Vedic Religion

[Anand V. Hudli]

On Thu, 5 Aug 1999 15:49:28 +0000, Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at BRAINCELLS.COM>
wrote:

>On Thu, 5 Aug 1999, Anand V. Hudli wrote:
>
>>  I would appreciate if someone could post some information on
>>  vaikhAnasa Agamas.
>
>The catalog of the New York Public Library lists the following works
>
>Vaikhanasashrautasutra
>Vaikhanasagrhyasutra
>Vaikhanasadharmasutra
>Kashyapasamhita, jnanakanda
>Brghusamhita, kriyadhikara
>
>So it looks like all the usual topics of a Vedic shakha and an Agamic
>tradition are covered.
>

 Aha! This rings a bell. VaikhAnasa is the name of a Rishi just as
 AshvalAyana. In R^ig Veda, and other vedas too, we have the names of
 the shrauta/gR^ihya sUtras honoring the names of the Rishis who
 wrote the sUtras. For instance, the R^ig vedic shAkhA may be called
 shAkala, but the shrauta and gR^ihya sutras followed by this shAkhA
 are called AshvalAyanashrautasUtra, AshvalAyanagR^ihyasUtra. Similarly,
 we have the sUtras of Apastamba and BodhAyana for the followers of
 the taittirIya shAkhA of the krishna yajur veda.

 So VaikhAnasashrautasUtra and VaikhAnasagR^ihyasUtra may very well
 stand for the sUtras of some shAkhA of veda. It does NOT mean that
 the VaikhAnasa Agama is related to such a shAkhA.

 Another example. We have the shaunaka shAkhA of the atharva veda. It
 does not mean we have to give vedic authenticity to numerous purANas which
 have stories concerning the Rishi shaunaka.

 Anand