Vedic India as embodied principally in the Rig-Veda / [Zénaïde A. Ragozin].

  • Ragozin, Zénaïde A. (Zénaïde Alexeïevna), 1835-1924.
Date:
[1895]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vedic India as embodied principally in the Rig-Veda / [Zénaïde A. Ragozin]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the will of Heaven. Now all these things that the Brahmans claimed for themselves were not in the Rig-Veda,—to begin with the claim to revelation itself, which the old poets did not put forth for their hymns, of which, indeed, they emphatically speak as their own creation, boasting that they made this or that new song, “as the carpenter fashions a wagon.” It had all to be spun out of embryonic hints con- tained in scattered texts, meanings made out, twisted, and made to fit where needed. The text was nothing, the interpretation was everything. This was supplied by the Brahmanas, and so it came to pass that a huge body of literature—larger than we even yet can realize, since many Brahmanas have been lost or not yet found—by a host of authors, of a score of different theological schools, and ranging over between five and eight hundred years, was enveloped in one shroud of mystery and sacredness and labelled SHRUTI, “ Revealed.” Of course such a high -handed proceeding could not but give rise to contradictions and glaring inconsistencies. Thus, the Brahmanas are continually referred to by the names of their authors or at least schools, and spoken of as “ old ” or “ new,” which is downright heresy, as Shrnti can, properly speaking, be neither old nor new, having pre-existed, unaltered, through all eternity. But theological casuistry will thread its way out of worse difficulties. 17. Smriti, — which might be comprehensively paraphrased by “ venerable tradition ”—embraces a vast range of subjects and of time, as we have seen. But there is one set of literary productions of this