[ ^ / THE RIGVEDA: THE OLDEST LITERATURE OF THE INDIANS. BY ADOLF KAEGI, PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH. AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION WITH ADDITIONS TO THE NOTES R. ARROWSMITH, PH.D., INSTRUCTOR IN SANSKRIT, RACINE COLLEGE, RACINE, Wis. BOSTON: GINN AND COMPANY. 1886. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by R. ARROWSMITH, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. J. S. GUSHING & Co., PRINTERS, BOSTON. TRANSLATOR'S NOTE. THE translation of the present work was undertaken in order to place at the command of English readers interested in the study of the Veda a comprehensive and, at the same time, con- densed manual of Vedic research. It has been the aim to make the translation as close as possible ; especially in the metrical quotations the author's renderings have nearly always been adhered to, thofcgh with continual reference to the text of the hymns. Since the second German edition appeared, in 1880, much work has been done in the study of the Veda, and many addi- tions made to the literature. These PROFESSOR KAEGI kindly offered to incorporate in the Notes, and, to some extent, to re- model the latter, but was prevented from doing as much as he had intended by stress of work and ill-health. The translator has endeavored to complete the references to the literature to date, and has extended a number of the Notes in some particu- lars. All such additions are designated by brackets []. The only addition to the text is the Frog Song on p. 81 f. The thanks of the translator are due to DR. KAEGI for his ready consent and interest in the undertaking, to PROFESSORS WHITNEY and LANMAN for suggestions and material, and to DR. A. V. W. JACKSON, of Columbia College, for revising the portions of the Notes pertaining to the Avesta. The references have been verified as far as practicable, and it is believed that a reasonable degree of accuracy has been attained. It is requested that the translator be notified of the discovery of any mistakes which may have been overlooked. R. A. RACINE COLLEGE, RACINE, Wis., February, 1886. 20G4950 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE invitation of my publishers to have my treatise on the Kigveda (Two Parts, Wissenschaftliche Beilage zum Programm der Kantonsschule in Zurich, 1878 and 1879) published in a somewhat revised and extended form, seemed to me the more to be accepted, since I had repeatedly been ui'ged to do so from the most varied sources, and the article was frequently inquired for in the trade. It is plain that to specialists in the subject, to investigators in the field of the Veda, it cannot offer anything really new ; its aim is to embrace the results of Vedic investiga- tion, as well for beginners in the study as for all those who have a more special interest in this literature, the importance of which is perceived and admitted in ever-widening circles, especially for theologians, philologists and historians. That, however, it is founded throughout on personal investigation of the sources and examination of the investigations of others will be easily perceived by every one who takes the trouble to subject the text and notes to a more minute survey. Here let me once more call attention to the fact that, in the sections upon the Vedic Belief and the Divinities, I have con- fined myself as closely as possible to the language of the hymns, so that almost the whole of this text (pp. 28-32, 34-71) is made up of the words of the poets. The quotations from the Siebenzig Lieder (cf. pp. 34 and 92) being given throughout in Italics, make it possible even for the non-Sanskritist to prove the method by which this is accomplished, at least in some short portions. vi PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. If, especially in the treatment of Varuna, I have somewhat more fully followed out the similarities of the Vedic and the Biblical language (c/. now A. Holzman in the Zeitschrift fur Volkerspsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft, 1880, p. 251 f.), I shall now hardly have to meet the criticism that in so doing non-Indian, or even Christian, conceptions are put into the Veda ; translation stands beside translation ; it is left to the reader to prove similarity, as well as difference. The great extent of the notes is explained by the fact that they are intended not only to prove, sustain and amplify the material presented in the text, but also to facilitate for others the survey of Vedic literature, and to point out the historical significance of the Rig. If some may criticise here too much or too little, others perhaps will be glad to utilize what is pre- sented, even if only the references to the literature, for which the Indices may be welcome. On the letter, as well as on the correction, much care has been expended ; if, notwithstanding, mistakes are discovered, it will surely be pardoned, especially in the very large quantity of numbers, by those who are expe- rienced in such matters. May the work in its new form serve to carry the knowledge of this ancient and highly important poetry and the interest in our studies into further circles. DK. ADOLF KAEGI. ZURICH, November, 1880. TABLE OF CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION : p. 1. Vedic Literature and Exegesis : p. 2 ; the Vedic People and its Civilization : p. 11. THE RIGVEDA : p. 21. The Collection : p. 21 ; Language and Form of the Hymns : p. 22 ; Contents : p. 24. Religious Poetry : p. 26 ; Religious Thought ; p. 27 ; The Vedic Belief: p. 32. THE DIVINITIES : p. 34. On Earth : Agni : p. 35 ; In the Air-region : Rbhus : p. 37 ; Vata : p. 38 ; Rudra : p. 38 ; Maruts : p. 39 ; Par j any a : p. 40 ; Indra : p. 40. In the Bright Heaven : Aqvins : p. 49 ; Usas : p. 52 ; Svirya : p. 54; Pusan: p. 55; Visnu: p. 56; Savitar: p. 56. The Adityas: p. 58; Varuna: pp. 61-69. Belief in Immortality : p. 69. Soma : p. 72 ; Brhaspati : p. 73 ; All Gods : p. 74. SECULAR POETRY : p. 74. Wedding Hymn : p. 74 ; Funeral Hymn : p. 76 ; Historical Compositions: p. 78; Humorous :\ p. 81; Didactic-gnomic: p. 84; Incantation and Exorcism: p. 85; Poetical Riddles: p. 86; Philosophical: p. 87. NOTES : p. 92. Index of Matters, Names, and Words : p. 181 ; of Bible Passages : p. 197. Sanskrit c is pronounced like cA; " t, d, n like t, d, n; " 9 and s like sA; " r like rT. INTRODUCTION IT is well known with what enthusiasm Voltaire, in his writings, especially in the Essai sur les mceurs et V esprit des nations, repeatedly praised the ancient wisdom of the Brahmans which he thought to have discovered in the Ezour-Veidam, brought to his notice from India about the middle of the last century. 1 But even Voltaire's eloquence persuaded but few of his contemporaries of the authenticity of the book. Although scholars were not in a position to disprove its genuineness, 2 they preserved a suspicious and skeptical attitude toward it. Soon after Voltaire's death, J. G. Herder, in the tenth book of his Ideen zur G-eschichte der Menschheit, unhesitatingly expressed his opinion that whatever knowledge Europeans had hitherto gained of the mysteries of the Indians, was plainly only modern tradition ; " for the real Weda of the Indians," he adds, " as well as for the real Sanskrit language, we shall probably have long to wait." 3 Although, happily, Herder's prophecy as to the language itself was not fulfilled, 4 yet in fact a number of decades passed before more trustworthy and detailed information was gained of these oldest literary memorials of the Indians. Colebrooke's celebrated Essays On the f r edas 5 did indeed (in 1805) give a valuable survey of the whole territory of Vedic literature, with some scattered quotations from various Vedic books; but it was not possi- ble for Colebrooke to examine all the extraordinarily exten- sive works which are embraced in India under the name Veda, to distinguish properly the individual writings, or to determine their mutual relations. About twenty years later a German, Friedrich Rosen, recognized in the rich collection of Vedic manuscripts 2 INTRODUCTION. which had come to London, in great part through the efforts of Colebrooke, the true worth of this literature, and the need of making it accessible to European scholar- ship. He undertook with zeal the editing of the oldest portion, the Rigveda, but died in 1837, before the first eighth was published. 