Grihya Sutras

SR No.: 007685
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1886
Total Pages: 2642
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 1090

NOTES. I, 6, 4.
33
Thou hast grown (Indra) according to thy nature. IV, 33, 6. ánu svadhâm ribhávah gagmuh etām.
According to their nature, the Ribhus went to her, scil. the cow; or, according to this their nature, they came.
IV, 52, 6; I, 33, 11; 1, 88, 6; VII, 56, 13; III, 51, 11.
In all these passages svadhå may be rendered by manner, habit, usage, and ánu svadhâm would seem to correspond to the Greek 6 dlovs. Yet the history of these words in Sanskrit and Greek has not been exactly the same. First of all we observe in Greek a division between doos and hoos, and whereas the former comes very near in meaning to the Sanskrit svadhã, the latter shows in Homer a much more primitive and material sense. It means in Homer, not a person's own nature, but the own place, for instance, of animals, the haunts of horses, lions, fish ; in Hesiod, also of men. Hom. Il. XV, 268, uerá ' noea kal voudy (tywv, loca consueta et pascua. Svadhã in the Veda does not occur in that sense, although etymologically it might take the meaning of one's own place: cf. dhà-man, familia, &c. Whether in Greek nos, from meaning lair, haunt, home, came, like vouós and vóuos, to mean habit, manner, character, which would be quite possible, or whether Roos in that meaning represents a second start from the same point, which in Sanskrit was fixed in svadhã, is impossible to determine. In Sanskrit svadhá clearly shows the meaning of one's own nature, power, disposition. It does not mean power or nature in general, but always the power of some one, the peculiarity, the individuality of a person. This will appear from the following passages :
II, 3, 8. tisráh devih svadháyå barhíh å idám ákkhidram pantu.
May the three goddesses protect by their power the sacred pile unbroken.
IV, 13, 5. káyâ yâti svadháya. By what inherent power does he (the Sun) move on? IV, 26, 4. akakráyâ svadháya.
By a power which requires no chariot, i.e. by himself without a chariot. The same expression occurs again X, 27, 19.
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