LIBRARY OF PRINCETON MAR 1 6 2004 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 1 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS WHAT LIGHT DOES IT THROW ON THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGION ? BY MAURICE PHILLIPS LONDON MISSION, MADRAS "The religious instinct should be honoured even in dark and confused mysteries " — Schelling LONDON LONGMANS. GREEN AND CO. AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET 1895 {All rights reserved] LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PREFACE. This book is intended to answer two questions, viz., (i) what is the fundamental teaching of the Vedas ? and (2) what light does that teaching throw on the origin and development of Religion ? There is no book in the English language giving a popular, succinct, and yet an adequate, account of the teaching of the Vedas, the oldest records of the Aryan nations. It is hoped, therefore, that this will supply a want long felt alike bv missionaries, ministers, and all interested in the religious history of our fellow-subjects in India. When I began my missionary career among the Hindus, thirty-three years ago, I felt keenly that, in order to be an efficient worker, a knowledge of the religious and speculative thought of the people was absolutely necessary. But there was no book avail- able that could furnish me with such knowledge. I had to gather it little by little ; at first from the works of learned specialists, and afterwards from the study of the Vedas, by the aid of pundits. The results are embodied in this volume. The study of Comparative Religion, which has been popular on the Continent for some years, is IV PREFACE. now attracting attention in England. It is im- portant, therefore, to point out the bearing of Vedic teaching on the profoundly interesting subject of the Origin and Development of Religion in general. I have endeavoured to do so in this volume : but should mv conclusions in that respect be deemed erroneous by some, the value of the book, as an ex- position of Vedic doctrines, will not be diminished in the least. And should it stimulate others, who possess learning and leisure, to study the subject more thoroughly, and expose what may be deemed untenable, none will rejoice more than myself. I must caution the general reader against conclud- ing that the doctrines of the Vedas, as shown in this book, constitute what is known as Hinduism, or the religion of India to-day. Hinduism is a mixture of corrupt Vedic doctrines and pre-Aryan cults. Its authoritative guides are the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Puranas, the Law Books and the Philosophical Treatises. But, to understand its con- stituent elements, a knowledge of Vedic doctrines is indispensable. Should life and health continue, I hope, in a subsequent volume, to treat Hinduism on the same plan as I have treated Vedism, when it will become apparent that it is far more irrational and immoral than the religion of the Aryans in the far off Vedic age. I have no new theory, either about the literature PREFACE. V of the Vedas, or about the aboriginal home of the Aryans. Hence the first chapter is little more than a compilation, — chiefly from the works of Professor Max Miiller, whose opinions I accept in preference to those of others. Maurice Phillips. 28 Albert Road, London, N., 1st Nov., 1894. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE LITERATURE OF THE VEDAS. (i) The Sanhitas ; or, the Collections of the Vedas (2) The Authors of the Vedas .... (3) The Age of the Vedas , (4) The Language of the Vedas (5) The Vedas Orally Transmitted . (6) The General Character of Vedic Literature PAGE 1 5 14 19 21 26 CHAPTER II. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. (1) The Number of the Gods . (2) The Nature of the Gods (3) The Origin of the Vedic Concept God 29 83 CHAPTER III. THE COSMOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. (1) Vedic Cosmology not one Connected Narrative (2) Creation the Work of an Intelligent Being (3) Creation out of Nothing ..... (4) Creation from Pre-existing Matter (5) Creation a Phenomenal Emanation from the Deity I 12 113 II 4 122 *3 2 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. (i) The Origin and Dignity of Man . (2) The Consciousness of Sin ...... (3) Personal Immortality ....... (4) The Origin and Growth of Caste . PAGE I36 157 171 CHAPTER V. THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. (1) Prayer and Praise (2) Sacrifice (3) The Sacrificers (4) The Origin of Sacrifice (5) Meditation and Asceticism (6) Retrospect and Conclusion Index .... 188 190 212 217 226 230 233 CHAPTER I. THE LITERATURE OF THE VEDAS. " Non-Christian Bibles are all developments in the wrong direction. They all begin with some flashes of true light and end in darkness." — Sir Monier Williams. ^ i. The Sanhitds ; or the Collections of the Vedas. The Hindus divide their literature into two classes : (i) Sruti, '-what they have heard with their ears," or Revelation ; and (2) Smriti, " what their fathers trans- mitted to them,'' or Tradition. The former includes the Vedas, and the latter all other books based on the authority of the Vedas. 1 This distinction between 1 Smriti comprehends all post-Vedic literature under four heads : 1. The six Vedangas, viz. : (1) Siksha, the science of pronunciation; (2) Chandas, metre; (3) Vyakarana, grammar; (4) Nirukta, explanation of Vedic words ; (5) Jyotisha, astro- nomy ; and (6) Kalpa, ceremonial, including Srauta-Sutras, rules for applying the Mantras and Brahmanas to Vedic sacri- fices ; Grya-Sutras, rules relating to domestic rights ; Samaya- Charika-Sutras. rules relating to conventional usages: the last two are called Smarta-Sutras. /2) The Darsanas, systems of philosophy. 3. The Dharma-Sutras, law books such as Manu. 1 2 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. Revelation and Tradition was made after the ascendancy of the Brahmans as a caste, and prior to the schism of Buddha. The word Veda is derived from the Sanscrit vid or vtdht to know, and is the same word as appears in the Greek ei'Sw, Latin video, and the English wit. This word is used by the Hindus to denote four collec- tions [sanhitds) of sacred books, called respectively, the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda ; of these the Rig-Veda is by far the most complete and interesting. "This," as Professor Max M filler says, " is the Veda par excellence, containing the real theogony of the Hindus." It is divided (i) into ten mandalas (books), containing 1017 metrical hymns (suktas), arranged according to their authors and the gods to whom they are addressed ; and (2) into eight ashtakas (eights) nearly equal in length, each of which is subdivided into as many adhyayas (lectures), and each of these again into about thirty-three vargas (sections), usually containing five verses. The Yajur-Veda consists principally of prayers and invocations applicable to the consecration of the utensils and materials of sacrificial worship. It has about half the number of hymns found in the Rig-Veda, but its contents are not entirely taken from the Rig, and it often combines prose with poetry. It is divided into two Yajnavalkva, and others, which are supposed to have grown out of the Smarta-Sutras. 4. The Itihasas, viz. : the two epic poems, the Mahabarata and Ramayana; the eighteen Puranas, or ancient legendary lore ; and the Tantras. THE LITERATURE OF THE VEDAS. 3 parts : the white (sukla) and the black {krishmd) ; the former is attributed to the sage Yajnavalkya and the latter to Tittiri. The S ama-Ved a 8 which is only about half the size of the Yajur, is a collection of separate texts, taken almost entirely from the Rig, to be chanted at particular parts of the sacrifice. "In the Rig- Veda we find the entire hymns. In the first part of the Sama-Veda we find only isolated verses of those hymns, dislocated from their natural connection, though in the second part the extracts are connected and of greater length." ] Hence Max Miiller says, " These two Vedas, the Yajur- Veda and the Sama-Veda, were, in truth, what they are called in the Kaushitaki-brahmana, the attendants of the Rig- Veda ". - The hymns of the Atharva-Veda are nearly as numerous as those of the Rig ; but, with the exception of a few of the later hymns of the Rig, it has little in common with the other three Vedas, which are used for performing the prescribed sacrifices ; whereas the Atharva teaches chiefly how to appease, to bless, to curse, and to rectify what has been wrongly done in the act of sacrifice. A sixth part of its contents is in prose, and about one-sixth of its hymns are found in the Rig. Its language and style indicate a later age ; :: and it is not mentioned by many 1 Muir's Sans. Texts, pt. ii., p. 203. 2 Hist. A 11c. Sans. Lit., p. 457. :{ Professor Whitney remarks, " The greater portion of them (the hymns) are plainly shown, both by their language and internal character, to be of much later date than the 4 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. ancient writers in connection with the other three. 1 It was probably employed at first in the ritual of a different worship. Each Veda is divided into Mantras and Brahmanas. The Mantras are a collection of hymns in which the praises of the gods are sung and their blessings invoked. The Brahmanas are treatises written in prose for the use of the Brahmans, and contain both the liturgical institutes, in which the ceremonial application of the hymns is prescribed, and the Aranyakas and Upanishads, or the general contents of the other historic Veda (the Rig), and even than its tenth book, with which they yet stand nearly connected in import and origin. The condition of the text also in those passages found likewise in the Rig, points as distinctly to a more recent period as that of their collection '" (Muir's Sans. Texts, pt. ii., p. 201). 1 It is not mentioned in the ninth verse of the Purusha- Sukta (R.-V, x., 90) ; neither is it mentioned in the following passages in the Khandogya-Upanishad : " Prajapati brooded (or meditated upon) the worlds ; and from them, so brooded, he drew forth their essences : Fire from the earth, Air from the atmosphere, the Sun from the sky. He brooded on these three deities, and from them, so brooded, he drew forth their essences : Rig-texts from Fire, Yajush-texts from Air, and Sama- texts from the Sun. He brooded on this triple science, and from it, so brooded, he drew forth its essences : the particle Blnlh from the Rig-texts; Bhuvah from the Yajush-texts ; Sicar from the Sama-texts. Manu, i., 23, repeats the account given in the Khandogya-Upanishad, omitting the fourth Veda (Muir's Sans. Texts, pt. ii., p. 200). It is, however, mentioned as a Veda in another passage of the same UpanisJiad, and also in the Satapatha-Rrahmana " (Max Miiller, Hist. Anc. Sans. Lit., pp. 122 and 38). THE LITERATURE OF THE VEDAS. 5 theological disquisitions, in which the spiritual aspirations gradually developed in the minds of the more devout of the Indian sages, find expression. It is evident, there- fore, that the hymns are the original and the most essen- tial portions of the Vedas ; that the Brahmanas rose out of the hymns, and are subservient to their employment for the purpose of worship ; while the Upanishads give expression to speculative ideas of a spiritual and mystical character, which, though discernible in some of the hymns and in the older Brahmanas, are much further developed and systematised in these later treatises. § 2. The Authors of the Vedas. It has been the prevalent belief in India for centuries that the Vedas came not from man, but from God. And though the Hymns are ascribed to various Kishis, or saints, whose names they bear, yet the Hindus have maintained for ages, and continue to maintain, that the Rishis were only " Seers," who intuitively saw them, or vehicles through which they were com- municated by divine power. Hence many conflicting theories of inspiration have been propounded, and many contradictory schemes for proving the divine origin of the Vedas have been set forth. According to the Satapatha-Brahmana, and the Khandogya-Upanishad, Prajapati by brooding over the three elements, fire, air and the sun, produced from them respectively, the Rig-. Yajur-, and Sama-Vedas. The same origin is ascribed to them by the lawgiver Manu, who doubtless borrowed the idea from the Brahmanas. He says that Brahma, 6 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. " for the performance of sacrifice, milked out from fire, from air, and from the sun, the triple eternal Veda, distinguished as Rig, Yajur, and Sama ". In the Vishnu and Bhagavata-Puranas, we are told that the Vedas were created by the four-faced Brahma from his several mouths ; while in the Mahabharata their origin is ascribed to the goddess of wisdom, Sarasvati, who is denominated the "mother of the Vedas". The Brihad-aranyaka-Upanishad describes them as the breath of Brahma ; and the Hari- Vamsa declares that they were produced from the Gayatri, the holiest verse in the Vedas. According to the ninth verse of the Purusha-Sukta of the Rig-Veda, the first three Vedas were derived from the mystical victim Purusha. " From that universal sacrifice were produced the hymns called Rig, and Saman, the metres and the Yajush." And according to the Atharva-Veda both the Rig and the Yajush sprang from time. Most of the philosophers argue with much ingenuity in favour of the superhuman origin of the Vedas ; while a few go so far as to deny to them any origin, and strenuously maintain that they have always existed. These conflicting accounts of the origin of the Vedas clearly show that the belief in a Book-Revelation is deeply rooted in the religious consciousness of the Hindus. Strange to say, however, there is but little in the hymns themselves to warrant such a belief. "The Rishis," as an ancient Hindu author remarks, "desiring various objects, hastened to the gods with metrical prayers.' 1 They represent themselves and their forefathers — for they distinguish between ancient and modern Rishis THE LITERATURE OE THE VEt>AS. 7 and between old and new hymns — as the "makers," "fabri- cators' and "generators' of the hymns. "These your ancient exploits, O Asvins, our fathers have declared ! Let us who are strong in bold men, making a hymn for you, O bountiful gods ! utter our offering of praise." 1 " Seeking heaven, the Kusikas have made a hymn to thee, O Indra ! " a " Thus have we made a prayer for Indra, the productive, the vigorous, as the Bhrigus made a car."* " An acceptable and honorific hymn has been uttered to Indra by Brihaduktha, maker of prayers." 4 "Thus, O hero, hath Gritsamada, desiring succour, fashioned for thee a hymn, as men make roads." 5 "To this great hero, vigorous, energetic, the adorable, unshaken thunderer, I have with my mouth fabricated copious and pleasing prayers, which had never before existed." 8 " Agni, do thou thrive through this our prayer, which we make according to our ability, according to our knowledge ; do thou, therefore, lead us to opulence, and endow us with right understanding, securing food." 7 "This hymn, Asvins, we have made for you ; we have fabricated it as the Bhrigus constructed a car ; we have decorated it as a bride for her husband, continuing the series of our praises like an unbroken line of descendants." " Indra, the wise Rishis, both ancient and modern, have generated prayers." 9 " Ayasya, friend of all men, celebrating 1 K.-V., i., 117, 25. - Ibid., iii., 30, 20. 3 Ibid., iv., 16, 20. 4 Ibid., x., 54, 6. 5 Ibid., ii., 19, 8. (i Ibid., vi., 32, 1. 7 Ibid., i., 31, 18. 8 Ibid., x., 39, 14. ! ' Ibid., vii., 2, 29. 8 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. Indra, hath generated the fourth song of praise." 1 " From the sacred ceremony I send forth a prayer issuing from my mind." 2 But though the ancient Rishis know nothing of the artificial theories ot inspiration which have been ela- borated in later times, and though they generally represent themselves or their ancestors as the authors of the hymns, yet it must not be overlooked that they were not altogether unconscious of higher influences. Some of them seem to have had a vague idea that thev were inspired by the gods, and hence speak of their prayers as "-divine utterances," "hymns generated by the gods". One speaks of his prayer as "god- given' (devadattam)} Another says, "From no other but you (O Indra and Agni !) do I derive intelligence" ; and another, "O Indra! gladden me; decree life for me; sharpen my intellect, like the edge of an iron instrument. Whatever I, longing for thee, now utter, do thou accept; give me divine protection."' 1 Gotama prays, " Approach and listen to our prayers, Maghavan ; since thou hast inspired us with true speech, thou art solicited with it ". '"' And Vak, the goddess of speech, says, " By sacrifice they followed the path of Vak ; they found her residing in the Rishis".' 1 "Indra and Varuna, I have seen through devotion, that which ye formerly gave to the Rishis, wisdom, understanding of speech, sacred lore, 1 R.-V., x., 67, 1. 2 i\j\d., viii., 13, 26. :t Ibid., iii., 37, 4 ; iv., 11,3. 4 Ibid., vi., 47, 10. ■ Ibid., i., 1, 82, 1. 6 Ibid., x., 71, 3. THE LITERATURE OF THE VEDAS. O, and all the places which the sages created when per- forming sacrifice" 1 "May Varuna grant me wisdom, may Agni and Prajapati confer on me sapience ; may Indra and Vayu vouchsafe me knowledge ; may provi- dence give me understanding ; be this oblation happily offered,"-' "We meditate that excellent glory of the divine Savitri, or sun ; may he stimulate our under- standing."* This last is the celebrated Gdyatri, which for more than 3000 years has been the daily prayer of every Brahman, and is still repeated by millions of pious worshippers. It is evident from these passages that the ancient Rishis were conscious of higher influences, of divine help : and this is not to be wondered at ; for it is only a manifestation of that deep-felt dependence on some superior power, or powers, which man everywhere has experienced more or less, and probably in no part of the world more than in India. This, however, is very different from the theories of inspiration now held by Hindus respecting the utterances of the Rishis, or by Christians respecting the subject-matter of the Bible. This was only an excitement, or a conscious exhilaration, similar to that experienced by the poets of Greece and 1 Valakhlya of the Rig-Veda. 2 Yajur-Veda, as quoted by Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays, p. 32. 3 Tat Savitur varenyam hhargho devasya dhimahi dhiyo yo nah pracodayat (R.-V., iii., 62, 10). 10 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. Rome 1 when invoking the Muses to assist them in the composition of their songs ; but it was probably the germ from which the present doctrine of inspiration grew. The authors of the Veclas were from the Kshatriya or kingly, as well as from the Brahman or priestly, class. Visvamitra, one of the seven great Rishis, 2 and the author of the Gayatri ; Jamadagni, the reputed father of the A vdtara (incarnation) Parasurama ; Devapi, Madhuch- chandas, Trasadasyu, Mandhatar, Sibi, Vasumanas, Pratardana, and others, were of the kingly class. A few of the hymns of the Rig-Veda are ascribed even to females, real or imaginary, as Sraddha, the daughter of Kama; and Vak, the daughter of Ambhrina. Visvavara, a daughter of Atri, not only composed the twenty-eighth hymn of the fifth Mandala of the Rig- Veda, but dis- charged the duties of a priest, worshipping the gods at dawn with praises and oblations. Rishis and priests married the daughters of kings; such 1 EcnreTe vvv juot, Moixrai 'OXv/xnia Sco/iut e^ovaai, Yfiels yap 6(ai ecrre ndpecrTe re i'crre re navTa, Hpels de kX^os oiov aKOvapev uvde ti Idpev- " Tell to me now, O ye Muses, who dwell in Olympian mansions, Ye who are goddesses present, and knowing all things which befall men, Things of which we may hear rumours, but never get accurate knowledge" (Iliad, ii., 484). "Musa mihi causas memora," etc. (Azii., i., 11). 2 According to Wilson's Vishnu Pur ana, p. 264, the seven great Rishis were — Vasistha, Kasyapa, Atri, Jamadagni, Gaut- ama, Visvamitra and Bharadvaja. THE LITERATURE OF THE VEDAS. II as Chyavana who married Sukanya, the daughter of Saryata ; and Jamadagni who married Renuka, the daughter of Renu. The great Rishi Kakshivan married the ten daughters of Raja Svanaya, the son of Bhavayavya, with whom he had a large dowry which he thus celebrates : " From which generous prince soliciting (my acceptance), I, Kakshivan, unhesitatingly accepted one hundred necklets, one hundred vigorous steeds, and one thousand bulls, whereby he has spread his imperishable fame through heaven. Ten chariots, drawn by bay steeds and carrying my wives, stood near me, given by Svanaya ; and sixty thousand cows followed. Forty bay horses, harnessed to the chariots, lead the pro- cession in front of one thousand followers." 1 The hard and fast lines of caste were unknown in those days, and women occupied a very much higher position than they do at present. The Rishis, like the ancient Druids, were poets and priests. They stood between the people and the gods. They appeased the latter with offerings, and encouraged the former with songs in all conflicts with their enemies. They were in no sense ascetics, or Sanyasis, living a peculiarly holy life in the jungles, apart from wife, children, and the good things of this life, as is now gener- ally supposed by Hindus. But they were men the burden of whose songs was temporal blessings — health, long life, offspring, riches, cattle, food, rain and victory. One Rishi acknowledges the substantial gift of one hundred steeds, and sixty thousand herds of pure cattle, made to 1 R.-V., i., 126, 2, 3, 4. 12 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. him by a Raja, and prays the "immortal deity" that his wealth may be permanent. 1 Another prays, " Be willing to grant us abundant food with cattle, (to grant us) protection, progeny and vigour. May that herd of swift horses which formerly shone among the people of Nahusha (be granted), Indra, to us." 2 In the same strain Vatsa, the son of Kanva, addresses the Asvins, ik Delighters of many, abounding in wealth, bestowers of riches, Asvins, sustainers of all, approve of this mine adoration. Grant us, Asvins, all riches that may not bring us shame ; make us the begetters of progeny in due season ; subject us not to reproach. Give, Nasat- yas, food of many kinds dripping with butter to him, the Rishi Vatsa, who has magnified you both with hymns. Give, Asvins, invigorating food dripping with butter to him who praises you, the lords of liberality, to obtain happiness, who desires affluence. Confounders of the malignant, partakers of many (oblations), come to this our adoration, render us prosperous, O heroes, give these good things of earth to our desires."" Another Rishi prays, " Grant us abundant treasures. Grant the opulence which many crave, store of heroes, pro- geny, and high renown. Agni, most youthful of the gods, send evermore the gift of wealth." 4 And another boastfully says, " Earning two hundred cows and two cars with mares, the gift of Sudas, grandson of Devavat, and son of Pijavana, I walk about as a priest does round a 1 R.-V., viii.j 4, 19, 20. - Ibid., viii., 6, z$, 24. :i Ibid., viii., 8, 12, 17. i Ibid., viii., 24, 27, 28. THE LITERATURE OF THE VEDAS. I J house offering praises. The four robust, richly capari- soned, brown horses of Sudas, the son of Pijavana, standing on the earth, carry me, son to son, onward to renown in perpetuity." * Rishi Sobhari extols the liberality of the Raja Trasadasyu, who had given him fifty brides ; and Syava, the lord of kine, who had given him a present of seventy-three cows. 2 And Rishi Nodhas prays, " Grant us, O Maruts, durable riches attended by posterity, and — mortifying to our enemies — (riches) reckoned bv hundreds and thousands, and ever increas- ing. May they who have acquired wealth by pious acts come hither, quickly, in the morning." 8 In R.-V., i\\, 32, 17, 21, the worshipper asks Indra to give him a thousand yoked horses, a thousand jars of soma, hundreds of thousands of cows ; acknowledges that he had received ten golden jars, and urges the god not to be sparing but to bestow abundantly in conformity with his character for liberality. The Rishis were on most familiar terms with the gods, and occasionally administered a gentle rebuke to them for their apparent niggardliness to their votaries. One says, " If, Indra, I were as thou art, sole lord over wealth, then should my eulogist be possessed of cattle. Lord of might, I would give to that intelligent worshipper that which I should wish to give if I were the possessor of cattle. 1 ' And another says, " If, Agni, thou wert a mortal and I an immortal, I should not abandon thee to 1 R.-V., vii., 18, 22, 23. - Ibid., viii.. 19, 36, 7. :; Ibid., i.. 64, 15. 14 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. malediction or to wretchedness ; my worshipper should not be miserable or distressed". "If I were thou, and thou wert I, then thy wishes should be fulfilled." l In the fifty-fifth hymn of the seventh Mandala of the Rig-Veda, the holy sage Vasishtha is represented as having entered the house of Varuna by night, in order to steal grain to appease his hunger after a fast of three days, and, when assailed by the watch-dog, as having uttered a prayer or incantation to make it sleep, and so having given a direct encouragement to theft. And Rishi Ajigarta, the son of Suyavasa, for one hundred cows, sold his son Sunasepha to be sacrificed. Max Muller says, " In the Rig-Veda we find hymns which the Brahmans themselves allow to be the composi- tions of the son of a slave. Kavasha Ailusha is the author of several hymns in the tenth book of the Rig- Veda ; yet this same Kavasha was expelled from the sacrifice as an impostor and as the son of a slave (dasyah- putra), and he was re-admitted only because the gods had shown him special favour. This is acknowledged by the Brahmanas of the Aitareyins and Kaushitakins, and in the Mahabharata also Kavasha is called a Nishada, or out-caste." - § 3. The Age of the Vedas. The age of the Vedas can only be approximately ascertained. The Hindus have no history and no 1 R.-V., viii., 19, 25; viii., 44. 3. '-' Max Miiller's Hist. Anc. Sans. Lit., pp. 58, 9. THE LITERATURE OF THE VEDAS. 15 authentic chronology. Life to them has always been a dream; an illusion. "Their struggles were struggles of thought ; their past the problem of creation ; their future the problem of existence. The present alone, which is the real and living solution of the problems of the past and future, seems never to have attracted their thoughts or to have called out their energies." Hence they have no political history like the Egyptians, the Jews, the Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans : and no certain date in the wide range of their literature, except what is imported from Greek history. We learn from Greek writers that in the time of Alexander the Great and his successors there was a powerful king of the Prasii, Sandracottus or Sandrocyptus by name, whose capital was Palibothra, on the confluence of the Ganges, and the Erannaboas, or Sone, which is probably the same as the modern Patna. He contracted an alliance with Seleucus Nicator, and Megasthenes visited his court several times in the capacity of an ambassador. This Sandracottus of the Greeks is identified with the Hindu king Chandragupta, the usurper of the throne of the Nandas, and the founder of the Maurya dynasty at Pataliputra. He is supposed to have reigned from B.C. 315 to 291. He was the grandfather of Asoka, under whose authority Buddhism became the State religion of India, in the middle of the third century. Under the preceding dynasty, that of the Nandas, Brahmanical traditions place a number of distinguished scholars, whose treatises on the Vedas are still extant ; such as, Saunaka, Asvalayana, Katyayana, Panini, and l6 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. others. Katyayana is the author of two Anukramanis, or general indexes — one to the Rig-Veda, and the other to the white Yajur-Veda. He is also the author of certain works called " Sutras ". " Sutra ' means " string/' and all works written in this style are nothing but strings of short sentences containing the essence of Brahmanical lore expressed in the most concise form possible, and thus forming a great contrast to the tedious prolixity of the Brahmanas. The Sutra style of composition was so universally prevalent in India at one time as to mark a definite literary era, called the " Sutra period". Accord- ing to Hindu traditions Katyayana was contemporary with King Nanda and his successor, Yogananda, at Pataliputra, immediately before the usurpation of Chan- dragupta. He was preceded by Asvalayana and his teacher Saunaka, whose works he studied. He also corrected and completed the grammar of Panini. Max Muller, in his History of Ancient Sanscrit Literature, says, "If we place Katyayana in the second half of the fourth century B.C.; Asvalayana, the predecessor of Katyayana, about 350; and Saunaka, the teacher of Asvalayana, about 400; and if then, considering the writers of Sutras anterior to Saunaka and posterior to Katyayana, we extend the limits of the Sutra period of literature from 600 to 200 B.C., we are still able to say that there is no fact in history or literature that would interfere with such an arrangement "} All dates, however, previous to Chan- dragupta are merely hypothetical. 1 Hist. Anc. Sans. Lit., pp. 244, 5. THE LITERATURE OF THE VEDAS. 1J The Brahmanas are intermediate between the Sutras and the Mantras. As the Sutras presuppose the Brah- manas, so the Brahmanas presuppose the Mantras. There are old and new Brahmanas, and there are long lists in the Brahmanas of teachers, who handed down old Brahmanas, or who composed new ones. The interval between the composition of the latest Brahmana and the commencement of the Sutra period was so great as to enable the Brahmans to raise the Brahmanas to the dignity of sruti, or Revelation, and so to place them on the same footing as the Mantras. When these facts are considered, it is concluded that 200 years, at least, were necessary for the production of the Brahmanas, or from about 800 to 600 B.C. But before a single line of the Brahmanas could have been composed, the four collections of hvmns, as we now possess them, must have been completed, and the four classes of priests, for whose guidance the Brahmanas were composed, must have been formed. That a long time must have elapsed between the completion of the Sanhitas of the hymns and the composition of the Brahmanas, is evident from the fact that the authors of the Brahmanas often fail to understand the meaning of the hymns. For example, in the spontaneous poetry of the Rishis, the sun is called the " golden-handed " (hiranyahastali) ; 1 but the authors of the Brahmanas, unable to understand the poetical meaning of this epithet, to explain it have invented a story that the 1 R.-v., i., 35, 10. 2 / I.S THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. sun, having lost one hand, received a golden one. Again, in a beautiful hymn of the Rig-Veda, whose refrain is "Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ? ' {Kasmaidevaya havisha vidheuui), the authors of the Brahmanas, unable to enter into the spirit of the hymn and the yearning of the poet to know the true God, thought that the interrogative pronoun " hi" or "who," must be the God addressed, and that wherever the interrogative " ka" occurs, it is the same as Prajapati, the "lord of creatures 1 '. In like manner the name Indra, the Jupiter Pluvius of India, is fanci- fully derived from idamdra, "it seeing". Then there are ancient and modern hymns, hymns of the fathers, and hymns of the sons. Max Muller calls the former Chhandas, and the latter Mantras, and assigns a period of two hundred years to each. The age of the Vedic writings according to Muller — from whose works most of the particulars in this section have been taken — will then be as follows : — Sutra period from B.C. 200 to 600. Brahmana ,, ,, 600 to 800. Mantra ,, ,, 800 to 1000. Chhandas ,, ,, 1000 to 1200. Professors Wilson, Whitney, and M. Barth regard Muller's limits for the "Mantra" and "Chhandas" periods as too narrow ; and Dr. Haug, a high authority, considers the Vedic period to extend from B.C. 1200 to B.C. 2000, and the very oldest hymns (Muller's Chhandas) to have been composed b.c 2400. THE LITERATURE OF THE VEDAS. I') § 4. The Language of the Vedas. The Vedas were composed in the Sanscrit language, which means the sacred or the polished tongue. vSanscrit is closelv connected in grammar and vocahulary with the Greek, Latin, Teutonic, Celtic, Sclavonic, and Zend. Hence all are grouped together by comparative philo- logists under one class, called the "Aryan," or "Indo- European ". These seven languages are sisters, holding the same relation to one another as French, Spanish, and Italian ; and they are related to some primitive lost tongue, as these Romance languages are to the Latin. A com- parison of the Aryan languages has placed it beyond a doubt that the ancestors of the Greeks, Italians, Germans, Celts, Sclavonians, Persians, and Hindus were at one time living together as one family within the same precincts, separate from the ancestors of the Semitic and Turanian races; that they emigrated at different times and in different directions — the first five towards the North-west, and the last two towards the South and the East — from a region in central Asia of which Bactriana was probably the centre; that they were originally a pastoral race ; and that they gradually changed their habits as they settled down in Europe, Persia and Hindustan. The terms for God, for father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, hearts and tears, are identical in these languages. This could not have been accidental, for they were appellatives before they were proper names. The name for God is derived from a root dvii, to shine, 20 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. and means the " shining one " ; the term for father is from pa, to protect, and means the protector of his family ; mother is from ma, to make or fashion ; daughter is derived from a root duh, to milk, and means " the little milkmaid of the family " ; the original meaning of brother is " he who carries," or, " he who assists " ; and of sister, " she who pleases," or "consoles". Before the Aryans parted the)- had names for the family relationships which are expressed in English by the addition of " in-law," as father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law ; thus showing a great advance in civilisation. They had words for house, door, and windows, which show that they were not nomads, but lived in fixed abodes. The word for boat or ship is the same in all these languages; but the words for masts, sails, yards, are different ; thus showing that the Aryans before their separation went only in boats with oars on the rivers of their land, the Oxus and Jaxartes, and did not sail anywhere on the ocean. They had hatchets, ploughs, and mills for grinding corn. They cultivated barley, and perhaps other cereals. They had names for cooking and baking ; and they made a distinction between raw flesh and cooked meat. The names for clothes and sewing are the same among all the Aryan nations; and hence it is evident that they were acquainted with the art of weaving and sewing. They were also acquainted with silver, gold, copper, and tin. They had the same names for tree, cattle, ox, horse, dog, sheep, mouse, wolf, serpents, etc. Max Muller says, " It is hardly possible to look at the evidence hitherto collected . . . without feeling that these THE LITERATURE OF THE VEDAS. 21 words are the fragments of a real language once spoken by a united race at a time which the historian has till lately hardly ventured to realise. Yet we have in our hands the relics of that distant time ; we are using the same words which were used by the fathers of the Aryan race, changed only by phonetic influences ; nay, we are as near to them in thought and speech as the French and Italians are to the ancient people of Rome. If any more proof was wanted as to the reality of that period which must have preceded the dispersion of the Aryan race, we might appeal to the Aryan numerals as irrefragable evidence of that long-continued intellectual life which characterises that period. Here is a decimal system of numeration, in itself one of the most marvellous achieve- ments of the human mind, based on an abstract concep- tion of quantity, regulated by a spirit of philosophical classification, and yet conceived, matured, and finished before the soil of Europe was trodden by Greek, Roman, Slave, or Teuton." * § 5. The Vedas orally transmitted. When the four collections of the Vedas were arranged by Vedavyasa, their mythical compiler, when the Brahmanas were composed, and probably for three hundred or four hundred years afterwards, writing- was unknown in India. For had it been known, it is pretty certain that some mention of it would have ^ been made in Vedic literature. When reading: the '!-> 1 Chips from a German Workshop, vol. ii., pp. 50, 51. 22 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. Old Testament we often meet with words denoting- writing', reading', pen and book. In Exodus we find that Moses, having received the ten commandments, " went down from the Mount, and the two tables of testimony were in his hand : the tables were written on both their sides: on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God." 1 Again, " And he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the audience of the people".'-' The Psalmist says, "Then said I, Lo, I come ; in the volume of the book it is written of me". :; "My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.'' 4 And Job exclaims, "Oh that my words were now written ! Oh that they were printed in a book ! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever." 5 Such words as these prove beyond a doubt that the prophets of the Old Testament, and the nations among whom they prophesied, were ac- quainted with the art of writing. We look in vain, however, in the Vedas, Brahmanas, and even in the Sutras, for words denoting writing, reading, pen and book. For reading we have addyeti or adJiiti, to go over or to repeat ; for chapters, adhyayas, lectures ; and for books we have charcuias, or families in whose memory books were preserved and orally transmitted. It is evident, therefore, that all the literature of the Vedas was handed down orally, like the Homeric poems. Every Brahman 1 Ex., xxxii., 15, 16. - Ibid., xxiv., 7. 3 Ps., xl., 7. 4 Ibid., xlv., 1. 5 Job, xix., 23, 24. THE LITERATURE OF THE VEDAS. 23 had to learn the Vedas by heart during the twelve or more years of his student life. The Guru, or teacher, pronounced a group of words, and the pupils repeated them after him. Caesar says the same of the Druids. And long after writing was introduced the Brahmans were strictly forbidden to write or read the Vedas. In the Mahabharata it is written, " Those who sell the Vedas, and even those who write them, those also who defile them, they shall go to hell ". Writing was probably known in India before the con- quest of Alexander the Great. We find in the Laliia- vistara, a book containing the life of Buddha, which was translated into Chinese, 76 a.d., that the boy Buddha knew how to write, and is even represented as teaching his Guru, Visvamitra, the names of sixty-four Sanscrit letters, just as Jesus is represented in the " gospel of the infancy " as explaining to His teacher the meaning of the Hebrew alphabet. We have, however, the more reliable testimony of inscriptions that writing .was known in India during the early period of Buddhism. The inscrip- tions of Asoka (b.c. 250) on the rocks of Kapurdigiri near Peshawar, Dhouli in Orissa, Girnar in Gujerat, and other places, are proof positive of this. They are written in two different characters, and call themselves /ipi, a writing, and Dharmalifti, sacred writing. The inscriptions of Kapurdigiri are written from right to left, and the letters are evidently of Semitic origin, most closely connected with the Aramaic branch of the old Semitic or Phoenician alphabet. The characters of the other inscriptions, though written from left to right, show v %/ 24 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. traces of having been once written in the contrary direc- tion. This, and the imperfect system of marking the vowels, point to a Semitic origin ; but whether the writing was introduced from Phoenicia by Phoenician traders, or from an Aramaic character used in Persia or Babylon, is not yet settled. Dr. Burnell, judging from a docket attached to one of the Babylonian tablets in the British Museum, concluded that it was introduced from the latter. 1 However, it is certain that there is no trace of the development in India of an original independent system of writing. 2 It is well known that the Phoenicians had commercial intercourse with India from the earliest times. Solomon's ships of Tarshish, manned by Phoenician seamen, sailed to the south and west of India, and imported thence peacocks, apes, and ivory, which are called in Hebrew tukhi-im, koph im, shenhabb-im, horns of teeth. 8 Tokei is the old Tamil word for a peacock, and is still used for a peacock's tail ; koph is a word without etymology in the Semitic languages, but is nearly identical in sound with the Sanscrit name for ape, kapi. The word in this form has been found also in Egyptian hieroglyphics of the seventeenth century B.C. ; thus showing, not only the early occupation of India by the Aryans, but their inti- mate commercial intercourse with the West long before 1 Academy for June 17, 1882. 2 Dr. Burnell, E. S. I. Paleography, chap, i., and Max Midler's Science of Language, 1st series, pp. 208, 9. 3 1 Kings, x., 22. THE LITERATURE OF THE VEDAS. 25 the time of Solomon. 1 Habbim is without a derivation in Hebrew, but it may be a corruption of the Sanscrit name for an elephant, ibha, preceded by the Semitic article ha. This supposition, however, is not free from difficulties. The Chaldean traders made their way to India at a very early period, probably more than 3000 b.c. Professor Sayce says in his Hibbert Lectures, "Apart from the existence of teak in the ruins of Mugheir, an ancient Babylonian list of clothing mentions sindhu, or ' muslin ' ; the sadin of the Old Testament ; the o-tvScuv of the Greeks. That a-Lvhw is merely 'the Indian' cloth has long been recognised ; and the fact that it begins with a sibilant and not with a vowel, like our ' Indian,' proves that it must have come to the West by sea and not by land, where the original s would have become h in Persian mouths — supposing, of course, that Iranian tribes were already settled to the east of Babylon. That sindhu is reallv the same word as a-tvSow is shown by its Accadian equivalent, which is expressed by ideographs signifying literally ' vegetable cloth '." The Persians conquered a part of the North-west of India under Darius, b.c 500 ; and in the inscriptions at Persepolis and Naksh-i-rus-tram, India occurs as the twenty-first and thirteenth province, respectively, of that monarch's empire. According to Herodotus, India was the twentieth satrapy, and it paid as tribute three hundred and sixty talents of gold.' 2 It is evident, therefore, from Weber's Hist, of Indian Lit., p. 3. 2 See Dr. Burnell, E. S. I. P., p. 3. 26 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. the commercial intercourse of the Phoenicians, and the political intercourse of the Persians, whose alphabet is traceable to a Semitic origin, that the Hindu alphabet might have been introduced from the same source. The Greek writers, Nearchus (b.c. 325) and Megas- thenes (b.c 202), both declare that the Hindus had no laws and no books ; but the former says that they wrote on a sort of cotton cloth or paper, and the latter that they had milestones at a distance of ten stadia from one another, indicating the resting-places and distances. Max Mtiller concludes, therefore, that "writing was known to the Hindus before Alexander's conquest, but that they had not then begun to use it for literary purposes— the Brahmans not having got over their prejudice against the use of letters as the medium of preserving and com- municating their sacred books ". And Dr. Burnell says, " Writing was, certainly, little used in India before b.c. 250 M . $ 6. The Ge?ieral Character of Vedic Literature. The general style and character of Vedic literature should not be judged from the quotations and doctrines which appear in this book. It has been my endeavour to clear away the rubbish, and bring to light the precious gems of truth which lay embedded among much that is puerile and unmeaning. Though the Mantra portions of the Vedas consist of hymns or metrical verses, it is painfully obvious, to any one reading them, either in the original or in translations, that the} 7 have but very little poetry, understanding by that word lofty conceptions THE LITERATURE OF THE VEDAS. 