1870.] The Vdstu Yaga. 199 



The Vdstu Yaga, and its bearings upon Tree and Serpent Worship in 

 India. — By Pbatapachandra Ghosha, B. A. 



(Bead 7th September, 1870.) 



In the history of human progress, the feeling of fear has perhaps 

 proved as active an agent in invention as necessity. The phi- 

 losophy of fear is most interesting : originating in the want of 

 strength, or in a feeling of want of strength, fear often, to use a 

 paradox, concentrates, if it does not create, strength. It impels 

 an individual to flight, sometimes with such extraordinary rapidity 

 as to baffle all pursuit. The energy spent in avoiding a danger if 

 concentrated and better directed, might, in many cases, lead to the 

 overcoming of the obstacle ; but as the mind shrinks within itself 

 at the very idea of danger, it slackens the nerves for all action 

 except flight. A man runs with the greatest velocity when impelled 

 by fear. In the very flight he may have unconsciously overcome 

 several difficulties, which, in sober moments, he would rather have 

 fled from, than manfully encountered and overcome. It is conta- 

 gioiis, because the exhibition of fear in a companion damps the hope 

 of relief from that quarter : it makes one feel lonely, the most 

 favourable condition for engendering fear. It advances as hope 

 recedes, after the faith in our own strength has been shaken. It 

 originates superstition ; for when human aid fails, the mind naturally 

 looks to the supernatural and the mysterious : mantras, charms, 

 and sacrifices are resorted to, with a view to propitiate the imaginary 

 evil-doers, and sacrifices are selected to suit the nature of the evil 

 spirits. 



In the earliest portraits of the Aryan race, as delineated in the 

 Vedas, we find their ideas and their thoughts centred in their homes, 

 their cattle, their fields, and in the discomfiture of their enemies. 

 Their wants were few, and their prayers, therefore, were less varied ; 

 and their ceremonies were, probably, equally simple. But this 

 simplicity bore within itself the seed of a very complex system of 

 thought. Everything that was useful in some way or other, every- 

 thing that was beautiful or awfid in nature, or that excited unusual 

 feelings, or suggested new ideas, was estranged from the ordinary 

 and associated with the supernatural. 



