Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
114, 15. * P. 151, note 2. ® Nilakawsha himself, however, treats Dhritardshfra’s question latcr on as showing that be had attained indifference to worldly concems, That question docs not occar in Sahkara's text, Lut is given at p. 158 infra. 142 SANATSUGATIYA. If we look next to the general style of this poem, we find that it has none of that elaboration which marks what I have called the age of Kavyas and Nafakas. The remarks on this topic in the Introduction to the Gita apply pretty accurately to this work also. We observe here the same paucity of long-drawn compounds, the same absence of merely ornamental adjectives, the same absence of figures and tropes?; in one word, the same directness and simplicity of style. Furthermore, there is a somewhat greater want of finish about the syntax of our poem than there is even in the Gita. Such constructions as we find inter alia at chapter II, stanza 2, or 25, or at chapter III, stanza 14, or chapter IV, stanza 12, or in the early verses of the last chapter, indicate a period in the history of the language, when probably the regulations of syntax were not quite thoroughly established in practice. If we turn to the metre of the poem, an analogous phenomenon strikes us there. Similar irregularities in the collocation of long and short syllables, similar superfluities and deficiencies of syllables, meet us in the Sanatsugatiya and the Bhagavadgita. And in the former work, as in the latter, the irregularities are less observable in the Anushfubh? than in the other metres used. Probably the explanation, apart from the great elasticity of that metre, is that the Anushfubh had been more used, and had in consequence become comparatively more settled in its scheme even in practical composition. Looking now more particularly to the language of the work before us, we find one word to be of most frequent occurrence, namely, the word vai, which we have rendered ‘verily.’ It is not a common word in the later literature, while in the Upanishad literature we meet with great frequency, not merely vai, but the words, which I think are cognate with it, va and vava. The former word, indeed, 4 The five similes which occur, and which are nearly all that occur, in the poem, are the very primitive ones—of the hunter, of water on grass, the tiger of straw, death eating men like a tiger, dogs eating what is vomited, a branch of a tree and the moon, and birds and their nests. ® Cf. as to this the Nrisimha TaApinf, p. 105. INTRODUCTION, 143 appears to me to stand in some passages of the Upanishads for vai by euphonic alterations. Thus in the passage tvam va aham asmi bhagavo devate, aham vai tvam asi, it is difficult not to suppose that the va of the first part of the sentence is the same word as the vai of the second part, only altered according to the rules of Sandhi in Sanskrit.
2Thus in the passage tvam va aham asmi bhagavo devate, aham vai tvam asi, it is difficult not to suppose that the va of the first part of the sentence is the same word as the vai of the second part, only altered according to the rules of Sandhi in Sanskrit. A second point of similarity between the language of the Upanishads and that of the Sanatsygattya is to be found in the phrase, ‘ He who knows this becomes immortal.’ This sentence, or one of like signification, is, as is well known, of common occurrence in the Upanishads and in the Brahmasas. In the Bhagavadgita, the verses towards the end, which come after Krishza's summing-up of his instruction. seem to be of a somewhat analogous, though in some respects different, nature. And in the PurAzas we meet sometimes with elaborate passages extolling the merits of a particular rite, or a particular pilgrimage, and so forth. This form of the Phalasruti, as it is called, appears to have been developed in process of time from the minute germ existing in the Brahmazas and the Upanishads. In the Sanatsugatiya, however, we are almost at the beginning of those developments ; indeed, the form before us is identically the same as that which we see in the works where it is first met with. It is a short sentence, which, though complete in itself, still appears merely at the end of another passage, and almost as a part of such other passage. There is one other point of a kindred nature which it may be well to notice here. As in the GitA, so in the Sanatsugatlya, we meet with a considerable number of words used in senses not familiar in the later literature. They are collected in the Index of Sanskrit words in this volume ; but a few remarks on some of them will not, it is thought, be entirely out of place here. The word marga'—in the sense of ‘worldly life’—is rather remarkable. Sankara renders it by ‘the path of samsdra’ or worldly life. And he quotes as a parallel the passage from the K/Andogya- ' I give no references bere, as they can be found in the Index of Sanskrit words at the end of this volume. 144 SANATSUGATIYA,
