The Sacred Books of the Hindoos
The Hindoos have sacred books of great antiquity, and a literature extending back twenty or thirty centuries, but no history, no chronology, no annals.
The oldest of their sacred books, the Vedas (knowledge or science), contain the revelation of Brahma, and were preserved by tradition until collected by Vyasa (compiler); and they represent an epoch, probably the fifteenth century B.C.
The Vedas are three in number: first, the Rig-Veda, containing hymns and mystic prayers; second, the Yajur-Veda, containing the religious rites; third, the Sama-Veda, with prayers in the form of songs. The Vedas were written in Sanscrit, and were first translated into English by Sir William Jones. Few Hindoos now read the Vedas. The Puranas and the two great epics constitute their sacred books. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the most colossal epic poems to be found in the literature of the world.
According to Lassen, the period of the two great epics follows the period of the Vedas. The whole life of ancient India is found in them.
The Ramayana contains about fifty thousand lines, and is held in great veneration by the Hindoos.
It describes the youth of Rama, who is an incarnation of their god Vishnu; his banishment and residence in Central India. It is probably founded on some real war between the early Aryan invaders of Hindostan and the indigenous inhabitants.
The Mahabharata, supposed to be of later date, consists of about two hundred and twenty thousand lines, divided into eighteen books.
From these epics, there appear to have been two dynasties in ancient India,--the solar and the lunar.
Rama belonged to the first, and Bharata to the second.
Five brothers, the descendants of Bharata, are the heroes of the Mahabharata; and episodes in the lives of these heroes occupy three-fourths of the poem.
The Puranas are derived from the same religious system as the two epics.
They relate more fully their mythological legends. The gods, Siva and Vishnu, are almost the sole objects of worship in the Puranas.
These Puranas, eighteen in number, are in the form of dialogue, and contain one million six hundred thousand lines.
Mr. Talboys Wheeler has recently incorporated the epics of the Hindoos (much abridged) in his "History of India."