2. Readings of Indian Manuscripts of the Vulgate
By "Indian mss." are meant those used by S. P. Pandit.—No other Indian authorities are intended, in this section and the next, than those given in S. P. Pandit's edition; they include, as is fully and most interestingly explained in his preface, not merely manuscripts, but also oral reciters. Whitney had only the advance sheets of the parts with comment (books i.-iv., vi.-viii. 6, xi., and xvii.-xx. 37); but, although the remaining parts were accessible to me, I did not attempt for those remaining parts to incorporate S. P. Pandit's apparatus criticus into Whitney's work. I refrained with good reason, for such an attempt would have involved far too much rewriting of Whitney's copy for the printer.
S. P. Pandit's reports not exhaustive.—It is far from being the case that S. P. Pandit always reports upon all his authorities. For books i.-xvii. he had 12 saṁhitā and 6 pada authorities, besides the incomplete comm.; but at ii. 36. 4, note 2, for instance, he reports only 6 out of 13 authorities.[1] In summarizing SPP's reports, Whitney often says "all of SPP's mss.," "all but one," "the majority," "half," and so on; and it must therefore here be noted that these expressions refer not to the totality of SPP's authorities concerned, but rather to the totality of those concerned and reported upon by SPP. in any given instance. Compare Whitney's notes to iii. 4. 5 (line 2 of the note); iv. 7. 3 (line 6); iv. 26. 5 and iii. 30. 3; ii. 36. 4 (line 9), with SPP's critical notes on the same verses.
3. Readings of Indian Oral Reciters of the Vulgate
By "Indian oral reciters" are meant those employed by S. P. Pandit.—It was from the lips of three living authorities that the Bombay editor took much of the testimony which he used in the establishment of his text. His Vāidikas were Bāpujī Jīvaṇrām (cited as Bp.), Keçava Bhaṭ bin Dājī Bhaṭ (K.), and Venkaṇ Bhaṭjī (V.), "the most celebrated Atharva Vāidika in the Deccan." The last two were authorities for the whole text in both pāṭhas, saṁhitā and pada. The remarks made in the preface to the Bombay edition by S. P. Pandit concerning his reciters are extremely interesting and suggestive.
Errors of the eye checked by oral reciters.—The student should bear in mind the especial weight of the oral testimony in cases where errors of the eye, as distinguished from errors of the ear, are probable. Thus the testimony of the reciters, at ix. 8 (13). 20, establishes the reading visalpa-, as against visalya- of the Berlin text. Save in AV., the word is otherwise
- ↑ At iv. 26. 5, SPP. reports 8 out of 13 saṁhitā authorities, Sm. and V. being given on both sides, and of course wrongly on one or the other.
