Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

276
SANSKRIT
[literature.
lar lyrics that was accessible to the collectors, or seemed to them
worthy of being preserved. The question as to the exact period
when the hymns were collected cannot be answered with any
approach to accuracy. Tor many reasons, however, which cannot
be detailed here, scholars have come to fix on the year 1000 b.c. as
an approximate date for the collection of the Vedic hymns. From
that time every means that human ingenuity could suggest was
adopted to secure the sacred texts against the risks connected with
oral transmission. But, as there is abundant evidence to show that
even then not only had the text of the hymns suffered corruption,
but their language had become antiquated to a considerable extent,
and was only partly understood, the period during which the great
mass of the hymns were composed must have lain considerably
further back, and may very likely have extended over the earlier
half of the second millenary, or from about 2000 to 1500 B.c.
As regards the people which raised for itself this imposing monu¬
ment, the hymns exhibit it as settled in the regions watered by the
mighty Sindhu (Indus), with its eastern and western tributaries.
The land of the five rivers forms the central home of the Yedic
people ; but, while its advanced guard has already debouched upon
the plains of the upper Ganga and Yamuna, those who bring up
the rear are still found loitering far behind in the narrow glens of
the Kubha (Cabul) and Gomati (Gomal). Scattered over this tract
of land, in hamlets and villages, the Yedic Aryas are leading
chiefly the life of herdsmen and husbandmen. The numerous clans
and tribes, ruled over by chiefs and kings, have still constantly to
vindicate their right to the land but lately wrung from an inferior
race of darker hue ; just as in these latter days their kinsmen in
the Far West are ever on their guard against the fierce attacks of
the dispossessed red-skin. Not unfrequently, too, the light-coloured
Aryas rage internecine war with one another,—as when the
Bharatas, with allied tribes of the Panjab, goaded on by the royal
sage Visvamitra, invade the country of the Tritsu king Sudas, to
be defeated in the “ten kings’ battle,” through the inspired power
of the priestly singer Vasishtha. The priestly office has already
become one of high social importance by the side of the political
rulers, and to a large extent an hereditary profession; but it does
not yet present the baneful features of an exclusive caste. The
Aryan housewife shares with her husband the daily toil and joy, the
privilege of worshipping the national gods, and even the triumphs
of song-craft, some of the finest hymns being attributed to female
seers.
The religious belief of the people consists in a system of natural
symbolism, a worship of the elementary forces of nature, regarded
as beings endowed with reason and power superior to those of man.
In giving utterance to this simple belief, the priestly spokesman
has, however, frequently worked into it his own speculative and
mystic notions. Indra, the stout-hearted ruler of the cloud-region,
receives by far the largest share of the devout attentions of the
Vedic singer. His ever-renewed battle with the malicious demons
of darkness and drought, for the recovery of the heavenly light and
the rain-spending cows of the sky, forms an inexhaustible theme of
spirited song. Next to him, in the affections of the people, stands
Agni (ignis), the god of fire, invoked as the genial inmate of the
Aryan household, and as the bearer of oblations, and mediator
between gods and men. Indra and Agni are thus, as it were, the
divine representatives of the king (or chief) and the priest of the
Aryan community ; and if, in the arrangement of the Samhita, the
Brahmanical collectors gave precedence to Agni, it was but one of
many avowals of their own hierarchical pretensions. Hence also
the hymns to Indra are mostly followed, in the family collections,
by those addressed to the Visve Devah (the “all-gods”) or to the
Maruts (Mavors, Mars), the warlike storm-gods and faithful com¬
panions of Indra, as the divine impersonation of the Aryan free¬
men, the vi& or clan. But, while Indra and Agni are undoubtedly
the favourite figures of the Vedic pantheon, there is reason to believe
that these gods had but lately supplanted another group of deities
who play a less prominent part in the hymns, viz., Father Heaven
(Dyaus Pitar, Zeus irar-qp, Jupiter); Varuna (oSpavos), the all-
embracing firmament; Mitra (Zend. Mithra), the genial light of
day; and Savitar (Saturnus) or Surya (r/eAios), the vivifying sun.
Brah- Of the Brahmanas that were handed down in the schools of the
manas of Bahvrichas {%.e., “possessed of many verses”), as the followers of
Rigveda. the Rigveda are called, two have come down to us, viz., those of
the Aitareyins and the Kaushitakins. The Altareya-brdhmana1
and the Kaushltaki- (or Sdnkhdyana-) brdhmana evidently have for
their groundwork the same stock of traditional exegetic matter.
They differ, however, considerably as regards both the arrange¬
ment of this matter and their stylistic handling of it, with the
exception of the numerous legends common to both, in which the
discrepancy is comparatively slight. There is also a certain
amount of material peculiar to each of them. The Kaushitaka is,
upon the whole, far more concise in its style and more systematic
in its arrangement—merits which would lead one to infer that it
Ab'tan English translation, by M. Hang, 2 vols., Bombay, 18G3. A
edition, in Roman transliteration, with extracts from the commentary, has bee
published by Th. Aufrecht, Bonn, 1879.
