the composition of their hymns by a divine impulse. But although the two rivals, Vasishtha and Viśvāmitra, whether in the belief of their own superhuman insight, or to enhance their own importance, and recommend themselves to their royal patrons, talk proudly about the wide range of their knowledge (see above, pp. 246 ff.), it is not necessary to imagine that, either in their idea or in that of the other ancient Indian sages, inspiration and infallibility were convertible or co-extensive terms. The rishis may have believed that the supernatural aid which they had received enabled them to perform what they must otherwise have left unattempted, but that after all it communicated only a partial illumination, and left them still liable to mistake and doubt.

I must also remark that this belief in their own inspiration which I imagine some of the rishis to have held, falls very far short of the conceptions which most of the later writers, whether Vaiseshika, Mīmānsaka, or Vedāntist, entertain in regard to the supernatural origin and authority of the Veda. The gods from whom the rishis supposed that they derived their illumination, at least Agni, Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Soma, Pushan, etc., would all fall under the category of productions, or divinities created in time. This is clearly shown by the comments of Sankara on the Brahma Sūtras, i. 3, 28, (above, pp. 101 ff.); and is otherwise notorious (see my "Contributions to a knowledge of the Vedic Theogony and Mythology" in the Jl. R. A. S. for 1864, p. 63). But if these gods were themselves created, and even (as we are told in the Rig-veda itself, x. 129, 6, cited in p. 280) produced subsequently to some other parts of the creation, the hymns with which they inspired the rishis, could not have been eternal. The only one of the deities referred to in the Rig-veda as sources of illumination, to whom this remark would perhaps not apply, is Vach or Sarasvati, who is identified with the supreme Brahma in the passage of the Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad quoted above (p. 208, note 179); though this idea no doubt originated subsequently to the era of the hymns. But it is not to created gods, like Agni, Indra, and others of the same class, that the origin of the Veda is referred by the Vaiseshikas, Mīmānsakas, or Vedantists. The Vaiśeshikas represent the eternal Isvara as the author of the Veda (see the passages which I have quoted in pp. 118 ff. and 209). The Mimānsakas and Vedantists, as we have seen (pp. 70 ff., 99 ff. and 208),

either affirm that it is uncreated, or derive it from the eternal Brahma. And even those writers who may attribute the composition of the Veda to the personal and created Brahma (see pp. 69, 105 f. and 208), with the Naiyayikas who merely describe it as the work of a competent author (see pp. 116 f. and 209), and the Sankhyas (see pp. 135 and 208), concur with the other schools in affirming its absolute infallibility. Their view, consequently (unless we admit an exception in reference to Vach), differs from that of the Vedic rishis themselves, who do not seem to have had any idea, either of their hymns being uncreated, or derived from the eternal Brahma, or of their being infallible.

As regards the relation of the rishis to deities like Indra, it is also deserving of notice that later mythologists represent the former, not only as quite independent of the latter, and as gifted with an inherent capacity of raising themselves by their own austerities to the enjoyment of various superhuman faculties, but even as possessing the power of rivalling the gods themselves, and taking possession of their thrones. See the stories of Nahusha and Viśvāmitra in the First Volume of this work, particularly pp. 310 ff. and 404. Compare also the passages from the Rig-veda, x. 154, 2, and x. 167, 1, quoted above, p. 250, where the rishis are said to have attained to heaven, and Indra to have conquered it, by austere-fervour (tapas).

SECT. V.-Texts from the Upanishads, showing the opinions of the authors regarding their own inspiration, or that of their predecessors.

I shall now adduce some passages from different Upanishads, to show what opinions their authors entertained either in regard to their own inspiration, or that of the earlier sages, from whom they assert that their doctrine was derived by tradition.

I. Svetāśvatara Up. v. 2 (already quoted above, p. 184). Yo yonim yonim adhitishthaty eko viśvāni rūpāni yonīś cha sarvāḥ | rishim pra sūtam Kapilam yas tam agre jnānair bibhartti jāyamānam cha paśyet |

"He who alone presides over every place of production, over all forms, and all sources of birth, who formerly nourished with various knowledge that rishi Kapila, who had been born, and beheld him at his birth."

II. Svetāśvatara Up. vi. 21. Tapaḥ-prabhāvād veda - prasādāch cha Brahma ha Svetāśvataro 'tha vidvān | atyāśramibhyaḥ paramam pavitram provācha samyag rishi-sangha-jushṭam |

"By the power of austere-fervour, and by the grace of the Veda, the wise Svetasvatara declared perfectly to the men in the highest of the four orders, the supreme and holy Brahma, who is sought after by the company of rishis." (Dr. Röer's translation, p. 68, follows the commentator in rendering the first words of the verse thus: "By the power of his austerity, and the grace of God." This, however, is not the proper meaning of the words veda-prasadach cha, if the correctess of that reading, which is given both in the text and commentary (Bibl. Ind. p. 372), be maintained. Sankara interprets the words thus: "Veda-prasadach cha" | kaivalyam uddiśya tad-adhikāra-siddhaye bahu janmasu samyag ārādhita-parameśvarasya prasādāch cha | "By the grace of the Veda:' by the grace of the supreme God who had been perfectly adored by him during many births in order to acquire the prerogative of (studying) it (the Veda) in reference to kaivalya (isolation from mundane existence);" and thus appears to recognize this reading.

