Though the wife, like the children, was subject to the will of her husband, she occupied a position of greater honour in the age of the Rigveda than in that of the Brahmanas, for she partic.i.p.ated with her husband in the offering of sacrifice. She was mistress of the house (grihapatni), sharing the control not only of servants and slaves, but also of the unmarried brothers and sisters of her husband. From the Yajurveda we learn that it was customary for sons and daughters to marry in the order of their age, but the Rigveda more than once speaks of girls who remained unmarried and grew old in their father"s house. As the family could only be continued in the male line, abundance of sons is constantly prayed for, along with wealth in cattle and land, and the newly wedded husband hopes that his bride may become a mother of heroes. Lack of sons was placed on the same level as poverty, and adoption was regarded as a mere makeshift. No desire for the birth of daughters is ever expressed in the Rigveda; their birth is deprecated in the Atharva-veda, and the Yajurveda speaks of girls being exposed when born. Fathers, even in the earliest Vedic times, would doubtless have sympathised with the sentiment of the Aitareya Brahmana, that "to have a daughter is a misery." This prejudice survives in India to the present day with unabated force.
That the standard of morality was comparatively high may be inferred from the fact that adultery and rape were counted among the most serious offences, and illegitimate births were concealed.
One or two pa.s.sages indicate that the practice of exposing old men, found among many primitive peoples, was not unknown to the Rigveda.
Among crimes, the commonest appears to have been robbery, which generally took the form of cattle-lifting, mostly practised at night. Thieves and robbers are often mentioned, and the Rigveda contains many prayers for protection at home, abroad, and on journeys. Such criminals, when caught, were punished by being tied to stakes with cords. Debts (rina) were often incurred, chiefly, it would seem, at play, and the Rigveda even speaks of paying them off by instalments.
From the references to dress which the Rigveda contains we may gather that a lower garment and a cloak were worn. Clothes were woven of sheep"s wool, were often variegated, and sometimes adorned with gold. Necklets, bracelets, anklets, and ear-rings are mentioned in the way of ornaments. The hair was anointed and combed. The Atharva-veda even mentions a comb with a hundred teeth, and also speaks of remedies which strengthened or restored the growth of the hair. Women plaited their hair, while men occasionally wore it braided and wound like a sh.e.l.l. The G.o.ds Rudra and Pushan are described as being thus adorned; and the Vasishthas, we learn, wore their hair braided on the right side of the head. On festive occasions wreaths were worn by men. Beards were usual, but shaving was occasionally practised. The Atharva-veda relates how, when the ceremony of shaving off his beard was performed on King Soma, Vayu brought the hot water and Savitri skilfully wielded the razor.
The chief article of food was milk, which was either drunk as it came from the cow or was used for cooking grain as well as mixing with soma. Next in importance came clarified b.u.t.ter (ghrita, now ghee), which, as a favourite food of men, was also offered to the G.o.ds. Grain was eaten after being parched, or, ground to flour between millstones, was made into cakes with milk or b.u.t.ter. Various kinds of vegetables and fruit also formed part of the daily fare of the Vedic Indian. Flesh was eaten only on ceremonial occasions, when animals were sacrificed. Bulls being the chief offerings to the G.o.ds, beef was probably the kind of meat most frequently eaten. Horse-flesh must have been less commonly used, owing to the comparative rarity of the horse-sacrifice. Meat was either roasted on spits or cooked in pots. The latter were made of metal or earthenware; but drinking-vessels were usually of wood.
The Indians of the Rigveda were acquainted with at least two kinds of spirituous liquor. Soma was the princ.i.p.al one. Its use was, however, restricted to occasions of a religious character, such as sacrifices and festivals. The genuine soma plant from which it was made also became increasingly difficult to obtain as the Aryans moved farther away from the mountains. The spirit in ordinary use was called sura. The knowledge of it goes back to a remote period, for its name, like that of soma, is found in the Avesta in the form of hura. It was doubtless prepared from some kind of grain, like the liquor made from rice at the present day in India. Indulgence in sura went hand in hand with gambling. One poet mentions anger, dice, and sura as the causes of various sins; while another speaks of men made arrogant with sura reviling the G.o.ds. Its use must have been common, for by the time of the Vajasaneyi Samhita, the occupation of a "maker of sura" (surakara) or distiller had become a profession.
