ted and arranged between 1000 and
500 B.C. At that period rites and ceremonies multiplied and absorbed
man's mind to a degree unparalleled in the history of the world and
literature occupied itself with the description or discussion of this
dreary ceremonial. Buddhism was a protest against the necessity of
sacrifices and, though Buddhism decayed in India, the sacrificial system
never recovered from the attack and assumed comparatively modest
proportions. But in an earlier period, after the composition of the
Vedic hymns and before the predominance of speculation, skill in
ceremonial was regarded as the highest and indeed only science and the
ancient prayers and poems of the race were arranged in three collections
to suit the ritual. These were the Rig Veda, containing metrical
prayers: the Yajur Veda (in an old and new recension known as the Black
and the White) containing formulae mainly in prose to be muttered during
the course of the sacrifice: and the Sama Veda, a book of chants,
consisting almost entirely of verses taken from the Rig Veda and
arranged for singing. The Rig Veda is clearly older than the others: its
elements are anterior to the Brahmanic liturgy and are arranged in less
complete subservience to it than in the Yajur and Sama Vedas.

The restriction of the words Veda and Vedic to the collection of hymns,
though convenient, is not in accordance with Indian usage, which applies
the name to a much larger body of religious literature. What we call the
Rig Veda is strictly speaking the mantras of the Rig Veda or the
Rig-Veda-Samhita: besides this, there are the Brahmanas or ceremonial
treatises, the Aranyakas and Upanishads containing philosophy and
speculation, the Sutras or aphoristic rules, all comprised in the Veda
or Sruti (hearing), that is the revelation heard directly by saints as
opposed to Smriti (remembering) or tradition starting from human
teachers. Modern Hindus when not influenced by the language of European
scholars apply the word Veda especially to the Upanishads.

For some time only three[145] Vedas were accepted. But the Epics and the
Puranas know of the fourfold Veda and place the Atharva Veda on a level
with the other three. It was the manual of two ancient priestly
families, the Atharvans and Angirasas, whose speciality was charms and
prophylactics rather than the performance of the regular sacrifices. The
hymns and magic songs which it contains were probably collected
subsequently to