IriiJ* •>! ■<.. ««e'--:/.^i-;.-..Vv''.?-::^- ■ .: ■ • •.,- . ''"«ifa:r- ■>*•;-- -!—■'■. "^' ' • ■ pJ^i'""' i>'V.'?7" ■«■■•:■.".■■■• •'•■ -■--■-".-■ .•■'.•" CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY UNDERGRADUATE LIBRARY Cornell University Library BL1115.B65 1908a The religion of tlie Veda, the ancient rel 3 1924 014 693 968 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014693968 THE RELIGION OF THE VEDA Maurice Bloomfield ^^ m UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS, INC. A Subsidiary of Xerox Corporation Ann Arbor Ji^B^^^^^^g^g^ [XERG^ ?JS?5S?5^ This "0-P Book" Is an Authorized Reprint of the Original Edition, Produced by Microfilm-Xerography by University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1965 AMERICAN LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS SEVENTH SERIES— 1906-1907 THE RELIGION OF THE VEDA THE ANCIENT RELIGION OF INDIA (From Rig-Veda to Upaniskads) BY MAURICE BLOOMFIELD, Ph.D., LL.D. Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in Johni Hopkint University, Baltimore G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON Cbe fcnicltetbochec pree^ 1908 THE AMERICAN LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS. I. Buddhism. — The History and Literature of Bud- dhism. By T. W. Rhys-Davids, LL.D., Ph.D. II. Primitive Religions. — The Religions of Primitive Peoples. By D. G. Brinton. A.M., M.D., LL.D., Sc.D. III. Israel. — Jewish Religions. Life after the Exile. By Rev. T. K. Cheyne, M.A., D.D. IV. Israel.— Religion of Israel to the Exile. By Karl BUDDE, D.D.- V. Ancient Egyptians.— The Religion of the Ancient Egyptians. By G. Steindorff, Ph.D. VI. Religion in Japan.— The Development of Re- ligion in Japan. By George W. Knox, D.D. VII. The Veda.— The Religion of the Veda. By Maurice Bloomfield, Ph.D., LL.D. In active preparation : ^VIII. Islam.— The Religion of Islam. By Iguaz GOLDZIHER, Ph.D., Litt.D. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS i NEW YORK AND LONDON 5 CorVKIGHT, >qo8 BV G. p. PUTNAM'S SONS trbe Unfcfterbocftct tw», 1*ew Part PREFACE. THIS volume reproduces with some little ampli- fication six lectures on the Religion of the Veda given before various learned institutions of America during the fall and winter of 1 906-07. The period of time and the amount of literature embraced in the term Vedic are large ; moreover any discussion of this religion that deserves the name must also include a glance at the prehistoric periods which preceded the religion of the Veda. Con- sequently my treatment must be selective. It was not difficult to make the selection. I have not thought it necessary to include a complete account of Vedic mythology and legend ; nor did the details of priestly ritual and religious folk-practices seem to me to call for elaborate exposition at this time and under the circumstances of a popular treatment of Vedic religion. On the other hand, it seemed both interesting and important to bring out as markedly as possible the development of the re- ligious thought of the Veda in distinction from h' Preface myth and ceremony. The reader of these pages will, I hope, learn to his satisfaction how the religion of the Veda rests upon a prehistoric foundation which is largely nature myth; how it continues in the Rig- Veda hymns as hieratic ritual worship of polytheistic gods ; how this religion grew more and more formal and mechanical in the Yajur-Vedas and Brahmanas, until it was practically abandoned ; how and when arose the germs of higher religious thought ; and, finally, how the motives and prin- ciples that underlie this entire chain of mental events landed Hindu thought, at a comparatively early period, in the pantheistic and pessimistic re- ligion of the Upanishads which it has never again abandoned. Maurice Bloomfield. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, April, 1907. ANNOUNCEMENT. THE American Lectures on the History of Religions are delivered under the auspices of the American Committee for Lectures on the History of Religions. This Committee was organised in 1892, for the purpose of institutlTTg " popular courses in the History of Religions, somewhat after the style of the Hibbert Lectures in England, to be delivered annually by the best scholars of Europe and this country, in various cities, such as Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and others." The terms of association under which the Commit- tee exist are as follows : 1. The object of this Association shall be to provide courses of lectures on the history of religions, to be delivered in various cities. 2. The Association shall be composed of delegates from Institutions agreeing to co-operate, or from Local Boards organised where such co-operation is not possible. 3. These delegates— one from each Institution or vi Announcement Local Board — shall constitute themselves a Council under the name of the " American Com- mittee for Lectures on the History of Religions." 4. The Council shall elect out of its number a Chair- man, a Secretary, and a Treasurer. 5. All matters of local detail shall be left to the In- stitutions or Local Boards, under whose auspices the lectures are to be delivered. 6. A course of lectures on some religion, or phase of religion, from an historical point of view, or on a subject germane to the study of religions, shall be delivered annually, or at such intervals as may be found practicable, in the different cities repre- sented by this Association. 7. The Council (a) shall be charged with the selec- tion of the lecturers, {b) shall have charge of the funds, (c) shall assign the time for the lectures in each city, and perform such other functions as may be necessary. 8. Polemical subjects, as well as polemics in the treat- ment of subjects, shall be positively excluded. 9. The lecturer shall be chosen by the Council at least ten months before the date fixed for the course of lectures. 10. The lectures shall be delivered in the various cities between the months of September and June. 1 1. The copyright of the lectures shall be the prop. erty of the Association. Announcement vii 12. One-half of the lecturer's compensation shall be paid at the completion of the entire course and the second half upon the publication of the lectures. 13. The compensation to the lecturer shall be fixed in each case by the Council. 14. The lecturer is not to deliver elsewhere any of the lectures for which he is engaged by the Committee, except with the sanction of the Committee. The Committee as now constituted is as follows : Prof. Crawford H. Toy, Chairman, 7 Lowell St., Cambridge, Mass. ; Rev. Dr. John P. Peters, Treas- urer, 225 West 99th St., New York; Prof. Morris Jastrow, Jr., Secretary, 248 South 23d St., Philadel- phia, Pa. ; Prof. Francis Brown, Union Theological Seminary, New York ; Prof. Richard Gottheil, Col- umbia University, New York ; Prof. R. F. Harper, University of Chicago, Chicago, 111. ; Prof. Paul Haupt, 2511 Madison Avenue, Baltimore, Md. ; Prof. F. W. Hooper, Brooklyn Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Prof. E. W. Hopkins, New Haven, Conn. ; Prof. Edward Knox Mitchell, Hartford Theologi- cal Seminary, Hartford, Conn, ; Prof. George F. Moore, Cambridge, Mass.; Rev. F. K. Sanders, Boston, Mass.; Pres. F. C. Southworth, Meadville Theological Seminary, Meadville, Pa. The lecturers in the course of American Lectures viii Announcement on the History of Religions and the titles of their volumes are as follows : 1894-1895— Prof. T. W. Rhys-Davids, Ph. D.— Buddhism. 1 896-1 897— Prof. Daniel G. Brinton, M.D., LL.D.— Religion of Primitive Peoples. 1897-1898— Rev. Prof. T. K. Cheyne, D.D.— Jewish Religious Life after the Exile. 1 898-1 899— Prof. Karl Budde, D.D.— Religion of Israel to the Exile. 1904-1905 — Prof. Georg Steindorff, Ph.D. — The Religion of the Ancient Egyptians. 1905-1906 — Prof. George William Knox, D.D., LL.D. — The Development of Religion in Japan. The present course of lectures, the seventh in the series, was delivered by Professor Maurice Bloomfield, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at the Johns Hopkins University, and one of the leading authorities on Vedic Literature. His latest work, a Concordance of the Vedic hymns and prayer formulae, covering 1 100 pages, the embodiment of a life's study, published as Vol. 10 of the Harvard Oriental Series, will ensure Professor Bloomfield a per- manent place in the history of Vedic studies. Besides this he has edited from the manuscripts the Vedic ritual book, known as the Kau^ika-Sutra ; published a translation of the Hymns of the Atharva-Veda, in- cluded in Professor Max Muller's Sacred Books of Announcement ix the East (Oxford, 1897); written a volume on the Lit- erature and History of the Atharva-Veda, entitled : •' The Atharva-Veda and the Gopatha-Brahmana " (Strassburg, 1889); and edited, in collaboration with Professor Richard Garbe of Tubingen, a chromophoto- graphic reproduction of the unique birch-bark manu- script of the Kashmirian Atharva-Veda (3 vols., Baltimore, 1901). He has also contributed to the technical journals of this country and Europe num- erous papers on linguistic, mythological, and ethno- logical topics in general, in addition to a large num- ber of contributions on the interpretation, textual restoratipn, and religion of the Veda in particular. The lectures in this course were delivered before the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; Union Theological Seminary, New York; Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn ; Drexel Institute, Philadelphia; Meadville Theological Seminary, Mead- ville ; University of Chicago, Chicago ; and Hartford Theological Seminary, Hartford. John P. Peters, \ Committee C. H. Toy, \ on Morris Jastrow, ) Publication. January, igo8. CONTENTS. LECTURE THE FIRST. INDIA THE LAND OP RELIGIONS.— THE VEDA. Multiplicity of Hindu religions — Brahmanism — Bud- dhism — Profound hold of religion upon the Hindu mind — Hindu life dominated by religious institu- tions — The four stages of life — The institution of caste — Caste then and now — Symptoms of revulsion against caste — Other pernicious religious institu- tions — Continuity of India's religious history — Date of the conception of rta, or "cosmic order" — Close relationship of the religions of India and Persia — Slight connection between India and Persia in sec- ular history — The Parsis in India — Close relatioi between Veda and Avesta — The Veda and the Indo- European period — The Veda as a whole — The date of the Veda — Its great uncertainty — Nature of Vedic tradition — The ^rotriyas, or "Oral Traditionalists" — Uncertain character of Vedic life and institutions — Origin of the Veda — Contents of Vedic literature as a whole — The four Vedas — The Rig- Veda — The books of the Rig- Veda — Theme and character of the Rig- Veda — A hymn to Goddess Dawn — The Yajur- Veda — Character of the ya/iw-formulas — The Sama- Veda — Origin and purpose of the Sama-Veda — The Atharva-Veda — Contents of the Atharva-Veda — Religious Quality of the Atharva-Veda — Two Atharvan hymns — The Brahmana Texts — Some legends of the Brahmanas — The Aranyakas, or " For- est Treatises'' — The Upanishads — Literary history xii Contents PAGES of the Upanishads — The Upanishads in the West — Critical estimate of the Upanishads i-S9 LECTURE THE SECOND. THE HIERATIC RELIGION.— THE PANTHEON OF THE VEDA. Fundamental traits of early Vedic religion — False view of the nature of Vedic poetry — The Rig-Veda as sacrificial poetry — Difficulty of understanding the ritual character of the Rig- Veda — Poetry addressed to the Goddess Dawn — A hymn to the sacrifice post — The Goddess Dawn as the symbol of liberality at the sacrifice — Some erroneous estimates of God- dess Dawn — Agni the son of "Baksheesh" — Prac- tical purposes of Vedic poetry — The Rig- Veda con- tains the religion of the upper classes — The ritual of the Rig-Veda — The a/rj-hymns — Nature-worship the keynote of the Rig- Veda — India's climate and nature-worship — Vedic and Hellenic mythology compared — Arrested anthropomorphism — Defini- tion of the word Pantheon as applied to the Veda — Faulty classifications of the Vedic gods — Chrono- logy of the gods — Different degrees of certainty about the origin of the gods — Classification of the gods in these lectures 60-98 LECTURE THE THIRD. THE PREHISTORIC GODS. Two prehistoric periods bearing upon Hindu religion — Scepticism about Comparative Mythology — Diffi- culties in the way of Comparative Mythology — Com- parative Mythology and Ethnology — The myth of Cerberus — The Indo-European period — Prehistoric words for god — Father Sky and Mother Earth — The Thunderer — The Vedic Ajvins, or "Horsemen," the two Sons of Heaven — The Dioscuri in Greek Contents xiii PACES mythology— The Lettish myth of the two "Sons of God" — Common kernel of the myth of the two " Sons of Heaven" — The Aryan, or Indo-Iranian period — Important religious ideas common to the two peoples — The dual gods Varuna and Mitra — Ahura * Mazda and Varuna — The conception of rta, or "cosmic order" — The Adityas — Aditi, the mother of the Adityas — Mitra, a sun god — The sun, the moon, and the planets — The Adityas and Amesha Spentas — Early ethical concepts among the Indo- Europeans — Varuna and Greek Ouranos (Uranus) — The origin of man — Sundry parents of man — "Father Manu" — Yama and Yami, the "Twins" — Interlacing of the myths of the first man — The human character of Manu and Yama — Yama, the god of the dead — Soma, the sacrificial drink of the gods — The myth of Soma and the Heavenly Eagle — Value of the preceding reconstructions 99—149 LECTURE THE FOURTH. THE TRANSPARENT, TRANSLUCENT, AND OPAQUE GODS— RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS AND RELIGIOUS FEELING IN THE VEDA. The transparent gods : thei: importance for the study of religion — Father Sky and Daughter Dawn — Surya, a god of the sun — Vata and Viiyu, gods of wind — The most transparent god : Agni, Fire — Agni as the sacrifice fire — Prehistoric gods of fire — Birth and youth of Agni — Agni as god of the morning — New births of Agni — Agni on the altar, the agent of the gods — Priesthood and divinity of Agni — A hymn to Agni— Other myths of the Fire God— The trans- lucent gods: definition of the term — GodT Vishna=^~ God Pushan — God Indra, as an example of an opa(}uegod — Traditional explanation of the mjrth of Indra and Vritra — Professor Hillebrandt's inter- xiv Contents pretation of the same myth — Renewed definition of the religion of the Rig-Veda — Renewed definition of Vedic practicalities — Conflicting prayers and sac- rifices — The conception of faith — Faith related to Truth and Wisdom — Faith personified — Faith and works — The reward for faith postponed to heaven — Contrast between early "faith" {fraddha) and later " devotion "_X6/tafet) — "Gift praises, "another sop to the sacrificer — The religious feeling of the Rig- Veda. — The utilitarian sense — The glory of the gods — Absence of real sentiment towards the gods — Poetic inspiration the true religious feeling — The com- placent master-singers — The poets' own estimate of their work — The divine quality of devotion. . . .150-207 LECTURE THE FIFTH. THE BEGINNINGS OF HINDU THEOSOPHY. Statement of the problem — Time when theosophy origin- ated — Metempsychosis and pessimism unknown in the earlier Vedic records — Place where the higher religion originated — Priest philosophy at the sacrifice — The theosophic charade — Specimens of the theo- sophic charade — The riddle hymn of Dirghatamas — Interrelation between the sacrifice and theosophy — On the supposed origin of theosophy with the royal caste — Criticism of this view — Transition from rit- ualistic polytheism to theosophy — Early scepticism — " Gotterdammerung " — Failure of God Varuna — Monism, or the idea of unity — The creation hymn — Translation and analysis of the creation hymn — At- tempts at Monotheism — Prajapati, the Lord of Creatures — ^Vigvakarman, creator of the universe, and kindred conceptions — Purusha, the world man — Brihaspati, the Lord of Devotion — Transcendental monotheistic conceptions: "Time," "Love," etc. — Defects of the earlier monotheistic and monistic attempts 208-248 Contents xv PAOBS LECTURE THE SIXTH. THE FINAL PHILOSOPHY OF THE VEDA. Death and future life in paradise — Early notions of Hell — The idea of retribution — Limit of reward for good deeds — The notion of " death-anew," or "re- death " — How comes the belief in transmigration — Hindu, doctrine of transmigration — The method of ■ transmigration — The doctrine of karma, or spiritual evolution — How transmigration and karma appear to Western minds — The pessimist theory of life — Cause of Hindu pessimism — Pessimism and the per- fect principle (Brahma) — Dualistic pessimism- Salvation through realisation of ono's own Brahma- hood — The conception of the iitman, "breath," as life principle — Atman, the soul of the Universe — Brahma, the spiritual essence of the Universe — Fusion of Atman and Brahma — Maya, or the world an illusion — The unknowableness of Brahma — Emerson's poem on the Brahma — The fulness of Brahma : a story of Yajnavalkya and his wife Mai- treyi — Transition from philosophy to piety — Hindu asceticism — Professor Huxley's critique of asceti- ism — Pilgrim's progress under the religion of Brahma — Investiture and disciplehood — The life of the householder — The life of the forest-dweller and wandering ascetic — Ultima Thule 2 49-389 Index 391 LECTURE THE FIRST. India the Land of Religions — The Veda. Multiplicity of Hindu religions — Brahmanism — Buddhism — Profound hold of religion upon the Hindu mind — Hindu life dominated by religious institutions — The four stages of life — The institution of caste — Caste then and now — Symptoms of revulsion against caste — Other pernicious religious institutions — Continuity of India's religious history — Date of the conception of rta, or "cosmic order " — Close relationship of the religions of India and Persia — Slight connection between India and Persia in secular history — The Parsis in India — Close relation between Veda and Avesta — The Veda and the Indo- European period — ^The Veda as a whole — The date of the Veda — Its great uncertainty — Nature of Vedic tra- dition — The Crotriyas or "Oral Traditionalists" — Un- certain character of Vedic life and institutions — Origin of the Veda — Contents of Vedic literature as a whole —The four Vedas— The Rig- Veda— The books of the Rig- Veda— ^heme and character of the Rig- Veda — A hymn to Goddess Dawn — The Yajur-Veda — Character of the yajHS-formulas — The Sama-Veda — Origin and purpose of the Sama-Veda — The Atharva-Veda — Con- tents of the Atharva-Veda — Religious quality of the Atharva-Veda — Two Atharvan hymns — The Brahmana Texts — Some legends of the Brahmanas — The Aranya- kas, or "Forest Treatises" — The Upanishads — Literary history of the Upanishads — The Upanishads in the West — Critical estimate of the Upanishads. 2 The Religion of the Veda INDIA is the land of religions in more than one *■ sense. It has produced out of its own resources a number of distinctive systems and sects, two of which, at least, are of world-wide interest and importance. Brahmanism, in its manifold aspects, is to this day the religion of about 200 millions of people in India herself, a matter of interest on the face of it. But its universal importance lies with the Brahmanical systems of religious philosophy, especially the two known respectively as Vedanta and Sankhya. These are two religio-philosophical, or theosophical systems which essay to probe the twin riddle of the universe and human life. They do this in so penetrating a way as to place them by the side of the most profound philosophic endeavors of other nations. The beginnings of this philosophy are found in the so-called Upanishads, a set of treatises which are part of the Veda. The Upanishads contain the higher religion of the Veda. The essence of higher Brahmanical religion is Upanishad religion. The religion of the Upanishads is part of the theme of these lectures. Buddhism started in the bosom of Brahmanism. Its radical reforms, concerning both doctrine and practical Hfe, are directed in good part against Brah- manism. Yet Buddhism is a religion genuinely India the Land of Religions Hinduin its texture. It shares with Brahmanism its dominant religious ideas. Transmigration of souls, pessimism, and the all-absorbing desire to be re- leased from an endless chain of existences, linked together by successive deaths, — these are the axioms of both Brahmanism and Buddhism. After spread- ing over the continent of India Buddhism crossed over into Ceylon, Farther India, and the islands of the Asiatic Archipelago. To the north it passed into and across the great Himalaya Mountains to Nepaul, Thibet, Turkestan, China, Korea, and Japan. In its various forms it is to this day one of the world's great religions. There are no absolutely re- liable statistics as to the number of Buddhists upon the surface of the earth ; 300 millions may be re- garded as a conservative estimate of the number of people who either are Buddhists, or whose religion has been shaped by Buddhist ideas. Brahmanism and Buddhism, both Hindu products, together sup. ply the religious needs of 500 millions of the earth's inhabitants. In another sense India is the land of religions. Nowhere else is the texture of life so much im- pregnated with religious convictions and practices. At a very early time belief in t' ^vjismigration of souls (metempsychosis), whost Jrisefprigin in India is still something of a problbj, pirated itself 4 The Religion of the Veda down in the Hindu mind as the basis and funda- mental axiom of all speculations about the soul and future life. This of itself is merely a theory. The practical importance of this theory is, that it is coupled almost from the start with a pessimistic view of life. According to this the everlasting round' of existences is a nuisance, and release from it an imperative necessity. It would be difficult to find anywhere else a purely speculative notion which has taken so firm a hold upon practical life. It pervades the Hindu consciousness in a far more real and intimate way than its great rival, the belief in an eternal future life, pervades the religious thought of the Western world. From the beginning of India's history religious institutions control the character and the develop- ment of its people to an extent unknown elsewhere. Hindu life from birth to death, and even after death in the fancied life of the Fathers, or Manes in heaven, is religious, or sacramental throughout. It is surrounded by institutions and practices, and clouded by superstitions which are discarded only by them that have worked their way to the highest philosophical aspects of religion. The religious life of the Brahmanical Hindu is ^divided into t^c tour stages ' of religious disciple ; god- ' Called dframa, literally, " hermitages." India the Land of Religions fearing and sacrificing householder; contemplative forest - dwS^er ; and wandering, world - abandoning ascetic. Such at least is the theory of their religious law. Even though practice at all times fell short of this mechanical and exacting arrangement, yet the claim is allowed that life is an essentially solitary religious pilgrimage, the goal being personal salva- tion. There is no provision in such a scheme for the interests of the State and the development of the race. Unintentionally, but none the less effectively, they are left out of account, leaving a corresponding blank in India's national character. Over this hovers, like a black cloud, another institution, the system, or rather the chaos, of caste. Its grotesque inconsistencies and bitter tyranny have gone far to make the Hindu what he is. The corro- sive properties of this single institution, more than anything else whatsoever, have checked the develop- ment of India into a nation. They have made possible the spectacle of a country of nearly !>D millions of inhabitants, governed by the skill .^f 60,000 military and 6ci,00O civilian foreigners. In olden times there were four castes : the Brah- man, or priestly caste ; the Kshatriya, or warrior caste; the Vai^ya, or merchant and farmer caste; and the ^Qdra, or servitor caste. Then came many cross-castes, the result of intermarriages between The Religion of the Veda members of the four original castes. Such marriages' are now strictly taboo. Gradually, differences of occupation, trade, and profession, and, to a consider, able extent also, difference of geography, established themselves as the basis of caste distinction, until the number of castes became legion. At the present time there are nearly 2000 Brahman castes alone. According to an intelligent Hindu observer of our own day' the Sarasvata Brahmins of the Panjab alone number 469 tribes; the Kshatriyas are split up into 590; the Vaigyas and ^udras into even more. There is a Hindustani proverb, "eight Brahmins, nine kitchens." In the matter of food and intermarriage all castes are now completely shut off one from the other. A tailor may not, as is the custom with all other peoples, invite his neighbor, an honest shoemaker, to share his humble fare. The son of the shoemaker may not woo and wed the blooming daughter of the barber. Even a minor deviation, some new trick of trade, will at once breed a new caste. In certain parts of India fisher-folk 1 who knit the meshes of their nets from right to left may not intermarry with them that knit from left to right, fin Cuttack, the most southerly district of ' Rai Bkhadur Lala Bai j Nath, B. A. , of the North-western Province Judicial Service, and Fellow of the University of Allahabad, in his very interesting little book, Hinduism, Ancient and Modern (Meerut, 1889). p. 9- India the Land of Religions "Bengal, there is no intercourse between potters who turn their wheels a-sitting and make small pots, and them that stand up for the manufacture of large pots. A certain class of dairymen who make butter from unboiled milk have been excluded from the caste, and cannot marry the daughters of milk men who churn upon more orthodox principles. Even as late a census as that of 1901 reports, and in a way gives its sanction to the Cimmerian notion that the touch of the lower caste man defiles the higher: While a Nayar can pollute a man of a higher cast only by touching him, people of the Kammalan group, includ- ing masons, blacksmiths, carpenters, and workers in leather, pollute at a distance of twenty-four feet, toddy drawers at thirty-six feet, Palayan or Cheruman culti- vators at forty-eight feet ; while in the case of the Paraiy'an (Pariahs) who eat beef, the range of pollution is stated to be no less than sixty-four feet. ' Thus Hindu society is split into infinitely small divisions, each holding itself aloof from the other, each engaged in making its exclusiveness as com- plete as possible. Members of a lower caste cannot rise into a higher caste; the individual is restricted to such progress only as is possible within the con- fines of his caste. To the Pariah the door of hope ' Quoted from New Ideas in India, by the 'Rev. Dr. John Morrison (Edinburgh, 1906), p. 33. 8 The Religion of the Veda is shut forever. There is little chance for national or patriotic combination. Moreover the laws,,or rather the vagaries of caste have taken largely the place of practical religion in the mind of the average Hindu who has not eman- cipated himself through higher philosophy. The supreme law which really concerns him in his daily life is, to eat correctly ; to drink correctly ; to marry correctly. The broader, more usual, dictates of religion, such as worship of the gods and ethical conduct, are not ignored, but they take a distinctly secondary place. India has at all times put the stamp of religion upon much that Europe counts as social habit, or social institution. There is not, and there seems never to have been, fixed creed in India. Hinduism has always been tolerant, liberal, latitud- inarian in matters of abstract belief; tyrannous, illiberal, narrow-minded as regards such social prac- tices as can be in any way connected with religion. Fluidity of doctrine, rigidity of practice may be regarded as the unspoken motto of Hindu religion at all times. Fortunately there are not wanting signs of a revul- sion of feeling which bids fair to sweep the entire system of caste with all its incredible foolishness off the face of the earth. The great Hindu reformer Raja Rammohun Roy declared as early as the year India the Land of Religions 1824 that "caste divisions are as destructiveof national union as of social enjoyment." The late SvamI Vive- kananda, the brilliant representative of Hinduism at the "Parliament of Religions," held in Chicago in con- nection with the Universal Exposition in 1893, passed the last years of his too short life (he died in 1902) in a suburb of Calcutta, doing philanthropic work, denouncing caste and the outcasting of those who had crossed the ocean, and recommending the Hindus to take to the eating of meat. The voices of other reformers are lifting. Especially the two great native religious reform associations, the Brahma Samaj, or Theistic Association of Bengal, and the Arya Samaj, or Vedic Association of the United Provinces and the Panjab, different as are their aims in other re- spects, are marshalled on tjie side of opposition to caste, as an anachronism, anomaly, and bar to social and national progress. The dreadful institution of Suttee, or widow-burn- ing abolished in 1829, under the administration of Lord William Bentinck, by decree of government ; the car of Juggernaut; the sect of the Thugs; and the practice of self-hypnosis to the point of prolonged trance or apparent death, are evidences of the frenzy- ing quality of Hindu religion, and the way it has of overshadowing individual sanity and public in- terest. There has been, and there still is, too much lo The Religion of the Veda so-called religion in India : Brahmanical hierarchy, sacerdotalism, asceticism, caste ; infinitely diversified polytheism and idolatry ; cruel religious practices ; and bottomless superstition. All this the higher Hindu religions, or rather religious philosophies, blow away as the wind does chaff. In their view such religiosity is mere illusion or ignorance, to save from which is their profession. But they can save only. the illumined of mind. On the real life of India the great philosophies are merely a thin film. Anyhow they have not as yet penetrated down to the Hindu people, and we may question whether India's salva- tion will come that way, rather than through the growth of social and political intelligence which so gifted a people is sure, in the long run, to obtain. The student of the History of Religions has good reason to think of India as the land of religions in yet another sense. Not only has India produced out of its own mental resources many important religions and theosophic systems, but it has carried on these processes continuously, uninterrupted by distracting outside influences. The Moghul con- quests in Northern India introduced Mohammedan, ism to a limited extent, and Mohammedanism fused with Hinduism in the hybrid religion of the Sikhs. A small number of Zoroastrian Parsis, driven from Persia during the Mohammedan conquest, found India the Land of Religions ii a friendly refuge for themselves and the religion of Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) in the West of India. Aside from that there is no record of permanent outside influence on a larger scale, until, in the last century, the above-mentioned Brahma Samaj, a kind of religious Volapiik, or Esperanto, undertakes, in the most praiseworthy spirit, upon a universal theis- tic platform, to blend and harmonise the best in Hindu religious thought, with the best that may be found in other religions. In this way Hindu re- ligion is more strictly native than any of the great religions of mankind. This is no doubt due mainly to India's geographical isolation, and to her insular secular history. It has had the merit of keeping her religious development continuous and organic' Every important idea has a traceable past history ; every important idea is certain to develop in the future. We may say that a body of 3500 years of organic religious growth lies more or less open before the eyes of the student of India's religions, to dissect, to study, and to philosophise upon. This great period of time has of late become definite in a rather important sense. Within recent years there were discovered at Tel-el-Amarna, in Upper Egypt, numerous cuneiform tablets contain- ing letters from tributary kings of Babylonia^'. 1 2 The Religion of the Veda Assyria, Mitani, Phcenicia, and Canaan, addressed to certain Egyptian Pharaohs, their liege lords. These tablets have thrown much new light upon the history of Western Asia. There is among them a letter written by a king of Mitani in Syria, Dushratta by name. In this letter figure among others the names of his brother Artashuvara and his grandfather Arta- tama. These names are obviously Iranian (Persian), or " Iranoid " ; with the tablets themselves they date back to at least 1600 B. C' The names Artashuvara and Artatama open out with the syllables arta-, familiar to Western students of history as part of the numberless Persian names like Artaxerxes, Arta- phernes, etc. This stem arta is identical with arta- of the Western Iranian, Achemenidan inscriptions, with asha of the Avesta, and with rta of the Veda. The word means " cosmic order," or " order of the universe." We shall find it later on, figuring as one of the most important religious conceptions of the Rig-Veda. We have here at any rate a definite lower date for the idea ; it is likely to have existed a long time before 1600 B.C. From the point of view of the history of religious ideas we may, in fact we must, begin the history of Hindu religion at > See the author, American Journal of Philology, xxv., p. 8 ; F. Hommel in Sittungsberichte der Koniglich Bohmisehen Cesell- schaft der Wissemchaften, 1898, Number vi. India the Land of Religions 13 least with the history of this conception. Broad as the ocean, and as uninterrupted in its sweep there lies before us a period of thousands of years of the religious thought and priactice of the most religious people in the history of the world. Now this brings us face to face with the tried and true fact that the religious history of India does not really begin at the time when the Veda, the earliest literature, was composed, but that it begins much earlier. In the first place, it shares a fairly clear common life with the ancient religion of Iran (Persia) in a prehistoric time, the so-called Indo-Iranian or Aryan period.' The reconstruction of these com- mon religious properties is purely prehistoric. It partakes of the fate of all prehistoric studies ; it is not definite, but more or less hazy. Yet, such as it is, it counts fairly with the best that may be achieved in this way. It is based upon the plainly evident relationship between the Hindu Veda and the Persian Avesta, the most ancient sacred books of the two peoples. No student of either religion questions that they drew largely from a common source, and therefore mutually illumine each other. I, am sure that the full meaning of this last state- ment will appear clearer after a word of explanation. Students of profane history are accustomed to see 'See below page iig. 14 The Religion of the Veda ancient Persia with her face turned westward. It is to them the Persia that conquers, or controls through her satrapies, Assyria and Babylonia, Pales- tine, Egypt, or parts of Asia Minor. It is to them the Persia that falls down before Greece. In the day of her greatest glory Darius I. Hystaspes carved into the Behistan rock, 300 feet above the groundj the hugh trilingual cuneiform inscription, in which he claims suzerainty over twenty-three co^intties. To all intents and purposes he claims the earth for his own. Among the countries mentioned are parts adjacent to the extreme north-west of India : Dran- giana, Arachosia, Gandhara, etc. BetweeA 500-330 B.C., the rule of the Achemenidan Persian dynasty had without doubt sent out its loosely attached satrapies to the land of the Indus River. But this did not result in the permanent attachment of one country to the other. Again, the so-called Graeco- Parthian rulers, successors of Alexander the Great in the Persian countries of Parthia and Baktria, from about 200 B.C. to 200 A.D., established principalities in the north-west of India, notably the Indo-Parthian kingdoms of Taxila and Arachosia.' But this politi- cal relation, again, proved unstable and transient. A small number of Parsis, after the Mohammedan 'See Vincent Smith, The Indo-Parthian Dynasties, in Journal of the German Oriental Society, vol. Ix., p. 49^. India the Land of Religions 15 conquest of Persia, fled to India with their priests, sacred fire, and the manuscripts of the Avesta, their holy scriptures. Their descendants, about 8o,ooo in number, still adhere to their ancient religion. They form one of the most esteemed, wealthy, and philan- thropic communities on the west shores of India, notably in the city of Bombay. It is not of record that they had even the faintest idea that they were fleeing into the hospitable bosom of a people related by blood and language, or that the Hindus who gave them shelter knew that they were receiving their very own kin. As far as we know, the Aryan Hindus at any rate, throughout their history, are entirely unconscious of the important fact that, across the mountains to the north-west of their country, dwelt at all times a branch of their own stock — the other half of the so-called Indo-Iranians or Aryans. And yet, the languages of the Hindu Veda and the Persian Avesta, the respective bibles of the two peoples, ^e mf^re dialects of the same s peech. Students regularly enter upon the study of the Avestan language through the door of the Veda. Entire passages of the Avesta may be turned into good Vedic merely by applying certain regular sound changes. It is said sometimes that there is less dif- ference between the Veda and the Avesta than be- 1 6 The Religion of the Veda tween the Veda and the later Hindu Epic, the Mahabharata. This is, in my opinion, an exag- geration, but it is significant that the statement could be made at all. The early religions and the religious institutions of the Hindus and Persians show, to be sure, far greater independence from one another than their languages, but they are, never- theless, at the root much the same. So it has come to pass that a not at all mean part of the Vedic Pantheon and Vedic religious ideas begin before the Veda. Or, to put it even more paradoxically, Indian religion begins before its arrival in India. Yet further, beyond the common period of the Hindus and the Persians, there is a still remoter period which is not entirely closed to our view. It is the common Indo-European time, the time when the Hindus and Persians still shared their language and home with the remaining mem- bers of the same stock, the Hellenes, Itahans, Celts, Teutons, and Slavs. In this altogether pre- historic time there also existed certain germs of religion, and some of these germs grew into import- ant features of the later religions of these peoples. The religion of the Veda is indebted to- this early time to an extent that is not negligible. We shall see later on in what way the two layers of prehis- toric religious matter have contributed to and affected The Veda 1 7 the shaping of Vedic thought. For the present it will be advantageous to turn to the Vedic -religion of historic times, so that there may be some basis for discriminating between what is old and what is new. And as it would not be gra- cious to presume too much knowledge of so remote a theme as the Veda, we must first describe briefly the documents of which consists the Veda, the most ancient literary monument of India, the most ancient literary document of the Indo-European peoples — the foundation for all time of India's religious thought. THE VEDA The word veda means Hterally_^ knowledge," that is, " sacred knowledge." It is derived from vid, " to know," and connected with Greek (/''Jdrcyaf Gothic wait, German wetss, English wii, " to know." Xhe term Veda is used in two ways : either as the col- lective desighatronT of the entire oldest sacred literature of India, or as the specific name of single books belonging to that literature.^ So then, on the one hand, we speak of f/if Veda as the bible of ancient India ; or, on the other hand, we speak of Rig- Veda, Atharva-Veda, etc., as individual books of that great collection. The number of books which, in one sense or another, are counted as Veda is a hundred or more. The Hindus 2 1 8 The Religion of the Veda themselves were never very keen about canonicity ; quasi-Vedic books, or, as we should say, Pseudo- Vedic books were composed at a very late date, when the various and peculiar sources of early in- spiration had dried up; they kept pouring new, mostly sour wine into the old skins. The huge Concordance of the Vedas, which it has been my fate to publish this year (1906), absorbs about 120 texts more or less Vedic. It is truly humiliating to students of ancient India to have to answer the inevitable question as to the age of the Veda with a meek, " We don't know." As regards their texture, the books of the Veda claim great antiquity with no uncertain voice. One should like to see this intrinsically archaic quality held up by actual dates ; those same, almost fabulous, yet per- fectly authentic dates that are being bandied about in the ancient history of Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt. The late Professor William D. Whitney left behind the witty saying that Hindu dates are merely ten-pins set up to be bowled down again. This is not altogether so. Buddha died 47;' B.C. Alexander invaded India in 326 B.C. In the year 315 B.C. Candragupta, or Sandrakottos, "Alexander-Killer," as Greek writers ominously mouthed over his name, led a successful revolt against Alexander's prefects and established the Maurya dynasty in Pataliputra, The Veda 19 the Palibothra of the Greeks, the Patna of to-day. The most important date in Hindu secular history is that of Candragupta's grandson, the famous Buddhist Emperor A^oka or Piyadassi, who ruled India from north to south around about 250 B.C. His edicts, carved into rock all over his great empire, show us the singular spectacle of a great ruler who ' used his power to propagate his religion peacefully. His inscriptions upon pillars and rocks boast not of victory or heroic deed ; they exhort his people to virtue, warn against sin, and plead for tolerance and love of humanity. This is an important date in the history of India, but an even more important date in the history of good manners. Unquestionably a century or two must have passed between the conclusion of the Vedic period and the beginnings of Buddhism. Buddhist literature pre- supposes Brahmanical literature and religion in a ' stage of considerable advancement beyond the Vedas. We are, therefore, reasonably safe in paying that the^ real Vedjc jDcriod was concluded about 700 B.C.i We are further on safe ground in demanding a num- ber of centuries for the much stratified language, literature, and religion of the Veda. But how many? It is as easy to imagine three as thirteen or twenty- three. Only one thing is certain. Vedic ideas are very old. I have noted the fact that the concept rai( 20 The Religion of the Veda " cosmic or universal order," is found in cut and dried //Iranian names in Western Asia as early as 1600 B.C. I am, for my part, and I think I voice many scholars, now much more inclined to listen to an early date, say 2000 B.C., for the beginnings of Vedlc literary production, and to a much earlier date for the beginnings of the institutions and religious concepts which the Veda has derived from those prehistoric " times which cast their shadows forward into the records that are in our hands. Anyhow, we must not be beguiled by that kind of conservatism which merely salves the conscience into thinking that there is better proof for any later date, such as 1500, 1200, or 1000 B.C., rather than the earlier date of 2000 B.C. Once more, frankly, we do not know. Vedic tradition is in some respects the most re- markable in recorded history. From the entire Vedic period we have not one single piece of anti- quarian or archaeological material, not one bit of real property ; not a building, nor a monument ; not a coin, jewel, or utensil ; — nothing but winged words. Even the manuscripts of these precious texts, splendid as we know their authority to be on inner evidence are of comparatively recent date. We do not know when the Vedas were first committed to writing. Even if they were written down during the The Veda 21 Vedic period itself, as I think altogether likely, the early manuscripts were certain to perish in the furious Indian climate. They must, in that case, have been saved by diligent copying and recopying. The majority of the manuscripts upon which are based our editions of Vedic texts date from recent cen- turies. Manuscripts that date back to the fourteenth century of our era are rare ; only a very few go back to the twelfth. Here, however, enters one of the curiosities of Hindu religious life. The adherents of a certain Veda or Vedic school, no matter whether the text of that school was reduced to writing or not, must, in theory, know their texts by heart. These are the so-called ^rotriyas or " Oral Traditionalists." They live to this day, being, as it were, living manuscripts of their respective Vedas. The eminent Hindu scholar, the late Shankar Pandurang Pandit, tells us in the pre- face to his great Bombay edition of the Atharva- Veda how he used three of these oral reciters of the Atharva-Veda out of a total of only four that were at that time still alive in the Dekkhan ; and how their oral authority proved to be quite as weighty as the written authority of his manuscripts. These living manuscripts were respectively, Messrs. Bapuji Jivanram; Ke^ava Bhat bin Dajl Bhat; and Ven- kan Bhatjl, the last " the most celebrated Atharva 22 The Religion of the Veda Vaidika in the Dekkhan." Mr. Pandit cites them by sigla, quite in the manner of inanimate manuscripts, respectively, as Bp, K, and V. They are, I beUeve, now all dead. We are waiting now for the time when the India Exploration Society shall step out from its existence on paper, and take hold of the shovel and the spade. With bated breath we shall then be watching to see whether great good fortune will make it possible to dig through the thick crust of centuries that are piled upon the Vedic period. If so, it will be some- thing like the revelation of the Mycenean age that was found at the root of Hellenic civilisation. Until that time Vedic life and institutions, reported only by word of mouth, must remain an uncertain quan- tity. The hymns of the Vedajire to a considerable degree cloudyiu.turgid, and mystic; taken by~them- selves they will never yield a clear picture of human life that fits any time or place. We have from the entire Vedic period no annals except priestly annals, or such at least as have been edited by priests. It is as though we, relied upon cloister chronicles alone for our knowledge of the politics and institutions of a certain time. Or, to use an even homelier compari- son, as though we_ had to reconstruct the social conditions of a more modern time from an inter- cepted boarding-school correspondence. The poets, The Veda, 23 or priestly writers of the Veda are entirely preocci pied with their own interests ; if we want anythin like secular records of India we must look to a late time. We do not even know exactly what a term as fam iliar as raja {rex) " King," meant in those early day; Was a Raja a great potentate, or merely a tribj chieftain ? We know that the early Vedic perioi was a cattle-raising age. The lowing of kine wa lovely music to the ear of the Vedic poet. Bu there were also workers in metals, chariots, nav: gation of some kind, gold, jewels, and trade. Thi is all too vague, and to some extent introduce uncertain quantities into our estimation of Vedi religion. At an unknown date then, as we have had t confess reluctantly, Aryan tribes or clans (z"'f ') begai to migrate from the Iranian highlands to the nortl of the Hindu-Kush Mountains into the north-wes of India, the plains of the river Indus and its tribu taries, the Panjab, or the land of the five streams, 'From this word is derived vaifya, the later name of the third, o agricultural and merchant caste. 'Professor E. W. Hopkins, Journal of the American Orientc Society, vol. xix., pp. 19-28. argues that the majority of the Vedi hymns were composed farther east than the Panjab, in the regio of the modern city of Amballa, between the rivers Sarasouti an Ghuggar. 