The Yajurveda (Sanskrit: यजुर्वेद, IAST: yajurveda, from यजुस्, "worship",[3] and वेद, "knowledge") is the Veda primarily of prose mantras for worship rituals.[4] An ancient Vedic Sanskrit text, it is a compilation of ritual-offering formulas that were said by a priest while an individual performed ritual actions such as those before the yajña fire.[4] Yajurveda is one of the four Vedas, and one of the scriptures of Hinduism. The exact century of the Yajurveda's composition is unknown, and estimated by Witzel to be between 1200 and 800 BCE, contemporaneous with Sāmaveda and Atharvaveda.

The Yajurveda is broadly grouped into two – the "black" or "dark" (Krishna) Yajurveda and the "white" or "bright" (Shukla) Yajurveda. The term "black" implies "the un-arranged, unclear, motley collection" of verses in Yajurveda, in contrast to the "white" which implies the "well arranged, clear" Yajurveda.[5] The black Yajurveda has survived in four recensions, while two recensions of white Yajurveda have survived into modern times.[6]

The earliest and most ancient layer of Yajurveda samhita includes about 1,875 verses, that are distinct yet borrow and build upon the foundation of verses in Rigveda.[7][8] The middle layer includes the Satapatha Brahmana, one of the largest Brahmana texts in the Vedic collection.[9] The youngest layer of Yajurveda text includes the largest collection of primary Upanishads, influential to various schools of Hindu philosophy. These include the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the Isha Upanishad, the Taittiriya Upanishad, the Katha Upanishad, the Shvetashvatara Upanishad and the Maitri Upanishad.[10][11]

Two of the oldest surviving manuscript copies of the Shukla Yajurveda sections have been discovered in Nepal and Western Tibet, and these are dated to the 12th-century CE.[12]

Etymology

Yajurveda text describes formula and mantras to be uttered during sacrificial fire (yajna) rituals, shown. Offerings are typically ghee (clarified butter), grains, aromatic seeds, and cow milk.

Yajurveda is a compound Sanskrit word, composed of yajus (यजुस्) and Veda (वेद). Monier-Williams translates yajus as "religious reverence, veneration, worship, sacrifice, a sacrificial prayer, formula, particularly mantras uttered in a peculiar manner at a sacrifice".[13] Veda means "knowledge". Johnson states yajus means "(mostly) prose formulae or mantras, contained in the Yajur Veda, which are muttered".[14]

Michael Witzel interprets Yajurveda to mean a "knowledge text of prose mantras" used in Vedic rituals.[4] Ralph Griffith interprets the name to mean "knowledge of sacrifice or sacrificial texts and formulas".[15] Carl Olson states that Yajurveda is a text of "mantras (sacred formulas) that are repeated and used in rituals".[16]

Dating and historical context

The core text of the Yajurveda falls within the classical Mantra period of Vedic Sanskrit at the end of the 2nd millennium BCE – younger than the Rigveda, and roughly contemporary with the Atharvaveda, the Rigvedic Khilani, and the Sāmaveda.[17] The scholarly consensus dates the bulk of the Yajurveda and Atharvaveda hymns to the early Indian Iron Age, after c. 1200 and before 800 BCE.[1]

Text

Recensions

The Yajurveda text includes the Shukla Yajurveda of which about 16 recensions (known as Shaakhaas) are known, while the Krishna Yajurveda may have had as many as 86 recensions.[6] Only two recensions of the Shukla Yajurveda have survived, Madhyandina and Kanva, and others are known by name only because they are mentioned in other texts. These two recensions are nearly the same, except for a few differences.[6] In contrast to Shukla Yajurveda, the four surviving recensions of Krishna Yajurveda are very different versions.[6]

Shukla Yajurveda

The samhita in the Shukla Yajurveda is called the Vajasaneyi Samhita. The name Vajasaneyi is derived from Vajasaneya, the patronymic of Yajnavalkya, and the founder of the Vajasaneyi branch. There are two (nearly identical) surviving recensions of the Vajasaneyi Samhita (VS): Vajasaneyi Madhyandina and Vajasaneyi Kanva.[6] The lost recensions of the White Yajurveda, mentioned in other texts of ancient India, include Jabala, Baudhya, Sapeyi, Tapaniya, Kapola, Paundravatsa, Avati, Paramavatika, Parasara, Vaineya, Vaidheya, Katyayana and Vaijyavapa.[18]

Recensions of the White Yajurveda[19]
Recension Name Adhyayas Anuvakas No. of Verses Regional presence Reference
Madhyandina 40 303 1975 Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, North India [20]
Kanva 40 328 2086 Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu [21]
Shukla Yajurveda Shaakhaas
Shakha Samhita Brahmana Aranyaka Upanishad
Madhyandina (VSM) Vajasneyi Samhita

(Madhyandin)

 Madhyandina Shatapatha (SBM) survives as Shatapatha XIV.1–8, with accents. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
Kanva (VSK) Vajasneyi Samhita

(Kanva)

 Kanva Shatapatha (SBK)

(different from madhyandina)

 survives as book XVII of SBK Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

(different from above)

Krishna Yajurveda

There are four surviving recensions of the Krishna Yajurveda – Taittirīya saṃhitā, Maitrayani saṃhitā, Kaṭha saṃhitā and Kapiṣṭhala saṃhitā.[22] A total of eighty six recensions are mentioned to exist in Vayu Purana, however vast majority of them are believed to be lost.[23] The Katha school is referred to as a sub-school of Carakas (wanderers) in some ancient texts of India, because they did their scholarship as they wandered from place to place.[24] In contrast to the Shukla Yajurveda, the saṃhitās of the Krishna Yajurveda contained both mantras and explanatory prose (which would usually belong to the brāhmaṇas).[25]

