The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c11.s1.1

v1.c11.s1.1

While the literary evidences for Vedic religion are of quite exceptional value and importance, it must be admitted that of other material for realizing the mode in which the gods were conceived there is none available :¹ we have not the statues and other forms of representation, such as paintings, coins, seals, statuettes, &c., which are of such value in the case of Greek religion. No Indian art products or coins of the early Vedic period have been discovered, and that any should so be discovered is most improbable. On the other hand, great value attaches to the Avesta as a source for the understanding of Vedic religion. The close similarity in form of the Avestan language and the Vedic is beyond all doubt : certain changes in sounds² make indeed an apparent external divergence, but the vocabulary, the formation of words, and the syntax correspond with much exactitude, and, what is even more important, the verses of the Avesta often breathe the same religious spirit as those of the Rigveda. The similarity of religious views in the pre-Zoroastrian period must have been of the most close and striking type : the prose formulae of the Veda no less than the verses show a profound likeness of form and content, and the practical identity of modes of thought between Iran and India is sufficiently indicated by the striking parallelism between the form of parts of the Buddhist canon and the Iranian literature. The extraordinary similarity of view as of speech, indeed, makes it hard to believe in any early separation of these two branches of the Indo-European family, and suggests that they must have continued to be in close touch with one another until a comparatively late period, when the advance of the Vedic section towards India interposed difficulties of communication between them and the Iranian tribes, and gave a decisive turn to divergences of view which were beginning to form themselves in the Aryan community. The divergence from the common religion of the still undivided Aryans is clearly far greater in the case of the Avesta : there is no good ground to doubt that its present form is the result of the definite individuality of Zoroaster at a comparatively late date,³ though doubtless he merely brought to a head tendencies which had been developing before his time. Under that change much of the old Aryan mythology disappeared or was deeply altered, and it is, therefore, the more remarkable that so much similarity should remain.