THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
IN MEMORY OF
Takusei Mizuno
THE VEDIC RELIGION
THE CREED AND PRACTICE OF THE INDO-ARYANS
THREE THOUSAND YEARS AGO
BY THE
REV. K S. MACDONALD, M.A.
MISSIONARY, FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, CALCU1TA
SECOND EDITION
LONDON
JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET
1881
MORRISON AND GIBB, EDINBURGH,
PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.
LOAN STACK
GIFT
PEEFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
AT the request of the Calcutta Missionary Confer-
ence I wrote, during the cold-weather holidays of
1879-80, a paper on this subject. The following
Notes are an expansion of that paper. Members of
the Conference and other Missionaries expressed a
desire and expectation that the paper be published.
Impressed by the importance of the subject, and by
the fact that there is no book published upon it,
though fully conscious of the shortcomings and
imperfections of my attempt, I have yielded to the
desire, in the hope that others more qualified may
take the matter up. I have neither time nor quali-
fications for it. At present, much is published bearing
directly or indirectly upon it in Dr. Muir's most
learned volumes, of which six or seven are before the
public, in Max Miiller's and Monier Williams' more
popular works, as well as in many other books
containing, among much other matter bearing on
Sanskrit literature or the Hindu religion, short
sketches of the times and hymns of the Veda. But
no one, as far as I am aware, has formally discussed
033
iv Preface.
the religious opinions and practices of the ' Sanhita '
(or collection of hymns) of the Eig-Veda from the
Christian standpoint.
There is a special necessity at the present time
for such a discussion in connection with the rise of
the Theistic Church, called the Arya Samaj, at the
head of which is Pundit Dayananda Sarasvati Svami,
who is now engaged in propagating his own peculiar
view of the Veda, and who accepts as an infallible
revelation all the four Vedas, but interprets them
monotheistically. The Eev. D. Hutton of Mirzapore
writes to me : 'I have read, with a good deal of
interest and profit, your lecture, which has been
appearing from week to week in the Indian Christian
Herald, and I should be glad to get a complete copy
of it. We have in Mirzapore a branch of the Arya
Samaj the new sect, I suppose, I must call them
founded by Dayananda Sarasvati, the Vedic reformer.
The secretary often calls on me to talk on religious
subjects. It has struck me that parts of your
lecture, put into Hindi, would be useful. I feel
sure it will be useful in the vernacular. The Svami,
as Dayananda Sarasvati is usually called, and his
followers believe the ' Sanhita ' of the Vedas to be
the work of God and eternal. A few judicious
selections from your lecture would put matters in a
different light.' ' The Svami travels about lecturing
eight months, and rests, like Gotama, four, only he
takes his rest in the cold weather. He has a fair
Preface. v
following in the North- West Provinces, and has
printed a number of books.'
My own feeling is that a missionary to the Hindus
should know Hinduism. But no human being can
thoroughly know Hinduism with its 10,000 Sanskrit
MSS. Happily the highest authority among them is
the ' Sanhita ' of the Eig-Veda, There is no appeal
from it. This, though about half the size of the
Bible, a missionary can master as regards its subject-
matter. To help him to do so the following pages
have been written, in the hope that the Spirit of God
may use them for the pulling down of strongholds,
and for the building up of His own kingdom in
India. K. S. M.
CALCUTTA, June 1880.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION, ..... 1
II. THEORIES OF INSPIRATION AND REVELATION, . 11
III. THE CONTENTS OF THE RIG- VEDA, ^faty^ ' 18
IV. WHAT IS NOT FOUND IN THE VEDA, ... 23
V. WHAT IS JN THE VEDA-^SIN) . ^ . . . 37
VI. IMMORTALITY AND THE FUTURE STATE OF MAN, . 47
VII. WINE, SOMA, AND DRINKING, .... 62
VIII. SACRIFICE, ...... 73
IX. MQNOTHEISM OR POLYTHEISM ? ... 94
X. RELATION OF THE WORSHIPPERS TO THE GODS, AND
THEIR FAITH IN THEM, . . . .136
XI. INCARNATION, MEDIATION, AND AGNI, . . . 146
XII. WOMEN, POLYGAMY, AND POLYANDRY, . 157
XIII. PRIESTS AMT> TMflfTTg . . . . .169
XIV. THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD AND BROTHERHOOD OF
MAN, ^ . . A I NSltfL - 196
XV. MIRACLES, CREATION, DELUGE, ETC., . . . 211
XVI. CONCLUSION
(1) THE DEMERITS OF THE VEDA, . . . 224
(2) TRACES OF THE PRIMITIVE RELIGION, . . 241
INDEX, ...... 256
Rev. T. Mizuno
860 -33rd St. OaLlaniCaL
B
THE VEDIC RELIGION.
L
INTRODUCTION.
Y the Vedic Eeligion I mean the religion
practised by the Eishis or composers of the
Vedas, and more particularly of the hymns of the
Eig-Veda, which are admitted by all the adherents of
the various Hindu systems to be the primary and
infallible authority in all matters of their religion.
Nay more, they are the real theogony of the whole
Aryan race, and, as such, are of special interest to
Teuton, Kelt, Greek, and Hindu alike. I include in
the Vedic Eeligion all doctrines and religious opinions
that can be logically inferred to have been in the
creed of the composers of the Eig-Veda hymn-book
or Sanhita.
It is of the greatest importance that all who are
interested in the Christianization of India, and espe-
cially all those who are daily labouring among pro-
fessed Hindus with this object, should acquaint
A
2 The Vedic Religion.
themselves with the Vedic Beligion. For even those
who are at the present moment recognised as the
spiritual guides of the people, those whose influence
for good or evil is even now immense, especially in
villages and country districts, from which many of
the most promising Hindu students come, are believers
in the supreme authority of the Vedas. Everything,
whether founded on individual opinion, or local
custom, or Tantras or Puranas, nay, -even on the law-
books of Manu, must be given up by the consistent
orthodox Hindu as soon as it can be proved to be
in direct conflict with a single sentence of the Veda.
' On that point/ says Mr. Miiller, ' there can be no
controversy.' * ' The authority of the Veda, in respect
to all religious questions,' says the same authority,
writing in 1878, ' is as great in India now as it has
ever been. To the vast majorities of the orthodox
believers, the Veda forms still the highest and only
infallible authority, quite as much as the Bible witli
us, or the Koran with the Mahomedans.' 2
Not only do we meet men in Calcutta, and I have
no doubt many more in other towns of India, who
excuse themselves from becoming Christians, nay,
even from taking the claims of Christianity into
serious consideration, by professing to believe in the
Veda and the Vedic Eeligion ; but there are in our
own days those, among the educated and the English-
speaking, who study the Veda in connection with our
1 Miiller's Hibbcrt Lectures, p. 153. - Ibid. p. 167.
Introduction. 3
University, or who have heard of the high position
given to it 1 in the University curriculum, who
-publicly, to the rejection of modern Hinduism, advo*-
cate the Vedic Keligion as the only true religion, or,
at any rate, the proper religion for Hindus, and who
profess to stand on the same platform with Pundit
Dayananda Sarasvati and his American friends of the
^Theosophic Society. There is a peculiar charm for
the patriotic Hindu in such advocacy. We need not
wonder, therefore, what the newspapers inform us,
that the people rush in crowds to hear the learned
vPundit descanting on 'the lofty exalted position the
country occupied in Vedic times, some six thousand
years ago, when,' the Pundit said, f there was perfect
peace and happiness in the country, there being no
dissensions as to the form of religion, and all men
were united by the common ties of a universal reli-
J
gion and fellow-feeling.' When such fanciful pictures
are publicly and authoritatively given, it is desirable
that the missionary be able to give the true, and to
prove the truth of it by reference to chapter and
verse of the Hindu's own scriptures.
The early Jesuit missionaries, Eobert de Nobili
and his colleagues, felt a knowledge of the Vedas to
be of such vital importance to them, as engaged in
the promulgation of Christianity, that they not only
made them a special study, but with the view of
using the immense influence these Vedas had over
1 It is one of the text-books for the M.A. in Sanskrit.
4 The Vedic Religion.
the common people, in the interests of Christianity
they set about to fabricate an imitation of them
which they called the Esur Veda, and which they
contended was a relic of the same Vedic times and
possessed of the same inspiration. The motive and
the end we may admire, while we detest the means.
The study of the Veda is interesting in itself from
the light which it casts, not only on the earliest
known condition of the Hindus in India, but of the
great Aryan family, from which Kelt and Saxon, as
well as Parsee and Hindu, alike have descended.
The Veda belongs not to India only, but to the whole
Indo-European family of the human race.
It throws an immense blaze of light on almost
every language spoken, or regarded sacred, from St.
Kilda in the Atlantic to Singapore on the confines of
the Pacific Ocean ; and it proves the common origin
of all the many various peoples speaking these. It
goes far, besides, to prove where the original seat of
this great family was, and what the nature or
character of their religion before they had separated,
and what their character and their appearance as a
white-coinplexioned people, as contrasted with the
dark or black coloured peoples whom they conquered
or against whom they carried on continual wars.
We ought also to bear in mind that the position
which the classical languages of Greece and Eome
and the ancient Saxon occupy as regards their influ-
ence in the formation of the modern languages of
Introduction. 5
England, Germany, Italy, France, and Spain, is the
same position which the Sanskrit occupies in India
in regard to Bengali, Mahratta, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi,
Urya, and Pushto ; yet, as regards their present posi-
tion and active influence, Sanskrit occupies a much
higher and more important one, inasmuch as Sanskrit
literature is really the literature of all India those
in the vernaculars being of very minor relative
importance. In Europe it is all the other way. The
modern language is to each several nation of infinitely
greater importance in the matter of literature and of
religion than the classical ; besides, the Veda has
influenced all other Sanskrit literature much more
than the Bible has the literature of Europe.
The Eig-Veda is the oldest Sanskrit book hitherto
discovered, or even allufied to, in all Sanskrit litera-
ture. With the exception of some small portions of
the Bible, it is the oldest book in the world, and it is
contemporaneous with much of the oldest in the
Bible. While the Israelites under the auspicious
leadership of Moses were ' sounding the loud timbrel
over Egypt's dark sea,' the Aryan emigrants from the
high lands of Central Asia were singing the praises
of Agni and Indra on the banks of the Sarasvati, in
the hymns of the Eig-Veda.
It consists of two quite distinct works, called
respectively Mantras or Sanliita and IfcaJiManas.
The mantras, prayers or praise, are embodied in 1017
hymns or LQJ500 verses or ricktas (laudations), hence-
6 The Veclic Religion.
the name Kick or Eig-Veda, composed by some
twenty or thirty different authors called Rishis. The
hymns are divided into ten Books or Mandates, and
those composed by each Eishi are placed in each
book together, and so arranged that those addressed
to Agni come first, those to Indra next, and then
those to the other divinities promiscuously. At least
''
this is the order in the first Mandalas.
The Brahmanas consist of ritualistic precepts for
the chanting of these hymns during the sacrifice.
They are in prose, and are spoken very disparagingly
of by European critics. Max Miiller says that ' No
one would have supposed that at so early a period,
and in so primitive a state of society, there could have
risen up a literature which for pedantry and down-
right absurdity can hardly be matched anywhere. . . .
It is most important for the historian that he should
know how soon the fresh and healthy growth of a
nation can be blighted by priestcraft and superstition.
It is most important that we should know that
nations are liable to these epidemics in their youth
as well as in their dotage. These works (the
Brahmanas) deserve to be studied as the physician
studies the twaddle of idiots and the raving of mad-
men. They will disclose to a thoughtful eye the
ruins of faded grandeur, the memories of noble
aspirations. But let us only try to translate these
works into our own language, and we shall feel
astonished that human language and human thought
Introduction. 7
should ever have been used for such purposes.' 1 The
hymns are worse treated by the old Sanskrit annota-
tors, than the Bible was by Origen and other allegorists.
These two works are frequently spoken of under
the one name of Eig-Veda. We propose to deal only
with the first or Mantras, discarding altogether the
Bralimanas as of comparatively little interest, though
professedly founded on the former. The first is not
only the Eig-Veda, but the Veda. For though there
are four Vedas, the other three are so closely
dependent on the Big- Veda, that the three may be
spoken of as appendices to, commentaries of, extracts
or selections from the Eig-Veda, made for various
purposes. The first of these three, the Yajur-Veda,
consists largely of the Eig-Veda hymns arranged for
the usual sacrifices ; the second, or Sama-Veda, is also
largely a reproduction of the same hymns transposed
and arranged for the Soma ceremonies, performed by
a different class of priests from those for whom the
preceding Veda was compiled. The greatest number
of its hymns are taken from one book (the ninth) of
the Eig-Veda, which is in praise of the Soma plant.
The remaining Veda the Atharva, to which the
name Veda is sometimes denied is the most recent.
It is more original than the other two, and conse-
quently more interesting. Though it repeats a good
many of the Eig-Veda hymns, it has many altogether
new ones. It is the ' Cursing Veda/ so called because
1 Miiller's Sanskrit Literature, p. 389.
8 The Veclic Religion.
it consists largely of magical spells and incantations
for imprecating or averting evils. It has to do greatly
with demons or evil spirits who troubled our early
ancestors. It marks the transition between the com-
paratively simpler faith of the earlier times and the
grosser superstitions of the later periods. It is full
of imprecations on enemies, prayers against diseases,
wild beasts and deadly reptiles, as well as prayers for
luck in gambling, etc. Babu C. C. Mookerji says that
' the general character of this Veda is marked by
shallow pedantry and dry grandiloquence.' The other
two are mere recasts of the Eig-Veda.
It will thus be seen why we lay so much import-
ance on the Eig-Veda Sanhita.
We know next to nothing, save their names, of
most of the authors of these hymns. Mythical or
legendary stories are told of some. We know almost
as little of the conditions under which they were
composed and sung. We say ' composed ' rather than
written, for we have every reason to believe that they
were not written for many hundreds of years after
they were composed, inasmuch as no alphabet or art
of writing was known to their authors. Not the
slightest allusion has been discovered in them to
writing or alphabet, ' or to any writing instrument. 1
It is generally agreed that they were composed about
1200 years before Christ, that is, about 3000 years
1 The earliest written characters existing in the country are the
inscriptions of Asoka, of date about the 3d century B.C.
Introduction. 9
ago, though the data on which this date is founded
are very unsatisfactory to the general reader. The
argument seems to be this. Alexander the Great
visited India, say, in 331 B.C. Now every hymn in
the Eig-Veda is in Saunaka's Index, and he was
anterior to the invasion of Alexander. The Sutras,
belonging to the same period as Saunaka, prove the
previous existence of every chapter of the Brahmanas ;
and every hymn in the Eig-Veda was anterior to the
Brahmanas, and the Eig-Veda hymns are of two or
more different periods. In these various books we
have very distinct Sanskrit dialects, which must have
been of very different ages, each requiring, say, at
least 200 years for its full development. The Sutras
are supposed to have extended from 600 to 200 B.C.
The Brahmanas would have required other 200 years,
bringing up their date to 800 B.C. Add other 200
for the later hymns and other 200 for the older, and
you have 1200 B.C. 1 When we regard them, as they
really are, the sole relics of that time and age of the
Aryan race, they look like a small island in the midst
of an immense boundless ocean, from which a hazy
view can be got of one or two other islands on the
horizon the possessions of quite distinct races. A
modern writer says that ' in reading them " we stand
in the presence of a veiled life," on which nothing
external of record or monument throws light.' 2 This
1 Miiller's Sanskrit Literature, p. 572.
2 Dean Church's Sacred Poetry of Early Religions, p. 14.
10 The Vedic Religion.
is not absolutely true. For just as they throw light
on the subsequent Sanskrit literature of India, on
the Zend-a- Vesta of the Parsis, and the Tripitakas of
the Buddhists, as also on the other languages of the
Aryan family and on the lately-discovered inscriptions
of Assyria, so these latter reflect more or less light
on them.
1
/
THEORIES OF INSPIRATION AND REVELATION.
HOW did the Vedas happen to possess the
authority among the Hindus which they have
had for so many ages ? This they obtained partly
because of their comparatively intrinsic value, largely
from their connection with religion, and more par-
ticularly from the interested motives and actions of
the Brahmins, to whom they had come to be sources
of livelihood. Dr. Muir, who has collected a mass of
information on this point, remarks that ' as the
authors of the hymns, the earliest of them at least,
lived in an age of simple conceptions and of spon-
taneous and childlike devotion, we shall find that
though some of them appear in conformity with the
spirit of their times to have regarded their composi-
tions as in a certain degree the result of divine
inspiration, their primeval and elementary ideas on
this subject form a strong contrast to the artificial
and systematic definitions of the later scholastic
writers.' l I shall state a few of these. The Vishnu
and Bhagvata Puranas represent the four Vedas as
1 Muir's Sanskrit Texts, Part iii. p. vii.
12 The Vedic Religion.
issuing from the mouth of Brahma at the creation.
The Vrihad Aranyaka Upanishad describes them as
the breath of Brahma ; Hari Vansa speaks of them as
produced from the holiest verse in the Vedas, a verse
which is still used in ordinary Hindu worship, and
which is called the Gayatri. 1 The same author
describes them as created by Brahma. The author
of the Mahabharata calls ' Sarasvati the mother of
the Vedas.' In one passage in the Vedas themselves,
they are said to have been derived from the mystical
personal victim Purusha, and another makes them
spring from Time. In a third passage they are
declared to have sprung from the leavings of the
sacrifice. These three passages are in hymns added
after the rest had been composed and had acquired
some authority from their antiquity. In Manu, they
are described as the second manifestation of the pure
principle (Sattva-Guna), while Brahma is one of its
first manifestations. In the Vishnu Purana, which,
as we have seen, represents them as issuing from the
mouth of Brahma at the creation, they are said to
be eternal and one with the god Vishnu. Manu
describes them as ' the eternal eye of the patriarchs,
of gods and of men/ ' supporting all beings,' ' the
refuge of the ignorant as well as of the understand-
ing/ ' the refuge of those who are seeking after
1 Kig-Veda, iii. 62, 10, i.e. the third Book or Mandala, 62d hymn,
and the tenth Rickta or verse. Hereafter we shall simply write the
figures thus iii. 62, 10 whenever we have to refer to a text in the
Kig-Veda. See below, pp. 93, 235.
Theories of Inspiration and Revelation. 1 3
Paradise, as well as of those who are desiring after
Infinity.' ' As a clod thrown into a great lake is
dissolved when' it touches the water, so does all sin
sink in the triple Veda.' The Atharva-Veda was
not at the time acknowledged as a genuine Veda.
Madhava defines the Veda as the work which alone
reveals the supernatural means of attaining future
felicity ; he explains that males only belonging to the
three superior castes are competent to study its
contents. Such theories led to most absurd myths,
such as that given in the Vishnu Purana, iii. 5, of a
disobedient pupil being ordered to give back all the
knowledge he had received, who at once vomited the
Yajur Veda. Forthwith the other pupils assumed
the form of partridges (tittiri) and picked it up from
the ground in its several dirtied texts. Hence this
Veda is called the Taittiriya Krishna [black] Yajur
Veda. '
The contention of modern critics is more in accord
with modern reasoning. The rislds or saints, whose
names the several hymns bear, are proved by the
contents of the hymns to have been their real authors.
Besides, numerous events which have occurred in
time, are undoubtedly mentioned in the Vedas. This
is admitted by Sankara, the great religious reformer
and teacher of the Vedanta Philosophy. These
Eishis regarded undoubtedly the hymns as their own
compositions, or the compositions of their forefathers.
They distinguished the old and new among them, and
14 The Vedic Religion.
they described themselves as the makers, fabricators,
or generators of the hymns, as we shall see below. It
is also admitted that in some of the more recent of
them a superhuman character or superhuman faculties
are ascribed to the earlier Eishis, just as there are
similar passages to be met with in Hesiod and Homer.
There are other passages in which a mystical, magical,
or supernatural efficacy is ascribed to the hymns.
But there are others again in which the authors com-
plain of their own ignorance. 1 There is no doubt
that in course of time these hymns came to be looked
upon in a light very different from that in which they
were originally regarded. This arose from a sense or
feeling of an immeasurable, incalculable time having
elapsed since their composition, a time that had made
such changes in the language in which they were
thought, that the very best scholars and philosophers
found them unintelligible. Yet their most ancient
MSS. extant are not much more than half the age of
our Christian MSS. The oldest of the Veda MSS. dates
no further back than A.D. 1000 ; while the oldest of
our Christian MSS. goes back to 350 A.D., if not
indeed earlier.
One of the most common objections which the
educated Hindu is inclined to urge against the Chris-
tian advocate, is that founded on Book Eevelation,
and yet, though apparently foreign to the Teutonic,
1 i. 20, 1 ; 31, 18 ; 61, 16 ; 117, 25 ; ii. 39, 8 ; iii. 30, 20 ; iv. 6, 11 ;
16, 20, etc. See Dr. Muir's Sanskrit Texts, Part iii. pp. 232-244.
TJieories of Inspiration and Revelation. 1 5
Keltic, Greek, and Eoman branches of the great Aryan
family, the idea is as familiar to the Parsi and Hindu
branches as it is to the Shemitic family. Still,
as we have seen, their theories of revelation and
inspiration are totally different from those of the
Christian, whether verbal or plenary-verbal. The
Christian idea is most intimately associated with the
written book, the verfatm or word as written ; theirs,
at least the Hindus, with it as spoken or uttered.
The word Veda and the word Sruti, by which the
most sacred works in Hindu literature are charac-
terised, mean the uttered or unwritten knowledge,
represented as having issued like breath from the
Self-Existent, and been heard, and communicated,
not to a single person, but to a class of men called
Eishis or inspired sages. This knowledge (Veda) they
transmitted, not in writing, but by the constant oral
repetition of Brahmin to Brahmin. When in course
of time it was committed to writing, neither the
copying nor the reading of it was encouraged. The
reading of the Bible and of the Koran is regarded as
a sacred duty by Christians and Mussulmans. To
the Hindu masses the Yeda was a sealed book, even
after it had been committed to writing ; and to this
day it is entirely unknown, to all intents and pur-
poses, even to most of the learned orthodox Hindus.
Not a single copy was known to exist in all Bengal
fifty years ago. The only parties well up in it seem
to be European scholars, a few students of the Anglo-
16 The Vedic Eeligion.
Indian Universities, and a few natives who have
come under the influence of European scholarship.
I have, over and over again, tested the knowledge .of
English educated Hindus and also of learned Pundits,
and found all alike practically ignorant of the Rig-
Veda Sanhita; yet, singularly enough, it is professedly
held in the highest veneration by all, and more so by
those who are most ignorant of its contents. Its
inspiration is regarded so self-convincing, as Monier
Williams remarks, ' as to require no proof, and to be
entirely beyond the province of reason or argument/ 1
' It is/ he elsewhere adds, ' at the very root of
Hinduism, and is indeed ingrained in the whole
Hindu system.' 2
The inspiration claimed for these hymns by the
Rishis themselves is expressed in such words as
these : ' They [the Rishis] were associates of the
gods ; found out the hidden light and brought forth
.the dawn with sincere hymns.' 'The singers seek
out the 1000 branched mystery through the union
of their hearts.' Their ' hymns are of kin to the
god and attract his heart;' for ' Agni is himself a
poet.' ' The thoughtful gods produce these hymns/
The Rishis ' prepare the hymn with the heart, the
mind, the understanding/ 'They fashion it as a
1 M. Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 8.
2 M. Williams' Hinduism, p. 18. See K.-V. vii. 76, 4 ; vii. 33, 9 ;
viii. 12, 31; 13, 36; vi. 14, 2; x. 61, 7; i. 61, 2; i. 130, 6; v. 29,
15; x. 39,14; vii. 94; i. 116; x. 116; i. 109, 1; i. 165, 15; ii, 39,8;
i. 41, 7 5 43, 1 ; 48, 2.
Theories of Inspiration and Revelation. 1 7
skilful workman a car ; ' ' adorn it as a beautiful
garment, as a bride for her husband.' ' They gene-
rate it from the soul as rain is born from a cloud ; '
' send it forth from the soul as wind drives the
cloud ; ' ' launch it with praises as a ship on the sea.'
' Indra and Agni, . . . the clear understanding you
have given me is given by no one else ; and so gifted,
I have composed this hymn to you, intimating my
wish for sustenance.' ' This hymn, Maruts, is for you,
the work of a venerable author, capable of conferring
delight by his laudations.' ' The Gritsamadas have
composed their prayer, these praises, Aswins, for your
exaltation.' Hymn i. 140, 11-13 runs: ' May this
well-composed hymn be more agreeable to thee, O
Agni, than an ill-composed one, nay more, even than
an agreeable one. . . . Mayst thou, Agni, applaud
our hymn alone.'
From these it will be seen that the Eishis them-
selves do not generally claim a very high origin for
their hymns, nor any inspiration, in the sense of a
superhuman unerring guidance. In those hymns in
which a divine assistance is claimed, it is necessary
to bear in mind the great familiarity which the
Kishis say they enjoyed with their gods. They
represent them as their boon companions at the
drinking of the soma juice ; and as seated down
together with them on the ktisi grass.
But it is time that we introduced the reader to the
contents of this most ancient of hymn-books.
B
in.
THE CONTENTS.
AS to the contents of the Big- Veda, that which
strikes the general reader on opening the book,
almost anywhere, is the ' tedious repetitions, redun-
dant epithets, and far-fetched conceits,' l ' many tedious
repetitions and puerilities,' 2 as M. Williams calls
them. One meets occasionally with almost pure
gold, ' high morality, often expressed in impressive
language -worthy of Christianity itself,' side by side
' with precepts implying a social condition scarcely
compatible with the lowest grade of culture and
civilisation.' 3 In most works upon the Vedas,
whether by Max Miiller, Monier Williams, Dr.
Banerjea, Dr. Wilson, H. H. Wilson, Dr. Muir, Cole-
brooke, etc., the writers 'restrict themselves to the
best writings only,' Indian Wisdom, like grains of
gold in hard quartz. Max Muller, cognisant to some
extent of consequent evil results, remarks : ' Looking
at many of the books that have lately been published
1 M. Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 1.
2 M. Williams' Hinduism, p. 19.
3 M. Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 2.
Tlie Contents. 19
on the religions of the ancient world, I do not
wonder that such a belief [as to their being full of
primeval wisdom and religious enthusiasm, or at least
of sound and simple moral teaching] should have
been raised ; but I have long felt that it was high
time to dispel such illusions, and to place the study
of the ancient religions of the world on a more real
and sound, on a more truly historical basis.' After
apologizing for the previous state of matters, he adds :
' Whether I am myself one of the guilty or not, I can-
not help calling attention to the real mischief that has
been done, and is still being. done, by the enthusiasm
of those pioneers who have opened the first avenues
through the bewildering forest of the sacred literature
of the East.' x ' What we want here, as everywhere
else, is the truth and the whole truth; and if the whole
truth must be told, it is that however radiant the
dawn of religious thought, it is not without its dark
clouds, its chilling colds, its noxious vapours.' 'I
confess it has been for many years a problem to me,
ay, and to a great extent is so still (1879), how the
Sacred Books of the East should, by the side of so
much that is fresh, natural, simple, beautiful, and
true, contain so much that is not only unmeaning,
artificial, and silly, but even hideous and repellent.' 2
Hence he argues the necessity of giving complete
translations of the original texts. A photographic
1 Sacred Books of the East, voL I. pp. ix. x.
2 Ibid. pp. xi. xii.
20 The Vedic Religion.
album containing beautiful pictures of Government
House, the Imperial Museum, the University, the
Cathedral, the Post Office, the Town Hall, etc., is apt
to give to a stranger a very false impression of the
city itself. So do extracts from the Veda. 'No
one who collects and publishes such extracts can
resist, no one at all events, as far as T know,' adds
Max Miiller, ' has ever resisted the temptation of
giving what is beautiful, or it may be, what is
strange and startling, and leaving out what is
commonplace, tedious, or it may be repulsive, or,
lastly, what is difficult to construe and under-
stand.'
The same writer had, twelve years before, strongly
recommended to missionaries that, instead of looking
only for points of difference, they should ' look out
more anxiously for any common ground, any spark
of the true light that may still be revived, any altar
that may be dedicated afresh to the true God.' I
think the missionary should do both. He should
know, if possible, the whole truth. The sparks will
be collected by the men who collect ' Indian Wisdom f
and ' Sacred Texts,' like Monier Williams and Dr.
John Muir; or men who, like Pundit Dayananda
Sarasvati and his followers, go in for the blessedness,
the peace and contentment of Vedic times, and the
absolute perfection of the Vedic religion. The Indian
missionary will meet with many such in our public
gardens, our bazaars, and in our colleges, who profess
The Contents. 21
to despise the Christian religion, and who quote such
of its texts as they think they may deftly use against
it. It is well that the missionary be able to answer
the fool according to his folly, take his own weapons
and use them against himself. But, as a rule, it is
better far to follow the apostle's example, and quote
approvingly the texts that agree with the Christian
doctrine which he happens to preach, and to appeal
to his Hindu audiences in the words of the great
apostle to the Gentile polytheists of old, ' As certain
also of your own poets have said.'
In examining into the contents of the Veda, we
have to do with facts, not with speculations, in answer
to the question WTiat, not to the questions How or
Wliy, or When. The questions which we try to
answer are What was really the state of things at
the time ? What was the creed then believed in ? *
What was the religion then practised ? There may
be hints or allusions met with throughout these
hymns as to an anterior or shadows of a posterior
state of things or of beliefs. The object I have set
before me is not to speculate on any such, or as to
the origin or developments of the then state of
matters. I confine myself also as much as possible
to questions bearing directly on their religion. There
are found in these hymns, references to domestic
and social, political and scientific matters, into which
I will not enter. The hymns are all professedly
1 See Gladstone's article on the Olympic v. the Solar Tlieory.
22 The Vedic Religion.
religious, and almost all of them are really so. They
refer primarily to the state of religious feelings, and
beliefs, and practices of the people. To these I wish
to confine my remarks.
IV. f|
WHAT IS NOT FOUND IN THE VEDA'j
BEFORE indicating more particularly what is in the
Veda, I would say a few words as to what is not
in it, or rather what has not been discovered in it. But
we must bear in mind that the absence of all allusion
to such does not prove their non-existence. There is
no direct allusion to the Sabbath in the Jewish
Psalms, and the name of God does not occur in the
Book of Esther. Still the non-existence of all refer-
ence in the 10,500 mantras of the Rig- Veda, constitut-
ing the entire -literature of a nation for two or three
hundred years and the work of some thirty authors,
to such things as idols, temples, etc., makes it highly
probable that there were no idols or temples. I am
not aware that there is any allusion to the division
of the month into weeks of seven days each unless
it be in the seven ruddy horses of the chariot of
Surya, the Sun ; or that there is any allusion to the
seventh day being specially sacred. Hence I think
there is a very strong probability there were no such
divisions of time in the days of the Rig- Veda. The
names by which these days are now known in India
24 The Vedie Religion.
are of comparatively modem origin. 1 ( It is well
known/ remarks Max Miiller, in his chapter of Acci-
dents in his Comparative Theology, ' that the names
of the seven days of the week are derived from the
names of the planets, and it is equally well known
that in Europe the system of weeks and week-days is
comparatively of very modern origin. It was not a
Greek, nor a Eoman, nor a Hindu, but a Jewish or
Chaldean invention. The Sabbath (Sabbata) .was
known and kept at Eome in the first century B.C.
with many superstitious practices. ... It is curious
that we find the seventh day, the Sabbath, even
under its new pagan name, as Saturday, mentioned
by Koman and Greek authors, before the names of
the other days of the week make their appearance.
After the names of the week-days had once been
settled, we have no difficulty in tracing their migra-
tion towards the East and towards the West. The
Hindus had their own peculiar system of reckoning
days and months ; but they adopted at a later time
the foreign system of counting by weeks of seven
days, and assigning a presiding planetary deity to
each of the seven days/ corresponding to the Latin
or Koman arrangement, which was Saturn, Sun,
Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus. This
translated into Sanskrit became Sajii, Eavi, Soma,
Bhamna, Buddha, Brihaspati, and S.ukra; and into
1 For a different view, see Catholic Presbyterian, March 1881,
p. 204, or British and Foreign Evangelical Review, April 1866.
Wliat is not found in the Veda. 2 5
Teutonic or English it became Saturn, Sun, Moon,
Tiu, Wustan or Odin, Thunar or Thor, and Freyja.
But to proceed : there is no history, no narrative,
no biography, no chronology, no science as such, in
the Veda, though there are allusions bearing on all
these. There is no religious creed, no system of
belief, or indeed of rites or ceremonies, referred to,
still less arranged and formulated, in the hymns of
the Eig-Veda. Nor am I aware that any attempt
has hitherto been made to analyze the Kig-Veda with
the view of formulating any such. Certain points
have been very thoroughly discussed, and much
learning has been devoted to the gathering of texts
to illustrate them. In the following pages I shall
consequently be able to speak very positively as to
the existence or non-existence of some things, and
very fully on some points, but on others very falter-
ingly, while there are others again of which I shall
be able to say nothing.
I proceed, then, to mention what has not been
discovered in the Eig-Veda as regards religion.
There has not been found in it any allusion to the
present most popular of the Hindu gods and goddesses;
such as Siva, Mahadeva, Vishnu, Brahma, Durga,
Kali, Ganesh, Kartick, Eama, Krishna, JSTarayana,
Gunga, and Eudra. If any of them be alluded to, it
is as occupying a very subordinate position to that
now occupied by them, or with characters totally
different from those they possess in later writings.
26 The Vedic Eeligion.
Gunga is twice J referred to in the Veda, but simply
in the words ' like the elevated bank of the Ganges/
and ' accept, Gunga (Ganges), Yamuna (Jumna),
Sarasvati, etc., my praise ; ' while the rivers Indus
and Sarasvati are frequently referred to as divinities
to be worshipped. Eudra is referred to more than
once, but not as another name for Siva, who was
then unknown, but as the god of the roaring tempest.
He is spoken of as the ' braided-haired destroyer of
heroes ; ' while Vishnu was the god of the brilliant
firmament. Brihaspati was not the planet Jupiter,
which he now is, but the ' Lord of prayers,' another
name of Agni. Brahma appears simply as the
prayer, the mantra or sacrifice, or the * Lord of
prayers/ The Vishnu of the Veda has a very
different character from that of the member of the
Hindu Triad. As regards Rudra, see below, p. 188.
There is no allusion to any temple, big or little, or to
any special place of worship, church, mundir, synagogue,
or mosque, or to any house for the gods, specially con-
secrated to their use. No allusion has been discovered
to idol or image of wood, mud, stone, silver, or gold,
made or graven with man's hand, though it is quite
possible, if not indeed probable, that idols were be-
ginning to be used, inasmuch as several of the members
of the imaginary bodies of some of the gods are rather
minutely described, such as Indra's nose, lips, chins,
Rudra's limbs, Varuna's coat, the Maruts' gods (images?).
1 ft.-V., vi. 45, 31, Wilson's, vol. Hi. p. 465; and x. 75, 5.
What is not found in the Veda. 2 7
There are no fixed genealogies of the gods or
goddesses, or settled marriages between them, recog-
nised with any definiteness. The relations are a good
deal confounded by different Eishis. The son is
sometimes the father, the daughter the mother, if not
the grandmother ; the mother in one hymn is the
wife in another, and the husband in one the brother
in another.
Though the worship of the sun, of the moon, and
of the day and night firmament is quite apparent,
there is no worship, singularly enough, of the stars
or planets, individually or collectively ; and that of
the moon is not at all prominent. <<
The Indo-Aryans of the Vedic times apparently
did not worship fetishes of wood or stone, or any
of those things described by Max Muller as fully
tangible, as distinguished from the semi-tangible, such
as trees, mountains, rivers, the earth, and the sea ;
and the intangible, such as the sky, the sun, and the
dawn ; unless we regard the worship of the ac-
companiments to the sacrifice, such as the mortar
and pestle, the soma juice and the sacrificed horse,
the prayer and the kusi grass, the doors, the sacrificial
posts, and implements of war, as tangible fetishes
worshipped. The adoration of the Eishis was gene-
rally directed towards the semi-tangible and the
intangible. Max Muller adds : Tangible objects are
' hardly represented at all among the so-called deities
of the Eig-Veda. Stones, bones, shells, herbs, and
28 The Vedic Beligion.
/v
all the other so-called fetishes are simply absent in
the old hymns, though they appear in more modern
hymns, particularly those of the Atharva-Veda. . . .
But when we come to the second class, the case is
very different. Almost every one of the objects
which we defined as semi-tangible meets us among
the so-called deities of the Veda.' He quotes
passages showing that the winds, the trees, the
rivers, the mountains, the heavens, and the earth,
were all worshipped by the Eishis of the Big- Veda. 1
There is no mention of any human religious leader
like Moses, Mahomed, Zoroaster, Joseph Young, or
Keshub Chander Sen. Each hymn-writer was his,
own religious guide, and led himself alone.
There is no distinct teaching of Pantheism in the
hymns of the Veda. There are two or three mantras
that may have proved germs which suggested the
idea to subsequent authors. But the whole spirit of
the hymns is opposed to the system as such.
No reference to metempsychosis or transmigration
of the soul has been discovered in the Veda, while
on the other hand there are the clearest proofs that
animals were used in sacrifice, and partaken of as
food. 2 The ancient Indians were unquestionably
beef-eaters, and this itself is a presumption against
1 Miiller's Hibbert Lectures, p. 198 ; British and Foreign Evan-
gelical Review, January 1880, p. 29.
1 Big-Veda, i. 61, 12 ; i. 164, 43 ; vi. 2, 8 ; 39, 1. Wilson's Big-
Veda, vol. i. p. 165, and vol. iii. p. 453. Dr. Wilson's India 3000
ears Ago, p. 69.
WJiat is not found in the Veda. 2 9
the doctrine of metempsychosis being believed in.
There is no allusion, either, to the doctrine of the
final absorption of the soul of man into the substance
of the divinity. The deification of the sons of
Angiras, of the Kibhus who are represented as the
sons of Sudhanvan, and of the seven Eishis as the
seven- stars of Ursa Major or the Great Bear, is
inconsistent with both doctrines. Dr. Wilson of
Bombay describes well the degrading effect metem-
psychosis has on the human mind. The attempt to
raise the brutes to the level of man results in de-
t
grading man to the level of brutes. According to
this doctrine, a man may be to-day an intelligent
rational being, to-morrow he may be a chattering
monkey ; to-day his mother may be a tender-hearted
woman, to-morrow she may be a ravening wolf; to-
day his son may be a studious youth, next year he
may be a stupid buffalo ; and his daughter may be
to-day a playful girl, but next week she may be a
skipping goat. The querulous crow watching to
snatch a bone off his table may be his own deceased
father; the hungry cat his own departed grand-
mother ; that raging bear his quondam brother ; and
that crawling serpent his late sister. Of this doctrine,
so prevalent now and so degrading, there is no trace
to be found in the hymns of the Kig-Veda.
There is no trace of asceticism, as formally practised,
now in India; no regularly organized priesthood is
to be found in the Veda, not at least in the older
3 The Vedic Religion.
hymns ; nor is there any trace of any ecclesiastical
authority or church organization. They seemed to
have had only ' the church in the house/ and it was
perfectly independent of all others.
- ^ There were no sacred places to which the people
went on pilgrimages in these days. There was
nothing specially sacred about Juggernath or Boida-
nath, Gangoutry or Jumnotry, Kasi or Pryaga,
Brindabun or Mathura, Gya, Dwarka or Tribeni,
Hurdwar, Tarakeswar or Kalighat. The Aryans had
not been sufficiently long in the country for any
place to acquire the odour of sanctity from its sup-
posed connection with any fact in the imaginary
history of their many gods and goddesses. There
was not any sacredness attached to the Ganges ; and
though some other rivers had been deified, just as the
earth, the clouds, and the dawn had been, we do not
learn that bathing in their waters was regarded as a
religious act, or that it was recommended as effica-
cious in purifying the soul from sin, or delivering it
from evil.
In those days there were no hospitals for the sick
or the dying, whether man or beast. There were no
infirmaries, asylums, or orphanages. The Vedic
religion did not consist in visiting the fatherless and
widows in their affliction, or in keeping themselves
unspotted from the world. It did not consist in
feeding the hungry, even hungry Brahmans, or in
supporting the poor, or in nursing the sick, or in
What is not found in the Veda. 31
educating the ignorant/ or in helping the helpless.
There were no schools of the priests or prophets, no
patshalahs for the young, or any Sunday schools, no
Sanskrit toles, or universities ; there were no books,
sacred or profane ; no writing or arithmetic, save the
mental ; no astronomy beyond identifying a few stars
and calculating the age of the moon and of the year
of twelve lunar months and the intercalary month.
There were no missionaries, or propagandists or
proselytizers of any kind ; no efforts to bring over to
their own religion the aboriginal inhabitants of the
land. There was, on the other hand, the most deadly
hostility cherished towards them, and every effort
was made to exterminate those who were not Aryans
and sacrificed not to the Aryans' gods.
There were no preachers, clergymen, lecturers, or
professors attached to secular or theological seminaries,
for there were none such. I do not remember
to have read even of lawyers or engineers, though
there were houses and cities for the latter to look
after, as well as rights and disputes for the former
to settle. There were, however, 'wise poets' and
'eloquent satirists' (i. 141, 7).
There were no fairs or melas at which multitudes
attended on specially appointed days. There were
no large congregations or assemblies for worship. It
was rather individual or domestic. There were no
holy days or holidays, or saints' days. Neither Agni
nor Indra, nor any of the other gods, had any days
32 The Vedic Religion.
specially set apart for their worship. There were no
Durgah, Kali, or Lucksmi Pujahs then.
We find no encouragement given to child marriage,
or any text indicating its prevalence. And there is
no allusion to the dreadful rite of Sati, or the burning
of living widows on their late husbands' funeral pyres.
A passage in the Big- Veda used to be quoted by
Brahmins in support of this rite, but it proves only
their own wickedness. The Brahminical translation
of the passage, as given by Colebrooke, is, ' Om I let
these women, not to be widowed, good wives adorned
with colly r|um, holding clarified butter, consign them-
selves to the fire, immortal, not childless, nor husband-
less, well adorned with gems, let them pass into the
fire, whose element is water.' The correct translation
of the passage has been proved, by Wilson and others,
to be, ' May these women, who are not widows, draw
near with oil and butter. Let those who are mothers
go first to the altar without sorrow, but decked with
fine jewels.' The false translation had been got by
the change of a single syllable, the substitution of
agneh for ctgre, so as to make the phrase ' go first to
the altar ' read ' go into the fire/ Max Miiller, in
noticing the change, says : ' This is perhaps the most
flagrant instance of what can be done by an un&cru-
pulous priesthood.' 1 The words of the Veda refer
1 Oxford Essays, 1856, p. 22; Wilson's Article, Journal of Royal
Asiatic Society, vol. xvi. p. 201 ; and Dr. Wilson's India 3000 Years
Ago, p. 66.
