4

of legends and tradition-to fit herself by force into a system of values tested through the limited history of a part of Europe. Be uniform, says the system, even if uniformly insipid. The whole trend of her tradition points the other way and pleads for synthesis 2 and admission of differences where differences do exist. And the ancient traditional history of India develops this theme through Vedic, Epic, Classical and Mediaeval days. The history of the Asuras in India supplies an important thread and may illustrate this peculiar genius of the Indian civilisation. The Asura tradition dates from the beginning of Indian history. Asuras as a people precede the Aryas and probably the Dasas 7 in India. Have they left any literary or archæological records? At Mahenjo-Daro in Sindh have come to light remains of an advanced civilization-remains both architectural and inscriptional. Their nature and history are still matters of discussion." But their very existence is a definite refutation of the so-called history of India taught in current text-books.10 Either deny their existencell or make room for them in the so long accepted

6

he,

Antisthenes used to advise the Athenians to pass a vote that asses were horses and as they objected to that as irrational, 86 why" said "those whom you make generals have never learnt to be really generals; they have only been voted such ".

2 Cf. the composite body-social and body-politic of classical India: J.B.O.R.S. xii, p. 539.

3 The caste system. Manu ch. I.

This synthesis is also traceable in the inscriptions-Budd hist, Jain, Brahman-culminating in Hinduism; cf. Bhuvanesvar Insers. beginning with a well-known Buddhist formula, breathing the Jaina spirit and offering to the Brahmanic deities.

5 Bloomfield, ▲ Vedic Concordance, H. O. S., vol. 16, p. 134.

6 MBh. xiii. 566.

7 Bergaigne, La Religion Védique, 3,80.

8 Not only seals but regular inscriptions have been discovered.

9 Marshall, Illustrated Lond. News, Sept. 1924.

10 Cf. V. Smith, Early Hist. Ind. Ved. Ind. ignores the Asuras as a historical entity.

11 An attempt has yet to be made to bring these discoveries to the notice of orthodox scholarship.

scheme of Indian history. To do this one must re-read the different strata. In the absence of yet un-deciphered Asura records, those of the next or Aryan era must be re-examined. The results of such a re-examination of which an instance is discussed below would necessitate a complete revision of some old ideas and a more accurate estimate of the rest. Incidentally it vindicates the ancient Indian's conception of traditional history.

In history, as in everything else, an Indian believes in the authority of the Vedas-Vedāḥ pramāṇam2. Amongst the Vedas again, the Ṛgveda is the fountain-head. 3 The hymns of the Rgveda scrupulously preserved in the Samhita, Pada, Krama, Ghana and Jața pāṭhas and in Anukramaņis embody national Indian traditional history. But the difficulty lies is their interpretation." The difficulty increased with the distance in time and was accentuated by later interests.8 Thus even in the 7th cen. B.C., Kautsya felt bewildered at the seeming contradictions and absurdities, whereas Sāyaṇa10 in the 14th cen. A. C., deplores the tendency to misread Vedio tradition sthāṇurayam bhārahāraḥ kilābhürdhitya vedam na vijānāts yo'rtham.11 And he insists on the elucidation of Vedic tradition with the help of traditional history in the Epics and the Purāņas.12

› Vedasyädhyayanam nityamanadhyayane pātāt—Puruṣārthānuśāsanam. Cf. Sayana, Rgbhāya.

• Ibid.

• Macdonell, H. 8. L.

• Max Muller, 4. 8. L., p. 234.

• Macdonell, Ved. Myth., p. 7.

"Schroder, W. Z. K. M., 9, 120.

• Pargiter, 4. 1. H. T., p. 11 : 'priestly tampering.'

• Nirukta, 1, 16.

10 Ṛgbhāṣya.

" Cf. also Man tro hinak svarato varpato vă mithyå prayukto na tamarthomaha.

19 MBA. i. 1. 260, quoted in Rgökāşya, Preface.

9 Res. J.

3

A fruitful scrutiny of this earliest Indian Vedic tradition is possible in the light of the Nighantu, the Nirukta, the Bṛhaddevata and the Sarvanukramanis. None of these available texts can however claim to be immune from later tampering." Some passages have been shown to be later interpolations." Yet on the whole, palpable contradictions apart, they offer an association of older tradition with later as embodied in the Ṛgveda.

Thus, in the first pada of Chapter I. of the Daivatakāṇḍam,” Yāska says―

tāstṛividhā ṛchaḥ parokṣakṛtāḥ pr.tyakṣakṛtā

adhyātmikyascha.

"Three different kinds of hymns (in the Vedas)-composed by people out of sight i.e. known traditionally, composed to one's sight i.e., knowledge (by others known historically) and dealing with ourselves (i.e., contemporaries)." 8

And he continues

parokṣakṛtāḥ pratyakṣakṛtāscha mantrā

bhūyiṣthā alpasa ādhyātmikāḥ.o

"Hymns composed traditionally and historically are most numerous, only a few are contemporary.10

' Muir, Skt. Texts, Vol ii, p. 165; cf. Roth's edition of the Nirukta. Yaska, cf. Sayaṇa, Rgbhagya, Preface: atha niruktaprayojanamuchyale. • Bṛhaddevată, H.O.S., Vol. 5, p. xxi.

