1847.] On the History and Literature of the Veda. 823 



in Indian literature, but which deserve in a high degree to be introduced 

 into view, — the Pratisakhya Sutras. 



I have found out three writings under this title. That of greatest 

 extent and importance is ascribed to Saunaka, and consists of eighteen 

 patalas. A second book bears the name of Katyayana (the same 

 without doubt who is named as the author of the Anukramani to the 

 Rik and to the Vajasaneye Sanhita,) and numbers eight adhyayas. 

 Finally, a third Pratisakhya is as yet without a (discoverable) author. 

 The beginning of the text, as well as the commentary, which without 

 doubt would have given some notice of the author, or the school, is 

 wanting in the only MS. of this work which I have found at Oxford. 

 I have but lately learnt that there are several writings of this name in 

 the Berlin collection, and have as yet been able to procure no informa- 

 tion respecting them. I conclude however from the statement of the 

 extent of the Berlin MS. that none of them can be the Pratisakhya 

 ascribed to Saunaka, the most important among the three. If the 

 remark made on two Nos., viz. that they consist of three chapters, be 

 correct, we shall find here yet a fourth Pratisakhya. 



I must thus in my account confine myself to what I have been able 

 to learn from the explanatory works as yet at my command, which, for 

 the second and third of these books, are very imperfect. These wait- 

 ings contain rules on the elementary part of general, but particularly 

 Vedic Grammar, on the accent, on Sandhi, on the permutation of 

 sounds, (e. g. the nati, change of dentals into cerebrals,) on the length- 

 ening of the vowels in the Veda, (pluti) on pronunciation, on the 

 various pathas of the Veda, &c. The first Pratisakhya contains besides 

 a section on metre, which is far more valuable for the Veda, than the 

 utterly unimportant book Chhandas, included in the Vedanga. 



That the common denomination of these writings, Pratisakhya- 

 Sutrani, cannot be the original one, results from the signification of the 

 word ; "grammatical aphorisms, current in single Sakhas or schools." 

 In a commentary on Gobhilas Srauta-Stitras, one of them is designated 

 as Madhyandina-Sakhiya Pratisakhya, i. e. as a collection of those 

 aphorisms which the well known Vedic schoool of Madhyandina follow- 

 ed. But I conclude from a passage in the first book of the Nirukta, 

 as well as from the introduction and the subscriptions to the chapters 

 of the first Pratisakhya, that these books were at an earlier period 



