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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of India: What can it teach us?, by F. Max Mueller
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: India: What can it teach us?
+       A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University Of Cambridge
+
+Author: F. Max Mueller
+
+Commentator: Alexander Wilder
+
+Release Date: March 18, 2007 [EBook #20847]
+[Last updated: March 30, 2014]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIA: WHAT CAN IT TEACH US? ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Sankar Viswanathan,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                INDIA:
+
+                        WHAT CAN IT TEACH US?
+
+
+
+                         A Course of Lectures
+
+             DELIVERED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
+
+
+
+                                  BY
+
+                         F. MAX MUeLLER, K.M.
+
+
+                   _TEXT AND FOOT-NOTES COMPLETE._
+
+
+
+                WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY
+
+                     PROF. ALEXANDER WILDER, M.D.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              NEW YORK:
+
+                     FUNK & WAGNALLS, PUBLISHERS,
+
+                        10 AND 12 DEY STREET.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+_NOTE OF THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS._
+
+
+This volume contains the entire text of the English edition, also all
+the footnotes. Those portions of the Appendix which serve to
+illustrate the text are inserted in their appropriate places as
+footnotes. That part of the Appendix which is of special interest only
+to the Sanscrit scholar is omitted.
+
+Professor Max Mueller writes in this book not as a theologian but as a
+scholar, not intending either to attack or defend Christian theology.
+His style is charming, because he always writes with freedom and
+animation. In some passages possibly his language might be
+misunderstood. We have thought it best to add a few notes. The notes
+of the American editor are signed "A.W.;" ours, "Am. Pubs."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATED
+
+TO
+
+E. B. COWELL M.A., LL.D.,
+
+PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT AND FELLOW OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE IN THE
+
+UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MY DEAR COWELL: As these Lectures would never have been written or
+delivered but for your hearty encouragement, I hope you will now allow
+me to dedicate them to you, not only as a token of my sincere
+admiration of your great achievements as an Oriental scholar, but also
+as a memorial of our friendship, now more than thirty years old, a
+friendship which has grown from year to year, has weathered many a
+storm, and will last, I trust, for what to both of us may remain of
+our short passage from shore to shore.
+
+I must add, however, that in dedicating these Lectures to you, I do
+not wish to throw upon you any responsibility for the views which I
+have put forward in them. I know that you do not agree with some of my
+views on the ancient religion and literature of India, and I am well
+aware that with regard to the recent date which I have assigned to the
+whole of what is commonly called the Classical Sanskrit Literature, I
+stand almost alone. No, if friendship can claim any voice in the
+courts of science and literature, let me assure you that I shall
+consider your outspoken criticism of my Lectures as the very best
+proof of your true and honest friendship. I have through life
+considered it the greatest honor if real scholars, I mean men not only
+of learning, but of judgment and character, have considered my
+writings worthy of a severe and searching criticism; and I have cared
+far more for the production of one single new fact, though it spoke
+against me, than for any amount of empty praise or empty abuse.
+Sincere devotion to his studies and an unswerving love of truth ought
+to furnish the true scholar with an armor impermeable to flattery or
+abuse, and with a visor that shuts out no ray of light, from whatever
+quarter it may come. More light, more truth, more facts, more
+combination of facts, these are his quest. And if in that quest he
+fails, as many have failed before him, he knows that in the search for
+truth failures are sometimes the condition of victory, and the true
+conquerors often those whom the world calls the vanquished.
+
+You know better than anybody else the present state of Sanskrit
+scholarship. You know that at present and for some time to come
+Sanskrit scholarship means discovery and conquest. Every one of your
+own works marks a real advance, and a permanent occupation of new
+ground. But you know also how small a strip has as yet been explored
+of the vast continent of Sanskrit literature, and how much still
+remains _terra incognita_. No doubt this exploring work is
+troublesome, and often disappointing, but young students must learn
+the truth of a remark lately made by a distinguished member of the
+Indian Civil Service, whose death we all deplore, Dr. Burnell, "that
+no trouble is thrown away which saves trouble to others." We want men
+who will work hard, even at the risk of seeing their labors
+unrequited; we want strong and bold men who are not afraid of storms
+and shipwrecks. The worst sailors are not those who suffer shipwreck,
+but those who only dabble in puddles and are afraid of wetting their
+feet.
+
+It is easy now to criticise the labors of Sir William Jones, Thomas
+Colebrooke, and Horace Hayman Wilson, but what would have become of
+Sanskrit scholarship if they had not rushed in where even now so many
+fear to tread? and what will become of Sanskrit scholarship if their
+conquests are forever to mark the limits of our knowledge? You know
+best that there is more to be discovered in Sanskrit literature than
+Nalas and _S_akuntalas, and surely the young men who every year go out
+to India are not deficient in the spirit of enterprise, or even of
+adventure? Why, then, should it be said that the race of bold
+explorers, who once rendered the name of the Indian Civil Service
+illustrious over the whole world, has well-nigh become extinct, and
+that England, which offers the strongest incentives and the most
+brilliant opportunities for the study of the ancient language,
+literature, and history of India, is no longer in the van of Sanskrit
+scholarship?
+
+If some of the young candidates for the Indian Civil Service who
+listened to my Lectures, quietly made up their minds that such a
+reproach shall be wiped out, if a few of them at least determined to
+follow in the footsteps of Sir William Jones, and to show to the world
+that Englishmen who have been able to achieve by pluck, by
+perseverance, and by real political genius the material conquest of
+India, do not mean to leave the laurels of its intellectual conquest
+entirely to other countries, then I shall indeed rejoice, and feel
+that I have paid back, in however small a degree, the large debt of
+gratitude which I owe to my adopted country and to some of its
+greatest statesmen, who have given me the opportunity which I could
+find nowhere else of realizing the dreams of my life--the publication
+of the text and commentary of the Rig-Veda, the most ancient book of
+Sanskrit, aye of Aryan literature, and now the edition of the
+translations of the "Sacred Books of the East."
+
+I have left my Lectures very much as I delivered them at Cambridge. I
+am fond of the form of Lectures, because it seems to me the most natural
+form which in our age didactic composition ought to take. As in ancient
+Greece the dialogue reflected most truly the intellectual life of the
+people, and as in the Middle Ages learned literature naturally assumed
+with the recluse in his monastic cell the form of a long monologue, so
+with us the lecture places the writer most readily in that position in
+which he is accustomed to deal with his fellow-men, and to communicate
+his knowledge to others. It has no doubt certain disadvantages. In a
+lecture which is meant to be didactic, we have, for the sake of
+completeness, to say and to repeat certain things which must be familiar
+to some of our readers, while we are also forced to leave out
+information which, even in its imperfect form, we should probably not
+hesitate to submit to our fellow-students, but which we feel we have not
+yet sufficiently mastered and matured to enable us to place it clearly
+and simply before a larger public.
+
+But the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. A lecture, by keeping a
+critical audience constantly before our eyes, forces us to condense
+our subject, to discriminate between what is important and what is
+not, and often to deny ourselves the pleasure of displaying what may
+have cost us the greatest labor, but is of little consequence to other
+scholars. In lecturing we are constantly reminded of what students are
+so apt to forget, that their knowledge is meant not for themselves
+only, but for others, and that to know well means to be able to teach
+well. I confess I can never write unless I think of somebody for whom
+I write, and I should never wish for a better audience to have before
+my mind than the learned, brilliant, and kind-hearted assembly by
+which I was greeted in your University.
+
+Still I must confess that I did not succeed in bringing all I wished
+to say, and more particularly the evidence on which some of my
+statements rested, up to the higher level of a lecture; and I have
+therefore added a number of notes containing the less-organized matter
+which resisted as yet that treatment which is necessary before our
+studies can realize their highest purpose, that of feeding,
+invigorating, and inspiriting the minds of others.
+
+Yours affectionately,
+
+F. MAX MUeLLER.
+
+OXFORD, December, 1882.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+DEDICATION,
+
+INTRODUCTION,
+
+LECTURE  I. WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH US?
+
+    "   II. ON THE TRUTHFUL CHARACTER OF THE HINDUS,
+
+    "  III. THE HUMAN INTEREST OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE,
+
+    "   IV. OBJECTIONS,
+
+    "    V. THE LESSONS OF THE VEDA,
+
+    "   VI. VEDIC DEITIES,
+
+    "   VII. VEDA AND VEDANTA,
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Professor Max Mueller has been so long and widely known in the world of
+letters as to render any formal introduction unnecessary. He has been
+from his early youth an assiduous student of philology, justly
+regarding it as an important key to history and an invaluable
+auxiliary to intellectual progress. A glance at his personal career
+will show the ground upon which his reputation is established.
+
+Friedrich Maximilian Mueller, the son of Wilhelm Mueller, the Saxon
+poet, was born at Dessau, December 6th, 1823. He matriculated at
+Leipzig in his eighteenth year, giving his principal attention to
+classical philology, and receiving his degree in 1843. He immediately
+began a course of Oriental studies, chiefly Sanskrit, under the
+supervision of Professor Brockhaus, and in 1844 engaged in his
+translation of the "Hitopadesa." He removed from Leipzig to Berlin,
+and attended the lectures of Bopp, Ruecker, and Schelling. The next
+year he went to Paris to listen to Eugene Burnouf at the College de
+France. He now began the collecting of material for his great quarto
+edition of the "Rig-Veda Sanhita" and the "Commentary of
+Saganadranja." He visited England for this purpose to examine the
+manuscripts in the Bodleian Library and at the Indian House. At the
+recommendation of H. H. Wilson, the Orientalist, he was commissioned
+by the East India Company to publish his edition in England at their
+expense. The first volume appeared in 1849, and five others followed
+during the next few years.
+
+In 1850 he delivered a course of "Lectures on Comparative Philology"
+at Oxford, and the next year was made member of Christ Church,
+curator, etc., and appointed Taylorian Professor of Modern European
+Languages and Literature. He received also numerous other marks of
+distinction from universities, and was made one of the eight foreign
+members of the Institute of France. The Volney prize was awarded him
+by the French Academy for his "Essay on the Comparative Philology of
+Indo-European Languages and its Bearing on the Early Civilization of
+Mankind."
+
+His writings have been numerous. Besides editing the translations of
+the "Sacred Books of the Principal Religions," he has published a
+"Handbook for the Study of Sanskrit," a "Sanskrit-English Dictionary
+and Grammar," "Lectures upon the Science of Language," "An
+Introduction to the Science of Religion," "Essays on Mythology,"
+"Chips from a German Workshop," etc. He seems to have no intermission,
+but penetrates where others would not have ventured, or have faltered
+from utter weariness. In the field of philology he has few peers,
+while in early Sanskrit learning he has virtually taken the part of an
+innovator. While reverently following after Sir William Jones,
+Colebrooke, Windischmann, Bopp, and others of equal distinction, he
+sets aside the received views in regard to chronology and historical
+occurrences. The era of Vikramaditya and the Golden Age of Sanskrit
+literature, bearing a date almost simultaneous with the Augustan
+period at the West, are postponed by him to a later century. It may be
+that he has overlooked some canon of interpretation that would have
+modified his results. Those, however, who hesitate to accept his
+conclusions freely acknowledge his scholarly enthusiasm, persistent
+energy, and great erudition.
+
+Sanskrit in his judgment constitutes an essential element of a liberal
+education. While heartily admiring the employment of some of the best
+talent and noblest genius of our age in the study of development in
+the outward world, from the first growth of the earth and the
+beginning of organic life to the highest stages, he pleads earnestly
+that there is an inward and intellectual world also to be studied in
+its historical development in strict analogy with the other, leading
+up to the beginning of rational thought in its steady progress from
+the lowest to the highest stages. In that study of the history of the
+human mind, in that study of ourselves, our true selves, India
+occupies a place which is second to no other country. Whatever sphere
+of the human mind may be selected for special study, whether language,
+religion, mythology, or philosophy, whether laws, customs, primitive
+art or primitive science, we must go to India, because some of the
+most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are
+treasured up there, and there only. He inveighs most eloquently
+against the narrowing of our horizon to the history of Greeks and
+Romans, Saxons and Celts, with a dim background of Palestine, Egypt,
+and Babylon, leaving out of sight our nearest intellectual relatives,
+the Aryans of India, the framers of that most wonderful language the
+Sanskrit, the fellow-workers in the construction of our fundamental
+concepts, the fathers of the most natural of natural religions, the
+makers of the most transparent of mythologies, the inventors of the
+most subtle philosophy, and the givers of the most elaborate laws. It
+is the purpose of historical study to enable each generation to
+profit from the experience of those who came before, and advance
+toward higher aims, without being obliged to start anew from the same
+point as its ancestors after the manner of every race of brutes. He
+who knows little of those who preceded is very likely to care little
+for those coming after. "Life would be to him a chain of sand, while
+it ought to be a kind of electric chain that makes our hearts tremble
+and vibrate with the most ancient thoughts of the Past, as well as
+with the most distant hopes of the Future."
+
+In no just sense is this an exaggeration. Deep as science and research
+have explored, extensive as is the field which genius and art have
+occupied, they have an Herculean labor yet to perform before India
+will have yielded up all her opulence of learning. The literature of
+the world in all ages has been richly furnished, if not actually
+inspired, from that fountain. The Wisdom of the Ancients, so much
+lauded in the earlier writings of Hebrews, Greeks, and Phoenicians,
+was abundantly represented in the lore of these Wise Men of the East.
+
+The first Ionian sages lighted the torch of philosophy at the altar of
+Zoroaster. The conquest of Asia Minor by the Persians brought Thales,
+Anaximenes, and Herakleitos into contact with the Eranian dogmas. The
+leaven thus imparted had a potent influence upon the entire mass of
+Grecian thought. We find it easy to trace its action upon opinions in
+later periods and among the newer nations. Kant, Hegel, Stewart, and
+Hamilton, as well as Plato, Zeno, and Aristotle, had their prototypes
+in the world and antiquity beyond. Even the first Zarathustra was an
+exponent and not the originator of the Religion and Science of Light.
+We are thus carried by this route back to the ancient Aryan Home for
+the sources from which so many golden streams have issued. In the
+Sanskrit books and mantras we must look for the treasures that make
+human souls rich. Perhaps we have been too much disposed to regard
+that former world as a wonderland, a repertory of folk-lore, or a
+theatre of gross and revolting superstition. We are now required by
+candor and justice to revise such notions. These primeval peoples, in
+their way and in a language akin to ours, adored the Father in heaven,
+and contemplated the future of the soul with a sure and certain hope.
+
+Nor did they, while observing the myriads of races intervening between
+man and the monad, regard the world beyond as waste and void.
+Intelligences of every grade were believed to people the region
+between mortals and the Infinite. The angels and archangels, and the
+spirits of the just made perfect--_devas_ and _pitris_ they called
+them--ministered about the throne of the Supreme Being, and abode in
+the various spheres of universal space. Much of the difference between
+our thought and theirs consists in the names and not in the substance
+of our beliefs.
+
+We may thus be prepared to receive what India can teach us. In her
+classic dialect, the Sanskrit, we may read with what success the
+children of the men who journeyed from the ancient Aryan Home into the
+Punjab and Aryavartta have ventured "to look inward upon themselves,
+upward to something not themselves, and to see whether they could not
+understand a little of the true purport of that mystery which we call
+life upon earth." It was perfectly natural, as well as perfectly
+right, that as the beholder caught a glance of the Infinite Beyond,
+the image impressed itself upon his sensorium, as would be the case
+from looking at the sun, and he would as a result perceive that
+Infinite in all that he looked upon. Thus to the Sanskrit-speaking
+Aryan, as to the enlightened mind of to-day, not to see it was utter
+blindness. What we call science, law, morality, religion, was in his
+view pervaded alike throughout by this concept of Divine presence, or
+else it would have been less than a dream that had not come to the
+awaking. He was a follower of the light, not from the senses or the
+logical understanding, but from the eternal world. Let us not dwell on
+any darker shade of the picture. Clouds are dark to those who are
+beneath them; but on the upper side, where the sun shines, they glow
+with golden splendor. Let us be willing to contemplate India
+fraternally, and upon that side where the radiance of the Divine sheds
+a refulgent illumination.
+
+ALEXANDER WILDER.
+
+NEWARK, N. J., May 14th, 1883.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+INDIA.
+
+LECTURE I.
+
+WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH US?
+
+
+When I received from the Board of Historical Studies at Cambridge the
+invitation to deliver a course of lectures, specially intended for the
+candidates for the Indian Civil Service, I hesitated for some time,
+feeling extremely doubtful whether in a few public discourses I could
+say anything that would be of real use to them in passing their
+examinations. To enable young men to pass their examinations seems now
+to have become the chief, if not the only object of the universities;
+and to no class of students is it of greater importance to pass their
+examinations, and to pass them well, than to the candidates for the
+Indian Civil Service.
+
+But although I was afraid that attendance on a few public lectures,
+such as I could give, would hardly benefit a candidate who was not
+already fully prepared to pass through the fiery ordeal of the three
+London examinations, I could not on the other hand shut my eyes
+completely to the fact that, after all, universities were not meant
+entirely, or even chiefly, as stepping-stones to an examination, but
+that there is something else which universities can teach and ought to
+teach--nay, which I feel quite sure they were originally meant to
+teach--something that may not have a marketable value before a Board
+of Examiners, but which has a permanent value for the whole of our
+life, and that is a real interest in our work, and, more than that, a
+love of our work, and, more than that, a true joy and happiness in our
+work. If a university can teach that, if it can engraft that one small
+living germ in the minds of the young men who come here to study and
+to prepare themselves for the battle of life, and, for what is still
+more difficult to encounter, the daily dull drudgery of life, then, I
+feel convinced, a university has done more, and conferred a more
+lasting benefit on its pupils than by helping them to pass the most
+difficult examinations, and to take the highest place among Senior
+Wranglers or First-Class men.
+
+Unfortunately, that kind of work which is now required for passing one
+examination after another, that process of cramming and crowding which
+has of late been brought to the highest pitch of perfection, has often
+the very opposite effect, and instead of exciting an appetite for
+work, it is apt to produce an indifference, if not a kind of
+intellectual nausea, that may last for life.
+
+And nowhere is this so much to be feared as in the case of candidates
+for the Indian Civil Service. After they have passed their first
+examination for admission to the Indian Civil Service, and given proof
+that they have received the benefits of a liberal education, and
+acquired that general information in classics, history, and
+mathematics, which is provided at our public schools, and forms no
+doubt the best and surest foundation for all more special and
+professional studies in later life, they suddenly find themselves torn
+away from their old studies and their old friends, and compelled to
+take up new subjects which to many of them seem strange, outlandish,
+if not repulsive. Strange alphabets, strange languages, strange names,
+strange literatures and laws have to be faced, "to be got up" as it is
+called, not from choice, but from dire necessity. The whole course of
+study during two years is determined for them, the subjects fixed, the
+books prescribed, the examinations regulated, and there is no time to
+look either right or left, if a candidate wishes to make sure of
+taking each successive fence in good style, and without an accident.
+
+I know quite well that this cannot be helped. I am not speaking
+against the system of examinations in general, if only they are
+intelligently conducted; nay, as an old examiner myself, I feel bound
+to say that the amount of knowledge produced ready-made at these
+examinations is to my mind perfectly astounding. But while the answers
+are there on paper, strings of dates, lists of royal names and
+battles, irregular verbs, statistical figures and whatever else you
+like, how seldom do we find that the heart of the candidates is in the
+work which they have to do. The results produced are certainly most
+ample and voluminous, but they rarely contain a spark of original
+thought, or even a clever mistake. It is work done from necessity, or,
+let us be just, from a sense of duty, but it is seldom, or hardly
+ever, a labor of love.
+
+Now why should that be? Why should a study of Greek or Latin--of the
+poetry, the philosophy, the laws and the art of Greece and Italy--seem
+congenial to us, why should it excite even a certain enthusiasm, and
+command general respect, while a study of Sanskrit, and of the ancient
+poetry, the philosophy, the laws, and the art of India is looked upon,
+in the best case, as curious, but is considered by most people as
+useless, tedious, if not absurd?
+
+And, strange to say, this feeling exists in England more than in any
+other country. In France, Germany, and Italy, even in Denmark, Sweden,
+and Russia, there is a vague charm connected with the name of India.
+One of the most beautiful poems in the German language is the
+_Weisheit der Brahmanen_, the "Wisdom of the Brahmans," by Rueckert, to
+my mind more rich in thought and more perfect in form than even
+Goethe's _West-oestlicher Divan_. A scholar who studies Sanskrit in
+Germany is supposed to be initiated in the deep and dark mysteries of
+ancient wisdom, and a man who has travelled in India, even if he has
+only discovered Calcutta, or Bombay, or Madras, is listened to like
+another Marco Polo. In England a student of Sanskrit is generally
+considered a bore, and an old Indian civil servant, if he begins to
+describe the marvels of Elephanta or the Towers of Silence, runs the
+risk of producing a count-out.
+
+There are indeed a few Oriental scholars whose works are read, and who
+have acquired a certain celebrity in England, because they were really
+men of uncommon genius, and would have ranked among the great glories
+of the country, but for the misfortune that their energies were
+devoted to Indian literature--I mean Sir William Jones, "one of the
+most enlightened of the sons of men," as Dr. Johnson called him, and
+Thomas Colebrooke. But the names of others who have done good work in
+their day also, men such as Ballantyne, Buchanan, Carey, Crawfurd,
+Davis, Elliot, Ellis, Houghton, Leyden, Mackenzie, Marsden, Muir,
+Prinsep, Rennell, Turnour, Upham, Wallich, Warren, Wilkins, Wilson,
+and many others, are hardly known beyond the small circle of Oriental
+scholars; and their works are looked for in vain in libraries which
+profess to represent with a certain completeness the principal
+branches of scholarship and science in England.
+
+How many times, when I advised young men, candidates for the Indian
+Civil Service, to devote themselves before all things to a study of
+Sanskrit, have I been told, "What is the use of our studying Sanskrit?
+There are translations of _S_akuntala, Manu, and the Hitopade_s_a, and
+what else is there in that literature that is worth reading? Kalidasa
+may be very pretty, and the Laws of Manu are very curious, and the
+fables of the Hitopade_s_a are very quaint; but you would not compare
+Sanskrit literature with Greek, or recommend us to waste our time in
+copying and editing Sanskrit texts which either teach us nothing that
+we do not know already, or teach us something which we do not care to
+know?"
+
+This seems to me a most unhappy misconception, and it will be the
+chief object of my lectures to try to remove it, or at all events to
+modify it, as much as possible. I shall not attempt to prove that
+Sanskrit literature is as good as Greek literature. Why should we
+always compare? A study of Greek literature has its own purpose, and a
+study of Sanskrit literature has its own purpose; but what I feel
+convinced of, and hope to convince you of, is that Sanskrit
+literature, if studied only in a right spirit, is full of human
+interests, full of lessons which even Greek could never teach us, a
+subject worthy to occupy the leisure, and more than the leisure, of
+every Indian civil servant; and certainly the best means of making any
+young man who has to spend five-and-twenty years of his life in India,
+feel at home among the Indians, as a fellow-worker among
+fellow-workers, and not as an alien among aliens. There will be
+abundance of useful and most interesting work for him to do, if only
+he cares to do it, work such as he would look for in vain, whether in
+Italy or in Greece, or even among the pyramids of Egypt or the palaces
+of Babylon.
+
+You will now understand why I have chosen as the title of my lectures,
+"What can India teach us?" True, there are many things which India has
+to learn from us; but there are other things, and, in one sense, very
+important things, which we too may learn from India.
+
+If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most
+richly endowed with all the wealth, power, and beauty that nature can
+bestow--in some parts a very paradise on earth--I should point to
+India. If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most full
+developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the
+greatest problems of life, and has found solutions of some of them
+which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato
+and Kant--I should point to India. And if I were to ask myself from
+what literature we, here in Europe, we who have been nurtured almost
+exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and of one Semitic
+race, the Jewish, may draw that corrective which is most wanted in
+order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more
+universal, in fact more truly human, a life, not for this life only,
+but a transfigured and eternal life--again I should point to India.
+
+I know you will be surprised to hear me say this. I know that more
+particularly those who have spent many years of active life in
+Calcutta, or Bombay, or Madras, will be horror-struck at the idea that
+the humanity they meet with there, whether in the bazaars or in the
+courts of justice, or in so-called native society, should be able to
+teach _us_ any lessons.
+
+Let me therefore explain at once to my friends who may have lived in
+India for years, as civil servants, or officers, or missionaries, or
+merchants, and who ought to know a great deal more of that country
+than one who has never set foot on the soil of Aryavarta, that we are
+speaking of two very different Indias. I am thinking chiefly of India
+such as it was a thousand, two thousand, it may be three thousand
+years ago; they think of the India of to-day. And again, when thinking
+of the India of to-day, they remember chiefly the India of Calcutta,
+Bombay, or Madras, the India of the towns. I look to the India of the
+village communities, the true India of the Indians.
+
+What I wish to show to you, I mean more especially the candidates for
+the Indian Civil Service, is that this India of a thousand, or two
+thousand, or three thousand years ago, ay the India of to-day also, if
+only you know where to look for it, is full of problems, the solution
+of which concerns all of us, even us in this Europe of the nineteenth
+century.
+
+If you have acquired any special tastes here in England, you will find
+plenty to satisfy them in India; and whoever has learned to take an
+interest in any of the great problems that occupy the best thinkers
+and workers at home, need certainly not be afraid of India proving to
+him an intellectual exile.
+
+If you care for geology, there is work for you from the Himalayas to
+Ceylon.
+
+If you are fond of botany, there is a flora rich enough for many
+Hookers.
+
+If you are a zoologist, think of Haeckel, who is just now rushing
+through Indian forests and dredging in Indian seas, and to whom his
+stay in India is like the realization of the brightest dream of his
+life.
+
+If you are interested in ethnology, why India is like a living
+ethnological museum.
+
+If you are fond of archaeology, if you have ever assisted at the
+opening of a barrow in England, and know the delight of finding a
+fibula, or a knife, or a flint in a heap of rubbish, read only General
+Cunningham's "Annual Reports of the Archaeological Survey of India,"
+and you will be impatient for the time when you can take your spade
+and bring to light the ancient Viharas or colleges built by the
+Buddhist monarchs of India.
+
+If ever you amused yourselves with collecting coins, why the soil of
+India teems with coins, Persian, Carian, Thracian, Parthian, Greek,
+Macedonian, Scythian, Roman,[1] and Mohammedan. When Warren Hastings
+was Governor-General, an earthen pot was found on the bank of a river
+in the province of Benares, containing one hundred and seventy-two
+gold darics.[2] Warren Hastings considered himself as making the most
+munificent present to his masters that he might ever have it in his
+power to send them, by presenting those ancient coins to the Court of
+Directors. The story is that they were sent to the melting-pot. At all
+events they had disappeared when Warren Hastings returned to England.
+It rests with you to prevent the revival of such vandalism.
+
+In one of the last numbers of the _Asiatic Journal of Bengal_ you may
+read of the discovery of a treasure as rich in gold almost as some of
+the tombs opened by Dr. Schliemann at Mykenae, nay, I should add,
+perhaps, not quite unconnected with some of the treasures found at
+Mykenae; yet hardly any one has taken notice of it in England![3]
+
+The study of Mythology has assumed an entirely new character, chiefly
+owing to the light that has been thrown on it by the ancient Vedic
+Mythology of India. But though the foundation of a true Science of
+Mythology has been laid, all the detail has still to be worked out,
+and could be worked out nowhere better than in India.
+
+Even the study of fables owes its new life to India, from whence the
+various migrations of fables have been traced at various times and
+through various channels from East to West.[4] Buddhism is now known
+to have been the principal source of our legends and parables. But
+here, too, many problems still wait for their solution. Think, for
+instance, of the allusion to the fable of the donkey in the lion's
+skin, which occurs in Plato's Cratylus.[5] Was that borrowed from the
+East? Or take the fable of the weasel changed by Aphrodite into a
+woman who, when she saw a mouse, could not refrain from making a
+spring at it. This, too, is very like a Sanskrit fable; but how then
+could it have been brought into Greece early enough to appear in one
+of the comedies of Strattis, about 400 B.C.?[6] Here, too, there is
+still plenty of work to do.
+
+We may go back even farther into antiquity, and still find strange
+coincidences between the legends of India and the legends of the West,
+without as yet being able to say how they travelled, whether from East
+to West, or from West to East. That at the time of Solomon there was a
+channel of communication open between India and Syria and Palestine is
+established beyond doubt, I believe, by certain Sanskrit words which
+occur in the Bible as names of articles of export from Ophir, articles
+such as ivory, apes, peacocks, and sandalwood, which, taken together,
+could not have been exported from any country but India.[7] Nor is
+there any reason to suppose that the commercial intercourse between
+India, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean was ever
+completely interrupted, even at the time when the Book of Kings is
+supposed to have been written.
+
+Now you remember the judgment of Solomon, which has always been
+admired as a proof of great legal wisdom among the Jews.[8] I must
+confess that, not having a legal mind, I never could suppress a
+certain shudder[9] when reading the decision of Solomon: "Divide the
+living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other."
+
+Let me now tell you the same story as it is told by the Buddhists,
+whose sacred Canon is full of such legends and parables. In the
+Kanjur, which is the Tibetan translation of the Buddhist Tripi_t_aka,
+we likewise read of two women who claimed each to be the mother of the
+same child. The king, after listening to their quarrels for a long
+time, gave it up as hopeless to settle who was the real mother. Upon
+this Vi_s_akha stepped forward and said: "What is the use of examining
+and cross-examining these women? Let them take the boy and settle it
+among themselves." Thereupon both women fell on the child, and when
+the fight became violent the child was hurt and began to cry. Then one
+of them let him go, because she could not bear to hear the child cry.
+
+That settled the question. The king gave the child to the true mother,
+and had the other beaten with a rod.
+
+This seems to me, if not the more primitive, yet the more natural form
+of the story--showing a deeper knowledge of human nature and more
+wisdom than even the wisdom of Solomon.[10]
+
+Many of you may have studied not only languages, but also the Science
+of Language, and is there any country in which some of the most
+important problems of that science, say only the growth and decay of
+dialects, or the possible mixture of languages, with regard not only
+to words, but to grammatical elements also, can be studied to greater
+advantage than among the Aryan, the Dravidian, and the Mu_n_da
+inhabitants of India, when brought in contact with their various
+invaders and conquerors, the Greeks, the Yue-tchi, the Arabs, the
+Persians, the Moguls, and lastly the English?
+
+Again, if you are a student of Jurisprudence, there is a history of
+law to be explored in India, very different from what is known of the
+history of law in Greece, in Rome, and in Germany, yet both by its
+contrasts and by its similarities full of suggestions to the student
+of Comparative Jurisprudence. New materials are being discovered every
+year, as, for instance, the so-called Dharma or Samaya_k_arika Sutras,
+which have supplied the materials for the later metrical law-books,
+such as the famous Laws of Manu. What was once called "The Code of
+Laws of Manu," and confidently referred to 1200, or at least 500 B.C.,
+is now hesitatingly referred to perhaps the fourth century A.D., and
+called neither a Code, nor a Code of Laws, least of all, the Code of
+Laws of Manu.
+
+If you have learned to appreciate the value of recent researches into
+the antecedents of all law, namely the foundation and growth of the
+simplest political communities--and nowhere could you have had better
+opportunities for it than here at Cambridge--you will find a field of
+observation opened before you in the still-existing village estates in
+India that will amply repay careful research.
+
+And take that which, after all, whether we confess or deny it, we care
+for more in this life than for anything else--nay, which is often far
+more cared for by those who deny than by those who confess--take that
+which supports, pervades, and directs all our acts and thoughts and
+hopes--without which there can be neither village-community nor empire,
+neither custom nor law, neither right nor wrong--take that which, next
+to language, has most firmly fixed the specific and permanent barrier
+between man and beast--which alone has made life possible and bearable,
+and which, as it is the deepest, though often-hidden spring of
+individual life, is also the foundation of all national life--the
+history of all histories, and yet the mystery of all mysteries--take
+religion, and where can you study its true origin,[11] its natural
+growth, and its inevitable decay better than in India, the home of
+Brahmanism, the birthplace of Buddhism, and the refuge of
+Zoroastrianism, even now the mother of new superstitions--and why not,
+in the future, the regenerate child of the purest faith, if only
+purified from the dust of nineteen centuries?
+
+You will find yourselves everywhere in India between an immense past
+and an immense future, with opportunities such as the old world could
+but seldom, if ever, offer you. Take any of the burning questions of
+the day--popular education, higher education, parliamentary
+representation, codification of laws, finance, emigration, poor-law;
+and whether you have anything to teach and to try, or anything to
+observe and to learn, India will supply you with a laboratory such as
+exists nowhere else. That very Sanskrit, the study of which may at
+first seem so tedious to you and so useless, if only you will carry it
+on, as you may carry it on here at Cambridge better than anywhere
+else, will open before you large layers of literature, as yet almost
+unknown and unexplored, and allow you an insight into strata of
+thought deeper than any you have known before, and rich in lessons
+that appeal to the deepest sympathies of the human heart.
+
+Depend upon it, if only you can make leisure, you will find plenty of
+work in India for your leisure hours.
+
+India is not, as you may imagine, a distant, strange, or, at the very
+utmost, a curious country. India for the future belongs to Europe, it
+has its place in the Indo-European world, it has its place in our own
+history, and in what is the very life of history, the history of the
+human mind.
+
+You know how some of the best talent and the noblest genius of our age
+has been devoted to the study of the development of the outward or
+material world, the growth of the earth, the first appearance of
+living cells, their combination and differentiation, leading up to the
+beginning of organic life, and its steady progress from the lowest to
+the highest stages. Is there not an inward and intellectual world also
+which has to be studied in its historical development, from the first
+appearance of predicative and demonstrative roots, their combination
+and differentiation, leading up to the beginning of rational thought
+in its steady progress from the lowest to the highest stages? And in
+that study of the history of the human mind, in that study of
+ourselves, of our true selves, India occupies a place second to no
+other country. Whatever sphere of the human mind you may select for
+your special study, whether it be language, or religion, or mythology,
+or philosophy, whether it be laws or customs, primitive art or
+primitive science, everywhere, you have to go to India, whether you
+like it or not, because some of the most valuable and most instructive
+materials in the history of man are treasured up in India, and in
+India only.
+
+And while thus trying to explain to those whose lot will soon be cast
+in India the true position which that wonderful country holds or ought
+to hold in universal history, I may perhaps be able at the same time
+to appeal to the sympathies of other members of this University, by
+showing them how imperfect our knowledge of universal history, our
+insight into the development of the human intellect, must always
+remain, if we narrow our horizon to the history of Greeks and Romans,
+Saxons and Celts, with a dim background of Palestine, Egypt, and
+Babylon,[12] and leave out of sight our nearest intellectual
+relatives, the Aryans of India, the framers of the most wonderful
+language, the Sanskrit, the fellow-workers in the construction of our
+fundamental concepts, the fathers of the most natural of natural
+religions, the makers of the most transparent of mythologies, the
+inventors of the most subtle philosophy, and the givers of the most
+elaborate laws.
+
+There are many things which we think essential in a liberal education,
+whole chapters of history which we teach in our schools and
+universities, that cannot for one moment compare with the chapter
+relating to India, if only properly understood and freely interpreted.
+
+In our time, when the study of history threatens to become almost an
+impossibility--such is the mass of details which historians collect in
+archives and pour out before us in monographs--it seems to me more
+than ever the duty of the true historian to find out the real
+proportion of things, to arrange his materials according to the
+strictest rules of artistic perspective, and to keep completely out of
+sight all that may be rightly ignored by us in our own passage across
+the historical stage of the world. It is this power of discovering
+what is really important that distinguishes the true historian from
+the mere chronicler, in whose eyes everything is important,
+particularly if he has discovered it himself. I think it was Frederick
+the Great who, when sighing for a true historian of his reign,
+complained bitterly that those who wrote the history of Prussia never
+forgot to describe the buttons on his uniform. And it is probably of
+such historical works that Carlyle was thinking when he said that he
+had waded through them all, but that nothing should ever induce him to
+hand even their names and titles down to posterity. And yet how much
+is there even in Carlyle's histories that might safely be consigned to
+oblivion!
+
+Why do we want to know history? Why does history form a recognized
+part of our liberal education? Simply because all of us, and every one
+of us, ought to know how we have come to be what we are, so that each
+generation need not start again from the same point and toil over the
+same ground, but, profiting by the experience of those who came
+before, may advance toward higher points and nobler aims. As a child
+when growing up might ask his father or grandfather _who_ had built
+the house they lived in, or who had cleared the field that yielded
+them their food, we ask the historian whence we came, and how we came
+into possession of what we call our own. History may tell us afterward
+many useful and amusing things, gossip, such as a child might like to
+hear from his mother or grandmother; but what history has to teach us
+before all and everything, is our own antecedents, our own ancestors,
+our own descent.
+
+Now our principal intellectual ancestors are, no doubt, the _Jews_,
+the _Greeks_, the _Romans_, and the _Saxons_, and we, here in Europe,
+should not call a man educated or enlightened who was ignorant of the
+debt which he owes to his intellectual ancestors in Palestine, Greece,
+Rome, and Germany. The whole past history of the world would be
+darkness to him, and not knowing what those who came before him had
+done for him, he would probably care little to do anything for those
+who are to come after him. Life would be to him a chain of sand, while
+it ought to be a kind of electric chain that makes our hearts tremble
+and vibrate with the most ancient thoughts of the past, as well as
+with the most distant hopes of the future.
+
+Let us begin with our religion. No one can understand even the
+historical possibility of the Christian religion without knowing
+something of the Jewish race, which must be studied chiefly in the
+pages of the Old Testament. And in order to appreciate the true
+relation of the Jews to the rest of the ancient world, and to
+understand what ideas were peculiarly their own, and what ideas they
+shared in common with the other members of the Semitic stock, or what
+moral and religious impulses they received from their historical
+contact with other nations of antiquity, it is absolutely necessary
+that we should pay some attention to the history of Babylon, Nineveh,
+Phoenicia, and Persia. These may seem distant countries and
+forgotten people, and many might feel inclined to say, "Let the dead
+bury their dead; what are those mummies to us?" Still, such is the
+marvellous continuity of history, that I could easily show you many
+things which we, even we who are here assembled, owe to Babylon, to
+Nineveh, to Egypt, Phoenicia, and Persia.
+
+Every one who carries a watch owes to the Babylonians the division of
+the hour into sixty minutes. It may be a very bad division, yet such
+as it is, it has come to us from the Greeks and Romans, and it came to
+them from Babylon. The sexagesimal division is peculiarly Babylonian.
+Hipparchos, 150 B.C., adopted it from Babylon, Ptolemy, 150 A.D., gave
+it wider currency, and the French, when they decimated everything
+else, respected the dial-plates of our watches, and left them with
+their sixty Babylonian minutes.
+
+Every one who writes a letter owes his alphabet to the Romans and
+Greeks; the Greeks owed their alphabet to the Phoenicians, and the
+Phoenicians learned it in Egypt. It may be a very imperfect
+alphabet--as all the students of phonetics will tell you--yet, such as
+it is and has been, we owe it to the old Phoenicians and Egyptians,
+and in every letter we trace, there lies imbedded the mummy of an
+ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic.
+
+What do we owe to the Persians? It does not seem to be much, for they
+were not a very inventive race, and what they knew they had chiefly
+learned from their neighbors, the Babylonians and Assyrians. Still,
+we owe them something. First of all, we owe them a large debt of
+gratitude for having allowed themselves to be beaten by the Greeks;
+for think what the world would have been if the Persians had beaten
+the Greeks at Marathon, and had enslaved--that means, annihilated--the
+genius of ancient Greece. However, this may be called rather an
+involuntary contribution to the progress of humanity, and I mention it
+only in order to show how narrowly, not only Greeks and Romans, but
+Saxons and Anglo-Saxons too, escaped becoming Parsis or
+Fire-worshippers.
+
+But I can mention at least one voluntary gift which came to us from
+Persia, and that is the relation of silver to gold in our bi-metallic
+currency. That relation was, no doubt, first determined in Babylonia,
+but it assumed its practical and historical importance in the Persian
+empire, and spread from there to the Greek colonies in Asia, and
+thence to Europe, where it has maintained itself with slight variation
+to the present day.
+
+A _talent_[13] was divided into sixty _minae_, a mina into sixty
+_shekels_. Here we have again the Babylonian sexagesimal system, a
+system which owes its origin and popularity, I believe, to the fact
+that _sixty_ has the greatest number of divisors. Shekel was
+translated into Greek by _Stater_, and an Athenian gold stater, like
+the Persian gold stater, down to the times of Croesus, Darius, and
+Alexander, was the sixtieth part of a mina of gold, not very far
+therefore from our sovereign. The proportion of silver to gold was
+fixed as thirteen or thirteen and a third to one; and if the weight of
+a silver shekel was made as thirteen to ten, such a coin would
+correspond very nearly to our florin.[14] Half a silver shekel was a
+_drachma_, and this was therefore the true ancestor of our shilling.
+
+Again you may say that any attempt at fixing the relative value of
+silver and gold is, and always has been, a great mistake. Still it
+shows how closely the world is held together, and how, for good or for
+evil, we are what we are, not so much by ourselves as by the toil and
+moil of those who came before us, our true intellectual ancestors,
+whatever the blood may have been composed of that ran through their
+veins, or the bones which formed the rafters of their skulls.
+
+And if it is true, with regard to religion, that no one could
+understand it and appreciate its full purport without knowing its
+origin and growth, that is, without knowing something of what the
+cuneiform inscriptions of Mesopotamia, the hieroglyphic and hieratic
+texts of Egypt, and the historical monuments of Phoenicia and Persia
+can alone reveal to us, it is equally true with regard to all the
+other elements that constitute the whole of our intellectual life. If
+we are Jewish or Semitic in our religion, we are _Greek_ in our
+philosophy, _Roman_ in our politics, and _Saxon_ in our morality; and
+it follows that a knowledge of the history of the Greeks, Romans, and
+Saxons, or of the flow of civilization from Greece to Italy, and
+through Germany to these isles, forms an essential element in what is
+called a liberal, that is, an historical and rational education.
+
+But then it might be said, Let this be enough. Let us know by all
+means all that deserves to be known about our real spiritual ancestors
+in the great historical kingdoms of the world; let us be grateful for
+all we have inherited from Egyptians, Babylonians, Phoenicians,
+Jews, Greeks, Romans, and Saxons. But why bring in India? Why add a
+new burden to what every man has to bear already, before he can call
+himself fairly educated? What have we inherited from the dark dwellers
+on the Indus and the Ganges, that we should have to add their royal
+names and dates and deeds to the archives of our already overburdened
+memory?
+
+There is some justice in this complaint. The ancient inhabitants of
+India are not our intellectual ancestors in the same direct way as
+Jews, Greeks, Romans, and Saxons are; but they represent,
+nevertheless, a collateral branch of that family to which we belong by
+language, that is, by thought, and their historical records extend in
+some respects so far beyond all other records and have been preserved
+to us in such perfect and such legible documents, that we can learn
+from them lessons which we can learn nowhere else, and supply missing
+links in our intellectual ancestry far more important than that
+missing link (which we can well afford to miss), the link between Ape
+and Man.
+
+I am not speaking as yet of the literature of India as it is, but of
+something far more ancient, the language of India, or Sanskrit. No one
+supposes any longer that Sanskrit was the common source of Greek,
+Latin, and Anglo-Saxon. This used to be said, but it has long been
+shown that Sanskrit is only a collateral branch of the same stem from
+which spring Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon; and not only these, but
+all the Teutonic, all the Celtic, all the Slavonic languages, nay, the
+languages of Persia and Armenia also.
+
+What, then, is it that gives to Sanskrit its claim on our attention,
+and its supreme importance in the eyes of the historian?
+
+First of all, its antiquity--for we know Sanskrit at an earlier period
+than Greek. But what is far more important than its merely
+chronological antiquity is the antique state of preservation in which
+that Aryan language has been handed down to us. The world had known
+Latin and Greek for centuries, and it was felt, no doubt, that there
+was some kind of similarity between the two. But how was that
+similarity to be explained? Sometimes Latin was supposed to give the
+key to the formation of a Greek word, sometimes Greek seemed to betray
+the secret of the origin of a Latin word. Afterward, when the ancient
+Teutonic languages, such as Gothic and Anglo-Saxon, and the ancient
+Celtic and Slavonic languages too, came to be studied, no one could
+help seeing a certain family likeness among them all. But how such a
+likeness between these languages came to be, and how, what is far more
+difficult to explain, such striking differences too between these
+languages came to be, remained a mystery, and gave rise to the most
+gratuitous theories, most of them, as you know, devoid of all
+scientific foundation. As soon, however, as Sanskrit stepped into the
+midst of these languages, there came light and warmth and mutual
+recognition. They all ceased to be strangers, and each fell of its own
+accord into its right place. Sanskrit was the eldest sister of them
+all, and could tell of many things which the other members of the
+family had quite forgotten. Still, the other languages too had each
+their own tale to tell; and it is out of all their tales together that
+a chapter in the human mind has been put together which, in some
+respects, is more important to us than any of the other chapters, the
+Jewish, the Greek, the Latin, or the Saxon.
+
+The process by which that ancient chapter of history was recovered is
+very simple. Take the words which occur in the same form and with the
+same meaning in all the seven branches of the Aryan family, and you
+have in them the most genuine and trustworthy records in which to read
+the thoughts of our true ancestors, before they had become Hindus, or
+Persians, or Greeks, or Romans, or Celts, or Teutons, or Slaves. Of
+course, some of these ancient charters may have been lost in one or
+other of these seven branches of the Aryan family, but even then, if
+they are found in six, or five, or four, or three, or even two only of
+its original branches, the probability remains, unless we can prove a
+later historical contact between these languages, that these words
+existed before the great _Aryan Separation_. If we find _agni_,
+meaning fire, in Sanskrit, and _ignis_, meaning fire, in Latin, we may
+safely conclude that _fire_ was known to the undivided Aryans, even if
+no trace of the same name of fire occurred anywhere else. And why?
+Because there is no indication that Latin remained longer united with
+Sanskrit than any of the other Aryan languages, or that Latin could
+have borrowed such a word from Sanskrit, after these two languages had
+once become distinct. We have, however, the Lithuanian _ugnis_, and
+the Scottish _ingle_, to show that the Slavonic and possibly the
+Teutonic languages also, knew the same word for fire, though they
+replaced it in time by other words. Words, like all other things, will
+die, and why they should live on in one soil and wither away and
+perish in another, is not always easy to say. What has become of
+_ignis_, for instance, in all the Romance languages? It has withered
+away and perished, probably because, after losing its final
+unaccentuated syllable, it became awkward to pronounce; and another
+word, _focus_, which in Latin meant fireplace, hearth, altar, has
+taken its place.
+
+Suppose we wanted to know whether the ancient Aryans before their
+separation knew the mouse: we should only have to consult the principal
+Aryan dictionaries, and we should find in Sanskrit _mush_, in Greek
+[Greek: mus], in Latin _mus_, in Old Slavonic myse, in Old High German
+_mus_, enabling us to say that, at a time so distant from us that we
+feel inclined to measure it by Indian rather than by our own chronology,
+the mouse was known, that is, was named, was conceived and recognized as
+a species of its own, not to be confounded with any other vermin.
+
+And if we were to ask whether the enemy of the mouse, the _cat_, was
+known at the same distant time, we should feel justified in saying
+decidedly, No. The cat is called in Sanskrit mar_g_ara and vi_d_ala.
+In Greek and Latin the words usually given as names of the cat,
+[Greek: _galee_] and [Greek: _ailouros_], _mustella_ and _feles_,
+did not originally signify the tame cat, but the weasel or marten. The
+name for the real cat in Greek was [Greek: _katta_], in Latin
+_catus_, and these words have supplied the names for cat in all the
+Teutonic, Slavonic, and Celtic languages. The animal itself, so far as
+we know at present, came to Europe from Egypt, where it had been
+worshipped for centuries and tamed; and as this arrival probably dates
+from the fourth century A.D., we can well understand that no common
+name for it could have existed when the Aryan nations separated.[15]
+
+In this way a more or less complete picture of the state of
+civilization, previous to the Aryan Separation, can be and has been
+reconstructed, like a mosaic put together with the fragments of
+ancient stones; and I doubt whether, in tracing the history of the
+human mind, we shall ever reach to a lower stratum than that which is
+revealed to us by the converging rays of the different Aryan
+languages.
+
+Nor is that all; for even that Proto-Aryan language, as it has been
+reconstructed from the ruins scattered about in India, Greece, Italy,
+and Germany, is clearly the result of a long, long process of thought.
+One shrinks from chronological limitations when looking into such
+distant periods of life. But if we find Sanskrit as a perfect literary
+language, totally different from Greek and Latin, 1500 B.C., where can
+those streams of Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin meet, as we trace them
+back to their common source? And then, when we have followed these
+mighty national streams back to their common meeting-point, even then
+that common language looks like a rock washed down and smoothed for
+ages by the ebb and flow of thought. We find in that language such a
+compound, for instance, as _asmi_, I am, Greek [Greek: esmi].
+What would other languages give for such a pure concept as _I am_?
+They may say, _I stand_, or _I live_, or _I grow_, or _I turn_, but it
+is given to few languages only to be able to say _I am_. To us nothing
+seems more natural than the auxiliary verb _I am_; but, in reality, no
+work of art has required greater efforts than this little word _I am_.
+And all those efforts lie beneath the level of the common Proto-Aryan
+speech. Many different ways were open, were tried, too, in order to
+arrive at such a compound as _asmi_, and such a concept as _I am_. But
+all were given up, and this one alone remained, and was preserved
+forever in all the languages and all the dialects of the Aryan family.
+In _as-mi_, _as_ is the root, and in the compound _as-mi_, the
+predicative root _as_, to be, is predicated of _mi_, I. But no
+language could ever produce at once so empty, or, if you like, so
+general a root as _as_, to be. _As_ meant originally _to breathe_, and
+from it we have _asu_, breath, spirit, life, also _as_ the mouth,
+Latin _os_, _oris_. By constant wear and tear this root _as_, to
+breathe, had first to lose all signs of its original material
+character, before it could convey that purely abstract meaning of
+existence, without any qualification, which has rendered to the higher
+operations of thought the same service which the nought, likewise the
+invention of Indian genius, has to render in arithmetic. Who will say
+how long the friction lasted which changed _as_, to breathe, into
+_as_, to be? And even a root _as_, to breathe, was an Aryan root, not
+Semitic, not Turanian. It possessed an historical individuality--it
+was the work of our forefathers, and represents a thread which unites
+us in our thoughts and words with those who first thought for us, with
+those who first spoke for us, and whose thoughts and words men are
+still thinking and speaking, though divided from them by thousands, it
+may be by hundreds of thousands of years.
+
+This is what I call _history_ in the true sense of the word, something
+really worth knowing, far more so than the scandals of courts, or the
+butcheries of nations, which fill so many pages of our Manuals of
+History. And all this work is only beginning, and whoever likes to
+labor in these the most ancient of historical archives will find
+plenty of discoveries to make--and yet people ask, What is the use of
+learning Sanskrit?
+
+We get accustomed to everything, and cease to wonder at what would
+have startled our fathers and upset all their stratified notions,
+like a sudden earthquake. Every child now learns at school that
+English is an Aryan or Indo-European language, that it belongs to the
+Teutonic branch, and that this branch, together with the Italic,
+Greek, Celtic, Slavonic, Iranic, and Indic branches, all spring from
+the same stock, and form together the great Aryan or Indo-European
+family of speech.
+
+But this, though it is taught now in our elementary schools, was
+really, but fifty years ago, like the opening of a new horizon of the
+world of the intellect, and the extension of a feeling of closest
+fraternity that made us feel at home where before we had been
+strangers, and changed millions of so-called barbarians into our own
+kith and kin. To speak the same language constitutes a closer union
+than to have drunk the same milk; and Sanskrit, the ancient language
+of India, is substantially the same language as Greek, Latin, and
+Anglo-Saxon. This is a lesson which we should never have learned but
+from a study of Indian language and literature, and if India had
+taught us nothing else, it would have taught us more than almost any
+other language ever did.
+
+It is quite amusing, though instructive also, to read what was written
+by scholars and philosophers when this new light first dawned on the
+world. They would not have it, they would not believe that there could
+be any community of origin between the people of Athens and Rome, and
+the so-called Niggers of India. The classical scholar scouted the
+idea, and I myself still remember the time, when I was a student at
+Leipzig, and began to study Sanskrit, with what contempt any remarks
+on Sanskrit or comparative grammar were treated by my teachers, men
+such as Gottfried Hermann, Haupt, Westermann, Stallbaum, and others.
+No one ever was for a time so completely laughed down as Professor
+Bopp, when he first published his Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit,
+Zend, Greek, Latin, and Gothic. All hands were against him; and if in
+comparing Greek and Latin with Sanskrit, Gothic, Celtic, Slavonic, or
+Persian, he happened to have placed one single accent wrong, the
+shouts of those who knew nothing but Greek and Latin, and probably
+looked in their Greek dictionaries to be quite sure of their accents,
+would never end. Dugald Stewart, rather than admit a relationship
+between Hindus and Scots, would rather believe that the whole Sanskrit
+language and the whole of Sanskrit literature--mind, a literature
+extending over three thousand years and larger than the ancient
+literature of either Greece or Rome--was a forgery of those wily
+priests, the Brahmans. I remember too how, when I was at school at
+Leipzig (and a very good school it was, with such masters as Nobbe,
+Forbiger, Funkhaenel, and Palm--an old school too, which could boast
+of Leibnitz among its former pupils) I remember, I say, one of our
+masters (Dr. Klee) telling us one afternoon, when it was too hot to do
+any serious work, that there was a language spoken in India, which was
+much the same as Greek and Latin, nay, as German and Russian. At first
+we thought it was a joke, but when one saw the parallel columns of
+numerals, pronouns, and verbs in Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin written on
+the blackboard, one felt in the presence of facts, before which one
+had to bow. All one's ideas of Adam and Eve, and the Paradise, and the
+tower of Babel, and Shem, Ham, and Japhet, with Homer and AEneas and
+Virgil too, seemed to be whirling round and round, till at last one
+picked up the fragments and tried to build up a new world, and to live
+with a new historical consciousness.
+
+Here you will see why I consider a certain knowledge of India an
+essential portion of a liberal or an historical education. The concept
+of the European man has been changed and widely extended by our
+acquaintance with India, and we know now that we are something
+different from what we thought we were. Suppose the Americans, owing
+to some cataclysmal events, had forgotten their English origin, and
+after two or three thousand years found themselves in possession of a
+language and of ideas which they could trace back historically to a
+certain date, but which, at that date, seemed, as it were, fallen from
+the sky, without any explanation of their origin and previous growth,
+what would they say if suddenly the existence of an English language
+and literature were revealed to them, such as they existed in the
+eighteenth century--explaining all that seemed before almost
+miraculous, and solving almost every question that could be asked?
+Well, this is much the same as what the discovery of Sanskrit has done
+for us. It has added a new period to our historical consciousness, and
+revived the recollections of our childhood, which seemed to have
+vanished forever.
+
+Whatever else we may have been, it is quite clear now that, many
+thousands of years ago, we were something that had not yet developed
+into an Englishman, or a Saxon, or a Greek, or a Hindu either, yet
+contained in itself the germs of all these characters. A strange
+being, you may say. Yes, but for all that a very real being, and an
+ancestor too of whom we must learn to be proud, far more than of any
+such modern ancestors, as Normans, Saxons, Celts, and all the rest.
+
+And this is not all yet that a study of Sanskrit and the other Aryan
+languages has done for us. It has not only widened our views of man,
+and taught us to embrace millions of strangers and barbarians as
+members of one family, but it has imparted to the whole ancient
+history of man a reality which it never possessed before.
+
+We speak and write a great deal about antiquities, and if we can lay
+hold of a Greek statue or an Egyptian Sphinx or a Babylonian Bull, our
+heart rejoices, and we build museums grander than any royal palaces to
+receive the treasures of the past. This is quite right. But are you
+aware that every one of us possesses what may be called the richest
+and most wonderful Museum of Antiquities, older than any statues,
+sphinxes, or bulls? And where? Why, in our own language. When I use
+such words as _father_ or _mother_, _heart_ or _tear_, _one_, _two_,
+_three_, _here_ and _there_, I am handling coins or counters that were
+current before there was one single Greek statue, one single
+Babylonian Bull, one single Egyptian Sphinx. Yes, each of us carries
+about with him the richest and most wonderful Museum of Antiquities;
+and if he only knows how to treat those treasures, how to rub and
+polish them till they become translucent again, how to arrange them
+and read them, they will tell him marvels more marvellous than all
+hieroglyphics and cuneiform inscriptions put together. The stories
+they have told us are beginning to be old stories now. Many of you
+have heard them before. But do not let them cease to be marvels, like
+so many things which cease to be marvels because they happen every
+day. And do not think that there is nothing left for you to do. There
+are more marvels still to be discovered in language than have ever
+been revealed to us; nay, there is no word, however common, if only
+you know how to take it to pieces, like a cunningly contrived work of
+art, fitted together thousands of years ago by the most cunning of
+artists, the human mind, that will not make you listen and marvel more
+than any chapter of the Arabian Nights.
+
+But I must not allow myself to be carried away from my proper subject.
+All I wish to impress on you by way of introduction is that the
+results of the Science of Language, which, without the aid of
+Sanskrit, would never have been obtained, form an essential element of
+what we call a liberal, that is an historical education--an education
+which will enable a man to do what the French call _s'orienter_, that
+is, "to find his East," "his true East," and thus to determine his
+real place in the world; to know, in fact, the port whence man
+started, the course he has followed, and the port toward which he has
+to steer.
+
+We all come from the East--all that we value most has come to us from
+the East, and in going to the East, not only those who have received a
+special Oriental training, but everybody who has enjoyed the
+advantages of a liberal, that is, of a truly historical education,
+ought to feel that he is going to his "old home," full of memories, if
+only he can read them. Instead of feeling your hearts sink within you,
+when next year you approach the shores of India, I wish that every one
+of you could feel what Sir William Jones felt, when, just one hundred
+years ago, he came to the end of his long voyage from England, and saw
+the shores of India rising on the horizon. At that time, young men
+going to the wonderland of India were not ashamed of dreaming dreams
+and seeing visions; and this was the dream dreamed and the vision seen
+by Sir William Jones, then simple Mr. Jones:
+
+    "When I was at sea last August (that is in August, 1783), on
+    my last voyage to this country (India) I had long and
+    ardently desired to visit, I found one evening, on inspecting
+    the observations of the day, that _India_ lay before us,
+    _Persia_ on our left, while a breeze from _Arabia_ blew
+    nearly on our stern. A situation so pleasing in itself and to
+    me so new, could not fail to awaken a train of reflections in
+    a mind which had early been accustomed to contemplate with
+    delight the eventful histories and agreeable fictions of this
+    Eastern world. It gave me inexpressible pleasure to find
+    myself in the midst of so noble an amphitheatre, almost
+    encircled by the vast regions of Asia, which has ever been
+    esteemed the nurse of sciences, the inventress of delightful
+    and useful arts, the scene of glorious actions, fertile in
+    the productions of human genius, and infinitely diversified
+    in the forms of religion and government, in the laws,
+    manners, customs, and languages, as well as in the features
+    and complexions of men. I could not help remarking how
+    important and extensive a field was yet unexplored, and how
+    many solid advantages unimproved."
