The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c8.49

v1.c8.49

The Rigveda is not, therefore, among the oldest literary monuments of the world viewed merely from the point of date, but its extent, which is comparable with that of the *Iliad* and the *Odyssey* put together, and the practically exclusively religious character of its contents, make it unique in its revelation of the religion of the Vedic tribes. Of the condition of life of these tribes comparatively little is made known to us, but there is enough to show that the people were divided up among small kingdoms, under hereditary princes, often engaged in war among themselves and still more often involved in conflicts with the ‘dark skins’, over whom they seem normally to have been victorious, perhaps as a result of the body armour which they wore, and the spears and battle-axes of metal—copper, or later iron—which, with the bow, formed their chief weapons in war. They were not merely a pastoral but also an agricultural people, but there is no clear trace of a town life: the forts, which both they and the aborigines owned, were doubtless nothing more than places of refuge, with ramparts of mud or wood, used both in time of war and in time of flood.¹ The richness in gold, which is characteristic of the age, may be compared with the wealth of the Aegean civilization of Crete, but there is no trace of the artistic spirit of the Aegean pre-Hellenic people. Nor is there any sign that large kingdoms had yet appeared: confederations of tribes, such as that of the famous five peoples, Anus, Pūrus, Druhyus, Turvaças, and Yadus, might exist, and we hear even of a battle of ten kings, but these were clearly not lasting federations, but loose unions for war. On the other hand a great homogeneity of culture and religion among the tribes seems to result from the evidence of the Rigveda and to attest the definite and distinctive character of the Vedic people as distinct from the tribes of aborigines.²