Laghu Yajnaparsva Parisista and Mahad Yajnaparsva Parisista

For the last fifteen years, I have been engaged in preparing a critical edition of Yajnaparsva, Nigama and Mulyadhyaya, the three Parisistas, which figure in the eighteen Parisistas belonging to the Katyayana School of the Sukla- Yajurveda. Attention to these texts was drawn by the great Vedic Scholar Cintamani Gangesh kashikar of Pune. He noted in his "A Survey of the Srautasutras" (published in the Journal of Bombay University, Vol. XXXV, Part 2, 1966, p. 110ff): "The Nigama and Yajnaparsva Parisistas are not yet published". While working on some unpublished Vedic texts as part of research project, I took up these two Parisistas for preparing a critical edition. But since collecting the relevant manuscripts was difficult and troublesome, the work has been delayed. In the meantime C.G. Kashikar himself published a critical edition with English translation and notes of Yajnaparsva (Government Oriental Series – Class B, N. 18) from Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune 411 004, in 1998. So I had to collate and compare the readings of this printed book to the original evidences collected so far and attempted the present edition different in some respects from the edition by kashikar (= K).

The Yajnaparsva is the fifteenth Parisista in the traditional order and ascribed to Katyayana. Kashikar suggests the meaning of the title as follows: "Parsva means "a side". Yajnaparsva means a treatise giving information about the sides of the sacrifice – both Vedic and domestic, that is to say, about the current ritualistic practices". Pratijna II and Caranavyuha designated the text Yajnaparsva in dual, according to Kashikar, "due to the fact that the text as it stands at present comprises two parts called parisista itself. Originally the terms must have been singular". I have found in some manuscrips that these two parts are called Laghu- Yajnaparsva (A, B & I) and Mahad- Yajnaparsva (I) the words "laghu", "Mahad" or Brhad (Brhad Yajnaparsva is quoted by Halayudha in Brahmanasarvasva) are commonly used in Sanskrit text for abridged and enlarged version of them. I accepted these two words for different version of Yajnaparsva which are prevalent in various parts of the country, especially southern and northern region. The critical edition of two version of Yajnaparsva viz., Laghu- Yajnaparsva- Parisista (=LYP) and Mahad- Yajnaparsva- Parisista (=MYP) is based on the following manuscripts and the printed edition.

**Contents and Sample Pages**