346 ON THE LITERATURE 



" fly led a Brahman." This triple divifion of the Veda's 

 may feem at firft to throw light on a very obfcure line 

 in the Git a : 



TraigunyaviJJiayah vedd nijlraigunya bhavdrjuna : 



Or, " The Veda's are attended with three qualities 1 

 fi be not thou a man of three qualities, 0, Arjuna /" 



But feveral Pandits are of opinion, that the phrafe 

 muft relate to the three Guna's, or qualities of the mind; 

 that of excellence, that of pajfion, and that of darknefs z 

 from the laft of which a hero mould be wholly exempt ; 

 though examples of it occur in the Veda's, where ani- 

 mals are ordered to be facrificed, and where horrid in- 

 cantations are inferted for the dejlruftion of enemies. 



It is extremely fmgular, as Mr. Wilkins has already 

 obferved, that, notwithftanding the fable of Brahma 'sfour 

 mouths, each of which uttered a Veda, yet moft ancient 

 writers mention only three Veda's, in the order as they 

 occur in the compound word Rigyajuhfdma ; whence it 

 is inferred, that the Afharvan was written or collected 

 after the three firft ; and the two following arguments, 

 which are entirely new, will ftrongly confirm this infe- 

 rence. In the eleventh book of Menu, a work afcribed 

 to the Jirfl age of mankind, and certainly of high antiqui- 

 ty, the Afharvan is mentioned by name, and ftyled the 

 Veda of Veda's ; a phrafe which countenances the notion 

 of Ddrd Shecuh, who afTerts, in the preface to his Upa- 

 nijhat, that " the three firft Veda's are named feparately, 

 " becaufe the Afharvan isa corollary from them all, and 

 " contains the quinteflence of them." But this verfe 

 of Menu, which occurs in a modern copy of the work 

 2 brought 





