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12 The Vedas, Briihnza1Jas and their Philosophy [CH. particular book, but of the literature of a particular epoch ex- tending over a long period, say two thousand years or so. As this literature represents the total achievements of the Indian people in different directions for such a long period, it must of necessity be of a diversified character. If we roughly classify this huge literature from the points of view of age, language, and subject matter, we can point out four different types, namely the Sarphita or collection of verses (sam together, hila put), Brah- maryas, A.raryyakas (" forest treatises") and the U paniads. All these literatures, both prose and verse, were looked upon as so holy that in early times it was thought almost a sacrilege to write them; they were therefore learnt by heart by the Brahmins from the mouth of their preceptors and were hence called sruli (liter- ally anything heard)l. The SaIphitas. There are four collections or Sarphitas, namely Rg- Veda, Sarna-Veda, Yajur-Veda and Atharva-Veda. Of these the Rg- Veda is probably the earliest. The Sama- Veda has practically no independent value, for it consists of stanzas taken (excepting only 75) entirely from the Rg-Veda, which were meant to be sung to certain fixed melodies, and may thus be called the book of chants. The Yajur-Veda however contains in addition to the verses taken from the Rg- Veda many original prose formulas. The arrangement of the verses of the Sama- Veda is solely with reference to their place and use in the Soma sacrifice; the con- tents of the Y ajur- Veda are arranged in the order in which the verses were actually employed in the various religious sacrifices. It is therefore called the Veda ofYajus-sacrificial prayers. These may be contrasted with the arrangement in the Rg- Veda in this, that there the verses are generally arranged in accordance with the gods who are adored in them. Thus, for example, first we get aU the poems addressed to Agni or the Fire-god, then all those to the god Indra and so on. The fourth collection, the Atharva- Veda, probably attained its present form considerably later than the lg- Veda. In spirit, however, as Professor Macdonell says, " it is not only entirely different from the Rigveda but represents a much more primitive stage of thought. ;Vhile the Rigveda deals almost exclusively with the higher gods as conceived by a com- 1 PaI)ini, III. iii. 94.