Indian Antiquary Vol 47

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 363

GARBES INTRODUCTION TO THE BHAGAVADGITA
the Bhag. (excepting its prologue) and in which he must have been generally known in Pånini's time, viz., as Krishna's disciple to whom the religious truth was disclosed by the Supreme Being, and who in consequence must be regarded as the preacher and promulgator of that religion. The way of worship, which should have brought into vogue the two derivatives, Vasudevaka and Arjunaka, must have been a different matter; in essence, however, both the words signify the same thing, viz., a follower of the Bhagavata religion, and it is for this reason that Pånini has mentioned them simultaneously.40
I have above fought resolutely against the theory of the mythical origin of Krishna. When I first investigated the theory regarding its probability, I became doubtful for a long time because of the name Arjuna,-whether after all the theory might not be a true one, since the two names Krish pa and Arjuna convey-in spite of us-[p. 277 an allegorical or naturalistic impression. The worris indeed have led even Weber (Zur ind. Religions Geschitchte, pp. 28-29) to think in a similar fashion. However, such impressions baing dupendent on the etymology of namas, land one quite too oft in an errror, and give rise to an allegorical meaning or some other mysterious explanation where the simple and the most natural meaning was intended. I need) remind only of Maya, the mother of Buddha. The names Kţishịa and Arjuna are often to be met with in India, and Krishna besides as that of a poet in the Rigveda. If now two persons bearing these names (sic. Křisha and Arjuna) appear in close relation with each other, the circumstance is indeed very striking; but still it is not necessary for us therefro'n to recognize in then say-an embodiment of day and night or some such other thing; on the other hand, this circumstance might lend itself to a very simple explanation in two ways. Either the conception of Arjuna as a counterpart of Krishna was freely invented when the latter was enveloped up in legead; in such cases the people are fond of a parallelism of names, and the namo Arjuna had especially in this case a double justification as being the name of the hero, in which the tribe of the Pandavas, i.e., the sons of the "white one ", was to a certain extent individualised ; $T or there was really amongst the Pandavas a friend and follower of Krishna bearing the name Arjuna. If now we were to decide for the second of these two P. 281 alternatives, we might guess that "Arjuna" might have beon originally a by-name. i.e., the short form of a by-name, which originated from our hero having had a team of white horses. Arjuna also bears in the Mahabharata the surnames Sveta vaha, Svetavahana. Svetaśva, Sitàíva. In this case too, viz., to this genesis of the name Arjuna, might also have
An entirely different view of our prosent) Papini-passage has been expressed by Hopkins, Great Epic, p. 395, note 2: "The whole "evidence" at its most evincing is that Påņini knew Mahabharata in which the horoo (Krishpa and Arjuna ) were objects of such worship as is accorded to most Hindu heroes after death." Had Papini really thought of only some such worship, it is in the highest degree surprising that he should have chosen just these two names, which from the point of view of religious history, are of very great significance and are from the same point of view associated together closely.
* Laator sees, not only in Arjuna but also in Krishna, the personification of a tribe, and holds the two heroes as representatives of two Aryan tribes, differentiated from each other by white and dark skin complexion. Soo Ind. Altertumskunde, I', p. 789 and ff, partioularly p. 791. "The differentiation according to colour must have some morning, and this can only be that the PAKohalas like the Yada vas who are representod by Krishna, both belonged to the Aryan people who had immigrated earlier, but that both had, through the influence of climate, become more dark-complexioned than the youngest immi. grants from the North, the former therefore being called "black" in opposition to the latter." How does this, however, agree with the fact that Arjuna himgelf is often characterised in Mahabharata a having dark complexion 1 Cf. Hopkins, Great Epic, p. 383.