. In 500 hymns translated by Professor Wilson, the following is the number of Sakta allotted to each, viz. Indra, 178 ; Agni, 147 ; Aswini, 28 ; Marut, 24 ; Varuna, 20 ; 3fitra, 17 ; Ushas, 11 ; Vayu, 6 ; Surya or Savitri, 5 ; yudra, 3 ; Vrihas pati, 2 ; Vishnu (none in the first Astaka), 2 ; and Saraswati, 1. In the Vedas, Rudra is the chief of the winds, collecting the clouds as a shepherd's dog does the sheep, and attending on his master Indra ; but in the present day amongst the Hindus he is identified with Siva. In the Vedas, how ever, with the single exception of an' epithet, Kapardi,' with braided hair, of doubtful signi ficance, and applied also to another divinity, no other term applicable to Siva occurs, and there is not the slightest allusion to the form in which, for the last ten centuries at least, he seems to have been almost exclusively worshipped in India, that of the lingam, priapus, or phallus ; neither is therethe slightest hint of another important feature of later Hinduism, the trimurti or triune com bination of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, as typified by the mystical syllable O'in (a-u-m).
Indra and all the gods are everywhere repre sented as unable to perform any great exploit without the inspiration of the sonia juice. Sit down, Indra,' says Viswamitka, 'on the sacred grass, and when thou hast drunk the soma, then, Indra, go home ' (iii. p. 84). Drink, Indra, the soma that is effused for thy exhi aration,' sings rishi Bharadwaja ; stop the frien steeds, let them loose ; sitting, in our society, respond to our hymns' (iii. p. 454). 1Vho buys this, my Indra, with ten milch kine? when he 6hall have slain (your) foes, then let (t he purchaser) give him again to me 'Qii. p. 107). The purifying soma, like the sea rolling its waves, has poured forth songs, and hymns, and thought.' Such worship seems to .
explain the Greek story of Bacchus, and shows that it was not an invention merely to flatter Alexander.
Professor ,Max Muller says if we must have a general name for the earliest religion of the Vedic Indians, it would be neither monotheism nor polytheism, but only Henotheism, that is a belief in and worship of those single objects in which man first suspects the presence of the Invisible and the Infinite. This is unintelligible.
The Vedic, in common with other religions, was conservative, aud the morality, the ethical con ceptions, and social and political condition of the Aryans, moved in advance of the ideas in the earlier hymns. During the period embraced in the composition of the Vedas, Professor H. H.
Wilson thinks (Rig Veda, i. 59, 65, i. xxiv.) it is inferable from some passages that human sacrifices 'were not unknown, although infre quent ; ' and the Satapatha Brahmana relates how men ceased to be the offered victims ; first the horse, then other animals, and finally rice and barley and barley cakes, were successively sub stituted. The ninetieth hymn of the tenth book of the Rig Veda tells how all things were made out of the mangled limbs of Purusha (man). In the Purusha Sakta, a hymn of the Yajur Veda, the gods sacrifice Purusha. The Vedic concep tion of the creation of animal life is rude.
The Satapatha Brahmana discloses the wildest of cosmogonies,—how Puruslia differentiated him self into husband and wife, and these into all forms of animal metamorphoses. There are two hymns in the Rig Veda describing the Aswa 31edlia rite, and which leave no doubt that in the early religion of the race, this sacrifice was had recourse to as a burnt-offering to the gods. It was, even then, however, falling into disuse, and was exist ing as a relic of an anti-Vedic period, imported from some foreign region, possibly from Scythia, where animal victims, and especially horses, were commonly sacrificed. And, in still later times, the Aswa Medha consisted in certain ceremonies ending in the liberation of the horse, as through out nearly all India is still practised with a bull or cow, many of which are met with in every village, freed or let loose in the name of Siva or Vishnu or other Hindu god.
From the Vedas al'e immediately deduced the practical arts of chirurgery and medicine, music and dancing ; archery, which coniprises the whole art of war ; and architecture, under which the system of mechanical arts is included. Next in order to these are the six Vedanga or bodies of learning, three of which belong to grammar, one relates to religious ceremonies, a fifth to the whole canvass of mathematics, and the sixth to the explanation of obscure words or phrases in the Vedas. Subordinate to these Anga (though the reason of the arrangement is not obvious) are the series of sacred poems, the body of law, and the six philosophical Shastra.— As. Res. xvii.; Oriental Linguistic Studies ; Darwinisnt tlforals ; Sonnerat's Voyages ; 1Vilson's Hindu Sects ; Cal cutta Review, No. 109 ; Elphinstone's p. 226; Professor Muller Lectures; Saturday Review, 24th Feb. 1883 ; iireiler, p. 12 ; Archdeacon Pratt in Beng. As. Soc. Jaurn. No. 1 of 1862.