VEDA. The religious books of the Hindus, known as the Vedas, are four in number,—the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda, and the Atharva Veda, but the last of these belongs to a much later age than the rest. Of the four, the Rig Veda is the oldest, and the Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, and the Atharva Veda follow in suc cession.
Each Veda is subdivided . into three parts,— Sanhita, Brahmana, and Sutra.
The Sanhita of the Rig Veda is purely a lyrical collection, comprising the store of songs which the Aryans had brought with them from their ancient settlements on the banks of the Indus, and which they had used in their invocations for prosperity ou themselves and their flocks, in their adoration of the dawn, in celebration of the struggle between the god who wields the lightning and the darkness, and in rendering thanks to the heavenly beings for preservation in battle.
The songs are here classified according to the families of the poets to which they are ascribed. This is a purely scientific arrangement, irrespective of their date.
It is known that the sacred books known as Vedas were numerous, and the tradition is that their arrangement into their present form was inade by a person who is designated Veda-Vyasa, literally Veda-compiler.
The Sanhita of the Sarno. Veda, and both the Sanhitas of the Yajur Veda, consist of verses re lating to the Soma offerino. which have been ex tracted from the Rig Vesda ; and the extracts forming the Sama Sanhita seem to have been made prior to those of the Yajur Veda.
The object of the Brahinanas is to connect the sacrificial songs and formulas with the sacrificial rite, by pointing out, on the one hand, their direct mutual relation ; and, on the other, their symbolical connection with each other.
The Sutras or Aphorisms are founded on the Brahmanas, and must be considered as their necessary supplement, as a further advance in the path struck out by the latter in the direction of more rigid system and forknalism. They are the Kalpa Sutra or Srauta Sutra relating to ritual, and the Griba Sutra or Smaita Sutra relating to domestic ceremonial.
The Smarta Sutra exhibit tl.\ complete stand point of Brahmanism. .
The language of the Vedas is not Sanskrit in tlae strictest sense of the term, but there is not sufficient difference between it and classical Sanskrit to authorize its being c,alled a separate language. The difference is not so great as be tWeen Anglo-Saxon and modern English, but it is greater than between Homer's and Demosthenes' Greek. The names of the rishi or composers are not always given in the body of the hymns, and there is nothing to guide the historian or chrono logist as to their dates. Nevertheless, good scholars are of opinion that Vedic hymns were composed mostly about the fifteenth or seven teenth centuries before Christ, but not committed to writing, and therefore not collected, until the eighth century B.C.
The Veda offers one of the best illustrations of the manner in which ancient literature was pre served in early times. The art of writing was unknown In India before the end of the ancient Vedic literature, about B.C. 800. Now the oldest Sanskrit manuscript we possess cannot be much older than A.D. 1000 ; but the sons of the three higher castes were required to le,arn by heart the sacred text. At the present day, youths in some of the Brahmanic families can repeat the:whole of the Rig 'Veda, learned, as their ancestors acquired it thousands of years ago, from the mouth of a teacher, so that the Vedic succession should never be broken. Various readings from these walking Rig Veda manuscripts' are being collected for an edition which is to be published in the Sacred Books of the East.
Veda is derived from Vedali, contracted Vetti, he knows, one of the verbs commonly used in Sanskrit, and from which several words are derived of frequent occurrence, as vidya, learn ing ; vidivan, a learned man, etc. This verb, also, has been preserved as vidanti, SANSK. ; eidonta, GR. ; vident, LAT. ; witon, ANGLO - SAXON ; and wit, ENG. The body of Vedic literature is immense. In the Brahmana, moral recepts, reli gious instruction, and information are conveyed.