3Sankara renders it by ‘the path of samsdra’ or worldly life. And he quotes as a parallel the passage from the K/Andogya- ' I give no references bere, as they can be found in the Index of Sanskrit words at the end of this volume. 144 SANATSUGATIYA, upanishad which speaks of returning to the ‘path.’ There, however, Sankara explains it to mean the ‘path by which the sclf returns to worldly life,’ namely, from space to the wind and so forth into vegetables, and food, ultimately appearing as a foetus. Another remarkable word is ‘ varga.’ which occurs twice in the Sanatsugatiya. Sankara and Nilakan¢ha differ in their explanations of it, and Nilakastha indeed gives two different meanings to the word in the two passages where it occurs. We may also refer here specially to utsa, rétvig, and matva. In Boehtlingk and Roth’s Lexicon the only passages cited under ‘utsa’ are from Vedic works, except two respectively from Susruta and the Dasakumérafarita. One passage, however, there cited, viz. Vishzok pade parame madhva utsa4, is plainly the original of the passage we are now considering. As to ritvig in the sense it bears here, we see, I think, what was the earlier signification of that word before it settled down into the somewhat technical meaning in which it is now familiar. And matva in the sense of ‘meditating upon’ is to be found in the Upanishads, but not, I think, in any work of the classical literature. These words, therefore, seem to indicate that the Sanatsugatiya was composed at a stage in the development of the Sanskrit language which is a good deal earlier than the stage which we see completely reached in the classical literature. Coming now to the matter of the Sanatsugatiya, it appears to me, that we there see indications pointing in a general way to the same conclusion as that which we have here arrived at. There is, in the first place, a looseness and want of rigid system in the mode of handling the subject, similar to that which we have already observed upon as characterising the Bhagavadgita. There is no obvious bond of connexion joining together the various subjects discussed, nor are those subjects themselves treated after any very scientific or rigorous method. gain, if the fourth chapter is a genuine part of the Sanatsugatiya, we have an elaborate repetition in one part, of what has been said in another part of the work, with only a few variations in words, and 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 ina our older literature ?.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
114, 15. * P. 151, note 2. ® Nilakawsha himself, however, treats Dhritardshfra’s question latcr on as showing that be had attained indifference to worldly concems, That question docs not occar in Sahkara's text, Lut is given at p. 158 infra. 142 SANATSUGATIYA. If we look next to the general style of this poem, we find that it has none of that elaboration which marks what I have called the age of Kavyas and Nafakas. The remarks on this topic in the Introduction to the Gita apply pretty accurately to this work also. We observe here the same paucity of long-drawn compounds, the same absence of merely ornamental adjectives, the same absence of figures and tropes?; in one word, the same directness and simplicity of style. Furthermore, there is a somewhat greater want of finish about the syntax of our poem than there is even in the Gita. Such constructions as we find inter alia at chapter II, stanza 2, or 25, or at chapter III, stanza 14, or chapter IV, stanza 12, or in the early verses of the last chapter, indicate a period in the history of the language, when probably the regulations of syntax were not quite thoroughly established in practice. If we turn to the metre of the poem, an analogous phenomenon strikes us there. Similar irregularities in the collocation of long and short syllables, similar superfluities and deficiencies of syllables, meet us in the Sanatsugatiya and the Bhagavadgita. And in the former work, as in the latter, the irregularities are less observable in the Anushfubh? than in the other metres used. Probably the explanation, apart from the great elasticity of that metre, is that the Anushfubh had been more used, and had in consequence become comparatively more settled in its scheme even in practical composition. Looking now more particularly to the language of the work before us, we find one word to be of most frequent occurrence, namely, the word vai, which we have rendered ‘verily.’ It is not a common word in the later literature, while in the Upanishad literature we meet with great frequency, not merely vai, but the words, which I think are cognate with it, va and vava. The former word, indeed, 4 The five similes which occur, and which are nearly all that occur, in the poem, are the very primitive ones—of the hunter, of water on grass, the tiger of straw, death eating men like a tiger, dogs eating what is vomited, a branch of a tree and the moon, and birds and their nests. ® Cf. as to this the Nrisimha TaApinf, p. 105. INTRODUCTION, 143 appears to me to stand in some passages of the Upanishads for vai by euphonic alterations. Thus in the passage tvam va aham asmi bhagavo devate, aham vai tvam asi, it is difficult not to suppose that the va of the first part of the sentence is the same word as the vai of the second part, only altered according to the rules of Sandhi in Sanskrit.
