A History of Indian Literature - Vol. I: Veda and Upanishads - Fasc. 1: Vedic Literature (Samhitas and Brahmanas)

470 Pages·1975·12.26 MB·English

by  Jan Gonda

A HISTORY
OF INDIAN LITERATURE
JAN GONDA
VEDIC LITERATURE
OTTO HARRASSOWITZ • WIESBADEN
AHISTORY
OF INDIAN LITERATURE
EDITED BY JAN GONDA
VOLUME I
Fasc. 1
1975
OTTO HARRASSOWITZ • WIESBADEN
JAN GONDA
VEDIC LITERATURE
(SAMHITAS AND BRAHMANAS)
1975
OTTO HARRASSOWITZ • WIESBADEN

CONTENTS
Editor's Introduction
CHAPTER I Introduction to the Veda in general and the Rgveda in
particular
1. General introductory definitions. Composition of the
Rgveda 7
2. The text of the Rgveda .. .. 15
3. Chronology; environment and culture 20
4. Development of 'schools'; appendices and ancillary
literature 26
5. Commentaries 39
6. Survival of the Veda .. 43
7. Study of the Veda 55
CHAPTER II Poetry, poet, poem
1. Inspiration and poetry .. .. 65
2. The poet 74
3. Sociology and performance .. 79
4. Ritual application 83
CHAPTER III Contents of the Rgveda
1. Introduction 93
2. Invitations and invocations . . .. 101
3. Apri hymns 104
4. Praise 105
5. Prayers 108
6. Myths .. 114
7. Legends .. . v 123
8. History .. .. .. 128
9. Riddles .. .. 132
10. Speculative hymns . . .. . . .. 136
11. Magic , ?f 142
v
VI J. Gonda • Vedic Literature
12. Ecstatic practices 149
13. Erotic poetry 151
14. Morals and maxims 153
15. Lyrics; emotions 156
16. So-called ballads 159
17. Nature 161
18. Animals 166
19. Labour songs 167
20. Irony; humour 168
21. Danastutis 170
CHAPTER IV The structure of the Rgvedic poems
1. Stanzas and metres 173
2. Structure of the suktas 178
3. Introductory and final stanzas 185
4. Groupings of stanzas 189
5. 'Composite' hymns 191
6. Similarities and repetitions 193
7. Monologues, dialogues, the akhyana theory .. .. 198
CHAPTER V The style of the Vedic hymns
1. The Rgveda from the stylistic point of view .. .. 211
2. Formulas, parallelism and its corollaries, variation 221
3. Epithets 231
4. Brevity 236
5. Ambiguity 240
6. Imagery 248
7. Similes 254
8. Other stylistic features 261
CHAPTER VI The Atharvaveda
1. Names and position 267
2. Genesis and recensions of the Atharvaveda-Samhita 272
3. The magical sUktas 277
4. Ritual and speculative suktas 288
5. Style and structure 298
6. Ancillary and exegetical literature ,. ,, ,, .. 307
Contents VII
CHAPTER VII The liturgical Samhitds
1. The Samaveda 313
2. The Yajurveda 323
CHAPTER VIII The Brdhmanas
1. General introduction 339
2. The texts 344
3. Chronology 357
4. The brahmanas as historical sources 361
5. Interpretation and argumentation 368
6. Disputations 379
7. Myths, legends and narrative episodes 384
8. Style and structure 410
CHAPTER IX The Aranyakas 423
Glossary 433
Abbreviations 437
Index 445
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY
One of the main reasons why Indian thought and Indian civilization make
so fascinating a field of study and research lies in their unique history and
remarkable structure. Indian civilization has its roots in an ancient heritage,
in that pattern of culture which is sometimes called archaic or semi-primitive,
sometimes also pre- or non-modern. This culture, or rather structure of the
human mind, is, in the main, characterized by presenting, in some essential
features, striking contrasts to our modern 'mentalite.' Without being onesidedly
intellectual, it gives free scope to the emotional and imaginative sides of human
nature; our distinction between the subjective and the objective, our contrast
between reality and appearance are almost meaningless; the realm of nature
and the realm of man are hardly distinguished; thought often appears wrapped
in imagination; logical reasoning is by no means lacking but blended with
affective and irrational tendencies; the men of light and leading have a bent for
the speculative, more or less visionary, mode of apprehension, transcending
experience; they are preferably concerned with man himself, his nature and
destiny. On such a basis, reflected in many products of their literature, and
without denying these origins, the Indians—anthropologically a mixture of
immigrant Aryans and 'autochthonous' peoples of other descent—gradually
elaborated a many-sided, highly developed civilization. This civilization is in
no small measure characterized by unity in diversity, by homogeneity not-
withstanding the utmost variety and complexity of its ethnic composition; by
a multitude of languages and a wealth of different cultural patterns; charac-
terized also by considerable diversity in mental character and enormous
differences in religion and social customs, beliefs and practices varying widely
both regionally and, within a given region, from class to class. While preserving
the cohesion of its cultural provinces—religion, art, literature, social organi-
zation—to an unusual degree and on the other hand acquiring full scope for
intellectual effort and pursuits it can glory in remarkable achievements in
various fields.
Owing to the integration of a large variety of heterogeneous elements the
Indian civilization constitutes a very complex and as to its main current
remarkably continuous whole. As it covers the whole of life it has social and
religious, economic, artistic and literary aspects. From the religious point of
view it is an utterly diverse conglomerate of cults, practices, doctrines and ways
of life. Viewed from the angle of sociology it is a stratified system of social
classes which is, at least in traditional India, not only given religious sanction
2 Editor's Introduction to the History
but also, like many other fields of human effort, impregnated by a characteristic
view of life and the world. The more or less constant elements of this conglom-
erate, the main features of the Indian 'great tradition' are, to a considerable
extent, the belief in an eternal, fundamental principle (brahman), the ultimate
source and goal of all existence, the One that is the All and sole reality; the
recognition of a pristine body of religious literature as an absolute authority,
