[Y-Indology] Panini sutras & text divisions

[Guest guest]

>... the tradition must be at least a few centuries old. ....

> However, I see a

>somewhat similar mnemonic system of keys in Satavalekar's

>edition of the Taittiriiya Samhitaa.

 

 

Right, though I think the TS system is more like the Samaveda ones I

mentioned:

The TS one was first described by Albrecht Weber around 1850/60 (in

Indische Studien, I think - quoting from old memory, student times) : it

has, (if I remember correctly : writing from home), a system that counts

units of 10 words, and if, say, 5 words exceed that at the end, it will

say: panca ca. (Taittiriya Aranyaka has a slightly different system,

based on 5 words, I vaguely recall).

 

Thus clearly meant to check the exact length and the complete recitation of

the sections of the Anuvaka in question.

 

The Katha Samhita, too, has a similar system: such numbers are given at the

end of each sub-Anuvaka (Anuvacana?) and some are quite high (in the

forties , fifties or so).

 

Albrecht Weber (around 1860), Leoplold von Schroeder (around 1900) and I

(around 1975) have tried to figure out that system -- all 3 without

success. Do not even try: the numbers have conveniently been suppressed by

the editors (Schroeder, Satvalekar) in their editions, and one has to go

back to the few MSS that add these numbers.

 

Nothing worked, when I tried then. Though the numbers have some

relationship to the length of the Anuvacana, neither number of words, nor

number of Udattas, nor similar proposals, nor some combinations did work.

Yet, probably a combination of 2 systems: "words + X"; must try again

sometime.

 

***

 

Importantly, this indicates: when the first surviving birchbark MS of KS

were written down (c.1500-1600), Kashmiri scribes still could rely (on

older MSS relying) on oral transmission of this rare school. Long gone by

the time Georg Buehler and Marc Aurel Stein visited in 1875, 1890.

 

The same is of course true for many other smaller oral traditions. Martin

Haug still heard the Maitrayani Samhita recited once per year in Gujarat,

around 1860. No longer.... (Same for the Gujarat Atharvaveda, lost after

1960 only).

 

As I have often said: something should be done about preserving such

smaller oral traditions, not just for the usual, common Sakhas (whose

"complete recording" is usualy hyped on the internet & in the press). But

then, there is the usual apathy as well.

(And, my friends & I have been to about too many villages already for one

lifetime...)

 

In other words: those who complain loudly about 'colonial' losses should

put their tape /video recorders where their mouths are, -- rather, take a

bus, scooter or taxi to the next Vaidika village...

 

What has not been lost over the past 50 years! Jaiminiya Brahmana

recitation, for example... Now the last reciter of the complete Samhita is

also gone.

Oh well...

 

 

 

============================================================

Michael Witzel

Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University

2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138, USA

 

ph. 1- 617-496 2990 (also messages)

home page: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm

[Guest guest]

INDOLOGY, Michael Witzel <witzel@f...> wrote:

> >... the tradition must be at least a few centuries old. ....

> The Katha Samhita, too, has a similar system: such numbers are

given at the

> end of each sub-Anuvaka (Anuvacana?) and some are quite high (in the

> forties , fifties or so).

 

VA: 50. The same number is sometimes also used for TS.

 

>

> ***

>

> Importantly, this indicates: when the first surviving birchbark MS

of KS

> were written down (c.1500-1600), Kashmiri scribes still could rely

(on

> older MSS relying) on oral transmission of this rare school. Long

gone by

> the time Georg Buehler and Marc Aurel Stein visited in 1875, 1890.

>

 

VA: According to tradition, the oral tradition of Kathaka samhita

died out in 1700's. This was estimated for me by some members of the

Kashmiri community that I have met.

 

> The same is of course true for many other smaller oral traditions.

Martin

> Haug still heard the Maitrayani Samhita recited once per year in

Gujarat,

> around 1860.

VA: The MS was recited well into 1900's.

 

 

 

No longer.... (Same for the Gujarat Atharvaveda, lost after

> 1960 only).

 

VA: It still exists. Has been resuscitated by the Kanchi matha from

the last survivor, or so I have been told. I cannot vouch for

the 'purity' of the recitations however.

Of course, practically all the well known recitors of this Veda have

RV or TS type recitations of AVZ as well.