a â i î u û ® e ai o au π H; T TH D DH N; s’ S s h; Â Î Û ® …

VEDIC HINDUISM

by

S. W. Jamison and M. Witzel

(1992)

CONTENTS

Introduction 2

I. General Treatments

a. The texts 4

b. Philological work 25

II. An Outline of Vedic Religion and Ritual

a. Overviews of Vedic Religion 28

b. Ritual 29

c. ®gvedic ritual and its forerunners 30

d. Classical ritual 32

e. The development of ritual 36

f. The individual rituals 38

g. Domestic ritual 44

h. Ritual magic / magic ritual 49

i. Recent developments 50

III. Deities and Mythology

a. Vedic mythology 52

b. The principal Vedic gods 54

IV. The "Philosophy" of Vedic Religion

a. Early Vedic 63

b. Middle Vedic: The power of ritual 70

c. Speculation in the ÂraNyakas and UpaniSads 73

V. The Religious Life: Personal and popular religious experience

a. Personal religious experience 80

b. Popular religion 82

Abbreviations, Literature 88

Introduction*

The Vedic period is the earliest period of Indian history for which we have direct textual evidence, but even with this evidence it is difficult to fix even imprecise chronological limits to the period, much less to establish absolute dates within the period. We tentatively suggest 1500-500 BCE as convenient limiting dates of the period,[1] the latter marking the approximate date of the codification of Sanskrit by PâNini and the transition from "Vedic" to "Classical" Sanskrit; the former perhaps approximating the beginnings of the ®g Veda, the earliest Indian text.[2] Since (almost[3]) all our evidence for Vedic India is textual, much more fruitful than defining the Vedic period by date is defining it by texts. For purposes of this work, we will define Vedic literature (and hence the Vedic period) as consisting of the earliest texts, the four Vedas proper, and texts based on them and the cult in which they were embedded -- the BrâhmaNas and the S’rauta Sûtras, also including the increasingly speculative ÂraNyakas and UpaniSads, as well as the texts relating to the domestic cult, the G®hya Sûtras. The content of these texts is wholly religious (though "religion" more broadly defined than is modern custom). It may also be added that to call this period "Vedic Hinduism" is a contradiction in terminis since Vedic religion is very different from what we generally call "Hindu religion", - at least as much Old Hebrew religion is from medieval and modern Christian religion. However, Vedic religion is treatable as a predecessor of Hinduism.[4]

We owe the transmission and preservation of the texts to the care and discipline of particular religious, or better, priestly schools (or s’âkhâs). It should also be emphasized that both the composition and the transmission of the texts was completely oral for the entire Vedic period and some considerable time afterwards[5] -- hence the critical importance of the schools in their preservation. From the beginning the various schools were favored by particular tribes, and later on by particular dynasties. Due to their preservation in various parts of India, a fairly wide spectrum of religious thought of this early period has survived to this day, and we do not have to rely on the authoritative texts of a single school of thought.

Because of these circumstances we are in a reasonably good position to study Vedic Hinduism -- we have voluminous texts regarding the religion from various points of view: verbal material internal to the ritual, extremely detailed "handbooks" laying out ritual practice, exegesis of the ritual, both exoteric and esoteric, as well as various views of mythology. However, because of the means of preservation -- through schools at once orthodox and intellectual in bent -- we have little access to information about either heterodox or popular religious practices, but only to the orderly and cerebral system of an entrenched priestly class. We are also almost entirely bereft of information about secular (and indeed religious) history, or political and social matters and their relations to religion, except as filtered through a priestly lens, and as reported occasionally, often as asides, in their texts. Moreover, because we must rely on texts, our knowledge of Vedic religion is entirely verbal; we know nothing of the visual and iconographic aspect of Vedic religion, if such there was beyond the solemn enactment of the S’rauta and some G®hya rites.

Before we treat Vedic religion in detail, it might be well to give a thumbnail characterization. The religion of this (roughly) 1000-year period, though not static, is reasonably unified. From the very first, it shows a highly developed ritual, with particular emphasis on the power of the word. As the religion develops in the Vedic period, it moves in two superficially contradictory directions -- on the one hand to an increasingly elaborate, expensive, and specialized system of rituals; on the other towards abstraction and internalization of the principles underlying ritual and cosmic speculation on them. But the beginnings of both trends can be seen in the earlier texts.

