A History of Sanskrit Literature

hy of th

of eternal light on the path trodden by the fathers, whom he finds in the hig

ymns (x. 14, 7) the dea

rth along those

early ances

lt see rejoici

, Varu?a the

ree from imperfections or bodily frailties, and is altogether delectable. It is a glorified life of material joys as conceived by the imagination, not of warrior

t unbelievers were consigned to an underground darkness after death. So little, indeed, do the Rishis say on this subject, and so vague is the little they do say, that Roth held the total annihilat

btless because cremation appeared as a different process from sacrifice. In the Brāhma?as the fathers and the god

s a king who rules the departed and as a gatherer of the people, who gives the deceased a resting-

the mighty hei

and spied out t

at, gatherer

th sacrifices wor

he Rigveda, as in the Atharvaveda and the later mythology, a god of death. The owl and pigeon are occasionally mentioned as emi

ased man is thus addressed in o

traight forward p

ramā, four-eye

after to the bo

n in compan

brown, the mes

es, wander am

back to us a l

, that we may s

actually occurs in this character throughout a hymn (x. 10) of much poetic beauty, consisting of a dialogue

by the gods h

ll, nor close thei

ine arms shall

es around the t

sting myth of the descent of mankind from primeval "twins." This myth, indeed, seems to have been handed down from the Indo-Iranian period, for the later Avestan literature makes m

In all likelihood they were originally accompanied by a narrative setting in prose, which explained the situation more fully to the audience, but was lost after these poems were incorporated among the collected hymns of the Rigveda. One of this class (iv. 42) is a colloquy between Indra and Varu?a, in which each of these leading gods puts forw

a, having tracked the stolen cows, demands them back from the Pa?is. Another already referred to (p. 107) treats the myth of Urva?ī and Purūravas. The dialogue takes place at the moment when the nymph is about to quit her mortal lover for ever. A good deal of interest attaches to this myth, not only

ions, and therefore belong rather to the domain of the Atharva-veda, Two short ones (ii. 42–43) belong to the sphere of augury, certain birds of omen being invoked to utter auspicious cries. Two others consist of spells directed again

oke with le

n on that

ow held fas

st live and m

e unhurt

blown the bl

burning sun

lk streams f

d may thy

oem intended as a charm t

sits and h

sees us wit

now close

hut this dwe

lullaby end with the refrain, "F

here is also a spell (x. 166) aiming at the destruction of enemies. We further find the incantation (x. 145) of a woman desiring to oust her ri

isen ther

fortunes

victorious

lord thi

w mighty w

r is a pri

f have gain

ds highest w

ave I these

perior to

r this h

is people

beginning of the rainy season is here described with a graphic power which will doubtless be appreciated best by those who have lived in India. The poet comp

silence f

ns practi

ve lifted up

hen Parja

ts the utteran

earn the lesson

of yours seems

ye prate upo

t the mighty

rge and brimming

round the p

he year that brin

ith their soma r

ctually their

yus, sweating wi

forth to view, an

god-sent order t

hese men negle

ar the rainy t

heated kettles

t have been ignorant of the real significance of the poem. On the other hand, the comparison of frogs with Brahmans would not necessarily imply satire to the Vedic Indian. Students familiar with the style of the Rigveda know that many similes which, if used by ourselves, would involve conte

a religious and mythological colouring. The most notable poem of this kind is the long wedding-hymn (x. 85) of forty-seven stanzas. Lacking in poetic unity, it consists of groups of verses relating to the marriage ceremonial loosely strung together. The opening stanzas (1–5), in which the identity of the celestial soma and of the moon is expressed in veiled terms, are followed by others (6–17) relating the myth of the wedding

of human marriage, are describe

ernately with

aying they go ro

o surveys all

ons meting out,

eing born ag

t of dawns as d

the gods their

s the length of

expressed that the newly-married couple may have many children

are followed by six others (36–41) pronounced at the wedding rite, which is again brought

d that I may ga

reach old age wit

man, Savit?

iven thee to sh

is at the same

Agni, fir

with the br

turn to hu

long wit

ns pronounced on the newly-wedded couple aft

e; be not

e's whole al

your sons a

in your

f all is spoken b

e gods us

now our hea

ri?van a

rī us tog

) is addressed to Yama, the next to the Fathers, the third to Agni, and the fourth to Pūshan, as well as Sarasvatī. Only the last (18) is a funeral hymn in the true sense. It is secular in style as well as in matter, being

this method alone, sanctioning only the burial of ascetics and children under two years of age. With the rite of cremation, too, the mythological notions about the future life were specially connected. Thus Agni conducts the corpse to the other world, where the gods and Fathers dwell. A goat was sacrificed when the corpse was bu

beside the body of her deceased husband and his bow is removed from the dead man's hand, shows that both were in earlier times burnt with his body to accompany him to the next world, and a verse of the Atharva-veda calls the dying

ow, who is called upon to rise from the pyre and take the hand of her new husband,

to the world o

by one whose s

now entered up

who takes thy h

urning to the decea

and I take the

dominion, mig

here, rich in h

all assaults o

osom of the ea

nding far and m

ool to bounteous

from the lap o

rth, press not

oach, hail him

robe a m

shroud this

he bystanders

nes are from t

the gods is n

h prepared for da

ys prolonging

rder follow

ly alternate

never forsake

the lives of t

ry) hymns of the eighth. A number of encomia of this type, generally consisting of only two or three stanzas, are appended to ordinary hymns in the eighth book and, much less commonly, in most of the other books. Chiefly concerned in describing the kind and the amount of the gifts bestowed on them, the composers of these panegyrics incidentally furnish histori