+
+India wants more such dreamers as that young Mr. Jones, standing alone
+on the deck of his vessel and watching the sun diving into the
+sea--with the memories of England behind and the hopes of India before
+him, feeling the presence of Persia and its ancient monarchs, and
+breathing the breezes of Arabia and its glowing poetry. Such dreamers
+know how to make their dreams come true, and how to change their
+visions into realities.
+
+And as it was a hundred years ago, so it is now; or at least, so it
+may be now. There are many bright dreams to be dreamed about India,
+and many bright deeds to be done in India, if only you will do them.
+Though many great and glorious conquests have been made in the history
+and literature of the East, since the days when Sir William Jones[16]
+landed at Calcutta, depend upon it, no young Alexander here need
+despair because there are no kingdoms left for him to conquer on the
+ancient shores of the Indus and the Ganges.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: Pliny (VI. 26) tells us that in his day the annual drain
+of bullion into India, in return for her valuable produce, reached the
+immense amount of "five hundred and fifty millions of sesterces." See
+E. Thomas, "The Indian Balhara," p. 13.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Cunningham, in the "Journal of the Asiatic Society of
+Bengal," 1881, p. 184.]
+
+[Footnote 3: General Cunningham describes this treasure in the
+"Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal" as having been found on the
+northern bank of the Oxus in 1877, and containing coins from Darius
+down to Antiochus the Great, and Euthydemus, King of Baktria. This
+would seem to indicate that it had been buried there in 208 B.C., when
+Baktria was invaded by Antiochus and Euthydemus defeated. The coins,
+figures, and ornaments, many of them, were manifestly Persian, and
+doubtless had been brought into that country and kept by the
+victorious generals of Alexander. Some of the works of art unearthed
+by Dr. Schliemann at Mykenae are either Persian or Assyrian in
+character, and are like those found on the Oxus. Professor Forchhammer
+very plausibly supposes that they were spoils from the Persian camp
+which had been awarded to Mykenae as her share after the overthrow of
+Mardonius.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 4: See "Selected Essays," vol. i., p. 500, "The Migration of
+Fables."]
+
+[Footnote 5: Cratylus, 411 A. "Still, as I have put on the lion's
+skin, I must not be faint-hearted." Possibly, however, this may refer
+to Hercules, and not to the fable of the donkey in the lion's or the
+tiger's skin. In the Hitopade_s_a, a donkey, being nearly starved, is
+sent by his master into a corn-field to feed. In order to shield him
+he puts a tiger's skin on him. All goes well till a watchman
+approaches, hiding himself under his gray coat, and trying to shoot
+the tiger. The donkey thinks it is a gray female donkey, begins to
+bray, and is killed. On a similar fable in AEsop, see Benfey,
+"Pantschatantra," vol. i., p. 463; M. M., "Selected Essays," vol. i.,
+p. 513.]
+
+[Footnote 6: See "Fragmenta Comic" (Didot), p. 302; Benfey, l. c. vol.
+i., p. 374.]
+
+[Footnote 7: "Lectures on the Science of Language," vol. i., p. 231.
+
+The names employed in the Hebrew text of the Bible are said to be
+Tamil.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 8: 1 Kings 3:25.]
+
+[Footnote 9: The Bible story is dramatic; the other is not. The
+"shudder" is a tribute to the dramatic power of the Bible narrative.
+The child was in no danger of being cut in twain. In the Buddhist
+version the child _is_ injured. Why does not Prof. Mueller shudder when
+the child is hurt and cries? The Solomonic child is not hurt and does
+not cry. Is not the Bible story the more humane, the more dignified,
+the more dramatic? And no canon of criticism requires us to believe
+that a poor version of a story is the more primitive.--AM. PUBS.]
+
+[Footnote 10: See some excellent remarks on this subject in Rhys
+Davids, "Buddhist Birth-Stories," vol. i., pp. xiii. and xliv. The
+learned scholar gives another version of the story from a Singhalese
+translation of the _G_ataka, dating from the fourteenth century, and
+he expresses a hope that Dr. Fausboell will soon publish the Pali
+original.]
+
+[Footnote 11: This is true of what theologians call natural religion,
+which is assumed to be a growth out of human consciousness; but the
+Christian religion is not a natural religion.--AM. PUBS.]
+
+[Footnote 12: There are traces of Aryan occupation at Babylon,
+Rawlinson assures us, about twenty centuries B.C. This would suggest a
+possible interchange of religious ideas between the earlier Aryan and
+Akkado-Chaldean peoples.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 13: See Cunningham, "Journal of the Asiatic Society of
+Bengal," 1881, pp. 162-168.]
+
+[Footnote 14: _Sim_, the Persian word for silver, has also the meaning
+of one thirteenth; see Cunningham, l. c. p. 165.]
+
+[Footnote 15: The common domestic cat is first mentioned by Caesarius,
+the physician, brother of Gregory of Nazianus, about the middle of the
+fourth century. It came from Egypt, where it was regarded as sacred.
+Herodotus denominates it [Greek: ailouros], which was also
+the designation of the weasel and marten. Kallimachus employs the same
+title, which his commentator explains as [Greek: kattos]. In
+later times this name of uncertain etymology has superseded every
+other. The earlier Sanskrit writers appear to have had no knowledge of
+the animal; but the mar_g_ara is named by Manu, and the vi_d_ala by
+Pa_n_ini.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 16: Sir William Jones was thirty-seven years of age when he
+sailed for India. He received the honor of knighthood in March, 1783,
+on his appointment as Judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort
+William, at Bengal.--A. W.]
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE II.
+
+TRUTHFUL CHARACTER OF THE HINDUS.
+
+
+In my first Lecture I endeavored to remove the prejudice that
+everything in India is strange, and so different from the intellectual
+life which we are accustomed to in England, that the twenty or
+twenty-five years which a civil servant has to spend in the East seem
+often to him a kind of exile that he must bear as well as he can, but
+that severs him completely from all those higher pursuits by which
+life is made enjoyable at home. This need not be so and ought not to
+be so, if only it is clearly seen how almost every one of the higher
+interests that make life worth living here in England, may find as
+ample scope in India as in England.
+
+To-day I shall have to grapple with another prejudice which is even
+more mischievous, because it forms a kind of icy barrier between the
+Hindus and their rulers, and makes anything like a feeling of true
+fellowship between the two utterly impossible.
+
+That prejudice consists in looking upon our stay in India as a kind of
+_moral_ exile, and in regarding the Hindus as an inferior race,
+totally different from ourselves in their moral character, and, more
+particularly in what forms the very foundation of the English
+character, respect for truth.
+
+I believe there is nothing more disheartening to any high-minded young
+man than the idea that he will have to spend his life among human
+beings whom he can never respect or love--natives, as they are called,
+not to use even more offensive names--men whom he is taught to
+consider as not amenable to the recognized principles of self-respect,
+uprightness, and veracity, and with whom therefore any community of
+interests and action, much more any real friendship, is supposed to be
+out of the question.
+
+So often has that charge of untruthfulness been repeated, and so
+generally is it now accepted, that it seems almost Quixotic to try to
+fight against it.
+
+Nor should I venture to fight this almost hopeless battle, if I were
+not convinced that such a charge, like all charges brought against a
+whole nation, rests on the most flimsy induction, and that it has
+done, is doing, and will continue to do more mischief than anything
+that even the bitterest enemy of English dominion in India could have
+invented. If a young man who goes to India as a civil servant or as a
+military officer, goes there fully convinced that the people whom he
+is to meet with are all liars, liars by nature or by national
+instinct, never restrained in their dealings by any regard for truth,
+never to be trusted on their word, need we wonder at the feelings of
+disgust with which he thinks of the Hindus, even before he has seen
+them; the feelings of distrust with which he approaches them, and the
+contemptuous way in which he treats them when brought into contact
+with them for the transaction of public or private business? When such
+tares have once been sown by the enemy, it will be difficult to gather
+them up. It has become almost an article of faith with every Indian
+civil servant that all Indians are liars; nay, I know I shall never be
+forgiven for my heresy in venturing to doubt it.
+
+Now, quite apart from India, I feel most strongly that every one of
+these international condemnations is to be deprecated, not only for
+the sake of the self-conceited and uncharitable state of mind from
+which they spring, and which they serve to strengthen and confirm, but
+for purely logical reasons also, namely for the reckless and slovenly
+character of the induction on which such conclusions rest. Because a
+man has travelled in Greece and has been cheated by his dragoman, or
+been carried off by brigands, does it follow that all Greeks, ancient
+as well as modern, are cheats and robbers, or that they approve of
+cheating and robbery? And because in Calcutta, or Bombay, or Madras,
+Indians who are brought before judges, or who hang about the
+law-courts and the bazaars, are not distinguished by an unreasoning
+and uncompromising love of truth, is it not a very vicious induction
+to say, in these days of careful reasoning, that all Hindus are
+liars--particularly if you bear in mind that, according to the latest
+census, the number of inhabitants of that vast country amounts to two
+hundred and fifty-three millions. Are all these two hundred and
+fifty-three millions of human beings to be set down as liars, because
+some hundreds, say even some thousands of Indians, when they are
+brought to an English court of law, on suspicion of having committed a
+theft or a murder, do not speak the truth, the whole truth, and
+nothing but the truth? Would an English sailor, if brought before a
+dark-skinned judge, who spoke English with a strange accent, bow down
+before him and confess at once any misdeed that he may have committed;
+and would all his mates rush forward and eagerly bear witness against
+him, when he had got himself into trouble?
+
+The rules of induction are general, but they depend on the subjects to
+which they are applied. We may, to follow an Indian proverb, judge of
+a whole field of rice by tasting one or two grains only, but if we
+apply this rule to human beings, we are sure to fall into the same
+mistake as the English chaplain who had once, on board an English
+vessel, christened a French child, and who remained fully convinced
+for the rest of his life that all French babies had very long noses.
+
+I can hardly think of anything that you could safely predicate of
+_all_ the inhabitants of India, and I confess to a little nervous
+tremor whenever I see a sentence beginning with "The people of India,"
+or even with "All the Brahmans," or "All the Buddhists." What follows
+is almost invariably wrong. There is a greater difference between an
+Afghan, a Sikh, a Hindustani, a Bengalese, and a Dravidian than
+between an Englishman, a Frenchman, a German, and a Russian--yet all
+are classed as Hindus, and all are supposed to fall under the same
+sweeping condemnation.
+
+Let me read you what Sir John Malcolm says about the diversity of
+character to be observed by any one who has eyes to observe, among the
+different races whom we promiscuously call Hindus, and whom we
+promiscuously condemn as Hindus. After describing the people of Bengal
+as weak in body and timid in mind, and those below Calcutta as the
+lowest of our Hindu subjects, both in character and appearance, he
+continues: "But from the moment you enter the district of Behar, the
+Hindu inhabitants are a race of men, generally speaking, not more
+distinguished by their lofty stature and robust frame than they are
+for some of the finest qualities of the mind. They are brave,
+generous, humane, and their truth is as remarkable as their courage."
+
+But because I feel bound to protest against the indiscriminating abuse
+that has been heaped on the people of India from the Himalaya to
+Ceylon, do not suppose that it is my wish or intention to draw an
+ideal picture of India, leaving out all the dark shades, and giving
+you nothing but "sweetness and light." Having never been in India
+myself, I can only claim for myself the right and duty of every
+historian, namely, the right of collecting as much information as
+possible, and the duty to sift it according to the recognized rules of
+historical criticism. My chief sources of information with regard to
+the national character of the Indians in ancient times will be the
+works of Greek writers and the literature of the ancient Indians
+themselves. For later times we must depend on the statements of the
+various conquerors of India, who are not always the most lenient
+judges of those whom they may find it more difficult to rule than to
+conquer. For the last century to the present day, I shall have to
+appeal, partly to the authority of those who, after spending an active
+life in India and among the Indians, have given us the benefit of
+their experience in published works, partly to the testimony of a
+number of distinguished civil servants and of Indian gentlemen also,
+whose personal acquaintance I have enjoyed in England, in France, and
+in Germany.
+
+As I have chiefly to address myself to those who will themselves be
+the rulers and administrators of India in the future, allow me to
+begin with the opinions which some of the most eminent, and, I
+believe, the most judicious among the Indian civil servants of the
+past have formed and deliberately expressed on the point which we are
+to-day discussing, namely, the veracity or want of veracity among the
+Hindus.
+
+And here I must begin with a remark which has been made by others
+also, namely, that the civil servants who went to India in the
+beginning of this century, and under the auspices of the old East
+India Company, many of whom I had the honor and pleasure of knowing
+when I first came to England, seemed to have seen a great deal more of
+native life, native manners, and native character than those whom I
+had to examine five-and-twenty years ago, and who are now, after a
+distinguished career, coming back to England. India is no longer the
+distant island which it was, where each Crusoe had to make a home for
+himself as best he could. With the short and easy voyages from England
+to India and from India to England, with the frequent mails, and the
+telegrams, and the Anglo-Indian newspapers, official life in India has
+assumed the character of a temporary exile rather, which even English
+ladies are now more ready to share than fifty years ago. This is a
+difficulty which cannot be removed, but must be met, and which, I
+believe, can best be met by inspiring the new civil servants with new
+and higher interests during their stay in India.
+
+I knew the late Professor Wilson, our Boden Professor of Sanskrit at
+Oxford, for many years, and often listened with deep interest to his
+Indian reminiscences.
+
+Let me read you what he, Professor Wilson, says of his native friends,
+associates, and servants:[17]
+
+    "I lived, both from necessity and choice, very much among the
+    Hindus, and had opportunities of becoming acquainted with
+    them in a greater variety of situations than those in which
+    they usually come under the observation of Europeans. In the
+    Calcutta mint, for instance, I was in daily personal
+    communication with a numerous body of artificers, mechanics,
+    and laborers, and always found among them cheerful and
+    unwearied industry, good-humored compliance with the will of
+    their superiors, and a readiness to make whatever exertions
+    were demanded from them; there was among them no drunkenness,
+    no disorderly conduct, no insubordination. It would not be
+    true to say that there was _no_ dishonesty, but it was
+    comparatively rare, invariably petty, and much less
+    formidable than, I believe, it is necessary to guard against
+    in other mints in other countries. There was considerable
+    skill and ready docility. So far from there being any
+    servility, there was extreme frankness, and I should say that
+    where there is confidence without fear, frankness is one of
+    the most universal features in the Indian character. Let the
+    people feel sure of the temper and good-will of their
+    superiors, and there is an end of reserve and timidity,
+    without the slightest departure from respect...."
+
+Then, speaking of the much-abused Indian Pandits, he says: "The
+studies which engaged my leisure brought me into connection with the
+men of learning, and in them I found the similar merits of industry,
+intelligence, cheerfulness, frankness, with others peculiar to their
+avocation. A very common characteristic of these men, and of the
+Hindus especially, was a simplicity truly childish, and a total
+unacquaintance with the business and manners of life. Where that
+feature was lost, it was chiefly by those who had been long familiar
+with Europeans. Among the Pandits or the learned Hindus there
+prevailed great ignorance and great dread of the European character.
+There is, indeed, very little intercourse between any class of
+Europeans and Hindu scholars, and it is not wonderful, therefore, that
+mutual misapprehension should prevail."
+
+Speaking, lastly, of the higher classes in Calcutta and elsewhere,
+Professor Wilson says that he witnessed among them "polished manners,
+clearness and comprehensiveness of understanding, liberality of
+feeling, and independence of principle that would have stamped them
+gentlemen in any country in the world." "With some of this class," he
+adds, "I formed friendships which I trust to enjoy through life."
+
+I have often heard Professor Wilson speak in the same, and in even
+stronger terms of his old friends in India, and his correspondence
+with Ram Comul Sen, the grandfather of Keshub Chunder Sen,[18] a most
+orthodox, not to say bigoted, Hindu, which has lately been published,
+shows on what intimate terms Englishmen and Hindus may be, if only the
+advances are made on the English side.
+
+There is another Professor of Sanskrit, of whom your University may
+well be proud, and who could speak on this subject with far greater
+authority than I can. He too will tell you, and I have no doubt has
+often told you, that if only you look out for friends among the
+Hindus, you will find them, and you may trust them.
+
+There is one book which for many years I have been in the habit of
+recommending, and another against which I have always been warning
+those of the candidates for the Indian Civil Service whom I happened
+to see at Oxford; and I believe both the advice and the warning have
+in several cases borne the very best fruit. The book which I consider
+most mischievous, nay, which I hold responsible for some of the
+greatest misfortunes that have happened to India, is Mill's "History
+of British India," even with the antidote against its poison, which is
+supplied by Professor Wilson's notes. The book which I recommend, and
+which I wish might be published again in a cheaper form, so as to
+make it more generally accessible, is Colonel Sleeman's "Rambles and
+Recollections of an Indian Official," published in 1844, but written
+originally in 1835-1836.
+
+Mill's "History," no doubt, you all know, particularly the candidates
+for the Indian Civil Service, who, I am sorry to say, are recommended
+to read it, and are examined in it. Still, in order to substantiate my
+strong condemnation of the book, I shall have to give a few proofs:
+
+Mill in his estimate of the Hindu character is chiefly guided by
+Dubois, a French missionary, and by Orme and Buchanan, Tennant, and
+Ward, all of them neither very competent nor very unprejudiced judges.
+Mill,[19] however, picks out all that is most unfavorable from their
+works, and omits the qualifications which even these writers felt
+bound to give to their wholesale condemnation of the Hindus. He quotes
+as serious, for instance, what was said in joke,[20] namely, that "a
+Brahman is an ant's nest of lies and impostures." Next to the charge
+of untruthfulness, Mill upbraids the Hindus for what he calls their
+litigiousness. He writes:[21] "As often as courage fails them in
+seeking more daring gratification to their hatred and revenge, their
+malignity finds a vent in the channel of litigation." Without imputing
+dishonorable motives, as Mill does, the same fact might be stated in a
+different way, by saying, "As often as their conscience and respect of
+law keep them from seeking more daring gratification to their hatred
+and revenge, say by murder or poisoning, their trust in English
+justice leads them to appeal to our courts of law." Dr. Robertson, in
+his "Historical Disquisitions concerning India,"[22] seems to have
+considered the litigious subtlety of the Hindus as a sign of high
+civilization rather than of barbarism, but he is sharply corrected by
+Mr. Mill, who tells him that "nowhere is this subtlety carried higher
+than among the wildest of the Irish." That courts of justice, like the
+English, in which a verdict was not to be obtained, as formerly in
+Mohammedan courts, by bribes and corruption, should at first have
+proved very attractive to the Hindus, need not surprise us. But is it
+really true that the Hindus are more fond of litigation than other
+nations? If we consult Sir Thomas Munro, the eminent Governor of
+Madras, and the powerful advocate of the Ryotwar settlements, he tells
+us in so many words:[23] "I have had ample opportunity of observing
+the Hindus in every situation, and I can affirm, that they are not
+litigious."[24]
+
+But Mill goes further still, and in one place he actually assures his
+readers[25] that a "Brahman may put a man to death when he lists." In
+fact, he represents the Hindus as such a monstrous mass of all vices,
+that, as Colonel Vans Kennedy[26] remarked, society could not have
+held together if it had really consisted of such reprobates only. Nor
+does he seem to see the full bearing of his remarks. Surely, if a
+Brahman might, as he says, put a man to death whenever he lists, it
+would be the strongest testimony in their favor that you hardly ever
+hear of their availing themselves of such a privilege, to say nothing
+of the fact--and a fact it is--that, according to statistics, the
+number of capital sentences was one in every 10,000 in England, but
+only one in every million in Bengal.[27]
+
+Colonel Sleeman's "Rambles" are less known than they deserve to be. To
+give you an idea of the man, I must read you some extracts from the
+book.
+
+His sketches being originally addressed to his sister, this is how he
+writes to her:
+
+     "MY DEAR SISTER: Were any one to ask your countrymen in
+     India, what had been their greatest source of pleasure while
+     there, perhaps nine in ten would say the letters which they
+     receive from their sisters at home.... And while thus
+     contributing so much to our happiness, they no doubt tend to
+     make us better citizens of the world and servants of
+     government than we should otherwise be; for in our
+     'struggles through life' in India, we have all, more or
+     less, an eye to the approbation of those circles which our
+     kind sisters represent, who may therefore be considered in
+     the exalted light of a valuable species of _unpaid
+     magistracy_ to the government of India."
+
+There is a touch of the old English chivalry even in these few words
+addressed to a sister whose approbation he values, and with whom he
+hoped to spend the winter of his days. Having been, as he confesses,
+idle in answering letters, or rather, too busy to find time for long
+letters, he made use of his enforced leisure, while on his way from
+the Nerbuddah River to the Himmaleh Mountains, in search of health, to
+give to his sister a full account of his impressions and experiences
+in India.
+
+Though what he wrote was intended at first "to interest and amuse his
+sister only and the other members of his family at home," he adds, in
+a more serious tone: "Of one thing I must beg you to be assured, that
+I have nowhere indulged in fiction, either in the narrative, the
+recollections, or the conversations. What I relate on the testimony of
+others, I believe to be true; and what I relate on my own, you may
+rely upon as being so."
+
+When placing his volumes before the public at large in 1844, he
+expresses a hope that they may "tend to make the people of India
+better understood by those of our countrymen whose destinies are cast
+among them, and inspire more kindly feelings toward them."
+
+You may ask why I consider Colonel Sleeman so trustworthy an authority
+on the Indian character, more trustworthy, for instance, than even so
+accurate and unprejudiced an observer as Professor Wilson. My answer
+is--because Wilson lived chiefly in Calcutta, while Colonel Sleeman
+saw India, where alone the true India can be seen, namely, in the
+village-communities. For many years he was employed as Commissioner
+for the suppression of Thuggee. The Thugs were professional assassins,
+who committed their murders under a kind of religious sanction. They
+were originally "all Mohammedans, but for a long time past Mohammedans
+and Hindus had been indiscriminately associated in the gangs, the
+former class, however, still predominating."[28]
+
+In order to hunt up these gangs, Colonel Sleeman had constantly to
+live among the people in the country, to gain their confidence, and to
+watch the good as well as the bad features in their character.
+
+Now what Colonel Sleeman continually insists on is that no one knows
+the Indians who does not know them in their village-communities--what
+we should now call their _communes_. It is that village-life which in
+India has given its peculiar impress to the Indian character, more so
+than in any other country we know. When in Indian history we hear so
+much of kings and emperors, of rajahs and maharajahs, we are apt to
+think of India as an Eastern monarchy, ruled by a central power, and
+without any trace of that self-government which forms the pride of
+England. But those who have most carefully studied the political life
+of India tell you the very opposite.
+
+The political unit, or the social cell in India has always been, and, in
+spite of repeated foreign conquests, is still the village-community.
+Some of these political units will occasionally combine or be combined
+for common purposes (such a confederacy being called a grama_g_ala), but
+each is perfect in itself. When we read in the Laws of Manu[29] of
+officers appointed to rule over ten, twenty, a hundred, or a thousand of
+these villages, that means no more than that they were responsible for
+the collection of taxes, and generally for the good behavior of these
+villages. And when, in later times, we hear of circles of eighty-four
+villages, the so-called Chourasees (_K_atura_s_iti[30]), and of three
+hundred and sixty villages, this too seems to refer to fiscal
+arrangements only. To the ordinary Hindu, I mean to ninety-nine in every
+hundred, the village was his world, and the sphere of public opinion,
+with its beneficial influences on individuals, seldom extended beyond
+the horizon of his village.[31]
+
+Colonel Sleeman was one of the first who called attention to the
+existence of these village-communities in India, and their importance
+in the social fabric of the whole country both in ancient and in
+modern times; and though they have since become far better known and
+celebrated through the writings of Sir Henry Maine, it is still both
+interesting and instructive to read Colonel Sleeman's account. He
+writes as a mere observer, and uninfluenced as yet by any theories on
+the development of early social and political life among the Aryan
+nations in general.
+
+I do not mean to say that Colonel Sleeman was the first who pointed
+out the palpable fact that the whole of India is parcelled out into
+estates of villages. Even so early an observer as Megasthenes[32]
+seems to have been struck by the same fact when he says that "in India
+the husbandmen with their wives and children live in the country, and
+entirely avoid going into town." What Colonel Sleeman was the first to
+point out was that all the native virtues of the Hindus are
+intimately connected with their village-life.
+
+That village-life, however, is naturally the least known to English
+officials, nay, the very presence of an English official is often said to
+be sufficient to drive away those native virtues which distinguish both
+the private life and the public administration of justice and equity in an
+Indian village.[33] Take a man out of his village-community, and you
+remove him from all the restraints of society. He is out of his element,
+and, under temptation, is more likely to go wrong than to remain true to
+the traditions of his home-life. Even between village and village the
+usual restraints of public morality are not always recognized. What would
+be called theft or robbery at home is called a successful raid or conquest
+if directed against distant villages; and what would be falsehood or
+trickery in private life is honored by the name of policy and diplomacy if
+successful against strangers. On the other hand, the rules of hospitality
+applied only to people of other villages, and a man of the same village
+could never claim the right of an _Atithi_, or guest.[34]
+
+Let us hear now what Colonel Sleeman tells us about the moral
+character of the members of these village-communities,[35] and let us
+not forget that the Commissioner for the suppression of Thuggee had
+ample opportunities of seeing the dark as well as the bright side of
+the Indian character.
+
+He assures us that falsehood or lying between members of the same
+village is almost unknown. Speaking of some of the most savage tribes,
+the Gonds, for instance, he maintains that nothing would induce them
+to tell a lie, though they would think nothing of lifting a herd of
+cattle from a neighboring plain.
+
+Of these men it might perhaps be said that they have not yet learned
+the value of a lie; yet even such blissful ignorance ought to count in
+a nation's character. But I am not pleading here for Gonds, or Bhils,
+or Santhals, and other non-Aryan tribes. I am speaking of the Aryan
+and more or less civilized inhabitants of India. Now among them, where
+rights, duties, and interests begin to clash in one and the same
+village, public opinion, in its limited sphere, seems strong enough
+to deter even an evil-disposed person from telling a falsehood. The
+fear of the gods also has not yet lost its power.[36] In most villages
+there is a sacred tree, a pipal-tree (Ficus Indica), and the gods are
+supposed to delight to sit among its leaves, and listen to the music
+of their rustling. The deponent takes one of these leaves in his hand,
+and invokes the god, who sits above him, to crush him, or those dear
+to him, as he crushes the leaf in his hand, if he speaks anything but
+the truth. He then plucks and crushes the leaf, and states what he has
+to say.
+
+The pipal-tree is generally supposed to be occupied by one of the
+Hindu deities, while the large cotton-tree, particularly among the
+wilder tribes, is supposed to be the abode of local gods, all the more
+terrible because entrusted with the police of a small settlement only.
+In their punchayets, Sleeman tells us, men adhere habitually and
+religiously to the truth, and "I have had before me hundreds of
+cases," he says, "in which a man's property, liberty, and life has
+depended upon his telling a lie, and he has refused to tell it."
+
+Could many an English judge say the same?
+
+In their own tribunals under the pipal-tree or cotton-tree,
+imagination commonly did what the deities, who were supposed to
+preside, had the credit of doing. If the deponent told a lie, he
+believed that the god who sat on his sylvan throne above him, and
+searched the heart of man, must know it; and from that moment he knew
+no rest, he was always in dread of his vengeance. If any accident
+happened to him, or to those dear to him, it was attributed to this
+offended deity; and if no accident happened, some evil was brought
+about by his own disordered imagination.[37] It was an excellent
+superstition, inculcated in the ancient law-books, that the ancestors
+watched the answer of a witness, because, according as it was true or
+false, they themselves would go to heaven or to hell.[38]
+
+Allow me to read you the abstract of a conversation between an English
+official and a native law-officer as reported by Colonel Sleeman. The
+native lawyer was asked what he thought would be the effect of an act
+to dispense with oaths on the Koran and Ganges-water, and to
+substitute a solemn declaration made in the name of God, and under the
+same penal liabilities as if the Koran or Ganges-water had been in the
+deponent's hand.
+
+"I have practiced in the courts," the native said, "for thirty years,
+and during that time I have found only three kinds of witnesses--two
+of whom would, by such an act, be left precisely where they were,
+while the third would be released by it from a very salutary check."
+
+"And, pray, what are the three classes into which you divide the
+witnesses in our courts?"
+
+"First, Sir, are those who will always tell the truth, whether they
+are required to state what they know in the form of an oath or not."
+
+"Do you think this a large class?"
+
+"Yes, I think it is; and I have found among them many whom nothing on
+earth could make to swerve from the truth. Do what you please, you
+could never frighten or bribe them into a deliberate falsehood.
+
+"The second are those who will not hesitate to tell a lie when they
+have a motive for it, and are not restrained by an oath. In taking an
+oath, they are afraid of two things, the anger of God and the odium of
+men.
+
+"Only three days ago," he continued, "I required a power of attorney
+from a lady of rank, to enable me to act for her in a case pending
+before the court in this town. It was given to me by her brother, and
+two witnesses came to declare that she had given it. 'Now,' said I,
+'this lady is known to live under the curtain, and you will be asked
+by the judge whether you saw her give this paper: what will you say?'
+They both replied: 'If the judge asks us the question without an oath,
+we will say "_Yes_;" it will save much trouble, and we know that she
+_did_ give the paper, though we did not really _see_ her give it; but
+if he puts the Koran into our hands, we must say "_No_," for we should
+otherwise be pointed at by all the town as perjured wretches--our
+enemies would soon tell everybody that we had taken a false oath.'
+
+"Now," the native lawyer went on, "the form of an oath is a great
+check on this sort of persons.
+
+"The third class consists of men who will tell lies whenever they have
+a sufficient motive, whether they have the Koran or Ganges-water in
+their hand or not. Nothing will ever prevent their doing so; and the
+declaration which you propose would be just as well as any other for
+them."
+
+"Which class do you consider the most numerous of the three?"
+
+"I consider the second the most numerous, and wish the oath to be
+retained for them."
+
+"That is, of all the men you see examined in our courts, you think the
+most come under the class of those who will, under the influence of
+strong motives, tell lies, if they have not the Koran or Ganges-water
+in their hands?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But do not a great many of those whom you consider to be included
+among the second class come from the village-communities--the
+peasantry of the country?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And do you not think that the greatest part of those men who will
+tell lies in the court, under the influence of strong motives, unless
+they have the Koran or Ganges-water in their hands, would refuse to
+tell lies, if questioned before the people of their villages, among
+the circle in which they live?"
+
+"Of course I do; three-fourths of those who do not scruple to lie in
+the courts, would be ashamed to lie before their neighbors, or the
+elders of their village."
+
+"You think that the people of the village-communities are more ashamed
+to tell lies before their neighbors than the people of towns?"
+
+"Much more--there is no comparison."
+
+"And the people of towns and cities bear in India but a small
+proportion to the people of the village-communities?"
+
+"I should think a very small proportion indeed."
+
+"Then you think that in the mass of the population of India, _out of
+our courts_, the first class, or those who speak truth, whether they
+have the Koran or Ganges-water in their hands or not, would be found
+more numerous than the other two?"
+
+"Certainly I do; if they were always to be questioned before their
+neighbors or elders, so that they could feel that their neighbors and
+elders could know what they say."
+
+It was from a simple sense of justice that I felt bound to quote this
+testimony of Colonel Sleeman as to the truthful character of the
+natives of India, when _left to themselves_. My interest lies
+altogether with the people of India, _when left to themselves_, and
+historically I should like to draw a line after the year one thousand
+after Christ. When you read the atrocities committed by the Mohammedan
+conquerors of India from that time to the time when England stepped in
+and, whatever may be said by her envious critics, made, at all events,
+the broad principles of our common humanity respected once more in
+India, the wonder, to my mind, is how any nation could have survived
+such an _Inferno_ without being turned into devils themselves.
+
+Now, it is quite true that during the two thousand years which precede
+the time of Mahmud of Gazni, India has had but few foreign visitors,
+and few foreign critics; still it is surely extremely strange that
+whenever, either in Greek, or in Chinese, or in Persian, or in Arab
+writings, we meet with any attempts at describing the distinguishing
+features in the national character of the Indians, regard for truth
+and justice should always be mentioned first.
+
+_Ktesias_, the famous Greek physician of Artaxerxes Mnemon (present at
+the battle of Cunaxa, 404 B.C.), the first Greek writer who tells us
+anything about the character of the Indians, such as he heard it
+described at the Persian court, has a special chapter "On the Justice
+of the Indians."[39]
+
+_Megasthenes_,[40] the ambassador of Seleucus Nicator at the court of
+Sandrocottus in Palibothra (Pa_t_aliputra, the modern Patna), states
+that thefts were extremely rare, and that they honored truth and
+virtue.[41]
+
+_Arrian_ (in the second century, the pupil of Epictetus), when
+speaking of the public overseers or superintendents in India,
+says:[42] "They oversee what goes on in the country or towns, and
+report everything to the king, where the people have a king, and to
+the magistrates, where the people are self-governed, and it is against
+use and wont for these to give in a false report; _but indeed no
+Indian is accused of lying_."[43]
+
+The Chinese, who come next in order of time, bear the same, I believe,
+unanimous testimony in favor of the honesty and veracity of the
+Hindus. [The earliest witness is Su-we, a relative of Fan-chen, King
+of Siam, who between 222 and 227 A.D. sailed round the whole of India,
+till he reached the mouth of the Indus, and then explored the country.
+After his return to Sinto, he received four Yueh-chi horses, sent by a
+king of India as a present to the King of Siam and his ambassador. At
+the time when these horses arrived in Siam (it took them four years to
+travel there), there was staying at the court of Siam an ambassador of
+the Emperor of China, Khang-thai, and this is the account which he
+received of the kingdom of India: "It is a kingdom in which the
+religion of Buddha flourishes. The inhabitants are straightforward and
+honest, and the soil is very fertile. The king is called Meu-lun, and
+his capital is surrounded by walls," etc. This was in about 231 A.D.
+In 605 we hear again of the Emperor Yang-ti sending an ambassador,
+Fei-tu, to India, and this is what among other things he points out as
+peculiar to the Hindus: "They believe in solemn oaths."][44] Let me
+quote Hiouen-thsang, the most famous of the Chinese Buddhist
+pilgrims, who visited India in the seventh century.[45] "Though the
+Indians," he writes, "are of a light temperament, they are
+distinguished by the straightforwardness and honesty of their
+character. With regard to riches, they never take anything unjustly;
+with regard to justice, they make even excessive concessions....
+Straightforwardness is the distinguishing feature of their
+administration."
+
+If we turn to the accounts given by the Mohammedan conquerors of
+India, we find Idrisi, in his Geography (written in the eleventh
+century), summing up their opinion of the Indians in the following
+words:[46]
+
+    "The Indians are naturally inclined to justice, and never
+    depart from it in their actions. Their good faith, honesty,
+    and fidelity to their engagements are well known, and they
+    are so famous for these qualities that people flock to their
+    country from every side."
+
+Again, in the thirteenth century, Shems-ed-din Abu Abdallah quotes the
+following judgment of Bedi ezr Zenan: "The Indians are innumerable,
+like grains of sand, free from all deceit and violence. They fear
+neither death nor life."[47]
+
+In the thirteenth century we have the testimony of Marco Polo,[48]who
+thus speaks of the _Abraiaman_, a name by which he seems to mean the
+Brahmans who, though, not traders by profession, might well have been
+employed for great commercial transactions by the king. This was
+particularly the case during times which the Brahmans would call
+times of distress, when many things were allowed which at other times
+were forbidden by the laws. "You must know," Marco Polo says, "that
+these Abraiaman are the best merchants in the world, and the most
+truthful, for they would not tell a lie for anything on earth."
+
+In the fourteenth century we have Friar Jordanus, who goes out of his
+way to tell us that the people of Lesser India (South and Western
+India) are true in speech and eminent in justice.[49]
+
+In the fifteenth century, Kamal-eddin Abd-errazak Samarkandi
+(1413-1482), who went as ambassador of the Khakan to the prince of
+Kalikut and to the King of Vidyanagara (about 1440-1445), bears
+testimony to the perfect security which merchants enjoy in that
+country.[50]
+
+In the sixteenth century, Abu Fazl, the minister of the Emperor Akbar,
+says in his Ayin Akbari: "The Hindus are religious, affable, cheerful,
+lovers of justice, given to retirement, able in business, admirers of
+truth, grateful and of unbounded fidelity; and their soldiers know not
+what it is to fly from the field of battle."[51]
+
+And even in quite modern times the Mohammedans seem willing to admit
+that the Hindus, at all events in their dealings with Hindus, are more
+straightforward than Mohammedans in their dealings with Mohammedans.
+
+Thus Meer Sulamut Ali, a venerable old Mussulman, and, as Colonel
+Sleeman says, a most valuable public servant, was obliged to admit
+that "a Hindu may feel himself authorized to take in a Mussulman, and
+might even think it meritorious to do so; but he would never think it
+meritorious to take in one of his own religion. There are no less than
+seventy-two sects of Mohammedans; and every one of these sects would
+not only take in the followers of every other religion on earth, but
+every member of every one of the other seventy-one sects; and the
+nearer that sect is to his own, the greater the merit of taking in its
+members."[52]
+
+So I could go on quoting from book after book, and again and again we
+should see how it was love of truth that struck all the people who
+came in contact with India, as the prominent feature in the national
+character of its inhabitants. No one ever accused them of falsehood.
+There must surely be some ground for this, for it is not a remark that
+is frequently made by travellers in foreign countries, even in our
+time, that their inhabitants invariably speak the truth. Read the
+accounts of English travellers in France, and you will find very
+little said about French honesty and veracity, while French accounts
+of England are seldom without a fling at _Perfide Albion_!
+
+But if all this is true, how is it, you may well ask, that public
+opinion in England is so decidedly unfriendly to the people of India;
+at the utmost tolerates and patronizes them, but will never trust
+them, never treat them on terms of equality?
+
+I have already hinted at some of the reasons. Public opinion with
+regard to India is made up in England chiefly by those who have spent
+their lives in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, or some other of the
+principal towns in India. The native element in such towns contains
+mostly the most unfavorable specimens of the Indian population. An
+insight into the domestic life of the more respectable classes, even
+in towns, is difficult to obtain; and, when it is obtained, it is
+extremely difficult to judge of their manners according to our
+standard of what is proper, respectable, or gentlemanlike. The
+misunderstandings are frequent and often most grotesque; and such, we
+must confess, is human nature, that when we hear the different and
+often most conflicting accounts of the character of the Hindus, we are
+naturally skeptical with regard to unsuspected virtues among them,
+while we are quite disposed to accept unfavorable accounts of their
+character.
+
+Lest I should seem to be pleading too much on the native side of the
+question, and to exaggerate the difficulty of forming a correct estimate
+of the character of the Hindus, let me appeal to one of the most
+distinguished, learned, and judicious members of the Indian Civil
+Service, the author of the "History of India," Mountstuart Elphinstone.
+"Englishmen in India,"[53] he says, "have less opportunity than might be
+expected of forming opinions of the native character. Even in England,
+few know much of the people beyond their own class, and what they do
+know, they learn from newspapers and publications of a description which
+does not exist in India. In that country also, religion and manners put
+bars to our intimacy with the natives, and limit the number of
+transactions as well as the free communication of opinions. We know
+nothing of the interior of families but by report, and have no share in
+those numerous occurrences of life in which the amiable parts of
+character are most exhibited." "Missionaries of a different
+religion,[54] judges, police-magistrates, officers of revenue or
+customs, and even diplomatists, do not see the most virtuous portion of
+a nation, nor any portion, unless when influenced by passion, or
+occupied by some personal interest. What we _do_ see we judge by our own
+standard. We conclude that a man who cries like a child on slight
+occasions must always be incapable of acting or suffering with dignity;
+and that one who allows himself to be called a liar would not be ashamed
+of any baseness. Our writers also confound the distinctions of time and
+place; they combine in one character the Maratta and the Bengalese, and
+tax the present generation with the crimes of the heroes of the
+Mahabharata. It might be argued, in opposition to many unfavorable
+testimonies, that those who have known the Indians longest have always
+the best opinion of them; but this is rather a compliment to human
+nature than to them, since it is true of every other people. It is more
+in point, that all persons who have retired from India think better of
+the people they have left, after comparing them with others, even of the
+most justly-admired nations."
+
+But what is still more extraordinary than the ready acceptance of
+judgments unfavorable to the character of the Hindus, is the
+determined way in which public opinion, swayed by the statements of
+certain unfavorable critics, has persistently ignored the evidence
+which members of the Civil Service, officers and statesmen--men of the
+highest authority--have given again and again, in direct opposition to
+these unfavorable opinions.
+
+Here, too, I must ask to be allowed to quote at least a few of these
+witnesses on the other side.
+
+Warren Hastings thus speaks of the Hindus in general: "They are gentle
+and benevolent, more susceptible of gratitude for kindness shown them,
+and less prompted to vengeance for wrongs inflicted than any people on
+the face of the earth; faithful, affectionate, submissive to legal
+authority."
+
+Bishop Heber said: "The Hindus are brave, courteous, intelligent, most
+eager for knowledge and improvement; sober, industrious, dutiful to
+parents, affectionate to their children, uniformly gentle and patient,
+and more easily affected by kindness and attention to their wants and
+feelings than any people I ever met with."[55]
+
+Elphinstone states: "No set of people among the Hindus are so depraved
+as the dregs of our own great towns. The villagers are everywhere
+amiable, affectionate to their families, kind to their neighbors, and
+toward all but the government honest and sincere. Including the Thugs
+and Dacoits, the mass of crime is less in India than in England. The
+Thugs are almost a separate nation, and the Dacoits are desperate
+ruffians in gangs. The Hindus are mild and gentle people, more
+merciful to prisoners than any other Asiatics. Their freedom from
+gross debauchery is the point in which they appear to most advantage;
+and their superiority in purity of manners is not flattering to our
+self-esteem."[56]
+
+Yet Elphinstone can be most severe on the real faults of the people of
+India. He states that, at present, want of veracity is one of their
+prominent vices, but he adds[57] "that such deceit is most common in
+people connected with government, a class which spreads far in India,
+as, from the nature of the land-revenue, the lowest villager is often
+obliged to resist force by fraud."[58]
+
+Sir John Malcolm writes:[59] "I have hardly ever known where a person
+did understand the language, or where a calm communication was made to
+a native of India, through a well-informed and trustworthy medium,
+that the result did not prove, that what had at first been stated as
+falsehood had either proceeded from fear or from misapprehension. I by
+no means wish to state that our Indian subjects are more free from
+this vice than other nations that occupy a nearly equal position in
+society, but I am positive that they are not more addicted to
+untruth."
+
+Sir Thomas Munro bears even stronger testimony. He writes:[60] "If a
+good system of agriculture, unrivalled manufacturing skill, a capacity
+to produce whatever can contribute to either convenience or luxury,
+schools established in every village for teaching reading, writing,
+and arithmetic,[61] the general practice of hospitality and charity
+among each other, and, above all, a treatment of the female sex full
+of confidence, respect, and delicacy, are among the signs which
+denote a civilized people--then the Hindus are not inferior to the
+nations of Europe--and if civilization is to become an article of
+trade between England and India, I am convinced that England will gain
+by the import cargo."
+
+My own experience with regard to the native character has been, of
+course, very limited. Those Hindus whom I have had the pleasure to
+know personally in Europe may be looked upon as exceptional, as the
+best specimens, it may be, that India could produce. Also, my
+intercourse with them has naturally been such that it could hardly
+have brought out the darker sides of human nature. During the last
+twenty years, however, I have had some excellent opportunities of
+watching a number of native scholars under circumstances where it is
+not difficult to detect a man's true character--I mean in literary
+work and, more particularly, in literary controversy. I have watched
+them carrying on such controversies both among themselves and with
+certain European scholars, and I feel bound to say that, with hardly
+one exception, they have displayed a far greater respect for truth and
+a far more manly and generous spirit than we are accustomed to even in
+Europe and America. They have shown strength, but no rudeness; nay, I
+know that nothing has surprised them so much as the coarse invective
+to which certain Sanskrit scholars have condescended, rudeness of
+speech being, according to their view of human nature, a safe sign not
+only of bad breeding, but of want of knowledge. When they were wrong,
+they have readily admitted their mistakes; when they were right, they
+have never sneered at their European adversaries. There has been,
+with few exceptions, no quibbling, no special pleading, no
+untruthfulness on their part, and certainly none of that low cunning
+of the scholar who writes down and publishes what he knows perfectly
+well to be false, and snaps his fingers at those who still value truth
+and self-respect more highly than victory or applause at any price.
+Here, too, we might possibly gain by the import cargo.
+
+Let me add that I have been repeatedly told by English merchants that
+commercial honor stands higher in India than in any other country, and
+that a dishonored bill is hardly known there.
+
+I have left to the last the witnesses who might otherwise have been
+suspected--I mean the Hindus themselves. The whole of their literature
+from one end to the other is pervaded by expressions of love and
+reverence for truth. Their very word for truth is full of meaning. It
+is s a t or s a t y a, s a t being the participle of the verb _as_, to be.
+True, therefore, was with them simply _that which is_. The English
+_sooth_ is connected with sat, also the Greek [Greek: on] for
+[Greek: _eson_], and the Latin _sens_, in _praesens_.
+
+We are all very apt to consider truth to be what is trowed by others,
+or believed in by large majorities. That kind of truth is easy to
+accept. But whoever has once stood alone, surrounded by noisy
+assertions, and overwhelmed by the clamor of those who ought to know
+better, or perhaps who did know better--call him Galileo or Darwin,
+Colenso or Stanley, or any other name--he knows what a real delight it
+is to feel in his heart of hearts, this is true--this is--this is
+s a t--whatever daily, weekly, or quarterly papers, whatever bishops,
+archbishops, or popes, may say to the contrary.
+
+Another name for truth is the Sanskrit _r i_t a, which originally seems
+to have meant _straight_, _direct_, while a n_r i_t a is untrue, false.
+
+Now one of the highest praises bestowed upon the gods in the Veda is
+that they are s a t y a, true, truthful, trustworthy;[62] and it is well
+known that both in modern and ancient times, men always ascribe to God
+or to their gods those qualities which they value most in themselves.
+
+Other words applied to the gods as truthful beings are, a d r o g h a,
+lit. not deceiving.[63] A d r o g h a-v a _k_ means, he whose word is
+never broken. Thus Indra, the Vedic Jupiter, is said to have been
+praised by the fathers[64] "as reaching the enemy, overcoming him,
+standing on the summit, _true of speech_, most powerful in thought."
+
+D r o g h a v a _k_,[65] on the contrary, is used for deceitful men. Thus
+Vasish_th_a, one of the great Vedic poets, says: "If I had worshipped
+false gods, or if I believed in the gods vainly--but why art thou
+angry with us, O _G_atavedas? May liars go to destruction!"
+
+S a t y a m, as a neuter, is often used as an abstract, and is then
+rightly translated by truth. But it also means that which is, the true,
+the real; and there are several passages in the Rig-Veda where, instead
+of _truth_, I think we ought simply to translate s a t y a m by the
+true, that is, the real, [Greek: to ontos on].[66] It sounds, no doubt,
+very well to translate Satyena uttabhita bhumi_h_ by "the earth is
+founded on truth;" and I believe every translator has taken s a t y a in
+that sense here. Ludwig translates, "Von der Wahrheit ist die Erde
+gestuetzt." But such an idea, if it conveys any tangible meaning at all,
+is far too abstract for those early poets and philosophers. They meant
+to say "the earth, such as we see it, is held up, that is, rests on
+something real, though we may not see it, on something which they called
+the Real,[67] and to which, in course of time, they gave many more
+names, such as _R i_ t a, the right, B r a h m a n," etc.
+
+Of course where there is that strong reverence for truth, there must
+also be the sense of guilt arising from untruth. And thus we hear one
+poet pray that the waters may wash him clean, and carry off all his
+sins and all untruth:
+
+    "Carry away, ye waters,[68] whatever evil there is in me,
+    wherever I may have deceived, or may have cursed, and also
+    all untruth (an_ri_tam)."[69]
+
+Or again, in the Atharva-Veda IV. 16:
+
+    "May all thy fatal snares, which stand spread out seven by
+    seven and threefold, catch the man who tells a lie, may they
+    pass by him who tells the truth!"
+
+From the Brahma_n_as, or theological treatises of the Brahmans, I
+shall quote a few passages only:
+
+    "Whosoever[70] speaks the truth, makes the fire on his own
+    altar blaze up, as if he poured butter into the lighted fire.
+    His own light grows larger, and from to-morrow to to-morrow
+    he becomes better. But whosoever speaks untruth, he quenches
+    the fire on his altar, as if he poured water into the lighted
+    fire; his own light grows smaller and smaller, and from
+    to-morrow to to-morrow he becomes more wicked. Let man
+    therefore speak truth only."[71]
+
+And again:[72] "A man becomes impure by uttering falsehood."
+
+And again:[73] "As a man who steps on the edge of a sword placed over
+a pit cries out, I shall slip, I shall slip into the pit, so let a man
+guard himself from falsehood (or sin)."
+
+In later times we see the respect for truth carried to such an
+extreme, that even a promise, unwittingly made, is considered to be
+binding.
+
+In the Ka_th_a-Upanishad, for instance, a father is introduced
+offering what is called an _All_-sacrifice, where everything is
+supposed to be given up. His son, who is standing by, taunts his
+father with not having altogether fulfilled his vow, because he has
+not sacrificed his son. Upon this, the father, though angry and
+against his will, is obliged to sacrifice his son. Again, when the son
+arrives in the lower world, he is allowed by the Judge of the Dead to
+ask for three favors. He then asks to be restored to life, to be
+taught some sacrificial mysteries, and, as the third boon, he asks to
+know what becomes of man after he is dead. Yama, the lord of the
+Departed, tries in vain to be let off from answering this last
+question. But he, too, is bound by his promise, and then follows a
+discourse on life after death, or immortal life, which forms one of
+the most beautiful chapters in the ancient literature of India.
+
+The whole plot of one of the great epic poems, the Ramaya_n_a, rests
+on a rash promise given by Da_s_aratha, king of Ayodhya, to his second
+wife, Kaikeyi, that he would grant her two boons. In order to secure
+the succession to her own son, she asks that Rama, the eldest son by
+the king's other wife, should be banished for fourteen years. Much as
+the king repents his promise, Rama, his eldest son, would on no
+account let his father break his word, and he leaves his kingdom to
+wander in the forest with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshma_n_a.
+After the father's death, the son of the second wife declines the
+throne, and comes to Rama to persuade him to accept the kingdom of his
+father. But all in vain. Rama will keep his exile for fourteen years,
+and never disown his father's promise. Here follows a curious dialogue
+between a Brahman _G_abali and Prince Rama, of which I shall give some
+extracts:[74]
+
+    "The Brahman, who is a priest and courtier, says, 'Well,
+    descendant of Raghu, do not thou, so noble in sentiments, and
+    austere in character, entertain, like a common man, this
+    useless thought. What man is a kinsman of any other? What
+    relationship has any one with another? A man is born alone
+    and dies alone. Hence he who is attached to any one as his
+    father or his mother, is to be regarded as if he were insane,
+    for no one belongs to another. Thou oughtest not to abandon
+    thy father's kingdom and stay here in a sad and miserable
+    abode, attended with many trials. Let thyself be inaugurated
+    king in the wealthy Ayodhya. Da_s_aratha, thy father is
+    nothing to thee, or thou to him; the king is one, and thou
+    another, do therefore what is said.... Then offer oblations
+    to the departed spirits (of thy forefathers) on prescribed
+    days; but see what a waste of food! For what can a dead man
+    eat? If what is eaten by one here enters into the body of
+    another (viz., of the departed), let _S_raddhas be offered to
+    those who are travelling; they need not then get food to eat
+    on their journey. These books (the Vedas), (which enjoin men
+    to) sacrifice, give, consecrate themselves, practise
+    austerities, and forsake the world, are composed by clever
+    men to induce others to bestow gifts. Authoritative words do
+    not fall from heaven. Let me, and others like yourselves,
+    embrace whatever assertion is supported by reason. Adhere to
+    what is apparent to the senses, and reject what is
+    invisible.... _This world is the next world_; do thou
+    therefore enjoy pleasure, for every virtuous man does not
+    gain it. Virtuous men are greatly distressed, while the
+    unrighteous are seen to be happy.'"
+
+These positivist sentiments sound strange, particularly from the mouth
+of a Brahman. But the poet evidently wishes to represent a Brahman
+living at court, who has an argument ready for anything and everything
+that is likely to please his king.
+
+But what does Rama answer? "The words," he says, "which you have
+addressed to me, though they recommend what _seems_ to be right and
+salutary, advise, in fact, the contrary. The sinful transgressor, who
+lives according to the rules of heretical systems, obtains no esteem
+from good men. It is good conduct that marks a man to be noble or
+ignoble, heroic or a pretender to manliness, pure or impure. Truth and
+mercy are immemorial characteristics of a king's conduct. Hence royal
+rule is in its essence _truth_. On truth the word is based. Both sages
+and gods have esteemed truth. The man who speaks truth in this world
+attains the highest imperishable state. Men shrink with fear and
+horror from a liar as from a serpent. In this world the chief element
+in virtue is truth; it is called the basis of everything. Truth is
+lord in the world; virtue always rests on truth. All things are
+founded on truth; nothing is higher than it. Why, then, should I not
+be true to my promise, and faithfully observe the truthful injunction
+given by my father? Neither through covetousness, nor delusion, nor
+ignorance, will I, overpowered by darkness, break through the barrier
+of truth, but remain true to my promise to my father. How shall I,
+having promised to him that I would thus reside in the forests,
+transgress his injunction, and do what Bharata recommends?"
+
+The other epic poem too, the Mahabharata, is full of episodes showing
+a profound regard for truth and an almost slavish submission to a
+pledge once given. The death of Bhishma, one of the most important
+events in the story of the Mahabharata, is due to his vow never to
+hurt a woman. He is thus killed by _S_ikhandin, whom he takes to be a
+woman.[75]
+
+Were I to quote from all the law-books, and from still later works,
+everywhere you would hear the same key-note of truthfulness vibrating
+through them all.
+
+We must not, however, suppress the fact that, under certain
+circumstances, a lie was allowed, or, at all events, excused by Indian
+lawgivers. Thus Gautama says:[76] "An untruth spoken by people under
+the influence of anger, excessive joy, fear, pain, or grief, by
+infants, by very old men, by persons laboring under a delusion, being
+under the influence of drink, or by madmen, does not cause the speaker
+to fall, or, as we should say, is a venial, not a mortal sin."[77]
+
+This is a large admission, yet even in that open admission there is a
+certain amount of honesty. Again and again in the Mahabharata is this
+excuse pleaded.[78] Nay, there is in the Mahabharata[79] the
+well-known story of Kau_s_ika, called Satyavadin, the Truth-speaker,
+who goes to hell for having spoken the truth. He once saw men flying
+into the forest before robbers (dasyu). The robbers came up soon after
+them, and asked Kau_s_ika, which way the fugitives had taken. He told
+them the truth, and the men were caught by the robbers and killed.
+But Kau_s_ika, we are told, went to hell for having spoken the truth.
+
+The Hindus may seem to have been a priest-ridden race, and their
+devotion to sacrifice and ceremonial is well known. Yet this is what
+the poet of the Mahabharata dares to say:
+
+    "Let a thousand sacrifices (of a horse) and truth be weighed
+    in the balance--truth will exceed the thousand
+    sacrifices."[80]
+
+These are words addressed by _S_akuntala, the deserted wife, to King
+Dushyanta, when he declined to recognize her and his son. And when he
+refuses to listen to her appeal, what does she appeal to as the
+highest authority?--_The voice of conscience._
+
+"If you think I am alone," she says to the king, "you do not know that
+wise man within your heart. He knows of your evil deed--in _his_ sight
+you commit sin. A man who has committed sin may think that no one
+knows it. The gods know it and the old man within."[81]
+
+This must suffice. I say once more that I do not wish to represent the
+people of India as two hundred and fifty-three millions of angels, but
+I do wish it to be understood and to be accepted as a fact, that the
+damaging charge of untruthfulness brought against that people is
+utterly unfounded with regard to ancient times. It is not only not
+true, but the very opposite of the truth. As to modern times, and I
+date them from about 1000 after Christ, I can only say that, after
+reading the accounts of the terrors and horrors of Mohammedan rule, my
+wonder is that so much of native virtue and truthfulness should have
+survived. You might as well expect a mouse to speak the truth before a
+cat, as a Hindu before a Mohammedan judge.[82] If you frighten a
+child, that child will tell a lie; if you terrorize millions, you must
+not be surprised if they try to escape from your fangs. Truthfulness
+is a luxury, perhaps the greatest, and let me assure you, the most
+expensive luxury in our life--and happy the man who has been able to
+enjoy it from his very childhood. It may be easy enough in our days
+and in a free country, like England, never to tell a lie--but the
+older we grow, the harder we find it to be always true, to speak the
+truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The Hindus too had
+made that discovery. They too knew how hard, nay how impossible it is,
+always to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
+There is a short story in the _S_atapatha Brahma_n_a, to my mind full
+of deep meaning, and pervaded by the real sense of truth, the real
+sense of the difficulty of truth. His kinsman said to Aru_n_a
+Aupave_s_i, "Thou art advanced in years, establish thou the
+sacrificial fires." He replied: "Thereby you tell me henceforth to
+keep silence. For he who has established the fires must not speak an
+untruth, and only by not speaking at all, one speaks no untruth. To
+that extent the service of the sacrificial fires consists in
+truth."[83]
+
+I doubt whether in any other of the ancient literatures of the world
+you will find traces of that extreme sensitiveness of conscience which
+despairs of our ever speaking the truth, and which declares silence
+gold, and speech silver, though, in a much higher sense than our
+proverb.
+
+What I should wish to impress on those who will soon find themselves
+the rulers of millions of human beings in India, is the duty to shake
+off national prejudices, which are apt to degenerate into a kind of
+madness. I have known people with a brown skin whom I could look up to
+as my betters. Look for them in India, and you will find them, and if
+you meet with disappointments, as no doubt you will, think of the
+people with white skins whom you have trusted, and whom you can trust
+no more. We are all apt to be Pharisees in international judgments. I
+read only a few days ago in a pamphlet written by an enlightened
+politician, the following words:
+
+    "Experience only can teach that nothing is so truly
+    astonishing to a morally depraved people as the phenomenon of
+    a race of men in whose word perfect confidence may be
+    placed[84].... The natives are conscious of their inferiority
+    in nothing so much as in this. They require to be taught
+    rectitude of conduct much more than literature and science."
+
+If you approach the Hindus with such feelings, you will teach them
+neither rectitude, nor science, nor literature. Nay, they might appeal
+to their own literature, even to their law-books, to teach us at least
+one lesson of truthfulness, truthfulness to ourselves, or, in other
+words, humility.
+
+What does Ya_gn_avalkya say?[85]
+
+    "It is not our hermitage," he says--our religion we might
+    say--"still less the color of our skin, that produces virtue;
+    virtue must be practiced. Therefore let no one do to others
+    what he would not have done to himself."
+
+And the laws of the Manavas, which were so much abused by Mill, what
+do they teach?[86]
+
+    "Evil-doers think indeed that no one sees them; but the gods
+    see them, and the old man within."
