Sankhyayana Brahmana
Sankhyayana Brahmana is an ancient Brahmana text of Rigveda. It is also called the Kaushitaki Brahmana. The text is associated with Baskala Shakha of Rigaveda. The text is attributed to the Vedic sage Kaushitaki and his disciple Sankhyayana.
Description
Sankhyayana Brahmana is the second available and preserved Brahmana text of the Rigaveda. The text is divided into 30 chapters and 226 Khandas. It is said that Kaushitaki was the teacher of Sankhyayana. He imparted the knowledge of the text to his disciple Sankhyayana. Then Sankhyayana nominated the name of the text as Kaushitaki Brahmana after his teacher name. But later the text was called as Sankhyayana Brahmana. The text is also mentioned in the commentary of Brahman Sutra by Shankracharya. Similarly the Vedic sage and Sanskrit grammarian Panini in his text Astadhyayai mentioned about the text.It is said that the text Sankhyayana Brahmana is generally not mentioned in Puranas but in Agni Purana its mention is found at the second shloka of chapter 271.
In the Sankhyayana Brahmana, the rules and instructions of human conduct have been described. Apart from the human conduct, it also describes some astronomical events in its passages. The first six chapters of the text describe about the Yajna of food and the remaining chapters describe about the Yajna of Soma. The Soma Yajna in the Vedic tradition is considered as the major subject of the text.