Veda. The objects of touch and taste, sound, form, and odour, as the fifth, are made known by the Veda, together with their products, quatilies, and the character of their action. The eternal Veda supports all beings: hence I regard it as the principal instrument of well-being to this creature, man. Command of armies, royal authority, the administration of criminal justice, and the sovereignty of all worlds, he alone deserves who knows the Veda. As fire, when it has acquired force, burns up even green trees, so he who knows the Veda consumes the taint of his soul which has been contracted from works. He who comprehends the essential meaning of the Veda, in whatever order of life he may be, is prepared for absorption into Brahmā, even while abiding in this lower world."

The following are some further miscellaneous passages of the same tenor, scattered throughout the Institutes (Manu, ii. 10 ff.):

Srutis tu vedo vijneyo dharma-śāstram tu vai smṛitiḥ | te sarvārtheshv amīmāmsye tābhyām dharmo hi nirbabhau | 11. Yo'vamanyeta te mūle hetu-śāstrāśrayād dvijaḥ | sa sādhubhir vahishkāryyo nāstiko veda-nindakaḥ.... 13. Dharmam jijnāsamānānām pramāṇam paramam śrutiḥ |

"By śruti is meant the Veda, and by smriti the institutes of law: the contents of these are not to be questioned by reason, since from them [a knowledge of] duty has shone forth. The Brahman who, relying on rationalistic treatises," shall contemn these two primary sources of knowledge, must be excommunicated by the virtuous as a sceptic and reviler of the Vedas. .. 13. To those who are seeking a knowledge of duty, the śruti is the supreme authority."

In the following passage, the necessity of a knowledge of Brahma is asserted, though the practice of ritual observances is also inculcated (vi. 82 ff.):

Dhyānikam sarvam evaitad yad etad abhiśabditam | na hy anadhyātmavit kaśchit kriya-phalam upāśnute | adhiyajnam brahma japed adhidaivikam eva cha | adhyatmikam cha satatam vedāntābhihitam cha yat | Idam śaranam ajnānām idam eva vijānatām | idam anvichchhatām svargam idam inantyam ichchhatām |

29 This, however, must be read in conjunction with the precept in xii. 106, which declares: ārsham dharmopades am cha veda-sāstrāvirodhinā | yas tarkenānusandhatte sa dharmam veda nāparaḥ | “He, and he only is acquainted with duty, who investigates the injunctions of the rishis, and the precepts of the smriti, by reasonings which do not contradict the Veda."

"All this which has been now declared is dependant on devout meditation: no one who is ignorant of the supreme Spirit can reap the fruit of ceremonial acts. Let a man repeat texts relating to sacrifice, texts relating to deities, texts relating to the supreme Spirit, and whatever is declared in the concluding portions of the Veda (the Upanishads). This [Veda] is the refuge of the ignorant, as well as of the understanding; it is the refuge of those who are seeking after paradise, as well as of those who are desiring infinity."

The following text breathes a moral spirit, by representing purity of life as essential to the reception of benefit from religious observances (ii. 97):

Vedās tyāgaś cha yajnāś cha niyamāś cha tapāñsi cha | na vipradushta-bhavasya siddhim gachhanti karchichit |

"The Vedas, almsgiving, sacrifices, observances, austerities, are ineffectual to a man of depraved disposition."

The doctrine which may be drawn from the following lines does not seem so favourable to morality (xi. 261 ff.):

Hatvā lokān apīmāms trīn aśnann api yatastataḥ | Rigvedam dhārayan vipro nainaḥ prapnoti kinchana | Riksamhitām trir abhyasya yajushām va samāhitaḥ | sāmnām vā sa-rahasyānām sarva-pāpaiḥ pramuchyate | yathā mahā-hradam prāpya kshiptam loshṭam vinaśyati | tathā duścharitam sarvam vede trivṛiti majjati |

"A Brahman who should destroy these three worlds, and eat food received from any quarter whatever, would incur no guilt if he retained in his memory the Rig-veda. Repeating thrice with intent mind the Sanhita of the Rik, or the Yajush, or the Saman, with the Upanishads, he is freed from all his sins. Just as a clod thrown into a great lake is dissolved when it touches the water, so does all sin sink in the triple Veda."

