The History of Indian Literature c8.226

c8.226

As representative of the last stage of the literature of the Sámaveda, we may specify, on the one hand, the various *Paddhatis* (outlines) and commentaries, &c., which connect themselves with the Sútras, and serve as an explanation and further development of them; and, on the other, that peculiar class of short treatises bearing the name of *Pariśishṭas*, which are of a somewhat more independent character than the former, and are to be looked upon more as supplements to the Sútras.∗ Among these, the already mentioned *Ársha* and *Daivata*—enumerations of the Ṛishis and deities—of the Saṃhitá in the Naigeya-Śákhá deserve prominent notice. Both of these treatises refer throughout to a comparatively ancient tradition; for example, to the Nairuktas, headed by Yáska and Śákapúṇi, to the Naighaṇṭukas, to Śaunaka (*i.e.*, probably to his Anukramaṇí of the Ṛik), to their own Bráhmaṇa, to Aitareya and the Aitareyins, to the Śátapathikas, to the Pravachana Káṭhaka, and to Áśvaláyana. The *Dálbhya-Pariśishṭa* ought probably also to be mentioned here; it bears the name of an individual who appears several times in the Chhándogyopanishad, but particularly often in the Puráṇas, as one of the sages who conduct the dialogue.