
destiny.
:
reward
Byron's despairing,
we have sinned
in
And
loses
this is Hell,"
its sting.
It is
mere
justice.
But
it
is
the
justice that
erringly, as
knows how
There
vice,
is
by calamity,
start
If
me my
that
?
heaven now,"
of fulfilment,
who knows
it
may
life
not be
fulfilled in
And
which
makes men
The
Veda
263
hand
in
hand
in all
higher forms of
Hindu
Pessimism,
end
positive
and profound,
all
becomes the ruling theory of Hindu life. With attractions, fascinations, and beauties of life,
felt
the
life is
the Hindu
salvation {nirvana).
Buddhism
later
on expresses
in its
Its first
Birth
;
is
age
is
is
suffering
is
disease
is
suffering
union
with what
not loved
is
suffering
separation from
all
what
life
is
is
loved
suffering.
The
2
conviction that
less distinctly in
),
futile is
expressed hardly
(3. 5.
the
woe and
and
children,
lumped
alike
attained.'
Anyhow,
all
the
Hindu systems of religion and philosophy " How many births are past, I cannot tell How many yet to come, no man can say
; :
But this alone I know, and know full well, That pain and grief embitter all the way." (South-Indian Folk-song, quoted in the Rev. Dr. John Moi'rison's
New
264
start
The
Religion of the
Veda
is full
of
suffering,
and that
it
is
to
account for
and to remove
We
life
must not
and
the gist of
human
is
when looked
in
at purely
not
redeemed
in
general advancement.
There
is
in
all
Hindu
in-
for
the race, no
along the
line.
Each
is
must attend to
his
own
uplifting that
is
to
conthis
demned
is
unmeasured terms.
Admitting that
;
to
Hindu worries
shine,
by
hope, sun-
The
How
did
Hindu pessimism
originate
believe that
may be made
India herself,
As
human
life
in
any
country
may be
its earners.
gaged
for a
wage
day out
of
which he
The
Veda
265
own
keep, and
is
India's nature
of
any other
civilised
The
at
per contra,
when the
rains
in its
wake, decimate
The
tribe of
venomous serpents
Our first acquaintance with the Aryan Hindus in the hymns of the Veda shows them to us a sturdy,
life-loving people
on the banks, or
in the region of
modern Punjab
try they
in
Northwestern India.
fresh
That coun-
had conquered,
By
successive con-
hinted at
texts
in a
'
Brahmana
the hottest
This
is
the
land of
shads,
Hindu
the
land
where
at Benares,
There
^atapatha Brahmana
i.
4.
i.
lo-iS.
266
The
Religion of the
Veda
face of the
in
if
anywhere on the
human
that
life
at its best
life is
Hindu
literature
But
this
an
indelible
subtle-
The mental
hypochondria,
melancholia,
dyspepsia
what we may
conquered
the conquering
more northerly and invigorating climate. Now it is time to remember once more
conception of the
it
that the
us
now
call
Brahma
had
of the
established
the theory
Even
mind
great
of
aside
man
evolve some
power
perfect
that
lish
to
own
is
satisfaction
some
sort
of
principle that
underneath
some kind
of association
all
principle.
So teach us
higher
The
religions
Veda
267
Without doubt
dently of pessimism.
taint the
force,
Hindu view
all,
all-
the root of
the
Perfect
Thing
of existence.
The theory
of the
Brahma and
The wandering
of the soul
As long
means
and
finite
separate from
Brahma in the
life
life.
Escape from
be
in this
we
test
it
Western mind.
in
evil that is
evil.
It is a
made
is
It
;
is
a pessimism that
avenues
the avenue of
evil,
because
it
it is evil
and
very
suggests by
its
268
The
Religion of the
Veda
Westerners have
evil.
We
way
world
fairly well.
are apt to
But when it becomes too bad we remember that the refuge is with the
Omnipotent Power.
cloud of
this the
That
is
a cloud
human existence. The Hindu mind turns other way the silvery sheen of Brahma has lining. The conception of this One True
;
all
visible things,
might
for the
Hindus.
A palpably posis,
sible
that
all
all
men
are micro-
for
some reason
If
by
that superb
individual
so,
then
human
Not
the
tion,
existence must
less
wholesomeness, no
They
lavish
of
upon
Brahma
all
imaginable
attributes
perfec-
by contrast
very sorry
affair.
