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^g,^ sa^o^ O It is important to remark, that nothing * geP*** m* the fourth Veda; its origin is de8cribe<l ^ ^^ detail- and its second name, Angirasa, is expl**'^ ©dei^ *^®^ We look in vain for any traces of more J^a ^^^ of in the Gopatha-brfthmaDia, till we come to Athi* ^^ the fifth Prap&thaka. This is the last ^^^j^y^e text the Gopatha-br&hmana, properly so called* ^^^ioa is very corrupt, hut it seems to contain ®^. f^ re a^' that, besides the twenty-one sacrifices whie'^^.^f knowledged m all the Vedic writings, the ^^q^, had some new sacriftces of their own> 11*9* the patha-brfthmana was composed after the schiatno^j Charakas and Vfi.jalmeyin8, and after the coD^P^f^^ of the ^ajasaneyi-sanhitfii, may he gathered ^^ the fact that where the first lines of the other Vedas are quoted ixx the Gopatha, the &rst\ie ofthe THB GOPATH^-^^ ^^ANA. 45S Yajur-veda is taken from tl^ ^JBs&neyinSy and not from the Taittiriyas. The five Prap&thakas which We have hitherto dis- cussed, form only the first part of the Gopatha-brah- mana. There is a second part, called the Uttara- br^hmana, which consists of more than five PrapA- thakas. It is impossible to fix their exact numbers, as the MS. breaks off in the middle of the sixth book. It is likewise reckoned as belonging to the Atharva-veda, and quoted by the name of Gopatha^ In this second part we meet repeatedly with long passages which are taken from other Br&hmanas. Sometimes they coincide literally, sometimes the dif- ferences are no greater than what we find in different S&khds of the same Brd.hmana. Thus the legend of the sacrifice running away from the gods, which is told in the Aitareya-br&hmana, i. 18, is repeated in the Uttara-brilhmana, ii. 6. The story of Yasishtha receiving a special revelation from Indra which is told in the Taittiriyaka^ (iii. 5. 2.) is repeated inthe Uttara-br&hmana, (ii. 13.). And here a dif- ference occurs which is characteristic. The Taittiri- yas relate that owing to this special revelation which Vasishtha had received from Indra, the Vasishthas had always acted as Purohitas. So far both the Taittiriyas and the Atharvans agree. But when the Taittiriyas continue that therefore a Vasishtha is to be chosen a Brahman, the Atharvans demur. The sentence is left out, and it is inculcated on the contrary that the office of Brahman belongs by right to a Bhrigu, or to one cognisant of the songs of the Atharvllngiras'.* ^ See page 91, note. ^ Bee abo Uttara-brahmana ii. 1. = Ait-br. iii. 6. ; Utt-br. 6 o 3 454 THE GOFATHA-BBiHMANA. If, as we have little r^son to doubt, these passages in the second part of the 6opatha-br&hmana were simply copied from other Br^manas, we should have to assign to the Uttara-br&hmana a later date than to the Br&hmanas of the other Yedas. But this would in no way a£fect the age of the original Gopa- tha-br&hmana. In it there is nothing to show that it was a more modem composition than, for instance, that i§atapatha-br&hmana. In the Sanbitft of the Atharva-veda we find something very similar.^ Here also the last, if not the last two books, betray a more modem origin, and are fall of passages taken from the Rig-veda. The Anukramani calls the nineteenth book the Brahma-kanda, and tiie hymns of the last bookyajniya^nsanamantras, i.e. hymns for sacrificial recitations. The collection of the Sanhit^ was pro- bably undertaken simultaneously with the composition of the Gopatha-br&hmana^ at a time when through the influence of some of the families of the Bbrigus and Angiras' the magic formulas of the Atharvans had been acknowledged as an essential part of the solemn ceremonial. With the means at present at our dis- posal it is impossible to trace the history of these verses back to the earlier period of Vedic literature, and I shall not return to them agmn. What is known of their origin and character has been stated by Professor Whitney in several very careful articles in the Journal of the American Oriental Society.* " The Atharvana," he says, " is, like the Rich, a his- T. 14. = Ait-br. vi. 17.; Utt.-br. vi. 1. = Ait,-br. vi. 18.; Utt.-br. yi. 3. = Ait.