TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

Vedic texts, 245 beginning with the RV; this must have happened already at the
time of Pāṇini, as he subsumes this form of Sandhi under his saṃhitā rules.
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The preceding sections have established, I hope, certain trends: an early
Kuru centre of innovation from which certain new trends started (like kś, ḷ-,
sandhi -a + voc.); a Taittirīya (Pañcāla) centre from which, on a somewhat
later level, other trends took their course (gen. fem. -ai); and, finally, an
Eastern centre of innovation (Videha, etc.) from which some of the late Vedic
phenomena moved westward and south-westward (narr. perf.).
The following paragraphs, while dealing with topics that perhaps look more
like matters of style than dialect variations, are meant to underline the broad
divisions made above and to refine them to some extent; only a small selection
of the facts can be presented in this article.
§7 REGIONAL STYLISTIC FEATURES
§7.1 The use of the particle khalu
It is well known from the study of the style of individual authors 246 that
particles are a very useful and effective tool in the the process of determining
whether (part of) a text belongs to a particular author, or whether an
anonymous text is composed by one or more authors. This procedure can be
used, with profit, in the study of Vedic texts and their affiliation with the
various schools (śākhās). It can also be applied in the study of texts said to
have been composed by a particular author, like Yājñavalkya.
The figures found for the use of the particle, khalu, show that after a single,
initial appearance in the late RV, the centre of its diffusion lies in the territory
of the Maitrāyaṇīyas.
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RV 1 (10.34.14): 100 %
245 Cf. the statitsics of Ved. Var., II p. 423
246 For example, cf. B.Kölver on Kalhaṇa's Rājataraṅgiṇī, or Schetelich on the Arthaśāstra,
T.Vetter on Śaṅkara's works, etc.
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