80 The Religion 0f the: Vtidii

M --r'

hymns, somewhat in the: manner 0f the: latter Vera» dic schomlss or branches (gawk?) 0f one and the same: Veda,

I.,.argc numbch hf technical, ritualifitic wmflfi and aficpmssimm crmvd the pages (if that Rigvgmin. In; mhtrhs art; finiahcd and cmwemimml tn a wry high degree; they are aim, tn 3mm: uxtmt, (liratt'ihutud among the gnds, m that a. given zt‘mtm i5 zmficmihtml especially with a. certain gcni. Fm insthucu, the giyaz‘rf is; the: Irmtre (3f flu: god Agni; thu- Ink/33ml”? the: metre Qf the: god Indra. Thuyaw £1130 difitl‘ibuttjd 120 some extant mam-cling to the: timu of the day: the: ggfyatri in the morning, the ink/twirl: in: 110011, the jdgatz at evening Abevc: all, the advanced character 0f the Rig~Veda’$ ritual, manifasts itself in the large number 0f different dcaigmxtions fur priests. These: Occur not only singly, but in series : the: names 0f them priests arc: largely, though m1: entiwly, the: mamas of the: prihsts hf the: later cerhmonial.‘

And yet the poetry of the: RiguVeda £53, in a. dacphr sense, original. It is primitive religious poetry, if by primitive we mean uninterrupted cantact with the: last source of its inspiratien. The final judg... ment of its character, after all, depends not so much

t1See: Hillehmndt, Riizmlliitaratur, p. It! fl”, and the literature cited an p. 17 of the same work‘

1'

I 5H:

E l I I