595 



VEDA. 



VEDA. 



583 



these eminent Brahmans as feeble." Yajnavalkya rejoined, " It was 

 from devotion (to thee) that I said what I did ; but I, too, have done 

 with thee; here is all that I have learnt from thee." Having spoken, he 

 vomited forth the identical Yajus texts tain ted with blood, and giving 

 them to his master, he departed at his will. The other pupils having 

 then become transformed into partridges (tittiri) picked up the Yajus 

 texts, and were thence called Taittiriyas. And those who had by their 

 teacher's command performed the expiation, were from this perform- 

 ance (chamn'a) called Charakadhwaryus. Yajnavalkya then, who was 

 habituated to the exercise of suppressing his breath, devoutly hymned 

 the sun, desiring to obtain Yajus texts. [The hymn follows.] 



Thus celebrated with these and other praises, the sun assumed the 

 form of a horse, and said, " Ask whatever boon thou desirest." 

 Yajnavalkya then, prostrating himself before the lord of the day, 

 replied, " Give me such Yajus texts as my teacher does not possess." 

 Thus supplicated, the sun gave him the Yajus texts called Aydtai/dma, 

 which were not known to his master. Those by whom these texts 

 were studied were called Vajins, because the sun (when he gave them) 

 assumed the shape of a horse (vajin)." (Muir, 'Orig. Sansk. Texts,' iii. 

 pp. 32, 33.) 



However absurd this legend may be conceived to be, the two recen- 

 sions of the Yajurveda which are preserved, plainly bear out the fact, 

 that the " White " Yajurveda is more recent than the " Black," and 

 that the former is evidently intended as an improvement of the latter 

 whence it is but reasonable to infer that such an infringement on an 

 existing text cannot have taken place without some, and probably a 

 great, conflict between the followers of the one and the originators of 

 the other. To understand, however, the nature of this improvement, 

 we must advert to the character of the older text. 



It has been stated before, that each Veda consists of a collection of 

 hymns the Sanhita portion and of a Brahmau'a portion, which is 

 especially intended for the explanation of the rites at the performance 

 of which the hymns were employed. This division is maintained in 

 its purity so far as the R'ig- and SAma-veda are concerned. It is greatly 

 obscured, however, in the Taittiriya-Sanhita, or that of the "Black" 

 Yajur-veda. There, verses and description of ritual occur promis- 

 cuously ; it is in reality a text-book for the guidance of the Adhwaryu 

 priest, while the Hotr'i and Udgatri had to study their special ritual 

 books, in order to know when any particular verse of their Sanhitas ought 

 to come in at a certain rite. This motley character of the Taittiriya- 

 Kanhita is probably indicated by the epithet " Black," or " Dark," which 

 ia given to the oldest recension of the Yajurveda; and though the 

 Tittiris may be a real proper name, the meaning of this word being 

 " partridge," it is not impossible that this coincidence suggested 

 the etymological legend mentioned above. Now, the impurity of this 

 text, as intimated by the legend, its " darkness," as it were, is removed 

 iu the " White " Yajurveda, which is ascribed to the R'ishi Yajna- 

 valkya ; for in the latter we possess a " clear " Sanhita and a " clear " 

 Brahman'a. 



The topics treated of in both redactions are on the whole the same, 

 but they are differently placed, and vary sometimes in detail. The 

 Ai'wainc'Jha or horse sacrifice, which is merely alluded to in a few 

 hymns of the R'igveda-Sanhitft, is dwelt upon in the Yajurveda with 

 considerable detail. The fact of six hundred and nine animals of 

 various descriptions, domestic and wild, including birds and reptiles, 

 being tied to twenty-one posts, and the intervals between them, at the 

 performance of this sacrifice, may convey an idea of the complicated 

 ritual which existed at the time when this Veda was composed. Of 

 ceremonies, unknown to the other Vedas, we may mention also, the 

 Puriuha-mcdha or man-sacrifice an emblematic ceremony, in which a 

 hundred and eighty-five men of various specified tribes, characters, 

 and professions, are bound to eleven posts, and consecrated to various 

 deities the Sarra-medha or all-sacrifice, and the Pitri-medha or sacrifice 

 to the manes. It is worthy of notice, too, not only that all the four 

 castes, the institution of which cannot with certainty be traced to the 

 period of the R'igveda Sanhita, make their distinct appearance in 

 the Yajurveda, but also that it contains many words which in the 

 mythology of the epic poems and the Puran'as are names of S'iva, the 

 third god of the later Hindu triad. 



The Taittiriya-Sanhita of the Black Yajurveda is arranged in seven 

 KAn'd'a or books, with forty-four Prapdt'haka or chapters, containing 

 altogether six hundred and fifty-one Anurdka or sections, divided into 

 two thousand one hundred and ninety-eight Kan'd'ikd or portions. 

 The Vdjaiaii- >i> '-^mli'iin of the White Yajurveda, in the Madhyandina 

 recension, is divided into forty Adhyaya or lectures, with three 

 hundred and three Anuraka or sections, comprising one thousand nine 

 hundred and seventy-five Kan'd'ikd or portions. Other schools con- 

 nected with either form of this Veda adopted other divisions, which, 

 however, need not be adverted to here. 



