1847.] On the History and Literature of the Veda. 81/ 



us without exception. The division which they present is notoriously 

 a mere external, uniform separation into eight parts (Ashtaka), next 

 of these into eight sub-divisions (Adhyaya, lectures,) and lastly into 

 sections (Varga) of five verses each. We might from this believe that 

 we had before us an unarranged aggregate of songs, distributed in this 

 manner only on account of an external point of coherence. But along 

 with this division there exists an entirely different one, as we now know 

 it principally from Sayana's commentary. This arrangement has for 

 its largest section the Mandala, (circle, book,) within that the Anuvaka, 

 (chapter,) with a number of hymns, (sukta,) which again are parted 

 into their distichs (rich.) 



This division into ten Mandalas is beyond all doubt the original one, 

 fixed by the collector of these hymns as it has come down to us. 

 Hymns which were ascribed by tradition to the same author or the 

 same family, or hymns which belong to the like sacrificial ceremony, 

 as the Soma-hymns of the 9th Mandala, are here united in one section, 

 without regard to their outward extent. 



The first mentioned division (into Ashtakas) on the contrary appears 

 to have its ground in the need of sections of uniform size for the use 

 of the Veda in the schools. In the 15th section of the Pratisakhya 

 Sutras ascribed to Saunaka, there is found a collection of rules for the 

 reading of the Veda in teaching, which appear to have reference to 

 this point. The teacher recited two or three distichs, according to the 

 length or shortness of the aggregates of verses (hymns), which were 

 repeated by the scholars in order. One such portion is called prasna 

 (question,) and sixty or more of these, says the Sutra, i. e. about one 

 hundred and fifty verses, compose an Adhyaya, a lesson of the Veda, 

 which is at the same time the quantity actually read in the school. 



Besides that it would be absurd, where a real division of the matter 

 exists, to regard one which is merely formal as the original one, we 

 have the proof for the greater antiquity of the Mandala-division in the 

 modes of speech employed by the oldest interpreter of the Veda. The 

 Nirukta names the Rig Veda in several places, and always with the 

 designation Dasatayya, the ten parts. The same mode of designation 

 is found in the Pratisakhya Sutras, which are older than the Nirukta, 

 in the commentary on the latter, and in a number of other books. 

 The Anukramanika of the Rik also has this division, although in the 



