History of Sanskrit Literature -5 (BY ARTHUR A. MACDONELL

 

History of Sanskrit Literature

(BY

ARTHUR A. MACDONELL, M. A., Ph.D.

BODEN PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT)

 

 

CHAPTER V

PHILOSOPHY OF THE RIGVEDA

ACCORDING to the Vedic view, the spirit of the

deceased proceeded to the realm of eternal light on

the path trodden by the fathers, whom he finds in

the highest heaven revelling with Yama, king of the

dead, and feasting with the gods.

In one of the funeral hymns (x. 14, 7) the dead man

is thus addressed :

Goforth, goforth along those ancientpathways

To where our early ancestors departed.

There thou shall see rejoicing in libations

The two kings, Varuna the god and Yama.

Here a tree spreads its branches, in the shade of

which Yama drinks soma with the gods, and the sound

of the flute and of songs is heard. The life in heaven

is free from imperfections or bodily frailties, and is

altogether delectable. It is a glorified life of material

joys as conceived by the imagination, not of warriors,

but of priests. Heaven is gained as a reward by heroes

who risk their lives in battle, but above all by those

who bestow liberal sacrificial gifts on priests.

Though the Atharva-veda undoubtedly shows a belief

in a place of future punishment, the utmost that can

be inferred with regard to the Rigvcda from the scanty

evidence we possess, is the notion that unbelievers were

n6

YAMA, KING OF THE DEAD 117

consigned to an underground darkness after death.

So little, indeed, do the Rishis say on this subject, and

so vague is the little they do say, that Roth held

the total annihilation of the wicked by death to be

their belief. The early Indian notions about future

punishment gradually developed, till, in the post-Vedic

period, a complicated system of hells had been elaborated.

Some passages of the Rigveda distinguish the path

of the fathers or dead ancestors from the path of

the gods, doubtless because cremation appeared as a

different process from sacrifice. In the Brahmanas the

fathers and the gods are thought to dwell in distinct

abodes, for the "

heavenly world "

is contrasted with

the " world of the fathers."

The chief of the blessed dead is Yama, to whom

three entire hymns are addressed. He is spoken of as

a king who rules the departed and as a gatherer of the

people, who gives the deceased a resting-place and

prepares an abode for him. Yama it was who first

discovered the way to the other world :

Him who along the mighty heights departed.

Him who searched and spied out the pathfor many,

Son of Vivasvat, gatherer of the people,

Yama the king, with sacrifices woiship. (x. 14, 1).

Though death is the path of Yama, and he must

consequently have been regarded with a certain amount

of fear, he is not yet in the Rigveda, as in the Atharvaveda

and the later mythology, a god of death. The owl

and pigeon are occasionally mentioned as emissaries

of Yama, but his regular messengers are two dogs

which guard the path trodden by the dead proceeding

to the other world.

n8 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

With reference to them the deceased man is thus

addressed in one of the funeral hymns (x. 14) :

Run on thy path straightforwardpast the two dogs,

The sons of Sarama, four-eyed a7id brindled,

Draw near thereafter to the bounteousfathers,

Who revel on in company with Yama.

Broad-nosed and brown, the messengers of Yama,

Greedy of lives, wander among the people :

May they give back to us a life auspicious

Here and to-day, that we may see the sunlight.

The name of Yama is sometimes used in the Rigveda

in its primary sense of "twin," and the chief of the

dead actually occurs in this character throughout a

hymn (x. 10) of much poetic beauty, consisting of a

dialogue between him and his sister Yaml. She endeavours

to win his love, but he repels her advances

with these words :

The spies sent by the gods here ever wander,

They stand not still, nor close their eyes in slumber :

Another man thine arms shall clasp, Yami,

Tightly as twines around the tree the creeper.

The incestuous union which forms the main theme

of the poem, though rejected as contrary to the higher

ethical standard of the Rigveda, was doubtless the survival

of an already existing myth of the descent of

mankind from primeval

" twins." This myth, indeed,

seems to have been handed down from the Indo-Iranian

period, for the later Avestan literature makes mention of

Yimeh as a sister of Yima. Even the name of Yama's

father goes back to that period, for Yima is the son of

Vivanhvant in the.Avesta as Yama is of Vivasvat in the

Rigveda,

The great bulk of the Rigvedic poems comprises inDIALOGUES

IN THE RIGVEDA 119

vocations of gods or deified objects as described in

the foregoing pages. Scattered among them are to

be found, chiefly in the tenth book, about a dozen

mythological pieces consisting of dialogues which, in

a vague and fragmentary way, indicate the course of

the action and refer to past events. In all likelihood

they were originally accompanied by a narrative setting

in prose, which explained the situation more fully

to the audience, but was lost after these poems were

incorporated among the collected hymns of the Rigveda.

One of this class (iv. 42) is a colloquy between

Indra and Varuna, in which each of these leading gods

puts forward his claims to pre-eminence. Another,

which shows considerable poetic merit and presents

the situation clearly, is a dialogue in alternate verses

between Varuna and Agni (x. 51), followed by a second

(x. 52) between the gods and Agni, who has grown

weary of his sacrificial office, but finally agrees to continue

the performance of his duties.

A curious but prosaic and obscure hymn (x. 86),

consists of a dialogue between Indra and his wife IndranI

on the subject of a monkey which has incurred the

anger of the latter. The circumstances are much more

clearly presented in a poem of great beauty (x. 108), in

which Sarama, the messenger of Indra, having tracked

the stolen cows, demands them back from the Panis.

Another already referred to (p. 107) treats the myth of

UrvacI and Pururavas. The dialogue takes place at the

moment when the nymph is about to quit her mortal

lover for ever. A good deal of interest attaches to this

myth, not only as the oldest Indo-European love-story,

but as one which has had a long history in Indian

literature. The dialogue of Yama and YamI (x. 10) is,

9

120 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

as we have seen, based on a still older myth. These

mythological ballads, if I may use the expression,

foreshadow the dramatic and epic poetry of a later

age.

A very small number, hardly more than thirty

altogether, of the hymns of the Rigveda are not

addressed to the gods or deified objects. About a

dozen poems, occurring almost exclusively in the tenth

book, are concerned with magical notions, and therefore

belong rather to the domain of the Atharva-veda. Two

short ones (ii. 42-43) belong to the sphere of augury,

certain birds of omen being invoked to utter auspicious

cries. Two others consist of spells directed against

poisonous vermin (i. 191), and the disease called yaks/ima

(x. 163). Two are incantations to preserve the life of

one lying at the point of death (x. 58; 60, 7-12). A

couple of stanzas from one of the latter may serve as a

specimen :

Just as a yoke with leathern thong

Theyfasten on that it may hold :

So have I now heldfast thy soul,

That thou mayst live and mayst not die,

Anon to be unhurt and well.

Downward is blown the blast of wind,

Downward the burning sunbeams shoot,

Adown the milk streamsfro?n the cow :

So downward may thy ailmoit go.

Here is a stanza from a poem intended as a charm

to induce slumber (v. 55) :

The man who sits and he who walks,

And he who sees us with his gaze :

Ofthese we now close up the eyes,

Just as we shut this dwelling-house.

INCANTATIONS 121

The first three stanzas of this lullaby end with the

refrain,

" Fall fast asleep

"

(ni shu shvapd).

