In concluding this account of Vedic literature, I cannot omit to say a few words about Sayana, the great mediæval Vedic scholar, to whom or to whose initiation we owe a number of valuable commentaries on the Rigveda, the Aitareya Brahmana and Aranyaka, as well as the Taittiriya Samhita, Brahmana, and Aranyaka, besides a number of other works. His comments on the two Samhitas would appear to have been only partially composed by himself and to have been completed by his pupils. He died in 1387, having written his works under Bukka I. (1350-79), whose teacher and minister he calls himself, and his successor, Harihara (1379-99). These princes belonged to a family which, throwing off the Muhammadan yoke in the earlier half of the fourteenth century, founded the dynasty of Vijayanagara ("city of victory"), now Hampi, on the Tungabhadra, in the Bellary district. Sayana's elder brother, Madhava, was minister of King Bukka, and died as abbot of the monastery of Çringeri, under the name of Vidyaranyasvamin. Not only did he too produce works of his own, but Sayana's commentaries, as composed under his patronage, were dedicated to him as madhaviya, or ("influenced by Madhava"). By an interesting coincidence Professor Max Müller's second edition of the Rigveda, with the commentary of Sayana, was brought out under the auspices of a Maharaja of Vijayanagara. The latter city has, however, nothing to do with that from which King Bukka derived his title. CHAPTER X THE EPICS (Circa 500-50 B.C.) In turning from the Vedic to the Sanskrit period, we are confronted with a literature which is essentially different from that of the earlier age in matter, spirit, and form. Vedic literature is essentially religious; Sanskrit literature, abundantly developed in every other direction, is profane. But, doubtless as a result of the speculative tendencies of the Upanishads, a moralising spirit at the same time breathes through it as a whole. The religion itself which now prevails is very different from that of the Vedic age. For in the new period the three great gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Çiva are the chief objects of worship. The important deities of the Veda have sunk to a subordinate position, though Indra is still relatively prominent as the chief of a warrior's heaven. Some new gods of lesser rank have arisen, such as Kubera, god of wealth; Ganeça, god of learning; Karttikeya, god of war; Çri or Lakshmi, goddess of beauty and fortune; Durga or Parvati, the terrible spouse of Çiva; besides the serpent deities and several classes of demigods and demons.