Sū

500–2

of oral priestly tradition, from the contents of the Brāhma?as solely to meet practical needs. The oldest of them seem to go back to about the time when Buddhism came into being. Indeed it is quite possible that the rise of the rival religion gave the first impetus to the composition of systematic manuals of Brahmanic worship. The Buddhists in their turn must have come to regard Sūtr

royal sacrifices is much more detailed in the ?ānkhāyana ?rauta Sūtra. The latter, which is closely connected with the ?ānkhāyana Brāhma?a, seems to be the older of the two, on the ground both of its matter and of its style, which in many parts resembles that of the Brāhma?as. It consists of eighteen books, the last two of w

es of the Soma sacrifice in the order of the Panchavim??a Brāhma?a. The ?rauta Sūtra composed by Lā?yāyana, became the accepted manual of the Kauthuma school. This Sūtra, like that of Ma?aka, whic

tly follows the sacrificial order of the ?atapatha Brāhma?a. Three of its chapters (xxii.–xxiv.), however, relate to the ceremonial

aittirīya ?ākhā, which represented the later sūtra schools (chara?as) not claiming a special revelation of Veda or Brāhma?a. The ?rauta Sūtra of āpastamba forms the first twenty-four of the thirty chapters (pra?nas) into which his Kalpa Sūtra is

s origin. It seems to be one of the oldest. It has a descriptive character, resembling the Brāhma?a parts of the Yajurveda, and differing from them only in simply describing the course of th

the word with which it begins, since the term vaitāna ("relating to the three sacrificial fires") is equally applicable to all ?rauta Sūtras. It agrees to a considerable extent with the Gopatha Brāhma?a, though it distinctly follows

es are never congregational, but are always performed on behalf of a single individual, the so-called Yajamāna or sacrificer, who takes but little part in them. The officiators are Brahman priests, whose number varies from one to sixteen, according to the nature of the ceremony. In all these rites an important part is played by the thr

offerings of milk, ghee, porridge, grain, cakes, and so forth. The commonest is the Agnihotra, the daily morning and evening oblation of milk to the three fires. The most important of the others are the new and full moon sacrifices (dar?apū

This rite occupied only one day, with three pressings of soma, at morning, noon, and evening; but this day was preceded by very detailed preparatory ceremonies, one of which was the init

black antelope, with which the clay is to be mixed, and as to how it is to be shaped, and finally burnt. Then the bricks, which have different and particular sizes, have to be built up in prescribed order. The lowest of the five strata must have 1950, all of them together, a total of 10,800 bricks. Many of these have their special name and significance. Thus the altar is gradually built up,

the authority of popular tradition to rely on when they systematised the observances of daily life. As a type, th

the Kaushītakins, and is as yet known only in manuscript. Though borrowing largely from ?ānkhāyana, it is not identical with that work. It knows nothing of the last two books, nor even a number of ceremonies described in the third and fourth, while having a book of its own concerning the s

sides the text of the Sāmaveda it presupposes the Mantra Brāhma?a. The latter is a collection, in the ritual order, of the mantras (except those occurring in the Sāmaveda itself), which are quoted by Gobh

Sūtra. It is so closely connected with the ?rauta Sūtra of Kātyāyana, that it is often quoted under the

his G?ihya Sūtra. About Baudhāyana's G?ihya not much is known, still less about that of Bhāradvāja. The Mānava G?ihya Sūtra is closely connected with the ?rauta, repeating many of the statements of the latter verbally. It is interesting as containing a ceremony unknown to other G?ihya Sūtras, the worship of the Vināyakas. The passage reappears in a versified form in Yājnavalkya's law-book, where the four Vināyakas are

al and other practices specially connected with its Veda. By its extensive references to these subjects it supplies much material unknown to other Vedic schools. It is a composite

d with the three sacrificial fires of the ?rauta Sūtras. They describe forty consecrations or sacraments (sam?skāras) which are performed at various important epochs in the life of the individual. The first eighteen, extending from conception to marria

