Fetching
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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1192, note 2. * Cf. Gita, p. 78, and note 3 there. * Ie. a mind free from affection and aversion, hatred, &c., Sankara. © Cf. Gita, p. 113, and note 3; and also fsopanishad, p. 12. " Khandogya, p. 528; and cf. Gfté, p. 113. ANUGITA. Digitized by Google INTRODUCTION TO ANUGITA. LIKE the Bhagavadgita and the Sanatsugatiya, the Anugita is one of the numerous episodes of the Mahabhérata. And like the Sanatsugatiya, it appears here for the first time in an English, or, indeed, it is believed, in any European garb. It forms part of the Asvamedha Parvan of the Mahabharata, and is contained in thirty-six chapters of that Parvan. These chapters—being chapters XVI to LI—together with all the subsequent chapters of the Asvamcdha Parvan, form by themselves what in some of our copies is called the Anugita Parvan—a title which affords a parallel to the title Bhagavadgita Parvan, which we have already referred to. The Anugita is not now a work of any very great or extensive reputation. But we do find some few quotations from it in the Bhashyas of Sankarakarya, and one or two in the Sankhya-sdra of Vig#ana Bhikshu, to which reference will be made hereafter. And it is included in the present volume, partly because it affords an interesting glimpse of sundry old passages of the Upanishad literature in a somewhat modified, and presumably later, form; and partly, perhaps I may say more especially, because it professes to be a sort of continuation, or rather recapitulation, of the Bhagavadgita. At the very outset of the work, we read, that after the great fratricidal war of the MahAbharata was over, and the Pandavas had become sole and complete masters of their ancestral kingdom, Krishna and Arguna- the two interlocutors in the Bhagavadgita—happened to take a stroll together in the great magical palace built for the Pandavas by the demon Maya In the course of the conversation which they held on the occasion, Krishwva communicated to Arguna his wish to return to his own people at Dvaraka, now that the business which had called 198 anuciTA. him away from them was happily terminated. Arguna, of course, was unable to resist the execution of this wish ; but he requested Kvishaa, before leaving for Dvaraka, to repeat the instruction which had been already conveyed to him on ‘the holy field of Kurukshetra,’ but which had gone out of his ‘degenerate mind.’ Krishza thereupon protests that he is not equal to a verbatim recapitulation of the Bhagavadgita, but agrees, in lieu of that, to impart to Arguna the same instruction in other words, through the medium of a certain ‘ancient story ’—or puratana itihdsa. And the instruction thus conveyed constitutes what is called the Anugit4, a name which is in itself an embodiment of this anecdote.
2And the instruction thus conveyed constitutes what is called the Anugit4, a name which is in itself an embodiment of this anecdote. Now the first question which challenges investigation with reference to this work is, if we may so call it, the fundamental one—how much is properly included under the name? The question is not one quite easy of settlement, as our authorities upon it are not all reconcilable with one another. In the general list of contents of the Asvamedha Parvan, which is given at the end of that Parvan in the edition printed at Bombay, we read that the first section is the Vyasa Vakya, and the second the Samevartamaruttiya. With neither of these have we aught to do here. The list then goes on thus: ‘ Anugita, Vasudevagamana, Brahmava Git4, Gurusishyasamvada, Uttankopaékhyana,’ and so forth. With the later sections, again, we are not here concerned. Now let us compare this list with the list which may be obtained from the titles of the chapters in the body of the work itself. With the sixteenth chapter, then, of the Asvamedha Parvan, begins what is here called the Anugita Parvan ; and that chapter and the three following chapters are described as the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and ninetcenth chapters respectively of the Anugita Parvan, which forms part of the Asvamedha Parvan. The title of the twentieth chapter contains a small, but important, addition. It runs thus, ‘Such is the twentieth chapter of the Anugit4 Parvan, forming part of the Asvamedha Parvan—being the Brahma Git4.’ This form is continued down to the thirty-fourth chapter, only Brahmawa INTRODUCTION. 199
