History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c84.14

v7.c84.14

4000 B. C.–1000 B. C.—The period of the Vedic Saṁhitās, Brāhmaṇas and Upaniṣads ; some hymns of the Ṛgveda, of the Atharvaveda and verses in the Taittirīya Saṁhitā and Brāhmaṇas may possibly go back to a period earlier than 4000 B. C. and some of the Upaniṣads (even from among those that are regarded by most scholars as the earliest ones) may be later than 1000 B. C.. Some scholars have criticized me for assigning the Vedic Saṁhitās to such an early date as 4000 B. C. Bloomfield, in 'Religion of the Veda' (New York, 1908) was willing (on p. 20) to regard 2000 B. C. for the beginnings of Vedic literary productions and to assign a much earlier date for institutions and religious concepts which the Veda derived and he denies that there is any better proof for any later date such as 1500, 1200 or 1000 B. C. rather than for one of the earlier viz. 2000 B. C. Winternitz (in 'Some problems of Indian Literature' which are his Calcutta Readership Lectures, p. 20) remarks 'it is more probable that this unknown time of the Vedic Literature was nearer 2500 B. C. or 2000 B. C. than to 1500 or 1200 B. C.' Both Bloomfield and Winternitz frankly confess that they know nothing at all about the date of the early Vedic Literature. Some Western scholars are rather too cocksure or dogmatic than the facts warrant.