The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c26.2

v1.c26.2

IT is unfortunately clear that the ritual as it is presented to us in the ritual Sūtras, in general and often very minute accord with the texts of the Saṁhitās of the Yajurveda and Sāmaveda, is not precisely that which is contemplated by the hymns of the Rigveda. The divergences which can be proved, even with the comparatively scanty material available, are such as to cause it to be necessary to recognize that in many cases, where there is nothing available to show difference, the ritual may yet have considerably altered between the period of the collection, and still more the composition of the hymns, and the collections of the Yajus formulae and the Sāmans. The result, of course, is only what must be expected: the ritual in the Sūtras shows alterations as compared with the texts on which it is based: the priests were restless personages, far from content with merely following out a traditional ritual. They were given to reflection on the ritual, and to discussions of its meaning as is proved to the hilt by the Brāhmaṇas, and as a result we must regard the whole of the Vedic period as one of steady modification in detail of the rite. That the modification was only in detail we have every reason to believe: it is proved for the period from the later Saṁhitās to the Sūtras, as we can see that the ritual presupposed by the former is very closely similar in all essentials to that laid down by the latter, while for the period of the Rigveda the many similarities between the expressions of the hymns and the actual practice of the later ritual is conclusive of an ordered development, free from any catastrophic change.