Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/45

The Veda
29
much like and often identical with the hymns of the
Atharva-Veda.
On the whole and in the main, as we shall see, the
Rig-Veda is a collection of priestly hymns addressed
to the gods of the Vedic Pantheon. The chanting
of these hymns is regularly accompanied by libations
of the intoxicating drink called soma, and of melted
butter, or ghee (ghrta). The enduring interest of
the Rig Veda as literature lies in those old priestly
poets' vision of the beauty, the majesty, and the
power of the gods, and in the myths and legends told
of them, or, more often, merely alluded to in connec-
tion with them. But the paramount importance of
the Rig-Veda is after all not as literature, but as
philosophy. Its mythology represents a clearer,
even if not always chronologically earlier stage of
thought and religious development than is to be
found in any parallel literature. On one side at
least it is primitive in conception, and constructive
under our very eyes: how a personal god develops
by personification out of a visible fact in nature
(anthropomorphosis) no literary document in the
world teaches as well as the Rig-Veda. The original
nature of the Vedic gods, however, is not always clear,
not as clear as was once fondly thought. The analy-
sis of these barely translucent, or altogether opaque
characters makes up a chapter of Vedic science as