The purpose of one incantation (x. 183) is to procure

children, while another (x. 162) is directed against the

demon that destroys offspring. There is also a spell

(x. 166) aiming at the destruction of enemies. We

further find the incantation (x. 145) of a woman desiring

to oust her rival wives from the affections of her

husband. A sequel to it is formed by the song of

triumph (x. 159) of one who has succeeded in this

object :

Up has arisen there the sun,

So too myfortunes now arise :

With craft victorious I have gained

Over my lord this victory.

My sons now mighty warriors are.

My daughter is a princess now,

And I myselfhave gained the day :

My name stands highest with my lord.

Vanquished have I these rival wives,

Rising superior to them all,

That over this heroic man

And all this people I may rule.

With regard to a late hymn (vii. 103), which is entirely

secular in style, there is some doubt as to its original

purpose. The awakening of the frogs at the 'beginning

of the rainy season is here described with a graphic

power which will doubtless be appreciated best by those

who have lived in India. The poet compares the din of

their croaking with the chants of priests exhilarated by

soma, and with the clamour of pupils at school repeating

the words of their teacher :

Resting in silencefor a year,

As Brah?nans practising a vow,

122 SANSKRIT LITERATURE*

Thefrogs have lifted up their voice,

Excited when Parjanya comes.

When one repeats the uttera?ice of the other

Like those who learn the lesson of their teacher,

Then every limb ofyours seems to be swelling,

As eloquentye prate upon the waters.

As Brahmans at the mighty soma offeri?ig

Sit round the large and brimming vessel talking,

So throngye round the pool to hallow

This day of all the year that brings the rain-time.

These Brahmans with their soma raise their voices,

Performingpunctually their yearly worship;

And these Adhvaryus, sweating with their kettles,

These priests comeforth to view, and none are hidden.

The twelvemonth's god-sent order they have guarded,

And ?iever do these me?i neglect the season.

When in the year the rai?iy tinie commences,

Those who were heated kettles gain deliverance.

This poem has usually been interpreted as a satire

upon the Brahmans. If such be indeed its purport, we

find it difficult to conceive how it could have gained

admittance into a collection like the Rzgveda, which, if

not entirely composed, was certainly edited, by priests.

The Brahmans cannot have been ignorant of the real

significance of the poem. On the other hand, the comparison

of frogs with Brahmans would not necessarily

imply satire to the Vedic Indian. Students familiar with

the style of the Rigveda know that many similes which,

if used by ourselves, would involve contempt or ridicule,

were employed by the ancient Indian poets only for the

sake of graphic effect. As the frogs are in the last stanza

besought to grant wealth and length of days, it is much

more likely that we have here a panegyric of frogs believed

to have the magical power of bringing rain.

WEDDING HYMN 123

There remain about twenty poems the subject-matter

of which is of a more or less secular character. They

deal with social customs, the liberality of patrons,

ethical questions, riddles, and cosmogonic speculations.

Several of them are of high importance for the history of

Indian thought and civilisation. As social usages have

always been dominated by religion in India, it is natural

that the poems dealing with them should have a religious

and mythological colouring. The most notable poem

of this kind is the long wedding-hymn (x. 85) of fortyseven

stanzas. Lacking in poetic unity, it consists of

groups of verses relating to the marriage ceremonial

loosely strung together. The opening stanzas (1-5), in

which the identity of the celestial soma and of the moon

is expressed in veiled terms, are followed by others

(6-17) relating the myth of the wedding of Soma the

moon with the sun-maiden Surya. The Acvins, elsewhere

her spouses, here appear in the inferior capacity

of groomsmen, who, on behalf of Soma, sue for the

hand of Surya from her father, the sun-god. Savitri

consents, and sends his daughter, a willing bride, to

her husband's house on a two-wheeled car made of the

wood of the calmali or silk-cotton tree, decked with

red kimguka flowers, and drawn by two white bulls.

Then sun and moon, the prototype of human marriage,

are described as an inseparable pair (18-19) :

They move alternately with mysticpower;

Like children playing they go round the sacrifice :

0?ie of the two surveys all living beings,

The other, seasons meting out, is born again.

Ever a?iew, being born again, he rises,

He goes in front of dawns as daylighfs token.

He, coming, to the gods their share apportions ;

The moon extends the length of marts existence.

124 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

Blessings are then invoked on the wedding procession,

an$J a wish expressed that the newly-married couple

may have many children and enjoy prosperity, long life,

and freedom from disease (20-33).

The next two stanzas (34-35), containing some obscure

references to the bridal garments, are followed by six

others (36-41) pronounced at the wedding rite, which is

again brought into connection with the marriage of Surya.

The bridegroom here thus addresses the bride :

\Igrasp thy hand that I may gam goodfortune,

That thou mafst reach old age with me thy husband.

Bhaga, Aryai?ian, Savitri, Puramdhi,

The gods have given thee to share my household.

The god of fire is at the same time invoked :

To thee, O Agni,first they led

Bright Surya with the bridal throng :

So in thy turn to husbands give

A wife alotig with progeny.

The concluding verses (42-47) are benedictions pronounced

on the newly-wedded couple after the bride has

arrived at her future home :

Here abide; be not divided;

Complete life's whole allotted span,

Playing with your sons andgrandsons,

Rejoicing in your own abode.

The last stanza of all is spoken by the bridegroom :

May all the gods us two unite,

May Waters now our hearts entwine;

May Mdtaricvan and Dhatri,

May Deshtri us together-join.

There are five hymns, all in the last book (x. 14-18),

which are more or less concerned with funeral rites.

FUNERAL HYMNS 125

All but one of them, however, consist chiefly of invocations

of gods connected with the future life. The first

(14) is addressed to Yama, the next to the Fathers, the

third to Agni, and the fourth to Pushan, as well as

Sarasvatl. Only the last (18) is a funeral hymn in the

true sense. It is secular in style as well as in matter,

being almost free from references to any of the gods.

Grave and elevated in tone, it is distinguished by great

beauty of language. It also yields more information

about the funeral usages of those early days than any

of the rest.

From this group of hymns it appears that burial was

practised as well as cremation by the Vedic Indians.

The composer of a hymn addressed to Varuna in Book

VII. also mentions "the house of clay" in connection

with death. Cremation was, however, the usual manner

of disposing of the dead, and the later Vedic ritual

practically knew this method alone, sanctioning only

the burial of ascetics and children under two years of

age. With the rite of cremation, too, the mythological

notions about the future life were specially connected.

Thus Agni conducts the corpse to the other world, where

the gods and Fathers dwell. A goat was sacrificed when

the corpse was burned, and this goat, according to the

Atharva-veda (ix. 5, 1 and 3), preceded and announced the

deceased to the fathers, just as in the Rigveda the goat

immolated with the sacrificial horse goes before to

announce the offering to the gods (i. 162-163). In the

later Vedic ritual a goat or cow was sacrificed as the

body was cremated.

In conformity with a custom of remotest antiquity

still surviving in India, the dead man was provided

with ornaments and clothing for use in the future life.

