Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/299

Rh LITERATURE.] SANSKRIT 279 the Kanvas into seventeen books (kanda). The first nine books of the former, corresponding to the first eleven of the Kanvas, and consist- ing of sixty adhyayas, form a kind of running commentary on the h'rst eighteen books of the Yaj.-Samhita; and it has been plausibly suggested by Prof. Weber that this portion of the Brahmana may be referred to in the Mahabhashya on Pan. iv. 2, 60, where a Sata- patha and a Shashti-patha (i.e., " consisting of 60 paths ") are men- tioned together as 'objects of study, and that consequently it may at one time have formed an independent work. This view is also supported by the circumstance that of the remaining five books (10-14) of the Madhyandinas the third is called the middle one (madhyama) ; while the Kanvas apply the same epithet to the middlemost of the five books (12-16) preceding their last one. This last book would thus seem to be treated by them as a second supplement, and not without reason, as it is of the Upanishad order, and bears the special title of Brihad- (great) dranyaka. 1 Except in books 6-10 (M. ), which treat of the construction of lire-altars, and recognize the sage Sandilya as their chief authority, YAjnavalkya's opinion is frequently referred to in the Satapatha as authoritative. This is especially the case in the later books, part of the Brihad-aranyaka .being even called Yajnavalkiya-kanda. As regards the age of the Satapatha, the probability is that the main body of the work is considerably older than the time of Panini, but that some of its latter parts were considered by Panini's critic Katyayana to be of about the same age as, or not much older than, I'anini. Even those portions had probably been long in existence before they obtained recognition as part of the canon of the White Yajus. The contemptuous manner in which the doctrines of the Cbaraka- adhvaryus are repeatedly animadverted upon in the Satapatha betrays not a little of the odium theologicum on the part of the divines of the Vajasaneyins towards their brethren of the older schools. Nor was their animosity confined to mere literary war- fare, but they seem to have striven by every means to gain ascendency over their rivals. The consolidation of the Brahmanical hierarchy and the institution of a common system of ritual worship, which called forth the liturgical Vedic collections, were doubtless consummated in the so-called Madhya-desa, or "middle country," lying between the Sarasvati and the confluence of the Yamuna and Ganga ; and more especially in its western part, the Kuru-kshetra, or land of the Kurus, with the adjoining territory of the Panchalas, between the Yamuna and Ganga. From thence the original schools of Vaidik ritualism gradually extended their sphere over the adja- cent parts. The Charakas seem for a long time to have held sway in the western and north-western regions ; while the Taittiriyas in course of time spread over the whole of the peninsula south of the Narmada (Nerbudda), where their ritual has remained pre- eminently the object of study till comparatively recent times. The Vajasaneyins, on the other hand, having first gained a footing in the lands on the lower Ganges, chiefly, it would seem, through the patronage of King Janaka of Videha, thence gradually worked their way westwards, and eventually succeeded in superseding the older schools north of the Vindhya, with the exception of some isolated places where even now families of Brahmans are met with which profess to follow the old Samhitas. ifajur- owing to the circumstances just indicated, they are almost entirely la. confined to the Taittiriya schools. The only Srauta-sutra of a Charaka school which has hitherto been recovered is that of the Manavas, a subdivision of the Maitrayaniyas. The Mdnava-Srauta- s&tra - seems to consist of eleven books, the first nine of which treat of the sacrificial ritual, while the tenth contains the Sulva-sutra ; and the eleventh is made up of a number of supplements (pari- sishta}. The Mdnava-grihya-sfitra is likewise in existence ; but so far nothing is known, save one or two quotations, of a Mdnava- dharma-stitra, the discovery of which ought to solve some important questions regarding the development of Indian law. Of sutra- works belonging to the Kathas, a single treatise, the Kdthaka- grihya-s&tra, is known ; while Dr Jolly considers the Vishnu-smrili, 3 a compendium of law, composed in mixed sutras and slokas, to be nothing but a Vaishnava recast of the Kathaka-dharma-sutra, which seems no longer to exist. As regards the Taittiriyas, the Kal- pa-sutra most widely accepted among them was that of Apastamba, to whose school, as we have seen, was also due our existing recen- sion of the Taittiriya-samhita. The - pastamba-kalpa-sMra consists of thirty.proswa (questions); the first twenty-five of these consti- tute the Srauta-sutra 4 ; 26 and 27 the Grihya-siitra ; 28 and 29 the Dharma-siitra 5 ; and the last the Sulva-sutra. Prof. Buhler has "tried to fix the date of this work somewhere between the 5th and 3rd 1 The text, with Sankara's commentary, and an English translation, published by E. Roer, BibL fnd. 2 See P. v. 13radke, Z. D. M. G., vol. xxxvi. A SIS. of a portion of the Srauta- sfitra, with the commentary of the famous Mlmamsist Kumarila, has been photo- IfthoRraphed by the India Office, under Goldstiicker's supervision. 