English
It was not the Sanhit&, but the Br^hmana of the Y&jasa* neyinSi handed down as it was in various texts, which gave rise to the fifteen Charanas of the Ydjasanepns, and among them to the K&nva and M&dhyandina* charanas. Their SanhitlLs were of secondary im- portance, and startling as such an opinion might sound to an orthodox Brahman, were probably not put together till after the composition of the V&ja- saneyi-br&hmana in its original and primitive form. The peculiar differences in the text of the Mantras of the K&nvas and M&dhyandinas depend on the differ- ences occurring in their respective Brlthmanas, and not vice versd. On the same ground we must doubt the exbtence of ancient Sanhit£l-6&kh&s for the S&ma* veda. The next step which led to the formation of Chara- nas was the adoption of a Br&hmana, and we therefore call this second class the Brfthmana-charanas. When the growth of a more complicated ceremonial led to the establishment of three or four classes of priests, each performing peculiar duties, and requiring a special training for their sacerdotal office, there must have been a floating stock of Br&hmanas, or dicta theo' logicaj peculiar to each class of priests. They treated of the general arrangement of the sacrifice. They handed down the authoritative opinions of famous sages : they gave the objections raised against such opinions by other persons : and gradually they clothed these contradictory statements in the form of a logical argument. Occasionally an allegorical inter- pretation was given of the meaning of certain rites, the simple and natural import of which had been for- 19Q KALPA. gotten. Rewards were vouchsafed to the pious wor- shipper, and instances were recorded of such rewards having been obtained by the faithful of former ages. All these sayings and discussions were afterwards col- lected as three distinct Br&hmanas, belonging to the three classes of priests. We still meet with the general names of Bahvricha-br&hmanas for the Rig-veda, of Adhvaryu-brdhmanas for the Yajur-veda, and of Chhandoga-br&hmanas for the S&ma^veda, without any further reference to particular Charanas by which these Brdhmanas were collected or adopted. But those Br&hmanas are no longer met with in their original fonn. They have come down to us, without excep- tion, as the Brd^hmanas of certain Charanas of each Veda. Instead of one Bahvricha-br&hmana of the Rig- veda, we only find the Bahvricha-brdhmana of the Aitareyins, or the Kaushitakins, or the l§&nkh&yanins. Instead of one Chhandoga-br&hmana or Chh&ndogyam, we have the Chhandoga-brS.hmana of the T&ndins or the T&ndya, and we find quotations from other Charanas, such as the Sfttyd^yanins^ or the Eauthumas. 1 In one of the most interesting Brahmanas of the Chhandogas, the SamayidhS.na-br&hmana, we see how the two last in a series of teachers became the founders of a Charana, bj teaching this Br^mana, which had been handed down to them through a suc- cession of nine or at least six masters, to a multitude of followers. KALPA. 191 Instead of one Adhvaryu-br&hmana, we have the dark code of the old Gharakas, or the Taittiriyas and the Eathas, and the new Brd^hmana of the Y&jasaneyins, and their descendants, the Kdjavas and M4dhyandi- nas. We nowhere find the original collection from which the yarioas recensions might be supposed to have branched oif and deviated in time. In most cases, where we possess the texts of a Br&hmana, preserved by different l§&kh&s, the variations are but small, and they point clearly to one and the same original from which they descended. Sometimes, however, the variations are of a different kind, so much so that we are inclined to admit several independent collec- tions of that floating stock of Brahmanic lore, which went on accumulating in different places and through various generations. If we compare the Br&hmanas of the Aitarepns and the Eaushitakins, we find their wording, even where they treat of the same matters, very different. The order in which the sacrifices are described is not always the same, nor are the ceremo- nial rules always identical. Illustrations and legends are interspersed in the Brd^hmana of the Eaushitakins of which no trace can be found in the Brd.hmana of the Aitareyins. And yet, with all these differences, the literal coincidence of whole chapters, the frequent occurrence of the same sentences, the same compari- sons and illustrations, render it impossible to ascribe to each of these Brd^hmanas a perfectly independent origin. The two Brd^hmanas of the Ed^vas and MlUlhyandinas, in ^ite of their differences, in spite of f^Wtl flir^^l^li<P>^ WS^IW Ontheg&tjajaninsand their relation to the S&ma-veda, see Indische Studien, i. 49. 