24 The Religion of the Veda The river Ganges, so essential to a picture of India in historical times, and even more bound up with all Western poetic fancies about India, is scarcely mentioned in the Rig- Veda. This same text is full of allusions to the struggles of the fair-skinned Aryas with the dark-skinned aborigines, the Dasyus. The struggle is likely to have been bitter. The spread of Aryan civilisation was gradual, and re- sulted finally in the up-building of a people whose civilisation was foreign and superior, but whose race quality was determined a good deal by the over- whelmingly large, native, dark-skinned, non-Aryan population. At the beginning of our knowledge of India we are face to face with an extensive poet- ical literature, in set metres. This is crude on the whole, even when compared with classical Sanskrit literature of later times. Yet, it shows, along with uncouth naivet6 and semi-barbarous turgidity, a good deal of beauty and elevation of thought, and a degree of skill bordering on the professional, in the handling of language and metre. That this product was not created out of nothing on Indian soil follows from the previously mentioned close connection with the earliest product of Persian literature, the Avesta.' Even the metric types of Veda and Avesta are closely related. ' See above, p. 13. The Veda 25 Vedic literature, in its first intention, is through- out religious, or it deals with institutions that have come under the control of religion. It includes hymns, prayers, and sacred formulas, offered by priests to the gods in behalf of rich lay sacrificers ; charms for witchcraft, medicine, and other homely practices, manipulated by magicians and medicine- men, in the main for the plainer people. From a later time come expositions of the sacrifice, illus- trated by legends, in the manner of the Jewish Talmud. Then speculations of the higher sort, philosophic, cosmic, psycho-physical, and theosophic, gradually growing up in connection with and out of the simpler beliefs. Finally there is a considerable body of set rules for conduct in every-day secular life, at home and abroad, that is, a distinct literature of customs and laws. This is the Veda as a whole. The Veda consists, as we have seen, of consider- ably more than a hundred books, written in a variety of slightly differentiated dialects and styles. Some of the Vedic books are not yet published, or even unearthed. At the base of this entire canon, if we maj' so call it, lie four varieties of metrical composi- tion, or in some cases, prayers in sacred, solemn prose. These are known as the Four Vedas in the narrower sense : theJRjg;yeda, th^ YajurA ^eda, the Sama- Veda, and the_^tharvaA^eda^ These four names 26 The Religion of the Veda come from a somewhat later Vedic time ; they do not coincide exactly with the earlier names, nor do they fully correspond to the contents of the texts themselves. The earlier names refer rather to the .^different styles of composition, than to canonical col;;_ lections. They are rcaJj, " stanzas of praise "; yajfih. shi, " liturgical stanzas and formulas "; sdmdni, "mel- odies"; and atharvdngirasah, " blessings and curses." The book which goes by the name of Rig- Veda con- tains not only " stanzas of praise," but — in its later parts — also " blessings and curses,"as well as most of the stanzas which form the text to the sdntan-m&\o- dies of the Sama-Veda. The Atharva-Veda contains ■^ really " stanzas of praise," and yajilhshi, " liturgical stanzas," mostly worked over for its own purposes, as well as its very own " blessings and curses." The Ya- Jur-Veda also contains materials of the other Vedic types in addition to its main topic, the liturgy. The ^ Sama-Veda is merely a collection of a certain kind of rcah, or "stanzas of praise," which are derived with some variants and additions from the Rig- Veda, and are here set to music which is indicated by musical notations. V The Rig- Veda is, on the whole, the oldest as well as the most important of the four collections. Its language is a priestly, very high, or very literary speech. This we may call by distinction the hieratic The Veda 27 language of the Veda. It is based upon a very old popular dialect, into which the poets, to serve their own needs, have introduced many new words and speech-forms. So, for instance, the great liking of the -hieratic language for verbs derived from nouns, the so-called denominative or denominal verbs, surrounds the style of the Rig- Veda with an air of turgidity and stiltedness which is far from being archaic. A hieratic poet prefers to say " give battle "{prtandyatit prtanyati), rather than "fight"; "cultivate the gods" {(ievayati), rather than " be pious "; " show a kind disposition" {siimanasy ate), ra.\i)^Qr than "be friendly," etc. A little over lOOO hymns, containing about IO,OOC stanzas, equal in bulk to Homer's poems, are dividec into ten mandalas, " circles," or, as we should say books. Inside of these books the hymns are arrangec according to a regular scheme : first, in the order o the nuniber of hymns addressed to a particular god beginning with the largest number and continuing ii a descending scale. Next, each god's hymns an arranged according to the length of each single hymn again in a descending scale. Six of these ten book (iir-vii), the so-called "family-books," form the nucleu of the collection. Each of these is supposed ti have been composed by a different Rishi, poet o seer, or rather by some family of poets who woul< 28 The Religion of the Veda fondly derive their descent from such a Rishi. The hymns themselves state this repeatedly — such and such a poet has seen ' such and such a hymn — : the exact value of this claim is not easily estimated. The names of these traditional Rishis have a good ring in India at all times. They are in the order of Books ii-vii, Grtsamada,Vi5vamitra,Vamadeva, Atri, Bharadvaja, and Vasishtha. The eighth book and the first fifty hymns of the first book are ascribed to the family of Kanva ; they are marked off even superficially from the rest, because they are arranged strophically in groups of two or three stanzas. These form the bulk of those stanzas which, set to music, reappear in the Sama-Veda. The ninth book, a kind of Bacchic collection or text-book, is addressed to the deified plant soma, and the liquor pressed from it.' This soma drink furnishes by far the most pre- cious libation to the gods. They are supposed to intoxicate themselves with it unto great deeds of valor. The remainder of the first book and the entire tenth book are more miscellaneous hi char- acter and problematic as to intention and arrange- ment. To some extent, though by no means en- tirely, they are of later origin and from a different sphere, in part of distinctly popular character, very ' That is, has had revealed to him. ' See below, p. 145. The Veda 29 much like and often identical with the hymns of the Atharya-Veda. On the whole and in the main, as we shall see, the Rig- Veda is a collection of priestly hymns addressed to the gods of the Vedic Pantheon. The chanting of these hymns is regularly accompanied by libations of the intoxicating drink called soma, and of melted butter, or ghee {ghrta). The enduring interest of the Rig- Veda as literature lies in those old priestly poets' vision of the beauty, the majesty, and the power of the gods, and in the myths and legends told of them, or, more often, merely alluded to in connec- tion with them. But the paramount importance of the Rig- Veda is after all not as literature, but as philosophy. Its mythology represents a clearer, even if not always chronologically earlier stage of thought and religious development than is to be found in any parallel literature./ On one side at least it is primitive in conception, and constructive under our very eyes : how a personal god develops by personification out of ^T visible fact in nature (anthropomorphosis) no literary document in the world teaches as well as the Rig- Veda. The original nature of theVedic gods, however, is not always clear not as clear as was once fondly thought. The analy sis of these bare'y translucent, or altogether opaque characters makes up a chapter of Vedic science a; 30 The Religion of the Veda t. difficult as it is important. In any case enough is known to justify the statement that the key-note and engrossing theme of Rig-Vedic thought is worship of'' the personified powers of nature. In order to make good this last statement, and at the same time by way of fore-taste of the Rig- Veda, I present here some stanzas of one of its finest hymns." It is addressed to the goddess Ushas, Dawn person- fied, whom the Vedic poets sing with special warmth and liking ; the metre imitates the original : This light hath come, of all the lights the fairest. The brilliant brightness hath been born, far-shining. Urged on to prompt the sun-god's shining power. Night now hath yielded up her place to morning. The sisters' pathway is the same unending, Taught by the gods, alternately they tread it. Fair-shaped, of different forms, and yet one-minded. Night and Morning clash not, nor yet do linger. Bright bringer of delights, Dawn shines effulgent. Wide open she hath thrown for us her portals. Arousing all the world, she shows us riches, Dawn hath awakened every living creature. 'T is Heaven's Daughter hath appeared before us, The maiden dazzling in her brilliant garments. Thou sovereign mistress of all earthly treasure. Auspicious Dawn, flash thou to-day upon us ! ' Rig-Vcda 1. 113 in Professor A. A. Macdonell's translation, in his History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 83. I have taken the liberty of making a few slight alterations. The Veda 31 On heaven's frame she hath shone forth in splendor ; The goddess hath cast off the robe of darkness. Awakening the world, with ruddy horses, Upon her well-yoked chariot Dawn approacheth. Showering upon it many bounteous blessings, She spreads her brilliant lustre — all may see her. Last of the chain of mornings that have passed by, First of bright morns to come Dawn hath arisen. Arise ! the breath of life again hath reached us ! Dread darkness slinks away and light is coming ! Slie hath blazed a pathway for the sun to travel. We have found the place where men prolong existence. The Rig-Veda presupposes a tolerably elaborate and not uninteresting ritual, or scheme of priestly practices, in connection with the hymns addressed to the gods. How this may be read between the lines of the Rig- Veda's poetry I hope to show quite clearly later on. The Yajur-Veda represents the exceeding growth of this ritualism, or sacerdotalism, as time went by. Gradually the main object, namely, devotion to the gods, is lost sight of : sol- emn, pompous performance, garnished with lip service, occupies the centre of the stage. This per- formance is supposed to have magic or mystic power of its own, so that its every detail is all-important. It regulates mechanically the relation of man to the divine powers by its own intrinsic power, but yet a 32 The Religion of the Veda power controlled and guided by the wonderful tech- nique of the priests, and their still more wonderful insight into the meaning of all the technical acts. A crowd of priests — seventeen is the largest number — conduct an interminable ceremonial full of sym- bolic meaning down to its smallest minutiae. The priests seat themselves on the sacrificial ground strewn with blades of sacred dardAa-grass, and mark out the altars on which the sacred fires are built. They handle and arrange the utensils and sacrificial substances. And then they proceed to give to the gods of the sacrifice, each his proper oblation and his proper share. Even the least and most trivial act has its stanza or formula, and every utensil is blessed with its own particular blessing. These stanzas and formulas, to which a description of the rites is more or less directly attached, make up the numerous redactions of this Veda. The Yajur-Veda is a later collection in the main, though it contains much substance that is old, old enough, indeed, to be prehistoric. But like all other Vedic collections, its redaction, at any rate, pre- supposes the Rig- Veda. A good many verses of the Rig- Veda reappear in the Yajur-Veda, usually not in the exact form of the Rig- Veda, but taken out of their connection, and altered and adapted to new ends which were foreign to the mind of the The Veda original composers. There are also many new verse; in the Yajur-Veda which are in the main ritualistic rather than hymnal, concerned with technical detail; of the sacrifice rather than with the praise of the gods But the characteristic element of this Veda art /the yajus, or formulas in prose, often more or less rhythmic prose. To these this Veda owes its name, They are, by the way, unquestionably the oldesi prose on record in the literatures of the Indo. European peoples. These formulas are often briei and concise, mere dedications or swift prayers, ao companying an action, and sometimes hardly ad- dressed to any one in particular. So, for instance, " Thee for Agni " {agnaye tvd), or " This to Agni " {idam agneh), indicate that an object is dedicated to the god Agni. Or, " Thee for strength " is the briefest prayer, or rather magically compelling wish, that the use of a certain article may give strength to the sacrificer. But they swell out from this brev- ity to long solemn litanies that betray at times such a measure of good sense as may at best be expected in these doings. Often, however, they are sunk in the deepest depths of imbecility, mere verbiage in- tent upon silly puns on the names of the things used at the sacrifice. When an animal victim is tied tc the post the priest addresses the rope with the words, " Do not turn serpent, do not turn viper ! ' 34 The Religion of the Veda The Hindus have always had reason to fear ser- pents; they must have at times been stung by serpents whom they mistook for ropes, because the two things are often correlated in their literature. A Hindu figure of speech (or kenning) for serpent is " toothed rope." ' For instance, a theosophic text of Upanishad character establishes the following comparison : " As a rope which is not clearly seen in the dark is mistaken for a serpent, so the un- enlightened mistake the character of their own self. ' ' That is to say, they do not comprehend the r divine nature of their self. This is sensible, and J, there is sense also in the following: Kings are con- ceived as rulers of the earth. Therefore, at the ceremony of consecration the king looks down upon the earth, and prays : " O mother Earth, do not injure me, nor let me injure thee ! " But often prayer passes over into litany, here as in other secondary stages of religious literature. The fol- lowing is an all too typical case : " May life prosper through the sacrifice ! May life's breath prosper through the sacrifice ! May the eye prosper through the sacrifice! May the ear prosper through the sacrifice ! May the back prosper through the sac- ' See the author in Hymns of the Atharva- Veda {Sacred Books of the East, vol. xlii.), pp. 147, 368. ' Mandukya-Karika, 2. 17. Cf. the adage in Petronius, 45: colttbra restem nonpiirit, "a serpent does not beget a rope." The Veda 3^ rifice ! " And finally— O deepest bathos !— "May the sacrifice prosper through the sacrifice ! " ' * The many thousand formulas of this sort which occur in the Yajur-Veda and its accessory literature are now for the first time collected in my Vedic Concordance. I am sure that the enduring im- pression which they leave upon the mind, aside from "lUieir partial foolishness, is that of a formalism and mental decay upon the very brink of dissolution. The practices which accompany these formulas, though they contain much that is natural and vigor- ous, are also covered up by silly details of formalism, so that it is often difficult to discover their real human meaning. It is remarkable, however, that new life springs up on this arid waste. It is as though this phase of Hindu religion had prepared itself by its very excesses for a salutary and complacent hara-kiri. In its last outcome, in the very same Brahmanical schools where all this folly runs riot, spring up the Upanishads, those early theosophic treatises of India which pave the way for her endur- ing philosophies. The Upanishads in reality, though not professedly, sweep aside the ritual like cobwebs, and show the Hindu mind, not yet perfectly trained, but far from choked ; and quite capable of carrying ' Cf. Winternitz, Geschichie der Jndisehen Litteratur, Part First, p. 155 /■. 36 The Religion of the Veda on the development of Hindu religions to the really ' great results which they eventually reach. The Sama-Veda is of all the Vedas the least clear as regards its origin and purpose. As a literary pro- duction it is almost entirely secondary and negative. The Sama-Veda is interesting chiefly, because it is the Veda of music. In addition it contains some original practices to which tradition has attached a number of legends unknown in the other Vedic schools. There are no connected hymns in this Veda, only more or less detached verses, borrowed in the main from the Rig- Veda. Even the sense of these verses is subordinated to the music to which they are set. The verses are grouped in strophes which, when accompanied by their music, are known as sdmdni, " melodies." The ja;«rt«-stanzas are preserved in three forms. First, in the Rig- Veda, as ordinary poetry accented in the usual way, and not accompan- ied by melodies. They are contained mostly in the first fifty hymns of the first book, and in Books viii and ix. Most of these stanzas are composed in the metre gdyatri, or in strophes known as pragdtha, which are compounded of gdyatri and jagatl verse- lines. Both the words gdyatri and pragdtha are derived from the verb gai, "sing," and show that the stanzas and strophes composed in these metres were from the start intended to be sung. The Veda 37 Secondly, they occur in the Sama-Veda itself in a form called drctka, that is, "collection of stanzas." This is a kind of libretto, or text-book contain- ing the stanzas which are to be memorised for "making upon them," as the Hindus say, the sdman-melodiQs. Here also there is a system of accents, peculiar in its notation, but appar- ently still with reference to the unsung sdmans. In the third 5awfl«-version, the Ganas' or song-books, we find the real sdmans as they are to be sung. Here not only the text but also the musical notes are given. Still this is not a complete sdman yet. In the middle of the sung stanzas certain phantastic exclamatory syllables are introduced, the so-called stobhas, such as om, hau, hat, hoyi, or him ; and at the end of the stanzas certain concluding exclama- tions, the so-called nidhanas, such as atha, d, im, and sat* They remind us in a way of the Swiss and Tyrolese " yodels " which are introduced into the songs of these countries as a sort of cadenzas, intended to heighten the musical effect. The Sama-Veda is devoted a good deal to the worship of Indra, a blustering, braggart god, who' ' The y/oii gSna, again, is derived from the root gat, " sing." ' The Pancavin9a Brahmana relates that the poet Kanva was for a good while puzzled to find a niMaiia for his sdman, until he heard a cat sneeze ash I Then he took ask for the nidhana of his 38 The Religion of the Veda has to befuddle himself with soma, in order to get the necessary courage to slay demons. He, and he alone, has in the Rig-Veda the epithet rclshama, that is, " he for whom the sdmans are composed upon the the rks" or, as we should say, " out of the rks'' ' It seems likely that the Sama-Veda is built up out of i^remnants of savage Shamanism — the resemblance between the words Saman and Shamanism, however, is accidental. Shamanism, as is well known, at- tempts to influence the natural order of events by shouts, beating of tam-tams, and frantic exhortation of the gods. The Brahmans were in the habit of ^blending their own priestly practices and concep- tions with a good deal of rough material which they found current among the people. The sdnian melo- dies, too, betray their popular origin in that they I seem to have been sung originally at certain popular festivals, especially the solstitial festivals." The ex- clamations interspersed among the words of the text are Jikely to be substitutes for the excited shouts of the Shaman priests of an earlier time. It is perhaps y worth while to note that in later Vedic times the ' See my articles, On Rclslmma, an Epithet of Indra^ \x\yournal of the American Oriental Society, vol. xxi., p. 50 ff, ; and. The God Indra and the Sdma- Veda, in Vienna Oriental Journal, vol. xvii., p. 156/-. ' See A. Hillebrandt, Die Sonnenwendfeste in Alt-Indien, Fest- schrift filr Konrad Hoffmann, (Erlangen 1889), pp. 22. /"and %\ff. of the reprint. The Veda 39 Sama-Veda is held in small regard. The Brahman- ical law-books prescribe that the recitation of Rig- Veda and Yajur-Veda must stop whenever the shout of sdmans is heard. One of these law-books, for instance, counts the barking of dogs, the bray of asses, the howling of wolves, and the sound of the sdman as noises so obnoxious or defiling that, when heard, the study of the other Vedas must stop.' The interest of the Sama-Veda for the history of Hindu religion and literature amounts to very little. It represents in fact little more than the secondary employment in the service of religion of popular music and other quasi-musical noises. These were developed and refined in the course of civilisation, and worked into the formal ritual of Brahmanism in order to add an element of beauty and emotion. In more modern times the sdman- chants at the sacrifice are said to be quite impressive,' The oldest name of the Atharva-Veda is atharvdn- girasah, a compound formed of the names of two semi-mythic families of priests, the Atharvans and Angirases. At a very early time the former term was regarded as synonymous with " holy charms," or ' Compare on this point Professor Ludwig's remark in Der Jiig- Veda, vol. v., p. 8. 'See the author in the Vienna Oriental Journal, vol. xvii., p. 162. 40 The Religion of the Veda " blessings " ; the latter with " witchcraft charms," or " curses." In addition to this name, and the later more conventional name Atharva-Veda, there are two other names, used only in the ritual texts of this Veda. One is bhrgvangirasah, that is, Bhrigus and Angirases. In this the Bhrigus, another ancient family of fira priests, take the place of the Athar- vans. The other is Brahma-Veda, probably " Veda of the Brahman," that is the Veda of the supervising fourth priest at the Vedic {qrautd) sacrifices.' The latter name may, however, be due to some extent to the fact that the Atharva-Veda contains a surprising number of theosophic hymns which deal with the brahma, the pantheistic personification of holy thought and its pious utterance. This, as we shall see later on,' becomes in time the ultimate religious conception of the Veda. The Atharvan is a collection of 730 hymns, con- taining some 6000 stanzas. Aside from its theo- sophic materials, which look not a little strange in a collection of charms and exorcisms, and some hieratic stanzas which were employed by the Brahman or fourth priest,' the collection is almost entirely of a popular character. It consists of hymns and stanzas ' C/. Caland, Vienna Oriental Journal, \o\.-xbi., ■p. llSff. ' See below, p. 273. 'See Caland in the article just cited. The Veda 41 for the cure of diseases ; prayers for health and long > life ; charms for the prosperity of home and children, . cattle and fields; expiatory formulas designed to free from sin and guilt; charms to produce harmony in the life of families and in the deliberations of the village assembly ; charms concerned with love and marriage, and, indirectly, with the rivalries and jealousies of men and women in love; conjurations against demons, sorcerers, and enemies ; charms for kings in peace and war ; and charms calculated to promote the interests of the Brahmans, especially to secure for them the abundant baksheesh for which they clamor with the most refreshing directness. •■- The Atharva-Veda is of unrivalled importance for the history of superstition, of folk-lore, and popular practices. Related in character are the so-called " House-books " ( Grhya-Sutras). These were com- posed as formal treatises at a comparatively late Vedic period, yet they report practices and prayers of great antiquity. The Hindus, then as now, took an in- tensely religious view of their lives. In its even daily course, as well as in its crucial moments, such as birth, investiture, disciplehood, marriage, and death, the life of the Hindu was both sanctified and enlivened by a continuous chain of religious formalities, acts, and festivals. These were codified in the " House-books" with nice minuteness. The Atharva-Veda and the 42 The Religion of the Veda j^^" House-books" togetherlay bare V ;.; ....'valled preci- sion of detail the religion of the obscure and the hum- ble. For many a Hindu, through many centuries, these fond time-honored customs of the fathers, ^the schone sitte, was the true religion, which turned • inward, irradiating and sustaining the spirit of a peo- ple whose masses live the life of dark toil and do not see the light revealed to their own elect. To the development of the higher and ultimate religion of J the Veda these homely practices and superstitions contribute very little. Charm against Jaundice. 1. Up to the sun shall go thy heart-ache and thy jaundice : in the colour of the red bull do we envelop thee! 2. We envelop thee in red tints, unto long life. May this person go unscathed, and be free of yellow colour ! 3. The cows whose divinity is RohinI, they who, more- over, are themselves red [r^/«'«ij] — in their every form and every strength we do envelop thee. 4. Into the parrots, into the ropandkds (thrush) do we put thy jaundice ; into the hdridravas (yellow wagtail) do we put thy yellowness. {Atharva-Veda, i. 22.)' ' See the author, Hymns of the Atharva- Veda (Sacrei/ Books of tlu East, vol. xlii.) p. 7. For the very interesting symbolic practices that accompany the recital of this charm against jaundice, see p. ib'iff. of the same work. The Veda 43 A Woman's Incantation against her Rival, 1. I have taken unto myself her fortune and her glory, as a wreath off a tree. As a broad-based mountain may she sit a long time with her parents ! 2. This woman shall be subjected to thee as thy bride, O King Yama (Pluto) : till then let her be fixed to the house of her mother, or her brother, or her father ! 3. This woman shall be the keeper of thy house, O King Yama : her do we deliver over to thee ! May she long sit with her parents, until her hair drops from her head ! 4. With the incantation of Asita, of Kajyapa, and of Gaya do I cover up thy fortune, as women cover things within a chest. {Aihania-Veda, i. 14.) ' The poetic stanzas of ail sorts, and the ritualistic prose formulas of the Veda collectively go by the name oi mantra, " pious utterance " or " hymn." In the texts of one group of Yajur-Vedas, the so-called Black Yajur-Vedas,' these stanzas and prose formulas alternate with descriptive prose chapters which tell how these mantras are to be used at the sacrifice, and why they are to be used in a given way. The passages are designated as brdhmana. In the case of the so-called White Yajur-Vedas and also all the other Vedas the Brahmanas are compiled into sep- ' See the same work, pp. 107 and 252 .ff ' For the distinction between Black and White ^rajur-Veda see Mac. donell, History of Sanskrit Literature y p. 177. 44 The Religion of the Veda arate works whose object, again, is to expound the combination of prayer and ritual at the sacrifice. Jrhe meaning of the word brahntana is not altogether jclear. Either it means " holy practice," or " religious Iperformance " in distinction from mantra, "holy utterance," or " religious text." Or, perhaps rather it means the theological explanation by Brahman priests of the religious ritual as a whole, including •both prayer and performance. As regards both contents and literary quality, the Brahmanas are closely analogous to the Hebrew Talmud. In the main they are bulky prose statements of the details of the great Vedic sacrifices, and their theological meaning. Both the performances and their explana- tion are treated in such a way, and spun out to such length, as to render these works on the whole monu- ments of tediousness and intrinsic stupidity. And yet the Brahmanas compel the student of Hinduism that comes to scoff to stay to pray. In the fi rst p lace they are important because they are written in ^connected prose — the earliest narrative prose in the entire field of Indo-European speech, only little less archaic than the prose formulas of the Yajur-Veda. ' They are especially important for syntax : in this respect they represent the old Hindu speech far better than the Rig- Veda, whose syntax and style ' See above, p. 33. The Veda 45 re distracted by the licenses and restrictions that go 'ith poetic form. Secondly, the Brahmanas are an Imost inexhaustible mine for the history of the icrifice, religious practices, and the institutions of riesthood. These institutions in time becanr e so ^stematic and formidable as to make the names Irahman and Brahmanism typical everywhere for riest and priesthood. Thirdly , the Brahmana texts ot only describe and expound the sacrifice, but^^ ley illustrate and enliven it by numerous stories nd legends. While engaged in expounding the ichnicalities of the ritual, they at the same me unconsciously supplement the poetic Vedas. "he Hebrew Talmud interrupts the hair-splitting, )gic-chopping expositions of its ritual Hallacha, y picking from time to time rare flowers from le garden of its Haggada, or legendary lore, "he Brahrnanas no less make drafts upon the past nd present of the great storehouse of myths and tories that India has cherished from the beginning f her time. The poetic value of many of these tories may be judged from the fact that they :main stock themes for the Hindu poets of later imes. Here we find, first of all, the story of the flood, ronderfully analogous to the flood legends of all 1/ Vestern Asia, and especially the account of the 46 The Religion of the Veda book of Genesis.' Many echoes are called up by the story of Cyavana the Bhargava who, old and decrepit as a ghost, is pelted with clods by the children of the neighborhood. Then he punishes their families by creating discord, so that " father fought with son, and brother with brother." Cyavana finally, through the help of the divine physicians, the Agvins, enters the fountain of youth {queckbro7m) and marries the lovely Sukanya." Like an oasis in the desert comes the ancient tale of Pururavas an UrvagI, whose mythic meaning has been much dis- puted or altogether denied." Already the Rig- Veda knows the story, and the Hindu master-poet Kali- dasa, perhaps a thousand years later, derives from it one of his loveliest dramas. It is a story which con- tains the same motif as the Undine, Melusine, and Lohengrin stories. A heavenly nymph (Apsaras.)i Urvjifl by name, loves and marries King Pururavas, but she abandons him again because he violates one of the conditions of this intrinsically ill-assorted ' See Eggeling's translation of the version of this legend in the (|)atap!itha Brahmana, Sacred Books 0/ the East, vol. xii., p. 21b ff. For the story of the flood in general see Usener, Die Siittjlutsagen (Bonn, 1899) ; Andree, Die Flutsagen (Brunswick, 1891) ; and Wintemitz in Mittheilungen der Antkropologischen Gesellschajt in Wien, vol. xxxi (1901), p. 305. ' ^atapatha Brahmana 4. I. 5. I ff. ' See, last, the author in Journal of the American Oriental Society, irol. XX., p. 180. The Veda 47 union. Not, however, through his own fault, but on account of a trick played him by the GandharvaSr a kind of heavenly " sports," the natural mates of the heavenly nymphs, the Apsarases. He must not be seen in a state of nudity by his wife. But on a certain occasion the Gandharvas cause lightning to play: she sees him and vanishes. Then PurQravas roams wailing through the land of the Kurus, until he comes to a lotus pond in which nymphs in the form -of swans disport themselves. One of them is Urvagl. They engage in a poetic dialogue which is preserved without the rest of the story as one of the hymns of the Rig- Veda (lo. 95). This finally relieves the intolerable situation. The Brahmana story tells : " Then she was sorry for him in her heart. And she spake : ' A year from to-day thou shalt come ; then thou may est tarry with me one night. Till then thy son whom I am bearing shall have been born.' And that night a year he returned. Behold there was a golden palace. Then they said to him, ' Enter here.' Then they sent Urva^I to him. And she spake : * To-morrow the Gandharvas will grant thee a wish ; choose one.* He said, ' Choose thou for me.' She advises him to say, 'I desire to become one cf you.* The next morning the Gandharvas grant him a wish. And he says, * I wish to become one of you.' " Then the Gandharvas teach him a particular fire- offering, by means of which a mortal may become a Gandharva; thus he becomes a fitting mate for 48 The Religion of the Veda Urvagl. Now the reason why this story is preserved is that the Brahmana text is engaged in describing this very fire-offering ; the story proves the magic of i;. this sacrifice which is, aye, powerful enough to turn a mortal into a demi-god. Here are a couple of short legends, crisp and clear- cut as cameos. They show that, just as the early gods of India are nature-gods, so the early legends are en- grossed with problems of nature and the world. The first of these snatches' may be entitled -, A Legend of the First Pair. " Yama and Yarn! (' the twins ') are the first man and woman. Yama died. The gods sought to console YamI for the death of Yama. When they asked her she said, ' To-day he hath died.' They said : ' In this way she will never forget him. Let us create night ! ' Day only at that time existed, not night. The gods created night. Then morrow came into being. Then she forgot him. Hence, they say, * Days and nights make men forget sorrow.' " The second legend ' may be entitled The Mountains as Winged Birds. "The mountains are the eldest children of Prajapati (the Creator). They were winged (birds). They kept flying forth and settling wherever they liked. At that • MaitrayanI Sanhita I. 5. 12. ' MaitrayanI Sanhita i. 10. 13. cf. Pischel, VediscKe Studien, i., 174 /■. The Veda 49 time this earth was unstable. (God) Indra cut o£f their wings. By means of the mountains he made firm the earth. The wings became clouds. Therefore these clo\ids ever hover about the mountains. For this is their place of origin." At the end of the Brahmanas appears a class of texts kno\'nn as Aranyakas, or "Forest Treatises." The meaning of this name is not altogether clear. It seems probable that these works were recited by hermits living in the forest, or, more precisely, those who went to the forest to live, at the time when thej- entered the third stage of Hindu life, preparatory to final emancipation.' According to another, less likely, view they are texts which were taught by teacher to pupil in the solitude of the forest, rather than in the profaner surroundings of the town or village : this because the quiet of the forest harmonised better with the sanctity of their con- tents. In either view it is difficult to see why so much ado should have been made about them. The Aranyakas are later than the Brahmanas ; this follows from the position they occupy at the end of these texts, and from their contents. On top of descriptions of sacrificial ceremonies we have here symbolism of the sacrifice and priestly philosophy_^of the most fantastic order. JThe real ritual perform. ' See below, p. 288. 4 50 The Religion of the Veda ance seems for the most part to be supplanted by allegorical disquisition. But the themes of the Aranyakas are by no means of one sort only ; on the contrary they are heterogeneous and haphazard. Thus the Taittirlya Aranyaka deals in its first book with the Arunaketuka Agni, a particular method of building the fire-altar; its second book makes the rather astounding leap over to Brahmanical educa- tion and Veda study; its third, fourth, and fifth books deal with parts of the Vedic sacrificial cere- monial ; and its sixth book describes the old Vedic funeral ceremonies {pitrmedha). Still more varie- gated are the contents of the Aitareya Aranyaka. What governs the choice of these " forest themes " escapes our notice almost altogether. In any case these books are of lesser importance from the point of view of Vedic literature and religion, except for the following fact, which is of paramount importance : The Aranyakas are symptomatic and transitional. The important symptom, if we understand the matter aright, is the subordination of the mere act of the sacrifice to its allegorical, or, as we might say, spiritual meaning. This suppression of the material side of the ritual bridges over to the last class of texts which the Veda has to offer along this line of evolution. They are the famous Upanishads, the early philosophical or theosophical texts of India, The Veda 51 which have become fateful for all subsequent higher Hindu thought. In these the ritual together with every other manifestation of the religion of works is negated, sometimes by cautious and delicate innu- endo, always by the inherent antagonism of the Upan- ishad themes. The older Upanishads are for the most part either imbedded in the Aranyakas or, more frequently, attached to the end of these texts. From very early times, therefore, they have the name Vedanta, " End of the Veda." ' End of the Veda they are, as regards their position in the re- dactions of the long line of the so-called revealed {grauta) texts, and as regards the time of their com- position. But they are the end of the Veda in a higher sense as well. They are the texts of the Veda's highest religion and philosophy. In particu- lar that system of Brahmanical philosophy which controls at the present time nearly all the higher thought of Brahmanical India bears the name Vedanta. And there is no important form of Hindu thought, heterodox Buddhism included, which is not rooted in the Upanishads. i^ The philosophic and religious quality of the Upanishads will occupy a good deal of our attention when we come to the higher religion of the Veda in the fifth and sixth lectures of this course. For the ' 5veta9vatara Upanishad 6. 22 ; Mundalta Upanishad 3. 2. 6. 52 The Religion of the Veda present we may content ourselves with some facts in the literary history of these extraordinary composi- tions. As regards their date we can say at least this much, that the older Upanishads antedate Buddha and Buddhism. The production of after-born Upan- ishads continued, however, many centuries after Buddhism, into very modern times. Next to the Rig- Veda the Upanishads are decidedly the most Important literary document of early India. For the history of religion they are even more important. In the year 1656 the Mogul (Mussalman) Prince Mohammed Dara Shukoh invited several Hindu Pandits from Benares to Delhi, and induced them to translate the Upanishads into Persian. Dara Shukoh was the oldest son of that Mogul Emperor Shah Jehan, who built at Agra, as a mausoleum for his favourite Sultana, the Taj Mahal, . perhaps the most beautiful edifice on earth. He was afterwards de- posed from the throne by another son of his, the bloody and powerful Emperor Aurengzeb. Dara Shukoh was a man of another sort. He was the spiritual follower of the famous liberal Emperor Akbar, and wrote a book intended to reconcile the religious doctrines of the Hindus and Mohammedans. Hence his extraordinary desire to spread the know- ledge of infidel writings. Three years after the accomplishment of the Upanishad translation he was The Veda 53 put to death (1659) by his brother Aurengzeb, on the ground that he was an infidel, dangerous to the established religion of the empire ; as a matter of fact, because he was the legitimate successor to the throne of Shah Jehan.' India, in more than one respect the land of origins, is also the country from which came the ^rst suggestions of a comparative study of religions. The Buddhist Emperor Aqoka, 250 years before Christ, had the spirit of perfect religious freedom. Emperor Akbar, Prince Dara Shukoh, and Raja Rammohun Roy are another trifolium of this sort. The last-named enlightened prince wrote in 1824 a book entitled Agqinst the Idolatry of all Religions; told the Hindus that caste divisions "are as destructive of national union as of. gocial enjoyment " ; expressed belief in the divine authority of Christ ; and yet confidently did* regard the Upanishads as the true source of the Tiigher religious life of the Hindus. This class of men are the advance guard of the modern scholars who study gentile religions in a spirit of sympathy and fairness. I would ask you to remember in this contifection my friend, the late Professor Max Miiller, one of the translators of the Upanishads — Moksharhulara', as ' See Elphinstone, History of India (edited by Cow.ell), p. 5lo • Max MUller, Sacred Books of the East, vol. ii, p. cvii. 54 The Religion of the Veda the Hindus called him during his latter days. It happens that moksha is the Sanskrit word for " sal- varion," and mUla means " root." To the Hindus his name means " Root-of-salvation," or, as we might say, with a different turn, " Salvation MuUer." I do not imagine that Miiller believed in the Hindu salvation, which is release from the chain of lives and deaths in the course of transmigration. But if freedom of mind partakes of the flavor of salvation, " Salvation MuUer " he was. Max Miiller's eminence as a scholar and writer is well known to you ; less generally well understood, perhaps, is the liberalising quality of his thought, which he exercised untiringly during more than half a century. Among Europeans he was pre-eminent for the spirit of sympathy and fairness which he brought to the study and criticism of Hindu religious thought. The Persian pronunciation of the word Upani- shad is Oupnekhat. It happened that the French- man Anquetil du Perron, the famous pioneer in the study of the Zoroastrian religion of the Parsis, was living in India in 1775. There he became interested in the Persian Oupnekhat, and later on made a Latin translation of Dara Shukho's version. This was published in Strassburg in two volumes (vol. i. in 1 80 1 ; vol. ii. in 1802). This translation proved eventful in the West. At that comparatively recent The Veda 55 time the Upanishads were yet unknown in Europe. Notwithstanding its double disguise, first the Persian, and next the Latin, Anquetil's Latin ren- dering proved to be the medium through which Schopenhauer became acquainted with the thought of the Upanishads. As is well known, Schopen- hajuer, who is the father of Western pessimism, was powerfully impregnated with their pantheistic, or, more precisely, monistic philosophy. His own sys- tem is really based upon conceptions that coincide in one way or another with the more detached teachings of the Upanishads. Schopenhauer used to have the Oupnekhat lie open upon his table, and was in the habit, before going to bed, of performing his devotions from its pages. His own estimate of the character of the Oupnekhat is preserved to us in the following statement : " Next to the original it is the most rewardful reading possible in the world. It has been the solace of my life ; it will be the solace of my death." Schopenhauer himself tells us the reason for his faith in the Upanishads. The fundamental thought of the Upanishads, he says, is what has at all times called forth the scoffing of fools and the unceasing meditation of the wise, namely, this doctrine of unity , the doctrine that all plu rality is only apparent ; tha t in all individuals ^ f this world, in whatsoever endless number they 56 The Religion of the Veda present themselves, one after another, and one be- side another, t here is mar|(fpsted one and thejame trug bein^ . Therefore the Upanishads are in his eyes the fruit of the profoundest insight that the world has ever seen ; almost superhuman thought, whose authors can scarcely be imagined to have been , mere men. Schopenhauer unquestionably caught with lynx- like perspicacity, through the murky medium of the Oupnekhat, the spirit of the Upanishads, which are now before us in many editions of their Sanskrit originals. It is what is known in philosophy as jTionism — the most uncompromising, perfervid monism that the world has ever seen. Nor is his estimate of the religious or philosophical quality of the Upanishads to be brushed aside lightly. Pro. fessor Deussen, one of the profoundest living students of Hindu philosophy, himself a trained philosopher, does not fall far behind Schopen- hauer when he says that the thought of the Upanishads has not its equal in India nor per- haps anywhere else in the world ; that to these thinkers came, if not the most scientific, yet the most int i mate and immediate insight into '^ the ultimate mystery of being. This is not far behind Schopenhauer's estimate ; both estimates reflect pretty nearly the position of the Hindus The Veda 57 themselves, who regard the Upanishads as divine revelation. With all due respect for these great thinkers, I believe that Sanskrit scholars in general incline to a soberer estimate of the Upanishads. With the Hindu view of revelation we need not quarrel. As to the question whether the Upanishads are inspired, we may safely intrust its decision to the broadening spirit of the conception of inspiration, which at the present time is everywhere in evidence in the world. More to the point is, that the Upanisha dgjr ontain in fact n o system of thought, though they did un- questionably inspire later Hindu systematic phi- losophy. We are often vexed with their unstable, contradictory, and partly foolish statements. The commanding thought of the Upanishads — monis m, or the doctrine of unity precedes the Upanishads in the Rig- Veda; unfortunately we do not know by how many years or centuries. Above all, we cannot and should not forget that underneath Upanishad thought, as underneath all advanced Hindu thought, is found the belief in transmigration of souls, a picturesque notion which to the very end retains the quality of folk-lore, rather than the quality of philosophy.' But to the Hindus of the Upanishads this belief is an axiom. After all, the prime interest ' See below, p 254. S8 The Religion of the Veda of the Upanishads is literary and historical. We are captivated by the quality of the endeavor more than by the quality of the thing accomplished. From the literary side the Upanishads captivate not because they are finished products — they are anything but that — but because they show great pov/er and originality as a kind of rhapsodic philo- ' sophic prose poems. From the point of view of the history of human thought, what entitles them to enduring respect is that they show us the human mind engaged in the most plucky and earnest search after truth — and let me add that this search is carried on in the sweetest of spirit, without fear of offending established interests, and entirely free from the zealotism that goes with a new intellectual era. But the Upanishads do not contain consummation. On the contrary, it is the dear, familiar, earnest human fight, doomed rather to disappointment, which very early Hindus here carry on, to find the secret of the world and the secret of self-conscious man in the hiddenmost folds of their own heart — that is what always holds attention, and that is the endearing quality of these texts. Therefore it is true that, wherever the spirit of the Upanishads has been carried there has sprung up genuine human sympathy, if not final intellectual consent. How this is so I shall hope The Veda 59 to show later, at the proper point in the development of the religion of the Veda. But for a good while we shall be occupied with more primitive religious forms, though even through these sounds from time to time, almost in the manner of a Wagnerian leitmotifs the clarion note of the leading Hindu idea. LECTURE THE SECOND. The Hieratic Religion. — ^The Pantheon of the Veda. Fundamental traits of early Vedic religion — False view of the nature of Vedic poetry — The Rig- Veda as sacrificial poetry — Difficulty of understanding the. ritual char- acter of the Rig- Veda — Poetry addressed to the Goddess Dawn — A hymn to the sacrifice post — The goddess Dawn as the symbol of liberality at the sacrifice — Some erroneous estimates of Goddess Dawn — Agni the son of "Baksheesh " — Practical purposes of Vedic poetry — The Rig-Veda contains the religion of the upper classes— The ritual of the Rig-Veda — The apri-hymns — Nature- worship the keynote of the Rig-Veda — India's climate and nature-worship — Vedic and Hellenic mythology compared — Arrested anthropomorphism — Definition of the word Pantheon as applied to the Vedti — Faulty classifications of the Vedic gods — Chronology of the gods — Diflerent degrees of certainty about the origin of the gods — Classification of the gods in these lectures. THE religion which is contained in the bulk of the so-called " revealed " {graufa) Vedic litera- ture, that is in the main body of the hymns of the Rig- Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda, and the Brahmanas, is a hieratic or priestly religion. As re- gards its mechanism, or its external practices, it is unmistakably liturgic or ritualistic. As regards its 60 The Hieratic Religion 6i immediate purpose, or its economic aspect, it is thorougHly utilitarian and practical. Its purpose is to secure happiness and success, health and long life for man, notably the rich man, while living upon the earth ; to secure to a very talented and thrifty class of priest-poets abundant rewards in return for their services in procuring for men this happiness, success, and so on ; to satisfy the divine powers, visible and invisible, beneficent and noxious, gods and demons, that is, to establish livable relations between gods and men ; and, finally, to secure after death the right to share the paradise of the gods in the company of the pious fathers that have gone there before. For a generation or two since the real beginnings of the study of the Veda, say fifty years ago, and endur- ing more faintly to the present day, the imagination of scholars thought it saw in the hymns of the Rig- Veda the earliest spontaneous outbursts of the prim- itive mind, face to face with the phenomena of nature. The poets of the Rig- Veda were supposed to be simple sons of nature. Awe-struck and reverent, they were supposed to be pondering, without ulterior motive of any kind, the meaning of day and night ; of dawn, sun, and moon ; of sky, thunder, and light- ning; of atmosphere and wind; of earth and fire. The Rig-Veda was the "Aryan Bible," containing the earliest flashes of the religious thought of awakening 62 The Religion of the Veda humanity. This stately gathering of more than thousand hymns was viewed as a historical collectio Just as the hymns were composed by poets, so tl collection and redaction of the Rig- Veda was su posed to have been undertaken by persons of litera taste and redactorial diligence, apparently in ord to save these precious monuments for the sesthet delight of posterity. One cannot now help wondering to what static in life might have belonged these early poets. I c; only think of rhapsodists from out of the peopl seized on occasion by the divine frenzy, perchan some village barber — old and semi-religious functio ary in the Hindu village — or some village Hans Sacl " shoe- maker and a poet too " as we may translate the German doggerel.' Unle: still less likely, Vedic poetry was the child the muse of some Raja's poet laureate, "giv to infinite tobacco," eager, as he took the i under one of those huge banyan-trees lar enough to hold a village, to bag some good si ject for the delectation of the court of his patrc Delightful as might be some such romantic a view the student of a literature that requires the devoti 1 " Hans Sachs war ein Schuh- Macher und Poetdazu." The Hieratic Religion 63 of a lifetime, it is not the correct view. My own fancy in the earlier days moved along these lines. I am not sure but what some such conception of Vedic literature, faulty as I now believe it to be, drew me into these studies more enticingly than could have the soberer view of ripening years. I shall endeavor later on to attach the right value to the poetry of the Vedic hymns in the abstract. I shall also show the way in which these poems ex- press a high quality of religious feeling on the part of their composers — Rishis, as they are called in the texts themselves. My endeavor shall not be to minimise the quality of these compositions, but rather to show that they contain the rudiments of a far higher species of thought than these early poets could have dreamt of; thought which in its way, and along its particular avenue, has become final for all time in India, and even outside of India. At present we are engaged with the more external charac- ter of the Rig- Veda — its epidermis, as we might say. The Rig- Veda collection served purely utilitarian purposes. It is in fact a prayer-book whose explana- tion ought not to be undertaken without reference to definite occasions and definite practices. The main body of the books of the Rig-Veda, the so-called fam- ily books,! represents in all probability the prayers ' See above, p. 27. 