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GĪTĀ-RAHASYA OR KARMA-YOGA
Bhā. Šān. 261. 17). This clearly proves that the present Mahābhārata of a hundred thousand stanzas including the Harivamsa was in existence before the commencement of the Saka era.
(5) The Bhārata and the Mahābhārata have been independently referred to in the Asvalāyana-Grhya-Sūtra (3. 4. 4), and a stanza from the Yayāti Upākhyāna of the Mahābhārata (Ma. Bha. Ā. 78 10 ) appears in one place in the BaudhāyanaDharma-Sūtra (2. 2. 26). Buhler says that this one stanza is not sufficient proof for saying that the Mahābhārata existed before Baudhāyana * ; but this objection is groundless, because the Grhyaśesa-Sūtra of Baudhāyana contains a reference to the Visnu-Sahasranāma (Bau. Gr. Se 1. 22. 8); and further on, in the same Sūtra (2.22.9), the stanza "patraṁ puspam phalan toyam" etc. from the Gītā (Gi. 9. 26 ) has been mentioned. These references in the Baudhāyana-Sūtra were first pointed out by the late Mr. Tryambak Gurunath Kale † ; and they prove that the objection raised by Prof. Buhler is groundless, and that both Āśvalāyana and Baudhāyana were conversant with the Mahābhārata. Buhler has established on other evidence that Baudhāyana must have lived about 400 years before Christ
(6) Where the incarnations of Visnu have been mentioned in the Mahābhārata itself, there is no reference to Buddha; and where the ten incarnations are mentioned in the Nārāyaniyopākhyāna (Ma. Bhā. Sān. 339.100), the Hamsa is taken as the first incarnation, and Kalki is placed immediately after Krsna to make up the total of ten. Yet, where the future state of the Kali-Yuga is referred to in the Vanaparva, it is stated that: “edukacinhū přthivi na devagȚha-bhūşitā”, i. e., "on the earth, there will be 'eduka' instead of temples of gods” (Ma. Bhā, Vana. 190. 68). An edūka is a pillar, tower, and other edifice, erected as a memorial over some buried hair, tooth etc. of Buddha; and it is now-a-days known as 'dāgobā'. 'āgoba' is a corruption from the Sanskrit word 'dhātu-garbha' (in Pali, dāgaba),
* Sacred Books of the East. Vol. XIV. Intro, p. xli.
† The whole of the essay of the late Mr. Tryambak Gurunath Kale has been published in The Vedic Magazine and Gurukul Samachar Vol. VII Nos, 6,7, pp. 528–532. There the name of the writer is wrongly mentioned as "Prof. Kale'.