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The whole idea expressed by the poet is, that Yaruna maintains the established order of the world, and therefore knows the twelve months and also the thirteenth. In the hymns of the Yajur-veda the thirteenth month is changed al- ready into a deity. Oblations are offered (V&jasan.- sanhit^, vii. 30., xxii. 31.) to each of the twelve months, and at the end one oblation is made to An- hasaspati, the deity of the intercalary month. In the Br^Lhmanas^ likewise the thirteenth month is mentioned, and in the Jyotisha the theory of inter- calation is fully explained. Two names for ^^ an astro- nomer," Nakshatra-dar^ and Ganaka, occur as early as the Taittiriyaka and the Sanhit4 of the Yajur- veda ^ ; and among the sciences of the early Br&h- mans, Nakshatra-vidy& or Astronomy is mentioned in the Chh&ndogyopanishad. In the Ganap&tha, ap- pended to Pd.nini's Grammar^, the title of Jyotisha occurs together with the titles of other Vedic works ; and in the CharanavyAha we meet not only with the Jyotbha, but with an Upajyotisha, or a supplement ^ S&jana, in his Commentarj on Br. ii. 40. 3, sajB, that the thirteenth month was called the seventh season, and he quotes from a Brahmana a passage : asti trajodaik) masa iti druteh. 2 Taitt-brahm. iy. 5 ; y^j.-sanh. zxx. 10; 20. ' Grana ukthadi. Pan. iii. 1. 143, graha, phmet, is mentioned as different from graha. p 3 214 S^TRA LITERATUBS IN GENERAL. tary treatise on astronomy. This supplementary treatise is one of the Pari^ishtas, and in the same class of writings we meet with other tracts on astro- nomical subjects, such as the Gobhiliya Navagraha- 6&nti-pariSishta ^ belonging to the S^ma-veda, and several more belonging to the Atharva-veda.^ If now we take a comprehensive view of that class of literature which we have just examined, we find some characteristic features throughout. All these works were written with a practical object, quite a new phase in the literature of such a nation as the ancient Hindus, The only authority which the Sfttra- k&ras, the authors of the S{ltras, claimed for their works was the authority of that ancient, and, as it • was then already considered, revealed literature on which their works were founded. These men claimed no inspiration for themselves. They had made a scientific study of the literature handed down to them by former generations, and they wished to make that study easier to their contemporaries and to future generations. The style which they adopted for that purpose was business-like in the extreme. It was the curt and dry style of the SAtras, a style peculiar to India, which can only be compared with the elaborate tables of contents, or the marginal notes, of some of our own early writers. It has its first beginnings in the Brdhmanas, where some sub- jects, particularly those which had given rise to early controversy, are stated with all the conciseness and neatness of the SAtra style. But whereas the authors MS. Chambers, 404. ' Nakshatrakalpa, Grahajuddha, Rahuchara, Eetuchara, Rituke- tulakshana, Nakshatragrahotpatalakshaoa. Weber, Ind. Stud, i. 87. 100. ANUKBAMANtS. 215 of the Br&hmanas screened their poverty behind a constant display of the most inane verbosity, the writers of the SAtras gloried in every word they could save without endangering the practical usefulness of their manuals. In some instances they adopted a poetical form, and they succeeded in combining the conciseness of their prose with the rhythm of their early metres, the mixed l§lokas. Thus their position is marked by the very form of their works, as inter- mediate between the antique style of the Br&hmanas, . and the modern style of the metrical l^^tras* Their works form a distinct and compact class of literature, and if we succeed in fixing the relative age of any one of these Siitrak&ras or writers of Siitras, we shall have fixed the age of a period of literature which forms a transition between the Vedic and the classical litera- ture of India. The ANUKBAMANts. Several of the works mentioned before were ascribed to l§aunaka and his two pupils, Katy&yana and Akvalky&ua. But we have not yet mentioned a number of treatises, ascribed to the same authors, and belonging to the same sphere of literature as the Sfttras, which, however, on account of their technical character, could not lay claim to the title of Ved&nga, or " member of the Veda." They are known by the name of the Anukramanis, from anu^ along, and kramy to step. They are systematic indices to various por- tions of the ancient Vedic literature. The most perfect Anukramani is that of the Sanhit^ of the Kig-veda. It is ascribed to E&ty&yana, an author chiefly known by his works on the Yajur- veda and S&ma-veda. Its name is Sarv&nukramani r 4 The AKUEBAMANts. 