Recensions of the Black Yajurveda[19]
Recension Name No. of Sub-recensions[26] Kanda Prapathaka No. of Mantras Regional presence Reference
Taittiriya 2 7 42 South India [27]
Maitrayani 6 4 54 Western India [28]
Kāṭhaka (Caraka) 12 5 40 3093 Kashmir, North India, East India [26][29]
Kapiṣṭhala 5 6 48 Extinct [29][30]
Krishna Yajurveda Shaakhaas
Shakha Samhita Brahmana Aranyaka Upanishad
Taittiriya Taittiriya Samhita Taittiriya Brahmana and Vadhula Brahmana (part of Vadhula Srautrasutra) Taittiriya Aranyaka Taittiriya Upanishad
Maitrayani Maitrayani Samhita Within the Samhita Maitrayaniya Upanishad
Caraka-Katha Katha Samhita Śatādhyāya Brāhmaṇa (only exists in fragments)[31] Katha Aranyaka (almost the entire text from a solitary manuscript) Kathaka Upanishad,

Katha-Shiksha Upanishad

The most modern recensions is the Taittirīya saṃhitā. Some attribute it to Tittiri, a pupil of Yaska and mentioned by Panini.[32] The text is associated with the Taittiriya school of the Yajurveda, and attributed to the pupils of sage Tittiri (literally, partridge birds).[33]

The Maitrayani saṃhitā is the oldest Yajurveda Samhita that has survived, and it differs largely in content from the Taittiriyas, as well as in some different arrangement of chapters, but is much more detailed.[34]

The Kāṭhaka saṃhitā or the Caraka-Kaṭha saṃhitā, according to tradition was compiled by Katha, a disciple of Vaisampayana.[34] Like the Maitrayani Samhita, it offers much more detailed discussion of some rituals than the younger Taittiriya samhita that frequently summarizes such accounts.[34] The Kapiṣṭhala saṃhitā or the Kapiṣṭhala-Kaṭha saṃhitā, named after the sage Kapisthala is extant only in some large fragments and edited without accent marks.[34] This text is practically a variant of the Kāṭhaka saṃhitā.[29]

Organization

Each regional edition (recension) of Yajurveda had Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyakas, Upanishads as part of the text, with Shrautasutras, Grhyasutras and Pratishakhya attached to the text. In Shukla Yajurveda, the text organization is same for both Madhayndina and Kanva shakhas.[6][18] The texts attached to Shukla Yajurveda include the Katyayana Shrautasutra, Paraskara Grhyasutra and Shukla Yajurveda Pratishakhya.[citation needed]

In Krishna Yajurveda, each of the recensions has or had their Brahmana text mixed into the Samhita text, thus creating a motley of the prose and verses, and making it unclear, disorganized.[5][34]

Contents

Samhitas

The Vajasaneyi Samhita has forty chapters or adhyayas, containing the formulas used with the following rituals:[19]

Chapters of the White Yajurveda[19]
Chapter No. Ritual Name Time Nature of Ritual Reference
1–2 Darṣapūrṇamāsa (Full and new moon rituals) 2 days Offer cow milk to fire. Separate calves from the cows. [35][36][37]
3 Agnihotra

and Cāturmāsya

1 day, 4 months The former is the daily oblation of milk into the fire, and the latter is the seasonal sacrifices at the beginning of the three seasons. [38][37]
4–8 Soma sacrifice Bathe in river. Offer milk and soma to fire. Offerings to deities of thought, speech. Prayer to Indra to harm no crop, guard the cattle, expel demons. [39][37]
9–10 Vājapeya and Rājasūya The former is a variant of the soma sacrifice which involves a chariot race, and the latter is a variant of the soma sacrifice in which a king is consecrated. [40][37]
11–18 Agnicayana 360 Formulas and rituals for building altars and hearths for Agni yajna, with largest in the shape of outspread eagle or falcon. [41][37]
19–21 Sautrāmaṇī Ritual that deals with the overindulgence of soma, and to assure victory and success. [42][37]
22–25 Aśvamedha 180 or 360 Horse sacrifice ritual conducted by kings. [43][37]
26–29 Supplementary formulas for above sacrifices [44]
30–31 Puruṣamedha Symbolic sacrifice of Purusha (Cosmic Man). Nominal victim played the part, but released uninjured after the ceremony, according to Max Muller[45] and others.[46] A substitute for Ashvamedha (horse sacrifice). The ritual plays out the cosmic creation. [47][37]
32–34 Sarvamedha 10 Stated to be more important than Purushamedha above. This ritual is a sacrifice for Universal Success and Prosperity. Ritual for one to be wished well, or someone leaving the home, particularly for solitude and moksha, who is offered "curd and ghee (clarified butter)". [48]
35 Pitriyajna Ritual funeral-related formulas for cremation. Sacrifice to the Fathers and Ancestors. [49]
36–39 Pravargya According to Griffith, the ritual is for long life, unimpaired faculties, health, strength, prosperity, security, tranquility and contentment. Offerings of cow milk and grains to yajna fire. [50]
40 This chapter is not an external sacrifice ritual-related. It is Isha Upanishad, which talks about Atma. The verse 40.6 states, "He who sees every being in relation to Paramatma, who sees the Paramatma in every being thereafter does not hate anything. [51]
Structure of the mantras

The various ritual mantras in the Yajurveda Samhitas are typically set in a meter, and call on Vedic deities such as the Savita (Sun), Indra, Agni, Prajapati, Rudra and others. The Taittiriya Samhita in Book 4, for example, includes the following verses for the Agnicayana ritual recitation (abridged),[52]

— Taittiriya Samhita 4.1.1, Translated by Frits Staal[52]