Editorial responsibility and versions

This e-text of the PS, first conceived by Michael Witzel in the 1980s, has been edited by Arlo Griffiths and Thomas Zehnder, in collaboration with several scholars:

• Philipp Kubisch,
• Duccio Lelli,
• Alexander Lubotsky,
• Carmen Spiers.

Version 1 has been submitted for release on GRETIL on 2020-02-10.

General information

Since 2016 there is a complete edition of the PS, published by Dipak Bhattacharya in four volumes on a total of 1776 pages.

• Bhattacharya 1997,
• Bhattacharya 2008,
• Bhattacharya 2011,
• Bhattacharya 2016.

However, Dipak Bhattacharya’s work on the PS goes back several decades, to the time that he took over the work begun by his father Durgamohan Bhattacharyya, who died in 1965 after only kāṇḍa 1 had appeared in print (Bhattacharyya 1964). Dipak then supervised the publication of the second volume, which contained kāṇḍas 2-4 (Bhattacharyya 1970).

• Bhattacharyya 1964,
• Bhattacharyya 1970

The e-text of the Paippalāda has a pretty long history too. A first electronic version was created by Michael Witzel around 1983 (“Leiden Version”). Large parts of it were based solely on Leroy Carr Barret’s transcription of the Kashmirian manuscript, a few based on transcriptions of Orissa manuscripts obtained by Michael Witzel in 1983, while small parts were based on preliminary drafts of Dipak Bhattacharya’s (then unpublished) edition.

Based on the file as it had been created by Michael Witzel in the 1980s, the work was continued in the late 1990s by Arlo Griffiths and Thomas Zehnder, when it became possible to start revising the Leiden Version with reference to Bhattacharya 1997. A considerable number of other researchers have contributed to the current e-text at different times and places. As a result of these circumstances this e-text of the PS is relatively heterogeneous. It is by no means a conclusive result of the research on this difficult text, but rather a snapshot, and it will hopefully undergo further improvement to be published in follow-up versions.

The text in this file should not be quoted in scientific papers without reference to Bhattacharya 1997-2016 and should also not be quoted without reference to the revised edition of a given kāṇḍa, when available.

The current status of the individual kāṇḍas in this file can be roughly outlined as follows:

