d to give utterance to what he felt in
measured language."[44]

"But there is a charm in these primitive strains discoverable in no other
class of poetry. Every word retains something of its radical meaning,
every epithet tells, every thought, in spite of the most intricate and
abrupt expressions, is, if we once disentangle it, true, correct, and
complete."[45]

The Vedic literature is divided by Muller into four periods, namely, those
of the Chhandas, Mantra, Brahmana, and Sutras. The Chhandas period
contains the oldest hymns of the oldest, or Rig-Veda. To that of the
Mantras belong the later hymns of the same Veda. But the most modern of
these are older than the Brahmanas. The Brahmanas contain theology; the
older Mantras are liturgic. Mueller says that the Brahmanas, though so very
ancient, are full of pedantry, shallow and insipid grandiloquence and
priestly conceit. Next to these, in the order of time, are the Upanishads.
These are philosophical, and almost the only part of the Vedas which are
read at the present time. They are believed to contain the highest
authority for the different philosophical systems, of which we shall speak
hereafter. Their authors are unknown. More modern than these are the
Sutras. The word "Sutra" means _string_, and they consist of a string of
short sentences. Conciseness is the aim in this style, and every doctrine
is reduced to a skeleton. The numerous Sutras now extant contain the
distilled essence of all the knowledge which the Brahmans have collected
during centuries of meditation. They belong to the non-revealed
literature, as distinguished from the revealed literature,--a distinction
made by the Brahmans before the time of Buddha. At the time of the
Buddhist controversy the Sutras were admitted to be of human origin and
were consequently recent works. The distinction between the Sutras and
Brahmanas is very marked, the second being revealed. The Brahmanas were
composed by and for Brahmans and are in three collections. The Vedangas
are intermediate between the Vedic and non-Vedic literature. Panini, the
grammarian of India, was said to be contemporary with King Nanda, who was
the successor of Chandragupta, the contemporary of Alexander, and
therefore in the second half of the fourth century before Christ. Dates
are so precarious in Indian literature, says Max Mueller, that a
confirmation within a century or two is not to be despised. Now the
grammarian Katyayana completed and cor