style themselves Aryas; and the name is preserved in the classic Arii, a tribe of ancient Persia, Aria, the modern Herat, and Ariana, the name of a district comprehending the greater part of ancient Persia, and extended by some so as to embrace Bactriana. Ariana, or Airyana, is evidently an old Persian word, preserved in the modern native name of Persia, Airan or Iran. Arya, in Sanscrit, signifies 'excellent,' 'honourable,' being allied probably to the Greek ari(stos), the best. Others connect it with the root ar (Lat. arare, to plough), as if to distinguish a people who were tillers (earers) of the earth from the purely pastoral Turanians or Turks.

The mother nation dwelling in the basin of the Caspian is, of course, hypothetical, as are the order and routes of the north-western migrations. Less uncertainty rests on the relation between the ancient Persians and the Aryas who migrated to Hindustan. The Zendavesta, which is to the ancient religion of Persia what the Vedas are to primitive Hinduism, contains distinct allusions to a schism between the two branches of the stock while they yet lived together. The estrangement seems to have arisen from a variety of causes, social as well as religious. The Iranians, as we may call the branch that settled in Persia, began to refine and spiritualise the primitive religious notions common to both parties; antipathy and religious hate were the natural result, and led to still greater divergence, until the advanced party came to denounce the old gods as devils, and the whole system as the source of all evil. It was probably the strife and warfare consequent on this state of feeling that drove the conservative Aryas across the Indus, carrying with them that primitive faith which we have learned to know in the Vedas, and which their descendants afterwards developed into the vast system of Brahmanism. Among the Iranians, the religious development continued in its original direction, until, in the hands of the great religious reformer Zoroaster (properly Zarathustra), it became almost a monotheism, which soon degenerated, however, into dualism. In this shape it continued to be the religion of Persia until overwhelmed by Mohammedanism in the middle of the seventh century A.D. It is represented in modern times by the Parsees, the descendants of those Persians who, escaping from the oppression of the crescent, settled along the western coast of India.

When we first get a glimpse of the Aryas in India, they are settled in the Punjab; from which they seem to have gradually extended their settlements first along the valley of the Ganges, and over Central India as far as the Vindhya Mountains. The immigration probably came in successive swarms, at considerable intervals of time. They established themselves everywhere as a conquering race; their superior energy, both of body and mind, enabling them to hold the native population in subjection, and gradually to impose upon them their religious institutions and their language. The chief modern dialects of Northern India are

undoubted descendants of the ancient Sanscrit ; and the institution of caste, to be afterwards spoken of, probably originated at the time when the mass of the population, now represented by the Sudras, were little better than serfs under a dominant class, whose superiority and privileges were made permanent by being put under the sanction of religion. The extension of the Aryas into the south of India, or the Deccan, seems to have been later; and there, although they imbued the people with their religion, their language made little impression. In the course of generations, the enervating climate of India and intermixture with the original inhabitants could not fail to tell on the conquerors; their blood became impure, and they degenerated physically and mentally. And as with their blood, so it fared with their religion. When a debased people adopt the religion of a higher race, it is only their old superstitions put in a new framework and slightly varnished over; hence the wide departure of the Brahmanic system from the primitive Aryan faith.

The development of Hinduism was greatly affected, no doubt, by its long conflict with Buddhism, a rival faith which sprang up in the sixth century before Christ, and by appealing chiefly to the nonAryan races, spread widely over India and the adjacent countries. In the early centuries of the Christian era, it threatened to supplant Brahmanism in India; but, from causes not well known, the latter again acquired the ascendency, Buddhism rapidly declined, and about the eleventh century A.D. had almost disappeared from the peninsula. It still prevails in Ceylon, the Eastern Peninsula, China, Tibet, and other regions of Upper Asia, and its adherents are estimated at 400 millions, or about a third of the human race; but except among the Nepaulese in the extreme north, it has no longer any nominal adherents in the country of its birth. The Jains, or Jainas, however, who are found chiefly in Guzerat and other provinces of the west, and, from their wealth and influence, form an important section of the population, profess a faith which seems to be a kind of corrupt Buddhism mixed up with Hinduism; and Hinduism itself, as believed and practised by the largest and most popular sect, the Vaishnavas or worshippers of Vishnu, is believed to bear traces of Buddhism, as if it had resulted from a compromise with that faith.

