Page:The religions of India.djvu/47

Rh other similar collections no longer extant, belong to an age more recent, and form with the Brâhmaṇas the secondary deposit in the stratification of Vedic literature.

The religion which is transmitted to us in these Hymns is, in its principal features, this: Nature is throughout divine. Everything which is impressive by its sublimity, or is supposed capable of affecting us for good or evil, may become a direct object of adoration. Mountains, rivers, springs, trees, plants, are invoked as so many high powers. The animals which surround man, the horse by which he is borne into battle, the cow which supplies him with nourishment, the dog which keeps watch over his dwelling, the bird which, by its cry, reveals to him his future, together with that more numerous class of creatures which threaten his existence, receive from him the worship of either homage or deprecation. There are parts even of the apparatus used in connection with sacrifice which are more than sacred to purposes of religion; they are regarded as themselves deities. The very war-chariot, offensive