What is not found in the Veda. 3 3
not to the bereaved widow, but to the visit of condol-
ence to her by unbereaved female friends.
There is no prohibition of the marriage of adult
females, or any injunction in favour of the marriage
of girls before they arrive at puberty. The following
text seems to indicate the opposite state of things :
'As a virtuous maiden growing old in the same
dwelling with her parents (claims from them her
support), so come I to thee for wealth.' The story
of the Eishi Syavaswas falling in love with the Eaja's
daughter, and qualifying himself to the satisfaction of
the mother before he got her, would seem to indicate
that the daughter was something more than a mere
child. There has been found, as far as I am aware,
no instance of the remarriage of widows, or any text
prohibiting it ; nor am I aware of the Brahmans having
quoted any mantra of the Eig-Veda in support of the
present prohibition. Widows seem, however, to have
been married to their brothers-in-law. See x. 40, 2 ;
compare Deut, xxv. 5 and Matt. xxii. 24 ff.
There is no prohibition of foreign travel ; on the
contrary, there are the clearest references to voyages
by sea as well as journeys by land. The absence of
caste distinctions would imply the absence of such
prohibitions. Further, we must bear in mind that
the Aryans were themselves strangers in a strange
land. They were at the time on a great conquering
expedition, far away from their late home.
That there were no caste, in the modern Hindu
c
34 TJic Veclic Religion.
sense, is clear from the following considerations :
First, there is no allusion to any defilement as result-
ing from touching anything ceremonially unclean,
or from eating or drinking any particular kind of
food, cooked by any one, or from any vessel becom-
ing unclean by being touched by any one. Not
a single mantra can be quoted, as far as I am
aware, indicating that a person could be so defiled.
Further, the story of the origin of the four
castes is not found in the Veda ; nor indeed was
the god Brahma, from whose body they are said to
have come, sufficiently developed to become a basis
for such a myth. A text is, however, referred to in
support of the caste system and of this story. It runs:
' With Ptirusha as victim, they performed
A sacrifice. When they divided him,
How did they cut him up ? What was his
mouth ?
What were his arms ? And what his thigh and
feet?
The Brahman was his mouth, the kingly soldier
Was made his arms, the husbandman his thighs,
The servile Sudra issued from his feet.' *
Here there is no allusion to the god Brahma, and
the Brahman is said to have been the mouth of the
1 R.-V., x. 90 ; see below, p. 84. Emerson, in his short poem on
Brahma, represents the Hindu god with greater literalness than
possibly he was aware of :
' I am the doubter, and the doubt
And I the hymn the Brahman sings.'
What is not found in the Veda. 35
sacrificed victim, instead of to have issued from the
mouth of the living god. The text, which is a com-
paratively modern one, proves that there were four
different classes of people then, but nothing more.
Brahma, in the neuter gender, in the Vedic language,
means ' prayer,' and Brahma, in the masculine, means
' he-of-prayer.' Agni, the god of fire and sacrifice, is
the Brahma, the god of prayer. The modern Brahma
is an invention of the ideal Vedanta, a system of
Pantheism long posterior to the Vedas, and really
designed to supersede them under the assumed name
of the ' Aim ' or ' End ' (anta) of the Vedas. 1 There
were no Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, or Sudras
as castes, technically so called. The profession of
priests was beginning to be recognised, and there
were soldiers and agriculturists or the common people.
The state of matters may be understood from the hymn
addressed to the deified Aswins : ' Favour the prayer
(brahma), favour the service ; kill the Eakshasas, drive
away the evil; . . . favour the power (khatra) and
favour the manly strength; .... favour the cow
(dhenu, the representative of property) ; and favour
the people (or house, visha).' 2 That the priests and
Eishis of the Vedic times did not constitute a caste
is clearly proved by their intermarrying with others
1 Wilson's India 3000 Years Ago, p. 58, 53.
2 K.-V., ix. 79, 16-17, is regarded as very important, being very
incorrectly employed by modern Brahmins as justifying caste. We
have the Visha of this text preserved in such words as Wick, Wool-
wich, etc. See Langlois, vol. iii. p. 311.
I
k
36 The Vedic Religion.
f ~vye s-tf^t "\
outside their own professions, such as Eajas' daughters,
they themselves belonging to various professions, and
some of these Eishis being females. No honour or
privilege is bestowed upon them because of their
birth or their origin. There was no law or custom
prohibiting inter-caste marriages.
In a review of Dr. Muir's Texts in Tlu Times, 10th
April 1858, by M. Miiller, there occurs the following
very emphatic assertion regarding caste : ' Does caste,
as we find it in Manu and at the present day, form
part of the religious teaching of the Vedas ? We
answer with a decided " No." There is no authority
whatever in the Veda for the complicated system of
castes ; no authority for the offensive privileges claimed
by the Brahmans ; no authority for the degraded
position of the Sudras. There is no law to prohibit
the different classes of the people from living together,
from eating and drinking together; no law to pro-
hibit the marriage of people belonging to different
castes ; no law to brand the offspring of such marriages
with an indelible stigma.'
v.
rra^ r 75 //v raz* VEDA SIN.
/
T
IT is time that \ve should consider now the positive
side of the matter, and introduce our readers
to what is actually to be found in this most ancient
of hymn-books.
I begin with the consideration of the Vedic views
of morality, depravity and sin ; and first, I notice
that there is an undoubted acknowledgment of 'sin.
The word occurs very often. ' This day, ye gods,
with the rising sun, deliver us from heintius sin.'
' Whatever sin we have committed, Indra, let us
obtain the safe light of day : let not the long dark-
/ ness come upon us.' ( * Preserve us, Agni, by
knowledge, from sin/J {^Thou leadest the man who
has followed wrong paths to acts of wisdom/)
' Deliver us from evil,' is a frequent prayer. 1 ' The
gods are not to be trifled with.' 'They are with
the righteous ; they know man in their hearts/
' They behold all things, and hear no prayers of the
wicked/ 'May I, free from sin, propitiate Eudra/
1 i. 115, 6; ii. 27, 14; i. 36, 14; i. 35, 3, 11. Johnson's
Oriental Religions, p. 119.
38 The Vedic Edigion.
' I have committed many faults, which do ye,
gods, correct, as a father his ill-behaving sons.'
' Far from me be bonds, far be sins.' ' May our
sins be removed,' or 'repented of,' is the burden of
a whole hymn. 1
But all this is very general. No clear idea
is given to us from reading such texts, or, in-
deed, from the whole book, as to the writers'
notion of sin or of repentance, their real relation to
god or the gods, and his or theirs to the law of
right and wrong. The value of these and sucnlike
terms must depend on the meaning put into them
by the hymnists, not by us of the 19th century in
our daily use of them. To confess sin in the
abstract and to deprecate its consequences, to praise
the righteous and to denounce the wicked, do not
tell us much more than what we learn from a child's
saying that such a person is bad, and such another
is good. Dean Church 2 correctly remarks, that ' Of
that moral conviction, that moral enthusiasm for
goodness and justice, that moral hatred of wrong
and evil, that zeal for righteousness, that anguish of
penitence, which has elsewhere marked religious
poetry, there is singularly little trace ' in the Eig-
Veda hymns. Baboo Earn Chundra Ghosha's little
book, just published, seems to be very fair on the
Johnson's Oriental Religions, p. 120. R.-V., vii. 32, 9; viii.
13, 15 ; ii. 33, 6 ; ii. 24, 5 ; i. 97.
2 Dean Church's Sacred Poetry of Early Religion-, p. 30. E.-V.,
i. 24, 15 ; 25, 1.
What is in tJie Veda Sin.- 30
whole. Not hiding or ignoring the defects, he
makes most of the good points. He very justly
remarks, that 'although Indo-Aryan mythology is
extravagant and ridiculous, and has an icy coldness
of meaning in it, yet those mythological dreams
have an enduring symbolic value, and stand as date,
for primitive history.' f The consciousness of sin,'
\9 *^^t
t #P ]je_^dds, ' is the prominent characteristic of the
^ religion of the Veda.' It is said that the gods
: take away from man the burden of his sins, 1 a
n very common figure for sin ; and so also is darkness ;
Tm** ^7^
bonds consisting of an upper, a middle, and a lower
rope ; a sea or flood across which we have to
go by means of a boat ; and a defile through
which we have to pass while surrounded with
enemies.
Max Mu'ller 2 is very express in asserting that not
only is the doctrine of sin to be found there, but
also ' the two ideas of justice and mercy, so con-
tradictory to the human understanding, and yet so
easily reconciled in every human heart. God has
established the eternal laws of right and wrong, he
>f punishes sin and rewards virtue, and yet the same
God is willing to forgive ; just, yet merciful ; a
judge and yet a father. Consider, for instance, the
following lines :-+-" His path is easy and without /
1 R. C. Ghose's Peep into the Vedic Age, pp. 82, 93. R.-V., i.
162, 22; v. 82, 6 ; viii. 48, 9 ; ii. 27, 14; vii. 87, 7 ; x. 25, 3;
iv. 12, 4 ; vi. 93, 7 ; 68, 8 ; 71, 3.
2 Max Mailer's Chips, vol. i. p. 39.
40 The Vedic Religion.
thorns who does what is right."^} And again, " Let
man fear him who holds the four (dice), before he
throws them down (i.e. God who holds the destinies
of man in his hand) : (Let no man delight in evil
words." 'j Max Mliller specially appeals, in proof of
his position, to the well-known hymn to Varuna: 2
' Let me not yet, Varuna, enter into the house
of clay.
Have mercy, Almighty, have mercy.
If I go trembling, like a cloud, driven by the wind,
Have mercy, Almighty, have mercy.
Through want of strength, thou strong and high
god, I have gone on the wrong shore ;
Have mercy, Almighty, have mercy.
Thirst came upon the worshipper, though he stood
in the midst of the waves ;
Have mercy, Almighty, have mercy.
Whenever we men, Varuna, commit an offence
before the heavenly host ; whenever we
break thy law through thoughtlessness ;
Have mercy, Almighty, have mercy.'
and so on.
And again,
' Aditi, Mitra, and also Varuna forgive, if we have
committed any sin against you ! may I obtain the
wide fearless light, Indra ! May not the long
1 E.-V., i. 41, 4 ; i. 41, 9 ; vii. 89 ; ii. 27, 14. Hibbcrt Lectures,
p. 231. R.-V., i. 162, 22; i. 41, 9.
2 vii. 89.
What is in the Veda Sin. 41
darkness come over us ! May Aditi grant us sin-
lessness.'
1. 'Wise and mighty are the works of him who
stemmed asunder the wide firmaments. He lifted on
high the bright and glorious heavens ; he stretched
out apart the starry sky and the earth.
2y ' Do I say this to my own self ? How can I
get near to Varuna ? Will he accept my offering
without displeasure ? When shall I, with quiet
mind, see him propitiated ?
3. 'I ask Varuna, wishing to know this my siii :
I go to ask the wise. The wise all tell me the
same : Varuna it is who is angry with thee.
4. ' Was it an old sin, Varuna, that thou
wishest to destroy thy friend, who always praises
thee ? Tell me, thou unconquerable lord, and I will
quickly turn to thee with praise, freed from sin.
^5. 'Absolve us from the sins of our fathers, and
from those which ice committed with our own bodies.
Eelease Vasishtha, 1 King, like a thief who has
feasted on stolen cattle ; release him like a calf from
the rope.
6* ' It was not our own doing, Varuna, it was
necessity, an intoxicating draught, passion, dice,
thoughtlessness. The old is near to mislead the
young ; even sleep brings unrighteousness.
1 Vasishtha was the Rishi who composed the hymn (vii. 86) ;
vi. 52, 7 ; vii. 52, 2. A.-V., v. 30, 4; vi. 115, 1. R.-V., x. 37, 12.
See Muir's Metrical Translations, p. 316 ; and Wilson's Rig- Veda.
vol. iv. p. 23 ; Ex. xx. 5 ; Deut. v. 9.
42 The Vedic Eeligion.
7. ' Let me, without sin, give satisfaction to the
angry god, like a slave to the bounteous lord. The
lord god enlightened the foolish ; he, the wisest,
leads his worshipper to wealth.
8. ' Lord, Varuna, may this song go well to thy
heart ! May we prosper in keeping and acquiring !
Protect us, O gods, always with your blessings ! '
I do not think these hymns justify altogether
Max Muller's conclusions concerning the old Kishis'
sense of justice, or concerning God as Judge. They
undoubtedly believed that the gods could punish
iniquity or exercise mercy, and that they could
forgive sins. But their sense of the demands of
justice were very far from being clear or distinct.
They had no idea how God could be just and justify
the ungodly.
I think the 5th verse of the last of these hymns
justifies us in asserting that they believed in the
doctrine of imputation of sin, the children bearing the
sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation
the principle underlying the doctrine of ' original
sin' as well as those of incarnation and substitution.
Max Miiller thinks that c the consciousness of sin is
a prominent feature in the religion of the Veda,' and
' the belief that the gods are able to take away from
man the heavy burden of his sin.' But there is no
attempt whatever to explain how the gods can take
away sin.
There are few sins referred to as such. There are
What is in the Veda Sin. 43
allusions to irreligion, ihipiety, and having neither
rites nor sacrifice, as characteristic of their enemies,
the Dasyus, the Eakshasas, and the Asuras. Sins
against chastity are also referred to, as we shall see
when we consider the Aryan's treatment of women ;
but these sins seem to be as characteristic of their
gods as of themselves ; and this is specially true of
the sin of drunkenness. In support of the latter
statement, I shall quote a few verses illustrative of
Indra's character. ' Thy inebriety is most intense,'
the Bishi addresses him ; ' nevertheless thy acts for
our good are most beneficent' (i. 17, 55). 'Thou,
Indra, performer of good works, hast suddenly become
of augmented vigour for the sake of drinking the
libation, and maintaining seniority among the gods.
Indra, thou art the object of praises ; may these
pervading Soma juices enter into thee ; may they be
propitious for thy attainment of superior intelligence '
(i. 5, 6). < The belly of Indra, which quaffs the Soma
juice abundantly, swells like the ocean, and is ever
moist, like the ample fluids of the palate ' (i. 8, 7).
f Indra who tarries to regale himself in every place
where Soma is offered' (i. 9, 10 Mahratta trans-
lation). ' Voracious Indra has risen up as ardently
as .... to partake of the copious libations, in the
ladles ; having stayed his well-horsed, golden, and
splendid chariot, he plies himself, capable of heroic
actions, with the beverage' (i. 56, 1, 15, 1). These
must suffice here, for I shall continue this subject
44 The Vedic Religion.
under the heading 'Wine and Soma juice.' Indra's
character is not very clear of other sins. Max Miiller,
in reference to one Eishi, says that ' he (the Eishi)
wished to represent a squabble between Indra and
the Mariits, such as they were familiar with in their
own village life, and this was to be followed by a
reconciliation. The boorish rudeness, selfishness and
boastfulness here ascribed to Indra may seem offensive
to those who cannot divest themselves of the modern
meaning of deities, but, looked upon from the right
point of view, it is really full of interest.' It proves
that the highest standard of morality, even among
the gods, was not very high.
This is also seen very clearly in regard to the wars
in which they were engaged, which were mere wars
of conquest. The Eakshasas, Asuras, etc., were killed
simply because they were Eakshasas and Asuras
(i. 12, 5). Indra is described (i. 130, 8) ' punishing
the riteless ; he subjected the black skin to the (Aryan)
man. He burned all greedy enemies, as if he would
burn them to ashes ; he burned to ashes the devour-
ing enemy' (vi. 62, 8-10).
Gambling seems to have been common in Vedic
times. The actions of the gods are illustrated by
means of terms used in gambling, though I am not
aware that they themselves gambled. Still gambling
was regarded as a fruitful source of evil. The
gambler ' finds no comfort in his need ; his dice give
transient gifts, and ruin the winner : he is vexed to
What is in the Veda Sin. 45
see his own wife, and the wives and happy homes of
other men.' 1
' Harmful sorcerers ' and demons seem to have been
very trouhlesome to these old Eishis. Deliverance
from them is frequently prayed for (i. 35, 10 ; i. 36,
14). So also is deliverance from ' deceitful thieves '
and robbers, ' wicked and covetous, waylaying and
evil contemplating ' (i. 42, 2, 3), and * revilers of
Soma juice' (i. 43, 8 ; 147, 5).
The tricks of trade were not unknown in those
days. The god Eudra is entreated not to ' take
advantage, like a trader, of his worshippers.' Selfish-
ness and inhospitality were also known and hated.
' He who keeps his food to himself, has his sin to
himself also.' ' The wise man makes tjie giving of
gifts his breastplate.' ' The car of bounty rolls on
easy wheels,' equals our modern phrase about ' greas-
ing one's palm.'
As we shall see below, they, however, condemned
neither polygamy nor polyandry, but speak approv-
ingly of both.
Altogether, as M. Miiller expresses it, the hymns
' represent human nature on a low level of selfishness
and worldliness,' and ' ascribe to the gods sentiments
and passions unworthy of the ddity, such as anger,
revenge, delight in material sacrifices,' 2 especially of
the Soma juice.
1 See Dr. Muir's Metrical Translations, p. 190, and R.-V., x. 34.
2 Max Miiller 's Chips, vol. i. p. 37. Wilson, vol. iv. p. 133.
46 The Vedic Religion.
The burden of humanity in Vedic times was sin.
Its cry was, Deliver us from sin. And it was felt that
the deliverer must be other than man ; yea, divine
and human. Yet one prays, ' Eecommend us to Surya
as sinless' (i. 123, 3). But more of this hereafter.
As intimately connected with the doctrine of sin,
we pass on to the consideration of Immortality and
the Future State of Man.
tf^- 1 ^
IMMORTALITY AND THE FUTURE STATE OF MAN.
TJHE earliest references to immortality in the Eig-
Veda are in connection with certain pert, clever
artisans, called Eibhus, the three sons (Eibhu, Vibhu
and Yaja) of Sudhanwan, a descendant of Arjgiras.
The first verse of hymn 111 1 describes them thus:
* The Eibhus, possessed of skill in their work, con-
structed (for the Aswins) a well-built car. They
framed the vigorous horses bearing Indra; they gave
youthful existence to their parents ; they gave to the
calf its accompanying mother.' Their skill was
specially manifested (and frequently referred to) in
their making four cups for Indra out of one made for
him by the god Tvashtri, the Aryan Yulcan. For
this one act of skill they were rendered immortal and
deified ; according to one Eishi, to the great disgust
of Tvashtri, who is represented as quite (i. 161, 4)
ashamed of himself and hiding himself among the
goddesses, and also of attempting to kill his riyals.
1 i. 111, 1 ; 161, 7 ; iv. 33, 3 ; iv. 35, 5 ; iv. 36, 3 ; i. 161, 1, 5 ;
iv. 33, 5, 6 ; iv. 35, 3 ; i. 31, 7 ; v. 4, 10 ; i. 191, 1-18 ; 125, 5, 6 ;
v. 63, 2 ; viii. 58, 7. See below, pp. 127, 211, 216.
jr ;
48 The Veclic Religion.
Another Eishi, on the contrary, says that Tvashtri
applauded their design and admired the brilliant
results of their skill. All are, however, agreed that
they were mortals, made immortal and deified because
of this exhibition of skill. In addition to this special
case, there are other undoubted references to immor-
tality as the portion of the blessed, fully as clearly
expressed as the older references in the Bible. Agni
is said to render mortals immortal. 'He is called the
guardian of immortality. The same powers are also
ascribed to Soma. Immortality is promised as the
reward of liberality, to the bes tower of largesses.
' Eain, wealth, and immortality ' are the blessings
prayed for by one Eishi. Another Eishi is quite
familiar with Indra on the subject : ' When we two,
Indra and I, go to the region of the sun, to our home,
may we, drinking nectar, seek thrice seven, in the
realm of the friend.'
In the above references, and more so in the later
hymns, immortality is represented as a gift that might
be granted by the gods to the favoured few, a view
not unfrequently given of our Christian doctrine in
our own day. It is represented as that which the
good and righteous might receive, while annihilation
would be the portion of the wicked. One thing is
very clear to every reader of the Veda, that the desires
of the hymnists were ever towards cows, horses,
offspring (sons), long life on earth, victory over their
earthly enemies, etc. ; that the requests for spiritual
Immortality and the Future State of Man. 49
blessings, or an inheritance in heaven, or immortality,
were very few in number, and not very clearly ex-
pressed. The visible and the sensible, as far as their
hopes and wishes were concerned, occupied their
thoughts, almost to the complete exclusion of the
invisible and the spiritual.
It is also worthy of notice that the modern rite of
Shraddha, on the proper performance of which by a
son the happiness of the parent in the future is sup-
posed to depend, is never once alluded to in the Veda,
as an explanation of the desire for children, or indeed
in any connection. So that we may conclude it had
not originated then.
There are, however, distinct references to the future
life of individuals, in the ninth and tenth books of
the Big, as well as in the more recent Atharva-Veda,
a life of sensual rather than of spiritual joys, and more
Mahornedan than Christian. In these references the
connection is generally with the worship of the Pitris
or Fathers. As for example : ' May the lords of truth
be propitious to us, and so may the horses and kine ;
may the skilful Eibhus, dexterous of hand, may the
Fathers (Pitris) be propitious to us in our invocations.'
' Let not the gods injure us here, nor our early Fathers,
who know the realms.' *
I shall now quote from, the more recent ninth and
tenth Books, which contain clearer views of the future
life, and in which also we find more distinct mytho-
1 vii. 35, 12 ; iii 55, 2 t
D
50 The Vcdic Religion.
logy than in the first eight books. / As those references
have a most intimate connection with Yama, I shall
give some details of his life and birth. The god
Tvashtri, the skilful Vulcan of the Vedic religion,
had a daughter named Saranyu, whom he had espoused
to Viva&vat, ' the bright one/ identified with the sun.
' The whole world assembles to the marriage.' Soon
after, she gave birth to twins, Yama and Yami. The
immortal mother then creates another female exactly
like herself, entrusts the twins to her, and puts her
in her own place as Vivasvat's wife. She, thereafter,
assumed the form of a mare, and disappeared. Vivas-
vat, before realizing the deception played upon him,
had a son, Monu, by the newly created female.
Discovering, somehow, that he had been deceived,
and how, he assumed the form of a horse and went
in pursuit of his lost wife. In time he overtook her.
As a mare she gave birth to other twins, known as
the two Kumxiras, who are landed as Aswins (sprung
from a horse). This story is briefly stated in the
17th hymn of the 10th Book: 'Tvashtri makes
a marriage for his daughter. Hearing so, this whole
world assembles. The mother of Yama becoming
wedded, the wife of the great Vivasvat disappeared.
They concealed the immortal bride from mortals.
Making another of similar form, she gave her to
Vivasvat. And she bore the Aswins, when that
happened. Saranyu abandoned the two pairs of .twins.'
In the same book occurs another hymn in the form
Immortality and the Future State of Man. 51
of a dialogue between Yama and his twin sister Yami,
in which the latter tries to persuade the former,
unsuccessfully, to cohabit with her. The reason she
gives is that ' the immortals desire this ; they desire
a descendant left behind ~by (Yama} the one sole mortal!
This Yama is represented as the King of Hades, god
of the dead, and the first of men that died, and some-
times as death itself. With him the spirits of the
departed are said to dwell. The 14th hymn of the
same tenth book calls upon men to ' Worship with^_
an oblation to King Yama, son of yivasvat, 'the
assembler of men, who departed to the mighty streams, 1
and spied out the road for many. Yama was the
first who found for us the way. This home is not
to be taken from us. Those who are now born
follow by their own paths to the place whither our
ancient fathers have departed Place thyself,
Yama, on this sacrificial seat in concert with the
Angirases 2 and Pitris (departed Fathers). Let the
texts recited by the sages bring thee hither. Delight
thyself, king, with this oblation. Come with the
adorable Angirases ; delight thyself here, Yarna, with
the children of Virupa. Seated on the grass at this
sacrifice, I invoke Vivasvat, who is thy father. May
we enjoy the goodwill and gracious benevolence of
those adorable beings the Angirases, our ancestors. . . .
1 x. 10, 1-14. Muir's Texts, vol. v. pp. 284-313; 2d ed. Langlois,
vol. iv. p. 144.
2 These are represented as the descendants of Angiras, the father of
Agui. They are also represented as a class of Pitris or manes.
52 The Vedic Religion.
Depart thou, depart by the ancient paths to the place
whither our early fathers have departed. There shalt
thou see the two kings, Yama and the god Varjina,
exhilarated by the oblation, meet with the Pitris, meet
with Yama, obtain the fulfilment of thy desires in the
highest heaven. Throwing off again all imperfection,
go to thy home. Become united to a body, and
clothed in a shining form. Go ye, depart ye, hasten
ye from hence. 1 The Pitris have made for him this
place. Yama gives him an abode distinguished by
day, and waters, and lights. By an auspicious path
do thou hasten past the two four-eyed br/ndled dogs
[of Yama which guard the road to his abode, and
which the departed are advised to hurry past with
all possible speed. They were the offspring of Sarama,
the dog of Indra]. Then approach the bountiful
Pitris, who dwell in festivity with Yama. Entrust
him, Yama, to thy two four-eyed, road -guarding,
man-observing watch-dogs ; and bestow on him pros-
perity and health. The two brown messengers (the
dogs) of Yama, broad of nostril and insatiable, wander
about among men. May they give us again the
auspicious breath of life, that we may behold the sun.
Pour out the soma to Yama, offer him an oblation,
To Yama the sacrifice proceeds, when heralded by
Agni and prepared. Offer to Yama an oblation with
butter, and be active. May he grant us to live a
long life among the gods. Offer a most honied obla-
1 M Miiller thinks these words are addressed to evil spirits*
Immortality and the Future State of Man, 53
tion to King Yama. Let this salutation be offered
to the earliest-born, the ancient Kishis, who made for
us a path.'
The subjects of Yama seem to be divided into
classes or ranks ; for we read 1 : ' Let the lower, the
upper, and the middle Pitris, the offerers of Soma,
arise. May these Pitris, innocuous, and versed in
righteousness, who have attained to higher life, protect
us in the sacrifices. Let this reverence be to-day
paid to the Pitris, who departed first, and who
departed last, who are situated in the terrestrial
sphere, or who are now among the powerful races
(the gods). . . . Invited to these favourite oblations
placed on the grass, may the Pitris, the offerers of
Soma, come, may they hear us, may they intercede
for us, and preserve us. .... Do us no injury,
Pitris, on account of any offence which we, after the
manner of men, may commit against you. . . . Bestow
wealth on the mortal who worships you. May Yama
feast according to his desire on the oblations, eager,
and sharing his gratification with the eager Vasishthas,
our ancient ancestors, who presented a Soma libation.
Come, Agni, with 'a thousand of those exalted ancient
Pitris, adorers of the gods, sitters at the fire, who are
true, who are eaters and drinkers of oblations, and
who are received into the same chariot with Indra
and the gods. Come hither, ye Agnishvatta Pitris,
occupy each a seat, ye wise directors ; eat the obla-
1 Rig- Veda, x. 15.
54 The Vedic Religion.
tions which have been arranged on the grass, and then
bestow wealth on us, with all our offsprtn^J . . Do
thou, self-resplendent god, along with those Pitris,
who, whether they have undergone cremation or not,
are gladdened by our oblation, grant us this higher
vitality, and a body according to our desire.' l From
this remarkable hymn we see that the inhabitants of
heaven were engaged chiefly in eating and drinking,
at least no other employment of any definite kind is
ascribed to them. Observe also the reference to a
resurrection body.
Agni's treatment of the body is somewhat mysteri-
ous. He consumes it, but destroys nothing of it.
The members are separated, but not decomposed into
their elements. They all go to heaven, to be reunited
there, but they go by different routes. 'Do thou,
Agni, burn up or consume him (the deceased) ; do not
dissolve his skin, or his body. When thou hast
matured him, Yatavedas (Agni), then send him to
the Pitris. When thou maturest him, Yatavedas,
then consign him to the Pitris. When he shall
reach that state of vitality, he shall then fulfil the
pleasure of the gods. Let his eye go to the sun, his
breath to the wind. Go to the sky, and to the earth,
according to the nature of thy several parts ; or go to
the waters, if that is suitable for thee ; enter into the
plants with thy members. As for his unborn part,
1 Dr. Muir's Oriental Studies, p. 181 (Article on the Vedic-
Doctrine of a Future Life).
Immortality and the Future State of Man. 55
do thou (Agni) kindle it with thy heat ; let thy flame
and thy .lustre kindle it; with those forms of thine
which are auspicious, convey it to the world of the
righteous. Give up again, Agni, to the Pjtris him
who comes offered to thee, with oblations. Putting
on life, let him approach his remains ; let him meet
with his body, Yatavedas.' *
Here then are hints of a Resurrection of a spiritual
"body, a body purified as by fire ; or rather, fire itself
is the body of the soul. What else can be the
meaning of the statement that the garment of the
spirit was to be fire, ' the bright armour of Agni'? In
one verse it is said that the dead is rewarded for his
good deeds, that he leaves or casts off all evil, and,
' glorified, takes his body.' The same Rishi prayed
(x. 14, 11) that the departed dead might be protected
from the terrible dogs of Yama, the king of the dead.
He must have believed that the departed had bodies
to be bit. In the later epjcs, the great sages are
represented as casting off their old bodies and ascend-
ing in new ones of a splendour like the sun and in
chariots of fire. There are hymns in the Veda that
ask the fire ' not to burn nor tear the body/ and the
fathers ' to rejoice in heaven with all their limbs.' 2
1 R.-V., x. 16 ; x. 97, 16 ; i. 38, 5 ; ix. 113, 7 ; x. 14, 8-10 ; 15, 14 ;
x. 16, 15 ; ix. 113, 9-11 ; x. 14, 14 ; ix. 113, 8-11. See below, p. 250,
and above, p. 52.
2 R.-V., x. 14, 8, 11; 16, 4; 121, 13; ii. 29, 6; x. 14, 11. Chips,
p. 47. Johnson's Oriental Religions, p. 130. BournouPs La Veda,
p. 186.
o6 The Vcdic Religion.
' The belief in the immortality of the soul/ says
Bournouf, ' not naked and inactive, but living and
clothed with a glorious body, was never interrupted
for a moment : it is now in India what it was in
those ancient times, and even rests on a similar
metaphysical basis.'
Yama, though so thoroughly associated in the
Eig-Veda with the happiness of the dead, and in
modern Hinduism with the misery of the wicked, is
never in the Eig connected with penal retribution.
In fact, there is very little mention of hell at all in
the Veda. Still, Yama and his messenger, death, and
his dogs were naturally enough objects of fear in
Vedic times. Deliverance is prayed for from the
bonds of Yama. Another prayer runs : ' Let not thy
worshipper go along the road of Yama,' even though
it be to the realms of eternal light, ' where a delectable
abode is provided,' and a perfect life, crowded with
the fulfilment of all desires, and passed in the pre-
sence of the gods ' in the third heaven, in the third
sky, where action is unrestrained, where are pleasures
and enjoyments in the sphere of the sun where
ambrosia and satisfaction are found ; where there are
joys and delights and pleasures and gratifications ;
where the objects of desire are attained.' These gratifi-
cations and desires are understood to be sensual, such
at least is the character of those described in the
Athar.va-Yeda, and we have no reason to believe that
anything different was understood by the Eishis of
iiW/lia^
Immortality and the Future State of Man. 5 7
the Eig. 'In the celestial sphere they have abun-
dance of sexual gratification.' * The offerer of a black-
footed sheep ' ascends to the sky where no tribute is
paid by the weak to the stronger.' The gods them-
selves knew no other pleasures than the carnal and
material. Soma, honey, ambrosia, and suchlike, con-
stituted their choice food. Yama is described as
carousing with them under a leafy tree, and the Pitris
as indulging in festivity or revelling with Yama.
Indra is described as handsome himself, and as having
a handsome wife and pleasure in his house. (See
Muir's Metrical Trans., p. 186, and Oriental Studies,
p. 98, note.)
We have already stated that the virtue, above all
others, that is represented as gaining immortality to
its possessor, is liberality. Other virtues are repre-
sented elsewhere as equally, if not more, efficacious.
* Let the deceased depart to those for whom the honied
beverage flows ; let him depart to those who through
vigorous abstraction^ {tapas) are invincible, who,
'^ajas, have gone to heaven, to those who
ave performed great tapas. Let him depart to the
combatants in battles, to the heroes who have sacrificed
their lives, or to those who have bestowed thousands
of largesses. Let him depart, Yama, to those austere
ancient Pitris, who have practised and promoted
sacred rites. Let him depart, Yama, to those austere
Eishis, born of rigorous abstraction, to those sages
1 A.-V., iv. 34, 2 ; iii. 29, 3 ; x. 135, 1 ; x. 14, 10 ; iii. 53, 6.
58 The Vedic Religion.
skilled in a thousand sciences who guard the sun.' 1
' The man who satisfies others by his liberality, abides
settled on the summit of the sky ; he goes to the
gods ; to him the flowing waters carry butter ; his
cow overflows for him continually. Those wonderful
things belong to those who give gifts; for them there
are suns in the sky. Those who give gifts attain
immortality ; they prolong their lives/ ' Those who
bestow gifts mount aloft in the sky. The givers of
horses abide with the sun. The givers of gold obtain
immortality. Those who bestow raiment, Soma,
prolong their lives. . . . Liberal men do not die, nor
suffer destruction. The liberal are not injured or
distressed. Liberality confers on them everything,
both this entire world and heaven.'
The Vedic doctrine of the Pitris bears a close family
likeness, not only to the Greek 2 and Eoman doctrine
concerning the manes, but also to what is a child of
the same Aryan family, the Eoman Catholic doctrine
of the Saints who, like the Pitris, are represented as
hearing the prayers of their votaries, interceding in
their behalf, protecting them from their enemies, and
bestowing wealth or luck on their favourites.
There remains that I should produce the texts
concerning the retribution of the wicked. They are
not many in number, nor very clear or definite as
1 x. 154, 2-5 j i. 125, 5, 6 j x. 107, 2, 8 ; x. 117. Muir's Met. Tram.,
p. 192.
2 iv. 5, 5 ; vii. 104, 3 ; ix. 73, 8.
Immortality and the Future State of Man. 5 9
to their signification. Dr. Muir quotes only three.
' This deep abyss (pqda) has been produced for those
who, being wicked, false, untrue, go about like women
without brothers, like females hostile to their hus-
bands.' 'Indra and Soma, dash those malicious
Bakshasas into the abyss (vavre), into bottomless
darkness, so that not even one of them may get out.'
' Knowing, Soma beholds all worlds ; he hurls the
hated and the irreligious into the abyss (karte).' 1
Another text, ' The druhs, " powers of evil," follow
the sins of men, binding as with cords, 5 seems to refer
to the future punishment of the wicked. The Kelts
of Scotland have the same word ' druh,' meaning
ghost, evil spirit, or magician. Wilson's translation
of vi. 62, 3, is suggestive in the same connection.
It is a prayer to the Aswins : ' Let the injurers of
the liberal man (be consigned) by you to (final)
repose.'
In connection with this subject of a future life, we
would notice a remarkable verse in the 9th Book that
t reminds us of the words of our Lord. Death, Yama's
kindly messenger, is represented as ' bringing them
to the homes he had gone before to prepare for them,
and which could not be taken from them.' One of
those which Dr. Muir calls the Rw-Vcda Burial
^Xi "
Hymns, contains the prayer : ' There, make me im-
^ mortal, where action is free, and all desires are
fulfilled.' Elsewhere the fire gods are asked to
1 K.-V., ix. 113, 7. Muir's Sans. Texts, vol. v. p. 312.
60 The Vedic Religion.
f warm by their heat his immortal part/ a prayer
suggestive of a colder climate than that of India.
/ The Brahmana portions of the Yeda express a
more decided belief in a future life, than the mantras
or hymns, as a state of rewards and punishments.
Monier Williams quotes the following (x. 4,
3, 9) :
' The gods lived constantly in dread of Death,
The mighty Ender ; so with toilsome rites
They worshipped and performed religious acts
Till they became immortal. Then the Ender
Said to the gods, As ye have made yourselves
Imperishable, so will men endeavour
To free themselves from me ; what portion, then,
Shall I possess in man ? The gods replied,
" Henceforth no being shall become immortal
In his own body ; this his mortal frame
Shalt thou still seize ; this shall remain thy own.
He who through knowledge or religious works
Henceforth attains to immortality
Shall first present his body, Death, to thee." '
Mitra and Varuna are addressed, * Beloved Kings
of Immortality* (i. 122, 11); while the goddess
Ushas (the Dawn) is represented as ' The first of all
creation, the winner of spoil, the young damsel,
born every day.'
Katyayana says that sacrifice procures heaven, and
in a hymn addressed to Soma we have a description
of heaven :
Immortality and the Future State of Man* 6 1
' Where there is eternal light, in the world where
the sun is placed, in that immortal imperishable world
place me, Soma.
' Where King Yaivasvata (Yama) reigns, where the
secret place of heaven is, where the mighty waters
are, there make me immortal.
' Where life is free, in the third heaven of
heavens, where the worlds are radiant, there make
me immortal.
' Where wishes and desires are, where the place
of the bright sun is, where there is freedom and
delight, there make me immortal
' Where there is happiness and delight, where joy
and pleasure reside, where the desires of our desires
are attained, there make me immortal.' J
This prayer to Soma, as the giver of immortality,
suggests the discussion of Wine, Drinking, and the
peculiar doctrine of Soma, constituting, as it does,
one of the most unique, curious, and characteristic
features of the Yedic religion.
1 M. Miiller's Chips, vol. i. p. 46.
VII.
SOAIA, AND DRINKING.
THAT intoxicating drinks were in common use
in Vedic times cannot be questioned. In
Hymn i. 191, 10, 1 we read the words: C I deposit
the poison in the solar orb like a leather bottle in
the house of a vendor of spirits ; ' which clearly
proves that wine was kept in leathern bottles and
sold in the bazaar. Indra is very familiarly addressed :
' Thou, Indra, never findest a rich man to be thy
friend; wine-swillers despise thee.' 2 Dr. Eajendra
Lala Mitra is very decided upon the fact, that ' the
earliest Brahman settlers were a spirit-drinking race,
and indulged largely in soma beer and strong spirits,'
in the sense of intoxicating drinks. ' The Sautramani
and Vajapaya rites, of which libations of strong
arrack formed a prominent feature, were held 'in the
highest esteem.' ' None will venture to deny that
the sura of the Sautramani and Vajapaya was other
1 Wilson's Rig- Veda, vol. ii. p. 204.
2 R.-V., viii. 21, 14. See Zend Avesta, ii. 4, 50 ff. Miiller's
Hibbert Lectures, pp. 167, 287. Wilson's R.-V., vol. ii. p. xxiv.
Vol. i. pp. 21, 118, 149, 232, 240, 263, 278, 327.
IVinc, Soma, and Drinking. 63
than arrack manufactured from rice-meal ; and that
will suffice to show that the Yedic Hindus did
countenance the use of spirits. . . . In the hot
plains of India, over-indulgence in spirituous drinks,
however, gradually bore its evil consequences, and
among the thoughtful a revulsion of feeling was the
result. The later Yedas accordingly proposed a com-
promise, and, leaving the rites intact, prohibited the
use of spirits for the gratification of the senses . . .
saying, " Wine is unfit to be drunk, unfit to be given,
and unfit to be accepted," and denounced drinking
to be heinous in the last degree, quite as bad as the
murder of a Brahmin.' 1
The incidents which are said to have led to this
prohibition are curious, if not instructive.
Sukra, the chief priest and preceptor of the Asuras,
had a Hevata pupil named Kacha, who was specially
anxious to worm out of his master the charm of
reviving dead men. The Asuras, fearing that the
pupil might succeed and impart the secret to their
enemies the Devatas, assassinated him, and mixed
his ashes with Sukra's wine. Kacha had, previous
to this, secured the affections of his teacher's
daughter. The lady, ignorant of the whereabouts of
her lover's remains, but believing that he was dead,
insisted on the father restoring him to life by means
of his great secret. The charm was repeated, and
the teacher was not a little astonished to find that
1 Journal of the Asiatic Society, 1873, p. 2.
64 The Vedic Religion.
the pupil was restored to life within his own capacious
stomach.
The teacher, with the view of extricating himself
from his great difficulty, taught the charm to the
imprisoned pupil, and then allowed himself to be
ripped open. The first act of the liberated pupil
was to repeat the charm for the restoration of the
slaughtered master ; and the first act of the restored
master, justly divining the prime cause of all this
mischief, was to prohibit the use of wine to Brah-
mins. ' From this day forward/ said he, ' the
Brahmin who, through infatuation, will drink arrack
(sura) shall lose all his religious merit ; that wretch
will be guilty of the sin of killing Brahmins, and be
condemned in this as well as in a future world.
Let all pious Brahmins, mindful of their duty to
their tutors, as also to the Devas (gods) and man-
kind in general, attend to this rule of conduct for
Brahmins, ordained by me for all the religious of
the universe/
Krishna cursed the wine-bibber, because his own
kith and kin, the Yadavas, were great drunkards, a
reason that is as justly applicable now as it was of
old. The punishment ordered by Manu for any
Brahmin tasting wine is severe enough for the most
rigid teetotaler. It is nothing less than branding
the publican's flag or ensign, the bottle, on the
Brahmin's forehead, with the further penalty of
' none to eat with him, none to read with him, none
Wine, Sorna, and Drinking. 65
allied in marriage to him, abject and excluded from
all social duties, let him, wander over the earth.
Branded with an indelible mark, he shall be deserted
by his paternal and maternal relations, treated by
none with affection, received by none with respect.
Such is the ordinance of Manu.'
In the Kaniayana, Visvarnitra, the reputed author
of a considerable number of the hymns of the Eig-
Veda, is said to have been entertained with maireya
and sum by his host, Vasishtha. In the same
great poem Sita, Kama's queen, is represented as
worshipping the Ganges in these words : ' Be
merciful to us, goddess, and I shall, on my return
home, worship thee with a thousand jars of arrack
and dishes of cooked flesh-meat.' To the river
Yamuna she was equally liberal. ' Be thou
auspicious, goddess ; I am crossing thee. When
my husband has accomplished his vow, I shall
worship thee with a thousand head of cattle and a
hundred jars of arrjick.'^ In the Markandeya
Purana, 1 the reading of which constitutes an essential
part of the worship of Durga during the great
annual holidays, the goddess is represented as parti-
cularly addicted to strong drinks. She is served
with overflowing goblets, and ' she drinks the best
wines again and again, and, with reddened eyes, she
now and then puts on a sweet smile, which greatly
enhances her beauty.' Addressing the Asura, she
1 Hindoo Patriot^ 20tli October 1879;
E
66 The Vedic Religion.
said, ' Stay thou, impudent demon, wait till I finish
my drink,' rendered by Dr. Mitra, ' Eoar, roar, thou
fool, for a moment only, till I finish my drinking/
The same Purana gives another picture of the same
goddess to match the above : ' Thus arrayed, the
mighty goddess was worshipped by the whole hosts
of the gods ; and she sent forth a tremendous
laughter, that resounded in the heavens. By this
awe-inspiring sound the seven worlds shook with
fear ; it went on vibrating in space, and by its
undulating motion were produced formidable foamy
waves on the " vasty deep." '
The Salda Tantras insist upon the use of wine as
an element of devotion, and the Kaulas, their most
ardent followers, have most disgraceful orgies in con-
nection with its religious use. Sukra's curse has, how-
ever, to be removed before the liquor can be drunk.
