The History of Indian Literature c8.125

c8.125

From my but superficial acquaintance with them, I am not at present in a position to give more detailed information as to the contents and mutual relation of these two Sútras.⁴² My conjecture would be that their differences may rest upon local grounds also, and that the Sútra of Áśvaláyana, as well as the Aitareya-Bráhmaṇa, may belong to the eastern part of Hindustán; the Sútra of Śáṅkháyana, on the contrary, like his Bráhmaṇa, rather to the western.∗ The order of the ceremonial is pretty much the same in both, though the great sacrifices of the kings, &c., viz., *vājapeya* (sacrifice for the prospering of the means of subsistence), *rájasúya* (consecration of the king), *aśvamedha* (horse sacrifice), *purushamedha* (human sacrifice), *sarvamedha* (universal sacrifice), are handled by Śáṅkháyana with far more minuteness.