A Veda from the Sun

Yājñavalkya gave himself to the discipline of the breath, and, longing for the formulas of the Yajus, he praised the Sun.

Homage to Savitṛ, he said, the door to freedom, of boundless light, who is the Ṛg and the Yajus and the Sāman, the dwelling of the three Vedas. Homage to the one who is fire and moon, the cause of the world, the shining one who carries the supreme light. Homage to the one who is time and the knowing of time, in every measure down to the blink of an eye, who is to be meditated on as the god Viṣṇu, the imperishable. Homage to the one who nourishes the gods by feeding the moon with his rays and feeds the ancestors with nectar. Homage to the maker of snow and rain and heat. Until he rises, no man is fit for holy work and no water purifies; touched by his rays, the world becomes fit for holy rites. Homage to the one whose golden chariot is drawn by immortal horses, the eye of the world.

The Sun, praised in this way, took the form of a horse, vājin, and said, Choose what you wish. Yājñavalkya bowed to him and said, Give me those formulas of the Yajus that my teacher does not have. And the Sun gave him formulas that had never grown stale, which his teacher did not know. Because the Sun had taken the form of a horse, those who learned them were called the Vājins, and their fifteen branches, the Kāṇva and the rest, are called the branches of Yājñavalkya.