The Satapatha-Brahmana, Part IV — Books VIII, IX & X (SBE Vol. 43, trans. Julius Eggeling, 1897)

their later rivals. On account of the lucid arrangement of their sacred texts, the Va^asaneyins called them the White (j-ukla) Ya^ur-veda ; the term of Black or Dark (kr/shz/a) Ya^ur-veda being, for the opposite reason, applied to the texts of the older schools. In later times, an absurd story was invented (doubtless by followers of the White Ya^us), in which the origin of the name Taittiriya is connected with the u'ord tittiri -', in the sense of ' partridge.'

' It has come down to us in two different recensions, the Aitareya and the Kaushitaki (or 5'ankhayana) Brahmawa.

^ Professor Weber, however, thinks there may be some reason for this derivation ; the name of Taittiriya having perhaps been applied to this school on account of the motley (partridge-like) character of its texts. According to the story alluded to, Yao-/7avalkya, having been taught the old Y.n^'-us texts by Vaisampayana, incurred the displeasure of his teacher, and was forced by him to disgorge the sacred science which, on falling to the ground, became soiled

XXVIU S-ATAPATHA-BRAHMAiVA.

The Brahma;/a of the Va^asaneyins bears the name of .Satapatha, that is, the Brahma;/a ' of a hundred paths,' because it consists of a hundred lectures (adhyayas). Both the Vaj^asaneyi-sa;;/hita and the 5atapatha-brahma;/a have come down to us in two different recensions, those of the Madhyandina and the Ka«va schools. Of the latter recension of the Brahma;/a, however, three books out of seventeen are wanting in the European libraries and have, as far as I know, not yet been discovered in India. The Madhyandina text both of the Sa7;/hita and the Brahma;/a has been edited by Professor Weber ; the former with the various readings of the Ka;/va recension. To the same scholar we owe a German translation of the first adhyaya of the first kanda.^ ; and he has, moreover, subjected the entire accessible literature of the White Ya^ur-veda — with the exception of the Kd«va text of the Brihmawa — to a careful examination, and has extracted from it all that seems calculated to throw light on its history, so that in this respect little remains to those who come after him but to state the results of his enquiries. Professor Max Mi'iller, in his History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature,has also fully discussed the questions regarding the date and authorship of these texts, and has done much to clear up what was obscure in their relations to the older Ya^us texts and to Vedic literature generally.

his History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature,has also fully discussed the questions regarding the date and authorship of these texts, and has done much to clear up what was obscure in their relations to the older Ya^us texts and to Vedic literature generally. Many points, however, still remain doubtful ; and, above all, opinions are as divided as ever regarding the approximate date of the teacher with whose name tradition connects the origin of the modern school of the Adhvaryus.

The schools of the Va^asancyins are stated to have been either fifteen or seventeen ; and their names are given, though with considerable variations, in different works. No distinct traces, however, have as yet been discovered of any recensions besides the two already referred to. As regards the names of these two, — the Madhyandina and Ka«va, — the latter is the name of one of the chief families of i?/shis

(hence Black Ya^us), and was picked up by Ya^/Javalkya's condisciples, who had assumed the form of partridges. This story seems first to occur in thePurawas; sec Wilson's translation of the Vishwu Pura«a (ed. Hall), III, p. 54. Pa/iini (IV, 3, 102) and Pata;7^ali only know of the Taittiriya texts as 'promulgated by Tittiri.' * Zeitsch. derD.M.G.,IV,p. 289seq.; reprinted in Indische Streifen I,p.3iseq.

INTRODUCTION. XXIX

of the i?zk-sa;«hita ; and certain orthoepic peculiarities of the Ya^us texts of the Kawvas would seem to favour the assumption of a connection of this school with the redaction of the Rik. The name of the Madhyandinas, literally * meridional,' on the other hand, does not occur in the older literature. Nor can we draw any definite conclusions, as to the probable date of their recension, from Lassen's identification of this name with the MayStaSii'oi, mentioned by Megasthenes (as quoted by Arrian) as a people on the banks of a tributary of the Ganges ; or from Professor Weber's conjecture that the Madhyandina school may have taken its origin among that people.

The Madhyandina text of the 5atapatha is divided into fourteen books (ka;/</a). For several reasons, however, some of these books have to be assigned to a later period than the others. In the first place, the twelfth ka;/(/a is called madhyama, ' the middle one ;' a fact which in itself would suggest the idea that, at the time when this nomenclature was adopted, the last five books (or perhaps books 11-13) were regarded as a separate portion of the work^ Besides, Pata/7^ali, in a karika or memorial couplet to Fan.

;' a fact which in itself would suggest the idea that, at the time when this nomenclature was adopted, the last five books (or perhaps books 11-13) were regarded as a separate portion of the work^ Besides, Pata/7^ali, in a karika or memorial couplet to Fan. IV, 2, 60, mentions the words shash^ipatha ('consisting of sixty paths') and j-atapatha, with the view of forming derivative nouns from them, in the sense of one who studies such works. Now, as the first nine books of the 5atapatha, in the Madhyandina text, consist of sixty adhyayas, it was suggested by Professor Weber that it was probably this very portion of the work to which Pata/7^ali applied the term ' shash/ipatha,' and that consequently the first nine books were at that time considered as, in some sense, a distinct work and were studied as such. This conjecture has been generally accepted. There is indeed a possibility that Pata^T^ali may have been acquainted with some other

' The Kanva text is divided into seventeen books. Ka//<fas 12-15 correspond to Madhyandina 10-13 ; and khida if^ which treats of the Pravargya ceremony, corresponds to the first three adhyayas of the last kinda of the Madhyandinas. Thus in the Ka/na recension the fourteenth kânda, called ' madhyama,' is the middle one of kaWas 12-16 ; the seventeenth kbida. or Br,hadara«yaka. being apparently considered as a supplement. Perhaps this division is more original than that of the Madhyandinas.

XXX S-ATAPATHA-BRAHMAiVA.

recension of the Brahmawa of the Va^asaneyins which consisted of only forty adhyayas ; but even in that case the latter would in all probability correspond to the first nine books of the Madhyandina text. As regards the Ka;/va recension, we are unfortunately not yet able, owing to the want of some of its kajidas, to determine its exact extent ; and have to rely on a list added by a scribe on the front page of one of the ka.nda.s in the Oxford MS. \ according to which that text consists of 104 adhyayas. Still further evidence regarding the mutual relations of the several portions of our Brahmawa is contained in a passage of the Mahabharata (XII, 11739), where Ya^/7avalkya relates that, at the inspiration of the Sun, he composed (/('akre) the 5atapatha, including ^ the Rahasya (mystery), the Sa;;zgraha (epitome), and the Parij-ish/a (supplement). Now the tenth book is really called Agni-rahasya ; while the eleventh contains a kind of summary of the preceding ritual; and ka«<^as 12-14 treat of various other subjects.