I will not here enquire what was the original home of the Aryans or whether the resemblances shown by Aryan languages justify us in believing that the ancestors of the Hindus, Greeks, Kelts, Slavs, etc., belonged to a single race and physical type.  The grounds for such a belief seem to me doubtful.  But a comparison of language, religion and customs makes it probable that the ancestors of the Iranians and Hindus dwelt together in some region lying to the north of India and then, in descending southwards, parted company and wandered, one band westwards to Persia and the other to the Panjab and south-east[146].  These latter produced the poets of the Rig Veda.  Their home is indicated by their acquaintance with the Himalayas, the Kabul river, the Indus and rivers of the Panjab, and the Jamna.  The Ganges, though known, apparently lay beyond their sphere, but the geography of the Atharva extends as far as Benares and implies a practical knowledge of the sea, which is spoken of somewhat vaguely in the Rig Veda.  It is probable that the oldest hymns were composed among the rivers of the Panjab, but the majority somewhat further to the east, in the district of Kurukshetra or Thanesar.  At some period subsequent to the Aryan immigration there was a great struggle between two branches of the same stock, related in a legendary form as the contest between the Kauravas and Pandavas.  Some have thought that we have here an indication of a second invasion composed of Aryans who remained in the mountainous districts north of the Hindu Kush when the first detachment moved south and who developed there somewhat different customs.  It is also possible that the Atharva Veda may represent the religious ideas of these second invaders.  In several passages the Mahabharata speaks of the Atharva as the highest Veda and represents the Pandavas as practising polyandry, a custom which still prevails among many Himalayan tribes.

The Rig Veda depicts a life not far advanced in material arts but, considering the date, humane and civilized.  There were no towns but merely villages and fortified enclosures to be used as refuges in case of necessity.  The general tone of the hymns is kindly and healthy; many of them indeed have more robust piety than interest.  There are few indications of barbarous customs.  The general impression is of a free and joyous life in which the principal actors are chiefs and priests, though neither have become tyrannical.

The composition of this anthology probably extended over several centuries and comprised a period of lively mental growth.  It is therefore natural that it should represent stages of religious development which are not contemporaneous.  But though thought is active and exuberant in these poems they are not altogether an intellectual outburst excited by the successful advance into India.  The calm of settlement as well as the fire of conquest have left their mark on them and during the period of composition religion