The Grihya-sutras, rules of Vedic domestic ceremonies

XXX G727HYA-S^TRAS.
of this class of Sutras indeed have hardly any connection
with the subdivisions and differences of the Vedic texts
handed down in the various schools ; there was no reason
why Brahmans, who studied various 6"akhas of the Veda,
should not learn the ordinances concerning law and morals
given in these Sutras as they were formulated in the
same texts. The Gr/liya-siitras are not so independent of
the differences of the Vedic schools. The close analogy
between the sacrificial ritual of the Grihya. acts and that
of the vSrauta acts, and the consequent necessity of taking
into account the 6"rauta ritual in the exposition of the
Gr/hya ritual, necessarily brought the G/^z'hya-sutras into
closer connection with and into greater dependence on
the 5rauta-sutras than in the case of the Dharma-sutras ^.
But above all, the Gr/hya ceremonies demanded the
knowledge of numerous Mantras, and accordingly as these
Mantras were borrowed from the one or the other Mantra
vSakha^, there followed in the case of the Grzhya. text
in question an intimate connection with the corresponding
Mantra school ^. We find accordingly as a general rule,
that each Gr/hya-sutra presupposes a Vedic Sawhita,
whose Mantras it quotes only in their Pratikas •*, and
that besides each Grz'hya-sutra presupposes a previous
* Professor Jolly in his article on the Dharma-sutra of Vish«u, p- 71, note i,
points out that in the eyes of Hindu commentators also the Dharma-sutras
differ from the Grzhya-sutras in that the former contain rather the universal
rules, while the latter contain the rules peculiar to individual schools. Cf.
Weber, Indische Literaturgeschichte, 2. Aufl., S. 296.
^ It seems as though the choice of the Mantras which were to be prescribed
for the Grzhya ceremonies had often been intentionally made so as to comprise
as many Mantras as possible occurring in the Mantra-6'akha, which served as
foundation to the Gr/hya texts in question.
3 When Govindasvamin (quoted by Biihler, Sacred Books of the East, vol.
xiv, p. xiii) designates the Gr/hyajastra«i as sarvadhikara«i, this should not be
understood literally. In general it is true the Grzhya acts are the same for
the disciples of all the Vedic schools, but the Mantras to be used in con-
nection with them differ.
* In the introduction to Gobhila I have treated of the special case where a
Grzhya-sutra, besides being connected with one of the great Sawhitas, is con-
nected also with a Grzhya-sawhita of its own, so to speak, with a collection of
the Mantras to be used at the GrzTiya acts.