Ten Great Religions Part 7

But the Aryans were not an exclusively pastoral people; they certainly had barley, and perhaps other cereals, before their dispersion. They possessed the plough, the mill for grinding grain; they had hatchet,[35] hammer, auger. The Aryans were acquainted with several metals, among which were gold, silver, copper, tin. They knew how to spin and weave to some extent; they were acquainted with pottery. How their houses were built we do not know, but they contained doors, windows, and fireplaces. They had cloaks or mantles, they boiled and roasted meat, and certainly used soup. They had lances, swords, the bow and arrow, shields, but not armor. They had family life, some simple laws, games, the dance, and wind instruments.

They had the decimal numeration, and their year was of three hundred and sixty days. They worshipped the heaven, earth, sun, fire, water, wind; but there are also plain traces of an earlier monotheism, from which this nature-worship proceeded.

-- 4. The Aryans in India. The Native Races. The Vedic Age. Theology of the Vedas.

So far Comparative Philology takes us, and the next step forward brings us to the Vedas, the oldest works in the Hindoo literature, but at least one thousand or fifteen hundred years more recent than the times we have been describing. The Aryans have separated, and the Hindoos are now in India.

It is eleven centuries before the time of Alexander. They occupy the region between the Punjaub and the Ganges, and here was accomplished the transition of the Aryans from warlike shepherds into agriculturists and builders of cities.[36]

The last hymns of the Vedas were written (says St. Martin) when they arrived from the Indus at the Ganges, and were building their oldest city, at the confluence of that river with the Jumna. Their complexion was then white, and they call the race whom they conquered, and who afterward were made _Soudras_, or lowest caste, blacks.[37] The chief G.o.ds of the Vedic age were Indra, Varuna, Agni, Savitri, Soma. The first was the G.o.d of the atmosphere; the second, of the Ocean of light, or Heaven; the third, of Fire;[38] the fourth, of the Sun; and the fifth, of the Moon. Yama was the G.o.d of death. All the powers of nature were personified in turn,--as earth, food, wine, months, seasons, day, night, and dawn. Among all these divinities, Indra and Agni were the chief.[39] But behind this incipient polytheism lurks the original monotheism,--for each of these G.o.ds, in turn, becomes the Supreme Being. The universal Deity seems to become apparent, first in one form of nature and then in another. Such is the opinion of Colebrooke, who says that "the ancient Hindoo religion recognizes but one G.o.d, not yet sufficiently discriminating the creature from the Creator." And Max Muller says: "The hymns celebrate Varuna, Indra, Agni, &c., and each in turn is called supreme. The whole mythology is fluent. The powers of nature become moral beings."

Max Muller adds: "It would be easy to find, in the numerous hymns of the Veda, pa.s.sages in which almost every single G.o.d is represented as supreme and absolute. Agni is called 'Ruler of the Universe'; Indra is celebrated as the Strongest G.o.d, and in one hymn it is said, 'Indra is stronger than all.' It is said of Soma that 'he conquers every one.'"

But clearer traces of monotheism are to be found in the Vedas. In one hymn of the Rig-Veda it is said: "They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni; then he is the well-winged heavenly Garutmat; that which is One, the wise call it many ways; they call it Agni, Yama, Matarisvan."

Nothing, however, will give us so good an idea of the character of these Vedic hymns as the hymns themselves. I therefore select a few of the most striking of those which have been translated by Colebrooke, Wilson, M.

Muller, E. b.u.mont, and others.

In the following, from one of the oldest Vedas, the unity of G.o.d seems very clearly expressed.

RIG-VEDA, X. 121.

"In the beginning there arose the Source of golden light. He was the only born Lord of all that is. He established the earth, and this sky.

Who is the G.o.d to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?

"He who gives life. He who gives strength; whose blessing all the bright G.o.ds desire; whose shadow is immortality, whose shadow is death.

Who is the G.o.d to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?

"He who through his power is the only king of the breathing and awakening world. He who governs all, man and beast. Who is the G.o.d to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?

"He whose power these snowy mountains, whose power the sea proclaims, with the distant river. He whose these regions are, as it were his two arms. Who is the G.o.d to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?

"He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm. He through whom heaven was stablished; nay, the highest heaven. He who measured out the light in the air. Who is the G.o.d to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?

"He to whom heaven and earth, standing firm by his will, look up, trembling inwardly. He over whom the rising sun shines forth. Who is the G.o.d to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?

"Wherever the mighty water-clouds went, where they placed the seed and lit the fire, thence arose he who is the only life of the bright G.o.ds.

Who is the G.o.d to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?

"He who by his might looked even over the water-clouds, the clouds which gave strength and lit the sacrifice; _he who is G.o.d above all G.o.ds_. Who is the G.o.d to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?