126 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

The fact that in the funeral obsequies of the Rigveda

the widow lies down beside the body of her deceased

husband and his bow is removed from the dead man's

hand, shows that both were in earlier times burnt with

his body to accompany him to the next world, and a

verse of the Atharva-veda calls the dying of the widow

with her husband an old custom. The evidence of

anthropology shows that this was a very primitive practice

widely prevailing at the funerals of military chiefs,

and it can be proved to go back to the Indo-European

age.

The following stanza (8) from the last funeral hymn

(x. 1 8) is addressed to the widow, who is called upon to

rise from the pyre and take the hand of her new husband,

doubtless a brother of the deceased, in accordance with

an ancient marriage custom :

Rise upj come to the wo?-id of life, O woman;

Thou liest here by one whose soul has left him.

Come : thou hast now entered upon the wifehood

Of this thy lord who takes thy hand and woos thee.

The speaker then, turning to the deceased man,

exclaims :

From the dead hand I take the bow he wielded,

To gainfor us dominion, might, andglory.

Thou there, we here, rich in heroic offspring,

Will vanquish all assaults of everyfoeman.

Approach the bosom of the earth, the mother,

This earth extendingfar and mostpropitious :

Young, soft as wool to bounteous givers, may she

Preserve theefrom the lap of'dissolution.

Open wide, O earth, press not heavily on him,

Be easy of approach, hail him with kindly aid;

As with a robe a mother hides

Her son, so shroud this man^ earth.

PANEGYRICS OF PATRONS 127

Referring to the bystanders he continues :

These living ones arefrom the dead divided:

Our calling on the gods is now auspicious.

We have comefo?'th preparedfor dance and laughter.

Tillfuture days prolonging our existence.

As days in orderfollow otie another,

As seasons duly alternate with seasons,

As the later neverforsakes the earlier,

Sofashion thou the lives of these, Ordainer.

A few of the secular poems contain various historical

references. These are the so-called Ddnastutis

or " Praises , of Gifts/' panegyrics commemorating the

liberality of princes towards the priestly singers employed

by them. They possess little poetic merit, and

are of late date, occurring chiefly in the first and tenth

books, or among the Vdlakhilya (supplementary) hymns

of the eighth. A number of encomia of this type,

generally consisting of only two or three stanzas, are

appended to ordinary hymns in the eighth book and,

much less commonly, in most of the other books. Chiefly

concerned in describing the kind and the amount of

the gifts bestowed on them, the composers of these

panegyrics incidentally furnish historical data about the

families and genealogies of themselves and their patrons,

as well as about the names and homes of the Vedic

tribes. The amount of the presents bestowed for instance,

60,000 cows is sometimes enormously exaggerated.

We may, however, safely conclude that it was

often considerable, and that the Vedic chiefs possessed

very large herds of cattle.

Four of the secular poems are didactic in character.

One of these (x. 34),

" The Lament of the Gambler," strikes

a pathetic note. Considering that it is the oldest com128

SANSKRIT LITERATURE

position of the kind in existence, we cannot but regard

this poem as a most remarkable literary product. The

gambler deplores his inability to throw off the spell of

the dice, though he sees the ruin they are bringing on

him and his household :

Downward theyfall, then nimbly leaping up7vard,

They overpower the man with hands, though handless.

Cast on the board like magic bits of charcoal,

Though cold themselves, they burn the heart to ashes.

Itpains the gambler when he sees a woman,

Another*s wife, and their well-ordered household :

He yokes these brown steeds early in the morning,

And, when thefire is low, sinks down an outcast.

"

Play not with dice, but cultivate thy cornfield;

Rejoice in thy goods, deeming them abundant :

There are thy cows, there is thy wife, gambler?

This counsel Savitri the kindly gives me.

We learn here that the dice (akshd) were made of the

nut of the Vibhldaka tree {Terminalia bellericd)y which

is still used for the purpose in India.

The other three poems of this group may be regarded

as the forerunners of the sententious poetry

which flourished so luxuriantly in Sanskrit literature.

One of them, consisting only of four stanzas (ix. 112),

describes in a moralising strain of mild humour how

men follow after gain in various ways :

The thoughts of men are manifold,

Their callings are of diverse kinds;

The carpenter desires a rift,

The leech afracture wants to cure.

A poet Ij my dad's a leechj

Mama the upper millstone grinds :

With various minds we strivefor wealth,

As ever seeking after kine.

DIDACTIC POEMS 129

Another of these poems (x. 117) consists of a collection

of maxims inculcating the duty of well-doing and

charity :

Who has the power should give unto the needy,

Regarding well the course of life hereafter :

Fortune, like two chariot wheels revolving,

Now to one ma?i comes nigh, now to another.

Ploughing the soil, the share produces ?iurturej

He who bestirs hisfeetperforms hisjourneyJ

A priest who speaks earns more than one who's silent;

A friend who gives is better than the niggard.

The fourth of these poems (x. 71) is composed in

praise of wise speech. Here are four of its eleven

stanzas :

Where clever men their words with wisdom utter,

And sift them as withflail the corn is winnowed,

Therefriends may recognise each other'sfriendship :

A goodly stamp is on their speech imprinted.

Whoever his congenialfriend abandons,

In that man's speech there is not any blessing.

For what he hears he hears without advantage :

He has no knowledge of the path of virtue.

When Brahma7i friends unite to offer worship,

In hymns by the heart's impulse swiftly fashioned.

Then not afew are left behind in wisdom,

While others win their way as gifted Brahmans.

The one sits puttingforth rich bloom of verses,

Another sings a song in skilful numbers,

A third as teacher states the laws of'being,

A fourth metes out the sacrifice's measure.

Even in the ordinary hymns are to be found a few

moralising remarks of a cynical nature about wealth

and women, such as frequently occur in the ethical

literature of the post - Vedic age. Thus one poet

130 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

exclaims :

" How many a maiden is an object of

affection to her wooer for the sake of her admirable

wealth!" (x. 27, 12); while another addresses the kine

he desires with the words :

" Ye cows make even the

lean man fat, even the ugly man ye make of goodly

countenance "

(vi. 28, 6). A third observes :

" Indra

himself said this, 'The mind of woman is hard to instruct,

and her intelligence is small'" (viii. 33, 17); and

a fourth complains:

" There are no friendships with

women; their hearts are those of hyenas" (x. 95, 15).

One, however, admits that " many a woman is better than

the godless and niggardly man "

(v. 61, 6).

Allied to the didactic poems are the riddles, of which

there are at least two collections in the Rigveda. In

their simplest form they are found in a poem (29) of the

eighth book. In each of its ten stanzas a different deity

is described by his characteristic marks, but without

being mentioned, the hearer being left to guess his

name. Vishnu, for instance, is thus alluded to :

Another with his mighty stride has made three steps

To where the gods rejoice in bliss.

A far more difficult collection, consisting of fifty-two

stanzas, occurs in the first book (164). Nothing here is

directly described, the language being always symbolical

and mystical. The allusions in several cases are so

obscurely expressed that it is now impossible to divine

the meaning. Sometimes the riddle is put in the form of

a question, and in one case the answer itself is also given.

