Volume 1 - Sanskrit Web

g. The Divisions of the Text cxxxi
makes similar reference to book xvi. (see p. 792, ^ 4, to p. 793), and
speaks of our xvi. 5 as ddya, that is, ' the first ' of the second group
(p. 793). Moreover, the treatment of books xv. and xvi. by the makers
of the Paipp. text (see p. 1016, line 12) would indicate that the anuvdka
is here the practically recognized unit subordinate to the kanda. As for
the bearing of this
upon the summations, cf.
[The division into suktas or
grouping upon the citation of the text concerned and
p. cxxxvii, top, and p. cxlv, table 3, both forms.
' hymns.' — The hymn may well be called
the first considerable natural unit in the rising scale of divisions. Of the
hymn, then, verses and padas are the natural subdivisions, although single
verses or even stock-padas may also be regarded as natural units. Book
and hymn ^ and verse are all divisions of so obviously and equally fundamental
character, that it is quite right that citations should be made by
them and not otherwise. However diverse in subject-matter two successive
suktas may be, we rightly expect unity of subject within the limits
of what is truly one and the same sukta. It is this inherent unity of
subject which justifies the use of the term artlia-sukta (below, p. cxxxiii)
with reference to any true metrical hymn ;
naturally aroused against a hymn that (like vii. 35)
and our critical suspicions are
fails to meet this
expectation. The hymn, moreover, is the natural nucleus for the secondary
accretions which are discussed below, at p.
cliii.J
[The hymn-divisions not everywhere of eqyal value. — It is matter of
considerable critical interest that the hymn-divisions of different parts of
our text are by no means of equal value (cf. p. clx). Thus it is far from
certain whether there is any good ground at all for the division of the
material of book xiv. into hymns (the question is carefully examined at
pages 738-9). And again, the material of book xviii. is of such sort as
to make it clear that the hymn-divisions in that book are decidedly
mechanical and that they have almost no intrinsic significance (see p. 814,
^ 6, p. 827, ^ 2, p. 848, ^ 8). The familiar Dirghatamas-hymn of the
Rig-Veda has been divided by the Atharvan text-makers into two (ix.
9
and 10), and doubtless for no other reason than to bring it into an
approximate uniformity in respect of length with the hymns of books
viii.-xi. (p. clvi). As Whitney notes, hymns xix. 53 and 54 are only two
divided parts of one hymn : so 10 and 1 1 ; 28 and 29.J
LThe division into rcas or * verses.' — This division is, of course, like the
division into books and hymns, of fundamental significance. It is maintained
even in the non-metrical passages ; but the name is then usually
modified by the prefixion of
the determinative avasdna, so that the prose
verses in the /arj'^ya-hymns are called avasdnarcas (p.
472).
J
1 LThis part of the statement is subject, for books xiii.-xviii., to the modification implied in
the preceding paragraph.J
J