Considering the sacredness ascribed in the preceding passages to all the Vedas, the characteristics assigned to three of them in the passage quoted above (p. 12) from the Markandeya Purana, as well as the epithet applied to the Sama-veda in the second of the following verses are certainly remarkable; (Manu, iv. 123 ff.):

Sāma-dhvanāv rig-yajushī nādhīyīta kadāchana | vedasyādhitya vā 'py antam āranyakam adhitya cha | Rigvedo deva-daivatyo yajurvedas tu mānushaḥ | Sāmavedaḥ smṛitaḥ pitryas tasmāt tasyaśuchir dhvaniḥ |

"Let no one read the Rich or the Yajush while the Saman is sounding in his ears, or after he has read the conclusion of the Veda (i.e. the Upanishads) or an Aranyaka. The Rig-veda has the gods for its deities; the Yajur-veda has men for its objects; the Sama-veda has the pitris for its divinities, wherefore its sound is impure."

The scholiast Kullūka, however, will not allow that the sound of the Sama-veda can be really "impure." "It has," he says, "only a semblance of impurity" (tasmāt tasya aśuchir iva dhvaniḥ | na tv aśuchir eva). In this remark he evinces the tendency, incident to so many systematic theologians, to ignore all those features of the sacred text on which they are commenting which are at variance with their theories regarding its absolute perfection. As it was the opinion of his age that the Veda was eternal and divine, it was, he considered, impossible that impurity or any species of defect could be predicated of any of its parts; and every expression, even of the highest authorities, which contradicted this opinion, had to be explained away. I am not in a position to state how this notion of impurity came to be attached to the Sama-veda. The passage perhaps proceeded from the adherents of some particular Vedic school adverse to the Sama-veda; but its substance being found recorded in some earlier work, it was deemed of sufficient authority to find a place in the miscellaneous collection of precepts,-gathered no doubt from different quarters, and perhaps not always strictly consistent with each other, which make up the Manava-dharma-śāstra.

Vishnu Purāna.-The following passage from the Vishnu Purāṇa, at the close, ascribes the same character of impurity to the Sama-veda, though on different grounds, Vish. Pur. ii. 11, 5;

Yā tu saktiḥ parā Vishnor rig-yajuḥ-sāma-sanjnitā | saishā trayi tapaty amho jagataś cha hinasti yat | saiva Vishnuḥ sthitaḥ sthityām jagataḥ palanodyataḥ | rig-yajuḥ-sāma-bhūto 'ntaḥ savitur dvija tishṭhati | māsi māsi ravir yo yas tatra tatra hi sā parā | trayīmayī Vishnuśaktir avasthanam karoti vai | Richas tapanti purvāhne madhyāhne 'tha yajūmshy atha | vṛihadrathantarādīni sāmāny ahnaḥ kshaye ravau | angam eshū trayī Vishnor rig-yajuḥ-sāma-sanjnitā | Vishnu-śaktir avasthānam māsāditye karoti sā | na kevalam ravau śaktir vaishnavī sā trayimayi | Brahmā 'tha Purusho Rudras trayam etat trayīmayam | sargādāv rinmayo Brahma sthitau Vishnur yajurmayaḥ | Rudraḥ sāmamayo 'ntāya tasmāt tasyāśuchir dhvaniḥ |

"The supreme energy of Vishnu, called the Rich, Yajush, and Saman-this triad burns up sin and all things injurious to the world. During the continuance of the world, this triad exists as Vishnu, who is occupied in the preservation of the universe, and who in the form of the Rich, Yajush, and Saman, abides within the sun. That supreme energy of Vishnu, consisting of the triple Veda, dwells in the particular form of the sun, which presides over each month. The Rich verses shine in

the morning sun, the Yajush verses in the meridian beams, and the Vṛihad-rathantara and other Sāma verses in his declining rays. This triple Veda is the body of Vishnu, and this his energy abides in the monthly sun. But not only does this energy of Vishnu, formed of the triple Veda, reside in the sun: Brahma, Purusha (Vishnu), and Rudra also constitute a triad formed of the triple Veda. Acting in creation, Brahma is formed of the Rig-veda; presiding over the continuance of the universe, Vishnu is composed of the Yajur-veda; and for the destruction of the worlds, Rudra is made up of the Sama-veda; hence the sound of this Veda is impure."

