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 1462

XXX
VISHNU.
form clearly a subsequent addition to the enumeration of the Nakshatras and Tithis immediately following (LXXVIII, 8-50), and the rule concerning the burning of widows (XXV, 14), which is in direct opposition to the law concerning the widow's right to inherit (XVII, 4) and to other precepts regarding widows. That the three terms kâshầyin, pravragita, malina in LXIII, 36 refer to members of religious orders seems clear, but it may be doubted whether malina denotes the Pâsupatas, and even whether kâshầyin (cf. pravragitâ XXXVI, 7) denotes the Buddhists, as dresses dyed with Kashầya are worn by Brahmanical sects also, and prescribed for students, and for ascetics likewise, by some of the Grihya- and Dharma-sûtras. Still the antiquity of the Satra in question can hardly be defended, because the acquaintance of the Vishnuitic editor with the Buddhistic system of faith is proved by two other Satras (XCVIII, 40, 41), and because the whole subject of good and evil omens is not treated in any other ancient Smriti. On the other hand, such terms as vedanindâ and nâstikatā (XXXVII, 4, 31, &c.) recur in most Smritis, and can hardly be referred to the Buddhists in particular. 3. The Tîrthas enumerated in LXXXV, some of which are sacred to Vishnu and Siva, belong to all parts of India, and many of them are situated in the Dekhan, which was certainly not included within the limits of the “Åryâvarta' of the ancient Dharma-sútra (LXXXIV, 4). As no other Smriti contains a list of this kind, the whole chapter may be viewed as a later addition. 4. The ceremonies described in XC are not mentioned in other Smritis, while some of them are decidedly Vishnuitic, or traceable in modern works; and as all the Satras in XC hang closely together, this entire chapter seems also to be spurious. 5. The repetitions in the list of articles forbidden to sell (LIV, 18–22); the addition of the two categories of atipâtakâni, 'crimes in the highest degree,' and prakîrnakam, miscellaneous crimes' (XXXIII, 3, 5; XXXIV; XLII), to Manu's list of crimes; the frequent references to the Ganges river; and other such passages, which show a modern character, without being traceable in the Smritis of Yågñavalkya and Närada, may have been added by the Vish
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