6 The first enduring impulse was given by the small but epoch-making Zur Litteratur und Greschichte des Weda, Drei AbJiandlungen von Rudolph Roth, Stuttgart, 1846. 7 It inaugurated a movement which since then has irresis- tibly led all Sanskritists to the study of the Veda. As early as 1852, aided by the recent purchase of a rich col- lection of Sanskrit manuscripts by the Royal Library of Berlin, A. Weber was enabled to give, in his Academische Vorlesungen uber indische Liter aturyescliichte, a very detailed and valuable survey of the Vedic books, which was afterwards supplemented in many points, especially for the later periods, by Max Miiller's History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, London, 1859. During the last twenty years, through the efforts of Benfey, Weber, Roth and Whitney, and Aufrecht, the most important texts, since followed by many more, have been accessible in printed form ; and this investigation opens to the his- torical sciences, in the broadest sense of the word, sources of unexpected wealth. VEDIO LITEEATUKE AND EXEGESIS. Veda is primarily ' knowledge ' in general, and among the Indians designates knowledge Kar e%o-%t')v the sacred knowledge, the sacred writings, of which a brief survey follows. The oldest division, the Mantra (saying, song), is dis- tributed in four Sanhit&s (collections), the Rig-, Sama-, Yajur-, and Atharva-Sanhitas. The oldest and most valu- able portion of these collections, the foundation of the whole Vedic literature, is composed of songs, in which, in INTRODUCTION. 3 primeval times, at the first stage of their history as an in- dependent nationality, still at the threshold of the land which they afterward filled with their culture, more than 1000 years before the expedition of Alexander the Great in the same regions, centuries before the production of the Indian Pantheism or of the gods Brahma, Visnu, (^iva, in which that people in childlike simplicity praised and entreated their gods, with which they accompanied their sacrifices and strove to propitiate the revered ruler of their destiny, to gain for themselves and their flocks prosperity and secure habitations. From the whole treasury of song which, as its best possession, the Indian race had brought with it from earlier homes to the land of the Ganges, learned men and teachers in later centuries made a selec- tion of the hymns, which had already become partially un- intelligible ; these they divided, arranged, and used in their schools (carana). Such a selection ($dklid, recension), has been preserved to us, viz. : The Rigveda; the knowledge of the hymns, which will be considered more at length below. 8 It was made with the intention of protecting this heritage of ancestral times from further corruption, and from destruc- tion ; and is therefore, to an extent, a scientific, histor- ical collection, while the two following sanhit&s had their origin in practical, liturgical uses. The S&maveda, the knowledge of the songs, con- tains about 1800 separate verses, for the greater part taken from the hymns of the Rig, but here torn out of their ori- ginal relation and put together almost without any internal connection. Remodeled with certain musical modifica- tions, they are called sdman, songs, in which form they were recited at the Soma sacrifice * by a special priest-class, whose song-book therefore this Veda is. By the musi- cal modification of single verses, the whole number of S&man could naturally be greatly increased. 9 * This is the favorite sacrifice of the Vedic period, at which the sap of the Soma plant, mixed with milk or barley, was offered; of which more below. 4 INTRODUCTION. The Yajurveda contains the knowledge of the prayers. When in time the sacrifice became no lon- ger a simple act of divine worship and offering, left to the free-will and impulse of the individual, but when more and more in every detail an established ritual was set up, the exact observance of which fell to various priest-classes, not only the verses to be recited during the ceremony, but also a quantity of formulas and phrases of explanation, of excuse, blessing, etc., for practical use, began to be put together. Such words, formulas, and passages, partly in connected, partly in unconnected form, among them, too, not a few verses from the Rig, were called yajus ; and the books containing the yajus for the whole sacrificial cere- mony, Yajurveda. We hear of a considerable number of such prayer-books; two of them, related in contents, but differing in arrangement, have already been edited ; a third, in all probability the oldest of the existing ones, has been disclosed only within the last few years. 10 The composition of all these books belongs to a period when the priest-class had already gained a decided ascendency over the other classes. It was only at a time considerably later than these col- lections (trayi vidyd, threefold knowledge), that a fourth attained to canonical recognition, the Atharva- or Brahma veda, knowledge of incantations. This probably contained originally the poetry more properly belonging to the people and current among them, which only secondarily was admitted into the circle of the priests, and distributed among their productions. 11 As a historical collection of songs it has most similarity to the Rigveda, though the spirit of the two collections is quite different. 'The Rig is permeated by a lively sympathv and love of nature ; in the Atharvan rule only shrinking dread of its evil spirits and their magic powers.' The word brahman (whence Brahmaveda), here means no longer, as in the Rig, * devotion, prayer,' but charm, spell, enchant- ment (carmen, incantamen, devotio).' By the use of such INTRODUCTION. 5 a formula the skilled priest is enabled to attain everything, and to force even the gods to the fulfillment of his will. Side by side with later passages are found here many for- mulas, whose perfect agreement with Old-Germanic spells reveals their origin from the ancient Indo-Germanic period. 12 Of this Veda too a new recension has lately become known, and with it a considerable quantity of new Vedic texts. 13 The second grand division of Vedic literature is formed by the Brahmana, i.e., writings relating to brahman, to prayer and sacrificial ceremony. 