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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1The nom. plur. which occurs there is tigmategas’4, and the commentator remarks: tigmategasas tivrategasosty(rgitaprabhavas ; tegasa ityevamvidha etabéhakhasahketapashas Ahandasah sarvatra. See also Maitr. Up. VI, a9. xl viii VEDIC HYMNS. (VIII, 54, 3-4, which verses form the 26th couplet, if counting from VIII, 49,1) is addressed to many gods. The last verse (of these eight hymns), VIII, 56, 5, beginning with the words agety agniz, is addressed to Agni, and the last foot celebrates SQrya. Whatsoever Praskavva and Prishadhra gave (or, if we read prishadhraya, whatever Praskanva gave to Prishadhra), all that is celebrated in the two hymns beginning with bhdrit. After the hymn addressed to Agni (VIII, 60), there follow six hymns addressed to Indra, beginning with ubhayam.’ But the most important point of all is this, that these hymns, which exist both in the Pada and Samhita texts, are quoted by the Pr&tisAkhya, not only for general purposes, but for special passages occurring in them, and nowhere else. Thus in Sdtra 154, hetayad is quoted as one of the few words which do not require the elision of a following short a. In order to appreciate what is implied by this special quotation, it is necessary to have a clear insight into the mechanism of the Pratisikhya. Its chief object is to bring under general categories the changes which the separate words of the Pada text undergo when joined together in the Arsht Samhita, and to do this with the utmost brevity possible. Now the Sandhi rules, as observed in the Samhita of the Rig-veda, are by no means so uniform and regular as they are in later Sanskrit, and hence it is sometimes extremely difficult to bring all the exceptional cases under more or less general rules. In our passage the author of the Pratisakhya endeavours to comprehend all the passages where an initial a in the Veda is not elided after a final e oro. Inordinary Sanskrit it would be always elided, in the Samhita it is sometimes elided, and sometimes not. Thus the Pratisakhya begins in Sdtra 138 by stating that if the short a stands at the beginning of a pada or foot, it is always elided. Why it should be always elided in the very place where the metre most strongly requires that it should be pronounced, does not concern the author of the Pratisikhya. He is a statistician, not a grammarian, and he therefore simply adds in Sdtra 153 the only three exceptional passages where the a, under these very circumstances, PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, xlix happens to be not elided. He then proceeds in Sdtra 139 to state that a is elided even in the middle of a p4da, provided it be light, followed by y or v, and these, y or v, again followed by a light vowel. Hence the Samhita writes te svadan, soz ydm, but not sikshantosvratam, for here the a of avratam is heavy; nor mitramaho:vadyat, for here the a following the v is heavy
2Hence the Samhita writes te svadan, soz ydm, but not sikshantosvratam, for here the a of avratam is heavy; nor mitramaho:vadyat, for here the a following the v is heavy Then follows again an extension of this rule, viz. in the case of words ending in 4vo. After these, a short a, even if followed by other consonants besides y or v, may be elided, but the other conditions must be fulfilled, i.e. the short a must be light, and the vowel of the next syllable must again be light. Thus the Samhita writes indeed gavo sbhita#, but not gavo:gman, because here the a is heavy, being followed by two consonants. After this, a more general rule is given, or, more correctly, a more comprehensive observation is made, viz. that under all circumstances initial a is elided, if the preceding word ends in aye, ayak, ave, or avak. As might be expected, however, so large a class must have numerous exceptions, and these can only be collected by quoting every word ending in these syllables, or every passage in which the exceptions occur. Before these exceptions are enumerated, some other more or less general observations are made, providing for the elision of initial a. Initial a, according to Sitra 142, is to be elided if the preceding word is va, and if this vak is preceded by 4, na, pra, kva, kitrak, savita, eva, or ka#. There is, of course, no intelligible reason why, if these words precede va, the next a should be elided. It is a mere statement of facts, and, generally speaking, these statements are minutely accurate. There is probably no verse in the whole of the Rig-veda where an initial a after vak is elided, unless these very words precede, or unless some other observation has been made to provide for the elision of the a. For instance, in V, 25,1, we find vak preceded by akkfa, which is not among the words just mentioned, and here the Samhit4 does not elide the a of agnim, which follows after va%. After all these more or less general observations as to the elision of [32] d | VEDIC HYMNS.