217 kramants. Those ascribed to Saunaka are com' posed in mixed metres, as far as we can judge from quotations ; the Anukramani of his pupil E&tyllyana is in prose, and exhibits all the artificial appliances of a Siitra composition. There is one of Saunaka's Anukramanis, the Anuv&ka-anukramani, which can be restored completely from MSS.^ ; and this work bears the most manifest traces of Saunaka's style, partly in the mixture, partly in a peculiar rude- ness, of its metres. The other Anukramanis as- cribed to daunaka are lost to us, but they must have existed at the time of Shadguru^ishya. He quotes not only from the Anuv&ka-anukramani (Bhdshya, viii. 1.), but also from the Deva-anukrama (Bh&- shya, viii. 4.), and he distinguishes this work from the Brihaddevat&, another work attributed to l§au- naka, of which there is one MS. in Europe at the Royal Library of Berlin.^ S&yana also, though later than Shadguru^ishya, was still in possession of Sau- naka's works, and he quotes particularly the Bri- 1 Several MSS. contain portions of the Anuv^anukramani ; and with the help of Shadgurui&ishya's Commentary^ contained in the introduction to his commentary on K&ty&yana's Sarvanakrama, (MS. BodL Wilson, 379.)> the text might be published in a critical edition. > Dr. Kuhn gives the following description of this MS. in Haupt's " Zeitschrift fur Deutsches Alterthum.** The Brihadde- vata (Chambers, 192.) composed in epical metre, is ascribed to &unaka, and contains an enumeration of the deities invoked in each hymn of the Rig-veda. It gives much mythological and other information as to the character of the gods of the Yeda. The text of the MS. is so corrupt that we can scarcely think of restoring it without the help of other MSS.'' Another MS. has since been found in India, and a distinguished Sanskrit scholar is preparing an edition of it* ^ ^, in several of h' ^a ; and it is h/°' **e8e ^ort ''' ^ ^av ^^^^^:W ^* hardly *Jl^^ ^^rks si'^r'^^^^y ^^,i.nce as late as sTyakl^^ ^^^^t4nuL?"^^- ^^ author. AeXfh *^5^-na::^^-- '^'^'^ W ^^ ^ compass to be caji^^^^^ta i^^ ^'^e by ^n :rom m which ^au^^, Possess tl?^^H and 5i- .^"'"X^^tracts, th^^^* left it!'^n;^orfc i^ ANUKHAlCANts. 219 tinctly from their indices. Dr. Kuhn concludes from a passage in Shadgurufiishya's Commentary, to which we shall revert hereafter, that not Saunaka, but Asval&yana, was the author of our Brihaddevatd.. This conclusion, however, is not borne out by suf- ficient evidence, nor is the fact that Saunaka is quoted by name in the work itself a sufficient argu- ment against Saunaka's authorship. According to the line of argument adopted by Dr. Kuhn, it would be equally objectionable to ascribe the Brihaddevatd. to A^val&yana; for in one passage, according to Dr. Kuhn's own emendations, the name of A6va- I&yana also occurs in it. Other authorities which are quoted in this curious work are the Aitareyaka, the Kaushitakins, the Bhd.llavi-br&hmana, the Ni- d&na (nid&nasanjnake granthe), l§&kalas, BsLshkalas, Madhuka, l§vetaketu, G&lava, G&rgya, Rathitara, K&thantarin, l§llkat&yana, l§&ndilya, Romak&yana Sthavira, E&thakya, Bh&gurin, o&kap^lni, Bh&rm- ya6va Mudgala, Aurnavd.bha, Kraushtukin, M&trin, and Y&ska. The last is most frequently mentioned, and the whole book is dedicated to him. To judge from the style of the Brihaddevatft, the work as we now possess it, though originally written by iSaunaka, seems to have been recast by a later writer. The following figures, taken from Saunaka's Anu- kramanis, will serve to give an idea of the minute- ness with which the Veda was studied at his time. According to j§aunaka, the l§akala-i^khdr of the Rig- veda-sanhit& consists of 10 Mandalas, or 64 AdhyA- yas. 220 AHUERAMANts. Mandalas. AnuY&kas. Hymns.