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INTRODUCTION.
period during which the separate schools were as yet in the process of sifting, when there were as yet no Sama-vedists in the later and stricter sense of the term 1 For out of 249 Mantras of the Mantra-Brahmana there are only four which are found in the Sama-veda, as Prof. Knauer has shown, while a much greater number of these Mantras occur in the other Vedic Samhitas. I should be inclined to conclude the other way : just because the author of the Mantra-Brahmana presupposed a knowledge of the Samhita of the Sama-veda, but not of the other Vedas-or in other words because he destined his work for Sama-vedins, he did not need to repeat what was in the Sama-veda, but was compelled to incorporate in his compilation the Mantras out of the Rig-veda or of the Yagur-veda 3. Moreover, I would draw the same conclusions from the Mantras cited by Gobhila which are absent in the Mantra-Brahmana, as I did from the Mantras which occur in the Mantra-Brâhmana, but are not to be found in the Sâma-veda. Those Mantras are all to be found in the Sama-veda with the exception of those which Gobhila has in extenso, and which therefore could be omitted in the Mantra-Brâhmana. If we examine the thirteen Mantras collected by Prof. Knauer (p. 29), we find that in the case of nine of them the passage of the Samaveda (always of the first Årkika of the Sama-veda) where they are to be found is quoted by Prof. Knauer.
* Besides the reasons given below in opposition to this conjecture, I may be permitted to point out that this hypothesis is contrary to the whole chronology of the Grihya literature which we endeavoured to arrive at in the general introduction. It is a priori extremely improbable that there was a Grihya Samhitå at a time when there was as yet no Sama-veda.
· Viz. (according to Prof. Knager's alphabetical list of the Mantras of the Mantra-Brâhmana) imam stomam arhate, M.-B. II, 4, 1 =Sv. I, 66; II, 414; tat savitur varenyam, M.-B. I, 6, 29=Sv. II, 812; bharâmedhmam, M.-B. II, 4, 3=Sv. II, 415; sakema tvá, M.-B. II, 4, 4-Sv. II, 416.
Notice that of the four exceptional cases which we put together in the previous note, three cases are Mantras which are found only in the second Arkika of the Sama-veda, not in the first (cf. above, p. 3, note 1). The fourth verse (M.-B. II, 4, 2) is to be found in the first Arkika, it is true, but it stands closely related to two verses which are not to be found in that Arkika (M.-B. II, 4, 3. 4). This explains why it was put into the Mantra-Brahmana, as well as those two verses.
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