The extraordinary success of the doctrine
shows that it was in harmony with the spirit of the Indian people, and
suggests what is otherwise probable, that by the end of the period of the
Brāhmaṇas the influence of the Āryan strain was waning, and that the true
Indian character of the intellectual classes was definitely formed.
shows that it was in harmony with the spirit of the Indian people, and
suggests what is otherwise probable, that by the end of the period of the
Brāhmaṇas the influence of the Āryan strain was waning, and that the true
Indian character of the intellectual classes was definitely formed.
Cambridge History of India - v1
The use of
an ordeal in this connexion is attested only by the case of Vatsa who
proved his purity of descent, which was assailed, by walking unharmed
through fire. Presumably, civil cases might be decided by the king with
assessors ; but this view rests only on the analogy of other peoples and on
the later practice in India itself. We know for certain that a Brāhman had
preference in his law cases ; but whether because it was a moral duty of the
witnesses to bear testimony in his favour, or for the judges to give judgment
for him, cannot be decided from the passage of the Taittiriya Samhită
which records the preference. As regards the substance of the law we learn
the outlines of the law of succession : a father might in his lifetime divide
his property among his sons, in which case he seems to have had a free
hand as to their shares : if he grew old and helpless, they themselves might
divide it, while in the division among the sons on his death the older son
received the larger share. Women were excluded from the inheritance.
Similarly, a woman had no property of her own : if her husband died, she
passed to his family with the inheritance like the Attic epiklero8. Her earn-
ings, if any, were the property of husband or father. The Çūdra seems in
law to have been also without capacity of owning property in his own right.
As in the period of the Rigveda, there is no evidence of joint family owner-
ship of any property, even in the case of land, through, as we have seen,
land at this epoch was not considered a suitable form of gift. There is a
clear reference on the other hand to the allotment of land by the Kshatriya,
presumably in accordance with the customary law. There is no trace of
the development of the law of contract : much work was doubtless done
by slaves or by hereditary craftsmen who received customary remuneration
from the villagers, not payment for each piece of work.
On the whole,'there seems to have been some decline in this period
in the position of women : as has been seen, in one of the Sūtra texts her
wergeld is assimilated to that of a Çūdra and her lack of proprietary power
must have tended to decrease her prestige. The polygamy of the kings is
now fully established ; and, presumably, the practice of the sovereigns was
followed by the richer of their subjects. In a number of passages in the
Brāhmaṇas it has been sought to find proof that female morality was not
highly estimated ; but this cannot be established ; and it is a mistake to
suppose that the exposure of female children was practised. On the other
hand, the preference for sons becomes more and more pronounced : 'a
daughter is a source of misery, a son a light in the highest heaven. '
## p. 121 (#155) ############################################
V]
AGRICULTURE
121
.
>
Generally speaking, the increased complexity of society seems to have been
accompanied by an increase of crime and moral laxity, as appears from the
curious litany in the Yajurvedas where Rudra is hailed as the protector of
every kind of thief and ruffian.
In agriculture and pastoral pursuits progress was doubtless made.
The plough was large and heavy: we hear of as many as twenty-four
oxen being harnessed to one : it had a sharp point and a smoothed handle.
In addition to irrigation, which was known in the Rigveda, the use of
manure is referred to several times. In place of the indeterminate yava
of the Rigveda many kinds of grain are mentioned, and yiva is restricted,
in all probability, to the sense 'barley. Among those nemes are wheat,
beans, corn, sesamum from which oil was extracted, Panicum miliace um
frumentaceum, and italicum, Wrightia antidysenterica, Dalichos uniflorus,
Ervum hirsutum, Coix barbati, and various others. Rice, both domesticated
and wild, was much used. The seasons of the different grains are briefly
summed up in the Taittiriya Samhitā : barley, sown no doubt, as at present,
in winter, ripened in summer : rice, sown in the rains, ripened in autumn :
beans and sesamum, planted in the time of the summer rains, ripened in
the winter and the cold season. There were two seasons of harvest according
to the same authority and another text tells us that the winter crops were
ready in march. The farmer had, as now, constant troubles to contend with :
moles destroyed the seed, birds and other creatures injured the young shoots;
and both drought and excessive rain were to be feared ; the Atharvaveda
provides us with a considerable number of spells to avoid blight and secure a
goods harvest. Cucumbers are alluded to, perhaps as cultivated ; but there
is no certain reference to tree culture though frequent mention is made of the
great Indian trees like the Açvattha, the Ficus religiosa, and the Nyagrodha,
the Ficus indica, and the different forms of the jujube are specially named.
Even more striking is the great development of industrial life and
the sub-division of occupations. The list of victims at the symbolical
human sacrifice of the later texts of the Yajurveda provides us with a large
variety of such occupations ; and, after making all allowances, it is
impossible to doubt that the lists represent a good deal of fact. We hear
of hunters, of several classes of fishermen, of attendants on cattle, of fire-
rangers, of ploughers, of charioteers, of several classes of attendants, of
makers of jewels, basket-makers, washermen, rope-makers, dyers, chariot-
makers, barbers, weavers, slaughterers, workers in gold; cooks, sellers of
dried fish, makers of bows, gatherers of wood, doorkeepers, smelters,
footmen, messengers, carvers and seasoners of food, potters, smiths and so
forth. Professional acrobats are recorded, and players on drums and flutes.
Beside the boatman appears the oarsman, and the poleman ; but there is
still no hint of sea-borne commerce or of more than river navigation, though
## p. 122 (#156) ############################################
122
[CH.
LATER SAMHITAS, BRĀHMAŅAS, ETC.
we need not suppose that the sea was unknown, at least by hearsay, to the end
of the period. There is a trace of police officials in the Ugras who occur in
one passage of the Bțihadāraṇyaka Upanishad; and a Grāmyavādin or village
judge appears to have held a court for petty cases in the village. Among
the priests themselves, we find the sub-division of Chhandogas, the singers
of Sāmans, while the Charakas were wandering students, a special branch of
whom are said to have founded the schools of the Black Yajurveda. More-
over, in accordance with the tendency to sub-divide and formulate, the
life of the priest is now more rigidly regulated : he must pass as a
preliminary through the apprenticeship of being a Brahmachārin. In this
stage he is taught by a master, for whom in return he does all the necessary
work of the day and for whom he begs or otherwise provides food. Two
important features of later village life in India appears in the forms of the
astrologer and the barber. Of women's work we learn of the dyer, the
embroiderer, the worker in thorns, and the basket-maker. The merchant
is often mentioned, and the usurer has a special name : it is of interest that
the term Çreshțhin several times occurs, denoting at least a wealthy
merchant, and possibly already the word has its later technical sense of the
head of a merchant gild.
The advance of civilization is seen also in the more extended know.
ledge of the metals ; as compared with the gold and the ayas, of doubtful
meaning, of the Rigveda, this period knows tin, lead, and silver of which
ornamented bowls are made, while ayas is differentiated as red ayas,
presumably copper, and dark or black ayas, which must be iron. Another
sign of the new era is the definite references to the keeping of tame
elephants, the guarding of elephants being one of the occupations occurring
in the Yajurveda texts. But there is no hint that the elephant was yet used
for war as it was already in the time of Ctesias. The use of horses for riding
had certainly become more common; but no clear reference is made to the
employment of cavalry in war, though that was usual by the time of
Alexander's invasion.
Little change can be traced in the social life of the time. The use of
houses of wood continued ; and, as a result, we have not a single relic
remaining of the architecture of the period. Nor have we any coins : it is
not probable, indeed, that a regular coinage had begun though the path to
this development was already opened by the us of the krishnala, the berry
of the Abrus precatorius, as a unit of weight. We hear in the Brāhmaṇas
of the çatamāna, a piece of gold in weight equivalent to a hundred
krishnalas ; and such pieces of gold were clearly more or less equivalent to
currency and must have been used freely by the merchants, of whose
activities we hear so little in the sacred texts. The nishka, originally a gold
ornament, was also at this time a suit of value ; and the cow as a unit was
1
1
I
## p. 123 (#157) ############################################
V]
SOCIAL LIFE : MEDICINE
123
probably in course of supersession. The style of clothing seems to have
continued unchanged, though we hear more of the details ; among other -
things we are told of woollen garments, robes dyed with saffron, and
silk raiment. The food of the Indian remained unaltered : the eating
of meat is, indeed, here and there censured, as for instance in a hymn
of the Atharvaveda where meat eating is classed with the drinking of
the sura as a sinful act, and meat might be avoided like other things by
one who was keeping à vow. But it was still the custom to slay a
great ox or goat for the entertainment of a guest, and the great sage
Yājñavalkya ate meat of milch cows and oxen, provided that the
flesh was amsala, a word of doubtful import, rendered either ‘firm' or
'tender by various authorities. The doctrine of ahimsā, which forbids
the doing of injury to any animal, was indeed only in embryo in
this period, and was not fully developed until the growth of the belief in
transmigration came to strengthen the philosophic tenets of the Brāhmaṇas
to the unity of all existence. The amusements of the day were, as in the
period of the Rigveda, the chariot race, dicing, of which we have several
elaborate but not very clear accounts, and dancing. The term Çailūsha
appears in the list of victims at the human sacrifice, and the sense 'actor'
has been seen in it. Taken in conjunction with the dozen or so of hymns
which show a dialogue from it has been supposed to indicate that the
Rigveda knew of a ritual drama, the direct precursor of the drama of later
India. But the evidence adduced is insufficient to bear the strain of the
hypothesis.
