240

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

I)amodara of the Rāja-Tarangini has nothing whatever to do

with the fourteenth century

before Christ. On the contrary he is spoken of in the poem as having sprung from the race of Asoka . * (I, 153.): the Indo-Scythian (Turu shka) kings Hush k a , Jush k a , and Ka n is h k at are mentioned as his immediate suc cessors; and consequently he must have reigned

(see Lassen, Ind. Alt. II. 275, 408) “after the overthrow of the Greek rºſj, sometime in the beginning of the first century B. C.” But how ever little importance we may attach to this notice in the Rāja-Tarangini as determining the question at issue, it is certainly a singular cir cumstance that the earliest time to which the

Rāmāyana is referred, and then it would seem as a work that had not yet been completed, is

[AUGUST 2, 1872.

which are found in the Mahābhārata, and specially to the history of R a ma as that is treated in the Rāmāyana. The difficulty in determining this question lies in this, that it cannot be ascertained whether that text of the

Bhārata which existed at the time of the Anuyo gadvārasiltra really contained these episodes and allusions. At the head of the testimonies to be taken from the Mahābhārata we have to name the

Rºtmopſikhyana, that lengthy episode introduced

near the end of the third book (15872-16601), in which the story of Rāma is told almost pre cisely in the way that Vālmiki represents it, but at the same time without his name being men

tioned, or even the remotest allusion being made

just a period that lies exactly in the mid

to the existence of a Rāmāyana. The entire episode is placed rather in the month of Markan

dle between the raj of the Yavana and that

deya who, after the happy restoration of Krishna

of the Saka—both, with their victorious hosts,

(Draupadi) whom Jayadratha had carried away,

well-known in the Rāmāyana (vide supra, p. 178, 179.)

narrates it by way of consolation to Yudh

If we take the testimonies to the existence of

time to show that his was not a singular ex perience. The substantial agreement, however in the course of the narrative, frequently even in the form of expression, is so very marked

a Rāmāyana in their chronological order, the first that I have as yet met with is the mention of a poem of this name in the Anuyogadvāra sūtra of the Jains (see my Treatise on the Bhagavatī, I. 373, 374; II. 248,) in which it takes its place with (though after) the Bhā rata at the summit of profane literature. This sutra is indeed considerably later than the Bhagvatisfitra itself: it is not reckoned among the twelve sacred ang as of the Jains, though it undoubtedly belongs to their earlier texts, standing somewhat on the same footing with the Sūryaprajnapti; and it is, beyond all question, considerably older than the Kalpa sūtra, composed in the beginning of the seventh century. We cannot, it is true, assign to the work any ºlefinite date. We are unable therefore to determine with certainty whether it would not be more correct to give it the second place in our list, the first place belonging rather to the Bhārata referred to in conjunction with the Rāmāyana in the Sutra, to the various epi sodes namely, and allusions to the Rāmāyana

ishihira as an example taken from the olden

that we are involuntarily led to regard it as a kind of epitome of the work of Valmiki. On the other hand it must be admitted that there

are also striking points of difference, partly arising from the fact that various passages which are contained in our present text of the Rāmā

yana are altogether wanting in this episode, partly on account of numerous actual deviations, some of them very important, from the story as

told by Vālmiki. Thus, the narrative begins with the circumstances that preceded the in carnation of Vishnu; and it treats with much fulness of detail of what is mentioned in the

Rāmāyana first in the Uttarakanda only, though with material variations from the re

presentation there given, namely, the early history of Rāvana and his brothers.

The sacri

fice of Das a ratha, the education of Rāma, his winning of S it a as his bride, and indeed the

entire contents of the Bālakānda, are left alto

• If–let me say in passing—the notices regarding Asſo

ka's son Jaloka in the Rāja-Tarangini did not so directly

see Lassen, vol. II. p. xxi.; and this circumstance, taken in

characterise him as an enemy of the Mlechha, a friend of

connection with the Buddhist persuasion (partial as it was)

the Siva-worship, &c., it would be very reasonable to recog nise in his name just a misunderstood reminiscence of the name of Seleukos. And indeed I find it difficult, in spite of these notices, to refrain from looking for the Indian name in

support to Wheeler's theory, according to which these names.

the Greek one.

t It is singular that among their successors the following names re-appear (I, 192 ft) immediately after one another:—

(Gonarda III.) Vibhishana, Indrajit, Ravana, Vibhishana; of these kings of Kashmir, furnishes a curious incidental occurring in the Ramayana are to be considered as indicat

ing the Buddhist princes of Ceylon. Regarding Gonarda III., inded, it is stated that he persecuted the bhikshu (I. 189); but regarding his son Vibhishana I. we have nothing of the kind. Rāvana worshiped Vatesvara (Siva 2).