Grassmann booknotice (new edition)

[JHOUBEN at rullet.LeidenUniv.nl]

Hermann Grassmann, Woerterbuch zum Rig-Veda, 6., ueberarbeitete und ergaenzte 
Auflage von Maria Kozianka. Wiesbaden: Harassowitz Verlag, 1996. 298 DM (excl. 
VAT). 

In a recent posting on the Indology list entitled "magic / directions in 
Indology" (May 29), M. Witzel mentioned Grassmann's Wørterbuch zum Rig-Veda as 
an example of thorough work of enduring value ("the simple fact of the matter 
is that thorough work like the great mathematician Grassmann's Rgveda 
Dictionary endure and are constantly used"). It will perhaps be of interest to 
the readers of this list that recently a new edition appeared of this important 
work of reference. Unlike 4 previous re-editions (1936, 1955, 1964 and 1976) 
which were identical with the first edition of 1873, the present one is 
"reworked and completed". For those who plan to make a serious study of the 
Rgveda but do not yet have access to an earlier edition of Grassmann's 
dictionary, the present re-edition will be a valuable, though quite costly 
tool. For those who already have access to an earlier edition the important 
question arises: what are the improvements of the new edition, and do they 
justify the expenses of a new copy? 
   The most important improvement effected by the editor M. Kozianka is that 
Grassmann's own "Nachtraege und Verbesserungen" are added at the respective 
places in the dictionary. Because the printing in the original edition was 
rather cramped, it was necessery to print only one column instead of two on 
each page. In the broad margins we find the additions and corrections by 
Grassmann inserted at their appropriate place, or other notes by the editor. 
There is still a lot of white space left (which may be used to insert one's own 
notes). The number of pages is twice that of a copy of the 1976 edition, but 
the lighter quality of the paper makes the book only half a centimeter thicker 
than the 5 cm thick earlier copy. 
   What do the "other notes by the editor" consist of? In the first place, 
words and forms mentioned by Walter Neisser in his Zum Woerterbuch des Rgveda, 
Leipzig 1924-1930 (covering a-auzAna,and Die mit Guttural anautenden Woerter) 
but not by Grassmann have been added in the margins. For the 168 pages devoted 
to words starting with short a this means that on p. 52: a'-namasyu (a'n-
amasyu, corrected in editor's corrigenda) "nicht sich beugend" has been added; 
on p. 82: extra places for the use of abhi'; on p. 124: ref. to problem 
ra'veNa, padap. a'vena RV 128.5; on p. 126: different interpretation of the 
form avayAs RV 173.12. There are several ref. to Geldner's "Handexemplar", e.g. 
concerning the combination adhA hi, on p. 43; extra places anu on p. 59, 
anupUrva'm p. 60, anta'r p. 64, a'pas p. 74, a'ram p. 103, ati abhi arc p. 111, 
azyAma p. 135; There is one ref. to the Handexemplar Hoffmann's, one to 
Forssman's. Occasionally extra cross-references have been added by the editor, 
and a few writing/printing/spelling errors have been corrected, e.g. k¿åtís 
instead of xåtís (p. 9), trip®¿·hé instead of t®p®¿·hé (p. 46). Provisional 
conclusion: Whatever has been done by the editor is valuable. The dictionary is 
now certainly more "user friendly" (though its increased size makes it a bit 
unwieldy). 
   For those having access to an older edition + Neisser's Zum Woerterbuch, and 
willing to use Grassmann's own Nachtraege, however, it is probably hardly 
worthwhile to acquire the new edition. 
   It is, in fact, regrettable that the editor did not go a bit further to make 
the new edition a real step forward instead of a step on the place. In addition 
to the one-page Vorwort zum verbessertem Nachdruck, a brief essay on the 
sources of Grassmann, the numerous reviews of the first edition (by scholars 
like Auguste Barth, Haug, Delbrueck, Benfey and others), and his later 
reception would not have been out of place. As for this later reception, I 
would like to cite Neisser, 1924, Vorwort: " . . . das Werk Grassmanns . . . 
das dank der Vollstaendigkeit der von ihm dargebotenen Verzeichnisse von 
Wortformen und Belegen ein unentbehrliches Ruestzeug der Forschung bis auf den 
heutigen Tag geblieben ist, wenn schon es interpretatorisch von Haus aus nicht 
allen Forderungen zu entsprechen vermochte", and Gonda, Vision of the Vedic 
Poets (1963), p. 7: "It is indeed somewhat strange that scholars should have 
acquiesced for nearly a century in the translational and interpretative methods 
of Rudolph Roth and Hermann Grassmann." 
   It is to be hoped that the lack of critical warnings by the editor will not 
make Grassmann's interpretations more definitive than they were ever intended 
by the author who himself admitted in his Vorwort that it is here "die 
subjective Auffassung" which plays an important role. 

Jan E.M. Houben
Research fellow International Institute for Asian Studies
P.O. Box 9515
2300 RA  Leiden
jhouben at RULLET.LeidenUniv.NL