Studies In The Padapathas and Vedic Philology (An Old and Rare Book)

This Volume contains a number of studies covering the Rgveda-padapatha, Taittiriyapadapatha and Vedic Philology. Many of these studies have been published in various National and Inter-national Journals. The aim of bringing them in one Volume is to acquaint at one place the readers with the modern approach and new findings relating to these fields. These studies are the results of my own study for Ph.D. and persuing the study further through guiding my Ph.D. students. Therefore, purposefully, I have included in it some of the results which I arrived at in my Ph.D. thesis entitled, 'A Linguistic Analysis of the Rgvedapadapatha (to be published from Japan). This, I hope, will give a fair idea of my findings in the field of Pada-text-studies.

My study of the Rgvedapadapatha began with the enquiry : What was the concept of Pada underlying the treatment of Sakalya, the author of the Rgvedapadapdtha?

In other words, why is it called padapatha ? The study revealed that the entire treatment is based upon the very concept of pada. The analysis revealed that the concept of pada in the designation padapatha is a grammatical concept. When it was compared with that of Papini it was discovered that Sakalya represents Pre-Paninian stage of this concept. Though Sakalya's concept of Pada came very close to Panini's, still it remained different at several points. Thus, while a finished form ending in a case-suffix or in a personal ending was treated as a pada by Sakalya and was marked by the device of a longer pause or juncture (i.e. by danda: if it is conceived in written form). Thus, we find the treatment as follows :

agnim/ile/………Rv 1.1.1

Panini too defines pada as sup-tinantam padam (p.1.4.14).

Similarly, we find that Sakalya marks the internal pada-boundary also. For instance, he introduces short pauses (i.e. avagraha if conceived in written form), before a case-termination beginning with a consonant in non-sarvanama-sthana-positions. This again reminds one of Panini's rule 1.4.17 svadisu asarvanamasthane. If we read this rule with yaci bham (p. 1.4.18), the result will be identical with Sakalya's concept of internal pada in the context of case-endings. Similarly, the stem before a secondary suffix or before a constituent of a compound is marked as pada by avagraha. Thus, avagraha may be said to be an internal pada-marker in a restricted sense.

As against this we find that Sakalya extends the designation of pada to all stems before a denominative suffix -ya. But Panini restricts it to n-stems only. (cf. nab kye p. 1.4.15).

No primary suffix or personal suffix has been treated by Sakalya as a pada-forming suffix excepting the case of perfect participle suffix -vams. But it is not likely that he treated the suffix vams as a secondary suffix. Of course in some vedic forms it does behave like a secondary suffix. For instance, in the case of bhaga-vas (Vocative).

No secondary suffix or case-suffix beginning with a vowel has been treated as a pada-forming suffix. Obviously, there is no reason to treat them to be so because no sandhi takes place in such environment.

My observations on the Taittiriyapadapatha have demonstrated how by the time of the author of the Taittiriyapadapatha, the concept of pada has undergone a change which is still closer to Panini's. In this pada-text the perfect participle suffix vans on longer receives the treatment of a secondary suffix. It has been grouped in the class of primary suffixes and hence no separation of this suffix has been attempted in the padapatha.

Similarly, Sakalya treated -iva as a member of the compound, but Atreya, the author of the Taittirivapadapcitha did not. Here too, one might remember that there is no provision in the Atstadhyayi for the formation of iva-compounds. It is only the vartika of Katydyana (ivena nityasamasah vibhaktyalopas ca) which makes the provision.

Such results provoke to think that there might have been two distinct grammatical traditions in those days—one represented by Sakalya and Katy5yana and the other by Atreya and Mini. Further study of the remaining padapathas of the other Vedas in this line may substantiate my thought.

The Study of the padapathas will also throw light on the chronology of various grammatical texts and the redactions of the Samhita-texts.

It is hoped that the present Volume of the studies of the pada-pathas will create genuine interest in the study of history of grammatical thoughts in Ancient India.

The study on the two Rgvedic compound-forms vanaspati- and rathaspati attempts to go into the source of -s- in both these compounds. This study is the Vedic Philological study in particular and Indo-European study in general.

In this way, the present Volume aims at generating a scientific perspective for the study of the pada-texts and Vedic Philology.

**Contents and Sample Pages**