Religious Ideas of the Vedic Period.-If the Rigveda coincided with the beginning of Hindu civilisation, the popular creed of the Hindus, as depicted in some of its hymns, would reveal not only the original creed of this nation, but throw a strong light on the original creed of humanity itself. But the Hindus, as depicted in these hymns, are far removed from the starting-point of human society. Their social condition is not that of a pastoral or nomadic people, as is sometimes supposed, but, on the contrary, betrays an advanced stage of civilisation. Frequent allusion is made in them to towns and cities, to mighty kings, and their prodigious wealth. Besides agriculture, they mention various useful arts which were practised by the people, as the art of weaving, of melting precious metals, of fabricating cars, golden and iron mail, and golden ornaments. The employment of the needle and the use of musical instruments are known to them. They also prove that the Hindus of that period were not only familiar with the ocean, but sometimes must have engaged in naval expeditions. They had some knowledge of medicine, and must have made some advance in astronomical computation, as mention is made of the adoption of an intercalary month, for the purpose of adjusting the solar and lunar years. Nor were they unacquainted with the vices of civilisation, for we read in these hymns of common women, of secret births, of gamblers and thieves. There is also a curious hymn, from which it would follow that even the complicated law of inheritance, which is one of the peculiarities of the existing Hindu law, was to some extent already in use at one of the periods of the Rigveda hymns.

Yet, in examining the ideas expressed in the greatest number of the Rigveda hymns, it cannot be denied that they are simple enough and altogether naïve. The Hindu of these hymns is essentially engrossed by the might of the elements. The powers which turn his awe into pious subjection and veneration are-Agni, the fire of the sun and lightning; Indra, the bright, cloudless firmament; the Maruts, or winds; Surya, the sun; Ushas, the dawn; and various kindred manifestations of the luminous bodies, and of nature in general. He invokes them, not as representatives of a superior being, before whom the human soul professes its humility; not as superior beings themselves, who may reveal to his searching mind the mysteries of creation or eternity, but because he wants their assistance against enemies-because he wishes to obtain from them rain, food, cattle, health, and other worldly goods. He complains to them of his troubles, and reminds them of the wonderful deeds they performed of yore, to coax them, as it were, into acquiescence and friendly help. We proclaim eagerly, Maruts, your ancient greatness, for the sake of inducing your prompt appearance, as the indication of (the approach of) the showerer of benefits; or; 'Offer your nutritious viands to the great hero (Indra), who is pleased by praise, and to Vishnu (one of the forms of the sun), the

two invincible deities who ride upon the radiant summit of the clouds as upon a well-trained steed. Indra and Vishnu, the devout worshipper glorifies the radiant approach of you two who are the granters of desires, and who bestow upon the mortal who worships you an immediately receivable (reward), through the distribution of that fire which is the scatterer (of desired blessings).'

Such is the strain in which the Hindu of that period addresses his gods. He seeks them, not for his spiritual, but for his material welfare. Ethical considerations are therefore foreign to these instinctive outbursts of the pious mind. Sin and evil, indeed, are often adverted to, and the gods are praised because they destroy sinners and evil-doers; but one would err in associating with these words our notions of sin or wrong. A sinner, in these hymns, is a man who does not address praises to those elementary deities, or who does not gratify them with the oblations they receive at the hands of the believer. He is the foe, the robber, the demonin short, the borderer infesting the territory of the 'pious' man, who, in his turn, injures and kills, but, in adoring Agni, Indra, and their kin, is satisfied that he can commit no evil act.

As may be imagined, the worship of elementary beings like those we have mentioned was originally a simple and harmless one. By far the greatest number of the Rigveda hymns know of but one sort of offering made to these gods; it consists of the juice of the Soma or moon-plant, which, expressed and fermented, was an exhilarating and inebriating beverage, and for this reason, probably, was deemed to invigorate the gods, and to increase their beneficial potency. It was presented to them in ladles, or sprinkled on the sacred Kusa grass. Clarified butter, too, poured on fire, is mentioned in several hymns as an oblation agreeable to the gods; and it may have belonged to this, as it would seem, primitive stage of the Vedic worship.

