A HISTORY OF INDIAN LITERATURE JAN GONDA THE RITUAL SUTRAS OTTO HARRASSOWITZ • WIESBADEN A HISTORY OF INDIAN LITERATURE EDITED BY JAN GONDA VOLUME I Fase. 2 1977 OTTO HARRASSOWITZ • WIESBADEN JAN GONDA THE RITUAL SUTRAS 1977 OTTO HARRASSOWITZ . WIESBADEN A HISTORY OF INDIAN LITERATURE Contents of Vol. I Vol. I: Veda and Upanishads Fasc. 1: J. Gonda Vedic Literature (Samhitas and Brahmanas) Fasc. 2: J. Gonda The Ritual Sutras Fasc. 3: J. Varenne Upanisads CIP-Kurztitelaufnahme der Deutschen Bibliothek A history ol Indian literature / ed. by Jan Gonda. - Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz. NB: Gonda , Jan [Hrsg.] Vol. 1. Veda and Upanishads. Fasc. 2. •*• Gonda , Jan : The ritual Sutras Gonda, Jan The ritual SOtras. - Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 1977. (A history of Indian literature ; Vol. 1, Veda and Upanishads ; Fasc. 2) ISBN 3-447-01823-2 © Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1977. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Photographische und photomechaniache Wiedergabe nur mit ausdrQcklicher Genehmigung des Verlages. Gesamtherstellung: Allgfiuer Zeitungsverlag GmbH, Kempten. Printed in Germany. Sigel: HIL. CONTENTS CHAPTER I Introduction 465 1. The literature 465 2. The authors 474 CHAPTEB II The drautasutras 489 1. General introduction. The srautasutras of the Yajur- veda 489 2. The relations between the brahmanas and the srauta- sutras and the mutual relations of the latter .. .. 496 3. The mantras 502 4. Paribhasas, prayascittas and parislstas 508 5. The individual Srautasutras 514 CHAPTER III The grhyasiitras 546 1. General introduction 546 2. The contents of the grhyasiitras 556 3. The mantras 565 4. The individual grhyasiitras 582 CHAPTER IV The pitrmedhasutras 616 CHAPTER V The ritual sutras as historical sources 622 CHAPTER VI Style and composition 629 CHAPTER VII Transmission of the texts, commentaries and secondary literature 648 Glossary 662 Abbreviations 664 Index 670 Jan Gonda THE RITUAL SUTRAS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1. The literature In the later Vedic period the scholarly literature developed a new prose style, generally known as sutra style. The term sutra, for want of something better often translated by "aphorism", denotes, generally speaking, a large and varied number of "manuals of instruction"1 and "systematic surveys or resumes".2 Although part of the ancient Indian branches of learning have not preserved sutra works marking the beginning of their literature3 the hypo- thesis is legitimate that in the period mentioned and the succeeding centuries at least the most important disciplines came to fix their rules or tenets in the form of succinct resumes or manuals. The rise of this class of literature was largely caused by the need of reducing the growing mass of details preserved in circles of specialists in some branch of traditional knowledge. It cannot be disconnected from a method of teaching designed to enable the student to memorize vast and varied masses of facts, rules and other relevant information. Codifying and systematizing the various branches of knowledge it satisfied the needs of a system of oral instruction in which each stage in the exposition of a subject was to be learnt progressively and the whole of it, conveniently analyzed, was to be committed to memory. Sutra works, constituting a genre that is peculiar to India, are intended to present the essence of some doctrine systematically in a compact form. Gen- erally speaking, they aim at precision and, especially, at brevity.4 In order to 1 The definition "manuals explaining the scriptures" (A. L. BASHAM, The wonder that was India, London 1956, p. 112) is not applicable to all sutras; moreover, "explaining" can be misunderstood. See especially L. RENOXJ, in JA 233 (1941—42), p. 105 and 251 (1963), p. 165. 3 There exist traces of the existence, in olden times, of lost or recast sutra works. 4 Madhva (13th century), Brahmasutrabhasya 1, 11 denned the term as follows: 466 J. Gonda • The ritual sUtras achieve the utmost succinctness, repetitions and any other superfluities are avoided, references to the subjects or objects of sentences limited, finite verb forms eliminated.5 The contents are compressed within a compass that does not exact too much from the student's memory. And in fact, this genre of literature, evolving for the facilitation of oral transmission and memorizing of knowledge, developed interesting devices for effecting this purpose, for instance careful arrangements of the subject-matter and a skilful composition of chapters and sections. The result generally consisted of long successions of short phrases which in many cases impress a modern reader as a sort of clas- sified index of the subjects dealt with rather than a manual. Although a good many of them are grammatically complete and logically impeccable individual sutras can hardly be disconnected from their context because they correlate to the sutras which precede and follow them and are normally determined by the system of which they form part. This fundamental, though