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 976

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
xlvii
may have been considered of more modern origin". I shall go even further than those who remove these hymns from the place which they have occupied for more than two thousand years. I admit they disturb the regularity both of the Mandala and the Ashtaka divisions, and I have pointed out myself that they are not counted in the ancient Anukramanis ascribed to Saunaka ; (History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 220.) But, on the other hand, verses taken from these hymns occur in all the other Vedas; they are mentioned by name in the Brahmanas (Ait. Br. V, 15; VI, 24), the Aranyakas (Ait. År. V, 10, p. 445), and the Satras (Asv. Srauta Satras, VIII, 2, 3), while they are never included in the manuscripts of Parisishtas or Khilas or apocryphal hymns, nor mentioned by Katyayana as mere Khilas in his Sarvanukrama. Eighto of them are mentioned in the Brihaddevata, without any allusion to their apocryphal character:
Parâny ashtau tu saktany rishinâm tigmategasam, Aindrâny atra tu shadvimsah pragatho bahudaivatah. Rig antyagner akety agnih saryam antyapado gagau. Praskanvas ka prishadhras ka prådâd yad vastu kimkana Bhdrid iti tu suktábhyam akhilam parikîrtitam. Aindrâny ubhayam ity atra shal agneyât parani tu.
*The next eight hymns belong to Rishis of keen intellect d ; they are addressed to Indra, but the 26th Pragatha
• Sayana (RV. X, 88, 18) quotes these hymns as Valakbilya-samhita. In the Mahâbhârata XII, 59; 110 seq. the Valakhilyas are called the ministers of King Vainya, whose astrologer was Garga, and his domestic priest Sukra; see Kern, Brihat-samhita, transl. p. II.
This is a criterion of some importance, and it might have been mentioned, for instance, by Professor Bollensen in his interesting article on the Dvipada Virág hymns ascribed to Parâsara (I, 65-70) that not a single verse of them occors in any of the other Vedas.
• Sâyana in his commentary (RV. X, 27, 15) speaks of eight, while in the Ait. År. V, 10, the first six are quoted (containing fifty-six verses, comm.), as being ased together for certain sacrificial purposes.
d Lest Saunaka be suspected of having applied this epithet, tigmategas, to the Valakbilyas in order to fill the verse (pâda paranårtham), I may point out that the same epithet is applied to the Valakbilyas in the Maitry-upanishad 2, 3. The nom. plur. which occurs there is tigmategasah, and the commentator remarks: tigmategasas tfvrategaso s tyArgitaprabhâvâh; tegaså ityevamvidha etakkhakhasanketa påthas khåndasah sarvatra. See also Maitr. Up. VI, 29.
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