Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

Page 470

18. QUOTATIONS AND REFERENCES
449
from an ancient writer named Raibhya in the commentary on Nitivākyāmrta (Svāmisamuddeśa), TT 22:ईश्वराणां यथा व्याधियानां निधिरुतमः । नियोगिनां तथा ज्ञेयः स्वामिव्यसन संभवः ।
Similarly, Somadeva seems to have adapted another idea from the ancient writer Atri, well-known as an author of Smrti works. Somadeva says in Yasastilaka 3. 230:
galart #etne tre xatama Tiga *1 gla: 1991 stofaat u In Nitivakyāmsta ( 10. 82) he says: ARANTERT staat het tafat 191 I. The idea
on the following verse quoted from Atri in the commentary on the above work. If
यथैकशाखवृक्षस्य नैव प्रछाया प्रजायते । तथैकमंत्रिणा राज्ञः सिद्धिः कृत्येषु नो भवेत् ॥ The following verse is cited by Somadeva in Book IV without mentioning the source. # -
राज्ञि धर्मिणि धर्मिष्ठाः पापे पापाः समे समा। राजानमनुवर्तन्ते यथा राजा तथा प्रजाः ॥ The verse is quoted in the commentary on Nitivākyāmrta (Svāmisamuddeśa) and attributed to Vyāsa. It is cited from Vğddha Cāņakya in Böhtlingk's Indische Sprüche.
The following two verses are also cited in Yasastilaka (3.258-9) without mentioning the source.
नेमिमेकान्तरान् राज्ञः कृत्वा चानन्तरारान् । नाभिमास्मानमायच्छेनेता प्रकृतिमण्डले॥
अष्टशाखं चतुर्मूलं षष्टिपत्रं द्वये स्थितम् । षट्पुष्पं त्रिफलं वृक्षं यो जानाति स नीतिवित् ॥ The purport of the first verse is that a king desirous of supremacy should make himself the centre of the Circle of States, making the neighbouring kings and those living beyond his immediate neighbours the circumference of the Circle. Yaśodhara says that while considering the verse in an assembly of learned men, he discussed also the second verse which has a bearing on the composition of the Circle of States, and dealt with the entire system of arrangement and distribution of alien states. The second verse is a sort of synopsis of the various topics of the Nitiśāstras, and from the nature of the reference we should expect to find both the verses in the same text, but actually we find the first verse in Kautilya's Arthasästra and the second in Kámandaka's Nitisāra. The Arthaśāstra 6. 2 cites the first verse with an important variant, reading arān for narān. The reading (spokes) completes the metaphor of the wheel, but does not materially alter the sense of the verse. As regards the second verse, it occurs in Kāmandaka 8.42, but we cannot be certain that Somadeva took the verse from the latter work, as Samkarārya in his commentary on Kāmandaka cites the verse independently from Aušanas, that is, the Nītiśästra of Sukra.
57