A History of Sanskrit Literature Part 13

If waking, if asleep, I have Committed sin, to sin inclined, May what has been and what shall be Loose me as from a wooden post (vi. 115, 2).

A short hymn (vi. 120), praying for the remission of sins, concludes with this stanza:--

In heaven, where our righteous friends are blessed, Having cast off diseases from their bodies, From lameness free and not deformed in members, There may we see our parents and our children.

Another group of hymns has the person of the king as its centre. They contain charms to be used at a royal election or consecration, for the restoration of an exiled king, for the attainment of l.u.s.tre and glory, and in particular for victory in battle. The following is a specimen of spells intended to strike terror into the enemy:--

Arise and arm, ye spectral forms, Followed by meteoric flames; Ye serpents, spirits of the deep, Demons of night, pursue the foe! (xi. 10, 1).

Here is a stanza from a hymn (v. 21, 6) to the battle-drum meant to serve the same purpose:--

As birds start back affrighted at the eagle's cry, As day and night they tremble at the lion's roar: So thou, O drum, shout out against our enemies, Scare them away in terror and confound their minds.

Among the cosmogonic and theosophic hymns the finest is a long one of sixty-three stanzas addressed to the earth (xii. 1). I translate a few lines to give some idea of its style and contents:--

The earth, on whom, with clamour loud, Men that are mortal sing and dance, On whom they fight in battle fierce: This earth shall drive away from us our foemen, And she shall make us free from all our rivals.

In secret places holding treasure manifold, The earth shall riches give, and gems and gold to me: Granting wealth lavishly, the kindly G.o.ddess Shall goods abundantly bestow upon us.

The four hymns of Book XIII. are devoted to the praise of Rohita, the "Red" Sun, as a cosmogonic power. In another (xi. 5) the sun is glorified as a primeval principle under the guise of a Brahman disciple (brahmacharin). In others Prana or Breath (xi. 4), Kama or Love (ix. 2), and Kala or Time (xix. 53-54), are personified as primordial powers. There is one hymn (xi. 7) in which even Ucchishta (the remnant of the sacrifice) is deified as the Supreme Being; except for its metrical form it belongs to the Brahmana type of literature.

In concluding this survey of the Atharva-veda, I would draw attention to a hymn to Varuna (iv. 16); which, though its last two stanzas are ordinary Atharvan spells for binding enemies with the fetters of that deity, in its remaining verses exalts divine omniscience in a strain unequalled in any other Vedic poem. The following three stanzas are perhaps the best:--

This earth is all King Varuna's dominion, And that broad sky whose boundaries are distant.

The loins of Varuna are these two oceans, Yet in this drop of water he is hidden.

He that should flee afar beyond the heaven Would not escape King Varuna's attention: His spies come hither, from the sky descending, With all their thousand eyes the earth surveying.

King Varuna discerns all that's existent Between the earth and sky, and all beyond them; The winkings of men's eyes by him are counted; As gamesters dice, so he lays down his statutes.

CHAPTER VIII

THE BRAHMANAS

(Circa 800-500 B.C.)

The period in which the poetry of the Vedic Samhitas arose was followed by one which produced a totally different literary type--the theological treatises called Brahmanas. It is characteristic of the form of these works that they are composed in prose, and of their matter that they deal with the sacrificial ceremonial. Their main object being to explain the sacred significance of the ritual to those who are already familiar with the sacrifice, the descriptions they give of it are not exhaustive, much being stated only in outline or omitted altogether. They are ritual text-books, which, however, in no way aim at furnishing a complete survey of the sacrificial ceremonial to those who do not know it already. Their contents may be cla.s.sified under the three heads of practical sacrificial directions (vidhi), explanations (arthavada), exegetical, mythological, or polemical, and theological or philosophical speculations on the nature of things (upanishad). Even those which have been preserved form quite an extensive literature by themselves; yet many others must have been lost, as appears from the numerous names of and quotations from Brahmanas unknown to us occurring in those which are extant. They reflect the spirit of an age in which all intellectual activity is concentrated on the sacrifice, describing its ceremonies, discussing its value, speculating on its origin and significance. It is only reasonable to suppose that an epoch like this, which produced no other literary monuments, lasted for a considerable time. For though the Brahmanas are on the whole uniform in character, differences of age are traceable in them. Next to the prose portions of the Yajurvedas, the Panchavimca and the Taittiriya are proved by their syntax and vocabulary to be the most archaic of the regular Brahmanas. This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that the latter is, and the former is known to have been, accented. A more recent group is formed by the Jaiminiya, the Kaus.h.i.taki, and the Aitareya Brahmanas. The first of these is probably the oldest, while the third seems, on linguistic grounds at least, to be the latest of the three. The catapatha Brahmana, again, is posterior to these. For it shows a distinct advance in matter; its use of the narrative tenses is later than that of the Aitareya; and its style is decidedly developed in comparison with all the above-mentioned Brahmanas. It is, indeed, accented, but in a way which differs entirely from the regular Vedic method. Latest of all are the Gopatha Brahmana of the Atharva and the short Brahmanas of the Samaveda.