14 These clearly belong to a much later period, when the old hymns were regarded as ancient and sacred revelation, acquaintance with which was confined to a small number of wise priestly teachers, among whom, however, even at this period, its interpreta- tion was a matter of strife, because the language had mean- time become a different one. The Brahmanas, all of them marvelous products of priestly knowledge and perverted imagination, are throughout in prose, and for the greater part, like the Sanhitas, furnished with accents. They develop the theories of celebrated teachers concerning the sense of the old hymns, their relation to the sacrifices, the symbolic meaning of the latter, etc. Dogma, mythology, legend, philosophy, exegesis, etymology, are here inter- woven in reckless confusion. Since these works furnish the oldest prescriptions for the ritual and explanation of the language, as well as the oldest traditions and philosoph- ical speculations, they are not without value for the his- tory of language and civilization ; but the gold is largely hidden under a mass of dross. The Brahmanas themselves, of which a considerable number are preserved, 140 are in later times looked upon as inspired, and united with the hymns as fruti, revelation, excepting only the youngest portions, the Aranyakas, writings for the wood-dwellers (uXo/?ioi), 15 and the U pa n- i s a d s, instructions. Both classes of works show a method of thought totally different from that of the old Vedic 6 INTRODUCTION. books; and with their speculations on cosmogony and eschatology lead into the midst of the system of the Ve- danta ('aim or end of Veda'). 16 The third and youngest stage of Vedic literature is the Vedanga (' members of the Veda '), also called Sutra. The more Vedic study gained in extent, the more difficult it became to master it. ' The mass of material became too large ; the fullness of description in details had to yield to a short survey of the sum of these details, in which the greatest brevity was necessary.' Therefore the most con- cise rules were invented with a conventional system for the designation of termini technici, expressed in algebraic for- mula, These rules, as well as the books embracing them in almost unbroken succession, are called Sutra (thread, guide, rule) ; they do not confine themselves to one school or recension, and, especially in later times, attain the last imaginable degree of brevity. How far this principle was pushed may be seen from the saying of the Indian scholars, that " an author should rejoice as much over the saving of half a long vowel as over the birth of a son " ; in which it must be remembered that without a son to perform the death rites, a Brahman was not thought capable of gaining heaven. 17 We must confine ourselves to mentioning the six Vedanga- or Sutra-groups in the traditional order, and to pointing out briefly their signification. They are : 1. (^iks^ : pronunciation. 2. Chandas : metre. 3. Vyakarana, (lit. ' analysis ') : grammar. 4. JSarukta (word-explanation) : etymology. 5. Kalpa : ritual. 6. Jyotisa : astronomy. The first four are chiefly occupied with the reading and understanding of the sacred texts; the last two princi- pally with the sacrifice and its seasons. 18 As from the study of Homer the Greek grammar rose, so from the study of the Veda grew the Indian ; but the in- vestigations of the Indians, favored by the constitution of INTRODUCTION. 7 their language, were incomparably deeper and more last- ing than those of the Greek grammarians. Prominent among the grammatical writings are the Nirukta, a col- lection of strange or obscure words (yXwcrcrai) of the Veda, together with the interpretation of the Vedic inves- tigator Yaska (about 500 B.C.), 19 and the Pr&tigakh- yas, each of which contains, for the various recensions of a single Veda, the most precise statements of phonetic changes, pronunciation, accentuation, metre, etc. 20 In connection, they display a number of delicate observations in phonetics, such as only the science of our own day has begun to institute and turn to account.* The above named works therefore do not treat of grammatical forms ; of older works on this subject little has been left us, clearly because a later work, in its comprehensive and practical presentation surpassed all earlier ones and made them superfluous ; namely, the grammar of P a n i n i , who prob- ably lived in the third century B.C. 21 "In them is presented the scientific treatment of a single tongue in a perfection which arouses the wonder and admiration of all those who are more thoroughly acquainted with it ; which even now stands, not only unsurpassed, but not even attained, and which in many respects may be looked upon as the model for similar work. In this presentation of the Sanskrit the method of the Indian grammarians was displayed ; and it found so much the more speedy acceptance, since it is nearly allied to the tendency which since the beginning of this century has made itself felt with ever increasing power in other sciences. This is the method applied to the natural sciences ; the method which seeks to gain knowledge of a subject from itself, by analysis into its ele- ments. It views language as a natural phenomenon, the character of which it strives to determine by analysis into * I believe I shall not be contradicted by Helmholtz, or Ellis, or other representatives of phonetic science, if I say that, to the present day, the phoneticians of India of the fifth century B.C. are unsurpassed in their analysis of the elements of language. Max Muller, OGR. 150. 8 INTRODUCTION. its component parts and investigation of their functions ; by this method and its wonderful results the linguistic labors of the Indians have pre-eminently, indeed, almost alone, made it possible for modern philology to take up its problem and work it out to its end with the success which is universally conceded to it." (Benfey.}^ The treatises on Ritual, the Kalpasutras, spe- cially called Sutra, 23 are either: 1. (^rautasutra (pertaining to pruti, revelation) ; i.e., they contain the prescriptions for the solemn ceremonies to be performed with the assistance of the priests and with exact observance of the ritual 23 "; or 2. Smartasutra (pertaining to smrti, tradition) ; i.e., they teach the observances prescribed by tradition, and are divided into a) Grhyasutra, giving the models for acts of domestic piety which must accompany the individ- ual and his family in all special circumstances of life from the cradle to the grave ; these books, though made later, pre- serve many ancient characteristics; 24 and into 5) Dhar- masutra, which fix the rules of daily life in act and attitude toward others; 25 from these last arose later the metrical law-books (Dharmac,astra) of Maim, Yajnaval- kya, and others. 25 There are, finally, a number of additions (PariQista, i.e., TrapaXiTTOfjieva), among which I mention the Pur an as ('old tales'), which in their present form date at the earliest from the eighth century A.D., only because, up to the fourth decade of the present century, (with some " historians " even later !) they ranked with the Upani- sads as the most important source of ' Indian ' and ' Vedic ' religious conceptions. 26 Upon the whole of this rich literature, which in extent at least equals all the preserved monuments of the Greek literature, essentially rest the commentaries of M&dhava and S&yana, still preserved and highly regarded in India, which however were only composed in the four- teenth century A.D. About 1350, in the middle of the INTRODUCTION. 9 Dekkhan, in the Karnata territory, a man of humble, non- Aryan descent succeeded in throwing off the Mohammedan yoke and in setting up in those regions once more and for the last time a magnificent Indian nation, by founding the dynasty of Vijayanagara (city of Victory). At the court of the third king of this dynasty, Bukka, the prime minis- ter, Madhava, and his brother S&yana instituted an in- tense and widespread scientific activity, to which we owe, among many other works, these Vedic commentaries or paraphrases. 