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tween the Veda and the later Hindu Epic, the Mahābhārata. This is, in my opinion, an exaggeration, but it is significant that the statement could be made at all. The early religions and the religious institutions of the Hindus and Persians show, to be sure, far greater independence from one another than their languages, but they are, nevertheless, at the root much the same. So it has come to pass that a not at all mean part of the Vedic Pantheon and Vedic religious ideas begin before the Veda. Or, to put it even more paradoxically, Indian religion begins before its arrival in India.

Yet further, beyond the common period of the Hindus and the Persians, there is a still remoter period which is not entirely closed to our view. It is the common Indo-European time, the time when the Hindus and Persians still shared their language and home with the remaining members of the same stock, the Hellenes, Italians, Celts, Teutons, and Slavs. In this altogether prehistoric time there also existed certain germs of religion, and some of these germs grew into important features of the later religions of these peoples. The religion of the Veda is indebted to this early time to an extent that is not negligible. We shall see later on in what way the two layers of prehistoric religious matter have contributed to and affected