Date of Rg Veda book 9

[Harry Spier]

Dear list members,

In Dr. Witzel's recent article in Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 5-1
"Substrate Languages in Old Indo-Aryan" in his division of the Rg Veda into
three time periods (I. early Rgvedic, II. middle Rgvedic and III.) there is
no mention of Rg Veda book 9.

Dr. Gardner in his thesis "The Developing Terminology for the Vedic Self" in
chapter 3 "Relative chronology of early and middle vedic" says about book 9:

chapter 3-d "...in the case of the 9th, however, as it is a collection of
the hymns for the Soma ritual drawn from the other books , much of the
material is quite old."

In chapter3-i (conclusions) has RV 9 as younger than all the books except
book 10.

A.A. MacDonell in "A Vedic Reader for Students" in section 4. of the
introduction "Arrangement of the Rigveda" says about book 9.

1) ...the hymns of Book ix were composed by authors of the same families as
those of Books ii to vii, as is shown, for instance, by the appearance here
of refrains peculiar to those families.  Hence it is to be assumed that all
the hymns to Soma PavamAna were removed from Books i-viii, which were the
sphere of the HotR or reciting priest in order to form a single collection
belonging to the sphere of the UdgAtR or chanting priest."

2)"The diction and recondite allusions in the hymns of this book suggest
that they are later than those of the preceding books;"

3)"but some of them [hymns of book 9] may be early, as accompanying the Soma
ritual which goes back to the Indo-Iranian period."


Mainly I'm wondering why book 9 was not included in Dr. Witzel's three stage
division.  And secondly how is it that it can be considered as originally
part of the other books but also to be dated as later than them.


Many thanks,


Harry Spier
371 Brickman Road
Hurleyville, New York
12747 USA

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