50 The Religion of the Veda

ance seems for the most part to be supplanted by allegorical disquisition. But the themes of the Aranyakas are by no means of one sort only; on the contrary they are heterogeneous and lmpl1a7.zu'd. Thus the Taittiriya. ;\rzn1yaku deals in its first book with the Arunalcetukn Agni, 21 pzxrticulur fl’\(.‘l.l1DLl of building the fire-altar; its scconzl lmok nmkus the rather astounding leap over to Brzxlnnzmicnl educa- tion and Veda study; its third, fourth, :m<l fifth books deal with parts of the Vedic sacrificial cere- monial; and its sixth book describes the old Vezlic funeral ceremonies (/2z't_rmetz’/m). Still more varie— gated are the contents of the Aitureya /lranyztka. What governs the choice of these “ forest themes" escapes our notice almost altogether. In any case these books are of lesser importance from the point of View of Vedic literature and religion, except for the following fact, which is of paramount importance: The Aranyakas are symptomatic and transitional. The important symptom, if we undcrstmizl the matter aright, is the subordination of the mere act of the sacrifice to its allegorical, or, as we might say, spiritual meaning. This suppression of the material side of the ritual bridges over to the last class of

“ texts which the Veda has to offer along this line of

evolution. They are the famous Upanishads, the early philosophical or theosophical texts of India,