Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/298

Rh 278 SANSKRIT [LITERATURE, the ramia-brdhmana, a mere list of the Samaveda teachers. To these works has to be added the Jaiminlyn- or Talavakdra- IrdhmaiM, discovered by the late Dr A. Burnell, but as yet only known by a few extracts. From Prof. Whitney's account of it, 1 the work stands much on a level with the Brahmanas of the Rik and Yajurveda. A portion of it is the well-known Kena- (or Talnvakdra-) upanishad, ou the nature of Brahman, as the supreme of deities. Sama- If the Samaveda has thns its ample share of Brahmana-literatiire, veda- though in part of a somewhat questionable character, it is not sutras. less richly supplied with sutra-treatises, some of which probably belong to the oldest works of that class. There are three &rauta- sutras, which attach themselves more or less closely to the Panchavima'a-brahmana: MaSaka's Arsheya-kalpa, which gives the beginnings of the samans in their sacrificial order, thus supplement- ing the Arsheya-brahmana, which enumerates their technical names; and the Srauta-sutras of LAtydyana* and DrAhydyana, of the Kauthuma and Kanayaniya schools respectively, which dilFer but little from each other, and form complete manuals of the duties of the udgatars. Another sutra, of an exegetic character, the Anupada-stitra, likewise follows the PanchavimiSa, the difficult passages of which it explains. Besides these, there are a con- siderable number of sutras and kindred technical treatises tearing on the prosody and phonetics of the sama-texts. The more important of them are the Riktantra, apparently intended to serve as a Pratisakhya of the Sa'maveda ; the Niddna-s&tra, 3 a treatise on prosody ; the Pushpa- or Phulla-sHtra, ascribed either to Gobhila or to Vararuchi, and treating of the phonetic modi- fications of the rich in the samans ; and the Sdmatantra, a treatise on chants, of a very technical nature. Further, two Grihya-s&tras, belonging to the Samaveda, arc hitherto known, viz. , the Drdhyd- yana-grihya, ascribed to Khadira, and that of Gobhila 4 (who is also said to have composed a Srauta-sutra), with a supplement, entitled Karmapradtpa, by Katyayana. To the Samaveda seems further to belong the Gautama-dharmasdstra,* composed in sutras, and apparently the oldest existing compendium of Hindu law. Samhitas C. Yajur-veda. This, the sacrificial Veda of the Adhvaryu of Black priests, divides itself into an older and a younger branch, or, as Yajur- they are usually called, the Black (krishna) and the White (sukla) veda. Yajurveda. Tradition ascribes the foundation of the Yajurveda to the sage VaiSampayana. Of his disciples three are specially named, viz., Katha, Kalapin, and Yaska Paingi, the last of whom again is stated to have communicated the sacrificial science to Tittiri. How far this genealogy of teachers may be authentic cannot now be determined ; but certain it is that in accordance therewith we have three old collections of Yajus-texts, viz., the Kdthaka, the Kdldpaka or Maitrdyant Samhitd,' and the TaMirtya-samhitd. 7 The Kathaka and Kalapaka are frequently mentioned together ; and the author of the " great commentary " on Panini once remarks that these works were taught in every village. The Kathas and Kalapas are often referred to under the collective name of Charakas, which apparently means "wayfarers" or itinerant scholars; but according to a later writer (Hemachandra) Charaka is no other than Vai&impayana himself, after whom his followers would have been thus called. From the Kathas proper two schools seem early to have branched off, the Prachya- (eastern) and Kapishthala- Kathas, the text-recension of the latter of whom has recently been discovered in the Kapisftlhala-katha-samhitd. The Kalapas also soon became subdivided into numerous different schools. Thus from one of Kalapin's immediate disciples, Haridru, the Haridraviyas took their origin, whose text-recension, the Hdri- dravika, is quoted together with the Kathaka as early as in Yaska's Nirukta ; but we do not know whether it differed much from the original Kalapa texts. As regards the Taittiriya-samhita, that collection, too, in course of time gave rise to a number of different schools, the text handed down being that of the Apastambas; while the contents of another recension, that of the Atreyas, are known from their Anukramant, which has been preserved. The four collections of old Yajus texts, so far known to us, while differing more or less considerably in arrangement and verbal points, have the main mass of their textual matter in common. This common matter consists of both sacrificial prayers (yajus) in verse and prose and exegetic or illustrative prose portions (br&h- mana). A prominent feature of the old Yajus texts, as compared with the other Vedas, is the constant intermixture of textual and exegetic portions. The Charakas and Taittiriyas thus do not recognize the distinction between Samhita and Brahmana in the sense of two separate collections of texts, but they have only a Samhita, or collection, which includes likewise the exegetic or Proceedings of Am. Or. Soc., May 1883. 1 Edited with Aimisvamin's commentary, and the v. 11. of the Drfthyftyana- sutra, by Anandaehandra Vedantavftfrtsa, Bibl. Ind., 1872. 1 Two chapters published by A. Weber, Ind. St., viii. 6 In process of publication by L. v. Schroeder. " Partly published, with Sayana's commentary, by E. Roer, E. B. Cowcll, .fee., In Bibl. Ind. Brahmana portions. The Taittiriyas seem at last to have been impressed with their want of a srpuiatc Brahmana and to have set about supplying the deficiency in rather an awkward fashion : instead of .separating from each other the textual and exegetic portions of their Samhita, they merely added to the latter a supplement (in three books), which shows the same mixed con- dition, and applied to it the title of Taittirlya-brdhmaiw,. 