t name," known only to the parents, as a protection against witchcraft, the other for common use. Minute directions are given as to the quality of the name; for instance, that it should contain an even number of syllables, begin with a soft letter, and have a semi-vowel in the middle; that for a Brahman it should end in -?arman, for a Kshatriya in -varman, and a Vai?ya in -gupta. Ge

a girdle, and a cord worn over one shoulder and under the other arm. The first is made of different wood, the others of different materials according to caste. The sacred cord is the outward token of the ārya or member of one of the three highest castes, and by investiture with it he attains his second birth, being then

into the Zoroastrian community shows that it goes back to Indo-Iranian times. The prevalence among primitive races all over the world of a rite of initiation, regarded as a sec

uties of the pupil are the collection of fuel, the performance of devotions at morning

ng of her hand placed the bride in the power of her husband. The stone on which she stepped was to give her firmness. The seven steps which she took with her husband, and the sacrificial food which she shared with him, were to inaugurate friendship and community. Future abundance and male offspring were prognosticated when she had been conducted to her husband's house, by seating her on the hide of a red bull and placing upon her lap the son of a woman who had only borne living male children. The god most closely connected with the rite was Agni; for

ge (vivāha). About twelve of these Sam?skāras are still practised in India, investiture being still the most important n

re (homa); the libation (tarpa?a) to the Manes (pit?i-yajna); offerings (called bali) deposited in various places on the ground to demons and all beings (bhūta-yajna); and the sacrifice to men (manushya-yajna), consisting in hospitality, especially to Brahman m

he danger from snakes at that time. Various ceremonies are connected with the building and entering of a new house. Detailed rules are given about the site as well as the construction. A door on the west is, for instance, forbidden. On the completion of the house, which is built of wood and bamboo, an animal is sacrificed. Other ceremonies are concerned with cattle; for instan

en from his hand, broken, and cast on the pyre, while a cow or a goat is burnt with the corpse. Afterwards a purifying ablution is performed by all relations to the seventh or tenth degree. They then sit down on a grassy spot and listen to old stories or a sermon on the transitoriness of life till the stars appear. At last, without looking round, they return in procession to their homes, where various observances are gone through. A death is followed by a period of impurity, generally lasting three da

itted to the circle of the Manes by a rite which makes him their sapi??a ("united by the funeral cake"). After the lapse of a year or more another elaborate ceremony (called pit?i-medha) takes place in connection with the erection of a monument, when the bones are taken out of the urn and buried in a suitable place. There are further

ifices of the ?rauta ritual, the one called Pi??a-pit?i-yajna immediately preceding the ne

e of its own, extending from the Vedic period to the legal Compendia of the Middle Ages. The ?r

ng the daily domestic life of ancient India. Perhaps, however, enough has been said to show that th

to those collections of legal aphorisms which form part of the body of Sūtras belonging to a particular branch (?ākhā) of the Veda. In this sense only three have been preserved, all of them attached to the Taittirīya division of the Black Yajurveda. But there is good reason to suppose that other works of the same kind which have been preser

duties of the three upper classes. It deals chiefly with the duties of the Vedic student and of the householder, with forbidden food, purifications, and penances, while, on the secular side, it touches upon the law of marriage, inheritance, and crime only. From the disapprobation which the author e

e āpastambas and founded a new school in the Konkan country on the south-west (about Goa). The lower limit for this separation from the āpastambas is about 500 A.D., when a Hira?yake?in Brahman is mentioned in an inscription. The main importanc

