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A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s1: What Is the Veda?

A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s1

Language
English

What Is the Veda?

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As the oldest Indian, and, at the same time, the oldest Indo-European literary monument, a prominent place in the history of world literature is due to the Veda. This is the case too when we remember that throughout at least 3,000 years millions of Hindus have looked on the word of the Veda as the word of God, and that the Veda has given them their standard of thought and feeling. As the Veda, because of its antiquity, stands at the head of Indian literature, no one who has not gained an insight into the Vedic literature can understand the spiritual life and the culture of the Indians. Also Buddhism, whose birth-place is India, will remain for ever incomprehensible to him who does not know the Veda. For the teaching of Buddha is in the same relation to the Veda, as the New Testament is to the Old Testament. No one can understand the new belief without having become acquainted with the old one taught by the Veda.

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What then, is the Veda?

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The word "Veda" means "knowledge," then "the knowledge par excellence," *i.e.* "the sacred, the religious knowledge." It does not mean *one* single literary work, as for instance the word "Koran," nor a complete collection of a certain number of books, compiled at some particular time, as the word "Bible" (the "book par excellence"), or as the word "*Tipiṭaka*," the "Bible" of the Buddhists, but a whole great literature, which arose in the course of many centuries, and through centuries has been handed down from generation to generation by verbal transmission, till finally it was declared by a younger generation—but even then at some prehistoric period—to be "sacred knowledge," "divine revelation," as much on account of its great age, as on account of its contents. It is here not a matter of a "Canon" which might have been fixed at some council; the belief in the "sacredness" of this literature arose, as it were, spontaneously, and was seldom seriously disputed.

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However, what is now called "Veda" or "Vedic literature" consists of three different classes of literary works; and to each of these three classes belongs a greater or a smaller number of separate works, of which some have been preserved, but also many lost.

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I. Saṁhitās, *i.e.* "Collections," namely collections of hymns, prayers, incantations, benedictions, sacrificial formulas and litanies.

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II. Brāhmaṇas, voluminous prose texts, which contain theological matter, especially observations on sacrifice and the practical or mystical significance of the separate sacrificial rites and ceremonies.

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III. Āraṇyakas ("forest texts") and Upaniṣads ("secret doctrines") which are partly included in the Brāhmaṇas themselves, or attached to them, but partly are also reckoned as independent works. They contain the meditations of forest-hermits and ascetics on God, the world, and mankind, and there is contained in them a good deal of the oldest Indian philosophy.

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There must once have existed a fairly large number of Saṁhitās, which originated in different schools of priests and singers, and which continued to be handed down in the same. However, many of these "collections" were nothing but slightly diverging recensions—Śākhās, "branches," as the Indians say—of one and the same Saṁhitā. Four Saṁhitās, however, are in existence, which differ clearly from each other, and which have been preserved in one or more recensions. These are:—

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1. The Ṛgveda-Saṃhitā, the collection of the Ṛgveda. "Ṛgveda" is "the Veda or the knowledge of the songs of praise" (ṛc, plur. ṛcas).

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2. The Atharvaveda-Saṃhitā, the collection of the Atharva-veda, *i.e.* "of the knowledge of the magic formulas" (atharvan).

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3. The Sāmaveda-Saṃhitā, the collection of the Sāma-veda, *i.e.* "of the knowledge of the melodies" (sāman).

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4. The Yajurveda-Saṃhitā, the collection of the Yajurveda, *i.e.* "of the knowledge of the sacrificial formulas" (yajus, plur. yajūṃṣi) of which there are two rather strongly diverging texts, namely:—

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(*a*) The Saṃhitā of the Black Yajurveda, which has been preserved in several recensions, of which the most important are the Taittirīya-Saṃhitā and the Maitrāyaṇī-Saṃhitā; and

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(*b*) the Saṃhitā of the White Yajur-veda, which has been preserved in the Vājasaneyi-Saṃhitā.

