TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

y Caland to represent an original Kāṇva text, and thus comes from an
Eastern Central text.
The reason for this distribution may be that even in the West, the form in -
īya may have been accepted at a late stage. Note that even Pāṇini teaches
both possibilities; this may perhaps be supported by the appearance of the -
īya form in KāṭhŚS and ĀŚS. The former, however, is extracted from a single
MS of the commentary on the KŚS, as no MS of the text has been found so
far; the latter text may alredy have been composed in the East, as (part of) the
Aitareyins who had moved to Videha, etc., during the late Vedic period.
On the other hand, the original form expected for the West is indeed found,
just as in the case of upavasathyà-. The Maitr, with their Sūtras, the Kāṭhaka
Śrauta-Sūtra (which confirms the suspicion about the single Kāṭh. -īya form
mentioned just now), the Western Sāmavedins (PB, LŚS). The form is,
however, found in the Central area as well (KB, ŚŚS, later Taitt. Sūtras: BŚS
in a late Prāyascitta section, BhŚS) and even in the South (JB). Interestingly,
even the Easternmost school, i.e, the Mādhy. sub-school of the Vājasaneyins,
has this Western form, and, even more surprisingly, in their genuine chapters
1-5. If this is compared to the Mādhy. form upavasath¡ya, then the true
Mādhy. books have the Western form in -ya and those Mādhy. books derived
from an original Kāṇva text have, in both cases (śunāsīr¡ya, upavasath¡ya),
the Kāṇva form. 213
It is the Kāṇvas and the Jaiminīyas, both living on the fringe of the
innovative Central area, that in one case side with the Central texts, and in
the other one with the Western texts. Obviously, many more such
observations will have to be made to arrive at a definite map of the diffusion
of this phenomenon. 214
The Central texts, with their lengthening of -iya > īya, point, in any case, to
an underlying pronunciation [upavasathiya], [śunāsīriya] in the Centra, area
and in parts of the Southern and Eastern areas. The words are, it is true,
ones of traditional śrauta sacrifice, and one may explain -īya as the
intentional stress of an antiquated pronunciation [-iya] which had no
counterpart in contemporary pronunciation of the cluster -thy- viz. -rya-.
However, the anaptyxis also occurs in inconspicious groups like uv eva < u
213 This may be of great importance for an understanding of how the Madhy. text evolved!
Cf. Caland's opinion (introd. ed. ŚBK) that ŚBM 11-13 originally were Kaṇva texts.
214 Cf. further Pāṇ. 4.2.32 dyāvāpṛthivīya, marutvatīya, agniṣomīya, vāstoṣpatīya,
gṛhamedhīya.
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