________________
288
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1890.
and the most modern of the Aryan Vernaculars of together the readings of the three Samhitds of the India, availing themselves of a power for metre, Yajus, the Taittiriya, the Maitrayant and the which is unknown in each case to the more Vajusantys, and shows that the text of the last developed later literary languages.
closely agrees with that of the Rik-Samhita, while The second chapter of the work under notice the texts of the two others, though both descend deals with the arrangement of the Samhita (pp. ing from a common source (which he calls X), 191-270). Here he is treading partly on well-known frequently differ between themselves. A further ground already opened up and explored by the process of reasoning leads him to consider the genius of Abel Bergaigne. Bergaigne's lamented common original of the Vajasantyi and of X., to death, however, left some questions unanswered, be the original ground-text of the Yajur Veda, and and also left some answers which on subsequent he finally concludes that this ground-text inust consideration he would no doubt have modified. have been, almost throughout, identical with Prof. Oldenberg has had the courage to follow that of our Rig Veda, - an important guarantee
gaigne's elaborate counting of letters and for the age of the latter. verses step by step, and has thus put the latter's
The fourth chapter (pp. 370-489) deals with main conclusions to a test which they have well
the orthography or (he prefers to call it the stood. But he parts company with Bergaigne orthoepy of the ancient Sanskrit Grammarians. when he comes to the exceptions. Each is con
The text of the Rig. Voda, we have already seen, sidered on its merits and given its value. Ber
was fixed as we have it now at a very early gaigne would have considered each exception to
period, but this statement must be taken with one his law as necessarily an interpolation, while Prof.
limitation. We have the words, it is true, fixed Oldenberg, on the contrary, while admitting that fast, but the regulation of the letters, the deciding the fact of its being an exception is a suspicious
between, for instance, divas pari and divah pari. circumstance, refuses to declare it to be an addi.
the fixing of the rules for elision or non-clision of tion to the primitive text, till the particular initial a after & and 8, the change of i and 14 into passage has been weighed and considered in all its
y and before vowels, and so forth, all these bearings.
gave scope for speculation, and with regard to The third chapter (pp. 271-369) deals with the them the diaskeuasts felt themselves at liberty to variations of the text of the Rig Veda as found alter the text to suit their rules, while leaving the in the other three Samhitds, and in the Brah- words of the text themselves anchanged. This manas. Each passage, as it occurs elsewhere, is
determination of the orthoepy of the Rig Veda, examined and compared with the same minute took place, Prof. Oldenberg shows, after the end painstaking accuracy as is shown in the earlier of the period of the Brahmanas. The quotations portions of book. The result is a convincing in the Brahmanas have themselves been edited by proof of the general superiority of the Ķig- the diaskeuaste, but the appearance they thus Veda text over that of the other Vedas, present, is shown, by the contents of the Brahalthough occasionally useful corrections for manas themselves, not to have been the form corrupt readings of the older Sanhitd can be found
originally quoted by the authors. This leads to in them. By the time that the older portions of
some weighty remarks on the Sanhita and Pada the Saman, Yajus, and Atharva texts had ruceived texts, followed by detailed examinations of each their ultimate forms, the tradition of the text of of the orthoepical facts which call for notice. the Rig Veda was already, with comparatively few exceptions, fixed as we have it to-day. More.
The fifth chapter (pp. 490-512) deals with the over the superiority of the Rig Veda text must
BAkala and the Vashkala recensions of the have been recognized at a very early time, for the
Big-Veda ; and the sixth and finalone (pp.513-535) later we come down, the stronger do we find its
introduces us to the subject of the Satra literainfluence. The later portions of the texts of the
ture, and its bearing on the Rig Veda text. other Vedas followed the Rig Veda tradition far Altogether this is an epoch-making work. In more closely than the earlier portions.
such a mass of detail it cannot be expected that In this connexion we would specially refer to i isolated points will not be attacked, or that each Prof. Oldenberg's remarks on the Yajus-Samhita. isolated conclusion will meet with the concurrence They are a model of close reasoning and of diplo. of all Vedic scholars. But the entire volume matic criticism. After first showing that the remains a solid monument of Prof. Oldenberg's popular idea of the Taittirtya, as from the patience, energy, and learning, and it will be long first one work of mixed hymns and Brdhwana, before it is superseded by other complete works is not correct, but that the Brahmana forms no on the text of the Rig Veda. original portion of the Sanhita, he compares
G. A. GRIEBSON.
