TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

In addition to these stray findings, the first group of cases occurs in another
Mantra text, namely in the Mantras of TS, the text of a central North Indian
school, of level 2 but not in the parallel versions of MS, KS; TS 1.1.13.3 reads
(note -ai for the abl., pā with abl.): pāhí prásityai / dúriṣṭyai / duradmanyái /
dúścaritād, but KS 1.12 and KpS 1.12 read praśityāḥ, duriṣṭyāḥ,
duradmanyāḥ; MS 1.1.13 lacks the mantra. 80
While MS is somewhat older than KS, this Saṃhitā generally does not agree
with TS in the usage of -ai; KS, in fact, participates only in the late book V,
the Aśvamedha chapters, which Bhave regards as having been taken over
from the Taitt. school in a wholesale fashion. 81
Interestingly, such forms also occur in the Padapāṭha of the Ṛgveda at
3.53.20: dative avasái , for Saṃhitāpāṭha gen. avasā , and vice versa,
dative -yai understood as gen. -yāḥ in: vadhrimaty a° at 1.117.24, and
viśpálāyā a° at 1.118.8. The Padapāṭha is generally thought to have been
composed by Śākalya, during the later Brāhmaṇa period. 82
This distribution of the evidence thus leads to the surmise that these forms
are indeed later intrusions into the Mantra texts, with the exception of the
Taitt. texts, as will be seen presently. In the next two text levels, that of YV
Saṃh. prose (lv.3) and Brāhmaṇa prose (lv.4), the evidence clearly points
toward the Taittirīyas as the originators, or at least as the centre of the
diffusion of this phenomenon.
The case of AB is more complicated. It is well k.own that books 6-8 of this
text are later. However, the distribution of -ai vs. -āḥ does not completely
agree with these divisions. Aufrecht, ed. AB, p.427, mentions: -ai in the
younger books 7.27, 8.2, add: 8.15, but also twice in the older books where one
would not expect the form: at 1.27, 4.27. On the other hand, the Western
form in -āḥ appears, as expected, in the Western books 1.9, 1.23, 3.14, 4.10,
but also in the Eastern books 6.3, 6.32, 7.27. (For an explanation, see below.)
80
The older texts, like KS, etc., have -ās: KS 1.12:7.20, and in the parallel passage, MS. -
Cf. -yai in: TB 3.3.9.9, VS 2.20, ŚBM 1.9.9.20. - The list of cases of (-a)yāi of ā and ī stems,
viz. -yai of i stems, provided for TS by Keith, TS tr. p. CXLV sq. contains, upon checking,
no example from a Mantra portion.
81
See his dissertation, Die Yajus des Asvamedha, Bonn, p. 55 sq.; cf. Edgerton, Ved. Var.
§143: KSa ādityai pājasyam < TS.
82
Oldenberg, Prolegomena, p.380 sq., 491 sq., 510; see below, on this person, ann.97. Note
the same tendency as in RV Pp. to use -ai for the gen. in the Padapāṭha of MS, see Ved. Var.
III §152, which may be indicative of an earlier date than usually assumed for this text; also
in TS-pp., see Keith, TS transl., p. CXLV.
37