3The title of the twentieth chapter contains a small, but important, addition. It runs thus, ‘Such is the twentieth chapter of the Anugit4 Parvan, forming part of the Asvamedha Parvan—being the Brahma Git4.’ This form is continued down to the thirty-fourth chapter, only Brahmawa INTRODUCTION. 199 Gita being substituted for Brahma Git. At the close of the thirty-fifth chapter, there is another alteration caused by the substitution of Gurusishyasamvada for Brahmana Gita ; and this continues down to the fifty-first chapter, where the thread of the narrative is again taken up—the philosophical parenthesis, if I may so say, having come to an end. With the fifty-first chapter our present translation also ends. Now it appears from the above comparison, that the list of contents set out above is accurate, save in so far as it mentions VAsudevagamana as a distinct section of the Asvamedha Parvan. No such section seems to be in existence. And there appears to be nothing in the Asvamedha Parvan to which that title could be appropriately allotted. The edition printed at Madras agrees in all essential particulars with the Bombay edition ; with this difference, that even at the close of the twentieth chapter, the name is Brahmasa Gita, and not Brahma Gité as it is in the Bombay edition. The Calcutta edition also agrees in these readings. Turning now to a MS. procured for me by my excellent friend Professor Abagt Vishwu KAthavafe at Ahmedabad, and bearing date the 15th of Phalguna Vadya 1823, Sunday, we find there at the end of the Asvamedha Parvan a list of contents like that which we have seen in the printed edition. The relevant portion of that list is as follows: ‘ Sawevartamaruttlya, Anugita, Gurusishyasamrvada, and Uttankopakhydna.’ Here we find neither the erroneous entry of Vasudevagamana, nor the correct entry of Brahma Gita, which are both contained in the other list. In another MS. which I have now before me, and which has been lent me by Professor Bhandarkar, who purchased it in Pua for the Government of Bombay—in this MS., which contains the commentary of Arguna Misra, the earlier chapters are described not as chapters of the Anugité Parvan, but of the Anugita contained in the Asvamedha Parvan, and they are numbered there as they are numbered in our translation, not continuously with the numbering of the previous chapters of the Asvamedha Parvan. At the close of chapter IV, we have an explicit statement that the Anugita ends there. Then the Brahma Gita begins. And the first chapter is 200 ANUGITA.
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.
1192, note 2. * Cf. Gita, p. 78, and note 3 there. * Ie. a mind free from affection and aversion, hatred, &c., Sankara. © Cf. Gita, p. 113, and note 3; and also fsopanishad, p. 12. " Khandogya, p. 528; and cf. Gfté, p. 113. ANUGITA. Digitized by Google INTRODUCTION TO ANUGITA. LIKE the Bhagavadgita and the Sanatsugatiya, the Anugita is one of the numerous episodes of the Mahabhérata. And like the Sanatsugatiya, it appears here for the first time in an English, or, indeed, it is believed, in any European garb. It forms part of the Asvamedha Parvan of the Mahabharata, and is contained in thirty-six chapters of that Parvan. These chapters—being chapters XVI to LI—together with all the subsequent chapters of the Asvamcdha Parvan, form by themselves what in some of our copies is called the Anugita Parvan—a title which affords a parallel to the title Bhagavadgita Parvan, which we have already referred to. The Anugita is not now a work of any very great or extensive reputation. But we do find some few quotations from it in the Bhashyas of Sankarakarya, and one or two in the Sankhya-sdra of Vig#ana Bhikshu, to which reference will be made hereafter. And it is included in the present volume, partly because it affords an interesting glimpse of sundry old passages of the Upanishad literature in a somewhat modified, and presumably later, form; and partly, perhaps I may say more especially, because it professes to be a sort of continuation, or rather recapitulation, of the Bhagavadgita. At the very outset of the work, we read, that after the great fratricidal war of the MahAbharata was over, and the Pandavas had become sole and complete masters of their ancestral kingdom, Krishna and Arguna- the two interlocutors in the Bhagavadgita—happened to take a stroll together in the great magical palace built for the Pandavas by the demon Maya In the course of the conversation which they held on the occasion, Krishwva communicated to Arguna his wish to return to his own people at Dvaraka, now that the business which had called 198 anuciTA. him away from them was happily terminated. Arguna, of course, was unable to resist the execution of this wish ; but he requested Kvishaa, before leaving for Dvaraka, to repeat the instruction which had been already conveyed to him on ‘the holy field of Kurukshetra,’ but which had gone out of his ‘degenerate mind.’ Krishza thereupon protests that he is not equal to a verbatim recapitulation of the Bhagavadgita, but agrees, in lieu of that, to impart to Arguna the same instruction in other words, through the medium of a certain ‘ancient story ’—or puratana itihdsa. And the instruction thus conveyed constitutes what is called the Anugit4, a name which is in itself an embodiment of this anecdote.
