It is believed that certain Hindu Scriptures (specially portions of some of the Puranas) were interpolated on a date much after its original creation.
Such interpolated texts are often used by small groups of sectarians for spreading disharmony, differences & hatred among the Hindus.
Questions:
Are there some foolproof methods of differentiating the originals from the interpolated texts in such cases? If yes, what are those?
Are those methods mentioned in Hindu Scriptures themselves?
There are some accepted methods explained further below but they are not perfect.
For how the integrity of the Vedas is preserved, see this answer. I'm not aware of any such technique to preserve Purāṇas, Itihāsas and other Smṛtis.
If you read the report titled Interpolations In The Mahabharata by Prof. M. A. Mehendale of BORI you will get an idea, how scholars, in general, identity and remove spurious material from Purāṇas and Itihāsas.
Although the report is more focused on The Mahābhārata, which is an itihāsa, I'll quote below some lines from the report which are applicable to Purāṇas as well. Mehendale is saying that, no matter how hard you try, you cannot get the scripture to its original form. So even if see read the words "critical edition" in the title of a book, read it with a grain of salt!
The critical edition of the text now lays bare all spurious matter which could be easily set aside on the objective evidence of the manuscripts. The guiding principle that was adopted for this initial task of sifting was not to admit any passage, short or long, in the constituted text if that was not uniformly documented in all the versions of the Northern and the Southern recension.
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The task of removing the spurious matter that still remains in the critically constituted text and bringing it as close as possible to the oldest version of the Mbh. has been left by them to future students of the text.
For, arriving at the truly "original" text of Vyasa is well nigh impossible.
Below, he lists the 3 different types of interpolations.
What I propose to do this evening is to give some examples of different kinds of interpolations in the Mahābhārata.
- Those revealed by manuscript evidence and set aside by the editors,
- those that are not revealed by manuscript evidence and hence form part of the constituted text but are quite obvious due to contradictions in consecutive stanzas, and
- those revealed either by contradictions that are not so obvious because they are not found in consecutive passages but are found in the text as a whole, or by the criterion of intrinsic probability.
Following all the above three methods, one would assume the critical edition minus all the interpolations will give us the perfect text everyone can read. But unfortunately there maybe some cases where certain text is purposely omitted or deleted from the manuscripts and in those cases it's difficult to reconstruct the true account of a story from bits and pieces of information from other parts of the manuscript.
From The Mahābhārata:
One such example is related to the svayaṁvara of Draupadi. It is popularly believed that when Karṇa lifted the bow and was about to shoot the arrow to hit the target. Draupadi loudly declared that she would not choose a sūta for her husband: drstvā tam draupadi vākyam uccair jagāda nāham varayāmi sūtam (1.1827, p.725). On hearing it, Karṇa threw down the bow and, downcast, retired from the contest.
This stanza does not occur at all in the entire Southern recension, and among the versions of the Northern recension, it does not occur in the Kashmiri, Maithili and Bengali versions. It is found only in four Devanagari mss. (out of a total fourteen used for the critical edition), and one (out of three) Nepali ms. It is therefore clearly a very late addition to the text.
I discuss the above interpolation in my answer to Do scriptures indicate that Draupadi regretted not allowing Karna to participate in her svayaṁvara?
Here's one from Uttarakāṇḍa of Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa:
One method had been used by Aacharyas is to prepare and check Anukramani.
For protecting the Vedas, and keeping the tradition of mantras well-organized, ancient Rishis has made sorted indices or index according to the topic/subject.
In these index Suktas, Padas, Seear of each and every mantra, Chhand (meter) of richa (hymns) and Devatas of Samhitas are orderly well indexed and made catalogue. There are different markings regarding to the subject of compilation.
For e.g Anuvakanukramani has compilation of each and every Anuvak in sorted form, Arshanukramani has compilation of Rishi and it's tradition, Chhandonukramani has compilation of Chhanda, Mantranukramani etc. and so on.
These type of making index and catalogues not only helps in searching topics/subject but also serve the purpose: Protecting the original form of Mantra and saving the chants of Mantra from being corrupted or fallen.
Anukramani which includes all type of description in one place (for every topics Sukta, Chhanda,.. as mentioned above) is called Sarvanukramani .Maharshi Katyayana and Shaunaka are well known for making Sarvanukramani for popular Shakhas of Vedas.
