The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c6.3

c6.3

The Rigveda is the oldest document and the first of the four Vedas of the Hindus. It has well been said that it "is not a book, but a library and a literature."¹ The date and order of its ten Maṇḍalas or books and of the 1,028 hymns which they comprise, cannot be determined with any approach to certitude. Attempts have been made, notably by Arnold,² to fix their order of composition but the conclusions have been challenged by other scholars.³ The general consensus of opinion is represented by Keith when he remarks that the nucleus of the Rigveda is formed by Books II—VII, each of which is attributed to a different priestly family.⁴ To this were prefixed the groups of hymns by other families which constitute the second part (51—191) of Book I. Later, the first part (1—50) of Book I and Book VIII which is attributed to the family of Kaṇva were added. When Soma hymns were taken out and put together there came into being Book IX.⁵ The tenth Maṇḍala is considerably later. Its metre, language and ideas are conclusive on the point. It is impossible to dogmatise on the chronological limits of the various sections. Max Müller placed the earlier and more primitive Vedic hymns between 1200 and 1000 B.C. and the later ones between 1000 and 800 B.C.¹ Attempts have been made to fix higher dates on the basis of astronomical calculations and other grounds.² The recent discovery of the Mitannian Inscriptions of about 1400 B.C. at Boghazkiöi was seized upon as solid evidence for assigning a higher antiquity to the Rigveda, but the discussion which followed left the problem practically where it stood.³ For the present 1200—1000 B.C. is the safest date for the first nine Maṇḍalas of the Rigveda.⁴ The scene of the hymns has been held to lie in the valley of the Indus and its tributaries. Some, indeed, might have been composed before the Āryans came to India from whatever their original home might have been. A few others, again, might have come into being after the Āryans had moved a little further east. But the vast majority of them undoubtedly belong to the Puñjâb.⁵ The language of the hymns is a highly artificial one and, as many scholars think, could not have been the ordinary tongue of the mass of the people. It is probably the idiom, primarily, of the priests and, secondarily, of the rest of the upper class. The whole of Vedic literature, in fact, is primarily and essentially priestly literature. Its concepts and sentiments are to be judged as primarily those of priests and it has to be remembered that practices are reflected through a priestly medium.