The History of Indian Literature c8.300.3

c8.300.3

In the Taittiríya-Saṃhitá only those formulas appear which are found in the first eighteen *adhyáyas*, together with a few of the *mantras* belonging to the horse sacrifice; the remainder of the latter, together with the *mantras* belonging to the *sautrámaṇí* and the human sacrifice, are only treated of in the Taittiríya-Bráhmaṇa; and those for the universal and the purificatory sacrifices, as well as those for oblations to the Manes, only in the Taittiríya-Áraṇyaka. In like manner, the first eighteen *adhyáyas* are cited in full, and explained word by word in the first nine books of the Bráhmaṇa of the White Yajus; but only a few of the formulas for the *sautrámaṇí*, the horse sacrifice, human sacrifice, universal sacrifice, and oblation to the Manes (xix.–xxxv.) are cited in the twelfth and thirteenth books, and that for the most part only by their initial words, or even merely by the initial words of the *anuvákas*, without any sort of explanation; and it is only the three last *adhyáyas* but one (xxxvii.–xxxix.) which are again explained word by word, in the beginning of the fourteenth book. In the case of the *mantras*, but slightly referred to by their initial words, explanation seems to have been considered unnecessary, probably because they were still generally understood; we have, therefore, of course, no guarantee that the writer of the Bráhmaṇa had them before him in the form which they bear at present.