A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s8.5

v1.c8.s8.5

These sceptics and thinkers, these first philosophers of ancient India certainly did not remain isolated. That they, too, founded schools of thought, that their teachings were diffused, is proved by the "philosophical" hymns of the Atharvaveda and isolated portions of the Yajurveda-Saṃhitās, in which, it is true, the teachings of the philosophers often appear only in caricature.¹ But even these caricatures prove that philosophical speculation was further pursued also during the centuries in which the sacrificial science flourished.