TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

§6.5 Ṛgvedic and Taittirīya súvar and later Vedic svàr; anaptyxis.
It is well known that the Ṛgvedic group consonant + uv- (Cuv), which is also
found in some other early texts (ŚS, etc.) developed to Cv- in later texts. The
recent study of F.B.J. Kuiper (IIJ 30, 1-8) underlines the fact that we must
deal here with two sets of Cuv groups, one without laryngeal (*Cuv, as in
*kúua) and one with laryngeal (*CúHa, as in *súHar > svàr, or CuHá as in:
*tanuHám > tanvàm, *tuHám > tvám, *tuaHám > tvm).
While in the Ṛgveda, svar is always counted as dissyllabic, 197 the 'Śaunaka'
(better: Vulgate) version of the AV has, according to Whitney, 27 cases of
[súuar] but 11 cases of [svàr], if the repetitions are disregarded. 198
As far as *CúHa and *Cuhá are concerned, the change to Cvà seems to be in
progress in the Mantra period, as AV evidence indicates. A comparison with
PS and other Mantra texts (VS, Mantra portions of MS, KS, TS) should be
undertaken, but could not be included here.
As for non-laryngeal cases, Kuiper counts [kúua] 32 times in RV, while [kvà]
occurs only 3 times. 199 A similar picture emerges from the Śaunaka AV:
[kúua] appears 12 times, [kvà] twice. The change from Cuv > Cv thus seems
to be post-Mantra in these cases. Note also the evidence from Śākalya's RV
text (late Br. period, probably Eastern: Videha), where the Middle/Late Vedic
pronunciation of the group -ḍiy- had already become -ḍy- ; intervocalic -ḍ- > ḷ
as in īḍe > īḷe, but *īḍiya- was already pronounced īḍya, see above § 6.3.
Additional evidence can be found in the counting of the syllables of some
words involving the cluster Cv < * Cu(H)a made by the authors of some Vedic
texts. Such countings involve both Ṛgvedic and post-Ṛgvedic verses, as well
as prose Mantras, certain lists of words (like the lists of parts of the body of
the "canonical creature"), and even incidental mention of singular words like
tvac-. This has recently been studied by S.Jamison (IIJ 29, 161-181), who
295, and 16, 261 sq.). Paiśāca = Vetāla may thus be an old nickname for persons of this
area, cf. also ŚB asurya for Eastern aboriginals; but cf. Vesālīa, etc., Weber, loc. cit.
197 Oldenberg, RV Noten, 1909, p. 218.
198 Whitney, AV Index, 1881, p.332, Kuiper IIJ 30, 1; Whitney, in his AV index: always
suarvíd, mostly súarga-; mostly suastí, always kúa, exc. once 15.11.2-3; cf. also: both svastí-
and suásti- (RV su-astí, 3x svastí); svhā (AV once, RV 1x sú-āha 3.32.19), kvà once,
otherwise like RV: kúa;
199 Once in book 1, twice in book 2, Kuiper, IIJ 30, 1.
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