27 What then is more natural than, at the time when the Veda was beginning to be understood, when a wholly new world was here unfolding to view, the understanding of which however presented at the outset the very greatest difficulties, what more natural than that aid should eagerly be sought, which might serve for the interpretation of this unknown material ! It was a matter of rejoicing that works were at once found explaining or paraphrasing every word of the foundation text ; and as they appeal at every step to old authorities, it was believed that in them la} r not a tradition or traditional explanation, but the tradition, the true interpretation from ancient times. The problem of Vedic investigation was considered to be the search for and discovery of that interpretation which was current in India a few centuries ago, i.e., the inter- pretation presented in the Commentaries. 28 On the other hand, Roth insisted from the beginning that these commentaries could by no means be taken as the chief guides, for we have to seek not the sense which these books attribute to the hymns, but that which the com- posers themselves intended; that these works might indeed be excellent guides to the understanding of the theological books and the ritual, but altogether insuffi- cient in the far older and entirely different territory of the hymns ; that concerning the latter there was nowhere a trace of views handed down by tradition, i.e., of continuity in the interpretation, but only a tradition among investi- 10 INTRODUCTION. gators. But that any other tradition was not imaginable ; for it only began to be asked how one point or another in the old hymns was to be interpreted, when they were no longer, or at least no longer clearly, understood ; * that we have in the so-called tradition only attempts at a solu- tion, not the solution itself ; that in discovering the latter, European scholars would succeed much better than Indian theologians, having the advantage in freedom of judgment, as well as in a larger range of view and historical faculty. However, Roth expressed himself thus only on occasion, 29 but boldly and independently began to build anew. By the aid of grammatical and etymological comparison, by con- fronting all passages related in sense and form, he endeav- ored, keeping in view the tradition, to evolve the meaning of single words, and so created a broad and firm founda- tion for Vedic exegesis ; 30 while others, partly in more nega- tive manner proved the impracticability of the native in- terpretation, partly went forward on the road newly pointed out. 31 The correctness of the method is to-day no longer challenged by any non-Indian scholar; 82 even in India itself within a few years the publication of an edition of the Rigveda has been undertaken which more and more makes independent use of the results and methods of Eu- ropean scholarship. 33 But no one disputes that we have not yet by far reached the foundation ; and none better know this than those who are zealously striving, on the path pointed out and with continual observance of the native tradition, to further, by minute investigation of particulars, the understanding of these ancient hymns. All these corrections will in no measure detract from the services of the founder of Vedic exegesis. 'That Roth has cut his way through the fog of Indian misinterpreta- * The degree to which the understanding of these texts had been lost may be illustrated by a literary strife between Yaska and another Vedic scholar, Kautsa. The latter insisted that explanation of the words was useless, since the hymns had no meaning at all ; to which Yaska responded, that it was not the fault of the rafter that the blind man did not see it; that was the fault of the blind man. INTRODUCTION. 11 tion straight to the kernel of the Veda, that he has seized with sure historical sense the spirit of Indian antiquity, that he has taught us to recognize the power and freshness of expression, of which the Indians knew little more, this is one of the most brilliant achievements of modern philology.' TEE VEDIO PEOPLE AND ITS CIVILIZATION. After this general literary and historical introduction, we must preface our special subject, the examination of the Rigveda, with some account of the people among whom the book arose, of its life and occupation, its manner of action and thought. In this we may throughout rely on Zimmer's excellent work, Altindisclies Leben, Berlin, 1879, which presents a masterly picture of the culture of the Veclic Aryans, drawn from all the Sanhitas. 35 To comparative philology we owe the indisputable proof of the fact that the ancestors of Indians and Iranians and Greeks, of Slavs and Lithuanians and Germans, of Italians and Celts, in far distant ages spoke one language, and as a single people held dwelling-places in common, wherever that home may have been situated; 38 and further, that for a considerable period after their separation from their brothers living further to the west, the Indians and Iran- ians lived together, and distinguished themselves from other tribes by the common name of Aryan. 37 After their separation from the Iranians, the Eastern Aryans, the later Indians, wandered from the west into the land afterward called India, descending from the heights of Iran, probably over the western passes of the Hindukush. As to their place of abode at the time of composition of most of the hymns of the Rig about 2000-1500 B.C. 38 the names of rivers mentioned in the hymns give definite information. According to these, the chief settlement of the Vedic people was then in the territory of the Sindhu (to-day Indus, Sindh'), the banks of the mighty stream itself being probably most thickly populated, the river, 12 INTRODUCTION. after receiving all its tributaries, reaching so great a width that boats midway between its shores are invisible from either. The singers in inspired strains sing its greatness : " With nourishing waves it rushed forth, a firm stronghold and brazen fortress for us ; like a fighter in his chariot, the stream flows on, overtaking all others. It alone among the rivers flows with pure water from the mountains to the sea ; with regard for riches, for many men, it brings fatness and a refreshing draught to the dwellers on the shore." Simple tribes, like the Gandhari (TavSdpioi) still re- mained in the valley of the Kubha (Kabul) and the Suvastu (Swat), a northern tributary; to the south the settlements had been pushed beyond the mouths of the Krumu (Kurum) and Gomati ( GomaT), but not far beyond the union of the Sindhu with the Pancanada* though they knew of the Sindhu's emptying into the ocean. In the north, the western and middle Himalaya formed an impas- sable wall ; to the east the (^utudri (Satlaj) must for a long time have formed the boundary, across which from time to time they moved forward to the Yamuna" (Jumna') and Ganga (Granges), enticed by the beauty of the land and pressed on by advancing tribes behind. 39 In East Kabulistan and the Panjab, therefore, where the condition of climate and soil was about the same as now, 40 the Aryan colonists lived in their houses ; for they had already changed the movable tent of the shep- herd and nomad for a more fixed shelter. " Columns were set up on firm ground, with supporting beams leaning obliquely against them, and connected by rafters on which long bamboo rods were laid, forming the high roof. Be- tween the corner-posts other beams were set up, according to the size of the house. The crevices in the walls were filled in with straw or reeds, tied in bundles, and the whole * Pancanada, the five rivers, signified primarily the union of the five rivers, Vitasta, Asikni, Panisni or Iravati, Vipa9, and (^utudri ; then the whole region, as to-day, the Panjab. See Note 39. INTRODUCTION. 