Stefan

The Veda 1 7

the shaping of Vedic thought. For the present it will be advantageous to turn to the Vedic religion of historic times, so that there may be some basis for discriminating between what is old and what is new. And as it would not be gra— cious to presume too much knowledge of so remote a. theme as the Veda, we must first describe briefly the documents of which consists the Veda, the most ancient literary monument of India, the most ancient literary document of the IndonEuropean peoPlesw-mthe foundation for all time of India’s religious thought.

THE VEDA

The word redo means literally “knowledge,” that is, “sacred knowledge.” It is derived from aid, “to know," and connected with Greek (F)oidn!, Gothic wait, German amiss, English wit, “to know.” The term Veda is used in two ways: either as the col- lective designation of the entire oldest sacred literature of India, or as the specific name of single books belonging to that literature. So then, on the one hand, We speak of tile Veda as the bible of ancient India; or, on the other hand, we speak of RiguVeda, AtharvamVeda, etc., as individual books of that great collection. The number of books which, in one sense or another, are counted

as Veda is a. hundred or more. The Hindus 2