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 222 INDIA (RELIGIONS AND RELIGIOUS LITERATURE) varu, Id, hu, and val. There are eight cases, and nouns are inflected as follows : singular nom. purusayd ( O<3tt3c3D ), a man, ace. puru- oJ say A, voc. purusayo, gen. purusayage, A&t.puru- saydta, abl. purmayagen, instr. purusayamsin, ) ; acc - loc. purusahulcerehi ( plural nom. purusayo purusayan, voc. prirusayeni, gen. purusayangd, dat. purusayanta, abl. purusayangen, instr. purusayanvisin ( Qc?t3c3<2P>68^ )> lo ' OJ purusayanJeerehi. This inflection of nouns varies according to the final vowel. Adjec- tives precede the substantive, and remain un- changed. The comparative is formed by vadd, vediya, or vediyen, and the superlative by aii or iid, which particles are always pre- fixed to adjectives. In comparing two objects, the object compared with another is put in the dative. The pronoun of the first person singular is mama, plural api; second person masculine singular to, plural topi; feminine singular ti, plural tild. But there are several other forms of this pronoun in use, which are employed according to the rank of the person addressed. The pronoun of the third person singular is ohu or u, plural uld ; the abbrevia- tion u being mainly used in formal discourse. The first ten cardinal numbers are eka, delta, tuna, Tiatara, paha, hay a, hata, ata, nevaya or namaya, and dahaya. Ordinals are formed by suffixing veni. Verbs are divided into transi- tives and intransitives, and are distinguished as active and passive. The tenses, of which there are eight, viz., two of the present, an imperfect, perfect, past perfect, and future, are formed by means of participial formatives and auxiliaries. Number and person are in- dicated merely by the personal pronouns used in conjunction with the verbs. See Reise der Novara ; Linguistiseher Theil, by Friedrich Muller (Vienna, 1867), and Ethnographischer Theil, by Muller and Scherzer (1868) ; Beames, " Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India" (London, 1872 et seq.) and the journals of the royal Asiatic society of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the royal Asiatic society of Bengal. INDIA, Religions and Religions Literature of. In the present state of uncertainty in regard to their chronological order, it seems advi- sable to treat the comparatively few monu- ments of the literature of India with which we have become acquainted in connection with the various periods of the religious history of the country for which they form the sources of our information. The character of the first two periods is depicted in several writings which may be classified as monuments of Vedic and of Sanskrit literature. The first embraces the hymns of the Veda, the Brahmanas, and the SAtras. The Veda-Sanhitas or Veda texts exist in four collections : Rig- Veda, Sama-Ve- da, Yajur-Veda, and Atharva-Veda. The Rig- Veda is the largest and most valuable collec- tion. The hymns are grouped in it chiefly ac- cording to their asserted authors. They com- prise 1,028 siilcta, hymns, and 10,580 rik, verses, which are divided into 10 mandala, circles or books. The Sama-Veda-Sanhita is a body of verses culled from the hymns of the Rig-Veda, along with a few others, arranged into forms suitable for chanting. It is supposed to be older than the compilation of the Rig- Veda, as it does not contain any of the verses in the latter which appear to be of a late date. The Yajur-Veda gives the verses and formulas of words to be recited during the progress of the ceremonies attending sacrifice. There are two editions of it, which however differ only in arrangement. The black Yajur-Veda or Taittiriya-Sanhita gives also dogmatic ex- planations, while the white Yajur-Veda or Vajasaneyi-Sanhita contains only the verses of the ritual. The Atharva-Veda seems to be a continuation of the tenth mandala of the Rig- Veda; it is a collection of hymns of various date and character, but predominantly supersti- tious. The Brahmanas furnish descriptions of the ceremonies prescribed in the Sanhitas, and numerous legends bearing on them ; but they are full of repetitions. They have an adden- dum of philosophical speculations, called Aran- yaka, forest portion, probably from the fact that philosophers generally lived as hermits in the woods. A portion of the Aranyaka is called Upanishad, session, and contains speculations depicting the Brahmanical system of pantheism. The Sutras are collections of practical rules respecting matters of ceremony and worship. Such are especially the Qrauta-Sutras, or the re- vealed, while the Grihya-Sutras, or the domes- tic, seem to be oral traditions giving rules of conduct and general behavior. Sutras which explain the language, mythology, or astrology of the Vedas are called Vedangas, or members of the Vedas. Those which attempt to analyze the philosophy of the Vedas bear the name of Vedanta, or purpose of the Vedas. Linguis- tically considered, these last belong to the next, or Sanskrit period, distinguished by a later character of the language. Prof. Max Muller divides the interval in which the books enu- merated appeared into four periods. The first of these, the Chhandas period, or the period of spontaneous poetic productiveness, he com- putes to have lasted from 1200 to 1000 B. 0., and during that time the most ancient of the Vedic hymns were composed. The second, the Mantra or "sacred formula" period, com- prises the next two centuries, and its hymns bear traces of the growth of a sacerdotal spirit and system. The third or Brahmana period closes at 600 B. 0., and the fourth or Sutra period is assigned to the time subsequent to it, and ending 200 B. 0. Prof. W. D. Whit- ney, however, holds that this chronology