Introduction 1b: Texts of the Ranayaniyas

[Full title: The Samavedic Texts (2): Ranayaniyas]

We have, as yet, no certainty about the question whether the Samhita (i.e., the ganas and the arcikas) and the Pancavimsa- and Sadvimsa-brahmanas of the Kauthumas were also in use with the Ranayaniyas precisely in the same form as these books are known to us. But as it can be proved that the commentator of the Pancavimsabrahmana was a Ranayaniya, and the same may be said about Varadaraja, who commented upon the Arseyakalpa, it is probable that these texts at least were common property of the two sakhas. Further, it is certain that they had a different Srautasutra and Grhyasutra, the Srautasutra being that of Drahyayana, 1 It is striking, that Hemadri in his Sraddhakalpa, pages 1460, 1468, designates Gobhila as the Ranayaniyasutrakrt and his Sutra (page 1424) as the Ranayaniyasutra. In the Tarpana of the Kauthumas it is Ranayani who comes first, see Gobhilagrhyaprakasika, page 113.

" INTRODUCTION, CHAPTER 11. ix edited (only partly) by J. N. Reuter with the excellent commentary of Dhanvin "The Srautasutra of Drahyayana with the commentary of Dhanvin, Part I, London 1904 (up to XI. 1, but the text was ready for printing up to XVI. 4; of the last unpublished part, Dr. Reuter was so kind as to send me the proof-pages). The Sutra of Drahyayana is nearly identical with that of Latyayana, the only difference is that Drahyayana has a few sutras more. The Ranayaniyas have also a different Grhyasutra, ascribed to Khadira, in 4 patalas. It has been edited (text and English translation) by H. Oldenberg in the Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXIX, pages 371 sqq. An excellent edition has appeared in the Bibliotheca Samskrita No. 41 of the Mysore collection "The Khadiragrhyasutra with the commentary of Rudraskanda", Mysore, 1913. The text is to be found also in a South Indian edition in Grantha characters. This Grhyasutra is a mere recast and abbreviation of the Gobhiliyasutra. One more text can with some probability be assigned to the Ranayaniyas, viz., the Drahyayanagrh yaparisista, comprising apparently two prapathakas. It is known to me in one complete manuscript, whilst the other contains the first prapathaka and a part of the second. Whether the Gautama pitrmedhasutra, the Gautamasmrti and the Gautamadharmasastra belonged originally to a Gautamasakha of the Samaveda, is uncertain.