In language the Brahmanas are considerably more limited in the use of forms than the Rigveda. The subjunctive is, however, still employed, as well as a good many of the old infinitives. Their syntax, indeed, represents the oldest Indian stage even better than the Rigveda, chiefly of course owing to the restrictions imposed by metre on the style of the latter. The Brahmanas contain some metrical pieces (gathas), which differ from the prose in which they are imbedded by certain peculiarities of their own and by a more archaic character. Allied to these is a remarkable poem of this period, the Suparnadhyaya, an attempt, after the age of living Vedic poetry had come to an end, to compose in the style of the Vedic hymns. It contains many Vedic forms, and is accented, but it betrays its true character not only by its many modern forms, but by numerous monstrosities due to unsuccessful imitation of the Vedic language.

A further development are the Aranyakas or "Forest Treatises," the later age of which is indicated both by the position they occupy at the end of the Brahmanas and by their theosophical character. These works are generally represented as meant for the use of pious men who have retired to the forest and no longer perform sacrifices. According to the view of Professor Oldenberg, they are, however, rather treatises which, owing to the superior mystic sanct.i.ty of their contents, were intended to be communicated to the pupil by his teacher in the solitude of the forest instead of in the village.

In tone and content the Aranyakas form a transition to the Upanishads, which are either imbedded in them, or more usually form their concluding portion. The word upa-ni-shad (literally "sitting down beside") having first doubtless meant "confidential session," came to signify "secret or esoteric doctrine," because these works were taught to select pupils (probably towards the end of their apprenticeship) in lectures from which the wider circle was excluded. Being entirely devoted to theological and philosophical speculations on the nature of things, the Upanishads mark the last stage of development in the Brahmana literature. As they generally come at the end of the Brahmanas, they are also called Vedanta ("end of the Veda"), a term later interpreted to mean "final goal of the Veda." "Revelation"

(cruti) was regarded as including them, while the Sutras belonged to the sphere of tradition (smriti). The subject-matter of all the old Upanishads is essentially the same--the doctrine of the nature of the Atman or Brahma (the supreme soul). This fundamental theme was expounded in various ways by the different Vedic schools, of which the Upanishads were originally the dogmatic text-books, just as the Brahmanas were their ritual text-books.

The Aranyakas and Upanishads represent a phase of language which on the whole closely approaches to cla.s.sical Sanskrit, the oldest Upanishads occupying a position linguistically midway between the Brahmanas and the Sutras.

Of the two Brahmanas attached to the Rigveda, the more important is the Aitareya. The extant text consists of forty chapters (adhyaya) divided into eight books called panchikas or "pentads," because containing five chapters each. That its last ten chapters were a later addition appears likely both from internal evidence and from the fact that the closely related cankhayana Brahmana contains nothing corresponding to their subject-matter, which is dealt with in the cankhayana Sutra. The last three books would further appear to have been composed at a later date than the first five, since the perfect in the former is used as a narrative tense, while in the latter it still has its original present force, as in the oldest Brahmanas. The essential part of this Brahmana deals with the soma sacrifice. It treats first (1-16) of the soma rite called Agnishtoma, which lasts one day, then (17-18) of that called Gavamayana, which lasts 360 days, and thirdly (19-24) of the Dvadacaha or "twelve days' rite." The next part (25-32), which is concerned with the Agnihotra or "fire sacrifice" and other matters, has the character of a supplement. The last portion (33-40), dealing with the ceremonies of the inauguration of the king and with the position of his domestic priest, bears similar signs of lateness.