That the Sanhitd of the A tharvareda is not a sacrificial collection 

 in the sense of that of the Satna- and Yajur-veda we have explained 

 already. It is divided into twenty KAn'd'a or books, the first eighteen 

 of which contain thirty-four Prapdt 'haka or chapters, which comprise 

 ninety-four Anurdka or sections : the seventeenth Kan'd'a consisting of 

 one I'mpat'haka only, which hag no further subdivision ; the nineteenth 

 Kan'd'a is not divided into Prapnt hakas, but simply into seven Anu- 

 vdkas ; and the twentieth contains nine Anuvakas, the third of which 

 nas three Parydyat. The Anuvakas in their turn consist of about 



six thousand verses. " Its first eighteen books," of which alone it was 

 originally composed, Professor Whitney, the learned editor of the 

 ' Atharvasanhita,' observes ('Journal of the American Oriental Society," 

 vol. iv. p. 254), " are arranged upon a like system throughout : the 

 length of the hymns, and not either their subject or their alleged 

 authorship, being the guiding principle ; those of about the same 

 number of verses are combined together into books, and the books 

 made up of the shorter hymns stand first in order. A sixth of the 

 mass, however, is not metrical, but consists of longer or shorter prose 

 pieces, nearly akin in point of language and style to passages of the 

 Brahman'as. Of the remainder, or metrical portion, about one-sixth 

 is also found amongst the hymns of the R'ik, and mostly in the tenth 

 book of the latter ; the rest is peculiar to the Atharva. Respecting 

 their authorship the tradition has no information of value to give ; 

 they are with few exceptions attributed to mythical personages. 



" As to the internal character of the Atharva hymns, it may be said 

 of them, as of the tenth book of the R'ik, that they are the pro- 

 ductions of another and a later period, and the expressions of a different 

 spirit, from that of the earlier hymns in the other Veda. In the 

 latter, the gods are approached with reverential awe, indeed, but with 

 love and confidence also; a worship is paid them that exalts the 

 offerer of it ; the demons, embraced under the general name Rakshas, 

 are objects of horror, whom the gods ward off and destroy ; the 

 divinities of the Atharva are regarded rather with a kind of cringing 

 fear, as powers whose wrath is to be deprecated and whose favour 

 curried for ; it knows a whole host of imps and hobgoblins, in ranks 

 and classes, *nd addresses itself to them directly, offering them homage 

 to induce them to abstain from doing harm. The mantra, prayer, 

 which in the older Veda is the instrument of devotion, is here rather 

 the tool of superstition; it wrings from the unwilling hands of the 

 gods the favours which of old their good-will to men induced them to 

 grant, or by simple magical power obtains the fulfilment of the 

 utterer's wishes. The most prominent characteristic feature of the 

 Atharva is the multitude of incantations which it contains ; these are 

 pronounced either by the person who is himself to be benefited, or, 

 more often, by the sorcerer for him, and are directed to the procuring 

 of the greatest variety of desirable ends ; most frequently, perhaps, 

 long life, or recovery from grievous sickness, is the object sought ; 

 then a talisman, such as a necklace, is sometimes given, or in very 

 numerous cases some plant endowed with marvellous virtues is to bo 

 the immediate external means of the cure ; farther, the attainment of 

 wealth or power is aimed at, the downfall of enemies, success iu love 

 or in play, the removal of petty pests, and so on, even down to the 

 growth of, hair on a bald pate. There are hymns, too, in which a 

 single rite or ceremony is taken up and exalted, somewhat in the same 

 strain as the Soma in the Pavamanya hymns of the R'ik. Others of a 

 speculative mystical character are not wanting; yet their number is 

 not so great as might naturally be expected, considering the develop- 

 ment which the Hindu religion received in the periods following after 

 that of the primitive Veda. It seems in the main that the Atharva 

 is of popular rather than of priestly origin ; that in making the transi- 

 tion from the Vedic to modern times, it forms an intermediate step, 

 rather to the gross idolatries and superstitions of the ignorant mass, 

 than to the sublimated pantheism of the Brahmans." (Ib. vol. iii. 

 p. 307.) 



The general character of the Brahman'a, or dogmatic, portion of the 

 Vedas having been explained before, a short notice of the principal 

 works of that class, and a few extracts from them, will illustrate the 

 position they hold between the collection of hymns and the remainder 

 of the Vaidik literature. 



The Brahman'a of the Bahvr'ichas, or the priests of the R'igveda, is 

 still preserved in two editions. The former the A itareya- llrdhman'a 

 consists of eight Pancliikd or pentades of Adhyayas, thus comprising 

 forty Adhyayas or lectures, which again are subdivided into two 

 hundred and eighty-five Khan'd'a or portions. The latter, the S'dn- 

 kkayana-Brdlimun'a, which bears also the name of the Kauahttaki- 

 Brd/iman'a, consists of thirty Adhyayas, likewise subdivided into a 

 number of Khan'd'as. Both Brahman'as contain on the whole the same 

 matter ; but the difference of the manner in which their subjects are 

 arranged and treated leads to the supposition that the first thirty 

 lectures of the Aitareya- Brahman'a are older than those of the 

 S'ankhayana, whereas the last ten lectures of the former contain rites 

 not explained in the latter, and are probably therefore more recent 

 than the S'ankhayana. These Brahmau'as do not follow the order of 

 the hymns of the R'igveda-SanhitA, but quote them as they would be 

 required by the Hotr'i priest for the performance of the rites described. 

 In order to give an idea of the elaborate ceremonial which called these 

 Brahman'a into life, and of the mysticism which connects them with a 

 subsequent class of works, we will first give an abstract of an import- 

 ant ceremony, treated of with great detail in the last books of the 

 Aitareya-Brahman'a, and several times alluded to in the epic poetry 

 of the Mahabharata and Rftmayan'a, the Abh'uheka or inauguration of 

 a king. 



This ceremony is either part of a Rajasuya, and performed by a 

 lung at the end of this sacrifice, or it is not part of a sacrifice, and then 

 occurs at a king's accession to the throne. For celebrating the 

 former ceremony there must have been prepared a throne-seat of the 

 wood of the udumbara (Ficia ijlomerata), resting on four legs a span 



