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INTRODUCTION.
225
passage referred to. But it may be observed, that the precepts laid down in the passage in question are laid down as precepts for orthodox Hindus, and aot as the doctrines of a heretical sect. They are also very general, and not so minute as those which the Gainas of the present day observe as binding upon them. If, therefore, any conclusion is to be drawn from these precepts, it must be that the Anugita must have been composed prior to the rise of Gainism; and that Gainism must have appropriated and developed this doctrine which it obtained from the current Brahmanism'. If this is so, the Anugita must be a very ancient work indeed. It is not, however, necessary to further work out this line of argument, having regard to the opinions recently expressed by Mr. Thomas", rehabilitating the views cnunciated long ago by Colebrooke and others. If those views are correct, and if Gainism was a dominant system in this country prior even to the time of Gautama Buddha, and if, further, we are right in the suggestion-for it is no more, it must be remembered—that the Anugita dates from a period prior to the rise of Gainism, then it would secm to follow that the Anugita belongs to some period prior to the sixth century B.C. All this, however, is at present very hypothetical, and we draw attention to it only that the question may be hereafter considered when fuller materials for expressing a final judgment upon it become accessible. Meanwhile, having regard to the views above alluded to as so elaborately put forward by Mr. Thomas, it is possible for us still to hold that, in the present state of our knowledge, the third or fourth century B.C. is not too early a date to assign to the Anugita, even on the assumption that the precepts contained in that work regarding the care to be taken of worms and insects were borrowed by it from the Gaina system. With this aegative result, we must for the present rest contented.
One other fact of similar nature to those we have now
As the Buddhisus did in sundry instances. Cl. inter alia Bubler's Gautama, pp. Iv and 195. And cl. also. Was tbe Kimayam copied from Homerl' pp. 48, 49.
See Mr. Thomas's very claborate discussion of the wbole subject to the Journal of tbe koyul Asiatic Society (New Series), vol. ix, p. 155 seq.
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