Samaveda of the Jaiminiyas

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Introduction

1. WILLEM CALAND AND RAGHU VIRA AND THEIR WORK

It is rather unusual that two editions of one and the same text are reprinted within the same covers. In this case, however, it is advisable to do so, for not only have these two editions of an important Vedic text both been long out of print, but also complete each other in a significant way. Their respective authors are Professor Willem Caland (1859-1932), who taught Sanskrit in the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, and his pupil, Professor Raghu Vira (1902-1963), the Indian founder-director of the International Academy of Indian Culture.2 The penetrating and pioneering studies of these two scholars have not lost their importance, but form an indispensable part of the library of any serious scholar specialising in Vedic studies.

2. THE AIMS OF THIS INTRODUCTION

Caland's edition is preceded by a long introduction, but it is in German, and almost 80 years have passed since it was first published. Raghu Vira, on the other hand, starts his edition without any general presentation. The aim of my introduction is, first, to give some guidance to those scholars who are unable to read German but would like to consult these two works in their studies. Secondly, I have wished to bring the introduction up to date by taking briefly into consideration the subsequent published and unpublished work done in this field.

3. THE FORMATION OF THE SAMAVEDA AND THE TEXTS OF THE KAUTHUMAS; OLDENBERG'S REVIEW

In his introduction, Caland reports on the existing Samavedic literature and its formation, as he saw it in 1907. The first three chapters (with addenda on pp. 126 f.) deal with the texts of the Kauthuma and the Rāṇāyaniya schools (or rather of the Kauthuma school and its Rāmāyaniya subschool) as well as some texts of uncertain affinity. The reader can find an updated English version of these chapters in Caland's introduction to his translation of the Pañcavimśa-Brähmaņa (1931), which has recently been reprinted.3 In this connection, Caland also takes a stand on the detailed review of the present book published in 1908 by Hermann Oldenberg,4 who mostly deals with the problems relating to the formation of the Samaveda.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages