184/.] On the History and Literature of the Vedo. 845 



extracts from it in his commentary. More valuable still than these 

 notices are indisputably those representations of the old tales, which 

 we find in the Brahmanas. The Aitareya Brahmana gives a consider- 

 able number of them, and among these most amply the history of 

 Sunahsepha (VII. 13 to 18).* Not less rich is the Taittirfya Sanhita, 

 and to judge by citations, — the Kaushtaka, Tandya, and other writings 

 of this kind. 



After this would come the task of following the progressive formation 

 or even declension of the legends from their origin onward through all 

 these branches and transformations, to determine from what source they 

 have flowed into the Epopees, or — if no written source could be assumed 

 for them — at what stage of development, the tale stood, when it passed 

 into these poems. From the richness and variety of these narrations 

 and the great number of writings which lie open to us for comparison, 

 it should be possible to • arrive at an approximative result. The chro- 

 nological sequence of the preceding writings, of the discovery of which 

 we certainly may not doubt, would then transmit to us downward from 

 above the relative date for the origin of the epic books. 



7. As a proof, that the authors of the Brahmana were acquainted 

 with grammar as a science, may be considered the greater number of 

 the derivations of words, belonging equally to etymology and grammar, 

 by which those writings are corroborating their doctrines. 



It may here suffice to quote one passage, in which a technical term of 

 grammar is met with. It is taken from the Aitareya Brahmana, VII. 30. 



Athasyaisha swa bhaksho, nyagrodhasyavarodhans cha phalani 

 ehaudumbarany, aswatthani, plakshany abhishunuyat. tani bhakshay6t, 

 so ashya swo bhaksho. yato va adhideva yajneneshtwa swargan lokam 

 ayans tatraitans chamasan nyubjans, te nyagrodha abhavan, nyubjau 

 itihapy enan etarhy achakshate Kurukshetre teha prathamajan nyagro- 

 dhanan, tebhyo hanya 'dhijatas. te yan nyancho 'rohans, tasmaii 

 (nyan rohati nyagroha) nyagroho vai nama. tan nyagrohan santan 

 nyagrodhan ity achakshate parokshena, paroksha-priya iva hi deva, : l 



* This remarkable leg-end bears, in the representation in the Brahmana, a peculiar 

 stamp of antiquity. As the same tale is treated diffusely in the Ramayana, is doubtless 

 also related in the Mahabharata, is found in the Puranas, and is also mentioned else- 

 where, e. g\ in Manu, it mig-ht supply a fit example to exhibit the mode in which leg-ends 

 are developed. 



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