"But that which still further enhances the interest of this inquiry, and is of especial importance in reference to the primitive period, is the peculiar character attaching to the conception of the Adityas. The names of these deities (with a certain reservation in regard to that of Varuna) embrace no ideas drawn from physical nature, but express certain relations of moral and social life. Mitra, the friend,' Aryaman, Bhaga, Ansa, the gods who 'favour,' 'bless,' 'sympathize,' and Daksha, 'the intelligent,' are pure spirits, in whom the noblest relations of human intercourse are mirrored, and so appear (i.e. the relations appear) as emanations of the divine life, and as objects of immediate divine protection. But if the earliest Aryan antiquity thus beheld in its highest gods, not the most prominent manifestations of physical nature, but the conditions of moral life and society, and consequently esteemed these moral blessings more highly than anything connected with the wants and enjoyments of sense, we must ascribe to that age a high spiritual capacity, whatever may have been its deficiency in the constituents of external civilization. "These considerations throw some light on the principles and character of the two Aryan religions which have sprung from one and the same source. The religion of Ormuzd holds fast, while it shapes, after its own peculiar fashion, the supersensuous element called into existence by the higher order of gods belonging to the common ancient creed, and eventually rejects almost entirely the deities representing the powers of nature, which, as well as those of the former class, it had inherited from the earliest period. The Vedic creed, on the other hand, is preparing to concede the highest rank to the latter class (the representatives of the powers of nature), to transfer to them an ever increasing honour and dignity, to draw down the divine life into nature, and bring it ever closer to man. The proof of this is especially to be found in the myth regarding Indra, a god who, in the earlier period of Aryan religious history, either had no existence, or was confined to an obscure province. The Zend legend attributes to another deity the function which forms the essence of the later myth regarding Indra. This god Trita, however, disappears from the Indian mythology in the course of the Vedic age, and Indra succeeds him. And not only so, but towards the end of this period Indra begins to push aside even Varuna himself, the highest god of the ancient creed, from the position which is shown, partly by historical testimonies, and partly by the very conception of his character, to belong to him, and becomes, if not the supreme god, at least the national god, whom his encomiasts strive to elevate above the ancient Varuna." ...“Thus the course of the movement is, that an ancient supreme deity, originally common to the Aryans (i.e. the ancestors of the Persians and Indians), and perhaps also to the entire Indo-Germanic race, Varuna-OrmuzdUranos, is thrown back into the darkness, and in his room Indra, a peculiarly Indian, and a national god, is introduced. With Varuna disappears at the same time the old character of the people, while with Indra a new character, foreign to the primitive Indo-Germanic nature, is in an equal measure brought in. Viewed in its internal essence, this modification in the religious conceptions of the Aryans consists in an ever-increasing tendency to attenuate the supersensuous, mysterious side of their creed, till at length the gods who were originally the highest and the most spiritual have become unmeaning representatives of nature, and Varuna is nothing more than the ruler of the sea, while the Adityas are the mere regents of the sun's course. "When the higher and more spiritual elements in the Indian creed had thus become so greatly reduced, it was inevitable that a reaction should ensue," etc. .... Although, towards the close of the preceding passage, Professor Roth speaks of an "ancient supreme deity" (ein alter . . . . oberster Gott) as "originally common to the Aryans," it is evident from the entire context that he does not regard this deity as their only object of adoration, since he recognizes the existence of a plurality of gods. In the previous part of his dissertation, too, Roth speaks (p. 70) of the close relation in the Vedic era between Varuna and another god, Mitra,- a relation which he holds to have subsisted from an earlier period. And at p. 74, he refers to the activity and dignity of Varuna being shared by the other Adityas, though no separate provinces can be assigned to them, while he is the first of the number, and represents in himself the powers of the whole class. If this description apply to the ancient Aryan religion, it cannot be properly said to have been monotheistic, though one deity may have been more prominent than the rest. SECTION XXII. MISCELLANEOUS HYMNS FROM THE RIG- AND ATHARVA-VEDAS,598 The hymns of the Rig-veda are, as is well known, almost entirely of a religious character, designed, or at least, adapted, for recitation at the worship of the various popular deities, or at some of the ceremonials connected with various important events in the domestic or public life of the ancient Indians. Among these, however, are interspersed a few of