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INTRODUCTION.
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proficiency in the other still surviving Angas, grammar, law, and astronomy is to be found only with those Pandits who fulfil their duty of studying the Veda by committing to memory a few particularly important sections, such as the Pavamanî-hymns of the Rig-veda or the Satarudriya of the Yagur-veda, or by confining themselves to the few verses which occur in the Brahmayagña and the Samdhyavandana?. Their chief aim is to be perfect in one or more of the special sciences which they study, without reference to a particular Vedic school. Thus, though a Pandit who chiefly devotes himself to the sacred law may belong to the Vedic school of Baudhayana or Åpastamba, he will not make Baudhayana's or Åpastamba's Dharma-sätra the starting-point of his studies. On the contrary, it will frequently happen that he possesses no knowledge of the Dharma-sútra of his school, except a few passages quoted in the commentaries and digests. If he has read the whole work, he will consult it only as one of the many utterances of the ancient sages. He will not attribute to it a higher authority than to other Smritis, but interpret it in accordance with the rules of the secondary Dharmasastras of Manu or Yagñavalkya. A good illustration of this state of things is furnished by Sayana-Madhava's treatment of Baudhayana in his Vyavaharamadhava, a treatise on civil and criminal law supplementing his commentary on Parasara's Smriti. Though he himself tells us, in the introduction to the Parâsara - smriti - vyakhya?, that he belonged to the school of Baudhayana, and though he seems to have written a commentary on Baudhayana's Satras, he relies, e.g. for the law of Inheritance, not on Baudhayana's Dharmastra, but on Vignanesvara's exposition of Yagñavalkya. He quotes Baudhayana only in three places. As far as the law is concerned, Savana follows the theories of the
tion I can add to Professor Bhandarkar's statements that Vaidiks of the White Yagar-veda are found also in Northern India. I have also heard of Vaidiks of the Såma-veda among the Parvatiyas in the Panjab, and of the Atharva-veda in the Central India Agency.
1 Bhandarkar, loc. cit. p. 132 note. * Parâsara-smriti-vyakhya, p. 3, ver. 7.(Calcutta edition). • Burnell, Dayayibhâge, PP. 9, 39, 41.
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in the handārkat, viti-vyakhy pp. 9, 39. 4 d
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