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MAY, 1876.)
REMARKS ON THE SIKSHÅS.
141
REMARKS ON THE SIKSHAS.
BY DR. F. KIELHORN, DECCAN COLLEGE, PUNA. Since the publication of Professor Haug's hesitate to publish the materials which I have valuable essay on the nature and value of the collected, and one which mainly induces me to accents in the Veda, I have been enabled to write these lines. The chief object of nearly collect from various parts of India a large num- all the Sikshás accessible to me is no other ber of Sikshás, some of which appear to be very than to lay down rules for the proper recitation little, if at all, known to Sanskrit scholars, and of the Vedas. They not only state in a general it was my intention to publish critical editions way the qualities, both bodily and mental, of of such of them as seemed to deserve to be made which he who wishes to recite the Vedas more generally accessible. Unfortunately most should necessarily be possessed ; they not only of the MSS. which I have collected, even the tell us how the reciter of the sacred texts best and oldest of them, are so incorrect that I should prepare himself for his task ; but they feel inclined to postpong the task of editing any also lay down the most minute rules for the of them for the present. What I cannot but pronunciation of certain sounds and combinaconsider as wrong readings occur with such tions of sounds, for the musical modulation of uniformity and, if I may say so, regularity in the voice, for the right postures of the body, the several copies of one and the same work as for the motions of the hands and fingers which to render it probable that the text has been must accompany and which form an essential corrupt for several centuries; and although it part of the recitation, &c. These rules it may would no doubt be possible, by conjecture and be easy enough to understand when one has by means of such corrections as might be sug- seen them illustrated in practice, but I doubt gested by a comparison of other Sikshds, to pro- whether any one who has not actually and duce in many cases a readable text, I much repeatedly heard and seen the Vedas recited doubt whether the adoption of such a course would be able not merely to translate, but to would be likely to meet with the approval of explain them satisfactorily. For a European careful and conscientious scholars, and whether scholar, aided by the bare texts or even the result would be satisfactory.
by commentaries, to do so, appears, so far as There is another reason which makes me my own experience goes, to be impossible.t . An example will illustrate my meaning. My copy gether with that of M, point to forgar; this actually M of the Mandaki siksha reads verse IV. 9 as follows:- does occur in the Ndradeya-Siksha, and this I do adopt for शनैरवसु वग्त्रेण न परं योजनाजेन् ।
the Mandat siksha.
+ As Professor Weber (On the Pratijndsdtra, p.78) न हि पाणिर्हता वाणी प्रयोगान्वक्तुमर्हति ।।
wishes to know whether the sikshas lately discovered in A copy of the original of my MS. M was sent to Berlin,
India throw any light on the verse describing the pronunand from it Prof. Weber gave an account of the Mandake
ciation of the nasal sound called ranga which occurs in Siksha in an appendix to his essay on the Pratijndsdtra.
the Panintya Siksha, I may venture to select his interProfessor Weber saw that the verse as given above must
pretation of that particular verse as an instance of how be corrupt, and after consulting Professor Roth he adopted
things occasionally may be misunderstood. the conjectures of the latter and printed the verge as
The verse itself is as follows: follows: शनरध्वसु मार्गेण न परं योजनादृजेत् ।
227 År Tige#t ar 30 (v. R. *) fira!
एवं रक्षं विजानीयात्खे अरीं इव खेदया। न हि ग्लानिहता वाणी प्रयोगान्वकुमर्हति ।। This is no doubt readable Sanskrit, but it certainly is
and it was originally translated by Prof. Weber thus :
Just as the women of Surashtra address (?) with the no longer a verse of the Mandake Siksha.
word (?) 311 As the compound letter in MS. M is always written
*Just so one ought to know the ranga, eg. Ti sa l' पत्र, the third word of the first line is really वक्त्रंण, At p. 270 of vol. IV. of the Indische Studien a second reading which is given by both my MSS. C and B, but translation is proposed, which we may omit here; but which I at present do not understand ; if I considered it
we cannot altogether disregard the third interpretation at right simply to admit the reading of another siksha, I p. 380 of vol. IX. of the same periodical, chiefly on account should adopt that of the Náradiya-fiksha T a ala,
of the note appended to it, the sense of which is shortly but I cannot yet bring myself to believe that should this:--that both the readings BTT and in the first line in the Mandake sikshd have been altered to T.
give no sense; that we have to read ART A r al; that The case is less hopeless with the second line; here C af is the Greek word xalpelv; that the Surlahtra women of reads fear and Barft afer; which readings, to old nsed to greet one another with the Greek word yalpe;
