BOOK II.
the points of resemblance and difference between cognate mytho-
logical systems, we are not called upon to enter the unwholesome
labyrinth in which a morbid philosophy has bewildered and oppressed
a race once more simple and perhaps more truthful in their faith
than the forefathers of the Hellenic and even of the Teutonic nations.
The more modern Hindu traditions may have an interest for the
theologian or the philosopher, while the ingenious symbolical inter-
pretations which make anything mean anything may be as note-
worthy in the pages of Brahmanic commentators as in those of
Chrj-sostom, Gregorj', or Augustine. But they lead us away into a
world of their own, where it becomes scarcely worth while to trace
the faint vestiges of early thought which may be here and there dis-
cerned in the rank crop of cumbrous and repulsive fancies. Nor is
there much profit in lists even of earlier deities in whom we have
little more than a name or an epithet If the earth is called Nishtigri, we have only another word denoting Prithivi the wife of Dyaus. In
Sarasvati, the watery, we have, first, a name given to the river which
with the Indus and the waters of the Penjab made up the seven
streams of the ancient Hindu home, and then to a goddess who, as
inspiring the hymns composed in her honour, became identified with
Vach,^ Voice, and was invoked as the muse of eloquence. As such,
she is produced on the mountain-top, as Athene Akria springs from
the forehead of Zeus.^ jNIuch in the same way, Nirriti,^ the western
land, to which Yama had first crossed the rapid waters, became first
the land of death, and afterwards a personification of evil. In
Sraddha we have nothing more than a name for religious faith.*
Place of Brahn.a in the Hindu theogcny.
Section IV.— BRAHMA.
If an examination of the Vedic theology tends to prove that it was wholly one of words and names, the impression is not weakened as we survey the ponderous fancies of later times. The fabric of Brahmanic sacerdotalism may have reached gigantic proportions, and may exhibit a wonderful ingenuity in the piecing together of its several parts, but it cannot be regarded as the result of a logical system. The properties of Vishnu are those of Agni", Vayu, and Surya ; and as Agni is all the deities, so also is Vishnu. The cha-
- Gr. tiros, (iirav, aKoiitiv, Latin
vox, vocare.
- Muir, Sanskrit Texts, part iv.
p. 360, note.
- Max Miiller, Lectures on Lan-
guage, second series, 515. Is the name Nirriti connected with that of the Ithakan Neritos and the Leukadian Nerikos ?
- "The Latin word credo, 'I be-
lieve,' is the same as the Sanskrit Sraddha." — .Max Miiller, Chips, i. 42. Sayce, Lntroduction to the Hcietue or Language, ii. 28.
