The History of Indian Literature c8.396

c8.396

I now turn to the *Sútras* of the White Yajus. The first of these, the *Śrauta-Sútra of Kátyáyana*, consists of twenty-six *adhyáyas*, which on the whole strictly observe the order of the Bráhmaṇa. The first eighteen correspond to its first nine *káṇḍas*; the *Sautrámaṇí* is treated of in the nineteenth, the horse sacrifice in the twentieth *adhyáya*; the twenty-first contains the human, universal, and Manes sacrifices. The next three *adhyáyas* refer, as before stated (p. 80), to the ceremonial of the Sámaveda, to its several *ekáhas*, *ahínas*, and *sattras*; yet they rather specify these in the form of lists than present, as the other *adhyáyas* do, a clear picture of the whole sacrificial proceedings. The twenty-fifth *adhyáya* treats of the *práyaśchittas*, or expiatory ceremonies, corresponding to the first part of the twelfth *káṇḍa*; and lastly, the twenty-sixth *adhyáya* contains the *pravargya* sacrifice, corresponding to the first part of the fourteenth *káṇḍa*.—Only a few teachers are cited by name, and among these are two belonging to authors of Sútras of the Black Yajus, viz., Laugákshi and Bháradvája; besides whom, only Játúkarṇya, Vátsya, Bádari, Káśakṛitsni, and Kárshṇájini are named. We meet with the three last of these elsewhere only¹⁴⁹ in the Vedánta-Sútra of Bádaráyaṇa, Bádari excepted, who appears also in the Mímáṅsá-Sútra of Jaimini. Vátsya is a name which occasionally occurs in the Vaṅśas of the Śatapatha-Bráhmaṇa;¹⁵⁰ and the same applies to Játúkarṇya, who appears in the Vaṅśa of the Madhu- and Yájnavalkíya-káṇḍas in the Káṇva recension as a pupil of Ásuráyaṇa and of Yáska. (In the Mádhyaṃdina recension, another teacher intervenes between the last-named and Játúkarṇya, viz., Bháradvája.) He is also mentioned in the Aitareya-Áraṇyaka, and repeatedly in the Prátiśákhya-Sútra of the White Yajus. Besides these, "*eke*" are frequently quoted, whereby reference is made to other Śákhás. One passage gives expression to a certain hostility towards the descendants of the daughter of Atri (the Háleyas, Váleyas, Kaudreyas, Śaubhreyas, Vámarathyas, Gopavanas); while the descendants of Atri himself are held in especial honour. A similar hostility is exhibited in other passages towards the descendants of Kaṇva, Kaśyapa, and Kautsa; yet these three words, according to the commentaries, may also be taken as appellatives, *kaṇva* as "deaf," *kaśyapa* as "having black teeth" (*śyávadanta*), and *kautsa* as "doing blamable things." The first *adhyáya* is of peculiar interest, as it gives the *paribháshás*, or general rules for the sacrificial ceremonial. Otherwise this work, being entirely based upon the Bráhmaṇa, and therefore in no way an independent production, contains but few data throwing light upon its probable age. Amongst such we may reckon in particular[^asterisk] the circumstance that the word *vijaya*, "conquest," *sc.* of the points of the compass,∗ is once used in the sense of "the points of the compass" themselves (xx. 4. 26), which evidently presupposes the custom of the *dig-vijayas*—probably also poetical descriptions of them (?). The *adhyáyas* relating to the Sáman ceremonial (xxii.–xxiv.) are the richest in this kind of data. They treat, for instance, like the Sáma-Sútras, of the sacrifices on the Sarasvatí, and also of the Vrátya-sacrifices, at which we find the *Mágadhadeśíya brahmabandhu* (xxii. 4. 22) occupying the same position as in Látyáyana.