In one respect there seems to have been a distinct retrogression since
the age of the Rigveda. In that Samhitā there is frequent mention of the
physician's skill, and wonderful deeds are ascribed to the Açvins as healers
of diseases. As early as the Yajurveda Samhitā, however, the physician
appears to be held in less esteem ; the Açvins were said to have made them-
selves inferior to the other gods by their practice of medicine, by which
they made themselves too familiar with all sorts of people. The
Atharva veda contains much which gives a sad picture of the medical
practice of the day : against the numerous diseases which it mentions it had
nothing better to oppose than the use of herbs and water accompanied by
strange spells, based on sympathetic magic. The number of diseases
recorded by differing names is large : the most frequent was fever, no doubt
the malaria which still haunts India ; and others mentioned are consump-
tion, haemorrhoids, abscesses, scrofula, dysentery, boils, swellings,
1. See von Schroeder, Mysterium und Mimus im Rigveda, Leipzig, 1908 ; Hertel,
V. 0. J. , vol. XVIII, pp. 59 sq. , 137 sq. , XXIII 273 sq. , XXVIV 117 sq. ; Winternitz,
V. 0. J. vol. XXIII, pp. 102 sq. ; Keith, J. R. A. S. , 1911, pp. 979-1009.
## p. 124 (#158) ############################################
124
[сн.
LATER SAMHITĀS, BRĀHMANAS, ETC.
1
tumours on the neck, convulsions, ulcers, scab, rheumatism, tearing
pains, headache, leprosy, jaundice, cramp, senility, and others less easy
to identify. Various eye diseases were known ; and the use of a sand bag
to stop bleeding is recorded. The dissection of the animal victims at the
sacrifices gave the opportunity to acquire knowledge of the bones of the
body', but on the whole the facts recorded, especially in the Atharvaveda
and the Çatapatha Brābmana, give us no very elevated opinion of the
accuracy of the Vedic physician in this regard.
On the other han l, a distinct advance was unquestionably made in
regard to astronomical knowledge. The Rigveda knows, only, so far as
we can see, the year of 360 days divided into twelve months of thirty days
each, which is six diys longer than the synodic lunar year, and nearly
five and a quarter days too short for the solar year. To bring the year into
something like order, intercalation seems to have been attempted quite
early : we hear in a riddle hymn of the Rigveda (I, 164) of the intercalary
month, the thirteenth. In the Sambitās the system is slightly more deve-
loped ; and possibly some efforts were being made to arrange intercalation
in a cycle of five years in such a manner that the years and the seasons
would be made to coincide ; but it is fairly clear that a satisfactory
method had not yet been obtained. The Samhitās, however, give us the
names of the twelve months arranged very artificially in six seasons and
they introduce to us the important doctrine of the Nakshatras, or Junar
mansions,' groups of stars selected as roughly indicating the parts of the
sky in which the moon appeared in the course of a periodic month of
27-38 days. In the Rigveda the term Nakshatra seems usually to mean no
more than 'star'; and it is only in the admittedly late marriage hymn
;
(x, 85) that the names of two of the Nakshatras proper are found though in
altered forms: The number of the Nakshatras is variously given as
twenty-seven in the Taittiriya Samhitā and the Kāthaka lists and usually
later, and as twenty-eight in the lists of the Maitrāyani Samhitā and the
Atharvaveda. As the periodic month has between 27 and 28 days, the
variation may be primitive : of the allied systems the Chinese Sieou and the
Arabic Manāzil have twenty-eight : the missing star Abhijit in the smaller
enumeration may have fallen out for a variety of causes ; and it seems
easier to assume this than to regard it as a latter addition. The use of the
Nakshatras offered a simple and effective means of fixing dates by the
conjunction of the new or full moon with a particular Nakshatra, and
in the Brähmana period a further step was taken : on some arbitrary
basis which we cannot now determine, twelve of the Nakshatra names in
adjectival form were chosen to represent the months. It might have been
expected that the months represented by these names would be lunar, but
they are, as a matter of fact, the twelve months of the traditional year of
1. See Hoernle, Osteology, Oxford, 1907.
1
1
## p. 125 (#159) ############################################
V]
LEGEND OF THE FLOOD
125
360 days. The whole series of the new names is not found until the Sūtra
period ; but the vitality of the new system is adequately proved by the
fact that the old series of twelve given in the Samhitās corresponding
to the six seasons is practically ignored in the later literature.
The origin of the Nakshatras has formed the subject of most lively
controversy; it is clear that the Vedic Indian knew very little about
astronomy, for it is extremely doubtful whether the planets were known at
all in the Brāhmaṇa period. But it is not impossible that, even at this
epoch, the Nakshatras could have been discovered, for the achievement is
a rude one. The question is, however, complicated by the exister ce of the
Arabian Manāzil and the Chinese Sieou. The Manāzil are better chosen
as lunar mansions than the Indian Nakshatras : borrowing on the part of
India from Arabia cannot be proved in view of the late date of the
Arabian evidence, while the superiority of the Arabian system seems to
make it improbable that it should have been derived from India. The
Chinese evidence is early enough to allow of borrowing: and the depend
ence of India on China has been maintained by Biot and de Saussure ;
but the difficulties in the way of this view are really insuperable. It
remains therefore as the most plausible view that the Nakshatras are
derived from Babylon, though direct proof of the existence of the
Nakshatras there has yet to be discovered.
Compared with the case of the Nakshatras there is little other
evidence of the contact of India with other civilisations in this period.
In the Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa for the first time there appears the legend of
the flood and the saving of Manu by a great fish ; and it is most unlikely
that we are to see here any reminiscence of the former Āryan home
and the crossing of the Hindu Kush. It is therefore possible that the
legend may be of Semitic origin ; but, if so, as usual the Indians have
completely appropriated the motive, so that the borrowing cannot be
proved. It has been suggested? that the knowledge of iron was derived
from Babylon : but this is merely a conjecture which has at present no
support in evidence. A sea-borne commerce with Babylon cannot be
proved for this epoch either by the evidence of Vedic literature or by the
references in the Book of Kings to a pes and peacocks by names which are
believed to have had an Indian origin. The history of the alpha bet has
been used by Bühler: to show that it wos borrowed by traders from a
1 This is held by Weber, Indische Studien, vol. I, pp, 163 sq. ; see Muir Original
Sanskrit Texts, vol. II, p, 323.
2 See Vincent Smith, Indian Antiquary, vol. XXXIV, p. 229 ; Imperial
Gazetteer, vol. II, p. 98.
3 Indische Palaeographie, pp. 17 sq. Bühler relied on references to sea trade in the
Sūtras (Baudhyanā, 1, 2, 4 ; II, 2, 2 ; Gautima, X. 33) and in the Jātakas and believed
these to be authorities for the sixth century B. C. ; see Indian Studies, no. III, pp. 15 sq.
But neither Sūtras nor Jātakas can be relied on for information regarding so early a date.
## p. 126 (#160) ############################################
126
[CH.
LATER SAMHITĀS BRĀHMĀŅAS, ETC.
South Semitic source via Mesopotamia about 800 B. C. ; but we cannot lay
any stress upon this date. It seems, indeed, most probable that writing
was introduced by traders and that it was only gradually adopted into
its proper form for the expression of the Sanskrit language. At what date
this took place is not really susceptible of proof : there is no certain
reference to writing in the literature of a date earlier than the fourth
century B. C. ; and the real development of writing belongs in all likelihood
to the fifth century B. C. It was the end of the sixth century that saw the
invasion of Darius and the annexation of the territory round the Indus;
and, prior to that event, there is no strong evidence of a really active
contact between India and the outer world. It is, indeed, probable
enough that even before the time of Darius, Cyrus had relations with the
tribes on the right bank of the Indus, and Arrian asserts that the Assakenoi
and the Astakenoi were subject to the Assyrian kings'; but everything
points to the fact that, in the period of the Brāhmaṇas, relations with the
Gandhāras and other tribes in the remote north-west were very slight.
It is also significant that there is no really certain case of inscription of
any sort in India before the third century B. c.
The development in religion and philosophy in the period is remark-
able. The ritual has grown to very large proportions; and with the ritual
the number of the priests required at a sacrifice had increased until sixteen
or seventeen are enumerated as taking part in the more important offerings
The mere offerings of vegetable food and milk are comparatively unimport-
ant; but the animal sacrifice is increasingly elaborated, and the Soma
sacrifice has developed largely. In addition to the simplest form of the Soma
sacrifice occupying one day, there are innumerable other forms culminating
in the Sattras which might last any time from twelve days to a year or years
It is significant that, at the bottom of this priestly elaboration, is much really
popular religion. Thus the Rājasūya, or loyal consecration, is funda-
mentally a popular rite for the anointing of the king: the l'ājapeya betrays
a popular origin in the prominence in it of a chariot race, once probably
the main element; the Gayāmayana, a Sattra lasting a year, is distinguished
by the ritual of the Mahāvrata day in which long since was recognised a
primitive performance celebrating the winter solstice. The horse-sacrifice is
at bottom the elaboration of a simple rite of sympathetic magic; but it has
been so elaborated as to combine everything which could make an appeal
to the warrior Indian king and induce him to distribute abundant largesse
on the celebrators. But beside these and other popular festivals, which the
priests have worked over, stands one of the highest interests to the pri st,
which seems to reflect a new conception of theology. It is building of the
See Duff, Chronology of India, p. 5; Arrian, Indici, I, 3 (trans. M Crindle,
I
!
