Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/97

Rh is an entirely gratuitous procedure. And as for such grammar as kenedaṁ bhūmir nihataḥ (a feminine noun, with neuter adjective pronoun and masculine predicate participle: folio 186 a$15$ = x. 2. 24$a$),—to mend that would be to rob the Kashmirian text of its piquancy; and why should we stop with the genders, and not emend also the senseless niha- to the intelligible vihi-? Let all this be done, and we have the Vulgate text pure and simple.

The texts whose readings are reported.—The principal texts included in these reports are: of the Saṁhitās, the Rig-Veda, Tāittirīya, Māitrāyaṇi, Vājasaneyi-, Sāma-Veda, and Atharva-Veda; of the Brāhmaṇas, the Āitareya, Kāuṣītaki, Tāittirīya, Çatapatha, Pañcaviṅça, and Gopatha; of the Āraṇyakas, the Āitareya and Tāittirīya; of the Upanishads, the Kāuṣītaki, Kaṭha, Bṛhadāraṇyaka, and Chāndogya; of the Çrāuta-Sūtras, the Āçvalāyana, Cān̄khāyana, Āpastamba, Kātyāyana, and Lāṭyāyana; of the Gṛhya-Sūtras, the Āçvalāyana, Çān̄khāyana, Āpastamba, Hiraṇyakeçi-, Pāraskara, and Gobhila. Other texts are occasionally cited: so the Kāṭhaka and the Kapiṣṭhala Saṁhitā, and the Jāiminīya Brāhmaṇa; and the names of some others may be seen from the List of Abbreviations, pages ci ff. I have added references to some recently edited parallel texts, without attempting to incorporate their readings into the digested report of the variants: such are the Mantra-pāṭha, von Schroeder's "Kaṭhahandschriften," and Knauer's Mānava-Gṛhya-Sūtra. Von Schroeder's edition of Kāṭhaka i. came too late. The information accessible to Whitney concerning the then unpublished Black Yajus texts was very fragmentary and inadequate; this fact must be borne in mind in connection with implied references to the Kāṭhaka and Kapiṣṭhala (cf. his notes to iii. 17; 19; 20; 21; v. 27; vii. 89).

The method of reporting the readings aims at the utmost possible accuracy.—Whitney has constantly striven for three things: that his reports should be characterized, 1. and 2., by the utmost attainable accuracy and completeness; and, 3., that they should be presented in a thoroughly well-digested form. First, as to the accuracy, little need be said. It may be well to remind the reader, however, that Whitney has used the most methodical precision in this matter, and that, accordingly, if, under a given AV. verse, he cites a parallel text without mention of variant, his silence is to be rigorously construed as meaning positively that the parallel text reads as does the AV. verse in question. As a matter of fact, I believe that it will be found possible in nearly every case to reconstruct the parallel texts with precision from the data of Whitney's reports.