Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/101

Rh text gave, with the support of all the mss. then accessible, the reading jīvā́m ṛtébhyas: that this is an error for mṛtébhyas is shown beyond all doubt by the TA. variant mṛtā́ya jīvā́m (cf. the note on p. 832).

Visual errors.—Several classes of errors are chargeable to "mistakes of the eye." Confusions such as that between pāhi and yāhi are simple enough, and are sometimes to be controlled by the evidence of oral reciters (cf. p. lxvi); but, considering the fragmentariness of our knowledge of Indic paleography, who may guess all the more remote occasions for error of this kind? —Of errors by haplography, yá ā́ste yáç cárati (just mentioned) is a good type: this is undoubtedly the true Atharvan reading, and it is undoubtedly wrong, as is shown by the meter, and the comparison of RV., which has yáç ca cárati: cf. notes to iv. 5. 5; vi. 71. 1; vii. 81. 1; xix. 42. 3; 55. 3. For a most modern case, see note to xiii. 2. 35.

'''Metrical faults. Hypermetric glosses and so forth.'''—Our suspicions of hypermetric words as glosses are often confirmed by the downright absence of those words in the parallel texts. Instances are: hástābhyām at AV. iv. 13. 7 (cf. RV. x. 137. 7); devó at RV. x. 150. 4 (cf. RV. iii. 2. 8); asmábhyam at TS. ii. 6. 12$2$ (cf. naḥ at RV. x. 15. 4); imám at AV. xiv. 2. 40 (cf. RV. x. 85. 43). —On the other hand, the damaged meter of our text often suggests a suspicion that some brief word has fallen out or that some briefer or longer or otherwise unsuitable form has been substituted for an equivalent suitable one; and the suspicion is borne out by the reading of the parallel texts. Thus in divó [vā] viṣṇa utá vā pṛthivyā́, mahó [vā] viṣṇa urór antárikṣāt, the bracketed vā ' s, missing at AV. vii. 26. 8, are found in their proper places in the TS. and VS. parallels. The pātu and īyús of AV. xviii. 2. 55 quite spoil the cadences of a and c, which cadences are perfect in their RV. original at x. 17. 4.

Blend-readings.—The blend-readings, as I have called them, stand in yet another group. A good example is found, at AV. xiv. 2. 18 (see note), in prajā́vatī vīrasū́r devṛ́kāmā syonā́; its genesis is clear, as is also the intrusive character of syonā́, when we compare the Kashmirian reading prajāvatī vīrasūr devṛkāmā with that of the RV., vīrasū́r devákāmā syonā́ (11 syllables). The like is true of asyá at VS. xii. 73, áganma támasas pārám asyá: cf. the oft-recurring átāriṣma támasas pārám asyá with the aganma tamasas pāram of the Kāṭhaka, xvi. 12, p. 235$3$. —The above-given examples suffice to show how rich is the material gathered in this work for an illuminating study of the fallibilities of human tradition in India.