• Max Muller, 4. 8. L., p. 234.

• Devarāja,

apareşu chakănichida pahāya kānich it vitrastāni.

• Sarup, Introd. to the Nirukta, pp. 42-5.

7 Yāska explains only Vedic words. The Daivata kāṇḍa is the third part of Nighaṇṭa-Samāmnāyah Samāmnātah * tam imam Samāmnāyam Nighaṣṭa. vaityāchakṣate. It is to be noted that the Daivatakāṇda uses the same expression achakgate.

" ādhyātmika meaning "pertaining to self" would refer to contemporary records. The Ṛgvedic hymns are to be classified not only according to their literary strata but also historical sequence.

Yaska, op. cit.

10 Pargiter admits "contemporary notices "(4.1.H.T., p. 2) but refuses to face the task of finding out their "chronological setting with reference to other events."

To begin with, a distinction is made between three strata forming one epoch-tradition, history and contemporary records: parokṣakṛtāḥ, pratyakṣakṛtāḥ and ādhyitmikyah.1 And they exhaust the creative Vedic period. Follows the period of interpretation, fron Kautsya and Yaska2 to Roth and Macdonell.3 And the greater the distance in time, the more confused the outlook. For these strata really reflect the different sources and elements of ancient Asura-Arya-Dāsa India.

Yaska's explanation (Daiv. I, ch. I, § 1) is a mere description and imperfect as that. The Vedic tradition was already distant. Anarthakā hi mantrāḥ,6 the hymns are meaningless', says Kautsya. Yaska's rejoinder naisa Sthānoraparåd ho yaden amandho na pasyati puruṣāparādhaḥ sa bhavati" it is not the fault of the post if a blind man does not see it, it is the fault of the man' fails to convince. This failure is further confirmed by many of his manifestly absurd etymological explanations. Thus to Kautsya and Yäska ancient Indian history was already becoming obscure. At the other extremity Macdonell' starts with an improvised history of early India, ignores internal tradition in the Vedic literature, successfully misses the earliest stratum represented by the Asuras (who are not even mentioned in his Vedic Index) 10 and winds up by admonishing ancient Indians on their lack of the historical sense. 11 This statement faithfully repeated by second-hand

8

1 Cf. Sruti, Smṛti and itihāsa.

Yaska himself mentions about 31 authorities.

• Bhandarkar comm. vol. 1918.

• Cf. the etymology of Asura, v. Bradke, Z. D. M. G., 40, 347-G; Petersburg er Worterbuch, under Sura.

Yaska, Nirukta, Daiv. I. 1.

• Ibid. 15. 1.

Ibid 16. 2.

• Cf. Sāyaṇa on nåsatyau.

HS.L.: cf. Rapson, C.H.A.I., p. 57.

10 Macdonell, Ved. Myth., pp. 156-7: under Demons and Fiends.

"Macdonell, H.S.L., p. 10: Keith, J.R.A.S. 1914, pp. 739, 1031n; 1915, p. 143n.

scholars has gradually assumed an axiomatic plausibility. To this the Mahenjo-Daro finds2 came as a rude shock necessitating a re-searching in the original texts.

The task of interpretation must begin afresh from Kautsya. Even before Kautsya, the Atharvaveda3 was questioning the authority of the other Vedas. The Aranyakas and Upanisads preserve traces of their original scepticism about the revelatory character of the Vedas."-Yo hyera prabhavaḥ sa evāрyayaḥ 'whosoever is born is indeed the authoritative person' iyameva prthivito hidam sarvamuttisṭhati yadidam kimcha 'here is the earth, everything that is, rises from it'. The Tevijja Sutta in the Digha Nikaya regards the Vedas as 'ridiculous, mere words 28 The Carvākas emphasised the Vedic contradictions from the popular point of view. Yāskal, Jaimini11, Kumārila13, Samkara 13 and Sāyaṇa 1 sought a solution but were handicapped from the beginning by neglecting the historical setting and the traditional background. Their successors Roth,15 Kaegi,16 and Macdonell1 created further difficulties by insisting on a historical structure obviously based on insufficient data, into which even the meagre quota of admitted facts have so far refused to fit. The recent discoveries require room much too big to allow the structure itself to stand.

1 Sarup, op. cit., p. 53.

• Marshall, op. cit.

G.B., i. 2. 18.

Ibid., i. 2. 19.

14

▪ Bṛh. Upanişad, i. 5. 23; Ch. Up. v. 11-24; Tait. Up. ii. 5.

• Ait. Ar., iii. 2. 6.

Ibid., ii. 1. 2.

Rhys-Davids, Dialogues of the Buddha, S.B.E., vol. ii. pp. 304-14.

Sarvadarfanasumgrahah.

10 Nirukta, 16.2.

11 The Purva mīmāmsā.

13 Commentary on the Pūrvamīmām sā.

18 Vadāntabhāṣya.

14 Rgbhāyabhumikā,

1 Roth, Z.D.M.G., 6, 67-77,

18 Der Rigveda, 1886.

17 Vedic Mythology.