Indian Antiquary Vol 04

SR No.: 032496
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 410
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1875.
for deadly antagonists than for intimate friends. It is curious enough that the name of a paternal uncle of Krishna, Akrára, who is mentioned already by Yâska (II. 2; Roth takes the passage to be an interpolation), seems to appear even in the Avesta, though indeed in the form of Åkhrúra (with long 4 at the beginning), son of Husravanh (Susravas). But to return to Bhândârkar. That there existed a Puranic literature at the time of the Bhashya is very probable; we did not need these quotations to feel almost sure of that, for we know that itihasas and puránas existed even as early as the time of the Brahmanas, but that "our Puranic literature," that "some such work as the Harivansa and the Puranas, must have existed at the time of Patanjali," is more than I can gather from those highly interesting statements about the popularity of dramatic representations of Kansa's death at the hands of his sister's son Krishna, and the subjugation of Bali, and from those metrical passages relating to Samkarshana, Kesava, Janârdana, Vasudeva, Krishna, which may as well have been taken from some sort of Mahabharata existing at the time. About the existence of such a one, and even of a composition by Suka Vaiyâsaki, at the time of the Bhashya, there can be no reasonable doubt, though we must beware of going beyond that and identifying with it directly our present text; for the real age of an existing text can safely be judged only by the internal evidences afforded by its own contents, though even those must be handled with great care, for the more we learn about the history of a Hindu literary composition, the clearer we see that there are many ways to account for statements contained in it. Thus much is certain, that the high state of culture which is apparent from what we learn from. the Bhashya about social, mercantile, political, and religious matters, as well as about the highly flourishing condition of sacred, learned, and secular literature, would involve even à priori also the existence of a secular poetry, and it is therefore quite in accordance with the picture to be drawn from those other statements what we find mentioned in it in this respect. But highly valuable as these indications and the very quotations from that poetry are, we must take care to identify it directly with the poetry really in our possession. There is a gap between the two, which cannot be filled up, or even fairly bridged over, by such weak links, though they may serve indeed to connect them loosely together. The Indian climate (see my Lectures on the History of Indian Literature, pp. 171 ff.) is not favourable to the preservation of written literature. Continued oral tradition, on the other hand, is but the reward and result of great
atmachaturtha eva) to those enumerated already by myself (Ind. Stud. XIII. 349 ff.). He takes all these passages as real quotations by Patanjali himself, and as dating, therefore, from the middle of the second century before Christ, and he adduces them as testimonies not only to show" that the stories about Krishna and his worship as a god are not so recent as European scholars would make them, who find in Christ a prototype of Krishna, and in the Bible the original of the Bhagavadgitá," but also against those "who believe our Purânic literature to be merely a later growth," and as direct proofs "that some such works as the Harivansa and the Puranas must have existed then." Here I have to remark that even without paying the least attention to the unsafeness of the ground on which we stand here, and even while fully taking these words and quotations as dating really from the very time of Patanjali, they do not yield anyhow the conclusions at which Bhandarkar arrives with regard to them. They are quite conclusive and very welcome indeed as testimonies for that worship of Krishna, as a god or demigod, which forms an intermediate stage between his position in the epic as a warrior and hero of the Vrishni race and his elevation to the dignity of Vishnu, of the supreme Being, of God (Ind. Stud. XIII. 349 ff.), but they do not interfere at all with the opinion of those who maintain, on quite reasonable grounds, that this latter development of the worship of Krishna, and especially the legendary and ritualistic portion of it, has been influenced to a certain degree by an acquaintance with the doctrines, legends, and symbols of the early Christian ages; or even with the opinion of those who are inclined to find in the Bhagavadgitá traces of the Bible: for, though I for my part am as yet not convinced at all in this respect, the age of the Bhagavadgitá is still so uncertain that these speculations are at least not shackled by any chronological obstacles. I beg to remark here, prasangena, that the origin of the worship of Krishna as a god or demigod is as yet in complete obscurity. Kansa seems to have been a demon as well as Bali, and very probably Krishna too,-though he appears in the epic as a warrior, and in the Chhandogya Upanishad as 'thirsty' for holy information,-is to be traced back to a mythological base, as his intimate connexion with Arjuna, himself a name and form of Indra (according to the Satapatha Brahmana and to the legends in the Kaushitaki Upanishad), points to a common origin of them both; but at present we look still in vain for a key to solve this mystery, which is the more mysterious as the meaning of both names (the Black and the White) appears à priori more appropriate