History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.169

v7.c95.169

Among the texts on which he relies are Ṛg. I. 164. 3, 4, 16, 17, 20, 30, 31, 38. The whole hymn has several riddles, has highly imaginative descriptions of the year, the path of the Sun, questions and answers and is a late hymn, as he him self admits (p. 150). Verses 3 and 17 contain nothing suggestive of punarjanma. Verse 4 is really concerned with the first creation, as it literally means 'who saw that one that was first being born, when the boneless (prakṛti) bears a body possessing bones; where was the life (prāṇa) of the earth, or its blood or its self? Who (a pupil) approached a wise one (a guru) to ask this?'. Verse 16 means 'they declare to me the women that exist and the men; one possessing eyes (the light of true knowledge) may see (the Reality); the blind (the ignorant) will not know; the wise son may know this; he who knows these would be the father's father'. Sāyaṇa gives several meanings of this verse. The present author fails to understand how the words 'father's father' indicate any reference to transmigration in this verse, as Prof. Ranade asserts. Why he presses this verse of I. 164 into service the present author cannot understand. After referring to I. 164. 32 (which doubts whether he who created all this knows its real nature) he states 'it sets such a high price on the mystical knowledge which it glorifies that any one who comes in possession of this knowledge may be said to be his father's father.' To whom does 'his' refer?