A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s12.18

v1.c8.s12.18

These Prātiśākhyas are the earliest representatives of the Vedāṅga Śikṣā. Beside them we find more modern works, short treatises on phonetics, which claim the title of Śikṣās and give famous names, such as Bhāradvāja, Vyāsa, Vāsiṣṭha, Yājñavalkya and so on, as their authors. They follow the Prātiśākhyas in much the same way as, at later periods, versified law-books followed up the ancient Vedic Dharmasūtras, also mentioning as their authors names famous in antiquity. Some of these Śikṣās are comparatively old and are more directly associated with some Prātiśākhya or other, *e.g.* the Vyāsa-Śikṣā¹ with the Taittirīya-Prātiśākhya, while others are of much later origin and of no importance either for grammar or for the history of the Vedic texts.²