Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c10.2

c10.2

**The other Vedic Saṁhitās.** These show the trend of learning and educational development as influenced by the trend of religious thought. The three later Vedic Saṁhitās of Sāma, Yajuḥ, and Atharva usher in the age of the *Brāhmaṇas*, a different type of literary activity. The principle governing their compilation is quite different. It follows the order of an established ceremonial pointing to a fixed order of sacrifices. But in the Rigveda Saṁhitā, as we have seen, the order of the hymns has nothing to do with the order of the sacrifices, while it included many hymns which have no use for any sacrifice. The other two Vedic Saṁhitās were compiled exclusively for purposes of ritual application. The fact is that in their time the old Rigvedic religion showed considerable developments of ceremonial and priesthood out of their beginnings in the Rigveda. The priesthood now had a personnel of sixteen members as described below :—