+
+    "Self is the witness of Self, Self is the refuge of Self. Do
+    not despise thy own Self, the highest witness of men."[87]
+
+    "If, friend, thou thinkest thou art self-alone, remember
+    there is the silent thinker (the Highest Self) always within
+    thy heart, and _he_ sees what is good and what is evil."[88]
+
+    "O friend, whatever good thou mayest have done from thy very
+    birth, all will go to the dogs, if thou speak an untruth."
+
+Or in Vasish_th_a, XXX. 1:
+
+    "Practice righteousness, not unrighteousness; speak truth,
+    not untruth; look far, not near; look up toward the highest,
+    not toward anything low."
+
+No doubt there is moral depravity in India, and where is there no
+moral depravity in this world? But to appeal to international
+statistics would be, I believe, a dangerous game. Nor must we forget
+that our standards of morality differ, and, on some points, differ
+considerably from those recognized in India; and we must not wonder if
+sons do not at once condemn as criminal what their fathers and
+grandfathers considered right. Let us hold by all means to _our_ sense
+of what is right and what is wrong; but in judging others, whether in
+public or in private life, whether as historians or politicians, let
+us not forget that a kindly spirit will never do any harm. Certainly
+I can imagine nothing more mischievous, more dangerous, more fatal to
+the permanence of English rule in India, than for the young civil
+servants to go to that country with the idea that it is a sink of
+moral depravity, an ants' nest of lies; for no one is so sure to go
+wrong, whether in public or in private life, as he who says in his
+haste: "All men are liars."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 17: Mill's "History of British India," ed. Wilson, vol. i.,
+p. 375.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Keshub Chunder Sen is the present spiritual director of
+the Brahmo Sama_g_, the theistic organization founded by the late
+Rammohun Roy.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 19: Mill's "History," ed. Wilson, vol. i., p. 368.]
+
+[Footnote 20: L. c. p. 325.]
+
+[Footnote 21: L. c. p. 329.]
+
+[Footnote 22: P. 217.]
+
+[Footnote 23: Mill's "History," vol. i., p. 329.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Manu, VIII. 43, says: "Neither a King himself nor his
+officers must ever promote litigation; nor ever neglect a lawsuit
+instituted by others."]
+
+[Footnote 25: Mill's "History," vol. i., p. 327.]
+
+[Footnote 26: L. c. p. 368.]
+
+[Footnote 27: See Elphinstone, "History of India," ed. Cowell, p. 219,
+note. "Of the 232 sentences of death 64 only were carried out in
+England, while the 59 sentences of death in Bengal were all carried
+out."]
+
+[Footnote 28: Sir Ch. Trevelyan, Christianity and Hinduism, 1882, p.
+42.
+
+This will be news to many. It has been quite common to include the
+Thugs with the worshippers of Bhavani, the consort of Siva. The word
+signifies a deceiver, which eliminates it from every religious
+association.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 29: Manu VII. 115.]
+
+[Footnote 30: H. M. Elliot, "Supplement to the Glossary of Indian
+Terms," p. 151.]
+
+[Footnote 31: I see from Dr. Hunter's latest statistical tables that
+the whole number of towns and villages in British India amounts to
+493,429. Out of this number 448,320 have less than 1000 inhabitants,
+and may be called villages. In Bengal, where the growth of towns has
+been most encouraged through Government establishments, the total
+number of homesteads is 117,042, and more than half of these contain
+less than 200 inhabitants. Only 10,077 towns in Bengal have more than
+1000 inhabitants, that is, no more than about a seventeenth part of
+all the settlements are anything but what we should call substantial
+villages. In the North-Western Provinces the last census gives us
+105,124 villages, against 297 towns. See London _Times_, 14th Aug.
+1882.]
+
+[Footnote 32: "Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian,"
+by McCrindle, p. 42.]
+
+[Footnote 33: "Perjury seems to be committed by the meanest and
+encouraged by some of the better sort among the Hindus and Mussulmans,
+with as little remorse as if it were a proof of ingenuity, or even a
+merit."--Sir W. Jones, Address to Grand Jury at Calcutta, in Mill's
+"History of India," vol. i., p. 324. "The longer we possess a
+province, the more common and grave does perjury become."--Sir G.
+Campbell, quoted by Rev. Samuel Johnson, "Oriental Religions, India,"
+p. 288.]
+
+[Footnote 34: Vasish_th_a, translated by Buehler, VIII. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 35: Mr. J. D. Baldwin, author of "Prehistoric Nations,"
+declares that this system of village-communities existed in India long
+before the Aryan conquest. He attributes it to Cushite or AEthiopic
+influence, and with great plausibility. Nevertheless, the same system
+flourished in prehistoric Greece, even till the Roman conquests. Mr.
+Palgrave observed it existing in Arabia. "Oman is less a kingdom than
+an aggregation of municipalities," he remarks; "each town, each
+village has its separate existence and corporation, while towns and
+villages, in their turn, are subjected to one or other of the
+ancestral chiefs." The Ionian and Phoenician cities existed by a
+similar tenure, as did also the Free Cities of Europe. It appears,
+indeed, to have been the earlier form of rule. Megasthenes noticed it
+in India. "The village-communities," says Sir Charles Metcalf, "are
+little republics, having everything they want within themselves, and
+almost independent of any foreign relations. They seem to last where
+nothing else lasts." These villages usually consist of the holders of
+the land, those who farm and cultivate it, the established
+village-servants, priest, blacksmith, carpenter, accountant,
+washerman, potter, barber, watchman, shoemaker, etc. The tenure and
+law of inheritance varies with the different native races, but
+tenantship for a specific period seems to be the most common.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 36: "Sleeman," vol. ii., p. 111.]
+
+[Footnote 37: Sleeman, "Rambles," vol. ii., p. 116.]
+
+[Footnote 38: Vasish_th_a XVI. 32.]
+
+[Footnote 39: Ktesiae Fragmenta (ed. Didot), p. 81.]
+
+[Footnote 40: See "Indian Antiquary," 1876, p. 333.]
+
+[Footnote 41: Megasthenis Fragmenta (ed. Didot) in "Fragm. Histor.
+Graec." vol. ii., p. 426 b: [Greek: _Aletheian te humoios kai areten
+apodechontai_]]
+
+[Footnote 42: Indica, cap. xii. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 43: See McCrindle in. "Indian Antiquary," 1876, p. 92.]
+
+[Footnote 44: See Stanislas Julien, _Journal Asiatique_, 1847, Aout,
+pp. 98, 105.]
+
+[Footnote 45: Vol. ii., p. 83.]
+
+[Footnote 46: Elliot, "History of India," vol. i., p. 88.]
+
+[Footnote 47: See Mehren: "Manuel de la Cosmographie du moyen age,
+traduction de l'ouvrage de Shems-ed-din Abou Abdallah de Damas."
+Paris: Leroux, 1874, p. 371.]
+
+[Footnote 48: "Marco Polo," ed. H. Yule, vol. ii., p. 350.]
+
+[Footnote 49: "Marco Polo," vol. ii., p. 354.]
+
+[Footnote 50: "Notices des Manuscrits," tom. xiv., p. 436. He seems to
+have been one of the first to state that the Persian text of the
+Kalilah and Dimna was derived from the wise people of India.]
+
+[Footnote 51: Samuel Johnson, "India," p. 294.]
+
+[Footnote 52: Sleeman, "Rambles," vol. i., p. 63.]
+
+[Footnote 53: Elphinstone's "History of India," ed. Cowell, p. 213.]
+
+[Footnote 54: This statement may well be doubted. The missionary staff
+in India is very large and has been for years past. There is no reason
+to doubt that many of its members are well informed respecting Hindoo
+character in all grades of society.--AM. PUBS.]
+
+[Footnote 55: Samuel Johnson, "India," p. 293.]
+
+[Footnote 56: See "History of India," pp. 375-381.]
+
+[Footnote 57: L. c., p. 215.]
+
+[Footnote 58: "History of India," p. 218.]
+
+[Footnote 59: Mill's "History of India," ed. Wilson, vol. i., p. 370.]
+
+[Footnote 60: L. c., p. 371.]
+
+[Footnote 61: Sir Thomas Munro estimated the children educated at
+public schools in the Madras presidency as less than one in three. But
+low as it was, it was, as he justly remarked, a higher rate than
+existed till very lately in most countries of Europe.--Elphinstone,
+"Hist. of India," p. 205.
+
+In Bengal there existed no less than 80,000 native schools, though,
+doubtless, for the most part, of a poor quality. According to a
+Government Report of 1835, there was a village-school for every 400
+persons.--"Missionary Intelligencer," IX. 183-193.
+
+Ludlow ("British India," I. 62) writes: "In every Hindu village which
+has retained its old form I am assured that the children generally are
+able to read, write, and cipher; but where we have swept away the
+village-system, as in Bengal, there the village-school has also
+disappeared."]
+
+[Footnote 62: Rig-Veda I. 87, 4; 145, 5; 174, 1; V. 23, 2.]
+
+[Footnote 63: Rig-Veda III. 32, 9; VI. 5, 1.]
+
+[Footnote 64: Rig-Veda VI. 22, 2.]
+
+[Footnote 65: Rig-Veda III. 14, 6.]
+
+[Footnote 66: This is the favorite expression of Plato for the Divine,
+which Cary, Davis, and others render "Real Being."--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 67: Sometimes they trace even this S a t y a or _R i_ t a, the
+Real or Right, to a still higher cause, and say (Rig-Veda X. 190, 1):
+
+"The Right and Real was born from the Lighted Heat; from thence was
+born Night, and thence the billowy sea. From the sea was born
+Sa_m_vatsara, the year, he who ordereth day and night, the Lord of all
+that moves (winks). The Maker (dhat_ri_) shaped Sun and Moon in order;
+he shaped the sky, the earth, the welkin, and the highest heaven."]
+
+[Footnote 68: Rig-Veda I. 23, 22.]
+
+[Footnote 69: Or it may mean, "Wherever I may have deceived, or sworn
+false."]
+
+[Footnote 70: _S_atapatha Brahma_n_a II. 2, 3, 19.]
+
+[Footnote 71: Cf. Muir, "Metrical Translations," p. 268.]
+
+[Footnote 72: _S_at. Br. III. 1, 2, 10.]
+
+[Footnote 73: Taitt. Ara_n_yaka X. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 74: Muir, "Metrical Translations," p. 218.]
+
+[Footnote 75: Holtzmann, "Das alte indische Epos," p. 21, note 83.]
+
+[Footnote 76: V. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 77: This permission to prevaricate was still further
+extended. The following five untruths are enumerated by various
+writers as not constituting mortal sins--namely, at the time of
+marriage, during dalliance, when life is in danger, when the loss of
+property is threatened, and for the sake of a Brahma_n_a. Again,
+another writer cites the declaration that an untruth is venial if it
+is spoken at the time of marriage, during dalliance, in jest, or while
+suffering great pain. It is evident that Venus laughed at lovers'
+oaths in India as well as elsewhere; and that false testimony
+extracted by torture was excused. Manu declared that in some cases the
+giver of false evidence from a pious motive would not lose his seat in
+heaven; indeed, that whenever the death of a man of any of the four
+castes would be occasioned by true evidence, falsehood was even better
+than truth. He gives as the primeval rule, to say what is true and
+what is pleasant, but not what is true and unpleasant, or what is
+pleasant and not true. The Vish_n_u-pura_n_a gives like counsel,
+adding the following aphorism: "A considerate man will always
+cultivate, in act, thought, and speech, that which is good for living
+beings, both in this world and in the next." About the same license
+appears to be used in this country and winked at.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 78: I. 3412; III. 13844; VII. 8742; VIII. 3436, 3464.]
+
+[Footnote 79: Mahabharata VIII. 3448.]
+
+[Footnote 80: Muir, l. c. p. 268; Mahabharata I. 3095.]
+
+[Footnote 81: Mahabharata I. 3015-16.]
+
+[Footnote 82: This explains satisfactorily how the Hindoos became
+liars, and of course admits that they did become so.--AM. PUBS.]
+
+[Footnote 83: _S_atapatha Brahma_n_a, translated by Eggeling, "Sacred
+Books of the East," vol. xii., p. 313, Sec. 20.]
+
+[Footnote 84: Sir Charles Trevelyan, "Christianity and Hinduism," p.
+81.]
+
+[Footnote 85: IV. 65.]
+
+[Footnote 86: VIII. 85.]
+
+[Footnote 87: VIII. 90.]
+
+[Footnote 88: VIII. 92.]
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE III.
+
+HUMAN INTEREST OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE.
+
+
+My first lecture was intended to remove the prejudice that India is
+and always must be a strange country to us, and that those who have to
+live there will find themselves stranded, and far away from that
+living stream of thoughts and interests which carries us along in
+England and in other countries of Europe.
+
+My second lecture was directed against another prejudice, namely, that
+the people of India with whom the young civil servants will have to
+pass the best years of their life are a race so depraved morally, and
+more particularly so devoid of any regard for truth, that they _must_
+always remain strangers to us, and that any real fellowship or
+friendship with them is quite out of the question.
+
+To-day I shall have to grapple with a third prejudice, namely, that
+the literature of India, and more especially the classical Sanskrit
+literature, whatever may be its interest to the scholar and the
+antiquarian, has little to teach us which we cannot learn better from
+other sources, and that at all events it is of little practical use to
+young civilians. If only they learn to express themselves in
+Hindustani or Tamil, that is considered quite enough; nay, as they
+have to deal with men and with the ordinary affairs of life, and as,
+before everything else, they are to be men of the world and men of
+business, it is even supposed to be dangerous, if they allowed
+themselves to become absorbed in questions of abstruse scholarship or
+in researches on ancient religion, mythology, and philosophy.
+
+I take the very opposite opinion, and I should advise every young man
+who wishes to enjoy his life in India, and to spend his years there
+with profit to himself and to others, to learn Sanskrit, and to learn
+it well.
+
+I know it will be said, What can be the use of Sanskrit at the present
+day? Is not Sanskrit a dead language? And are not the Hindus
+themselves ashamed of their ancient literature? Do they not learn
+English, and do they not prefer Locke, and Hume, and Mill to their
+ancient poets and philosophers?
+
+No doubt Sanskrit, in one sense, is a dead language. It was, I
+believe, a dead language more than two thousand years ago. Buddha,
+about 500 B.C., commanded his disciples to preach in the dialects of
+the people; and King A_s_oka, in the third century B.C., when he put
+up his Edicts, which were intended to be read, or at least to be
+understood by the people, had them engraved on rocks and pillars in
+the various local dialects from Cabul[89] in the north to Ballabhi in
+the south, from the sources of the Ganges and the Jumnah to Allahabad
+and Patna, nay even down to Orissa. These various dialects are as
+different from Sanskrit as Italian is from Latin, and we have
+therefore good reason to suppose that, in the third century B.C., if
+not earlier, Sanskrit had ceased to be the spoken language of the
+people at large.
+
+There is an interesting passage in the _K_ullavagga, where we are told
+that, even during Buddha's lifetime, some of his pupils, who were
+Brahmans by birth, complained that people spoiled the words of Buddha
+by every one repeating them in his own dialect (nirutti). They
+proposed to translate his words into Sanskrit; but he declined, and
+commanded that each man should learn his doctrine in his own
+language.[90]
+
+And there is another passage, quoted by Hardy in his Manual of
+Buddhism, p. 186, where we read that at the time of Buddha's first
+preaching each of the countless listeners thought that the sage was
+looking toward him, and was speaking to him in his own tongue, though
+the language used was Magadhi.[91]
+
+Sanskrit, therefore, as a language spoken by the people at large, had
+ceased to exist in the third century B.C.
+
+Yet such is the marvellous continuity between the past and the present
+in India, that in spite of repeated social convulsions, religious
+reforms, and foreign invasions, Sanskrit may be said to be still the
+only language that is spoken over the whole extent of that vast
+country.
+
+Though the Buddhist sovereigns published their edicts in the
+vernaculars, public inscriptions and private official documents
+continued to be composed in Sanskrit during the last two thousand
+years. And though the language of the sacred writings of Buddhists and
+_G_ainas was borrowed from the vulgar dialects, the literature of
+India never ceased to be written in Pa_n_inean Sanskrit, while the few
+exceptions, as, for instance, the use of Prakrit by women and inferior
+characters in the plays of Kalidasa and others, are themselves not
+without an important historical significance.
+
+Even at the present moment, after a century of English rule and
+English teaching, I believe that Sanskrit is more widely understood in
+India than Latin was in Europe at the time of Dante.
+
+Whenever I receive a letter from a learned man in India, it is written
+in Sanskrit. Whenever there is a controversy on questions of law and
+religion, the pamphlets published in India are written in Sanskrit.
+There are journals written in Sanskrit which must entirely depend for
+their support on readers who prefer that classical language to the
+vulgar dialects. There is _The Pandit_, published at Benares,
+containing not only editions of ancient texts, but treatises on modern
+subjects, reviews of books published in England, and controversial
+articles, all in Sanskrit.
+
+Another paper of the same kind is the _Pratna-Kamra-nandini_, "the
+Delight of lovers of old things," published likewise at Benares, and
+full of valuable materials.
+
+There is also the _Vidyodaya_, "the Rise of Knowledge," a Sanskrit
+journal published at Calcutta, which sometimes contains important
+articles. There are probably others, which I do not know.
+
+There is a monthly serial published at Bombay, by M. Moreshwar Kunte,
+called the _Shad-darshana-Chintanika_, or "Studies in Indian
+Philosophy," giving the text of the ancient systems of philosophy,
+with commentaries and treatises, written in Sanskrit, though in this
+case accompanied by a Marathi and an English translation.
+
+Of the Rig-Veda, the most ancient of Sanskrit books, two editions are
+now coming out in monthly numbers, the one published at Bombay, by
+what may be called the liberal party, the other at Prayaga (Allahabad)
+by Dayananda Sarasvati, the representative of Indian orthodoxy. The
+former gives a paraphrase in Sanskrit, and a Marathi and an English
+translation; the latter a full explanation in Sanskrit, followed by a
+vernacular commentary. These books are published by subscription, and
+the list of subscribers among the natives of India is very
+considerable.
+
+There are other journals, which are chiefly written in the spoken
+dialects, such as Bengali, Marathi, or Hindi; but they contain occasional
+articles in Sanskrit, as, for instance, the Hari_sk_andra_k_andrika,
+published at Benares, the _Tattvabodhini_, published at Calcutta, and
+several more.
+
+It was only the other day that I saw in the _Liberal_, the journal of
+Keshub Chunder Sen's party,[92] an account of a meeting between
+Brahmavrata Samadhyayi, a Vedic scholar of Nuddea, and Kashinath
+Trimbak Telang, a M.A. of the University of Bombay. The one came from
+the east, the other from the west, yet both could converse fluently in
+Sanskrit.[93]
+
+Still more extraordinary is the number of Sanskrit texts, issuing from
+native presses, for which there seems to be a large demand, for if we
+write for copies to be sent to England, we often find that, after a
+year or two, all the copies have been bought up in India itself. That
+would not be the case with Anglo-Saxon texts in England, or with Latin
+texts in Italy!
+
+But more than this, we are told that the ancient epic poems of the
+Mahabharata and Ramaya_n_a are still recited in the temples for the
+benefit of visitors, and that in the villages large crowds assemble
+around the Kathaka, the reader of these ancient Sanskrit poems, often
+interrupting his recitations with tears and sighs, when the hero of
+the poem is sent into banishment, while when he returns to his
+kingdom, the houses of the village are adorned with lamps and
+garlands. Such a recitation of the whole of the Mahabharata is said to
+occupy ninety days, or sometimes half a year.[94] The people at large
+require, no doubt, that the Brahman narrator (Kathaka) should
+interpret the old poem, but there must be some few people present who
+understand, or imagine they understand, the old poetry of Vyasa and
+Valmiki.
+
+There are thousands of Brahmans[95] even now, when so little
+inducement exists for Vedic studies, who know the whole of the
+Rig-Veda by heart and can repeat it; and what applies to the Rig-Veda
+applies to many other books.
+
+But even if Sanskrit were more of a dead language than it really is,
+all the living languages of India, both Aryan and Dravidian, draw
+their very life and soul from Sanskrit.[96] On this point, and on the
+great help that even a limited knowledge of Sanskrit would render in
+the acquisition of the vernaculars, I, and others better qualified
+than I am, have spoken so often, though without any practical effect,
+that I need not speak again. Any candidate who knows but the elements
+of Sanskrit grammar will well understand what I mean, whether his
+special vernacular may be Bengali, Hindustani, or even Tamil. To a
+classical scholar I can only say that between a civil servant who
+knows Sanskrit and Hindustani, and another who knows Hindustani only,
+there is about the same difference in their power of forming an
+intelligent appreciation of India and its inhabitants, as there is
+between a traveller who visits Italy with a knowledge of Latin, and a
+party personally conducted to Rome by Messrs. Cook & Co.
+
+Let us examine, however, the objection that Sanskrit literature is a
+dead or an artificial literature, a little more carefully, in order to
+see whether there is not some kind of truth in it. Some people hold
+that the literary works which we possess in Sanskrit never had any
+real life at all, that they were altogether scholastic productions,
+and that therefore they can teach us nothing of what we really care
+for, namely, the historical growth of the Hindu mind. Others maintain
+that at the present moment, at all events, and after a century of
+English rule, Sanskrit literature has ceased to be a motive power in
+India, and that it can teach us nothing of what is passing now through
+the Hindu mind and influencing it for good or for evil.
+
+Let us look at the facts. Sanskrit literature is a wide and a vague
+term. If the Vedas, such as we now have them, were composed about 1500
+B.C., and if it is a fact that considerable works continue to be
+written in Sanskrit even now, we have before us a stream of literary
+activity extending over three thousand four hundred years. With the
+exception of China there is nothing like this in the whole world.
+
+It is difficult to give an idea of the enormous extent and variety of
+that literature. We are only gradually becoming acquainted with the
+untold treasures which still exist in manuscripts, and with the titles
+of that still larger number of works which must have existed formerly,
+some of them being still quoted by writers of the last three or four
+centuries.[97]
+
+The Indian Government has of late years ordered a kind of
+bibliographical survey of India to be made, and has sent some learned
+Sanskrit scholars, both European and native, to places where
+collections of Sanskrit MSS. are known to exist, in order to examine
+and catalogue them. Some of these catalogues have been published, and
+we learn from them that the number of separate works in Sanskrit, of
+which mss. are still in existence, amounts to about 10,000.[98] This
+is more, I believe, than the whole classical literature of Greece and
+Italy put together. Much of it, no doubt, will be called mere rubbish;
+but then you know that even in our days the writings of a very eminent
+philosopher have been called "mere rubbish." What I wish you to see is
+this, that there runs through the whole history of India, through its
+three or four thousand years, a high road, or, it is perhaps more
+accurate to say, a high mountain-path of literature. It may be remote
+from the turmoil of the plain, hardly visible perhaps to the millions
+of human beings in their daily struggle of life. It may have been
+trodden by a few solitary wanderers only. But to the historian of the
+human race, to the student of the development of the human mind, those
+few solitary wanderers are after all the true representatives of India
+from age to age. Do not let us be deceived. The true history of the
+world must always be the history of the few; and as we measure the
+Himalaya by the height of Mount Everest, we must take the true measure
+of India from the poets of the Veda, the sages of the Upanishads, the
+founders of the Vedanta and Sankhya philosophies, and the authors of
+the oldest law-books, and not from the millions who are born and die
+in their villages, and who have never for one moment been roused out
+of their drowsy dream of life.
+
+To large multitudes in India, no doubt, Sanskrit literature was not
+merely a dead literature, it was simply non-existent; but the same
+might be said of almost every literature, and more particularly of the
+literatures of the ancient world.
+
+Still, even beyond this, I am quite prepared to acknowledge to a
+certain extent the truth of the statement, that a great portion of
+Sanskrit literature has never been living and national, in the same
+sense in which the Greek and Roman literatures reflected at times the
+life of a whole nation; and it is quite true besides, that the
+Sanskrit books which are best known to the public at large, belong to
+what might correctly be called the Renaissance period of Indian
+literature, when those who wrote Sanskrit had themselves to learn the
+language, as we learn Latin, and were conscious that they were writing
+for a learned and cultivated public only, and not for the people at
+large.
+
+This will require a fuller explanation.
+
+We may divide the whole of Sanskrit literature, beginning with the
+Rig-Veda and ending with Dayananda's Introduction to his edition of
+the Rig-Veda, his by no means uninteresting Rig-Veda-bhumika, into two
+great periods: that preceding the great Turanian invasion, and that
+following it.
+
+The former comprises the Vedic literature and the ancient literature
+of Buddhism, the latter all the rest.
+
+If I call the invasion which is generally called the invasion of the
+_S_akas, or the Scythians, or Indo-Scythians, or Turushkas, the
+_Turanian[99] invasion_, it is simply because I do not as yet wish to
+commit myself more than I can help as to the nationality of the tribes
+who took possession of India, or, at least, of the government of
+India, from about the first century B.C. to the third century A.D.
+
+They are best known by the name of _Yueh-chi_, this being the name by
+which they are called in Chinese chronicles. These Chinese chronicles
+form the principal source from which we derive our knowledge of these
+tribes, both before and after their invasion of India. Many theories
+have been started as to their relationship with other races. They are
+described as of pink and white complexion and as shooting from
+horseback; and as there was some similarity between their Chinese name
+_Yueh-chi_ and the _Gothi_ or _Goths_, they were identified by
+Remusat[100] with those German tribes, and by others with the _Getae_,
+the neighbors of the Goths. Tod went even a step farther, and traced
+the _G_ats in India and the Rajputs back to the _Yueh-chi_ and
+_Getae_.[101] Some light may come in time out of all this darkness, but
+for the present we must be satisfied with the fact that, between the
+first century before and the third century after our era, the greatest
+political revolution took place in India owing to the repeated inroads
+of Turanian, or, to use a still less objectionable term, of Northern
+tribes. Their presence in India, recorded by Chinese historians, is
+fully confirmed by coins, by inscriptions, and by the traditional
+history of the country, such as it is; but to my mind nothing attests
+the presence of these foreign invaders more clearly than the break,
+or, I could almost say, the blank in the Brahmanical literature of
+India from the first century before to the third century after our
+era.[102]
+
+If we consider the political and social state of that country, we can
+easily understand what would happen in a case of invasion and conquest
+by a warlike race. The invaders would take possession of the
+strongholds or castles, and either remove the old Rajahs, or make them
+their vassals and agents. Everything else would then go on exactly as
+before. The rents would be paid, the taxes collected, and the life of
+the villagers, that is, of the great majority of the people of India,
+would go on almost undisturbed by the change of government. The only
+people who might suffer would be, or, at all events, might be the
+priestly caste, unless they should come to terms with the new
+conquerors. The priestly caste, however, was also to a great extent
+the literary caste, and the absence of their old patrons, the native
+Rajahs, might well produce for a time a complete cessation of literary
+activity. The rise of Buddhism and its formal adoption by King Asoka
+had already considerably shaken the power and influence of the old
+Brahmanic hierarchy. The Northern conquerors, whatever their religion
+may have been, were certainly not believers in the Veda. They seem to
+have made a kind of compromise with Buddhism, and it is probably due
+to that compromise, or to an amalgamation of _S_aka legends with
+Buddhist doctrines, that we owe the so-called Mahayana form of
+Buddhism--and more particularly the Amitabha worship--which was
+finally settled at the Council under Kanishka, one of the Turanian
+rulers of India in the first century A.D.
+
+If then we divide the whole of Sanskrit literature into these two
+periods, the one anterior to the great Turanian invasion, the other
+posterior to it, we may call the literature of the former period
+_ancient_ and _natural_, that of the latter _modern_ and _artificial_.
+
+Of the former period we possess, _first_, what has been called the
+_Veda_, _i.e._, Knowledge, in the widest sense of the word--a
+considerable mass of literature, yet evidently a wreck only, saved out
+of a general deluge; _secondly_, the works collected in the Buddhist
+Tripi_t_aka, now known to us chiefly in what is called the Pali
+dialect, the Gatha dialects, and Sanskrit, and probably much added to
+in later times.
+
+The second period of Sanskrit literature comprehends everything else.
+Both periods may be subdivided again, but this does not concern us at
+present.
+
+Now I am quite willing to admit that the literature of the second
+period, the modern Sanskrit literature, never was a living or national
+literature. It here and there contains remnants of earlier times,
+adapted to the literary, religious, and moral tastes of a later
+period; and whenever we are able to disentangle those ancient
+elements, they may serve to throw light on the past, and, to a certain
+extent, supplement what has been lost in the literature of the Vedic
+times. The metrical Law-books, for instance, contain old materials
+which existed during the Vedic period, partly in prose, as Sutras,
+partly in more ancient metres, as Gathas. The Epic poems, the
+Mahabharata and Ramaya_n_a, have taken the place of the old Itihasas
+and Akhyanas. The Pura_n_as, even, may contain materials, though much
+altered, of what was called in Vedic literature the Pura_n_a.[103]
+
+But the great mass of that later literature is artificial or
+scholastic, full of interesting compositions, and by no means devoid
+of originality and occasional beauty; yet with all that, curious only,
+and appealing to the interests of the Oriental scholar far more than
+the broad human sympathies of the historian and the philosopher.
+
+It is different with the ancient literature of India, the literature
+dominated by the Vedic and the Buddhistic religions. That literature
+opens to us a chapter in what has been called the Education of the
+Human Race, to which we can find no parallel anywhere else. Whoever
+cares for the historical growth of our language, that is, of our
+thoughts; whoever cares for the first intelligible development of
+religion and mythology; whoever cares for the first foundation of what
+in later times we call the sciences of astronomy, metronomy, grammar,
+and etymology; whoever cares for the first intimations of
+philosophical thought, for the first attempts at regulating family
+life, village life, and state life, as founded on religion,
+ceremonial, tradition and contract (samaya)--must in future pay the
+same attention to the literature of the Vedic period as to the
+literatures of Greece and Rome and Germany.
+
+As to the lessons which the early literature of Buddhism may teach us,
+I need not dwell on them at present. If I may judge from the numerous
+questions that are addressed to me with regard to that religion and
+its striking coincidences with Christianity, Buddhism has already
+become a subject of general interest, and will and ought to become so
+more and more.[104] On that whole class of literature, however, it is
+not my intention to dwell in this short course of Lectures, which can
+hardly suffice even for a general survey of Vedic literature, and for
+an elucidation of the principal lessons which, I think, we may learn
+from the Hymns, the Brahma_n_as, the Upanishads, and the Sutras.
+
+It was a real misfortune that Sanskrit literature became first known
+to the learned public in Europe through specimens belonging to the
+second, or, what I called, the Renaissance period. The Bhagavadgita,
+the plays of Kalidasa, such as _S_akuntala or Urva_s_i, a few episodes
+from the Mahabharata and Ramaya_n_a, such as those of Nala and the
+Ya_gn_adattabadha, the fables of the Hitopadesa, and the sentences of
+Bhart_ri_hari are, no doubt, extremely curious; and as, at the time
+when they first became known in Europe, they were represented to be of
+extreme antiquity, and the work of a people formerly supposed to be
+quite incapable of high literary efforts, they naturally attracted the
+attention of men such as Sir William Jones in England, Herder and
+Goethe in Germany, who were pleased to speak of them in terms of
+highest admiration. It was the fashion at that time to speak of
+Kalidasa, as, for instance, Alexander von Humboldt did even in so
+recent a work as his Kosmos, as "the great contemporary of Virgil and
+Horace, who lived at the splendid court of Vikramaditya," this
+Vikramaditya being supposed to be the founder of the Samvat era, 56
+B.C. But all this is now changed. Whoever the Vikramaditya was who is
+supposed to have defeated the _S_akas, and to have founded another
+era, the Samvat era, 56 B.C., he certainly did not live in the first
+century B.C. Nor are the Indians looked upon any longer as an
+illiterate race, and their poetry as popular and artless. On the
+contrary, they are judged now by the same standards as Persians and
+Arabs, Italians or French; and, measured by that standard, such works
+as Kalidasa's plays are not superior to many plays that have long been
+allowed to rest in dust and peace on the shelves of our libraries.
+Their antiquity is no longer believed in by any critical Sanskrit
+scholar. Kalidasa is mentioned with Bharavi as a famous poet in an
+inscription[105] dated A.D. 585-6 (507 _S_aka era), and for the
+present I see no reason to place him much earlier. As to the Laws of
+Manu, which used to be assigned to a fabulous antiquity,[106] and are
+so still sometimes by those who write at random or at second-hand, I
+doubt whether, in their present form, they can be older than the
+fourth century of our era, nay I am quite prepared to see an even
+later date assigned to them. I know this will seem heresy to many
+Sanskrit scholars, but we must try to be honest to ourselves. Is there
+any evidence to constrain us to assign the Manava-dharma-_s_astra,
+such as we now possess it, written in continuous _S_lokas, to any date
+anterior to 300 A.D.? And if there is not, why should we not openly
+state it, challenge opposition, and feel grateful if our doubts can be
+removed?
+
+That Manu was a name of high legal authority before that time, and
+that Manu and the Manavam are frequently quoted in the ancient legal
+Sutras, is quite true; but this serves only to confirm the conviction
+that the literature which succeeded the Turanian invasion is full of
+wrecks saved from the intervening deluge. If what we call the _Laws of
+Manu_ had really existed as a code of laws, like the Code of
+Justinian, during previous centuries, is it likely that it should
+nowhere have been quoted and appealed to?
+
+Varahamihira (who died 587 A.D.) refers to Manu several times, but not
+to a Manava-dharma-_s_astra; and the only time where he seems actually
+to quote a number of verses from Manu, these verses are not to be met
+with in our text.[107]
+
+I believe it will be found that the century in which Varahamihara
+lived and wrote was the age of the literary Renaissance in India.[108]
+That Kalidasa and Bharavi were famous at that time, we know from the
+evidence of inscriptions. We also know that during that century the
+fame of Indian literature had reached Persia, and that the King of
+Persia, Khosru Nushirvan, sent his physician, Barzoi, to India, in
+order to translate the fables of the Pa_nk_atantra, or rather their
+original, from Sanskrit into Pahlavi. The famous "Nine Gems," or
+"the nine classics," as we should say, have been referred, at least in
+part, to the same age,[109] and I doubt whether we shall be able to
+assign a much earlier date to anything we possess of Sanskrit
+literature, excepting always the Vedic and Buddhistic writings.
+
+Although the specimens of this modern Sanskrit literature, when they
+first became known, served to arouse a general interest, and serve
+even now to keep alive a certain superficial sympathy for Indian
+literature, more serious students had soon disposed of these
+compositions, and while gladly admitting their claim to be called
+pretty and attractive, could not think of allowing to Sanskrit
+literature a place among the world-literatures, a place by the side of
+Greek and Latin, Italian, French, English, or German.
+
+There was indeed a time when people began to imagine that all that was
+worth knowing about Indian literature was known, and that the only
+ground on which Sanskrit could claim a place among the recognized
+branches of learning in a university was its usefulness for the study
+of the Science of Language.
+
+At that very time, however, now about forty years ago, a new start was
+made, which has given to Sanskrit scholarship an entirely new
+character. The chief author of that movement was Burnouf, then
+professor at the _College de France_ in Paris, an excellent scholar,
+but at the same time a man of wide views and true historical
+instincts, and the last man to waste his life on mere Nalas and
+_S_akuntalas. Being brought up in the old traditions of the classical
+school in France (his father was the author of the well-known Greek
+Grammar), then for a time a promising young barrister, with
+influential friends such as Guizot, Thiers, Mignet, Villemain, at his
+side, and with a brilliant future before him, he was not likely to
+spend his life on pretty Sanskrit ditties. What he wanted when he
+threw himself on Sanskrit was history, human history, world-history,
+and with an unerring grasp he laid hold of Vedic literature and
+Buddhist literature, as the two stepping-stones in the slough of
+Indian literature. He died young, and has left a few arches only of
+the building he wished to rear. But his spirit lived on in his pupils
+and his friends, and few would deny that the first impulse, directly
+or indirectly, to all that has been accomplished since by the students
+of Vedic and Buddhist literature, was given by Burnouf and his
+lectures at the _College de France_.
+
+What then, you may ask, do we find in that ancient Sanskrit literature
+and cannot find anywhere else? My answer is: We find there the Aryan
+man, whom we know in his various characters, as Greek, Roman, German,
+Celt, and Slave, in an entirely new character. Whereas in his
+migrations northward his active and political energies are called out
+and brought to their highest perfection, we find the other side of the
+human character, the passive and meditative, carried to its fullest
+growth in India. In some of the hymns of the Rig-Veda we can still
+watch an earlier phase. We see the Aryan tribes taking possession of
+the land, and under the guidance of such warlike gods as Indra and the
+Maruts, defending their new homes against the assaults of the
+black-skinned aborigines as well as against the inroads of later Aryan
+colonists. But that period of war soon came to an end, and when the
+great mass of the people had once settled down in their homesteads,
+the military and political duties seem to have been monopolized by
+what we call a _caste_,[110] that is by a small aristocracy, while the
+great majority of the people were satisfied with spending their days
+within the narrow spheres of their villages, little concerned about
+the outside world, and content with the gifts that nature bestowed on
+them, without much labor. We read in the Mahabharata (XIII. 22):
+
+    "There is fruit on the trees in every forest, which every one
+    who likes may pluck without trouble. There is cool and sweet
+    water in the pure rivers here and there. There is a soft bed
+    made of the twigs of beautiful creepers. And yet wretched
+    people suffer pain at the door of the rich!"
+
+At first sight we may feel inclined to call this quiet enjoyment of
+life, this mere looking on, a degeneracy rather than a growth. It
+seems so different from what _we_ think life ought to be. Yet, from a
+higher point of view it may appear that those Southern Aryans have
+chosen the good part, or at least the part good for them, while we,
+Northern Aryans, have been careful and troubled about many things.
+
+It is at all events a problem worth considering whether, as there is
+in nature a South and a North, there are not two hemispheres also in
+human nature, both worth developing--the active, combative, and
+political on one side, the passive, meditative, and philosophical on
+the other; and for the solution of that problem no literature
+furnishes such ample materials as that of the Veda, beginning with the
+Hymns and ending with the Upanishads. We enter into a new world--not
+always an attractive one, least of all to us; but it possesses one
+charm, it is real, it is of natural growth, and like everything of
+natural growth, I believe it had a hidden purpose, and was intended to
+teach us some kind of lesson that is worth learning, and that
+certainly we could learn nowhere else. We are not called upon either
+to admire or to despise that ancient Vedic literature; we have simply
+to study and to try to understand it.
+
+There have been silly persons who have represented the development of
+the Indian mind as superior to any other, nay, who would make us go
+back to the Veda or to the sacred writings of the Buddhists in order
+to find there a truer religion, a purer morality, and a more sublime
+philosophy than our own. I shall not even mention the names of these
+writers or the titles of their works. But I feel equally impatient
+when I see other scholars criticising the ancient literature of India
+as if it were the work of the nineteenth century, as if it represented
+an enemy that must be defeated, and that can claim no mercy at our
+hands. That the Veda is full of childish, silly, even to our minds
+monstrous conceptions, who would deny? But even these monstrosities
+are interesting and instructive; nay, many of them, if we can but make
+allowance for different ways of thought and language, contain germs of
+truth and rays of light, all the more striking because breaking upon
+us through the veil of the darkest night.
+
+Here lies the general, the truly human interest which the _ancient_
+literature of India possesses, and which gives it a claim on the
+attention, not only of Oriental scholars or of students of ancient
+history, but of every educated man and woman.
+
+There are problems which we may put aside for a time, ay, which we
+must put aside while engaged each in our own hard struggle for life,
+but which will recur for all that, and which, whenever they do recur,
+will stir us more deeply than we like to confess to others, or even to
+ourselves. It is true that with us one day only out of seven is set
+apart for rest and meditation, and for the consideration of what the
+Greeks called [Greek: ta megista]--"the greatest things."
+It is true that that seventh day also is passed by many of us either
+in mere church-going routine or in thoughtless rest. But whether on
+week-days or on Sundays, whether in youth or in old age, there are
+moments, rare though they be, yet for all that the most critical
+moments of our life, when the old simple questions of humanity return
+to us in all their intensity, and we ask ourselves, What are we? What
+is this life on earth meant for? Are we to have no rest here, but to
+be always toiling and building up our own happiness out of the ruins
+of the happiness of our neighbors? And when we have made our home on
+earth as comfortable as it can be made with steam and gas and
+electricity, are we really so much happier than the Hindu in his
+primitive homestead?
+
+With us, as I said just now, in these Northern climates, where life is
+and always must be a struggle, and a hard struggle too, and where
+accumulation of wealth has become almost a necessity to guard against
+the uncertainties of old age or the accidents inevitable in our
+complicated social life--with us, I say, and in our society, hours of
+rest and meditation are but few and far between. It was the same as
+long as we know the history of the Teutonic races; it was the same
+even with Romans and Greeks. The European climate, with its long cold
+winters, in many places also the difficulty of cultivating the soil,
+the conflict of interests between small communities, has developed the
+instinct of self-preservation (not to say self-indulgence) to such an
+extent that most of the virtues and most of the vices of European
+society can be traced back to that source. Our own character was
+formed under these influences, by inheritance, by education, by
+necessity. We all lead a fighting-life; our highest ideal of life is a
+fighting-life. We work till we can work no longer, and are proud, like
+old horses, to die in harness. We point with inward satisfaction to
+what we and our ancestors have achieved by hard work, in founding a
+family or a business, a town or a state. We point to the marvels of
+what we call civilization--our splendid cities, our high-roads and
+bridges, our ships, our railways, our telegraphs, our electric light,
+our pictures, our statues, our music, our theatres. We imagine we have
+made life on earth quite perfect--in some cases so perfect that we are
+almost sorry to leave it again. But the lesson which both Brahmans and
+Buddhists are never tired of teaching is that this life is but a
+journey from one village to another, and not a resting-place. Thus we
+read:[111]
+
+    "As a man journeying to another village may enjoy a night's
+    rest in the open air, but, after leaving his resting-place,
+    proceeds again on his journey the next day, thus father,
+    mother, wife, and wealth are all but like a night's rest to
+    us--wise people do not cling to them forever."
+
+Instead of simply despising this Indian view of life, might we not
+pause for a moment and consider whether their philosophy of life is
+entirely wrong, and ours entirely right; whether this earth was really
+meant for work only (for with us pleasure also has been changed into
+work), for constant hurry and flurry; or whether we, sturdy Northern
+Aryans, might not have been satisfied with a little less of work, and
+a little less of so-called pleasure, but with a little more of thought
+and a little more of rest. For, short as our life is, we are not mere
+may-flies, that are born in the morning to die at night. We have a
+past to look back to and a future to look forward to, and it may be
+that some of the riddles of the future find their solution in the
+wisdom of the past.
+
+Then why should we always fix our eyes on the present only? Why should
+we always be racing, whether for wealth or for power or for fame? Why
+should we never rest and be thankful?
+
+I do not deny that the manly vigor, the silent endurance, the public
+spirit, and the private virtues too, of the citizens of European
+states represent one side, it may be a very important side, of the
+destiny which man has to fulfil on earth.
+
+But there is surely another side of our nature, and possibly another
+destiny open to man in his journey across this life, which should not
+be entirely ignored. If we turn our eyes to the East, and particularly
+to India, where life is, or at all events was, no very severe
+struggle, where the climate was mild, the soil fertile, where
+vegetable food in small quantities sufficed to keep the body in health
+and strength, where the simplest hut or cave in a forest was all the
+shelter required, and where social life never assumed the gigantic, ay
+monstrous proportions of a London or Paris, but fulfilled itself
+within the narrow boundaries of village-communities--was it not, I
+say, natural there, or, if you like, was it not _intended_ there, that
+another side of human nature should be developed--not the active, the
+combative, and acquisitive, but the passive, the meditative, and
+reflective? Can we wonder that the Aryans, who stepped as strangers
+into some of the happy fields and valleys along the Indus or the
+Ganges, should have looked upon life as a perpetual Sunday or holiday,
+or a kind of long vacation, delightful so long as it lasts, but which
+must come to an end sooner or later? Why should they have accumulated
+wealth? why should they have built palaces? why should they have
+toiled day and night? After having provided from day to day for the
+small necessities of the body, they thought they had the right, it may
+be the duty, to look round upon this strange exile, to look inward
+upon themselves, upward to something not themselves, and to see
+whether they could not understand a little of the true purport of that
+mystery which we call life on earth.
+
+Of course _we_ should call such notions of life dreamy, unreal,
+unpractical, but may not _they_ look upon our notions of life as
+short-sighted, fussy, and, in the end, most unpractical, because
+involving a sacrifice of life for the sake of life?
+
+No doubt these are both extreme views, and they have hardly ever been
+held or realized in that extreme form by any nation, whether in the
+East or in the West. We are not always plodding--we sometimes allow
+ourselves an hour of rest and peace and thought--nor were the ancient
+people of India always dreaming and meditating on [Greek: ta megista],
+on the great problems of life, but, when called upon, we know that they
+too could fight like heroes, and that, without machinery, they could by
+patient toil raise even the meanest handiwork into a work of art, a real
+joy to the maker and to the buyer.
+
+All then that I wish to put clearly before you is this, that the Aryan
+man, who had to fulfil his mission in India, might naturally be
+deficient in many of the practical and fighting virtues, which were
+developed in the Northern Aryans by the very struggle without which
+they could not have survived, but that his life on earth had not
+therefore been entirely wasted. His very view of life, though we
+cannot adopt it in this Northern climate, may yet act as a lesson and
+a warning to us, not, for the sake of life, to sacrifice the highest
+objects of life.
+
+The greatest conqueror of antiquity stood in silent wonderment before
+the Indian Gymnosophists, regretting that he could not communicate
+with them in their own language, and that their wisdom could not reach
+him except through the contaminating channels of sundry interpreters.
+
+That need not be so at present. Sanskrit is no longer a difficult
+language, and I can assure every young Indian civil servant that if he
+will but go to the fountain-head of Indian wisdom, he will find there,
+among much that is strange and useless, some lessons of life which are
+worth learning, and which we in our haste are too apt to forget or to
+despise.
+
+Let me read you a few sayings only, which you may still hear repeated
+in India when, after the heat of the day, the old and the young
+assemble together under the shadow of their village tree--sayings
+which to them seem truth; to us, I fear, mere truism!
+
+    "As all have to sleep together laid low in the earth, why do
+    foolish people wish to injure one another?[112]
+
+    "A man seeking for eternal happiness (moksha) might obtain it
+    by a hundredth part of the sufferings which a foolish man
+    endures in the pursuit of riches.[113]
+
+    "Poor men eat more excellent bread than the rich: for hunger
+    gives it sweetness.[114]
+
+    "Our body is like the foam of the sea, our life like a bird,
+    our company with those whom we love does not last forever;
+    why then sleepest thou, my son?[115]
+
+    "As two logs of wood meet upon the ocean and then separate
+    again, thus do living creatures meet.[116]
+
+    "Our meeting with wives, relations, and friends occurs on our
+    journey. Let a man therefore see clearly where he is, whither
+    he will go, what he is, why tarrying here, and why grieving
+    for anything.[117]
+
+    "Family, wife, children, our very body and our wealth, they
+    all pass away. They do not belong to us. What then is ours?
+    Our good and our evil deeds.[118]
+
+    "When thou goest away from here, no one will follow thee.
+    Only thy good and thy evil deeds, they will follow thee
+    wherever thou goest.[119]
+
+    "Whatever act, good or bad, a man performs, of that by
+    necessity he receives the recompense.[120]
+
+    "According to the Veda[121] the soul (life) is eternal, but
+    the body of all creatures is perishable. When the body is
+    destroyed, the soul departs elsewhere, fettered by the bonds
+    of our works.
+
+    "If I know that my own body is not mine, and yet that the
+    whole earth is mine, and again that it is both mine and
+    thine, no harm can happen then.[122]
+
+    "As a man puts on new garments in this world, throwing aside
+    those which he formerly wore, even so the Self[123] of man
+    puts on new bodies which are in accordance with his
+    acts.[124]
+
+    "No weapons will hurt the Self of man, no fire will burn it,
+    no water moisten it, no wind will dry it up.
+
+    "It is not to be hurt, not to be burnt, not to be moistened,
+    not to be dried up. It is imperishable, unchanging,
+    immovable, without beginning.
+
+    "It is said to be immaterial, passing all understanding, and
+    unchangeable. If you know the Self of man to be all this,
+    grieve not.
+
+    "There is nothing higher than the attainment of the knowledge
+    of the Self.[125]
+
+    "All living creatures are the dwelling of the Self who lies
+    enveloped in matter, who is immortal, and spotless. Those who
+    worship the Self, the immovable, living in a movable
+    dwelling, become immortal.
+
+    "Despising everything else, a wise man should strive after
+    the knowledge of the Self."
+
+We shall have to return to this subject again, for this knowledge of
+the Self is really the _Vedanta_, that is, the end, the highest goal
+of the Veda. The highest wisdom of Greece was "to know ourselves;" the
+highest wisdom of India is "to know our Self."
+
+If I were asked to indicate by one word the distinguishing feature of
+the Indian character, as I have here tried to sketch it, I should say
+it was _transcendent_, using that word, not in its strict technical
+sense, as fixed by Kant, but in its more general acceptation, as
+denoting a mind bent on transcending the limits of empirical
+knowledge. There are minds perfectly satisfied with empirical
+knowledge, a knowledge of facts, well ascertained, well classified,
+and well labelled. Such knowledge may assume very vast proportions,
+and, if knowledge is power, it may impart great power, real
+intellectual power to the man who can wield and utilize it. Our own
+age is proud of that kind of knowledge, and to be content with it, and
+never to attempt to look beyond it, is, I believe, one of the happiest
+states of mind to be in.[126]
+
+But, for all that, there is a Beyond, and he who has once caught a
+glance of it, is like a man who has gazed at the sun--wherever he
+looks, everywhere he sees the image of the sun. Speak to him of finite
+things, and he will tell you that the Finite is impossible and
+meaningless without the Infinite. Speak to him of death, and he will
+call it birth; speak to him of time, and he will call it the mere
+shadow of eternity. To us the senses seem to be the organs, the tools,
+the most powerful engines of knowledge; to him they are, if not
+actually deceivers, at all events heavy fetters, checking the flight
+of the spirit. To us this earth, this life, all that we see, and hear,
+and touch is certain. Here, we feel, is our home, here lie our duties,
+here our pleasures. To him this earth is a thing that once was not,
+and that again will cease to be; this life is a short dream from which
+we shall soon awake. Of nothing he professes greater ignorance than of
+what to others seems to be most certain, namely what we see, and hear,
+and touch; and as to our home, wherever that may be, he knows that
+certainly it is not here.
+
+Do not suppose that such men are mere dreamers. Far from it! And if we
+can only bring ourselves to be quite honest to ourselves, we shall
+have to confess that at times we all have been visited by these
+transcendental aspirations, and have been able to understand what
+Wordsworth meant when he spoke of those
+
+              "Obstinate questionings
+    Of sense and outward things,
+    Fallings from us, vanishings;
+    Blank misgivings of a creature
+    Moving about in worlds not realized."
+
+The transcendent temperament acquired no doubt a more complete
+supremacy in the Indian character than anywhere else; but no nation,
+and no individual, is entirely without that "yearning beyond;" indeed
+we all know it under a more familiar name--namely, _Religion_.
+
+It is necessary, however, to distinguish between religion and _a_
+religion, quite as much as in another branch of philosophy we have to
+distinguish between language and _a_ language or many languages. A man
+may accept _a_ religion, he may be converted to the Christian
+religion, and he may change his own particular religion from time to
+time, just as he may speak different languages. But in order to have
+_a_ religion, a man must have religion. He must once _at least_ in his
+life have looked beyond the horizon of this world, and carried away in
+his mind an impression of the Infinite, which will never leave him
+again. A being satisfied with the world of sense, unconscious of its
+finite nature, undisturbed by the limited or negative character of all
+perceptions of the senses, would be incapable of any religious
+concepts. Only when the finite character of all human knowledge has
+been received is it possible for the human mind to conceive that which
+is beyond the Finite, call it what you like, the Beyond, the Unseen,
+the Infinite, the Supernatural, or the Divine. That step must have
+been taken before religion of any kind becomes possible. What kind of
+religion it will be, depends on the character of the race which
+elaborates it, its surroundings in nature, and its experience in
+history.
+
+Now we may seem to know a great many religions--I speak here, of
+course, of ancient religions only, of what are sometimes called
+national or autochthonous religions--not of those founded in later
+times by individual prophets or reformers.
+
+Yet, among those ancient religions we seldom know, what after all is
+the most important point, their origin and their gradual growth. The
+Jewish religion is represented to us as perfect and complete from the
+very first, and it is with great difficulty that we can discover its
+real beginnings and its historical growth. And take the Greek and the
+Roman religions, take the religions of the Teutonic, Slavonic, or
+Celtic tribes, and you will find that their period of growth has
+always passed, long before we know them, and that from the time we
+know them, all their changes are purely _metamorphic_--changes in form
+of substances ready at hand. Now let us look to the ancient
+inhabitants of India. With them, first of all, religion was not only
+_one_ interest by the side of many. It was the all-absorbing interest;
+it embraced not only worship and prayer, but what we call philosophy,
+morality, law, and government--all was pervaded by religion. Their
+whole life was to them a religion--everything else was, as it were, a
+mere concession made to the ephemeral requirements of this life.
+
+What then can we learn from the ancient religious literature of India,
+or from the Veda?
+
+It requires no very profound knowledge of Greek religion and Greek
+language to discover in the Greek deities the original outlines of
+certain physical phenomena. Every schoolboy knows that in _Zeus_ there
+is something of the sky, in _Poseidon_ of the sea, in _Hades_ of the
+lower world, in _Apollo_ of the sun, in _Artemis_ of the moon, in
+_Hephaestos_ of the fire. But for all that, there is, from a Greek
+point of view, a very considerable difference between _Zeus_ and the
+sky, between _Poseidon_ and the sea, between _Apollo_ and the sun,
+between _Artemis_ and the moon.
+
+Now what do we find in the Veda? No doubt here and there a few
+philosophical hymns which have been quoted so often that people have
+begun to imagine that the Veda is a kind of collection of Orphic
+hymns. We also find some purely mythological hymns, in which the Devas
+or gods have assumed nearly as much dramatic personality as in the
+Homeric hymns.
+
+But the great majority of Vedic hymns consists in simple invocations
+of the fire, the water, the sky, the sun, and the storms, often under
+the same names which afterward became the proper names of Hindu
+deities, but as yet nearly free from all that can be called irrational
+or mythological. There is nothing irrational, nothing I mean we cannot
+enter into or sympathize with, in people imploring the storms to
+cease, or the sky to rain, or the sun to shine. I say there is nothing
+irrational in it, though perhaps it might be more accurate to say
+that there is nothing in it that would surprise anybody who is
+acquainted with the growth of human reason, or at all events, of
+childish reason. It does not matter how we call the tendency of the
+childish mind to confound the manifestation with that which manifests
+itself, effect with cause, act with agent. Call it Animism,
+Personification, Metaphor, or Poetry, we all know what is meant by it,
+in the most general sense of all these names; we all know that it
+exists, and the youngest child who beats the chair against which he
+has fallen, or who scolds his dog, or who sings: "Rain, rain, go to
+Spain," can teach us that, however irrational all this may seem to us,
+it is perfectly rational, natural, ay inevitable in the first periods,
+or the childish age of the human mind.
+
+Now it is exactly this period in the growth of ancient religion, which
+was always presupposed or postulated, but was absent everywhere else,
+that is clearly put before us in the hymns of the Rig-Veda. It is this
+ancient chapter in the history of the human mind which has been
+preserved to us in Indian literature, while we look for it in vain in
+Greece or Rome or elsewhere.
+
+It has been a favorite idea of those who call themselves "students of
+man," or anthropologists, that in order to know the earliest or
+so-called prehistoric phases in the growth of man, we should study the
+life of savage nations, as we may watch it still in some parts of
+Asia, Africa, Polynesia, and America.
+
+There is much truth in this, and nothing can be more useful than the
+observations which we find collected in the works of such students as
+Waitz, Tylor, Lubbock, and many others. But let us be honest, and
+confess, first of all, that the materials on which we have here to
+depend are often extremely untrustworthy.
+
+Nor is this all. What do we know of savage tribes beyond the last
+chapter of their history? Do we ever get an insight into their
+antecedents? Can we understand, what after all is everywhere the most
+important and the most instructive lesson to learn, how they have come
+to be what they are? There is indeed their language, and in it we see
+traces of growth that point to distant ages, quite as much as the
+Greek of Homer or the Sanskrit of the Vedas. Their language proves
+indeed that these so-called heathens, with their complicated systems
+of mythology, their artificial customs, their unintelligible whims and
+savageries, are not the creatures of to-day or yesterday. Unless we
+admit a special creation for these savages, they must be as old as the
+Hindus, the Greeks and Romans, as old as we ourselves. We may assume,
+of course, if we like, that their life has been stationary, and that
+they are to-day what the Hindus were no longer 3000 years ago. But
+that is a mere guess, and is contradicted by the facts of their
+language. They may have passed through ever so many vicissitudes, and
+what we consider as primitive may be, for all we know, a relapse into
+savagery, or a corruption of something that was more rational and
+intelligible in former stages. Think only of the rules that determine
+marriage among the lowest of savage tribes. Their complication passes
+all understanding, all seems a chaos of prejudice, superstition,
+pride, vanity, and stupidity. And yet we catch a glimpse here and
+there that there was some reason in most of that unreason; we see how
+sense dwindled away into nonsense, custom into ceremony, ceremony into
+farce. Why then should this surface of savage life represent to us the
+lowest stratum of human life, the very beginnings of civilization,
+simply because we cannot dig beyond that surface?
+
+Now, I do not wish to be misunderstood. I do not claim for the
+ancient Indian literature any more than I should willingly concede to
+the fables and traditions and songs of savage nations, such as we can
+study at present in what we call a state of nature. Both are important
+documents to the student of the Science of Man. I simply say that in
+the Veda we have a nearer approach to a beginning, and an intelligible
+beginning, than in the wild invocations of Hottentots or Bushmen. But
+when I speak of a beginning, I do not mean an absolute beginning, a
+beginning of all things. Again and again the question has been asked
+whether we could bring ourselves to believe that man, as soon as he
+could stand on his legs, instead of crawling on all fours, as he is
+supposed to have done, burst forth into singing Vedic hymns? But who
+has ever maintained this? Surely whoever has eyes to see can see in
+every Vedic hymn, ay, in every Vedic word, as many rings within rings
+as are in the oldest tree that was ever hewn down in the forest.
+
+I shall say even more, and I have said it before, namely, that
+supposing that the Vedic hymns were composed between 1500 and 1000
+B.C., we can hardly understand how, at so early a date, the Indians
+had developed ideas which to us sound decidedly modern. I should give
+anything if I could escape from the conclusion that the collection of
+the Vedic Hymns, a collection in ten books, existed at least 1000
+B.C., that is, about 500 years before the rise of Buddhism. I do not
+mean to say that something may not be discovered hereafter to enable
+us to refer that collection to a later date. All I say is that, so far
+as we know _at present_, so far as all honest Sanskrit scholars know
+_at present_, we cannot well bring our pre-Buddhistic literature into
+narrower limits than five hundred years.