In modern times various kinds of intoxicating
substances have been used, alike in India and in
other countries. The drink so often spoken of in the
Vedic times as Soma, or Soma juice, is now ad-
mitted, we believe, by the best Sanskrit scholars to
have been intoxicating. The numerous references to
it in the Rig-Veda Sanhita are consistent only with
such an interpretation. The authors of the hymns
are loud in its praise. Many of their hymns were
set apart for repetition at the various stages of its
manufacture. It was made from the juice of a
creeper called the moon plant (Asdcpias acida or
Wine, Soma, and Drinking. 67
Sarcostcnia mmincdis), diluted with water, mixed with
barley-meal, clarified butter, and the meal of wild
paddy (nivara), and fermented in a jar for nine days.
The starchy substance of the meal supplied the
material for the vinous fermentation, and the Soma
juice the part of hops in beer. Its effects on gods
and men were those of alcohol. We quote a few
verses from the Eig-Veda Sankifca :
' The sacred hymnist, desiring your presence, offers
to you both, Indra ancLAgrii, for your exhilaration,
the Soma libation. Beholders of all things, seated -at
this sacrifice upon the sacred grass, be exhilarated by
drinking of the effused libation.' *
' It, Soma, (generates) the great light of day com-
mon to all mankind.' a ' Indra and Yishnu, drinkers
of the fermented Soma, . . . drink of this sweet
Soma ; fill with it your stomachs ; may the inebriat-
ing beverage reach you' (vi. 69, 6, 7; vi. 72).
Its effects on Indra and his partiality for it are
dwelt upon in many of the earliest hymns. He is
said to have drunk at one draught 30 bowls of
Soma. Thus exhilarated, ' he hurries off escorted by
troops of Maruts, and is sometimes attended by his
faithful comrade Yishnu, to encounter the hostile
powers in the atmosphere.' ' Drink this Soma,
Indra, being expressed by means of the stones, even
as a bull drinks from a trough filled by means of a
bucket even as a most thirsty bull. For thy
ix. 61.
68 The Vcdic Religion.
delightful exhilaration, for thee to drink this most
powerful Soma, may (thy horses) carry thee hither
even as the tawny horses bring the sun even as
(the tawny horses bring) the sun daily.' ' Soma,
give unto us the mastery of a hundred men, great
wealth combined with great power. May the revilers
of Soma never (hurt) us, may enemies never hurt.
Give us, Soma, a share in thy strength. Those, O
immortal Soma, who (become) thy subjects in the
highest house of sacrifice, love (them as their) king,
listen to them as they worship thee at the altar.' 1
Just as men are represented as dependent on the
gods, so the gods are represented as equally dependent
on men for their support and nourishment, if not for
their very existence. Hence Dr. Haug says : ' Men
must present offerings to the gods to increase the
power and strength of their divine protectors. They
must, for instance, inebriate Indra with Soma, that
he might gather strength for conquering the demons.' 2
The same writer says that the Soma ceremony is the
holiest rite in the whole Brahminical service, just as
the Haoana ceremony of the Parsi priests is regarded
by them as the most sacred performance. We need
not wonder, therefore, that like the sacrifice and the
mantra, it also was deified, and worship offered to it.
All the hymns in the ninth Book of the Rig- Veda,
1 i. 130 ; i. 43, 7-9 (Mahratta translation).
2 Hang's Ait. Brali. , ii. 4. See Dr. Wilson's Caste, vol. ii. p. 2 ;
K.-V., ix. 113, 7.
Wine, Soma, and Drinking. 69
114 in all, are dedicated to it. Professor Whitney
says : ' The simple-minded Aryan people had no
sooner perceived that this liquid had power to
elevate the spirits, and produce a temporary frenzy,
under the influence of which the individual was
prompted to, and capable of, deeds beyond his natural
powers, than they found in it something divine ; it
was, to their apprehension, a god, endowing those
into whom it entered with . god-like powers ; the
plant which afforded it became the king of plants ;
the process of preparing it was a holy sacrifice ; the
instruments used, therefore, were sacred. The high
antiquity of this cultus is attested by the references
to it found occurring in the Persian Avcsta! 1 Hence
we find Soma addressed as a divinity in such words
as these : ' Where there is eternal light, in the world
where the sun is placed, in that immortal, imperish-
able world, place me, Soma.' 2
' This Soma is a god ; he cures
The sharpest ills that man endiires.
He heals the sick, the sad he cheers,
I
He nerves the weak, dispels their fears,
1 In Bleeck's Avesta, vol. ii., will be found the praises of Haoma,
professedly in the form of a conversation between Zaratlmsthra and
' Haoma, the pure, who is far from death.' The conversation extends
over three chapters of Yacna. Haoma is described as ' the mightiest,
strongest, most active, swiftest, the most victorious amongst the
heavenly beings.' The third chapter ends with Zarathusthra's
prayer : * Send thou me also, Haoma, pure, the far from death, to
the best place of the pure, to the brilliant, adorned with all bright-
ness.'
2 See viii. 48, 2. Muir's Studies, p. 41. Texts, v. p. 2G2.
70 The Vedic Religion.
The faint with martial ardour fires,
With lofty thoughts the bard inspires.
The soul from earth to heaven he lifts ;
So great and wondrous are his gifts.
Men feel the god within their veins,
And cry in loud, exulting strains :
" We've quaffed the Soma bright,
And are immortal grown ;
We've entered into light,
And all the gods have known.
What mortal now can harm,
Or foeman vex us more ?
Through thee, beyond alarm,
Immortal god, we soar." ' MUIR.
Soma is described as the soul of sacrifice, the king
of gods and men, the lord of creatures, the generator
of the sky and earth, of Agni, Surja, Indra, and
Vishnu. Himself immortal, he confers immortality
on gods and men; thousand-eyed, he beholds all
worlds and destroys the irreligious. His praises
remind us forcibly of those of whisky and John
Barleycorn by the Burnses of modern times, and of
the orgies of the middle ages in connection with the
collecting of the mistletoe and the burning of the
yule-tree, as well as of those of Bacchus or Dionysus
in more ancient times.
Some, however, are disposed to look more charit-
ably upon the Sonia sacrifices. Canon EawKnson
writes in the Sunday at Home thus : ' No doubt the
Wine, Soma, and Drinking. 71
origin of the Soma ceremony must be referred to the
exhilarating properties of the fermented juice, and to
the delight and astonishment which the discovery of
them excited in simple minds. But exhilaration is
a very different thing from drunkenness ; and, though
Orientals do not often draw the distinction, we are
scarcely justified in concluding, without better evi-
dence than any which has been adduced as yet, that
the Soma ceremony of the Hindus was in the early
ages a mere Bacchanalian orgy, in which the wor-
shippers intoxicated themselves in honour of approv-
ing deities. Exhilaration will sufficiently explain all
that is said of the Soma in the Big- Veda ; and it is
charitable to suppose that nothing more was aimed
at in the Sorna ceremony.'
In Siva's vows to Gunga we find wine and cooked
flesh-meats associated. From the want of a better
place, we also may here connect the two together by
remarking that it is very clear the Yedic Hindus
were eaters of ' bull, ram, and buffalo/ as a Bengali
classifies them. They were beef- eaters. In Rig-
Veda i. 29, 19, India is asked to sever the joints of
the enemy ( as butchers (or carvers) cut up a cow.'
On this verse H. H. Wilson remarks : ' This text at
any rate proves that no horror was attached to the
notion of a joint of beef in ancient days among the
Hindus.' l There are other texts, such as, ' India,
1 Wilson's Rig- Veda Sanluta, vol. i. p. 165 ; see also vol. iii. pp.
163, 276, 416, 453 ; vol. iv. p. 26. R.-V., vi. 75, 11.
72 The Vedic Bdigion.
bestow upon him who glorifies thee divine food, the
chiefest of which is cattle.' ' I saw at a distance
smoke coming from burning cow-dung. Yonder, by
means of this nether lying and spreading (Agni) the
heroes cooked a variegated bull. Those were the
first acts of religion.' ' One of them drives the lame
cow to the water ; another divides into its parts the
flesh cut out with the knife ; the third removes before
evening the intestines containing the undigested
grass. What, after this, should parents receive from
their sons ? ' ( The arrow is bound with the sinews
of the cow/ ' Where the pious have recourse to
Indra for food, he finds it in the haunts of the gaura
and yamya! two well-known Indian species of the
cow. In hymn i. 32, Indra is represented as slaying
' the eldest of serpents,' ' the enemy more hostile than
other enemies,' Vritra by name, and standing ' over
him thus lying low like a slaughtered bull.' Then
' Vritra's mother intervened with all her power. Indra
struck her with his thunderbolt. The mother lay on
the son, the son underneath the mother. The
demoness lay dead like a cow with her calf.' 1 Such
language presupposes acquaintance with the slaughter-
ing of cows, bulls, and calves, incompatible with the
modern Hindu doctrine concerning this subject.
From Soma, wine, and cows, we pass on to the
subject of Sacrifice generally.
1 The Maliarati Vedarthayatna, i. 32, 8, 9 ; i. 164, 43 ; i. 161, 10.
VIII.
/SACRIFICED
THE most prominent feature of the Yedic religion
is its sacrifices. Scarcely a hymn is found in
which sacrifice is not alluded to. The very first
verse of the very first hymn runs 1 : ' I glorify Agni,
the high priest (purohit) of the sacrifice, the divine
ministrant who presents the oblation (to the gods),
and is the possessor of great wealth.' The expres-
sion translated by Professor Wilson, ( high 'priest of
the sacrifice,' is rendered by Dr. Banerjea, the fore-
most minister of the sacrifice. Here Agni is so called.
In the first of the hymns to the Maruts, with which
Max Muller commences his translation of the Big-
Veda Sanhita, 2 we find a similar reference. The
eighth verse reads : ' With the beloved hosts of India,
with the blameless heaven-tending (Maruts), the
sacrificer cries aloud.' The separate history of the
Aryan family, whether Hindu, Iranian, Teutonic, or
Keltic, can go no further back than these hymns. In
1 H. H. Wilson's Rig- Veda, vol. i. p. 2. Indian Euanyelical
Review, vol. vii. pp. 497, 500.
2 Mailer's Htlbert Lectures, pp. 294-97, 5.
74 The Vedic Religion.
them sacrifices are spoken of as if they were coeval with
man. They occupy the foremost place in importance,
and apparently in age, in the Indo-Aryan worship.
There are numerous passages, in this most ancient
of hymn-books, most conclusively proving that the
ancient Aryans regarded sacrifice as the most sacred
act in their worship. It and its symbol of success,
fire, were regarded as the ' navel of the world.' * The
two most prominent deities in the hymns are Agni
and Indra. And the importance of both is most
intimately associated with the sacrifice. The first, as
we have seen, is its chief minlstrant ; the second, its
most regular attendant. The sacrifice undoubtedly
existed before there were priests set apart for its
celebration, when the householder was high priest in
his own family. The following texts, among many,
indicate in a very simple way the importance in
which it was held : 2
' To the regular performers of sacrifices, the breezes
are sweet, and the rivers distil sweetness.
' Give us, Indra, multitudes of good horses, with
which we may offer our oblations, by the repetition
of the proper sentences, by the prospering of which
we may escape all sins. Do thou now accept our
service with much regard.
' Do thou lead us safe through all sins by the way
of sacrifice.'
1 R,-V., i. 59, 12; 164, 35.
2 Pi.-V., i. 90, 6 ; x. 113, 10 ; i. 173, 2.
Sacrifice. 75
This and other passages connect the sacrifice with
the idea of a boat saving from a flood. We also find
that the institution of the sacrifice in some texts is
connected with Maim, the man who survived the
flood, as for example, such texts as these :
' Agni, adored by us, bring the gods in a most
pleasant chariot. Thou art the invoker appointed
by Manu.' f Agni, thou art the accomplisher of
the burnt-offering, appointed by Manu.' 1 ' illus-
trious Varuna, do thou quicken our understanding
we that are practising this ceremony that we may
embark on the good ferryingT)oat by which we may
escape all sins;' 2 reminding us, as Dr. Banerjea records,
not only of Noah's ark, but also of the words in the
Baptismal Service of the Church of England, that
he ' may be received into the ark of Christ's Church,
and may so pass the waves of this troublesome world,
that he may finally come to the land of everlasting
life.'
The formula given in the most important of the
Brahmanas of the Sama-Veda, throws much light on
the view taken of the sacrifice in the Vedic times.
It runs :
' (0 thou, animal limb, now being consigned to the
fire !) thou art the annulment of sins committed by
gods. Thou art the annulment of sins committed by
the (departed) fathers. Thou art the annulment of
1 R.-V., i. 13, 4; 14, 11.
2 R.-V., yiii. 42, 3 ; vii. 65, 3. Wilson, vol. iv. p. 141.
76 The Vedic Religion.
sins committed by men. Thou art the annulment
of sins committed by ourselves. Whatever sins we
have committed by clay or by night, thou art the
annulment thereof. Whatever sins we have com-
mitted, sleeping or waking, thou art the annulment
thereof. Whatever sins we have committed, know-
ing or unknowing, thou art the annulment thereof.
Thou art the annulment of sin of sin.' 1 In this
extraordinary passage it will be observed that the
sacrifice was regarded in one word, and that a
Biblical one, as 'a propitiation for the sins of the
whole world.' And though 'it is not possible that
the blood of bulls and of goats should take away
sin,' it may be the type or shadow of the blood of
the 'Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,'
which was appointed by God for this express purpose.
When we consider such texts, we may well conclude,
even independent of revelation, that from the begin-
ning men regarded sacrifice as an act of worship of
the highest importance. The hymns of the Big- Veda
are crowded with references to sacrifices of one or
other of the following kinds : 2
.1) Burnt- offerings and libations of Soma, butter
and wine.
(2) Half-monthly sacrifices at new and full moon.
(3) Sacrifices every four months.
1 Tandya Maha-Brahmana, p. 55. Dr. Banerjea's Aryan Wit-
ness, p. 210.
2 Hardwick's Christ and other Masters, vol. i. p. 324 ; Indian
Wisdom, p. 3. Wilson, vol. iv. p. 63. E.-V., vi. 19, 4.
Sacrifice. 77
(4) Sacrifices of various lower animals.
(5) Sacrifice of human beings ; and lastly,
(6) The sacrifice of the Lord of Creation.
Of these the most commonly referred to in the
Rig- Veda are offerings of (1) the Soma plant, so
intimately associated in the mind of the Aryan with
life ; of (2) clarified butter, the choicest gift of his
herds and of his simple art. These two corresponded
with the Jewish offerings of corn and wine. Then
there was also (3) the fire, as the purest of elements
and the purifier of the metals, the light and life of
nature and of man. Whether these were chosen
because some divineness was seen in them, or
whether they came to be regarded as divine from
their use in the sacrifice, it is difficult to say. One
thing we know, that the sacrifice in itself, and also
the gJii (or clarified butter), Soma, and fire, were
regarded as divine and worshipped as gods. 1
There is something mysterious in the regard paid
to the Soma juice by our Aryan brethren of ancient
times. But we have discussed the Soma sacrifice at
such length above, that we cannot devote more space
to it here.
We have not much to say in regard to animal
sacrifices save that of the horse and the human, to the
consideration of which we will now proceed. That,
during the Vedic period, lower animals, specially the
cow, the goat, and the horse, were offered to the gods
1 R.-V., i. 91 ; vi. 47 ; 16, 42. Johnson's Oriental Religions, p. 138.
78 The Vedic Religion.
or Devas and eaten by men, is very clear. The
sacrifice of both horse and goat is referred to in what
are called ' the horse hymns.' *
' When the priests at the season (of this ceremony)
lead forth the horse, the offering devoted to the gods,
thrice round the (sacrificial fire) ; then the goat, the
portion of Pushan (or Agni), goes first, announcing the
sacrifice to the gods.' That is, the goat is first
sacrificed and then the horse. *
' May my desire be of itself accomplished such as
it has been entertained, that the smooth-backed steed
should come to (gratify) the expectations of the gods ;
we have made him well secure for the nutriment of
the gods ; let the wise saints now rejoice.'
Then the prayer is addressed to the horse, that the
halter, the heel-ropes, the head-ropes, the girths, any
other requisite, the grass that was put into his mouth,
whatever the flies may have eaten of his raw flesh,
whatever was smeared on the brush or axe, on the
hands or nails of the immolator, the place of going
forth, of tarrying, of rolling on the ground, the water
that he had drunk, the grass that he had eaten, might
all of them be with him among the gods. Then the
roasting and the cooking of his flesh are described ;
and every bit of him, even to the smallest that may
have fallen from the spit, is to ' be given to the
longing gods.' Lastly, a prayer is offered that the
exertions of the priests watching the cooking of the
1 11. -V., i. 16-2, 41. Wilson, vol. ii. p. 113.
Sacrifice. 79
horse, who say, ' It is fragrant, therefore give us
some,' who solicit the flesh of the horse as alms, may
be for the good of the composer.
There was mercy and a feeling of kindness to the
noble brute manifested in the treatment received
from his sacrificers. A horse or an ox suffers more
from a day's hard labour in a cart, or a plough driven
by a cruel master, than from the death inflicted by a
merciful butcher. Indeed, the excellent kind-hearted
officers of the societies for the prevention of cruelty
to animals might consider the propriety of printing
portions of the hymns, for distribution in our Indian
slaughter-houses, bazaars, and kitchens.
'Whoever has goaded thee in thy paces, either
with heel or with whip, whilst snorting in thy
strength, all these vekations I pour out with holy
prayer, as oblations with the ladle. The axe pene-
trates the thirty-four ribs of the swift horse ; the
beloved of the gods (the inimolators) cut up the
horse with skill, so that the limbs may be unper-
f orated, and recapitulating joint by joint.
' Let not thy precious body grieve thee, who art
going verily to the gods ; let not the axe linger in
thy body ; let not the greedy and unskilful (inimo-
lator), missing the members, mangle thy limbs need-
lessly with his knife.
' Verily at this moment thou dost not die, nor
art thou harmed, for thou goest by auspicious paths
to the gods. The horses of Indra, the steeds of the
80 The Vcdic Religion.
Maruts, shall be yoked (to their cars), and a courser
shall be placed in the shaft of the ass of the Aswins
(to bear thee to heaven).'
Then follows the prayer :
' May this horse bring to us all sustaining wealth,
with abundance of cows, of excellent horses, and of
male offspring; may the spirited steed bring us
exemption from wickedness ; may this horse, offered
in oblation, procure for us bodily vigour.'
The second hymn 1 I quote in full from Wilson's
translation :
' 1. Thy great birth, horse, is to be glorified;
whether first springing from the firmament or from
the water, inasmuch as thou hast neighed (auspi-
ciously), for thou hast the wings of the falcon and
the limbs of the deer.
' 2. Trita harnessed the horse which was given by
Yama; Indra first mounted him, and Gandharba
seized his reins. Vasus, you fabricated the horse
from the sun.
( 3. Thou, horse, art Yama ; thou art Aditya ; thou
art Trita by a mysterious act ; thou art associated
with Soma. The sages have said there are three
bindings of thee in heaven.
' 4. They have said that three are thy bindings in
heaven ; three upon earth ; and three in the firmament.
Thou declarest to me, horse, who art (one with) Varuna,
that which they have called thy most excellent birth.
1 Wilson, vol. ii. p. 121.
Sacrifice. 8 1
' 5. I have beheld, horse, these thy purifying
(regions) ; these impressions of the feet of thee, who
sharest in the sacrifice ; and here thy auspicious reins,
which are the protectors of the rite that preserve it.
1 6. I recognise in my mind thy form afar off,
going from (the earth) below, by way of heaven, to the
sun. I behold thy head soaring aloft, and mounting
quickly by unobstructed paths, unsullied by dust.
' 7. I behold thy most excellent form coming
eagerly to (receive) thy food in thy (holy) place of
earth : when thy attendant brings thee nigh to the
enjoyment (of the provender), therefore greedy, thou
devourest the fodder.
' 8. The car follows thee, horse : men attend
thee ; cattle follow thee ; the loveliness of maidens
(waits) upon thee ; troops of demigods following thee
have sought thy friendship ; the gods themselves
have been admirers of thy vigour.
' 9. His mane is of gold ; his feet are of iron ; and
fleet as thought, Indra is his inferior (in speed). The
gods have come to partake of his (being offered as)
oblation : the first who mounted the horse was Indra.
' 10. The full-haunched, slender- waisted, high-
spirited, and celestial coursers (of the sun), gallop
along like swans in rows, when the horses spread
along the heavenly path. 1
'11. Thy body, horse, is made for motion; thy
1 As to the Aryan myths about the heavenly path, see The Con-
temporary Review for October 1879, vol. xxxvi. p. 259.
F
82 The Vedic Religion.
mind is rapid (in intention) as the wind ; the hairs
(of thy mane) are tossed in manifold directions ; and
spread beautiful in the forests.
' 12. The swift horse approaches the place of im-
molation, meditating with mind intent upon the gods;
the goat bound to him is led before him ; after him
follow the priests and the singers.
' 1.3. The horse proceeds to that assembly which
is most excellent ; to the presence of his father and
his mother (heaven and earth). Go, (horse), to-day
rejoicing to the gods, that (the sacrifice) may yield
blessings to the donor.' 1
This sacrifice of the horse was regarded as the
chief of all animal sacrifices. In later times it came
to be so exaggerated in importance, that a hundred
horse sacrifices were supposed to entitle the sacrificer
to displace Indra from his throne in heaven.
The words of the first of the hymns about the cook-
ing and boiling of his flesh and the remains of it on
the axe, etc., make it very clear that it was no make-
believe sacrifice, but a real action, the slaughter of
our noblest animal for the supposed temporal and
spiritual benefit of the sacrificer.
Goats and buffaloes are still sacrificed to the god-
dess Kali, but there are no more horse sacrifices
performed in India.
Of all sacrifices referred to, or supposed to be
1 i. 163 ; Southey's Curse of Kehama ; Wilson's Eig-Yecla, vol. ii.
pp. xii. xiii.
Sacrifice. 83
referred to, in the Big-Veda, that which has caused
most discussion is the human sacrifice. The passages
on which the discussion chiefly turns are few in num-
ber. I have not observed anywhere the words of
vii. 19, 4 used in this discussion: 'Thou, (Indra),
hast destroyed, along with the Maruts, numerous
enemies at the sacrifice to the gods ; thou hast put
to sleep with the thunderbolt the Dasyas, Chumuri,
and Dhuni, on behalf of Dabhiti.' Is there not here
in this text an allusion to the sacrifice of the Aryans'
enemies to their gods ? But the most important
hymn is, I suppose, the 90th hymn of the 10th
Mandala, remarkable not only as containing what
many suppose are references to a human or rather a
divine sacrifice, but also attempts are made to find
here the earliest references to Pantheism, 1 and to the
four Castes. 2 The hymn is known as the Purusha
Hymn. In it Purusha is described as a sacrifice, a
victim cut to pieces and offered up as an oblation.
And Purusha generally means, if not a man, at any
rate a person, human or divine. I give both the full
prose text as translated by Dr. Muir, and also a few
stanzas of it as versified by Monier Williams, leaving,
however, the word Purusha untranslated :
M. Purusha has a thousand heads, a thousand
eyes, and a thousand feet. On every side enveloping
the earth, he transcended it by a space of ten fingers.
vk
1 See above, p. 28.
2 See above, p. 34. See Langlois, vol. iv. p. 340.
84 The Vedic Religion.
2. Purusha is himself this whole, whatever has been,
and whatever shall be. He is also the lord of im-
mortality, since through food he expands. 3. Such
is his greatness ; and Purusha is superior to this.
All existing things are a quarter of him, and that
which is immortal in the sky is three quarters of
him. 4> With three quarters of him Purusha mounted
upwards. A quarter of him was again produced here
below. He then became diffused everywhere among
things animate and inanimate. 5. From him Viraj
was born, and from Viraj, Purusha. As soon as born,
he extended beyond the earth, both behind and be-
fore. 6. When the gods offered up Purusha as a
sacrifice, the spring was its clalified butter, summer
its fuel, and autumn the (accompanying) oblation.
7. This victim, Purusha, born in the beginning, they
immolated on the sacrificial grass ; with him as their
offering, the gods, Sadhyas and Eishis, sacrificed.
8. From that universal oblation were produced curds
and clarified butter. He (Purusha) formed these
aerial creatures, and the animals, both wild and tame.
9. From that universal sacrifice sprang the hymns
called Eicli and Saman, the metres and the Yajush.
10. From it were produced horses, and all animals
with two rows of teeth, cows, goats, and sheep.
11. When they divided Purusha, into how many
parts did they distribute him ? What was his
mouth ? What were his arms ? What were called
his thighs and feet? 12. The Brahman was his
' Sacrifice. 85
mouth ; the Rajanya became his arms ; the Vaisya
was his thighs; the Sudra sprang from his feet.
1 3. The moon was produced from his soul ; the sun
from his eye ; Indra and Agni from his mouth ; and
Vayu from his breath. 14. From his navel came the
atmosphere ; from his head arose the sky ; from his
feet came the earth ; from his ear the four quarters :
so they formed the worlds. 15. When the gods, in
performing their sacrifice, bound Purusha as victim,
there were seven pieces of wood laid for him round
the fire, and thrice seven pieces of fuel employed.
16. With sacrifice the gods worshipped the sacrifice.
These were the first institutions. These great beings
attained to the heaven where the gods, the ancient
Sadhyas, reside.' Monier Williams' translation begins :
c The embodied Spirit has a thousand heads,
A thousand eyes, a thousand feet around ;
On every side enveloping the earth,
Yet filling space, no larger than a span.
He is himself this very Universe ;
He is whatever is, has been, and shall be ;
He is the lord of immortality.
All creatures are one-fourth of him, three-fourths
Are that which is immortal in the sky.
'From him, called Purusha, was born Yiraj,
And from Viraj was Purusha produced,
Whom gods and holy men made their oblation.' l
Dr. K. M. Banerjea connects this very remarkable
1 See Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 24, and above, p. 34.
2
86 The Vedic Religion.
hymn with verse 2 of the 121st hymn of the same
Book, in which Hiranyagarbha, who is identified as
Prajapati, 1 the lord of creatures, is called ' Atmada,'
giver of self, 'whose shadow, whose death, is immortality
to us.' And these verses from the hymns of the Kig-
Veda he connects with the following text of the leading
Brahmana of the Sonia-Veda i ' The Lord of creatures
(Prajapati) offered himself a sacrifice for the Devas.' 2
Dr. Muir quotes two other hymns of the Big-
Veda, besides the Purusha hymn, in which god is
represented as either the agent, the object, or the
subject of sacrifice. In x. 81, 5, the god Visvakar-
inan is said to sacrifice himself or to himself; and
in verse 6, to offer up heaven and earth. And in
x. 13, 3, it is said that the gods sacrificed to the
(supreme) god, or that they offered him up. 3
The following, from a celebrated Brahmana of the
White Jajur-Veda, is to the same effect :
'To them, (the Devas), the Lord of creatures
gave himself. He became their sacrifice. Sacrifice
is food for the gods. He having given himself to
them, made a reflection of himself which is sacrifice.
Therefore they say the Lord of creatures is a sacrifice,
for he made it a reflection of himself. By means
of this sacrifice he redeemed himself from them.' 4
1 Miiller's Hiblert Lectures (1878), p. 294. Dr. Banerjea's Aryan
Witness, p. 203.
' Tandy a Maka Brahmana, p. 410.
3 Muir's Sanskrit Texts, vol. v. p. 372. See below, pp. 92, 146, 243.
4 Satapatha Brahmana, p. 836.
Sacrifice. 8 7
This same Prajapati is elsewhere represented as
' one half mortal and the other half immortal, and
with that which was mortal he was afraid of death.' 1
Connect these texts again with other texts proving
that these devas, generally translated gods, were im-
mortalized mortals, deified men ; and this last text from
an Aranyaka Brahmana of the Black Jajur-Veda:
' When the gods celebrated a sacrifice with Purusha
as their oblation, the spring was its butter, summer
its fuel, and autumn its (supplementary) oblation.
When the gods celebrating the sacrifice bound
Purusha as the victim, they immolated him, the sacri-
fice, on the grass, even him, the Purusha who was
begotten in the beginning. With him as their offering,
the gods, the Sadhyas and Eishis also sacrificed.' 2
Consider all these texts together, and you will see
the force of Dr. Banerjea's conclusion, that it is not
easy to account for the genesis of the idea under-
lying Prajapati, Hiranyagarbha, the Lord of creatures,
or Purusha, the begotten in the beginning, call him
by any name you like, offering himself a sacrifice
for the benefit of the devas or deified mortals, ' except
on the assumption of some primitive tradition of the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,' the
only begotten of the Father, who, of his own accord,
offered himself a sacrifice for men.
1 Satapatha JSrahmana, x. 1, 3, 1. Midler's Hiblert Lectures,
p. 297.
- Aranyaka, 331, 333.
88 The Vedic Religion.
Then with these may be connected the story of
the Purusha-Medha of Narayana :
( The Purusha Narayan (the original male) desired
sna ^ surpass all things, I shall become all this.
He saw for five nights that Purusha Medha sacrifice.
He took it. He sacrificed with it. Having sacrificed
with it, he surpassed all things. He who, knowing
this, sacrifices with the Purusha Medha, becomes
everything whoever knows this. 5 x
Dr. Banerjea has done great service to the Church
of India by unearthing, if I may use the expression,
these texts and showing how they may be used,
after the apostolic example, in the interests of
Christianity. Many other texts he has discovered
and used in the same way, to which I cannot at
present refer.
In connection with this subject might also be
considered the singular position given to Agni as the
high priest of the sacrifice, but I will take it up
under the head of Mediation.
The strength of those who contend that human
sacrifices were offered in Vedic times, lies not so
much in the verses quoted from the hymns of the
Eig-Veda, as in the story of Sunahsepha, given at
length in the principal Bralimana of the same Veda.
King Hurish Chandra had no son. He earnestly desired
for one, and vowed that if one was given he would
offer him in sacrifice to the god Varuna. His wish
1 Satapatha Bralimana, p. 997. Medha means Sacrifice.
Sacrifice. 89
was granted. To the son thus given, the father, on
his arriving at maturity, imparted the secret. But
the son said ' No,' and took his bow and left his
father's home. Varuna, displeased, punished Hurish
Chundra with dropsy. The son returned not, for
long years, though he felt the stings of remorse as
well as those of hunger. At last on meeting a
Brahmin, attended by his wife and three young sons,
he offered a hundred cows for one of the sons to be
his substitute in the sacrifice to the god. The father
laid hold on the eldest and said, ' I cannot part
with him.' The mother clung to the youngest, and,
weeping, said, ' I cannot part with him.' Then
Sunahsepha, their second son, said, 'Father, I will
go.' So he was purchased for a hundred cows.
Then the King's son returned to his father, and
said :
' Father, this boy shall be my substitute.'
Then Hurish Chundra went to Varuna
And prayed, ' Accept this ransom for my son.'
The god replied, ' Let him be sacrificed,
A Brahmin is more worthy than a KshaTrlya.'
; Thus the king's son escaped, and preparations
were made for the sacrifice of the Brahmin boy.
Then difficulties arose as to who would bind him
and who would kill him. The Brahmin on each
occasion agreed to do it on the promise of an addi-
tional hundred of cows. The father whetted his
knife to sacrifice the son.
90 The Vedic Religion.
' Then said the child, ' Let me implore the gods,
| Haply they will deliver me from death.'
So Sunahsepha prayed to all the gods
With verses from the Veda, and they heard him.
Thus was the boy released from sacrifice,
And Hurish Chundra was restored to health. 1
There are texts in the hymns that are intimately
connected with this story, such as (i. 24, 12-13),
' May he whom the fettered Sunahsepha has invoked,
may the regal Varuna set us free. Sunahsepha,
seized and bound to the three-footed tree, has invoked
the son of Aditi. May the regal Varuna, wise and
irresistible, liberate him ; may he let loose his bonds.'
The hymn from which these words are extracted,
and the six following hymns, are all attributed to
Sunahsepha as their author. There is another allu-
sion to him in hymn v. 2, 7 : ' Thou hast liberated
the fettered Sunahsepha from a thousand stakes, for
he was patient in endurance : So, Agni, free us from
our bonds.'
As our object is not so much to argue towards any
conclusions, as to produce the texts or mantras bear-
ing upon the subject, we leave the matter here.
From the discussion of the sacrifice we proceed to
the inquiry, To whom was the sacrifice offered 1 The
following very remarkable hymn fittingly introduces
the question. Let us bear, however, in mind that the
1 Monier Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 29. Aitareya Brahma na,
Hang's Edition, vii. 13.
Sacrifice. 9 1
hymn has to do with a question of duty, and with
the future action of the Kishi. We have to do with
it as a question of fact. To whom did the Bishis,
generally, offer sacrifices ?
The hymn 1 runs :
1. 'In the beginning there arose Hiranyagarbha
(the source of golden light). He was the only born
lord of all that is. He established the earth and this
sky;
' Who is the god to whom we shall offer our
sacrifice ?
2. ' He who gives life, he who gives strength ;
whose blessing all the bright gods desire ; whose
shadow is immortality ; whose shadow is death ;
' Who is the god to whom we shall offer our
sacrifice ?
3. ' He who through his power is the only king of
the breathing and awakening world ; he who governs
all, man and beast ;
' Who is the god to whom we shall offer our
sacrifice ?
4. ' He whose power these snowy mountains, whose
power the sea proclaims, with the distant river ;
he whose these regions are, as it were, his two
arms ;
' Who is the god to whom we shall offer our
sacrifice ?
,5. ' He through whom the sky is bright and the
1 i. 121. Miiller's Hibbert Lectures, p. 295.
92 The Vedic Religion.
earth firm; he through whom the heaven was estab-
lished nay, the highest heaven ; he who measured
out the light in the air ;
' Who is the god to whom we shall offer our
sacrifice ?
Jju ' He to whom heaven and earth, standing firm
by his will, look up trembling inwardly ; he over
whom the rising sun shines forth ;
' Who is the god to whom we shall offer our
sacrifice ?
7. ' Wherever the mighty water-clouds went, where
they placed the seed and lit the fire, thence arose he
who is the only life of the bright gods ;
' Who is the god to whom we shall offer our
sacrifice ?
8. ' He who by his might looked even over the
water-clouds, the clouds which gave strength and let
the sacrifice ; he who is god above, all gods ; l
' Who is the god to whom we shall offer our
sacrifice ?
9. ' May he not destroy us he the creator of
the earth; or he the righteous, who created the
heaven ; he who also created the bright and mighty
waters ;
' Who 2 is the god to whom we shall offer our
sacrifice ?
1 Fronde, Celsus, Fraser's Magazine (1878), p. 131.
2 This pronoun who (ka) was worshipped as a god, and regarded as
the same with Prajapati.
Sacrifice. 93
10.
1 Prajapati, no other than thou embraces all
these created things. May that be ours which we
desire when sacrificing to thee. May we be lords of
wealth.'
If the Eishi's question is to be answered by count-
ing the number of votaries, or by the greatness of the
veneration given to any special text of the Veda, or
by the solemnity and universality of his worship,
then the god of the Eishi must have been the Sun.
All Hindus of every caste worship the Sun every
day, and they do so with a seeming solemnity such as
is not generally seen in any of their other worships ;
and of all texts in all the Scriptures of the Hindus,
including the four Yedas, there is none that can be
regarded as coming even second in sacredness to the
Gaycrfri (iii. 62, 10): * Tat Savitur xarenyam lharr/o
devasya dhimahi dliiyo yo naJi prachodayat,' i.e. ' We
meditate that excellent glory of the divine Savitri
(the Sun) ; may he stimulate our understandings [or
hymns or rites].'
Savitri is identical with Surya, the Sun, though
sometimes distinguished from him. See Muir's
Studies, p. 66 ; Texts, vol. iii. p. 114. Mliller's
Chips, p. 19.
IX.
MONOTHEISM OR POLYTHEISM?
AFTER quoting the above hymn in full, Max
Muller adds: 'With such ideas as these
springing up in the minds of the Vedic poets, we
should have thought that the natural development
of their old religion could only have been towards
monotheism, towards the worship of one personal God,
and that thus in India also the highest form would
have been reached which man feels inclined to give
to the Infinite, after all other forms and names have
failed. But it was not so.' 1
-' The question as to whom did the Indo- Aryans offer
sacrifice or worship to, in Vedic times, is of primary
importance. It must be clearly distinguished from
two other questions very intimately related to it, and
frequently confounded with it. I mean the questions,
"Whom did the Indo-Aryans worship in Pre- Vedic
times ? and whom in Post- Vedic times ? Hints and
allusions may be found in the Veda of a state of
matters very different from the then existing state ;
and there may be also shadows visible of coming
1 Miiller's Hibbert Lectures, p. 296.
Monotheism or Polytheism ? 95
events. Still neither of these can be regarded as
really descriptive of Vedic times or of the Vedic
religion. It is also necessary that we should bear in
mind that the Big- Veda is not the work of one author
or of one age. Like the Jewish Psalter, it is the work
of many authors, extending over a period of many
centuries. We could scarcely expect, therefore, that
there should be much consistency of thought or
similarity of expression in a book composed of such
materials. As a matter of fact, the Eig-Veda Sanhita
has no claim to such. The mythology or Polytheism
of some hymns is very marked and distinct. In
others it is indistinct and hazy. Some hymns, in the
absence of all others, might be regarded as theistic,
or at least as henotheistic.^ Others are flatly con-
tradictory of such an idea.^ Again, the mythology of
one Eishi is thoroughly inconsistent with that of
others, or rather with those of others. For there seem
to be as many mythologies as there are Eishis.
Jit is also necessary that we should look carefully
into the meanings of those terms on which the dis-
cussion will chiefly turn. I refer more particularly
"-% &P*.
to the terms Monotheism and Polytheism. One might
suppose that no explanations were required ; for these
words seem to have such a clearness and distinctive-
ness of meaning as to render definitions unnecessary.
Does not Monotheism mean the belief in and worship
of one God ; Polytlieum, the belief in and worship of
more than one, God ? Yes, but it is necessary to define
90 The Vcdic Ecliyion.
more fully still. It will be observed that we conjoin
the belief with the practice. There might be a people
worshipping one god only, while believing in other
gods, to the extent of believing in them as false gods,
worshipped by other nations undeservedly, but be-
tween whom and the one living and true God, the
great Creator, there is believed to be no likeness or
comparison. To such, if there be any such, we would
hesitate in denying the name monotheists. Then
there might be individuals believing in many gods
as equally or about equally true and powerful, who
select one from among the lot and worship him alone,
looking to him as likely to take special interest in
them because of their special interest in him. A
Hindu cannot worship the 330,000,000 gods and
goddesses, just, to use a Hindu illustration, as he
cannot grasp ten branches of a tree together. He
therefore selects one, Siva, Eama, Krishna, or Hari,
and worships him only, while professing to believe in
all. We have no hesitation in characterising such a
man as a polytheist. Again, suppose that under
various names, quite distinct in themselves, referring
to quite distinct manifestations of the works of God, or
to separate and distinct attributes of God, the people
actually, consciously or unconsciously, worshipped
the great Creator, would they be monotheists ? The
answer to this question would depend largely on their
consciousness of the unity of the objects of their
worship. If they were taken up with the diversity
Monotheism or Polytheism? 97
and plurality, rather than with the unity, more
especially if the diversity and plurality amounted to
a practical exclusion of unity in thought and worship,
then there would be no hesitation in characterising
them as polytheists. This latter, I think, we shall
find as we proceed, was the state of matters with
some of the Eishis in Vedic times, whatever may
have been the case in Pre- Vedic or in Post -Vedic
times. They may have had, as Max Miiller remarks,
'a relapse into monotheism/ just as the Shemites had
many a relapse into polytheism ; but their ordinary
normal condition was that of polytheists.
They may have had also no manufactured idols,
and yet be really chargeable with the sin of idolatry.
If by idolatry be meant only the worship of graven
images, and by polytheism only the acknowledgment
of separate gods with equal powers and perfect in-
dependence, then the Eig-Veda may be acquitted of
the charge of idolatry, and by some even of poly-
theism. But such distinctions are not received as
true definitions of these terms, as far as sin against
God is concerned. The sin of idolatry is not limited
to such a meaning of the word. The worship of any
substance or any imagination or idea not truly
descriptive of God, or worthy of him, must be sinful,
though there be no graven images employed. Any
acknowledgment of any gods, material or immaterial,
to the exclusion of, or in addition to, the worship of
the one true God, is polytheism. If so, then the
o
98 TJie Vedic Religion.
Rishis of the Rig- Veda, in inculcating and sanctioning
the worship of the elements and the heavenly host,
even supposing these only to be the objects of their
worship, were guilty of the sins of idolatry and poly-
theism. Sabaism (or Tsabaism), the worship of the
heavenly host, was regarded as both polytheistic and
idolatrous.
' The true evil of idolatry is this,' says De Quincey.
' There is one sole idea of God which corresponds
adequately to his total nature. Of this idea two
things may be affirmed, the first being that it is the
root of all absolute grandeur, of all truth, of all moral
perfection ; [the second being that, natural and easy
as it seems when once unfolded, it could only have
been unfolded by revelation, and, to all eternity, he
that started with a false conception of God could not,
through any effort of his own, have exchanged it
for a true one. All idolaters alike, though not all
in equal degrees, by intercepting the idea of God
through the prism of some representative creature,
that partially resembles God, refract, splinter, and
distort that idea.
' Even the idea of light, of the pure, solar light
_/ the old Persian symbol of God- has that depraving
^>' necessity. Light itself, besides being an imperfect
symbol, is an incarnation for us. However pure in
itself, or in its original divine manifestation, for us
it is incarnated in forms and in matter that are not
ure; it gravitates towards physical alliances, and
rr-
I
'
99
therefore towards un spiritual pollutions. And all
experience shows that the tendency for man, left to
his own imagination, is downwards. The purest
symbol, derived from created things, can and will
condescend to the grossness of inferior human natures,
by submitting to mirror itself in more and more
carnal representative symbols, until finally the mixed
element of resemblance to God is altogether buried
and lost.
