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vaccum, but in circless that were consciously and professionally conservative... hence he could not be an out and out radical iconoclast." He has also given his judgement to the effect that the SK has been moderate in his retouchings with the result that "the overall substantial import of the Rgveda remains practically the same."
M. A. MEHENDALE
We may leave aside for a while the question whether the word 'palimpsest' applies to the writing material or to the text written on it. But if the SK was conservative by profession and his alleged touches moderate, even if we were to believe everything what Fr. E has said about the changes, is the SK's text qualified to be called a 'palimpsest"? Is this not gross exaggeration calculated to prejudice the reader against the SK even from the start? I may appear oversensitive in my objecting to this word 'palimpsest'. I admit it is difficult for me to accept in academic discussion a word that highly exaggerates the facts.
This 'eads me to touch an aspect of Fr. E's writings which I most reluctantly do. I would have preferred to neglect it if it had not extended so profusely over his writings. I have so far practically refrained from giving you samples of the exaggerated expressions used by Fr. E with reference to the activity of the SK. But now consider the following expressions used by him to convey the simple meaning "The SK has changed or altered the rsi-kavi's text":--
"The SK has meddled with the original text; SK's woefully defaced palimpsest; SK's deleterious palimpsest-making; brazen palimpsesting; redactorial spuriousness; redactorial manipulations by which the SK attempted to concoct a few stanzas; the whole text has been ruthlessly tampered with; SK edits his text in that outrageous way; redactorial... trick of the trade; samdhi is SK's hobbyhorse; SK uses the fraudulently" clipped" forms; normal pādas now ruined by the SK; any flaw in versification is due to the well-intentioned but deleterious meddling (and ignorance) of the reciters and samhitákāra; he adds and reshuffles pseudo-analogically without scruple!; the glaring after-thought represented by the foolish... SK's text is senseless; this is pedantry-panditry in excelsis"; the Vedic Samhita-Karas are a freely editing tribe,"
But Fr. E generously concedes that there is a "method in "SK's "madness". Yet he deserves to be characterized as "the woebegone redactor" or referred to with such exclamations as "of such stuff is the SK made!" or "The SK is the limit! Poor rsi-kavis."
These expressions give an impression that the SK was a wily gangster indulging in fraudulent activities which produced faked and spurious products.
55 IA (3rd Series), 2.1.5. 50 ABORI 50.21.
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