6 But, though the main body of this work is manifestly of a supple- mentary nature, a portion of it may perhaps be old, and may onco have formed part of the Samhita, considering that the latter con-, sists of seven ashtakas, instead of eight, as this term requires, and that certain essential parts of the ceremonial handled in the Brahmana are entirely wanting in the Samhita. Attached t<> this work is the Taittiriya-dranyaka? in ten books, the first six of which are of a ritualistic nature, while of the remaining books the first three (7-9) form the Taittirtyopanishad (consisting of three parts, viz., the Sikshavalli or Samhitopanishad, and the Anandavalli and Bhriguvalli, also called together the Yaruni- upanishad), and the last book forms the Narayaniya- (or Yajiiiki-) upanishad. The MaitrAyant Samhitd, the identity of which with the original Kalapaka has been proved pretty conclusively by Dr L. v. Schroder, who attributes the change of name of the Kulana- Maitrayaniyas to Buddhist influences, consists of four books, attached to which is the Maitri- (or Maitrdyant) upanishad. 8 The Kdthaka, on the other, hand, consists of five parts, the last two of which, however, are perhaps later additions, containing merely the prayers of the hotar priest, and those used at the horse-sacriiiee. There is, moreover, the beautiful Katha- or Kdthaka-upanishad, 10 which is also ascribed to the Atharvaveda, and in which Dr lloer would detect allusions to the Sankhya philosophy, and even to Buddhist doctrines. The defective arrangement of the Yajus texts was at last Sanihi remedied by a different school of Adhvaryus, the Vajasaneyins. of Vh The reputed originator of this school and its text-recension is Yajur Yajilavalkya Vajasaneya (son of Yajasani). The result of the re- veda. arrangement of the texts was a collection o^sacrificial mantras, the Vdjasaneyi-samhitd, and a Brahmana, the Satapatha. On account of the greater lucidity of this arrangement, the Vajasaneyins called their texts the White (or clear) Yajurveda, the name of Black (or obscure) Yajus being for opposite reasons applied to the Charaka texts. Both the Saijihita and Brahmana of the Vajasaneyins have come down to us in two different recensions, viz., those of the Mddhyandina and Kdnva schools ; and we find besides a consider- able number of quotations from a Vajasaneyaka, from which we cannot doubt that there must have been at least one other recension of the Satapatha-brahmana. The difference between the two extant recensions is, on the whole, but slight as regards the subject-matter ; but in point of diction it is quite sufficient to make a comparison especially interesting from a philological point of view. Which of the two versions may be the more original cannot as yet be determined ; but the phonetic and grammatical differences will probably have to be accounted for by a geographical separation of the two schools rather than by a difference of age. In several points of difference the Kanva recension agrees with the practice of the Rik-samhita, and there probably was some connexion between the Yajus school of Kanvas and the famous family of rishis of that name to which the eighth mandala of the Rik is attributed. The Vdjasaneyi-samhitd consists of forty adhyayas, the first eighteen of which contain the formulas of the ordinary sacrifices. The last fifteen adhyayas are doubtless a later addition, as may also be the case as regards the preceding seven chapters. The last adhyaya is commonly known under the title of Vajasaneyi-samhita- (or Isavasya-) upanishad. 12 Its object seems to be to point out the fruitlessness of mere works, and to insist on the necessity of man's acquiring a knowledge of the supreme spirit. The sacrificial texts of the Adhvaryus consist, in about equal parts, of verses (rich) and prose formulas (yajus). The majority of the former occur likewise in the Rik-samhita, from which they were doubtless extracted. Not unfrequently, however, they show considerable discrepancies of reading, which may bo explained partly from a difference of recen- sion and partly as the result of the adaptation of these verses to their special sacrificial purpose. As regards the prose formulas, though only a few of them are actually referred to in the Rik, it is quite possible that many of them may be of high antiquity. The Satapatha-brdhmana, 13 or Brahmana of a hundred paths, Brah- derives its name from the fact of its consisting of 100 lectures man* (adhyaya), which are divided by the Madhyandinas into fourteen, by of AH Yajfli 8 Edited, with Sayana's commentary, by Rftjendralala Mitra, Sib!. Ind. Veda. Text and translation published by E. H. Cowell, liibl. Ind. 10 Text, commentary, and translation published by E. Roer, Bibl. Ind. 11 Edited, in the M&dhyandinii ivr<Mimii, with the coiiinifntury of Mahldhara, and the v. 11. of the K&nva text, by A. Weber, 1S49. '* Translation by E. Roer, Bibl. Ind.; by F. M. MUller, Sacred Books of the East, i. ' Edited by A. Weber, who also translated the first chapter into German. In Sacred Boot* of the East, a translation, by J. EgKding, is being published, 2 vols., containing the first four books, having appeared.
 * Edited with a commentary, by Chandi akAnta Tarkalankflra, liibl. Ind.
 * Edited by A. Stenzler ; translated hy O. BUhler, Satred Books, vol. IL