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 Taittiríya, 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."+ SÁMA-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. their supposed efficacy is apparently ascribed to this mode of uttering them."*"The Sanhitá (of the Sáma-veda) consists of two parts, the Archika and Staubhika. The Archika, as adapted to the special use of the priests, exists in two forms, called Gánas, or Song-books, the Veyagána and Araṇyagána. The Staubhika exists in the same manner as Uhagána and Uhyagána."+ As regards the Bráhmaņas of the Sáma-veda, Sayana enumerates eight: of these the first two are the most important, and treat of the sacrifices which are performed with the juice of the Soma-plant. The third is remarkable on account of the incantatory ceremonies it describes."+ THE ATHARVA-VEDA." The Sanhitá, or collection of prayers and invocations belonging to this Veda, is composed of twenty books (kandas), subdivided into sections, hymns, and verses."§ "The Atharva-veda," says Madhusudana, "is not used for the sacrifice; it only teaches how to appease, to bless, to curse," etc. Its songs, as Professor Müller observes, "formed probably an additional part of the sacrifice from a very early time. They were chiefly intended to counteract the influence of any untoward event that might happen during the sacrifice. They also contained imprecations and blessings, and various formulas, such as popular superstition would be sure to sanction at all times and in all countries." || There are in the Vedic age, as Professor Max Müller remarks, "four distinct periods which can be established with sufficient evidence. They may be called the Chhandas period, Mantra period, Brahmana period, and Sútra period, according to the general form of the literary productions which give to each of them its peculiar historical character." According to this, the Brahmanas which form the sacrificial and * Colebrooke on the Hindu Religion, p. 47. + Müller's Anc. Sansk. Lit., note to p. 473. Goldstücker's Paper on Veda-Cyclopædia, p. 590. § Colebrooke on the Hindu Religion, p. 53. Müller's Anc. Sansk. Lit., p. 447. ¶ Ibid, p. 70. ceremonial portions of the Vedas were written in the third period of the Vedic age. With regard to the Sanhitás-collection of hymns and prayers, those of the Rig-veda only belong to the first period. The Sanhitás of other Vedas "were more likely the production of the Brahmana period." The hymn we have extracted in a former passage from the tenth mandala of the Rig-veda points to the fact that the Vaidik creed established but one God, or principle of creation, and that the many gods which occur in the Vaidik hymns are but poetical allegories of the One Great Soul. “The deities invoked," as observed by Mr. H. T. Colebrooke, appear on a cursory inspection of the Veda to be as various as the authors of the prayers addressed to them; but, according to the most ancient annotations on the Indian scripture, those numerous names of persons and things are all resolvable into different titles of three deities, and, ultimately, of one God. The Nighánti, or glossary of the Vedas, concludes with three lists of names of deities, the first comprising such as are deemed synonymous with fire; the second, with air; and the third, with the sun. In the last part of the Nirukta, which entirely relates to deities, it is twice asserted that there are but three gods: Tisra iva devatáh.' The further inference, that these intend but one deity, is supported by many passages in the Veda; and is very clearly and concisely stated in the beginning of the index to the Rig-veda, on the authority of the Nirukta and of the Veda itself."+ The chief deities addressed in many of the hymns of the Rig-veda are Agni and Indra; and there are besides Súrya, Vishņu, and Varuna, and Mitra of inferior distinction. Agni is the God of Fire as it exists on earth, in the fire of lightning and in the fire of the sun. Deities subordinate to him are the Marutas, or winds. Indra is the God of the Firmament. It is he who fixed the stars in their position, and raised the * Müller's Anc. Sansk. Lit., p. 457. + Colebrooke on the Hindu Religion, p. 12. sun aloft; but he is peculiarly the conqueror of Vritra (the enveloper), the demon who hides the sun; and he pierces the clouds which threaten to withhold their waters from the earth with his thunderbolt, and the waters are let down. Vishnu is identified with the sun in its three stages of rising, culmination, and setting; and Varuna is the all-embracing heaven, the orderer and ruler of the universe, who established the eternal laws which govern the movements of the world, and which neither immortal nor mortal may break: he regulates the seasons; appoints sun, moon, stars, and their courses; and gives to each creature that which is peculiarly characteristic. From his station in heaven he sees and hears everything; nothing can remain hidden from him: he grants wealth, averts evil, and protects cattle. Mitra is the divinity that presides over the day, and is "a dispenser of water.' "We must not," says Professor Max Müller, “compare the Aryan and the Semitic races. Whereas, the Semitic nations relapsed from time to time into polytheism, the Aryans of India seem to have relapsed into monotheism. ... There is a monotheism that precedes the polytheism of the Veda; and, even in the invocations of their innumerable gods, the remembrance of a God, one and infinite, breaks through the mist of an idolatrous phraseology, like the blue sky that is hidden by passing clouds."+ "Thus we read, 'I know not what this is that I am like; turned inward I walk, chained in my mind. When the firstborn of time comes near me, then I obtain the portion of this speech.' “In the 30th verse of the same hymn we read: 'Breathing lies the quick-moving life, heaving, yet firm, in the midst of its abodes. The living one walks through the powers of the dead: the immortal is the brother of the mortal.' Sometimes when these oracular sayings have been pronounced, the poet *Wilson's Rig-veda, i., p. xxxiv. + Müller's Anc. Sansk. Lit., p. 558-9. |