Krishna Yajur Veda
Krishna Yajur Veda had 85 Shakhas. Of them, only three are prominent presently. These are: Taittereya Shakha, Maitrayani Shakha and Katha Shakha. The more common of these three are the first two, prominent in South India. The third Shakha (Katha Shakha) is prominent in some remote areas in Nepal. Karma Kanda (rituals for various yagnas) forms a significant part of the Krishna Yajur Veda. In a typical Yagna, the gods are invoked by Rig Veda. All the procedures for the Yagna are drawn from Yajur Veda.
The Krishna Yajur Veda mantras are in Gadya form (the mantras are continuous in the form of paragraphs and not broken into Padya). In contrast, Rig Veda is broken into Riks; Sama is rendered in song form.
Krishna Yajur Veda has three parts: Samhita, Brahmanam and Aaranyakam. Samhita has seven Kandas, divided into 44 adhyayas (chapters). There are 651 anuvakas in Samhita, further organized into 2198 Panchashats (each Panchashat has 50 padaas or words, referred to as ‘Panasa’ in Telugu). This translates into a total of 1,09,287 padaas or 2,53,898 Aksharas (basic characters in Sanskrit). Brahmana part is divided into three Asthakas, 28 adhyayas, 338 anuvakas, 1832 panchashat or panasa, 19373 vakyas. The Aaranyaka has 12 adhyayas, 619 panasa, 290 anuvakas, or 6180 vakyas. In total, Krishna Yajur Veda has 84 adhyayas, 1279 anuvakas, 4649 panasa.
In Taittiriya Samhita, the rendition can be done in four ways: padam, kramam, jata and ghana.
Krishna Yajur Veda’s Aranyaka part contains Taittireya Upanishad. It is comprised of Seeksha Valli, Ananda Valli, Brighu Valli and Narayanam, which are adhyayas.
To master Krishna Yajur Veda, it takes ten years of fulltime study (typically from 4 am to 10 pm) to reach the level of Ghannantam. The first six years is needed to learn Samhita, Brahmanam and Aaranyakam. Together, these are referred to as ‘Moolam.’ Thereafter, one year is needed each for learning padam, kramam, jata and finally ghana. Thereafter, the next stage is ‘Lakshanam’ that takes additional two years to learn.
Krishna Yajur Veda at Vedapathashala is taught by Ghanapati Sri Katakam Vinod Sharma, native of Eluru, Andhra Pradesh. He was born in 1993. He learnt Ghanam at Keesaragutta Veda Samskruta Pathashala, near Hyderabad.