a different description, which, from the wide celebrity they had acquired, were carefully preserved by the descendants of their authors, or by other interested persons, and have been incorporated in the great collection of sacred songs. Some of these productions, like the colloquy of Yama and Yami (translated above in pp. 282 ff.), the very obscure conversation between the hero Pururavas and the Apsaras Urvaśī (R.V. x. 95),597 and the Vrishākapi hymn (R.V. x. 86), derived their importance from the interlocutors being personages regarded as divine, or ranked among the ancestors of the human race. Others, like the 72nd, the 90th, and the 129th hymns of the 10th Book (also quoted above in pp. 48 f., 367 ff., and 356 f.) were venerated from the nature of the topics which they handled, or the depth or gravity of the speculations which they contain. Others, again, such as the hymns referred to by Professor Roth, in his dissertation "on the historical matter contained in the Rig-veda,' 598 would possess an 596 I have again to acknowledge the valuable aid which I have received from Professor Aufrecht in rendering some of the more difficult parts of the hymns translated in this section. 597 Professor Max Müller's Essay on Comparative Mythology, in the Oxford Essays for 1856, reprinted in his "Chips from a German Workshop," vol. ii., contains a translation of this myth, as narrated in the S'atapatha Brāhmaṇa. The Brāhmaṇa, however, only quotes and illustrates the easiest verses of the hymn (R.V. x. 95), making no reference to its most obscure and difficult portions. Some of the verses not cited in the Brahmana are explained by Professor Müller. Illustrations of the Nirukta, pp. 153 ff. and 230. 598 Sur Litteratur und Geschichte des Weda, p. 87. See also Roth's interest for the descendants of the contending priestly races to whose rivalries they made allusion, and might even be valued for the purposes of imprecation to which they could be applied.599 And those compositions which celebrate the liberality of different princes to their domestic priests would naturally be handed down with care by the successors of those favoured individuals. In the following Section I shall adduce some other hymns, both from the Rig- and the Atharva-vedas, which are only in part of a religious character, and possess a greater general interest than the bulk of those with which they are associated, from the references which they make to human character, dispositions, feelings, passions, and circumstances; from the light which they throw on the progress of sacerdotal pretensions, or from some other feature of their contents. In some of these hymns it will be seen that a considerable amount of shrewdness and worldly wisdom is expressed in a sententious form. (1) Hymn to Aranyānī, R.v. X. 146. The first hymn which I shall adduce, addressed to the goddess of forest solitude, is distinguished by the poetical feeling which pervades it, and the natural manner in which the emotions arising from the situation there described are depicted, though some of the allusions which it contains are difficult to explain or comprehend. It is repeated in the Taittiriya Brāhmaṇa, ii. 5, 5, 6 f., and interpreted by the Commentator on that work. (See also Roth's Illustrations of the Nirukta, p. 132). 1. Aranyāni Aranyāni asau yā preva naśyasi | kathā grāmam na gachhasi na tva bhir iva vindati | 2. Vrishāravāya vadate yad upavati chichchikaḥ | āghāṭibhir iva dhāvayann Aranyānir mahiyate | 3. Uta gāraḥ ivādanti uta veśmeva driśyate | uto Araṇyāniḥ sāyaṁ śakatīr iva sarjati | 4. Gām angaisha ā hvayati dārv angaisho apāvadhīt | vasann Aranyānyām sāyam akrukshad iti manyate | 5. Na vai Aranyānir hanti anyaś chen nabhigachhati | svādoḥ phalasya jagdhvāya yathākāmam nipadyate | 6. Anjanagandhām surabhim bahvannām akṛishīvalām | prāham mṛigāṇām mātaram Aranyānim asañsisham | 599 See the 1st vol. of this work, pp. 327 and 143. 1. "Aranyānī, Aranyānī, thou who seemest to lose thyself there, why dost thou not ask [the way to] the village? Does not terror seize thee (at thy solitude)? 2. When the chichchika (a bird) answers to the roar of bulls when it is uttered, flying about as if with cymbals, then Aranyānī rejoices. 3. And the cows seem to eat, and the house appears to be seen, and at evening Aranyānī seems to discharge the carts. 4. One man calls to his cow, another fells a tree; a man dwelling in the forest (in Aranyānī) fancies that she [or some one e] has screamed. 5. Aranyānī is not [herself] murderous, if no one else (a tiger, etc.) assails; but, after eating of sweet fruit, a man rests there at his pleasure. 6. I laud Aranyānī, the mother of wild beasts, the unctuous-scented, the fragrant, who yields abundance of food, though she has no hinds to till her." The following is a free metrical version of the first, fifth, and sixth verses of this hymn : 1. Thou seemest, goddess, here to stray 5. Herself this goddess does not slay, Although she nurtures murderous beasts: 6. Rich-scented, fragrant, full of flowers, The next hymn which I shall quote refers to the great variety by which the aims and pursuits of different men are characterized. It is distinguished by a vein of naïf observation, not unmingled with satire; and is curious as disclosing to us the occupations pursued by the |