The Mundaka Upanishad, based upon the Atharva Veda (one of the latest,—­the Upanishad being later still), contains this account of the universe:  “As the spider spins and gathers back (its thread); as plants sprout on the earth; as hairs grow on a living person; so is this universe here produced from the imperishable nature.  By contemplation the vast one germinates; from him food (or body) is produced; and thence successively, breath, mind, real (elements) worlds, and immortality resulting from (good) deeds.

“The Omniscient is profound contemplation consisting in the knowledge of him who knows all; and from that, the (manifested) vast one, as well as names, forms, and food proceed; and this is truth."[45]

It is a great blemish upon the Upanishads, that while there are subtle, and in some respects sublime, utterances to be found here and there, the great mass is fanciful and often puerile, and in many instances too low and prurient to bear translation into the English language.  This is clearly alleged by Mr. Bose, and frankly admitted by Max Mueller.[46]

In the common protest which finally broke down the system of Brahmanical sacrifice, and for a time relaxed the rigors of caste tyranny, Buddhism then just appearing (say 500 B.C.), joined hand in hand with the philosophies.  Men were tired of priestcraft, and by a natural reaction they went to an opposite extreme; they were tired of religion itself.  Buddha became an undoubted atheist or agnostic, and six distinct schools of philosophy arose on the basis of the Upanishads—­some of which were purely rationalistic, some were conservative, others radical.  Some resembled the Greek “Atomists” in their theory,[47] and others fought for the authority, and even the supreme divinity, of the Vedas.[48] All believed in the eternity of matter, and the past eternity of the soul; all accepted the doctrine of transmigration, and maintained that the spiritual nature can only act through a material body.  All were pessimistic, and looked for relief only in absorption.

But the progress of Hindu thought was marked by checks and counter-checks.  As the tyranny of the priesthood had led to the protest of philosophy, so the extreme and conflicting speculations of philosophic rationalism probably gave rise to the conservatism of the Code of Manu.  No adequate idea of the drift of Hindu thought can be gained without assigning due influence to this all-important body of laws.  They accomplished more in holding fast the power of the Brahmans, and enabling them to stem the tide of intellectual rebellion, and finally to regain the sceptre from the hand of Buddhism, than all other literatures combined.  Their date cannot be definitely known.  They were composed by different men and at different times.  They probably followed the Upanishads, but antedated the full development of the philosophic schools.