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^' hj-ns we^'';t^-3^ In'^rpretation they thoVghr.^acrifices, and wha^r hynTas. This idea has vitt ^'.^ *T"^ °"^ by th^ Indian esegesis. It might t '% Z^""'' >^te^ of had only been applied to th ^"f^"^' ^'^^P^> ^ ?f particularly to those Which ^"f^ ^''^^ ^^^^ns l^ the S&a-veda and Y,f'^ *^""^ ^" *^^ Sa^St^ veda too has experienced H?"''"''^"- But the H> hands of Indian comment^.' ^^""^ ^''"u"'"'* ** th; tradition, flowin, fro. tttarjetd 7:^^ o^f KA. 433 ginal poets, has, like the waters of the Sarasvati, dis* appeared in the sands of a desert* Not only was the true nature of the gods, as conceived by the early poets, completely lost sight of, but new gods were actually created out of words which were never intended as names of divine beings. There are several hymns in the Rig-veda containing questions as to who is the true or the most powerful god. One in particular is well known, in which each verse ends with the inquiring exclamation of the. poet; " Easmai dev&ya havish& vidhema ?" " To which god shall we sacrifice with our oflfering?" This, and similar hymns, in which the interrogative pronoun occurred, were employed at various sacrifices* A rule had been laid down, that in every sacrificial hymn, there must be a deity addressed by the poet. In order to discover a deity where no deity existed, the most extraordinary objects, such as a present, a drum, stones, plants, were raised to the artificial rank of deities. In accordance with the same system, we find that the authors of the Br&hmanas had so completely broken with the past, that, forgetful of the poetical character of the hymns, and the yearning of the poets after the unknown god, they exalted the interrogative pronoun itself into a deity, and acknow- ledged a god Ka or Who ? In the Taittiriya-sanhitfl^ (i. 7. 6. 6.), in the Eaushitaki-br&hmana (xxiv. 4.), in the T&ndya-brfthmana (xv. 1 0.), and in the l§ata* patha-brfthmana, wherever interrogative verses occur, the author states, that Ea is Praj&pati, or the Lord of Creatures (prajftpatir vai Eah). Nor did they stop here. Some of the hymns in which the inter- ^ See Bobtlingk and Both*9 Dictionarjr, b, v. r F ^T es^^" ^^pW^' ^- appear ^ ^itl-"" of ^'^^' known by thT^^ised forms of J?^ >^ -ncd i* tl^e hymns, goldoj??** *^<^ *^e should u -^^ter, affected witf^^^^^^^ ^eB^V^lt^ Lt x^eeds explain this S^ni "^l?**?^ ^lindne^' 1^ 0un havmg lost hi- k^^® ^P'***^* ^^^ a storv !!;. It would be useless to \1 \ • , . pvery Pg of t*e Br&f. *""^^'P^y ^^^se instances ;;S that the spirit of th*^"^* contains the c^;^ ' STpurport of the or5' "ft"! ^"^^ ^^^^^ tthbeyVndthecomp^^i"- ^f t ^"<^7;4^ f .LtionwhethLnrptl:^!!^:^^ DATE OF THE BbAh&IANAS. 435 to the duration of this literary period. The Br4h. manas are not the work of a few individuals. By whomsoever they were brought into that form in which we now possess them, no one can claim the sole authorship of the dogmas which are incorporated in each Br&hmana. The Br&hmanas represent a complete period during which the whole stream of thought flowed in one channel, and took, at least in that class which alone sustained intellectual activity, the form of prose, never before applied to literary productions. There are old and new Brahmanas, but the most modern hardly differ in style and lan- guage from the most ancient. The old Brd^hmanas passed through several changes, represented by the Br&hmana*6&khd3, and even the most modern were not exempt from these modifications. Considering, therefore, that the Bi*d.hmana period must com- prehend the first establishment of the threefold ceremonial, the composition of separate Brd.hmanas, the formation of Br&hmana>charanas, and the schism between old and new Charanas, and their various collections, it would seem impossible to bring the whole within a shorter space than 200 years. Of course this is merely conjeyctural ; but it would re- quire a greater stretch of imagination to account for •the production in a smaller number of years of that mass of Br&hmanic literature which still exists, or is known to have existed. Were we to follow the tradi- tions of the Brfthmanas themselves, we should have much less difficulty in accounting for the great variety of authors quoted, and of opinions stated in the Br&h- manas. They contain lists of teachers through Avhom the Brd^hmanas were handed down, which would extend the limits of this age to a very considerable ir 2 BBABHANIC TEACHERS. ^^^ f^-^Q Cbhondogas bave assigned a separate ^ee- ^^ ^Yie list of their teachers, viz. the Van6a- a-^^t>***^ a work the existence of which ought not to t^'^A,\%'^^^'csSi&d. into question, as a copy of it existed V^"^ ^& ^Bodleian Library.