The History of Indian Literature c8.192

c8.192

Of the Śrauta-Sútras, or Sútras treating of the sacrificial ritual, the first is that of *Maśaka*, which is cited in the other Sáma-Sútras, and even by the teachers mentioned in these, sometimes as *Ársheya-Kalpa*, sometimes as *Kalpa*, and once also by Láṭyáyana directly under the name of *Maśaka*.⁷³ In the colophons it bears the name of *Kalpa-Sútra*. This Sútra is but a tabular enumeration of the prayers belonging to the several ceremonies of the Soma sacrifice; and these are quoted partly by their technical Sáman names, partly by their opening words. The order is exactly that of the Pañchaviṅśa-Brāhmaṇa; yet a few other ceremonies are inserted, including those added in the Shaḍviṅśa-Brāhmaṇa, as well as others. Among the latter the *Janakasaptarātra* deserves special notice,—a ceremony owing its origin to King Janaka,⁷⁴ of whom, as we saw above, no mention is yet made in the Pañchaviṅśa-Brāhmaṇa. His life and notoriety therefore evidently fall in the interval between the latter work and the Sūtra of Maśaka.—The eleven *prapāṭhakas* of this Sūtra are so distributed that the *ekāhas* (sacrifices of one day) are dealt with in the first five chapters; the *ahīnas* (those lasting several days) in the following four; and the *sattras* (sacrifices lasting more than twelve days) in the last two. There is a commentary on it, composed by Varadarāja, whom we shall meet with again as the commentator of another Sāma-Sūtra.