different rituals to those who are not already familiar with them.
"They reflect," says Professor Macdonell, "the spirit of an age in
which all intellectual activity is concentrated on the sacrifice,
describing its ceremonies, discussing its value, speculating on its
origin and significance." These works are full of dogmatic assertions,
fanciful symbolism and speculations of an unbounded imagination in the
field of sacrificial details. The sacrificial ceremonials were probably
never so elaborate at the time when the early hymns were composed.
But when the collections of hymns were being handed down from generation
to generation the ceremonials became more and more complicated. Thus
there came about the necessity of the distribution of the different
sacrificial functions among several distinct classes of priests. We may
assume that this was a period when the caste system was becoming
established, and when the only thing which could engage wise and religious
minds was sacrifice and its elaborate rituals. Free speculative thinking
was thus subordinated to the service of the sacrifice, and the result
was the production of the most fanciful sacramental and symbolic

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[Footnote 1: A.A. Macdonell's _History of Sanskrit Literature_, p. 31.]

[Footnote 2: Weber (_Hist. Ind. Lit_., p. 11, note) says that the word
Brâhma@na signifies "that which relates to prayer _brahman_." Max Muller
(_S.B.E._, I.p. lxvi) says that Brâhma@na meant "originally the sayings
of Brahmans, whether in the general sense of priests, or in the more
special sense of Brahman-priests." Eggeling (S.B.E. XII. Introd. p. xxii)
says that the Brhâma@nas were so called "probably either because
they were intended for the instruction and guidance of priests (brahman)
generally; or because they were, for the most part, the authoritative