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	<title>elisa freschi&#8220;Those who alter the text of the Vedas… &#8211; elisa freschi</title>
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	<description>These pages are a sort of virtual desktop of Elisa Freschi. You can find here my cv and some random thoughts on Sanskrit (and) Philosophy. All criticism welcome! Contributions are also welcome!</description>
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		<title>&#8220;Those who alter the text of the Vedas…</title>
		<link>https://elisafreschi.com/2014/10/04/those-who-alter-the-text-of-the-vedas/</link>
		<comments>https://elisafreschi.com/2014/10/04/those-who-alter-the-text-of-the-vedas/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Oct 2014 10:49:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>elisa freschi</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[reuse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Veda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Petra Kieffer-Pülz]]></category>
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				<description><![CDATA[…should go to hell together with those who sell the Vedas or write it down!&#8221; The verse is found in Mahābhārata, 13.24.70: vedavikrayiṇaś caiva vedānāṃ caiva dūṣakāḥ &#124; vedānāṃ lekhakāś caiva te vai nirayagāminaḥ &#124;&#124; The first and the last group are relatively easy to be identified (although: what is meant by &#8220;selling&#8221; the Vedas? [&#8230;]]]></description>
					<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>…should go to hell together with those who sell the Vedas or write it down!&#8221;<span id="more-1064"></span></p>
<p>The verse is found in Mahābhārata, 13.24.70:</p>
<blockquote><p>
vedavikrayiṇaś caiva vedānāṃ caiva dūṣakāḥ |</p>
<p>vedānāṃ lekhakāś caiva te vai nirayagāminaḥ ||
</p></blockquote>
<p>The first and the last group are relatively easy to be identified (although: what is meant by &#8220;selling&#8221; the Vedas? Making money with Vedic rites?), whereas the <em>vedāṇāṃ lekhakāḥ</em> are more elusive. I would have thought of them as &#8220;offenders of the Vedas&#8221;, a category which would have been by the way ample enough to accommodate also the other two groups.<br />
However, Petra Kieffer-Pülz pointed out a somehow parallel passage in a Pāli source, where the fact of altering (scil. purposefully) the wording of an Aṭṭhakathā is condemned (the passage is dealt with in her <a href="http://www.indologica.de/drupal/?q=node/2503" target="_blank">Verlorene Gaṇṭhipadas</a>, II, pp. 947&#8211;958). Thus, it seems that the author of this Mahābhārata verse was aware of attempts to modify the text of the Vedas and was keen to preserve its immutability.</p>
<p><strong>Do you know of other evidences of the custom of altering texts?</strong></p>
<p><small>I am grateful to Petra for pointing out the MBh verse and her discussion of a similar issue and for discussing them with me.</small></p>
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