Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/92



HE religion of the Rig-Veda is well known. It was pre-eminently the worship of nature in its most imposing and sublime aspects. The sky which bends over all, the beautiful and blushing dawn which like a busy housewife wakes men from slumber and sends them to their work, the gorgeous tropical sun which vivifies the earth, the air which pervades the world, the fire which cheers and enlightens man, and the violent storms which in India usher in those copious rains which fill the land with plenty—these were the gods whom the early Hindus loved to extol and to worship. And often when an ancient Rishi sang the praises of any of the gods, he forgot that there was any other god besides, and his hymn had the character and the sublimity of a prayer to the one God of the universe. Indeed the seers themselves often rose higher than the level of nature-worship and boldly declared that the different gods were but different manifestations or different names of the one Primal Cause.

The sky was naturally the most prominent object of worship, and as the sky assumes various aspects, various names were given to it, and the conception Rh