Their Age.—Good scholars are of opinion that the Vedic hyirms were composed after the 17th century n.c., but not collected until later. Pro fessor Wilson supposed them to belong to the 8th century before Christ. But another view bas been that the Sanbita or hymns were collected about B.c. 1200 or 1300, &IA that the Brahmana was written about u.c. 700 or 800 ; while Professor Max Muller fixes the years 600 and 200 B.C. as the limits of that age during which the Brahmanic literature was carried on in the strange style of the Sutra. According to Colebrooke, at the epoch of the Vedas the summer solstice was in the middle of Aelesba, the 9th lunar mansion ; there fore Regulus was half a lunar mansion 9°, that is 15° 40' east of the summer solstice, at that time. On 1st January 1859, the longitude of Regulus was147° 52' 30", hence Regulus was at that date 57° 52' 30" east of the summer solstice. The summer solstice had therefore retrograded through 42° 12' 30" 42° 20' 8" since the epoch of the Vedas. And as the equinoxes and solstices move backward on the ecliptic at the rate of 1° in 72 years, it roust have occupied 70°X 42° 20' 8"=-3039 years tO effect the change. Hence the age of the Vedas was 3039 on the 1st January-1859, or their date is n.b. 1181, i.e. the early part of the 12th century before the Christian era.
Only a conaparatively small portion of the Vedas has ever been translated, nor is it ever likely that the whole mass of Vedic literature will ever see the light iu a modern ,language. Indeed, Roth calculated that the mere Sauhita or metrical portion of the Vedas, as distinguished from the Bralimana or later ritual appended to cach, con tains not less than 30,00U couplets, of which 11,000 go to the Rig Veda. The Rig Veda com prises 1017 short poems, containing 10,580 verses.
Portions of the Rig Veda were tmnslated by the late F. Rosen, the late M. Longlois, and by Professor II. II. Wilson ; and Dr. F. Max Muller, who undertook to produce a complete one, has unweariedly devoted much of his useful life to this object. With all their difficulties, they furnish much information regarding tho origin and early state of some of the races who aro now called I lindus. From what has been published, it is known that during the period through which the Vedas were being produced, the people were progressing in moral culture and in social and political con dition. In the earliest period of their migration, they had no money. Their wealth consisted of cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and buffaloes ; the cow was the medium of barter. Cow-stealing was a great crime, but from the Rig Veda it is evident that the cow was not reverenced ; they bad apparently no temples nor images, and they were a cow-eating and spirit-drinking people. In
later hymns there is mention of cities, of commerce, of weapons, of chariots, and even of the vices of primitive civilisation. Women throughout held a high social position. The rishi and his wife con versed on equal terms, w en t together to tile sacrifice, and practised austerities together. Lovely maidens joined in processions, and grown-up daughters remained without reproach in their father's house.
The religion of the Aryans, as shown in the Vedas, differs in many very material points from that of the Hindus of the present day. The worship they prescribe is, with a few exceptions, domestic, consisting of oblations to fire, and in vocations of the deities of fire, of the firmament, of the winds, the seasons, the moon, the sun, who are invited by the sacrificer, if a Brahman, or by his family priest, if he is not a Brahman, to be present, and accept the offering, either clarified butter or the fermented juice of tho soma, Sar costorna brevistigma, which are poured upon the sacrificial fire, in return for which they aro sup plicated to confer temporal blessings upon tho worshipper, riches, life, posterity, which constitute the sum of heathen prayer in all heathen countries. The second hymn of tho Rig Veda thus invokes the gods Indra, Vayu, and Varuna '1. Approach, 0 Vayu, bo visible ; this soma juice has been prepared for thee ; approach, drink, hear our invocation.
2. Those who praise thee, Vayu, celebrate thee with sacred songs, provided with store of soma juice, anti knowing the season suitable for their oblations.
3. Vayu, thy assenting voice comes to the sacrificer ; it comes to many through the offering of tile libation.
'4. Indra and Vayu, this juice has been prepared ; come with benefits for us ; verily the libation desires you.
5. Vayu and Indra, observe. the libations, being present in the offerings, come quickly.
G. Vayu and Indra, mighty men, approach tho priest of the sacrificer quickly, on account of his prayers.
' 7. I invoke Mitre, tho source of purity ; I invoke Varuna, able to destroy ; both cherishing earth with water.
8. Mara anti Varuna, be pleased with this propitia• tory offering ; for to you, assuredly, do sacrifices owe their success, as the waters do their abundance.
9. !intro anti Varuna, all-wise divinities, formed for the benefit of multitudes, and multitudinously present, give efficacy to our acts,' Thus the hymns indicate primarily a worship of the elements, for other Deva named arc Agni (Ignis), lord of fire ; Surya, the sun ; Marut, storms ; Prithivi, the earth ; Ap, the waters ; Ushas, the dawn; Varuna (OupscroO, the heavens ; and to them the hymns aro addressed.