পৃষ্ঠা:অসমীয়া ব্যাকৰণ আৰু ভাষাতত্ত্ব.djvu/৯১

NRODUCTION II and assigned the sixth century A.D. as his probable date. Some other Assamese scholars are also of that opinion. Their reason for such assumption is this :- | There was a family of seven brothers in Lehi Dangara in Barpeta Sub-division the youngest of whom had no issue. One evening Mihir Muni came and took shelter for the night in their house. The wife of the youngest brother, who had no child, served the guest and was blessed with a son. This child was Dak. It is supposed that this Mihir Muni of the Dak Caritra was the great astrologer Varha-Mihira of Ujjaini and that in the course of his pilgrimage to kamakhya he halted for a night in the house of Dak's father. There is nothing in the Dak garitra to support this view. | Again, the Indian tradition refers to a memorial verse enumerating Dhanvantari, Ksapanaka, Amara Sinha, Sanku, Vetala Bhatta, Ghatakar- para, Kalidasa, Varaha-Mihira and Vararugi as the “nine gems” of Vikramaditya's Court, The trustworthiness and authorship of this verse are doubtful. It is known that there were several Vikramadityas. which of them is meant ? Does it mean the Vikramaditya to whom the Saka | era of 56 B.C. is assigned? There is another tradition which is equally | current in modern literature, viz., that King Bhoja of Malava, who lived in Dhar and Ujjaini, was the Vikramaditya at whose Court the “nine gems flourished. According to an inscription (see Cole Brooke II. 462) this king Bhoja lived about 1040-1090 A.D. Bhoja is also mentioned by Alberuni as his contemporary in i031 A.D. In the circumstances the date of Baraha-Mihira is uncertain. It should also be remembered that as there are in the Dak Bhanita some aphorisms connected with the Buddhist ethics there are also others relating to the worship of Brahma, Visnu and Maheswara and to the piety attached to the pilgrimage to the Ganges, Benares and some other sacred places. Then again, the language in which the aphorisms of Dak have been handed down to us appears to be of the later Vaisnava period almost approaching the modern. The spirit of social life it breathes and the manner of treatment of the various subjects are also almost modern. This indicates that we cannot assim the Dak Bhania to the sixth centur A.D. as supposed by some of the famous Assamese writers. | In the Bhanita itself we come across such Arabic and Persian words as the following :- Word Khat Haram-Khor Meaning bond eater of prohibited food (a term of abuse) Origin Arabic. ( Arabic-Harm = | unlawful Persian-Khor =eater