Veda-Laksana - Vedic Ancillary Literature, A Descriptive Bibliography

The group of ancillary 'Vedic'1 texts, in (South) India traditionally referred to by the term Veda-Laksana, was given the attention due to it both by scholars in India and the West from the middle of the 19th century until approximately the first half of our century. To be sure, the study of Vedic texts in the strict sense, i.e. of those of a non-ancillary character, can be said no longer to form the centre and main focus of Indology. In my view it is sufficient to just glance through the present "Catalogue", and read some of the entries more carefully, in order to immediately realize that these texts - and not only the better known class of Pratisakhyas, Siksas and Anukramanis, but also the works on accentuation, on different forms of modified recitation and the various kinds of lists of special Vedic words - are in spite of their apparently highly technical and scholastic nature of extraordinary general indological importance; I should even say: they are simply fascinating.