nt in age and content are the Br[=a]hmanas (of the Rig
Veda and Yajur Veda), called [=A]itareya and Cata-patha, the former
representing the western district, the latter, in great part, a more
eastern region.

Although the 'Northerners' are still respectfully referred to, yet, as
we have just said, the people among whom arose the Br[=a]hmanas are
not settled in the Punj[=a]b, but in the country called the 'middle
district,' round about the modern Delhi. For the most part the
Punj[=a]b is abandoned; or rather, the literature of this period does
not emanate from the Aryans that remained in the Punj[=a]b, but from
the still emigrating descendants of the old Vedic people that used to
live there. Some stay behind and keep the older practices, not in all
regards looked upon as orthodox by their more advanced brethren, who
have pushed east and now live in the country called the land of the
Kurus and Pa[.n]c[=a]las.[5] They are spread farther east, along the
banks of the Jumna and Ganges, south of Nep[=a]l; while some are still
about and south of the holy Kurukshetra or 'plain of Kurus.' East of
the middle district the Kosalas and Videhas form, in opposition to the
Kurus and Pa[.n]c[=a]las, the second great tribe (Tirh[=u]t). There
are now two sets of 'Seven Rivers,' and the holiness of the western
group is perceptibly lessened. Here for the first time are found the
_Vr[=a]tya_-hymns, intended to initiate into the Brahmanic order
Aryans who have not conformed to it, and speak a dialectic
language.[6] From the point of view of language and geography, no less
than from that of the social and spiritual conditions, it is evident
that quite a period has elapsed since the body of the Rig Veda was
composed. The revealed texts are now ancient storehouses of wisdom.
Religion has apparently become a form; in some regards it is a farce.

"There are two kinds of gods; for the gods are gods, and priests that
are learned in the Veda and teach it are human gods." This sentence,
from one of the most important Hindu prose works,[7] is the key to the
religion of the period which it represents; and it is fitly followed
by the further statement, that like sacrifice to the gods are the fees
paid to the human gods the priests.[8] Yet with this dictum, so
important for the understanding of the religion of the age, must be
joined another, if one would do that age full justice: 'The sacrifice
is like a ship sailing heavenward; if there be a sinful prie