TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

Even in subsections of a text, like ŚBM 1-5, one can distinguish certain styles
in the use of particles. ŚB 1-2, for example, uses na hi tad, while ŚB 3-4 uses
na vai tad. 253 . It seems possible that we can recognize here the personal style
of the author of these chapters, or, at any rate, that of the compiler of the
chapters in question (who must then be different from the compiler of the ŚB
as such). 254 In books 1-4 of ŚB there is, indeed, a difference in subject matter
which makes two authors likely. ŚB 1 treats the New and Full Moon
sacrifices, 2 deals with the Agnihotra, etc., 3 treats the Adhvara (Soma), and
4, Soma (5: rājasūya, vājapeya). Both rituals (Dārśapaurṇamāsa viz. Soma)
are prototypes of many others and may have been composed, in the late Br.
period, by two different persons who based themselves on their older Black
YV predecessors. - Another example is: athātaḥ ŚB, BŚS, KB, AB.
Needless to say, we need many more such observations and investigations.
An investigation of the combination of particles would seem to be especially
promising, but it can be done, at present, only through much labour
(comparing all passages in VPK of concurrent occurrence of two or more
particles).
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A few interesting cases involving single words and their spread throughout
various texts, as well as typical (certainly style-oriented) expressions, may be
added here. It is the (still very incomplete) collection of many such individual
cases which will add perspective to the picture of the major grammatical
forms and sound changes delineated above. Only a few can be given here, for
want of space and opportunity to investigate them in detail. 255
§7.4 On the relation of spṛdh : sam.yat
253 See Minard, Enigmes I, §800.
254 Note that the compiler of ŚB had a good overview of the text, such a good one, indeed,
that he could compare a section in the Soma book with one in the Pravargya book; see
author, Fs. U. Schneider; cf. also Whitney, TAPA 23, who quotes several cases in ŚB where
a passage reappears with the same wording (and the same mixed use of the tenses).
255 I plan to add to the present collection of materials, from time to time, in Journals like IIJ
and StII.
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