One of the chief occupations of the Vedic Indians was of course warfare. They fought either on foot or on chariots. The latter had two occupants, the fighter and the driver. This was still the case in the Mahabharata, where we find Krishna acting as charioteer to Arjuna. Cavalry is nowhere mentioned, and probably came into use at a considerably later period. By the time of Alexander"s invasion, however, it formed one of the regular four divisions of the Indian army. There are some indications that riding on horseback was at least known to the Rigveda, and distinct references to it occur in the Atharva- and the Yajur-vedas. The Vedic warriors were protected with coats of mail and helmets of metal. The princ.i.p.al weapons were the bow and arrow, the latter being tipped with poisoned horn or with a metal point. Spears and axes are also frequently mentioned.
The princ.i.p.al means of livelihood to the Vedic Indian was cattle-breeding. His great desire was to possess large herds; and in the numerous prayers for protection, health, and prosperity, cattle are nearly always mentioned first.
The Vedic Aryans were, however, not merely a pastoral people. They had brought with them from beyond the valleys of Afghanistan at least a primitive knowledge of agriculture, as is shown by the Indians and Iranians having such terms as "to plough" (krish) in common. This had, indeed, by the time of the Rigveda, become an industry second only to cattle-breeding in importance. The plough, which we learn from the Atharva-veda had a metal share, was used for making furrows in the fields, and was drawn by bulls. When the earth was thus prepared, seed was strewn over the soil. Irrigation seems not to have been unknown, as dug-out channels for water are mentioned. When ripe, the corn (yava) was cut with a sickle. It was then laid in bundles on the threshing-floor, where it was threshed out and finally sifted by winnowing.
Though the Vedic Indians were already a pastoral and agricultural people, they still practised hunting to a considerable extent. The hunter pursued his game with bow and arrow, or used traps and snares. Birds were usually caught with toils or nets spread on the ground. Lions were taken in snares, antelopes secured in pits, and boars hunted with dogs.
Navigation in Rigvedic times was, as we have already seen, limited to the crossing of rivers. The boats (called nau-s, Greek nau-s) were propelled by what were doubtless paddles (aritra), and must have been of the most primitive type, probably dug-out tree-trunks. No mention is made of rudder or anchor, masts, or sails.
Trade in those days consisted in barter, the cow being the pecuniary standard by which the value of everything was measured. The transition to coinage was made by the use of gold ornaments and jewelry as a form of reward or payment, as was the case among the ancient Germans. Thus nishka, which in the Rigveda means a necklet, in later times became the name of a coin.
Though the requirements of life in early Vedic times were still primitive enough to enable every man more or less to supply his own wants, the beginnings of various trades and industries can be clearly traced in the Rigveda. References are particularly frequent to the labour of the worker in wood, who was still carpenter, joiner, and wheelwright in one. As the construction of chariots and carts required peculiar skill, we find that certain men already devoted themselves to it as a special art, and worked at it for pay. Hence felicity in the composition of hymns is often compared with the dexterity of the wheelwright. Mention is also sometimes made of the smith who smelts the ore in a forge, using the wing of a bird instead of a bellows to produce a draught. He is described as making kettles as well as other domestic utensils of metal. The Rigveda also refers to tanners and the skins of animals prepared by them. Women, it appears, were acquainted with sewing and with the plaiting of mats from gra.s.s or reeds. An art much more frequently alluded to in metaphors and similes is that of weaving, but the references are so brief that we obtain no insight into the process. The Atharva-veda, however, gives some details in a pa.s.sage which describes how Night and Day, personified as two sisters, weave the web of the year alternately with threads that never break or come to an end. The division of labour had been greatly developed by the time of the White Yajurveda, in which a great many trades and vocations are enumerated. Among these we find the rope-maker, the jeweller, the elephant-keeper, and the actor.
Among the active and warlike Vedic Aryans the chariot-race was a favourite amus.e.m.e.nt, as is shown by the very metaphors which are borrowed from this form of sport. Though skilful driving was still a highly esteemed art in the epic period, the use of the chariot both for war and for racing gradually died out in Hindustan, partly perhaps owing to the enervating influence of the climate, and partly to the scarcity of horses, which had to be brought from the region of the Indus.