J God, by this succession of imperfect interceptions,
falls more and more under the taint and limitation of
the alien elements associated with all created things ;
and, for the ruin of all moral grandeur in man, every
idolatrous nation left to itself will gradually bring
round the idea of God into the idea of a powerful
demon. Many things check and disturb this tend-
ency for a time ; but finally, and under that intense
civilisation to which man intellectually is always
hurrying under the eternal evolutions of physical
knowledge, such a degradation of God's idea, ruinous
to the moral capacities of man, would undoubtedly
perfect itself, were it not for the kindling of a purer
standard by revelation. Idolatry, therefore, is not
merely an evil, and one utterly beyond the power of
social institutions to redress, but, in fact, it is the
fountain of all other evils that seriously menaces the
destiny of the human race ; ' * and it is so by its
degradations of the object of worship. This is done
1 De Quincey's Works, vol. viii. pp. 506-508. Notes on Landor.
100 The Vedic Religion.
by the worship of the sun, the thunder, the lightning,
the dawn, the storms, or the clouds, as much as by the
graven images of Jupiter, Mercury, or Mars. In fact,
we think the divine idea is degraded more in the
former than in the latter, for a good man is far more
noble and more to be admired than any natural force
or phenomenon.
Max Miiller, who is very partial to the Kig-Veda,
to whose elucidation he has devoted his life, writes :*
' If we must employ technical terms, the religion of
the Veda is polytheism, not monotheism.' His idea
is, that the Aryans represented the divinity by various
names taken from natural phenomena, which names,
not being those of attributes, but of things, appear-
ances, and forces, led the people very readily to
personify them, and to create a mythology about these
names ; and this mythology had manifested itself at
and before the time in which most of these hymns
were composed. Hence this special kind of polytheism
has been called physiolatry and meteorolatry.
Monier Williams' idea is very much the same.
He asks us, to the better understanding of the hymns,
to bear in mind that the deified forces addressed in
them were probably not represented by images or
idols in the Vedic period, though doubtless the early
worshippers clothed their gods with human form in
their own imaginations. 2 However free from the
1 Miiller's Chips, vol. i. p. 27.
2 Monier Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 15.
Monotheism or Polytheism? 101
grossness of the image- worship of modem Hinduism
their religion may have been, these worshippers are
chargeable with the deification and worship of fire,
air, the atmosphere in motion or at rest, the sun,
moon, dawn, Soma, prayer, etc., and with all the
refracting, splintering, and distorting of the idea of
God which is implied in such worship. And this is
a polytheism which must have been dishonouring to
God, and most injurious to the moral and spiritual
nature of man.
- It may be contended, from a merely philosophical
point of view, that the primitive religion could not
be either monotheistic or polytheistic ; for the first
implies a denial of many gods before there were any
gods thought of or believed in, and the second implies
a worshipping of many simultaneously and from the
beginning, that is, worshipping many gods before they
had worshipped one, which is absurd. All this is
true, on the supposition that there was no revelation
from God himself making known the one God, and
forbidding any yielding to the unnatural but strong
inclination of sinful men to worship the many. The
worship of a single god, as the mere antecedent to
the worship of the many, would not, however, be
monotheism as formulated in the statement, 'there
is but one God,' but henotheism, ' there is one
God.' This state of things is not, however, that
described in the Eig-Veda. The Jews had preserved
the original primitive revelation given to our first
102 TJie Vedic Religion.
parents in Paradise and renewed from time to time
to their descendants, but they frequently relapsed
into idolatry. The Aryans very soon after the flood
would seem to have gone most determinately into the
worship of the many the various forms of the creature,
God's work, to the neglect of the great Creator, God
himself. At least, that is the state in which we find
them in the Pag- Vedic hymns, the very oldest records
we have of the Aryan family.
In the 27th hymn of the 1st Book we have, as
far as this point is concerned, the spirit of the hymns
as a whole. As versified by Mr. J. D. B. Gribble,
C.S., the text runs :
' We will worship the great gods,
And worship the small ones.
We will worship the young gods,
And worship the old ones.
We will worship all gods,
To the best of our power ;
Nor may I forget to worship
The gods of old times.' l
From the beginning to the end of the Eig-Veda, it
is a worshipping of the many. The first hymn is a
worshipping of Agni ; the second is a worshipping of
Vayu, Indra and Vayu, Mitra and Varuna ; the third
is a worshipping of the Aswins (the young gods), of
Indra, Viswadevas or collective divinities, and Saras-
vati ; and so on they proceed with hymns to Indra,
1 See The Land oftlie Tamulians, by the Rev. E. K. Baierlein, p. 51.
Monotheism or Polytheism ? 103
the Maruts or storm gods, the Apris or river gods;
Eitu, Brahmanaspati, Prajapati, Savitri, Apyaman, the
Adityas, Pushan, Eudra, Ushas, Surya, Soma, the
Eibhus (deified men), the earth, the sky, Swanaya,
Bhavayavya, heaven and earth, the horse, Eati, Pitu,
Brihaspati, water, grass, sacrificial posts, the sun, etc.
etc., thirty-three, or three hundred and three thousand
and thirty and nine in all, according to the Veda
itself. All these named are deities to whom hymns
are dedicated by the Eishi composers of the 1st
Book. Of the 121 hymns contained in the 1st Vol.
of Professor Wilson's translation, 37 are to Agni
and 45 to Indra, 12 to the Maruts and 11 to the
Aswins, 4 to Ushas and 4 to the Viswadevas, and
the remainder to inferior divinities. There is the
same variety of gods and goddesses addressed in the
other volumes, save that the 9th Book contains one
hundred and fourteen hymns all addressed to Soma.
In some of these, Soma is addressed as the supreme
god, the creator.
We may remark briefly on the singular combina-
tions, formed in the Veda, of the gods worshipped.
We find, for example, heaven and earth deified, and
hymns addressed to them as the parents, not only of
the human race, but also of the gods. ' At the sacri-
fices,' sings one Eishi, ' I worship with offerings
Heaven and Earth, the promoters of righteousness,
the great, the wise, the energetic, who having gods
for their offspring, thus lavish, with the gods, the
104 The Vedic Religion.
choicest blessings in consequence of our hymn. . . .
Confer on us, Heaven and Earth, through your
goodwill, wealth with goods and hundreds of cows.'
' Being lauded, may the mighty Heaven and Earth
bestow on us great renown and power.' 1 The Greek
and Eoman mythologies retained the same myths
under the names of Uranus (Ouranos) the Heaven,
and Gsea the Earth, the parents of many sons includ-
ing Kronos or Saturn, the father of gods and men.
That heaven and earth were regarded as real
divinities is clear from the epithets by which they
are described, such as wise, promoters of righteous-
ness, as above; and omniscient, innocuous or benefi-
cent, the great parents of sacrifices, as well as of gods
and men ; father and mother ; devaputra, having
gods for their children ; janitri, parents ; the parents
not only of the gods collectively, but of individual
gods, as Brihaspati, Indra, the sun, and Agni. ' The
divine Heaven and Earth, the parents of the gods,
have augmented Brihaspati by their power;' 'they
have fashioned the self-resplendent and prolific
(Indra) for energy ; ye two preserve fixed the position
of your unswerving son (the sun).' They are also
described as having begotten Agni. 2 But how they
themselves were produced is a question that has
puzzled many of these Eishis, and many were the
1 i. 159 ; i. 160, 5.
2 R.-V., iv. 56, 2 ; vi. 70, 6 ; x. 35, 3 ; i. 106, 3 ; i. 185, 1, 4 ; vi.
17, 7 ; vii. 53, 1 ; x. 11, 9 ; vii. 97, 8 ; viii. 50, 2 ; i. 159, 3 ; x.
2, 7.
Monotheism or Polytheism? 105
answers given. One asks : ' Which of these two
was the first, and which the last ? How have they
been produced ? Sages, who knows V No doubt
other mantras composed by other Eishis can be
quoted giving a different view of them as far as their
fatherhood and motherhood are concerned ; but it is
very patent (see hymns i. 112, 159, 160, 185 ; ii.
32, etc., specially dedicated to them) that they were
regarded and formally worshipped as divinities-.-- ~~~^
There are other dualisms', not so very formal or ^
natural, if we may call any dualism of gods natural,
such as Mitra and Varuna ; Indra and Varuna ; Indra
and Agni ; Agni and Soma ; Indra and Vayu ; Yayu
and Indra; Indra and Soma, the joint creators of
heaven and earth (vi. 72, 2); Vishnu and Indra ;
Indra and the Maruts ; Brahmanaspati and Brihas-
pati; Soma and Pushan, also the joint creators of
heaven and earth (ii. 40, 1), etc. etc. 1 This dualism
is quite a favourite idea with some Eishis, so much
so that they speak of some of the gods going in
couples like other things and persons that go in pairs.
We do not refer to the fact that many of the gods,
such as Indra, Agni, etc., are represented as having
wives. The dualism referred to in all this is that of
pairs of good divinities. There is also another kind
of dualism not obscurely spoken of. The Eev. Dr.
K. M. Banerjea shows that they had the dualism of
the Parsis, a good god and a bad one. His words
1 See Indices to Wilson's translation at the end of the several vols.
106 The Vedic Religion.
are : ' The distinctive feature of the Zoroastrian
doctrine of two eternal principles of good and evil
respectively appears in the sacred records of both/ i.e.
in the Veda and the Zendavesta. Ahura Mazda, the
good principle, and Anghro-mainyus, the evil principle,
' were also acknowledged in the Rig- Veda.' x
Thus there are various different dualisms of gods
found in the Eig-Veda. There is also a tritheism
referred to in most unequivocal terms, as in the
following classification of the Vedic gods by Yaska
in nis Nirukta (vii. 5) as being that given by the
ancient expositors of the Veda who preceded him :
' There are three deities, according to the expounders
of the Veda, viz. Agni, whose place is on the earth ;
Vayu, or Indra, whose place is in the atmosphere ;
and Surya, whose place is in the sky.' 2 It is rather
curious that every one of these three is described in
mantras quoted above as a son of Heaven and Earth.
Muir understands these texts not as limiting the
number to three, but classifying them under three
heads, in accordance with another text (x. 63, 2)
which says : ' All your names, ye gods, are to be
revered, adored, and worshipped ; ye who were born
from Aditi, from the waters, ye who are born from
the earth, listen here to my invocation.' See also x.
1 The Aryan Witness, p. 32. R.-V., i. 24, where Varuna is called
the eminently wise Asura (Ahura), and the principle of evil appears
under the designation of Uir-riti, the ^lnr^f}hteousness, equivalent,
according to Sayana, to Papadevata, ' the deity of sin.'
2 Muir's Sanskrit Texts, vol. iv. p. 160.
Monotheism or Polytheism ? 107
49, 2 ; 65, 5. The 24th hymn commences with the
question, ' Of whom [sometimes made the god Ka],
or of which divinity, of the immortals shall we invoke
the auspicious name;' and answers in the next verse,
' Let us invoke the auspicious name of Agni, the first
divinity of the immortals,' implying a second. The
Eishi accordingly proceeds in the very next verse to
invoke Savitri, the sun, the possessor of wealth. Then
the remaining ten verses are invocations to Varuna,
in whom the Eishi had apparently the greatest con-
fidence. The concluding invocation is beautiful:
' Varuna, loosen for me the upper, the middle, the
lower bond (of sin); so, son of Aditi [the mother of
all the gods], shall we, through faultlessness in thy
worship, become freed from sin.' Eishi Sunahsepha 1
seems to have made up his mind to a triplet of gods,
but hesitates as to which of them shall be his
favourite. He is satisfied that Agni is first, but that
there is on the whole more hope of help from Varuna,
as is clear not only from the concluding verses of the
hymn before us, but also from the following hymn,
which is altogether dedicated to Varuna. Still his
third hymn he dedicates to Agni so as to give him no
.offence ; his fourth is also to Agni and the Vis-
wadevas, the collective divinities. 2 Evidently he
sympathises much with the Eishi who asked over and
1 See above, p. 88.
2 He is the author of other three hymns in which Indra is the
favourite god, the supplanter of Varuna, as represented by Mr. James
Darmesteter.
108 The Vedic Religion.
over again, ' Who is the god to whom we shall offer
the sacrifice?' Among so great a multiplicity, it
would seem to be difficult to choose, more especially
when all seem to possess almost equal powers and
equal attractions.
The favourite number is, however, 33, as in the
following mantras : ' Come hither . . . together with
the thrice eleven gods, to drink our nectar.' ' Agni,
the wise gods lend an ear to their worshipper. God,
with the ruddy steeds, who lovest praise, bring hither
these three and thirty.' It must be remembered that
Agni is the messenger of the gods. ' Ye gods who are
eleven in the sky, who are eleven on earth, and who,
in your glory, are eleven dwellers in the atmospheric
waters, do ye welcome this our offering.' ' May the
three over thirty gods who have visited our sacrificial
grass recognise us, and give us double.' ' Ye who are
the three and thirty gods worshipped by Manu, when
thus praised, ye become the destroyers of our foes.'
'Aswins, associated with all the thrice eleven gods,
with the Waters, the Maruts, the Bhrigus, and united
with the Dawn and the Sun, drink the Sorna.' '
pure Soma, all these gods, thrice eleven in number,
are in thy secret.' x It is impossible to state with
confidence who these 33 were, as not only was not
the highest Hindu authority on this subject able to
make up his mind with regard to it, but in these very
1 K.-V., i. 34, 11 ; i. 45, 2 ; i. 139, 11 ; viii. 28, 1 ; viii. 30, 2 ;
viii. 35, 3 ; ix. 92, 4.
Monotheism or Polytheism ? 109
mantras we see that the 33 did not include all the
gods. We read of ' Agni and the 33 ;' 'the Aswins
and the 33 ;' ' the 33 and the Maruts, the Dawn, and
the Sun/ all of whom were regarded and worshipped
as distinct independent divinities. In another hymn
(iii. 9, 9), ' Three hundred, three thousand, thirty and
nine gods ' are said to ' have worshipped Agni.' 1 An
ingenious and learned Sanskrit scholar, M. Langlois
(Kig-Veda, ii. p. 229), gives the following explana-
tion :
First the number, . . . 33
Then the same 33 thus, . . 303
Then again thus, . . .3003
Added together, . . 3339
And other 00 added, making it 303,039. The later
Hindus putting all the Os together and making seven
in all, the number was raised to 330,000,000. If
this be not gods many polytheism I do not know
what polytheism is.
Further, it is to be noticed that some of these are
classified according to their parentage, for example,
we read much of the Adityas, so called because they
are regarded as children of one mother, the goddess
Aditi. Their names are Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman,
Bhaga, Daksha, and Ansa. Indra is sometimes spoken
of as a son of the same mother, and hence called an
Aditya. He is elsewhere called the son of Nishtigri,
1 Wilson, vol. iii. p. 7. K.-V., iii. 9, 9.
110 The Vedic Religion.
whom Say ana identifies as Aditi. He is said to have
conquered Heaven by austerity. 1
Believing, as we Christians do, in the common
origin of all the families of the earth that all are
descended from Noah and Adam, and that they
and their descendants, for some time before they
separated, worshipped the one living and true God,
we must believe that originally the ancestors of the
great Aryan family worshipped the one God, and
Him alone. And as we ascend into the past, and
acquire a fuller understanding of the oldest forms of
the Vedic religion, we find a nearer approximation
to a knowledge of the one living and true God. But
by the time the hymns came to be composed and
collected, an undoubted polytheism prevailed. This
is seen, not only in the number of gods worshipped,
but in their separate individuality, their distinct
traits of character, and their personal histories. It
is quite true that to almost every one of them,
supreme sovereignty is given ; but such is given by
modern worshippers to Vishnu, Siva, Hari, Ganpati,
etc. etc. Take for example the following to Indra :
' There is no one like thee in heaven and earth ; he
is not born and will not be born. mighty Indra,
we call upon thee as we go fighting for cows and
horses,' 2 which, I suppose, means as we go, like the
Keltic Katerans of old, a cattle-lifting ; or like the
1 R.-V., ii. 27, 1 ; x. 110, 12 ; x. 167, 1.
2 See also Wilson, vol. ii. p. 257.
Monotheism or Polytheism ? Ill
modern Italian banditti, going to rob and steal, and
then share the booty at the shrine of Mary. In the
same hymn, the same Indra is quite familiarly ad-
dressed. The worshippers anxious for wealth, seated
together near the libation, ' like flies round the honey,'
' have placed their desire upon Indra, as we put our
foot upon a chariot. Make for the sacred gods a
hymn that is not small, that is well set and beauti-
ful. Many snares pass by him who abides with
Indra, through his sacrifice.' Then follows a verse
which reminds one of Martin Elginbrodde's prayer :
' Here lie I, Martin Elginbrodde.
Hae mercy o' my soul, Lord God,
As I wad do were I Lord God
And ye were Martin Elginbrodde.'
The verse * we refer to runs : ' If I were lord of
as much as thou, I should support the sacred bard,
thou scatterer of wealth, I should not abandon him
to misery.' He was undoubtedly placed as the
highest of all the gods by some of the Eishis in
some of their hymns. By others a subordinate place
is given to him. He is described ' without a fellow,
unequalled by men ; ' from which words it might be
supposed that Indra was conceived as the one only
God. "We do not think so. Indra throughout is
regarded as so very human, that such language as
the above addressed to him proves nothing in the
1 See also R.-V,, vii. 32, 18, 19 ; viii. 14, 1, 2; viii. 52, 2; and
Miiller's Anct. Sanskrit, p. 545, and Muir's Studies, p. 48.
112 The Vcdic Religion.
absence of everything of a more convincing nature.
It shows only that strong language was frequently
used by the worshipper while addressing Indra. But
all must admit equally flattering language was ad-
dressed to almost every member of the Aryan
Pantheon, and is so still to all the many gods and
goddesses of modern Hinduism. The same is found
in the words used to the horse when about to be
sacrificed. (See above, p. 80 : Horse, 'who art one
with Varuna.') In the very next sentence Agni, the
lord of fire, is addressed by the poet. He is spoken
of as the first god, not inferior even to Indra. 1 Some-
times, while Agni is invoked, Indra may be forgotten ;
for there is not competition always between the two,
nor a rivalry between them and the other gods. Some
may regard this as a most important feature in the
religion of the Veda, seldom taken into consideration
by those who have written on the history of ancient
polytheism. But we do not think so, nor do we
know that the one god is forgotten when the other
is so praised. In the very hymn before us, reference
is made to the other gods; then, further, many of
the hymns, as a matter of fact, are addressed to both
Indra and Agni together. Of the nine verses in the
second hymn of the first book, three are addressed to
Vayu, three to Indra, and three to Indra and Vayu
conjointly; and three to Mitra and Varuna. The
1 See Muir's Studies, pp. 53 and 54, and Miiller's Sanskrit Litera*
ture, p. 532. See below, p. 185.
Monotheism or Polytheism ? 113
twenty-first hymn is addressed to Indra and Agni,
both of them like ' twa brithers ' are addressed as
' both copious drinkers of the Soma juice/ as the
' two who are fierce/ ' who are mighty and guardians
of the assembly/ and they are asked to make the
Eakhsasas ' destitute of progeny.' The hymnist then
prays for the two ( By this unfailing sacrifice, be
you rendered vigilant, Indra and Agni.'
Hymn 3 9 commences with the words to Indra :
' Voracious drinker of the Soma juice, although we be
unworthy, do thou, Indra, of boundless wealth, enrich
us with thousands of excellent cows and horses ; '
and so on it proceeds to the end of the seventh
stanza, each stanza ending with the same prayer
' for thousands of excellent cows and horses.' It is
not often that the personal attractions of the gods
are dwelt on. But in the second stanza of the same
hymn Indra is spoken of as ' he of the handsome,
prominent nose/ as elsewhere possessed of ' good lips '
and ' beautiful chin ' (i. 9, 3), and again, ' the long-
necked, large-bellied, strong-armed Indra' (viii. 17, 8) ;
and the splendour of his dress and decorations are
referred to (Wilson, vol. i. p. 223). In addition to
the seven times repeated prayer for the 1000 of cows
and horses, there are also prayers that ' this ass, our
adversary, praising thee with such discordant speech,
may be destroyed/ that ' every one that reviles us be
destroyed/ and f every one that does us injury be slain.'
We give a versified translation of the hymn below.
ii
114 The Vcdic Religion.
James Darmesteter, no mean authority on this
subject, writing in the October (1879) number of the
Contemporary Review, contends that the sovereign-
ties of the gods of the Aryans were not organized
republics, but monarchies under kings : Zeus in
Greece, Jupiter in Italy, Varuna in India, Odin in
Germany, and Ahura Mazda in Persia. Varuna (the
sky), the god of law and order, the universal encom-
passer, maker and upholder of heaven and earth,
king of gods and men, is described as omnipotent
and omniscient, the judge of all. Mr. Darmesteter
contends that Zeus is synonymous with Ouranos,
which is only another form of the word Varuna,
which in Greece soon lost its meaning as a common
name for the sky, but kept it longer among the Indo-
Aryans ; that as Zeus was father of Athene, so
Varuna was of Atharvan, the fire-god, and of Bhrigu,
the thunderer; that the supreme god of the Aryans
was never a god of unity in the sense that Adonai,
or. Jehovah, is represented in the Jewish Scriptures,
and ever was. There was by the side of Varuna ' a
number of gods, acting of their own accord, and
often of independent origin.' If Varuna, the all-
encircling god of the heavens, early rose to the
supreme rank, others ' with more dramatic action,
revealing themselves by sudden, unexpected events,
maintained their ancient independence, and religious
development led to some of them usurping the power
of the king of the heavens.' So it was with the rise
Monotheism or Polytheism ? 115
of India and Brahma. The former, as we have seen,
in the course of time got to the highest throne in the
Pantheon, and eclipsed his majestic rival Varuna, by
the din of his resounding splendour. See that
magnificent but comparatively modern hymn, each
verse of which ends with the words, ' He, man, is
Indra.' 1 ' But the usurper does not enjoy his triumph
long. In the heat of the victory he is already stung
to the heart, mortally wounded by a new and majestic
power, which is growing at his side, the powei of
prayer,' of sacrifice, of oblation, of Soma/of worship
in one word, of Brahma (which originally meant all
these), whose reign begins to dawn towards the end of
the Vedic period, and which is still in existence, not
so much with the poor ignorant idolatrous polytheists,
who have never set up temples to him, but rather with
the learned, civilised scientific Brahmo theist, who
claims personal inspiration. Just as Indra usurped
Varuna's place, so Brahma in time usurped Indra' s.
And it was a woful degradation of the worshipping 2
subjects to fall from the reign of Varuna to that of
Brahma. We see the process illustrated in the 28th
hymn, in which Indra is not very respectfully treated.
The first half of the hymn is addressed to Indra,
each verse ending with the request to Indra to recog-
nise and partake of the effusions of the mortar, that
is, the Soma juice, which he is ever drinking. In
1 R.-Y., ii. 12. Wilson, vol. ii. p. 235. R.- V., x. 86, ends each verse
with the words, ' Indra is superior to all,' Langlois, vol. iv. p. 327.
116 The Vcdic Religion.
the next verse, the mortar itself is deified and prayed
to. We have seen how the Soma juice also came to
reign over a portion, if not the whole, of Inclra's
dominions. But his reign was only temporary.
Brahma's, 1 on the other hand, seems likely to be of
longer duration. By many he is believed to be re-
newing his youth. There are signs, however, that
his reign is drawing to a close. Those who have
taken him under their special protection, seem to
have got ashamed of him. The caste mark is seen
on the forehead, the name is on the sign-board over
the door, but we hear nothing of his ancient history
and origin, or of his peculiar qualities, or rather want
of all attributes. Under his own peculiar name lie
is never spoken of, nor is his name ever seen in their
public prints. We seem to hear the muttered threats
to take down the sign, and to reprint it with the
name of the original ruler in a somewhat new form,
as The Theistic CJmrcli of India, or New Dispensation, or
of setting up the still younger god Hari in his stead.
Indra was only in time dethroned, for he com-
pletely disgraced himself in the Epic period of Indian
history. His character became so very disgraceful,
not with drink only, his great sin in Yedic times,
but even with worse crimes, 2 so that we cannot soil
our pages with an account of it.
Professors Both and Whitney and Dr. Muir 3 seem
1 See p. 186. 2 See even i. 101, 1 ; i. 121, 2.
3 Muir's Studies, p. 49.
Monotheism or Polytheism / 117
to entertain the same opinion in regard to Yaruna's
ancient supremacy and superior antiquity to Indra ;
and that during the Yedic age the high consideration
originally attached to him was in course of being
transferred to Indra. One circumstance is patent to
any one reading the Veda in the original or in trans-
lation, that while Yaruna occupies a most important
position in the older hymns, he is nowhere in the
later. There is not a single entire hymn addressed
to him in the 10th Book. Yaruna must have been
worshipped by the whole Aryan family while Kelt,
Teuton, Greek, Parsi, and Hindu had one religion
and one home, but there is not a trace of Indra to be
met with in the "Western mythologies. If Indra had
any existence in the earlier mythology of the Aryan
family, it must have been confined to some obscure
province. In some of the hymns, 1 as we have al-
ready seen, they are associated together, Muir thinks,
with the view of enhancing the dignity of Indra by
attaching him to the older and more venerable deity.
They are called friends, suggesting the idea that some
may have been regarding them as rivals, if not as
enemies. Dr. Muir remarks in regard to the hymns in
the 7th Book (82-85), in which they are conjoined,
that ' these passages are consistent with the supposi-
tion that the two gods were felt to have been rivals,
and that their author sought to reconcile their con-
flicting claims.' 2 In some half a dozen different
1 i. 17 ; iv. 41 ; iv. 42 ; vii. 82-85, etc. 2 Muir's Studies, p. 52.
118 The Vedic Religion.
hymns the singular expression Anindra, 'an unbe-
liever in India/ occurs, suggestive of the same fact.
In viii. 51, 2, Indra is said to ' have surpassed in
power former generations/ which Professor Aufrecht
understands to mean ' races of gods anterior to Indra.'
In i. 101, 3, Varuna and Surya are said to be sub-
ject to the command of Indra; and in x. 89, 8, 9,
Indra is said to be able to destroy the enemies
of Mitra, Aryaman, and Varuna, thereby evincing,
as Dr. Muir 1 argues, ' his superiority to those three
gods.'
Mr. Keary, in his article on Early Religious
Development, describes 2 the position of the Kishi
composers of the Kig-Veda hymns, as not yet ad-
vanced so far that they can worship a being abstracted
altogether from the phenomena of sense, but yet so
far that their gods have more the character of powers
than of natural objects. 'The consequence of this
state of mind/ he adds, 'is the most real and
unmixed polytheism. So long, and only so long, as
the name of the god and the name of the element,
the portion of nature, are thought of simultaneously,
and the being is thus identified with -the earth or
sky or sea, and so long as no being is worshipped
under a name which has ceased to be the expression
of some outward phenomenon, does the polytheistic
condition last. For while this is the case, it is im-
' Muir's Studies, p. 53.
2 Nineteenth Century, August 1878, p. 368.
Monotheism or Polytheism / 119
possible that the deity of one element can have
control over the god of another, each is tied and
bound within the limits of his individual nature.'
That this was the state of the Kishi's mind is, I
think, unquestionable, in regard to the worship
rendered to most of the gods of his pantheon. This
stage Mr. Keary regards as intermediate between
-^fetishism and monotheism. The theory that man, in
j[ a half-savage state, struggling for the bare necessaries
T of life, could not by mere reasoning or generalization
find out God, may be quite true ; but it is not true
that in such a state he could not receive from without
the truth that there is a God. For there are many
instances in modern history of such savages believing
in God and blessed in the truth. Christians believe
that man in his primeval condition did receive from
God himself the truth in regard to Himself. Our
study of the Vedic religion, so far from contradicting
this idea, has confirmed it in a remarkable manner.
This does not, however, imply that the idea remained
pure with man. Mr. Keary is very positive that
while the nature- worship continued unchanged, the
religion was no doubt polytheistic. ' There was
nothing to give the god of one portion of nature any
power or influence over the god of another portion,
while he was thought of as that actual phenomenon
or series of phenomena, and not in any way ab-
stracted from them. So long as the sea or the sky
was worshipped directly, not as representatives or
120 The redic Religion.
habitations, but in their proper persons, so long might
they reign side by side in the pantheon, and the
religion remain a polytheism. But in time there
comes a change. The connection between the world
and natural phenomenon is gradually severed.' Then
a monotheism becomes possible, but, Mr. Keary
contends, not till then. Then also the mythologies
proper originate and multiply. This state of matters
is observable in the Big- Veda. "While Agni is fire
and is worshipped as such, and Heaven, Earth, Sky,
and Dawn are worshipped as such, there is pure
polytheism as far as they are concerned. Because
Dyaus and Varuna do recall some natural appearance,
one after the other ceases to be the chief god, and
his place is supplied by Indra, which has undoubtedly
a less directly physical meaning. He is in turn
superseded by Brahma, from which all physical and
metaphysical attributes are abstracted. The myths
which formed themselves about Agni never crystal-
lized into distinct forms like those about Indra.
Unfortunately these forms, as we have said, are not
of the most inviting character, so that the least said
of his post-Vedic history the better.
"We, however, cannot refrain from giving the
following litany, as embodying the whole tone of the
Eig-Veda. It was frequently read to modern Brah-
mins, in the way of contrast to Matthew v. 44-48,
by the Eev. E. E. Baierlein, missionary of the Leipzig
Evangelical Lutheran Society, Bangalore :
Monotheism or Polytheism ? 121
1. Mightiest drinker of the Soma juice,
Although we are all unworthy of thee ;
Indra, whose riches are boundless, grant us
Thousands of beautiful cows and of horses.
2. Handsome and powerful lord of nourishment,
Thy favour for ever be with us ; and therefore,
Indra, whose riches are boundless, grant us
Thousands of beautiful cows and of horses.
3. Cast into sleep the two, each other regarding,
servants of death,
That they fall into slumber and wake not again;
Indra, whose riches are boundless, grant us
Thousands of beautiful cows and of horses.
4. May those who are our enemies slumber ;
But our friends, hero, let them ever be
wakeful :
Indra, whose riches are boundless, grant us
Thousands of beautiful cows and of horses.
5. Destroy, Indra, this ass, our opponent,
Whose praises of thee sound harsh and dis-
cordant ;
Indra, whose riches are boundless, grant us
Thousands of beautiful cows and of horses.
; '"6) And grant that the storm in its crooked course
May alight afar off on the forest ;
Indra, whose riches are boundless, grant us
Thousands of beautiful cows and of horses.
7. Destroy, thou mighty one, all who despise us ;
Visit with death all those who would harm us; and
122 The Vcdic Religion.
Indra, whose riches are boundless, grant us ; "
Thousands of beautiful cows and of horses. 1
Composed in a different tone, not so respectful to
Indra, but praying for the same material riches and
cherishing the same unchangeable feelings towards
their enemies, I cull from the same source the follow-
ing hymn :
1. Our prayers and entreaties, when will they
reach thee, Indra ?
When wilt thou give thy adorers the means
of maintaining thousands ?
And when will my worship with riches and
wealth be rewarded ?
And my ceremonies bear their fruit in sub-
sistence ?
2. When bringest thou, Indra, the leaders and
leaders together ?
And heroes and heroes to give us the victory
in battle,
Who can conquer from foes the flocks which
yield nourishment threefold ?
And when wilt thou, Indra, bestow on us
wealth in abundance ?
3. When, mightiest Indra, when wilt thou deign
to bestow
On those who now worship thee, food in
sufficience ?
1 i. 29. See Wilson's Translation, vol. i. p. 73. Also The Land
of the Tamulians, p, 49. See above, p. 113.
Monotheism or Polytheism ? 123
And when can we join to our prayers our
thanksgiving ?
When grantest thou herds in return for our
offerings ?
4. Give then, Indra, thy worshippers food in
abundance,
Herds ever increasing and horses renowned for
their strength,
Let the pasture increase, and the cows that are
easily milked,
And grant they may shine with fat and enjoy-
ment of health.
5. Our foemen be pleased to despatch the wrong
way [of death],
mightiest Indra ! thou hero, and conqueror
of enemies !
0, may I not weary in praising the giver of
bounties.
satisfy, Indra, with food the Angiras. 1
That most of the gods were originally mere per-
sonifications of those powers of nature on whom the
people relied for good harvests and other material
creature comforts, is very likely true. But it is
equally true that they were conceived of, and
worshipped, at the time the hymns were composed,
as beings possessed of independent human wills,
desires and powers. A late writer in the Calcutta
Review (July 1879), not friendly disposed towards
1 The Land of the Tamulians, p. 50.
124 The Vcdic Religion.
the Christian religion, is very positive on this point.
He says : ' The idea of one god was not yet possible
to the early Aryans. In their ignorance, they rather
imagined a living actor in every striking natural
phenomenon which arrested their imagination. The
rising sun dispelling darkness and vivifying the
earth ; Indra hurling the thunder and shaking the
earth and the heavens, and compelling the reluctant
clouds (so it was believed) to give rain, for the good
of man : Varuna or the sky, eternally bending over
the fertile earth, always changing in light and shade,
yet eternally the same ; the beauteous moon, fire, air,
and the elements, these and deities like these were
invoked to bestow health and comfort, to increase
the cattle and prosper the crops, and above all to
help the white men (Aryans) against the black
aborigines (Dasyas) in the great war which continued
for ages, and which ended in the conquest of the
whole of India by the nobler race. We see in this
religion not the conception of one deity which enters
into the belief of races more advanced in knowledge
than the early Aryans of India. In the Vedanta we
find the first distinct conception of the idea of one true
God.' Such is the conclusion of the writer on Recent
Investigations into Archaic Forms of Religion ; and we
quote it, not because we believe his theory to be true,
but because we do believe that the polytheistic nature
of the Vedic hymns is of so pronounced a character as
almost to justify even such sweeping generalizations.
Monotheism or Polytheism ? 125
Dr. Muir's position does not differ much, from the
above. He says these hymns ' are the productions
of simple men, who, under the influence of the most
impressive phenomena of nature, saw everywhere the
presence and agency of divine powers, who imagined
that each of the great provinces of the universe was
directed and animated by its own separate deity, and
who had not yet risen to a clear idea of one supreme
creator and governor of all things. This is shown
not only by the special functions assigned to parti-
cular gods, but in many cases by the very names
which they bear, corresponding to those of some of
the elements or of the celestial luminaries.' (Studies,
p. 142.)
Earn Chundra Ghose writes : ' As could be the
various conceptions of the different poets, so the
natures of the gods must have differentiated. The
same god is said in one hymn to be supreme and
equal, and again in another inferior to others. How-
ever, the whole nature of these ideal and imaginary
gods is still transparent ; they are merely names of
natural phenomena and without being ; they are the
creatures of man, and not his creators. Here names
play with us.' They were undoubtedly real enough
with those old Eishis. They expected blessings,
chiefly temporal, it is true ; still blessings, cows and
horses, from the deities to whom they gave the Soma
juice and their prayers. Some of them occasionally
also expected from the same gods spiritual blessings,
126 The Vcdic Religion.
the removal of sin and guilt from their souls. They
expected the sacrifice, especially the Soma juice, to
have a very decided effect upon the gods ; and the
character of each god was so distinct from those of
the others, that mythological dictionaries founded
upon these distinctions have been written.
There are not only gods many, but also goddesses,
though but few, and most of them of comparatively
little importance, save Aditi, Ushas, and Prithivi.
The wives of Indra, Agni, and Varuna, called
respectively Indrani, Agnani, Varunani, are not
associated with their husbands as objects of worship,
not even Lakshmi and Sarasvati, any more than
other Apsaras or river goddesses. Aditi, the mother
of many of the Aryan gods, is by far the most
interesting. Daksha was, however, before Aditi.
Tor Aditi was born, Daksha, she who is thy
daughter ; after her the gods were born, the blessed,
who share in immortality.' It is the story of the
earth, the elephant, and the tortoise over again. Yet
Max Miiller contends that the story of Daksha, the
powerful being, the mother of Aditi, the infinite, the
mother of the gods, is at least as old as 1000 B.C.
Then there are such divinities as the Maruts, with
whom Indra sometimes quarrels lustily, but who are
more generally his friends and boon companions ;
the Apsaras, who are represented as the wives of the
Gandharvas, and who can change their forms, love
and favour gambling, and can produce derangement
Monotheism or Polytheism ? 127
of mind. As such they are feared as demons,
appeased by incantations, and remind one of the
fetishes of the negroes. The Lakshmis are partly
beneficent, partly mischievous ; the Eibhus and the
Devas are deified heroes or glorified men. Hymn
110 of the first book is addressed to the Pdbhus.
Verse 2 runs : ' When, Eibhus, you were amongst
my ancestors, yet immature in wisdom, but desirous
of enjoying the Soma libations, retired to the forest
to perform penance, then, sons of Sudhanwan, through
the plenitude of your completed devotions, you came
to the sacrificial hall of the worshipper Savitri.
Then Savitri bestowed upon you immortality.' (See
above, p. 4*7.)
Monier Williams thinks, with Max Miiller, that
there are traces in the Veda of a pre- existent faith
more or less monotheistic in its nature ; but that
'in the Veda this unity soon diverged into various
ramifications. Only a few of the hymns appear to
contain the simple conception of one divine self-
existent Being, and even in those the idea of one
God present in all nature is somewhat nebulous and
undefined ; ' and Max Miiller adds : ' The conscious-
ness that all the deities are but different names of
one and the same godhead breaks forth here and
there in the Veda. But it is far from being general.'
He then gives a verse very frequently quoted for
the same purpose from a hymn (i. 146) of extra-
ordinary length, and of great unintelligibility, con-
128 The Vcclic Religion.
taining 52 verses. The 46th verse runs: 'They
have styled him [the sun] Indra, Mitra, Varuna,
Agni, then he is the beautiful winged Garutmut;
that which is one, the wise call it in divers manners,
they call it Agni, Yama, Matarisman ; ' or as trans-
lated by Wilson, for 'learned priests call one by
many names, as they speak of Agni, Yama, Mataris-
man.'
We think a great deal too much has been made
of this verse. It proves that the sun was spoken of
sometimes by various names, and that so also were
some of the other gods, but we think nothing more.
Pundit Mohesh Chunder Kayaratna, C.I.E., the
learned Principal of the Sanskrit College, Calcutta,
writes, in his tract on Dayananda Sarasvati : ' It is
not clear who is addressed in this mantra. The
author of the Nirulda says that it is addressed to fire.
Others say that it is addressed to the sun. Be that
as it may, it is, to say the least of it, difficult to
understand how the word Agni (as Dyananda con-
tends) can mean Iswara (God). This mantra is
addressed to some one deity, and it has already been
seen that, in praising any particular deity, it is usual
to address him under the names of several other
deities, with a view to magnify his powers.' Other
literatures possess similar idioms. Besides, the hymn
itself is peculiar, not from its length alone, but also
from its style and subject-matter, It is more in the
style of the Atharva-Veda than of the Eig, if not of
Monotheism or Polytheism ? 129
the Upanisliads. Indeed it does occur in the Atharva-
Veda in broken bits scattered here and there, as has
been found by Mr. Whitney. Further, there are
matters in it, such as invocations to the family cow,
which must be regarded as comparatively recent ;
and the text of the Veda or Vedas is spoken of as
* the supreme heaven upon which all the gods have
taken their seats/ The priests are referred to as a
class who dress the ' Soma ox,' whatever that may
mean, 'for such,' the hymn says, 'are their first
duties ; ' and the gods themselves are said to ' sacrifice
with sacrifice, for such are their first duties ' also.
The hymn, according to the best Hindu commentator,
Sanaya, should consist of but 41 stanzas; in which
case this 46th verse cannot be genuine. See pp.
112, 185.
One of the most remarkable hymns in the Big-
Veda is the 129th of the 10th Book. I sulijoin the
translation supplied by Max Muller, which differs
materially from that given by Monier Williams :
* Kor aught, nor naught existed ; yon bright sky
Was not, nor heaven's broad woof outstretched
above.
Wliat covered all? What sheltered? What
concealed ?
Was it the water's fathomless abyss ?
There was not death } hence was there naught
immortaL
There was no confine betwixt day and night.
i
130 The Vedic Ediyion.
tThe only One breathed breathless in itself;
Other than it there nothing since has been.
Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled
In gloom profound, an ocean without light,
The germ that still lay covered in the husk
Burst forth, one nature, from the fervent heat.
Then first came love upon it, the new spring
Of mind yea, poets in their hearts discerned,
Pondering, this bond between created things
And uncreated. Comes this spark from earth,
Piercing and all-pervading, or from heaven ?
Then seeds were sown, and mighty powers
arose
Nature below, and power and will above :
Who knows the secret ? Who proclaimed it
here,
Whence, whence this manifold creation sprang ?
The gods themselves came later into being :
Who knows from whence this great creation
sprang ?
He from whom all this great creation came,
Whether his will created or was mute,
The most high seer that is in highest heaven,
He knows it, or, perchance, e'en he knows not.' l
To the exposition of this hymn Max Miiller has
devoted seven and a half pages of his History of
Sanskrit Literature. It is a hymn unique among the
thousand and seventeen in the collection. There is
1 Miiller's History, p. 564, and Chips, vol. i. p. 78. See below, p. 220.
Monotheism or Polytheism ? 131
none other like it. Still I think it may be over-
valued. I am sceptical as to the writer having had
a clear idea of the unity of the deity. I could
easily suppose one producing it as a proof that the
most thoughtful of the old Eishis not only believed
the gods to have had, all of them, a beginning, but
that the world originated of itself, self-created ; or at
any rate, that there was profound ignorance upon the
whole subject. But whatever may be the scepticism
or the faith of the composer, he seems to have a faint
recollection of the Biblical story of the creation, as of
a dream which he may have dreamt.
Monier Williams would compare the hymn with
27 the 38th chapter of Job, and perceives in 'it the
/t first dim outline of the remarkable idea that the
#
% Creator willed to produce the universe through the
& agency and co-operation of a female principle, an
> idea which afterwards acquired more shape in the
supposed marriage of Heaven and Earth.' He
considers it also 'a good argument for those who
maintain that the original faith of the Hindus was
monotheistic.' I think it is likely to have helped to
originate the character of Brahma (in the neuter),
who was imagined as Nirgun* without an attribute
neither something nor nothing. It contains, further,
I should think, one of the germs from which sprang
Pantheism. c The only One breathed breathless in
itself; other than it there nothing since has been.'
1 See Dr. Wilson's Life, by Dr. Geo. Smith, p. 105, 1st Edition.
132 The Vedic Edigion.
The famous 90th hymn of the 10th Book,
regarded by many also as favouring monotheism, is
said to be a more recent hymn. It has also en-
couraged the growth of Pantheistic ideas. We refer to
the already quoted Puruslia-Sukta, or hymn, in which
we have the first supposed reference to the four castes.
Of the Punish, God, or man, or both, it is said :
' He is himself this very universe ;
: He is whatever is, has been, shall be ;
He is the Lord of immortality.'
Yet, singularly enough, in the same hymn, as we
have already noticed, as a shadow of the Christian
doctrine concerning the sacrifice of ' the only-begotten
of the Father,' we have the words,
' With Purusha, as victim, they performed
A sacrifice. When they divided him,
How did they cut him up ? ' etc.
In connection with this matter, we refer to another
very curious coincidence or shadow of the truth in
the deifying of speech, or the ' Word.' Mr. Johnson,
the author of Oriented Edigions, p. 74, remarks : ' The
Hindu thinker found deity most near to him, not as
a person, nor as visible shape, but as Word, the
symbol of pure thought.' ' Speech, melodious,' says
the Rig-Veda, ' was queen of the gods, generated by
them, and divided into many portions.' *
As monotheistic in its tone and spirit, we are
also referred to the 121st hymn of the 1st Book.
