390 ON THE VE'DAS, 



religious ceremony at which it should be used. 

 The practice of modern priests is conformable with 

 these maxims. Like the Koran among the Mo- 

 hammedans, the Vida is put into the hands of chil- 

 dren in the first period of their education ; and 

 continues afterwards to be read by rote, for the 

 sake of the words without comprehension of the 

 sense. 



Accordingly the V6da is recited in various su- 

 perstitious modes : word by word, either simply 

 disjoining them, or else repeating the words alter- 

 nately, backwards and forwards, once or oftener. 

 Copies of the Rigveda and Yajum (for the Scima- 

 *veda is chanted only) are prepared for these and 

 other modes of recital, and are called Pada, Cra-' 

 ma, Jat'a, Ghana, &c. But the various ways of 

 inverting the text are restricted, as it should ap- 

 pear, to the principal Vedas; that is, to the ori- 

 ginal editions of the Rigveda and Yajush: while 

 the subsequent editions, in which the text, or the 

 arrangement of it, is varied, being therefore 

 deemed subordinate 'Sdchas, should be repeated 

 only in a simple manner. 



It seems here necessary to justify my interpre- 

 tation of what is called the " Rishi of a mantrap 

 The last term has been thought to signify an in- 

 cantation rather than a prayer : and, so far as su- 

 pernatural efficacy is ascribed to the mere recital 

 of the words of a mantra, that interpretation is 

 sufficiently accurate ; and, as such, it is undoubt- 

 edly applicable to the unmeaning incantations of 

 the Mantra-s'as'tra, or Tantras and A'gamas. But 

 the origin of the term is certainly difterent. Its 

 derivation from a verb, which signifies ' to speak 

 privately,' is readily explained by the injunction 

 for meditating the text of the Veda, or reciting it 



