The Four Vedas

The four collections of old Yajus texts, so far known to us, while differing more or less considerably in arrangement and verbal points, have the main mass of their textual matter in common. This common matter consists of both sacrificial prayers (yajus) in verse and prose, and exegetic or illustrative prose por tions (brahmana). A prominent feature of the old Yajus texts, as compared with the other Vedas, is the constant intermixture of textual and exegetic portions. The Charakas and Taittiriyas thus do not recognize the distinction between Samhita. and Brahmana in the sense of two separate collections of texts, but they have only a Sarnhita, or collection, which includes likewise the exegetic or Brahmana portions. The Taittiriyas seem at last to have been impressed with their want of a separate Brahmana and to have set about supplying the deficiency in rather an awkward fashion: instead of separating from each other the textual and exegetic portions of their Sarnhita, they merely added to the latter a sup plement (in three books), which shows the same mixed condition, and applied to it the title of Taittiriya-brahmana.

The Maitrciyani Samhitci, the identity of which with the original Kalapaka has been proved pretty conclusively by Dr. L. v.

Schroder, who attributes the change of name of the Kalapa Maitrayaniyas to Buddhist influences, consists of four books, attached to which is the Maitri- (or Maitrayani) upanishad. The Kathaka, on the other hand, consists of five parts, the last two of which, however, are perhaps later additions, containing merely the prayers of the hotar priest, and those used at the horse sacrifice. There is, moreover, the beautiful Katha- or Keithakct, upanishad, which is also, and more usually, ascribed to the Atharvaveda, and from which Sankhya-Yoga ideas may have developed.

Sarnhita of the White Yajurveda.

The defective arrange ment of the Yajus texts was at last remedied by a different school of Adhvaryus, the Vajasaneyins. The reputed originator of this school and its text-recension is Yajfiavalkya Vajasaneya (son- of V5.jasani). The result of the rearrangement of the texts was a collection of sacrificial mantras, the Veijasaneyi-samhita, and a Brahmana, the gatapatha. On account of the greater lucidity of this arrangement, the Vajasaneyins called their texts the White (or clear) Yajurveda—the name of Black (or obscure) Yajus being for opposite reasons applied to the Charaka texts. Both the Samhita and Brahmana of the Vajasaneyins have come down to us in two different recensions, viz., those of the Madhyandina and Kcinva schools. In several points of difference the Kanva recen sion agrees with the practice of the Rik-sarnhita, and there prob ably was some connection between the Yajus school of Kanvas and the famous family of rishis of that name to which the eighth mandala of the Rik is attributed.

The Vcijasaneyi-samhird consists of forty adhyayas, the first eighteen of which contain the formulas of the ordinary sacrifices.

The last fifteen (or even twenty-two) adhyayas are doubtless a later addition. The last adhyaya is commonly known under the title of V ajasaneyi-samhitd (or liavasya-) upanishad. Its object seems to be to point out the fruitlessness of mere works, and to insist on the necessity of man's acquiring a knowledge of the supreme spirit.

The last book is of the Upanishad order, and bears the special title of Brihad- (great) aranyaka; its last six chapters are the Brihadeiranyaka-upanishad, the most important of all Upanishads.

As regards the age of the gatapatha, the probability is that the main body of the work is considerably older than the time of Panini, but that some of its latter parts were considered by Panini's critic Katyayana to be of about the same age as, or not much older than, Panini.

The consolidation of the Brahmanical hierarchy and the institu tion of a common system of ritual worship, which called forth the liturgical Vedic collections, were doubtless consummated in the so-called Madhya-dega, or "midland," lying between the Sarasvati and the confluence of the Yamuna and Gafiga; and more especially in its western part, the Kuru–kshetra, or land of the Kurus, with the adjoining territory of the Pafichalas, between the Yamuna and Gafiga. From thence the original schools of

Vaidik ritualism gradually extended their sphere over the adjacent parts. The Charakas seem for a long time to have held sway in the western and north-western regions; while the Taittiriyas in course of time spread over the whole of the peninsula south of the Narmada (Nerbudda), where their ritual has remained pre eminently the object of study till comparatively recent times. The Vajasaneyins, on the other hand, having first gained a footing in the lands on the lower Ganges, chiefly, it would seem, through the patronage of King Janaka of Videha, thence gradually worked their way westwards, and eventually succeeded in superseding the older schools north of the Vindhya.

Atharvaveda.

The Artharvan was the latest of Vedic col lections to be recognized as part of the sacred canon. That it is also the youngest Veda is proved by its language, which in vocabu lary and grammar marks an intermediate stage between the main body of the Rik and the Brahmana period. In regard also to the nature of its contents, and the spirit which pervades them, this Vedic collection occupies a position apart from the others. Whilst the older Vedas seem clearly to reflect the recognized religious notions and practices of the upper, and so to speak, respectable classes of the Aryan tribes, as jealously watched over by a priest hood deeply interested in the undiminished maintenance of the traditional observances, the fourth Veda, on the other hand, deals mainly with all manner of superstitious practices such as have at all times found a fertile soil in the lower strata of primitive and less advanced peoples, and are even apt, below the surface, to maintain their tenacious hold on the popular mind in compara tively civilized communities. Although the constant intermingling with the aboriginal tribes may well be believed to have exercised a deteriorating influence on the Vedic people in this respect, it can scarcely be doubted that superstitious practices of the kind re vealed by the Atharvan and the tenth book of the Rik must at all times have obtained amongst the Aryan people, and that they only came to the surface when they received the stamp of recognized forms of popular belief by the admission of these collections of spells and incantations into the sacred canon. If in this phase of superstitious belief the old gods still find a place, their character has visibly changed so as to be more in accordance with those mystic rites and magic performances and the part they are called upon to play in them, as the promoters of the votary's cabalistic practices and the averters of the malicious designs of mortal enemies and the demoniac influences to which he would ascribe his fears and failures as well as his bodily ailments. The fourth Veda may thus be said to supplement in a remarkable manner the picture of the domestic life of the Vedic Aryan as presented in the Grihya-sutras or house-rules; for whilst these deal only with the orderly aspects of the daily duties and periodic observances in the life of the respectable householder, the Atharvaveda allows us a deep insight into "the obscurer relations and emotions of human life"; and, it may with truth be said that "the literary diligence of the Hindus has in this instance preserved a document of priceless value for the institutional history of early India as well as for the ethnological history of the human race" (M. Bloomfield). It is worthy of note that the Atharvaveda is prac tically unknown in the south of India.