A new approach to the Vedas : an essay in translation and exegesis

III THREE VEDIC HYMNS

The Vedas, as we possess them, embody a tradition of immemorial antiquity, already locally developed in characteristic idioms, but by no means original or exclusive to themselves : Veda antedates the Vedas. However, it is not so much intended here to stress this argument, as to point out that there is little or nothing in the metaphysics of the Upanisads that necessarily implies a “ progress ” with respect to the older Vedic books. The “ three Vedas ”’ are primarily concerned with “‘ Works” (kavma, yajna) and with “‘ Genesis” (bhava-vyita, Byhad Devata, II, 120%*; perhaps also jata vidya, Rg Veda, X, 71, II, and Nirukia, I, 8): exegetical matter, such as appears abundantly in the Atharva Veda, Brahmanas, Upanisads, and nirukta generally, is included amongst the Vedic liturgies only as it were by accident and incidentally. That the language of the Upanisads is less archaic than that of the three Vedas proves only a late publication of the traditional exegesis, but in no way proves, nor even suggests to those who recognize the consistency of one tradition in the Vedas and Upanisads, that the essential doctrines of the latter had not “ always” been taught to those possessed of the necessary qualifications.** This would fully accord with the traditional interpretation of “Upanisad’”’ as “secret doctrine” or ‘ mystery,” rahasya, without contradicting the traditional connotation “doctrine with respect to Brahman.” In any case, the history of tradition, and the history of literature, are two different things ; and that is especially true in India,

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