A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s12.28

v1.c8.s12.28

The same is true also of the Nirukta of *Yāska*,³ which has already been mentioned on another occasion. This work, too, the only one of the Vedāṅga Nirukta which we possess, presupposes the Ṛgveda-Saṃhitā in essentially the same condition in which we know it to-day. Tradition erroneously ascribes also the Nighaṇṭus or "lists of words" to Yāska. In reality, however, the work of Yāska is only a commentary to these lists of words, of which Yāska himself says, that they were composed by the descendants of the ancient sages, for the easier understanding of the transmitted texts. The Nighaṇṭus are five lists of words, which are divided into three sections. The first section (Naighaṇṭukakāṇḍa) consists of three lists, in which Vedic words are collected under certain main ideas. For instance, there are quoted 21 names for 'earth," 15 for "gold," 16 for "air," 101 for "water," 122 verbs for "to go," 26 adjectives and adverbs for "quick," 12 for "much," and so on. The second section (Naigamakāṇḍa or Aikapadika) contains a list of ambiguous and particularly difficult words of the Veda, while the third section (Daivatakāṇḍa) gives a classification of the deities according to the three regions, earth, sky, and heaven.[^1) Veda-exegesis probably began with the compilation of such glossaries; the composition of commentaries to these glossaries after the style of our Nirukta, with explanations of difficult Veda verses interwoven, was a further step in the development, and, at a still later period, detailed and continuous commentaries to the Vedic texts were written. Certain it is that Yāska had many predecessors, and that his work, though certainly very old and the oldest existing Veda-exegetic work, can nevertheless only be regarded as the last, perhaps also the most perfect, production of the literature of the Vedāṅga Nirukta.