Note on Vedic shAkhAs

[Vaidya Sundaram]

Jaldhar wrote:

>> 2. One of my friends is from Karnataka and knows his Veda to be RgVeda. But
>> he says his shikshan has been in Yajur Veda. Is this fairly common ?
>
>We discussed this on the list once before.  Because it is the duty of
>every Brahmana to learn the Vedas, you should learn what you can, even if
>it is the "wrong" shakha but it is preferable to learn your own and you
>should make the best possible effort to do so.

 namaskAram.
  I would like to know if this is our understanding or is there some scriptural
basis for this conclusion. I ask this question because right after the earlier
discussion in this list on the topic of learning vedic shakas, I requested
information from the priests at kanchi. The answer was that - your own shaka
MUST be learned before any others. The only exceptions are when some sacrificial
yajnas/sacrifices are to be done (there is a apparently a set of such sacrifices
whose performance takes precedence - hence the mantras for that have to be
learned before the entire shaka is complete.)
 What is confusing for me is that the actual person performing the upanayanam
for a brahmana may belong to any veda/shaka. however, the student will have to
learn his fathers shaka first before any other.


bhava shankara desikame sharanam |

Vaidya.