INDIAN

LITERATURE

BY MISS C. S. HUGHES

INDIAN literature finds its first reliable source in the Vedic songs of the early Aryan invaders of India. Beyond even these are folk-songs and legendary tales, whose source cannot now be traced, although they are found incorporated in the literature of a later period. So far there remains no evidence of any connected literary history prior to the entry of the Aryans into the land. These Aryans, travelling from some unknown home, where they spoke a language allied to the Aryan languages of Europe, left behind them, on their march towards India, some of their kin in Persia, the ancient Iran. To the land of their adoption they brought their own language, the Vedic Sanskrit, their own religious ideas, their own gods, deities, or bright ones, their own elected kings, poet-priests, and tribal customs. Their march across the bleak passes on the north-west frontiers, was, according to their Vedic hymns, one long, triumphal progress. Of their reverses and defeats the hymns are silent. Full of life and vigour, and with a firm belief in their own power and that of their gods, they record how they swept from before their path all opposing foes. Having defeated or thrust back the yellow races who in Central Asia opposed their march from the ancestral home, probably in Northern Europe, they despised the blackskinned people they met on the far side of the Himalayas. Chanting their war-songs, and trusting in their gods for aid, led by their chosen kings, and incited to

valour by the enthusiasm of their poet-priests, the Aryans advanced across the Indus, sung by them as the glorious Sindhu, the sound of whose rolling waters was heard even in the heavens. In the Vedic hymns the Indus is extolled as the river that comes roaring like a bull, flashing, sparkling, gleaming, unconquerable in her majesty, beautiful as a handsome, spotted mare.

The effusions of this early period, of which the hymn to the mighty river is an example, were collected together by the poet-priests into the Vedas or books of wisdom. From these Vedic hymns must be culled all that can be known of the mode of thought, the religious sentiments and social environment of the first historic invaders of India, who crossed the northwest passes some two thousand

Christian era.

years before the

The Vedic books are four in number; they are known as the Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva Vedas. Of these the Sama consists mostly of selections from the Rig Veda, and the Yajur is a collection of hymns relating to the practical details of the sacrificial rites, so that the Atharvan and Rig Vedas remain the chief source from which can be obtained information of India in the earliest historic times.

The hymns of the Rig Veda now number 1028, a small part of the original Vedic outburst of song, for like all the early Indian literature the hymns were handed down by word of mouth, and the collections, or Sanhitas, as they were called, were but selections from the treasury of song.

In these hymns of the Rig Veda, the oldest of the four books of wisdom, much of the life-history of these warrior tribes, whose every action was performed under the guidance of their tribal deities, can be traced. These deities are implored to slay the aboriginal inhabitants of the land, who are described as black foes, to flay them of their skins, and to bestow on the

Aryans herds of oxen, kine, and horses, rich pasturelands, and wealth in their new-found homes.

These gods of the Aryans were many, and each had his own special qualities determined and defined; yet each in turn rises supreme, endowed by his worshippers with not only his own special characteristics, but also with the highest attributes common to all the gods. So the supreme god is not always the same; one by one the gods loom large as they grow from out the imagination of the poet, only to droop before the rising of another.

The early days of the incoming of the Aryans saw Agni, the god of fire, as highest god. In the cold northern mountains fire would naturally be the deity most beloved and desired, and to him the greater number of the hymns of the Rig Veda are addressed. Agni's qualities are many; he is considered the everloving friend bestowed upon man by the gods; he is the mediator between gods and men, and has the power through his bright flame of summoning the gods to the sacrifice prepared for them on earth. He is the protector of those who speak the truth. "He never ages; he is ever beautiful; he never sleeps."

The god of battle and of storm, the heroic Indra, the lord of heaven, succeeded Agni when the cold mountains were passed, and the Aryans descended into the parched, dried-up plains. There the thundercloud was loved. Indra is the slayer of the drought Sushma, the snake Ahi, and the demon Vritra. Shining in his splendour he lets his war-cloud loose. He is a mighty hunter, the creator of all things; the bearer of the flaming lightning. With him ride the Maruts, the storm-gods, to whom a number of hymns are addressed. Among the minor deities is the Dawn, the lovely maiden Ushas, the twin gods the Asvins, sometimes called her brothers and sometimes her husbands. The

glorious sun Surya is worshipped for its glad rays, to all prayers are offered for the benefits they have in their power to bestow. Not the least fervent of the hymns are those addressed to Soma, originally only the fermented juice of a plant, whose true nature and habitat is now unknown, but raised on account of its intoxicating powers to the rank of a god.

But hymns to the gods do not constitute all the poets sang of, although they do form the major portion. There came a time in the history of the people when the stress of battle was over, and the Aryans no longer needed the aid of their gods for victory; they were safely and happily settled in a land fair to behold and fruitful, they had their homesteads to watch over, their cattle to tend; the gods are prayed to bestow on them slaves and kine, silver, and for their swift steeds gold-adorned trappings. The hymns tell of their trades and occupations; the carpenter, the tanner, the worker in metals are all mentioned, as well as the finer art of weaving.

The Atharva Veda, of much later date than the other three, consists mainly of incantations to protect against all manner of evil, whether divine or human, invocations and magic spells, love-charms and formulas. Vengeance swift and sure is called down in these incantations on those who oppress the priest in whom is invested the power of framing and uttering the magic spell.

All through the Vedic hymns the priest is the chief personage. It is he who calls the gods to the sacrifice; it is his power of song that gains the rich gifts that are in their power to bestow, and for this he is richly rewarded. The priests spared no opportunity of extolling the worshippers who gave liberally. A position such as theirs was not to be lightly thrown away, so the whole ingenuity of the Brahman priest was turned to the consideration of

how he could best consolidate his power. A host of ritualistic observances were ingeniously devised, all of which were considered as absolutely necessary for the spiritual welfare of the Aryan people, and impossible of performance by any but the priestly class. To the four Vedas were appended long prose compositions called the Brahmanas, the main purport of which was to connect the ritualistic rites with the sacrificial songs and incantations. These treatises are long, wearisome, and tedious, but they are nevertheless of interest apart from their professed purpose, inasmuch as they contain the record of the oldest forms of the sacrificial ritual, the oldest traditions, and the oldest philosophical speculation.

The Rig Veda possesses two of these Brahmanas, the Aitareya and the Sankhayana or Kaushitaki Brábmana, the former being a treatise on the Soma sacrifice solely, while the latter treats of all the different sacrifices. The Sama Veda has four Bráhmanas, among them the celebrated Chandogya Brahmana. The Black Yajur Veda has the Taittiriya Bráhmana; and the White Yajur Veda possesses another celebrated one, the Satapatha, supposed to have been written by the sage Yajnavalkya; and the Fourth Veda has the Gopatha Brahınana. The Brahmanas have again subdivisions of their own, one being the Aranyakas, or portions specially devoted to the life of the ascetic dweller in the forest; and the most important subdivision of all are the Upanishads, in which are embodied the freer religious speculations of the time.

In the Brahmanas the duties of the different classes of priests are detailed. The Hotar, or reciting priest, is specially the object of the Brahmana of the Rig Veda; the Udgatur, the singer himself, is that of the Sama Veda; while the Yajur Veda treats of the sacrificing or Adhvaryu priest. Naturally, as the sacrifice grew in importance, and became so necessary to the daily well