Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/162

cliv Thus in i. 3 (see p. 4), verses 2-5 are merely repetitions of verse 1 (and senseless repetitions, because only Parjanya, of the deities named, could with any propriety be called the father of the reed: cf. i. 2. 1); while verses 7 & 8 have nothing to do with the refrain and are to be combined into one verse: we have then four verses, the norm of the book.

Once more, in ii. 10 (see p. 51), no less evidently, the verse-couples 2 & 3, 4 & 5, and 6 & 7 are to be severally combined into three single verses, with omission of the refrain, which belongs only to verses 1 and 8: so that here we have five verses, again the normal number.

So, further, in iii. 31 (see p. 141), as it seems clear, 2 & 3, without the refrain, make verse 2; 4 with the refrain is verse 3; and 5 is a senseless intrusion; then, omitting all further repetitions of the refrain, 6 & 7 make verse 4; 8 & 9 make verse 5; and 10 & 11 make verse 6, six being here the verse-norm.

In book vi., a number of hymns which exceed the regular norm are formular and would bear reduction to hymns of three verses: instances are hymns 17, 34, 38, 107, 132. ⌊The cases are quite numerous in which the added verse is lacking in one of the parallel texts. Thus in book vi., hymns 16, 17, 34, 63, 83, 108, 121, and 128 (see the critical notes on those hymns and cf. p. 1014, l. 16) appear in the Pāippalāda text as hymns of three verses each.⌋

Besides these cases, there are not a few others where we may with much plausibility assume that the verses in excess are later appendixes or interpolations: such are i. 29. 4-5; ii. 3. 6; 32. 6; 33. 3 ab 4 cd, 6; iii. 15. 7-8; 21. 6, 8-10 (see note under vs. 7); 29. 7-8; iv. 2. 8; 16. 8-9; 17- 3; 39. 9-10; vi. 16. 4; 63. 4; 83. 4; 122. 3, 5; 123. 3-4. In book vii., moreover, the put-together character of many of the longer hymns is readily apparent (cf. hymns 17, 38, 50, 53, 76, 79, and 82 as they appear in the table on p. 1021).

But such analyses, even if pushed to an extreme, will not dispose of all the cases of an excess in the number of verses of a hymn above the norm of the book: thus iii. 16 corresponds to a Rig-Veda hymn of seven verses; iv. 30 and 33 each to one of eight; and v. 3 to one of nine. It will be necessary to allow that the general principle of arrangement ⌊by verse-norms⌋ was not adhered to absolutely without exception.

⌊Arrangement of the hymns within any given book of this division.—In continuation of what was said in general on this topic at p. cxliii, we may add the following. The "first" hymn (pūrvam), "For the retention of sacred learning," is of so distinctly prefatory character as to stand of