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India's religions and social characteristics. 237
It is conceded by Oriental scholars that 1200 B.C. the
Aryans were not only a powerful people along the banks of
the Indus, but around the mouths of the Ganges, on the
extreme east of India. This was the latest period that can
possibly be assigned to the Rig-Veda, oldest of the four
Hindoo sacred books. And yet these Aryan seers who
composed the Veda speak, in their sacred works, of " older
hymns which the fathers sang," of " ancient sages and
elder gods." " They were old," says Samuel Johnson, " at the
earliest epoch to which we can trace them. Their religion,
like their language, was already mature when the Rishis of
the Veda were born." Marriages in this period were performed
by the Maharajas, or by the father of the bride ;
while the Rishis—seers or wise teachers— instructed the
children, offered sacrifices, and spoke comforting words over
the dead.
Sacrifices have in them an underlying truth. On 'the
higher planes of thought, they imply the consecration of the
dearest possessions to the highest ideal. On the lower,
superstitious stratum of life, the term " sacrifice " is made to
mean the shedding of blood, and the remission of sins.
The primitive Aryans offered three gifts as sacrifices, —
fire, clarified butter, and the plant whose juices stimulate
to a new life. The Jews offered goats and kids, heifers and
rams. Certain superstitious Hindoos, in their degenerate
present, engage in similar sacrifices. Enlightened men and
women sacrifice strength, ease, comfort, to educate and
bless humanity.
Owing to wealth, luxury, and multiplying responsibilities
of the earliest Maharajas, they employed the Rishis as substitutes
in religion, — employed them to attend to the sacrificial
gifts, and serve as mediums of communication between
them and their gods. How natural for Rishis, seers, prophets,
to slide into the attitude of priests ! Thus employed,
these seers, alias priests, soon assumed authority, and professed
supernatural powers; and knowing something of