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AB, KS, KpS, JS, JB, VSK, ŚBK, see below § 6.3).
All of these features taken together make JB a very interesting text, both
from a literary as well as from a linguistic viewpoint, but this has not really
been noticed as yet. Indeed, there are many cases in JB where even stock
phrases like "the gods and the Asuras were in conflict / contested," are
related in the perfect tense; in other cases, the impf. has been retained. This
later overlay resulted in an almost irregular usage of the perfect/imperfect. 121
The figure for JB is: 23.41 % of perfetcs compared to impf., which places this
text, as expected for an originally Central, now Southern text, between ŚBMw
(14%), and the late KaṭhB (28%); note that a later text of the Jaim. school,
their Ar./Up., JUB, has already 36% of perf., while the Central KB has 56%
and the Ar./Up.of the Kauth., ChU, has an unprecendented 443% (which
makes it either very late or points to a composition in the (Central) Eastern
area; note the supposed movement of parts of the Kauth. towards Videha.) 122
That the visualisation of the westward and southward diffusion of the
narrative perfect is indeed correct is proved by the further expansion of this
usage. It is only the v e r y late Brāhmaṇa/Upaniṣad texts of areas that had
not been affected earlier that take over this phenomenon. In the Kaṭha
school, it is found only in the (late) parts of KaṭhB, i.e., those preserved in TB
3.10 (the so-called Kāṭhaka section). 123 Furthermore, it is found in the
Upaniṣad-like Sāmaveda texts, ChU and JUB, in such late Brāhmaṇas as that
of the Vādhūlas (the Anvākhyānas), in the Brāhmaṇa portions of the Sūtras
(BŚS and ŚŚS), in the composite version of MU, in KaṭhB, and lastly, and
most extraordinarily, in the later part of the Aitareya Br. (AB 6-8).
This text requires further discussion. It has long been known that the
original AB contained only pañcikās 1-5, and that the rest, AB 6-8, (note the
name 'pañcikā'!) is a later addition. These chapters deal with materials not
contained in the parallel text, KB, i.e., the rituals concerning the king, like the
"coronation" ( the unction ceremonies of the Rājasūya and Abhiṣeka) and the
duties of the royal priest (purohita). Also, the geographical horizon of AB 6-8
is much wider than that of AB 1-5, which clearly was composed in the West,
in the Kurukṣetra area.
121
Interchange impf. perf is studied, in some detail by Whitney, TAPA 23; cf. further,
author, Fs.W.Rau; AB 2.1 āyaṃs, abibhyur KB 6.15; JB 1.42 (Varuṇa speaks), see
Bodewitz, tr.JB 1.1-65, p.108, ann. 22 (Oertel).
122
But see ChU bhal- from smar which points to a Western/Central origin of this passage,
see above, ann.33.
123
Note that especially those chapters of KaṭhB that deal with the late Br. concept of a
second death, punarmṛtyu, are affected; see below, § 8.2 !
46