The
Khilani (
Sanskrit: खिलानि, Khilāni) are a collection of 98 "
apocryphal" hymns of the
Rigveda, recorded in the
, but not in the shakha. They are late additions to the text of the Rigveda, but still belong to the "Mantra" period of
Vedic Sanskrit, contemporary with the
Atharvaveda,
Yajurveda, and
Samaveda, estimated to fall within the range of c. 1200–1000 BCE. The Khilāni hymns include the
Śrī Sūkta, as well as the
Kuntāpa hymns for the
Mahāvrata ceremony, the New Year's festival of the early
Kuru Kingdom.
[Witzel, Michael, "The Development of the Vedic Canon and its Schools : The Social and Political Milieu," in Witzel, Michael (ed.) (1997), Inside the Texts, Beyond the Texts. New Approaches to the Study of the Vedas, Harvard Oriental Series, Opera Minora vol. 2, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp.284–285]
Literature
-
Isidor Scheftelowitz, Die Apokryphen des Rgveda, Breslau, 1906
-
Usha R. Bhise, The Khila Suktas of the Rgveda: A Study, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, 1995
