History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.180

v7.c95.180

Mr. J. S. Karandikar of Poona (a staunch disciple and follower of Lokamānya Tilak) in his learned work 'Gītātattva-māñjarī' (in Marathi, Poona 1947) asserts (on pp. 775-776) that the doctrine of transmigration is as old as the Vedic age (i. e. the Saṁhitās) and relies for this proposition on only four verses of the Ṛgveda viz X. 14. 8, X. 16. 3 and 5 and X. 135. 6. The first three of these four have been explained above in dealing with Prof. R. D. Ranade's views. Mr. Karandikar summarises Ṛg. X. 16. 5 as a prayer to Agni that the latter should take the departed to the world of pitṛs and should send him back to his relatives after endowing him with a new brilliant body. There are no words for 'back to his relatives' nor for 'brilliant' in the verse at all. The word 'punaḥ' occurs in the first half and refers to the deceased's coming to *pitṛloka* after the body is burnt on the earth and the second half refers to the new body to be had in the world of pitṛs (and not to relatives). Ṛg. X. 14. 8 on which Mr. Karandikar relies has nothing to do with returning to the earth. After leaving his bad deeds (*avadya*) behind the deceased is asked to go to the home of the pitṛs with a brilliant body. The brilliant body is not earthly but of the pitṛ world Ṛg. X. 135 6 is quoted in the note below.²⁵⁰⁵ That verse is an extremely vague one and is a riddle or is metaphorical. That hymn of seven verses is addressed to Yama and the Anukramaṇī says that the *ṛṣi* of it is Kumāra of Yama's family.