Yajurveda (Shukla and Krishna)

01Why two Yajurvedas

The Vishnu Purana (Book III) tells it. Vaishampayana, the disciple to whom Vyasa gave the Yajurveda, asked his pupil Yajnavalkya to give back what he had learned. Yajnavalkya brought up the learning, and the other pupils took the form of tittiri birds, partridges, and picked it up. That became the Taittiriya, the Krishna or black Yajurveda, where mantra and its explanation are mixed together. Yajnavalkya then did tapas to Surya, who taught him fresh yajus never before known. That is the Shukla or white Yajurveda, called Vajasaneyi because Surya came to him as a horse (vaji).

02Forty adhyayas, seven kandas

The Vajasaneyi Samhita of the Shukla Yajurveda holds only mantra, about 1,975 kandikas in forty adhyayas, and leaves the explaining to the Shatapatha Brahmana. Its order is the order of the rites. Adhyayas 1 and 2 serve the new-moon and full-moon offerings, 4 to 8 the Soma yajna, 11 to 18 the building of the fire altar, 22 to 25 the ashvamedha. Adhyaya 16 is the Shatarudriya, 31 the Purusha Sukta, 34 opens with the Shivasankalpa, 36 carries the great shanti, and 40 is the Isha Upanishad. The Taittiriya Samhita of the Krishna Yajurveda runs in seven kandas, divided into prashnas and anuvakas, and mixes each mantra with the Brahmana prose that explains it.

03The Veda of the yajna

The Yajurveda follows the yajna step by step. The new-moon and full-moon offerings (darsha-purnamasa) come first in the Vajasaneyi Samhita, then the agnihotra, the Soma rites, the royal rajasuya and the ashvamedha. The building of the great fire altar, agnichayana, with its layers of bricks, fills several adhyayas. In the sixteenth adhyaya of the Vajasaneyi Samhita and in Taittiriya Samhita 4.5 stands the Shatarudriya, the Shri Rudram, where Bhagwan Rudra is saluted in every form, and here stands the Panchakshara, namah shivaya.

04Shri Rudram and Chamakam

In the Taittiriya Samhita the Rudram fills the fifth prapathaka of the fourth kanda, eleven anuvakas of namah, salutation to Rudra in the forest and the field, in the archer and the hunter, in the stream and the hut. The Chamakam follows in 4.7, where the chanter asks for every good thing with the refrain cha me, and this too for me. Chanted together over the Shivling, they make the Rudrabhishekam. Recited eleven times with the Chamakam woven between, they make the Ekadasha Rudra; eleven Ekadasha Rudras make the Laghu Rudra, eleven of those the Maha Rudra, and eleven Maha Rudras the Ati Rudra, chanted by many priests over many days.

05Shivasankalpa and shanti

Adhyaya 34 opens with six mantras that end the same way: tan me manah shivasankalpam astu, may that mind of mine be of auspicious resolve. The mind that goes far when we are awake and returns when we sleep, the light of lights, is asked to settle on the good. Adhyaya 36 carries the shanti that closes almost every puja in North India: peace in the sky, in the middle air, on the earth, in the waters and the plants, peace in Brahman, peace in everything. Adhyaya 31 gives the Purusha Sukta with six further verses, the Uttara Narayana, where the rishi says, I know this great Purusha, the colour of the sun, beyond darkness.

06Where each branch is chanted

The Madhyandina shakha of the Shukla Yajurveda is the Veda of most Brahmin families of North India, and the Kanva shakha is kept in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Odisha. The Taittiriya shakha of the Krishna Yajurveda is the most widely chanted Veda in the South, from Andhra to Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The fortieth and last adhyaya of the Vajasaneyi Samhita is the Isha Upanishad. Rudrabhishekam in Shiva temples, the eleven-fold Ekadasha Rudra and the daily Taittiriya chanting at Sringeri all draw on this Veda.

07Uvata, Mahidhara, Bhatta Bhaskara, Sayana

Uvata wrote on the Vajasaneyi Samhita, and Mahidhara's Vedadipa follows him, explaining each kandika as it is used in the rite. For the Taittiriya Samhita the old bhashya is Bhatta Bhaskara's Jnanayajna. Sayanacharya, himself of the Taittiriya shakha, began his great work on the Vedas with this Samhita before going on to the Rigveda. Adi Shankaracharya's bhashya on the fortieth adhyaya, the Isha, is read by every Vedanta student. In the nineteenth century Swami Dayananda Saraswati wrote a full Yajurveda bhashya in Sanskrit and Hindi, reading the mantras for their meaning in daily conduct as well as in the yajna.

