Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present promise of the principal families of men (1897) (14596953818)

Identifier: ridpathshistoryo01ridp (find matches)
Title: Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present promise of the principal families of men ..
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Subjects: World history Ethnology
Publisher: New York, Merrill & Baker
Contributing Library: Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston University



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are to the geologist. There are even to be dis-covered in these works some hints of chronology. It is now conceded that the Rig-Veda is the oldest book in the possession of the human race. It may be that in- 1vestigations here-after among Ori-entals, particularlythe Chinese, maysubstitute someother work for theHindu Bible. It isnow generally ad-mitted that theearliest hymns of the Vedic collectiongo back to wellnigh three thousandyears before our era. The sacredbooks of Zoroastrianism were compiledat a later date. The evidence of lan-guage is sufficient to show that theIranic speech and religious institutionswere developed at a period considerably subsequent to that from which the Rig-Veda proceeded. It is possible that thehymns and ceremonials composing thismost ancient book were sung or chantedby the Aryan tribes long before theydescended into the valleys of India. Itis certain at least that the language waswell forward in evolution of structureand determination of vocabulary while
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TYPE OF THE ANCIENT BRAHM—LEPER KINO OF ANGCORl)rawn by E. Tournois, after a sketch of Delaporte. the Iranians and Indicans still drifted ina common migration toward the southand east. The distribution of the Indie peoples,first into the Punjab and afterwardsinto the lower valleys, thence into theuplands, and finally eastward to thefoothills of the Himalayas, has already 482 GREAT RACES OF MANKIND. been described. It was here that the great race of Brahm expanded through centuries of progress into Expansion of . the race of that fixed national iorm Brahm in India. ^^ ^ disc()ver in the earlier epochs of authentic history.Here the Brahmanic form of worshipprevailed. Here the Indian castes wereestablished in society. Here thosepeculiar philosophical theories of lifeand duty and destiny were evolvedwhich seemed to be an exact reversal ofthe beliefs and dogmas of the Westernnations. It will be the work of a sub-sequent chapter to trace out this eastern-most development of the Aryan peop