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nowhere else, but this proves no more than that Panini was acquainted with certain portions of them, if it proves any. thing at all.
The regional origin and early spread of most of the Vedic texts may account for Pānini's lack of acquaintance with some of them. Panini is held to have lived in northwest India. Texts from other parts of the country may only have become known to him if they were generally accepted as Vedic in their region and beyond it.
Notes
be used to determine their relationship with Panini's Astädhyayi. We also do not know how many serious deviations from Panini's explicit statements must be considered evidence that Pānini was ignorant of a particular text. Further, we should remember that we made an assumption, which may not be acceptable to everyone, that Panini's, grammar can be taken seriously.
Neither should we be rash in concluding that Vedic texts that transgress the rules of Pāņini repeatedly were for that reason completely unknown to Pāņini. The problem is that, probably, no Vedic text has a single author. All are collections of parts of more or less heterogeneous origin. This applies to the Samhitās as well as to the Brähmanas and Aranyakas. The most we can conclude from the deviations between the majority of Vedic texts and Panini's grammar is that Päņini did not know much of Vedic literature in its present form, that is, in the collections known to us. Much of Vedic literature was still in a state of flux in Panini's day, and had not yet reached the unalterable shape in which we know it.
These considerations are of value with regard to the texts that would seem to have been unknown to Panini on the basis of the evidence reviewed in this article. They are, however, of equal value where the texts that appear to have been known to Pāṇini are concerned. The Rgveda may be an exception; it was known to Pāņini along with its Padapatha, which leaves little room for major changes other than sandhi. But we must be cautious with respect to such texts as the Maitrāyani Samhita and Kathaka Samhitā. It is true that they contain words prescribed by Panini, which occur
This study was carried out as part of a project of professors M. Witzel and T. E. Vetter, which was financed by the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (Z.W.O.). In particular, Professor Witzel took a lively interest in the project. One of his own fields of specialization is the geographical distribution of Vedic schools in different periods. It is hoped that from that side additional evidence will come forth to shed light on the problems discussed here. Meanwhile, Witzel's "Tracing the Vedic Dialects" (1989) has appeared, which, unfortunately, could not be taken into
consideration for the present article. 1. For a survey, see Cardona (1976, 226-28). Some important
articles have been reproduced and discussed in Staal
(1972, 135-204) 2. This means that one cannot conclude from certain peculi
arities of sandhi in the Maitrāyani Samhitā which are
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