TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

It has been mentioned earlier that the traditional phrases which are found in
the introduction to a myth or aetiological tale beginning with, "The gods and
the Asuras were in contest," usually show up in the texts in two varieties, one
using the word spṛdh and the other the compound verb sam.yat.
In the oldest texts, MS and KS, the use of spṛdh is found almost exclusively;
starting with KS, sam.yat makes its appearance and is especially popular with
the Central groups of the Taitt. and the Jaim., but not in the East. (The
distribution, again, is similar to that of vāva and many other grammatical
features mentioned in the preceding paragraphs). When the rates of
occurrence are compared and calculated against each other (sam.yat : spṛdh),
this picture emerges:
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early: KS 16/4 TS 15/4
Saṃh. MS 5/20
early AB 6/3
Brāhm. ABo 4/2 TB 14/2
later
Br.
KB 1/1 ŚBKo 1/25
ŚBMo 0/16
JB 8/36 ŚBMw 0/ 5
JUB 3/2 ŚBMn 1/ 6
Up.s & ŚBMu 0/ 2
early ŚBMa 0/ 0
Sūtras BŚSb 2/1
ABn 2/1
PB 0/7
ṢB 1/3
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When the relative percentage of sam.yat : spṛdh is calculated for each text
(regardless of relative size), we arrive at the following:
92