The Religions of India: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris JastrowHopkins, Edward Washburn
Religion
The Religions of India: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris Jastrow
Hopkins, Edward Washburn
India -- Religion
As the most prominent features of the Vedic religion must be regarded
the worship of _soma_ of nature-gods that are in part already more
than this, of spirits, and of the Manes; the acknowledgment of a moral
law and a belief in a life hereafter. There is also a vaguer nascent
belief in a creator apart from any natural phenomenon, but the creed
for the most part is poetically, indefinitely, stated: 'Most
wonder-working of the wonder-working gods, who made heaven and
earth'(as above). The corresponding Power is Cerus in Cerus-Creator
(Kronos?), although when a name is given, the Maker, Dh[=a]tar, is
employed; while Tvashtar, the artificer, is more an epithet of the sun
than of the unknown creator. The personification of Dh[=a]tar as
creator of the sun, etc., belongs to later Vedic times, and foreruns
the Father-god of the last Vedic period. Not till the classical age
(below) is found a formal identification of the Vedic nature-gods with
the departed Fathers (Manes). Indra, for example, is invoked in the
Rig Veda to 'be a friend, be a father, be more fatherly than the
fathers';[29] but this implies no patristic side in Indra, who is
called in the same hymn (vs. 4) the son of Dyaus (his father); and
Dyaus Pitar no more implies, as say some sciolists, that Dyaus was
regarded as a human ancestor than does 'Mother Earth' imply a belief
that Earth is the ghost of a dead woman.
In the Veda there is a nature-religion and an ancestor-religion. These
approach, but do not unite; they are felt as sundered beliefs.
Sun-myths, though by some denied _in toto_, appear plainly in the
Vedic hymns. Dead heroes may be gods, but gods, too, are natural
phenomena, and, again, they are abstractions. He that denies any one
of these sources of godhead is ignorant of India.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account