A History of Sanskrit Literature

by Arthur Anthony Macdonell

The Çrauta Sūtra of the Atharva-veda is the Vaitāna Sūtra. It is neither old nor original, but was undoubtedly compiled in order to supply the Atharva, like the other Vedas, with a Sūtra of its own. It probably received its name from the word with which it begins, since the term vaitāna (“relating to the three sacrificial fires”) is equally applicable to all Çrauta Sūtras. It agrees to a considerable extent with the Gopatha Brāhmaṇa, though it distinctly follows the Sūtra of Kātyāyana to the White Yajurveda. One indication of its lateness is the fact that whereas in other cases a Gṛihya regularly presupposes the Çrauta Sūtra, the Vaitāna is dependent on the domestic sūtra of the Atharva-veda.

Though the Çrauta Sūtras are indispensable for the right understanding of the sacrificial ritual, they are, from any other point of view, a most unattractive form of literature. It will, therefore, suffice to mention in briefest outline the ceremonies with which they deal. It is important to remember, in the first place, that these rites are never congregational, but are always performed on behalf of a single individual, the so-called Yajamāna or sacrificer, who takes but little part in them. The officiators are Brahman priests, whose number varies from one to sixteen, according to the nature of the ceremony. In all these rites an important part is played by the three sacred fires which surround the vedi, a slightly excavated spot covered with a litter of grass for the reception of offerings to the gods. The first ceremony of all is the setting up of the sacred fires (agni-ādheya), which are kindled by the sacrificer and his wife with the firesticks, and are thereafter to be regularly maintained.

The Çrauta rites, fourteen in number, are divided into the two main groups of seven oblation (havis) sacrifices and seven soma sacrifices. Different forms of the animal sacrifice are classed with each group. The havis sacrifices consist of offerings of milk, ghee, porridge, grain, cakes, and so forth. The commonest is the Agnihotra, the daily morning and evening oblation of milk to the three fires. The most important of the others are the new and full moon sacrifices (darçapūrṇa-māsa) and those offered at the beginning of the three seasons (chāturmāsya). Besides some other recurrent sacrifices, there are very many which are to be offered on some particular occasion, or for the attainment of some special object.

The various kinds of Soma sacrifices were much more complicated. Even the simplest and fundamental form, the Agnishṭoma (“praise of Agni”) required the ministrations of sixteen priests. This rite occupied only one day, with three pressings of soma, at morning, noon, and evening; but this day was preceded by very detailed preparatory ceremonies, one of which was the initiation (dīkshā) of the sacrificer and his wife. Other soma sacrifices lasted for several days up to twelve; while another class, called sattras or “sessions,” extended to a year or more.

A very sacred ceremony that can be connected with the soma sacrifice is the Agnichayana, or “Piling of the fire-altar,” which lasts for a year. It begins with a sacrifice of five animals. Then a long time is occupied in preparing the earthenware vessel, called ukhā, in which fire is to be maintained for a year. Very elaborate rules are given both as to the ingredients, such as the hair of a black antelope, with which the clay is to be mixed, and as to how it is to be shaped, and finally burnt. Then the bricks, which have different and particular sizes, have to be built up in prescribed order. The lowest of the five strata must have 1950, all of them together, a total of 10,800 bricks. Many of these have their special name and significance. Thus the altar is gradually built up, as its bricks are placed in position, to the accompaniment of appropriate rites and verses, by a formidable array of priests. These are but some of the main points in the ceremony; but they will probably give some faint idea of the enormous complexity and the vast mass of detail, where the smallest of minutiæ are of importance, in the Brahman ritual. No other religion has ever known its like.

As the domestic ritual is almost entirely excluded from the Brāhmaṇas, the authors of the Gṛihya Sūtras had only the authority of popular tradition to rely on when they systematised the observances of daily life. As a type, the Gṛihya manuals must be somewhat later than the Çrauta, for they regularly presuppose a knowledge of the latter.

To the Rigveda belongs in the first place the Çānkhāyana Gṛihya Sūtra. It consists of six books, but only the first four form the original portion of the work, and even these contain interpolations. Closely connected with this work is the Çāmbavya Gṛihya, which also belongs to the school of the Kaushītakins, and is as yet known only in manuscript. Though borrowing largely from Çānkhāyana, it is not identical with that work. It knows nothing of the last two books, nor even a number of ceremonies described in the third and fourth, while having a book of its own concerning the sacrifice to the Manes. Connected with the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa is the Gṛihya Sūtra of Āçvalāyana, which its author in the first aphorism gives us to understand is a continuation of his Çrauta Sūtra. It consists of four books, and, like the latter work, ends with the words “adoration to Çaunaka.”

The chief Gṛihya Sūtra of the Sāmaveda is that of Gobhila, which is one of the oldest, completest, and most interesting works of this class. Its seems to have been used by both the schools of its Veda. Besides the text of the Sāmaveda it presupposes the Mantra Brāhmaṇa. The latter is a collection, in the ritual order, of the mantras (except those occurring in the Sāmaveda itself), which are quoted by Gobhila in an abbreviated form. The Gṛihya Sūtra of Khādira, belonging to the Drāhyāyaṇa school and used by the Rāṇāyanīya branch of the Sāmaveda, is little more than Gobhila remodelled in a more succinct form.

The Gṛihya Sūtra of the White Yajurveda is that of Pāraskara, also called the Kātīya or Vājasaneya Gṛihya Sūtra. It is so closely connected with the Çrauta Sūtra of Kātyāyana, that it is often quoted under the name of that author. The later law-book of Yājnavalkya bears evidence of the influence of Pāraskara’s work.

Of the seven Gṛihya Sūtras of the Black Yajurveda only three have as yet been published. The Gṛihya of Āpastamba forms two books (26–27) of his Kalpa Sūtra. The first of these two books is the Mantrapāṭha, which is a collection of the formulas accompanying the ceremonies. The Gṛihya Sūtra, in the strict sense, is the second book, which presupposes the Mantrapāṭha. Books XIX. and XX. of Hiraṇyakeçin’s Kalpa Sūtra form his Gṛihya Sūtra. About Baudhāyana’s Gṛihya not much is known, still less about that of Bhāradvāja. The Mānava Gṛihya Sūtra is closely connected with the Çrauta, repeating many of the statements of the latter verbally. It is interesting as containing a ceremony unknown to other Gṛihya Sūtras, the worship of the Vināyakas. The passage reappears in a versified form in Yājnavalkya’s law-book, where the four Vināyakas are transformed into the one Vināyaka, the god Gaṇeça. With the Mānava is clearly connected the Kāṭhaka Gṛihya Sūtra, not only in the principle of its arrangement, but even in the wording of many passages. It is nearly related to the law-book of Vishṇu. The Vaikhānasa Gṛihya Sūtra is an extensive work bearing traces of a late origin, and partly treating of subjects otherwise relegated to works of a supplementary character.