08The Veda of most households

More Hindu families belong to the Yajurveda than to any other Veda, so most household rites follow its sutras. A North Indian wedding usually runs on the Paraskara Grihya Sutra of the Shukla Yajurveda; in the South the Apastamba and Baudhayana sutras of the Krishna Yajurveda guide the samskaras. On Shravana Purnima, the Avani Avittam of Tamil homes, Yajurvedi men change the sacred thread and renew their study. A boy who masters the Taittiriya up to the ghana patha earns the title Ghanapathi. On Mondays, at Pradosha and on Mahashivaratri the Rudram is chanted over the Shivling in temples from Kedarnath to Rameswaram.

What it contains

1. 1
   Shukla Yajurveda: Vajasaneyi Samhita (Madhyandina) वाजसनेयिमाध्यन्दिनसंहिता

   Forty adhyayas of pure mantra, ordered by the rites from the darsha-purnamasa to the ashvamedha. It carries the Shatarudriya (16), the Purusha Sukta (31), the Shivasankalpa (34) and ends with the Isha Upanishad (40). Its Brahmana is the Shatapatha, and it is the Veda of most Brahmin families of North India.

2. 2
   Shukla Yajurveda: Kanva Samhita काण्वसंहिता

   The second shakha of the white Yajurveda, also in forty adhyayas, differing from the Madhyandina in readings and in some order. It is kept in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Odisha, and has its own recension of the Shatapatha Brahmana. Shankaracharya's bhashyas on the Isha and Brihadaranyaka follow the Kanva text.

3. 3
   Krishna Yajurveda: Taittiriya Samhita तैत्तिरीयसंहिता

   Seven kandas in which mantra and explanation are woven together, with the Rudram at 4.5 and the Chamakam at 4.7. With it go the Taittiriya Brahmana and the Taittiriya Aranyaka, which holds the Taittiriya and Mahanarayana Upanishads. It is the most widely chanted Veda of South India.

4. 4
   Krishna Yajurveda: Maitrayani Samhita मैत्रायणीसंहिता

   Four kandas, kept by a small number of families in Gujarat and around Nashik in Maharashtra. Its own Upanishad, the Maitrayaniya or Maitri, tells of King Brihadratha and the sage Shakayanya.

5. 5
   Krishna Yajurveda: Kathaka and Kapishthala Samhitas काठकसंहिता

   The Samhitas of the Katha school, once strong in Kashmir and the north-west, now kept mainly in manuscript; the Kapishthala survives only in part. The Katha Upanishad, with Nachiketa and Yama, belongs to this line.

Famous verses

नमस्ते रुद्र मन्यव उतो त इषवे नमः। बाहुभ्यामुत ते नमः॥

Salutation to your wrath, O Rudra, and salutation to your arrow; salutation to your two arms.Vajasaneyi Samhita 16.1; Taittiriya Samhita 4.5.1.1 (Shri Rudram)

नमः शम्भवाय च मयोभवाय च नमः शङ्कराय च मयस्कराय च नमः शिवाय च शिवतराय च॥

Salutation to the source of welfare and the source of joy; to the maker of welfare and the maker of joy; to Shiva, the auspicious, and to the most auspicious.Vajasaneyi Samhita 16.41 (Shri Rudram)

यज्जाग्रतो दूरमुदैति दैवं तदु सुप्तस्य तथैवैति। दूरंगमं ज्योतिषां ज्योतिरेकं तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु॥

The divine mind that travels far when one is awake and comes back the same way in sleep, the far-going one light of lights: may that mind of mine be of auspicious resolve.Vajasaneyi Samhita 34.1 (Shivasankalpa)

द्यौः शान्तिरन्तरिक्षं शान्तिः पृथिवी शान्तिरापः शान्तिरोषधयः शान्तिः। वनस्पतयः शान्तिर्विश्वे देवाः शान्तिर्ब्रह्म शान्तिः सर्वं शान्तिः शान्तिरेव शान्तिः सा मा शान्तिरेधि॥

Peace in the sky, peace in the middle air, peace on the earth, peace in the waters, peace in the plants; peace in the trees, peace in all the devas, peace in Brahman, peace in all; peace itself, may that peace come to me.Vajasaneyi Samhita 36.17

ईशा वास्यमिदं सर्वं यत्किं च जगत्यां जगत्। तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा मा गृधः कस्य स्विद्धनम्॥

All this, whatever moves in this moving world, is to be covered by the Lord. Enjoy through renunciation; do not covet anyone's wealth.Vajasaneyi Samhita 40.1 (Isha Upanishad 1)