OR SACRED WRITINGS OF THE HINDUS, 395 



The eighth chapter opens with a hymn, wliich 

 alludes to a story respecting Na'bha'ne'disht'a, 

 son of Menu, who was excluded from participa- 

 tion with his brethren in the paternal inheritance. 

 The legend itself is told in the Aitareya Brah- 

 man a *, or second portion of the Rlgvida. 



Among other hymns by royal authors, in the 

 subsequent chapters of the tenth book of the San- 

 hitd^ I remark one by AIa'nd'ha tri, son of Yu- 

 vana'sVa, and another t^y S'lvi, son of Us'i'nara, 

 a third by Vasumanas, son of Rohidas'wa, and 

 a fourth by PRATARDAisrA, son of Div6da'sa, king 

 of Cas'i. 



The deities invoked appear, on a cursory in- 

 spection of the Veda, to be as various as the au- 

 thors of the prayers addressed to them : but, ac- 

 cording- to the most ancient annotations on the 

 Indian scripture, those numerous names of persons 

 and things are all resolvable into different titles of 

 three deities, and ultimately of one god. The 

 Nighanti, or glossary of the Vedas, concludes with 

 three lists of names of deities : the hr'st comprising 

 such as are deemed svnonvmous with fire : the 

 second, with air; and the third with the sunf. 

 In the last part of the Niructa, which entirely re- 

 lates to deities, it is twice asserted, that there are 

 but three gods ; ' Tisra tea de-vatdh J.' The further 



* In the second lecture and fourteenth section of the fifth book. 



t Nig'hanti, or first part of the Airucta, C. 5. 



X In the second and third sections of the twelfth chapter, or 

 lecture, of the glossary and illustrations of the Veda. The Ni- 

 ructa consists of three parts : the first, a glossary as above-men- 

 tioned, comprises five short chapters or lectures. The second, 

 entitled Naigama, or the first half of the Niructa, properly so 

 called, consists of six long chapters ; and the third entitled JDai- 

 vata, or second half of the proper Niructa, contains eight more. 



