Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/32

 The Religion of the Veda tween the Veda and the later Hindu Epic, the Mahabharata. This is, in my opinion, an exag- geration, but it is significant that the statement could be made at all. The early religions and the religious institutions of the Hindus and Persians show, to be sure, far greater independence from one another than their languages, but the are, never theless, at the root much the same. So it has come to pass that a not at all mean part of the Vedic Pantheon and Vedic religious ideas begin before the Veda. Or, to put it even more paradoxically, Indian religion begins before its arrival in India. Yet further, beyond the common period of the Hindus and the Persians, there is a still remoter period which is not entirely closed to our view. It is the common Indo-European time, the time when the Hindus and Persians still shared their language and home with the remaining mem- bers of the same stock, the Hellenes, Italians, Celts, Teutons, and Slavs. In this altogether pre- historic time there also existed certain germs of religion, and some of these germs grew into import- ant features of the later religions of these peoples. The religion of the Veda is indebted to this carly time to an extent that is not negligible. We shall see later on in what way the two layers of prehis- toric religious matter have contributed to and affected 16