Hinduism / by Monier Williams.

  • Monier Monier-Williams
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hinduism / by Monier Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    seventh century B.C.) made them practically useless as directories to the ritual until they themselves were furnished with guides in the form of Sutras or apho- ristic rules.1 Each of the Samhitas, or collections of Mantras, has its own Brahmanas. Thus the Rig-veda has the Aitareya-brahmana (perhaps the oldest) and the Kau- shltaki (or Sankhyayana)-brahmana. The two collec- tions of the Yajur-veda have the Taittiriya-brahmana and the Satapatha-brahmana, which last, belonging to the Vajasaneyi-samhita, is perhaps one of the most complete of these productions. The Sama-veda has eight Brahmanas, of which the best known are the Praudha or Panca-vinsa, the Tandya, and the Shad- vinsa. The Atharva-veda has the Gopatha-brahmana. Though much of the matter of these treatises is little better than the silliest sacerdotalism, yet they furnish valuable materials to any one interested in tracing the rise and progress of Brahmanism, and the development of its sacrificial system. We may observe that the division of the people into the four great classes of Brahmanas, priests ; 1 These were called Kalpa or Srauta-sutras. Others, which were guides to domestic ceremonies, were called Smarta or Grihya-sutras (see p. 15). The word Sutra is derived from the root siv, 1 to sew,’ and means ‘ a string of rules.’ A Sutra should properly be expressed with the utmost possible brevity. It is frequently nothing but a few suggestive memorial words used like algebraic signs, and unintelligible without a key. In later times, Sutra works are merely collections of formulated precepts, adapted to serve as manuals to particular systems of teaching, whether in ritual, philosophy, law, or grammar.
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