A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s2.70

v1.c8.s2.70

Just these important differences between the religious views which appear in the songs of the Ṛgveda and those of the succeeding period prove also that these songs do as a matter of fact reflect the popular belief of the old Aryan Indians. Though it is true that the songs of the Ṛgveda cannot really be called "popular poetry," that—for the most part at least—they arose in certain singer-families, in narrow priestly circles, yet we must not think that these priests and singers created a mythology and a system of religion without any consideration of the popular belief. Certainly there may be some things that are told of the gods, which rest only on "momentary fancies of the individual poet," but on the whole we must take for granted that these priests and singers started from popular tradition, that they, as Hillebrandt aptly says, "stood above, but not outside, the people."¹