अनुषक्त-मन्त्र-पाठः

ऋग्वेदे सामवेदे च

Other than these mantra-pāṭha-s of the KYV, we also have comparable supplementary mantra-collections among the Sāmavedin-s in their Mantrabrāhmaṇa and the famous khila of the RV. MT

यजुर्वेदे

Several sub-schools of the Taittirīya school of the Kṛṣṇayajurveda possess their own collections of mantra-s distinct from their saṃhitā-s known as the mantra-pāṭha-s. These include mantra-s that are often found in other traditions but not in their own saṃhitā or brāhmaṇa. Additionally, they also include some mantra-s which are unique to these mantra-pāṭha-s. For example the famous Yajurvedic version of the Śrīsūkta is found in the mantra-pāṭha of Bodhāyana. However, most practitioners in South India do not correctly use the accents of this sūkta and seem to be unaware that the KYV version of this sūkta occurs in this text. The mantra-paṭha-s of the Āpastamba, Bodhāyana, Vaikhānasa and Hiraṇyakeśin sub-schools have come down to us. The mantra-s in them are typically deployed in gṛhya rituals directed by instructions from their gṛhyasūtra-s. However, the Vaikhānasa-mantra-pāṭha is distinctive in having a late terminal part that is used in the iconic worship of Viṣṇu by the Vaikhānasa-s. The Hiraṇyakeśī-mantra-pāṭha has a ṛk-saṃhitā as part of it and is used by the Hiraṇyakeśīn-s of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu in their rituals to this date. In someways this is reminiscent of the hautra-pariśiṣṭha of the Āpastamba-s that is used by Yajurvedin-s to supplement the role normally performed by the Ṛgvedin hotṛ.

… Further, beyond the Taittirīya school, the Kaṭha school, which was once widespread in the northern parts of the subcontinent like Kashmir and the Panjab, had it own mantra-paṭha that went along with their gṛhyasūtra, namely that of Laugākṣi. While the original form of this mantra-paṭha does not survive to my knowledge, a version of it with accretions of tāntrika and paurānika material used in smārta practice by the brāhmaṇa-s of Kashmir and some of their counterparts in Himachal Pradesh has come down to us. This text was published by the Kashmirian brāhmaṇa-s Keśava Bhaṭṭa and Kāśīnātha-śarman in the first half of the 1900s. I had earlier examined a defective version of this text but thanks to the massive text-scanning effort of the eGangotri Trust of the texts at the Kashmir Research Institute, Srinagar we can now examine a better version of this text.

MT

तान्त्रिकमन्त्रैर् मिश्रणम्

वैष्णवेषु केचनागमाः पाञ्चरात्रिकाः शुक्ल-यजुर्-वेदस्य +एकायनशाखायाः शिष्टांशा इति प्रतीतिः।

The melding of tāntrika and vaidika tradition found in this Kashmirian text has a long history in Hindu tradition. Indeed, as we have pointed out before, a small mantra-saṃhitā comparable to the mantra-pāṭha-s is found preserved in the śākta-purāṇa, the Devī-purāṇa, which might preserve a distinct vaidika tradition.

Similarly, the Āṅgirasakalpa of the Paippalāda school of the Atharvaveda preserves a combined mantra-deployment of Paippalāda AV mantra-s along with tāntrika-vidyā-s. With regard to the AV tradition one may also point to the Tripurārṇava-tantra, an authoritative mūla-tantra of the Śrīkula tradition. The 20^{th} taraṃga of this text preserves a combined tāntrika-vaidika mantra-deployment for the Indramahotsva (the great festival of Indra) which associates itself the AV. This association is likely genuine for the AV is the one vaidika tradition that has clear injunctions for the Indramahotsva in its pariśiṣṭha-s. This section of the Tripurārṇava-tantra specifies several vaidika mantra-s that are to be used in the worship of Indra and other deva-s, which are combined with the worship of the Bhairava of the Śrīkula tradition under the tāntrika scheme.

MT

देवीपुराणे

Interestingly, the devI purANa also preserves a small mantra saMhitA of complete Vedic mantra-s (not just pratIka-s) for the performance of the daily Vedic ritual (chapter 56). This mantra saMhitA is primarily composed of R^ik-s but also contains some yajuSh-es and a late brAhmaNa-like terminal portion. This saMhitA is of interest because it appears to present several variant readings from those seen the well-known Vedic R^ik saMhitA-s: the shAkala saMhitA, the AV-S 20, RV-khila, the AshvalAyana saMhitA which incorporates the khilAni into the main R^ik saMhitA equivalent to the shAkala collection, the hautra parishiShTha of the Apastamba taittirIyaka-s, the small R^ik saMhitA of the hiraNyakeshin taittirIyaka-s and the saMaveda saMhitA pATha-s. I must state that I have not examined any complete manuscripts of the devI purANa but the editor used at least 4 of them from eastern India and some of these variant readings in the R^ik-s are uniformly seen across all the manuscripts used in the printed edition.

… While the grammatical irregularities in this mantra saMhitA might support the less interesting alternative #2, we still suspect that these differences might in part indeed reflect a distinctive Vedic tradition, even if not a distinct shAkhA tradition.