क्रमपाठ

{ kramapāṭha }

Puranic Encyclopaedia

KRAMAPĀṬHA   A method of teaching the Vedas. It is due to the insistence on strict adherence to this method of teaching that even after thousands of years variations have not crept into the original texts of the Vedas which form the earliest literature. There is a portion called ‘word study’ (Pada Pāṭha) in the Vedas (the scripture). Every word in the Veda is separated from its prefixes and suffixes. The second step is Kramapāṭha or the study of joining prefixes and suffixes to each word got by the first step. Next step is Jaṭāpāṭha in which words are combined with their prefixes and suffixes. To guard against the creeping in of mistakes in this step, the next step which is known as Ghanapāṭha is taught. In this step the first step of Padapāṭha and the second step of Krama pāṭha are mixed together and intermingled from beginning to end and end to beginning. There are rules to make combined words by using prefixes and suffixes. These rules are called Prātiśākhya. Because the Vedas are taught in this way with so much attention and care, their texts have never been subjected to changes and variations.

A Sanskrit English Dictionary

क्रम—पाठ  m.  m. the क्रम reading ( i.e. a peculiar ‘step by step’ arrangement of a Vedic text made to secure it from all possible error by, as it were, combining the संहिता-पाठ and the पदपाठ i.e. by giving the words both as connected and unconnected with following and preceding words; See also क्रम above), [VPrāt. iv, 180] Sch.; [Pāṇ. 8-4, 28,] [Ka1y.]

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क्रम पाठ