I. GENERAL TREATMENTS

a. The texts

Any study of Vedic religion thus must begin with the texts. Fortunately, due to the care with which most of the texts were transmitted and to the last 150 years or so of intensive and painstaking philological work, we are reasonably lucky, in that most of the important texts exist in usable (though generally not, strictly speaking, critical) editions, that many possess careful translations[6] with, at least, minimal commentary, and that the vocabulary and the grammar (morphology and syntax) of the texts have been and continue to be subject to the scientific scrutiny that is a necessary precondition for even first order textual interpretation. Serious lacunae will be noted below.

A useful and detailed overview of Vedic texts can be found in Gonda's surveys (1975, 1977), and Santucci's brief outline (1976) gives a handy conspectus of text editions and translations (though omitting the Sûtras). A conspectus of the S’rauta Sûtras has been given by Kashikar 1968; for the G®hya Sûtras, see Gonda 1980a; for the Dharma Sûtras s. Lingat, 1973; for the S’ulba Sûtras s. Michaels 1978.

Before proceeding to a catalogue of the important texts, we should first discuss the categories of texts and their organization into schools. Vedic literature is ritual literature -- dividable into two major types: a) liturgical material internal to the ritual, used in performance. Almost all of the verse and some of the prose fits into this category. b) material about the ritual, external to its performance -- commentary in the broadest sense, almost entirely in prose.

The texts have traditionally been catalogued into Vedas (better: veda-saπhitâs), BrâhmaNas, ÂraNyakas, UpaniSads, and Sûtras, in roughly that chronological order. The Indian tradition distinguishes between s’ruti ("hearing"), i.e. texts revealed to the ®Sis, the primordial Seers, and texts having human authors (sm®ti "remembrance"). All texts from the Saπhitâs to the UpaniSads are s’ruti while the late Vedic Sûtras are regarded as sm®ti.

Because their traditional names sometimes misrepresent the type of text contained within, it is useful to speak first of text-type. The veda- (or mantra or saπhitâ-) text-type consists of collections of liturgical material, the brâhmaNa-text-type of ritual exegesis. The âraNyaka-text-type often develops the cosmic side of brâhmaNa explanations into esoteric speculation about some of the more cryptic and secret of the rituals and generally has served as a catch-all for the later texts of the particular school involved. The upaniSad-text-type proceeds further on this speculative path. The sûtra-text-type, in contrast, contains straightforward, often very elaborate and detailed directions for ritual performances, with little or no commentary.

However, from the point of view of linguistic development -- always a good yardstick for discovering the historical development of text layers -- we have to distinguish the following text layers which do not always coincide with the traditional division of Vedic texts given just now: 1. ®gveda (with as late additions, book 10 and also parts of book 1), 2. the so-called Mantra language (Atharvaveda, ®gvedakhila, the mantras of the Yajurveda etc., the Sâmaveda), 3. the expository prose of the Yajurveda Saπhitâ texts (MS, KS, KpS, TS), 4. the BrâhmaNa prose (including the older portions of the ÂraNyakas and UpaniSads, as well as some of the earliest Sûtras), 5. the late Vedic Sûtras.

As was implicit in our discussion of oral transmission above, there is another important dimension in Vedic textual classification -- that of the theological schools or s’âkhâs (lit. 'branch'). Each school began as a set of adherents to a particular Veda in a relatively small area of northern India (becoming further splintered as time went on). In addition to transmitting its Veda, the school spawned exegetical texts proper to that Veda, its own BrâhmaNa, Sûtra, etc. On these schools, see especially Renou 1947; Tsuji 1970, Witzel 1987a.[7]

Let us begin with the key to the whole system, the four Vedas: ®g Veda, Sâma Veda, Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda.

