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I. The Metre of the Brhaddevata

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

A. B. Keith
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Extract

It is perhaps difficult to exaggerate the importance from the point of view of the literary history of India of the Bṛhaddevatā attributed to Śaunaka. That this has not hitherto received full recognition is due in part to the fact that it has been held, for example even by Dr. E. Sieg, that the Bṛhaddevatā is later in date than the Mahābhārata. This is, however, certainly not the case, as Professor A. A. Macdonell has shown conclusively in his edition of the former work. About 300 ślokas of the work are devoted to legends, and this must, it seems, be regarded as a conclusive proof that at the date of its composition there existed in Sanskrit an ākhyāna or itihāsa literature. Now the date of the Bṛhaddevatā is fixed by Professor Macdonell, on grounds which appear to me unassailable, at about 400 b.c., perhaps earlier. It follows, therefore, that a Sanskrit itihāsa literature can be proved to have existed in the fifth century b.c.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , January 1906 , pp. 1 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1906

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References

page 1 note 1 Die Sagenstoffe des Rigveda, pp. 126, 127.

page 1 note 2 Bṛhaddevatā, vol. i, p. xxix.

page 1 note 3 Op. eit., vol. i, pp. xxii, xxiii. Cf. Victor Henry, Revue Critique.

page 2 note 1 Cf. the discussions in J.R.A.S., 1904, pp. 435–487.

page 2 note 2 J.R.A.S., 1904, p. 475.

page 4 note 1 For an apparent exception see Macdonell, p. xxvi, n. 2.

page 4 note 2 In the first four syllables ⌣ ⌣ ⌣ — and — ⌣ ⌣ — occur twice each, ⌣ ⌣ ⌣ ⌣ and — ⌣ ⌣ ⌣ once each only. The other possible forms are all frequent.

page 7 note 1 Śākalya, it may be noted, is cited in Pāṇini, VI, i, 127, as permitting the absence of sandhi in the case of i, u, and ṛ followed by a dissimilar vowel, and Śaunaka is associated with Śākalya. The absence of sandhi between a or ā and ṛ is permitted by Pāṇini, VI, i, 128, also on the authority of Śākalya, according to the Kāśikā Vṛtti.