The chief social recreation of men when they met together was gambling with dice. The irresistible fascination exercised, and the ruin often entailed by this amus.e.m.e.nt, we have already found described in the Gambler"s Lament. Some haunted the gaming-hall to such an extent that we find them jocularly described in the Yajurveda as "pillars of the playhouse" (sabhasthanu). No certain information can be gathered from the Rigveda as to how the game was played. We know, however, from one pa.s.sage that four dice were used. The Yajurveda mentions a game played with five, each of which has a name. Cheating at play appears in the Rigveda as one of the most frequent of crimes; and one poet speaks of dice as one of the chief sources of sinning against the ordinances of Varuna. Hence the word used in the Rigveda for "gamester" (kitava) in cla.s.sical Sanskrit came to mean "cheat," and a later word for "rogue"
(dhurta) is used as a synonym of "gamester."
Another amus.e.m.e.nt was dancing, which seems to have been indulged in by men as well as women. But when the s.e.x of the dancers is distinctly referred to, they are nearly always maidens. Thus the G.o.ddess of Dawn is compared to a dancer decked in gay attire. That dancing took place in the open air may be gathered from the line (x. 76, 6), "thick dust arose as from men who dance" (nrityatam).
Various references in the Rigveda show that even in that early age the Indians were acquainted with different kinds off music. For we find the three main types of percussion, wind, and stringed instruments there represented by the drum (dundubhi), the flute (vana), and the lute (vina). The latter has ever since been the favourite musical instrument of the Indians down to the present day. That the Vedic Indians were fond of instrumental music may be inferred from the statement of a Rishi that the sound of the flute is heard in the abode of Yama, where the blessed dwell. From one of the Sutras we learn that instrumental music was performed at some religious rites, the vina being played at the sacrifice to the Manes. By the time of the Yajurveda several kinds of professional musicians appear to have arisen, for lute-players, drummers, flute-players, and conch-blowers are enumerated in its list of callings. Singing is, of course, very often mentioned in the Rigveda. That vocal music had already got beyond the most primitive stage may be concluded from the somewhat complicated method of chanting the Samaveda, a method which was probably very ancient, as the Soma ritual goes back to the Indo-Iranian age.
CHAPTER VII
THE LATER VEDAS
Of the three later Vedas, the Samaveda is much the most closely connected with the Rigveda. Historically it is of little importance, for it contains hardly any independent matter, all its verses except seventy-five being taken directly from the Rigveda. Its contents are derived chiefly from the eighth and especially the ninth, the Soma book. The Samaveda resembles the Yajurveda in having been compiled exclusively for ritual application; for the verses of which it consists are all meant to be chanted at the ceremonies of the soma sacrifice. Removed from their context in the Rigveda, they are strung together without internal connection, their significance depending solely on their relation to particular rites. In form these stanzas appear in the text of the Samaveda as if they were to be spoken or recited, differing from those of the Rigveda only in the way of marking the accent. The Samaveda is, therefore, only the book of words employed by the special cla.s.s of Ugatri priests at the soma sacrifice. Its stanzas a.s.sume their proper character of musical Samans or chants only in the various song-books called ganas, which indicate the prolongation, the repet.i.tion, and the interpolation of syllables necessary in singing, just as is often done in European publications when the words are given below the musical notation. There are four of these songbooks in existence, two belonging to each division of the Veda. The number of Samans here given of course admitted of being indefinitely increased, as each verse could be sung to many melodies.
The Samaveda consists of 1549 stanzas, distributed in two books called archikas or collections of rich verses. The principle of arrangement in these two books is different. The first is divided into six lessons (prapathaka), each of which contains ten decades (dacat) of stanzas, except the sixth, which has only nine. The verses of the first twelve decades are addressed to Agni, those of the last eleven to Soma, while those of the intermediate thirty-six are chiefly invocations of Indra, the great soma-drinker. The second book contains nine lessons, each of which is divided into two, and sometimes three sections. It consists throughout of small groups of stanzas, which, generally three in number, are closely connected, the first in the group being usually found in the first book also. That the second book is both later in date and secondary in character is indicated by its repeating stanzas from the first book as well as by its deviating much less from the text of the Rigveda. It is also a significant fact in this connection that the verses of the first book which recur in the second agree more closely with the readings of the Rigveda than the other verses by which they are surrounded. This can only be accounted for by the supposition that they were consciously altered in order to accord with the same verses in the second book which were directly influenced by the Rigveda, while the readings of the first book had diverged more widely because that book had been handed down, since the original borrowing, by an independent tradition.
