The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c36.s3.11

v2.c36.s3.11

The very clear differences between the form of the worship of the gods and the reverence paid to the dead² indicate beyond possibility of doubt that the attitude of the living to the dead differed in a marked degree from their attitude towards the gods, a fact which, so far as it goes, is doubtless evidence against the view that the worship of the gods sprang from the worship of men who had died. It is clear, however, that before the period of the Rigveda the tendance of the dead, the giving of gifts to them to use in the life to come, had developed so as to present the definite view that the dead were possessed of great powers, and were in many respects as important to their descendants from the point of view of conferring boons as the gods themselves. It is a question of great interest, but one which is insoluble by any evidence available, whether we are to assume that in the Indo-European period the conception of the divine dead had been developed: there is no evidence of any value to show that it had: we may safely assume that, as even in palaeolithic times in Europe, the dead were buried with due honour and gifts made to them, but the development of divinity may lie within the period of development of the several nations.¹