A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c8.s3.7

c8.s3.7

The following argument may serve to confirm the favourable view which I take of some of the Páriśiṣṭas. Besides the MSS. of the Charaṇavyûha, there is a printed edition of it in Râja Râdhakânta Deva's Śabdakalpadruma. This printed text is evidently taken from more modern MSS. It quotes seventeen instead of fifteen Śâkhâs of the Vâjasaneyins; whereas the original number of fifteen is confirmed by our MSS. of the Charaṇavyûha, by the Pratijñâ-pariśiṣṭa, and even by so late a work as the Vishnu-purâṇa (p. 281.). We may therefore suppose that at the time when the Páriśiṣṭa, called the Charaṇavyûha, was originally composed, these two additional Śâkhâs did not yet exist. Now one of them is the Śâkhâ of the Kâtyâyanîyas, a Śâkhâ, like many of those mentioned in the Purāṇas, founded on Sūtras, not on Brāhmaṇas. The fact, therefore, of this modern Śākhā not being mentioned in the original Charaṇavyūha serves as an indication that at the time of the original composition of that Pariśiṣṭa, sufficient time had not yet elapsed to give to Kātyāyana the celebrity of being the founder of a new Śākhā.