1 viii. 89, 10 ; x. 125. Langlois, vol. iv. p. 415.
Monotheism or Polytheism ? 133
Put into metre by Monier Williams/ it is more
favourable to those who find monotheism in it
than in its literal prose translation, which we have
given above, p. 91, in introducing this part of the
subject :
' What god shall we adore with sacrifice ?
Him let us praise, the golden child that rose
In the beginning, who was born the lord
The one sole lord of all that is who made
The earth, and formed the sky, who giveth life,
Who giveth strength, whose bidding gods revere,
Whose hiding-place is immortality,
Whose shadow, death ; who by his might is kiug
Of all the breathing, sleeping, waking world
Who governs men and beasts, whose majesty
These snowy hills, this ocean with its rivers
Declare ; of whom these spreading regions form
The arms ; by whom the firmament is strong,
Earth firmly planted, and the highest heavens
Supported, and the clouds that fill the air
Distributed and measured out ; to whom
Both earth and heaven, established by his will,
Look up with trembling mind ; in whom revealed,
The rising sun shines forth above the world.
Where'er let loose in space, the mighty waters
Have gone, depositing a fruitful seed
And generating fire, there he arose,
Who is the breath and life of all the gods,
1 Indian Wisdom, p. 23.
134 The Vedic Religion.
Whose mighty glance looks round the vast
expanse
Of watery vapour source of energy,
Cause of the sacrifice the only God
Above the gods. May he not injure us !
He the Creator of the earth the righteous
Creator of the sky, Creator too
Of oceans bright, and far extending waters/
The hymn, even in its bald prose form, is most
interesting. Still we are not satisfied that the Eishi
who had the honour of composing it was entitled to
be regarded as a monotheist. I do not refer to the
fact that his successors understood that the interro-
gative pronoun who, ka, which commenced the
question, ' Who is the god to whom we shall offer
our sacrifice ? ' was itself a god, and that they
worshipped it as the god Ka} We refer simply to
the fact that the Eishi was clearly in doubt as to
who was the god, among the many worshipped
around him, and very likely by himself also, who
was entitled to the sacrifice as the facile princeps
among them all. Who ' that golden child, the one
born lord of all that is/ was, is also a question
difficult, if not impossible, of solution. The opening
words bear a remarkable resemblance to the opening
words of the Gospel of John. They run : ' In the
beginning there arose the golden child ; he was the
one born lord of all that is. He established this
1 Miiller's Sanskrit Literature, p. 433. Williams' Hinduism, p. 27.
Monotheism or Polytheism ? 135
earth and this sky Who is the god to whom we
shall offer our sacrifice ? '
The hymn has, we think, been justly quoted as
proving a ' feeling after God/ an anxious and per-
plexed, yet resolute groping for the light for him
who is found by them who seek after him. ' This
yearning after a nameless deity/ says Baron Bunsen
concerning this very hymn, ' who nowhere manifests
himself in the Indian Pantheon of the Vedas, this
voice of humanity groping after God has nowhere
found so sublime and touching an expression.' Most
unfortunately, we do not discover in their writings
that the Eishis were finders of the true God. There
is a gulf between him, the holy One and the just,
and any and every other divinity or divinities, such
as cannot be passed over so easily that one does not
know whether he has the one or the other. And
we have no evidence whatever that the Eishis of old
had attained to a knowledge of, and faith in, Him
Who is, and beside Whom there is none other.
Neither the childishness of the individual or of the
nation, nor the imperfection of the language, will
prevent the expression of faith in 'our Father in
heaven/ the one God.
Before parting altogether from this subject, on
which I have already dwelt too long, I would like to
say a word on the Eelation of the Worshippers to the
Gods, and their Faith in them.
THE RELATION OF THE WORSHIPPERS TO THE
GODS, AND THEIR FAITH IN THEM. ,
IN" one word, the relation was very familiar. There
is little or no sense of love or fear, no sense of
the holy or the pure or the spiritual. They treat
the gods as of themselves, only more powerful, sub-
ject to the same weaknesses, the same desires, the
same appetites. The Soma, the clarified butter, the
horses, etc., in which the worshippers delighted, were
supposed to be sources of still greater pleasure to
their gods. The strength, the stimulus which they
themselves experienced, or imagined they experi-
enced, from their drinking of the Soma juice, they
supposed their gods to receive in still greater
measure. In the 6th hymn Agni is addressed :
'Agni, accept this log, conqueror of horses, thou who
lovest songs and delightest in riches. Youngest of
the gods, their messenger, most deserving of worship,
come at our praise.' But for all this there is no
communion of heart with heart, no contact of the
spirit of man with the gods whom he worships or
whom he feeds. There seems to be no love towards
their gods, no rejoicing in communion with them.
The Relation of the Worshippers to the Gods. 137
The relation is more that of traders in the bazaar.
' ' I give this for that ; I give sacrifice, you give cows
and horses.' There seems to be little or no gratitude
or thanks for past favours. It is altogether a bargain
for future temporal or spiritual blessings. Canon
Rawlinson points out the relation as almost the very
opposite to what one would expect the worshipper
being the lord and master, the worshipped being the
servant, if not the slave : ' The offerings of praise and
sacrifice, and especially the offering of the Soma juice,
were considered not merely to please the god, who
was the object of them, but to lay him under a bind-
ing obligation, and almost to compel him to grant the
requests of the worshipper. "The mortal who is
strenuous in worship," it is said, " acquires an autho-
rity " over the object of his religious regards an
authority which is so complete that he may even sell
the god's favour to another person, in order to enable
him to attain the object of his desires. " Who buys
this my Indra," says Vamadeva, a Yedic poet,
" with ten milch kine ? When he shall have slain
his foes, then let the purchaser give him back to me
again ; " which the commentator explains as follows :
".Vamadeva, having ly much praise got Indra into his
possession or subjugation, proposes to make a bargain
when about to dispose of him ; " and so he offers for
ten milch kine to hand him over temporarily, appar-
ently to any person who will pay the price, with the
proviso that when Indra has subdued the person's
138 The Vedic Religion.
foes, he is to be returned to the vendor ! ' Wheeler *
describes the relation as of ' a childlike and filial
character; the evils which the worshippers suffered
they ascribed to some offence of omission or commis-
sion which had been given to a deity ; whilst the
good which they received was in like manner ascribed
to his kindness or favour in return for the sacrifices,
prayers, hymns, etc., which they gave to him.' Mr.
Wheeler refers to Eig-Veda, i. 83, 2, in proof ' that
it is said that the gods, filled with food, are as
impatient to enjoy the Soma as bridegrooms long for
their brides/ In another hymn in praise of Vishnu,
' men worship him, offering him their libation face to
face.' ' The worshipper offers his Varuna honey,
sweet things which the god is sure to like, and then
appeals to him. "Now be good, and let us speak
together again." ' ' Let us speak together again,
because my honey has been brought. Thou eatest
what thou likest like a priest.'
We do not read much of Faith in the Eig-Veda.
Still it is referred to ; and it is associated with its
opposite Scepticism. You have such texts connected
with Indra, in whom faith began to wane even in
Vedic times. ' The sun, moon, and Indra perform
their revolutions, that we may see and have/a^ in
what we see.' ' Excite in us, Indra, veneration for
1 Talboys Wheeler's History of India, vol. i. pp. 13-16. K.-Y.,
i. 83, 3; x. 1, 3. Miiller's Sanskrit Literature, pp. 535-537.
AVilson, vol. i. p. xxxvii. K.-V., iv. 15, 5; iv. 24, 10. Wilson,
vol. iii. p. 170, note 2.
The Relation of the Worshippers to the Gods. 139
the sun, for the waters, and for those who are worthy
of the praise of living beings, as exempt from sin ;
injure not our nearest kin, for our trust is in thy
mighty power.' ' When Indra hurls his fatal shaft,
every one immediately has faith in the resplendent
Indra.'
In spite of these reasons for faith in Indra, we
read : ' Offer praise to Indra, if you desire booty ;
true praise, if he truly exists. One and the other says,
There is no Indra. Who has seen him ? Whom
shall we praise ? ' Indra himself is represented as
answering, Here I am, O worshipper ; behold me
here. In might I overcome all creatures. In
another hymn we find the same scepticism manifest-
ing itself : ' The terrible one, of whom they ask where
he is, and of whom they say that he is not ; he takes
away the riches of his enemy, like the stakes at a
game. Believe in him, ye men, for he is indeed
Indra.' In another text scepticism and indifferentism
are associated with the race for riches and wine-
drinking : ' Thou Indra never findest a rich man to
be thy friend. Wine-swillers despise thee. But
when thou thunderest, when thou gatherest the
clouds, then thou art called like a father.' l
The most pronounced scepticism is found in a
hymn in which gods and Brahmans alike are turned
into ridicule. The deities to whom the hymn is
1 i. 102 ; i. 104 ; i. 55, 5 ; viii. 2 ; ii. 12, 5 ; viii. 21, 14. Miiller's
Hibbert Lectures, p. 302. Chips, vol. i. p. 42.
140 . The Tedic Religion.
professedly dedicated are frogs. It is, in form, a
panegyric of the frogs, while it is really, as Max
Miiller says, ' a satire on the priests.' It commences :
' When lying prostrate for a year, like Brahmans
performing a vow, the frogs have emitted their voice,
roused by the showers of heaven. When the heavenly
waters fell upon them as upon a dry fish lying in a
pond, the music of the frogs comes together like the
lowing of cows with their calves. When, at the
approach of the rainy season, the rain has wetted
them, as they were longing and thirsting, one goes to
the other while he talks, like a son to his father,
saying, akJchala.' (Greek, Brekekex koaxkoax.) 1
Almost equally literal is Dr. Muir's versified trans-
lation, which proceeds thus :
' Afar is heard their merry croak.
Well drenched, they jump aloft in glee,
And join in noisy colloquy.
They leap upon each other's Lacks,
And each to t'other cries ko-ax.
As teachers first call out a word,
Then boys repeat what they have heard,
Just so the frogs croak out once more
What other frogs had croaked before.
Sounds diverse issue from their throats,
Some low like cows, some bleat like goats,
Though one in name, of various sheen,
For one is brown, another green.
1 Muller's History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 494.
The Relation of the Worshippers to the Gods. 141
As Brahmans at a Soma-rite,
Around the bowl in talk unite,
This day the frogs their pond surround,
And make the air with noise resound.
These priests, the frogs, their voices raise,
And sing their annual hymn of praise.
As priests who sweated o'er a pot,
Soon quit the fire they find too hot,
The frogs, so long oppressed with heat,
Emerge in haste from their retreat.' *
I give the concluding verse from Wilson's trans-
lation. It is in the usual form of a prayer for riches
and cows : ' May the cow-toned, the goat-toned, the
speckled, the green (frog, severally), grant us riches.
May the frogs in the fertilizing (season of the rains),
bestowing upon us hundreds of cows, prolong our
lives.' 2 In a note in MS. to the edition of Mitller's
History before me, I read: 'If this was meant for
a satire, the age must have been degenerate indeed,
which could include this in a Sanhita of sacred
hymns.' I add, if this was not intended for satire,
the age was fallen, if possible, still lower. Which is
worse, to have ridiculed gods and priests, their
hymns and their rites, or to have worshipped frogs
as gods, and to have expected from them riches,
cows, and long life ? Either view implies a low state
of religious feeling and of faith. The worship of the
1 Muir's Metrical Translations, p. 194.
2 vii. 103. Wilson's Translation, vol. iv. p. 204.
142 The Vedic Eeligion.
sacrificial post and the hymn (iii. 8) addressed to it,
are almost equally ridiculous. (See Wilson, vol. iii.
p. 4.)
Dr. Banerjea connects the modern Hindu doctrine
of faith, as opposed to that of ceremonial works, with
the worship of Vishnu, Siva (the Eudra of the Eig-
Veda) or SaUi; and more particularly with that of
the first under the names of Krishna and Hari; and
also makes it to be an exotic, not a true Indo- Aryan
plant. Though the subject is to a missionary most
interesting, it is scarcely within my scope.
In the Mahabharata 1 it is recorded that Narada, the
son of Brahma, addressed the incarnate Narayana (a
name given by the Hindus to Krishna, and by some
Bengali Christians to Christ, as meaning the Refuge
of men} ' We do not know what god or father you
worship.' Narayana tells Narada to contemplate the
supreme spirit as the one object of meditation.
Narada, under divine direction, ' goes to the mount
Meru for a vision of that supreme spirit.' Looking
to the north-west of that mountain, he obtained that
wonderful vision. To the north of the Ocean of
Milk, at a distance, as poets make out, of more than
456,000 miles from Meru (Merv ?), there was a large
continent by the name of ' White! There lived white
people without sensuousness, . . . freed from all sin,
etc. In the following chapter, Narayana is repre-
1 Mahabharata, Santiparva, chapters 336, 337, 338. Dr. Baner-
jea's Aryan Witness, pp. 230-235 .
The Relation of the Worshippers to the Gods. 143
sented as saying 'You, full of devotion, desire to
know where you may get a sight of the Lord. North
of the Ocean of Milk is a continent called White.
The men of that place, resplendent as the moon, are
votaries of Narayana (lit. the Eefuge of men). Single-
minded, they are devoted to the most excellent
Purusha. Those men, inhabitants of the white con-
tinent, are called Ekantins (monotheists). Go there,
ye Eishis ; there is our spirit manifested/ This
' excellent Purusha,' it turns out, is none other than
Krishna. Narada accordingly went, it is supposed,
to Meru, and had the vision.
Again, in the Bhagavat Parana, written about the
twelfth century A.D., Narada is represented as inform-
ing its distinguished author that he had almost ignored
the unspotted glory of the Lord, and that the Darsana
or Philosophy, which was not grateful to him, counted
for nothing. ' You have not/ he added, ' celebrated
the glory of the son of Vasudeva (i.e. Krishna) in the
same manner as you have described Dharma or
Eitualistic ceremonies.' This text, Dr, Banerjea
truly contends, proves conclusively that down to the
time this was written, the glory of Krishna, the son
of Vasudeva, had not been duly celebrated, nor the
doctrine of faith as opposed to ceremonial observances
introduced. Narada, who had received the vision of
the supreme God in the fair land of the whites at a
great distance, north-west of Mount Meru, warns the
founder of the Yedanta School and the author of the
144 The Vcdic Eeligion.
Brahma-Sutras, of the futility of philosophical specu-
lations, which are not grateful to the Lord, the
Saviour of the world. He moves him to recount his
acts; this accordingly he did in the Bhagavat or
Krishna's Purana,
Again, in another work of great authority, written
about 800 A.D. and called Narada Pancharatra, the
writer is introduced telling his son Suka-Deva that
Narada was on one occasion practising some austerities,
when suddenly he heard a voice from heaven:
' If. Hari (Krishna) is worshipped, what is the use
of austerities ? If Hari is not worshipped, what is
the use of austerities ? If Hari is within and without,
what is the use of austerities ? If Hari is not within
and without, what is the use of austerities ? Stop,
stop, Brahman ! Why do you engage in austerities ?
Go, Brahman ! do go quickly to Siva, the ocean of
knowledge. Get, get matured faith in Hari, as
described by the guild of Vishnu, the splitter and
snapper of the fetters of the world.'
From these texts we see that this modern doctrine
of faith was foreign, and was received from the fair-
complexion ed living to the north-west of Mem.
Narada had got it there, in the form of a vision of
Vishnu. He persuaded the author of the Krishna
Purana to recount the Lord's acts. This he did in
the said work.
Then, as a further step, we have a voice from
heaven telling Narada to give up all ceremonial works
The Relation of the Worshippers to the Gods. 145
for this faith in Hari the taker away of sins. The
whole of this was written not earlier than 800 A.D. If
so, the whole was very likely founded on the Christian
doctrine of faith, as preached by the Christian Ekan-
tins or monotheists.
It will be observed that the part of the story found
in the Mahabharata goes only to prove that this faith,
the Krishna-cultus, did not originate at the time. On
the other hand, its origin cannot be traced further
back than the Narada Pancharatra and the Bhagavat
Purana, written not earlier than 800 A.D. Thus Dr.
Banerjea's texts seem certainly to go towards proving
that the doctrine is an exotic, and that it was not
fully developed until a comparatively recent period.
/We need greater light on this acknowledgment
which the Vaishnava Shastras seem to make of ' light
from Christian sources in brightening the colour
imparted to their personation of Krishna as some
compensation for the dark hue of his Braja-lila.' l
1 The Mahabharata gives, in the story of Narada's visit to Meru
(Merv), and his vision of the White Continent, the land of Ekantins,
a clue to the real origin of the Vaishnava dogmas. That story,
coupled with Narada's having suggested the worship of Krishna, and
the voice from heaven which he had heard, all these amount to a
strong presumption that the doctrine of Krishna is an imitation of
Christian teaching. The premises on which the presumption relies
are contained in the authorized and acknowledged Scriptures of the
Vaishnavas themselves. The original introducers of the doctrine
must have construed the sensualities of Krishna in a mystic sense,
and they w r ere only too glad to accept Narada's importations
though the Vaishnavas, as a body, may not confess to all this.
XT.
INCARNATION, MEDIATION, AND AGNI.
THOUGH the doctrine of Incarnation is not
formally found in the Eig-Veda, Vishnu, who
is in later Hindu writings so closely connected with
Avatars or incarnations, is there, and is remarkable,
not for being among the first three, which he is not,
but for having strid across the seven regions of the
universe in three steps, and enveloping all things
with the dust of his beams. In this we have a very
pronounced anthropomorphic representation of the
divine. "We meet with many instances of men be-
coming gods, but no god is, in so many words, said to
have become human, though most of the gods are
represented as human in the worst, 1 as well as in the
best sense. Purusha and Prajapati's sacrifice of himself
or themselves, in which undoubted reference is made
to the body, is the most remarkable instance in point. 2
We have a very interesting confirmation of this in
relics preserved of the old Aryan religion by the
Teutonic branch of the family. In one of the old
Rune songs, Odin, the chief deity of the Teutons, is
1 "Wilson's Kig-Veda, vol. iv. p. 243. 2 See above, pp. 43, 44, 83-90.
Incarnation, Mediation, and Ayni. 147
represented as hanging during nine long nights in
the wind-rocked tree, ' with a spear wounded, offering
himself to himself.' Karl Blind, to whose article on
the Odinic Songs in Shetland 1 we are indebted for
our information, adds : ' Odin, the representative of
thought, seems to be God and man at one and the same
time ; he offers " himself to himself." He is the fruit of
a tree the origin of which none can fathom.' The words
of the Rune, Rick, or hymn, in which Odin speaks to
himself, are sufficiently curious and illustrative of the
Yedic religion to justify us in giving them here :
1. I wot that I hung on the wind-rocked tree
Nine long nights,
With a spear wounded,
And to Odin offered
Myself to myself
On that tree of which none knows
From what root it springs.
2. Bread no one gave me, nor a horn of mead.
JN"etherward I peered.
On Eunes intent, I learned them sighing
Then fell down thence. . . .
3. Then I began to thrive, and began to think.
I grew, and gained in strength.
Word by word rose to me from the Word ;
Deed after deed rose to me from the deed. 2
1 Nineteenth Century, June 1879, p. 1092.
2 Observe the alliteration, in which the original abounds, repro-
duced by the translator.
148 The Vcdic Religion.
The Shetland Odinic song, lately discovered, is on
the same idea :
' Nine days he hung on the rootless tree ;
For bad was the folk, and good was he.
A bloody mark was in his side
Made with a lance that would not hide [skin].
Nine long nights, in the nipping rime,
Hung he there with his naked limb.'
This incarnation of the Divine is seen largely in
the character given to Agni, the god who is specially
praised for his abiding with men, so as to become one
of them. This trait of his is a prominent one through-
out the hymns, and is closely allied to his mediatorial
character. As there are few doctrines in the Christian
religion more persistently objected to by the Hindu
than the doctrine of Mediation, I shall cull largely
from Dr. Muir's texts 1 to show how this feature is
pictured in the old Eig-Veda hymns. Many object
to the doctrine of mediation more than to that of
incarnation, which is so closely allied to it. The
doctrine of incarnation is well known as a modern
Hindu doctrine, but that of mediation is not so much
so. Still, the latter is very pronouncedly found in
the character of Agni, ' the youngest of the gods, their
messenger ;' who ' goes wisely between these two
creations (heaven and earth, gods and men) like a
friendly messenger between two hamlets.' 2 On the
1 Oriental Studies, pp. 67-74.
2 Miiller's Chips, vol. i. p. 34. E.-V., ii. 6, 7.
Incarnation, Mediation, and Agni. 149
strength of hymn iv. 1, 5, Max Miiller 1 expressly calls
him ' the messenger and mediator between god and
men.' He is spoken of in various hymns 2 as enjoy-
ing perpetual youth, travelling in a red-horsed car, an
immortal who has taken up his abode among mortals
as their guest, and as the domestic priest, appointed
both by men and gods. He is described as a sage,
the divinest among sages, who enables men to serve
the gods in a correct and acceptable manner, in cases
where this would be beyond their unaided skill. He
is spoken of as the outward sign or manifestation and
the end of the sacrifice. It is said of him that his
father begot him to be the revelation, and a brilliant
banner of all sacrifices. He is also the religious leader
or priest of the gods, a swift messenger moving be-
tween heaven and earth, appointed both by gods and
by men, to maintain their mutual communications,
to announce to the gods the hymns, and to convey
to them the oblations of their worshippers. Being
acquainted with the innermost recesses of the sky (iv.
1 Sanskrit Literature, p. 462.
2 i. 44, 6 ; i. 58, 1 ; i. 36, 15 ; iv. 5 ; i. 44, 4 ; i. 58, 6 ; ii. 4, 1 ;
i. 1, 1, 3, 8; i. 12, 1 ; i. 94, 6 ; ii. 1, 2 ; ii. 5, 2, 3 ; iii. 3, 4 ; i. 1,
4 ; i. 31, 1 ; x. 2, 3-5 ; iii. 33, 4 ; iii. 10, 4 ; iii. 11, 2 ; iv. 3, 1; vi.
2-3 ; x. 20, 9 ; x. 110, 11 ; x. 150, 4 ; i. 12, 1, 2, 4, 8 ; i. 27, 45 ;
i. 36, 3, 4, 5 ; i. 44, 2, 3, 5, 9, 12 ; i. 58, 1 ; i. 74, 4, 7 ; i. 188, 1 ;
ii. 6, 6 ; iii. 4, 11 ; vii. 11, 1 ; x. 70, 2 ; vii. 11, 1 ; vii. 11, 3 ; viii.
91, 16 ; x. 7, 6 ; ii. 1, 13, 14 ; x. 51, 52 ; i. 12, 2, 6 ; i. 26, 7 ; i. 36,
5 ; i. 31, 11 ; i. 96, 4 ; i. 1, 8 ; i. 60, 4 ; v. 8, 2 ; viii. 15, 2 ; i. 26,
3 ; i. 31, 10, 14, 16 ; i. 75, 4 ; ii. 1, 9 ; vi. 1, 5 ; iii. 15, 1 ; vii. 13,
1 ; vii. 15, 10 ; viii. 13, 3 ; viii. 43, 26 ; iii. 2, 2 ; iii. 25, 1 ; x. 12,
7 ; ii. 12, 3 ; i. 60, 1 ; i. 93, 6 ; vi. 7, 1 ; viii. 91, 17 ; i. 59, 2.
150 The Vedic Religion.
8, 2, 4), he is well fitted to summon the gods to the
sacrifices ; and he himself comes to them seated on
the same car, or in advance of them. Without him
the gods experience no satisfaction. He offers them
worship. He is the mouth and tongue through which
both gods and men taste the sacrifice. The other
gods plead with him to convey to them the sacrifice.
On the promise of long life and a share in the sacri-
fice, he agrees, declaring himself ready to obey the
commands of the gods. He is the Lord Protector and
Leader of the people, the Lord of the house, dwelling
in every abode ; he is kinsman and friend as well as
father and brother. He drives away and destroys
Rakshasas and demons.
Sometimes a divine origin is ascribed to him, while
at other times his production, or at least his mani-
festation, is described as earthly, and through human
appliances. He is said to have been the son of
Heaven and Earth, and to have come down from the
sky, where he was generated by Indra. Elsewhere
he is said to have been generated by the gods as a
light to the Aryans, and placed by the gods among
the tribes of Manu, that is, of men, for their benefit. 1
In some parts he is spoken of as having a three-
1 i. 36, 10 ; ii. 4, 3 ; vi. 16, 1 ; viii. 73, 2 ; v. 4, 8 ; iii. 36, 7 ;
viii. 39, 8 ; i. 149, 4 ; ii. 9, 3 ; viii. 39, 8 ; vii. 6, 1 ; iii. 6, 5 ; i. 96, 4 .;
vi. 5, 6 ; vii. 7, 7 ; vi. 8, 2 ; x. 156, 4 ; x. 88, 4 ; i. 59, 1, 2, 5 ;
vi. 7, 1 ; iii. 3, 10 ; vii. 6, 2 ; ii. 8, 3 ; ii. 9, 1 ; viii. 5, 4 ; i. 188, 1 ;
x. 187, 4 ; i. 70, 2, 6 ; iii. 4, 11 ; viii. 39, 6 ; vi. 2, 4, 5 ; vi. 5, 5 ;
vi. 10, 3. See the fearful picture of Agni below, p. 200.
Incarnation, Mediation, and Agni. 151
fold existence at one and the same time, in heaven,
in the air, and on the earth ; while elsewhere he is
said to have only two, an upper and a lower sphere.
The highest divine functions are ascribed to him.
He is called the divine king, strong as Indra ; he is
said to have stretched out the heavens and the earth,
though, as we have seen above, their son ; to have
produced them ; to have measured out the mundane
regions and the luminaries of heaven ; to have caused
the sun, the imperishable orb, to ascend the sky ; to
have made all that flies or walks or stands or moves.
He is the head or summit of the sky, the centre of
the earth, and his greatness exceeds that of heaven
and all the worlds. He achieved famous exploits of
old; men tremble at his mighty deeds, and his
ordinances cannot be resisted. Earth and heaven
obey his commands. He is the conqueror of thou-
sands, sees all worlds, knows the races of gods and
men, and the secrets of mortals. His followers
prosper ; he is the friend of the man who entertains
him as a guest, and bestows protection and wealth on
the worshipper who sweats to bring him fuel, or
wearies his head to serve him. He watches with a
thousand eyes over the man who brings him food
and oblations. He also confers, and is the guardian
lord of immortality. He was made by the gods the
centre of immortality. He carries men across calami-
ties or preserves them from them. All treasures
are congregated in him. All blessings proceed from
152 The Vedic Religion.
him as branches from a tree. He is master of all
the treasures in the earth, the atmosphere, and the
sky. He is in consequence continually supplicated
for various boons, such as to forgive sin, to avert
Varana's wrath, and to release from (his ?) bond. 1
The simplicity with which he is addressed once
or twice is suggestive of Martin Elginbrodde's prayer,
as quoted above; as in viii. 44, 23 'If I were
thou,' says the worshipper naively to Agni, ' and thou
wert I, thy aspirations should be fulfilled;' and again
(viii. 19, 256) ' If, Agni, thou wert a mortal and
I an immortal, I would not abandon thee to wrong
or to penury; my worshipper should not be poor,
nor distressed, nor miserable/ Another worshipper
addresses him, ' Why hast tJwu, among all the gods,
forsaken and injured us ? I ask thee in my ignor-
ance.' After the manner of orientals, in addressing
him, all attributes are given to him. ' The extrava-
gance of oriental adulation,' remarks Talboys Wheeler
while writing of Agni, ' will permit an Asiatic courtier
to address some petty chief or Kaja as the king of
kings, but this by no means implies an idea of uni-
versal empire' (vol. i. p. 20). Hence we read that
all gods are comprehended in him. He surrounds
them as the tire of the wheel its spokes. But Agni
1 iir. 4, 10 ; x. 79, 5 ; i. 31, 7 ; vi. 7, 4, 7 ; vii. 4, 6 ; iii. 17, 4 ;
iii. 20, 4 ; v. 4, 9 ; vii. 12, 2 ; x. 6, 6 ; vi. 13, 1 ; vii. 6, 7 ; x. 91, 3 ;
iv. 2, 4, 18, 9; i. 36, 14, 16; i. 58, 8, 9; iv. 12, 4; vi. 93, 7;
iv. 1, 4, 5 ; v. 2, 7 ; x. 79, 6 ; v. 3, 1 ; i. 141, 9 ; v. 13, 6 ; vi. 59, 2 ;
vii. 93, 6 ; viii. 38, 4, 7, 9 ; vii. 5, 6 j viii. 92, 1 ; vii. C, 3.
Incarnation, Mediation, and Agni. 153
is particularly associated with Indra as his twin
brother, drinkers together of the same Soma juice.
He is also, unlike the fire or the sun, rather partial
in dispensing his gifts driving away the Dasyas
from the house, thus creating a large light for the
Aryans, as the promoter of the Aryans, and as the
vanquisher of the irreligious Panis. Such are the
leading attributes and deeds ascribed to Agni in the
hymns of the Eig-Veda.
Professor Whitney describes him at full length, as
the chief of the earthly divinities of the Eig-Veda,
accounts for his origin by remarking that there was
only one terrestrial, as distinguished from celestial
or atmospheric phenomena, namely fire, calculated to
give rise to so distinct a conception of something
divine as to appear as a fully developed divinity
among the Indo- Aryans. ' Agni, the god of fire,' he
remarks, ( is one of the most prominent in the whole
Pantheon. His hymns are more numerous than
those of any other god. Astonishment and admira-
tion at the properties of this element as the most
wonderful and mysterious * of all with which man
comes into daily and familiar contact, and exultation
1 ' The bonnie, bonnie bairn, who sits poking in the ase,
Glowering in the fire wi' his wee round face ;
Laughing at the fuffin' lowe, what sees he there ?
Ha, the young dreamer's bigging castles in the air.
Glowering at the imps wi' their castles in the air. '
This is said of a little boy in one of the most popular ditties of the
19th century. It seems to have been literally and seriously true of
grown-up men and women in India three thousand years ago.
154 The Vedic Religion.
over its reduction to the service and partial control
of mankind, are abundantly expressed in the manner
in which he is addressed. He is praised as an im-
mortal among mortals, a divinity upon earth; his
nobleness and condescension, that he, a god, deigns
to sit in the very dwellings of men, are extolled.
The other gods have established him here as high
priest and mediator for the human race ; he was the
first who made sacrifice, and taught men to have
recourse above. He is messenger between heaven
and earth ; he, on the one hand, bears aloft the
prayers and offerings, and secures their gaining in
return the blessings demanded ; and, on the other
hand, brings the gods themselves to the altars of their
worshipper, and puts them in possession there of the
gifts presented to them. When the sun is down and
the daylight gone, Agni is the only divinity left on
earth to protect mortals till the following dawn ; his
beams then shine abroad, and dispel the demons of
darkness, the EaJksliasas, whose peculiar enemy and
destroyer he is. These attributes and offices form
the staple theme of his songs, amplified and varied
without limit, and coupled with general ascriptions of
praise, and prayers for blessings to be directly be-
stowed by him or granted through his intercession.
Among his frequent appellations are, " belonging to
all men," " bearer of the offering," " all possessing,"
" purifier," and " demon-slayer." He is styled son of
the lightning or of the sun, as sometimes kindled by
Incarnation, Mediation, and Agni. 155
them ; but, as in all primitive nations, the ordinary
mode of his production is by the friction of two dry
billets of wood. And this birth of his, as a wonder
and mystery unparalleled, is painted in the hymns in
dark and highly figurative language : ten fingers of
the kindler are ten virgins who bring him to birth ;
the two bits of wood are his mothers ; once born he
grows up rapidly in their lap, as they lie there pros-
trate upon the earth ; he turns upon them, but not
for milk he devours them ; the arms of the kindler
fear him, and lift themselves above them in wonder.' 1
Monier Williams versifies the texts on Agni :
-'Agni, thou art a sage, a priest, a king,
Protector, father of the sacrifice ;
Commissioned by us men, thou dost ascend.
A messenger, conveying to the sky
Our hymns and offerings. Though thy origin
Be threefold, now from air, and now from water,
Now from the mystic double Arani,
Thou art thyself a mighty god, a lord,
Giver of life and immortality,
One in thy essence, but to mortals three,
Displaying thine eternal triple form,
As fire on earth, as lightning in the air,
As sun in heaven. Thou art a cherished guest
In every household father, brother, son,
Friend, benefactor, guardian, all in one.
Bright, seven-rayed god ! How manifold thy shapes
1 Whitney's Oriental and Linguistic Studies, pp. 22, 33.
156 The Vedic Religion.
Eevealed to us by votaries ! Now we see thee,
With body all of gold, and radiant hair,
Flaming from three terrific heads, and mouths
Whose burning jaws and teeth devour all things ;
Now with a thousand glowing horns ; and now
Flashing thy lustre from a thousand eyes.
Thou'rt borne towards us in a golden chariot,
Impelled by winds, and drawn by ruddy steeds,
Marking thy car's destructive course with blackness.
Deliver, mighty lord, thy worshippers.
Purge us from taint of sin ; and when we die,
Deal mercifully with us on the pyre,
Burning our bodies with their load of guilt,
But bearing our eternal part on high
To luminous bodies and realms of bliss,
For ever there to dwell with righteous men.' 1
In this character of Agni, I think the missionary
can discover many things which he may use to ad-
vantage, by way of comparison and of contrast, in
commending him who is ' The Light of the World,' and
' The Sun of Eighteousness/ ' Him who was given for
a light to the Gentiles, and glory of the people of
Israel.'
1 Monier Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 18.
XII.
+*
WOMEN, POLYGAMY, AND POLYANDRY.
IN Vedic times we have every reason to believe
that our Aryan forefathers generally practised
monogamy, or marriage in its true primal conception
and intention, as instituted in Paradise, as the per-
manent union of one woman to one man. In one of
the hymns the inseparable duality of two of the
Aryan gods is set forth under the comparison of
' pairs that usually run in couples,' such as ' husband
and wife.' In another hymn, husbands and wives,
as married pairs or couples, are described as uniting
in worship and presenting their sacrifices together,
' Married couples desirous of thy protection, to obtain
herds of cows, importune thee with prayers, Indra,
because thou joinest together two persons desirous
of bovine wealth and seeking to go to heaven.*
' They anoint thee (Agni), like a welcome friend,
with milk and butter, when thou makest husband
and wife of one mind.' l Indeed, the original normal
Vedic idea of religious worship appears to have been
that it should be performed by a married couple, the
1 i. 131, 3 ; v. 3, 2.
158 The Vedic Religion.
husband being the officiating priest and his wife
assisting.
The normal household had one husband and one
wife on a level of equality, at the hearth, which was
the altar of sacrifice. The wife had charge of the
sacred vessels, prepared the sacrifice and even some-
times composed the hymn, as we shall presently see.
Marriage is likened to ' the embrace of Indra by the
hymn.' ' The sun follows the dawn as a man a
woman ;' and the dawn, itself deified, is likened to a
' radiant bride.' The piety and happiness of a
married couple is well described in hymn viii. 31,
5-9. We quote also the following: 'As a loving
wife shows herself to her husband, so does she [the
dawn], smiling, reveal her form ; moving forth to
arouse all creatures to their labours.' ' A man's wife
is his dwelling, verily she is his place of birth.'
' All life, all breath is in thee, Dawn, as thou
ascendest. Kise, daughter of heaven, with blessings.' *
Raka, the full moon, is prayed to in the words,
'May she [Raka] sew her work with an infallible
needle, or with a needle that is not capable of being
cut or broken,' with one of which the stitches will
endure ; in like manner as clothes, as explained by
the learned Sanskrit commentator, wrought with a
needle last a long time. As goddess of parturition,
1 Miiller's Sanskrit Literature, p. 28 ; "Wilson's R.-V., vol. ii. pp.
xi. and 288 ; ii. 39, 2 ; iv. 53, 4 ; i. 1, 23 ; x. 43, 1 ; i. 48, 92 ; ii.
10, 4 ; viii. 31, 5-9.
Women, Polygamy, and Polyandry. 159
this same Kaka is represented as sewing the umbilical
cord.
There is a rather remarkable rnantra in the 142d
hymn, indicative of the influence of woman as a
mediator, the position which Eoinan Catholics are so
fond of giving to Mary the mother of Jesus. The
verse to which I refer runs: 'May pure Bharati,
established as the invoker between the gods and the
mortals, and also Ila, and the great Sarasvati the
three adorable goddesses sit on the kusi grass.' 1
The mode in which female influence was exerted
seems to be indicated in a hymn to Ushas, who is
addressed 'Proudly manifesting thy person like a
young damsel, thou comest, goddess, to the man
who worships the gods. Smiling beautifully like a
young woman, thou, bright Ushas, dost exhibit thy
breasts.' ' This is the altar which we have decorated
for thee, as a wife attached to her husband puts on
elegant garments to gratify him.' And again
' Ushas is smilingly exhibiting her beauty as a well-
dressed loving wife before her husband.' 'As
maidens decorating themselves with unguents to go
to the bridegroom.' 'The wife of Purukutsa pro-
pitiated you two, Indra and Varuna, with oblations
and prostrations, and therefore you gave her [as a
son] the king Trasadasyu, the slayer of foes, dwelling
near the gods/
As we have said, at least one of the hymns was
1 i, 142, SVadartliayatna.
160 The Vedic Religion.
actually composed by a woman of the name of Vis-
wavara, of the family of Atri. She was not only a
Kishi, the composer of Kicks, but also a priestess,
discharging the priestly office, worshipping the gods
at dawn with hymns and oblations.. Her hymn
commences: 'Agni, when kindled, spreads lustre
through the firmament, and shines widely in the
presence of the dawn. Viswavara, facing the east,
glorifying the gods with praises, and bearing the
ladle with the oblation, proceeds to the sacred fire.'
The third verse contains a very appropriate prayer
from a wife : ' Preserve in concord the relation of
man and wife.' 1
Still, though monogamy seems to have been the
normal state of matters, there are to be found,
without any accompanying note of reprobation or
disapproval, traces of Polygamy? There is allusion
to ' the husband of many maidens,' with approbation.
In one hymn the Aswins are praised : ' You stripped
off from the aged Chyavana his entire skin, as if it
had been a coat of mail ; you reversed the life of the
sage who was without kindred, and constituted him
the husband of many maidens.' The same idea
seems to underlie the words addressed to Indra :
* Powerful Indra, the minds [of the pious and wise]
adhere to thee as affectionate wives to a loving
husband.' The collective divinities (Visvadevas) are
1 i. 124, 10 ; iv. 3, 2 ; i. 124, 7 ; v. 28, 1-3.
2 i. 62, 11 ; i. 71, 1 ; i. 105, 8 ; vii. 26, 3.
Women, Polygamy, and Polyandry. 161
addressed by a Eishi in misery : ' The ribs of the
well close round me, like the rival wives (of one
husband) ; cares consume me, although thy worship-
per, as a rat gnaws a weaver's threads.' There are
certain hymns addressed to the Dawn, which the
Eig-Vidhana directs the worshipper to repeat, as by
so doing he will obtain, among other things, ' male
offspring and wives,' an expression suggestive of
polygamy. The *75th hymn of the 7th Book is
one of these hymns. One Eishi exclaims, ' The
magnificent lord, the protector of the virtuous, . . .
has given me five hundred wives.' The following
verse addressed to Indra is suggestive of a recognised
and permitted cruelty to wives as well as of poly-
gamy more especially when we consider the feelings
with which Dasyas, Asiiras, and Eakshasas were re-
garded, as we shall see below : ' May Indra, equal
to the task, and unaided, possess all the cities (of the
Asuras) as a husband his wives.' 1 He is also ad-
dressed : ' Thou dwellest with thy glories like a Eaja
with his wives.' * Praising the liberality of Sudas,
the donor of two hundred cows, and two chariots
with two wives.' The gods are generally represented
with only one wife each, but there are expressions of
doubtful interpretation, such as 'Agni and Sarasvati
with the Sarasvatas : may the three goddesses sit
down before us upon this sacred grass.' It is difficult
to understand what Agni has to do here among the
1 i. 116, 10 j i. 62, 11 ; i. 105, 8 ; viii. 19, 36 ; vii. 26, 3.
L
162 The Vedic Religion.
goddesses. The expression ' wives of the gods ' occurs
pretty often, though in some cases human wives
would be more in keeping with the context. ' May
Swashtri with the wives of the gods be with us for
our happiness, and hear us at this solemnity/ ' May
the pious couple (the Yajamana and his wife) con-
jointly appreciate the beauty of the sacrifice.' The
same couple are referred to in the words, ' The pious
pair, like two riders in a chariot, follow the path of
the ceremony.' 1 Ushas (Dawn) and Night are repre-
sented 2 as ' manifesting themselves variously and
going to promote the first invocation, like two wives,'
I suppose, of one man.
Kakshivat, the reputed author of the above, and of
as many as ten other hymns 3 of the same 1st Book,
was the grandson of a slave. Having finished his
studies, and taken leave of his preceptor, he was
journeying homeward, when night came on, and he
fell asleep by the road-side. Early in the morning a
Jfcaja, attended by his retinue, came to the 'spot, and
disturbed the Brahmin's slumbers. On his starting
up the Raja accosted him with great cordiality, and,
being very favourably impressed by him, inquired as
to his rank and birth, and finding them satisfactory,
brought him home with him, and married him to his
ten daughters. At the same time he presented him
1 vi. 18, 2 ; vii. 18, 22 ; vii. 2, 8 ; vii. 34, 20 ; 35, 6 ; vii. 42, 1 ;
vii. 39, 1.
2 i. 122, 2. 3 i. 116-126.
Women, Polygamy, and Polyandry. 163
with 100 nishkas of gold, 100 horses, 100 bull's,
1060 cows, and 11 chariots, one for each of his
wives, and one for himself, each drawn by four
horses. Such is the story told in Dwiveda's Niti-
manjari, and cited in Sayana's commentary on hymn
i. 125, which professes to have been recited in ac-
knowledgment of the Kaja's liberality. It contains
the following mantra : ' From which generous prince
soliciting my acceptance, I, Kakshivat, unhesitatingly
accepted 100 nishkas, 100 vigorous steeds, and
100 bulls, whereby he has spread his imperishable
fame through heaven. Ten chariots drawn by
bay steeds, and carrying my wives, stood near
me, given by Swanya; and 1060 cows followed.
Forty bay horses harnessed to the chariots lead
the procession in front of 1000 followers/
The story, if true, and truly interpreted, proves
not only that polygamy existed, but also that
marriages were celebrated between Brahmins and
Kshatriyas.
But not only was polygamy tolerated, it would
appear that polyandry, a still more disgusting crime
(yet prevalent among some of the aboriginal tribes of
India, alike in the north and in the south), was also
acknowledged among the Indo-Aryans. We read J of
a chariot race, at which the renowned Aswins gained
a damsel as their joint or common property. This
we would fain believe was, however, quite exceptional.
