The History of Indian Literature c8.362.2

c8.362.2

1. 22). I am now of opinion † that it is to this Yájnavalkíya-káṇḍa that the *várttika* to Páṇini iv. 3. 105 refers when it speaks of the *Yájnavalkáni bráhmaṇáni* as not *puráṇa-prokta*, but *tulyakála*, "contemporaneous," *i.e.*, with Páṇini. The wording of the *várttika* does not necessarily imply that these Bráhmaṇas originated from Yájnavalkya himself; consequently they might bear his name simply because treating of him. I prefer the latter view, for it appears to me very hazardous to regard the entire Śatapatha-Bráhmaṇa, or even its last books only, as directly bearing the name of Yájnavalkya,—however fully it may embody his system,—or to set it down as contemporaneous with, or but little anterior to, Páṇini. In regard to the Yájnavalkíya-káṇḍa, however, I have not the slightest hesitation in doing the latter.¹⁴¹—Finally, the *Khila-káṇḍa*, or *last káṇḍa* of the Vṛihad-Áraṇyaka, is uniformly described by the commentators as such a *khila*, or supplement; and as a matter of fact it is clearly enough distinguished from the other *káṇḍas*. Its first *adhyáya*—the fifth of the Vṛihad-Áraṇyaka—is made up of a number of small fragments, which contain for the most part mystical plays upon words, of the most clumsy description. The second *adhyáya* contains two *bráhmaṇas*, parts of which, as I have already remarked (p. 71), recur in precisely the same form in the Chhándogyopanishad vii. 1, 3.