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Our understanding of the history of devotionalism in the Vedic period is hampered by the lack of written records of any form of religion but that of the Aryans who were, as is well-known, relative late-comers to the sub-continent. Of the earlier indigenous traditions of India, our direct knowledge is very limited. Our first in depth exposure to the religion of the sub-continent comes through the scriptures of the Sanskrit-speaking Aryan immigrants, the Vedas, which do give us a fairly good picture of the spirituality of the priestly classes that composed them. The Vedic hymns and especially their later philosophical outgrowths, the Upanisads, reveal types of religiosity which, though containing certain devotional elements that are fairly universal in human religion, are conspicuously lacking in the kind of whole-hearted love of a supreme deity characteristic of the later Hindu tradition. This leads modern scholarship to suspect that the origins of bhakti are to be found apart from the elite Vedic tradition in forms of religion associated with such early cultures as that of the Indus Valley and that of the Dravidians. Though we know little about the spirituality of these peoples, the evidence which we do have lends support to this view. As this data is amply documented in any number of general works on the

25 religion of South Asia, 8 there is no need to repeat it here. I will mention, however, the not so well-known fact, which will be pertinent to our later study, that even as late as the end of the first millenium C.E. the orthodox Vedic tradition regarded such devotional practices as image worship, which originated outside its fold, with extreme suspicion. 9 12 The textual, and indeed the only, source of our knowledge of early Vedic religion is the Rgveda, 10 which has been described as having claim to be "the first literary masterpiece of the human race."ll As revealed in this text, the piety of the ancient Aryan peoples is based primarily upon a reciprocal relationship between the human worshippers and their deities (devas, "shining ones"), the latter traditionally reckoned to be 33 in number. The devas are understood to be intelligent powers that animate and control various aspects of nature and maintain the cosmic order. No supreme personal deity, however, is recognized by the early hymns of the Rigveda The term "polytheism" is therefore commonly applied to Vedic religion, and it is roughly appropriate. Max Muller preferred the term "henotheism" (or "kathenotheism"), which he coined for the purpose, because individual hymns frequently address the particular deva being invoked as if it, for the moment, were supreme. As we shall see, the later hymns of the Rigveda tend to subordinate the

26 various deities to a more abstract underlying reality. view of this, the term "polysyntheism" or "polysynthetic monism," which has been applied to native American 13 religion, may finally be the most appropriate label for the Vedic vision. In this In The Vedic gods, while powerful, are nonetheless not seen as sufficiently different from humankind to demand the kind of total devotion characteristic of bhakti. respect, they may cautiously be compared to the gods of the Greek pantheon. Though they have the ability to bestow favors upon humanity, and do so when satisfied by proper praise and sacrifice, they are regarded by the Vedic seers (rsis) as fellow inhabitants of the same cosmos, with whom humanity works in a partnership that, while unequal, is not excessively so. The predominance of petitions for material boons such as health, long life, and progeny is particularly striking, and, conversely, evidence of the desire for an intimate relationship with the deity purely for the sake of the relationship itself--a key element of bhakti--is scarce. Dhavamony, who is skeptical of the existence of anything resembling bhakti in the Veda, points out that "the love of the worshipper for his god is rather one of family affection."14 The hymns often stress humanity's familial ties with the gods, who share "brotherhood, our kinship in the Mother's womb" and "sameness in race" (sajatya).15

27 Agni, for example, while "father and mother of men" is also "brother and friend" and even "well-loved guest. "16 This praise, we sense, is not given entirely in a spirit of humble supplication any more than it is free from extrinsic We find, in fact, that the rsis themselves have motivation. the power of strengthening the gods through their prayers and sacrificial offerings. 17 In the later Vedic period, this theme is developed to the extent that the gods themselves are understood to be dependent upon the sacrificial offerings for their well-being. 18 The general tone of tender and reciprocal familial affection is, however, deepened on occasion into adoration, as at Rigveda 10.7.3: "Agni I regard as my father, my relation, by brother, my friend; his light will I adore; it shines in # 19 heaven, as holy as the sun. The risis describe themselves as diety-seekers (devayu) and even deity-lovers (devakama).20 Indra's devotees find ecstatic joy in the object of their worship: "In Indra they delight who are fond of visions."21 Moreover, they seek Indra's abode with longing, and desire to attain him: I have beheld his strong and secret dwelling, longing have sought the Founder's [Indra's] habitation. I asked of others, and they said in answer: "May we, awakened men, attain to Indra. "22 Verses such as these have been taken as evidence of the beginnings of bhakti in the Veda. Hopkins, in fact, goes so far as to state that "the bhakti or loving devotion,

28 which some scholars imagine to be only a late development of Hindu religion, is already evident in the Rig Veda, even in its dangerous trend towards eroticism."23 In support of this view, he quotes Rigveda 10.43.1-2 a: All my thoughts, seeking happiness, extol Indra, longing for him; they embrace him as wives embrace a fair young bridegroom, him the divine giver of gifts, that he may help me! My mind is directed to thee, Indra, and does not turn from thee; on thee I rest my desire, O muchinvoked one. 24 This could in fact be a glimpse of a fervent devotional relationship between god and worshipper that is akin to bhakti. In the rest of the hymn, however, the longing for the deity is combined with the archaic symbolism of the soma-ritual in such a way as to cause us to hesitate in making a simple identification between it and the later phenomenon. And there is, of course, the repeated petitionary refrain "that he may help mel", which is of a sort frequent in the Veda but uncharacteristic of the later bhakti literature. Consider also the sentiments expressed in the final verses of the sukta: 鈥� O Much-invoked, may we subdue all famine and evil want with store of grain and cattle. . May Indra from the front, and from the centre, as Friend to friends, vouchsafe us room and freedom. 25 Even if such prayers were directed toward a supreme divinity, one would be hard put to identify them as bhakti. Neither the term bhakti itself nor the verbal root bhaj are used in the Vedic hymns to express worship or love

