सत्याषाढश्रौतसूत्रम्: Satyasadha Srautasutram- Critically Edited and Translated (Set of 2 Volumes)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

It was rather a chance occurrence that I happened to be associated with the project of the critical edition of the Satyāsādha Śrauta Sútra.

The work of preparing the critical edition of the sütra was started by the Late Dr. V.V. Bhide, my friend and colleague in the Centre of Advanced Studies in Sanskrit, University of Pune, sometime towards the beginning of 1978. He had accordingly collected some Mss. of the sutra from various Mss Libraries as well as from some private collections and started collating and comparing them. However, owing to his indifferent health, he could somehow record the variant readings from these Mss. only upto the end of praśna VI. that is, the portion of the sūtra covering the pre-Soma rites. But the acute nature of his illness did not allow him to prepare even a tentative press-copy of this limited portion and ultimately with his premature death on 4-10-1985, the work of the critical edition suffered a sudden standstill.

After the sad demise of Dr. Bhide, Sri Radhe Shyam Shastri of Bhivani, Haryana approached me and suggested that I should take up the responsibility of preparing the critical edition and continue the work started by Dr. Bhide. On my readily accepting his proposal, he handed over to me the initial work done by Dr. Bhide on the first six Prasnas of the sûtra.

It was necessary to check and revise Dr. Bhide's work which I had thus received. This I did very carefully and arranged the material properly in a presentable form.

In the meantime, I had to undergo some critical surgical operations. Consequently I had to leave Pune and shift to New Delhi to stay with my elder son Shrikant. There I resumed my work on the critical edition and completed it in due course of time.

Now follows the English Translation of the Satyāsādha Śrauta Sūtra as given in the foregoing Critical Edition. For this translation, the English section (Vol.I Parts I and II, Vol.II Parts I-III) of the Srautakośa published by the Vaidika Samśodhana Mandala, Pune were duly consulted. The German Translation of the Apastamba Śrauta Sūtra by Caland served as a constant reference-book. Valuable help was obtained also from other works.

I have great pleasure in writing this 'Foreword' to Dr. P.D. Navathe's critical edition of the Satyāsādha Śrauta Sutra belonging to the Taittiriya branch of the Krsna Yajurveda. The reader will easily notice that the editor has spared no pains to make his edition as flawless as is at all possible.

Dr. Navathe has collected all the available manuscripts of the Srauta Sūtra under study and carefully evaluated them to fix his critical text. He points out that the Sutra has been given different names in the manuscript tradition. He has chosen to call it Satyāsādha Srauta Sutra. The manuscripts are written either in the Grantha/Telugu scripts or in the Devanagari script. He informs us that Satyāsādha, the author of the Sutra, hails from the Aparānta division of Mahārāştra and also tells us why the Sutra received the other name Hiranyakeśi. The Sutra, however, spread in the south from Kerala in the west to Tamila Nadu in the south-east. Dr. Navathe feels that the text was written by three different authors at three different times.

Dr. Navathe proposes to publish his edition in two Volumes - Volume one containing the text, the critical apparatus and Index of the mantras. Volume two will give his English translation.

I wish Dr. Navathe's new edition all success.

**Contents and Sample Pages**