authors are unknown.  More modern than these are the Sutras.  The word “Sutra” means string, and they consist of a string of short sentences.  Conciseness is the aim in this style, and every doctrine is reduced to a skeleton.  The numerous Sutras now extant contain the distilled essence of all the knowledge which the Brahmans have collected during centuries of meditation.  They belong to the non-revealed literature, as distinguished from the revealed literature,—­a distinction made by the Brahmans before the time of Buddha.  At the time of the Buddhist controversy the Sutras were admitted to be of human origin and were consequently recent works.  The distinction between the Sutras and Brahmanas is very marked, the second being revealed.  The Brahmanas were composed by and for Brahmans and are in three collections.  The Vedangas are intermediate between the Vedic and non-Vedic literature.  Panini, the grammarian of India, was said to be contemporary with King Nanda, who was the successor of Chandragupta, the contemporary of Alexander, and therefore in the second half of the fourth century before Christ.  Dates are so precarious in Indian literature, says Max Mueller, that a confirmation within a century or two is not to be despised.  Now the grammarian Katyayana completed and corrected the grammar of Panini, and Patanjeli wrote an immense commentary on the two which became so famous as to be imported by royal authority into Cashmere, in the first half of the first century of our era.  Mueller considers the limits of the Sutra period to extend from 600 B.C. to 200 B.C.  Buddhism before Asoka was but modified Brahmanism.  The basis of Indian chronology is the date of Chandragupta.  All dates before his time are merely hypothetical.  Several classical writers speak of him as founding an empire on the Ganges soon after the invasion of Alexander.  He was grandfather of Asoka.  Indian traditions refer to this king.

Returning to the Brahmana period, we notice that between the Sutras and Barahmanas come the Aranyakas, which are books written for the recluse.  Of these the Upanishads, before mentioned, form part.  They presuppose the existence of the Brahmanas.

Rammohun Roy was surprised that Dr. Rosen should have thought it worth while to publish the hymns of the Veda, and considered the Upanishads the only Vedic books worth reading.  They speak of the divine SELF, of the Eternal Word in the heavens from which the hymns came.  The divine SELF they say is not to be grasped by tradition, reason, or revelation, but only by him whom he himself grasps.  In the beginning was Self alone.  Atman is the SELF in all our selves,—­the Divine Self concealed by his own qualities.  This Self they sometimes call the Undeveloped and sometimes the Not-Being.  There are ten of the old Upanishads, all of which have been published.  Anquetil Du Perron translated fifty into Latin out of Persian.

The Brahmanas are very numerous.  Mueller gives stories from them and legends.  They relate to sacrifices, to the story of the deluge, and other legends.  They substituted these legends for the simple poetry of the ancient Vedas.  They must have extended over at least two hundred years, and contained long lists of teachers.