780 INDIA [HISTORY. north of the Khyber Pass, in Cabul ; the later ones bring it as far as the Ganges. Their victorious advance east wards through the intermediate tract can be traced in the Vedic writings almost step by step. One of their famous settlements lay between the two sacred rivers, the Saraswati and the Drishadvati, supposed to be the modern Sarsuti near Thanesar, in the Punjab, and the Ghaggar, a day s march from it. That fertile strip of land, not more than 60 miles long by 20 broad, was fondly remembered by them as their Holy Land, "fashioned of God, and chosen by the Creator." As their numbers increased, they pushed eastwards along the base of the Himalayas, into what they afterwards called the Land of the Sacred Singers (Brdh- marslddesha). Their settlements practicall} r included the five rivers of the Punjab, together with the other great river-system formed by the upper courses of the Jumna and the Ganges. In them the Vedic hymns were com posed ; and the steady supply of water led the Aryans to settle down from their old state of wandering pastoral tribes into communities of husbandmen. The Vedic poets praised the rivers which enabled them to make this great change perhaps the most important step in the progress of a race. " May the Indus," they sang, " the far-famed giver of wealth, hear us, (fertilizing our) broad fields with water." The Himalayas, through whose passes they had reached India, and at whose southern base they long dwelt, made a lasting impression on their memory. The Vedic singer praised " Him whose greatness the snowy ranges, and the sea, and the aerial river declare." In all its long wanderings through India the Aryan race never forgot its northern home. There dwelt its gods and holy singers, and their eloquence descended from heaven among men. The Rig-Veda forms the great literary memorial of the early Aryan settlements in the Punjab. The age of this venerable hymnal is unknown. The Hindus believe, with out evidence, that it existed " from before all time," or at bisfc 3001 years B.C., nearly 5000 years ago. European sjholars have inferred from astronomical dates that its composition was going on about 1400 B.C. But these dates are themselves given in writings of later origin, and might have been calculated backwards. We only know that the Vedic religion had been at work long before the rise of Buddhism in the 6th century B.C. Neverthe less, the antiquity of the Rig-Veda, although not to be expressed in figures, is abundantly established. The earlier hymns exhibit the Aryans on the north-western frontiers of India just starting on their long journey. Before the embassy of the Greek Megasthenes, at the end of the 4th century B.C., they had spread their influence as far as the delta of Lower Bengal, 1500 miles distant. At the time of the Periplm the southernmost point of India had become a seat of their worship. " What a series of centuries must have elapsed," writes Weber, " before this boundless tract of country, inhabited by wild and vigorous tribes, could have been brought over to Brabmanism !" The Brahmans declare that the Vedic hymns were directly inspired by God. Indeed, in our own times, the great theistic church of Bengal, which rejects Brahmanical teaching, was rent into two sects on the question of the divine authority of the Veda. As a matter of fact, the hymns were composed by certain families of Rishis or psalmists, some of whose names are preserved. The Rig- Veda is a very old collection of 1017 of these short lyrical poems, chiefly addressed to the gods, and containing 10,580 verses. They show us the Aryans on the banks of the Indus, divided into various tribes, sometimes at war with each other, sometimes united against the "black-skinned" aborigines. Caste, in its later sense, is unknown. Each father of a family is the priest of his own household. The chieftain acts as father and priest to the tribe ; but at the greater festivals he chooses some one specially learned in holy offerings to conduct the sacrifice in the name of the people. The chief himself seems to have been elected ; and his title of Vis-pati, literally " Lord of the Settlers," survives in the old Persian Vis-paiti, and as the Lithuanian Wiez-patis in central Europe at this day. Women enjoyed a high position, and some of the must beautiful hymns were composed by ladies and queens. Marriage was held sacred. Husband and wife were both " rulers of the house" (dampati), and drew near to the gods together in prayer, The burning of widows on their husbands funeral-pile was unknown, and the verses in the Veda which the Brahmans afterwards distorted into a sanction for the practice have- the very opposite meaning. " Rise, woman," says the sacred text to the mourner ; " come to the world of life. Come to us. Thou hast fulfilled thy duties as a wife to thy husband." The Aryan tribes in the Veda are acquainted with most Ear of the metals. They have blacksmiths, coppersmiths, and Arj goldsmiths among them, besides carpenters, barbers, and life other artisans. They fight from chariots, and freely use the horse, although not yet the elephant, in war, They have settled down as husbandmen, till their fields with the plough, and live in villages or towns. But they also cling to their old wandering life, with their herds and " cattle- pens." Cattle, indeed, still form their chief wealth, the
- coin ( Latin, pecunia) in which payments of fines are made;
! and one of their words for war literally means "a desire j for cows." They have learned to build "ships," perhaps | Iirge river-boats, and seem to have heard something of I the sea. Unlike the modern Hindus, the Aryans of the Veda ate beef, used a fermented liquor or beer made from the soma plant, and offered the same strong meat and drink to their gods. Thus the stout Aryans spread eastwards through northern India, pushed on from behind by later arrivals of their own stock, and driving before them, or reducing to bondage, the earlier " black-skinned " races. They marched in whole communities from one river-valley to another, each house-father a warrior, husbandman, and priest, with his wife, and his little ones, and cattle. These free-hearted tribes had a great trust in themselves and their Earl gods. Like other conquering races, they believed that both them- [^[Q selves and their deities were altogether superior to the people of the land and their poor rude objects of worship. Indeed, this noble self-confidence is a great aid to the success of a nation. Their divinities in Sanskrit, Devata, literally "the Shining Ones" were the great powers of nature. They adored the Father-heaven, (Dyaush-pitar, the Dics-pitcr or Jupiter of Rome, the Zeus of Greece, the Low German Duns, and, through the old French god-demon Dus-ius, the Deuce of P^nglish slang), together with Mother-earth, and the Encompassing Sky (Varuna in Sanskrit, Uranus in Latin, Ouranos in Greek). Indra, or the aqueous vapour that brings each autumn the precious rain on which plenty or famine still de pends, received the largest number of hymns. By degrees, as the settlers realized more and more keenly the importance of the peri odical rains in their new life as husbandmen, he became the chief of the Yedic gods. " The gods do not reach unto thee, Indra, nor men ; thou overcomest all creatures in strength." Agni, the God of fire (Latin igni-s), ranks perhaps next to Indra in the num ber of hymns addressed to him as "the youngest of the gods," " the lord and giver of wealth." The Maruts are the Storm Gods, "who make the rocks to tremble, who tear in pieces the forest." Ushas, " the High-born Dawn " (Greek, Eos), " shines upon us like a young wife, rousing every living being to go forth to his work." The Asvins, or "Fleet Outriders" of the Dawn, are the first rays of sunrise, " Lords of Lustre." The Sun himself (Siirjya), the Wind (Vayu), the Friendly Day (Mitra), the animating fermented juice of the Sacrificial Plant (Soma) and many others, are invoked in the Veda, in all about thirty-three gods, " who are eleven in heaven, eleven on earth, and eleven dwelling in glory in mid-air." The terrible blood-drinking deities of modern Hinduism are scarcely known in the Veda. Buffaloes are indeed offered; and one hymn points to a symbolism based on human sacrifices, an early practice apparently extinct before the time of the Yedic singers. The great horse sacrifice was substituted for the flesh and blood of
a man. But, as- a whole, the hymns are addressed to bright,
