The agnihotra, daily evening and morning offering of milk, is a lifelong duty of those who have placed the sacred fires. The prevalence of this rite among the Ksatriyas, engaged in fights and expeditions, encountered a problem of oblation in the case that no milk (or other substitutes) was found. A dialogue on this question between King Janaka and Yajñavalkya (Vajasaneya) is transmitted in four versions, which are divided as follows: 1) Satapatha-Brahmana (Madhyandina) XI 3, 1, Satapatha-Brahmana (Kanva) III 1, 4, Jaiminiya-Brahmana I 19f.; 2) Vadhala-Anvakhyana II 13. A philological and comparative examination of the texts reveals that VadhAnv II 13 has remodeled the original dialogue in various points. The most remarkable is Vajasaneya's last answer which has been totally changed according to JB I 22 and SB (M) II 3, 1, 36, so that Vajasaneya teaches to Janaka a manner of offering opposed to his own theory recorded in SB. VadhAnv ultimately rejects furthermore this teaching. Thus it is supposed that VadhAnv has intentionally transformed and utilized the dialogue in order to exhibit its superiority to the Vajasaneyin school (SB) with a strong sense of rivalry against this.
