The History of Indian Literature c8.266

c8.266

In the case of the *Sútras*, too, belonging to the Black Yajus, the large number of different schools is very striking. Although, as in the case of the Bráhmaṇas, we only know the greater part of them through quotations, there is reason to expect, not only that the remarkably rich collection of the India House (with which I am only very superficially acquainted) will be found to contain many treasures in this department, but also that many of them will yet be recovered in India itself. The Berlin collection does not contain a single one. In the first place, as to the *Śrauta-Sútras*, my only knowledge of the *Kaṭha-Sútra*,dagger the *Manu-Sútra*, the *Maitra-Sútra*, and the *Laugákshi-Sútra* is derived from the commentaries on the Kátíya-Sútra of the White Yajus; the second, however,¹⁰⁶ stands in the catalogue of the Fort-William collection, and of the last, whose author is cited in the Kaṭha-Sútra, as well as in the Kátíya-Sútra, there is, it appears, a copy in Vienna. Mahádeva, a commentator of the Kalpa-Sútra of Satyásháḍha Hiraṇyakeśi, when enumerating the Taittiríya-Sútras in successive order in his introduction, leaves out these four altogether, and names at the head of his list the Sútra of *Baudháyana* as the oldest, then that of *Bháradvája*, next that of *Ápastamba*, next that of *Hiraṇyakeśi* himself, and finally two names not otherwise mentioned in this connection, *Vádhúna* and *Vaikhánasa*, the former of which is perhaps a corrupted form. Of these names, Bháradvája is the only one to be found in Vedic works; it appears in the Bráhmaṇa of the White Yajus, especially in the supplements to the Vṛihad-Áraṇyaka (where several persons of this name are mentioned), in the Kátíya-Sútra of the same Yajus, in the Prátiśákhya-Sútra of the Black Yajus, and in Páṇini. Though the name is a patronymic, yet it is possible that these last citations refer to one and the same person, in which case he must at the same time be regarded as the founder of a grammatical school, that of the Bháradvájíyas. As yet, I have seen nothing of his Sútra, and am acquainted with it only through quotations. According to a statement by the Mahádeva just mentioned, it treats of the oblation to the Manes, in two *praśnas*, and therefore shares with the rest of the Sútras this designation of the sections, which is peculiar to the Black Yajus.¹⁰⁷ The Sútra of Ápastamba[^asterisk] is found in the Library of the India House, and a part of it in Paris also. Commentaries on it by Dhúrtasvámin and Tálavṛintanivásin are mentioned,¹⁰⁸ also one on the Sútra of Baudháyana by Kapardisvámin.¹⁰⁹ The work of Satyásháḍha contains, according to Mahádeva's statement,¹¹⁰ twenty-seven *praśnas*, whose contents agree pretty closely with the order followed in the Kátíya-Sútra; only the last nine form an exception, and are quite peculiar to it. The nineteenth and twentieth *praśnas* refer to domestic ceremonies, which usually find a place in the Gṛihya- and Smárta-Sútras. In the twenty-first, genealogical accounts and lists are contained; as also in a *praśna* of the Baudháyana-Sútra.∗