Occasionally the poet propounds a riddle of which he

himself evidently does not know the solution. In general

these problems are stated as enigmas. The subject of

about one-fourth of them is the sun. Six or seven deal

ENIGMAS COSMOGONIC HYMNS 131

with clouds, lightning, and the production of rain ; three

or four with Agni and his various forms ; about the same

number with the year and its divisions ; two with the

origin of the world and the One Being. The dawn,

heaven and earth, the metres, speech, and some other

subjects which can hardly even be conjectured, are dealt

with in one or two stanzas respectively. One of the

more clearly expressed of these enigmas is the following,

which treats of the wheel of the year with its twelve

months and three hundred and sixty days :

Provided with twelve spokes and undecaying,

The wheel of order rolls around the heavens;

Within it stand, O Agni, joined in couples,

Together seven hundred sons and twenty.

The thirteenth or intercalary month, contrasted with

the twelve others conceived as pairs, is thus darkly

alluded to :

" Of the co-born they call the seventh singleborn

; sages call the six twin pairs god-born." The

latter expression probably alludes to the intercalary

month being an artificial creation of man. In the later

Vedic age it became a practice to propound such enigmas,

called "

theological problems

"

{brahmodya)y in contests

for intellectual pre-eminence when kings instituted

great sacrifices or Brahmans were otherwise assembled

together.

Closely allied to these poetical riddles is the philosophical

poetry contained in the six or seven cosmogonic

hymns of the Rigveda. The question of the origin of

the world here treated is of course largely mixed with

mythological and theological notions. Though betraying

much confusion of ideas, these early speculations are

of great interest as the sources from which flow various

streams of later thought. Most of these hymns handle

132 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

the subject of the origin of the world in a theological,

and only one in a purely philosophical spirit. In the

view of the older Rishis, the gods in general, or various

individual deities,

"

generated

"

the world. This view conflicts

with the frequently expressed notion that heaven

and earth are the parents of the gods. The poets thus

involve themselves in the paradox that the children

produce their own parents. Indra, for instance, is described

in so many words as having begotten his father

and mother from his own body (x. 54, 3). This conceit

evidently pleased the fancy of a priesthood becoming

more and more addicted to far-fetched speculations ;

for in the cosmogonic hymns we find reciprocal generation

more than once introduced in the stages of creation.

Thus Daksha is said to have sprung from Aditi,

and Aditi from Daksha (x. 72, 4).

The evolution of religious thought in the Rigveda led

to the conception of a creator distinct from any of the

chief deities and superior to all the gods. He appears

under the various names of Purusha, Vicvakarman,

Hiranyagarbha, or Prajapati in the cosmogonic hymns.

Whereas creation, according to the earlier view, is

regularly referred to as an act of natural generation with

some form of the verb jan, "to beget," these cosmogonic

poems speak of it as the manufacture or evolution from

some original material. In one of them (x. 90), the

well-known Hymn of Man (purusha-sukta), the gods are

still the agents, but the material out of which the world

is made consists of the body of a primeval giant, Purusha

(man), who being thousand-headed and thousand-footed,

extends even beyond the earth, as he covers it. The

fundamental idea of the world being created from the

body of a giant is, indeed, very ancient, being met with

HYMN OF MAN 133

in several primitive mythologies. But the manner in

which the idea is here worked out is sufficiently late.

Quite in the spirit of the Brahmanas, where Vishnu is

identified with the sacrifice, the act of creation is treated

as a sacrificial rite, the original man being conceived as

a victim, the parts of which when cut up become portions

of the universe. His head, we are told, became the sky,

his navel the air, his feet the earth, while from his mind

sprang the moon, from his eye the sun, from his breath

the wind. " Thus they (the gods) fashioned the worlds."

Another sign of the lateness of the hymn is its pantheistic

colouring ; for it is here said that u Purusha is all this

world, what has been and shall be," and " one-fourth

of him is all creatures, and three-fourths are the world

of the immortals in heaven." In the Brahmanas, Purusha

is the same as the creator, Prajapati, and in the

Upanishads he is identified with the universe. Still

later, in the dualistic Sankhya philosophy, Purusha becomes

the name of " soul

"

as opposed to " matter." In

the Hymn of Man a being called Viraj is mentioned

as produced from Purusha. This in the later Vedanta

philosophy is a name of the personal creator as contrasted

with Brahma, the universal soul. The Purusha

hymn, then, may be regarded as the oldest product

of the pantheistic literature of India. It is at the same

time one of the very latest poems of the Rigvedic age ;

for it presupposes a knowledge of the three oldest

Vedas, to which it refers together by name. It also for

the first and only time in the Rigveda mentions the four

castes ; for it is here said that Purusha's mouth became

the Brahman, his arms the Rajanya (warrior), his thighs

the Vaigya (agriculturist), and his feet the (^udra (serf).

In nearly all the other poems dealing with the origin

134 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

of the world, not the gods collectively but an individual

creator is the actor. Various passages in other hymns

show that the sun was regarded as an important agent

of generation by the Rishis. Thus he is described as

"the soul of all that moves and stands" (i. 115, 1), and is

said to be "called by many names though one "

(i. 164, 46).

Such statements indicate that the sun was in process

of being abstracted to the character of a creator. This

is probably the origin of Vicvakarman, "the all-creating,"

to whom two cosmogonic hymns (x. 81-82) are addressed.

Three of the seven stanzas of the first deserve to be

quoted :

What was the place on which he gained afooting

1

?

Wherefound he anything, or how, to hold by,

What time, the earth creating, Vicvakarma?i,

All-seeing, with his inight disclosed the heavens ?

Who has his eyes and mouth in every quarter,

Whose arms andfeet are turned in all directions,

The one god, when the earth and heaven creating,

With his two arms and wings together welds them.

What was the wood, and what the tree, pray tell us,

From which theyfashionedforth the earth and heaven ?

Ye sages, in your mind, pray make i?iquiry,

Whereon he stood, when he the woi'lds supported

1?

It is an interesting coincidence that "

wood/' the term

here used, was regularly employed in Greek philosophy

to express

"

original matter "

{hule).

In the next hymn (x. 82), the theory is advanced

that the waters produced the first germ of things, the

source of the universe and the gods.

Who is our father, parent, and disposer,

Who knows all habitations and all beings,

Who only to the gods their names apportions ;

To him all other beings turn inqtdring t

COSMOGONIC POEMS 135

What germ primeval did the waters cherish,

Wherein the gods all saw themselves together,

Which is beyond the earth, beyond that heaven,

Beyond the mighty gods' mysterious dwelling ?

That germ primeval did the waters cherish,

Wherein the gods together all assembled,

The One that in the goafs 1 source is established,

Within which all the worlds are comprehended.

Ye cannotfind him who these worlds created:

That which comes nearer to you is another.

In a cosmogonic poem (x. 121) of considerable

beauty the creator further appears under the name of

Hiranyagarbha,

"

germ of gold/' a notion doubtless

suggested by the rising sun. Here, too, the waters

are, in producing Agni, regarded as bearing the germ

of all life.

The Germ of Gold atfirst came into being,

Produced as the one lord of all existence.

The earth he has supported and this heaven :

What god shall we with sacrifices worship ?

Who gives the breath of life and vitalpower,

To whose commands the gods all render homage,

Whose shade is death and life immortal :

What god shall we with sacrifices worship?

What time the mighty waters came containing

Allgerms of life andgenerating Agni,

Then wasproduced the gods' one vital spirit :

Whatgod shall we with sacrifices worship ?

