DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.635#0017
4 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY
" Friend of the home, the strong and youthful maiden,
Night, dear to Savitar the god, and Bhagu,
All-compassing, all-glorious, prompt to listen, hath with her
greatness filled the earth and heaven.
Over all depths hath she gone up, and mounted, Most Mighty One,
the sky's exalted summit.
Over me now the loving Night is spreading with her conspicuous
God-like ways like Mitra.
Excellent, high-born, blissful, meet for worship, Night, thou hast
come; stay here with friendly spirit.
Guard us the food for men that we have gotten, and all prosperity
that comes of cattle."
—Atharva Veda. Book xix, 49. Griffith's translation.
They had no idols, and the nature-gods whom they
worshipped provided their only temples. The Aryan
ritual consisted of burnt-sacrifices, oblations of clarified
butter, and libations of soma-juice or milk, accom-
panied by hymns of praise and prayer. Far back in
time, in that dim region which modern historical
telescopes are ever trying to explore, the father of
the family was both sacrificer and priest; but when
the Aryans appeared in India, their ritual had already
become so complicated as to call for a separate class
of priests and poets, like the Druids—the Brahmins
of ancient Europe. Caste was still unknown, but the
poets and thinkers of the people had already begun
to concern themselves with those speculations regard-
ing the origin of all things which form the basis of
modern Hinduism:—
" There was neither existence, nor non-existence,
The kingdom of air, nor the sky beyond.
What was there to contain, to cover in—
Was it but vast, unfathomed depths of water?
There was no Death there, nor Immortality.
No sun was there, dividing day from night.
" Friend of the home, the strong and youthful maiden,
Night, dear to Savitar the god, and Bhagu,
All-compassing, all-glorious, prompt to listen, hath with her
greatness filled the earth and heaven.
Over all depths hath she gone up, and mounted, Most Mighty One,
the sky's exalted summit.
Over me now the loving Night is spreading with her conspicuous
God-like ways like Mitra.
Excellent, high-born, blissful, meet for worship, Night, thou hast
come; stay here with friendly spirit.
Guard us the food for men that we have gotten, and all prosperity
that comes of cattle."
—Atharva Veda. Book xix, 49. Griffith's translation.
They had no idols, and the nature-gods whom they
worshipped provided their only temples. The Aryan
ritual consisted of burnt-sacrifices, oblations of clarified
butter, and libations of soma-juice or milk, accom-
panied by hymns of praise and prayer. Far back in
time, in that dim region which modern historical
telescopes are ever trying to explore, the father of
the family was both sacrificer and priest; but when
the Aryans appeared in India, their ritual had already
become so complicated as to call for a separate class
of priests and poets, like the Druids—the Brahmins
of ancient Europe. Caste was still unknown, but the
poets and thinkers of the people had already begun
to concern themselves with those speculations regard-
ing the origin of all things which form the basis of
modern Hinduism:—
" There was neither existence, nor non-existence,
The kingdom of air, nor the sky beyond.
What was there to contain, to cover in—
Was it but vast, unfathomed depths of water?
There was no Death there, nor Immortality.
No sun was there, dividing day from night.