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 1993

138
SANATSUGÂTIYA.
absolutely necessary to make such an investigation for the purposes of the present translation. But to be on the safe side, I have retained in the translation everything which is to be found in those copies of the Sanatsugåtîya which also contain Sankara's commentary. As to other stanzasand there are some of this description--which other MSS. or commentators vouch for, but of which no trace is to be found in the MSS. containing Sarkara's commentary', I have simply omitted them.
These facts show that, in the case of the Sanatsugåtiya, the materials for a trustworthy historical account of the work are not of a very satisfactory character. The materials for ascertaining its date and position in Sanskrit literature are, indeed, so scanty, that poor as we have seen the materials for the Bhagavadgitå to be, they must be called superlatively rich as compared with those we have now to deal with. As regards external evidence on the points now alluded to, the first and almost the last fact falling under that head, is the fact of the work being quoted from and commented upon by Sankarâkârya. In his commentary on the Svetâsvatara-upanishad, Sankara cites the passage about the flamingo at p. 189, introducing it with the words, 'And in the Sanatsugâta also.' In the same 3 commentary some other passages from the Sagatsugatiya are also quoted, but without naming the work except as a Smriti, and mixing up together verses from different parts of the work.
This is really all the external evidence, that I am aware of, touching the date of the Sanatsugåtiya. There is, however, one other point, which it is desirable to notice, though not, perhaps, so much because it is of any very great valuc in itself, as because it may hereafter become useful, should further research into the Mahâbhârata and other works yield the requisite information. There are, then, eight stanzas in the thirty-sixth, thirty-seventh, thirty-ninth, and fortieth chapters of the Udyoga Parvan of the Mahabha.
" See note 1, p. 137.
P. . Sce, too, Sariraka Bhashya, p. 818.
'P. 283.
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