The world
ceases to be a desirable
home
in
live,
sustained perhaps by
it
is
of
is
When
lifted
the
Brahma
which
is
above
grief
The
Veda
269
per-
application
is,
of
creatures
is
full of
hunger,
thirst, grief,
worry, old
age, decay,
and death.
yet one consequence to be drawn.
asked, as
it
There
question
is
The
is
must be
and
"
What
is
the cure
?
its
contents
How
The
per-
world?
answer
haps
it
How
is,
through knowledge.
Knowledge, or
intuition,
of
the
;
One
dis-
When
is
feeling,
"He
how
bodily life?
This
is
the solemn
tvam
asi, "
wise
becomes That {tad abhavat), because in truth he always was and is That {tad dsit).^ Thus the final
it is the attainment of man is this knowledge " works " of the Jew, and the " faith " of the
;
Christian
'
salvation
270
of
The
Religion of the
Veda
the
divine in
all
one's
that
is
self,
submergence of
It is
temporal and
time
I
now
that
we
which
propounded
How
did
spirit,
finally
or, as
we may
of the
finally
call
monistic pantheism?
One
religious
is
practically at
statement.
final
Yet they
of
are not
name
the
Universal
Even the
after
has attributes.
In the seething caldron of the earlier speculation
there occur yet two other conceptions which have
become pretty
of the Upanishads.
The
first
of these
is
the con-
The
Veda
271
first
" breath,"
is
and
As
far as
con-
cerned there
meaning
soul of
of
dtman?
with
or
The dtman
man
The
Veda abounds
human body,
the
little
cosmos, are
correlated
more or
less skilfully
An
important
is
thought of
this sort
is,
that the
human body
per-
vaded by
plural breaths,
and
Upan-
They bring
creatures."
Prajapati advises
body
it
loss affects
The
mind
de-
of Philology,
' ^
xvi., p. 421.
7. 87. 2
;
Rig- Veda
10. 168. 4.
90.
13
92. 13.
272
parted,
The
Religion of the
Veda
deal.
his tether, so
it
And
Hence
a text declares
"
From
is
the
dtman
all
all
the
members spring
come
into existence.
Of
the
things that
dtman
first."
The dtmans,
coming from a
or
self,
or ego.
A
:
Brahmana
text declares
;
man
the universal
Ten dtman
" in
the eleventh
all
him."
the
That
self
is,
supreme place
is
own
trans-
ferred
outside of man.
at the
all
The dtman,
is
beings
all
finally the
dtman
all
is
the
all.
the refinement of
it
outcome,
certainly has
use.
The
final
in
dtman another
The
Veda
273
Even
"
Goddess
and kindred
its
Hindu
religion to
We
symbohc "Lord
of the poets
and
mould
of a personal
god.
He
false starts
towards
personal monotheism
sacrifice, is felt to
be a kind of
uplift-
The
sacred
word
is
brahma.
utterance
its
highest longings.
'
"Professor Oldenberg
meaning
does
it
brahma.
regards " zauberfluidum " as the original But does " magic essence " really explain, and
Anyway it seems to me ? sympathy with what may be called ethnological explanations of religious phenomena, that is the theory that such phenomena must necessarily begin somewhere in the lowest bathos of savage folk belief, is leading him on a trail farther than that trodden by this word.
not itself stand in need of explanation
that this distinguished scholar's present
74
The
Religion of the
Veda
for a while
minded and
universe.
becomes
The conception
*'
is
intellectually not as
subtle and
conception of
which
comes
divine
entirely
conception of gentile
folk.
Such
is
tJie
brahma, used
culine
tion
is
after a
renewed personifica"
trinity,
(^iva
is
brahma. Through
in
spiritual
They
is
synonyms.
Still
there
outer world
in the
dtman,
life
**
Self," as the
same
principle
inner
of
man.
The
and
moves on
to
some
The
final
Veda
275
development
itself in
this
eternal
power
is
identical
imperishable
accidental
external and
is
This conviction
asi,
em-
balmed
art
in
That,"
brahma
asini,
" I
"Thou am the
Brahma."
thought
;
of higher religious
we
see in space, as
we
ideally
assume
it
phenomena,
mere shadows
the
Now we
which shows us a manifold variegated world where in truth there is only brahma, and a body where there
is in
that
that
is
mere ignorance,
distraction, or illusion.
