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V - THE DATE OF THE PRESENT GĪTĀ
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has shown that this surmise is wrong. In the BaudhāyanaGrhyaśesa-Sūtra (2. 22. 9), the stanza, "patram puspañ” etc. (Gi. 9 26) has been taken verbahm with the opening remark "tadūha bhagavān" in the following words :
deśābhūve dravyābhāve sūdhārane kuryān manasā vārcayed
iti i tadaha bhagavān patram puspaṁ phalań toya yo me bhaktyū prayacchati !
tad aham bhakty upahrtam aśnām prayatūtmanah It iti ; and it is stated further on, that one should become meek-minded by Devotion and then recite these incantations, cf. "bhaktinami ah etān mantrūn adhiyita"; and it is stated at the end of the third praśna of this Grhyasesa-Sūtra. that by reciting the twelvelettered incantation “om numo bhagaiate Lūsudevāya", one acquired the same merit as that of performing an AśvamedhaYajña From this it is clear that the Gītā, as also the worship of Vasudeva, was fully in vogue before the date of Baudhāyana Besides this, there is the following sentence in the Pitrmedha-Sūtra of Baudhāyana, in the beginning of the third prośna, namely, Jūtasya var manusyasya dhruram maranum it ujāniyāt
tasmāj jāte na prahrşyen mrte ca na visidet 1, which can clearly be seen to have been inspired by the following stanza in the Gītā :
jūtasya hı dhruzo mrtyuh diruzain janma mrtasya ca ! tasmādaparıhūrye 'rthe na tran śocitum arhası il
(Gi. 2. 27); and when, in addition to this, you take the stanza "patran puspan" etc, there remains no doubt whatsoever about the matter. It has been stated above that we find in the Baudhāyana-Sūtra, one stanza from the Mahābhārata itself. The date of Baudhāyana is about 100 to 200 years befora Āpastamba; and Prof. Buhler has come to the conclusion that the date of Āpastamba cannot be more than 300 years before Christ. But, in my oninion, that date must be taken
* Sea Sacred Books of the East Series, Vol. II. Intro. p. xliii ; and also the same Series Vol. XIV. Intro. p. xliii.
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