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326
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1890.
According to the testimony of Samkaracharya's commentary on the Chhinoyya Upanishat III. 1, p.336(Bibl. Ind.) the Pauranikas, it, some unnarued Purina or Purdnas, hut alsonu abbreviated version of the two slokas :
ये प्रजामीबिरे धीरास्ते श्मशानानि भेजिरे।
ये प्रजा नेपिरे धीरास्तेमृतत्वं हि भेजिरे ॥ where the second and fourth pádas alone have been preserved. Among the other Purinas at my disposal the Markandeya, 49-79, and the Padmapurana, v. 3,150, offer an identical verse, which is remotely connected with Apastamba's.
अष्टाशीतिसहस्राणां यसीनामूवरेतसाम् ।
स्मृतं येषां तु तत्स्थानं सदेव गुरुवासिनाम् ॥ The mention of the eighty thousand shaste ascetics no doubt points to an acquaintance of the authors with Å pastamba's second verse. It is thus evident that the two ancient blokas possessed a wide popularity and either formed part of one of the most important Puriņus or occurred in more than one. which latter sapposition is not excluded by the singular purune prefixed to the quotation. For as purána is a generic term, it may be used in a collective sense according to the maxim játáv ekavachanam. The existence of several Purúnas in Apastambu's times becomes probable by the use of the specific title in the second quotation which we have uow to discuss. This quotation extends to the two Sutras, Dh. Su. II. 24, 5, 6: -
मा भूतसंप्टवाने स्वर्गजितः । पुनः सर्गे बीजार्था भवन्तीति भविष्यपुराणे । as without Sútra 5 the sentence in Sátra 6 would be incomplete. A passage which reads like a metrical paraphrase of the second Sitra occurs in the Tagrpurana, I.8,210: -
कल्पस्यादी कृतयुगे प्रथमे सोसजत्प्रजाः ॥२१॥ मागुक्ता या मया तुभ्यं पूर्वकालं प्रमास्तु ताः । सस्मिन्संवर्तमाने मु कल्पे दग्धास्ताग्निना ॥ २२॥ अप्राप्ता यास्तपोलोकं जनलोकं समाश्रिताः। प्रवन्ति पुनः सर्गे बीजार्थ ता भवन्ति हि।। २३ ॥ बीजार्थेन स्थितास्तत्र पुनः सर्गस्य कारणात्।
ततस्ताः सृज्यमानास्तु संतानार्थं भवन्ति हि ।। २४॥ In verse 23 even the order of the words has been carefully kept and the only change introduced is the substitution of bijártham for the, in the later language, unnsnal bijártháh. On the other hand, the Váyup. eontains not a single word from Sutra 3, though the general sense of verse 23a agrees with it. For, according to the peculiar doctrine of the l'uyup., “Janaloka is the residence of the Rishis and demigods during the night of Brahma, and is termed Jana, because the patriarchs are the progenitors of mankind."7 But at least one of its remarkable expressions i bhutasmiplaveit re-appears in the three Puránas, mentioned above, in a verse which ininediately precedes that regarding the eighty thousand sages who had offspring and obtained burial-grounds. Thus the Váyup. I. 50, 2126 says regarding these beings :
एवमार्वतमानास्ते तिष्ठन्त्या भूतसंप्लवात् ।। २१२।। and the identical words occur in the Matsyap. and the Vishnup. exactly in the same position. It would seem that in this case too the ancient materials bave been used twice over by the author of the Viyupurana,
• The saine verse is also found in the Viyup. I. 8,185 and 61, 122 ; Vishnup. I. 6, 3G. 1 H. H. Wilson, Vishnupurana, ed. F. E. Hall, Vol. II. p. 228.
