ANCIENT INDIA The _Vedas_. Buddhist Literature. Great Epic Poems, then very Diverse, much Shorter Poems. Dramatic Literature. Moral Literature. THE _VEDAS_.--The ancient Indians, who spoke Sanscrit, possess a literature which goes back, perhaps, to the fifteenth century before Christ. At first, like all other races, they possessed a sacred literature intimately bound up with their religion. The earliest volumes of sacred literature are the _Vedas_. They describe and glorify the gods then worshipped, to wit, Agni, god of fire, of the domestic hearth, of the celestial fire (the sun), of the atmospheric fire (lightning); Indra, god of atmosphere, analogous to Zeus of the Greeks; Soma, the moon; Varuna, the nocturnal vault, the god who rewards the good and punishes the evil; Rudra, the irascible god, more evil than well disposed, though sometimes helpful; others too, very numerous. The style of the _Vedas_ is continually poetic and metaphorical. They contain a sort of metaphysics as well as continual allegories. BUDDHA.--Buddhism, a philosophical religion, sufficiently analogous to Christianity, which Sakyamuni, surnamed Buddha (the wise), spread through India towards 550 B.C., created a new literature. It taught, as will be remembered, the equality of all castes in the sight of religion, metempsychosis, charity, and detachment from all passions and desires in order to arrive at absolute calm (_nirvana_). The literature it inspired was primarily _gnomic_, that is, sententious, analogous to that of Pythagoras, with a tendency towards little moral tales and parables, as in the Gospel. This literature subsequently expanded into large and even immense epic poems, of which the principal are the _Mahabharata_ and the _Ramayana_. THE _MAHABHARATA_; THE _RAMAYANA_.--The _Mahabharata_ (that is, the _great history of the Bharatas_) is a legend or a novel in verse intersected with moral digressions, with episodes vaguely related to the subject, with discourses and prayers. There are charming episodes full of delicate sensibility, of moving tenderness--that is to say, of human beauty, comparable to the farewells of Hector and Andromache in Homer; and everywhere, amid tediousness and monotony, is found a powerful and superabundant imagination.