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

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208
ANUGITA.
law; we have references to the casting of images with liquefied iron, and to the use of elephants as vehicles'; and we meet with protests against the amusements of music and dancing, and against the occupation of artisans True it is, that all these indications put together, fail to constitute what, according to the standard of modern times, would be called a highly artificial state of society. But it seems to me to mark a very perceptible and distinct advance beyond the social condition when mankind was divided into four castes or classes, with such a division of duties, to put it briefly, as that of preparation for a future world, government of this world, agriculture and trade, and service respectively. Artisans, it will be observed, are not even referred to in the Bhagavadgitá, nor is there any trace of royal oppressions, or unequal laws. Then as regards music, it may be noted, that there are references to it in the Brihadåranyaka and Kaushitaki-upanishads', without any indications of disapprobation. The protest against music, therefore, and the sister art of dancing, is probably to be explained as evoked by some abuses of the two arts which must have come into prevalence about the time of the composition of the Anugitá. A similar protest is found recorded in the Dharmasastras of Manu and Apastamba and Gautama. We shall consider in the sequel the chronological positions of the Anugitá with reference to those Dharmasastras. But we have already pointed out that the Gità stands prior to them both
Look again at the views on caste which are embodied in the Anugita and the Bhagavadgita respectively. The reference to the Kshatriya as representing the quality of passion, while the Brahmana represents the quality of goodness?, scems to place a considerably larger distance between the Brahmana and the Kshatriya than is suggested by the Bhagavadgita, and thus marks an advance in the direction of the later doctrine on the subject. And in connexion
" Cl. Lalita Viscara, p. 17. See pp. 325-365. Sce Gich, p. 136. • Sec Brihadaranyaka, p. 454, and Kaushitaki, p. 68. . See Bubler's Apastamba I, 1, 3, 11, Gautama II, 13, and Manu II, 178. • P. 31 kq.
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