Vakyapadiya Bhartrahari Tradition

SR No.: 269493
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Total Pages: 38
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 3 MB

Page 38

143 SUMMARY The article takes up anew the question of the authorship of the Vitti on the first two kandas of the Vakyapadiya. Section 1 reviews the most important relevant passages from classical Sanskrit authors ; they are unanimous in ascribing the Vstti to the author of the Vakyapadiya. Section 2 shows that there are, on the other hand, very strong internal arguments to show that the Vstti and the VakyapadIya had different authors ; the most important of these arguments have not yet been brought forward, or evaluated properly in the literature on this question. Section 3 then deals with the question of the weight which must be given to the unanimity of tradition, and to the other arguments that have been used to prove identity of authorship. Most of these can be shown to be without value, because they can be explained by a stylistic feature of many commentaries from that period which have not been taken into account or even noticed previously. Only one important argument remains at this point, the argument according to which some verses of the Vakyapadiya are incomplete without words added by the Vrtti ; this argument too loses its value once it is seen that these verses remain incomplete even after the words from the Vstti have been added. The conclusion is drawn that the Vstti and the vakyapadiya have different authors. Section 4 deals with the text-critical question of how to distinguish verses belonging to the vakyapadiya from verses cited in the Vrtti from elsewhere. Section 5 addresses the question of whether the author of the vakyapadiya or the author of the Vrtti, if either, wrote the Mahabhasya DIpika. Some arguments support the view that it was the former. Section 6 reviews some early quotations from the Vstti, which indicate that this commentary may be old, even perhaps older than Dignaga.