The History of Indian Literature c8.387

c8.387

As with the epic legends, so also do we find in the Śatapatha-Bráhmaṇa several points of contact with the legends of the Buddhists, on the one hand, and with the later tradition concerning the origin of the Sáṃkhya doctrine, on the other. First, as regards the latter. Ásuri, the name of one of its chief authorities, is at the same time the name of a teacher frequently mentioned in the Śatapatha-Bráhmaṇa. Again, though only in the Yájnavalkíya-káṇḍa, we have mention of a Kápya Pataṃchala of the country of the Madras as particularly distinguished by his exertions in the cause of Brahmanical theology; and in his name we cannot but see a reference to Kapila and Pataṃjali, the traditional founders of the Sáṃkhya and Yoga systems. As regards the Buddhist legends, the Śákyas of Kapilavastu (whose name may possibly be connected with the Śákáyanins of the tenth *káṇḍa*, and the Śákáyanya of the Maitráyaṇa-Upanishad) called themselves Gautamas, a family name which is particularly often represented among the teachers and in the lists of teachers of the Bráhmaṇa. It is, moreover, the country of the Kosalas and Videhas that is to be looked upon as the cradle of Buddhism.—Śvetaketu (son of Áruṇi), one of the teachers most frequently mentioned in the Śatapatha-Bráhmaṇa, is with the Buddhists the name of one of the earlier births of Śákyamuni