(astronomy); the Sarpa Devanjana Vidya (the science of serpents and of genii). All this I know, sir."
In the Brihadaranyaka we are told that "Rig-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda, Atharvangirasas, Itihasa (legends), Purana (cosmogonies), Vidya (knowledge), the Upanishads, Slokas (verses), Sutras (prose rules), Anuvyakhyanas (glosses), and Vyakhyanas (commentaries) have all been breathed forth from the Supreme Being"; while in the eleventh book of the Satapatha Brahmana, we have mention of the three Vedas, the Atharvangirasas, the Anusasanas, the Vidyas, the Vakovakya, the Itihasa Purana, the Narasansis and the Gathas.
It is true that these names do not necessarily imply distinct works which existed in the Epic Period, and which have since been lost to us, and many of these names merely imply the different subjects which are still found in the Brahmanas. It was at a later age, in the Philosophic Period, that these different subjects which we find interwoven in the Brahmanas and Upanishads were developed into separate subjects of study, and were taught in the separate Sutra works and compositions which have come down to us. At the same time, many of these subjects could scarcely have been taught properly and handed down from teacher to pupil without the help of special works on those subjects. We therefore believe that such separate works existed in the Epic Period, and have been lost, only to be replaced by more elaborate and scientific works of a later age on the same subjects.