We know from statements of the catapatha Brahmana that the divisions of the first book of the Samaveda existed at least as early as the period when the second part of that Brahmana was composed. There is, moreover, some reason to believe that the Samaveda as a collection is older than at least the Taittiriya and the Vajasaneyi recensions of the Yajurveda. For the latter contain verses, used also as Saman chants, in a form which shows the variations of the Samaveda in contrast with the Rigveda. This is all the more striking as the Vajasaneyi text has an undoubted tendency to adhere to the readings of the Rigveda. On the other hand, the view expressed by Professor Weber that numerous variants in verses of the Samaveda contain archaic forms as compared with the Rigveda, and were therefore borrowed at a time before the existing redaction of the Rigveda took place, has been shown to be untenable. The various readings of the Samaveda are really due in part to inferior tradition, and in part to arbitrary alterations made in order to adapt verses detached from their context to the ritual purpose to which they were applied.
Two schools of the Samaveda are known--the Kauthumas and the Ranayaniyas, the former of whom are said still to exist in Gujarat, while the latter, at one time settled mainly in the Mahratta country, are said to survive in Eastern Hyderabad. Their recensions of the text appear to have differed but little from each other. That of the Ranayanayas has been published more than once. The earliest edition, brought out by a missionary named Stevenson in 1842, was entirely superseded by the valuable work of Benfey, which, containing a German translation and glossary besides the text, came out in 1848. The Samaveda was thus the first of the Vedas to be edited in its entirety. The text of this Veda, according to the recension of the same school, together with the commentary of Sayana, was subsequently edited in India. Of the Kauthuma recension nothing has been preserved excepting the seventh prapathaka, which, in the Naigeya subdivision of this school, forms an addition to the first archika, and was edited in 1868. Two indices of the deities and composers of the Samaveda according to the Naigeya school have also been preserved, and indirectly supply information about the text of the Kauthuma recension.
The Yajurveda introduces us not only to a geographical area different from that of the Rigveda, but also to a new epoch of religious and social life in India. The centre of Vedic civilisation is now found to lie farther to the east. We hear no more of the Indus and its tributaries; for the geographical data of all the recensions of the Yajurveda point to the territory in the middle of Northern India occupied by the neighbouring peoples of the Kurus and Panchalas. The country of the former, called Kurukshetra, is specifically the holy land of the Yajurvedas and of the Brahmanas attached to them. It lay in the plain between the Sutlej and the Jumna, beginning with the tract bounded by the two small rivers Drishadvati and Sarasvati, and extending south-eastwards to the Jumna. It corresponds to the modern district of Sirhind. Closely connected with, and eastward of this region, was situated the land of the Panchalas, which, running south-east from the Meerut district to Allahabad, embraces the territory between the Jumna and the Ganges called the Doab ("Two Waters"). Kurukshetra was the country in which the Brahmanic religious and social system was developed, and from which it spread over the rest of India. It claims a further historical interest as being in later times the scene of the conflict, described in the Mahabharata, between the Panchalas and Matsyas on the one hand, and the Kurus, including the ancient Bharatas, on the other. In the famous lawbook of Manu the land of the Kurus is still regarded with veneration as the special home of Brahmanism, and as such is designated Brahmavarta. Together with the country of the Panchalas, and that of their neighbours to the south of the Jumna, the Matsyas (with Mathura, now Muttra, as their capital) and the curasenas, it is spoken of as the land of Brahman sages, where the bravest warriors and the most pious priests live, and the customs and usages of which are authoritative.
