Page:Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett - Comparative Literature (1886).djvu/134

 who sit before Elisha at Gilgal. After the establishment of central government, however, among the Hebrew tribes, the service of the temple was directly modelled on the hereditary system of the clan or caste; and "sons" of Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, became not only the performers but apparently the arrangers and composers of sacred hymns.

How far communal hymn-making extended in the early literatures of India and China it is now possible only to conjecture. Each of the Súktas (metrical prayers or hymns) of the Rig-Veda is attributed to a Rishi, or holy and inspired author. But the hymns of the Rik—evidently the oldest of the Vedas from the manner in which its hymns enter into the composition of the three later Vedas, Yajur, Sáma, Atharva—contain no directions for their use, the occasions on which they were to be employed, or the ceremonies at which they were to be recited; these were pointed out by later writers, in the Sútras, or precepts relating to the ritual; and even the deities in whose honour the hymns were composed are for the most part known to us through independent authorities, especially an Anukramaniká, or index accompanying each Veda. We cannot, therefore, attach much value to the reputed authorship of these ancient hymns. Yet it is worth observing that the Súktas of the Rik are arranged on two methods, one of which would seem to bring before us directly the communal authorship of the hymns. The arrangement by Khandas (portions), Ashtakas (eighths), Adhyákas (lectures), does not seem to depend on any fixed principle; but in the arrangement by Mandalas, "circles," six out of the ten "circles" comprise hymns by the same person or by members of the same family. Thus the hymns of the third Mandala are ascribed to Viswámitra