feelings. It explains how the mind of man in its infancy worships what is bright and glorious in nature, what is powerful and striking. Among less happy nations, religion began with the dread of diseases and of evils, as these made the most lasting impression on the mind. But among the Aryans, the brighter and pleasanter aspects of nature,—the bright sky, the blushing dawn, the rising sun, and the glowing fire, created the deepest impression, and called forth songs of gratitude and praise and worship. This is the Rig Veda Sanhitâ,— this is the earliest form of Aryan religion known.

But the Rig Veda is more than this. It shows us how the mind is led from Nature up to Nature's God. For the sages of the Rig Veda do not always remain satisfied with the worship of the manifestations of Nature; they sometimes soar higher, and dare to conceive that all these phenomena-the sun, the sky, the storms, and the thunder-are but the actions of the Unknowable One. It is in the very latest hymns of the Veda that we find these daring guesses after truth,this bold conception of one God.

And if such is the value of the Rig Veda to the historian of man, its value to the historian of Aryan nations is still greater. It is the oldest work in the Aryan world. It gives us a picture of the oldest civilization which the Aryans developed in any part of the world; and as we have said before, it enlightens and clears up much that is dark and obscure in the religions and myths of

Aryan nations all over the world. It would be entirely foreign to our present object to illustrate this by instances, but some instances are so well known as to merely require a mention to illustrate our views.

Zeus or Jupiter is the Vedic Dyu, or the sky; Daphne and Athena are the Vedic Dahanâ and Ahanâ, the dawn; Uranus is Varuna, the sky; and probably, Prometheus and Hephaistos are the Vedic Pramantha and Yavishtha, the fire!

To the Hindus the Rig Veda is a work of still higher importance. It explains the whole fabric of the later Hindu religion; it clears all the complications of later mythology; it throws light on the history of the Hindu mind from its earliest stage of infancy to the latest times. The Hindu learns from this ancient and priceless volume that Vishnu the supreme preserver, and his three steps covering the universe, mean the sun at its rise, its zenith, and when setting; that the terrible god Rudra the supreme destroyer, originally meant the thunder or thunder-cloud; and that Brahmâ the supreme creator, was originally prayer or the god of prayer. And lastly, he learns that Râma and Krishna, Durgâ and Lakshmî, Ganesa and Kârtikeya, are later creations of the Paurânik fancy, and were unknown to the first Aryans in India.

Historically, and socially too, the Hindu has much to learn from the Veda. For the Rig Veda gives us a picture of society when there were no caste distinctions,

when widows were married, and women had their legitimate influence in the society in which they lived and moved.

The Veda consists of 1,028 hymns, comprising over ten thousand verses. The hymns are addressed to Nature-gods, of whom a full account will be given

later on.

The hymns are generally simple, and betray a childlike and simple faith in the gods, to whom sacrifices are offered, and libations of the Soma juice are poured, and who are asked for increase of progeny, cattle, and wealth, and implored to help the Aryans in their still doubtful struggle against the black aboriginies of the Punjab.

The hymns of the Rig Veda are divided into ten Mandalas or Books, and with the exception of the first and the last books, every one of the remaining eight books contains hymns said to have been composed or rather proclaimed by one Rishi,-by which we may understand one family or line of teachers. Thus the second book is by Gritsamada, who is said to be the same as Saunaka; the third by Visvamitra; the fourth by Bâmadeva; the fifth by Atri; the sixth by Bhâradvâja ; the seventh by Vasishtha; the eighth by Kanva; and the ninth by Angiras. The first book contains 191 hymns, which with scattered exceptions, are composed by fifteen Rishis; and the tenth book also contains 191 hymns, which are mostly ascribed to fictitious authors.

The attempt to separate the older hymns from the new, and to assign a separate period for each, has not succeeded, and is never likely to succeed. Nevertheless, the most careless student of the Veda cannot help noticing that the tenth or last Mandala of the Rig Veda stands apart from the other nine, and looks like a later appendage; and most of the hymns of this book are comparatively recent hymns. One can almost lay his finger on many of the hymns of this book which are undoubtedly recent, comparatively speaking. They disclose a higher development of ideas, a more matured state of speculations, and often a grosser superstition, and a more artificial state of society. Such are the hymns which describe the future world, or lay down the rituals for marriage or funeral; and such are the obscure speculations about the unity of God. Such again are the Mantras against diseases, &c., similar to the hymns of the Atharva Veda, which is admittedly a later work. Most of the hymns of the tenth Book of the Rig Veda again are ascribed to gods, as if the real authors were anxious to conceal the late origin of the hymns by this device!

The hymns of the Rig Veda were handed down from father to son, or from teacher to pupil for centuries together, and it was in a later age, in the Epic Period, that they were arranged and compiled. The whole, or greater portion of the tenth Book, seems to have been the production of this later period, but was thrown in and preserved with the body of the older hymns.

The arrangement and compilation of the Rig Veda hymns in their present shape must have been completed within the Epic Period. In Aitareya Âranyaka II, 2, we have fanciful derivations given of the names of the Rishis of the Rig Veda in the order in which the Mandalas are arranged. And this is followed by an account of a Sûkta or hymn, of a Rik or verse, of a half Rik, of a Pada or word, and of an Akshara or syllable. The Rig Veda Sanhitâ therefore had not only been arranged Mandala by Mandala, but had been carefully divided, subdivided, and analysed within the Epic Period.

By the close of the Epic Period, every verse, every word, every syllable of the Rig Veda had been counted. The number of verses, as computed, varies from 10,402 to 10,622, that of words is 153,826, that of syllables 432,000.