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224
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
( DECEMBER, 1928
“He who, building the NAciketa-fires and having got to know this triad, who thus knowing builds the Náciketa, pushes forth in front of him the snares of death and, having left sorrow behind, rejoices in the heavenly world.83 (18)
“This fire, O Naciketas, leading to heaven is thine, thou hast chosen it by thy second wish. This fire men will proclaim (as thine).84 Choose thee now & third 85 boon, O Naci. ketas.” (19)
Naciketas: “This is the doubt concerning the dead man: some say 'he exists, others say he exista not.' This I should want to know through thy instruction. This is the third of (my)88 wishes." (20)
Yama : "On this point even the gods doubted at one time; this is not easy to under. stand; it is a subtle question. Choose another boon, O Naciketas, trouble me not, let me off here87.” (21)
Naciketas: “Verily, on this point even the gods doubted, and thou, O Death, hast said that it is not easy to understand. Nor can one obtain another declarer of this like thee; nor is there any other boon equal to this one88." (22)
Yama : “Choose thou sons and grandsons who live a hundred years, herds of cattle, elephants and gold, horses; choose thou a great stretch of land and live as many autumns as thou desirest 8). (23)
"If thou deemest this boon equal to that one90 choose then riches and a long life. Be thou, O Naciketas, prosperous on (thy) great landol. I make thee a partaker of worldly pleasures.92 (24)
"All the (sexual) pleasures that are not easily obtainable in the world of men, those pleasures ask for at will. Look! these lavely girls with their chariots94 and instruments
88 This verse is clumsy and somewhat obsodre. With the motyupala mentioned here of the spika in v. 16.
84 savaiva correctly abolished by Böhtlingk.
85 trtiyam, like dvitfyena, suits the metro badly. Forms like duitya and trtya are not acknowledged 89 existing in Sanskrit, but must undoubtedly have existed because of the corresponding Prákert formations. One might suggest that we ought to read here dvityena and trtyam; but this is, of course, very uncertain.
80 Wo may probably read : Daraxdm epa (me) varas trilya.
87 BOhtlingk, 1.c. p. 135, proposes to read ms instead of md, which is certainly unnecessary. Geldner reads na hi suvijeyo 'ur era dharma), which is also unnecessary.
33 Whitney wants to omit yad in the first line, and he is probably right. Hillebrandt translates this verse in a somewhat different way, which is quite possible but scarcely needed.
39 Possibly without ca and with ydvad iccheh because of the metre. A later editor who knew yavat only with the indicative might easily have altered it into ydvad icchasi..
90 Thus, correctly, Geldner.
91 M. Möller, Bohtlingk, Whitney, Deussen and Geldner wrongly adopt a varia lectio, mahân bhúmou. Only Hillebrandt correctly retains mahabhiimau bhúmer mahaty ayatane (cf. v. 23). Already Samkara quite correctly explains : mahatyam bhämau râjâ tram Mava. .
92 Hillebrandt, 1.c., p. 175, considers this verse to be an interpolation, but on insufficient grounds; for, if in Indian literature we should look upon repetitions in general as interpolations, how would, c.g., the Pali canon fare? Professor Sieg. again, 1.c., p. 131, wants to keep 24a (with slight alterations) + d and join this line with the first lino of 25 into one Triştubh. This does not give bad sonse, but the alterstion is far too violent and contravenes every principle of text-criticism.
93 Geldner, 1.c., p. 204, calls them Apsaras (the same ideo as already held by Weber, Ind. Stud, ii, 204). But how do those heavenly beings come into the world of Yama! Cf. also Oldenberg, Buddha, p. 63.
* Whitney, 1.c., p. 97, thinks saratha to be wholly out of place, but I am unable to share that opinion. Beautiful girls in cars and accompanied by music are certainly not altogether unknown in Indian literature, and besides váháh in v. 26 prove it to be fairly correct. But I admit that the metre is out of order, though I do not know how to mond it. One might try to read sasuratha) if suratha could mean something like a good charioteer ; but that is not very convincing.
