[61] Vendîdâd, xix. 28 sqq. Yasts, xxii. Bundahis, ch. xxx. Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad ii. 123 sqq. ch. vii. Ardâ Vîrâf, ch. xvii. Cf. Geiger, Civilization of the Eastern Irānians, i. 101.
[62] Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad, ii. 125, 167 sqq.
[63] Yasts, xxiv. 30.
[64] Geiger, op. cit. i. 73. See also Yasts, xii. 335; xxiv. 39, 47 sq.; Darmesteter, Ormazd et Ahriman, p. 28.
In Vedic religion we likewise meet with a conflict between gods and demons, but the struggle is too unequal to result in anything like the Zoroastrian dualism.[65] Various misfortunes are attributed to the ill-will of evil spirits, but their power is comparatively slight, and the greater demons, like Vṛtra, are represented as defeated or destroyed by the gods.[66] On the other hand there is among the great gods themselves one who has a distinctly malevolent character, namely Rudra, a god of storm,[67] “terrible like a wild beast”;[68] but though the hymns addressed to him chiefly express fear of his dreadful shafts and deprecations of his wrath, he is also sometimes supplicated to confer blessings upon man and beast.[69] With this exception the great gods are all beneficent beings,[70] though of course liable to punish those who offend them. Varuna has established heaven and earth,[71] has made the celestial bodies to shine[72] and the rivers to flow.[73] He rules over nature by laws which are fixed and immutable, and which must be followed by the gods themselves.[74] He sees and knows everything, because he is the infinite light and the sun is his eye;[75] and in connection with Mithra he is said to dispel and punish falsehood.[76] Varuna has even been represented as “the supreme moral ruler,” but it seems to me that scholars have generally credited him with a somewhat more comprehensive sense of justice than the hymns imply.[77] Every hymn to Varuna contains a prayer for forgiveness, but there is no indication that the sins which excite his wrath include ordinary moral wrongdoing. That sin and moral guilt are not identical conceptions in the Rig-Veda is fairly obvious from the fact that forgiveness of sin is also sought from Indra,[78] whose favour is only won by those who contribute to his wellbeing or who destroy persons neglectful of his worship.[79] The Vedic religion is pre-emiently ritualistic. The pious man par préférence is he who makes the soma flow in abundance and whose hands are always full of butter, the reprobate man is he who is penurious towards the gods;[80] and just like the other gods, Varuna visits with disease those who neglect him,[81] and is appeased by sacrifices and prayers.[82] After death the souls of those who have practised rigorous penance,[83] of those who have risked their lives in battle,[84] and above all of those who have bestowed liberal sacrificial gifts,[85] go with the smoke arising from the funeral pile to the heavenly world, where the Fathers dwell with Yama—the first man who died[86]—and Varuna, the two kings who reign in bliss.[87] There they enjoy an endless felicity among the gods, clothed in glorious bodies and drinking the celestial soma, which renders them immortal.[88] Yet there are different degrees of happiness in this heavenly mansion. The performance of rites in honour of the manes causes the souls to ascend from a lower to a higher state; indeed, if no such offerings are made they do not go to heaven at all.[89] Another source of happiness for the dead is their own pious conduct during their lifetime; for in the abode of bliss they are united with what they have sacrificed and given, especially reaping the reward of their gifts to priests.[90] Unworthy souls, on the other hand, are kept out of this abode by Yama’s dogs, which guard the road to his kingdom.[91] As to the destiny in store for those who are not admitted to heaven, the hymns have little to tell. Zimmer and others erroneously argue that a race who believe in future rewards for the good must logically believe in future punishments for the wicked.[92] So far as I can see, all the traces of such a belief which are to be found in the Vedic literature are requests made to gods, or simply curses, to the effect that evil-doers may be thrown into deep and dismal pits under the earth.[93] They do not imply that gods of their own accord punish wicked people after death.
[65] Cf. Barth, Religions of India, p. 13.
[66] Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, p. 281. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. 18.
[67] Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, v. 147. Barth, op. cit. p. 14. Macdonell, op. cit. p. 77.
[68] Oldenberg, op. cit. pp. 63, 281, 284. Macdonell, op. cit. p. 18. Bergaigne, La religion védique, iii. 152 sqq.
[69] Macdonell, op. cit. p. 75 sq.