Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/66

ance seems for the most part to be supplanted by allegorical disquisition. But the themes of the Āranyakas are by no means of one sort only; on the contrary they are heterogeneous and haphazard. Thus the Taittirīya Āranyaka deals in its first book with the Ārunaketuka Agni, a particular method of building the fire-altar; its second book makes the rather astounding leap over to Brahmanical education and Veda study; its third, fourth, and fifth books deal with parts of the Vedic sacrificial ceremonial; and its sixth book describes the old Vedic funeral ceremonies (pitṛmedha). Still more variegated are the contents of the Aitareya Āranyaka. What governs the choice of these "forest themes" escapes our notice almost altogether. In any case these books are of lesser importance from the point of view of Vedic literature and religion, except for the following fact, which is of paramount importance:

The Āranyakas are symptomatic and transitional. The important symptom, if we understand the matter aright, is the subordination of the mere act of the sacrifice to its allegorical, or, as we might say, spiritual meaning. This suppression of the material side of the ritual bridges over to the last class of texts which the Veda has to offer along this line of evolution. They are the famous Upanishads, the early philosophical or theosophical texts of India,