The other Brahmana of the Rigveda, which goes by the name of Kaus.h.i.taki as well as cankhayana, consists of thirty chapters. Its subject-matter is, on the whole, the same as that of the original part of the Aitareya (i.-v.), but is wider. For in its opening chapters it goes through the setting up of the sacred fire (agni-adhana), the daily morning and evening sacrifice (agnihotra), the new and full moon ritual, and the four-monthly sacrifices. The Soma sacrifice, however, occupies the chief position even here. The more definite and methodical treatment of the ritual in the Kaus.h.i.taki would seem to indicate that this Brahmana was composed at a later date than the first five books of the Aitareya. Such a conclusion is, however, not altogether borne out by a comparison of the linguistic data of these two works. Professor Weber argues from the occurrence in one pa.s.sage of Icana and Mahadeva as designations of the G.o.d who was later exclusively called civa, that the Kaus.h.i.taki Brahmana was composed at about the same time as the latest books of the White Yajurveda and those parts of the Atharva-veda and of the catapatha Brahmana in which these appellations of the same G.o.d are found.

These Brahmanas contain very few geographical data. From the way, however, in which the Aitareya mentions the Indian tribes, it may be safely inferred that this work had its origin in the country of the Kuru-Panchalas, in which, as we have seen, the Vedic ritual must have been developed, and the hymns of the Rigveda were probably collected in the existing Samhita. From the Kaus.h.i.taki we learn that the study of language was specially cultivated in the north of India, and that students who returned from there were regarded as authorities on linguistic questions.

The chief human interest of these Brahmanas lies in the numerous myths and legends which they contain. The longest and most remarkable of those found in the Aitareya is the story of cunahcepa (Dog's-Tail), which forms the third chapter of Book VII. The childless King Haricchandra vowed, if he should have a son, to sacrifice him to Varuna. But when his son Rohita was born, he kept putting off the fulfilment of his promise. At length, when the boy was grown up, his father, pressed by Varuna, prepared to perform the sacrifice. Rohita, however, escaped to the forest, where he wandered for six years, while his father was afflicted with dropsy by Varuna. At last he fell in with a starving Brahman, who consented to sell to him for a hundred cows his son cunahcepa as a subst.i.tute. Varuna agreed, saying, "A Brahman is worth more than a Kshatriya." cunahcepa was accordingly bound to the stake, and the sacrifice was about to proceed, when the victim prayed to various G.o.ds in succession. As he repeated one verse after the other, the fetters of Varuna began to fall off and the dropsical swelling of the king to diminish, till finally cunahcepa was released and Haricchandra was restored to health again.

The style of the prose in which the Aitareya is composed is crude, clumsy, abrupt, and elliptical. The following quotation from the stanzas interspersed in the story of cunahcepa may serve as a specimen of the gathas found in the Brahmanas. These verses are addressed by a sage named Narada to King Haricchandra on the importance of having a son:--

In him a father pays a debt And reaches immortality, When he beholds the countenance Of a son born to him alive.

Than all the joy which living things In waters feel, in earth and fire, The happiness that in his son A father feels is greater far.

At all times fathers by a son Much darkness, too, have pa.s.sed beyond: In him the father's self is born, He wafts him to the other sh.o.r.e.

Food is man's life and clothes afford protection, Gold gives him beauty, marriages bring cattle; His wife's a friend, his daughter causes pity: A son is like a light in highest heaven.

To the Aitareya Brahmana belongs the Aitareya Aranyaka. It consists of eighteen chapters, distributed unequally among five books. The last two books are composed in the Sutra style, and are really to be regarded as belonging to the Sutra literature. Four parts can be clearly distinguished in the first three books. Book I. deals with various liturgies of the Soma sacrifice from a purely ritual point of view. The first three chapters of Book II., on the other hand, are theosophical in character, containing speculations about the world-soul under the names of Prana and Purusha. It is allied in matter to the Upanishads, some of its more valuable thoughts recurring, occasionally even word for word, in the Kaus.h.i.taki Upanishad. The third part consists of the remaining four sections of Book II., which form the regular Aitareya Upanishad. Finally, Book III. deals with the mystic and allegorical meaning of the three princ.i.p.al modes in which the Veda is recited in the Samhita, Pada and Krama Pathas, and of the various letters of the alphabet.

