This powerful branch of the Aryans passed into Northern India between the 14th and 8th centuries before Christ. They brought with them the lan guage of the Vedas ; and as all Brahmans profess 1 alike to recognise the authority of these sacred books, we witness the modern worshippers or Nyaya or Vedanta doctrines, all considering themselves and each other to be orthodox mem bers of the Hindu community. It is this common recognition of that one set of religious books which is the sole bond of union amongst the descendants of the various races and tribes pro fessing Hinduism or Brahmanism, who now people India. The Aryans seem to have brought with them a servile race, or to have had amongst them a social distinction between the noble and the common people, which has ever continued. As they conquered southwards, amongst the Turanian races whom they found in the country, they re duced the less civilised tribes to a state of predial slavery. They named them in fierce contempt, Dasa or slaves, and these formed the true servile race of Menu and other writers. Where the races who had preceded them retained their independence, these proud immigrants styled them M'hlecha, a term which even to the present day is intended to comprise everything that is hateful or vile. But the immigrant Aryans found along the coasts of India also other races, different , alike from the Scythic tribes and from the Aryans'' of the Vedas,—earlier colonizers or immigrants, probably from the west,•who had a civilisation of their own, and with whom the Pharaohs, and Solo- mon and Hiram, and the Cuehite Arabs of Yemen , and the people of E. Africa, carried on a lucrative trade by sea. This people had extended down the coast to Cape Column, had crossed over to Ceylon, and crept up the Coromandel coast, till stopped by the Godavery and Mahanadi. All the Bengal Presidency and Central India was at that time thinly inhabited by a Turanian, Sakyan, or Mongol race, coming clown from Tibet and Nepal. But so sparse was the population whom the Aryans encountered, that, in the Vedas, Agni is represented as the general of Nahusha, the first settler, that is, they cleared the ground by burning the forests, and some fine descriptions are given of the grandeur and terror of the sight. Up to the present flay the religions of the prior occupants have never been other than local cults, and many of them even yet continue very barbarous. The higher civilisation of the East Aryans has enabled them to propagate their changing views, but the phases of their religious beliefs have been marked by four great epochs : t. The Vedic age, which was characterized by the wor ship of the gods of the elements, Agni, Indra, Varuna, and appears to have been current in the Panjab prior to the disappearance of the Saraswati in the sand.
D. The Brahmanic age, characterized by the worship of Brahma, and which seems to have prevailed between the disappearance of the Saraswati and the advent of Sakhya.
or. The Buddhist age, which was characterized by the pursuit of Nirvana, and seemingly prevailed from about B.C. GOO to A.D. 800 or 1000.
iv. The Brabmanical revival, which is characterized by the worship of incarnations of deities, and has pre vailed from about A.D. 800 till now.
Vedic Age.—Among the gods whom the Vedic Aryans worshipped were Indra and Agni. Indra was the firmament, with all its phenomena. He alone held the thunderbolt, and was king over gods and men. Agni was the element of fire. All the other gods were but manifestations or other forms of these two. The relationship is evident between Agni and the sun, the Surya or Sura Savitri of the Vedas, and a female divinity. But Indra also is frequently identified with the sun ; indeed, the twelve great deities, or Aditya, are but other names of the same god as presiding over the twelve months of the year. The Aditya most frequently invoked are Mitre, Varuna, Aryaman, and, in a lesser degree, Ansa, Daksha, Pushan, Bliaga, Vishnu, and Twashtri. Pushan over roads and travellers ; Twashtri is the Vulcan or smith of the gods. Slight mention is made of Vishnu ; but we have the germ of the legendary three steps, being apparently simply the rise, cul mination, and setting of the sun. Among the inferior deities, the Marut or winds hold the first place ; and next to them the Aswini, apparently twins or brothers, and sons of the sea (Sindhu), so that the Vedic Aryans evidently had settlements near some water, which they called a sea. The
Aswini are almost invariably represented as having a triangular car with three wheels, drawn by asses; while their name appears to be derived from Aswa, a horse, which would seem to identify them with the two horses of the sun. The sakta or hymns addressed to them are richest of all in legend. Their connection with Indra (Jupiter), their patronage of mariners, their twin brother hood, the two horses and stars found on their coins, identify them with the Grecian Dioseuri. In the Vedas, heaven, earth (Aditi and Pritivi), and ocean are rarely invoked, and the sun has corn partitively few saktas. Occasional Laudations are given to rivers, especially to the Saraswati ; and this nature-worship extends to the cow, the wood used in the oblations, and even the vapa or sacri ficial post. To Ushas, or the dawn, some of the most beautiful hymns in the Veda are addressed. All these deities are expressly declared to be the progeny of the heavens and the earth' (Wilson's Vedas, i. p. 276). No mention is made of the planets,—for Brihaspati is not a planet, but 'the lord of prayer,'—and the moon has not even a sakta.
The worship of the Vedic race is briefly but comprehensively described by themselves (Asht. I. Adhy. I. Sakta 6), where it is said the standers around associate with (Indra) the mighty (sun), the indestructive (fire), the moving (wind), and the lights that shine in the sky. The blessings they implore, says Professor Wilson, are for the most part of a temporal and personal description, —wealth, food, life, posterity, cattle, cows, and horses ; protection against enemies, victory over them, and sometimes their destruction.' There are a few indications of a hope of immortality and of further happiness, but they are neither frequent, nor, in general, distinctly announced.' The only notice of an after life is found in the legend (for nothing is founded on it) of three brothers called Ribhus, who for their meritorious actions were made gods. Also, in one or two passages, Yama and his office of ruler of the dead are obscurely alluded to (Dr. Wilson, i. p. 25). Yama is usually connected with the Yamuna river. So monotonous and irreverent are the great bulk of their prayers (to Indra especially), that Professor Wilson could scarcely believe them to be in earnest. An in stance of this is the hymn addressed to the goddess Anna (Anna devati, known in Bengal as Anna Puma), personified as Pitu, or material food, by the rishi Agastya (see Wilson's Veda, ii. p. 192; Calcutta Review, No. 64, p. 412); and in a similar strain the soma plant is addressed. This plant, the Sareostemma brevistigma, is found all the way from the mountains of Mazenderan to the Coro mandel coast, and Viswamitra is described as passing the Sutlej and Beas to gather it. Bruised between two stones, mixed with milk or barley juice, and fermented, it formed a strong inebriat ing spirit. The purifying soma, like the sea roll ing its waves, has poured forth songs, and hymns, and thoughts.' The ritual of these old Aryans, as described in Professor Wilson's epitome of the saktas, compre hended offerings, prayer, and praise. The former are chiefly oblations and libations of clarified butter poured on the fire, and the expressed and fermented juice of this soma plant, presented in ladles to the deities invoked. It seems to have been sometimes sprinkled on the fire, sometimes on the ground, or rather on the kuee sacred grass strewed on the floor ; and in all cases the residue was drunk by the assistants. There is no mention of any temple, or any reference to a public place of worship ; the sacrificial chamber was always in the house of the worshipper, and it is clear that the worship was entirely domestic. The worshipper himself does not appear to have taken any part personally in the ceremony ; and it was by priests —seven and sometimes sixteen—by whom the different ceremonial rites are performed, and by whom the mantras, or prayer and hymns, were recited (i. p. 24). The soma juice was the obla tion or libation of the Vedic worship (the homa of the Parsee), and allusions to it are met with in almost every page.