Re: [INDOLOGY] Two additional recensions of the Ṛgveda available

[Madhav Deshpande]

Hello David and Nancy,

My colleague at the University of Michigan, Professor Benjamin Fortson, a
few months ago gave a talk about some peculiarities of the Āśvalāyana
Saṃhitā of the RV.  I was unable to attend the talk due to being ill at
that time.  I have requested him to send me a pdf or a ppt of his talk.  I
would be most interested in hearing more about these alternative recensions
of the RV and their distinctive features, if any.  Best,

Madhav Deshpande

On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 5:07 PM, David and Nancy Reigle <dnreigle at gmail.com>
wrote:

> As most of you know, two recensions of the Ṛgveda in addition to the long
> standard Śākala/Śākalya recension have become available in the last
> several years. They are:
>
> Āśvalāyana-Saṃhitā of the Ṛgveda, ed. B. B. Chaubey, 2 vols., New Delhi:
> Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, 2009.
>
> The Ṛgveda Saṃhitā of Śāṃkhāyana-Śākhā, ed. Amal Dhari Singh Gautam, 4
> vols., Ujjain: Maharshi Sandipani Rashtriya Veda Vidya Pratishthan,
> 2012-2013.
>
> I would be very interested in comments from the Vedic scholars here about
> the significance of having two additional recensions of the Ṛgveda. In
> particular, I was earlier informed that an 1897 book in Danish by Hans
> Vodskov, Rig-veda og Edda, has a chapter attempting to demonstrate that the
> Ṛgveda we have shows a very late style. My informant noted that Vodskov's
> views about the late style of the Śākala recension have not been adopted
> by Vedic scholars. Now that we have two additional recensions, almost
> identical to the Śākala recension, I assume that this would be
> significant evidence for an early, unchanged style.
>
> As for linguistic peculiarities, as opposed to stylistic ones, Madhav
> Deshpande had noted in his 1993 book, Sanskrit & Prakrit: Sociolinguistic
> Issues, p. 134: "In most recent discussions, a historical fact of utmost
> importance is often overlooked, namely that the text of the Ṛgveda that
> we have today is not necessarily the original Ṛgveda. What we have is
> only one recension (saṃhitā) of the Ṛgveda compiled several centuries
> after the hymns were composed by the Ṛgvedic sages."
>
> Now we have three recensions, together presumably bringing us closer to
> the original Ṛgveda.
>
> Best regards,
>
> David Reigle
> Colorado, U.S.A.
>
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-- 
Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor of Sanskrit and Linguistics
Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
202 South Thayer Street, Suite 6111
The University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608, USA


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