The oldest and most important in Vedic ritualism, as to later Indian religion, is the ®g Veda (hereafter also RV). This is a collection (Saπhitâ) of ®cs 'verses', forming hymns to be recited during ritual, praising various divinities. They were composed by a number of bards or bardic families, over a period of several hundred years, at the very least, as linguistic and stylistic evidence shows.[8] The ritual, as it appears in these hymns, is earlier and less developed than the "classical" one of the later texts, such as the Yajurveda Mantras and all of the BrâhmaNas. The ®g Veda has come down to us basically in only one[9] extremely well preserved school, that of S’âkalya, who analyzed the traditional text towards the end of the BrâhmaNa period, apparently in Eastern India (Videha, N. Bihar). His grammatical analysis, in form of a text without any euphonic combinations (sandhi) has been transmitted as the RV-PadapâTha.[10]

The standard editions of the ®g Veda are that of Max Müller 1849-1874, incorporating SâyaNa's medieval commentary (14th cent.),[11] and the more compact one of T. Aufrecht 1877. The standard current translation is that of K. F. Geldner 1951 (written already in the Twenties), into German, which supersedes earlier ones such as that of H. Grassmann 1876-77. There is also an almost complete French translation by L. Renou 1955-69, and the first volume of a Russian translation by T. Ya. Elizarenkova has recently appeared (1989). Unfortunately there is no complete modern English translation, though there are unsatisfactory and outmoded ones by H. H. Wilson (1888) which largely depends on the medieval commentary of SâyaNa, and by R. T. H. Griffith (1889-92). There are also useful translations of selected hymns, such as that of W. D. O'Flaherty 1981a and Maurer 1986 which includes much of the preceding scholarship. An up-to-date, philologically sound translation of the entire text, incorporating the grammatical and semantic progress that has been made in recent decades, would be extremely welcome.

Other important tools for ®gvedic researches include the invaluable (if somewhat out of date) Wörterbuch of H. Grassmann 1872-75, which lists all the occurrences of all but the most common words in the RV, with definitions, grammatical identification, and contextual information; the Prolegomena and the Noten of H. Oldenberg (1888 and 1909, 1912 respectively), one of the leading Western Indologists, E.V. Arnold's treatise on Vedic meter (1905), one of the first attempts to develop an internal chronology of the text, and also several of Bloomfield's reference works (Concordance, Repetitions, Variants, see below).

The Atharva Veda (AV) stands a little apart from the other three Vedas, as it does not treat the s’rauta rituals, but contains magical (black and white) and healing spells, as well as two more large sections containing speculative hymns and materials dealing with some important domestic rituals such as marriage and death, with the vrâtya (s. below), and with royal power.

There are two extant recensions of the AV, differing considerably from each other. Currently the more usable one is that ordinarily known as the S’aunaka recension (AVS’, S’S). The standard edition is that of Roth and Whitney (1856, corrected repr. Lindenau 1924). For certain sections, however, the Bombay edition by Shankar Pândurang Pandit (1895-98) or the recent amalgamated edition by Vishva Bandhu (1960-64) has to be compared, notably in book 19-20. A nearly[12] complete English translation of this text exists by W. D. Whitney (1905), as well as a partial translation by M. Bloomfield (1897) that remains valuable, and a popular one by Griffith (1895-96). Whitney (1881) also compiled a complete word list, arranged grammatically, but it lacks the semantic and contextual information given by Grassmann's W’rterbuch for the RV.

The other, the Paippalâda recension (AVP, PS), was until recently known only in a very corrupt manuscript from Kashmir, which was heroically, though not too successfully edited by L. C. Barret, in a series of articles (1905-1940), save for one book done by F. Edgerton (1914). On this basis, Raghu Vira (1936-41) published the text from Lahore as well. The discovery of a much better version preserved in Orissa will now allow the Paippalâda version to take its proper place in the Vedic canon. However, only books 1-4 have been edited (D.M. Bhattacharyya 1964, D. Bhattacharya 1970). The editing and publication of the AVP based on both versions is an eagerly awaited event in Vedic studies. For preliminary studies on the history of the school, the archetype of all PS manuscripts, and on the oral tradition of the Orissa Paippalâdins, see Witzel, 1985a,b; on editing problems see Hoffmann 1968a and 1979; for the relationship between PS and AVS’, see Insler, forthc.

