The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c32.s8.35

v2.c32.s8.35

Henry,⁵ however, goes much further than this and insists that the Brahman was the first of priests, originally a magician, and that the spell is the primitive form whence prayer has emerged, as from the magician the priest has evolved with the growth of religion. Common as this view is, it is clear that it has no support in historical evidence, as in the Rigveda Brahman, both masculine and neuter, means normally priest and prayer, not magician and spell,⁶ and as a theory of religion it must be held to be as defective as are all theories which endeavour to develop religion from something essentially not religious.⁷