The History of Indian Literature c8.13

Language: English

c8.13.1

The character of the Bráhmaṇas† may be thus generally defined: Their object is to connect the sacrificial songs and formulas with the sacrificial rite, by pointing out, on the one hand, their direct mutual relation; and, on the other, their symbolical connection with each other. In setting forth the former, they give the particular ritual in its details: in illustrating the latter, they are either directly explanatory and analytic, dividing each formula into its constituent parts, or else they establish that connection dogmatically by the aid of tradition or speculation. We thus find in them the oldest rituals we have, the oldest linguistic explanations, the oldest traditional narratives, and the oldest philosophical speculations. This peculiar character is common generally to all works of this class, yet they differ widely in details, according to their individual tendency, and according as they belong to this or that particular Veda. With respect to age they all date from the period of the transition from Vedic civilisation and culture to the Brahmanic mode of thought and social order. Nay, they help to bring about this very transition, and some of them belong rather to the time of its commencement, others rather to that of its termination.∗ The Bráhmaņas originated from the opinions of individual sages, imparted by oral tradition, and preserved as well as supplemented in their families and by their disciples.

c8.13.2

The more numerous these separate traditions became, the more urgent became the necessity for bringing them into harmony with each other. To this end, as time went on, compilations, comprising a variety of these materials, and in which the different opinions on each subject were uniformly traced to their original representatives, were made in different districts by individuals peculiarly qualified for the task. But whether these compilations or digests were now actually written down, or were still transmitted orally only, remains uncertain. The latter supposition would seem probable from the fact that of the same work we here and there find two texts entirely differing in their details. Nothing definite, however, can be said on the subject, for in these cases there may possibly have been some fundamental difference in the original, or even a fresh treatment of the materials. It was, moreover, but natural that these compilers should frequently come into collision and conflict with each other. Hence we have now and then to remark the exhibition of strong animosity against those who in the author’s opinion are heterodox. The preponderant influence gradually gained by some of these works over the rest—whether by reason of their intrinsic value, or of the fact that their author appealed more to the hierarchical spirit¹—has resulted, unfortunately for us, in the preservation of these only, while works representative of the disputed opinions have for the most part disappeared.

c8.13.3

Here and there perhaps in India some fragments may still be found; in general, however, here as everywhere in Indian literature, we encounter the lamentable fact that the works which, in the end, came off victorious, have almost entirely supplanted and effaced their predecessors. After all, a comparatively large number of Bráhmaṇas is still extant—a circumstance which is evidently owing to their being each annexed to a particular Veda, as well as to the fact that a sort of petty jealousy had always prevailed among the families in which the study of the different Vedas was hereditarily transmitted. Thus in the case of each Veda, such works at least as had come to be considered of the highest authority have been preserved, although the practical significance of the Bráhmaṇas was gradually more and more lost, and passed over to the Sútras, &c. To the number of the Bráhmaṇas, or recensions of the Saṃhitás, which were thus lost, belong those of the Váshkalas, Paiṅgins, Bhállavins, Śátyáyanins, Kálabavins, Lámakáyanins, Śámbuvis, Kháḍáyanins, and Śálaṅkáyanins, which we find quoted on various occasions in writings of this class; besides all the Chhandas works (Saṃhitás) specified in the *gaṇa* ‘Śaunaka’ (Páṇ., iv. 3. 106), whose names are not so much as mentioned elsewhere.