64 The Religion of the Veda of different priestly families on the same or similar occasions, or in connection with the same or similar sacrifices. The Vedic hymns are not quite described even if we designate them as sacrificial poetry. It is a little more than that : I cannot express it better than by saying, it is the sacrifice — to the gods of course — treated poetically. In other words these poems are incidental to the sacrifice. The Vedic poet rises in the early morning to a sacrificial day. The very first natural phenomenon he sees with his own eyes, the glorious maiden Dawn, is at once pressed into service. She trumpets forth, so to say, to the world that this is going to be a day of sacri- fice which shall result in wealth and comforts. The day goes on, being a mere scaffolding, or ladder upon whose rungs are placed offerings to the gods. Morn- ing, noon, and evening, tolerably definite gods get their regular allowance of offerings, and a very admi- rable kind of hymnal praise, namely the hymns of the Rig- Veda. As the gods come on, one after another, or in pairs, or in groups, they enter upon a stage. The stage is the sacrificial day. They are figures in a drama, more important collectively than singly. Take them singly, and I venture to say that even the Rig. Veda, as does the later ritual, begins to show most of them in the state of a sort of supernumera- ries on the stage of the sacrifice. India is nothing if The Hieratic Religion 65 not singular. We must not shrink from realising that the earliest Hindu poetry is not epic, nor lyric in the ordinary sense, not idyllic, nor didactic, but that it is almost throughout dominated by a single idea, name- ly, the praise of the gods in connection with the sacrifice. The sacrifice is the dominant note of Vedic j life, as far as it is revealed in these ancient documents. The chief acts of the people living this life, in so far as it is revealed by the literature are sacrificial; their chief thought the praise and conciliation of their gods at the sacrifice. The soma, the sacred drink, intoxicates the gods into heroism, or the rich melted butter, or ghee {ghrta), that is poured into the willing fire, fattens them into contentment. Especially the soma is ever present, in express statement or by im- plication. So much so that in a technical sense at least the Rig- Veda religion may be designated as a religion of j^;««practices. But the hymns are dithyrambic, often turgid and intentionally mystic. It requires at times pretty sharp sight to see, and a clear head to remember, that this poetry hugs the sacrifice closely ; that at the bottom of the golden liquid of inspiration there are always the residual dregs of a supposedly useful formalism. In fact the poets, as their fancy flies away from their immediate purpose, succeed un- commonly well in withdrawing the eye from the 5 66 The Religion of the Veda trivial real properties of the sacrifice to the luminous gods whom they praise so well. The most beautiful hymns of the Rig- Veda are addressed to Ushas or Aurora, the maiden Dawn, the Goddess Dawn, the daughter of Dyaush Pitar — {Zevs TtaTTfp), Father Heaven — Homer's Rose-finger Eos. A poet sings her ecstatically : " We have crossed to the other side of darkness, Gleaming Aurora hath prepared the way. Delightful as the rhythm of poem,' she smiles and shines, To happiness her beauteous face aroused us." (Rig-Veda i. 92. 6.) We feel that we ""^e going to be held willing cap- tive.s of a primitive Shelley or Keats, until we are sobered by another stanza of the same hymn (stanza 5): " Her bright sheen hath snown itself to us; She spreads, and strikes the black dire gloom. As one paints the sacrificial post at the sacrifice, So hath Heaven's daughter put on her brilliance." What a comparison ! The petty sacrificial post {svarti), destined to hold fast an animal victim, gaudily ornamented with paint — it is described tech- nically as having a knob for a head, along with sundry other barbaric beauties — brings us down with a thud from heaven to the mockeries of the ' The expression ehdndo nd here and at 8. 7. 36 is to be rendered so, or simply " like a poem." There is no occasion for an adjectival stem chdnda in the sense of "singer," or the like, as the lexicons The Hieratic Religion 67 sacrifice. Our good friend the poet is after all a monger in technical rites who cannot, even in the moment of his inspiration, quite forget his trade. Lest we think that just this particular poet has nodded for a moment, another hymn repeats the, to us, offensive comparison : " The bright Dawns have risen in the East, Like sacrifice posts uplifted at the sacrifice. Luminous, pure, and clear, they have unbarred The portals of the stable of darkness." (Rig-Veda 4. 51. 2.) We may turn this about the other way and prove the example. Just as it is possible for a brilliant poet of the Rig- Veda to institute comparisons be- tween glorious Dawn and the tawdry sacrifice post, so it is possible for another poet to consider the sacrifice post as a subject fit for high poetic treat- ment. We are accustomed to make allowance for symbolism in connection with articles belonging to ritual, but I question whether the poets of any other land have ever turned their talents to such curious use : Rig-Veda 3.8. I. " God-serving men, O sovereign of the forest! ' With heavenly mead at sacrifice anoint thee. ' That is, the tree from which the sacrifice post is made. 68 The Religion of the Veda Grant wealth to us when thou art standing upright, Ai^d when reposing on this Mother's ' bosom ! 2. " Set up in front of the enkindled fire, Accepting tireless prayer, that brings strong sons, Driving far from us away all noisome sickness, Lift thyself up to bring us great good fortune! 4. " Well-robed, enveloped, he is come, the youthful ; Springing to life his glory waxeth greater. Contemplative in mind and god-adoring. Sages of wise intellect upraise him. 9, " Like swans that fly in ordered line Have come the pillars gay in brilliant colors. They, lifted up on high by sages, eastward. Go forth as gods to the gods' dwelling-places. 10. " These posts upon the earth, with ornate knobs, Seem to the eye like horns of horned cattle. Upraised by priests with rival invocations, Let them assist us in the rush of battle ! 11. " Lord of the world, rise with a hundred branches — With thousand branches rmywe rise to greatness — Thou whom this hatchet with an edge well whetted For great felicity hath brought before us ! " I am reminded here of the tense struggle in which my friend the late Professor Max Miiller was engaged with an epithet of Ushas, quite startling, I admit, at first sight. The same beautiful Daughter of Heaven, > Mother Earth. The Hieratic Religion 69 in another hymn, is called Dakshina. Now the word dahh'nd means "sacrificial fee," or, in plainer words, it is the baksheesh of the priests at the sacrifice. But it did not seem tolerable to Mailer's poetic mind that a poet might degrade so charming a theme by such a comparison : " Up the shining strands of Dawn have risen, Like unto glittering waves of water ! All paths prepareth she that they be easily traversed ; Liberal goddess, kind, she hath become baksheesh." (Rig- Veda 64. 6. 1.) The word which I have just rendered by " liberal goddess " ( vtaghonl)is the very one that is used con- stantly and technically for the patron of the sacrifice {maghavan), the immediate source from which fllovir all the fees of the sacrifice. In its feminine form {maghoni) it is used almost solely as an epithet of Dawn. Here it is, cheek by jowl with dakshina. Ushas is the patroness of the sacrifice ; she is herself the sacrifice fee, because she heralds or ushers in the sacrificial day^ alter the darkness of the night, when both liberal and stingy are asleep. If I could get myself to suspect one of these ancient Rishis of hu- mor, I should say that there was a touch of humor — anyhow it is unconscious humor — in the I See Rig- Veda 7. 78. 3, where the Dawns are said to beget the Sun, the sacrifice, and Agni : ajijanan suryain yajiiam agnim. 70 The Religion of the Veda following appeal to Ushas : " Arouse, O Ushas, liberal goddess, them that give; the niggards shall sleep unawakened ! " ' That is to say, what is the use of waking the stingy man, he is not going to give us any- thing anyhow. Another stanza states this even more emphatically : " O shining Dawns, ye liberal god- desses, do ye to-day suggest to the rich that they shall give bounty ! Let the stingy, unawakened, sleep in the depths of obscure darkness ! " The very first hymn in the Rig- Veda that is ad- dressed to Ushas presents in its opening strain the ritual, serving, economic goddess, in an inextricable tangle with the poetic divinity. Almost do we feel that economic advantage and aesthetic delight are much the same thing to the soul of such a poet : " With pleasant things for us, O Ushas, Shine forth, O Daughter of Heaven, With great and brilliant wealth, of which, O luminous goddess, thou art the giver ! " (Rig-Veda i. 68. i.) And immediately after, in the next stanza, the significant words, " Arouse thou the benevolence of our patrons ! " And so another time,' " To these nobles give thou glory and fine sons, O patroness Dawn, to them that have given us gifts that are not ' Rig- Veda i. 124. 10. » Rig- Veda 4. 51. 3. ' Rig- Veda 5. 79. 6. The Hieratic Religion 71 shabby ! " And once again, • " God after god urge thou on to favor us ; make all pleasant things come our way ; and, as thou shinest forth, create in us the inspiration that leads to gain ! " That is to say, make our poetry so clever that it shall not fail to stimulate the liberality of the patron of the sacrifice ! We can now understand the tour de force of the poet-priest who, when he sings of Dawn, is anxious above all that the main issue shall not be neglected. Therefore he blurts out his crassest thought first, afflicts the goddess with the doubtfully honorable title baksheesh, and then settles down to a very nice appreciation of his poetic opportunity : " Baksheesh's roomy chariot hath been harnessed, And the immortal gods have mounted on it, The friendly Dawn, wide-spread, from out of darkness Has risen up to care for the abode of mortals. " The mighty goddess arose before all the creatures. She wins the booty and always conquers riches; The Dawn looks forth, young and reviving ever. She came the first here to our morning offering." (Rig-Veda i. 123. i, 2.) I think my hearers will understand that it is not necessary to regard the word dakshind, with Professor Max Miiller, as a vague honorific adjective of Dawn, in the sense of " clever," or the like.* Nor need we « Rig-Veda 7. 79. 5. ' See his Auld Lattg Syne, Second Series, p. 223^. 72 The Religion of the Veda in this instance to go to the school of the late great French interpreter of the Rig- Veda, Abel Bergaigne, who, in a fashion quite his own, transports too many of the events in the earthly life of the Vedic Hindu to heaven. He sees clearly enough that dakshind means " sacrifice fee," and nothing else, but opines that Dawn is called dakshind because she is the gift of heaven bestowed upon pious men as a recompense for their piety.' This is all too roundabout, and unnecessary, and un-Vedic. Still less can we assent to the statement of another very sane and enlight- ened critic of the Vedas, Professor Oldenberg, who declares that " the hymns to Dawn waft to us the poetry of the early morn ; that they steer clear of the mystic sophistries of sacrifice technique ; and that they have a charm that is wanting in the sac- rificial hymns proper." ' Professor Oldenberg takes the usual view of this interesting goddess. I would advocate precisely the opposite view, namely, that the hymns to Dawn, their many intrinsic beauties to the contrary notwithstanding, represent the first, the keenest, so to speak, the least tired sacrificial mood of these poet-priests as they enter upon the absorbing business of the day ; and that never has the battledoor and shuttlecock of really fine poetic « La Religion Vldique, vol. i., p. 127^. ' Die Religion des Veda, p. 237. The Hieratic Religion 73 Inspiration aild plain self-engrossed human neediness been played so frankly and undisguisedly by poet — who must first live and afterwards compose poetry. Once more I must tax your patience and return to Dawn's epithet dakshind, or "baksheesh." In Rig-Veda 3. 58. i Dawn, under the name of Dak- shina is called the Daughter of Heaven, and Agni, the God of Fire, is called the Son of Dakshina.' What is really meant is, that Agni is the son of Dawn. We have here a double ritual touch which becomes clear only through deep sympathy with the economy of the sacrifice. Why should Agni, " Fire," be the son of Dawn? Is it that Dawn means "light," and light is fire? That would be the far-fetched poetic derivation; I wish to accuse no scholar of having made it. Poetically we think of fire espe- cially as an evening phenomenon, not as a phenome- non of the sober morning. I doubt whether the farmer, as he splits kindling for the breakfast fire of a cold winter morning, cheers himself with the poetic thought that the breakfast fire is the son of Dawn. Our farmers are not temperamentally inclined that way. But it is another matter with the sac- rificer who must beautify and beatify all his acts, and throw into them a dash of cajolery. The fact is that the god Agni is also a prized and much^extoUed divinity of the morning, because the first act of the 74 The Religion of the Veda sacral day is to kindle the fire that shall convey the oblations to the other gods. This is so familiar a fact of Vedic religion as to require no illustration. The truly significant thing is, that it creates a theme in the poetic treatment of the sacrifice, namely: Agni is the son of Dawn, because immediately after Goddess Dawn is beheld God Fire is kindled. In a beautiful hymn to God Savitar, the motive or promotive power behind the sun, the doings of the early morn are described in real poetry : " Weaving Night hath folded up her woof. In the midst of her performance wise Savitar suspends her work. He riseth from his couch and sets the seasons, With fitting plan God Savitar hath come hither." " The scattered homes and all life The mighty flame of household fire pervadeth. The largest share the Mother has decreed unto her Son; To do his own desire god Savitar hath sped hither." (Rig-Veda 2. 38. 4, 5.) Let us not, by any means, imagine that the Mother here is the unselfish human mother who sees to It that her boy Devadatta, or whatever his name may be, has a substantial breakfast. No, it is the Mother Dawn whose Son Agni would as a matter of fact get the largest share anyway, because all obla- tions are poured into the fire. We must, I think, The Hieratic Religion 75 acknowledge that never has sacrifice had such genuine poetry to serve it. But the reverse of the coin is, that never has poetic endowment strayed so far from wholesome theme as to fritter itself away upon the ancient hocus-pocus of the fire-priest and medicine-man. Of course, what finally saves this poetry from banality is the presence in it of those same, luminous gods whose brilliance is obscured but not extinguished by such childish treatment. _Weare jiow_b.etter prepared to bear up under the statement that Vedic religion is from the very first moment practical and utilitarian, and thaJ:_th£Vedic people, to begin with, practise their religion for what there is in it. The Rig-Veda with its worship of the great nature-gods represents from the start a form of worship very similar, though apparently neither as extensive nor as formal and rigid as the later technical ritual of the Yajur-Vedas and the Brahmanas, The poetry of the Rig- Veda is in the main also really dull and mechanical, but we have seen that, in good part, it is leavened by true beauty of conception, fineness of observation, and all the circumstances of literary composition which we of modern times are accustomed to see at work with its eyes shut — or half shut — to practical considera- tions. We must not be misled by these mental defects of the Vedic poets into an exaggeratedly 76 The Religion of the Veda pessimistic view of their entire activity. A great diplomatist, upon whom depends the destiny of his country, may be shrewd, unscrupulous, Machiavel- lian, velvet as to glove, iron as to hand, and yet be a real patriot. Even so a priestly religion of works, trivial as these works may appear to our eyes, does not shut out spiritual elevation. Nor does practical poetry shut out entirely the more silent workings of literary taste and poetic inspiration. The Vedic poets themselves insist upon it, their poems are "well-hewn," "well-fashioned as a war-chariot from the hands of a skilled artisan." And so they are in many cases: if we cut out the foolish sacrifice, and pare down a pretty thick crust of conventionalism, there is left in the Vedic hymns enough of beauty and character to secure them a place in the world's literature. Forget but the string that ties the- thought of the Vedic Rishis to the sacrificial post, and j'ou shall see that thought flit far away to great heights, where birds do not fly.' For the time being, at least, it becomes what we call inspired, and, any- how, it breeds the germs that shall flower out to great things in future days, when Hindu thought finally emancipates itself from sacrifice along with many other trivialities of life. The religion of the Rig-Veda, much like the later ' Rig-Veda, i. 155. 5. The Hieratic Religion ^^ hieratic religion of the Yajur-Veda and the Brah- manas, is the religion of the upper classes. Even to this day only rich Brahmanical Hindus are in the position to perform Vedic sacrifices. So it was in olden times. The popular religion, the religion of the poor, or of the modest householder, with its humble rites, and its even more childish reliance upon sorcery and the medicine-man, runs from the start side by side with the hieratic religion. It is the religion of the Atharva-Veda and the so-called "House-books."' It happens to lie outside of the scope of these lectures, though I have for my part been drawn on by its simple yet tense humanity to the publication of several volumes.' The religion of the Rig- Veda presupposes an established house- hold of considerable extent ; a wealthy and liberal Jiouseholder ; elaborate and expensive materials ; and many priests not at all shamefaced about their fees. In fact the body of the Rig- Veda presupposes the ordinary form of the soma sacrifice which extends through an entire day, in the manner of the so-called jyoiishtoma of the later ceremonial. Or, rather, it is largely a collection of the hymns composed by vari- ' See above p. 41. ° For general information on this literature see my book The Atharva- Veda (Strassburg, 1899 ). 78 The Religion of the Veda ous priest families for this important sacrifice. The soma drink is pressed three times daily : morning, noon, and evening. The gods of the Vedic Pantheon are all interested in these ceremonies ; each has a fairly definite share in them. Indra, the god who figures more frequently than any other, has part in all three pressings ; but the mid-day pressing belongs to him exclusively. Ushas, the Maiden Dawn, and Agni, God Fire, play, as we have seen, a very important part in the morning. The Adityas ' and Ribhus, the latter a sort of clever-handed elves, appear upon the scene in the evening. A host of hymns are addressed to pairs of divinities whose coupling is not always based upon any special natural affinity between them, but upon purely liturgic association: Indra and Agni, Indra and Varuna, Agni and Soma, and so on. One important class of hymns, the so-called dprl- hymns, that is, " songs of invitation," consist of individual stanzas which invoke certain divinities and personifications of acts and utensils, prelimin- ary to the sacrifice of cattle at the soma rites.' God Fire (Agni) is especially called upon under different, ' See below, p. 129. 'Sets Max MQller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 463 ff\ Roth, Ydska's Nirukla, p. xxxvi ff; Weber, Indische Studiin, X. 89/"; Grassmann, 7'rowj/a/jo/i of the Rig-Veda, vol. i., p. 6; 'BeTzH'^gtic, Journal Aiiatique, 1879, p. 17. The Hieratic Religion 79 partly mystic designations; of sacrificial articles, the sacred straw upon which the priests are seated, the doors of the enclosure within which the offering takes place, and the sacrificial post to which the animal is tied have a stanza each in every one of the ten fl/n-hymns. These sets of invocations are purely liturgical; each set belongs to a different family of Rishis or " seers." In general, each of the so-called " family books " of the Rig- Veda has its dpri-hymn. A peculiar odor of sancity, solemnity, and family pride must have attached itself to these formulas. In later times, when the hymns of the Rig-Veda are taken in lump, and employed at the great sacrifices with but very slight reference to the particular priest family from which they are sup- posed to have been derived, the choice of the dprt- hymns is still made according to family. The ritual books at that time still order that the sacrificer must choose that dpri-hymn which was composed in the family of the Rishi from whom he would fain derive his descent.' It seems likely, therefore and for other reasons, that each family book of the Rig- Veda was intended for essentially the same class of practices, carried on according to different family traditions, and to the accompaniment of different < See (^ankhayana^rautasutra 5. 16 ; A9valayana ^rautasutra 3. 2 ; Lityayana Qrautasutra 6. 7. 8o The Religion of the Veda hymns, somewhat in the manner of the later Ve- dic schools or branches {qdkha) of one and the same Veda. Large numbers of technical, ritualistic words and expressions crowd the pages of the Rig- Veda. Its metres are finished and conventional to a very high degree ; they are also, to some extent, distributed among the gods, so that a given metre is associated especially with a certain god. For instance, the gdyatrl is the metre of the god Agni ; the trishtubh the metre of the god Indra. They are also distributed to some extent according to the time of the day : the gdyatrl in the morning, the trishtubh at noon, the jagati at evening. Above all, the advanced character of the Rig- Veda's ritual manifests itself in the large number of different designations for priests. These occur not only singly, but in series : the names of these priests are largely, though not entirely, the names of the priests of the later ceremonial.' And yet the poetry of the Rig- Veda is, in a deeper sense, original. It is primitive religious poetry, if by primitive we mean uninterrupted contact with the last source of its inspiration. The final judg- ment of its character, after all, depends not so much 'Sec Hillebrandt, Kituallitteratur, p. II ff, and the literature cited on p. 17 of the same work. The Hieratic Religion 8i upon the economic motives, or the all-around per- sonal character of its authors as upon the extent and quality of their mental vision. To treat sacri- ficial themes in the high poetic way seems to most of us hollow mockery. But we must not forget that such performances, to some extent, continue the pious ways of the fathers ; that the acts in part sym- bolise real religious feeling; and that most religions have a trick of throwing a poetic and sentimental glamor around practices that are trivial intrinsically. Then the difference of standards in a semi-bar- barous time, such as the time of the Rig- Veda, must count for something. After all that I have said to forefend what may be called a padded or swollen estimate of Rig- Veda poetry and religion, both the poetry and the religion are of singular interest and importance. In its essence the Rig- Veda is not lit- urgy but mythology. Its priest-poets, in their heart of hearts, are not mere technicians, but tense ob- servers of the great facts and acts of nature, and worshippers of the powers whom they fancy at work in nature. In fact they are both poets and philoso- phers. There is in this matter some real cause for surprise. We must not forget the long, almost in- definite past of Hindu mythology and religion. I shall endeavor to make this clear in the next lect- ure when we come to deal with the reconstructions 6 82 The Religion of the Veda of comparative mythology. There was plenty of time for all nature-worship to have stiffened into mere admiration, fear, and adulation of personal gods, accompanied inevitably by a more or less com- plete forgetfulness of the forces in nature from which sprang the gods. That this was not so is due, in my opinion, to the vast impressiveness of India's nature. Its fiercely glowing sun, its terrible yet life- giving monsoons, the snow-mountain giants of the north, and its bewilderingly profuse vegetation could hardly fail to keep obtruding themselves as a reve- lation of the powers of the already existing gods. What is still more important, it could hardly fail to stimulate the creation of new nature-gods to a de- gree unknown elsewhere. It is this unforgetting adherence to nature that has made the Vedic hymns the training-school of the Science of Mythology, and to a large extent also of the Science of Religion. Deprived of the hymns of the Rig- Veda, we should hardly know to this day that mythology is the first and fundamental adjustment of the individual hu- man life to the outer active, interfering, dynamic world, which surrounds and influences man from the moment when he opens his eyes upon the wonders of its unexplained phenomena. In this sense Vedic mythology is in its day what empirical science is in our day. The Hieratic Religion 83 We can realise this to some extent by calling up another mythology, that of the Greeks. This is also based upon nature, but nature is soon forgotten, or, if not entirely forgotten, much obscured by after-born movements. Owing to a curious slip, fortunate from the artistic side, unfortunate from the religious and mythical side, Greek mythology fell too completely into the hands of the people. I Poets, artists, and even philosophers handle it, each in their own way. But there is a notable absence of those Rishis of the Veda who, with all their too human sordidness and all their Hindu fancifulness, see the great realities of the world with their eyes wide open, and work their way slowly but with secure touch from the single and separate manifesta- tions of nature in the Rig- Veda to the absolute One Being which is nature as a whole, that is the idea of unity as finally settled in the Upanishads. The finest flower of Greek mythology, great Zeus, of whom Hesiod says, TtavTa idcov ocpdaXfiOS xal ndvra vorjaas, "The eye of Zeus which sees all and knows all," or of whom the old Orphic hymn sings, Zevs apx^, Zevs ixeaaa^ Jiog d^sx navra rirvKTat, " Zeus is the beginning, Zeus is the middle, on Zeus all is founded," is at the same time the flippant, breezy Jove to whom the poets ascribe foibles and vices barely excusable in a modern bon-vivant 84 The Religion of the Veda and man about town. Too finished personification causes the break-down of Greek mythology even from the artistic side. The same poets in whom we praise above all aversion to everything excessive or monstrous, those Greek poets who in general fancy and say just enough, but not too much, run a close race with the most extravagant fancies of semi-civil- ised peoples in the description of their primeval gods. Uranos was maimed by his own son, Kronos ; Kronos, the unnatural son, is also an unnatural father. For he swallows his own children, and, after years of tentative but unsuccessful digestion, vomits forth the whole brood. Fair Phoebus Apollo hangs Marsyas on a tree and flays him alive. Homicide without end, parricide and murder of children are the stock events of their mythology. No wonder that Plato banished even the Homeric poems from his ideal republic. And Epicurus had to say : " The gods are indeed, but they are not as many believe them to be. Not he is an infidel who denies the gods of the many, but he that fastens upon the gods the opinions of the many." Nothing so much as the complete humanisation of Greek mythology paved the way for the rapid spread of that Shemitic religion, deeply ethical in its teachings, Judaeo- Christianity, among the Indo-European peoples. You may remember how skilfully Kingsley's novel, The Hieratic Religion 85 Hypatia pictures Greek religion when it confronts in final struggle, already in the throes of death, the growing belief of the future, as still the Homeric theology ; that is, crude anthropomorphism, dashed with occasional but troubled visions of better things. The real rivals of Christianity in the cen- turies after Christ were Persian forms of religion : Mithraism and Manicheism. Of Mithraism Ernest Renan once said that if the world had not been Christianised it would have been Mithraised; and Manicheism, dualistic, exhaustively Gnostic, with its superb colouring and its appealing asceticism, proved for a time an even more dangerous rival of Christianity. We know from the history of the later classical Sanskrit literature that India's climate and physio- graphy have kept her poets in touch with nature to a degree unknown elsewhere, until we come to the modern nature poets. Even so, the transparency of the Vedic Pantheon as a whole remains surprising. This results in what we may call arrested personifi- cation, or arrested anthropomorphism, and this is the very genius of Vedic religion, and more especially of the religion of the Rig- Veda. Nothing so much as this has enabled the early Hindu thinkers to think out anew, a second and a third time, what had been apparently settled to everybody's final satisfaction, 86 » The Religion of the Veda and was beginning to enter upon a career of rigma- role. Thus the Rig- Veda says of God Savitar, the sun conceived as the promoter of hfe : " God Savitar, approaching on the dark blue sky, sustaining mortals and immortals, comes on his golden chariot, beholding all the worlds.'" It is the fiery ball that rises from the sea or over the hills, nothing more in the first place. The ordinary way of mythology would be to make of this Savitar a wonderful chari- oteer, given over, say, to racing or to warlike deeds. Instead, this process is, as I say, arrested. The natural phenomenon remains the repository of re- newed and deepening thought. Even in the Rig- Veda itself the conception of the sun makes great onward strides as the most prominent symbol of the ultimate force at work in the universe. An- other stanza, speaking of Surya, another sun-god, says, " The sun is the Self or Soul of all that moves or stands.'" And yet another, the fam- ous so-called Savitrl, or Gayatrl, which remains sacro-sanct at all times, and is recited daily even noyir by every orthodox Hindu, ' again turns to Savitar : ' Rig- Veda i. 35. 2. ' Rig-Veda i. 115. 1. 'See Monier Williams, Transactions of the Fifth International Congress of Orientalists, vol. ii., p. 163 _^, The Hieratic Religion 87 " That lovely glory of Savitar, The heavenly god, we contemplate : Our pious thoughts he shall promote."' Here is almost the first touch of that inimita- ble combination of the Upanishads, the Atman, "breath," and the Brahma, " holy thought," that is the combination of physical and spiritual force into one pantheistic all. As a modern Hindu says of the Savitrf : ' " It is of course impossible to say what the author of the Sivitrl had in view, but his Indian commentators, both ancient and modern, are as one in believing that he rose from nature up to nature's God, and adored that sublime luminary which is visible only to the eye of reason, and not the planet we daily see in its course." KatySyana in his Index to the Rig- Veda, the so-called Anu- kramanl, after stating the familiar classification of all the gods of the Veda into three types — Agni (fire and light on earth), Vayu (air or wind in the atmo- sphere), and Surya (sun in the sky) — proceeds still farther to assert that there is only one deity, namely, the " Great Self," {mahdn dtmd), and " some say that he is the sun {silrya) or that the sun is he." This is, of course, later thought, Upan- * Rig-Veda 3. 62. 10. ' Rajendralalamitra in the Introduction to his Edition of the Gopa- tha Brdhmana, p. 24. 88 The Religion of the Veda ishad thought, as it appears, for instance, in the Taittirlya Upanishad (8. 8) : " He who dwells in man and he who dwells in the sun are one and the same." But this later thought is founded on the repeated revision, so to say, of the concep- tions of the sun, fed anew by the sight of this engrossing nature force, which is not obscured and not made trivial by personification into an Olympian, human god. But we shall return to this all-important matter when we come to the highest outcome of Vedjc fall- en. It is now time to take a look at the individual gods of the Veda, or what we may call the VedicT Pantheon. THE PANTHEON OF THE VEDA. At the outset we may observe that this word ap- plies to the Vedic gods only in an analogical sense. There is no Pantheon in the Veda, if by Pantheon we mean an Olympus patterned after a more or less snobbish conception of a royal household, in which every god holds his position and exacts sensitive respect from all the others as the price of his own observance of court proprieties. The Vedic gods have no acknowledged head. They group them- selves to some extent according to their characters ; for instance, as sun-gods, or storm-gods. As such The Pantheon of the Veda 89 they have more or less definite habitations. In the time of the great Epic, the Mahabharata, no one knows how many hundreds of years later, they really do manage to foregather in the heaven of one of them, namely, Indra's heaven. They begin to take rank: Ijadra..fi.rst, Agnis_econd,and so on. With that comes a little, very little, of those roseate poetic and plastic possibilities which the poets and artists of all ages have read into the finishedly human Greek Olympus. We have seen enough of our theme to know that many gods of the Veda are scarcely more than half persons, their other half being an active force of nature. Such material is not yet ripe even for a Hindu Olympus. The mind of the Vedic poet is the rationalistic mind of the ruminating philosopher, rather than the artistic mind which reproduces the finished product. It is en- gaged too much in reasoning about and constantly altering the wavering shapes of the gods, so that these remain to the end of Vedic time too uncertain in outHne, too fluid in substance for the modelling hand of the artist. @n a pinch we could imagine a statue of the most material of the Vedic gods, Indra ; but it is hard to imagine a statue of the god Varuna. As a matter of fact there is no record of Vedic ikons, or Vedic temples. In all these senses there is no Vedic Pantheon. 90 The Religion of the Veda e>* It would seem possible to present the Vedic gods in the order of their importance, but many are equally, or nearly equally, important. We find nearly a dozen of them engaged in creating the world, and rather more than a dozen engaged in pro- ducing the sun, placing it on the sky, or preparing a path for it ; under these circumstances it is not easy to rank them.' The gods have not all of them come into existence at the same time. Some belong to Indo-European times ; others to Indo-Iranian times. Of the rest some come from an earlier, some from a later period of the Veda. If we had all the dates we might try a chronological arrange- ment pure and simple, but we do not have all the dates. A celebrated ancient Hindu glossographer a.id etymologer of the name of Yaska reports three lists, respectively of 32, 36, and 31 gods, or semi-divine beings.' The last of these seems to begin to tell us in what succession the Vedic gods appear on the stage day by day, especially in the morning.' He be- gins well with the A5vins, or " Horsemen " (the Vedic Dioscuri),* Ushas, the Goddess Dawn, and Surya, ' See Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. 15. 'Nighantu 5. 4-6. *C/. Nirukta 12. i. Brhaddevata 2.Tff. *See below, p. 112. The Pantheon of the Veda 91 the " Sun-Maiden." ' Soon, however, he grows prob- lematic, or dunder-headed, with Vrishakapayl, Sar- anyu, Tvashtar, and so on. Many years' occupation with the writings of this worthy, whose sense and erudition are valued much by the Hindus, as well as by Western scholars, have not increased my belief in his authority, or decreased my faith in the infi- nite possibilities of his ineptitude. Still this proces- sion of the gods along the hours of the day has great interest for the Vedic ritual and the explanation of the gods themselves. Touches of it appear in the hymns themselves, as when the Rig-Veda' groups very neatly the gods of the morning : "Agni awoke upon the earth, and Sflrya riseth; Broad gleaming Dawn hath shone in brilliance. The Afvins twain have yoked their car to travel. God Savitar hath roused the world in every place." There is another, more permanent traditional Hindu division of the gods which arranges them in three classes, mostly of eleven each, according to their place or habitat in nature or the cosmos, that is, in sky, mid-air, and earth. The classification is first made in Rig- Veda i. 139. 11 : to some extent it remains good ever after. This topography of nature has a strong hold on the early religion : times without ' See below, p. 112. » I. 157. !• 92 The Religion of the Veda end the later Vedic texts insist that Agni, " Fire " belongs to, or is typical of the earth ; Vata or Vayu, "Wind,"of the mid-air, and SQrya, " Sun," of the sky.' So far it is the philosophy of the obvious. They continue cleverly along that line in the following arrangement. I state only the more important members of each class : Celestial gods: Dyaus or Dyaush Pitar ("Sky" or " Father Sky "), Varuna, Mitra, Surya and the Adit^s, Savitar, Pushan, Vishnu, Ushas, and the Agvins." Atmospheric gods : Vata or Vayu (" Wind") Indra, Parjanya, Rudra, and the Maruts. Terrestrial gods: Prithivl ("Earth"), Agni, and Soma. This threefold division, in order to be consistent, would have to be carried on to the end, so as to in- clude all the gods. As a matter of fact it is uncertain in many places, even when carried no farther. We are not so certain as are the Hindus that Indra, for instance, is a god of the mid-air,' even though we must admire this, on the whole successful, apprecia- tion of the place in nature that belongs to a goodly proportion of the chief gods. ' Cf. Brihaddevata I. 5 /"• ' See the index at the end of this book for these and most of the following gods. ' See below, p. 173, The Pantheon of the Veda 93 There are yet other possibilities which need not be mentioned, because we shall not follow their lead. Our own course, doubtless open to some objection, will be eclectic. We shall call up the more important Vedic gods under such various points of view as will bring out some one salient quality— which does not say that they may not have other qualities of great interest. Thus the chronological element must re- main immensely important. The chronology of the gods must influence to some extent our judgment of this ancient religion of the Veda. The old prehistoric gods that have been imported by the Aryas into India, no matter how much they have been Hindu- ised, will necessarily have characteristics of their own. ^ Next come the gods which have been coined in hot haste out of the phenomena of nature in a glow- ing subtropical climate, or have been imbued anew with the vitality of India's imposing nature. These have not had time to forget their own origin — they I are, as I have called them, the gods of arrested per- 1 Bonification or arrested anthropomorphism. They are the beacon lights of Vedic religion, of Compara- tive Mythology, and of the Science of Religion. They are the rare guides and philosophers on this labyrinthine and rocky road ; they have made the Veda the training-school of the study of religion. .Since they show in a given number of cases just what 94 The Religion of the Veda has taken place, they point the way when the light becomes hazy. Again, it is still as true as ever that a large number of the gods, whether early or late, are nature-gods whose origin, we regret to say, has been somewhat obscured by later processes. They again make up for the student of the Veda a class, the most impor- tant as well as the most difficult theme of investiga- tion. Every nation's mythology must contain gods of this class. They bring with them problems that will never be dismissed until they are finally answered — and that, paradoxically, may never be. I have in mind gods like Varuna, Indra, and the A^vins. To some Vedic scholars it seems without doubt begging the question to speak of nature-gods in cases when we do not know for certain what was the natural object that was personified. No one can say at this time that the origin of either Varuna, Indra, or the Agvins has been definitely settled. Yet, for my part I confess to that faith, because I remember that such uncertainty represents in truth the normal result of mythologic development. As a rule, a nature-god does not remain transparent for ever: the opposite happens far more frequently, as may be seen, again and again, in Hellenic or Teutonic mythology. Really durable myths are, as a rule, mixed myths, and, therefore, more or less obscure myths. A cer- The Pantheon of the Veda 95 tain amount of the complications and entanglements of human life must be imported into mythology be- fore it becomes mythology. Otherwise it remains philosophy, primitive cosmic philosophy, or primitive empirical natural science. Let me paraphrase a statement made some years ago in a learned journal.' Mythological investigation must draw a sharp line between the primary attri- butes of a mythic personage which are the cause of the personification, and the attributes and events which are assigned to him or her, and are supposed to happen after the personification had been com- pleted. Zeus, as we all know, originally meant "sky," and Zeus pater was the personified " Father Sky," contrasted with " Mother Earth." But it would be foolish to search for these primary qualities of Zeus or the other Greek gods in a play of Euripides, where the gods are afflicted with all the passions and weak- nesses of mortal men. Yet he who refuses to myth- ologise on the basis of Euripides' treatment need not therefore be sceptical about the naturalistic origin of most of the Greek gods ; he may be willing at the right time, and in the right stage of the history of any myth, to point out the physical factors or the phys- ical events which gave it a start. But to be pres- ent at the right time, that is not always so easy. ' Journal of the American Oriental Society, ■ All explanations have been subjected to searching criticism by Professor Hillebrandt in the third volume of his great work on Fet/ic Mythology, p. 379^- » In Greek mythology also the Dioscuri are placed in the relation jf sons to a mother, namely, Antiope of Boeotia. The Prehistoric Gods 1 1 7 quarian will ignore such parallels as shows the story of the two "Sons of Heaven " with the Hin- dus, the Greeks, and the Letts," or be so abstemious as to refrain from looking for reasonable motives for the creation of a myth that has so marked a physiognomy. In brief, once more, there are two luminous sons of heaven, conceived as horsemen, and as helpers of men in all kinds of sore straits. They are in loving relation with another, feminine, heavenly divinity conceived as a " Sun-Maiden," or " Daughter of the Sun." This relation is crossed by another affair be- tween the " Sun-Maiden " and the Moon. To concep- tions of this sort the Indo-Europeans, before their separation into the peoples of historical times, had advanced. The changes and additions to the myth are not surprising ; surprising is, that the myth should have retained its chief features during great peri- ods of time, in very various surroundings, and under the constant pressure of a Hood of remodelling ideas poured out upon it by the fertile mind of man, and tending constantly to obliterate the more primitive and simple fancies. I have dwelt before upon the almost romantic in- terest which attaches itself to the relationship of the > For possible traces of the same riyth among the Teutons see De la Saussaye, The Religion of the Teutons, pp. 68 and 140^. 