The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0080/00801.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 39KB | 609 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00801}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of Religions
Chapter I}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Foot Moore, George}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{gods
hymns
god
rig-veda
varuna
indra
religion
heaven
nature
soma
see
pictures
see
figures
}
$Date{1913}
$Log{See Hindu Divinities*0080101.scf
}
Title:       History Of Religions
Book:        Religions Of India
Author:      Foot Moore, George
Date:        1913

Chapter I

Religion Of The Veda

     The Aryans in India - The Hymns of the Rig-Veda - Vedic Deities - Indra,
Varuna, and Mitra - Nature Gods - Agni and Soma - Nymphs and Elves - Demons -
Worship: Priests, Sacrifice, Expiations - Magic in the Atharva-Veda - The Dead
and Their Abodes - The Beginnings of Speculation - The Philosophy of the
Upanishads - Brahman-Atman - Rebirth and Deliverance - Dualistic Philosophy -
Practical Means of Salvation.

     The peninsula of India was occupied in early times by peoples of several
ethnic and linguistic stocks, the most numerous, if not the oldest, being the
Dravidians, who now form the characteristic population of the Deccan, but once
extended farther to the north into the Panjab and the Gangetic plain.  In the
north and east of the latter region there were also Mongoloid tribes, akin to
the peoples of Nepal and the Tibetan plateau, which in time mingled with the
Dravidians.  In the second millennium before the Christian era, or perhaps in
the third, Aryan tribes began to enter India from the northwest.  The movement
was a migration in several successive waves, rather than an invasion, and
doubtless continued for several centuries.  As the Aryans pressed southward
and eastward they subjugated and enslaved the older dark-skinned natives or
forced them back before them.

     The Aryan division of the Indo-European family, before the migration, was
settled north of the Hindu-Kush.  One branch, the forefathers of the
Aryo-Indians, moving southward, made their way into the valley of the Indus,
perhaps by the river gorges of the Kabul, and thence into the Panjab, while
the branch which we know as Iranian remained in their old homes or moved
westward as far as Media and Persia.  Before the division the two branches of
the race spoke closely related dialects of the same language, and had
substantially the same primitive religion; through centuries of separation,
and in widely different surroundings, they diverged ever more widely in
character, and the development of religion, especially, took wholly different
directions.

     The Aryan invaders of India were, like their Iranian kinsmen, a hardy and
vigorous race, and the climate of the region which they first occupied was by
no means so enervating as that of the Ganges plain.  They were already beyond
the stage of pure nomads; they lived in unwalled villages, with forts on high
ground in which they could take refuge from attack.  At the head of the
several tribes were chiefs or kings, "protectors of the people," their leaders
in war.  The principal wealth of the people was in its herds of cattle, for
which the region offered wide pasture lands. Horses, which were highly prized,
were used to draw chariots, while the ordinary draught animals were oxen and
asses; flocks of sheep and goats were also kept.  Barley was cultivated; rice
seems not to have been known.

     The herds were the chief support of the people - milk fresh from the cow
or made into a mush with meal, curdled milk, butter.  Meat was an infrequent
addition to their diet, domestic animals being rarely slaughtered except in
sacrifice or on festive occasions such as weddings. Intoxicating drinks were
prepared from the juice of the soma plant mixed with milk or from grain, and
inordinate indulgence in them was not infrequent.  Trade was by barter, the
standard unit of value being the cow; ornaments of gold and silver and
precious stones were also used in exchange.  The people were fond of sport,
especially of chariot-racing and of the chase, and much addicted to gambling.
The social distinctions natural to such a society existed, but there were no
castes, nor was there a priesthood with exclusive prerogatives.  The position
of woman was freer and more honourable than in later times.  Wars with the
natives and between different Aryan tribes or confederacies were frequent; the
motive was often cattle-lifting, if we may judge from the fact that one of the
words for battle means literally, "seeking of cows."

     The earliest knowledge of this people and its ways, its civilisation and
religion, is derived from the Rig-Veda.  Veda (from the root which appears in
"wit") and Greek "knowledge," pre-eminently religious knowledge, and is
applied in later times to the whole sacred literature regarded as revealed.
The Rig-Veda is a collection of poems in ten books, comprising in all somewhat
over one thousand pieces.  Most of them are hymns of praise and prayer
addressed to particular gods or groups of gods.  Books II-VII, called the
"family books," are collections belonging to different families of priests
whose eponymous ancestor is supposed to be a famous poet of ancient times. The
seventh book, for example, is the hymn book of the Vashisthas; the third, that
of Vicvamitra and his family, and so on.  It is not improbable that these
families originally belonged to different Aryan tribes or clans.  Speaking
generally, the oldest hymns are found in the family books, while books I and X
contain the latest.  In each book the hymns are primarily arranged by the gods
to whom they are addressed; those to Agni first, next those to Indra, then
hymns to all the gods.

     The hymns of the Rig-Veda are far from being, as was thought in the first
enthusiasm of discovery, primitive poetry, or the spontaneous expression of
primitive and unsophisticated religion.  Many of them were composed by
priestly poets for princely patrons, to be recited or sung on sacrificial
occasions; not a few are uninspired and artificial productions, in set forms,
full of stereotyped phrases and the imitation of imitations. The effort to be
original without originality results in far-fetched figures and laborious
obscurity.  As belief in the god-compelling power of the word grew, a peculiar
potency was attributed to cryptic epithets and enigmatic allusions; actual
riddles are not infrequent.  For reciting the hymns, and especially for
composing new ones for great occasions, the poets expected liberal
remuneration; they laud generous patrons and often express with unblushing
frankness their desire for many cows.  There is little of deep human emotion
in these hymns and little genuine religious fervour. Yet there are among them
some of real poetic power and of elevated religious sentiment, and in the
later books several which display philosophic insight.  Even in dull hymns the
sublime phenomena of nature occasionally evoke flashes of genuine poetry.  The
poets sometimes ascribe the thoughts embodied in their verses to divine
inspiration; priestly theory in later times attributed the whole sacred
literature to revelation in the most literal sense.

     In the age of the great heresies, Jainism and Buddhism, the Rig-Veda
collection and the prose liturgical texts (Brahmanas) dependent upon it had
long enjoyed this supreme authority, and through the possession of the divine
"knowledge" the Brahman priesthood had acquired its great spiritual power.
The Brahmanas not only breathe a different religious atmosphere, but have a
different geographical horizon; they were composed in the valley of the
Ganges.  For these great changes several centuries must be allowed, and since
the heresies of the sixth century had precursors a good way further back the
round estimate of 1000 B.C. for the lower limit of the Vedic age seems rather
too low than too high.  How ancient the oldest hymns in the collection are we
have no means of judging.  The thing of importance is that all the hymns
reflect Indian surroundings and conditions, and are therefore subsequent to
the invasion and the settlement in the Panjab, and apparently sep