:
1
p. 179).
Vincent Smith, Early History of India, p. 16.
## p. 127 (#161) ############################################
V]
PHILOSOPHY OF EXISTENCE
127
altar for the sacred fire ; in one sense no doubt this was an ancient and
simple rite, accompanied as so often by the slaying of a man in order to
secure the abiding character of the structure : the Brāhmaṇa texts avoid
requiring any such actual slaughter, though they record it as a deed of the
past ; but they elaborate the building out of all reason and utility. The
only explanation of this action must he that offered by Eggeling, that, in
the building up of the fire alter, the Brāhmans sought to symbolise the
constitution of the unity of the universe. As we have seen, in the Purusha
hymn of the Rigveda occurs the conception of the creation of the universe
from the Purusha, and in the theology of the Brābmaņas the Purusha is
indentified with Prajāpati, 'lord of creātures,' and the sacrifice is conceived
as constantly recurring in order to maintain the existence of the universe.
To render this possible is the end of fire altar, the building of which is the
reconstruction of the universe in the shape of Prajāpati. Prajāpati, again,
is identified with Agni, the fire of the altar, and both Prajāpati and Agni
are the divine counterparts of the human sacrificer. But Prajāpati is him.
self Time, and Time is in the long run death, so that the sacrificer himself
becomes death, and by that act rises superior to death, and is for ever
removed from the world of illusion and trouble to the world of everlasting
bliss. In this the true nature of Pajāpati and of the sacrificer is revealed
as intelligence, and the Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa urges the seeker for truth to
meditate upon the self, made upof intelligence and endowed with a body of
spirit, a form of light and an ethereal nature.
The same doctrine appears in another form in the Upanishads which
are engaged with the discussion of the underlying reality. They agree in
this that all reality in the ultimate issue must be reduced to one, called
variously brahman, 'the holi power,' or ātman, 'the self'. Moreover, the
Upanishads agree in regarding the absolute to be unknownable, and though
they ascribe to it intelligence they deprive that term of meaning by emptying
it of all thought. If the real is the absolute alone, the existence of the
appearance of this world must be explained ; but naturally enough the
Upanishads do not successfully attempt this task ; and it was not until the
time of Çankarāchārya in the beginning of the ninth century A. D. that it
was found possible to reconcile the doctrines of the different texts by the
view that all existence is merely illusion. This is perhaps a logical develop-
ment of the doctrine of the Upanishads ; but the Upanishads were groping
after truth and did not attempt to deduce all the consequences of their
guesses at the nature of reality.
There was one consequence which followed so clearly from the new
conception of existence that it is enunciated, though not very decidedly,
in the Brihadāraṇyaka Upanishad, namely that there was no consciousness
after death in the case of him who realised the true nature of the self as in-
telligence without thought. But this conception plays a very small part in
See Sacred Books of the East, vol. XLIII, pp. xiv ,xxiv.
## p. 128 (#162) ############################################
128
[сн.
LATER SAMHITĀS, BRAHMAŅAS, ETC.
the texts compared with the new theory of transmigration. There is no
real sign of this doctrine in the Brāhmaṇas proper, but there is certain
amount of preparation for its appearance in the gradual, development of the
doctrine that not even after death is the horror of death ended : a man may
die repeated deaths in the next world. If conception be transferred to the
present world, then the doctrine of transmigration is produced, and in the
Upanishads this doctrine is clearly and expressly enunciated. The
Chhāndogya and Brihadāraṇyaka agree in the main outlines of the new
belief: the forest ascetic who has realised the nature of Brahman after death
goes by the way of the gods to be absorbed in brahman and never again to
be born : the man who has done good deeds but has not attained the sav.
:
ing knowledge goes to the world of the moon tɔ reside there until the fruit
of his deeds is exhausted, when he is born against first as a plant and then
as man or at once as a man : the wicked on the contrary are born as out-
casts, dogs or swine, according to the Chhāndogya, as birds, beasts, and rep-
tiles according to the Brihadāroņayaka. There is a variant version on the
Kaushitaki which makes all first go to the moon ; but the assential point
is the acceptance as a matter of certainty of the new doctrine of transmi-
gration. The Brihadāraṇyaka also has an important addition to the doctrine
in the form of the gospel of karman'action,' which is determines on a man's
death the nature of his next birth. In the Buddhist view the idea recurs
in the simple form that the self, which is recognised as persisting through
transmigration by the Brāhman, is discarded as needless and the karman
alone is asserted to possess reality.
The origin of this doctrine may have been helped by the widely
prevalent view among tribes of animists that the souls on death or even in
life can pass into other forms, animal or vegetable. We have seen that in
the Rigveda in one hymn the soul is regarded as going to the waters of the
plants ; we have no reason to doubt that such ide us were prevalent
among the aboriginal tribes with which the Āryans mixed. But these vague
ideas are totally inadequate to account for the belief in transmigration, and
the theory must, it would seem, have been a discovery of the schools of
seekers after the nature of truth, who arrived at it on the one side from
the popular beliefs of the peoples among whom they lived, and on the other
from the conception of the Brāhmaṇas that death could be repeated in the
other world. The doctrine led directly to pessimism, but the Upanishads
are not themselves pessimistic ; and we obtain thus a valuable evidence of
their priority to the rise of Buddhism, which is saturated with the doctrine
of the misery of the universe.
The extraordinary success of the doctrine
shows that it was in harmony with the spirit of the Indian people, and
suggests what is otherwise probable, that by the end of the period of the
Brāhmaṇas the influence of the Āryan strain was waning, and that the true
Indian character of the intellectual classes was definitely formed.
## p. 129 (#163) ############################################
V]
RUDRA AND VISHNU
129
As we have already seen, the tradition makes kings take part in the
discussions which marked the formation of the doctrine of the absolute, and
even hints that the doctrine was in some way a special tenet of the ruling class ;
but it is doubtful if we can accord full credit to this tradition, or believe
that the brahman doctrine was the reaction of the noble class against the
excessive devotion of the priests to the ritual'. Policy adequately explains
the part assigned to them by the Brāhmans, whose aim it was to make their
patrons appreciate that their researches were such as to deserve support.
Parallel with the development of philosophy there was proceeding the
movement which leads to the religions of modern India, the exaltation of
Rudra and in a minor degree of Vishņu to the position of a great god.
Prajāpati is indeed the main subject of the theosophical speculation of the
Brāhmaṇa texts, a purpose to which his name as 'lord of creatures'
especially lent itself; but Prajāpati had no claims to be a god of the
people, and the position of Rudra as a popular deity is sufficiently shown
by the litanies to him in the Sanhitās of the Yajurveda, and by the whole
outlook of such texts as the Aitareya, Kaushitaki, and Çata patha
Brāhmaṇas. When Prajāpati committed incest with his daughter, the
Aitareya tells us that the gods were wroth, and from their most dread forms
produced the god Bhūta pati, ‘lord of creatures,' who represents one aspect
of Rudra's activities. ' He pierced Prajāpati and thereby acquired his
dominion over all cattle. In another passage the wording of a Rigvedic
verse is altered to avoid the mention of Rudra's dread name : in yet another
he appears at the sacrifice in black raiment and appropriates to himself the
sacrificial victim. We need not suppose that in this presentation the
Brāhmaṇas were creating a new-figure : rather they were adapting to their
system, as far as they could, a great god of the people. But the Rudra of
this period can hardly be regarded as a mere development of the Rudra of
the Rigveda : it seems most probable that with the Vedic Rudra is amalga-
mated an aboriginal god of vegetation, closely connected with pastoral life.
Vishņu cannot be said to have won any such assured place as Rudra,
who is already hailed as the 'great god' par excellence, and already bears
the name of Çiva, ‘propitious,' which is to be his final appellation. But the
constant identification of Vishņu and the sacrifice is, in view of the extra-
ordinary importance attached to the sacrifice by the Brāhmans, a sure sign
that he counted for much in Vedic life, and that he shared with Rudra the
veneration of the people, who may in different localities have been the
followers of one or the other god respectively. For the rest, while we now
1 The tradition is accepted by Garbe, Beiträge zur indischen Kulturgeschichte,
pp. 1 sq. ; Deussen, Philosophy of the Upanishads, pp. 17 sq. ; Rhys Davids, Buddhist
India, pp. 256. 7. See also Chapter XI, Its validity is doubted by Bloomfield,
Religion of the Veda, pp. 218 sq. ; Oldenberg Buddhas, p. 73 ; Keith J. R. A. S. , 1908,
pp. 868-72.
## p. 130 (#164) ############################################
130
(ch.
LATER SAMHITĀS, BRAHMĀNAS, ETC.
obtain many details of the lower side of the religion in the spells of the
Atharvaveda, the pantheon of the Rigveda remains uualtered sare in such
minor aspects as the new prominence of the Apsarasas, the niechanical
opposition of the gods and the Asuras, and the rise of snake worship,
which seems to have been due to the imitation of the aboriginal tribes. On
the other hand, the attitude of the priests to the gods as revealed in the
sacrifice has lost whatever it had of spontaneity and simple piety. It is no
doubt possible to exaggerate these qualities even in the earlier hymns of the
Rigveda ; but their abeence in the later Samhitās is unquestionable. The
theory of sacrifice is bluntly do ut des ; and even in that theory the sacri-
ficers had so little trust that the whole sacrificial apparatus is dominated by
sympathetic magic. So convinced is the priest of his powers in this regard
that the texts explain that he can ruin as he pleases, by errors in the
sacrifice deliberately committed, the patron for whom he is acting, and in
whose interest he is presumed to be at work. It is a sordid picture ; and,
as we have seen, higher spirits turned away from a hocus pocus, which they
must have despised as heartily as any Buddhist, to the interpretation of
the reality underlying phenomena. Yet it is characteristic of the Indian
genius that, though it evolved views which must have rendered all the
sacrificial technique logically of no avail, it made no effort to break with
the sacrifice which was allowed to stand as a preliminary towards the at-
tainment of that enlightenment which the priests professed to impart.