1 1 8 The Religion of the Veda two peoples, the Hindus and the Iranians.' Separated only by a chain of mountains, they are entirely un- conscious of the close relationship of their languages, literatures, and religions. Nowhere in the Veda is there the slightest knowledge of the Avesta ; nowhere is the Avesta conscious that there is going on across the Himalaya Mountains in India an intense and char- acteristic religious development which started with a good many of the same primitive beliefs as were ab- sorbed by the religion of Zoroaster, As time went by the religions of the two peoples became about as differ- ent as it is possible for religions of civilised peoples to be. On the one side, Parsism or Zoroastrianism, mold- ed by the mind of a single prophet, Zarathushtra, or Zoroaster: a dualistic religion, believing in God and Satan ; an ethical, optimistic, but at the bottom really unphilsophical religion ; yet sufficient, as the modern Parsis show, to guide a people into a very superior form of life. On the other side, higher Hinduism, monistic, pessimistic, and speculative ; without real leadership, except that which is present in the own spirit of each individual bent upon finding the way out of a hated round of existences through a keen conviction that there is only one fundamental truth, '^the Brahma in the universe and in one's self; that, consequently, this world of things is illusory, ' See above, p. 13 The Prehistoric Gods 119 and must be discarded in order to release from existence. But these two religions began at approximately the same point, and they continue with enough of the same materials to make the study of each in some measure dependent upon the other. We are here concerned with the Vedic side only. A very con- siderable number of important Vedic divinities, religious conceptions, and sacred institutions belong to this common Aryan period.' Their sphere is en- larged, their meaning better defined, and their chro- nology shifted across long periods of time, if we keep our eye on the Avesta. Of course we must not neg- lect to allow for the process of recoining which these ideas have passed through in India. In a certain sense every prehistoric religious idea that has man- aged to survive and to emerge in India has become Hindu ; not the least fascinating part of these re- searches is to show just how the spirit of India na- tionalises or individualises the ideas that were born on a different soil. Two spheres of Vedic ideas and practices concern us here in a particular degree. The first is the sphere of the great Vedic god Varuna, his dual partner ' See, Spiegel Die Arisc/ie PerMey'DaTmesteUeT, Sacred Books of the East, iv., p. Ivi,^; Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, pp. 2b ff,, 341 ff\ Hillebrandt, Rituallitteratur, p. 11, and the bibliographic notes there given; Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. iff. 1 20 The Religion of tne Veda Mitra, and a set of gods known as Adityas, to whom belong both Varuna and Mitra. Varuna, unquestion- ably the most imposing god of the Rig- Veda, is in charge of the moral law or order of the universe, that rta which, we have seen, dates at least as far back as 1600 B.C. The second sphere is that of the plant soma, which is pressed artfully so as to yield an intox- icating liquor that is accepted joyfully by the Vedic gods as their tipple. It was pressed first by a mythic first man of the name of Yama, and by his divine father Vivasvant. Yama has a sister Yaml, the first pair, who unconventionally people the world. Vivas- vant, " the shining one," is the father of Yama, the final progenitor who carries this familiar chain of logic to an end. He is, in all probability, either the "fire," or the "sun"; or, mixedly, "the sun, the divine fire." In each of these spheres Vedic mythology presents itself in its most brilliant aspects. We shall deal with them in the order stated. In common with most scholars I believe that the god Varuna is to be connected, if not identified, with the chief good and wise god of the Zoroastrian faith, namely Ahura Mazda, or Ormazd, that is " Wise Lord." Varuna carries the title Asura, " Lord," the same word as Ahura ; this, however, must not be held to say too much, because other gods of the Veda are honoured with the same dis- The Prehistoric Gods 121 tinguishin^i itle. But Varuna is a close partner in a partner . .p which is expressed in the dual number. It consists of himself and the god Mitra, who is, however, little more than a silent partner in the com- bination. Such partnerships are frequent in the Veda, but exceedingly rare in the Persian Avesta. Yet the Avesta, in a matter-of-fact manner, joins Ahura and Mithra in the same dual partnership as the Veda does Varuna and Mitra.' Since Ahura is the paramount divinity of the Avesta his pairing with Mithra has every appearance of a fossil, left over from a time when Ahura's supremacy had not yet become absolute, in other words, from a time when Ahura and Mithra were on a par of dignity. It seems to me an almost unimaginable feat of scepticism to doubt the original identity of the two , pairs, Ahura figures, however, by himself also. Again, it seems unlikely that Ahura Mazda, when mentioned by himself, is not the same Ahura that appears in the. combination Ahura and Mithra, be- cause Ahura Mazda, taken by himself, is so very like Varuna, the Vedic partner of Mitra. In the Zoroas- trian system Ahura Mazda orders the world, and assigns to all good creatures and entities their re- spective places and activities. Ahura creates the divine order {as/ia), the good waters and plants, ' See Spiegel, Die .srische PerioJe, p. 185 jf. 122 The Religion of the Veda light, earth, and all that is good. He was the first progenitor, the first father of divine order. He made a way for the sun and the stars. It is he that causes the moon to grow or wane.' As guardian of divine order Ahura is not to be deceived, does not sleep ; he sees all human deeds, overt or covert." The Veda describes Varuna in the same spirit, at times in almost the same words. He is the sup- porter of beings ; he has spread the atmosphere over the forests ; has put fleetness into the steed, and milk into the cows. He has placed intelligence into the heart, fire into the waters, the sun upon the sky, the soma-plant upon the mountains. He has opened a path for the sun ; the floods of the rivers hasten seaward like racers obeying the divine order.' Even more pointed than Ahura's is the expression of Varuna's omniscience and undeceivableness : he sees all the past and all the future ; he is present as a third wherever two men secretly scheme ; his spies do not close their eyes. The hymn Atharva-Veda 4. 16 presents a rugged picture o' Varuna in his r61e of omniscient and omnipotent god : ' Yasna 37. i ; 44. 3. ' Yasna 31. 13 ; 43. 6 ; 45. 4 ; Vendidad 19-20. Cf. Oldenberg in Journal of the German Oriental Society, \o\. 1, p. 48. • Rig. Veda 5. 85. 2 ; 87. I ; 8. 41. 5. The Prehistoric Gods 123 " The great guardian among these gods sees as if from anear. He that thinketh he is moving stealthily — all this the gods know. " Whoso stands, walks, or sneaks about, and whoso goes slinking off, whoso runs to cover ; — if two sit to- gether and scheme. King Varuna is there as the third and knows it. " Both this earth here belongs to King Varuna and also yonder broad sky, whose bounds are far away. The two oceans are Varuna's loins ; yea, in this petty drop of water is he hidden. "Whoso should flee beyond the heavens far away would yet not be free from King Varuna. From the sky his spies come hither ; with a thousand eyes they do watch over the earth. " All this King Varuna does behold — what is between the two firmaments, what beyond. Numbered of him are the winkings of men's eyes. As a (winning) gamester^ puts down the dice, thus does he establish these (laws)." Another hymn. Rig- Veda 7. 86, depicts Varuna as guardian of moral order, hence angry at the mis- deeds of men. The contrite attitude of his suppli- ant, a singer of the family of the Vasishthas, the authors of the seventh book of the Rig- Veda, has a strong Hebraic flavor, and, like the preceding hymn, suggests many a passage of the Psalms: 124 The Religion of the Veda I. "Wise, truly, and great is his own nature, Who held asunder spacious earth and heaven- He pressed the sky, the broad and lofty, upward, Aye, spread the stars, and spread the earth out broadly. 2, " With my own self I hold communion : How shall I ever with Varuna find refuge? Will he without a grudge accept my offering ? When may I joyous look and find him gracious ? " Fain to discover this my sin, I question, I go to those who know, and ask of them. The self-same story they all in concert tell me ; ' God Varuna it is whom thou hast angered.' 4- " What was my chief offence, O Varuna, That thou wouldst slay thy friend who sings thy praises? Tell me, infallible Lord, of noble nature, That I may be prompt to quench thy wrath with homage ! 5. " Loose us from sins committed by our fathers. From all those, too, which we ourselves committed ! Loose us, as thieves are loosed that lifted cattle ; As from a calf, take off Vasishtha's fetters ! The Prehistoric Gods 125 6. " 'T was not my own sense, Varuna ! 'T was deception, 'T was scant thought, strong drink, or dice, or passion. The old are there to lead astray the younger. Nay, sleep itself provokes unrighteous actions. 7- " Let me do service to the merciful giver. The zealous god, like a slave, but sinless ! The gracious god gave wisdom to the foolish, He leads the wise, himself more wise, to riches. 8. " May this our song, O Varuna, we pray thee. Reach to thy heart, O god of lofty nature ! On home and work do thou bestow well-being ; Protect us, gods, for evermore with blessings!" We are accustomed to make much allowance for general similarities in the conceptions of the gods of different peoples, but it is scarcely possible that they should reach so far. '' The connection that exists be- tween Ahura Mazda and Varuna is expressed, how- ever, not only through their general similarity as supreme arbiters of the world and its moral law. That very particular conception, which dignifies alike Veda and Avesta, namely, Vedic rta, Avestan asha {areta), ciTid Cuneiform Persian arta, is, of course, not entirely put in the keep of those two gods. But 1 26 The Religion of the Veda it is theirs in an especial degree. '' One of the most interesting parallels between Veda and Avesta is that both gods are described as the " spring of the rta, or righteousness." Varuna is khd rtasya (Rig- Veda 2. 28. S) ; Ahura Mazda ashahe khdo, (Yasna 10. 4). The words are sound for sound the same. The high thought of the rta is in many ways similar to the Confucian idea of order, harmony, and ab- sence of disturbance. It is unquestionably the best conception that has been elaborated by the Aryans. We have seen ' that it reaches back at least to 1600 B.C., and yet, notwithstanding its early date, it is superior to any of the earlier conceptions of the remaining Indo-European peoples. As far as the Veda is concerned, it presents itself under the (threefold aspect of cosmic order, correct and fitting I cult of the gods, and moral conduct of man.' We have in connection with the rta a pretty complete System of Ethics, a- kind of Counsel of Perfection. As the basis of cosmic order the rta rules the world and nature. The established facts of the visible world, but especially the events of nature that recur periodically, are fixed or regulated by rta. Those ' Above, p. 12, 'The same threefold character is quite evident in the Avestan asha. See Mills Journal of the American Otiental Society, vol. XX., pp. 31 /•. 277 /■- The Prehistoric Gods 127 daughters of heaven, the Maidens Dawn, shine upon the morning sky in harmony with rta, or when they wake up in the morning they rise from the seat oirta. The sun is placed upon the sky in obedience to the rta. He is called the wheel of rta with twelve spokes. This means that he courses across the sky as the year of twelve months. Even the shallow mystery that the red, raw cow yields white, cooked milk is " the rta of the cow guided by the rta."^ The gods them- selves are born of the rta or in the rta {rtajdtd) ; they show by their acts that they know the rta, observe the rta, and love the rta? The religion of the Veda, as we have observed, rests upon the material foundation of cult and sacrifice. These performances are not always regarded merely as merchandise wherewith to traffic for the blessings of the gods. They begin to evolve intrinsic virtues and harmonies. In a later time, the time of the Yajur- Vedas, as we have seen,' the technical acts of the sacrifice are imbued with magic and divine power. But even in the Rig- Veda the sacrifice fire is kindled under the " yoking of the rta" or, as we should say, under the auspices of world order. Agni, the god of ' " O sage mir, wie geht es zu, debt weisse milch die rote Kuh ? " German nursery rhyme. ' rtajiia, rtdyu, rtasap, and so on. 'Above, p. 31. 128 The Religion of the Veda fire, is " scion of the rta" or " first-born of the rta^ He performs his work with rta, carries oblations to the gods " on the path of rta" Prayers, lowing like cattle, " longing for the soina-Anx^V" take effect in accordance with rta^ A figure of speech, bold to the point of grotesqueness, turns prayer into "r/a- fluid, distilled by the tongue."" Holy sacrifice, in distinction from foul magic, is performed with rta : " I call upon the gods, undefiled by witchcraft. With rta I perform my work, carry out my thought." Thus exclaims a poetic mind conscious of its own rectitude.' Finally in man's activity the rta manifests itself as the moral law. Here it takes by the hand the closely kindred idea of truth, satya. Untruth, on the other hand, is anrta, more rarely asatya, the same two words with prefix of negation. The two words satya and anrta form a close dual compound, " truth and lie," "sincerity and falsehood," both zealously watched over by God Varuna.* They remain the standard words for these twin opposites for all Hindu time. Varuna is the real trustee of the rta. When God Agni struggles towards the rta he is said in a remarkable passage to become for the time being God Varuna.' ' Rig. Veda 9. 94. 2. ' Ibid., 9. 75. 2, « Ibid. , 7. 34. 8. * Ibid. , 7. 49. 3. » Hid., 10. 8. 5. The Prehistoric Gods 129 Truth and lie include, by an easy transition, right and wrong-doing. In a famous hymn' YamI (Eve) invites Yama (Adam) to incestuous intercourse. Mythically speaking this is, of course, unavoidable : they are the first pair, and there are no other human beings whatsoever. But the poet conceives of the situation in the spirit of his own time. When Yarn! pretends to justify the act Yama exclaims pithily: " In saying the rta we shall really say the anrta" which, rendered more broadly, means to say : " When we pretend to justify tlxe act as being rta, 'right- doing,' we really shall knowingly engage in anrta, ' wrong-doing.' " We may imagine Yama finally saying: " Anyhow, don't let us beat the devil about the stump ! " Varuna and Mitra, the dual pair, are impHcated still further in a group of divinities of the name dditya. The number of these gods is very uncer- tain. Sometimes it is three : Mitra and Varuna, with Aryaman as third. This third god, no less than the first two, is Indo-Iranian: the name of Aryaman's Avestan counterpart is Airyama. The name of this not too determinate god seems to mean " comrade "; accordingly Aryaman figures in the Veda as the typical groomsman at the wedding rites. Beyond this triad the name dditya becomes very indefinite, • Rig- Veda lo. lo. 9 1 30 The Religion of the Veda both as to number and the individuals which it is supposed to harbor. As regards number, the god Indra sometimes swells the three to four. Then there is seven, a favourite and vague number; to this the legendary Martanda' (Indra) is at times added as eighth. In later times the number rises to twelve. Not more than six are ever mentioned by name out- right in the Veda: Bhaga, Daksha, and An9a in addition to the three mentioned above. Bhaga, " Fortune," is not only Indo-Iranian, but even Indo- European, as we have seen.' Anga, " Portion," " Ap- portioner," is a very faint abstraction. And so is Daksha, "Dexterity," "Cleverness." Now the Veda conceives of the Adityas as the descendants of a feminine Aditi who cuts a consid- erable figure as a very abstract female, suggesting the ideas of " freedom from fetters," " freedom from guilt," "boundlessness," and "universe." She is finally identified in the Hindu mind with " earth." A father who might be responsible for the offspring of this interesting lady is never mentioned. We are struck first of all with the fact that Aditi, the mother, a purely Hindu product, is obviously younger than her own sons, the best of whom are at least as old as the Indo-Iranian period. I have, for my part little ' See Macdonell, VeJic Mythology, p. 43. * Above, p. 109. The Prehistoric Gods " 131 doubt but what Aditi is a well-executed abstraction of some kind. In the past I have suggested ' that the word dditya meant originally "of yore," and that this set of antique gods whose most substantial members are prehistoric were thus fitly named " gods of yore " or " gods of old," We may perhaps con- trast with this the description of Indra as " later born" {anujdvara), in a legend told in Taittirlya Brahmana (2. 2. 10). From the word ddiiya,conce{w&6. as a metronymic, the feminine Aditi might be easily abstracted. If this is well taken we must assume that the Veda had forgotten the meaning of dditya in the sense of " of yore." This was necessarily the case before some speculative genius might invent the mother Aditi. Another explanation, that of Professor Macdonell,' has perhaps the advantage of greater simplicity. He starts from the expression aditeh putrdh,vi\i\ch. is applied several times to the Adityas. This, he thinks, may have meant origi. nally " sons of freedom," perhaps better " sons of guiltlessness " ; such an expression may have led to the personification of Aditi as a female mother of Adityas. At all events Aditi may be safely re garded as later drippings from the very sappy ' See my essay. The Symbolic Gods, in Studies in Honor of B.L. GilJersluve, p. 45. ' Vedic Mythology, p, 122. 132 The Religion of the Veda myth of Varuna and the Adityas. The interpre tation of Aditi as " boundlessness," or " universe,' sits very well upon an assumed mother of thes( great gods. Aditi is later defined as " earth," i narrowing of her scope, somewhat as we of th< modern languages make synonymous the term; "world "and "earth."' The mythic cycle represented by Mitra-Mithra anc Varuna-Ahura is important for early Vedic reli gion, and, more permanently, for the whole historj of Persian religion. There is no chapter of Aryar religion and mythology that has stimulated th( instinct of ultimate interpretation more persist ently than this very one. I am of those who can not imagine any cessation of these attempts for anj great length of time. The one solid point in the genesis of these myths is the solar character o: the Aryan Mitra. In later Persian the word mithrc in the form mihir is the name of the sun. As pre viously stated,' this solar Mithras passed, in th< centuries after Christ, out of the bounds of Per sia and started upon a career of conquest whicl threatened at one time to subject all Westerr civilisation. ' See the author in Zeitsehrift der Deutsthen Morgenldndischet Gesellschaft, xlviii,, 552, note ; Macdonell, Vcdic Mythology, p. 125 * Above, p. 85. The Prehistoric Gods 133 Now what is the natural origin of that other partner in the dual partnership, namely, Vedic Va- runa the Asura, Avestan Ahura Mazda ? Not very many years ago Professor Oldenberg advanced and defended ingeniously the hypothesis ' that Varunais the Moon, and this theory he did not hesitate to follow to a very logical conclusion. Mitra and Varuna are Sun and Moon. They are members, as we have seen, in a group of gods called Adityas. Oldenberg chooses, perhaps a little hastily, the number seven as the sum total of this group." Simi- larly in the Avesta, Ahura is accompanied by the so- called " Immortal Holy Ones," the Amesha Spents, the angels of the Puritan Zoroastrian faith. They also make up the number seven. Mithra, we may note, is altogether absent from the Avestan arrange- ment. Now Oldenberg believes not only that Varuna and Mitra were the Moon and the Sun, but that the Adityas, essentially identical with the Amesha Spents, were the planets. He assumes still further that the whole set, originally, were not Indo- European divinities at all, but that they were bor- rowed by the Aryans from a Shemitic people — presumably the Babylonians — far enough advanced ' See his latest treatment of the matter in Zcitschrift der Deut- schen Morgenldndischen Gesellschaft, vol. 1., p. ^%ff. ' See above, p. 129. 1 34 The Religion of Veda in astronomical knowledge to. observe the interrela- tions of sun, moon, and the planets. The Adityas and the Amesha Spents have been compared often, perhaps over-confidently. It is not necessary, in order to feel unconvinced by Professor Oldenberg's chain of consequences, to deny a certain nebulous cluster of ancillary or subsidiary divinities which hovered about the persons of the supreme Indo-Iranian twin-gods Ahura-Mithra, Varuna- Mitra. As a matter of fact the Amesha Spents are not the Adityas. I do not believe that the Adityas, indefinite in number and gradual in their develop- ment in India, represent that cluster, or even its very gradual Hindu substitutes. Several Adityas, notably Mitra, Bhaga, and Aryaman recur in the Avesta, but are not listed as Amesha Spents. Either Macdonell's or my own hypothesis ' as to the origin of the Adityas presupposes that their origin as a class of gods is gradual and secondary. The Amesha Spents, on the other hand, are sheer abstractions. I confess that there is not in me the faith to see in them anything as concrete as personified planets. The mere names of the " Immortal Holy Ones " show what I mean. They are : Vohu Manah, " Good Mind "; Asha Vahishta, " Best Righteousness "; Khshathra Vairya, "Wished-for Kingdom," or ' See above, p. 131. The Prehistoric Gods 135 " Good Kingdom "; Spenta Armaiti, " Holy Har- mony"; Haurvatat, "Soundness," "Health"; and Ameretat, "Immortality." It is a beautiful, heavenly hierarchy, but it is unmythological, non-naturalistic to the bone. If anywhere, then here is the place where sprang up purely symbolic gods in the man- ner of the symbolic creations in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. As for the Shemitic source of this deified solar system. Professor Oldenberg, if I understand him aright, is in part led thereto by the striking ethical character which is manifested by the gods of this group at so early a period of Indo-European history as is the common period of Persia and India. He thinks that the Shemites preceded the Indo-Euro- peans in the evolution of ethical concepts, and that the ethical coloring of the Ahura-Varuna myth came along with the divinities themselves. But, as I have shown, we find the chief Aryan ethical concept, the rta, safely imbedded in the Persian dynastic Arta-names that are reported in the Cunei- form Tel-el-Amarna tablets, 1600 years B.C. Now that date lies far back of the period from which Pro- fessor Oldenberg would deduce his results. I should prefer to judge that the wide prevalence of this idea at a very early date shows rather that some, if not all, Indo-Europeans had advanced in ethical 136 The Religion of the Veda perception at an earlier date than has hitherto been suspected, at a date when the Shemites had not as yet evolved any ethical ideas of quite as fine a flavor as the rta. Professor Oldenberg is not the only scholar to whom Varuna has suggested the moon. Yet I think that this interpretation, when taken outside of that hypothesis which involves the entire solar system, has not very much in its favor beyond the close dualic connection of Varuna with Mitra, the sun. I confess, moreover, that I am not quite willing to listen to any interpretation of this god which leaves out in the cold Greek Ovpavo?. There has been some phonetic scepticism about the equation varunas=ovpavos vih.\ch.t\m& has not justified. Greek ovpavos is Indo-European 7wru-nnos or uoru-enos; Sanskrit varunas is Indo-European uoru-nos. The two forms differ no more than, for instance, Vedic mltanas and niltnas, " recent," or Greek GTsyavos and areyvos, " covered." Here is a situation met with quite often in this kind of inquiry. The interpre- tation of the myth is, as usual, not quite certain. Few interpretations of advanced myths are quite certain. Next, the etymology, like that of many etymologies of mythic proper names, likewise brings with it no bonded guaranty. The next step is, that they who do not believe in the interpre- The Prehistoric Gods 137 tation are prone to belittle the etymology. But there is little gain in pooh-poohing an etymol- ogy which will not stay pooh-poohed. The time will never be when any interpretation that disre- gards this obvious comparison will pass current free from perplexity and misgivings. All settle- ments that do not regard it will be temporary and doomed in the end to be repudiated. It would seem to me that we must accept this im- portant etymology, and submit to its guidance. It shows that Varuna belongs not only to the Indo- Iranian (Aryan) time, but reaches back to the Indo-European time, and that he represents, on the impeccable testimony of ovpavos, some aspect of the heavens, probably the encompassing sky, in accordance with the stem Tioru which is its essential element. Rig-Veda 8. 41. 3 states that Varuna, the distinguished god, embraces the all, and Rig- Veda I. 50. 6 states that Mitra (the sun) is the eye of Varuna. The dualism of Heaven and its eye, the sun, is not less well taken than the dualism sun and moon. Into the gusty discussion which has grown up in a particular degree around this point of interpreta- tion I would lead my hearers no farther. There is perhaps not a single point in the comparative study of this most important sphere of Aryan religion which 1 38 The Religion of the Veda is lifted entirely above doubt. I have endeavored to give a conservative estimate of -the varying inter- pretations, as free from fanciful exaggeration of the probabilities as it is from unwholesome scepticism. We may now turn to the second great sphere of Indo-Iranian mythology. It deals with the first men and sacrificers, and the soma-Viquor, the most distinguished sacrifice to the gods. One of the duties of primitive man as he grows f into the irksome habit of looking for the reason of things is to find a reason for himself. He does not f^take himself for granted, but assumes that he orig- inated from something or other. This is as a rule not as easy as it is in the myth of Deucalion. All that he had to do was to throw stones, the bones of Mother Earth, behind him, and, behold, there were men. The abstract benevolent Divinity turning himself into a creative Father God is not always at hand; he does not on the whole represent a very primitive form of thought, certainly not in India. An important and widespread conception, partly religious in character, is Totemism. This is founded on the belief that the human race, or, more fre- quently, that given clans and families derive their descent from animals: totemic names like "Bear" and " Wolf " carry traces of this sort of belief into our time. This particular question is a splendid The Prehistoric Gods 139 theme of universal ethnology, but I have never been able to discover that it has any considerable bearing upon the ancient religion of India. The many hints at its possible importance should be substantiated by a larger and clearer body of facts than seems at present available.' We have met previously the greatest parents of them all : Heaven and Earth. Their union was con- ceived in early Indo-European times as the fruitful source of the heavenly gods. Occasionally they shoulder the additional responsibility for the human race as well. In the Indo-Iranian period there was a personage, Vedic Vivasvant, Avestan Vivanhvant, who figures rather paradoxically as the father of the first men, Yama and Manu. He is, as the Vedic texts state distinctly and intelligently, the Sun con- ceived as the Father of men." God Agni, " Fire," is occasionally regarded as the progenitor of men.' There is in this some vague symbolic connection with the process of obtaining fire by friction. This is the Vedic process : the two sticks which are rubbed are conceived as parents ; Agni is their child, the first progeny, and, next, possibly, the first man. Certainly the epithet dyu, " living," is used, on a large scale, ' Cf. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, p. 68 ff. ' See Hillebrandt, Vedische Mythologie, vol. i., p. 488 _^. ' Rig-Veda 1.96.2; 10.53.6. 140 The Religion of the Veda of fire and man alike. It continues, or seems to con- tinue, a sense of the relationship of Agni and man. " Now the Veda discloses, and all Hindu tradition harps upon, a father of the human race by the name . of Manu, or Manush Pitar, " Father Manu." The word manu is nothing else than our own word " man ": there is good reason to believe that this " original man " was set up as a kind of Adam or Noah in Indo- European times.' For a while the primitive mind seems to be well content with this eponymous man : later on, as I shall presently show, Manu is in his turn duly furnished with a well-established father, Vivasvant, about whose origin people have ceased to worry. From a later time, yet still a very early time, namely, the Indo-Iranian period, comes the Vedic myth of Yama, the son of Vivasvant. This myth is the clearest and best-preserved common piece of property of the two religions. As to the component ideas of this myth I see no room for doubt. Yama means "twin." He is the male of the obligatory twin pair that is required to people the world in real earnest. The female YamI, little as is said about her in the earlier parts of the myth, plays Eve to Yama's ' See Bergaigne, La Religion Vedique, vol. i., p. 59^- ' Compare Tacitus, Gerinania, chapter 2 : " They [the Germans] honor Tuisto, a god who has sprung from the earth, and his son Mannus, as the originators and founders of the race." The Prehistoric Gods 141 Adam. She is, however, not Yama's bone, but his independent, self-poised sister. As a truthful histo- rian I have been compelled^to record that YamI, like Eve, was the prime mover in the nefarious but ne- cessary act of peopling the world. Both Manu and Yama are primarily nothing but first men. Yama's father Vivasvant is probably pri- marily the sun, whose divine character is, however, at that time quite completely forgotten : old as is this affiliation it is probably not original, because the first twins, Yama and YamI, are in reality an attempt to beg the question of the origin of the human race al- together. The descent of man from the sun represents another start towards solving the difKculty ; of course this conception must and does blend with the Yama pair. In the same way Manu begins quite early to adopt Vivasvant for his father, and he remains so for all time. The myths begin to interlace very much, and to sprout shoots in unexpected directions. A famous pair of riddle-stanzas. Rig- Veda 10. 17. i and 2, expand the theme in an interesting fashion, ac- cording to an interpretation which I have pro- posed': it is worth while to present it as an extreme example of the blend of original mythic roots into a real myth : Tvashtar, the creator, ofTers his daughter SaranyQ ' Journal of the American Oriental Society, xv., V]2jf, 142 The Religion of the Veda in marriage to the whole world of gods and mortals. The suitor who gains favor is Vivasvant, conceived as a mortal Saranyu, barely wedded, is displeased with Vivasvant and flees ; not, however, until she had given birth to the twins Yama and Yaml. This marriage, you perceive, provides the twins with a mother, whereas they have previously had only a father. In order to make sure her Escape, she changes into a mare and flees to the gods, who hide her away from her mortal family, Vivasvant, Yama, and YamL The gods, in order to make matters still more safe, construct another female, called Sa- varna, who is to take Saranyu's place in Vivasvant's affections. The word savarnd means " of like char- acter " ; it trickily states that the new female was at one and the same time like Saranyu in appearance, and also suitable in character to the mortal Vivas- vant — more suitable than the divine Saranyu, we may perhaps understand. Vivasvant begets Manu with the Savarna, and thus Manu comes into pos- session both of a father and mother. Ultimately Vivasvant finds out the deception practised upon him, follows Saranyu in the shape of a horse,' and thus gaining her favor, begets with her the A9vins, " the Horsemen " or Dioscuri. SaranyQ abandons them also, just as she has previously • Cf. the classical Pasiphae myth. The Prehistoric Gods 143 abandoned the twins Yama and Yaml, and resumes, we may understand, her independent station as a divinity. The final outcome of these mythic entanglements are two progenitors of the human race : Yama the son of Vivasvant, and Mann the son of Vivasvant. They remind us in a way of Adam and Noah, especially as Manu is the hero of the Hindu flood- legend, which is astonishingly like the account of the book of Genesis. Vivasvant and his double pro- geny all of them are endowed for a good while with purely human qualities. According as the profane or sacred interest preponderates these first, and, of course, great men become kings or great sacrificers of yore. Manu is the typical first sacrifices The later sacrificer of the time of the Veda, as he performs on his sacrificial place, fancies himself a Manu, doing like Manu {manusvat), in the house of Manu. In the Avesta Vivanhvant is the first mortal who pressed the drink haoma {soma) in behalf of the corporeal world. His son Yima and his descendants continued to do so, but Yima turns rather into a worldly ruler, the king of a golden age, in which there is nor old age nor death ; nor heat nor cold ; nor want nor disease. He becomes the leading Epic personality in later Persian times. In the Avesta he is called" Ruler Yima," Yima Khshaeta ; this ex- 144 The Religion of the Veda pression turns in later Persian into Djemshed, the •well-known hero of the Persian Epic, the Shah Natneh, or Book of Kings; the name is now familiar to Western readers as the interlocutor in Omar Khayyam's Rubayat. The myth takes another, even more important turn in the Veda. Yama is the first mortal king who died and found for the race of men a heaven where they may rejoice in the company of the pious dead, especially those pious archpriests of mythical antiquity, the Angiras. He is the first of mortals who died and went forth to this heaven ' : " Where is Vivasvant's son, the king, where is heaven's firm abode, where are yonder flowing waters, there let me live immortal.'" "He (Yama) went before and found a dwelling from which no power can shut us out. Our fathers of old have travelled the path: it leads every earth-born mortal thither. There, in the midst of the highest heaven, beams unfading light, and eternal waters flow ; there every wish is fulfilled on the rich meadows of Yama, " "These blessed have left behind them the de- crepitude of their bodies; they are not lame nor crooked of limb." ' ' Atharva-Veda 1 8. 3. 13. 'Rig-Veda 9. 113. 8. 'Atharva-Veda 3. 28. 5; 6, 120. 3. The Prehistoric Gods 145 Yet this same Yama, such is the terror of death, becomes in due time the Hindu Pluto, god of hell and judge of the wicked. Which shows how impor- tant is the special and national treatment of myths, and how constant is the disregard of what may be called the radical beginnings of myths. From Yama of the golden age of man to dread Yama, the destroyer of the bodies of men — as such he figures in the later Pantheon of the Mahabharata — Com- parative Mythology traces every step. And now, the sacrificial substance which, when freely given to the gods, secures to mortals the golden age of the Avesta and the paradise of the Veda is the old Indo-Iranian drink, Vedic soma, Avestan haoma. It is an accepted fact with each people that this drink was prepared from a plant of the same name ; that it was an intoxicating drink ; and that it was regarded as the tipple of the gods, inspiring them to those valorous deeds which men craved of them. Physically, it is a plant that grows upon the mountains, has green shoots, and yields a golden fluid which insures health and long life and averts death. No wonder that Haoma-Soma is king of the plants, and that the pressing and offering of it was an important act. After pressing it was purified through a sieve of hair and mixed with milk — doubtless the earliest milk-punch on record. The 146 The Religion of the Veda Rig- Veda and the Avesta report the names of the same ancient worthies that prepared the fluid for the gods : Vedic Vivasvant, Yama, and Trita Aptya ; Avestan Vivanhvant, Yima, Athwya and Thrita. This marks the most intimate, if not the most import- ant, relation between the two religious literatures. Mythically, this wonderful drink was conceived as coming from heaven, the type on earth of the heav- enly fluid that is hidden in the clouds. In the Veda a heavenly eagle, doubtless the lightning, breaks through the brazen castle, the cloud, within which the heavenly fluid is confined, and carries it off to earth, that is, causes it to pour down upon the earth. It is the simple phenomenon of cloud, lightning, and downpour of refreshing and life-giving rain which is turned into the heavenly prototype of this delightful drink.' The Iranian haovta is also fetched from heaven by a bird, though the manner of his descent to earth is not told. In both literatures the drink finally turns god, slays demons, casts mis- siles, and gains in his perfect wisdom' light for > See the author in Journal of the American Oriental Society, xvi., \ ff. For analogous conceptions in Greek mythology, see Usener in Rheinisches Museum, Ix. , 2\ff. For winged lightning see Jacobsthal, Der Blitz in der Orientalise hen und Griechischen JCunst, p. 19, 25 'Vedic sukratu — Avestan hukhratu. The Prehistoric Gods 147 men, "the best world of the pious, the luminous world." In the Avesta the liaoma practices and worship are somewhat fossilised : its use has become secondary and symbolic. In the Veda ^owa figures as the most distinguished offering, the champagne of the gods, which exhilarates them and inspires them to valor- ous deeds against demons and the enemies of the liberal sacrificer. Herculean Indra especially stands in heed of an especial meed of courage in his demon fights ; therefore he is the most insatiable consumer of " pools of soma" as the texts say. He has his very own allowance at noontide; the rest of the gods, including Indra, come in at the other nodal points of the day, morning and evening. The en- tire ninth book of the Rig- Veda tells of the sacred practice of brewing this Bacchanalian drink; it praises the drink itself as a god in poetic and ec- static language. We may remember that the hieratic parts of the Rig- Veda are preoccupied with the dis- pensal of soma to such an extent that, in a sacral sense of least, we may speak of the religion of the rcah as a religion of soma rites. I have tried with as secure a touch as in my power to sketch some of the principal myths and religious ideas which the Vedic Hindus preserved out of the lopg past which preceded their occupation of India. 148 The Religion of the Veda I am mindful of the relative insecurity of prehistoric reconstructions : they must, in the nature of the case, to some extent be prehistoric guesses. Neverthe- less, in handling these specimens, and remembering others which time forbids me to treat here, my own faith at least in the reality of these very old fossils of human thought has grown and not shrunk. When I say human I mean, too, that they are so very human. They are of the logic of mental events. The effect upon the higher grade of primitive mind which the facts and events of the visible world may naturally be expected to have — that is the effect which we have traced. We must, of course, not imagine either Indo-Europeans or Indo-Iranians as town folk, but rather as semi-barbarous nomad and agricultural tribes, accustomed to look hard, and to be strongly interested in the sights that nature offers. Certainly if our analyses are not true they are well found : Father Sky and Mother Earth ; next, the inevitable children of Father Sky, namely, the visi- ble bodies and luminous phenomena on the sky, the deivos, " or shiners," as the most persistent idea of the early gods ; their destruction of hostile dark- ness ; their character as overseers and guardians of cosmic and moral order ; thunder, the commanding voice of another little less obvious god in heaven ; — they appear treated with simplicity and directness, we The Prehistoric Gods 149 may say with inevitable logic. The perplexed search after a first man, a first pair ; the propagation of man ; and man's destiny after death is more subjective, yet carried out with clever realism. There is no better way until we come to the clarified, yet intrinsically no less impotent philosophies of a much later time. Because all these myths, fancies, poems, and chains of logic are founded on the outer universe and on human consciousness, therefore we are reasonably sure that they are real. This is an even more valu- able guaranty than philological exactness and his- torical sense which, of course, should strengthen the hands of the trained investigator in every detail. In my opinion the mental sanity of Comparative Mythology is its brief to practise the profession of a true science ; and it is permissible to say with re- newed emphasis that the religion of the Veda is the child in direct succession of the prehistoric ideas which this science calls out from the dim past. LECTURE THE FOURTH. The Transparent, Translucent, and Opaque Gods. — Religious Con- ceptions and Religious Feel- ing in the Veda. The transparent gods: their importance for the study of religion — Father Sky and Daughter Dawn — Surya, a god of the sun — Vata and Vayu, gods of wind — The most transparent god: Agni, Fire — Agni as the sacrifice fire — Prehistoric gods of fire — Birth and youth of Agni — Agni as god of the morning — New births of Agni — Agni on the altar, the agent of the gods — Priesthood and divinity of Agni — A hymn to Agni — Other myths of the Fire God — The translucent gods: definition of the term — God Vishnu — God Pushan — God Indra, as an example of an opaque god — Traditional explanation of the myth of Indra and Vritra — Professor Hille- brandt's interpretation of the same myth — Renewed definition of the religion of the Rig- Veda — Renewed definition of Vedic practicalities — Conflicting prayers and sacrifices — The conception of faith — Faith related to Truth and Wisdom — Faith personified — Faith and works — The reward for faith postponed to heaven — Contrast between early " faith " (f raddha) and later "devotion" (bhakti) — "Gift-praises," another sop to the sacrificer — The religious feeling of the Rig-Veda — The utilitarian sense — The glory of the gods — Absence 150 Transparent and Opaque Gods 151 of teal sentiment towards the gods — Poetic inspiration the true religious feeling — The complacent master- singers — The poets' own estimate of their work — The divine quality of devotion. FOR my part I always come to this theme in the spirit of scientific elation. You know from preceding statements what I mean by transparent gods. They are the gods who are at one and the same time nature object and person. In other words, they are mythic formations whose personi- fication is arrested by the continued action and the vivid memory of the very qualities which lead to personification. Figuratively speaking, just when the chemical is about to precipitate or to crystalise into something unrecognisable, and far removed from its elements, it is shaken and dissolved anew. We are spared the labor of a qualitative and quanti- tative analysis. In the midst of the uncertainties and intricacies of this subject as a whole the assurance that these processes be renews the courage of the investigator. There is hope that out of the Babel of discordant opinions, many of them grown on the soil of just scepticism, the gods and the beliefs of ethnic religions will reveal their origins. I believe that, next to the Science of Language, the Science of Religion, is the clearest of mental or historical sciences, for the very reason that it is possible to 152 The Religion of the Veda trace some of the most advanced products of re- ligious thought to simple and tangible beginnings in nature and in human consciousness. Comparative mythology has influenced these studies profoundly by extending the field and the time within which we may carry on our observations. At the risk of seeming too insistent, let me point out once more, how it has spanned the distance be- tween prehistoric " Father Sky " and the strenuous human personahty of the Olympian Zeus of the poets. Now a visit to the Vedic Pantheon brings us into the very workshop where the gods are made. We have encountered before some transparent gods, " Father Sky " (Dyaush Pitar), who comes from olden times, and does not grow in the Veda into anything like the personality of Greek Zeus Pater, but is there submerged by other formations that have gained ground at his expense. We have seen what his daughter Ushas is : Eternally young and beautiful, ageless in distinction from the wither- ing race of man, she appears as a lovely maiden dis- playing her charms to the world. While doing this she caters at the same time to interests which are the reverse of poetic. She starts the day of sacrifice, her face set towards very practical performances. She secures rewards for pious men and their agents with the gods, namely the priests. Yet, on the whole, the Transparent and Opaque Gods 153 poetic possibilities of this loveliest of nature sights gain the day. She releases from service her sister Night as she rises from the darkened East higher and higher to flood heaven and earth with her waves of light. To the Sun-God she is a bride, opens for him her bosom's splendor. Or, she loves the two Agvins, the Dioscuri, with whom she travels on their car drawn by birds. Divine and gracious maiden, but yet no more than one of nature's splendors, she is the type of many a heaven-born story, could we but read it aright. Next Surya (Sol, Helios) appears upon the stage. He is the Sun-God treated as transparently as pos- sible. He is styled the son of Dyaus, the Father Sky ; Dawn is his bride, or, in another mood, the Dawns are said to be his mothers. On a car drawn by seven tawny steeds, his course is guided by other great gods, the old Adityas, Mitra, Varuna and Arj'aman. Again, he is the eye of Mitra, Varuna, or Agni (Fire). He is the preserver and soul of all crea- tion, of everything that stands or moves. Enlivened by him men pursue their vocations. He is far-see- ing, man-beholding, takes note of the good and bad deeds of mortals. They in turn look up to him, rejoicing in the security and the inspiration which his light affords. I shall let speak for itself the hymn. Rig- Veda 1 54 The Religion of the Veda 1.50, in the attractive metrical translation (with sh'ght changes) of the late Dr. John Muir ; see his Original Sanskrit Texts, vol. v., p. 160, and Metrical Translations front Sanskrit Writers, "p. 179: Hymn to Surya By lustrous heralds led on high, The fire Sun ascends the sky ; His glory draweth every eye. The stars which gleamed throughout the night, Now scared, like thieves slink fast away, Quenched by the splendor of thy ray. Thy beams to men thy presence show ; Like blazing fires they seem to glow. Conspicuous, rapid, source of light, Thou makest all the welkin bright. In sight of gods and mortal eyes. In sight of heaven thou scalest the skies. O fiery God, with thy keen eye. Thou scannest, like God Varuna, The doings of all busy men. Thou stridest o'er the sky's broad space, Thy rays do measure out our days ; Thine eye all living things surveys. Seven tawny steeds thy chariot bear. Self-yoked, athwart the fields of air, Bright SQrya, god with flaming hair. Transparent and Opaque Gods 155 That glow above the darkness we Beholding upward soar to thee, For there among the gods thy light Supreme is seen, divinely bright. And there are other gods, not a few, whose origin in nature is positively on the surface. So the two wind-gods Vata and Y^y"> *^^ former of whom, on the likely evidence of Teutonic Wotan-Odhin, is probably prehistoric. A good bit of profound human philosophy is contained in the mere fact that Vata is described as a real person in language such as that of the following hymn,* and that he may finally be invited to partake of oblations : Hymn to Vata Now Vita's chariot's greatness ! Breaking goes it, And thunderous is its noise. To heaven it touches. Makes light lurid, and whirls the dust upon the earth. Then rush together all the blasts of Vata : To him they come as women to their trysting ; With them conjoint, on the same chariot travelling. Hastes the god, the king of all creation. Sleepless hastes he on his pathway through the air, Companion of the watery flood. First-born and holy, ' Rig-Veda 10.168, reproduced with some changes from Professor Hopkins's translation, The Religions of India, p. 88. 