o whom they are ascribed. Though
composed on the banks of the Indus by sacred bards, the hymns were
compiled and arranged in India proper. At what date the oldest hymns of
which this collection is made up were first chanted it is impossible to
say with even approximate certainty. Opinions differ, or have differed,
between 2400 B.C. and 1400 B.C. as the period when the earliest sacred
lyrics of the Veda may first have been listened by gods and men. In
addition to the Rig-Veda we have the Sanhita of the Sama-Veda, "an
anthology taken from the Rik-Samhita, comprising those of its verses
which were intended to be chanted at the ceremonies of the soma
sacrifice".(1) It is conjectured that the hymns of the Sama-Veda
were borrowed from the Rig-Veda before the latter had been edited and
stereotyped into its present form. Next comes the Yajur-Veda, "which
contains the formulas for the entire sacrificial ceremonial, and indeed
forms its proper foundations," the other Vedas being devoted to the soma
sacrifice.(2) The Yajur-Veda has two divisions, known as the Black and
the White Yajur, which have common matter, but differ in arrangement.
The Black Yajur-Veda is also called the Taittirya, and it is described
as "a motley undigested jumble of different pieces".(3) Last comes
Atharva-Veda, not always regarded as a Veda properly speaking. It
derives its name from an old semi-mythical priestly family, the
Atharvans, and is full of magical formulae, imprecations, folk-lore and
spells. There are good reasons for thinking this late as a collection,
however early may be the magical ideas expressed in its contents.(4)

(1) Weber, History of Indian Literature, Eng. transl., p. 63.

(2) Ibid., p. 86.

(3) Ibid, p. 87. The name Taittirya is derived from a partridge, or from
a Rishi named Partridge in Sanskrit. There is a story that the pupils of
a sage were turned into partridges, to pick up sacred texts.

(4) Barth (Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 6) thinks that the existence of
such a collection as the Atharva-Veda is implied, perhaps, in a text of
the Rig-Veda, x. 90, 9.

Between the Vedas, or, at all events, between the oldest of the Vedas,
and the compilation of the Brahmanas, these "canonised explanations of
a canonised text,"(1) it is probable that some centuries and many social
changes intervened.(2)

(1) Whitney, Oriental and Linguistic studies, First Series, p. 4.

(2) Max Muller, Biographical Essays, p. 20. "The prose porti