ring that it is the oldest composition of the kind in existence, we cannot but regard this poem as a most remarkable literary product. T

all, then nimbl

e man with hands,

rd like magic b

elves, they burn

ambler when he

and their well-o

rown steeds earl

re is low, sinks

ice, but cultiva

goods, deemin

ws, there is thy

Savit?i the k

the nut of the Vibhīdaka tree (Terminalia belleri

ch flourished so luxuriantly in Sanskrit literature. One of them, consisting only of four stanzas (i

s of men ar

gs are of di

nter desi

fracture w

my dad's

pper mills

minds we stri

eeking af

ts of a collection of maxims inculcati

er should give

the course of

two chariot wh

comes nigh, n

oil, the share

his feet perfor

ks earns more tha

ves is better t

composed in praise of wise speech.

n their words w

with flail the

recognise each o

is on their s

congenial fr

peech there is

rs he hears wit

ledge of the p

riends unite t

heart's impulse

w are left be

n their way as

ting forth rich

a song in sk

cher states th

out the sacri

the sake of her admirable wealth!" (x. 27, 12); while another addresses the kine he desires with the words: "Ye cows make even the lean man fat, even the ugly man ye make of goodly countenance" (vi. 28, 6). A third observes: "Indra himself said this, 'The mind of woman is

rm they are found in a poem (29) of the eighth book. In each of its ten stanzas a different deity is described by his characte

mighty stride has

e gods rejo

is also given. Occasionally the poet propounds a riddle of which he himself evidently does not know the solution. In general these problems are stated as enigmas. The subject of about one-fourth of them is the sun. Six or seven deal with clouds, lightning, and the production of rain; three or four with Agni and his various forms; about the same number with the year and its divis

twelve spokes

rder rolls aro

d, O Agni, joi

n hundred son

six twin pairs god-born." The latter expression probably alludes to the intercalary month being an artificial creation of man. In the later Vedic age it became a practice to propound

s handle the subject of the origin of the world in a theological, and only one in a purely philosophical spirit. In the view of the older Rishis, the gods in general, or various individual deities, "generated" the world. This view conflicts with the frequently expressed notion that heaven and earth are the parents of the gods. The poets thus involve themselves in the paradox that the children produce their own parents. Indr

d, very ancient, being met with in several primitive mythologies. But the manner in which the idea is here worked out is sufficiently late. Quite in the spirit of the Brāhma?as, where Vish?u is identified with the sacrifice, the act of creation is treated as a sacrificial rite, the original man being conceived as a victim, the parts of which when cut up become portions of the universe. His head, we are told, became the sky, his navel the air, his feet the earth, while from his mind sprang the moon, from his eye the sun, from his breath the wind. "Thus they (the gods) fashioned the worlds." Another sign of the lateness of the hymn is its pantheistic colouring; for it is here said that "Purusha is all this world, what has been and shall be," and "one-fourth of him is all creatures, and three-fourths are the world of the immortals in heaven." In the Brāhma?as, Purusha is the same as t

eration by the Rishis. Thus he is described as "the soul of all that moves and stands" (i. 115, 1), and is said to be "called by many names though one" (i. 164, 46). Such statements indicate that the sun was in process of bei

ce on which he g

anything, or

earth creatin

his might discl

es and mouth i

eet are turned i

n the earth and

s and wings toge

, and what the tr

ashioned forth th

our mind, pray

d, when he the

e term here used, was regularly employed in Gree

ed that the waters produced the first germ of

ther, parent,

habitations

e gods their n

her beings tu

eval did the w

s all saw thems

the earth, bey

hty gods' myst

eval did the w

ods together

the goat's1 sour

l the worlds ar

him who these

es nearer to y

he name of Hira?yagarbha, "germ of gold," a notion doubtless suggested by the rising sun

ld at first ca

e one lord of

as supported a

we with sacri

reath of life a

ds the gods all

s death and l

we with sacri

mighty waters

life and ge

ed the gods' on

we with sacri

ghty power surv

t and sacrifi

over all the

we with sacri

anza (added to the poem at a later time), whi

istent (asat). In the somewhat confused account given in one of them (x. 72), three stages of creation may be distinguished: firs

ith, the Lor

orged this

st ages o

was not ar

n than this is the Son

en existed n

, nor heaven whi

there? Where?

re, and fatho

sted not, nor

ht nor day was

calm and windless

any other th

st was covered

was indistin

e that by the

the force of h

t the first a

as the earliest

being in non

hing in their he

ruly? who can

rn? whence issue

ds appear with

ows from whence

ation, whence

has been produ

s it in the h

or ev'n he do

yan philosophic thought. With the theory of the Song of Creation, that after the non-existent had developed into the existent, water came first, and then intelligence was evolved from it by heat, the cosmogonic accounts of the Brāhma?as substantially agree. Here, too, the non-existent becomes the existent, of which the first form is the waters. On these floats Hira?yagarbha, the cosmic golden egg, whence is produced the spirit that desires and creates the universe. Always requiring the agency of the creator Prajāpati at an earlier or a later sta

is proba