Gita Rahasya -Tilak 620

Srimad Bhagavadgita-Rahasya OR Karma-Yoga-Sastra -Bal Gangadhar Tilak

CHAPTER XV APPENDIX (4).It is established from Buddhistic treatises, that a Buddhist poet named Asvaghosa lived at the beginning of the Salivahana era. This Asvaghosa wrote two epics in Sanskrit on the Buddhistic religion, called Buddhacarita and Saundarananda In both these epics, stories from the Bharata have been referred to. There is besides a book in the shape of a lecture on the Vajrasucikopanisad which is attributed to Asvaghosa ; or it may even be said that this Vajrasuci Upanisad was written by him. Prof. Webber published this book in Germany in 1860, and it contains the stanzas " saptavyadha dasarnesu" etc. from the Sraddha-Mahatmya, in the Harivamsa ; and some other stanzas from the Mahabharata itself . This clearly proves that the present Mahabharata of a hundred thousand stanzas including the Harivamsa was in existence before the commencement of the Saka era. (5).The Bharata and the Mahabharata have been independently referred to in the Asvalayana-Grhya-Sutra (3. 4. 4), and a stanza from the Yayati Upakhyana of the Mahabharata appears in one place in the Baudhayana Dharma-Sutra (2. 2. 26). Biihier says that this one stanza is not sufficient proof for saying that the Mahabharata existed before Baudhayana  ; but this objection is groundless, because the Grhyasesa-Sutra of Baudhayana contains a reference to the Visnu-Sahasranama ; and further on, in the same Sutra (2. 22. 9), the stanza "patram puspam phalam toyam" etc. from the Gita has been mentioned. These references in the Baudhayana-Sutra were first pointed out by the late Mr. Tryambak Gurunath Kale  ; and they prove that the objection raised by Prof. Buhler is groundless, and that both Asvalayana and Baudhayana were conversant with the Mahabharata. Buhler has established on other evidence that Baudhayana must have lived about 400 years before Christ. (6).Where the incarnations of Visnu have been mentioned in the Mahabharata itself, there is no reference to Buddha; and where the ten incarnations are mentioned in the Narayaniyopakhyana , the Hamsa is taken as the first incarnation, and Kalki is placed immediately after Krsna to make up the total of ten. Yet, where the future state of the Kali-Yuga is referred to in the Vanaparva, it is stated that : — " edukacinha prthivi devagrha-bhusita", i. e., "on the earth,, there will be L eduka' instead of temples of gods" . An eduka is a pillar, tower, and other edifice,, erected as a memorial over some buried hair, tooth etc. of Buddha ; and it is now-a-days known as 'dagoba'. 'dagoba' is a corruption from the Sanskrit word 'dhatu-garbha' (in Pali, dagaba), and 'dhatu' means the 'memento which is buried'. In Ceylon and in Burma there is many a dagoba, in numerous places. This shows that the Mahabharata must have been written after the date of Buddha, but before he was looked upon as an incarnation. The words 'Buddha' and 'Prati-Buddha' occur in various places in the Mahabharata . But there the words only mean a Jnanin, a Knower, or a Sthitaprajna. That word does not seem to have been taken from the Buddhist religion ; nay, there is good reason for believing that the Buddhists themselves have taken these words from the Vedic religion.