13 was to some extent covered with the same material. The various parts were fastened together with bars, pegs, ropes and thongs." The house could be shut in by a door, which, as in the Homeric houses, was fastened with a strap. 41 A number of such dwellings form the village ; fenced and enclosed settlements give protection against wild animals ; against the attacks of enemies and against inundations large tracts were arranged on higher ground, protected by earthworks and ditches. But of cities, i.e., of collections of adjoining houses, surrounded by wall and moat, there is no mention. 42 The principal means of sustenance was cattle-keeping. Repeatedly in the hymns we meet with the prayer for whole herds of cows and horses, sheep and goats, heifers and buffaloes, but especially of milch-cows, which are to more than one singer the sum of ' all good which ludra has created for our enjoyment.' By divine power the red cow yields the white milk, from which is prepared mead and butter, ' the favorite food of gods and men,' and per- haps also cheese. 43 After the cattle, the most important interest is the cultivation of the soil. The ground is worked with plough and harrow, mattock and hoe, and when neces- sary watered by means of artificial canals. Twice in the year the products of the field, especially barley, ripen ; the grain is threshed on the floor, the corn, separated from husk and chaff by the winnowing, is ground in the mill and made into bread. Men still engage in hunting game with bow and arrow, snares and traps, but this occupation has no importance as a means of livelihood, and fishing still less. 44 The chief food consists, together with bread, of various preparations of milk, cakes of flour and butter, many sorts of vegetables and fruits ; meat, cooked on the spit or in pots, is little used, and was probably eaten only at the great feasts and family gatherings. Drinking plays throughout a much more prominent part than eating. " The waters are indeed pre-eminently praised ; in them lie all healing properties, and they secure to the body health, 14 INTRODUCTION. protection and long-continued sight of the sun ; but it no more occurred to the Vedic people to quench their thirst with water than to the ancient Germans. They bathed in it, and the cattle drank it ; man had other bev- erages," sur&, a brandy made from corn or barley, and above all, the sorrow-dispelling Soma, which, on account of its inspiring power, was raised to the position of a god, and will therefore be considered below. 45 Among occupations that of the wood-worker is most frequently mentioned; he is still carpenter, wheelwright and joiner in one, and is skilled not only in building war- chariots and wagons with all their parts, but also in more delicate carved work, such as artistic cups, etc. The tan- ner prepares leather from the hide of the slaughtered cattle, and uses it for water-bottles, bow-strings, slings and other articles. Metal-workers, smiths and potters ply their craft for the purposes of common life. Navigation, being confined to the streams of the Panjab, could not be very important, and trade exists only as barter, the foundation of which, as well as the money unit, is the cow, in reference to which all things are valued. But the transition to the use of coined money was being prepared by the various golden ornaments and jewelry; active tradesmen and usu- rers come to view ; while the occurrence of the Babylonian mina as an accepted gold standard proves, in connection with other facts, a very early intercourse between India and the western Semitic colonies. The women understood the plaiting of mats, weaving and sewing ; they manufactured the wool of the sheep into clothing for men and covering for animals, and were especially occupied with their many ornaments and deco- rations. 46 The foundation of the state was formed by the Family, at the head of which stood the father as lord of the house. The foundation of a family proceeded from the man. At festal gatherings and similar occasions there were often opportunities for forming acquaintance between youth and INTRODUCTION. 15 maiden, and even then careful mothers did not neglect, at such times, to come to their daughters' assistance with advice and action. If such an acquaintance proved last- ing, permission for the marriage had to be sought from the father or, after his death, from the eldest brother. This office was assumed by a friend of the suitor, who is always the oldest unmarried son of a family, for it was a settled custom for the children of a family to marry in order of age. If the suitor was acceptable, he had to purchase his bride by rich gifts to his future father-in-law. Thereupon the marriage was celebrated in traditional form in the presence of both families and their friends in the house of the bride's parents. Further on we shall have opportunity for a fuller description of the ceremony. That a marriage portion was given with the young wife is not distinctly stated but is yet indicated, as also that a rich inheritance helped many a girl to gain a husband, who otherwise would have remained in her father's house. In the new home the young wife is subject to her husband, but at the same time mistress of the farm-laborers and slaves, and of parents- and brothers-in-law. The Vedic singers know no more tender relation than that between the husband and his willing, loving wife, who is praised as " his home, the darling abode and bliss in his house." The high position of the wife is above all shown by the fact that she partici- pates in the sacrifice with her husband ; with harmonious mind at the early dawn both, in fitting words, send up their prayers to the Eternals. 47 These relations are com- prehensible only if monogamy was the rule ; and to this the texts point directly. Though there were instances of polygamy, especially among kings and nobles, yet the ordi- nary condition was " a united pair, with one heart and one mind, free from discord." Marriage was looked upon as an arrangement founded by the gods, the aim of which was the mutual support of man and wife and the propaga- tion of their race ; therefore it is the often-repeated wish of the Vedic singer to beget a son of his own flesh, whose 16 INTRODUCTION. place could never be filled by adoption ; while the birth of a daughter is nowhere distinctly desired, but is even plainly asked to be averted. 48 That exposure of new-born children 49 and of old people enfeebled by age 50 occurs offends our feelings no more than the well-known custom of burning the widows, for thousands of years demanded by the Brahmans. The latter, it is true, is nowhere evi- denced in the Rigveda ; only by palpable falsification of a hymn, which will be examined later, has the existence of the custom been forcibly put into the texts, which, on the contrary, prove directly the opposite, the return of the widow from her husband's corpse into a happy life, and her re-marriage. Yet from other indications we have to accept the probability that the custom, which in the oldest times was wide-spread, of causing the widow to follow her husband to death, was also observed now and then in the Vedic period. 51 Such features might easily modify our general verdict regarding the stage of morality and culture of the Vedic Aryans ; but we must not forget that " peo- ple in a condition of nature are not sentimental, as to-day peasants are not ; and that the death of a relative, or the thought of their own, leaves them indifferent." 