Foreword.
When the demand arose among the generation of Sanskrit researchers, whom we younger ones look up to as our teachers, to make the text of the Vedic Samhitas accessible to the scientific community, it could and should only be undertaken with the understanding that the traditional text form that had been established in India for over two millennia would be given. Glorious works fulfilled this demand, thereby laying the foundation for all Vedic research. Upon this foundation, lexical, grammatical, and exegetical investigations have been built, which, in tough but victorious battles, freed themselves from the authority of the quasi-science of India, represented by Yaska, Panini, and Sayana, and with ever-increasing precision and energy learned to apply the rules of philological art to the Veda. It cannot be denied that Vedic textual criticism has not kept pace with grammar and exegesis. Naturally, the latter have also provided a wealth of contributions to the task of approaching the traditional text in the direction of the original text. However, this task has always been only occasionally touched upon, not emphasized as an independent object of research. To contribute to filling this gap for the Rigveda,
