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140
SANATSUGÂTIYA.
where the passage we refer to runs as follows : '(It is) laid down, (that there is) a sin in one of tender age not rising to receive (an elderly person), and (that there is) merit in rising to receive. How? Thus, “The life-winds of a youth depart upwards, when an elderly man approaches (him). By rising to receive (him), and salutation, he obtains them again.". It appears to me, that the indications of this being a quotation in the Bhashya are very strong. But apart from that, I do demur to the proposition, that the probabilities are equal, of a work like the Mahabharata or Ramayana borrowing a verse from the Mahabhashya, and vice versa. It appears to me perfectly plain, I own, that the probability of a grammatical work like the Bhashya borrowing a verse from a standard work like the Bharata or Ramayana for purposes of illustration is very much the stronger of the two. And this, quite independently of any inquiry as to whether the Bhashya does or does not show other indications of acquaintance with the Bharata or the Ramayana.
If these arguments are correct, it seems to me that they carry us thus far in our present investigation-namely, that we may now say, that we have reason to believe some parts, at all events, of the thirty-sixth, thirty-seventh, thirtycighth, and fortieth chapters of the Udyoga Parvan of the Mahabharata to have probably been in existence prior to the sixth century A.C.'; and that some parts of the thirty-seventh chapter were probably extant in the time of Patañgali, viz. the second century B.C. Now, internal evidence does not yield any indications tending to show that the several chapters here referred to must have been prior in time to the chapters composing the Sanatsygåtlya, which come so soon after them in the Mahabharata. On the contrary, it is not too much to maintain, that to a certain extent the style and language of the Sanatsugåtiya is, if anything, rather indicative of its priority in time over the five chapters immediately preceding it. And, therefore, so far as this argument goes, it enables us-provisionally only, it must be
Sec p. 29 supra.
* See p. 3a sopra
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