TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu
TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu
TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu
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MU 0<br />
BŚS 18: 2?<br />
TA 1 3<br />
TA 10 10<br />
TU 1<br />
JB 45++ : 377%<br />
JBa 8 + : 1186% ABn 11 : 874%<br />
JUB 32 : 1821%<br />
AA 1 : 120%<br />
GB 5 (mostly from 1 passage)<br />
__________________________________________________________________<br />
After the RV, there is a strong Mantra and YV Saṃh. time use of the word<br />
(30-600%), except for VS (76%) as most cases there are from RV. Most of<br />
these passages have forms of the comparative or superlative only. The word<br />
is used, in a similar percentage in the early and later Br.s (200-350%), except<br />
for an area located in the Kāṇva and Śāṇḍilya territory (only 77-155%). The<br />
then expands rapidly in the late Eastern (556-974%) and especially the<br />
Southern texts (1186-1821%). Note that the later, Eastern part of AB (6-8)<br />
has a comparatively large number of cases as well (874%).<br />
It would be interesting to check which words are used instead of pāpa in the<br />
other texts. It is readily noticeable, however, that the usage is closely linked<br />
to ideas about guilt which are important in the context of punarmṛtyu. In<br />
both cases, 267 it is the late Eastern and Southern texts which initially viz.<br />
heavily employ the word; from the East, the <strong>fas</strong>hion then spread westwards,<br />
to reach the late Taitt. (TB, in TB 3) and the Kaṭhas (Kāṭhaka portions of<br />
TB). 268<br />
*****************<br />
In the preceding section, dealing with apparent matters of style, it is<br />
nevertheless possible to distinguish trends which spread from the Central<br />
267 Note, however, that the related word pāpman- does not disappear in the post-Mantra<br />
texts, but is found in all the Br. texts. An investigation into the semantics of both words,<br />
made by R.P.Das, MA thesis Hamburg, 1981, resulted in the meanings: "böse, schlecht,<br />
übel" for pāpa-, and "Schlechtigkeit" for pāpman-. The distribution of both words<br />
remains mysterious, and a fresh attempt is necessary to solve this problem.<br />
268 Another interesting case is that of the name for the Southern fire, usually dakṣiṇāgni,<br />
but once in TS and KS it appears as anvāhāryapacana; at the next text level, in the Br., the<br />
word has spread to nearly all the Br. texts (exc. PB) and, further on, to the Sūtras.<br />
99