Sacred Laws of Aryas

Author(s): Gorge Buhler
Publisher: Oxford

Page 27

xxvi
ÂPASTAMBA.
examination of the quotations from and references to Vedic and other books contained in Apastamba's Satras, and especially in the Dharma-sútra. We find that all the four Vedas are quoted or referred to. The three old ones, the Rik, Yagus, and Saman, are mentioned both separately and collectively by the name trayî vidya, i.e. threefold sacred science, and the fourth is called not Atharvangirasah, as is done in most ancient Satras, but Atharva-vedal. The quotations from the Rik and Saman are not very numerous. But a passage from the ninth Mandala of the former, which is referred to Dh. I, 1, 2, 2, is of some extent, and shows that the recension which Åpastamba knew, did not differ from that which still exists. As Åpastamba was an adherent of the Black Yagur-veda, he quotes it, especially in the Srauta-sútra, very frequently, and he adduces not only texts from the Mantra-samhita, but also from the Taittirîyabrâhmana and Åranyaka. The most important quotations from the latter work occur Dh. II, 2, 3, 16-II, 2, 4, 9, where all the Mantras to be recited during the performance of the Bali-offerings are enumerated. Their order agrees exactly with that in which they stand in the sixty-seventh Anuvâka of the tenth Prapâthaka of the recension of the Åranyaka which is current among the Åndhra Brahmanas 2. This last point is of considerable importance, both for the history of the text of that book and, as we shall see further on, for the history of the Åpastambîya school.
The White Yagur-veda, too, is quoted frequently in the Srauta-satra and once in the section on Dharma by the title Vâgasaneyaka, while twice its Brâhmana, the Vågasaneyi-brâhmana, is cited. The longer one of the two passages, taken from the latter work, Dh. I, 4, 12, 3, does, however, not fully agree with the published text of the Mâdhyandina recension. Its wording possesses just sufficient resemblance to allow us to identify the passage which Åpastamba meant, but differs from the Satapatha
1 Åp. Dh. II, 11, 29, 12.
The Taittiriya Aranyaka exists in three recensions, the Karnata, Drâvida, and the Andhra, the first of which has been commented on by Sâyana.
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