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xvi
VISHNU.
veda (VIII, 20, 24; VIII, 22, 12), was Krivi, take us far off from the north-west, the earliest seat of Aryan civilization, into the country of the Kuru-Pañkâlas in Hindostan proper. But it must be borne in mind that the Kathaka, if it may be identified with the 'Karaka-sâkhâ,' must have been the Veda of all the Karakas except perhaps the Maitrâyanîyas and Kapishthalas, and may have been altered and enlarged, after the Katlas and Karakas had spread themselves across Hindostân. The Satras of a Sâkhâ which appears to have sprung up near the primitive home of Aryan civilization in India, which was probably the original home of the Kathas at the same time, may be far older than those of mere Sûtra schools of the Black Yagur-veda, which have sprung up, like the Åpastamba school, in South India, i. e. far older than the fourth or fifth century B. c.
But sufficient space has been assigned to these attempts at fixing the age of the Kathaka-sätras which, besides remaining only too uncertain in themselves, can apply with their full force to those parts of the Vishnu-sútra only, which have been traced in the Kathaka Grihya-sútra. It will be seen afterwards that even these sections, however closely connected with the sacred literature of the Kathas, have been tampered with in several places, and it might be argued, therefore, that the whole remainder of the Vishnusútra, to which the Kathaka literature offers no parallel, may be a subsequent addition. But the antiquity of the great majority of its laws can be proved by independent arguments, which are furnished by a comparison of the Vishnu-sætra with other works of the same class, whose antiquity is not doubted.
In the foot-notes to my translation I have endeavoured to give as complete references as possible to the analogous passages in the Smritis of Manu, Yâgñavalkya, Âpastamba, and Gautama, and in the four Grihya-sútras hitherto printed. A large number of analogous passages might have been traced in the Dharma-sůtras of Vâsishtha 2
See Bühler, Introd. to Âpastamba, p. xliii. ? See the Benares edition (1878), which is accompanied with a Commentary by Krishnapandita Dharmadhikârio. I should have given references to this
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