Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/12

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Contents

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of the Upanishads – The Upanishads in the West – Critical estimate of the Upanishads 1-59

LECTURE THE SECOND.

THE HIERATIC RELIGION. – THE PANTHEON OF THE VEDA.

Fundamental traits of early Vedic religion – False view of the nature of Vedic poetry – The Rig-Veda as sacrificial poetry – Difficulty of understanding the ritual character of the Rig-Veda – Poetry addressed to the Goddess Dawn – A hymn to the sacrifice post – The Goddess Dawn as the symbol of liberality at the sacrifice – Some erroneous estimates of Goddess Dawn – Agni the son of "Baksheesh" – Practical purposes of Vedic poetry – The Rig-Veda contains the religion of the upper classes – The ritual of the Rig-Veda – The āprī-hymns – Nature-worship the keynote of the Rig-Veda – India's climate and nature-worship – Vedic and Hellenic mythology compared – Arrested anthropomorphism – Definition of the word Pantheon as applied to the Veda – Faulty classifications of the Vedic gods – Chronology of the gods – Different degrees of certainty about the origin of the gods – Classification of the gods in these lectures 60-98

LECTURE THE THIRD.

THE PREHISTORIC GODS.

Two prehistoric periods bearing upon Hindu religion – Scepticism about Comparative Mythology – Difficulties in the way of Comparative Mythology – Comparative Mythology and Ethnology – The myth of Cerberus – The Indo-European period – Prehistoric words for god – Father Sky and Mother Earth – The Thunderer – The Vedic Açvins, or "Horsemen," the two Sons of Heaven – The Dioscuri in Greek

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