A Vedic Concordance c4.s3.6

c4.s3.6

5. Miscellaneous uses.—It can hardly be doubted that the Concordance will be of service in the work of determining the relations of the different Vedic schools or çākhās to one another. I am not sure but that the present time is just as opportune for this interesting and fundamental research as any that is likely to present itself within the next fifty years or so. And there are various other interesting questions that will suggest themselves to different scholars, according to their bent of mind and habits of investigation, for the solution of which the Concordance can not fail to be a useful tool. For example, it may be noted that this Concordance assembles an enormous number of passages beginning with the prohibitive adverb mā, and that even a cursory examination of them reveals the interesting fact that only a very few contain verb-forms other than injunctives or augmentless preterits. Or, again, the extreme frequency of mantras beginning with the name of a divinity has as its consequence that mantras concerning a certain deity are here, to a very large extent, grouped together. For instance, the mantras beginning with the name of Agni fill twenty-eight pages, and those beginning with the name of Indra fill twenty-three. Consequently, in this book will very often be found, most conveniently assembled, much of the material for the study of questions relating to Vedic mythology. Nor must I omit to say that the initial words of the mantras form by themselves a very considerable part of a word-index to the mantras.