404 TH LVDIE L 4D V EifPIRE [CHAP.
Srfddha, or periodical feast of the dead, which has had far-
reaching effects in the development of the theory of sacrifice.
The gods Thus the Vedic gods, like those of Homer, were depart-
depart- mental deities, each nominally invested with a special sphere
mental;
Pantheism. of action; but their offices were constantly being confounded,
and the function of one deity was without hesitation attributed
to another. The worshipper, in fact, never cared to determine
the relative positions of his gods. Swayed by the impulse of
the moment, he invokes now one, now another, to relieve him
from danger or to confer a blessing. Hence the beginnings
of Indian Pantheism, of which the first literary record is the
famous Purusha Hymn of the Rig-veda. But, combined
with these pantheistic ideas, there was in Vedic times a groping
after one Supreme Being. Even at this time the deepest
thinkers began to see dimly that the Atman, or Spirit, pervaded
all things, and that the world and even the gods themselves
were but manifestations of it. Thus at the close of the Vedic
period philosophers had gained the idea of a Father-god,
known as Prajapati, or Visvakarman, names which in the
older Hymns are merely epithets applied to particular gods.
This theory was farther developed in the next period, that of
the Brfhmanas.
The A Brahmana is a digest of the dicta on questions of ritual
lrahmana traditionally ascribed to the earlier teachers, and intended for
period;
e. 800- the guidance of priests. In this period the prevailing tone is
500 B.C. in direct contrast to the graceful poetry and naive speculation
of the Vedic singers. The atmosphere is now that ofreligiosity
rather than of religion. The Aryans were by this time per-
manently settled in Mladhya-desa, the ' Middle Land,' or Upper
Gangetic valley. This was the birthplace of the special form
of faith known as Brahmanism, which in this connexion means
the ritualistic and philosophical development of Vedism. It
had its roots in the older Hymns, but it was a new form of
faith with a new philosophy added. The old theory of the
Atman was developed, until all forces and phenomena were
identified with one Spiritual Being, which when unmanifested
and impersonal is the neuter Brahma; when regarded as a
Creator, the masculine Brahma; when manifested in the highest
order of men, Brahmana, the Brahman Levite class.
The supre- This supremacy of the priestly class had its origin in the
mracyofthe Purohita (praeposituzs, 'he that is placed in front'), the
priest-
hood. family priest, who, as ritual developed, took the place of the
house-father, by whom the earlier and simpler worship had been
conducted. The priests of the Rig-veda were not as yet
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