Life in Ancient India in the Age of the Mantras

Abstract

THIS little book is a good example of the kind of work which native Indian scholars are competent to undertake. The author wisely leaves to European scholars the comparative study of ancient Hindu beliefs and custom. He has undertaken the more useful, if less ambitious, task of analysing the Vedic Mantras, that is to say, the older collection of hymns, as contrasted with the Brahmanas or ritualistic treatises which supplement them. He brings together in a systematic, readable form the scattered references illustrating belief and custom. On the religious side he quotes the original texts describing the priest and his duties, magic, sacrifice, the fire cult, and the state of the soul after death. In the social department he deals with the king and his nobles, agriculture and other occupations, medicine and surgery, household life, war, sea voyages, amusements, the status of women, and so on. In each case he gives literal translations of the original texts, either made by himself or collected from authoritative versions, with detailed references to the originals. The value of such a collection is obvious, and the work, so far as it goes, has been carefully and judiciously carried out. In a new edition he would do well to replace the extracts in Sanskrit, which is unintelligible to most European anthropologists, by a Latin version in those cases where it is impossible to give an English rendering.