Volume 1 - Sanskrit Web

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clii General Introduction, Part II. : in part by Whitney
LBook vii. a book of after-gleanings supplementing books i.-vi It is
very easy to imagine group A, or books i—vi., as constituting the original
nucleus 1 of the sahihitd (p. cxlviii, top), and group B, or book vii., as being
an ancient supplement to that nucleus, just as book xix. is unquestionably
a later supplement to the larger collection of the three grand divisions
(cf. p. 895). This view does not imply that the verses of book vii. are
one whit less ancient or less genuinely popular than those of books i.-vi.,
but merely that, as they appear in their collected form, they have the
aspect of being after-gleanings, relatively to books i.-vi. This view
accords well with the exceptional character of book vii. as otherwise
established and as just set forth (p. cli).J
LArrangement of books with reference to amount of text. — If these considerations
may be deemed a sufficient answer to the first two questions
so far as they relate to book vii., there remains only that part of the
second question which relates to book vi. One does not readily see why
the samhitd might not have opened with book vi., the book of the varied
and interesting three-versed hymns, so that the norms would have run in
the order 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (i); and, since this is not the case, it may be
that some other principle is to be sought as a co-determinant of the
order of arrangement.
|_If we consult the table on p. cxliii, we see that, in division I., the
scale of numbers of printed pages of text in each book (13, 16, 20, 27, 28,
40, 27) is a continuously ascending one for each book except the last
(book vii.). The like is true if we base our comparison on the more precise
scale of verse-totals for each book (153, 207, 230, 324, 376, 454, 286),
as given at the foot of table i, p. cxliv.J
LThese facts, in the first place, strongly corroborate our view as to the
exceptional character of book vii. By the principle of norms, it should
stand at the beginning of the division ; by the principle of amount (judged
by verse-totals), it should stand between books iii. and iv. That it does
neither is hard to explain save on the assumption of its posteriority as a
collection. In the second place, these facts suggest at the same time the
reason for the position of book vi. in the division, namely, that it is placed
after books i.—v. because it is longer than any of those books.
LR6sum6 of conclusions as to the arrangement of books i.-vii.— Book vii.,
as a supplement of after-gleanings, is placed at the end of the grand
Books i.-vi.
division, without regard to amount of text or to verse-norm.
are arranged primarily according to the amount of text,^ in an ascending
scale. For them the element of verse-norms, also in an ascending scale,
1 [_If asked to discriminate between the books of that nucleus, I should put books vi. and i.
and ii. first (cf. p. cliii, 113) ; at all events, book v. stands in marked contrast with those three.J
^ L Whether this amount is judged by verse-totals or by pages, the order is the same.