27 and striking thoughts expressed in chaste, measured language. The hymns abound in tedious repetitions and puerile ideas, which form a great contrast to the easy flow and elevated conceptions of the sacred poetry of the Hebrews. Their only charm lies in the small rays of light which they throw on the most ancient thoughts, habits, and conflicts of the Hindu Aryans. The Brah- mana portions are more disappointing still. I cannot describe them better than in the words of Professor Max Muller : " The general character of these works (Brah- manas) is marked by shallow and insipid grandiloquence, by priestly conceits, and antiquarian pedantry ". Again, " These works deserve to be studied as the physician studies the twaddle of idiots and the ravings of madmen. They will disclose to a thoughtful eye the ruins of faded grandeur ; the memories of noble aspirations. But let us only try to translate these works into our own language, and we shall feel astonished that human lan- guage and human thought should ever have been used for such purposes." 1 Again, he says respecting the Upanishads — which undoubtedly form the best portions of the Brahmanas, and which in his Hibbert Lectures he pronounced unrivalled, not only in the literature of India, but in the literature of the world, - "They' (the difficulties of translating them) "consist in the extraordinary number of passages which seem to us utterly meaningless and irrational, or, at all events, so far-fetched that we can hardly believe that the 1 Hist. Anc. Sans. Lit., p. 389. 28 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. same authors who can express the deepest thoughts on religion and philosophy with clearness, nay, with a kind of poetical eloquence, could have uttered in the same breath such utter rubbish. Some of the sacrificial technicalities, and their philosophical interpretations, with which the Upanishads abound, may perhaps in time assume a clearer meaning, when we shall have more fully mastered the intricacies of the Vedic ceremonial. But there will always remain in the Upanishads a vast amount of what we can only call meaningless jargon, and for the presence of which in these ancient mines of thought I, for my own part, feel quite unable to account." 1 The Mantras, the oldest portions of Vedic literature, are by far the most interesting and instructive. The Brahmanas and Upanishads, though later in time, show considerable decline in thought and style. How can this be accounted for on the theory of " Evolution ' : or " Upward progress " ? 1 Sacred Books of the East, vol. xv., p. ig. CHAPTER II. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. " All men yearn after the gods." — Homer. "The world through its wisdom knew not God." — Paul. § i . The Number of the Gods. In some Hymns the number of the gods is given as thirty-three. "Ye gods, who are eleven in heaven, who are eleven on earth, and who are eleven dwelling with glory in mid-air, may ye be pleased with this our sacrifice." 1 We have probably a reminiscence of this number in the thirty-three Ratus of the Zend- Avesta ; 2 an interesting fact, indicating that before the separation of the Indians from the Iranians, considerable progress had been made in polytheistic notions. While, however, under the influence of Zoroaster, a strong reaction early set in against polytheism in Iran, a new impulse was given to it by the gorgeous scenery and diversified climate of India. Hence, in the Rig-Veda, we see the number of the gods gradually and almost imperceptibly increasing. Agni is invoked to bring " the 1 R.-V., i., 139, n. 2 Haug's Essays on the Parsces, 3rd edition. 30 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. three and thirty gods with their wives". 1 The Asvins are "associated with all the thrice eleven gods, with the Waters, the Maruts, the Bhrigus, and, united with the Dawn and the Sun, drink the Soma". 2 And "all these gods, thrice eleven in number, are in the secret of Soma ". 3 In another hymn, " three hundred, three thousand, thirty and nine gods" are said to have "worshipped Agni". 4 In the Atharva-Veda the Gandharvas, or demi- gods, alone amount to six thousand three hundred and thirty-three.' 5 The number of Vedic gods, though large, sinks into insignificance when compared with the total number of Hindu gods, which the traditions of the present age give, viz., three hundred and thirty-three millions! § 2. The Nature of the Gods. The gods are spoken of in the Rig- Veda as the "former'' and the latter," the "old" and the "young". The "for- mer" are the gods of Poetry, and the " latter' the gods of Philosophy. The chief characteristics of the "former" are concrete or Physical, and of the "latter" abstract or Metaphysical. We shall consider them under these designations. (i) Physical Gods. All the gods in this class appeal, more or less, to the senses, and hence are called "semi-tangible" by Pro- fessor Max Muller in his Hibbert Lectures. 1 R.-V., i., 45, 2 ; iii., 6, g. 2 Ibid., viii., 35, 3. 3 Ibid., ix., 92, 4. 4 Ibid., iii., 9, 9. 5 A.-V., xi., 5, 2. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 3 1 The first of these is the sky in its various aspects and under various names. The sky is undoubtedly the oldest object of worship in the Veda, and one of its oldest names as such is Dyaus; 1 a name identified with the Greek Zeus, and the Latin Ju in Jupiter. Dyaus is called Pitar, Father ; and the compound Dyaushpitar is almost as much one word as Jupiter or Zeuspater. Dyaushpitar, Heaven-Father, or Bright Father, reminds us both of 77-a-rep 7]/jlwv 6 iv rot? ovpav(us, '' Our Father, who art in heaven"; 2 and of tov 7rarpo Ibid., ii.. 28, 8. c Ibid., i., 25 ; i., 24. y, 10 ; Atharva-V., iv., 10. 38 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. High up in his empyrean realm, dwelling in a palace with a thousand gates, supported by a thousand columns, he discerns the tracks of the birds that fly through the air, and the ships that plough the mighty deep. 1 He knows the twelve months, and the thirteenth, or " inter- calary " ; he is acquainted with the course of the winds, and with the bright and mighty divinities who reside on high.' 2 To him the darkness shineth as the light, " for he sees what has been, and what will be done". 3 " If a man stands, or walks, or hides ; if he goes to lie down or to get up ; what two people sitting together whisper, King Varuna knows it, he is there as the third."' " He who should flee far beyond the sky, even he would not be rid of Varuna. the king. His spies proceed from heaven towards this world ; with thousand eyes they overlook this earth." " King Varuna sees what is be- tween heaven and earth, and what is beyond. He has counted the twinklings of the eyes of men. As a player throws the dice, he settles all things." 1 Varuna is the governor of the moral world — the con- sciences of men. He has given laws which cannot be broken with impunity. His fatal " nooses stand spread out to catch the man who tells a lie " ; but " they pass by him who tells the truth". 5 His wrath is terrible upon all who commit sin and disfigure his worship with im- perfections. 11 Nevertheless, he is merciful to the offender. ' R.-V., vii.. 88, 5 ; ii., 41, 5 ; i., 25. 7. - Ibid., i., 25, 8. 9. :; Ibid., i., 25. 11. * A.-V., iv., 16. 5 Ibid., 16, 6. 6 R.-V., i.,25, 2; iv., 1, 4, 5. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 39 And hence man, trembling" under the burden of sin, dares to approach Varuna and cry, (1) "Let me not yet, O Varuna, enter into the house of clay ; have mercy, Almighty, have mercy ! ' (2) " If I go along trembling, like a cloud driven by the wind, have mercy, Almighty, have mercy ! " l (3) " Through want of strength, thou strong and bright god, have I gone wrong ; have mercy, Almighty, have mercv ! ' (4) " Thirst came upon the worshipper, though he stood in the midst of the waters ; have mercy, Almighty, have mercy ! " (5) "Whenever we men, O Varuna, commit an offence before the heavenly host ; whenever we break the law through thoughtlessness, punish us not, O God, for that offence ! " 2 However the name Varuna may jar on our ears, there can be no doubt that to the ancient Aryans it was the most sublime expression of the Supreme Being, whose personality was now fading away from their mind, and heaven, the place of His abode, was addressed as Him- self. This was not from a deep sense of contrition and unworthiness to call Him " Father," like the prodigal son when he cried, " I have sinned against heaven," but in consequence of the sinful tendency of man not to retain 1 A more literal translation of this verse is given by Muir : " I go along, O thunderer, quivering like an inflated skin ! ' etc. 2 R.-V., vii., 89. Max Midler's translation. 4<3 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. God in his memory. The Aryans were now in that mental and spiritual condition, aptly described by Cole- brook, "recognising but one Supreme Deity, yet not sufficiently discriminating the creature from the Creator". "Father of heaven " in the sense of "God of heaven," or " Father of light" in the sense of "God is light," had become hazy and uncertain ; and the attributes originally ascribed to Him were consequently transferred to Heaven, the place of His abode. The physical, intellectual, and moral attributes of the Deity never shone so fully, brightly, and lovingly in any Aryan god as in Varuna. All subsequent gods are but dim reflections of him — as he was but a dim reflection of the Supreme — retaining in the Vedic Age his physical and intellectual character, but allowing his moral per- fections gradually to grow dimmer and dimmer, until, at last, the moral character of the immortal gods could not be distinguished from that of mortal men. Max Miiller says, " The more we go back, the more we examine the earliest germs of any religion, the purer 1 believe we shall find the conceptions of the Deity ". This is as strictly true of the religions of India as it is of all other ancient religions. And this can hardly be accounted for, except on the supposition that man was originally endowed with divine knowledge far more than he appears to have possessed at the dawn of history. For had the Vedic Aryans emerged at any time, by their own exertion, from a low or savage state, and gradually risen into the high conception of the Author of the Universe, which found expression in Varuna, we might reasonably THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 41 expect that they would have retained the celestial Varuna as their Supreme Deity to the exclusion of all other rivals. Alas ! the fact is the reverse. They not only deified the elements and forces of Nature with which they were surrounded, hut hurled down the divine Varuna, " the omniscient spirit," from the throne of the universe ; placed him among inferior deities, called Aditvas ; made him the twin-brother and chief associate of Mitra, the Persian Mithra, a form of the sun ; and lastly relegated him to a dominion over the waters ! But though Varuna was thus degraded and Indra raised to supreme power in his place, yet his former greatness occasionally breaks through, not only in the fact that Indra and other gods are said to obey and follow him, 1 but in the epithets applied to him and Mitra together, such as, " Lords of truth and light " ; 2 " Sapient gods " ; J "Universal monarchs " ; 4 "Ye whose imperishable di- vinity is the eldest " ; " For these two are the living spirits among the gods"; 5 all the gods follow the ordin- ances of Mitra and Varuna ; r> "The man whom Varuna distinguishes for his knowledge, and Mitra and Aryaman protect, can never be slain ". Then, closely connected with the sky, is Aditi, immen- sity, from diti, a bond, and the negative prefix a, meaning the unbounded, the infinite expanse beyond the earth, 1 K.-V., i\., 42; x.. 124, Ei3, 5. - Ibid., I, 23, 5. 3 Ibid., vii., 61, 2. * Ibid., i., 71, 9; i.. 136, 1, 4. "' Ibid., vii.. 65, 2. ° S.-Y.. ii., prap., 10. 1 : iv., 3, 8. 42 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. beyond the clouds, and beyond the firmament. Aditi at first was probably nothing more than an epithet of Dyaus, the sky idyauh aditih) 1 — more especially of that part of the sky whence the dawn comes forth every morning", and hence the dawn is called " the face of Aditi ".* 2 Myth- ology, however, soon dissected the Heaven-God into seven inferior deities, corresponding to the Vedic seven regions, or worlds/' to each of which a god must be allotted. This myth, the root of which we see in the sacredness attached to the number seven* began to germinate before the Iranians and the Indians separated. In Iran it grew into the seven Amesha-Spentas, ''the undying and well-doing ones," with Ahura-Mazda at their head ; and in India into the seven Adityas, "the infinite ones," with Varuna at their head. But its growth in India did not stop here. It was necessary to create a mother for the Adityas, and so the epithet Aditi was raised to the rank of a goddess ; and from being the mother of the bright Adityas she easily glided into the mother of all gods, the common womb, or substratum of all existencies. "Aditi is the heaven ; Aditi is the sky ; Aditi is the mother, father, son ; Aditi is all the gods ; Aditi is the five classes of men ; Aditi is whatever has been and whatever shall be." B 1 R.-V., v., 5Q, 8 ; x., 63, 3. - Ibid., i., 113, 19. 3 Ibid., ix., 114, 3. 4 Ibid., vi., 74, 1 ; x., 90, 15 ; x., 122. 3 ; x., 82. 2. Ibid., i., 89, 10. Zevs €(ttlv aWrjp, Zevs 8( yij, Z(i>s d' ovpavos. Zevs ravra iruvra X R.-V., x., 134, 1. 3 Ibid., 1., 52, 8, 12, 13 ; i., 55, 1 ; i., 61, 9; i., 81, 5; 1., 103, 2 ; ii., 12, 1 ; iii.. 32, 7 ; iv., 30, 1 ; vi., 30, 4 ; vii., 32, 16, 22, 23; viii., 21, 13; viii., 67, 5; viii., 87, 2; x., 968; x., 2^. 4 : iii., 31, etc. ; and Sama-Veda passim. 48 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. them up in dark caves near the uttermost ends of the sky, where they cannot discharge their udders of fertil- ising milk upon the parched and thirsty earth. Then the pious worshipper implores Indra to release them, and slav the demon who had carried them awav. There- J J upon Indra. guided by his faithful dog Sarama, and accompanied by the Maruts, or storm-gods, goes after them ; and no sooner does he hear their lowing from afar than the battle begins. The iron thunderbolt— the pro- duct of Tvashtri — is hurled, the Maruts roar, the demon is slain, and the cows are released to discharge their heavy udders in great drops upon the earth. Then the singers " bring" their praises to heroic Indra, as cows come home to the milker ". In this respect he is like Parjanya, the Lithuanian Perkunas, the god of thunder and rain, the generator and nourisher of plants and all living creatures. 1 At other times he is the bright god of day, whose steed is the sun, and whose cows are the first rays of the dawn, dispelling the darkness of the night, and filling the world with light and joy ; and, therefore, he is called the " lighter up of nights, and the parent of the sun ".2 The Dasyus were both the aboriginal inhabitants of India, who resisted the Aryans in their progress from the Indus to the Ganges, and the demons of darkness and drought, the enemies of the bright gods, such as Vritra, Namuchi, Sambara, Ahi, and others. Indra was now j u> R.-V., v., 83. - Ibid., i., 7, 3 ; iii., 34, 4. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 49 the supreme god of the conquering- race, and hence is constantly invoked to kill the Dasyus, their enemies, and the despiser of himself, Anbidra. " Armed with the lightning, and trusting in his strength, he moved about shattering the cities of the Dasyus." " Indra, thunderer, who art wise, hurl thy shaft against the Dasyus, and increase the might and glory of the Aryans." 1 " Slaying the Dasyus, he protected the Aryan colour." 2 Soma, the Persian Haoma. of which Indra drank so copiously, and which all the immortal gods loved so well, was the juice of a creeper called the moon-plant {Asckpias acida), expressed in a mortar or between stones, strained through a goat's-hair sieve into clarified butter, diluted with water, mixed with barley-meal, and fermented in a jar for nine days. It was then a strong intoxicating liquor, producing exhilaration or stupor, according to the quantity drunk. No sooner did the Aryans discover that it had this effect upon them- selves, than they invited the gods to partake of it, in order to help them to perform their mighty deeds, and to refresh them when exhausted and cast down. For what- ever they found pleasant and useful to themselves, they conceived to be equally so to the gods ; thus exemplifying the dictum of Heraclitus : " Men are mortal gods, and gods are immortal men ". " Ye priests, bring hither Soma for Indra ; pour from the bowls the delicious food ! The hero truly always loves to drink of it ; sacri- fice to the strong, for he desires it ! ' " Ye priests, he 1 R.-V., i., 103, 3. * Ibid., iii., 34, 9. 4 50 THE TEACHING 0E THE VEDAS. who struck down Vritra, when he hid the waters, as a tree is struck by lightning — to him who desires this Soma, offer it ; for that Indra desires to drink it ! " l " I declare the mighty deeds of this mighty one. At the Trikadraka festival, Indra drank of the Soma, and in its exhilaration he slew Ahi. He propped up the vast sky in empty space ; he hath filled the two worlds and the atmosphere.' 2 He hath upheld the earth and stretched it out. Indra has done all these things in the exhilara- tion of the Soma." 3 Soma finally was deified, and all the divine attributes ascribed to the other gods were ascribed to him. He became the creator of all things, father of the gods, the rainer of blessings, and the saviour of men from sin, as well as "the embroiler of all things in his drunken frolics ". The Sama-Veda says of this god, that he submits to mortal birth, and is " bruised and afflicted that others may be saved ". This is the rudest type of mediation through sacrifice, of strength through weak- ness, of life through death. 4 1 R.-V., ii., 14. 2 Compare Job, xxvi., 7. " He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." 3 Ibid., ii., xv., 1, 2. 4 S.-V., ii., prap., 5, 3 ; iv., prap.,45; v., prap., 33; ii., x., 2, 6; vi., 4. Compare what is said of Dionysus, the Grecian Soma: — ovtos deoluri aneu^erai deos yeyo)?, oSore 81a tovtov rdyad audpajnovs e%€iv. He, born a god, is poured out in libations to gods, so that through him men receive good (Muir, S. T., vol. v., p. 259). THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 51 Vishnu, a name of the sun, 1 from vis, to pervade, is the faithful friend and companion of Indra, both in his drinking bouts and in his conflicts with Vritra. "Yea, even when all the gods had forsaken him, faithful Vishnu came to his help." 2 Vayu, the god of the gentle breezes, is also in Ins train. " He drives a thousand steeds ; his breath chases away the demons; he comes in the earliest morning, as the first breath of air that stirs itself at day- break, to join Indra in drinking the Soma ; and the auroras weave for him shining garments." But the Maruts, or Rudras, storm-gods, are pre-eminently the constant allies and companions of Indra. They are the sons of Rudra, the god of the roaring tempest, and Prisni. " They ride on spotted stags (the clouds), wear shining armour, and carry spears in their hands ; no one knows whence they come nor whither they go ; 3 their voice is heard aloud, as they come rushing on, the earth trembles and the mountains shake before them." ' But though they are exceedingly tumultuous they are none the less beneficent. They dispense rain in abundance from the udder of their mother, Prisni, and having acquired the knowledge of remedies from their father, Rudra, they are ever ready to help the sick and succour the afflicted. The following hymn to the Maruts and Indra is from Max Muller's translation of the Rig- Veda Sanhita, p. 163. 1 R.-V., i., 22, 17; i., 154. a Ibid., vi., 69, 1, 8; iv., 18, 11. 3 Compare John, iii., 8. 4 Professor Whitney, Oriental Linguistic Studies. 2 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. D^ HYMN TO THE MARUTS AND INDRA. THE PROLOGUE. The sacrificer speaks : — i. With what splendour are the Maruts all equally endowed, they who are of the same age, and dwell in the same house ? With what thoughts ? From whence are they come ? Do these heroes sing forth their (own) strength because they wish for wealth ? 2. Whose prayers have the youths accepted ? Who has turned the Maruts to his own sacrifice ? By what strong devotion may we delight them, they who float through the air like hawks ? THE DIALOGUE. The Maruts speak : — 3. From whence, O Indra, dost thou come alone, thou who art mighty ? O lord of men ! what has thus happened to thee ? Thou greetest (us) when thou comest together with (us) the bright (Maruts). Tell us, then, thou with thy bay horses, what thou hast against us. Indra speaks:— 4. The sacred songs are mine, (mine are) the prayers ; sweet are the libations ! My strength rises, my thunderbolt is hurled forth. They call for me, the prayers yearn for me. Here are my horses, they carry me towards them. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 53 The Maruts speak : — 5. Therefore, in company with our strong friend, having adorned our bodies, we now harness our fallow deer with all our might ; for Indra, according to thy custom, thou hast been with us. Indra speaks : — 6. Where, O Maruts, was that custom of yours that you should join me who am alone in the killing of Ahi ? I indeed am terrible, strong, powerful ; I escape from the blows of every enemy. The Maruts speak: — 7. Thou hast achieved much with us as companions. With the same valour, O hero ! let us achieve then many things, O thou most powerful, Indra ! what- ever we, Maruts, wish with our heart. Indra speaks : — 8. I slew Vritra, O Maruts, with (Indra's) might having grown strong through my own vigour ; I who hold the thunderbolt in my arms, I have made these all-brilliant waters to How freely for man. The Maruts speak : 9. Nothing, O powerful lord, is strong before thee ; no one is known among the gods like unto thee. No one who is now born will come near, no one who has been born. Do what has to be done, thou who art grown so strong. Indra speaks : — 10. Almighty power be mine alone, whatever I may do, daring in my heart ; for I indeed, () Maruts, am 54 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. known as terrible ; of all that I threw down, I, Indra, am the lord, ii. O Maruts, now your praise has pleased me, the glorious hymn which you have made for me, ye men ! for me, for Indra, for the powerful hero, as friends for a friend, for your own sake and by your own efforts. 12. Truly, there the)" are, shining towards me, assum- ing blameless glory, assuming vigour. O Maruts, wherever I have looked for you, you have appeared to me in bright splendour : appear to me also now. THE EPILOGUE. The sacrifice?' speaks : — 13. Who has magnified you here, O Maruts ? Come hither, O friends, towards your friends. Ye brilliant Maruts, cherish these prayers, and be mindful of these my rites. 14. The wisdom of Manya has brought us to this, that he should help, as the poet helps the performer of a sacrifice : bring (them) hither quickly, Maruts, on to the Sage ! these prayers the singer has recited for you. 15. This your praise, O Maruts, this your song comes from Mandarya, the son of Mana, the poet. Come hither with rain ! Mav we find for ourselves off- spring, food, and a camp with running water. 1 1 R.-V., i., 165. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 55 In verses 5 to 8 of this dialogue we see traces of rivalry between Indra and the Maruts. They were not always friendly, and their respective votaries disputed their rela- tive claims to adoration. Agastya seems to have been the means of reconciling" them and of engrafting the worship of the Maruts on that of Indra. 1 The remaining verses, therefore, show that a complete reconciliation had been effected between them. The Maruts are called Visve-devah adruhah, all gods, devoid of guile ; 2 and are said to have been raised to the sphere of the immortals in consequence of their associa- tion with Indra. There are some passages in the Veda in which grave doubts are expressed as to the existence of Indra. Thus we read, " Offer praise to Indra if you desire booty ; true praise if he truly exists ". One and another says, " There is no Indra ". " Who has seen him ? ' " Whom shall we praise ? " Then Indra answers through the poet, " Here I am, O worshipper ; behold me here ". " In might I over- come all creatures." 3 Again, " The terrible one of whom they ask where he is, and of whom they say that he is not, he takes away the riches of his enemy like the stakes at a game. Believe in him, ye men, for he is indeed Indra." 4 The whole hymn, from which the last verse is taken appears to be a polemical assertion of the existence and 1 R.-V., i., 170, 171, 4. 2 Ibid., i., 19, 3, 4. 3 Ibid., viii., 89, 2, 3. 4 Ibid., ii., 12, 5. 50 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. greatness of Indra against gainsayers. Some may regard the doubts expressed respecting the existence of Indra as a necessary stage in the " upward progress of the human mind" through polytheism to monotheism. This doubt- less is true as a general law, but it can scarcely be applied to this case, for on that supposition should we not expect to see the existence of other gods doubted ? No such doubts, however, appear in the Rig- Veda respecting the existence of other gods. The explanation therefore must be sought in the fact that Indra was triumphantly super- seding Varuna in the cultus ; and, consequently, the most devout Rishis, unable to look on passively when the nation was transferring its allegiance from the old to the new god, endeavoured to stem the torrent by casting doubts on his existence. They would have had no objection to admit Indra to their pantheon as a god ; but their reverence for Varuna, hallowed by immemorial traditions, was far too strong to permit them to regard him as supreme. Who cannot sympathise with them ? For had not Varuna been worshipped in the ancestral home before the family broke up never to be reunited again ? Had not their forefathers offered sacrifices to Varuna and supplicated him with hymns, which, in accents of adoration, remind us of the Psalms of David ? With the pious, Varuna was still the god that went down to the depth of the conscience, that sympathised with their struggles after a higher and holier life, that best satisfied the cravings of their spiritual nature. And with such, Varuna remained the supreme god for a long time, even after Indra, by a hard struggle, had superseded him in the public THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 57 cultus. 1 The small number of hymns addressed to Varuna, preserved in the Rig-Veda, shows clearly what a small space he occupied in the thoughts of the majority ; and that space becomes more contracted as we read on towards the end — the last Mandala, or Book, not containing one hymn addressed to him a/o/ie ! The few hymns addressed to him, however, surpass all others in elevation of senti- ment, in contrition for sin, and in hungerings and thirst- ings after forgiveness and communion with the Supreme. Agni, from Ag, " to move," the Latin Ignis, and the Sclavonian Ogni, is a deification of fire in its threefold manifestations, — as the sun in the heaven, as lightning in the atmosphere, and as fire on the hearth and the altar. He is the son of Dyaus, the sky, because origin- ally the offspring of heaven. He is " the son of strength, neighing like a horse when he steps out of his strong prison, and, grasping food with his jaws, he devours the wood, surrounding his path with darkness, and sweeping his tail in the wind, as, in the smoke column, he ascends to heaven ". He is the light of the sacrifice, whether re- minding man that the time for the morning sacrifice has come, or himself lighting the sacrifice on the altar. In one place he is said to have been brought down from the lofty firmament bv Rishi Atharvan : in another, bv Rishi Di- vodasa ; in a third, it is said that he was brought forth by the songs of the old poet Gopavana ; and in a fourth, that both he and Indra were produced from the mouth of Purusha. Most frequently, however, his production is 1 R.-V., iv., 18, 12 ; 19, 2 ; vii., 21, 7. 58 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. ascribed to the strong rubbing of the aram's, or two dry pieces of wood, the ordinary mode of kindling fire among all primitive nations. His birth is celebrated in the hymns in the most glowing figurative language as the greatest wonder in the universe. The ten fingers of the kindler are ten virgins who bring him to birth ; the two pieces of wood are his mothers, in whose laps he rapidly grows, and whom he then devours as they lie prostrate on the earth. 1 Agni is a "god among gods". " His greatness sur- passes the vast sky." " No god is beyond his might, the mighty one." He sees all things and knows all secrets among mortals. 1 ' He is the lord, the wise king, the sage, the father, the brother, the son, and the friend of men ; present with all, dwelling in their houses, guarding them at night from the demons of darkness. He is the youngest of the gods, their messenger 3 and invoker on behalf of men, " going wisely between heaven and earth, gods and men, like a friendly messenger between two hamlets". He carries the sacrifices to the gods, and brings the gods down to the sacrifices. He is both 4 1 R.-V., i., 31, 3, 4, 140, 141; iii., 29. 2 6(o\ hi T€ TTLIVTCL 'iaa(TlV. " The gods know all things " (Homer). 3 This character was assumed by Apollo in Greece. " He alone of the active gods is in entire and unvarying conformity with the will of Zeus, and is his messenger and agent for the most important purposes " (Mr. Gladstone, in the Contemporary Review for March, 1876). 4 Brihaspati, though sometimes differing from Brahmanaspati, is also identical with him (R.-V., ii., 23) ; also with Indra (R.-V., ii., 30, 4). THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 59 Brihaspati, the Purhohita, or mediating priest, between god and man, and Brahmanaspati, the lord of prayer ; because he not only hears the prayers of the suppliant, but causes the gods also to hear them. His golden colour, bright face, white hair, green moustachios, eyes fixed on many regions, and voice like the Maruts, are dwelt upon with special delight. 1 With a crown of glory on his head, he travels in a brilliant car drawn sometimes by two red horses and sometimes by two black or ruddy. He is compared to a stallion, and is called a strong bull, a red hero, a poet with a bright tongue, the mouth of the gods, the producer of the three Vedas, the ordainer of sacrifice, the giver of wealth, intelligence, and all happi- ness. He is a kind of anima mundi, a subtle principle, that pervades all nature, through which plants, animals and men are capable of reproduction. He is one of the most prominent deities of the Rig- Veda, because he is the product of sacerdotalism. The hymns addressed to him are more numerous than those addressed to an- other deity except Indra, and eight out of the ten Mandalas of the Rig-Veda begin with hymns to him. Among his frequent appellations are, " belonging to all men," " bearer of the offering," " all-possessing," " purifier," and "demon slayer". 2 1 He also assumes a terrific form, when, with his iron tusks, he puts his enemies in his mouth and swallows them (R.-V., x., 87, 2). - R.-V., vi., 49, 2 ; ii., 1,9; i., 59, 5 ; i., 63, 3 ; vii., 3 ; ii., 6, 7; i., 74 ; viii., 39, 6; i., 94, 10; ii., 10, 2; vi., 5, 2 ; i., 19; hi., 29, 6; v., 12, 6; vi., n, 2; iv., 6, 10; v., 1, 12; i., 36, 10; i., 60 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. In Agni we see unfolding themselves the germs of the two great ideas so natural to man — the former of which assumed such enormous proportions in later Hinduism — viz., Incarnation and Mediation. Agni was a Purho- hita, or High Priest between God and man, who par- took of the nature of both. He was a god dwelling on high among the immortals, and yet he condescended to sit in the humble habitation of men. " Agni, beloved by many, praised by all, in whose immortal fire all men cause the offering to blaze, is this morning our guest." " By words and hymns of praise, uttered with all my might, do I praise thee, Agni, the guest of my sacrifice.' " We approach the foe-destroying, ancient incar?iaie Agni, who shone forth most illustriously in the form of Sruta- vana, the son of Arksha." 1 " Kindled Agni, by this adoration do thou recommend us to Mitra, Varuna, and Indra. Whatever sin we may have committed, do thou expiate ; and may Aryaman, Aditi, and Mitra remove it from us." 2 " O Agni, in thy friendship I am at home." :1 Surya, the sun, notwithstanding his identification with Agni, was worshipped as a separate personality, under different names corresponding to its various functions or appearances, such as Savitri, enlivener ; Pushan, nour- ishes Mitra, friend, the bright sun of the morning or the 49, 9; vi., 13, 1; vii., 1. 2; iv., 120; 111.. 3, 10; x., 51, 3. Sama-Veda, i., prap., i., 9 ; iii., 95, 1, 5, 5, 7, 6, 8, 8, 2 ; prap., vi.. 4, 3; pt. ii., vi., 7 ; viii.. 5. 14; xii., 3 ; xiv., 12. 1 S.-V., prap., i., 9, 5 ; 7, 9. - R.-V., iv., 12, 4 ; vii., 93, 7. J Ibid., v., 44, 15. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 6l day ; Vishnu, the sun, as striding' with three steps across the sky ; Aryaman, Bhaga, Aditya ; and the great attri- butes ascribed to the other gods are ascribed to him also. According to Yaska, a very ancient etymologist, there are only three Vedic gods, viz. : Agni, whose place is on the earth ; Indra or Vayu, whose place is in the atmo- sphere ; and Surya, whose place is in the sky. All the other gods are resolvable into these, and these again into one. This, however, is a generalisation posterior to the Vedic Age. Surya, though the child of heaven and earth, is also their creator, and even " the divine leader of the gods ", 1 The dawn is both his wife and his daughter,- and as she is also the daughter of the sky, she might be spoken of as his sister. Indra. again, is represented as having given birth to the dawn and the sun. And from another point of view, the dawn is represented as having given birth to the sun. ::! Surya travels in a golden chariot "along his ancient up- ward and downward paths, the paths without dust," drawn by one, or seven, ruddy steeds (the seven days of the week), preceded by the dawn, destroying darkness, and penetrating with his piercing glance the active world and the ethereal sky. Surya, as the eye of the all-embracing Varuna, appears to have occupied a very high place in the ancient creed of the Aryans. For the Iranians not only worshipped him as an emblem of the Supreme, but in the older parts 1 R.-V., i., iv., i, 50, n ; i., 160, 4 ; viii., go, 11, 12. 2 Ibid., vii., 75, 5, 78, 3 ; iv., 43, 2. 3 Ibid., vii., 78, 3. 62 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. of the Brahmanas — to which the Avesta is related in age and contents — he is often exalted above the other deities {prasavita devanani). We are told in the Taittiriya and Tandiya Brahmanas that the Devas (Hindus) and Asuras (Persians) disputed about Aditya (Sun), and that the Devas won him. He is still adored by the Parsees, the descendants of the Persians, as the purest symbol of the Supreme, and by the Brahmanical Hindus as the most resplendent manifestation of Him who is infinitely beyond human ken. To him the Gayatri is addressed, and before him millions of pious Hindus bow in adoration every morning. The following translation by Monier Williams of Hymn i., 50, in the Rig- Veda, is a beautiful descrip- tion of the sun : — " Behold the rays of Dawn, like heralds, lead on high "The Sun, that men may see the great all-knowing God. " The stars slink off like thieves, in company with Night, " Before the all-seeing eye whose beams reveal his presence, " Gleaming like brilliant flames, to nation after nation. " With speed beyond the ken of mortals, thou, O Sun, " Dost ever travel on conspicuous to all. " Thou dost create the light, and with it dost illume "The Universe entire; thou risest in the sight of all the race of men, and all the host of heaven. " Light-giving Varuna ! thy piercing glance can scan " In quick succession all this stirring, active world, " And penetrateth too the broad ethereal space, THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 63 " Measuring' our days and nights, and spying out all creatures. " Surya, with flaming locks, clear-sighted god of day, " Thy seven ruddy mares bear on thy rushing car "With these thy self-yoked steeds, seven daughters of thy chariot. " Onward thou dost advance. To thv refulgent orb " Beyond this lower gloom and upwards to the light " Would we ascend, O Sun, thou god among the gods." Invocations to the stars and the night are not frequent in the Vedas, and the worship of Chandramas, the moon, is not prominent ; but Ushas, the Dawn, 1 and the Asvins, 2 her precursive rays, 8 are objects of great celebration. The Asvins are ever young, handsome, and swift as young falcons. 4 Travelling in a three-wheeled triangular car, made by the Rhibhus, and drawn by asses, they bestow rich benefits on their worshippers, and help them to overcome their enemies. 5 They are called Dasras, destroyers, either of foes or diseases ; for they are the skilful physicians of gods as well as men, and as such are Nasatyas, never untrue, but always faithful. In the Legends they are represented as having effected such wonderful cures as to 1 Greek 'Hco?, Latin uro, Welsh wawr, German ost, English east. 2 Greek ojkvs, Latin equus. 3 R.-V., i., 157, 1. 4 Ibid., vii., 67, 8 ; vi., 62, 3, 5 ; v., 78, 4, 77, 3. 5 Ibid., x., 39, 12 ; i., 47, 2 ; i., 34, 9. 64 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. cause the blind to see, the lame to walk, the old to become young, and the distressed happy. 1 It is supposed that in the myths of the Asvins two distinct elements are blended, viz., the cosmical and the historical, the former representing the mysteriousness of the phenomena of light, and the latter the healing art of remote antiquity. The following hymn to the Dawn is considered by Max Miiller a fair specimen of the original, simple poetry of the Veda. " It has no reference to any sacrifice, it contains no technical expressions ; but it is the simple utterance in metre of the feelings of an oriental, who has watched the approach of the Dawn with mingled delight and awe." It also shows the treacherousness of poetical language ; how easily it leads from devi the bright, an epithet of the dawn, to devi, the goddess, the daughter of the sky, Dyaus 2 (duhitra divah). " She shines before us like a young wife, rousing every living being to go to his work. The fire had to be kindled by men ; she brought light by striking down darkness. " She rose up, spreading far and wide, and moving towards every one. She grew in brightness, wearing her brilliant garment. The mother of the cows (the morning clouds), the leader of the days, she shone gold-coloured, lovely to behold. •' She, the fortunate, she who brings the eye of the god, who leads the white and lovely steed (of the sun), the 1 R.-V., i., 112, 8, 10; i., 116, 10. 2 Hist. Anc. Sans. Lit., p. 551. THE THEOLOGY OE THE VEDAS. 65 Dawn was seen, revealed by her rays, with brilliant treasures she follows every one. " Thou who art a blessing where thou art near, drive far away the unfriendly ; make the pastures wide, give us safety ! Remove the haters, bring treasures ! Raise up wealth to the worshipper, thou mighty Dawn ! " Shine for us with thy best rays, thou bright Dawn, thou who lengthenest our life, thou the love of all, who givest us food, who givest us wealth in cows, horses and chariots ! " Thou daughter of the sky, thou high-born Dawn, whom the Vasishthas magnify with songs, give us riches high and wide ; all ye gods, protect us always with your blessings ! "- 1 The mountains, rivers, trees, and plants are invoked as so many high powers.- " May the mountains, the waters, the generous plants and the heavens ; may the earth with the trees, and the two worlds, protect us ! ' " May the highly-praised mountains and the shining rivers shield us ! " 3 The animals which surround man, the horse by which he is borne to battle, the cow which supplies him with nourishment, the dog which guards his dwelling, the frogs which croak in the replenished pool, the bird 1 R.-V., vii., 77. - Ibid., vii., 34, 23. Seneca, in one of his Letters, says, " We contemplate with awe the head or sources of the great rivers. We erect altars to a rivulet, which suddenly and vigorously breaks forth from the dark. We worship the springs of hot water, and certain lakes are sacred to us on account of their darkness and unfathomable depth." 3 R.-V., v., 41, n, 12. r" 66 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. which by its cry reveals to him his future, as well as the numerous classes of creatures which threaten his exist- ence, receive from him the worship of either honour or deprecation. The Pitris, spirits of departed ancestors, the Rhibus (Greek Orpheus), the deified artisans of the gods ; Yama, the god of Hades, and his two terrific dogs which guard the entrance to immortality ; the sacrificial victims and utensils, bows, arrows, axes, and drums, are all invoked. In short, whatever excited the sentiments of pain or pleasure, joy or sadness, confidence or appre- hension, found a niche in the Vedic Pantheon. Goddesses do not occupy very prominent positions in the songs of the Rishis. Prithivi, 1 the wife of Dyaus, Aditi, and Ushas ; Sarasvati and Sindhu, which are both goddesses and rivers ; Ganga, Sinivali, and Raka, god- 1 The earth, prithivi (broad), is called mfita, mother, — corre- sponding to the Greek Demeter, — and Heaven and Earth are addressed as the parents of gods and men. " At the sacrifice I worship with offerings Heaven and Earth, the promoters of righteousness, the great, the wise, the energetic, who, having gods for their offspring, thus lavish, with the gods, the choicest blessings in consequence of our hymns." " With my invoca- tions I adore the thought of the beneficent Father, and that mighty inherent power of the Mother. The prolific parents have made all creatures, and through their favours have con- ferred wide immortality on their offspring " (R.-V., i., 159, 1, 2). The resemblance between this account of the Heaven and the Earth and that of Hesiod is too striking to pass unnoticed. According to the Theogony, all gods, men, and animals sprang from the union of these two ; and hence, in his Works and Days, the Earth is called yij ndvrwv firjrrip, the Earth, the mother of all things. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 07 desses who preside at procreation and birth, are invoked. Varunani, Indrani, Agnayi, Asvini, and Rudrasi, the wives of the great gods Varuna, Indra, Agni, Asvins, and of Rudra respectively, are only mentioned. There are no particular functions assigned to them, and they do not occupy positions at all corresponding to the high rank of their husbands. It should be mentioned to the credit of the Vedic Rishis, that they pass over with delicate hints those myths relating to the amours and marriages of the gods, which must have formed the basis of a great many representations in the Hymns. In this they contrast favourably with the authors of the Brahmanas, and especially with those of the Epic Poems and Puranas, in which the amours of Brahma and Sarasvati, Vishnu and Laksmi, Siva and Parvati are described in the most voluptuous terms. Some portions of the Hymns, how- ever, are not fit for translation. (2) Metaphysical Gods. As the preceding class contains the "former' gods, the gods of Poetry, so this class contains the " latter," the gods of Philosophy. Unlike the "former," these do not appeal to the senses ; there is nothing in nature corresponding to them ; they are the pure creation of the human mind, the result of abstraction and generalisation. The human mind is swayed by two imperious tenden- cies, — the one impels it to connect effects with their causes ; the other, to carry up its knowledge into unity. Both tendencies, if not identical in their origin, coincide in 68 THE TEACHING OE THE VEDAS. their result ; for in proportion as we ascend from cause to cause, the nearer we approach to absolute unity. With regard to the second tendency, the tendency to generalise and unify our knowledge, Sir William Hamil- ton says, " This tendency is one of the most prominent characteristics of the human mind. It, in part, originates in the imbecility of our faculties. We are lost in the multitude of the objects presented to our imagination, and it is only by assorting them in classes that we can reduce the infinity of nature to the finitude of mind. The conscious ego, the conscious self, by its nature one, seems also constrained to require that unity by which it is distinguished, in everything which it receives, and in everything which it produces ..." e.g., "We are con- scious of a scene presented to our senses only by uniting its parts into a perceived whole. Perception is thus a unifying act. The imagination cannot represent an object without uniting, in a single combination, the various elements of which it is composed. Generalisa- tion is only the apprehension of the one in the many, and language is little else than a registry of the facti- tious unities of thought. The judgment cannot affirm or deny one notion of another, except by uniting the two in one indivisible act of comparison. Syllogism is simply the union of two judgments in a third. Reason, Intellect, vovs, in fine, concatenating thoughts and objects into system ; and, tending always from particular facts to general laws, from general laws to universal principles, is never satisfied in its ascent till it comprehend (which, however, it can never do) all laws in a single formula, THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 69 and consummate all conditional knowledge in the unity of unconditional existence. Xor is it only in science that the mind desiderates the one. We seek it equally in works of art." " Hence the mind," says Anaxagoras, " only knows when it subdues its objects, when it reduces the man}- to the one ; ' and •' The end of Philosophy," says Plato, " is the intuition of unity ".' In obedience to this imperious tendency of the mind to generalise its knowledge, the Vedic Aryans began at a very early period to abstract and classify the gods. They divided them into three classes of (at first) equal number, and assigned to them three separate localities for their abode.