"May he not destroy us,--he the creator of the earth,--or he, the righteous, who created heaven; he who also created the bright and mighty waters. Who is the G.o.d to whom we shall offer our sacrifices?"[40]

The oldest and most striking account of creation is in the eleventh chapter of the tenth Book of the Rig-Veda. Colebrooke, Max Muller, Muir, and Goldstucker, all give a translation of this remarkable hymn and speak of it with admiration. We take that of Colehrooke, modified by that of Muir:--

"Then there was no ent.i.ty nor non-ent.i.ty; no world, no sky, nor aught above it; nothing anywhere, involving or involved; nor water deep and dangerous. Death was not, and therefore no immortality, nor distinction of day or night. But THAT ONE breathed calmly[41] alone with Nature, her who is sustained within him. Other than Him, nothing existed [which] since [has been]. Darkness there was; [for] this universe was enveloped with darkness, and was indistinguishable waters; but that ma.s.s, which was covered by the husk, was [at length] produced by the power of contemplation. First desire[42] was formed in his mind; and that became the original productive seed; which the wise, recognizing it by the intellect in their hearts, distinguish as the bond of non-ent.i.ty with ent.i.ty.

"Did the luminous ray of these [creative acts] expand in the middle, or above, or below? That productive energy became providence [or sentient souls], and matter [or the elements]; Nature, who is sustained within, was inferior; and he who sustains was above.

"Who knows exactly, and who shall in this world declare, whence and why this creation took place? The G.o.ds are subsequent to the production of this world: then who can know whence it proceeded, or whence this varied world arose, or whether it upholds [itself] or not? He who in the highest heaven is the ruler of this universe,--he knows, or does not know."

If the following hymn, says Muller, were addressed only to the Almighty, omitting the word "Varuna," it would not disturb us in a Christian Liturgy:--

1. "Let me not yet, O Varuna, enter into the house of clay; have mercy, almighty, have mercy.

2. "If I go along trembling, like a cloud driven by the wind, have mercy, almighty, have mercy!

3. "Through want of strength, thou strong and bright G.o.d, have I gone to the wrong sh.o.r.e; have mercy, almighty, have mercy!

4. "Thirst came upon the worshipper, though he stood in the midst of the waters; have mercy, almighty, have mercy!

5. "Whenever we men, O Varuna, commit an offence before the heavenly host; whenever we break thy law through thoughtlessness; have mercy, almighty, have mercy!"

Out of a large number of hymns addressed to Indra, Muller selects one that is ascribed to Vasishtha.

1. "Let no one, not even those who worship thee, delay thee far from us! Even from afar come to our feast! Or, if thou art here, listen to us!

2. "For these who here make prayers for thee, sit together near the libation, like flies round the honey. The worshippers, anxious for wealth, have placed their desire upon Indra, as we put our foot upon a chariot.

3. "Desirous of riches, I call him who holds the thunderbolt with his arm, and who is a good giver, like as a son calls his father.

4. "These libations of Soma, mixed with milk, have been prepared for Indra: thou, armed with the thunderbolt, come with the steeds to drink of them for thy delight; come to the house!

5. "May he hear us, for he has ears to hear. He is asked for riches; will he despise our prayers? He could soon give hundreds and thousands;--no one could check him if he wishes to give."

13. "Make for the sacred G.o.ds a hymn that is not small, that is well set and beautiful! Many snares pa.s.s by him who abides with Indra through his sacrifice.

14. "What mortal dares to attack him who is rich in thee? Through faith in thee, O mighty, the strong acquires spod in the day of battle."

17. "Thou art well known as the benefactor of every one, whatever battles there be. Every one of these kings of the earth implores thy name, when wishing for help.

18. "If I were lord of as much as thou, I should support the sacred bard, thou scatterer of wealth, I should not abandon him to misery.

19. "I should award wealth day by day to him who magnifies; I should award it to whosoever it be. We have no other friend but thee, no other happiness, no other father, O mighty!"

22. "We call for thee, O hero, like cows that have not been milked; we praise thee as ruler of all that moves, O Indra, as ruler of all that is immovable.

23. "There is no one like thee in heaven and earth; he is not born, and will not be born. O mighty Indra, we call upon thee as we go fighting for cows and horses."

"In this hymn," says Muller, "Indra is clearly conceived as the Supreme G.o.d, and we can hardly understand how a people who had formed so exalted a notion of the Deity and embodied it in the person of Indra, could, at the same sacrifice, invoke other G.o.ds with equal praise. When Agni, the lord of fire, is addressed by the poet, he is spoken of as the first G.o.d, not inferior even to Indra. While Agni is invoked Indra is forgotten; there is no compet.i.tion between the two, nor any rivalry between them and other G.o.ds. This is a most important feature in the religion of the Veda, and has never been taken into consideration by those who have written on the history of ancient polytheism."[43]

"It is curious," says Muller, "to watch the almost imperceptible transition by which the phenomena of nature, if reflected in the mind of the poet, a.s.sume the character of divine beings. The dawn is frequently described in the Veda as it might be described by a modern poet. She is the friend of men, she smiles like a young wife, she is the daughter of the sky." "But the transition from _devi_, the bright, to _devi_, the G.o.ddess, is so easy; the daughter of the sky a.s.sumes so readily the same personality which is given to the sky, Dyaus, her father, that we can only guess whether in every pa.s.sage the poet is speaking of a bright apparition, or of a bright G.o.ddess; of a natural vision, or of a visible deity. The following hymn of Vashishtha will serve as an instance:--