Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/157

Rh ṣaḍṛcaprakṛtir anyā vikṛtir iti vijāntyāt. At the beginning of book iv. it has a remark of like purport: brahma jajñānam iti kāṇḍe saptarcasūktaprakṛtir (so London ms.: cf. p. 142 below) anyā vikṛtir ity avagachet. Moreover, it defines book vi. as the tṛcasūktakāṇḍam (cf. pages 281, 388), and adds to the definition the words tatra tṛcaprakṛtir itarā vikṛtir iti. Cf. Weber's Verzeichniss der Berliner Sanskrit-hss., vol. ii., p. 79.⌋

⌊In the recognition of the verse-norms, as in much else (p. lxxii, top), the Pañcapaṭalikā serves as source and guide for the author of the Major Anukr. Thus the older treatise calls book ii. 'the five-versed' (see the citation at p. 45), and book iii. in like manner 'the six-versed' (see p. cxl). Cf. also the statements of the next paragraph as to book vii.⌋

⌊One verse is the norm for book vii.—The absence of any book in which two-versed hymns are the norm, and the frequency of two-versed hymns in book vii., might lead us to think that both one-versed and two-versed hymns are to be regarded as normal for book vii. (cf. p. 388, line 13); but this is not the case (cf. line 24 of the same page). The Major Anukr. speaks of book vii. as 'the book of one-versed hymns,' ekarcasūktakāṇḍām; and its testimony is confirmed by the Old Anukr., as cited by SPP. on p. 18 of his Critical Notice, which says, 'among the one-versed hymns [i.e. in book vii.], [the anuvākas are or consist] of hymns made of one verse,' ṛk-sūktā ekarceṣu. Further confirmation of the view that one (not one or two) is the true norm for book vii. is found in the fact that the Anukr. is silent as to the length of the hymns of one verse (cf. p. cxlviii), but makes the express statement dvyṛcam for each of the thirty hymns of two verses.⌋

⌊'''Arrangement of books i.-vii. with reference to verse-norms.'''—If we examine table 1 (p. cxliv), in which these books are set in the ascending numerical order of their verse-norms, several facts become clear. It is apparent, in the first place, that this division is made up of those seven books in which the number—normal or prevalent—of verses to a hymn runs from one to eight; secondly, that the saṁhitā itself begins with the norm of four; and, thirdly, that the number two as a norm is missing from the series. Fourthly, it is indeed apparent that every book shows departures from its norm; but also—what is more important in this connection—that these departures are all on one side, that of excess, and never on that of deficiency.⌋