The things that are unfolded before our eyes in space, those things to which we ourselves belong with our
ponderable bodies, are not true
'
entities,
Catholic mystic, Johannes Scheffler, called Angelas Silesius (born 1624), arrives at the same end in a stanza of his collection of
The
poems
called Cherubinischer
Wandersmann
wie ich so klein
Er
ist
Er
iiber
mich nicht
sein."
276
the dtinan.
The
Religion of the
Veda
As long
is
as this
is
avidyd
more
and
Or they
mdyd "
is
illusion."
so far as
it
must
some
reality in
Brahma,
no more
real
moon
is,
of nescience or illusion
it
whatever
is
temporary
is
not
real.
time-less, space-less,
of this
phenomenal world
Their m3^thology
is
This
idealistic
Plato's to ovtoo^
or
th.Q eiis
are
all
phenomena
to explain that
aye there
and
is it
's
the rub.
full of
irrational quantities
why does
some
it
exist,
not
show a
The
Veda
277
uniting principle
of suggestion the
Hindu
the
will
delusion.
The mani-
down
than religion.
works
dt-
man
is
mere
figure of speech,
the dtman
nition
is
Every
defi-
necessarily stopped
iicti).
)No "
{ita
\nirgund).
Yea,
mood, advancing
d enie^ the
p ossibility of knowing Brahma altoget her. Tremendous paradox this, considering all depends upon the
intuition of this very conception.
In a conversation
no consciousness
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
2. 4.
12 ff.
278
The
Religion of the
Veda
" But
if
Atman
should
should
"
?
is,
by means
what and
he then see
By means
of
what and
whom whom
is
no cognition nor
in
But the
sombre theme
which
is
may
be
English language:
slays.
he
Or if the slain think he is slain. They know not well the subtle ways
I keep,
and
pass,
Far and forgot to me is near, Shadow and sunlight are the same,
The vanished gods to me appear. And one to me are shame and fame.
They reckon
ill
who
leave
me
out
When me
I
they
fly I
am
the wings
am the doubter and the doubt. And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.
strong gods pine for
The
my abode
;
!
And
But thou meek lover of the good Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.
The
Veda
279
man who
real.
with the
Whence
are
we born
?
whither do we go
ye
Hve,
tell
and
us at
whose command we abide here, whether in pain or in pleasure ? Should Time, or nature, or necessity, or
chance, or the elements be considered as the cause, or
he who
is
is,
the
Supreme
Spirit
The Upanishads answer for practical purposes The Supreme Spirit that is alike in the universe and in man that is the essence of all. It is Being,
:
there
is,
or seems to be,
is
and man,
of the
Atman.
as
This
is
'
little story,
follows
Yajnavalkya had two wives, Maitreyi and Katyayani. Of these two Maitreyi knew how to discourse about the
'
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
2.
4 and
4. 5.
28o
The
Religion of the
Veda
knew only what
Yajnavalkya
to that of
women
Now
of householder
" I
shall
now
retire
from the
goods between thee and KatyayanI." Then spake " If, O lord, this whole earth with all its wealth belonged to me, would I then become immortal, or not ? " " By no means," replies Yajnavalkya. " Only like the life of the rich would thy life be wealth does
Maitreyi
:
my
the expectation of immortality." Then replied Maitreyi " That through which I do not become
it
:
me ? Expound to me Then Yajnavalkya: "Truly dear to us, beloved lady, and now
is
that to
Well then,
I
I shall
expound
say
because of their own value, but because of the dtman, their true essence. Wife, husband, sons, wealth the high
;
stations of priest
and warrior
sacrifice are
own
essence.
things
when
the
Truly he that hath seen, heard, recognised, and understood the dtmaii he knows the whole world."
'
We may
'
intend to expound to his beloved Maitreyi the exCf. Rdmakrishna, His Life
and
The
Veda
281
In effect he
all
At
Upanishads
an
The
is,
after
all,
By knowledge they
and perceive
disits
Intelligence
by devotion {bhakti) they feel the sweetthe Supreme Being and reciprocate its loving
So the Bhagavadglta, the
"
Song of the
Celes-
can finally
pious
truth,
make the Supreme Being say of the man: "Through love he recognises me in
greatness and
It
my
my
essence.
