Yajurveda
Yajurveda
Sacrifice only works when the officiating priest's spoken formula and physical action correspond exactly, and the entire ritual calendar has to be organized around securing that correspondence.
- prose ritual formulas for the officiating priest
- Black (Taittiriya) versus White (Vajasaneyi) recensions
- sacrifice as exact correspondence of word and act
- source text underlying the Isha Upanishad and Shatapatha Brahmana
The second Veda, consisting of prose ritual formulas (mantras) for the Adhvaryu priest who performs the physical acts of sacrifice, unlike the verse hymns of the Rigveda and Samaveda. It survives in two major recensions: the 'Black' or Krishna Yajurveda (notably the Taittiriya Samhita), which mixes mantra with explanatory prose, and the 'White' or Shukla Yajurveda (the Vajasaneyi Samhita), which separates mantras from their later prose commentary, the Shatapatha Brahmana. Among its embedded material is the Shatarudriya, a long litany addressed to the fierce god Rudra under a hundred names and epithets, later absorbed into Shaiva devotional recitation, and its formulas govern rites ranging from the routine new- and full-moon sacrifices to grand royal ceremonies such as the horse sacrifice (ashvamedha).
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