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I, 15.
GENERAL RULES.
12. Some (declare the country of the Aryas to be situated) between the (rivers) Ganga and Yamuna.
13. Others (state as) an alternative, that spiritual pre-eminence (is found) as far as the black antelope grazes.
14. Now the Bhållavins quote also (the following) verse in the Nidana :
15. In the west the boundary-river, in the east
B., and the explanation of the former, because it seems to me that the general sense which they give, is the correct one. I feel, however, not certain that the word pratilomakadharmânâm, of those countries where opposite laws prevail,' is more than a careless correction. The majority of the MSS. read pratilomakakshadharmânah (kalpadharmânah), which by itself is difficult of explanation. But, as the text of the next Sûtra contains an apparently superfluous phrase, I fear, we shall have to admit that the text is here disfigured by corruptions, which with our present MSS. it is impossible to remove with certainty.
12. Krishnapandita reads this Sūtra 'etad âryâvartam ityâkakshate gangayamunayor antaretyeke,' and takes it as one sentence, the subject of which is eke.' I feel no doubt that this explanation is utterly untenable, and that the first four words have nothing to do with this Sätra, the second part of which occurs also in the Baudhâyana Dharma-sûtra I, 1, 27. My opinion is that they originally belonged to Sūtra 11, though the state of the MSS. at my disposal does not allow me to say how Sūtra 11 has to be corrected. The general sense of Sûtra 12 is, however, perfectly certain.
13. Manu II, 23; Yâgñavalkya I. 2. It deserves to be noted that the black antelope (black-buck), Oryx cervicapra, selects for its home the well-cultivated, rich plains of India only, and is entirely wanting in the sandy, mountainous or forest districts, which are now, just as in ancient times, the portion of the aboriginal tribes.
14. Regarding the Bhâllavins, see Max Müller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, pp. 193, 364. Krishnapandita thinks that Nidana means desanirnaya, the disquisition on the countries,' which is the title of a section which occurs in most modern compilations on law. But it will be safer to take it as the name of a Vedic work, identical with or similar to that quoted in Saunaka's Brihaddevata, Weber, Hist. Ind. Lit., p. 81. 15. Sindhur vidharani or vidharani, as B. reads, cannot be
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