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234
VEDIC HYMNS.
that the Brâhmanas preferred skins, and the Kshatriyas clothes, for he says that those who wish well to the Bråhmanas should wear agina, skins, and those who wish well to the Kshatriyas should wear vastra, clothes, and those who wish well to both should wear both, but, in that case, the skin should always form the outer garment. The Dharma-sätras of the Gautamas, which were published in India, prescribe likewise for the Brahmana the black antelope skin, and allow clothes of hemp or linen (sånakshaumakira) as well as kutapas (woollen cloth) for all. What is new among the Gautamas is, that they add the kärpåsa, the cotton dress, which is important as showing an early knowledge of this manufacture. The kârpåsa dress occurs once more as a present to be given to the Potar priest (Åsv. Srauta-satras IX, 4), and was evidently considered as a valuable present, taking precedence of the kshaumî or linen dress. It is provided that the cotton dress should not be dyed, for this, I suppose, is the meaning of avikrita. Immediately after, however, it is said, that some authorities say the dress should be dyed red (kåshầyam apy eke), the very expression which occurred in Åpastamba, and that, in that case, the red for the Brahmana's dress should be taken from the bark of trees (vârksha). Manu, who here, as elsewhere, simply paraphrases the ancient Sætras, says, II, 41:
kârshnarauravabâstâni karmani brahmakârina)
vasîrann ånupûrvyena sânakshaumåvikani ka. 'Let Brahmakarins wear (as outer garments) the skins of the black antelope, the deer, the goat, (as under garments) dresses of hemp, flax, and sheep's wool, in the order of the three castes.'
The Sanskrit name for a dressed skin is agina, a word which does not occur in the Rig-veda, but which, if Bopp is right in deriving it from agá, goat, as alyis from ait, would have meant originally, not skin in general, but a goat-skin. The skins of the éta, here ascribed to the Maruts, would be identical with the aineya, which Asvalayana ascribes to the Brâhmana, not, as we should expect, to the Kshatriya, if, as has been supposed, aineya is derived from ena, which is a secondary form, particularly in the
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| SR No. | 007673 |
| Book Title | Zend Avesta Part 03 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | L H Mills |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1887 |
| Total Pages | 2618 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 49 MB |