Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/403

Rh however, is not the case. The present religious practices are not there commanded, nor are the commands there enjoined now obeyed. In truth, the Vedas, until very lately, have been sunk almost in oblivion. The lower castes are forbidden to read them, or even to hear them read; and the Brahmins, whose duty it is to devote themselves to the study of these books, most holy in the eyes of the Hindu, know but little more of their contents than do the Sudras. They can repeat from them certain formulas for prayer, marriage, and other rites, but of the meaning of what they utter they are often entirely ignorant. In fact, not one Hindu in a thousand has any more definite idea of the Vedas than that all wisdom, all literary excellence, and all true revelation is contained in them; what these excellent things are, they know not.

Within a few years, through the untiring labours of a German student, Max Müller, aided by the researches of earlier scholars, a translation of the first Veda (the Rig-veda) has been given to the world. From this we have the fact made clear that the ancient Brahmins knew nothing of the modern system of Brahminic faith and practice. The names of the gods now