Those who worship untreated nature, enter into gloomy darkness, into still greater darkness those who are devoted to created nature. They say, different is the effect from (worshipping) unereated nature, different from (worshipping) created nature. This we heard from the sages who explained (both) to us. Whoever knows boar, created nature and destruction together, overcomes death by destruction, and enjoys im mortality by created, nature. To me whose duty is truth, open, 0 PAshan, the entrance to the truth concealed by the brilliant disk, in order to behold (thee). 0 Mahan, B'iahi thou alone, 0 dispenser of justice (Yama), 0 Sun, offspring of Prajapati, disperse thy rays (and) collect thy light ; let me see thy most auspicious form ; for the same soul which is in thee, am I. Let my vital spark obtain the immortal air ; then let this body be consumed to ashes. Om. 0 my mind, remember, remember (thy) acts, 0 mind, remember, remember thy acts. Guide us, 0 Agni, by the road of bliss to enjoyment ; (guide us), 0 Ood, who knowest all acts. Destroy our crooked sin, that we offer thee our best salutation." (lb., vol. xv. p. 71.) The principal Aran'yaka and Upanishads connected with each of the four Vedas are the following: to the R'igveda belong, the Aitareya Aran'yaka and the Kaushitaka-Aranyaka, the third book of which is the Kansh1taky-Upanishad. The Upanishads of the Samoyeds are the Chhandogyes and the Kena-Upanishad. To the Black Yajurveda belongs the Taittirlya-Aran'yaka, the four last books of which contain two Upanishads, namely, the Taittiriya- and the Narayanlya-Upanishad; besides the Swetas'watara-, Maitrayan'a-, and KAt'haka-Upanishad. That the Beihad-Aran'yaka is attached to the Brahman's of the White Yajurveda, has been stated already.
The largest number of Upanishads, however, has grown up in con nection with the Atharvaveda, which seems to have favoured more than the sacrificial Vedas the tendency for mystical reasoning. Among them we name especially the Mun'd'aka-, Pros'na- Brahma-, and 31an'd'ilkya. Upanishad, as treating of the nature of the divine and human soul.
The JAbala-, Sannyasa-, Aerama-, and Hansa-Upanishad are some of those which describe the means by which deep meditation or the abstract union with the Supreme Soul can be obtained. A third class, as mentioned above, has a sectarian character, by identifying the Supreme Soul with Vishn'u or S'iva in their various forms ; among those referring to Vishnu we notice the N3rAyan'a-, and the Nr'isinha tapanlya-Upanishad ; among thoee connected with the worship of S'iva we find the S'atarudriya-, Kaivalya-, Skanda-Upanishad, and one called Atharvas'iras. (For a fuller account of this class of works, see Pro fessor Weber's ` Akadetnische Vorlesungen iiber Indische Literatur geschichte,' and his Indische Studien.') While the Upanishads are the intermediate link between the Vedas and the later systems of Hindu philosophy, the Veddngas show us how scientific research grew up in India from the soil of the sacred texts.
If we consider the bulk of literature which is comprised by the Sanhitas and Brfihrnan'as, and the anxious desire which every Brahmanic believer must have felt to preserve it in its integrity, it is easily understood that in the course of time various means were devised for securing the correctness of the sacred texts, for guarding their sense against erro neous interpretations, and for maintaining in its purity a proper prac tice of the rites which were taught in the BrAhman'a. This is the object of the Vedanga works. The Brahman'a of the SAmaveda speak of six Vedinga or " limbs of the Veda," in other words. of six works or classes of works which were instrumental in maintaining the integrity .4 the Veda. But it Is not certain whether this Brahman'a means the same six Vedangaa which have come down to us ; Yaska, again, alludes to Vedangas, but does not state that they were six. We must distinguish therefore between categories of works which were called Veclangas, and between certain works which are the surviving repre. sentatives of these categories, but need not have been the first Vedanga works.
The doctrines comprised tinder this name are the following :— Sada, Chhandas, Vytikaran'a, Nirukta, Jyotisha, and Kalpa.
S'ikshd is the science of a proper pronunciation. One little treatise only is considered as representing this Vedhnga, the S'ikshA ascribed to the authorship of the great grammarian Panini. It consists in one recension of thirty-five, in another of fifty-nine verses, and treats of the nature of the letters, of the accents, and the proper mode of sounding them. A chapter of the Taittiriya-Aran'yaka treats likewise of S'iksha ; but though it is possible that Pan'ini's S'iksha. may not be the original Vedhnga of this class, it is more than doubtful that this chapter of the Aran'yaka was ever considered as such.