+
+What then is to be done? We must simply keep our preconceived notions
+of what people call primitive humanity in abeyance for a time, and if
+we find that people three thousand years ago were familiar with ideas
+that seem novel and nineteenth-century-like to us, well, we must
+somewhat modify our conceptions of the primitive savage, and remember
+that things hid from the wise and prudent have sometimes been revealed
+to babes.
+
+I maintain then that for a study of man, or, if you like, for a study
+of Aryan humanity, there is nothing in the world equal in importance
+with the Veda. I maintain that to everybody who cares for himself, for
+his ancestors, for his history, or for his intellectual development, a
+study of Vedic literature is indispensable; and that, as an element of
+liberal education, it is far more important and far more improving
+than the reigns of Babylonian and Persian kings.
+
+It is curious to observe the reluctance with which these facts are
+accepted, particularly by those to whom they ought to be most welcome,
+I mean the students of anthropology. Instead of devoting all their
+energy to the study of these documents, which have come upon us like a
+miracle, they seem only bent on inventing excuses why they need not be
+studied. Let it not be supposed that, because there are several
+translations of the Rig-Veda in English, French and German, therefore
+all that the Veda can teach us has been learned. Far from it. Every
+one of these translations has been put forward as tentative only. I
+myself, though during the last thirty years I have given translations
+of a number of the more important hymns, have only ventured to publish
+a specimen of what I think a translation of the Veda ought to be; and
+that translation, that _traduction raisonnee_ as I ventured to call
+it, of twelve hymns only, fills a whole volume. We are still on the
+mere surface of Vedic literature, and yet our critics are ready with
+ever so many arguments why the Veda can teach us nothing as to a
+primitive state of man. If they mean by primitive that which came
+absolutely first, then they ask for something which they will never
+get, not even if they discovered the private correspondence of Adam
+and Eve, or of the first _Homo_ and _Femina sapiens_. We mean by
+primitive the earliest state of man of which, from the nature of the
+case, we can hope to gain any knowledge; and here, next to the
+archives hidden away in the secret drawers of language, in the
+treasury of words common to all the Aryan tribes, and in the radical
+elements of which each word is compounded, there is no literary relic
+more full of lessons to the true anthropologist, to the true student
+of mankind, than the Rig-Veda.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 89: See Cunningham, "Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum," vol.
+i., 1877.]
+
+[Footnote 90: _K_ulavagga V. 33, 1. The expression used is _Kh_andaso
+aropema'ti.]
+
+[Footnote 91: See Rhys Davids, Buddhist Suttas, "Sacred Books of the
+East," vol. xi., p. 142.]
+
+[Footnote 92: The Brahmo-Samaj, a theistic school.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 93: The _Liberal_, March 12, 1882.]
+
+[Footnote 94: See R. G. Bhandarkar, Consideration of the date of the
+Mahabharata, _Journal of the R. A. S. of Bombay_, 1872; Talboys
+Wheeler, "History of India," ii. 365, 572; Holtzmann, "Ueber das alte
+indische Epos," 1881, p. 1; Phear, "The Aryan Village in India and
+Ceylon," p. 19. That the Mahabharata was publicly read in the seventh
+century A.D., we learn from Ba_n_a; see _Journal of the Royal Asiatic
+Society_, Bombay, vol. x., p. 87, note.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 95: "Hibbert Lectures," p. 157.]
+
+[Footnote 96: "Every person acquainted with the spoken speech of India
+knows perfectly well that its elevation to the dignity and usefulness
+of written speech has depended, and must still depend, upon its
+borrowing largely from its parent or kindred source; that no man who
+is ignorant of Arabic or Sanskrit can write Hindustani or Bengali with
+elegance, or purity, or precision, and that the condemnation of the
+classical languages to oblivion would consign the dialects to utter
+helplessness and irretrievable barbarism."--H. H. Wilson, _Asiatic
+Journal_, Jan., 1836; vol xix., p. 15.]
+
+[Footnote 97: It would be a most useful work for any young scholar to
+draw up a list of Sanskrit books which are quoted by later writers,
+but have not yet been met with in Indian libraries.]
+
+[Footnote 98: "Hibbert Lectures," p. 133.]
+
+[Footnote 99: This vague term, _Turanian_, so much used in the Parsi
+Scriptures, is used here in the sense of unclassified ethnically.--A.
+W.]
+
+[Footnote 100: "Recherches sur les langues Tartares," 1820, vol. i.,
+p. 327; "Lassen," I. A., vol. ii., p. 359.]
+
+[Footnote 101: Lassen, who at first rejected the identification of
+_G_ats and Yueh-chi, was afterward inclined to accept it.]
+
+[Footnote 102: The Yueh-chi appear to have begun their invasion about
+130 B.C. At this period the Grecian kingdom of Bactria, after a
+brilliant existence of a century, had fallen before the Tochari, a
+Scythian people. The new invaders, called [Greek: Ephthalitai] by the
+Greeks, had been driven out of their old abodes and now occupied the
+country lying between Parthia at the west, the Oxus and Surkhab, and
+extending into Little Thibet. They were herdsmen and nomads. At this
+time India was governed by the descendants of Asoka, the great
+propagandist of Buddhism. About twenty years before the Christian era,
+or probably earlier, the Yueh-chi, under Karranos, crossed the Indus and
+conquered the country, which remained subject to them for three
+centuries. The Chinese historians Sze-ma Tsien and Han-yo, give these
+accounts, which are however confirmed by numismatic and other
+evidence.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 103: "Hibbert Lectures," p. 154, note.]
+
+[Footnote 104: In June, 1882, a Conference on Buddhism was held at
+Sion College, to discuss the real or apparent coincidences between the
+religions of Buddha and Christ. Professor Mueller addressed two letters
+to the secretary, which were afterward published, declaring such a
+discussion in general terms almost an impossibility. "The name of
+Buddhism," he says, "is applied to religious opinions, not only of the
+most varying, but of a decidedly opposite character, held by people on
+the highest and lowest stages of civilization, divided into endless
+sects, nay, founded on two distinct codes of canonical writings." Two
+Buddhist priests who were reading Sanskrit with him would hardly
+recognize the Buddhism now practiced in Ceylon as their own religion.
+
+He also acknowledged the startling coincidences between Buddhism and
+Christianity, and that Buddhism existed at least 400 years before
+Christianity. He would go farther, and feel extremely grateful if
+anybody would point out to him the historical channels through which
+Buddhism had influenced early Christianity. "I have been looking for
+such channels all my life," says he, "but hitherto I have found none.
+What I have found is that for some of the most startling coincidences
+there are historical antecedents on both sides; and if we knew these
+antecedents, the coincidences become far less startling. If I do find
+in certain Buddhist works doctrines identically the same as in
+Christianity, so far from being frightened, I feel delighted, for
+surely truth is not the less true because it is believed by the
+majority of the human race.
+
+"I believe we have made some progress during the last thirty years. I
+still remember the time when all heathen religions were looked upon as
+the work of the devil.(A1) We know now that they are stages in a
+growth, and in a growth not determined by an accidental environment
+only, but by an original purpose, a purpose to be realized in the
+history of the human race as a whole. Even missionaries have begun to
+approach the heathen in a new and better spirit. They look for what
+may safely be preserved in the religion of their pupils, and on that
+common ground they try to erect a purer faith and a better worship,
+instead of attempting to destroy the sacred foundations of religion,
+which, I believe, exist, or at least, existed, in every human heart."
+
+He also states that the publishing of the "Rig-Veda and Commentary,"
+his life-work, had produced a complete revolution both in our views of
+ancient religions and in the religious life of the Hindus themselves;
+and this not so much on the surface as in its deepest foundations.--A.
+W.
+
+A1: We have no knowledge of such a belief. The common Christian theory
+is that Christianity is as old as the garden of Eden, and that truth
+in other religions is the result of contact, somewhere, at some time,
+with Christianity.--AM. PUBS.]
+
+[Footnote 105: Published by Fleet in the "Indian Antiquary," 1876, pp.
+68-73, and first mentioned by Dr. Bhao Daji, Journal Asiatic Society,
+Bombay Branch, vol. ix.]
+
+[Footnote 106: Sir William Jones fixed their date at 1280 B.C.;
+Elphinstone as 900 B.C. It has recently been stated that they could
+not reasonably be placed later than the fifth century B.C.]
+
+[Footnote 107: A very useful indication of the age of the
+Dharma-sutras, as compared with the metrical Dharma-_s_astras or
+Sa_m_hitas, is to be found in the presence or absence in them of any
+reference to written documents. Such written documents, if they
+existed, could hardly be passed over in silence in law-books,
+particularly when the nature of witnesses is discussed in support of
+loans, pledges, etc. Now, we see that in treating of the law of debt
+and debtors,(A1) the Dharma-sutras of Gautama, Baudhayana, and
+Apastamba never mention evidence in writing. Vasish_th_a only refers
+to written evidence, but in a passage which may be interpolated,(A2)
+considering that in other respects his treatment of the law of debt is
+very crude. Manu's metrical code shows here again its usual character.
+It is evidently based on ancient originals, and when it simply
+reproduces them, gives us the impression of great antiquity. But it
+freely admits more modern ingredients, and does so in our case. It
+speaks of witnesses, fixes their minimum number at three, and
+discusses very minutely their qualifications and disqualifications,
+without saying a word about written documents. But in one place (VIII.
+168) it speaks of the valuelessness of written agreements obtained by
+force, thus recognizing the practical employment of writing for
+commercial transactions. Professor Jolly,(A3) it is true, suggests
+that this verse may be a later addition, particularly as it occurs
+_totidem verbis_ in Narada (IV. 55); but the final composition of
+Manu's Sa_m_hita, such as we possess it, can hardly be referred to a
+period when writing was not yet used, at all events for commercial
+purposes. Manu's "Law-book" is older than Ya_gn_avalkya's, in which
+writing has become a familiar subject. Vishnu often agrees literally
+with Ya_gn_avalkya, while Narada, as showing the fullest development
+of the law of debt, is most likely the latest.(A4)
+
+See Brihatsa_m_hita, ed. Kern, pref., p. 43; _Journal of the R. A.
+S._, 1875, p. 106.
+
+A1: "Ueber das Indische Schuldrecht von J. Jolly," p. 291.
+
+A2: Jolly, l. c., p. 322.
+
+A3: L. c., p. 290.
+
+A4: Jolly, l. c., p. 322. He places Katyayana and B_ri_haspati after
+Narada, possibly Vyasa and Harita also. See also Stenzler, Z. d D. M.
+G. ix. 664.]
+
+[Footnote 108: Professor Mueller rejects the theory of the Samvat era
+and the Renaissance of Sanskrit literature in the first century.
+Instead, he acknowledges the existence of a _S_aka era, bearing date
+with the coronation of Kanishka, 78 A.D. Although this monarch was a
+patron of the Buddhists, and the third collection of their sacred
+books was made under his auspices, our author considers the period of
+_S_aka or Yuen-chi domination from 24 B.C. till 178 A.D. as a literary
+interregnum. He is not willing to suggest any date for the Mahabharata
+or Ramaya_n_a, which appear to have been then extant. He exonerates
+Indian epic poetry, however, from any imputation of Greek influence.
+Not so with astronomy. Aryabha_t_a, the elder, who described the
+motion of the earth very accurately, he considers to have had no
+predecessors; and also cites other Indian authors who described the
+twelve signs of the zodiac with Greek names or their equivalents, and
+assigned each to a region in the body of the Creator, as we now see it
+marked out in our almanacs. In this matter he is certainly plausible.
+
+The period of the Renaissance and the reign and proper era of
+Vikramaditya are set down at about 550 A.D. He follows Dr. Bhao Daji,
+and is sustained by Mr. Fergusson, author of "Tree and Serpent
+Worship," and other works on religious architecture. It was the period
+of learned and literary men, as well as of active religious
+controversy. "Believers in Buddha and believers in the Veda lived
+together at this time," he remarks, "very much as Protestants and
+Roman Catholics do at the present day--fighting when there is an
+opportunity or necessity for it, but otherwise sharing the same air as
+fellow-creatures." Among a crowd of others we may instance Dignaga, a
+Buddhist, Kalidasa, a Siva worshipper, and Manatunga, a _G_aina, as
+frequenting the royal court. Vasubandhu, to whom the revival of
+Buddhist literature was largely due, was the son of a Brahman and a
+student of the Nyaya philosophy; as, indeed, Hiouen-thsang, the
+Chinese traveller, also studied logic under a Brahma_n_a teacher.
+
+Vikramaditya oscillated between all parties. Having quarrelled with
+the King of Ka_s_mira and Manorhita, the great Buddhist teacher at the
+convent near Peshawer, he called an assembly of Sastrikas and
+_S_ramanas, at which the latter were denounced. He also placed
+Matrigupta (Kalidasa?) over that country. At his death, however, the
+regal authority was surrendered to the legitimate king, who in his
+turn reinstated _S_iladitya, the successor of Vikrama, on the throne.
+This king also called an assembly of divines, and the Buddhists were
+restored to their former position. As they seem to have constituted
+the principal men of learning, I am disposed to believe that they were
+the actual restorers of the golden period to India. The "Nine Gems,"
+Professor Mueller is very confident, belong to this period. He declares
+that the philosophical Sutras have no ascertained date prior to 300
+A.D.
+
+According to him, we need not refer many famous authors to a period
+anterior to the fifth century. Kalidasa, from being the contemporary
+of Augustus, becomes the contemporary of Justinian, and the very books
+which were most admired by Sanskrit students as specimens of ancient
+Indian poetry and wisdom find their rightful place in the period of
+literary renaissance, coinciding with an age of renewed literary
+activity in Persia, soon to be followed there, as later in India, by
+the great Mohammedan conquests. It appears to me that he is altogether
+too iconoclastic. It is more than probable that the apparent lateness
+of date is due to the destruction of books when the Buddhists were
+driven out of India. It would be as logical, it seems to me, to assign
+a post-Christian date to the _Vendidad_ and _Yasna_ because they had
+been lost and were collected anew under the auspices of a Sassanid
+king. We are told in the second book of the Maccabees that Antiochus
+Epiphanes burned the Hebrew Scriptures, and that Judas Makkabaeus made
+a new collection; yet nobody pretends that they ought to be assigned
+to the second century B.C. In fact, we must in due sincerity give some
+room to faith.
+
+Astronomy was also studied. Aryabhatta the elder had described the
+earth as making a revolution which produced the daily rising and
+setting of the sun. Professor Mueller thinks he had no predecessors.
+Varahamihira wrote during the reign of Vikramaditya, and employs the
+Yuga in opposition to the Saka era. It is apparent, however, that the
+Greek zodiac was employed. Badaraya_n_a describes the pictorial
+representations of the Twelve Signs and their relation to the body of
+Brahman or the Creator:
+
+"The Ram is the head; the face of the Creator is the Bull; the breast
+would be the Man-pair; the heart, the Crab; the Lion, the stomach; the
+Maid, the hip; the Balance-bearer, the belly; the eighth (Scorpion),
+the membrum; the Archer, his pair of thighs; the Makara, his pair of
+knees; the Pot, his pair of legs; the Fish-pair, his two feet."
+Another writer gives them in like series as the members of Kala or
+Time. Other evidence seems even more conclusive; Varahamihira giving
+the actual Greek names in a Sanskrit dress.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 109: Kern, Preface to "B_ri_hatsa_m_ahita," p. 20.]
+
+[Footnote 110: During times of conquest and migration, such as are
+represented to us in the hymns of the Rig-Veda, the system of castes,
+as it is described, for instance, in the Laws of Manu, would have been
+a simple impossibility. It is doubtful whether such a system was ever
+more than a social ideal, but even for such an ideal the materials
+would have been wanting during the period when the Aryas were first
+taking possession of the land of the Seven Rivers. On the other hand,
+even during that early period, there must have been a division of
+labor, and hence we expect to find and do find in the gramas of the
+Five Nations, _warriors_, sometimes called nobles, leaders, kings;
+_counsellors_, sometimes called priests, prophets, judges; and
+_working men_, whether ploughers, or builders, or road-makers. These
+three divisions we can clearly perceive even in the early hymns of the
+Rig-Veda.]
+
+[Footnote 111: Boehtlingk, Sprueche, 5101.]
+
+[Footnote 112: Mahabh. XI. 121.]
+
+[Footnote 113: Pa_nk_at. II. 127 (117).]
+
+[Footnote 114: Mahabh. V. 1144.]
+
+[Footnote 115: L. c. XII. 12050.]
+
+[Footnote 116: L. c. XII. 869.]
+
+[Footnote 117: L. c. XII. 872.]
+
+[Footnote 118: L. c. XII. 12453.]
+
+[Footnote 119: L. c. XII. 12456.]
+
+[Footnote 120: L. c. III. 13846 (239).]
+
+[Footnote 121: L. c. III. 13864.]
+
+[Footnote 122: Kam. Nitis, 1, 23 (Boehtlingk, 918).]
+
+[Footnote 123: _Atman_, see Lecture VII.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 124: Vish_n_u-sutras XX. 50-53.]
+
+[Footnote 125: Apastamba Dharma-sutras I. 8, 22.]
+
+[Footnote 126: Can a state be justly regarded as one of happiness, in
+which the essential being is overlooked and not regarded; whereas that
+subtler essence is the reality which gives life, energy, and purity to
+all our motives? Is to be "of the earth, earthy," a greater felicity
+than to acknowledge that which is from heaven? I trow not.--A. W.]
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE IV.
+
+OBJECTIONS.
+
+
+It may be quite true that controversy often does more harm than good,
+that it encourages the worst of all talents, that of plausibility, not
+to say dishonesty, and generally leaves the world at large worse
+confounded than it was before. It has been said that no clever lawyer
+would shrink from taking a brief to prove that the earth forms the
+centre of the world, and, with all respect for English juries, it is
+not impossible that even in our days he might gain a verdict against
+Galileo. Nor do I deny that there is a power and vitality in truth
+which in the end overcomes and survives all opposition, as shown by
+the very doctrine of Galileo which at present is held by hundreds and
+thousands who would find it extremely difficult to advance one single
+argument in its support. I am ready to admit also that those who have
+done the best work, and have contributed most largely toward the
+advancement of knowledge and the progress of truth, have seldom wasted
+their time in controversy, but have marched on straight, little
+concerned either about applause on the right or abuse on the left. All
+this is true, perfectly true, and yet I feel that I cannot escape from
+devoting the whole of a lecture to the answering of certain objections
+which have been raised against the views which I have put forward with
+regard to the character and the historical importance of Vedic
+literature. We must not forget that the whole subject is new, the
+number of competent judges small, and mistakes not only possible, but
+almost inevitable. Besides, there are mistakes and mistakes, and the
+errors of able men are often instructive, nay one might say sometimes
+almost indispensable for the discovery of truth. There are criticisms
+which may be safely ignored, criticisms for the sake of criticism, if
+not inspired by meaner motives. But there are doubts and difficulties
+which suggest themselves naturally, objections which have a right to
+be heard, and the very removal of which forms the best approach to the
+stronghold of truth. Nowhere has this principle been so fully
+recognized and been acted on as in Indian literature. Whatever subject
+is started, the rule is that the argument should begin with the
+purvapaksha, with all that can be said against a certain opinion.
+Every possible objection is welcome, if only it is not altogether
+frivolous and absurd, and then only follows the uttarapaksha, with all
+that can be said against these objections and in support of the
+original opinion. Only when this process has been fully gone through
+is it allowed to represent an opinion as siddhanta, or established.
+
+Therefore, before opening the pages of the Veda, and giving you a
+description of the poetry, the religion, and philosophy of the ancient
+inhabitants of India, I thought it right and necessary to establish,
+first of all, certain points without which it would be impossible to
+form a right appreciation of the historical value of the Vedic hymns,
+and of their importance even to us who live at so great a distance
+from those early poets.
+
+The _first_ point was purely preliminary, namely that the Hindus in
+ancient, and in modern times also, are a nation deserving of our
+interest and sympathy, worthy also of our confidence, and by no means
+guilty of the charge so recklessly brought against them--the charge
+of an habitual disregard of truth.
+
+_Secondly_, that the ancient literature of India is not to be
+considered simply as a curiosity and to be handed over to the good
+pleasure of Oriental scholars, but that, both by its language, the
+Sanskrit, and by its most ancient literary documents, the Vedas, it
+can teach us lessons which nothing else can teach, as to the origin of
+our own language, the first formation of our own concepts, and the
+true natural germs of all that is comprehended under the name of
+civilization, at least the civilization of the Aryan race, that race
+to which we and all the greatest nations of the world--the Hindus, the
+Persians, the Greeks and Romans, the Slaves, the Celts, and last, not
+least, the Teutons, belong. A man may be a good and useful ploughman
+without being a geologist, without knowing the stratum on which he
+takes his stand, or the strata beneath that give support to the soil
+on which he lives and works, and from which he draws his nourishment.
+And a man may be a good and useful citizen, without being an
+historian, without knowing how the world in which he lives came about,
+and how many phases mankind had to pass through in language, religion,
+and philosophy, before it could supply him with that intellectual soil
+on which he lives and works, and from which he draws his best
+nourishment.
+
+But there must always be an aristocracy of those who know, and who can
+trace back the best which we possess, not merely to a Norman count, or
+a Scandinavian viking, or a Saxon earl, but to far older ancestors and
+benefactors, who thousands of years ago were toiling for us in the
+sweat of their face, and without whom we should never be what we
+are--the ancestors of the whole Aryan race, the first framers of our
+words, the first poets of our thoughts, the first givers of our laws,
+the first prophets of our gods, and of Him who is God above all gods.
+
+That aristocracy of those who know--_di color che sanno_--or try to
+know, is open to all who are willing to enter, to all who have a
+feeling for the past, an interest in the genealogy of our thoughts,
+and a reverence for the ancestry of our intellect, who are in fact
+historians in the true sense of the word, _i.e._ inquirers into that
+which is past, but not lost.
+
+_Thirdly_, having explained to you why the ancient literature of
+India, the really ancient literature of that country, I mean that of
+the Vedic period, deserves the careful attention, not of Oriental
+scholars only, but of every educated man and woman who wishes to know
+how we, even we here in England and in this nineteenth century of
+ours, came to be what we are, I tried to explain to you the
+difference, and the natural and inevitable difference, between the
+development of the human character in such different climates as those
+of India and Europe. And while admitting that the Hindus were
+deficient in many of those manly virtues and practical achievements
+which we value most, I wished to point out that there was another
+sphere of intellectual activity in which the Hindus excelled--the
+meditative and transcendent--and that here we might learn from them
+some lessons of life which we ourselves are but too apt to ignore or
+to despise.
+
+_Fourthly_, fearing that I might have raised too high expectations of
+the ancient wisdom, the religion and philosophy of the Vedic Indians,
+I felt it my duty to state that, though primitive in one sense, we
+must not expect the Vedic religion to be primitive in the
+anthropological sense of the word, as containing the utterances of
+beings who had just broken their shells, and were wonderingly looking
+out for the first time upon this strange world. The Veda may be called
+primitive, because there is no other literary document more primitive
+than it; but the language, the mythology, the religion and philosophy
+that meet us in the Veda open vistas of the past which no one would
+venture to measure in years. Nay, they contain, by the side of simple,
+natural, childish thoughts, many ideas which to us sound modern, or
+secondary and tertiary, as I called them, but which nevertheless are
+older than any other literary document, and give us trustworthy
+information of a period in the history of human thought of which we
+knew absolutely nothing before the discovery of the Vedas.[127]
+
+But even thus our path is not yet clear. Other objections have been
+raised against the Veda as an historical document. Some of them are
+important; and I have at times shared them myself. Others are at least
+instructive, and will give us an opportunity of testing the foundation
+on which we stand.
+
+The first objection then against our treating the Veda as an
+historical document is that it is not truly national in its character,
+and does not represent the thoughts of the whole of the population of
+India, but only of a small minority, namely of the Brahmans, and not
+even of the whole class of Brahmans, but only of a small minority of
+them, namely of the professional priests.
+
+Objections should not be based on demands which, from the nature of
+the case, are unreasonable. Have those who maintain that the Vedic
+hymns do not represent the whole of India, that is the whole of its
+ancient population, in the same manner as they say that the Bible
+represents the Jews or Homer the Greeks, considered what they are
+asking for? So far from denying that the Vedic hymns represent only a
+small and, it may be, a priestly minority of the ancient population of
+India, the true historian would probably feel inclined to urge the
+same cautions against the Old Testament and the Homeric poems also.
+
+No doubt, after the books which compose the Old Testament had been
+collected as a Sacred Canon, they were known to the majority of the
+Jews. But when we speak of the primitive state of the Jews, of their
+moral, intellectual, and religious status while in Mesopotamia or
+Canaan or Egypt, we should find that the different books of the Old
+Testament teach us as little of the whole Jewish race, with all its
+local characteristics and social distinctions, as the Homeric poems do
+of all the Greek tribes, or the Vedic hymns of all the inhabitants of
+India. Surely, even when we speak of the history of the Greeks or the
+Romans, we know that we shall not find there a complete picture of the
+social, intellectual, and religious life of a whole nation. We know
+very little of the intellectual life of a whole nation, even during
+the Middle Ages, ay, even at the present day. We may know something of
+the generals, of the commanders-in-chief, but of the privates, of the
+millions, we know next to nothing. And what we do know of kings or
+generals or ministers is mostly no more than what was thought of them
+by a few Greek poets or Jewish prophets, men who were one in a million
+among their contemporaries.
+
+But it might be said that though the writers were few, the readers
+were many. Is that so? I believe you would be surprised to hear how
+small the number of readers is even in modern times, while in ancient
+times reading was restricted to the very smallest class of privileged
+persons. There may have been listeners at public and private
+festivals, at sacrifices, and later on in theatres, but readers, in
+our sense of the word, are a very modern invention.
+
+There never has been so much reading, reading spread over so large an
+area, as in our times. But if you asked publishers as to the number of
+copies sold of books which are supposed to have been read by
+everybody, say Macaulay's History of England, the Life of the Prince
+Consort, or Darwin's Origin of Species, you would find that out of a
+population of thirty-two millions not one million has possessed itself
+of a copy of these works. The book which of late has probably had the
+largest sale is the Revised Version of the New Testament; and yet the
+whole number of copies sold among the eighty millions of
+English-speaking people is probably not more than four millions. Of
+ordinary books which are called books of the season, and which are
+supposed to have had a great success, an edition of three or four
+thousand copies is not considered unsatisfactory by publishers or
+authors in England. But if you look to other countries, such, for
+instance, as Russia, it would be very difficult indeed to name books
+that could be considered as representative of the whole nation, or as
+even known by more than a very small minority.
+
+And if we turn our thoughts back to the ancient nations of Greece and
+Italy, or of Persia and Babylonia, what book is there, with the
+exception perhaps of the Homeric poems, of which we could say that it
+had been read or even heard of by more than a few thousand people? We
+think of Greeks and Romans as literary people, and so no doubt they
+were, but in a very different sense from what we mean by this. What we
+call Greeks and Romans are chiefly the citizens of Athens and Rome,
+and here again those who could produce or who could read such works as
+the Dialogues of Plato or the Epistles of Horace constituted a very
+small intellectual aristocracy indeed. What we call history--the
+memory of the past--has always been the work of minorities. Millions
+and millions pass away unheeded, and the few only to whom has been
+given the gift of fusing speech and thought into forms of beauty
+remain as witnesses of the past.
+
+If then we speak of times so distant as those represented by the
+Rig-Veda, and of a country so disintegrated, or rather as yet so
+little integrated as India was three thousand years ago, surely it
+requires but little reflection to know that what we see in the Vedic
+poems are but a few snow-clad peaks, representing to us, from a far
+distance, the whole mountain-range of a nation, completely lost beyond
+the horizon of history. When we speak of the Vedic hymns as
+representing the religion, the thoughts and customs of India three
+thousand years ago, we cannot mean by India more than some unknown
+quantity of which the poets of the Veda are the only spokesmen left.
+When we now speak of India, we think of 250 millions, a sixth part of
+the whole human race, peopling the vast peninsula from the Himalayan
+mountains between the arms of the Indus and the Ganges, down to Cape
+Comorin and Ceylon, an extent of country nearly as large as Europe. In
+the Veda the stage on which the life of the ancient kings and poets is
+acted, is the valley of the Indus and the Punjab, as it is now called,
+the Sapta Sindhasa_h_, the Seven Rivers of the Vedic poets. The land
+watered by the Ganges is hardly known, and the whole of the Dekkan
+seems not yet to have been discovered.
+
+Then again, when these Vedic hymns are called the lucubrations of a
+few priests, not the outpourings of the genius of a whole nation, what
+does that mean? We may no doubt call these ancient Vedic poets
+priests, if we like, and no one would deny that their poetry is
+pervaded not only by religious, mythological, and philosophical, but
+likewise by sacrificial and ceremonial conceits. Still a priest, if we
+trace him back far enough, is only a _presbyteros_ or an elder, and,
+as such, those Vedic poets had a perfect right to speak in the name of
+a whole class, or of the village community to which they belonged.
+Call Vasish_th_a a priest by all means, only do not let us imagine
+that he was therefore very like Cardinal Manning.
+
+After we have made every possible concession to arguments, most of
+which are purely hypothetical, there remains this great fact that
+here, in the Rig-Veda, we have poems, composed in perfect language, in
+elaborate metre, telling us about gods and men, about sacrifices and
+battles, about the varying aspects of nature and the changing
+conditions of society, about duty and pleasure, philosophy and
+morality--articulate voices reaching us from a distance from which we
+never heard before the faintest whisper; and instead of thrilling with
+delight at this almost miraculous discovery, some critics stand aloof
+and can do nothing but find fault, because these songs do not
+represent to us primitive men exactly as they think they ought to have
+been; not like Papuas or Bushmen, with arboraceous habits and
+half-animal clicks, not as worshipping stocks or stones, or believing
+in fetiches, as according to Comte's inner consciousness they ought to
+have done, but rather, I must confess, as beings whom we can
+understand, with whom to a certain extent we can sympathize, and to
+whom, in the historical progress of the human intellect, we may assign
+a place not very far behind the ancient Jews and Greeks.
+
+Once more then, if we mean by primitive, people who inhabited this
+earth as soon as the vanishing of the glacial period made this earth
+inhabitable, the Vedic poets were certainly not primitive. If we mean
+by primitive, people who were without a knowledge of fire, who used
+unpolished flints, and ate raw flesh, the Vedic poets were not
+primitive. If we mean by primitive, people who did not cultivate the
+soil, had no fixed abodes, no kings, no sacrifices, no laws, again, I
+say, the Vedic poets were not primitive. But if we mean by primitive
+the people who have been the first of the Aryan race to leave behind
+literary relics of their existence on earth, then I say the Vedic
+poets are primitive, the Vedic language is primitive, the Vedic
+religion is primitive, and, taken as a whole, more primitive than
+anything else that we are ever likely to recover in the whole history
+of our race.
+
+When all these objections had failed, a last trump was played. The
+ancient Vedic poetry was said to be, if not of foreign origin, at
+least very much infected by foreign, and more particularly by Semitic
+influences. It had always been urged by Sanskrit scholars as one of
+the chief attractions of Vedic literature that it not only allowed us
+an insight into a very early phase of religious thought, but that the
+Vedic religion was the only one the development of which took place
+without any extraneous influences, and could be watched through a
+longer series of centuries than any other religion. Now with regard to
+the first point, we know how perplexing it is in the religion of
+ancient Rome to distinguish between Italian and Greek ingredients, to
+say nothing of Etruscan and Phoenician influences. We know the
+difficulty of finding out in the religion of the Greeks what is purely
+home-grown, and what is taken over from Egypt, Phoenicia, it may be
+from Scythia; or at all events, slightly colored by those foreign rays
+of thought. Even in the religion of the Hebrews, Babylonian,
+Phoenician, and at a later time Persian influences have been
+discovered, and the more we advance toward modern times, the more
+extensive becomes the mixture of thought, and the more difficult the
+task of assigning to each nation the share which it contributed to the
+common intellectual currency of the world. In India alone, and more
+particularly in Vedic India, we see a plant entirely grown on native
+soil, and entirely nurtured by native air. For this reason, because
+the religion of the Veda was so completely guarded from all strange
+infections, it is full of lessons which the student of religion could
+learn nowhere else.
+
+Now what have the critics of the Veda to say against this? They say
+that the Vedic poems show clear traces of _Babylonian_ influences.
+
+I must enter into some details, because, small as they seem, you can
+see that they involve very wide consequences.
+
+There is one verse in the Rig-Veda, VIII. 78, 2,[128] which has been
+translated as follows: "Oh Indra, bring to us a brilliant jewel, a
+cow, a horse, an ornament, together with a golden Mana."[129]
+
+Now what is a golden Mana? The word does not occur again by itself,
+either in the Veda or anywhere else, and it has been identified by
+Vedic scholars with the Latin _mina_, the Greek [Greek: mna], the
+Phoenician _manah_ ([Hebrew: Ma-ne]),[130] the well-known weight
+which we actually possess now among the treasures brought from Babylon
+and Nineveh to the British Museum.[131]
+
+If this were so, it would be irrefragable evidence of at all events a
+commercial intercourse between Babylon and India at a very early time,
+though it would in no way prove a real influence of Semitic on Indian
+thought. But is it so? If we translate sa_k_a mana hira_n_yaya by
+"with a mina of gold," we must take mana hira_n_yaya as instrumental
+cases. But sa_k_a never governs an instrumental case. This translation
+therefore is impossible, and although the passage is difficult,
+because mana does not occur again in the Rig-Veda, I should think we
+might take mana hira_n_yaya for a dual, and translate, "Give us also
+two golden armlets." To suppose that the Vedic poets should have
+borrowed this one word and this one measure from the Babylonians,
+would be against all the rules of historical criticism. The word mana
+never occurs again in the whole of Sanskrit literature, no other
+Babylonian weight occurs again in the whole of Sanskrit literature,
+and it is not likely that a poet who asks for a cow and a horse, would
+ask in the same breath for a foreign weight of gold, that is, for
+about sixty sovereigns.
+
+But this is not the only loan that India has been supposed to have
+negotiated in Babylon. The twenty-seven Nakshatras, or the
+twenty-seven constellations, which were chosen in India as a kind of
+lunar Zodiac, were supposed to have come from Babylon. Now the
+Babylonian Zodiac was solar, and, in spite of repeated researches, no
+trace of a lunar Zodiac has been found, where so many things have been
+found, in the cuneiform inscriptions. But supposing even that a lunar
+Zodiac had been discovered in Babylon, no one acquainted with Vedic
+literature and with the ancient Vedic ceremonial would easily allow
+himself to be persuaded that the Hindus had borrowed that simple
+division of the sky from the Babylonians. It is well known that most
+of the Vedic sacrifices depend on the moon, far more than on the
+sun.[132] As the Psalmist says, "He appointed the moon for seasons;
+the sun knoweth his going down," we read in the Rig-Veda X. 85, 18, in
+a verse addressed to sun and moon, "They walk by their own power, one
+after the other (or from east to west), as playing children they go
+round the sacrifice. The one looks upon all the worlds, the other is
+born again and again, determining the seasons."
+
+    "He becomes new and new, when he is born; as the herald of
+    the days, he goes before the dawns. By his approach he
+    determines their share for the gods, the moon increases a
+    long life."
+
+The moon, then, determines the seasons, the _ri_tus, the moon fixes
+the share, that is, the sacrificial oblation for all the gods. The
+seasons and the sacrifices were in fact so intimately connected
+together in the thoughts of the ancient Hindus, that one of the
+commonest names for priest was _ri_tv-i_g_, literally, the
+season-sacrificer.
+
+Besides the rites which have to be performed every day, such as the
+five Mahaya_gn_as, and the Agnihotra in the morning and the evening,
+the important sacrifices in Vedic times were the Full and New-moon
+sacrifices (darsapur_n_amasa); the Season-sacrifices (_k_aturmasya),
+each season consisting of four months;[133] and the Half-yearly
+sacrifices, at the two solstices. There are other sacrifices
+(agraya_n_a, etc.) to be performed in autumn and summer, others in
+winter and spring, whenever rice and barley are ripening.[134]
+
+The regulation of the seasons, as one of the fundamental conditions of
+an incipient society, seems in fact to have been so intimately
+connected with the worship of the gods, as the guardians of the
+seasons and the protectors of law and order, that it is sometimes
+difficult to say whether in their stated sacrifices the maintenance of
+the calendar or the maintenance of the worship of the gods was more
+prominent in the minds of the old Vedic priests.
+
+The twenty-seven Nakshatras then were clearly suggested by the moon's
+passage.[135] Nothing was more natural for the sake of counting days,
+months, or seasons than to observe the twenty-seven places which the
+moon occupied in her passage from any point of the sky back to the
+same point. It was far easier than to determine the sun's position
+either from day to day, or from month to month; for the stars, being
+hardly visible at the actual rising and setting of the sun, the idea
+of the sun's conjunction with certain stars could not suggest itself
+to a listless observer. The moon, on the contrary, progressing from
+night to night, and coming successively in contact with certain stars,
+was like the finger of a clock, moving round a circle, and coming in
+contact with one figure after another on the dial-plate of the sky.
+Nor would the portion of about one third of a lunation in addition to
+the twenty-seven stars from new moon to new moon, create much
+confusion in the minds of the rough-and-ready reckoners of those early
+times. All they were concerned with were the twenty-seven celestial
+stations which, after being once traced out by the moon, were fixed,
+like so many mile-stones, for determining the course of all the
+celestial travellers that could be of any interest for signs and for
+seasons, and for days and for years. A circle divided into
+twenty-seven sections, or any twenty-seven poles planted in a circle
+at equal distances round a house, would answer the purpose of a
+primitive Vedic observatory. All that was wanted to be known was
+between which pair of poles the moon, or afterward the sun also, was
+visible at their rising or setting, the observer occupying the same
+central position on every day.
+
+Our notions of astronomy cannot in fact be too crude and too imperfect
+if we wish to understand the first beginnings in the reckoning of days
+and seasons and years. We cannot expect in those days more than what
+any shepherd would know at present of the sun and moon, the stars and
+seasons. Nor can we expect any observations of heavenly phenomena
+unless they had some bearing on the practical wants of primitive
+society.
+
+If then we can watch in India the natural, nay inevitable, growth of
+the division of the heaven into twenty-seven equal divisions, each
+division marked by stars, which may have been observed and named long
+before they were used for this new purpose--if, on the other hand, we
+could hardly understand the growth and development of the Indian
+ceremonial except as determined by a knowledge of the lunar asterisms,
+the lunar months, and the lunar seasons, surely it would be a
+senseless hypothesis to imagine that the Vedic shepherds or priests
+went to Babylonia in search of a knowledge which every shepherd might
+have acquired on the banks of the Indus, and that, after their return
+from that country only, where a language was spoken which no Hindu
+could understand, they set to work to compose their sacred hymns and
+arrange their simple ceremonial. We must never forget that what is
+natural in one place is natural in other places also, and we may sum
+up without fear of serious contradiction, that no case has been made
+out in favor of a foreign origin of the elementary astronomical
+notions of the Hindus as found or presupposed in the Vedic hymns.[136]
+
+The Arabs, as is well known, have twenty-eight lunar stations, the
+_Manzil_, and I can see no reason why Mohammed and his Bedouins in the
+desert should not have made the same observation as the Vedic poets in
+India, though I must admit at the same time that Colebrooke has
+brought forward very cogent arguments to prove that, in their
+scientific employment at least, the Arabic Manzil were really borrowed
+from an Indian source.[137]
+
+The Chinese, too, have their famous lunar stations, _the Sieu_,
+originally twenty-four in number, and afterward raised to
+twenty-eight.[138] But here again there is no necessity whatever for
+admitting, with Biot, Lassen, and others, that the Hindus went to
+China to gain their simplest elementary notions of lunar chrononomy.
+First of all, the Chinese began with twenty-four, and raised them to
+twenty-eight; the Hindus began with twenty-seven, and raised them to
+twenty-eight. Secondly, out of these twenty-eight asterisms, there are
+seventeen only which can really be identified with the Hindu stars
+(taras). Now if a scientific system is borrowed, it is borrowed
+complete. But, in our case, I see really no possible channel through
+which Chinese astronomical knowledge could have been conducted to
+India so early as 1000 before our era. In Chinese literature India is
+never mentioned before the middle of the second century before Christ;
+and if the _K_inas in the later Sanskrit literature are meant for
+Chinese, which is doubtful, it is important to observe that that name
+never occurs in Vedic literature.[139]
+
+When therefore the impossibility of so early a communication between
+China and India had at last been recognized, a new theory was formed,
+namely, "that the knowledge of Chinese astronomy was not imported
+straight from China to India, but was carried, together with the
+Chinese system of division of the heavens into twenty-eight mansions,
+into Western Asia, at a period not much later than 1100 B.C., and was
+then adopted by some Western people, either Semitic or Iranian. In
+their hands it was supposed to have received a new form, such as
+adapted it to a ruder and less scientific method of observation, the
+limiting stars of the mansions being converted into zodiacal groups or
+constellations, and in some instances altered in position, so as to be
+brought nearer to the general planetary path of the ecliptic. In this
+changed form, having become a means of roughly determining and
+describing the places and movements of the planets, it was believed to
+have passed into the keeping of the Hindus, very probably along with
+the first knowledge of the planets themselves, and entered upon an
+independent career of history in India. It still maintained itself in
+its old seat, leaving its traces later in the Bundahash; and made its
+way so far westward as finally to become known and adopted by the
+Arabs." With due respect for the astronomical knowledge of those who
+hold this view, all I can say is that this is a novel, and nothing
+but a novel, without any facts to support it, and that the few facts
+which are known to us do not enable a careful reasoner to go beyond
+the conclusions stated many years ago by Colebrooke, that the "Hindus
+had undoubtedly made some progress at an early period in the astronomy
+cultivated by them for the regulation of time. Their calendar, both
+civil and religious, was governed chiefly, not exclusively, by the
+moon and the sun; and the motions of these luminaries were carefully
+observed by them, and with such success that their determination of
+the moon's synodical revolution, which was what they were principally
+concerned with, is a much more correct one than the Greeks ever
+achieved. They had a division of the ecliptic into twenty-seven and
+twenty-eight parts, suggested evidently by the moon's period in days,
+and seemingly their own; it was certainly borrowed by the Arabians."
+
+There is one more argument which has been adduced in support of a
+Babylonian, or, at all events, a Semitic influence to be discovered in
+Vedic literature which we must shortly examine. It refers to the story
+of the _Deluge_.
+
+That story, as you know, has been traced in the traditions of many
+races, which could not well have borrowed it from one another; and it
+was rather a surprise that no allusion even to a local deluge should
+occur in any of the Vedic hymns, particularly as very elaborate
+accounts of different kinds of deluges are found in the later Epic
+poems, and in the still later Pura_n_as, and form in fact a very
+familiar subject in the religious traditions of the people of India.
+
+Three of the _Avataras_ or incarnations of Vish_n_u are connected with
+a deluge, that of the _Fish_, that of the _Tortoise_, and that of the
+_Boar_, Vish_n_u in each case rescuing mankind from destruction by
+water, by assuming the form of a fish, or a tortoise, or a boar.
+
+This being so, it seemed a very natural conclusion to make that, as
+there was no mention of a deluge in the most ancient literature of
+India, that legend had penetrated into India from without at a later
+time.
+
+When, however, the Vedic literature became more generally known,
+stories of a deluge were discovered, if not in the hymns, at least in
+the prose writings, belonging to the second period, commonly called
+the Brahma_n_a period. Not only the story of Manu and the _Fish_, but
+the stories of the _Tortoise_ and of the _Boar_ also, were met with
+there in a more or less complete form, and with this discovery the
+idea of a foreign importation lost much of its plausibility. I shall
+read you at least one of these accounts of a Deluge which is found in
+the _S_atapatha Brahma_n_a, and you can then judge for yourselves
+whether the similarities between it and the account in Genesis are
+really such as to require, nay as to admit, the hypothesis that the
+Hindus borrowed their account of the Deluge from their nearest Semitic
+neighbors.
+
+We read in the _S_atapatha Brahma_n_a I. 8, 1:
+
+    "In the morning they brought water to Manu for washing, as
+    they bring it even now for washing our hands.
+
+    "While he was thus washing, a fish came into his hands.
+
+    "2. The fish spoke this word to Manu: 'Keep me, and I shall
+    save thee.'
+
+    "Manu said: 'From what wilt thou save me?'
+
+    "The fish said: 'A flood will carry away all these creatures,
+    and I shall save thee from it.'
+
+    "Manu said: 'How canst thou be kept?'
+
+    "3. The fish said: 'So long as we are small, there is much
+    destruction for us, for fish swallows fish. Keep me therefore
+    first in a jar. When I outgrow that, dig a hole and keep me
+    in it. When I outgrow that, take me to the sea, and I shall
+    then be beyond the reach of destruction.'
+
+    "4. He became soon a large fish (_gh_asha), for such a fish
+    grows largest. The fish said: 'In such and such a year the
+    flood will come. Therefore when thou hast built a ship, thou
+    shalt meditate on me. And when the flood has risen, thou
+    shalt enter into the ship, and I will save thee from the
+    flood.'
+
+    "5. Having thus kept the fish, Manu took him to the sea. Then
+    in the same year which the fish had pointed out, Manu, having
+    built the ship, meditated on the fish. And when the flood had
+    risen, Manu entered into the ship. Then the fish swam toward
+    him, and Manu fastened the rope of the ship to the fish's
+    horn, and he thus hastened toward[140] the Northern Mountain.
+
+    "6. The fish said: 'I have saved thee; bind the ship to a
+    tree. May the water not cut thee off, while thou art on the
+    mountain. As the water subsides, do thou gradually slide down
+    with it.' Manu then slid down gradually with the water, and
+    therefore this is called 'the Slope of Manu' on the Northern
+    Mountain. Now the flood had carried away all these creatures,
+    and thus Manu was left there alone.
+
+    "7. Then Manu went about singing praises and toiling, wishing
+    for offspring. And he sacrificed there also with a
+    Paka-sacrifice. He poured clarified butter, thickened milk,
+    whey, and curds in the water as a libation. In one year a
+    woman arose from it. She came forth as if dripping, and
+    clarified butter gathered on her step. Mitra and Varu_n_a
+    came to meet her.
+
+    "8. They said to her: 'Who art thou?' She said: 'The daughter
+    of Manu.' They rejoined: 'Say that thou art ours.' 'No,' she
+    said, 'he who has begotten me, his I am.'
+
+    "Then they wished her to be their sister, and she half agreed
+    and half did not agree, but went away, and came to Manu.
+
+    "9. Manu said to her: 'Who art thou?' She said: 'I am thy
+    daughter.' 'How, lady, art thou my daughter?' he asked.
+
+    "She replied: 'The libations which thou hast poured into the
+    water, clarified butter, thickened milk, whey and curds, by
+    them thou hast begotten me. I am a benediction--perform (me)
+    this benediction at the sacrifices. If thou perform (me) it
+    at the sacrifice, thou wilt be rich in offspring and cattle.
+    And whatever blessing thou wilt ask by me, will always accrue
+    to thee.' He therefore performed that benediction in the
+    middle of the sacrifice, for the middle of the sacrifice is
+    that which comes between the introductory and the final
+    offerings.
+
+    "10. Then Manu went about with her, singing praises and
+    toiling, wishing for offspring. And with her he begat that
+    offspring which is called the offspring of Manu; and whatever
+    blessing he asked with her, always accrued to him. She is
+    indeed I_d_a, and whosoever, knowing this, goes about
+    (sacrifices) with I_d_a, begets the same offspring which Manu
+    begat, and whatever blessing he asks with her, always accrues
+    to him."
+
+This, no doubt, is the account of a deluge, and Manu acts in some
+respects the same part which is assigned to Noah in the Old Testament.
+But if there are similarities, think of the dissimilarities, and how
+they are to be explained. It is quite clear that, if this story was
+borrowed from a Semitic source, it was not borrowed from the Old
+Testament, for in that case it would really seem impossible to account
+for the differences between the two stories. That it may have been
+borrowed[141] from some unknown Semitic source cannot, of course, be
+disproved, because no tangible proof has ever been produced that would
+admit of being disproved. But if it were, it would be the only Semitic
+loan in ancient Sanskrit literature--and that alone ought to make us
+pause!
+
+The story of the boar and the tortoise too, can be traced back to the
+Vedic literature. For we read in the Taittiriya Sa_m_hita:[142]
+
+    "At first this was water, fluid. Pra_g_apati, the lord of
+    creatures, having become wind, moved on it. He saw this
+    earth, and becoming a boar, he took it up. Becoming
+    Vi_s_vakarman, the maker of all things, he cleaned it. It
+    spread and became the widespread Earth, and this is why the
+    Earth is called P_ri_thivi, the widespread."
+
+And we find in the _S_atapatha Brahma_n_a[143] the following slight
+allusion at least to the tortoise myth:
+
+    "Pra_g_apati, assuming the form of a tortoise (Kurma),
+    brought forth all creatures. In so far as he brought them
+    forth, he made them (akarot), and because he made them he was
+    (called) tortoise (Kurma). A tortoise is (called) Ka_s_yapa,
+    and therefore all creatures are called Ka_s_yapa,
+    tortoise-like. He who was this tortoise (Kurma) was really
+    Aditya (the sun)."
+
+One other allusion to something like a deluge,[144] important chiefly
+on account of the name of Manu occurring in it, has been pointed out
+in the Ka_th_aka (XI. 2), where this short sentence occurs: "The
+waters cleaned this, Manu alone remained."
+
+All this shows that ideas of a deluge, that is, of a submersion of the
+earth by water and of its rescue through divine aid, were not
+altogether unknown in the early traditions of India, while in later
+times they were embodied in several of the Avataras of Vish_n_u.
+
+When we examine the numerous accounts of a deluge among different
+nations in almost every part of the world, we can easily perceive that
+they do not refer to one single historical event, but to a natural
+phenomenon repeated every year, namely, the deluge or flood of the
+rainy season or the winter.[145]
+
+This is nowhere clearer than in Babylon. Sir Henry Rawlinson was the
+first to point out that the twelve cantos of the poem of Izdubar or
+Nimrod refer to the twelve months of the year and the twelve
+representative signs of the Zodiac. Dr. Haupt afterward pointed out
+that Eabani, the wise bull-man in the second canto, corresponds to the
+second month, Ijjar, April-May, represented in the Zodiac by the bull;
+that the union between Eabani and Nimrod in the third canto
+corresponds to the third month, Sivan, May-June, represented in the
+Zodiac by the twins; that the sickness of Nimrod in the seventh canto
+corresponds to the seventh month, Tishri, September-October, when the
+sun begins to wane; and that the flood in the eleventh canto
+corresponds to the eleventh month, Shaba_t_u, dedicated to the
+storm-god Rimmon,[146] represented in the Zodiac by the waterman.[147]
+
+If that is so, we have surely a right to claim the same natural origin
+for the story of the Deluge in India which we are bound to admit in
+other countries. And even if it could be proved that in the form in
+which these legends have reached us in India they show traces of
+foreign influences,[148] the fact would still remain that such
+influences have been perceived in comparatively modern treatises only,
+and not in the ancient hymns of the Rig-Veda.
+
+Other conjectures have been made with even less foundation than that
+which would place the ancient poets of India under the influence of
+Babylon. China has been appealed to, nay even Persia, Parthia, and
+Bactria, countries beyond the reach of India at that early time of
+which we are here speaking, and probably not even then consolidated
+into independent nations or kingdoms. I only wonder that traces of the
+lost Jewish tribes have not been discovered in the Vedas, considering
+that Afghanistan has so often been pointed out as one of their
+favorite retreats.
+
+After having thus carefully examined all the traces of supposed
+foreign influences that have been brought forward by various scholars,
+I think I may say that there really is no trace whatever of any
+foreign influence in the language, the religion, or the ceremonial of
+the ancient Vedic literature of India. As it stands before us now, so
+it has grown up, protected by the mountain ramparts in the north, the
+Indus and the Desert in the west, the Indus or what was called the sea
+in the south, and the Ganges in the east. It presents us with a
+home-grown poetry and a home-grown religion; and history has preserved
+to us at least this one relic, in order to teach us what the human
+mind can achieve if left to itself, surrounded by a scenery and by
+conditions of life that might have made man's life on earth a
+paradise, if man did not possess the strange art of turning even a
+paradise into a place of misery.[149]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 127: If we applied the name of literature to the cylinders
+of Babylon and the papyri of Egypt, we should have to admit that some
+of these documents are more ancient than any date we dare as yet
+assign to the hymns collected in the ten books of the Rig-Veda.]
+
+[Footnote 128: A na_h_ bhara vya_ng_anam gam a_s_vam abhya_ng_anam
+Sa_k_a mana hira_n_yaya.]
+
+[Footnote 129: Grassman translates, "Zugleich mit goldenem Geraeth;"
+Ludwig, "Zusammt mit goldenem Zierrath;" Zimmer, "Und eine Mana gold."
+The Petersburg Dictionary explains mana by "ein bestimmtes Geraeth oder
+Gewicht" (Gold).]
+
+[Footnote 130: According to Dr. Haupt, Die Sumerisch-akkadische
+Sprache, p. 272, mana is an Akkadian word.]
+
+[Footnote 131: According to the weights of the lions and ducks
+preserved in the British Museum, an Assyrian mina was = 7747 grains.
+The same difference is still preserved to the present day, as the
+_man_ of Shiraz and Bagdad is just double that of Tabraz and Bushir,
+the average of the former being 14.0 and that of the latter only
+6.985. See Cunningham, "Journal of the Asiatic Society," Calcutta,
+1881, p. 163.]
+
+[Footnote 132: Preface to the fourth volume of my edition of the
+Rig-Veda, p. li.]
+
+[Footnote 133: Vai_s_vadevam on the full-moon of Phalguna,
+Varu_n_apraghasa_h_ on the full-moon of Asha_dh_a, Sakamedha_h_ on the
+full-moon of K_ri_ttika, see Boehtlingk, Dictionary, s. v.]
+
+[Footnote 134: See Vish_n_u-sm_ri_ti, ed. Jolly LIX. 4; Aryabha_t_a,
+Introduction.]
+
+[Footnote 135: See Preface to vol. iv. of Rig-Veda, p. li. (1862).]
+
+[Footnote 136: See Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, pp. 352-357.]
+
+[Footnote 137: L. c. p. lxx.]
+
+[Footnote 138: See Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. xlvii.]
+
+[Footnote 139: In the Mahabharata and elsewhere the _K_inas are
+mentioned among the Dasyus or non-Aryan races in the north and in the
+east of India. King Bhagadatta is said to have had an army of _K_inas
+and Kiratas,(B1) and the Pa_nd_avas are said to reach the town of the
+King of the Kulindas, after having passed through the countries of
+_K_inas, Tukharas, and Daradas. All this is as vague as ethnological
+indications generally are in the late epic poetry of India. The only
+possibly real element is that Kirata and _K_ina soldiers are called
+ka_nk_ana, gold or yellow colored,(B2) and compared to a forest of
+Kar_n_ikaras, which were trees with yellow flowers.(B3) In Mahabh. VI.
+9, v. 373, vol. ii., p. 344, the _K_inas occur in company with
+Kambo_g_as and Yavanas, which again conveys nothing definite.
+
+B1: Lassen, i. p. 1029; Mahabh. III. 117, v. 12,350; vol. i. p. 619.
+
+B2: Mahabh. V. 18, v. 584; vol. ii. p. 106.
+
+B3: See Va_k_aspatya s. v.; Ka_sk_it Kar_n_ikaragaura_h_.
+
+Chinese scholars tell us that the name of China is of modern origin,
+and only dates from the Thsin dynasty or from the famous Emperor Shi
+hoang-ti, 247 B.C. But the name itself, though in a more restricted
+sense, occurs in earlier documents, and may, as Lassen thinks,(B4)
+have become known to the Western neighbors of China. It is certainly
+strange that the _Sinim_ too, mentioned in Isaiah xlix. 12, have been
+taken by the old commentators for people of China, visiting Babylon as
+merchants and travellers.
+
+B4: Lassen, vol. i. p. 1029, n. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 140: I prefer now the reading of the Ka_n_va-_s_akha,
+abhidudrava, instead of atidudrava or adhidudrava of the other MSS.
+See Weber, Ind. Streifen, i. p. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 141: It is not necessary to establish literary borrowing;
+for on the theory of Bible inspiration and trustworthiness we must
+assume that the Aryans as well as the Semites were saved in the ark.
+The story of _a_ flood supports the story of _the_ flood to a certain
+extent.--AM. PUBS.]
+
+[Footnote 142: VII. 1, 5, 1 seq.; Muir, i. p. 52; Colebrooke, Essays,
+i. 75.]
+
+[Footnote 143: VII. 5, 1, 5; Muir, "Original Sanskrit Texts," i. p.
+54.]
+
+[Footnote 144: Weber, "Indische Streifen," i. p. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 145: See Lecture V. p. 172.]
+
+[Footnote 146: More accurately Ramanu, the Vul or storm-god of George
+Smith; and the god of the Mind and higher intellect at Babylon. His
+arcane name is said to have been Yav, [Hebrew: YHWH] or [Greek:
+Iao].--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 147: See Haupt, "Der Keilinschriftliche Sintfluthbericht,
+1881," p. 10.]
+
+[Footnote 148: See M. M., "Genesis and Avesta" (German translation),
+i. p. 148.]
+
+[Footnote 149: No one is more competent than the learned author to
+give a verdict on all the evidence which has been gathered; but we are
+only at the beginning of research into the intercourse of mankind in
+remote times, and much that was once thought home-grown has already
+been traced to distant points. It is in the general line of progress
+in research that more evidence may be expected to connect Vedic
+thought with other cultures.--AM. PUBS.]
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE V.
+
+THE LESSONS OF THE VEDA.
+
+
+Although there is hardly any department of learning which has not
+received new light and new life from the ancient literature of India,
+yet nowhere is the light that comes to us from India so important, so
+novel, and so rich as in the study of religion and mythology. It is to
+this subject therefore that I mean to devote the remaining lectures of
+this course. I do so, partly because I feel myself most at home in
+that ancient world of Vedic literature in which the germs of Aryan
+religion have to be studied, partly because I believe that for a
+proper understanding of the deepest convictions, or, if you like, the
+strongest prejudices of the modern Hindus, nothing is so useful as a
+knowledge of the Veda. It is perfectly true that nothing would give a
+falser impression of the actual Brahmanical religion than the ancient
+Vedic literature, supposing we were to imagine that three thousand
+years could have passed over India without producing any change. Such
+a mistake would be nearly as absurd as to deny any difference between
+the Vedic Sanskrit and the spoken Bengali. But no one will gain a
+scholarlike knowledge or a true insight into the secret springs of
+Bengali who is ignorant of the grammar of Sanskrit; and no one will
+ever understand the present religious, philosophical, legal, and
+social opinions of the Hindus who is unable to trace them back to
+their true sources in the Veda.
+
+I still remember how, many years ago, when I began to publish for the
+first time the text and the commentary of the Rig-Veda, it was argued
+by a certain, perhaps not quite disinterested party, that the Veda was
+perfectly useless; that no man in India, however learned, could read
+it, and that it was of no use either for missionaries or for any one
+else who wished to study and to influence the native mind. It was said
+that we ought to study the later Sanskrit, the Laws of Manu, the epic
+poems, and, more particularly, the Pura_n_as. The Veda might do very
+well for German students, but not for Englishmen.
