The Vishnu Purana
Chapters
The Vishnu Purana: Book III: Chapter V

280:3 Also called the black Yajush. No notice of this legend, as Mr. Colebrooke observes (As. Iles. VIII. 376), occurs in the Veda itself; and the term Taittiríya is more rationally accounted for in the Anukramańí or index of the black Yajush. It is there said that Vaiśampáyana taught it to Yaska, who taught it to Tittiri, who also became a teacher; whence the term Taittiríya, for a grammatical rule explains it to mean, 'The Taittiríyas are those who read what was said or repeated by Tittiri.' Páńini, 4. 3. 102. The legend, then, appears to be nothing more than a Pauráńik invention, suggested by the equivocal sense of Tittiri, a proper name or a partridge. Much of the mythos of the Hindus, and obviously of that of the Greeks and Romans, originates in this source. It was not confined, at least amongst the former, to the case that Creuzer specifies; "Telle ou telle expression cessa d’etre comprise, et l’on inventa des mythes pour eclaircir ces malentendus;" but was wilfully perpetrated, even where the word was understood, when it afforded a favourable opportunity for a fable. It may be suspected in the present instance that the legend is posterior, not only to the Veda, but to the grammatical rule, or it would have furnished Páńini with a different etymology.

280:4 This is another specimen of the sort of Paronomasia explained in the preceding note. The Charakas are the students of a Śákhá, so denominated from its teacher Charaka. (As. Res. VIII. 377.) So, again, Páńini 4. 3. 107: 'The readers of that which is said by Charaka are Charakas:' Charaka has no necessary connexion with Chara, 'to go.' The Váyu states they were also called Chat́akas, from Chat, 'to divide,' because they shared amongst them their master's guilt. 'Those pupils of Vaiśampáyana were called Chat́akas by whom the crime of Brahmanicide was shared; and Charakas from its departure.'

281:5 The Váyu names the fifteen teachers of these schools, Kańwa, Vaidheya, Śálin, Madhyandina, Sapeyin, Vidagdha, Uddálin, Támráyani, Vátsya, Gálava, Śaiśiri, Át́avya, Parńa, Vírańa, and Sampárayana, who were the founders of no fewer than 101 branches of the Vájasaneyi, or white Yajush. Mr. Colebrooke specifies several of these, as the Jábálas, Baudháyanas, Tápaníyas, &c. As. Res. VIII. 376.

Next: Chapter VI

Hinduism

« Previous: The Vishnu Purana: Book III: Chapter IV

Next: The Vishnu Purana: Book III: Chapter VI »