A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c6.82

c6.82

Thus the account which Megasthenes gives of the Indians shows us the same abstract and passive support of the law laid down in the Pûrvamîmânsâ, that man and wife should perform sacrifices in common. From the Brâhmaṇas he quotes the beginning of the Agnyâdhâna, where it is said that man and wife are to place the sacred fire in common: जायापती अग्निमादधीयीतां। From the Sûtras he quotes a rule, वेदं पत्न्यै प्रदाय वाचयेत्। This seems to mean, “Let him, after giving the Veda to his wife, make her recite it.” The passage is taken from the Âśvalâyana Śrauta-sûtras, i. 11. If the word veda, used by Âśvalâyana, meant the Veda, this passage would be most important, as proving the existence of the Veda, as a written book, at the time of Âśvalâyana. Veda, however, is used here in the sense of “a bundle of grass,” and is connected with vedih, an altar made of grass (Root ve, Lat. viere). Lastly, Sâyaṇa quotes from the Smṛitis, Manu, v. 155., “Women cannot sacrifice without their husbands:” नास्ति स्त्रीणां पृथग्यज्ञः। character which we find throughout the whole classical or post-vedic literature of the Brahmans, and which, to a great extent, explains the absence of anything like historical literature among this nation of philosophers.