The Sâma Veda (SV) is the collection of chants, referred to as sâmans or 'melodies'. To each melody a variety of different verses can be sung; these verses are almost entirely extracted from the ®g Veda. The standard edition of the SV is that of Benfey 1848 of the Kauthuma (and RâNâyanîya) recension; see also Caland's 1907 edition of the Jaiminîya recension, which to some extent differs from the Kauthuma version in order and in content (cf. Parpola 1973). Because of its dependence on the RV, -- only 75 of its Mantras are not found in the RV -- an independent translation of this text is not particularly crucial. Nonetheless, several exist, e.g. that of Griffith 1893.

The Yajur Veda is a complex entity, consisting of several partly parallel texts, most of which mix mantras (i.e. veda-text-type) with prose commentary (brâhmaNa-text-type). It is divided into two branches: the Black (K®SNa) YV (BYV) and the White (S’ukla) YV (the WYV). It is the Black YV that contains the mixture of text types; the White YV contains only mantras, with its BrâhmaNa separate. Yet it is generally considered -- see e.g. Caland, 1931b, pp. 132-133, cf. 1990, p.XIV) -- that this separation is secondary, that the mantras of the WYV were abstracted from a text that would have looked more like the BYV.

The White Yajur Veda, or Vâjasaneyi Saπhitâ (VS), has two very similar recensions, the Mâdhyaπdina and the KâNva (VSK). The standard edition is that of A. Weber (1852), which includes the variants of VSK. A separate edition of the VSK has been prepared by D. Satavalekar 1983 and a new edition is in progress, prepared by the indefatigable B. R. Sharma (1988-). There is a rather unsatisfactory English translation by Griffith (1899). Its massive and important BrâhmaNa is the S’atapatha BrâhmaNa (S’B), the 'BrâhmaNa of the Hundred Paths' (after the number of its 'lessons'), also with two similar recensions, likewise Mâdhyaπdina and KâNva (S’BM and S’BK), whose mutual relationship is rather complicated (Caland, 1926, pp. 103-108, 1990 p. XIV). The one ordinarily referred to is the Mâdhyaπdina, edited by A. Weber (1855) and translated into English by Eggeling (1882-1900). The KâNva recension was edited by Caland and Raghu Vira (1926-1939). There is no translation of the S’BK, but it differs little in content and phraseology from S’BM.

The Black YV is more complex. It exists in three major versions, parallel in great part, but often differing from each other in both phraseology and points of doctrine: the Taittirîya Saπhitâ (TS), the MaitrâyaNî Saπhitâ (MS), and the KâThaka Saπhitâ (KS), the latter two often agreeing with each other against the (obviously younger) TS. (There is also a fragmentary, and, as based on a very narrow tradition, somewhat corrupt fourth version, the KapiSThala Saπhitâ (KpS), very close to the KS.) The standard edition of the TS is Weber's (1871-2), of the MS von Schroeder's (1881-86), as also of the KS (1900-1910), while Raghu Vira edited the fragments of the KpS (1932). Mittwede's useful collections of suggested emendations to the MS (1986) and KS (1989) are important tools in understanding these sometimes corrupt texts, which are based (unlike TS which still is widely recited in South India) only on the traditions of Gujarat/N. Maharashtra and Kashmir. All these texts must have been preceded by an even earlier stage of brâhmaNa style discussion, see Hoffmann 1969, apparently that of the lost Caraka school, cf. Witzel 1982, forthc. b.

Only the TS has been translated (into English, by Keith 1914).[13] Since MS and KS are generally fuller and more archaic in appearance than TS, translations of these two texts are badly needed. The prose of the brâhmaNa portion of these texts is the oldest expository prose in Sanskrit, and its treatment of the ritual and narration of myths therefore extremely archaic.

