India the Land of Religions 13

least with the history of this conception. Broad as

it? the ocean, and as uninterrupted in its sweep there

- lies before us a period of thousands of years of the religious thought and practice of the most religious people in the history of the world.

N ow this brings us face to face with the tried and!

true fact that the religious history of India does not,

really begin at the time when the Veda, the earliest 3%, MW

literature, was composed, but that it begins much i

earlier. In the first place, it shares a fairly clear

common life with the ancient religion of Iran (Persia)

in a prehistoric time, the so-called Indo-Iranian or Aryan period.ll The reconstruction of these com- mon religious properties is purely prehistoric. It partakes of the fate of all prehistoric studies; it is not definite, but more or less hazy. Yet, such as it

is, it counts fairly with the best that may be achieved

in this way. It is based upon the plainly evident

" relationship between the Hindu Veda and the Persian Avesta, the most ancient sacred books of the two peoples. No student of either religion questions that they drew largely from a common

, . source, and therefore mutually illumine each other.

I am sure that the full meaning of this last state»

ment will appear clearer after a word of explanation.

Students of profane history are accustomed to see

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