{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp080.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp080.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp080.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\nDivisions of the S\u00e1ma-veda: of the Atharva-veda. Four Paur\u00e1\u0144ik Sanhit\u00e1s. Names of the eighteen Pur\u00e1\u0144as. Branches of knowledge. Classes of Rishis.\nYOU shall now hear, Maitreya, how Jaimini, the pupil of Vy\u00e1sa, divided the branches of the S\u00e1ma-veda. The son of Jaimini was Sumantu, and his son was Sukarman, who both studied the same Sanhit\u00e1 under Jaimini 1. The latter composed the S\u00e1hasra Sanhit\u00e1 (or compilation of a thousand hymns, &c.), which he taught to two disciples, Hira\u0144yan\u00e1bha, also named Kau\u015balya (or of Ko\u015bala), and Paushyinji 2. Fifteen disciples of the latter were the authors of as many Sanhit\u00e1s: they were called the northern chaunters of the S\u00e1man. As many more, also the disciples of Hira\u0144yan\u00e1bha, were termed the eastern chaunters of the S\u00e1man, founding an equal number of schools. Lok\u00e1kshi, Kuthumi, Kush\u00edd\u00ed, and L\u00e1ngali were the pupils of Paushyinji; and by them and their disciples many other branches were formed. Whilst another scholar of Hira\u0144yan\u00e1bha, named Kriti, taught twenty-four Sanhit\u00e1s to as many pupils; and by them, again, was the S\u00e1ma-veda divided into numerous branches 3.\nI will now give you an account of the Sanhit\u00e1s of the Atharva-veda. The illustrious Muni Sumantu taught this Veda to his pupil Kabandha, who made it twofold, and communicated the two portions to Devader\u015ba and to Pathya. The disciples of Devader\u015ba were Maudga, Brahmabali,\n[paragraph continues] \u015aaulk\u00e1yani, and Pippal\u00e1da. Pathya had three pupils, J\u00e1jali, Kumud\u00e1di, and \u015aaunaka; and by all these were separate branches instituted. \u015aaunaka having divided his Sanhit\u00e1 into two, gave one to Babhru, and the other to Saindhav\u00e1yana; and from them sprang two schools, the Saindhavas and Munjake\u015bas 4. The principal subjects of difference in the Sanhit\u00e1s of the Atharva-veda are the five Kalpas or ceremonials: the Nakshatra Kalpa, or rules for worshipping the planets; the Vait\u00e1na Kalpa, or rules for oblations, according to the Vedas generally; the Sanhit\u00e1 Kalpa, or rules for sacrifices, according to different schools; the \u00c1ngirasa Kalpa, incantations and prayers for the destruction of foes and the like; and the S\u00e1nti Kalpa, or prayers for averting evil 5.\nAccomplished in the purport of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as, Vy\u00e1sa compiled a Paur\u00e1\u0144ik Sanhit\u00e1, consisting of historical and legendary traditions, prayers and hymns, and sacred chronology 6. He had a distinguished disciple, S\u00fata, also termed Romaharsha\u0144a, and to him the great Muni communicated the Pur\u00e1\u0144as. S\u00fata had six scholars, Sumati, Agnivarchas, Mitrayu, \u015a\u00e1n\u015bap\u00e1yana, Akritavra\u0144a, who is also called K\u00e1\u015byapa, and S\u00e1ver\u0144i. The three last composed three fundamental Sanhit\u00e1s; and Romaharsha\u0144a himself compiled a fourth, called Romaharsha\u0144ika. The substance of which four Sanhit\u00e1s is collected into this (Vish\u0144u) Pur\u00e1\u0144a.\nThe first of all the Pur\u00e1\u0144as is entitled the Br\u00e1hma. Those who are\nacquainted with the Pur\u00e1\u0144as enumerate eighteen, or the Br\u00e1hma, P\u00e1dma, Vaish\u0144ava, \u015aaiva, Bh\u00e1gavata, N\u00e1rad\u00edya, M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya, \u00c1gneya, Bhavishyat, Brahma Vaivartta, Lainga, V\u00e1r\u00e1ha, Sk\u00e1nda, V\u00e1mana, Kaurmma, M\u00e1tsya, G\u00e1rura, Brahm\u00e1\u0144d\u0301a. The creation of the world, and its successive reproductions, the genealogies of the patriarchs and kings, the periods of the Manus, and the transactions of the royal dynasties, are narrated in all these Pur\u00e1\u0144as. This Pur\u00e1\u0144a which I have repeated to you, Maitreya, is called the Vaish\u0144ava, and is next in the series to the Padma; and in every part of it, in its narratives of primary and subsidiary creation, of families, and of periods, the mighty Vish\u0144u is declared in this Pur\u00e1\u0144a 7.\nThe four Vedas, the six Angas (or subsidiary portions of the Vedas, viz. \u015aiksh\u00e1, rules of reciting the prayers, the accents and tones to be observed; Kalpa, ritual; Vy\u00e1kara\u0144a, grammar; Nirukta, glossarial comment; Chhandas, metre; and Jyotish, (astronomy), with M\u00edm\u00e1ns\u00e1 (theology), Ny\u00e1ya (logic), Dharma (the institutes of law), and the Pur\u00e1\u0144as, constitute the fourteen principal branches of knowledge: or they are considered as eighteen, with the addition of these four; the \u00c1yur-veda, medical science (as taught by Dhanwantari); Dhanur-veda, the science of archery or arms, taught by Bhrigu; G\u00e1ndharba-veda, or the drama, and the arts of music, dancing, &c., of which the Muni Bharata was the author; and the Artha \u015b\u00e1stram, or science of government, as laid down first by Vrihaspati.\nThere are three kinds of Rishis, or inspired sages; royal Rishis, or princes who have adopted a life of devotion, as Viswamitra; divine Rishis, or sages who are demigods also, as N\u00e1rada; and Brahman Rishis, or sages who are the sons of Brahm\u00e1, or Brahmans, as Va\u015bisht\u0301ha and others 8.