156 The Religion of the Veda Whence, forsooth, arose he, and whence was he created ? The breath of gods and source of life is Vata. This god doth journey whithersoe'er he Hsteth, His sound is heard but no one sees his figure. With our oblation let us this Vata honor ! V*But there is one figure that looms far above all others in ancient Hindu religious history from Veda to Mahabharata, as the classical illustration of how a phenomenon of nature may be itself and personal god at one and the same time. It is the god Agni ■' Fire," who is element and god at the beginning and remains so to the end. Richard Wagner adopts in the Nibelungen tetralogy the doubtful interpretation of the Norse god Loge (Loki) as fire ; Wotan calls upon this red-haired, impish god to appear when he wishes to hedge with fire his erring child Brunhilde. This is interesting, because it shows how even the modern poetic fancy may get itself to bridge over, un- critically, as behooves the poet, the great gap that is between the reality of nature and the unstable spec- ulation of myth-makers. Native Hindu theologians in their scholastic mood find time to worry over the fact that a god like Agni can be devouring element and intelligent god at one and the same time. Even the Epic poet in the Mahabharata Transparent and Opaque Gods 157 stops to wonder: "There is but one Agni, yet is he kindled manifold";' and Agni himself is made to say : " Because I can multiply myself by the power of mental concentration {yoga), there- fore am I present in the bodies (of men, as vital fire)."' Agni is, next to Indra, the most prominent god of the Rig- Veda, quantitatively speaking. He is the theme of more than two hundred hymns, and owes his special prominence to the personifica- tion of the sacred fire which is present at all Vedic performances. In the hieratic (in distinction from the popular) hymns of the Rig- Veda there will be few cases in which Agni is not more or less directly connected with the sacrifice. And it is well now to take this simple article, the sacrifice fire, and let it unfold its own story step by step. How it turns in the hands of these priestly poets into a person gifted with the thinly disguised qualities of fire ; into a mes- senger mediating between men and gods; into an archpriest typical of holy rites; and finally into a god. But to the end, as we shall show, the origin of all these ideas is never forgotten ; the god remains a more or less well-assorted bundle of fire qualities and fire epithets. Therefore, too, he remains to the ' Mahabharata 3. 134.8=10658. » Ibid., I. 7. 6=916. 158 The Religion of the Veda last an indifferent vehicle for far.reaching specula- tions, or the finer sort of religious feeling. The Sanskrit word agnis, " fire," at all events, is Indo-European; Latin tgTtis, Lithuanian ugnis. Old Slavic ogni. Some kind of worship of the sacrifice fire, and with it some degree of personification, is likely to have taken place in Indo-European times. The Greeks and Romans, as well as the Aryans, offered libations to the fire when using it to convey offerings to their gods. But there was no definite result that we know of ; the chaste figure of Hestia of the Greeks, or Vesta of the Romans, contrasted with boisterous male Agni, shows that the initial conception must have been faint and unstable, to enable it to produce shapes so thoroughly diverse. In the main God Agni is in every essential a product of the poet-priests of the Rig- Veda. In India, as elsewhere, fire was produced by fric- tion, and this mode of starting fire was obligatory as far as the sacrifice fire was concerned. The two fire- sticks, or drills, called arani, are therefore Agni's parents, the upper stick being the male, the lower the female. Theyproduce him under the name of Ayu "Living " ; wonderful to narrate, from the dry wood the god is born living. At once he becomes the type of human progeny, and faintly figures as, or suggests the first man and the originator of the Transparent and Opaque Gods 159 human race.' The new-born infant is hard to catch ; he is born of a mother who cannot give him suck. The child as soon as born devours the parents. With a different touch, because powerful exertion is required to produce Agni by friction, he is fre- quently called " Son of Strength." The pronounced ritualist quality of the poetry of the Rig- Veda fixes Agni as a divinity of the morn- ing, rather than of the night. Interpretations of Rig- Veda passages which involve reference to something like the cosy family hearth, the tea-kettle simmering, the wind soughing outside, are generally moonshine. Nor is his definite association with the morning just what we should expect it to be from our point of view ; no suggestion, perchance, of the merry dairy, maid milking the cows, or the housewife busy with a comfortable breakfast. Familiar, home-life touches are not absent altogether even in the Rig- Veda; they are more abundant in the "House-books" (Grhya-Satras). But in the main Agni is cosmic and ritualistic, and little else. He dispels the dark- ness, destroys the demons of night. He throws open the gates of darkness ; earth and sky are seen when Agni is born in the morning. He is even ' See above, p. 139. i6o The Religion of the Veda supposed to lift daily the eternally youthful sun to the sky to furnish light to the people.' Such is his cosmic aspect in the morning. On the other hand his ritualistic character betrays itself in his epithet usharbudh, which means " waking at dawn." We have seen before that he is also regarded as the son of Dawn.' All this emphasises the opening of the sacrificial day, ushered in by the Goddess Dawn, God Agni, and the gods that wake in the morning and come in the morning, like the Agvins and others. Every morning Agni is produced anew for the sacrifice ; this secures for him the appropriate epithet " the youngest." On the other hand he is the same old Agni, and now comes a good deal of playful or mystic handling of this paradox. His new births are contrasted with his old ; having grown old he is born again as a youth. Thus it happens that he is called " ancient " and " very young " in the same passage ; the Vedic poets delight in this kind of mental see-saw. The mystery is shallow ; what is meant is, that the vigorous life of the present-day Agni recalls his traditional importance in the past. There is no sacrificer older than Agni, for he con- ducted the first sacrifice. Just as he flames up to- • Rig- Veda lo. 156. 4. « Above, p. 73. Transparent and Opaque Gods i6i day at dawn so he shone forth-under the auspices of former dawns at the sacrifice of many a great forefather: Bharata, or Vadhryagva; DivodSsa, or Trasadasyu. After having been kindled Agni is placed upon the altar or, if we trust the testimony of the ritual texts of the Veda, upon three altars.' Fagots are now piled on, fat oblations ztre" poured in ; he waxes big ; his tongues, three, or seven, shoot up ; he has four eyes, or a thousand eyes — both things mean that he is sharp-sighted ; his jaws are sharp; and his teeth shine golden, or his iron grinders clutch. Then the figure is changed : he is flame-haired, tawny-haired, tawny-bearded ; his glowing head faces in all direc- tions. Ghee, or melted butter, is his food: he is therefore called ghee-backed, ghee-faced, ghee- haired. Once, even more boldly, Agni himself says, ghee is his eye. This is the point where Agni begins to take on a little more of the flesh and blood of per- sonality upon the skeleton of his elemental qualities. For he receives the offerings neither passively nor selfishly. At as late a time as that of the great Epic, the Mahabharata' he is made to say: "The ghee that is poured into my mouth, in the way pre- scribed in the Veda, nourishes the Gods and the ' Cf. Rig- Veda 2. 36. 4 ; 5, 1 1. 2 ; 10. 105. 9. 1.7. 7./=9i7/". 1 62 The Religion of the Veda Manes . . . called by my mouth the Gods and the Manes come to eat the ghee." In fact the gods cannot subsist without him. A very neat story which, as usual, remains one of the stock themes of story-telling India in later times, tells in two hymns of the Rig- Veda' how Agni on a certain occasion tired of this service. Agni has it born in upon him that his older brothers have worn themselves out in their job, and concludes that he had better dodge a like fate. Whereupon he es- capes into the waters. But the god Yama discovers and betrays him, and Varuna, as the spokesman of the gods, finally induces him for a consideration to resume the task of expediting the sacrifice to the gods.' The names which he obtains in this capacity, such as " oblation-eater " and " oblation-carrier," ' reappear familiarly in the Mahabharata and later. There they are pigeon-holed, along with numerous other names, to be selected in the manner of the Norse kennings, to vary the diction, to swell its dignity, and to ease the task of the verse-maker. With a different turn, he brings the gods to the sac- ' 10. 51 and 52. ' For other later tales of Agni lost and found again see the Maha- bharata legends in Holtzmann, Agni nach den Vorstellungen des Mahabharata, ^.12ff. ' Huta^a, huidfana, hutabhuj, havyabhaksha, etc. ; hutavaha, havy^ avah, havyavahana, etc. Transparent and Opaque Gods 163 rifice, and seats them on the strewn grass. He thus becomes familiar with the roads that connect heaven and earth, and becomes the regular messenger be- tween the two. In this capacity he is associated with the Angiras, a race of mythic semi-divine priests whose name seems to be identical with Greek, ayyekoS (angel), " messenger." They also mediate between gods and men, and naturally Agni is an Angiras, the first seer Angiras, the ancient Angiras, the most inspired of the Angiras. Agni officiates at the sacrifice and becomes the divine counterpart of the earthly priesthood : house- priest," serving-priest, and priest in general, as states the very first stanza of the Rig- Veda. As such he also inspires, or invents the brilliant speech and thought; of prayer, and, what is very important, he frees from sin. For the sacrifice, of course, is the staple means of conciliating the gods when they are supposed to be angry. The idea of priesthood blends with that of seer and sage. He is so expert and well-travelled as to assume in a very pronounced sense the qualities of omniscience and omnipresence.' He knows everything by virtue of his wisdom ; he embraces wisdom as a felly does the wheel. The adjective kavikratu, " possessing the intellect of the ' Cf. Iloltzmann's essay, cited above, p. 5. 164 The Religion of the Veda sages," applies to him particularly, and the epithet jdtavedas, " having innate wisdom," is exclusively his own. From the function of archpriest and arch- sage to godhead it is but a step. Agni is the divine benefactor of his worshipper who sweats to carry him fuel : him he protects with a hundred iron walls, or takes across all calamities, as in a ship over the sea. And then, finally, he is divine monarch, surpassing mighty heaven and all the worlds, is superior to all the other gods who worship him, or takes his place in the long line of supreme gods whom the poets indifferently, or henotheistically, as Max Miiller put it, praise at convenient times with all the fervor and all the resourceful verbiage which marks the diction of the Rig- Veda : Then hail to Agni on his brilliant chariot. The shining signal of every holy sacrifice. Of every god in might divine the equal, The gracious guest of every pious mortal ! Dressed out in all thy ornamented garments, Thou standest on the very navel of the earth, The hearth of sacrifice. Born of the light, Both priest and king, shall hither fetch th' immortals ! For thou hast ever spread both earth and heaven, Tho' being their son thou hast spread out thy parents. Come hither, youthful god, to us that long for thee, And bring, O Son of Strength, the bright immortals ! (Rig- Veda 10. i. 5-7.) Transparent and Opaque Gods 165 I have followed the main current of Agni's life in order to make clear the meaning of arrested person- ification, or arrested anthropomorphism. The Vedic ppets are far from restricting themselves to this one view. Fire is not only in the sacral fire-sticks, but he is visible everywhere: as sun and lightning in the sky ; as glint on the surface of the waters ; as the embryo of plants and trees that willingly give it up when in flames ; as the spark of flint and the rocks ; and even in the heat of the body, and as vital force latent in all living things. Especially remarkable is the certainly Indo-European myth which deals very clearly with a twin descent from heaven : the descent of fire, and the descent of the heavenly fluid. In its Vedic treatment the heavenly fire is Agni of the lightning ; the heavenly fluid is soma, the ambrosial drink : " The one (namely, the heavenly fire) Matarigvan brought from heaven; the other (namely, soma) the eagle brought from the rock." ' I have spoken before of the descent of the heavenly fluid'; the descent of Agni from heaven is doubtless connected with the lightning fire. Ma- tarigvan, however, who brings Agni, belongs to the class of mythic persons for whom I have reserved th -^ attribute " opaque." Even this dramatic nature ' Rig- Veda, i. 93. 6. ' Above, p. 146. 1 66 The Religion of the Veda act, which the plastic spirit of the Greeks shapes for all time into the main motif of the Prometheus tragedy, appears to the Vedic poets merely as heaven's method of furnishing fire and soma for the sacrifice: it does not turn into a real humanised myth. And what I have deduced here in detail is true of all of Agni's traits in the Veda ; he is at one moment element and phenomenon, at another person and god, at all times as clear as his own light to teach the nature of the gods. I have used the term transparent in connection with divine personifications whose naturalistic basis and whose starting point in human consciousness is absolutely clear. Now the term translucent, figure of speech though it is, I wish to be understood in its plain physical sense. It refers to mythic formations whose structural outline may still be traced with a great deal of truth, although it is obscured by incrus- tations of secondary matter. It is often merely the loss of the original simple name which is the cause of the obscuration. Divinities of the name "Dawn " (Ushas), " Sun " (Surya), or " Fire " (Agni), bring credentials that every one can read. But the quick substitution of an attractive, or pointed epithet for the original name may plapue the investigator for all time to come, and deprive him of mathematical cer- tainty, even though every instinct draws him in the Transparent and Opaque Gods 167 right direction. An unusually unsympathetic sceptic will not find it hard to rest his feet upon some pro- jecting ledge of doubt, and all history cries out that we must not try to dislodge sceptics by violence. Every middle-aged student of Comparative Mythol- ogy and Comparative Philology recalls the time when even the most complex myths were blandly ex- plained as nature processes ; nothing in that line could be too fanciful and far-fetched to find adher- ents. No cock might crow in a fairy-tale without becoming party to an involved and profound sun- myth. We have all sobered much ; there is now, perhaps, too much insistence upon the element of uncertainty which goes with the term ".probable," no matter how closely the probable may approach certainty. Tho two Agvins, the Dioscuri, are translucent gods. They harbor some phenomenon of morning light as one part of their dual character. The other is probably the corresponding phenomenon at eve. But just what this duality is we were unable to say.* It is something to have limited this brilliant Indo- European myth so far, and to find behind it reason rather than idle fancy. The god Varuna, as we have seen, belongs also to this class ; for better or for worse interpretation will turn to some phenomenon ' See above, p, ii6. 1 68 The Religion of the Veda of heaven which suggests the god's salient quality of overseer, be it encompassing sky, be it moon, I choose two other gods as the type of translucent gods, Vishnu and Pushan ; in both cases we shall be engaged with variant aspects of the sun. This may seem to some minds a suspicious monotony of ex- planation, in fact it is the so-called solar theory. But I am nothing daunted : the sun is important and ever present with early observers ; I shall let him fight his own battles. If I am not mistaken, I have done the cause of Vishnu a service in pointing out that the name itself is compounded of the two words vi and snu, meaning " through the back." ' The leading fact in Vishnu's activity in the Veda is that he takes three strides {tredhd vi kravi). A passage in the Sama-Veda states that " Vishnu strode through over the back of the earth,"' Here the word for "through" is vi ; the word for " back " is sdmi {snu) — the two parts of the name Vishnu. The third of these enormous strides lands Vishnu in the highest heaven, in the bright realm of light, where even the winged birds do not dare to fly," There in the highest stepping ' Anttriean Journal of Philology, vol. xvii., p. 428. ' Sama-Veda 2. 1024, yato vishnur vi cakrame ■prthivyi adhi sanavi, ' Rig-Veda i, 155. 3, 5. Transparent and Opaque Gods 169 place is Vishnu's fount of honey.' This place is identical with the highest place of Agni; Vishnu guards the highest, or third place of Agni, the fire on high, the sun.' There the gods and pious men rejoice. Liberal sacrificers ever look forward to this place ; it is fixed like an eye in heaven.' Later Veda texts clearly define the three steps as earth, atmos- phere, and heaven. Vishnu represents the sun in his ascent from the horizon of the earth, through the atmosphere to the zenith, considered as the solar paradise. His swift climb over the back of the uni- verse through the cosmic triad justly arrested the fancy of the poets, and they name him accordingly. Instead of holding to the proper name of the sun, or to his more familiar functions of giver of light and life, they express in the name Vishnu, and in the fancies connected with it the sufficiently remarkable fact that his ascent from earth to the paradisiacal zenith involves but three stations : earth, atmos- phere, and heaven. From the earliest time Hindu records show the greatest interest in this threefold division of the universe.* Other notions, such as that Vishnu marks ofl with his wide steps for his > Rig- Veda i, 154. 5. ^Ibid., 10. I. 3. ^ Ibid., I. 22. 20. * See above, p. 91. 1 70 The Religion of the Veda worshippers corresponding breadth or wide scope for success and prosperity, and that he frees them from restraint and trouble, follow as an almost inevitable consequence. In a later time Vishnu is elevated to the highest place ; he is one of the so-called Hindu Trinity. To the end he remains the Vishnu of the solar paradise to whom go the spirits of the departed pious. But at the same time he represents to his sectarian worshippers the pantheistic Brahma, or " all-soul," with which the soul of man is ultimately destined to unite. I choose as the second example of a translucent god, the shepherd god Pushan. His chief claim to usefulness is that he knows the roadways ; protects from their dangers, such as wolves and robbers ; guards cattle, so that they be not dashed to pieces in the ravine ; brings them home unhurt when they have gone astray ; and, in general, restores lost things. Pushan personally drives the cows to pas- ture ; he weaves the sheeps' dresses, and smoothes their coats ; he carries a goad, and his car is drawn by goats. And seeing that he lives on mush or gruel, whereas the other gods revel in soma or ghee, his bucoHc nature is pretty clear. His name means " Prospero," which may, of course, be the epithet of any benevolent god, and therefore veils rather than tells his particular character. Transparent and Opaque Gods 171 The following specimen shows the tone of the not too numerous hymns addressed to him: Rig'Veda 6. 34. Guide us, O Pflshan, to a man Who, wise, straightway shall point the way, And say to us : " Lo, here it is! " With Poshan joined let us go forth ; He points our houses out to us, And saith to us : " Right here they are ! " His chariot's wheel doth never break ; Its seat doth never tumble down ; Nor doth his wheel's rim ever crack. Whoso payeth tribute to the god Him Pflshan never doth forget ; That man is first to gather wealth. May PQshan follow our kine. May he protect our horses too. And furnish us with solid wealth ! May naught be lost, nor aught be hurt ; May naught be injured in the pit ; Our cattle sound bring back to us ! May Pflshan pass his good right hand Around about and far and wide. And drive our lost goods back to us ! The standard interpretation of this god is again as a sun-god. This is well supported by some higher 1 72 The Religion of the Veda e>' mythic traits in which this god is not altogether wanting. He is lord of all things that stand or move ; almost the same words describe Surya (Helios). He also is the lover or husband of the Sun-Maiden SQrya, that arch-flirt who carries on affairs with the male Surya, the Agvins, and Soma. He alone has the very ancient epithet dgJirni "glowing," This fits the sun, and besides hardly any other article than fire. Now fire Pushan is not. To consider him, under these circumstances, a mere " god Pros- pero," or an abstract " Lord of the Paths," is a good deal like begging the question. Contrariwise his abilities as path-finder, cattle god, and restorer of lost things point to an overseeing heavenly body, particularly if we may trust another Lithuanian folk- song {daina) which I may be permitted to quote : Oh, at the yester even tide I lost my little lamb ! Oh, who shall help me go and seek My only little lamb ? I went and asked the morning star, The morning star replied : " I have to build the dear sun's fire At morrow's morning tide." I went and asked the evening star, The evening star replied : " I have to make the dear sun's bed At every even tide." Transparent and Opaque Gods 1 73 I went and asked the waning moon, The waning moon replied : " I have been smitten with a sword/ My sorry face I hide." I went and asked the lovely sun, The dear sun gave reply ; " Nine days I '11 seek, and on the tenth I 'II not set in the sky." ' The familiar notion that the sun oversees every- thing' appeals in this instance to the simple reasoning power of shepherd folk. A more suitable origin for a shepherd god it is not easy to imagine. They there- fore dress him out in shepherd's clothes, feed him on shepherd's food, and turn him into a heavenly bell- wether of their flocks. But his real natural history does not seem to me to be very much disguised by the simple-minded fable. We may safely call PQshan a translucent god. The most prominent of the gods of the Rig- Veda is Indra. About two hundred and fifty hymns are devoted to his praise, perhaps one-fourth of all the hymns of the collection. NoaccountofVedic religion can pass by his big personality, and yet his essence and quality are that of lower, rather than higher ' Cf. the Lithuanian folk-song, above, p. 114. ' Professor Chase's rendering, Transactions of the American Philo' logicil Association, vol. xxxi., p. 193. '"liiioi TtayoTtrtf;, /Had 2, 2jy ; i^ischylus, Prometlieus Bound,<)l. 1 74 The Religion of the Veda religious conceptions, even if we adopt no higher standard than the Rig- Veda. To the growingly finer religious thought of the later Veda Indra contributes nothing positive. Negatively, the coarse grain and the fleshliness of his character which, taken all in all, are foreign to the gods of the Vedic Pantheon, arrest very unfavorable attention. Indra is so grossly anthropomorphic, that is, he embodies so completely the human qualities of brag and bluster, gluttony, drunkenness, and lust, as to make him the peg upon which to hang scepticism. In that way he contributes negatively to the advance of Hindu thought. Of this later on. This god has remained opaque to the eye of Vedic study. He is not wanting in superlative cosmic qualities. In fact the poets never, unless except perhaps fn~the case of Varuna, come nearer biting off more than they can chew, than when en- gaged in lauding Indra. He has nocounterpartamong those born or to be born. No one, celestial or ter- restrial, has been born, or shall be born, like unto him. All the gods yield to him in might and strength.' He supports earth and sky, or spreads out the earth.' More particularly, he is the Hindu Hercules and demiurge' the doer of great deeds for the people. ' Rig-Veda 4. 18. 4; 7. 32. 2; 8. 51. 7. * Ibid., 2. 15. 2. Transparent and Opaque Gods 175 He slays dragons and monsters; he is the typical slayer of the foes of the pious sacrificer. To these deeds of heroic valor he is stimulated by immense potations of intoxicating soma. In order to accom- plish the slaughter of the arch-dragon Vritra he drank on one occasion three lakes of that delightful bever- age, so that decidedly he had a jag on, which, it has been noted, rhymes well with dragon. Accordingly he has a tremendous body, strong jaws and lips. He is tawny-haired and bearded, carries a club in his hand, and fights on a chariot drawn by two bay steeds. In general the Vedic poets cannot be accused of coarseness ; yet it seems that, in this instance, they were irresistibly attracted by the mighty deeds of this, " Lord of Strength," as they call him. This is probably owing to the fact that he is felt to be the national hero of the Aryan invaders in their struggles against the dark-skinned aborigines, whom they must overcome in order to hold possession of the land which they invaded. And nations are never coarser than when they put their own nationality into an- tagonism against another nation. In a recent war, familiar to all of us, a prominent warrior on the side of the stronger nation expressed his consuming de- sire to make, by his own valorous deeds, the language of the weaker nation the vernacular of Hades. This is the spirit of the worship of Indra. 176 The Religion of th? Veda . But it would be a mistake to suppose that Indra is a mere coarse embodiment of the jingo valor of a superior race exercised against a weak enemy fated to subjection. Indra's character is not even trans- lucent, that is, we can no longer define his origin with certainty, but there is no doubt that he originated somewhere in visible nature. The difficulty is to tell where. To begin with, there is no belittling the fact that Indra's origin is prehistoric. His name occurs in the Avesta (Andra) where, as is often the case with earlier Aryan divinities, he is degraded to a demon. But his chief Vedic epithet, Vritrahan, " Slayer of Vritra," is the same name as that of the abstract genius of Victory, Verethraghna in the Avesta, and the Armenian dragon slayer Vahagn." On the other hand there is no real Indra literature outside of India. If then we are forced to turn to India in order to explain Indra, we must not forget that his origin is outside of India and precedes Hindu history. The following specimen, Rig-Veda i. 32, is done into prose, rather than into metre, in order to show clearly how Indra and his principal exploit, namely, the slaughter of the dragon Vritra and the liberation of the waters, really presents itself to the mind of the poets : ' See Hillebrandt, Vedische Mythohgie, vol. iii., p. iVi ff. Transparent and Opaque Gods i 'j'] 1. Let me now tell forth the heroic deeds of Indra, which he that wields the club performed of yore. He slew the dragon, broke the way for the waters ; he cleft the belly of the mountains. 2. He slew the dragon who lay upon the mountain. God Tvashtar forged for him hi'? heavenly club. Like roaring cattle, down came the waters, flowing swiftly to the sea. 3. Lusty as a bull, Indra demanded soma ; from three vats drank he of the pressed drink. His missile bolt he took in hand, the generous god, and slew the first-born of the dragons. 4. When thou didst smite, O Indra, the first-born of the dragons, when thou didst make naught of the wiles of the wily, then, bringing out both sun and heaven and dawn, thou verily didst not find a foeman worthy of thy steel. 6. A drunken weakling, Vritra, did challenge the great hero, the mighty, dashing fighter. He did not withstand the impact of his weapons : with broken nose lay shat- tered he whose foe was Indra. 7. Over him lying so, like a broken reed, the waters go flowing at will. Those (very waters) which Vritra had encompassed with his might, at the feet of them the dragon prone lay stretched. 13. Nor thunder, nor lightning did help him ; nor the hail-storm which he cast about him. When Indra and the dragon fought their battle, then even for future times the liberal god won the battle. These stanzas carry us into the very midst of a 178 The Religion of the Veda myth whose three elements bring with them thre questions: First, what are the waters? Secondlj who is Vritra that shuts them in ? Thirdly, who i Indra that liberates them after a struggle that put him so very much on his mettle ? Hindu traditior commentators and later classical Sanskrit literature has always had an unhesitating answer : The water are rain; Vritra is the cloud that shuts them oi from the earth; Indra, therefore, is the storm o thunder god that rends the clouds with his lightnin: bolt and frees their waters. This interpretation, a first sight thoroughly sensible and most satisfactoril; suggestive, was for a good while held to be good b; most western students of the Veda and Comparativ Mythology. The trouble with it turned out to b that the Veda has the real storm and rain gO( Parjanya, ' and that the hymns addressed to hin describe thunder-storms in language that is very dii ferent, and cannot be mistaken for anything els than the phenomena of the thunder-storm. Th sober facts of the Indra- Vritra myth are as follows A god armed with a bolt fights a dragon or serpen who holds the rivers in confinement within thi mountains. He kills the dragon, cleaves the mount ains. The rivers flow from the mountains to thi sea. Thus the texts : there is nothing to show tha ' See above, p. iii. Transparent and Opaque Gods 1 79 the mountains mean clouds, and the rivers the flow of rain. After such and other premonitory symptoms of scepticism and unrest, Professor Hillebrandt has recently advanced a new theory of Indra, Vritra, and the waters, which he expounds with great in- genuity and learning.' He argues that the streams of India and the neighboring Iranian countries are at their lowest level in the winter; that the confiner of their waters is the frozen winter, conceived as a winter monster by the name of Vritra, " confiner;" that Vritra holds captive the rivers on the heights of the glacier mountains; and that, consequently, Indra can be no other than the spring or summer sun who frees them from the clutches of the winter dragon: " Behold, in winter's chain sleeps the song of the waterfall under the dungeon roof of crystal ice ! " So sings a Swedish poet, Count Snoilsky. And another Swedish poet, Andreas Aabel, rings out the antistrophe: " Hear the mountains proud cascade ! Just now it has broken winter's check and prison, and now it courses free along its road!"' Now it is true that the emergence of spring from winter is sometimes treated poetically as a battle. We can understand this much better in a north coun- ' See Hillebrandt, Vcdische Mythologie, vol. iii., p. l%T ff, ' See ibid^ p. 187. i8o The Religion of the Veda try like Sweden where the conflict is hard and Ion Even there these phenomena seem hardly to sugge so fierce and Herculean a contest as that which supposed to take place between Indra and the fro giant Vritra : Released from ice are stream and brook, By spring-tide's enchanting, enlivening look. These words of Goethe seem to come so muc nearer to what might be expected. But over and beyond, Indra performs in his pr fessional capacity of Hercules a large assortmei of other " stunts." He releases the cows from tl stables of the avaricious who confine them and w not sacrifice them to the gods. He also perforn the heavenly analogue of this deed : he breaks ope the stables of darkness, presided over by anoth demon of the name of Vala, and releases the hea enly cows, that is, the light of dawn and the sur It seems impossible to hold aloof this importai myth from the classical myths of Heracles ar three-headed Geryon, and Hercules and three-heade Cacus. Hercules carries off the cattle which belor to the monster, or, in the case of Cacus, which tl monster had stolen from the hero, and had hiddc away in his cave.' Indra, moreover, kills a gre; variety of other demons. To the immediate coi • See Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, p. 143 ff. Transparent and Opaque Gods i8i ception of the Veda he is indeed a sort of Hercules, the most personal of all the gods, so personal that people begin to doubt his existence, and ask, "Who has seen him ?" I have brought much sympathy to Professor Hillebrandt's interpretation which I hope may in the end turn out to be the right one ; for the present it has left me in the frame of mind indicated by the word opaque. I confess, I cannot pass over as lightly as does Hillebrandt the unanimous Hindu tradition that Vritra is the cloud. The partnership of Indra with Vayu " Wind " is paralleled sugges- tively by the association"~of Parjanya and Vata, " Wind." Parjanya is beyond peradventure a god of the thunder-storm. It is therefore still possible that the myth of Indra, Vritra, and the waters represents a specialised poetic treatment of a myth of thunder- storm, cloud, and rain. The myth may have, so to speak, been brought down to earth : Indra, the storm god, becomes a Hercules, and kills a dragon who hoards in the mountains (formerly, the clouds), the rivers (formerly, the rain of the clouds). For a final solution of this most important theme in mythology it seems to me that we must look to the future. The confirmation of Hillebrandt's masterly theory, if it comes at all, must come from Iran or Western Asia. Such confirmation should establish more definitely Indra's and Vritra's character in the 1 82 The Religion of the Veda Indo-Persian time from which, if not from a stil earlier time, dates their beginning. If these earlie data should by any chance ever show Indra an( Vritra in the mutual relation of summer and winter then Hillebrandt's hypothesis, and I fear not unti then, would be triumphantly vindicated. RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS AND RELIGIOUS FEELINC IN THE VEDA. The religion of the Rig- Veda, as we have seen is in its most superficial aspect a priestly religior of works designed to propitiate and to barter wit! personal gods. The outer form in which it pre sents itself is as poetry of the sacrifice. The sac rifice with its ceremonial formalities is, as I hav< ventured to say, the epidermis of Vedic religion In its next layer the religion of the Veda is ex pressed in hymnal worship of the same persona gods who get the offerings. Whatever we may sa) about the origin of these gods, one by one, they an to the Hindu conception for the most part related tc the visible and audible forces of nature. Nature ir its larger aspect, cosmic nature, is the prime source of inspiration of the Vedic religious bard, just as il was the inspiration of his prehistoric Aryan and Indo European ancestors. The conception of nature anc the nature gods, notwithstanding many crudities, is Religious Conceptions and Feeling 183 singularly poetic. I shall show later that the relig- ious consciousness, in so far as it concentrates itself upon their admiration and praise, marks in fact the highest point in the Vedic Rishis' mental and spirit- ual possibilities. In the end it will be found to be something more than religious poetry ; it is rather religion or religious sense expressing itself as poetic inspiration. Anyhow we must not believe that the ritual has swamped everything. The delight in the gods, especially the half-personalised nature forces which are treated as gods, is too unstinted and gen- erous to allow us to doubt its genuineness. I am sure that many, if not all, of these poets addressed their beautiful hymns to the goddess Dawn, or to the sun-god Surya with the full swing of creative poets, delighting in their theme for the theme's sake, and chiseling their poems for the poems' sake. We may believe that these priest-poets at times, when in their best vein, asked the favor of the gods not as greedy beggars, but as joyously unconscious bene- ficiaries of divinities whose power to reward is in- cidental to their inherent generous nature, and who, therefore present themselves as a brilliant and worthy theme of song. But the every-day existence of these men is something difTerent. It is loaded down with those dreadful practicalities. They must live by this 184 The Religion of the Veda very trade of theirs, namely, praise of the god and purveyance of the sacrifice. When they tur; their minds away, as they constantly do and must dc from those well-conceived personifications they teni downward. As middle-men between the gods am men they must, above all, take care of men, thei own selves not least of all. Men can subsist am prosper only if the gods return in kind. The god; on the whole, are good ; they do not beat down th requests of him that comes with prayer and cup c soma. Reciprocity, frank unconditional reciprocity thus becomes an accepted motive : " Give thou t me, I give to thee," is the formula.' The sacrificin king, or rich householder, is thereby placed betwee the upper and the nether mill-stone : he must satisf both gods and priests, each of whom show a su: prising habit of becoming more and more exactin as time goes by. In this way the high poetic qualit; of Vedic religion is crowded and choked by man; conceptions mean from the start, or bent by thes circumstances into a mean shape. The gods then selves, notwithstanding their luminous origin, at brought down to the plane of human weaknes: Open to adulation, they become vain ; eager for ac vantage, they become shifty; reflecting human desire they become sordid, and in some cases even indecent. ' dehi me dadami te. Cf. the Roman do ut des. Religious Conceptions and Feeling 185 In the first place, Vedic poets engage in a sort of scramble for the gods. The gods cannot be in one and the same place at the same time, and cannot grant all the conflicting wishes of their numerous suppliants. I have dealt with this theme which may interest the broader students of the history of relig- ions, in a recent paper presented to the XlVth Inter- national Congress of Orientalists, held at Algiers in 1905.' The title of the paper. On Conflicting Prayers and Sacrifices, tells a good deal of the story. The notion which comes out quite persistently is that it requires art to " hog " the gods, and it is not a very delectable notion either from the eesthetic or the eth- ical point of view. Yet not less so perhaps than the Te Deum laudamus over the slaughter of enemies, which has been known to be chanted by both sides at the same time when each side claimed victory.' ' See Johns Hopkins University Circulars of 1906, Nr. 10, p. I ff, ' Or consider : " Gieb regen und gieb sonnenschein FUr Reuss und Schleuss und Lobenstein ; Und wollen andre auch was ha'n So ni6gen sie's dir selber sa'n." My colleague, Professor Gildersleeve, proposes the following Eng- lish transfusion : " Give rain and sunshine we implo' For us upon the Eastern sho' ; If any others want a share Themselves may offer up the prayer," 1 86 The Religion of the Veda So, for instance, poets of the ancient family i bards, the Vasishthas, on a certain occasion brag th; they made Tndra prefer their own soma libations 1 those of Pagadyumna Vayata, though the latter ha gone to the trouble of fetching Indra from a gre; distance. Frantically emphatic prayer ; imprecatic of the man who is praying at the same time ; ar naughty tricks of various sorts show us under th aspect the whole world of praying and sacrificir men engaged in a sort of universal game of tag : tl hindmost is "it." The Vedic Hindus have made sad botch of this matter. I am glad to say that th particular crudity passes out at the end of the Ved period with the slow "twilight of the gods"whic shifts the interest from polytheism, myth, and saci fice to the theosophic speculations of the Upanishad When the personal gods emerge again in later Hi: duism, they are much clarified ; at least the risk question about their presence in many places at or and the same time, and the equitable distribution c their favors is, as far as I know, never asked again. There is scarcely any idea which has suffered s much from the utilitarian aspects of Vedic religio as the Vedic idea of faith. To begin with, the wor itself is of interest ; it is qraddhd, the sound for soun equivalent of Latin and our own credo. Th etymological meaning of this word is absolutel Religious Conceptions and Feeling 187 transparent. It means " to set one's heart upon. " This etymology, which is still quite clear to the Ve- dic poets, shows it full of ethical possibilities. The word starts well in the Rig- Veda. It means first of all belief in the existence and godhead of the gods. So, a poet is anxious to make certain the position of the god Indra, that blustering, pinchbeck, braggart, Herculean god whose shortcomings have gone far to establish a certain position for the Vedic freethinker. The poets say of him : " The terrible one of whom they ask, where is he ? Nay verily they say of him, he is not at all. He makes shrink the goods of his enemy like a gambler the stakes of his opponent : Put your faith in him — He, O folks, is Indra." (Rig-Veda 2. 12. 5.) "As a strong warrior, he verily fights with might great battles in behalf of the people. Aye, then they have faith in strong Indra, as he hurls down his weapon." (Rig-Vedai.ss,s.) " Who, what mortal, can overcome him whose treasure thou art, O Indra ? Through faith in thee, O liberal God, on the decisive day, does he that strives obtain booty." (Rig- Veda 7. 32. 14.) So there is no doubt that faith means the belief in the existence of the gods, and their interference in the life of man. It would be doing injustice to those 1 88 The Religion of the Veda early believers to say that they did not develop t idea beyond this stage of mere primary utility. later text of the Yajur-Veda says: Faith is trut and unfaith is lies : " The creator (Prajapati) having beheld two qualiti separated truth and lie from one another. He put u faith into lie, faith he placed into truth." (Vajasaneyi Samhita 19. 77.) Next, faith is wisdom ; faith isthesisterof wisdoi The fool saith in his heart, " there is no god," order to disprove his folly it becomes needful couple the ideas of Faith and Wisdom. From a lat time we have very interesting accounts of the initi tion of disciples, and their instruction in the Veda Teacher and pupil in a kind of dramatic dialogue car on the solemn action : " Teach me the revealed boo (of the Veda), my Lord !" saith the pupil. " I teai thee the revealed books," replieth the teachc " Teach me the Vedic tradition, my Lord!" saith tl pupil. " I teach thee the Vedic tradition," replic the teacher. " Teach me Faith and Wisdom, n Lord!" saith the pupil. " I teach thee Faith ai Wisdom." ' In another text, as the pupil puts on t'. sacred girdle which he wears during disciplehood, ] addresses it : • See ^ankhayana Grihyasutra 2. 7, and compare A(;valaya Grihyasutra 3. 9. I. Religious Conceptions and Feeling 189 " Daughter of Faith, born of Zeal, sister was she of the Seers that did create the beings. Do thou, O girdle, as- sign to us Thought and Wisdom ; also assign to us Zeal and Strength." (Atharva-Veda 6. 133. 4.) Faith kindles the sacrifice-fire and, by way of re- turn, the sacred fire, this chief emblem of Brahmani- cal religion, is in charge of both Faith and Wisdom : " Through Faith the fire is kindled, Through Faith the oblation is offered. Faith, that stands at the head of fortune, Her do we with our song proclaim." (Rig-Veda 10. 151. i.) On the other hand, the Brahmanical disciple appeals to Agni Jatavedas (the holy fire) to preserve for him faith and wisdom, to keep intact his memory, so that he may not forget the sacred texts, and to secure him in well-being.' Next, Faith becomes a person, a goddess. That would not be bad but for the mechanical character which she then assumes. Imagine — and in order to imagine this one must be pretty well steeped in Hin- duism — the frame of mind of a poet who skilfully exalts the goddess Faith, but finally asks her to accept oblations : ' (];ankhayana GriliyasHtra 2. 10. 6. igo The Religion of the Veda " Through Faith the gods obtain their divine quality Faith, the goddess, is the foundation of the world. May she pleased come to our sacrifice, Bring our wish as her child, and grant us immortality " Faith, the goddess, is the first-born of divine order. Upholder of all, foundation of the world. That Faith do we revere with our oblations ; May she create for us an immortal world." (Taittiriya Brahmanaj. 12. 3. i, 2.) " Faith dwells within the gods. Faith dwells upon this world. Faith, the mother of wishes — With oblations do we prosper her." (Taittirlya Brahmana 2. 8. 8). So far so good. AH that is still a development ( the idea of faith in harmony with a decent belief : personal gods. Unfortunately, the Vedicconceptic of faith, at least the prominent or average conceptio sinks to a much lower plane. In the main and in tl- end, faith expresses itself in works, and the Brahmai who are anything but mealy-mouthed have seen 1 it that they shall be benefited by these works. I other words, he who gives baksheesh {dakshind) t the Brahmans, he has faith {graddhd). In a hymn th; is otherwise not badly pitched the poet requests tli personified goddess Faith to make his poetic wor ■ take well with the liberal sacrificer, and to make hii Religious Conceptions and Feeling 191 persona grata " with him that giveth, and him that shall give." ' An exceedingly interesting hymn of the Atharva-Veda, not at all wanting in poetic inspiration, is addressed to the demoness " Grudge," or " Avarice." The name of the lady is Arati. Of course she is primarily an abstraction. Yet she appears as a full- fledged person : she has a golden complexion, is lovely, rests upon golden cushions; is in fact quite an Apsaras, or "schoene Teufelinne," as the old German poetry has it in for Venus. With all her charms she is coaxed to go away : "Bring (wealth) to us, do not stand in our way, O Arati ; do not keep from us the^sacrificial fee when it is being taken to us! Homage be to the power of grudge, to the power of baffling! Adoration to ArSti! "Him whom I implore with holy word (Vac Sarasvati), the yoke-fellow of thought, may Faith enter him to-day, aroused by the burnished soma drink! " (Atharva-Veda 5. 7. i, 5.) That is to say, when the burnished sotna drink sparkles in the cup, when the pious emotion that comes from the skilful hymn stirs the heart of the rich sacrificer, then enters into him Faith. But what kind ? The kind that drives out niggardliness. Then he gives to the Brahmans. How the Brahmans do long for baksheesh, especially when they are poor! ' Rig-Veda lo. 151. 2, 3. 192 The Religion of the Veda There is the record of one who plaintively ejac ulates: "What gentleman, desirous of more pos; essions will get us out of this wretched misery Who desireth to sacrifice, and who is willing t give presents? Who desireth long life from th gods?"' Even this mean and selfish construction of Faitl: on one famous occasion at least turns forth a bette side. A zealous young Brahman, Naciketas by name observes that baksheesh is by way of being freel; given. In fact his father Vajagravasa has performei a desperately pious sacrifice, the " All-his-property sacrifice" — luscious morsel for the Brahmans. H has given away in sacrifice and attendant fees a] that he possesses. Then Faith enters into the bo; Naciketas. He wishes, so to say, " to get into th band-wagon." He startles his father by asking: "Ti whom wilt thou give me?" The father replies : "T( death" — we can imagine the formula that woulc come from the lips of a modern fond father, if hi son were to ask him a question so very awkward Naciketas takes him literally and goes down t( Yama, the God of Death. He manages, however, t( get the better of Yama, not only enjoying hi hospitality, but also extracting from him certaii ' Atharva-Veda 7. 103. l. Cf. Ludwig, Der Rig-Veda, yo\. iii,, p 283^; the author, American Journal of Philology, vol. xvii, p. 408^ Religious Conceptions and Feeling 1 93 profound information concerning the riddle of existence.' Now I shall not claim that this important concept was unmixedly mean and unspiritual. Indeed we have seen that it is not wholly so. This much, how- ever, is clear that the anxious mind of the ritual is almost entirely fastened upon Faith as the promoter of the sacrifice and its attendant gifts to the Brah- mans. In the end aqraddha, " devoid of faith," is the typical epithet of the demons of avarice, the Panis, who withhold the cows from the gods and the Brahmans. One or two writers have the hardihood to put up a chain of four links : Faith, Consecration, Sacrifice, Baksheesh.' Since consecration {dikshd) in this connection means really nothing but ancient hocus-pocus preliminary to the sacrifice, where, we may ask, is there a franker avowal of shady motives that ordinarily present themselves elsewhere with a thick coat of whitewash ? But what is there in it for the sacrificer, we may ask? It is all very well for him to silence those rau- cous voices of demand, and keep giving — for a while. He must in the long run get something in return, or he will balk. Our texts, explicit if nothing else, leave no doubt in our minds as to the way in which ' See the first book of the Katha Upanishad. ' Atharva-Veda 15. 