- Thev then joined together the names of two gods, sharing certain functions in common, and formed a compound with a dual termination, which com- pound they invoked as a new deity, such as Dyavaprithivi, Mitravarunau, and Indravayu. They also grouped the gods together under a common name, Visvadevas, the all-gods, and addressed prayers and praises to them in their collective capacity. Advancing a step further in their generalisation, they perceived that many gods, having sprung from the same source, had a great main- attributes and functions in common. They suspected, therefore, that their essence, or what underlies them, is one and the same, though variously named. " They call him (the sun) Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni ; then he is the well-winged heavenly Garutmat ; that which is 1 Lectures on Metaphysics, pp. 67, 8, 9. - R.-V., i., 139-11 ; A.-V., x., 9, 12. 70 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. one, the wise call it many ways ; they call it Agni, Yama, Matarisvan." 1 Again, "Wise poets make the beautiful winged, though he is one, manifold by words". 2 The same sentiment is found among the wise men of Greece. Kleanthes, in a hymn to Zeus, says, " Most glorious among immortals, with many names, Almighty, always hail to thee, Zeus". And Maximus Tyrius says, " Men make distinctions between the gods. They are not aware that all the gods have one law, one life, the same ways, not diverse, not mutually hostile ; all rule ; all are of the same age ; all pursue our good ; all have the same dignity and authority ; all are immortal ; one their nature, under many names." 8 Seneca utters the same sentiment in the words, "Omnia ejusdem Dei nomina, varie utentis sua potestate'. All names of one and the same god, as diversely using his power. 4 One poet openly declares that the Rishis did not know God, and that all their songs are " idle talk "."' " He who is our Father and Generator, who, as Disposer, knows all rites and worlds, who is the one assigner of names to the gods, to him have all other worlds recourse as the solution and end of all questions."' 1 " That which is beyond the earth and sky, beyond gods and spirits : what earliest embryo did the waters hold, in which all the gods were assembled ? Ye know not Him who produced these things. Something else is within you 1 R.-V., i., 164, 46. - Ibid., x., 11 4, 5. :! Diss., xxxix., 5. 4 Intel. Syst. Un.. vii., p. 239. 5 R.-V., x., 82, 7. fi Ibid., x., 82, 3. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 71 (polytheism). The chanters of hymns go about enveloped in mist, and unsatisfied with ' idle talk'." 1 Another says, " Knowing nothing myself, I ask the Seers here who know, that I may learn. He who established the six worlds is that one which exists in the form of the unborn Being." 2 A higher flight of abstraction we find in Skamba, the supporter; Visvakarman, the maker of all things ; Praja- pati, the lord of creatures. Skamba is an expression of the abstract conception of the power which supports the world ; and both Visvakarman and Prajapati were epithets of the sun [Surya)' 6 before they were raised into indepen- dent deities. Neither of these, however, was destined to realise either the highest abstraction of Religion, or the highest abstraction of Philosophy. At last an old sage flashed forth a few thoughts — whether as a reminiscence or as the guess of genius which, by reflection, ought to have led to the recognition of one Supreme Being separate from nature. Musing on the beginning of all things, he goes back to the nothing which preceded the works of creation, and says, " There was then neither nonentity (asad) nor entity (sad) ; there was no atmosphere nor sky above. Death was not then, nor immortality ; there was no distinction of da}- or night. ' That One' [tad ekam) breathed calmly self-supported ; there was nothing different from, or above It. Desire first rose in It, which was the primal germ 1 R.-V.. x., 82, 5, 6, 7. - Ibid., i., 164. 6. 3 Ibid., x.. 170. 4 ; iv., 53. 2. 54. 4. 72 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. of mind, and which sages, searching with their intellect, have discerned in their heart to be the bond which connects entity with nonentity." l Here the existence of one self-existent Being is boldly asserted. He existed before creation. He existed, not as a great principle or an omnipresent power, but as a sentient Being, having a "desire" or "will " ; by which " desire ' or " will " " entity " was produced from " non- entity," the world from the dark unfathomable abyss. This is the nearest approach to monotheism perhaps in the whole Vedas ; — the highest goal reached by the Aryan mind. It seems strange, from the position of those who try to account for the conception of God on natural grounds alone, that, possessing such ideas, and knowing the attributes of the Infinite (as evidenced by the description of the physical gods), the old bards did not go further, and grasp the idea of God in all its fulness. But it was not to be. It seems to be always the fate of the Hindu thinker, that he no sooner abstracts the idea of God from natural phenomena, than he loses sight of nature altogether, and merges all in God ! He carries his love of unity into its highest fruition, to the absolute identity of the ego and the non-ego, mind and matter, subject and object, the Creator and the creation, God and the universe. Hence polytheism and ideal pantheism are two streams, which, from the earliest times, have run parallel in India. As it was in the Vedic age, so it is now. Polytheism is the religion of the ignorant 1 R.-V., x., 129, 1, 2, 4. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 73 multitude, and ideal Pantheism is the religion of the thoughtful few. We meet again with the idea represented by the demonstrative " That," but without the embodied " One ' of the hymn, as an expression of the highest abstraction of Philosophy, viz., Monism, or the unity of thought. Before reaching that, however, the Hindu mind had to travel through the intricate labyrinth of two concep- tions, different in their origin, which, after running parallel for a time, became united under the appellation " That". These two conceptions are (i) Atman, and (2) Brahma. 1. Atman, from ah, to breathe, means life, soul, spirit, self, or ego, both individual and universal. " Increase, O bright Indra ! this our manifold food, by which, Hero, thou givest us life (Tman) like sap, 1 to move everywhere." - Here Tman, another form of Atman, means life, particularly animal life. In a hymn ad- dressed to the horse which is about to be sacrificed, it is said, " Let not thy dear self {priya dtuia) burn or afflict thee as thou approachest the sacrifice". Here priya a/ma is used as the reflexive pronoun " thyself," denoting personality. 3 Perceiving that the true principle of life is not the body or the outward form, but the breath or the spirit within, the ancient Aryans concluded that the world, also, is the body or the outward form of a breath, a soul, or a self within, which is its life. 4 1 See this illustrated in the Khandogya Upanishad, v. 2 R.-V., i. 63, 8. 3 Ibid., i., 162, 20; M. M., H. S. L., p. 20. 4k 'As we ourselves are governed by a soul, so hath the 74 THE TEACHING OE THE VEDAS. " Who has seen the first-born, when he who has no bones {i.e., form) bare him who had bones ? Where was the life, the blood, the soul (self) of the world ? Who went to ask this from any man that knew it ?" 1 Here the soul, the Atman, of the world can only mean that self-existent, free, independent spirit, which, though the Rishis did not grasp it, is the life of all lives, and the moving power of all things. In this sense the sun is metaphorically said to be "the soul of all that moves and rests";' 2 and likewise is the wind (Vdta) "the soul of all the gods and source of the world " (at ma devanam bhuvanasya garbhd)? This idea of the Soul, or Self, of the world developed in the Brahmanas and Upanishads until it absorbed all other ideas and existencies, — until it was regarded as the only real entity. " In the beginning this (world) was Self alone ; there was nothing else winking. He thought, Let me create the worlds, and he created the worlds." 4 "As the web issues from the spider; as little sparks proceed from fire ; so from the one Soul proceed all breathing animals, all worlds, all the gods, and all beings." 5 " Being in this world, we may know the world in like manner a soul, that containeth it ; and this is called Zeus, being the cause of life to all things that live ; and, therefore, Zeus or Jupiter is said to reign over all things ' (Phoenuhes, in Cudworth, Int. Sys., vol. i., 424). 1 R.-V., i., 164, 4. - Ibid., i., 115, 1. 3 Ibid., x.. 168, 4. 4 Aitareya-aryanaka Upanishad, 4; i., 1, 2. 5 Brihadaryanaka Up., ii., 1, 20; Mundaka Up., 1. 7. THE THEOLOGY OE THE VEDAS. 75 Supreme Spirit; if there be ignorance of Him then complete death ensues ; those who know Him become immortal." 1 "Soul is the lord and king of all; as the spokes in the nave, so all worlds and souls are fastened in the one Soul."- "When a person regards his own soul as truly god, as the lord of what was and is to be, then he does not wish to conceal himself from that Soul." " That Soul the gods adore as the light of lights, and as the immortal."' 5 "As flowing rivers are resolved into the sea, losing their names and forms, so the wise, freed from name and form, pass into the Divine Spirit, which is greater than the great. He who knows that Supreme Spirit becomes spirit." 4 "That divine Self is not to be grasped by tradition, nor by understanding, nor by all revelation. He whom the Self chooses, by him alone is the Self to be grasped." "That Self chooses him as his own."" " Sages, endowed with meditation and intuition, saw the power of the Divine Self, concealed by his own qualities."" In the Brihad- aryanaka Upanishad" the sage Yajnavalkhya tells his favourite wife Maitreyi, who desires to become immor- tal, that immortality consists in perceiving the Divine Spirit, Atma, the absolute Self, as the only existence. 1 Bvihadaryanaka Up., 4, 14. 4. Svetasvatara Up., 5. 6. - Bvihadaryanaka Up., ii., 5, 15. : * Bvihadaryanaka, 4, 4, 15, 6. 4 Mundaka Up., iii., 2, 5, 9. Katha. Up., i., 2, 23. 6 Svetasvatara Up., i.. 3. ii.. 4. 8. 11, 12, 13. j6 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. '• Whosoever looks for the Brahman class elsewhere than in the Self, should be abandoned by the Brahman class. Whosoever looks for the Kshatriya class elsewhere than in the Self, should be abandoned by the Kshatriya class. Whosoever looks for the worlds elsewhere than in the Self, should be abandoned by the worlds. Whosoever looks for the Devas elsewhere than in the Self, should be abandoned by the Devas. Whosoever looks for creatures elsewhere than in the Self, should be abandoned by the creatures. Whosoever looks for everything elsewhere than in the Self, should be abandoned by everything. This Brahman class, this Kshatriya class, these worlds, these Devas, these creatures, this everything, all is that Self." " As all waters find their centre in the sea, all touches in the skin, all tastes in the tongue, all smells in the nose, all colours in the eye, all sounds in the ear, all percepts in the mind, all knowledge in the heart, all actions in the hands, all movements in the feet, and all the Vedas in speech. As a lump of salt, when thrown into water, becomes dissolved into water, and could not be taken out again, but wherever we taste the water it is salt ; thus verily, O Maitreyi, does this great Being, endless, unlimited, consisting of nothing but knowledge, rise from out these elements, and vanish again into them. When he has departed, there is no more knowledge, I say, O Maitreyi ! " Thus spoke Yajnavalkhya. Then Maitreyi said, " Here thou hast bewildered me, sir, when thou sayest that, having departed, there is no more knowledge ". THE THEOLOGY OE THE VEDAS. JJ But Yajnavalkhya replied, " O Maitreyi, I have said nothing that is bewildering. This is enough, O beloved, for wisdom." " For when there is, as it were, duality, then one sees the other, one smells the other, one hears the other, one salutes the other, one perceives the other, one knows the other ; but when the Self only is all this, how should he smell another, how should he see another, how should he hear another, how should he salute another, how should he perceive another, how should he know another ? How should he know him by whom he knows all this ? How, O beloved, should he know (himself) the knower ? ' " The aspirant must learn the falsity of plurality, the fictitious nature of duality in experience, and the sole reality of the super-sensible and unitary self. He must crush every sense, and suppress every thought, that his mind may become a mirror to reflect the pure, charac- terless being, thought and bliss." 1 2. Brahma. In the Rig-Veda Brahma, from a root signifying force, wish, or will, means prayer, or sacred text, because a subtle influence was supposed to accom- pany the utterance of a sacred formula, sufficiently strong to bend the gods, and make the act of sacrifice effectual. 2 And Brahman in the masculine means, " he of prayer," the man who utters prayers, the priest, and gradually 1 Gough's Philosophy of the Upanishads, p. 138. - R. V., i., 31, 18 ; i., 37, 4 ; i., 62, 13 ; i., 80, 10 ; ii., 18, 7 ; ii., 23, 1, 2 ; ii., 39, 8 ; iii., 12, 5 ; iii., 51, 6 ; iv., 16, 20-1 ; iv., 22, 1 ; vi., 69, 7 ; vii., 22, 9 ; \ iii., 77, 4 ; viii., 78, 3 ; x.. 13. 1 : x., 54, 6; x., 89, 3 ; x., 105, 8. 78 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. the Brahman by profession. 1 " Come, Indra, let us make prayers (brakmdni) which magnify thee." " A new prayer {brahma navyd) has been made for thee." 2 "The prayer {brahma) is my protecting armour." :; Vak, the goddess of speech, says : "I myself make known this, which is agreeable both to gods and men. Him whom I love I make terrible, I make him a priest" 4 (brahma nam). "Indra is a priest" {brahma). " He it is whom they call a Rishi, a priest, a pious sacrificer (rishim brahma nam yajnanyam)" b Agni in R.-V., vi., 16, is called " Brahmanaskave, which is ex- plained mantrasya sabdaxitar, " sounder or articulator of prayer." " The priests (brahmanaJi) magnify Indra by their praise." Brahma in the sense of a god does not appear in the Rig, the oldest Veda ; but in the Atharva, the most recent, he is spoken of as a god " who dwells in the highest place, whose measure is the earth, whose belly is the atmosphere, whose head is the sky, and who is worthy of all reverence". 1 ' In the Brahmanas he is more fully developed, and is spoken of as the " first- born," the "self-existent," the "creator of heaven and earth," and the " best of the gods "." No wonder that the ancient Hindus, who were so impressed with mysterious powers everywhere, deified 1 R.-Y.. i., 80, 1 ; ii., 2, 5 ; x., 85, 3 ; ii., 39, 1 ; vii., 42, 1 ; viii., 81, 30; ix., 112, 1; x., 85, 29; vii.. 103, 1. - Ibid., viii.. 51, 4 ; iv., 16. 21. :1 Ibid., vi.. 75, 19. 4 Ibid., x., 125, 5. e Ibid., viii., 16, 7 ; x., 107, 6. 6 A.-V., x., 7. 17. 24. 32. ' Satapatha brahmana, viii.. 21, 7, 3. THE THEOLOGY OE THE VEDAS. 79 the power of prayer. They had already deified the Soma juice, in consequence of its stimulating effect, enabling men to do work beyond their natural strength. And now that they had unwavering faith in the almighty power of prayer, " to bend ' the most intractable of the gods to grant whatever boon they asked, what was more natural than that they should deify it ? What was more natural than to conclude that the power which controlled the gods, and the channel through which all blessings flowed to themselves, must be above all other powers, must in fact be " That One " who is above and beyond all existences ? Agni was before called Brahmanaspati, the " Lord of prayer,'* in two senses : he was the hearer of prayer as a god, and the presenter of prayer to the gods as mediator or High Priest. In the deification of prayer, Brahmanaspati disappeared. His function as the hearer of prayer was transferred to prayer personified (brahma), and his function as a High Priest or mediator was transferred to the Brahmans, the utterers 6f prayer. This was the origin of both the god Brahma, which now holds the first place in the Hindu triad, and the Brahman caste, which has ruled India with a rod of iron for twenty-six centuries at least ! What an awful de- gradation of religion to substitute the cold, unfeeling, metaphysical god, Brahma, for the bright, humane sympathetic Agni, the "father, brother, and friend of all " ; and to exchange the haughty disdainful Brahman, who considers himself defiled by contact with any one below himself in the social scale, for the Hi^h Priest 8o THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. who, though god, condescended to be the " guest of every one," smiling on all without distinction ! Brahma grew and became the supreme god of the learned. He gradually absorbed the idea of Soul, whether individual or universal, and became identical with all existencies. In the Aitareya Upanishad it is said, that " Originally this universe was indeed Soul only, nothing else whatever existed " ; 1 and then, in answer to the question — "What is this Soul?" it is stated, "This is Brahma ; he is Indra ; he is Prajapati ; these gods are he and so are the five primary elements. . . . Whatever lives, or walks, or flies, or what is immovable, all that is the eye of intelligence. . . . Intelligence is Brahma the great one."' 2 " All the universe is Brahma ; from him it springs, into him it is dissolved ; in him it breathes — so meditate thou with a calm mind." 3 "As, from blazing fire, sparks, being like unto fire, fly forth a thousandfold, thus are various beings brought forth from the Imperishable, and return hither also." 4 " Lord of the Universe, glory to Thee ; Thou art the Self of all ; Thou art the maker of all, the enjoyer of all ; Thou art life, and the lord of all pleasure and joy." 5 Here Self both divine and human, as well as all existencies, are gathered up in Brahma. Max Miiller says, " It was an epoch in the history of the human mind when the iden- tity of the masculine Self and the neutral Brahma was 1 Aitareya Up., ii., 4, 1, 1. - Ibid., ii., 6, 5, 6. 3 Khand. Up., iii., 14, 1, 2. 4 Mundak. Up., ii., 1, 1. 5 Maitr. Br. Up., 5, 1. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 8 1 for the first time perceived ; and the name of the discoverer has not been forgotten. It was Sandilya who declared that the Self within our hearts is Brahma." ' Then, after identifying the two ideas — Atman and Brahma — both are resolved into the original "That' of R.-V., 129, 2, 3. "All worlds are contained in it (Brahma), and no one goes beyond. This is 'That'." "As the one fire, after it has entered the world, through one, becomes different according to whatever it burns, thus the one Self within all beings becomes different according to whatever it enters, and exists also without." " There is one ruler, the Self, within all things, who makes the one form manifold. The wise who perceive him within their self, to them belongs eternal happiness ; not to others." ki There is one eternal thinker, thinking non-eternal thoughts, who, though one, fulfils the desires of many. The wise who perceive him within their self, to them belongs eternal peace ; not to others." " They per- ceive that highest, indescribable pleasure, saying, This is 'That'." 2 One of the arguments we adduced in proof of the priority of Varuna to other Aryan gods was the fact that the ethical consciousness of sin is more prominent and intense in the hymns addressed to him than in the hymns addressed to other gods. We have historical 1 Hist. A 11c. Sans. Lit., p. 223. - KatJm. Up., ii.. 5. 8. 9. 12, 13, 14 ; 6, 1. 6 82 THE TEACHING OE THE VEDAS. evidence that Brahma is the last divine conception of the Vedas ; and it is a noteworthy fact that with the disappearance of the conception of God as a person- ality, the ethical consciousness of sin also disappeared. For, apart from a personal God, there can be no sin as the transgression of an objective law. Much less can there be when a man is regarded as only the fic- titious appearance of one infinite characterless entity, called Brahma, which is " neither effect nor cause, neither past nor future ; which is without sound, with- out touch, without form, without decay, without smell, without beginning", without end"; 1 which is "without breath, without mind, pure, higher than the highest, Imperishable ". 2 " It is not woman, it is not man, nor is it neuter ; whatever body it takes, with that it is joined." 3 We ma}' suitably close this section in the words of Dr. Christlieb, " If the thoughts of the old Hindus did sometimes rise from the contemplation of various deified natural phenomena to that of one primal cause of all things, this cause was regarded not as the one God, but as an impersonal undefined existence, of which all that could be said was, that is not what it is ; with which, therefore, every personal communion in prayer would be impossible". 4 This quite agrees with the Brihadaryanaka 1 Katha. Up., i., 3, 15. a Mundaka Up., ii., 1, 2. 3 Svetasvatara Up., v. 10. 4 Modern Doubt and Christian Belief. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 83 Upanishad, which says that the teaching of Brahma is " No, No". 1 § 3. 'Hie Origin of the Vedic Concept God. To a superficial observer, the Vedic gods appear nothing more than natural phenomena personified and worshipped. Or, in the language of Professor Max Midler, " They are masks without an actor, the creations of man, not his creator, they are nomina, not numina, names without beings, not beings without names ". Comparative Phil- ology has disclosed their original physical import, and the myths of ages, which had clustered around them, have been scattered like darkness before the dawn. Let Hindus ponder this, and they will be convinced that the religion of their ancestors in the far-off Vedic age has not been altogether inaptly denominated " Phy- siolatrv ". And yet, we should be doing injustice to that religion by representing it as nothing more than " Physiolatry ". No religion has ever existed without recognising the supersensuous or supernatural. Even the lowest fetish worshippers do not worship a common stone or a com- mon piece of bone, but stones and bones which are supposed to possess some invisible, superhuman power. And so the Vedic religion was not all nature, but nature and the supernatural blended so mysteriously that the 1 Bvih. Ay., iii., 9, 26. 84 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. one could not be distinguished from the other. 1 Were it all nature, there would be no room for personification, since personification is the ascription of human life and activities to objects not naturally possessing them. The Vedic Aryans, by personifying and worshipping the objects of nature, show that they were conscious of dependence upon, and relationship to, something higher than nature. Personification implies the knowledge of a person, and the personification of a natural object as an object of worship implies the possession of the concept, more or less clear, of what we denominate God. The questions then arise — What is the nature of this concept ? How was it formed ? What was the genesis of the idea of God ? Did man originally evolve it out of his ignorance of the unknown causes of the order and eccentricities of natural phenomena, which struck him with wonder and awe ? or from frightful dreams, the result of over-eating ? or is it the natural and inevitable product of the human mind when in contact with the external world ? Ex nihilo nihil fit, or, as the Hindu philo- sophers put it, Navastuno vastu sidditi ? The cause must be adequate to produce the effect. Unless man, therefore, were endowed with the power or faculty to conceive and to adore some invisible superhuman Being,, he could no more evolve the idea of such a Being from gross ignor- ance, rude fears, or frightful dreams, than the dog or the 1 "These rude bards have not analysed their consciousness ; the material and the spiritual are still blended together in their conceptions " (Johnson's Asiatic Religions). THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 85 monkey. What we want to know is the origin of the faculty or the tendency which irresistibly leads man to recognise and worship some object as God. This ten- dency, present everywhere, like a weft running through the warp of human history, expresses an eternal fact, viz., that man is constituted a religions being. This ten- dency is as inseparable from his nature as the tendency to express his thoughts in articulate speech. Hence he grows into religion as naturally and unconsciously as he grows into manhood. He no sooner wakes to the consciousness that he is a being separate from nature, than he feels his dependence upon, and moral relation- ship to, some Being above nature, whose smiles are his joy, whose frowns are his woe. This is the first sense of the Godhead, the sensus nu minis ; " a sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused ;'' a sense, not the result of reasoning or generalisation, but an immediate perception, as real and irresistible as that of the ego. " In perceiving the Infinite, we neither count, nor measure, nor compare, nor name. We know not what it is, but we know that it is, and we know it because we actually feel it, and are brought in contact with it. If it seems too bold to say that man actually sees the invisible, let us say that he suffers from the invisible, and this invisible is only a special name for the In- finite." ' And as man is conscious of the ego before knowing what man is, so he is conscious of the super- natural before knowing what God is. This is necessarily 1 Max M tiller's Hibbert Lectures, p. 38. 86 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. a very vague and incomplete idea of the Godhead, so vague as to elude definition, and so incomplete as not even to be named. 1 Herodotus tells us that the Pelas- gians for a long time offered prayers and sacrifices to the gods without having names for any one of them ; and, according to Tacitus, the ancient Germans wor- shipped God as " that secret thing known only by reverence"; and we have seen that some of the Vedic bards express their consciousness of Him by the phrase "The One' or "That One''. A venerable old Brah- i "With the first development of consciousness, there grows up, as a part of it, the innate feeling that our life, natural and spiritual, is not in our power to sustain or prolong ; that there is One above us on whom we are dependent, whose existence we learn, and whose presence we realise, by the sure instinct of prayer." Again, " We are compelled by the constitution of our mind to believe in the existence of an Absolute and In- finite Being, — a belief which appears forced upon us as the complement of our consciousness of the relative and the finite " (Mansel's Bampton Lectures, pp. Si, 45). And Sir William Hamilton, though maintaining that "the absolute is conceived merely by a negative of conceivability,' 1 remarks that, "by a wonderful revelation we are thus in the very consciousness of our inabilitv to conceive aught above the relative and finite, inspired with a belief in the existence of something uncon- ditioned, beyond the sphere of all comprehension". And Herbert Spencer says, "Besides that definite consciousness of which Logic formulates the laws, there is also an indefinite consciousness which cannot be formulated. Besides complete thoughts, and besides the thoughts which, though incomplete, admit of completion, there are thoughts which it is impossible to complete, and yet which are still real, in the sense that they are normal affections of the mind " (First Principles, p. 88). THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 87 man told us once, with feelings of deep concern, lk 1 am very glad that you have come to my village to-day, for you will tell me about that 'Great One' whom all should worship. I am greatly perplexed about Him. I know that He is, but I do not know who He is, or where to find Him." Then pointing to the sun, he said, " I have been looking for Him there, but cannot find Him ; and in this idol," pointing to the image of Vishnu in the temple, " but He is not there. I have searched for Him in this book'' -holding up the Vishnu Purana— "but cannot find Him." And so the ancient Aryans, not knowing Him of whose existence they were certain, tried to find Him everywhere in the phenomena of nature. They personified these ; for an object of worship must be a person capable of knowing, of feeling, and of exercising influence, to whom they could pray and offer sacrifice. 1 "It is only by conceiving Him as a conscious Being that we can stand in any religious relation to Him ; that we can form such a representation of Him as is demanded by our spiritual wants, insufficient though it be to satisfy our intellectual curiosity." - But though the Vedic Aryans were ignorant of God as a definite Being, separate from natural phenomena, they 1 •• Veneration or gratitude towards any being implies belief in the conscious action of that being, implies ascription of a prompting motive of a high kind, and deeds resulting from it ; gratitude cannot be entertained towards something which is unconscious" (Herbert Spencer, Nineteenth Century, for July, 1884). 2 Mansel's Bampton Lectures, pp. 57, 58. 88 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. possessed a remarkably accurate knowledge of the actions and attributes which pre-eminently belong to Him. They ascribed to the personified elements of nature the func- tions of Creator, Preserver, and Ruler ; and the attributes of Infinity, Omnipotence, Omniscience, Immortality, Righteousness, Holiness, and Mercy. This knowledge is far more definite and extensive than that given in the sensus numinis. How did they acquire it ? An answer to this question will make clear both the validity of our definition of the " first sense of the Godhead," and the means by which it was developed, so as to embrace the leading characteristics of the Deity. There are only three answers conceivable, viz. : (i) They acquired it by Intuition, (2) by Experience, or (3) by Revelation. 1. Did they acquire it by Intuition ? We have already stated what knowledge of God we conceive man capable of acquiring by intuition ; viz., a vague and indefinite idea of the supernatural in the natural, of some Being above on whom he depends, and to whom he owes homage. But who that Being is, and what His attri- butes are, he has no means of knowing. 1 If this be correct, it follows that the ancient Aryans did not acquire 1 The religious sentiment, as Mansel says, "which impels men to believe in and worship a Supreme Being, is an evidence of His existence, but not an exhibition of His character : '. And again, "The conviction that an Infinite Being exists seems forced upon us by the manifest incompleteness of our finite knowledge, but we have no rational means whatever of deter- mining what is the nature of that Being". THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 89 their knowledge of the divine functions and attributes bv intuition. But in order to test the correctness of this position, let us suppose, with some Philosophers and Theologians, that man possesses a power of intuition transcending that of the sensus nu minis, by means of which he is able, so to speak, to gaze immediately on God ; and to this power let us ascribe the Vedic know- ledge of the divine functions and attributes. Or, in other words, let us suppose that as man acquires his knowledge of the external world, because his senses give him the intuition of it, so he has the knowledge of God, because he has a higher power of intuition, by which he directly perceives Him. On this supposition, the Vedic Aryans must have acquired such knowledge of God as is possible for man to acquire, viz., as a personal Being separate from nature, yet immanent in it, and possessing the functions and attributes which thev ascribed to Him. For in a mental intuition of this kind, it is inconceivable that one can acquire knowledge of the divine attributes without at the same time acquiring" knowledge of the divine person to whom they belong. 1 It is historically true, however, that the Vedic Aryans did not know such a Being", but only His attributes and functions, which they applied indiscriminately to all the gods of their Pantheon, the deified elements of nature. 1 " It is rigorously impossible to conceive that our knowledge is a knowledge of Appearances only, without at the same time conceiving a Reality of which the}* are appearances, for appearance without reality is unthinkable'' (Herbert Spencer's First Principles, p. 88). 90 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. All these gods are alike Supreme, Creators, Preser- vers, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Beneficent, Immortal. " Among you, O gods, there is none that is small, none that is young ; for all are great indeed." 1 Heaven and Earth are said to be the parents of the gods, not only of the inferior ones, but of the great gods, Indra, Agni, and Surya ; and each of these again is said to be the Creator of Heaven and Earth, as well as of all things visible and invisible. " Indra is greater than all ; ' " Agni compre- hends all the gods as the circumference of a wheel does its spokes". 2 Surya is the concentration of all power in one, the wonderful host of rays ; ' " the eye of Mitra, Varuna, Agni;" "soul of all that moves or rests". 3 Varuna is the lord of all, of Heaven and Earth ; and yet was nursed in the lap of Aditi. Soma " generates all the gods, and upholds the worlds ". " He is the maker of Heaven and Earth, of Agni, of Surya, of Indra, and of Vishnu." 4 " Visvakarman is wise and pervading, Creator, Disposer, Father, highest object of vision." 5 The Dawn is the " mother of the gods, eye of all the earth, light of the sacrifice"/' Aditi is not only the mother of all the gods, but is identical with all that exists ; and yet Aditi is both the mother and the daughter of Daksha. " Daksha was born of Aditi, and Aditi from Daksha." " For Aditi was born, O Daksha, she who is thy daughter ; after her the gods were born, 1 R.-V., viii., 30, 1 - Ibid., v., 13, 6. 3 Ibid., i., 115, 1. 4 Ibid., ix., 96, 5, 6. 5 Ibid., x., 82, 1, 3. ,! Ibid., 113, 19. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 91 the blessed who share immortality." 1 Then these gods are mutually interchangeable. " Thou, Agni, art Indra, art Vishnu, becamest Mitra when kindled ; in thee, the son of strength, are all the gods." 2 Indra says, " I was Manu, I am the sun, I am the wise Rishi Kakshivan". :; It might be objected that the cosmical functions of these gods are sufficient to account for the similarity of their description, and the interchangeableness of their names. True ; but that only proves that the Vedic Aryans were ignorant of the true God, though they possessed a know- ledge more or less clear of His attributes and functions. It might be affirmed that the personality of God was originally apprehended by the soul, but that in course of time it gradually faded away so as to leave nothing behind but His attributes. But (a) this is inconsistent with the supposition that man possesses a power trans- cending that of the se/isus numinis, by means of which he directly perceives God. For as long as man is conscious, he must be conscious of that power ; and if that power once supplied him with the knowledge of God and His attributes, there is no reason to conclude that it will not always do so. (/?) Had the Vedic Aryans acquired their knowledge of the divine attributes and functions bv intui- tion, and assuming that that intuition implies a knowledge of the divine Person, and that the mental and spiritual necessities of man are similar throughout the world, it is natural to suppose that all other nations would have 1 R.-V., x., 72, 4, 5. - Ibid., ii., 1, 3; v., 3, 1. u Ibid., iv., 26, 1. 0,2 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. acquired divine knowledge in the same way. There is no fact, however, better known to the students of ancient Religions and Mythologies than that no individuals — much less nations — when left to themselves, have ever acquired anything like a clear and certain conception of a Supreme Personal Being distinct from nature. " Even Plato did not make his way up to the idea of a divine, self-conscious, Personal Being, nor even distinctly pro- pounded the question of the personality of God. It is true that Aristotle maintained more definitely than Plato that the Deity must be a personal Being. But even for him, it was not an absolute, free, creative power, but one limited by primordial matter ; not the world's Creator, but only one who gave shape to the rude materials, and so not truly absolute." 1 2. If the Vedic Aryans did not acquire their knowledge of the divine functions and attributes intuitively, did they acquire it empirically ? We acquire knowledge by expe- rience, by what we feel, hear and see. All knowledge is either produced or occasioned by sense and reason. And from one point of view there is nothing in the intellect except what has passed through these two avenues. But sense and reason, we are told, are finite, and deal only with finite things ; and hence whatever transcends these limits is unknown and unknowable. And as the idea of God transcends the apprehension of sense and the com- prehension of reason, it is pronounced a mere hallucina- tion, and the grand attributes ascribed to Him are said 1 Dr. Christlieb's Modern Doubt and Christian Belief, p. 78. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 93 to be nothing more than the vague creations of poetic exuberance. But why man in every age and in every part of the world should entertain the idea of God, and clothe it with the highest attributes, is on this theory a problem unsolved. Besides, is it not a fact that all men are conscious of some things which transcend both their sense and reason, though their sense and reason were doubtless the occa- sion, or the factors, which produced that consciousness ? Are we not all conscious of infinite space, 1 and infinite time, either as an inference from, or an intuition by, the finite space and time supplied us by the senses ? When we look into space as far as we can see, we can neither fix its beginning nor its ending. And when we contem- plate time, whether we look backward or forward, there is always a beyond and a before. Both time and space are to us boundless, infinite. We are so constituted, that wherever we fix the boundary of either, we are conscious of time and space beyond. It is obvious, then, that we have the concept of infinite space, and the concept of infinite time, both of which are supersensuous, though both are either elaborated from, or occasioned by, sensuous 1 Herbert Spencer says, " Positive knowledge does not, and never can, fill the whole region of possible thought. At the uttermost reach of discovery there arises, and must ever arise, the question — What lies beyond ? As it is impossible to think of a limit to space so as to exclude the idea of space lying outside that limit, so we cannot conceive of any explanation profound enough to exclude the question - What is the ex- planation of the explanation ? " (First Principles, p. 88). 94 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. impressions. 1 The conclusions of experience are wider than its data. Hence there appears to be no a priori reason why the Vedic Aryans should not have acquired their knowledge of the divine attributes and functions by the impressions of sense and the reflections of reason- the mind in contact with the external world. We have seen already how they apparently acquired the concept of the Infinite by contemplating" the boundless- ness of the Firmament, from which the dawn and the sun flashed forth every morning, to which they gave expression in Aditi. The regularity with which the heavenly bodies move, the succession of day and night, and the periodical re- currence of the seasons, within the sphere of Varuna, the Heaven-God, might have suggested the idea that he is the Ruler of all things visible and invisible, whose laws, vratas, are fixed and unassailable. - The permanence of the Firmament as contrasted with the visible movements of the sun, moon, and stars, the 1 Hobbes calls the idea of the Infinite an absurd speech, because we have no conception of anything we call infinite {Leviathan, i., 3). What Herbert Spencer says of the " Absolute " is an answer to Hobbes, substituting the " In- finite " for the "Absolute". "To say that we cannot know the ' Infinite ' is by implication to affirm that there is an Infinite. In the very denial of our power to learn whajt the Infinite is, there lies hidden the assumption that it is, and the making of this assumption proves that the Infinite has been present to the mind, not as nothing, but as something" {First Principles, p. 88). - R.-V., ii., 27, 10; v., 85, 3 ; vii., 87, 6 ; hi., 54, 18. THE THEOLOGY OE THE VEDAS. 95 clouds, and storms, and the changes and bustle of this noisy world, might have originated the idea of Undecaying [agara), Immortal {amartd), or Eternal. 1 Again, when contemplating the Heaven-God, enthroned high above the earth, with the sun, moon, and stars, as eyes penetrating the darkness, and seeing all that takes place in the world below, what is more natural than that they should call him Asura Visvadevas, the All- knowing Spirit, or the Omniscient ? - Moreover, perceiving that light and form, colour and beauty, emerge every morning, out of a gloom in which all objects seem confounded, the Vedic Aryans might suppose that in like manner the brightness, order and beauty of the world, had sprung from darkness, in which the elements of all things had existed in indistinguishable chaos.' 5 And since it is the sun that disperses the dark- ness of the night, and gives back to man the Heaven and the Earth every morning, it is easy to understand how the}- might have concluded that the sun brought them forth from the original chaos, and hence that he is their Creator. 4 Again, the bright light of the sun calls men from their slumber every morning, and with its warm glow enlivens the world, and causes the earth to bring forth her fruits; and so it is conceivable that the idea of Preserver or Enlivener originated. R.-V., vi., 70, 1, 2. '-' Ibid., viii., 42, 1 ; vii., 60, 3, 6 ; i., 50, 2, 7 :; Ibid., x., 129. 4 Ibid., [., 115, 1 ; x., 170, 4. 5 Ibid., i., 115, 1 ; vii., 63, 2, 4. g6 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. Lastly, by applying superlative epithets to the sun, it would become supreme, " god among gods, and the divine leader of all the gods " ; and so the conception of Omnipotence might have been formed. 1 Now it is conceivable that in this way the functions of Creator, Preserver, and Ruler, and the attributes of Infinity, Omnipotence, Omniscience and Eternity might have been empirically acquired. And as it is natural to suppose that all the excellent qualities of which man is conscious as existing in himself, must necessarily exist in the same manner, but in an infinitely higher degree, in the object of his worship, we may conceive that thus the moral attributes of Holiness, Justice, Mercy, Love and Goodness ascribed to God might have been acquired. When we say that it is conceivable that the Vedic Aryans acquired their knowledge of the divine attributes and functions empirically, we must remember that it is con- ceivable by us who already possess a knowledge of them ; and hence bring that knowledge to the contemplation of natural phenomena. It was very different with the Vedic Aryans, for they, ex hypothesis had no such antecedent knowledge. All that they possessed was the conscious- ness of the supernatural in the natural, which they could neither define, nor separate from the natural, and which, consequently, they worshipped together with the natural as a person. The question then arises — Is it probable that they, starting with that consciousness only, elabor- ated their knowledge of the divine attributes and functions 1 R.-V., i., 50, 10; viii., go, 12. See Professor Max Midler's Hibbert Lectures. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 97 from the impressions of sense and the reflections of reason ? Let us suppose that they did so ; and the conclusion is inevitable that they possessed a marvellous power of abstraction and generalisation, a power equal to that of the best thinkers of the present age. There is nothing a priori impossible in that ; but we may reasonably ask (a) Is the possession of such a power consistent with the historical fact that they were not conscious of the con- tradiction involved in the ascription of infinite attributes to many individuals ? Is it at all probable that a people capable of observing so accurately, and of reasoning so vigorously, as to acquire the concept of the Infinite, of the Omnipotent, and of the Omniscient, could at the same time be so weak and childish as not to perceive the contradiction involved in ascribing infinite attributes to more than one ? * The contradiction, involved in the co-existence of deities, which by their attributes limit and exclude one another, cannot be resolved into mere 1 " It is clear that the Authors (of the Hymns) had not at- tained to a distinct and logical comprehension of the charac- teristics which they ascribed to the objects of their adoration. On the one hand, the attributes of infinity, omnipotence, omnipresence, are ascribed to different beings, or to the same being under the various names of Purusha, Skambha, Brahma, Hiranyagarbha, etc. And yet, in other places, these qualities are represented as subject to limitations, and those divine beings themselves are said to expand by food, to be produced from other beings (as Purusha from Viraj), to be sacrificed, to be produced from tapas, or to perform tapas " (Muir's Sanscrit Texts, vol. v.. p. 411). 7 g8 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. exaggerated expressions uttered in the ecstatic fervour of prayer and praise — poetical exuberance — for in that case it is not probable that such expressions would have been calmly collected, and preserved in such large numbers, without betraying the consciousness of their contradictory character in some " note " or " comment ". Neither does it appear possible to refer the inconsistency to different epochs or diversities of worship ; for it is undoubtedly the distinguishing feature of the whole Vedic theology, which has been strikingly expressed by Professor Max Mtiller in the following words, "Each god is to the mind of the suppliant as good as all the gods. He is felt at the time as Supreme and Absolute, in spite of the necessary limitations, which to our mind a plurality of gods must entail on every single god." (b) Is the possession of the power of abstraction and generalisation, implied in the empirical acquisition of the knowledge of the divine attributes and functions, con- sistent with the historical fact that they never grasped the idea of God as a person separate from nature, to whom alone these attributes belong ? We have seen that in obedience to the imperious tendency of the human mind, which leads it to logical unity, the old Devas, the old gods of nature, were discarded, and only " One " without a second affirmed (eka eva advitiyami). We have seen also that the "One" of the Upanishads — the Atman or Brahma — is nothing more than the indefinite abstraction of Being in general, without any distinguishing charac- teristics to constitute a Deity. " For how should mortal man be wiser than the Jnana-Kand, which tells us how THE THEOLOGY OE THE VEDAS. 99 Brahma is bodiless and activeless, passiveless, calm, un- qualified, unchanged, pure life, pure thought, pure Joy ? " ' Brahma is " irresistible, impalpable, without kindred, without colour, has neither eves nor ears, neither hands nor feet, imperishable, manifested in infinite variety, present everywhere, self-luminous without and within, without origin, without vital breath or thinking faculty ".- This is not the unity of a living being, which underlies the unity of Religion, but the unity of thought, which consti- tutes the unity of Philosophy. The unity of the former is Monotheism, the unity of the latter is Monism. The highest abstraction of Religion is a Personal God, in- visible, yet felt ; distinct from nature, yet immanent in it ; the Creator and Sustainer of all things, and yet possessing qualities which appeal to the tenderest and noblest sus- ceptibilities of the human heart. The highest abstraction of Philosophy is a great essence, an infinite and eternal energy, from which all things proceed, an impersonal, neuter Brahma, the totality of all existence. This Brahma is not the abstract of any one group of thoughts, ideas, or conceptions ; it is the abstract of all thoughts, ideas, or conceptions. It is analogous to the word " existence ' in Western Philosophy. For that which is common to all thoughts, ideas or conceptions, and cannot be got rid of, is what we predicate by the word "existence". Dissociated, as this becomes, from each of its modes, by the perpetual change of those modes, it remains an indefinite con- 1 Sir Edwin Arnolds Light of Asia. 2 Mundaka Upanishad, i., ; ii., z. j. 100 THE TEACHING 0E THE VEDAS. sciousness of something constant under all modes ; of being apart from its appearances- — the permanent element in nature of J. S. Mill. The sages of the Upanishads grasped the idea of existence — of something constant under all modes — which they called Brahma. But they went further. They denied the reality of all modes, regarding the world as phenomenal only, and all things therein as fictitious emanations from Brahma, like mirage from the rays of the sun. " All living things are only the One Self fictitiously limited to this or that fictitious mind or body, and return into the Self as soon as the fictitious limitation disappears." 1 One cannot insist too strongly on the distinction be- tween the highest abstraction of Philosophy and the highest abstraction of Religion ; for man) 7 eminent writers, by failing to appreciate this distinction, have fallen into the error of identifying the Monism of the Upanishads with the Monotheism of the Bible ! Hence they have altogether failed to apprehend the highest result of religious and speculative thought in India during the Vedic age. But lest it be thought that we are exaggerating this distinction, to the disparagement of the sages of the Vedas, let us quote the following mighty words from Mr. Gough's Philosophy of the Upanishads? a most masterly book on the highest speculations of the Vedic Aryans. " If we are to use the language of European Philosophy, 1 Gough's Philosophy of the Upanishads, p. 104. - Pp. 41, 42. THE THEOLOGY OE THE VEDAS. IOI we must pronounce the Brahma of the Upanishads to be unconscious, for consciousness begins where duality begins. The ideal or spiritual reality of Brahma is not convertible with conscious spirit. On the contrary, the spiritual reality, that, according to the poets of the Upanishads, underlies all things, has per se no cognition of objects; it lies beyond duality. It is true that these poets speak of it as existence, intelligence, beatitude. But we must be cautious. Brahma is not intelligence in our sense of the word. The intelligence, the thought, that is the Self, and which the Self is, is described as eternal knowledge, without objects, the imparting of light to the cognitions of migrating sentiences. This thought is characterless and eternal ; their cognitions are charactered, and come and go. Brahma is beatitude. But we must again be cautious. Brahma is not beati- tude in the ordinary sense of the word. It is a bliss beyond the distinction of subject and object, a bliss the poets of the Upanishads liken to dreamless sleep. Brah- ma per se is neither god nor conscious god ; and on this it is necessary to insist, to exclude the baseless analogies to Christian theology that have sometimes been imagined by writers, Indian and European. Be it then repeated that the Indian Philosophers everywhere affirm that Brahma is knowledge ; that this knowledge is without an object known, and that omniscience is predicable of Brahma only by a metaphor. If we were to interpret such knowledge by the word ' consciousness ,' we should still have to say that Brahma is consciousness, not that Brahma has consciousness, or is a conscious spirit." 102 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. How far such a conception of the Supreme Being is from the Biblical conception of God, I need not indicate. I wish to point out, however, that, in so far as the Vedic Aryans gave up the idea of God as a living, energising, sympa- thising Person, they lost ground from a religious point of view. For, as Mansel says, " Personality with all its limitations, though far from exhibiting the absolute nature of God as He is, is yet truer, grander, more elevating, more religious, than those barren, vague, meaningless abstractions, in which men babble about nothing under the name of the Infinite. Personal conscious existence, limited though it be, is yet the noblest of all existence of which man can dream ; for it is that by which all existence is revealed to him ; it is grander than the grandest object which man can know ; for it is that which knows, not that which is known." ' (V) Is the supposition that the Vedic Aryans elaborated the divine attributes and functions from the impressions of sense and the reflections of reason consistent with the historical order of thought found in the Vedas ? Man, in the mental, as well as in the physical, world, has to proceed slowly, and conquer everything gradually, by the "sweat of his brow". If the Vedic Aryans, therefore, thought out the divine attributes and functions, it is reasonable to suppose that they did so gradually ; and we might expect to see one concept following another, and each concept in the process of evolution, and consequently the fully developed concepts at the end. The reverse, 1 Bampton Lectures, p. 57. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 10 j however, is the order of thought revealed in the Vedas. There we find the concepts of the divine attrihutes and functions fully developed in the Mantras, or oldest por- tions of the Vedas ; whereas in the Upanishads, the latest portions, they are dissipated, one after the other, till nothing is left but Nirguna Brahma, — Brahma, without qualities, predicates, or determinations, — a something to be defined by "No, No". At the beginning we find Heaven-Father ; and at the end a characterless Abstrac- tion ! We have seen already that the loftiest conception of God, in conjunction with the most intense ethical con- sciousness of sin, found expression in Varuna, the oldest god of the Aryans ; and that, during the long interval between Varuna and Brahma, that conception was gradually corrupted, until in Brahma it was lost, and with it the ethical consciousness of sin became well- nigh, if not altogether, extinct. We have no reason to believe that that corruption began with the Vedic age ; but, on the contrary, there are man}- indications that it had begun at a much earlier period. Both Varuna and Dyaus, the most ancient gods of the undivided Aryans, appear in the oldest portions of the Vedas as fully developed mythological persons. Varuna is associated with the Adityas, and Dyaus is wedded to Prithivi. Now, if Mythology be, as Professor Max Muller says, a disease of language which presupposes a healthy frame, it is obvious that a long time was necessary to confound the "god of heaven" with the material heaven, and to transform the latter into the mythological forms which IQ4 THE TEACHING OE THE VEDAS. find expression in Varuna and Dyaus. It is evident, then, (i) That the higher up to the source of the Vedic religion we push our inquiries the purer and simpler we find the conception of God ; and (2) That in proportion as we come down the stream of time the more corrupt and complex we find it. We conclude, therefore, that the Vedic Aryans did not acquire their knowledge of the divine attributes and functions empirically, for in that case we should find at the end what we now find at the beginning. Hence we must seek for a theory which will account alike for the acquisition of that knowledge, the God-like conception of Varuna, and for that gradual depravation which culminated in Brahma. 3. And what theory will cover these facts as well as the doctrine of a " Primitive Revelation " ? l If we admit, 1 The oldest record of man in Genesis represents him as created in the image of God, and holding intercourse with his Creator as a son with his father. And the traditions of all nations testify to a golden age in the far-off past, when men lived happily in converse with God. Max Miiller says, " It is a constant saying among African tribes, that ' formerly Heaven was nearer to men than it is now ; that the highest God, the Creator, Himself, gave formerly lessons of wisdom to human beings; but that afterwards He withdrew from them, and dwells now far from them in Heaven '. The Hindus say the same (R.-V., i., 179, 2 ; vii., 76, 4) ; and the}-, as well as the Greeks, appeal to their ancestors, who had lived in closer community with the gods, as their authority on what they believe about the gods" (Hibbevt Lectures, p. 175). And the Duke of Argyll says, that " Everywhere in the imagination and tradition of mankind there is preserved the memory and the belief in a past better than the present. It is not easy to THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. I05 on the authority of the Bible, that God revealed Himself originally to man, the knowledge of the divine attributes possessed by the Vedic Aryans would be a " reminiscence". And if, on the authority of both the Bible and conscious- ness, we admit the sinful tendency of human nature, which makes the retention of divine knowledge a matter of difficult}- or aversion, it is easy to conceive that the idea of God, as a Spiritual Personal Being, would gradually become hazy, and ultimately disappear from the memory ; while His attributes would survive, like broken fragments of a once united whole. God is a spirit distinct from nature ; and the difficulty is to retain that characteristic, in spite of the powerful tendency of the mind to contemplate existencies as having the pro- perties of extension in space and time. And when this characteristic is forgotten, and material objects are sub- stituted in its place, the divine attributes naturally pass over to these objects, and by association are remembered. There is a great law or principle in the spiritual, as well as in the natural, world, viz., the principle by which an organism neglecting to develop itself, or failing to maintain what has been bestowed upon it, deteriorates,, and becomes more and more adapted to a degenerate form of life. Under the operation of this law, the ancient Aryans (as well as all other nations), neglecting to cultivate spiritual religion, lost the knowledge of God as a Supreme Personal Being separate from nature, which conceive how a belief so universal could have arisen, unless as a survival. It has all the marks of being a memory, and not an imagination " (Contemporary Review, for June, 1881). 106 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. had been bestowed upon them, and dissected the Infinite One into many finite ones, giving a characteristic to each. 1 Or, in the words of Scripture, " They changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever". 2 This being the case, we must believe that, when apply- ing the divine attributes to the personified elements and forces of nature, the Vedic Aryans were using language 1 " If we neglect a garden plant, then a natural principle of deterioration comes in, and changes it into a worse plant. And if we neglect a bird, by the same imperious law it will be gradually changed into an uglier bird. Or if we neglect almost any of the domestic animals, they will rapidly revert to wild and worthless forms again. " Man is no exception to this law. If a man neglect himself for a few years, he will change into a worse man and a lower man. If it is his body that he neglects, he will deteriorate into a wild and bestial savage — like the dehumanised men who are dis- covered sometimes upon desert islands. If it is his mind, it will degenerate into imbecility and madness. If he neglect his con- science, it will run off into lawlessness and vice. Or, lastly, if it is his soul, it must inevitably atrophy, drop off in ruin and decay " (Prof. Drummond, Natural Laic in the Spiritual World, p. 99). Under the operation of this law, it is possible for those who have been blessed with Old Testament Revelation to become so degraded as to lose all knowledge of God. Mr. A. S. Anand, the agent of the National Bible Society of Scotland for North China, met the descendants of some Jews in Honan, who " could not give him the faintest idea of what they believed ''. " They seem to have entirely given up their old worship, have lost all know- ledge of the God of Israel, and have nothing but the memory of what they once were to distinguish them." Their forefathers entered China during the Han Dynasty, b.c 200 to a.d. 220. - Romans, i., 25. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. IO7 the full meaning of which they did not understand. This is self-evident ; for had they understood its full meaning-, they would have been conscious of the contradiction in- volved in ascribing infinite attributes to more than one being. The language is an echo of a purer worship in the primeval home. It is applicable to the true God alone. It has no meaning when applied to any one, or any thing else. It is the language of monotheism, and monotheism was the " primitive religion ". l Professor H. H. Wilson says, " There can be no doubt that the fundamental doctrine of the Vedas is monotheism ".- And Professor Max Miiller, in his History of Ancient Sanscrit Literature, says, " There is a mono- theism that precedes the polytheism of the Veda. The idea of God, though never entirely lost, had been clouded over by error. The names given to God had been changed to gods, and their real meaning had faded away from the memory of man." M. Adolphe Pictet, in the second volume of his great work, Les Origines Indo- Europccnnes, gives it as his opinion, that the religion of the undivided Aryans was "a monotheism more or less vaguely defined ". And both Pictet and Miiller maintain that traces of the primitive monotheism are visible in the 1 To say that primitive man was too low down in the scale of evolution to receive religious conceptions, such as the doctrine of a " primitive revelation " implies, is no valid objection against the theory. For man must have always possessed the chief characteristic which distinguishes him from all other creatures, viz., mind, the power of thinking, or. as Locke says, of having general ideas. - Essays, vol. ii., p. 51. 108 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. Vedas ; that " the remembrance of a God, one and infinite, breaks through the mist of an idolatrous phraseology like the blue sky that is hidden by a passing cloud ". Baron Bunsen, in his God in History, says, " The so- called Nature-mythology is not the original element in religion, as many now-a-days seem once more disposed to assume, who think they can dispense with all philo- sophical culture. Religion can no more than Language have been the product of a misunderstanding. It is a contradiction to all the laws of thought to imagine that the necessary universal expression of the religious con- sciousness can be a mere mental fallacy. How could both Religion and Language be universal, and develop themselves organically, if they were not based upon reason ? Mythology has sprung up gradually out of a poetic, childlike, yet deeply significant playing of the mind with metaphors. But afterwards usage, legend, mystical teaching, have crystallised what was at first nothing more than a simile, while its real essence comes to be no longer understood, or is only seen under a mystical or distorted aspect." Is it not philosophically true that polytheism presup- poses monotheism ? " Is it true, as many seem to suppose, that polytheism is older than monotheism ? Is it not likely that the simple belief is older than the more complex ? ' Can the concept many precede the concept one ? Is not plurality the aggregate of units ? What is the development of thought as seen in children ? Is it not from one to two, from the singular to the plural, from the simple to e complex, from unity to diversity, THE THEOLOGY OE THE VEDAS. IOQ and then, by generalisation, into abstract unit)- ? It is obvious, therefore, that the knowledge of the divine attributes and functions possessed by the Vedic Aryans was neither the product of Intuition nor Experience, but a " Survival," the result of a " Primitive Revelation ". What are Dyaushpitar, Jupiter, Father-sky, but a re- flection of this Primitive Revelation ? And what do we see in the application to the sky of the epithet " Father," the name by which God loves to be known among men, but evidence of the sad fact that man had already commenced his downward career ; had already forgotten his heavenly Father, had already transferred his alle- giance from Him to heaven, the place of His abode ; had already called the sky Father ? We have an echo of the same truth in the prayer of Zoroaster, the Persian prophet, "Teach thou me, A hura Ma zda, out of thyself from heaven " ; as well as in the prayer of the Yebus, a South African tribe, "God in heaven, guard us from sickness and death ; God, grant us happiness and wis- dom ". And we have a confirmation of it in the fact, that the Hebrews called heaven, the dwelling-place of the Most High, His throne, and that the)' called Himself, " The God of heaven, their Father". The Hindus, now, when- ever they speak of God as invisible, point up to the sky, and exclaim, "The Baghavan," the " Supreme Being," is there. And even the Zulus, among the degraded races of Africa, when asked " who made all things ? ' look up to the sky, and say, " The Creator of all things is in heaven ". 1 Aristotle says, " All men have a suspicion 1 Max Miiller's Introduction to the Science of Religion, p. 250. 110 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. of gods, all assign to them the highest place". And again, " The ancients assigned to the gods heaven and the space above, because it was alone eternal ". In the Theology of the Vedas, we have a record of regrQss rather than of /regress, of deterioration rather than of improvement, in the conception of God. And this is just what might be expected when due weight is given to the " Fall," and the consequent tendency to rebel against God, which entered human nature. This fact of sin is overlooked by many who write on the " Origin and Growth of Religion," and the consequence is that they present us with a caricature and not with the real portrait. No one can portray the Origin and Development of Religion without giving due prominence to the " Fall," the effects of which are strewn like withered leaves everywhere. This fact alone can account satisfactorily for the depravation of the concept God in all known Religions. It is scarcely necessary to point out to the readers of the Old Testament how persistently the Jews materialised the spiritual conception of God, communicated to them by Abraham, Moses, and the Prophets. That Fetishism, the lowest sub-stage in M. Comte's first law of religious Evolution, is not a primary, but a corrupted, form of a purer faith, has been amply proved by Professor Max Mi'iller in his Hibbert Lectures. And "all the great religions of the world which can be traced to the teaching or influence of individual men have steadily declined from the teaching of their founders. Whether we now study what is held by the disciples of Buddha, of Confucius, or of Zoroaster, it is the same THE THEOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. Ill result. Whenever we can arrive at the original teaching of the known founders of religious systems, we find that teaching uniformly higher, more spiritual, than the teach- ing now. The same law has affected Christianity, with this difference only, that alone of all the historical re- ligions of the world, it has hitherto shown an unmistak- able power of perennial revival and reform. Hut we know that the process of corruption had begun its work even in the lifetime of the Apostles; and every Church in Christendom will admit the general fact, although each of them will give a different explanation of it. Mahomed- anism, which is the last and latest of all the historical religions of the world, shows a still more remarkable phenomenon. The corruption in this case began not only in the lifetime but in the life of the prophet and founder of that religion. Mahomed was himself his own most corrupt disciple. In the earliest days of his mission he was best as a man and greatest as a teacher. His life was purer and his doctrines more spiritual when his voice was a solitary voice crying in the wilderness, than when it was joined in chorus by the voices of many millions. In his case the progress of development in a wrong direction was singularly distinct, and very rapid." ! The history of religious thought even-where shows that the tendency of man, when left to himself, is to degrade the conception of God, and to sink into polytheism. There is no evidence whatever of a polytheistic people, when left to themselves, working their way up to a monotheistic religion. 1 The Duke of Argyll, in the Contemporary Review for Maw 1SS1 . CHAPTER III. THE COSMOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." — Genesis. § i . Vedic Cosmo/ogy not one Connected Narrative. The cosmology of the Vedas is not one connected narrative, like that of the Bible, but many narratives, or hints, given by different poets at different times, ex- tending over a period of many centuries. The Rishis, in attempting to construct a cosmology, or in reproducing the almost forgotten traditions of the creation handed down from the ancestral home, necessarily gave their own conceptions, more or less coloured, according to their individual idiosyncrasies and the exigency of poetic language, which, according to Hindu notions, consists not so much in truth as in rasa, flavour or sensation. It is too much, therefore, to expect harmony between the various narratives, or even always between all the state- ments of any one poet in the same narrative. All that we can do is to analyse the different accounts, and point out the fundamental conceptions which underlie them, omitting what appears either too obscure for explanation, or too puerile for remark. THE COSMOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. II ; § 2. Creation the Work of an Intelligent Being. All Vedic cosmologies recognise an omnipotent intelli- gent being as the Author of the Universe. That being is represented under names as various as those of the Hindu gods. For every god in the Vedic pantheon was in his turn regarded as supreme, and, as such, the Author of the Universe. " All-seeing Visvakarman produced the earth, and disclosed the sky by his might." 1 "He who pro- duced heaven and earth must have been the most skilful artisan of all the gods." 2 "Desire arose in ' that one,' i who was before all things, and this the wise have dis- J cerned to be the bond between nonentity and entity." 3 •• Brahmanaspati blew forth all the births of the gods like a blacksmith." ' " Hiranygarbha, the one born lord of things existing, arose in the beginning and established the earth and the sky." 5 " Prajapati established all the worlds, and produced from his upper and lower breaths both gods and mortal creatures.'" - ' " Skamba established the earth, the sky, and the six wide regions." 7 " Varuna, by his might, propped asunder the wide firmaments ; he lifted on high the bright and glorious heaven ; he stretched out apart the starry sky and the earth." K " Indra established the earth and this sky, and, wonder working, produced the sun and the dawn."" " Surya, 1 R.-V., x., 81, 2. - Ibid., i., 160, 4. ;{ Ibid., x., 129, 4. 4 Ibid., x., 72, 2. 5 Ibid., x., 121, 1. (i Sat. Br., x., 1,3, 1. ' A.-V., x., 7, 35. s R.-V., vii., 86, 1. 9 Ibid., hi., 32, 8. 8 114 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. the most active of the active gods, produced the heaven and the earth, which are beneficent to all." 1 " Agni upheld the broad earth, he supported the sky with true hymns." 2 "In the beginning Brahma was the source of all things. He created the gods and placed them in this world, in the atmosphere, and in the sky." 3 " Ro- hita established heaven and earth, by him the sky was supported, by him the heaven." 4 While all Vedic cosmologies agree in ascribing the production of the universe to an omnipotent intelligent being, they differ as to the mode in which he produced it. Some represent it as the result of his power without pre-existing matter or creation, e£ ovk ovtwv; others, as the result of his power acting on eternally pre-existing matter or creation, oc twv ovtwv ; and others represent it as a phenomenal emanation from the deity, tt/oooSos. ^ 3. Creation out of Nothing. The 129th hymn of the tenth book of the Rig- Veda is the most striking illustration of this. " (1) There was then neither nonentity nor entity ; there was no atmo- sphere nor sky above. What enveloped (all) ? Where, in the receptacle of what (was it contained) ? 5 Was it water, the deep abyss ? (2) Death was not then, nor immortality ; there was no distinction of day or night. 1 R.-V., i., 160, 4. J Ibid:, i., 67, 3. 3 Sat. Br., xi., 2, 3, 1. 4 A.-V., xiii., 7. 5 " What covered in, and where ? and what gave shelter ? ' (Griffith). THE COSMOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 115 That One breathed calmly by itself; 1 there was nothing different from It (that one), or beyond It. (3) Darkness there was ; originally enveloped in darkness, this uni- verse was undistinguishable water ; - the empty (mass) which was concealed by a husk (or by nothingness) was produced, single, by the power of austerity (or fervour). (4) Desire first arose in It, which was the primal germ of mind. This the wise, seeking' in their heart, have discovered by the intellect to be the bond between non- entity and entity. (5) The ray which shot across these things — was it above or was it below ? There were productive energies and mighty powers ; nature {svadhd) beneath, and energy (prayati) above. (6) Who knows, who here can declare, whence has sprung, whence this creation ? The gods are subsequent to its formation ; who then knows from what it arose ? (7) From what source this creation arose, and whether (any one) created it or not ? He who in the highest heaven is its ruler, he verily knows, or (even) he does not know." This hymn carries us back to a time long before the first verse in Genesis, when there was neither " nonentity (asad, to [Mi] ov) nor entity (sad, to 6V) ". From the in- ability of the human mind to conceive a state that was 1 "Breathed without afflation, single with {svadhd) her who is sustained within him " (Colebrooke). "Breathed calmly, self-supported" (Muir). " Breathed breathless by itself ;; (Max Muller). " Breathed calmly, self-contained " (M. Williams). - " There was a time in which all was darkness and water ,; {Babylonian Tradition of the Creation). Il6 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. neither nothing nor something, 1 the Atharva-Veda iden- tifies this remote " nonentity ' with Skamba, a personi- fication of the divine power which supports the universe; and the Khandogya Upanishad doubts that there ever was a period without entity.- The Vedantists explain sadas the Supreme Being manifesting" himself by creation ; and asad as mere forms or illusions by which he deceives the senses. What then does the poet mean by the phrase, " There was then neither nonentity nor entity" ? Does he mean to say that there was neither absolutely ? So evidently thought the sages of the Atharva-Veda, and the Khandogya Upanishad. But this is a mistake ; for he postulates the existence of " that One breathing breathless by Itself," i.e., the unconditioned existing alone by his own inherent power, without the accidents of time and space, which are the conditions of our life. 3 Does he mean that there was neither relatively ? This, doubtless, is his meaning ; and in this sense the phrase 1 " We are utterly unable to realise in thought the possibility of the complement of existence being either increased or dimin- ished. We are unable, on the one hand, to conceive nothing becoming something, or, on the other, something becoming nothing " (Sir W. Hamilton's Lectures on Metaphysics, vol. ii., P- 377)- - Muir's Sans. Texts, vol. iv., p. 20, 2nd ed. :i So it is explained in the Sat. Br., x., 5, 3, 1, " In the begin- ning this universe was, as it were, and was not, as it were. Then it was only that mind. Wherefore it has been declared by the Rishi, 'there was then neither nonentity nor entity,' for the mind was, as it were, neither entity nor nonentity." THE COSMOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. II7 is perfectly true, for we can know neither " entity ' nor " nonentity," except as they are related to one another. The existence of the one necessarily implies the existence of the other ; and hence without a knowledge of both we can know neither. 1 And since there was then no entity, no trace, no atom of what afterwards became the world, the poet asserts, with a philosophical precision with which we are scarcely prepared to meet in that remote age, "there was neither nonentity nor entity". This meaning is confirmed by R.-V., x., 72, 2, " In the former age of the gods, the existent sprang from the non- existent," i.e., whatever now visibly exists had at one time no existence; and by the Sat. Br., vi., 1, " In the beginning:, this universe was indeed non-existent " ; as well as by the Aitareya Aranyaka, " Originally this (universe) was indeed soul only ; nothing else whatever existed active or inactive ". In the same sense the poet declares that there was neither "death 7 nor "im- mortality " ; for the one is the negative of the other, and, hence, without a knowledge of both we can know neither ; and since there was no "death," inasmuch as there was nothing to die, there could have been no " immortality," or the opposite of death. Between the statements made in the first two and the third verses, we must logically place the action of the fourth verse, which produced the " undistinguishable 1 " The judgment cannot affirm or deny one notion of another, except by uniting the two, in one indivisible act of comparison " (Sir W. Hamilton's Lectures on Metaphysics, vol. i., p. 68). Il8 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. water" of the third ; an action identical with the creative act of Genesis, i., i, which produced "the heaven and the earth " in a chaotic state. The cause of this action was the determination of the Infinite will. " Desire arose in It, which was the primal germ of mind ; " i.e., which to us is the first manifestation of conscious mind. " This the wise, seeking in their heart, have discerned by the intellect to be the bond between nonentity and entity ; ' i.e., the will of God was the cause of the existent springing from the non-existent. This is only another form of the Hebrew expression, "And God said, Let there be . . . and there was". The same idea is expressed in the Aitareya Aranyaka, " He thought, I will create worlds, thus he created these various worlds, water, light, mortal beings, and the waters ". And in the Aitareya Brahmana, " Prajapati was, in the begin- ning, but one. He uttered the Nivid (a sacrificial for- mula), and all things were created." Again, " The word is the Creator of the Universe, the powerful one ; for by the word is all this made" {vaca hidam sarvam kritam)} How wonderfully this language agrees with the declara- tion of the Psalmist, " By the word of the Lord were the heavens made ; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth". "He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and they were created." 2 The same idea is also found among the Iranians and the semi- civilised races of Western Australia. In the sacred books of the former, it is said that Ahura-Mazda created the 1 S. P. Br., viii., i, 2, 9. - Ps., xxxiii., 6, 9 ; cxlviii., 5. THE COSMOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. Iig world by means of the Yatha-ahu-vairyo prayer; and the Roman Catholic missionaries ascertained that the latter believe in an omnipotent Being, who created the heaven and the earth by breathing-, whose name is Motogon. To create the earth, he said, " Earth, come forth ! And he breathed, and the earth was created. So with the sun, moon, and all things." 1 The water and the darkness of this hymn correspond to the thohu vabohu, " without form and void," of Genesis, and to the chaos of the Greeks. " This universe was undistinguishable water enveloped in darkness." It was an "empty" or "shapeless mass," concealed by the " deep abyss," like grain in the husk, but brought forth as a beautiful world by " the power of austerity," or "contemplation," as Colebrooke translates it; i.e., by the mighty will of " That One " who designed it. For "there were productive energies and mighty powers"; svadha, nature, beneath, and pi-ayati, energy, above. Yes, there was svadha, or chaos, beneath, and there was the mighty "energy" of the Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters above, bringing order from confusion, cosmos from chaos, and breathing forth light and life everywhere.- 1 Max M tiller's Hibbcrt Lectures, pp. 16, 17. 2 In the Taittirya SanJiita. vi., 4-8, we read, "This world had neither day nor night, but was (in that respect) undistin- guished ". The gods said to Mitra and Varuna, "Make a separation. . . . Mitra produced the day, and Varuna the night" (Muir's .S'. T. , vol. v., p. 59); and in the Aitareya Aranyaka we read, "Self brooded over the water". From the water thus brooded on, matter (iiiurti) was born. 120 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. Max Mailer and Monier Williams see in svadha, be- neath, and prayati, above, the first dim outline of the idea that the Creator willed to produce the universe through the ag-encv and co-operation of a female prin- ciple, an idea which afterwards acquired more shape in the supposed marriage of heaven and earth. It is more probable that this idea originated in a misunderstanding of this hymn, or of the tradition on which it is based. The poet closes his sublime narrative of the creation in an unexpectedly sad and disappointing tone. After the graphic description he has given of the origin of the universe, he finishes by intimating that he does not know after all " from what source this creation arose, and whether any one created it or not ". All he can affirm with confidence is, that " He who is in the highest heaven is its ruler, he verily knows, or (even) he does not know". Another poet, in the same melancholy strain of ignorance and uncertainty, asks, " What was the forest, what was the tree, from which they fashioned the heaven and the earth ? Inquire mentally, ye sages, what that was on which he took his stand when estab- lishing the worlds." l And similarly another poet, " Which of these two (heaven and earth) was the first, and which the last ? How have they been produced ? declare, sages, who knows this ? " 2 What a sad com- ment this is on the words of the Apostle Paul, " The world by wisdom knew not God " ! 3 Religious truths 1 R.-V., x., 81, 4. ' Ibid., i., 185, 1. 3 1 Cor., i., 21. THE COSMOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 121 beyond the range of experience cannot be known with that degree of certainty which can satisfy the human mind, except by an authoritative Revelation from the Author of our being". Even Socrates declared that he " knew only this, that he knew nothing ! " This is the most ancient, and the most vivid, reproduc- tion of the primitive creed respecting the origin of the universe. It contains all the essential elements of the Mosaic narrative, differing only in being more vague, and in being given with less certainty. The fundamental idea, that the eternally self-existent One created the world by the power of His own will, without pre-existing matter, and the chronological order — first, will or desire, then chaos or undigested matter, and, lastly, this beautiful world — are identical in both. Now, this idea of creation from nothing cannot be accounted for on natural grounds, for there is nothing in nature to indicate that something can be produced from nothing. The constitution of the human mind is such that it cannot think of anything beginning to exist in essence, but only in form. It is evident, therefore, that the idea of creation from nothing is not the product of reason, but of divine Revelation. We learn from the old Norse Eddas of Iceland, that the Teutonic Aryans carried away from the original home the same belief in the origin of the universe. The first poem in the first part of the Elder Edda, which contains the oldest traditions of the Germanic races, is the Val- upsa, or wisdom of Vala. Vala was a prophetess, and thus describes the creation of the world : — 122 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. " I command the devout attention of all noble souls, Of all the high and the low of the race of Heimdall ; I tell the doings of the All Father, In the most ancient sagas which come to my mind." " There was an age in which Ymir lived, When was no sea, nor shore, nor salt waves ; No earth below, nor heaven above ; No yawning abyss and no grassy land." " Till the sons of Bors lifted the dome of heaven, And created the vast Midgard (earth) below ; When the sun of the south rose above the mountains, And green grasses made the ground verdant." § 4. Creatio?i from Pre-existing Matter. "(1) Hiranyagarbha arose in the beginning; he was the one born lord of things existing. He established the earth and this sky : to what god shall we offer our oblation ? (2) He who gives breath, who gives strength, whose command all (even) the gods reverence, whose shadow is immortalitv, whose shadow is death : to what god shall we offer our oblation ? (3) Who by his might became the sole king of the breathing and winking- world, who is the lord of this two-footed and four-footed (creation) : to what god shall we offer our oblation ? (4) Whose greatness these snowy mountains, and the sea with the rasa (river) declare, of whom these snowy regions, of whom they are the arms : to what god shall we offer our oblation ? (5) By whom the sky is fiery and the earth fixed, by whom the firmament and the heaven were established, who in the atmosphere is the THE COSMOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 123 measurer of aerial space : to what god shall we offer our oblation ? (6) To whom heaven and earth, sustained by his succour, looked up, trembling in mind ; over whom the sun shines : to what god shall we offer our oblation ? (7) When the great waters pervaded the universe, containing an embryo and generating Agni, thence arose the one spirit (asa) of the gods : to what god shall we offer our oblation ? (8) He who through his greatness beheld the waters which contained power, and generated sacrifice, who was the one god above gods : to what god shall we offer our oblation ? (9) May he not injure us, he who is the generator of the earth, who, ruling by fixed ordinances, produced the heavens, who formed the great and brilliant waters : to what god shall we offer our oblation ? (10) Prajapati, no other than thou is lord over all these created things ; may we obtain that through desire of which we have invoked thee ; may we become masters of riches." l Max Muller says, respecting this hymn, that " the idea of one god is expressed with such power and de- cision, that it will make us hesitate before we deny to the Aryan nations an instinctive monotheism " ; and Monier Williams remarks, that "it furnishes a good argument for those who maintain that the purer faith of the Hindus is properly monotheistic ". 2 "The whole of this hymn is found repeated in the Vajasaneyi-Sanhita of the Yajur-Veda, and most of the 1 R.-V., x., 121. - Hist. Anc. Sans. Lit., p. 568; Indian Wisdom, p. 2$. 124 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. verses recur in the Atharva-Veda." l The last verse is rejected by most critics as being the production of a later age. According to this hymn, the creator, Hiranyagarbha, arose in the beginning from the great waters which pervaded the universe, the " undistinguishable water ' of R.-V., x.j 129, 3, or chaos, and so became "the one born lord of things existing". The idea is that the primeval waters generated a " golden embryo," and that from this " embryo" the creator was born, or took bodily form, in order to transform chaos into cosmos ; and hence he is denominated Hiranyagarbha, the " golden embryo," which also may be translated, " the golden or the bright child ". And hence it is said in the Atharva- Veda, " In the beginning, the waters producing a child, brought forth an embryo, which, as it was coming into life, was enveloped in a golden covering".