Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts In Madras Vol 01 Part 01

SR No.: 020674
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: M Sheshgiri Shastri
Publisher: Government Press Madras
Publication Year: 1901
Total Pages: 118
Language: English
Classification: Catalogue
File Size: 6 MB

Page 75

THE SANSKRIT MANUSCRIPTS.
Beginning:
No. 38. ऋग्वेदारण्यकम्. RGVEDARANYAKAM.
Substance, paper. Size, 12 x 8 inches. Pages, 60. Lines, 23 on a page. Character, Telugu. Appearance, new. In good order. Begins on fol. 2590. This is the same manuscript as No. 33.
The Aranyaka portion of the Rgvēda. It is a supplement to the Aitareya Brahmana and consists of five parts or Aranyakās; the first, the fourth and the fifth treating of the Mahāvrata, and the second and the third, of theological metaphysics. The last four chapters of the second part is designated Aitareyōpaniṣad and is included in the Upanisads. According to a passage quoted in No. 32, it was composed by the sago Aitareya who composed the Brahmana also. The work is ascribed to Asvalayana according to the colophon इत्याश्वलायनोक्तमारण्यकं समाप्तम् || with which the manuscripts mentioned in Eggeling's Cat. end. Colebrooke has seen the same reference in a manuscript of the book. He gives the substance of a passage in which it is said that an Aranyaka was composed by Asvalayana and was raised to the dignity of a Brahmana. (Colebrooke's Mis. Es., Vol. I, page 307.) The word means what is to be studied in the forest and is applied to a branch of the Vedic literature, which was intended to be studied so, as seen from the following passage अरण्याध्ययनादेतदारण्यकमिर्यते - Preface to Sayana's commentary of the Taittiriyāranyaka.
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The work has been published by Rajendra Lal Mitra in the Bibliotheca Indica at Calcutta (1875) with Sayana's commentary completely. Aranyakas 1-3 have been translated by Max Müller in Vol. I of the Sacred Books of the East.
हरिः ओम् ॥ भूमिमुपस्टशेत । शं न इन्द्रानि
। भद्रं कर्णेभिः
। स्तुषे जनं सुव्रतं