* I" ^^^ Satapatha-hr&h- V*^ *^®+Kese lists are repeated at the end of various 5.r ^^ * rf y^ere seems to he no imaginable object in <^\,\X^^?\ these long lists, as in the eyes of the ^^ ^rtinB ^ould have been much too short for ii^ l,P^ t antiquity assigned to their sacred ^ e ^"^ mh the exception of the highest links in <>!> ^0. c teachers, the lists have an appearance icr^-^j cP"^'" Tarelv to be met with in Indian com- ^^"^ a^*^^ The number of teachers in the Van6a- <^* sit'^o^** ioonts to 53, the last of them, Ka6yapa, If'^bt^*^* T^lne received the tradition from Agni, \>^ father, ti^Yfire From Agni the tradition is *^ the g°^ "*! to ' Indra, V&yu (wind), Mrityu ^^ftl'e^ JT Wi (the Lord of Creation), and lastly <- death), P'^J.L Self-existing. FromKafeyapa, down io P^^rrJut^^'^^* 2^* successor, the line of ^ RlUiha G" ^Q ijave been undivided. fUdha teachers 86^0* m^^ ^ho apparently became the Gautama h^.^iferent schools. One is called An6u founders of ^ v^o received instruction from RUdha Phdnanjayy^t ^a m&vlisya S&ndily^y"''^* *^e other,- Gautaraa a^^*^ teacher besides Rftdha. The suc- Gobhila, \^^4^ ^?. ^^^ eleven in number, while those cessors of (J-^^^^aWa ^ twenty-five. of Anfiu t)li^<'*'' tha br^^^*^ ^® ^ ^^^""^ Van&as. In the §^*^P* A'tion of tills tract, is the best amende 1 Pr^r 'fc* *A r^^^v? rnrmer scepticism with regard to the BBAHMA51C ^ *^'6f?5. AZ7 The most important of theiti ^^^^s at the end of the whole work, and consists of fi* /"five names; th^ last of the human teachers being' again Xa6yapa, who here is supposed to have received hiQ revelation from Vfi^h, the goddess of speech. She received it through Ambhini from Aditya, the sun. Among the succes- sors of KaSyapa we mark the 10th, Yfijnavalkya, the pupil of Udd&laka and the teacher of Asuri ; and the 15th, S&njiviputra. S&njiviputra seems to have united two lines of teachers ; he was the pupil of E&r4akeyiputra, and, according to the VanSa of the 10th book, he was likewise the pupil of M&ndiik&yani, the 9th successor of Tura K&vasheya, who is fabled to have received his revelation, not through the agency of V&ch, Ambhii^, and Aditya, but direct from PrajA- pati and the self-existing Brahman. There are two other Van6as, one at the' end of the Madhuk&nda, the other at the end of the Y&jnavalkiya-kllnda. Both are, in reality, varieties of pne and the same Vanfia, their differences arising from the confusion caused by the recurrence of similar names. That of the Madhu- klLnda consists of sixty names, only forty-five or forty-six of which have an historical appearance. The principal divine teachers after Brahman, the Self-existing, are Parameshthin (PrajUpati ?), Mrityu (death), Dadhyach Atharvana, and the two A6vins. At the end of the Khila-k&nda a fifth list is found, not a Van6a, but a list of teachers who handed down the Van6a, This seems to be ascribed to Udd&laka Aruneya, the teacher of Y&jnavalkya, as its original author. PP 3 438 LISTS OF TEACHERS. Lists of Teachers from the Satapatha-br&hmana. Madhukanda. Yajnayalkija-kaDcla. 1. Saurpan&yya. The same as in the Ma- 2. Gautama. dhuk&nda. 3. Vatsya. 4. V&tsyaandP^r&sarya.^ 5. Sankritya and Bh&- radv&ja. 6. Audav&hi and S&n- dilya. 7. Vaijav&pa and Gau- tama. 8. VaijavUp&yana and ^ Vaishtapureya. 9. S&ndilya and Rauhi- n&yana. 10. Saunaka and Atreya, Jaivant&yana instead of and Raibhya. • Atreya. 11. Pautim­ayanaand The same as in the Ma- Kaundinyayana. dhuk&nda. Kaundinyau. Aurnav4bhllh^ 12. Kaundinya. K:aundinya. ' 13. Kaundinya. Kaundinya 14. Kaun4inya and Ag- Kaundinya' and Agni- nivefiya. ^efiya. 15. Saitava. Saitava. 16. PftraSarya. The aam*^ • .