As regards the people which raised for itself this imposing monument, the hymns exhibit it as settled in the regions watered by the mighty Sindhu (Indus), with its eastern and western tribu taries, the land of the five rivers (Panj-Rb) thus forming the central home of the Vedic people. But, while its advanced guard has already debouched upon the plains of the upper Ganga and Yamund, 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 vil lages, the Vedic 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. Not infrequently, too, the light-coloured Aryas wage internecine war with one another—as when the Bharatas, with allied tribes of the Panjab, goaded on by the royal sage Vigvamitra, 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 ; though it does not yet present the baneful features of an exclusive caste.
The religious belief of the people consists in a system of natu ral symbolism, a worship of the elementary forces of nature, re garded 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 specu lative and mystic notions. Indra, the stout-hearted ruler of the cloud-region, receives by far the largest share of the devout at tentions 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 Sarnhit5., 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 Vigve Devah (the "all-gods") or to the Maruts, the warlike storm-gods and faithful companions of Indra, as the divine im personations of the Aryan freemen, the vii or clan. But, while Indra and Agni are undoubtedly the favourite figures of the Vedic pantheon, there is veason 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 rarlip, Jupiter) ; Varuna (probably oi)pavOs), the all-em bracing (esp. nocturnal) heavens; Mitra (Zend. Mithra), the genial light of day; and Savitar, the quickener, and SUrya (7)Atos), the vivifying sun.
Brahmanas of Rigveda.—Of the Brahmanas that were handed down in the schools of the Bahvrichas (i.e., "possessed of many verses"), as the followers of the Rigveda are called, two have come down to us, viz. those of the Aitareyins and the Kaushi
takins. The Aitareya-breihmana and the Kaushitaki- (or gdn breihmana evidently have for their groundwork the same stock of traditional exegetic matter. They differ, however, considerably in their arrangement of this matter. 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—features which would lead one to infer that it is probably the more modern work of the two. While the Aitareya deals almost exclusively with the Soma sacrifice, the Kaushitaka first treats of the several kinds of haviryajiia, or offerings of rice, milk and ghee, and then of the Soma sacrifice. Sayana, in the introduction to his commen tary on the work, ascribes the Aitareya to the sage Mahidasa Aitareya (i.e., son of hard), also mentioned elsewhere as a philosopher; and it seems likely enough that this person arranged the Brahmana and founded the school of the Aitareyins. Re garding the authorship of the sister work we have no definite state ment. Probably it is what one of the manuscripts calls it—the Brahmana of 8a.nkhayana (composed) in accordance with the views of Kaushitaki.
Each of these two Brahmanas is supplemented by a "forest book," or Aranyaka. The Aitareydranyaka is not a uniform pro duction. It consists of five books (iiranyaka), three of which, the first and the last two, are of a liturgical nature, treating of the ceremony called mahavrata, or great vow. The last of these books, composed in sutra form, is, however, doubtless of later origin. The second and third books are purely speculative, and are also styled the Bahvricha-brahmana-upanishad. Again, the last four chapters of the second book are usually singled out as the Aitareya-upanishad, ascribed, like its Brahmana (and the first book), to Mahiddsa Aitareya; and the third book is also referred to as the Sainhitci-upanishad. As regards the Kaushitaki-eiranyaka, this work consists of fifteen adhydyas, the first two (treating of the mahavrata ceremony) and the seventh and eighth of which correspond to the first, fifth, and third books of the Aitareydran yaka respectively, whilst the four adhydyas usually inserted be tween them constitute the highly interesting Kaushitaki- (brah mane-) upanishad, of which we possess two different recensions. The remaining portions (9-15) of the Aranyaka treat .of the vital airs, the internal Agnihotra, ending with the varnga, or succession of teachers. Of Kalpa-slitras, or manuals of sacrificial ceremo nial, composed for the use of the hotar priest, two different sets are in existence, the Aivalayalui- and the gankheiyana-sutra. Each of these works follows one of the two Brahmanas of the Rik as its chief authority: the Aitareya and Kaushitaka respectively. Both consist of a grauta- and a Grihya-siitra. Agvalayana seems to have lived about the same time as Panini ( ? c. 40o B.c.)—his own teacher, 8aunaka, who completed the Rik-pratigakhya, being probably intermediate between the great grammarian and Yaska, the author of the Nirukta. 8aunaka himself is said to have been the author of a grauta-sutra (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 kivalayana grauta-sutra consists of twelve, the Grihya of four, adhydyas.