?ihya Sūtra shows the latter to be earlier than the corresponding work of āpastamba. The Baudhāyana school cannot be traced at the present day, but it appears to have belonged to Southern India, where the famous Vedic commentator Sāya?a was a member of it in the fourteenth century. The subjects dealt with in their Dharma Sūtra are multifarious, including the duties of the

longed to that Veda is confirmed by the fact that its twenty-sixth section is taken word for word from the Sāmavidhāna Brāhma?a. Though entitled a Dharma ?āstra, it is in style and character a regular Dharma Sūtra. It is composed entirely in prose aphorisms, without any admixture of verse, as in the other works of this class. Its varie

of antiquity in various respects. Thus here, as in the Dharma Sūtra of āpastamba, only six forms of marriage are recognised, instead of the orthodox eight. Kumārila states that in his time Vasish?ha's law-book, while acknowledged to have general authority, was studied by followers of the Rigveda only. That he meant the present work and no other, is proved by the quotations from it which he gives, and which are found in the published text. As Vasish?ha, in citing Vedic Sam?hitās and Sūtras, shows a predilection for works belonging to the North of India, it is to be inferred that he or his school belonged to that part. Vasish?ha give

harma-?āstra. Of the numerous quotations from it in Vasish?ha, six are found unaltered or but slightly modified in our text of Manu. One passage cited in Vasish?ha is composed partly in prose and partly in verse, the latter portion recurri

reserved. This work, which must have been extensive, and dealt with all branches of law, is already quoted as authoritative by Parā?ara. The statement of

ry A.D. It refers to the cult of Nārāya?a (Vish?u), and mentions Wednesday by the name of budha-vāra, "day of Mercury." It is not a regular Dharma Sūtra, for it contains nothing connected with law in the strict sense, but is only a treatise on domestic law (g?ihya-dharma). It deals

he Hindu people. But the progress of research tends to show that the basis even of the sacerdotal ritual of the Brahmans was popular religious observances. Otherwise it would be hard to understand how Brahmanism acquired and retained s

s on entering manhood. The offering of gifts to the gods in fire is Indo-European, as is shown by the agreement of the Greeks, Romans, and Indians. Indo-European also is that part of the marriage ritual in which the newly wedded couple walk round the nuptial fire, the bridegroom presenting a burnt offering and the bride an offering of grain; for among the Romans also the young pair walked round the altar from left to right before offering bread (far) in the fire. Indo-European, too, must be the practice of scattering rice or grain (as a symbol o

Kalpa Sūtra of āpastamba is a treatise of this class. These are practical manuals giving the measurements necessary for the construction of

or religious practice; and jyotisha, or astronomy. The first four were meant as aids to the correct reciting and understanding of the sacred texts; the last two deal with religious rites or duties, and their proper seasons. They all have their origin in the exigencies of

rom the Vedic period; for the Vedic calendar, called jyotisha, the two recensions of which prof

(even the parts of compounds) separately, in its original form unmodified by phonetic rules, furnished a basis for all subsequent studies. Yāska, Pā?ini, and other grammarians do not always accept the analyses of the Padapā?has when they think they understand a Vedic form better. Patanjali even directly contests their authoritativeness. The treatises really representative of Vedic phonetics are the Prāti?ākhyas, which are directly connected with the Sam?hitā and Padapā?ha. It is their object to determine the relation of these to each other. In so doing they furnish a systematic account of Vedic euphonic combination, besides adding phonetic discussions to secure the correct recitation of the sacred texts. They

epitomised, with the addition of some supplementary matter, in a short treatise entitled Upalekha. The Taittirīya Prāti?ākhya is particularly interesting owing to the various peculiar names of teachers occurring among the twenty which it mentions. The Vājasa

s (pa?alas) of the Rigveda Prāti?ākhya, and especially in the Nidāna Sūtra, which belongs to the Sāmaveda. A part of the Chhandah? Sūtra of Pingala also deals with Vedic

c metres. These sections are, however, almost identical in matter with the sixteenth pa?ala of the Rigveda Prāti?ākhya, and may possibl

ese are first mentioned by Yāska as nāman, or "noun" (including sarva-nāman, "representing all nouns" or "pronouns"), ākhyāta, "predicate," i.e. "verb"; upasarga, "supplement," i.e. "preposition"; nipāta, "incidental addition," i.e. "particle." It is perhaps to the separation of these categories that the name for grammar, vyākara?a, originally referred, rather than to the analysis of word

