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S
THE SACRED BOOKS
many races. Most numerous and powerful among these were
the Hindus, who had dominated the land for three thousand
years. There had been occasional foreign invasions and conquests
of Greeks under Alexander, of wild Scythian tribes,
of fierce Mohammedan fanatics but, on the whole, the
Hindus had retained a permanent supremacy.
These Hindus were of Aryan stock that same strong and
from whom
highly intelligent people of remote antiquity
have sprung the Persians with their Zend-Avesta, the Greek
and Koman world-conquerors, and every dominating nation
of Europe and America to-day. The Hindus by their long
association with the Eastern peoples had become markedly
different from the Western Aryan races; yet in many ways
they seem closer to our remote Aryan ancestors than do any
other people of to-day.
For one thing, the Hindus' unchanging residence and unbroken
supremacy of three thousand years had enabled them
to retain a vast amount of ancient and almost purely Aryan
writings, such as no other modern Aryan stock possesses.
We have recovered recently some portion of the ancient Persian
literature. We recovered, about five centuries ago, what
was probably the best of ancient Greek. But the Hindu
texts, older than the Greek, and perhaps even older than the
oldest Persian, had never been lost, and had continuously
taught and dominated the Hindu civilization.
When Britain conquered India this wonderful literature
was not immediately revealed to us. It was hidden by the
Brahman priesthood, as a sacred treasure. Only by very
slow degrees did Western scholars get any word of it
or any
hint as to its value. Then, there came that epoch of tremendous
enthusiasm, when Western readers declared that the
climax of all wisdom was heaped up within the old Hindu
books. With them, all spiritual meditation and philosophy
were said to begin and end. This period of extravagant
praise has passed, and we are ready now to look into this
voluminous and ancient Aryan literature and form a calmer
estimate of its worth.
Hindu thought is complex, intricate, almost childish at