I.

THE VEDAS.


[Sidenote: The most ancient writings of India.]
Regarding the earliest form of Hinduism we must draw our conceptions
from the Veda, or, to speak more accurately, the four Vedas. The most
important of these is the Rig Veda; and internal evidence proves it to
be the most ancient. It contains above a thousand hymns; the earliest of
which may date from about the year 1500 B.C. The Hindus, or, as they
call themselves, the Aryas, had by that time entered India, and were
dwelling in the north-western portion, the Panjab. The hymns, we may
say, are racy of the soil. There is no reference to the life led by the
people before they crossed the Himalaya Mountains or entered by some of
the passes of Afghanistan.

It would be very interesting if we could discover the pre-Vedic form of
the religion. Inferentially this may, to some extent, be done by
comparing the teachings of the Vedas with those contained in the books
of other branches of the great Aryan family--such as the Greeks, the
Romans, and, above all, the Iranians (ancient Persians).

The ancient Hindus were a highly gifted, energetic race; civilized to a
considerable extent; not nomadic; chiefly shepherds and herdsmen, but
also acquainted with agriculture. Commerce was not unknown; the river
Indus formed a highway to the Indian Ocean, and at least the Phenicians
availed themselves of it from perhaps the seventeenth century B.C., or
even earlier.