Book Title: Grihya Sutras
Author(s): Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford

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Page 2408
________________ I ADHYAYA, 3 PÂDA, 30. 215 that, for instance, in some new creation a sixth sense and a corresponding sixth sense-object should manifest themselves. As, therefore, the phenomenal world is the same in all kalpas and as the Lords are able to continue their previous forms of existence, there manifest themselves, in each new creation, individuals bearing the same names and forms as the individuals of the preceding creations, and, owing to this equality of names and forms, the admitted periodical renovations of the world in the form of general pralayas and general creations do not conflict with the authoritativeness of the word of the Veda. The permanent identity of names and forms is declared in Sruti as well as Smriti; compare, for instance, Rik. Samh. X, 190, 3, 'As formerly the creator ordered sun and moon, and the sky, and the air, and the heavenly world;' which passage means that the highest Lord arranged at the beginning of the present kalpa the entire world with sun and moon, and so on, just as it had been arranged in the preceding kalpa. Compare also Taitt. Brâhm. III, 1, 4, 1, 'Agni desired: May I become the consumer of the food of the gods; for that end he offered a cake on eight potsherds to Agni and the Krittikâs.' This passage, which forms part of the injunction of the ishti to the Nakshatras, declares equality of name and form connecting the Agni who offered and the Agni to whom he offered1. Smriti also contains similar statements to be quoted here; so, for instance, 'Whatever were the names of the rishis and their powers to see the Vedas, the same the Unborn one again gives to them when they are produced afresh at the end of the night (the mahâpralaya). As the various signs of the seasons return in succession in their due time, thus the same beings again appear in the different yugas. And of whatever individuality the gods of the 1 Asmin kalpe sarveshâm prânzinâm dâhapâkaprakâsakârî yo yam agnir drisyate so yam agnih pûrvasmin kalpe manushyah san devatvapadaprâpakam karmânushthâyâsmin kalpa etag ganma labdhavân atah pûrvasmin kalpe sa manushyo bhâvinîm samgñâm âsrityâgnir iti vyapadisyate.-Sâyana on the quoted passage. Digitized by Google

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