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RELIGION
CHAPTER XIII
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THE BRAHMIN POSITION
HESE details of the lower phases of religion in
century B.C. have great and
essential similarity with the beliefs held, not only at the same time in the other centres of civilisation,in China, Persia, and Egypt, in Italy and Greece, but also among the savages of then and now. there is a further and more striking resemblance. Sir Henry Maine has said: "Nothing is more remarkable than the extreme fewness of progressive societies- the difference between them and the stationary races is one of the greatest secrets enquiry has yet to penetrate.'
"1
But
Whatever the secret, above and beyond the influence of economic conditions, may have been, we know that civilisation, of a kind at least, extended back in time, on the four great river basins of the Nile and the Euphrates, the Ganges and the Yellow River, not merely through centuries, but through thousands of years, if reckoned from to-day. Yet in
Ancient Law, p. 22.
238
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