52 When, in addition to what has been said above of the tender rela- tion between husband and wife, we learn that violence to defenceless maidens and unfaithfulness on the part of a married woman belong to the heaviest offences, we must infer that true womanliness and morality generally pre- vailed. It is a matter of course that the picture had its shadows. Even at that time the woman was charged with fickleness, light-mindedness, and lack of judgment ; men- tion is here and there made of the sons of unmarried women ; fallen ones tried to free themselves from the con- sequences of their misdeeds in criminal manner, and even prostitutes were not wanting. 53 On the foundation of the family rests the State, the organization of which in the Vedic period is very near that of the primitive times. For protection against threatened INTRODUCTION. 17 attacks and for the purpose of marauding incursions into the territory of other peoples, coalitions were formed be- tween tribes ; but having returned home after a victory, in times of peace the individual people or tribe formed the highest political unit, which was divided into districts, which in turn were composed of single clans or hamlets. The latter were originally, as the expressions in the texts make evident, each a single kindred, a number of families more nearly connected among themselves. This tribe divi- sion was applied not only in time of peace but also, as among the Afghans to-day, in battle ; warriors of the same families, localities, districts, and tribes fought side by side, in the manner which Tacitus describes as character- istic of the Germans, and as Nestor advises Agamemnon to make his arrangement. 54 The government of the Aryan states thus organized was naturally, in consequence of their origin in the family, a monarchical, at the head of which the king stands as leader, his dignity being in many instances hereditary. In other cases, he was elected by all the districts in assemblies of the tribe, or in times of peace several members of the royal family exercised the power in common. At all events the kingship was nowhere absolute, but everywhere limited by the will of the people, which made its power felt in assemblies of the nation, the district, and the tribe. In peace the king was " judge and protector " of his peo- ple, who owed him lasting obedience but no settled trib- ute ; only voluntary gifts were brought to him. In war he held the chief command and it was his duty, at serious junctures, e.g., before a battle, to prepare a sacrifice for the tribe, either performing it himself or causing a priestly singer to perform it. 55 In this custom of the kings to be represented by a priestly substitute, is to be recognized the beginning of the historically unique Indian hierarchy and the origin of the castes, the existence of which in the oldest Vedic times, in spite of all assertions to the con- trary, must be denied. 56 18 INTRODUCTION. That developed ideas of Law were present in the old- est period is taught by the common legal terms existing in the various languages of our family. The Vedic texts present a further list of such terms, and the hymns strongly prove how deeply the prominent minds in the people were persuaded that the eternal ordinances of the rulers of the world were as inviolable in mental and moral matters as in the realm of nature, and that every wrong act, even the unconscious, was punished and the sin expiated. But the same hymns also show that the relations of the various members of the community among themselves were not always the best. Deceitful men strove to injure in every way, by slander, lying, and fraud; thieves plied their vocation under the concealing shadow of night ; daring swindlers, highwaymen, and robbers terrorized the peace- able and embittered the life of the upright. In cases of doubt as to guilt or the guilty one, recourse was had to oath, on more serious occasions to the decision of the gods in various forms ; unworthy men were expelled from the clan and became fugitives. 57 But there are also more pleasing features. Praise is given to those who from their abundance willingly dispense to the needy, to those who do not turn away from the hungry, but who by deeds of kindness to the poor increase their own possessions, and who in change of fortune never swerve from their faith- fulness to old friends. 58 When business is despatched in the assembly, the shrewd men gather together ; " they sift their words like corn in a sieve and remember their friendship." Others engage in sport and joking over their drinking, and pour forth irony and boasts or indulge in play with dice, which was passionately loved, and at which many a man gambled away his possessions, and finally even his own person. " Of no effect is the father's punishment of the dissolute son ; the player is unmoved by the destruction of his home ; he remains indifferent though his wife become the property of others ; he rises early and indulges in the pas- INTRODUCTION. 19 sion of play till evening ; defeat in play is equivalent to starvation and thirst." 59 Wives and maidens attire them- selves in gay robes and set forth to the joyful least ; youths and girls hasten to the meadow when forest and field are clothed in fresh verdure, to take part in the dance. Cymbals sound, and seizing each other lads and damsels whirl about until the ground vibrates and clouds of dust envelop the gaily moving throng. 60 A more earnest trait appears in the favorite contests in the chariot race, 61 for it is the peaceful preparation for the decisive struggle on the battle-field, for the joyous war in which they delighted, and which plays so large a part in the songs as well as the life of the people. In the battle Indra seeks his friend, battle and struggle give the hero experience and renown, when with his fellow-warriors he helps to conquer new homes or to protect those already won, whether against other Aryans or the hosts of abo- rigines (dasyu}, from whom the colonists were sharply sep- arated by different color, different customs, and above all, by different religion. 62 When an enemy approaches the Aryan boundaries, earthworks are thrown up, a barricade of timbers erected, impassable bulwarks of bronze made, and sacrifices offered to the gods to secure their help. Then the army advances with loud battle-songs, with the sound of drums and trumpets, with waving banners, against the opposing force. The warrior stands at the left of the chariot, and beside him the charioteer, and the foot- soldiers fight in close lines, village beside village, tribe beside tribe (cf. page 17). The warrior is protected by brazen coat of mail and helmet; with the bow he hurls against the enemy feathered arrows with poisoned tips of horn or metal, or presses on with spear and axe, lance and sling. And when the enemy is conquered, loud rejoicing resounds with the beat of drums, like the noise of the ris- ing storm ; the sacred fire is kindled to offer to the gods a song and sacrifice of thanksgiving, and then to divide the spoil. 63 20 INTRODUCTION. Iii arts and sciences the race still stood on the lowest stage. The art of writing it did not possess (and even for a long time afterward), 64 and little was known of the ideas of number or of measure. 65 The theories of cosmogony are altogether childish. 66 Among the countless stars cer- tain ones had already been observed and named, before all, the Bear, followed by Sirius and the five planets. 67 The lunar year of 354 days was in various ways brought into harmony with the solar year; either the twelve extra days were added yearly (cf. below, p. 37*), or they were allowed to accumulate, and a thirteenth month from time to time was added to the twelve. 