Who with his mighty power surveyed the waters

That intellect and sacrifice engendered,

The one god over all the gods exalted :

Whatgod shall we with sacrifices worship ?

1 The sun is probably meant.

10

136 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

The refrain receives its answer in a tenth stanza

(added to the poem at a later time), which proclaims

the unknown god to be Prajapati.

Two other cosmogonic poems explain the origin of

the world philosophically as the evolution of the existent

{sat) from the non-existent (asat). In the somewhat

confused account given in one of them (x. 72), three

stages of creation may be distinguished : first the world

is produced, then the gods, and lastly the sun. The

theory of evolution is here still combined with that of

creation :

Even as a smith, the Lord of Prayer,

Togetherforged this universe :

In earliest ages of the gods

Fro?n what was not arose what is.

A far finer composition than this is the Song of

Creation (x. 129) :

Non-being then existed not, nor being:

There was no air, nor heaven which is beyond it.

What motion was there ? Where? By whom directed!

Was water there, andfathomless abysses ?

Death then existed not, nor life immortal;

Of neither night nor day was any semblance.

The One breathed calm and windless by self-impulse :

There was not any other thing beyond it.

Darkness atfirst was covered up by darkness;

This universe was indistinct andfluid.

The empty space that by the void was hidden,

That One was by theforce of heat engendered.

Desire then at thefirst arose within it,

Desire, which was the earliest seed of spirit.

The bond of being in non-being sages

Discovered searching in their hearts with wisdom.

SONG OF CREATION 137

Who knows it truly ? who can here declare it ?

Whence was it born ? whence issued this creation ?

And did the gods appear with its production ?

But then who knowsfrom whence it has arisen ?

This world-creation, whence it has arisen,

Or whether it has been produced or has not,

He who surveys it in the highest heaven,

He only knows, or ev'n he does not know it.

Apart from its high literary merit, this poem is most

noteworthy for the daring speculations which find

utterance in so remote an age. But even here may be

traced some of the main defects of Indian philosophy

lack of clearness and consistency, with a tendency to

make reasoning depend on mere words. Being the only

piece of sustained speculation in the Rigveda, it is the

starting-point of the natural philosophy which assumed

shape in the evolutionary Sankhya system. It will,

moreover, always retain a general interest as the earliest

specimen of Aryan philosophic thought. With the

theory of the Song of Creation, that after the nonexistent

had developed into the existent, water came

first, and then intelligence was evolved from it by heat,

the cosmogonic accounts of the Brahmanas substantially

agree. Here, too, the non-existent becomes the existent,

of which the first form is the waters. On these floats

Hiranyagarbha, the cosmic golden egg, whence is produced

the spirit that desires and creates the universe.

Always requiring the agency of the creator Prajapati at

an earlier or a later stage, the Brahmanas in some of their

accounts place him first, in others the waters. This

fundamental contradiction, due to mixing up the theory of

creation with that of evolution, is removed in the Sankhya

system by causing Purusha, or soul, to play the part of a

138 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

passive spectator, while Prakriti, or primordial matter,

undergoes successive stages of development. The cosmogonic

hymns of the Rigveda are not only thus the

precursors of Indian philosophy, but also of the Puranas,

one of the main objects of which is to describe the

origin of the world.

CHAPTER VI

THE RIGVEDIC AGE

The survey of the poetry of the Rigveda presented in

the foregoing pages will perhaps suffice to show that

this unique monument of a long-vanished age contains,

apart from its historical interest, much of aesthetic value,

and well deserves to be read, at least in selections, by

every lover of literature. The completeness of the

picture it supplies of early religious thought has no

parallel. Moreover, though its purely secular poems are

so few, the incidental references contained in the whole

collection are sufficiently numerous to afford material

for a tolerably detailed description of the social condition

of the earliest Aryans in India. Here, then, we

have an additional reason for attaching great importance

to the Rigveda in the history of civilisation.

In the first place, the home of the Vedic tribes is

revealed to us by the geographical data which the

hymns yield. From these we may conclude with certainty

that the Aryan invaders, after having descended

into the plains, in all probability through the western

passes of the Hindu Kush, had already occupied the

north-western corner of India which is now called by

the Persian name of Panjab, or " Land of Five Rivers." l

Mention is made in the hymns of some twenty-five

1 The component parts of this name are in Sanskrit pancha, five, and dp,

water.

139

140 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

streams, all but two or three of which belong to the Indus

river system. Among them are the five which water the

territory of the Panjab, and, after uniting in a single

stream, flow into the Indus. They are the Vitasta (now

Jhelum), the Asikni (Chenab), the ParushnI (later called

IravatI, "the refreshing," whence its present name,

Ravi), the Vipac (Beas), ^and the largest and most

easterly, the Cutudrl (Sutlej). Some of the Vedic

tribes, however, still remained on the farther side of

the Indus, occupying the valleys of its western tributaries,

from the Kubha (Kabul), with its main affluent

to the north, the Suvastu, river "of fair dwellings"

(now Swat), to the Krumu (Kurum) and GomatT,

"abounding in cows" (now Gomal), farther south.

Few of the rivers of the Rigveda are mentioned more

than two or three times in the hymns, and several of them

not more than once. The only names of frequent

occurrence are those of the Indus and the Sarasvatl.

One entire hymn (x. 75) is devoted to its laudation,

but eighteen other streams, mostly its tributaries, share

its praises in two stanzas. The mighty river seems to

have made a deep impression on the mind of the poet.

He speaks of her as the swiftest of the swift, surpassing

all other streams in volume of water. Other rivers flow to

her as lowing cows hasten to their calf. The roar and rush

of her waters are described in enthusiastic strains :

From earth the sullen roar swells upward to the sky,

With brilliant spray she dashes up unending surge;

As when the streams of rain pour thunderingfrom the cloud,

The Sindhu onward rushes like a bellowing bull.

The Sindhu (now Sindh), which in Sanskrit simply

means the "river," as the western boundary of the

Aryan settlements, suggested to the nations of antiquity

RIVERS OF THE RIGVBDA 141

which first came into contact with them in that quarter

a name for the whole peninsula. Adopted in the form

of Indos, the word gave rise to the Greek appellation

India as the country of the Indus. It was borrowed

by the ancient Persians as Hindu, which is used in the

Avesta as a name of the country itself. More accurate

is the modern Persian designation Hindustan,

" land of

the Indus," a name properly applying only to that part

of the peninsula which lies between the Himalaya and

Vindhya ranges.

Mention is often made in the Rigveda of the sapta

sindhavahy or "seven rivers," which in one passage at

least is synonymous with the country inhabited by the

Aryan Indians. It is interesting to note that the same

expression hapta hindu occurs in the Avesta, though

it is there restricted to mean only that part of the

Indian territory which lay in Eastern Kabulistan. If

"seven" is here intended for a definite number, the

"seven rivers" must originally have meant the Kabul,

the Indus, and the five rivers of the Panjab, though

later the SarasvatI may have been substituted for the

Kabul. For the SarasvatI is the sacred river of the

Rigveda, more frequently mentioned, generally as a

goddess, and lauded with more fervour than any other

stream. The poet's descriptions are often only applicable

to a large river. Hence Roth and other distinguished

scholars concluded that SarasvatI is generally

used by the poets of the Rigveda simply as a sacred

designation of the Indus. On the other hand, the name

in a few passages undoubtedly means the small river

midway between the Sutlej and the Jumna, which at

a later period formed, with the DrishadvatI, the eastern

boundary of the sacred region called Brahmavarta,

142 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

lying to the south of Ambala, and commencing some

sixty miles south of Simla.