+
+There was no excuse for such ignorant assertions even thirty years
+ago, for in these very books, in the Laws of Manu, in the Mahabharata,
+and in the Pura_n_as, the Veda is everywhere proclaimed as the highest
+authority in all matters of religion.[150] "A Brahman," says Manu,
+"unlearned in holy writ, is extinguished in an instant like dry grass
+on fire." "A twice-born man (that is, a Brahma_n_a, a Kshatriya, and a
+Vai_s_ya) not having studied the Veda, soon falls, even when living,
+to the condition of a _S_udra, and his descendants after him."
+
+How far this license of ignorant assertion may be carried is shown by
+the same authorities who denied the importance of the Veda for a
+historical study of Indian thought, boldly charging those wily
+priests, the Brahmans, with having withheld their sacred literature
+from any but their own caste. Now, so far from withholding it, the
+Brahmans have always been striving, and often striving in vain, to
+make the study of their sacred literature obligatory on all castes
+except the _S_udras, and the passages just quoted from Manu show what
+penalties were threatened if children of the second and third castes,
+the Kshatriyas and Vai_s_yas, were not instructed in the sacred
+literature of the Brahmans.
+
+At present the Brahmans themselves have spoken, and the reception they
+have accorded to my edition of the Rig-Veda[151] and its native
+commentary, the zeal with which they have themselves taken up the
+study of Vedic literature, and the earnestness with which different
+sects are still discussing the proper use that should be made of their
+ancient religious writings, show abundantly that a Sanskrit scholar
+ignorant of, or, I should rather say, determined to ignore the Veda,
+would be not much better than a Hebrew scholar ignorant of the Old
+Testament.
+
+I shall now proceed to give you some characteristic specimens of the
+religion and poetry of the Rig-Veda. They can only be few, and as
+there is nothing like system or unity of plan in that collection of
+1017 hymns, which we call the Sa_m_hita of the Rig-Veda, I cannot
+promise that they will give you a complete panoramic view of that
+intellectual world in which our Vedic ancestors passed their life on
+earth.
+
+I could not even answer the question, if you were to ask it whether
+the religion of the Veda was _polytheistic_ or _monotheistic_.
+Monotheistic, in the usual sense of that word, it is decidedly not,
+though there are hymns that assert the unity of the Divine as
+fearlessly as any passage of the Old Testament, or the New Testament,
+or the Koran. Thus one poet says (Rig-Veda I. 164, 46): "That which is
+_one_, sages name it in various ways--they call it Agni, Yama,
+Matari_s_van."
+
+Another poet says: "The wise poets represent by their words Him who is
+one with beautiful wings, in many ways."[152]
+
+And again we hear of a being called Hira_n_yagarbha, the golden germ
+(whatever the original of that name may have been), of whom the poet
+says:[153] "In the beginning there arose Hira_n_yagarbha; he was the one
+born lord of all this. He established the earth and this sky. Who is the
+god to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?" That Hira_n_yagarbha, the poet
+says, "is alone God above all gods" (ya_h_ deveshu adhi deva_h_ eka_h_
+asit)--an assertion of the unity of the Divine which could hardly be
+exceeded in strength by any passage from the Old Testament.
+
+But by the side of such passages, which are few in number, there are
+thousands in which ever so many divine beings are praised and prayed
+to. Even their number is sometimes given as "thrice eleven"[154] or
+thirty-three, and one poet assigns eleven gods to the sky, eleven to
+the earth, and eleven to the waters,[155] the waters here intended
+being those of the atmosphere and the clouds. These thirty-three gods
+have even wives apportioned to them,[156] though few of these only
+have as yet attained to the honor of a name.[157]
+
+These thirty-three gods, however, by no means include all the Vedic
+gods, for such important deities as Agni, the fire, Soma, the rain,
+the Maruts or Storm-gods, the A_s_vins, the gods of Morning and
+Evening, the Waters, the Dawn, the Sun are mentioned separately; and
+there are not wanting passages in which the poet is carried away into
+exaggerations, till he proclaims the number of his gods to be, not
+only thirty-three, but three thousand three hundred and
+thirty-nine.[158]
+
+If therefore there must be a name for the religion of the Rig-Veda,
+polytheism would seem at first sight the most appropriate. Polytheism,
+however, has assumed with us a meaning which renders it totally
+inapplicable to the Vedic religion.
+
+Our ideas of polytheism being chiefly derived from Greece and Rome, we
+understand by it a certain more or less organized system of gods,
+different in power and rank, and all subordinate to a supreme God, a
+Zeus or Jupiter. The Vedic polytheism differs from the Greek and Roman
+polytheism, and, I may add, likewise from the polytheism of the
+Ural-Altaic, the Polynesian, the American, and most of the African
+races, in the same manner as a confederacy of village communities
+differs from a monarchy. There are traces of an earlier stage of
+village-community life to be discovered in the later republican and
+monarchical constitutions, and in the same manner nothing can be
+clearer, particularly in Greece, than that the monarchy of Zeus was
+preceded by what may be called the septarchy of several of the great
+gods of Greece. The same remark applies to the mythology of the
+Teutonic nations also.[159] In the Veda, however, the gods worshipped
+as supreme by each sept stand still side by side. No one is first
+always, no one is last always. Even gods of a decidedly inferior and
+limited character assume occasionally in the eyes of a devoted poet a
+supreme place above all other gods.[160] It was necessary, therefore,
+for the purpose of accurate reasoning, to have a name, different from
+_polytheism_, to signify this worship of single gods, each occupying
+for a time a supreme position, and I proposed for it the name of
+_Kathenotheism_, that is, a worship of one god after another, or of
+_Henotheism_, the worship of single gods. This shorter name of
+_Henotheism_ has found more general acceptance, as conveying more
+definitely the opposition between _Monotheism_, the worship of one
+only God, and _Henotheism_, the worship of single gods; and, if but
+properly defined, it will answer its purpose very well. However, in
+researches of this kind we cannot be too much on our guard against
+technical terms. They are inevitable, I know; but they are almost
+always misleading. There is, for instance, a hymn addressed to the
+_Indus_ and the rivers that fall into it, of which I hope to read you
+a translation, because it determines very accurately the geographical
+scene on which the poets of the Veda passed their life. Now native
+scholars call these rivers d e v a t a s or deities, and European
+translators too speak of them as gods and goddesses. But in the
+language used by the poet with regard to the Indus and the other
+rivers, there is nothing to justify us in saying that he considered
+these rivers as _gods_ and _goddesses_, unless we mean by _gods_ and
+_goddesses_ something very different from what the Greeks called
+River-gods and River-goddesses, Nymphs, Najades, or even Muses.
+
+And what applies to these rivers applies more or less to all the
+objects of Vedic worship. They all are still oscillating between what
+is seen by the senses, what is created by fancy, and what is
+postulated by the understanding; they are things, persons, causes,
+according to the varying disposition of the poets; and if we call them
+gods or goddesses, we must remember the remark of an ancient native
+theologian, who reminds us that by d e v a t a or deity he means no more
+than the object celebrated in a hymn, while _R i_ s h i or seer means no
+more than the subject or the author of a hymn.
+
+It is difficult to treat of the so-called gods celebrated in the Veda
+according to any system, for the simple reason that the concepts of
+these gods and the hymns addressed to them sprang up spontaneously and
+without any pre-established plan. It is best perhaps for our purpose
+to follow an ancient Brahmanical writer, who is supposed to have lived
+about 400 B.C. He tells us of students of the Veda, before his time,
+who admitted three deities only, viz., A g n i or fire, whose place is on
+the earth; V a y u or I n d r a, the wind and the god of the thunderstorm,
+whose place is in the air; and S u r y a, the sun, whose place is in the
+sky. These deities, they maintained, received severally many
+appellations, in consequence of their greatness, or of the diversity
+of their functions, just as a priest, according to the functions which
+he performs at various sacrifices, receives various names.
+
+This is _one_ view of the Vedic gods, and, though too narrow, it
+cannot be denied that there is some truth in it. A very useful
+division of the Vedic gods might be made, and has been made by Yaska,
+into _terrestrial_, _aerial_, and _celestial_, and if the old Hindu
+theologians meant no more than that all the manifestations of divine
+power in nature might be traced back to three centres of force, one in
+the sky, one in the air, and one on the earth, he deserves great
+credit for his sagacity.
+
+But he himself perceived evidently that this generalization was not
+quite applicable to all the gods, and he goes on to say: "Or, it may
+be, these gods are all distinct beings, for the praises addressed to
+them are distinct, and their appellations also." This is quite right.
+It is the very object of most of these divine names to impart distinct
+individuality to the manifestations of the powers of nature; and
+though the philosopher or the inspired poet might perceive that these
+numerous names were but names, while that which was named was _one_
+and _one_ only, this was certainly not the idea of most of the Vedic
+_Ri_shis themselves, still less of the people who listened to their
+songs at fairs and festivals. It is the peculiar character of that
+phase of religious thought which we have to study in the Veda, that in
+it the Divine is conceived and represented as manifold, and that many
+functions are shared in common by various gods, no attempt having yet
+been made at organizing the whole body of the gods, sharply
+separating one from the other, and subordinating all of them to
+several or, in the end, to one supreme head.
+
+Availing ourselves of the division of the Vedic gods into terrestrial,
+aerial, and celestial, as proposed by some of the earliest Indian
+theologians, we should have to begin with the gods connected with the
+earth.
+
+Before we examine them, however, we have first to consider one of the
+earliest objects of worship and adoration, namely _Earth and Heaven_,
+or _Heaven and Earth_, conceived as a divine couple. Not only in
+India, but among many other nations, both savage, half-savage, or
+civilized, we meet with Heaven and Earth as one of the earliest
+objects, pondered on, transfigured, and animated by the early poets,
+and more or less clearly conceived by early philosophers. It is
+surprising that it should be so, for the conception of the Earth as an
+independent being, and of Heaven as an independent being, and then of
+both together as a divine couple embracing the whole universe,
+requires a considerable effort of abstraction, far more than the
+concepts of other divine powers, such as the Fire, the Rain, the
+Lightning, or the Sun.
+
+Still so it is, and as it may help us to understand the ideas about
+Heaven and Earth, as we find them in the Veda, and show us at the same
+time the strong contrast between the mythology of the Aryans and that
+of real savages (a contrast of great importance, though I admit very
+difficult to explain), I shall read you first some extracts from a
+book, published by a friend of mine, the Rev. William Wyatt Gill, for
+many years an active and most successful missionary in Mangaia, one of
+those Polynesian islands that form a girdle round one quarter of our
+globe,[161] and all share in the same language, the same religion,
+the same mythology, and the same customs. The book is called "Myths
+and Songs from the South Pacific,"[162] and it is full of interest to
+the student of mythology and religion.
+
+The story, as told him by the natives of Mangaia, runs as
+follows:[163]
+
+    "The sky is built of solid blue stone. At one time it almost
+    touched the earth; resting upon the stout broad leaves of the
+    t e v e (which attains the height of about six feet) and the
+    delicate indigenous arrow-root (whose slender stem rarely
+    exceeds three feet).... In this narrow space between earth
+    and sky the inhabitants of this world were pent up. Ru, whose
+    usual residence was in Avaiki, or the shades, had come up for
+    a time to this world of ours. Pitying the wretched confined
+    residence of the inhabitants, he employed himself in
+    endeavoring to raise the sky a little. For this purpose he
+    cut a number of strong stakes of different kinds of trees,
+    and firmly planted them in the ground at Rangimotia, the
+    centre of the island, and with him the centre of the world.
+    This was a considerable improvement, as mortals were thereby
+    enabled to stand erect and to walk about without
+    inconvenience. Hence Ru was named 'The sky-supporter.'
+    Wherefore Teka sings (1794):
+
+        'Force up the sky, O Ru,
+        And let the space be clear!'
+
+    "One day when the old man was surveying his work, his
+    graceless son Maui contemptuously asked him what he was doing
+    there. Ru replied: 'Who told youngsters to talk? Take care of
+    yourself, or I will hurl you out of existence.'
+
+    "'Do it, then,' shouted Maui.
+
+    "Ru was as good as his word, and forthwith seized Maui, who
+    was small of stature, and threw him to a great height. In
+    falling Maui assumed the form of a bird, and lightly touched
+    the ground, perfectly unharmed. Maui, now thirsting for
+    revenge, in a moment resumed his natural form, but
+    exaggerated to gigantic proportions, and ran to his father,
+    saying:
+
+        'Ru, who supportest the many heavens,
+        The third, even to the highest, ascend!'
+
+    "Inserting his head between the old man's legs, he exerted all
+    his prodigious strength, and hurled poor Ru, sky and all, to
+    a tremendous height--so high, indeed, that the blue sky could
+    never get back again. Unluckily, however, for the
+    sky-supporting Ru, his head and shoulders got entangled among
+    the stars. He struggled hard, but fruitlessly, to extricate
+    himself. Maui walked off well pleased with having raised the
+    sky to its present height, but left half his father's body
+    and both his legs ingloriously suspended between heaven and
+    earth. Thus perished Ru. His body rotted away, and his bones
+    came tumbling down from time to time, and were shivered on
+    the earth into countless fragments. These shivered bones of
+    Ru are scattered over every hill and valley of Mangaia, to
+    the very edge of the sea."
+
+What the natives call "the bones of Ru" (t e  i v i o  R u) are pieces of
+pumice-stone.
+
+Now let us consider, first of all, whether this story, which with
+slight variations is told all over the Polynesian islands,[164] is
+pure nonsense, or whether there was originally some sense in it. My
+conviction is that nonsense is everywhere the child of sense, only
+that unfortunately many children, like that youngster Maui, consider
+themselves much wiser than their fathers, and occasionally succeed in
+hurling them out of existence.
+
+It is a peculiarity of many of the ancient myths that they represent
+events which happen every day, or every year, as having happened once
+upon a time.[165] The daily battle between day and night, the yearly
+battle between winter and spring, are represented almost like
+historical events, and some of the episodes and touches belonging
+originally to these constant battles of nature, have certainly been
+transferred into and mixed up with battles that took place at a
+certain time, such as, for instance, the siege of Troy. When
+historical recollections failed, legendary accounts of the ancient
+battles between Night and Morning, Winter and Spring, were always at
+hand; and, as in modern times we constantly hear "good stories," which
+we have known from our childhood, told again and again of any man whom
+they seem to fit, in the same manner, in ancient times, any act of
+prowess, or daring, or mischief, originally told of the sun, "the
+orient Conqueror of gloomy Night," was readily transferred to and
+believed of any local hero who might seem to be a second Jupiter, or
+Mars, or Hercules.
+
+I have little doubt therefore that as the accounts of a deluge, for
+instance, which we find almost everywhere, are originally
+recollections of the annual torrents of rain or snow that covered the
+little worlds within the ken of the ancient village-bards,[166] this
+tearing asunder of heaven and earth too was originally no more than a
+description of what might be seen every morning. During a dark night
+the sky seemed to cover the earth; the two seemed to be one, and could
+not be distinguished one from the other.[167] Then came the Dawn,
+which with its bright rays lifted the covering of the dark night to a
+certain point, till at last Maui appeared, small in stature, a mere
+child, that is, the sun of the morning--thrown up suddenly, as it
+were, when his first rays shot through the sky from beneath the
+horizon, then falling back to the earth, like a bird, and rising in
+gigantic form on the morning sky. The dawn now was hurled away, and
+the sky was seen lifted high above the earth; and Maui, the sun,
+marched on well pleased with having raised the sky to its present
+height.
+
+Why pumice-stone should be called the bones of Ru, we cannot tell,
+without knowing a great deal more of the language of Mangaia than we
+do at present. It is most likely an independent saying, and was
+afterward united with the story of Ru and Maui.
+
+Now I must quote at least a few extracts from a Maori legend as
+written down by Judge Manning:[168]
+
+     "This is the Genesis of the New Zealanders:
+
+     "The Heavens which are above us, and the Earth which lies
+     beneath us, are the progenitors of men, and the origin of
+     all things.
+
+     "Formerly the Heaven lay upon the Earth, and all was
+     darkness....
+
+     "And the children of Heaven and Earth sought to discover the
+     difference between light and darkness, between day and
+     night....
+
+     "So the sons of Rangi (Heaven) and of Papa (Earth) consulted
+     together, and said, 'Let us seek means whereby to destroy
+     Heaven and Earth, or to separate them from each other.'
+
+     "Then said Tumatauenga (the God of War), 'Let us destroy
+     them both.'
+
+     "Then said Tane-Mahuta (the Forest God), 'Not so; let them
+     be separated. Let one of them go upward and become a
+     stranger to us; let the other remain below and be a parent
+     for us.'
+
+     "Then four of the gods tried to separate Heaven and Earth,
+     but did not succeed, while the fifth, Tane, succeeded.
+
+     "After Heaven and Earth had been separated, great storms
+     arose, or, as the poet expresses it, one of their sons,
+     Tawhiri-Matea, the god of the winds, tried to revenge the
+     outrage committed on his parents by his brothers. Then
+     follow dismal dusky days, and dripping chilly skies, and
+     arid scorching blasts. All the gods fight, till at last Tu
+     only remains, the god of war, who had devoured all his
+     brothers, except the Storm. More fights follow, in which the
+     greater part of the earth was overwhelmed by the waters, and
+     but a small portion remained dry. After that, light
+     continued to increase, and as the light increased, so also
+     the people who had been hidden between Heaven and Earth
+     increased.... And so generation was added to generation
+     down to the time of Maui-Potiki, he who brought death into
+     the world.
+
+     "Now in these latter days Heaven remains far removed from
+     his wife, the Earth; but the love of the wife rises upward
+     in sighs toward her husband. These are the mists which fly
+     upward from the mountain-tops; and the tears of Heaven fall
+     downward on his wife; behold the dew-drops!"
+
+So far the Maori Genesis.
+
+Let us now return to the Veda, and compare these crude and somewhat
+grotesque legends with the language of the ancient Aryan poets. In the
+hymns of the Rig-Veda the separating and keeping apart of Heaven and
+Earth is several times alluded to, and here too it is represented as
+the work of the most valiant gods. In I. 67, 3 it is Agni, fire, who
+holds the earth and supports the heaven; in X. 89, 4 it is Indra who
+keeps them apart; in IX. 101, 15 Soma is celebrated for the same deed,
+and in III. 31, 12 other gods too share the same honor.[169]
+
+In the Aitareya Brahma_n_a we read:[170] "These two worlds (Heaven and
+Earth) were once joined together. They went asunder. Then it did not
+rain, nor did the sun shine. And the five tribes did not agree with
+one another. The gods then brought the two (Heaven and Earth)
+together, and when they came together they formed a wedding of the
+gods."
+
+Here we have in a shorter form the same fundamental ideas: first, that
+formerly Heaven and Earth were together; that afterward they were
+separated; that when they were thus separated there was war throughout
+nature, and neither rain nor sunshine; that, lastly, Heaven and Earth
+were conciliated, and that then a great wedding took place.
+
+Now I need hardly remind those who are acquainted with Greek and Roman
+literature, how familiar these and similar conceptions about a
+marriage between Heaven and earth were in Greece and Italy. They seem
+to possess there a more special reference to the annual reconciliation
+between Heaven and Earth, which takes place in spring, and to their
+former estrangement during winter. But the first cosmological
+separation of the two always points to the want of light and the
+impossibility of distinction during the night, and the gradual lifting
+up of the blue sky through the rising of the sun.[171]
+
+In the Homeric hymns[172] the Earth is addressed as
+
+    "Mother of gods, the wife of the starry Heaven;"[173]
+
+and the Heaven or AEther is often called the father. Their marriage too
+is described, as, for instance, by Euripides, when he says:
+
+    "There is the mighty Earth, Jove's AEther:
+      He (the AEther) is the creator of men and gods;
+    The earth receiving the moist drops of rain,
+            Bears mortals,
+    Bears food, and the tribes of animals.
+      Hence she is not unjustly regarded
+        As the mother of all."[174]
+
+And what is more curious still is that we have evidence that
+Euripides received this doctrine from his teacher, the philosopher
+Anaxagoras. For Dionysius of Halicarnassus[175] tells us that
+Euripides frequented the lectures of Anaxagoras. Now, it was the
+theory of that philosopher that originally all things were in all
+things, but that afterward they became separated. Euripides later in
+life associated with Sokrates, and became doubtful regarding that
+theory. He accordingly propounds the ancient doctrine by the mouth of
+another, namely Melanippe, who says:
+
+    "This saying (myth) is not mine, but came from my mother,
+    that formerly Heaven and Earth were one shape; but when they
+    were separated from each other, they gave birth and brought
+    all things into the light, trees, birds, beasts, and the
+    fishes whom the sea feeds, and the race of mortals."
+
+Thus we have met with the same idea of the original union, of a
+separation, and of a subsequent reunion of Heaven and Earth in Greece,
+in India, and in the Polynesian islands.
+
+Let us now see how the poets of the Veda address these two beings,
+Heaven and Earth.
+
+They are mostly addressed in the dual, as two beings forming but one
+concept. We meet, however, with verses which are addressed to the Earth
+by herself, and which speak of her as "kind, without thorns, and
+pleasant to dwell on,"[176] while there are clear traces in some of the
+hymns that at one time Dyaus, the sky, was the supreme deity.[177] When
+invoked together they are called D y a v a - p_ r i_ t h i v y a u,
+from d y u, the sky, and p _r i_ t h i v i, the broad earth.
+
+If we examine their epithets, we find that many of them reflect simply
+the physical aspects of Heaven and Earth. Thus they are called u r u,
+wide; u r u v y a _k_ a s, widely expanded, d u r e - a n t e, with
+limits far apart, g a b h i r a, deep; g h _r i_ t a v a t, giving fat;
+m a d h u d u g h a, yielding honey or dew; p a y a s v a t, full of
+milk; b h u r i - r e t a s, rich in seed.
+
+Another class of epithets represents them already as endowed with
+certain human and superhuman qualities, such as a s a _s k_ a t, never
+tiring, a _g_ a r a, not decaying, which brings us very near to immortal;
+a d r u h, not injuring, or not deceiving, p r a _k_ e t a s, provident, and then
+pita-mata, father and mother, devaputra, having the gods for their
+sons, _r i_ t a - v_ r i_ d h and _r i_ t a v a t, protectors of the _Ri_ta, of what
+is right, guardians of eternal laws.
+
+Here you see what is so interesting in the Veda, the gradual advance
+from the material to the spiritual, from the sensuous to the
+supersensuous, from the human to the superhuman and the divine. Heaven
+and Earth were seen, and, according to our notions, they might simply
+be classed as visible and finite beings. But the ancient poets were
+more honest to themselves. They could see Heaven and Earth, but they
+never saw them in their entirety. They felt that there was something
+beyond the purely finite aspect of these beings, and therefore they
+thought of them, not as they would think of a stone, or a tree, or a
+dog, but as something not-finite, not altogether visible or knowable,
+yet as something important to themselves, powerful, strong to bless,
+but also strong to hurt. Whatever was between Heaven and Earth seemed
+to be theirs, their property, their realm, their dominion. They held
+and embraced all; they seemed to have produced all. The Devas or
+bright beings, the sun, the dawn, the fire, the wind, the rain, were
+all theirs, and were called therefore the offspring of Heaven and
+Earth. Thus Heaven and Earth became the Universal Father and Mother.
+
+Then we ask at once: "Were then these Heaven and Earth gods?" But gods
+in what sense? In our sense of God? Why, in our sense, God is
+altogether incapable of a plural. Then in the Greek sense of the word?
+No, certainly not; for what the Greeks called gods was the result of
+an intellectual growth totally independent of the Veda or of India. We
+must never forget that what we call gods in ancient mythologies are
+not substantial, living, individual beings, of whom we can predicate
+this or that. D e v a, which we translate by god, is nothing but an
+adjective, expressive of a quality shared by heaven and earth, by the
+sun and the stars and the dawn and the sea, namely _brightness_; and
+the idea of god, at that early time, contains neither more nor less
+than what is shared in common by all these bright beings. That is to
+say, the idea of god is not an idea ready-made, which could be applied
+in its abstract purity to heaven and earth and other such like beings;
+but it is an idea, growing out of the concepts of heaven and earth and
+of the other bright beings, slowly separating itself from them, but
+never containing more than what was contained, though confusedly, in
+the objects to which it was successively applied.
+
+Nor must it be supposed that heaven and earth, having once been raised
+to the rank of undecaying or immortal beings, of divine parents, of
+guardians of the laws, were thus permanently settled in the religious
+consciousness of the people. Far from it. When the ideas of other
+gods, and of more active and more distinctly personal gods had been
+elaborated, the Vedic _Ri_shis asked without hesitation: Who then has
+made heaven and earth? not exactly Heaven and Earth, as conceived
+before, but heaven and earth as seen every day, as a part of what
+began to be called Nature or the Universe.
+
+Thus one poet says:[178]
+
+    "He was indeed among the gods the cleverest workman who
+    produced the two brilliant ones (heaven and earth), that
+    gladden all things; he who measured out the two bright ones
+    (heaven and earth) by his wisdom, and established them on
+    everlasting supports."
+
+And again:[179] "He was a good workman who produced heaven and earth;
+the wise, who by his might brought together these two (heaven and
+earth), the wide, the deep, the well-fashioned in the bottomless
+space."
+
+Very soon this great work of making heaven and earth was ascribed,
+like other mighty works, to the mightiest of their gods, to Indra. At
+first we read that Indra, originally only a kind of _Jupiter pluvius_,
+or god of rain, stretched out heaven and earth, like a hide;[180] that
+he held them in his hand,[181] that he upholds heaven and earth,[182]
+and that he grants heaven and earth to his worshippers.[183] But very
+soon Indra is praised for having made Heaven and Earth;[184] and then,
+when the poet remembers that Heaven and Earth had been praised
+elsewhere as the parents of the gods, and more especially as the
+parents of Indra, he does not hesitate for a moment, but says:[185]
+"What poets living before us have reached the end of all thy
+greatness? for thou hast indeed begotten thy father and thy mother
+together[186] from thy own body!"
+
+That is a strong measure, and a god who once could do that, was no
+doubt capable of anything afterward. The same idea, namely that Indra
+is greater than heaven and earth, is expressed in a less outrageous
+way by another poet, who says[187] that Indra is greater than heaven
+and earth, and that both together are only a half of Indra. Or
+again:[188] "The divine Dyaus bowed before Indra, before Indra the
+great Earth bowed with her wide spaces." "At the birth of thy splendor
+Dyaus trembled, the Earth trembled for fear of thy anger."[189]
+
+Thus, from one point of view, Heaven and Earth were the greatest gods,
+they were the parents of everything, and therefore of the gods also,
+such as Indra and others.
+
+But, from another point of view, every god that was considered as
+supreme at one time or other, must necessarily have made heaven and
+earth, must at all events be greater than heaven and earth, and thus
+the child became greater than the father, ay, became the father of his
+father. Indra was not the only god that created heaven and earth. In
+one hymn[190] that creation is ascribed to Soma and Pushan, by no
+means very prominent characters; in another[191] to Hira_n_yagarbha
+(the golden germ); in another again to a god who is simply called
+Dhat_ri_, the Creator,[192] or Vi_s_vakarman,[193] the maker of all
+things. Other gods, such as Mitra and Savit_ri_, names of the sun, are
+praised for upholding Heaven and Earth, and the same task is sometimes
+performed by the old god Varu_n_a[194] also.
+
+What I wish you to observe in all this is the perfect freedom with
+which these so-called gods or Devas are handled, and particularly the
+ease and naturalness with which now the one, now the other emerges as
+supreme out of this chaotic theogony. This is the peculiar character
+of the ancient Vedic religion, totally different both from the
+Polytheism and from the Monotheism as we see it in the Greek and the
+Jewish religions; and if the Veda had taught us nothing else but this
+_henotheistic_ phase, which must everywhere have preceded the more
+highly-organized phase of Polytheism which we see in Greece, in Rome,
+and elsewhere, the study of the Veda would not have been in vain.
+
+It may be quite true that the poetry of the Veda is neither beautiful,
+in our sense of the word, nor very profound; but it is instructive.
+When we see those two giant spectres of Heaven and Earth on the
+background of the Vedic religion, exerting their influence for a time,
+and then vanishing before the light of younger and more active gods,
+we learn a lesson which it is well to learn, and which we can hardly
+learn anywhere else--the lesson _how gods were made and unmade_--how
+the Beyond or the Infinite was named by different names in order to
+bring it near to the mind of man, to make it for a time
+comprehensible, until, when name after name had proved of no avail, a
+nameless God was felt to answer best the restless cravings of the
+human heart.
+
+I shall next translate to you the hymn to which I referred before as
+addressed to the Rivers. If the Rivers are to be called deities at
+all, they belong to the class of terrestrial deities. But the reason
+why I single out this hymn is not so much because it throws new light
+on the theogonic process, but because it may help to impart some
+reality to the vague conceptions which we form to ourselves of the
+ancient Vedic poets and their surroundings. The rivers invoked are, as
+we shall see, the real rivers of the Punjab, and the poem shows a much
+wider geographical horizon than we should expect from a mere
+village-bard.[195]
+
+    1. "Let the poet declare, O Waters, your exceeding greatness,
+    here in the seat of Vivasvat.[196] By seven and seven they
+    have come forth in three courses, but the Sindhu (the Indus)
+    exceeds all the other wandering rivers by her strength.
+
+    2. "Varu_n_a dug out paths for thee to walk on, when thou
+    rannest to the race.[197] Thou proceedest on a precipitous
+    ridge of the earth, when thou art lord in the van of all the
+    moving streams.
+
+    3. "The sound rises up to heaven above the earth; she stirs
+    up with splendor her endless power.[198] As from a cloud, the
+    showers thunder forth, when the Sindhu comes, roaring like a
+    bull.
+
+    4. "To thee, O Sindhu, they (the other rivers) come as lowing
+    mother-cows (run) to their young with their milk.[199] Like a
+    king in battle thou leadest the two wings, when thou reachest
+    the front of these down-rushing rivers.
+
+    5. "Accept, O Ganga (Ganges), Yamuna (Jumna), Sarasvati
+    (Sursuti), _S_utudri (Sutlej), Parush_n_i (Iravati, Ravi),
+    my praise![200] With the Asikni (Akesines) listen, O
+    Marudv_ri_dha,[201] and with the Vitasta (Hydaspes, Behat); O
+    Ar_g_ikiya,[202] listen with the Sushoma.[203]
+
+    6. "First thou goest united with the T_ri_sh_t_ama on thy
+    journey, with the Susartu, the Rasa (Ra_m_ha, Araxes?[204]),
+    and the _S_veti--O Sindhu, with the Kubha (Kophen, Cabul
+    river) to the Gomati (Gomal), with the Mehatnu to the Krumu
+    (Kurum)--with whom thou proceedest together.
+
+    7. "Sparkling, bright, with mighty splendor she carries the
+    waters across the plains--the unconquered Sindhu, the
+    quickest of the quick, like a beautiful mare--a sight to see.
+
+    8. "Rich in horses, in chariots, in garments, in gold, in
+    booty,[205] in wool,[206] and in straw,[207] the Sindhu,
+    handsome and young, clothes herself in sweet flowers.[208]
+
+    9. "The Sindhu has yoked her easy chariot with horses; may
+    she conquer prizes for us in the race. The greatness of her
+    chariot is praised as truly great--that chariot which is
+    irresistible, which has its own glory, and abundant
+    strength."[209]
+
+This hymn does not sound perhaps very poetical, in our sense of the
+word; yet if you will try to realize the thoughts of the poet who
+composed it, you will perceive that it is not without some bold and
+powerful conceptions.
+
+Take the modern peasants, living in their villages by the side of the
+Thames, and you must admit that he would be a remarkable man who could
+bring himself to look on the Thames as a kind of a general, riding at
+the head of many English rivers, and leading them on to a race or a
+battle. Yet it is easier to travel in England, and to gain a
+commanding view of the river-system of the country, than it was three
+thousand years ago to travel over India, even over that part of India
+which the poet of our hymn commands. He takes in at one swoop three
+great river-systems, or, as he calls them, three great armies of
+rivers--those flowing from the north-west into the Indus, those
+joining it from the north-east, and, in the distance, the Ganges and
+the Jumnah with their tributaries. Look on the map and you will see
+how well these three armies are determined; but our poet had no
+map--he had nothing but high mountains and sharp eyes to carry out his
+trigonometrical survey. Now I call a man, who for the first time
+could _see_ those three marching armies of rivers, a poet.
+
+The next thing that strikes one in that hymn--if hymn we must call
+it--is the fact that all these rivers, large and small, have their own
+proper names. That shows a considerable advance in civilized life, and
+it proves no small degree of coherence, or what the French call
+_solidarity_, between the tribes who had taken possession of Northern
+India. Most settlers call the river on whose banks they settle "_the
+river_." Of course there are many names for river. It may be called
+the runner,[210] the fertilizer, the roarer--or, with a little
+poetical metaphor, the arrow, the horse, the cow, the father, the
+mother, the watchman, the child of the mountains. Many rivers had many
+names in different parts of their course, and it was only when
+communication between different settlements became more frequent, and
+a fixed terminology was felt to be a matter of necessity, that the
+rivers of a country were properly baptized and registered. All this
+had been gone through in India before our hymn became possible.
+
+And now we have to consider another, to my mind most startling fact.
+We here have a number of names of the rivers of India, as they were
+known to one single poet, say about 1000 B.C. We then hear nothing of
+India till we come to the days of Alexander, and when we look at the
+names of the Indian rivers, represented as well as they could be by
+Alexander's companions, mere strangers in India, and by means of a
+strange language and a strange alphabet, we recognize, without much
+difficulty, nearly all of the old Vedic names.
+
+In this respect the names of rivers have a great advantage over the
+names of towns in India. What we now call _Dilli_ or _Delhi_[211] was
+in ancient times called Indraprastha, in later times _Shahjahanabad_.
+_Oude_ is Ayodhya, but the old name of Saketa is forgotten. The town
+of Pa_t_aliputra, known to the Greeks as _Palimbothra_, is now called
+_Patna_.[212]
+
+Now I can assure you this persistency of the Vedic river-names was to
+my mind something so startling that I often said to myself, This
+cannot be--there must be something wrong here. I do not wonder so much
+at the names of the _Indus_ and the _Ganges_ being the same. The Indus
+was known to early traders, whether by sea or by land. Skylax sailed
+from the country of the Paktys, _i.e._ the Pushtus, as the Afghans
+still call themselves, down to the mouth of the Indus. That was under
+Darius Hystaspes (521-486). Even before that time India and the
+Indians were known by their name, which was derived from _Sindhu_, the
+name of their frontier river. The neighboring tribes who spoke Iranic
+languages all pronounced, like the Persian, the _s_ as an _h_.[213]
+Thus Sindhu became Hindhu (Hidhu), and, as h's were dropped even at
+that early time, Hindhu became Indu. Thus the river was called
+_Indos_, the people _Indoi_ by the Greeks, who first heard of India
+from the Persians.
+
+_Sindhu_ probably meant originally the divider, keeper, and defender,
+from sidh, to keep off. It was a masculine, before it became a
+feminine. No more telling name could have been given to a broad river,
+which guarded peaceful settlers both against the inroads of hostile
+tribes and the attacks of wild animals. A common name for the ancient
+settlements of the Aryans in India was "the Seven Rivers," "Sapta
+Sindhava_h_." But though sindhu was used as an appellative noun for
+river in general (cf. Rig-Veda VI. 19, 5, samudre na sindhava_h_
+yadamana_h_, "like rivers longing for the sea"), it remained
+throughout the whole history of India the name of its powerful
+guardian river, the Indus.
+
+In some passages of the Rig-Veda it has been pointed out that sindhu
+might better be translated by "sea," a change of meaning, if so it can
+be called, fully explained by the geographical conditions of the
+country. There are places where people could swim across the Indus,
+there are others where no eye could tell whether the boundless expanse
+of water should be called river or sea. The two run into each other,
+as every sailor knows, and naturally the meaning of sindhu, river,
+runs into the meaning of sindhu, sea.
+
+But besides the two great rivers, the Indus and the Ganges--in
+Sanskrit the Ganga, literally the Go-go--we have the smaller rivers,
+and many of their names also agree with the names preserved to us by
+the companions of Alexander.[214]
+
+The Yamuna, the Jumna, was known to Ptolemy as [Greek: Diamouna],[215]
+to Pliny as Jomanes, to Arrian, somewhat corrupted, as Jobares.[216]
+
+The _S_utudri, or, as it was afterward called, _S_atadru, meaning
+"running in a hundred streams," was known to Ptolemy as [Greek:
+Zadardes] or [Greek: Zarados]; Pliny called it Sydrus; and Megasthenes,
+too, was probably acquainted with it as [Greek: Zadardes]. In the
+Veda[217] it formed with the Vipa_s_ the frontier of the Punjab, and we
+hear of fierce battles fought at that time, it may be on the same spot
+where in 1846 the battle of the Sutledge was fought by Sir Hugh Gough
+and Sir Henry Hardinge. It was probably on the Vipa_s_ (later Vipa_s_a),
+a north-western tributary of the Sutledge, that Alexander's army turned
+back. The river was then called Hyphasis; Pliny calls it Hypasis,[218] a
+very fair approximation to the Vedic Vipa_s_, which means "unfettered."
+Its modern name is Bias or Bejah.
+
+The next river on the west is the Vedic Parush_n_i, better known as
+Iravati,[219] which Strabo calls Hyarotis, while Arrian gives it a
+more Greek appearance by calling it Hydraotes. It is the modern Rawi.
+It was this river which the Ten Kings when attacking the T_ri_tsus
+under Sudas tried to cross from the west by cutting off its water. But
+their stratagem failed, and they perished in the river (Rig-Veda VII.
+18, 8-9).
+
+We then come to the Asikni, which means "black." That river had another
+name also, _K_andrabhaga, which means "streak of the moon." The Greeks,
+however, pronounced that [Greek: Sandarophagos], and this had the
+unlucky meaning of "the devourer of Alexander." Hesychius tells us that
+in order to avert the bad omen Alexander changed the name of that river
+into [Greek: Akesines], which would mean "the Healer;" but he does not
+tell, what the Veda tells us, that this name [Greek: Akesines] was a
+Greek adaptation of another name of the same river, namely Asikni, which
+had evidently supplied to Alexander the idea of calling the Asikni
+[Greek: Akesines]. It is the modern Chinab.
+
+Next to the Akesines we have the Vedic Vitasta, the last of the rivers
+of the Punjab, changed in Greek into Hydaspes. It was to this river
+that Alexander retired, before sending his fleet down the Indus and
+leading his army back to Babylon. It is the modern Behat or Jilam.
+
+I could identify still more of these Vedic rivers, such as, for
+instance, the Kubha, the Greek Cophen, the modern Kabul river;[220]
+but the names which I have traced from the Veda to Alexander, and in
+many cases from Alexander again to our own time, seem to me sufficient
+to impress upon us the real and historical character of the Veda.
+Suppose the Veda were a forgery--suppose at least that it had been put
+together after the time of Alexander--how could we explain these
+names? They are names that have mostly a meaning in Sanskrit, they are
+names corresponding very closely to their Greek corruptions, as
+pronounced and written down by people who did not know Sanskrit. How
+is a forgery possible here?
+
+I selected this hymn for two reasons. First, because it shows us the
+widest geographical horizon of the Vedic poets, confined by the snowy
+mountains in the north, the Indus and the range of the Suleiman
+mountains in the west, the Indus or the seas in the south, and the
+valley of the Jumna and Ganges in the east. Beyond that, the world,
+though open, was unknown to the Vedic poets. Secondly, because the
+same hymn gives us also a kind of historical background to the Vedic
+age. These rivers, as we may see them to-day, as they were seen by
+Alexander and his Macedonians, were seen also by the Vedic poets. Here
+we have an historical continuity--almost living witnesses, to tell us
+that the people whose songs have been so strangely, ay, you may almost
+say, so miraculously preserved to us, were real people, lairds with
+their clans, priests, or rather, servants of their gods, shepherds
+with their flocks, dotted about on the hills and valleys, with
+inclosures or palisades here and there, with a few strongholds, too,
+in case of need--living their short life on earth, as at that time
+life might be lived by men, without much pushing and crowding and
+trampling on each other--spring, summer, and winter leading them on
+from year to year, and the sun in his rising and setting lifting up
+their thoughts from their meadows and groves which they loved, to a
+world in the East, from which they had come, or to a world in the
+West, to which they were gladly hastening on. They had what I call
+religion, though it was very simple, and hardly reduced as yet to the
+form of a creed. "There is a Beyond," that was all they felt and knew,
+though they tried, as well as they could, to give names to that
+Beyond, and thus to change religion into _a_ religion. They had not as
+yet a name for God--certainly not in our sense of the word--or even a
+general name for the gods; but they invented name after name to enable
+them to grasp and comprehend by some outward and visible tokens powers
+whose presence they felt in nature, though their true and full essence
+was to them, as it is to us, invisible and incomprehensible.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 150: Wilson, Lectures, p. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 151: As it has been doubted, and even denied, that the
+publication of the Rig-Veda and its native commentary has had some
+important bearing on the resuscitation of the religious life of India,
+I feel bound to give at least one from the many testimonials which I
+have received from India. It comes from the Adi Brahma Samaj, founded
+by Ram Mohun Roy, and now represented by its three branches, the Adi
+Brahma Samaj, the Brahma Samaj of India, and the Sadharano Brahma
+Samaj. "The Committee of the Adi Brahma Samaj beg to offer you their
+hearty congratulations on the completion of the gigantic task which
+has occupied you for the last quarter of a century. By publishing the
+Rig-Veda at a time when Vedic learning has by some sad fatality become
+almost extinct in the land of its birth, you have conferred a boon
+upon us Hindus, for which we cannot but be eternally grateful."]
+
+[Footnote 152: Rig-Veda X. 114, 5.]
+
+[Footnote 153: Rig-Veda X. 121.]
+
+[Footnote 154: Muir, iv. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 155: Rig-Veda I. 139, 11.]
+
+[Footnote 156: Rig-Veda III. 6, 9.]
+
+[Footnote 157: The following names of Devapatnis or wives of the gods
+are given in the Vaitana Sutra XV. 3 (ed. Garbe): P_ri_thivi, the wife
+of Agni, Va_k_ of Vata, Sena of Indra, Dhena of B_ri_haspati, Pathya
+of Pushan, Gayatri of Vasu, Trish_t_ubh of Rudra, _G_agati of Aditya,
+Anush_t_ubh of Mitra, Vira_g_ of Varu_n_a, Pankti of Vish_n_u, Diksha
+of Soma.]
+
+[Footnote 158: Rig-Veda III. 9, 9.]
+
+[Footnote 159: Grimm showed that Thorr is sometimes the supreme god,
+while at other times he is the son of Odinn. This, as Professor Zimmer
+truly remarks, need not be regarded as the result of a revolution, or
+even of gradual decay, as in the case of Dyaus and Tyr, but simply
+as inherent in the character of a nascent polytheism. See Zeitschrift
+fuer D. A., vol. xii. p. 174.]
+
+[Footnote 160: "Among not yet civilized races prayers are addressed to
+a god with a special object, and to that god who is supposed to be
+most powerful in a special domain. He becomes for the moment the
+highest god to whom all others must give place. He may be invoked as
+the highest and the only god, without any slight being intended for
+the other gods."--Zimmer, l. c. p. 175.]
+
+[Footnote 161: "Es handelt sich hier nicht um amerikanische oder
+afrikanische Zersplitterung, sondern eine ueberraschende
+Gleichartigkeit dehnt sich durch die Weite und Breite des Stillen
+Oceans, und wenn wir Oceanien in der vollen Auffassung nehmen mit
+Einschluss Mikro-und Mela-nesiens (bis Malaya), selbst weiter. Es
+laesst sich sagen, dass ein einheitlicher Gedankenbau, in etwa 120
+Laengen und 70 Breitegraden, ein Viertel unsers Erdglobus
+ueberwoelbt."--Bastian, Die Heilige Sage der Polynesier, p. 57.]
+
+[Footnote 162: Henry S. King & Co., London, 1876.]
+
+[Footnote 163: P. 58.]
+
+[Footnote 164: There is a second version of the story even in the
+small island of Mangaia; see "Myths and Songs," p. 71.]
+
+[Footnote 165: See before, p. 158.]
+
+[Footnote 166: This explanation is considered altogether inadequate by
+many scholars. It is, of course, not altogether a question of
+learning, but also one of judgment.--AM. PUBS.]
+
+[Footnote 167: "The Sacred Books of the East," vol. i. p. 249: "The first
+half is the earth, the second half the heaven, their uniting the rain, the
+uniter Par_g_anya." And so it is when it (Par_g_anya) rains thus
+strongly--without ceasing, day and night together--then they say also,
+"Heaven and earth have come together."--From the Aitareya-Ara_n_yaka, III.
+2, 2.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 168: Bastian, Heilige Sage der Polynesier, p. 36.]
+
+[Footnote 169: Bergaigne, "La Religion Vedique," p. 240.]
+
+[Footnote 170: Ait. Br. IV. 27; Muir, iv. p. 23.]
+
+[Footnote 171: See Muir, iv. p. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 172: Homer, Hymn xxx. 17.]
+
+[Footnote 173: [Greek: Chaire theon meter, haloch Onranon asteroentos.]]
+
+[Footnote 174: Euripides, Chrysippus, fragm. 6 (edit. Didot, p. 824):
+
+    [Greek: Gaia megiste kai Dios aither,
+    o men anthropon kai theon genetor,
+    he d' ugrobolous stagonas notious
+    paradexamene tiktei thnatous,
+    tiktei de Boran, phula te theron,
+    hothen onk hadikos
+    meter panton nenomistai.]]
+
+[Footnote 175: Dionysius Halic., vol. v. p. 355; Muir, v. p. 27.]
+
+[Footnote 176: Rig-Veda I. 22, 15.]
+
+[Footnote 177: See "Lectures on the Science of Language," vol. ii. p.
+468.]
+
+[Footnote 178: Rig-Veda I. 160, 4.]
+
+[Footnote 179: L. c. IV. 56, 3.]
+
+[Footnote 180: L. c. VIII. 6, 5.]
+
+[Footnote 181: L. c. III. 30, 5.]
+
+[Footnote 182: L. c. III. 34, 8.]
+
+[Footnote 183: L. c. III. 34, 8.]
+
+[Footnote 184: L. c. VIII. 36, 4.]
+
+[Footnote 185: L. c. X. 54, 3.]
+
+[Footnote 186: Cf. IV. 17, 4, where Dyaus is the father of Indra; see
+however Muir, iv. 31, note.]
+
+[Footnote 187: Rig-Veda VI. 30, 1.]
+
+[Footnote 188: L. c. I. 131, 1.]
+
+[Footnote 189: L. c. IV. 17, 2.]
+
+[Footnote 190: L. c. II. 40, 1.]
+
+[Footnote 191: L. c. X. 121, 9.]
+
+[Footnote 192: L. c. X. 190, 3.]
+
+[Footnote 193: L. c. X. 81, 2.]
+
+[Footnote 194: Rig-Veda VI. 70, 1.]
+
+[Footnote 195: Rig-Veda X. 75. See Hibbert Lectures, Lect. iv.]
+
+[Footnote 196: Vivasvat is a name of the sun, and the seat or home of
+Vivasvat can hardly be anything but the earth, as the home of the sun,
+or, in a more special sense, the place where a sacrifice is offered.]
+
+[Footnote 197: I formerly translated yat va_g_an abhi adrava_h_ tvam by
+"when thou rannest for the prizes." Grassman had translated similarly,
+"When thou, O Sindhu, rannest to the prize of the battle," while Ludwig
+wrote, "When thou, O Sindhu, wast flowing on to greater powers." Va_g_a,
+connected with vegeo, vigeo, vigil, wacker (see Curtius, Grundzuege, No.
+159), is one of the many difficult words in the Veda the general meaning
+of which may be guessed, but in many places cannot yet be determined
+with certainty. Va_g_a occurs very frequently, both in the singular and
+the plural, and some of its meanings are clear enough. The Petersburg
+Dictionary gives the following list of them--swiftness, race, prize of
+race, gain, treasure, race-horse, etc. Here we perceive at once the
+difficulty of tracing all these meanings back to a common source, though
+it might be possible to begin with the meanings of strength, strife,
+contest, race, whether friendly or warlike, then to proceed to what is
+won in a race or in war, viz. booty, treasure, and lastly to take
+vaga_h_ in the more general sense of acquisitions, goods, even goods
+bestowed as gifts. We have a similar transition of meaning in the Greek
+[Greek: athlos], contest, contest for a prize, and [Greek: athlon], the
+prize of contest, reward, gift, while in the plural [Greek: ta athla]
+stands again for contest, or even the place of combat. The Vedic
+va_g_ambhara may in fact be rendered by [Greek: athlophoros], va_g_asati
+by [Greek: athlosyne].
+
+The transition from fight to prize is seen in passages such as:
+
+Rig-Veda VI. 45, 12, va_g_an indra _s_ravayyan tvaya _g_eshna hitam
+dhanam, "May we with thy help, O Indra, win the glorious fights, the
+offered prize" (cf. [Greek: athlothetes]).
+
+Rig-Veda VIII. 19, 18, te it va_g_ebhi_h_ _g_igyu_h_ mahat dhanam,
+"They won great-wealth by battles."
+
+What we want for a proper understanding of our verse, are passages
+where we have, as here, a movement toward va_g_as in the plural. Such
+passages are few; for instance: X. 53, 8, atra _g_ahama ye asan
+a_s_evah _s_ivan vayam ut tarema abhi va_g_an, "Let us leave here
+those who were unlucky (the dead), and let us get up to lucky toils."
+No more is probably meant here when the Sindhu is said to run toward
+her va_g_as, that is, her struggles, her fights, her race across the
+mountains with the other rivers.]
+
+[Footnote 198: On _s_ushma, strength, see Rig-Veda, translation, vol.
+i. p. 105. We find _s_ubhram _s_ushmam II. 11, 4; and iyarti with
+_s_ushmam IV. 17, 12.]
+
+[Footnote 199: See Muir, Santkrit Texts, v. p. 344.]
+
+[Footnote 200: "O Marudv_ri_dha with Asikni, Vitasta; O Ar_g_ikiya,
+listen with the Sushoma," _Ludwig_. "Asikni and Vitasta and
+Marudv_ri_dha, with the Sushoma, hear us, O Ar_g_ikiya," _Grassman._]
+
+[Footnote 201: Marudv_ri_dha, a general name for river. According to
+Roth the combined course of the Akesines and Hydaspes, _before_ the
+junction with the Hydraotes; according to Ludwig, the river _after_
+the junction with Hydraotes. Zimmer (Altindisches Leben, p. 12) adopts
+Roth's, Kiepert in his maps follows Ludwig's opinion.]
+
+[Footnote 202: According to Yaska, the Ar_g_ikiya is the Vipa_s_.
+Vivien de Saint-Martin takes it for the country watered by the Suwan,
+the Soanos of Megasthenes.]
+
+[Footnote 203: According to Yaska the Sushoma is the Indus. Vivien de
+Saint-Martin identifies it with the Suwan. Zimmer (l. c. p. 14) points
+out that in Arrian, Indica, iv. 12, there is a various reading Soamos
+for Soanos.]
+
+[Footnote 204: "Chips from a German Workshop," vol. i. p. 157.]
+
+[Footnote 205: Va_g_inivati is by no means an easy word. Hence all
+translators vary, and none settles the meaning. Muir translates,
+"yielding nutriment;" Zimmer, "having plenty of quick horses;" Ludwig,
+"like a strong mare." Va_g_in, no doubt, means a strong horse, a
+racer, but va_g_ini never occurs in the Rig-Veda in the sense of a
+mare, and the text is not va_g_inivat, but va_g_inivati. If va_g_ini
+meant mare, we might translate rich in mares, but that would be a mere
+repetition after sva_s_va, possessed of good horses. Va_g_inivati is
+chiefly applied to Ushas, Sarasvati, and here to the river Sindhu. It
+is joined with va_g_ebhi_h_, Rig-Veda I. 3, 10, which, if va_g_ini
+meant mare, would mean "rich in mares through horses." We also read,
+Rig-Veda I. 48, 16, sam (na_h_ mimikshva) va_g_ai_h_ va_g_inivati,
+which we can hardly translate by "give us horses, thou who art
+possessed of mares;" nor, Rig-Veda I. 92, 15, yukshva hi va_g_inivati
+a_s_van, "harness the horses, thou who art rich in mares." In most of
+the passages where va_g_inivati occurs, the goddess thus addressed is
+represented as rich, and asked to bestow wealth, and I should
+therefore prefer to take va_g_ini, as a collective abstract noun, like
+tretini, in the sense of wealth, originally booty, and to translate
+va_g_inivati simply by rich, a meaning well adapted to every passage
+where the word occurs.]
+
+[Footnote 206: Ur_n_avati, rich in wool, probably refers to the flocks
+of sheep for which the North-West of India was famous. See Rig-Veda I.
+126, 7.]
+
+[Footnote 207: Silamavati does not occur again in the Rig-Veda. Muir
+translates, "rich in plants;" Zimmer, "rich in water;" Ludwig takes it
+as a proper name. Saya_n_a states that silama is a plant which is made
+into ropes. That the meaning of silamavati was forgotten at an early
+time we see by the Atharva-Veda III. 12, 2, substituting
+sun_ri_tavati, for silamavati, as preserved in the _S_ankhayana
+G_ri_hya-sutras, 3, 3. I think silama means straw, from whatever plant
+it may be taken, and this would be equally applicable to a _s_ala, a
+house, a sthu_n_a, a post, and to the river Indus. It may have been,
+as Ludwig conjectures, an old local name, and in that case it may
+possibly account for the name given in later times to the Suleiman
+range.]
+
+[Footnote 208: Madhuv_ri_dh is likewise a word which does not occur
+again in the Rig-Veda. Saya_n_a explains it by nirgu_n_di and similar
+plants, but it is doubtful what plant is meant. Gu_n_da is the name of a
+grass, madhuv_ri_dh therefore may have been a plant such as sugar-cane,
+that yielded a sweet juice, the Upper Indus being famous for sugar-cane;
+see Hiouen-thsang, II. p. 105. I take adhivaste with Roth in the sense
+"she dresses herself," as we might say "the river is dressed in
+heather." Muir translates, "she traverses a land yielding sweetness;"
+Zimmer, "she clothes herself in Madhuv_ri_dh;" Ludwig, "the Silamavati
+throws herself into the increaser of the honey-sweet dew." All this
+shows how little progress can be made in Vedic scholarship by merely
+translating either words or verses, without giving at the same time a
+full justification of the meaning assigned to every single word.]
+
+[Footnote 209: See Petersburg Dictionary, s. v. virap_s_in.]
+
+[Footnote 210: "Among the Hottentots, the Kunene, Okavango, and Orange
+rivers, all have the name of Garib, _i.e._ the Runner."--Dr. Theoph.
+Hahn, _Cape Times_, July 11, 1882.]
+
+[Footnote 211: _Deh_li, not _Del_-high.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 212: Cunningham, "Archaeological Survey of India," vol. xii.
+p. 113.]
+
+[Footnote 213: Pliny, Hist. Nat. vi. 20, 71: "Indus incolis Sindus
+appellatus."]
+
+[Footnote 214: The history of these names has been treated by
+Professor Lassen, in his "Indische Alterthumskunde," and more lately
+by Professor Kaegi, in his very careful essay, "Der Rig-Veda," pp.
+146, 147.]
+
+[Footnote 215: Ptol. vii. 1, 29.]
+
+[Footnote 216: Arrian, Indica, viii. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 217: Rig-Veda III. 33, 1: "From the lap of the mountains
+Vipa_s_ and _S_utudri rush forth with their water like two lusty mares
+neighing, freed from their tethers, like two bright mother-cows
+licking (their calf).
+
+"Ordered by Indra and waiting his bidding you run toward the sea like
+two charioteers; running together, as your waters rise, the one goes
+into the other, you bright ones."]
+
+[Footnote 218: Other classical names are Hypanis, Bipasis, and
+Bibasis. Yaska identifies it with the Ar_g_ikiya.]
+
+[Footnote 219: Cf. Nirukta IX. 26.]
+
+[Footnote 220: "The first tributaries which join the Indus before its
+meeting with the Kubha or the Kabul river cannot be determined. All
+travellers in these northern countries complain of the continual
+changes in the names of the rivers, and we can hardly hope to find
+traces of the Vedic names in existence there after the lapse of three
+or four thousand years. The rivers intended may be the Shauyook,
+Ladak, Abba Seen, and Burrindu, and one of the four rivers, the Rasa,
+has assumed an almost fabulous character in the Veda. After the Indus
+has joined the Kubha or the Kabul river, two names occur, the Gomati
+and Krumu, which I believe I was the first to identify with the modern
+rivers the Gomal and Kurrum. (Roth, Nirukta, Erlaeuterungen, p. 43,
+Anm.) The Gomal falls into the Indus, between Dera Ismael Khan and
+Paharpore, and although Elphinstone calls it a river only during the
+rainy season, Klaproth (Foe-koue-ki, p. 23) describes its upper course
+as far more considerable, and adds: 'Un peu a l'est de Sirmagha, le
+Gomal traverse la chaine de montagnes de Soliman, passe devant Raghzi,
+et fertilise le pays habite par les tribus de Dauletkhail et de
+Gandehpour. Il se desseche au defile de Pezou, et son lit ne se
+remplit plus d'eau que dans la saison des pluies; alors seulement il
+rejoint la droite de l'Indus, au sud-est de bourg de Paharpour.' The
+Kurrum falls into the Indus north of the Gomal, while, according to
+the poet, we should expect it south. It might be urged that poets are
+not bound by the same rules as geographers, as we see, for instance,
+in the verse immediately preceding. But if it should be taken as a
+serious objection, it will be better to give up the Gomati than the
+Krumu, the latter being the larger of the two, and we might then take
+Gomati, 'rich in cattle,' as an adjective belonging to Krumu."--From a
+review of General Cunningham's "Ancient Geography of India," in
+_Nature_, 1871, Sept. 14.]
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE VI.
+
+VEDIC DEITIES.
+
+
+The next important phenomenon of nature which was represented in the
+Veda as a terrestrial deity is Fire, in Sanskrit Agni, in Latin
+_ignis_. In the worship which is paid to the Fire and in the high
+praises bestowed on Agni we can clearly perceive the traces of a
+period in the history of man in which not only the most essential
+comforts of life, but life itself, depended on the knowledge of
+producing fire. To us fire has become so familiar that we can hardly
+form an idea of what life would be without it. But how did the ancient
+dwellers on earth get command and possession of fire? The Vedic poets
+tell us that fire first came to them from the sky, in the form of
+lightning, but that it disappeared again, and that then Matari_s_van,
+a being to a certain extent like Prometheus, brought it back and
+confided it to the safe keeping of the clan of the Bh_r_igus
+(Phlegyas).[221]
+
+In other poems we hear of the mystery of fire being produced by
+rubbing pieces of wood; and here it is a curious fact that the name of
+the wood thus used for rubbing is in Sanskrit Pramantha, a word which,
+as Kuhn has shown, would in Greek come very near to the name of
+Prometheus. The possession of fire, whether by preserving it as sacred
+on the hearth, or by producing it at pleasure with the fire-drill,
+represents an enormous step in early civilization. It enabled people
+to cook their meat instead of eating it raw; it gave them the power of
+carrying on their work by night; and in colder climates it really
+preserved them from being frozen to death. No wonder, therefore, that
+the fire should have been praised and worshipped as the best and
+kindest of gods, the only god who had come down from heaven to live on
+earth, the friend of man, the messenger of the gods, the mediator
+between gods and men, the immortal among mortals. He, it is said,
+protects the settlements of the Aryans, and frightens away the
+black-skinned enemies.
