The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c43.348

v2.c43.348

**Volume 25. Rig-Veda Brāhmaṇas: The Aitareya and Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇas of the Rig-Veda.** Translated from the original Sanskrit. By ARTHUR BERRIEDALE KEITH, D.C.L., D. Litt., of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law, Regius Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at the University of Edinburgh. 1920. Pages, 567. Royal 8°. Price, $7.50. The Vedic literature falls into three clearly sundered groups: the Vedic hymns or Mantras; the Brāhmaṇas, ‘the priestlies’ or ‘priestly (discourses)’; and the Sūtras. Keith thinks that the Aitareya is not later than 600 b. c. The plan of the work is like that of volumes 18–19: elaborate introduction; translation; running comment on the same page. The skill of the priestly story-tellers is at its best in the splendid legend of Çunaḥçepa (threatened sacrifice of son by father: cf. Isaac, Iphigeneia, Phrixos). Despite the pseudo-profundity and puerility of the Brāhmaṇas, they are of genuine significance to the student of Hindu antiquity, social and religious. And they are in fact the oldest Indo-European prose extant.