Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c9.2

c9.2

**The Rigveda as the Source of Hindu Civilization.** The Rigveda is established as the earliest work not merely of the Hindus but of all Indo-European languages and of humanity. "One thing is certain," says Max Muller, "namely, that there is nothing more primitive, more ancient than the hymns of the Rigveda, whether in India or the whole Aryan world. Being Aryan in language and thought the Rigveda is the most ancient of our books" [*Origin and Development of Religion*]. But the great paradox that it presents is that though this is the oldest book of India, it does not mark merely the dawn of its culture, but rather its meridian. "We cannot tell how the religion of the Hindus came into being. When we become aware of it, we find it already complete in its broad outlines, its main principles. Not only is it complete, but the farther back we go, the more perfect it is, the more unadulterated, the more closely related to the loftiest speculations of our modern agnosticism" [Maurice Maeterlinck in *The Great Secret*].