The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c6.27

c6.27

And yet, the languages of the Hindu Veda and the Persian Avesta, the respective bibles of the two peoples, are mere dialects of the same speech. Students regularly enter upon the study of the Avestan language through the door of the Veda. Entire passages of the Avesta may be turned into good Vedic merely by applying certain regular sound changes. It is said sometimes that there is less difference between the Veda and the Avesta than between the Veda and the later Hindu Epic, the Mahābhārata. This is, in my opinion, an exaggeration, but it is significant that the statement could be made at all. The early religions and the religious institutions of the Hindus and Persians show, to be sure, far greater independence from one another than their languages, but they are, nevertheless, at the root much the same. So it has come to pass that a not at all mean part of the Vedic Pantheon and Vedic religious ideas begin before the Veda. Or, to put it even more paradoxically, Indian religion begins before its arrival in India.