Amid all these successive tides of conquest, civilisation, and conversion, numerous outstanding groups of the aboriginal inhabitants, chiefly hill tribes, have remained inaccessible to change, retaining their original languages and dark superstitions. There is also everywhere a floating degraded mass, without the pale of any of the recognised religious communities. Of the 200 millions, which is assumed to be the population of Hindustan, Mr Montgomery Martin estimates this heathen element, as we may call it, at 28 millions; the Mohammedans at 12 or 15 millions; the Sikhs at 2 millions;

the Jains at 5 millions; thus leaving 150 millions as Hindus of the Brahmanical creed.

Having thus indicated the external history and position of Hinduism, we proceed to give a sketch of its internal nature and course of development. Hinduism may be divided into three great periods, which, for brevity's sake, we will call the Vedic, Epic, and Puranic periods, as our knowledge of the first is derived from the sacred books called the Veda; of the second from the epic poem called the Rama'yana, and more especially from the great epos, the Mahabharata; while the chief source of our information relative to the last period is that class of mythological works known under the name of Puranas and Tantras. We purpose first to sketch the general character of the religion under these three successive phases, prefacing each sketch by some account of its special literature; and then to give such details of the system as seem most characteristic and instructive.

It may be well, however, at the outset, to guard the reader against attempting to connect dates with the earlier of the periods above named. It has not been uncommon for writers on this subject to assign thousands of years before the Christian era as the starting-points of various phases of Hindu antiquity; others, more cautious, have marked the beginnings of certain divisions of Vedic works with 1200, 1000, 800, and 600 years B.C. The truth is, that while Hindu literature itself is almost without known dates, owing either to the peculiar organisation of the Hindu mind, or to the convulsions of Indian history, the present condition of our knowledge of it does not afford the means of speculating with safety on its chronology. The more cautious Sanscrit scholars, in the actual state of their science, content themselves with assuming that the latest writings of the Vedic class are not more recent than the second century before Christ. They fix a lower limit, and leave the determination of the upper limit to future research. A like uncertainty hangs over the period at which the two great epic poems of India were composed, although there is reason to surmise that the lower limits of that period did not reach beyond the beginning of the Christian era. The Puranic period, on the other hand, all scholars are agreed to regard as corresponding with part of our medieval history.

THE VEDIC PERIOD.

The Vedas.-Veda (from the Sanscrit vid, know; kindred with the Latin vid-, Greek id-, Gothic vait-, English wit, hence, literally, knowledge) is the name of those ancient Sanscrit works on which the first period of the religious belief of the Hindus is based. The oldest of these works-and in all probability the oldest literary document still existing-is the Rigveda; next to it stand the

Yajurveda and Samaveda; and the latest is the Atharvaveda. All four are considered to be of divinely inspired origin. Each of these Vedas consists of two distinct divisions-a Sanhita, or collection of mantras, or hymns; and a portion called Brahmana.

A mantra (from man, think; hence, literally, the means by which thinking or meditation is effected) is a prayer, or else a thanksgiving addressed to a deity. If such a mantra is metrical, and intended for loud recitation, it is called Rich (from rich, praise) -whence the name Rigveda, that is, the Veda containing such praises-if it is in prose, and then it must be muttered inaudibly, it is called Yajus (from yaj, sacrifice; hence, literally, the means by which sacrificing is effected); therefore, Yajurveda signifies the Veda containing such yajus. And if it is metrical, and intended for chanting, it is termed Saman; whence Sâmaveda means the Veda containing such sâmans. The author of the mantra, or, as the Hindus would say, the inspired 'seer,' who received it from the deity, is termed its Rishi (from the obsolete Sanscrit rish, to see).