• Kāṇḍa 1. In principle the text offered by Bhattacharya 1997. Data entry by Thomas Zehnder (Zürich 1999; on the basis of the Leiden Version). Significant improvements by Thomas Zehnder (Zürich 2019).
• Kāṇḍa 2. In principle the text offered by Bhattacharya 1997. Data entry by Thomas Zehnder (Zürich 1999; on the basis of the Leiden Version). Improvements by Arlo Griffiths (2002), partly on the basis of Zehnder 1999.
• Kāṇḍa 3. Mainly the text offered by Bhattacharya 1997. Data entry by Thomas Zehnder (Zürich 1999; on the basis of the Leiden Version). The following new edition has not yet been taken into account:
  • Spiers 2020 = Carmen Spiers, Magie et poésie dans l’Inde ancienne. Édition, traduction et commentaire du livre 3 de l’Atharvaveda Paippalāda. École pratique des hautes études, Paris 2020.
• Kāṇḍa 4. Mainly the text offered by Bhattacharya 1997. Data entry by Thomas Zehnder (Zürich 1999; on the basis of the Leiden Version). Improvements on the basis of a provisional edition by Arlo Griffiths and Alexander Lubotsky (data entry completed by Thomas Zehnder, Zürich 2020).
• Kāṇḍa 5. Basically the text offered by Bhattacharya 1997. Data entry by Thomas Zehnder (Zürich 1999; on the basis of the Leiden Version). Improvements by Arlo Griffiths (2002), partly on the basis of Lubotsky 2002.
• Kāṇḍas 6-7. Text based on Griffiths 2009.
• Kāṇḍas 8-15. Basically the text offered by Bhattacharya 1997. Data entry by Arlo Griffiths (Leiden 1999; on the basis of the Leiden Version). Corrections by Arlo Griffiths (1999-2008). The following editions have not yet been systematically taken into account:
  • Lopez 2010 = Carlos A. Lopez, Atharvaveda-Paippalāda Kāṇḍas Thirteen and Fourteen: Text, Translation, Commentary. Cambridge, Mass. 2010.
  • Kim 2014 = Jeong-Soo Kim, Die Paippalādasaṃhitā des Atharvaveda, Kāṇḍa 8 und 9: Eine neue Edition mit Übersetzung und Kommentar. Dettelbach a.M. 2014.
  • Lelli 2015 = Duccio Lelli, The Paippalādasaṃhitā of the Atharvaveda. Kāṇḍa 15. A New Edition with Translation and Commentary. PhD Thesis, Leiden 2015. https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/32592
• Kāṇḍa 16. Basically the text offered by Bhattacharya 2008. Data entry by Arlo Griffiths (Leiden 2008), with significant improvements. The following edition has not yet been systematically taken into account:
  • Kim 2019 = Jeong-Soo Kim, Kāṇḍa 16 der Paippalādasaṃhitā des Atharvaveda Eine verbesserte Version mit den Parallelstellen der Śaunakasaṃhitā. Version April 2019. https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/fileadmin/04080000/user_upload/Kanda_16_04.2019.pdf
• Kāṇḍa 17. Basically the text offered by Bhattacharya 2011. Data entry by Arlo Griffiths (Jakarta 2014), with significant improvements. There are serious discrepancies in the numbering of hymns and stanzas between the Orissan and Kashmirian branches of transmission, which renders very complicated the use of reference works that were made on the basis of the Kashmir text alone. The following edition has not yet been systematically taken into account:
  • Selva 2019 = Umberto Selva, The Paippalādasaṃhitā of the Atharvaveda. A New Critical Edition of the Three ‘New’ Anuvākas of Kāṇḍa 17 with English Translation and Commentary. PhD Thesis, Leiden 2019. https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/73909 This work covers PS 17.12–17.15 and 17.21–17.43 (with a total of 222 stanzas).
• Kāṇḍa 18. Basically the text offered by Bhattacharya 2011. Data entry by Duccio Lelli (Pistoia 2014), with significant improvements. The following new edition has not yet been taken into account:
  • de Joseph 2020 = Kristen de Joseph, The Vivāha Sūkta of the Paippalāda Atharvaveda (Paippalāda Saṃhitā 18.1–14): Text, Translation and Commentary. PhD Thesis, Leiden 2020.
• Kāṇḍa 19. In principle the text offered by Bhattacharya 2016. Data entry by Carmen Spiers (Paris 2019; on the basis of the Leiden Version). Individual parts, however, have undergone more detailed treatment, most notably the following:
  • PS 19.1-10 are largely based on the 1998 Leiden MA Thesis by Arlo Griffiths.
  • PS 19.34 with small changes after a preliminary edition prepared by Arlo Griffiths in April 1998.
  • PS 19.34.7-9 are based on the edition of this tṛca by Arlo Griffiths and Alexander Lubotsky (JAOS 1999, pp. 480-481)
  • Hymns 19.53-56 are offered here in a preliminary edition prepared in 2003 by Arlo Griffiths in collaboration with Werner Knobl.
• Kāṇḍa 20. The text is based for …
  • PS 20.1-20.30 on Kubisch 2012.
  • PS 20.31-20.38 on an unpublished article by Philipp Kubisch (Bonn 2012-2014).
  • PS 20.39-20.65 on Bhattacharya 2016, pp. 1718-1776, with significant corrections, mostly by Arlo Griffiths (for PS 20.54-20.65 based on a preliminary edition, Leiden 2003).
  Data entry by Cyril Bosshard and Thomas Zehnder (Zürich, 2018)

As a rule, Bhattacharya’s (1997-2016) numbering of the text has been retained. However, the division into pādas and especially the division of prose passages into pāda-like units is arbitrary in many cases. The present e-text does not claim to furnish an authoritative numbering scheme.