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 1890

INTRODUCTION.
35
bis essay, that expression existing as, I believe, it does, almost universally in Indian MSS. of the Gità, is not altogether devoid of historical value.
Schlegel draws attention to one other circumstance re-/ garding the text of the Gita, which is also highly interesting, namely, that the number of the stanzas is exactly 700. Schlegel concludes that the author must have fixed on that number deliberately, in order to prevent, as far as he could, all subsequent interpolations. This is certainly not unlikely; and if the aim of the author was such as Schlegel suggests, it has assuredly been thoroughly successful. In the chapter of the Mahabharata immediately succeeding che eighteenth chapter of the Gita, the extent of the work in slokas is distinctly stated. The verses in which this is stated do not exist in the Gauda or Bengal recension, and are doubtless not genuine. But, nevertheless, they are interesting, and I shall reproduce them here. 'Kesava spoke 620 slokas, Arguna fifty-seven, Sangaya sixty-seven, and Dhritarashtra one sloka; such is the extent of the Gita.' It is very difficult to account for these figures. According to them, the total number of verses in the Gita would be 745, whereas the number in the current MSS., and evca in the Mahabharata itself, is, as already stated, only 700?. I cannot suggest any explanation whatever of this discrepancy.
In conclasion, a few words may be added regarding the general principles followed in the translation contained in this volume. My aim has been to make that translation us close and literal a rendering as possible of the Gita, as interpreted by the commentators Sankarakarya, Sridhara. nimin, and Madhusådana Sarasvati. Reference has also been frequently made to the commentary of Råmânuga. Karya, and also to that of Nilakantha, which latter forms part of the author's general commentary on the Mahabharata.
mooed view of the Giu - a view in consonance with that which we have been led to be the lacts and arguments contained in this lotroduction.
P. 1 (Lana's ed.)
Sankan's commentary states in so many words that the GI be used coutained only yoo sloka.
D2
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