TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

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