68 Their medical art distin- guished quite a number of diseases, but almost the sole curatives and preventives known were charms and the use of amulets and healing herbs, whose power was brought forth and made effectual only by the sacred formula. 69 Deeper natures indeed only hoped to be freed from their ills by repentance and reformation; for sickness was to them " divinely sent chains " with which Varuna, the world's ruler, bound those who transgressed his eternal laws. 70 Only one art had long been in full bloom, that of poetry ; of this we have the most convincing evidence in that collection of songs, to the more detailed examination of which we now proceed. THE RIGVEDA. THE COLLECTION. IOKM AND CONTENTS OF THE HYMNS. THE recension which has come down to us, the received text of the (^akala school (yakalac,&kha), contains in ten books (Mandala) 71 1017 (or 1028) hymns, 72 the ex- tent of which about equals that of the Homeric poems. As a rule, the oldest hymns are contained in Books 2-7 ; these show only portions, each assigned by tradition to a single family, 73 in which they were long preserved as a family inheritance. These are in order the hymns of Grtsamada, Vi9vamitra, Vamadeva, Atri, Bharadvaja, Vasistha and their descendants. The internal arrange- ment of these Mandalas bears distinct traces of the work of a single school ; the hymns in each are arranged in groups according to the gods addressed ; and these groups always follow the same order, first the hymns to Agni, then those to Indra, etc. Inside the groups the position of the hymns is determined by the number of verses in diminish- ing order; where this principle seems violated, the hymns are either to be separated into shorter ones or they found a place in the collection only at a later date. 74 The eighth book contains chiefly hymns of the Kanva gens, but shows no prevailing principle in their arrangement. Book 9 seems to betray a different origin, all its hymns being addressed to one divinity, the inspiring Soma, honored as a god, and being arranged with reference to the metres. The youngest portion is Books 1 and 10, which, with beau- tiful examples of Vedic lyrical poetry, also show productions of the latest period of Vedic time, and even of the time of 22 THE RIGVEDA. compilation. The fourteen groups of the first book, each hymns of one family, show the same principle in their arrangement as the family books ; the tenth shows smaller collections (e.g., liturgical) ; the whole Mandala gives the impression of a subsequent compilation of religious and secular pieces not collected before. Since the time at which our collection was closed, about the year 1500 B.C., 75 the text has been handed down, though for centuries orally, 76 with the most painstaking care, so that since that time, nearly 3000 years ago, it has suffered no changes whatever ; with a care such that the history of other literatures has nothing similar to compare with it. The Indians were not satisfied with one form of the text, but made several ; 77 grammatical treatises were written upon the mutual relations of the various forms 78 and other like precautions taken. But it is true that at the period of compilation much had become unintelligible ; a method of exposition had gained currency which to a cer- tain extent replaced the text, and it is probable that only few hymns then preserved exactly the same form in which they were composed. For example, it is easy to show that in many hymns the order of the verses is changed and that in others verses not belonging to the hymn have been interpolated. Many such erratic portions were collected by the scholiasts in places where from the occurrence of the same or similar words they inferred a similar sense (cf. p. 10*) ; others show themselves to be modern, and in part very senseless, variations of old hymns or additions made by the priests for the support of their doctrine. 79 Little need be said of the external form of the hymns ; this language is an exceedingly ancient popular dialect, 80 which differs, in all grammatical points (accentuation, phonetics, word-formation, declension, conjugation, syn- tax) and in its vocabulary, from the later artificial Indian language, the Sanskrit* of the law-books, epics, dramas, etc., * Sanskrit is the artificial, adorned speech of the three higher castes and the learned literary language in distinction to the popular dialect, Prakrit. THE RIGVEDA. 23 in a much greater degree than, e.g., the language of Homer from the Attic. Here the wonderful imagery of the lan- guage shines out in transparent clearness and exuberance of sparkling brilliancy ; its forms of expression are poured forth as from an inexhaustible spring ; we meet everywhere originality, richness of diction, pushing growth and buoy- ant life, which, not yet fettered as in later Sanskrit by the iron-bound canons of a learned grammar, give us glimpses of the development and history of the language, in the laboratory of that immense intellectual product, through which the languages of our family have become the most cultivated of all tongues. 81 In a certain sense this dialect too is artistic ; it is, like the language of Homer, though to a smaller degree, a popular artistic or poetic speech devel- oped in the guilds of singers, and the many conventional turns of expression in it plainly prove that the art of song had long been fostered and practised among the people. 82 Here, as in Homer, we often find fixed epithets, formulaic expressions confined to certain connections, rhetorical adornments, idioms and whole passages which repeatedly re-occur unchanged or with slight variations. Assonance, Homoioteleuta, Parachesis and other rhetorical figures, and especially the most varied play upon words, are of frequent application ; the refrain, repeating some principal thought, is used with great freedom. 83 The syntactical relations are usually clear ; in the use of case and mode much more of the original fullness of the language is preserved than in Sanskrit or the classical tongues. But since pure Syntax, the developed struc- f ture of periods, was not yet matured, it is sometimes im- possible to fix upon one or another translation and explan- ation of a verse as the sole possible and only correct one, even in passages where every individual word is fully clear. 84 It is used in the Indian drama only by gods and male members of the first two castes, priests and warriors, while all females (including goddesses), children, and people of lower class speak Prakrit. 24 THE RIGVEDA. The metrical laws are simple; the stanzas consist throughout of three or more, generally of three or four verses ; the latter contain eight, eleven, or twelve syllables, seldom five, more seldom four or more than twelve, and are therefore usually dimeter, trimeter, or trimeter cata- lectic ; the caesura occurs after the fourth or fifth syllable. The first syllables of the verse are not fixed in regard to quantity (ancipites), while the last four are in general strictly measured, iambic in verses of twelve syllables ( w _ w ), trochaic in those of eleven ( _ w _ w ) ; only a few older hymns with verses of eight sjdlables show a trochaic cadence. 85 In many hymns two or three stanzas are more closely connected, and thus form a strophe; in others a kind of chain-structure is noticeable, in which the beginning of a stanza or strophe takes up the closing thought of the last stanza or strophe. There are, even at this early date, iso- lated instances of lyrical dialogue; of which there are also forms which picture the progress of the action and describe past events, and which 'therefore correspond in nature to the ballad. 