Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c17.s2.27

c17.s2.27

264. It hardly falls within the scope of this book to discuss in any detail the subject-matter of the popular Rigveda, which opens a world of thought entirely different to that of the Rigveda proper, and records for us the first distinctively Indian efforts to lay the foundations of philosophy, cosmology, and magic. But a few concluding words may be devoted to those myths of which a considerable number are to be found in the popular Rigveda, and which appear to constitute its earliest part: since in the mythical hymns the linguistic forms of the Rigveda proper and the popular Rigveda are used side by side. The Rigveda proper is not altogether deficient in myths, but they are baldly related and generally in single stanzas; as for instance the warlike deeds of Indra and the clever rescues of the Aśvinā. But in the popular Rigveda myths appear in a dramatic form, and the theme is not historical but social: here too the poets for the first time wrestle with the moral and aesthetic problems associated with the relationship of man to woman. In these myths the woman generally appears as the temptress, not perhaps so much from a sensual impulse as from the desire of children: whilst the duty of the man is always abstinence, without any regard even to the claims of marriage. We find in fact the germ of the ascetic theories which afterwards became so firmly rooted both in Brahmanism and in Buddhism, and which have spread thence over the Western world. Such theories stand in striking contrast to the patriarchal sentiments of the Rigveda proper and of all other national religions, and the question of their origin seems to call for investigation. One suggestion may be made here by the way. It seems probable enough that Aryan princes may often have been led by native wives away from the practices of the Brahmanic religion, and in particular from liberality to the Brahmans themselves: and thus that an opposition of interests between priests and queens may have become traditional.