Here the adherents of the Yajurveda split up into several schools, which gradually spread over other parts of India, the Kathas, with their subdivision the Kapishthalas, being in the time of the Greeks located in the Panjab, and later in Kashmir also. The Kathas are now to be found in Kashmir only, while the Kapishthalas have entirely disappeared. The Maitrayaniyas, originally called Kalapas, appear at one time to have occupied the region around the lower course of the Narmada for a distance of some two hundred miles from the sea, extending to the south of its mouth more than a hundred miles, as far as Naasik, and northwards beyond the modern city of Baroda. There are now only a few remnants of this school to the north of the Narmada in Gujarat, chiefly at Ahmedabad, and farther west at Morvi. Before the beginning of our era these two ancient schools must have been very widely diffused in India. For the grammarian Patanjali speaks of the Kathas and Kalapas as the universally known schools of the Yajurveda, whose doctrines were proclaimed in every village. From the Ramayana, moreover, we learn that these two schools were highly honoured in Ayodhya (Oudh) also. They were, however, gradually ousted by the two younger schools of the Yajurveda. Of these, the Taittiriyas have been found only to the south of the Narmada, where they can be traced as far back as the fourth century A.D. Their most important subdivision, that of the Apastambas, still survives in the territory of the G.o.davari, while another, the Hiranyakecins, are found still farther south. The school of the Vajasaneyins spread towards the south-east, down the Ganges Valley. At the present day they occupy a wide area, embracing North-East and Central India.
Each of these four schools has preserved one or two recensions of the Yajurveda. The text of the Maitrayani Samhita, which consists of four books (kanda), subdivided into fifty-four lessons (prapathaka), has been edited by Professor L. v. Schroeder (1881-86). The same scholar is preparing an edition of the Kathaka Samhita, the recension of the Katha school. These two recensions are nearly related in language, having many forms in common which are not found elsewhere. Of the Kapishthala-Katha Samhita only somewhat corrupt fragments have hitherto come to light, and it is very doubtful whether sufficient ma.n.u.script material will ever be discovered to render an edition of this text possible. The Taittiriya Samhita, which comprises seven books, and is subdivided into forty-four lessons, is somewhat later in origin than the above-mentioned recensions. It was edited by Professor A. Weber in 1871-72. These texts of the Yajurveda form a closely connected group, for they are essentially the same in character. Their agreement is often even verbal, especially in the verses and formulas for recitation which they contain. They also agree in arranging their matter according to a similar principle, which is different from that of the Vajasaneyi recension.
The Samhita of the latter consists entirely of the verses and formulas to be recited at the sacrifice, and is therefore clear (cukla), that is to say, separated from the explanatory matter which is collected in the Brahmana. Hence it is called the White (cukla) Yajurveda, while the others, under the general name of Black (krishna) Yajurveda, are contrasted with it, as containing both kinds of matter mixed up in the Samhita. The text of the Vajasaneyins has been preserved in two recensions, that of the Madhyamdinas and of the Kanvas. These are almost identical in their subject-matter as well as its arrangement. Their divergences hardly go beyond varieties of reading, which, moreover, appear only in their prose formulas, not in their verses. Agreeing thus closely, they cannot be separated in their origin by any wide interval of time. Their discrepancies probably arose rather from geographical separation, since each has its own peculiarities of spelling. The White Yajurveda in both these recensions has been edited by Professor Weber (1849-52).
It is divided into forty chapters, called adhyayas. That it originally consisted of the first eighteen alone is indicated by external as well as internal evidence. This is the only portion containing verses and prose formulas (both having the common name of mantras) which recur in the Taittiriya Samhita, the sole exceptions being a few pa.s.sages relating to the horse-sacrifice in chapters 22-25. Otherwise the contents of the last twenty-two chapters are found again only in the Brahmana and the Aranyaka belonging to the Taittiriya Samhita. Moreover, it is only the mantras of the first eighteen chapters of the Vajasaneyi Samhita which are quoted and explained word by word in the first nine books of its own Brahmana, while merely a few mantras from the following seventeen chapters are mentioned in that work. According to the further testimony of an ancient index of the White Yajurveda, attributed to Katyayana, the ten chapters 26-35 form a supplement (khila).
The internal evidence of the Vajasaneyi Samhita leads to similar conclusions. The fact that chapters 26-29 contain mantras relating to ceremonies dealt with in previous chapters and requiring to be applied to those ceremonies, is a clear indication of their supplementary character. The next ten chapters (30-39) are concerned with altogether new ceremonies, such as the human sacrifice, the universal sacrifice, and the sacrifice to the Manes. Lastly, the 40th chapter must be a late addition, for it stands in no direct relation to the ritual and bears the character of an Upanishad. Different parts of the Samhita, moreover, furnish some data pointing to different periods of religious and social development. In the 16th chapter the G.o.d Rudra is described by a large number of epithets which are subsequently peculiar to civa. Two, however, which are particularly significant, Icana, "Ruler," and Mahadeva, "Great G.o.d," are absent here, but are added in the 39th chapter. These, as indicating a special worship of the G.o.d, represent a later development. Again, the 30th chapter specifies most of the Indian mixed castes, while the 16th mentions only a few of them. Hence, it is likely that at least some which are known to the former chapter did not as yet exist when the latter was composed.
