A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c11.211

Language: English

c11.211.1

There is nothing to prove that this hymn is of a particularly ancient date. On the contrary, there are expressions in it, especially the name of Hiraṇyagarbha, which seem to belong to a later age. But even if we assign the lowest possible date to this and similar hymns, certain it is that they existed during the Mantra period, and before the composition of the Brâhmaṇas; certain it is that every verse and every syllable was counted in the Anukramaṇîs of the Sûtra period. With our received notions on the history of the human mind it may be difficult to account for facts like these; but facts must not be made to evaporate in order to maintain a theory. The difficulty, such as it is, will be felt by all who think seriously and honestly on these problems. But it is better to state this difficulty than to conceal it. Even if we assign philosophical hymns to the last years of the Mantra period, we have to account, in the 9th century B.C., for thoughts which, like the stems of forest trees, disclose circles within circles, almost impossible to count. There are hymns which are decidedly modern if compared with others: but if the most modern be ascribed to the Mantra period, what must be the date of the earliest relics of the Chhandas age? There can be little doubt, for instance, that the 90th hymn¹ of the 10th book, a hymn which is likewise found in the 31st book of the Vâjasaneyi-sanhitâ, and in the 19th book of the Atharva-veda, is modern both in its character and in its diction.

c11.211.2

It is full of allusions to the sacrificial ceremonials, it uses technical philosophical terms, it mentions the three seasons in the order of Vasanta, spring, Grîshma, summer, and Śarad, autumn; it contains the only passage in the Rig-veda where the four castes are enumerated. The evidence of language for the modern date of this composition is equally strong. Grîshma, for instance, the name for the hot season, does not occur in any other hymn of the Rig-veda; and Vasanta also, the name of spring, does not belong to the earliest vocabulary of the Vedic poets. It occurs but once more in the Rig-veda x. 161. 4., in a passage where the three seasons are mentioned in the order of Śarad, autumn, Hemanta, winter, and Vasanta, spring. But in spite of all the indications of a modern date, this hymn, if our argument holds good, must have existed before the beginning of the Brâhmaṇa period. I see no possibility how we could account for the allusions to it which occur in the Brâhmaṇas, or for its presence in the Sanhitâs of the Vajesaneyins and Atharvans, unless we admit that this poem formed part of the final collection of the Rig-veda-sanhitâ, the work of the Mantra period. There are no traces anywhere of hymns having been added after that collection was closed, except in the case of the Khilas, and no secret is ever made as to their spurious character. Oriental scholars are frequently suspected of a desire to make the literature of the eastern nations appear more ancient than it is.

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As to myself, I can truly say that nothing would be to me a more welcome discovery, nothing would remove so many doubts and difficulties, as some suggestion as to the manner in which certain of the Vedic hymns could have been added to the original collection during the Brâhmaṇa or Sûtra periods, or, if possible, by the writers of our MSS., of which most are not older than the 15th century. But these MSS., though so modern, are checked by the Anukramaṇîs. Every hymn which stands in our MSS. is counted in the Index of Śaunaka, who is anterior to the invasion of Alexander. The Sûtras, belonging to the same period as Śaunaka, prove the previous existence of every chapter of the Brâhmaṇas: and I doubt whether there is a single hymn in the Sanhitâ of the Rig-veda which could not be checked by some passage of the Brâhmaṇas and Sûtras. The chronological limits assigned to the Sûtra and Brâhmaṇa periods will seem to most Sanskrit scholars too narrow rather than too wide, and if we assign but 200 years to the Mantra period, from 800 to 1000 B.C., and an equal number to the Chhandas period, from 1000 to 1200 B.C., we can do so only under the supposition that during the early periods of history the growth of the human mind was more luxuriant than in later times, and that the layers of thought were formed less slowly in the primary than in the tertiary ages of the world.