METHODS OF INTERPRETATION.

At the outset of his undertaking a double problem presents itself to
one that would give, even in compact form, a view of Hindu religions.
This problem consists in explaining, and, in so far as is possible,
reconciling opposed opinions in regard not only to the nature of these
religions but also to the method of interpreting the Vedic hymns.

That the Vedic religion was naturalistic and mytho-poetic is doubted
by few. The Vedic hymns laud the powers of nature and natural
phenomena as personified gods, or even as impersonal phenomena. They
praise also as distinct powers the departed fathers. In the Rig Veda
I. 168, occur some verses in honor of the storm-gods called Maruts:
"Self-yoked are they come lightly from the sky. The immortals urge
themselves on with the goad. Dustless, born of power, with shining
spears the Maruts overthrow the strongholds. Who is it, O Maruts, ye
that have lightning-spears, that impels you within? ... The streams
roar from the tires, when they send out their cloud-voices," etc.
Nothing would seem more justifiable, in view of this hymn and of many
like it, than to assume with Müller and other Indologians, that the
Marut-gods are personifications of natural phenomena. As clearly do
Indra and the Dawn appear to be natural phenomena. But no less an
authority than Herbert Spencer has attacked this view: "Facts imply
that the conception of the dawn as a person results from the giving of
dawn as a birth-name."[9] And again: "If, then, Dawn [in New Zealand
and elsewhere] is an actual name for a person, if where there prevails
this mode of distinguishing children, it has probably often been given
to those born early in the morning; the traditions concerning one of