16 Facts About Yajurveda

1.

Yajurveda is the Veda primarily of prose mantras for worship rituals.

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2.

Yajurveda is one of the four Vedas, and one of the scriptures of Hinduism.

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3.

The exact century of Yajurveda's composition is unknown, and estimated by Witzel to be between 1200 and 800 BCE, contemporaneous with Samaveda and Atharvaveda.

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4.

The black Yajurveda has survived in four recensions, while two recensions of white Yajurveda have survived into the modern times.

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5.

The youngest layer of Yajurveda text includes the largest collection of primary Upanishads, influential to various schools of Hindu philosophy.

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6.

Two of the oldest surviving manuscript copies of the Shukla Yajurveda sections have been discovered in Nepal and Western Tibet, and these are dated to the 12th-century CE.

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7.

Yajurveda is a compound Sanskrit word, composed of ya jus and Veda.

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8.

Michael Witzel interprets Yajurveda to mean a "knowledge text of prose mantras" used in Vedic rituals.

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9.

Carl Olson states that Yajurveda is a text of "mantras that are repeated and used in rituals".

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10.

Core text of the Yajurveda falls within the classical Mantra period of Vedic Sanskrit at the end of the 2nd millennium BCE - younger than the Rigveda, and roughly contemporary with the Atharvaveda, the Rigvedic Khilani, and the.

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11.

Only two recensions of the Shukla Yajurveda have survived, Madhyandina and Kanva, and others are known by name only because they are mentioned in other texts.

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12.

The lost recensions of the White Yajurveda, mentioned in other texts of ancient India, include Jabala, Baudhya, Sapeyi, Tapaniya, Kapola, Paundravatsa, Avati, Paramavatika, Parasara, Vaineya, Vaidheya, Katyayana and Vaijayavapa.

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13.

Each regional edition of Yajurveda had Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyakas, Upanishads as part of the text, with Shrautasutras, Grhyasutras and Pratishakhya attached to the text.

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14.

The texts attached to Shukla Yajurveda include the Katyayana Shrautasutra, Paraskara Grhyasutra and Shukla Yajurveda Pratishakhya.

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15.

Various ritual mantras in the Yajurveda Samhitas are typically set in a meter, and call on Vedic deities such as the Savita, Indra, Agni, Prajapati, Rudra and others.

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16.

Yajurveda had Shrautasutras and Grhyasutras attached to it, from fifteen schools: Apastamba, Agastya, Agniveshyaka, Baudhayana, Bharadvaja, Hiranyakeshi, Kaundinya, Kusidaka, Katyayana, Lokaksita, Madhyamdina, Panca-Kathaka, Satyasadha, Sakala, Sandilya, Vaikhanasa, and Vadula.

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