The language of the Samhitās in their verse portions is similar to that
of the Rigveda, especially in the tenth book and in the later additions to
the other books. The language of the prose represents the speech of the
Brāhman schools of the day: it differs from that of the verse by the
removal of abnormalities, and by much greater precision shown, for example,
in the exact use of the tenses, the 'narrative perfect being at first carefully
eschewed and by the disappearance, except in a narrow sphere, of the use
of the unaugmented past tenses of the verb with modal meaning. There
seems in one passage of the Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa to be a curious ad-
mission that other tribes had not preserved the purity of the Vedic speech.
the Asuras are credited in that text with the utterance of the words he'lavo,
which may be interpreted he ’raya! ! Ho! ye foes ! ,' and, if so, can be
explained as Prākrit forms. Similarly, as we have already seen, the
Vrātyas are described as regarding the Vedic speech as difficult to pro-
nounce, no doubt because of its conjunct consonants which the Prakrits
avoid. In both cases the reference is probably to tribes of the Magadha
country, and the Māgadhi Prakrit is marked by both the points alluded
tol. There are also signs of this corruption of the language through the
contact with the aborigines in the fact that in the spells of the Atharvaveda
1 Grierson, Z. D. A. G. , vol. LXVI, p. 66, thinks that Paicāchi, a dialect of north.
west India, is meant , but see l'edic Index, vol. II, p. 517.
## p. 131 (#165) ############################################
V]
CRITERIA OF DATE
131
are found several forms which can only be accounted for as Prākritisms.
Beyond these generalities we cannot affect to estimate how far the process
of the transformation of the language in the popular speech had gone: the
earliest foreign evidence, that from the Greek records, shows that many
names were reported by Megasthenes and others in Prākrit form; and, in
the middle of the third century B. C. , the inscriptions of Açoka are all
written in Prākrit dialects varying considerably in detail from one
another. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that beside the language
of the Brāhman schools, there existed more popular forms of speech ; but
everything points to the fact that the deeds of princes were still sung in a
language of the same form as the priestly speech. In metre a significant
change can be seen : the later hymns exhibit, when written in the eight
syllable metre, a distinct tendency to be composed of stanzas in which the
four lines are no longer independent in structure, but the first and third and
the second and fourth respectively are assimilated. The latter pair is made
to end with a definite iambic cadence, while the first and third on the
contrary are made to end with an iambus followed by a trochee, thus pro-
ducing an effect of contrast and setting a gulf between the old and the new
form of versification. This new form is far from being exclusively employ-
ed even in the latest versification of the period, but in the epic it is firmly
established, and the variants reduced to narrow limits'.
Interesting as are the Samhitās and the Brāhmaṇas from the point of
view of the history of civilisation and religion, as literature they are hardly
ever of substantial value. Much of the speculation of the Brāhmaṇs is
utterly puerile and seems to be the product of a decadent intellect. On the
other hand, the real interest of the Upanishads is undeniable: these pri-
mitive philosophical fragments exhibit a genuine spirit of enquiry, and here
and there do not fail to rise tu real dignity and impressiveness.
For the date of the epoch of the Brāhmaṇas we are again thrown
back on those considerations of literary and social development which we
have found to be the sole trustworthy criteria for the dating of the epoch
of the Rigveda. The lower limit is given by the fact that Buddhism accepts
from the Upanishads the doctrines of transmigration and pessimism, the
latter of which had been developed as a doctrine of obvious validity from
the facts of transmigration. Other indications, such as the want of any
trace of the knowledge of writing, show that we cannot legitimately carry
the Upanishads of the older type later than 550 or perhaps more probably
600 B. c. The fixing of the language which is posterior to the Brāhmaṇas
may be dated at latest at 300 B. C. ; and the earlier Sūtras probably go
back to at least 400 B. C. and very possibly earlier. These are important
See Oldenberg, Z. D. M. G. , vol. XXXVII, pp. 67 sq. ; Sacred Bcoks of the East,
vol. XXX, pp. XXXV sq. ; G. 1909 pp. 219 sq. ; Hopkins, Great Epic of India,
pp. 194 sq. ; Jacobi, Indische Studien, vol. XVII, pp. 442 sq. ; Keith, J. R. A. S. , 1906,
pp. 1-10 ; 1912, pp. 757 sq.
1
## p. 132 (#166) ############################################
132
[CH.
LATER SAMHITĀS, BRĀHMANAS, ETC.
considerations and their cumulative effect is harmonious and practically
decisive of an early date for the civilisation which has been described.
On considerations of probable development, the beginning of the Brāhmaṇa
period may fairly be put back to 800 B. C.
As with the Rigveda, attempts have been made to show that these
dates are much too low and that astronomical data enable us to carry the
Brāhmaṇas much further back. The lists of the Nakshatraz all begin with
Kſittikās, and we know that in the sixth century A. D. the constellation
which then headed the Nakshatras was chosen because the vernal equinox
took place when the sun was in conjunction with that Nakshatra. From
the precession of the equinoxes, we are enabled to arrive at the conclusion
that the position of Krittikās at the vernal equinox must have taken place
in the third millennium B. C. This has been supported by a passage in the
Çata patha Brābmaņa where it is said that Kțittikās did not more from the
eastern quarter at that time. But we have no evidence whatever to connect
the sun and the Nakshatras at this period, and the notice regarding the
position of Krittikās cannot be taken seriously in a work which shows so little
power of scientific observation of facts as the Çatapatha. Moreover if,
as it is probable, the Nakshatra system was borrowed ready made, we can-
not even conjecture for what reason Kſittikas was placed first. More
promising is a definite notice contained in the Kaushitaki Brāhamna and
repeated in the Jyotisha, a late Vedic work on astronomy, if indeed it can
be dignified with this title, that the winter solstice took place at the new
moon in Magbās. From this datum results varying from 1391-1181 B. C.
were early deduced by different investigators ; but these conclusions can
claim no scientific value, as they rest on assumptions as to the exact mean-
ing of the passage which cannot be justified. The possible margin of error
in the calculations is at least five hundred years; and we are therefore
reduced to the view that this evidence only indicates that the observation
which is recorded was made some centuries B. C. The same conclusion can
be drawn from the fact that in quite a number of places the month
Phālguna is called the beginning of the year. In the view of Jacobi, this
shows that the year began with the winter solstice at full moon in Phalguni,
and thus would correspond with his view that in the Rigveda the sun at
the summer solstice was in Uttara-Phalguni. But, in this case also, the
result is unacceptable ; for it is nowhere stated that the beginning of the
year was dated from the winter solstice. The most probable explanation
is that the full moon in Phalguni was deemed to be the beginning of the
year, because it marked, at the time when it was so termed, the beginning
of spring. Since the new moon in Maghā was at the winter solstice, the
full moon in Phalguni would fall about a month and a half later in the first
week of February, which is compatible with Feb. 7, the Veris initium in the
Reman calendar, and which is a perfectly possible date for about 800 B. C. ,
## p. 133 (#167) ############################################
V]
ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCE
133
especially when it is remembered that the division of the year into three
periods of four months was always a rough one, and the beginning of spring
had to be placed early so as to allow of the rains, which are definitely
marked out by the fall of the first rain, to fill the period from about June 7
to October 7. With this explanation the theory, that the mention of the
full moon in Phalguni as the beginning of the year records an observation
of the fourth millennium B. C. , disappears, and still more the theory that the
mention of the month Chaitra as the beginning of the year carries us back
to the sixth nuillennium. Nor can any more trust be put in the argument
that the mention in the late marriage ritual of the Dhruva, a fixed star
shown to the bride and bridegroom as a symbol of constancy, points to an
observation made at a period when there was a real fixed pole star, i. e. in
the third millennium B. C. We do not even know whether this part of the
rite goes back to the period of the Brāhmaṇas ; and, even if it did, for so
little scientific a purpose there was no need of anything save a fairly bright
star not too distant from the pole. Ingenious therefore as all these argu-
ments are, they must be dismissed as affording no real certainty of correct-
ness. The most that can be said is that they tend to support the period
800-600 B. C. as a reasonable date for the period of the civilisation of the
Brāhmaṇas. 1
1 The main supporters of the astronomical arguments are Jacobi, Z. D. M. G. ,
vol. XLIX, pp. 218 sq. ; L, pp. 69 sq. ; J. R. A. S. , 1909 ; pp, 721-6 ; 1910, pp. 460. 4 ;
Tilak, Orion, Bombay, 1893 ; The Arctic Home in the Vedas, Bombay, 1903. On the
other side, see Oldenberg Z. D. M. G. , vol. XLVIII, pp. 629 sq. ; XLIX, pp. 470, sq. ;
L, pp. 450 sq. ; J. R. A. S. 1909, pp. 1095 sq. ; Thibaut, Indian Antiquary, vol. XXIV,
pp. 85 sq. ; Whitney, J. A. 0. 5, vol. XVI; pp. Ixxxii sq. ; Keith, J. R. A. S. , 1909,
pp, 1100 sq. ; 1910, pp 464-6. On the origin of the Nakshatras, see de Saussure,
T’oung Pao, ! 909, pp. 121 sq. , 225 sp. ; Oldenberg, G. G.
an ordeal in this connexion is attested only by the case of Vatsa who
proved his purity of descent, which was assailed, by walking unharmed
through fire. Presumably, civil cases might be decided by the king with
assessors ; but this view rests only on the analogy of other peoples and on
the later practice in India itself. We know for certain that a Brāhman had
preference in his law cases ; but whether because it was a moral duty of the
witnesses to bear testimony in his favour, or for the judges to give judgment
for him, cannot be decided from the passage of the Taittiriya Samhită
which records the preference. As regards the substance of the law we learn
the outlines of the law of succession : a father might in his lifetime divide
his property among his sons, in which case he seems to have had a free
hand as to their shares : if he grew old and helpless, they themselves might
divide it, while in the division among the sons on his death the older son
received the larger share. Women were excluded from the inheritance.
