OR SACKED WRITINGS OF THE HINDUS. SQl 



inaudibly: and the import of 3,ny ma?ittvt in the 

 Indian scriptures, is generally found to be a prayer, 

 containing either a petition to a deity, or else 

 thanksgiving, praise, and adoration. 



The Rhki or saint of a matitra is defined, both 

 in the index of the Rigveda, and by commen- 

 tators, " he, by whom it is spoken :" as the Di- 

 vatd, or deity, is, " that, which is therein men- 

 tioned." In the index to the Vajasanei/i Yajw'- 

 "veddy the Ruhi is interpreted " the seer or re- 

 memberer" of the text ; and the T>ivatd is said to 

 be " contained in the prayer ; or [named] at the 

 commencement of it; or [indicated as] the deity, 

 who shares the oblation, or the praise." Con- 

 formably with these definitions, the deity, that is 

 lauded or supplicated in the prayer, is its Dtcatd : 

 but in a few passages, which contain neither peti- 

 tion nor adoration, the subject is considered as 

 the deity, that is spoken of. For example, the 

 praise of generosity is the Devatd of many entire 

 hymns addressed to princes, from whom gifts 

 were received by the authors. 



The Rlshi, or speakec, is of course rarely men- 

 tioned in the mantra itself: but, in some in- 

 stances, he does name himself. A few passages 

 too, among the matras of the Veda^ are in the 

 form of dialogue ; and, in , such cases, the dis- 

 coursers were alternately considered as Kishi and 

 Devatd. In general, the person, to whom the pas- 

 sage was revealed, or, according to another gloss, by 

 whom its use and application was first discovered *, 



* Translating literally, " the Rishi is he, by whom the text 

 was seen." Pan'ini (4. ii. 7) employs the same term in ex- 

 plaining the import of derivatives used as denominations of pas- 

 sages in scripture ; aud his commentators concur with those of the 



Cc4 



