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OUTLINES OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
been the chief cause of the surprisingly rapid decay of the old-Vedic worship; this decay and at the same time the first germs of philosophical thought we can trace in certain of the later hymns of the Rigveda, as we shall now proceed to demonstrate.
Decay of the Old-Vedic Religion
4. In certain later hymns of the Rigveda there are unmistakeable signs that the ancient creed was falling into disrepute. A beautiful hymn (X. 117) recommends the duty of benevolence without any reference ot the gods, apparently because they were too weak a support for pure moral actions. Another hymn (X. 151) is addressed not to a god but to Faith, and praising the merit of faith, concludes with the prayer: "O Faith, make us faithful." In a time of unshaken faith such a prayer would hardly have been offered. But we have clearer proofs that the oldVedic faith began to fade. In a hymn (ii. 12) to Indra, the principal god of the Vedic Hindu, the poet says: — "the terrible god, whose existence they doubt, and ask 'where is he', nay, whom they deny, saying, “he is not, this god will destroy his enemies like play-things" – and doubts like this occur now and then; but even more frequently we meet passages and entire hymns which evidently ridicule the gods and their worship, more especially that of the god Indra. Everybody in the world, says the hymn ix. 112, pursues his egoistic interests, the joiner hopes for broken wheels, the doctor for broken limbs, the blacksmith looks for customers; I am a poet, says the author, my father is a physician, my mother turns the mill in the
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