MPPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 70 of 100

Correct — D, Taittiriya and Shatapatha. The Yajurveda comes down in two branches, and each carries its own Brahmana: the Taittiriya Brahmana belongs to the Krishna (Black) Yajurveda, and the Shatapatha Brahmana belongs to the Shukla (White) Yajurveda, attached to the Vajasaneyi Samhita. The Shatapatha — 'of a hundred paths' — is the largest and most detailed of all the Brahmanas; it expounds the great sacrifices such as the Agnicayana and the Ashvamedha, preserves the story of Manu and the fish, and its final book culminates in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Because the Yajurveda is the Veda of sacrificial formulae, its Brahmanas are the richest source we have on how Vedic ritual was actually performed. Note that the printed booklet's phrase 'Brahmin texts' here means the Brahmana texts, the prose ritual manuals of the Vedic corpus.

• (a)Gopatha — The Gopatha Brahmana is the only Brahmana of the Atharvaveda, not of the Yajurveda — and it is a single text, whereas the Yajurveda's two branches each have one.
• (b)Panchvish and Jaiminiya — Both belong to the Samaveda. The Panchavimsha (also called Tandya Maha) Brahmana and the Jaiminiya (Talavakara) Brahmana deal with the chants and the priestly duties of the Udgatri, the Sama-singer.
• (c)Aitareya and Kaushitaki — Both are Brahmanas of the Rigveda. The Aitareya Brahmana — which describes royal consecration rites and preserves the Shunahshepa legend — and the Kaushitaki (Sankhayana) Brahmana are attached to the Rigvedic tradition and the Hotri priest.

Each Veda has a layered corpus built on top of it: the Samhita (the collection of hymns or formulae), then the Brahmanas (prose manuals explaining and justifying the ritual use of those mantras), then the Aranyakas (forest texts, more symbolic than practical) and finally the Upanishads (philosophical speculation). Because Vedic learning was transmitted through schools (shakhas), different branches of the same Veda produced different Brahmanas — which is why the Yajurveda, with its Krishna and Shukla recensions, has two.

This question is really a four-row matching table shuffled into four options: Rigveda–Aitareya/Kaushitaki, Samaveda–Panchavimsha/Jaiminiya, Yajurveda–Taittiriya/Shatapatha, Atharvaveda–Gopatha. Learn the table once and every permutation MPPSC can build from it — 'which Brahmana belongs to Veda X', 'Gopatha belongs to which Veda', 'which pair is not correctly matched' — becomes one step. A useful hook: the Yajurveda alone splits into Black and White, so it alone owns two Brahmanas in this list.

• Rigveda — Aitareya and Kaushitaki (Sankhayana) Brahmanas; Samaveda — Panchavimsha (Tandya) and Jaiminiya (Talavakara); Yajurveda — Taittiriya and Shatapatha; Atharvaveda — Gopatha, its only Brahmana.
• The Taittiriya Brahmana belongs to the Krishna (Black) Yajurveda; the Shatapatha Brahmana belongs to the Shukla (White) Yajurveda.
• The Shatapatha Brahmana is the largest and most important of the Brahmanas; it details the Agnicayana and Ashvamedha rituals and preserves the Manu-and-the-fish (Matsya) flood legend.
• The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad forms the concluding portion of the Shatapatha Brahmana.
• The order of the Vedic corpus is Samhita → Brahmana → Aranyaka → Upanishad; the Brahmanas are prose, not verse.
• The Yajurveda is the Veda of sacrificial formulae, recited by the Adhvaryu priest, and is the only Veda with both prose and verse in its Samhita.

• Attaching Gopatha to the Yajurveda — it is the Atharvaveda's sole Brahmana
• Confusing the Aitareya Brahmana (Rigveda) with the Aitareya Upanishad, and the Taittiriya Brahmana with the Taittiriya Upanishad
• Assuming every Veda has exactly one Brahmana — the Yajurveda's two recensions give it two
• Reading 'Brahmin text' in the question as being about the Brahmana varna; the paper means the Brahmana genre of Vedic literature

MPPSC asks it as a direct match — which Brahmana, which Veda, which text mentions what. UPSC prefers to ask about content and chronology: which Veda contains a particular kind of material, or whether one layer of Vedic literature is older than another. Memorise the table for MPPSC and the contents for UPSC.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Gopatha Brahmana is associated with which Veda?

  • (a)Rigveda
  • (b)Samaveda
  • (c)Yajurveda
  • (d)Atharvaveda

  Answer(d) Atharvaveda — the Gopatha is the only Brahmana attached to it.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following is the correct sequence of the layers of Vedic literature?

  • (a)Samhita → Brahmana → Aranyaka → Upanishad
  • (b)Brahmana → Samhita → Upanishad → Aranyaka
  • (c)Upanishad → Aranyaka → Brahmana → Samhita
  • (d)Samhita → Aranyaka → Brahmana → Upanishad

  Answer(a) Samhita → Brahmana → Aranyaka → Upanishad — hymns, then ritual prose, then the forest texts, then philosophy.