He
that loves
me
we
is
not lost."
comes
is
know-
ledge of the
call
Supreme
love of God.
modern
:
Bengali
Ramakrishna
"
The
Knowledge
the Love of
God may be likened to a man, while God is like a woman. Knowledge has
woman
282
The
Religion of the
Veda
same thinker
:
of the Almighty."
'
And
finally the
"
Knowledge
and love
of
God
There
is
pure love."
result.
We
to
To a religion which strives with all its might know the truth, truth's sister, love, does not long
remain a stranger.
Yajnavalkya, as we have seen, abandons his wives
and
goes to
"
live
in
the forest.
Such
" Forestin
Hermits
{vko^ioi) must
Buddha
criti-
ascetic
and practices
and
life
of true
emancipation.
all
He
himself
in-
advocates moderation in
cluded.
things, salvation
He
prefers the
"middle
of the road," as
j
via, or
madJiyama-
About 300
B.C. a clever
B.c).
Chandra-
gupta
called
had
,
The
of the
Veda
283
largest
empire known
up to that time
called Indica
He
tells
that
man
that
;
all
dreamlike illusion
has created
it
pervades
is
completely.
Considering
Upanishads.
He
full
sent one
lie
naked upon
finally initiated
Hindu
Huxley
in his
(p.
Hindu
but for
risk of
the
abandonment
property, social
family
284
affections,
The
and
Religion of the
Veda
remains of a
common companionship, until all that man is the impassive attenuated menfor
foretastes
of
in
Professor
Huxley has
Yogin
who confounds hocus-pocus and humbug with religion. As a matter of fact the Upanishad religion
is
and equally as a
life
after
new order
of life
which the
India.
we may say that henceforth India leads a double life. The first is the life of every day. The fragile human creature enters through the mother's womb, where it has been protected by the pious
In fact prayers and ceremonies of
its
only
knew
it,
ence entitles
shelter of a
Worse
Birth
He who
has not
The
done
Veda
;
285
so, alas, is
;
born again as
worm
or as fly
as fish
or as fowl
man
or as something else
any
old thing as
we
might say
according
knowledge, that
of
is
in
karma}
Thanks
secure
human
mother's body
more enduring
like
if
rejoices
Father
of the
Home
Life, the
piloted through
Indeed the
life
of the Brahmanical
Hindu
im-
sacramental throughout.
life
of his
has
its
own
sacraments.
The most
This
'
investiture
is
looked
2.
upon
as
a spiritual
Kaushitaki Upanishad
i.
"^
See above,
p. 41.
86
The
Relicrion of the
Veda
httle
The
mortal
becomes a man
in a
by
of his
regarded as even
matter
lives
how
rich
and powerful
his
him
in
the village,
own
famous
it
brief stanza
which
at
an early
theosophy that
of cause
is
to come,
by placing
and
in
the relation
and
spiritual essences
of the universe
" "^hat lovely glory of Savitar,
The
teacher, according
Upanishad
ii),
Rig- Veda
10
The
injunction
:
Veda
287
neglect the
study
of
the
Veda
After having
that
off
Do not
!
negof
the Veda!
your father
Honor Honor your mother as a god Honor your teacher as a god as a god
! !
as a
god
;
Live an irreproachable
give alms in true spirit
When
tried authority
Then he
duties are
life
stage of full-grown
His great
the
now worship and sacrifice to the gods, and begetting of sons. The latter are of great imManes
or Fathers
still
who,
carrying on a
happy
in
between
transmigrations
for their
we must
suppose.
lives.
This as reward
It is at
we may suppose
all
The
curtain
now drops on
the scene of
temporal
It is a
religions of other
The
Religion of the
Veda
offices.
Hav-
young Brahman
having taught
him how
tected
to
;
live
life
and having
finally
gained
heavenly
is
home
?
of the blessed
Fathers
what more
needed
religion
which
possible,
in all
that the
True
in
man
is
is
in fact
One True
the
Universe.
There
this
we
our-
The
cemented by every
The Hindu
(literally,
"hermitages")
the investiture.
seen, are
in
the
life
of
man
two
stages, as
come
and Wandering^Ascetic.
simply
lives in the forest,
But
in
all
worldly
The
Interest
is
Veda
289
abandoned, every
sundered.
passion
is
There
no
fixed abode, he
lives as it
all
the braJima.
