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India the Land of Religions
least with the history of this conception. Broad as
the ocean, and as uninterrupted in its sweep there
lies before us a period of thousands of years of the
religious thought and practice of the most religious
people in the history of the world.
Now this brings us face to face with the tried and
true fact that the religious history of India does not
really begin at the time when the Veda, the earliest
literature, was composed, but that it begins much
earlier. In the first place, it shares a fairly clear
common life with the ancient religion of Iran (Persia)
in a prehistoric time, the so-called Indo-Iranian or
Aryan period. The reconstruction of these com-
mon religious properties is purely prehistoric. It
partakes of the fate of all prehistoric studies; it is
not definite, but more or less hazy. Yet, such as it
is, it counts fairly with the best that may be achieved
in this way. It is based upon the plainly evident
relationship between the Hindu Veda and the
Persian Avesta, the most ancient sacred books of
the two peoples. No student of either religion
questions that they drew largely from a common
source, and therefore mutually illumine each other.
I am sure that the full meaning of this last state-
ment will appear clearer after a word of explanation.
Students of profane history are accustomed to see
1
¹ See below page 119.
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