This small river now loses itself in the sands of the

desert, but the evidence of ancient river-beds appears to

favour the conclusion that it was originally a tributary of

the ^utudrl (Sutlej). It is therefore not improbable that

in Vedic times it reached the sea, and was considerably

larger than it is now. Considering, too, the special

sanctity which it had already acquired, the laudations supposed

to be compatible only with the magnitude of the

Indus may not have seemed too exaggerated when applied

to the lesser stream. It is to be noted that the Drishadvatl,

the "

stony

"

(now Ghogra or Ghugger), in the

only passage in which the name occurs in the Rigveda, is

associated with the SarasvatI, Agni being invoked to

flame on the banks of these rivers. This is perhaps

an indication that even in the age of the Rigveda the

most easterly limit of the Indus river system had already

acquired a certain sanctity as the region in which the

sacrificial ritual and the art of sacred poetry were practised

in the greatest perfection. There are indications

showing that by the end at least of the Rigvedic period

some of the Aryan invaders had passed beyond this

region and had reached the western limit of the Gangetic

river system. For the Yamuna (now Jumna),

the most westerly tributary of the Ganges in the north,

is mentioned in three passages, two of which prove

that the Aryan settlements already extended to its banks.

The Ganges itself is already known, for its name is

mentioned directly in one passage of the Rigveda and

indirectly in another. It is, however, a noteworthy fact

that the name of the Ganges is not to be found in any

of the other Vedas.

THE SEA UNKNOWN 143

The southward migration of the Aryan invaders does

not appear to have extended, at the time when the hymns

of the Rigveda were composed, much beyond the point

where the united waters of the Panjab flow into the

Indus. The ocean was probably known only from hearsay,

for no mention is made of the numerous mouths

of the Indus, and fishing, one of the main occupations on

the banks of the Lower Indus at the present day, is quite

ignored. The word for fish (inatsyd), indeed, only

occurs once, though various kinds of animals, birds, and

insects are so frequently mentioned. This accords with

the character of the rivers of the Panjab and Eastern

Kabulistan, which are poor in fish, while it contrasts

with the intimate knowledge of fishing betrayed by the

Yajurveda, which was composed when the Aryans had

spread much farther to the east, and, doubtless, also to

the south. The word which later is the regular name for

" ocean "

(sam-udra)y seems therefore, in agreement with

its etymological sense (" collection of waters "), to mean

in the Rigveda only the lower course of the Indus,

which, after receiving the waters of the Panjab, is so wide

that a boat in mid-stream is invisible from the bank. It

has been noted in recent times that the natives in this

region speak of the river as the " sea of Sindh ;

" and

indeed the word sindhu (" river ") itself in several passages

of the Rigveda has practically the sense of " sea."

Metaphors such as would be used by a people familiar

with the ocean are lacking in the Rigveda. All references

to navigation point only to the crossing of rivers in boats

impelled by oars, the main object being to reach the other

bank {para). This action suggested a favourite figure,

which remained familiar throughout Sanskrit literature.

Thus one of the poets of the Rigveda invokes Agni with

144 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

the words, "Take us across all woes and dangers as

across the river (sindhii) in a boat ;

" and in the later literature

one who has accomplished his purpose or mastered

his subject is very frequently described as "

having

reached the farther shore

"

(pdraga). The Atharva-veda,

on the other hand, contains some passages showing that

its composers were acquainted with the ocean.

Mountains are constantly mentioned in the Rigveda,

and rivers are described as flowing from them. The

Himalaya ("abode of snow") range in general is evidently

meant by the "snowy" (himavantaK) mountains

which are in the keeping of the Creator. But no individual

peak is mentioned with the exception of Mujavat,

which is indirectly referred to as the home of Soma.

This peak, it is to be inferred from later Vedic literature,

was situated close to the Kabul Valley, and was probably

one of the mountains to the south-west of Kashmir. The

Atharva-veda also mentions two other mountains of the

Himalaya. One of these is called Trikakud, the " threepeaked"

(in the later literature Trikuta, and even now

Trikota), through the valley at the foot of which flows

the Asiknl (Chenab). The other is Navaprabhramcana

("sinking of the ship"), doubtless identical with the

Naubandhana ("binding of the ship") of the epic and

the Manoravasarpana of the ^atapatha Brahmana, on

which the ship of Manu is said to have rested when the

deluge subsided. The Rigveda knows nothing of the

Vindhya range, which divides Northern India from the

southern triangle of the peninsula called the Dekhan; 1

nor does it mention the Narmada River (now Nerbudda),

1 From the Sanskrit dakskina, south, literally

"

right," because the Indians

faced the rising sun when naming the cardinal points.

HOME OF THE RIGVEDIC ARYANS 145

which flows immediately south of and parallel to that

range.

From these data it may safely be concluded that the

Aryans, when the hymns of the Rigveda were composed,

had overspread that portion of the north-west which appears

on the map as a fan-shaped territory, bounded on

the west by the Indus, on the east by the Sutlej, and on

the north by the Himalaya, with a fringe of settlements

extending beyond those limits to the east and the west.

Now the Panjab of the present day is a vast arid plain,

from which, except in the north-west corner at Rawal

Pindi, no mountains are visible, and over which no monsoon

storms break. Here there are no grand displays of

the strife of the elements, but only gentle showers fall

during the rainy season, while the phenomena of dawn

are far more gorgeous than elsewhere in the north.

There is, therefore, some probability in the contention of

Professor Hopkins, that only the older hymns, such as

those to Varuna and Ushas, were composed in the Panjab

itself, while the rest arose in the sacred region near

the Sarasvati, south of the modern Ambala, where all the

conditions required by the Rigveda are found. This is

more likely than the assumption that the climate of the

Panjab has radically changed since the age of the Vedic

poets.

That the home of the Aryans in the age of the Rigveda

was the region indicated is further borne out by the

information the poems yield about the products of the

country, its flora and fauna. Thus the soma, the most important

plant of the Rigveda, is described as growing on

the mountains, and must have been easily obtainable, as

its juice was used in large quantities for the daily ritual.

In the period of the Brahmanas it was brought from long

i 46 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

distances, or substitutes had to be used on account of its

rarity. Thus the identity of the original plant came to

be lost in India. The plant which is now commonly

used is evidently quite another, for its juice when drunk

produces a nauseating effect, widely different from the

feeling of exhilaration dwelt on by the poets of the Rigveda.

Nor can the plant which the Parsis still import

from Persia for the Haoma rite be identical with the old

soma. Again, rice, which is familiar to the later Vedas

and regarded in them as one of the necessaries of life, is

not mentioned in the Rigveda at all. Its natural habitat

is in the south-east, the regular monsoon area, where the

rainfall is very abundant. Hence it probably did not

exist in the region of the Indus river system when the

Rigveda was composed, though, in later times, with the

practice of irrigation, its cultivation spread to all parts

of India. Corn (yavd) was grown by the tillers of the

Rigveda, but the term is probably not restricted, as later,

to the sense of barley.