2And the instruction thus conveyed constitutes what is called the Anugit4, a name which is in itself an embodiment of this anecdote. Now the first question which challenges investigation with reference to this work is, if we may so call it, the fundamental one—how much is properly included under the name? The question is not one quite easy of settlement, as our authorities upon it are not all reconcilable with one another. In the general list of contents of the Asvamedha Parvan, which is given at the end of that Parvan in the edition printed at Bombay, we read that the first section is the Vyasa Vakya, and the second the Samevartamaruttiya. With neither of these have we aught to do here. The list then goes on thus: ‘ Anugita, Vasudevagamana, Brahmava Git4, Gurusishyasamvada, Uttankopaékhyana,’ and so forth. With the later sections, again, we are not here concerned. Now let us compare this list with the list which may be obtained from the titles of the chapters in the body of the work itself. With the sixteenth chapter, then, of the Asvamedha Parvan, begins what is here called the Anugita Parvan ; and that chapter and the three following chapters are described as the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and ninetcenth chapters respectively of the Anugita Parvan, which forms part of the Asvamedha Parvan. The title of the twentieth chapter contains a small, but important, addition. It runs thus, ‘Such is the twentieth chapter of the Anugit4 Parvan, forming part of the Asvamedha Parvan—being the Brahma Git4.’ This form is continued down to the thirty-fourth chapter, only Brahmawa INTRODUCTION. 199
3The title of the twentieth chapter contains a small, but important, addition. It runs thus, ‘Such is the twentieth chapter of the Anugit4 Parvan, forming part of the Asvamedha Parvan—being the Brahma Git4.’ This form is continued down to the thirty-fourth chapter, only Brahmawa INTRODUCTION. 199 Gita being substituted for Brahma Git. At the close of the thirty-fifth chapter, there is another alteration caused by the substitution of Gurusishyasamvada for Brahmana Gita ; and this continues down to the fifty-first chapter, where the thread of the narrative is again taken up—the philosophical parenthesis, if I may so say, having come to an end. With the fifty-first chapter our present translation also ends. Now it appears from the above comparison, that the list of contents set out above is accurate, save in so far as it mentions VAsudevagamana as a distinct section of the Asvamedha Parvan. No such section seems to be in existence. And there appears to be nothing in the Asvamedha Parvan to which that title could be appropriately allotted. The edition printed at Madras agrees in all essential particulars with the Bombay edition ; with this difference, that even at the close of the twentieth chapter, the name is Brahmasa Gita, and not Brahma Gité as it is in the Bombay edition. The Calcutta edition also agrees in these readings. Turning now to a MS. procured for me by my excellent friend Professor Abagt Vishwu KAthavafe at Ahmedabad, and bearing date the 15th of Phalguna Vadya 1823, Sunday, we find there at the end of the Asvamedha Parvan a list of contents like that which we have seen in the printed edition. The relevant portion of that list is as follows: ‘ Sawevartamaruttlya, Anugita, Gurusishyasamrvada, and Uttankopakhydna.’ Here we find neither the erroneous entry of Vasudevagamana, nor the correct entry of Brahma Gita, which are both contained in the other list. In another MS. which I have now before me, and which has been lent me by Professor Bhandarkar, who purchased it in Pua for the Government of Bombay—in this MS., which contains the commentary of Arguna Misra, the earlier chapters are described not as chapters of the Anugité Parvan, but of the Anugita contained in the Asvamedha Parvan, and they are numbered there as they are numbered in our translation, not continuously with the numbering of the previous chapters of the Asvamedha Parvan. At the close of chapter IV, we have an explicit statement that the Anugita ends there. Then the Brahma Gita begins. And the first chapter is 200 ANUGITA.
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.
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