Shatapatha Brahmana

The Shatapatha Brahmana ( , "Brahmana of one hundred paths", abbreviated ) is one of the prose texts describing the Vedic ritual, associated with the Shukla Yajurveda. It survives in two recensions, Madhyandina (ŚBM, of the ) and Kanva (ŚBK, of the ), with the former having the eponymous 100 adhyayas,7624 kandikas in 14 books, and the latter 104 adhyayas,6806 kandikas in 17 books. Linguistically, it belongs to the latest part of the Brahmana period of Vedic Sanskrit (i.e. roughly the 8th to 6th centuries BCE, Iron Age India).Keith, Aitareya Aranyaka, p. 38 (Introduction): "by common consent, the Satapatha is one of the youngest of the great Brahmanas"; footnotes: "Cf. Macdonell, Sanskrit Literature, pp. 203, 217. The Jaiminiya may be younger, cf. its use of aadi, Whitney, P.A.O.S, May 1883, p.xii."
Among the points of interest are the mythological sections embedded in it, including myths of creation and the Deluge of Manu. The text describes in great detail the preparation of altars, ceremonial objects, ritual recitations, and the Soma libation, along with the symbolic attributes of every aspect of the rituals.
The 14 books of the Madhyandina recension can be divided into two major parts. The first 9 books have close textual commentaries, often line by line, of the first 18 books of the corresponding samhita of the Yajurveda. The following 5 books cover supplementary and ritualistically newer material, besides including the celebrated Brhadaranyaka Upanishad as most of the 14th and last book.
The Shatapatha Brahmana of Madhyandina School was translated into English by Julius Eggeling, in the late 19th century, in 5 volumes published as part of the Sacred Books of the East series.Whereas the English translation of Kanva School is done by W.E.Caland in 3 parts.
==References==
*Weber, The Catapatha-Brahmana, Berlin, 1949.
* Max Müller, The Satapatha-Brahmana, Madhyandina School,Vol. 12.Part1, Book 1 and 2, Clarendon Press, 1882; reprint by Motilal Banarsidass, 1972.
* Moriz Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature (Vol.I), Second edition 1972. 
* W.P Lehmann and H. Ratanajoti, Typological syntactical Characteristics of the , JIES 3:147-160.
* The great flood -- Hindu style (Satapatha Brahmana)
==See also==
*Yajnavalkya
*Yajurveda
*Satapathy
==External links==
*GRETIL etext
*The Eggeling translation of the Satapatha Brahmana, at sacred-texts.com
Category:Brahmanas