Among large trees mentioned in the Rigveda, the most

important is the Acvattha ("horse-stand") or sacred figtree

{Ficus religiosa). Its fruit {pippala) is described as

sweet and the food of birds. Its sacredness is at least

incipient, for its wood was used for soma vessels, and, as

we learn from the Atharva-veda, also for the drill (latercalled

pramanthd) employed in producing the sacred fire.

The latter Veda further tells us that the gods are seated

in the third heaven under an Acvattha, which may indeed

have been intended in the Rigveda itself by the "tree

with fair foliage," in whose shade the blessed revel with

Yama. This tree, now called Peepal, is still considered

so sacred that a Hindu would be afraid to utter a falsehood

beside it. But the Rigveda does not mention at

TREES AND ANIMALS 147

all, and the Atharva-veda only twice, the tree which is

most characteristic of India, and shades with its widespreading

foliage a larger area than any other tree on the

face of the earth the Nyagrodha (" growing downwards")

or banyan (Ficus indicd). With its lofty dome

of foliage impenetrable to the rays of the sun and supported

by many lesser trunks as by columns, this great

tree resembles a vast temple of verdure fashioned by the

hand of Nature. What the village oak is in England, that

and much more is the banyan to the dwellers in the

innumerable hamlets which overspread the face of agricultural

India.

Among wild animals, one of the most familiar to the

poets of the Rigveda is the lion (simhd). They describe

him as living in wooded mountains and as caught with

snares, but the characteristic on which they chiefly dwell

is his roaring. In the vast desert to the east of the Lower

Sutlej and of the Indus, the only part of India suited for

its natural habitat, the lion was in ancient times no doubt

frequent, but he now survives only in the wooded hills

to the south of the peninsula of Gujarat. The king of

beasts has, however, remained conventionally familiar

in Indian literature, and his old Sanskrit designation

is still common in Hindu names in the form of Singh.

The tiger is not mentioned in the Rigveda at all, its

natural home being the swampy jungles of Bengal,

though he is now found in all the jungly parts of India.

But in the other Vedas he has decidedly taken the place

of the lion, which is, however, still known. His dangerous

character as a beast of prey is here often referred to.

Thus the White Ydjurveda compares a peculiarly

hazardous undertaking with waking a sleeping tiger ;

and the Atharva-veda describes the animal as "man

148 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

eating" (purushdd). The relation of the tiger to the

lion in the Vedas therefore furnishes peculiarly interesting

evidence of the eastward migration of the Aryans

during the Vedic period.

Somewhat similar is the position of the elephant. It

is explicitly referred to in only two passages of the Rigveda,

and the form of the name applied to it,

" the beast

(inrigd) with a hand (hastin)" shows that the Rishis still

regarded it as a strange creature. One passage seems to

indicate that by the end of the Rigvedic period attempts

were made to catch the animal. That the capture of

wild elephants had in any case become a regular practice

by 300 B.C. is proved by the evidence of Megasthenes.

To the Atharva- and the Yajur-vedas the elephant is

quite familiar, for it is not only frequently mentioned,

but the adjective hastin,

"

possessing a hand" (i.e. trunk),

has become sufficiently distinctive to be used by itself to

designate the animal. The regular home of the elephant

in Northern India is the Terai or lowland jungle at the

foot of the Himalaya, extending eastward from about the

longitude of Cawnpore.

The wolf [vrikd) is mentioned more frequently in the

Rigveda than the lion himself, and there are many references

to the boar (yardhd), which was hunted with dogs.

The buffalo (inahishd), in the tame as well as the wild

state, was evidently very familiar to the poets, who

several times allude to its flesh being cooked and eaten.

There is only one reference to the bear (fiksha). The

monkey (kapi) is only mentioned in a late hymn (x. 86),

but in such a way as to show that the animal had already

been tamed. The later and ordinary Sanskrit name for

monkey, vdnara ("forest-animal"), has survived in the

modern vernaculars, and is known to readers of Mr.

DOMESTIC ANIMALS 149

Rudyard Kipling in the form of Bunder-log (" monkeypeople").

Among the domestic animals known to the Rigveda

those of lesser importance are sheep, goats, asses, and

dogs. The latter, it may be gathered, were used for

hunting, guarding, and tracking cattle, as well as for

keeping watch at night. Cattle, however, occupy the

chief place. Cows were the chief form of wealth, and

the name of the sacrificial

"

fee,"

Y

dakshind, is properly an

adjective meaning "right," "valuable," with the ellipse

of goy

" cow." No sight gladdened the eye of the Vedic

Indian more than the cow returning from the pasture

and licking her calf fastened by a cord ; no sound was more

musical to his ear than the lowing of milch kine. To

him therefore there was nothing grotesque in the poet

exclaiming, "As cows low to their calves near the stalls,

so we will praise Indra with our hymns," or " Like

unmilked kine we have called aloud (lowed) to thee, O

hero (Indra)." For greater security cows were, after

returning from pasture, kept in stalls during the night

and let out again in the morning. Though the cowkiller

is in the White Yajurveda already said to be

punishable with death, the Rigveda does not express an

absolute prohibition, for the v/edding-hymn shows that

even the cow was slaughtered on specially solemn occasions,

while bulls are several times described as sacrificed

to Indra in large numbers. Whilst the cows were out

at pasture, bulls and oxen were regularly used for the

purpose of ploughing and drawing carts.

Horses came next in value to cattle, for wealth in

steeds is constantly prayed for along with abundance of

cows. To a people so frequently engaged in battle,

1 German, vieh ; Latin, peatst from which pecicnia^ "money."

ISO SANSKRIT LITERATURE

the horse was of essential value in drawing the warcar

; he was also indispensable in the chariot-race, to

which the Vedic Indian was devoted. He was, however,

not yet used for riding. The horse-sacrifice, moreover,

was regarded as the most important and efficacious of

animal sacrifices.

Of the birds of the Rigveda I need only mention

those which have some historical or literary interest.

The wild goose or swan (Jiamsa), so familiar to the

classical poets, is frequently referred to, being said to

swim in the water and to fly in a line. The curious

power of separating soma from water is attributed to

it in the White Yajurveda, as that of extracting milk

from water is in the later poetry. The latter faculty

belongs to the curlew (krunch), according to the same

Veda.

The chakravdka or ruddy goose, on the fidelity of

which the post-Vedic poets so often dwell, is mentioned

once in the Rigveday the Acvins being said to come in

the morning like a couple of these birds, while the

Atharva-veda already refers to them as models of conjugal

love. Peahens (mayuri) are spoken of in the

Rigveda as removing poison, and parrots (cuka) are

alluded to as yellow. By the time of the Yajurveda

the latter bird had been tamed, for it is there described

as "

uttering human speech."

A good illustration of the dangers of the argumentum

ex silentio is furnished by the fact that salt, the

most necessary of minerals, is never once mentioned in

the Rigveda, And yet the Northern Panjab is the very

part of India where it most abounds. It occurs in the

salt range between the Indus and the Jhelum in such

quantities that the Greek companions of Alexander,

METALS i 5 i

according to Strabo, asserted the supply to be sufficient

for the wants of the whole of India.

