The History of Indian Literature c8.17

c8.17

The difference between the Bráhmaṇas of the several Vedas as to subject-matter is essentially this: The Bráhmaṇas of the Ṛik, in their exposition of the ritual, generally specify those duties only which fell to the Hotar, or reciter of the *ṛichas*, whose office it was to collect from the various hymns the verses suited to each particular occasion, as its *śastra* (canon). The Bráhmaṇas of the Sáman confine themselves to the duties of the Udgátar, or singer of the *sámans*; the Bráhmaṇas of the Yajus, to the duties of the Adhvaryu, or actual performer of the sacrifice. In the Bráhmaṇas of the Ṛik, the order of the sacrificial performance is on the whole preserved, whereas the sequence of the hymns as they occur in the Ṛik-Saṃhitá is not attended to at all. But in the Bráhmaṇas of the Sáman and Yajus, we find a difference corresponding to the fact that their Saṃhitás are already adapted to the proper order of the ritual. The Bráhmaṇa of the Sáman enters but seldom into the explanation of individual verses; the Bráhmaṇa of the White Yajus, on the contrary, may be almost considered as a running dogmatic commentary on its Saṃhitá, to the order of which it adheres so strictly, that in the case of its omitting one or more verses, we might perhaps be justified in concluding that they did not then form part of the Saṃhitá. A supplement also has been added to this Bráhmaṇa for some of those books of the Saṃhitá which were incorporated with it at a period subsequent to its original compilation, so that the Bráhmaṇa comprises 100 *adhyáyas* instead of 60, as formerly seems to have been the case. The Bráhmaṇa of the Black Yajus does not, as we shall see further on, differ in its contents, but only in point of time, from its Saṃhitá. It is, in fact, a supplement to it. The Bráhmaṇa of the Atharvan is up to the present time unknown, though there are manuscripts of it in England.⁸