There is a class of hymns, however, to be found in the Rigveda which depart already materially from the simplicity of the conceptions we are referring to. In these, which are conceived to be of another order, and to belong to a more advanced stage of development, this instinctive utterance of feeling makes room for the language of speculation; the allegories of poetry yield to the mysticism of the reflecting mind; and, the mysteries of nature becoming more keenly felt, the circle of beings which overawe the popular mind becomes enlarged. Thus, the objects by which Indra, Agni, and the other deities are propitiated, become gods themselves; Soma, especially, the moon-plant and its juice, is invoked as the bestower of all worldly boons. The animal sacrifice-the properties of which seem to be more mysterious than the offerings of Soma, or of clarified butter-is added to the original rites.

The growing dissatisfaction of the Hindu mind with the adoration of mere elemental powers, and the longing to penetrate the mysteries

No. 58.

of creation, become still more manifest in a third class of hymns, which mark the beginning of the philosophical creed of the Vedic period. The following is a specimen of those utterances: 'Who knows exactly, and who shall in this world declare, whence and why this creation took place? The gods are subsequent to the production of this world, then who can know whence it proceeded, or whence this varied world arose, or whether it uphold itself or not? He who in the highest heaven is the ruler of this universe, does indeed know; but not another one can possess this knowledge.'

As soon as the problem implied by passages like these was raised in the minds of the Hindus, Hinduism must have ceased to be the pure worship of the elementary powers. The answer to the question, 'whence this varied world arose,' is attempted in the writings known under the name of Upanishads, the date of which is uncertain. It must suffice here to state that the object of these important works is to explain, not only the process of creation, but the nature of a Supreme Spirit (Brahman, as a neuter word, and therefore different from the same word as the first god of the Hindu trinity), and its relation to the human soul. In the Upa'nishads, Agni, Indra, Vâyu, and the other deities of the Vedic hymns, become symbols to assist the mind in its attempt to understand the true nature of one absolute being, and the manner in which it manifests itself in its worldly form. The human soul itself is of the same nature as this supreme or great soul: its ultimate destination is that of becoming re-united with the supreme soul, and the means of attaining that end is not the performance of sacrificial rites, but the comprehension of its own self and of the great soul. The doctrine which at a later period became the foundation of the creed of the educated-the doctrine that the supreme soul, or Brahman, is the only reality, and that the world has a claim to notice only in so far as it emanated from this being, is already clearly laid down in these Upanishads, though the language in which it is expressed still adapts itself to the legendary and allegorical style which characterises the Brahmana portion of the Vedas. The Upa'nishads became thus the basis of the enlightened faith of India.

THE EPIC PERIOD.

This period is so called because we derive our knowledge of it chiefly from the two great epic poems of ancient India-the Rama'yana and Mahabharata.

The Ramayana.-The subject-matter of this work is the history of Râma, one of the incarnations of Vishnu (see page 21), and its reputed author is Valmiki. Be this as it may, it seems certain that the Ramayana was the work of one single poet-not like the Mahabharata, the creation of various epochs and different minds. As a poetical composition, the Rama'yanā is therefore far superior to

the Mahabharata; and it may be called the best great poem of ancient India, fairly claiming a rank in the literature of the world equal to that of the epic poetry of Homer. The poem contains 24,000 verses; only a small part of it has ever been translated into English.

The Mahabharata.-The main story of this huge composition relates to the contest between two rival families, both descendants of a king Bharata, and the name probably implies 'the great history of the descendants of Bharata.' Of the one hundred thousand verses of which it consists, barely a fourth part is taken up by this narrative; all the rest is episodical. By means of this episodical matter, which at various periods, and often without regard to consistency, was superadded to the original structure of the work, the Mahabharata gradually became a collection of all that was needed to be known by an educated Hindu; in fact, it became the encyclopædia of India. A kind of analysis of the leading story of the Mahabharata has lately been given by Professor Monier Williams (Indian Epic Poetry; London, 1863).

