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The word Veda is explained by Sanskrit scholars as meaning knowing or knowledge, and as being related to the Greek [Greek: oida] (typo?)]. The works comprised under this designation are manifold, and appertain to widely different epochs. In the first place they fall into two main classes, the Sanhitâ and the Brâhmana. The Sanhitâ portion of the Veda consists of hymns or metrical compositions addressed to the several deities worshiped by their authors, and expressing religious sentiment; the Brâhmana portion, of theological treatises in prose of an expository, ritualistic and didactic character. Across this subdivision into two classes there runs another of the whole Veda into four so-called Vedas, the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sâma-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda. Each of these has its own Sanhitâs, and its own Brâhmanas; but the Sanhitâ, or hymns, of the three other