3For instance, in V, 25,1, we find vak preceded by akkfa, which is not among the words just mentioned, and here the Samhit4 does not elide the a of agnim, which follows after va%. After all these more or less general observations as to the elision of [32] d | VEDIC HYMNS. an initial a are thus exhausted, the author of the Pratisikhya descends into particulars, and gives lists, first, of words the initial a of which is always elided ; secondly, of words which, if preceding, require under all circumstances the elision of the initial a of the next word, whatever may have been said to the contrary in the preceding Sutras. Afterwards, he gives a number of passages which defy all rules, and must be given on their own merits, and as they stand in the Samhita. Lastly, follow special exceptions to the more or less general rules given before. And here, among these special exceptions, we see that the author of the Pratisdkhya finds it necessary to quote a passage from a Valakhilya hymn in which hetdya# occurs, i.e. a word ending in ayak, and where, in defiance of S(tra 141, which required the elision of a following initial a under all circumstances (sarvatha), the initial a of asya is not elided; VIII, 50, 2, Samhita, sat&nika hetdyoasya. It might be objected that the Pratisakhya only quotes hetdyaZ as an exceptional word, and does not refer directly to the verse in the Valakhilya hymn. But fortunately hetdya# occurs but twice in the whole of the Rig-veda; and in the other passage where it occurs, I, 190, 4, neither the rule nor the exception as to the elision of an initial a, could apply. The author of the Pratisakhya therefore makes no distinction between the Valakhilya and any other hymns of the Rig-veda, and he would have considered his phonetic statistics equally at fault, if it had been possible to quote one single passage from the hymns VIII, 49 to 59, as contravening his observations, as if such passages had been alleged from the hymns of Vasish¢ha or Visv4mitra. It would lead me too far, were I to enter here into similar cases in support of the fact that the Pratisikhya makes no distinction between the Valakhilya and any other hymns of the Rig-veda-samhita*. But I doubt whether the bearing of this fact has ever been fully realised. Here we see that the absence of the elision of a short a which follows after a word ending in aya&, was considered of sufficient importance " The Pratisikhya takes into account both the Saékala and Bashkala sakhas, as may be seen from Siitra 1057. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. li
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1The nom. plur. which occurs there is tigmategas’4, and the commentator remarks: tigmategasas tivrategasosty(rgitaprabhavas ; tegasa ityevamvidha etabéhakhasahketapashas Ahandasah sarvatra. See also Maitr. Up. VI, a9. xl viii VEDIC HYMNS. (VIII, 54, 3-4, which verses form the 26th couplet, if counting from VIII, 49,1) is addressed to many gods. The last verse (of these eight hymns), VIII, 56, 5, beginning with the words agety agniz, is addressed to Agni, and the last foot celebrates SQrya. Whatsoever Praskavva and Prishadhra gave (or, if we read prishadhraya, whatever Praskanva gave to Prishadhra), all that is celebrated in the two hymns beginning with bhdrit. After the hymn addressed to Agni (VIII, 60), there follow six hymns addressed to Indra, beginning with ubhayam.’ But the most important point of all is this, that these hymns, which exist both in the Pada and Samhita texts, are quoted by the Pr&tisAkhya, not only for general purposes, but for special passages occurring in them, and nowhere else. Thus in Sdtra 154, hetayad is quoted as one of the few words which do not require the elision of a following short a. In order to appreciate what is implied by this special quotation, it is necessary to have a clear insight into the mechanism of the Pratisikhya. Its chief object is to bring under general categories the changes which the separate words of the Pada text undergo when joined together in the Arsht Samhita, and to do this with the utmost brevity possible. Now the Sandhi rules, as observed in the Samhita of the Rig-veda, are by no means so uniform and regular as they are in later Sanskrit, and hence it is sometimes extremely difficult to bring all the exceptional cases under more or less general rules. In our passage the author of the Pratisakhya endeavours to comprehend all the passages where an initial a in the Veda is not elided after a final e oro. Inordinary Sanskrit it would be always elided, in the Samhita it is sometimes elided, and sometimes not. Thus the Pratisakhya begins in Sdtra 138 by stating that if the short a stands at the beginning of a pada or foot, it is always elided. Why it should be always elided in the very place where the metre most strongly requires that it should be pronounced, does not concern the author of the Pratisikhya. He is a statistician, not a grammarian, and he therefore simply adds in Sdtra 153 the only three exceptional passages where the a, under these very circumstances, PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, xlix happens to be not elided. He then proceeds in Sdtra 139 to state that a is elided even in the middle of a p4da, provided it be light, followed by y or v, and these, y or v, again followed by a light vowel. Hence the Samhita writes te svadan, soz ydm, but not sikshantosvratam, for here the a of avratam is heavy; nor mitramaho:vadyat, for here the a following the v is heavy
