A History of Sanskrit Literature c11.9

c11.9

The other Brāhmaṇa of the *Rigveda*, which goes by the name of *Kaushītaki* as well as *Çāṅkhāyana*, consists of thirty chapters. Its subject-matter is, on the whole, the same as that of the original part of the *Aitareya* (i.–v.), but is wider. For in its opening chapters it goes through the setting up of the sacred fire (*agni-ādhāna*), the daily morning and evening sacrifice (*agnihotra*), the new and full moon ritual, and the four-monthly sacrifices. The Soma sacrifice, however, occupies the chief position even here. The more definite and methodical treatment of the ritual in the *Kaushītaki* would seem to indicate that this Brāhmaṇa was composed at a later date than the first five books of the *Aitareya*. Such a conclusion is, however, not altogether borne out by a comparison of the linguistic data of these two works. Professor Weber argues from the occurrence in one passage of Īçāna and Mahādeva as designations of the god who was later exclusively called Çiva, that the *Kaushītaki Brāhmaṇa* was composed at about the same time as the latest books of the *White Yajurveda* and those parts of the *Atharva-veda* and of the *Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa* in which these appellations of the same god are found.