Some Observations On Manuscript Transmission Of Nyayabhasya

SR No.: 269206
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Yasutaka Muroya
Publisher: Yasutaka Muroya
Total Pages: 42
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 5 MB

Page 33

Some Observations on the Manuscript Transmission of the NBh (Y. Muroya) 55
only occurs in the NV.133 This statement by Śrīkantha is in contradiction with the bare fact that most of the NBh mss. available to us transmit the term as part of the four important topics. If Śrīkantha's gloss on the term correctly reflects the problem Udayana was facing, and if Udayana was aware of the textual discrepancy in the sense conveyed by Śrīkantha, we may infer that the evidence of the Trivandrum and Jaisalmer mss., as well as of Bhāsarvajña's indirect reference, provides us in this case with a text of the NBh as it was still existing in the period of Udayana. The additional expression adhigantavyaḥ would have crept into the text of the NBh some time after Udayana, or even Śrīkaṇṭha, most probably under the influence of Uddyotakara's philosophically motivated re-interpretation and modification of the words of his predecessor, Vatsyāyana.
5. Consideration of the textual transmission of the NBh
To conclude the present examination, I would like to offer a summary with some additional remarks. This article is meant to introduce the unique features of the Trivandrum ms. of the NBh, previously in the Paliyam collection, or of what we may call the Kerala tradition of the text of the NBh. In this introductory attempt I have not been able to fully discuss the textual problems of the variant readings and their historical implications; of course, some of them require further analysis and deliberation. However, fundamental text-critical observations show that the Trivandrum ms. often preserves original readings not found in the majority of mss. available to us, or readings which are closer to the original than those provided by them. Furthermore, as shown in Sections 4.2 and 4.2.1, the close affinity of the Kerala tradition to the Jaisalmer ms., together with the support of some of their substantial readings by earlier secondary and independent testimonies allows the hypothesis that the Paliyam ms. and the Jaisalmer ms. belong to a state of the ms. transmission of the NBh which is closer to the original text than the other available mss. Among the latter, MSSA stand out through their frequent agreement with the evidence of the Trivandrum and Jaisalmer mss., and thus, compared with MSSB (and all printed editions except Thakur's), also preserve more original readings of the text. Because of the reasons stated above (cf. pages 25-26), this hypothesis must currently be limited to the transmission of the trisutrībhāṣya.
Apart from the above, the examination of variant readings, as presented in Sections 3.2 and 4.2.1, shows that the text of the NV or Uddyotakara's ideas consequently influenced the textual transmission of the NBh and probably provided some motivation for "correcting" its text, purposely or unintentionally, if the copyist was somehow familiar with the text of the NV. This is why, in my opinion, wherever there are divergent readings in the mss., one 133 This is corroborated by Abhayatilaka. Cf. NA 31,23-25.