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OF THE HINDUS.
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the first breath of Brahmá-the creative power. This is sometimes questioned; but the opinion is universal that Brahma was their author, and that they were amongst the first created things. There are, however, legends of their having been lost; and there is one account of their recovery, which states that they were then taught to a number of Brahmans by a son of Brahmá. This refers, probably, to the period of their composition by different Brahmans. They themselves furnish evidence of their composition by different hands, and at different periods. Each hymn is said to have its Rishi-the sage by whom it was first communicated; and these Rishis comprise a variety of secular as well as religious individuals, members of the Kshatriya or military, as well as the Brahmanical order, who are celebrated at different æras in Hindu tradition. It is also admitted that the Vedas existed in a scattered form until the parts of which they now consist were collected and arranged in their actual form by a person of very equivocal origin. the son of a Rishi, by the daughter of a fisherman, and therefore, properly speaking, of very impure caste— and who from his arranging the Vedas is known by the name of Vyása-the arranger. He is supposed by the Hindus to have lived about 5000 years ago. It seems not improbable that he, or the school of which he is the reputed founder, flourished about thirteen centuries before the Christian era. He was assisted in his labour, it is reported, by various sages, and it is here again evident that the composition of the
