Yajurveda यजुर्वेद

What it is

The Yajurveda is the Veda of sacrificial formulas (yajus). It contains the words, in prose and verse, that the adhvaryu priest says while he performs the actions of the fire ritual: preparing the ground, kindling the fire and making the offerings. Where the Ṛgveda praises and the Sāmaveda sings, the Yajurveda acts.

How it is arranged

It has two main branches. In the Kṛṣṇa (Black) Yajurveda, such as the Taittirīya Saṃhitā, the formulas are mixed with prose explanations. In the Śukla (White) Yajurveda, the Vājasaneyī Saṃhitā in 40 chapters, the formulas stand alone and their explanations are collected separately in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa. The Īśa Upaniṣad is the last chapter of the Vājasaneyī Saṃhitā, and the Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Taittirīya, Kaṭha and Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣads also belong to this Veda.

What it teaches

Its subject is the yajña, the offering into fire: the daily agnihotra, the new and full moon rites, the Soma sacrifice and the great building of the fire altar. Through these rites it teaches that the world is kept in balance by giving and receiving. It also contains the Śrī Rudram, a great hymn to Rudra–Śiva, and in its Upaniṣads the prayer "Lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality."

What it can mean in your life

The Yajurveda shows ritual as mindful, ordered action: every gesture done with attention and every gift given with a word of meaning. Its idea of yajña reminds us that what we receive from nature and from others should be returned. Many household ceremonies, from the sacred thread ceremony to weddings, and daily prayers still use its words.

Where to begin

Begin with the Īśa Upaniṣad, only 18 verses, which opens with the teaching that all this is pervaded by the Lord. Listen to a chanting of the Śrī Rudram, and learn the prayer "asato mā sad gamaya" from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad.

Origins and dating

In the tradition the Yajurveda is śruti like the other Vedas. Historians date its collections to after the Ṛgveda, in the early first millennium BCE, when the fire rituals were being systematised in northern India.

The text on Vedyatra

The Yajurveda survives in two branches, each in more than one recension. Vedyatra shows them as parallel editions, beginning with the Śukla (White) Yajurveda in its Mādhyandina recension, the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā: 1,975 kaṇḍikās in forty adhyāyas, numbered adhyāya and kaṇḍikā in the standard way. The Kāṇva recension of the Śukla Yajurveda and the Taittirīya Saṃhitā of the Kṛṣṇa (Black) Yajurveda are not included yet.

The Sanskrit comes from Sanskrit Wikisource, one page per adhyāya, and every kaṇḍikā links to the exact page revision it was taken from. The Wikisource text is unaccented, so it carries no accent marks. It keeps the Vedic signs of the printed editions: ꣳ for the nasal before a sibilant, and the small numerals that mark a prolonged vowel (as in ओ३म्). Uvaṭa's and Mahīdhara's commentaries, printed on the same pages, are not part of the text here; neither are the editorial passages in brackets that spell out repeated formulas for recitation.

A few kaṇḍikā headings are missing or mistyped on the pages (in adhyāyas 10, 13, 19 and 39); there the text is divided by its closing marks and the standard numbering, and every rule is in the open-source import tool. The last adhyāya is the Īśa Upaniṣad, which Vedyatra also publishes among the Upaniṣads.

Passages to start with

• Īśa Upaniṣad: Eighteen verses on seeing the divine in everything.
• Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.3.28: "Lead me from the unreal to the real."
• Śrī Rudram (Taittirīya Saṃhitā 4.5): The great hymn to Rudra–Śiva.