On Term Antahsamjna

Author(s): A Wezler
Publisher: A Wezler

Page 18

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A BORI: R.G. Bhandarkar 150th Birth-Anniversary Volume
tion is further corroborated76 e. g. by the expression aprakāśa; for this cann course, be dislinked from prakā saka, one of the two predicates in Isvarak; definition of sattva.
The idea of being wrapped by tamas is retained or, to use a more nei expression, met with also in the verse of the Manusmrti under discussion. even in the light of the parallels cited above from Purānic texts?? it is qi difficult to decide whether veşțitāḥ in Manu 1. 49 and its various synonyms the Purānas are to be understood literally or figuratively. Originally meaning expressed will certainly have been that of being shrouded in darkness, at least this is an assumption which suggests itself most naturally. The exp] nations which e. g. the author of the Yuktidīpikā gives of the characterization the three gunas78 show, however, that expressions like vara na ka were taken & his time to have a much more general and abstract meaning. As for the Purāņi passages and Manu l. 49,79 one cannot hence evade the question if the verb: under discussion are still used in their original concrete meaning or else already in the figurative one derived from it.86 In order to answer it, if this is at all possible, it would, no doubt, be necessary to enter into a careful examination of these text portions in their entirety, but this cannot be undertaken here. Yet it may be noted in passing that the comparison with a seed which is " enveloped by its rind" and that met with in the passages referred to by me, viz. with "a seed in a pot /jar" (bijakumbhirat) certainly point in the direction of the literal meaning ; this argument is not, however, absolutely cogent as the author could equally well have intended to illustrate the abstract conception with a concrete everyday example. In any case, the Purānic parallels show that, for Manu 1.49, one should avoid to fall a prey to what seems quite plausible at first sight, viz. that the ideas of being wrapped by tamas" and that of having internal consciousness” naturally correspond to each other. But one should not, of course, exclude the possibility that this correspondence is only secondarily establi
76. In this connection it should also be noted that the designations of the various sargas of the Purānio texts, viz. mukhya-, tiryak-, urdhva., and aval-srotas, are met with also Yuktidipikā (cf. fn. 53), p. 127, and that this fact need not docessarily be taken - 88 it was by Frauwallner (of Guschichte der indischen Philosophie, Bd. I, Salzburg 1953, p. 333) - to reveal an influence " exercised by "religious sects” on the Sāmkbya.
77. Bhāgavata P. 3. 10. 19 (where plants are characterized as usrotasis tamahprāyā antah para vi fesinzh) diffre considerably from the texts collated by Kirfel and cannot be discussed here.
78. See p. 60, 1. 12 ff.
79. With which one has to compara Visna lharmottara P. I. 128. 22 ab: antahsam. jña bhavanty ele ghorena tamasi rstah
80. Note that in both cases the two alternative interpretations (of what forms Modhatithi's first explanation ) can still be sustained.