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THE ADYAR LIBRARY BULLETIN
CATTLE, FIELD AND BARLEY
471
public way (Kane, O.c., p. 500) is meant, one would have liked to know the reasons for D.'s differing from the opinio communis (which I still find much more convincing).
- In fn. 2 on p. 129 of his edition Derrett justly points out that what J.J. Meyer (0.c., p. 127) considered to be the correct reading here, viz. pariurte, is actually found in his manuscript and is confirmed also by Bharuci on his part (cf. the passage quoted in fn. 44).
The text-as given by Derrett, 0.c., Pt. I, p. 129-reads thus : taträparivlam dhanyam vihiinsyuh pasado yadi na latra pranayed dandan nepatih palu-raksinam // 238 optim tatra tu kurvita yam wstro ndalokayet chidram cavarayel sarvam fua-sukara-mukhānugam // 239 pathi kşetre "parierte grámantiye 'thava punah / sa palah dala-dandarho vipalam vdraget pašum // 240 kgetres anyesu tu patuh sapadami panam arhati sarvatra tu fato deyak kşetrikasyeti dhärand // 241 anirdašāham gam sutăm ursän dra-pasans tatha /
sapalan ni 'by apalan od na dandyan Manur abravit // 242 In this connection I cannot help remembering an observation I made in Nepal in 1972 which spotlights the consequences the rule (given in the last of these verses) may have in reality. Among the various and quite impressive 'holy' bulls which at that time used to stroll in the streets of Kathmandu, but which one could also meet in the already rural outskirts of the city, there was a dappled one of which I was particularly fond. One day-the rainy season had already started a couple of weeks earlier and the valley had turned almost totally into a paddy field-I met him again in the bazar, but one of his hind quarters was nothing but a continous stretch of almost raw flesh. Upon inquiry I was told that he had obviously been sprinkled with kerosene--which had then, of course, been set on fire-in order to drive him once and for ever away from the paddy fields where he had been caught grazing. Ruthless cruelty to animals including members of the bovine species is unfortunately not so rare a phenomenon in India and
adjacent countries) as Neohinduism would like us to believe; cf. e.g. J.L. Kipling, Beast and Man in India, London 1891 in particular pp. 119f., 126f., 142 ff.); N.S. Ramaswamy, The Management of Animal Energy Resources and the Modernization of the Bullock-Cart System, Bangalore 1979 (sec. ed) (in particular the photographs at the end) and J. H. Lensch, Probleme und Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten der Rinder- und Büffelhaltung in Indien unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der 'Heiligen Kle ine interdisziplinäre Betrachtung, (Dissertation) Göttingen 1985, pp. 100 ff. . I do not strive for completeness here.
* cf. also this commentary on M. 8. 240-241.
" That members of the bovine species may destroy also the roots of plants by their hoofs, e.g. by repeatedly treading on the same path or by pawing the ground, is a quite different phenomenon. --Corn if it grew again after having been caten bare to the roots could, of course, be used as green fodder; but evidently this is not what it was grown for in India; it is also hardly probable that ratoon cropping was of any importance. See also $$ 6.3 and 6.4.
0 Vijñanesvara's motive is, of course, the avoidance of any disagreement between the Smrti texts. .
cf. also Apararka's explanation: bhaksanamardandbhyam parasasyopaghatini mahişi makiso ud..... Närada (XI 28 and 29) in that he confronts the herdsman (ala) with the owner of the land (tatstvimin), aims at the same clarification..
* By setting up a fence and taking similar measures, what one wants to achieve (apart from following the rules of dharma) is to protect one's fields against the cattle belonging to others, and, of course, also against such wild animals as might cause equal danger; cf. c.g. the verse ascribed by Apararka (on Y. 2. 162) to Katyayana (cf. Katyayana-mata-Samtgraha .. by N. C. Bandopadhyaya, Calcutta 1927, p. 50): ajateso coa sasyesu kurydd dvaranam mahal dukkhena hi niodryante labdhassadurasa mgah II, as well as Patanjali's (Bh. I 100.1) na ca wegah santiti yaad nopyante (where the damage to crops caused by forest animals is, however, looked upon as something one sometimes has to reckon with).
