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ARTICLE
VI.
ONT}IE
OF THE VEDA.
MORALITY
Br
PROF. RUDOLPH
ROTH,
OFTUBINGEN.
TRANSLATED FROM THE AUTHOR'S MANUSCRIN
BY
WILLIAM
D. WHITNE Y.
YOL. III.
42
ON THE
MORALITY
OF THE
_
VEDA.
332
333
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doubl;y
scandalousthat the presentation
of suchan occurrence shouldhave been allowedplace in a collectionof
hymnsregardedas sacredandinspired.
Thisjudgment,
however,willundergoveryessentialmodificationwhenthe truestateof thecaseis understood.Colebrookehashere(a thingof rareoccurrence
in his thorough
andcarefulresearches)
committed
a seriouserror,and mIsapprehended
not onlythe text of the llymnitself, but also
the commentary
uponit. It is not Yamawho makesthe
attemptat seduction,but Yami (not Yamuna,as Cole
brookewritesit); andherattemptis not to seducehim,but
to persuadehimto a marriage
withher. And the oSence
whichmoralitytakesat the proceeding,
assumesalmosta
comicalappearance,
whenit becomesknownwhoYamaand
Yamiproperlyare. Theyare, as theirnamesdenote,twin
brotherandsister,andarethe firsthumanpair,theoriginatorsof the race! As the Hebrewconceptioncloselyconnectedtheparentsof mankindby miaking
thewomanformed
froma portionof the bodyof the man, so by the Indian
traditiontheyareplacedin the relationship
of twins: this
thoughtis laid by the hymllin questionin the mouthof
Yamillerself,whensheis madeto say: "evenin thewomb
theCreator
madeus for man andwife." A later time, to
whichthese alread5r
fadingmvthswere no longerobjects
of simpledirectbelief,took offenceat the ideaof sucha
unionbetweenbrotherandsister,eventhoughit wereonly
inthe traditionof the originof the humanrace. Andfrom
thismoralscruplesprangthishymn,whereinthepoetmakes
Yamispendall her eloquenceuponllerbrotherto induce
himto becomeherhusband,
buthe firmlyrefusesto comlnit
sucha breachof propriety. Shepleadswith himthat the
Immortals
themselvesdesireto see posterityfromthe solitarymortalwhomtheyhave created;that theirunionwas
ordained
by the C:reator;
that it is not brotherlyliindness
inhimto reJecther. But he retortsthatmencallhimguilty
whoapproaches
his sister; thatthe spiesof the gods,never
resting,go aboutto takenoteof all thatis doneuponearth;
$hata timemayindeedcomewhenbrotherand sistershall
dowhattheirrelationship
forbids,butthathe will notfulfill
herwish.
Thepoet himself,Marfromgiving his sanctionto an act
of sensuality,hasnot suiMered
eventhe ancienttraditionof
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341
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To the questionwhichthe theologian,or ratherthe myssolve, and longsin vain, sinceit lies beyon(lthe reachof his conceptions;the questiollrespecting
whichour own sacredwritingSmaintainsilence: what,
tlC, everlongs to
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the like, the work of a lively fancy. It was not in this picz
ture-worldthat the religiousfeeling found its full satisfacz
tion. It is a seriouserrorto believe that the mythologyof a
Nature-religionexhaustsits whole religiouscontents. The
imagesand traditionsare indeedwhat strike the mind most
strongly,formthe themeof poets andhistorians,arepictured
by art, and symbolizedin the ceremoniesof the altar and
the temple; ;yet along with them, and behind them, still
deeper thoughts stir the heart of the illdividualand of the
nation. To discernand representtheseis seldomattempted,
and is no easy task. But it is c)nethat repays the eSort,
for here, at all periodsand amongall nations, is broughtto
light what is purelyhuman, and what we are better able to
estimatethan the pictoriallanguageof myths,which is conditionedby such variouscircumstancesof tiine and place.
Such a centreof general religiousthought and feeling is
presentedin the ancient Indian doctrineof the relationof
the pious to the gods, of which the chief featuresare above
presented. The sameconceptionformsalso the ground-work
of the Iranianreligion,the recordof which has come down
to us in the Zendavesta,and may- in a less developedform,
indeed have been commonto all the tribes of the great
Indo-Europeanfamily,until partiallyobliteratedby distant
elnigrationX
intercoursewith other nations, and changesin
mannersand habitsof life.
No one will hesitateto allow to these conceptionsa positive moralvalue, and to esteema literaturein which such
ideas are expressed. But the Indian nation has not abode
by them. It has, indeed, carefullytreasuredup, and at a11
times regardedas sacred,the productionsof its earliest period; but it has attachedthe main importanceto a worthless
supplement,and lost froznsight and from knowledge the
truly valuableportion. Only oncein the whole long course
of its later historyhas it enjoyeda periodworthy of being
comparedwith that primitive one: during the first ages,
namely,of Buddhism. Those,then, who arecalled to labor
in the wide field of Indiall missions may confidentlyhold
up beforethe peopleits own antiquityas a model: not in
orderthat it progressno fartherthan that; but that it may
see how its ancestors,in their simplicity,were nearer the
purityof truth than their descendants,in their self-satisfied
arrogance;and how the former cherished none of those
347
areapparently
folliesand errorsin whichtheythemselares
hopingto findtheirsalvationforrlowandhereafter.
Thestudentof antiquity,faXher,experiencesa peculiar
satisfactionin the investigationof this era, for the very
reasonthat the moralvalueof the subjectof his studiesis
to him. The charmof primiw
not a matterof indifference
these ancienthymns in a yet
tivenesswhich surroundLs
is united
poemsof H:omer,
higherdegreethanthe immortal
of
with a nobilityof diction,a pure and freshearnestness
thought,whichare no longerto be met with in the later
of India. Ee findsthe high spiritual
literaryproductions
whichbelongof right to the Indo-European
endowinents
familyof nations,andwhichhaveplacedit foremostin the
world'shostory,still freshandvigorousin the mosteastern
branchof that familyyand notyet disfiguredby the maniwhich:have
viewsandcustorns,
of peculiar
foldexerescences
so deformedthe later Indianpeople,that,were it not for
wouldscarcelyrecognizethem
theEuropean
theirlanguage,
forhis ownhndred.