To the Kaus.h.i.taki Brahmana is attached the Kaus.h.i.taki Aranyaka. It consists of fifteen chapters. The first two of these correspond to Books I. and V. of the Aitareya Aranyaka, the seventh and eighth to Book III., while the intervening four chapters (3-6) form the Kaus.h.i.taki Upanishad. The latter is a long and very interesting Upanishad. It seems not improbably to have been added as an independent treatise to the completed Aranyaka, as it is not always found in the same part of the latter work in the ma.n.u.scripts.

Brahmanas belonging to two independent schools of the Samaveda have been preserved, those of the Tandins and of the Talavakaras or Jaiminiyas. Though several other works here claim the t.i.tle of ritual text-books, only three are in reality Brahmanas. The Brahmana of the Talavakaras, which for the most part is still unpublished, seems to consist of five books. The first three (unpublished) are mainly concerned with various parts of the sacrificial ceremonial. The fourth book, called the Upanishad Brahmana (probably "the Brahmana of mystic meanings"), besides all kinds of allegories of the Aranyaka order, two lists of teachers, a section about the origin of the vital airs (prana) and about the savitri stanza, contains the brief but important Kena Upanishad. Book V., ent.i.tled Arsheya-Brahmana, is a short enumeration of the composers of the Samaveda.

To the school of the Tandins belongs the Panchavimca ("twenty-five fold"), also called Tandya or Praudha, Brahmana, which, as the first name implies, consists of twenty-five books. It is concerned with the Soma sacrifices in general, ranging from the minor offerings to those which lasted a hundred days, or even several years. Besides many legends, it contains a minute description of sacrifices performed on the Sarasvati and Drishadvati. Though Kurukshetra is known to it, other geographical data which it contains point to the home of this Brahmana having lain farther east. Noteworthy among its contents are the so-called Vratya-Stomas, which are sacrifices meant to enable Aryan but non-Brahmanical Indians to enter the Brahmanical order. A point of interest in this Brahmana is the bitter hostility which it displays towards the school of the Kaus.h.i.takins. The Shadvimca Brahmana, though nominally an independent work, is in reality a supplement to the Panchavimca, of which, as its name implies, it forms the twenty-sixth book. The last of its six chapters is called the Adbhuta Brahmana, which is intended to obviate the evil effects of various extraordinary events or portents. Among such phenomena are mentioned images of the G.o.ds when they laugh, cry, sing, dance, perspire, crack, and so forth.

The other Brahmana of this school, the Chhandogya Brahmana, is only to a slight extent a ritual text-book. It does not deal with the Soma sacrifice at all, but only with ceremonies relating to birth and marriage or prayers addressed to divine beings. These are the contents of only the first two "lessons" of this Brahmana of the Sama theologians. The remaining eight lessons const.i.tute the Chhandogya Upanishad.

There are four other short works which, though bearing the name, are not really Brahmanas. These are the Samavidhana Brahmana, a treatise on the employment of chants for all kinds of superst.i.tious purposes; the Devatadhyaya Brahmana, containing some statements about the deities of the various chants of the Samaveda; the Vamca Brahmana, which furnishes a genealogy of the teachers of the Samaveda; and, finally, the Samhitopanishad, which, like the third book of the Aitareya Aranyaka, treats of the way in which the Veda should be recited.

The Brahmanas of the Samaveda are distinguished by the exaggerated and fantastic character of their mystical speculations. A prominent feature in them is the constant identification of various kinds of Samans or chants with all kinds of terrestrial and celestial objects. At the same time they contain much matter that is interesting from a historical point of view.

In the Black Yajurveda the prose portions of the various Samhitas form the only Brahmanas in the Katha and the Maitrayaniya schools. In the Taittiriya school they form the oldest and most important Brahmana. Here we have also the Taittiriya Brahmana as an independent work in three books. This, however, hardly differs in character from the Taittiriya Samhita, being rather a continuation. It forms a supplement concerned with a few sacrifices omitted in the Samhita, or handles, with greater fulness of detail, matters already dealt with. There is also a Taittiriya Aranyaka, which in its turn forms a supplement to the Brahmana. The last four of its ten sections const.i.tute the two Upanishads of this school, vii.-ix. forming the Taittiriya Upanishad, and x. the Maha-Narayana Upanishad, also called the Yajniki Upanishad. Excepting these four sections, the t.i.tle of Brahmana or Aranyaka does not indicate a difference of content as compared with the Samhita, but is due to late and artificial imitation of the other Vedas.