Shatapatha Brahmana facts for kids

Hindu texts

Śruti Vedas Rig Veda Sama Veda Yajur Veda Atharva Veda Brahmanas Aranyakas Upanishads Smriti Itihasas Mahābhārata Bhagavad Gītā Ramayana Puranas (List) Tantras Sutras (List) Stotras Ashtavakra Gita Gherand Samhita Gita Govinda Hatha Yoga Pradipika

The Shatapatha Brahmana (Sanskrit: शतपथब्राह्मणम्, lit. 'Brāhmaṇa of one hundred paths', IAST: Śatapatha Brāhmaṇam, abbreviated to 'SB') is a commentary on the Śukla Yajurveda. It is attributed to the Vedic sage Yajnavalkya. Described as the most complete, systematic, and important of the Brahmanas (commentaries on the Vedas), it contains detailed explanations of Vedic sacrificial rituals, symbolism, and mythology.

Particularly in its description of sacrificial rituals (including construction of complex fire-altars), the Shatapatha Brahmana (SB) provides scientific knowledge of geometry (e.g. calculations of pi and the root of the Pythagorean theorem) and observational astronomy (e.g. planetary distances and the assertion that the Earth is circular) from the Vedic period.

The Shatapatha Brahmana is also considered significant in the development of Vaishnavism as the origin of several Puranic legends and avatars of Vishnu. Notably, all of them (Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, and Vamana) are listed as the first five avatars in the Dashavatara (the ten principal avatars of Vishnu).

There are two versions (recensions) available of this text. They are the Madhyandina recension and the Kanva recension. This article focuses exclusively on the Madhyandina version of the Shatapatha Brahmana.

Date

Arthur Berriedale Keith states that linguistically, the Shatapatha Brahmana belongs to the later part of the Brāhmaṇa period of Vedic Sanskrit (8th-6th century BCE). M. Witzel dates this text to the 7th–6th century BCE. Jan N. Bremmer dates it to around 700 BCE. J. Eggeling (translator of the Vājasaneyi mādhyandina recension into English), dates the final written version of the text to 300 BCE, although he states that some elements 'far older, transmitted orally from unknown antiquity'.

There are claims of dating the text much further back than the said ranges, and scholars have extensively rejected such claims; Witzel criticizes it for "faulty reasoning" and taking "a rather dubious datum and us[ing] it to reinterpret Vedic linguistic, textual, ritual history while neglect[ing] all the other contradictory data." According to Witzel, the Shatapatha Brahmana does not contain precise contemporary astronomical records, but rather only approximate naked-eye observations for ritual concerns which likely reflect oral remembrances of older time periods; furthermore, the same general observations are recorded in the Babylonian MUL.APIN tablets of c. 1000 BCE. The Shatapatha Brahmana contains clear references to the use of iron, so it cannot be dated earlier than c. 1200–1000 BCE, while it reflects cultural, philosophical, and socio-political developments that are later than other Iron Age texts (such as the Atharvaveda) and only slightly earlier than the time of the Buddha (c. 5th century BCE)

Content and Recensions

According to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), the Shatapatha Brahmana survives in two recensions:

The 14 books of the Madhyandina recension can be divided into two major parts. The first 9 books have close textual commentaries, often line by line, of the first 18 books of the corresponding samhita of the Śukla (white) Yajurveda. The remaining 5 books of the Shatapatha cover supplementary and ritualistically newer material; the content of the 14th and last book constitutes the Bṛhad-Āraṇyaka Upaniṣad. The IGNCA also provides further structural comparison between the recensions, noting that the 'names of the Kandas also vary between the two (versions) and the sequence in which they appear':

The IGNCA adds that 'the division of Kandika is more rational in the Kanva text than in the other... The name 'Shatapatha', as Eggeling has suggested, might have been based on the number of Adhyayas in the Madhyandina which is exactly one hundred. But the Kanva recension, which has one hundred and four Adhyayas is also known by the same name. In Indian tradition words like 'sata' and 'sahasra', indicating numbers, do not always stand for exact numbers'.

Manuscripts and Translations

All English translations of the Madhyandina School recension are by Julius Eggeling in five volumes. The English translation of the Kanva School recension by W.E. Caland in 3 volumes has not been found or listed; another English translation by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in at least seven volumes has been listed (only the first five volumes can be previewed).

See also

• Brahmana
• Dashavatara
• Yajnavalkya
• Yajurveda