Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c6.48

c6.48

Vedic literature not only lacks the historical sense as pointed out above (p. 2), but is not always to be trusted in matters that concerned brahmanical claims and pretensions. The greatest brahmanical book is the Rigveda. It is a compilation of hymns composed by many authors and is arranged according to certain principles. It must manifestly have been compiled and arranged by some one or more persons, yet Vedic literature says absolutely nothing about this. The brahmans cannot have been ignorant about it, for they preserved it and its text with unparalleled care; they certainly did not accept and venerate this canon blindly upon uncertain authority, and they must have known who compiled it and established its text.¹ This is made clearer by another fact, namely, that Vedic literature professes to know and declares the names of the authors of nearly all the hymns and even of single verses, yet it ignores all knowledge of the person or persons who afterwards compiled and arranged those hymns. To suppose that, when it preserved the earlier information, it was ignorant of the later work in so vital a matter is ridiculous. Plainly therefore Vedic literature has deliberately suppressed all information on these matters.