The Grihya-sutras, rules of Vedic domestic ceremonies

xxiv Gi?7HYA-sOTRAS.
commonest division is that into the four classes of the
hutas, ahutas, prahutas, praj-itas^. The division into
seven classes is doubtless occasioned by the division of the
Havirya^;7as and of the Somaya^;^as, which also each in-
clude seven classes ^ ; for the nature of the sacrifices in
question would hardly of itself have led to such a division.
The seven classes taken up are either those given by Gau-
' The seven kinds of Pakaya^/7as, viz. the
tama VIII, 15 ^ :
Ash/aka, the Parva/^a (Sthalipaka, offered on the new and
full moon days), the funeral oblations, the Srkva.m, the
Agrah^ya;/!, the iTaitri, and the Ai-vayu^i.' Or else the
seven classes are established as follows, the fourfold division
' being utilised to some extent* : Huta, Prahuta, Ahuta (sic,
not Ahuta), the spit-ox sacrifice, the Bali offering, the re-
descent (on the Agrah^ya;/a day), the Ash/ak^ sacrifice.'
According to the account of Prof. Biahler ^, the exposition
of Baudhayana, who gives this division, keeps closely to
the course which it prescribes. For the rest, however, the
Grz'hya texts with which I am acquainted do not follow
any of these divisions, and this is easily accounted for, if
we consider the artificial character of these classifications,
which are undertaken merely for the sake of having a complete
scheme of the sacrifices. On the contrary, as a whole
the texts give an arrangement which is based on the nature
of the ceremonies they describe. In many instances we
find considerable variations between the texts of the dif-
ferent schools ; often enough, in a given text, the place
' 6ankhayana I, 5, i ; 10, 7; Paraskara I, 4, i. Doubtless Prof. Biihler is
right in finding the same division mentioned also Vasish/Zza XXVI, 10 (Sacred
Books of the East, vol. xiv, p. 128). A^fvalayana (I, i, 2) mentions only three
of the four classes.
^ In La/yayana (V, 4, 22-24) ^^^ the sacrifices are divided into seven Havir-
ya^/Ja-sawsthas and into seven Soma-sawsthas, so that the Pakaya^^/as do not
form a class of their own ; they are strangely brought in as the last of the
Havirya^/las. Cf. Indische Studien, X, 325.
^ Sacred Books of the East, vol. ii, p. 214.
* Baudhayana G;7'hya-sutra, quoted by Biihler, Sacred Books of the East,
vol. xiv, p. xxxi ; cf Saya^a's Commentary on Aitareya-Brahma;;a III, 40, 2
(p. 296 of Aufrecht's edition).
' Sacred Books of the East, vol. xiv, p. xxxii.
A