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311
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1896.
The poor orphaned Påndlava brothers are cheated bave overlooked the fact that an analogous table of their hereditary right by the wicked Duryo. based on the statements of fourteen authors has dhana. They are obliged in the end to have been given in Mayne's Hindu Law and Usage. recourse to the sword, and after a long struggle The numerous Sanskrit quotations from the Maha. their just cause proves victorious. The unity bharata are well selected and bave been correctly of the main plot corresponds with the unity of given as a rule. Slight mistakes or misprints style and language which pervades the whole occur in the quotations at pp. 69, 108, 116, 145, work. Nor are the numerons episodes and 148, 159, 169, 183, 203, 255, 256, 258, 274, etc. intermezzos (amounting to three-fourths of the The difficult but important question as to the Mahabharata) a later outgrowth and superfluous commentaries of the Mahabharata bas been left embellishment. Thus the famous history of aside by Dr. Dahlmann. The earliest commentary Nala is quoted by way of analogy, in order to extant, as pointed out by Prof. Bübler, belongs console the principal hero of the epic about his to the fourteenth century A. D., and it is clear hard fate. In the same way, the Runópákhyána is enough that the external evidence bearing on the introduced for the purpose of consoling Yudhish- condition of the Mahabharata is much weaker thira of the forcible abduction of Draupadi. than, e.g., in the case of the Code of Manu, of Many other tales are intended to inculcate special which a continuous series of commentaries exists rules of the sacred law, the Gandharva and Asura from the ninth century downwards. It is no forms of marriage being illustrated by the tales matter of surprise, therefore, that, e. g., the last regarding Sakuntali and Madri, Svayamvara by twenty-three chapters of the Advanédhika Parvan the instance of Ambi, Niyoga by the cases of are deficient in all printed editions of the great Satyavati and Kunti. The philosophical doctrines epic, and have been discovered but recently by scattered throughout the epic, and the sectarian
Pandit Vaman Sistri Islâmparkar in an old worship of Vishnu and Siva, belong likewise to Malayalam copy of the Mahabharata and in the the original elements of the Mahibhurata. 80-called Smriti of Vriddha-Gautama. As to the It is impossible to do full justice to Dr. Dahl.
weakness of the historical element in the great mann's el uborate theories without entering into
epic, Dr. Dahlmann agrees with the views details. Suffice it to mention that they appear to
advanced by Prof. Ludwig in 1884. The latter be well substantiated in the main, and that he has
scholar has published very recently a paper on certainly succeeded in refuting the old theory of
the mythical basis of the Mahabharata, in which several successive layers still discernible in the
the main incidents of the plot are explained allebody of the epic, which were supposed to represent
gorically. The Pandava brothers are the seasons, the social condition of several widely different
and Draupadi, their common wife, is the earth. cpochis. The alleged anti-Kaurava tendency in
Bhima represents the spring season. Duryodhana, particular, which was conjectured to be due to an
the cruel purguer of the Påndavas, is the deity innovation on the part of the adherents of the
of winter. The long and manifold struggles rygning Påndava dynasty, has never existed.
described in the epic correspond to the incessant Indeed that theory, which has again been advo
conflict between the successive seasons of the cated in Prof. Holtzmann's above-mentioned work,
year. The dice are the stars, the winning stars has hardly any other foundation to rest upon than
are those constellations the rise of which marks mistakon derivation of the name of Duryo.
the beginning of winter. dhana which does not denote a bad fighter,' but
The question as to the date of the Mahabharata one who is hard to overcome. On the other has been incidentally treated in Prof. Jacobi's hand, there can be no doubt that Dr. Dahlmann recent paper on the origin of Buddhism. Ho has carried his didactic theory too far, thus, e. g., considers the second or third century B. C. to it is difficult to agree with him that the extraordi. be the very latest date, on the ground that the pary marriage of Draupadi with the five Pandava Sakas and Yavanas are not referred to in the epio brothers is a mere allegorical illustration of the as nations inhabiting the Panjab, and that community of property in an undivided family. neither Buddhism nor the Persian sway over the The tabular synopsis of the sons, natural and Panjab is mentioned in the Mahabharata. adopted, according to eight authorities, is useful
J. JOLLY and instructive, but Dr. Dahlmann seems to Würzburg.
· The Pardiara Dharma Salhita, Vol. I, p. 7 (Bombay Sanskrit Series, 1898). * liber die mythische Grundlage des Mahabharata. Prag. 1895. • Der Uraprung des Buddhismus aus dem Sdn.khya-Yoga.
