TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

the period of the "free floating" mantra tradition, either by gradual linguistic
change, unnoticed by the transmitters, or by misunderstanding and
subsequent re-interpretation (perseveration). In the AV, the YV, and the SV,
the Mantras have first been collected and gradually codified by a process of
orthoepic diaskeuasis. They have lead a life of their own, conserving a
particular fixed form within the tradition of a particular Vedic school.
Sometimes parts of such texts were taken over by other schools, and then
changed according to their requirements of ritual, etc. In such cases, the texts
were partly changed according to the peculiarities of the new school, and
partly not at all.
The Mantras may differ considerably from the surrounding text 53 which, in
the YV Saṃhitās, belongs already to the next level, to that of Saṃhitā prose.
This type of language, which is first found at AV (ŚS 15, PS(Or) 18,27-43) and
in the Nivids and Praiṣas of the RVKh, is the oldest Indian prose; it is
characterised by a number of developments which separate it from the
language of the RV by a considerable margin of style and also of time, the
exact extent of which is still unknown. RV 1o already shows some
developments (kuru for kṛṇu, the many sorcery hymns, etc.) which link it to
the AV; these developments, however, had taken place completely by the time
of the AV and YV Mantras. The loss of a whole catagory of the verb system,
that of the injunctive, is apparent in the AV and YV Mantras. In AV, only
some 50 forms 54 still show a contemporary, 'living` use of this category. The
same applies to the allegro forms of kṛ; only the "popular" forms (karomi,
kurmaḥ, etc.) are found in non-RV contexts. 55 A shibboleth is the
replacement of viśva-- "all" by "sarva" which now comes to mean both
"whole" and "all."
§ 4.3.3. SAṂHITĀ-PROSE.
This type of Vedic is again separated from Mantra type Vedic by a number
of developments. Again, a certain amount of time was necessary to effect this
change. During this intervening period, the first prose texts explaining the
ritual were composed, but they have not come down to us, except for some
rare fragments. 56
53 Cf. Oldenberg, ZDMG 42, p. 246, cf. Keith, TS transl. p. CLIX sqq.
54 See K.Hoffmann, Injunktiv, p. 36, 106
55 See K. Hoffmann, Aufs. p. 575 sqq.
56 See K.Hoffmann, Der Mantra yan navam ait, Aufs. p.509 sqq. and cf. the contents of the
lost Caraka-Saṃhitā, StII 8/9 which predated MS,KS.
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