Vinaya Texts

SR No.: 007684
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids, Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2523
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 1888

cxxvii
the son of Bhatta Mâdhava. The exact date of this author is likewise not ascertainable. He is extremely reticent about himself and his predecessors, and quotes, with the exception of Smritis, not a single work on law except his own Smriti-mangarî or Smriti-mañgarîpañgikâ, a compilation of rules on penances1, derived from various Dharmasâstras. The remoter limit of his age can, however, be deduced from Kullûka's remarks on Manu VIII, 184, whence it appears that Govindaraga was later than Bhoga of Dhârâ (first half of the eleventh century). The lower limit is fixed by the mention of his name in Gîmûtavâhana's Dâyabhaga and in Sûlapâni's work on penances 3. I can only agree with Professor Jolly, who thinks that he lived in the twelfth or thirteenth century1. The termination of Govindarâga's name has induced several scholars (see Jolly, loc. cit.) to assume that he was a prince, and it has been proposed to identify him with a Govindakandra of Benares or with a homonymous king of Kânog. But the son of a Bhatta can only be a Brâhmana, and it must not be forgotten that Govindarâga is the equivalent of Govindrão, a name very common among the Maratha Brahmanas.
The Manufika is a very concise, but by no means obscure
INTRODUCTION.
1 Commentary on Manu III, 247 and 248; see also Kullûka on Manu IV, 212. A copy of this work, written at Vasurâvf in Samvat 1467, âsvina badi -- sanau, during the reign of Mahârâna Udayasimha, is preserved in the India Office Library, No. 1736. Colebrooke thought that the date had to be referred to the Vikrama era, and the editors of the series of facsimiles issued by the Palaeographical Society, No. III, have followed him. But it is not doubtful that the prince mentioned in the colophon is Mahârâna Udayasimha of Mevâd, who ascended the throne in 1541 A. D. Hence the date of the MS. refers to the Saka era, and corresponds to 1545 A. D. The Smriti-masgarî contains no quotations from other law-books than Smritis. The name of Govindarâga's father, Bhatta Mâdhava, occurs frequently in the colophons of the several sections.
* Colebrooke, Dây. XI, 2, 31, where Govinda's name is also placed after Bhogaråga's.
Aufrecht, Cat. Sansk. MSS. of the Bodleian Library, p. 283.
Jolly, Tagore Lectures, p. 9.
'Obscure' is the epithet applied to it by SirW. Jones, Pref. to the transl. of Manu, p. xvii. (St. Grady). This estimate is probably derived from Kullûka's utterance in the concluding verses of his commentary, स्तोकं वस्तु निगूढंमल्पवचनानोविन्दराजो जगौ. It is only what might be expected from a plagiary who bitterly hated the man whose work he wished to supersede.
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