Indian Antiquary Vol 01

SR No.: 032493
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 22 MB

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revisions and interpolations by different hands.* So that though this may no dorbt be a proof of the great popularity of the work, on the other hand it seriously complicates the critical questions which arise as to the value of the constituent elements of which the poem is made up. And in addition to the hitherto known recensions, we have now a new one introduced by Wheeler, which he calls the North-West (!?) Recension, but which is evidently stamped as quite modern by its omissions and its very recent additions. It is not so easy to determine, in the other recensions, what should be recognised as original, and what should be regarded as merely the result of later accretion. What are we to say, for instance, regarding the well-known episode of Visvamitra in the first book? It wears an unmistakably antique aspect, referring as it does to the elevation of a Kshatriya to the dignity of a Brâhman,-a circumstance which though it is handled with all possible delicacy as regards the Brahmans, must yet have been unspeakably humiliating to the pride of the Brahmanical hierarchy. And the same difficulty meets us in the story of the defeat of Râma Jâmadagnya, the representative and champion of the Brahmanical caste, by his namesake, the hero of the epic. Looking at. the tenor of these episodes, we are not justified, in my opinion, in assuming that they
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
and in the Bombay edition (in I. 18, between 6 and 7) They are wanting, hov :ver, elsewhere also, as far as v. 8-10 Gorr., namely in A B C., see the Verz. der Berl. S. H. p. 120. The chapter beginning tai tu Râmah (Râm. II, 101 Bomb. II. 73 Ser., A. fol. 82a) is, according to Schlegel (vol. I, pag. xxxiv), noted by a scholiast as being wanting in the dakshinâtyapatha. It is wanting also in Gorr.: at least the corresponding chapter there (II. 109) has a different beginning; but it will hardly do on this account to identify, as Gorresio seems inclined to do (vol. I. p. lxxviii-ix), the "Gaudana" with this dakshinâtyapatha. In that case the connection between the name "Gaudana" and the recensions in question must be given up; for the Gauda are themselves adakshinâtya! And besides, the corresponding chapter in Schlegel (II. 101) agrees in this respect with Gorresio's text; it also has a different beginning,-no. tam tu Ramaḥ,
Cf., on this subject, Holtzmann Ueber den griechischen Ursprung des indischen Thierkreises, p. 34 ff.
t See, for instance, Muir, Original S. Texts, IV. 148ff. 378ff. 409, as also my notice of the Bombay edition of the Ramayana, in the Ind. Streifen, II. 235 ff. We have to add to the statements there made regarding the extent of the work, that from the Uttarakanda CI. 26, according to which it contains 500 sargas with 25,000 slokas (a round number).
Vide Wheeler, p. lxxxv, 28, 65, 144, 203.
$ Cap. 51-65 in Schlegel.
Ibid. Cap. 84-86.
They might rather be regarded as ancient fragments, incorporated by Valmiki into his work.
[JUNE 7, 1872.
are later additions to the poem, whatever may be their want of connection with the general narrative. They are found, it ought to be observed, in all the existing recensions. But then, in the episode of Visvamitra (the substance of which its narrator Ś a tân and a, the Purohita of Ja na ka, describes as having come down from the olden primitive time) there is found, as is well-known, that catalogue* of the Pahlava, of the Saka mingled with the Yavana, of the Yavana-Kamboja-that is of the Kâmboja, Pahlava, Yavana, Šaka, Varvara, Mlechhat Tushara, Hârîta and Kirâta, who were produced, at the command of Vasishtha, by his cow of plenty in order to defeat the army of Viśvâmitra. And the introducing of these names in such a connection could evidently be thought of as possible only at a time when, in point of fact, the hosts of the Pahlava, Šaka, and Yavana appeared actually almost to swarm up out of the earth and to swoop victoriously down upon the Indian Kshatriya, (for they annihilate the army of Visvamitra); §-in other words, just at the time when the GræcoBactrian and after them the Indo-Scythian kings held sway in the north-west of India.-And in perfect accord with what has been now stated, we find the following notices that are taken from the fourth book. When Sugriva sends out his Monkeys to the four quarters of the
Regarding the decisive circumstance in the matter (namely, that under the name Yavana we are to understand the Bactrian Greeks, or rather perhaps, by this time their successors) vide Ind, Streifen, II. 321. The name Yavana
passed from the Greeks over to their Indo-Scythian, &c. successors, and finally to the Arabs.
May we suppose that the words romakûpeshu mlechhis cha, Schl. Ser. Bomb. Gorr., mlechhâs' cha (°s tu A) romakúpebhya AB C, have possibly a direct reference to the Romans? (Conf. Acad. Vorles. uber Ind. Lit. G. p. 226 n.)
Vide I. 55, 18-56, 3, Gorr., I. 54, 18-55, 3, Schlegel and Bomb., L. 42, 18-27, Seramp., and the relative passages in ABC (by A B C, I mean those manuscripts which are designated by these letters in my Catalogue of the Sanskrit manuscripts in the Royal Library at Berlin, p. 118 ff :) they show, in the passage under consideration, a very special reference to the Gauda recension. In B C there is another verse added, which brings in also the Vâblika and Darada. [Prof. Weber subjoins here for purposes of comparison, the texts of all the recensions, taking B C as a basis. These need not be reproduced.-ED.] § 1, 55, 4. 5. Schl.
It is known that this sway extended for a time. pretty far into India; at the time of the Periplus, Barygaza was the northern limit of Aryan India (vide Ind. Streifen, II. 271.) The passage in which Sità says to Ravana, "between thee and Râma there is a difference wide as that between Surashtra and Sauviraka" (Ram. III. 53, 56, Gorr., cf. MBhår. III. 16040) perhaps has reference to this subject, and illustrates the hatred felt towards the Sauvira (who in the MBhar. also are reckoned among the non-Brahmanical peoples, and their Greek or Indo-Scythian government, and specially toward their Buddhistic proclivities (vide Ind. Stud. where however, a somewhat different view is taken). But also regarding Surâshtra as subject to Greek influences, see Ind. Stud. IV. 269. 270. IX, 380 (!?). The Greek feeling of nationality, and especially the Greek culture, probably maintained their hold on the people in the parts of India referred to for a considerable time after the overthrow of the Greek kings.