2Hence the Samhita writes te svadan, soz ydm, but not sikshantosvratam, for here the a of avratam is heavy; nor mitramaho:vadyat, for here the a following the v is heavy Then follows again an extension of this rule, viz. in the case of words ending in 4vo. After these, a short a, even if followed by other consonants besides y or v, may be elided, but the other conditions must be fulfilled, i.e. the short a must be light, and the vowel of the next syllable must again be light. Thus the Samhita writes indeed gavo sbhita#, but not gavo:gman, because here the a is heavy, being followed by two consonants. After this, a more general rule is given, or, more correctly, a more comprehensive observation is made, viz. that under all circumstances initial a is elided, if the preceding word ends in aye, ayak, ave, or avak. As might be expected, however, so large a class must have numerous exceptions, and these can only be collected by quoting every word ending in these syllables, or every passage in which the exceptions occur. Before these exceptions are enumerated, some other more or less general observations are made, providing for the elision of initial a. Initial a, according to Sitra 142, is to be elided if the preceding word is va, and if this vak is preceded by 4, na, pra, kva, kitrak, savita, eva, or ka#. There is, of course, no intelligible reason why, if these words precede va, the next a should be elided. It is a mere statement of facts, and, generally speaking, these statements are minutely accurate. There is probably no verse in the whole of the Rig-veda where an initial a after vak is elided, unless these very words precede, or unless some other observation has been made to provide for the elision of the a. For instance, in V, 25,1, we find vak preceded by akkfa, which is not among the words just mentioned, and here the Samhit4 does not elide the a of agnim, which follows after va%. After all these more or less general observations as to the elision of [32] d | VEDIC HYMNS.
3For instance, in V, 25,1, we find vak preceded by akkfa, which is not among the words just mentioned, and here the Samhit4 does not elide the a of agnim, which follows after va%. After all these more or less general observations as to the elision of [32] d | VEDIC HYMNS. an initial a are thus exhausted, the author of the Pratisikhya descends into particulars, and gives lists, first, of words the initial a of which is always elided ; secondly, of words which, if preceding, require under all circumstances the elision of the initial a of the next word, whatever may have been said to the contrary in the preceding Sutras. Afterwards, he gives a number of passages which defy all rules, and must be given on their own merits, and as they stand in the Samhita. Lastly, follow special exceptions to the more or less general rules given before. And here, among these special exceptions, we see that the author of the Pratisdkhya finds it necessary to quote a passage from a Valakhilya hymn in which hetdya# occurs, i.e. a word ending in ayak, and where, in defiance of S(tra 141, which required the elision of a following initial a under all circumstances (sarvatha), the initial a of asya is not elided; VIII, 50, 2, Samhita, sat&nika hetdyoasya. It might be objected that the Pratisakhya only quotes hetdyaZ as an exceptional word, and does not refer directly to the verse in the Valakhilya hymn. But fortunately hetdya# occurs but twice in the whole of the Rig-veda; and in the other passage where it occurs, I, 190, 4, neither the rule nor the exception as to the elision of an initial a, could apply. The author of the Pratisakhya therefore makes no distinction between the Valakhilya and any other hymns of the Rig-veda, and he would have considered his phonetic statistics equally at fault, if it had been possible to quote one single passage from the hymns VIII, 49 to 59, as contravening his observations, as if such passages had been alleged from the hymns of Vasish¢ha or Visv4mitra. It would lead me too far, were I to enter here into similar cases in support of the fact that the Pratisikhya makes no distinction between the Valakhilya and any other hymns of the Rig-veda-samhita*. But I doubt whether the bearing of this fact has ever been fully realised. Here we see that the absence of the elision of a short a which follows after a word ending in aya&, was considered of sufficient importance " The Pratisikhya takes into account both the Saékala and Bashkala sakhas, as may be seen from Siitra 1057. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. li
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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