+
+Soon, however, fire was conceived by the Vedic poets under the more
+general character of light and warmth, and then the presence of Agni was
+perceived, not only on the hearth and the altar, but in the Dawn, in the
+Sun, and in the world beyond the Sun, while at the same time his power was
+recognized as ripening, or as they called it, as cooking, the fruits of
+the earth, and as supporting also the warmth and the life of the human
+body. From that point of view Agni, like other powers, rose to the rank of
+a Supreme God.[222] He is said to have stretched out heaven and
+earth--naturally, because without his light heaven and earth would have
+been invisible and undistinguishable. The next poet says that Agni held
+heaven aloft by his light, that he kept the two worlds asunder; and in the
+end Agni is said to be the progenitor and father of heaven and earth, and
+the maker of all that flies, or walks, or stands, or moves on earth.
+
+Here we have once more the same process before our eyes. The human
+mind begins with being startled by a single or repeated event, such as
+the lightning striking a tree and devouring a whole forest, or a
+spark of fire breaking forth from wood being rubbed against wood,
+whether in a forest, or in the wheel of a carriage, or at last in a
+fire-drill, devised on purpose. Man then begins to wonder at what to
+him is a miracle, none the less so because it is a fact, a simple,
+natural fact. He sees the effects of a power, but he can only guess at
+its cause, and if he is to speak of it, he can only do so by speaking
+of it as an agent, or as something like a human agent, and, if in some
+respects not quite human, in others more than human or superhuman.
+Thus the concept of Fire grew; and while it became more and more
+generalized, it also became more sublime, more incomprehensible, more
+divine. Without Agni, without fire, light, and warmth, life would have
+been impossible. Hence he became the author and giver of life, of the
+life of plants and animals and of men; and his favor having once been
+implored for "light and life and all things," what wonder that in the
+minds of some poets, and in the traditions of this or that
+village-community he should have been raised to the rank of a supreme
+ruler, a god above all gods, their own true god!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We now proceed to consider the powers which the ancient poets might
+have discovered in the air, in the clouds, and, more particularly, in
+those meteoric conflicts which by thunder, lightning, darkness,
+storms, and showers of rain must have taught man that very important
+lesson that he was not alone in this world. Many philosophers, as you
+know, believe that all religion arose from fear or terror, and that
+without thunder and lightning to teach us, we should never have
+believed in any gods or god. This is a one-sided and exaggerated view.
+Thunderstorms, no doubt, had a large share in arousing feelings of
+awe and terror, and in making man conscious of his weakness and
+dependence. Even in the Veda, Indra is introduced as saying: "Yes,
+when I send thunder and lightning, then you believe in me." But what
+we call religion would never have sprung from fear and terror alone.
+_Religion is trust_, and that trust arose in the beginning from the
+impressions made on the mind and heart of man by the order and wisdom
+of nature, and more particularly by those regularly recurring events,
+the return of the sun, the revival of the moon, the order of the
+seasons, the law of cause and effect, gradually discovered in all
+things, and traced back in the end to a cause of all causes, by
+whatever name we choose to call it.
+
+Still the meteoric phenomena had, no doubt, their important share in
+the production of ancient deities; and in the poems of the Vedic
+Rishis they naturally occupy a very prominent place. If we were asked
+who was the principal god of the Vedic period, we should probably,
+judging from the remains of that poetry which we possess, say it was
+Indra, the god of the blue sky, the Indian Zeus, the gatherer of the
+clouds, the giver of rain, the wielder of the thunder-bolt, the
+conqueror of darkness, and of all the powers of darkness, the bringer
+of light, the source of freshness, vigor, and life, the ruler and lord
+of the whole world. Indra is this, and much more in the Veda. He is
+supreme in the hymns of many poets, and may have been so in the
+prayers addressed to him by many of the ancient septs or village
+communities in India. Compared with him the other gods are said to be
+decrepit old men. Heaven, the old Heaven or Dyaus, formerly the father
+of all the gods, nay the father of Indra himself, bows before him, and
+the Earth trembles at his approach. Yet Indra never commanded the
+permanent allegiance of all the other gods, like Zeus and Jupiter;
+nay, we know from the Veda itself that there were skeptics, even at
+that early time, who denied that there was any such thing as
+Indra.[223]
+
+By the side of Indra, and associated with him in his battles, and
+sometimes hardly distinguishable from him, we find the representatives
+of the wind, called Vata or Vayu, and the more terrible storm-gods,
+the Maruts, literally the Smashers.
+
+When speaking of the Wind, a poet says:[224] "Where was he born?
+Whence did he spring? the life of the gods, the germ of the world!
+That god moves about where he listeth, his voices are heard, but he is
+not to be seen."
+
+The Maruts are more terrible than Vata, the wind. They are clearly the
+representatives of such storms as are known in India, when the air is
+darkened by dust and clouds, when in a moment the trees are stripped
+of their foliage, their branches shivered, their stems snapped, when
+the earth seems to reel and the mountains to shake, and the rivers are
+lashed into foam and fury. Then the poet sees the Maruts approaching
+with golden helmets, with spotted skins on their shoulders,
+brandishing golden spears, whirling their axes, shooting fiery arrows,
+and cracking their whips amid thunder and lightning. They are the
+comrades of Indra, sometimes, like Indra, the sons of Dyaus or the
+sky, but also the sons of another terrible god, called Rudra, or the
+Howler, a fighting god, to whom many hymns are addressed. In him a new
+character is evolved, that of a healer and saviour--a very natural
+transition in India, where nothing is so powerful for dispelling
+miasmas, restoring health, and imparting fresh vigor to man and
+beast, as a thunderstorm, following after weeks of heat and drought.
+
+All these and several others, such as Par_g_anya and the _Ri_bhus, are
+the gods of mid-air, the most active and dramatic gods, ever present
+to the fancy of the ancient poets, and in several cases the prototypes
+of later heroes, celebrated in the epic poems of India. In battles,
+more particularly, these fighting gods of the sky were constantly
+invoked.[225] Indra is the leader in battles, the protector of the
+bright Aryans, the destroyer of the black aboriginal inhabitants of
+India. "He has thrown down fifty thousand black fellows," the poet
+says, "and their strongholds crumbled away like an old rag." Strange
+to say, Indra is praised for having saved his people from their
+enemies, much as Jehovah was praised by the Jewish prophets. Thus we
+read in one hymn that when Sudas, the pious king of the T_ri_tsus, was
+pressed hard in his battle with the ten kings, Indra changed the flood
+into an easy ford, and thus saved Sudas.
+
+In another hymn we read:[226] "Thou hast restrained the great river
+for the sake of Turviti Vayya: the flood moved in obedience to thee,
+and thou madest the rivers easy to cross." This is not very different
+from the Psalmist (78:13): "He divided the sea, and caused them to
+pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap."
+
+And there are other passages which have reminded some students of the
+Veda of Joshua's battle,[227] when the sun stood still and the moon
+stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.
+For we read in the Veda also, as Professor Kaegi has pointed out (l.
+c. p. 63), that "Indra lengthened the days into the night," and that
+"the Sun unharnessed its chariot in the middle of the day."[228]
+
+In some of the hymns addressed to Indra his original connection with
+the sky and the thunderstorm seems quite forgotten. He has become a
+spiritual god, the only king of all worlds and all people,[229] who
+sees and hears everything,[230] nay, who inspires men with their best
+thoughts. No one is equal to him, no one excels him.
+
+The name of Indra is peculiar to India, and must have been formed after
+the separation of the great Aryan family had taken place, for we find it
+neither in Greek, nor in Latin, nor in German. There are Vedic gods, as
+I mentioned before, whose names must have been framed before that
+separation, and which occur therefore, though greatly modified in
+character, sometimes in Greek, sometimes in Latin, sometimes in the
+Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonic dialects. D y a u s, for instance, is the
+same word as Zeus or Jupiter, U s h a s is Eos, N a k t a is Nyx, S u r
+y a is Helios, A g n i is ignis, B h a g a is Baga in Old Persian, B o g
+u in Old Slavonic, V a r u _n_ a is Uranos, V a t a is Wotan, V a _k_ is
+vox, and in the name of the _Maruts_, or the storm-gods, the germs of
+the Italic god of war, Mars, have been discovered. Besides these direct
+coincidences, some indirect relations have been established between
+Hermes and S a r a m e y a, Dionysos and D y u n i _s_ y a, Prometheus
+and p r a m a n t h a, Orpheus and _R i_ b h u, Erinnys and S a r a _n_
+y u, Pan and P a v a n a.[231]
+
+But while the name of Indra as the god of the sky, also as the god of
+the thunderstorm, and the giver of rain, is unknown among the
+north-western members of the Aryan family, the name of another god who
+sometimes acts the part of Indra (Indra_h_ Par_g_anyatma), but is much
+less prominent in the Veda, I mean Par_g_anya, must have existed
+before that of Indra, because two at least of the Aryan languages have
+carried it, as we shall see, to Germany, and to the very shores of the
+Baltic.
+
+Sometimes this Par_g_anya stands in the place of Dyaus, the sky. Thus
+we read in the Atharva-Veda, XII. 1, 12:[232] "The Earth is the
+mother, and I am the son of the Earth. Par_g_anya is the father; may
+he help us!"
+
+In another place (XII. 1, 42) the Earth, instead of being the wife of
+Heaven or Dyaus, is called the wife of Par_g_anya.
+
+Now who or what is this Par_g_anya? There have been long controversies
+about him,[233] as to whether he is the same as Dyaus, Heaven, or the
+same as Indra, the successor of Dyaus, whether he is the god of the
+sky, of the cloud, or of the rain.
+
+To me it seems that this very expression, god of the sky, god of the
+cloud, is so entire an anachronism that we could not even translate it
+into Vedic Sanskrit without committing a solecism. It is true, no doubt,
+we must use our modern ways of speaking when we wish to represent the
+thoughts of the ancient world; but we cannot be too much on our guard
+against accepting the dictionary representative of an ancient word for
+its real counterpart. Deva, no doubt, means "gods" and "god," and P a r
+_g_ a n y a means "cloud," but no one could say in Sanskrit p a r _g_ a
+n y a s y a d e v a _h_, "the god of the cloud." The god, or the divine,
+or transcendental element, does not come from without, to be added to
+the cloud or to the sky or to the earth, but it springs from the cloud
+and the sky and the earth, and is slowly elaborated into an independent
+concept. As many words in ancient languages have an undefined meaning,
+and lend themselves to various purposes according to the various
+intentions of the speakers, the names of the gods also share in this
+elastic and plastic character of ancient speech. There are passages
+where Par_g_anya means cloud, there are passages where it means rain.
+There are passages where Par_g_anya takes the place which elsewhere is
+filled by Dyaus, the sky, or by Indra, the active god of the atmosphere.
+This may seem very wrong and very unscientific to the scientific
+mythologist. But it cannot be helped. It is the nature of ancient
+thought and ancient language to be unscientific, and we must learn to
+master it as well as we can, instead of finding fault with it, and
+complaining that our forefathers did not reason exactly as we do.
+
+There are passages in the Vedic hymns where Par_g_anya appears as a
+supreme god. He is called father, like Dyaus, the sky. He is called
+a s u r a, the living or life-giving god, a name peculiar to the oldest
+and the greatest gods. One poet says,[234] "He rules as god over the
+whole world; all creatures rest in him; he is the life (atma) of all
+that moves and rests."
+
+Surely it is difficult to say more of a supreme god than what is here
+said of Par_g_anya. Yet in other hymns he is represented as performing
+his office, namely that of sending rain upon the earth, under the
+control of Mitra and Varu_n_, who are then considered as the highest
+lords, the mightiest rulers of heaven and earth.[235]
+
+There are other verses, again, where par_g_anya occurs with hardly any
+traces of personality, but simply as a name of cloud or rain.
+
+Thus we read:[236] "Even by day the Maruts (the storm-gods) produce
+darkness with the cloud that carries water, when they moisten the
+earth." Here cloud is par_g_anya, and it is evidently used as an
+appellative, and not as a proper name. The same word occurs in the
+plural also, and we read of many par_g_anyas or clouds vivifying the
+earth.[237]
+
+When Devapi prays for rain in favor of his brother, he says:[238] "O
+lord of my prayer (B_ri_haapati), whether thou be Mitra or Varu_n_a or
+Pushan, come to my sacrifice! Whether thou be together with the
+Adityas, the Vasus or the Maruts, let the cloud (par_g_anya) rain for
+_S_antanu."
+
+And again: "Stir up the rainy cloud" (par_g_anya).
+
+In several places it makes no difference whether we translate
+par_g_anya by cloud or by rain, for those who pray for rain, pray for
+the cloud, and whatever may be the benefits of the rain, they may
+nearly all be called the benefits of the cloud. There is a curious
+hymn, for instance, addressed to the frogs who, at the beginning of
+the rains, come forth from the dry ponds, and embrace each other and
+chatter together, and whom the poet compares to priests singing at a
+sacrifice, a not very complimentary remark from a poet who is himself
+supposed to have been a priest. Their voice is said to have been
+revived by par_g_anya, which we shall naturally translate "by rain,"
+though, no doubt, the poet may have meant, for all we know, either a
+cloud, or even the god Par_g_anya himself.
+
+I shall try to translate one of the hymns addressed to Par_g_anya,
+when conceived as a god, or at least as so much of a god as it was
+possible to be at that stage in the intellectual growth of the human
+race.[239]
+
+     1. "Invoke the strong god with these songs! praise
+     Par_g_anya, worship him with veneration! for he, the roaring
+     bull, scattering drops, gives seed-fruit to plants.
+
+     2. "He cuts the trees asunder, he kills evil spirits; the
+     whole world trembles before his mighty weapon. Even the
+     guiltless flees before the powerful, when Par_g_anya
+     thundering strikes down the evil-doers.
+
+     3. "Like a charioteer, striking his horses with a whip, he
+     puts forths his messenger of rain. From afar arise the
+     roarings of the lion, when Par_g_anya makes the sky full of
+     rain.
+
+     4. "The winds blow, the lightnings[240] fly, plants spring
+     up, the sky pours. Food is produced for the whole world,
+     when Par_g_anya blesses the earth with his seed.
+
+     5. "O Par_g_anya, thou at whose work the earth bows down,
+     thou at whose work hoofed animals are scattered, thou at
+     whose work the plants assume all forms, grant thou to us thy
+     great protection!
+
+     6. "O, Maruts, give us the rain of heaven, make the streams
+     of the strong horse run down! And come thou hither with thy
+     thunder, pouring out water, for thou (O Par_g_anya) art the
+     living god, thou art our father.
+
+     7. "Do thou roar, and thunder, and give fruitfulness! Fly
+     around us with thy chariot full of water! Draw forth thy
+     water-skin, when it has been opened and turned downward, and
+     let the high and the low places become level!
+
+     8. "Draw up the large bucket, and pour it out; let the
+     streams pour forth freely! Soak heaven and earth with
+     fatness! and let there be a good draught for the cows!
+
+     9. "O Par_g_anya, when roaring and thundering thou killest
+     the evil-doers, then everything rejoices, whatever lives on
+     earth.
+
+     10. "Thou hast sent rain, stop now! Thou hast made the
+     deserts passable, thou hast made plants grow for food, and
+     thou hast obtained praise from men."
+
+This is a Vedic hymn, and a very fair specimen of what these ancient
+hymns are. There is nothing very grand and poetical about them, and
+yet, I say, take thousands and thousands of people living in our
+villages, and depending on rain for their very life, and not many of
+them will be able to compose such a prayer for rain, even though three
+thousand years have passed over our heads since Par_g_anya was first
+invoked in India. Nor are these verses entirely without poetical
+conceptions and descriptions. Whoever has watched a real thunderstorm
+in a hot climate will recognize the truth of those quick sentences:
+"the winds blow, the lightnings fly, plants spring up, the hoofed
+cattle are scattered." Nor is the idea without a certain drastic
+reality, that Par_g_anya draws a bucket of water from his well in
+heaven, and pours out skin after skin (in which water was then
+carried) down upon the earth.
+
+There is even a moral sentiment perceptible in this hymn. "When the
+storms roar, and the lightnings flash and the rain pours down, even
+the guiltless trembles, and evil-doers are struck down." Here we
+clearly see that the poet did not look upon the storm simply as an
+outbreak of the violence of nature, but that he had a presentiment of
+a higher will and power which even the guiltless fears; for who, he
+seems to say, is entirely free from guilt?
+
+If now we ask again, Who is Par_g_anya? or What is Par_g_anya? we can
+answer that par_g_anya was meant originally for the cloud, so far as
+it gives rain; but as soon as the idea of a giver arose, the visible
+cloud became the outward appearance only, or the body of that giver,
+and the giver himself was somewhere else, we know not where. In some
+verses Par_g_anya seems to step into the place of Dyaus, the sky, and
+P_ri_thivi, the earth, is his wife. In other places,[241] however, he
+is the son of Dyaus or the sky, though no thought is given in that
+early stage to the fact that thus Par_g_anya might seem to be the
+husband of his mother. We saw that even the idea of Indra being the
+father of his own father did not startle the ancient poets beyond an
+exclamation that it was a very wonderful thing indeed.
+
+Sometimes Par_g_anya does the work of Indra,[242] the Jupiter Pluvius
+of the Veda; sometimes of Vayu, the wind, sometimes of Soma, the giver
+of rain. Yet with all this he is not Dyaus, nor Indra, nor the Maruts,
+nor Vayu, nor Soma. He stands by himself, a separate person, a
+separate god, as we should say--nay, one of the oldest of all the
+Aryan gods.
+
+His name, par_g_anya, is derived from a root par_g_, which, like its
+parallel forms pars and parsh, must (I think) have had the meaning of
+sprinkling, irrigating, moistening. An interchange between final _g_,
+_s_, and sh, may, no doubt, seem unusual, but it is not without parallel
+in Sanskrit. We have, for instance, the roots pi_ng_, pingere; pish, to
+rub; pi_s_, to adorn (as in pe_s_as, [Greek: poikilos], etc.); m_rig_,
+to rub, m_ri_sh, to rub out, to forget; m_ris_, mulcere.
+
+This very root m_rig_ forms its participle as m_ri_sh-_t_a, like
+ya_g_, ish_t_a, and vi_s_, vish_t_a; nay there are roots, such as
+druh, which optionally take a final lingual or guttural, such as
+dhru_t_ and dhruk.[243]
+
+We may therefore compare par_g_ in par_g_anya with such words as
+p_ri_shata, p_ri_shati, speckled, drop of water;[244] also par_s_u,
+cloud, p_ris_ni, speckled, cloud, earth; and in Greek [Greek: prox(o)],
+[Greek: perknos], etc.[245]
+
+If derived from par_g_, to sprinkle, Par_g_anya would have meant
+originally "he who irrigates or gives rain."[246]
+
+When the different members of the Aryan family dispersed, they might
+all of them, Hindus as well as Greeks and Celts, and Teutons and
+Slaves, have carried that name for cloud with them. But you know that
+it happened very often that out of the commonwealth of their ancient
+language, one and the same word was preserved, as the case might be,
+not by all, but by only six, or five, or four, or three, or two, or
+even by one only of the seven principal heirs; and yet, as we know
+that there was no historical contact between them, after they had once
+parted from each other, long before the beginning of what we call
+history, the fact that two of the Aryan languages have preserved the
+same finished word with the same finished meaning, is proof sufficient
+that it belonged to the most ancient treasure of Aryan thought.
+
+Now there is no trace, at least no very clear trace, of Par_g_anya, in
+Greek, or Latin, or Celtic, or even in Teutonic. In Slavonic, too, we
+look in vain, till we come to that almost forgotten side-branch called
+the _Lettic_, comprising the spoken _Lituanian_ and _Lettish_, and the
+now extinct _Old Prussian_. Lituania is no longer an independent
+state, but it was once, not more than six centuries ago, a Grand
+Duchy, independent both of Russia and Poland. Its first Grand Duke was
+Ringold, who ruled from 1235, and his successors made successful
+conquests against the Russians. In 1368 these grand dukes became kings
+of Poland, and in 1569 the two countries were united. When Poland was
+divided between Russia and Prussia, part of Lituania fell to the
+former, part to the latter. There are still about one million and a
+half of people who speak Lituanian in Russia and Prussia, while
+Lettish is spoken by about one million in Curland and Livonia.
+
+The Lituanian language even as it is now spoken by the common people,
+contains some extremely primitive grammatical forms--in some cases
+almost identical with Sanskrit. These forms are all the more curious,
+because they are but few in number, and the rest of the language has
+suffered much from the wear and tear of centuries.
+
+Now in that remote Lituanian language we find that our old friend
+Par_g_anya has taken refuge. There he lives to the present day, while
+even in India he is almost forgotten, at least in the spoken
+languages; and there, in Lituania, not many centuries back might be
+heard among a Christianized or nearly Christianized people, prayers
+for rain, not very different from that which I translated to you from
+the Rig-Veda. In Lituanian the god of thunder was called
+_Perkunas_,[247] and the same word is still used in the sense of
+thunder. In Old Prussian, thunder was _percunos_, and in Lettish to
+the present day _perkons_ is thunder, god of thunder.[248]
+
+It was, I believe, Grimm who for the first time identified the Vedic
+Par_g_anya with the Old Slavonic Perun, the Polish Piorun, the
+Bohemian Peraun. These words had formerly been derived by Dobrovsky
+and others from the root peru, I strike. Grimm ("Teutonic Mythology,"
+Engl. transl., p. 171) showed that the fuller forms Perkunas,
+Pehrkons, and Perkunos existed in Lituanian, Lettish, Old Prussian,
+and that even the Mordvinians had adopted the name Porguini as that of
+their thunder-god.
+
+Simon Grunau, who finished his chronicle in 1521, speaks of three
+gods, as worshipped by the Old Prussians, Patollo, Patrimpo, and
+Perkuno, and he states that Perkuno was invoked "for storm's sake,
+that they might have rain and fair weather at the proper time, and
+thunder and lightning should not injure them."[249]
+
+The following Lituanian prayer has been preserved to us by
+Lasitzki:[250]
+
+     "Check thyself, O Percuna, and do not send misfortune on my
+     field! and I shall give thee this flitch."
+
+Among the neighbors of the Lets, the Esthonians, who, though un-Aryan
+in language, have evidently learned much from their Aryan neighbors,
+the following prayer was heard,[251] addressed by an old peasant to
+their god _Picker_ or _Picken_, the god of thunder and rain, as late
+as the seventeenth century.[252]
+
+     "Dear Thunder (woda Picker), we offer to thee an ox that has
+     two horns and four cloven hoofs; we would pray thee for our
+     ploughing and sowing, that our straw be copper-red, our
+     grain golden-yellow. Push elsewhere all the thick black
+     clouds, over great fens, high forests, and wildernesses. But
+     unto us, ploughers and sowers, give a fruitful season and
+     sweet rain. Holy Thunder (poeha Picken), guard our
+     seed-field, that it bear good straw below, good ears above,
+     and good grain within."[253]
+
+Now, I say again, I do not wish you to admire this primitive poetry,
+primitive, whether it is repeated in the Esthonian fens in the
+seventeenth century of our era, or sung in the valley of the Indus in
+the seventeenth century before our era. Let aesthetic critics say what
+they like about these uncouth poems. I only ask you, Is it not worth a
+great many poems, to have established this fact, that the same god
+Par_g_anya, the god of clouds and thunder and lightning and rain, who
+was invoked in India a thousand years before India was discovered by
+Alexander, should have been remembered and believed in by Lituanian
+peasants on the frontier between East Prussia and Russia, not more
+than two hundred years ago, and should have retained its old name
+Par_g_anya, which in Sanskrit meant "showering," under the form of
+_Perkuna_, which in Lituanian is a name and a name only, without any
+etymological meaning at all; nay, should live on, as some scholars
+assure us, in an abbreviated form in most Slavonic dialects, namely,
+in Old Slavonic as _Perun_, in Polish as _Piorun_, in Bohemian as
+_Peraun_, all meaning thunder or thunderstorm?[254]
+
+Such facts strike me as if we saw the blood suddenly beginning to flow
+again through the veins of old mummies; or as if the Egyptian statues
+of black granite were suddenly to begin to speak again. Touched by the
+rays of modern science the old words--call them mummies or
+statues--begin indeed to live again, the old names of gods and heroes
+begin indeed to speak again.
+
+All that is old becomes new, all that is new becomes old, and that one
+word, Par_g_anya, seems, like a charm, to open before our eyes the
+cave or cottage in which the fathers of the Aryan race, our own
+fathers--whether we live on the Baltic or on the Indian Ocean--are
+seen gathered together, taking refuge from the buckets of Par_g_anya,
+and saying, "Stop now, Par_g_anya; thou hast sent rain; thou hast made
+the deserts passable, and hast made the plants to grow; and thou hast
+obtained praise from man."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We have still to consider the third class of gods, in addition to the
+gods of the earth and the sky, namely the gods of the highest heaven,
+more serene in their character than the active and fighting gods of
+the air and the clouds, and more remote from the eyes of man, and
+therefore more mysterious in the exercise of their power than the gods
+of the earth or the air.
+
+The principal deity is here no doubt the bright sky itself, the old
+_Dyaus_, worshipped as we know by the Aryans before they broke up into
+separate people and languages, and surviving in Greece as Zeus, in
+Italy as Jupiter, Heaven-father, and among the Teutonic tribes as
+_Tyr_ and _Tiu_. In the Veda we saw him chiefly invoked in
+connection with the earth, as Dyava-p_ri_thivi, Heaven and Earth. He
+is invoked by himself also, but he is a vanishing god, and his place
+is taken in most of the Vedic poems by the younger and more active
+god, _Indra_.
+
+Another representative of the highest heaven, as covering, embracing,
+and shielding all things, is Varu_n_a, a name derived from the root
+var, to cover, and identical with the Greek _Ouranos_. This god is one
+of the most interesting creations of the Hindu mind, because though
+we can still perceive the physical background from which he rises, the
+vast, starry, brilliant expanse above, his features, more than those
+of any of the Vedic gods, have become completely transfigured, and he
+stands before us as a god who watches over the world, punishes the
+evil-doer, and even forgives the sins of those who implore his pardon.
+
+I shall read you one of the hymns addressed to him:[255]
+
+     "Let us be blessed in thy service, O Varu_n_a, for we always
+     think of thee and praise thee, greeting thee day by day,
+     like the fires lighted on the altar, at the approach of the
+     rich dawns."    2.
+
+     "O Varu_n_a, our guide, let us stand in thy keeping, thou
+     who art rich in heroes and praised far and wide! And you,
+     unconquered sons of Aditi, deign to accept us as your
+     friends, O gods!"    3.
+
+     "Aditya, the ruler, sent forth these rivers; they follow the
+     law of Varu_n_a. They tire not, they cease not; like birds
+     they fly quickly everywhere."    4.
+
+     "Take from me my sin, like a fetter, and we shall increase,
+     O Varu_n_a, the spring of thy law. Let not the thread be cut
+     while I weave my song! Let not the form of the workman break
+     before the time!    5.
+
+     "Take far away from me this terror, O Varu_n_a; Thou, O
+     righteous king, have mercy on me! Like as a rope from a
+     calf, remove from me my sin; for away from thee I am not
+     master even of the twinkling of an eye."    6.
+
+     "Do not strike us, Varu_n_a, with weapons which at thy will
+     hurt the evil-doer. Let us not go where the light has
+     vanished! Scatter our enemies, that we may live."    7.
+
+     "We did formerly, O Varu_n_a, and do now, and shall in
+     future also, sing praises to thee, O mighty one! For on
+     thee, unconquerable hero, rest all statutes, immovable, as
+     if established on a rock."    8.
+
+     "Move far away from me all self-committed guilt, and may I
+     not, O king, suffer for what others have committed! Many
+     dawns have not yet dawned; grant us to live in them, O
+     Varu_n_a."    9.
+
+You may have observed that in several verses of this hymn Varu_n_a was
+called Aditya, or son of Aditi. Now Aditi means _infinitude_, from
+_dita_, bound, and _a_, not, that is, not bound, not limited,
+absolute, infinite. Aditi itself is now and then invoked in the Veda,
+as the Beyond, as what is beyond the earth and the sky, and the sun
+and the dawn--a most surprising conception in that early period of
+religious thought. More frequently, however, than Aditi, we meet with
+the Adityas, literally the sons of Aditi, or the gods beyond the
+visible earth and sky--in one sense, the infinite gods. One of them is
+Varu_n_a, others Mitra and Aryaman (Bhaga, Daksha, A_ms_a), most of
+them abstract names, though pointing to heaven and the solar light of
+heaven as their first, though almost forgotten source.
+
+When Mitra and Varu_n_a are invoked together, we can still perceive
+dimly that they were meant originally for day and night, light and
+darkness. But in their more personal and so to say dramatic aspect,
+day and night appear in the Vedic mythology as the two A_s_vins, the
+two horsemen.
+
+Aditi, too, the infinite, still shows a few traces of her being
+originally connected with the boundless Dawn; but again, in her more
+personal and dramatic character, the Dawn is praised by the Vedic
+poets as Ushas, the Greek Eos, the beautiful maid of the morning,
+loved by the A_s_vins, loved by the sun, but vanishing before him at
+the very moment when he tries to embrace her with his golden rays. The
+sun himself, whom we saw reflected several times before in some of the
+divine personifications of the air and the sky and even of the earth,
+appears once more in his full personality, as the sun of the sky,
+under the names of Surya (Helios), Savit_ri_, Pushan, and Vish_n_u,
+and many more.
+
+You see from all this how great a mistake it would be to attempt to
+reduce the whole of Aryan mythology to solar concepts, and to solar
+concepts only. We have seen how largely the earth, the air, and the
+sky have each contributed their share to the earliest religious and
+mythological treasury of the Vedic Aryans. Nevertheless, the Sun
+occupied in that ancient collection of Aryan thought, which we call
+Mythology, the same central and commanding position which, under
+different names, it still holds in our own thoughts.
+
+What we call the Morning, the ancient Aryans called the Sun or the
+Dawn; "and there is no solemnity so deep to a rightly-thinking
+creature as that of the Dawn." (These are not my words, but the words
+of one of our greatest poets, one of the truest worshippers of
+Nature--John Ruskin.) What we call Noon, and Evening, and Night, what
+we call Spring and Winter, what we call Year, and Time, and Life, and
+Eternity--all this the ancient Aryans called _Sun_. And yet wise
+people wonder and say, How curious that the ancient Aryans should have
+had so many solar myths. Why, every time we say "Good-morning," we
+commit a solar myth. Every poet who sings about "the May driving the
+Winter from the field again" commits a solar myth. Every "Christmas
+number" of our newspapers--ringing out the old year and ringing in the
+new--is brimful of solar myths. Be not afraid of solar myths, but
+whenever in ancient mythology you meet with a name that, according to
+the strictest phonetic rules (for this is a _sine qua non_), can be
+traced back to a word meaning sun, or dawn, or morning, or night, or
+spring or winter, accept it for what it was meant to be, and do not be
+greatly surprised, if a story told of a solar eponymos was originally
+a solar myth.
+
+No one has more strongly protested against the extravagances of
+comparative mythologists in changing everything into solar legends,
+than I have; but if I read some of the arguments brought forward
+against this new science, I confess they remind me of nothing so much
+as of the arguments brought forward, centuries ago, against the
+existence of Antipodes! People then appealed to what is called Common
+Sense, which ought to teach everybody that Antipodes could not
+possibly exist, because they would tumble off. The best answer that
+astronomers could give, was, "Go and see." And I can give no better
+answer to those learned skeptics who try to ridicule the Science of
+Comparative Mythology--"Go and see!" that is, go and read the Veda,
+and before you have finished the first Ma_nd_ala, I can promise you,
+you will no longer shake your wise heads at solar myths, whether in
+India, or in Greece, or in Italy, or even in England, where we see so
+little of the sun, and talk all the more about the weather--that is,
+about a solar myth.
+
+We have thus seen from the hymns and prayers preserved to us in the
+Rig-Veda, how a large number of so-called Devas, bright and sunny
+beings, or gods, were called into existence, how the whole world was
+peopled with them, and every act of nature, whether on the earth or in
+the air or in the highest heaven, ascribed to their agency. When we
+say _it_ thunders, they said Indra thunders; when we say, _it_ rains,
+they said Par_g_anya pours out his buckets; when we say, _it_ dawns,
+they said the beautiful Ushas appears like a dancer, displaying her
+splendor; when we say; _it_ grows dark, they said Surya unharnesses
+his steeds. The whole of nature was alive to the poets of the Veda,
+the presence of the gods was felt everywhere, and in that sentiment of
+the presence of the gods there was a germ of religious morality,
+sufficiently strong, it would seem, to restrain people from committing
+as it were before the eyes of their gods what they were ashamed to
+commit before the eyes of men. When speaking of Varu_n_a, the old god
+of the sky, one poet says:[256]
+
+    "Varu_n_a, the great lord of these worlds, sees as if he were
+    near. If a man stands or walks or hides, if he goes to lie
+    down or to get up, what two people sitting together whisper
+    to each other, King Varu_n_a knows it, he is there as the
+    third.[257] This earth too belongs to Varu_n_a, the King, and
+    this wide sky with its ends far apart. The two seas (the sky
+    and the ocean) are Varu_n_a's loins; he is also contained in
+    this small drop of water. He who should flee far beyond the
+    sky, even he would not be rid of Varu_n_a, the King.[258] His
+    spies proceed from heaven toward this world; with thousand
+    eyes they overlook this earth. King Varu_n_a sees all this,
+    what is between heaven and earth, and what is beyond. He has
+    counted the twinklings of the eyes of men. As a player throws
+    down the dice, he settles all things (irrevocably). May all
+    thy fatal snares which stand spread out seven by seven and
+    threefold, catch the man who tells a lie, may they pass by
+    him who speaks the truth."
+
+You see this is as beautiful, and in some respects as true, as
+anything in the Psalms. And yet we know that there never was such a
+Deva, or god, or such a thing as Varu_n_a. We know it is a mere name,
+meaning originally "covering or all-embracing," which was applied to
+the visible starry sky, and afterward, by a process perfectly
+intelligible, developed into the name of a Being, endowed with human
+and superhuman qualities.
+
+And what applies to Varu_n_a applies to all the other gods of the Veda
+and the Vedic religion, whether three in number, or thirty-three, or,
+as one poet said, "three thousand three hundred and thirty-nine
+gods."[259] They are all but names, quite as much as Jupiter and
+Apollo and Minerva; in fact, quite as much as all the gods of every
+religion who are called by such appellative titles.
+
+Possibly, if any one had said this during the Vedic age in India, or
+even during the Periklean age in Greece, he would have been called,
+like Sokrates, a blasphemer or an atheist. And yet nothing can be
+clearer or truer, and we shall see that some of the poets of the Veda
+too, and, still more, the later Vedantic philosopher, had a clear
+insight that it was so.
+
+Only let us be careful in the use of that phrase "it is a mere name."
+No name is a mere name. Every name was originally meant for something;
+only it often failed to express what it was meant to express, and then
+became a weak or an empty name, or what we then call "a mere name." So
+it was with these names of the Vedic gods. They were all meant to
+express the _Beyond_, the Invisible behind the Visible, the Infinite
+within the Finite, the Supernatural above the Natural, the Divine,
+omnipresent, and omnipotent. They failed in expressing what, by its
+very nature, must always remain inexpressible. But that Inexpressible
+itself remained, and in spite of all these failures, it never
+succumbed, or vanished from the mind of the ancient thinkers and
+poets, but always called for new and better names, nay calls for them
+even now, and will call for them to the very end of man's existence
+upon earth.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 221: Muir, iv. p. 209]
+
+[Footnote 222: Muir, iv. p. 214.]
+
+[Footnote 223: Hibbert Lectures, p. 307.]
+
+[Footnote 224: X. 168, 3, 4.]
+
+[Footnote 225: See Kaegi, Rig-Veda, p. 61.]
+
+[Footnote 226: Rig-Veda II. 13, 12; IV. 19, 6.]
+
+[Footnote 227: Joshua x. 13.]
+
+[Footnote 228: Rig-Veda IV. 30, 3; X. 138, 3.]
+
+[Footnote 229: L. c. VIII. 37, 3.]
+
+[Footnote 230: L. c. VIII. 78, 5.]
+
+[Footnote 231: I am very strongly inclined to regard these names as
+Kushite or Semitic; Hermes, from [Hebrew: Cherem], the sun; Dionysos,
+from _dyan_, the judge, and _nisi_, mankind; Orpheus, from _Orfa_, the
+Arabic name of Edessa; Prometheus, from _pro_ and _manthano_, to
+learn.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 232: Muir, iv. p. 23.]
+
+[Footnote 233: Ibid. p. 142. An excellent paper on Par_g_anya was
+published by Buehler in 1862, "Orient und Occident," vol. i. p. 214.]
+
+[Footnote 234: Rig-Veda VII. 101, 6.]
+
+[Footnote 235: Rig-Veda V. 63, 3-6.]
+
+[Footnote 236: L. c. I. 38, 9.]
+
+[Footnote 237: L. c. I. 164, 51.]
+
+[Footnote 238: L. c. X. 98, 1.]
+
+[Footnote 239: Rig-Veda V. 83. See Buehler, "Orient und Occident," vol.
+i. p. 214; Zimmer, "Altindisches Leben," p. 43.]
+
+[Footnote 240: Both Buehler ("Orient und Occident," vol. i, p. 224) and
+Zimmer (Z. f. D. A. vii. p. 169) say that the lightning is represented
+as the son of Par_g_anya in Rig-Veda VII. 101, 1. This seems
+doubtful.]
+
+[Footnote 241: Rig-Veda VII. 102, 1.]
+
+[Footnote 242: L. c. VIII. 6, 1.]
+
+[Footnote 243: See Max Mueller, Sanskrit Grammar, Sec. 174, 10.]
+
+[Footnote 244: Cf. Gobh. G_ri_hya S. III. 3, 15,
+vidyut--stanayitnu--p_ri_shiteshu.]
+
+[Footnote 245: U_gg_valadatta, in his commentary on the
+U_n_adi-sutras, iii. 103. admits the same transition of sh into _g_ in
+the verb p_ri_sh, as the etymon of par_g_anya.]
+
+[Footnote 246: For different etymologies, see Buehler, "Orient und
+Occident," i. p. 214; Muir, "Original Sanskrit Texts," v. p. 140;
+Grassmann, in his Dictionary to the Rig-Veda, s. v.; Zimmer,
+"Zeitscrift fuer Deutsches Alterthum, Neue Folge," vii. p. 164.]
+
+[Footnote 247: In order to identify Perkunas with Par_g_anya, we must
+go another step backward, and look upon _g_ or g, in the root parg, as
+a weakening of an original k in park. This, however, is a frequent
+phonetic process. See Buehler, in Benfey's "Orient und Occident," ii.
+p. 717.]
+
+[Footnote 248: Lituanian perkun-kulke, thunder-bolt, perkuno gaisis,
+storm. See Voelkel, "Die lettischen Sprachreste," 1879, p. 23.]
+
+[Footnote 249: "Perkuno, war der dritte Abgott und man ihn anruffte
+um's Gewitters willen, damit sie Regen haetten und schoen wetter zu
+seiner Zeit, und ihn der Donner und blix kein schaden thett." Cf.
+"Gottesides bei den alten Preussen," Berlin, 1870, p. 23. The triad of
+the gods is called Triburti, Tryboze; l. c. p. 29.]
+
+[Footnote 250: Grimm, "Teutonic Mythology," p. 175; and Lasitzki
+(Lasicius) "Joannes De Russorum, Moscovitarum et Tartarorum religione,
+sacrificiis, nuptiarum et funerum ritu, Spirae Nemetum," 1582; idem De
+Diis Samagitarum.]
+
+[Footnote 251: Grimm, l. c. p. 176, quoting from Joh. Gutslaff,
+"Kurzer Bericht und Unterricht von der falsch heilig genannten Baeche
+in Liefland Woehhanda," Dorpat, 1644, pp. 362-364.]
+
+[Footnote 252: In modern Esthonian Pitkne, the Finnish Pitcainen(?).]
+
+[Footnote 253: On foreign influences in Esthonian stories, see
+"Ehstniche Maerchen," von T. Kreutzwald, 1869, Vorwort (by Schiefner),
+p. iv.]
+
+[Footnote 254: Grimm suggests in his "Teutonic Mythology" that
+Par_g_anya should be identified with the Gothic fairguni, or mountain.
+He imagines that from being regarded as the abode of the god it had
+finally been called by his name. Ferg_unn_a and V_ir_gu_n_ia, two
+names of mountains in Germany, are relics of the name. The name of the
+god, if preserved in the Gothic, would have been Fairguneis; and
+indeed in the Old Norse language Fioergynn is the father of Frigg, the
+wife of Odin, and Fioergynnior, the Earth-goddess, is mother of Thor.
+Professor Zimmer takes the same view. Grimm thinks that the Greeks and
+Romans, by changing _f_ into _h_, represented Fergunni by Hercynia,
+and, in fine, he traces the words _ber_g and _bur_g back to
+Parganya.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 255: Rig-Veda II. 28.]
+
+[Footnote 256: Atharva-Veda IV. 16.]
+
+[Footnote 257: Psalm cxxxix. 1, 2, "O Lord, thou hast searched me and
+known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou
+understandest my thought afar off."]
+
+[Footnote 258: Psalm cxxxix. 9, "If I take the wings of the morning,
+and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand
+lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."]
+
+[Footnote 259: Rig-veda III. 9, 9; X. 52, 6.]
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE VII.
+
+VEDA AND VEDANTA.
+
+
+I do not wonder that I should have been asked by some of my hearers to
+devote part of my last lecture to answering the question, how the
+Vedic literature could have been composed and preserved, if writing
+was unknown in India before 500 B.C., while the hymns of the Rig-Veda
+are said to date from 1500 B.C. Classical scholars naturally ask what
+is the date of our oldest MSS. of the Rig-Veda, and what is the
+evidence on which so high an antiquity is assigned to its contents. I
+shall try to answer this question as well as I can, and I shall begin
+with a humble confession that the oldest MSS. of the Rig-Veda, known
+to us at present, date not from 1500 B.C., but from about 1500 A.D.
+
+We have therefore a gap of three thousand years, which it will require
+a strong arch of argument to bridge over.
+
+But that is not all.
+
+You may know how, in the beginning of this century, when the age of
+the Homeric poems was discussed, a German scholar, Frederick August
+Wolf, asked two momentous questions:
+
+     1. At what time did the Greeks first become acquainted with
+     the alphabet and use it for inscriptions on public
+     monuments, coins, shields, and for contracts, both public
+     and private?[260]
+
+     2. At what time did the Greeks first think of using writing
+     for literary purposes, and what materials did they employ
+     for that purpose?
+
+These two questions and the answers they elicited threw quite a new
+light on the nebulous periods of Greek literature. A fact more firmly
+established than any other in the ancient history of Greece is that
+the Ionians learned the alphabet from the Phenicians. The Ionians
+always called their letters Phenician letters,[261] and the very name
+of Alphabet was a Phenician word. We can well understand that the
+Phenicians should have taught the Ionians in Asia Minor a knowledge of
+the alphabet, partly for commercial purposes, _i.e._ for making
+contracts, partly for enabling them to use those useful little sheets,
+called _Periplus_, or _Circumnavigations_, which at that time were as
+precious to sailors as maps were to the adventurous seamen of the
+middle ages. But from that to a written literature, in our sense of
+the word, there is still a wide step. It is well known that the
+Germans, particularly in the North, had their Runes for inscriptions
+on tombs, goblets, public monuments, but not for literary
+purposes.[262] Even if a few Ionians at Miletus and other centres of
+political and commercial life acquired the art of writing, where could
+they find writing materials? and still more important, where could
+they find readers? The Ionians, when they began to write, had to be
+satisfied with a hide or pieces of leather, which they called
+_diphthera_, and until that was brought to the perfection of vellum
+or parchment, the occupation of an author cannot have been very
+agreeable.[263]
+
+So far as we know at present the Ionians began to write about the
+middle of the sixth century B.C.; and, whatever may have been said to
+the contrary, Wolf's _dictum_ still holds good that with them the
+beginning of a written literature was the same as the beginning of
+prose writing.
+
+Writing at that time was an effort, and such an effort was made for some
+great purpose only. Hence the first written skins were what we should
+call Murray's Handbooks, called _Periegesis_ or _Periodos_, or, if
+treating of sea-voyages, _Periplus_, that is, guide-books, books to lead
+travellers round a country or round a town. Connected with these
+itineraries were the accounts of the foundations of cities, the
+_Ktisis_. Such books existed in Asia Minor during the sixth and fifth
+centuries, and their writers were called by a general term,
+_Logographi_, or [Greek: logioi] or [Greek: logopoioi],[264] as opposed
+to [Greek: aoidoi], the poets. They were the forerunners of the Greek
+historians, and Herodotus (443 B.C.), the so-called father of history,
+made frequent use of their works.
+
+The whole of this incipient literary activity belonged to Asia Minor.
+From "Guides through towns and countries," literature seems to have
+spread at an early time to Guides through life, or philosophical
+dicta, such as are ascribed to Anaximander the Ionian (610-547
+B.C.[265]), and Pherekydes the Syrian (540 B.C.). These names carry us
+into the broad daylight of history, for Anaximander was the teacher of
+Anaximenes, Anaximenes of Anaxagoras, and Anaxagoras of Perikles. At
+that time writing was a recognized art, and its cultivation had been
+rendered possible chiefly through trade with Egypt and the importation
+of _papyros_. In the time of AEschylos (500 B.C.) the idea of writing
+had become so familiar that he could use it again and again in
+poetical metaphors,[266] and there seems little reason why we should
+doubt that both Peisistratos (528 B.C.) and Polykrates of Samos (523
+B.C.) were among the first collectors of Greek manuscripts.
+
+In this manner the simple questions asked by Wolf helped to reduce the
+history of ancient Greek literature to some kind of order,
+particularly with reference to its first beginnings.
+
+It would therefore seem but reasonable that the two first questions to
+be asked by the students of Sanskrit literature should have been:
+
+     1. At what time did the people of India become acquainted
+     with an alphabet?
+
+     2. At what time did they first use such alphabet for
+     literary purposes?
+
+Curiously enough, however, these questions remained in abeyance for a
+long time, and, as a consequence, it was impossible to introduce even
+the first elements of order into the chaos of ancient Sanskrit
+literature.[267]
+
+I can here state a few facts only. There are no inscriptions to be
+found anywhere in India before the middle of the third century B.C.
+These inscriptions are Buddhist, put up during the reign of A_s_oka,
+the grandson of _K_andragupta, who was the contemporary of Seleucus,
+and at whose court in Patalibothra Megasthenes lived as ambassador of
+Seleucus. Here, as you see, we are on historical ground. In fact,
+there is little doubt that A_s_oka, the king who put up these
+inscriptions in several parts of his vast kingdom, reigned from
+259-222 B.C.
+
+These inscriptions are written in two alphabets--one written from
+right to left, and clearly derived from an Aramaaean, that is, a
+Semitic alphabet; the other written from left to right, and clearly an
+adaptation, and an artificial or systematic adaptation, of a Semitic
+alphabet to the requirements of an Indian language. That second
+alphabet became the source of all Indian alphabets, and of many
+alphabets carried chiefly by Buddhist teachers far beyond the limits
+of India, though it is possible that the earliest Tamil alphabet may
+have been directly derived from the same Semitic source which supplied
+both the _dextrorsum_ and the _sinistrorsum_ alphabets of India.
+
+Here then we have the first fact--viz. that writing, even for
+monumental purposes, was unknown in India before the third century
+B.C.
+
+But writing for commercial purposes was known in India before that
+time. Megasthenes was no doubt quite right when he said that the
+Indians did not know letters,[268] that their laws were not written,
+and that they administered justice from memory. But Nearchus, the
+admiral of Alexander the Great, who sailed down the Indus (325 B.C.),
+and was therefore brought in contact with the merchants frequenting
+the maritime stations of India, was probably equally right in
+declaring that "the Indians wrote letters on cotton that had been well
+beaten together." These were no doubt commercial documents, contracts,
+it may be, with Phenician or Egyptian captains, and they would prove
+nothing as to the existence in India at that time of what we mean by a
+written literature. In fact, Nearchus himself affirms what Megasthenes
+said after him, namely that "the laws of the sophists in India were
+not written." If, at the same time, the Greek travellers in India
+speak of mile-stones, and of cattle marked by the Indians with various
+signs and also with numbers, all this would perfectly agree with what
+we know from other sources, that though the art of writing may have
+reached India before the time of Alexander's conquest, its employment
+for literary purposes cannot date from a much earlier time.
+
+Here then we are brought face to face with a most startling fact.
+Writing was unknown in India before the fourth century before Christ,
+and yet we are asked to believe that the Vedic literature in its three
+well-defined periods, the Mantra, Brahma_n_a, and Sutra periods, goes
+back to at least a thousand years before our era.
+
+Now the Rig-Veda alone, which contains a collection of ten books of
+hymns addressed to various deities, consists of 1017 (1028) poems,
+10,580 verses, and about 153,826 words.[269] How were these poems
+composed--for they are composed in very perfect metre--and how, after
+having been composed, were they handed down from 1500 before Christ to
+1500 after Christ, the time to which most of our best Sanskrit MSS.
+belong?
+
+_Entirely by memory._[270] This may sound startling, but--what will
+sound still more startling, and yet is a fact that can easily be
+ascertained by anybody who doubts it--at the present moment, if every
+MS. of the Rig-Veda were lost, we should be able to recover the whole
+of it--from the memory of the _S_rotriyas in India. These native
+students learn the Veda by heart, and they learn it from the mouth of
+their Guru, never from a MS., still less from my printed edition--and
+after a time they teach it again to their pupils.
+
+I have had such students in my room at Oxford, who not only could
+repeat these hymns, but who repeated them with the proper accents (for
+the Vedic Sanskrit has accents like Greek), nay, who, when looking
+through my printed edition of the Rig-Veda, could point out a misprint
+without the slightest hesitation.
+
+I can tell you more. There are hardly any various readings in our MSS.
+of the Rig-Veda, but various schools in India have their own readings
+of certain passages, and they hand down those readings with great
+care. So, instead of collating MSS., as we do in Greek and Latin, I
+have asked some friends of mine to collate those Vedic students, who
+carry their own Rig-Veda in their memory, and to let me have the
+various readings from these living authorities.
+
+Here then we are not dealing with theories, but with facts, which
+anybody may verify. The whole of the Rig-Veda, and a great deal more,
+still exists at the present moment in the oral tradition of a number
+of scholars who, if they liked, could write down every letter, and
+every accent, exactly as we find them in our old MSS. Of course, this
+learning by heart is carried on under a strict discipline; it is, in
+fact, considered as a sacred duty. A native friend of mine, himself a
+very distinguished Vedic scholar, tells me that a boy, who is to be
+brought up as a student of the Rig-Veda, has to spend about eight
+years in the house of his teacher. He has to learn ten books: first,
+the hymns of the Rig-Veda; then a prose treatise on sacrifices, called
+the Brahma_n_a; then the so-called Forest-book or Ara_n_yaka; then the
+rules on domestic ceremonies; and lastly, six treatises on
+pronunciation, grammar, etymology, metre, astronomy, and ceremonial.
+
+These ten books, it has been calculated, contain nearly 30,000 lines,
+each line reckoned as thirty-two syllables.
+
+A pupil studies every day during the eight years of his theological
+apprenticeship, except on the holidays, which are called "non-reading
+days." There being 360 days in a lunar year, the eight years would
+give him 2880 days. Deduct from this 384 holidays, and you get 2496
+working days during the eight years. If you divide the number of
+lines, 30,000, by the number of working days, you get about twelve
+lines to be learned each day, though much time is taken up, in
+addition, for practising and rehearsing what has been learned before.
+
+Now this is the state of things at present, though I doubt whether it
+will last much longer, and I always impress on my friends in India,
+and therefore impress on those also who will soon be settled as civil
+servants in India, the duty of trying to learn all that can still be
+learned from those living libraries. Much ancient Sanskrit lore will
+be lost forever when that race of _S_rotriyas becomes extinct.
+
+But now let us look back. About a thousand years ago a Chinese of the
+name of I-tsing, a Buddhist, went to India to learn Sanskrit, in order
+to be able to translate some of the sacred books of his own religion,
+which were originally written in Sanskrit, into Chinese. He left China
+in 671, arrived at Tamralipti in India in 673, and went to the great
+College and Monastery of Nalanda, where he studied Sanskrit. He
+returned to China in 695, and died in 703.[271]
+
+In one of his works which we still possess in Chinese, he gives an
+account of what he saw in India, not only among his own
+co-religionists, the Buddhists, but likewise among the Brahmans.[272]
+
+Of the Buddhist priests he says that after they have learned to recite
+the five and the ten precepts, they are taught the 400 hymns of
+Mat_rik_eta, and afterward the 150 hymns of the same poet. When they
+are able to recite these, they begin the study of the Sutras of their
+Sacred Canon. They also learn by heart the _G_atakamala,[273] which
+gives an account of Buddha in former states of existence. Speaking of
+what he calls the islands of the Southern Sea, which he visited after
+leaving India, I-tsing says: "There are more than ten islands in the
+South Sea. There both priests and laymen recite the _G_atakamala, as
+they recite the hymns mentioned before; but it has not yet been
+translated into Chinese."
+
+One of these stories, he proceeds to say, was versified by a king
+(_K_ie-zhih) and set to music, and was performed before the public
+with a band and dancing--evidently a Buddhist mystery play.
+
+I-tsing then gives a short account of the system of education.
+Children, he says, learn the forty-nine letters and the 10,000
+compound letters when they are six years old, and generally finish
+them in half a year. This corresponds to about 300 verses, each
+_s_loka of thirty-two syllables. It was originally taught by
+Mahe_s_vara. At eight years, children begin to learn the grammar of
+Pa_n_ini, and know it after about eight months. It consists of 1000
+_s_lokas, called Sutras.
+
+Then follows the list of roots (dhatu) and the three appendices
+(khila), consisting again of 1000 _s_lokas. Boys begin the three
+appendices when they are ten years old, and finish them in three
+years.
+
+When they have reached the age of fifteen, they begin to study a
+commentary on the grammar (Sutra), and spend five years on learning
+it. And here I-tsing gives the following advice to his countrymen,
+many of whom came to India to learn Sanskrit, but seem to have learned
+it very imperfectly. "If men of China," he writes, "go to India,
+wishing to study there, they should first of all learn these
+grammatical works, and then only other subjects; if not, they will
+merely waste their labor. These works should be learned by heart. But
+this is suited for men of high quality only.... They should study hard
+day and night, without letting a moment pass for idle repose. They
+should be like Confucius, through whose hard study the binding of his
+Yih-king was three times cut asunder, being worn away; and like
+Sui-shih, who used to read a book repeatedly one hundred times." Then
+follows a remark, more intelligible in Chinese than in English: "The
+hairs of a bull are counted by thousands, the horn of a unicorn is
+only one."
+
+I-tsing then speaks of the high degree of perfection to which the
+memory of these students attained, both among Buddhists and heretics.
+"Such men," he says, "could commit to memory the contents of two
+volumes, learning them only once."
+
+And then turning to the _heretics_, or what we should call the
+orthodox Brahmans, he says: "The Brahma_n_as are regarded throughout
+the five divisions of India as the most respectable. They do not walk
+with the other three castes, and other mixed classes of people are
+still further dissociated from them. They revere their Scriptures, the
+four Vedas, containing about 100,000 verses.... The Vedas are handed
+down from mouth to mouth, not written on paper. There are in every
+generation some intelligent Brahmans who can recite those 100,000
+verses.... I myself saw such men."
+
+Here then we have an eye-witness who, in the seventh century after
+Christ, visited India, learned Sanskrit, and spent about twenty years
+in different monasteries--a man who had no theories of his own about
+oral tradition, but who, on the contrary, as coming from China, was
+quite familiar with the idea of a written, nay, of a printed
+literature: and yet what does he say? "The Vedas are not written on
+paper, but handed down from mouth to mouth."
+
+Now, I do not quite agree here with I-tsing. At all events, we must
+not conclude from what he says that there existed no Sanskrit MSS. at
+all at his time. We know they existed. We know that in the first
+century of our era Sanskrit MSS. were carried from India to China,
+and translated there. Most likely therefore there were MSS. of the
+Veda also in existence. But I-tsing, for all that, was right in
+supposing that these MSS. were not allowed to be used by students, and
+that they had always to learn the Veda by heart and from the mouth of
+a properly qualified teacher. The very fact that in the later
+law-books severe punishments are threatened against persons who copy
+the Veda or learn it from a MSS., shows that MSS. existed, and that
+their existence interfered seriously with the ancient privileges of
+the Brahmans, as the only legitimate teachers of their sacred
+scriptures.
+
+If now, after having heard this account of I-tsing, we go back for
+about another thousand years, we shall feel less skeptical in
+accepting the evidence which we find in the so-called Prati_s_akhyas,
+that is, collections of rules which, so far as we know at present, go
+back to the fifth century before our era, and which tell us almost
+exactly the same as what we can see in India at the present moment,
+namely that the education of children of the three twice-born castes,
+the Brahma_n_as, Kshatriyas, and Vai_s_yas, consisted in their passing
+at least eight years in the house of a Guru, and learning by heart the
+ancient Vedic hymns.
+
+The art of teaching had even at that early time been reduced to a
+perfect system, and at that time certainly there is not the slightest
+trace of anything, such as a book, or skin, or parchment, a sheet of
+paper, pen or ink, being known even by name to the people of India;
+while every expression connected with what we should call literature,
+points to a literature (we cannot help using that word) existing in
+memory only, and being handed down with the most scrupulous care by
+means of oral tradition.
+
+I had to enter into these details because I know that, with our ideas
+of literature, it requires an effort to imagine the bare possibility
+of a large amount of poetry, and still more of prose, existing in any
+but a written form. And yet here too we only see what we see
+elsewhere, namely that man, before the great discoveries of
+civilization were made, was able by greater individual efforts to
+achieve what to us, accustomed to easier contrivances, seems almost
+impossible. So-called savages were able to chip flints, to get fire by
+rubbing sticks of wood, which baffles our handiest workmen. Are we to
+suppose that, if they wished to preserve some songs which, as they
+believed, had once secured them the favor of their gods, had brought
+rain from heaven, or led them on to victory, they would have found no
+means of doing so? We have only to read such accounts as, for
+instance, Mr. William Wyatt Gill has given us in his "Historical
+Sketches of Savage Life in Polynesia,"[274] to see how anxious even
+savages are to preserve the records of their ancient heroes, kings,
+and gods, particularly when the dignity or nobility of certain
+families depends on these songs, or when they contain what might be
+called the title-deeds to large estates. And that the Vedic Indians
+were not the only savages of antiquity who discovered the means of
+preserving a large literature by means of oral tradition, we may learn
+from Caesar,[275] not a very credulous witness, who tells us that the
+"Druids were said to know a large number of verses by heart; that some
+of them spent twenty years in learning them, and that they considered
+it wrong to commit them to writing"--exactly the same story which we
+hear in India.
