577 



VEDA. 



VEDA 



678 



A knowledge of it is imparted by a class of writings, the Kalpa works, 

 which will be treated of hereafter. Good care was taken by their 

 authors, or the authorities whence their contents are derived, that no 

 man who intended to perform a regular sacrifice (a yajamdna), could 

 satisfy his religious want which was always connected with some 

 worldly desire, such as the birth of a son, increase of cattle, attainment 

 of military renown, conquest, and the like without the assistance of 

 one or more priests, who as a matter of course always belonged to the 

 Brahman'a caste. There were sacrifices which lasted one day, others 

 which went on from two to eleven days, others which took up as 

 many as a hundred days. Accordingly, to perform some sacrifices one 

 Ritwij, or priest, sufficed ; or, to complete others, four, five, or six 

 priests were necessary ; their fullest complement, [however, is the 

 number of sixteen, for a seventeenth R'itwij the Sadatya, or super- 

 intendentis not admitted by all authorities ; and the assistants of the 

 priests the slayer, the butcher, the ladle-holder, the choristers, &c. 

 are not counted amongst the R'itwijs or real priests. 



This full contingent of priests is enumerated by As'walayana (S'rauta 

 Sutra, iv. 1) in the following way. First comes the Hotr'i, who has 

 under him three men (puruiha), the Maitrdvarun'a, Achchhavaka, and 

 Gravastut ; secondly, the Adhwaryu, with the Pratiprasthat'ri, Neshtr'i, 

 and Unnetr'i ; thirdly, the Brahman , with the Brahman'achchhansin, 

 Agnldhra (or, Agnidh), and Potri ; lastly, the I'dyat'ri, with the Pras- 

 totr'i, Pratihart'ri, and Subrahman'ya (comp. Muller, ' Anc. Sansk. Lit.,' 

 pp. 468, 469, where, by a mistake, some of the puruiha* of the Brah- 

 man and the Udg&lri have changed their places). The same class 

 arrangement, though sometimes in a different order, occurs likewise in 

 other authorities (for example, Katydyana S'r. S. vii., 1,6; Madhava 

 Jaimlnlyanydy, iii. 7,17 ; see also the note top. 209, in Wilson's second 

 volume of his translation of the R'igveda). 



Now, of these R'itwijs, the Kalpa works enjoin that the Adhwaryu 

 has to perform his duties with the Yajurveda, the Udgat'ri with the 

 Samaveda, the Hotr'i with the R'igveda, and that the Brahman " has to 

 set right any deficiency that may have occurred in the religious acts of 

 the three former priests ; he must, therefore, be acquainted with all 

 the three Vedas the Rig-, Yajur-, and Sama-veda " (' Madhava Jaiml- 

 nlyanyay,' iii. 7, 17 ; vi. 3, 14 ; Muller, ' Anc. Sansk. Lit.,' p. 469, f ) It 

 may.be added, moreover, that the Adhwaryu had to mutter, inaudibly, 

 the verses of the Yajurveda, that the Udgat'ri had to chant those of the 

 Samaveda probably in the same manner as the Pentateuch is intoned 

 up to this day by the officiating Jews in their synagogues and that the 

 Hotr'i had to recite in a loud voice the verses of the R'igveda. 



It follows, therefore, that each of these Vedas had its distinct cere- 

 monial ; but that no ceremonial was assigned to, and that no dis- 

 tinct priest or class of priests had to use, the hymns of the Atharva- 

 veda. " The Atharvaveda," says Madhusudana, " is not used for 

 the sacrifice ; it only teaches how to appease, to bless, to curse, Sic." 

