Differences in the rituals of the Ṛgvedic families

Abstract

Scholars seem to be almost unanimous in admitting that there must have existed striking differences between the ritual institutions which are more or less clearly alluded to in the hymns of the Ṛgveda-saṃhitā, and the systematized rituals described and discussed in the brāhmaṇas and ritual sūtras. It has even been surmised that in ṛgvedic times there did not yet exist one elaborated and practically homogeneous ritual system. The probabilities would rather be in favour of the supposition that the chief Vedic families—in the first place those to which we owe some important collections of hymns—performed divine service according to substantially parallel but partly divergent traditions of their own, which, however, did not fail to influence each other. Evidence of these differences is expected from a careful comparison of the relevant facts found in the so-called family books of the Ṛgveda.