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26 Works of Pandit Guru Datta Vidyarthi
the
ignorance
of men, the
yaugika
meanings of the Vedic words were
forgotten, and proper names interpreted instead, there grew up a
morbid mythology, the curse of modern idolatrous India. That
mythology may thus arise on account of the decay of the primitive
meaning of old words, even Professor Max Muller admits, when
speaking of the degeneration of truth into mythology by a process,
he styles
'dialectic growth and decay,'
or dialectic life of religion. He
says:
"It is well known that ancient languages are particularly rich
in synonyms, or, to speak more correctly, that in them the same
object is called by many names — is, in fact, polynymous. While in
modern languages most objects have one name only, we find in
ancient Sanskrit, in ancient Greek and Arabic, a large choice of
words for the same object. This is perfectly natural. Each name
could express one side only of whatever had to be named, and not
satisfied with one partial name, the early framers of language
produced one name after the other, and after a time retained those
which seemed most useful for special purposes. Thus the sky might
be called not only the brilliant, but the dark, the covering, the
thundering, the rain giving. This is the polynomy of language,
and it is what we are accustomed to call polytheism in religion."
Even, in the face of these facts, European scholars are so very
reluctant to leave their pre-conceived notions that, as an example
of the same influence, Fredrick Pincott writes to me from England:
"You are right in saying that the commentators, now so much
admired, had very little, if any, better means of knowledge on Vedic
Terminology that we have at present. And you are certainly right
in treating the Puranas as very modern productions; but you are
wrong in deducing India's mythological notions from such recent
works. The Rig Veda itself, undoubtedly the oldest book which
India possesses, abounds in mythological matter."
Does "you are certainly right," and "you are wrong" amount
to any proof of the Vedas abounding in mythology? But further he
says, "After the great shock which the spread of Buddhism gave to
the old Indian form of faith, the Brahmans began to make their
faith seriously philosophical in the
Darshanas.
Of course, many
bold philosophical speculations are found in the
Upanishats,
and
* Max Muller, A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p.276-277.