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INTRODUCTION.
lxxxi
it may be that even in the Parvans examined some identical pieces have escaped my notice. The number of the verses which has to be compared is so enormous that mistakes are easily possible; but the identifications made are amply sufficient for the purpose of illustrating the relation between the two works. The corresponding passages vary considerably in extent, from a single pada or a single line to sections of twenty to forty verses. Where larger sections agree, it is rare that more than half-a-dozen verses stand in the same order in both works, and it happens not rarely that a series of identical Slokas is interrupted by the expansion of one verse into two, or by a contraction of two into one. Further, the purpose which an identical line or verse is made to serve sometimes differs, and sometimes a various reading alters its sense entirely. The various readings are exceedingly numerous, and the better one is sometimes found in the Mahabharata and sometimes in Manu. If we enter on a more detailed analysis of the corresponding passages, there are three cases in which one or two consecutive chapters of the Mahabharata contain from twenty to forty verses which occur in our Manu. Mah. XII, 232–233 include the greater portion of Bhrigu's account of the creation and some of the verses, said to have been enunciated by Manu himself on the same subject, i.e. Manu 1, 186, 20, 28–29, 64-78, 81–86.
Further, Mah. XIII, 48, 14-44 gives a portion of Manu's definitions of and rules regarding the mixed castes, and contains the verses X, 27-32, 33, 34-37, 38", 39--40, 50, 52, 58-60, and 62, mostly with considerable variations, and Slokas resembling Manu X, 42-43 are found Mah. XIII, 33, 21-22, and 35, 17–18.
Finally, Mah. XII, 165, which treats of gifts, sacrifices, and penances much in the same manner as the eleventh chapter of Manu, exhibits, mostly in the beginning, the following verses, partly in somewhat different versions, XI, 25, 36, 4, 7, 11-17, 20, 226, 234, 27o, 29-31, 34-40, 916, 105, 150, 1770, 181, 207. The general sense of some other Slokas corresponds without a real agreement in words, and the same chapter of the Mah. contains also w. 31 and 32", [25]
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