Critical editions and .Rksa.mhita

[Vidhyanath K. Rao]

I have a couple of questions concerning two points made about critical
editions and the .Rksa.mhita.

Firstly, there was the remark that there is no `critical edition' of
the .Rksa.mhita. I remember reading somewhere (Gonda's book on
Vedic literature?) that there are no variations among the manuscripts
of the .Rksa.mhita. Can someone clarify this point?

Second concerns Profesor Witzel's remark about the oral tradition of
.Rgveda being a `tape recording' of the text circa 10th century BCE.
Every discussion of the textual history of the sa.mhita and pada paa.thas
assumes that the former took its present shape before "Saakalya and
then "Saakalya created the latter. But this directly contradicts
Paa.nini 6.1.127 which states that according to "Saakalya, the
vowels i, ii u, uu .r, at the end of a word, are not replaced by a
semi-vowel when a vowel follows, but only shortened. I do not remember
the books of Staal or Howard about Vedic recitation saying anything
about this either.


Nath Rao (natharao+ at osu.edu)		614-366-9341