The History of Indian Literature c8.102

c8.102

The *Aitareya-Áraṇyaka*33b consists of five books, each of which again is called Áraṇyaka. The second and third books* form a separate Upanishad; and a still further subdivision here takes place, inasmuch as the four last sections of the second book, which are particularly consonant with the doctrines of the Vedánta system, pass κατ’ ἐξοχὴν as the *Aitareyopanishad*.³⁴ Of these two books Mahidása Aitareya is the reputed author; he is supposed to be the son of Viśála and Itará, and from the latter his name Aitareya is derived. This name is indeed several times quoted in the course of the work itself as a final authority, a circumstance which conclusively proves the correctness of tracing to him the views therein propounded. For we must divest ourselves of the notion that a teacher of this period ever put his ideas into writing; oral delivery was his only method of imparting them to his pupils; the knowledge of them was transmitted by tradition, until it became fixed in some definite form or other, always however retaining his name. It is in this way that we have to account for the fact of our finding the authors of works that have been handed down to us, mentioned in these works themselves. For the rest, the doctrines of Aitareya must have found especial favour, and his pupils have been especially numerous; for we find his name attached to the Bráhmaṇa as well as the Áraṇyaka. With respect to the former, however, no reasons can for the present be assigned, while for the fourth book of the Áraṇyaka we have the direct information that it belongs to Áśvaláyana,∗ the pupil of Śaunaka; nay, this Śaunaka himself appears to have passed for the author of the fifth book, according to Colebrooke's statements on the subject, *Misc. Ess.*, i. 47, n. The name of Aitareya is not traceable anywhere in the Bráhmaṇas; he is first mentioned in the Chhándogyopanishad. The earliest allusion to the school of the Aitareyins is in the Sáma-Sútras.—To judge from the repeated mention of them in the third book, the family of the Maṇḍúkas, or Máṇḍúkeyas, must also have been particularly active in the development of the views there represented. Indeed, we find them specified later as one of the five schools of the Ṛigveda; yet nothing bearing their name has been preserved except an extremely abstruse Upanishad, and the Máṇḍúkí-Śikshá, a grammatical treatise. The former, however, apparently only belongs to the Atharvan, and exhibits completely the standpoint of a rigid system. The latter might possibly be traced back to the Máṇḍúkeya who is named here as well as in the Ṛik-Prátiśákhya.