My estimate of the distance between Baudhayana and Apastamba and of that between the latter and the historical period of India has been given in the Introduction to Apa- stamba, pp. xxii and xliii, and I have nothing further to add on that subject. The oldest witness for the existence of the ^Srauta-sutra of Baudhayana is its commentator Bha- vasvamin, whom Dr. Burnell places in the eighth century A. D. The Dharma-sutra is first quoted by Vi^anejvara, circiter 1080-1100 A.D. Several of the passages adduced by him are, however, not traceable in the MSS.
As regards the materials on which the translation is based, I had at my disposal six MSS. of the text and two copies of Govindasvamin's commentary, the Bodhayaniya-dhar- mavivarawa1, one of which (C. I.) gives the text also. These MSS. belong to two chief groups, a northern and a southern one. The northern group contains two subdivisions. The first comprises (i) D., a MS. bought by me for the Govern- ment of Bombay at Ahmadabad (no. 6 of the Dekhan Col- lege collection of 1868-69), and about one hundred or one hundred and fifty years old ; (2) P., an old MS. of my own collection, bought in 1865 at Pu«a; (3, 4) B. and Bh., two modern transcripts, made for me in Baroda and Bombay. Among these, D. alone is of real value, as P., B., and Bh. faithfully reproduce all its clerical errors and add a good many new ones. The second subdivision of the northern group is represented by K., a modern transcript, made for
1 It ought to be noted, that in the south of India the forms Bodhayana and Bodhayamya are invariably used for Baudhayana and Baudhayaniya. But it seems to me that the southerners are in error, as the affix ayana requires vriddhi in the first syllable.
xllV BAUDHAYANA.
the Government of Bombay at Kolhapur in the southern MaraMa country (Elphinstone College collection of 1867- 68, Class VI, no. 2). The MSS. of the northern group, which give the vulgata current since the times of NilakawAfca (1650 A.D.) and Mitramura (circiter 1700 A.D.) in Western and Central India, can be easily recognised by the omission of the third Adhyaya of Pragma IV, and by their placing IV, 5, i b-25 after IV, 7, 7. One of the chief differences between K. and the other MSS. of the northern group is the omis- sion of II, 5, 8, 4-II, 6, n, 15 in the latter. The southern group of h'SS. is formed by M., a slovenly Devanagari tran- script of a Gra tha MS., no. Ty/u of the Madras Government collection1, and uy the text of C. I., a Devanagari copy of the MS. of Govindasvamin's commentary, presented by Dr. Burnell to the India Office library2. The second copy of the commentary, C. T., a Telugu paper MS. from Tanjore, I owe to the kindness of Dr. Burnell.
As might be expected, on account of the southern origin of the Baudhayaniya school, M. gives on the whole the best form of the text. It also carefully marks the Ka#</ikas3 in the first two Prajnas, ignoring the Adhyayas altogether, and contains at the end of each Pra^na the first words of each Ka;/</ika, beginning with the last and ending with the first, after the fashion which prevails in the MSS. of the Taittiriya Sawhita, Brahmawa, and Arawyaka. Very close to M. comes Govinda's copy, where, however, as in most northern MSS., the Adhyayas alone are marked. It is, however, perfectly cer- tain that in some very difficult passages, which are disfigured by ancient corruptions, he corrected the text conjecturally4. In a certain number of cases the northern MSS. present better and older readings than M. and C. I.6 Under these
1 Taylor, Catalogue Raisonnee (!), I, p. 190. The clerical errors in my tran- script are exceedingly numerous, and mostly owing to the faulty rendering of the value of the Grantha characters, which seem not to have been familiar to the copyist. There are also some small lacunae, and the last leaf has been lost.
1 See Burnell, Catalogue of a Collection of MSS., p. 35, no. CXVII.
* I alone am responsible for the title Kawt/ika, given to the small sections. M. marks only the figures. D. and the better northern MSS. show only breaks at the end of the Ka«Jikas and their first words at the end of the Prasnas.
* See e.g. Dharma-sutra I, 2, 3, 35, note.
* See e.g. Dhanna-siitra I, 5, ir, 35 ; II, i, 2, 36; II, 2, 3, 3 ; II, a, 4, 10; II, 3, 6?3; 11,7,13,5; 111,9,3.
