?ra?yaka

views updated

Āraṇyaka (Skt., ‘that which pertains to the forest’). In Hinduism, the genre of texts within the Vedic corpus developed as an adjunct to the Brāhmaṇas. They are explanatory and speculative in nature, intending to give the secret aspects of rituals obtainable only by the advanced student instructed in the seclusion of the forest. They are generally listed as being four in number: the Aitareya, Kausītaki, Taittirīya, and Jaiminīya Āraṇyakas.

More From encyclopedia.com