On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s6.23

v1.c8.s6.23

The words here rendered "the four Veda treatises" are in the original "ssŭ-fei-t'ê-lun (四吠陀論). Julien translates them simply by "les quatres Vêdas", and Beal by "the four Vēda Sāstras". Neither of the translators attempts to explain why the first Veda is here not the Rig but the Āyur. The latter term denotes life or longevity, as Yuan-chuang translates, and there is an Āyur-Veda. But this is only a supplement or appendix to the Atharva-Veda, and denotes rather the science of medicine than any particular treatise. It is reckoned as Veda, we learn, because its teachings have been found by experience to be wise and beneficial. Yuan-chuang knew that the Rig was the first, the original Veda, yet he does not even mention it here. His descriptions of the other Vedas also are not good, and it is plain that he knew very little about them and the great literature to which they had given rise. The Sāma Veda, for example, with its Brāhmaṇas and Sūtras, has nothing to do with the subjects which Yuan-chuang assigns to it, and it is concerned only with the worship of Indra, and Agni, and the Soma. When writing this passage Yuan-chuang may have had in view only those Vedic works which were in writing, and were known to or owned by the Brethren in "North India". Some of these Buddhists were converted Brahmins, and it was perhaps by some of them, as has been suggested, that the Vedas were first reduced to writing. The Rigveda itself still existed only in the memories of the Brahmins, and it was taught entirely by oral communication, but there were commentaries and other Vedic treatises in writing. Moreover we are probably justified in treating the word "Veda" in our text as denoting a group or collection of treatises, each Veda being a title under which several departments of learning were classed. The translators into Chinese sometimes render Veda like vidyā by ming (明) which simply means knowledge, science, intelligence, as with the Brahmins the Trayi-vidyā or "threefold Science" denotes the Rig, Yajur, and Sāma Vedas. The reader also will observe that Yuan-chuang here does not use the words books, treatises with the terms for Ayur, Yajur, Sāma, Atharva.