Volume 1 — CHAPTER XV. (continued 2)
Reading edition
[Footnote 46: Compare ii. 22. 18: "Great holiness, great glory, penance, death in battle, these are each respectively productive of heaven; the last alone is a sure cause."]
[Footnote 47: This description and the sentiments are quite late. The same sort of heaven (without the philosophical bitterness, with which compare above, p. 229) is, however, found in other passages, somewhat augmented with nymphs and facile goddesses.]
[Footnote 48: This doctrine is supposed by some scholars to be due to outside influence, but the doubt is not substantiated, and even in the Rig Veda one passage appears to refer to it. Doubtless, however, the later expanded view, with its complicated reckonings, may have been touched by foreign influence.]
[Footnote 49: Na [=a]san s[=a]ma-[r.]g-yajur-varn[=a]s. In xii. 342. 8 the order is Rik-Yajus-Atharvan-S[=a]man. The habit of putting S[=a]man instead of Rik at the head of the Vedas is still kept in the late litany to Çiva, who is "the S[=a]man among the Vedas" meaning, of course, the first and best. In the same place, "Çiva is the Itih[=a]sa" epic (xiii. 14. 323; and ib. 17. 78, 91), for the epic outweighs all the Vedas in its own estimation.]
[Footnote 50: iii. 149. 14; 188. 22; 189. 32; probably with a recollection of the colors of the four castes, white, red, yellow, black. According to xii. 233. 32, there is no sacrifice in the Krita age, but, beginning with the Tret[=a] age, there is a general diffusion of sacrifice in the Dv[=a]para age. In another passage of the same book it is said that marriage laws arose in the Dv[=a]para age (207. 38 ff.).]
[Footnote 51: The teaching varies somewhat in the allotment of years. See Manu, I. 67.]
[Footnote 52: Weber thinks, on the other hand, that the parties represent respectively, Çiva and Vishuu worship, Ind. St. i. 206.]
[Footnote 53: This book also is closely in touch with the later Pur[=a]nas. For instance, Citragupta, Yama's secretary, is known only to the books of the pseudo-epic, the Vishnu Pur[=a]na, the Padma Pur[=a]na, etc.]
[Footnote 54: Neunzehn Bücher, p. 86.]
[Footnote 55: The epic does not care much for castes in some passages. In one such it is said that members of all castes become priests when they go across the Gomal, iii. 84. 48.]
[Footnote 56: xii. 319. 87 ff. (pr[=a]pya j[=n][=a]nam … ç[=u]dr[=a]d api); xii. 328. 49 (çr[=a]vayee caturo var[n.][=a]n). The epic regards itself as more than equivalent (adhikam) to the four Vedas, i. 1. 272.]
[Footnote 57: Some ascribe the sams[=a]ra doctrine to Buddhistic influence—a thesis supported only by the fact that this occurs in late Brahmanic passages and Upanishads. But the assumption that Upanishads do not precede Buddha is scarcely tenable. The Katha, according to Weber (Sits. Berl. Ak. 1890, p. 930), is late (Christian!): according to Oldenberg and Whitney, early (Buddha, p. 56; Proc. AOS. May, 1886).]
[Footnote 58: xii. 295. 5-6.]
[Footnote 59: Noteworthy is the fact that parts of the Çivaite thirteenth book seem to be most Buddhistic (ch. i.; 143. 48, etc.), and monotheistic (16. 12 ff.): though the White Islanders are made Vishnuite in the twelfth. Compare Holtzmann, ad. loc.]
[Footnote 60: Nirv[=a]na, loosely used; termini technici; possibly the evils of the fourth age; the mention of (Buddhist) temples, etc.]
[Footnote 61: On this point we agree neither with Weber, who regards the avatars as an imitation of the Incarnation (Ind. St. ii. p. 169), nor with Schroeder, who (Literatur und Cultur, p. 330) would derive the notion from the birth-stories of Buddha. In our opinion the avatar-theory is older than either and is often only an assimilation of outlying totem-gods to the Brahman's god, or as in the case of the flood-story the necessary belief that the 'fish' must have been the god of the race. Some of these avatars are Brahmanic, presumably pre-Buddhistic.]
[Footnote 62: Krishna's Geburtsfest (janm[=a][s.]tam[=i]), 1867.]
[Footnote 63: Since they do not appear till after the real epic we date them tentatively as arising after 600 A.D. Most of them are in still later Pur[=a]nas.]
[Footnote 64: Incidental rapport with the Greeks has been pointed out in other instances; the surang[=a], a mine, of the late tale in i. 148. 12, etc (Ind. St. ii. p. 395), has been equated with syrinx; Skanda with Alexander, etc. It is needless to say that each of these is only a guess in etymology. But Greek influence is perceptible in the Greek soldiers and names of (Greek) kings that are found in the epic.]
[Footnote 65: Ind. St. i. 423; ii. 169. Weber believes that little is native to India which resembles Christianity in the way of theology; lore of God, special grace, monotheism, all to him are stolen. We regret that we must disagree with him in these instances.]
[Footnote 66: Ekata, Dvita, Trita. A Dvita appears as early as the Rig Veda. Ekata is an analogous formation and is old also.]
[Footnote 67: Hrish[=i]keça is 'lord of senses,' a common epithet of Vishnu (Krishna).]
[Footnote 68: i. 107. 1 ff. The spirits of the dead come to him and comfort him in the shape of birds—an old trait, compare B[=a]udh. Dh. Ç[=a]st. ii. 8. 14. 10; Çat. Br. vi. 1. 1. 2.]
[Footnote 69: xii. 300. 20.]
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