86 As to the contents, it has already been pointed out above (page 3), that the far greater proportion of hymns belongs to the religious lyric ; a small number only of sec- ular songs is preserved in the tenth book. The great ma- jority of the hymns are invocations and adoration of the gods respectively addressed ; their keynote is a simple out- pouring of the heart, a prayer to the eternals, an invitation to them to accept favorably the gift reverently consecrated. Of the later theory of inspiration the hymns recognize nothing. The singer's wish is to give eloquent expression to the sentiments which a god has placed in his soul, to give vent to the crowding emotions of his heart. " As a skilled workman builds the wagon, like well-adorned and fitted garments he forms his song as best he can according to his knowledge and ability." 87 Therefore the hymns vary greatly in value ; by the side THE RIGVEDA. 25 of the splendid productions of divinely inspired poets we find a large number of unimportant, tiresome, and over- burdened compositions. But this does not appear strange, when we remember that the Rigveda furnishes us the works of the most various poets of a whole people, some of whom are separated by a period of at least 1000 years ; that indi- vidual genius is confined neither to locality nor age, and that these productions at the time of compilation, even then partially unintelligible, were looked upon as ancient, divinely inspired wisdom, and therefore protected against all human criticism. Even the flower of the Vedic lyric suffers from monotony and endless repetition, since almost all the hymns are variations of the same theme ; but through them all we feel the fresh breath of a vigorous poetry of Nature. If one will only take the trouble to project him- self into the life and thought, the poetry and action of a people and age, which best display the first development of intellectual activity in our own race,* he will find him- self attracted by these hymns on many sides, now by their childlike simplicity, now by the freshness or delicacy of their imagery, and again by the boldness of their painting and their scope of fancy. And most certainly these truly unique literary remains, which throw the strongest light on the most varied conditions of life, of classical as well as present peoples, will remain sealed for all who do not take that trouble, who are used to recognize a common hu- manity and pure beauty only when clothed in the most modern forms. They will be closed for all who have never experienced the delight of following back to its distant mountain-sources the mighty river of human thought, on whose surface we ourselves are hastening toward the Fu- ture, who no longer have any soul for that which has freed the minds of millions of human beings with their noblest hopes, fears, and endeavors ; who lack the sense for the History of Humanity. 88 Turning now to the * " In so far as we are Aryans in speech, that is, in thought, so far the Kigveda is our own oldest book." Max Muller. 26 THE RIGVEDA. BELIGIOUS POETEY, we shall not, from what has preceded, expect to find any unified views or defined prevailing conceptions. Each one of the poets so far separated in time follows his own imag- ination, his individual feeling, his momentary perception, which may conform with those of most of his contempo- raries, or may be centuries ahead of them. The whole sig- nificance of the Rigveda in reference to the general history of religion, as has repeatedly been pointed out in modern times, rests upon this, that it presents to us the develop- ment of religious conceptions from the earliest beginnings to the deepest apprehension of the godhead and its relations to man. "Very differently," says L. Geiger, "from all others of the oldest literatures known to us, which show new forms rising on the ruins of a past sunk in oblivion or produced by the contact and commingling of the spiritual characteristics of various peoples, we have in these hymns the picture of an original, primitive life of mankind, free from foreign influences, not restored in new forms from the destruction of the past, but springing forth new and young from the bosom of Nature, a spiritual form still unspoiled in word and deed ; and that which every- where else we see only as complete and finished, is here presented in process of formation. Therefore in these hymns lies the key to understanding not only the subse- quent development of the Indians, nor alone that of all peoples in part springing from the same root, but also, from the unity of nature recognized in the whole process of devel- opment of our race, the key to the productions of all specu- lative power on earth, or to the whole contents of mind, i.e., its lasting acquisitions, from the period when convic- tions formed from impressions retained in memory first took shape among men, and manifold opinions, beliefs, or knowledge were at all possible." 89 THE RIGVEDA. 27 TEE EELIGIOUS THOUGHT is here in greater part filled with the productions of sense. A maze of marvellous stories and myths reveals the mighty influence of the ever-changing phenomena of nature upon the son of earth. The forces of nature im- press him now as friends, again as enemies, and he views the wonders of the great creation with the unaccustomed eyes of the child. As a German nursery rhyme asks : " Tell me how white milk can come from the red cow," so an Indian sage is struck with wonder that the rough red cow gives soft white milk, and this miracle is praised again and again as an evidence of divine power. 90 There is of course no recognition of the laws of nature, and science does not, as now, spring up at every step as an obstacle to imagination. Now we calculate at what moment a certain star will be visible at a certain spot on the earth, and the rising of the sun causes us no astonishment, we know that it happens necessarily. Not so the man of that time ; when he sees the sun moving freely through the heavens, so evidently producing all life upon the earth, seen and known by all, and yet to all a mystery from beginning to end, what it is, whence it comes, whither it goes, then he asks : " Unpropped beneath, not fastened firm, how comes it That downward turned, he falls not downward? The guide of his ascending path, who saw it?" 4. 13. 5. Full of wonder he begins to conjecture "whither the Pleiades, that show themselves in the night, go by day," and it seems a miracle to him that " the sparkling waters of all rivers flow into one ocean, without ever filling it."* 91 Such expressions of wonder, if we try to place ourselves in sympathy with the childlike mental conditions of that primitive time, we shall not find childish ; we shall rather wonder at the happy and graphic expressions with which man is able to clothe his thoughts when beginning * Cf. Eccles. 1.7: All the rivers run into the sea ; yet the sea is not full. 28 THE RIGVEDA. for the first time to grope about him, to perceive, to ob- serve, and from repeated observations to draw conclusions. In all the phenomena of nature he observes movement and action similar to his own or those of his immediate sur- roundings ; but because he never sees movement or action here behind which a moving or acting person does not stand, he logically refers these occurrences in nature to acting persons, who for him coincide with the phenomena. The bright all-containing heaven is him the " Lightener " (Dj/aws) or the " Surrounder " ( Varuna) ; the moon is the " Measurer " (J/