TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu
TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu
TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu
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While the stage was set at that time and the YV Mantras, as well as the lost<br />
Br., were composed, the ritual developed for a long time afterwards, all<br />
through the YV Saṃhitā and the Brāhmaṇa periods. It culminated with the<br />
reformulation of all rituals in Brāhmaṇa form in ŚB and, at about the same<br />
time, in Sūtra form in BŚS.<br />
The stages of this development can be followed; however, we know too little<br />
yet about its starting point, i.e, the Ṛgvedic ritual, and about the relative age<br />
of the various YV texts (e.g., the age of the Vājapeya section in MS, KS, TS,<br />
etc.), to allow this criterion to be used in this investigation. It will be of more<br />
use in the future for counter-checking, when the several sets of dialect traits<br />
will have been worked out. 42<br />
§ 4.2.3 The development of thought<br />
The development of thought during the various periods of Vedic literature<br />
cannot (yet) be used as parameter; we still know too little about it. A<br />
particular idea may be early, but it may appear only in a late text, or it may<br />
be late, but has been inserted into an earlier text by the redactors. (Note some<br />
passages on punarmṛtyu, below § 8.2 .) For the time being, therefore, it will<br />
be best to use only such data that are not susceptible to later manipulation<br />
(like insertions) or to doubts as to their priority in time (like the development<br />
of certain ideas, of the ritual, etc.). 43<br />
§ 4.2.4 Absolute dates<br />
42 It has to be noted that a proper proc<strong>edu</strong>re for evaluating the growth of the classical<br />
Śrauta ritual has not evolved yet; cf., for the time being, the review of Gonda, The Mantras<br />
of the Sautrāmaṇī..., in Kratylos 26, 1982/3, p. 80 sqq. A better proc<strong>edu</strong>re would include:<br />
(1.) the establishment of the nat5re of RV ritual viz. of its traces in the text; (2.) a separate<br />
study of the YV Mantras, the order and contents of which is often more archaic than that of<br />
the Br. portions; (3.) a comparison of the various YV Saṃhitā prose texts with the earlier<br />
material; (4.) a study of further developments in the Br.s and the early Sūtras (VādhŚS,<br />
BŚS).<br />
43 A typical example is the idea of rebirth: is it old, Ṛgvedic, or only Upaniṣadic? Cf., for the<br />
time being, author, 31st CISHAAN, Tokyo 1983.<br />
20
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