Vāyu Purāna.-Other passages also may be found in works which are far from being reputed as heretical, in which the Vedas, or particular parts of them, are not spoken of with the same degree of respect as they are by Manu. Thus the Vāyu Purāṇa gives precedence to the Purāņas over the Vedas in the order of creation (i. 563o):

Prathamam sarva-śāstrāṇāṁ Purānam Brahmaṇā smṛitam | anantaram cha vaktrebhyo vedās tasya vinissṛitāḥ |

"First of all the Sastras, the Purāṇa was uttered by Brahma. Subsequently the Vedas issued from his mouths."

Similarly the Padma Purana says:

Purānam sarva-śāstrāṇām prathamam Brahmanā smṛitam | tri-vargasādhanam punyam śata-koṭi-pravistaram | nirdagdheshu cha lokeshu vājirūpena Kesavaḥ | Brahmanas tu samādeśād vedān ahṛitavān asau | angāni chaturo vedān purāṇa-nyāya-vistarā[n?]| mīmāñsā[ñ?] dharma-śāstram cha parigrihyatha sampratam | matsya-rupena cha punaḥ kalpādāv udakontare | aśesham etat kathitam ityādi | 31

31

"The Purana, which is an instrument for effecting the three objects

30 Page 48 of Prof. Aufrecht's Catalogue of Sanskrit MSS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

31 See the same Catalogue p. 12, col. i.

of life, which is pure, and extends to the length of a hundred crores of verses, was the first of all the S'astras which Brahma uttered. When the worlds had been burnt up, Keśava (Krishna), in the form of a horse, and obeying Brahma's command, rescued the Vedas. Having taken them with their appendages, the Purānas, the Nyaya, the Mimānsā, and the Institutes of Law, he now at the beginning of the Kalpa promulgated them all again in the form of a Fish from the midst of the waters."

In the Matsya Purāṇa, iii. 2 ff., not only is priority of creation claimed for the Puranas, but also the qualities of eternity and identity with sound, which are generally predicated of the Vedas alone:

32

Rupam dadhāra prathamam amarānam Pitāmahaḥ | āvirbhūtās tato vedāḥ sāngopānga-pada-kramāḥ | 3. Purāṇam sarva-śāstrāṇām prathamam Brahmanā smṛitam | nityam śabdamayam punyam śata-koti-pravistaram | 4. Anantaram cha vaktrebhyo vedās tasya vinissṛitāḥ | mīmāmsā nyāya-vidyā cha pramāṇāshṭaka-sam̃yutā | 5. Vedäbhyasa-ratasyāsya prajā-kāmasya mānasāḥ | manasā pūrva-sṛishṭāḥ vai jātāḥ ye tena mānasāḥ |

2. "Pitāmaha (Brahmā), first of all the immortals, took shape: then the Vedas with their Angas and Upangas (appendages and minor appendages), and the various modes of their textual arrangement, were manifested. 3. The Purana, eternal, formed of sound, pure, extending to the length of a hundred crores of verses, was the first of the Sastras which Brahmā uttered: and afterwards the Vedas, issued from his mouth; and also the Mīmānsã and the Nyaya with its eightfold system of proofs. 5. From him (Brahma), who was devoted to the study of the Vedas, and desirous of offspring, sprang mind-born sons, so called because they were at first created by his mind."

The Vayu Purana says further on in the same section from which I have already quoted: 33

Yo vidyach chaturo vedän sāngopanishado dvijaḥ | na chet purāṇam samvidyād naiva sa syud vichakshanaḥ | Itihāsa-purāṇābhyām vedān samupavṛimhayet | vibhety alpa-śrutād vedo mām ayam praharishyati |

32 This quotation is made from the Taylor MS. No. 1918 of the India Office Library. The Guikowar MS. No. 3032 of the same collection, reads here tapas chachāra, "practised austerity," instead of rūpam dadhāra, “took shape," and has besides a number of other various readings in these few lines.

33 See p. 50 of Dr. Aufrecht's Catalogue.