41:20 This and the preceding enumeration p. 42 of the origin of vegetables and animals occurs in several Puráńas, precisely in the same words. The Linga adds a specification of the Aranya, or wild animals, which are said to be the buffalo, gayal, bear, monkey, sarabha, wolf, and lion.

42:21 This specification of the parts of the Vedas that proceed from Brahmá occurs, in the same words, in the Váyu, Linga, Kúrma, Padma, and Márkańd́eya Puráńas. The Bhágavata offers some important varieties: "From his eastern and other mouths he created the Rich, Yajush, Sáma, and Atharvan vedas; the Śastra, or 'the unuttered incantation;' Ijyá, 'oblation;' Stuti and Stoma, 'prayers' and 'hymns;' and Práyaśchitta, 'expiation' or 'sacred philosophy' (Bráhma): also the Vedas of medicine, arms, music, and mechanics; and the Itihásas and Puráńas, which are a fifth Veda: also the portions of the Vedas called Sorasi, Uktha, Puríshi, 'Agnisht́ut, Áptoryámá, Atirátra, Vájapeya, Gosava; the four parts of virtue, purity, liberality, piety, and truth; the orders of life, and their institutes and different religious rites and professions; and the sciences of logic, ethics, and polity. The mystic words and monosyllable proceeded from his heart; the metre Ushnih from the hairs of his body; Gayatrí from his skin; Trisht́ubh from his flesh; Anusht́ubh from his tendons; Jagati from his bones; Pankti from his marrow; Vrihati from his breath. The consonants were his life; the vowels his body; the sibilants his senses; the semivowels his vigour." This mysticism, although perhaps expanded and amplified by the Pauráńics, appears to originate with the Vedas: as in the text, 'The metre was of the tendons.' The different portions of the Vedas specified in the text are yet, for the most part, uninvestigated.

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Hinduism

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