Before further random guessing, I suggest to consult the evidence Michael Witzel has collected and the reasons he has put forward in his paper: Yājñavalkya as ritualist and philosopher, and his personal language" (Paitimāna. Essays in Iranian, Indo-European, and Indian Studies in Honor of Hanns-Peter Schmidt, hg. v. Siamak Adhami. Vol. I: Indo-European and Indian Studies, Costa Mesa 2003, S. 103-143.), see, in particular, there on pp. 135f and 138.

Regards,
WS

-----------------------------
Prof. Dr. Walter Slaje
Hermann-Löns-Str. 1
D-99425 Weimar
Deutschland

 

2017-07-13 15:00 GMT+02:00 Lubomír Ondračka via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info>:
> My guess is that it is the Śukla Yajurvedins
> who began calling their Yajurveda with the term Śukla to suggest that
> Yājñavalkya's new Yajurveda was more pure than the old Yajurveda

Yes, this seems to be the most probable explanation, see e.g. Gonda's Vedic Literature (p. 327):

This corpus is called "White" or "Clear" (śukla) because it consists entirely of a conveniently arranged collection of mantras to be recited at sacrifices, and is free from the explanatory matter that is collected in separate brāmaṇas.

Gonda refers to Eggeling's ŚPB I, p. xxvii and to  C. L. Prabhakar's article in Bhāratīya Vidyā 28 (1968): 64.

If I remember well, Frits Staal says more or less the same in his Discovery of Veda.

LO

______________________________
_________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee)
http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe)