the Rig Veda, as we have already seen, Rudra is the father of the storms, he is the thunder. In the White Yajur Veda he is also described as the thunder-cloud, but is specially represented as a fearful god, and often the god of thieves and criminals, and altogether a destructive power. He is called Girisha (because clouds rest on mountains); he is called Tâmra or Aruna or Babhru (from the colour of the clouds); he is named Nilakantha or blue-necked (also from the same reason); Kapardin or the long-haired; Pasupati or the nourisher of animals; Sankara or the benefactor; Siva or the beneficent; and Rudra or the terrible. Thus in the Epic Period we find Rudra in a transition stage, and we already see the origin of some of the Paurânik legends about Siva. But nowhere in the Brâhmana literature do we find those legends fully developed, or Rudra represented as the Paurânik Siva, the consort of Durgâ or Kâlî. In the Kaushîtaki Brâhmana, we find great importance attached in one passage to Isâna or Mahâdeva. In Satapatha Brâhmana we find the following remarkable passage :-" This is thy share, O Rudra ! Graciously accept it together with thy sister Ambikâ!" (II, 6, 2, 9.) And in a celebrated passage in the Mundaka Upanishad (which, it must be remembered, is an Upanishad of the Atharva Veda), we find Kâlî, Karâlî, Manojavâ, Sulohitâ, Sudhûmarvarnâ Sphulinginî, and Bisvarupî as the names of the seven tongues of fire. In Satapatha Brâhmana (II, 4, 4, 6), we are told of a

sacrifice being performed by Daksha Pârvati; and in the Kena Upanished we find mention of a female called Umâ Haimavatî, who appeared before Indra and explained to Indra the nature of Brahman. These are a few specimens of the scattered materials in the Brâhmana literature, out of which the gorgeous Paurânik legend of Siva and his consort was reared.

In the Aitareya Brâhmana (VI, 15), and in Satapatha Brâhmana (I, 2, 5), we are told the story of the gods obtaining from the Asuras the part of the world which Vishnu could stride over or cover, and thus they managed to get the whole world. It is in the last book of the Satapatha Brâhmana (XIV, 1, 1), that Vishnu obtains a sort of supremacy among gods, and his head is then struck off by Indra. Krishna, the son of Devakî, is not yet a deity; he is a pupil of Ghora Angirasa in the Chhândogya Upanishad (III, 17, 6.)

While in these scattered allusions we detect materials for the construction of the gorgeous Paurânik mythology of a later day, we also find in the Epic Period traces of that scepticism in Brâhmanical rites and creed which broke out also at a later day in the Buddhist revolution. The Tândya Brâhmana of the Sâma Veda contains the Vrâtya-stomas by which the Vrâtyas or Aryans not living according to the Brahmanical system could get admission into that community. Some of them are thus described :-" They drive in open chariots of war, carry bows and lances, wear turbans, robes bordered

with red and having fluttering ends, shoes and sheep. skins folded double; their leaders are distinguished by brown robes and silver neck ornaments; they pursue neither agriculture nor commerce; their laws are in a state of confusion; they speak the same language as those who have received Brâhmanical consecration, but nevertheless call what is easily spoken hard to pronounce." Is it possible that this description refers to some hordes,-probably Turanians,-who pressed into Behar through the Himalayas, and gradually adopted Hindu language and civilization? For the rest, a Vrâtya was not yet looked upon with contempt, and the Supreme Being is addressed in Prasna Upanishad as a Vrâtya.

CHAPTER IX.

THE RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPECULATIONS

OF THE UPANISHADS.

It is a relief to pass on from the rituals and ceremonies of the Brâhmanas to the healthier and more vigorous speculations of the Upanishads. The Upanishads were generally composed about the close of the Epic Period, leaving out of course the later Upanishads which come down even to the Paurânik Period. Some impatience appears to have been felt with the elaborate and unmeaning rites, the dogmatic but childish explanations, and the mystic but grotesque reasoning which fill the voluminous Brâhmanas; and thinking men must have asked themselves if this was all that religion could teach. Earnest men, while still conforming to the rites laid down in the Brâhmanas, began to speculate on the destination of the human soul and on the nature of the Supreme Being. Learned Kshatriyas, who became disgusted with the pretensions of really ignorant priests, must have given a start to these healthier speculations, or at least carried them on with vigour and success, until Brâhmans who were wise in their own esteem, felt their inferi

ority and came to them to learn something of the wisdom of the new school. And although there is much in the speculations of the new school which, after the lapse of nearly three thousand years, appears to us to be grotesque or fanciful, still it is impossible not to be struck with the vigour, the earnestness, and the originality which characterise the Upanishads.

The idea of a Supreme Being, a Universal Spirit, an all-pervading Breath or Soul is the keystone of the philosophy and thought of the Upanishads. This idea is somewhat different from Monotheism as it has been generally understood in later days. For monotheism generally recognises a God and Creator as distinct from the created beings; but the monotheism of the Upanishads, which has been the monotheism of the Hindu religion ever since, recognises God as the Universal Being;-all things else have emanated from him, are a part of him and will mingle in him, and have no separate existence. This is the lesson which Satyakâma Jabâla learnt from Nature, and this is the lesson which Yâjnavalkya imparted to his beloved and esteemed wife Maitreyî. This too is the great idea which is taught in the Upanishads in a hundred similes and stories and beautiful legends, which impart to the Upanishads their unique value in the literature of the world.

"All this is Brahman (the Universal Spirit). Let

R. C. D., A. I.

19