- From this it appears (1) that when Hiranyagarbha was born the universe was in a chaotic state, pervaded with water ; (2) that he rose from an embryo generated by the water when the earth was " void and without form"; and (3) that he made the world into its present form from the existing shapeless chaos. " For he who is god above all gods established the earth and the sky;" he " formed the brilliant waters" and " the snowy moun- tains " ; and hence all creation unite in " declaring his greatness 1 Muir's Sans. Texts, vol. iv., p. 15. - Ibid., vol. iv., p. 16, 1st edition. THE COSMOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 125 Was this chaos eternally self existent independent!}' of Hiranyagarbha ? or was there a time in the unspeakable past when he produced it ? or did the chaotic waters by some unknown law of development gradually and spon- taneously produce him ? or were both eternally and independently co-existent ? It appears from this hymn that both were regarded as eternally and independently co-existent. It is stated in the eighth verse that Hiran- yagarbha " through his greatness beheld the waters which contained power," i.e., "the great waters' of verse seven, which " pervaded the universe," or chaos. He must have beheld these before he was born from the golden embryo; for the " great waters '' of these verses are different from the ' ; great and brilliant waters *' of verse nine. The former are the great primeval waters from which the world was made ; and the latter are the seas, the lakes, and the rivers, " formed " by the Creator. Of course it might be affirmed that he beheld the great chaotic waters after he was born ; but the former view is more in harmony with other Vedic passages. The Atharva-Veda, iv., 1, 6, says, " In the beginning the waters, immortal, and versed in the sacred ceremonies, covered the universe containing an embryo — over these divine waters was the god," i.e., before he was born in the embryo. Here both the Creator and the immortal waters are represented as separate independent existen- cies in the " beginning," and presumably from eternity. 1 The same idea appears in R.-V., x., 82, " That which is 1 Svetasvatara Up., v., 1 j. 126 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. beyond the sky, beyond this earth, beyond gods and spirits ; what earliest embryo did the waters contain, in which all the gods were beheld ? The waters contained that earliest embryo in which all the gods were collected." One receptacle rested upon the navel of the unborn, wherein all the worlds stood. " Ye know not him who produced all things." What the earliest embryo con- tained, in which all the gods were collected (inasmuch as it contained their creator, " the sole life of the bright gods ") was " that which is beyond the sky, beyond this earth, beyond gods and spirits" — he who "produced these things," and not he who was produced by them. Here, again, the existence of the Author of the Universe is represented as separate from, and independent of, the original chaos. The same idea underlies R.-V., x., 72, 6, 7, "When, gods, ye moved, agitated upon those waters, then a violent dust issued from vou, as from dancers. When, gods, ye, like strenuous men, replenished the worlds, then ve drew forth the sun which was hidden in the (aerial ?) ocean." And also the Taittirya Aranyaka, i., 23, 1, " This was water. Prajapati was produced on a lotus leaf. Within his mind desire arose, ' Let me create '." Besides, Varuna, Indra, and others, are re- presented as establishing and supporting the heavens above, fixing and directing the sun in the sky, and setting limits to the earth ; thus assuming that the objects themselves, in some shape, were pre-existent. It should be observed, however, that there is a legend in the Satapatha Brahmana, 1 in which the primeval waters 1 i., 1, 1, 3- THE COSMOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. I27 are represented as generating an egg, and the egg bringing forth Prajapati, the creator of the world. " In the begin- ning, this universe was waters, nothing but water. The waters desired, ' how can we produce ? ' So saying, they toiled, they performed austerity. While the}' were per- forming austerity, a golden egg came into existence. From it, in a year, a man (pi/rusha) came into existence, who was Prajapati. Ke divided this golden egg. There was then no resting-place for him. He therefore floated about for the space of a year, occupying this golden egg. In a year he desired to speak. He uttered bhuh, which became this earth ; bhvah, which became this firmament ; and svoah, which became that sky." l In this account, probably, the author of the primeval waters is overlooked rather than denied. For certain it is that this materialistic doctrine was never popular in India. Hindus of the Vedic age believed either in creation from nothing by the exertion of divine power, or in creation from chaos after the birth of the Creator from the " golden embryo," or in creation as a phe- nomenal emanation ; and post- Vedic cosmologies com- bine the two first, with the exception of the Vedanta, which adopts the last. There is another legend in the Satapatha Brahmana contradicting this, in which the gods are said to have made Prajapati, that he generated the waters ; and desiring to be reproduced from them, that he entered the waters, when an egg arose. " He pondered on it. 1 Muir's Sans. Texts, vol. iv., p. 22. 128 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. He said, ' Let there be, let there be ! ' Again : ' Let there be ! ' and all things appeared." According to Manu, the Harivamsa, and the Puranas, the deity was prior to chaos ; he created the primeval waters bv a thought, and deposited a seed in them, which became a golden Qgg, resplendent as the sun, in which he himself was born as Brahma, the progenitor of all worlds. ... (5) " This universe was enveloped in darkness, unperceived, undistinguishable, undiscernible, unknowable, as it were entirely sunk in sleep. (6) Then the irresistible self-existent lord, undiscerned, causing this universe with the five elements and all other things to become discernible, was manifested dispelling the gloom. (7) He who is beyond the cognisance of the senses, subtle, undiscernible, eternal, who is the essence of all beings, and inconceivable, himself shone forth. (8) He, desiring to produce various creatures from his own body, first with a thought created the waters, and deposited in them a seed. (9) This (seed) became a golden Ggg, resplendent as the sun, in which he himself was born as Brahma, the progenitor of all the worlds. 1 1 Kulluka, an old commentator, thus annotates on verse nine, " That seed became a golden egg," etc. That seed, by the will of the deity, became a golden egg. Golden, i.e., as it were, golden, from the quality of purity attaching to it, and not really golden ; for since the author proceeds to describe the formation of the earth from one of the halves of its shell, and we know by ocular proof that the earth is not golden, we see that a mere figure of speech is here employed. ... In that egg Hiranyagarbha was produced, i.e., entering into the soul — which was invested in a subtle body — of that person by THE COSMOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 120, (10) The waters are called uara, because they are the offspring of Niwa ; and since they were formerly his receptacle, he is therefore called Narayana. (n) Being formed by that first cause, undiscernible, eternal, which is both existent and non-existent, that male (purusJia) is known in the world as Brahma. (12) That lord, having continued a year in the egg", divided it into two parts by his mere thought. (13) With these two shells he formed the heaven and the earth ; and in the middle he placed the sky, the eight regions, and the eternal abode of the waters." l In the ninth hymn of the tenth book of the Rig-Veda, the gods are represented as having fashioned the universe from the dismembered limbs of Purusha, the primeval male, whom they sacrificed. t4 The moon was nroduced from his mind (manas), the sun (surya) from his eye, Indra and Agni from his mouth, and Vayu from his breath. From his navel came the atmosphere, from his head the sky, from his feet the earth, from his ears the four quarters ; so they formed the worlds." From him also were produced the different castes and animals. It is obvious that this second narrative of the creation is a corruption of the first. The hymns containing it are of later date, which is proved by the abstract names whom in a former birth the deity was worshipped, with a contemplation on distinctness and identity, expressed in the words, " I am Hiranyagarbha, the Supreme Spirit himself, become manifested in the form of Hiranyagarbha ". 1 Manu. 9 130 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. of the gods mentioned in them, such as Hiranyagarbha, Visvakarman, and Prajapati. The primitive narrative was either greatly obscured in the memory of, or partly rejected by, the propounders of this theory. That God produced the chaotic fluid before He formed the world, was either forgotten or rejected, on the ground that it was contrary to experience to produce something out of nothing. Hence chaos is represented as existing to- gether with, and independently of, the Creator ; and the Creator, as assuming discernible form in a " golden embryo " in order to fashion the universe. According to this theory, He is nothing more than the architect or the maker of the world from pre-existing matter. This was also the Zend idea of creation, and hence the phrase "created by Mazda," is Mazda-dhata, established or arranged by Mazda. And the " firmament," the " in- finite time," and the " air which works on high," are called " self-created ". The idea that the Creator rose from a " golden embryo," or a " golden egg,'' probably originated in a dim recol- lection of the primitive account that the " Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters". 1 For the Hebrew verb, recaph, translated "moved," means to "flutter," to "hover," and to "brood" as of a bird over its nest. " As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young," etc. 2 The word translated " fluttereth ' here is the same as that translated "moved" in Genesis, i., 2. If, therefore, the primitive account was, that God, in 1 Genesis, i.. z. 2 Deut., xxxii., 11. THE COSMOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. I]I j fashioning the world, "fluttered' or "brooded' over chaos, like a bird over its nest, what was more natural than that, in the course of time, the simile involved in the action should have been forgotten, and God actually made to rise from the " golden embryo," or to be born from the " golden egg,^ generated by the waters ? And as the Teutonic Aryans carried away to the north of Europe the primitive belief respecting the creation of the world, so the Greek Aryans carried away to the south the more recent, or elaborated there a similar theory. Plato says, " that all wise men, with the exception of Parmenides, thought that all things proceeded from water, and that generation was a sort of flowing motion". Aristophanes gives the particulars as follows : — " First all was chaos ; one confused heap ; Darkness enwrapped the disagreeing deep ; In a mixed crowd the jumbling elements were, Nor earth, nor air, nor heaven did appear ; Till in this horrid vast abyss of things, Teeming night, spreading o'er her cold black wings, Laid the first egg ; whence after time's due course, Issued forth love (the world's prolific source). Glistening with golden wings ; which fluttering o'er Dark chaos, gendered all the numerous store Of animals and gods "- 1 1 Xdos f]u KCii vv£, epeftos re peXau irpcoTOv ff ovpavbs rjv epefiovs ft' eu diretpo\7rms TlKT€l TTpCOTKTTOV VTTrjV(ptOV VV^ f) /Ltf \ (IV OTTT ( p O S COW. E£ oli 7ref)LTe\\op.(vais copan ejSXaarev Epcoy 6 7rodeiv6s. 2ti'A/Scoi> vcotov TTTtpvyoiv xpvaalp eiVcb? dvepuxecri fitpats Ovtos oY X (l€l 7TT€p6evTi piyels vv\iu>, Kara Tdprapov evpvv, Ei>e orreuere yefoy Tjperepov, Koi Trpcorov aurjytiyeu es (pcos, Uporepov d' ovk rju yevos dOavdraiv, irp\v ' Epcof crvveptt-ev aitavra. 132 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. Here night and chaos are represented as the first substances existing alone. They laid an egg, whence love was produced, — the "desire" of R.-V., x., 129,4, and the "golden child" of R.-V., x., 121, 1, and the " Spirit of God " of Genesis, i., 2, — which, fluttering o'er dark chaos, gendered heaven, earth, animals, and gods. It should be stated that Hindu Pundits do not believe that the Vedas contain two or more theories of the creation of the world. They maintain that there is only one theory, viewed from different standpoints. Hence they explain " nonentity' as a state in which name and form (nama and rupa) were not developed, and not an absolute nullity like that indicated in the phrase, " a hare's horns"; and Hiranyagarbha, born from the "golden embryo," they represent as the abstract neuter Brahma, assuming personality in the form of the male Brahma, in order to transform what was neither " nonentity" nor "entity" into the visible universe, having names and forms, such as earth, sky, and water. This, however, is a speculation of a later age, when the simple meaning of the hymns had been forgotten, and the Hindu mind had become profoundly affected with philosophy. ? 5. Creation a Phenomena/ Emanation from the Deity. When the sages of the Upanishads had attained the highest philosophical unity, when they had merged all the elemental gods, and all existences, material, mental, and spiritual, in one great entity, Atma, Brahma, Prima, Pitrusha, or Sat, there was no room for a real objective creation, such as the two we have already considered. THE COSMOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. I33 What we call creation, therefore, was conceived of as a kind of phenomenal emanation ; or illusory manifesta- tion, of the one great reality. Nothing really exists except the great Spirit or Self; and the universe is nothing more than its manifestation, its body, which it draws from its own substance, and again absorbs into it, as the spider spins forth and draws back the thread of its web. 1 " This whole universe is filled by this Person (pi/n/sha), to whom there is nothing superior, from whom there is nothing different, than whom there is nothing smaller or larger ; who stands alone, fixed like a tree in the sky."' " By means of thoughts, touching, seeing, and passions, the incarnate self assumes successively in various places various forms, in accordance with his deeds, just as the body grows when food and drink are poured into it." " That incarnate self, according to his own qualities, chooses (assumes) many shapes, coarse or subtle ; and having himself caused his union with them, he is seen as another and another, through the qualities of his acts, and through the qualities of his body." - And so this great Atma is both the material and efficient cause of all finite existences. " As from blazing fire, sparks, being like unto fire, fly forth a thousandfold, thus are the various beings brought forth from the imperishable, and return hither also." "The sky is his head, his eyes the sun and the moon, the quarters his ears, his speech the Vedas, the wind his breath, his heart the universe ; from his feet came the 1 Brihadaryanaka Up., ii., 2, 2. 2 Svetasvatara Upanishad, iii., 9 ; v., 11, 12. 134 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. earth ; he is indeed the inner Self of all things." 1 " As all spokes are contained in the nave and in the felloes of a wheel, all beings and all selfs are contained in that Self." 2 Professor Max Miiller, in his Introduction to vol. i. of the Sacred Books of the East, says, that " Atman was looked upon at the same time as the starting-point of all phenomenal existence, the root of the world, the only thing that could truly be said to be, to be real and true. As the root of all that exists, the Atman was identified with the Brahman, which in Sanscrit is both masculine and neuter, and with the Sat, which is neuter only, — that which is, or Saty, the true, the real. It alone exists in the beginning, and for ever; it has no second. What- ever else is said to exist, derives its real being from the Sat. How the one Sat becomes many, how what we call creation, which they call emanation (rrpoohos), con- stantly proceeds and returns to it, has been explained in various more or less fanciful ways by ancient prophets and poets. But what they all agree in is this, that ' the whole creation, all plants, all animals, all men, are due to the one Sat, are upheld by it, and will return to it . This theory of creation is the logical outcome of Monism or Pantheism. And as Monism or Pantheism is far inferior, from a religious point of view, to the idea of personal gods, however imperfect, so we may remark 1 Mundaka Up., ii. i, 4. - Brihadaryanaka Up., ii., 5, 15. THE COSMOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 135 that this theory of creation is equally inferior to either of the two older ones which appear in the Rig-Veda. The identity of cause and effect, of subject and object, which appears in the Upanishads, was made the funda- mental doctrine of the Vedanta or non-dual philosophy, a philosophy the most widely accepted in India at the present day. CHAPTER IV. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. •'There is surely a piece of divinity in us; something that was before the elements, and owes no homage unto the sun." — Sir Thomas Browne. "The proper study of mankind is man." — Pope. § i. The Origin and Dignity of Man. The Vedic Aryans were conscious of a divine origin. They felt that they were intimately connected with a father above, while they acknowledged that they sprang from the earth beneath. Dyaush pitah, prithivi mat a, Dyaush, Heaven, is the father, and Prithivi, the broad earth, is the mother. " Hear us, Indra, like a father," 1 for "we have no other friend but thee, no other happi ness, no other father ".- Again, "We are thine, Magha- van, satisfy the desires of these thy worshippers". 3 Man everywhere is conscious of a higher, as well as of a lower, origin ; of a genesis from heaven, as well as from earth. Plato says, koll tj yrj avrovs fxr^rrfp ovcra uvrJKe, dAA.' 6 #eos UXarTOiv. " And the earth as the mother brought 1 R.-V., i., 104, 9. '-' rbjj,', viii., 21, 14; vii., 21, 9. ;; Ibid., i., 57, 5; iv., 17, 18. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 1 37 forth men, but God was the shaper." And Kleanthes says, k tov yap yeVos iafxev. " For we are his offspring." And similarly Aratus, -n-aTr/p avSptov . . . tov yap yeVos eo-/xev. Tacitus tells us that the ancient Germans sang songs in honour of Tm'sco, who sprang from the earth, and whose son was Manus. " Tuisconem deum terra editum, et filium Manuum." Tuisco is from Tu, the same root as the Sanscrit Dvu. The Babylonian tradi- tion of the creation of man represents him as having been formed from the blood of Belus, mixed with the earth ; and hence as having sprung from God above and the earth beneath. And what is the tradition of a primi- tive golden age, found among all nations, but man's con- sciousness of a divine origin, manifesting itself through the gloom of the past and the degradation of the present ? The Hindu Aryans, recognising the pre-eminent dignity and nobility of man, distinguished him from all other creatures as the "Thinker". The first human being, the progenitor of the human race, they denominated Manu, 1 from the root man, to " measure," to think, 1 More especially the progenitor of the Aryans alter the Deluge. The tradition of the first created man and woman is probably the foundation of the story of Yam a and Yami, as we shall see further on. The Hindus have several Legends of the Deluge, in which Manu invariably corresponds to the Biblical Noah. The following from the Satapatha Brahmana is the oldest on record : — " In the beginning, they brought to Manu water for washing. As he was washing, a fish came into his hands (which spake I38 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. which appears in the Sanscrit manas, the Greek fxevos, the Latin mens, and the English mind and man. What to him), 'Preserve me; I shall save thee'. (Manu inquired), ' From what wilt thou save me ? ' (The fish replied), ' A flood shall sweep away all these creatures ; from it will I rescue thee'. (Manu asked), 'How (shall) thy preservation (be effected) ? ' The fish said, ' So long as we are small, we are in great peril, for fish devour fish ; thou shalt preserve me first in a jar. When I grow too large for the jar, then thou shalt dig a trench, and preserve me in that. When I grow too large lor the trench, then thou shalt carry me away to the Ocean. I shall then be beyond the reach of danger.' Straight- way he became a large fish, and said, l Now in such and such a year the flood will come ; thou shalt therefore construct a ship, and resort to me ; thou shalt embark in the ship when the flood rises, and I shall deliver thee from it '. Having thus preserved the fish, Manu carried him away to the sea. Then in the same year which the fish had enjoined, he constructed a ship, and resorted to it. When the flood rose, Manu embarked in the ship. The fish swam towards him. He fastened the cable of the ship to the fish's horn. By this means he passed over the northern mountain. The fish said, ' I have delivered thee : fasten the ship to a tree. But lest the water should cut thee off whilst thou art on the mountain, as much as the water subsides, so much thou shalt descend after it.' He accordingly descended as much as the water subsided. Wherefore also this, viz., ' Manu's descent' is (the name) of the northern mountain. Now the flood had swept away all these creatures ; so Manu alone was left here. Desirous of offspring, he lived worshipping and toiling in arduous religious rites. Among these he also sacrificed with the paka offering. He cast clarified butter, thickened milk, whey and curds, as an oblation into the waters. Thence in a year a woman was produced." The name of the woman thus produced was Ida. " From THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 139 higher name could they have given to man than the " Thinker " ? And in the case of the Aryan nations, what name could have been more prophetically signifi- cant ? For have they not been pre-eminently the great Thinkers as well as the great actors in every age ? Have they not far outstripped all other races in civilisa- tion, in philosophy, in arts, and in science ? Are they not to-day the rulers of the world, and is it presumptuous to affirm that they are destined, under Providence, to bind all nations together in the golden bonds of civilisa- tion, commerce, and religion ? § 2. The Consciousness of Sin. Professor Weber says, " The religious notion of sin is wanting altogether, and submissive gratitude to the gods is as yet quite foreign to the Indian in the Vedic age". 1 Max Mtiller, on the other hand, says, "The consciousness of sin is a prominent feature in the religion of the Veda ; so is, likewise, the belief that the gods are Manu and Ida, we are expressly told, the race, known as that of Manu, i.e., the race of men, was descended." Manu, accord- ing to the above legend, was the progenitor of all postdiluvian men. The Legend of the Deluge in the Mahabharata resembles the above with some important additions. It states that eight persons were saved from the waters ; that seeds of all living things were preserved ; and gives the duration ol the Hood as "lor many years"'. It also points to the highest peak of " Himavat " (Himalaya) as the place where the ship was tied, and for which it was called Naubandha. 1 Hist, of Ind. Lit., p. 38. I40 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. able to take away from man the heavy burden of his sin 'V And the author of the Sacred Poetry of Early Religions remarks, " Of that moral conviction, that moral enthusiasm for goodness and justice, that moral hatred of wrong and evil, that zeal for righteousness, that anguish of penitence, which has elsewhere marked re- ligious poetry, there is singularly little trace" in the Vedic hymns. The first of these statements is far too sweeping, the second is exaggerated as to the word " prominent," and the third is upon the whole correct. The fact is, that when the Aryans appear first before us in the " Land of the five rivers," their consciousness of sin had become more obtuse than it was formerly; and hence the burden of their songs was not, " Lord, grant us forgiveness of sins," but, " grant us food, progeny, wealth, and victory ". The following hymn, addressed to Indra, who was then their supreme deity, is a fair specimen of the spirit pervading three-fourths of the Vedic hymns : — 1. " Voracious drinker of the Soma juice, although we be unworthy, do thou, Indra, of boundless wealth, enrich us with thousands of excellent cows and horses." 2. " Thy benevolence, handsome and mighty, lord of food, endures for ever. Therefore, Indra, of boundless wealth, enrich us with thousands of excellent cows and horses." 3. " Cast asleep (the two female messengers of Yama) ; looking at each other, let them sleep, never waking. 1 Chips from a German Workshops vol. i., p. 41. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. I4I Indra, of boundless wealth, enrich us with thousands of excellent cows and horses." 4. " May those who are our enemies slumber, and those, O hero, who are our friends, be awake. Indra, of boundless wealth, enrich us with thousands of excellent cows and horses." 5. ' Indra, destroy this ass (our adversary), praising thee with such discordant speech ; and do thou, Indra, of boundless wealth, enrich us with thousands of excel- lent cows and horses." 6. " Let the (adverse) breeze, with crooked course, alight afar off on the forest. Indra, of boundless wealth, enrich us with thousands of excellent cows and horses." 7. " Destroy every one that reviles us ; stay every one that does us injury. Indra, of boundless wealth, enrich us with thousands of excellent cows and horses." ] The consciousness of sin, however, is a prominent feature in the small number of hymns addressed to Varuna, either alone or in conjunction with other deities, especially with the Adityas, "the eternal ones"; and it occasion- ally manifests itself more or less clearly in hymns addressed to other gods. " This day, ye gods, with the rising sun, deliver us from heinous sin."'- 2 " Preserve us, O Agni, by knowledge from sin, consume every malignant spirit, raise us aloft that we may pass through the world, and that we may convey our wealth to the gods." 3 "Agni, far remove from us all iniquity, far remove from us sin, far remove from us all evil 1 p R.-V., i., 29. - Ibid., i.. 115, 6. ; Ibid., i., 36, 14, 15. I42 THE TEACHING OE THE VEDAS. » thought." l " The divine Savitri travels by an upward and by a downward path ; he comes from a distance, removing all sin." 2 " If we have sinned against the man who loves us, have ever wronged a brother, friend or comrade, the neighbour ever with us, or a stranger, O Varuna, remove from us the trespass." " If we, as gamesters, cheat at play, have cheated, done wrong unwillingly or sinned of purpose, cast all these sins away like loosened fetters, and, Varuna. let us be thine own beloved."' 5 "Let those renowns and those praises of thine be proved true by thy showing mercy on us, O Indra. Slay us not for one sin, nor for two, nor for three, nor for many, O hero." 4 " Protect us, Soma, from calumny ; preserve us from sin ; pleased with our service, be our friend." 5 " Prolong our existence, Asvins ; wipe away our sins ; destroy our foes ; be ever our associates." " May our sins be removed or repented of" is the burden of a whole hymn. 7 The Aryans' infantile notion of sin is forcibly expressed in the terms which they used to denote it. Those terms are papa? from root pat, to "fall,*' to "fall down"; aghas, Gr. ayos, enas and amchas, from roots signifying first to " go," and then to " go astray," " miss the mark ". Nirriti, another word for sin, which was afterwards per- sonified as a power of evil or destruction, is derived from 1 R.-V., iv., 11, 6. -Ibid., i., 35, 3; 115, 6. 3 Ibid., v., 85, 7, 8. 4 Ibid., viii., 45, ^^, 4. 5 Ibid., i., 91, 15. n Ibid., i., 157, 4. ' Ibid., i., 97. 8 Gr. 7rer, Lt. pec, Welsh pecJi, Heb. pasJia. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 14/; the same root which yields rita in the sense of right ; and nir-rita means not right, or a deviation from the right path. Sin, therefore, according to the earliest con- ception of the Aryan mind, is a fall from a higher to a lower moral state, a deviation from the path of duty, a missing of the mark of moral excellence once set hefore the mental vision. The same ideas are conveyed in the Tamil (Turanian) words Tappu, Tappidam. and Kuttam, sin, fault. Words are fossilised thoughts ; and their testimony respecting the earliest conceptions of the human mind is as valuable as the testimony of the rocks respecting the structure of animals which have long become extinct. What a marvellous confirmation of the Fall of man, mentioned in the third chapter of Genesis, we have in the words used for " sin ' in the Semitic, Aryan, and Turanian languages ! If man, individually and socially, as Evolutionists tell us, be nothing more than the product of natural forces, which push him irresistibly forward, like a mighty hurri- cane, towards higher and more complex forms of life, how did the consciousness of sin, as a failure or a fall, involving calamity, originate ? If he be the mere out- come of internal and external forces — of organism and environment — he may at certain stages of his progress be defective, but he cannot be a sinner in the sense that he has " missed the mark " of moral excellence set before him. " It may require thousands of years to elevate him to a more complete existence ; but he has not fallen from any ideal he might have reached. He is only, at any 144 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. point, what the sum total of natural factors which enter into his being have made him. The two conceptions of sin and of development, in this naturalistic sense, cannot co-exist ! "* We must, therefore, either accept the testi- mony of consciousness that man is a sinner, and reject the theory of evolution, which does not recognise that fact ; or accept the theory of evolution, and reject the testimony of consciousness as false. But sin is more explicitly represented in the Vedas as a voluntary transgression of divine laws. " However we break thy laws from day to day, men as we are, O god Varuna, do not deliver us unto death ; nor to the blow of the furious; nor to the wrath of the spiteful." 2 "Whenever we, men, O Varuna, commit an offence before the heavenly host, whenever we break the law through thoughtlessness, punish us not, O God, for that offence." 3 " May we be sinless before Varuna, who is gracious even to him who has committed sin, and may we follow the laws of Aditi." 4 Sin was felt to be a great calamity, which is evident from the figures of speech used to represent it. It is a "bond" or a "rope'' from which the sinner prays to be released. " Deliver us from sin as from a rope; let us obtain thy path of righteousness." " May the thread not be torn while I am weaving my prayers ; may the form of my pious works not decay before its season." "Var- una, take all fear away from me ; be kind to me, O just king ! Take away my sin like a rope from a calf; far 1 Principal Tulloch, The Christian Doctrine of Sin. - R.-V., i., 25, 2. 3 Ibid., vii., 89, 5. 4 Ibid., vii., 87, 7. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. I45 from thee I am not the master even of a twinkling of the eye." 1 "Far from me be bonds; far from me be sin." 2 " O Aclityas, deliver us from the mouth of the wolves, like a bound thief, O Aditi. ,,;; "Whatever, O youthful god, we have committed against thee, men as we are, whatever sin through thoughtlessness, make us guiltless before Aditi, loosen the sins on all sides, O Agni." 4 " () Varuna, lift the highest rope, draw off the lowest, re- move the middle ; then, O Aditya, let us be in thy service free of guilt before Aditi." r ' "O King Varuna, keep afar from us Nirriti, and liberate us from whatever sin we have committed/' (i Sin is a heavy bidden, which the gods only can take away ; " and a thick darkness, which " forgiveness " alone can dispel. 8 It is also a sea or a flood, across which we can only go in a divine boat. "We invoke the well- protecting earth, the unrivalled sky, the well-shielding Aditi, the good guide. Let us enter for safety into the divine boat, with good oars, faultless and leakless." 9 " Carry us, O Vasus, by your blessed protection, as it were, in your ship across all dangers." l0 " Let not un- known wretches, evil-disposed and unhallowed, tread us down. Through thy help, O hero, let us step over the rushing eternal waters." " " May Agni convey us as in a boat over a river, across all wickedness." vl " Do thou, 1 R.-V., ii., 28, 5, 6. - Ibid., ii., 29, 5. 8 Ibid., viii., 56, 14. 4 Ibid., i\\, 12, 4. 5 Ibid.) i., 24, 15. 6 Ibid., i., 24, 8, 9. 7 Ibid., ii., 29, 1. 8 Ibid., ii., 27, 14. 9 Ibid., x., 63, 10. 10 Ibid., viii., [8, 17. ll Ibid. ,vii., 32,27. [2 Ibid., i., 99, 1. 10 I46 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. Rudra, waft us in safety over the ocean of sin, repel all the assaults of the ungodly." 1 Man, having a natural tendency to sin, is a prey to temptations. " It was not our own doing, O Varuna ; it was necessity (or temptation), an intoxicating draught, poison, dice, thoughtlessness. The old is the* re to mis- lead the young; even sleep brings unrighteousness." 2 " Let not one sin after another, difficult to be conquered, overcome us; may it depart altogether with lust." 3 " May that blazing weapon of yours, Maruts, be far from us, although through human infirmities we offer you offence." 4 "Whatever (offence) we have committed bv want of thought against the divine race, bv feebleness of understanding, by violence, after the manner of men, and either against gods or men, do thou, O Savitri, make us sinless." 5 This tendency is not only transmitted by the law that like produces like, but the sins of the fathers are in a mysterious way imputed to their offspring. "Absolve us from the sins of our fathers, and from those which we have committed with our own bodies. "^ "Let us not suffer, Mitra and Varuna, for offences committed by another ; let us not, Vasus, do any act by which you may be offended." 7 " May Agni free me from the sin which my mother or father committed when I was in the womb." s "If thou liest there in consequence of any 1 R.-V., ii., 33, 3. - Ibid., vii., 86, 6. :; Ibid.j., 38, 6. 4 Ibid., vii., 57, 4. s Ibid., iv., 54, 3. (i Ibid., vii., 86, 5. 7 Ibid., vii., 52, 2. 8 Taittiriya Br., iii., 7, 12, 3. Muir, vol. v., p. 66. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 1 47 sin committed by thy mother, or thy father, with my voice I declare thy release and deliverance from them all." 1 The effect of sin is to separate man from God. " Do I say this to my own self ? How can I get unto Varuna ? Will he accept my offering without displeasure ? When shall I with a quiet mind see him propitiated ? I ask, O Varuna, wishing to know this my sin — J go to ask the wise. The sages tell me the same, — Varuna is he who is angry with me. Was it an old sin, O Varuna, that thou wishest to destroy thy friend who always praises thee ? Tell me, thou unconquerable lord, and I will quickly turn to thee with praise, freed from sin."- Again, Vasishta exclaims, " Where are those friendships of us two ? We seek the harmony which we enjoyed of old. I have gone, O self-sustaining Varuna, to thy vast and spacious house with a thousand gates. He who was thy friend, intimate, thine own, and beloved, has committed offences against thee. Let us not who are guilty reap the fruits of our sin. Do thou, O wise god, grant protec- tion to him who praises thee." ' As it is difficult for us, with our Christian conscience, to understand the precise meaning which the ancient Aryans attached to the word "sin," let us inquire, (1) What acts were not, and (2) What acts were, considered sinful by them. This alone will preserve us from the error of either over-estimating, or under-valuing their moral sense. 1 A.- V., v.. 30, 4. xMuir. - R.-V., vii., 86, 2, 3, 4. :! Ibid., vii., 88, 5, 6. 148 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. i. What acts were not considered sinful by the Vedic Aryans. Aristotle says, " As men regard the forms, so also they consider the lives, of the gods to be similar to their own ". Whatever acts, therefore, a nation attributes with approbation to its gods, we may reasonably con- clude, are highly esteemed by itself. Throughout the Vedic hymns, the inebriety produced by quaffing the Soma-juice is celebrated with unfeigned satisfaction. All the gods are constantly invited to drink of the " immortal stimulant' {amartyam madam), which invigorates them, and increases their strength beyond all praise. " Indra has drunk ; Agni has drunk. All the gods have become exhilarated." 1 "Indra drinks like a thirsty stag, or a bull roaming in waterless waste/' - And all the effects produced on man by " strong drink" are ascribed to him. It is stated in the Aitareya Brahmana that, "The gods get drunk, as it were, at the mid-day libation, and are consequently at the third libation in a state of complete drunkenness ". 3 The Sautramanii was a ceremony ap- pointed to expiate the evil effects of too free indulgence in the Soma-juice. Wine {Sura) was also in use ; for we read, " I place the poison in the sun, like a wine skin or leathern bottle, in the house of a vendor of wine." 4 Wine-bibbers are mentioned in R.-V., viii., 21, 14. " The Asvins gave a hundred jars of wine to Kakshivan." 5 "The Soma 1 R.-V., viii., 58, 11. 2 Ibid., viii., 4, 10; v., 36, 1 ; viii., 66, 4. ' 3 vi., 11. 4 R.-V., i., 191, 10. 5 Ibid., i., 116, 7. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 1 49 draughts are said to contend in the interior of Indra like ' men maddened with wine'." 1 It is obvious, there- fore, that drunkenness was not considered a sin in the Vedic age. Over-indulgence, however, in " strong drink," on the hot plains of India gradually bore its evil conse- quences; and, among the thoughtful, a revulsion of feeling was the result. Hence, in Manu's time, spirit-drinking was strictly prohibited, as being a most heinous crime, equal to that of killing a Brahman.'- All honour to those ancient sages who resolutely set their faces against a habit, which, if continued, would probably have destroyed the Hindu Aryans long ago. Though monogamy was doubtless the prevailing custom in the Vedic age,' 1 polygamy is often spoken of without any disapprobation. We have seen before that the Rishi Kakshivan married the ten daughters of Raja Swayana. And we are told that when the sage Chyavana had grown old, and had been forsaken, that the Asvins divested him of his decrepit body, prolonged his life, restored him to youth, and made him " the husband of maidens". 4 Soma is said to have made the dawns bright at their birth,"' and to have formed them the wives of a glorious husband.''' Indra had two wives, Indrani and Prasaha. The sage Yajnavalkva had two wives, Maitreyi and Katyayani. One Rishi exclaims, " The magnificent lord, the protector of the virtuous . . . has given me fifty wives "." The following are a specimen of many passages 1 R.-V., viii., 2, 12. '-' Manu, x.. 55. :; R.-V., iii., 53. 4. 4 Ibid., i., 116. 10. '' Ibid., vi., 39, 3. ,; Ibid., vi., 44, 2^. 7 Ibid., viii.. 19, 36. 150 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. which allude with approbation to the possession of more than one wife, " Powerful Indra, their minds adhere to thee, as affectionate wives to a loving husband "- 1 " In- dra took to him all the cities as one common husband his wives."' 2 "Thou dwellest with thy glories like a Raja with his wives." 8 Even polyandry is hinted at in the fact that the two Asvins had one wife in common, 4 and Rodasi was the common wife of the Maruts."' The Satapatha Brahmana, ix., 1, 4, 6, distinctly avows the principle of polygamy, and explains its origin. " He sacrifices to the man first, then to the women. He exalts the man in consequence of his vigour. He sacri- fices to the man as to one, and to the women as to many.'' Hence also one man has many wives." 7 The re-marriage of widows was not considered a crime in the Vedic age, as it is now ; and the cruel custom of child- marriage ; and the horrid rite of Suttee, or widow-burning, 1 R.-V., i., 62, n. 2 Ibid., vii.. 26, 3. :! Ibid., vii., 18, 2. 4 Ibid., i., ng, 5. 5 Ibid., i., 167, 5. 6 Muir, vol. v., p. 458. 7 " There can be little doubt that polygamy, as we find it among the early races in their transition from the pastoral to the agricultural life, was customary in India. We read in Herodotus (v., 5) that, amongst the Thracians, it was usual, after the death of a man, to find out who had been the most beloved ol his wives, and to sacrifice her upon his tomb. Mela (ii., 2) gives the same as the custom of the Getae. He- rodotus (iv., 71) asserts a similar fact of the Scythians, and Pausanias (iv., 2) of the Greeks ; while our Teutonic Mythology is full of instances of the same feeling " (M. Muller's Hist. A lie. Sans. Lit., p. 48). THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 151 • were then unknown. 1 We read in A.-V., x. , 5, 27, 8, " When a woman has had one husband before, and gets another, if they present the aja panchandana offering, they shall not be separated. A second husband dwells in the same world with his re-wedded wife, if he offers the aja panchandana'" And in the A.-V., v., 8, 9, it is stated that, " when a woman has had two former hus- bands, not Brahmans, if a priest take her hand (i.e., marry her), it is he alone who is her husband. It is a Brahman only that is a husband, and not a Rajanya or a Vaisya." It appears, from the following verse, addressed to the Asvins, that it was not an uncommon thing for a widow to marry her deceased husband's brother, "Where are you by night, Asvins, and where by day ? Where do you alight ? Where have you dwelt ? Who draws you to his house, as a widow does her brother-in-law to the couch, or as a woman does a man ? " 2 The same custom was in vogue in the time of Manu, for it is enacted in his code that, " The damsel, indeed, whose husband shall die after troth verbally plighted, but before consum- 1 " There is no text to countenance laws which allow the marriage of children and prohibit the re-marriage of child- widows, and the unhallowed rite of burning the widow with the corpse of her husband is both against the spirit and the letter of the Veda " {Chips from a German Workshop, vol. i., P- 3*3)- '-' R.-V., x., 402. Compare Deuteronomy, xxv.. 5 ; Genesis, xxxviii, I52 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. mation, his brother shall take in marriage according to this rule "- 1 The Vedic Aryans considered it neither a sin nor a disgrace for adult females to remain at home unmarried, or for those growing old to marry. We read, " As a virtuous maiden growing old in the same dwelling with her parents (claims from them her support), so came I to thee for wealth ".- And the Asvins are highly praised for having cured Gosha, the daughter of Kakshivan, and given her a husband when advanced in years. :; There are indications even that women exercised the liberty of choosing their own husbands in those days. 4 The plundering and destruction of the non-Aryan races was a theme of great rejoicing. " Indra and Soma, burn, destroy the Rakshasas; annihilate the fools; slay and cast them into darkness, so that none of them may ever thence return.'' Indra consumed the Rakshasas with his bolt as fire a dry forest;* 3 yea, "he slew with his bolt a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred millions of the Dasyus "." " Destroy every one that reviles us ; slay every one that does us injury ; may all aliens perish," is the constantly recurring prayer. 8 We find no trace here of the ancient brotherhood of 1 Manu, ix., 69. And Gautama (xviii., 41) says, " A woman whose husband is dead, and who desires offspring, may bare a son to her brother-in-law". 2 R.-V., ii., 17, 7. s Ibid., i., 117, 7. 4 Ibid., x., 27, n, 12. 5 Ibid., vii., 104, 1, 3. ,; Ibid., vi., 18, 10. 7 A.-V., viii., 8, 7 ; R.-V., ii., 14, 6, 7. * R.-V., x., 102, 3 ; iv., 13, 4 ; viii., 39 ; vi., 60, 6. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 153 man that is so much boasted of by certain Hindus of the present day ! 2. What acts were considered sinful by the Vedic Aryans. Gambling is represented as most ruinous in its effects upon persons and families. " The gambler finds no comfort in his need ; his dice give transient gifts, and ruin the winner ; it vexes him to see his own wife, and then to observe the wives and happy homes of others." " His wife rejects him, and his mother-in-law detests him.* 1 His father, mother, and brothers, ashamed of him, cry out, " We know nothing of him, take him away". "In debt, and seeking after money, the gambler approaches with trepidation the houses of other people at night." No wonder then that the advice of the Rishi is, "Never play with dice; practise husbandry; rejoice in thy property, esteeming it sufficient "- 1 The gods are haters of falsehood, and punishers of all untruth. Hence the prayer, " Take away whatever sin has been found in me, whether I have done wrong, or have pronounced imprecations, or have spoken untruth ". " May the untruth, which the wise and sinless Varuna observes in us, through thy favour, Indra, disappear;' for " those who practise untruths attain not the incon- ceivable deity." 