Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/55

* VEDANTA. 35 VEDDAS. already mentioned, the airs which severally cause retching, winking, hunger, yawning, and fatten- ing. The five gross elements are the live subtile elements, when they liave become so (livi(ied and combined that eaeli of them retains a pre|ionder- ating portion of itself, and conse(|Ueiitly of the quality of which it is the substratum, and also contains smaller portions of the other subtile ele- ments, and the qualities of which they are the substrata. l''rui these gross elements tnen arises the world. The soul, when existing in the body, is incased in a succession of 'sheaths.' The first or interior sheath consists of huddhi, associated with the organs of perception; the second, of manas, associated with the organs of action ; and the third, of the vital airs, together with the organs of action. These three sheaths constitute the subtile body of the soul, which attends the soul in its transmigrations. The collective to- tality of such subtile bodies is the supreme soul, as regarded in its relation to the world. The fourth and exterior sheath of the soul is com- posed of the gross elements ; and the collective aggregate of such gross bodies is the gross body of the deity. This whole development being the result of ignorance, the soul frees itself from its error by understanding that the dift'crent stages in which this development appears do not repre- sent real or absolute truth; and when its error has completely vanished it ceases to be re-born, and becomes reunited with Brahma, whence it emanated. The difference between esoteric and exoteric Vedanta consists in the ability or non-ability to recognize that Brahma is im- personal, without attributes, and that every soul is all Brahma. This knowledge alone is liberat- ing; but the empiricist, who cannot understand this, may be put in the way of attaining en- lightenment by moral and religious pr.actices, such as are enjoined by the Purvaiyilmamsa, as explained above. The doctrine of hhrikti, or faith, does not belong to the older Vedanta ; it is, however, an interesting feature of the later periods of this philosophy (see Vaisiinavas) ; and the same observation applies to the doctrine of ilai/a (q.v.), or illusion, according to which the world has no reality whatever, but is merely the product of imagination ; for the older Vedanta merely teaches that the world is not the truth, but does not deny its material reality. The oldest work on this philosophy, attributed to Badarayana or to Vyasa (q.v.), called the Bralnna-SCifrd, consists of four adhyayns, or lectures, each subdivided into four padas, or chapters, each ])ada containing a number of Sutras. The number of the latter is S.'iS. and that of the adhikriranas, or topics treated in them, 191. The most important commentary on this work is the Hiirlrnl^a-hhnsya. by Sankara- earya ; and this commentary in its turn has been commented on by a great variety of writers. The text of the Sutras and this com- mentary w-ere edited at Calcutta, ISIS; and the text with this commentary, and a gloss on the latter, by Govindananda, in the Biblioiheca In- rftca, by Vidyaratna (Calcutta. ISfi.S). The Sutra and commentary were translated into German by Paul Deussen (Leipzig. 1SS7). Among elemen- tary treatises on the Vedanta. the most popular is the Vcddntaafira. by Sadananda, which, with the commentary of Ramakrishna Tirtha, was edited at Calcutta in IS2I). and with this and another commentary by Nrisinhasarasvati, at Calcutta in 1S4!). it was edited and translated also by Bal- lantync, .1 Jjcclure on the cd.rinlii, Kmhrdcing tlir Text of the Vedanta Sum (.llah'aba<l, 1850), who also translated the beginning of the Brah- nui-Sutras. The work was edited also by Jacoby ( Bombay, 1 Sfl4 ) . A very useful compen- dium of the Adiiikarunas, or topics, is the Adh- il-aranamtitu, by Bharatitirtha, which, with the commentary of Anandaehandra-Vedantavagiaa, was edited at Calcutta in lS(i2, and as an appen- dix to the Brahma-Sutras, with extracts from this commentary in the ISibliothcca Indiea (Cal- cutta, lS(i;i). More recently Thibaut has pub- lished the Sutras with a valuable introduction in the Saered Books of the Hast (vols, xxxiv. and xxxviii., Oxford, lK!)0-!)(i), and the .system has been explained by Ueussen in his System des Vedanta (Leipzig, 1883), the best complete ex- position of the system, to which may be added the explanation in Miiller. Six Systems of Indian Philosophy (New York, 1899). VED'DAS. A people of Southeastern Ceylon, wlio have sometimes been regarded, chiefly upon somatic and osteological grounds, as constituting a separate race of mankind. The Veddas are one of the most primitive of human types, represent- ing, perhaps, the original .stock which, travel- ing to the north, produced the Dravidian peoples of Southern Hindustan, and going to the south gave rise to the Australians. The features of the Veddas are Hindu rather than Negroid or Jlongoloid, while the hair is jet-black, wavy, and frequently curly, but never kinky. They are somewhat darker in color than the neighboring Singhalese. They are of slender build, erect carriage, and small stature (full-grown males about five feet). A noteworthy characteristic of the Veddas is their monogamous form of mar- riage. Their honesty, hospitality, morality, and good nature are praised by those who have come to know them. They have their primitive songs and dances, but their religious ideas are not much in evidence. They use the fire-drill and have bows and arrows of their own make, but obtain their arrow-heads and axes from the Sin- ghalese, with whom the more secluded Veddas tratfic by a sort of dumb-show. From the Sin- ghalese also they have obtained written charms, and occasionally a palm-leaf book .serving as an oracle or fetish. The 'Village Veddas' are largely vegetarians, but the 'Rock Veddas' hunt birds and animals. The Veddas still existing are divided into three classes. The 'Coast Veddas' of Baltiealoa, who have taken on something of civilization, associate freely with their Sin- ghalese neighbors, devote themsejves to fishing, and in appearance only ditTer from the primi- tive Singhalese living in the same region. The Village Veddas of the wooded lowlands, known as the Bintenne. are nomadic harvesters of the products of the jungle, making an attempt at building huts, and collecting together in fam- ily groups. The most primitive and secluded are the Rock Veddas. as they are called from their cave-life in the jungles of the Badulla and Nil- gala hills. They live chiefly by hunting, almost never come in contact with the Singhalese, and do not associate with each other in a tribal life, but band together only in small family groups-