Similarly, a woman had no property of her own : if her husband died, she
passed to his family with the inheritance like the Attic epiklero8. Her earn-
ings, if any, were the property of husband or father. The Çūdra seems in
law to have been also without capacity of owning property in his own right.
As in the period of the Rigveda, there is no evidence of joint family owner-
ship of any property, even in the case of land, through, as we have seen,
land at this epoch was not considered a suitable form of gift. There is a
clear reference on the other hand to the allotment of land by the Kshatriya,
presumably in accordance with the customary law. There is no trace of
the development of the law of contract : much work was doubtless done
by slaves or by hereditary craftsmen who received customary remuneration
from the villagers, not payment for each piece of work.
On the whole,'there seems to have been some decline in this period
in the position of women : as has been seen, in one of the Sūtra texts her
wergeld is assimilated to that of a Çūdra and her lack of proprietary power
must have tended to decrease her prestige. The polygamy of the kings is
now fully established ; and, presumably, the practice of the sovereigns was
followed by the richer of their subjects. In a number of passages in the
Brāhmaṇas it has been sought to find proof that female morality was not
highly estimated ; but this cannot be established ; and it is a mistake to
suppose that the exposure of female children was practised. On the other
hand, the preference for sons becomes more and more pronounced : 'a
daughter is a source of misery, a son a light in the highest heaven. '
## p. 121 (#155) ############################################
V]
AGRICULTURE
121
.
>
Generally speaking, the increased complexity of society seems to have been
accompanied by an increase of crime and moral laxity, as appears from the
curious litany in the Yajurvedas where Rudra is hailed as the protector of
every kind of thief and ruffian.
In agriculture and pastoral pursuits progress was doubtless made.
The plough was large and heavy: we hear of as many as twenty-four
oxen being harnessed to one : it had a sharp point and a smoothed handle.
In addition to irrigation, which was known in the Rigveda, the use of
manure is referred to several times. In place of the indeterminate yava
of the Rigveda many kinds of grain are mentioned, and yiva is restricted,
in all probability, to the sense 'barley. Among those nemes are wheat,
beans, corn, sesamum from which oil was extracted, Panicum miliace um
frumentaceum, and italicum, Wrightia antidysenterica, Dalichos uniflorus,
Ervum hirsutum, Coix barbati, and various others. Rice, both domesticated
and wild, was much used. The seasons of the different grains are briefly
summed up in the Taittiriya Samhitā : barley, sown no doubt, as at present,
in winter, ripened in summer : rice, sown in the rains, ripened in autumn :
beans and sesamum, planted in the time of the summer rains, ripened in
the winter and the cold season. There were two seasons of harvest according
to the same authority and another text tells us that the winter crops were
ready in march. The farmer had, as now, constant troubles to contend with :
moles destroyed the seed, birds and other creatures injured the young shoots;
and both drought and excessive rain were to be feared ; the Atharvaveda
provides us with a considerable number of spells to avoid blight and secure a
goods harvest. Cucumbers are alluded to, perhaps as cultivated ; but there
is no certain reference to tree culture though frequent mention is made of the
great Indian trees like the Açvattha, the Ficus religiosa, and the Nyagrodha,
the Ficus indica, and the different forms of the jujube are specially named.
Even more striking is the great development of industrial life and
the sub-division of occupations. The list of victims at the symbolical
human sacrifice of the later texts of the Yajurveda provides us with a large
variety of such occupations ; and, after making all allowances, it is
impossible to doubt that the lists represent a good deal of fact. We hear
of hunters, of several classes of fishermen, of attendants on cattle, of fire-
rangers, of ploughers, of charioteers, of several classes of attendants, of
makers of jewels, basket-makers, washermen, rope-makers, dyers, chariot-
makers, barbers, weavers, slaughterers, workers in gold; cooks, sellers of
dried fish, makers of bows, gatherers of wood, doorkeepers, smelters,
footmen, messengers, carvers and seasoners of food, potters, smiths and so
forth. Professional acrobats are recorded, and players on drums and flutes.
Beside the boatman appears the oarsman, and the poleman ; but there is
still no hint of sea-borne commerce or of more than river navigation, though
## p. 122 (#156) ############################################
122
[CH.
LATER SAMHITAS, BRĀHMAŅAS, ETC.
we need not suppose that the sea was unknown, at least by hearsay, to the end
of the period. There is a trace of police officials in the Ugras who occur in
one passage of the Bțihadāraṇyaka Upanishad; and a Grāmyavādin or village
judge appears to have held a court for petty cases in the village. Among
the priests themselves, we find the sub-division of Chhandogas, the singers
of Sāmans, while the Charakas were wandering students, a special branch of
whom are said to have founded the schools of the Black Yajurveda. More-
over, in accordance with the tendency to sub-divide and formulate, the
life of the priest is now more rigidly regulated : he must pass as a
preliminary through the apprenticeship of being a Brahmachārin. In this
stage he is taught by a master, for whom in return he does all the necessary
work of the day and for whom he begs or otherwise provides food. Two
important features of later village life in India appears in the forms of the
astrologer and the barber. Of women's work we learn of the dyer, the
embroiderer, the worker in thorns, and the basket-maker. The merchant
is often mentioned, and the usurer has a special name : it is of interest that
the term Çreshțhin several times occurs, denoting at least a wealthy
merchant, and possibly already the word has its later technical sense of the
head of a merchant gild.
The advance of civilization is seen also in the more extended know.
ledge of the metals ; as compared with the gold and the ayas, of doubtful
meaning, of the Rigveda, this period knows tin, lead, and silver of which
ornamented bowls are made, while ayas is differentiated as red ayas,
presumably copper, and dark or black ayas, which must be iron. Another
sign of the new era is the definite references to the keeping of tame
elephants, the guarding of elephants being one of the occupations occurring
in the Yajurveda texts. But there is no hint that the elephant was yet used
for war as it was already in the time of Ctesias. The use of horses for riding
had certainly become more common; but no clear reference is made to the
employment of cavalry in war, though that was usual by the time of
Alexander's invasion.
Little change can be traced in the social life of the time. The use of
houses of wood continued ; and, as a result, we have not a single relic
remaining of the architecture of the period. Nor have we any coins : it is
not probable, indeed, that a regular coinage had begun though the path to
this development was already opened by the us of the krishnala, the berry
of the Abrus precatorius, as a unit of weight. We hear in the Brāhmaṇas
of the çatamāna, a piece of gold in weight equivalent to a hundred
krishnalas ; and such pieces of gold were clearly more or less equivalent to
currency and must have been used freely by the merchants, of whose
activities we hear so little in the sacred texts. The nishka, originally a gold
ornament, was also at this time a suit of value ; and the cow as a unit was
1
1
I
## p. 123 (#157) ############################################
V]
SOCIAL LIFE : MEDICINE
123
probably in course of supersession. The style of clothing seems to have
continued unchanged, though we hear more of the details ; among other -
things we are told of woollen garments, robes dyed with saffron, and
silk raiment. The food of the Indian remained unaltered : the eating
of meat is, indeed, here and there censured, as for instance in a hymn
of the Atharvaveda where meat eating is classed with the drinking of
the sura as a sinful act, and meat might be avoided like other things by
one who was keeping à vow. But it was still the custom to slay a
great ox or goat for the entertainment of a guest, and the great sage
Yājñavalkya ate meat of milch cows and oxen, provided that the
flesh was amsala, a word of doubtful import, rendered either ‘firm' or
'tender by various authorities. The doctrine of ahimsā, which forbids
the doing of injury to any animal, was indeed only in embryo in
this period, and was not fully developed until the growth of the belief in
transmigration came to strengthen the philosophic tenets of the Brāhmaṇas
to the unity of all existence. The amusements of the day were, as in the
period of the Rigveda, the chariot race, dicing, of which we have several
elaborate but not very clear accounts, and dancing. The term Çailūsha
appears in the list of victims at the human sacrifice, and the sense 'actor'
has been seen in it. Taken in conjunction with the dozen or so of hymns
which show a dialogue from it has been supposed to indicate that the
Rigveda knew of a ritual drama, the direct precursor of the drama of later
India. But the evidence adduced is insufficient to bear the strain of the
hypothesis.