On these grounds four chronological strata may be distinguished in the White Yajurveda. To the fundamental portion, comprising chapters 1-18, the next seven must first have been added, for these two parts deal with the general sacrificial ceremonial. The development of the ritual led to the compilation of the next fourteen chapters, which are concerned with ceremonies already treated (26-29) or entirely new (30-39). The last chapter apparently dates from a period when the excessive growth of ritual practices led to a reaction. It does not supply sacrificial mantras, but aims at establishing a mean between exclusive devotion to and total neglect of the sacrificial ceremonies.
Even the original portion of the White Yajurveda must have a.s.sumed shape somewhat later than any of the recensions of the Black. For the systematic and orderly distribution of matter by which the mantras are collected in the Samhita, while their dogmatic explanation is entirely relegated to a Brahmana, can hardly be as old as the confused arrangement in which both parts are largely mixed up.
The two most important portions of the Yajurvedas deal with the new and full moon sacrifices, as well as the soma sacrifice, on the one hand, and with the construction of the fire-altar on the other. Chapters 1-10 of the White Yajurveda contain the mantras for the former, chapters 11-18 those for the latter part of the ceremonial. The corresponding ritual explanations are to be found in books 1-5 and 6-9 respectively of the catapatha Brahmana. In these fundamental portions even the Black Yajurveda does not intermingle the mantras with their explanations. The first book of the Taittiriya Samhita contains in its first four lessons nothing but the verses and formulas to be recited at the fortnightly and the soma sacrifices; the fourth book, nothing but those employed in the fire-altar ritual. These books follow the same order as, and in fact furnish a parallel recension of, the corresponding parts of the Vajasaneyi Samhita. On the other hand, the Taittiriya Samhita contains within itself, but in a different part, the two corresponding Brahmanas, which, on the whole, are free from admixture with mantras. The fifth book is the Brahmana of the fire ritual, and the sixth is that of the soma sacrifice; but the dogmatic explanation of the new and full moon sacrifice is altogether omitted here, being found in the third book of the Taittiriya Brahmana. In the Maitrayani Samhita the distribution of the corresponding material is similar. The first three lessons of the first book contain the mantras only for the fortnightly and the soma sacrifices; the latter half of the second book (lessons 7-13), the mantras only for the fire ritual. The corresponding Brahmanas begin with the sixth and the first lesson respectively of the third book. It is only in the additions to these fundamental parts of the Black Yajurveda that the separation of Mantra and Brahmana is not carried out. The main difference, then, between the Black and the White consists in the former combining within the same collection Brahmana as well as Mantra matter. As to its chief and fundamental parts, there is no reason to suppose that these two kinds of matter, which are kept separate and unmixed, are either chronologically or essentially more nearly related than are the Vajasaneyi Samhita and the catapatha Brahmana.
The Yajurveda resembles the Samaveda in having been compiled for application to sacrificial rites only. But while the Samaveda deals solely with one part of the ritual, the soma sacrifice, the Yajurveda supplies the formulas for the whole sacrificial ceremonial. Like the Samaveda, it is also connected with the Rigveda; but while the former is practically altogether extracted from the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, though borrowing many of its verses from the same source, is largely an original production. Thus somewhat more than one-fourth only of the Vajasaneyi Samhita is derived from the Rigveda, One half of this collection consists of verses (rich) most of which (upwards of 700) are found in the Rigveda; the other half is made up of prose formulas (yajus). The latter, as well as the verses not borrowed from the Rigveda, are the independent creation of the composers of the Yajurveda. This partial originality was indeed a necessary result of the growth of entirely new ceremonies and the extraordinary development of ritual detail. It became impossible to obtain from the Rigveda even approximately suitable verses for these novel requirements.
