The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c39.s1.1

v2.c39.s1.1

THE value of the Brāhmaṇas as sources of philosophy is difficult to determine with any accuracy. They are works in which the imagination of successive generations of priests has been allowed to run riot: there is no moderation in their conception, and no great Brāhmaṇa is, as far as can be judged, the production of a single mind.¹ The one great merit of Greek philosophy, the appearance of clear-cut ideas expressed in works of individual authorship, is wholly wanting for us in the Brāhmaṇas, and the question constantly obtrudes itself to what extent we can believe that the priests by whom these texts were composed and handed down held the views which they wrote down. In many cases it may be taken that they did not; the works abound in their explanations of rites with all sorts of absurdities, which we need not accuse the priests of being so foolish as not to recognize as absurdities; but the question of the dividing line between profoundity and absurdity presents itself with the greatest frequency.