The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c7.s1.20

c7.s1.20

Next come the gods which have been coined in hot haste out of the phenomena of nature in a glowing subtropical climate, or have been imbued anew with the vitality of India's imposing nature. These have not had time to forget their own origin—they are, as I have called them, the gods of arrested personification or arrested anthropomorphism. They are the beacon lights of Vedic religion, of Comparative Mythology, and of the Science of Religion. They are the rare guides and philosophers on this labyrinthine and rocky road; they have made the Veda the training-school of the study of religion. Since they show in a given number of cases just what has taken place, they point the way when the light becomes hazy.