Religious Ideas of the Period.-The Epic period of Hinduism is marked by a similar development of the same two creeds, the general features of which we have traced in the Vedic writings. The popular creed strives to find a centre round which to group its imaginary gods, whereas the philosophical creed finds its expression in the groundworks of the Sankhya, Nya'ya, and Veda'nta systems of philosophy. In the former, we find two gods in particular who are rising to the highest rank, Vishnu and Siva; for as to Brahmâ (the masculine form of Brahman), though he was looked upon, now and then, as superior to both, he gradually disappears, and becomes merged into the philosophical Brahma, which is a further evolution of the Great Soul of the Upanishads. In the Rama'yana, the superiority of Vishnu is admitted without dispute; in the Mahabharata, however, there is an apparent rivalry between the claims of Vishnu and Siva to occupy the highest rank in the pantheon. The character of these gods, and the relation in which the conception of these beings stands to that of the Vedic time, are noticed further on. We will point, however, to one remarkable myth, as it will illustrate the altered position of the gods during the Epic period. In the Vedic hymns, the immortality of the gods is never matter of doubt; most of the elementary beings are invoked and described as everlasting, as liable neither to decay nor death. The offerings they receive may add to their comfort and strength; they may invigorate them, but it is nowhere stated that they are indispensable for their existence. It is, on the contrary, the pious sacrificer himself who, through his offerings, secures to himself long life, and, as it is sometimes hyperbolically called, immortality. And the same notion prevails throughout the oldest Bra'hmanas. It is only in the latest work of this class, and more

especially in the Epic poems, that we find the inferior gods as mortal in the beginning, and as becoming immortal through exterior agency. In the Satapatha-Brahmana, the juice of the Soma plant, offered by the worshipper, or at another time clarified butter, or even animal sacrifices, impart to them this immortality. At the Epic period, Vishnu teaches them how to obtain the Amrita, or beverage of immortality, without which they would go to destruction. It is obvious, therefore, that gods like these could not strike root in the religious mind of the nation. We must look upon them more as the gods of poetry than of real life; nor do we find that they enjoyed any of the worship which was allotted to the two principal gods, Vishnu and Siva.

The philosophical creed of this period adds little to the fundamental notions contained in the Upanishads; but it frees itself from the legendary dross which still imparts to those works a deep tinge of mysticism. On the other hand, it conceives and develops the notion, that the union of the individual soul with the Supreme Spirit may be aided by penances, such as peculiar modes of breathing, particular postures, protracted fasting, and the like; in short, by those practices which are systematised by the Yoga doctrine (see page 26). The doctrine of the reunion of the individual soul with the supreme soul, was necessarily founded on the assumption, that the former must have become free from all guilt affecting its purity before it can be re-merged into the source whence it proceeded; and since one human life is apparently too short for enabling the soul to attain its accomplishment, the Hindu mind concluded that the soul, after the death of its temporary owner, had to be born again, in order to complete the work it had left undone in its previous existence, and that it must submit to the same fate until its task is fulfilled. This is the doctrine of metempsychosis, or Transmigration, which, in the absence of a belief in grace, is a logical consequence of a system which holds the human soul to be of the same nature as that of an absolute God. The beginning of this doctrine may be discovered in some of the oldest Upanishads, but its fantastical development belongs to the Epic time, where it pervades the legends, and affects the social life of the nation. (See page 18.)

THE PURANIC PERIOD.

The popular Hindu creed of the present is mainly founded on the two classes of works called the Pura'nas and the Tantras.

The Puranas.-According to the popular belief, these works (the name of which means 'old') were compiled by Vyâsa, the supposed arranger of the Vedas and author of the Mahabharata, and possess an antiquity beyond historical computation. But a critical examination leaves little doubt that, in their present form, they can barely claim an antiquity of a thousand years. Even a superficial comparison