the Devanagari character; and are supposed to have originally consisted of three, namely, the Rig-veda, the Yajur-veda, and the Sáma-veda. To these, the Atharva-veda, which is not considered of equal sanctity, and is of less authority than the others, was subsequently added. Each of these Vedas consists of two distinct parts: the Sanhitá, or collection of Mantras, and Brahmana. The Sanhitá is "the aggregate assemblage, in a single collection," of the prayers and hymns; the Brahmana is "a collection of rules for the application of the mantras, directions for the performance of particular rites, citations of the hymns," illustrations, and legendary narrations.* The RIG-VEDA takes precedence of the rest; for, as Mr. Muir says, "the Taittiriyas, or followers of the Black Yajurveda, record that whatever sacrifical act is performed by means of the Sáma- and Yajur-veda is comparatively slender; whatever is done by means of the Rig-veda is strong" and the Kaushitaki Bráhmana, which does not mention the Atharva-veda, calls the Yajur- and Sáma-veda "the attendants of Rig-veda." The first of the four Vedo‡ pángas also, the Mimánsá, makes mention only of the three first Vedas; and what still further establishes the priority of the Rig-veda is that some of the hymns of the Yajurveda and all those of the Sáma-veda are derived from those of the Rig-veda. It is probable that originally there was but one text of the four Vedas. Tradition says that "Vyása having compiled and arranged the scriptures, theogonies, and mythological poems, taught the several Vedas to as many disciples. These disciples instructed their respective pupils, who, becoming teachers in their turn, communicated the knowledge to their own disciples, until at length, in the progress of successive * Wilson's Rig-veda Sanhitá, i., Introduction, p. ix. and x. + Muir's Orig. Sansk. Texts, i. p. 86. Müller's Anc. Sansk. Lit., p. 457. instructions, so great variations crept into the text, or into the manner of reading and reciting it, and into the no less sacred precepts for its use and application, that the eleven hundred different schools of scriptural knowledge arose. The Charanavyuha, which treats of these schools, mentions several by name, and states that five, sixty-eight, a thousand, and nine, were the respective numbers of the Charanas, of the Rig-, Yájur-, Sáma-, and Atharva-vedas. Had these original Sákhás been extant in modern times they might, perhaps, have accounted for some of the superstitions of later days, said to be founded on, but not countenanced by, the present text of the Rig-veda Sanhitá. "All the verses of the Yajur-veda and all the verses of the Sáma-veda are used in one sacrificial act or another, but this is not the case with the verses of the Rig-veda. Many of the latter, indeed, are likewise indispensable for sacrificial purposes, as we are taught by the ritual books connected with this Veda: yet a large number remain, which stand quite aloof from any ceremony. This class bears purely a poetical or mystical character; and it may be fairly inferred that even the strong tendency of later ages to impress an entirely sacrificial stamp on each of these Vedas, broke down before the natural and poetical power that had evidently called forth these songs, as it could not incorporate them amongst the liturgic hymns." One of these we will give as an example of the class it is from the tenth mandala, and is very interesting, as shewing the Hindu original and mystical notions of the origin of things. It runs thus: "Then there was no entity nor nonentity; no world nor sky, nor aught above it; nothing anywhere in the happiness of any one, involving or involved; nor water deep and dangerous. Death was not; nor then was immortality, nor distinction of day or night. But THAT breathed without afflation, single with (Swadhá) her who * Colebrooke on the Hindu Religion, p. 4. + Goldstücker's Paper on Veda-Cyclopædia, p. 577. is within him. Other than him, nothing existed (which) since (has been). Darkness there was; (for) this universe was enveloped with darkness, and was undistinguishable (like fluids mixed in) waters; but that mass, which was covered by the husk, was (at length) produced by the power of contemplation. First, desire was formed in his mind, and that became the original productive seed; which the wise, recognising it by the intellect in their hearts, distinguish, in nonentity, as the bond of entity. Did the luminous ray of these (creative acts) expand in the middle? or above? or below? That productive seed at once became providence (or sentient souls) and matter (or the elements): she who is sustained within himself was inferior; and he, who heeds, was superior. Who knows exactly, and who shall in this world declare, whence and why the creation took place? The gods are subsequent to the production of this world; then who can know whence it proceeded? or whence this varied world arose? or whether it upholds itself or not? He who in the highest