variable, conciseness of their style—which in the post-Vedic period tended to become more pronounced—as well as their thematic and conceptual interdependence presupposed, not only, on the part of the student, a sufficiency of general in- formation on the subjects dealt with0 but also the accompaniment of a teacher whose interpretation and comments had to make the brief notes comprehen- sible and to fill in all details needed for a complete understanding. In this respect we are at a disadvantage because we generally lack such authentic interpretations. The name sutra (literally "thread"), which is applicable to both the whole work and its individual sentences or paragraphs, has been variously explained, but there can be no doubt that it is taken from the image of weaving and of woven material made out of threads. A thread stretched out lengthwise as a warp to be crossed by the woof may continue—then sutra becomes a name for the whole work—or it may be cut on both sides of the frame—then siitra denotes the single paragraphs.7 "A sutra consists of a small number of syllables, (of) intelligible (sentences), contains the essence, 'faces all sides' (does not focus attention on one subject), is free from insertions, (and) irreproachable". 5 Particulars will be discussed in the chapter on style. 6 They could not be "ignorant" (as was supposed by P. SABBATHIEB, in JA 8, 15 (1890), p. 6). 7 For this explanation see H. SCHARFE, Grammatical literature, in Vol. V of this History, p. 87. Other explanations do not, or not satisfactorily, account for the double use of the term (thus M. MONIER -WILLIAMS, Sanskrit-English dictionary, s. v.: "that which like a thread holds together everything, hence 'rule'; any work or manual consisting of strings of rules"); or are based on irrelevant images: e.g. RENOU(-FILLIOZAT), I.C. I, p. 301 "'fil (conducteur)', d'ou 'regie'" (similarly, L. RENOTJ, Terminologie grammaticale du Sanskrit, II, Paris 1942, p. 149; otherwise in Histoire de la langue sanskrite, Lyon and Paris 1956, p. 54: called after a rope of pearls; in JA 251, p. 166: because the rules (sutra) knit together on an invisible thread); H. VON GLASENAPP, Die Literaturen Indiens, Stuttgart 1961, p. 44; 92: "Leitfaden". According to RajaSekhara (see n. 8 below) a sUTra owes its name to Introduction 467 Before proceeding to treat the subject of this fascicle, the so-called kalpa- sutras—a,8 the various ceremonial guides or didactic manuals on ritual practice (kalpa ),s detailed expositions of the procedures and rules for the performance of Vedic sacrifices are comprehensively called9—I must make a rapid survey of the thematic material, that is the general contents of this class of sutra literature. Vedic ritual and liturgy in their fully developed form culminated in sacri- fice10 "on the practice and knowledge whereof man's welfare is based".11 Homage to the divine powers consisted essentially of oblations thrown into the sacred fire, which as a divine person (Agni) was supposed to convey these to the gods (deva) or to invite the latter to dinner at the sacrificial place. The purpose of this ritual was the gratification of the gods in order to obtain from them benefits such as offspring, increase of cattle, a long lifetime, wealth, superiority, success in war. There are 'invariable' (nitya), obligatory rites, some of them to be performed daily, others on precise dates of the lunar calendar; occasional (naimittika) ceremonies to be carried out on the occur- rence of certain events; and optional (kdmya) rites performed by those who the fact that it encircles (siitrana) and includes many things within a limited space. Other authors leave the semantic change unexplained (among them BASHAM, op. cit., p. 112). See also SCHARFE, 1. cit., n. 49. 8 Compare RajaSekhara's (ca. 900 A. D.) definition, Kavyamimamsa 2, 6: "Kalpa is (that) sUtRa(text) which enjoins the employment of the mantras that belong to the various 'branches' (traditions: Sakha) of the Veda", and Kumarila, Tantravarttika, translated by G. JHA, Calcutta 1924, p. 224: "kalpas point out the methods of sacrifices, in the form of well-established regulations". The term kalpa (from klp- "to prepare, design, arrange, accomplish") is not, with Kashikar, S. S., p. 25 to be translated by "explanation (of the meaning of the Veda)". Ritual (kalpa) is one of the six veddngas (for which see GONDA, V. L., p. 34), which originally were neither 'texts' (books) nor special 'schools' but subjects of instruction to be studied in order to understand the Vedic texts and to perform the rites. The purpose of the Veda is, according to the PUrva-Mlmamsa, to lay down injunctions relating to the perform- ance of rites, every part of it referring to acts of duty. See e.g. S. RADHAKRISHNAN, Indian philosophy II, London 51948, p. 388. The other five auxiliary branches of (Vedic) knowledge—Siksd (the science of proper articulation and pronunciation); chandas (prosody); vydkarana (grammar); nirukta (etymology); jyotisa (astronomy) cannot be dealt with in this volume; see the fascicles on Grammar, Metrics etc.