GENERAL INTRODUCTION, PART I.
BY THE EDITOR
General Premises
Scope of this Part of the Introduction.—As stated above, p. xxix, this Part contains much that might, but for its voluminousness, have been put into a preface. The main body of the present work consists of translation and commentary. Of the latter, the constituent elements are mainly text-critical, and their sources may be put under ten headings, as follows:
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Of these sources, nine concern the Atharva-Veda, and the tenth concerns the parallel texts. Of the nine concerning the Atharva-Veda, eight concern the Vulgate or Çāunakan recension, and the ninth concerns the Kashmirian or Pāippalāda recension. Of the eight concerning the Vulgate, the first four concern both the saṁhitā- and the pada-pāṭhas,[1] and the second four concern the ancillary texts.
Partly by way of indicating what may fairly be expected in the case of each of these elements, and partly by way of forestalling adverse criticism, it will be well to make certain observations upon them seriatim, under the ten headings. Under an eleventh, I desire to add something to what was said in the preface, p. xxxvii, about the commentary as a whole; and, under a twelfth, to add a few necessary remarks concerning the translation. Under a thirteenth, the explanation of abbreviations etc. may be put; and finally, under a fourteenth, a tabular view of previous translations and comments.
Scope of the reports of variant readings.—By "variant readings" are here meant departures from the printed Berlin text.[2] Absence of report means
- ↑ Doubtless the pada-pāṭha also is an ancillary text, and these headings are therefore not quite logical; but they will serve.
- ↑ Here it is to be noted that, by reason of breakage of type, the last part of the "run" (as the printers say) is not always like the first; in other words, that not every copy of the Berlin edition is like every other (cf. note to i. 18. 4).
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