y is a phrase rather than an explanation, but it has a real
affinity to Indian phrases which say that Brahman or Sakti (which are
forces) produce the illusion of the world.

I am not venturing here on any general comparison of European and Indian
thought. My object is merely to point out that the latter contains many
ideas to which British philosophers find themselves led and from which,
when they have discovered them in their own way, they do not shrink. It
can hardly then be without interest to see how these ideas have been
elaborated, often more boldly and thoroughly, in Asia.

BOOK II

EARLY INDIAN RELIGION

A GENERAL VIEW

BOOK II

In this book I shall briefly sketch the condition of religion in India
prior to the rise of Buddhism and in so doing shall be naturally led to
indicate several of the fundamental ideas of Hinduism. For few old ideas
have entirely perished: new deities, new sects and new rites have arisen
but the main theories of the older Upanishads still command respect and
modern reformers try to justify their teaching from the ancient texts.

But I do not propose to discuss in detail the religion of the Vedic
hymns for, so far as it can be distinguished from later phases, it looks
backward rather than forward. It is important to students of comparative
mythology, of the origins of religion, of the Aryan race. But it
represents rather what the Aryans brought into India than what was
invented in India, and it is this latter which assumes a prominent place
in the intellectual history of the world as Hinduism and Buddhism. The
ancient nature gods of the wind and the dawn have little place in the
mental horizon of either the Buddha or Bhagavad-gita and even when the
old names remain, the beings who bear them generally have new
attributes. Still, Vedic texts are used in modern worship and in many
respects there is a real continuity of thought.

In the first chapter I enquire whether there is any element common to
the religions of India and to the countries of Eastern Asia and find
that the worship of nature spirits and the veneration of ancestors
prevail throughout the whole of this vast region and have not been
suppressed by Buddhism or Brahmanism. Then coming to the purely Indian
sphere, I have thought it might not be amiss to give an epitome of such
parts of Indian history as are of importance for religion. Next I
endeavour to explain how the social institutions of India and