Comparative Philology and the Rg-Veda

The following article attempts to bring together two complementary methods of reading the Rg-Veda, that of close textual analysis and that of historical, comparative linguistics. I will offer first a brief survey of the background from which the hymns derive, in terms of reconstructed linguistic ancestors, and then look into the early collection of the hymns. Thereafter a commentary is offered, making special reference to points of interest in historical and comparative linguistics. It will be argued that the study of Indo-European linguistics can illuminate otherwise obscure forms in the oldest texts of the daughter languages, as well as show contexts from which the traditions derive.