A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s2.147

v1.c8.s2.147

Here we already find philosophical theories on life after death and on the destiny of the soul mixed up with the mythological ideas about Agni and the fathers. These are not the only allusions to philosophical ideas, but there are about a dozen hymns in the Ṛgveda which we can designate as philosophical hymns, in which, along with speculations on the universe and the creation, that great pantheistic idea of the Universal Soul which is one with the universe, appears for the first time—an idea, which since that time has dominated the whole of Indian philosophy.