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12 must, therefore, be recognized that the Ṛgveda gives only an imperfect impression of Indian mythology and that, in a sense, it is the work of an aristocracy; but at the same time it is impossible to regard the Atharvaveda as a direct complement of the Ṛgveda and as giving the popular side of the Ṛgvedic religion. The Atharvaveda was probably not reduced to its present form much, if at all, earlier than 500 B.C., and the popular worship included in it is one which is at once separated by a considerable period in time from that of the Ṛgveda and is presented to us, not in its primitive form, but as it was taken up by the priests. The other Vedas and the Brāhmaṇas may be referred roughly to a period which runs from 800 to 600 B.C. To the Brāhmaṇas are attached, more or less closely, treatises called Āraṇyakas ("Silvan"), which were to be studied by oral tradition in the solitude of the forests, and Upaniṣads, treatises of definitely philosophical content, whose name is derived from the "session" of the pupils around their teacher. The oldest of these works probably date from before 500 B.C. On the other hand, the Sūtras, or rules regarding the sacrifice both in its more elaborate and in its more domestic forms, and regulations concerning custom and law give incidental information as to the more popular side of religion.

The Sūtras, at any rate, and possibly even the Brāhmaṇas, in their later portions, are contemporaneous with the beginnings of the two great epics of India, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa. The first composition of these works as real epics, made up from ballads and other material, may be assigned to the fourth century B.C., and it is probable that the Rāmāyaṇa was practically complete before the Christian era. In the case of the Mahābhārata, however, there is no doubt that the original heroic epic has been overwhelmed by a vast mass of religious, philosophical, and didactic matter, and that it was not practically complete before the sixth century A.D., though most of it probably may be dated in the period from 200 B.C. to 200 A.D. These works reveal, to an extent which cannot be