INTRODUCTION. xlv
circumstances it has not been possible to follow the commen- tary or M. throughout. Though they had to be made the basis, they had in many passages to be set aside in favour of readings of the northern group. In some cases I have also been obliged to make conjectural emendations, which have all been mentioned in the notes. Three Sutras, I, 8, 16, 13-15, have been left untranslated, because the MSS. offer no safe basis for a conjectural restoration, and the commentary is defective.
Govinda, who, as Dr. Burnell informs me, is said to be a modern writer, seems to have composed his vivarawa with- out the aid of older vrittis. Though he apparently was well acquainted with the writings belonging to the Taitti- riya-veda, with the ritual and with the common law-books, he has not succeeded in explaining all the really difficult pas- sages. Sometimes he is clearly mistaken, and frequently he passes by in silence words or whole Sutras, the sense or the general bearing of which is by no means certain. Though it would be ungrateful on my part to underrate the import- ance of his work for my translation, I cannot place him in the same rank with Haradatta, the commentator of Apa- stamba and Gautama, and can only regret that no older commentary based on the living tradition of the Baudha- yaniyas has been available. If such a work were found, better readings and better explanations of many difficult passages would probably come to light. With the materials at my disposal the translation has been a work of some difficulty, and in trying to settle the text I have often expe- rienced the feeling of insecurity which comes over the decipherer of a difficult inscription when the facsimiles are bad. The short Adhyaya on adoption, given in the appendix to the Dharma-sutra, has been taken from the Smarta or Grzhya-sutra. It does not belong to Baudhayana, but is frequently quoted by the writers on civil law, who wrote in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of our era.
V A S I S H THA.
VAS I SH THA,.
CHAPTER I.
1. Now, therefore, the desire to know the sacred law for their welfare (should arise) in (initiated) men.
2. He who knows and follows the (sacred law is called) a righteous man.
3. He becomes most worthy of praise in this world and after death gains heaven.
4. The sacred law has been settled by the re- vealed texts and by the tradition (of the sages).
5. On failure of (rules given in) these (two sources) the practice of the .5ish/as (has) authority.
6. But he whose heart is free from desire (is called) a *Sish/a.
7. (Acts sanctioned by) the sacred law (are those) for which no (worldly) cause is perceptible.
I. i. The word 'now* serves, in this as in analogous cases, various purposes. It marks the beginning of the book, serves as an auspicious invocation (mangala), and indicates that something else, the initiation, must precede the study of the sacred law. 'Therefore' means 'because, after initiation, the neophyte is to be taught the presciibed rules regarding personal purification.'— Kr/shflapawdftta. For the wording of the Sutra compare the be- ginning of Gaimini's Mima'ffjsa'-sutras.
3-6. Gautama I, 1-4 ; XXVIII, 48.
7. The Sutra contains a limitation of Sutra 5. It indicates that the customs of the .Sish/as, for which worldly motives are per- ceptible, have no authority, and are not to be followed. The principle enunciated is one inculcated by the Mtma/nsakas (P. M. S. [14] B
8. The country of the Aryas (Aryavarta) lies to
the east of the region where (the river Saras vat!)
disappears, to the west of the Black-forest, to the
north of the Paripatra (mountains), to the south of
the Himalaya.
9. (According to others it lies to the south of the
Himalaya) and to the north of the Vindhya range
(being limited east and west by the two oceans).
10. Acts productive of spiritual merit, and customs
which (are approved of) in that country, must be
everywhere acknowledged (as authoritative) ;
T i . But not different ones, (i.e. those) of (countries where) laws opposed (to those of Aryavarta prevail).
I, 3, 3-4). See also Apastamba I, i, 4, 5-10; I, 4, 12, 8; and Introduction, p. xxvii. Krzsh«apa«</ita has misunderstood the Sutra. He reads, against the MSS., agrzhyamawakarawo 'dharma/*, ' unlawful acts are those for which no motive, i. e. no sacred source such as the Vedas, is perceptible.'