The language of the Mantra portion of the Yajurveda, though distinctly representing a later stage, yet on the whole agrees with that of the Rigveda, while separated from that of cla.s.sical Sanskrit by a considerable interval.
On its mythological side the religion of the Yajurveda does not differ essentially from that of the older Veda; for the pantheon is still the same. Some important modifications in detail are, however, apparent. The figure of Praj.a.pati, only foreshadowed in the latest hymns of the Rigveda, comes more and more into the foreground as the chief of the G.o.ds. The Rudra of the Rigveda has begun to appear on the scene as civa, being several times mentioned by that name as well as by other epithets later peculiar to civa, such as cankara and Mahadeva. Vishnu now occupies a somewhat more prominent position than in the Rigveda. A new feature is his constant identification with the sacrifice. The demons, now regularly called Asuras, perpetually appear as a group of evil beings opposed to the good G.o.ds. Their conflicts with the latter play a considerable part in the myths of the Yajurveda. The Apsarases, who, as a cla.s.s of celestial nymphs endowed with all the seductive charms of female beauty, occupy so important a place in post-Vedic mythology, but are very rarely mentioned in the Rigveda, begin to be more prominent in the Yajurveda, in which many of them are referred to by individual names.
Certain religious conceptions have, moreover, been modified and new rites introduced. Thus the word brahma, which in the Rigveda meant simply "devotion," has come to signify the essence of prayer and holiness, an advance towards its ultimate sense in the Upanishads. Again, snake-worship, which is unknown to the Rigveda, now appears as an element in Indian religion. That, however, which impresses on the Yajurveda the stamp of a new epoch is the character of the worship which it represents. The relative importance of the G.o.ds and of the sacrifice in the older religion has now become inverted. In the Rigveda the object of devotion was the G.o.ds, for the power of bestowing benefits on mankind was believed to lie in their hands alone, while the sacrifice was only a means of influencing their will in favour of the offerer. In the Yajurveda the sacrifice itself has become the centre of thought and desire, its correct performance in every detail being all-important. Its power is now so great that it not merely influences, but compels the G.o.ds to do the will of the officiating priest. By means of it the Brahmans may, in fact, be said to hold the G.o.ds in their hands.
The religion of the Yajurveda may be described as a kind of mechanical sacerdotalism. A crowd of priests conducts a vast and complicated system of external ceremonies, to which symbolical significance is attributed, and to the smallest minutiae of which the greatest weight is attached. In this stifling atmosphere of perpetual sacrifice and ritual, the truly religious spirit of the Rigveda could not possibly survive. Adoration of the power and beneficence of the G.o.ds, as well as the consciousness of guilt, is entirely lacking, every prayer being coupled with some particular rite and aiming solely at securing material advantages. As a natural result, the formulas of the Yajurveda are full of dreary repet.i.tions or variations of the same idea, and abound with half or wholly unintelligible interjections, particularly the syllable om. The following quotation from the Maitrayani Samhita is a good example: Nidhayo va nidhayo va om va om va om va e ai om svarnajyotih. Here only the last word, which means "golden light,"
is translatable.
Thus the ritual could not fail to become more and more of a mystery to all who did not belong to the Brahman caste. To its formulas, no less than to the sacrifice itself, control over Nature as well as the supernatural powers is attributed. Thus there are certain formulas for the obtainment of victory; by means of these, it is said, Indra constantly vanquished the demons. Again, we learn that, if the priest p.r.o.nounces a formula for rain while mixing a certain offering, he causes the rain to stream down. Hence the formulas are regarded as having a kind of magical effect by exercising compulsion. Similar miraculous powers later came to be attached to penance and asceticism among the Brahmans, and to holiness among the Buddhists. The formulas of the Yajurveda have not, as a rule, the form of prayers addressed to the G.o.ds, but on the whole and characteristically consist of statements about the result of employing particular rites and mantras. Together with the corresponding ritual they furnish a complex ma.s.s of appliances ready to hand for the obtainment of material welfare in general as well as all sorts of special objects, such as cattle or a village. The presence of a priest capable of using the necessary forms correctly is of course always presupposed. The desires which several rites are meant to fulfil amount to nothing more than childish absurdity. Thus some of them aim at the obtainment of the year. Formulas to secure possession of the moon would have had equal practical value.
