A Vedic Concordance c4.s3.4

c4.s3.4

The future editor of a Vedic text will find in a complete assemblage of all the mantras an auxiliary of the very first importance. In the work of constituting a Vedic text, the mantras are the most intractable part of the material concerned, because they are written in a dialect which—differing, as it does, considerably from the later forms of Sanskrit—was imperfectly understood by the scribes. Since much of the material of this kind with which the future editor will have to deal is quite certain, as experience shows, to be contained in the literature previously published, it is obvious that the Concordance will greatly facilitate the establishment of the new texts and the revision of some that have already been edited. Moreover, since, as has been already said, parallel prayers are to a large extent imbedded in parallel ceremonies, the Concordance will not be without value in establishing the text of the liturgical books themselves.