 " Its songs," as Professor Muller observes (' Anc. Sansk. Lit.' p. 447), 

 " formed, probably, an additional part of the sacrifice from a very early 

 time. They were chiefly intended to counteract the influence of any 

 untoward event that might happen during the sacrifice. They also 

 contained imprecations and blessings, and various formulas, such as 

 popular superstition would be sure to sanction at all times and in all 

 countries." And the same scholar infers that it was probably part of 

 the office of the Brahman priest, also, to know and to apply these songs, 

 whenever their effect was supposed to be required for remedying any 

 mistake committed by the other three classes of priest*. At all events, 

 it is certain that the Atharvaveda is not comprised among the sacri- 

 ficial Vedas, and that its later date may be safely concluded from its not 

 being mentioned in those works which regulate the ancient rites, even 

 if such posteriority were not recognisable from the language of those 

 of its hymns which do not occur in the other Vedas. 



By comparing, however, the contents of the three sacrificial Vedas 

 with the ritual precepts of the Kalpa works, we may ascertain another 

 important fact. All the verses of the Yajurveda and all the verses of 

 the Samaveda are used in one sacrificial act or another. Such, how- 

 ever, is not the case with the verses of the R'igveda, Many of the' 

 latter, indeed, are likewise indispensable for sacrificial purposes, as we 

 are taught by the ritual books connected with this Veda ; yet a good 

 number remain, which stand quite aloof from any ceremony. This 

 class bears purely a poetical or mystical character ; and it may be fairly 

 inferred that even the strong tendency of later ages to impress an 

 entirely sacrificial stamp on each of these Vedas, broke down before 

 the natural and poetical power that had evidently called forth these 

 songs, as it rould not incorporate them amongst the liturgic hymns. 

 We may quote, for instance, a hymn from the tenth Mandala of the 

 R'igveda (from Colebrooke's ' Misc. Ess.,' i. p. 33), as an illustration of 

 those which belong to the mystical poetry of this Veda. It runs thus 

 "Then there was no entity nor nonentity; no world, nor sky, nor 

 aught above it ; nothing anywhere in the happiness of any one, 

 involving or involved ; nor water deep and dangerous. Death was 

 not ; nor then was immortality ; nor distinction of day or night. But 

 THAT breathed without afflation, single with (SieadhA) her who is 

 within him. Other than him, nothing existed (which) since (has 

 been). Darkness there was; (for) this universe was enveloped with 

 darkness, and was undistinguishable (like fluids mixed in) waters ; but 

 that maiw, which was covered by the husk, was (at length) produced 

 by the power of contemplation. First, desire was formed in his 



A111-, A.NU SCI. CIV. VOL. VIII. 



mind, and that became the original productive seed ; which the 

 wise, recognising it by the intellect in their hearts, distinguish, in 

 non-entity, as the bond of entity. Did the luminous ray of these 

 (creative acts) expand in the middle ? or above ? or below ? That 

 productive seed at once became providence (or sentient souls) and 

 matter (or the elements) : she, who is sustained within himself, was 

 inferior ; and he, who heeds, was superior. Who knows exactly, and 

 who shall in this world declare, whence and why this creation took 

 place ? The gods are subsequent to the production of this world ; 

 then who can know whence it proceeded ? or whence this varied world 

 arose ? or whether it uphold itself or not ? He who in the highest 

 heaven is the ruler of this universe, does indeed know ; but not another 

 can possess this knowledge." 



An instance of another kind of R'igveda hyrnns, which cannot have 

 served any sacrificial purpose, is given by Professor Muller in his excel- 

 lent work on 'Ancient Sanskrit Literature' (p. 495). It bears a satirical 

 character, inasmuch as it ridicules the elaborate ceremonial of the 

 Brahmans, and is rendered by him thus : " After lying prostrate for a 

 year, like Brahmans performing a vow, the frogs have emitted their 

 voice, roused by the showers of heaven. When the heavenly waters 

 fell upon them, as upon a dry fish lying in a pond, the music of the 

 frogs comes together like the lowing of cows with their calves. When 

 at the approach of the rainy season, the rain has wetted them as they 

 were longing and thirsting, one goes to the other while he talks, like a 

 son to his father, saying, ' akkhala ! ' (/3p(KfKf( Koa|(coa|). One of 

 them embraces the other, when they revel in the shower of water ; and 

 the brown frog jumping after he has been ducked, joins his speech 

 with the green one. As one of them repeats the speech of the other, 

 like a pupil and his teacher, every limb of them is, as it were, in 

 growth, when they converse eloquently on the surface of the water. 

