प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

VI] HIGHER LITERARY EDUCATION 145
superior to the compositions of the earlier poets.¹
It is interesting to note that some of the poems of
the later poets were selected for inclusion in the Vedic
collection when it was made in a subsequent age.
As new hymns were being composed by contemporary
authors, it is but natural that they were not yet
regarded as revealed. It was therefore not at all felt
necessary that they should be committed to memory
so meticulously as not to render possible a single
mistake of accent or intonation. Professional priests
must of course have committed the hymns very
thoroughly to memory in order to ensure facility in
their use during the performance of the different
rituals. But the mass of people consisting of the
warriors, agriculturists and artisans used to learn by
heart only some select Vedic hymns, and these
too in the same way in which the songs of medieval
saints are memorised by the Hindu masses today.
More effort was made to understand the meaning of
the hymns than to remember their exact wording.
LATER VEDIC AGE
(C. 1500 to 1000 B. C.)
The Subjects of Study : The mass of the Vedic
hymns was classified in this period and as a result,
the Ṛigveda, the Yajurveda, the Sāmaveda and the
Atharvaveda came into existence. This led to
specialisation in Vedic studies and facilitated the
growth of a new type of literature, known as
Brāhmaṇa literature, which devoted itself to the
exposition of a number of important dogmas, theories

1. नवं नु स्तोममग्नये दिवःश्येनाय जीजनम् । वस्वः कुविद्वनाति नः ॥
   V. 15. 4.
   Cf. also R. V., VII. 35. 14; III. 32. 13.
   10