Among the metals, gold is the one most frequently

mentioned in the Rigveda. It was probably for the

most part obtained from the rivers of the north-west,

which even at the present day are said to yield considerable

quantities of the precious metal. Thus the

Indus is spoken of by the poets as "golden" or

"having a golden bed." There are indications that

kings possessed gold in abundance. Thus one poet

praises his royal benefactor for bestowing ten nuggets of

gold upon him besides other bountiful gifts. Gold ornaments

of various kinds, such as ear-rings and armlets,

are often mentioned.

The metal which is most often referred to in the

Rigveda next to gold is called ayas (Latin, aes). It is

a matter of no slight historical interest to decide whether

this signifies "iron" or not. In most passages where it

occurs the word appears to mean simply "metal." In

the few cases where it designates a particular metal,

the evidence is not very conclusive ; but the inference

which may be drawn as to its colour is decidedly in

favour of its having been reddish, which points to

bronze and not iron. The fact that the Atharva-veda

distinguishes between "dark" ayas and "red," seems to

indicate that the distinction between iron and copper or

bronze had only recently been drawn. It is, moreover,

well known that in the progress of civilisation the use

of bronze always precedes that of iron. Yet it would

be rash to assert that iron was altogether unknown

even to the earlier Vedic age. It seems quite likely

that the Aryans of that period were unacquainted with

silver, for its name is not mentioned in the Rigveda,

n

152 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

and the knowledge of silver goes hand in hand with

that of iron, owing to the manner in which these

metals are intermingled in the ore which produces

them. These two metals, moreover, are not found in

any quantity in the north-west of India.

The evidence of the topography, the climate, and

the products of the country thus shows that the people

by whose poets the Rigveda was composed were settled

in the north-west of India, from the Kabul to the

Jumna. But they were still engaged in conflict with

the aborigines, for many victories over them are referred

to. Thus Indra is said to have bound iooo or

slain 30,000 of them for his allies. That the conquerors

were bent on acquiring new territory appears from the

rivers being frequently mentioned as obstacles to farther

advance. The invaders, though split up into many

tribes, were conscious of a unity of race and religion.

They styled themselves Aryas or "

kinsmen," as opposed

to the aborigines, to whom they gave the name of

Dasyu or Ddsa, "fiends," in later times also called

anaryay or non-Aryans. The characteristic physical

difference between the two races was that of colour

(varna), the aborigines being described as " black "

(krishnd) or "

black-skins," and as the " Dasa colour,"

in contrast with the "

Aryan colour" or "our colour."

This contrast undoubtedly formed the original basis of

caste, the regular name for which in Sanskrit is

" colour."

Those of the conquered race who did not escape to

the hills and were captured became slaves. Thus one

singer receives from his royal patron a hundred asses,

a hundred sheep, and a hundred Dasas. The latter

word in later Sanskrit regularly means servant or slave,

much in the same way as "

captive Slav" to the German

ABORIGINES ARYAN TRIBES 153

came to mean "slave/' When thoroughly subjected,

the original inhabitants, ceasing to be called Dasyus,

became the fourth caste under the later name of (Judras.

The Dasyus are described in the Rigveda as non-sacrificing,

unbelieving, and impious. They are also doubtless

meant by the phallus-worshippers mentioned in

two passages. The Aryans in course of time came to

adopt this form of cult. There are several passages in

the Mahdbhdrata showing that (^iva was already venerated

under the emblem of the phallus when that epic

was composed. Phallus-worship is widely diffused in

India at the present day, but is most prevalent in the

south. The Dasyus appear to have been a pastoral race,

for they possessed large herds, which were captured

by the victorious Aryans. They fortified themselves in

strongholds (called pur), which must have been numerous,

as Indra is sometimes said to have destroyed as

many as a hundred of them for his allies.

The Rigveda mentions many tribes among the Aryans.

The most north-westerly of these are the Gandharis,

who, judged by the way they are referred to, must have

been breeders of sheep. They were later well known

as Gandharas or Gandharas. The Atkarva-veda mentions

as contiguous to the Gandharis the Mujavats, a

tribe doubtless settled close to Mount Mujavat ; evidently

regarding these two as the extreme limit of the Aryan

settlements to the north-west.

The most important part, if not the whole, of the

Indian Aryans is meant by the " five tribes^ an expression

of frequent occurrence in the Rigveda. It is

not improbable that by this term were meant five tribes

which are enumerated together in two passages, the

\Purus, Turvacas, Yadus, Anus, and Druhyus. These

154 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

are often mentioned as engaged in intertribal conflicts.

Four of them, along with some other clans, are named

as having formed a coalition under ten kings against

Sudas, chief of the Tritsus. The opposing forces met

on the banks of the ParushnI, where the great

" battle

of the ten kings" was fought. The coalition, in their

endeavours to cross the stream and to deflect its course,

were repulsed with heavy loss by the Tritsus.

The Purus are described as living on both banks of

the Sarasvatl. A part of them must, however, have

remained behind farther west, as they were found on

the ParushnI in Alexander's time. The Rigveda often

mentions their king, Trasadasyu, son of Purukutsa, and

speaks of his descendant Trikshi as a powerful prince.

The Turvacas are one of the most frequently named

of the tribes. With them are generally associated the

Yadus, among whom the priestly family of the Kanvas

seems to have lived. It is to be inferred from one passage

of the Rigveda that the Anus were settled on the ParushnI,

and the priestly family of the Bhrigus, it would appear,

belonged to them. Their relations to the Druhyus seem

to have been particularly close. The Matsyas, mentioned

only in one passage of the Rigveda, were also foes of

the Tritsus. In the Mahabharata we find them located

on the western bank of the Yamuna.

A more important name among the enemies of Sudas

is that of the Bharatas. One hymn (iii. 33) describes

them as coming to the rivers Vipac and Cutudrl accompanied

by Vicvamitra, who, as we learn from another

hymn (iii. 53), had formerly been the chief priest of

Sudas, and who now made the waters fordable for the

Bharatas by his prayers. This is probably the occasion

on which, according to another hymn (vii. 33), the

ARYAN TRIBES 155

Bharatas were defeated by Sudas and his Tritsus, who

were aided by the invocations of Vasishtha, the successor

and rival of Vicvamitra. The Bharatas appear to be

specially connected with sacrificial rites in the Rigveda ;

for Agni receives the epithet Bhdrata, "belonging to the

Bharatas," and the ritual goddess Bharatl, frequently

associated with SarasvatI, derives her name from them.

In a hymn to Agni (iii. 23), mention is made of two

Bharatas named Devacravas and Devavata who kindled

the sacred fire on the Drishadvatl, the Apaya, and the

SarasvatI, the very region which is later celebrated as

the holy land of Brahmanism under the names of Brahmavarta

and Kurukshetra. The family of the Kucikas, to

whom Vicvamitra belonged, was closely connected with

the Bharatas.

 

Om Tat Sat

                                                        

(Continued...) 

(My humble salutations to  Brahmsree Sreeman  Arthur A. Macdonell  and also my humble greatulness to  great Devotees , Philosophic Scholars  for the collection)