Page:The religions of India.djvu/46

6 these distinctions in regard to origin obliterated, not only is the general body of the Hymns indiscriminately selected from, but this is done without respect to the integrity of the ancient prayers,^ a couplet being picked out here, a triplet there, and thus a body of invocations formed of a character altogether new. The liturgy of these books, therefore, is no longer the same as that which we meet with in the Hymns, and the transition from the one to the other would seem to imply a very considerable lapse of time. Speaking generally, we may say these books presuppose not only the existence of the chants of the Rig-Veda, but that of a collection of these more or less akin to the collection that has come down to us.

Attempts have been made to estimate the length of time that would be necessary for the gradual formation of this literature, and the eleventh century before the Chris- tian era has been suggested as the age in which the poetry that produced these hymns must have flourished.^ But taking into account all the circumstances, we are of opi- nion that this term is too recent, and that the great body of the chants of the Rig-Veda must be referred back to a much earlier period. Contrary to an opinion that is often advanced, we consider also a goodly number of the hymns of the Atharva-Veda to be of a date not much more recent ;2 and some of the formulse prescribed in the Yajur-Veda are in all probability quite as ancient. As to the other liturgical texts, these, when not borrowed from the Hymns or

1 We do not intend by this to In a general way, the fact in ques- affirm that in the Rig- Veda, as we tion is indubitable, although in par- tind it, we must consider all the parts ticular cases the problem is often which compose it as having preserved difficult of resolution. their original forms intact. So far '^ Max Miiller, Ancient Sanskrit from that, there are more or less Literature, p. 572 ; see A. Weber, unmistakable traces in many of them Indische Literaturgeschichte, p. 2, of their having been recast or 2d edition. readjusted. On this subject see ^ The existence of a collection of the translation by Grassmann, and the nature of our Atharva-Veda is " Siebenzig Lieder des Kigveda," involved in such formulse as Taittir. translated by K. Geldner and A. Samh., vii. 5, 11, 2, and probably Kaegi, 1875, a publication executed also in Rig- Veda, x. 90, 9. under the direction of R. Roth.