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 811

INTRODUCTION.
xxvii
mingling of the sacrificial formulas and the explanatory or Brâhmana portions. It was with the view of remedying this want of arrangement, by entirely separating the exegetic matter from the formulas, that the new school of Adhvaryus was founded. The name given to this school is Vagasaneyins, its origin being ascribed to Yågiavalkya Vågasaneya. The result of this new redaction of the Yagus texts was the formation of a Samhità, or collection of mantras, and a Brahmana. This re-arrangement was doubtless undertaken in imitation of the texts of the Hotri priests, who had a Brahmana' of their own, while their sacrificial prayers formed part of the Rik-samhità. Indeed, the Taittirîyas themselves became impressed with the desirability of having a Brâhmana of their own,-and attained their object by the simple, if rather awkward, expedient of applying that designation to an appendage to their Samhita, which exhibits the same mixture of mantra and brâhmana as the older work. They also incorporated a portion of the Kathaka text into their Brahmana and its supplement, the Taittirîyâranyaka. Of all the schools of the old Yagus those of the Taittiriyas seem to have attracted by far the greatest number of adherents; and in southern India their texts have continued pre-eminently the subject of study till the present day. In northern India, on the other hand, they have been largely superseded by their later rivals. On account of the lucid arrangement of their sacred texts, the Vâgasaneyins called them the White (sukla) Yagur-veda; the term of Black or Dark (krishna) Yagur-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 Yagus), in which the origin of the name Taittiriya is connected with the word tittiri?, in the sense of partridge.'
, thinks there mos been applied According to
* It has come down to us in two different recensions, the Aitareya and the · Kaushitaki (or Sankhayana) Brâhmana.
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, Yagiavalkya, having been taught the old Yagus 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
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