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the last century, record some of the phenomena, they have tended to establish a uniform Sanskrit text, recognisably Vedic, but close in its "orthography" to the MSS of classical Sanskrit of the standard Northern tradition of Benares and Poona. This is misleading. Nearly all Vedic texts have, because of the whims of the editors, been normalised to such an extent that it became unlikely that other scholars paid attention to or even recognised many of the particular traits of a particular Vedic school. In the same manner, of course, the traits which agree in several schools were often not detected. What is almost universally accepted, however, is the misconception of Vedic as a uniform language. This is, in itself, not surprising; the texts a p p e a r to have no phonetic differences (see above). What is usually not taken into account, however, is that the texts were only m a d e to look uniform by the late Vedic diaskeuasis and canonisation of the redactors which often comes close to the norms of classical Skt., as first codified in Pāṇini's grammar. In s0ite of this normalising tendency, made worse by that of the modern editors, a considerable number of school divergencies can be recognised, some of which will be treated in the sequel. It will be seen that many of these śākhā peculiarities do, in fact, form a pattern, and are part and parcel of the major Vedic dialects. §6.1 -ch-, -śch-, -cch- One such item is the spelling of the long palatal affricate. In classical Sanskrit, it is written and printed cch, and this is also the pronunciation (in Vedic recitation) and, consequently, the spelling found in most schools. However, as is well known, the Ṛgvedic MSS usually write ch, e.g., gachati instead of classical gacchati, see Aufrecht, preface to RV, 2nd ed., p.VI. This is not all. The Maitrāyaṇi school participates in this trait. Schroeder mentioned the spelling in the preface to his edition, p. XLIII, but normalised to some extent (e.g., in the Sandhi case -t + ch- > cch). The writing ch is also found in the Vulgate of the Atharvaveda, 156 usually called the Śaunaka- Saṃhitā, see Lanman in: Whitney, AV transl., p. CXXV. 157 156 Also in cases like -t ś- > cch, in ŚS written -ch-; cf. also Allan, Sandhi, p. 92. 157 Finally, Ms. C of JB (see ed. L.Chandra JB II, p. XVI) usually writes gachati, etc. This is a ca. 300 years old palm leaf Ms. from Kerala (Burnell No. 421 = Keith Cat. no.4353). 60
The origin of the cluster ch is known from such forms as gachati: 158 Ṛgvedic metre indicates that -ch- was measured long, and was therefore pronounced as a cluster, probably something like [śś / śc] 159 . Interestingly, this is almost the same spelling that the close relative of the Maitrāyaṇīya, that is the Kaṭha school, employs in its MSS: śch. Schroeder (introd. to KS) misunderstood the evidence; he thought it to be a writing mistake as in the original Kashmirian MSS of KS, written in Śāradā script; both -śch- and -cch- look quite similar. However, the writing -śch- is consistent in Kashmirian texts. It is found also outside KS, in KaṭhB, KaṭhĀ, etc., and notably so in the Kashmirian MS of the Paippalāda Saṃhitā; it regularly occurs even in MSS of classical Skt. texts that stem from Kashmir. The written evidence 160 reflects a much older stage of pronunciation, that of medieval Veda recitation. 161 The pronunciation of -(c)ch- as [śch] is not the present day pronunciation of this cluster, nor was it the medieval Kashmirian one; c is pronounced as [ts] and śch as [ts h ]. 162 The outcome of a survey of the distribution of this feature, therefore, is that the older texts and schools ( RV, PS, MS, KS) show the remnants of an older pronunciation of the cluster, which was later written and pronounced -cch-. In all of these schools, the particular pronunciation was fixed early enough to persist even in the face of the overwhelming pressure of classical Skt., Pāṇinean grammar, and the habits of other, neighbouring Veda schools. I conclude, therefore, that the Ṛgvedic, Mantra time, and apparently the Western Saṃhitā prose, pronunciation of the cluster was [śch] or something akin to it, like [śc, śś]. It is noteworthy that the survival of this feature is a regional one. The Śākalya Śākhā of the Ṛgveda shows a close connection with the Aitareya school, the older homeland of which was the Eastern Panjab (see §4.1). The Kaṭha school occupied roughly the same territory as the Aitareyins; PS is equally a Western text, when compared to the Śaunaka version of the Atharvaveda, and the Maitrāyaṇīyas settled in the same area, though apparently somewhat to the South of Kurukṣetra. This limits the occurrence of this phenomenon to the West of the area of Middle Vedic texts and schools. In fact, it is a Kuru peculiarity, since all the 158 *gm-sk’e-ti, probably via > gae-ścæ-ti. 159 This cannot be the same pronunciation as in háriścandra- < hariś candraḥ, RV 9.66.26. 160 Cf. also Wack. I,153 sqq. Nachtr. ad 158,28, ad 154,13. 161 Cf. O.v. Hinüber, Überblick. on c/śc, §192-3; yc, yj in Mg. 162 Note also that the medieval Nepalese MSS hardly exhibit the writing ch, but always write cch as a ligature, even in cases where a word begins in ch- (and is not preceded by vowel). 61
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Version July 27,1987 (published Par
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10.6. Conclusion and prospects 3
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* the better speech of the Northern
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* 1st: there are regional differenc
Page 9 and 10: chapter, per text or text level, th
Page 11 and 12: occurrence of the opt. in -īta (AB
Page 13 and 14: Furthermore, the comparatively grea
Page 15 and 16: the geographical data contained in
Page 17 and 18: The boundaries of various school te
Page 19 and 20: origin. It can also be noted that a
Page 21 and 22: The absolute date of the texts rema
Page 23 and 24: perhaps Māṇḍ.) AB KB PB JB Ait
Page 25 and 26: MGS VārGS KGS/LGS BGS *VādhGS BhG
Page 27 and 28: the period of the "free floating" m
Page 29 and 30: ones in other case forms: sāyāt,
Page 31 and 32: immediate surrounding dialects, cf.
