The following tabular statement of the number of saktas in the 500 hymns translated by Professor Wilson, addressed to each deity, sets their actual and relative worship clearly before us : Indra, . . 178 Brihaspati, . 2 Sarasvati, . 1 Agni, . . . 147 Mitra, . . 17 Vishnu (none Aswini, . . 28 Varuna, . . 20 in the first Marut, . . 24 Usha, . . 11 Ashtaka), . 2 Vayu, . . 6 Surya or Savi Rudra, . . 3 tri, . . . 5 This leaves less than sixty hymns for all the other members of the Vedic pantheon. Some of the divinities worshipped in Vedic times are not un known to later systems, but at first perform very subordinate parts; whilst those deities who are the principal objects of worship of the present day are either wholly unnamed in the Veda, or are noticed in an inferior or different capacity. The names of Siva, of Durga, of Kali, of Rama, of Sita, of Krishna, of Radha, the present gods, so far as research has gone, do not occur in the Vedas. And the practice of the conquered races seems to have been to represent or regard local deities as identical with, or avatars or incarnations or other names of, the Vedic gods, who had already become objects of Aryan worship. The Vedas mention Rudra as the chief of the winds, collecting the clouds as a shepherd's dog does the sheep, and attending on his master Indra ; in the Vedas he is the father of the winds ; even in the Puranas he is of a very doubtful origin and identification ; but in the present day everywhere amongst the Saiva Hindus he is identified with Siva. With the single excep tion of an epithet Kapardi, with braided hair,' of doubtful significance, and applied also to another divinity, no other name applicable to Siva occurs, and there is not the slightest allusion to the lingam or phallus form in which, for the last ten centuries at least, he seems to have been almost exclusively worshipped in India ; neither is there the slightest hint of another important feature of later Hinduism, the trimurti, or triune combination of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, as typified by the mystical syllable O'm (a-u-m), although, according to Creuzer (i. p. 26), the trimurti was the first element in the faith of the Hindus, and the second was the lingam. In this view Creuzer must have intended the mixture of creeds now current in India, for the whole Vedic faith was essentially a sabaistic and nature worship.
Religious Books.—Aryan Hindus have been re markable amongst civilised races as abstaining from all historical writings; and a knowledge of the changes that have occurred in their beliefs has been obtained from their books of religion, philosophy, and fiction.
The Rig - Veda Sanhita is a collection of hymns of the ancient Aryans, addressed to the elements and powers of nature. Their age is various, prior and subsequent to the 15th century p.c. The Rig-Veda is of primary importance in the Hindu religion and mythology. The Yajur and Sama Vedas consist of hymns derived from the Rig, but re-arranged for religious purposes ; and the fourth Veda, the Atharva, is of later date. The Brahmana are ritualistic and liturgical com positions, chiefly in prose, and attached to the different mantras. They are later than the Vedic hymns, and recognise one Great Being as the soul of the universe. Of a still later age are the Aranyakas and Upanishads, which form part of the collective Brahmanas, and are principally philosophical. The Brahmanas recognise one Great Being as the soul of the universe. A golden egg was produced in the universal waters, from which in course of time came forth Prajapati, the progenitor, or the quiescent Universal SouL Brahma took a creative form, as Brahma the Pra japati. From the Prajapati, or great progenitor,
there was produced a daughter, and by her he was the father of the human race. The Upani shads, of which above 150 are known, are later, the oldest being about the Gth century B.C. They contain an examination of the mystic sense of the Vedas, and are free from Brahmanical exclusive ness. They have a monotheistic tendency.
The age of Menu was after that of the Brah manas. Menu follows the golden egg theory, and he calls the active creator who was produced from it, Brahma, and Narayana. The latter name became subsequently exclusively applied to the Vishnu deity. The institutes of Menu show a great advancement of the Brahman caste.
The Mahabharata and the Ramayana are epic poems, which deal with the actions of men. Indra is mentioned ; but Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu have become the gods, Brahma being but little mentioned; while in some passages Siva, in others Vishnu, is supreme, and the incarnations of Vishnu assume a permanent place. The Ramayana, by Valmiki, is supposed to be of the 5th century n.c., and its hero the royal Rama and his faithful wife Sita have been deified as incarnations of Vishnu and his consort. It is the older epic. The age of the Mahabharata is supposed to be in some of the six centuries B.C.; but it contains an interpolated episode, the Bhagavat Gita, which has been sup posed to be of the 2d or 3d century A.D. In it Krishna is the Supreme, and bhakti or faith is enjoined.
These books belong to the Brahmana age. But a great reformer arose in the 6th century B.C., and the religious sects formed after him were prominent in India for about 1500 years, and are still the faiths of Burma, Tibet, Mongolia, Man churia, Siam, Annrun, and largely of Ceylon, China, and Japan. The reformer was Sakya Sinha, son of king Suddhodana of Magadha, and is known to history as Buddha.
Buddhism.—The valley of the Ganges was the cradle of Indian Buddhism, and Sakya Muni the founder of the new doctrines. As the champion of religious liberty and social equality, Sakya Muni attacked the Brahmans in their weakest and most vulnerable points,—in their impious assump tion of all mediation between man and his Maker, and in their arrogant claims to hereditary priest hood. His boldness was successful, and before the end of his long career he had seen his prin ciples zealously and successfully promulgated by his Brahman disciples, Sariputra, Mangalyana, Ananda, and Kasyapa, as well as by the Vaisya Katyayana and the Sudra Upali. At his death in B.c. 543, his doctrines had been firmly established, and the holiness of his mission was fully recognised by the eager claims preferred by kings and rulers for relics of their divine teacher. His ashes were distributed amongst eight cities, and the charcoal from the funeral pile was given to a ninth. He had lived and preached from Champa and Raja grilia in the east, to Srnvasti and Kaustunbi in the west. In the short space of 45 years, this wonder ful man succeeded in establishing his own peculiar doctrines over the fairest districts of the Ganges, from the Delta to the neighbourhood of Agra and Cawnpur. This success was perhaps as much due to the early corrupt state of Brahmanism, as to the greater purity and more practical wisdom of his own system.