Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/42

come from a somewhat later Vedic time; they do not coincide exactly with the earlier names, nor do they fully correspond to the contents of the texts themselves. The earlier names refer rather to the different styles of composition, than to canonical collections. They are reaḥ, "stanzas of praise"; yajūṅshi, "liturgical stanzas and formulas"; sāmani, "melodies"; and atharvāngirasaḥ, "blessings and curses. The book which goes by the name of Rig-Veda contains not only “stanzas of praise," but – in its later parts – also "blessings and curses," as well as most of the stanzas which form the text to the sāman-melodies of the Sāma-Veda. The Atharva-Veda contains ṛcaḥ, "stanzas of praise," and yajūṅshi, "liturgical stanzas," mostly worked over for its own purposes, as well as its very own "blessings and curses." The Yajur-Veda also contains materials of the other Vedic types in addition to its main topic, the liturgy. The Sāma-Veda is merely a collection of a certain kind of ṛcaḥ, or "stanzas of praise," which are derived with some variants and additions from the Rig-Veda, and are here set to music which is indicated by musical notations.

The Rig-Veda is, on the whole, the oldest as well as the most important of the four collections. Its language is a priestly, very high, or very literary speech. This we may call by distinction the hieratic