Indian Antiquary Vol 24

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 37

FEBRUARY, 1895.) BULLETIN OF THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA.
33
BULLETIN OF THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA.
BY A. BARTH OF THE INSTITUT DE FRANCE. (Translated from the French by Dr. James Morison.)
(Continued from Vol. XXIII. p. 374.) Bor the chief publication of these last years, on the Atharva-Veda is its proper ritual work, the Kaubika-sutra, edited by Prof. Bloomfield. Long waited for with impatience, and appreciated at its full value before it appeared, thanks to what Profs. Weber and Bloomfield had extracted or permitted others to extract from it, it has not belied the expeutations which were formed of it. The editor has surrounded himself with all the manuscript sources known, and has used them all to good advantage. He has published all that remains, all at least that is yet legible in the valuable comment of Darila, first made known by Prof. Weber, and has given copious extracts from the gloss of Keśava, another commentator. In a learned preface, he has carefully distinguished the different layers of his text, and has laid bare the old foundation of curious practices, which is as it were the kernel. The history of the Atharva-Veda, after these investigations, appears with an outline, which, if not quite new, is drawn with more firmness than in the past. It is a modern Veda, in the sense that it is only at a comparatively late time that it was put to use as another Veda, that it was furnished with all that a Veda should have; but as to its substance, it is an ancient, a very ancient text, which for other rites than the great sacrifices was not less celebrated nor held less sacred. As to the aid which Prof. Bloomfield's publication gives to the interpretation of these old texts, it would be hard to exaggerate its value. To make this clear to our minds we need only compare a translation in which this help could be employed, with another where it was wanting; for instance, the seventh book of M. Henry with his thirteenth. In this respect it is hardly likely that we need look for so much from the Commentary of Sîyana, which Mr. Shankar Pandit is preparing to publish. To the Atharva-Voda there have gradually been attached those Upanishads, which we may call floating, those which are not bound up with a body of Vedic writings still preserved, and whose number has gone on increasing. Among those which belong to this class and which must be accepted as ancient, is the Katha Upanishad, a curious Hindu speculation on the problem of life and death, which Prof. Whitney has translated afresh. Colonel Jacob, who has devoted himself enthusiastically to the study of this class of philosophic literature, has published a general concordance, in which every word and every phrase, however unimportant, is registered, with a complete enumeration of all the passages. This storehouse, which embraces texts of all ages, and omits none of any value, includes also the Bhagavadgitd, which Col. Jacob was well advised to admit. The number of texts extracted is 67, or by another mode of reckoning only 56, and must have involved an immense amount of labour, since the author has not only collected from the printed material, but has corrected it by the manuscripts, and has very often been obliged to make a critical text anew, the first editions, notably those in the Bibliotheca Indica, being often very faulty. This Kosa of Col, Jacob will henceforward be indispensable as a working tool to all students of Hindu philosophy. We also owe to Col. Jacob excellent editions of the Mahanardyaņa Upanishad, and eleven other Upanishads of the Atharva Veda, with
1 Maarioo Bloomfield, The Kausika-8dtra of the Atharva-Voda, with Eætracta from the Commentaries of Darila and Kelava; forming the XIVth volume of the Journ. Americ. Oriont. Soc. New Haven, 1890.
This process of attaobment has been carried on atill further, to those Upanishads whio are actually part of other Vedas, and wbiola are handed down besides in an Atharva recension.
W. D. Whitney, Translation of the Katha Upanishad in the Transaction of the Amerio. Philological Association.
* Colonel G. A. Jacob, Upanishadvakyakban. A Concordance to the Principal Upanishads and Bhagavadgita, Bombay, 1891, pp. 1,083, large ootavo.
Here I may mention the new editions of the chief Upanishada with rich apparatus of commentary, which form part of the AnandAbrams Berice, in course of publication at Poons. They are both correct and moderate, in price, and there have appeared up till now, the Ila, Kona, Kathaka Prafne, Mundaka, Mandukya (with the Karikas of Gandapáda), Aitarnya, Tafttirlya, Chandogyn, Brihaddramwaka and Sustafvatara Upanishade.