Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and History of the People of India ...

OPINIONS REGARDING THE ORIGIN, DIVISION, INSPIRATION, AND AUTHORITY OF THE VEDAS, HELD BY INDIAN AUTHORS SHORTLY BEFORE, OR SUBSEQUENT TO, THE COLLECTION OF THE HYMNS OF THE RIG-VEDA.

In the preceding volumes of this work' I have furnished a general account of the ancient Indian writings, which are comprehended under the designation of Veda or Sruti. These works, which, as we have seen, constitute the earliest literature of the Hindus, are broadly divisible into two classes: (1) The Mantras or hymus, in which the praises of the gods are celebrated and their blessing is invoked; (2) the Brāhmanas, which embrace (a) the liturgical institutes in which the ceremonial application of these hymns is declared, the various rites of sacrifice are prescribed, and the origin and hidden import of the different forms are explained, and (b) the Āranyakas, and Upanishads (called also Vedantas, i.e. concluding portions of the Vedas), which in part possess the same character as some of the earlier portions of the Brāhmaṇas, and are in part theological treatises in which the spiritual aspirations which

1 See Vol. I. pp. 2 ff. and Vol. II. pp. 169 ff. See also Professor Max Müller's History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature.

* For more precise information see Müller's Anc. Sansk. Lit. pp. 313 ff. from which it will be perceived that only some of the Aranyakas form part of the Brahmanas, and that two of the Upanishads are included in a Sanhitā.

were gradually developed in the minds of the more devout of the Indian sages are preserved. It is, therefore, clear that the hymns constitute the original and, in some respects, the most essential portion of the Veda; that the Brāhmaṇas arose out of the hymns, and are subservient to their employment for the purposes of worship; while the Upanishads give expression to ideas of a speculative and mystical character which, though to some extent discoverable in the hymns and in the older portion of the Brahmanas, are much further matured, and assume a more exclusive importance, in these later treatises.

I content myself here with referring the reader who desires to obtain a fuller idea of the nature of the hymns, and of the mythology which they embody, to the late Professor H. H. Wilson's translation of the earlier portion of the Rig-veda, to his prefaces to the several volumes, to Professor Max Müller's History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, and to two papers of my own in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, entitled Contributions to a knowledge of the Cosmogony and Mythology of the Rig-veda. In the fourth volume of this work I return to the latter branch of the subject, and compare the conceptions which the rishis entertained of the different objects of their worship, with those representations of the deities who bore the same names, which occur in Indian writings of a later date, whether mythological or theological.

The task to which I propose in the meantime to devote myself, is to supply some account of the opinions entertained by Hindu writers, ancient and modern, in regard to the origin and authority of the Vedas. With this view I have collected from some of the later hymns, from the Indian writings of the middle and later Vedic era (the Brahmanas and Upanishads) as well as from the books, whether popular or scientific, of the post-vedic period (the Purānas, the Itihasas, the Institutes of Manu, the aphorisms of the Darśanas, or systems of philosophy, and their commentators, and the commentaries on the Vedas) such passages as I have discovered which have reference to these subjects, and propose to compare the opinions there set forth with the ideas entertained on some of these points by the writers of the more ancient hymns, as deducible from numerous passages in their own compositions.

The mythical accounts which are given of the origin of the Vedas

are mutually conflicting. In some passages they are said to have been created by Prajapati from fire, air, and the sun, or by some other process. In other texts they are said to have been produced by Brahma from his different mouths, or by the intervention of the Gāyatrī, or to have sprung from the goddess Sarasvati, or to have otherwise arisen. I proceed to adduce these several passages.

SECT. I.-Origin of the Vedas according to the Purusha-sukta, the Atharva-veda, the Brahmanas, Upanishads, and Institutes of Manu.

Purusha-sukta.-In the ninth verse of this hymn (Rig-veda, x. 90, already quoted in Vol. I. pp. 8 and 9) the three Vedas are said to have been produced from the mystical victim Purusha: Tasmād yajnāt sarva-hutaḥ richaḥ sāmāni jajnire | chhandāmsi jajnire tasmād yajus tasmād ajāyata | "From that universal sacrifice sprang the rich and saman verses: the metres sprang from it: from it the yajush arose. This is the only passage in the hymns of the Rig-veda in which the creation of the Vedas is described.

In the Atharva-veda the following texts refer to that subject: x. 7, 14. Yattra rishayaḥ prathamajāḥ richaḥ sāma yajur mahī | ekarshir yasminn ārpitaḥ Skambham tam brūhi katamaḥ svid eva saḥ | 20. Yasmad richo apatakshan yajur yasmād apākashan | sāmāni yasya lomani atharvängiraso mukham | Skambham tam bruhi katamaḥ svid eva saḥ |

"Declare who that Skambha (supporting-principle) is in whom the primeval rishis, the rich, saman, and yajush, the earth, and the one rishi, are sustained. . . 20. Declare who is that Skambha from whom they cut off the rich verses, from whom they scraped off the yajush, of whom the saman verses are the hairs, and the verses of Atharvan and Angiras the mouth."

* The word veda, in whatever sense we are to understand it, occurs in R.V. viii. 19, 5: Yaḥ samidhā yaḥ āhutī yo vedena dadāśa martyo agnaye | yo namasā svadhvaraḥ | 6. Tasya id arvanto ramhayante āsavas tasya dyumnitamam yaśaḥ | na tam amho deva-kṛitam kutaś chana na martya-kṛitam nasat | "The horses of that mortal who, devoted to sacrifice, does homage to Agni with fuel, with an oblation, with ritual knowledge (?), with reverence,-(6) speed forward impetuously; and his renown is most glorious. No calamity, caused either by god or by man, can assail him from any quarter."

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