Page:Fables and Proverbs from the Sanskrit, being the Hitopadesa.djvu/11

 Also there were six Vedangas, or limbs of the Veda, treating severally of six sciences needed for interpretation of the sacred books. They were Pronunciation, Grammar, Prosody, Explanation of difficult words or phrases, Religious Ceremonial, and Astrology. To these were added four Upangas or additional limbs; History (the Purana): Logic (the Nyaya); Moral Philosophy (the Mimansa); and Jurisprudence (the Dharma-Sastra).

The earliest of these sacred writings, in their earliest period, were preserved only by oral tradition. They continued to live in the persons of men of the sacred caste, and thus different texts or versions of the Vedas, known as Sakhas, were preserved in different Charanas or schools of the Brahmans, who preserved the books in memory. A name for a Brahman settlement was a Parishad. It was said that "four or even three able men from among the Brahmans in a village who know the Veda and keep the sacrificial fire, form a Parishad." Members of different Parishads might be associated in one school or Charana.

Of the Law Books, or Dharma-Sastras, the most ancient and most famous is that known as the "Institutes of Manu," first translated into English by Sir William Jones. Manu was fabled to be the son of Brahma, to have preserved the Vedas from destruction in the Hindoo deluge, and to have given in that Book of Laws an abstract of their contents.

The Indians had also six Darsanas, or systems of philosophy, all seeking the highest good in eternal happiness, and all accepting the authority of the Vedas but interpreting them variously. The six systems are essentially three. One, the Nyaya, brings knowledge in through the five channels of the senses; one, the Sankhya, looks to the emotions, and seeks the sources of pleasure, pain, and the neutral state of indifference, in which states alone it holds external nature to consist; one, the Vedantin, seeks only to determine what Is or Is Not. Besides the philosophy of the Darsanas, there were the teachings of several sects; among which the most important in their influence on thought was that of the Buddhists, chief opponents of the Brahmans. Their founder, Buddha Sakya Muni, began his teaching at an uncertain date, but it prevailed in India and Ceylon in the third century before Christ, and was introduced into China 61. Though the Brahmans finally prevailed in India, the Buddhists held their own in Ceylon, Burmah [sic] and China. They denied the existence of the One First Cause represented by the Brahma who gave forth Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva to create, preserve, destroy; One who is All in All, and of whom all forms of divinity—Indra, the Heavens with his thunderbolt and thousand eyes; Surya, the sun; Agni, fire; Pavana, wind; Varuna, ocean-are manifestations Not less were the elements of human life and death such manifestations of the God in all,—Ganasa, wisdom, perfecter of work; Lakshmi,