An outline of the religious literature of India / by J.N. Farquhar.

  • John Nicol Farquhar
Date:
1920
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An outline of the religious literature of India / by J.N. Farquhar. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    60/488 (page 28)
    Yajurveda, only the following six Brahmanas are ritual text¬ books of importance : Aitareya, Kaushltciki, Pahchavimsa, ' Talavakara, Taittirlya, Satapatha. The Shadvimsa is an appendix to the P ahchavimsa, and the Chhandogya deals only with domestic rites. It is impossible to set down this mass of material in strict chronological order, because each Brahmana is a collection of pieces of different age and origin ; yet, if we omit the Kapishthala-Katha Samhitd and the Kathaka B., which have survived only in fragments, the following repre¬ sents, on the whole, the order in which these books arose : i. The Maitrciyani, Kathaka, and Taittirlya Samhitas, which cannot be safely arranged in any chronological order; 2. the Aitareya Brahmana ; 3. the Pahchavimsa ; 4. the Taittirlya ; r 5. the Jaiminlya\ 6. the K an shit aki; 7. the Satapatha. § 29. To the Brahmanas there are appended chapters, written in the main in Brahmana language and style, but differing somewhat in contents. Usually these chapters begin with material scarcely distinguishable from the Brahmana itself, but gradually shade off through mystic allegory into philosophic speculation. Usually the ritualistic and allegorical parts are called Aranyaka, and the philosophic, Upanishad; but sometimes the whole receives the title Upanishad. The Upanishads will be dealt with in our next chapter; for in them first appears the mighty doctrine of transmigration and karma ; but we consider the Aranyakas here. Parts of these ‘ Forest- treatises ’ (from aranya, forest) describe the ritual and give incidental mystic explanations, and are thus indistinguishable from Brahmana teaching, except that here and there we meet chapters which add stringent rules to the effect that the rites are to be kept secret and carried out only for certain persons. Similar secrecy is sometimes enjoined in the Upanishads. Side by side with these are found chapters which are exclu¬ sively given up to allegorical expositions of the ritual, and are clearly meant not for ritual use but for meditation. Finally there are passages which teach the student to practise medita¬ tion on the allegorical meaning of certain sacrifices instead of