An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c7.s2.5

c7.s2.5

§ 38. We take next the literature of the Vedic schools. The basis of all the training is still the process of laying up in the memory the hymns of the Veda of one’s school and the long chapters of the Brāhmaṇa. But a large amount of ancillary material has now to be mastered by the student as well as the fundamental texts. The sciences of Vedic exposition, phonetics, grammar, metre, etymology, &c., the beginnings of which are found in the Brāhmaṇas, have each grown in width and complexity as well as in accuracy. The sacrifices, both minor and major, have grown steadily more intricate and more numerous, and the *dharma*, i.e. the law of conduct, has become a large body of detailed injunctions. Hence, to enable the student to carry in his mind the vast and varied masses of information which he required to know, a new method of teaching was created, the *sūtra*-method. The essential feature of the method is the committing to memory of a long series of very abbreviated phrases, which serve as a sort of classified index of the particular subject dealt with. The method was of service in proportion to the care with which the subject was arranged, and to the skill with which the mnemonic phrases were composed. A series of *sūtras* is more or less incomprehensible by itself; it has always a commentary attached to it, either oral or written, which fills up the gaps and expounds the thought.