Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/620

* INDIA. 544 IXDIA. lime unifying tendencies have been more opera- tive llian ever before. It is neeessary al the out- set, however, to guard the reader against attempt- ing to connect dates with the earlier of these periods. It has not been uneomnion for writers on this subject to assign thousands of years liefore the Christian Kra as the starting-points of various pliases of Hindu antiquity; otlii-rs, more cautious, marked the l)eginnings of certain divisions of Ve- <lic works with 1200, 1000, 800, and <!00 years B.C. The truth is. that since Hindu literature itself is almost without known dates, owing either to the peculiar organization of the Hindu mind, or to the convulsions of Indian historj'. the present condition of Sanskrit philologj- does not afford the scholar the requisite resources for embarking with any chance of success in such chronological speculations. Tlie question of Hindu chronology will be more particularly considered in the article Ved.. In the meantime, the utmost stretch of assumption which in the present condition of Sanskrit philologj' it is permitted to make is, that the latest wVitings of the Vedic class are not more recent than the second centurj- before Christ. A like uncertainty hangs over the period at which the two great epic poems of India were composed, although there is reason to surmise that the lower limits of that period ilid not reach beyond the beginning of the Cliristian Era. The Puranic period, on the other hand, scholars are generally agreed to regard as corresponding with part of our mediseval history, or roughly from A.D. 500 to 1500, although the material in these writings is often much older in its content. Vedic Rei.igiox. If the Rig-Veda— the oldest of the Vedas, and one of the oldest literarj- documents in existence — coincided with the be- ginning of Hindu civilization, the popular creed of the Hindus, as depicted in some of its hymns, would reveal not only the original creed of this nation, but throw a strong light on the original religion of humanity itself. Unhappily, how- ever, the imagination, indulging in such an hypothesis, would have little foundation to work on. There are. of course, numerous traces in the Rig-Veda of survivals of earlier animistic beliefs, of spiritism, fetishism, and ancestor-worship; but the Hindus, as depicted in these hymns, are far removed from the starting- point of human society; they may, in fact, fairly claim to be ranked among those already civilized communities experienced in arts, defend- ing their homes and property in organized war- fare, acquainted even with many vices which are found only in an advanced condition of artificial life. Yet in examining the ideas ex- pressed in the greatest number of the RigVedic hymns, it cannot be denied that they are neither ideas engendered by an imagination artificially influenced, nor such as have made a compromise with philosophy. The Hindu of these hymns is essentially engrossed by the might of the ele- ments. The powers which turn his awe into pious subjection and veneration are — Arini (q.v.). the fire of the sim and lightning; /n<f ra ( q.v. ), the god of the storm and the thimdcr; the Maruts, or winds (seeMABUT) ; Sfiri/a, the sun ( see S vbta ) ; Ushas, the dawn, whose hymns are among the most beautiful (see Tshas); and various kindred manifestations of the luminous bodies, and nature in general. He invokes them, not as representatives of a superior being, before whom the human soul professes its humility, nor as HUijerior beings themselves, which may reveal to his searching mind the mysteries of creation or eternity, but because he wants their assistance against enemies — because he wishes to obtain from them rain, food, cattle, health, and other iMKins. He complains to them of his trouldcs, and reminds them of the wonderful deeds they ])erfonned of yore, to coax them, as it were, into acquiescem-e and friendly help; in fact, he seeks them more for his material than for his spiritual welfare. What we should call the ethical side is less pronounced. Sin and evil, indeed, are often adverted to, and the gfxls are praised because they destroy sinners and evil- doers; but one would err in associating with these words our notions of sin or wrong. A sinner, in these hymns, is rather a man who does not address praises to those elementary deities, or who does not gratify them with the oblations they receive at the hands of the l)eliever. He is the foe, the robber, the demon — in short, the borderer infesting the territory of the 'pious' man. The latter, in his turn, may injure, and kill, but, in adoring Agni, Indra. and their kin, he is satisfied that he can commit no evil act. Vet some of the hyums, especially those addressed to the supersensuous. transcendental god Varuna (q.v.). the guardian of order and right, seem to imply the strongest sense of moral obligation and of sin as we understand the word. On the whole, it may also be said that the internal condition of the Hindu community, the features of which may be gathered from the hymns, seems to bespeak imion and brotherhood among it? members; and the absence, in gi-neral. of hymns which appeal to the gods for the suppression of internal dissensions or jiublic vices, bears testimony ap- parently to the good moral condition of the [K'Ople whose wants are recorded in these songs. It may be imagined that the worship of ele- mentarj'" beings like those we have mentioned ^as originallj* a simple and harmless one. It is true that the" sacrifice of sheep and goats, bulls, and even horses, was known, but it was not gen- eral. By far the greatest number of the RigVeda hynms know of but one sort of offering made to these gods; it consists of the juic-e of the soma (q.v.) or moon-plant, which, pressed out and fermented, was an exhilarating and inebriating beverage, and for this reason, probably, was deemed to invigorate the gods, and to increase their beneficial potency. It was presented to them in ladles, or sprinkled on the sacred Kusa grass. Clarified butter, too, poured on the fire, is mentioned in several h_-nins as an oldatinn agreeable to the gods, and it may have belonged to the primitive stage of the Vedic worship. There were no temples of the divinities, and in early times no images. The altar, if used, was very simple. The gods easily gathered from the atmospheric region roundabout. There is a class of hymns. howe%-er, to be found in the Rig-Veda which already depart ma- terially from the simplicity of the conceptions we are referring to. In these the instinctive ut- terance of feeling makes room for the language of speculation; the allegories of poetry yield to tlie mysticism of the reflecting mind: and the mysteries of nature becoming more keenly felt, the circle of beings which overawe the popular mind becomes enlarged. Thus, the objects by which Indra, Agni. and the other deities are propitiated become gods themselves; soma, espe-