________________
200
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(AUGUST, 1880.
find it made throughout the length and breadth of India had failed, and no trace had been found of it, scholars had already begun to say that it was never written by Sayaņa, or, at any rate, that it had perished, like numerous other books which one hears so much about in Indian literature, and which, if found, would go very far to solve some knotty questions connected with Sanskrit literature.
The MS. of which I am now in possession contains Sayana's Commentary on the Saunaki Śskha of the Atharva-Veda, and was discovered in the south through the kind offices of an enlightened friend, himself & Sanskrit 'scholar, Mr. V. N. Narasimaiyengar, of the Mysore Commission. It is written on palmyra leaves, in what I suppose is called the Nandi-Nagari character, a form of Devanagari still in use in some parts of the Madras Presidency, especially on the Malabar Coast. Many in India had no doubt that the Commentary did exist; and as Shyana, the great Vedic interpreter, lived in the South, and as that part of the country is still celebrated for Sanskrit lore and the preservation of ancient Sanskrit MSS., I directed my enquiries to centres of Sanskrit interest in that Presidency, and it is a matter for congratulation, in the interest of Vedic philology, that the long-lost thing has been found at last.
It is a pity, however, that the MS. does not contain the whole of Sayana's Commentary on the Atharva-Veda. Of the twenty Kandas, or chapters, into which the Atharva Samhitá is divided, the MS. contains the commentary on nine Kandas, viz., the first four Kandas, the three Kåndas from 6 to 8, and the four Kåndas from 17 to 20. We have thus three fragments of the Commentary, but put together they form about two-thirds of the whole. I am in hopes of getting some portions of the Kåndas that are missing, as some have been already traced; but I may not be sure of completing the Commentary without waiting for an indefinite length of time.
The MS., so far as it goes, is correct, and it will be possible to edit the Commentary from it even if no other copies are obtained. And I have already been working at the Sanhitd and the MS. with a
view to place before scholars the results of this happy find of the year 1879.
It is fortunate that the first portion of the Commentary has been found. We have there S&yana's usual introduction. And here we learn some interesting facts. The author says that he was ordered to write the Commentary by King Hari. hara, the son of King Bukka, with whom Sayaņa's Commentary on the Rigveda edited by Prof. Max Müller has acquainted the students of the Veda. From the introductory verges, when taken with the opening of the Commentary on the Rigveda, it would appear that Sayana and MSdhava are one and the same person. For, accord. ing to the present Commentary, Haribara commanded Skyanacharya to compose--and it is Såyaracharya that composeg--the Commentary ; and the author, farther on, says that he proceeds, therefore, to write his Commentary, having already written his Commentaries on the other three Vedas. In Sayana's Commentary on the Rigveda it is Bakka who commands Madhavacharya to explain the Rigveda, and it is that Madhavacharya who composes the Commentary. The qnestion, therefore, whether Madhava and Sayana were one and the same person, or, as has been supposed by some, different individuals, may be said to be set at rest by the Commentary now found.
The Preface distinctly says that the AtharvaVeda Commentary was written after three other Vedas had been explained by the author by commentary.
Sayaņa quotes an authority which says that the Atharva-Veda has five "upavedas" or Veddngas, which are Sarpaveda (the Veda about snakes), Pildchaveda (the Veda about ghosts and devils), Asuraveda (the Veda about demons), Itihdsaveda the Veda of legends), and Purdnaveda (the Veda of the Purdnas).
According to Sayana, there are nine branches, or Sakbâs (he calls them bhedas), of the AtharvaVeda, which he enumerates as follows:-(1) the Paippaldas, (2) the Taudas, (3) the Maudås, (4) the Saunakiyås, (5) Akshalás, (6) the Jaladas, (7) Brahmavadas, (8) the Devadarkas, and (9) the Chårannvaidyng. And he goes on to say that the ritualistic use of the verses of the four Sachês of
The introduotory verses are as follows: VagisAdyah emanaaah sarvarthApAm apakrame Yam nat & kritakritykh syus tam namAmi Gajananam || Yasya nisvasitam vedd yo vedebhyo'khilam jagat Nirmame tam ahami vande Vidy&tirtha mahevaram || A vidyCbhausantapto Vidyaranyam Bham bhaje Yadarkakarataptin&m arányam pritikAraram Tatkatékshena tadråpan dadhato Bukkabhupateh Abhaddharibaro Rij& kabirabdheriva chandramah Vijiteritivrfito virabri Haribarah kshamedhisab Dharmabrahm&dhvanyah Kalit svacharitena Kritayugam
karate Sidhayitva Mahim sar dan sriman Hariharesvarab
Bhunkte babuvidbAn bhog a asakto Ramavat sudhib Il Vijayi Hariharabhūpah samudvahan sakalabhbharam Shodaka mabinti dinânyanisath sarvasya tushtaye kurvan Tanmalabhūtam slochya vedam AtharyanAbhidham | Adisat Sayan charyam tadarthaaya prakAsanell Ye purvottaramiminse te vyakhylly&tisaagrah At KripAluh Sayan Acharyo Ved arthath vaktam udyatah | VyAkhyys vedatritayam Amushmikaphal pradem Aibikkmushmikaphalam chaturthamo vyAchikirshatí)
It will be observed that the reading of tatkatakshona trdnipaih in line 7 gives a better sense than yatkatakshena, &c., as found in Prof. Max Müller's most valuable edition of the Rigveda-Commentary.
