Questions of King Milinda Part 01

SR No.: 007681
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1890
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 1464

INTRODUCTION.
xxi
by the Sat. Br. XIII, 4, 3, 3 ff.: here also atharvan and angiras are recognised individually; the correlation with bheshagam and ghoram is wanting, but the individuality of the two categories is clearly implied in the behest to recite on the third and fourth days respectively one section each of the Atharvans and the Angiras, each of which are distinctly said to be a Veda ?.
Indirect, yet significant testimony that this double character of the AV. was clearly established in Brahmanical times may be derived from the formation of the names of two apocryphal teachers. One is Bhishag Åtharvana, Kåth. S. XVI, 3 (Ind. Stud. III, 459); the other is Ghora Angirasa, Kaush. Br. XXX, 6; Asv. Sr. XII, 13, 1; Khånd. Up. III, 17, 6 (cf. Ind. Stud. I, 190, 293). The formation Bhishag Åtharvana is illustrated further by Pañk. Br. XII, 9, Io, bheshagan va atharvanani; and XVI, 1o, Io, bheshagam vai devånam atharvâno bheshagyâyai: vâsrishtyai”; cf. also the expressions samyu åtharvana, personified as a sage, Gop. Br. I, 2, 18, and atharvabhih sântah, Kaus. 125, 2". These names never, as far as is known, occur in inverted order : there is no Bhishag Ångirasa, and no Ghora Atharvana; they reflect perfectly the individual character and the individual function of the two members of the compound atharvangirasah. It seems now, further, that the texts of the Atharva
samhita mark this same distinction with no The term angiras in uncertain touch. At AV. XI, 6, 14, four the Atharva- Vedic mantra-categories are indicated by the Samhita.
expressions, rikah, sámáni, bheshagálni), and yágûmshi. The choice of the word bheshaga is certainly eclectic and one-sided. The passage appeals to the auspi
atharváno vedah ... atharvanam ekam parva vyakakshanah; angiraso redak ... angirasam ekam parva vyâkakshanah. Elsewhere, aside from the Atharvan texts, the component parts of the dvandva atharvangiras are drawn asander, but without accessory statements; thus Tait. Br. III, 12, 9, 1; Nrisimhapûrvatâ pani Up. 5, 9.
? A converse statement like bheshagam và ângirasâni, is, if we judge the matter aright, a counter-sense, and unheard of anywhere in Hindu literature.
So also Sânti, as the wife of Atharvan; see Wilson's translation of the Vishnu-parâna, 1, 110, 200; Bhagavata-purâna III, 24, 24.
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