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CHAPTER I
SEEDS OF PARIŅĀMA IN THE EARLIEST SANSKRIT
LITERATURE (2500 B. C.- 200 B. C.)
Introductory :
The earliest source of religion and philosophy as they have takeņ shape in Indian culture is the Vedas, especially the Rgveda. The theory of Pariņāma which I propose to study in the present thesis can be properly understood if we first attempt to discover from the earliest sources i.e. the Vedic sources, those tendencies of thought that helped in its emergence and development in the darśanic form. I shall, therefore, first take notice of those speculations in the Vedas, particularly the Rgveda, which can throw light on this topic.;
THE RGVEDA
(2000 or About 2500 B.C.):
Speculations as to how this whole world came into being are to be found scattered throughout the whole of the Rgveda. “The earliest speculations on the question”, as Prof. Belvalkar says, “are, as natural, mainly poetic with hardly any attempt at systembuilding. They name some god or gods Indra, Varuņa, Savits or Dyāvāpşthivi - and credit him or them with the work of creating the world”.: However, in the later portions of the Rgveda, espe
tures . Prof. Radhakri about
1 Winternitz, 'History of Indian Literature', Vol. I, p. 310.
Jacobi puts the Vedic hymns at 4500 B. C. Prof. Radhakrishnan assigns them to the 15th cent. B. C. Max Muller dates them about
1200 B.C. 2 History of Indian Philosophy, Vol. II, p. 22.
