264 DR J. MUIR'S account OF THE 



As it would be impossible to compress within any moderate compass an 

 account of the various productions of the Indian intellect which I began by 

 enumerating, I must confine myself to those which are most characteristic and 

 important. 



The hymns of the Veda are, as we have already seen, the oldest part of Indian 

 literature.* The word Veda is a general term, including all the most ancient and 

 most sacred of the Hindu writings, — those which they regard as alone inspired 

 and infallible in the proper sense. According to the native definition, the Veda 

 consists of two divisions, — Mantra and Brahmana. The Mantras are the hymns, 

 the most original and most essential part of the Veda ; while the BrUhmanas are 

 liturgical works which prescribe the various forms of sacrificial worship, and 

 explain the mystical meaning of many of the rites. 



There are four collections of hymns, entitled respectively the Rik, Sama, 

 Yajur, and Atharva-sanhitas. The principal and most important collection is 

 that of the Rigveda. It consists of about a thousand hymns, which in the 8vo 

 edition of Professor Aufrecht, printed in the Roman character, fill above 900 

 pages. Professor Max Muller, in his lately published history of ancient San- 

 skrit literature (the most important work in this department which has yet 

 appeared), states the period of the composition of these hymns conjecturally, as 

 ranging from 1200 to 800 years before Christ ; and the opinion of most Sanskrit 

 scholars is that this estimate of their antiquity probably falls short of the truth. 

 No competent investigator can for a moment doubt that these hj^mns are genuine 

 remains of Indian antiquity, and anterior in date not merely to any other of the 

 Hindu writings, but also to any other existing literary monuments of the Indo-Ger- 

 manic race. This is proved beyond all question, not only by the archaic forms of 

 the language, and by the number of peculiar words, afterwards disused, which they 

 contain, but also by their contents, which represent to us a simple and inartificial 

 condition of society, and display the mythology, and the sacerdotal and religious 

 institutions of the Hindus in their most rudimentary form. The period during 

 which these hymns were composed extends, no doubt, over several centuries. 

 This is shown both by the probabihties of the case, and also by the fact that 

 reference is made in various passages to newer and older hj^mns, and to different 



* I may mention here that the principal authors who have translated or descrihed or edited the 

 Vedas are Mr H. T. Colebrooke, who, in 1805, gave a general account of these works, with specimen 

 translations (Essays, vol. i. pp. 9-113) ; Professor Rosen, whose Latin version of the first book of the 

 Rigveda was published in 1838; Pi-ofessor Roth, who published in 1846 three Dissertations in Ger- 

 man on the literature and history of the Veda ; Professor Max Muller, who has published, between 

 1849 and the present time, four volumes of his edition of the Text and Commentary of the Rigveda, 

 besides a history of ancient Sanskrit literature ; Professor H. H. Wilson, who translated the whole 

 of the Rigveda into English, though only half of his translation has yet been published ; Professor 

 Benfey, who has translated the Sama Veda into German ; Professor Aufrecht, who has published 

 the text of the Rigveda in the Roman character ; and Professor Weber, who has published the text 

 of the White Yajur Veda and the Satapatha Brahmana. • 



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