Vedic Hymns, Part I (SBE32): Preface to the First Edition... | Internet Sacred Text Archive

I begin with some mistakes of my own, mistakes which I might have avoided, if I had always consulted the Prâtisâkhya, where single words or whole passages of the Veda are quoted. Some of these mistakes have been removed by Professor Aufrecht, others, however, appear in his transcript as they appear in my own edition.

I need hardly point out passages where palpable misprints in my edition have been repeated in Professor Aufrecht's text. I mean by palpable misprints, cases where a glance at the Pada text or at the Samhitâ text or a reference to Sâyana's commentary would show at once what was intended. Thus, for instance, in VI, 15, 3. vridhé, as I had printed in the Samhitâ, was clearly a misprint for vridhó, as may be seen from the Pada, which gives vridháh, and from Sâyana. Here, though Professor Aufrecht repeats vridhé, I think it hardly necessary to show that the authority of the best MSS. (S 2 alone contains a correction of vridhó to vridhé) is in favour of vridháh, whatever we may think of the relative value of these two readings. One must be careful, however, in a text like that of the Vedic hymns, where the presence or absence of a single letter or accent begins to become

the object of the most learned and painstaking discussions, not to claim too large an indulgence for misprints. A misprint in the Samhitâ, if repeated in the Pada, or if admitted even in the commentary of Sâyana, though it need not be put down to the editor's deplorable ignorance, becomes yet a serious matter, and I willingly take all the blame which is justly due for occasional accidents of this character. Such are, for instance, II, 12, 14, sasamânám instead of sasamánâm; I, 124, 4, sudhyúvah, in the Pada, instead of sundhyúvah; and the substitution in several places of a short u instead of a long û in such forms as sûsávâma, when occurring in the Pada; cf. I, 166, 14; 167, 9.

It is clear from the Prâtisâkhya, Sûtra 819 and 163, 5, that the words ûtî´ índra in IV, 29, I, should not be joined together, but that the hiatus should remain. Hence ûtî´ndra, as printed in my edition and repeated in Professor Aufrecht's, should be corrected, and the hiatus be preserved, as it is in the fourth verse of the same hymn, ûtî´ itthâ´. MSS. S 1, S 3 are right; in S 2 the words are joined.