Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/83

Rh Bloomfield and by Caland. —The value of these Sūtras is primarily as a help to the understanding of the ritual setting and general purpose of a given hymn, and so, mediately, to its exegesis. From that aspect they will be discussed below (p. lxxvii). Meantime a few words may be said about their value for the criticism of the structure of the Saṁhitā.

Bearing of the ritual Sūtras upon the criticism of the structure and text of the Saṁhitā.—Bloomfield himself discusses this matter in the introduction to his edition of Kāuçika, p. xli. He there points out instances in which briefer independent hymns have been fused into one longer composite hymn by the redactors of the Saṁhitā, and shows that the Sūtras recognize the composite character of the whole by prescribing the employment of the component parts separately. Thus (as is pointed out also by Whitney), iv. 38 is made up of two independent parts, a gambling-charm (verses 1-4) and a cattle-charm (verses 5-7). The Sūtra prescribes them separately for these wholly different uses, the former with other gambling-charms; and to the latter it gives a special name. Bloomfield's next illustrations, which concern vii. 74 and 76, have in the meantime given rise to the critical question whether vii. 74. 1-2 and 76. 1-2 did not form one hymn for Keçava.

The mss. of the Sūtras may sometimes be taken as testimony for the readings of the cited pratīkas. The like was said (p. lxxiii) of the mss. of the Anukramaṇīs. The mss. of the Kāuçika (cf. Bloomfield's Introduction, p. xxxix) are wont to agree with those of the Vulgate, even in obvious blunders.

Grouping of mantra-material in Sūtra and in Saṁhitā compared.—Many instances might be adduced from the Kāuçika which may well have a direct bearing upon our judgment concerning the unitary character of hymns that appear as units in our text. To cite or discuss them here would take us too far afield, and I must content myself once more with a suggestion, namely, that a systematic study of the grouping of the mantra-material in the ritual, as compared with its grouping in the Saṁhitā, ought to be undertaken. At Kāuç. 29. 1-14 the verses of AV. v. 13 are brought in for use, all of them and in their Vulgate order. The like is true of AV. ix. 5. 1-6 at Kāuç. 64. 6-16. Whether it would lead to clear-cut