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themselves are never included in the collections of Parisishtas or Khilas or apocryphal hymns, nor does Kâtyâyana ever mention mere Khilas in his Sarvânukrama. Eight of them are mentioned in the Brihaddevatâ, without any allusion to their apocryphal character:

Parâny ashtau tu sûktâny rishînâm tigmategasâm, Aindrâny atra tu shadvimsah pragâtho bahudaivatah. Rig antyâgner akety agnih sûryam antyapado gagau. Praskanvas ka prishadhras ka prâdâd yad vastu kimkana

Bhûrîd iti tu sûktâbhyâm akhilam parikîrtitam. Aindrâny ubhayam ity atra shal âgneyât parâni tu.

'The next eight hymns belong to Rishis of keen intellect*; they are addressed to Indra, but the 26th Pragatha (viii. 54, 3-4, which verses form the 26th couplet, if counting from viii. 49, 1) is addressed to many gods. The last verse (of these eight hymns), viii. 56, 5, beginning with the words akety agnih, is addressed to Agni, and the last

been mentioned, for instance, by Professor Bollensen in his interesting article on the Dvipadâ Virâg hymns ascribed to Parâsara (i. 65-70) that not a single verse of them occurs in any of the other Vedas.

* Lest Saunaka be suspected of having applied this epithet, tigmategas, to the Vâlakhilyas in order to fill the verse (pâdapûranârtham), I may point out that the same epithet is applied to the Vâlakhilyas in the Maitry-upanishad 2, 3. The nom. plur. which occurs there is tigmategasâh, and the commentator remarks: tigmategasas tîvrategaso 'tyûrgitaprabhâvâh; tegasâ ityevamvidha etakkhâkhâsanketapâthas khândasah sarvatra.

foot celebrates Sûrya. Whatsoever Praskanva and Prishadhra gave (or, if we read prishadhrâya, whatever Praskanva gave to Prishadhra), all that is celebrated in the two hymns beginning with bhûrît. After the hymn addressed to Agni (viii. 60, 1), there follow six hymns addressed to Indra, beginning with ubhayam.'

But the most important point of all is this, that these hymns, which exist both in the Pada and Sanhitâ texts, are quoted by the Prâtisâkhya, not only for general purposes, but for special passages occurring in them, and nowhere else. Thus in Sûtra 154, hetáyah is quoted as one of the few words which does not require the elision of a following short a. In order to appreciate what is implied by this special quotation, it is necessary to have a clear insight into the mechanism of the Prâtisâkhya. Its chief object is to bring under general categories the changes which the separate words of the Pada text undergo when joined together in the Ârshî Sanhitâ, and to do this with the utmost brevity possible. Now the Sandhi rules, as observed in the Sanhitâ of the Rig-veda, are by no means so uniform and regular as they are in later Sanskrit, and hence it is sometimes extremely difficult to bring all the exceptional cases under more or less general rules. In our passage the author of the Prâtisâkhya endeavours to comprehend all the passages where an initial a in the Veda is not elided after a final e or o. In ordinary

Sanskrit it would be always elided, in the Sanhitâ it is sometimes elided, and sometimes not. Thus the Prâtisâkhya begins in Sûtra 139 by stating that if the short a stands at the beginning of a pâda or foot, it is always elided. Why it should be always elided in the very place where the metre most strongly requires that it should be pronounced, does not concern the author of the Prâtisâkhya. He is a statistician, not a grammarian, and he therefore simply adds in Sûtra 153 the only three exceptional passages where the a, under these very circumstances, happens to be not elided. He then proceeds in Sûtra 139 to state that a is elided even in the middle of a pâda, provided it be light, followed by y or v, and these, y or v, again followed by a light vowel. Hence the Sanhitâ writes te 'vădan, so 'yăm, but not sîkshanto 'vratam, for here the a of avratam is heavy; nor mitramaho 'vadyât, for here the a following the v is heavy.

Then follows again an extension of this rule, viz. in the case of words ending in âvo. After these, a short a, even if followed by other consonants besides y or v, may be elided, but the other conditions must be fulfilled, i. e. the short a must be light, and the vowel of the next syllable must again be light. Thus the Sanhitâ writes indeed gâvo 'bhitah, but not gâvo 'gman, because here the a is heavy, being followed by two consonants.

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Sanskrit it would be always elided, in the Sanhitâ it is sometimes elided, and sometimes not. Thus the Prâtisâkhya begins in Sûtra 139 by stating that if the short a stands at the beginning of a pâda or foot, it is always elided. Why it should be always elided in the very place where the metre most strongly requires that it should be pronounced, does not concern the author of the Prâtisâkhya. He is a statistician, not a grammarian, and he therefore simply adds in Sûtra 153 the only three exceptional passages where the a, under these very circumstances, happens to be not elided. He then proceeds in Sûtra 139 to state that a is elided even in the middle of a pâda, provided it be light, followed by y or v, and these, y or v, again followed by a light vowel. Hence the Sanhitâ writes te 'vădan, so 'yăm, but not sikshanto 'vratam, for here the a of avratam is heavy; nor mitramaho 'vadyât, for here the a following the v is heavy.

Then follows again an extension of this rule, viz. in the case of words ending in âvo. After these, a short a, even if followed by other consonants besides y or v, may be elided, but the other conditions must be fulfilled, i. e. the short a must be light, and the vowel of the next syllable must again be light. Thus the Sanhitâ writes indeed gâvo 'bhitah, but not gâvo 'gman, because here the a is heavy, being followed by two consonants.

After this, a more general rule, or, more correctly, a more comprehensive observation is made,

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