Introductory Note

The short treatise of Āpastamba on the Gṛhya ritual forms one Praśna of the great corpus of the Āpastambīya-Kalpa-sūtra (see Sacred Books, vol. ii, p. xii) and stands, among the Gṛhya texts, in closest connection with the Hiraṇyakeśi-Gṛhya-sūtra. The chief difference between these two Sūtras, both belonging to the Taittirīya School of the Black Yajur-veda, consists herein, that Āpastamba, just as has been stated above^[1] with regard to Gobhila, gives only the rules for the performance of the Gṛhya rites without the Mantras, which are contained in a special collection, the Mantrapāṭha, standing by the side of the Sūtras: Hiraṇyakeśin, on the other hand, follows the more usual practice, as adopted by Śāṅkhāyana, Āśvalāyana, Pāraskara, of interweaving the description of the ceremonies with the text of the corresponding Mantras. As to the relation in which the Āpastambīya-sūtras stand to the Mantrapāṭha, there is, so far as I can see, no reason why we should not extend the theory which we have tried to establish with regard to Gobhila, to the evidently parallel case of Āpastamba: the Sūtras presuppose the existence of the Mantrapāṭha, just as the latter text seems to presuppose the Sūtras.—The questions regarding the historical relation of Āpastamba to Hiraṇyakeśin have been treated of by Professor Bühler in his Introduction to Āpastamba's Dharma-sūtra, S.B.E., vol. ii, pp. xxiii seq.

I have here to thank Dr. Winternitz, to whom we are indebted for an excellent edition of the Āpastambīya-Gṛhya-sūtra, for having placed at my disposal, before publication, the proof-sheets of his edition, and for lending me his copy of the Mantrapāṭha as well as of the commentary of Haradatta. The kindness of the same scholar has enabled me to make use of Professor Eggeling's copy of the first part of Sudarśanārya's commentary and of his own copy of the second part of the same work.