816 On the History and Literature of the Veda. [Aug. 



will be fully given in Dr. T. H. Benfey's edition of this Sanhita, for 

 which we are now looking. 



The Vajasaneya Sanhita of the Yajush, on the contrary, embraces a 

 number of sections which are peculiar to it. From an inspection of 

 several parts of this book, for which however I had but slender assist- 

 ance from commentaries or similar works, it appears to me that perhaps 

 the half of the whole recurs in the Bik. The other half consists in 

 great part of sacrificial formulas, e. g. the Swaha repeated hundreds of 

 times, and perhaps only a fourth of the whole consists of fragments of 

 songs or invocations in prose, peculiar to this collection. 



It is more difficult for me to give similar specifications in regard to 

 the Atharva, for as we generally see it treated in a step-mother-like 

 fashion so has it also found no commentator, and the only assistance 

 which I have been able to obtain is a carelessly-made copy of the 

 Anukramani of this Veda, which pays much more attention to the 

 metres of the single verses, than to other points of information. Ex- 

 cepting the names of gods, I find only Atharva, and Bhrigu Angiras 

 named as Rishis, or composers of hymns, though not only strophes but 

 whole hymns of from 30 to 40 verses, which in the Rik have their 

 author specified, are received into the Atharva. It is however easy to 

 perceive that this Veda contains far more pieces peculiar to itself, than 

 the Vajasaneye, and that what is common to it, with the Rik Sanhita is 

 limited to perhaps a third part of its extent. 



The important question which must connect itself with this determi- 

 nation of the external relation of the four collections of hymns, is this : 

 has each of the Sanhitas an independent origin of its own ? are they 

 in part borrowed from each other ? or finally, is one of them, — and it 

 could be no other than the Rik, — to be regarded as the source of 

 the rest ? A sufficient answer to these questions will of course be 

 only then possible, when we shall have in detail before us not only the 

 contents of each Veda, but also the variations in the several texts, 

 which in many cases, are very material. A general representation may 

 however even now be derived from the difference in the arrangement 

 which is followed in these collections, and I may therefore be permitted 

 to enter further into this point. 



In reference to the use of the Rig Veda, we must not allow ourselves 

 to be deceived by the arrangement of the MSS. as they now lie before 



