In the case of the Apastamba Dharma-sutra it is, how- ever, not necessary to rely on its position alone, in order to ascertain its genuineness. There are unmistakable indications that it is the work of the same author who wrote the remainder of the Kalpa-sutra. One important argument in favour of this view is furnished by the fact that Praj-na XXVII, the section on the Grzhya ceremonies, has evidently been made very short and concise with the intention of saving matter for the subsequent sections on the sacred law. The Apastambiya Grzhya-sutra contains nothing beyond a bare outline of the domestic ceremonies, while most of the other Gr/hya-sutras, e.g. those of A^valayana, .Sankhayana, Gobhila, and Paraskara, include a great many rules which bear indirectly only on the performance of the offerings in the sacred domestic fire. Thus on the occasion of the description of the initiation of Aryan students, A^valayana inserts directions regarding the dress and girdle to be worn, the length of the student- ship, the manner of begging, the disposal of the alms collected, and other similar questions l. The exclusion of such incidental remarks on subjects that are not immedi- ately connected with the chief aim of the work, is almost complete in Apastamba's Grzhya-sutra, and reduces its size to less than one half of the extent of the shorter ones among the works enumerated above. It seems impossible to explain this restriction of the scope of Pra^na XXVII otherwise than by assuming that Apastamba wished to reserve all rules bearing rather on the duties of men than on the performance of the domestic offerings, for his sections on the sacred law.
A second and no less important argument for the unity of
the whole Kalpa-sutra may be drawn from the cross-refer-
ences which occur in several Prajnas. In the Dharma-sutra
we find that on various occasions, where the performance
1 Arvaliyana Grihya-sutra I, 19, ed. Stenzler.
XJV APASTAMBA.
of a ceremony is prescribed, the expressions yathoktam, ' as has been stated,' yathopadejam,' according to the injunction,' or yatha purastat, ' as above,' are added. In four of these passages, Dh. I, i, 4, 16 ; II, 2, 3, 17; 2, 5, 4; and 7, 17. 1 6, the Grzhya-sutra is doubtlessly referred to, and the commentator Haradatta has pointed out this fact. On the other hand, the Gr/hya-sutra refers to the Dharma-sutra, employing the same expressions which have been quoted from the latter. Thus we read in the beginning of the chapter on funeral oblations, Grzhya-sutra VIII, 2i3 i, masuraddhasyaparapakshe yathopade^aw kala/z, ' the times for the monthly funeral sacrifice (fall) in the latter (dark) half of the month according to the injunction.' Now as neither the Gr/hya-sutra itself nor any preceding portion of the Kalpa-sutra contains any injunction on this point, it follows that the long passage on this subject which occurs in the Dharma-sutra II, 7, 16, 4-22 is referred to. The expression yathopadejarn is also found in other passages of the Gr/hya-sutra, and must be explained there in a like manner1. There are further a certain number of Sutras which occur in the same words both in the Pra.ma on domestic rites, and in that on the sacred law, e.g. Dh. I, i, i, 18 ; I, i, 2, 38; I, i, 4, 14. It seems that the author wished to call special attention to these rules by repeating them. Their recurrence and literal agreement may be considered an additional proof of the intimate connection of the two sections.
Through a similar repetition of, at least, one Sutra it is possible to trace the connection of the Dharma-sutra with the .Srauta-sutra. The rule r/tve v£ ^ayam, ' or (he may have conjugal intercourse) with his wife in the proper season,' is given, Dh. II, 2. 5, 17, with reference to a house- holder who teaches the Veda. In the Srauta-sutra it occurs twice, in the sections on the new and full moon sacrifices III, 17, 8, and again in connection with the Tifaturmasya offerings, VIII, 4, 6, and it refers both times
1 See the details, given by Dr. Wiotenutz in his essay, Das altindische Hochzeitsrituell, p. 5 (Denkschr. Wiener Akademie, Bd. 40).