-br. vi. 21. ^ Atharva-veda-sanhita, herausgegeben von Roth und Whitney. Berlin, 1855, and 1856. ^ Journal of the American Oriental Society, iv. p. 254. w>ncal and or their aUeT^*^ A^mzx^, ^ ^ ^h is also /^I'J' ^^ ^etWcai^ ^ ^ benefitted, or ^ ^^ *l^e pe„c ^^' "^d are di;e^tU^5>re often, by o^ ^' or reZe^^^^ ' ^ot ^ ^Jecj sought ..Tw^^f"?.^ grievou, P^t endowed ^t^ ^^^ ^vuaex "f on a bald pa.t^,., '^^ ^v^xv doW^r.o - "^^t^ Ui. p. ^^^ O 4 456 CHAPTER ni- UAKIRA PERIOD. Having ascribed to one period the first establishment of the three-fold ceremonial (trayl vidylL), the compo- sition, and collection of theBr&hmanas, and the rami- fication of the Br&hmana-charanas, we have now to see whether we can extend our view beyond the limits of this period and trace the stream of Vedic literature still further back to its source and its earliest diffusion. According to its general character, the Br&hmana period must be called a secondary period. It ex- hibits a stratum of thought, perfectly unintelligible without the admission of a preceding age, during which all that is misunderstood, perverted, and ab- surd in the Br&hmanas, had its natural growth, its meaning, ^^^ purpose. But can it be supposed that those who estabUshed the threefold ceremonial, and those who composed the threefold Br&hmanas, fol- lowed imtnediately upon an age -which had known poets, but no priests, prayers, but no dogmas, wor- 8hip9 but no ceremonies? Or are there traces to show that, even previous to the composition of the Brfi'hmanas, a spirit was at work in the literature of India, no longer creative, free, and ori^al, but li viiig only on the heritage of a foimaer age, collecting, cl£issifying, and imitating? I believe we must de- ci3edly adopt the latter view. The only document ^ve have, in which we cai* study the character of the big-veda-sanhitA, 457 times, previous to the Br&hmana period, is the Rig- veda-8anhit&. The other two Sanhit&s were more likely the production of the Br&hmana period. These two Vedas, the Yajur-veda and S&ma-veda, were, in truth, what they are called in the Eau8hitaki.brd.h- mana, the attendants of the Kig-veda.^ The Brllh- manos presuppose the Trayi vidyA, the threefold knowledge, or the threefold Veda, but that Trayl vidy& again presupposes one Veda, and that the Rig- veda. We cannot suppose that the h3nnns which are found in the Rig-veda, and in the Sanhit&s of the two supplementary Vedas, the Sllma and Yajur- veda, were collected three times by three independent collectors. If so, their differences would be much greater than they are. The differences which do exist between the same hymns and verses as given in the three Sanhit&s, are such as we should expect to find in different 6&khd.s, not such as would natur^ ally arise in independent collections or Sanhitfts. The principle on which the Sanhitd. of the Rig- veda was made is different from that which guided the compilers of the Sanhit&s of the Adhvaryus and XJdg&tris. These two Sanhitds follow the order of an established ceremonial. They presuppose a fixed order of sacrifices. This is not the case in the San* hitit of the Bahvrichas. There is, as we shall see, a system in that SanhitA also, but it has no reference to the ceremonial. The different character of the Rig-veda-sanhit&, as compared with the Sanhit&s of the other two Vedas, has attracted the attention of the Brahmans, and we 458 riq-veda-sakhitI. may quote on this subject the remarks of S&yana, in his Introduction to the Rig-veda.^ " Has A^val&yana," he says, " when composing his ceremonial SMras, followed the order of the Sanhit& of the Rig-veda, or of the Br&hmana ? He could not have followed the order of the hymns, because he says at the beginning of his Siitras, that first of all he is going to explain the new and fuU-moon sacri- fices (Dar6a piirnam&sa), while the first hymns of the Rig-veda are never used at that sacrifice. Nor does he seem to have followed the Br&hmana. For the Br&hmana begins with the Dikshaniyft cere- mony. Here then it must be observed that the collection of hymns follows the order which is ob- served at the Brahmayajna and on other occasions where prayers are to be recited. It does not follow the order in which hymns are employed at the different sacrifices.