English
In the dim background of history we catch misty glimpses of a great people which had a common culture, a common religion, and a common language, but which in the following centuries through division and migration split up into many groups and thus produced a large number of the leading nations of Europe and of Asia. In the language, religion, and life of their descendants we can still find traces of the common life lived so long ago by the Aryan race. 2. The careful comparison of the religions of the various ancient Aryan peoples enables us to realize in some degree what the religion was in the still earlier days of the undivided people. It seems certain, first of all, that they honoured a vast number of special gods, each of them supposed to over see some distinct aspect of life. But in that primitive age these Aryan men had already another group of gods distin guished as the heavenly ones (deva — dens) from the vulgar throng. They were all natural phenomena, but they were NOTE. — The head-piece above is part of the coping of the rail of the Bharhut Buddhist Stupa now in Calcutta Museum (Cunningham, Stupa of Bharhut, pi, xlii). See below, p. 62. 1 6 OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY also all connected one way or another with the sky and with the grandest of nature's operations. It seems clear that the undivided people already worshipped Sky, Sun, Moon, Dawn, Wind, Fire. But though they regarded and wor shipped them as gods, they still called them by their significant names ; they had not given them proper names or epithets. The usual method of obtaining the help of the gods in those days seems to have been already prayer and sacrifice of a rudimentary kind. In both prayer and sacrifice true religious feeling mingled with belief in the occult power of charmed words and deeds. It was believed that special knowledge was required for both prayer and sacrifice. Hence, the man of skill in these important matters was a person of consequence. The Latin word flamen and the Sanskrit brahman seem both to go back to the Aryan original which was used to designate this embryo priest. The earliest form of sacrifice consisted merely in laying out food and drink on the ground for the gods to come and enjoy. 3. Ancestor-worship was almost as important to the original Aryan people as the worship of the gods. Un civilized people usually believe that the soul survives death and lives a new life apart from the body. But early man, not having been able to reach the idea of spirit as distinct from material substance, conceives the soul as a material thing, and believes that after death it is dependent for its continued existence on food and drink precisely like a living man. In consequence of this, nearly all primitive races have been accustomed to provide food and drink for the departed souls of members of their own family. The food is laid out as for a feast, and the souls of the dead are invited to come and eat and be nourished thereby. We must note carefully that this practice, which is all but universal among the simpler peoples, is a service of souls THE ARYAN PEOPLE 17 and not a worship. The dead are dependent on the family for their nourishment. 4. But these beliefs have passed among many peoples into a more developed stage, where the dead are conceived as being powerful beings, controlling the welfare of the family. When this idea arises, the old service of the dead becomes a worship. The family pays them great reverence, not merely because they are relatives, but in order to secure their loving care over the family. This form of worship, then, had been developed before the original Aryan race split up. 5. The father was the high-priest of the family, and con trolled the worship of the ancestors of the family in all details. He alone knew the peculiar ritual which was traditional in his family, and which had to be maintained unchanged, if the favour of the dead was to be retained. He alone had the power to pass on the rites to his son. As high-priest of the ancestral rites he was the acknowledged head of the family. The reverence and the power which his priestly position brought him made him supreme in the home. He had full power over his wife and his young children, and in many of the nations of a later date his grown-up sons also were completely under his authority. The property of the family was altogether in his hands. This is the source of the patria potestas of Rome, and of the prominent place held by the father in Greece, Persia, India, and among Teutonic and Slavonic peoples as well. 6. This type of family, which is known as the patriarchal, succeeded an earlier and less developed type ; and the changed form of family life produced great and far-reaching results. The first of these was a new consciousness of the unity, sanctity, and value of the family ; and this new and lofty conception produced in turn a great advance in family morality, in family feeling, and family pride. Marriage 1 8 OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY became universal ; for every man wanted a son to take over the worship of the ancestors at his death. Since the father was supreme, and since every family wanted sons, there was a tendency to set less value on woman. In consequence many girl babies were exposed or put to death in every race practising ancestor-worship ; and a woman was held to be of far less account than a man. 7. (Bj The Indo-Iranian People. A certain portion of the mighty Aryan family broke away from the main stock — we do not know when or where — and remained a united people for some time, but finally fell in two, one taking up its abode in Iran, the other moving into the territory on both sides of the upper Indus. This people, the ancestors of the Zoroastrians and of the creators of Hinduism, may be designated Indo-Iranian during the period while they were still one. By inference from the Vedas, the earliest literature of India, on the one hand, and from the Avesta and other Iranian records, on the other, we are able to realize in hazy outline what the religion of this prehistoric people was. The Avesta is the literature produced by Zoro aster and his friends in the great reformation carried out by them about 600 B. c., but it contains many older elements. 8. Clearly considerable advance had been made in con ceiving the heavenly gods ; for there is now quite a group of personalized divinities with definite names and lofty functions. It seems clear that the following at least were fully recognized, Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman, Bhaga, and Indra, and along with them Yama and Soma. Theology had made a good deal of progress ; for they are thought of as spiritual beings, and the natural phenomena from which they originally sprang are now but the medium of their manifesta tion. 9. The sacrifice, meanwhile, had been greatly elaborated. A ritual had been established, and hymns as well as prayers 'THE INDO-IRANIAN PEOPLE 19 accompanied the stated acts. The home of the gods being now consistently believed to be in heaven, it was the common practice to send the sacrifice to them on the flames and smoke of the altar fire. The drink of the gods offered in sacrifice is the juice of a plant called so ma in Sanskrit, haoma in Zend, the language of the Avesta. A special ritual for the offering of this divine drink had appeared, and the drink itself had undergone apotheosis. Soma is already a god. The priests, too, have now far fuller functions and are called by special names. 10. The belief about the dead had also made con siderable progress. Burning had almost universally taken the place of burying, probably from a wish to release the soul as completely as possible from the body and to bear it away on the flame of the pyre to the heavenly regions. For when men die, they are believed to go to heaven, where they join the blessed dead and enjoy immortality with the gods. They are invited to the sacrifices in the same way as the gods. They are believed to be very powerful. NOTE. — The tail-piece below is another part of the coping of the rail of the Bharhut Stupa (Cunningham, Stupa of Bharhut, pi. xliii). Note the animals worshipping the sacred tree. See below, p. 62. B 2 20 OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY Aryevn TABLES The Ary&n Family of Larzguagej? I.Irzdo-Iraraevu- IL Armenian •TD. Greek VI.KelUe VU.Germauic 'Vlll.