Considering all this, I feel as convinced as it is possible to be in such matters, that in all the passages where u loká occurs and where it means space, carrière ouverte, freedom, we ought to read uloká; but in spite of this I could never bring myself to insert this word, of which neither the authors of the Brâhmanas nor the writers of the Prâtisâkhyas or even later grammarians had any idea, into the text. On

the contrary, I should here, too, consider it most useful to leave the traditional reading, and to add the corrections in the margin, in order that, if these conjectural emendations are in time considered as beyond the reach of doubt, they may be used as evidence in support of conjectures which, without such evidence, might seem intolerable in the eyes of timid critics.

There remains one difficulty about this hypothetical word uloká, which it is but fair to mention. If it is derived from uru, or, as Professor Bollensen suggests, from urvak or urvak, the change of va into o would require further support. Neither maghon for maghavan, nor durona for dura-vana are strictly analogous cases, because in each we have an a preceding the va or u. Strictly speaking, uroka presupposes uravaka, as slóka presupposes sravaka, or óka, house, avaka (from av, not from uk). It should also be mentioned that a compound such as RV. X, 128, 2, urúlokam (scil. antáriksham) is strange, and shows how completely the origin of loka was forgotten at the time when the hymns of the tenth Mandala were composed. But all this does not persuade us to accept Ascoli's conjecture (Lezioni di Fonologia Comparata, p. 235), that as uloga (but not uloka) is a regular Tamil form of loka, uloka in the Veda might be due to a reaction of the aboriginal dialects on the Vedic Sanskrit. We want far more evidence before admitting such a reaction during the Vedic period.

Footnotes

lxxi:a Professor Aufrecht in his new edition of the text (1877) adopts the more timid reading prisnayah. See also Brihat-Samhitâ, transl. by Kern, p. 2: Sikatâh prisnayo gargâ vâlakhilyâ marîkipâh bhrigavoऽaṅgirasas kaiva sûkshmâs kânye maharshayah.

lxxv:a On locus, see Corssen, Krit. Beitr. p. 463, and Aussprache, 2nd ed., p. 810. Corssen does not derive it from a root stâ or, sthâ, but identifies it with Goth. strik-s, Engl. stroke, strecke.

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