16. A. ff, ; Gopatha Brahmana I. 1.39. 13 194 The Religion of the Veda the sacrificer was rewarded, or thought he was re warded, under this otherwise monotonously one sided arrangement. We have seen that Faith (^raddha, is personified. Now the sacrifice, callec iskia, and the baksheesh, called (by another name] piirta, enter into a close compound, the ishtdpilrta They, in their turn, get to have a kind of persona reality, and turn into a kind of beneficent genius, oi perhaps better a kind of solid asset which become; useful with the gods during life, and, mark you, aftei death as well. During life, the god helps him whc sacrifices and gives baksheesh ; he adds to, does nol rob his property.' But it is for the most part i question of future reward. In a well-known funera hymn of the Rig- Veda the corpse is addressed mos1 realistically : " Do thou join the Fathers, do thou join Yama, joir thy ishtdpurta (that which thou hast sacrificed anc given to the priests) in the highest heaven ! " (Rig-Veda lo. 14. 8.) And the following is a particularly realistic treat ment of the same ideas. Again a dead man ij blessed as he goes to heaven : " Know him (the pious dead), O ye associated gods in the highest heaven, recognise his form ! When he shall have arrived by the paths that lead to the gods, disclose ' Rig-Veda 6. 28. 2. Religious Conceptions and Feeling 195 to him his ishtdpurta (that is, the merit which he has accumulated through sacrifice and liberality to the priests ) ! " (Taittirlya Samhita 5. 7. 7. i.) And so another poet, in a better vein, says in a verse that has become famous in India : " The highest step of Vishnu (that is the solar para- dise) is ever seen by the liberal giver : it is fixed like an eye in the heavens." (Rig- Veda i. 22. 20.) At a later time when the Hindus in their highest mood turn the ordinary gods into supernumeraries, when metempsychosis takes the place of a journey to heaven, when they have sloughed off priests, sacri- fice fire, spoon, and ghee, all that is changed,, The degraded (^raddha or Faith is replaced by Bhakti, " Devotion," that is, devotion to the Eternal True, Only Being that is at the root of all things. The ishtnpiirta, piled up in the savings-bank of heaven, where Yama and the Fathers are engaged in ever- lasting feasts, is replaced by karma, the accumulated deeds of a given lifetime and the attendant evolution which these deeds have worked upon the spirit. This so definitely shapes character as to determine the nature of the next rebirth, until a perfect life shall free the mortal from the toils of all existence. 196 'The Religion of the Veda and replace him in the bosom of the One True Being Of all this later on. However, even these saccharine promises abou' the accumulated credit given in heaven for sacrific( and baksheesh seem not to have been regarded b) the poet priests as a sufficient guarantee that thej might securely count upon that faith which mean' works useful to them. They employ another device Being skilled verse-smiths, they begin to use theii craft to forge chains of poetry which shall hold ricl patrons willing captives. They compose the so-callec ddna-stutis, " gift-praises," or gdthd ndraqahsyah " stanzas singing the praise of men." ' In dithyrambi< language exorbitant gifts on the part of generou; givers of old, mythic kings and patrons, are nar rated, so as to stimulate the potential patron of the present day. They sing these praises so stridentlj that the Vedic texts themselves, in their soberei moments, decry the " gift-praises " as lies and pollu tion. The poet of a " stanza singing the praise ol men " and the brandy-drunkard are likened unto on( another:, they are polluted, their gifts must not be accepted. I question whether the religious litera^ ture of any other people contains anything thai resembles either in character or extent the "gift ' C/. Ludwig, Der Rig-Veda, vol. iii., p. 2^A ff.J Bloomfield, T/u Atharva-Veda {Indo-Aryan Encyclopedia), p. 100. Religious Conceptions and Feeling 197 praises " of the Veda ; the type is thoroughly Hindu in its naivete and its boundlessness. To begin with, there is in the Rig- Veda a doubtless late hymn consecrated to Dakshina, or "Baksheesh." It is only a poetaster who under- takes, as he says, to unfold " the broad road of Baksheesh," /. e. to show how important it is to keep giving. Then, with refreshing obviousness he claims : " Those that give dakshina dwell on high in the heavens ; they that give horses dwell with the sun. They that give gold partake of immortality ; and they that give garments, O Soma, prolong their lives." (Rig-Veda 10. 107. 2.) There are forty or more " gift-praises " in the Rig- Veda alone ; they continue throughout the rest of the Veda. I do not mean to dwell upon them beyond a single example. We may remark, how- ever, that some of this baksheesh must have proved a veritable elephant on the hands of the receiver, except for the fact that it was as a rule imaginary baksheesh : " Listen, ye folks, to this : (a song) in praise of a hero shall be sung ! Six thousand and ninety cows did we get (when we were) with Kauruma among the Rugamas ! " Kauruma presented the Seer with a hundred jewels, ten chaplets, three hundred steeds, and ten thousand cattle." (Atharva-Veda 20. 127, i, 3.) igS The Religion of the Veda f Operations on such a scale are calculated to shoi the magnates of the present day meat-packing trus that they have yet to learn from these arch-flatterei a trick or two in the way of collecting cattle. If my hearers shall ask now what, after all thi; is the essence of Rig-Vedic religion, I am for m part not unready to answer in accordance wit hints thrown out before. It is poetry, or rathe: more precisely, poetic exaltation, or the pride an joy of poetic creativeness. This is at first conceive to be favored and promoted by the gods, becaus they get the fruit of it in the form of praise an flattery. The finer the frenzy of the poet and th more finished the product of his art, the bette pleased are the gods. Therefore the gods, next, cc operate with the poets, promoting their devotio and its expression. Finally, these twin factors c devoted fervor and its successful utterance i hymns and stanzas create sensations of satisfactio which are easily taken for sanctification. At fin the article is not very genuine. But it goes on bein the receptacle of better thoughts until it grows int what we may consider real religious feeling. To some extent we can test this statement b showing what the religious feeling of the Veda not, rather than what it is. The frank system ( barter of the sacrificer's soma and ghee for the god Religious Conceptions and Feeling 199 good gift and protection, with considerably more than one-eighth of one per cent, brokerage for the priest — that, surely, is not the religious feeling in the. souls of the composers of the Rig- Veda hymns. I have taken pains to show how constantly pres. ent is this external side of their religion : may the religion that is free from all external considerations, the religion from which is absent every form of safe-guarding self, throw the first stone. The contemplation of the glory of the gods as a matter of intellectual wonder is expressed times without end. It does not seem to me to have quite the true ring. It is perfunctory ; it is told by rote. God after god steps into line and gets it. They each in turn establish the heavens and the earth ; they start the sun on his course, almost indifferently well. Perhaps, as I have hinted before, their rotation in the ritual, rather than forgetfulness of the virtues of the preceding god, is the truth at the bottom of this kathenotheism or henotheism, as Max Miiller called it. It is polytheism grown cold in service, and un- nice in its distinctions, leading to an opportunist monotheism in which every god takes hold of the sceptre and none keeps it. Anyhow it is very me- chanical. No one who reads in the hymns the end- less accounts of the wonderful performances of the gods will deny that the poets at times grow truly 200 The Religion of the Veda warm and feel their theme. Sometimes they ar really carried away by it. But I do not believe tha either the greatness and majesty, or the incompre hensibleness of the gods, have produced a permanen impression of their superiority and perfection whicl should permit us to speak of settled intellectua religious consciousness in the Rig- Veda. ^ Most conspicuously there is no sentimental rek tion of any great depth between gods and men, an( therefore no piety in the higher sense of the word I mean piety that is not mere emotional self-excite ment, but reasonable and settled reverence of trie( and true gods. As a matter of fact the gods ar good, and, at least in a general way,they are jus also. In India, as we have seen, the gods have i; charge especially the xarder of the world, and that ii at the proper time, to the advantage of the supplian mortal. Conversely, and especially, god Varun stands ready to punish the wrong-doer. ^,Thepoet sometimes describe Varuna's power, and the sens of their own unworthiness or sinfulness in languag that reminds us of the Psalmist. VaruQaJiQwevei IS no longer pre-eminent even in the Rig- Veda : h has left no really lasting impression on India's relig ions. If Varuna had prevailed India would hav become monotheistic and theocratic, which it neve did. Religious Conceptions and Feeling 201 Occasionally a start is made towards a warmly glowing relation of love and confidence ; the singer in need of help trusts that the god will help him. But there is no permanent, clarified, unselfish love of the gods such as overrides the experience of their instability, such as lives down the melancholy fact that they do not always help. And we have seen ^what faith is in the Veda : it is the faith that mani- fests itself in works. The Vedic poets are trained " master-singers." Such poets are not likely to pene- trate far into the soul of man. There is no real warmth or depth, no passionate indistinct feeling, no unsatisfied longing which can be made hopefully en- durable, or even pleasurable and exalting, through the mystery of a relationship with perfect beings, un- derstood by each individual soul in its own way. Anything like a contemplative, trustful joy in the per- fection of the gods comes much later: it is of the Bhagavadglta, rather than the Rig- Veda. But these master-singers do believe in their own art ; in their wonderful poetry, and in the exaltation of mind which goes with its composition. The gods accept both the poetry and the devout mind at the value put upon them by the poets ; the poets are se- renely certain that the gods are well satisfied. ' This ' " Like (a cow) her calf so do the poets lick (the gods) with their prayers," says Rig- Veda lo. 123. I. 202 The Religion of the Veda then is the state of mind that approaches genuin and lasting reh'gious feeling in the Rig-Veda belief in the beauty and fitness of those glit tering, rhythmical, and assonant stanzas ; genuin rapture over the excited, throbbing mind, whil the glow of composition is upon the poet. Th poet calls himself vipra, " inspired " ; calls hi compositions vipah, "inspirations"; and when h composes, vepate mat?, " he is inspired in his mind. In the poet's pride of exquisite workmanship and th gods' unresisting admiration, the Rig- Veda make us forget at times that unpleasant economic founds tion of the performance, namely flattery and cajc lery of the gods — for what there is in it. ' Soon botl gods and men are engaged fraternally in promotin: devotion and its best possible expression in hymn; as things of intrinsic worth, as beautiful elevatei cosmic potencies. And so we finally find at th summit of this thought, the captivating and impoi tant prayer of the poet of the Savitrl stanza,' tha the god himself shall inspire his devotion. I have used the word "master-singers." We ma take this word quite stringently and seriously. Th hymns often allude to the songs of old that were conn ' Rig- Veda 8. 21. 6 puts this baldly to god Indra : " We cite yc hither with this prayer ; don't bethink yourself a minute. We ha^ wishes, you have gifts. Here we are with our songs." ' See above p 86. Religious Conceptions and Feeling 203 posed by the Rishis of the past. The very first hymn in the Rig- Veda strikes this note in its second stanza : " Agni, worthy to be adored by the ancient Rishis and the present ones — may he conduct the gods hither! " Another time a poet of the family of Kanva sings i; " In the spirit of the olden times do I dress out my songs like (the poet) Kanva, through which (god) Indra gets his fiery strength." Or again : " (Hear), O Indra, him that hath produced for thee a new and lovely song, with comprehending mind a pious song such as of yore has strengthened the di- vine order of the universe.'" In more confident or ecstatic temper, the poets often declare that they have produced new songs of praise, and that, in their opinion, these are first-rate songs. One poet recom- mends his " new, beautiful song of praise, that comes from the heart; " another exclaims : " I bring forward my word, the new, the fresh-born." With all due respect to their predecessors this pretty nearly amounts to saying that the new hymns are just as good as the old, in addition to having the charm of novelty. One thing is certain : we have nothing like beginnings before us. The Rig- Veda is pretty nearly the final expression of its own type of compo- sition. What comes later in the way of sacred poetry ' Rig- Veda 8. 6. ll ; cf. 8. 44. 12 ; 8. 76. 6. = Rig- Veda 8. 95. 5. 204 The Religion of the Veda is distinctly epigonal, or after-born. We are face t face with the finished product of this past age. If we consider that the theme is the worship of ur clarified polytheistic gods, but little advanced beyon the point where they originated somewhere in naturi or in a tolerably primitive consciousness, we ma say, taking the fat with the lean, that the pride c these poets in their work is justified. Of course w must not apply the chaster standards of a later time nor can we expect perfectly even results. Anyhov in the poet's own eyes the Rig-Vedic hymn is a thin of blameless, finished beauty. He has fashioned i as a skilled artisan a war chariot. He has filed it unt it is free fromall blemish," asgrain is winnowed in th winnowing-basket," " as ghee is clarified for the sacr fice." The heart of the poets is in their work, the are unquestionably giving the best they have. Th poems are their inspirations. In so far as they ris above their all too human interests, in so far as the are something higher than blarneying beggars, the lift themselves up through their own art rather tha the intrinsic qualities of the gods upon whom the spend their effortsr In the end the gods themselves take a hand in thes valuable and delectable poetic performances. A though they cannot directly furnish the metre; alliterations, beautiful words, and bold figures c Religious Conceptions and Feeling 205 speech, they can perform another service. They may furnish the devout mind, the inspiration that is behind the hymn. In fact the gods themselves per- form prayers, and fashion hymns: "May the gods who perform brahma (that is, prayer) furnish us their thrice-covering protection from evil ! " ' " Sing ye a brahma given by the gods!" exhorts a poet of the house of Kanva.' Prayer, or devotion, is so beautiful as to be imagined dressed out in glowing colors and bright garments : " May God Agni lift up our devotion that hath glowing color ! " or : " May God Agni place on high our brightly adorned devo- tion ! " ' Heaven and Earth, stable and orderly, guide the sacrifice, aglow with shining hymns.* Prayers, personified, go by the path of the divine order to the gods Indra and Agni ; they are the messengers be- tween the two worlds.' Hymnal beatification of prayer can scarcely reach higher than the follow- ing: " Prayer born of yore in heaven. Eagerly chanted in the holy assembly, Delightfully dressed out in bright array, Ours is that father-inherited prayer of old !" (Rig- Veda 3. 39. 2.) ' Rig-Veda 10.66. 5. ' Ibid., i. 37. 4 ; 8. 32. 7. *Jbid., I. 143. 7; 144. I. * Jiid., 4. 56. 2. ^ Ibid., 3. 12. 7 and I. 173. 3. 2o6 The Religion of the Veda The last step, namely that Prayer or Devotio itself becomes divine and assumes a tolerably distin( personality, deserves to hold our attention. Tt epithet "Goddess" is freely given to numeroi designations of prayer and devotion. There is tt " Goddess Devotion " (Dhl) ; the goddess " Love] Praise" (Sushtuti); the goddess " Holy Thought (ManTsha), and others.' And by an almost comic; tour de force, such as is possible only in Indi; Devotion, having become divine, turns into a re: personage who might in the company of the oth( gods call out a second layer of the same artick " Drink the soma, O ye Agvins, in the company ( Agni and Indra, of Varuna and Vishnu . . . i the company of all pious Devot'ons."' For the history of the human mind this last ou come, present in the ancient literature of this gifte people, is of unusual importance. The rather myst idea of the divinity of Devotion and its expressioi the notion that the sacred inspired thought an word can itself be god, will concern us more lat< on. From the point of view of religious feeling is the last and best word of the Hindus as to th nature of the divine. There comes to mind the fir; verse of the Gospel of John : " In the beginning Wc > See Rig- Veda 3. 18. 3 ; 4- 43- i ; 7- 34- i and 9 ; 8. 27. 13. '/«fl'8. 35. I/: Religious Conceptions and Feeling 207 the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word .was God." Here the original Greek for " Word " is Logos. This is not quite the same as the Hindu " Devotion," or " Holy Utterance," which we shall meet again in its finished expression as Brahma. The Logos originated in the philosophy of the Stoics and the Neo-Platonists : it is intellec- tual rather than emotional. But the two are alike in this : they seek the creative power and the crea. tive plan in the mind or heart of the universe rather than in its mechanical manifestations. We shall see farther on how very peculiar is the treatment which the Hindus gave to this important and original con- cept, led on thereto by the melancholy genius that may be supposed to preside over the hot sombre land. For the present, and in this connection, we may be satisfied to see the origin of this seemingly mystic idea exposed to our eyes with a degree of clearness that is not obscured by its mythological coloring. Like almost all other important religious ideas of the Hindus this idea, when analysed patiently with the help of their rich literature, sheds light on the seeming mysteries of other religions. LECTURE THE FIFTH. The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy. Statement of the problem — Time when theosophy originate — Metempsychosis and pessimism unknown in tl: earlier Vedic records — Place where the higher religic originated — Priest philosophy at the sacrifice — Th theosophic charade — Specimens of the theosoph charade — The riddle hymn of Dirghatamas — Interr lation between the sacrifice and theosophy — On tl supposed origin of theosophy with the royal caste- Criticism of this view — Transition from ritualist polytheism to theosophy — Early scepticism — "Gotte dammerung" — Failure of God Varuna — Monism, i the idea of unity^ — The creation hymn — Translatic and analysis of the creation hymn — Attempts at moni theism — Prajapati, the Lord of Creatures — Vifv. karman, creator of the universe, and kindred concej tions — Purusha, the world man — Brihaspati, the Loi of Devotion — Transcendental monotheistic conception "Time," "Love," etc. — Defects of the earlier mom theistic and monistic attempts. THE appreciation of the higher forms of Hindi ism has gotten to be one of the foremoi intellectual arts of our time, because the final resul of Hindu thought count really among the mo: noteworthy achievements of the human mind. I 208 The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 209 order to understand the origin and nature of the higher religion of the Veda it is necessary to twist many threads into a single skein. It is a question of when, where, by whom, and how ; each phase of this question, if considered aright, will contribute to the clearness of the whole. As regards the time when higher religious motives appear, I would remind my hearers of the indefinite and relative character of Vedic chronology. The older Upanishads, the Vedic texts which profess higher religion or theosophy, are written in about the same language and style as the so-called Brah- mana texts. These latter, as you may remember,' are prose works which, quite like the Hebrew Tal- mud, define the sacrifice with minute prescript and illustrative legend. And the older Upanishads are part of the Brahmanas; the majority of the older Upanishads, through the medium of the Aranyakas, join their theosophic speculations right on to the dead ritual. To some extent the bones of the ritual skeleton rattle about in early theosophy in quite a lively fashion. The Upanishads and theosophy are part of the Veda ; neither Hindu believer"nor*west- ern critic has ever doubted that. Now the thought of the Upanishads has its forerunners in all parts of Vedic literature clear back to the Rig- Veda ; in the ' See above, p. 43. •4 2IO The Religion of the Veda Atharva-Veda it even shows signs of at least tern porary going to seed. ' We cannot expect the family-books of the Rig- Veda, or the ninth, some book to break out in theosophy. These books arc collections of hymns addressed to the gods at £ definite sacrifice : to that business they attend. Il does not follow that what they do not mention doc; not exist at that time. We must beware of toe straight-lined a view of these matters, one type fol lowing another like a row of bricks, or like different troops of the same army. I am not wise enough tc say when the following stanza was pronounced " They call (it) Indra, Mitra, Varuna, and Agni, oi the heavenly bird Garutmant (the Sun). The sages call the One Being in many ways ; they call it Agni, Yama, Matarigvan." This verse states that the great gods of the Veda are but One Being ; therefore it at once takes a high stand in the range of possible human thought. And yet it occurs in a hymn of the Rig- Veda, namely, the famous riddle-hymn of Dirghatamas, in the first book of that collection.' Another statement in the tenth book ' is as follows : " That One breathed ' Some stanzas of the Atharvan occupy the most advanced position of the Upanishads. For instance, lo. 8. 44 : " Free from desire, true, eternal, self-begotten, full of joy, subject to none, he no longer fears death who knows the wise, ageless Atman." ' Rig- Veda I. 164. 46. ^ Rig-Veda 10. 129. 2. The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 211 without breath, by inner power; than it, truly, nothing whatever else existed besides." Here are two statements in two Brahmanical hymns, composed in the trishtubh metre, the sana^ metre in which the Vedic poets love to call upon their fustian god Indra, and yet their intention is unmistakable. They herald monism ; they claim that there is but one essence, one true thing: it is but a step from such ideas to the pantheistic, abso- lute, without a second, Brahman-Atman of the Upanishads and the later Vedanta philosophy. On the other hand, there are in the earlier religion, whether it be hymn and sacrifice to the gods, or theosophic thought, no clear signs of belief in the transmigration of souls ; no pessimistic view of life, and consequently no scheme of salvation, or rather release (inukti) from the eternal round of existences, in which birth, old age, ^cay, and death are the nodal points in the chain of lives. That this phase of the higher religion belongs to a later time, to a different geographical locality, and to an economic and social state different from that of the earliest Vedic time, seems exceedingly likely. | Sowe are led to the conclusion that there was a periodof monistic speculation, tentative in character, yet fairly ad- vanced at the time of the composition of at least the later hieratic hymns of the Rig-Veda.\ But this 2 1 2 The Religion of the Veda higher religious thought lacked the twin factors c metempsychosis and pessimism which really detei mine its Hindu character. Pessimist view of tran; migration, and release from transmigration are th true signs of Hinduism in the broadest sense of tha word: through these twin conceptions the Hindi idea, as we may call it, is marked off from all the res of human thought ; without these, Hindu specula tions about the divine might readily pose as a kind o Volapuk, or Esperanto, for all the world of religiou thought from the Prophets and Plato to Spinoza am Kant. We may safely date the entrance of metem psychosis and pessimism towards the end, rather thai the beginning of Vedic tradition. It seems to marl a most important division of the Veda into tw( periods. Other marks, such as more or less advance( priestly ritual ; the presence or absence of complica ted witchcraft practices; the sudden and. unexpectec glint of a brilliant theosophic idea ; or the varying forms of Vedic literary tradition involve real distinc tions of time, but they are more gradual, and an easily construed subjectively. They do not, at an) rate, involve anything as vital as the presence o: absence of that pessimist doctrine of transmigratior which holds India captive — to its cost — even at the present day. Next, where did the higher religion spring up The Beginnings of Hindu Tlieosophy 213 There is at this time no centre of learning, no stoa, no monastery, no university. With the beginning of the growth of the higher religion there are con- nected many names, but not one name. There is no great teacher of genius like Buddha who is of a later time. We have no reason to look to some confined space within which this business of world philosophy was carried on exclusively. Indeed, the sporadic, tentative nature of the earliest high thought, the way in which it was approached from many different sides and in many different moods, shows that it flitted about from place to place, and was the play-ball of many minds. But, I believe, we can tell pretty defi- nitely the kind of environment from which tlieosophy received its first impulse, and within which it pros- pered up to goodly size and strength. That, curi- ously enough, was the great Vedic sacrifice with its mock business and endless technicalities, calculated to deaden the soul, and apparently the very thing to put the lid tight on higher religious inspiration and aspiration. The great Vedic sacrifices, the so-called qrauta sac- rifices, such as the rdjasxlya (coronation of a king), or the aqvatnedha (horse-sacrifice) were performances intended to strengthen the temporal power of kings. They were, of course, undertaken either by kings or at least rich Kshatriyas, rather than by the class of 214 The Religion of the Veda smaller house-holders who could not afford them, and did not have any use for them. They had in them the elements of public, tribal or national festivals.' Of course they were expensive. A large number of priests were present. We have seen in the past that these gentlemen were not at all shy about asking fees {dakshind) for their services. Now we are told dis- tinctly that the Vedic Kings, or tribal Rajas, were not only interested in the mechanical perfection and outward success of the sacrifices undertaken under their patronage, but that they were even more im- pressed by the speculative, mystic, and theosophic thoughts which were suggested by various phases of the sacrifice. Both in the Brahmanas and in the Up- anishads kings appear as questioners of the great Brahmans who solve for them some knotty sacrificial problem, or even some question connected with the riddle of existence. Whenever their questions are answered to their satisfaction, in the midst of a continuous discourse, the King again and again is excited to generosity : " I give thee a thousand (cows)," says King Janaka of Videha to the great theosopher Yajnavalkya, as the latter unfolds his marvellous scheme of salvation in the " Great Forest Upanishad." ' Kings were known to give away their ' C/. Ludwig, Der Rig.Veda, vol. vi., p. x. ' BrihadSranyaka Upanishad 4. 13. \\ff. The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 215 kingdoms on such occasions, and kings became them- selves glorious expounders of theosophic religion. The beginnings of theosophic thought are not in the Upanishads but, as we have said before, in the polytheistic and ritualistic religion that preceded the Upanishad. Especially in connection with the great sacrifices of the kind iust mentioned the Brahmans, in the long run, found it to their advantage to impress the " generous givers," the patrons of the sac- rifice, not only with their mastery of sacrificial tech- nique, but also with their theological profundity. To some extent learned theological discussions in prose, of ahighly scholastic(Talmudic)nature, fulfil this pur- pose. This we may call the philosophy of the sacri- fice, such as is displayed, for instance, in the exposi- tion of iht agnihotra sacrifice in ^atapatha Brahmana 1 1. 6. 2. But furthermore, they employ a very inter- esting form of poetic riddle or charade to enliven the mechanical and technical progress of the sacrifice by impressive intellectual pyrotechnics. I question whether such a type of religious literature is known in any other religion, or whether the riddle has ever elsewhere been drafted into the service of religion as one of the stages of its advancement. In other words, religious charades are a part of Hindu re- ligious literature.' ' See Ilaug, Vedische Rdthselfragen und JiathselsprUche, Transac- 2x6 The Religion of the Veda The Vedic word for higher speculative discussion as a whole, and especially for the religious, mostly poetic, riddle is brahmodya or brahmavadya, that is, " analysis or speculation about the brahma, or relig- ion." It is very generally carried on by two priests, one of whom asks questions, the other answers them. It is a kind of theological " quiz," prearranged by the two parties : questioner and responder know their parts to perfection. At the horse-sacrifice two priests ask and answer : "Who, verily, moveth quite alone ; who, verily, is born again and again ; what, forsooth, is the remedy for cold ; and what is the great (greatest) pile " ? The answer is : "The sun moveth quite alone ; the moon is born again, and again ; Agni (fire) is the remedy for cold ; the earth is the great (greatest) pile." ' The priest called Hotar asks the priest called Adhvaryu : " What, forsooth, is the sun-like light ; what sea is there like unto the ocean ; what, verily, is higher than the earth ; what is the thing whose measure is not known " ? The answer is : " Brahma is the sun-like light ; heaven is the sea like tionsof the Munich Academy, 1875, p. T ff. of the reprint ; Ludwig, Der nig- Veda, vol. iii., p. 390 ff.; the author, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. xv., p. 172. 1 Vajasaiicyi Samhita 23. 9 and 10. The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 217 unto the ocean ; (the god) Indra is higher than the earth ; the measure of the cow is (quite) unknown. ' ' Again the following questions and answers : " I ask thee for the highest summit of the earth ; I ask thee for the navel of the universe ; I ask thee for the seed of the lusty steed ; I ask thee for the highest heaven of speech." " This altar is the highest summit of the earth ; this sacrifice is the navel of the universe ; this soma (the in- toxicating sacrificial drink) is the seed of the lusty steed (God Indra ?) ; this Brahman priest is the highest heaven (that is to say, the highest exponent) of speech, " ' It is interesting to note that these riddles show us again the Hindu mind preoccupied with the nature phenomena of the world, at a time when the old nature gods have become completely crystallised. Again, as regards the status of these riddles, the Kena Upanishad opens with a very similar pair of riddle-stanzas, showing that the state of mind at the bottom of nature-worship, brahmodya, and Upani- shad marks advancing mental interests, but yet advance along the same line. The Rig- Veda (i. 164) contains a hymn which is nothing but a collection of fifty-two verses of poetry, all of them, except one, riddles whose answers are not given. There can be little doubt that the occa- ' The same text, 23. ^^ and 48. ' Jbid., 23. 61 and 62. 2 1 8 The Religion of the Veda sion upon which these riddles were let off was the same as with those just cited, namely, the sacrifice. The subjects of these riddles are cosmic, that is, per- taining to the nature phenomena of the universe ; mythological, that is, referring to the accepted legends about the gods ; psychological, that is, pertaining to the human organs and sensations ; or, finally, crude and tentative philosophy or theosophy. Heaven and earth, sun and moon, air, clouds and rain ; the course of the sun, the year, the seasons, months, days and nights; the human voice, self-conscious- ness, life and death ; the origin of the first creature and the originator of the universe— such are the abrupt and bold themes. Here figures also (stanza 46) that seemingly precocious statement which con- tains the suggestion, symptomatic for all future Hindu thought, namely, that above and behind the great multitude of gods there is one supreme person- ality ; behind the gods there is that " Only Being " of whom the gods are but various names — noXXwv ovo/xdrayy fiopcptf jxia; " They call it Indra, Mitra, Varuna, and Agni, or the heavenly bird Garutniant (the sun). The sages call the One Being in many ways ; they call it Agni, Yama, Matariyvan. " How closely attached to the sacrifice theosophic speculations remained as they grew in clearness and The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 219 importance, we cannot say ; all that we can say is, that in time the two intrinsically uncongenial themes p.a2led_cornpany. Nor can we assert that theosophic -thought would not have sprung up in the Hindu mind, endowed as we see it to be, independently from the sacrifice and its perverted scholastic scintil- lations. Given the mind, the thought will come. But it is easy to see that the beginnings of higher religion started around the sacrifice, by calling out the higher aspirations of the patrons of the sacrifice. Wisdom-searching Rajas, weary of the world, Janaka and Ajata^atru at an earlier time, Buddha and Bim- bisara at a later time, have as much to do with the development of Hindu religion as the .thirst for newer and larger truth on the part of the Brahmans themselves. The Rajas were the Ma:cenases of the " poor clerics." We imagine very easily that some of them got a surfeit of the world, and were attracted to the things beyond. The beginnings of theosophy grew up around the sacrifice which was under their patronage. The Brahmans grew up to their patrons* — and, we may add, to their own — higher needs. They began to offer these patrons something more than ritual technicalities. In the long run they must hold their position and reputation by something better than by handling with ludicrous correctness fire-wood and sacrificial ladle ; soma drink and obla- 220 The Religion of the Veda tions of melted butter. And in the long run thei minds, which somehow, the hocus-pocus of the sac rifice had neither deadened nor satisfied, rose ti those higher and permanent requirements which le( to practical abandonment of the sacrifice and lastini devotion to philosophic religion. The question, next, as to who carried on th higher religion has been answered incidentally i: what has just been said. If what is stated there i stated correctly, we shall not go astray if we assume that the Brahmans were the mainspring in the ad vance of higher thought, just as they were the mail factors in the worship of the gods and in ceremonia practices. But this same question requires to bi stated more precisely for the following reason. / number of distinguished scholars have recently ad vanced the theory that Hindu theosophy is not, a has been tacitly assumed, in the main the produc of Brahmanical intellect, but that it was due to th( spiritual insight of the Royal or Warrior Caste. Professor Garbe of the University of Tubingen an eminent student of Hindu philosophy and a' the same time a scholar well versed in the earlj literature of the Vedas, is the most ardent advo' • See Deussen, Allgemeine Ges(kichte der Philosophie, vol. i., par 2. pp. 354^-; Garbe, Beitrdge zur Indischen Kulturgeschichte^ pp. ; ff.\ Winternitz, Gcschichte der Indischen Litteratur,'^^. ifjdff. The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 221 cate of this view. Garbe is not at all an admirer of Brahman civilisation; on more than one oc- casion has he poured out the vials of his just wrath against the intolerable pretensions and cruel- ties which the Brahmans have practised during the period of their ascendancy in India through several milleniums. But not content with that, he believes that the Brahmans were not only bold bad men, but also that they were too stupid to have worked their way from the sandy wastes of ritualism to the green summits where grows the higher thought of India. For centuries the Brahmans were engaged in ex- cogitating sacrifice after sacrifice, and hair-splitting definitions and explanations of senseless ritualistic hocus-pocus. " All at once," says Professor Garbe, " lofty thought appears upon the scene. To be sure, even then the traditional god-lore, sacrificial lore, and folk-lore are not rejected, but the spirit is no longer satisfied with the cheap mysteries that surround the sacrificial altar. A passionate desire to solve the riddle of the universe and its relation to the own self holds the mind captive ; nothing less will satisfy henceforth. " Parts of this observation of Professor Garbe are correct, nay even familiar. But not every part, it seems to me. Having in mind Yajnavalkya and Uddalaka Aruni of the Upanishads, or (^ankara and 222 The Religion of the Veda Kumarila of the Vedanta Philosophy, one may fairly doubt the unredeemed stupidity of the Brahmans at any period of India's history. I would, for my part, question more particularly the expression "all at once " in the above statement. Mental revolutions rarely come all at once, least of all in India. The evidence of India's remarkably continuous records shows that every important Hindu thought has its beginning, middle, and final development. As regards theosophy, its beginnings are found in the Vedic hymns ; its middle in the Upanishads ; and its final development in the " Sys- tems " of Philosophy, like the Vedanta and Sankhya of later times. I am afraid that Professor Garbe has somehow gotten into the state of mind that there is only one kind of good Brahman, namely, a dead Brahman, to paraphrase a saying about that other Indian, the American Indian. Selfishness, foolish- ness, bigotry, and cruelty galore — the marks of these some Brahmans have left in their compositions, fool- ishly as behooves knaves. But there were, and there are, Brahmans and Brahmans. The older Upani- shads, written in approximately the same language and style as the so-called prose Brahmana (Talmudic) texts, figuring largely as parts of these compositions, were composed by Brahmans who had risen to the conviction that not " the way of works " lies the The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 223 salvation that is knowledge. Countless Brahman names crowd these texts : Naciketas and ^vetaketu, Gargya and Yajnavalkya, and many others. Even the wives or daughters of great Brahmans, GargI and Maitreyl, take part in spiritual tourneys, and occasionally, as in the case of GargI in the Great Forest-Upanishad (3. 6 and 8), rise to a subtler ap- preciation than the Brahman men of the mystery of the world and the riddle of existence. The scholars mentioned have been attracted to their position by the interesting fact that the Up- anishads narrate several times that the ultimate philosophy was in the keeping of men of royal caste^ and that these warriors imparted their knowledge to Brahmans. This is put in such a way that the Brah- man, after having aired his own stock of theosophy " lays down " before the king's superior insight. The king is then represented as graciously bestowing his saving knowledge upon the Brahman. Once or twice, however, the king turns braggart, and mars his gen- erosity by claiming that the warrior caste are the real thing, and that they alone in all the world are able to illumine *;hese profound and obscure matters. Thus the extreme example of this kind is narrated in two Upanishads.' The Brahman (^vetaketu Aruni, ignorant of the doctrine of transmigration, is com- ' Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad 6. 2 ; Chandogya Upanishad 5. 3. 224 The Religion of the Veda polled to look for instruction to King Pravahana Jaivali, who receives him graciously and condescends to become his teacher. In the course of his preach- ment the King says to the Brahman : " Because, as thou hast told me, this doctrine ere this and up to thy time has not been in vogue among the Brahmans, therefore in all the world sovereignty has re- mained in the hands of the warrior caste. As surely as we desire that thou and all thy ancestors shall remain well-disposed towards us, so surely has to this day no Brahman ever possessed this knowledge." I doubt whether this statement, and others' of a similar nature, justify us in regarding the warrior caste as the spiritual saviors of India. As regards King Pravahana Jaivali's statement, it is specious on the face of it. For what have royalty and transmi- gration to do with one another? In its essence the doctrine of transmigration has no more regard for royalty than for the lowest caste, because its purpose is release from any form of individual existence (see the sixth lecture). Then again, the very texts that narrate these exploits of the Kshatriyas are un- questionably Brahmanic. Would the arrogance and selfishness of the Brahmans have allowed them to preserve and propagate facts calculated to injure permanently their own standing? Surely not. The situation is somewhat as follows : there never The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 225 was a time in India when the Aryas, that is, the three upper of the four ancient castes, were excluded from Brahmanical piety.' Now, as theo- sophy, by its very terms, shuts down on the ritual, the special profession of the Brahmans, there is nothing at all in it to exclude occasional intelligent and aspiring men from the other noble (Arya) castes. This is true even at the present day : SvamI Vive- kananda was no Brahman, but a member of the Kayastha or clerk caste. The Chandogya Upani- shad (4. 4) narrates how Satyakama, the son of the gadabout servant-maid Jabala, was admitted to Brahmanic disciplehood by Haridrumata, for the very reason that he did not try to cover up his low birth. Satyakama, in the end, obtains the highest knowledge. When it comes to higher religion the bars are consciously let down at all times. In the Mokshadharma of the Mahabharata' the Vaigya (Vanik) caste man Tuladhara, " seller of juices, scents, leaves, barks, fruits, and roots," teaches righteous- ness to the Brahman Jajali, In the same text ' the Rishi Paragara declares that Brahmans learned in the Veda regard a virtuous (^udra, or low caste man, as the equal of Brahmans. ' Compare Pandit ShySmaji Krishnavarma, Transactions of the Fifth International Congress of Orientalists, vol. ii., p. 2i8_^. ' 12. 261/". ' 12. 290/". •5 226 The Religion of the Veda Here, I think, is where the good Brahman, of w'aom Professor Garbe will not hear, comes in. The Brahman authors of the Upanishads, just as high- minded Brahmans of all ages, were honest and liberal enough to permit all fit men to participate in higher religious activity, in wisdom and in piety. Nay, they express particular admiration in such participa- tion, because, after all, there was to them something unexpected in all this. They were carried away by it to a certain ecstasy, the kind of ecstasy that goes with a paradox, as when the son of a peasant in Europe works his way to a professorship in a uni- versity. As regards the Rajas, or other nobles, we must not forget, too, that they were after all the source from which all blessings flowed. Even in theosophic occupation the Brahman remains, as I have said before, the poor cleric with the Raja as his M£Ecenas. I think that any one who reads these statements of royal proficiency in the highest wisdom attentively will acknowledge that they are dashed in the Upanishads, as they are in the Ritual, with a goodly measure of captatio benevolentice. In other words, the genuine admiration of high-minded nobles is not necessarily divorced from the subconscious- ness that it is well to admire in high places. Even really good Brahmans might do that. If King Janaka of Videha punctuates the Brahman The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 227 Yajnavalkya's brilliant exposition of theosophy by repeated gifts of a thousand co\ys — we may wonder who counted them, and what Yajnavalkya did with them— King Ajatagatru of Benares, real intellectual as he is, will not allow admiring Brahmans to starve. I think that a saying of the modern sage and pious ascetic, the Paramahansa Ramakrishna, ' throws essentially the right light upon the exceptional character of the theosophic exploits of kings : " Men always quote the example of the King Janaka, as that of a man who lived in the world and yet attained perfection. But throughout the whole history of mankind there is only this solitary example. His case was not the rule but the exception." We may tone down this statement, and apply it to the present question as follows : Not all Brahmans were intellec- tually or morally sound, but some Brahmans were at all times, as they were in the days of (^ankara and Kumarila, the intellectual leaders of India ; brilliant helpers from the other castes, more especially the Royal caste," lent occasional aid, and this aid justly compelled acknowledgment and admiration. I am now come at last to the " how " of Hindu higher thought, that is, my task is now to show how the main or essential thoughts of Hindu theosophy ' See Max Mllller, f!dmakrislwa, His Life and Sayings, p. 127, ' See above. \i. 219. 228 The Religion of the Veda arose. In the transition from the nature gods, the legends, the ritual, and the folk-lore practices, to the settled theosophy of later times, many conceptions flit like phantoms across the vision of these specu- lators or seers, sometimes not to be heard of a second time. The air is charged with experimental, electric thought. No religious or philosophic literature of ancient times has buried so many " lost children " as the Hindu in the storm and stress period that ends with the Upanishads. No people of thinkers have started to rear so many edifices of thought to be abandoned without regret or scruple when found wanting in the end. They have left behind them many a ruin which they might well enough have finished, and within which the religious thinkers of many another nation, less exacting, would have cheerfully settled upon as permanent and congenial habitations. Philip Sidney's saying: " Reason can- not show itself more reasonable than to leave off reasoning on things above reason," does not hold with the Hindus. They would certainly have stig- matised such sweet reasonableness as the philosophy of sloth, if they had ever heard of it. On the contrary, the old questions of whence, why, and ivhither fascinate and enthrall their thoughts from the time of the Vedic Rishis to the present day. Remarkable as this may sound, we have really no The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 229 record of any period of Hindu thought of which we can say definitely that it was wanting in the highest and most strenuous thought, from the time of the riddle-hymn of Ditghatamas and the creation-hymn,' to the modern Vedantins and Paramahansas of the jtype of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. To begin with, negatively speaking, there are at a very early time traces of scepticism. The old myth- ological gods in strong flesh tints are just the least bit disconcerting. There are those who begin to say of the gods : " They are not," and, doubtless, there is a growing number of those who begin to weaken in that faith {^raddha) which means monotonously sacrifice, and. gifts to the Brahmans. The way in which the Veda insists upon this faith shows that it could not always be taken for granted. Especially the god Indra who is a good deal of a Bombastes Furioso must have presented himself to the eye of the more enlightened as a brummagem god, tricky, braggart, drunken, and immoral. Indra, like Zeus, will have his fling. There is a story about himself and a lady by the name of Ahalya in which he assumes the outer form of that lady's august priestly husband for his own purposes, and this as well as other treacherous acts are a fruitful source of moral- ising in the later Veda. Even in the Rig- Veda, if ' Rig-Veda l. 164 and 10. 