Rig Veda and HOS

[WITZEL at HUSC3.HARVARD.EDU]

On Mon, 15 May 1995, Dominik Wujastyk wrote:

> I have in the past positively begged members to
> circulate information about their publications, giving bibliographical
> details and a brief synopsis.



Since Dominik has urged us to convey news of new books, I submit the 
following notice on the Rig Veda and the HOS published a few days ago in 
the new Vedic journal (EJVS, email: ejvs-list at husc.harvard.edu).


HARVARD ORIENTAL SERIES, vol. 50

has been released a few months ago:


         Rig Veda,

         a metrically restored text

         with an introduction and notes

         by BAREND A. VAN NOOTEN and GARY B. HOLLAND

         [introduction pp. i-xiii; edition, pp. 1-547, with mandala, 
         sukta, rc numbers  as well as Grassmann's numbers; and 
         including deity, author, and meter.]
 
         [Also including computer diskettes of the metrical and the
         traditional Samhita texts with a quick program for word
         searches, as well as a simple conversion program allowing
         users to choose their own style of romanization].

         [NB: the texts are unformatted. The discette is formatted in
         DOS style which is easily readable by Macintosh computers these
         days. On request, we may supply a Mac version in the near
         future.]

         1994.  Pages, xviii, 667. Royal 8. Price, $50.00.

         [ISBN 0-674-76971-6]




The Harvard Oriental Series (HOS):

Founded in 1891 by CHARLES ROCKWELL LANMAN and HENRY CLARKE WARREN.

Edited by CHARLES ROCKWELL LANMAN (1891-1934, volumes 1-37), WALTER
EUGENE CLARK (1934-1950, volumes 38-44), DANIEL H. H. INGALLS (1950-1983, 
volumes 45-48), GARY TUBB (1983-1990, volume 49), MICHAEL WITZEL
(1990-present).

Published by the DEPARTMENT OF SANSKRIT AND INDIAN STUDIES and
distributed by the HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
United States of America.

Direct application for books of this Series may be made, with remittance,
to the Harvard University Press, 79 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138,
USA (phone 617- 495 2606,  fax  617- 495 5898).  --

The new subseries HOS-Opera Minora will be available from the Department   
of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University,
53 Church Street, Cambridge  MA 02138,  USA (phone 617-495 3295,
fax 617-496 8571, email Witzel at husc3. harvard.edu).



FROM THE AUTHORS' INTRODUCTION:

The Rig Veda has come down to us in two versions, the Samhita and the 
Padapatha, neither of which corresponds in all respects to the actual 
metrical form of the hymns... we have chosen to present the hymns in a 
format closely approximating the canonic forms of the various meters. ... 
The discrepancies between the metrical canon and the transmitted form of 
the hymn have been discussed beginning with the Pratisakhyas, and 
continuing through the works of Hermann Grassmann, Hermann Oldenberg, and 
E. Vernon Arnold, but no systematic method for restoring the text in 
conformance with the metrical canon has been devised.  ...
Our approach has been to treat the text in the first place as if it were 
a synchronic document and to use the meter as the principal criterion for 
analysis. We view this straightforward metrical restoration of the text 
as a necessary preliminary to any further investigation of the relative 
chronology of the Rig Veda. ...
          


FROM THE  PREFACE:

This volume completes the fifty volume mark of works published so far,
during the more than one hundred years of the existence of this series.
Appropriatety, this issue is devoted to the oldest Sanskrit text, the
Rgveda. In addition, it presents the text, for the first time, in the
form in which we have desired to see it for more than one hundred and
twenty years; namely, as a metrical text, and in a phonetic shape that is
very close to the form in which it was composed more than 3000 years ago 
-- which form is different from that of the later redaction of Sakalya
cum suis. ...

The publication of this volume also marks the start of a new Vedic
program of publication in the HOS. Apart from the Rgveda, the following
volumes are in various stages of preparation: Paippalada Atharvaveda,
Samaveda Samhita with commentaries, Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, Atharva
Pratisakhya. At the same time, we also envisage a significant widening of
the series to include  other, non-Sanskritic texts....

... I would like to draw the readers' attention to our new sub-series
"HOS - Opera Minora", ed. Enrica Garzilli, which will be available directly 
from the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies at Harvard, 53 Church 
Street, Cambridge MA 02138, USA (and, probably, from some agents in America,
Europe and India; this will be announced separately).

In the new sub-series, we plan to publish, in fairly inexpensive form,
conference volumes, such as that of the Harvard symposium of May 1994 on 
translating from Indian texts, or, finally, those of the the 1989
International Vedic Workshop. Further, we plan to print reports...., a
preliminary edition (such as that of the Paippalada Samhita of the
Atharvaveda); and we may also publish some reprints of the more expensive 
HOS volumes for the use of students, such as the long out of print 
translation of the Rgveda by K.F. Geldner. Finally, I hope to initiate in
the new series reprints of the "Opera Minora" of American Indologists.
... Like its German counterpart, the Glasenapp Series of Kleine
Schriften, we hope that the new series will not just facilitate our own
work, but that it will also stimulate reading and discussion of the often
stupendous volume and depth of work that our predecessors have carried
out, which work, however, tends to become increasingly overlooked in an
academic climate that is increasingly geared to quick, fashionable, and
trendy production.      M. W.