Though the prose portions of the Taittirîya Saπhitâ serve as its primary brâhmaNa, there also exists a Taittirîya BrâhmaNa (TB) with additional commentary (and mantras), unfortunately an inferior text with no standard edition. There are the editions prepared at Calcutta (R. L. Mitra 1859), Ânandâs’rama (V.S’. Go®bole et al. 1934), and the Mysore (Mahadeva Sastri and L. Srinivasacharya, 1908-13); the latter has some South Indian phonetic peculiarities. The TB has been partly translated (into English) in a series of articles by P. E. Dumont (1948-69). A late (c. UpaniSad period) addition to the BrâhmaNa is the fragmentary Vâdhûla BrâhmaNa (or Vâdhûla Anvâkhyâna), which usually is wrongly called Vâdhûla Sûtra.[14] About two thirds of the fragments of this BrâhmaNa text have been edited and translated into German by Caland 1923-1928. Neither the MaitrâyaNî Saπhitâ nor the KâThaka Saπhitâ has a surviving separate text called a BrâhmaNa, though a collection of fragments of the original KaTha BrâhmaNa, called S’atâdhyâya BrâhmaNa, is found in Kashmiri ritual handbooks and has been partially edited by von Schroeder (1898) and Surya Kanta (1943); cf. also Lokesh Chandra 1982, 1984.

The ®g Veda has two BrâhmaNas, the Aitareya BrâhmaNa (AB) and the KauSîtaki (or S’ânkhâyana) BrâhmaNa (KB), of which the Aitareya is the older and the more extensive. The AB was edited by Aufrecht (1879); the KB by Lindner (1887) and in its Kerala version by E.R.S. Sarma (1968). Both have been translated into English by Keith (1920).

The major BrâhmaNas of the Sâmaveda are the Jaiminîya BrâhmaNa (JB) and the Pañcaviπs’a BrâhmaNa (PB, or TâNDya MahâbrâhmaNa). The JB is an immense, unfortunately corrupt, and very rich text, that has not yet been sufficiently worked on (see Ehlers 1988). Caland (1919) edited and translated significant portions of it (into German), and added many passages in an English rendering in his translation of the PB (1931b), as did, to a lesser extent, Oertel in a series of articles (1897-1909). Only in 1954 did a complete edition appear (that of Raghu Vira and Lokesh Chandra), unfortunately still riddled with misprints and corruptions.[15] A carefully, and if possible critically edited version of the JB is greatly desirable.[16] There are several recent partial translations, e.g. H. W. Bodewitz (1973, 1990) of the Agnihotra and Soma sections, accompanied by detailed philological though not particularly pioneering commentary. W. Doniger O'Flaherty (1985) has translated some of the narrative portions, however, mostly a recapitulation of those translated by Oertel and Caland, with a Freudian commentary.[17] Tsuchida (1979) and Schrapel (1970) have translated parts of book 2. A complete, philologically grounded translation of the JB, would contribute mightily to our understanding of middle Vedic religion, but it may be premature to desire one without an accurate text.

The Pañcaviπs’a BrâhmaNa, which is available only in unsatisfactory uncritical editions, presents fewer difficulties, but also fewer rewards than the JB. For a preliminary critical reading of the text the old manuscript from Gujarat printed by Lokesh Chandra (1981) and Caland's remarks in his translation, referring to another old MS at Leiden,[18] are invaluable. The text has been translated and copiously annotated, with many valuable references to and partial translations of JB, by Caland (1931a). There are a number of other, minor "BrâhmaNas" attached to the SV, most of which rather belong to the category of the Sûtras. Most of them have been edited by B.R. Sharma.[19]

The AV has a very late and inferior BrâhmaNa, the Gopatha BrâhmaNa (GB), critically edited by Caland's pupil D. Gaastra 1919. Its first part, in fact, presupposes the grammar of PâNini. However, this text which to a large degree quotes from other brâhmaNa type texts, probably was nothing but an additional BrâhmaNa (anubrâhmaNa) of the Paippalâda school of the AV, which was, just like some other texts, incorporated into the S’aunaka school of Gujarat only during the Middle Ages (Witzel 1985a).

A collection of fragments of 'lost' BrâhmaNas found in various medieval commentaries has been compiled by Batakrishna Ghosh 1947.

