A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c9.s2.28

c9.s2.28

It was in the nature of the duties which the Adhvaryus had to perform at the sacrifices, that their hymns and invocations could hardly be separated from the rules (vidhi), contained in the Brâhmaṇas. It was not a mere accident therefore that in the Veda of the ancient Adhvaryus the hymns and rules were mixed up, and it must be considered as a mere innovation if what is now called the Saṃhitâ of the Black Yajur-veda is distinguished by this name from the Brâhmaṇa, which in reality is a continuation of the same work. It is not unlikely that it was the very wish to have, like the Bahvṛichas and Chhandogas, a Saṃhitâ, *i. e.* a collection of hymns distinct from the ceremonial rules, which led to the secession of the Vâjasaneyins, and, by a kind of reaction, to the absurd adoption of the titles of Saṃhitâ and Brâhmaṇa among the Taittirîyas. In the new code of the Vâjasaneyins the most important part was nevertheless the Brâhmaṇa, the Saṃhitâ being a mere collection of verses, extracted and collected for the convenience of the officiating priest. The differences in the text of these verses and formulas would be marked in the Brâhmaṇa, and transferred from the Brâhmaṇa into the Sanhitâ. This is, therefore, the very opposite of what happened with the text of the Sanhitâ and Brâhmaṇa of the Bahvṛichas. Here the Sanhitâ existed long before the Brâhmaṇa, and it had diverged into different Śâkhâs, before the Brâhmaṇa of the Aitareyins was composed. The Vâjasaneyi-sanhitâ may possibly represent various readings which existed in the Śâkhâs of the Taittirîyas; but these verses were collected and formed into a Sanhitâ only as an appendix to the Śatapatha-brâhmaṇa, the real code of the Vâjasaneyins. Where the sacrificial invocations of the Vâjasaneyins differ from those of the Taittirîyas, we ought to recognise in those differences the last traces of Śâkhâs which existed previous to the establishment of the Vâjasaneyins. In the beginning, for instance, of the Darśa-pûrṇamâsa sacrifice, the Adhvaryu priest, having called the cows and calves together, has to touch the calves with a branch. This act of the sacrifice was originally accompanied by the words “vâyava stha, upâyava stha,” “you are like the winds,”—and the whole ceremony, together with these invocations, is contained in the Taittirîya-sanhitâ. In the Mâdhyandina-śâkhâ, on the contrary, not only are the words “upâyava stha” omitted in the Sanhitâ, but a distinct warning is given in the Brâhmaṇa not to use these words, belonging to a different Śâkhâ.¹