Indra, as god of the firmament ; Varuna, god of the waters • Yama, the judge of the dead ; Agni, god of 'fire ; Surya, tho sun ; Soma or Chandra, the moon ; Vayu, the god of winds ; the Iffarut, the Aditya,—all of them mere personifica tions of the powers of nature,—were invoked for aid or their wrath deprecated.
Tho gods of the Vedas were 33 in number, and soma of them aro not unknown to later systems, but at first perform very subordinate parts; whilst those deities who are the principal objects of Hindu worship of the present day, are either wholly un named in the Vedas, or are noticed in an inferior or different capacity. The names of Siva, of Durga, of Kali, of Rama, of Krishna, so fru. a.s research has gone, do not occur in the Vedas.
On the other hand, these sacred books contain many passages indicative of a purer thought. Sometimes they expand in glowing adoration of the attributes of the deity invoked, the one king of the breathing and awakening world,' whose greatness the snowy mountains and the sea pro claim," whose shadow is immortality ' (i. p. 29). Sometimes they embody the confessions of the penitent craving for forgiveness. Through want of strength, thou strong arid bright God, have I gone wrong ; have mercy, Ahnighty, have mercy !' (i. p. 39). Whenever wo men, 0 Varnna, commit an offence before the heavenly host, whenever we break the law through thoughtless ness, have mercy, Almighty, have mercy! They pray that the adomble light of Savitri may illu mine (or rouse) the spirit of the worshipper.' Now, they recognise a power from whom no secrets are hid. ' If a man stand, or walk, or hide ; if he lie down or get up ; what two people sitting together whisper, king Varuna knows it ; he is there as the thimi ' (i. p. 41). They long for a site where life is free, where the worlds are radiant, them make nie iinmortal.' But the Vedas yet fancifully play with the phenomena of nature. The dawn is a young bride, gold-coloured, daughter of the sky, mother of the cows (the mornings), leading the white and lovely steed (the sun). Sometimes their thoughts on the mystery of the universe clothe themselves in solemn words, as in the hymn which Mr. Colebrook° has translated :— Nor aught nor nought existed ; yon bright sky Was not, nor heaven's loved works:outstretched above. What covered all ? What sheltered? What concealed ? Was it tho water'a fathomless abyss ? There was not deatli,—yet there wits nought immortal; There was no confine between day and night, The only One breathed breathless by itself, Other than it there nothing since has been.
Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled In gloom profound, an ocean without light.
Then first came Love upon it.' The Vedic Aryans certainly had neither temples nor idols. EVCII now, in India, images of the deified elements are unworshipped, and, except images of the sun, they aro never made. The personifica tion of the divine attributes of creation, preserva tion, and regeneration, Bmhtua, Vishnu, and Siva, which are now almost exclusively recognised, there is no reason. from the invocations addressed to them in common with the air, water, the seasons, the planets, to suppose that they were.ever wor shipped under visible types. Indeed, ministration to idols in temples is held by ancient authonties infamous. Menu repeatedly classes the priest of a temple with persons unfit to be admitted to private sacrifices, or to be associated with on any occasion ; and, even yet, the priests who attend upon the images in public are considered as of a scarcely reputable order by all Hindus of learning and respectability. The worship of images is declared to be an act of inferior merit even by later authorities. It is almost certain, therefore, that the practice of worshipping idols in temples was not the religion of the Vedas. The dwelling house of the householder was his temple ; if quali fied, he was his own priest ; but as they more ex tensively engaged in secular avocations, it became almost universally the practice to retain a family priest. This is still the cust,om. Instead, how ever, of being a Brahman of learning and character, lie is very commonly illiterate, and not always respectable. The office has also undergone an important modification. The family priest was formerly also the guru or spiritual adviser of the family. The priest now rarely discharges that function ; he merely conducts the domestic rites ; and the guru, to whom extravagant deference, such as is due to deity alone, is paid, is very usually a member of some of the mendicant orders that have sprung up in comparatively modern times.