Rik), the Yajur Veda contains
the special formulae which the priest that attends to the erection of
the altar has to speak, with explanatory remarks added thereto. This
of course stamps the collection as mechanical; but the wonder is that
this collection, with the similar Br[=a]hmana scriptures that follow
it, should be the only new literature which centuries have to show.[2]
As explanatory of the sacrifice there is found, indeed, a good deal of
legendary stuff, which sometimes has a literary character. But nothing
is for itself; everything is for the correct performance of the
sacrifice.[3]

The geographical centre is now changed, and instead of the Punj[=a]b,
the 'middle district' becomes the seat of culture. Nor is there much
difference between the district to which can be referred the rise of
the Yajur Veda and that of the Br[=a]hmanas. No less altered is the
religion. All is now symbolical, and the gods, though in general they
are the gods of the Rig Veda, are not the same as of old. The priests
have become gods. The old appellation of 'spirit,' _asura_, is
confined to evil spirits. There is no longer any such 'henotheism' as
that of the Rig Veda. The Father-god, 'lord of beings,' or simply 'the
father,' is the chief god. The last thought of the Rig Veda is the
first thought of the Yajur Veda. Other changes have taken place. The
demigods of the older period, the water-nymphs of the Rik, here become
seductive goddesses, whose increase of power in this art agrees with
the decline of the warrior spirit that is shown too in the whole mode
of thinking. Most important is the gradual rise of Vishnu and the
first appearance of Civa. Here _brahma_, which in the Rik has the
meaning 'prayer' alone, is no longer mere prayer, but, as in later
literature, holiness. In short, before the Br[=a]hmanas are reached
they are perceptible in the near distance, in the Veda of Formulae,
the Yajus;[4] for between the Yajur Veda and the Br[=a]hmanas there is
no essential difference. The latter consist of explanations of the
sacrificial liturgy, interspersed with legends, bits of history,
philosophical explanations, and other matter more or less related to
the subject. They are completed by the Forest Books, [=A]ranyakas,
which contain the speculations of the later theosophy, the Upanishads
(below). It is with the Yajur Veda and its nearly related literature,
the Br[=a]hmanas, that Brahmanism really begins. Of these latter the
most importa