Indian Antiquary Vol 14

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 10

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JANUARY, 1885.
indeed still exists in India, where a man will wear a red coral ring on Tuesday, the day of Mars, and a blue sapphire ring on Saturday, the day of Sani or Saturn, after whom the gem itself is named Sani-priya, or Saturn's beloved.
The dedication of the different stones and the different metals appears to have been regulated by the colours of the planets themselves, as follows:Planeta. Colours.
Stones. Saturn blue lead sapphire
Samethyst, Venus red, tawny copper
jacinth Jupiter grey tin
cornelian Mercury
quicksilver touchstone Mars
cutting bloodstone green
I bronze Moon white silver crystal
topaz, San yellow gold
I diamond There is no direct evidence to show the age of this scheme; but I believe that it must have been in ase in Media and Babylonia for several centuries before the Christian era. The account given by Herodotus of the seven walls of the Median Ecbatana of seven different colours, whether true or false, is at least
as old as the time of Herodotus himself. So also the description of Belshazzar's feast given by Daniel, when "the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank wine and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, and of iron, of wood, and of stone," is as old as the Book of Daniel, whether it be referred to the time of Nebuchadnezzar or to that of the Maccabees. Here the gods of gold and of silver, of brass and of iron, can only refer to the planets as regents of the metals. As there is no allusion to this sabject in any of the early classical authors of Greece or Rome, I conclude that the dedication of the different stones and metals to the seven planets must have originated in the East, in the quarter where they are first found.
At a later date, on the coins of the IndoScythian Kushậns, we have the planeta represented under their personified forms 28 heavenly kings, as well as under their elemental forms as appo, fire, OAAO, air, &c.
That the planets, or the regents of the planets, were accounted kings, we learn from Hyde, who saya, "apud Ethnicos planete omnes regum epitheto gaudebant." So also, on the Indo-Scythian gold coins, we find the inscriptions PAO PHOPO and PAO NANA.
THE MAHÂNARAYANA-UPANISHAD OF THE BLACK YAJUR-VEDA.
BY LIEUTENANT-COLONEL G. A. JACOB, BOMBAY STAFF CORPS. Being erigaged in the preparation of a com- printed text edited by Dr. Rajendralil Mitra plete concordance to the most important of the in 1872, and many valuable readings have been Upanishads, I have recently examined the print- obtained. ed text of that named above, which forms the The editor of the Aramyaka seems to have tenth Prapáthaka of the Taittiriya- Aranyaka. had good materials at his disposal; but it is By a most fortunate coincidence, a very rich questionable whether he made the best possible collection of Upanishads and Dipikás has lately use of them. Suffice it to say, that the combeen added to the library of the Deccan College; position of the first druvdka of the tenth Book and it now possesses an old and accurate MS. is certainly uusupported by any MS. now of Narayana's Dipika on this Upanishad, to extant! In publishing a text of this kind, gether with four MSS. of the text. Of these, with verbal commentary by the renowned No. 140 of 1879-80 contains the text used by Sayana, it would seem bat common sense that Narayana, and is very valuable. The other the former should, as far as possible, agree three, No. 10 of 1882.83 and Nos. 133 and 134 with that used by the counmentator. Dr. of 1880-81, embody the same text, except in RajendralAl Mitra, however, determined to follow Sections 18-20. The Dipiká, No. 10, and No. the text of his manuscript A, in spite of the 133, were parchased in Gujarat ; and the others fact that it differed materially from Sayana's; are probably from the same province. All and the result is not encouraging! For exthese have been carefully collated with the lample, the first Anuváka proper consists of 140
• Daniel v. 3, 4, and 23.