A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c8.114

c8.114

With regard to the hymns, it is in itself very unlikely that no more should have existed than those which happen to be collected in the Rig-veda; and even in the Rig-veda we see that the number of hymns varied in different communities. The ancient poetry of India, however, would hardly have furnished authoritative passages for legal and ceremonial questions; and there is no doubt that the lost tradition which is appealed to by later writers, refers only to Brâhmaṇas. A number of these dogmatic works are still in existence; but others, which are always quoted along with them, are now lost, or known by extracts only. There existed a considerable number of ancient sages who embodied their doctrines, whether on philosophical or ceremonial, on metrical or grammatical questions, in independent works, which were handed down by tradition among their descendants. But, as Kumârila observes, through the carelessness and forgetfulness of men, and also by the extinction of families, these works were necessarily lost; and it is, indeed, less surprising that many of these Brâhmaṇas should have been lost, than that so many should still have been saved, if we remember for how long a time oral tradition was in India the only means of preserving them. Kumârila, however, was too keen-sighted not to perceive the danger of admitting lost Śâkhâs of the Veda as authorities, and he makes several reservations in order to guard against a promiscuous use of this argument. The Buddhists also might appeal to a lost Śâkhâ, and thus upset all the arguments of the orthodox philosophers. But in spite of the bug-bear of the Buddhists, the general fact that some Śâkhâs had perished was admitted by Kumârila, as well as by Âpastamba, both endeavouring to prop up the authority of the Smṛiti by the broken pillars of the Śruti.¹