The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c10.9

v1.c10.9

Of the extant Sūtras of the Rigveda there are two complete collections, the Āçvalāyana and the Çāṅkhāyana Çrauta and Gṛhya Sūtras: the former is undoubtedly the older, and its reputed author may be assigned with reasonable probability to about 400 B. C.³ The Sāmaveda has the Çrauta Sūtras of Maçaka, Lāṭyāyana and Drāhyāyaṇa, and Gṛhya Sūtras by Jaimini, Gobhila, and Khādira. In the case of the Black Yajurveda Sūtras are especially frequent, including the very important Mānava, the Baudhāyana, Bhāradvāja, Āpastamba and Hiraṇyakeçi, covering both the field of Çrauta and Gṛhya rites: the White Yajurveda is represented by the Kātyāyana Çrauta Sūtra and the Pāraskara Gṛhya Sūtra.⁴ The Atharvaveda has the most important in some way of all the Sūtras, the Kauçika, which is invaluable as bearing a very close relation to the text of the Veda, and preserving in many cases what seem perfectly accurate accounts of the magic rites which were accompanied by the formulae in the text: when the Atharvavedins became desirous of assimilating their Veda in every possible manner to the three older Vedas, they invented an orthodox Çrauta Sūtra, the Vaitāna, to accompany it, and from the Vaitāna more directly and indirectly from the Kauçika is derived much of the matter of the curious work, the Gopatha Brāhmaṇa, which poses as the Brāhmaṇa of the Atharvaveda, and which, borrowing largely from the Aitareya and Çatapatha Brāhmaṇas with other texts, is in essence a pamphlet in exaltation of the Brahman priest and the Atharvaveda.¹ The date of this remarkable composition is unknown: it is of course more than possible that some of its material is old, even when it is not borrowed from existing texts, for an enormous amount of Vedic literature has been lost, some within quite recent times.