178
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
revisions and interpolations by different hands." So that though this may no doubt be a proof of the great popularity of the work, on the other hand it seriously complicates the critical questions which arise as to the value of the constituent elements of which the poem is made up. And in addition to the hitherto known re
[JUNE 7, 1872.
are later additions to the poem,"
whatever
may be their want of connection with the gene ral narrative. They are found, it ought to be observed, in all the existing recensions. But
by Wheeler, which he calls the North-West (!!?)
then, in the episode of V is vam i tra (the sub stance of which its narrator Satán and a, the Purohita of J an a ka, describes as having come down from the olden primitive time) there is found, as is well-known, that catalogue" of
Recension, but which is evidently stamped as
the Pahlava, of the Saka mingled with the
quite modern by its omissions and its very re cent additions. : It is not so easy to deter
Yavana, of the Yavana-Kāmboja—that is of the Kamboja, Pahlava, Yavana, Saka, Varvara, Mlechhat Tüshara, Hārita and Kirāta, who were produced, at the command of Vasishtha, by his cow of plenty in order to defeat the army of Visvāmitra. And the introducing of these names in such a connection could evidently be thought of as possible only at a time when, in point of fact, the hosts of the Pahlava, Saka, and Yavana appeared actually almost to swarm
censions,t we have now a new one introduced
mine, in the other recensions, what should be
recognised as original, and what should be re garded as merely the result of later accretion. What are we to say, for instance, regarding the well-known episode of Visvå mitra in the first book? § It wears an unmistakably antique as pect, referring as it does to the elevation of a Kshatriya to the dignity of a Brahman,—a circumstance which though it is handled with
all possible delicacy as regards the Brahmans, must yet have been unspeakably humiliating to the pride of the Brahmanical hierarchy. And the same difficulty meets us in the story of the defeat of Rāma Jamadagnya, the representative and champion of the Brahmanical caste, by his namesake, the hero of the epic.| Looking at the tenor of these episodes, we are not justi fied, in my opinion, in assuming that they
up out of the earth and to swoop victoriously down upon the Indian Kshatriya, (for they an nihilate the army of Visvāmitra); $–in other words, just at the time when the Graeco
Bactrian and after them the Indo-Scythian kings held sway in the north-west of India.]—And in perfect accord with what has been now stated, we find the following notices that are taken from the fourth book. When Sugriv a sends
out his Monkeys to the four quarters of the
and in the Bombay edition (in I. 18, between 6 and 7)
passed from the Greeks over to their Indo-Scythian, &c.
They are wanting, however, elsewhere also, as far as v. 8–10 Gorr., namely in A B C., see the Verz. der Berl. S. H. p. 120. The chapter beginning tam tu Rāmah (Ram. II, 101 Bomb. II. 73 Ser., A. fol. 82a) is, according to Schlegel (vol. I, pag.
successors, and finally to the Arabs.
xxxiv), noted by a scholiast as being wanting in the dakshinātyapātha. It is wanting also in Gorr.; at least the corresponding chapter there (II. 109) has a different begin ning : but it will hardly do on this account to identify, as Gorresio seems inclined to do (vol. I. p. lxxviii-ix), the “Gaudana” with this dakshiºatyapātha. In that case the connection between the name “Gaudana" and the recen
sions in question must be given up; for the Gauda are themselves adakshiqatyal And besides, the corresponding chapter in Schlegel (II. 101) agrees in this respect with Gorresio's text; it also has a different beginning,-no. tam tu l'amah.
- Cf., on this subject, Holtzmann Ueber den griech
ischen Ursprung des indischen Thierkreises, p. 34 f. See, for instance, Muir, Original S. Terts, IV. 148ſf. 378ff. 409, as also my notice of the Bombay edition of the Rāmāyana, in the Ind. Streifen, II. 235ff. We have to add to the statements there made regarding the extent of the work, that from the Uttarakanda CI. 26, according to which it contains 500 sargas with 25,000 slokas (a round number 1). f Vide. Wheeler, p. lxxxv, 28, 65, 144, 203. -
§ Cap. 51–65 in Schlegel. |
Ibid. Cap. 84–86.
-
- They might rather be regarded as ancient fragments,
incorporated by Valmiki into his work.
- Regarding the decisive circumstance in the matter
(namely, that under the name Yavana we are to understand
the Bactrian Greeks, or rather perhaps, by this time their successors) vide Ind, Streifen, II. 321. The name Yavana
f : May we suppose that the words romakūpeshu mlechhis cha, Schl. Ser. Bomb. Gorr, mlechhas cha ('s tu A) A B C, have possibly a direct reference to
º º
- * (Conf.
Acad. Worles. wher Ind.
Lit. G.
p. 226 n.
I Wide I. 55, 18–56, 3, Gorr., I. 54, 18-55, 3, Schlegel
and Bomb., I. 42, 18–27, Seramp., and the relative passages in A B C ; (by A B C, I mean those manuscripts which are designated by these letters in my Catalogue of the Sanskrit manuscripts in the Royal Library at Berlin, p. 118 f :) they show, in the passage under consideration, a very special reference to the Gauda recension.
In 13 C there is another
verse added, which brings in also the Vahlika and Darada. [Prof. Weber subjoins here for purposes of comparison, the texts of all the recensions, taking BC as a basis. These need not be reproduced.—Ed.] I, 55, 4.5. Schl. | It is known that this sway extended for a time. pretty far into India ; at the time of the Periplus. Bary gaza was the northern limit of Aryan India (vide Ind. Streifen, II. 271.) The passage in which Sità says to Rāvana, “between thee and Rāma there is a difference wide
as that between Surashtra and Sauviraka” (Ram. III. 53, 56, Gorr., cf. M. Bhār. III. 16040) perhaps has reference to this subject, and illustrates the hatred felt towards the Sauvira
(whº in the M Bhar. also are reckoned among the non-Brah manical peoples, and their Greek or Indo-Scythian govern ment, and specially toward their Buddhistic proclivities (vide Ind. Stud, where however, a somewhat different view is taken). But also regarding Surashtra as subject to Greek influences, see Ind. Stud. IV. 269. 270. IX, 3so (! ?). The
Greek feeling of nationality, and especially the Greek culture, prºbably maintained their hold on the people in the parts of India referred to for a considerable time after the ºver
throw of the Greek kings.
