A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s7.29

v1.c8.s7.29

The difference between the Brāhmaṇas which belong to the separate Vedas lies chiefly in the fact that the Brāhmaṇas of the Ṛgveda, in the presentation of the ritual, emphasize that which is of importance to the Hotar-priest, who has to recite the verses and hymns of the Ṛgveda, while the Brāhmaṇas of the Sāmaveda are chiefly concerned with the duties of the Udgātar, and those of the Yajurveda with the sacrificial acts to be performed by the Adhvaryu. In the essentials of their contents the Brāhmaṇas all agree fairly well with one another. In the main the same subjects are always dealt with; and all these works bear the same stamp. This is the more noticeable, as we are compelled to assume a period of several centuries for the origin and propagation of this literature. If we could believe the tradition which, in the so-called Vaṃśa¹ or "Genealogies," specifies genealogical trees of teachers with fifty to sixty names, then not even a thousand years would suffice to locate all the generations of teachers whose names are mentioned. These genealogies have indeed the object of tracing back the origin of the sacrifice theory to some deity or other—Brahman, Prajāpati or the Sun—but they also contain so many names which have certainly the appearance of being genuine family-names, that it is difficult to look upon them as pure fiction. However, even quite apart from these lists of teachers, there still remain the numerous names of teachers who, in the Brāhmaṇas themselves, are quoted as authorities, and the fact remains that the collectors and compilers of the Brāhmaṇas shift the beginnings of the science of sacrifice as laid down in them, back to a far-distant past. This sacrifice-science itself, however, requires centuries for its development.)