3 Edited and translated by J. Jolly. s G. Buhler has published the text with extracts from Haradatta's commentary, also a translation in Sacred Hooks of the East, centuries B.C.; but it can hardly yet be considered as definitely settled. Considerably more ancient than this work are the Baudhd- yana-kalpa-sfitra, 6 which consists of the same principal divisions, aud the Bhdradvdja-s-titra, of which, however, only a few portions have as yet been discovered. The Hiranyakesi-sfitra, which is more modern than that of Apastamba, from which it differs but little, is likewise fragmentary ; and several other Kalpa-sutras, especially that of Laugakshi, are found quoted. ,The recognized compendium of the White Yajus ritual is the Srauta-sdtra of Katyayana, 7 in twenty-six adhyayas. This work is supplemented by a large number of secondary treatises, likewise attributed to Katyayana, among which may be mentioned the Charana-vyuha, 8 a statistical account of the Vedic schools, which unfortunately has come down to us in a very unsatisfactory state of preservation. A manual of domestic rites, closely connected with Katyayana's work, is the Katiya-grihya-stitra* ascribed to Paraskara. To Katyayana ' we further owe the F"djasaneyi-prdtisdkhya, l and a catalogue (anukra- mant) of the White Yajus texts. As regards the former work, it is still doubtful whether (with Weber) we have to consider it as older than Panini, or whether (with Goldstiicker and M. Miiller) we are to identify its author with Panini's critic. The only existing Pratisakhya 11 of the Black Yajus belongs to the Taittiriyas. Its author is unknown, and it confines itself entirely to the Taittiriya- sarnhita, to the exclusion of the Brahmana and Aranyaka. D. Atharva-veda. The Atharvan was the latest of Vedic col- Atharva- lections to be recognized as part of the sacred canon. That it is veda- also the youngest Veda is proved by its language, which, both samhita. from a lexical and a grammatical point of view, marks an inter- mediate stage between the main body of the Rik and the Brah- mana period. It is not less manifest from the spirit of its contents, which shows that the childlike trust of the early singer in the willingness of the divine agents to comply with the earnest request of their pious worshipper had passed away, and in its place had sprung up a superstitious fear of a host of malevolent powers, whose baleful wrath had to be deprecated or turned aside by incantations and magic contrivances. How far some lower form of worship, practised by the conquered race, may have helped to bring about this change of religious belief it would be idle to inquire ; but it is far from improbable that the hymns of the Rik reflect chiefly the religious notions of the more intelligent and educated minority of the community, and that superstitious practices like those disclosed by the greater part of the Atharvan and a portion of the tenth book of the Rik had long obtained among the people, and became the more prevalent the more the spiritual leaders of the people gave themselves up to theosophic and metaphysical specula- tions. Hence also verses of the Atharvaveda are not uufrequently used in domestic (grihya) rites, but very seldom in the Srauta ceremonial. But, even if these or such like spells and incantations had long been in popular use, there can be no doubt that by the time they were collected they must have adapted themselves to the modifications which the vernacular language itself had under- gone in the mouths of the people. This body of spells and hymns is traditionally connected with two old mythic priestly families, the Angiras and Atharvans, their names, in the plural, serving either singly or combined (Atharvangirasas) as the oldest appellation of the collection. Instead of the Atharvans, another mythic family, the Bhrigus, are similarly connected with the Angiras (Bhrigvangirasas) as the depositaries of this mystic science. The current text of the Atharva-samhitd 12 apparently the recension of the Saunaka school consists of some 750 different pieces, about five-sixths of which is in various metres, the remaining portion being in prose. The whole mass is divided into twenty books. The principle of dis- tribution is for the most part a merely formal one, in books i.-xiii. pieces of the same or about the same number of verses being placed together in the same book. The next five books, xiv.- xviii., have each its own special subject: xiv. treats of marriage and sexual union ; xv. , in prose, of the Vratya, or religious vagrant ; xvi. consists of prose formulas of conjuration ; xvii. of a lengthy mystic hymn ; and xviii. contains all that relates to death and funeral rites. Of the last two books no account is taken in the Atharva-pratisakhya, and they indeed stand clearly in the relation The eighteenth book of supplements to the original collection. The ei< evidently was the result of a subsequent gleaning of pieces similar The Sulva-sutra lias been published, with the commentary of Kapardisvftmin, and a translation by G. Tliibaut, in the Benares Pandit, 1875. The Dharma-stitra has been translated by G. Iliihltr, Sacred Books, xiv. 7 Edited by A. Weber. 8 Weber, Ind. Stud., iii. 9 Text and German translation by A. Stenzler. 10 Edited, with Uvata's commentary, and a German translation, by A. Weber, 2nd. Stud., iv. " The work has been published by W. D. Whitney, with a translation and a com- mentary by an unknown author, called Tribliashyaratna, i.e., " jewel of the three commentaries," it being founded on three older commentaries by Vararuchi, (?Katvayana), Mahisheya, av.d Atreya. 12 Edited by Profs. Roth and Whitney. 1856. The second vol., which was to contain the Varix Lectiones, remains stilU unpublished. Prof. Whitney, how- ever, has lately brought out an Index Vcrborum to the work. The first threo books have been translated into German by Prof. Weber, Ind. Stud., vols. iv., xiii., xvii.
 * ras In JKalpa-sfitras the Black Yajurveda is particularly rich ; but,
 * In course of publication, by R. Garbe, in BibL Ind.