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RELIGIOUS PRACTICES AND OPINIONS
Vedas was the work of many hands — of a school or religious community which first reduced the straggling institutes and practices, and popular prayers and hymns of the people, into a compact and permanent authority. The proceedings of Vyása and his coadjutors, and the formation of various branches from the main stem, or of subordinate and subsequent from one primary and principal school, are described by Mr. Colebrooke, and will also be found detailed in the Vishňu Puráňa', of which a translation is about to appear from the press of the University.
In the state in which they are now found, the Vedas are each distinguishable into two portions - a practical and a speculative: the one still forms the chief basis of speculative opinion; the other is, except in a few particulars, obsolete.
The practical portion of the Vedas consists of little else than detached prayers addressed with a few exceptions to divinities no longer worshipped, some of whom are even unknown. There is one for instance named Rilhu, of whose history, office, or even name, a person might ask in vain, from one end of India to the other. The prayers have consequently gone out of fashion along with their objects, and when they are employed they are used as little else than unmeaning sounds, the language in which they are written differing much, both in words and construction, from the
The Vishóu Purana. A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition, translated from the original Sanskrit. 1 Vol. 4to. London. Murray. 1810.
