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Vedic Sanskrit
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available, which allows comparison between the results of modern scholarship (the Hindi or English definitions) and the traditional scholarship of Sāyana's time (14th century A.D.). Suryakanta for his Ph.D. thesis edited a different Atharvaveda Prātiśākhya (1937) than the one Whitney had edited (1862). Based on the prescriptions of the latter, Whitney and Roth (also Lindenau) had introduced emendations into the text of the Atharvaveda against the manuscript evidence. The Atharva Prātiśākhya edited by Suryakanta shows that these emendations were unjustified. Yet the Roth/Whitney/Lindenau edition of the Atharvaveda is still the standard one used by scholars.
Macdonell's Vedic Grammar is used for Vedic study both in the West and throughout India, since, as noted above under Taraporewala's Sanskrit Syntax, no native grammars describing Vedic Sanskrit have come down to us. Some hold that Pāṇini's grammar adequately explains the Vedic language, and that students turn to grammars like Macdonell's only because their knowledge of Pāṇini is insufficient. See, for example, Vedic Grammar (According to Pāņini), by M. Sivakumara Swamy (Bangalore: Bhāravi Prakāśana, 1984). Others hold that Vedic grammar is much more complex than Pāņini's, and one must turn to the evidence of other cognate languages to adequately understand it. See, for example, Linguistic Introduction to Sanskrit, by Batakrishna Ghosh (1st ed. 1937; reprint Calcutta: Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar, 1977). In any case, college students in India are often advised for Vedic Sanskrit to study both the Siddhanta Kaumudi (Svara and Vaidika chapters), i.e., Pāṇini (see below), and Macdonell's Vedic Grammar. The latter has thus become the standard reference on the subject.
Macdonell also prepared a simplified Vedic Grammar for Students, following the plan of his Sanskrit Grammar for Students, which latter, as noted above, deals only with classical Sanskrit. They correspond paragraph for paragraph, to facilitate comparison of Vedic and classical Sanskrit. Macdonell's Vedic Reader for Students was prepared as a companion volume to his Vedic Grammar for Students. The two comprise a self-contained and comprehensive introduction to Vedic Sanskrit, which can be followed without a teacher (assuming background in
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