heaven is the ruler of this universe, does indeed know; but not another can possess this knowledge." This high-toned mysticism of the early Hindu religion became, as we shall see, degraded to a debasing and anthropomorphic superstition which converted this spirituality to a gross personification. "There is further evidence to show that the collection of the Rig-veda cannot have borne originally a ritual stamp. When songs are intended only for liturgic purposes they are sure to be arranged in conformity with the ritual acts to which they apply; when, on the contrary, they flow from the poetical or pious longings of the soul, they may, in the course of time, be used at, and adapted for, religious rites; but they will never submit to that systematic arrangement which is inseparable from the class of liturgic songs. Now, such a systematic arrangement characterises the collection of the Yajur-veda and Sáma-veda hymns: it is foreign to the Rig-veda Sanhitá." To give a notion of the elaborate subdivision of the Vedas we may cite that of the Sanhitá of the Rig-veda, which itself now exists only in the text of the Sákhala school. This * Goldstücker's Paper on Veda-Cyclopædia, p. 578. Sanhitá is divided, or arranged, on two methods. "According to the first it is divided into eight ashtákas, or eighths, each of which is again subdivided into adhyayas, or lectures, each adhyaya consisting of a number of vargas, or sections, and a varga of a number of rich, or verses, usually five. According to the second method, the Sanhitá is divided into ten mandalas, or circles, subdivided into eighty-five annavákas, or lessons, which consist of one thousand and seventeen (or with eleven additional hymns, of one thousand and twenty-eight) súktas, or hymns; these again, containing ten thousand five hundred and eighty and a half rich, or verses. The first eight of these mandalas begin with hymns addressed to Agni, which are followed by hymns addressed to Indra. After the latter come generally hymns addressed to the Viswa Devas, or the gods collectively, and then those which are devoted to other divinities. The ninth mandala is wholly addressed to the Soma-plant," so distinguished in the sacrificial rites; "and the tenth mandala has chiefly served for the collection of the Atharva-veda hymns.' The YAJUR-VEDA consists of two different Vedas, which have separately branched out into various Sákhás. They are termed Black and White Yajur-veda, or Taittiriya and Vájasaneyi. The Taittiriya, or Black Yajur-veda, is more copious in regard to mantras than the White Yajur-veda. "Its Sanhitá, or collection of prayers, is arranged in seven books, containing from five to eight lectures, or chapters. Each chapter, or lecture, is subdivided into sections (annaváka), which are equally distributed in the third and sixth books, but unequally in the rest. The whole number exceeds six hundred and fifty.”† "The Vájasaneyi, or White Yajur-veda, is the shortest of the Vedas; so far as respects the first and principal part, * Goldstücker's Paper on Veda-Cyclopædia, pp. 578-9 which comprehends the mantras. The Sanhitá, or collection of prayers and invocations belonging to this Veda, is comprised in forty lectures (adhyaya), unequally subdivided into numerous short sections (kándiká), each of which, in general, constitutes a prayer or mantra. It is also divided, like the Rig-veda, into annavákas, or chapters. The number of annavákas, as they are stated at the close of the index to this Veda, appears to be two hundred and eighty-six: the number of sections, or verses, nearly two thousand.”* The Yajur-veda "has largely drawn on the Rig-veda hymns. But the first difference we observe is that its contents are not entirely taken from the principal Veda, and the second is marked by the circumstances that it often combines with verses, passages in prose, which are called Yajus (lit. 'that by which the sacrifice is effected,') and have given to Yajur-veda its name. Besides, the ceremonial for which this Veda was made up is much more diversified and elaborate than that of the Sáma-veda; and the mystical and philosophical allusions, which now and then appear in the Rig-veda, probably in its latest portions, assume a more prominent place in the Yajur-veda. In one word, it is the sacrificial Veda, as its name indicates. Hence we understand why it was looked upon in that period of Hindu civilization which was engrossed by superstitions and rites, as the principal Veda, superior, in fact, to the Rig-veda, where there is no system of rites."+ SAMA-VEDA.-"A peculiar degree of holiness seems to be attached, according to Indian notions, to the Sáma-veda; if reliance may be placed on the inference suggested by the etymology of its name, which indicates the efficacy of this part of the Vedas in removing sin. The prayers belonging to it are composed in metre and intended to be chanted, and * Colebrooke on the Hindu Religion, p. 31. + Goldstücker's Paper on Veda-Cyclopædia, p. 584. |