1 i. 119, 5.
164 The Vedic Religion.
A very remarkable case of polyandry insisted on by
Siva is given in the Mahabharata, where Draupadi
is given to be the common wife of five men. The
story runs : In a former life Draupadi had performed
severe penance in order to get a husband. Siva was
pleased, and appeared to her, and promised her five
husbands. She answered that she had asked for only
one. The god replied, ' Five times you said to me,
"Grant me a husband," therefore you shall have
five husbands/ 1 There is, apparently, older authority
for the vile practice than either Siva or Draupadi.
In hymn i. 1 6 7, we read in praise of the Maruts :
' Maruts, with whom their consort Eodasi is united,
perfect, rich in milky rain-water and of golden colour,
like a spear at hand ; Eodasi, united like the youth-
ful wife of a man walking in secret, and like the
sacrificial praise [hymn], delighting in company. The
resplendent and impetuous Maruts united with the
youthful Kodasi as with one 2 common to many.
The dreadful Maruts were not rejected by Eodasi;
they, the brilliant ones, became fond of the delightful
Eodasi for her friendship. When the divine Eodasi
of dishevelled hair, and filled with passion for the
Maruts, accepted these Maruts for union, she of the
bright face mounted the chariot of the admiring troop
of Maruts, even as bright- faced Surya mounted that
1 Monier Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 387.
2 Wilson translates ' a public or common woman, ' and adds, ' The
allusion is not without interest, as indicative of manners.' The
translation given in the text is from the Vedarthayatna.
Women, Polygamy, and Polyandry. 165
of the Aswins.' Wilson adds in a footnote :
'Kodasi is said to signify the lightning or the
bride of the Maruts;' and Surya, or rather Sur-
yeva, the wife or daughter of Surya. Sanyana
understands Kodasi as 'the wife of the Maruts.'
If so, then there is here an undoubted sanction of
polyandry.
QThat woman was not always held in very high
respect is clear from various passages, as, for example,
the highest praise which the Eishi Syavaswa could
give to a queen, his greatest benefactor, who had not
only treated him with reverence, but had given him
a. herd of cattle and costly ornaments, and put him
in the way of obtaining the woman on whom he had
set his heart, is ' Sasiyasi, though a female, is more
excellent than a man who reverences not the gods
nor bestows wealth,' on the principle that a-iiving
dog is better than a dead lion. 1 Verse 3 is even
more disrespectful, but is unquotable. The same
thing is very clear from, the absence of all prayers for
daughters. Indeed, daughters are conspicuous in the
Kig-Veda by their absence. We meet in every other
hymn with prayers for sons and grandsons, male
offspring, male descendants, and male issue, and
occasionally for wives, but never for daughters.
Even forgiveness is asked, as in iv. 12, 5, for 'our
1 R.-V., v. 61, 6. Wilson, iii. pp. 344, 345. R. C. Ghose,
p. 51. Mdana-Sutra, iii. 8. Satapatha Bralmiana, iii. 2, 1, 40;
ii. 5, 2, 20.
166 The Vedic Religion.
sons and grandsons, the reward of what has been well
done ;' but no blessing is ever prayed for, for a
daughter. Indra is called ' the showerer of benefits,
the giver of wives ;' but no god is ever complimented
on giving daughters. Indra is spoken of also as
glorified like a man boasting of his wife, but no one
is ever spoken of as boasting of a daughter. But a
Kishi does compare himself, in his misery praying
to his god, 'to humble females begging for food/
When Agni is born, it is ' as if it was a male infant,'
that is, they clap their hands and make sounds of
rejoicing like the parents of a new-born son. There
were no such rejoicings over the birth of a daughter.
Special praise is given to some gods (or Aswins)
for 'having got a husband for one Ghosha [a
leper] who was growing old, and tarrying in
her father's dwelling.' Something like an elope-
ment is the subject of praise to the same gods
' They who gave a bride to the youthful Vimada,
and bore her away in their car, outstripping the rival
host/
Hell (pada) is said to have been ' produced for
those who, being wicked, false, untrue, go about like
women without brothers, like females hostile to their
husbands/ (iv. 5, 5.)
That husbands did not live always very faithful
to their wives seems to have been fully acknow-
ledged. Ushas, the Dawn, is addressed: 'Thou,
Ushas, hast been beheld like a wife repairing to
Women, Polygamy, and Polyandry. 167
an inconstant husband, and not like one deserting
him.' 1
Sin against chastity was not, apparently, uncommon.
'Weber advances some astounding proofs of the
little confidence entertained in ancient times by the
Indo- Aryans in the chastity of their women.' There
are references to conjugal infidelity, to common
women, and to secret births, of all of which there
seemed to have been no shame. In the Satapatha
Brahmana of the Yajur-Veda, it is stated that the
wife of the person offering pragliasa to Varuna must
have one or more paramours, a doctrine which has
led to the frightful immoralities openly associated
with the Hindu temples of modern times, specially in
Southern India ; 2 and which has led Monier Williams
to conclude his Introduction to his Indian Wisdom
with the words: ' In conclusion, let me note one other
point which, of itself, stamps our religion [Chris-
tianity] as the only system adapted to the require-
ments of the whole human race the only message
of salvation intended by God to be gradually pressed
upon the acceptance of all his intelligent creatures,
whether male or female, in all four quarters of the
globe, I mean the position it assigns to women in
relation to the stronger sex. It is not too much to
affirm that the evils arising from the degradation of
1 vii. 77, 8. Monier Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. xlv. See
Wheeler's History, ii. p. 502. E.-V., i. 117, 7 ; i. 116, 1.
2 Dr. George Smith's Life of Dr. Duff, Pop. Ed., p. 290, and
below, pp. 209, 210.
168 The Vcclic Religion.
women, or at least the assumption of their supposed
inferiority, in the great religious systems of the East,
constitute the principal bar to the progress and
elevation of Asiatic nations.' 1 "Women could not be
highly respected if Indra spoke the truth in viii.
33, 17 : ' Indra declared that the mind of a woman
was ungovernable and her temper ficMe.' Yet we
find a Eislii praying, yea, repeating his prayer (ix.
67,10 ff.), not only that Pushan should protect him
in all his doings, but should also ' provide him with
a supply of damsels ' ! That Kishis did not claim to
be very moral, see x. 192, 1-3. Langlois, vol. iv.
p. 477.
1 We have not referred in the text to the custom of the ' self-
choice,' called Sivayamvura, of the maiden, in accordance with which
a Kshatriya maiden was offered as a prize (as above, p. 163) in an
archery match. But she had, it is said, the privilege of prohibiting
any objectionable person from entering the lists. The question is
more social than religious.
XIII.
! PRIESTS AND RlSfflS.
THE common idea current among Indians is that
the ancient Eishi was an ascetic, living in the
jungle, always engaged in the contemplation of divine
things ; that he was another John the Baptist or a
modern Jogi or Sunyasi. A favourite contrast of the
Bengali is the modern Christian missionary and the
ancient Hindu Eishi. The former lives outwardly
like a man of the world, knows the full value of
money, has a wife and children, wears good clothes,
eats good food, and drives to his preaching or to his
school or college in a garry or buggy. The ancient
Eishi is supposed to have lived day and night under
the shade of a tree in the jungle, half starved from
want of food, totally indifferent to wealth of every
kind, and having no house, no furniture of any kind,
not even a bed or any clothing, save his tiger-skin
and his yellow rag and dirt, without wife or child,
or any desire for either the one or the other. His
sanctity is supposed to have consisted largely in these
things. As the Eishi is so very highly honoured, it
is desirable that we should know, as far as possible,
what he was and how he lived, at least so far as this
170 The Vedic Religion.
can be discovered from the pages of the Eig-Veda.
We proceed, then, to produce what information we
can gather on this point.
Opening one of Wilson's volumes 1 at random, we
read the prayer of Eishi Devatithi, the conclusion of
hymn 4, of Book viii. :
' Illustrious (Ptishan) my cattle go forth occasionally
to pasture, may that wealth (of herds), immortal deity,
be permanent; being my protector, Pushan, be the
granter of felicity, be most bountiful in bestowing
food. We acknowledge the substantial wealth (of
the gift) of a hundred horses, the donation made to
us amongst men at the holy solemnities of the illus-
trious and auspicious Eaja Kurunga. I, the Eishi
(Devatithi), have received subsequently, the complete
donation, the 60,000 herds of pure cattle merited by
the devotions of the pious son of Kanwa, and by the
illustrious Priyamedhas. Upon the acceptance of
this donation to me, the very trees have exclaimed,
"(See these Eishis) have acquired excellent cows,
excellent horses ! "
In the next hymn, by Eishi Brahmatithi, we read :
'Bringers of the day, (bestow) upon us food with
cattle, or donations of wealth ; and close the path
(against aggression) upon our gains. Bring to us,
Aswins, riches comprising cattle, male offspring,
chariots, horses, food. Affluent in sacrifices, grant to
us who are opulent (in oblations) a spacious unassail-
1 Wilson's Translation^ vol. iv. p. 234 to end of vol.
Priests and Rishis. 171
able dwelling. Bring unto us riches by hundreds
and by thousands, desired by many, sustaining all.
Affluent in oblations, bring to us with that (chariot)
abundant food, so that there may be prosperity
in horses, progeny, and cattle. Immortal Aswins,
destroyers of the cities of the Dasyas, ye bring to us
food from afar. Come to us, Aswins, with food, with
fame, with riches, Nasatyas, delighters of many.
Affluent in showers, taste the wakeful desirable Soma :
combine for us riches with food. Become apprised,
Aswins, of my recent gifts, how that Kasu, the sou
of Chedi, has presented me with a hundred camels
and ten thousand cows. The son of Chedi, who has
given me for servants ten Eajas, bright as gold, for all
men are beneath his feet ; all those around him wear
cuirasses of leather. [Having taken these Eajas
prisoners in battle, he gives them to me in servitude.] '
_} The very next hymn, by Eishi Vatsa, goes on in a
like strain : ' Be willing to grant us abundant food
with cattle : (to grant us) protection, progeny, and
vigour. May that herd of swift horses, which
formerly shone among the people of Nahusha (be
granted), Indra, to us. ... Thou art a Eishi, the
first born (of the gods), the chief, the ruler (over all)
by thy strength : thou givest repeatedly, Indra, wealth.
The mortal (adorer) selects at the sacrifice Indra from
among the mighty (gods) : he who is desirous of
wealth (worships) Indra for protection. I have
accepted from Tirindira, the son of Parsu, hundreds
172 The Vedic Religion.
and thousands of the treasures of men. (These
princes) have given to the chaunter, Pajra, three
hundred horses, ten thousand cattle. The exalted
(prince) has been raised by fame to heaven, for he
has given camels laden with four (loads of gold) and
Yadva people (as slaves).'
Hymn 7th, by Eishi Panarvatsa, contains similar
prayers : ' Send us, Maruts, from heaven exhilarat-
ing, many-lauded, all- sustaining riches. Munificent
(Maruts), may these (sacrificial) viands, nutritious as
butter, together with the praises of the descendant of
Kanwa, afford you augmentation. When, Maruts,
will you repair with joy-bestowing riches to the sage
thus adoring you, and soliciting (you for wealth) ? '
Hymn 8th, by Eishi Sadhwansa [Vatsa], goes
on : ' From wheresoever (you may be) come, Aswins,
with your thousandfold diversified chariot : the sage
Vatsa, the son of Kavi, has addressed you with sweet
words. Delighters of many, abounding in wealth,
bestowers of riches, Aswins, sustainers of all, approve
of this mine adoration. Grant us, Aswins, all riches
that may not bring us shame, make us the begetters
of progeny in due season, subject us not to reproach.
Give, Nasatyas, food of many kinds dripping with
butter to him, the Eishi Vatsa, who has magnified
you both with hymns. Give, Aswins, invigorating
food, dripping with butter, to him who praises you,
the lords of liberality, to obtain happiness ; who desires
affluence. Confounders of the malignant, partakers of
Priests and Risliis. 1*73
many (oblations), come to this our adoration ; render
us prosperous leaders (of rites) ; give these (good
things of earth) to our desires.'
In hymn 9th, by Kishi Sasakarna, we find the very
same requests: 'Whatever wealth may be in the
firmament, in heaven, or among the five (classes) of
men, bestow, Aswins, (upon us). I awake with the
pious praise of the Aswins ; scatter, goddess, (the dark-
ness) at my eulogy, bestow wealth upon (us) mortals.
Endowed with great wisdom, preserve us for fame,
for strength, for victory, for happiness, for prosperity.'
In hymn llth of the same Book, by Rishi Vatsa,
we read: 'Desiring strength, we call upon Agni
for protection in battles; upon him who is granter
of wonderful riches (won) in conflicts. Thou, the
ancient, are to be hymned at sacrifices ; from eternity
the invoker of the gods, thou sittest (at the solemnity)
entitled to laudation ; cherish, Agni, thine own person
and grant us prosperity.'
We cull the following prayers, wishes, and desires
from hymns by Eishis Parvata, Narada, Goshuktin,
etc. etc., as they turn up in course : ' (I glorify Indra)
the deity, who, coming from afar, has given us, through
friendship, (riches), heaping (them upon us) like rain
from heaven, thou hast borne us (to our objects).
Bestow upon us, Indra, (wealth) comprising worthy
male offspring, excellent horses, and good cattle ; like
the ministrant priest (I worship thee) at the sacrifice,
(to secure) thy prior consideration.' ' When, Indra,
174 The Vedic Religion.
who delightest in praise, may thy worshipper be
entirely happy ? When wilt thou establish us in
(the affluence of) cattle, of horses, of dwellings ? Or,
when will thy renowned and vigorous horses bring
the chariot of thee, who art exempt from decay, that
exhilarating (wealth) which we solicit V 'If, Indra,
I were as thou art, sole lord over wealth, then
should my eulogist be possessed of cattle. Lord of
might, I would give to that intelligent worshipper
that which I should wish to give if I were the
possessor of cattle. Thy praise, Indra, is a milch
cow to the worshipper offering the libations; it
milks him in abundance of cattle and horses.
Neither god nor man, Indra, is the obstructor of thy
affluence, (of) the wealth which thou, when praised,
designest to bestow.' ' Thou, the praised of many,
reignest ; thou, single, hast slain many enemies, in
order to acquire the spoils of victory and abundant
food. The heaven invigorates thy manhood, Indra,
the earth (spreads) the renown; the waters, the
mountains, propitiate thee.' ' They honour him with
animating (hymns), men (honour) him with sacred
rites, for Indra is the giver of wealth.' < May this
Soma, invested (with milk), approach thee, observant
Indra, like a bride (clad in white apparel). Long-
necked, large-bellied, strong-armed Indra, in the exhila-
ration of the (sacrificial) food, destroys his enemies.
Long be thy goad [crook], wherewith thou bestowest
wealth upon the sacrificer offering libations. With head
Priests and Rishis. 175
uplifted like a serpent, adorable, the recoverer of the
cattle, Indra, single, is superior to multitudes : (the
worshipper) brings Indra to drink the Soma by a
rapid seizure, like a loaded horse (by a halter).' ' Let
a mortal now earnestly solicit at the worship of these
Adityas unprecedented riches.' ' May the two divine
physicians, the Aswins, grant us health; may they
drive away from hence iniquity; (may they drive)
away our foes. May Agni with his fires grant us
happiness ; may the sun beam upon us felicity ; may
the unoffending wind blow us happiness ; (may they
all drive) away our foes. Adityas, remove (from us)
disease, enemies, malignity; keep us afar from sin.
Keep afar from us, Adityas, malignity, ill-will; do
you who are all-wise keep afar those who hate us.
Eadiant Adityas, grant to our sons and grandsons to
enjoy long life. We solicit of the divine protector of
the Maruts, of the Aswins, of Mitra, and of Varuna,
a spacious dwelling for our welfare. Mitra, Aryaman,
Varuna, and Maruts, grant us a secure, excellent, and
well-peopled dwelling, a threefold shelter [Triva-
rutham, a guard against heat, cold, and wet; or it
may mean, according to the scholiast, tribhumikam,
" three-storied." Sayana, therefore, did not believe
that the Eishis of the Vedic period lived in huts or
hovels]. Since, Adityas, we mortals are of kin to
death, do you benevolently (exert yourselves to) pro-
long our lives.' ' He over whose sacrifices thou pre-
sidest prospers, having his dwelling filled with male
176 The Vedic Eeligion.
offspring ; he is the effecter of his purposes through
his horses, through his wise (counsellors), his valiant
adherents. Auspicious (Agni), they have set up the
altars, have presented oblations, have expressed the
libation on a (fortunate) clay ; they have won by their
efforts infinite wealth who have placed their affection
upon thee.' ' May I propitiate thee, Agni, by wor-
shipping thee, by the gifts presented to thee, by thy
praises ; verily, Vasu, they have called thee the bene-
volent-minded ; delight, Agni, to give me wealth.
He, Agni, whose friendship thou acceptest prospers
through thy favours, granting male progeny and ample
food.' ' Agni, on whom thy other fires are dependent,
like branches (on the. stem of the tree), may I among
men, magnifying thy powers, become possessed, (like)
other votaries, of (abundant) food.' ' The magnificent
lord, the protector of the virtuous, Trasadasyu, the
son of Purukutsa, has given me five hundred brides.
The affluent Syava, the lord of kine, has given to me
upon the banks of the Suvastu a present of seventy-
three' cows.' ' The voice (of the Maruts) blends with
the songs of the [Eishis] Sobharis in the receptacle
of their golden chariot; may the mighty well-born
Maruts, the offspring of the (brindled) cow, be (gracious)
to us in regard of food, enjoyment, and kindness.
Praise, [Pdshi] Sobhari, (and attract hither) by a new
song the youthful purifying showerers, as (a plough-
man) repeatedly drags his oxen/ - ' Whatever medi-
cament there may be in the Sinlm, in the Asikni, in
Priests and Risliis. 177
the oceans, in the mountains, Maruts, who are gratified
by sacrifice, do you, beholding every sort, collect them
for (the good of) our bodies, and instruct us in their
(uses) ; let the cure of sickness (be the portion),
Maruts, of him among us who for his wickedness is
sick ; re-establish his enfeebled (frame).' *
Such is a fair specimen of the prayers and desires
of the ancient Kishis. They lived apparently like
other men. Their desires were equally worldly.
Their hearts were set on their wives, their sons
(observe no mention of daughters), their cows and
horses, abundant food, and good dwellings ; and more
especially on money, riches, wealth, or earthly pro-
sperity. Our lengthy quotations will serve another
purpose. The reader will observe the tedious repeti-
tions which are so characteristic a feature of these
hymns. The same prayers for the gratification of
the sensual, carnal, and worldly desires occur so con-
tinuously, that it is a positive pain to read any large
number of hymns at a sitting. One becomes sick of
such praises and prayers, and longs to see men and
women go about their ordinary occupations. As
Macaulay says of the Faerie Queene, we doubt whether
any heart less stout than that of a commentator, or,
1 viii. 4, 19-21 ; 5, 9, 10, 12, 15, 20, 31, 32, 36-38 ; 6, 23, 24, 41,
44, 46-48 ; 7, 13, 19, 30 ; 8, 11-17 ; 9, 2, 16, 20 ; 11, 9, 10 ; 12,
16, 33 ; 13, 22, 23 ; 14, 1-4, 13 ; 15, 3, 8 ; 16, 6 j 17, 7, 8, 10, 15 ;
18j 1, 8-11, 18-22 ; 19, 10, 18, 29, 30, 33, 36, 37 ; 20, 8, 19, 25, 26 ;
including extracts from every hymn from the 4th to the 20th, except
the 10th.
1C
178 The Veclic Religion.
we add, than that of a Sanskritist or antiquarian
enthusiast, would have held out to the end. But the
Faerie Queene is infinitely more interesting than the
Kig-Veda to the ordinary reader. There is thought,
sustained and deep, in the Faerie Queene. It is almost
altogether wanting in 9 9 per cent, of the hymns of the
Kig-Veda. In addition to adventitious circumstances
that give it a special interest of its own, the reader
has ' the satisfaction at finding it, in places, intel-
ligible,' an element that constitutes frequently the
principal pleasure connected with the study of many
foreign authors, and even of some books composed in
old forms of our mother tongues.
oYou could scarcely expect, in the circumstances,
much thought in the Veda, and your expectations are
not exceeded by the facts. But one would expect
sanctity, holy aspirations, contendings with sin, mor-
tifications of the body and its lusts, ascetic penances.
The present state of matters in India would lead one
to form such expectations, whether we refer to the
few ascetics, Vairagis, Jogis, Sunyasis, etc., met with,
or to the opinions now current in regard to these
Kishis of olden time, but the reading of large portions
of the hymns does not justify such expectations.
There is very little evidence that many Kishis, if any,
lived such a life as they are credited with.
Tedious as these repetitions are, it is necessary
that to these texts, taken at random, I should add a
few selected passages further illustrative of the Kishis'
Priests and Risliis. 179
manner of life. Take the following: ' Earning 200
cows and two cars with mares (or wives), 1 the gift
of Sudas, grandson of Devavat and son of Pijavana,
I walk about, as a priest does round a house offering
praises. The four robust, richly caparisoned brown
horses of Sudas, the son of Pijavana, standing on the
earth, carry me, son to son, onward to renown in
perpetuity.' Some think the two mares or females
mentioned above were women. Dr. Muir says that in
viii. 46, 37, 'reference is distinctly made to the gift
of a woman.' ' Let the 2 ungodly man come forward
who has received as large a present as this which
Vasa, the son of Asva, has received at the break of
to-day's dawn from the Prithusravas, the son of Kanita.
I have received the sixty thousand and ten thousand
(appropriated to) the son of Asva, two thousand
camels, ten hundreds of brown (mares), ten of (mares)
with three ruddy spots, and ten thousand cows. Ten
brown, impetuous, irresistible, swift, over-bearing steeds
of the bountiful Prithusravas, son of Kanita, cause the
circumference of the chariot wheel to whirl round.
Bestowing a golden chariot, he has shown himself a
most bountiful sage, and acquired the most extended
renown. As oxen approach the herd, so they draw
near to me. Then when he had called for a hundred
camels from amongst the grazing herd, and two thou-
1 vii. 18, 22. Wilson translates the word wives; Muir, mares.
Langlois makes the 500 brides of "Wilson 50 cows. See viii. 19, 36,
and above, pp. 161, 176.
2 viii. 46, 21-33.
180 The Vedic Religion.
sand among the white cattle, I, the Bishi, received a
hundred slaves from Balbutha, the deliverer. These
men of thine, Vayu, protected by Indra, rejoice ;
protected by the gods, they rejoice. Then that large
woman is laid away, covered with jewels, towards
Vasa, son of Asva.' ' May the opulent prince who
bestows on me speckled cows with golden housings,
never perish, gods. Over and above the thousand
speckled cows, I received a bright, large, broad shining
piece of gold. Men have exalted to the gods the
renown of the grandson of Durgaha, who was bounti-
ful to me in (bestowing) a thousand (cows).' ' Near
me stand six men, in pairs, in the exhilaration of the
Soma juice, bestowing delightful gifts. Of Indrota
I received two brown horses, from the son of Bak-
sha two tawny, and from the son of Asvamedha,
two ruddy horses. From the son of Atithigva (I
received) horses with a beautiful car, from the son of
Baksha horses with beautiful reins, and from the son
of Asvamedha horses of beautiful form. Along with
Putakrata, I obtained six horses with mares from
Indrota, the son of Atithigva. Among these brown
horses was perceived a bay mare with a stallion, and
with beautiful reins and a whip. May no mortal,
however desirous of reviling, fasten any fault upon
you, ye possessors of food.' ' Eat, Indra, our cakes
and butter. Be pleased by our praises, as a libertine
[by the caresses] of a woman. We solicit Indra for a
thousand well-trained, swift-going horses, for a hundred
Priests and RisJiis. 181
jars of Soma juice. We seek to bring down from thee
thousands and hundreds of cattle ; may riches come to
us from thee. May we obtain from thee ten golden
ewers, for thou, slayer of Vritra, art a bountiful giver/
' I, a Kishi, have solicited king Kurusravana, descendant
of Trasadasyu, the most bountiful of sages. Let me
celebrate, at the (sacrifice), attended with a thousand
gifts, (that prince) whose three tawny mares convey
me excellently in a car. Of which, father of Upamas-
ravas, the agreeable words were like a pleasant field
to him who uttered them. Attend, Upamasravas,
son (of Kurusravana), and grandson of Mitratithi I
am the encomiast of thy father. If I had power
over the immortals, or over mortals, my magnificent
(patron) should still be alive. The man, even of a
hundred years, lives not beyond the period ordained
by the gods ; so hath (every thing) continually re-
volved.' ' The Virupas, who sprang from Agni, from
the sky, Navagva, and Dasagva, who perfectly pos-
sesses the character of an Angiras, is elevated to the
gods. The sages (princes) in concert with Indra
lavished a herd of cows and of horses. Men have
exalted to the gods the renown of me Ashtakarni,
who bestowed a thousand. Let this man now mul-
tiply ; may he shoot up like a sprout, he who at once
lavishes a thousand hundred horses for a gift. No
one equals him, as no one succeeds in grasping the
summit of the sky. The largesses of the son of
Savarna have been diffused as widely as the sea.
182 The Vedic Religion.
Yadu and Turva gave two robust bondmen to serve
(me) with abundance of kine. Let not this man, the
leader of the people, who lavishes thousands, suffer
calamity. Let his largesses go on vying with the
sun. May the gods prolong the life of the son of
Savarna, from whom we, without fatiguing labour [or
without cessation], have received food.' ' I have
spoken this (in praise) of Duhsima, Prithavana, Vena,
and Eama, a god among the magnificent, who having
yoked five hundred horses for our benefit, their
(liberality) became renowned by (this) course. Over
and above this, Tanva straightway assigned, Parthya
straightway assigned, Mayava straightway assigned
(to us) here seventy-seven/ *
These Eishis were either in possession of these
enormous riches or they were not. If they were,
then their manner of life must have been luxuriant to
a degree : they must have been among the wealthiest
in the land, almost wallowing in wealth. If they
were not 2 in possession of all this wealth, then it is
clear that, with the view of increasing their own pre-
tensions and exalting their own dignity, they inserted
in their own hymns what they knew was not true.
I leave the matter undecided, and pass on to remark
1 viii. 54, 10-13 ; 57, 14-19 ; x. 33, 4-9 ; 62, 6-11 ; 93, 14-15 ;
iv. 32, 16-19.
2 Dr. Muir thinks these Rishis ' enormously exaggerated ' the value
of the presents bestowed. Oriential Studies, p. 121. He also notices
that 'in these eulogies of liberality, mention is nowhere made of
Brahmans as the recipients of the gifts. In viii. 4-20 and x. 33-4,
a Eishi is expressly mentioned as the receiver' (p. 122).
Priests and Eisliis. 183
that the Rishis' teaching or practice was not always
very holy, as would appear from one hymn, which is
understood to be a direct encouragement to theft.
Rishi Vasishtha, one of the seven most renowned,
had passed three days without being able to get any
food. On the night of the fourth he entered the
house of Varuna to steal something to eat, and had
made his way to the larder, when the dog set upon
him ; the dog was however put to sleep by the
following hymn, composed on the occasion by the
starving Pashi. At least such is Sayana's story
given in the Niti-manjari. The hymn is the 55th
of the 7th Book. The second verse, with which
I begin, is addressed to the dog, a descendant of
Sarama, 'the bitch of Indra.' The verses, we are
told, are to be recited on similar occasions by thieves
and burglars. ' White offspring of Sarama with
tawny limbs, although barking thou displayest thy
teeth against me, bristling like lances in thy gums,
nevertheless go quietly to sleep. Offspring of Sarama,
returning to the charge, attack the pilferer or the
thief : why dost thou assail the worshippers of
Indra ? Why dost thou intimidate us ? Go quietly
to sleep. Do thou rend the hog: let the hog rend
thee. Why dost thou assail the worshippers of
Indra ? Why dost thou intimidate us ? Go quietly
to sleep. Let the mother sleep, let the father sleep,
let the dog sleep, let the son-in-law sleep, let all
the kindred sleep, let the people who are stationed
184 The Vedic Ecligion.
around sleep. 1 The man who sits, or he who walks,
or he who sees us, of these we shut up the eyes, so
that they may be as unconscious as the mansion.
We put men to sleep through the irresistible might
of the bull with a thousand horns [the sun], who
rises out of the ocean. We put to sleep all these
women who are lying in the courtyard in litter or
in bed, the women who are decorated with holiday
perfumes/ or ' wearing garlands of fragrant flowers on
festival occasions, as at marriages and the like.' 2
Eishi Vasishtha must have been a bit of a wag.
He addressed the Maruts : ' Vasishtha overlooks not
the very lowest among you ; Maruts, you are desirous
of the libation, do you all drink together to-day of
our effused Soma juices ; come quickly, eager to drink
the Soma ; may the Maruts yet unrevealed, decorat-
ing their persons, descend like black-backed swans :
let the entire company gather round me like happy
men rejoicing together at a solemn rite.' 3
We have mentioned above that at least one of the
Bishis of the Eig-Veda was a woman. Another was
no less than a king ' the royal sage Trasadasyu,'
the author of hymn 42 of Book iv. 4 He was a king
of the CsBsar and Herod stamp filled with pride and
self-importance. The hymn consists of ten verses,
1 Baboo Peary Chand Mittra quotes this verse to prove that in Vedic
times ' the feeling for rest was not only for the home, but for the
neighbour ! ' Calcutta Review, January 1879, p. 171.
2 Wilson's Translation, vol. iv. pp. 122, 123.
3 vii. 59, 3-7. * Wilson's Translation, vol. iii. p. 203.
Priests and Eisliis. 185
and the first six are in his own praise. Hence,
according to the usages of the Eishis, he himself is
his own deity in these verses. The other four verses
are dedicated to Indra and Varuna. I shall give the
six verses. The Eishi speaks in the first person :
' Twofold is my empire, that of the whole Kshatriya
race and all the immortals are ours. The gods asso-
ciate me with the acts of Varuna. I rule over (those)
of the proximate form of man. I am the king
Varuna ; on me (the gods) bestow those principal
energies, (that are) destructive of the Asuras ; (they)
associate me with the worship of Varuna ; I rule over
(the acts) of the proximate form of man. I am
Indra, I am Varuna, I am those two in greatness ; (I
am) the vast, profound, beautiful, heaven and earth ;
intelligent, I give Tvashtri animation to all beings.
I uphold earth and heaven. I have distributed the
moisture-shedding waters ; I have upheld the sky as
the abode of the water ; by the water I have become
preserver of the water, the son of Aditi, illustrat-
ing the threefold elementary space. Warriors well
mounted, ardent for contest, invoke me. Selected
combatants invoke me in battle ; I, the affluent Indra,
instigate the conflict, and endowed with victorious
prowess, I raise up the dust (in the battle). I have
done all these (deeds); no one resists my divine,
unsurpassed vigour ; and when the Soma juices, when
sacred songs exhilarate me, then the unbounded heaven
and earth are both alarmed.'
186 The Vedic Religion.
It is very clear from many of the passages just
quoted that the Eishis were to all intents and purposes
priests. They not only composed hymns, on account
of which they were entitled to be regarded as Eishis
and sages, but they offered sacrifices, oblations, and
libations, as well as composed, chanted, and offered
the hymns to the divinities worshipped. They were
in these various capacities called by various titles,
such as Brahmans, vipras, vedhas, kavis, etc. On
account of its modern developments, the history of
the word Brahma has come to be of special interest.
To it I would devote a few remarks, and, first, I
notice that the original word Bralima was used in the
sense of liymn or prayer. Dr. Muir quotes as many
as 73 passages in which it is used in this sense.
Hence Brahman * in the masculine, from Brahma in
the neuter gender, means simply the person who com-
poses or repeats the hymn or prayer (the Brahma).
There are many texts in which this is the meaning
which is attached to the word Brahman. As we have
reason to believe that in the Keltic order the Bard,
the composer of the hymns, was the same person with
the Druid the priest, so the poet or Eishi was the
same with the Brahman or priest, and called indis-
criminately priest or Eishi. Afterwards, when the
duties of the priesthood were largely multiplied, the
1 ' From Bralima, Brahman was formed, its meaning being chanter
of prayers.' Peary Chand Mittra, in Calcutta Review, April 1880,
p. 726. See above, p. 116, and below, p. 192.
Priests and Risliis. 1,8 7
offices of KisM and priest became quite distinct, and
that of the priest was again subdivided among various
classes of priests. Dr. Muir quotes in full some
eleven texts in proof that the word Brahman was
used in the sense of ' contemplator, sage, or poet,' and
upwards of thirty texts in which the word is used
more in the sense of worshipper or priest, than in that
of ' sage or poet.' Then he gives more texts to show
that it came to be used in contradistinction with
other words, also meaning priests, such as hotri,
udyatri, and adlivaryu ; thus meaning a special class
of priests so called. It is worthy of notice that in
the eulogies of liberality quoted above at length,
the gifts are invariably spoken of as made to the
composers of the hymns, never to the Brahmans as
different from the Rislii. We ought also to bear in
mind that the priests, as a class, came to be recognised
in Vedic times as a profession ; and though it may
have, in course of time, come to be hereditary like the
English nobility, that was very different from its
becoming a caste in the modern sense of the term, of
which there is not a trace, as we have already shown.
We have also seen how kings were Eishis, and kings'
daughters were married by Eishis. 1
The strange thing is that some of these Eishis
seem to have been accused in their own day of being
demons, evil spirits, or Eakshasas, and worshippers of
1 See Muir's Studies, p. 126 ; and v. 27, whose Eishis were three
kings.
188 The Vedic Religion.
false gods, at least that is Dr. Muir's interpretation
of such mantras as ' Soma slays the Eakshasas, he
slays the liar, they both sleep in the fetters of Indra.
If I am either one whose gods are false, or if I have
conceived of the gods untruly, why art thou angry
with us, Yatavedas ? let slanderers fall into thy
destruction ; may I die to-day if I am a Yatudhana,
or if I have injured any man's life. Then let him be
separated from his ten sons who addresses to me the
words " Yatudhana." ' * In explanation of this
passage, Sayana refers to a Eakshasa having taken the
form of the Eishi and killed one hundred of his sons,
and that the Eishi uttered these words in the way of
protest against his being supposed to be possessed by
the demon. This again raises the question whether or
not these demons, Eakshasas, whom the Aryans and the
Aryan gods hated with such deadly hatred, were not
rivals for worship and adoration. Hence the question
has been raised, was not Eudra a demon originally,
worshipped by the aboriginal tribes ? Dr. Muir seems
to favour this view, and adds : ' His malignant, 2
homicidal, and cattle-destroying character assimilates
him to the Eakshasas and Yatudhanas. ... If, how-
ever, Eudra really represents a god or demon borrowed
by the Aryans from the aborigines, it was to be expected
that, when adopted by the former, he would be in-
1 vii. 104, 13 ; Dr. Muir's Studies, p. 136 ; vii. 34, 8 ; vii. 21, 5 ;
vi. 62, 8 ; vii. 85, 1 ; v. 42, 10.
2 iv. 3, 6 ; i. 114, 10.
Priests and Eisliis. 189
vested with the general characteristics which they
assigned to their other deities/ But we cannot enter
into this question, nor is this the place for it. It,
however, naturally leads us up to another question
of much importance, the relation of these Eishis and
Aryans generally to the aboriginal inhabitants and to
the now very popular doctrine of the fatherhood of
God. This I shall take up in the next chapter. In
the meantime, there are two or three further remarks
that I would like to make on the large body of texts
inserted in this chapter. And first,
I have not produced these texts as samples of the
prayers of the old Indo-Aryans with the sole view of
finding fault with them. I think it is a great thing
in favour of these Eishis that they had such faith in
prayer, even in prayers for temporal blessings, as most
of them are. It is a commendable circumstance in
their lives that their aspirations were towards the
gods, and that these aspirations ascended on the wings
of prayer. If their conceptions of the divine had
been higher, holier, nobler, then the very means to
raise themselves to a higher, holier, nobler platform
would be to hold continual communion by means of
prayer with that source, and to put themselves in the
position of humble petitioners before the Creator's
throne. A man cannot, day after day, besiege heaven
with petitions for blessings on what he believes is
base, mean, and wicked ; he cannot always ask for
what he believes to be contrary to the will and nature
190 The Veclic Religion.
of his god. A bad man cannot long pray to a good
god. Prayer is an element in which a bad, sensual,
wicked man cannot live, unless he believes his god to
be equally wicked or sensual. Observe further, that
the Kishis' prayers were their own. However these
prayers came to be afterwards regarded, in the Kig-
Veda they are the simple, personal soul-outpourings
of the Kishi composers. They were no forms of
prayers. The book was not a common prayer book.
Afterwards they came to be used as mere charms or
talismans. But it was not so in the beginning. The
Eishis of old clearly believed in the efficacy of prayer.
Such verses as the following are common : ' May he
[Indra] hear us, for he has ears to hear. He is asked
for riches ; will he despise our prayers ? He could
soon give hundreds and thousands ; no one could
check him if he wishes to give.' ' May the strong
mountains hear us' (iii. 54, 20). 'Even from afar
come to our feast ! or, if thou [Indra] art here, listen
to us ! ' ' Thou, wise god [Varuna], art lord of all,
of heaven and earth ; listen on thy way.' ' We pray
to the rivers, the mothers, and to the grassy moun-
tains, to the sun and the dawn, to keep us from guilt.
May the Soma juice bring us health and wealth
to-day' (x. 35, 2).
The two hymns afterwards set apart for the con-
secration of the home, being the last two of the 7th
Book, contain such petitions addressed to the guardian
spirit of the house : ' Lord of the dwelling ! bid us
Priests and RisJiis. 191
welcome hither; freedom from harm grant us, and
happy entrance ; as we approach with prayer, accept
it of us ; propitious be to bipeds and to quadrupeds. 5 1
They believed, it is very clear, in the efficacy of
prayer, and regarded their gods as prayer-hearing and
prayer -answering gods. And though their hymns
abound in repetitions, tedious repetitions, some of
them in the style of choruses or refrains to modern
hymns as in the songs and solos of Sankey, or the
Jubilee Songs there is nothing in their prayers, as
far as I am aware, of the ' Kama, Kama,' ' Hari, Hari/
' Ave Maria, Ave Maria, 5 repetitions of the modern
Hindu or the Koman Catholic, nor is there any trace
of the use of the rosaries of the Hindus or prayer
machines of the Buddhists. The prayers are partly
laudatory, and partly supplicatory. The gods are
invited to accept the sacrifices offered, or rather to
sit down and partake of them, then and there, and to
confer blessings in return. They are also largely praised
for their supposed excellences, their great deeds, their
personal appearance, or their accompaniments. Many
of the prayers conclude with doxological sentences,
like ' Let your spacious and bright-rayed chariots,
Mitra and Varuna, blaze like the sun.' ' Praise-
worthy Ushas, be glorified by this hymn.' There are
some prayers or hymns that are mere invitations to
the feast or the sacrifice, like that to Agni and the
Maruts, commencing : ' Thou art called forth to this
1 Colebrooke's Essays, vol. i. p, 112 (Whitney's translation).
192 The Vedic Religion.
fair sacrifice for a draught of milk. With the Maruts
come hither, Agni. They [the Maruts] who are
in heaven are enthroned as gods in the light of the
firmament. With the Maruts come hither, Agni/
And so it proceeds, every stanza ending with the
same invitation to Agni ' With the Maruts come
hither, Agni.'
Bralimanaspali or Brihaspati, literally meaning
' god of prayer,' is simply a deification of prayer, and
is represented of equal power with Indra or Agni, if
not, indeed, of superior power. Just as food is neces-
sary for the support of men, so it would seem to
have been the opinion of these old hymn-makers
that food was necessary to the very existence of the
gods. Prayer is put upon the same platform with
food, and is regarded as equally necessary, so neces-
sary, indeed, that without it the gods could not exist.
They would become, if not lifeless, at least powerless.
This efficacy of prayer and of other religious actions
came latterly to be regarded as equal to the dethrone-
ment of the gods. In fact, prayer is Brahma.
' Brahmana] Dr. K. M. Banerjea, in his learned and
most useful book, The Aryan Witness, expressly
states, what I believe is now universally conceded,
comes from ' Brahma/ the original meaning of which
is a verse or prayer of the Veda. Thus Brahma ^
prayer, came to be deified as the highest, the first of
all the gods of the Hindu Pantheon ; and the word is
now made to do duty for the name of a society that
Priests and Risliis. 193
claims to be monotheistic. However, as far as matters
of taste are concerned, many would prefer to fall down
and worship one of these old hymns and prayers, or
even the interrogative pronoun ' ka,' w]w, than the
gods Eama, Krishna, and Indra, as they are described
in the later mythologies of India. But we have
already referred to this point, pp. 116, 186.
Praise, we have no doubt, constituted a prominent
part of the primitive religion. When the morning
stars sang together, creation thrilled at the melody of
sound :
' From harmony, from heavenly harmony,
This universal frame began ;
Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in man.'
The song of praise, we have no doubt, was heard
among the trees of Paradise, before discord was intro-
duced through the machinations of the evil one. We
know that at the annunciation of the incarnation of
the Son, there was a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men ; '
and in the mansions of glory will be heard the voice
as of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder,
the voice of harpers harping with their harps, and
singing a new song from the throne.
' What know we of the blest above ?
But that they sing, and that they love.'
Coeval with the heavens, the destiny of sacred song
N
194 The Vedic Rdifjion.
is not like them to wax old. Throughout the whole
history of man, from his creation onwards, praise to
the Power above, the great Creator, has formed a
chief element of his religion. Choral symphonies
consecrated the worship of the Jewish temple; and
however far some Christian sects may have separated
from one another, and however far some of them may
have separated from the truth, they have all retained
the hallowing power of sacred music. There is no
sign that in the religion of the future there will be
any departure in this respect from that of the
past.
The Kishis of India were sacred singers, chanters,
hymnists, or psalmists. They composed sweet music,
words and tunes, for divine service, and they them-
selves sang them. The whole Big- Veda, from begin-
ning to end, is nothing more or less than a hymn-book
containing a thousand and seventeen hymns, each
hymn set to some particular tune, and every hymn
intended to be sung to the praise of some one or
more of the gods in whom they trusted.
So much were these ancient Eishis under the
influence of music, the sweet harmony of their own
words and sounds, that they deified their hymns and
worshipped them under the name of Brahma, just as
the poet imagines was the case with the ancient
shell.
' What passion cannot music raise and quell ?
When Jubal struck the corded shell,
Priests and Eisliis. 195
His listening brethren stood around,
And, wondering, on their faces fell
To worship that celestial sound.
Less than a god they thought there could not dwell
Within the hollow of that shell,
That spoke so sweetly and so well.'
XIV.
THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD AND BJtOTl
OF MAN.
