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INTRODUCTION.
145
perhaps fewer still in signification. As, however, I am not at present prepared to stand finally by the genuineness of that chapter, I do not consider it desirable to further labour this argument than to point out, that similar repetitions, on a smaller scale, perhaps, are not uncommon ia our older literature.
Coming now to the manner in which the Vedas are spoken of in the work before us, there are, we find, one or two noteworthy circumstances proper to be considered here. In the first place, we have the reference to the four Vedas together with Akhyanas as the fifth Veda. This is in conformity with the old tradition recorded in the various works to which we have referred in our note on the passage. The mention of the Atharva-veda, which is implied in this passage, and expressly contained in another, might be regarded as some mark of a modern age. But without dwelling upou the fact, that the Atharva.veda, though probably modern as compared with the other Vedas, is still old enough to date some centuries before the Christian era, it must suffice to draw attention here to the fact that the Khandogya-upanishad mentions that Veda, and it is not here argued that the Sanatsugatiya is older than the Khandogya-upanishad. We have next to consider the reference to the Saman hymns as 'vimala,' or pure. The point involved in this reference has been already sufficiently discussed in the Introduction to the Gita'; and it is not necessary here to say more than that, of the two classes of works we have there made, the Sanatsugatiya appears from the passage under discussion to rank itself with the class which is prior in date.
The estimate of the value of the Vedas which is implied in the Sanatsugatiya appears to coincide very ncarly with that which we have shown to be the estimate implied in the Bhagavadgita. The Vedas are not here cast aside as useless any more than they are in the Bhagavadgita. For, I do not think the word Anrikas which occurs in one passage of the work can be regarded really as referring to those
"See p. 181, dote i infra. · P. 19 supra. • Pp. 19, 10
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