Authorship Of Sastitantram

SR No.: 269347
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: G Oberhammer
Publisher: G Oberhammer
Total Pages: 22
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

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This testimony of Paramārtha is corroborated by other evidences. For instance, as we saw, Vrsagaña is quoted by Vasubandhu in the Abhidharmakośa 36), Dignāga attacks his teachings while he deals with the Sāmkhya 37); Uddyotakara refutes his definition of perception 38), and Simhasūri also commenting on the Dvādaśāranayacakram considers Vrşagaña as the representative of the system and tries to refute him 39). All these facts show sufficiently that Vrsagana was the most important representative of the Sāņkhya from the fourth century upto the time when the Sāņkhyakārikā in its easily understandable form displaced the somewhat difficult and large work of Vrsagaña, the only one to be dealt with by the opponents.
From Simhasūri's commentary on Mallavādi's · Dvādaśāranaya. cakram we are able to recover rather long fragments of this teacher. which give us an idea of his work 40). The merit of having reconstructed Vrsagaña's theory of cognition by means of these fragments and others goes to E. Frauwallner, thanks to whose work we car prove Vrşagana's influence on the later period' - as for instance, on the Vșttikāra in Sabara's Bhāşyam +1), on Candramati *9) and, as much as we can see from the fragments, on the Sāmkhyakārikā itself which, while proving the existence of the primal matter; enumerates the five proofs of Vrsagaña -3). But if we leave the classical period of the system and consider the later commentators, we observe that all that was known about Vrsagana's work and person gradually disappears. He is no longer cited, his doctrine is no longer
34) See note 35. 31) See note 39.
38) Nyāyavārttikam, p. 43, 10 (K. S. S. No. 33); cf. Tātparyatikā, p. 155, 26 (K. S. S. No. 24) and Yuktidīpikā, p. 4, 10 and p. 39, 14.
39) For some material on this point see E. Frauwallner: Zur Erkenntnislehre des klassischen Sāmkhya-Systems (Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd- und Ost. asiens, Bd. II, Wien 1958), p. 123–126.
40) Ibidem.
4) Cf. E. Frauwallner: Candramati und sein Dasapadārthaśāstram (Studia Indologica, Festschrift für Willibald Kirfel zur Vollendung seines 70. Lebensjahres. Bonn 1955), p. 78.
**) E. Frauwallner: Candramati loc. cit. p. 79 f. 5) Sāmkhyakārika Kā. 15.
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