BOOK I. INDIA PREVIOUS TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT. "Zeus was not an invention of Homer, Jupiter was not borrowed from Greece. . . . Long before the Arians immigrated into Greece and Italy they worshipped the same God under the same name. . . . Brahmans who migrated towards the south invoked him along the rivers of the Punjab."-DR. MAX MÜLLER, Edin. Review, Oct. 1851. E'en the poor Pagan's homage to the Sun WHEN first the British went to India, religious Hindus thought it sacrilege to allow unbelieving Christians even to look upon their sacred books, and in consequence the Vedas long enjoyed that mysterious reputation which ap pertains to unseen authorities. Sir William Jones penetrated little beyond modern versions of particular passages; and even Mr. Colebrooke, who did much towards winning the confidence of the Pundits, was far from obtaining any complete knowledge of these works. Nevertheless up to a very recent period Mr. Colebrooke has been the first authority upon this subject, and his Essays are referred to and quoted by every writer on the Vedas, whether in India, Germany, France, or England. He has translated short fragments and made abstracts of larger portions, which are highly valued, as being accurate and free from unjust bias. He does not adopt Scripture language to convey the meaning of the Sanskrit words; nor does he, on the other hand, view these early religious impressions through the medium of European prejudice, an error of which the missionary author, Mr. Ward, cannot be acquitted. Gradually complete copies of these venerable books were obtained in India, and lodged in the public libraries of London, Oxford, France, and Germany, where, for a long series of years, they have in each country received the attention of distinguished scholars. The four Vedas were formerly supposed to be equally old and equally original; but now it is ascertained that whilst the hymns of which the Rig-Veda consists rank "as amongst the oldest extant records of the ancient world," the Sama Veda merely gives extracts from these hymns arranged for worship, the Yajur Veda contains hymns of later date, mixed with repetitions of the early specimens, and the Atharva Veda is a much later compilation, consisting of formularies required on certain rare occasions. * Rig-Veda Sanhita, H. H. Wilson, Introd., p. xlviii. The language used in the Vedas differs very considerably, as already noticed, from the Sanskrit of general literature; and Mr. Stevenson, of Bombay, noticed in the Sama Veda two thousand words not admitted in the second edition of Wilson's Sanskrit dictionary.* The use of an eight-syllable metre is also adduced as a sign of antiquity;† and for these and other reasons the age attributed to the Rig-Veda is 1200 or 1400 B.C. What religious opinions prevailed at so remote a period was long a mystery; but the early enthusiasts for Sanskrit conceived that monotheism was India's first belief. Sir William Jones was told that the daily prayer called Gayatri was an address to the Sun, taken from the Vedas; and obtaining a copy and explanations from a Pundit (or learned Hindu), he gave the following rendering, heading it— 66 "The Indian Philosophers' Belief.‡ 'Let us adore the supremacy of that divine Sun (opposed to the visible luminary), the Godhead who illuminates all, who recreates all, from whom all proceed, to whom all must return, whom we invoke to direct our understandings aright in our progress towards his holy seat." This may happily give the views of rare philosophers, such as the lamented Rammohun Roy, but it is not the doctrine of the ancient Vedas; and of this all students will soon be competent to judge, for translations of the several Vedas are in progress in England, France, and Germany. 66 Mr. Colebrooke gives the Gayatri thus:— Let us meditate on the adorable light of the divine Ruler (Savitri). May it guide our intellects! Desirous of food, we solicit the * Mr. Stevenson's Introduction to the Sama Veda. Elphinstone, Hist. India, p. 37; Hist. Sketch of Sanskrit, 7, 69. |