The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.104

v1.c17.104

DEFINITELY later than that depicted in the Rigveda is the civilisation presented by the later Saṃhitās, the Brāhmaṇas, the Āraṇyakas, and the Upanishads. It is on the whole probable that the total time embraced in this period is not longer, perhaps it is even shorter, than that covered by the earlier and later strata of the Rigveda; and there are hymns in the tenth book of the Rigveda which are really contemporaneous with the later Saṃhitās, just as those Saṃhitās have here and there preserved work of a much earlier epoch. But the distinction between the main body of the Rigveda and the rest of the Vedic literature is clear and undeniable. Nor is it open to much doubt that the redaction of the Saṃhitā of the Rigveda into what, in substance as opposed to verbal form, was its present shape took place before the other Saṃhitās were compiled. Of these Saṃhitās the Sāmaveda, the collection of chants for the Sāman singers, is so dependent on the Rigveda for its contents, that it is negligible for purposes of history. On the other hand, the Saṃhitās of the Yajurveda, the collection of the formulae and prayers of the Adhvaryu priest, to whose lot fell the actual performance of the sacrificial acts, are of the highest historical importance. They represent two main schools, the Black and the White, the name of the latter being due, according to tradition, to the fact that, whereas the texts of the Black Yajurveda contain verse or prose formulae and the prose explanations and comments combined into one whole, the text of the latter distinguishes between the verse and prose formulae which it collects in the Saṃhitā, and the prose explanations which it includes in a Brāhmaṇa. Of the Black Yajurveda three complete texts exist, those of the Taittirīya, the Kāṭhaka, and the Maitrāyaṇī schools, while considerable fragments of a Kapishṭhala Saṃhitā closely allied to the Kāṭhaka also exist.