OBJECTS OF RELIGIOUS CEKEMONIAL 113 



94. Brahman necklace. — Composed of globular beads of wood, 

 Calcutta, India. (Cat. No. 153539, U.S.N.M.) Gift of Lieut. 

 G. B. Harber, United States Navy 



95. Brahman necldace. — Composed of globular beads of wood. 

 Calcutta, India. (Cat. No. 153540, U.S.N.M.) Gift of Lieut. 

 G. B. Harber, United States Navy. 



96. Brahman necldace. — Composed of minute lentil-shaped beads 

 of wood. Calcutta, India. (Cat. No. 153541. U.S.N.M.) Gift of 

 Lieut. G. B. Harber, United States Navy. 



97. Brahman necldace. — Composed of tubular section of some grass. 

 Calcutta, India. (Cat. No. 153542, U.S.N.M.) Gift of Lieut. 

 G. B. Harber, United States Navy. 



6. SACRED BOOKS OF THE HINDUS 



1. The Vedas: Veda in Sanskrit means "knowledge, "especially 

 sacred or inspired knowledge. The Vedas are divided into four parts: 



(1) Rig- Veda; the Veda of hymns or praise, consists of 1,017 hymns 

 arranged in 10 books. They were the gradual product of priestly 

 families who composed and sang them in the conduct of the sacrifices 

 of the early Vedic Aryans, and reflect a polytheistic nature religion, 

 the chief gods addressed being Indra, Soma, Agni, and Varuna. 



(2) Sama-Veda, containing liturgical chants made up of extracts 

 from the Rig- Veda, used at the Soma sacrifice ; that is, the offering of 

 the juice of the soma plant (see p. 89) which was one of the important 

 features of the Vedic religion. It has 1,808 verses and may be con- 

 sidered as a manual of Hindu ritualism. (3) Yajur-Veda, a book of 

 sacrificial formulae, partly in prose, partly in verse, chiefly extracts 

 from the Rig- Veda. The second and third Vedas are thus not orig- 

 inal scriptures, but are scriptures made over into liturgy. (4), 

 Atharva-Veda, containing mostly magic incantations, prayers, and 

 charms for the success in the various affairs of life. It extends to 

 6,000 verses, chiefly compiled from the Rig- Veda and later songs of 

 the Brahmans. Thus the history of the four Vedic books is, first, a 

 simple hymn book of natural religion; secondly, two priestly books 

 which treat the hymns of the first as sacred and made them over into 

 books of ritual; and thirdly, a much later new collection of hymns and 

 pieces in which superstition and priestly speculation appear. 



The authority of the Veda, in respect to all religious questions, is as great in 

 India now as it has ever been. It never was uncontested as little as the author- 

 ity of any other sacred book has been. But to the vast majorities of orthodox 

 believers the Veda forms still the highest and only infallible authority, quite as 

 much as the Bible with us, or the Koran with the Mohammedans.^' 



" F. Max Miiller, Lectures on the origin and growth of religion. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons 

 1879, p. 161. The date of the Vedas is generally set between 1500 and 1000 B. C. 



