Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 202

174
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(SEPTEMBER, 1931
"Having seen discrepancies in many ways on the part of the writers of wommentaries on the Sastras, Vishnu Gupta himself has made (this) Satra and commentary."
The question naturally arises, where are the sutras and the commentaries on them ! The present text is not in the form of sutras and commentaries. If the last verse is an inter polation, what guarantee is there that the verses mentioning the name Kautilya, and following no particular order or procedure, are not themselves interpolations ? The Canakyasútráni appended to the second edition of the Mysore text might have had a commentary which is now lost.
On the one hand, the author of these sutras follows a portion of the Artha-ddatra, and the first seven otras disclose the same order of sections as was followed by Kåmandaki ; on the other hand he seems to be quite independent, as if he had no regard for the present text and had no acquaintance even with the Niti-sdra of Kamandaki. Taking all these points into consideration, it appears that the verses containing the author's name have no practical value in fixing the date of the text, as Dr. Shamasastry thought. The learned doctor's further argument, based upon the state of society depicted in the Artha-sastra, leading him to the conclusion that it is pre-Buddhist, becomes inoonolusive in view of the fact that there is little to show the exact conditions prevailing in the pre-Buddhist period. Similarly, his reliance on Dandin is not conclusive, inasmuch as there is no means of ascertaining whether. the tradition handed down to Dandin about the authorship of the work was based on fact.
From what has been said above it would seem most probable that the original text was in verse, and not in prose.
NOTES ON HOBSON-JOBSON. BY PROY. 8. H. HODIVALA, M.A.
(Continued from page 149.) Ellora.-The earliest reference to these Caves in Hobson-Jobson is from Thévenot (1665). But there seems to be a fairly clear allusion to them in Mas'ûdi.
[c. 916] "Nous avons décrit les temples de l'Inde consacrés aux idoles qui ont la forme du badrah (sans doubte le pradjáprsti], c'est-à-dire du germe qui parut dans l'Inde à l'origine des temps ; le grand temple nommé Aladra (Ellora ?] où les Indiens se rendent en pélérinage des régions les plus éloignées. Ce temple a une ville entière à titre de la fondation pieuse, et il est entouré de mille cellules où vivent les dévots qui se consacrent à l'adoration particulière de cette idole."-Prairies d'or, ed. et tr. Barbier de Meynard, IV, 95. The translator suggests that this must be Ellora ; and there is a good deal to be said for this identification, as I may be easily read as 1,1 Aldura ' the symbols for dal and wdo, being so very much alike as to be often confounded by copyists.
The cave temples are also mentioned by Firishta in his account of the Deccan expedition of 1306 and the capture of Dewal Devi, the daughter of Raja Karan of Anhilwad :
“While halting for two days to refresh his army among the mountains, some of his [Alaf Khân's) troops to the number of 300 went without leave to see the caves of Ellora, in the neighbourhood of Dewgur [i.e., Deogiri now Daulatabad), from which city bis camp was not far distant." Briggs' Ferishta, I, 369; Lucknow Lith., I, 117. This is but a casual mention. But there is a lengthy description of these monuments in the Tazkiratu'l-mulak-a History of the Adilsháhis of Bijapur written in A.H. 1020 (c. 1611 A.C.).-Rieu, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, I, 316; Rehatsek, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Mulla Firuz Library, Bombay, p. 75.
Another Musalman historian also speaks of them, but the passage is scarcely worth quoting as it is practically identical with the one quoted by Sir Henry Yule from the Ma'dir. i Alamgiri. See Khwafi Khan, Muntakhabu'l-lubab, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, VII, 189.
1 Shemasustry's English translation, 1929, ed., p. 463.