Volume 1 - Sanskrit Web

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Ixxiv General Introduction, Part I. : by the Editor
is he from discerning matters of this sort, that his terminology is quite
lacking in words adequate for their expression.
If the author of the Major Anukr. showed some real insight into Vedic
meters, his
statements might, as can easily be seen, often be of value in
affecting our critical judgment of a reading of the samhitd or in determining
our choice as between alternative readings. The contrary, rather,
is wont to be the case. Thus at iv. 15. 4, his definition, viratpurastadbrhatl,
implies the division (given also by the /a^rt-mss.) 10 + 8 : 8 + 8,
thus leaving the accentless /«^rt«j« stranded at the beginning of a pada
An excellent illustration of the way in which he might help us, if we
could trust him, is offered by iv. 32. 3 b, which reads tdpasd yujd vi jahi
qdtrnn. Here Ppp. makes an unexceptionable tristubh by reading y«//J//fl,
and the author of the Anukr. says the verse is tristubh. His silence
respecting the metrical deficiency in
the Vulgate text would be an additional
weighty argument for judging the Ppp. reading to be the true
Atharvan one, if only we could trust him — as we cannot. Cf. end of
W's note to iv. 36. 4.
Such as it is, his treatment of the meters is neither even nor equably
careful. Thus he notes the irregularity of vii. 112. i, while in treating
the repetition of the very same verse at xiv. 2. 45 (see note), he passes
over the bhiiriktvam in silence. Throughout most of the present work,
Whitney has devoted considerable space to critical comment upon the
treatment of the meters by the Anukr. Considering the fact, however,
that the principles which underlie the procedure of the Hindu are so
radically different from those of his Occidental critic, no one will be
likely to find fault if the criticisms of the latter prove to be not entirely
exhaustive.
His statements as to the seers of the hymns. — The ascriptions of quasiauthorship,
made by the author of the Major Anukr. and given in the
Excerpts, are set forth in tabular form at p. 1040 and are critically discussed
at p.
1038, which see.
8. The Kaucika-Sutra and the Vaitana-Siitra
The work of Garbe and Bloomfield and Caland.— As elsewhere mentioned
(p. xxv), the Vaitana has been published in text and translation by Garbe,
and the text of the Kau^ika (in 1890) by Bloomfield. Since 1890, a
good deal of further critical work upon the Kaugika has been done by
1 For the reader's convenience it may be noted that verses deficient by one or two syllables,
respectively, are called by him nicrt and virdj ;
called bhurij and svardj.
and that verses redundant by one or two are