cover image: Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and History of the People of India  Their Religion and Institutions

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Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and History of the People of India Their Religion and Institutions

1890

1-160) comprehends the myth-. ical accounts of the creation of man and of the origin of castes wliic11 are to be found in the Vedic hymns in the Brahmanas and their appendages in the Ramayana the Mahabharata and the Puranas. [...] 44!-479) contains a series of legends chiefly from the Mahabharata regarding the repeated exterminations of the Kshattriyas by the walike 13rahmalP Paragurama of the race of Bhrigu and the ultimate restoration of the warrior tribe and a variety of extravagant illustrations of the supernatural power of the Brahmans related by the god Yayu to king Arju'ha who began by denying the superiorit [...] The Brahmanas contain regulations regarding the employment of the mantras and the celebration of the various rites of sacrifice and also embrace certain treatises called Aranyakas and others called Upanishads or Vedantas (so called from their being the conchuling portions of each Veda) which expound the mystical sense of some of the ceremonies and discuss the nature of the godhead and the me [...] 3 From this succinct account of the contents of the Vedas it is clear that the Mantras must constitute their most ancient portions since the Irahmanas which regulate the employment of the hymns of necessity pre-suppose the earlier existence of the latter. [...] They are composed in an ancient dialect of the Sanskrit containing many words of which the sense was no longer known with certainty in the age of Yaska the author of the Nirukta ° and many grammatical forms which had become obsolete in the time of the great grammarian Pflnini who refers to them as peculiar to the hymns (chhandas).7 A third argument in favour of the greater antiquity of the mant
history
Pages
552
Published in
United Kingdom
SARF Document ID
sarf.141977
Segment Pages Author Actions
Frontmatter
i-xx J Muir view
Introduction
1-6 unknown view
Chapter I Mythical Accounts Of The Creation of Man and of the Origin of the Four Castes
7-160 unknown view
Chapter II Tradition of the Descent of the Indian Race from Manii
161-238 unknown view
Chapter III on the Mutuaf Relations of the Different Classes of Indian Society According to the Hymns of the Rigand Atharva-Vedas
239-295 unknown view
Chapter IV Early Contests Between the Brahmans and Kshattriyas
296-479 unknown view
Chapter V Relation of the Brahmanical Indians to the Neighbouring Tribes According to Manu and the Puranas
480-488 unknown view
Chapter VI Puranic Accounts of the Parts of the Earth Exterior to Bharatavarsha or India
489-504 unknown view
Appendix
505-516 unknown view
Index
517-532 unknown view

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