is probably the more modern work of the two. It consists of thirty
chapters {adhydya) ; while the Aitareya has forty, divided into
eight books (or pentads, panchakd, of five chapters each). The
last ten adhyayas of the latter work are, however, clearly a later
addition,—though they must have already formed part of it at the
time of Panini (c. 400 B.c. ?), if, as seems probable, one of his
grammatical sutras, regulating the formation of the names of
Brahmanas, consisting of thirty and forty adhyayas, refers to these
two works. In this last portion occurs the well-known legend
(also found in _the Sankhayana-sutra, but not in the Kaushitaki-
brahmana) of Sunahsepa, whom his father Ajigarta sells and offers
to slay, the recital of which formed part of the inauguration of
kings. While the Aitareya deals almost exclusively with the
Soma sacrifice, the Kaushitaka, in its first six chapters, treats of
the several kinds of haviryajna, or offerings of rice, milk, ghee,
&c., whereupon follows the Soma sacrifice in this way, that chapters
7-10 contain the practical ceremonial and 11-30 the recitations
(sastra) of the hotar. Sayana, in the introduction to his com¬
mentary on the work, ascribes the Aitareya to the sage Mahidasa
Aitareya (son of Itara), also mentioned elsewhere as a philosopher ;
and it seems likely enough that this person arranged the Brahmana
and founded the school of the Aitareyins. Regarding the author¬
ship of the sister work we have no information, except that the
opinion of the sage Kaushitaki is frequently referred to in it as
authoritative, and generally in opposition to the Paingya—the
Brahmana, it would seem, of a rival school, the Paingins.
Each of these two Brahmanas is supplemented by a “ forest-
portion,” or Aranyaka. The AitareydranyaTca* is not a uniform
production. It consists of five books (dranyaka), three of which,
the first and the last two, are of a liturgical nature, treating of the
ceremony called mahdvrata or great vow. The second and third
books, on the other hand, are purely speculative, and are also styled
the Bahvricha-brdhmana-upanishad. Again, the last four chapters
of the second book are usually singled out as the Aitareyopanishad,3
ascribed, like its Brahmana (and the first book), to Mahidasa
Aitareya ; and the third book is also referred to as the Samhitd-
upanishad. The fourth and fifth books are doubtless of later
origin, being composed in sutra-form. Even native authorities
exclude them from the sacred canon, and ascribe them to Asva
layana and Saunaka respectively, of whom more further on. As
regards the KausMtaki-dranyaka, our MS. material is not yet
sufficient to enable us to determine its exact extent and arrange¬
ment. It would, however, seem that there are two different
recensions of this treatise, a shorter one, consisting of nine, and a
longer one of fifteen, adhyayas. Four of these, variously placed
at the beginning or end, or after the second adhyfiya, constitute
the highly interesting Kaushitaki- {brdhmana-) upanishad,* of
which we possess two different recensions. The remaining portions
of the Aranyaka seem to correspond, to some extent, to the cere¬
monial sections of the Aitareya-aranyaka.
Of Kalpa-sHtras, or manuals of sacrificial ceremonial, composed Sfttras of
for the use of the hotar priest, two different sets are in existence, Rigveda.
the Asvaldyana- and the Sdnkhdyana-siXtra. Each of these works
follows one of the two Brahmanas of the Rik as its chief authority,
viz., the Aitareya and Kaushitaka respectively. Both consist of a
Srauta- and a Grihya-sMra. Asval&yana seems, to have lived about
the same time as Panini,—his own teacher, Saunaka, who com¬
pleted the Rik-pratisakhya, being probably intermediate between
the great grammarian and Yaska, the author of the Nirukta.
Saunaka himself is said to have been the author of a Srauta-sfitra
(which was, however, more of the nature of a Brahmana) and to
have destroyed it on seeing his pupil’s work. A Grihya-sutra is
still quoted under his name by later writers. The Asvalayana
Srauta-sutra 5 consists of twelve, the Grihya 6 of four, adhyayas.
Regarding Sankhayana still less is known ; but he, too, was
doubtless a comparatively modern writer, who, like Asvalayana,
founded a new school of ritualists. Hence the Kaushitaki-brahmana,
adopted (and perhaps improved) by him, also goes under his name,
just as the Aitareya is sometimes called Asvalayana-hrahmana.
The Sankhayana Srauta-sutra consists of eighteen adhyayas. The
last two chapters of the work are, however, a later addition,6
while the two preceding chapters, on the contrary, present a com¬
paratively archaic, brahmana-like appearance. The Grihya-sutra7
consists of six chapters, the last two of which are likewise later
appendages. The Sdmbavya Grihya-sdtra, of which a single MS.
2 Edited, with Sayana’s commentary, by Rajendralfila Mitra, in the Bibliotheca
Indica, 1875-76. The first three books have been translated by F. Max Mttller in
Sacred Books of the East, vol. i.
3 Edited and translated by Dr Roer, in the Bibl. Ind. The last charter of the
second book, not being commented upon by Sftyana, is probably a later addition.
4 Text, commentary, and translation published by E. B. Cowell, in the Bibl. Ind.
Also a translation by F. Max Muller in Sacred Books of the East, vol. i.
5 Both works have been published with the commentary of Gargya Narayana,
by native scholars, in the Bibl. Ind. Also the text of the Grihya, v. ith a German
translation by A. Stenzler.
6 See A. Weber’s analysis, Ind. Studien, ii. p. 288 sq. This work, with its
commentaries, is only accessible in manuscript.
7 Edited, with a German translation, by H. Oldenberg {Ind. Stud., vol. xv.),
who also gives an account of the Sambavya Grihya.