ta, p. vii.

(2) Hibbert Lectures, p. 131.

(3) Nothing can prove more absolutely and more briefly the late
character of Vedic faith than the fact that the faith had already to
be defended against the attacks of sceptics. The impious denied the
existence of Indra because he was invisible. Rig-Veda, ii. 12, 5; viii.
89, 3; v. 30, 1-2; vi. 27, 3. Bergaigne, ii. 167. "Es gibt keinen Indra,
so hat der eine und der ander gesagt" (Ludwig's version).

As Barth observes, the very ideas which permeate the Veda, the idea of
the mystic efficacy of sacrifice, of brahma, prove that the poems are
profoundly sacerdotal; and this should have given pause to the writers
who have persisted in representing the hymns as the work of primitive
shepherds praising their gods as they feed their flocks.(1) In the Vedic
age the ranks of society are already at least as clearly defined as in
Homeric Greece. "We men," says a poet of the Rig-Veda,(2) "have all our
different imaginations and designs. The carpenter seeks something that
is broken, the doctor a patient, the priest some one who will offer
libations.... The artisan continually seeks after a man with plenty of
gold.... I am a poet, my father is a doctor, and my mother is a grinder
of corn." Chariots and the art of the chariot-builder are as frequently
spoken of as in the Iliad. Spears, swords, axes and coats of mail were
in common use. The art of boat-building or of ship-building was well
known. Kine and horses, sheep and dogs, had long been domesticated. The
bow was a favourite weapon, and warriors fought in chariots, like the
Homeric Greeks and the Egyptians. Weaving was commonly practised. The
people probably lived, as a rule, in village settlements, but cities or
fortified places were by no means unknown.(3) As for political society,
"kings are frequently mentioned in the hymns," and "it was regarded as
eminently beneficial for a king to entertain a family priest," on whom
he was expected to confer thousands of kine, lovely slaves and lumps of
gold. In the family polygamy existed, probably as the exception. There
is reason to suppose that the brother-in-law was permitted, if
not expected, to "raise up seed" to his dead brother, as among the
Hebrews.(4) As to literature, the very structure of the hymns proves
that it was elaborate and consciously artistic. M. Barth writes: "It
would be a great mistake to speak of the primitive naivete of the Vedic
poetry and religion".(5) Both the poe