2 Stealing was a crime, and dishonest} - in business was deprecated. Pushan, as the god of travellers, is invoked 1 R.-V., x.. 34. 2 Ibid., i., 152, 1 ; vii., 49. 3 ; ii.. 27, 4 ; iv.. 5. 5 ; ii., 35, 6. 154 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. to " drive away from our path the waylayer, the thief, the robber " ; and Indra is entreated " not to take advan- tage of us like a dealer". 1 Illiberality towards one's own kith and kin was severely condemned, while liberality was highly praised. " He who keeps his food to himself has sin to himself also." " The wise man makes the giving of gifts his breastplate." " The car of bounty rolls on easy wheels." " The house of the liberal man is like a pool where lotuses grow." " The property of the liberal man never decays, while the illiberal finds no comforter." " The givers of gifts abide aloft in the sky ; the bestowers of horses live with the sun ; the givers of gold attain immortality ; the be- stowers of raiment prolong their lives." 2 Sorcery and witchcraft, seduction and adultery, were denounced.'* Non-performance of religious rites ; the reviling of the soul-inspiring Soma-juice ; disobedience to parents ; and want of peace and concord in the family, were considered wrong. The following benediction from the Atharva- Veda has lost none of its force and beauty for domestic happiness by the lapse of three thousand years, " I impart to you concord with unit}' of hearts and freedom from hatred ; delight one in the other as a cow in the birth of a calf. May the son be obedient to his father, and of one mind with his mother. May the wife, at 1 R.V., i., 42, 3 ; i., 33, 3. J Ibid., x., 107. :; Ibid., vii., 104, 8, 25. 5; i.. 167. 4; ii., 29, 1 ; x., 34. 3; vii., 104, 24. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 1 55 peace with her husband, speak to him honied words. Let not brother hate brother, nor sister sister ; concord- ant and united in will, speak to one another with kind words." 1 It is now evident that the Vedic Aryans regarded sin, not only as a Fall, but also as the voluntary trans- gression of divine laws entailing punishment. They recognised the reality of both a divine and a human will. The gods, of their own free will, gave the laws, and men, of their own free will, broke them. Their consciousness of sin, therefore, contains (1) a knowledge of divine laws, and (2) the voluntary transgression of them. But whence this knowledge of divine laws ? What is the origin of the idea of Law as the moral standard of right and wrong ? Max Muller, in his Hibbert Lectures, says, that the idea of physical law, denoting the uni- formity of natural phenomena, originated in the percep- tion of the " recurring return of da)- and night, the weekly changes of the waning and increasing moon, the succession of the seasons, and the rhythmic dances of the stars" ; which uniformity found expression in the word rita, right path or law, and that from this ri/a, the moral law, the right path for man to walk in, was deduced or inferred. There seems to be nothing in the Vedas to support this view. The word ri/a, though used chiefly to denote outward cosmical order, is also used to denote inward moral order ; and hence the question whether the one order is a deduction or an 1 K.-Y.. vi., 52, 2 ; A.-Y.. iii.. jo. 156 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. inference from the other must be settled on grounds other than philological. Now, granting that sensuous impressions of the uni- formity of natural phenomena did produce the idea of physical law, in the sense of the right path in which the heavenly bodies should move, how could that originate the idea of a right path in a moral sense, in which man should go ? If it be affirmed that the concept of outward cosmical order did not produce inward moral order as such, but the perception of it; then, we ask, how can inward moral order exist apart from the perception of it ? Is not perception the condition and evidence of its existence ? Again, if it be affirmed that the concept of outward cosmical order awakened the latent sense of inward moral order, then it is evident that the sense, or idea, was there already ; and hence that it was not derived from the rita, the concept of outward cosmical order, which, ex hypothesis was deduced from sensuous impressions. Before man could apply the word rita to the uniformity of natural phenomena, he must have known the rita, the right path, and its opposite. He must have been conscious of a law within, or a standard by which he could judge what is right and what is wrong. The very terms right and wrong imply the possession of such a standard. The moral law is in- grained in the nature of man, written, as the Apostle Paul says, on the heart j 1 and hence fragments of it are found among all nations; but among none more fully than 1 Rom., ii., 15. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 1 57 among the Hindus of the Vedic age. The correspondence between the Vedic and the Biblical conception of sin is remarkable. The former contains the essential elements of the latter. But, in proportion as we recede from that age, we find the conception of sin becoming attenuated, until, on the one hand, it is deprived of its moral char- acter, and, on the other, of its reality. The philosophical treatises recognise evil, but no sin ; and in this respect there is nothing to choose between them and the utter- ances of the most degraded tribes. 1 ^ 3. Personal Immortality. The immortality of man is not a doctrine of the schools, but a belief of humanity ; not based on the metaphysic, or proved by the logic, of any system, but the utterance of a primary instinct common to the race, which has made itself heard more or less distinctly 1 " The principle of the order of the world, of the regularity of cosmic phenomena, was conceived by the Rishis to have existed as a principle before the manifestation of any pheno- mena. The argument would seem to be somewhat as follows : The phenomena of the world are shifting and changeable, but the principle regulating the periodical recurrence of phenomena is constant; fresh phenomena are continually reproduced, but the principle of order remains the same ; the principle, there- fore, existed already when the earliest phenomena appeared ; in the Vedic idiom, it is their father, it has given birth to them. This parentage is exactly parallel to that of heaven and earth. Heaven and earth are the first according to, or by reason of, the vita; the gods are born by vita " (H. W. Wallis, Cosmology of the Rig- Veda). 158 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. wherever man is found. It is the glory of Christianity that it has satisfied that instinct by authoritatively rati- fying the belief in immortality and placing it beyond a doubt. The intimations of a belief in life after death are not so numerous and distinct in the first eight books of the Rig-Veda as in the last two. They are, however, suffi- cientlv numerous and distinct to indicate that such a J belief was a prominent feature in the religious creed of the ancient Aryans. All the gods are believed to be immortal, and capable of conferring immortality upon their worshippers. Agni is said to render mortals im- mortal. 1 The same power is ascribed to Soma.'- The Maruts are besought to make their worshippers immor- tal ; 3 and Mitra and Varuna are asked to grant rain, wealth, and immortality. 4 The following" hymn, addressed to Soma, in the ninth book of the Rig- Veda, contains a vivid description of life after death, expressed in beautiful language with childlike confidence : — ■ " Where is eternal light, in the world where the sun is placed, in that immortal, imperishable world, place me, O Soma ! " " Where King Vaivasvata reigns, where the secret place of heaven is, where the mighty waters are, there make me immortal ! ' "Where life is free in the third heaven of heavens, 1 R.-V., i., 31, 7. - Ibid., i., 91, 1. :! Ibid., v., 55, 4. 4 Ibid., v., 63, 2. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. I59 where the worlds are radiant, there make me im- mortal ! " " Where there is happiness and delight, where joy and pleasure reside, where the desires of our desire are attained, there make me immortal!" 1 The Vedic Aryans regarded immortality as a species of apotheosis or deification. Those who were made im- mortal became deities themselves, and were invoked for the same blessings as the elder deities bestowed. The Ribhus, the three sons of Sudhanvan, the dexterous humble-minded artisans of the gods, constructed " the glorious three-wheeled car of the Asvins " ; "restored their aged and infirm parents to youth " ; and "divided into four the new sacrificial ladle which the divine Tvashtri had made," for which exhibition of skill they obtained divinity, and " proceeded on the road of immor- tality to the assemblage of the gods " ; whence they are invoked : " Ye who through your skill have become gods, and like falcons are seated in the sky, do ye, children of strength, give us riches ; ye, O sons of Sud- hanvan, have become immortal ".' 2 The Vedic doctrine of a future life is closely connected 1 R.-V., ix., 113. Professor Roth says respecting this hymn, "If it were necessary, we might here find the most powerful weapons against the view which has been lately revived and proclaimed as new, that Persia was the only birthplace of the idea of immortality ; and that even the nations of Europe had derived it from that quarter ; as if the religious spirit of every gifted race was not able to arrive at it by its own strength ". - Ibid., hi., 60, 2 ; iv., 35. 8. l6o THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. with, and seems to have grown up around, the memory of the Pitris, or ancestral fathers of families. Though they had departed from this world, they had not ceased to live. They all occupy different stages of blessedness in the celestial spheres. 1 They have all " obtained riches among the gods";- and as " companions " of the gods, they are all invoked, like the Roman Catholic Saints, to be propitious to, and to intercede for, their de- scendants here on earth. 8 " Invoked to these favourite oblations placed on the grass, may the Fathers, the offerers of Soma, come ; may they hear us ; may they intercede for us, and preserve us. Do us no injury, O Fathers, on account of any offence which we, after the manner of men, may commit against you. Bestow wealth on the mortal who worships you ; Fathers, bestow this wealth upon your sons, and now grant them susten- ance." 4 Thus the ancient Aryan faith in the continued life of the Fathers, who "had departed first," was so strong as to place the doctrine of immortality beyond a doubt. Death had not annihilated them, and hence need not annihilate their sons ; and therefore they pray to be "added to the people of eternity," who dwell in Varuna's world of perfect and undying light. This faith has never lost its hold on the Hindu mind. It manifests itself now in the Sraddha ceremony, or offering to his Fathers spirit, which is the most solemn duty devolving on every Hindu son. 1 R.-V., x., 15, 1, 2. - Ibid., I., 91, 1. 3 Ibid., vi., 75, 10; vii., 35, 12. * Ibid., x., 15, 1, 2. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. l6l The belief in a future life in this form appears in all branches of the Aryan race. Cicero says, " So great is the sanctity of the tomb, our ancestors have desired that those who departed this life should be held as ' deities ' ". And Plato says, " Let men fear, in the first place, the gods above ; next, the souls of the dead, to whom in the course of nature it belongs, to have a care of their off- spring". Johnson, in his Oriental Religions, says, "The Latin Dii Manes and the Greek Theoi Chthonioi cor- respond perfectly to the Vedic Pitris, blessed divini- ties, who watch over their descendants, and expect their tributes of holy rites ". In the later books of the Rig-Veda, the belief in life after death stands impersonated in Yama. Yama and his twin sister Yami, are, according to Professors Roth and Whitney, the first human pair, the originators of the race. " As the Hebrew conception closely connected the parents of mankind by making the woman formed from a portion of the body of the man, so by the Indian tradition they are placed in the relationship of twins." In the tenth book of the Rig-Veda there is a curious dialogue between Yami and her brother Yama, where she implores him to make her his wife, on the ground (i) that "the Creator made us for man and wife, while yet in the womb " ; and (2) that the " immortals " desire that Yama, " the one sole mortal,"' should leave a descendant behind. He, however, declines, on the plea that it is a sin for a brother to marry his sister. Max Miiller, in his Science of Language^ denies that Yama and Yami are the Indian Adam and Eve; and resolves the 11 l62 THE TEACHING OE THE VEDAS. whole legend into one of the myths of the Dawn— Yama, the day, and Yami, the night. This explanation, how- ever, seems too narrow and exclusive, as it leaves no room for the exercise of thought and imagination upon the origin, condition, and destiny of the human race. Surely the tragic elements of human life, birth, and death, must have touched the ancient Aryans as pro- foundly as the rising and setting of the sun. The legend of Yama and Yami was the common inheritance of the Hindu and Iranian Aryans before their separation ; and hence we may reasonably infer that it was one of the original traditions of the primeval home. The Hindu Yama, the son of Vivasvat, is the Iranian Yima, the son of Vivanghat. The Hindu Yama is u the first man that died, the first that departed to the celestial world, and spied out the road for many ". Consequently he is Ci the assembler of men, the king of the departed, who first found for us the way to a home beyond the grave, which shall not be taken from us ". 1 The Iranian Yima is the king and founder of a golden age, the most glorious of men, during whose reign neither sickness, nor age, nor death ; neither cold nor heat ; neither hatred nor strife existed. But after con- tinuing for some time to diffuse happiness and immor- tality, he was disturbed by the powers of darkness, and so was compelled to withdraw, together with his i Iv> R.-V.j x., 14. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 163 attendants, to a more contracted sphere. 1 The difference between these two legends is this : the Hindu Yama is the king of the blessed after their departure to the celestial world ; whereas the Iranian Yima is the king of the blessed in this world, who have continued to live with him from the golden age. This legend, in its original form, probably contained these two versions. For the tradition of the first " man that died," the " one sole mortal," must necessarily include the tradition of the first man that lived. The Iranians emphasised the latter and the Hindus the former. This is easily ex- plained. The Iranians, tormented with the moral antago- nisms of good and evil, which they felt so keenly, clung to the tradition of a golden past when these did not 1 Similarly, Hesiod in his Works and Days describes the " golden age " : — "When gods alike and mortals rose to birth, A golden race, th' immortals formed on earth Of many-languaged men : they lived of old, When Kronos reign'd in heaven — an age of gold. Like gods they lived with calm untroubled mind. Free from the toil and anguish of our kind. Nor sad decrepit age approaching nigh, Their limbs unnerved with frail infirmity ; Strangers to ill, thy nature's banquets proved, Rich in earth's fruits, and of the best beloved : They sank to earth as opiate slumber stole Soft o'er the sense, and whelm'd the willing soul. Theirs was each good : the grain exuberant soil Pour'd the full harvest, uncompell'd by toil. The virtuous many dwelt in common blest, And all unenvying shared what all in peace possessed." 164 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. exist. But the Hindus, less moral, more imaginative, entangled in the coils of nature worship, sighing for relief, clung to the tradition of the first man that died, who had opened a way for them to the kingdom of light, where all their sorrows shall cease. In Yama, the Vedic doctrine of a future state finds its highest expression. The Fathers are not lost sight of; but he being the Father of the Fathers, the first Manu, or man, is exalted above them, and regarded as their supreme ruler. He dwells in celestial light in the innermost centre of heaven. 1 He grants to the departed both " an abode distinguished by days, and waters and lights,'' and ' ; a long life among the gods". 2 He is associated with the divine Varuna, worshipped as a god, and " feasts according to his desire on the oblations".' 1 " He shares his gratifications with the eager Vasishtas, our ancient ancestors, who presented the Soma libation." 4 Yama and the Fathers dwell together in eternal bliss ; and the most profound yearning of their children was to join them when this life had become extinct. Hence when the body was being consumed on the funeral pyre, the following verses were addressed to the soul, " Depart thou, depart by the ancient paths to the place whither our early fathers have departed. There shalt thou see the two kings Yama, and the god Varuna, exulting in independent power. Meet the Fathers, meet with Yama, meet with the recompense of the sacrifices which thou hast 1 R.-V., ix., 113, 7, 8. - Ibid., x., 14, 8, 9, n. ■'■Ibid., x., 14, 7; x., 15, 8. 4 Ibid., x., 15, 8. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 165 offered (or laid up) in the highest heaven. Throwing off all imperfection, go to thy home. Become united to a body, and clothed in a shining form." ' Sometimes it is added, "Let him depart to the mighty in battle; to the heroes who have laid down their lives ior others ; to those who have bestowed thousands of largesses ". 2 The Vedic Aryans did not believe in disembodied spirits, or shades of the departed in Hades, like the Homeric Greeks, 3 but in a complete body glorified and purified by fire. The soul, " throwing off all imperfec- tions, 1 ' becomes united to a spiritual body, " clothed in a shining form". Hence when the process of cremation is begun, Agni, the god of fire, is implored not to " burn up, or consume the departed, not to tear asunder his skin or his limbs, but after the flames have done their work of maturing, or purifying him, to convey him to the fathers''. For "when he shall reach that state of vitality, he shall fulfil the pleasure of the gods". The eye of the deceased is commanded to go to the sun, his breath to the wind, and his different members to the sky, 1 R.-V., x., 14, 7, 8, 9. - Ibid., x.j 154, 3. 3 The Homeric men believed that the soul, so soon as death loosened its bands, quitted the body by the mouth or a mortal wound ; and, either restless and unhappy while the body was unhonoured by funeral rites, haunted the earth ; or, when it had been so honoured, descended to live a ghostly life in Hades. Achilles exclaims, when he sees the shades of Patroklos : " O strange ! in the house of Hades there is soul and shadow, but no mind ! ' (Fairbairn Studies in the Philo- sophy of Religion). l66 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. the earth, the waters, or the plants, according to their several affinities. " As for his unborn part, do thou (Agni) kindle it with thy heat ; let thy flame and thy lustre kindle it, with those forms of thine, which are auspicious, convey it to the world of the righteous." l The spirit thus invested with a lustre like that of the gods, soars to realms of eternal life, where it receives its ancient body in a complete and glorified form without a limb missing. 1 ' " The belief in the immortality of the soul," says Burnouf, " not naked and inactive, but living and clothed with a glorious body, was never interrupted for a moment ; it is now in India what it was in those ancient times, and even rests on a similar metaphysical basis." :; The Vedic conception of the pleasures of heaven is sensual rather than spiritual, Mahomedan rather than Christian. The gods themselves are not regarded as possessing purely spiritual natures, but as subject to the influence of various sensual appetites. They delight con- tinually in quaffing the Soma, and in the exhilaration it produces ; Yama is represented as carousing with the gods under a tree ; 4 the Adityas as eating honey ; 5 and the Fathers as indulging in festivity or revelry with Yama. 1 ' Indra is said to have a handsome wife, and to enjoy pleasure in his house. 7 The Gandharvas assume the form of handsome men, in order to seduce earthly 1 R.-V., x., 16. - A.-V., 18, 21, 24, 25. 3 La Veda, p. 186. 4 R.-V., x., 135, 1. r> A.-V., xviii., 4, 31. a R.-V., x., 14, n. 7 Ibid., iii., 53, 4, 6. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 167 females, though the}' have their own celestial wives, the Asparases. 1 If, then, the pleasures of the gods are regarded as carnal and sensual, it is too much to expect the ancient Rishis to imagine the pleasures of departed men to be anything different. It is difficult to under- stand, therefore, how Professor Roth could have written, " What shall be the employment of the blest, in what sphere shall their activity expend itself? to this question ancient Hindu wisdom sought no answer". It is distinctly stated in A.-Y., iv.. 34, that "in the celestial region " the " faithful are promised ponds filled with clarified butter, honey, wine, milk, and curds, as well as abundance of sexual enjoyment ". Vedic futurity had its heaven, but the intimations that it had its hell are less numerous and distinct. There are passages, however, which show that the ancient Aryans believed in a place of punishment for the wicked. Otherwise we can scarcely explain such passages as those in which Yama is regarded as an object of terror. He is said to have two insatiable dogs, with four eyes and wide nostrils, which guard the road to his abode, and which the dead are advised to hurry past with all possible speed.- These dogs wander among men as his messengers, doubtless to summon them to the presence of their master, who in R.-V., x., 165, 4, is identified with mrityu, death, and described as sending a bird, the herald of doom. Deliverance also is sought from the bonds of Yama, as well as from those of Varuna. 3 1 A.-Y., iv.. 37, 11. - R.-V.. x., 14, 10, 12. ;; Ibid., x., 97, 16. l68 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. It may be objected that these passages which represent Yam a as an object of terror, do not prove a future hell, but only the instinctive fear of man to die. But we have more positive evidence. Mention is made of a pit (karta), into which the hated and irreligious are hurled ; l and into which Indra casts those who offer no sacrifices. 2 " This deep abyss has been produced for those who, being sin- ners, false, untrue, go about like women without brothers, like wicked females hostile to their husbands. 3 One poet prays that the Adityas may preserve him from the de- stroying wolf, and from falling into the pit. 4 And Indra is implored to annihilate the might of malignant hosts, and hurl them into the vast and vile pit." 5 The doctrine of a future state of rewards and punish- ments is more distinctly taught in the Brahmanas than in the Mantra portion of the Vedas. Professor Weber says, " In the Brahmanas, immortality, or at least lon- gevity, is promised to those who rightly understand and practise the rites of sacrifice ; while those who are deficient in this respect, depart before their natural time of life to the next world, where they are weighed in a balance, and receive good or evil, according to their deeds. The more sacrifices anv one has offered, the more ethereal is the body he obtains ; or, as the Brah- manas express it, the more rarely does he need to eat. In other passages again, it is promised as the highest reward that the pious man shall be born in the next 1 R.-V., ix., 73, 8. - Ibid., i., 121, 13. *Ibid., iv., 5, 5. 4 Ibid., ii., 29, 6. 5 Ibid., i., 133, 3. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 169 world with his entire body {sarvatanur eva sdngah). Here the high estimation of individual existence cul- minates, and a purely personal immortality is involved." ' There is no trace of the doctrine of metempsychosis in the hymns of the Rig-Veda. The old Rishis evince no sympathy whatever with the desire to get rid of action and personal existence, which became so remarkable a feature of later Hindu Theology and Philosophy. On the contrary, they manifest a cheerful enjoyment of life, and the most earnest desire for its prolongation in this world, and its continuation in the next. According to Weber,* 2 the doctrine of the transmigration of souls is first found in the Khandogya Upanishad, and the Vrihad Aranyka of the white Yajus ; but in such a complete form as to make it certain that it existed long before the date of those treatises. Barth, in his Religions of India, says, " The doctrine which is henceforth the funda- mental hypothesis common to all the religions and sects of India, is found formulated in the Upanishads for the first time. In the most ancient portions of the Brah- manas, it appears of small account, and with less range of application. The faith we find there seems simply to be, that the man who has led an immoral life may be condemned to return to this world to undergo here an existence of misery. Re-birth is only a form of punish- ment ; it is the opposite of the celestial life, and tanta- mount to the infernal. It is not yet what it is here, and what it will continue to be eventually, the state of 1 Muir, vol. v., pp. 314, 5, 6. -Hist, of hid. Lit., p. 73. 170 THE TEACHING OE THE VEDAS. personal being, a state which may be realised in endlessly diverse forms of being, from that of the insect to that of the god, but all of equal instability, and subject to relapse. It is impossible to fix the period at which this old belief found in the new metaphysical ideas the medium favourable to its expansion. But it is certain that from the end of the sixth century, before our era, when Sakyamuni was meditating his work of salvation, the doctrine, such as it appears in the Upanishads, was almost complete, and appears deeply rooted in the popu- lar conscience. Without this point cT afpiii the spread of Buddhism would hardly be intelligible." The degrading effect of this doctrine on the Hindu mind is graphically described by Dr. Wilson in his India Three Thousand Years Ago, "The bringing of the brutes up to the level of man has brought down man to the level of the brutes. It has driven man entirely from the apprehension of his right position in the scale of creation. It has confused, compounded and confounded him, to his great dishonour, with beasts, and birds, and reptiles, and fishes ; with the lowest invertebrated animals, and even with vegetable organism of every species and variety. I am now an intelligent man, but soon I may be a chattering monkey; I am now a tender-hearted woman, but ere long I may be a ravening wolf; I am now a studious boy, but next year I may be a stupid buffalo ; I am now a playful girl, but after my next birth I may be a skipping goat. That querulous crow may be my own deceased father, that hungry cat my own departed mother, that raging bear my quondam brother, and that THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 171 crawling serpent my late sister." This is the legitimate language of metempsychosis. What a degradation of the sublime doctrine of the ancient Rishis ! And what a complete refutation of the dictum of certain philo- sophers, that the doctrine of a future state has been gradually evolved from dreams ! The higher up we trace the Hindu Aryan doctrine of a future life, the more perfect and sublime we find it ; the lower down we follow it, the more degraded and irrational it appears. i 4. The 0?'igi>i mid Growth of Caste. The word " caste '' is derived from the Portuguese word " casta," race ; and is used by Europeans to re- present the Sanscrit words var/m, colour, and jad\ tribe or class. And the three words caste, varna, jati, are used to denote the various classes into which the Hindu com- munity is divided by hard and fast lines, which absolutely bar every entrance from a lower to a higher social grade. It is not merely a social institution, defining the various grades of society like rank among other nations, but a religious institution, a radical difference between man and man, created by the Deity, the preservation of which is the most sacred duty devolving upon even- Hindu. The rules of caste are almost innumerable : but they are all connected more or less with ( 1 ) food and its preparation, (2) inter-marriage, and (3) professional pur- suits. These features, however, were not developed in I72 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. the earliest part of the Vedic age. 1 " There is no authority whatever in the hymns of the Veda for the complicated system of caste ; no authority for the offen- sive privileges claimed by the Brahmans ; no authority for the degraded position of the Sudras. There is no law to prohibit the different classes of the people from living together, from eating and drinking together ; no law to prohibit the marriage of people belonging to different castes ; no law to brand the offspring of such marriages with an indelible stigma." 2 Rishis and Priests, as we have seen before, 8 were from the Kshatriya, as well as from the Brahman, caste ; such as Visvamitra, the author of the Gayatri, and Jamadagni, the reputed father of Parasurama, the great champion of the Brahmans. And Brahman Rishis married the daughters of Kshatriyas, or kings. It is evident, therefore, that Priests and Rishis did not constitute a caste in those days, in the modern sense of the term. Indeed, the Satapatha Brahmana distinctly states that all men after the deluge sprang from Manu and Ida; and the Rig-Veda, in its account of the first created pair, Yama and Yami, im- plies the common origin of all nations in the beginning. 1 " At that time there were three features of caste not as yet developed: 1st, restriction of trade or occupation; 2nd, objec- tions to eating with people other than caste men ; 3rd, objec- tions to inter-marriage ' (A Lecture delivered by Pundit Sivanath Sastri, M.A., in Madras, Nov. 19, 1881). '-'Max Muller, Chips from a German Workshop, vol. ii., pp. 311, 2. :i See p. 10, ante. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 1 73 It is true that in the dialogue between Yama and Yami, he declines to take his sister to wife ; but this is obviously an adaptation of the original story to suit the suscepti- bilities of a later age. For had he not taken her for his wife, whence came his descendants ? ' " The doctrine of ceremonial defilement by touch, or by eating and drinking — by which the existence of caste is particularly marked in the present social and religious life of the Hindus —is not recognised in the Vedas in a single instance." 2 There was then neither horror nor defilement attached to eating beef; for " when the pious have recourse to Indra for food, they find it in the haunts of the Goura and Gavaya, two well-known Indian species of the wild ox". 3 <; Bestow (Indra) upon him who glori- fies thee food, the chiefest of which is cattle." " Release Vasishtha, O King, like a thief who has feasted on stolen oxen." 4 Indra is represented as " cutting in pieces the limbs of Vritra as of a cow";"' and as eating the flesh of bulls and buffaloes when drinking large draughts of the Soma. 6 Agni, to aid his friend Indra, fortified him- self by eating three hundred buffaloes ; " and Rishi Vamadeva confesses, that when in extreme destitution, he cooked and eat the entrails of a dog, s which, according 1 R.-V., x., 10, ii, 12. 2 Dr. Wilson's India Three Thousand Years Ago. :i Professor H. H. Wilson. 4 R.-V., vii., 86, 5. 5 Ibid., i., 61, 12. ,; Ibid., x., 28, 3. 7 Ibid., v., 29, 7. 8 Ibid., iv., 18, 13. 174 THH TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. even to Manu, did not make him impure under the circumstances. 1 But though modern caste was unknown in the Vedic age, the four social ranks, priests, warriors, husbandmen and serfs, were recognised before the collection of the Rig-Veda was completed. In the goth hymn of the ioth book of the Rig-Veda, called the Purusha Sukta, the four ranks are mentioned by their technical names. "When they formed (or offered up) Purusha {primeval Male), into how many parts did they divide him ? What was his mouth ? What were his arms ? What were called his thighs and feet ? The Brahman was his mouth ; the Rajanya (king) was made his arms ; the Vaisya became his thighs ; the Sudra was born from his feet." This highly figurative hymn proves no more as to the origin of the four castes than it does as to the origin of the moon, sun, and wind, which it represents as having been produced respectively from the mind, the eye, and the breath of Purusha. It is interesting only as showing that the four social ranks were technically known in those days. Again, in an address to the Asvins, the poet says, " Favour the prayer (brahma), favour the service, kill the Rakshasas, drive away the evil . . . favour the power {khatrd) and favour the manly strength . . . favour the cow (d/ienu, the repre- sentative of property) and favour the people or house (vis ha) ".- The exalted position of the priesthood, as a profession, 1 Manu, 10, 106. 2 R.-V., viii., 16-18. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. T/5 was also acknowledged ; and the Priest had already com- menced to arrogate to himself that supreme power over all other classes of the community which ultimately culminated in his deification. " That king hefore whom marches the Priest, 1 he alone dwells well-estahlished in his own house, to him the earth yields at all times, to him the people bow by themselves." " The king who gives wealth to the Priest, that implores his protec- tion, he will conquer unopposed the treasures, whether of his enemies or his friends ; him the gods will pro- tect."- He met, however, with determined resistance and ridicule at first, which is evident from the fol- lowing imprecations, " Whosoever, O Maruts, weans himself above us, or scoffs at the prayer {brahtna) which we have made, may hot plagues come upon him, may the sky burn up that hater of Brahmans {brahma- dvishy . " Did they not call thee, Soma, the Guardian of the Brahman ? did thev not sav that thou didst shield us against curses ? Why dost thou look on when we are scoffed at ? Hurl against the hater of the Brahman the fiery spear." 3 According to Manu, Brahma caused the Brahman, the Kshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Sudra, to proceed from his mouth, his arm, his thigh, and his foot; and some of these, by inter-marriage, and others by neglect of Brahmani- cal rites, produced the other castes. And this is the 1 In the original Brahman. - K.-V.. iv., 50. 7. 8. 3 Ibid., vi.. 51. 2, 3. 176 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. prevailing doctrine in India at the present day. 1 Apart, however, from the fact that Brahma, prayer, was not developed into a god when the four social distinctions of rank were first recognised in the Rig- Veda, many of Manu's degraded castes are known to be the pre-Aryan aboriginal inhabitants of India, such as the Dravidas of the south ; while others derive their names from coun- tries and professions, such as Vaidehas from Videha ; and Venas, musicians, from Vena, lyre. Besides, there is no evidence that Manu's caste system ever extended to the south of India. The Aryans did not conquer the south by force of arms, as they did the north, but by the more honourable force of superior knowledge and higher civilisation. They were unable, therefore, either to impose their language upon the aboriginal inhabitants, 1 The following is a concise statement of the doctrine from the Jatimala, " In the first creation by Brahma, Brahmans proceeded, with the Veda, from the mouth of Brahma. From his arms Kshatriyas sprung : so from his thighs Vaisyas : from his foot Sudras were produced ; all with their females. The lord of creation, viewing them, said, ' What shall be your occupation ? ' They replied, ' We are not our own masters, O God, command us what to undertake ' . Viewing and com- paring their labours, he made the first tribe superior over the rest. As the first had great inclination for the divine praises (Brahma-veda), therefore he was Brahman. The protector from ill (K&hayate) was Kshatriya. Him whose profession (Vesa) consists in commerce, which promotes the success of wars, for the protection of himself and mankind, and in hus- bandry, and attendance on cattle, he called Vaisya. The other should voluntarily serve the three tribes, and therefore become a Sudra : he should humble himself at their feet/' THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 177 or to treat them as serfs. Hence they cunningly called the higher and middle classes of the Dravidians " Sudras" persuading them that in calling them by that name, they were conferring a title of honour upon them. And con- sequently Sudras in the south rank next to Hrahmans, and the title is regarded by all classes as a title of honour. The Pariahs of the south, who were probably conquered by the present Sudras, appear to correspond to the Sudras of the north. It is evident, therefore, that Manu's account of the origin of caste is altogether imaginary. The true origin of the four primitive Hindu ranks must be sought in the social, political and religious necessities of the Aryans on their arrival in " the land of the live rivers ". That their first settlement was the Punjab, whence they gradually extended to the east and south-east, is evident from the geography of the hymns. The limits of which are, on the west, Kubha, 1 the Kophen of the Greeks, the river Cabul and its affluents, and the Gandharis, 2 a tribe of the valley ; the Rasa, which corre- sponds with the Zend name of Jaxartes, appears to be mythical in the Veda. 3 On the east, the Sarayu, the modern Gogra, and the tribe of the Kikatas in Bihar. 4 The authors of the hymns were also acquainted with the sea, the Indian Ocean, south of the Indus. ' In the time of Manu they occupied the whole regions called by 1 R.-Y., v., 53, 9; x., 75. b. - Ibid., 1., 126, 7. :i Ibid., iv., 30, 18 ; v.. 53, 9. 4 Ibid., iii., 53. 14. B Ibid., vii., 95, 2; i., 19, 7, 71, 7. 12 178 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. him Aryavarta, the abode of the Aryans, extending from the western to the eastern sea, and bounded on the north and south by the Himalaya and Vindhya mountains. 1 The Aryans were then in a strange country, inhabited by a strange, uncouth people, who differed greatly from themselves in colour, language, religion, and customs. These, in consequence of the opposition which they offered to the advance of the conquerors, are described by thefti in the most odious terms, as dasyus, enemies ; dasa, slaves ; rdkshasas, barbarians ; kravyad, raw flesh eaters ; avri/a, devoid of religious rites ; abrahma, priest- less; anagnitra, not keeping the sacred fire; achitas, mad; and meuradevas, worshippers of mad gods. They are even accused of eating human flesh ! Thus we read, " The yatudhdnas who gloat on the bloody flesh of men or horses, and steal the milk of the cow, O Agni, cut off their heads with thy fiery sword". 2 There is no reason, however, to believe that this description of the aborigines by their conquering enemies is correct ; for we find that the great Brahman Rishi, Vasishta, when in feud with the Raja Rishi, Visvamitra, is called not only an enemy, but a " ydtudhdna ' or demon. Besides, we learn that these people had fortified cities, fought with weapons, possessed much wealth, were governed by kings. 3 As might be expected, they opposed the invaders of their country and the plunderers of their wealth with all 1 Manu, ii., 21, 2. 2 R.-V., x., 87, 2. 3 Ibid., i., 103, 3; x., 102, 3; viii., 24, 27; i., 51, 5; iii., 12, 6; ii., 15. 4; i., 58, 8, 9; vii., 104, 2. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 1 79 the means at their disposal. But the greater physical strength and superior skill of the Aryans prevailed, and they had to submit to a foreign yoke. Here, then, was the first distinction of caste, a distinction both ethnical and political — the distinction between foreigners and natives, between the conquerors and the' conquered. This dis- tinction was heightened by the difference of colour existing between the two races ; the former being "white" and the latter "black," 1 — a difference still visible between the Aryans and the non-Aryans. And hence varna, colour, the term used by the Aryans to mark off the difference between themselves and the aboriginal inhabitants, came afterwards to be the general designation of all distinctions in Hindu society. The aboriginal inhabitants, who submitted peaceably to Aryan rule, were denominated Sudras, serfs — in contra- distinction to the Aryans, " nobles ". The word " Sudra " is not of Sanscrit origin, and hence must have been imported into the Aryan speech from some of the non- Aryan languages. In the Vishnu Purana we find that Sudras and Abhiras are invariably mentioned together, as if conterminous.- Abhira, according to Ptolemy, is a district above Pattalene on the Indus. The Sudras, therefore, were a people who lived in the same vicinity on the banks of the same river, and were probably the Hudrokoi mentioned by Megasthenes, who sent auxilia- ries to the Persians before the time of Alexander the 1 R.-V., L, 100, 18; ii., 20, 7; iii., 34, 9; ii., 20, 7. - Wilson's V. P., vol. ii., pp. 184, 5. l8o THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. Great. These, it is natural to suppose, were the first people conquered by the Aryans after crossing- the Indus ; and as they gradually conquered other people, on their march from west to east, they extended this designation to them, as a sign both of conquest and of difference of blood. At first these Sudras must have been of great assistance to the Aryans ; and in recognition of this, they were not unwilling to admit them to their sacrifices, as appears from the following passage from the Satapatha Brahmana, respecting the call of the sacrificers, " If the sacrificer be a Brahman, it is said eh\ come ; if he is a Vaisya, then it is agaki, come hither ; when a Raja- bandhu, it is adrava, run hither ; with a Sudra, it is adrava, run hither". But when the Aryans had ex- tended their conquests and consolidated their power, the old antipathy between the "white complexion' 1 and the "dark skin" revived, and the Sudras were relegated to that humiliating position in which we find them in Manu's time, when it was enacted, " Let him (a Brah- man) not give advice to a Sudra, nor what remains from his table ; nor clarified butter of which a part has been offered ; nor let him give spiritual counsel to such a man ; nor inform him of the legal expiation for his sin. Surely he who declares the law to a servile man, and he who instructs him in the mode of expiating sin, sinks with that very man into the hell named Asamvrita." l A large number of the aboriginal inhabitants refused to submit to the Aryans and fied, like the Welsh before 1 Manu, iv., 80, 81. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. l8l the Saxons, to the mountains and other inaccessible places, which is evident from the non-Aryan character of the languages spoken by their descendants at the present day. And probably some dissatisfied deserters from the great Aryan host joined them, and, uniting their forces with those of the aboriginal inhabitants, fought against their brethren. Hence Indra is often invoked to "destroy both these our foes, our Dasa and our Arya enemies". 1 According to the Tandya Brah- mana, many of these renegades were subsequently re- admitted to the Brahman community by the performance of sacrifices called vnityastomas. It was necessary, therefore, to set apart a large number of the Aryan community to protect the invaders from the constant incursions of the Natives, as well as to extend and consolidate their dominion. These were the Ksha- triyas, the powerful ones ; and their chiefs became first the heads of petty states, and afterwards, princes of mighty kingdoms. Their children from generation to generation were brought up in the same profession, and so, in the course of time, the profession of arms became hereditary, and the warriors a caste. And as their profession was both honourable and lucrative, inasmuch as the safety of their brethren depended on their prowess, they were impelled by the most potent motives of self-interest to guard it with jealous vigilance against all intruders. But the warriors could not exist without the husband- men, who in every age and everywhere are the backbone 1 R.