129. 230 The Religion of the Veda we read between the lines, there are those who mock Indra, and those who apologise for him : "Bring lovely praise to Indra, vying one with the other, truthful praise, if he himself be true. Even though one or another says : ' Indra is not, who ever saw him, who is he that we should praise him?' " (Rig- Veda 8. 100. 3.) Or again : "The terrible one of whom they ask, 'where is he?' Nay verily they say of him, 'he is not at all'. He makes shrink the goods of his enemy hke a gambler the stakes of his opponent : Put your faith in him — He, O folks, is Indra." (Rig- Veda 2. 12. 5.) Hence they that have no faith are called aqraddha, " infidel," or anindra, "repudiators of Indra.'" ' Every onward movement of Hindu thought takes place at the expense of the old gods of nature ; the divine attribute becomes more important than the mythological person. The individual natural history of the gods becomes a thing of minor interest. In this sense polytheism is decadent even in the hymns of the Rig- Veda themselves. It shows signs of going to seed for philosophy. The gods in turn perform about the same feats of creating and up- holding the world : the interest of the poets in the acts has evidently increased at the expense of the ' Rig-Veda 7. 6. 3 and 5. 2. 3. ; lo. 48. 7. The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 231 agents. The gods, too, we must not forget, have taken, very mechanically, fixed positions in the ritual devoted to their service. One thing is certain, in the host of figures that crowd the canvass in the transition period from mythology to theosophy the v.ature gods play no real role. They are, if not ex- actly abandoned, at least relegated to a subordinate position and treated with comparative coldness. Every embodiment of the divine idea is now abstract or symbolic. The higher forms of early Hindu re- ligion operate decidedly from the ontological side, from the severely intellectual side. Faith and piety, sentiment and emotion, right and wrong, invariably take the second place, as long as there is to settle the question of the universe, the great cosmos ; man, the little cosmos; time; space; causality. There- fore, perhaps, the plastic possibilities of the early gods through poetry, legend, and the art of repro- duction remain in India a coarse-grained exercise of second rate power : one needs but to call up for comparison the part that Greek mythology plays in Greek literature and art. -" It is interesting to test this on the person of one great nature god of the early time. We have seen that in a very early prehistoric time, the common period of the Hindus and Iranians, there existed a high view of the gods as moral forces, as the omni- 232 The Religion of the Veda sclent guardians of the moral law and order of the universe. Avestan Ahura Mazda and Vedic Varuna are the guardians-in-chief of the rta, the cosmic and moral order of the universe and man.' Vedic Varuna in his ethical strength has a Hebraic flavor. By the side of even the loftiest figure and the loftiest traits of the Hellenic or Teutonic Pantheon Varuna stands like a Jewish prophet by the side of a priest of Dagon. And yet what permanent moral strength have the Hindus derived from Varuna, and what be- comes of Varuna himself in the course of his de- velopment ? A second rate Neptune, " Lord of the Waters," a mere stage figure. In the straight-lined advance, looking neither to the right nor to the left, to the recognition of the one Brahma, the universal spirit, as the one Reality, and the consequent illu- soriness of the entire phenomenal world, there is really no more room for righteous and stern Varuna than for an idol of clay, unless you can make out that Varuna is but a particular manifestation of the One Brahma, and then he is no more important than any other manifestation. The absence of a strong chronological scaffolding is felt not only for the events of Hindu history, but also for the events of Hindu thought. It is the cus- tom to speak rather glibly of " late " and " early " in ' See above, p. 126. The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 233 these thought movements. As a matter of fact we are at the beginning of higher Hindu thought con- fronted with its most important and most permanent idea. Some poets of the Vedic time, writing, not badly, in Vedic metre, see more or less clearly that the idea of God, in so far as it can be conceived at all, presupposes the idea of absolute unity. It is a thought both independent and of leonine boldness. Independent, because there is no suspicion of foreign thinkers, or foreign literature. Bold, because it will soon lead to the conclusion that there is but one real thing, one " That," one ding mi sich, which ex- ists both in the universe and in man, and that all else is illusion. Whatever else we may say of this con- ception, a bolder conception has not emanated from the brain of man ; a bolder conception cannot, per- haps, come from the brain of man. We have become acquainted with one expression of this unity in the hymn of Dirghatamas' : " They call it Indra, Mitra, Varuna, and Agni, or the heavenly bird Garutmant (the sun). The sages call the one being in many ways ; they call it Agni, Yama, Matarigvan." Professor Deussen, in his History of Philosophy," remarks that no more epoch-marking word has been uttered in India until we come to the famous tat tvam ast, ' Rig-Veda 1.164.46. ' Allgemdne Geschichte der Philosophie, vol. i., part i, p. 106, 234 The Religion of the Veda " thou art the That," of the Chandogya Upanishad. Lest some one should suspect this to be a mere blundering thought for the nonce, a kind of freak or sport of mental rumination, the same Dirghatamas hymn contains the idea several times more ; for instance in stanza 6 : " In ignorance do I ask here them that haply know, Who did support the six regions of the world ? What was, forsooth, this one unborn thing " ? The tenth book of the Rig-Veda contains the famous creation hymn (10.129). This remarkable production has always interested Sanskritists pro- foundly ; it has also passed over into the general literature of religion and philosophy. That great and sober critic, the late Professor William D. Whitney, remarked anent it in 1882, that the unlimited praises which had been bestowed upon it, as philosophy and as poetry, were well-nigh nauseating.' And yet, twelve years later, in 1894, Deussen, who, I am sure, is not trying to contradict Whitney, breaks out into new praise, more ecstatic than ever : " In its noble simplicity, in the loftiness of its philosophic vision it is possibly the most admirable bit of philosophy of olden times." And again, " No translation can ever do justice to the beauty of the original."' I think ' Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, vol. xi., p. cxi. ' History of Philosophy, vol. i., part i, pp. iig and 126. The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 235 we may grant that the composition shows a good deal of rawness, unevenness, and inconsistency. Yet it is perhaps easier to undervalue such a performance than to exaggerate its importance. It occurs in one of the earliest literatures of the world ; it brushes aside all mythology, and it certainly exhibits philosophic depth and caution when it designates the fundamen- tal cause of the universe not by a name, but as " that " {tad), or " the one thing " {ckam). But let my hearers judge for themselves: FIRST STANZA. " Nor being was tliere nor non-being ; there was no atmosphere and no sky beyond. What covered all, and where, by what protected ? Was there a fathom- less abyss of the waters ? " The poet describes as deftly as possible a pri- mordial chaos. There was not non-being, for that is unconceivable ' ; there was not being in the ordinary experience of the senses. What was there? The poet in the next stanza carries on his negation and then abruptly presses forward to a positive con- clusion : SECOND STANZA. " Neither death was there nor immortality ; there > Cf. Chandogya Upanishad 6. 2, 2, 236 The Religion of the Veda was not the sheen of night nor light of day. That One breathed, without breath, by inner power ; than it truly nothing whatever else existed besides" The poet is careful in his thought of what posi- tively was. It is " That One " {tad ekant) ; it exists and breathes, but it breathes in a higher sense, with- out breath (hterally " wind ") which is physical and material. It is difficult to imagine a more cautious, or even a more successful attempt to conceive and express a first cause or principle without personality. Yet we must not fail to observe that even so subtle a conception as the neuter " That One " is furnished with the anthropomorphic attribute of breath, be- cause after all, in the long run, it must be decked out in some sort of flesh and blood. The third stanza takes up anew the description of chaos, and follows it up with a second description of the primal force : THIRD STANZA. " Darkness there was, hidden by darkness at the beginning ; an unillumined ocean tvas this all. The living force which was enveloped in a shell, that one by tlie might of devotional fervor was born." Unquestionably we have here the idea, frequently expressed in the Brahmana tales of the creator Prajapati.' According to this the primal being be- ' See below, p. 240. The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 237 gins to create through the force of devotion {iapas). Here an even more primary condition is assumed : the fundamental force is itself put forth by, or is born from, devotion. This devotional fervor marks either another start at a primeval cause, or, paradox- ical as this may seem, is the devotional fervor of the yet uncreated sages. Anyhow these sages appear upon the scene as dci ex machhia in the next stanza, and then, after this gap has been spanned, the work of creation can really proceed. FOURTH STANZA. '^^ Desire arose in the beginning in That ; it was the first seed of mind. The sages by devotion found the root of being in non-being, seeking it in {their) heart." Desire, Kama, the equivalent of Greek "Epcos " Love," means here the desire to live ; it is the first possible seed or fruit of the mind, for there is no conceivable action of the mind which is not preceded by life. The second hemistich introduces an even more primordial creative role on the part of the sages, whose devotion is the real promotive force in the act of creation. The poet does not tell whence come the sages at this stage of the drama. The production of this creation, which is here defined as "being" coming out of "non-being," contradicts, the first stanza where " non-being" is denied : " How 238 The Religion of the Veda can 'being' com«; out of * non-being?' " asks the Chandogya Upanishad (6, 2. 2). Moreover it ignores the previously postulated " That Only " which by its terms eliminates " non-being." The poet here un- questionably entangles himself in sham-profundity ; he had better left out all reference to "non-being" ; it is a term handled by the Hindus with a degree of deftness which is in the inverse ratio to their fondness for it. The hymn continues with a mystical fifth stanza which is obscure, and in any case unimportant. Then it takes a wholly new turn into the direction of philosophic scepticism. This is quite unexpected in the wake of "That Only," in whose mind creative desire had sprung forth : it ought to, aided by its own or the sages' creative fervor, go on to create the world, if it does anything at all : SIXTH STANZA. " W/io truly knoweth ? Who can here proclaim it ? Whence hither born, whence cometh this creation ? On this side are the gods from its creating, Who knoweth then from whence it came to being f " SEVENTH STANZA. " This creation— from whence it came to being, Whether it made itself, or whether not — He who is its overseer in highest heaven. He surely knoweth — or perchance he knoweth not" The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 239 The avowed purpose of all philosophy is to ac- count for the presence of the world and its contents, as something which is not self-evident, and needs to be explained beyond the point of mere individual experience, or analysis through empirical knowledge. The creation hymn performs this act not without some unsteadiness and with petulance due to scep- ticism. In putting forth a fundamental principle without personality it does not fall far behind the best thought of later times inside or outside of In- dia. It fails where all philosophy fails, in bridging over to this particular idealistic or phenomenal world, even after the fundamental principle has been ab- stracted, no matter in how rarefied and non-committal a form. We may expect, therefore, other starts to- wards the same end. The Veda, as I have hinted before, contains an astonishing number of attempts to establish a supreme monotheistic being who is far easier to handle than the monistic " That Only " ; a monotheistic god who, when once conceived, con- veniently assumes all responsibility. We have seen more than once how supreme divine action makes a show of gradually detaching itself from the persons of the various gods who figure in the earlier myth and cult, and how this action impresses itself upon the mind as really more important than the particu- lar divine agent who was at any given time supposed 240 The Religion of the Veda to perform it. Creation of the world ; production of the sun ; spreading out of the sky and the earth ; and lordship over all that moves or stands — these are some of the grander acts in world life. Even in the Rig- Veda these acts are bunched and thrown into the lap of a divinity by the name of Prajapati " Lord of Creatures." Various earlier divinities of a more or less abstract and specialistic character, especially Savitar, the inspiring, enlivening principle of the sun, and Tvashtar, a kind of divine carpenter or artificer of less important objects, are blended in this product ; it goes as far to realise personal mono- theism as was ever possible in India. One hymn ' pictures Prajapati in very glowing colors ; he is a true creator, ruler, and preserver, and yet, it is very interesting to observe, that the description of him does not, after all, differ very materially from that of the polytheistic god Indra in the hymn. Rig- Veda 2. 12, as may be seen from a comparison of the two.' Some of the stanzas of the Prajapati hymn are as follows : Rig-Veda lo. 121. I. "A golden germ arose in the beginning, Born he was the one lord of things existing, The earth and yonder sky he did establish — What god shall we revere with our oblation ? • Rig-Veda 10. 121. ' See Deussen, Geschichte der Philosophie, vol. i., part i,p. 128^. The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 241 2. "Who gives life's breath and is of strength the giver, At whose behest all gods do act obedient, Whose shadow is immortality and likewise death — What god shall we revere with our oblation ? 3. "The king, who as it breathes and as It shuts its eyes, The world of life alone doth rule with might, Two-footed creatures and four-footed both controls — What god shall we revere with our oblation ? 4. "Through whose great might arose these snow-capped mountains. Whose are, they say, the sea and heavenly river. Whose arms are these directions of the space — What god shall we revere with our oblation ? " Not until we come to the tenth stanza does this omnipotent god virho so far has not betrayed his name, unless we so regard the epithet "Golden Germ " in the first stanza, reveal himself as Prajapati : 10. ' 'Prajapati, thou art the one — and there 's no other — Who dost encompass all these born entities ! Whate'er we wish while offering thee oblations. May that be ours ! May we be lords of riches ! " It is easy to feel both the inferiority and the greater convenience of this Creator God who lords it over everything, without exactly having estab- lished any particular mental or moral claim to his prerogatives. As compared with the sheer philo- sophic " That Only," the one thing without humanly 16 242 The Religion of the Veda definable quality, Prajapati cuts a sorry figure, and marks a backward movement. There are, as we have said, many other monotheistic conceptions, symbolic, ritualistic, and philosophic, which make a short spurt and fall by the way. The supreme being is conceived as Vigvakarman, " fabricator of the universe" ; as Parameshthin, "he who occupies the highest summit"; as Svayambhfl, "the self-exist- ing being " ; as Skambha, " Support " ; as Dhatar, "Maker"; as Vidhatar, "Arranger"; and others. These are mere symbolism. In another way a move in the direction of mono- theistic pantheism is made through the personifica- tion of all nature as a giant " man," called Purusha. His head is heaven, his eye is the sun, his breath is the wind, and so on. Purusha reminds us of the cosmic giant, Ymir in the Edda. The notion that man is a microcosm, or small world, and that, con- versely, the world is a huge man (macranthropos) is widely diffused. Here are some stanzas of Rig- Veda 10. 90 : 1. " The Purusha with thousand heads. With thousand eyes and thousand feet. Surrounds the earth on every side, And goes ten digits yet beyond. 2. ** Purusha, aye, is all this world, The world that was and that will be. The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 243 He even rules th' immortal world Which must sustain itself by food. 3. "Thus great is this his majesty — Yet even beyond in strength he goes. A quarter of him all beings are. Three quarters are immortal beyond." The most significant of all monotheistic personifi- cations is derived from the sphere of worship and ritual, namely the God Brihaspati or Brahmanaspati, "Lord of Prayer or Devotion." He presents him- self at first as a mere personification of the acts of the poets and priests. We remember a preceding statement that the Vedic poets' consciousness is in- vaded by and impressed with the dignity and charm of their own poetic devotions. They go so far as to lift this very devoutness to the level of divinity.' In Brihaspati we have a personification of prayer and religious performance both in one. A beautiful stanza of the Rig- Veda ' has it : " When, O Brihas- pati, men first sent forth the earliest utterance of speech, giving names to things, then was disclosed a jewel treasured within them, most excellent and pure." In another famous hymn of the Rig- Veda ' Vac, " Holy Speech," is represented as the companion and upholder of the gods, and as the foundation of ' See above, p. 206, ' 10. 71.1 ' 10. 125 244 The Religion of the Veda all religious activity and its attendant boons. From a later time we have the significant metaphoric statement that " Holy Song " (Dhena) is the wife of Brihaspati just as " Weapon " (Sena) is the wife of Indra.' Brihaspati at first is placed as an ally by the side of the more regal gods, like Indra, Agni, and Soma, in their fights against demons and stingy unbelievers. The Vedic gods derive strength from prayer and sacrifice, just as do Hindu men — this is a familiar conception from the beginning. The thought which underlies Brihaspati has in store for itself a greater future and a more permanent result in the still more abstract Brahma, which is religious devotion in the absolute. Of this in the last lecture. For the pres- ent Brihaspati rises from his modest position as aider and abettor of the war-gods to become father of the gods, upholder of the ends of the earth. Sun and moon's alternate rise is his work. Like a blacksmith Brihaspati soldered together this world. That hap- pened before the races of the gods came into being ; ■ perhaps at the time when " being " was born of " non- being." More transcendental are the exploitations in the direction of monotheism of such conceptions ' See the author, Journal of the German Oriental Society, vol. xlviii., p. 599. The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 245 as Kala, " Time," *' Father Time " ; of Kama, " Love," " Eros " ; of Prana " Breath of Life "; and others even more faint and tentative. The conception of Eros we have met above as the first movement in The One after it had come into life ; its deification is never very pronounced. Prana, or " Breath of Life," is an almost universal cosmic principle ; it will occupy our attention in connection with the final shaping of Hindu theosophy. The most transcendental of these personifications is that of "Time" — namely: Praja- pati, " the lord of creatures," at first an abstraction, is readily associated with the generative power of nature. Now this generative power is revealed par- ticularly in the cycle of the year. By easy associa- tion Prajapati is next boldly identified with year: " Prajapati reflected, ' This verily, I have created as my counterpart, namely, the year.' Therefore they say, ' Prajapati is the year/ for as counterpart of himself he did create the year." Thus the prose Brahmana texts naively, yet closely, reason. And out of some such reasoning "Time" itself emerges as a monotheistic conception, in whose praise the Atharva-Veda sings two hymns ' : "Time runs, a steed with seven reins, thousand-eyed, ageless, rich in seed. The seers thinking holy thoughts, mount him ; all the beings are his wheels. ' 19. 53 and 54. 246 The Religion of the Veda " Time begot yonder heaven, Time also these earths. That which was and that which shall be, urged forth by Time, spreads out." (Atharva-Veda 19. 53. i and 5.) After a survey of these manifold, all of them more or less shaky attempts to account for the universe and man, one impression, which I have spoken of be- fore, grows mightily. I mean the presence of intel- lectual subtlety, the absence of sentiment. Anything like a practical bearing of all these earlier monothe- istic and monistic creations upon the Hindu mind and heart seem as yet almost altogether wanting. In a sense they are not religious, but crudely philo- sophical. That is, if we define religion as the inti- mate, mutual, personal relation between man and the higher powers that surrouno' H'lm. In so far as they are religious in this sen^ii, vhcse monotheistic and monistic creations do not aOvance perceptibly be- yond the stage of the polytheistic nature gods, the ritual, and the sorcery of earlier times. The extrava- gant power of Prajapati is still nothing more than a cause for cajolery : " Prajapati thou art the one — and there 's no other — Who dost encompass all these born entities! Whate'er we wish, while offering thee oblations. May that be ours ! May we be lords of riches ! " (Rig-Veda 10. 121. 10.) All this is far from being the final form of the The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 247 higher religion. When Hindu theosophy has reached its full growth and has stretched its limbs we find that all its various intellectual movements still keep on differing among themselves considerably, to the end, as they did at the beginning. But they are absolutely agreed on one point, namely, their final purpose. Their final purpose is salvation ; release from the endless chain of existences in which death marks the passage from link to link. This salvation can be effected in only one way, namely, profound and genuinely religious appreciation of the identity of one's own self with the One True Being. This rests upon the twin doctrine of Transmigration and Monism without which India would not be India, The earlier forms of monotheistic and monistic speculation show no sign of a belief in transmigra- tion. I thought it advisable to let this belief mark ' the division between the tentative, purely specu- lative philosophy of the earlier time, and the thought of the Upanishads, which is in its essence truly relig- ious. The Upanishads, with all their curvy move- ments and through all their fluttering thought, never lose sight of that great purpose of salvation. How , came the belief in transmigration in India; how it led to a pessimistic view of life ; how Brahma, the One, the Universal, the True, finally shaped himself J from out of the mass of conflicting and yet converg- 248 The Religion of the Veda ing thoughts about the Divine which we have sketched to-day ; and how release from the chain of existences through union with Brahma may be ob- tained — that will be the theme of our concluding lecture on the religion of the Veda. LECTURE THE SIXTH. The Final Philosophy of the Veda. Death and future life in paradise — Early notions of Hell — •' The idea of retribution — Limit of reward for good deeds — The notion of " death-anew, " or "re-death" — How comes the belief in transmigration — Hindu doctrine of transmigration — The method of transmigration — The doctrine of karma, or spiritual evolution — How transmigration and karma appear to Western minds — The pessimist theory of life — Cause of Hindu pessi- mism — Pessimism and the perfect principle (Brahma) — Dualistic pessimism — Salvation through realisation of one's own Brahmahood — The conception of th* atman, "breath," as life principle — Atman, the soul' of the Universe — Brahma, the spiritual essence of the Universe — Fusion of Atman and Brahma — Maya, or the world an illusion — The unknowableness of Brahma ^ — Emerson's poem on the Brahma — The fulness of Brahma: a story of Yajnavalkya and his wife MaitreyJ — Transition from philosophy to piety — Hindu asceti- cism — Professor Huxley's critique of asceticism— rPilg^m's progress under the religion of Brahma — Investiture and disciplehood— The life of the householder — The life of the forest-dweller and wandering ascetic — Ultima Thule. THE Veda's conception of the polytheistic gods, and the relations which the early Hindus have established with them by means of their songs of 249 250 The Religion of the Veda praise and nourishing gifts, are of a spirit very simple. The temper of these things almost guaran- tees beforehand equally simple notions about death and future life. There is a paradise above, conceived oftenest as a solar paradise, where the gods are hav- ing a delightful time. Man would be most happy to have a share in this delight, like the gods immortal. Therefore the gods are implored to let come to them the pious man that has spent his substance freely in their behalf.' Next, this elementary belief is fittingly padded out with simple rites and ancient legends. The bodies of the dead are burned and their ashes are consigned to earth. But this is viewed, symbolic- ally, merely as an act of preparation— cooking it is called forthright — for that other life of joy. Arms and utensils, especially sacrificial utensils, are buried with the corpse. For the occupations and necessi- ties of those " who have gone forth " {preta), as the dead are called euphemistically, are the same as upon the earth, sacrificing included. The righteous fore- fathers of old who have gone forth in the past — they have found another good place. Especially Yama, the first royal man, went forth as a pioneer to the distant heights in the skies. Fie searched and found a way for all his descendants. He went before and found a dwelling from which no power can debar > Rig- Veda i. 31. 7 ; 91. i ; 125. 5,6:5. 55. 4 ; 63- 2- The Final Philosophy of the Veda 251 mortal man. The Fathers of old have travelled it, and this path leads every earth-born mortal thither. There in the midst of highest heaven, in the lap of the Goddess Dawn, beams unfading light, there eternal waters flow. There Yama sits under a tree of beautiful foliage, engaged in an everlasting bout in the company of the gods ; there mortals gather after death at Yama's call to behold Varuna. They have left all imperfections behind them on returning to their true home, the rich meadows of which no one can rob them. In that place there are no lame nor crooked of limb ; the weak no longer pay tribute to the strong ; all alike share with Yama and the gods the feast of the gods. Underneath the coat of sugar the pill of death is bitter after all. Fitfully the Vedic Hindu regales himself with the hope of paradise, but his real crav- ing is expressed in Vedic literature countless times : " May we live a hundred autumns, surrounded by lusty sons! " On the way to Yama the dead must pass the two broad-nosed, four-eyed dogs, the speckled and the dark ; according to another turn of this myth these same dogs, originally sun and moon,' wander "among men and pick the daily candidates that are to go on their last pilgrimage. Soon we hear of the foot-snare of Yama. Think or do what ' See above, p. 105. 252 The Religion of the Veda you will, death remains uncanny. The prospect of paradise is marred to some extent by visions of hell, the inevitable analogical opposite of paradise, that deep place of bottomless, blind darkness, which in a later time is fitted out with the usual gruesome stage-setting in the style of Dante's Inferno, or the wall-paintings in the Campo Santo at Pisa. From the start there is the idea of retribution. To Yama's blissful seat only they who have done good may aspire. We remember the belief that the things sacrificed and given the priests (the ishtdpurta) await in highest heaven the faithful as a sort of twin guard- ian angels, securing for them bliss. On the other hand, the oppressors of the Brahmans, " they who spit upon the Brahmana sit in the middle of a pool of blood chewing hair." . . . "The tears which did roll from the eyes of the oppressed, lamenting Brah- mana, these very ones, O oppressor of Brahmans, the gods did assign to thee as thy share of water." ' In an early version of hell the sage Bhrigu observes some yelling men who are being cut up and devoured by other men who also yell : " So they have done to us in yonder world, so we do to them in return in this world."' But now the Hindu, subtle and at the same time naive, given over to rigid schematism and mechan- ' Atharva-Veda 5. 19. 3. and 13, ' ^atapatha Brahmana 11. l6. i. The Final Philosophy of the Veda 253 ical consistency, as all his intellectual history shows, becomes nervous about the permanence of life after death. What if the effect even of his good deeds should not last forever? What if, instead of the hoped-for immortality in yonder world, there be death again ? One text fancies a limited immortal, ity which lasts only a hundred years, that is, the ideal length of the life of man upon earth. The treasure of good deeds is after all finite ; day and night, or, as we should say, time may exhaust the stock of one's good works. In strict logic that must mean death anew. So we read in the Brahmana texts of fervent wishes and cunning rites potent to ensure imperishableness of one's good works, and to cut off the possible recurrence of death.' There are also performances intended to secure to the deceased ancestors who, for aught one knows, are in the same danger of re-dying, genuine, instead of temporary and conditional immortality.' This " death-anew," or " re-de&ih" (pu7tar7;ittju) as the Hindus call it, is an exceedingly characteristic idea, but it is not yet transmigration of souls. As long as its scene is loca- ted entirely in the other world, and as long as it is thought possible to avoid or cure it by the ordinary expedients of sacrifice, so long the essential character ' ^atapatha Brahmana lo. I. 5. 4. ' Taittirlya Brflhmana 3. 11. 8. 5. ' ^atapatha Brahmana 12. 9, 3. 12. 254 The Religion of the Veda of that belief is not yet present. But the transition from one to the other was easy. If men can die in heaven there is no way, short of annihilation, to se- cure peace for anything that started out by being mortal. Next, the notion of " re-death " in the im- agined world beyond was after all too shadowy ; it lacked the practical data of experience. It was very natural to transplant the consequences of " re-death " to this earth, the home and hearth of death where men, like fish, die at every wink of the eye. He who must die again comes on to do it on earth where the trick is so well understood — lo and behold, we have the essential of metempsychosis, namely a succession of lives and deaths in the career of one and the same being. I am far from believing that even such smooth reasoning, taken by itself, suffices to account for the presence of this important doctrine in India. The germs of the belief in transmigration are very likely to have filtered into the Brahmanical consciousness from below, from popular sources, possibly from some of the aboriginal, non-Aryan tribes of India. Brahmanical religion has always borrowed immensely from folk beliefs and practices, and has always man- aged to impart to these borrowings the look of integral Brahmanical doctrine. Like a will-o'-the-wisp the belief in transmigration ' ' See Alfred Bertholet, Seelenwanderung (Nr. 2 of the iii. Series The Final Philosophy of the Veda 255 flares up in many parts of the world. We hear of it among the Egyptians and the Celts, but it has developed most significantly among the Greeks and Hindus. Its wide vogue is due to a fusion of some of the simplest observations and reasonings about life and death, such as can scarcely fail to come to the mind of primitive man. It is pure folk-lore. Three suppositions are required for this belief : First, man has a soul, separate and separable from the body. Secondly, animals, plants, and even inanimate objects similarly have souls. Thirdly, all these souls can change their habita- tions. The belief that man has a soul depends in the main upon two observations: First, breath of life and its cessation after death. Life's breath is con- strued by primitive observers as an entity which lives with the living body and leaves it at death. When life's breath departs, the soul departs. Sec- ondly, intercourse of the living with the dead con- tinues in dreams and hallucinations. This shows that the dead after all exist. Primitive man does not recognise illusions. The belief in animal and plant souls, and even of Religionsgeschichtliche Volksbiicher, edited by Professor Friederich Michael Schiele), Halle a. S. 1904. 256 The Religion of the Veda souls of inanimate objects (fetish), is based upon the same sort of simple logic. Animals have both life's breath and some measure of reason. Nomads, cattle-raisers, hunters, inhabitants of forest and sea- coast are thrown into intimate intercourse, each with particular classes of animals whose mental resources are not only obvious, but often clash with man's interests. Clear up into the high literature of beast fable and fairy-tale survives the folk's very real belief in reasoning, soul-inhabited animals : see Rey- nard the Fox and Bre'r Rabbit. Primitive man, too, in the search after his own origin has often blun- dered into the notion that man is descended from one or the other animal. This has given rise to the very important religious, political, and economic institutions known as Totemism. As regards plants, the Hindu Law-Book of Manu forbids the chewing of red rosin, doubtless because it looks like coagulated blood, and blood must not be drunk.' The tree is supposed to be alive. The weird twilight shapes of trees and plants, the sough of the wind in the leaves of the forest-trees again suggest life in the vegetable kingdom. As regards inanimate things, we need but remem- ber the child's relation to its doll, or, that children punish with their own oft-tasted penalties the stick • See von Negelein, Archiv fiir Heligionsviissenuhaft, vi., 246. The Final Philosophy of the Veda 257 over which they stumble. In brief, the nearer or remoter analogies of human life which pervade, or seem to pervade all objects in nature present them- selves to early man as guarantees or suggestions of universal animation, of souls present in every shapen thing. And now the passage of these souls from one kind of receptacle to another, from man to man, from man to animal, plant, or stock, or stone, follows inevitably. The records of primitive beliefs are full of it. I will merely remind you of the belief in wer- wolves as one instance of this kind. In the final outcome of all these notions some peoples, eager to account for the destiny of man after death, have assumed a chain of variegated existences. And with this goes very generally some notion of evolution forward or backward. The character of the creature in a certain given existence controls the degree of the next existence. This last bit of logic has flowered out in India as the important doctrine of karida or " deed." ' As far as India is concerned one thing is certain : real metempsychosis does not enter into the higher thought of India, or, at least, is not stated unmis- takably uniil we come to the Upanishads. When, however, this belief has finally taken shape we find in < See below p. 259. »7 258 The Religion of the Veda it the following established items of faith:* Every /living creature is reborn in some organic shape; every living creature had a previous existence ; and every living creature is again and again the prey of death, until in some life all desire and all activity as the outcome of desire shall have been laid aside. This is the Hindu salvation, namely, absolute resig- nation of the finite, futile, illusory world; cessation of the will to live, and the act of living. This, of itself produces union with Brahma.' Not until mor- tal man has cast off every desire of his heart does he enter immortal into Brahma. We have now arrived at the thought or the position of the Upanishads, the last in the long line of Vedic texts. Like all Vedic- thought, the thought of the Upanishads is not sys- tematic, but tentative, fanciful, and even romantic. It feels its way through misty, wavering, sometimes conflicting beginnings. The more rigid conclusions come later on in one or the other of the so-called systems of Hindu philosophy. Still even in the Upanishads so important a doc- trine must be established on reason. There are two questions to be asked. First, why must the soul wander from life to life ; secondly, why does its habi- tation differ from life to life, liable to reincarnation : at one time as an animal high or low ; at another as a human being of various degrees ; and at yet an- The Final Philosophy of the Veda 259 other even as a god ? For our convenience we may answer the second question first. The celebrated Law-Book of Manu, at a time when this doctrine has become cut and dried, teaches that a Brahman priest who steals the substance which has been en- trusted to him for sacrifice to the gods will in his next existence become a vulture or a crow. ' Why ? Because the vulture and the crow make their living by stealing food. Briefly, man is what he does.^^ Note the superb moral possibilities of this teaching. This is the well-known doctrine of karma, or " deed," now famous wherever men are interested in the evolution of the human mind. Deed and the will, "or " desire," as the Hindus call it, back of the deed, are essentially one and the same thing. On desire man's nature is founded ; as his desires so are his en- deavors, as his endeavors so are his deeds. By his deeds the character of his next birth in the round of existences is regulated, for he is himself the sum of his own deeds. If his karma in a given life has accumulated for him a good balance, as it were, the next life will be delightful and noble ; conversely, if his life is evil, the next birth will be, consequently, as a low and degraded being. Life is character — char- acter inherited and inherent from previous existence, and character modelled and shaped by the deeds of ' Manu Ti. 25. 26o The Religion of the Veda the present existence. Now we may answer the first question, namely. Why must the soul wander at all ? The answer is : No deed leads the way to salvation, to release from life and union with Brahma. Aye, to be sure, as the fragrance of a tree in blossom so the fragrance of a good deed is wafted afar, saith the Chandogya Upanishad.' But even the best deed is a thing from its very nature limited and vitiated by the finite. It rewards itself, it punishes itself, accord- ing to a process of automatic psychic evolution, but the fruit of the finite can itself be only finite : "Yajnavalkya,"says Artabhaga in the "Great Forest Upanishad,'" " if, after the death of this man, his speech goes into fire, his breath into wind, his eye into the sun, his mind into the moon, his ear into the direc- tions of space, his body into the earth, his self {dtman) into ether, the hair of his body into plants, the hair of his head into trees, his blood and semen into water, — what then becomes of the man?" Then spake Yajnavalkya: "Take me by the hand, my dear! Artabhaga, we two must come to an understanding about this privately, not here among people." And they went out and consulted. And what they said was Deed {karma), and what they praised was Deel» : ' Verily, one becomes good through good deed, evil through evil deed." ' 5. to. g. ' Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3. 2. 13. The Final Philosophy of the Veda 261 Later in the same tract ' Yajnavalkya describes the departure of the soul from the body and its conse- quences to man : " Then his knowledge and his works and his previous experience take him by the hand. As a caterpillar which has wriggled to the tip of a blade of grass draws itself over to (a new blade), so does this man, after he has put aside his body, draw himself over to a new existence. . . Now verily they say: 'Man is altogether desire (Jtdmd); as is his desire so is his insight (Jiratu) ; as is his insight so is his deed {karma); as is his deed so is his destiny.'" More than one Western reader, when he ponders the doctrine of transmigration as rooted in desire and deed, is likely to ask the question why the Hindus did not rest content with its outcome. The bulk of their spiritual energy in Brahmanism, as well as in Buddhism and the other Hindu sects, is ex- pended in the effort to break the chain that ties man to existence. Why is this so ? The Western man, if I gauge him aright, is willing to tarry in the life garden of will, desire, and deed, plucking its fruits and flowers at the risk of an occasional prick from its thorns, or sting from its noxious insects. We want more life, fuller life. Here are some of the points connected with transmigration that are naturally sympathetic to Western minds: ' Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4. 4. 3; see also Brahma Upanishad, chapter the first. 262 The Religion of the Veda 1. Love of life, and abhorrence of annihilation : transmigration ensures life in some form for ever and ever. 2. The twin ghosts of fatalism and predestination are laid. Where will and deed, with character as their result, rule every destiny, nothing is accidental, no- thing is pre-determined. Man himself, free from outside interference, is the arbiter of his own destiny. 3. It involves the perfection of retribution : reward and punishment adjust themselves automatically and organically to virtue and vice. It opens wide the door of hope to the lowly and oppressed, and checks the excesses of the cruel mighty. Byron's despairing, " Methinks we have sinned in some old world And this is Hell," loses its sting. It is mere justice. But it is the justice that knows how to reward merit just as un- erringly, as it knows how to punish sin inexorably. There is no human being so hedged in by calamity, vice, and degradation, but what he or she may start on the upward road by some act of determination for good. If the wish, " Grant me my heaven now," fails of fulfilment, who knows that it may not be fulfilled in the train of heroic effort ? And yet the deep-seated instinct of life which makes men all over the earth, India included, wail The Final Philosophy of the Veda 263 their dead, goes hand in hand in all higher forms of Hindu religion with the apparently sincere expres- sion of a desire to be released from life. ^_PessiD3i5ISi. at first negative, in the end positive and profound, becomes the ruling theory of Hindu life. With all the attractions, fascinations, and beauties of life, life is felt to be a fetter, or a knot which ties the heart to the world of sense ; and release {nioksha) from the everlasting round of lives (safnsdra) is the Hindu salvation {nirvana). Buddhism later on expresses the urgent need of salvation from existence in its well-known fourfold doctrine of suffering. Its first clause establishes the truth of suffering : Birth is suffering ; age is suffering ; disease is suffering ; union with what is not loved is suffering ; separation from what is loved is suffering. The conviction that all life is futile is expressed hardly less distinctly in the Great Forest Upanishad (3. 5. 2 ), where hunger and thirst, woe and delusion, age and death, desire for children, and desire for possessions are lumped alike as the evils and vanities of life, before the highest knowledge has been attained.' r Anyho w. all the principal Hindu systems of religion and philosophy ' " How many birtlis are past, I cannot tell ; How many yet to come, no man can say : But this alone I know, and know full well, That pain and grief embitter all the way." (South-Indian Folk-song, quoted in the Rev. Dr. John Morrison's New Ideas in India, p. 213.) 264 The Religion of the Veda start out with the assurance that the world is full of suffering, and that is their particular business to account fonit and to remove it. " We must not forget that the perpetual decay and death and replacement which is the gist of human life when looked at purely from the outside is not redeemed in India by any theory, or instinctive faith in general advancement. There is in all Hindu thought no expression of hope for the race, no theory of betterment all along the line. Each in- dividual must attend to his own upHfting that is to free him from a world whose worthlessness is con- demned in unmeasured terms. Admitting that this is to no small extent mere theory ; that the average Hindu worries along, sustained by life, hope, sun- shine, and what not, whence the theory ? The question has frequently been put point blank : How did Hindu pessimism originate ? I believe that the answer, or at least a partial answer, may be made with some degree of certainty, to wit : India herself, through her climate, her nature, and her economic conditions, furnishes reasonable ground for pessim- ism. As regards economic conditions political eco- nomists say that the value of human life in any country may be estimated by the average wage of its earners. A low caste servant may to-day be en- gaged for a wage of.^rt*' cents a day out of which he The Final Philosophy of the Veda 265 must, owing to caste laws, find his own keep, and possibly that of a family besides. India's nature is more malignant than that of any other civilised country. The floods of great rivers devastate at times entire districts; per contra, when the rains are withheld at the time of the capricious monsoons, famine with plague or cholera in its wake, decimate the population. The tribe of venomous serpents and the blood-lust of the tiger claim their regular quota of victims. Our first acquaintance with the Aryan Hindus in the hymns of the Veda shows them to us a sturdy, life-loving people on the banks, or in the region of the river Indus, the land of the five streams, the modern Punjab in Northwestern India. That coun- try they had conquered, fresh from the highlands that separate India from Iran. By successive con- tests, hinted at in a very interesting legend of the Brahmana texts ' they advanced eastward, until they had overrun the plain of the Ganges — the hottest civilised land on the face of the earth. This is the land of Hindu theosophy, the land of the Upani- shads, the land where Buddha preached, some centuries after the earliest Upanishads. Buddha's most famous sermon was delivered at Benares, in the very centre of the plain of the Ganges. There ' (^atapatha Brahmana r. 4. i. 10-18. 