Brahmana.-Bra’hmana-derived from brahman, neuter, probably in the sense of prayer or hymn-designates that portion in prose of the Vedas which contains either commandments or explanations; or, in other words, which gives injunctions for the performance of sacrificial acts, explains their origin, and the occasions on which the mantras had to be used, by adding sometimes illustrations and legends, and sometimes also mystical and philosophical speculations. The Brahmana portion of the Vedas is therefore the basis on which the Vedic ritual rests, and whence the Upanishads (to be afterwards spoken of) and the philosophical doctrines took their development. Though mantras and Bra'hmanas were held at a later period of Hinduism to have existed simultaneously, that is, from eternity, it is certain that the Brahmana portion of each Veda is posterior to at least some part of its Sa'nhita, for it refers to it; and it scarcely requires a remark that so great a bulk of works as that represented by both portions must have been the gradual result of a considerable period of time. There is, indeed, sufficient evidence to prove that various conditions of society, various phases of religious belief, and even different periods of language, are reflected by them.

It is common to speak of Vedas in the plural; but, strictly speaking, there is only one original Veda, namely, the Rig-veda, and the others are manufactured out of it. A collection of songs like that of the Rigveda, the product of a time when the forms of worship were excessively simple, became inadequate for a regular liturgy of a highly developed and artificial ritual. Out of this necessity there arose the Sama- and the Yajurveda. The former was entirely made up of extracts from the Rigveda, put together so as to suit the ritual of the so-called Soma sacrifices. The origin of the Yajurveda is similar to that of the Sâmaveda; it, too, is chiefly composed of verses taken from the Rigveda;

but as the sphere of the ritual for which the compilation of this Veda became necessary is wider than that of the Sâmaveda, and as the poetry of the Rigveda no longer sufficed for certain sacrifices with which this ritual had been enlarged, new mantras were added to it-the so-called Yajus, in prose, which thus became a distinctive feature of this Veda; and it is on the Yajurveda, therefore, that the orthodox Hindu looked with especial predilection, for it could better satisfy his sacrificial wants than the Sâma-, and still more, of course, than the Rigveda.

The Atharvaveda, too, is made up in a manner similar to the Yajurveda, with this difference only, that the additions in it to the garbled extracts from the Rigveda are more considerable than those in the Yajurveda. It is avowedly the latest Veda. The Atharvaveda was not used for the sacrifice, but merely for appeasing evil influences, for insuring the success of sacrificial acts, for incantations, &c.;' but on this very ground, and perhaps on account of the mysteriousness which pervades its songs, it obtained, amongst certain schools, a degree of sanctity which even surpassed that of the older Vedas.

The Sa'nhita of the Rigveda consists of 1028 sûhtas, or hymns, containing 10,417 verses; and the number of words is stated to be 153,826. As for the authorship of the hymns, they are attributed to certain rishis and families of rishis. On this subject, Dr J. Muir (Original Sanscrit Texts, Part ii. p. 206) remarks: "For many ages the successive generations of these ancient rishis continued to make new contributions to the stock of hymns, while they carefully preserved those which had been handed down to them by their forefathers. The fact of this successive composition of the hymns is evident from the ancient index to the Rigveda, which shews that these compositions are ascribed to different generations of the same families, as their "seers." The final collection of the hymns into one body, Dr Muir conceives to have happened thus: 'The descendants of the most celebrated rishis would, no doubt, form complete collections of the hymns which had been composed by their respective ancestors. After being thus handed down, with little alteration, in the families of the original authors for several centuries, during which many of them were continually applied to the purposes of religious worship, these hymns, which had been gathering an accumulated sanctity throughout all this period, were at length collected in one great body of sacred literature, styled the Sanhita of the Rigveda-a work which in the Pura'nas is assigned to Vedavyâsa and one of his pupils. A complete translation of the Rigveda into English was left in manuscript by the late Professor H. H. Wilson, of which four volumes have already appeared in print. A translation of the hymns to the Maruts, or storms, has recently been published by Max Müller, who promises a translation of the whole Rigveda..