Krishna Yajur Veda Taittiriya Samhita Mantras

by Dr. R. L. Kashyap

A majority of persons who trace their lineage to rishis associated with a gotra belong also to the tradition of 'Krishna Yajur Veda' among the 4 vedas, especially those in the southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Kerala and also southern Maharashtra. The percentage of persons belonging to Rig Veda in these states may be less than 20 percent.

A book having the text of Rig Veda Mantras states that it has 10,552 mantras. But the books carrying the complete text of Taittiriya Samhita (TS) do not mention the number of mantras. Even the ancient anukraminaka of Katyayana associated with TS does not mention this number, even though it mentions the total number of words in it and other details. What is the reason?

A special feature of TS is that it contains both mantras and also some explanatory prose material dealing with legends and rituals called brahmana. Other Veda books like Rig Veda or Shukla Yajur Veda or Sama Veda have only mantras and no other non-mantra material like brahmana. One of the meanings of 'Krishna' is mixture. We will not go into the reasons for this happening. But needless to say, it is unfortunate.

Note TS has many Yajus mantras, which are in rhythmic prose. TS has no punctuation. It is divided into 7 Kandas, and each Kanda into several Prapathakas, each Prapathaka into several Anuvakas. The anuvaka is the basic unit of text. It is one long sentence of a hundred or more words containing rik mantras, yajur mantras and the explanatory prose material called brahmana. A rik mantra can be detected because of its metrical structure, even though this is not easy. But separation of yajus mantra and the prose material is not easy because both are in prose and there is no punctuation.

Ancient books like Apastamba Sutras offer hints to separate the mantras from the brahmana. The edition of TS done by the famous Pandit Damodar Satavalekar has made some progress.

Table of Contents:

• Overview of Taittiriya Samhita
• Kanda 1 with 8 Prapathakas
• Kanda 2 with 6 Prapathakas
• Kanda 3 with 5 Prapathakas
• Kanda 4 with 7 Prapathakas
• Kanda 5 with 7 Prapathakas
• Kanda 7 with 5 Prapathakas
• Appendices and Indices

About the Author:

Dr. R.L. Kashyap is Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana in USA. He had his masters degree form Indian Institute of science, Bangalore and obtained Ph.D. form Harvard University. He is the recipient of many international awards. He has authored more than 350 research papers. He has guided more than 50 Ph.D. Scholars. He has written extensively on Veda. He has given the word-meaning of all the verses from the first 121 suktas of Rig Veda. He has to his credit six major books on the Veda. He is the Honorary Director of Sri Aurobindo Kapali Sastry Institute of Vedic culture, Bangalore.