{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/wyv/wyvpref.htm","path":"hin/wyv/wyvpref.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/wyv/wyvpref.htm","text":"The Texts of the White Yajurveda, tr. Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1899]\nTHE YAJURVEDA\u2014derived from the roots yaj, to sacrifice or, worship, and vid, to know,\u2014is the Knowledge of Sacrifice or Sacrificial Texts and Formulas as distinguished from the Rigveda or Knowledge of Recited Praise, the S\u00e2maveda or Knowledge of Chanted Hymns, and the Atharva or Brahmaveda which is the Knowledge of Prayer, Charm, and Spells. Though ranking second in the Indian enumeration of the Vedas and containing much that is of very ancient origin, its compilation in its present form, exhibiting as it does the almost complete development of castes and mixt castes and considerable advance in arts and sciences, trades, handicrafts and occupations, is evidently of later date than that even of the Atharva. The Samhit\u00e2 or Collection of its hymns, texts, and formulas, constituting the hymn-book and prayer-book of the Adhvaryu priests as distinguished from the Hotar, the Udg\u00e2tar, and the Brahman, the special priests, respectively, of the three other Vedas, owes its origin to the increasing multiformity and complication of the Indian ritual and the recognized insufficiency of the simple and unsystematically arranged Collection of Rigveda Hymns to meet the requirements of the performers of various essentially important rites and ceremonies.\nThe Yajurveda, owing to a schism among its earliest teachers and their followers, was divided into two distinct Samhit\u00e2s or Collections called\u2014probably from the names of the Rishis or inspired Seers who, ate respectively their reputed compilers\u2014the Taittir\u00eeya and the V\u00e2jasaneya or V\u00e2jasaneyi; the former and older being known also by the title Krishna or Black\u2014probably from its dark or obscure appearance, the collection of sacrificial texts and formulas being perplexingly\nintermingled with the Br\u00e2hmana or exegetical portion which explains them and teaches their ritual application\u2014, and the latter being called Sukla or White, the revised, systematic and clear collection, containing the texts and formulas by themselves with a totally distinct Br\u00e2hmana, the Satapatha, as an appendix. In the two divisions, besides these essential points of difference, are found occasional verbal and orthoepic variations which are generally of little importance. The order of rites and ceremonies is substantially identical, but the White contains a few more texts than the Black.\nThe Samhit\u00e2 of the White Yajurveda consists of forty Adhy\u00e2yas or Books containing, with frequent repetitions of the same text, about two thousand verses. A large portion of these are Richas or Strophes borrowed\u2014frequently with variations\u2014from the Rigveda, and sometimes from the Atharva these, of course, are metrical. Nearly equal in quantity are the Yajus texts or sacrificial formulas\u2014the most characteristic portion, from which the Veda derives its name\u2014composed in measured prose 'which rises now and then,' as Professor Weber observes, 'to a true rhythmical swing,' and long passages, such as the lists of victims to be tied up and dedicated at the Asvamedha and the Purushamedha, which are necessarily in the simplest prose.\nFor further information with regard to this Veda the reader should consult Professor Weber's History of Indian Literature (English Translation by John Mann and Theodor Zachariae: Tr\u00fcbner's Oriental Series); Professor Max M\u00fcller's History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature; Professor J. Eggeling's Introduction, Vol. XII. of the Sacred Books of the East, or, for a briefer account, Mrs. Manning's Ancient and Mediaeval India, Vol. I. pp. 107-109.\nMy translation follows the fine edition of the White Yajurveda or V\u00e2jasaneyi-Sanhit\u00e2, in the two recensions\u2014the M\u00e2dhyandina\nand the K\u00e2nva\u2014, with Mah\u00eedhara's Commentary, the Vedad\u00eepa, or Lamp of Knowledge, written towards the close of the sixteenth century, published under the patronage of the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company in 1849 at Berlin by Dr. Albrecht Weber, at that time Docent of the Sanskrit language at that University. This excellent edition consisting of three Parts the latter two of which contain the Satapatha-Br\u00e2hmana in the M\u00e2dhyandina recension with extracts from the Commentaries of S\u00e2yana, Harisv\u00e2min, and Dvivedaganga, and the Srautra-S\u00fbtra of K\u00e2ty\u00e2yana with extracts from the Commentaries of Karka and Y\u00e2j\u00f1ikadeva, has not been reprinted and is now practically unobtainable. In India the text of the M\u00e2dhyandina recension with Mah\u00eedhara's Commentary has been issued in a cheap form at Calcutta by Pandit J\u00eeb\u00e2nanda Vidy\u00e2s\u00e2gara, B. A., Superintendent of the Free Sanskrit College, of which a second edition appeared in 1892; and a lithographed edition of the text with a Hindi translation of Mah\u00eedhara's Commentary was published in 1874, at Besma in the North-Western Provinces, by R\u00e2j\u00e2 Giripras\u00e2davarman of that place. A cheap edition of the text, in unbound MS. form, has been published at Bombay.\nNo separate translation of the whole Samhit\u00e2 or Collection of Texts and Formulas has appeared in any European language. It was Professor Weber's intention, as signified in his History of Indian Literature, to bring out a translation giving the ceremonial belonging to each verse, together with a full glossary, but 'this promise has not been fulfilled, owing to the pressure of other labours.' This scholar had previously published a Latin translation, with annotations in the same language, of Books IX. and X. in his V\u00e2jasaneya-Sanhitae Specimen (Breslau, 1846), and more recently a German version of Book XVI. in Indische Studien II. pp. 14 ff., and of the list of men and women to be dedicated at the Purushamedha in his treatise on Human Sacrifice among Indians of the Vedic Age reprinted\nin his Indische Streifen I. pp. 76-84. Of Book XL. as an Upanishad there are several translations into English.\nMoreover, nearly the whole of the first eighteen Books has been incorporated\u2014dissected and explained clause by clause\u2014in the first nine Books of the Satapatha-Br\u00e2hmana; and an admirable translation of this vast work by Professor Julius Eggeling is now nearly completed in the Sacred Books of the East, four volumes (XII, XXVI., XLI., XLIII. of that series) having already appeared, and the concluding volume (XLV) being in the press. From this translation\u2014which, but for its bulk and costliness would make half of my work superfluous\u2014and from Professor Eggeling's annotations, I have derived the greatest assistance, and most gratefully record my obligations.\nAll that I have attempted to do is to give a faithful translation, to the best of my ability, of the texts and sacrificial formulas of the Veda, with just sufficient commentary, chiefly from Mah\u00eedhara, to make them intelligible. Much additional information way be found in Professor A. Hillebrandt's Ritual-Litteratur, Vedische Opfer and Zauber (Grundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie and Altertumskunde), Strassburg: 1897; and further minute details of the various sacrifices, rites and ceremonies are given in the Satapatha-Br\u00e2hmana as already mentioned, and in various articles, referred to in my notes, by Professor A. Weber, the great authority on the Yajurveda and all that is connected with it.\nR. T. H. GRIFFITH.\nKOTAGIRI, NILGIRIS\n May, 1899.","title":"White Yajur Veda: Preface","type":"page"}