English
A list of these, wfih an account of the text-editions used and with all needed biblio¬ graphical and other relevant notes, is given in the proper plaee below, at page xv b . The works so drawn upon are listed under the following ten classes: 1. Samhitas; 2. Brahmanas ; 3. Aranyakas ; 4. Upanisads; 5. Qrauta-Sutras; 6. Grhya- Sutras, Mantra-Patlias, and related texts; 7. b FUTURE WORK COMPLEMENTARY TO THE CONCORDANCE [Preface Dhanna-Sutras, Dharma-Qastras, and Smrtis ; &. Vidhana-texts; 9 * Ancillary texts of the Veda; jo. Four miscellaneous texts.—I have not thought it worth while to catalogue other texts which I have read, for the most part late Upanisads aud Law Texts, but which yielded nothing that appertains to this work. The Concordance rarely reports variants registered in the critical apparatus of a given edited text.— The critical apparatus of Vedic texts contains in the main worthless readings, due to all kinds of defects of tradition. 1 To have incorporated these readings into the Concordance would have swelled its bulk inordinate]} 7 , and have been a task upon the whole no less futile than difficult. On the other hand, it has in some rare cases seemed advisable to report from the critical apparatus of a given text a manuscript reading not adopted by the editor of that text, which manuscript reading is then distinguished as such by the added note ‘ var. led. ; but this has not often been done. Hence the user of this Concordance may at times profit by looking into the critical apparatus of those texts which arc cited by the Concordance as containing the various forms of the same pad a or formula, especially when there is ques¬ tion as to the original form of such pada or formula, or as to the interrelation of the Vedic schools or rdkhds. Orthographic details reported or neglected.— Cer¬ tain peculiarities in the orthography of the Maitrayam- Samhita have been reported for the most part, if not with absolute completeness. They are duly explained by Professor vox Schroeder in the Introduction to his edition, aud they are included here because they involve differences of alphabetic arrangement. On the other hand, although the KS. and ApMB. write final s before the three initial sibilants, respectively, as c and $ and s, I have not thought it advisable to burden the Concordance with the details of this varia¬ tion which has no bearing upon the alphabetic arrange¬ ment, and is not carried out with strict consistency even by the manuscripts of those texts. I beg the reader to understand the general statement just now made as sufficing, for the sequel, to cover all such details. Occasional suggestions of emendation. —The Vedic texts often invite to independent emendation. In this matter I have been very abstemious, but I have not refrained entirely from making an occasional con¬ jecture as to what seems to me to have been the correct form of some now unintelligible word or phrase. If any of my colleagues are disposed to look 1 Wo may perhaps except parts of the AV. as edited by Roth and W hitney, especially book xix. and the Kuntapa-hymns of book xx. Here the editors have practically rewritten the text at many points, and it might have been well to report the readings of the manuscripts rather than those of the edition ; but those manuscript readings are easily accessible. askant at sucli a thing in such a place, I trust that they will take my long and intimate acquaintance with the materials involved in such questions as in some measure justifying my procedure. FUTURE WORK COMPLEMENTARY TO THE CONCORDANCE The working-up of material of texts yet unedited.— The heading of this section implies faith in the future of Vedic studies: I am confident that the Vedas will continue to be studied as long as there is in¬ terest in the history of human thought and human institutions. Because of the half-mythical nature of Vedic tradition, we do not know certainly how many different books were originally elaborated by the ancient Hindu poets and theologians of different schools and localities; but India is a very large country, and the seemingly fabulous statistics of the Carana-Vyiibas have proved to contain an estimable measure of truth. Still less certain may we be as to how many of those works are still extant, and as to how many of those which are extant may ultimately come to our hands in manuscript. Nevertheless a considerable number of Vedic texts—their names need not encumber these pages—are even now known to exist in manuscript; and although their publication may be deferred, it is in the end sure to come. It is plain that, all in due time, a supplement to the Concordance will become a necessity. For that sup¬ plement it will perhaps be worth while to wait until all, or nearly all, the remaining texts shall have