Introduction. Xv
to the sacrificer. In the first passage the verb, upeyat, is added, which the sense requires; in the second it has the abbreviated form, which the best MSS. of the Dharma- sQtra offer. The occurrence of the irregular word, rz'tve for rz'tvye, in all the three passages, proves clearly that we have to deal with a self-quotation of the same author. If the Dharma-sOtra were the production of a different person and a later addition, the Pseudo-Apastamba would most probably not have hit on this peculiar irregular form. Finally, the Gr/hya-sutra, too, contains several cross- references to the 5Yauta-sutra, and the close agreement of the Sutras on the Vedic sacrifices, on the domestic rites, and on the sacred, both in language and style, conclusively prove that they are the compositions of one author 1.
Who this author really was, is a problem which cannot be solved for the present, and which probably will always remain unsolved, because we know his family name only. For the form of the word itself shows that the name Apa- stamba, just like those of most founders of Vedic schools, e. g. Bharadva^a, A^valayana, Gautama, is a patronymic. This circumstance is, of course, fatal to all attempts at an identification of the individual who holds so prominent a place among the teachers of the Black Ya^nr-veda.
But we are placed in a somewhat better position with respect to the history of the school which has been named after Apastamba and of the works ascribed to him. Re- garding both, some information has been preserved by tradition, and a little more can be obtained from inscrip- tions and later works, while some interesting details re- garding the time when, and the place where the Sutras were composed, may be elicited from the latter themselves. The data, obtainable from these sources, it is true, do not enable us to determine with certainty the year when the Apastambiya school was founded, and when its Sutras were composed. But they make it possible to ascertain the position of the school and of its Sutras in Vedic litera-
1 See Dr. Winternitz, loc. cit.
XVI APA9TAMBA.
ture, their relative priority or posteriority as compared
with other Vedic schools and works, to show with some
amount of probability in which part of India they had
their origin, and to venture, at least, a not altogether
unsupported conjecture as to their probable antiquity.
As regards the first point, the A'ara/javyima, a supple- ment of the White Ya^ur-veda which gives the lists of the Vedic schools, informs us that the Apastambiya school formed one of the five branches of the Kha/wfikiya school, which in its turn was a subdivision of the Taittiriyas, one of the ancient sections of Brahmawas who study the Black Ya^ur-veda. Owing to the very unsatisfactory condition of the text of the A'arawavyuha it is unfortunately not possible to ascertain what place that work really assigns to the Apastambiyas among the five branches of the Kha^ikiyas. Some MSS. name them first, and others last. They give either the following list, i. Kaleyas (Kaletas), 2. Sa/yayanins, 3. Hirawyake^ins, 4. Bhara- dva^ins, and 5. Apastambins, or, i. Apastambins, 2. Bau- dhayanins or Bodhayanins, 3. Satyasha<///ins, 4. Hirawya- ke^ins, 5. Aukheyas l. But this defect is remedied to a certain extent by the now generally current, and probably ancient tradition that the Apastambiyas are younger than the school of Baudhayana, and older than that of Satya- shad^a Hira«yakejin. Baudhayana, it is alleged, composed the first set of Sutras connected with the Black Ya^ur- veda, which bore the special title ' prava^ana,' and he was succeeded by Bharadva^a, Apastamba, and Satya- sha^a Hira«yakejin, who all founded schools which bear their names 2.
1 Max Miiller, Hist. Anc. Sansk. Lit , p. 371. A MS. of the Aara«avyuha with an anonymous commentary, in my possession, has the following passage :
3 Max Miiller, Hist. Anc. Sansk. Lit., p. 194. These statements occur in the introduction of Mahadeva's commentary on the 6'rauta-sfitra of Hirawya- kc-jiii (Weber, Hist. Sansk. Lit., p. 1 10, 2nd ed.) and in an interpolated passage of Bh&radva^a's Gr/hya-sfitra (Winternitz, op. cit., p. 8, note i), as well as, with the omission of Bharadva^a's name, in interpolated passages of
Introduction. Xv11
This tradition has preserved two important pieces of information. First, the Apastamba school is what Pro- fessor Max Muller appropriately calls a Sutra£ara«a, i. e. a school whose founder did not pretend to have received a revelation of Vedic Mantras or of a Brahmawa text, but merely gave a new systematic arrangement of the precepts regarding sacrifices and the sacred law. Secondly, the Sutras of Apastamba occupy an intermediate position be- tween the works of Baudhayana and Hira«yakejin. Both these statements are perfectly true, and capable of being supported by proofs, drawn from Apastamba's own and from other works.
