Dhammapada

SR No.: 007674
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2540
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 825

INTRODUCTION.
xli
the fact that Svetaketu, the son of Uddalaka Åruni, the reputed teacher (and rival") of Yagñavalkya, is counted by Åpastamba among the Avaras or moderns, Dr. Bühler infers that the promulgator of the White Yagus cannot have preceded Åpastamba .by a longer interval than, at the utmost, two or three hundred years. That the two authors may not have been separated from each other by a longer interval seems likely enough; but, on the other hand, Åpastamba, by his remark, pays no very great compliment to the inspired texts of his own school, since Aruna Aupavesi, the grandfather of Svetaketu Åruneya, is twice referred to in the Taittiriya-samhita 2.
The geographical and ethnical allusions contained in the Satapatha-brahmana have been carefully collected by Professor Weber. With the exception of those in kândas 6-10, as I have already remarked, they point almost exclusively to the regions along the Ganges and Jumna. In the legend about Videgha Mathava“, and his Purohita Gotama Rahúgana, tradition seems to have preserved a reminiscence of the eastward spread of Brâhmanical civilisation. Among the peoples that occupied tħose regions, a prominent position is assigned in the Satapatha to the closely-allied Kuru-Pañkålas. The Kurus occupied the districts between the Jumna and Ganges-the socalled Madhyadesa or middle country-and the Pankalas bordered on them towards the south-east. According to Sat. Br. XIII, 5, 4, 7, the Pañkalas were in olden times called Krivi; and a tribe of this name is evidently referred to in Rig-veda VIII, 20, 24; (22, 12), in connection with the rivers Sindhu and Asikni. The Kurus, on the other hand, are not directly referred to in the Rik; but a king Kurusravana, 'glory of the Kurus,' and a patron with the epithet Kaurayana are mentioned in the hymns. In Aitar. Br. VIII, 14, the Uttara (northern) Kurus, together with the Uttara-Madras, are said to dwell beyond the Himalaya.
See Brih. Ar. 3, 5, where he is defeated by Yaghavalkya in disputation. • Taitt. S. VI, 1,9, 2; 4, 5, 1.
Ind. Stud. I, 187 seq. * See the present volume, p. 104, with note. It would have been safer to give the name as Videgha Mathava, instead of Mathava the Videgha.
See Ludwig, Rig-veda III, p. 205; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 103.
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