Quantifying Text Reuse Across Three Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda Recensions: Using Multi-Algorithm Computational Collation
Year: 2026
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: The Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda survives in multiple recensions that share substantial ritual content, yet the degree and distribution of textual overlap across recensions have never been quantified systematically.This paper presents a computational analysis of text reuse across three recensions-the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā (MS), the Kāṭhaka Saṃhitā (KS), and the Taittirīya Saṃhitā (TS)-for two ritual sections (Agnyupasthāna and Punarādhāna), using ICoMa (Intertextuality Collation Machine), a new web-based multi-algorithm collation tool.Five independent similarity algorithms consistently rank MS-KS as the most closely related pair, corroborating the philological consensus.Crucially, the two ritual sections exhibit strikingly different reuse profiles: Punarādhāna shows near-identical MS-KS overlap (up to 93.5%) with sharp divergence from TS, while Agnyupasthāna displays moderate, broadly distributed similarity across all three pairs.These contrasting patterns provide quantitative evidence that different ritual categories followed distinct paths of textual transmission within the Yajurvedic tradition.Thus, a way has been opened to explain the differences in similarity as reflecting differences in the periods at which the texts became fixed.ICoMa and the experimental data are freely available.
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7166887689