THE ISLAND OF BALI. 
129 
Yajur-Veda (commonly inaccurately spelt Yayur Veda); 
3, Sama-Veda ; 4, Artawa Veda (a corruption caused mere¬ 
ly by the transposition of the r, easily explained by the mode 
of writing the Indian-Balinese r above the line; the Indian 
name is Atharwa-Veda.) The author ot the Yedas is Baya~ 
iv an By as a (Vjcisa in India.) 
The Vedas contain the formulas of prayer as well for the 
peculiar worship of the Panditas, performed in their houses, 
as for the feasts, great offerings and cremations of the people, 
when the Pandita mumble them inwardly. They are a mys¬ 
tery to all except the Brahmins, and the Panditas instruct 
the younger Brahmins in them in secret. The metre appears 
to be the epic Sloka , as further illustrated in the Art. jVIetie, 
and the language a pure Sanskrit. From their being written 
wholly in Slokas, we may suppose either that the Vedas were 
brought into that metre in ancient times, and in that form in¬ 
troduced into Java and Bali, or that the knowledge of forming 
Slokas existed in Java. If the names of the Vedas were not 
well known, I should rather incline to suppose that they 
never had been in possession of the genuine Vedas, since in 
India the metre of the Vedas is guarded by ample commenta¬ 
ries, and must be regarded as an integral and sacred part of 
those ancient scriptures. The whole ot the Bra fun an dapu- 
rana has been communicated to me on the condition of my 
not making any uninitiated person acquainted with it. In 
the same way, I may hope to obtain also further informa¬ 
tion about the rest of the mystic writings, and about the Vedas 
themselves. 
The Vedas have also been on Java , since the priests of 
Ball are of Javanese derivation and had their abode in Kediri 
and Majapahit. Any direct arrival of Brahmins from India 
is not known on Bali, and even the immigrants into Maja¬ 
pahit, shortly after the destruction of that empire, appear not 
to have adopted the Vedas of India but of Java , and it is 
even doubtful whether they arrived directly from India. , or 
only from some other part of Java , since the Panditas know 
nothing of such an arrival from India, whilst they nevertheless 
trace their genealogy through Kediri to India, i'rom t ie 
tenor of the Brahmandapurana in Bali we may draw con¬ 
clusions as to the character of the Vedas, The genuine In¬ 
dian pieces in the Vedas, which appear to be written in 
fcas , are probably accompanied by a Balinese cr Kawi com¬ 
ment, which after the lapse of some time became neces¬ 
sary even for the priests, in order not to lose the tiue sense ot 
the original texts. 