This
with
it
out of
The
soul
knowing
at last that
it
is
captive through
illusion.
transmigration to the
is
world,
namely
This
man
him
is
the
dtman, or brahma.
The
that
is
needed;
INDEX
A Kemp is,
Alexander
Aborigines of India, 24, 175 Abstract gods, 96, 109, 131, 135, 191, 242
Thomas, 281
the
Great,
18,
282
Altar, three altars, 161
Amesha
Afoka or
213, 216
Piyadassi,
Bud-
Spentas, "Holy Immortals," 133 ff. Anfa, 130 Andra, 176. See Indra Angiras, semi-divine priests,
144. 163
Aprl-hymns,
Arati, 191
78,
79
Aranyaka Texts,
"God
92,
"Demon
no, 127, 156 ff., 244; son of Ushas (Dawn), 73, 160; his descent from heaven (lightning), 165; produced by friction, 139,
progenitor of men (Ayu), 139, 158; servant of the gods, 162; and his brothers, story of, 162
158;
Arrested anthropomorphism,
85. 93. 165
Arta.
Aryaman,
Aryan. See Indo-Iranian Aryans, Indian, geographical _ provenience of, 23 Arya Samaj, a reform association, 9
Agni
Jatavedas
("Omni-
scient"), 164, 189 Ahalya, story of, 229 Aham brahma asmi, "I the Brahma, " 275
Asceticism,
criticised
by
Pro-
am
See
Asura Airyama,
Ascetic wanderer, 288 Asha. See Rta Asura = Ahura, 133 Atharvangirasah, "blessings
129.
^^^Aryaman
/f.
and
Atharva-Veda,
A'^ff-1
Akbar, Emperor, 52
291
292
Atman,
87,
Index
"Supreme
270
//.,
211,
Brahmanas,
Texts, 4S
pati
or
ff-,
:
Brahmana
Brahma and cf. Breath Atmospheric Gods, 92 Aurengzeb, Emperor, 52 Avesta and Veda, mutual
relations _ 118
of,
Brahmanical philosophies,
51,
2, 2
108, 229
of,
13,
15,
24,
Brahmanism, extent
criticised,
221; contrasted
Brahma
reform
of
11
B
Babylonian influence on Aryan religion, 133, 135 Baksheesh, 6g jf., 71, 190
ff.,
Brahma-Veda,
name
or
Atharva-Veda, 40
Brahmodya,
Brahma-
Atman
Brihaspati," Lord of Prayer," 243. 273 Buddha, 213, 219, 282; date of, 18; his sphere of activity,
235,
268
2, 3,
Buddhism,
108
Bhagavadgita, 201, 281 Bhakti, " devotion," 195, 281. Cf. Devotion
Bhrigu, a sage, 252 Bhrigvangirasah, name of Atharva-Veda, 40 Bimbisara, a Buddhist, 219 Brahma, the ultimate prin87, 118, 211, 232, 248, 260; meaning of the word, 205, 273; final shaping of, 273; without attributes, 277; pessimistic
ciple,
Pollux
10, 113
(Polu-
myth
234,
105
ff.
Chandogya-Upanishad,
238, 260
conception
erson's
Cf.
of,
261
ff.;
Ein-
poem
Chandragupta. gupta
See Candra-
Atman
Index
Children of "Father Sky,"
1
293
10, 112
upon
mythology,
82
108,
Devotional (creative) fervor, 237 Dhatar, "Maker," 242 Dhena, "Holy Song," wife of Brihaspati, 244
Diespiter, Jupiter, Dioscuri. See Apvins
Comparative Mythology,
no
167; criticism of, 100 ff. Conflicting prayers and sacrifices, 185
See Rta Counsel of perfection, 126 Creation hymn, 229, 234 ff. Creative fervor, 237 Qrotriyas, or "Oral Traditionalists,
"Cosmic order."
