बौधायन श्रौतसूत्रम् (कृष्ण यजुर्वेद तैत्तिरीय शाखा - सम्पूर्ण प्रश्न एवं श्रौत-याग कल्प सटीक)

PREFACE. iii
adhyāyas are found, the contents of which are entirely foreign to a
śrautasūtra, viz. the adhyāyas 12 and 13 of praśna 17, treating
of the samāvartana, a subject we would expect to be treated
rather in the gṛhyasūtra. Now, the tradition of the gṛhyasūtra is
in this respect not wholly consistent either. Most of the MSS.
of the gṛhyasūtra have in the gṛhyasūtra proper (second praśna)
a chapter commencing thus : vedam adhītya snāsyann ity uktam
samāvartanam, and in the so-called paribhāṣā-sūtra a chapter
commencing : vedam adhītya snāsyann ity upakalpayate, etc. This
last part is identical with the long passage found in the Mackenzie
MS. of the śrautasūtra and here inserted as adhyāya 12 of the
first uttarā tatiḥ praśna. This distribution of the material in the
MSS. of the gṛhyasūtra cannot possibly be right, for obviously
the passage vedam adhītya snāsyann ity uktam samāvartanam refers
to the passage vedam adhītya snāsyann ity upakalpayate, which
therefore must have preceded. I possess a very good copy in
Grantha writing of the whole gṛhyasūtra, kindly procured me by
Professor Hultzsch. In this MS. the long passage commencing :
vedam adhītya snāsyann ity upakalpayate (the passage given by
the Mackenzie MS. as forming part of the śrautasūtra) stands
where the chapter vedam adhītya snāsyann ity uktam
samāvartanam is inserted by the other MSS. Before the
Mackenzie MS. came into my hands I thought this was all right.
But not long ago I received one more copy of the gṛhyasūtra,
copied from an original preserved at Madras. This MS. throws
some light on this hitherto obscure point. Where the other MSS.
(except the one from Madras, designed by me as M) have the
chapter vedam adhītya snāsyann ity uktam samāvartanam, this MS.
reads : vedam adhītya snāsyann ity uktam samāvartanam; asya
samāvartanasya nātra pāṭhaḥ, kimtu anyatra paṭhitam; atra
samgṛhya vilikhitam atropayogāt; then comes the text given by
Mackenzie as xvii. 12 and 13, and the rest of the chapter vedam
adhītya snāsyann ity uktam samāvartanam. Now, as it is impos-
sible that the passage referred to in the opening words ity uktam
samāvartanam could have followed, it seems highly probable that
the treatment of the samāvartana was originally incorporated in
the uttarā tatiḥ, and that here the Mackenzie MS. is right too.
I possess now another copy of the complete gṛhyasūtra, which
confirms this statement. This MS. gives in the second praśna the
chapter vedam adhītya snāsyann ity uktam samāvartanam, but in the
paribhāṣā the text given by the Mackenzie MS. (as xvii. 12, 13)
is not found. It is not improbable that the scribes of our śrauta-
sūtra, finding the treatment of the samāvartana foreign to a
śrautasūtra, omitted it and inserted it in a more proper place (the
gṛhyasūtra), disturbing, in doing sō, the first praśna of the uttarā
tatiḥ. For it is remarkable that none of all the other MSS. of the
śrautasūtra give for this praśna (the 17th) any adhyāya- or
khaṇḍikā-number; the Mackenzie MS., on the other hand, gives
the adhyāya- and khaṇḍikā-numbers, and, in accordance with this