Chhandas means " metre r and the Vedhnga which is quoted by this name is referred to the authorship of Pingalanaga. But as the work of the latter treats of Prakrit as well as of Sanskrit metres, it becomes doubtful again whether we possess in it an original Vedanga, work.
rydkaran'a signifies" grammar," but literally means " undoing," that is, analysis ; for to the Hindu scholar grammar is linguistic analysis ; his grammar un-does words and undoes sentences ; it examines the component parts of a word, and therefore teaches the properties of a base and affix, and all the linguistic phenomena connected with both ; it examines the relation, in sentences, of one word to another, and likewise unfolds all the linguistic phenomena which are inseparable from the meeting of words. The most renowned representative of this
science is Ptheini, who wrote a work in eight chapters, comprising thirty-two sections and three thousand nine hundred and ninety-six rules, three or four of which, however, probably did not belong to him. And so great was the renown of this wonderful labour, which may be placed at the side of the best grammatical works of any nation and any age, that Pan'ini was looked upon as a R'ishi who had received it, by inspiration, from the god S'iva himself. PAn'ini, it is true, quotes in his work various grammarians who preceded him, but Vyakaran'a is typified by the grammar of Pan'ini, which has remained, up to this day, the standard for Sanskrit speech. We may add, that his work was criticised and amplified by Katyayana, who in his turn was criti cised by Patanjali, a grammarian who lived iu the middle of the second century before Christ ; and that these three grammarians are con sidered to be the greatest authorities in the science they taught. But Pan'ini only can be held to be the representative of the Vedauga we are speaking of. Nor should the Vyakaran'a be confounded with a class of works which apparently stands in a closer relation than itself to the Veda-Sanhiths—with the Pratislkhya works ; for though the latter are concerned in Vaidik language alone, whereas Pan'ini's work is even more engaged in teaching the classical than the Vaidik dialect, their aim and their contents materially differ from those of the Vyakaran'a. Their object is merely the ready-made word, or base, in the condition in which it is fit to enter into a sentence or into composition with another base. They are nowise concerned iu analysing or explaining the nature of a word or base ; they take them such as they are, and teach the changes which they undergo when they become part of a spoken hymn. Whether there existed at one period other Pratis'irkhyas than those which have survived, it is not easy to say in the present condition of Sanskrit philology ; but it has been proved that the pre sent Pratidakhyas are even more recent than Pan'ini's work. (Gold stficker, p. 183, ff.) Nirukta, or " explanation," is represented by the Nirukta of Ydska, which is the oldest attempt, known to us, of an explanation of obscure passages of the Vaidik SanhitAs. " It is important, however," says Professor Muller Ane. Sansk. Lit.,' p. 154), " not to confound Yaska's Nirukta with Yfiska's Commentary on the Nirukta, although it has become usual, after the fashion of modern manuscripts, to call that commentary Nirukta, and to distinguish the text of the Nirukta by the name of Nighan't'u. The original Niruktas that formed an integral part of the Vedanga literature, known to Yaska himself, can have con sisted only of lists of words arranged according to their meaning, like that upon which Yft.ska's Commentary is based. . . Sttyana gives the following account of this matter Nirukta is a work where a number of words is given, without any intention to connect them in a sentence. . . . . The first part (of the Nirukta) is the Naighaneuka, the second the Naiganta, and the third the Dairata The word Nighantu applies to works where, for the most part, synonymous words are taught. Therefore, the first part of this work also has been salted Naighant'uka, because synonymous words are taught there. In this part there are three lectures : in the first, we have words connected with things of time and space in this and the other worlds ; in the second, we have words connected with men and human affairs ; and in the third, words expressing qualities of the preceding objects, such as thinness, multitude, shortness, &e. Nigama means Veda. As YAska as quoted many passages from the Veda, which he usually introduces ay the words, " For this there is also a Nigama ;" and as in the second .art, consisting of the fourth Adhytiya, words are taught which usually recur in the Veda only, this part is called Naigama. Why the third )art, consisting of the fifth AdbyAya, Is called Donate, is clear. The whole work, consisting of five Adhyayas and three parts, is called Nirukts, became the meaning of words Is given there irrespective of anvthiug else. .A commentary on this has been composed by YAska, In twenty Adhyayas. This also is called Nirukta, because the real mean ing conveyed by each word in fully given therein.'" The fifth Vedinga is called Jyetiaaa, or" astronomy." Its object was to teach how to fix the proper time for the performance of sacrificial acts. It is a Vaidik calendar. There is but one manuscript work, in the library of the India Office, which would seem to belong to this category, but it Is difficult to say whether it may aspire to the proud name of a Vedanga work.