The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c8.7

c8.7

There is yet another difficulty which should be rated at its right value, not too much and not too little. The primary object of the comparative mythology of the Indo-European peoples is to collect, compare, and sift the religious beliefs of these peoples, so as to determine what they owned as common property before their separation. What now, we hear it frequently asked, about the strange peoples, not Indo-European, nor Aryan, who share these beliefs with the Indo-Europeans or have similar beliefs? Without question, in the earlier stages of the science, similarities which were independent products in different quarters, due to the similar endowment of the human mind, were confused with genetic similarities. By genetic similarities I mean such similarities as transmitted mythological conceptions which were already in vogue among the prehistoric Indo-Europeans, so that they were continued, with later modifications, by the separate branches of the Indo-European peoples. Should not, therefore, this entire subject be handed over to those broader students of Ethnology who investigate human customs, institutions, and beliefs all over the world? Does not the entire subject of the origin and development of religions belong to Ethnology rather than Philology?