-V., 60, 6; x.. 38, 3. l82 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. of government. They till the ground and supply the neces- saries of life ; and though their calling is humbler than that of the soldier, it is equally important and necessary. The)' were Vaisyas, or householders, and one of the designa- tions of the king was Visfiati, 1 the lord of the Vis. The necessities of social life compelled the Vaisyas to divide themselves into various professions and handicrafts. Carpenters and smiths were necessary to make agri- cultural implements; masons to build houses; weavers to weave cloth ; jewellers to make ornaments ; merchants to buy and sell; and physicians to attend the sick. Thus gradually rose all the divisions of the professional and artisan classes ; and as each class not only became a sort of guild to guard its own interests against every other class, but brought up its children in the same calling, such calling by degrees became exclusive, and its followers a caste. Contemporaneously with these classes, and at first im- perceptibly, there grew up another class, the Brahmanical or Priestly, destined to assume the most awful prerogatives, and to exercise the most tyrannical powers within the reach of man. At the dawn of history, access to the gods by prayer and sacrifice was the undoubted privilege of every Aryan without distinction. The father was probably the first Purhohita , or foreman, who conducted the worship of the family, and after this model Agni was constituted the Purhohita of the gods. The poet, however, occupied a position so exalted from the earliest times, as to cause 1 Lithuanian Wiezpatis. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 183 even kings to covet the high honour of being Rajarishis, or royal bards. No wonder, for he inspired the nation with odes in honour of the gods ; he prayed for victory in the day of battle, for rain in the time of drought, and for all blessings to the friends of Indra ! His prayer was apparently answered. A victory was won, or a great drought was removed by abundance of refreshing showers. Then came the war song and the hymn of praise, " Did not Indra preserve Sudas in the battle of the ten kings through your prayer, O Vasishtas ? " l " This prayer of Visvamitra, of one who has praised heaven, and earth, and Indra, preserves the people of the Bharatas." 2 " The Rishi Devapi, son of Rishtishena, performing the sacrifice, and skilled in celebrating the gods, has let loose the showers of rain from the upper to the lower ocean. The waters were shut up by the gods in the upper ocean ; when let loose by Devapi, they were discharged on the plains." 3 The poet was naturally elated, and soon began to believe that there must be some connection between his utterances and the blessings obtained. His children were brought up in the same profession and in the same belief. If not all poets themselves, they could treasure in their memories the songs of their sires — the songs that had accomplished so much — and repeat them as circumstances required. Occasionally original poets arose, then new songs were added to the literature of the nation ; and as this process continued from age to age, it resulted in the production of a literature so enormous 1 R.-V., vii., 33, 3. a Ibid., iii.. 53. 12. :! Ibid., x., 98, 5, 6. 184 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. as, in the absence of writing, to make it absolutely neces- sary for a class of men to devote themselves entirely to its preservation and transmission. Add to this, that, in the course of time, the language of the Veda ceased to be understood by the multitude. The old Sanscrit of the Aryans, having decayed and given birth to new dialects, lay buried in the hymns. From that epoch Sanscrit became a sacred language, and the Veda a sacred text, which could only be taught, as well as preserved, by a class of men set apart for the purpose. Thus originated the Rishis or Seers, Hebrew roim, a class of men half prophets and half priests, whose function it was to teach, inspire, and lead the people. It is not difficult to understand how such men were soon reverenced as the best and wisest, as those who lived nearest to, and on the most familiar terms with, the gods. A prayer, therefore, uttered in behalf of any one, or a sacrifice performed by one of these Rishis, must necessarily be deemed more efficacious than if uttered or performed by the head of the family, or by the individual himself; 1 and so the Rishi gradually developed into a Purhohita ; and as power generally gravi- tates to the wisest, especially in the earliest stages of society, he was endowed with supreme power, both political and spiritual. Every king must have a Purhohita as his friend, counsellor, and minister. For " breath does not 1 The following show that the Rishi and the Priest or Brah- man were identical at a very early age : R.-V., i., 81 ; i., 164, 35 ; ii., 12. 6 ; v., 40, S ; ii., 20. 4 ; vi., 21, 8 ; ii., 19, 8 ; x., 95, 5 ; vii., 28, 2; vii., 70, 5 ; i., 177, 5. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 185 leave him before time, he lives to an old age, he goes to his full time, and does not die again, who has a Brahman as guardian of his land, as Purhohita. He conquers power by power ; obtains strength by strength ; the people obey him, are peaceful and of one mind." ' Hence we find that the Rishis Vasishta and Visvamitra, who, together with their families, were Purhohitas to king Sudas, not only chanted hymns and offered sacri- fices, but followed his army — Bismarck-like — and coun- selled him as chief minister. And the long contest which these two families carried on, in order to secure for themselves the hereditary dignity of Purhohita, shows how highly the office was valued, and the tendency to make it exclusive. This tendency, persisted in, ultimately prevailed, and the office became sacred and hereditary. And as the Vedic ritual developed, four classes of priests were ordained to officiate at the various sacrifices, of which the Brahman, the utterer of prayer par excellence, was only one ; he was, however, the chief priest, Purho- hita, or Episcopos of all the ceremonies. And when the power, which had been distributed among many chief- tains, was consolidated in the hands of a few powerful kings, the priestly families took advantage of their position as counsellors to those kings, and forming themselves into a compact fraternity, usurped supreme power on earth. No wonder, therefore, that we read in the Satapatha Brahmana, " There are two kinds of gods : first the gods, then those who are Brahmans, and who 1 A itareya Brahmana. l86 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. have learnt the Veda and repeat it, they are human gods {manushyah devah). And this sacrifice is twofold; obla- tions for the gods, gifts for the human gods, the Brahmans, who have learnt the Veda and repeat it. With oblations he appeases the gods, with gifts the human gods, the Brahmans, who have learnt the Veda and repeat it. Both gods, when they are pleased, place him in bliss." x It is evident then (i) That there was no caste properly so called in the Mantra, or oldest period of the Veda ; and (2) That the four social distinctions, which subse- quently developed into caste, were nothing more in that early age than four social ranks, which originated in the necessities of social, political, and religious life. Indeed, the doctrine that originally there was but one caste, is not altogether forgotten in the popular legends of the caste-ridden /wZ-Vedic age. In the Vishnu Pu- rana, we read, " In the Krita, or golden age, there were no castes, orders, varieties of condition, or mixture of castes"; and in the Bhagavata Purana, that "There was formerly only one Veda, the sacred monosyllable Om, the essence of all speech ; only one god, Narayana, one Agni (fire), and one caste". Bhrigu, in the Ma- habharata, says, " There is no difference of castes ; this world, having been at first created by Brahma entirely Brahmanic, became afterwards separated into castes in consequence of works. Those Brahmans (lit. twice-born men) who were fond of sensual pleasures, fiery, irascible, prone to violence, who had forsaken their duty, and were 1 Chips from a German Workshop, vol. ii., p. 337. THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 187 red-limbed, fell into the condition of Kshatriyas. Those Brahmans who derived their livelihood from kine, who were yellow, who subsisted by agriculture, and who neglected to practise their duties, entered into the state of Vaisyas. Those Brahmans who were addicted to mischief, falsehood, who were covetous, who lived by all kinds of work, who were black and had fallen from purity, sank into the condition of Sudras. Being sepa- rated from each other by these works, the Brahmans became divided into different castes." CHAPTER V. THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. " Fecisti nos propter te, et inquietum est cor nostrum donee requiescat in te." — Augustine. The term " Soteriology ' is used in this chapter to denote all the means employed by the Vedic Aryans to please the gods and to obtain happiness, both in this world, and in the world to come. § i . Prayer and Praise, "As far back as we can trace the life of man, we find the river of prayer and praise flowing as naturally as it is flowing now. We cannot find its beginning because we cannot find the beginning of the soul." l It is no exaggeration to state that no nation appears at the dawn of history so full of prayer and praise as the Hindu Aryans. Their sacred hymns are called Suktas, " Lauda- tions " ; and " sacrifices of the heart sweeter than butter and honey to Indra". 2 Yea, "they are even as oxen, bulls and cows to Agm '\ ;1 " The loving praises of his 1 Johnson's Oriental Religions, vol. i., p. go. - R.-V., viii., 24, 20. 3 Ibid., vi., 16, 47. THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 189 worshippers, uttered from the soul, 1 proceed to Indra as messages, and touch his heart." " They enable him to overcome all his mighty enemies." - " The gods are propitiated and their vigour enhanced by prayer and praise." :; " The adorable Agni is magnified by the hymns, the prayers, the praises of his worshippers." ' One Rishi addressing Varuna says, " To propitiate thee, O Varuna, we bind thy mind with hymns, as the charioteer his weary steed " ; and another declares " that prayer is his best armour''."' In these hymns the gods are lauded, parti}- on account of their intrinsic excellence, but chiefly on account of the benefits which they are supposed to bestow on their votaries. Prayers were offered to them for the neces- saries of life and the removal of calamities. And in their most serious moments, when the consciousness of sin asserted itself powerfully, the old bards implored the deities to be gracious and to forgive their sins. " If, Varuna, we have ever committed an offence against a benefactor, a friend, a companion, a brother, a near neighbour, or, Varuna, a dumb man, remove it from us. If like gamesters, who cheat at play, we commit offences knowingly, or unknowingly, do thou, divine Varuna, extricate us from them all, as from loosened bonds, so that we may be dear, Varuna, to thee." ,; These prayers and praises were offered in childlike confidence that the 1 Compare Hosea, xv., 2 ; Hebrews, xiii., 15 ; Ps., cxix., 108. 2 R.-V., x., 47, 7; vii., 31, 12. s Ibid., viii.. 12, 19. 22. i Ibid., iii., 5, 2. 5 Ibid., vi., 75, 19. e Ibid., v.. 85. 7, 8. igO THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. gods would accept them, for without faith (sraddha) offerings and prayers are vain. 1 Prayer and praise are the spontaneous expression of the feelings of dependence upon, and moral relationship to, God. The feeling of dependence upon some one, higher and greater than himself, naturally leads man to pray for the help which he needs, and to render thanks- givings and praise for it when received. And the feeling of moral relationship to God, involving as it does the consciousness of sin, naturally leads him to cry for pardon and reconciliation. § 2. Sacrifice. Sacrifice ( Yajnd) is the soul of Veda. It is older than the hymns, for they were composed for its celebration. "Vishnu and Indra made the spacious world for the sake of sacrifice." 2 And the " Lord of creatures ' initiated sacrifice in the beginning as the means by which he created the universe ! The first act performed by Manu on his descent from the ark, after the deluge, was to offer sacrifice. "Sacrifice is the axle of the world's wheel and the fecundating power of all things." :i It is eternal and universal, offered by gods as well as by men. 4 We observe, however, that the sacrifices of the earliest Vedic ritual were very much simpler than those of the later ceremonial. With the rise and growth of the priesthood, sacrifice was developed to such an extent as 1 R.-V., x., 151 ; ii., 26, 3 - Ibid., vii., 99, 4. :{ Ihid., i., 164, 34. 5. * Ibid., x., 82, 90, 130. THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. I9I to be considered, not only the chief means of propitiating and pleasing the deities, but the source of gods, men, and the universe ! By sacrifice the gods created all things. 1 Bv sacrifice they became immortal. 2 By sacrifice the ancient Fathers, the first sacrificers, delivered the world from chaos, gave birth to the sun, kindled the stars, and became equal to the greatest of the gods. :} And by sacrifice their children are exalted to the same sphere of immortality and blessedness. " Thou dost not perish, O sacrificer ! nor thou who ofTerest libations, nor thou, O godly man ! " 4 " Indra chooses for his intimate friend the man who presents offerings, but desires no friendship with him who offers no libations." 5 Those who offer particular sacrifices " become Agm, Varuna, or Indra, and attain to union and to the same spheres with these gods respectively ". 6 " Sin contaminates not, diffi- culties assail not ; neither does distress at any time afflict the mortal, to whose sacrifice Indra and Varuna repair." 7 When the sacrificial victim was consigned to the fire, the following formula was addressed to it, "Thou art the annulment of sins committed by the gods. Thou art the annulment of sins committed by the Fathers. Thou art the annulment of sins committed by men. Thou art the annulment of sins committed by ourselves. What- ever sins we have committed by day or by night, thou art the annulment thereof. Whatever sins we have 1 R.-V., x., 90. - Sat. Br., x., 43, 1, 8. 3 R.-V., x., 88; x., 135, 154. 4 Ibid., viii., 31, 16. 5 Ibid., x., 42, 4. G Sat. Br., ii., 6, 4, 8. ~ R.-V.. vii., 82, 7. ig2 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. committed sleeping or waking, thou art the annulment thereof. Whatever sins we have committed knowing or unknowing, thou art the annulment thereof. Thou art the annulment of sin." ! The most ancient division of sacrifice appears to have been into three classes : (i) Havis, Havir-yajna, Is/iti, meat offerings ; (2) Pasu, Pasubandha, animal offerings ; and (3) Soma, Saumya adhvara, soma offerings. We read in the Panchavimsa Brahmana : " Haviryajnair, vai deva imam lokam abhyajayam, autariksham pasumadbhih, somair amum ; " i.e., by meat offerings the godly ones conquered this world, by animal offerings the middle regions, by soma offerings that world, or the highest regions. To this a fourth class, Paka-yajna, or little sacrifices, called also domestic offerings (gryakarma), being partly meat and partly animal, was added. Manu is said to have sacrificed with a Paka.' 1 In Gautama's classification,-' 5 Paka-yajna is made the first chief division, and Pasubandha is included in Haviryajna. These three classes have seven subdivisions in each. Pakayajnas 4 were chiefly offerings of cakes, soups, grains, fruits, butter, milk, and honey. •' Tandya Br. - Sat. Br., i., 8, 1, 7. 3 viii., 18, 20. 4 They contain, — Ashtaka, or sacrifices on the eighth day of the four dark halves of the winter months, from October- November to January-February ; Prirvaua, sacrifices on the new and full moon ; Sradhci, funeral oblations ; Sravani, Agra- hayani, Saitri, and Asvayugi, the days of full moon, from July- August, from November-December, from March-April, and from September-October. Under this head naturally fall the THK SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. UjJ, Haviryajnas j had, in addition, animal offerings, such as men, buffaloes, goats, cows, sheep, and horses. In five daily oblations, called emphatically the five Mahayajnas, or great sacrifices, oblations (i) to the gods, (2) to the pitris, (3) to all creatures, (4) to the rishis, (5) to men. The first is performed by an oblation to the gods offered on the domestic fire ; the second by pouring out water to the spirits of the departed; the third by an offering to animals; the fourth by a repetition of the Veda ; and the fifth by gifts to men and hospitality to guests. 1 They contain, — Agnyadheya, the ceremony at which the young householder kindles for the first time, by means of friction, the sacred fire (garhapatya), and puts it in a separate place in the house, called agara, where, like the Jewish fire of the burnt offering [Lev., vi., 9, 13], it must never be allowed to go out ; Agnihotra, morning and evening oblations of milk to the fire called ahavuuiya, kindled by means of the garhapatya of the agara, which ceremony must terminate only with life ; Darsapurnamasa, half-monthly sacrifices, performed at new and full moon, which was a meat offering; AgraycinesJiti, the first fruits of the harvest, offered generally twice a year [compare Lev., xxiii., 9, 14] ; Chaturmasya, the sacrifice offered at the beginning of every four months, viz., — at the beginning of Spring (Vasanta), the rainy season (Pravish), and Autumn (Sarad), — the obligation to perform it lasting from one to seven years ; Nirudhapasu-bandha, an animal sacrifice offered separately, and not forming an integral part of another cere- mony, made once a year at the beginning of the rainy season in the house of the sacrificer, and consisted of a he-goat and meat offering ; Sautramani, a ceremony forming the last act of a Somayajna, whose object was to cleanse the priests who might have drunk to excess, and to release the sacrificer from all sin; a goat, a ram, and a bull, together with spirituous liquor, were necessary for this ceremony. 13 IQ4 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. R.-V., vi., 17, 11, Pushan and Vishnu are invoked to dress a hundred buffaloes (satammahishani) to Indra ; and in another place the Rishi Gritsamada exclaims, " Agni, descendant of Bharata, thou art entirely ours, when sacrificed to with pregnant kine, with barren cows (rasa) or bulls {uksha) "- 1 In the Atharva-Veda, xi., 2, g, we read, " Thine, O Bhava, are these five victims, divided as cows, horses, men, goats, and sheep ". The same sacrificial victims are mentioned in the Ait. Br., book ii. 2 Somayajnas 3 derived their name from the intoxicating juice of the Soma plant, which formed their chief sub- stance. They were, however, accompanied with meat and animal offerings ; and so corresponded to the meat and drink offerings of the Jews. Somayajnas lasting one day were called Ekahas, and those lasting more than one day Ahinas. When they lasted more than twelve days they were Sattras, or sessions. There were Sattras which lasted several months, a whole year, and even several years ; in theory there were some that lasted a thousand years. But, whether short or long, the Soma ceremonies required elaborate preparation, and entailed much expense. Notwithstanding, they seem to have 1 R.-V., ii., 7, 5. 2 Haug., vol. i., 8. 3 These, containing Agnishtoma, Atyagnishtoma, Ukthya, Shod- asin, Vajapeya, AtirTitra, and Aptoryniua, are all different forms of the Somayajna; varying in the number of victims sacrificed, but chiefly in the number of stomas, or praises offered to the deities. THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. IQ5 been very frequent at one time ; a thousand, and even ten thousands, are spoken of in the Veda. 1 Though Gautama's classification of the Vedic sacrifices is the simplest and commonest, it fails, equally with all other classifications, to give an adequate idea of their number and complexity: e.g., besides the seven usually mentioned as constituting the Somayajnas, there are others far more costly, and lasting many days, such as the Rdjasuya, the consecration of a universal king, the Asvamedha, the sacrifice of a horse, the Purushamedha, the sacrifice of a man, and the Sarvamedha, the " all sacrifice". Indeed, it is calculated, that if all the varie- ties specified in the texts were reckoned up, they would amount to more than a thousand ! The three classes of sacrifices are called the thrice seven mystic rites comprised in Agni, because without Agni (fire) they could not be celebrated.- For the per- formance of the first, one Srauta fire, the Garhapatya\ was sufficient, but for the last two, three Srauta fires, the Garhapatya, Ahavaniya, and Dakshina, were neces- sary. The last two Srauta fires were kindled from the first. These three fires are alluded to in R.-V., ii., 36, 4, " Bring the gods hither, sage, and offer sacrifice : at the three altars seat thee willingly, O priest ". The high antiquity of the Soma cultus is attested by the references to it in the Iranian Zend-Avesta. The haoma of the Zend-Avesta is etymologically the same as the Soma of the Veda. Both are from the root su, 1 R.-V., i., 30, 2 ; iii., 53, 7. - Ibid., 72, 6 ; i., 2 ; iv.. 12, 1. I96 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. Zend hu, which signifies "to beget," and "to drop/' or " to press out juice " ; thus showing that Soma-sacrifice was prevalent before the separation of the Hindu Aryans from their brethren, the Iranians. It seems, however, to have received a new impulse on the Indian territory, as the hymns of the Veda, especially those of the ninth book of the Rig, exhibit it in a remarkable state of development. There Soma is addressed as a god in the highest strains of veneration ; all divine powers belong- to him, all blessings are his to bestow. " We have drunk the Soma, we have become immortal, we have entered into light, we have known the gods. What can an enemy now do to us, or what can the malice of anv mortal effect, thou immortal god ? " 1 In common with the Scythians, 2 the Asviwiedha, or horse-sacrifice, was a very ancient rite among the Hindu Aryans, hymns 162 and 163 of the first Mandala of the Rig- Veda being used at its celebration. It was regarded as the chief of animal sacrifices ; and, in later times, its efficacy was so exaggerated, that a hundred horse-sacrifices were supposed to entitle the sacrificer to displace even Indra from his throne in heaven ! According to R.-V., i.. 162, the sacrifice of a horse was preceded by that of a goat to Pushan. "When they (the Priests) lead before the horse, which is decked with pure gold ornaments, the offering firmly grasped, the spotted goat, bleats while walking onward ; it goes the path beloved by Indra and Pushan." This goat, destined for 1 R.-Y.. viii., 48, 3. - Herod., iv., 71. THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. I97 all the gods, is led first with the fleet courser, as Pusharfs share, for Tvashtri himself raises to glory this pleasant offering" which is brought with the horse. " When thrice at the proper seasons men lead around the sacrificial horse which goes to the gods, Pushan's share comes first, the goat which announces the sacrifice to the gods." According to Katyayana, 6og other animal victims were required at the horse-sacrifice, 260 of which were forest animals, such as lions, tigers, birds, snakes and frogs. All these were tied to 21 posts; but the forest animals were released after the fire had been carried round them, so that only 349 were actually slaughtered. At the final ceremony, the ava brathishti, or the oblation at the cleansing bath, a human being was sacrificed. This, however, is a later development of the Asvamedha, for there is nothing in the most ancient hymns to warrant such a multiplication of animals and posts. One post onlv is mentioned in the hymns, to which the horse is bound, and one " goat, the portion of Pushan ". The immolators were to deal gently with the innocent beast, giving it as little pain as possible. " If some one strike thee with the heel, or with the whip, that thou mayest lie down, and thou art snorting with all thy might, then I purify all this with my prayer, as with a spoon of clarified butter at the sacrifice. The axe approaches the thirty-four ribs of the swift horse, beloved of the gods. Do thou wisely keep the limbs whole, find out each joint and strike. One strikes the brilliant horse, two hold it, this is the custom. Those I98 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. of thy limbs which I have seasonably prepared, I sacri- fice in the fire as bulls offered to the gods. May no greedy and unskilful immolator, missing with the sword, throw thy mangled limbs together. Indeed, thou diest not thus, thou sufferest not ; thou goest to the gods on easy paths." When the horse was tied to the sacrificial post, the bystanders prayed that the halter and heel ropes of the noble animal, the head ropes, the girths and any other requisite, the grass that was put into his mouth, what- ever the flies may have eaten of his raw flesh, whatever was smeared on the brush or the axe, or the hands or nails of the immolator ; the place of going forth, of tarrying, of rolling on the ground ; the water that he had drunk, the grass that he had eaten, might all be with him among the gods. Then the roasting and cooking of his flesh are minutely described ; and every bit of him, even to the smallest that might have fallen from the spit, must be given to the longing gods. And the whole ceremony ends with the petition, " May this horse give us cattle and horses., men, progeny, and all sustaining wealth. May it keep us from sin ; may the horse of this sacrifice give us strength." Though human sacrifices were known during the Man- tras, or oldest hymns of the Veda, the evidence is too scanty for us to conclude that thev were common. The ninetieth hymn of the tenth Mandala of the R.-V., in which Pur- us/ia, the primeval male, is described as " cut to pieces and offered as a sacrifice by the gods," shows that the idea of offering a man, Purusha, was familiar to the ancient THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 199 Aryans. It is true that Purusha, in the hymn, is an imaginary being- ; but the description of his immolation is so real and minute, as to justify the conclusion that it was taken from the well-known manner in which human beings were sacrificed. "The gods immolated him on the sacrificial grass ; they bound him," doubtless, to the post iyVi/pa) ; "seven pieces of wood were laid for him round the fire," and " thrice seven pieces of fuel were employed ". The same idea underlies the immola- tion of Prajapati, who offered himself a sacrifice for the devas or gods ; and of Visvakarman, who offered himself a sacrifice to himself. In R.-V., vii., 19, 4, we read, "Thou (Indra) hast destroyed, along with the Maruts, numerous enemies at the sacrifice to the gods ; thou hast put to sleep with thy thunderbolt the Dasyns, Chumuri, and Dhitni, on behalf of Dabhiti" . There seems to be an allusion here to the practice of sacrificing the enemies of the Aryans to the gods ; like the three hundred citi- zens of Perusia, whom Augustus sacrificed in one day to his deified uncle (Divo Julio) ; or the Grecian navigators, whom the barbarians of Tauris offered to Artemis when- ever cast upon their sea-shores. Sunasepha, the son of Ajigarta, is the author of the twenty-fourth and six following hymns in the first Mandala of the Rig- Veda. Praising Varuna in the twenty-fourth hymn, he prays, " I implore thee for that (life) 1 which the institutor of the sacrifice solicits with 1 The text has only, " I ask that " ; the Scholiast supplies " life,*' tadayus. The addition might be disputed, but its pro- 200 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. oblations, Varuna, undisdainful, bestow a thought upon us ; much lauded, take not away our life. This (thy praise) they repeat to me by night and by day ; this knowledge speaks to my heart. May he whom the fettered Sunasepha has invoked, may the regal Varuna set us free." " Sunasepha, seized and bound to the three-footed tree, has invoked the son of Aditi. May the regal Varuna, wise and irresistible, liberate him ; may he let loose his bonds." Here Sunasepha re- presents himself as " seized and bound to the three- footed tree," which is said to be the sacrificial post, a sort of tripod. He prays that Varuna may " set him free," and " that his life may not be taken away ". There is reference to the same circumstance in R.-V., v., 2, 7, "O Agni, thou hast released the bound Suna- sepha from the pale, for he had prayed ; thus take from us, too, these ropes, O sagacious Hotar, after thou hast settled here ". Looking at these passages alone, perhaps we are not justified in concluding that Sunasepha was bound as a victim to be sacrificed. His " bonds ' and "ropes" may be taken in a figurative sense, denoting the fetters of sin, especially as we have seen before that sin is often compared to a " bond," or a "rope," in the Veda ; and, indeed, it is so compared in the last verse of this very hymn. We are not, however, left in un- certainty. The Aitareya Brahmana of the R.-V. supplies full particulars of the circumstances referred to in the priety is confirmed by the concluding expression, ma na ayah pra mosheh, do not take away our life (Prof. Wilson's Rig- Veda, vol. i., p. 63). THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 201 hymns, and leaves no doubt as to the fact that " Suna- sepha was bound to the three-footed tree " for the purpose of being sacrificed. Harichandra, of the family of the Ikshavakus, was a king, who, though he had a hundred wives, had no son. This was the greatest calamity that could befall him ; for by seeing the face of a son a/oue, could he pay his debts to his ancestors, and obtain immortality. Consequently, by the advice of the sage, Narada, he went to Varuna and prayed, " May a son be born to me, and I shall sacrifice him to you ". Varuna assented. A son was born to him, called Rohita. Then Varuna said to Harichandra, "A son is born to thee, sacrifice him to me". Hari- chandra replied, " When an animal is more than ten days old, it can be sacrificed. May he be older than ten days, and I shall sacrifice him to thee." Harichandra, having exhausted all excuses, was at last under the dire necessity of sacrificing his son ; but on mak- ing this known to him, Rohita said " No," took his bow, and departed to the forest, where he wandered for a year. Varuna was angry, and caused Harichandra to be afflicted with a dangerous disease. Rohita, having heard of this, returned home ; but Indra, in the form of a Brahman, met him and told him to travel. He felt bound to obey a Brahman, and so he travelled another year in the forest. And when he came home again, at the end of the second year, Indra met him in the same form, and told him, " A traveller's legs are like blossoming branches; he himself grows and gathers the fruit ; all his wrongs vanish, destroyed by his exertions on the road ; and so 202 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. k Travel ' ". Rohita travelled four years more, coming home at the end of each year, and sent back again by Indra in the form of a Brahman. During- the sixth year of his sojourn, he met a starving Rishi, Ajigarta, the son of Suyavasa, who had three sons, the second of whom was Sunasepha. Rohita said to him, " Rishi, I give you a hundred cows, I ransom myself with one of these thy sons ". The father, pointing to the eldest, said, " Not him ". " Nor him," said the mother, embracing the youngest. And the parents bargained to give Suna- sepha, the middle son. Rohita gave a hundred cows to Ajigarta, took Sunasepha, and went from the forest to the village. Addressing his father, he said, " Father, Death ! I ransom myself by him ". The father went to Varuna and said, " I shall sacrifice this man to you 5 '. Varuna said, " Yes, for a Brahman is better than a Kshatriya," and commanded him to perform a Rajasuya sacrifice. Harichandra took Sunasepha to be the victim for the day when the Soma was offered to the gods. Visamitra was his Hotri priest, Jamadagni his Adh- varyu priest, Vasishtha the Brahman, Ayasya the Udgatri priest. When Sunasepha had been prepared, they found nobody to bind him to the sacrificial post. And Ajigarta, the son of Suyavasa, said, " Give me another hundred, and I shall bind him ". They gave him another hundred, and he bound him. When he had been pre- pared and bound, when the Apri hymn had been sung, and he had been led round the lire, they found nobody to kill him. And Ajigarta, the son of Suyavasa, said, " Give me another hundred, and I shall kill him ". They THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDA?. 203 gave him another hundred, and he came whetting his sword. Then Sunasepha thought, " They will really kill me, as if I were not a man ". " Death ! I shall pray to the gods." He went with a hymn to Prajapati (Lord of creatures), the first of the gods. Prajapati said to him, "Agni (fire) is the nearest of gods, go to him". He went with a hymn to Agni, and Agni said to him, " Savitri (the progenitor) rules all creatures, go to him ". He went with a hymn to Savitri, and Savitri said to him, " Thou art bound for Varuna, the king, go to him ". He went with a hymn to Varuna, the king, and Varuna said to him, " Agni is the mouth of the gods, the kindest god ; praise him, and we shall set thee free ". Thus he praised Agni, and Agni said to him, " Praise the Visve Devah. and we shall set thee free ". Thus he praised the Visve Devah, and they said to him, " Indra is the greatest, mightiest, strongest, and friendliest of the gods ; praise him, and we shall set thee free ". Thus he praised Indra, and Indra was pleased, and said to him, "Praise the Asvins, and we shall set thee free". Thus he praised the Asvins, and they said to him, "Praise Ushas (dawn), and we shall set thee free". Thus he praised Ushas with three verses. While each verse was uttered, his fetters were loosed, and Hari- chandra grew better ; and when the last verse was said, all his fetters were loosed, and Harichandra was well again. The Aitareya Brahmana goes on to state that the priests asked Sunasepha to perform the sacrifice of the day, which he did : and when the sacrifice had been 204 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. performed, Sunasepha sat down on the lap of Visva- mitra. Ajigarta then said, " Rishi, give me back my son". Visvamitra said, " No ; for the gods have given him to me ". Sunasepha became Devarata (Theodotus), the son of Visvamitra ; and the members of the families of Kapila and Babhru became his relations. Ajigarta said, " Come thou, O son, we, both I and thy mother, call thee away. Thou art by birth an Angirasa, the son of Ajigarta, celebrated as a poet. O Rishi, go not away from the line of thy grandfather ; come back to me." Sunasepha replied, " They have seen thee with a knife in thy hand, a thing that men have never found even amongst Sudras ; thou hast taken the hundred cows for me, O Angiras ! " Ajigarta said, " My old son, it grieves me for the wrong that I have done thee ; I throw it away; may these hundred cows belong to thee". Sunasepha replied, "Who once commits a sin, will commit also another sin ; thou wilt not abstain from the ways of Sudras ; what thou hast committed cannot be redressed ". Visvamitra then said, " Dreadful stood the son of Suy- avasa when he went to kill with his knife. Be not his son; come and be my son." Sunasepha said, "Tell us thyself, O Son of a King, thus as thou art known to us, how I, who am an Angirasa, shall become thy son". Visvamitra replied, " Thou shalt be the eldest of my sons, thy offspring shall be the first, thou shalt receive the heritage which the gods have given me, thus I address thee ". Sunasepha replied, " May the leader of the Bharatas say so in the presence of his agreeing sons, for friendship's and happiness' sake, that I shall THE SOTKRIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 205 become thy son ". Then Visvamitra addressed his hun- dred sons, " Hear me, Madhuchhandas, Rishabha, Renu. Ashtaka, and all ye brothers, believe in his seniority"'. Fifty of his hundred sons complied, and were blessed ; and the other fifty declined, and were cursed to become outcasts. Max Miiller, in his History of Sanscrit Literature, makes the following valuable remarks on this legend, which is there given in full : '• The story of Sunasepha is interesting in many respects. It shows that, at that early time, the Brah- mans were familiar with the idea of human sacrifices, and that men who were supposed to belong to the caste of the Brahmans were ready to sell their sons for that purpose." It also " reveals three distinct elements in the early social life of India. These are represented by the royal or reigning family of the Ikshvakus, by their priests or ministers belonging to several famous Brah- manical races, and by a third class of men living in the forests, such as Ajigarta and his three sons. It is true that Ajigarta is called a Rishi, and one of his sons a Brahman. But even if we accept the Aryan origin of Ajigarta, the seller and butcher of his own son, it is important to remark how great a difference there must have been between the various Aryan settlers in India. Whether we ascribe this difference to a difference in the time of immigration, or whatever other reason we mav assign to it, yet there remains the fact that, with all the vaunted civilisation of the higher Aryan classes, there were Aryan people in India to whom not only a young 206 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. prince could make the offer of buying their children, but where the father offered himself to bind and kill the son, whom he had sold for a hundred cows. This was a case so startling- to the later Brahmans, that the author of the Laws of Mann was obliged to allude to it, in order to defend the dignity of his caste. Manu says that hunger is an excuse for many things, and that Ajigarta, although he went to kill his own son, was not guilt}' of a crime, because he did so to appease his hunger. Now the author of the Aitareya Brahmana certainly does not adopt this view, for Ajigarta is there severely abused for his cruelty ; so much so, that his son, whom he has sold, considers himself at libertv to leave the familv of his parents, and to accept the offer made by Visvamitra of being adopted into his family. So revolting, indeed, is the description given of Ajigarta's behaviour in the Brah- mana, that we should rather recognise in him a specimen of the un-Aryan population of India. Such a supposi- tion, however, would be in contradiction with several of the most essential points of the legend, particularly in what regards the adoption of Sunasepha by Visvamitra. Visvamitra, though arrived at the dignity of a Brahman, clearly considers the adoption of Sunasepha Devarata, of the famous Brahmanic family of the Angirasas, as an advantage for himself, and for his descendants ; and the Devaratas are indeed mentioned as a famous branch of the Visvamitras. Sunasepha is made his eldest son, and the leader of his brothers, evidently as the defender and voucher of their Brahmanhood, which must have been then of very recent date, because Visvamitra him- THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 207 self is still addressed by Sunasepha as Raja-putra and Bharata-rishabha." ] Max Miiller doubts the existence of human sacrifices during the Chhandas or oldest Vedic period, but sees no reason to doubt its previous existence.- Considering, however, that the fullest and clearest account of this practice is found in the Brahmanas, and that during the Brahmana period sacerdotalism reached its zenith, it is natural to suppose that the practice became more com- mon after the Chhandas period. It is repeatedly stated in the Brahmanas, sarvam, sarvam purushamedha sarva- sxaptxai sai'vasxavaruddliyai . "All, all is the human sacri- fice for the obtaining of all, for the gaining of all." " By means of it the sacrificer obtains all." 3 Purusha Naravana surpassed all things, and became all things by sacrificing with the Purushamedha. No wonder then, that it is said, Purusho hi praihama pasunam. " Man is, indeed, the first of the sacrificial victims." 4 Indeed, so real was the prac- tice that even the name of the man who celebrated the rite for the last time has been preserved. According to the 1 In the Katha Upanishad, a father is introduced as offering a Sarvamedha, or "All-sacrifice," when all that a man possessed is supposed to be given up. He, however, neg- lected to offer his son, and, strange to say, the son taunted him for not having fulfilled his vow. Thereupon the father, though exceedingly angry, and against his will, offered up his son. 2 Hist. Sans. Lit., pp. 419, 20. 3 S. Br., xiii., 6, 1,6, n ; 7. 1. 1, 12. 4 S. P. Br., vii.. 2. 1, 18. 208 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. Satapatha Brahmana, Cyaparna Sayakayana was the last who consecrated the erection of the altar by the immo- lation of a human victim. 1 When Sunasepha, bound to the sacrificial post, saw his father coming and whetting his knife to strike him, he exclaimed, " They will really kill me, as if I were not a man ! ,: This seems to indicate, that the custom of offer- ing men, or at any rate Brahmans, was falling to desuetude at the time. According to the Satapatha Brahmana, xiii., 6, 6, i, there was a typical Purushamedha, in which ceremony one hundred and eighty-five human victims of various tribes, characters and professions, were bound to eleven yupas or posts, and after the Purusha Sukta had been uttered over them, and the sacred fire had been carried round them, they were liberated unhurt, and oblations of butter offered on the sacrificial fire in their stead. Perhaps this custom was beginning to prevail in the time of Suna- sepha, and hence his exclamation, " They will really kill me, as if I were not a man ! ' This receives cor- roboration from the chronological order of Aryan sacri- fices, as given in the following passage of the Aitareya Brahmana, " The gods killed a man for their victim. But from him thus killed, the part which was fit for a sacrifice went out and entered a horse. Thence the horse became an animal fit for being sacrificed. The gods then killed the horse, but the part fit for being sacrificed went out of it and entered an ox. The gods then killed the ox, but the part fit for being sacrificed 1 Barth's Religions of India, p. 58. THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 20C) went out of it and entered a sheep. Thence it entered a goat. The sacrificial part remained for the longest time in the goat, hence it became pre-eminently fit for being sacrificed." Human sacrifices have been offered by all nations at different times in their history. In countries so remote from one another as to preclude all supposition of inter- communication, human sacrifices have invariably pre- vailed. Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, all furnish abundant evidence of this. Caesar's description of the ancient Gauls is applicable to all ancient nations : " When alarmed by any cause of terror, they think that their gods must be appeased ; they pollute their altars and temples with human sacrifices ! Under the pretence of religion they violate its very dictates ! Is it not notorious, that to this day, they retain that horrible and savage practice of immolating" their fellow-creatures ? " The propitiation of the gods, and the happiness of the sacrificer, are the chief objects of all Vedic sacrifices. " May these invigorating offerings propitiate him.'" ' "May we propitiate thee by our sacrifice." 2 " May Jatavedas render the immortal gods pleased by the sacrifice. " :1 "He who sacrifices, propitiates the gods.'' " For which deity the)' kill an animal, that deity is propitiated." 4 "Be propitiated, Agni, by these hymns; accept, hero, these sacrificial viands presented with praises ; be pleased, Angiras, by our prayers ; may the 1 R.-V., i., 17. - Ibid., viii., 19, 20. :; Ibid., vii., 17, 4. 4 S. P. Br., i., 9, 1,3; iii., 8, 2, 9. 210 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. adoration addressed to the gods exalt thee." 1 "May the liberal man ever be prosperous, who propitiates thee with constant oblations and praises ; may all the days in his arduous life be prosperous, and may this his sacrifice be productive of reward." 2 All other nations sacrificed for the same purpose. Herodotus says that the Egyptians believed that the public or private calamities, which might be impending, were arrested by being "turned upon the head" of the victim sacrificed. 3 The Kelts considered that the favour of the gods could not be secured unless the life of one man were offered up for that of another. The sacrifice of innocent children or pure virgins was highly esteemed by the Greeks, as the best means of averting calamity at home, and of carrying it abroad among enemies. Feb- ruary is derived from an old Roman word, Februa, which was a general term for sacrifices and ceremonies per- formed at the close of the year. February was the last month in the ancient Roman vear, in which it was "held an essential part of filial duty to make atonement on behalf of our parents, by a sacrifice of the greatest value". Professor H. H. Wilson says that the notion of propitiating some divinity by offering to him what was most precious to the sacrificer, was widely diffused 1 R.