Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/402

350 million men, through a long series of centuries. It is also a subject of much difficulty, from the minuteness, length, and diversity of the accounts of their faith given by the holy books of the Hindus; and this difficulty is increased by the fact that the religion of India has not, as is commonly supposed, remained unchanged through these successive ages.

Whether in our limited space any satisfactory account can be given of a subject so vast, so difficult, and so complicated, is questionable. As there will doubtless be some of the readers of our little work who will look for information on this point, the attempt will be made to compress within the limits of a few pages an intelligible view of the main features of Hinduism.

The foundation of Hinduism is in certain sacred books known as the. These are regarded as the authority upon which all religious faith must rest. They are acknowledged by all to be divine, having come directly from the mouth of Brahma the creator. The Vedas, four in number, are in the Sanscrit, a language read by learned Brahmins, but no longer a spoken tongue. It might be supposed that to know the teachings of the Vedas would be to understand the religion of the Hindus. Such,