gods.  In that heaven of Brahm[=a], which is above the Vedic gods’ heaven, there are the holy seers and the Ribhus, ’the divinities of the gods’; who do not change with the change of kalpas (as do other Vedic gods), III. 261. 19-23.  One might almost imagine that their threefoldness was causative of a trinitarian identification with a supreme triad; but no, for still higher is the ’heaven of Vishnu’ (vs. 37).  The contrast is marked between this and [=A]it.  Br. III. 30, where the Ribhus with some difficulty obtain the right to drink soma.

There is an aspect of the epic religion upon which it is necessary to touch before treating of the sectarian development.  In the early philosophical period wise priests meet together to discuss theological and philosophical questions, often aided, and often brought to grief, by the wit of women disputants, who are freely admitted to hear and share in the discussion.  When, however, pantheism, nay, even Vishnuism, or still more, Krishnaism, was an accepted fact upon what, then, was the wisdom of the priest expended?  Apart from the epic, the best intellects of the day were occupied in researches, codifying laws, and solving, in rather dogmatic fashion, philosophical (theological) problems.  The epic presents pictures of scenes which seem to be a reflection from an earlier day.  But one sees often that the wisdom is commonplace, or even silly.  In dialectics a sophistical subtlety is shown; in codifying moral rules, a tedious triteness; in amoebic passes of wit there are astounding exhibitions, in which the good scholiast sees treasures of wisdom, where a modern is obliged to take them in their literal dulness.  Thus in III. 132. 18, a boy of twelve or ten (133. 16), who is divinely precocious, defeats the wise men in disputation at a sacrifice, and in the following section (134. 7 ff.) silences a disputant who is regarded as one of the cleverest priests.  The conversation is recorded in full.  In what does it consist?  The opponent mentions a number of things which are one; the boy replies with a verse that gives pairs of things; the other mentions triads; the child cites groups of fours, etc., until the opponent, having cited only one half-verse of thirteens, can remember no more and stops, on which the child completes the verse, and is declared winner.  The conundrums which precede must have been considered very witty, for they are repeated elsewhere:  What is that wheel which has twelve parts and three hundred and sixty spokes, etc.?  Year.  What does not close its eye when asleep, what does not move when it is born, what has no heart, what increases by moving?  These questions form one-half verse.  The next half-verse gives the answers in order:  fish, egg, stone, river.  This wisdom in the form of puzzles and answers, brahmodya, is very old, and goes back to the Vedic period.  Another good case in the epic is the demon Yaksha and the captured king, who is not freed till he answers certain