able acquaintance amongst the learned pundits of Benares and other places. In many parts of India not a man could be found able to read and interpret them. Of the Sanhitas, the "Rig-Veda Sanhita—containing one thousand and seventeen hymns—is by far the most important; whilst the Atharva Veda-Sanhita, though generally held to be the most recent, is perhaps the most interesting. Moreover, these are the only two Vedic hymn-books worthy of being called separate original collections ;"[1] the others being almost entirely made up of extracts from the Rig-Veda. Between the time of the composition of the Rig Veda and that of the Atharva, considerable changes in the religious faith of the people had come about. The child-like trust of the earlier hymns has disappeared, and the deities now seem more cruel, and there is greater need of propitiatory offerings. Probably the old religion of the people whom they had conquered had begun to tell on that of the Aryans.
The Sanhitas of three of the Vedas are said to have some peculiarity. "If a mantra is metrical, and intended for loud recitation, it is called Rich (from rich, praise) whence the name Rig-Veda ; i.e., the Veda containing such praises. If it is prose (and then it must be muttered inaudibly), it is called Yajus (yaj, sacrifice, hence, literally, the means by which sacrifice is effected); therefore Yajur-Veda signifies the Veda containing such yajus. And if it is metrical, and intended for chanting, it is called Sāman [equal] ; hence Sāman Veda means the Veda containing such Sāmans. The author of the Mantra, or as the Hindus would say, the inspired 'Seer,' who received it from
- ↑ "Indian Wisdom," p. 9.