ÂraNyakas are found under this name only in the tradition of the ®gveda (Aitareya Âr., KauSîtaki or S’ânkhâyana Âr.), and Yajurveda (Taittirîya, KaTha Âr.). The SV and AV have no text named in this way. However, the Jaiminîya UpaniSad BrâhmaNa may, in part, be regarded as the Âr. of this Veda,[20] and the Gopatha-BrâhmaNa plays the same role for the AV.[21] In addition, the first part of KâNDa 14 of the S’atapatha-BrâhmaNa, which deals with the Pravargya ritual (S’B 14.1-3), may with good reason be called the Âr. of the Mâdhyandina school of the White YV, for all three Âr. texts of the YV deal centrally with this ritual. Its performance and even its acquisition by learning is regarded as too dangerous to be carried out inside the village and has to be done "where the houses of the village cannot be seen any more." This points to the correct meaning of the designation Âr., from araNya "wilderness" which curiously still eludes most modern Sanskritists though it was established long ago by Oldenberg (1915-6).[22] This oversight also clouds the understanding of the type of text the Âr. constitute. They are not, as medieval Hindu tradition asserts, the texts of the third stage in life, the Vânaprastha, but deal, quite in the fashion of other BrâhmaNa type texts, with a particular ritual. In the case of the RV it is the Mahâvrata day of the year long Gavâm Ayana and some other rituals.

Around this nucleus of dangerous and secret texts (S’ankara and others call this sort of texts Rahasya) are clustered various additions to the canon: the RV schools add their UpaniSads (see below) and even a brief Sûtra style addition (in AÂ 5, by Âs’valâyana); the Taitt. school, similarly, begins with one of the eight special KâThaka Agnicayana rituals,[23] adds two sections with death ritual as well as all of their UpaniSads. As mentioned before, the White YV contains in its book 14 both the Âr. and its UpaniSad, the B®hadâraNyaka Up. However, the last sections of this Up. contain various "strange" materials not expected in an UpaniSad. P. Thieme is the first to have correctly understood the structure of this text.[24] The sections dealing with the procreation of particular types of sons, etc. belong to the last instructions of a Veda teacher to his departing student, similar to those, it may be added, that TU 1.11 = KaTS’iUp. 11 present in a normative fashion.[25] The last sections of BÂU thus are of ÂraNyaka type and provide a frame surrounding the B®hadâraNyaka UpaniSad. Its very name may signify this amalgamation: it is a B®had-ÂraNyaka-UpaniSad, a "large (text consisting of) the ÂraNyaka and the UpaniSad" of the White YV, similarly to Bâhv-®cyam "the text consisting of many ®c", the RV.

The Âit. Âr. has been edited and translated by Keith 1909; the KauSîtaki or S’ânkhâyana Âr. by V. N. Apte 1922 and Bhim Dev 1980 and transl. by Keith 1908. The Taitt. Âr. was edited by Rajendralâl Mitra 1864-72, Mahâdeva S’âstrî and P.K. Rangâcharya 1900-02, and in the Ânandâs’rama Series by K.V. Abhyankar et al. in an often incorrect newly set reprint 1967-69 of the earlier edition of 1897-98; book 2 of TÂ has been edited and translated into French by Malamoud 1977. The KaTha Âr. has been edited and translated into German by Witzel 1974.

Turning now to the UpaniSads, we are faced with a dilemma regarding both the actual number of texts belonging to this category as well as their attribution to the four Vedas. There are standard collections, based on their usage in the medieval advaita and âgamic traditions of 10, 52 or 108 UpaniSads, but the texts excerpted in Vishva Bandhu's Vedic Word Concordance amount to more than 200, 188 of which have been conveniently edited by J. L. Shastri 1970. The larger collections include even a text as late as the Allah UpaniSad which is supposed to be a S’âkta UpaniSad. The standard edition, which contains many useful cross references and a word index but which is not a critical one, is that by Limaye and Vadekar 1958.

The UpaniSads represent, apart from incidental topics where they overlap with the ÂraNyakas and apart from the final teachings, secrets and admonitions a student receives from his Veda teacher (see above), the early philosophy of India, especially that on the nature of the human soul, its fate after death, and its ultimate identity with bráhman, the force underlying the cosmos. Occasionally they also report mystical insights (e.g. BÂU 4.3., KauSUp 1). Otherwise the speculations frequently take up a ritualistic topic and develop it into a discussion on the ultimate. These topics are often presented in dialogue form, and thus continue the tradition of discussion on ritual topics in the preceding BrâhmaNas and ÂraNyakas. The word "UpaniSad", literally "sitting close by at the proper place", has found many interpretations, see Schayer 1925, Falk 1986b.

