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- The Jaina Philosophy Egyptians yield little information beyond the names of kings and pyramid-builders and accounts of dynasties and wars. The cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria and Babylon tell us much the same story. And even ancient Chinese records shed little light on the gradual progress of human culture and civilization.
Ancient Hindu works are of a different character. They are defective no doubt as accounts of dynasties, of wars, of so-called historical incidents. On the other hand they give us a full, connected and clear account of the advancement of civilization, of the progress of the human mind, such as we shall seek for in vain among the records of any other equally ancient nation. These are the ancient Vedas of the Hindus, partakes of the Buddhists and Sutras of the Jainas. As to the Vedas Western scholars say that they are the infant outpourings of the simple minded Aryans of ancient times. They also think that they constituted the popular literature of the time. I differ from these views. The Vedic literature is pre-eminently sacerdotal and in no senses a popular one. Neither in the language nor in the thought of the Rig Veda can we discover that quality of primitive natural simplicity which so many are fain to see in it. The poetry it contains is of a singularly refined character and artificially elaborated, full of allusions and reticence, of pretensions to mysticism and philosophic thought; and the manner of its expression is such as reminds one more frequently of the phraseology in use among certain small groups of initiated than the poetic language of a large community. Nor is there any ground for supposing that the Veda has taught us everything on the ancient social and religious condition of even Aryan India, or everything there can be accounted for by reference to it. The fact is that in past as in present other religions have existed alongside of Veda, and some claim to have existed even before the Vedas. So that in order to understand the exact condition of India you have to depend not only on the Vedas but on the religious literature of the Jainas and the Buddhists also.
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