Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/53

* VEDA. 33 VEDA. throw upon the saccrdolnlisiii of ancient India, they are important because they are written in connected prose, the earliest in the entire do- main of Indo-(iermanic speech. They are es- pecially important for syntax, representing; in this respect the oldest Indian stage even hctter than tile Kif,'-V'cda, owing to the restriction im- posed upon the latter by its poetic form. The Brahmanas also were composed in schools or recensions, but the various ISralimana recensions of one and the same Veda dill'er at times even more widely than the Samhitas of the Mantras. Thus the Rig- Veda has two Brahmanas, the Aitareya and the Kaushitaki or Sankhayana. The Brahmana matter of the Black Yajur-Vedas is given together with the hymns themselves; but the White Yajur-Veda treats its Brahmana matter separately, and, with extraordinary full- ness, in the famous StitapfilJui-Jinlliniitnit, the 'Brahmana of the Ilvmdred Paths,' so called be- cause it consists of 100 lectures. Next to the Eig-Veda and Atharva-Veda this work is the most important production in the whole range of Vedic literature. Two Brahmanas belonging to independent schools of the Sama-Veda have been preserved, that of the Tandins, usually des- ignated as the Pancavitiim-liraliniuna and that of the Talavakaras or Jaiminiyas. To the Atharva-Veda is attached the very late and sec- ondary GOpatlia-Iiruhntaiw. though its contents are in reality foreign to the spirit of the Athar- van hymns. A later development of the Brahmanas are the Aranyakas, or 'Forest Treatises.' Their later character is indicated both by the position they occupy at the end of the Brahmanas and by their theosophical character. The name 'Forest Treatise' is of somewhat obscure application, but it seems likely that these works, owing to the superior mystic sanctity of their contents, were intended to be recited in the solitude of the forest instead of in the village. The two im- portant Aranyakas are the Aitareya and the Taittirij'a, belonging, of course, to the Vedic schools of these names. The chief value of the Aranyakas is that they form in contents and tone a transition to the Upanishads, which are either imiicdded in them, or. more usually, form their concluding portions. See Upanisiiad. Both Mantra and Brahmana are regarded as part of revelation (sruti) ; the rest of Vedic literature as tradition {smrti) derived from holy men of old. This literature has a characteristic style of its own, being written in the form of brief rules, or sut7-as, whence it is familiarly known as Sutra literature or the Sutras. They are, in the main, of three classes, each of which is associated with a particular Vedic school, reach- ing back, as a rule, to the school distinctions of the Samhitas and Brahmanas. The first class of Sutras are the §raiita or Knlpa Siitras. which may be translated 'Sutras of the Vedic Ritual.' They are rule-books compiled, with the help of oral priestly tradition, from the Brahmanas. They are brief manuals of the Vedic sacrifices, as distinguished from the more diffusive Brah- manas, whose ritual acts are interrupted by elab- orate explanation and illustrative legends. To the Rig-Veda belong two f§rauta Sutras corre- sponding to its Brahmanas. the .V^valayana to the Aitareya Brahmana, and the Sankhayana to the Brahmana of tlic sauie name. To the White Yajur-Veda belongs the Srauta Sutra of Katyay- ana, closely ailhcring to the Satapatha Brah- mana. No less than si.x Srauta Sutras belong to the Black Yajur-Veda, but only two of them have as yet U'cn published, that of .paslamba, belonging to the school of the 'I'aitliriya, and the .laiiava, belonging to the school of the Maitray- aniya. The Sama-Veda has two Srautas, that of Latjayana and Drahj'ayana, belonging respec- tively to its two schools of Kauthuma and Kanayaniya; and the Atharva-Veda has the late .and inferi(n' Vaitana. Of far greater, indeed of universal interest, is the second class of Sutras, the ilrliya tSulrus, or 'House Books.' These are treatises on home life which deal systematically with a well-defined body of facts connected with the every-day ex- istence of the individual and the family. Though composed at a comparatively late Vedic period, they contain practices and prayers of great an- tiquity, and supplement most effectively the con- tents of the Atharva-Veda. They also are dis- trilmted among the four Vedas and their schools. The Rig-Veda has the Grihya Sutras of Asvala- yana and Sankhayana; the W'hite Yajur-Veda that of Paraskara; the Black Y'ajur-Veda a large number, as those of the schools of Apastamba, Hiranyakesin, and Manava ; the Sama-Veda has the Gabhila and the Khadira; to the Atharva- Veda belongs the import.ant Kausika Sutra, which, in addition to the domestic ritual, deals with the magical and medicinal practices spe- cially characteristic of that Veda. The third kind of Sutras are the Dharma 8ritras. or 'Law Sutras,' which also deal to some extent with the customs of every-day lite, but are engaged for the most part with religious and secular law. These ,Sutras also are either attached to the body of canonical writings of a certain Vedic school, or are shown by inner criteria to have originated within such a school. The oldest legal Sutras are the Apastamba and Baudhayana, belonging to the Black Yajur schools of the same name, the Gautama belong- ing to the Sama-Veda, the Vishnu belonging to the Katha school of the Black Yajur-Veda, and the Vasishtha of less certain associations. The earliest metrical law-books, written in classical Sanskrit, are also based on lost Sutra collections of definite Vedic schools. The most famous of these, the Manava Dharma Sastra, or 'Law-Book of Manu' (see Manu), is founded upon the Dharma Sutra of the Manava, or Maitrayaniya school of the Black Y'iijur-Veda. while the briefer 'Law-book of Y'ajnavalkya' derives its origin from a school of the White Y'ajur-Veda. Consult the treatises mentioned at the close of the article Sanskrit Literature, especially the full bibliography in Maedonell, JUstorji of Sanskrit Literature (New Y'ork. 1000). English readers may obtain ready insight into the (vjn- tents of Vedic literature in all its important aspects by means of Miiller, Sacred Books of the East (Oxford, 1879 et seq.). Parts of the Rig- Veda are translated by Miiller himself (vol. xxxii.) and Oldenberg (vols. xhi. and .xlviii.) : the Atharva-Veda by Bloomfield (vol. xlii.) ; the Satapatha Brahmana by Eggeling (vols, xii.. xxvi., xli.. xliii.. and xlv.) ; seven of the Grihya Sutras bv Oldenberg (vols. xxix. and xxx.) ; the