In one respect there seems to have been a distinct retrogression since
the age of the Rigveda. In that Samhitā there is frequent mention of the
physician's skill, and wonderful deeds are ascribed to the Açvins as healers
of diseases. As early as the Yajurveda Samhitā, however, the physician
appears to be held in less esteem ; the Açvins were said to have made them-
selves inferior to the other gods by their practice of medicine, by which
they made themselves too familiar with all sorts of people. The
Atharva veda contains much which gives a sad picture of the medical
practice of the day : against the numerous diseases which it mentions it had
nothing better to oppose than the use of herbs and water accompanied by
strange spells, based on sympathetic magic. The number of diseases
recorded by differing names is large : the most frequent was fever, no doubt
the malaria which still haunts India ; and others mentioned are consump-
tion, haemorrhoids, abscesses, scrofula, dysentery, boils, swellings,
1. See von Schroeder, Mysterium und Mimus im Rigveda, Leipzig, 1908 ; Hertel,
V. 0. J. , vol. XVIII, pp. 59 sq. , 137 sq. , XXIII 273 sq. , XXVIV 117 sq. ; Winternitz,
V. 0. J. vol. XXIII, pp. 102 sq. ; Keith, J. R. A. S. , 1911, pp. 979-1009.
## p. 124 (#158) ############################################
124
[сн.
LATER SAMHITĀS, BRĀHMANAS, ETC.
1
tumours on the neck, convulsions, ulcers, scab, rheumatism, tearing
pains, headache, leprosy, jaundice, cramp, senility, and others less easy
to identify. Various eye diseases were known ; and the use of a sand bag
to stop bleeding is recorded. The dissection of the animal victims at the
sacrifices gave the opportunity to acquire knowledge of the bones of the
body', but on the whole the facts recorded, especially in the Atharvaveda
and the Çatapatha Brābmana, give us no very elevated opinion of the
accuracy of the Vedic physician in this regard.
On the other han l, a distinct advance was unquestionably made in
regard to astronomical knowledge. The Rigveda knows, only, so far as
we can see, the year of 360 days divided into twelve months of thirty days
each, which is six diys longer than the synodic lunar year, and nearly
five and a quarter days too short for the solar year. To bring the year into
something like order, intercalation seems to have been attempted quite
early : we hear in a riddle hymn of the Rigveda (I, 164) of the intercalary
month, the thirteenth. In the Sambitās the system is slightly more deve-
loped ; and possibly some efforts were being made to arrange intercalation
in a cycle of five years in such a manner that the years and the seasons
would be made to coincide ; but it is fairly clear that a satisfactory
method had not yet been obtained. The Samhitās, however, give us the
names of the twelve months arranged very artificially in six seasons and
they introduce to us the important doctrine of the Nakshatras, or Junar
mansions,' groups of stars selected as roughly indicating the parts of the
sky in which the moon appeared in the course of a periodic month of
27-38 days. In the Rigveda the term Nakshatra seems usually to mean no
more than 'star'; and it is only in the admittedly late marriage hymn
;
(x, 85) that the names of two of the Nakshatras proper are found though in
altered forms: The number of the Nakshatras is variously given as
twenty-seven in the Taittiriya Samhitā and the Kāthaka lists and usually
later, and as twenty-eight in the lists of the Maitrāyani Samhitā and the
Atharvaveda. As the periodic month has between 27 and 28 days, the
variation may be primitive : of the allied systems the Chinese Sieou and the
Arabic Manāzil have twenty-eight : the missing star Abhijit in the smaller
enumeration may have fallen out for a variety of causes ; and it seems
easier to assume this than to regard it as a latter addition. The use of the
Nakshatras offered a simple and effective means of fixing dates by the
conjunction of the new or full moon with a particular Nakshatra, and
in the Brähmana period a further step was taken : on some arbitrary
basis which we cannot now determine, twelve of the Nakshatra names in
adjectival form were chosen to represent the months. It might have been
expected that the months represented by these names would be lunar, but
they are, as a matter of fact, the twelve months of the traditional year of
1. See Hoernle, Osteology, Oxford, 1907.
1
1
## p. 125 (#159) ############################################
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LEGEND OF THE FLOOD
125
360 days. The whole series of the new names is not found until the Sūtra
period ; but the vitality of the new system is adequately proved by the
fact that the old series of twelve given in the Samhitās corresponding
to the six seasons is practically ignored in the later literature.
The origin of the Nakshatras has formed the subject of most lively
controversy; it is clear that the Vedic Indian knew very little about
astronomy, for it is extremely doubtful whether the planets were known at
all in the Brāhmaṇa period. But it is not impossible that, even at this
epoch, the Nakshatras could have been discovered, for the achievement is
a rude one. The question is, however, complicated by the exister ce of the
Arabian Manāzil and the Chinese Sieou. The Manāzil are better chosen
as lunar mansions than the Indian Nakshatras : borrowing on the part of
India from Arabia cannot be proved in view of the late date of the
Arabian evidence, while the superiority of the Arabian system seems to
make it improbable that it should have been derived from India. The
Chinese evidence is early enough to allow of borrowing: and the depend
ence of India on China has been maintained by Biot and de Saussure ;
but the difficulties in the way of this view are really insuperable. It
remains therefore as the most plausible view that the Nakshatras are
derived from Babylon, though direct proof of the existence of the
Nakshatras there has yet to be discovered.
Compared with the case of the Nakshatras there is little other
evidence of the contact of India with other civilisations in this period.
In the Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa for the first time there appears the legend of
the flood and the saving of Manu by a great fish ; and it is most unlikely
that we are to see here any reminiscence of the former Āryan home
and the crossing of the Hindu Kush. It is therefore possible that the
legend may be of Semitic origin ; but, if so, as usual the Indians have
completely appropriated the motive, so that the borrowing cannot be
proved. It has been suggested? that the knowledge of iron was derived
from Babylon : but this is merely a conjecture which has at present no
support in evidence. A sea-borne commerce with Babylon cannot be
proved for this epoch either by the evidence of Vedic literature or by the
references in the Book of Kings to a pes and peacocks by names which are
believed to have had an Indian origin. The history of the alpha bet has
been used by Bühler: to show that it wos borrowed by traders from a
1 This is held by Weber, Indische Studien, vol. I, pp, 163 sq. ; see Muir Original
Sanskrit Texts, vol. II, p, 323.
2 See Vincent Smith, Indian Antiquary, vol. XXXIV, p. 229 ; Imperial
Gazetteer, vol. II, p. 98.
3 Indische Palaeographie, pp. 17 sq. Bühler relied on references to sea trade in the
Sūtras (Baudhyanā, 1, 2, 4 ; II, 2, 2 ; Gautima, X. 33) and in the Jātakas and believed
these to be authorities for the sixth century B. C. ; see Indian Studies, no. III, pp. 15 sq.
But neither Sūtras nor Jātakas can be relied on for information regarding so early a date.
## p. 126 (#160) ############################################
126
[CH.
LATER SAMHITĀS BRĀHMĀŅAS, ETC.
South Semitic source via Mesopotamia about 800 B. C. ; but we cannot lay
any stress upon this date. It seems, indeed, most probable that writing
was introduced by traders and that it was only gradually adopted into
its proper form for the expression of the Sanskrit language. At what date
this took place is not really susceptible of proof : there is no certain
reference to writing in the literature of a date earlier than the fourth
century B. C. ; and the real development of writing belongs in all likelihood
to the fifth century B. C. It was the end of the sixth century that saw the
invasion of Darius and the annexation of the territory round the Indus;
and, prior to that event, there is no strong evidence of a really active
contact between India and the outer world. It is, indeed, probable
enough that even before the time of Darius, Cyrus had relations with the
tribes on the right bank of the Indus, and Arrian asserts that the Assakenoi
and the Astakenoi were subject to the Assyrian kings'; but everything
points to the fact that, in the period of the Brāhmaṇas, relations with the
Gandhāras and other tribes in the remote north-west were very slight.
It is also significant that there is no really certain case of inscription of
any sort in India before the third century B. c.
The development in religion and philosophy in the period is remark-
able. The ritual has grown to very large proportions; and with the ritual
the number of the priests required at a sacrifice had increased until sixteen
or seventeen are enumerated as taking part in the more important offerings
The mere offerings of vegetable food and milk are comparatively unimport-
ant; but the animal sacrifice is increasingly elaborated, and the Soma
sacrifice has developed largely. In addition to the simplest form of the Soma
sacrifice occupying one day, there are innumerable other forms culminating
in the Sattras which might last any time from twelve days to a year or years
It is significant that, at the bottom of this priestly elaboration, is much really
popular religion. Thus the Rājasūya, or loyal consecration, is funda-
mentally a popular rite for the anointing of the king: the l'ājapeya betrays
a popular origin in the prominence in it of a chariot race, once probably
the main element; the Gayāmayana, a Sattra lasting a year, is distinguished
by the ritual of the Mahāvrata day in which long since was recognised a
primitive performance celebrating the winter solstice. The horse-sacrifice is
at bottom the elaboration of a simple rite of sympathetic magic; but it has
been so elaborated as to combine everything which could make an appeal
to the warrior Indian king and induce him to distribute abundant largesse
on the celebrators. But beside these and other popular festivals, which the
priests have worked over, stands one of the highest interests to the pri st,
which seems to reflect a new conception of theology. It is building of the
See Duff, Chronology of India, p. 5; Arrian, Indici, I, 3 (trans. M Crindle,
I
!
:
1
p. 179).
Vincent Smith, Early History of India, p. 16.
