130
THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
The fourVedasbecome in-sufficient.
The Brah-
manas
compiled.
Sruti, orRevealedTruth.
TheSutras,or SacredTradi-tions ;
Smriti ;not
‘ revealed.’
Their
subject-
matter.
the still later songs of the Brahmans, after they had establishedtheir priestly power. It supplies the connecting link betweenthe simple Aryan worship of the Shining Ones exhibited inthe Rig-Veda , and the complex Brahmanical system whichfollowed. It was only allowed to rank as part of the Vedaafter a long struggle.
The four Vedas thus described, namely, the Rig-Veda , theSama, the Yajur, and the Atharva, formed an immense bodyof sacrificial poetry. But as the priests grew in number andpower, they went on elaborating their ceremonies, until eventhe four Vedas became insufficient guides for them. Theyaccordingly compiled prose treatises, called Brahmanas,attached to each of the four Vedas, in order to more fullyexplain the functions of the officiating priests. Thus theBrahmana of the Rig-Veda deals with the duties of the Reciterof the Hymns ( hotar)\ the Brahmana of the Sama-Veda, withthose of the Singer at the Soma sacrifice ( udgatar ); theBrahmana of the Yajur-Veda, with those of the actual per-former of the sacrifice ( adhvaryu ); while the Brahmana ofthe Atharva-Veda is a medley of legends and speculations,having but little direct connection with the Veda whose nameit bears. All the Brahmanas, indeed, besides explaining theritual, lay down religious precepts and dogmas. Like the fourVedas, they are held to be the very Word of God. TheVedas and the Brahmanas form the Sruti, the things literallyheard from God , or the Revealed Scriptures of the Hindus ;the Vedas supplying their divinely-inspired psalms, and theBrahmanas their divinely-inspired theology or body of doctrine.
Even this ample religious literature failed in time to suffice.The priests composed a number of new works, called Sutras,which elaborated still further their system of sacrifice, andwhich asserted still more strongly their own claims as aseparate and superior caste. They alleged that these Sutras,although not directly revealed by God , were founded on theinspired Vedas and Brahmanas. They had therefore a lesserdivine authority as sacred traditions or Smriti, literally thethings remembered. The Sutras, literally ‘strings’ of aphorisms,were composed in the form of short sentences, for the sakeof brevity, and in order that their vast number might bethe better remembered in an age when writing was littlepractised, or unknown. Some of them, such as the Kalpa-Siitras, deal with the ritual and sacrifices ; others, like the‘Household’ or Grihya-Sutras, prescribe the ceremonies atbirth, marriage, and death; a still larger class of Sutras treat of