PHILOSOPHY AND MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE IN ANCIENT INDIA. 231 
Aryan civilisation, fixed, as it were, in the heaven of Indra, 
and irremovable. Neither the Persian nor Greek invasion, 
the Afghan and Mongol conquests, not even the growth of 
Buddhism, has left a lasting effect upon the native mind of 
India; on the contrary, the effects of each in its turn have 
yielded to the mighty magic of Manu’s code, and poetic 
imagery of the Ramayana and Mahabharata.” 
The Vedic gods were mere abstractions, intangible and 
illusive personifications of the attributes and powers of 
nature, including space, the heavens, firmament, sun, earth, 
day and night, twilight, dawn, wind, rain, storm, and sun- 
shine; all ministering to the divine care of man, in the 
breathing air and radiant light, the fleeting moon and con- 
stant stars, the rising mists and falling dews, the rivers which 
flow down from the hills through the fruitful plains, making 
with the flocks and herds, and woods and fields, one cease- 
less voice of praise and adoration.* Vedic worship was 
itself simply the natural expression of men for their daily 
bread at a time prior to the institution of an order of priest- 
hood apart from members of the ordinary community. 
In the Puranast the Vedic gods assumed distinct | per- 
sonality, and individual character, such as we find conven- 
tionally represented in figures with which those of us who 
have resided in India are familiar. The definite statement 
oceurs with respect to those figures that “they are merely 
allegorical,” although “the more ignorant Hindoos, it cannot 
be denied, think these suwbaltern divinities do exist.” But 
the unity of Brahm, the supreme deity, was always a funda- 
mental tenet of the uncorrupted faith of the more learned 
Brahmins. 
In these and other writings on the Mythology of the 
Hindoos we shall find the original of almost the whole of 
that of the Greeks and Romans. To this day the Deity is 
adored by names derived from the same old Aryan root by 
Brahmins in Calcutta, by Protestant clergymen at West- 
minster, and by Roman Catholic priests in Peru. Some par- 
ticulars may be modified, but the principal features of the 
* Birdwood’s Jndustrial Arts of India, vol. 1, p. 46. 
+ Puranas, i.e., the old or sacred writings. They treat of five topics, 
namely :—1. The creation of the universe. 2. Its destruction and renova- 
tion. 3. The genealogy of the gods and patriarchs. 4. The reigns of the 
Manus. 5. The history of the Solar and Lunar dynasties, including the 
wars related in the Ramayana. The works so named appear to belong to 
different historical periods. 
t See Dow’s History, vol. i, p. 49. 
