The History of Indian Literature c8.371

c8.371

¹ * The fact that this is so clear may easily account for the circumstance that the Purāṇas have here for once a statement in conformity with fact, as they cite Yājnavalkya as the author of the White Yajus. We may here mention that the name of Yājnavalkya occurs nowhere else in Vedic literature, which might be explained partly by the difference of locality, partly by his having edited the White Yajus after the text of the other Vedas had been fixed; though the latter reason seems insufficient, since other teachers of the White Yajus are mentioned frequently in later Vedic literature, as, for instance, Āruṇi, Śvetaketu, Satyakāma Jābāla, &c., who are either his contemporaries, or belong to even later times. Besides, his patron Janaka is mentioned at least in the Kaushītaky - Upanishad. [In two sections of the Kaushītaki-, or, Śāṅkhāyana-Āraṇyaka, which, however, are clearly of very late origin, Yājnavalkya himself is actually cited (9. 7 and 13. 1); but these passages are themselves direct quotations from Śatap. Br. xiv.—In the Gopatha-Br., which shows so many special points of relationship to the Śatapatha, Yājnavalkya is never mentioned.]