THEEE is no doctrine that has of late years
become more popular among the more advanced
Hindus of the Presidency towns than this. Sermons,
lectures, essays, and speeches multiplied upon it. This
is specially true of the Brahmo Somaj. The doctrine
may be regarded as the foundation on which the Somaj
is built, only that of late it has assumed with some
another form the Motherhood of God, leading natur-
ally to the sisterhood of man ! God is represented as
a mother, with tender sympathizing feelings of a more
effeminate and gentle character than is supposed to
be consistent with mere fatherhood. In any case, the
favourite representation given of God is that of one
who will not punish, but will always forgive, all whose
creatures will be eternally happy, and between whom
there will be no distinctions of favour or happiness.
The great duty inculcated is to love all men without
distinction of creed, race, or nationality, and with a
love not only equal to that wherewith we love our-
selves, but infinitely excelling. And all this is said
Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man. 197
to be intuitive. That it was not the creed of the
ancient Eishis will, I think, be made very clear from
the following texts. Though the old Indo-Aryans
had not yet attained to the modern Hindu doctrine
of castes, which inculcates the idea that, even as
regards the Aryan race alone, there were three if not
four separate independent creations of men, they
undoubtedly taught that the Aryans were separately
created, and were of altogether different blood from
all other men. They are generally spoken of as
'descendants of Manu,' who is identified by some
with Noah. However this may be, the following
texts show to us very clearly that they did not
regard the non- Aryan races as brothers, nor did they
wish any good to the non-worshippers of the Aryan
gods. They wished their extirpation, their annihilation;
and they seemed to cherish neither a wish nor a hope
that they should ever be blessed in the Aryan's
religion or by the Aryan's gods. Out of a large
number of texts bearing on this subject, I quote the
following :
)( ' Distinguish between the Aryans, and those who
are Dasyas : chastising those who observe no sacred
rites, subject them to the sacrificer. Be a strong
supporter of him who sacrifices. I desire to (celebrate)
all these thy (deeds) at the festivals. Indra subjects
the impious to the pious, and destroys the irreligious
by the religious.' ' Do ye, lords of the virtuous,
slay our Aryan enemies, slay our Dasya enemies,
198 The Vedic Religion.
destroy all those who hate us.' Dr. Muir well remarks,
with regard to these and like texts, that they ' seem
to leave no doubt that the Eig-Veda recognises a
distinction between the tribe to which the authors of
the hymns belonged, and a hostile people who ob-
served different rites, and were regarded with contempt
and hatred by the superior race.' * There is no doubt
that in many passages of the Eig-Veda the words
Dasya and Dasa are applied to demons of different
orders, or goblins (Asuras, Eakshasas, etc.), but it is
equally clear that in many texts the barbarous ab-
original tribes of India are intended. Manu expressly
says : ' Those tribes in the world which are without
the pale of the castes sprung from the mouth, arms,
thighs, and feet [of Brahma], whether they speak the
language of the Mlechhas or of the Aryas, are all
called Dasyas.' 2 It is probable, therefore, that the
word Dasya, as employed generally in the Eig-Veda,
is to be understood of men, and consequently of the
wild aboriginal tribes, whom the Aryan-Indians en-
countered on their occupation of Hindustan. We see
in the passages quoted how the Eishis regarded them,
and what treatment they prayed for them from the
gods. This will appear still more in the following
texts : ' Indra, the slayer of Vritra, and destroyer of
cities, scattered the servile (hosts) of black descent.
1 i. 51, 8-9 ; vi. 60, 6 ; Muir's Sanskrit Texts, vol. ii. p. 378. See
Warrior's Hymn, vi. 75 ; "Wilson, vol. iv. pp. 22-28.
2 Manu, x. 45.
Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man. 199
He created the earth and waters for Maim.' ' Thou
hast preserved Trasudasyu, son of Purukutsa and
Puru, in fights for the acquisition of land.' ' The
deceitful, priestless Dasya has perished.' ' Kemove
from the sun the irreligious, the haters of the priest
[or of sacred rites], who increase in progeny.' ' The
Dasya, irreligious, foolish, observing other rites, and
inhuman, is against us : do thou, slayer of our
foes, subdue the strength of this Dasa.'
Frequent mention is made of the cities of the
Dasyas and of the Asuras, as in the following :
' Exhilarated, I have destroyed at once the ninety-nine
cities of Sambura : the hundredth I gave to be in-
habited, when I protected Divadasya Atithigva at the
sacrifice.' ' Indra has thrown down a hundred cities
built of stone for his worshipper Divadasa.'
What language could be stronger against one's
enemies than the following, or indicate greater
sectarian bigotry ? ' Kill all those who make no
oblations, though difficult to destroy, and who cause
thee no gladness ; give us their wealth : the worship-
per expects it.' 'Encountering those (Asuras) who
carried away Dabhiti, he burned all their weapons in
the blazing fire, and presented Dabhiti with their
cows, horses, and chariots.' 'Boot up like an ancient
tree overgrown by a creeping plant, subdue the
might of the Dasya ; may we share with Indra
(or divide by means of Indra) his collected wealth/
' This lord humbled and subjugated the roaring Dasya,
200 The Vedic Religion.
with six eyes and three heads. Trita, increasing in
strength, struck this boar with his iron-tipped finger.'
' Thou, Indra, hast hurled down the Dasyas, who, by
their magical powers, were mounting upwards, and
seeking to scale heaven.' ' Hereupon, Agni, may
Atri overcome the irreligious Dasyas ; may he over-
come hostile men.' A suggestive epithet applied to
the wild tribes infesting the seats of the Aryans is
anagnitm 'they do not keep the fire.' Thus we
read, 'Agni, drive away from us the enemies trioes
who keep no sacred fires came to attack us.' In a
famous hymn of Yasishtha we read, ' Indra and Soma,
burn the Eakshasas, destroy them, throw them down,
ye two Bulls, the people that grow in darkness.
Hew down the madmen, suffocate them, kill them,
hurl them away, and slay the voracious. Indra
and Soma, up together, against the cursing demon !
May he burn and hiss like an oblation in the fire !
Put your everlasting hatred on the villain who hates
the Brahman, who *eats flesh, and whose look is
abominable/ Agni is represented under a form as
hideous as the beings he is invoked to devour. He
sharpens his two iron tusks, puts his enemies into
his mouth and swallows them (x. 87, 2 if.). He
heats the edges of his shafts, and sends them into
the hearts of the Eakshasas. He tears their skin,
minces their members, and throws them before the
wolves to be eaten by them, or by the shrieking
vultures. These Eakshasas are themselves called
Fatherhood of Gocl and Brotherhood of Man. 201
mad, and ' worshippers of mad gods.' c A sound has
been heard by our nearest foes ; hurl upon them thy
hottest bolt [0 Indra], cut them up from beneath,
shatter them, overpower them ; kill and subdue the
Eakshasas, Maghavan ! Tear up the Eakshasas
by the roots, Indra, cut him in the midst, destroy
him at the extremities. How long dost thou delay ?
Hurl thy burning shaft against the enemy of the
priest.' ' May the man who seeks, with Eakshasas-
like atrocity, to injure us, perish by his own mis-
conduct. May they thy enemies be dead, then and
there, through the greatness of thy thunderbolt.' 1
There were three very different classes of men
most heartily hated by the Kishis (1) the aboriginal
inhabitants of the country, spoken of under various
names ; (2) the despisers of the Yedic religion, who
chiefly belonged to the preceding class ; and (3) the
niggard, illiberal Aryans, who gave no gifts or presents
to the Eishi himself, either in his capacity of a bard
or poet, or in that of priest, but <more especially the
former. The quotations already made sufficiently
illustrate his hatred of the first class. The following
will suffice for the last two classes: 'Indra, who
alone distributes riches to the sacrificing mortal, is
lord and irresistible. When will Indra crush the
1 ii. 20, 7 ; vii. 19, 3 ; iv. 16, 9 ; v. 42, 9 ; x. 22, 7, 8 ; vii. 18,
16 ; vii. 6, 3 ; iv. 26, 3 ; iv. 30, 20 ; i. 176, 4 ; ii. 15, 4 ; viii. 40,
6 ; vii. 19, 2 ; ii. 14, 4 ; x. 99, 6 ; viii. 14, 14 ; v. 7, 10 ; vii. 104,
1 ; Muir's Sanskrit Texts, vol. ii. p. 407 ; iii. 30, 15, 17 ; viii. 18,
13 ; i. 174, 4.
202 The Vcclic Religion.
illiberal man like a bush with, his foot ? When will
he hear our hymns ? ' ' Indra, who is the slayer of
him, however strong, who offers no libations.' ' Wake,
magnificent Dawn (Ushas), the men who present
offerings ; let the thoughtless niggards sleep.' ' Slay
every one who offers no oblations though difficult
to destroy who is displeasing to thee. Give us his
wealth ; the sage expects it.' ' What do ye here,
powerful (Aswins) ? Why do ye sit in the house of
any man who offers no sacrifice, and yet is honoured ?
Assail, wear away the breath of the niggard, and
create light for the sage who desires to praise you.'
' This impetuous and heroic Indra regards, as pecu-
liarly his own, the cooked oblation of the devout
Soma offerer ; he is not the relation, or friend, or
kinsman of the man who offers no libations ; he
destroys the prostrate irreligious man. Let the
niggards sleep in gloom, and the regardless in the
midst of darkness.' ' Indra desires no support from
five or from ten (allies) ; he consorts not with the
man who offers no libation, however flourishing ; but
overwhelms and at once destroys such a person,
whilst he gives the godly man a herd of kine as his
portion.' 'Whoever, Maruts, regards himself as
superior to us, or reviles our worship when performed,
may scorching calamities light upon him ; may the
sky consume that hater of devotion. Why, Soma,
do they call thee the protector of devotion or our
preserver from imprecation ? Why dost thou see us
Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man. 203
reviled ? ' ' Hurl thy burning bolt against the hater
of devotion, wise deity ; pierce the hearts of the
niggards with a probe ; and then subject them to us.
Pierce them with a goad, Pushan ; seek (for us)
that which is dear to the heart of the niggard ; and
then subject them to us. With that prayer -pro-
moting probe which thou boldest, burning Pushan,
penetrate and tear the heart of every (such man)/
In regard to the first verse of hymn viii. 83, Dr. Muir
remarks that Indra and Varuna are said to have
slain both the Dasya and Arya enemies of Sudas.
His enemies were therefore in part Aryans, and the
ten kings alluded to in the sixth verse were no doubt
of this race. And yet it is to be observed that in
v. 7 they are described as ' unsacrificing.' It would
seem, therefore, that there were Aryan kings who did
not worship Indra and Varuna.
We supply a few further texts from Dr. Muir :
' The gods love a man who offers oblations ; they
do not approve sleep. The active obtain delight.'
' Let not violent fools, let not deriders insult thee.
Love not the haters of devotion.' ' Let us praise
Indra truly, not falsely. Great destruction overtakes
the man who offers no libations, whilst he who offers
them has many lights.' ' Let our hymns exhilarate
thee ; give us wealth, Thunderer. Slay the haters
of devotion. Crush with thy foot the niggards who
bestow nothing. Thou art great ; no one equals thee.'
'Let the godless man who performs no rites, and
204 The Vedic Religion.
sleeps an incessant sleep, destroy by his own acts the
wealth which sustains him ; k sever him from it.' ' I
slay the man who utters no praises, who is an enemy
of truth, a sinner, and empty.' ' May the (worshippers)
who constantly bring thee to the sacrifices slay the
boasters (or talkers) who give no presents.' ' What-
ever godless man, whether Dasya or Aryan, much
lauded Indra, seeks after us to vanquish us, let these
enemies be easy for us to overcome ; through thee
may we slay them in the conflict.' This passage
shows that Aryans, as well as Dasyas, were charged
with being deniers of the Aryan gods, unless we are
to consider the term ' godless ' as employed, as in
modern times, to describe persons who were practi-
cally, though not theoretically, atheists. We end
these texts with the following pretty strong one as
to the way in which Indra would treat ' the rich
man who offered to him no oblation : ' ' Maghavat
(i.e. Indra) grasps him in his fist, and slays the haters
of devotion though unsolicited.' 1
.^pAs far as we have seen, there is no trace to be
found in the hymns of the Eig-Veda of the doctrine
of the Fatherhood of God or the Brotherhood of man.
There is no trace of such a close and endearing
relation between the gods generally, or any god in
particular, and the human family, as to entitle any
1 i. 84, 7 ; i. 101, 4 ; i. 124, 10 ; i. 176, 4 ; i. 182, 3 ; 25, 6 ; iv.
51, 3 ; v. 34, 4 ; vi. 62, 2-3 ; vi. 53, 58 ; viii. 2, 18 ; viii. 45, 23 ;
viii. 51, 12 ; viii. 53, 1, 2 ; viii. 85, 3 ; x. 27, 1 ; x. 32 ; x. 38, 3 ;
x. 160, 4. Muir's Oriental Studies, p. 134.
Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man. 205
of them to be called the Father of the children of
men. The terms father and son are used to illustrate
the relation of the god and the sacrificer, but only in
the way of the latter praying that the god should
confer some favour upon him, or treat him as a father
treats a son. As to the brotherhood of man, there is
no trace of it as far as I am aware, while there is
abundant evidence, as we have seen, of an intense
hostility cherished towards the non- Aryan tribes, as
also towards some Aryans like the Iranians of the
Zend-Avesta, an hostility which has come down in
all its strength to the present day among orthodox
Hindus. There was not the very best of feelings
even among the Eishis towards one another. There
are unmistakable references in the hymns to a deadly
feud between Eishi Vasishtha and Eishi Visvamitra,
and of a curse laid on the former by the latter. It
is even said that the curse took effect, and that
Vasishtha was changed into a starling, who, in turn,
cursed his enemy and changed him into a crane. 1
The horizon of the Eishi is confined almost invari-
ably to himself. He prays for the happiness of neither
wife nor child, not for the good of his village or his
clan, nor yet for his nation or people. His eye is
shut to the sufferings of his fellows. He manifests no
common joys, any more than common sorrows. He
does not look forward upon a more hopeful state of
things. He knows of no promised Eedeemer of the
1 See "Weber's History of Indian Literature, p. 37.
206 The Vedic Edigion.
nation or race. There is some enthusiasm manifested
in beholding the storm gods, the rivers, and the
mountains ; none at the manifestations of righteousness
and judgment and mercy. The Eishi is always in
the outer courts of the temple, never in the inner or
holy place of the Most High. In the Veda you have
what may be called the earthly poetry of religion, but
the downright serious grave religion of the Bible and
of modern times is wanting. In reading Shelley's
poem to the West Wind, I could not help being
struck by the resemblance in form and spirit to the
Vedic hymns. The Kishis heard the voice of their
gods in the wind and the fire and the storm, but
never in the still small voice. The only combinations
into which these Indo-Aryans seem to have entered,
were those of war. We read of very little even of
that kind, very little of generals or leaders of armies,
or of great pitched battles. Yet the lives they led
seems to have been one continuous state of war, ever
ready to avail themselves of any opportunity of
making reprisals on their enemies. There was a
recognition of a common relationship between all the
Arya'ns as such, as descended from one common
father Manu. The rest of the human race seem to
have been regarded as altogether outside the pale of
mercy or the ordinary demands of humanity.
How different is all this from the religion which
represents all men as descended from one pair and
made of one blood, which teaches all men to hope
Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man. 207
that the time is coming when the seed of the woman
will crush the serpent's head, and when all the nations
of the earth will be blessed in Him, the sum of all
whose commandments is 'love God and love thy
neighbour,' the latter term including the despised
and contemned whether because of race or of religion,
which teaches us to honour all men, and even to love
our enemies and to bless them that curse us, and
which commands its followers to go forth and disciple
all creatures, announcing the glorious news to all
men that God has loved the world with so great a love
that he has given his own, his only-begotten Son, to
the death, that all who believe in him may not perish,
but have life everlasting in him! Even M. Eenan,
who cannot be accused of being partial to either Jew or
Christian, could say ' What characterised the Jew
above all, what had always been his profound belief,
was his confidence in a brilliant and happy future for
mankind.' *
o I n regard to this subject there is one bright spot
in modern Hinduism for which I must make space.
And I cannot do better than give an account of it in
the words of Dr. W. W. Hunter. I refer to a slight
approach to the idea of the Brotherhood of man and
the Fatherhood of God as illustrated at the Temple
of Jagannath in Orissa, at least in theory, though in
practice we have really only an illustration of, and a
return to, the Vedic state of things. Dr. Hunter
1 Hibbert Lectures, 1880.
208 The Vedic Religion.
writes: 1 ' The true source of Jagannath's undying
hold upon the Hindu race consists in the fact that he
is the god of the people. As long as his towers rise
upon the Puri sands, so long will there be in India
a perpetual and visible protest of the equality of man
before God. His apostles penetrate to every hamlet
of Hindustan preaching the sacrament of the Holy
Food. 2 The poor outcast learns that there is a city
on the far eastern shore where high and low eat
together. In his own village, if he accidentally
touches the clothes of a man of good caste, he has
committed a crime, and his outraged superior has to
wash away the pollution before he can partake of
food or approach his god. In some parts of the
country the lowest castes are not permitted to build
within the towns, and their miserable hovels cluster
amid heaps of broken potsherds and dunghills on the
outskirts. Throughout the southern part of the
continent it used to be a law, that no man of these
degraded castes might enter the village before nine in
the morning or after four in the evening, lest the
slanting rays of the sun should cast his shadow across
the path of a Brahmin. But in the presence of
the Lord of the world priest and peasant are equal.
The rice that has once been placed before the god
can never cease to be pure, or lose its reflected
1 Orissa, vol. i. p. 85.
2 Mahaprasad, rice offered to Jagannatli and then eaten by tho
pilgrims and others.
Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man. 209
sanctity. In the courts of Jagannath, and outside
the Lion Gate, 100,000 pilgrims every year are
joined in the sacrament of eating the holy food. The
lowest may demand it from, or give it to, the highest.
Its sanctity overleaps all barriers, not only of caste,
but of race and hostile faiths ; and I have seen a
Puri priest put to the test of receiving the food from
a Christian's hand.' ' " God's pity," says the chief
apostle of Jagannath, "knows neither family nor
tribe." ' Such is the ancient doctrine, still preached.
The following, from the same pen, 1 is a statement of
the present practice: 'It would be well for Jagan-
nath if these old calumnies were the only charges
which his priests had to answer. Lascivious sculp-
tures disfigure his walls, indecent ceremonies disgrace
his ritual, and dancing girls with rolling eyes put the
modest female worshippers to the blush. . . . But
these are not the sole corruptions of the faith. The
Temple of Jagannath, that colluvio religionum in which
every creed obtained an asylum, and in which every
class and sect can find its god, now closes its gates
against the low- caste population. . . . Speaking
generally, only those castes are shut out who retain
the flesh-eating and animal-life-destroying propensities
of the aboriginal tribes. A man must be a very
pronounced non- Aryan to be excluded. Certain of
the low castes, such as the washermen and potters,
may enter half-way, and, standing humbly in the
1 Orlssa, vol. i. p, 135.
210 The Vcdic Religion.
court outside the great temple, catch a glimpse of the
jewelled god within. But unquestionable non-
Aryans, like the neighbouring hill tribes or forest
races, and the landless servile castes of the lowlands,
cannot go in at all. . . . Criminals who have been
in jail and women of bad character, except the
privileged girls, are also excluded.' Here we have
the hatred of 3000 years' standing towards the non-
Aryan races in much of its strength, and that where
one would least expect it.
XV.
\MIRACLES, CREATION, DELUGE, ETC.
BEFORE concluding these notes, there are various
other things on which a few remarks might be
made, such as miracles, creation, the deluge, etc. % j
The miracles referred to are not many, nor are they
very edifying. Indra is eulogized for having made a
mare bring forth a calf, the young of a cow. His
killing the pregnant wives of Krishna? I suppose
the black non-Aryans, could scarcely be regarded as
a miraculous act. Miracles are more associated in the
Rig with the doings of the Aswins and Ribhus, whose
exploits are catalogued in a number of hymns, 2 some
of them of more than usual length. The former
healed of leprosy the unmarried Ghosha, while ad-
vanced in years. Yet, singularly enough, there is no
direct allusion to her leprosy in the hymns, one of
which runs : ' You bestowed, Aswins, a husband upon
Ghosha, growing old and tarrying in her father's
dwelling.' Further on, in the same hymn, 3 she is
supposed to be spoken of in the words : ' You,
(Aswins), have made whole the maimed ; therefore
1 Wilson, vol. i. p. 260. 2 i. 113-120. 3 i. 117, 7.
212 The Vedic Religion.
has the intelligent (Ghosha) called upon you.' In
another hymn 1 there seems to be a more direct allusion
to her leprosy: 'The son of Usy addresses to you
(Aswins) audible praises, in like manner as Ghosha
praised you for the removal of her white-tinted skin.'
The story is that the Aswins restored her to youth and
beauty, so that she obtained a husband. A similar
miracle is said to have been performed by them upon
Eishi Sayana, whom they cured of black leprosy, and
to whom they afterwards gave ' a lovely bride.' Some
others of their miraculous doings are referred to in
the words : ' You have restored milk to the cow ;
you have brought down the prior mature (secretion)
into the unripe (or barren udder) of the cow. The
devout offerer worships you ... as vigilant in the
midst of the ceremony, as a thief in the midst of a
thicket. You rendered the heat as soothing as sweet
butter to Atri.' 2 Another miracle of theirs recounted
to their praise is : ' You constructed a pleasant sub-
stantial winged bark, borne on the ocean waters, for
the son of Tugra, . . . and you made a path for him
across the great waters. Four ships launched into
the midst of the receptacle (of the waters), sent by
the Aswins, brought safe to shore the son of Tugra,
who had been cast headlong into the waters, and
plunged into inextricable darkness. What was the
tree that was stationed in the midst of the ocean to
which the supplicating son of Tugra clung ? ' 3 Tugra had
1 i. 122, 5. 2 i. 181, 3. 3 i. 182, 5.
Miracles, Creation, Deluge, etc. 213
been much annoyed by enemies residing in a distant
island. He sent his son with an army against them,
but the vessel was foundered in a gale. The Aswins,
Tugra's friends, assisted as recorded above. Else-
where 1 the same Aswins are spoken of as those ' who
gave milk to the barren cow,' who raised up from the
water Eebha who had been cast bound into a well,
who rescued Antaka when cast by the Asuras into a
deep pool, who enriched Suchanti and gave him a
handsome habitation, and rendered the scorching heat
pleasurable to Atri, who enabled the lame Paravrji to
walk, the blind Eijraswas to see, and the cripple
Srona to go, and who set free the quail when seized
by a wolf. Atri is said to have been enclosed in a
cave, having a hundred doors, at all of which fires of
chaff were kindled. The Aswins poured cold water
on the fires, and thus the heat was made pleasurable
to him. So says Sayana. The quail may have been
with equal ease liberated. But we are told in the
same hymn of still stranger exploits ! They enabled
the opulent Vispala, when she was unable to move,
to go to the battle rich in a thousand spoils, and
they enabled Eishi Trisoka to recover his stolen
cattle. "We need not wonder at the frequent mention
made of the stolen cattle of Eishis, when we remember
the large numbers, according to their own statements,
which they possessed. But more than all this, they
' encompassed the sun, when afar off, to extricate him
1 i. 112, 8.
214 The Vedic Religion.
from an eclipse.' They protected Kali when he had
taken a wife, and Prithi when he had lost his horse ;
they caused the royal Eishi Pathawan to shine with
strength of form in battle, like a blazing fire piled up
with fuel ; and preceded the gods to the cavern to
recover the stolen cattle, a feat similar to that ascribed
to Indra. They gave a wife to Vimada, recovered
the ruddy kine, and conferred excellent wealth upon
Sudas. Such, among less important ones, are the
great feats of the Aswins as recorded by Eishi Kutsa
in the 112th hymn. The Eishi speaks from experi-
ence, for among the exploits he records, rather
indefinitely it must be admitted, that they ' protected
Kutsa,' how, when, or where we are not informed.
In the same vague manner, he adds that they ( pro-
tected the devout Kakshivat.' Kakshivat, however,
speaks for himself at great length, but almost in the
same words with his brother Eishi. He has devoted
five hymns, two of them of unusual length, to the
glorification of the Aswins. They are the 116th to
the 120th inclusive. The feats are very much the
same, but with additions or other variations. Thus
Kakshivat tells us that the Aswins not only ' gave a
bride to the youthful Vimada,' but that they ' bore
her away in their car, outstripping the rival host.'
So he tells us that Tugra sent his son to sea ' as a
dying man parts with his riches ; but the Aswins
brought him back in vessels of their own, floating
over the ocean and keeping out the waters.' Nay
Miracles, Creation, Deluge, etc. 215
more, ' that three nights and three days, they con-
veyed him in three rapid revolving cars, having a
hundred wheels, and drawn by six horses along the
dry bed of the ocean to the shore of the sea.' Still
further, he tells them that this exploit they achieved
' in the ocean, where there is nothing to give support,
nothing to rest upon, nothing to cling to,' yet they
brought Tugra's son ' sailing in a hundred-oared ship
to his father's house.' To another royal Eishi they
gave ' a white horse, through the possession of which
he was always victorious over his enemies.' This
horse was ' always to be invoked.' To the composer
himself they ' filled from the hoof of their vigorous
steed, as if from a cask, a hundred jars of wine.'
One of the most extraordinary miracles recorded is,
in one hymn, attributed to the Aswins, in another it
is ascribed to the Maruts. They are said to have, in
some mysterious unintelligible manner, ' raised up the
well, and made the base, which had been turned
upwards, the curved mouth, so that the water issued
for the beverage of the thirsty Gotama, the offerer.'
Another miracle, scarcely less extraordinary, was ' the
stripping off from the aged Chyavana his entire skin,
as if it had been a coat of mail,' and giving him a
new one, that of a young man, and ' constituting him
the husband of many maidens.' But, in the opinion
of the Eishi, these were nothing comparable to their
extricating Vendana from a well. This last is spoken
of as ' a glorious exploit, one to be celebrated, and to
216 The Vedic Religion.
be adored ; ' yet apparently this was to be done simply
' with the view of acquiring wealth.' Another miracle,
suggestive of modern mechanical skill and of Miss
Kilmansegge's experience, is in these words : ' The
foot of the wife of Khela was cut off, like the wing
of a bird, in an engagement by night ; immediately
the Aswins gave her an iron leg that she might walk,
the hidden treasure of the enemy being the object of
the conflict.' These and many more wonderful things,
Kakshivat tells them, they did, some of them while
driving ' in their chariot, to which the bull and the
porpoise were yoked together.' ' Thus, Aswins,' the
Eishi ends his hymn, 1 ' have I declared your exploits ;,
may I become the master of this place, having abun-
dant cattle and a numerous progeny, and retaining
rny sight, and enjoying a long life ; may I enter old
age, as a master enters his house.' These must
suffice as specimens of the exploits of the ever young
and beautiful Aswins, the swift sons of the sun, the
phj'Sicians of Swarga.
!? I must not, however, forget the miracles of the
Pdbhus, as it was because of them and their prayers
that they were deified. 2 These are not very numerous,
nothing like those of the Aswins. The first men-
tioned is the ' making fourfold the ladle for the
sacrificial viands which the Asura [Tvashtri] 3 had
1 i. 116. 2 See above, pp. 47, 127, 211.
3 This word Asura has given much trouble to Vedic commentators,
from Sayana to Dr. K. M. Banerjea. In all modern Sanskrit litera-
Miracles, Creation, Deluge, etc. 217
made single/ Another is, as in other hymns, 1 that
they ' covered the cow with a hide and re-united the
mother with the calf.' The story is that a certain
Eishi's cow had died, leaving a calf motherless. The
Eishi prayed to the Eibhus, who immediately formed
a living cow, and covered it with the skin of the dead
one, from which the calf imagined it to be its own
mother. In some parts of the world the custom still
prevails of killing the calf, and filling its skin with
straw, and making the cow believe it to be its own
living calf. This is with the view of prevailing on
her to supply her milk. Such calf's are called Tul-
chans. Again we read : ( Through their good works/
the same Eibhus, as we are told in the same hymn,
' rendered their aged parents young/ or, as it is ex-
ture it means a demon, an evil spirit, an enemy of the gods or Daevas.
And this is its meaning in many parts of the Rig-Veda. Yet here
the good god Tvashtri is called an Asura, and in other places,
Varuna, Indra, Prajapati, Mitra, Rudra, Agni, Pushan, and, in fact,
all the gods are called Asuras. The Zend-Avesta also calls the
Supreme Being Asura or Ahura. Dr. Banerjea has entered very
fully into the whole subject in an article in the Bengal Magazine for
April and May 1880. He thinks the word was got from the Assyrians,
with whom it meant the supreme God. "While the Iranians or
Parsis and the Indo-Aryans or Hindus were on good terms with one
another and with the Assyrians, the word was adopted and used for
God. Then those hymns of the Rig-Yeda using the word in the
good sense were composed. After a time the Indo- Aryans fell out
with both the Assyrians and the Iranians, and a fierce mutual hatred,
as the hymns bear witness, was the result. Then the word, as
applicable to the Assyrians and to their god or gods, came to be used
in a bad sense, and have continued to be so used by the Hindus to
the present day.
1 i. 20, 110, 111, 161.
218 The Vedic Religion.
pressed in the following hymn, ' they gave youthful
existence to their parents.'
These must suffice as specimens of the Eibhus'
miraculous displays of power. There is a miracle
recorded of Indra's power at the expense of his
omniscience ; ' Indra, finding it impossible to discover
his friend's stolen cows because of darkness, caused
the sun to rise that he might see them.' *
Who should have the credit (?) of the miracle
recorded at length in hymn iv. 18, 2 whether Indra,
Aditi, or the Eishi Vamadeva ? It is difficult to say.
Indeed, all three are both the deities and the Eishis
of the hymn, and I suppose all alike claim a share in
the miracle. The hymn opens by a remonstrance
from Indra to the Eishi, who is represented as in his
mother's womb, protesting against being born in the
usual way. 'Indra speaks: "This is the old and
recognised path by which all the gods are born ; so,
when full grown, let him be born in the same
manner. Let him not cause the loss of this his
mother." The Eishi answers: "Let me not come
forth by this path, for it is difficult of issue ; let me
come forth obliquely from the side. Many acts
unperformed by others are to be accomplished by
me. . . . Indra has asserted that it will cause the
death of rny mother. Let me not proceed by the
usual way, but proceed quickly, according to my will.
In the dwelling of Tvashtri, Indra drank the costly
1 viii. 78, 7. 2 Wilson, vol. iii. p. 153.
Miracles, Creation, Deluge, etc. 219
Soma from the vessels of the offerer." ' This the
Eishi had advanced as something irregular on the
part of Indra, and therefore justifying an irregu-
larity on the part of the Eishi. Indra's mother,
Aditi, who had also been sent for, to plead with the
unreasonable Eishi, ' speaks : " What irregular act
has he (Indra) committed whom I, his mother, bore
for a thousand months and for many years ? There
is no analogy between him and those who have been
or will be born. Deeming it disreputable that he
should be brought forth in secret [i.e. in the privacy
of the lying-in chamber], his mother endowed Indra
with extraordinary vigour ; therefore, as soon as born,
he sprung up of his own accord, invested with splen-
dour, and filled both heaven and earth." ' On this
the Eishi breaks out in praise of Indra : ' Vameda
speaks " Exulting, the youthful mother brought thee
forth. Exulting, Kushava [a Eakshasi whom Indra,
although at first swallowed by her, drove out of the
lying-in chamber] swallowed thee. Exulting, the
waters gave delight to the infant. Indra, exulting,
rose up to his strength ; ... as a heifer bears a calf,
his mother, Aditi, bore Indra, mature in years. . . .
Who has made thy mother a widow? Who has
sought to slay the sleeping and the waking ?
What deity has been more gracious than thou, since
thou hast slain thy father, having seized him by the
foot." ' It is difficult to say what the allusion here
is, but it would seem to say that Indra slew his own
220 The Vedic Religion.
father, just as Saturn mutilated and slew his father.
The . Eishi ends the hymn very sadly : ' In extreme
destitution I have cooked the entrails of a dog; I
have not found a comforter among the gods ; I have
beheld my wife disrespected ; then the falcon (Indra)
has brought to me sweet water.' It is not easy to
see what earthly connection exists between this last
verse and the preceding dialogue carried on between
the Eishi in the womb on the one hand, and Indra
and Aditi on the other. Did the Eishi in the cir-
cumstances lose caste after cooking, and no doubt
eating, the entrails of the dog ? Another interesting
fact connected with this hymn is that the story on
which it is founded, absurd as it is, is in accord with
that of the birth of Sakya, the founder of Buddhism.
But I must hurry on.
The Eishis' view of the great miracle of Creation,
and the legend current at the time, I have already
given. 1 But I would here add Dr. K. M. Banerjea's
valuable remarks on the hymn. 2 He asserts that the
things which Moses recognised as characterising the
earth at its creation, ' are all mentioned in the above
hymn. "Darkness there was." "This universe was
undistinguishable water." " The abyss " or deep,
identified with the water, was also allowed. The
productive " energy above," and " nature beneath," in
the Yeda, were an apt representation of the Spirit
moving upon the face of the waters. Here, then, we
1 See above, pp. 129, 130. 2 Aryan Witness, p. 126.
Miracles, Creation, Deluge, etc. 221
find the elementary existences mentioned by Moses
all confirmed in the hymn. And it is in this con-
firmation that the best part of the hymn consists.
As to the rest, we can only admire it as a candid
recognition of the shortcomings of human nature, and
a confession of the apostolical adage, The world
by wisdom knew not God. We cannot, however,
absolutely admire this ignorance or scepticism on the
very foundation of all religion. There cannot be
any religion in man, unless it has for its basis the
relation of the creature to the Creator. But when a
philosopher doubts whether there was any creation at
all, or whether any supreme intelligence himself
created it, and again whether he knew anything on
the subject, we cannot recognise in it anything to
laud or admire. "We can only exclaim with the
apostle, " Where is the wise ? Where is the scribe ?
Where is the disputer of this world ? Hath not God
made foolish the wisdom of this world ? "
In the hymns of the Big-Veda themselves there
is no distinct account of the Deluge, but there are
expressions which are suggestive of the story given
in the Satqpatlia, the most complete and systematic,
as well as the most important, of all the BraJimanas.
The story may have been known to the ancient Eishi
authors of the Eig, though they make no direct allusion
to it. As translated by Dr. Muir, it runs as follows :
' In the beginning they brought to Manu water for
washing, as men are in the habit of bringing it to
222 The Vedic Religion.
wash with the hands. As he was thus washing,
a fish came into his hands, which spake to him
" Preserve me ; I shall save thee." Manu inquired,
" From what wilt thou save me ? " The fish replied,
3 "A flood shall sweep away all these creatures ; from
*) , it will I rescue thee." Manu asked, "How shall
ffi thy preservation be effected ? " The fish said : " So
long as we are small we are in great peril, for fish
devour fish; thou shalt preserve me first in a jar.
When I grow too large for the jar, then thou shalt dig a
trench, and preserve me in that. When I grow too large
for the trench, then thou shalt carry me away to the
ocean, I shall then be beyond the reach of danger."
Straightway he became a large fish ; for he waxed to
the utmost. He said : " Now in such and such a year,
then the flood will come ; thou shalt therefore con-
struct a ship, and resort to me ; thou shalt embark in
the ship when the flood rises, and I shall deliver thee
from it." Having thus preserved the fish, Manu
carried him away to the sea. Then in the same year,
which the fish had enjoined, he constructed a ship,
and resorted to him. When the flood rose, Manu
embarked in the ship. The fish swam towards him.
He fastened the cable of the ship to the fish's horn.
By this means he passed over this northern mountain.
The fish said: "I have delivered thee; fasten the
ship to a tree. But lest the water should cut thee
off whilst thou art on the mountain, as much as the
water subsides, so much shalt thou descend after it."
Miracles, Creation, Deluge, etc. 223
He accordingly descended after it as much as it sub-
sided. Wherefore also this, viz. " Mann's descent,"
is the name of the northern mountain. Now the
flood had swept away all these creatures ; so Manu
alone was left here. Desirous of offspring, he lived
worshipping, and toiling in arduous religious rites.
Among these he also sacrificed with the paka [proper]
offering. He cast clarified butter, thickened milk,
whey and curds, as an oblation, into the waters.
Thence in a year a woman [called Ida] was produced.' *
The rest of the story I give in Monier Williams'
versified translation :
1 She came to Manu ; then he said to her,
"Who art thou?" She replied, "I am thy
daughter."
I He said, " How, lovely lady, can that be ? "
" I came forth," she rejoined, " from thine oblations
Cast on the waters ; thou wilt find in me
A blessing, use me in the sacrifice."
With her he worshipped, and with toilsome zeal
Performed religious rites, hoping for offspring.
Thus were created men, called sons of Manu.
Whatever benediction he implored
With her, was thus vouchsafed in full abundance/
As this legend, though I believe older in itself
than the hymns, is not found in any of them, I shall
not stay to point out its significancy from a Christian
point of view.
1 Muir's Texts, vol. i, p, 183.
XVI.
CONCLUSION.
FROM our survey of the various articles of belief,
and religious and moral practices referred to
in the Big- Veda Sanhita, one can easily see that the
Vedic religion can make no claim on the allegiance
of any intelligent Aryan of the present day. T *
: l.j Its representations of the divine are always
defective, generally false, and sometimes in the highest
degree revolting. Such is the character of Agni (see
above, p. 200) and of ' Mighty Eudra, with the braided
hair, the destroyer of heroes' 1 (as given at p. 188).
Even the ridiculousness of some of the descriptions is
enough to condemn them. That given of frogs may
be regarded as a satire, but no one, as far as I am
aware, regards the hymn (iii. 8) dedicated to sacri-
ficial posts as a satire, though about equally ridiculous.
The hymn commences, ' Vanaspati [the post of
wood to which the victim is tied], the devout anoint
thee with sacred butter at the sacrifice, and whether v
thou standest erect, or thine abode be on the lap of
this thy mother (earth), grant us riches Be
1 "Wilson, vol. i. p. 300.
Conclusion. 22 5
exalted, Vanaspati, upon this sacred spot of earth,
being measured with careful measurement, and bestow
food upon the offerer of the sacrifice. . . . May those
posts bestow upon us wealth with progeny.' The
hymn ends with the doxological prayer : ' Arrayed in
bright garments, entire in their parts, these pillars
ranging in rows like swans have come to us erected
by pious sages on the east of the fire ; they proceeded
resplendent on the path of the gods. Entire in all
parts and girded with rings, they appear upon the
earth like the horns of horned cattle, hearing their
praises by the priests : may they protect us in battle.
Yanaspati, mount up with a hundred branches, that
we may mount with a thousand, thou whom the
sharpened hatchet has brought for great auspicious-
ness.' Or take the deification of doors in the words :
' Let the great divine doors, the promoters of worship,
holy, and dear to many, stand open, without touching
each other' (i. 142, 6). In the preceding stanza the
sacrificial grass is honoured in the same manner.
Again, Pushan is addressed (iv. 30, 24), 'May the
toothless deity bestow the desired wealth,' because at
Daksha's sacrifice his teeth had been knocked out by
Virbhadra's followers. Further, the implements of
war are worshipped in a hymn specially dedicated
to the arrow. 'Weapons, persons, and implements
employed in war are considered as the deities,' is the
heading given to the hymn by Professor Wilson.
The arrow has a feathery wing, and the horn of the
p
-*7
r
226 The Veilic Religion.
deer for its point, c bound to it with the sinews of the
cow.' It is addressed : ' Arrow, whetted by charms,
fly when discharged; go, light amongst the adver-
saries ; spare not one of the enemy.' The concluding
prayer is not very Christian : ' Whoever, whether an
unfriendly relative or a stranger, desires to kill us,
may all the gods destroy him : prayer is my best
armour.'
Then, besides, there are such extraordinary incon-
sistencies as to who these gods are, and what their
relation to one another. Angiras, for example, is in
some texts identified with Agni, in others he is
represented as the father of Agni, and, yet again, in
others as his son. 1 Such instances could be greatly
multiplied, and others may be culled from the pre-
ceding pages.
The ridiculous manner in which the gods are
addressed, or speak of themselves, is very damaging
to the claims of the Eig-Veda. Vasishtha addresses
Indra ' desirous of milking thee like a milch cow at
pasture, Vasishtha has let loose his prayers to thee.' 2
And his goddess queen Indrani cries out, 'This
mischievous creature treats me with disdain, as if I
had no husband or sons, and yet I am the wife of
Indra, and the mother of a hero,' etc. In the same
hymn she is spoken of ' as the most fortunate of all
these females, for never at any future time shall her
husband die from decay.' 3 Poor Indrani, both she
1 i. 1, G; 33, 1. 2 vii. IS, 4. 3 x. 86, 6.
Conclusion. 227
and her husband have been dead for many ages, and
embalmed in the pages of the Eig-Veda. Indra seems
to have had more than one wife. In iv. 16, 10, he
is said to have conquered the enemies of the royal
Eishi Kutsha, and thereafter to have brought Kutsha
to his (Indra's) palace, and Sachi, the wife of Indra,
could not tell which of the two was her husband, as
they were both exactly alike. 1
Nothing, indeed, could appear more degrading to the
divine nature than some of the pictures given of the
gods and goddesses of the Vedic Aryans, unless it be
those given by their successors, the Puranic Hindus.
The Eig-Veda consists very largely of just the deified
forces of nature figured by a depraved imagination,
and frequently fired by the worst of passions. And
we are asked to fall down and worship these, simply
because there are to be found in them various con-
flicting ideas of God, or in the worship some traces of
a pure conception and of a holy worship. Why, such
polytheism may be worse than atheism, as Professor
Blackie shows. ' That man,' says he, ' is a traitor and
a rebel, not only who pastes a public proclamation up
in the market-place that the king has no right to
reign, but much more rather the man who refuses to
pay the taxes, disdains the accepted tokens of homage
and draws his sword for the head of his own clan,
and in the cause of his own kinship only, not for the
head of the State. So, if the celebrated Macdonald
1 Wilson, vol. iii. p. 148.
228 The Vedic Religion.
of the Isles lost his haughty position in the Hebridean
seas, was fined of his lordship, and swept all his clan
with himself into ruin, as the natural issue of reiterated
attempts to shake off the legitimate authority of the
monarch to whom he had sworn fealty, in the same
way it may be in the religious world, that if any
people prostrate themselves before gods which are no
ods. and whose intervention hinders the true God
i5 '
from being seen and recognised, they may be guilty
of a conduct which is practically as bad, or even
worse, than absolute atheism.' Such is the conduct
of those who set up Indra, Agni, or Brahma to be
worshipped, simply because they are Indian, and
consequently ' National,' and thus prevent the people
from knowing and worshipping the one true God.
Such a religion may in certain circumstances be
worse than no religion. The Hindu conception of the
Divine Being has oscillated between the base low
gods of mythology and the merely absolute, uncon-
ditioned, unconscious existence of metaphysics ; and
both conceptions prevent our seeing the holy, just,
and good Father and Ruler of the universe. Both
are consequently to be condemned and to be warned
against.