Usually the UpaniSads are divided into three broad layers: the older prose UpaniSads, the middle level of verse UpaniSads and the later UpaniSads some of which were composed only in the middle ages. The late UpaniSads are traditionally attributed to the AV. -- The older UpaniSads comprise the B®hadâraNyaka (BÂU), Chândogya, Aitareya, KauSîtaki, Taittirîya, and KaTha S’ikSâ Up.s as well as the Jaiminîya UpaniSadbrâhmaNa. To the second level belong the KaTha, Îs’a, MahânârâyaNa, Kena, S’vetâs’vatara, MuNDaka, Pras’na, MâNDûkya UpaniSads as well as four "new" texts, the BâSkala, Châgaleya, ÂrSeya and S’aunaka Up.s.

Exhibiting the same type of mixture of textual levels mentioned above, some UpaniSads are found incorporated into Saπhitâs (Îs’a Up. in Vâjasaneyi Saπh. 40, Nîlarudra Up. in Paippalâda Saπhitâ 14), into BrâhmaNas (B®hadâraNyaka Up.), and into ÂraNyakas such as the Aitareya Âr. or Taittirîya Âr. (Taitt. Up. and MahânârâyaNa Up.). Names such as that of the KauS.Up. reconfirm this: KauSîtaki BrâhmaNopaniSad or Jaiminîya UpaniSad-BrâhmaNa.

Many of the older UpaniSads have recently been edited or translated again (in general, see Santucci 1976, pp. 49-69; we merely present here a selection from the more recent and important publications): the B®hadâraNyaka (transl. in prep. by J. Brereton; ed. (accented) of KâNDa 1 of BÂU (KâNva), Maue, 1976), Chândogya (unpubl. ed. by Morgenroth, Diss. Greifswald 1953), KauSîtaki (tr. Thieme 1951/2, Renou 1978, Frenz 1969), Taittirîya (tr. Rau 1981), as well as the little studied Jaiminîya UpaniSad BrâhmaNa (ed. and tr. Oertel 1895, new ed. in prep. by M. Fujii), and the newly discovered KaTha S’ikSâ Up. (ed., tr., disc. Witzel 1977, 1979a/1980a).

From the Middle level, the verse UpaniSads: Kena (tr. Renou 1943), Îs’a (tr. Thieme 1965), S’vetâs’vatara (tr. Rau 1964), KâThaka, (tr. Rau 1971; disc. Alsdorf 1950); also Maitr. Up. (van Buitenen 1962), Maitri Up. (disc. Tsuji, 1977 = 1982: 52-67), MahânârâyaNa Up. (ed., tr. Varenne 1960), MuNDaka-UpaniSad, (tr. Rau 1965; disc. Salomon 1981); for the four "new" UpaniSads, the BâSkala, Châgaleya, ÂrSeya and S’aunaka, see ed., tr. by Belvarkar 1925, ed. and tr. Renou 1956b, disc. Tsuji 1982:68-104. All the other UpaniSads, mostly attached, quite secondarily, to the Atharvaveda, belong to a much later, definitely post-Vedic period.

Until very recently, most of the UpaniSads had been translated (Deussen 1897, etc.) following the commentary by S’ankara (c. 700 C.E.) and other medieval commentators, who regard these texts as the scriptures that underlie Advaita (and other medieval) philosophies and religious movements. As will be pointed out below, this is a wrong approach from the point of view of the development of Indian thought. The UpaniSads are the secondary collections of a whole array of late Vedic teachers (see Ruben 1947) belonging to various Vedic schools; they do not form a single body of texts but represent multiple strands of tradition, often quite individualistic ones. Recent translations, and to some extent already Hume (1931), treat the texts with philological correctness, that is, at first as isolated texts and then in their relations to other UpaniSads and the preceding BrâhmaNas and ÂraNyakas; see especially Thieme 1966, Rau 1964, 1965, 1971, 1981, Frenz 1969, Witzel 1979a-1980a.