seen the light of day. Meantime I take the liberty of calling the attention of future editors of these texts to the importance of giving with each text-edition an index of metrical lines and of prose formulas, after the manner of this Concordance, and with constant references to it. When I reflect upon the large number of texts elaborated in the present work, or consider, for example, that the forty thousand padas of the Rig-Veda will not have to be indexed again, I am glad to think that the final supplement, con¬ siderable though it may be, cannot possibly involve anything like the labor of the foundation-work. The elaboration of a reverse concordance. —With the present work serving as a basis, a reverse con¬ cordance, that is, one which arranges alphabetically the verse-lines and formulas by their endings rather than by their beginnings, should not prove too difficult an undertaking. I am sure that it will prove a valuable one. A very considerable number of Vedic verse-lines are nearly or wholly alike in their endings, such as . . . parame vyoman (or vyomani ), or . . . suhrtdm u lokctm . This matter is discussed once more in another connection below, at page xiv a . A reverse con- Preface] ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF OBLIGATIONS xi cordanee would reveal these relations, and would again in its own way present many new uses. It may yet be my own fato to eontinuo the work in this direction; but I elaim no special right to the task, and any competent scholar is welcome to undertake it. In that ease, however, I hope that he will first communicate with me, in order that we may not uselessly duplicate the same labor. ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF OBLIGATIONS To the University Press of Oxford. —The external appearance of this work is such that any specific comment upon the technical skill, the good taste, and the patient fidelity of Sir. Horace Hart, M.A., Controller of the Press, is quite uncalled for. I am certain that I owe much also to the valuable help of the Oriental Leader at the Press, Mr. J. C. Pembrey, Hon. M.A. of Oxford, especially for his watchful care of details concerning the alphabetic order of the index. The services of both these gentlemen I grate¬ fully acknowledge. To Pupils and Colleagues. —A good many years have gone by since the first preliminaries of the work on the Concordance were begun. It is plea¬ sant to think that in those early days I was aided by the members of a modest institution within the Johns Hopkins University, the so-called Vedic Seminary. The work of reading the several Vedic texts for the purpose of marking off* properly the padas and formulas I did of eourso myself; but, this important preliminary done, I would often turn over to one or another of these my pupils a text or part of a text in order that thoy might transcribe the mantras upon slips. Portions of the first draft of a rough manuscript were also prepared by some of them from the slips after their partial arrange¬ ment. Not a little help was derived from their willing hands in these ways, and I desire here to recall the unselfish and enthusiastic spirit in which each gave what he could spare of time and labor. I hope that even those of them who aided least have not re¬ mained unremembered. The names of these scholars are as follows : Dr. F. R. Blake, Instructor in Oriental Languages in the Johns Hopkins University ; Dr. G. M. Bollixg. Professor of Greek and Sanskrit in the Catholic University of America; M. Braxdow, A.B., sometime Assistant Librarian in the Johns Hopkins University; Dr. H. L. Ebeling, Professor of Greek in Hamilton College ; Dr. C. J. Goodwin, Professor of Greek in Lehigh University; Dr. J. E. Harry, Professor of Greek in the University of Cincinnati; Dr. D. H. Holmes, Instructor in the Classics, High School, Brooklyn ; Dr. J. T. Lees, Professor of Greek in the University of Nebraska; Dr. H. W. Magoun, some¬ time Professor of Latin in Redfield College; Dr. J. L. Moore, Professor of Latin in Vassar College ; Dr. J. A. Ness, Instructor in Latin in Wittenberg College ; Dr. R. B. Steele, Professor of Latin in Vanderbilt University; and, finally, the late Dr. A.W. Stratton, who was, at the time of his deeply lamented death, Registrar of the University of the Punjab and Prin¬ cipal of the Oriental College at Lahore, India, and Professor of Sanskrit. Professor Arthur A. Macdoxell, of the University of Oxford, kindly furnished me with a printer’s proof of the index of Vedic pratlkas since then published on pages 105-114 of the first part of his edition of the Brhad-Devata; and a similar kindness was done me by Professor Moritz Winternitz of the University of Prague, who made accessible to me the material of the Mantra : Patha of the Apastambins before it was published.