Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c11.s4.9

c11.s4.9

**How these works were taught and transmitted.** At the outset of this inductive study we should, however, note that the available Brāhmaṇa literature indicated above does not represent the entire literary matter produced. This is clear not merely from the internal evidence of the extant works but also from a consideration of the methods by which the works have been handed down from age to age. From internal evidence we know that to the number of the *Brāhmaṇas*, or recensions of the Saṁhitās, which have been lost to us, belong those of the Vāshkalas, Paiṅgins, Bhāllavins, Śāṭyāyanins, Kālabavins, Lāmakāyanins, Śāmbuvis Khāḍāyanins, and Śālaṅkāyanins. As regards the circumstances of the origin of these *Brāhmaṇas* and the conditions and methods of their transmission, it may be safely stated that they originated from the opinions of individual sages, imparted by oral tradition, and preserved as well as supplemented in their families and also by their disciples. As these separate traditions grew in number, the necessity was more and more felt for bringing them into harmony with one another. For this purpose learned individuals in different parts who were specially qualified for the task undertook compilations embodying the various traditions and different opinions on each subject and trace them in each case as far as possible to their original exponents. These compilations or digests again in their turn were orally transmitted in accordance with the well-known orthodox predilections on the subject and were not written down. We thus find here and there that of the same work there are two texts entirely differing in their details. Thus would also be produced frequent differences and conflicts between these compilers, as a result of which we find expressions of strong animosity against those whom a particular compilation regards as heterodox. There was also going on among these rival and competing compilations a struggle for existence leading to the survival of the fittest, which became so either by virtue of their intrinsic value, or of the fact that their authors appealed more to the hieratic spirit, the prevailing religious tendencies of the times. Thus we encounter the rather lamentable fact that the works representative of the disputed opinions have for the most part disappeared (with the possibility of mere fragments thereof being recovered here and there) while those which in the end came off victorious have almost entirely supplanted and effaced their predecessors.