## p. 127 (#161) ############################################
V]
PHILOSOPHY OF EXISTENCE
127
altar for the sacred fire ; in one sense no doubt this was an ancient and
simple rite, accompanied as so often by the slaying of a man in order to
secure the abiding character of the structure : the Brāhmaṇa texts avoid
requiring any such actual slaughter, though they record it as a deed of the
past ; but they elaborate the building out of all reason and utility. The
only explanation of this action must he that offered by Eggeling, that, in
the building up of the fire alter, the Brāhmans sought to symbolise the
constitution of the unity of the universe. As we have seen, in the Purusha
hymn of the Rigveda occurs the conception of the creation of the universe
from the Purusha, and in the theology of the Brābmaņas the Purusha is
indentified with Prajāpati, 'lord of creātures,' and the sacrifice is conceived
as constantly recurring in order to maintain the existence of the universe.
To render this possible is the end of fire altar, the building of which is the
reconstruction of the universe in the shape of Prajāpati. Prajāpati, again,
is identified with Agni, the fire of the altar, and both Prajāpati and Agni
are the divine counterparts of the human sacrificer. But Prajāpati is him.
self Time, and Time is in the long run death, so that the sacrificer himself
becomes death, and by that act rises superior to death, and is for ever
removed from the world of illusion and trouble to the world of everlasting
bliss. In this the true nature of Pajāpati and of the sacrificer is revealed
as intelligence, and the Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa urges the seeker for truth to
meditate upon the self, made upof intelligence and endowed with a body of
spirit, a form of light and an ethereal nature.
The same doctrine appears in another form in the Upanishads which
are engaged with the discussion of the underlying reality. They agree in
this that all reality in the ultimate issue must be reduced to one, called
variously brahman, 'the holi power,' or ātman, 'the self'. Moreover, the
Upanishads agree in regarding the absolute to be unknownable, and though
they ascribe to it intelligence they deprive that term of meaning by emptying
it of all thought. If the real is the absolute alone, the existence of the
appearance of this world must be explained ; but naturally enough the
Upanishads do not successfully attempt this task ; and it was not until the
time of Çankarāchārya in the beginning of the ninth century A. D. that it
was found possible to reconcile the doctrines of the different texts by the
view that all existence is merely illusion. This is perhaps a logical develop-
ment of the doctrine of the Upanishads ; but the Upanishads were groping
after truth and did not attempt to deduce all the consequences of their
guesses at the nature of reality.
There was one consequence which followed so clearly from the new
conception of existence that it is enunciated, though not very decidedly,
in the Brihadāraṇyaka Upanishad, namely that there was no consciousness
after death in the case of him who realised the true nature of the self as in-
telligence without thought. But this conception plays a very small part in
See Sacred Books of the East, vol. XLIII, pp. xiv ,xxiv.
## p. 128 (#162) ############################################
128
[сн.
LATER SAMHITĀS, BRAHMAŅAS, ETC.
the texts compared with the new theory of transmigration. There is no
real sign of this doctrine in the Brāhmaṇas proper, but there is certain
amount of preparation for its appearance in the gradual, development of the
doctrine that not even after death is the horror of death ended : a man may
die repeated deaths in the next world. If conception be transferred to the
present world, then the doctrine of transmigration is produced, and in the
Upanishads this doctrine is clearly and expressly enunciated. The
Chhāndogya and Brihadāraṇyaka agree in the main outlines of the new
belief: the forest ascetic who has realised the nature of Brahman after death
goes by the way of the gods to be absorbed in brahman and never again to
be born : the man who has done good deeds but has not attained the sav.
:
ing knowledge goes to the world of the moon tɔ reside there until the fruit
of his deeds is exhausted, when he is born against first as a plant and then
as man or at once as a man : the wicked on the contrary are born as out-
casts, dogs or swine, according to the Chhāndogya, as birds, beasts, and rep-
tiles according to the Brihadāroņayaka. There is a variant version on the
Kaushitaki which makes all first go to the moon ; but the assential point
is the acceptance as a matter of certainty of the new doctrine of transmi-
gration. The Brihadāraṇyaka also has an important addition to the doctrine
in the form of the gospel of karman'action,' which is determines on a man's
death the nature of his next birth. In the Buddhist view the idea recurs
in the simple form that the self, which is recognised as persisting through
transmigration by the Brāhman, is discarded as needless and the karman
alone is asserted to possess reality.
The origin of this doctrine may have been helped by the widely
prevalent view among tribes of animists that the souls on death or even in
life can pass into other forms, animal or vegetable. We have seen that in
the Rigveda in one hymn the soul is regarded as going to the waters of the
plants ; we have no reason to doubt that such ide us were prevalent
among the aboriginal tribes with which the Āryans mixed. But these vague
ideas are totally inadequate to account for the belief in transmigration, and
the theory must, it would seem, have been a discovery of the schools of
seekers after the nature of truth, who arrived at it on the one side from
the popular beliefs of the peoples among whom they lived, and on the other
from the conception of the Brāhmaṇas that death could be repeated in the
other world. The doctrine led directly to pessimism, but the Upanishads
are not themselves pessimistic ; and we obtain thus a valuable evidence of
their priority to the rise of Buddhism, which is saturated with the doctrine
of the misery of the universe.
The extraordinary success of the doctrine
shows that it was in harmony with the spirit of the Indian people, and
suggests what is otherwise probable, that by the end of the period of the
Brāhmaṇas the influence of the Āryan strain was waning, and that the true
Indian character of the intellectual classes was definitely formed.
## p. 129 (#163) ############################################
V]
RUDRA AND VISHNU
129
As we have already seen, the tradition makes kings take part in the
discussions which marked the formation of the doctrine of the absolute, and
even hints that the doctrine was in some way a special tenet of the ruling class ;
but it is doubtful if we can accord full credit to this tradition, or believe
that the brahman doctrine was the reaction of the noble class against the
excessive devotion of the priests to the ritual'. Policy adequately explains
the part assigned to them by the Brāhmans, whose aim it was to make their
patrons appreciate that their researches were such as to deserve support.
Parallel with the development of philosophy there was proceeding the
movement which leads to the religions of modern India, the exaltation of
Rudra and in a minor degree of Vishņu to the position of a great god.
Prajāpati is indeed the main subject of the theosophical speculation of the
Brāhmaṇa texts, a purpose to which his name as 'lord of creatures'
especially lent itself; but Prajāpati had no claims to be a god of the
people, and the position of Rudra as a popular deity is sufficiently shown
by the litanies to him in the Sanhitās of the Yajurveda, and by the whole
outlook of such texts as the Aitareya, Kaushitaki, and Çata patha
Brāhmaṇas. When Prajāpati committed incest with his daughter, the
Aitareya tells us that the gods were wroth, and from their most dread forms
produced the god Bhūta pati, ‘lord of creatures,' who represents one aspect
of Rudra's activities. ' He pierced Prajāpati and thereby acquired his
dominion over all cattle. In another passage the wording of a Rigvedic
verse is altered to avoid the mention of Rudra's dread name : in yet another
he appears at the sacrifice in black raiment and appropriates to himself the
sacrificial victim. We need not suppose that in this presentation the
Brāhmaṇas were creating a new-figure : rather they were adapting to their
system, as far as they could, a great god of the people. But the Rudra of
this period can hardly be regarded as a mere development of the Rudra of
the Rigveda : it seems most probable that with the Vedic Rudra is amalga-
mated an aboriginal god of vegetation, closely connected with pastoral life.
Vishņu cannot be said to have won any such assured place as Rudra,
who is already hailed as the 'great god' par excellence, and already bears
the name of Çiva, ‘propitious,' which is to be his final appellation. But the
constant identification of Vishņu and the sacrifice is, in view of the extra-
ordinary importance attached to the sacrifice by the Brāhmans, a sure sign
that he counted for much in Vedic life, and that he shared with Rudra the
veneration of the people, who may in different localities have been the
followers of one or the other god respectively. For the rest, while we now
1 The tradition is accepted by Garbe, Beiträge zur indischen Kulturgeschichte,
pp. 1 sq. ; Deussen, Philosophy of the Upanishads, pp. 17 sq. ; Rhys Davids, Buddhist
India, pp. 256. 7. See also Chapter XI, Its validity is doubted by Bloomfield,
Religion of the Veda, pp. 218 sq. ; Oldenberg Buddhas, p. 73 ; Keith J. R. A. S. , 1908,
pp. 868-72.
## p. 130 (#164) ############################################
130
(ch.
LATER SAMHITĀS, BRAHMĀNAS, ETC.
obtain many details of the lower side of the religion in the spells of the
Atharvaveda, the pantheon of the Rigveda remains uualtered sare in such
minor aspects as the new prominence of the Apsarasas, the niechanical
opposition of the gods and the Asuras, and the rise of snake worship,
which seems to have been due to the imitation of the aboriginal tribes. On
the other hand, the attitude of the priests to the gods as revealed in the
sacrifice has lost whatever it had of spontaneity and simple piety. It is no
doubt possible to exaggerate these qualities even in the earlier hymns of the
Rigveda ; but their abeence in the later Samhitās is unquestionable. The
theory of sacrifice is bluntly do ut des ; and even in that theory the sacri-
ficers had so little trust that the whole sacrificial apparatus is dominated by
sympathetic magic. So convinced is the priest of his powers in this regard
that the texts explain that he can ruin as he pleases, by errors in the
sacrifice deliberately committed, the patron for whom he is acting, and in
whose interest he is presumed to be at work. It is a sordid picture ; and,
as we have seen, higher spirits turned away from a hocus pocus, which they
must have despised as heartily as any Buddhist, to the interpretation of
the reality underlying phenomena. Yet it is characteristic of the Indian
genius that, though it evolved views which must have rendered all the
sacrificial technique logically of no avail, it made no effort to break with
the sacrifice which was allowed to stand as a preliminary towards the at-
tainment of that enlightenment which the priests professed to impart.