"21
Dreams and
255
^vetaketu Aruni, 223 Cvetafvatara Upanishad, 279 Cyavana the Bhargava, story
of,
Dyaus, Dyaush Pitar, "Father Sky, " 66, 92, 95, 139, 148, 152 ff.
no,
46
D a k s h a,
Dakshina,
a god, 130
"Baksheesh,"
Ushas,
Economic
278
name
71.
of
Dawn,
and
See Baksheesh
"gift-praises,"
Ddna-stuti, 196
system
of,
Darius
I.
to
European word
for gods,
237 Deucalion, myth of, 138 Deussen, Paul, Professor, 56, 233. 234 Devotion, 195, 202 ff., 281; personified, 206, 273; contrasted with Faith, 193. Cf. Prayer.
Faith, conception of, 109, personified, 189; 186 ff.\ faith and works, 190, 269; related to truth and wisdom, 1S8; reward of, postponed to heaven, 193 " Family-books" of Rig- Veda
27, 79, 210 Father God, 138 Fathers in heaven, 250, 251,
287
"
;;
294
Festivals, public
Index
and
tribal,
H
Haridrumata, a teacher, 225 Heaven and Earth. See Dyaus Helena,
sister
214
Fetish, 256/7. Fire, emblem of Brahmanism, 189; production of, 139,
158.
Cf.
Agni
of
Dioscuri,
Henotheism
Heracles
(Kathenothethree-headed
and
;
Geryon
Hercules and
149, 249
ff.
ff.
theoso210,
Garutmant
218
sun)
compared, 83
life and institutions intensely religious, 3, 4 Holiness, conception of, 109 Hopkins, E. W., Professor, 23. 155 Horse-sacrifice, 213, 216
Hindu
Gdthd ndrdgansyah, "praises of men, " 196 Ghee, food of the gods, 63,
161 "Gift-praises," 196 Girdle, sacred, 188
' '
House-Books
cism,
'
'
(Grihyasu285
of,
87, 91; chronology of, 90, 93 relative importance of, relative clear89, 90, 93 ness of their origin, 93-96;
; ;
Hymns,
75. 203
quality
of,
daily order of their appearance, 90 ff. character of, 184 ff.; glory of, 199 Gospel of John, beginning of, 206 Graeco-Parthian rulers of In;
dia, 14
Books"
Ignorance, or "nescience," 276 Illusion (mayd), 276, 288 Images, absence of in Veda. 89 India and Persia, historical contact between, 14, 118 India, land of religions, 2 geographical isolation of, 1 1 her nature, climate, etc., 85, 265
;
Index
Indian and Persian religions contrasted, 118
India's exploration, future of, 22 India's religion, continuity of, 10 Indo-European period, 100; of religion, 16, 108 Indo-Iranian period, 100; of
religion, 13, 118
295
205
Western
261 ff. Katyayam, wife of Yajnavalkya, 277 Kennings, 162 Kings, interested in theosof,
estimate
Indo-Parthian Kingdoms, 14
Indra, 78,
89, 92, 94, 130, 131, 147, 157, 177, 186, 187, 217, 244; cause of scepticism, 174, 229
ophy, 214, 219, 220, 223, 227 Kronos, 84 Kuhn, Adalbert, 102, 108 Kumarila, a philosopher, 222,
227
Indra and Agni, 78 Indra and Varuna, 78 Indra-Vritra myth, explanations of, 178, 179 Indus, a river, 23, 265 Initiation of a young Brahman, 188 Investiture of a young Brahman, 285 " sacrifice and Ishtapurta, baksheesh," 194 ff., 252. See Baksheesh
of
156 Logos, or "Word" (divine), 207, 273 Lost cattle, Lithuanian poem about, 172
M
Macdonell, A. A., Professor,
131 Maitreyi,
Jabala,
Jajali,
of
Satya-
225 Janaka, king of Videha, 214, 219, 226, 227 "Omniscient," Jatavedas, name of Agni, 164, 189 Jaundice, charm against, 42 Juggernaut, car of, 9
Jupiter, Jyotishtoma-sacrifice, 77
Yajna149
Man, origin
Manicheism, 85 Mannus, son of Tuisto, 140 Manu, Manush Pitar, " Father
of,
256,
no
Martanda, 130
Maruts, 92 "Master-singers," 201, 202 Matarigvan, 165, 210, 218 Maurya dynasty, 18, 283 Aldyd, "Illusion," 276, 288 Megasthenes, Greek author.
