Some Remarks on the Relationship between Vedic Prose and the So-called Rigvedic Canon

As is well known, the ‘collection’ (saṃhitā) of the R̥gveda or ‘Knowledge of Verses (ŕ̥c)’ is considered the most ancient poetical compilation in the Vedic corpus. This collection was the result of a process of revision applied to both textual material from different Indo-Āryan lineages of ‘composers-seers (ŕ̥ṣi)’, and to liturgical traditions pertaining to manifold Indo-Āryan clans and was ultimately organically arranged as a homogeneous and multi-tribal work. In actual fact the Rigvedic recensions attributed to the Śākala and Bāṣkala schools relied on a common archetype (e.g. Proferes 2003: 2, n. 6), which must have been the output of the so-called textual “canonization” which, according to Witzel’s historical reconstruction (e.g. Witzel 1995), was carried out at least from the Middle Vedic Period onwards. This process of “canonization” developed in the period after the Bharata victory over the Pūru tribe in the famous Battle of the Ten Kings, in conjunction with the emergence of the supra-tribal leadership of the Kurus (ca. 1200-1000 BCE) and it is reasonable to suppose that it unfolded over different phases. However, the final result appears to be the well-known versified collection of ŕ̥ces with no prose sections, as the title of the compilation itself suggests. This paper aims to propose some remarks on the criteria adopted in the arrangement of the canonical Rigvedic collection, focusing particularly on the relationship between prose and versification.