Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/99

Rh most illustrious of the Rishis, married ten sisters at once, (vol. II, p. 17;) and, if the tone of female society is to be judged of from the wife even of a Rishi, or from a lady who is herself the author of a Sukta, women in those days were no better than they should be.

A gallant, deep-drinking, high-feeding race were the wild warriors of the Indus, and very unlike their descendants.

The picture of Hindoo life and manners, at the time of the Macedonian invasion, (326 B. C.,) was darkly shaded. The Hindoo even then had degenerated; and the “Life of an Eastern King” on the banks of the Indus differed little in its shameless details from that of his modern successor at Lucknow, on the banks of the Goomtee.

Rufus Curtius Quintus, the historian of Alexander, writes of the Hindoos thus: “The shameful luxuries of their prince surpasses that of all other nations. He reclines in a golden palankeen, with pearl hangings. The dresses which he puts on are embroidered with purple and gold. The pillars of his palace are gilt; and a running pattern of a vine, carved in gold, and figures of birds, in silver, ornament each column. The durbar is held while he combs and dresses his hair; then he receives embassadors, and decides cases. . . . The women prepare the banquet and pour out the wine, to which all the Indians are greatly addicted. Whenever he, or his queen, went on a journey, crowds of dancing girls in gilt palankeens attended; and when he became intoxicated they carried him to his couch.”—Liber VIII, 32. And, if we are to believe his biographer, into such a vile, sensual thing as this the great Alexander himself was rapidly degenerating at that very time!

The religion of the Vedas, then, was Nature worship; light, careless, and irreverent, utterly animal in its inmost spirit, with little or no sense of sin, no longings or hopes of immortality, nothing high, serious, or thoughtful. There was no love in their worship. They cared only for wealth, victory, animal gratification, and freedom from disease. The tiger of the forest might have joined in such prayers, and said, “Grant me health, a comfortable den, plenty of deer and cows, and strength to kill any intruder on my beat!” “The blessings they implore,” says Professor Wilson,