192 KALPA. additions and omissions that have been pointed out in either, compel us to admit that they had a common starting-point. To judge from frequent quotations, the number of Br&hmanas, differing from each other more or less considerably, and the number of Charanas, founded on these 6r&hmanaS| must have been very large. We can easily imagine how this happened. The name of a famous teacher, who gathered a number of students around himself in a village, or who lived under the protection of some small Raja, was preserved by his pupils for generations. The sacred litera- ture which he was, perhaps, the first to teach in a newly-founded colony, was afterwards handed down under the sanction of his name, though differing but slightly from the traditional texts kept up in the community from which he himself had started. He might, perhaps, add a few chapters of his own compo- sition, a change quite sufficient, in the eyes of the Br&hmans to constitute a new work, or at least to disqualify it for claiming any longer its original title. When these new Charanas had once .been founded, it was but natural, though they originated chiefly with a Br&hmana of their own, that the text of their Sanhitfts also should be slightly modified. This was not the case necessarily. The Aitareyins, for instance, and the Eaushitakins, though they differed in their Br&hmanas, preserved, as far as we know, the same 6&kh& of the Sanhita, and preserved it each with the same minute accuracy. No Sanhita peculiar to the Kaushitakins and Aitareyins is ever mentioned, and the points on which they differed were, from the very first, connected with the subject matter of the BrS,h- manas. Students following different 6&khd.s, as far as their Br&hmana was concerned, might very well KALPA. 193 follow one and the same l§&kh& of the Sanhitd., though they would no longer call it by its own ori- ginal name. In most cases, however, and particularly in the Charanas of the Yajur-veda, a difference in the Br&hmanas would necessitate, or, at least, naturally lead to, corresponding differences in the Sanhit&, such as we find, for instance, in the hymns of the ElLnvas and M&dhyandinas.^ These Br&hmana-charanas existed previous to the first composition of the Sdtras, and in the Siitras belonging to the S&ma-veda, which are the earliest Siitras we possess, they are quoted. No Siitra is ever quoted in any of the Br&hmanas, but there is no collection of Siitras in which the various j§&khli.s of the Br&hmanas are not referred to by name. The authorities quoted in the Siitras on doubtful points of the Vedic ceremonial, are invariably taken from the Br&hmana-charanas. In the commentary on P&- nini, such names as ^* the Aitareyins, the j§&ty&yanins, and Bh&llavins" are distinctly explained as sup- porters of ancient Br&hmanas ; and the antiquity of the two last is still further confirmed by the fact of their being quoted as Brahmanic authorities in the iSata- patha br&hmana.^ The third and most modern class of Charanas con- sists of those which derive their origin from the in- troduction of a new body of SAtras, such as the ASva- Iftyanlyas, the E&tyS.yaniyas, and many of the subdi- visions of the Taittiriyas. It is not always possible to determine with certainty whether a Charana dates 1 The difierences of these schools maj be seen in Weber's edition of the Yi^ar-yeda at the end of each Adhj&ya. ' See Weber's Indische Studien, ii. 44. O 2.^*- ^^ aowntou, "Oder th^ '*l.man^ S6,^h„ it o//- %%r,^ ^^^V^ sJi";' fce ^ '*">nof *^ <^-K-oi.l>ave . 'iiooi ■^5<*'D, Va. "Si^te^ ^ -""-ved, """"es to dif ■^ '^^ntio^^^a period. ^ALFA. 195 Although none of the Siitras seem to have been written with the .