266 The Religion of the Veda in the land of Bengal, if anywhere on the face of the civilised earth, the doubts and misgivings that beset human life at its best might permanently harden into the belief that life is a sorry affair. Hindu literature that comes from these lands shows us that the Aryans did not succumb to this change, for they remain a great and remarkable people. But this habitat of theirs unquestionably left an indelible impression on their character. The mental subtle- ness of the race did not perish, but their bodies suffered ; hypochondria, melancholia, dyspepsia — call it what we may — conquered the conquering Aryan, whose stock was no doubt the product of a more northerly and invigorating climate. Now it is time to remember once more that the conception of the One True Being — let us now call it Brahma — had risen to a considerable height, ap- parently long before the doctrine of transmigration had taken hold of the Hindu mind, and established in it the theory of despair of the world. Even aside from such a theory it is natural for the mind of man in every clime and time to evolve some great power that is behind the phenomena of the world, to estab- lish to its own satisfaction some sort of perfect principle that is underneath this obviously imperfect world, and then to long for some kind of association with that power or principle. So teach us all higher The Final Philosophy of the Veda 267 religions and religious philosophies. Without doubt the Hindus did this before pessimism and indepen- dently of pessimism. But when pessimism began to taint the Hindu view of life, then the eternal all- force, the root of all, the One True and Perfect Thing offered the only logical escape from the evils of existence. The theory of the Brahma and the theory of trans- migration united like the two branches of a river. The wandering of the soul through the realms gov- erned by death must be the consequence of its separation from Brahma. As long as lasts the will to live this life of death, as long as this will means finite desires and finite deed, so long the soul remains separate from Brahma in the chain of successive lives and deaths, each new life shaped by the karma of the preceding life. Escape from this chain can be accomplished only by union with the Single True Being, the Brahma. Hinduism has again in this matter taken a remark- able turn, if we test it by the normal temper of the Western mind. It is a kind of dualistic pessimism, in which the good that is in the world as well as the evil that is there are both made to emphasise the evil. It is a pessimism that is reached through botia avenues ; the avenue of evil, because it is evil ; and the avenue of good, because it suggests by its very 268 The Religion of the Veda terms the existence of evil. We Westerners have learned one way or another to endure this naughty world fairly well. But when it becomes too bad we are apt to remember that the refuge is with the Omnipotent Power. That is the silver lining to the cloud of human existence. The Hindu mind turns this the other way ; the silvery sheen of Brahma has a cloud lining. The conception of this One True Being, out of which flow all visible things, might have been an anchor of strength and a head-spring of hope and joy for the Hindus. A palpably pos- sible consequence of their thought is, that all men have the divine or Brahmic spark, that all are micro- cosms, flung off — for some reason — by that superb macrocosm, the Brahma. If so, then individual human existence must be based upon truth and_ wholesomeness, no less than the Universal Brahma. Not so did the Hindus proceed. They lavish upon the Brahma all imaginable attributes of perfec- tion, and then proceed to apply the same standard to this world : of course they find it by contrast a very sorry affair. The world ceases to be a desirable home in which one may live, sustained perhaps by the hope of better things to come, because it is measured by the standard of Brahma and found wanting. When the Brahma is praised, that Brahma which is lifted above hunger and thirst, above grief The Final Philosophy of the Veda 269 and worry, above old age, decay, and death, the per- sistent personal application is, that this world of creatures is full of hunger, thirst, grief, worry, old age, decay, and death. There is yet one consequence to be drawn. The question is asked, as it must be : " What is the cure for desire, the thirst for life and its contents ? How cut the fetter, or the knot of adhesion to the illusory world? How get rid of the will to live?" The answer is, through knowledge. Knowledge, or per- haps it would be better to say intuition, of the unity of the individual self with the great True One ; and the recognition, ever present, of the divided, dis- tracted, illusory nature of everything finite: When a mortal has recognised Brahma, feeling, " He is -myself," how can he longer desire and cling to bodily life? This is the culminating thought of the Upanishads and the Veda, expressed in the solemn three words tat tvam asi, " Thou art That." That is to say, the essence of man is itself Brahma. The wise man when once he has seen That {tad apaqyat\ becomes That {tad abhavat), because in truth he always was and is That {tad dsit).' Thus the final attainment of man is this knowledge; it is the " works " of the Jew. and the " faith " of the Christian — salvation by the complete ascendency ' See Vajasaneyi Samhita (Tadeva Upanishad), 32. 12. 270 The Religion of the Veda of the divine in one's self, and the consequent submergence of all that is temporal and illusory. It is time now that we return to the last question which I propounded for to-day's lecture. How did the brahma, the One, the Universal spirit, finally shape himself from out of the mass of ideas whose constant drift was in the direction of oneness, or, as we may finally call it, monistic pantheism? One of the main circumstances of the higher religious thought of the time just preceding the Upanishads was a strong monotheistic tendency which seemed to develop simultaneously and peacefully along with the monistic ideas, such as the " That," the " Only," the " Being." In the Upanishads monotheism is practically at an end, whereas the attempts to designate the ab- stract conceptions Just mentioned emerge from the stage of tremulous venture to confident and familiar statement. Yet they are not any one of them the final name of the Universal Being. Even the Upanishad mind seems to prefer something more tangible and suggestive, something that after all has attributes. In the seething caldron of the earlier speculation there occur yet two other conceptions which have become pretty well crystallised even before the time of the Upanishads. The first of these is the con- The Final Philosophy of the Veda 271 ception of the atman, which means first " breath," and then " self." As far as the early poetry is con- cerned there is not the least doubt about the primary meaning of attnan^ It is familiarly correlated with wind, "the breath of the gods."' The dtman or soul of man after death returns to mingle with the wind from which it is supposed to have come.' The later Veda abounds in crude and fanciful psycho- physical observations in which the parts and func- tions of the human body, the little cosmos, are correlated more or less skilfully with the phenomena of the outer world, the big cosmos. An important thought of this sort is, that the human body is per- vaded by plural breaths, pranas or dtmans ; these vivify the body, and are the essential part, the ego, of the living individual. Several of the older Upan- ishads contain a fable, resembling the Latin fable of "the belly and the members." The vital powers are quarrelling among themselves for supremacy. They bring their case before Prajapati, " the lord of creatures." Prajapati advises them to leave the body one by one and to observe which loss affects it most. The voice, the eye, the ear, the mind de- ' For the meaning of iman, the reduced stem of the same word in the pronominal sense of "self," see the author in American Journal of Philology, xvi., p. 421, 2 Rig- Veda 7. 87. 2 ; 10. 168. 4. ' Ibid., 10. 16. 3 ; 90. 13 ; 92. 13. 272 The Religion of the Veda parted, discommoding the body quite a good deal. But when the breath was on the point of departing, "just as the proud steed from the Indus would pull and tear the pegs of his tether, so it pulled and tore the other vital powers." And they yielded the palm to the dtman. Hence a text declares : " From the dtman all the members spring into existence. Of all things that come into existence the dtman is the first." The dtmans, or breaths, are finally conceived as coming from a single dtman, the universal breath, or self, or ego. A Brahmana text declares : " Ten (kinds of) breath dwell in man ; the universal dtman is the eleventh : all the breaths are contained in him." That is, the dtman, after its supreme place in the own self has been permanently fixed, is trans- ferred on exactly the same terms to the universe outside of man. The dtman, the lord of breaths, is at the same time the lord of the gods, the creator of all beings ; all the worlds are an emanation of his great universal self: finally the dtman is the all. It is easy to see that with all the refinement of the term dtfuan in its final outcome, it certainly has a strong physical touch, at least in the beginning of its use. The final shaping of the idea consisted in associating, or rather fusing, with this dtman another conception, coming from a totally different quarter, The Final Philosophy of the Veda 273 namely, the olden Vedic sphere of devotion, prayer, holy performance, in fact religion in general. Even in the Vedic hymns, as we have seen, the epithet " Goddess " is freely given to the numerous names for prayer, devotion, religious emotion, and kindred ideas. Unquestionably the sdviirl stanza owes its puzzlingly paramount position in Hindu religion to the same estimate of devotion as a thing essentially divine.' We have also made acquaintance with a symbolic "Lord of Prayer," Brihaspati, an important, but not lasting attempt to pour the sacred function of the poets and priests into the mould of a personal god. He marks one of those false starts towards personal monotheism in which the later Veda abounds. More and more the sacred word, the constant com- panion of, the sacrifice, is felt to be a kind of uplift- ing spiritual essence. The sacred word is braJuna. Starting as prayer,' charm, sacred formula, religious act, it becomes the symbol of holy thought and holy utterance (^oyo?), the outpouring of the soul in its highest longings. It is the best wish of a spiritually ' .See above, p. 202. ' Professor Oldenberg regards " zauberfluidum " as the original meaning of brahma. But docs " magic essence " really explain, and docs it not itself stand in need of explanation ? Anyway it seems tome that this distinguished scholar's present sympathy with what may be called ethnological explanations of religious phenomena, that is the theory that such phenomena must necessarily begin somewhere in tlie lowest bathos of savage folk belief, is leading him on a trail farther than that trodden by this word. i8 2 74 The Religion of the Veda minded and gifted people that becomes for a while personal god, and at last the divine essence of the universe. The conception is intellectually not as subtle and abstract as the monistic philosophical conception of "That Only True Being,"' which comes entirely from the head. But from the point of view of heart-felt emotion it is the most exalted divine conception of gentile folk. Such is the brahma, used in the neuter gender, not yet the mas- culine God Brahma who, after a renewed personifica- tion is placed at the head of the later Hindu so-called trinity, Brahma, Vishnu, and (^iva : " The braJima is the word, the truth in the word is brahma. Through brahma heaven and earth are held together." The two conceptions of dtman and brahma, in their origin, respectively, the physical and spiritual essences of the universe, are fused into one concep- tion. They are used in general as synonyms. Still there is a tendency to use brahma, " Holy Thought," as the designation of the universal principle in the outer world ; dtman, " Self," as the same principle in the inner life of man. The conviction that the brahma without and the dtman within are one and the same, that is the real religion of the Upanishads. The power which operates in the universe, creating, sustaining, and destroying, the power behind this imperfect world that perchance moves on to some The Final Philosophy of the Veda 275 final development ; the power that manifests itself in every living thing ; — this eternal power is identical with our own innermost and truest self, equally imperishable when stripped of all its external and accidental circumstances. This conviction is em- balmed in the famous words, tat tvain asi, "Thou art That," or ahani brahma asini, " I am the Brahma." These are the slogans of higher religious thought ; and they contain the corollary that the w>)rld of things which we see in space, as we ideally assume it to be with our eyes and bodies, themselves phenomena, are mere shadows cast by the one truth — the innermost Personal Self identical with the outer Universal Self, the brahma-dtman} Now we have seen that our empirical knowledge which shows us a manifold variegated world where in truth there is only brahma, and a body where there is in truth only dtntan, or the bra/una in ourselves, that all that is mere ignorance, distraction, or illusion. The things that are unfolded before pur eyes in space, those things to which we ourselves belong with our ponderable bodies, are not true entities, they are not ' The Catholic mystic, Johannes Scheffler, called Angelus Silesius (born 1624), arrives at the same end in a stanza o£ his collection of poems called Cheruhinischer Wandirsmann : " Ich bin so gross wie Gott, Er ist wie ich so klein ; Ich kann nicht unter ihm, Er Uber mich nicht sein," 276 The Religion of the Veda the dtman. As long as this is not recognised, the Hindus say there is avidyd " ignorance," or, more literally and philosophically " nescience." Or they say that there is mdyd " illusion." All else aside from this single truth is a mere mirage in the desert, and is so far as it must after all have some kind of a con- nection with Brahma, have sgme reality in Brahma, it is no more real than the reflection of the real moon which we see trembling on the ripple of the waters. Even the very conception of nescience or illusion is, of course, not real, because it can be annihilated, and whatever is temporary is not real. What induced the time-less, space-less, and cause-less Brahma to enter upon the escapade of this phenomenal world of time, space, and causality, the Hindu thinkers cannot tell us. Their mythology is full of crude ideas of the primitive being's loneliness and desire to multiply, but these ideas belong to the lower forms of their religion ; they are not entertained by their philosophers. This is the point where Hinduism like every system of idealistic philosophy breaks down. Plato's to ovrcos oV; the ens rea/zssimum / Kant's din^;- an sicli ; the Upanishads' " That only True ' ' are all very well, but the world of phenomena to explain that — aye there 's the rub. This pesky world of plural things, full of irrational quantities — why does it exist, and is it not pounding along toward some end that will show a The Final Philosophy of the Veda 277 uniting principle ? With that kind of suggestion the Hindu will have nothing to do. Entranced by the absolute reality of the one Brahma he wafts away the world of experience as a conjurer an optical delusion. Into the maze of difficulties and inconsistencies which opens out here we need not go. The mani- fold modifications, adjustments, and the trimming down of the main thought which the Upanishads are driven to undertake belong to philosophy rather than religion. According to the Upanishads' own definition of the dtman, everything that these works undertake to say about anything other than the dt- man is mere figure of speech, and every definition of the dtman itself is also figure of speech. Every defi- nition is necessarily stopped by the words: "No, No" [iia neti\ The Brahma has no attributes {itirgjina). Yea, the Hindu when in the proper mood, advancing straight to the last consequence, looking neither to the right nor to the left, denies the possibility of knowing Brahma altogether. Tremen- dous paradox this, considering all depends upon the intuition of this very conception. In a conversation with his wife Maitreyl' the great thinker Yajnavalkya asserts that there is no consciousness after death, be- cause there must be two in order that one should see ' Brihaclaranyika Upanishad 2. 4. 12 ff. •78 The Religion of the Veda the other, smell, hear, address, understand, recognise the ether. " But if one has himself become Atman (that is, " Self ") by means of what and whom should he then see ? By means of what and whom should he then smell, hear, address, understand, recognise ? " In brief and dry language, being himself the subject, and there being no object, there is no cognition nor consciousness. Emerson's keen and terse poem on the Brahma in which the Brahma itself speaks, approaches this idea of absolute unity. But the chilly sombre theme is made warm and glowing in these lines which may be counted among the best in the English language: If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain. They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again. Far and forgot to me is near, Shadow and sunlight are the same. The vanished gods to me appear. And one to me are shame and fame. They reckon ill who leave me out ; When me they fly I am the wings ; I am the doubter and the doubt. And I the hymn the Brahmin sings. The strong gods pine for my abode And pine in vain, the Sacred Seven ; But thou meek lover of the good ! Find me. and turn thv back on heaven. The Final Philosophy of the Veda 279 But we are concerned with the value of the Upani- shads as religion, in a world which for practical purposes must be admitted to be real, for man who for practical purposes must be admitted to be real. The (^vetagvatara Upanishad starts out with the old question : Whence are we born ? Whereby do we live, and whither do we go ? ye who know Brahma, tell us at v/hose command we abide here, whether in pain or in pleasure ? Should Time, or nature, or necessity, or chance, or the elements be considered as the cause, or he who is called Purusha, that is, the Supreme Spirit ? The Upanishads answer for practical purposes : The Supreme Spirit that is alike in the universe and in man — that is the essence of all. It is Being, without a second, without beginning and without end, without limitations of any kind. Whatever there is, or seems to be, mind and matter, nature and man, is one substance only, namely, Brahma. The same Yajnavalkya, whose desperately ration- alistic answer to his wife Maitreyl we have just heard, takes also a more human view of the Atman. This is told in the frame of a quaint little story, as follows ' : Yajnavalkya had two wives, Maitreyl and Katyayanl. Of these two Maitreyl knew how to discourse about the ' Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2. 4 and 4. 5. 28o The Religion of the Veda brahma J Katyayani, on the other hand, knew only what women are supposed to understand. Now Yajnavalkya desired to change his life of householder to that of religious hermit. " Maitreyl," says he, " I shall now retire from the condition of householder, and as a preliminary divide my goods between thee and Katyayani." Then spake Maitreyi : " If, O lord, this whole earth with all its wealth belonged to me, would I then become immortal, or not ? " " By no means," replies Yajnavalkya. " Only like the life of the rich would thy life be ; wealth does not carry with it the expectation of immortality." Then replied Maitreyl : " That through which I do not become immortal, what good is that to me ? Expound to me rather thy knowledge." Then Yajnavalkya: "Truly thou wast previously dear to us, beloved lady, and now thou hast increased our love. Well then, I shall expound it to thee ; attend then, to what I say : All things of the world, and every relation in the world are dear to us not because of their own value, but because of the dtman, their true essence. Wife, husband, sons, wealth ; the high stations of priest and warrior ; the worlds, the gods, the Veda, and the sacrifice are dear to us not because of their own value, but because of the dtman, their true e^jsence. As one grasps the tones of an instrument with the instrument itself so are grasped all things when the dtman is grasped. Truly he that hath seen, heard, re- cognised, and understood the dtman he knows the whole world." ' We may be sure that Yajnavalkya does not really intend to expound to his beloved Maitreyl the ex- ' Cf. Rdmakrishna, His Life and Sayiitss, p. I35 (number i6l). The Final Philosophy of the Veda 281 tremes of super-sensual rationalism. In effect he expresses the ideal of union with the supreme being, the ultimate endeavor of all religions that have evolved a supreme being worth uniting with. At a later period there comes out of the permanently untenable, cool intellectualism of the Upanishads the religion of the Bhaktas or "pious devotees." Tlie destiny of Upanishad thought is, after all, an acute and mystic monotheism, very like the mysti- cism of those Christian " friends of god," John Tauler and Thomas h Kempis. By knowledge they dis- cover the Supreme Intelligence and perceive its essence ; by devotion {bJiakti) they feel the sweet- ness of the Supreme Being and reciprocate its loving intent. So the Bhagavadglta, the " Song of the Celes- tial," can finally make the Supreme Being say of the pious man : " Through love he recognises rne in truth, my greatness and my essence. He that loves me is not lost." It comes to this finally, that know- ledge of the Supreme is but a preparation for what we call love of God. In the words of the modern Bengali Saint and Ascetic Ramakrishna : " The Knowledge of God may be likened to a man, while the Love of God is like a woman. Knowledge has entry only up to the outer rooms of God, but no one can enter into the inner mysteries of God save a lover, for a woman has access even to the privacy 282 The Religion of the Veda of the Almighty." ' And finally the same thinker arrives at the last possible conclusion : " Knowledge and love of God are ultimately one and the sarr,e. There is no difference between pure knowledge and pure love." We might have predicted the same result. To a religion which strives with all its might to know the truth, truth's sister, love, does not long remain a stranger. Yajnavalkya, as we have seen, abandons his wiv/es and goes to live in the forest. Such " Forest- Hermits" {vko^ioi) must have been common in India several centuries before Christ. Buddha criti- cises them, and declares himself as against their ascetic life and practices as a hindrance rather than a help to a life of perfect freedom from passions and desires, a life of true emancipation. He himself advocates moderation in all things, salvation in- cluded. He prefers the "middle of the road," as both he and we say (the media via, or inadhyaina- tnarga). About 300 B.C. a clever Greek by the name of Megasthenes was the ambassador of the Grscco- Persian king Seleukos at the court of Chandragupta in the city of Pataliputra (311-302 B.c). Chandra- gupta — Sandrakottos or Sandrokyptos, as the Greeks called him— had succeeded, after the death of Alex- ander the Great, in founding the great Indian empire ' Ramakrishna, His Life and Sayings, p. 13S {r.v.-iber 172). The Final Philosophy of the Veda 283 of the Maurya dynasty, the largest empire known up to that time in India. Megasthenes wrote a work called Indica which contains much important in- formation about the India of his day. He tells that these ascetics were indifferent to the good or evil that happens to man ; that all being, in their opinion, is dreamlike illusion ; that they regard the world as created and perishable ; and believe that God who has created it pervades it completely. Considering the source, this is an uncommonly good description of the pessimistic pantheism of the Upanishads. Alexander the Great himself was much impressed with these " Sages of the Forest." He sent one Onesikritos to talk with them. After having been laughed at by the ascetics for his full dress of mantle, hat, and boots, and told to lie naked upon the stones if he would learn from them, he was finally initiated into the Hindu idea, to wit, that the best doctrine is that which removes not only sorrow but also joy from the soul of man. Professor Huxley in his Evohttion and Ethics (p. 65) has subjected the Hindu ideal to severe criticism. According to him the sumrnum bomim of the Hindu, is a state of impassive quasi-somnambulism which but for its acknowledged holiness might run the risk of being confounded with idiocy. It leads to the abandonment of property, social ties, family 284 The Religion of the Veda affections, and common companionship, until all that remains of a man is the impassive attenuated men- dicant monk, self-hypnotised into cataleptic trances which the deluded mystic takes for foretastes of final union with Brahma. Professor Huxley has in mind the extreme case of Yogin of the later time, who confounds hocus-pocus and humbug with re- ligion. As a matter of fact the Upanishad religion is a religion of perfect freedom, and equally as a matter of fact the religious of the Upanishads do find it advisable as a rule, to retire from active life after having done their duty in active life. Yajnavalkya's step marks not only the new order of thought but also the new order of life which the religion of the dtrnan-brahma imposes upon India. In fact we may say that henceforth India leads a double life. The first is the life of every day. The fragile human creature enters through the mother's womb, where it has been protected by the pious prayers and ceremonies of its parents, into the be- wildering sunshine of this world. If it only knew it, it would be glad that the karma of its former exist- ence entitles its soul in the present existence to the shelter of a human body, howsoever lowly. Worse might have happened in the hazard of the lottery of transmigration. Birth means that the soul in ques- tion has not yet Joined Brahma. He who has not The Final Philosophy of the Veda 285 done so, alas, is born again as worm or as fly ; as fish or as fowl ; as lion or as boar ; as bull or as tiger, or man ; or as something else — any old thing as we might say — in this place or in that place, according to the quality of his works, and the degree of his knowledge, that is in accordance with the doctrine 01 karma} Thanks to the past the present is secure : worse might have happened than to pass through the temporary shelter of a human mother's body into the more enduring shelter of the mother's love. The Hindu mother, like any other mother, rejoices in her child, especially if he is a boy, and asks no questions about his ultimate cosmic destiny. Father and mother now bend every energy to raise the child so that he may become an honored member of the Brahmanical community, beloved alike of god and man. The Hindu books of Rules of Home Life, the so-called Grihyasutras,' tell a touching story of the pious care with which the child is piloted through infancy. Indeed the hfe of the Brahmanical Hindu is sacramental throughout. Every important phase of his life has its own sacraments. The most im- portant of them are the investiture by his teacher with the sacred cord, and his marriage. This investiture is looked upon as a spiritual ' Kausliitaki Upanis.had I. 2, ' See above, p. 41. 2 86 The Religion of the Veda second birth, or regeneration. The little mortal becomes a man in a higher sense, because his teacher teaches him the Veda, syllable by syllable, word by word, stanza by stanza. During the period of his disciplehood he is the devoted servant of his teacher who, throughout Hindu tradition, is regarded as even better entitled to respect than his own parents. No matter how rich and powerful his own family, he now lives obedient to his teacher, taking care of his wants to the point of gathering his fire-wood and begging for him in the village, humble and chaste in his own life. In return he obtains from his teacher the sacred knowledge, the Veda. Especially, the sacrosanct SavitrT, that famous brief stanza ' which at an early time carries within it the presentiment of the deep theosophy that is to come, by placing in the relation of cause and effect the physical and spiritual essences of tht universe : " '^hat lovely glory of Sa.vitar, The heavenly god, we contemplate : Our pious thoughts he shall promote." After he has absolved the study of the Veda he becomes a full-grown man. The teacher, according to the beautiful account of the Taittirlya Upanishad (i. ii), dismisses his pupil with the following last ' Rig-Veda 3. 62. 10 ; see above, p. 86. The Final Philosophy of the Veda 287 injunction : " Tell the truth ; do your duty, do not neglect the study of the Veda! After having given to your teacher your gift of love, see to it that the thread of your race be not cut off ! Do not neg- lect truth, duty, health, property, and the study of the Veda ! Honor your mother as a god ! Honor your father as a god ! Honor your teacher as a god ! Plonor your guest as a god ! Live an irreproachable life ; honor your superior ; give alms in true spirit ! When in doubt follow the judgment of Brahmans of tried authority ! " Then he passes into the life stage of full-grovi^n man, husband and householder [grhastha). His great duties are now worship and sacrifice to the gods, — and the begetting of sons. The latter are of great im- portance, because they carry on through unbroken generations the cult of the Manes or Fathers who, in a vaguely inconsistent way, are still carrying on a happy life in the abodes of the blessed — between transmigrations we must suppose. This as reward for their supposedly very pious lives. It is at the end of this stage that we may suppose Yajnavalkya takes leave of his beloved Maitreyl, The curtain now drops on the scene of all temporal interests: wife, children, home, and property. It is a curious fact that in theory at least the higher religion of the Upanishad begins where the religions of other 288 The Religion of the Veda peoples are content to conclude their offices. Hav- ing disciplined the young Brahman ; having taught him how to live an orderly, god-fearing, god-pro- tected life ; having secured safe continuation of his race through pious ?ons ; and having finally gained his admission to the he.ivcnly home of the blessed Fathers — what more is /leeded ? Not so the Hindu. Over this pigmy religion which is engaged only with the needs of the ponderable, perishable man, towers as a giant the grandiose con- ception, than which, in its way, no higher is possible, that the True in man is in fact the One True in all the Universe. There is one eternal truth: of this we our- selves are part. The distracting, misleading, adhesion, cemented by every sense, to a divided individual ex- istence in a world of illusory phenomena, come no one knows whence, but none the less certainly false, re- quires time and patience to undo. The Hindu theory assumes four stages or dqrainas (literally, "hermitages") in the life of man after his rebirth at the investiture. The first two stages, as we have" seen, are disciplehood and householdership. Then come the two stages of Forest-dweller, or Hermit, and Wandering Ascetic. In the hermit stage he simply lives in the forest, and may yet keep up some connection with wife and children, and continue his sacred practices. But in the last stage all worldly The Final Philosophy of the Veda 289 interest is abandoned, every fetter of affection, desire, passion is sundered. There is no fixed abode, he lives as it happens, subsists as he may, indifferent to all but the realisation that he is the brahma. This realisation of itself means the destruction of nescience: with it the phantom world of sorrow and joy sinks out of sight. The soul knowing at last that it is brahma, namely truth, sunders the chain that holds it captive through transmigration to the world, namely illusion. This is the salvation of the Hindu, namely the perfect knowledge that the soul of man that dwells in him is the unpolluted, not to be pollu- ted, sert;ne, holy, eternal, blissful, divine self— the atman, or brahma. The realisation of this truth, un- hindered by any other desire, that is all that is needed; than it nothing else whatsoever can have anything more than temporary importance. INDEX Aborigines of India, 24, 175 Abstract gods, 96, 109, 131, 135. 191. 242 Afoka or Piyadassi, Bud- dhist Emperor, 19, 53 Afvamedha, "horse-sacrifice " 213, 216 AgvinSj.or Dioscuri, 46, 90 ff., 94, no, 112 ff., 141, 160, 167, 172 Aditi, 130 ff. _3idii4ias, 78, 92, 120, 129^., 153; meaning of the word, 131 Agni and Soma, 78 Agnj/' God Fire, " 78, 87, 89, 91, 92, no, 127, 156 if., 244; son of Ushas (Dawn), 73, 160; his descent from heaven (lightning), 165; produced by friction, 139, 158; progenitor of men (Ayu), 139, 158; servant of the gods, 162; and his brothers, story of, 162 Agni Jatavedas ("Omni- scient"), 164, 189 Ahalya, story of, 229 Aha^n brahma asmi, "1 am. the Brahma, " 275 Ahura Mazda (Ormazd), 120 ff., 126, 133, 232. Sec Asura Airyama, 129. See Axyaxtian Ajatafatru, 21 a, 227 Akbar, Emperfl 52 ff. A Kempis, Thomas, 281 Alexander the Great, 18, 282 Altar, three altars, 16 r Amesha Spentas, "Holy Im- mortals," 133 ff. Anfa, 130 -^ Andra, 176. See Indra J Angiras, semi-divine priests, 144. 163 Anquetil du Perron, 54 Antiope of Boeotia, mother of Dioscuri, 116 Aprl-hymns, 78, 79 Apsaras (nymphs), 46, 191 Aranyaka Texts, 49, 50, 209 Arati, "Demon of Grudge," 191 Arrested anthropomorphism, 85. 93. 165 Arta. See Rta Artabhaga, atheosopher, 260 Aryaman, 129, 134, 153 Aryan. See Indo-Iranian Aryans, Indian, geographical provenience of, 23 Arj'a Samaj, a reform asso- ciation, 9 Asceticism, criticised by Buddha, 282; by Pro- fessor Huxley, 283 Ascetic wanderer, 288 Asha. See Rta Asura = Ahura, 133 Atharvangirasah ,^ ' ' blessings and curses, " 26, 29 Atharva-Veda, 17, 25 ff., 39, 40 ff., 77;itstheosophy,209 291 292 Index Atman, "Supreme Spirit," 87, 211, 270 ff., 280. See Brahma and cf. Breath Atmospheric Gods, 92 Aurengzeb, Emperor, 52 Avesta and Veda, mutual relations of, 13, 15, 24, 118 Ayu, "Living," designation of fire and man, 139, 158 B Babylonian influence on Ar- yan religion, 133, 135 Baksheesh, 69 ff., 71, 190 ff., 194 ff., 197, 227, 229, 252; hymn addressed to, 197 Behistan rock, cuneiform in- scription on, 14 "Being and ron-being, " 235, 237, 238 "Belly and the members," fable of, 271 Benfey, Theodor, 102, 108 Bentinck, Lord William, 9 Bergaigne, Abel, 72 Bhaga, old word for "God," 109, 130, 134 Bhagavadglta, 201, 281 Bliakti, " devotion, " 195, 281. Cf. Devotion Bhrigu, a sage, 252 Bhrigvangirasah, name of Atharva-Veda, 40 Bimbisara, a Buddhist, 219 Brahma, the ultimate prin- ciple, 87, 118, 211, 232, 248, 260; meaning of the word, 205, 273; final shap- ing of, 273; without at- tributes, 277; pessimistic conception of, .267^.; Em- erson's poem on, 277; final union with, 266, 289. Cf. Atman Brahmanas, or Brahmana Texts, 45 ;7., 48, 209 Brahmanaspati : see Brihas- pati Brahmanical philosophies, 2, 51, 108, 229 Brahmanism, extent of, 2 ; criticised, 221; contrasted with Buddhism, 3 Brahma Samaj, a reform association, 9, 11 Brahma-Veda, name of Atharva-Veda, 40 Brahmodya, or Brahma- vadya, theosophic riddles, 2i6>-. Breath of life, as entity, 255. Cf. Atman Brihaspati," Lord of Prayer," 243. 273 Buddha, 213, 219, 282; date of, 18; his sphere of ac- tivity, 268 Buddhism, 2, 3, 108 Cabalas =^*'/3/j£po5, 106 Candragupta, or Chandra- gupta, 18, 282 5ankara, a philosopher, 221, 227 Caste, system of, 5, 6, 7, 8, 264; revulsion against, 8; its relation to theosophy, 225 Castor and Pollux (Polu- deukes), no, 113 Celestial gods, 92 Cerberus and Cerberi, myth of, 105 ff. Chandogya-Upanishad, 234, 238, 260 Chandragupta. See Candra- gupta Chase, G. D^Professor, 115, 173 Index 293 Children of "Father Sky," no, 112 Climate and nature, influence of upon mythology, 82 ; cause of pessimism, 265 ■Comparative Mythology, loS, 167; criticism of, 100 ff. Conflicting prayers and sacri- fices, 185 "Cosmic order." See Rta Counsel of perfection, 126 Creation hymn, 229, 234 ff. Creative fervor, 237 Crotriyas, or "Oral Tra- ditionalists, "21 Cvetaketu Aruni, 223 Cvetajvatara Upanishad, 279 Cyavana the Bhargava, story of, 46 D D ak sha, a god, 130 Dakshina, "Baksheesh," name of Ushas, Dawn, 71. See Baksheesh Dana-stuti, "gift-praises," 196 Dara Shukoh, a Mogul prince, 52/7- Darius I. Hystaspes, 14 Dawn, mother of Agni, 160. See Ushas Death, early notions of, 249 ff. "Death anew," or "Re- death," 253 D e i V 6 s, "Shiners," Indo- European word for gods, 108, 148 " Desire, " Kama, personified, 237 Deucalion, myth of, 138 Deussen, Paul, Professor, 56, 233, 234 Devotion, 195, 202 ff., 281; personified, 206, 273; con- trasted with Faith, 193. Cf. Prayer. Devotional (creative) fervor, 237 Dhatar, "Maker," 242 Dhena, "Holy Song," wife of Brihaspati, 244 Diespiter, Jupiter, no Dioscuri. Bee Afvins Dirghatamas, author of a riddle-hymn, 210, 217, 229, 233 Djemshed (Yima Khshaeta), Persian epic hero, 143 Dogs of Yama, dogs of death, 105, 106, 251 Dreams and hallucinations, 255 Dyaus, Dyaush Pitar, "Fa- ther Sky," 66, 92, 95, no, 139, 148, 152 ff. E Economic conditions and pessimism, 264 Emerson's poem on Brahma, 278 Eros, "Love," personified, 237. 245 Ethics, Vedic system of, 126 ff. Ethnology, its relation to Mythology, 93 Faith, conception of, 109, 186 ff.; personified, 189; faith and works, 190, 269; related to truth and wis- dom, 188; reward of, post- poned to heaven, 193 " Family-books '.' of Rig- Veda 27, 70, 210 Father God, 138. Fathers in heaven, 250, 251, 287 " Father Sky. V See Dyaus. 294 Index Festivals, public and tribal, 214 Fetish, 256 ff. Fire, emblem of Brahmanism, 189; production of, 139, 158. Cf. Agni Fjorgyn and Fjorgynn,, iii Flood, Hindu story of, 45, 143 "Forest-dwellers," 282, 288 Four stages of life. 4, 2S8 Future life, early notions of, 149, 249 if. Ganges, a river, 23, 265 Garbe, R., Professor, 220 ff. Gargya and Gargi, theoso- phers, 223 Garutmant (the sun) 210, 218 Gatha narSfansyah, "praises of men," 196 Ghee, food of the gods, 63, 161 "Gift-praises," 196 Girdle, sacred, 188 Gods, Indo-European words for, 108; three classes of, 87, 91; chronology of, 90, 93 ; relative importance of, 89, go, 93 ; relative clear- ness of their origin, ^3-96; daily order of their ap- pearance, 90 jf. ; character of, 184 ;f.; glory of, 199 Gospel of John, beginning of, 206 Grseco— Parthian rulers of In- dia, 14 Greek and Hindu mythology compared, 83 Greeks' estimate of their own religion, 84 Grihyasutras : see "House- Books" H Haridrumata, a teacher, 225 Heaven and Earth. See Dy- aus Helena, sister of Dioscuri, "3 Hell, descriptions of, 252 Henotheism (Kathenothe- ism), 164, 199 Heracles and three-headed Geryon; Hercules and three-headed Cacus, 180 Hermits {vXofiioi), 282, 28S Hestia- Vesta, 158 Hieratic religion of Veda, 60 ; belongs to the upper classes, 77 Hillebrandt, A., Professor, ,179 ff- Hmdu and Greek Mythology compared, 83 Hindu life and institutions intensely religious, 3, 4 Holiness, conception of, 109 Hopkins, E. W., Professor, ,23. iSS Horse-sacrifice, 213, 216 ' ' House-Books ' ' (Grihyasu- tras), 41, 77, 159, 285 Huxley's critique of asceti- cism, 283 Hymns, artistic quality of, 75. 203 Ignorance, or "nescience," 276 Illusion (mdya), 276, 288 Images, absence of in Veda, 89 India and Persia, historical contact between, 14, 118 India, land of religions, 2; geographical isolation of, 11; her nature, climate, etc., 85, 265 Index 295 Indian and Persian religions contrasted, 118 India's exploration, future of, 22 India's religion, continuity of, 10 Indo-European period, 100; of religion, 16, 108 Indo-Iranian period, 100; of religion, 13, 118 Indo-Parthian Kingdoms, 14 Indra, 78, 89, 92, 94, 130, 131. 147. 157. 177. 186, 187, 217, 244; cause of sceptid'Sm, 174, 229 Indra and Agni, 78 Indra and Varuna, 78 Indra-Vritra myth, explana- tions of, 178, 179 Indus, a river, 23, 265 Initiation of a young Brah- man, 188 Investiture of a young Brah- man, 285 Ishtapurta, " sacrifice and baksheesh," 194 ff., 252. See Baksheesh Jabala, mother of Satya- kama, 225 Jajali, 225 Janaka, king of Videha, 214, 219, 226, 227 Jatavedas, " Omniscient," name of Agni, 164, 189 Jaundice, charm against, 42 Juggernaut, car of, 9 Jupiter, no Jyotishtoma-sacrifice, 77 K personified, Kala, "Tim 245 Kama, "Love," personified, 237. 245 Kanvas, a family of poets, 28, 203, 205 Karma, or spiritual evolution, 19S, 257. 259, 284; Western estimate of, 261 ff. Katyayani, wife of Yajna- va'kya, 277 Kennings, 162 Kings, interested in theos- ophy, 214, 219, 220, 223, 227 Kronos, 84 Kuhn, Adalbert, 102, 108 Kumarila, a philosopher, 222, 227 Lithuanian dainos, or songs, 114, 172 Loge (Loki), Norse god of fire, 156 Logos, or "Word" (divine), 207, 273 Lost cattle, Lithuanian poem about, 172 M Macdonell, A. A., Professor, 131 MaitreyJ, wife of Yajna- valkya, 223, 277 Man, origin of, 138, 149 Manicheism, 85 Mannus, sonof Tuisto, 140 Manu, Manush Pitar, " Father Manu, " 140, 143 Manu, Law-Book of, 256, 259 Martanda, 130 Maruts, 92 "Master-singers," 201, 202 Matariijvan, 165, 210, 218 Maurya dynasty, 18, 283 Maya, "Illusion," 276, 288 Megasthenes, Greek author, 296 Index Metempsychosis. See Trans- migration Metres, 24: belonging to diflEerent hours of the day, 80; to individual gods, 80 Mithraism, 85 Mitra (Persian Mithra, Mi- thras), 92, 120 ff., 129, . 132 ft; 153. 210. 218 Moderation in asceticism, 282, 284 Mohammedanism in India, 10, 52 if. Mokshamulara, Sanskrit name of Max Mtiller, 53 Monism, idea of unity, 56 ff., 210, 218, 233, 247, 269. See Pantheism Moon and "Sun-Maiden," marriage of, 114 Morning and evening star, 114 ;t-. 172 "Mother Earth," 95, 110, 138, 148 Mountains as winged birds, legend of, 48 Muir, Dr. John, 154 Muller, Max, 53, 71, 102, 164, 199 Myotics, Christian, 275, 281 Mythology, 29; in its relation to Ethnology, 103. Cf. Indo-Iranian, and Indo- European N Naciketas, atheosopher, 192, 223 Naneti, "no, no," 277 Nature myth, 29, Si, 108, 148, 152 ff.; nature phe- nomena in legends, 48; in riddles, 217 Neoplatonism, 207 Nidhanas of the Sama-Veda, 37 Odhin, a Norse god, 155 Oidenberg, H., Professor, 72, ^ 133 ff; 273 Onesikritos, a Greek, 283 Opaque gods, 96, 174 Oupnekhat, Persian trans- lation of the Upanishads, 54 ff. Pairs of gods, 78 Pantheism, 242. See Mon- ism Pantheon of the Veda, 78, 88 ff. Parajara, a Rishi, 225 Paradise, 250, 287; solar, 169 ff. Parameshthin, " He who oc- cupies the highest place, " 242 Parjanya, God of Thunder, 92, III, 178, 181 "Parliament of Religions,'' in Chicago, 9 Parsis in India, 10, 14, 118 Patrons of sacrifice, 193 ff., 215; of theosophy, 219 Perkunas, Lithuanian God of Thunder, iii, 115 Persian and Hindu religion contrasted, 118 Persian names in arta, 12 Pessimism, 3, 4, 212, 263; its origin, 264; its final fixation, 267 Philosophy, its relation to practical life, 10. See The- osophy Phcebus Apollo and Marsyas, 84 Pischel, R., Professor, 113 Poetic inspiration, 75,201^. Popular religion, 42, 77 Index 297 Prajapati, "Lord of Crea- tures," 236, 240, 245, 246. 271 Prana, "Breath of Life," personified, 245 _ Pravahana Jaivali, a royal theosopher, 224 Prayer beatified and deified, 205, 243. Cf. Devotion Prayer of the gods, 205 Prehistoric gods, 90, 96, 99 if. Priests, various kinds of, 80, Prithivi, "Earth," 92. Cf. " Mother Earth " Pururavas and Urvasi, story of, 46 Purusha, " cosmic man, " and supreme spirit, 242, 279 Piishan, 92, 170, 171 R Raja Rammohun Roy, a re- former, 8, 53 Rajasilya, "coronation" of a king, 213 Raro.akrishna, a saint and ascetic, 227, 229, 281 Religion, science of, 151 ReHgious liberty, 8, 19, 53 Renan, Ernest, 85 Retribution, 252, 262 Reverence, Indo-European conception of , 109 Ribhus, 78 Riddles, theosophic, 210, 215 ff-< 218 Rig- Veda, 17, 25 ff.; geo- graphy of, 23 ; language of, 26; character of, 29; er- roneous view of its authors and redaction, 61 ff.; qual- ity of its hymns, 63 ; utilitarian and ritual char- acter of, 31, 67, 75, 182; religious essence of, 198^. See Veda Ritual and thcosophy, 213, 218 Royal caste, its influence upon theosophy, 214, 223, 227 Rta (asha, arta), "cosmic on'Sor," 120, 121, 125 ff., 232 ; date of the conception, 12, 19, 13s Rudra, 92 Sacraments in daily life of Hindus, 4, 285 Sacrifice, philosophy of, 33, 215 Sacrifice post, 67, 79 Sacrificers, origin of, 138 Sages as creators, 237 Salvation, 5, 211, 247, 263, 269, 289 Sama-Veda, 25 ff.; Veda r\{ music, 36; popular origin of, 38; inferior position of, 39; connected with god Indra, 37; related to Sha- manism, 38 Sandrakottos, Sandrokyptos (Candragupta), 18, 282 Sankhya philosophy, 2 Saranyu, mother of the Ag- vins, 91, 113, 141 ff. Satyakama, son of Jabala, a low-caste theosopher, 225 Saule, Lettish "Sun-Maid- en," 115 ff. See "Sun- Maiden" Savarna, wife of Vivasvant, 142 Savitar, 74, 86, 91, 92, 240. See next Savitri, or Gayatrl stanza, 86, 202, 273, 286. See preceding Scepticism, 174, 181, 229; philosophic, 238 298 Index Scheffler, Johannes, a mys- tic, 27s o Schopenhauer and Upan- ishad philosophy, 55 ff. Seleukos, a GriECO-Persian king, 282 Seli:-hypnosis, Q, 284 Sena, wife of Indra, 244 Sentimental regard of gods, 200 Shah Jehan, a Mogul Empe- ror, 52 Shah Naraeh, Persian Epic, 144 Shankar Pandurang Pandit, 21 Sikhs, religion of, 10 Skambha, "Support," 142 Soma (Itaonta), plant, and liquor pressed from it, 77, 78, 120, 122, 138, 143, I4S, 147, 175; its function in Vedic religion, 65, 147; in Avestan religion, 147; brought from heaven by an eagle, 146, 165; per- sonified, 78, 92, 172; as the moon, 3:13 "Sons of God, Lithuanian myth of, no, 114 Stages of life, four, 4, 288 Stobhas of the Sama-Vcda, Sun, universal worship of, 104; progenitor of man, 139, 141; as shepherd and finder of lost objects, 172/7. See Savitar, and Surya Sun and moon as dogs, 105, " Sun-Maiden, " go,c)i,ii2 ff., IIS 11-' 172 Surya (Helios) 86, 87, 92, 112, 153. 154, 172 Surya. See "Sun-Maiden Suttee, or widow-burning, 9 Svayambhu, "The Self -ex- isting," 242 Sjrmbolic gods, 96, 109, 131, 13s, 191, 242 Talmud, 209, 215, 222 Tapas, "creative fervor," 237 Tat tvam ast. ''Thou art the That," 233, 269, 275 Tauler, John, a mystic, 281 Teacher and pupil, 188, 286 Tel-el-Amarna, cuneiform tablets of, ii, 135 Temples, abst-nce of, 8g Terrestrial gods, 92 Theosophy, beginnings of, 208, 215, 219; time of its appearance, 209 ff., 221; place where it originated, 212 ff.; its authors, 219, 227; chronology of, 233 Thor (Donar), iii Thrita and Athwya, 146 Thugs, sect of, g Thunder, god of, mi, 148 "Time," "Father Time," personified, 245 Totemism, 138 ff., 256 Transcendental gods, 244 Translucent gods, 96, 166 ff. Transmigration of souls, 3, 57, 211/;., 224, 247; origin and explanation of, 254^. ; date of, 257; Western es- timate of, 261 ff.,; release from, 258 Transparent gods, 93-96, Trita Aptya, 146 Truth and untruth, 128 Tuisto, father of Mannus, 140 Tuladhara, a low-caste the- osopher, 225 Tvashtar, 91, 141, 240 "Twilight of the gods," 98, 230 Index 299 u Uddalaka Aruni, a theoso- pher, 221 Unity, idea of. See Monism Universe, threefold division of, 91, 169 / Upanishads, 2,? 52 ff., 209, 215, 222, 257 ff., 274, 287; discovery of, 52; critical estimate of, 57, 58; Hindu estimate of, 57; influence of, on Western philosophy, 55; relation of to ritual, 35, 209 Uranos, 84; identical with Varuna, 136 Urvagi, an Apsaras, 46 Ushas, "Dawn," a goddess, 30, 66/J., 71^., 78, 90^., no, 127, 152 ff., 251 Utilitarianism, 61, 183, 198 Vac, Vac Sarasvati, " Holy Speech," personified, 191, 243 Vajajravasa, a zealous Brah- man, 192 Vala and the cows, myth of, 180 Varuna, 92, 94, 119, 121, 128^., 153, 162, 167, 174, 200, 250; identical with Uranos, 136; collapse of, 232 Vasishthas, a family of Vedic authors, 28, 123, 186 Vata, and Vayu, "Wind," personified, 87, 92, 155, iSi Veda, 17 ^.; date of, 18, 209; canon of, 17; oral tradition of, 21; unhistorical char- acter of its tradition, 20, 23; date of its manu- scripts, 2 1 ; literary be- ginnings of, 24; character of its literature, 25, 65, 76, 80; its composers, 27, 28, 61 ; its metres, 24, 80; mode of acquiring it in school, 188, 286. See Rig-Veda Veda and Avesta, mutual relations of, 13, 15, 24, 118 Veda and Mahabharata, 16 Vedfinta philosophy, 2, 51, 229 Vedas, Concordance of, 18, 35 Vifpala, a racing mare, 113 Vifvakarman, " Fabricator of universe," 242 V'dhatar, "Arranger," 242 Vishnu, 92, 168 ff.. 195 Vivasvant (Vivanhvant), fa- ther of Yama and Manu, 120, 139, 141 ff., 146 Vivekananda, Svanii, a re- ligious reformer, 9, 225, 229 Vrishakapayi, 91 Vritra, a demon, 175 ff. Vritrahan (Verethraghna, Vahagn), epithet of Indra, 176 W Wagner, Richard, 59, 156 Warrior caste, its relation to theosophy, 219, 220 ff. Whitney, William D., 18, 234 Woman's incantation against rival, 43 Women as theosophers, 233, 279 Wotan, a Teutonic god, 155 Y Yajnavalkya, a theosopher, 214, 221, 223, 227, 287, 261, 277, 279, 284, 290 Yajur- Veda, 25/7., 31 ff., 127 300 Index YamEv, king of paradise and hell, 105, 140, 144, 145, 162, 210, 230, 251 Yama and Yami, the first pair, 48, 120, 129, 140,144 Yaska, author of Nirukta, 90 Yima, Yima Khshaeta, 143. See Yama Ymir, cosmic man in the Edda, 242 "Yodels" in Sama-Veda, 37 Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), 118 Zeus, Zeus Pater, 83, 95, no, 152. See Dyaus Zeus Bagaios, 109 Zoroastrian angels (Amesha Spentas), 133 ff. Zoroastrian (Parsi) religion, II, 13, 118^. ) ( f -u KiiW