Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/134

cxxvi Visarga before st- and the like: as in ripu stena steyakṛt, viii. 4. 10 = RV. vii. 104. 10. Our Pr. ⌊see note to ii. 40⌋ contains no rule prescribing the rejection of a final visarga before an initial sibilant that is followed by a surd mute. The mss. in general, although with very numerous and irregularly occurring exceptions, practice the rejection of the ḥ, and so does the Rik ⌊cf. RPr. iv. 12, TPr. ix. 1; VPr. iii. 12⌋; and the general usage of the mss. has been followed by us. ⌊For examples, see x. 5. 1-14: cf. also notes to iv. 16. 1 (ya stāyat: SPP. yas tāyat), i. 8. 3, etc.⌋

The kampa-figures 1 and 3.—Respecting the introduction of these figures between an independent circumflex and an immediately following acute accent in the saṁhitā, our Pr. is likewise silent. The usage of the mss. is exceedingly uncertain and conflicting: there is hardly an instance in which there is not disagreement between them in respect to the use of the one or of the other; nor can any signs of a tendency towards a rule respecting the matter be discovered. There are a few instances, pointed out each at its proper place in the notes, in which a short vowel occurring in the circumflexed syllable is protracted before the figure by all the saṁhitā-mss* Such cases seemed mere casual irregularities, however, and we could not hesitate to adopt the usage of the Rik, setting 1 after the vowel if it were short in quantity, and 3 if it were long. ⌊This matter is discussed with much detail by W. in his notes to APr. iii. 65, pages 494-9, and TPr. xix. 3, p. 362.⌋ *⌊See APr., p. 499, near end, and notes to AV. vi. 109. 1 and x. 1. 9.⌋

The method of marking the accent.—With respect to this important matter, we have adapted the form of our text to the rules of the Rik rather than to the authority of the mss. As to the ways of marking the accent, a wide diversity of usage prevails among the Atharvan mss., nor is there perhaps a single one of them which remains quite true to the same method throughout. Their methods are, however, all of them in the main identical with that of the Rik, varying only in unimportant particulars. ⌊The details have been discussed above (see p. cxxi), and with as much fulness as seemed worth while.⌋

Predominance of anuṣṭubh.—The two striking features of the Atharva-Veda as regards its metrical form are the extreme irregularity and the predominance of anuṣṭubh stanzas. The stanzas in gayatrī and triṣṭubh are correspondingly rare, the AV. in this point presenting a sharp contrast with the Rig-Veda. The brief bits of prose interspersed among metrical passages are given below, at p. 1011, as are also the longer passages in Brāhmaṇa-like prose. ⌊In the Kashmirian recension, the latter are even more extensive than in the Vulgate: see p. lxxx.⌋