RECENT PROGRESS OF SANSKRIT STUDIES. 265 



generations of poets, and that some of the hymns appear to display an advance 

 in thought and speculation, as well as a progress in some other respects, as com- 

 pared with others. The hymns are composed in a considerable variety of metres, 

 which are not, indeed, always regularly constructed, but which, by their number 

 and occasional elaborateness, form a remarkable contrast to the metrical unifor- 

 mity of the oldest Greek poetry. In fact, throughout the whole course of 

 Sanskrit literature we see the people who spoke and wrote the language mani- 

 festing a most delicate sense of harmonious composition. 



The Vedic poetry is simpler, much less flowery in style, and consequently 

 more akin to the productions of Western classical literature, — more consonant, in 

 short, to the common Aryan type on which the Indians of that age were moulded,— 

 than is the case with the later Indian poetry, produced at a period when the 

 Hindus had resided for many centuries in their new abode, and when the various 

 physical influences of a more southerly climate had combined to modify their 

 mental constitution, and impart an oriental luxuriance to their conceptions. 



The hymns are, with few exceptions, of a religious character. "In these 

 songs," to use the words of Professor Roth, " the forefathers dwelling on the 

 banks of the five rivers (of the Punjab) supplicated prosperity for themselves and 

 their herds, greeted the rising dawn, celebrated the conflict of the Thunderer with 

 the gloomy Power, and acknowledged the succour of the deities who had delivered 

 them in battle." The hymns are addressed to a variety of gods, in whom the 

 most remarkable powers and phenomena of nature are personified. These are 

 Agni (fire) ; Indra (the ruler of the firmament, who dispels drought and sends 

 down rain) ; Savitri (the sun) ; Vishnu (perhaps another form of the same lumi- 

 nary, who strides across the heavens in three paces) ; Rudra (who is considered 

 to be the god of tempests, but was at a later period identified with Siva); Varuna 

 (whose name corresponds to the Greek 'ou^avog, and who in the Veda represents 

 the nightly sky, though he came afterwards to be regarded as god of the 

 ocean) ; Maruts (the winds) ; Ushas (the dawn), &c. The functions assigned 

 to these different deities are various, and their respective provinces are fre- 

 quently confounded. Yaska, the oldest extant interpreter of the Veda, thus 

 classifies the gods who are celebrated in the hymns: — "There are," he says, 

 "according to the etymologists, three deities, Agni, whose place is on earth; 

 Vayu or Indra, whose position is in the atmosphere ; and Surya (the sun), who 

 occupies the sky. These deities receive many appellations in consequence of 

 their greatness, or of the diversity of their functions, just as one and the same 

 man is called by various names denoting different priestly offices ; or the different 

 gods so diversely designated may all be distinct, for the praises addressed to them, 

 and also their appellations, are separate." The same writer, however, regards all 

 these deities as being in reality only manifestations of one supreme Spirit, for he 

 remarks : " From the vastness of the deity, the one Soul is lauded in many ways. 



VOL. XXIII. PART II. Id 



