A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s7.26

v1.c8.s7.26

To the White Yajurveda belongs the Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa, "the Brāhmaṇa of the Hundred Paths," so called because it consists of one hundred Adhyāyas or "lessons." This is the best known, the most extensive, and doubtless, also on account of its contents the most important of all the Brāhmaṇas.⁴ As in the case of the Vājasaneyi-Saṃhitā, there are two recensions of this Brāhmaṇa, that of the Kāṇvas and that of the Mādhyandinas. In the latter the hundred Adhyāyas are distributed among 14 books (Kāṇḍas). The first nine books are simply a continuous commentary on the first eighteen sections of the Vājasaneyi-Saṃhitā. They are decidedly older than the last five books. Probably also Books I to V are more closely connected. In them Yājñavalkya, who at the end of Book XIV is called the author of the whole Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa, is often mentioned as the teacher whose authority is conclusive. On the other hand, in Books VI to IX, which deal with the fire-altar building (Agnicayana), Yājñavalkya is not mentioned at all. Instead of him another teacher, Śāṇḍilya, is quoted as an authority; and the same Śāṇḍilya is also regarded as the proclaimer of the Agnirahasya, *i.e.* of the "fire-altar mystery," which forms the contents of Book X. Books XI to XIV, besides appendices to the preceding books, also contain a few interesting sections on subjects which are otherwise not dealt with in the Brāhmaṇas, thus upon the Upanayana, the initiation of a pupil or the taking of the pupil to the teacher who is to instruct him in the sacred texts (XI, 5, 4), upon the daily Veda study (svādhyāya),¹ which is looked upon as a sacrifice to the god Brahman (XI, 5, 6-8), and upon the death-ceremonies and the raising of a burial mound (XIII, 8). The horse-sacrifice (Aśvamedha), the "human sacrifice (Puruṣamedha) and the "sacrifice of all" (Sarvamedha) are dealt with in Book XIII, and the Pravargya ceremony in Book XIV. At the close of this extensive work is the old and important Bṛhadāraṇyaka-Upaniṣad with which we shall become acquainted in the next chapter.