Introduction to the Study of The Holy Quran — Page 53
53 three different presses. Of these, two give the bare text and the third Sayanacharya’s commentary in addition to the text. One of the bare texts has been issued by the Vedic Press, Ajmer, the other by the Bombay Press, the Printer being Sevak Lal. All the three editions differ in both chapter and verse (op. cit. p. 109). (10) The Arya Samaj scholar, Pandit Raghunundan Sharma, writes in his book Sahitya Bhushana Vaidic Sampatti : As far as we know, no evidence has ever been provided as to where exactly interpolations have been made in the Vedas. Nor is it proved that the places where interpolations have been shown to exist were not known to Vedic scholars. Places where interpolations exist have been known for a long time (since the time of the Brahmana Granthas). They are not interpolations, but only annotations which, owing to the oversight of copyists and printers, have entered into the text and become apparently a part of it. Valkhilya Suktas in the Rig- Veda (altogether 11 chapters and 80 mantras ), Khil or Brahmana Bhaga in the Yajur-Veda (several chapters), Aranyaka and Mahanamni (2 chapters and 65 mantras ) in the Sama-Veda and Kuntapa Sukta (10 chapters and 150 mantras ) in the Atharva-Veda —these are interpolations well-known to all, and for which there is ample evidence. Besides these, there are passages in the Yajur-Veda and Atharva-Veda which have been interpolated and which can easily be identified as interpolations. In short, just as variations in the various versions are well-known, and pure versions are nevertheless available, in the same way the interpolations in the Vedas are also well-known. . . We find that the Vaja Saneyi Samhita (the current version of the Yajur-Veda ) has 1900 mantras which number includes the Shakvari mantras , because we are told… that one hundred less than two thousand mantras are those of Vaja Saneyi and the number includes those of Shakvari. If it is Vaja Saneyi Samhita , it should include only Vaja Saneyi mantras. But we find that the current version of Vaja Saneyi contains 1975 mantras. From this it is evident that Shakvari mantras are certainly included in the number 1900. The remaining 75 have been added from somewhere outside (pp. 570-571). These statements show clearly that the Vedas are not free from fabrications. The older as well as the more modern Vedic scholars all seem to agree that the Vedas had had other mantras added to them. To say, as modern scholars tend to say, that the Vedic scholars have traced the interpolations and separated them from the genuine part of the text, is not of much avail. If Vedic scholars had become convinced that some specific mantras were fabrications, why did they not drop them out of the text? The fact that even the fabricated mantras continue to be included in the text shows that Vedic scholars were not quite convinced of their spurious character. The Arya Samaj writer in the end admits that only 1900 mantras of the Yajur-Veda are original,