I was specifically thinking of later comparisons of the King James translation to ancient Greek versions and the Dead Sea Scrolls, but I may be misremembering things. There's no doubt that many translations suffer from the political bent of the translators, and there were battles in the early Christian church over what should be included in the New Testament.
I think some texts do come down very faithfully, like the [link|http://aish.com/holidays/shavuot/last/text.htm|Torah] and the Quran. I'd be very surprised if the Vedas changed much after they were written down. These texts seem to be more resistant to change than the Christian Bible(s).
Cheers,
Scott.