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 280 VEDA and became known by admirable genre pic- tures relating to the domestic life of Switzer- land and Swabia. Between 1858 and 1864 he exhibited "Devout Singers in a Church," "A Party embarking on a Rhine Steamer," "A Solitary Spinning Woman," "A Wife's Sur- prise on meeting her Husband in a Tavern on her way from Church," " A Sunday Afternoon in Swabia," and " Cats in a Criminal Case," one of his masterpieces. His " Courtier and Peasants in Wurtemberg" (1865) appeared among his pictures at the Paris exhibition of 1867, where he received a medal. His subse- quent productions comprise " The Antiquary among the Peasantry," " The Wake, or Feast after a Burial, in the Bernese Highlands" (1866), " The First Dancing Lesson in a Vil- lage of the Black Forest " (1868), " The Inter- rupted Quarrel " (1869), " Drinking the Bride's Health," "A Public Dinner," and "A Village Funeral " (1871). He has made designs for an episode of Immermann's Manchhausen. VEDA, the general designation of the scrip- tures of the Brahmanic religion. The word means " knowledge," the Vedas being consid- ered to contain the knowledge of all knowl- edge. The Veda texts or Veda Sanhit&s exist in four collections, Rig- Veda, Sama-Veda, Ya- jur-Veda, and Atharva-Veda, for the general character and contents of which see INDIA, RE- LIGIONS AND RELIGIOUS LITERATURE OF. About the Vedas themselves clusters an immense re- ligious literature. Among the earliest books written in explanation of the Sanhit&s are the Brahmanas, which are mostly confined to de- scriptions of the ceremonies prescribed, and re- late numerous legends bearing on them. Col- lections of practical rules regarding matters of worship were also made ; these are called Sutras. Vedangas, or members of the Vedas, comment upon the language, mythology, and astrology of the Sanhitas; and the Vedantas, or purpose of the Vedas, are philosophical dis- quisitions on the Brahmanic religion. The word shastra Castro) is often added to these terms, as Vedanta-shastra. Shastra signifies treatise, book, precept, and hence Vedanta-shastra is a work on the Vedanta philosophy or the whole body of teaching on that subject. The four hymn texts of the Vedas have all been pub- lished in Europe, the Rig- Veda in three dif- ferent forms. Of the Rig- Veda, Langlois has published (Paris, 1848-'51) a very poor French translation; Wilson's (London, 1850-'57, con- tinued and to be completed by Cowell) is bet- ter, but represents the commentators rather than the hymns themselves. Mailer has pub- lished (1869) the first volume of a fully anno- tated version, but it contains only 12 hymns. Benfey has translated about 130 hymns in the Orient und Occident. J. Muir's " Original Sanskrit Texts" (5 vols., London, 1863-'70) gives the transliterated texts and literal version of a great many hymns and parts of hymns. A German translation of the Sama-Veda ac- companies Benfey 's edition (Leipsic, 1848). VEGA Two books of the Atharva-Veda are rendered into German by Weber, in his Indische Studien. The most important Brahmanas have also been published : the Catapatha by Weber ; the Aita- reya by Haug (Bombay, 1863, with transla- tion) ; the Taittiriya by Mitra (Calcutta) ; the principal Upanishads, with commentary and translation, in the Bibliotheca Indica at Cal- cutta. For the Vedas in general, see Cole- brooke's essay in the "Asiatic Researches," vol. viii., and in his collected essays (2d ed., with detailed notes by W. D. Whitney) ; Roth, Zur Literatur und Geschichte des Veda (Stuttgart, 1846); Weber, Indische Literatur- gesehichte (Berlin, 1852) ; Barthelemy Saint- Hilaire, Des Vedas (Paris, 1854) ; Max Mailer, " History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature" (London, 1859); and W. D. Whitney, in the "Journal of the American Oriental Society," vols. iii. and iv., and in " Oriental and Linguis- tic Studies," vol. i. VEDDER, Klilui. an American artist, born in New York in February, 1836. He studied un- der Matteson, spent several years in Italy, and afterward opened a studio in New York and devoted himself to genre painting. He sub- sequently returned to Europe, and now (1876) resides in Rome. Among his best pictures are "The Lair of the Sea Serpent," "The Arab Listening to the Sphinx," "St. Simeon Stylites on his Pillar," and " The Monk upon the Gloomy Path." VEGA, Gardlaso de la. See GARCILASO DE LA VEGA. VEGA, Georg TOD, baron, a German mathema- tician, born at Sagoritza, a village in Carniola, in 1756, murdered in 1802. He studied in Laybach, joined first the navy, then the army, and in 17H4 became a military instructor in mathematics. He distinguished himself in the wars against the Turks and the French, and was ennobled in 1800. His dead body was discovered in the Danube, Sept. 26, 1802, and 30 years later it was brought to light that he had been thrown into the river by a miller while walking on its bank. His Vorlesungen fiber die Mathematik, Logarithmisch-trigonome- tri&ches ffandbuch, Thesaurus Logarithmorum completus, Anleitung zur Zeitkunde, Natur- liches Mass-, Mum- und Qewichtssystem, and Logarithmentafeln have been many times re- published ; the last named work reached in 1876 its 57th edition. VEGA, Lope de (LOPE FELIX DE VEGA CAE- PIO), a Spanish dramatist, born in Madrid, Nov. 25, 1562, died there, Aug. 26, 1635. Shortly before his birth his father had removed to the capital from his ancestral domain of Vega, in the valley of Carriedo, and died while his son was very young. His uncle, the inquisitor Miguel de Carpio, enabled him to cultivate his extraordinary and precocious faculties at the royal college ; and after an escapade from that institution, during which he served against the Portuguese, he was patronized by the bish- op Manrique of Avila. He took his bachelor's