1 The Hieratic Religion 65 not singular. We must not shrink from realising that the earliest Hindu poetry is not epic, nor lyric in the ordinary sense, not idyllic, nor didactic, but that it is almost throughout dominated by a single idea, name- ly, the praise of the gods in connection with the sacrifice. The sacrifice is the dominant note of Vedic life, as far as it is revealed in these ancient documents. The chief acts of the people living this life, in so far as it is revealed by the literature are sacrificial; their chief thought the praise and conciliation of their gods at the sacrifice. The soma, the sacred drink, intoxicates the gods into heroism,, or the rich melted butter, or ghee (ghṛta), that is poured into the willing fire, fattens them into contentment. Especially the soma is ever present, in express statement or by im- plication. So much so that in a technical sense at least the Rig-Veda religion may be designated as a religion of soma-practices. But the hymns are dithyrambic, often turgid and intentionally mystic. It requires at times pretty sharp sight to see, and a clear head to remember, that this poetry hugs the sacrifice closely; that at the bottom of the golden liquid of inspiration there are always the residual dregs of a supposedly useful formalism. In fact the poets, as their fancy flies away from their immediate purpose, succeed un- commonly well in withdrawing the eye from the 5