In the 18th verse of the same section of this Upanishad the Vedas are said to have been given by the supreme God to Brahmā:

Yo Brahmānam vidadhāti pūrvam̃ yo vai vedāmś cha prahinoti tasmai | tam ha devam ātma-buddhi-prakāśam mumukshur vai saranam aham prapadye |

"Seeking after final liberation, I take refuge with that God, the manifester of the knowledge of himself, who at first created Brahmā and gave him the Vedas."

III. Mundaka Up. i. 1 ff. (quoted above, p. 30, more at length). Brahmā devānām prathamaḥ sambabhūva viśvasya kartta bhuvanasya goptā Sa brahma-vidyām sarva-vidyā-pratishṭhām Atharvāya jyeshṭhaputrāya prāha |

"Brahma was born the first of the gods, he who is the maker of the universe and the supporter of the world. He declared the science of Brahma, the foundation of all the sciences, to Atharva, his eldest son."

IV. The Chhandogya Up. viii. 15, 1, p. 625 ff. concludes as follows: Tad ha etad Brahmā Prajāpataye uvācha Prajāpatir Manave Manuḥ prajābhyaḥacharyya-kulud vedam adhitya yatha vidhānam guroḥ karmātiśeshena abhisamāvṛitya kuṭumbe śuchau deśe svādhyāyam adhiyāno

dhārmikān vidadhad ātmanı sarvendriyāni sampratishṭhāpya ahimsan sarva-bhūtāni anyatra tirthebhyaḥ sa khalv evam varttayan yavad-āyusham Brahma-lokam abhisampadyate na cha punar āvarttate na cha punar āvarttate |

"This [doctrine] Brahma declared to Prajapati, Prajapati declared it to Manu, and Manu to his descendants. Having received instruction in the Veda from the family of his religious teacher in the prescribed manner, and in the time which remains after performing his duty to his preceptor; and when he has ceased from this, continuing his Vedic studies at home, in his family, in a pure spot, communicating a knowledge of duty [to his pupils], withdrawing all his senses into himself, doing injury to no living creature, away from holy places,thus passing all his days, a man attains to the world of Brahma, and does not return again, and does not return again [i.e. is not subjected to any future births]."

I quote the commencement of S'ankara's comment on this passage: Tad ha etad atma-jnānam sopakaranam om ity etad aksharam ity-adyaiḥ saha upasanais tad-vāchakena granthena ashṭādhyāya-lakshanena saha Brahma Hiranyagarbhaḥ Parameśvaro vā tad-dvārena Prajāpataye Kaśyapāya uvācha | asāv api Manave sva-putrāya | Manuḥ prajābhyaḥ | ity evam śruty-artha-sampradaya-paramparayā āgatam upanishad-vijnānam adyāpi vidvatsv avagamyate |

"This knowledge of soul, with its instruments, with the sacred monosyllable Om and other formulæ of devotion, and with the book distinguished as containing eight chapters, which sets forth all these topics, [viz. the Chhandogya Upanishad itself] was declared by Brahma Hiranyagarbha, or by Parameśvara (the supreme God), through his agency, to the Prajapati Kasyapa. The latter in his turn declared it to his son Manu, and Manu to his descendants. In this manner the sacred knowledge contained in the Upanishads, having been received through successive transmission of the sense of the Veda from generation to generation, is to this day understood among learned men."

In an earlier passage of the same Upanishad iii. 11, 3 f. (partly quoted in the First Volume of this work, p. 195), we find a similar statement in reference to a particular branch of sacred knowledge (the madhu-jnāna):

3. Na ha vai asmai udeti na nimlochati sakṛid diva ha eva asmai bha

286 THE RISHIS, AND THE ORIGIN OF THE VEDIC HYMNS.

vati yaḥ etam evam brahmopanishadam veda | 4. Tad ha etad Brahma Prajāpataye uvācha Prajāpatir Manave Manuḥ prajābhyaḥ | tad etad Uddālakāya Ārunaye jyeshṭhāya puttrāya pitā brahma uvācha | 5. Idam vāva taj-jyeshṭhāya puttrāya pitā brahma prabrāyāt prāṇāyyāya vā antavāsine (6) na anyasmai kasmaichana | yadyapy asmai imām adbhiḥ parigrihītām dhanasya pūrṇām dadyāt etad eva tato bhūyaḥ ity etad eva tato bhūyaḥ iti |

"3. For him who thus knows this sacred mystery, the sun neither rises nor sets, but one day perpetually lasts. 4. This (Madhu-jnāna) was declared by Brahmā to Prajapati, by Prajapati to Manu, and by Manu to his descendants. This sacred knowledge was further declared to Uddālaka Āruņi by his father. 5. Let a father expound it to his eldest son, or to a capable pupil, but to no one else. 6. If any one were to give him this entire earth, which is surrounded by water, full of wealth, this sacred knowledge would be more than that, yes, would be more than that."

Compare Manu, xi. 243, where that Code is said to have been created by Prajapati (First Volume of this work, p. 394); and Bhagavad Gită iv. 1, where the doctrine of that treatise is said to have been declared by Krishna to Vivasvat (the Sun), by Vivasvat to Manu, by him to Ikshvāku, and then handed down by tradition from one royal rishi to another (Vol. I. p. 508).