So, by indexing or making catalogue of description to no. of contents in the scripture e.g. no. of mantras, suktas according to Aadhyaya etc., The originality of scripture can be saved. The current version can be cross-checked or compared with the help of such Anukramani of/to the authentic and original.
For more information on Anukramani, visit अनुक्रमणी, सर्वानुक्रमणी and Anukramaṇī or Anukramaṇi.
Regarding the subject of whether there are interpolations in the scriptures or not, there are currently two perspectives:
Those who declare every portion of the scriptures that contradicts their own understanding as interpolated.
Those who hold the belief that no part of the scriptures is interpolated.
Individuals of the first type are dismissible. Their claims of interpolation are not based on scriptural analysis or the tradition of the texts but rather on the sentiments of the general public or their own feelings. They label those portions of the scriptures as interpolated which their own intellect deems incapable of understanding, even if these portions are accepted as authentic within scholarly tradition and are described in multiple scriptures in various contexts and rules.
Individuals of the second type, although they are highly scriptural in their approach, cannot entirely rule out the possibility of interpolations in the scriptures. While scriptures that have been preserved through continuous study and commentary may be less likely to have interpolations, those that have not been widely preserved in manuscripts or through study traditions are fully susceptible to interpolation. We observe such occurrences even before our eyes even today. To clarify this point, the Markandeya Smriti says:-
किञ्च वेदाश्च सूत्राणि कल्पाः शाखाः समन्ततः ॥ अध्यापनाऽध्ययनतः पदक्रममुखेन वै। अतिस्पष्टाः सुप्रसिद्धाः प्राजापत्यादिसंज्ञया ॥ इत्यादि तस्मादेतेषु सर्वेषु विद्याभेदेषु कृत्स्नशः । उपदिष्टेषु विशयो नास्त्येव सुतरां खलु ॥
नैवं स्मृतिषु सर्वासु पुराणेष्वखिलेषु वा । तस्मात् तन्मध्यसम्प्राप्तप्रक्षिप्तग्रन्थविस्तरैः ॥ तानि सर्वाण्यप्रामाण्यकलङ्कितशरीरतः । आचारसंशयेष्वत्र सम्यक् स्युर् न विधायकाः ॥
The above statements clarify that the Vedas and Vedangas, being transmitted through traditional means, are extremely clear. However, the same level of clarity does not apply to the Puranas, Smritis texts, which have undergone many interpolations and have many portions tainted with doubt regarding their authenticity.
Even Scholarly Acharyas have also spoken about interpolations in Smriti/Purana texts from quite the early times.
पुराणवचनेषु पद्मपुराणादिकतिपयपुराणेषु कृत्रिमवचनानि बहूनि दृश्यन्ते।
In the Puranas, such as the Padma Purana and other numerous Puranas, many interpolated statements are to be seen.
[Bhattalaxmanacharya's Tithiphalaadhyaya (13th century), 27.43]
In the Nirnayasindhu's पाणिहोमप्रकरण, Bhattakamalakar has also stated that certain verses of the Brihannaradiya Purana are to be disregarded because they are not honored by the elderly. (यत्तु बृहन्नारदीये 'अनग्निर्दूरभार्यश्च... इति' तद् वृद्धाऽनादरादुपेक्ष्यम्।)
"In such a situation, the question arises: what is the decisive criterion for determining interpolations? If we say that being contrary to the Vedas is a characteristic of being interpolated, this is not accurate. This is because in the six philosophical systems (Shad-darshanas), there are numerous contradictory principles concerning the Vedas, such as nitya versus anitya, impersonal versus personal, the theory of prakriti - parinamavada vs the theory of Brahma-parinamavada, and most importantly the question of bheda or abheda between jiva and brahman. In this context, the six philosophical systems are not proven to be interpolations; rather, their validity is established based on different processes.
Also saying 'This portion is interpolated because such and such a character cannot do this' is also fallacious. In that case, one might raise objections such as like 'No father without fault can give his son a harsh 14-year exile' or 'A righteous person like Yudhishthira cannot gamble away his wife'...that would imply that the entire Ramayana and Mahabharata should be considered fictional.
Therefore, ultimately, the criterion of interpolations should be through - "“शास्त्रपरम्परानैरन्तर्यविच्छिन्नत्वे सति स्वसमानकोटिशास्त्रविरुद्धत्वे सति शिष्टपरम्परया अपरिगृहीतत्वम्” (being inconsistent with the continuity of the scriptural tradition and contradictory to texts of the same category, and not accepted by the traditional scholarly lineage).
