The Indians, anthropologically a mixture of immigrant Aryans and partly autochthonous peoples, gradually elaborated a many-sided, highly developed culture rooted in the archaic structure of the human mind. This culture is characterized by an often almost complete integration of heterogeneous elements, by unity in diversity, by homogeneity despite the utmost variety and complexity of its ethnic and social composition, by a multitude of languages and different cultural patterns, and by a great diversity in mental character and socioreligious customs, cults, beliefs, practices, and ways of life varying widely both regionally and, within the same region, from class to class. Indian culture gives free scope to the emotional and imaginative sides of human nature, to speculative, more or less visionary thinking and modes of apprehension, and it has long preserved the cohesion of its provinces: religion, art, literature, and social organization.

Vedism

The religious life reflected in...