the composition of the Brahmanas, but the separate poems
are older and, so far as can be judged from their language, are
intermediate between the Rig Veda and the Brahmanas. But the substance
of many of the spells must be older still, since the incantations
prescribed show a remarkable similarity to old German, Russian and
Lettish charms. The Atharva also contains speculative poems and, if it
has not the freshness of the Rig Veda, is most valuable for the history
of Indian thought and civilization.

I will not here enquire what was the original home of the Aryans or
whether the resemblances shown by Aryan languages justify us in
believing that the ancestors of the Hindus, Greeks, Kelts, Slavs, etc.,
belonged to a single race and physical type. The grounds for such a
belief seem to me doubtful. But a comparison of language, religion and
customs makes it probable that the ancestors of the Iranians and Hindus
dwelt together in some region lying to the north of India and then, in
descending southwards, parted company and wandered, one band westwards
to Persia and the other to the Panjab and south-east[146]. These latter
produced the poets of the Rig Veda. Their home is indicated by their
acquaintance with the Himalayas, the Kabul river, the Indus and rivers
of the Panjab, and the Jamna. The Ganges, though known, apparently lay
beyond their sphere, but the geography of the Atharva extends as far as
Benares and implies a practical knowledge of the sea, which is spoken of
somewhat vaguely in the Rig Veda. It is probable that the oldest hymns
were composed among the rivers of the Panjab, but the majority somewhat
further to the east, in the district of Kurukshetra or Thanesar. At some
period subsequent to the Aryan immigration there was a great struggle
between two branches of the same stock, related in a legendary form as
the contest between the Kauravas and Pandavas. Some have thought that we
have here an indication of a second invasion composed of Aryans who
remained in the mountainous districts north of the Hindu Kush when the
first detachment moved south and who developed there somewhat different
customs. It is also possible that the Atharva Veda may represent the
religious ideas of these second invaders. In several passages the
Mahabharata speaks of the Atharva as the highest Veda and represents the
Pandavas as practising polyandry, a custom which still prevails among
many Himalayan tribes.

The Rig Veda depicts a life