On Newly found Mss. of the Vādhūla School of the Yajurveda

Abstract

The Vādhūla school belongs to the Taittirīya śākhā of Yajurveda and it is one of the oldest school in this Veda. The texts and the detailed information of this school had not been known to the researchers of Vedic literature except the reference of the name in the list of Vedic schools in some mediaeval texts like Caraṇavyūha etc. and the occasional small quotations in commentaries to other Śrautasūtras and Gṛhyasūtras. Prof. W. Caland first published many excerpts from the Śrautasūtra and the Brāhmaṇa of this school in 1920's with studies on various aspects of the texts.

Prof. M. Witzel revived the interest in this school in his excellent study in 1975 with information of more MSS materials belonging to this school. Afterwards, two editions of the Śrautasūtra were published, one by the joint work of M. Sparreboom and J.C. Heesterman (1989) and another by B.B. Chaubey (1993).  The MSS. known to these scholars, however, are quite defective ones with a lot of large lacunae and they belong to only a single recension.  The author of present article has attempted several research trips to South India and has obtained new MSS which have not been known to scholars. They include the MSS of the Śrautasūtra, the Gṛhyasūtra (which has not been known except for some fragments), the Brāhmaṇa, commentaries and Prayogas. I have been preparing for the editions of these texts in cooperation with young scholars. In this article, the detailed information of the MSS of Śrautasūtra are presented.