Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 2.djvu/40

Rh out above that the recension of the Taittirîya Âranyaka which Âpastamba recognises is that called the Ândhra text or the version current in the Ândhra country, by which term the districts in the south-east of India between the Godâvarî and the Krishnâ have to be understood. Now it seems exceedingly improbable that a Vedic teacher would accept as authoritative any other version of a sacred work except that which was current in his native country. It would therefore follow, from the adoption of an Ândhra text by Âpastamba, that he was born in that country, or, at least, had resided there so long as to have become naturalised in it. With respect to this conclusion it must also be kept in mind that the above-quoted passage from the Mahârnava particularly specifies the Ândhra country as the seat of the Âpastambîyas. It may be that this is due to an accident. But it seems to me more probable that the author of the Mahârnava wished to mark the Ândhra territory as the chief and perhaps as the original residence of the Âpastambîyas.

This discovery has, also, a most important bearing on the question of the antiquity of the school of Âpastamba. It fully confirms the result of the preceding enquiry, viz. that the Âpastambîyas are one of the later Karanas. For the south of India and the nations inhabiting it, such as Kaliṅgas, Dravidas, Andhras, Kolas, and Pândyas, do not play any important part in the ancient Brahmanical traditions and in the earliest history of India, the centre of both of which lies in the north-west or at least north of the Vindhya range. Hitherto it has not been shown that the south and the southern nations are mentioned in any of the Vedic Samhitâs. In the Brâhmanas and in the Sûtras they do occur, though they are named rarely and in a not complimentary manner. Thus the Aitareya-brâhmana gives the names of certain degraded, barbarous tribes, and among them that of the Andhras, in whose country, as