First Period of Development—From the meagre materials • that we have, the first period of the development of Hinduism can be asso ciated with what is known as the sacrificial period. The Vedas were for all practical pur poses hymns of worship. They were addressed in beautiful and exalted language to the gods, or the lords of the firmament. Offerings of delicious viands were made to them. Yagnya or sacrificial rites and ceremonies, which at one period was indissolubly connected with elabo rate paraphernalia, was the order of the day.
Second Period.— The second period in its development may be called the Epic period. In this period the early Aryans extended the range of their conquest. They moved east from the banks of the Indus to the banks of the Ganges, and south to the banks of the Narbudda and the whole country of Deccan. Deeds of valor were committed in the process of conquest. With conquest came hand in hand assimila tion, and all the inhabitants in the vast peninsula of the Hindustan found a place in Hinduism. The and the are the two great epics of India, which furnish a fund of information about this period — in formation which is almost encyclopzedic in scope. Just as the 'Iliad) and the 'Odyssey' form the mirrors of the epic age of Greece, so the and the furnish a history of the life and thought of India in the Epic age. The (Ramayana) is the story of the abduction of Sita, the queen of Rama, by Ravana, the Rakshasah king of Ceylon, the quest, the conquest of Ceylon and the destruction of Ravana's empire and the recovery of Sita. The (Mahabharata) is the story of the wrongful possession of Yudishtara's throne by his cousin Duryodhana, the final de feat of the latter and the return of the throne to the rightful owner. These epics have long formed part and parcel of the life of the people of India, and even to-day have more in fluence on life and thought in that country than the Bible in Christian countries. The stories in the epics are merely threads on which are made to hang treatises on every phase of life, morals, religion, laws and government.
The definitive establishment of the Brahmin ical hierarchy follows closely the Epic period. There is a void between the close of the Epic period and the rise of the Brahminical era. It is generally believed that during this period there was a struggle between the Brahmins and the Khshatriyas, or the soldier class, for power, and that the former won. The legend of Parasurama is quoted as exemplifying the fall of the Kshatriya. The Dharmasutra, or the
Code of Laws of Manu, reproduces on the whole pretty faithfully the state of Hindu society a few centuries before the Christian era. The Brahmins improved their newly acquired van tage ground by investing everything connected with their order with a halo of sanctity, cal culated to impress the lay community with i feelings of awe. They invested the later reli gious literature, so imbued with their own as pirations and importance, with the same au thority as Sruti or revelation. In their division of castes, and penalties to be inflicted for transgressions of the limits assigned to each, they forged the chain of their own supremacy. But it must be said to their credit that they denied themselves wealth and all means of acquiring wealth. No Brahmin was allowed to be a king. The most rigorous duties were im posed on the Brahmin. While the lowest, or Sudra caste, was apparently treated without clemency, the real fact is that the punishment for any infraction was humane. The Brahmin had not to undergo severe physical penalties; but he lost caste. The Sudra may rise to be a member of a higher caste. A Brahmin once fallen is fallen forever, and is ever the object of direct contempt. The three first castes, the Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaiiya were united by a bond of sacramental rites (Sanskaras) traditionally connected from ancient times with certain incidents and stages of the life of the Aryan Hindu, as conception, birth, name-giving, the first taking out of the child to see the sun, the first feeding with boiled rice, the rites of tonsure and hair-cutting, the youth's investi ture with the sacrificial thread and his return home on completing his studies, marriage, funeral, etc.
The first three castes were considered the twice-born, because of their right to participate in ceremonials. The Brahmin had to go through four stages in life, i. e., student, house holder, anchorite and recluse; while all the twice-born were entitled to do the same. Ac cording to the Hindu, there are four sacred •debts' which a man has to discharge in life, i.e., that due to the rods, and of which he ac quits himself by daily worship and sacrificial rites, that due to the rishis, or ancient sages, discharged by the daily study of the scripture; that due to his manes, or ancestors, which he discharges by leaving a son; that due to human ity, which demands his continually practising kindness and hospitality. The domestic fire must be continually key up, and never allowed to be extinguished.