14 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
religion, that is, the part of conduct which was determined by his relation to the gods, was simply one side of the general scheme of conduct prescribed for him by his position as a member of society. There was no separation between the spheres of religion and of ordinary life. Every social act had a reference to the gods as well as to men, for the social body was not made up of men only, but of gods and men.”
Thus in ancient Society men and their Gods formed a social and political as well as a religious whole. Religion was founded on kinship between the God and his worshippers. Modern Society has eliminated God from its composition. It consists of men only.
The second point of difference between antique and modern society relates to the bond between God and Society. In the antique world the various communities
“believed in the existence of many Gods, for they accepted as real the Gods of their enemies as well as their own, but they did not worship the strange Gods from whom they had no favour to expect, and on whom their gifts and offerings would have been thrown away…. Each group had its own God, or perhaps a God and Goddess, to whom the other Gods bore no relation whatever.” [1]
The God of the antique society was an exclusive God. God was owned by and bound to one singly community. This is largely to be accounted for by
“the share taken by the Gods in the feuds and wars of their worshippers. The enemies of the God and the enemies of his people are identical; even in the Old Testament ‘the enemies of Jehovah’ are originally nothing else than the enemies of Israel. In battle each God fights for his own people, and to his aid success is ascribed; Chemosh gives victory to Moab, and Asshyr to Assyria; and often the divine image or symbol accompanies the host to battle. When the ark was brought into the camp of Israel, the Philistines said, “Gods are come into the camp; who can deliver us from their own practice, for when David defeated them at Baalperazim, part of the booty consisted in their idols which had been carried into the field. When the Carthaginians, in their treaty with Phillip of Macedon, speak of “the Gods that take part in the campaign, “they doubtless refer to the inmates of the sacred tent which was pitched in time of war beside the tent of the general, and before which prisoners were sacrificed after a victory. Similarly an Arabic poet says, “Yaguth went forth with us against Morad” ; that is, the image of the God Yaguth was carried into the fray”
Smith Ibid