436 ON THE VE'DAS, 



The fourteen books, which constitute this part 

 of the Veda^ comprise a hundred lectures cor- 

 responding to sixty-eioht chapters. The whole 

 number of distinct articles, entitled BraJiman'a, is 

 four hundred and forty : the sections (can'dka) are 

 also counted, and are stated at 7^24 *. 



The same order is observed in this collection of 

 precepts concerning religious rites, which had been 

 followed in the arrangement of the prayers belong- 

 ing to them. The first and second books treat of 

 ceremonies on the full and change of the moon; 

 the consecration of the sacrificial fire, &c. The 

 third and fourth relate to the mode of preparing 

 the juice of tl^e acid Asclepias, and other cerem.o- 

 iiies connected with it, as the Jyotisht'oma, &c. 

 The fifth is confined to the Vajaptya and Raja- 

 suya. The four next teach the consecration of sa- 

 crificial fire : and the tenth, entitled Ag7ii rahasya^ 

 shows the benefits of these ceremonies. The three 

 first books of the second part are stated, by the 

 commentator f, as relating to the Sautraman'i and 

 As'ivamidlia; and the fourth, which is the last, 

 belongs to theology. In the original, the thir- 

 teenth book is, specially AcwommvitG^ As warned' hy a ; 

 knd the fourteenth is entitled Vrikad draiiyaca. 



The As'xvamM^ha and Purmhamedlia^ celebrated 



* My copies of the text and of the commentary are both im- 

 perfect ; but the deficiencies of one occur in places, where the 

 other is complete ; and I have been thus enabled to inspect cur- 

 sorilv the whole of this portion of the Vkda. 



Among fragments of this Br&hmana, comprising entire books, 

 I have one which agrees, in the substance and purport, with the 

 second book of the Mdd'hyandina S'atapat'ha, though differing 

 much in the readings of almost every passage. It probably be- 

 longs to a different S'dc'hd. 



t At Ihe beginning of his gloss on the eleventh book. 