As an addendum we mention the curious late Vedic text, the little studied SuparNâdhyâya (ed., transl. Charpentier 1920, cf. Rau 1967). It takes up a topic from the Epic tradition which goes in fact back to the YV tale of the contest of Kadrû and Vinatâ. The SuparNâdhyâya does not present the tale in Epic but still in accented (pseudo-)Vedic language; also, the text still is composed in the traditional triSTubh meter and not yet the Epic s’loka (cf. below on M. C. Smith's study (1992) of the core of the Mahâbhârata).

Finally, we turn to the Sûtras. The Indian tradition refers to these texts with the term Kalpa(-Sûtra) and regards them as post-Vedic, that is not as revealed texts (s’ruti) but as texts composed by human authors (sm®ti), and as such, along with grammar (vyâkaraNa), meter (chandas), phonetics (s’ikSâ), etymology (nirukta) and astronomy (jyotiSa), not as belonging to the body of Vedic texts but to the "limbs of the Veda" (vedânga). From the point of view of content and language, however, these texts are closely allied to the preceding BrâhmaNas and ÂraNyakas. Indeed, N. Fukushima (alias/a.k.a. N. Tsuji, 1952) has shown that the S’rauta Sûtras are, by and large, based on the preceding Vedic literature of their particular school (s’âkhâ). -- As we cannot mention each text here by name, we refer to the table of Vedic texts given below and to the up-to-date and nearly complete list of editions of the Sûtras, of their often independent appendices (and of most other Vedic texts), as given by Kashikar 1968 and more completely by Gotô 1987, p.355-371.

®gvedic texts Sâmavedic texts

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RV

®gveda Saπhitâ (S’âkala)

(BâSkala Saπhitâ, Sâmaveda Saπhitâ

MâNDukeya Saπh.,

lost) SV(K) = SV(R) SVJ

Kauthuma RâNâyanîya Jaiminîya

S’âkha S’âkha S’âkha

RVKh

®gveda Khilâni

(S’âkha unclear

perhaps MâND.)

AB KB PB JB

Aitareya-Br. KauSîtaki-Br. Pañcaviπs’a-Br. Jaiminîya-Br.

1-5 old (=TâNDya-Br.,

---------------- Mahâ-Br.)

6-8 new SB

Sa®viπs’a -Br.

(=TâNDBr.,26)

AA KA

Aitareya-Âr., KauSîtaki- ChU JUB

contains: Âr.,contains: Chândogya-Up. Jaiminîya-

B®âhmaNa UpaniSad-

Ait.Up. KU MB BrâhmaNa,

Aitareya- KauS.Up. Mantra-BrâhmaNa contains:

UpaniSad Kena-Up.

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SïTRAS: Mas’aka-Kalpa Sûtra

KSudra Sûtra

Sâmavidhâna, ÂrSeya, Devatâdhâya, UpaniSad BrâhmaNa (= Mantra-Br.), SaπhitopaniSad- Br., Vaπs’a-Br.

AS’S S’S’S LS’S DS’S JS’S

Âs’valâyana- S’ânkhâyana- LâTyâyana- Drâhyâyana- Jaiminîya-

S’rautrasûtra S’r .S. S’r.S. S’r.S. S’r.S.

AGS KauSGS, S’GS GGS/KauthGS/DGS/KhâdGS JGS

Âs’v.G®hya- KauSîtaki, Gobhila- Kauthuma- Jaiminîya.GS

sûtra S’âmbavya Drâhyâyana- Khâdira-GS

VâsDhS GautDhS

VâsiSTha Gautama

Dharmasûtra DhS.

various Paris’iSTas

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Yajurvedic texts Atharvavedic texts

MS KS KpS TS VS(M) VS(K) AV,S’S PS

Mai- KaTha- KaTha- Taitti- Vâjasa- Vâj.. S’au- Paippa naka -lâda

trâ- S. Kapi- rîya S. saneyi KâNva S. S.

yaNi SThala Mâdh- S. (=vulgate)

Saπhitâ Saπh. yandina S.

(VS 40= Îs’âUp)

- KaThB KpBr TB S’B(M) S’BK *Paipp.Br.

no KaTha only Taitt. S’atapatha S’atapatha -no

text- (lost)

text Br. one 1-3.9 BrâhmaNa (KâNva)

frag. frag.