OR SACRED WRITINGS OF THE HINDUS. 407 



fice, are, according to this commentator, the 

 years of Brahma's hfe, or his afflations personified 

 in the form of Angiras, &c. The seven sages, 

 who instituted sacrifices in imitation of the prime- 

 val type, are Mari'chi, and others. Gayatri, 

 Ushnih^ &c. are names of metres, or of the various 

 lengths of stanzas and measured verses, in the 

 VMas, 



The preceding quotations may be sufficient io 

 show the style of this part of the V6da ; which 

 comprehends the prayers and invocations. 



Another part belonging, as it appears, to the 

 same Vida, is entitled Aitar^ya 'Brahmana. It is 

 divided into eight books (panjicd), each contain- 

 ing five chapters or lectures (ad'hyaya), and sub- 

 divided into an unequal number of sections (chan'- 

 da), amounting in the whole to two hundred and 

 eighty-five. Being partly in prose, the number of 

 distinct passages contained in those multiplied sec- 

 tions need not be indicated. 



For want either of a complete commentary * or 

 of an explanatory index j", I cannot undertake 

 from a cursory perusal, to describe the whole con- 

 tents of this part of the Veda. I observe, how- 

 ever, many curious passages in it, especially to- 

 wards the close. The seventh book had treated 

 of sacrifices performed by kings : the subject is 

 continued in the first four chapters of the eighth 

 book ; and three of these relate to a ceremony for 

 the consecration of kings, by pouring on their 



* I possess three entire copies of the text, but a part only of the 

 commentary by Sa'YaN'a CHa'RYA. 



t Tlie index before-uientioned does not extend to this part of 

 the Vida. 



Dd4 