2Thus in the passage tvam va aham asmi bhagavo devate, aham vai tvam asi, it is difficult not to suppose that the va of the first part of the sentence is the same word as the vai of the second part, only altered according to the rules of Sandhi in Sanskrit. A second point of similarity between the language of the Upanishads and that of the Sanatsygattya is to be found in the phrase, ‘ He who knows this becomes immortal.’ This sentence, or one of like signification, is, as is well known, of common occurrence in the Upanishads and in the Brahmasas. In the Bhagavadgita, the verses towards the end, which come after Krishza's summing-up of his instruction. seem to be of a somewhat analogous, though in some respects different, nature. And in the PurAzas we meet sometimes with elaborate passages extolling the merits of a particular rite, or a particular pilgrimage, and so forth. This form of the Phalasruti, as it is called, appears to have been developed in process of time from the minute germ existing in the Brahmazas and the Upanishads. In the Sanatsugatiya, however, we are almost at the beginning of those developments ; indeed, the form before us is identically the same as that which we see in the works where it is first met with. It is a short sentence, which, though complete in itself, still appears merely at the end of another passage, and almost as a part of such other passage. There is one other point of a kindred nature which it may be well to notice here. As in the GitA, so in the Sanatsugatlya, we meet with a considerable number of words used in senses not familiar in the later literature. They are collected in the Index of Sanskrit words in this volume ; but a few remarks on some of them will not, it is thought, be entirely out of place here. The word marga'—in the sense of ‘worldly life’—is rather remarkable. Sankara renders it by ‘the path of samsdra’ or worldly life. And he quotes as a parallel the passage from the K/Andogya- ' I give no references bere, as they can be found in the Index of Sanskrit words at the end of this volume. 144 SANATSUGATIYA,
3Sankara renders it by ‘the path of samsdra’ or worldly life. And he quotes as a parallel the passage from the K/Andogya- ' I give no references bere, as they can be found in the Index of Sanskrit words at the end of this volume. 144 SANATSUGATIYA, upanishad which speaks of returning to the ‘path.’ There, however, Sankara explains it to mean the ‘path by which the sclf returns to worldly life,’ namely, from space to the wind and so forth into vegetables, and food, ultimately appearing as a foetus. Another remarkable word is ‘ varga.’ which occurs twice in the Sanatsugatiya. Sankara and Nilakan¢ha differ in their explanations of it, and Nilakastha indeed gives two different meanings to the word in the two passages where it occurs. We may also refer here specially to utsa, rétvig, and matva. In Boehtlingk and Roth’s Lexicon the only passages cited under ‘utsa’ are from Vedic works, except two respectively from Susruta and the Dasakumérafarita. One passage, however, there cited, viz. Vishzok pade parame madhva utsa4, is plainly the original of the passage we are now considering. As to ritvig in the sense it bears here, we see, I think, what was the earlier signification of that word before it settled down into the somewhat technical meaning in which it is now familiar. And matva in the sense of ‘meditating upon’ is to be found in the Upanishads, but not, I think, in any work of the classical literature. These words, therefore, seem to indicate that the Sanatsugatiya was composed at a stage in the development of the Sanskrit language which is a good deal earlier than the stage which we see completely reached in the classical literature. Coming now to the matter of the Sanatsugatiya, it appears to me, that we there see indications pointing in a general way to the same conclusion as that which we have here arrived at. There is, in the first place, a looseness and want of rigid system in the mode of handling the subject, similar to that which we have already observed upon as characterising the Bhagavadgita. There is no obvious bond of connexion joining together the various subjects discussed, nor are those subjects themselves treated after any very scientific or rigorous method. gain, if the fourth chapter is a genuine part of the Sanatsugatiya, we have an elaborate repetition in one part, of what has been said in another part of the work, with only a few variations in words, and 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 ina our older literature ?.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
No commentary for this page.