7 I. Early Vedic, as already mentioned, is represented by the earlier of the Rgvedio hymns, but as the text handed down to us has had received some modifi- cations at the time of its collection into the Ķk-sam- hitā we are sometimes obliged to resort to orthoepic restoration as warranted by internal evidence, specially by the metre, by the readings of the Pada pātha, by the observation of our ancient phone- ticians and by external evidence culled from Old Iranian (Avestan and Old Persian). To give some instances : pāvaká - is always to be read pavāká - (cf. sayaka - 'missile', nabhāka - a name); virāṣāt (also in the Pada pāțha) for vīrașāț; dukșata (i 160 3) should be read dhukșata (as in the Padapātha); etc. The vocabulary is largely peculiar, both in the substantive and in the verb. Any stanza taken at random from RV would show that not less than fifty per cent of the words are absolutely unknown in Classical Sanskrit. Sometimes the word is known only in a very different sense. I give two instances, one from the later and the other from the earlier stratum. bíranyahasto ásuraḥ sunītháḥ sumrlīkáḥ suávāṁ yātu arvā'n apsédhan raksảso yātudhānān ásthăd deváḥ pratidoşám grņā'nah. Here there are fourteen words of which seven (sunīthaḥ, sumrlīkaḥ, svavān, arvan, apasedhan, pratidoșam, grņānaḥ) are unknown in Sanskrit, and two (asuraḥ, asthāt) are used in quite different meanings.
