Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/129

Rh a few instances, however, it does not do so: such instances may be found at xv. 2, where the Anukr. counts 28 instead of 32 or 4 × 8; at xv. 5 (16 instead of 7 × 3); at xvi. 5 (10 instead of 6 × 3); at xvi. 8 (33 instead of 108 or 27 × 4): cf. the discussions at p. 774, ¶2, p. 772, ¶3, p. 793 end, p. 794 top. Such treatment shows that the text has (as we may express it) become mutilated in consequence of the abbreviations, and it shows how old and how general they have been. —One and another ms., however, occasionally fills out some of the omissions—especially R., which, for example, in viii. 10 writes só ’d akrāmat every time when it is a real part of the verse.

Usage of the editions in respect of such abbreviated passages.—Very often SPP. prints in full the abbreviated passages in both saṁhitā and pada form, thus presenting a great quantity of useless and burdensome repetitions. Our edition takes advantage of the usage of the mss. to abbreviate extensively; but it departs from their usage in so far as always to give full intimation of the omitted portions by initial words and by signs of omission. In all cases where the mss. show anything peculiar, it is specially pointed out in the notes on the verses.

Berlin edition uses the Rig-Veda method of marking accents.—The modes of marking the accent followed in the different mss. and parts of mss. of the AV. are so diverse, that we were fully justified in adopting for our edition the familiar and sufficient method of the RV. That method is followed strictly throughout in books i.-v. and xix. of the Haug ms. material described above at p. cxiv under O. 1 and 4, but only there, and there possibly only by the last and modern copyist. ⌊Whitney notes in the margin that it is followed also in book xviii. of O., and in books i.-iii. and iv. of Op., and in part of Bp.2a. In this last ms., which is Chambers, 117, of book i., the⌋ method of accentuation is at the beginning that of the Rik, but soon passes over to another fashion, precisely like that of Bp. ⌊see next ¶⌋ saving that horizontal lines are made use of instead of dots. The method continues so to the end.

Dots for lines as accent-marks.—The use of round dots instead of lines as accent-marks is a method that has considerable vogue. It is applied uniformly in the pada-mss. at Berlin (except in Bp.2a as just stated): a dot below the line is the anudāttatara-sign, in its usual place; then the sign of the enclitic svarita is a dot, usually not above, but within the akṣara; and the independent svarita is marked either by the latter method or else by a line drawn transversely upward to the right through the syllable. The dots, however, are unknown elsewhere, save in a