Zend Avesta Part 01

SR No.: 007671
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Darmesteter
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1895
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 2053

198
ANUGÍTA.
him away from them was happily terminated. Arguna, of course, was unable to resist the execution of this wish ; but he requested Krishna, before leaving for Dvaraka, to repeat the instruction which had been already conveyed to him on 'the holy field of Kurukshetra,' but which had gone out of his' degenerate mind.' Krishna thereupon protests that he is not equal to a verbatim recapitulation of the Bhagavadgita, but agrees, in lieu of that, to impart to Arguna the same instruction in other words, through the medium of a certain 'ancient story'-or puratana itihasa. And the instruction thus conveyed constitutes what is called the Anugita, a name which is in itself an embodiment of this anecdotc.
Now the first question which challenges investigation with reference to this work is, if we may so call it, the fundamental one-how much is properly included under the name? The question is not onc quite easy of settlement, as our authorities upon it are not all reconcilable with one another. In the general list of contents of the Asvamedha Parvan, which is given at the end of that Parvan in the edition printed at Bombay, we read that the first section is the Vyåsa Vákya, and the second the Samvartamaruttîya. With neither of these have we aught to do here. The list then goes on thus : 'Anugita, Vasudevagamana, Brahmana Gita, Gurusishyasamvada, Uttankopakhyana,' and so forth. With the later sections, again, we are not here concerned. Now let us compare this list with the list which may be obtained from the titles of the chapters in the body of the work itself. With the sixteenth chapter, then, of the Asvamedha Parvan, begins what is here called the Anugita Parvan; and that chapter and the three following chapters are described as the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth chapters respectively of the Aaugita Parvan, which forms part of the Asvamedha Parvan. The title of the twentieth chapter contains a small, but important, addition. It ruas thus, ‘Such is the twentieth chapter of the Anugita Parvan, forming part of the Asvamedha Parvan-being the Brahma Gita. This form is continued down to the thirty-fourth chapter, only Brahmana
Digitized by Google