Shataka Trayadi Subhashit Sangraha

SR No.: 002915
Original Sutra Author: Bhartuhari
Author: Dharmanand Kosambi
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 1948
Total Pages: 346
Language: Hindi, English
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Literature
File Size: 22 MB

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INTRODUCTION
We now proceed to discuss the evidence for this line of descent though it must be kept in mind that anything like a true representation of the possible interrelationship between these versions would cover the chart with an unprintable network of tangled lines.
3. 3. Evidence for the grouping. There is no way of knowing what form the original Bhartrhari collection took, but it could never have been a śatakatraya, nor could the author himself have promulgated any edition comparable to what we possess today. The immense variation in order as well as content proves the latter point, for no one could possibly take such liberties with a generally accepted text. Moreover, the uniform tendency to add extra ślokas as Bhartrhari's shows that the work was, in all probability, started as a collection of Bhartrhari slokas by much later admirers. For neglect during the poet's own tifetime, the stanzas themselves offer ample testimony.
The common factor to the two main recensions, on the most generous level of inclusion, is below 250 stanzas. Another point that indicates later arrangement into three centuries is that there are not three mangalicaranas, except in the clearly artificial southern arrangement. N relegates śumblrsvayambhu- to the middle of the śrngāra, thus leaving at most two benedictory stanzas, cüdottamsita-[1] and dikkälādy-[ 256]. The real beginning of niti is ajñah sukhan, for this the earliest stanza common to N and S. Many N MSS begin the niti without any benediction at all; some repeat one or the other generally 256 ] as a beginning. Besides, the tendency to ascribe the game stanza to different centuries persists from the very beginning to the end of the tradition. We have seven stanzas of unquestionable authenticity [on the MS evidence] which are so displaced in the two recensions; the lack of fixity continues right through the second and third groups, the quite spurious tyaja durjana-[519] occuring in all three centuries. Some of this variation, however, is not fundamental because the extra stanzas, perhaps added after the colohpon or so indicated on the margin, appear to have fallen at the beginning of the next century by some later copyist's inaptitude. The lack of the third mangalāearaṇa has on occasion been supplied by invention, as in Wai 2 which has 411 and RASB 9510 with 662, both is NI, while the Telgu IO K7207 joins Mysore 1642 to put 768 as $1.
The Vedantic recension must have been fairly early, because its exact position is hard to settle. Its existence is shown by a fact that supports the preceding paragraph, namely that the stanza ilikkälady-[ 256 ] is also spurious, a later addition as seen from numerous omissions. In the first place, this is the very quintessence of Vedantic doctrine. Secondly, we can see it grow in Vedantic documents. The Yogaväsistha has f eta for: arche EFFETTI fashTTEFEST da ta gati (VI-a. 30. 12). This is followed by the 6000 sloka Laghuyogavāsistha, written by Gauda Abhinanda, a 9th century Kasmirian, which gives [6.1] Reggafah&CHE I FATT TTC sa faca 11 The exact form of our sloka occurs as the opening of the Laghuyogavāsisthasāra, which gives & still further condensed presentation of the Vedic doctrine in 223 stanzas. In Bhartrhari proper, thc stanza is decidedly out of place, as the more ardent Saiva stanzas that might have supported it all