 One of them is Cow-noise, the other Goat-noise ; one is Brown, the other 

 Green ; they are different though they bear the same name, and modu- 

 late their voices in many ways as they speak. Like Brahmans at the 

 Soma sacrifice of Atirati-a, sitting round a full pond, and talking, you, 

 frogs, celebrate this day of the year when the rainy season begins. 

 These Brahmans with their Sotua have had their say, performing the 

 annual rite. These Adhwaryus, sweating whilst they carry the hot 

 pota, pop out like hermits. They have always observed the order of 

 the gods as they are to be worshipped in the twelvemonth ; these men 

 do not neglect their season ; the frogs who had been like hot pots 

 themselves, are now released when the rainy season of the year sets in. 

 Cow-noise gave, Goat-noise gave, the Brown gave, and the Green gave 

 us treasures. The frogs, who give us hundreds of cows, lengthen our 

 life in the rich autumn." In another hymn of the last Mandala a 

 gambler laments over his evil passion, which beguiles him into sin. 

 All these and similar hymns are evidently of quite a different charac- 

 ter than those which praise the power of the elementary gods, and 

 could find their place in sacrificial acts. 



But there is further evidence to show that the collection of tho 

 R'igveda cannot have borne originally a ritual stamp. When songs are 

 intended only for liturgic purposes, they are sure to be arranged in 

 conformity with the ritual acts to which they apply ; when, on the 

 contrary, they flow from the poetical or pious longings of the soul, 

 they may, in the course of time, be used at, and adapted for, religious 

 rites, but they will never submit to that systematic arrangement which 

 is inseparable from the class of liturgic songs. Now, such a systematic 

 arrangement characterises the collection of the Yajurveda and Sama- 

 veda hymns ; it is foreign to the R'igveda-Sanhita. 



With the exception of the last book, which is of a mystical nature, 

 all tho other books of the whole Yajurveda contain verses which are 

 classified according to the special sacrifices at the performing of which 

 they were muttered. The Sanhita of the Samaveda consists of verses 

 which had to be intoned especially at the moon-plant sacrifice. The 

 arrangement of the R'igveda hymns, however, is quite of a different 

 kind. It resisted the order of a finished ceremonial. The R'igveda 

 hymns are not distributed with reference to sacrificial acts ; they are 

 partly arranged according to the divinities to whom they are addressed, 

 and partly according to their authors, the R'ishis, who made them 

 known. They must therefore have preceded the completion of that 

 ceremonial, which is the indispensable condition of the Samaveda- and 

 Yaj u rveda-Sanhi tas. 



Having established the general character of the four Vedas, we shall 

 now give a brief outline of their special features and of the principal 

 works which owe them their origin. 



The Rig-, or the first and principal, Veda, we possess only in the 

 recension of the S'akhala school. Its Sanhita, or collection of hymns, 

 is arranged on two methods. The one has merely regard to the 

 material bulk ; the other seems to be based on the authorship of the 

 Mantras. Both, however, run parallel with one another, without 

 differing in the order of the hymns which constitute the Sanhita. 

 According to the first method, the Sanhita is divided into eight 

 Ai/tt'atai or eighths, each of which is again subdivided into Ad/iydt/as 

 or lectures, an Adhyaya consisting of a number of Vargas or sections, 

 and a Varga of a number of Ji'ic/t or verses, usually five. According to 

 the second method, the Sanhita is divided into ten Maii'd'alas or 

 circles, subdivided into eighty-five Annvakas or lessons, which consist 

 of one thousand and seventeen (or, with eleven additional hymns, of 

 ono thousand and twenty-eight) SUktai or hymns, these again containing 



r p 



