Bruhat Katha kosha

SR No.: 016060
Original Sutra Author: Harishen Acharya
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 1943
Total Pages: 566
Language: Prakrit, Sanskrit
Classification: Dictionary & Dictionary
File Size: 16 MB

Page 89

68
BRHAT-KATHĀKOŠA
to didactic, legendary, edificatory and ascetic tales about which all the details are not given. As in the case of Niryuktis and canonical texts like the Uttarădhyayana, we should expect the commentators to give these stories in full drawing their material from earlier literature and oral tradition. From the comparative study, set forth below, it is abundantly clear that the stories in the Kathākośas of Harişeņa etc. are meant serially to illustrate the gāthās of the Bha. Arādhană; and Sricandra's Kathākosa quotes the gäthäs in many cases, and then gives the stories. These stories contain quite significant verses which show their connection with the Arādhanā; and being, among themselves, mutually disconnected, one is driven to admit that they might have originally formed a part and parcel of some commentary or the other on the Bha. Ārādhanā before they came to be separately compiled by authors like Harişeņa and Prabhäcandra who have not altogether concealed their relation with the Arādhanā. It was expected that Aparājita and Asadhara should have included these stories in their commentaries, but to our disappointment they have not done so. Between the two, it is only Aśādhara that gives a few remarks, here and there, on these găthās. This neglect on their part indicates that either they were indifferent to this aspect of the contents or by their time the Kathākośas were so usual that they did not like to repeat them in their commentaries. It is unfortunate that they simply pass over these references without giving adequate information and referring the reader to the required sources. Āsādhara, however, has left a crucial remark (p. 643) which is extremely significant :
pagsara al terrat: lisTEAMचुल्य पासं धण्णं जूवा रदणाणि सुमिण चकं वा । कुम्मं जुग परमाणुं दस दिटुंता मणुय-लंभे ॥
एते चुल्लीभोजनादिकथासंप्रदाया दशापि प्राकृतटीकादिषु विस्तारेणोक्ताः प्रतिपत्तव्याः। Āsādhara, we have seen, repeatedly refers to a Prākrit commentary; and this remark plainly says that the ten stories, corresponding to Nos. 35-44 in the Kathākośa of Harişeņa, were present in the Prākrit commentary. This definitely indicates that the Prākrit commentary etc. included these stories that are later on collected separately by Harişeņa and others. Harişeņa's text definitely inherits certain linguistic traits in the proper names, grammatical forms, expressions and vocabulary which undoubtedly betray that it is based on some Prākrit original, and that according to Asadhara's suggestion, might have been a Prākrit commentary on the Bha. Arādhanā. Besides the Kathākośa of Harişeņa, about which we will discuss later, there are similar collections by Śrīcandra, Nayanandi, Prabhācandra and Nemidatta which we shall have to review before we enumerate their stories in correspondence with the Arādhanā găthās.
1
In gāthả No. 567 Āsādhara quotes a Prākrit commentary to explain the term krmirāga-kambala; and this explanation, nearly in the same form, is found in the Kathākośa of Harişona (102. 82)