+
+We must return once more to the question of dates. We have traced the
+existence of the Veda, as handed down by oral tradition, from our days
+to the days of I-tsing in the seventh century after Christ, and again
+to the period of the Prati_s_akhyas, in the fifth century before
+Christ.
+
+In that fifth century B.C. took place the rise of Buddhism, a religion
+built up on the ruins of the Vedic religion, and founded, so to say,
+on the denial of the divine authority ascribed to the Veda by all
+orthodox Brahmans.
+
+Whatever exists, therefore, of Vedic literature must be accommodated
+within the centuries preceding the rise of Buddhism, and if I tell you
+that there are three periods of Vedic literature to be accommodated,
+the third presupposing the second, and the second the first, and that
+even that first period presents us with a collection, and a systematic
+collection of Vedic hymns, I think you will agree with me that it is
+from no desire for an extreme antiquity, but simply from a respect for
+facts, that students of the Veda have come to the conclusion that
+these hymns, of which the MSS. do not carry us back beyond the
+fifteenth century after Christ, took their origin in the fifteenth
+century before Christ.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One fact I must mention once more, because I think it may carry
+conviction even against the stoutest skepticism.
+
+I mentioned that the earliest inscriptions discovered in India belong
+to the reign of King A_s_oka, the grandson of _K_andragupta, who
+reigned from 259-222 before Christ. What is the language of those
+inscriptions? Is it the Sanskrit of the Vedic hymns? Certainly not. Is
+it the later Sanskrit of the Brahma_n_as and Sutras? Certainly not.
+These inscriptions are written in the local dialects as then spoken in
+India, and these local dialects differ from the grammatical Sanskrit
+about as much as Italian does from Latin.
+
+What follows from this? First, that the archaic Sanskrit of the Veda
+had ceased to be spoken before the third century B.C. Secondly, that
+even the later grammatical Sanskrit was no longer spoken and
+understood by the people at large; that Sanskrit therefore had ceased,
+nay, we may say, had long ceased to be the spoken language of the
+country when Buddhism arose, and that therefore the youth and manhood
+of the ancient Vedic language lie far beyond the period that gave
+birth to the teaching of Buddha, who, though he may have known
+Sanskrit, and even Vedic Sanskrit, insisted again and again on the
+duty that his disciples should preach his doctrines in the language of
+the people whom they wished to benefit.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now, when the time allotted to me is nearly at an end, I find, as
+it always happens, that I have not been able to say one half of what I
+hoped to say as to the lessons to be learned by us in India, even with
+regard to this one branch of human knowledge only, the study of the
+origin of religion. I hope, however, I may have succeeded in showing
+you the entirely new aspect which the old problem of the _theogony_,
+or the origin and growth of the Devas or gods, assumes from the light
+thrown upon it by the Veda. Instead of positive theories, we now have
+positive facts, such as you look for in vain anywhere else; and though
+there is still a considerable interval between the Devas of the Veda,
+even in their highest form, and such concepts as Zeus, Apollon, and
+Athene, yet the chief riddle is solved, and we know now at last what
+stuff the gods of the ancient world were made of.
+
+But this theogonic process is but one side of the ancient Vedic
+religion, and there are two other sides of at least the same
+importance and of even a deeper interest to us.
+
+There are in fact three religions in the Veda, or, if I may say so,
+three naves in one great temple, reared, as it were, before our eyes
+by poets, prophets, and philosophers. Here too we can watch the work
+and the workmen. We have not to deal with hard formulas only, with
+unintelligible ceremonies, or petrified fetiches. We can see how the
+human mind arrives by a perfectly rational process at all its later
+irrationalities. This is what distinguishes the Veda from all other
+Sacred Books. Much, no doubt, in the Veda also, and in the Vedic
+ceremonial, is already old and unintelligible, hard, and petrified.
+But in many cases the development of names and concepts, their
+transition from the natural to the supernatural, from the individual
+to the general, is still going on, and it is for that very reason that
+we find it so difficult, nay almost impossible, to translate the
+growing thoughts of the Veda into the full-grown and more than
+full-grown language of our time.
+
+Let us take one of the oldest words for god in the Veda, such as d e v a,
+the Latin _deus_. The dictionaries tell you that d e v a means god and
+gods, and so, no doubt, it does. But if we always translated d e v a in
+the Vedic hymns by god, we should not be translating, but completely
+transforming the thoughts of the Vedic poets. I do not mean only that
+_our_ idea of God is totally different from the idea that was intended
+to be expressed by d e v a; but even the Greek and Roman concept of gods
+would be totally inadequate to convey the thoughts imbedded in the
+Vedic d e v a. D e v a meant originally bright, and nothing else. Meaning
+bright, it was constantly used of the sky, the stars, the sun, the
+dawn, the day, the spring, the rivers, the earth; and when a poet
+wished to speak of all of these by one and the same word--by what we
+should call a general term--he called them D e v a s. When that had been
+done, D e v a did no longer mean "the Bright ones," but the name
+comprehended all the qualities which the sky and the sun and the dawn
+shared in common, excluding only those that were peculiar to each.
+
+Here you see how, by the simplest process, the D e v a s, the bright ones,
+might become and did become the D e v a s, the heavenly, the kind, the
+powerful, the invisible, the immortal--and, in the end, something very
+like the [Greek: theoi] (or _dii_) of Greeks and Romans.
+
+In this way one Beyond, the Beyond of Nature, was built up in the
+ancient religion of the Veda, and peopled with Devas, and Asuras, and
+Vasus, and Adityas, all names for the bright solar, celestial,
+diurnal, and vernal powers of nature, without altogether excluding,
+however, even the dark and unfriendly powers, those of the night, of
+the dark clouds, or of winter, capable of mischief, but always
+destined in the end to succumb to the valor and strength of their
+bright antagonists.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We now come to the second nave of the Vedic temple, the second
+_Beyond_ that was dimly perceived, and grasped and named by the
+ancient Rishis, namely the world of the Departed Spirits.[276]
+
+There was in India, as elsewhere, another very early faith, springing
+up naturally in the hearts of the people, that their fathers and
+mothers, when they departed this life, departed to a Beyond, wherever
+it might be, either in the East from whence all the bright Devas
+seemed to come, or more commonly in the West, the land to which they
+seemed to go, called in the Veda the realm of Yama or the setting sun.
+The idea that beings which once had been, could ever cease to be, had
+not yet entered their minds; and from the belief that their fathers
+existed somewhere, though they could see them no more, there arose the
+belief in another Beyond, and the germs of another religion.
+
+Nor was the actual power of the fathers quite imperceptible or extinct
+even after their death. Their presence continued to be felt in the
+ancient laws and customs of the family, most of which rested on their
+will and their authority. While their fathers were alive and strong,
+their will was law; and when, after their death, doubts or disputes
+arose on points of law or custom, it was but natural that the memory
+and the authority of the fathers should be appealed to to settle such
+points--that the law should still be their will.
+
+Thus Manu says (IV. 178): "On the path on which his fathers and
+grandfathers have walked, on that path of good men let him walk, and
+he will not go wrong."
+
+In the same manner then in which, out of the bright powers of nature,
+the Devas or gods had arisen, there arose out of predicates shared in
+common by the departed, such as p i t _r i_ s, fathers, p r e t a, gone
+away, another general concept, what we should call _Manes_, the kind
+ones, _Ancestors_, _Shades_, _Spirits_, or _Ghosts_, whose worship was
+nowhere more fully developed than in India. That common name, P i t _r
+i_ s or _Fathers_, gradually attracted toward itself all that the
+fathers shared in common. It came to mean not only fathers, but
+invisible, kind, powerful, immortal, heavenly beings, and we can watch
+in the Veda, better perhaps than anywhere else, the inevitable, yet most
+touching metamorphosis of ancient thought--the love of the child for
+father and mother becoming transfigured into an instinctive belief in
+the immortality of the soul.
+
+It is strange, and really more than strange, that not only should this
+important and prominent side of the ancient religion of the Hindus
+have been ignored, but that of late its very existence should have
+been doubted. I feel obliged, therefore, to add a few words in support
+of what I have said just now of the supreme importance of this belief
+in and this worship of ancestral spirits in India from the most
+ancient to the most modern times. Mr. Herbert Spencer, who has done so
+much in calling attention to ancestorship as a natural ingredient of
+religion among all savage nations, declares in the most emphatic
+manner,[277] "that he has seen it implied, that he has heard it in
+conversation, and that he now has it before him in print, that no
+Indo-European or Semitic nation, so far as we know, seems to have
+made a religion of the worship of the dead." I do not doubt his words,
+but I think that on so important a point, Mr. Herbert Spencer ought to
+have named his authorities. It seems to me almost impossible that
+anybody who has ever opened a book on India should have made such a
+statement. There are hymns in the Rig-Veda addressed to the Fathers.
+There are full descriptions of the worship due to the Fathers in the
+Brahma_n_as and Sutras. The epic poems, the law books, the Pura_n_as,
+all are brimful of allusions to ancestral offerings. The whole social
+fabric of India, with its laws of inheritance and marriage,[278] rests
+on a belief in the Manes--and yet we are told that no Indo-European
+nation seems to have made a religion of the worship of the dead.
+
+The Persians had their Fravashis, the Greeks their [Greek: eidola], or
+rather their [Greek: theoi patrooi] and their [Greek: daimones],
+
+    [Greek: esthloi, epichthonioi, phylakes thneton anthropon;
+    hoi rha phylassousin te dikas kai schetlia erga,
+    eera hessamenoi pante phoitontes ep' aian,
+    ploutodotai] (Hesiodi Opera et Dies, vv. 122-126);[279]
+
+while among the Romans the _Lares familiares_ and the _Divi Manes_
+were worshipped more zealously than any other gods.[280] Manu goes so
+far as to tell us in one place (III. 203): "An oblation by Brahmans
+to their ancestor transcends an oblation to the deities;" and yet we
+are told that no Indo-European nation seems to have made a religion of
+the worship of the dead.
+
+Such things ought really not to be, if there is to be any progress in
+historical research, and I cannot help thinking that what Mr. Herbert
+Spencer meant was probably no more than that some scholars did not
+admit that the worship of the dead formed the whole of the religion of
+any of the Indo-European nations. That, no doubt, is perfectly true,
+but it would be equally true, I believe, of almost any other religion.
+And on this point again the students of anthropology will learn more,
+I believe, from the Veda than from any other book.
+
+In the Veda the Pit_ri_s, or fathers, are invoked together with the
+Devas, or gods, but they are not confounded with them. The Devas never
+become Pit_ri_s, and though such adjectives as d e v a are sometimes
+applied to the Pit_ri_s, and they are raised to the rank of the older
+classes of Devas (Manu III. 192, 284, Ya_gn_avalkya I. 268), it is
+easy to see that the Pit_ri_s and Devas had each their independent
+origin, and that they represent two totally distinct phases of the
+human mind in the creation of its objects of worship. This is a lesson
+which ought never to be forgotten.
+
+We read in the Rig-Veda, VI. 52, 4: "May the rising Dawns protect me,
+may the flowing Rivers protect me, may the firm Mountains protect me,
+may the Fathers protect me at this invocation of the gods." Here
+nothing can be clearer than the separate existence of the Fathers,
+apart from the Dawns, the Rivers, and the Mountains, though they are
+included in one common Devahuti, however, or invocation of the gods.
+
+We must distinguish, however, from the very first, between two
+classes, or rather between two concepts of Fathers, the one comprising
+the distant, half-forgotten, and almost mythical ancestors of certain
+families or of what would have been to the poets of the Veda, the
+whole human race, the other consisting of the fathers who had but
+lately departed, and who were still, as it were, personally remembered
+and revered.
+
+The old ancestors in general approach more nearly to the gods. They
+are often represented as having gone to the abode of Yama, the ruler
+of the departed, and to live there in company with some of the Devas
+(Rig-Veda VII. 76, 4, devana_m_ sadhamada_h_; Rig-Veda X. 16, 1,
+devana_m_ va_s_ani_h_).
+
+We sometimes read of the great-grandfathers being in heaven, the
+grandfathers in the sky, the fathers on the earth, the first in
+company with the Adityas, the second with the Rudras, the last with
+the Vasus. All these are individual poetical conceptions.[281]
+
+Yama himself is sometimes invoked as if he were one of the Fathers,
+the first of mortals that died or that trod the path of the Fathers
+(the pit_ri_ya_n_a, X. 2, 7) leading to the common sunset in the
+West.[282] Still his real Deva-like nature is never completely lost,
+and, as the god of the setting sun, he is indeed the leader of the
+Fathers, but not one of the Fathers himself.[283]
+
+Many of the benefits which men enjoyed on earth were referred to the
+Fathers, as having first been procured and first enjoyed by them.
+They performed the first sacrifices, and secured the benefits arising
+from them. Even the great events in nature, such as the rising of the
+sun, the light of the day and the darkness of the night, were
+sometimes referred to them, and they were praised for having broken
+open the dark stable of the morning and having brought out the cows,
+that is, the days (X. 68, 11).[284] They were even praised for having
+adorned the night with stars, while in later writing the stars are
+said to be the lights of the good people who have entered into
+heaven.[285] Similar ideas, we know, prevailed among the ancient
+Persians, Greeks, and Romans. The Fathers are called in the Veda
+truthful (satya), wise (suvidatra), righteous (_ri_tavat), poets
+(kavi), leaders (pathik_ri_t), and one of their most frequent epithets
+is somya, delighting in Soma, Soma being the ancient intoxicating
+beverage of the Vedic _Ri_shis, which was believed to bestow
+immortality,[286] but which had been lost, or at all events had become
+difficult to obtain by the Aryans, after their migration into the
+Punjab.[287]
+
+The families of the Bh_ri_gus, the Angiras, the Atharvans[288] all
+have their Pit_ri_s or Fathers, who are invoked to sit down on the
+grass and to accept the offerings placed there for them. Even the name
+of Pit_ri_ya_gn_a, sacrifice of the Fathers, occurs already in the
+hymns of the Rig-Veda.[289]
+
+The following is one of the hymns of the Rig-Veda by which those
+ancient Fathers were invited to come to their sacrifice (Rig-veda X.
+15):[290]
+
+     1. "May the Soma-loving Fathers, the lowest, the highest,
+     and the middle, arise. May the gentle and righteous Fathers
+     who have come to life (again), protect us in these
+     invocations!
+
+     2. "May this salutation be for the Fathers to-day, for those
+     who have departed before or after; whether they now dwell in
+     the sky above the earth, or among the blessed people.
+
+     3. "I invited the wise Fathers ... may they come hither
+     quickly, and sitting on the grass readily partake of the
+     poured-out draught!
+
+     4. "Come hither to us with your help, you Fathers who sit on
+     the grass! We have prepared these libations for you, accept
+     them! Come hither with your most blessed protection, and
+     give us health and wealth without fail!
+
+     5. "The Soma-loving Fathers have been called hither to their
+     dear viands which are placed on the grass. Let them
+     approach, let them listen, let them bless, let them protect
+     us!
+
+     6. "Bending your knee and sitting on my right, accept all
+     this sacrifice. Do not hurt us, O Fathers, for any wrong
+     that we may have committed against you, men as we are.
+
+     7. "When you sit down on the lap of the red dawns, grant
+     wealth to the generous mortal! O Fathers, give of your
+     treasure to the sons of this man here, and bestow vigor here
+     on us!
+
+     8. "May Yama, as a friend with friends, consume the
+     offerings according to his wish, united with those old
+     Soma-loving Fathers of ours, the Vasish_th_as, who arranged
+     the Soma draught.
+
+     9. "Come hither, O Agni, with those wise and truthful
+     Fathers who like to sit down near the hearth, who thirsted
+     when yearning for the gods, who knew the sacrifice, and who
+     were strong in praise with their songs.
+
+     10. "Come, O Agni, with those ancient fathers who like to
+     sit down near the hearth, who forever praise the gods, the
+     truthful, who eat and drink our oblations, making company
+     with Indra and the gods.
+
+     11. "O Fathers, you who have been consumed by Agni, come
+     here, sit down on your seats, you kind guides! Eat of the
+     offerings which we have placed on the turf, and then grant
+     us wealth and strong offspring!
+
+     12. "O Agni, O _G_atavedas,[291] at our request thou hast
+     carried the offerings, having first rendered them sweet.
+     Thou gavest them to the Fathers, and they fed on their
+     share. Eat also, O god, the proffered oblations!
+
+     13. "The Fathers who are here, and the Fathers who are not
+     here, those whom we know, and those whom we know not, thou
+     _G_atavedas, knowest how many they are, accept the well-made
+     sacrifice with the sacrificial portions!
+
+     14. "To those who, whether burned by fire or not burned by
+     fire, rejoice in their share in the midst of heaven, grant
+     thou, O King, that their body may take that life which they
+     wish for!"[292]
+
+Distinct from the worship offered to these primitive ancestors, is
+the reverence which from an early time was felt to be due by children
+to their departed father, soon also to their grandfather, and
+great-grandfather. The ceremonies in which these more personal
+feelings found expression were of a more domestic character, and
+allowed therefore of greater local variety.
+
+It would be quite impossible to give here even an abstract only of the
+minute regulations which have been preserved to us in the Brahma_n_as,
+the _S_rauta, G_ri_hya, and Samaya_k_arika Sutras, the Law-books, and
+a mass of later manuals on the performance of endless rites, all
+intended to honor the Departed. Such are the minute prescriptions as
+to times and seasons, as to altars and offerings, as to the number and
+shape of the sacrificial vessels, as to the proper postures of the
+sacrificers, and the different arrangements of the vessels, that it is
+extremely difficult to catch hold of what we really care for, namely,
+the thoughts and intentions of those who first devised all these
+intricacies. Much has been written on this class of sacrifices by
+European scholars also, beginning with Colebrooke's excellent essays
+on "The Religious Ceremonies of the Hindus," first published in the
+"Asiatic Researches," vol. v. Calcutta, 1798. But when we ask the
+simple question, What was the thought from whence all this outward
+ceremonial sprang, and what was the natural craving of the human heart
+which it seemed to satisfy, we hardly get an intelligible answer
+anywhere. It is true that _S_raddhas continue to be performed all over
+India to the present day, but we know how widely the modern ceremonial
+has diverged from the rules laid down in the old _S_astras, and it is
+quite clear from the descriptions given to us by recent travellers
+that no one can understand the purport even of these survivals of the
+old ceremonial, unless he understands Sanskrit and can read the old
+Sutras. We are indeed told in full detail how the cakes were made
+which the Spirits wore supposed to eat, how many stalks of grass were
+to be used on which they had to be offered, how long each stalk ought
+to be, and in what direction it should be held. All the things which
+teach us nothing are explained to us in abundance, but the few things
+which the true scholar really cares for are passed over, as if they
+had no interest to us at all, and have to be discovered under heaps of
+rubbish.
+
+In order to gain a little light, I think we ought to distinguish
+between--
+
+     1. The daily ancestral sacrifice, the Pit_ri_ya_gn_a, as one
+     of the five Great Sacrifices (Mahaya_gn_as);
+
+     2. The monthly ancestral sacrifice, the
+     Pi_nd_a-pit_ri_-ya_gn_a, as part of the New and Full-moon
+     sacrifice;
+
+     3. The funeral ceremonies on the death of a householder;
+
+     4. The Agapes, or feasts of love and charity, commonly
+     called _S_raddhas, at which food and other charitable gifts
+     were bestowed on deserving persons in memory of the deceased
+     ancestors. The name of _S_raddha belongs properly to this
+     last class only, but it has been transferred to the second
+     and third class of sacrifices also, because _S_raddha formed
+     an important part in them.
+
+The daily Pit_ri_ya_gn_a or Ancestor-worship is one of the five
+sacrifices, sometimes called the Great Sacrifices,[293] which every
+married man ought to perform day by day. They are mentioned in the
+G_ri_hya-sutras (A_s_v. III. 1), as Devaya_gn_a, for the Devas,
+Bhutaya_gn_a, for animals, etc., Pit_ri_ya_gn_a, for the Fathers,
+Brahmaya_gn_a, for Brahman, _i.e._ study of the Veda, and
+Manushyaya_gn_a, for men, _i.e._ hospitality, etc.
+
+Manu (III. 70) tells us the same, namely, that a married man has five
+great religious duties to perform:
+
+     1. The Brahma-sacrifice, _i.e._ the studying and teaching of
+     the Veda (sometimes called Ahuta).
+
+     2. The Pit_ri_-sacrifice, _i.e._ the offering of cakes and
+     water to the Manes (sometimes called Pra_s_ita).
+
+     3. The Deva-sacrifice, _i.e._ the offering of oblations to
+     the gods (sometimes called Huta).
+
+     4. The Bhuta-sacrifice, _i.e._ the giving of food to living
+     creatures (sometimes called Prahuta).
+
+     5. The Manushya-sacrifice, _i.e._ the receiving of guests
+     with hospitality (sometimes called Brahmya huta).[294]
+
+The performance of this daily Pit_ri_ya_gn_a, seems to have been
+extremely simple. The householder had to put his sacred cord on the
+right shoulder, to say "Svadha to the Fathers," and to throw the
+remains of certain offerings toward the south.[295]
+
+The human impulse to this sacrifice, if sacrifice it can be called, is
+clear enough. The five "great sacrifices" comprehended in early times
+the whole duty of man from day to day. They were connected with his
+daily meal.[296] When this meal was preparing, and before he could
+touch it himself, he was to offer something to the gods, a
+Vai_s_vadeva offering,[297] in which the chief deities were Agni,
+fire, Soma the Vi_s_ve Devas, Dhanvantari, the kind of AEsculapius,
+Kuhu and Anumati (phases of the moon), Pra_g_apati, lord of creatures,
+Dyava-p_ri_thivi, Heaven and Earth, and Svish_t_ak_ri_t, the fire on
+the hearth.[298]
+
+After having thus satisfied the gods in the four quarters, the
+householder had to throw some oblations into the open air, which were
+intended for animals, and in some cases for invisible beings, ghosts
+and such like. Then he was to remember the Departed, the Pit_ri_s,
+with some offerings; but even after having done this he was not yet to
+begin his own repast, unless he had also given something to strangers
+(atithis).
+
+When all this had been fulfilled, and when, besides, the householder,
+as we should say, had said his daily prayers, or repeated what he had
+learned of the Veda, then and then only was he in harmony with the
+world that surrounded him, the five Great Sacrifices had been
+performed by him, and he was free from all the sins arising from a
+thoughtless and selfish life.
+
+This Pit_ri_ya_gn_a, as one of the five daily sacrifices, is described
+in the Brahma_n_as, the G_ri_hya and Samaya_k_arika Sutras, and, of
+course, in the legal Sa_m_hitas. Rajendralal Mitra[299] informs us
+that "orthodox Brahmans to this day profess to observe all these five
+ceremonies, but that in reality only the offerings to the gods and
+manes are strictly observed, while the reading is completed by the
+repetition of the Gayatri only, and charity and feeding of animals are
+casual and uncertain."
+
+Quite different from this simple daily ancestral offering is the
+Pit_ri_ya_gn_a or Pi_nd_a-pit_ri_ya_gn_a, which forms part of many of
+the statutable sacrifices, and, first of all, of the New and Full-moon
+sacrifice. Here again the human motive is intelligible enough. It was
+the contemplation of the regular course of nature, the discovery of
+order in the coming and going of the heavenly bodies, the growing
+confidence in some ruling power of the world which lifted man's
+thoughts from his daily work to higher regions, and filled his heart
+with a desire to approach these higher powers with praise,
+thanksgiving, and offerings. And it was at such moments as the waning
+of the moon that his thoughts would most naturally turn to those whose
+life had waned, whose bright faces were no longer visible on earth,
+his fathers or ancestors. Therefore at the very beginning of the
+New-moon sacrifice, we are told in the Brahma_n_as[300] and in the
+_S_rauta-sutras, that a Pit_ri_ya_gn_a, a sacrifice to the Fathers, has
+to be performed. A _K_aru or pie had to be prepared in the
+Dakshi_n_agni, the southern fire, and the offerings, consisting of
+water and round cakes (pi_nd_as), were specially dedicated to father,
+grandfather, and great-grandfather, while the wife of the sacrificer,
+if she wished for a son, was allowed to eat one of the cakes.[301]
+
+Similar ancestral offerings took place during other sacrifices too, of
+which the New and Full-moon sacrifices form the general type.
+
+It may be quite true that these two kinds of ancestral sacrifices have
+the same object and share the same name, but their character is
+different; and if, as has often been the case, they are mixed up
+together, we lose the most important lessons which a study of the
+ancient ceremonial should teach us. I cannot describe the difference
+between these two Pit_ri_ya_gn_as more decisively than by pointing out
+that the former was performed by the father of a family, or, if we may
+say so, by a layman, the latter by a regular priest, or a class of
+priests, selected by the sacrificer to act in his behalf. As the
+Hindus themselves would put it, the former is a g_ri_hya, a domestic,
+the latter a _s_rauta, a priestly ceremony.[302]
+
+We now come to a third class of ceremonies which are likewise domestic
+and personal, but which differ from the two preceding ceremonies by
+their occasional character, I mean the funeral, as distinct from the
+ancestral ceremonies. In one respect these funeral ceremonies may
+represent an earlier phase of worship than the daily and monthly
+ancestral sacrifices. They lead up to them, and, as it were, prepare
+the departed for their future dignity as Pit_ri_s or Ancestors. On the
+other hand, the conception of Ancestors in general must have existed
+before any departed person could have been raised to that rank, and I
+therefore preferred to describe the ancestral sacrifices first.
+
+Nor need I enter here very fully into the character of the special
+funeral ceremonies of India. I described them in a special paper, "On
+Sepulture and Sacrificial Customs in the Veda," nearly thirty years
+ago.[303] Their spirit is the same as that of the funeral ceremonies
+of Greeks, Romans, Slavonic, and Teutonic nations, and the
+coincidences between them all are often most surprising.
+
+In Vedic times the people in India both burned and buried their dead,
+and they did this with a certain solemnity, and, after a time,
+according to fixed rules. Their ideas about the status of the
+departed, after their body had been burned and their ashes buried,
+varied considerably, but in the main they seem to have believed in a
+life to come, not very different from our life on earth, and in the
+power of the departed to confer blessings on their descendants. It
+soon therefore became the interest of the survivors to secure the
+favor of their departed friends by observances and offerings which, at
+first, were the spontaneous manifestation of human feelings, but which
+soon became traditional, technical, in fact, ritual.
+
+On the day on which the corpse had been burned, the relatives
+(samanodakas) bathed and poured out a handful of water to the
+deceased, pronouncing his name and that of his family.[304] At sunset
+they returned home, and, as was but natural, they were told to cook
+nothing during the first night, and to observe certain rules during
+the next day up to ten days, according to the character of the
+deceased. These were days of mourning, or, as they were afterward
+called, days of impurity, when the mourners withdrew from contact with
+the world, and shrank by a natural impulse from the ordinary
+occupations and pleasures of life.[305]
+
+Then followed the collecting of the ashes on the 11th, 13th, or 15th
+day of the dark half of the moon. On returning from thence they
+bathed, and then offered what was called a _S_raddha to the departed.
+
+This word _S_raddha, which meets us here for the first time, is full
+of interesting lessons, if only properly understood. First of all it
+should be noted that it is absent, not only from the hymns, but, so
+far as we know at present, even from the ancient Brahma_n_as. It seems
+therefore a word of a more modern origin. There is a passage in
+Apastamba's Dharma-sutras which betrays, on the part of the author, a
+consciousness of the more modern origin of the _S_raddhas:[306]
+
+    "Formerly men and gods lived together in this world. Then the
+    gods in reward of their sacrifices went to heaven, but men
+    were left behind. Those men who perform sacrifices in the
+    same manner as the gods did, dwelt (after death) with the
+    gods and Brahman in heaven. Now (seeing men left behind) Manu
+    revealed this ceremony which is designated by the word
+    _S_raddha."
+
+_S_raddha has assumed many[307] meanings, and Manu,[308] for instance,
+uses it almost synonymously with pit_ri_ya_gn_a. But its original
+meaning seems to have been "that which is given with _s_raddha or
+faith," _i.e._ charity bestowed on deserving persons, and, more
+particularly, on Brahma_n_as. The gift was called _s_raddha, but the
+act itself also was called by the same name. The word is best
+explained by Naraya_n_a in his commentary on the G_ri_hya-sutras of
+A_s_valayana (IV. 7), "_S_raddha is that which is given in faith to
+Brahmans for the sake of the Fathers."[309]
+
+Such charitable gifts flowed most naturally and abundantly at the time
+of a man's death, or whenever his memory was revived by happy or
+unhappy events in a family, and hence _S_raddha has become the general
+name for ever so many sacred acts commemorative of the departed. We
+hear of _S_raddhas not only at funerals, but at joyous events also,
+when presents were bestowed in the name of the family, and therefore
+in the name of the ancestors also, on all who had a right to that
+distinction.
+
+It is a mistake therefore to look upon _S_raddhas simply as offerings
+of water or cakes to the Fathers. An offering to the Fathers was, no
+doubt, a symbolic part of each _S_raddha, but its more important
+character was charity bestowed in memory of the Fathers.
+
+This, in time, gave rise to much abuse, like the alms bestowed on the
+Church during the Middle Ages. But in the beginning the motive was
+excellent. It was simply a wish to benefit others, arising from the
+conviction, felt more strongly in the presence of death than at any
+other time, that as we can carry nothing out of this world, we ought
+to do as much good as possible in the world with our worldly goods. At
+_S_raddhas the Brahma_n_as were said to represent the sacrificial fire
+into which the gifts should be thrown.[310] If we translate here
+Brahma_n_as by priests, we can easily understand why there should have
+been in later times so strong a feeling against _S_raddhas. But priest
+is a very bad rendering of Brahma_n_a. The Brahma_n_as were, socially
+and intellectually, a class of men of high breeding. They were a
+recognized and, no doubt, a most essential element in the ancient
+society of India. As they lived for others, and were excluded from
+most of the lucrative pursuits of life, it was a social, and it soon
+became a religious duty, that they should be supported by the
+community at large. Great care was taken that the recipients of such
+bounty as was bestowed at _S_raddhas should be strangers, neither
+friends nor enemies, and in no way related to the family. Thus
+Apastamba says:[311] "The food eaten (at a _S_raddha) by persons
+related to the giver is a gift offered to goblins. It reaches neither
+the Manes nor the Gods." A man who tried to curry favor by bestowing
+_S_raddhika gifts, was called by an opprobrious name, a
+_S_raddha-mitra.[312]
+
+Without denying therefore that in later times the system of
+_S_raddhas may have degenerated, I think we can perceive that it
+sprang from a pure source, and, what for our present purpose is even
+more important, from an intelligible source.
+
+Let us now return to the passage in the G_ri_hya-sutras of A_s_valayana,
+where we met for the first time with the name of _S_raddha.[313] It was
+the _S_raddha to be given for the sake of the Departed, after his ashes
+had been collected in an urn and buried. This _S_raddha is called
+ekoddish_t_a,[314] or, as we should say, personal. It was meant for one
+person only, not for the three ancestors, nor for all the ancestors. Its
+object was in fact to raise the departed to the rank of a Pit_ri_, and
+this had to be achieved by _S_raddha offerings continued during a whole
+year. This at least is the general, and, most likely, the original rule.
+Apastamba says that the _S_raddha for a deceased relative should be
+performed every day during the year, and that after that a monthly
+_S_raddha only should be performed or none at all, that is, no more
+personal _S_raddha,[315] because the departed shares henceforth in the
+regular Parva_n_a-_s_raddhas.[316] _S_ankhayana says the same,[317] namely
+that the personal _S_raddha lasts for a year, and that then "the Fourth"
+is dropped, _i.e._ the great-grandfather was dropped, the grandfather
+became the great-grandfather, the father the grandfather, while the
+lately Departed occupied the father's place among the three principal
+Pit_ris_.[318] This was called the Sapi_nd_ikara_n_a, _i.e._ the elevating
+of the departed to the rank of an ancestor.
+
+There are here, as elsewhere, many exceptions. Gobhila allows six
+months instead of a year, or even a Tripaksha,[319] _i.e._ three
+half-months; and lastly, any auspicious event (v_ri_ddhi) may become
+the occasion of the Sapi_nd_ikara_n_a.[320]
+
+The full number of _S_raddhas necessary for the Sapi_nd_ana is
+sometimes given as sixteen, viz., the first, then one in each of the
+twelve months, then two semestral ones, and lastly the Sapi_nd_ana.
+But here too much variety is allowed, though, if the Sapi_nd_ana takes
+place before the end of the year, the number of sixteen _S_raddhas has
+still to be made up.[321]
+
+When the _S_raddha is offered on account of an auspicious event, such
+as a birth or a marriage, the fathers invoked are not the father,
+grandfather, and great-grandfather, who are sometimes called
+a_s_rumukha, with tearful faces, but the ancestors before them, and
+they are called nandimukha, or joyful.[322]
+
+Colebrooke,[323] to whom we owe an excellent description of what a
+_S_raddha is in modern times, took evidently the same view. "The first
+set of funeral ceremonies," he writes, "is adapted to effect, by means
+of oblations, the re-embodying of the soul of the deceased, after
+burning his corpse. The apparent scope of the second set is to raise
+his shade from this world, where it would else, according to the
+notions of the Hindus, continue to roam among demons and evil spirits,
+up to heaven, and then deify him, as it were, among the manes of
+departed ancestors. For this end, a _S_raddha should regularly be
+offered to the deceased on the day after the mourning expires; twelve
+other _S_raddhas _singly_ to the deceased in twelve successive months;
+similar obsequies at the end of the third fortnight, and also in the
+sixth month, and in the twelfth; and the oblation called Sapi_nd_ana
+on the first anniversary of his decease.[324] At this Sapi_nd_ana
+_S_raddha, which is the last of the ekoddish_t_a _s_raddhas, four
+funeral cakes are offered to the deceased and his three ancestors,
+that consecrated to the deceased being divided into three portions and
+mixed with the other three cakes. The portion retained is often
+offered to the deceased, and the act of union and fellowship becomes
+complete."[325]
+
+When this system of _S_raddhas had once been started, it seems to have
+spread very rapidly. We soon hear of the monthly _S_raddha, not only
+in memory of one person lately deceased, but as part of the
+Pit_ri_ya_gn_a, and as obligatory, not only on householders (agnimat),
+but on other persons also, and, not only on the three upper castes,
+but even, without hymns, on _S_udras,[326] and as to be performed, not
+only on the day of New-Moon, but on other days also,[327] whenever
+there was an opportunity. Gobhila seems to look upon the
+Pi_nd_apit_ri_ya_gn_a, as itself a _S_raddha,[328] and the commentator
+holds that, even if there are no pi_nd_as or cakes, the Brahmans ought
+still to be fed. This _S_raddha, however, is distinguished from the
+other, the true _S_raddha, called Anvaharya, which follows it,[329]
+and which is properly known by the name of Parva_n_a _S_raddha.
+
+The same difficulties which confront us when we try to form a clear
+conception of the character of the various ancestral ceremonies, were
+felt by the Brahmans themselves, as may be seen from the long
+discussions in the commentary on the _S_raddha-kalpa[330] and from the
+abusive language used by _K_andrakanta Tarkalankara against
+Raghunandana. The question with them assumes the form of what is
+pradhana (primary) and what is anga (secondary) in these sacrifices,
+and the final result arrived at is that sometimes the offering of
+cakes is pradhana, as in the Pi_nd_apit_ri_ya_gn_a, sometimes the
+feeding of Brahmans only, as in the Nitya-_s_raddha, sometimes both,
+as in the Sapi_nd_ikara_n_a.
+
+We may safely say, therefore, that not a day passed in the life of the
+ancient people of India on which they were not reminded of their
+ancestors, both near and distant, and showed their respect for them,
+partly by symbolic offerings to the Manes, partly by charitable gifts
+to deserving persons, chiefly Brahmans. These offertories varied from
+the simplest, such as milk and fruits, to the costliest, such as gold
+and jewels. The feasts given to those who were invited to officiate or
+assist at a _S_raddha seem in some cases to have been very
+sumptuous,[331] and what is very important, the eating of meat, which
+in later times was strictly forbidden in many sects, must, when the
+Sutras were written, have been fully recognized at these feasts, even
+to the killing and eating of a cow.[332]
+
+This shows that these _S_raddhas, though, possibly of later date than
+the Pit_ri_ya_gn_as, belong nevertheless to a very early phase of
+Indian life. And though much may have been changed in the outward form
+of these ancient ancestral sacrifices, their original solemn character
+has remained unchanged. Even at present, when the worship of the
+ancient Devas is ridiculed by many who still take part in it, the
+worship of the ancestors and the offering of _S_raddhas have
+maintained much of their old sacred character. They have sometimes
+been compared to the "communion" in the Christian Church, and it is
+certainly true that many natives speak of their funeral and ancestral
+ceremonies with a hushed voice and with real reverence. They alone
+seem still to impart to their life on earth a deeper significance and
+a higher prospect. I could go even a step further and express my
+belief, that the absence of such services for the dead and of
+ancestral commemorations is a real loss in our own religion. Almost
+every religion recognizes them as tokens of a loving memory offered to
+a father, to a mother, or even to a child, and though in many
+countries they may have proved a source of superstition, there runs
+through them all a deep well of living human faith that ought never to
+be allowed to perish. The early Christian Church had to sanction the
+ancient prayers for the Souls of the Departed, and in more southern
+countries the services on All Saints' and on All Souls' Day continue
+to satisfy a craving of the human heart which must be satisfied in
+every religion.[333] We, in the North, shrink from these open
+manifestations of grief, but our hearts know often a deeper
+bitterness; nay, there would seem to be a higher truth than we at
+first imagine in the belief of the ancients that the souls of our
+beloved ones leave us no rest, unless they are appeased by daily
+prayers, or, better still, by daily acts of goodness in remembrance of
+them.[334]
+
+But there is still another Beyond that found expression in the
+ancient religion of India. Besides the Devas or Gods, and besides the
+Pit_ri_s or Fathers, there was a third world, without which the
+ancient religion of India could not have become what we see it in the
+Veda. That third Beyond was what the poets of the Veda call the
+_R i_ t a, and which I believe meant originally no more than "the
+straight line." It is applied to the straight line of the sun in its
+daily course, to the straight line followed by day and night, to the
+straight line that regulates the seasons, to the straight line which,
+in spite of many momentary deviations, was discovered to run through
+the whole realm of nature. We call that _Ri_ta, that straight, direct,
+or right line, when we apply it in a more general sense, _the Law of
+Nature_; and when we apply it to the moral world, we try to express
+the same idea again by speaking of the _Moral Law_, the law on which
+our life is founded, the eternal Law of Right and Reason, or, it may
+be, "that which makes for righteousness" both within us and
+without.[335]
+
+And thus, as a thoughtful look on nature led to the first perception
+of bright gods, and in the end of a God of light, as love of our
+parents was transfigured into piety and a belief in immortality, a
+recognition of the straight lines in the world without, and in the
+world within, was raised into the highest faith, a faith in a law that
+underlies everything, a law in which we may trust, whatever befall, a
+law which speaks within us with the divine voice of conscience, and
+tells us "this is _ri_ta," "this is right," "this is true," whatever
+the statutes of our ancestors, or even the voices of our bright gods,
+may say to the contrary.[336]
+
+These three Beyonds are the three revelations of antiquity; and it is
+due almost entirely to the discovery of the Veda that we, in this
+nineteenth century of ours, have been allowed to watch again these
+early phases of thought and religion, which had passed away long
+before the beginnings of other literatures.[337] In the Veda an
+ancient city has been laid bare before our eyes which, in the history
+of all other religions, is filled up with rubbish, and built over by
+new architects. Some of the earliest and most instructive scenes of
+our distant childhood have risen once more above the horizon of our
+memory which, until thirty or forty years ago, seemed to have
+vanished forever.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Only a few words more to indicate at least how this religious growth
+in India contained at the same time the germs of Indian philosophy.
+Philosophy in India is, what it ought to be, not the denial, but the
+fulfilment of religion; it is the highest religion, and the oldest
+name of the oldest system of philosophy in India is V e d a n t a, that is,
+the end, the goal, the highest object of the Veda.
+
+Let us return once more to that ancient theologian who lived in the
+fifth century B.C., and who told us that, even before his time, all
+the gods had been discovered to be but three gods, the gods of the
+_Earth_, the gods of the _Air_, and the gods of the _Sky_, invoked
+under various names. The same writer tells us that in reality there is
+but _one_ God, but he does not call him the Lord, or the Highest God,
+the Creator, Ruler, and Preserver of all things, but he calls him
+A t m a n, THE SELF. The one Atman or Self, he says, is praised in many
+ways owing to the greatness of the godhead. And then he goes on to
+say: "The other gods are but so many members of the one Atman, Self,
+and thus it has been said that the poets compose their praises
+according to the multiplicity of the natures of the beings whom they
+praise."
+
+It is true, no doubt, that this is the language of a philosophical
+theologian, not of an ancient poet. Yet these philosophical
+reflections belong to the fifth century before our era, if not to an
+earlier date; and the first germs of such thoughts may be discovered
+in some of the Vedic hymns also. I have quoted already from the hymns
+such passages as[338]--"They speak of Mitra, Varu_n_a, Agni; then he
+is the heavenly bird Garutmat; _that which is and is one_ the poets
+call in various ways; they speak of Yama, Agni, Matari_s_van."
+
+In another hymn, in which the sun is likened to a bird, we read: "Wise
+poets represent by their words the bird who is one, in many
+ways."[339]
+
+All this is still tinged with mythology; but there are other passages
+from which a purer light beams upon us, as when one poet asks:[340]
+
+    "Who saw him when he was first born, when he who has no bones
+    bore him who has bones? Where was the breath, the blood, the
+    Self of the world? Who went to ask this from any that knew
+    it?"
+
+Here, too, the expression is still helpless, but though the flesh is
+weak, the spirit is very willing. The expression, "He who has bones"
+is meant for that which has assumed consistency and form, the Visible,
+as opposed to that which has no bones, no body, no form, the
+Invisible, while "breath, blood, and self of the world" are but so
+many attempts at finding names and concepts for what is by necessity
+inconceivable, and therefore unnamable.
+
+In the second period of Vedic literature, in the so-called
+Brahma_n_as, and more particularly in what is called the Upanishads,
+or the Vedanta portion, these thoughts advance to perfect clearness
+and definiteness. Here the development of religious thought, which
+took its beginning in the hymns, attains to its fulfilment. The circle
+becomes complete. Instead of comprehending the One by many names, the
+many names are now comprehended to be the One. The old names are
+openly discarded; even such titles as Pra_g_apati, lord of creatures,
+Vi_s_vakarman, maker of all things, Dhat_ri_, creator, are put aside
+as inadequate. The name now used is an expression of nothing but the
+purest and highest subjectiveness--it is A t m a n, the Self, far more
+abstract than our E g o--the Self of all things, the Self of all the old
+mythological gods--for they were not _mere_ names, but names intended
+for something--lastly, the Self in which each individual self must
+find rest, must come to himself, must find his own true Self.
+
+You may remember that I spoke to you in my first lecture of a boy who
+insisted on being sacrificed by his father, and who, when he came to
+Yama, the ruler of the departed, was granted three boons, and who then
+requested, as his third boon, that Yama should tell him what became of
+man after death. That dialogue forms part of one of the Upanishads, it
+belongs to the Vedanta, the end of the Veda, the highest aim of the
+Veda. I shall read you a few extracts from it.
+
+Yama, the King of the Departed, says:
+
+    "Men who are fools, dwelling in ignorance, though wise in
+    their own sight, and puffed up with vain knowledge, go round
+    and round, staggering to and fro, like blind led by the
+    blind.
+
+    "The future never rises before the eyes of the careless
+    child, deluded by the delusions of wealth. _This_ is the
+    world, he thinks; there is no other; thus he falls again and
+    again under my sway (the sway of death).
+
+    "The wise, who by means of meditating on his _Self_,
+    recognizes the Old (the old man within) who is difficult to
+    see, who has entered into darkness, who is hidden in the
+    cave, who dwells in the abyss, as God, he indeed leaves joy
+    and sorrow far behind.
+
+    "That Self, the Knower, is not born, it dies not; it came
+    from nothing, it never became anything. The Old man is
+    unborn, from everlasting to everlasting; he is not killed,
+    though the body be killed.
+
+    "That Self is smaller than small, greater than great; hidden
+    in the heart of the creature. A man who has no more desires
+    and no more griefs, sees the majesty of the Self by the grace
+    of the creator.
+
+    "Though sitting still, he walks far; though lying down, he
+    goes everywhere. Who save myself is able to know that God,
+    who rejoices, and rejoices not?
+
+    "That Self cannot be gained by the Veda; nor by the
+    understanding, nor by much learning. He whom the Self
+    chooses, by him alone the Self can be gained.
+
+    "The Self chooses him as his own. But he who has not first
+    turned away from his wickedness, who is not calm and subdued,
+    or whose mind is not at rest, he can never obtain the Self,
+    even by knowledge.
+
+    "No mortal lives by the breath that goes up and by the breath
+    that goes down. We live by another, in whom both repose.
+
+    "Well then, I shall tell thee this mystery, the eternal word
+    (Brahman), and what happens to the _Self_, after reaching
+    death.
+
+    "Some are born again, as living beings, others enter into
+    stocks and stones, according to their work, and according to
+    their knowledge.
+
+    "But he, the Highest Person, who wakes in us while we are
+    asleep, shaping one lovely sight after another, he indeed is
+    called the Light, he is called Brahman, he alone is called
+    the Immortal. All worlds are founded on it, and no one goes
+    beyond. _This is that._
+
+    "As the one fire, after it has entered the world, though one,
+    becomes different according to what it burns, thus the One
+    Self within all things, becomes different, according to
+    whatever it enters, but it exists also apart.
+
+    "As the sun, the eye of the world, is not contaminated by the
+    external impurities seen by the eye, thus the One Self within
+    all things is never contaminated by the sufferings of the
+    world, being himself apart.
+
+    "There is one eternal thinker, thinking non-eternal thoughts;
+    he, though one, fulfils the desires of many. The wise who
+    perceive Him within their Self, to them belongs eternal life,
+    eternal peace.[341]
+
+    "Whatever there is, the whole world, when gone forth (from
+    Brahman), trembles in his breath. That Brahman is a great
+    terror, like a drawn sword. Those who know it, become
+    immortal.
+
+    "He (Brahman) cannot be reached by speech, by mind, or by the
+    eye. He cannot be apprehended, except by him who says, _He
+    is._
+
+    "When all desires that dwell in the heart cease, then the
+    mortal becomes immortal, and obtains Brahman.
+
+    "When all the fetters of the heart here on earth are broken,
+    when all that binds us to this life is undone, then the
+    mortal becomes immortal--here my teaching ends."
+
+This is what is called Vedanta, the Veda-end, the end of the Veda, and
+this is the religion or the philosophy, whichever you like to call it,
+that has lived on from about 500 B.C. to the present day. If the
+people of India can be said to have now any system of religion at
+all--apart from their ancestral sacrifices and their _S_raddhas, and
+apart from mere caste-observances--it is to be found in the Vedanta
+philosophy, the leading tenets of which are known, to some extent in
+every village.[342] That great revival of religion, which was
+inaugurated some fifty years ago by Ram-Mohun Roy, and is now known as
+the Brahma-Sama_g_, under the leadership of my noble friend Keshub
+Chunder Sen, was chiefly founded on the Upanishads, and was Vedantic
+in spirit. There is, in fact, an unbroken continuity between the most
+modern and the most ancient phases of Hindu thought, extending over
+more than three thousand years.
+
+To the present day India acknowledges no higher authority in matters
+of religion, ceremonial, customs, and law than the _Veda_, and so long
+as India is India, nothing will extinguish that ancient spirit of
+Vedantism which is breathed by every Hindu from his earliest youth,
+and pervades in various forms the prayers even of the idolater, the
+speculations of the philosopher, and the proverbs of the beggar.
+
+For purely practical reasons therefore--I mean for the very practical
+object of knowing something of the secret springs which determine the
+character, the thoughts and deeds of the lowest as well as of the
+highest among the people in India--an acquaintance with their
+religion, which is founded on the Veda, and with their philosophy,
+which is founded on the Vedanta, is highly desirable.
+
+It is easy to make light of this, and to ask, as some statesmen have
+asked, even in Europe, What has religion, or what has philosophy, to
+do with politics? In India, in spite of all appearances to the
+contrary, and notwithstanding the indifference on religious matters so
+often paraded before the world by the Indians themselves, religion,
+and philosophy too, are great powers still. Read the account that has
+lately been published of two native statesmen, the administrators of
+two first-class states in Saurash_t_ra, Junagadh, and Bhavnagar,
+Gokulaji and Gauri_s_ankara,[343] and you will see whether the Vedanta
+is still a moral and a political power in India or not.
+
+But I claim even more for the Vedanta, and I recommend its study, not
+only to the candidates for the Indian Civil Service, but to all true
+students of philosophy. It will bring before them a view of life,
+different from all other views of life which are placed before us in
+the History of Philosophy. You saw how behind all the Devas or gods,
+the authors of the Upanishads discovered the Atman or Self. Of that
+Self they predicated three things only, that it is, that it perceives,
+and that it enjoys eternal bliss. All other predicates were negative:
+it is not this, it is not that--it is beyond anything that we can
+conceive or name.
+
+But that Self, that Highest Self, the Paramatman, could be discovered
+after a severe moral and intellectual discipline only, and those who
+had not yet discovered it were allowed to worship lower gods, and to
+employ more poetical names to satisfy their human wants. Those who
+knew the other gods to be but names or persons--_personae_ or masks,
+in the true sense of the word--pratikas, as they call them in
+Sanskrit--knew also that those who worshipped these names or persons,
+worshipped in truth the Highest Self, though ignorantly. This is a
+most characteristic feature in the religious history of India. Even in
+the Bhagavadgita, a rather popular and exoteric exposition of Vedantic
+doctrines, the Supreme Lord or Bhagavat himself is introduced as
+saying: "Even those who worship idols, worship me."[344]
+
+But that was not all. As behind the names of Agni, Indra, and
+Pra_g_apati, and behind all the mythology of nature, the ancient sages
+of India had discovered the Atman--let us call it the objective
+Self--they perceived also behind the veil of the body, behind the
+senses, behind the mind, and behind our reason (in fact behind the
+mythology of the soul, which we often call psychology), another
+Atman, or the subjective Self. That Self too was to be discovered by a
+severe moral and intellectual discipline only, and those who wished to
+find it, who wished to know, not themselves, but their Self, had to
+cut far deeper than the senses, or the mind, or the reason, or the
+ordinary Ego. All these too were Devas, bright apparitions--mere
+names--yet names meant for something. Much that was most dear, that
+had seemed for a time their very self, had to be surrendered, before
+they could find the Self of Selves, the Old Man, the Looker-on, a
+subject independent of all personality, an existence independent of
+all life.
+
+When that point had been reached, then the highest knowledge began to
+dawn, the Self within (the Pratyagatman) was drawn toward the Highest
+Self (the Paramatman), it found its true self in the Highest Self, and
+the oneness of the subjective with the objective Self was recognized
+as underlying all reality, as the dim dream of religion--as the pure
+light of philosophy.
+
+This fundamental idea is worked out with systematic completeness in
+the Vedanta philosophy, and no one who can appreciate the lessons
+contained in Berkeley's philosophy, will read the Upanishads and the
+Brahmasutras, and their commentaries without feeling a richer and a
+wiser man.
+
+I admit that it requires patience, discrimination, and a certain
+amount of self-denial before we can discover the grains of solid gold
+in the dark mines of Eastern philosophy. It is far easier and far more
+amusing for shallow critics to point out what is absurd and ridiculous
+in the religion and philosophy of the ancient world than for the
+earnest student to discover truth and wisdom under strange disguises.
+Some progress, however, has been made, even during the short span of
+life that we can remember. The Sacred Books of the East are no longer
+a mere butt for the invectives of missionaries or the sarcasms of
+philosophers. They have at last been recognized as historical
+documents, ay, as the most ancient documents in the history of the
+human mind, and as palaeontological records of an evolution that begins
+to elicit wider and deeper sympathies than the nebular formation of
+the planet on which we dwell for a season, or the organic development
+of that chrysalis which we call man.
+
+If you think that I exaggerate, let me read you in conclusion what one
+of the greatest philosophical critics[345]--and certainly not a man
+given to admiring the thoughts of others--says of the Vedanta, and
+more particularly of the Upanishads. Schopenhauer writes:
+
+    "In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so
+    elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace
+    of my life--it will be the solace of my death."[346]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have thus tried, so far as it was possible in one course of
+lectures, to give you some idea of ancient India, of its ancient
+literature, and, more particularly, of its ancient religion. My object
+was, not merely to place names and facts before you, these you can
+find in many published books, but, if possible, to make you see and
+feel the general human interests that are involved in that ancient
+chapter of the history of the human race. I wished that the Veda and
+its religion and philosophy should not only seem to you curious or
+strange, but that you should feel that there was in them something
+that concerns ourselves, something of our own intellectual growth,
+some recollections, as it were, of our own childhood, or at least of
+the childhood of our own race. I feel convinced that, placed as we are
+here in this life, we have lessons to learn from the Veda, quite as
+important as the lessons we learn at school from Homer and Virgil, and
+lessons from the Vedanta quite as instructive as the systems of Plato
+or Spinoza.
+
+I do not mean to say that everybody who wishes to know how the human
+race came to be what it is, how language came to be what it is, how
+religion came to be what it is, how manners, customs, laws, and forms
+of government came to be what they are, how we ourselves came to be
+what we are, must learn Sanskrit, and must study Vedic Sanskrit. But I
+_do_ believe that not to know what a study of Sanskrit, and
+particularly a study of the Veda, has already done for illuminating
+the darkest passages in the history of the human mind, of that mind on
+which we ourselves are feeding and living, is a misfortune, or, at all
+events, a loss, just as I should count it a loss to have passed
+through life without knowing something, however little, of the
+geological formation of the earth, or of the sun, and the moon, and
+the stars--and of the thought, or the will, or the law, that govern
+their movements.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 260: On the early use of letters for public inscriptions,
+see Hayman, _Journal of Philology_, 1879, pp. 141, 142, 150; Hicks,
+"Manual of Greek Historical Inscriptions," pp. 1 seqq.]
+
+[Footnote 261: Herod, (v. 59) says: "I saw Phenician letters on
+certain tripods in a temple of the Ismenian Apollo at Thebes in
+Boeotia, the most of them like the Ionian letters."]
+
+[Footnote 262: Munch, "Die Nordisch Germanischen Voelker," p. 240.]
+
+[Footnote 263: Herod. (v. 58) says: "The Ionians from of old call
+[Greek: byblos diphtherai], because once, in default of the former, they
+used to employ the latter. And even down to my own time, many of the
+barbarians write on such diphtherae."]
+
+[Footnote 264: Hekataeos and Kadmos of Miletos (520 B.C.), Charon of
+Lampsakos (504 B.C.), Xanthos the Lydian (463 B.C.), Pherekydes of
+Leros (480 B.C.), Hellanikos of Mitylene (450 B.C.), etc.]
+
+[Footnote 265: Lewis, "Astronomy," p. 92.]
+
+[Footnote 266: See Hayman, _Journal of Philology_, 1879, p. 139.]
+
+[Footnote 267: See M. M., "History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature,"
+pp. 497 seqq., "On the Introduction of Writing in India."]
+
+[Footnote 268: M. M., "History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature," p.
+515.]
+
+[Footnote 269: M. M., "Hibbert Lectures," p. 153.]
+
+[Footnote 270: Learning was anciently preserved by memory. The Jewish,
+or rather Chaldaic _Kabala_, or Tradition was not written for many
+centuries. The Druids of ancient Britain preserved their litanies in
+the same way, and to a Bard a good memory was indispensable, or he
+would have been refused initiation.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 271: See my article on the date of the Ka_s_ika in the
+_Indian Antiquary_, 1880, p. 305.]
+
+[Footnote 272: The translation of the most important passages in
+I-tsing's work was made for me by one of my Japanese pupils, K.
+Kasawara.]
+
+[Footnote 273: See Bunyiu Nanjio's "Catalogue of the Chinese
+Tripi_t_aka," p. 372, where Arya_s_ura, who must have lived before 434
+A.D., is mentioned as the author of the "_G_atakamala."]
+
+[Footnote 274: Wellington, 1880.]
+
+[Footnote 275: De Bello Gall. vi. 14; "History of Ancient Sanskrit
+Literature," p. 506.]
+
+[Footnote 276: See De Coulanges, "The Ancient City," Book I. II. "We
+find this worship of the dead among the Hellenes, among the Latins,
+among the Sabines, among the Etruscans; we also find it among the
+Aryas of India. Mention is made of it in the hymns of the Rig-Veda. It
+is spoken of in the Laws of Manu as the most ancient worship among
+men.... Before men had any notion of Indra or of Zeus, they adored the
+dead; they feared them, and addressed them prayers. It seems that the
+religious sentiment began in this way. It was perhaps while looking
+upon the dead that man first conceived the idea of the supernatural,
+and to have a hope beyond what he saw. Death was the first mystery,
+and it placed man on the track of other mysteries. It raised his
+thoughts from the visible to the invisible, from the transitory to the
+eternal, from the human to the divine."
+
+The sacred fire represented the ancestors, and therefore was revered
+and kept carefully from profanation by the presence of a stranger.--A.
+W.]
+
+[Footnote 277: "Principles of Sociology," p. 313.]
+
+[Footnote 278: "The Hindu Law of Inheritance is based upon the Hindu
+religion, and we must be cautious that in administering Hindu law we
+do not, by acting upon our notions derived from English law,
+inadvertently wound or offend the religious feelings of those who may
+be affected by our decisions."--Bengal Law Reports, 103.]
+
+[Footnote 279:
+
+    "Earth-wandering demons, they their charge began,
+    The ministers of good and guards of man;
+    Veiled with a mantle of aerial light,
+    O'er Earth's wide space they wing their hovering flight."]
+
+[Footnote 280: Cicero, "De Leg." II. 9, 22, "Deorum manium jura sancta
+sunto; nos leto datos divos habento."]
+
+[Footnote 281: See Atharva-Veda XVIII. 2, 49.]
+
+[Footnote 282: Rig-Veda X. 14, 1-2. He is called Vaivasvata, the solar
+(X. 58, 1), and even the son of Vivasvat (X. 14, 5). In a later phase
+of religious thought Yama is conceived as the first man (Atharva-Veda
+XVIII. 3, 13, as compared with Rig-Veda X. 14, 1).]
+
+[Footnote 283: Rig-Veda X. 14.]
+
+[Footnote 284: In the Avesta many of these things are done by
+Ahura-Mazda with the help of the Fravashis.]
+
+[Footnote 285: See _S_atapatha Brahma_n_a I. 9, 3, 10; VI. 5, 4, 8.]
+
+[Footnote 286: Rig-Veda VIII. 48, 3: "We drank Soma, we became
+immortal, we went to the light, we found the gods;" VIII. 48, 12.]
+
+[Footnote 287: Rig-Veda IX. 97, 39.]
