The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c9.s1.1

c9.s1.1

Important literary documents of Vedic ideology are four-fold: the *Rig*, the *Sāma*, the *Yajus* and the *Atharva Samhitās* or collections. The question cannot be taken to have been finally closed as to whether these four Vedic *Samhitās* represent any chronological sequence or only four different principles of classification or indexing. One should be justified in holding that the *Sāma* *Veda* which = *Rig Veda* for the purposes of chanting cannot be taken to belong to a later period of time than the *Rig Veda*. The recital of hymns and the chanting of the hymns must have constituted one institutional complex and therefore belonged to the same age. Similarly there is no sense in believing that the ritualistic material of the *Yajurveda* which is nothing but formulæ for the priests in connection with the hymns and chants of the sacrifice could have originated separately from or later than either the recital or the principles of chanting. The materials of the three Vedas constitute one organic whole, being but three aspects of one and the same socio-cultural *Gestalt* or form-complex. The synchronism of the three collections or *Samhitās* may be taken therefore to be an ideological, nay, a factual necessity.