Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c14.29

c14.29

As a source-book it is full of limitations and difficulties. The archaic Sanskrit in which it is written soon lost its precise significance, and by the Indian Middle Ages elaborate commentaries had to be devised to ‘explain’ the ancient text—which often meant forcing elaborately metaphorical interpretations on the misunderstood original. For the student of Aryan religion it gives only a partial picture, since it is concerned almost wholly with a limited group of ceremonies and gods, and many aspects of belief and ritual must be wholly unrepresented. In its interpretation the later works based on it can hardly be disregarded, as, however late their composition, they may often contain ancient elements dating back to the earliest phase, and in any discussion of Aryan religion the *Rigveda* cannot be isolated from its related books such as the *Atharvaveda* and the others.