History of Indian Philosophy

SR No.: 007593
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Surendranath Dasgupta
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Year: 1922
Total Pages: 2517
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 125 MB

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Pañcarātra Literature
21
The Pañcarātra Literature. The Pañcarātra literature is somewhat large and only a few works have been printed. The present writer, however, had the opportunity of collecting a large number of manuscripts, and an attempt will here be made to give a brief account of this literature, which, however, has no philosophical importance. One of the most important of these samhitās is the Sātvata-samhitā. The Sātvata is referred to in the Mahābhārata, the Ahirbudhnya-samhitā, the Isvara-samhitā and other samhitās. In the Sātvata-samhitā we find that the Lord (Bhagavān) promulgates the Pañcarātra-Šāstra at the request of Samkarşaņa on behalf of the sages?. It consists of twentyfive chapters which describe the forms of worshipping Nārāyaṇa in all His four Vyūha manifestations (vibhava-devatā), dress and ornaments, other special kinds of worship, the installation of images and the like. The Isvara-samhitā says that the Ekāyana Veda, the source of all Vedas, originated with Vāsudeva and existed in the earliest age as the root of all the other Vedas, which were introduced at a later age and are therefore called the Vikāra-veda. When these l'ikāra-vedas sprang up and people became more and more worldlyminded, Vasudeva withdrew the Ekāyana Veda and revealed it only to some selected persons, such as Sana, Sanatsujāti, Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatkumāra, Kapila and Sanātana, who were all called ekāntins. Other sages, Marici, Atri, Angirasa, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Vasiștha and Svayambhuva, learnt this Ekāyana from Nārāyaṇa, and on the basis of it the Pañcarātra literature on the one hand was written, in verse, and the various Dharma-śāstras on the other hand were written by Manu and other rşis. The Pañcarātra works, such as Sātvata, Pauskara, and Jayākhya and other similar texts, were written at the instance of Samkarşaņa in accordance with the fundamental tenets of the Ekāyana Veda, which was almost lost in the later stage. Śāņdilya also learnt the principles of the Ekāyana l'eda from Samkarşaņa and taught them to the rşis. The contents of the Ekāyana Veda, as taught by Nārāyaṇa, are called the Sātvikaśāstra; those Sastras which are partly based on the Ekāyana Veda and partly due to the contribution of the sages themselves are called the Rājasa-Šāstra; those which are merely the contribution of
1 Published at Conjeeveram, 1902.