Digital Manuscript:
Ṛgveda bhāṣya and Sāyaṇācārya's commentary on the first Āraṇyaka of the Aitareya Āraṇyaka
By Sāyaṇacharya

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Sayana ( Sāyaṇa, also called Sāyaṇācārya; died 1387) was a Sanskrit scholar from the Vijayanagara Empire of South India. An important commentator on the Vedas, he flourished under King Bukka Raya I and his successor Harihara II. He was the son of Mayana, and the pupil of Vishnu Sarvajna and of Samkarananda. More than a hundred works are attributed to him, among which are commentaries on nearly all parts of the Vedas; some were carried out by his pupils, and some were written in conjunction with his brother Vidyāraṇya or Mādhava.

Sayana was born to Mayana (IAST: Māyaṇa) and Shrimati in a Brahmin family that lived in Hampi. He had an elder brother named Madhava (sometimes identified as Vidyaranya) and a younger brother named Bhoganatha (or Somanatha). The family belonged to Bharadvaja gotra, and followed the Taittiriya Shakha (school) of the Krishna Yajurveda.[1]

Both Madhava and Sayana said to have studied under Vidyatirtha of Sringeri, and held offices in the Vijayanagara Empire.

Aitareya Āraṇyaka

There are five chapters each of which is even considered as a full Aranyaka. The first one deals with the regimen known as ‘Mahaa-vrata’. The explanations are both ritualistic as well as speculative. The second one has six chapters of which the first three are about ‘Praana-vidyaa’ – meaning, Prana, the Vital Air that constitutes the life-breath of a living body is also the life-breath of all mantras, all vedas and all vedic declarations (cf. 2.2.2 of Aitareya Aranyaka). It is in this portion of the Aranyaka that one finds specific statements about how one who follows the vedic injunctions and performs the sacrifices goes to become the God of Fire, or the Sun or Air and how one who transgresses the Vedic prescriptions is born into lower levels of being, namely, as birds and reptiles.

The 4th, 5th and 6th chapters of this second Aranyaka constitute what is known as Aitareya Upanishad.

The third Aranyaka in this chain of Aranyakas is also known as ‘Samhitopanishad’. This elaborates on the various ways – like pada-paatha, krama-paatha, etc. – of reciting the Vedas and the nuances of the ‘svaras’.

The fourth and the fifth Aranyaka are technical and dwell respectively on the mantras known as ‘MahaanaamnI’ and the yajna known as ‘Madhyandina’.

- Wiki

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The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland