Indian Antiquary Vol 02

SR No.: 032494
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 428
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

Page 108

96
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH, 1873.
(See Elliot's Historians, by Dowson, Vol. I. p. 3, and note-also the map at page 32; and at page 30 the same itinerary in al-Istakehrt; also in Idrisi at page 85). The last-mentioned geographer says: “They fish for pearls here. It is in the vicinity of Bara, a small island on which some cocoanut trees and the costus grow." Can any explanation be given of this? The passage looks as if it might contain some light on the Perimula of Pliny, which was according to his indications-(1) the chief mart of India, (2) the seat of a pearl-fishery, (3) somewhere on the west coast, and (4) certainly anything rather than Manar, as Lassen makes it.
But Patanjali's own explanation is param akshnoh paroksham (that which is turned away from the eyes, i. e., not seen), and one of his quotations from other writers about the sense of the word is kudya-katantaritam parokshamo (that which is hidden from one even by a fence), both of which show that the only essential sense of the word is 'a thing not seen by the speaker.' Dars'ana-vishaya, the Professor interprets by 'a thing once seen, or that once fell within the range of the speaker's vision ;' but if it has been once seen, it can never be called puroksha in the sense which is always attributed to the word.
Fourthly.-Prof. Weber quotes from Patanjali the passage mathurayah Pátaliputram pûrvam, and infers that the author of the Mabâbh&shya lived to the east of Pataliputra. His interpretation of the passage seems to be Påtaliputra is first and Mathura afterwards. But the natural sense is
Pataliputra is to the east of Mathura,' as it is, or rather was, as a matter of fact. That Patanjali lived, not to the east of Påtaliputra, but to the northwest of Saketa, I have shown in a separate article. Lastly, Dr. Goldstücker and Prof. Weber understand the word úcháryades'iya used by Kaiyata in some places in the sense of countryman of the acharya.' It is not annatural that an antiquarian, looking for historical facts in what he reads, should interpret his author the ; but it is not natural that a Hindu commentator, caring only for his subject, and not at all for history, should use such an expression to contrast one of the authors he comments on with another. Ho will look to the scale of estimation in which he holds them. To the Hindu grammarian the greatest acharya is Pånini, next to him is Katyayana, and next to this latter is Patanjali. If it is necessary in one place to contrast one of them with another, he would naturally use some such expression as acharya and achárya the younger. And this appears to me to be the sense of the word, and a Hindu would naturally understand it thus. It is derived, according to Pán. V. 3, 67 ; but the sense ought not to be taken as an unaccomplished teacher, as Dr. Goldstäcker does, but a teacher who is lower in the scale, or the younger teacher. And that Patanjali was ro is plain. That there is very great reason te believe that Patanjali and Kâty&yans did not belong to the same country, I have shown elsewhere.
RAMKRISHNA G. BHANDARKAR.
NOTES 1. I HEARTILY accept the Editor's correction about the true identity of Supara (see Vol. I. p. 321). I was not aware of the survival of the name near Waski, and I followed Ibn Haukal's data, which present the itinerary as follows: Carbay to Sabarah, 4 marches (1 parasang from
the sea.) Sabarah to Sindan, 5 , (do. do Sindan to Saimûr, 5 • Seo the Mahabhashya under Parokshe lit. III. 2, 115.
2. The following, short extracts from Valentyne's History of the Dutch East Indies may be of interest to many of your readers, as an item in the history of the "Discovery of Sanskrit." That very industrions and intelligent author, after referring to what had been written by the chaplains, Abraham Rogerius and Philip Baldaeus, concerning the Hindu religion, proceeds:-"We do indeed find many things in those two books concerning the religion (of the heathen); but yet by no means all that it would be well to know. And the sole cause of this is that neither of those gentlemen understood the Sanskrit language (which Rogerius calls Samscortams, and which others call Girandam or Kerendum), in which language the Vedam, or Holy Law book of these heathens, is written. And thus they had no power to read or translate the Vedam, and thereby to lay open before the eyes of the world this religion in its real essence and on its true foundation, .... Above all, it would be a matter of general utility to the coast that some more chaplains should be maintained there for the sole purpose of studying the Sanskrit tongue,t the head-and-mother tongue of most Eastern languages, and once for all to make an exact translation of the Vedam, or Lawbook of the Heathen (which is followed not only by the heathen on this coast, but also, in whole or in part, in Ceylon, Malabar, Bengal, Surat, and other neighbouring kingdoms), and thereby to give such preachers further facilities for the more powerful conviction of the heathen here and elsewhere, on their own ground, and for the disclosure of many mysteries and other matters with which we are now unacquainted. . . . . This Lawbook of the Heathen, called the Vedam, had in the very old times 4 parts, though one of these is now lost.... These four parts were named Roggo Vedam, Sadura or Issoure Vedam, Sama Vedam, and Tarawan or Adderawana Vedam."-Keurlyke Beschryving van Choromandel, pp. 72, 73 in Vol. V. Palermo, Dec. 26, 1872. H. YULE, Colonel.
+ "De Sanskritse taal."