As regards the first point, Professor Max Muller has already pointed l out fhat, though we sometimes find a Brahmawa of the Apastambiyas mentioned, the title Apa- stamba-brahma«a is nothing but another name of the Taittiriya-brahmawa, and that this Brahma^a, in reality, is always attributed to Tittiri or to the pupils of Vauam- payana, who are said to have picked up the Black Yagoir- veda in the shape of partridges (tittiri). The same remark applies to the collection of the Mantras of the Black Ya^r- veda, which, likewise, is sometimes named Apastamba- sawhita. The A'arawavyuha states explicitly that the five branches of the Kha/wfikiya school, to which the Apa- stambiyas belong, possess one and the same recension of the revealed texts, consisting of 7 Kawdfas, 44 Prajnas, 651 Anuvakas, 3198 Pannasis, 19290 Padas2, and 253,868 syllables, and indicates thereby that all these five schools were Sutra^arawas.
If we now turn to Apastamba's own works, we find still
Baudhayana's Dharma-sutra (II, 5, 9, 14) and of the same author's Grfhya- sutra (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xiv, p. xxxvi, note i). Adherents of a Prava£ana-sutra, no doubt identical with that of Baudhayana, the Prava- £anakarta (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xiv, p. xxxvi), are mentioned in a land grant, originally issued by the Pallava king Xandivarman in the beginning of the eighth century A. D., see Hultzsch, South Indian Inscriptions, vol. ii, p. 361 seqq. ; see also Weber, Hist. Sansk. Lit., p. no, and ed.
1 Max Muller, op. cit, p. 195.
1 See also Weber, Ind. Lit., p. 98, and ed.
XVlii APASTAMBA.
clearer proof that he laid no claim to the title Rishi, or inspired seer of Vedic texts. For (Dharma-sdtra I, 2, 5, 4-5) he says distinctly that on account of the prevalent transgression of the rules of studentship no Rishis are born among the Avaras, the men of later ages or of modern times, but that some, by virtue of a residue of the merit which they acquired in former lives, become similar to .A'zshis by their knowledge of the Veda. A man who speaks in this manner, shows that he considers the holy ages during which the great saints saw with their mind's eye the uncreated and eternal texts of the Veda to be past, and that all he claims is a thorough acquaintance with the scriptures which had been handed down to him. The same spirit which dictated this passage is also observable in other portions of the Dharma-sutra. For Apastamba repeatedly contrasts the weakness and sinfulness of the Avaras, the men of his own times, with the holiness of the ancient sages, who, owing to the greatness of their ' lustre,' were able to commit various forbidden acts without dimin- ishing their spiritual merit l. These utterances prove that Apastamba considered himself a child of the Kali Yuga, the age of sin, during which, according to Hindu notions, no /tlzshis can be born. If, therefore, in spite of this explicit disclaimer, the Sawhita and the Brahmawa of the Black Ya^ur-veda are sometimes called Apastamba or Apastambiya, i.e. belonging to Apastamba, the meaning of this expression can only be, that they were and are studied and handed down by the school of Apastamba, not that its founder was their author, or, as the Hindus would say, saw them.
The fact that Apastamba confined his activity to the composition of Sutras is highly important for the deter- mination of the period to which he belonged. It clearly shows that in his time the tertiary or Sutra period of the Ya^ur-veda had begun. Whether we assume, with Pro- fessor Max Miiller, that the Sutra period was one and the same for all the four Vedas, and fix its limits with him
1 Dharma-sfitra II, 6, 13, i-io; II, 10, 37, 4.
