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On Maitrayani Yajurveda traditions

From the Bhakti List Archives

VAgarwalV • March 14, 2001 


Discussing the history of the Manava Maitrayani school, Kashikar states (see 
reference at the end) that :

Pg. 105: As the epigraphical records indicate, grants were made to the 
Maitrayaniya Pandits by Royal families in different regions like Sambalpur 
(Orissa), Saurashtra, Surparaka etc. One cannot say whether these grants were 
made to the Pandits by special invitations or whether there were colonies of 
the Maitrayaniyas in those regions. The manuscripts which were procured for 
preparing the editions of the Matrayani Samhita and the Manava Srauta and 
Grhya Sutras belonged to the region known as Baglan. This means that in 
historical times Maitrayaniyas lived only in this region. In Patanjali's 
time, the Kalapakas or Maitrayaniyas lived in Punjab in large numbers. There 
is no trace of this recension now in that region. Nor do we come across any 
Maitrayaniya settlement in the region known from epigraphical records. From 
the fact that the royal family of the Baguls brought with them the 
Maitrayaniya families from Kanauj to Baglan, it becomes evident that the 
Maitrayaniyas were originaklly included among the five Gauda sects. 

Pg. 106: A verse from the Sahyadrikhanda of the Skandapurana supports this 
fact. After being settled in Baglan they were enumerated among the five 
Dravida sects. Ultimately the Maitrayaniyas were confined only to this 
region. The districts of Gujarat and northern Maharashtra preserved the 
Maitrayaniya tradition. The credit of preserving on the surface of the earth 
the tradition and religious practices of the Maitrayaniyas thus goes to the 
rulers who colonized the Vaidiks in Baglan and patronized them and also to 
the Vaidiks who came down and maintained the traditionĂ¢Â€Â¦.

The generations of Maitrayaniyas living in Baglan were divided into two 
branches by rason of the different spoken languages namely, Gujarati and 
Marathi. Naturally their Maitrayaniya traditions developed along rather 
different lines.Already during their migration to Baglan which might have 
taken a long time, the Maitrayaniyas might have suffered from heavy odds 
resulting in the damage to their religious traditions. During migration and 
also in Baglan their tradition of domestic rites might have been already 
preserved. On the other hand, the tradition of sacrificial rituals was 
declining from the Sutra period itself, hence there is no wonder that the 
Srautrasutra text had begum to suffer from an insecure tradition. Since the 
ritual tradition was on a decline, the preservation of Srautrasutra text in a 
written form must also have suffered. It seems the tradition in northern 
Maharashtra suffered more than in Gujarat. All the manuscripts, which exist, 
are copied in fractions. Such a practice might have been responsible for the 
loose and defective sequence of the Sutra text.
The damage done to the Matrayaniya recension as a whole is quite obvious. The 
Maitrayani Samhita itselr suffered from insecure tradition. There must have 
been a Pada text for the Samhita which is now totally lost. A mantra-Samhita 
serially collecting only the mantra-portions out of the mixed Mantra-Brahmana 
portions was formulated probably for avoiding the strain on memory of the 
Vedic students. One is at a loss to know the age of that compilation. In 
recent times, even a Padapatha was the newly devised for priestly purpose. 
While the Padapatha in the Gujarat tradition was based in the mantra-portions 
only, that in the Maharashtra tradition was based on the Samhita-text as it 
is irrespective of whether it was mantra or brahmana. 

Pg. 107 In selecting only the mantra portions for the Padapatha, the Gujarat 
tradition followed the Sukla Yajurveda tradition in which the mantras form an 
independent collection. The Maharashtra tradition followed the Krsna 
Yajurveda Taittiriya tradition in which the Samhita consisting of both the 
mantras and the brahmana is provided with a Padapatha. Both the Padapathas 
are defective; the Gujarat Padapatha may be said to be less defective.

Note:
Baglan= Gujarat + Northern Maharashtra
Kashikar has also suggested that the earlier view that Apastamba was indebted 
to Manava is flawed and a closer examination of the texts rather suggests the 
reverse.

Reference:
C. G. Kashikar; Manava Srautasutra (pg. 98-107) in "Dharmadhikari, T. N.; R.. 
S. Shastri; N. P. Jain; Vedic Texts: A Revision- Prof. C. G. Kashikar 
Felicitation Volume; Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd.; Delhi; 1990"

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