would often quarrel with others and maintain its superiority by trying to prove that it and it alone was the faithful follower of the Vedas and represented correctly their views.  The laws which regulate the social, legal, domestic and religious customs and rites of the Hindus even to the present day are said to be but mere systematized memories of old Vedic teachings, and are held to be obligatory on their authority.  Even under British administration, in the inheritance of property, adoption, and in such other legal transactions, Hindu Law is followed, and this claims to draw its authority from the Vedas.  To enter into details is unnecessary.  But suffice it to say that the Vedas, far from being regarded as a dead literature of the past, are still looked upon as the origin and source of almost all literatures except purely secular poetry and drama.  Thus in short we may say that in spite of the many changes that time has wrought, the orthodox Hindu life may still be regarded in the main as an adumbration of the Vedic life, which had never ceased to shed its light all through the past.

Classification of the Vedic literature.

A beginner who is introduced for the first time to the study of later Sanskrit literature is likely to appear somewhat confused when he meets with authoritative texts of diverse purport and subjects having the same generic name “Veda” or “S’ruti” (from s’ru to hear); for Veda in its wider sense is not the name of any

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particular book, but of the literature of a particular epoch extending over a long period, say two thousand years or so.  As this literature represents the total achievements of the Indian people in different directions for such a long period, it must of necessity be of a diversified character.  If we roughly classify this huge literature from the points of view of age, language, and subject matter, we can point out four different types, namely the Sa@mhita or collection of verses (sam together, hita put), Brahma@nas, Ara@nyakas ("forest treatises”) and the Upani@sads.  All these literatures, both prose and verse, were looked upon as so holy that in early times it was thought almost a sacrilege to write them; they were therefore learnt by heart by the Brahmins from the mouth of their preceptors and were hence called s’ruti (literally anything heard)[Footnote ref 1].

The Sa@mhitas.

There are four collections or Sa@mhitas, namely @Rg-Veda, Sama-Veda, Yajur-Veda and Atharva-Veda.  Of these the @Rg-Veda is probably the earliest.  The Sama-Veda has practically no independent value, for it consists of stanzas taken (excepting only 75) entirely from the @Rg-Veda, which were meant to be sung to certain fixed melodies, and may thus be called the book of chants.  The Yajur-Veda however contains in addition to the verses taken from the @Rg-Veda many original prose formulas.  The arrangement of the verses of the Sama-Veda is solely with reference to their