Yāska has an interesting discussion on the theory of ?āka?āyana, which he himself follows, that nouns are derived from verbs. Gārgya and some other grammarians, he shows, admit this theory in a general way, but deny that it is applicable to all nouns. He criticises their objections, and finally dismisses them as untenable. On ?āka?āyana's theory of the verbal origin of nouns the whole system of Pā?ini is founded. The sūtra of that grammarian contains hundreds of rules dealing with Vedic forms; but these are of the nature of exceptions to

use of teachers. Yāska had before him five such collections. The first three contain groups of synonyms, the fourth specially difficult words, and the fifth a classification of the Vedic gods. These Yāska explained for the

nt of view of exegesis and grammar, is highly interesting as the earliest specimen of Sanskrit prose of the classical type, considerably earlier than Pā?ini himself. Yāska already uses essentially the same grammatical terminology as Pā?ini, employing, for instance, the same words for root

inst vā yó as two words in ?ākalya's Pada text. Yāska's paraphrases show that he also occasionally differed from the Sam?hitā text, though the quotations themselves from the Rigveda have been corrected so as to agree absolutely with the traditional text. But th

hya-pari?ish?a, in four chapters, connected with the Rigveda. The Gobhila sam?graha-pari?ish?a is a compendium of G?ihya practices in general, with a special leaning towards magical rites, which came to be attached to the Sāmaveda. Closely related to, and probably later than this work, is the Karma-pradīpa ("lam

ng to the various schools. The Prayogas describe the course of each sacrifice and the functions of the different groups of priests, solely from the point of view of practical performance, while the Paddhatis rather follow the systematic a

es five have been preserved. The ārshānukrama?ī, containing rather less than 300 ?lokas, gives a list of the Rishis or authors of the Rigveda. Its present text represents a modernised form of that which was known to the commentator Sha?guru?ishya in the twelfth century. The Chhandonukrama?ī, which is of almost exactly the same length, enumerates the metres in which the hymns of the Rigveda are composed. It also states for each book the number of verses in each metre as well as the aggregate in all metres. The Anuvākānukrama?ī is a short index containing only about forty verses. It stat

ten quotations from it have been preserved by the commentator Sha?guru?ishya. It must have been superseded by the B?ihaddevatā, an index of the "many gods," a much more extensive work than any of the other Anukrama?īs, as it contains about 1200 ?lokas interspersed with occasional trish?ubhs. It is divided into eight adhyāyas corresponding to the ash?akas of the Rigveda. Following the order of the Rigveda, its main object is to state the deity for each verse.

s. There is an introduction in twelve sections, nine of which form a short treatise on Vedic metres corresponding to the last three sections of the Rigveda Prāti?ākhya. The author begins with the statement that he is going to supply an index of the pratīkas and so forth of the Rigveda according to the authorities (yathopade?am), because without such knowledge the ?rauta and Smārta rites cannot be accomplished. These authorities are doubtless the metrical indic

e work of Atri, who communicated it to Laugākshi. The Anukrama?ī of the White Yajurveda in the Mādhyam?dina recension, attributed to Kātyāyana, consists of five sections. The first four are an index of authors, deities, and metres. The authors of verses taken from the Rigveda generally agree with those in the Sarvānukrama?ī. There are, however, a good many exceptions, several new names belonging to a later period, some even to that of the ?atapatha Brāhma?a. The fifth section gives a summary account of the metres occurring in the text. It is identical with the corresponding portion of the introduction to the Sarvānukrama?ī, which was probably the original position of the section. There are many other Pari?ish?as of the White Yajurveda, all attributed to Kātyāyana. Only three of these need b

ied in 1387, having written his works under Bukka I. (1350–79), whose teacher and minister he calls himself, and his successor, Harihara (1379–99). These princes belonged to a family which, throwing off the Muhammadan yoke in the earlier half of the fourteenth century, founded the dynasty of Vijayanagara ("city of victory"), now Hampi, on the Tungabhadrā, in the Bellary district. Sāya?a's elder brother, Mādhava, was minister of King Bukka, and died as abbot of the monastery of ??ing