THE FOUR VEDAS After this brief characterization of the various branches of Vedic literature, we proceed to take a rapid survey of the several Vedic collections.
Rigveda.—The Rigveda-samhitd has come down to us in the recension of the alcala school, which shows that it consists of 1,028 hymns, including eleven so-called Valakhilyas, probably of later date. The hymns are composed in a great variety of metres, and consist, on an average, of rather more than io verses each, or about 10,60o verses altogether. This body of sacred lyrics has been subdivided by ancient authorities in a twofold way, viz. either from a purely artificial point of view, into eight ashtakas of about equal length, or, on a more natural principle, based on the origin of the hymns, and invariably adopted by European scholars, into ten books, or mandalas, of unequal length. Tradition has handed down the names of the reputed authors, or rather inspired "seers" (rishi), of most hymns. These indications have enabled scholars to form some idea as to the probable way in which the Rik-sarphita originated, though much still remains to be cleared up by future research.
Mandalas ii.–vii. are evidently arranged on a uniform plan. Each of them is ascribed to a different family of rishis, whence they are usually called the six "family-books": ii., the Gritsa madas; iii., the Vigvamitras or KuSikas; iv., the Vamadevyas; v., the Atris; vi., the Bharadvajas; and vii., the Vasishthas.
Further, each of these books begins with the hymns addressed to Agni, the god of fire, which are followed by those to Indra, where upon follow those addressed to minor deities—the Vigve Devah ("all-gods"), the Maruts (storm-gods), etc. Again, the hymns addressed to each deity are arranged in a descending order, accord ing to the number of verses of which they consist.
Mandala i., the longest in the whole Sarphita, contains 191 hymns, ascribed, with the exception of a few isolated ones, to six teen poets of different families, and consisting of one larger (5o hymns) and nine shorter collections. Here again the hymns of each author are arranged on precisely the same principle as the "family-books." Mandalas viii. and ix., on the other hand, have a special character of their own. To the Samaveda, these two mandalas have contributed a much larger proportion of verses than any of the others. The hymns of the eighth book are ascribed to a number of different rishis, mostly belonging to the Kanva family. The chief peculiarity of this mandala, however, consists in the strophic character of its composition and the numerous rep etitions throughout it. It is closely connected with the first half of the first mandala and they were evidently added as beginning and end to the collected ii.–vii. The ninth mandala consists en tirely of hymns (114) addressed to Soma, the deified juice of the so-called "moon-plant" (Sarcostemma viminale, or Asclepias acida), and ascribed to poets of different families. They are called
pavanini, "purificational," because they were to be recited by the hotar while the juice expressed from the soma plants was clarify ing. The hymns are by poets of the same families as ii.–vii. and it is evident that when these hymns were collected the soma hymns were taken out and put into a single collection. There are also a few soma hymns in the later books (i., x.).
Mandala x. contains the same number of hymns (Iw) as the first, which it nearly equals in actual length. In the latter half of the book the hymns are clearly arranged according to the number of verses, in decreasing order—occasional exceptions to this rule being easily adjusted by the removal of a few apparently added verses. This mandala came into existence after the other nine were in their present form, a fact of which there is abundant evidence. It shows considerable uniformity and is all older than the latest insertions in other books of the former collectors.
It is usual to call the Rik-samhita (as well as the Atharvan) an historical collection, as compared with the two Sarphitas put together for purely ritualistic purposes. And indeed, although the Rigveda itself, in its oldest form, may have been intended as a common prayer-book, for the whole of the Brahmanical com munity, it is certain that in the stage in which it has been finally handed down it includes a certain portion of hymn material (and even some secular poetry) which could never have been used for purposes of religious service. It may, therefore, be assumed that the Rik-samhita contains all of the nature of popular 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. For many reasons, however, which cannot be detailed here, scholars have come to fix on the year i000 B.C. as an ap proximate 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 ex tent, and was only partly understood, the period during which the great mass of the hymns were actually composed must have lain considerably farther back, and may very likely have extended over the earlier half of the second millenary, or from about 2000 to 1500 B.C.