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INTRODUCTION
то SANATSU GÂTÍY A.
THE Sanatsugatiya is, like the Bhagavadgita, one of the numerous episodes of the Mahabharata. It is true, that it has never commanded anything like that unbounded veneration which has always been paid in India to the Bhagavadgita. Still it is sometimes studied even in our days, and it has had the high distinction of being commented on by the great leader of the modern Vedantic school--Sarkaråkarya. The Sanatsugatiya purports to be a dialogue mainly between Sanatsugata on the one side and Dhritarashtra on the other. Sanatsygåta, from whom it takes its name, is said to be identical with Sanatkumara, a name not unfamiliar to students of our Upanishad literature. And Dhritarashtra is the old father of those Kauravas who formed one of the belligerent parties in the bellum plusquam civile which is recorded in the Mahabharata. The connexion of this particular episode with the main current of the narrative of that epos is one of the loosest possible character-much looser, for instance, than that of the Bhagavadgita. As regards the latter, it can fairly be contended that it is in accordance with poetical justice for Arguna to fcel despondent and unwilling to engage in battle, after actual sight of teachers, fathers, sons,' and all the rest of them, arrayed in opposition to him; and that therefore it was necessary for the poct to adduce some specific explanation as to how Arguna was ultimately enabled to get over such natural scruples. But as regards the Sanatsugåtiya, even such a contention as this
Mahabbanta, l'dyoga Paman, Adhyâya 41-46. • Madban Warns, in speaking of Saokan's works, describes him as having coramented on the Sanatsagattya, which is far from evil (persons,' (asatsadu. ne Sabkan-raj, chapter VI, stanza 63.
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