Indian Antiquary Vol 47

SR No.: 032539
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 386
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 382

32
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
that our poem is closely related to the Purana literature in its mythological and literary characteristica, [p. 61] points in the same direction :-" In fact it is impossible to read the Bhag, and the Pura nas without feeling that we are treading upon the same ground." The view that had become prevalent for a long time that the Puranas represent a later phase of literature connected with the Mahabharata must now be well-nigh revised, since Hopking 65 has now proved that the eighteen Purd nas were known before the completion (of the text) of the Mahabhdrata. Apart from this, however, the similarity between the character of the Bhag. and the Puranas is to be regarded as a proof that the present Gita cannot possibly be placed before the second century A.D.
In this connection, I might also urge one more linguistic consideration, which in its singularity is not indeed devoid of great importance. Bhag. X. 25 which belongs to the later revision contains the word Himalaya, the modern form of the older Himavat, thi: (latter) however, as is well known, still surviving in the later literature. According to the showing of the Petersburg Dictionary, Kálidase is the oldest author of any definite date, who employs the form Himalaya (and similar new forms Himagiri, Himadri). Even though the word Himalaya might indeed have been used before the time of) Kalidasa, still the 18e of that word makes an impression of relative lateness. I therefore believe as a whole, that even though I might not have brought forward any cogent proof, I would not be going much wrong if I were to place the refashioned Gitâ in the second century A.D.
If we now fix our attention on the genuine Gità it is unfortunately impossible to arrive at any chronological result on (the basis of a) resemblance with the Manava Dharmasastra. W. von Humboldt has already drawn attention to the parallels between Manu's law book and the Bhag.56 However there is only one verse which (with a minor difference) [p. 62] is common to both the works ; viz., Bhag., VIII. 17-Manu I. 73. Telang in the preface to his metrical translation of the Bhag. p. 115,67 is naturally of the opinion, in accordance with his conviction of the high antiquity of the Gita, that Manu might have extracted the verse from the Gita. However the thing could be just the other way, and besides there is still the third possibility that it might be a verse loosely floating about, belonging to the Brahmanical tradition, which both the works might have utilized independently of each other. When, further, Hopkins, Great Epic, pp. 19, 22, is, after a thorough investigation of the Mahabharata and of the Manusmriti, firmly convinced that the present form of the text of Manu is later than the old Epic but older than the didactic Epic, while, Bühler (Preface to his Translation of Manusmriti, p. 98) declares our Manu-text as later than our Mahabharata, the attempt to utilize the above-mentioned similarity for purpose of fixing the date of the original Gita, is completely hopeless.
I believe, however, that the investigation regarding the age of the genuine Gird could be carried to a definite result with a closer examination of another passage. At the beginning of the fourth Adhydya which everyone regards as being old, Krishna says that he had taught in the preceding ages the secret of the Yoga doctrine to Vivasvat -Surya, the sun. the birth place of the warrior caste, sarva-kshatriya-vainsa-vija-bhútâya Aditydya as Madhusudana says) and from him it passed on to Manu, Ikshvaku and the old sages of the
55 American Oriental Society Proocedings, October 1888, p. 5; Great Epic, p. 48. 6 See now all of them put together by A. Holtzmann, Das Mahabharata IV, 127 (top). 57 In Holtzmann, op. cit.