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486
Albrecht Wezler
"A Slap on the face of the Brahmins"
487
cditors have extracted these references for the readers' convenience, removed then to the left margin and separated them from the corresponding quotation by a dash. Indeed, this format considerably facilitates rapid orientation throughout the text.
The "adi of mahabharatadau in the introductory directional remark is made explicit, to some extent at least, by the concluding statement following upon verse 849, viz. iti mahabharatasmur tipuranadigalaslokah. Hence the author also states quite clearly that the verses which he has compiled and quotes in the first part of his work deal with dharmar, and this expression is evidently used here not in the peculiar technical meaning it has in Jainism itself, but in that meaning which is well-known from brahmanical, or hinduistic, sources, viz. 'normative rules of conduct' or 'rightful conduct' itsell.
All those texts which are not subsumed under mahabharatādi and hence mentioned by name in the body of the text whenever a verse from them is quoted are enumerated, in alphabetical order, in a list altached by the two editors to their "Prastávika" (written in Gujarati). It consists of the following 40 titles:
sary work carinot, however, be done here.
The two verses quoted above from the Itihasasamuccaya with which the Vedānkusa in fact begins are evidently cited for two reasons: (1) for their own sake, and (2) for the sake of indicating that particular type of the vast sphere of the dharma which will also be dealt with in the following 14 verses. That is to say, the 'golden rule" or rather the iniquity of parapidana and the outstanding importance of paropakāra, "doing good to others," which, to be sure, should imply more than just abstaining from "inflicting pain on other [living beings)", form the first topic which the Vedärkusa treats. The various topics or subjects' (visaya), each of which is always common to a number of verses and which in fact represents the very reason for the selection and juxtaposition, have been listed by the learned editors as a "Table of Contents" which has also been placed before the Vedänkusa text itself. But just as in the case of the titles of the works from which the author of the Vedänkuba quotes, the designations of the various visayas reoccur within the body of the text itsell, almost stereotypically in the form of atha plus the locative of the corresponding expression. These 'captions' of the individual chapters, which taken together make up the first part of the Vedärikusa, are regularly printed in bold and larger types and thus, no doubt, serve to facilitate the legibility of the book. However, with regard to them one wonders whether they, too, really form an original constituent part of the text itself, and it takes only a short time to arrive at the conclusion that they have evidently been added later, most probably by the editors themselves. Therefore, there is no such 'caption at the beginning of the first vişaya although the "Table of Contents" starts with the entry "7. paropakara" (followed by the number of the verse with which this 'chapter' starts). In addition, it should be noted that the subject is as a rule quite clearly indicated by the first verse of a 'chapter" itself, sometimes even by its very first word, e.g. p. 1a, 1.10'd harm a h (śruto'pi drsto'pi kuto va karito'pi val anwmodito'pi rajendra punäty saptamant kulam Il Mbh. (Poona ed.) 14. App. 4, verse 60), or at least by its first pada, e.g. p. 3a, 1.6: na papam papinambra ya tatha pāpam apāpinām / satyena tulyadoși syad asatyena dvidosabhäk, quoted from the Adityapurana) in the case of the chapter given the 'caption' atha nindāyām. Besides, one of these 'captions', albeit one which was not in cluded in the "Table of Contents" and which also differs from the others in
ingirasasmrti, Atreyasmrti, Adityapuräna, Adiparvatn), Ayurveda, Itihasa samuccayal, Uttaramimänisă, Rgveda, Kätyäyanasmrti, Grå, Govindakirtana, Caturthäranyaka, Taittiriya Aranyaka, Dakşasmrti. Devapurāņa. Dharmabästra, Nagarapurana, Padmapuräna. Päräsarasmrti, Brahmändapurāna, Byhadaranyaka, Byhaspatismpti, Bhagavata, Manusmrti, Mitākṣarā, Mrgendrapurāņa. Yajurveda, Yamasmçti. Yajavalkyasmrti. Vajasaneyasamphitä. Väsisthasmrti, Vivekavilāsa, Vişnupuräna, Vişnubhakti-candrodaya, Sarikhasmu, Sivapuräņa, Sukasamvāda, Syenasmçu, Samaveda and Skandapurāņa.
Some of these titles, e.g. Ayurveda or Dharmaśāstra, are quite unspecific; that is to say, they are rather names of traditional branches of learning than of individual texts. The necessary critical examination cannot, however, be confined to just such cases. In fact, cach and every quotation has to be traced back to its source, not only in order to complete the reference by adding more specific data, but also to take note of the context and to look out for possible variant readings, etc. Time and space being limited, this philologically neces