K
Kala, 245
"Time,"
personified, personified,
Kama, "Love,"
237. 245
"
296
Index
Metempsychosis. See Transmigration belonging to Metres, 24; different hours of the day,
80; to individual gods, 80 Mithraism, 85 Mitra (Persian Mithra, MiI2Q, thras), 92, 120 ff., 132 ff-, 153. 210, 218 Moderation in asceticism, 282, 284 Mohammedanism in India, 10, 52 ff.
O
Odhin, a Norse god, 155 Oldenberg, H., Professor, 133 ff-, 273 Onesikritos, a Greek, 283
72,
Opaque
Oupnekhat,
Mokshamulara,
Sanskrit
Pairs of gods, 78
name
210,
of
Max
Miiller, 53
Monism, idea
218,
Pantheism, ism
242.
See Mon-
See Pantheism
Pantheon
Moon
114
138,
and
172
"Sun-Maiden,"
of,
marriage
ff.,
114
star,
of the Veda, 78, 88 ffParajara, a Rishi, 225 Paradise, 250, 287; solar, 169 ff.
"Mother Earth,"
148
95,
110,
birds,
Parameshthin,
"He who
oc-
Mountains as winged
legend of, 48 Muir, Dr. John, 154
Muller,
Max, 53, 71, 102, 164, 199 Mystics, Christian, 275, 281 Mythology, 29; in its relation 103. to Ethnology, Cf.
Indo-Iranian,
cupies the highest place, 242 Parjanya, God of Thunder, 92, III, 178, 181 "Parliament of Religions," in Chicago, 9 Parsis in India, 10, 14, 118 Patrons of sacrifice, 193 ff., 215; of theosophy, 219
and Indo-
Perkunas, Lithuanian
God
of
European
Thunder,
1 1 1
115
N
Naciketas, a theosopher, 192, 223 Na neti, "no, no, "277
Nature myth,
148,
29,
81,
108,
;
Persian and Hindu religion contrasted, 118 Persian names in arta, 12 Pessimism, 3, 4, 212, 263; its origin, 264; its final fixation, 267 Philosophy, its relation to practical life, 10. See The-
1^2
ff.;
nature phein
nomena
in legends, 48
riddles, 217
Index
"Lord of CreaPrajapati, tures," 236, 240, 245, 246, 271 Prana, "Breath of Life," personified, 245 Pravahana Jaivali, a royal theosopher, 224 Prayer beatified and deified,
205, 243. Cf. Devotion Prayer of the gods, 205 Prehistoric gods, 90, 96, 99 ^. Priests, various kinds of, 80,
297
218
Royal
227
caste,
its
upon theosophy,
Rta
(asha,
;
arta),
"cosmic
order," 120, 121, 125 ff., 232 date of the conception, 12, 19, 135 Rudra, 92
216
Sacraments
Hindus,
Sacrifice,
4,
in
daily
life
of
33,
285
of,
philosophy
46 Purusha, "cosmic
of,
215
Sacrifice post, 67, 79 Sacrificers, origin of, 138 Sages as creators, 237 Salvation, 5, 211, 247, 263, 269, 289
man," and supreme spirit, 242, 279 Pushan, 92, 170, 171
R
Raja
Rammohun
Sama-Veda, 25
Roy, a
re-
inusic,
of,
former, 8, 53 Rdjasuya, "coronation" of a king, 213 Ramakrishna, a saint and ascetic, 227, 229, 281 Rehgion, science of, 151
Religious liberty, 8, 19; 53 Renan, Ernest, 85 Retribution, 252, 262
manism, 38 Sandrakottos, Sandrokyptos (Candragupta), 18, 282 Sankhya philosophy, 2 Saranyu, mother of the A5Satyakama, son
a
225
Saule,
vins, 91, 113, 141 of
ff.
low-caste
Lettish 115 ff.
Jabala, theosopher,
theosophic, 210, 215 ff., 218 Rig- Veda, 17, 25 ff.; geography of, 23 language of, 26; character of, 29; er;
en,"
"Sun-MaidSee "Sun-
Maiden"
Savarna, wife of Vivasvant,
142 Savitar, 74, 86, 91, 92, 240. See next Savitri, or Gayatri stanza, 86, See 202, 273, 286. preceding Scepticism, 174, 181, 229; philosophic, 238
roneous view of
its
authors
and redaction, 61 ff.; qualof ity its hymns, 63 utilitarian and ritual character
of, 31, 67, 75, 182; religious essence of, 198^.
