ricide of
Indra, and a long list might be made of the reticences of the Veda....
It would be difficult to extract from the hymns a chapter on the loves
of the gods. The goddesses are veiled, the adventures of the gods are
scarcely touched on in passing.... We must allow for the moral delicacy
of the singers, and for their dislike of speaking too precisely about
the gods. Sometimes it seems as if their chief object was to avoid plain
speaking.... But often there is nothing save jargon and indolence of
mind in this voluntary obscurity, for already in the Veda the Indian
intellect is deeply smitten with its inveterate malady of affecting
mystery the more, the more it has nothing to conceal; the mania for
scattering symbols which symbolise no reality, and for sporting with
riddles which it is not worth while to divine."(1) Barth, however, also
recognises amidst these confusions, "the inquietude of a heart deeply
stirred, which seeks truth and redemption in prayer". Such is the
natural judgment of the clear French intellect on the wilfully obscure,
tormented and evasive intellect of India.

(1) Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 21.

It would be interesting were it possible to illuminate the criticism of
Vedic religion by ascertaining which hymns in the Rig-Veda are the most
ancient, and which are later. Could we do this, we might draw inferences
as to the comparative antiquity of the religious ideas in the poems.
But no such discrimination of relative antiquity seems to be within
the reach of critics. M. Bergaigne thinks it impossible at present to
determine the relative age of the hymns by any philological test. The
ideas expressed are not more easily arrayed in order of date. We might
think that the poems which contain most ceremonial allusions were the
latest. But Mr. Max Muller says that "even the earliest hymns have
sentiments worthy of the most advanced ceremonialists".(1)

(1) History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 556.

The first and oldest source of our knowledge of Indo-Aryan myths is the
Rig-Veda, whose nature and character have been described. The second
source is the Atharva-Veda with the Brahmanas. The peculiarity of the
Atharva is its collection of magical incantations spells and fragments
of folklore. These are often, doubtless, of the highest antiquity.
Sorcery and the arts of medicine-men are earlier in the course of
evolution than priesthood. We meet them everywhere among races who have
not developed the