A History of Sanskrit Literature c10.9

c10.9

The *Saṃhitā* of the latter consists entirely of the verses and formulas to be recited at the sacrifice, and is therefore clear (*çukla*), that is to say, separated from the explanatory matter which is collected in the Brāhmaṇa. Hence it is called the *White* (*çukla*) *Yajurveda*, while the others, under the general name of *Black* (*kṛishṇa*) *Yajurveda*, are contrasted with it, as containing both kinds of matter mixed up in the *Saṃhitā*. The text of the Vājasaneyins has been preserved in two recensions, that of the Mādhyamdinas and of the Kāṇvas. These are almost identical in their subject-matter as well as its arrangement. Their divergences hardly go beyond varieties of reading, which, moreover, appear only in their prose formulas, not in their verses. Agreeing thus closely, they cannot be separated in their origin by any wide interval of time. Their discrepancies probably arose rather from geographical separation, since each has its own peculiarities of spelling. The *White Yajurveda* in both these recensions has been edited by Professor Weber (1849–52).