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the theory of vital airs, which are supposed to dwell in the body, and to perform important functions there. These are (1.) Prāṇa, ordinary breathing; (2.) Apāna, downward breath, acting on the lower parts of the body; (3.) Samāna, collective breath, forming the function of digestion and the transmission of food through the body; (4) Udāna, ascending breath, the vital force which causes the flow of blood upwards to the head; and (5.) Vyāna, separate breath, which is connected with the skin, and seems to denote a kind of nerve-force by which sensations are conveyed to the manas, or receptive and distinguishing faculty. These inventions are not more crude than that of the vital spirits, of which physicians and men of science used to speak, even in the last century. They denote that Kapila had a dim perception of the fact that there are vital forces at work in the human system more subtle than mere inanimate matter.

But all bodies, and all their separate faculties or endowments, and the constituent elements or gunas of Nature (Prakriti), which now are variously distributed in existing things, shall finally cease to be in their separate or individual forms. The gross body, formed in the womb of the mother, perishes absolutely at the time of death, the particles being absorbed again in Nature (Prakriti). When the soul has gained complete deliverance from matter, then the subtle body or linga will be absorbed for ever in Prakriti. Finally, according to Kapila, all things will be absorbed into it. Only soul and unformed matter will exist. In the system of the Bhagavad Gītā, all things will be absorbed into Prakriti at the end of a kalpa, or period of creation, which is a day of Brahmā, or 1000 mahāyugas, each of which contains 4,320,000 days; then the sum of

all existences being absorbed in Prakriti, the latter, being an inferior part of Brahma, will be also absorbed in him. At the close of the same period of non-creation, a new day will open, and there will be another emanation (sarga) of the material part of the Divine Being into the manifold forms of individual life.

The metre used for the most part in the Bhagavad Gitā is the common heroic form, called Sloka or Anushṭubh, consisting of two lines of sixteen syllables each, with a cæsura at the end of the eighth foot. Its form is this—

each line being the same.

In the more lyrical parts another form is used, called Trishṭubh, containing eleven syllables in each half line or pāda. A common variety is of the following form

a cæsura being generally found at the fifth syllable (Williams' Gram. p. 350).

In preparing this translation of the Bhagavad Gītā, I have had before me the Greek translation of Galanos, and the Italian version of Stanislao Gatti, both supplied by Dr. Reinhold Rost, the learned librarian of the India Office. I have also consulted the French version of Burnouf, the Latin version of Lassen, and the English versions of Mr. Thomson and K. T. Telang. The notes of Lassen have

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given valuable aid, and I am indebted to a paper on the Bhagavad Gita, read before the "Akademie der Wissenschaften" of Berlin in 1826, by W. von Humboldt, for a scholarly review of the doctrines contained in the poem. I have also consulted a MS. copy of the Commentary on the Bhagavad Gītā, written by Śrīdhara, which is in my possession, and by the kindness of Dr. Rost another commentary, attributed to Sankara, but written by Sankara Ananda Saraswati (quot. as Ananda), and called Tātparya Bodhini. By the kindness of Dr. Rost, I have had from the India Office a MS. copy of the commentary of Śankara. This I have consulted also, and have referred to it. The former commentary was supposed for a time to be Sankara's, and extracts from it were assigned to him; but I hope that in every such case the error has been corrected.

"No actions bind the man who trusts his actions to devotion" (p. 36), (yogasannyastakarmāņam na karmāņi nibadhnanti). The version of Lassen is generally followed, and his translation of this passage is, "Qui in devotione opera sua deposuit," meaning "laid aside:" lit. "works bind not him who has renounced works in or by devotion." "Celui qui par l'union divine s'est detaché des œuvres (Burnouf). "Acts shackle not him who by devotion has all acts renounced" (Telang).

"That devotee... attains to distinction in the Supreme Being" (p. 41): sa yogi Brahmanirvāņam adhigachchhati. "Is devotus ad extinctionem in numine... pervenit"

(Lassen): lit. to nirvāņa, loss of personality by absorption into Brahma. "Va s'éteindre en Dieu" (Burnouf). In this śloka, the part "qui intus delectatur, intus recreatur" (Lassen) is omitted.

In p. 49 the sentence, "Therefore be thou a Yogin, Arjuna!” is left

out.

"There is another eternal existence. . . which does perish when all things perish" (p. 60), for "does not perish" (na vinaśyati).

In p. 63 the nature of the Asuras is said to be "deluded:" it ought to be "deluding," prakṛitim mohinīmśritās. In p. 67 we have, “Worship me by obtaining this finite and wretched world" for "having come to (prāpya) this, &c., worship Me."

B

HINDU PHILOSOPHY.

THE BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ,

OR

THE SACRED LAY.

READING THE FIRST (a).

OM (b).1

DHṚITARASHTRA spoke.2

WHEN my forces and the Pandavas met together on the sacred plain, the Kurukshetra (plain of the Kurus), eager for the fight, what did they, Sanjaya?

SANJAYA spoke.

When the king, Durodhana, saw the army of the Pāṇ

1 The italic letters (a), (b), &c., refer to the Philological Notes at the end of each reading.

shetra) was the flat country lying between the rivers Yamunā (Jumna) and Sarasvati (Sursooty). In 2 Dhritarashtra, the king of a the Institutes of Manu (ii. 19) the large territory, of which the city territory, called Brahmarshi, is said Hastina-pura, the modern Delhi, to have included the Kurukshetra was the capital. He is said to plain and the lands of the Matsyas, have had one hundred sons, of Panchalas, and the Sūrasenakas. It whom Duryodhana, the unscrupu- was called the Brahmarshi country lous foe of the sons of Pandu, was because it was the land of the anthe eldest. Being blind, he in- cient rishis, who were distinguished trusted the administration of his in former times as wise and holy kingdom to Duryodhana. See In- men. This was the "Holy Land" troduction, p. 1. of India, probably because the Ar3 The sacred plain (Dharmak- yan race had first permanently set

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