29 of God. 26 While there are occasional instances of an intense emotional attachment to the deities that is similar to later Hindu devotionalism, the instances remain occasional and the similarities rather vague. To see them as the early expressions of true bhakti, as perhaps the beginnings of Hindu devotionalism, is unwarranted. 27 鈥� If bhakti served the medieval devotionalists as the primary means of human access to the divine, this function was fulfilled for the Vedic rsis chiefly by dhf, "vision" or "inspiration."28 Gonda, in fact, identifies this faculty as "their only possibility of entering into communion with the transcendent reality."29 While this statement should be qualified by reference to the seers' use of ritual and the psychically stimulating juice of the soma plant as auxiliaries, 30 the centrality of dhi in Vedic spirituality is nevertheless unquestionable. Hence the importance of Rigveda 3.62.10, the sacred gayatri: "We meditate on (dhimahi, possibly envision') that most excellent radiance of the god Savitar; may he stimulate our vision (dhiyah)."31 This, the most highly celebrated of Vedic mantras, has since the time of the rsis been imparted to members of the "twice-born" castes in the ceremony of investiture with the sacred thread (upanayana), and is even now recited thrice daily by the orthodox. It is essentially a prayer for the strengthening of the power of spiritual sight. Savitar, however, is not

30 dhr) the only diety petitioned for this boon. Soma is important in this respect; he is praised as the "Lord of vision" because he grants mental power and mystic insight. Sarasvati and Usas are likewise beseeched to bestow dhI.32 According to the tradition, the rsi is to be understood primarily as a "seer" (pasyaka), and Yaska, the ancient etymologist, tells us that the term rsi is itself derived from the root drs, "to see."33 As we might expect from the association of dhi with Savitar, the sun, the power of vision is connected with light and inner illumination. does not, however, seem to be associated with the emotion of love for any deity. It It seems certain, then, that the bhakti tradition is not a simple continuation of, or a direct development from, the spirituality of the Veda. This becomes even more apparent when one considers that the Reveda in its chronologically later portions shows an increasing tendency to identify the gods with each other and, eventually, to identify all with one underlying abstract reality. Here we find the earliest record of that tendency to devalue divine personality in favor of a higher impersonal principle which, while characteristic of much that is most unique in Hindu and Buddhist thought, is so utterly antagonistic to the theistic spirit.

31 These hymns, most of which are found in the tenth In book of the Rigveda, reveal an initially hesitant but nevertheless definite effort to look through and beyond the gods to discover their source in a higher ultimate. 10.82 the Esi is in quest of "that which is earlier than this earth and heaven, before the Asuras and gods had being."34 The chanter at 10.121 echos, "Who was the one God above the gods?"35 The realization is that the devas are not the end of the human quest for being. "The gods," says Rigveda 10.129, "were born after this world's creation."36 The hymns identify that which lies beyond the gods as a single reality, as "That One" (tad ekam) of 10.129, a reality which existed "in the beginning, "37 or the "One Being" of 38 1.164.46, whom the sages are said to name variously. Although certain hymns of the Rigveda and portions of the later brahmanas show some tendency to personify this ultimate as, 39 for example, Visvakarman (the "all-maker"), Purusa (the primal "Person"), 40 or Prajapati (the "Lord of Creatures"), 41 the dominant tendency is to push beyond personality altogether toward a transpersonal ground of being. Especially in Indian thought, when the name (nama ) becomes optional, the form (rupa) becomes indefinite and the personality tends to vanish. Even the high creator figures are seen, in a manner unthinkable in any truly theistic system, to have had an origin in time and to be less than all-knowing:

32 As the Golden Germ he arose in the beginning; when born he was the one Lord of the existent.42 None knoweth whence creation has arisen; And whether he has or has not produced it: He who surveys it in the highest heaven, He only knows, or haply he may know not. 43 In their daring speculations, the seers display a reverent wonder combined with a certain scepticism, the latter directed not so much toward the ultimate itself as toward the adequacy of their attempts to encompass it. Even in their praise of the golden being who is "Lord of the existent" there is a subtle yet insistent questioning, a quiet but none the less urgent probing lest the final reality be missed. In a repeated refrain, the Isis of Rigveda 10.121 ask, "What God shall we worship our oblation? "44 A pronounced sense of humility in the face of the ultimate is evident, and in the end, while the idea of personality seems to be radically questioned, no definite alternative conception is formalized: "Enwrapped in misty cloud, with lips that stammer, hymn-chanters wander and are discontented."45 Given such tendencies, it is not surprising that the next stage in the tradition's development was not theism. The Aryan genius, perhaps under the influence of certain indigenous non-theistic worldviews, was moving in a different direction, toward an intellectual mysticism which looked through and beyond the various personal deities of

33 the Vedic pantheon to an impersonal absolute that lay beyond them.