1859.] The Sri-sukla, or Litany to Fortune. 121 



The S'ri-siikta, or Litany to Fortune; text and commentary, with 

 translation. — By Fitz-Edwabd Hall, M. A. 



The period is now rapidly approaching when the contents of the 

 Vedas and of their principal appendages will be unfolded. Among 

 these appendages there is, however, at least one class of writings, 

 not altogether devoid of interest, which an investigator labouring 

 on Indian soil may, perhaps, treat of with less difficulty, if not more 

 satisfactorily, than a scholar restricted to the limited appliances of 

 Europe. I refer to the Vaidika intercalations known by the name 

 of Jchila, paris'ishta, or, still oftener, with whatever correctness, 

 padas'ishta. In rare instances do we meet with two manuscripts, 

 unless one is punctually reproduced from the other, in which the in- 

 corporations of this stamp correspond throughout. Even as for the 

 Riy-veda, numerous transcripts of it must be inspected before we 

 can assure ourselves that we have exhausted the more ordinary apo- 

 cryphal passages with which that collection is interspersed. At any 

 rate, a careful examination of fifteen copies of it has conducted me 

 to this conclusion. 



Data are scarcely yet brought to light that would authorize one 

 in pronouncing on the age and origin of the interpolations in the 

 primitive Hindu scriptures, which I here contemplate. To turn, for 

 a moment, from the Veda proper, we have, for a khila, the Hari- 

 vans'a, a supplement to the Mahabhdrata, and yet certainly not con- 

 temporaneous with the main poem. Undoubtedly it is later. On 

 the other hand, of the khilas inserted in the Riy-veda, while many 

 are, without question, of comparatively modern date, there are a 

 few, among those not traceable to other Vedas, which discover, to 

 some extent, characteristics of archaism. If not very good imita- 

 tions, they must, then, be accounted genuine relics of antiquity. 

 The traditional, but sufficiently uncritical, belief of the pandits, as 

 touching the Vaidika khilas, is, that they are excerpts, one and all, 

 from branches of the Veda no longer extant in their integrity.* 



* In Central India, at all events, females of Brahmanical descent are allowed 

 to read the Vaidika khilas, with their phala-s'rutis, and those of sacred hymns 

 generally. A. phalchs'ruti is an appendant text of scripture, importing, in strict- 

 It 