\nI have thus described to you the branches of the Vedas, and their subdivisions; the persons by whom they were made; and the reason why they were made (or the limited capacities of mankind). The same branches are instituted in the different Manwantaras. The primitive Veda, that of the progenitor of all things, is eternal: these branches are but its modifications (or Vikalpas).\nI have thus related to you, Maitreya, the circumstances relating to the Vedas, which you desired to hear. Of what else do you wish to be informed 9?\n282:1 The V\u00e1yu makes Sukarman the grandson of Sumantu, his son being called Sunwat.\n282:2 Some copies read Paushpinji. The V\u00e1yu agrees with our text, but alludes to a legend of Sukarman having first taught a thousand disciples, but they were all killed by Indra, for reading on an unlawful day, or one when sacred study is prohibited.\n282:3 The V\u00e1yu specifies many more names than the Vish\u0144u, but the list is rather confused. Amongst the descendants of those named in the text, R\u00e1y\u00e1nan\u00edya (or R\u00e1\u0144\u00e1yan\u00edya), the son of Lok\u00e1kshi, is the author of a Sanhit\u00e1 still extant: Saumitri his son was the author of three Sanhit\u00e1s: Par\u00e1\u015bara, the son of Kuthumi, compiled and taught six Sanhit\u00e1s: and \u015a\u00e1ligotra, a son of L\u00e1ngali, established also six schools. Kriti was of royal descent: he and Paushyinji were the two most eminent teachers of the S\u00e1ma-veda.\n283:4 According to the commentator, Munjake\u015ba is another name for Babhru; but the V\u00e1yu seems to consider him as the pupil of Saindhava, but the text is corrupt.\n283:5 The V\u00e1yu has an enumeration of the verses contained in the different Vedas, but it is very indistinctly given in many respects, especially as regards the Yajush. The Rich is said to comprise 8600 Richas. The Yajush, as originally compiled by Vy\u00e1sa, 12000: of which the V\u00e1jasaneyi contains 1900 Richas, and 7600 Brahmanas; the Charaka portion contains 6026 stanzas: and consequently the whole exceeds 12000 verses. The stanzas of the S\u00e1man are said to be 8014; and those of the Atharvan 5980. Mr. Colebrooke states the verses of the whole Yajush to be 1987; of the Salapalka Brahmana of the same Veda 7624; and of the Atharvan 6015.\n283:6 Or of stories (\u00c1khy\u00e1nas) and minor stories or tales (Up\u00e1khy\u00e1nas); of portions dedicated to some particular divinity, as the \u015a\u00edva-git\u00e1, Bhagavad-g\u00edt\u00e1, &c.; and accounts of the periods called Kalpas, as the Br\u00e1hma Kalpa, V\u00e1r\u00e1ha Kalpa, &c.\n284:7 For remarks upon this enumeration, see Introduction.\n284:8 A similar enumeration is given in the V\u00e1yu, with some additions. Rishi is derived from Rish, 'to go to' or 'approach.' The Brahmarshis, it is said, are descendants of the five patriarchs, who were the founders of races or Gotras of Brahmans, or Ka\u015byapa, Va\u015bisht\u0301ha, Angiras, Atri, and Bhrigu. The Devarshis are Nara and N\u00e1r\u00e1ya\u0144a, the sons of Dharma; the B\u00e1lakhilyas, who sprung from Kratu; Kardama, the son of Pulaha; Kuvera, the son of Pulastya; Achala, the son of Praty\u00fasha; p. 285 N\u00e1rada and Parvata, the sons of Ka\u015byapa. Brahmarshis are Ikshw\u00e1ku and other princes. The Brahmarshis dwell in the sphere of Brahm\u00e1; the Devarshis in the region of the gods; and the R\u00e1jarshis in the heaven of Indra.\n285:9 No notice is taken here of a curious legend which is given in the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, in the Gad\u00e1 Parvan. It is there said, that during a great drought the Brahmans, engrossed by the care of subsistence, neglected the study of the sacred books, and the Vedas were lost. The Rishi S\u00e1raswata alone, being fed with fish by his mother Saraswat\u00ed, the personified river so named, kept up his studies, and preserved the Hindu scriptures. At the end of the famine the Brahmans repaired to him to be taught, and sixty thousand disciples again acquired a knowledge of the Vedas from S\u00e1raswata. This legend appears to indicate the revival, or more probably the introduction, of the Hindu ritual by the race of Brahmans, or the people called S\u00e1raswata; for, according to the Hindu geographers, it was the name of a nation, as it still is the appellation of a class of Brahmans who chiefly inhabit the Panjab. (As. Res. VII. 219, 338, 341.) The S\u00e1raswata Brahmans are met with in many parts of India, and are usually fair-complexioned, tall, and handsome men. They are classed in the J\u00e1ti m\u00e1l\u00e1s, or popular lists of castes, amongst the five Gaura Brahmans, and are divided into ten tribes: they are said also to be especially the Purohits or family priests of the Kshatriya or military castes: (see the J\u00e1ti m\u00e1l\u00e1, printed in Price's Hindi Selections, II. 280:) circumstances in harmony with the purport of the legend, and confirmatory of the S\u00e1raswatas of the Panjab having been prominent agents in the establishment of the Hindu religion in India. The holy land of the Hindus, or the primary seat, perhaps, of Brahmanism, has for one of its boundaries the Saraswat\u00ed river: see p. 181, n. 7.","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Book III: Chapter VI","type":"page"}