iv. 5. 5 over against the yáç ca cárati of RV. vii. 55. 6; or, again, to discover with certainty the true intention (cf. TB. ii. 4. 710) of a lot of wavering variants, as in the case of those that disguise the sváravo mitā́ḥ of xix. 42. 1. They show us that the vastly superior tradition of the RV. corrects that of the AV. in many places (cf. the accentless asahanta of xi. 1. 2); but that the AV. occasionally scores a point even against the RV., as in the case of maghā́su at xiv. 1. 13 (RV. agā́su), or as in the case of nāu...nāu at xviii. 1. 4 (RV. no...nāu). What a puzzle is the phrase (xiv. 2. 72) janiyánti nāv ágravaḥ, 'The unmarried [plural] of us two [dual] seek a wife,' by itself, involving, as it does, a breach of the mathematical axiom that the whole is greater than any of its parts! but the comparison of RV. vii. 96. 4, with its nú for nāu, teaches us that the error lies in the nāu, even if it does not show us with certainty how that error is to be emended. Even with all the array of variants, we are (as Whitney notes at iv. 8. 1; vi. 22. 3; 31. 3) at times forced to the conclusion that certain verses were hopelessly spoiled before ever any of the various text-makers took them in hand.
Illustrations of classes of text errors.—I have already hinted at the variety of special investigations to which the mass of critical material here assembled invites. The various occasions of probable error in the transmission of Indic texts have not yet been made the object of a systematic and formal treatise. Here we have, conveniently presented, the very material needed for such an advance in the progress of Vedic criticism. By grouping suspected readings into clearly defined classes, it will become possible to recognize suspected readings as real errors with a far greater degree of certainty than ever before. Illustrations of this matter are so abundant as easily to lead us far afield; but several may be given.[1]
Auditory errors.—A most striking example of a variation occasioned by the almost complete similarity of sound of two different readings is presented by the pratītya of AÇS. iii. 10. 11, as compared with the pratī́caḥ of AV. vi. 32. 3. Compare dyām of HGS. i. 15. 3, with jyā́m of AV. vi. 42. 1. —Confusion of surd and sonant is exemplified in the variant version of part of the familiar RV. hymn, x. 154, given at AV. xviii. 2. 14, where we have yébhyo mádhu pradhā́ ádhi, 'for whom honey [is] on the felly.' This may or may not be the genuine Atharvan reading; but it is certainly an unintelligent corruption of the pradhā́vati of the RV.: and it is very likely that we have the same blunder at vi. 70. 3, where the occasion for the corruption is palpable.[2] The simplification of twin consonants is exemplified at xviii. 3. 3, where the editors of the Berlin
