The utter improbability of an original contemporaneousness of all the hymns of the R'igveda is such that a theory founded on it would scarcely require a remark for the non-Brahmanio student of Ilindu antiquity. In reading these hymns, such a student would not fail to perceive that some describe the most primitive features, and others— as we have shown—the most complicated mechanism of social life ; that in some the first bud of religious life is perceptible, while others contain " the full-grown fruit of long experience in thought, or mark the end, not the beginning, of a phase of religious development.' In other words, he would perceive the gradual and historical growth of that oldest document of the Brahmanic creed, the R'igveda-Sanhittt. But even the Brahmanic student could not remain indifferent to tho fact, that the hymns themselves destroy this theory of the eternity of the Veda, built up, as it was, in a priestly and systematising age. There are passages, for instance, in which the R'ighie themselves describe themselves as composers or "fabricators" or " " not as "seers" of the hymns. "This hymn," we read in one, "has been made to the divine race by the sages." "Thus, 0 Indra," says another, "have the Gotamas made for thee pure hymns; " or, "desiring wealth, men have fashioned (lit. fabricated) for thee this hymn, as a skilful workman (fabricates) a car ; " or, " thus have the Or'itsantadas, desiring succour, fashioned (lit. fabricated) for thee a hymn, ae men make roads ; " or, " the sages generated a pure hymn and a prayer to Indra;"' " Wise Agni Batavedas, I generate a hymn for thee, who receivest it with favour ; " and 80 on in numerous other instances. (Muir, Orig. Sansk. Texts,' iii. pp. 123-140.) In other hymns, says Mr. Muir (Ib. p. 117), "the . . passages from the R'igveda either expressly distinguish between contemporary R'ishim and those of a more ancient date, or, at any rate, make reference to the one or the other class. This recognition of a succession of Itlehis constitutes one of the historical elements in the Veda." If this succession were simply one of the poets, it might seem, from a Brah manic point of view, to be not incompatible with the theory men tioned before ; but it appears in conjunction with the narration of events, and thus excludes the possibility of their original coaarity. "Those gods," we read, for instance, "who formerly grew through reverence, were altogether blameless. They caused the dawn to rise, and the sun to shine for Vfl.yu and the afflicted Manu;" or, "-listen to S'yfivaswa pouring forth libations, in the same way as thou didat listen to Atri when he celebrated sacred rites." (Comp. Muir, ` Orig. Sansk. Testa,' iii. pp. 116-128.) — — — — Whichever view, therefore, one takes, it is clear that there are periods in the arrangement of those thousand and twenty-eight hymns which form the present It'igeaLti-Sanhitd, and that the growth of the religious and social life of ancient India cannot be fully understood until we have a knowledge of the relative ago at least of these hymn., since their real date may perhaps for ever remain as much beyond the control of philological research as it has remained hitherto. In some cases the description of events or the allusion to institutions of a domestic or public kind, in others the character of the religious notions expressed and the detail of the rites explained, nly lead to a surmise as to the chronological relation of certain hymns ; but since the sound ness of a criterion of this kind will moro or less depend on personal feelings or views, • safer footing is obtained in those hymns where the R'ishl himself refers to a predecessor who is the poet of another hymn, or to events anterior to him, met with however in other portions of ht'igveda poetry. For there it is possible at once to establish a relative order in time between such hymns. But as instances of this descrip tion are rare, the real burden of proof will probably always rest with the linguistic facts that may be gathered from the various hymns. They are the stubborn monuments which raise their heads above the confusion created by the systematising arrangement of later times. As yet, however, Sanskrit philology has done little or nothing to enable us to see clearly in the mist of the gradual development of the Vaidik age. It is struggling even at present to save the very mehning of the Vaidik words, as handed down to us by native scholarship, and the grammatical explanation of the Vaidik commentaries, from a conceit which strives to substitute its own fanciful notions for the traditional lore—the only real means we possess for understanding these ancient texts.
If now we turn to the Sanhitds of the next two Vedas, our attention will be particularly eugaged by the purpose for which they were collected, or, as observed before, for which they were either entirely, or for the most part, extracted from the R'igveda-SanhitA. This pur pose, we stated, was a liturgic one. The verses of the Samaveda were intoned at those sacrificial acts which were performed with the juice of the Soma-plant. A short account of the manner in which the libations of this juice were prepared and offered to the gods is given in the introduction of Stevenson's translation of the Samavedri. "The first thing to be done is to collect the Soma, or moon plant, and the aran'i wood for kindling the sacred fire; and this must be done in a moonlight night, and from the table-land on the top of a mountain. The moon plants must be plucked up from the roots, not cut down; and after being stripped of their leaves, the bare stems are to be laid on a cart drawn by two rams or lie-goats, and by them to be brought to the house of the Yajamana, the institutor of the sacrifice, for whose espe cial benefit, and at whose expense, all the ceremonies are performed. The sterns of the plants are now deposited in the ball of oblation .... bruised by the Brahmans with atones, and then put between two planks of wood, that they may be thoroughly squeezed and the juice ex pressed. The stalks, with their expressed juice, are then placed over a strainer made of goats' hair, sprinkled with water, and squeezed by the fingers of the officiating Brahmans, one or two of which must be adorned with fiat gold-rings. The juice, mixed with water, now makes its way through the strainer and drops into the Dron'a lialara, the re ceiving vessel placed below, and situated at that part of the Yajnavedi (or eacri ficial ground), called the Yoni, or womb .. .. The juice, already diluted with water, is in the Dron'a Relate further mixed with barley, clarified butter, and the flour of a grain called by the Marathas wars, the Sanskrit names of which are eirdra and tr'in'adh4nya. It is now allowed to ferment till a spirit is formed, after which it is drawn off for oblations to the gods in a scoop called sruch, and in the ladle called chaniaso, for consumption by the officiating Brahmans. The vessel, scoop, and ladle, are all made of tho wood of the catechu-tree (ifimose rated's). Nine days are mentioned in tIA BhAshya as required for the purificatory rites .... There are three oblations offered daily ; one early in the morning, one at noon, and one at night." The sacrifices at which such oblations were offered are very nume rous. The principal one seems to have been the Jyotight'oma, a great sacrifice, which, if complete, consisted of seven swath& or stages, each occupying the space of several days. The 311mAnsista, however, pro bably yielding to the necessity of eircumetauces, consider the Ayni sheona only, the first stage of the Jyotiaht'oma, as obligatory for the performance of this rite; while they look upon the six others--the Atyagnisht'ome, Ukthya, Shod'as'in, AtirAtra, Apteryarna, and VAja peya—as voluntary and supererogatory. " The Soma offering," says Dr. 1Vindiachtuann, In his Dissertation on the Soma worship of the "wag unquestionably the greatest and the holiest offering of the ancient Indian worship. The sound of the trickling juice is regarded as • sacred hymn. The gods drink the offered beverage ; they long for it (as it does for them); they are nourished by it, and thrown into a joyous intoxication : this is the case with Indra (who performs Iris great deeds under its influence), with the As'wins, the Maruts, and .Agni. The beverage la divine, it purifies, it Inspires greater joy than alcohol, it intoxicates S'ukra, it is a water of life, protects and nourishes, gives health and Immortality, prepares the way to heaven, destroys enemies, ke. The Samaveda diatinguiehes twu kinds of Soma, the green and the yellow ; brit it Is the golden colour which is for tire most part celebrated." (Muir,' Orig. Sanak. Texts,' iii. p. 471.) And these exhilarating and inebriating properties of the plant, divested from their poetical association with the gods, sufficiently explain the religious awe in which they were held by a people which learnt to experience their influence, and ascribed them to some mysterious cause.