Dhammapada

SR No.: 007674
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2540
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 1743

INTRODUCTION :
TO BAUDHAYANA.
THE case of the Baudhầyana Dharma-sútra is in many respects analogous to that of the Institutes of the Sacred Law, current in the schools of Apastamba and Hiranyakesin. Like the latter, it is the work of a teacher of the Black Yagur-veda, who composed manuals on all the various subdivisions of the Kalpa, and founded a Sûtra-karana, which is said to exist to the present day? The Brâhmanical tradition, too, acknowledges these facts, and, instead of surrounding Baudhầyana's work with a halo of myths, . simply states that it was originally studied by and authoritative for the followers of the Taittirîya-veda alone, and later only became one of the sources of the Sacred Law for all Brâhmans?. Moreover, the position of Baudhayana among the teachers of the Yagur-veda is well defined, and his home, or at least the home of his school, is known. But here the resemblance stops. For while the Satras of Âpastamba and Hiranyakesin have been preserved in carefully and methodically arranged collections, where a certain place is assigned to each section of the Kalpa, no complete set of the Sûtras of Baudhầyana's school has, as yet, been found, and the original position of the detached portions which are obtainable is not quite certain. Again, while the works of Âpastamba and Hiranyakesin seem to have been kept free from extensive interpolations, several parts of
· I must here state that during my residence in India I have never met with a follower of Baudhâyana's school, and cannot personally vouch for its existence. But many Pandits have assured me that many Baudhayaniyas are to be found among the Telingana and Karnataka Brâhmans.
? See Govinda's statement, quoted above, p. xiii.
Digitized by Google