8. The region where the river Sarasvatt disappears is the Pat- tiala district in the Pang-ab. The Paripatra mountains belong to the great Vindhya range, and are probably the hills in Malva. The position of the Kalakavana or Black-forest is not accurately known. But it must probably be sought in BMr. All the MSS. as well as Kr:sh«apaw^ta read in this Sutra pr&gadanranat instead of pra- gadaryanat, 'to the east of the region where the river Sarasvati disappears.' This circumstance gains some importance by the fact that the Mah&bhashya on Pamni II, 4, 10, quotes the same defini- tion of the Aryavarta, giving, however, instead of adawanat pra"- gadarja't, 'to the east of Adam, i.e. the Adawa mountains.' It seems to me not improbable that our Sutra, too, had originally pragadarrat, and that some Pandit who knew nothing about the Adanra hills, but remembered Manu II, 21, and Baudhayana I, r, 25, where the word vinajana't, ' the disappearance of the Sarasvati,' undoubtedly occurs, added the syllable na and forgot to correct the a, after prig.
9. The translation follows Krz'sh»apa«<fita's commentary, which recommends itself on account of the analogous definition of Arya- varta given by Manu II, 22.
11. My translation follows the text given by Kr/sh»apa«</ita and
I. 1 5. GENERAL RULES.
1 2. Some (declare the country of the Aryas to be situated) between the (rivers) Ganga and Yamuna,
1 3. Others (state as) an alternative, that spiritual
pre-eminence (is found) as far as the black antelope
grazes.
14. Now the Bhallavins quote also (the following) verse in the Nidana :
15. 'In the west the boundary-river, in the east
B., and the explanation of the former, because it seems to me that the general sense which they give, is the correct one. I feel, however, not certain that the word pratilomakadharmawa'm, 'of those countries where opposite laws prevail,' is more than a care- Jess correction. The :najority of the MSS. read pratilomakaksha- dharmawaA (kalpadharmawa^), which by itself is difficult of expla- nation. But, as the text of the next Sutra contains an apparently superfluous phrase, I fear, we shall have to admit that the text is here disfigured by corruptions, which with our present MSS. it is impossible to remove with certainty.
12. Kr/sh«apa«^ita reads this Sutra 'etad aryavartam itya^a- kshate gangayamunayor antaretyeke/ and takes it as one sentence, the subject of which is ' eke/ I feel no doubt that this explanation is utterly untenable, and that the first four words have nothing to do with this Sutra, the second part of which occurs also in the Bau- dhayana Dharma-sutra I, i, 27. My opinion is that they originally belonged to Sutra n, though the state of the MSS. at my disposal does not allow me to say how Sutra 1 1 has to be corrected. The general sense of Sutra 12 is, however, perfectly certain.
13. Manu II, 23 ; Ya^wavalkya I, 2. It deserves to be noted that the black antelope (black-buck), Oryx cervicapra, selects for its home the well-cultivated, rich plains of India only, and is entirely wanting in the sandy, mountainous or forest districts, which are now, just as in ancient times, the portion of the aboriginal tribes.
14. Regarding the Bhallavin?, see Max Miiller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, pp. 193, 364. Kn'sh»apa«</ita thinks that Nidana means de^anir«aya, ' the disquisition on the countries,' which is the title of a section which occurs in most modern com- pilations on law. But it will be safer to take it as the name of a Vedic work, identical with or similar to that quoted in vSaunaka's BrrhaddevatS, Weber, Hist. Ind. Lit., p. 81.
15. Sindhur vidh£ra#i or vidhara/ri, as B. reads, cannot be
the region where the sun rises,— as far as the black
antelope wanders (between these two limits), so far
spiritual pre-eminence (is found)'.'
1 6. ' Those religious acts which men, deeply
versed in the knowledge of the three Vedas and
acquainted with the sacred law, declare to be lawful,
(are efficient) for purifying oneself and others.'
1 7. Manu has declared that the (peculiar) laws of
countries, castes, and families (may be followed) in
the absence of (rules of) the revealed texts.
18. Sinful men are, he who sleeps at sunrise or
at sunset, he who has deformed nails or black teeth,
he whose younger brother was married first, he who
married before his elder brother, the husband of a
younger sister married before the elder, the husband
of an elder sister whose younger sister was married
first, he who extinguishes the sacred fires, (and) he
who forgets the Veda through neglect of the daily
recitation.
