TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu
TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu
TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu
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early ABo 3 % TB 2 %<br />
Brāhm.<br />
(lv.4) (TĀ 3 %)<br />
later JB 23 %<br />
Br., JUB 29 %<br />
KB 56 % ŚBw 14 %<br />
Up.s, ŚBKo 153 %? ŚBo 85 %<br />
ŚBn 77 %<br />
early VādhB mixed<br />
Sūtras BŚS "<br />
(lv.4) ŚŚS ŚBa/u 134%<br />
KaṭhB 36% ABn 158%<br />
PB < 1%<br />
ChU 443% (ChU 443 %)<br />
***<br />
It must also be mentioned that there is, in some later Vedic texts, some<br />
confusion in the use of the perf./impf. This indicates that the<br />
authors/redactors were not entirely sure any more about the use of both<br />
tenses. This is most typical for JB, but it also occurs in texts like ŚBM and<br />
ŚBK. Several theories have been advanced to explain the apparent confusion.<br />
A detailed discussion can be found in the Festschr. U. Schneider. 130<br />
Whitney (TAPA 23, p.19 sqq.) stressed the fact that speeches relating<br />
something about the past which are inserted into a story told in the perfect,<br />
usually (though not without exeption) use the impf. (ŚB, JB, etc.). Caland<br />
thought that JB exhibits a 'hierarchical' or 'mythological' imperfect which<br />
was used in order to relate happenings in the mythical past, while those of a<br />
more recent (pseudo-) historical past were be told in the perfect.(Caland,<br />
Over en uit het JB, p.20.)<br />
Oldenberg (Prosa, p.25 sq.) observed that the imperfect is used when the<br />
speaker wants to recall a personal remembrance. In my opinion, most if not<br />
all such cases can be subsumed under a catagory "pluperfect" meaning<br />
(vorzeitig), as has first been observed by Caland: He noticed that ŚB (K, M)<br />
shows signs of confusion in the usage of the aor. and the perfect, see intr. ed.<br />
130 In the rest of this section, I again quote from the notes of my article contributed to the<br />
Fs. U. Schneider, which deal with the frame story of the Cyavana legend in JB and ŚB.<br />
49