Page 33 and 34: § 5 ESTABLISHING A PATTERN §5.0.
Page 35 and 36: VSM 96.120 VSM= 24.19 % VSK 94.231
Page 37 and 38: In addition to these stray findings
Page 39 and 40: Therefore, the occurrence of -ai fo
Page 41 and 42: have changed this dialect. 99 We kn
Page 43 and 44: (5 ch. mixed) BŚS (Br.ch.in storie
Page 45 and 46: were composed on the basis of an ea
Page 47 and 48: If one compares this with such deta
Page 49 and 50: early ABo 3 % TB 2 % Brāhm. (lv.4)
Page 51 and 52: development of the precative); the
Page 53 and 54: It is interesting to note that the
Page 55 and 56: ___________________________________
Page 57 and 58: JUB 2 PB 7 (ABn 9) ________________
Page 59: This result is interesting insofar
Page 63 and 64: The distribution of kś also indica
Page 65 and 66: the SW Maitr., and the Kauth. SV (P
Page 67 and 68: N. India., and also its Sūtra, the
Page 69 and 70: While the preceding examples have i
Page 71 and 72: concludes that the preservation of
Page 73 and 74: 'tics', and mannerisms, introduced
Page 75 and 76: Southern Jaiminīya (originally a C
Page 77 and 78: eva Taitt., nu vāva ŚBK, (but nv
Page 79 and 80: were several occasions 225 where it
Page 81 and 82: grammar, and in classical Sanskrit,
Page 83 and 84: 17: Pāṇ.(?): after: bho,bhago,ad
Page 85 and 86: [túbhya hinvāná- u -avasiṣṭa
Page 87 and 88: PS 0? ŚS 0! KS 11 : 1293% (late TS
Page 89 and 90: must be made here. The Eastern Cent
Page 91 and 92: Even in subsections of a text, like
Page 93 and 94: ___________________________________
Page 95 and 96: The forms in -o- are restricted to
Page 97 and 98: collection; the Upaniṣad-like sec
Page 99 and 100: MU 0 BŚS 18: 2? TA 1 3 TA 10 10 TU
Page 101 and 102: various Middle Indian dialects inde
Page 103 and 104: The Ṛgvedic nom. pl. -āsaḥ 277
Page 105 and 106: Madhyadeśa (Taitt.) innovations (o
Page 107 and 108: events which the speaker or listene
Page 109 and 110: The strong occurrences in ŚB and J
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AB 4? KN 1 ? ŚBMw 1 ( 2) 306 JBc 4
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58 (Epileg.CPD I, s.v.tmesis). Nume
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* Sandhi -e/o a- > -a a Prācya (Ś
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the early Brāḥmaṇa text, AB 1-
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Vedic held sway over the Pañcālas
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the bhāṣika accent) is lost. Nor
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on an old Western SV Br. which used
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We therefore witness, as the outcom
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territories West of it on one hand,
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If we first limit ourselves strictl
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Post-Saṃhitā developments: loss
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attention to the general political
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500- NBP NBP NBP NBP ______________
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(MS,KS,TS) it immediately appears t
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Late Harappan | and | RV various sm
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| early in the | RV hymns composed
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ABn PB KA (PB?) AA, AitU AA 5 MU Ā
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The language of the Yajñagāthās
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147
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