See Veda
298
Schcfflcr,
tic,
Index
Johannes, a mys-
Symbolic gods,
135, 191, 242
275
Schopenhauer
and
Upan-<
200
Temples, absence
of,
89
Terrestrial gods, 92
Soma
Skambha, "Support," 242 (haoma), plant, and liquor pressed from it, 77,
78, 120, 122, 138, 143, 145, 147, 175; its function in Vedic religion, 65, 147; in Avestan religion, 147;
Theosophy,
beginnings of, 208, 215, 219; time of its appearance, 209 ff., 221;
place where it originated, 212 ff.; its authors, 219, 227: chronology of, 233 Thor (Donar), 1 11 Thrita and Athwya, 146
92,
172;
as
Thugs, sect of, 9 Thunder, god of, iii, 148 "Time," "Father Time,"
personified, 245
"Sons
of
God," Lithuanian
1
myth
of,
10,
114
Stages of life, four, 4, 288 Stobhas of the Sama-Veda, 37 Sun, universal worship of, 104; progenitor of man, 139, 141; as shepherd and
finder of lost objects, 172^. See Savitar, and Surya
105,
fj.,
"Sun-Maiden,
115
ff-^
172
Surya (Helios)
Surya.
86, 87, 92, 112, 153, 154, 172 " Set? Sun-Maiden "
230
Index
299
of,
u
Uddalaka Aruni, a theosopher, 221 See Monism Unity, idea of. Universe, threefold division of, 91, 169 Upanishads, 2, 52 ff., 209, 215, 222, 257 ff., 274, 287; discovery of, 52; critical estimate of, 57, 58; Hindu estimate of, 57; influence of, on Western philosophy,
55; relation of to ritual, 35, 209 Uranos, 84; identical with
'
ginnings
24; character
of its literature, 25, 65, 76, 80; its composers, 27, 28, 61 its metres, 24, 80; mode of acquiring it in school, See Rig-Veda 188, 286.
;
113
Vifvakarman,
" Fabricator of
66
no,
ff., ff.,
78, 90
ff.,
251
Vac, Vac Sarasvati, "Holy Speech," personified, 191, 243 Vajafravasa, a zealous Brah-
universe, " 242 Vidhatar, "Arranger," 242 Vishnu, 92, 168 ff.. 195 Vivasvant (Vivanhvant), father of Yama and Manu, 120, 139, 141 ff., 146 Vivekananda, Svami, a religious reformer, 9, 225, 229 Vrishakapayi, 91 Vritra, a demon, 1"]$ ff. Vritrahan (Verethraghna, Vahagn), epithet of Indra, 176
man, 192
Vala and the cows, myth
180
of,
W
Wagner, Richard,
59, 156
Varuna,
128
200,
ff.,
94, 119, 121, 153, 162, 167, 174, 250; identical with
92,
136; collapse of, 232 Vasishthas, a family of Vedic authors, 28, 123, 186 Vata, and Vayu, "Wind,"
personified, 181
;
Uranos,
Warrior caste, its relation to theosophy, 219, 220 ff. Whitney, William D., 18, 234
Woman's
incantation against
Women
279
rival, 43
as theosophers, 233,
87,
92,
155,
Veda, 17 ff.; date of, 18, 209; canon of, 17 oral tradition
21; unhistorical character of its tradition, 20, 23; date of its manuliterary bescripts, 21
of,
;
Yajnavalkya, a theosopher,
227, 287, 284, 290 Yajur-Veda, 25^., 31 ff.,i2y
214, 261,
221, 277,
223, 279,
300
Yama, king
hell,
Index
of paradise and 105, 140, 144, 145, 162, 210, 250, 251
Zarathushtra
(Zoroaster),
Yama and
pair,
Yami, the
first
Yaska, author of Nirukta, 90 Yima, Yima Khshaeta, 143. See Yaina Ymir, cosmic man in the Edda, 242
"Yodels"
in
Sama-Veda, 37
118 Zeus, Zeus Pater, 83, 95, no, See Dyaus 152. Zeus Bagaios, 109 Zoroastrian angels (Amesha Spentas), 133 ff. Zoroastrian (Parsi) religion, II, IT,, 118 ff.
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