Prolegomena on Metre and Textual History of the R̥gveda Metrische und Textgeschichtliche Prolegomena, Berlin, 1888

Oldenberg made a distinction between the original text of the Rgveda the form in which the rsis composed and recited their hymns and the `traditional text` which in a fixed form, has been handed down to us by the oral tradition. Oldenberg made a thorough critical study of all aspects of the traditional text in order to present to the world of scholars the original text in the form and arrangement discovered by him. The materials that are now being published in this volume were intended by Oldenberg to serve as a Preface to his proposed edition of the Rgveda.