Studien Zur Indologie Und Iranistik

Author(s): Gert Klingenschmitt, Albrecht Wezler, Michael Witzel
Publisher: Gert Klingenschmitt, Albrecht Wezler, Michael Witzel

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Herman Tieken
connected by pia and ho, but also have the same thematic content. Because each of them is also connected with others that immediately surround them it seems sound to assume that they are placed there on the basis of formal features. On the other hand 37 is not formally integrated with its immediately surrounding gâthâ-s and it seems as if only its content prevented it from being placed near to 45 with which it is connected by naî and pûra.
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To my knowledge the indigenous Indian literary tradition maintains a complete silence on this type of arrangement in a kosa as found in the Vulgata. This might be explained from the fact that, though it is attested in the case of a few hymns in the Atharva-Veda' it has certainly not been common. As far as I know it is not found in any other collection in Sanskrit or Prâkrit literature, but in the Vulgata recension of the Gâthâsaptasati. But also Gangâdhara is completely silent on this formal arrangement in the kosa he was commenting upon.
Though it is dangerous to press this argumentum ex silentio too far, this might mean that he was not aware of it. Between the compilation of this kosa (?) and the commentary of Gangadhara (?) must have lain a considerable time-gap, anyhow long enough for people to have forgotten about the arrangement, or, alternatively, a considerable distance in space. Furthermore this kosa must have been credited with a high authority, since 4 commentators took up the task of writing a commentary upon it and left it practically in its integral form.
While this formal type of arrangement is attested for the Atharva-Veda, it does not necessarily follow that its application in the Vulgata of the Gâthâsaptasatî is a direct continuation of a tradition of arrangement, first attested in the Atharva-Veda, It might well be the case that in the Vulgata it made its reappearance in Indian literature, after having been in disuse for some time.
These gâthâ-s were possibly sung or recited in the competitive environment of the sabha of the king" or the meeting-place in the village*.
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22. Bloomfield, The Atharva Veda and the Gopâtha- Brâhmana, p. 39. 23. R. Pischel, Die Hofdichter des Laksmanasena, Göttingen 1893, p. 5.
24. I leave out of this very hypothetical discussion the question whether this type of poetry is court-poetry or the poetry of the common folk, as some like to believe, or whatever gradations there are in between.