Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/29

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India the Land of Religions
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least with the history of this conception. Broad as the ocean, and as uninterrupted in its sweep there lies before us a period of thousands of years of the religious thought and practice of the most religious people in the history of the world.

Now this brings us face to face with the tried and true fact that the religious history of India does not really begin at the time when the Veda, the earliest literature, was composed, but that it begins much earlier. In the first place, it shares a fairly clear common life with the ancient religion of Iran (Persia) in a prehistoric time, the so-called Indo-Iranian or Aryan period.[1] The reconstruction of these common religious properties is purely prehistoric. It partakes of the fate of all prehistoric studies; it is not definite, but more or less hazy. Yet, such as it is, it counts fairly with the best that may be achieved in this way. It is based upon the plainly evident relationship between the Hindu Veda and the Persian Avesta, the most ancient sacred books of the two peoples. No student of either religion questions that they drew largely from a common source, and therefore mutually illumine each other.

I am sure that the full meaning of this last statement will appear clearer after a word of explanation. Students of profane history are accustomed to see

  1. ↑ See below page 119.
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