A Vedic Grammar for Students

it is or' of the chief aids to the study of the hymns of the Veda called forty-three years ago in the preface to his edition of the Rigveda by Max Muller who adds doubt not that the time will come wh n no one in India will call himself a Sanskrit scholar who eannk t construe the hymns of the ancient Rishis of his country '. It is mainly duo to the lack of such a work that the study of Vedic lit [...] The term Vedic is here used to comprehend not only the metrical language of the hymns but also the prose of the Brithmanas and of the Bilihmana-like portions of the Atharvaveda and of vLrious recensions of the Yajurveda. [...] The prose of these works however to some extent represents better than the language of the Mantras the normal features of Vedic syntax which in the latter is somewhat interfered with by the exigences of metre. [...] The internal evidence supplied by the phonetic changes occurring in the language of the texts themselves and the external evidence of comparative philology justify us in concluding that the pronunciation in the period of the Samhitas was practically the same as in Panini's time. [...] They are described by the PratiAdkhyas as formed at the root of the tongue ' and at the root of the jaw '. c. The palatals c j ch are pronounced like ch in church ' j in join ' and ch in the second part of Churchill '. d. The cerebrals were pronounced somewhat like the so-called dentals t d n in English but with the tip of the tongue turned farther back against the roof of the mouth.