+
+[Footnote 288: L. c. X. 14, 6.]
+
+[Footnote 289: L. c. X. 16, 10.]
+
+[Footnote 290: A translation considerably differing from my own is
+given by Sarvadhikari in his "Tagore Lectures for 1880," p. 34.]
+
+[Footnote 291: Cf. Max Mueller, Rig-Veda, transl. vol. i. p. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 292: In a previous note will be found the statement by
+Professor De Coulanges, of Strasburg, that in India, as in other
+countries, a belief in the ancestral spirits came first, and a belief
+in divinities afterward. Professor Mueller cites other arguments which
+might be employed in support of such a theory. The name of the oldest
+and greatest among the Devas, for instance, is not simply Dyaus, but
+Dyaush-pita, Heaven-Father; and there are several names of the same
+character, not only in Sanskrit, but in Greek and Latin also. Jupiter
+and Zeus Pater are forms of the appellation mentioned, and mean the
+Father in Heaven. It does certainly look as though Dyaus, the sky, had
+become personal and worshipped only after he had been raised to the
+category of a Pitri, a father; and that this predicate of Father must
+have been elaborated first before it could have been used, to
+comprehend Dyaus, the sky, Varu_n_a, and other Devas. Professor
+Mueller, however, denies that this is the whole truth in the case. The
+Vedic poets, he remarks, believed in Devas--gods, if we must so call
+them--literally, the bright ones; Pit_ri_s, fathers; and Manushyas,
+men, mortals. (Atharva-Veda, X. 6, 32.) Who came first and who came
+after it is difficult to say; but as soon as the three were placed
+side by side, the Devas certainly stood the highest, then followed the
+Pit_ri_s, and last came the mortals. Ancient thought did not
+comprehend the three under one concept, but it paved the way to it.
+The mortals after passing through death became Fathers, and the
+Fathers became the companions of the Devas.
+
+In Manu there is an advance beyond this point. The world, all that
+moves and rests, we are told (Manu III., 201), has been made by the
+Devas; but the Devas and Danavas were born of the Pit_ri_s, and the
+Pit_ri_s of the _R_ishis. Originally the _R_ishis were the poets of
+the Vedas, seven in number; and we are not told how they came to be
+placed above the Devas and Pit_ri_s. It does not, however, appear
+utterly beyond the power to solve. The Vedas were the production of
+the _R_ishis, and the Pit_ri_s, being perpetuated thus to human
+memory, became by a figure of speech their offspring. The Devas sprung
+from the Pit_ri_s, because it was usual to apotheosize the dead. "Our
+ancestors desired," says Cicero, "that the men who had quitted this
+life should be counted in the number of gods." Again, the conception
+of patrons or Pit_ri_s to each family and tribe naturally led to the
+idea of a Providence over all; and so the Pit_ri_ begat the Deva. This
+religion preceded and has outlasted the other.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 293: _S_atapatha Brahma_n_a XI. 5, 6, 1; Taitt. Ar. II. 11,
+10; A_s_valayana G_ri_hya-sutras III. 1, 1; Paraskara G_ri_hya-sutras
+II. 9, 1; Apastamba, Dharma-sutras, translated by Buehler, pp. 47 seq.]
+
+[Footnote 294: In the _S_ankhayana G_ri_hya (I. 5) four Paka-ya_gn_as
+are mentioned, called Huta, ahuta, prahuta, pra_s_ita.]
+
+[Footnote 295: A_s_v. G_ri_hya-sutras I. 3, 10.]
+
+[Footnote 296: Manu III. 117-118.]
+
+[Footnote 297: L. c. III. 85.]
+
+[Footnote 298: See Des Coulanges, "Ancient City," I. 3. "Especially
+were the meals of the family religions acts. The god [the sacred fire]
+presided there. He had cooked the bread and prepared the food; a
+prayer, therefore, was due at the beginning and end of the repast.
+Before eating, they placed upon the altar the first fruits of the
+food; before drinking, they poured out a libation of wine. This was
+the god's portion. No one doubted that he was present, that he ate and
+drank; for did they not see the flame increase as if it had been
+nourished by the provisions offered? Thus the meal was divided between
+the man and the god. It was a sacred ceremony, by which they held
+communion with each other.... The religion of the sacred fire dates
+from the distant and dim epoch when there were yet no Greeks, no
+Italians, no Hindus, when there were only Aryas. When the tribes
+separated they carried this worship with them, some to the banks of
+the Ganges, others to the shores of the Mediterranean.... Each group
+chose its own gods, but all preserved as an ancient legacy the first
+religion which they had known and practiced in the common cradle of
+their race."
+
+The fire in the house denoted the ancestor, or pit_ri_, and in turn
+the serpent was revered as a living fire, and so an appropriate symbol
+of the First Father.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 299: "Taittiriyara_n_yaka," Preface, p. 23.]
+
+[Footnote 300: Masi masi vo 'sanam iti _s_rute_h_; Gobhiliya G_ri_hya
+sutras, p. 1055.]
+
+[Footnote 301: See "Pi_nd_apit_ri_ya_gn_a," von Dr. O. Donner, 1870.
+The restriction to three ancestors, father, grandfather, and
+great-grandfather, occurs in the Va_g_asaneyi-sa_m_hita, XIX. 36-37.]
+
+[Footnote 302: There is, however, great variety in these matters,
+according to different _s_akhas. Thus, according to the Gobhila-_s_akha,
+the Pi_nd_a Pit_ri_ya_gn_a is to be considered as smarta, not as _s_rauta
+(pi_nd_a-pit_ri_ya_gn_ah khalv asma_kkh_akhaya_m_ nasti); while others
+maintain that an agnimat should perform the smarta, a _s_rautagnimat the
+_s_rauta Pit_ri_ya_gn_a; see Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras, p. 671. On page
+667 we read: anagner amavasya_s_raddha, nanvaharyam ity adara_n_iyam.]
+
+[Footnote 303: "Ueber Todtenbestattung und Opfergebraeuche im Veda," in
+"Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlaendischen Gesellschaft," vol. ix.
+1856.]
+
+[Footnote 304: A_s_valayana G_ri_hya-sutras IV. 4, 10.]
+
+[Footnote 305: Manu V. 64-65.]
+
+[Footnote 306: Buehler, Apastamba, "Sacred Books of the East," vol.
+ii., p. 138; also "_S_raddhakalpa," p. 890. Though the _S_raddha is
+prescribed in the "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," IV. 4, 2-3, it is not
+described there, but in a separate treatise, the _S_raddha-kalpa.]
+
+[Footnote 307: As meaning the food, _s_raddha occurs in
+_s_raddhabhu_g_ and similar words. As meaning the sacrificial act, it
+is explained, yatraita_k_ _kh_raddhaya diyate tad eva karma
+_s_raddha_s_abdabhidheyam. Pretam pit_rims_ _k_a nirdi_s_ya
+bho_g_ya_m_ yat priyam atmana_h_ _s_raddhaya diyate yatra ta_k_
+_kh_raddham parikirtitam. "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 892. We also
+read _s_raddhanvita_h_ _s_raddha_m_ kurvita, "let a man perform the
+_s_raddha with faith;" "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 1053.]
+
+[Footnote 308: Manu III. 82.]
+
+[Footnote 309: Pit_ri_n uddi_s_ya yad diyate brahma_n_ebhya_h_
+_s_raddhaya ta_k_ _kh_radd ham.]
+
+[Footnote 310: Apastamba II. 16, 3, Brahma_n_as tv ahavaniyarthe.]
+
+[Footnote 311: L. c. p. 142.]
+
+[Footnote 312: Manu III. 138, 140.]
+
+[Footnote 313: "A_s_v. G_ri_hya-sutras" IV. 5, 8.]
+
+[Footnote 314: It is described as a vik_ri_ti of the
+Parva_n_a-_s_raddha in "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 1011.]
+
+[Footnote 315: One of the differences between the acts before and after
+the Sapi_nd_ikara_n_a is noted by Salankayana:--Sapi_nd_ikara_n_am yavad
+_rig_udarbhai_h_ pit_ri_kriya Sapi_nd_ikara_n_ad urdhva_m_ dvigu_n_air
+vidhivad bhavet. "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 930.]
+
+[Footnote 316: "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 1023.]
+
+[Footnote 317: "G_ri_hya-sutras," ed. Oldenberg, p. 83.]
+
+[Footnote 318: A pratyabdikam ekoddish_t_am on the anniversary of the
+deceased is mentioned by Gobhiliya, l. c. p. 1011.]
+
+[Footnote 319: "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 1039.]
+
+[Footnote 320: "_S_ankh. G_ri_hya," p. 83; "Gobh. G_ri_hya," p. 1024.
+According to some authorities the ekoddish_t_a is called nava, new,
+during ten days; navami_s_ra, mixed, for six months; and pura_n_a,
+old, afterward. "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 1020.]
+
+[Footnote 321: "Gobhiliya," l. c. p. 1032.]
+
+[Footnote 322: "Gobhiliya," l. c. p. 1047.]
+
+[Footnote 323: "Life and Essays," ii. p. 195.]
+
+[Footnote 324: Colebrooke adds that in most provinces the periods for
+these sixteen ceremonies, and for the concluding obsequies entitled
+Sapi_nd_ana, are anticipated, and the whole is completed on the second
+or third day; after which they are again performed at the proper
+times, but in honor of the whole set of progenitors instead of the
+deceased singly. It is this which Dr. Donner, in his learned paper on
+the "Pi_nd_apit_ri_ya_gn_a" (p. 11), takes as the general rule.]
+
+[Footnote 325: See this subject most exhaustively treated,
+particularly in its bearings on the law of inheritance, in Rajkumar
+Sarvadhikari's "Tagore Law Lectures for 1880," p. 93.]
+
+[Footnote 326: "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 892.]
+
+[Footnote 327: L. c. p. 897.]
+
+[Footnote 328: See p. 666, and p. 1008. G_ri_hyakara_h_
+pi_nd_apit_ri_ya_gn_asya _s_raddhatvam aha.]
+
+[Footnote 329: Gobhila IV. 4, 3, itarad anvaharyam. But the
+commentators add anagner amavasya_s_raddham, nanvaharyam. According to
+Gobhila there ought to be the Vai_s_vadeva offering and the Bali
+offering at the end of each Parva_n_a-_s_raddha; see "Gobhiliya
+G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 1005, but no Vai_s_vadeva at an ekoddish_t_a
+_s_raddha, l. c. p. 1020.]
+
+[Footnote 330: L. c. pp. 1005-1010; "Nirnayasindhu," p. 270.]
+
+[Footnote 331: See Burnell, "The Law of Partition," p. 31.]
+
+[Footnote 332: Kalau tavad gavalambho ma_m_sadana_m_ _k_a _s_raddhe
+nishiddham, Gobhilena tu madhyamash_t_akaya_m_ vastukarma_n_i _k_a
+gavalambho vihita_h_, ma_m_sa_k_aru_s_ _k_anvash_t_akya_s_raddhe;
+Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutra, ed. "_K_andrakanta Tarkalankara,
+Vi_gn_apti," p. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 333: It may be seriously doubted whether prayers _to_ the
+dead or _for_ the dead satisfy any craving of the human heart. With us
+in "the North," a shrinking from "open manifestations of grief" has
+nothing whatever to do with the matter. Those who refuse to engage in
+such worship believe and teach that the dead are not gods and cannot
+be helped by our prayers. Reason, not feeling, prevents such
+worship.--AM. PUBS.]
+
+[Footnote 334: A deeper idea than affection inspired this custom.
+Every kinsman was always such, living or dead; and hence the service
+of the dead was sacred and essential. The _S_raddhas were adopted as
+the performance of such offices. There were twelve forms of this
+service: 1. The daily offering to ancestors. 2. The _s_raddha for a
+person lately deceased, and not yet included with the pit_ri_s. 3. The
+_s_raddha offered for a specific object. 4. The offering made on
+occasions of rejoicing. 5. The _s_raddha performed when the
+recently-departed has been incorporated among the Pit_ri_s. 6. The
+_s_raddha performed on a parvan-day, _i.e._, new moon, the eighth day,
+fourteenth day, and full moon. 7. The _s_raddha performed in a house
+of assembly for the benefit of learned men. 8. Expiatory. 9. Part of
+some other ceremony. 10. Offered for the sake of the Devas. 11.
+Performed before going on a journey. 12. _S_raddha for the sake of
+wealth. The _s_raddhas may be performed in one's own house, or in some
+secluded and pure place. The number performed each year by those who
+can afford it varies considerably; but ninety-six appears to be the
+more common. The most fervent are the twelve new-moon rites; four Yuga
+and fourteen Manu rites; twelve corresponding to the passages of the
+sun into the zodiacal mansions, etc.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 335: See "Hibbert Lectures," new ed. pp. 243-255.]
+
+[Footnote 336: The same concept is found in the Platonic Dialogue
+between Sokrates and Euthyphron. The philosopher asks the diviner to
+tell what is holy and what impiety. "That which is pleasing to the
+gods is holy, and that which is not pleasing to them is impious"
+promptly replies the mantis, "To be holy is to be just," said
+Sokrates; "Is the thing holy because they love it, or do they love it
+because it is holy?" Euthyphron hurried away in alarm. He had
+acknowledged unwittingly that holiness or justice was supreme above
+all gods; and this highest concept, this highest faith, he dared not
+entertain.--A. W.]
+
+[Footnote 337: In Chinese we find that the same three aspects of
+religion and their intimate relationship were recognized, as, for
+instance, when Confucius says to the Prince of Sung: "Honor the sky
+(worship of Devas), reverence the Manes (worship of Pit_ri_s); if you
+do this, sun and moon will keep their appointed time (_Ri_ta)."
+Happel, "Altchinesische Reichsreligion," p. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 338: Rig-Veda I. 164, 46; "Hibbert Lectures," p. 311.]
+
+[Footnote 339: Rig-Veda X. 114, 5; "Hibbert Lectures," p. 313.]
+
+[Footnote 340: Rig-Veda I. 164, 4.]
+
+[Footnote 341: [Greek: Tu de phronema tou pneumatos zoe kai eirene]. See
+also Ruskin, "Sesame," p. 63.]
+
+[Footnote 342: Major Jacob, "Manual of Hindu Pantheism," Preface.]
+
+[Footnote 343: "Life and Letters of Gokulaji Sampattirama Zala and his
+views of the Vedanta, by Manassukharama Suryarama Tripa_th_i." Bombay,
+1881.
+
+As a young man Gokulaji, the son of a good family, learned Persian and
+Sanskrit. His chief interest in life, in the midst of a most
+successful political career, was the "Vedanta." A little insight, we
+are told, into this knowledge turned his heart to higher objects,
+promising him freedom from grief, and blessedness, the highest aim of
+all. This was the turning-point of his inner life. When the celebrated
+Vedanti anchorite, Rama Bava, visited Junagadh, Gokulaji became his
+pupil. When another anchorite, Paramahansa Sa_kk_idananda, passed
+through Junagadh on a pilgrimage to Girnar, Gokulaji was regularly
+initiated in the secrets of the Vedanta. He soon became highly
+proficient in it, and through the whole course of his life, whether in
+power or in disgrace, his belief in the doctrines of the Vedanta
+supported him, and made him, in the opinion of English statesmen, the
+model of what a native statesman ought to be.]
+
+[Footnote 344: Professor Kuenen discovers a similar idea in the words
+placed in the mouth of Jehovah by the prophet Malachi, i. 14: "For I
+am a great King, and my name is feared among the heathen." "The
+reference," he says, "is distinctly to the adoration already offered
+to Yahweh by the people, whenever they serve their own gods with true
+reverence and honest zeal.(A1) Even in Deuteronomy the adoration of
+these other gods by the nations is represented as a dispensation of
+Yahweh. Malachi goes a step further, and accepts their worship as a
+tribute which in reality falls to Yahweh--to Him, the Only True. Thus
+the opposition between Yahweh and the other gods, and afterward
+between the one true God and the imaginary gods, makes room here for
+the still higher conception that the adoration of Yahweh is the
+essence and the truth of all religion." "Hibbert Lectures," p. 181.
+
+A1: There is, we believe, not the slightest authority for reading
+Malachi in this way; any reader of the Old Testament is competent to
+judge for himself.--AM. PUBS.]
+
+[Footnote 345: The author's enthusiasm has carried him beyond bounds.
+The weight to be given to Schopenhauer's opinion touching any
+religious subject may be measured by the following quotation: "The
+happiest moment of life is the completest forgetfulness of self in
+sleep, and the wretchedest is the most wakeful and conscious."--AM.
+PUBS.]
+
+[Footnote 346: "Sacred Books of the East," vol. i, "The Upanishads,"
+translated by M. M.; Introduction, p. lxi.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+A.
+
+ABBA Seen river, 192.
+
+ABRAIAMAN, 74.
+
+ABU FAZL, on the Hindus, 75.
+
+ACTIVE side of human nature in Europe, 120.
+
+ADITI, meaning of, 215.
+
+ADITYA, 158.
+
+ADITYAS, 215.
+
+ADROGHA, 83.
+
+AERIAL GODS, 168.
+
+AFGHANISTAN, 159;
+  inhabitants of, 189.
+
+AGNI, god of fire, 167.
+
+AGNI-IGNIS, fire, 41;
+  as a terrestrial deity, 195.
+
+AITAREYA BRAHMANA, on heaven and earth, 175.
+
+ALEXANDER THE GREAT, 37;
+  changes the name of a river, 191.
+
+ALL-SACRIFICE, the, 85.
+
+ALPHABET, the, whence derived, 86;
+  Ionian and Phoenician, 222;
+  two used  in Asoka's inscription, 225.
+
+AMITABHA worship, 106.
+
+ANAXAGORAS, his doctrine, 177.
+
+ANCESTORS, spirits of, 238;
+  worship of, 239.
+
+ANIMISM, 130.
+
+AURITA, 83.
+
+ARCHAEOLOGICAL survey of India, 26.
+
+ARRIAN, on the Hindus, 73;
+  rivers known to, 191.
+
+ARYANS, the, our intellectual relatives, 33;
+  seven branches of, 41;
+  found in Sanskrit literature, 116;
+  religion of, 161.
+
+ASMI, I am, 43.
+
+ASOKA, king, 96;
+  adopts Buddhism, 106;
+  author of the first inscriptions, 225;
+  language of the same, 234.
+
+ASTRONOMY, ancient, in India, 114;
+  in the Veda, 150;
+  in China, 151.
+
+ATMAN, the Self, 265.
+
+AVATARAS of Vishnu, three, 153.
+
+
+B.
+
+BABYLONIAN division of time, 36;
+  influences on Vedic poems, 145;
+  on Vedic astronomy, 147;
+  zodiac, 158.
+
+BARZOI, 114.
+
+BASTIAN, on the Polynesian myths, 169.
+
+BENGAL, the people of, 55;
+  villages of, 65;
+  schools in, 80.
+
+BENGALI, 161.
+
+BHAGAVADGITA, 272.
+
+BHAGAVAT, supreme lord, 272.
+
+BIMETALLIC currency, 37.
+
+BHISHMA, death of, 83.
+
+BIBLE, the, Sanskrit words in, 28;
+  and the Jewish race, 140.
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHICAL survey of India, 102.
+
+BOOKS read by ancient nations compared with modern, 137.
+
+BOPP, his comparative grammar, 46.
+
+BRAHMA sacrifice, 249.
+
+BRAHMA Samaj, of india, 163.
+
+BRAHMANA, 162.
+
+BRAHMANAS, on truth, 84;
+  as a class, 256.
+
+BUDDHA and the popular dialects, 96.
+
+BUDDHISM, chief source of our fables, 27;
+  striking coincidences with Christianity, 108;
+  its rise, 234.
+
+BURNOUF, 115.
+
+
+C.
+
+CABUL river, 192.
+
+CAESAR, on the Druids and their memorizing, 233.
+
+CANAAN, 140.
+
+CARLYLE, his opinion of historical works, 16.
+
+CASTE, origin of, 117;
+  in the laws of Manu, 117;
+  in the Rig-Veda, 117.
+
+CAT, the domestic, its original home, 42.
+
+CHINA, origin of the name, 151;
+  chronicles of, 104;
+  lunar stations of, 150;
+  aspects of religion, 264.
+
+CHRISTIAN religion, the, and the Jewish race, 35.
+
+CIVIL service examinations, Indian, 20.
+
+CLIMATIC influences on morals and social life, 120.
+
+COINS of India, 26.
+
+COLEBROOKE'S religious ceremonies, 247.
+
+COMMERCIAL honor in India, 82.
+
+COMMERCE between India and Syria in Solomon's time, 28.
+
+COMMERCIAL writing, 225.
+
+CONFUCIUS, a hard student, 230.
+
+CONQUERORS of India, 30.
+
+COULANGES, Professor, his opinion on religious beliefs, 245.
+
+CUNNINGHAM'S Ancient Geography of India, 192.
+
+CYLINDERS of Babylon, 139.
+
+
+D.
+
+DACOITS, 79.
+
+DARWIN, 141.
+
+DAWN, the, 173.
+
+DAYANANDA'S introduction to the Rig-Veda, 104.
+
+DELUGE, the, 153;
+  in Hindu literature, 154;
+  not borrowed from the Old Testament, 157;
+  its natural origin, 159.
+
+DEPARTED spirits, 237;
+  honors paid to, 240;
+  ceremonies to, 246.
+
+DEVA, 159;
+  the meaning of, 236.
+
+DEVAPATNIS, wives of the gods, 164.
+
+DEVAPI'S prayer for rain, 204.
+
+DEVELOPMENT of human character in India and Europe, 118.
+
+DIALECTS in Asoka's time, 106.
+
+DIPHTHERA, 222.
+
+DIVI Manes, 240.
+
+DONKEY, in the lion's skin, 27;
+  in the tiger's skin, 28.
+
+DRUIDS, their memory, 233.
+
+DYAUS and Zeus, 213.
+
+
+E.
+
+EABANI, 158.
+
+EAST, the, our original home, 49.
+
+ECLIPTIC, Indian, 153.
+
+EDUCATION of the human race, 107.
+
+EDUCATION in India, by training the memory, 232.
+
+EGYPTIAN hieroglyphics preserved in the alphabet, 36.
+
+ELPHINSTONE, Mountstuart, his opinion of the Hindus, 77.
+
+ENGLISH officers in India, 69.
+
+ENGLISH oriental scholars, a list of, 22.
+
+EOS and Ushas, 201.
+
+ESTHONIAN prayer to Picker, the god of thunder, 211.
+
+EURIPIDES, on the marriage of heaven and earth, 177.
+
+EXAMINATIONS, work produced at, 20.
+
+
+F.
+
+FABLES, migration of, 27.
+
+FALSEHOOD, no mortal sin, five cases of, 89.
+
+FATHERS, Hymn to the, 241.
+
+FINITE, the, impossible without the infinite, 126.
+
+FIRE, names for, 41;
+  as a civilizer, 195;
+  a terrestrial deity, 195;
+  why worshipped, 196.
+
+FIVE nations, the, 117.
+
+FIVE sacrifices, religious duties, 249.
+
+FRAVASHIS, in Persia, 240.
+
+FREDERICK the Great, 34.
+
+FRIAR Jordanus, opinion of Hindu character, 75.
+
+FUNERAL ceremonies, 248;
+  an earlier worship, 252;
+  striking coincidences, 253;
+  burial and cremation, 253.
+
+
+G.
+
+GAINAS, language of, 97.
+
+GALILEO, his theory, 135.
+
+GANGES, sources of, 96;
+  its tributaries, 187.
+
+GATAKA, 30.
+
+GATHAS, 107.
+
+GAUTAMA allows a lie, 88.
+
+GERMANY, study of Sanskrit in, 22.
+
+GEMS, the nine, 114.
+
+GILL, Rev. W., myths and songs of the South Pacific, 169;
+  savage life in Polynesia, 233.
+
+GODS in the Veda, their testimony for truth, 83;
+  the number of, 164;
+  river gods and goddesses, 167;
+  made and unmade by men, 182;
+  growth of a divine conception in the human mind, 198.
+
+GOLDEN RULE, the, 92.
+
+GOETHE'S West-oestlicher Divan, 22.
+
+GOKULAJI, the model native statesman, 271.
+
+GRASSMAN, translation of Sanskrit words, 183.
+
+GREEK alphabet, age of, 221.
+
+GREEK literature, its study and use, 23;
+  when first written, 222.
+
+GREEK deities, their physical origin, 129.
+
+GREEK philosophy our model, 38.
+
+GREEK and Latin, similarity between, 40.
+
+GRIMM, identification of Parganya and Perun, 210.
+
+GROWTH of ancient religions, 128.
+
+GRUNAU on old Prussian gods, 210.
+
+GUIDE-BOOKS, Greek, 223.
+
+GYMNOSOPHISTS, Indian, 123.
+
+
+H.
+
+HARDY, his Manual of Buddhism, 97.
+
+HASTINGS, Warren, and the Darics, 216;
+  opinion of Hindu character, 79.
+
+HEBREW religion, foreign influences in, 145.
+
+HEBER, Bishop, opinion of the Hindus, 79.
+
+HEAVEN and Earth, 169;
+  Maori legend of, 173;
+  Vedic legends of, 175;
+  Greek legends of, 176;
+  epithets for, in Veda, 178;
+  as seen by Vedic poets, 178.
+
+HENOTHEISM, 166.
+
+HERODOTUS, 223.
+
+HINDUS, truthful character of, 52;
+  the charge of their untruthfulness refuted, 53;
+  origin of the charge, 54;
+  different races and characteristics of, 55;
+  testimony of trustworthy witnesses, 55;
+  their litigiousness, 60;
+  their treatment by Mohammedan conquerors, 72;
+  reason for unfavorable opinion of, 76;
+  their commercial honor, 82;
+  their real character transcendent, 126;
+  their religion, 127;
+  sacrifices and priestly rites, 148;
+  knowledge of astronomy, 153;
+  first acquainted with an alphabet, 224.
+
+HINDUSTANI, 95.
+
+HIRANYAGHARBA, 164.
+
+HISTORY, its object and study, 34;
+  its true sense, 44.
+
+HITOPADESA, fables of, 110.
+
+HOTTENTOT river names, 188.
+
+HOMERIC HYMNS, 140;
+  heaven and earth in the, 176.
+
+HUMAN Mind, study of, India important for, 33.
+
+HUMBOLDT Alexander von, on Kalidasa, 110.
+
+HYDASPES, 192.
+
+HYDRAOTIS, or Hyarotis, 191.
+
+HYPASIS, or Hyphasis, 191.
+
+
+I.
+
+IDA, 156.
+
+IDRISI, on the Hindus, 74.
+
+IJJAR, April-May, 158.
+
+INDIA, what it can teach us, 19;
+  a paradise, 24;
+  its literature a corrective, 24;
+  past and present aspects of, 25;
+  its scientific treasures, 25;
+  a laboratory for all students, 32;
+  its population and vast extent, 142.
+
+INDRA, god of the wind, the Vedic Jupiter, 83;
+  the Aryan guide, 116;
+  the god of the thunderstorm, 168;
+  as creator, 180;
+  the principal god of the Veda, 198;
+  peculiar to India, 201.
+
+INDUS, The river, 167.
+
+INFINITE, The, 126.
+
+INNER Life, Influence of Indian literature upon our, 24.
+
+INSCRIPTIONS in India, 225.
+
+IONIANS, The, their alphabet, 222;
+  first writing, 223.
+
+I-TSING, his visit to India, 229;
+  his account of Buddhist priests, 229;
+  of education, 230;
+  of perfection of memory, 231;
+  of Brahmans, 231.
+
+IZDUBAR, or Nimrod, the poem of, 158.
+
+
+J.
+
+JEHOVAH, 200.
+
+JEWS, The, as a race, 36;
+  their religion as related to Oriental religions, 36;
+  necessary to a study of the Christian religion, 35;
+  the beginning and growth of their religion, 128.
+
+JONES, Sir William, his voyage to India, 49;
+  his dreams become realities, 50.
+
+JOSHUA'S battle, 200.
+
+JOURNALS, Sanskrit, now published in India, 98.
+
+JUDGMENT of Solomon, 30.
+
+JUNAGADH, 271.
+
+JUPITER, 201.
+
+JUMNA, the river, 190.
+
+JURISPRUDENCE in India, 30.
+
+JUSTICE of the Indians, 74.
+
+
+K.
+
+KALIDASA, the poet, his age, 110;
+  plays of, 111.
+
+KAMAL-EDDIN Abd-errazak, on the Hindus, 75.
+
+KAUSIKA, punished for truthfulness, 89.
+
+KANISHKA, the Saka king, 106.
+
+KANJUR, the women and the child in the, 29.
+
+KATHAKA, or reader, 158.
+
+KATHENOTHEISM, 166.
+
+KESHUB Chunder Sen, his grandfather, 59.
+
+KINAS, or Chinese, 151.
+
+KORAN, oaths on, 70.
+
+KRUMU, 185.
+
+KSHATRIYAS, 232.
+
+KTESIAS, on the justice of the Indians, 72.
+
+KTISIS, 223.
+
+KUBHA, 185.
+
+KULLAVAGGA, quotation from the, 96.
+
+KUENEN, Professor, on worship of Yahweh, 272.
+
+
+L.
+
+LADAK, 192.
+
+LAKSHMANA, 86.
+
+LARES familiares in Rome, 240.
+
+LASSEN, 151.
+
+LAW books of India, 30.
+
+LIFE, Indian and European views of, 121;
+  beautiful sentiments of, from Hindu writings, 124;
+  a journey, 120.
+
+LAW of Nature, 263.
+
+LAWS of Manu, 111.
+
+LIBERAL, The, Keshub Chunder Sen's organ, 99.
+
+LIBERAL education, the elements of, 38.
+
+LIGHTNING, son of Parganya, 205.
+
+LITERATURE, written, 224.
+
+LITUANIA, 209;
+  its language, 209;
+  its god of rain, 210;
+  prayer to the same, 211.
+
+LOGOGRAPHI, 223.
+
+LOST Tribes, The, of Israel, 159.
+
+LUDLOW on village schools in India, 80.
+
+LUDWIG, translation of Sanskrit words, 187.
+
+LUNAR stations, 150.
+
+LUNAR zodiac, 147.
+
+
+M.
+
+MAHABHARATA, an epic poem, speaks for the truth, 88;
+  yet recited, 99.
+
+MAHMUD of Gazni, 72.
+
+MAINE, Sir Henry, 65.
+
+MALCOLM, Sir John, on the Hindus, 55.
+
+MANA, A golden, 146.
+
+MANAVAS, The laws of, on evil-doers, 93.
+
+MANGAIA, 170.
+
+MANNING, Judge, 173.
+
+MANU, his code of laws, 30;
+  their true age, 111;
+  his connection with the deluge, 155.
+
+MANUSCRIPTS, the first collectors of, 224.
+
+MAORI Genesis, 173.
+
+MARUTS, the storm-gods, 199.
+
+MAUI, son of Ru, 171;
+  legend of, 171;
+  its origin, 173.
+
+MEGASTHENES on village life, 65;
+  on Hindu honesty, 72.
+
+MELANIPPE, 177.
+
+MEMORY, power of, 232.
+
+METAMORPHIC changes in religions, 128.
+
+MILL, History of India, 59;
+  estimate of Hindu character, 60.
+
+MINA, its weight, 125.
+
+MITRA, 156;
+  invoked, 215.
+
+MODERN Sanskrit literature, 107.
+
+MOHAMMEDANS, their opinion of the Hindus, 75;
+  the number of sects, 76;
+  treatment of Hindus, 90.
+
+MONOTHEISM in the Veda, 164.
+
+MORALITY, our, Saxon, 38.
+
+MORAL depravity in India, 93.
+
+MUNRO, Thomas, Sir, opinion of Hindus, 61.
+
+MUeLLER, Max, his teachers, 45;
+  intercourse with Hindus, 81;
+  opinion of their character, 82.
+
+
+N.
+
+NAKSHATRAS, The twenty-seven, 148.
+
+NAKTA and Nyx, 201.
+
+NALA, 110.
+
+NATIVE scholars, 81.
+
+NEARCHUS, 225.
+
+NEW and Full-Moon Sacrifices, 252.
+
+NEW Testament, Revised Edition, 141.
+
+NEWSPAPERS, Sanskrit, 98.
+
+NINE gems or classics, 115.
+
+NORTHERN conquerors, 106.
+
+NUMERALS in Sanskrit, 46.
+
+
+O.
+
+OATH, Taking an, in village communities, 68;
+  its understanding by the Hindus, 69;
+  fear of punishment connected with, 70.
+
+OLD Testament, 140.
+
+OPHIR, 28.
+
+ORANGE River, 188.
+
+ORIENTAL SCHOLARS, names and work hardly known, 22.
+
+ORISSA, 96.
+
+ORME, 60.
+
+ORPHEUS and Ribhu, 201.
+
+OS, oris, 44.
+
+OUDE, 189.
+
+OURANOS, 213.
+
+
+P.
+
+PAHLAVI, translation of the Pankatantra into, 115.
+
+PALESTINE, 33.
+
+PALI dialect, 107.
+
+PANDITS, 57;
+  Professor Wilson on the, 58.
+
+PANINI, 230.
+
+PANKATANTRA, 114.
+
+PAPYROS, 224.
+
+PARGANYA, 202;
+  hymn to, 205;
+  derivation of name, 207.
+
+PARVANA Sraddha, 260.
+
+PERIEGESIS, 223.
+
+PERIODOS, 223.
+
+PERIPLUS, or circumnavigations, 222.
+
+PERJURY, common in India, 71.
+
+PERKONS, thunder, 210.
+
+PERKUNA, 212.
+
+PERKUNAS, Lituanian god of thunder, 210.
+
+PERKUNO, 212.
+
+PERSIANS, what we owe to, 36.
+
+PETERSBURGH Dictionary, 183.
+
+PHOENICIANS, what we owe to, 36;
+  their letters, 222.
+
+PINDA-PITRIYAGNA, 251.
+
+PIPAL tree, 50.
+
+PITRIS, the fathers, 239;
+  invoked, 241.
+
+PITRIYAGNA-SACRIFICES, 248.
+
+PLATO, 142.
+
+PLINY, Indian rivers known to, 191.
+
+POLITICAL communities, 31.
+
+POLYTHEISM, the kind of, in the Veda, 165.
+
+POSITIVIST sentiments of a Brahman, 87.
+
+PRIMITIVE man, 133.
+
+PRAYERS for rain, 205;
+  for the dead, 262.
+
+PROMETHEUS and Pramantha, 195.
+
+PROTO-ARYAN language, 43.
+
+PTOLEMY, 36.
+
+PUMICE-STONE, 171.
+
+PUNJAB, the, rivers of the, 183.
+
+PURANAS, 162.
+
+
+R.
+
+RAGHU, 86.
+
+RAJENDRALAL Mitra, on sacrifices, 251.
+
+RAMA, on truth, 87.
+
+RAMA BAVA, the anchorite, 271.
+
+RAMAYANA, the plot of, 86;
+  yet recited, 99.
+
+RAWLINSON, Sir Henry, 158.
+
+READERS not numerous in ancient or modern times, 141.
+
+RECITATION of the old epics in India, 99.
+
+RELIGION, its home in India, 31;
+  our debt to Oriental religions, 36;
+  its transcendent character, 126;
+  metamorphic changes in, 128;
+  began in trust, not in fear, 197.
+
+REMUSAT on the Goths, 104.
+
+RENAISSANCE period in India, 110.
+
+REVIVAL of religion in India, 270.
+
+RIBHU and Orpheus, 201.
+
+RIG-VEDA, editions of, now publishing, 98;
+  known by heart, 99;
+  a treasure to the anthropologist, 134;
+  character of its poems, 143;
+  its religion primitive, 144;
+  compliment to the author for his edition of, 163;
+  the number of hymns in, 163;
+  age of the oldest manuscripts, 221;
+  total number of words in, 228;
+  how transmitted, 231.
+
+RINGOLD, Duke of Lituania, 209.
+
+RISHIS, The Vedic, 168;
+  question of earth's origin, 180;
+  their intoxicating beverage, 243.
+
+RITA, the third Beyond, 263.
+
+RIVERS, as deities, 182;
+  hymn to, 183;
+  names of, in India, 185.
+
+RIVER systems of Upper India, 188.
+
+ROBERTSON'S Historical Disquisitions, 60.
+
+RU, the sky-supporter, 170;
+  his bones, 171;
+  why pumice-stone, 173.
+
+RUeCKERT'S Weisheit der Brahmanen, 22.
+
+RUDRA, the howler, 199.
+
+
+S.
+
+S, pronounced as h, in Iranic languages, 189.
+
+SACRIFICES, priestly, 148;
+  daily and monthly, 248.
+
+SAKAS, invasion of the, 104.
+
+SAKUNTALA, her appeal to conscience, 90.
+
+SANSKRIT language, its study differently appreciated, 21;
+  use of studying, 23;
+  its supreme importance, 39;
+  its antiquity, 40;
+  its family relations, 40;
+  its study ridiculed, 45;
+  its linguistic influence, 46;
+  its moral influence, 47;
+  a dead language, 96;
+  early dialects of, 96;
+  still influential, 97;
+  scholars' use of, 98;
+  journals in, 96;
+  all living languages in India draw their life from, 100.
+
+SANSKRIT literature, human interest of, 95;
+  the literature of India, 99;
+  manuscripts existing, 102;
+  divisions of, 104;
+  character of the ancient and the modern, 107;
+  known in Persia, 113;
+  a new start in, 115;
+  its study very profitable, 275.
+
+SATAPATHA Brahmana, 91.
+
+SCHOPENHAUER, on the Upanishads, 273.
+
+SEASONS, how regulated, 148.
+
+SELF-KNOWLEDGE, the highest goal of the Veda, 125.
+
+SINDHU, the Indus river, 183;
+  address to, 184;
+  meaning of, 189.
+
+SLEEMAN, Colonel, his rambles and recollections, 60;
+  his life in village communities, 63;
+  his opinion of Hindus, 67.
+
+SOLAR myths, 216.
+
+SOLOMON'S judgment compared, 29.
+
+SPENCER, Herbert, on ancestor worship, 239;
+  his misstatement corrected, 240.
+
+SRADDHAS, or Love Feasts, 248;
+  to the departed, 254;
+  their source, 257;
+  their number, 258;
+  striking resemblance, 261.
+
+SUDAS, 200.
+
+SUN, the central thought in Aryan mythology, 216.
+
+SURYA, god of the sun, 168.
+
+
+T.
+
+TAMIL, 95.
+
+TANE-MAHUTA, forest-god, 174.
+
+TARAS, the stars, 151.
+
+TERRESTRIAL gods, 169.
+
+TEUTONIC mythology, 166.
+
+THEOGONY, 235.
+
+THORR, 166.
+
+THREE beyonds, 220.
+
+THSIN dynasty, 152.
+
+THUGS, 63.
+
+TORTOISE, the story of the, 154.
+
+TOWERS of Silence, 22.
+
+TOWNS, names of, in India, 189.
+
+TROY, siege of, 172.
+
+TRUTH, root meaning in Sanskrit, 82.
+
+TRUTHFULNESS, a luxury, 91.
+
+TURANIAN invasion, 104.
+
+TWO women and child, story of, 29.
+
+TYR and Tin, 213.
+
+
+U.
+
+UGVIS, Lithuanian, 41.
+
+UNIVERSITIES, the object of their teaching, 19.
+
+UNTRUTHFULNESS of the Hindus, 53.
+
+UPANISHADS, 267;
+  their beauty, 273.
+
+URANOS and Varuna, 201.
+
+URVASI, 110.
+
+USHAS and Eos, 202.
+
+UTTARAPAKSHA, 136.
+
+
+V.
+
+VAGA, 183;
+  as plural, 184.
+
+VAISVADEVA, offering, 249.
+
+VAISYA, a, 162.
+
+VAK, wife of Vata, 165.
+
+VALMIKI, the poet, 100.
+
+VARAHAMIHARA, 112.
+
+VARUNA, 156;
+  hymns to, 204.
+
+VASISHTHA, on righteousness, 93.
+
+VATA, the wind, 200;
+  and Wotan, 201.
+
+VEDA, their antiquity, 101;
+  silly conceptions, 118;
+  religion of, 129;
+  necessary to the study of man, 133;
+  objections to, 135;
+  native character of, 159;
+  lessons of, 161;
+  use of their study, 162;
+  character of their poetry, 182;
+  knowledge of God progressive in, 194;
+  their hymns, a specimen, 205;
+  their gods, number of, 219;
+  meaning of their names, 220;
+  three periods in their literature, 234;
+  three religions in, 236.
+
+VEDIC Mythology, its influence, 27;
+  contrasts, 169.
+
+VEDA-END, 267.
+
+VEDANTA philosophy, 265;
+  the present religion in India, 269;
+  its prevalence, 270;
+  commended to students, 271;
+  its highest knowledge, 273.
+
+VIDALA, cat, 42.
+
+VIHARAS, or colleges, the ancient, 26.
+
+VIKRAMADITYA, 110;
+  his varied experience, 113.
+
+VILLAGE communities in India, 64;
+  large number of, 65;
+  morality in, 67.
+
+VISVAKARMAN, 157.
+
+VYASA, the poet, 100.
+
+
+W.
+
+WARRIORS, native and foreign, 116.
+
+WATERS, divers gods of the, 167.
+
+WEASEL and the woman, 28.
+
+WILSON, Prof., on the Hindus, 57.
+
+WITNESSES, three classes of, 69.
+
+WOLF, F. A., his questions, 221;
+  his dictum, 223.
+
+WORKINGMEN, 116.
+
+WORSHIP of the dead, 240.
+
+WOTAN and Vata, 201.
+
+WRITING unknown in ancient India, 226.
+
+
+X.
+
+XANTHOS, the Lydian, 223.
+
+
+Y.
+
+YAG, ishta, 208.
+
+YAGNADATTABADHA, 110.
+
+YAGNAVALKYA, on virtue, 92.
+
+YAHWEH, worship of, 272.
+
+YAMA, lord of the departed, 85;
+  on immortality, 86;
+  invoked, 242;
+  as the first man, 242;
+  dialogue on death, 267.
+
+YASKA, division of the Vedic gods, 168.
+
+YUEH-CHI, The, and the Goths, 104.
+
+
+Z.
+
+ZEUS, 129;
+  the survivor of Dyaus, 213;
+  the interval between, 235.
+
+ZEUS, Dyaus, and Jupiter, 198.
+
+ZIMMER, Prof., on polytheism, 166;
+  translation of Sanskrit words, 185.
+
+ZODIACAL signs, known to Sanskrit astronomers, 114.
+
+ZODIAC, The Babylonian, 147.
+
+ZOROASTRIANISM, 31.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS IN
+
+THE STANDARD LIBRARY.
+
+_THEIR STERLING WORTH._
+
+OPINIONS OF CRITICS.
+
+
+I.
+
+Life of Cromwell.
+
+
+_NEW YORK SUN_:
+
+"Mr. Hood's biography is a positive boon to the mass of readers,
+because it presents a more correct view of the great soldier than any
+of the shorter lives published, whether we compare it with Southey's,
+Guizot's, or even Forster's."
+
+_PACIFIC CHURCHMAN_, San Francisco:
+
+"The fairest and most readable of the numerous biographies of
+Cromwell."
+
+_GOOD LITERATURE_, New York:
+
+"If all these books will prove as fresh and readable as Hood's
+'Cromwell,' the literary merit of the series will be as high as the
+price is low."
+
+_NEW YORK DAILY GRAPHIC_:
+
+"Hood's 'Cromwell' is an excellent account of the great Protector.
+Cromwell was the heroic servant of a sublime cause. A complete sketch
+of the man and the period."
+
+_CHRISTIAN UNION_, New York:
+
+"A valuable biography of Cromwell, told with interest in every part
+and with such condensation and skill in arrangement that prominent
+events are made clear to all."
+
+_SCHOOL JOURNAL_, New York:
+
+"Mr. Hood's style is pleasant, clear, and flowing, and he sets forth
+and holds his own opinion well."
+
+_EPISCOPAL RECORDER_, Philadelphia:
+
+"An admirable and able Life of Oliver Cromwell, of which we can
+unhesitatingly speak words of praise."
+
+_NEW YORK TELEGRAM_:
+
+"Full of the kind of information with which even the well-read like to
+refresh themselves."
+
+_INDIANAPOLIS SENTINEL_, Ind.:
+
+"The book is one of deep interest. The style is good, the analysis
+searching, and will add much to the author's fame as an able
+biographer."
+
+_THE WORKMAN_, Pittsburgh, Pa.:
+
+"This book tells the story of Cromwell's life in a captivating way. It
+reads like a romance. The paper and printing are very attractive."
+
+_NEW YORK HERALD_:
+
+"The book is one of deep interest. The style is good, the analysis
+searching."
+
+
+II.
+
+Science in Short Chapters.
+
+
+_JOURNAL OF EDUCATION_, Boston:
+
+"'Science in Short Chapters' supplies a growing want among a large
+class of busy people, who have not time to consult scientific
+treatises. Written in clear and simple style. Very interesting and
+instructive."
+
+_ACADEMY_, London, England:
+
+"Mr. Williams has presented these scientific subjects to the popular
+mind with much clearness and force. It may be read with advantage by
+those without special scientific training."
+
+_RELIGIOUS TELESCOPE_, Dayton, Ohio:
+
+"It is historic, scientific, and racy. A book of intense practical
+thought, which one wishes to read carefully and then read again."
+
+_NEW YORK SCHOOL JOURNAL_:
+
+"A volume of handy science, not only interesting as an abstract
+subject, but valuable for its clear expositions of every-day science.
+Of Professor Williams as an authority upon such subjects, it is
+unnecessary to comment. He already has a fame as a scientific writer
+which needs no recommendation."
+
+_PALL MALL GAZETTE_, London, England:
+
+"Original and of scientific value."
+
+_GRAPHIC_, London:
+
+"Clear, simple, and profitable."
+
+_CANADA BAPTIST_, Toronto:
+
+"A rich book at a marvellously low price. The style is sprightly and
+simple. Every chapter contains something we all want to know."
+
+_NEWARK DAILY ADVERTISER_, N.J.:
+
+"As an educator this book is worth a year's schooling, and it will go
+where schools of a high grade cannot penetrate. For such a book
+twenty-five cents seems a ridiculous sum."
+
+_J.W. BASHFORD_, Auburndale, Mass.:
+
+"A marvellous book, as fascinating as Dickens, to be consulted as an
+authority along with Britannica, and even fuller of practical hints
+than the latter's articles. I do not know how you can print its 300
+pages for 25 cents."
+
+_AMERICAN_, Philadelphia:
+
+"Mr. Williams' work is a practical compendium."
+
+
+III.
+
+The American Humorist.
+
+
+_COMMERCIAL GAZETTE_, Cincinnati, Ohio:
+
+"It is finely critical and appreciative; exceedingly crisp and
+unusually entertaining from first to last."
+
+_CHRISTIAN INTELLIGENCER_, New York:
+
+"A book of pleasant reading, with enough sparkle in it to cure any one
+of the blues."
+
+_CONGREGATIONALIST_, Boston:
+
+"They are based upon considerable study of these authors, are highly
+appreciative in tone, and show a perceptivity of American humor which
+is yet a rarity among Englishmen."
+
+_SALEM TIMES_, Mass.:
+
+"No writer in England was, in all respects, better qualified to write
+a book on American Humorists than Haweis."
+
+_CHRISTIAN JOURNAL_, Toronto:
+
+"We have been specially amused with the chapter on poor Artemus Ward,
+which we read on a railway journey. We fear our fellow-passengers
+would think something ailed us, for laugh we did, in spite of all
+attempts to preserve a sedate appearance."
+
+_OCCIDENT_, San Francisco:
+
+"This book is pleasant reading, with sparkle enough in it--as the
+writer is himself a wit--to cure one of the 'blues.'"
+
+_DANBURY NEWS_, Conn.:
+
+"Mr. Haweis gives a brief bibliographical sketch of each writer
+mentioned in the book, an analysis of his style, and classifies each
+into a distinct type from the others. He presents copious extracts
+from their works, making an entertaining book."
+
+_CENTRAL BAPTIST_, St. Louis:
+
+"A perusal of this volume will give the reader a more correct idea of
+the character discussed than he would probably get from reading their
+biographies. The lecture is analytical, penetrative, terse, incisive,
+and candid. The book is worth its price, and will amply repay
+reading."
+
+_SCHOOL JOURNAL_, New York:
+
+"Terse and brief as the soul of wit itself."
+
+_INDIANAPOLIS SENTINEL_, Indiana:
+
+"It presents, in fine setting, the wit and wisdom of Washington
+Irving, Oliver W. Holmes, James R. Lowell, Artemus Ward, Mark Twain,
+and Bret Harte, and does it _con amore_."
+
+_THE MAIL_, Toronto, Ont.:
+
+"Rev. H. R. Haweis is a writer too well-known to need commendation at
+our hands for, at least, his literary style. The general result is
+that not a page repels us and not a sentence tires. We find ourselves
+drawn pleasantly along in just the way we want to go; all our favorite
+points remembered, all our own pet phrases praised, and the good
+things of each writer brought forward to refresh one's memory. In
+fine, the book is a most agreeable companion."
+
+_LUTHERAN OBSERVER_, Philadelphia:
+
+"The peculiar style, the mental character, and the secret of success,
+of each of these prominent writers, are presented with great clearness
+and discrimination."
+
+
+IV.
+
+Lives of Illustrious Shoemakers.
+
+
+_WESTERN CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE_, Cincinnati:
+
+"When we first took up this volume we were surprised that anybody
+should attempt to make a book with precisely this form and title. But
+as we read its pages we were far more surprised to find them replete
+with interest and instruction. It should be sold by the scores of
+thousands."
+
+_PRESBYTERIAN OBSERVER_, Baltimore:
+
+"The writer of this book well understands how to write biography--a
+gift vouchsafed only to a few."
+
+_NEW YORK HERALD_:
+
+"The sons of St. Crispin have always been noted for independence of
+thought in politics and in religion; and Mr. Winks has written a very
+readable account of the lives of the more famous of the craft. The
+book is quite interesting."
+
+_DANBURY NEWS_, Conn.:
+
+"The Standard Library has been enriched by this addition."
+
+_LITERARY WORLD_, London:
+
+"The pages contain a great deal of interesting material--remarkable
+episodes of experience and history."
+
+_BOSTON GLOBE_:
+
+"A valuable book, containing much interesting matter and an
+encouragement to self-help."
+
+_CHRISTIAN STANDARD_, Cincinnati:
+
+"It will inspire a noble ambition, and may redeem many a life from
+failure."
+
+_CHRISTIAN SECRETARY_, Hartford, Conn.:
+
+"Written in a sprightly and popular manner. Full of interest."
+
+_EVANGELICAL MESSENGER_, Cleveland:
+
+"Everybody can read the book with interest, but the young will be
+specially profited by its perusal."
+
+_LEICESTER CHRONICLE_, England:
+
+"A work of the deepest interest and of singular ability."
+
+_COMMERCIAL GAZETTE_, Cincinnati:
+
+"One of the most popular books published lately."
+
+_CENTRAL METHODIST_, Kentucky:
+
+"This is a choice work--full of fact and biography. It will be read
+with interest, more especially by that large class whose awl and
+hammer provide the human family with soles for their feet."
+
+_THE WESTERN MAIL_, England:
+
+"Written with taste and tact, in a graceful, easy style. A book most
+interesting to youth."
+
+_CHRISTIAN GUARDIAN_, Toronto:
+
+"It is a capital book."
+
+_EVANGELICAL CHURCHMAN_, Toronto:
+
+"This is a most interesting book, written in a very popular style."
+
+
+V.
+
+Flotsam and Jetsam.
+
+
+_SATURDAY REVIEW_, Eng.:
+
+"Amusing and readable ... Among the successful books of this order
+must be classed that which Mr. Bowles has recently offered to the
+public."
+
+_NEW YORK WORLD_:
+
+"This series of reflections, some philosophic, others practical, and
+many humorous, make a cheerful and healthful little volume, made the
+more valuable by its index."
+
+_CENTRAL METHODIST_, Cattlesburgh, Ky.
+
+"This is a romance of the sea, and is one of the most readable and
+enjoyable books of the season."
+
+_LUTHERAN OBSERVER_, Phil.:
+
+"The cargo on this wreck must have been above all estimate in value.
+How much 'Jetsam' there may be we cannot tell, but what we have seen
+is all 'Flotsam,' and will float and find its way in enriching
+influence to a thousand hearts and homes."
+
+_NEW YORK HERALD_:
+
+"It is a clever book, full of quaint conceits and deep meditation.
+There is plenty of entertaining and original thought, and 'Flotsam and
+Jetsam' is indeed worth reading."
+
+_CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE_, Nashville, Tenn.:
+
+"Many of the author's comments are quite acute, and their personal
+tone will give them an additional flavor."
+
+_METHODIST RECORDER_, Pittsburgh, Pa.:
+
+"In addition to the charming incidents related, it fairly sparkles
+with fresh and original thoughts which cannot fail to interest and
+profit."
+
+_GOOD LITERATURE_, New York:
+
+"... Never fails to amuse and interest, and it is one of the
+pleasantest features of the book that one may open it at a venture and
+be sure of finding something original and readable."
+
+_HERALD AND PRESBYTER_, Cincinnati, Ohio:
+
+"His manner of telling the story of his varied observations and
+experiences, with his reflections accompanying, is so easy and
+familiar, as to lend his pages a fascination which renders it almost
+impossible to lay down the book until it is read to the end."
+
+_NEW YORK LEDGER_:
+
+"It is quite out of the usual method of books of travel, and will be
+relished all the more by those who enjoy bits of quiet humor and
+piquant sketches of men and things on a yachting journey."
+
+_NEW YORK STAR_:
+
+"Not too profound for entertainment, and yet pleasantly suggestive. A
+volume of clever sayings."
+
+_CHRISTIAN SECRETARY_, Hartford, Conn.:
+
+"It is a book well worth reading,... full of thought."
+
+_PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL_, Philadelphia:
+
+"A racy, original, thoughtful book. On the slight thread of
+sea-voyaging it hangs the terse thoughts of an original mind on many
+subjects. The style is so spicy that one reads with interest even when
+not approving."
+
+_CHRISTIAN INTELLIGENCER_, New York:
+
+"No one can spend an hour or two in Mr. Bowles' gallery of graphic
+pen-pictures without being so deeply impressed with their originality
+of conception and lively, spicy expression, as to talk about them to
+others."
+
+
+VI.
+
+The Highways of Literature.
+
+
+_NATIONAL BAPTIST_, Phila.:
+
+"A book full of wisdom; exceedingly bright and practical."
+
+_PACIFIC CHURCHMAN_, San Francisco:
+
+"The best answer we have seen to the common and most puzzling
+question, 'What shall I read?' Scholarly and beautiful."
+
+_DANBURY NEWS_:
+
+"Its hints, rules, and directions for reading are, just now, what
+thousands of people are needing."
+
+_CHRISTIAN WITNESS_, Newmarket, N.H.:
+
+"Clear, terse, elegant in style. A boon to young students, a pleasure
+for scholars."
+
+_NEW YORK HERALD_:
+
+"Mr. David Pryde, the author of 'Highways of Literature; or, What to
+Read, and How to Read,' is an erudite Scotchman who has taught with
+much success in Edinburgh. His hints on the best books and the best
+method of mastering them are valuable, and likely to prove of great
+practical use."
+
+_NEW YORK TABLET_:
+
+"This is a most useful and interesting work. It consists of papers in
+which the author offers rules by which the reader may discover the
+best books, and be enabled to study them properly."
+
+
+VII.
+
+Colin Clout's Calendar.
+
+
+_LEEDS MERCURY_, England:
+
+"The best specimens of popular scientific expositions that we have
+ever had the good fortune to fall in with."
+
+_NEW YORK NATION_:
+
+"The charm of such books is not a little heightened when, as in this
+case, a few touches of local history, of customs, words, and places
+are added."
+
+_AMERICAN REFORMER_, New York:
+
+"There certainly is no deterioration in the quality of the books of
+the Standard Library. This book consists of short chapters upon
+natural history, written in an easy, fascinating style, giving rare
+and valuable information concerning trees, plants, flowers, and
+animals. Such books should have a wide circulation beyond the list of
+regular subscribers. Some will criticise the author's inclination to
+attribute the marvellous things which are found in these plants,
+animals, etc., to a long process of development rather than to Divine
+agency. But the information is none the less valuable, whatever may be
+the process of these developments."
+
+
+
+
+A GREAT SACRIFICE.
+
+Young's Analytical Concordance
+
+REDUCED TO $2.50,
+
+FOR A LIMITED TIME.
+
+
+Dr. Young cannot endure to have this, the great work of his life,
+judged by the unauthorized editions with which the American market is
+flooded. These editions, he feels, do his work and the American public
+great injustice.
+
+That Americans may be able to see the work as printed under his eye
+and from his own plates, he will sell some thousands of copies at
+
+A Great Pecuniary Sacrifice.
+
+The sale at the reduced prices will begin March 1, 1883, and will
+continue until the thousands of copies set apart for this sale are
+exhausted. This is the authorized, latest revised and unabridged
+edition--in every respect the same type, paper, binding, etc., as we
+have sold at the higher prices.
+
+It is a burning shame that the great life-work of one of the most
+eminent scholars, a work pronounced in both Europe and America as one
+of the most laborious and important that this century has produced,
+embracing nearly 1100 large quarto pages, each larger and containing
+more matter than Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, should prove a great
+financial loss to its author!
+
+This great work is selling in England at $9, and is now imported and
+sold in America at $2.50!!
+
+Orders will be filled in the order received up to the time of the
+exhaustion of the stock.
+
+Young's Great Concordance.
+
+DO NOT BE DECEIVED.
+
+There is but one _authorized and correct_ edition of Young's
+Concordance sold in America. _Every copy of this edition has on the
+title-page_ the words "Authorized Edition," and at the bottom of the
+page the imprint
+
+NEW YORK: FUNK & WAGNALLS. EDINBURGH: GEORGE ADAM YOUNG & COMPANY.
+
+All copies, no matter by whom sold, that have not these words printed
+on the title-page are printed on the bungling plates made by the late
+_American Book Exchange_.
+
+Dr. YOUNG says: "This unauthorized American edition is an outrage on
+the American public, and on me, containing gross errors."
+
+REV. DR. JOHN HALL says:
+
+"Dr. Robert Young's Analytical Concordance is worthy of the lifetime
+of labor he has spent upon it. I deeply regret that his natural and
+just expectation of some return from its sale on this side of the
+ocean is not realized; and I hope the sense of justice to a most
+painstaking author will lead to the choice by many purchasers of the
+edition which Dr. Young approves--that of Messrs. FUNK & WAGNALLS,
+with whom Dr. Young cooperates in bringing out here the best edition.
+
+"NEW YORK.
+
+JOHN HALL."
+
+Do not be deceived by misrepresentations. Insist that your bookseller
+furnish you the Authorized edition.
+
+
+REDUCED PRICES:
+
+1100 quarto pages (each larger than a page in Webster's Unabridged
+Dictionary), Cloth,                                             $2 50
+
+Sheep                                                            4 00
+
+French im. morocco                                               4 50
+
+_Sent post-free._
+
+FUNK & WAGNALLS, 10 & 12 Dey Street, New York.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's India: What can it teach us?, by F. Max Mueller
+
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