Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/37

Rh between a statement as to where the hymn is "Found in Pāipp." or in other texts, and a statement as to how the hymn is "Used in Kāuç.," Whitney had given in his manuscript a statement as to where the hymn had been previously translated by Ludwig or Grill or some other scholar. For Weber's and Henry's translations of whole books, he had apparently thought to content himself by referring once and for all at the beginning of each book to the volume of the Indische Studien or of the Traduction. By a singular coincidence, a very large amount of translation and explanation of this Veda (by Deussen, Henry, Griffith, Weber, Bloomfield: see the table, p. cvii) appeared within three or four years after Whitney's death. The version of Griffith, and that alone, is complete. As for the partial translations and discussions, apart from the fact that they are scattered through different periodicals and independent volumes, their multiplicity is so confusing that it would be very troublesome in the case of any given hymn to find for oneself just how many of the translators had discussed it and where. I have therefore endeavored to give with all desirable completeness, for every single one of the 588 hymns of books i.-xix. (save ii. 20-23), a bibliography of the translations and discussions of that hymn up to the year 1898 or thereabout. For some hymns the amount of discussion is large: cf. the references for iv. 16; v. 22; ix. 9; x. 7; xviii. 1; xix. 6. At first blush, some may think it "damnable iteration" that I should, for hymn-translations, make reference to Griffith some 588 times, to Bloomfield some 214, to Weber some 179, or to Henry some 167 times; but I am sure that serious students of the work will find the references exceedingly convenient. As noted above, they are given in the paragraphs beginning with the word "Translated." Although these paragraphs are almost wholly editorial additions, I have not marked them as such by enclosing them in ell-brackets.

I have always endeavored to give these references in the chronological sequence of the works concerned (see the table with dates and explanations at p. cvii). These dates need to be taken into account in judging Whitney's statements, as when he says "all the translators" understand a passage thus and so. Finally, it is sure to happen that a careful comparison of the views of the other translators will often reveal a specific item of interpretation which is to be preferred to Whitney's. Here and there, I have given a reference to such an item; but to do so systematically is a part of the great task which this work leaves unfinished.

'''Added special introductions to the hymns of book xviii. and to some others.'''—The relation of the constituent material of the four so-called "hymns" of book xviii. to the Rig-Veda etc. is such that a clear synoptic statement of the provenience of the different groups of verses or of single verses is in the highest degree desirable; and I have therefore endeavored to give such