Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/35

Rh initial letter of the editor's name (cf. p. c). Besides the marked additions, there are others, like the paragraphs beginning with the word "Translated," which are not marked. It is therefore proper to give a general systematic account of the editorial additions and changes.

The General Introduction.—This consists of two parts: the first, by the editor; the second, elaborated in part from material left by the author.—Part I.—Besides the topics which unquestionably belong to the General Introduction and are treated in Part II., there are a good many which, but for their voluminousness, might properly enough have been put into the editor's preface. Such are, for example, the discussions of the various critical elements which form the bulk of Whitney's Commentary. I have printed them as Part I. of the General Introduction. The form of presentation is, I trust, such that, with the help of the Table of Contents, the student will be able to find any desired topic very quickly.

The General Introduction: Part II.—Certain general statements concerning the manuscripts and the method of editing, and concerning the text of the Atharva-Veda Saṁhitā as a whole, must needs be made, and are most suitably presented in the form of a general introduction prefixed to the main body of the work. For this Introduction, Whitney left a considerable amount of material. Parts of that material were so well worked out as to be nearly or quite usable for printing: namely, the brief chapter, 8, on the metrical form of the Saṁhitā, and (most fortunately!) nearly all of the very important chapter, 1, containing the description of his manuscripts. The like is true, as will appear from the absence of ell-brackets, of considerable portions of chapter 10, on the extent and structure of the Saṁhitā.—Chapters 2 and 3 (concerning the stanza çáṁ no devī́r abhíṣṭaye and the Collation-Book) might have been put in Part I., as being from the editor's hand; but, on the ground of intrinsic fitness, they have been put immediately after the description of the mss.

For chapters 4 and 5 and 6 (on repeated verses, on refrains, and on accent-marks) and chapter 9 (on the divisions of the text), Whitney left sketches, brief and rough, written with a lead-pencil and written (it would seem) in the days of his weakness as he lay on a couch or bed. I have made faithful use of these sketches, not only as indicating in detail the topics that Whitney most desired to treat, but also as giving, or at least suggesting, the language to be used in their treatment. Nevertheless, they have been much rewritten in parts, and in such a way that it is hardly feasible or even worth while to separate the author's part from the editor's. The final result must pass for our joint work. The sketch for chapter 7 (on the orthographic method of the Berlin text) was also a lead-pencil draft; but it was one that had evidently been made years before those last mentioned, and its substance was such as to need only recasting in