The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c3.1

v1.c3.1

IT is the object of this work to present to the student of religion, in objective form and with constant reference to the original sources and to modern discussions, a comprehensive but concise account of the whole of the religion and philosophy of the Vedic period in India. The difficulty of the task lies not merely in the abundance of the original sources, which I have had occasion to study in detail in making my translations of the Taittirīya Saṁhitā and the Brāhmaṇas and the Āraṇyakas of the Rigveda, but also in the extreme divergence of view among modern interpreters of Vedic literature. Doubtless it is owing to this cause that the extraordinary value of Vedic religion to the student of religious belief has been so completely overlooked by Sir James Frazer and Professor S. Reinach in their theories of religion, and that it has been so gravely misinterpreted by Professor Sir William Ridgeway in his essays on the origin of the drama. The account of Vedic religion given in this work will, I trust, do something to restore to that religion its just place in the study of theology.