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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[Nov. 1, 1872.
As yet education has not found its way among the Gonds, and I see little prospect of its doing so
for many years to come, or until they have made further advances in general civilization.
ASIATIC SOCIETIES. Bombay Br. R. Asiatic Society.
the names of Bhímasena, Sahadeva, and Nakula, whom
he calls Kurus (IV. 1.4 ahu), and of Duryodhara, and At the monthly meeting of the society held on Thursday, the 12th September 1872. Professor Ram
Duks Asana (III-3-1 xhu) mentions that Yudhish.
thira was the elder brother of Arjuna (under Pan. II. krishna Gopal Bhandarkar, M.A., read a paper on the
2. 34), and tells us (under Pán. VIII. 1.15) that these date of the Mahabharata, of which the following is an
persons were popularly known in his time. As an abstract:
instance of III. 2. 118 he gives Dharmena 8.6 There is a notice by Colebrooke, in the 9th vol. of the
Kurawo yudhyante, 'the Kurus fought with fairness, Asiatic Researches, of a copper plate grant in the posses
in which yudhyante with sma has the sense of the sion of some Brahmans in Southern India, purporting
perfect, i.e., remote past. It thus appears that there was to be from Janamejaya, of the race of the Pandavas.
in his time a work describing the war of the Kurus, that This king is described in the grant in the same terms
the war was considered to have taken place at a remote as in the Mahabharata. The grant was pronounoed to
time, that Bhimasena, Nakula, Sahadeva, Yudhi. he spurious by Colebrooke, since it appeared to be very
shthira and Arjuna were heroes of the Kuru race, modern. From the solar eclipse mentioned in the
and that they were popularly known. The Mah. grant its date has been determined to be the 7th of
bharata therefore existed in Patanjali's time, though April 1521 A.D.
it is not denied that the poem must have undergone a The earliest literary date is that of Patanjali.
good deal of transformation in the course of ages and Prof. Goldstücker places him in the second century
many episodes have been introduced into it. The main B.C. and the writer of this has recently discovered
story, however, appears to have been substantially the that he lived in the reign of Pushpamitra, the
same as it is now. Perhaps the Mahabharata story founder of the Sunga dynasty, who reigned from
was even made the subject of new poems in Patanjali's B.C. 178 to B.C. 142. Panini must have preceded
time, for under II-2-24, he quotes, as if from such a him by about three centuries, and the S'rauta and Grihya
work, asidoitiyonusasdra Pandawam, he followed the Sútras of the three Vedas, must have preceded Pánini, Påndava, sword in hand. This forms a regular line or some of them were probably written about the in the sandast ha metre. same time with him. The Sútras again presuppose The Násik inscriptions date probably from the the Brahmanag, between which and them & consider
1st to the 3rd century A.D. In one of these Gautamí. Able interval must have elapsed. Now the Aitareya
putra's exploits are compared to those of Bhímasena, Brahmana mentions Janamejaya, the son of Parikshit Arjuna, and Jan mejaya, all of whom are Mahabha aud Bharata, the son of Dushyanta, as very powerful rata characters. (Jour. B. B. R. A. S. No. xviii. p. 41). kings (VIII. 21, 23). This shows at least that some The Chalukya oopperplate grant translated by Prof. of the elements of the story in the Mahabharata run Dowson (Jour. R. A. S., N. 8. Vol. I. p. 269-70), and one far into antiquity. In the Grihya Sútra of As'ya- of the Gurjara dynasty, translated by the author layana the name of the Mahabharata occurs. It is last year, contain verses, quoted as from the work of questioned whether the Mahabharata here referred to Vyása, one of which is addressed to Yudhishthira. The contained the story of the Kurus as the epio now ! date of the former is 472 A.D. and of the latter 498 A.D. known by that name does. But the question does not ap- An inscription in a temple at Iwalli in the Dharwad pear reasonable, since another author (Panini), who pro- district is dated in the 3730th year of the Bharata war. bably lived soon after, or at about the same time, men- The S'aka date in the inscription is 506, corresponding tions the names of some of the characters in the story, to 584 A.D. (Jow'. B. B. R. A. Soc. Vol. IX. p. 315.) and the name of the poem also. Pánini in his Sutras, Kalidasa lived before Dána, as he is mentioned as a not Gamle, mentions Vá-udeva and Arjuna (IV. 3. 98), famous poet by the latter in his Harsha-Charita. Yudhishthirn (VIII. 3. 95) and the Mahabharata, Bana flourished in the first-half of the seventh century (VI. 2. 38). The first is a remarkable rule, for it For he tells us that he was patronized by Sri Harsha tenches the formation of derivatives from these names the same as Harshavardhana (the contemporary of signifying persons devoted to or worshipping Vasudeva Hiwen Thsang) who was conquered by Satyas'raya, 3 or Arjuna. And the manner in which they are men. Chalukya prince mentioned in the Iwalli inscription tioned together, reminds one of the great friendship as then reigning, and whose great-grandson was on which, according to the Mahabharata, existed between the throne in 706 A.D. (Dr. Hall's edn. of Vusaradattá them, and looks like a reference to the representation p. 14, 17, notes, and Jour. B.B.R.A.S, Vol. III, p. 203-11). of those heroes contained in that poem. Patanjali, in Kalidasa mentions the war of the Kurus that took his comments on this Sútra, sees no reason why Vásudeva place in the Kurukshetra, and Arjuna, one of its heroes. should have been mentioned in this Satra, since the in his Meghaduta. Bana himself in his Kadam. same derivative from the name is taught in another bari makes Vilasvítí, the Queen of Tárápida, go to the rule. He says this Vásudeva is the name of the great temple of Mahakala in Ujjayini and hear the Mala. god Vamdeva, thus showing that in his time, and even bharata read. The people of Ujjayini are represented in those of Panini, the heroes of the Mahabharata in another place as fond of the Mahabharata, Ráadhad come to be worshipped as gous. Patanjali gives yana, and the Purinas. There are equivokes on the
