१३वा ] वेद व वेदांगें. १२९ ह्याप्रमाणे, इतक्या पूर्णतेप्रत मन पावण्याला संव- त्सराची किती शतकें सर्वभक्षी काळाच्या जबड्यांत "And while the claims of the written Records of Indian literature to a high antiquity-its begin- nings may perhaps be traced back even to the time when the Indo-Aryans still dwelt together with the Persa Aryans-are thus indisputably proved by external, geographical testimony, the internal evidence in the same direction which may be gathered from their contents, is no less conclusive. In the songs of the Rik, the robust spirit of the people gives expression to the feeling of its relation to nature, with a spontaneous freshness and simplicity; the powers of nature are worshipped as superior beings, and their kindly aid besought within their several spheres. Beginnings with this nature-worship which everywhere recognises only the individual, phenomena of nature, and those in the first instance as superhuman we trace in Indian literature the progress of the Hindu people through almost all the phases of religious development through which the human mind generally has passed.
The number-already considerable-of these natural duties, these regents of the powers of nature, is further increased by the addition of abstractions, taken from ethical relations; and to these as to the other duties divine powers, personal existence, and activity are ascribed. Into this multitude of divine figures, the spirit of enquiry seeks at a later stage to पुढे चालू.
