A History of Sanskrit Literature c12.56

c12.56

One point of very great importance proved by the *Nirukta* is that the *Rigveda* had a very fixed form in Yāska's time, and was essentially identical with our text. His deviations are very insignificant. Thus in one passage (X. 29. 1) he reads *vāyó* as one word, against *vā yó* as two words in Çākalya's Pada text. Yāska's paraphrases show that he also occasionally differed from the Saṃhitā text, though the quotations themselves from the *Rigveda* have been corrected so as to agree absolutely with the traditional text. But these slight variations are probably due to mistakes in the *Nirukta* rather than to varieties of reading in the *Rigveda*. There are a few insignificant deviations of this kind even in Sāyaṇa, but they are always manifestly oversights on the part of the commentator.