TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

elationship to Pāṇini's Sanskrit (especially his local dialect, bhāṣā), as well as
to that of early Classical Sanskrit, and to the various types of Vedic language
that were enumerated above, remains open. A probable link between
Classical Sanskrit, Epic, and Vedic could be sought in the language of the socalled
Yajñagāthās found in texts like AB and ŚB. 64
They differ from Vedic in many ways. First of all, their different character
is known to the Vedic texts themselves. For example, at AB 7.18, the priests
answer to Śruti stanzas used in the Rājāsūya with o, but with tathā after a
non-Śruti stanza. The content of the many Yajñagāthās is a historical one;
they tell about the deeds of kings who had offered the Aśvamedha sacrifice,
etc. In this regard, they look like predecessors of the Epic, especially when
they speak about the Pārikṣitas.
Both in their type of metre (Anuṣṭubh/Śloka), as well as in content, they
stand apart from Vedic texts, but were, nevertheless, incorporated into the
Vedic canon. Secondly, their position with regard to the Pāṇinean grammar
has to be investigated: how do they compare with Pāṇini's bhāṣā? Regarding
this local, educated form of Sanskrit, on can expect, prima facie, a North-
Western dialect which is the same or similar to the language of the North
praised by such texts as KB 7.6. A closer study reveals that his bhāṣā is a
highly archaic, isolated language which is still very close to Vedic. 65 It is
isolated from the rest of Northern India by the Panjab, which even at that
time was desert-like, certainly more than the modern well-irrigated Panjab,
cf. the various histories of Alexander's campaign. It was inhabited by--
apparently-- fierce tribes (cf. the Malloi, Oxydrakai, etc.), who were regarded
by the Vedic Indians of the Kuru-Pañcāla land as "Bāhīka" 66 -- 'outsiders'. 67
Still, while isolated, Pāṇini knows of the peculiarities of the Central and
Eastern forms of Skt., and quotes Eastern grammarians; he is much better
informed, however, about the particularities of the dialects of his area and the
64 See P. Horsch, Die ved. Gāthā- u. Ślokaliteratur, Bern 1966; cf. Renou, Histoire de la
langue Skt., p. 38 and Fs. Weller, p. 528 sqq.(cf. ann. 357).
65 See See P.Thieme, Pāṇ. and the Veda, p.76, cf. p.17, 80.
66 Patañjali calls them gau-: "The Bāhīka is an ox," see A.Wezler, Paribhāṣā, p.248 sq.; cf.
StII 10, p.234; this nickname may have been derived from the designation of one of the
Panjabi neighbours of the Kurus, the Mahāvṛṣa ( note vṛṣa 'bull'; cf. the name of the main
wife of the king mahiṣī).
67 Such names are revealing. Note that the West is bāhīka, the East asurya (ŚB), the SE
with its Muṇḍa tribes is udantya "foreign," the South has the foreign looking tribe Maraṭa
(PS; cf. Kīkaṭa already in RV); the extreme North (Himalayas) is inhabited by the Kirāta.
The Kuru-Pañcālas form the Centre. Cf. also the Majjh.Nikāya on such border peoples like
the Yona, Kamboja, tr. p. 149.
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