however unknown its contents; a deep-rooted want for assuming, maintaining,
and clinging to continuity; a craving for a firm foundation on which to build
one's life and ideals, and the confidence that one's own existence and the culture
of the community to which one belongs are founded on an eternal and infallible
basis; the belief in karman, and its complement, the almost generally accepted
doctrine of transmigration; the conviction that man's best endeavour should
be directed towards escaping from impermanence or final emancipation; a com-
plex 'polytheism' subsumed in a fundamental monotheism; a tendency to
mysticism and monistic philosophy; a propensity to assimilate rather than to
exclude or to abandon what once has been adopted.
This civilization is expressed and reflected by an uninterrupted, immense and
utterly varied literary production from the Rgveda onward which, while
continually transforming and rejuvenating itself, has always been subject to
processes of adaption and assimilation. A more than superficial study of many
chapters of this literature requires of the reader, to some degree, familiarization
with a non-modern 'mentality'; with a dynamic conception of the cosmic
events; with religious convictions indissolubly associated with social life; with
a more or less pronounced tendency to be in conformity with tradition and
socio-religious norms and ideals; with mythical formulations of thought which,
though products of imagination, are far from being mere fantasy; with various
forms of speculation that, as a rule unrestricted by disciplined confrontation
with the results of objective and analytical investigation, found unlimited
possibilities for development. He will be impressed by a luxuriant imagination
and a great narrative power; by a sense of the beauty of nature as well as rec-
ognition of spiritual values; by the consciousness of man's close and intimate
relation with his natural surroundings in general and his fellowship with the
other living creatures in particular. If he is not a professional indologist he will
learn that India has, throughout many centuries, not only tended to the practice
of self-denial, quietism and asceticism, but also to addiction to the pleasures and
luxuries of life; that she delighted in the things of the senses no less passionately
than in the things of the spirit; that, while aspiring to noble ideals of conduct,
tolerance and humanity, she was not averse to extracting all happiness possible
from earthly existence. He will hear about cunning and unscrupulous statecraft
as well as occasional strenuous effort in the province of applied knowledge and
great achievements in art and mathematics. Acquainting himself with the
'modern' literatures he will comprehend the impact of Islam, of the West, the
spread of modern ideas, the influence of western ways of life; witness also
Editor's Introduction to the History 3
remarkable outbursts of intellectual activity, transformations in social and
religious ideas, gradual transitions from a traditional to a modern society, a
critical outlook on the past, new aspirations for the future, a zeal for reform and
remodelling of the orthodox beliefs and traditional habits. In short, when placed
in the context of the cultural inheritance this uniquely rich and many-sided
literature will introduce him to the development of the humanitas indica in
all its aspects.
However, the reader will also have to accustom himself to an unfamiliar
historical background, to books of unusual length, to poems and prose works of
uncommon structure, frequent repetitions of themes and, not infrequently,
richness of material and detail and elaborateness of style. In traditional India
the identity, biography, and circumstances in life of the authors and the dates
of the composition of their works are as a rule not so important as in the West.
In the majority of cases dates are only known approximately. The persons of
the authors or compilers are not infrequently obliterated or even fated to remain
anonymous for ever. Where we would like to base our historical research on
reliable facts the only information given to a student of Indian literature often
consists of a mythologized biography or some vague, general and contradictory
statements. This is not only due to the fact that most literary works are little
historically conditioned but also, and in many cases primarily, to the well-
known tendency of pre-literate and traditional societies to subordinate the
individual to the group; to the static, and theoretically unchangeable nature of
the traditional Indian society and—under the influence of an agelong belief in
the secondary reality of all empirical existence, in the almost absolute depend-
ence on the power of karman and the continuous divine interference in mundane
affairs—to a comparatively weak sense of individuality.
With a few noteworthy exceptions all other—medieval and modern—Indian
literatures depend on, or are largely influenced by, the ancient Sanskrit back-
ground. To say that Sanskrit literature alone exceeds that of Greece or Rome
is an error. It is almost boundless, in the sense that nobody knows its extent
and the number of its writings. In the course of its prolonged literary existence
Sanskrit—cultivated for literary purposes long after it had ceased to be a spo-
ken language—underwent various and important changes. While many great
authors, fond of displaying their erudition, always endeavoured to comply
with the recognized standards, striving after grammatical correctness and
stylistic elaboration, there is, especially in technical or non-brahminical works,
abundant evidence of a mixed, or popular, incorrect Sanskrit. It will be seen
that the origin of most of the 'modern' literatures of the Indo-Aryan languages
which, through a Middle Indian (Prakrit) stage, developed from Old Indian,
is—like that of the Middle Indian Pali and Ardha-Magadhi—connected with
the spread of religious ideas. Whereas, after the arrival of Islam, Muslim and
Persian influence extended to all major linguistic areas calling into existence