-V., iv., 3, 15. 2 Ibid., iv., 4, 7. 3 One of the curses put on its head was this :— " If any evil is threatening To the sacrificer, or to all Egypt. May it be put on this head ". THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 211 throughout the world in old times, as was also the practice of the individual pledging himself to act by a solemn promise or vow. " We might infer," he proceeds, " that the practice was not unknown to the patriarchal era, from the conduct of Abraham when commanded to offer up his son ; for although he would not under any circumstances have hesitated to obey the divine com- mand, yet he might, consistently with his obedience, have expressed some surprise at the injunction, had the purport of it been wholly unfamiliar. At a later date, in the Jewish history, we have a similar sort of sacrifice, under a solemn previous engagement in the vow of Jephtha ; and it is worthy of remark, that one of the causes assigned by the Greek writers to the detention of the fleet at Aulis, and consequent sacrifice of Iphigenia, was Agamemnon's violation of the vow which he had made to offer to Diana the most lovely thing which the year in which his daughter was born should produce. Iphigenia was that thing, and the sacrifice was insisted on in satisfaction of that vow. The offering of children to Moloch, subsequenth' borrowed by the Jews from their idolatrous neighbours, originated probably in a similar feeling, which, it is evident, exercised a very extensive influence over the nations of West Asia in remote antiquity ; and, as appears from the story of Sunasepha, was not confined to that quarter, but had reached the opposite limits of Asia at a period at least prior by ten or twelve centuries to the Christian era."' ' 1 Essays on the Religions of the Hindus, pp. 266, 267. 212 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. There was no temple or sacred place set apart for the performance of sacrifices in the remote Vedic age. They were performed either on the domestic hearth, which was used for ordinary household purposes, or in an enclosure connected with the house, or in a special place selected for the purpose ; the dimension and situation of which changed according to the nature and requirements of the ceremonies. Such a place was consecrated for the ob- servance of a particular rite, and, when the observance of that rite was at an end, it ceased to be a sacred place. If used again for the same purpose, it required to be consecrated anew. All Vedic sacrifices were either perpetual {nitya) or occasional {anityd). Perpetual sacrifices were compul- sory, i.e., must be offered at stated times, or on the occurrence of certain events ; occasional sacrifices were voluntary, i.e., might be performed, according to the will of the sacrificer, in fulfilment of some vow, or for the gratification of some wish. In the Rig-Veda, we read that prayers and libations were offered three times a day ; namely, morning, mid- day, and noon. 1 £ 3. The Sacrificers. Originally the father of a family was the priest who offered sacrifice for his own household, and hence was, and still is, called Yajamana, which means, literally, the 1 R.-V., iii., 28. THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 213 Sacrificer. 1 When the family grew into a tribe, and the father into a chief, it became necessary to have others to assist him ; but he was still the lord at his own sacrifice, for ordered by him the priests performed it. 2 And when the tribe became a nation, and the chief a king, he gradually relinquished the sacerdotal functions in favour of those who had been his assistants, purohitas ; and who by this time had accustomed themselves to look upon the priesthood as their profession/ 5 And, lastly, when these purohitas, by the cultivation of learning, and the assumption of mysterious powers, usurped supreme authority alike over kirig and subjects, the sacerdotal caste was fully established. The Priestly tribe was divided into four chief priests, each having three men to help him; viz., (1) Hotri, (2) Adhvaryu, (3) Udgatri, and (4) Brahman.* These six- teen priests were called Ritvij, or those who sacrifice 1 After the Mood, Noah was priest to his own family, and so also was Abraham. When the family of Abraham became a clan, Jacob, the Patriarch, was their priest. But when the Hebrews became a nation, a tribe was set apart for the priestly office. 2 ,S". P. Br., i., 6, 1, 20. :: The tribe grew into a nation soon in those days, lor when the Rig-Veda was composed, the age of man, as fixed by the gods, was held to be 100 years (R.-V., i., 89, 9; ii., 914, etc.). 4 The Hotri was assisted by Maitravaruna, Ashhavaka, and Gravastut. Adhvaryu, by Pratiprasthatri, Neshtri, and Unnetri. Udgatri, by Prastotri, Sutramanya, and Pratihartri. Brahman, by Brahmanachhausin, Potri, and Agnidhra. 214 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. according to the rules. The whole number was only wanted for Soma sacrifices. For the Agnihotra, one priest, an Adhvaryu, was sufficient ; for the Darsapurna- masa, four priests ; for the Chaturmasya, five ; for the Pasubandha, six ; and for the Agnishtoma, sixteen. At Sattras, which was exclusively a priest's sacrifice, the Yajamana himself, if a good Brahman, became one of the Ritvijs. The duty of the Hotris (callers) was to recite loudly and distinctly certain hymns of the Rig-Veda, in praise of the deities to whom any particular act of the sacrificer was addressed. Their duties are minutely recorded in the Brahmanas of the Bahvrichas, such as the Kaushitaki, and Aitareya Brahmanas. The Udgatris (singers) sang the hymns which form the collection of the Sama-Veda. Their duties are prescribed in the Brahmanas of the Khandogas. The Adhvaryus (persons of the ceremonies) uttered the Mantras of the Yajur-Veda in a low voice. Besides, to them was entrusted all the hard manual labour of the sacrifice. " They had to measure the sacrificial ground (yajiiabhumi), to build the altar (vedi), to prepare the sacrificial implements, to fetch wood and water, to light the fire, to bring and immolate the animals, press the Soma, and throw the oblations into the fire. They formed, as it would seem, the lowest class of priests, and their acquirements were more of a practical than of an intellectual character. Some of the offices which would naturally fall to the lot of the Adhvaryus were considered so degrading that other persons besides the priests were frequently employed in THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 215 them. The Samitri, for instance, who had to slay the animal, was not a priest, he need not even be a Brahman, and the same applies to the Vaikartas, the butchers, and the so-called Charmasadhvaryus (the assistants of the Adhvaryus). The number of hymns and invocations which they had to use at the sacrifices was smaller than that of the other priests. These, however, they had to learn by heart. The Brahman was the general controller of the sacrificial performance. In a sitting" posture he had to watch carefully the three other classes of priests, and to correct any mistake they might commit. He was therefore supposed to know the whole ceremonial, as well as all the hymns employed by the Hotri, Adhvaryu, and Udgatri. It was only at Somas that he had to take an active part, and then it was customary to elect another superintendent, called Sadasya, chairman." 1 The four chief priests, and some of their assistants, are mentioned in the Rig- Veda. In Mandala ii., 1, 2, Agni is called the Hotri, Adhvaryu, and Brahman.- Again, in R.-V.. i., 10, 1, we read, "The singers sing thee, sata- kratu, :i the reciters of the Richas praise thee, who art worthy of praise, the Brahmans raise thee alolt, like a bamboo pole ". Here the singers are not called by their technical name of Udgatris, but Gavatrins, literallv those who employ the Gayatri -metre ; and the reciters are not 1 M. M., Sans. Lit., p. 471. - See also R.-V., i i i 35, 10; x., 52, 2. '■'■ A name of Indra, meaning he to whom hundreds of victims are offered at a sacrifice. 2l6 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. designated by their technical name of Hotri, but Arkins. This shows, however, that the Udgatri and Hotri priests existed as functionaries at that early time. Mention is also made of " Rich and Saman verses," l and of " the hymns called the Rich and Saman, the metres and the Yajush"; 2 thus showing clearly that the division of the sacrifice between the Hotri, Udgatri, Adhvaryu, and Brahman, was fully established before the completion of the Sanhita, or collections of the Rig-Vedas. Every priest must be whole in body, and blameless in life. He must be anyunyanga, not having too few limbs ; anatiriktdnga, not having too many limbs ; dvesata, re- gularly shaped ; anatikrishna, not being too old ; and anatisveta, not being too young. He must above all be sadhucarana, a man who leads a proper life. 3 The priests, however, were conscious of many sins and imperfections in themselves ; and hence, like the Levitical priests of old, had to offer prayers and sacri- fices for the remission of the same. This they did chiefly at Sattras, when a body of seventeen or twenty- four of them met together at the ceremony, sacrificed for one another, and then solemnly consecrated each other afresh to the sacred service of the gods. It appears that in very early times, the Aryan sacri- fices in India wore a cord [mekald, rasana) at the sacrifices. This they did in three ways, corresponding 1 R.-V., x., 71, n ; viii., 71, 5. - Ibid., x., 90, 9. :j Compare the qualifications necessary for the Levitical priesthood (Leviticus, xxi., 17, 21). THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 217 to three kinds of sacrifices. 1 At sacrifices made to men, it was worn round the neck, and called nivita ; 2 at sacri- fices to the manes, it was worn over the right shoulder, and called pracinavita ; ' 6 and at sacrifices to deities, it was worn over the left shoulder, and called upavita.* It had probably a symbolical meaning, pointing to the cord (rasana), with which the victim was tied to the sacrificial post, and indicating by an unmistakable symbolism, that the sacrificer himself was the real victim represented by the bound animal. This is probably the origin of the sacred thread worn by all the three highest classes in India at the present day. § 4. The Origin of Sacrifice. Sacrifices, like prayers, have their foundation deep down in the necessities of the soul. Both are the natural outcome of the feelings of dependence upon, and moral relationship to, some supreme Being. Both are expressions of states of consciousness — prayers by words, and sacrifices by acts. And both represent clearly the bright and the dark, the joyous and the fearful sides of those states. The bright and joyous side is represented by eucharistic prayers and thank- offerings ; and the dark and fearful, by deprecatory prayers and propitiatory sacrifices. It is unnecessary, 1 Tait. Sam., ii., 5, n, 1. ' 2 Shadvimsa Br., iii., 8 ; Katy. Sr. S., xv., 5, 13. 3 Ath.-V., ix., 1, 24; Tait. Br., 1, 4, 6, 6. 4 \'aj. Sam., xvi., 17; S. I'. Br., xii., 8, 1. 19. 2l8 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. therefore, to suppose that prayers and praises are alone the result of the feeling of dependence upon God, and sacrifices alone the result of the feeling of moral re- lationship to Him. Both are the result of the same feelings differently expressed. Hence all prayers are not praises, and all sacrifices are not thank-offerings. Some prayers are earnest petitions, imploring the Al- mighty to bestow that which is needed, and to avert that which is dreaded ; and some sacrifices are intended wholly to atone for sin, and to turn the frowns of the Supreme into smiles. Prayers are the offerings of the lips, and sacrifices the offerings of possessions : but both proceed from the same heart with the same intention. In a state of sinless purity, we may imagine that man would worship his Creator by praises only, the over- Mowings of a soul in perfect harmony with itself and all existencies, visible and invisible. But the entrance of sin into the soul was the entrance of discord, of misery, of estrangement from God. The consciousness of sin, and of the loss caused by it, would naturally impel man to do something to expiate sin, and so to repair the ruin which it had effected. And what could he do, but relinquish, and devoutly present to God, what he himself most cherished and valued ? What could he do, but perform those acts of kindness which among men are calculated to maintain friendly feelings when present, and to restore such feelings when absent ? Actuated by these motives, the Vedic Aryans offered to their gods the food, — consisting of vegetable and animal, — and the drink, — consisting of milk and the soul-inspiring soma- THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 2IO, juice, — which they loved so well themselves. No wonder, then, that so many hymns contain invocations to the gods to descend from their ethereal mansions above to sit in a friendly manner with their votaries on the green grass of the earth, and to partake of the choice viands prepared for them ! It appears from the hymns addressed to Varuna, that vegetable food predominated among the Aryans in the earliest age, as it probably did among the Hebrews, reminiscence of which was preserved in the Jewish " shew-bread," which was constantly kept on the altar before Jehovah. J But when the Aryans developed into mighty conquerors, delighting in war, with Indra as their chief deity, bloody sacrifices assumed supreme impor- tance. And human sacrifices — which originated either in grateful feelings towards the gods, for victories gained over enemies, and the consequent desire to offer the captives to them, as an expression of those feelings, or in the desire to give up to the gods one's dearest posses- sion, one's own kith and kin, which is the logical con- clusion of all other sacrifices — appeared about the same time. This is obvious from the few traces of human sacrifices found in the Mantras, or oldest portions of the Vedas, and the high value attached to such sacrifices in the Brahmanas, or later portions. There is no need, there- fore, to suppose, as some do, that human sacrifices are remnants of cannibalism. Such a supposition assumes that all nations have once been cannibals, inasmuch as all nations have been guilty of offering human sacri- 1 Exodus, xxv., 30 : Lev., xxiv., 5. 220 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. fices ; an assumption which derives no support whatever either from the earliest records of the Aryan, or of the Semitic nations. But though sacrifice of possessions is the most natural and significant expression of man's consciousness of sin, and of his strong desire to avert the punishment due to it, by propitiating the gods ; and though we grant that such an act is the spontaneous outcome of the felt spiritual necessities of human nature ; vet, the true meaning of the act could no more be discovered by human reason, unaided by revelation, than could the Being himself to whom such homage is due. The Vedic notion was that, by the act of sacrifice a/one, the gods could be pacified and their favour secured. And this is the prevalent notion among all heathen nations. Hence the sacrificer was identified with the sacrifice, and his sin was supposed to pass directly to the victim. "The sacrificer is himself the victim. It takes the very sacrificer himself to heaven." l " The animal is man by allegory." " The sacrificer is the animal '' {yajamanah pasuli). " The animal is ulti- mately the sacrificer himself." " The sacrificer is indeed the sacrifice"- {yajamano vai yajnah). The sacrificer kills, on the day previous to the Soma festival, an animal devoted to Agni-soma, thus redeeming himself from the obligation of being himself sacrificed. He then brings his Soma sacrifice, after having thus redeemed 1 Tait. Br., iii., 12, 4, 3. - Sat. Br., xi., 1, 8, 3 ; Tait. Br., ii.. 2, 8, 2 ; Ait. Br., {., 28. THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 221 himself, and become free from debts. 1 That even the Jews, with all their privileges, completely forgot the original purport of sacrifices as revealed to them, the following quotation from Isaac Abrabenel, one of their most learned and approved writers, shows : " The blood of the offerer deserved to be shed, and his body to be burned for his sin, only the mercy of the Divine Name accepted this offering from him as a substitute and propitiation, whose blood should be instead of his blood, and its life instead of his life ". Now, that this notion is erroneous is the testimony both of Reason and Revelation. It is an historical fact, that when the sages of the Upanishads considered philosophically the prevalent doctrine of sacrifice, as the means of liberating the soul from the bonds of sin, they pronounced sacrifices useless. And we are told that "the Greek masters not unfre- quently expressed their astonishment how, and upon what natural principle, so strange an institution as that of animal sacrifice could ever have originated ; for as to the notion of its being pleasing to the Deity, such a thing struck them as a manifest impossibility ".- This is also the testimony of Revelation. ;; And yet the notion 1 Kanshita and Ait. Brs. The initiation (diksha) of the sac- rificer constitutes his consecration as the victim at the animal sacrifice {Sat. Br., xi., 7, 1,3; Ait. Br., ii., 3, 9, 11) ; or as the sacrificial food at the haviryajna (Sat. Br., iii., 3, 4, 2 ; Tait. Br., iii., 2, 8, 9) ; or as the horse at the horse sacrifice (Tait. Br., iii., 17, 4, 5). - Kitto. :i Heb.. x.. 4, 5. b. 222 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. of sacrifice being pleasing to the gods was too deeply rooted in human nature to be eradicated by philosophical speculations, either in the East or in the West. Even Buddhism, though it abolished sacrifices, failed to destroy the doctrine, which found expression for a time in asceti- cism and mortification of the flesh ; and afterwards, in India, it reasserted itself by reverting to its original type. Here, then, is an apparent opposition between the dictates of reason and the dictates of two imperious impulses of human nature respecting the doctrine of sacrifice. Is there no way of reconciling them ? It is impossible to reconcile them on the assumption that, when man began to sacrifice, he was too low in the scale of evolution to reason, and hence that he acted more like an animal from instincts and impulses than from higher data. For whether man descended from some " arboreal animal with pointed ears," or was " created in the image of God," we must believe, that at the point when he manifested religious faculties, he must have been a man in the full sense of that term — "a thinker,"' possessing the same powers and tendencies as he possesses at present ; otherwise we have no data from which to reason about what he was either capable of, or likely to do. Indeed, the evidence of Language is decisive on this point; and it is the only evidence worth listening to concerning pre-historic times. Every language is a monument to the fact, that man had been pre-eminently endowed with the powers of observation and elaboration when that language was formed ; and, as religion is un- known without language, we may legitimately conclude THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 223 that he possessed such powers when he expressed the religious tendency of his nature in prayer and sacrifice. Neither will the well-known argument, that bloody sacrifices naturally originated in the idea of God, as a terribly malevolent Being always thirsting for blood, remove the difficulty. For there is nothing plainer than that the higher up we trace the stream of Vedic religious thought, the more we are impressed with the fact, that the predominant characteristic of the gods was benefi- cence, and not malevolence. What explanation, then, can be given of the fact that while the Vedic notion of sacrifices is repugnant to Reason and Revelation, sacrifices were eminently popu- lar, and had their root deep down in the nature of man ? The explanation is found in the true meaning of sacri- fices ; and for the true meaning, we are dependent upon Revelation. Sacrifices, as the result of two powerful feelings of human nature, express an eternal fact, viz., that sin must be atoned for, or punishment be inflicted. This is in harmony with reason. But the notion that the sacrifice of possessions, however valuable, can atone for sin and avert punishment, is contrary to reason. This paradox is solved in the Bible ; for we read that sacrifices were constituted by God, soon after the entrance of sin into the soul of man, as " a shadow of good things to come," as symbols of the sacrifice of Jesus, " the Lamb of God," and of the doctrine included in that future act. Hence sacrifices were intended to remind man of sin and the punishment of spiritual death due to it, and to portray before him the sacrifice of the Saviour, which 224 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. alone was sufficient to atone for sin, and to satisfy the spiritual cravings which instinctively and irresistibly found expression in the sacrifice of possessions. This is the true meaning of sacrifice ; and, viewed in this light, the apparent opposition between the testimony of reason and the powerful feelings which produced sacrifice, vanishes, and its origin appears both human and divine. It is the outcome of two original feelings of human nature, — the feelings of dependence upon, and of moral relationship to, God ; and it was sanctioned and employed by God, as a type of the means by which sin can be removed and man reconciled to his Creator. But the typical meaning was gradually obscured, and ultimately lost among all nations ; and the erroneous notion that sacri- fices alone can pacify the Deity, and restore friendly feelings between Him and His worshippers, was sub- stituted. Whereas the true idea is, that only such sacri- fices as were offered, with the consciousness of their typical meaning, could be well pleasing to God. Hence we read, that the difference between the sacrifices of Cain and Abel — the first sacrifices on record — lay in the disposition of the brothers. Abel offered a fuller sacri- fice than Cain, because he "offered it by faith" and received the divine approbation. 1 Now, faith implies a Divine communication, for k ' faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God ".' J Abel, therefore, offered a more excellent sacrifice than his brother, because he offered it in obedience to the Divine command ; or, in 1 Gen., iv. 5 3, 7; Heb., xi., 4. - Rom., x., 17. THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 225 other words, because he was conscious of its typical meaning, viz.. the salvation of man through the promised Redeemer. When, therefore, the true meaning of sacri- fice is apprehended by the heathen, they cease to offer animal sacrifices, and that without the consciousness that any feelings of their nature have suffered violence; but, on the contrary, with the consciousness that the profound feelings which led them to sacrifice have been fully satisfied in the apprehension of the Substance^ of which all sacrifices are mere shadows. Traces of the original symbolical meaning of sacrifices are discovered here and there in the literature of the Veda. iL Purusha, born in the beginning," or the first begotten, was immolated on the sacrificial grass by the gods, Sadhyas and Rishis. 1 " Visvakarman offered him- self a sacrifice to .himself." "Prajapati, the lord of creatures, offered himself a sacrifice for the devas ; ""-' and in R.-V., x., 13, 45, we read that the gods sacrificed to the (supreme) god, or that they offered him up. It is difficult to account for the origin of the idea underlying the sacrifice of Prajapati, who is elsewhere represented as half mortal and half immortal, or of Visvakarman, the creator, or Purusha, " the begotten in the beginning," except on the supposition of some primitive tradition of Jesus, the Lord of all, the " only begotten of the Father," who of His own accord offered Himself a sacrifice for all men. Relics of the same tradition are also found in the 1 R.-V., x.. 90, 7. J Tandy. Br. '5 226 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. Teutonic branch of the Aryan family. In one of the old Rune songs, Odin, the chief Deity of the Teutons, is represented as hanging, during nine long nights, in the wind-rocked tree, "with a spear, wounded, offering him- self to himself". I wot that I hung on the wind-rocked tree Nine long nights ; With a spear, wounded, And to Odin offered Myself to myself: On that tree of which none knows From what root it springs. § 5. Meditation and Asceticism. In proportion as Monism, or Pantheism, rose, the con- sciousness of sin waned. When all existences, including man, were regarded as the phenomenal manifestation of the Atman — the only existence — there was no more place for sin, as the transgression of an objective law, than there was for an objective creation. Evil and misery, however, were facts too palpable to be ignored ; and so an attempt was made to account for them, on the suppo- sition that they are the result of ignorance on the part of man, which leads to the belief that he is something different from the universal Soul. The cause of evil and misery is, therefore, the mistaken notion that man is an individual, an ego, separate from the great Self; and freedom from both is obtained by that knowledge which enables him to identify his own self with the highest Self. And that knowledge can be acquired only by THE SOTERIOLOGV OF THE VEDAS. 227 Penance and Meditation. Sacrifices and good works are not wholly ignored ; on the contrary, they are encouraged as the means of attaining the bliss of heaven for a time, which, according to the Upanishads, is very different from union with Brahma. In some Upanishads these are inculcated as necessary preliminaries to a life of penance and meditation in the forest. A man, we are told, must pass through the two stages of a student of the Yedas, and of a married householder, before he can retire to the forest ; whence he must pass to the fourth or last stage, viz., that of the Sanniyasi or ascetic. Little stress, however, is laid in the Upanishads on sacrifice and good works ; penance and meditation are the most excellent way. " Saunaka, the great householder, approached Angiras respectfully, and asked, Sir, what is that through which, if it is known, everything else becomes known ? " He said to him, Two kinds of knowledge must be known, — this is what all who know Brahma tell us, — the higher and the lower knowledge. " The lower knowledge is the Rig- Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda, Atharva-Veda, Siksha (phonetics), Kalpa (ceremonial), Vyakarana (grammar), Nirukta (etymology), Khandas (metre), Jyotisha (astronomy). But the higher knowledge is that by which the Indestructible (Brahma) is apprehended, that which cannot be seen nor seized, which has no family and no caste, no eyes nor ears, no hands nor feet, the eternal, the omnipresent (all-pervading), infinitesimal, which the wise regard as the source of all beings.'" ' 1 Mundaka Up., i., 3, 4, 5, 6. 228 THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. " Frail," we are told in another Upanishad, " are those boats, the sacrifices, in which the lower ceremonial or the lower knowledge exists. Fools who praise this as the highest good are subject again and again to old age and death." "Considering sacrifice and good works as the best, these fools know no higher good, and having enjoyed their reward on the height of heaven, gained bv good ?v works, they enter again this world or a lower one."' Every Hindu is said to be born a debtor to the gods, to the rishis, to the fathers, and to men. He fulfils the first by sacrifices, the second by studying the Vedas, the third by having offspring, and the fourth by hospitality and kindness. 1 The man who fulfils these duties is free from blame ; he is a performer of good works according to the " lower knowledge," and will " enjoy his reward on the height of heaven " ; but he will be subject to be born again. "Those," on the other hand, "who practise penance and faith in the forest, tranquil, wise, and living on alms, depart free from passion, through the sun, to where that immortal person dwells, whose nature is im- perishable ", 2 " He who has perceived that which is without sound, without touch, without form, without decay, without taste, eternal, without smell, without beginning, without end, beyond the great and unchangeable, is freed from the jaws of death." :i "As water does not cling to a 1 Sat. Br., i., 7, 2, 1, 5. - Ibid., ii., 7, 10. 11. 3 Katha. Up., 1, 3 ; Willi. 15. THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 229 lotus leaf, so no evil clings to one who knows the Self." "The wise, who by meditation on his self, recognises the Ancient, — who is difficult to be seen, who has entered into the dark, who is hidden in the cave, who dwells in the abyss, — as God, he indeed leaves joy and sorrow far behind."' ' The means of acquiring that knowledge, by which a man obtains freedom from evil, and immortality in the Immortal, is the sixfold Yoga, viz., " restraint of the breath, restraint of the senses, meditation, hxed atten- tion, investigation, and absorption". "When beholding by this Yoga, he (a man) beholds the gold-coloured maker, the lord, the person, Brahma, the cause ; then the sage, leaving behind good and evil, makes everything (breath), organs of sense, body, etc., to be one in the Highest Indestructible." And thus it has been said elsewhere, " There is the superior fixed attention for him, viz., if he presses the tip of his tongue down the palate, and restrains voice, mind, and breath, he sees Brahma by discrimination. And when after the cessation of mind, he sees his own sell, smaller than the small, and shining as the Highest Self, then having seen his self in the Self, he becomes self- less ; and because he is self-less, he is without limit, without cause, absorbed in thought. This is the highest mvsterv, viz., final liberation." '-' } Katha. Up., Valli., i., 2, 12. - Maitrayana Brahmana Up., vi., 18, 20. Compare the words of an abbot of Mount Athos. of the eleventh century, as given 23O THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS. The Soteriology of the Upanishads is far more illogical and puerile than that of the Mantras and Brahmanas. For if man be only a phenomenal creature of phenomenal circumstances over which he has no control, he cannot be held accountable for his actions. He is as much the creature of organism and environment as the beast of the field. And if he be only a phenomenal manifestation of the Universal Soul, which is both the material and efficient cause of all things, there can be no room for either good or evil, which imply the exercise of free-will. Nothing, therefore, that he may do can have the least influence on his character and destiny ; and hence, logi- cally, no plan of salvation is either necessary or possible. Human nature, however, is stronger than logic ; and, hence, the inextricable confusion in which the philo- sophers of the Upanishads have involved themselves. § 6. Retrospect and Conclusion. We have now passed in review the Literature, the Theology, the Cosmology, the Anthropology, and the Soteriology of the Vedas. We have followed the stream by Gibbon: "When thou art alone in thy cell, shut thy door and seat thyself in a corner ; raise thy mind above all things vain and transitory ; recline thy heart and chin on thy breast ; turn thy eyes and thy thoughts towards the middle of thy belly, the region of the navel, and search the place of the heart, the seat of the soul. At first all will be dark and comfortless ; but if you persevere day and night, you will feel an effable joy; and no sooner has the soul discovered the place of the heart, than it is encircled in a mystical ethereal light." THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE VEDAS. 23I of Aryan religious and speculative thought, in all its ramifications, through the Mantra, Brahmana, and Upan- ishad stages of its descent. We have considered the Hindu Aryans' conception of God, their speculations on the creation of the world, and their notion of the origin, nature, and destiny of man, in each of those stages. We have pushed our inquiries as far back in time as the records would permit ; and we have found that the re- ligious and speculative thought of the people was far purer, simpler, and more rational at the farthest point we reached, than at the nearest or latest in the Vedic age. The conclusion, therefore, is inevitable, viz. : That the development of religious thought in I?idia has been uni- formly downward, and not upward — deterioration, and not evolution. We have also seen that the point reached by us was not the point whence the deterioration began ; and that in proportion as we go back in time, the number of the gods grows less, and the ethical consciousness of sin grows stronger. Hence the probability is that, if we could go back far enough in time, so as to reach the point whence the deterioration began, we should find a monotheistic religion, pure and simple. We have seen, further, that the knowledge of the divine attributes possessed by the Vedic Aryans was neither the product of Intuition nor Experience, but a survival, or a reminiscence. We are justified, therefore, in con- cluding (until the contrary is proved), that the higher and purer conceptions of the Vedic Aryans were the results of a Primitive Divine Revelation. 232 THE TEACHING OE THE VEDAS. The theory of a Primitive Divine Revelation alone is capable of explaining all the religious ideas of the Vedas, such as an object of worship, sin, mercy, sacrifice, a luture state. These ideas are all foreign to Nature. Sun, moon, earth, mountains, and rivers, have nothing to do with worship, with forgiving sin, and with pre- serving men from guilt. But they are quite at home in the theory of a primeval revelation. We must believe that the most probable theory is that which explains all the facts. The theory of Natural Evolution cannot explain all the facts. But the theory of a Primitive Divine Reve- lation, whatever hard words may be said about it as being unscientific, does explain all the facts. It tells us that the presence of such ideas in the Vedas as God, con- fession of sin, petitions for mercy, sacrifice, and a life after death, are relics of a vanishing Revelation, held mechani- cally, without any comprehension of their meaning. Granting that this is only a theory, the opposite view is no more. Between these two theories, there is, HOWEVER, THIS DIFFERENCE. THE ONE IS IN HARMONY WITH THE TEACHING OF A VENERABLE OLD BOOK, AGAINST WHICH NO WEAPON FORMED HAS YET PREVAILED | THE OTHER IS IN OPPOSITION TO IT. INDEX. INDEX. Adhvaryus, see sacrificers. Aditi, goddess : Etymology of, 41, 42. Myth of, in India and Iran, 42. — - Totality of all existences, 42. Adityas, luminous gods, the sons of Aditi, 41, 42. Their number and names, 43. 44-. Their physical import and moral character, 43. Agara, see Sacrifice. Agneyi, sec Goddesses. Agni, God of Fire ; Etymology of, 57. - Origin of, 57, 58. - Attributes and functions of, 58-60. Agnidhra, see Sacrificers. Agnihotra, Agnishstoma, Agni- yadheya, Agrayani, Agray- aneshti, Ahavanya, sec Sacrifice. Ahinas, see Sacrifice. Ahura-Mazda, chief god of the Zoroastrians, 32. - Identified with Varuna, 32, 33- Aitareya Brahmana, Aitareya Up- anishad, see Veda. Alexander the Great, 15, 23. Amesha spentas, 33, 42. Anaxagoras, 6g. Anitya, see Sacrifice. Ansa, see Adityas. Apollo, 58. Apsarases, wives of the Gand- harvas, demigods, Aptoryama, see Sacrifice. Aramaic, 24. Aratus, 137. Archilochus, 34. Argyll, Duke of, 104, 110, ill. Aristophanes, 131. Aristotle, 92, 109, 148. Arkins, 216. Arnold, Sir Edwin, 99. Aryaman, sec Adityas. Aryanakas, see Veda. Aryans, 178, 179. Asceticism, 226-230. Ashhavaka, see Sacrificers. Ashtaka, Atiratra, Atyagnishtoma, see Sacrifice. Asoka, 15. Asvalayana, 15, 16. Asvamedha, 196-198. Asvins, meaning and functions of, 63, 64. Atharva-Veda, see Veda. Atman, its origin and history, 73- 77- Augustine, 18S. Babylon, (ian), 25, 137. Barth, M. A., 18, 35, i6g, 170, 208. Bhaga, see Adityas. Bhagavata Purana, see Purana. Brahma, a god : — Its etymology, 77, 78. • Its development into a god, 78-80. Its culmination, 80-82. Brahman, see Caste. Brahmana, see Veda. Brahmanachausin, 213. 236 INDEX. Brahmanaspati, Lord of Prayer, 59. Brihadarvanaka Upanishad, sec Veda. Brihaspati, same as Brahmaspati, 58-59- . Brown, Sir T., 136. Buddhism, 23. Bunsen, Baron, 108. Burnell, Dr. A. C, 24, 25, 26. Burnouf. E., 166. C^sar, 23, 209. Caste, etymology and signification of the word, 171. — Origin and development of caste, 171. — (1) According to the Purusha Sukta, 174. - (2) According to Manu, 175, 176. 13) Real origin, 177. — Brahmans, 182-186. — Kshatriyas, 181. — Vaisyas, 181-182. Sudras. 179-181. — All men originally one caste, 186, 187. Chaldea. (n), 25. Chandas, metre. Chandragupta, 15, 16. Chandramas, the moon. Charmasadhvaryus, 215. Chaturmasya, see Sacrifice. Christlieb, Dr., 82, 92. Cicero, 161. Colebrook, H. T., g, 40, 115. Confucius, no. Creation, ascribed to some intel- ligent being, 113, 114. - Creation from nothing, 114- 122. - Creation from pre-existing matter, 122-132. - Creation a phenomenal em- anation, 132-135. Cudworth, Dr. R., intellectual system of the universe, 70, 73, 74- Cyaparna Suyakayana, 208. Daksha, see Adityas. Darius, 25. Darmesteter, M. J., 32. Darsanas, 2. Darsapurnamasa, sec Sacrifice. Dasa, Slave. Dasyus, 48, 49. Deluge, 137-139. Demeter. 66. Devi, 64. Dharmalipi, 23. Dharma Sutras, 1. Dhatar, see Aditvas. Dhouli, 23. Diana, 211. Dionysus, 50. Div, 31. Dravidas, 176, 177. Druids, 1 1, 23. Drummond, Prof., 106. Dual deities, 69. Dyaus, 31. Dyauspitar, 31, 35, 36. 109. Dyu, 31. EODA, 121, 122. Egypt (-ians), 24, 42, 210. Ekahas, see Sacrifice. Emanation, sec Creation. Experience, see God. Fairbairn, Dr. A. M., 165. Faith, 55, 190. Fall, 142, 155. Fathers, sec Pitris. Fetichism, no. Gandharvas, 30. Ganga, river and a goddess, 66. Garhapatya, sec Sacrifice. Gautama, 192, 195. Gayatri, g. Gibbon, E., 230. Girnar, 23. Gladstone, Right Hon. W. E., 58. God, United Aryans' concept of, 33. 34- — Vedic Aryans' concept of, 40, 72,74, 80,81, 83, 84,85,86,88. INDEX. 237 God, Vedic Aryans, their know- ledge of God's attributes, 87, 88. ; How acquired? 88. - (1) By intuition ? 88-92. - (2) By experience ? 92-104. - (3) By revelation ? 104-111. Goddesses, 66, 67. Gods 1 1 ) Physical, 30-67. (2) Metaphysical, 67-83. Gough, 77, 100, 101. Griffith, Ralph T. H., 114. Grihya Sutras, 1. Hamilton. Sir W., 68,69, 86, 116, 117. Haoma : Its etymology, 195-6. Its nature, 49. Its deification, 50. Harichandra, 201-21 1. Harivamsa, 6. Harlez, M. C. de, 36. Haug, Dr.. 18, 29, 194. Haviryajna, 192, 193, 194. Heaven, the abode of the good, 166-168. Hell, the abode of the wicked, 167. Heraclitus, 49. Herodotus, 25, 86, 150. 196, 210. Hesiod. 66, 163. Hiranyagarbha, the golden em- bryo, a god. Hobbes, 94. Homer, io, 29, 165. Hotar, see Sacrificers. Ida, 138. Immortality of the soul : Positively affirmed, 157-169. - Connected with the Pitris, 159-161. Embodied in Yama, 101, 165. — Nature of, 165, 169. Metempsychosis, 169-171. Indra, probable etymology of the word, 36. — Origin of the person, 44, 45. His attributes, 45, 47. Indra, ilis personal appearance, His most prominent epithets, 47-49- His companions, 51. — His soma-drinking, 47, 49-5". Dialogue between him and the Maruts, 52-54. Scepticism respecting his existence, 55, 56. Indrani, see Goddesses. Inscriptions, 23. Intuition, see God. Iphigenia, 211. Iran, Persia. Iranians, ancient inhabitants of Persia. Isa-Upanishad, see Veda. Ishti, see Sacrifice. Itihasas, 2. Jaxartes, 20, 177. Johnson's Oriental Religions, 84, 161, 188. Jupiter, 18, 33, ^, 36, 74, 109. Ka. 18. Kalpa, 1. Kapi, 24. Katha-Upanishad, see Veda. Katyayana, 15, 16. Kaushatiki-Brahmana, see Veda. Kena-Upanishad, see Veda. Khandogya-Upanishad, see Veda. Kleanthes, 70, 137. Kshatriya, see Caste. Kubha, 177. Kulluka, 128. Lalitavistara, 23. Mahahharata, 2. Mahay ajna, 192, 193. Mahomed, 111. Maitrayana Brahmana Upanishad, see Veda. Man, meaning of word, 137, 138. — Dignity of man, 136-139. 2 3 8 INDEX. Manes, sec Pitris. Mandala, sec Veda. Mantra, see Veda. Manavadharmasatra, i. Mansel, Dean, 86, 87, 88, 102. Manu, 128, 129, 137-139. Marattanda, a name of the sun, 43- Maruts, storm gods, 51. Maury a, 15. Meditation, 226, 229. Megasthenes, 15, 26, 179. Metaphysical gods, see Gods. Metempsychosis, 169-171. Mitra, Mithra, 41. Molloch, 211. Monism, 73, 99, 100, 134, 226. Monogamy, 149. Monotheism, gg, 100, 108, 231. Motogon, ng. Muir, Dr. J., Sanscrit texts, quoted, 3>4>39>5°>97> IJ 5> JI 6, 124, 127, 14b, 147, 150, i6g. Miiller, Prof. Max, quoted, 2, 3, 4, i4» x 5> ID > 18, 21, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, 32, 3g, 40, 51, 64, 73, 80, 83, 85, 104, iog, no, 115, ng, 123, 124, i3g, 150, 151, 155, 161, 172, 186, 205, 207, 215. Mungheir, 25. Nakshi-i-rustram, 25. Nanda, 12, 16. Narayana, i2g. Nasatyas, see Asvins. Nearchus, 26. Neshtri, see Sacrificers. Nirriii, 142, 143. Nirudhapasubandha, sec Sacrifice. Nitya, see Sacrifice. Nivita, 217. OURAN'OS, 32, 33. Oxus, 20. Pakavajna, ig2-3. Palibothra, 15. Panini, 15. Pantheism, 72, 73, 134, 226. Parasurama, 10. Pariahs, 177. Parjanya, 48. Parmenides, 131. Pasu-Pasubhanda, see Sacrifice. Patilaputra, 16. Pattalene, iyg. Paul, 2g, 120, 156. Pelasgians, 86. Perkunas, 48. Persian (ans), 24, 25, 26, iog. Philosophy, highest abstruction of, 73^ 99, 100, 103. Phoenicia (ns), 23, 24, 26. Physiolatry, 83. Pictet, M.'de, 107. Pitris, 06. Plato, 6g, g2, 131, 161. Polyandry, 150. Polytheism, 72, 108. Potri, see Sacrificers. Praise, 188, i8g. Prajapati, Lord of Creatures. Prastotri, see Sacrificers. Pratihartri, sec Sacrifice. Pratiprasthatri, see Sacrificers. Prayer, 128, i8g. Prisni, 51. Prithivi, earth goddess, 66. Puranas, 2. Purohita, family priest. Purusha, man, God. Purushamedha, human-sacrifice, ig8-2oS. Pushan, God of roads. Raja, king. Rajanya, see Caste. Rajasunya, sec Sacrifice. Rakshasas, demons, and aboriginal inhabitants. Ramayana, 2. Ratus, 2g. Religion, highest abstraction of r gg, 100. Revelation, 1, 6, 17, 86, 88, 104, 106, 121, 221, 223, 231, 232. INDEX. 239 Rhibhus, the deified artisans of the gods, 66. Rig, see Veda. Rishis, bards and priests ; authors of the hymns, Rita, law, the origin of the con- cept, 155-157- Roth, Prof, von, 159, 167. Rudra, 51. Rudrasi, see Goddesses. Sacrifice: — Its greatness, 190-1. — Classification of, 192. Different kinds of, 192-209. — Origin of, 217-226. — Purport of, 209-211. Sacrificers, origin of, 212-213. — Divided into four classes, vis., Adhvaryus, Hotris, Udgatris, Brahmans, 213. — Work allotted to each class, 214-215. — Must be blameless, 216. — Purification of, 216. — Sacred thread of, 216-217. Sama Veda, see Veda. Samayacharika Sutras, t. Sanhitas, 1,2, 3. Sanyasi, 227. Sarama, 48. Sarasvati, see Goddesses. Sarvamedha, sec Sacrifice. Sat (ya), i34-_ Satapatha Brahmana, see Veda. Sattras, 104. Sautramani, 148. Sayce, Prof. A. H., 25. Savitri, the sun, see Adityas. Seers, see Rishis. Seneca, 65, 70, Sensus numinis, 85, 88, 8g, 91. Shadvimsa Brahmana, see Veda. Siksha, 1. Sin, acknowledged, 139-142. — Fundamental idea of, 142-145, 155- Sin, Represented as transgressions of divine laws, 144-5. A bond, or rope, 145. — A burden, 145. — A sea, or a flood, 45. — Imputed, 146. — Its effects, 147. — Acts not considered sinful, 148-153. — Acts considered sinful, 153- *55- Sinivali, see Goddesses. Skamba, 71. Smarta Sutras, 1. Smriti, 1. Soma, see Haoma. Soteriology, 188. Spencer, Herbert, 87, 89, 93, 94. Spirit, see Atman. Srauta Sutras, 1. Sruti, 1. Sudra, see Caste. Sunasepha, 199, 211. Surya, the sun, Sutra, 16, 18. Svetasvatara Upanishad, set Veda. Tacitus, 86. Taittirya Brahmana, see Veda. Tandya Brahmana, see Veda. Tantras, 2. That, that one, 71, 81. Theology of the Veda, 29-115. Tulloch, Principal, 144. Tvashtar, divine Artizan. Tyrius Maximus, 70. Udgatri, sec Sacrificers. Ukthya, see Sacrifice. Upanishad, sec Veda. Upavita, 217. Ushas, the dawn, .64, 65. Vaikartas, see Sacrificers. Vaisya, see Caste. Vajapeya, see Sacrifice. Vak, 78. 240 INDEX. Valakhylya, g. Varana, 37. Varna, 171-172. Varunani, see Goddesses. Varuna, — Etymology and physical meaning of, 32, 33. - Attributes of, 37-41, 43. — A reflection of the true God, 40. — Oldest historical god of the undivided Aryans, 34-36. Moral grandeur of, 38, 40, 45. — The degradation and sup- pression of, 40-41, 56, 57. Vayu, 58. Veda, etymology of, 2. — Denotes four collections, Sanhitas, called Rig-Veda, Sama-Veda, Yajur-Veda, and Atharva-Veda, 2, 3. — Each Veda divided in Mantra and Brahmana, 4, 5. — Brahmanas contain Aryan- akas and Upanishads, 4. — Authors of, 5, 10, 11, 12, 14. — Inspiration of, 6-10. — Age of, 14-18. — orally transmitted, 21-26. — General character of, 26-28. Vedadanta, 135. Vedangas, 1. Vishnu, 51. Visvadevah, all gods. Visvakarman, a name for the Creator. Vriad-Aryanaka, see Veda. Vritra, 47. Vyakarana, 1, 227. Wallis, H. W., quoted, 157. 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