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On account of these four different Saṃhitās the Indians distinguish between four different Vedas—and therefore one often speaks of the "Vedas" in the plural—namely, Ṛgveda, Atharvaveda, Sāmaveda, and (Black and White) Yajurveda. Every work that belongs to the class of the Brāhmaṇas, of the Āraṇyakas, or of the Upaniṣads, is joined to one of the enumerated Saṃhitās, and "belongs," as we say, to one of the four Vedas. There are, therefore, not only Saṃhitās, but also Brāhmaṇas, Āraṇyakas and Upaniṣads of the Ṛgveda, as well as of the Atharvaveda, of the Sāmaveda, and of the Yajurveda. Thus, for example, the Aitareya-Brāhmaṇa belongs to the Ṛgveda, the Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa to the White Yajurveda, and the Chāndogya-Upaniṣad to the Sāmaveda, and so on.

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Every work which belongs to one of the three above-mentioned classes, and to one of the four Vedas, must be designated as "Vedic," and the whole Vedic literature is thus presented to us as a long succession of works of religious content—collections of songs, prayer-books, theological and theosophical treatises—which belong to different successive periods of time, but which represent a unity, in so far as they all together form the foundation for the Brahmanical religious system, and have the same significance for Brahmanism as the Old Testament has for Judaism or the New Testament for Christianity. As Jews and Christians look on their "Holy Scripture," so the Brahmanic Indians look on their Veda, in its whole extent, as divine revelation. But it is significant that to the expression "Holy Scripture" there corresponds in the case of the Indians the expression "Śruti," "hearing," because the revealed texts were not written and read, but only spoken and *heard*. The whole history of Indian philosophy bears witness that not only the ancient hymns of the Ṛgveda were looked upon as "breathed out" by the God Brahman, and only "visioned" by the ancient seers, but that also every word in the Upaniṣads, the latest productions of the Vedic literature, was looked upon as indisputable wisdom emanating from the God Brahman himself. However much the different systems of Indian philosophy may vary, yet they are nearly all agreed in considering the Veda as revealed, and in appealing to the Veda, especially the Upaniṣads—although great freedom and arbitrariness prevail in regard to the explanation of these texts, and every philosopher gleans from them just what he wishes to. Most significant it is, that even the Buddhists, who deny the authority of the Veda, yet concede that it was originally given or "created" by God Brahman: only, they add, it has been falsified by the Brahmans, and therefore contains so many errors.

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The expression "Veda" is justified only for this literature which is regarded as revealed. However, there is another class of works, which has the closest connection with the Vedic literature, but yet cannot be said to belong to the Veda. These are the so-called Kalpasūtras (sometimes also called briefly "Sūtras") or manuals on ritual, which are composed in a peculiar, aphoristic prose style. These include:

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1. The Śrautasūtras, which contain the rules for the performance of the great sacrifices, which often lasted many days, at which many sacred fires had to burn and a great number of priests had to be employed.

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2. The Gṛhyasūtras, which contain directions for the simple ceremonies and sacrificial acts of daily life (at birth, marriage, death, and so on).

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3. The Dharmasūtras, books of instruction on spiritual and secular law—the oldest law-books of the Indians.

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Like Brāhmaṇas, Āraṇyakas and Upaniṣads, these works, too, are connected with one of the four Vedas; and there are Śrauta, Gṛhya, and Dharmasūtras which belong to the Ṛgveda, others which belong to the Sāmaveda, to the Yajurveda, or the Atharvaveda. As a matter of fact, they originated in certain Vedic schools which set themselves the task of the study of a certain Veda. Yet all these books of instruction are regarded as human work, and no longer as divine revelation; they do not belong to the Veda, but to the "Vedāṅgas," the "limbs," *i.e.* "the auxiliary sciences of the Veda."

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These Vedāṅgas include, besides the works on ritual, also a number of works on phonetics, grammar, etymology, metrics and astronomy. We shall have to speak of these too at the end of the section.

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After this general survey of the Vedic literature and the literature connected with it, we turn to the discussion of the most important works belonging to the Veda, above all, of the Saṁhitās.

Cites (3)