A History of Sanskrit Literature c5.10

c5.10

The Brāhmaṇas in course of time themselves acquired a sacred character, and came in the following period to be classed along with the hymns as *çruti* or "hearing," that which was directly heard by or, as we should say, revealed to, the holy sages of old. In the sphere of revelation are included the later portions of the Brāhmaṇas, which form treatises of a specially theosophic character, and being meant to be imparted or studied in the solitude of the forest, are called *Āraṇyakas* or "Forest-books." The final part of these, again, are philosophical books named *Upanishads*, which belong to the latest stage of Brāhmaṇa literature. The pantheistic groundwork of their doctrine was later developed into the Vedānta system, which is still the favourite philosophy of the modern Hindus.