The language of the Samhitās in their verse portions is similar to that
of the Rigveda, especially in the tenth book and in the later additions to
the other books. The language of the prose represents the speech of the
Brāhman schools of the day: it differs from that of the verse by the
removal of abnormalities, and by much greater precision shown, for example,
in the exact use of the tenses, the 'narrative perfect being at first carefully
eschewed and by the disappearance, except in a narrow sphere, of the use
of the unaugmented past tenses of the verb with modal meaning. There
seems in one passage of the Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa to be a curious ad-
mission that other tribes had not preserved the purity of the Vedic speech.
the Asuras are credited in that text with the utterance of the words he'lavo,
which may be interpreted he ’raya! ! Ho! ye foes ! ,' and, if so, can be
explained as Prākrit forms. Similarly, as we have already seen, the
Vrātyas are described as regarding the Vedic speech as difficult to pro-
nounce, no doubt because of its conjunct consonants which the Prakrits
avoid. In both cases the reference is probably to tribes of the Magadha
country, and the Māgadhi Prakrit is marked by both the points alluded
tol. There are also signs of this corruption of the language through the
contact with the aborigines in the fact that in the spells of the Atharvaveda
1 Grierson, Z. D. A. G. , vol. LXVI, p. 66, thinks that Paicāchi, a dialect of north.
west India, is meant , but see l'edic Index, vol. II, p. 517.
## p. 131 (#165) ############################################
V]
CRITERIA OF DATE
131
are found several forms which can only be accounted for as Prākritisms.
Beyond these generalities we cannot affect to estimate how far the process
of the transformation of the language in the popular speech had gone: the
earliest foreign evidence, that from the Greek records, shows that many
names were reported by Megasthenes and others in Prākrit form; and, in
the middle of the third century B. C. , the inscriptions of Açoka are all
written in Prākrit dialects varying considerably in detail from one
another. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that beside the language
of the Brāhman schools, there existed more popular forms of speech ; but
everything points to the fact that the deeds of princes were still sung in a
language of the same form as the priestly speech. In metre a significant
change can be seen : the later hymns exhibit, when written in the eight
syllable metre, a distinct tendency to be composed of stanzas in which the
four lines are no longer independent in structure, but the first and third and
the second and fourth respectively are assimilated. The latter pair is made
to end with a definite iambic cadence, while the first and third on the
contrary are made to end with an iambus followed by a trochee, thus pro-
ducing an effect of contrast and setting a gulf between the old and the new
form of versification. This new form is far from being exclusively employ-
ed even in the latest versification of the period, but in the epic it is firmly
established, and the variants reduced to narrow limits'.
Interesting as are the Samhitās and the Brāhmaṇas from the point of
view of the history of civilisation and religion, as literature they are hardly
ever of substantial value. Much of the speculation of the Brāhmaṇs is
utterly puerile and seems to be the product of a decadent intellect. On the
other hand, the real interest of the Upanishads is undeniable: these pri-
mitive philosophical fragments exhibit a genuine spirit of enquiry, and here
and there do not fail to rise tu real dignity and impressiveness.
For the date of the epoch of the Brāhmaṇas we are again thrown
back on those considerations of literary and social development which we
have found to be the sole trustworthy criteria for the dating of the epoch
of the Rigveda. The lower limit is given by the fact that Buddhism accepts
from the Upanishads the doctrines of transmigration and pessimism, the
latter of which had been developed as a doctrine of obvious validity from
the facts of transmigration. Other indications, such as the want of any
trace of the knowledge of writing, show that we cannot legitimately carry
the Upanishads of the older type later than 550 or perhaps more probably
600 B. c. The fixing of the language which is posterior to the Brāhmaṇas
may be dated at latest at 300 B. C. ; and the earlier Sūtras probably go
back to at least 400 B. C. and very possibly earlier. These are important
See Oldenberg, Z. D. M. G. , vol. XXXVII, pp. 67 sq. ; Sacred Bcoks of the East,
vol. XXX, pp. XXXV sq. ; G. 1909 pp. 219 sq. ; Hopkins, Great Epic of India,
pp. 194 sq. ; Jacobi, Indische Studien, vol. XVII, pp. 442 sq. ; Keith, J. R. A. S. , 1906,
pp. 1-10 ; 1912, pp. 757 sq.
1
## p. 132 (#166) ############################################
132
[CH.
LATER SAMHITĀS, BRĀHMANAS, ETC.
considerations and their cumulative effect is harmonious and practically
decisive of an early date for the civilisation which has been described.
On considerations of probable development, the beginning of the Brāhmaṇa
period may fairly be put back to 800 B. C.
As with the Rigveda, attempts have been made to show that these
dates are much too low and that astronomical data enable us to carry the
Brāhmaṇas much further back. The lists of the Nakshatraz all begin with
Kſittikās, and we know that in the sixth century A. D. the constellation
which then headed the Nakshatras was chosen because the vernal equinox
took place when the sun was in conjunction with that Nakshatra. From
the precession of the equinoxes, we are enabled to arrive at the conclusion
that the position of Krittikās at the vernal equinox must have taken place
in the third millennium B. C. This has been supported by a passage in the
Çata patha Brābmaņa where it is said that Kțittikās did not more from the
eastern quarter at that time. But we have no evidence whatever to connect
the sun and the Nakshatras at this period, and the notice regarding the
position of Krittikās cannot be taken seriously in a work which shows so little
power of scientific observation of facts as the Çatapatha. Moreover if,
as it is probable, the Nakshatra system was borrowed ready made, we can-
not even conjecture for what reason Kſittikas was placed first. More
promising is a definite notice contained in the Kaushitaki Brāhamna and
repeated in the Jyotisha, a late Vedic work on astronomy, if indeed it can
be dignified with this title, that the winter solstice took place at the new
moon in Magbās. From this datum results varying from 1391-1181 B. C.
were early deduced by different investigators ; but these conclusions can
claim no scientific value, as they rest on assumptions as to the exact mean-
ing of the passage which cannot be justified. The possible margin of error
in the calculations is at least five hundred years; and we are therefore
reduced to the view that this evidence only indicates that the observation
which is recorded was made some centuries B. C. The same conclusion can
be drawn from the fact that in quite a number of places the month
Phālguna is called the beginning of the year. In the view of Jacobi, this
shows that the year began with the winter solstice at full moon in Phalguni,
and thus would correspond with his view that in the Rigveda the sun at
the summer solstice was in Uttara-Phalguni. But, in this case also, the
result is unacceptable ; for it is nowhere stated that the beginning of the
year was dated from the winter solstice. The most probable explanation
is that the full moon in Phalguni was deemed to be the beginning of the
year, because it marked, at the time when it was so termed, the beginning
of spring. Since the new moon in Maghā was at the winter solstice, the
full moon in Phalguni would fall about a month and a half later in the first
week of February, which is compatible with Feb. 7, the Veris initium in the
Reman calendar, and which is a perfectly possible date for about 800 B. C. ,
## p. 133 (#167) ############################################
V]
ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCE
133
especially when it is remembered that the division of the year into three
periods of four months was always a rough one, and the beginning of spring
had to be placed early so as to allow of the rains, which are definitely
marked out by the fall of the first rain, to fill the period from about June 7
to October 7. With this explanation the theory, that the mention of the
full moon in Phalguni as the beginning of the year records an observation
of the fourth millennium B. C. , disappears, and still more the theory that the
mention of the month Chaitra as the beginning of the year carries us back
to the sixth nuillennium. Nor can any more trust be put in the argument
that the mention in the late marriage ritual of the Dhruva, a fixed star
shown to the bride and bridegroom as a symbol of constancy, points to an
observation made at a period when there was a real fixed pole star, i. e. in
the third millennium B. C. We do not even know whether this part of the
rite goes back to the period of the Brāhmaṇas ; and, even if it did, for so
little scientific a purpose there was no need of anything save a fairly bright
star not too distant from the pole. Ingenious therefore as all these argu-
ments are, they must be dismissed as affording no real certainty of correct-
ness. The most that can be said is that they tend to support the period
800-600 B. C. as a reasonable date for the period of the civilisation of the
Brāhmaṇas. 1
1 The main supporters of the astronomical arguments are Jacobi, Z. D. M. G. ,
vol. XLIX, pp. 218 sq. ; L, pp. 69 sq. ; J. R. A. S. , 1909 ; pp, 721-6 ; 1910, pp. 460. 4 ;
Tilak, Orion, Bombay, 1893 ; The Arctic Home in the Vedas, Bombay, 1903. On the
other side, see Oldenberg Z. D. M. G. , vol. XLVIII, pp. 629 sq. ; XLIX, pp. 470, sq. ;
L, pp. 450 sq. ; J. R. A. S. 1909, pp. 1095 sq. ; Thibaut, Indian Antiquary, vol. XXIV,
pp. 85 sq. ; Whitney, J. A. 0. 5, vol. XVI; pp. Ixxxii sq. ; Keith, J. R. A. S. , 1909,
pp, 1100 sq. ; 1910, pp 464-6. On the origin of the Nakshatras, see de Saussure,
T’oung Pao, ! 909, pp. 121 sq. , 225 sp. ; Oldenberg, G. G.
