VEDANGA, one of the six commentaries on the Vedas.

VEDANTA, a system of Hindu speculation in interpretation of the Vedas, founded on the pre-supposition of the identity of the spiritual working at the heart of things and the spiritual working in the heart of man.

VEDAS, the sacred books of the Hindus, of sacerdotal origin and ancient date, of which there are four collections, severally denominated the Rig-Veda, the Atharva-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, to each of which are attached Brahmanas in elucidation.

VEDDAS, the aborigines of Ceylon, of whom some 2000, still in a wild state, are extant between Kandy and the E. coast.

VEGA, LOPEZ DE LA, known as Lope, Spanish dramatist, born in Madrid; began life as a soldier; served in the Armada; was secretary to the Duke of Alva; took orders, and became an officer of the Inquisition; wrote a heroic pastoral entitled “Arcadia” at the instance of the duke, and the “Dragonica” over the death of Drake as the destroyer of the supremacy of Spain on the sea; was a man of fertile inventiveness, and is said to have written 2000 plays, besides no end of verses, and was called by Cervantes a “Prodigy of Nature” (1562-1635).

VEHMGERICHTE or FEHMGERICHT, a tribunal in Germany during the Middle Ages, of which there were several, all powerful, in connection with a secret organisation under sanction of the emperor for the enforcement of justice and punishment of crime at a period when the States severally were too weak to uphold it.  These courts were held in secret places at night, and inspired great terror in the 13th and 14th centuries.

VEII, an ancient city of Etruria, and in early times a formidable rival of Rome, from which it was only 12 m. distant.  The Romans under Camillus laid siege to it, and it baffled them for 10 years.

VEIT, PHILIPP, painter of the Romanticist school, born at Berlin; his best-known work is a fresco, “Christianity bringing the Fine Arts to Germany.”

VELASQUEZ, DIEGO DE SILVA, greatest of Spanish painters, born at Seville, of Portuguese family; studied under FRANCISCO HERRERA (q. v.), who taught him to teach himself, so that but for the hint he was a self-taught artist, and simply painted what he saw and as he saw it; portrait-painting was his forte, one of his earliest being a portrait of Olivarez, succeeded by one of Philip IV. of Spain, considered the most perfect extant, and by others of members of the royal family; specimens of his work are found in different countries, but the best are in Spain, in Madrid, and they include sacred subjects, genre, landscape, and animal paintings, as well as portraits (1599-1660).

VENDEE, LA (442), a dep. of France, on the Bay of Biscay, S. of Loire-Inferieure; marshy on the W., wooded on the N., and with an open fertile tract in the middle and S.; it is famous as the seat of a stubborn resistance to the Revolution, and for the bloody violence with which it was suppressed.