xviii. It has no colophon at the end, but is a modern copy, on European paper, and in part made from the same original as P. and M., as is shown both by accordances in minute peculiarities and errors of reading, and by containing at the end of book xi. the same colophon as they. In certain of the books, namely i., ii., vi.-x., xvi., xvii., it shows signs of greater independence. It is by far the most faulty and least valuable of all the manuscripts collated. Only the first book is accentuated, nearly in the familiar RV. method.
E. This is a saṁhitā-manuscript of all the twenty books (except the latter half of xviii., from 3. 6 on), belonging to the India Office Library in London. It is described in Eggeling's Catalogue on p. 37 (now numbered 229 and 230; formerly 682 and 760 or 113). It has no date; Eggeling reckons it as of the 17th century. It is written on coarse rough paper, in a large and irregular hand, apparently by a scholar for his own use, and is fairly correct. The text is here and there a little mutilated at the edges by the reprehensible carelessness of the binder; otherwise it is in good preservation. Its method of accentuation is very various: see below, p. cxxii.
I. This is a complete copy of the saṁhitā-text, in large form (14¾ × 6¾ in.), being one of the set of Vedic manuscripts brought to Europe by Col. Polier, and now belonging to the British Museum in London. The Atharvan material is contained in two volumes: vol. i. gives first book xix., then xx., then i.-x.; vol. ii. gives the Anukramaṇī, then the Gopatha Brāhmaṇa, then books xi.-xvii., then xviii.—each division, in both volumes, being separately paged. There is no colophon; but the whole is evidently a modern copy, made for Col. Polier himself. It is on smooth paper, well written, and not especially inaccurate. It contains the verse çáṁ no devī́r etc. prefixed at the beginning, like some of the manuscripts compared later (see p. cxvi).
Of all this Atharvan material of Polier's, a copy was made for Col. Martin while it remained in the latter's keeping (as Prof. H. H. Wilson informed me that he personally knew it to have been for a time); and this copy now constitutes Nos. 233-236 of the India Office collection, being credited as presented by R. Johnson (No. 234, containing Books xi.-xviii., has W. D. W.'s note to this effect reported in the Catalogue; but Prof. Eggeling fails to notice that the other volumes are of the same character). The collation of No. 234 was begun, but abandoned on the discovery of its origin. Doubtless No. 232 (old number 901) is another copy of the Polier first volume, made at the same time for Colebrooke, or else ⌊made for Martin and⌋ later given ⌊to Colebrooke⌋ by Martin, as it is stamped "Claud Martin"; ⌊at all events, the one who gave it to the Library was Colebrooke⌋.