Hand in hand with the elaboration of the sacrificial ceremonial went the growth and consolidation of the caste system, in which the Brahmans secured the social as well as the religious supremacy, and which has held India enchained for more than two thousand five hundred years. Not only do we find the four castes firmly established as the main divisions of Indian society in the Yajurveda, but, as one of the later books of the Vajasaneyi Samhita shows, most of the mixed castes known in later times are already found to exist. The social as well as the religious conditions of the Indian people, therefore, now wear an aspect essentially differing from those revealed to us in the hymns of the Rigveda.
The Rig-, Sama-, and Yajur-vedas alone were originally recognised as canonical collections. For they only were concerned with the great sacrificial ceremonial. The Atharva-veda, with the exception of the last book, which was obviously added in order to connect it with that ceremonial, is essentially unconnected with it. The ceremonial to which its hymns were practically applied is, with few exceptions, that with which the Grihya Sutras deal, being domestic rites such as those of birth, marriage, and death, or the political rites relating to the inauguration of kings. Taken as a whole, it is a heterogeneous collection of spells. Its most salient teaching is sorcery, for it is mainly directed against hostile agencies, such as diseases, noxious animals, demons, wizards, foes, oppressors of Brahmans. But it also contains many spells of an auspicious character, such as charms to secure harmony in family and village life, reconciliation of enemies, long life, health, and prosperity, besides prayers for protection on journeys, and for luck in gambling. Thus it has a double aspect, being meant to appease and bless as well as to curse.
In its main contents the Atharva-veda is more superst.i.tious than the Rigveda. For it does not represent the more advanced religious beliefs of the priestly cla.s.s, but is a collection of the most popular spells current among the ma.s.ses, who always preserve more primitive notions with regard to demoniac powers. The spirit which breathes in it is that of a prehistoric age. A few of its actual charms probably date with little modification from the Indo-European period; for, as Adalbert Kuhn has shown, some of its spells for curing bodily ailments agree in purpose and content, as well as to some extent even in form, with certain old German, Lettic, and Russian charms. But with regard to the higher religious ideas relating to the G.o.ds, it represents a more recent and advanced stage than the Rigveda. It contains, indeed, more theosophic matter than any of the other Samhitas. For the history of civilisation it is on the whole more interesting and important than the Rigveda itself.
The Atharva-veda is extant in the recensions of two different schools. That of the Paippaladas is, however, known in a single birch-bark ma.n.u.script, which is ancient but inaccurate and mostly unaccented. It was discovered by Professor Buhler in Kashmir, and has been described by Professor Roth in his tract Der Atharvaveda in Kaschmir (1875). It will probably soon be accessible to scholars in the form of a photographic reproduction published by Professor Bloomfield. This recension is doubtless meant by the "Paippalada Mantras" mentioned in one of the Paricishtas or supplementary writings of the Atharva-veda.
The printed text, edited by Roth and Whitney in 1856, gives the recension of the caunaka school. Nearly the whole of Sayana"s commentary to the Atharva-veda has been edited in India. Its chief interest lies in the large number of readings supplied by it which differ from those of the printed edition of this Veda.
This Samhita is divided into twenty books, containing 730 hymns and about 6000 stanzas. Some 1200 of the latter are derived from the Rigveda, chiefly from the tenth, first, and eighth books, a few also from each of the other books. Of the 143 hymns of Book XX., all but twelve are taken bodily from the established text of the Rigveda without any change. The matter borrowed from the Rigveda in the other books shows considerable varieties of reading, but these, as in the other Samhitas, are of inferior value compared with the text of the Rigveda. As is the case in the Yajurveda, a considerable part of the Atharva (about one-sixth) consists of prose. Upwards of fifty hymns, comprising the whole of the fifteenth and sixteenth, besides some thirty hymns scattered in the other books, are entirely unmetrical. Parts or single stanzas of over a hundred other hymns are of a similar character.
That the Atharva-veda originally consisted of its first thirteen books only is shown both by its arrangement and by its subject-matter. The contents of Books I.-VII. are distributed according to the number of stanzas contained in the hymns. In Book I. they have on the average four stanzas, in II. five, in III. six, in IV. seven, in V. eight to eighteen, in VI. three; and in VII. about half the hymns have only one stanza each. Books VIII.-XIII. contain longer pieces. The contents of all these thirteen books are indiscriminately intermingled.