The presence and the character of the Vedic god-
desses increase the difficulties. Though Indrani be
the wife of Indra and the mother of heroes, she does
not command much respect.
2. There is about an equally erroneous conception
Conclusion. 229
of man, his duties and his relations to other men. In
the Veda, mail is generally looked upon as essentially
of this world. He is constantly represented as taken
up with the things of this world, what he sees, hears,
tastes, and feels in it, the glowing of the fire, the
flashing of the lightning, the howling of the storm,
the rushing of the wind, the splash of the rain, the
rising and setting of the sun, the dawning and gloam-
ing of the day, the -number of his cows, camels, sons,
and horses, the burning of his enemies' towns and the
carrying of booty, the slaughter of the Dasyas and
Kakshasas, the offering of ylii and Soma to Indra and
Agui in the hope of receiving more sons and cattle
and slaughtering more enemies. These and suchlike
"things seem to constitute the whole duty of man as
he is represented in the hymns of the Rig- Veda. As
a matter of fact, there is no attempt in the Vedas, or
indeed in modern Hinduism, to give a correct concep-
tion of man's duties. The attempt, as far as any is
made, generally misleads, as in the whole doctrine of
caste, from its origin in the race distinctions of Aryan
and non- Aryan to the endless ramifications of it in
the present day. The Hindu religion throughout its
whole history was regarded as far above such petty
considerations as social duties. The duties of life
were not inculcated in the ancient Vedic hymns, nor
are they now taught in any Hindu temple. The gods
never insist on their discharge, nor are there any
prayers in the Veda to any god or goddess for help
ra
230 The Vcdic Religion.
to enable the worshipper to discharge them. Hence
morality and religion are completely severed in Hindu
lives. And hence the fearful and bloodthirsty prayers
to be met with in the Veda for the extermination of
the non- Aryan races, and even of some Aryans, and
the spirit of animosity cherished by some Eishis
against others. A Vasishtha commentator leaves
passages of the Fag-Veda unexpounded, because a
curse is recorded in them against him and his family-
Yet this bitter enmity is said to have originated in
Vasishtha having at one time been appointed chief
priest, instead of Visvaniitra, by one of the petty
kings of the time.
The relation of the sexes to one another is far from
satisfactory, though much better than in modern
Hinduism.
It has been well said, that if a person accustomed
to compare and reflect were to read the whole of the
Old Testament through, and 'were to state what two
things struck him more than anything else as charac-
teristic of it, he would answer, (1) Zeal for the unity
of God, and (2) zeal for righteousness ; or both in two
words, ' Ethical monotheism.' Xow in the Veda there
is zeal for neither. There is neither ethics nor
righteousness. In our survey, I think, I have made
it very clear that instead of simple monotheism we
have rank polytheism and the ethics is all but
absent altogether. Dr. Caldwell has certainly stated
my experience when he says, ' If any person reads
Conclusion. 231
the hymns of the Vedas for the first time, he will be
struck with surprise at the utterly worldly, unethical,
unspiritual tone by which they are generally pervaded.'
A religion of such a character had not sufficient
amount of the salt of truth in it to preserve it from
death, rottenness, and putrefaction. Hence what
Baron Bunsen calls the ' great tragedy of India and
of humanity/ the tragic catastrophe which landed the
great bulk of the population in one of the most
polluted forms of undisguised idolatry and of mon-
strous and cruel heathenism, and the few in a search
after alitfihilation as the only refuge left, the single
hope of man. Whatever may have been the inten-
tion of these hymns, they have become the parents of
the rankest idolatry, the most unblushing atheism,
and the most comprehensive pantheism. The parents
are dead. What remains of them are these children,
they themselves now suffering from the decrepitude
of age. Of the hymns, we have simply the dead
relics enshrined under the foundations of systems of
thought and worship with which, in their life, they
had no sympathy or likeness. But to proceed :
3. While most of the authors of these hymns have
set up for themselves no claims of being inspired, the
claims set up in their behalf by their successors are
so inconsistent with one another, or so absurd in
themselves, that no one can nowadays accept any
of them. Vasishtha thus sings his own and Agni's
praises: 'Vasishtha, illustrious in both heaven and
232 The Vcdic Ecligion.
earth, rich \vith hundreds and thousands heads of
cattle, has addressed this hymn to Agni. that such
fame- conferring, fiend-destroying hymn may be the
means of happiness to the eulogist and their kindred.' 1
Again, ' Well - kindled Agni, for thee the prayer
(brahma) has been composed,' or in other words,
' The prayer a praise has been made ' a statement,
as Prof. Wilson remarks, rather unfavourable to the
doctrine of the uncreated origin of the Veda. Another
sings, ' I compose to Agni, the son of might, a most
invigorating and entirely new hymn and a prayer
expressed in words.' 2 Some of these hymns were
composed really to glorify men, as for example i. 126,
which begins, ' I compose with delight no mean
hymns to Bhavya who lives on the Indus, which
indomitable king, desiring renown, performed a
thousand Sonia sacrifices for my benefit. ... I, Kak-
shivat, accepted a hundred bulls of the great king.' 3
But it is unnecessary to multiply such texts. There
is not a particle of evidence, internal or external, for
the inspiration of these hymns. For,
4. The miracles recorded were never intended to
be used as evidences of any kind. They cannot carry
themselves, and still less anything else. They have
no historical or moral evidence of any kind in their
favour, and they were not intended to have. They
are too absurd to be believed in by any who has col-
1 vii. 8, 6. - iv. 6, 11 ; Wilson's E.-V., vol. iii. p. 134.
3 i. 143, 1.
Conclusion. 233
lected or compared them. The miracle of creation is
not given as a miracle, but as a tradition believed in,
and received solely as such.
5. But, to my mind, the most damaging feature to
the Eig- Veda's being regarded as a true religion, is
the utter absence of any clear or definite information
as to any reasonable way or manner by which men
may be saved from sin, and all its fearful conse-
quences. Though not formally stated, the way
indicated is the composing of hymns laudatory of the
gods, and the offering of Soma libations to the same.
These seem to be the most efficacious, unless one be
able to offer horses ; but even these latter in Vedic
times seemed to have had no pre-eminence over the
hynrn and the Soma juice. No one, nowadays,
would look at either as having any pretensions what-
ever to be regarded as reasonable means of salvation.
It is rather remarkable that repentance has no
place in such a scheme, nor have good works, labours
of love, or acts of charity towards the poor, the _^
widow, or the orphan. There is no saviour, properly ^
so called, proclaimed, and none is promised. There -^
is no one set forth as an authoritative teacher on the -3,
subject. No Eishi, as far as I ain aware, has ever
claimed to be commissioned by God, or by the gods,
or any of the gods, to enlighten men in regard to
his will concerning men, or men's duties to God, or
to one another. No one claimed to have any
authoritative announcement to make as to whence
234 The Vedic Edujion,
man came, or whither he is going, what his chief end
here or hereafter. Though I have met thousands
of Hindus who profess to revere the Big- Veda as the
highest religious authority, I have not met a single
person who professes to guide his life by the examples
or precepts therein recorded, or perform the religious
rites or ceremonies, or worship the gods and goddesses
of the Kig-Veda. I am aware that there are a few
believers in Agni still to be met with, 1 but I have
met none. And I question if any of them worship
Agni according to the hymns of the Eig-Veda. They
are mere fossils of a past age. The worship of Agni
brings with it the worship of the whole Vedic Pan-
theon, as will be seen from his very character for
1 The two main divisions of the present Hindu worshippers of
Agui are the (A.) Shagnika and (B.) Niragnika.
(A.) Shagnika worshippers are of two sorts, (a) Jatagnika and
(b) Grihitagnika.
() A Jatagnika is one whose birthday ceremony is performed with
fire which is kindled before his umbilical cord is cut, and which is
preserved and worshipped daily till his death, when he is burned
with the same fire.
(b) A Grihitagnika worshipper kindles fire at a Darsapaurna
mashika yaya (a ceremony extending over a whole lunar month), and
preserves it alive till his death, when he is burned with it.
These worshippers of the two classes are very nearly, if not alto-
gether, extinct.
(B. ) A Niragnika worshipper does not preserve alive the fire con -
tinuously, but kindles it at the time of sacrifice or Homa. This Homa
is essentially necessary at the time of the investment of the so-called
holy thread or poita ; and of the marriage of a twice-born. It is
also part of the great worships or poojahs, such as the Doorga poojah,
etc. ceremonials which require a pratistha such as brata, and graha-
yaya or the propitiation of the nine planets (including sun and moon).
In a Homa, Agni is first invoked or invited. He is then requested
Conclusion. 235
' three hundred, three thousand, aud thirty-nine gods
worshipped Agni.' l
The defence which some set up of heno theism will
not stand any more for the Vedic religion than for
modern Hinduism. It has been well said a man
cannot grasp ten branches of a large tree all at once,
so he cannot worship 330,000,000 gods and god-
desses ; he has therefore to rest satisfied in worship-
ping one, whether it be Agni, Brahma, Siva, or
Krishna, leaving the others more or less neglected.
a No theory can be set up that will explain the
llig-Veda, as a whole, in such a way as to commend
it in our day, as a religion to be practised, with any
expectation of eternal or even temporal benefit to the
soul of man.
In a lecture delivered lately in Calcutta, and which
made a good deal of noise at the time, not only in
Bengal but throughout all India, twelve points were
singled out as establishing a claim to regard Hindu-
ism as superior to all other religions. The second of
to be seated, and afterwards, on being purified, he is worshipped.
ULi, or clarified butter, is made pure by the chanting of mantras,
and is then poured on the fire as a sacrifice to Agni, and through him
to the other gods. After the sacrifice is over, Agni is worshipped with
a mantra. This is a brief description of a Homa. There are now
living in Bengal many who perform these sacrifices.
x - It must, however, be admitted that almost all Hindus still worship
the sun. They do so at the beginning of eveiy religious act. I
see them so engaged every day, especially at the time of bathing.
The repetition of the Gayatri (see above, pp. 12, 93) is really a
worshipping of the sun.
1 iii. 9. See Wilson, vol. iii. p. 7.
236 The Vcdic Eetigion.
these was, ' that it does not acknowledge a mediator
between the object of devotion and the worshipper.'
Now Agni most clearly occupied this position of
mediator between the worshipper and ' the older gods/
he himself being regarded as 'one of the younger
gods ' employed specially in the capacity of mediator.
Further, the same lecturer adds ' The idea of Nubcc
or prophet is peculiar to the Semitic religions.' This
is not true, as Keshub Chunder Sen so forcibly proves.
The word prophet, as used in the Bible and in Chris-
tian literature, is by no means confined to the office
of foretelling. It means one who tells and teaches
God's will, one who informs us in regard to God with
authority from God. And this is exactly the claim
which Hinduism, all these years, has been making in
behalf of all its Eishis, as well as the authors of the
Puranas, including what are called Itihashes, the
liamayau, and the Mahabharata, and by many even
the authors of the Tantras.
I may also refer to another claim which the same
Bengali lecturer set up for the superiority of Hindu-
ism. It is his fifth : ( That the Scriptures of other
nations inculcate the practice of piety and virtue for
the sake of eternal happiness, while Hinduism main-
tains that we should worship God for the sake of
God alone, and practise virtue for the sake of virtue.'
The lecturer must have been either totally ignorant
of what he was speaking, or else he must have been
speaking in irony, or intentionally trying to humbug
Conclusion. 237
his audience. Why, the most marked feature of the
Vedic hymns is their inculcation of piety, not for the
sake of God, but for the sake of cows, sons, riches,
and food all temporal good. The sixth is on a par
with the fifth. It is, ' that the Hindu Scriptures
inculcate universal benevolence.' Benevolence to the
non- Aryan ! 1 Enough. Yet this is the lecture that
received a notice even in the London Times, the
writer of which says that the incident ' shows how
necessary it is to have an able and thoroughly educated
class of men as missionaries in India.' I think it is
time that an effort be made to disabuse the Hindu
mind of the pretensions set up for Hinduism, as far
as these are founded on the Veda. It requires some
knowledge of Hinduism, as found in the Vedas, to
separate the truth from the fiction in the following,
which is from the same pen : ' The lecturer then
proceeded to show the especial excellence of Gyan
Kanda, or the superior portion of Hinduism, as testi-
fied in its ideas of the nature of God and of revela-
tion, its disbelief in incarnation and mediation, its
rejection of all ritual observances, the stress which
1 Tndra, ' the hero and protector of the fair-complexioned Aryans,
and the enemy and destroyer of the black-complexioned aborigines.
... He was thus a national deity, showering gifts upon his wor-
shippers, but trampling upon those who gave him no libations, as a
strong man tramples upon a coiled-up snake. He slew his enemies by
thousands, and destroyed their cities by hundreds ; he brought back
the spoil and recovered the cows which they had carried away. His
worshippers called upon him to hasten, assail, subdue ; to destroy
his enemies with the thunderbolt.' Wheeler's History of India,
vol. i. p. 15.
238 The Vtilie fol if/ion >
it lays on Dhyan, or the contemplation of God, as
transcending the inferior offices of prayer and praise,
and its having no appointed time or place of worship,
and recognising no pilgrimages to distant shrines.'
Of course the Eig-Veda is the first and highest of all
the Hindu Shasters, even the highest of the highest,
the Srutis. Yet it recognises incarnation, mediation,
ritual observances, and appointed times for worship ;
and prayer and praise do not occupy inferior places,
but the very highest, as the most superficial know-
ledge of the Eig-Veda must convince even the most
prejudiced against it. As to appointed times the Eig
does not say much, but what does the lecturer think
of the following hymn :
' 1. Agni, accept our offering, the cake, Yatave-
das, at the morning libation, thou rich in prayer.
( 2} The baked cake, Agni, is prepared for thee
alone indeed ; accept it, youngest of all the gods.
' 3. Agni, eat the cake, offered to thee when tlw
day is over ; thou art the son of strength, stationed at
the sacrifice.
' 4. At. the midday Illation, Yatavedas, accept
here the cake ; sage Agni, the wise do not diminish
at the share of thee, who art great.
' 5. Agni, as thou lovest at the third libation the
cake, son of strength, that is offered to thee, there-
fore, moved by our praise, take this precious oblation
to the immortal gods to rouse them.
' 6. Agni, thou who art growing, accept,
Conclusion. 239
Yatavedas, the offering, the cake, at the dose of
day:
The Book and the temple of Hinduism are both
shut to the Children of men. The highest and best,
the holiest and most philanthropic, were excluded.
Right of admission was not founded on such con-
siderations as either character or conduct, likeness to
God, or brotheiiiness towards men. The Christian
Book and the Christian Church are opened to all,
without distinction of race, country, colour, or nation-
ality. The Bible, though not Indian, has been trans-
lated into almost every language of India, the Piig-
Veda into not one. A commencement has been made
with regard to a Bengali * and a Marathi translation ;
but not many of the present generation are likely to
see either completed. If the Vedic religion be able
to save from sin and its dire results, the blood of
many is on the heads of those pundits who profess
to have the key of knowledge, and have never opened
the door. The Christian and the European have
forced the key out of the hands of those who entered
not themselves and would not allow others to enter,
and they have entered and found the place filled
with dead men's bones and a few mummies of some
beauty, which are now being placed in our museums.
How different is all this from Christianity, within
whose portals all are invited, and when you enter you
1 The Bengali translation was discontinued two years ago, and the
Marathi has only just finished the first of ten Books. Aug. 1881.
240 The Vedic Religion.
find life, light, love and law, beauty and order 3 You
meet there in loving embrace Aryan and non- Aryan,
all the races of men glorifying one loving Father. I
have never met with a single Vedic hymn, or a selec-
tion of such, put into circulation by a Hindu for the
instruction or spiritual edification of the millions who
profess to venerate it. Whatever circulation these
have attained, they have found at the hands of Chris-
tians. What a contrast this to the action of our
various Bible Societies !
I must forbear. I have said enough to convince
any one open to conviction, that the Eig-Veda, what-
ever its beauties and its truths may be (and these, as
we shall presently see, are neither very few nor
unimportant), cannot be received in our day as God-
given. It must be rejected as a false religion by
every true son of man who thoroughly knows it.
8 Let us now proceed, then, to the pleasanter task of
considering some of its truths, its beauties, that must
commend it, so far, to the truly pious of all ages.
For as one ' finds tongues in trees, books in the
running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in every-
thing,' so one finds truths of much importance and
beauties of some value in the hymns of the Eig-Veda.
My study of the Eig-Veda has convinced me that
there are in it things that suggest, if they do not
prove, that at the beginning a revelation was given
bjr God to man of himself, of his will concerning
man, and of the duties of man towards God and
Conclusion. !24i
towards his brother man. Before closing my remarks,
I would like to indicate some of these.
1). Precise, as we have seen, forms a largo part of
the Rig-Veda. It is laudatory of the divine. The
gods are praised for what they are, and for what they
have done for man. This praise is invariably in
metre, set to music. I think this is primitive and sug-
gestive of the true religion. It is a formal dedication
of the sense of music, which is original, to the highest
and holiest purpose. Metre and music were evidently
largely developed at the time when the Sanhita was
written, but the talent was original, and early conse-
crated to God's service. It is still more developed
now, but yet its connection with God's praise con-
tinues, and will, I believe, continue throughout all
eternity.
2 K Prayrr. About equally prominent in the Veda
is the element of prayer, implying trust and confi-
dence in the divine. All religion implies this.
Without faith no one can worship God aright ; and
faith in him leads at once to prayer to him, prayer
always for the supply of man's most pressing wants
and the removal of his greatest sources of trouble.
The Kishis were troubled more with the physical and
the carnal. Hence their prayers had more to do with
such. But as to the fact of prayer why, they were
apparently ' praying without ceasing.' Would that
their descendants were equally mindful of prayer,
and equally earnest in the practice of it ! Not mere
Q
-42 The Vcdic Rdiyivn.
forms, but downright earnest prayer in the firm faith
that they would be answered. Still it was prayer in
the dark. Tor they were but
' Infants crying in the night :
Infants crying for the light :
And with no language but a cry.'
3. Sacrifice. There is something mysterious in
regard to the nature and position of the Vedic sacri-
fices, whether they be cakes, soma, bulls, horses, the
human or the divine. They sacrificed morning, noon,
evening, and night, with new and full moon, to get
rid of sin ; but their experience may be described in
the words of the well-known hymn (with the change
of one word) :
' Not all the blood of beasts,
On Aryan altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain.'
They seem to have had an idea of this, and at the
same time a faint recollection of some great doctrine
taught them in the past concerning the 'Lord of
creatures' himself, whose death was to be immor-
tality to men, and who was to be the sacrifice for
men.
Whether this be true or not, there are, undoubt-
edly, references to sacrifices by the divinities them-
selves, of themselves, for the benefit of glorified
men ; for so, it is held, is the meaning of such
texts as ; ' The gods, in performing their sacrifice,
Conclusion. 243
bound Purusha [a divine being] as victim.' The
hymn from which the above is an extract is known
as the Piirusha hymn, the 90th of the 10th Book.
In the 121st hymn of the same Book, Hirauya-
garbha, who is identified as Prajapati, the Lord of
creatures, is called Atmada (giver of self), ' whose
shadow, whose death, is immortality to us.' Else-
where it is said that Prajapati, ' the Lord of creatures,
offered himself a sacrifice for the Devas,' who, as we
have said, were glorified men. In hymn x. 81, Yis-
vakarman, ' the lord of speech,' is also said to have
' offered himself a sacrifice to himself,' or, as Nirukta
explains it, ' the omniscient (for that is the meaning
of the name) Creator first of all offered up all worlds
in a general sacrifice, and ended by sacrificing him-
self.' In the absence of any other more reasonable
explanation of the Vedic sacrifices generally, and of
the Puruslia or Prajapati sacrifice in particular, I
conclude, with the learned and venerable Dr. K. M.
Banerjea, that in these sacrifices we find traces of
'a primitive tradition of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world.'
As an illustration of the power of sacrifice, take
the story of the leading Brahman a of the Ixig : l
' The gods and demons were engaged in warfare.
The evil demons, like to mighty kings,
Made these worlds castles ; then they formed
the earth
l Aitarcya Brahmana, Hiiug's Edition, i. 23,
244 The Vcclic Religion.
Into an iron citadel, the air
Into a silver fortress, and the sky
Into a fort of gold. Whereat the gods
Said to each other, " Frame we other worlds
In opposition to these fortresses."
Then they constructed sacrificial places,
Where they performed a triple burnt oblation.
]>y the first sacrifice they drove the demons
Out of their earthly fortress, by the second
Out of the air, and by the third oblation
Out of the sky. Thus were the evil spirits
Chased by the gods in triumph from the
worlds.' *
Dr. Banerjea classifies the Yedic uses of the sacri-
fice as follows : (1) The sacrifice! 1 was identified with
the victim, as the ransom for sin ; (2) Sacrifice was
the great remedy for the ills of life, the ship or ark
by which we escape sin and all worldly perils ; and
(3) Sacrifice was the instrument by which sin and
death are annulled and abolished. In proof of the
first he quotes the words : ' The sacrifice!' is himself
the victim. It takes the very sacrificer himself to
heaven.' 2 The Brahman commentator explains: 'The
animal being for the redemption of the sacrificer, it
leads the sacrifice!' himself to heaven.' So again,
'Even by this the sacrificer redeems himself.' 3 'The
1 Monier "Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 32,
" Taittiriya Brakmana, pp. 202, 448.
3 Aitarcya Brakmana, p. 27.
Conclusion. 245
sacrifice! 1 kills on the day previous to the Soma
festival an animal devoted to Agni-Sorna, thus re-
deeming himself from the obligation of being himself
sacrificed. He then brings his Soma sacrifice, after
having thus redeemed himself and become free from
debts. Thence the sacrificer ought not to eat of tho
flesh of this (animal).'
We have already quoted enough in support of the
second position. I have also quoted above that
remarkable passage in support of the third, in which
the sacrifice is represented as the annulment of sin,
not only of the sacrificer's own sins, but of the sins
of all dcvas and men, that is to say, of the whole
world, suggestive of the Lamb slain from the founda-
tion of the world, and who is a propitiation ' not for
our sins only, but for the whole world.'
4. In the traditions of the Creation, the Deluge,
etc., and more particularly the first of these, we find,
I think, traces of the primitive religion. I have
given the tradition of the creation above, as recorded
in one of the hymns, and would now only draw
attention to the resemblance subsisting between it
and the account given in Genesis. Let one observe
the position which darkness, water, the abyss, the
brooding spirit or energy above, and Nature beneath,
occupy in both, and he must be persuaded that they
must have had a common origin, and that origin
none other than that recorded in the first chapters of
Genesis.
24G The Vedic Religion.
^
5. The. depravation of the I ndo- Art/an* conceptions
of the Divine. We have in the Rig comparatively
pure and lofty conceptions of the divine; but we
have also very ignoble, gross, and mean ideas. There
are undoubted forms of fetishism to be met with ;
there are other texts that might, in the absence of
all others, be regarded as monotheistic. Which of
these is the oldest and which the latest ? I think
the evidence hitherto produced goes very clearly to
prove that the best is the oldest. These are associ-
ated with Varuna and Dyaus ; and they are spoken
of as ' the oldest of the gods.' Whatever fetishism
manifests itself in the Eig- Veda is very plainly a
much later growth than these older gods. Such
worship as we observe given to rivers, posts, water,
grass, doors, the hymns under the name of Brahma,
etc., is evidently of a more modern origin.
There is something of the old truth to be found even
in fetishism as a worship of the phenomena of Nature,
or the works of God, in which there is something to
be venerated, as the poetic feelings of some of the
greatest of men in all ages of the world have felt.
It was so with Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, Cowper.
Of course there may be much of this without any
true religion, but it generally accompanies the
highest and the most complete manifestations of the
true religion. And so it is also with polytheism, or
the worship of the many as distinguished from the
worship of the one, God does manifest Himself in
Conclusion. 247
the many, manifoldly. The plural was used from
the beginning in connection with the name and
nature of God, and so far there is truth even in
polytheism; and all the truth that is in it finds a
place in Christianity, in whose idea of God there is
plurality as well as unity, a trinity in unity and a
unity in trinity. The sin of fetishism and of poly-
theism is one. It is placing something before the
eye, even though that be God's- creature and in itself
good, true, and beautiful, so as to prevent the wor-
shipper from seeing God in his beauty, and worship-
ping Him who is a Spirit in spirit and in truth.
More of God was seen in the worship of the earlier
gods of the Big than in the later. Max Miiller
asserts this very plainly in his History of Sanskrit
Literature : ' There is a monotheism that precedes
the polytheism of the Veda, and even in the invoca-
tions of their innumerable gods the remembrance of a
God, one and infinite, breaks through the mist of an
idolatrous phraseology, like the blue sky that is
hidden by passing clouds.' The same doctrine, in
spite of other things which seem to contradict,
appears in his latest iitterance the sixth of the
Hillcrt Lectures, where he says : ' The ancient Aryans
felt from the beginning, ay, it may be, more in the
beginning than afterwards, the presence of a "beyond,
of an infinite, of a divine, or whatever else we may
call it now ; and they tried to grasp and comprehend
it, as we all do, by giving to it name after name/
248 The, Vcdic Religion.
The history of the rise of Brahma given above (pp. 116,
186, 192) proves very conclusively the depravation
to which the conception of the divine was subjected.
One of the latest additions to the Hindu Pantheon
must have been Jagannath in Orissa. It was
originally a fetish of the non- Aryan forest -men.
The common story current in Cuttack as given by
Dr. Hunter proves this. It shows how ' the bhie
god,' Nil Madhub, of the aboriginal fowler, became
the Jagannath, the Lord of the World, of the
Brahman. The non-caste food of the Mahaprasad,
even though now the non- Aryan himself is excluded,
is a natural fruit of its non- Aryan origin. Hinduism
is very receptive. Many of its gods were those
originally of the aboriginal fetish-worshippers. The
processions of Jagannath's car, and even the shape of
the idol, are said to have been of Buddhistic origin ;
and just as Hinduism is ever ready to receive and
borrow from outside, so it is also equally ready to
throw away what it no longer uses. All the Vedic
gods are really disposed of. They are no longer
worshipped. Agni is scarcely an exception. The
Veda itself was really buried, and if Europeans had
not resuscitated it, it would have remained buried.
Some of its words are still, no doubt, used in the
daily sacrifice by every Brahman, but used unintelli-
gibly, as mere cabalistic sounds. The Gayatri is still
repeated every morning by the orthodox Brahman,
but scarcely one in a hundred knows its meaning.
Conclusion. 249
Altogether, I think, the Rig- Veda supports Lessing's
position in his work on The Education of Mankind :
'Even if the first man was immediately furnished
with a conception of the one true God, this conception,
which was communicated and not acquired, could not
possibly remain long in its purity. As soon as human
reason, left to itself, began to work upon this con-
ception, it dissected the one Infinite Being into many
finite ones, and gave a characteristic to each of these
parts. Thus polytheism and idolatry naturally arose.'
Hence the absolute necessity of a family being
specially set apart and instructed to preserve it pure.
Professor Ebrard claims to have proved, in his learned
\vork on Apoloydics, that there is found ' in all the
civilised peoples of antiquity, and in proportion as
we ascend into the past, a greater approximation to
the knowledge of the one, living, holy God, in con-
junction with a more vivid ethical consciousness of
the difference between good and evil, and a more
ardent longing for an expected Redeemer ; and that
as we come down the course of time, we mark a
depravation of this primitive religion, owing to the
diminution of moral earnestness, so that the knowledge
of God is corrupted into gross polytheism, which in
some peoples passes over into pantheism; and along
with this religious depravation we mark a growing
moral degeneracy, notwithstanding all outward ad-
vances in the arts, in civilisation, and culture. And
when we engage in the investigation of savage nations,
250 The Vedic Religion,
of their conditions, languages, and traditions, we find
here too, where we possess any reliable data to proceed
on, a constant sinking lower and lower, and at the same
time, almost everywhere, reminiscences of an older
and better state; and here and there we meet with
visible monuments which bear witness to this former
higher condition.' There are in the Big-Veda, I
think, what goes very far to prove the truth of all
this. Though scarcely belonging to my subject, T
ran hardly withhold all reference to the Weddas, a
thoroughly savage race in Ceylon, who are believed
to be descended from the comparatively civilised
Aryan followers of Bama, But I must hurry on to
^remark on,
G. The Resurrection of the lody. The wise men of
mediaeval Hinduism, as well of the heathenism of
Greek and Home, used to speak rather slightingly of
the body, if not indeed contemptuously. Many modern
Hindus are apt to do the same. So also do positivists
in regard to the bodies of the great mass of men ; the
soul, as immortal and immaterial, they deny altogether.
Christians, all along, have spoken respectfully of the
body and treated it accordingly, as they hold all
the work of God should. But, further, they looked
forward, beyond death and the grave, to a renewed
association with a glorified, risen, spiritualized body.
As God is the God of Abraham, so he is our God,
not of the soul only, but of ourselves body, soul, and
spirit, without distinction in all our substantial parts
Conclusion. 251
and attributes. We cannot determine in what exact
sense our bodies will be, at the resurrection, the same
bodies that we have at present, because we have no
idea what constitutes identity. The elemental or
constituent parts do not, for these continually change.
The form does not, for it also changes. Yet we have
no hesitation in predicating identity of the old man
now of eighty and the boy who was only ten, seventy
years ago. Thus, though we cannot explain or under-
stand, we have no difficulty in believing. Of the
essence of matter or of mind we know nothing, as
separated from certain attributes or qualities ; and
these vary in varying circumstances. (See pp. 52-55.)
The Eishis of the Rig- Veda clearly believed in risen
bodies. The deified Piibhis had bodies, and so indeed
had all the gods. Indra had, in any case, a beautiful
nose and chin and a powerful fist. Piishun was
toothless, while Agni had dreadful tusks ; and he was
particularly careful of the bodies of those committed
to his care. They believed that the body was, some-
how, purified by fire, but still carried perfect in all
its parts to heaven. The Fathers or Pitris were
believed to ' rejoice in heaven with all their limbs.'
^i/ &i n and jliscase. The Indo-Aryans of the Eig-
Veda period had sad acquaintance with sin, and with
disease as the fruit of sin. They spoke of the bonds,
the burden, and the darkness of sin. And they spoke
of sacrifice as the boat by means of which we might
escape over the deluge of sin, True, they could not
252 The Vcdic Religion.
explain how sacrifice could be a boat. They had no
knowledge of ' the Lamb slain.' But yet they were
conscious of sin, and believed in sacrifice as the means
of escape. Was it a gleam they had of the great
coming Sacrifice, or a dream of the primitive reve-
lation given to their own ancestors ? They were
groping in the darkness. Was it of the passing day
and the coming night, or of the passing night and
approaching day ? We believe the former. They
were, as one of themselves expressed it, ' yearning for
Varuna, the far-seeing, their thoughts moved onward
as kme move to their pastures.' 1 But, unfortunately
for them, they had turned their backs on God, and
the more they moved onwards the farther they went
from God. Their souls thirsted for God, but to them
he was an unknown God. They felt the need of a
being, divine and human, who would represent them
in the Court of Heaven, and yet would condescend
to take up his abode with men on earth. This they
thought they found in Agni.
8. The next point, therefore, to which I would liko
to refer in the Rig- Veda as evidential of the primitive
religion, is the doctrine of a Mediator, of which we
find traces in almost all hymns addressed to Agni.
The Piishis addressed themselves directly to the gods,
as Christians do to God. Still they continually
looked up to Agni as the mediator and the messenger
between heaven and earth, between gods and men,
1 Johnson's Orti'titnl ReHy'ion*, pp. 120-122,
Conclusion. 253
who, on the one hand, carried the sacrifice and pre-
sented it to the gods, and on the other, brought down
the gods to men, and brought the expected blessing
with him. The Eig-Veda is filled with Agni,
' Who bears aloft,
And offers to the gods the sacrifice.'
In him also we think we can find traces of the
traditions of Him in Whom all the nations of the
earth were to be blessed, and whose heel was to
crush the serpent's head.
From the above it will be seen that Christianity
contains the complement and full development of
some portions of the Yeclic religion, portions which
the Hindus themselves have failed to appreciate. In
Christianity is to be found the secret of their sacri-
fices, their mediators, their incarnations, their search-
ings after the divine, their inspirations and their
revelations. Well may we say with the apostle,
' Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare
we unto you.'
, In our investigations into the truth in regard to
anything, it is of the greatest importance that we
should consider differences as well as points of like-
ness. I, for one, am delighted to find what I regard
as points of likeness to Christianity in these ancient
hymns, and still more to find ' grains of truth ' among
so much rubbish ; but I must not shut my eyes to the
fact that so very large a portion is rubbish, and that
large portions are worse than rubbish, even poisonous
254 The Vcdic Religion.
weeds, or seeds that very soon developed into coarser
forms of undisguised irretrievable idolatry, monstrous,
immoral, absurd, and cruel, never varied during these
three thousand years except it be by atheism and
pantheism ; while, on the other hand, the ( grains of
truth ' were the seeds of no spiritual truth to the
many millions that succeeded during the ages that
followed. These grains were like those of wheat
found buried with the mummies of Egypt for thousands
of years, useless, dry, and unproductive. Or, changing
the figure, the hymns of the Veda might be likened
to the dry dead surface of the moon, with its burnt-
out and extinct volcanoes, shedding a dim light on
the malarious deadly jungles of the Terai, powerless
to contend with its poisonous gases; while the Bible
is the bright unexhausted sun, shedding its powerful
light upon perhaps the same malarious jungle, but
rendering its deadly atmosphere iniiocuous and safe, j
THE books most serviceable to a missionary study -
ing the liig-Yeda are, in addition to Aufrecht's and
Max Miiller's original texts ;
/TD Wilson's English Translation, in 4 vols., bringing
it down to Mandala, viii. 20.
2. Langlois' French Translation, complete, 4 Vols.
;>. Itosen's Latin Translation of the first Ashtaka.
4/ Max Miiller's English Translation of various
hymns, scattered in his works, and of twelve hymns
Conclusion. 255
to the Maruts in the 1st vol. of his Translation
(1869). The 2d vol. is not yet (1881) published.
5. Shankar Pundit's English and Marathi Trans-
lation, with notes, commentaries, etc. ; 4 vols., of
upwards of nine hundred pages each. These volumes,
containing in all two hundred and seventy-five hymns,
have been published in five years. If it has taken
iive years to publish the 275 hymns, when will the
1017 be finished ? This work is frequently quoted
above under the title Vcdarthayatna.
6. Itomanath Saras vati's Bengali Translation of the
first sixty-one hymns, published during the last five
years.
7< Dr. Bauerjea's very fully English-annotated
text of the first thirty-two hymns, prepared for the
Calcutta University.
8/ Dr. Muir's Sanskrit Texts, 5 vols. The original
Sanskrit of very many texts is given in the last three
vols. in the Roman character, with an English trans-
lation. The texts are classified under various heads.
0. Monier Williams' Indian Wisdom, Hinduism, etc.
1 0. Weber's History of Indian Literature.
11, Benfey's German Translation of i. 1-118.
In addition to these, there are many other books
that will be of more or less use to the student. He
will find some of them quoted above.
INDEX.
ABOKIGINES, 122, 124, ISO, 205,
210.
Abstraction ((a}>as), 36.
Aditi, 107, 126, 218.
Adityas, 109.
Age of Veda, 9.
Age of Veda M.S.S., 14.
Agiii, 73, 107, 128, 136, 148-156,
200, 217, 232, 234, 238.
Ahura, 65, 106, 114, 11)9.
Angiras, 123, 226.
Angirasas, 51.
Aiiindra, 118.
Annihilation, 48, 231.
Annulment, 75.
Apsaras, 126.
Ark, 75, 251.
Asceticism, 29, 169, 178.
Assyrians, 217.
A suras, 65, 106, 114, 199.
Aswins, 47, 102, 127, 163, 211,
216.
A thai- va- Veda, 7, 49, 128,
Alharvan, 114.
Atheism, 204, 231.
Atmada, 86, 243.
Atri, 160, 213.
Authors of Veda, 8, 13, 95.
Avatars, 146.
Avesta, 69, 106, 205, 217.
BEEF, 71.
Benevolence, 237.
Body, 52, 54, 250.
Brahma, 26, 34, 115, 131, 186,
192, 194, 247.
Brahman, 32, 64, 140, 186.
Brahmanas, 5.
Brahmo-Somaj, 116, 196.
Brotherhood, 196.
! Buffaloes, 82.
CASTE, 32, 36, 187, 208, 229.
Chastity, 44, 167, 209.
' Child-marriage, 32.
Chyavana, 160, 215.
Contents of Veda, 18.
Couples, 157.
Cows, 71, 179, 212.
Creation, 126, 131, 220, 245.
DAKSHA, 126.
Daughters, 165, 177.
Deliverance, 34, 46, 55.
Deluge, 221, 245,
Demons, 188, 198, 200, 217, 243
Depravation, 245.
De Quincey, 98.
Devas, 87.
I Dogs, 52, 183.
i Doors worshipped, 225.
Index.
257
Draupadi, 164.
Drunkenness, 43, 63.
Dualisms, 103.
Durga, 65.
Dyananda, iv, 3, 20, 128.
Dyaus, 120, 246.
EKANTINS, 143.
Esur-Veda, 4.
Exaggerations, 182.
FAITH, 138-145.
False gods, 188, 201.
Fatherhood, 196-210.
Female Eishi, 160.
Fetishes, 127, 246, 248.
Frogs, 140.
Future life, 47.
GAMBLING, 44, 126.
Gandharvas, 126.
Ganges, 26.
Gayatri, 12, 93, 248.
Ghi (clarified butter), 229.
Ghosha, 166, 212.
Gift of a woman, 179.
Gladstone, 21.
Goat, 82.
Goddesses, 25, 126, 159, 161,
Gods, 25.
Gotama, 215.
HAOMI, 68.
Heaven, 49, 103, 216.
Hell, 58.
Henotheism, 95, 101, 235.
Hinduism, 235.
Hiranyagarbha, 86, 91.
Holidays, 31.
Home, 190.
Horse, 77.
IDOLATRY, 23, 26, 97.
Images, 26, 97.
Immortality, 47.
Imputation, 42.
Incarnation, 146.
Inconsistencies, 226.
Indifierentism, 139.
Indra, 67, 74, 109, 110-114, 117,
121, 124, 204, 219, 237.
Indrani, 228.
Inspiration, 11, 16, 231.
Intoxication, 43, 62.
Iranians, 205, 217.
JAGANNATH, 207, 248.
Jesuits, 3.
Job, 131.
Jubal, 194.
Justice, 42.
KA (who), 82, 107, 134.
Kacha, 63.
Kakshivat, 162, 214.
Kali, 82.
Khela, 216.
Kilmansegge, Miss, 216.
King, Kishi, 184.
Knowledge of Vedas, 16.
Krishna, 64, 143, 211.
Kushava, 219.
LAKSHMIS, 127.
Leper, 166, 212.
.iberality, 45, 48, 57, 182, 201.
Light, 98, 156.
MAHAPRASAD, 208, 248.
Man, 229.
Mandalas (Book), 6.
Vlantras, 5.
anu, 197, 206, 221.
Markandeya, 65.
258
Index.
Marriage, 33, 157.
Martin Elginbrodde, 111, 152.
Marats, 126, 164.
Mediation, 148, 236, 252.
Meru (Merv), 142.
Metempsychosis, 29.
Meteorolatry, 100.
Miracles, 211, 232.
Monarchies of gods, 114.
Monogamy, 157-160.
Monotheism, 94-135, 230.
Morality, 37, 230.
Motherhood, 116, 196.
Music, 194.
NARADA, 143, 173.
Narayana, 142.
Navel of world, 74.
New dispensation, 116.
Nil Madhub, 248.
Non-Aryans, 205, 210, 248.
Number of gods, 96, 108.
OCEAN of milk, 143.
Odin, 114, 147.
Odinic song, 148.
Ouranos, 114.
PANTHEISM, 28, 131, 231.
Partridges, 13.
Path, Heavenly, 81.
Physiolatry, 100.
Pitris (Fathers), 49, 51, 55.
Places, Sacred, 30.
Polyandry, 163.
Polygamy, 160.
Polytheism, 94.
Posts worshipped, 224.
Praise, 193, 241.
Prajapati, 86, 92, 146, 243.
Prayers, 189, 192, 241.
Priesthood, 29.
Priests, 169, 187.
Primitive religion, 101.
Prophet, 236.
Puri, 208.
Purusha, 34, 83, 88, 132.
Pushan (Agni), 225.
QUAIL, 213.
KARA, 158.
Eakshasas, 113, 150, 154, 188,
201.
Relation to gods, 136.
Repentance, 233.
Repetitions, 178, 191.
Resurrection, 52, 54, 250.
Revelation, 11, 14.
Ribhus, 29, 47, 127, 211, 216.
Rlshis, 1, 6, 13, 169.
Rival gods, 117.
Rodasi, 164.
Rudra, 26, 142, 188, 217, 224.
SABAISM, 98.
Sabbath, 24.
Sacrifice, 73, 242.
Sakta Tantras, 66.
Sakti, 142.
Sama-Veda, 7.
Sanhita (collection of hymns),
iv, 1.
Sanscrit, 5.
Saranyu, 50.
Sati, 32.
Satire, 31, 141.
Sautramani, 62.
Savitri, 93, 127.
Scepticism, 87, 138, 204, 221.
Sewing, 158.
Shraddha, 49.
Sin, 37, 97, 106, 251.
Social duties, 229.
Index.
259
Soma, 61-70, 116.
Soma-juice, 66.
Soma-ox, 129.
Speech, 132.
Sukra, 66.
Sun, 93, 100, 104, 108, 124, 128,
235.
Sunahsepha, 88, 107.
Swarga (heaven), 49, 103, 216.
Swayamvura, 168.
TANGIBLE gods, 27.
Theft, 45, 183.
Times, 36, 237, 238.
Transmigration, 28.
Trasadasyu, 176, 184.
Travel, 33.
Tricks of trade, 45.
Tritheism, 106.
Tugra, 214.
Tvashtri, 47, 50, 216.
UNIVEKSITY, Calcutta, 3.
Ushas (Dawn), 60, 159, 162
166.
YAISHNAVAS (worshippers of
Yishnu or Hari), 145.
Yamadeva, 137, 218.
! Yaruna, 75, 107, 114, 117, 124,
182, 185, 246.
Yasishtha, 41, 182, 184, 205, 226,
230, 231.
Yedanta, 35.
! Yedas, Four, 7.
j Yenaspati, 224.
: Yeridana, 215.
| Yimada, 214.
Yishnu, 67, 142.
Yisvakarman, 86.
Visvamitra, 65, 205, 230.
Yiswadevas, 102. '
Yivasvat, 50.
Yritra, 72, 198.
WEEK, 24.
Who (god Ka), 82, 107.
Widows, 32, 33.
Wine, 62, 139.
Women, 157, 179.
Word, 132.
YADAVAS, 64.
Yajur-Yeda, 7.
Yama, 50, 56.
Yatavedas (Agni), 54.
Yatudhanas, 188.
ZEUS, 114.
THE END.
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