Vaisesika Vakya And Bhasya

SR No.: 269577
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst
Total Pages: 25
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 20

164
ABORI: Amṛtamahotsava Volume
would try to extract sutras from manuscripts of the Kaṭandi - which contained sutras, vākyas, and bhaṣyas - would be in danger of mistakenly including some vakyas.
Of course, it would be hard, perhaps impossible, to prove difinitely that the three surviving versions of the Vaiseṣika Sutra derive from a common source which is the Kaṭandi. It must however be recalled that cases of early Indian texts that have at some time of their history been peeled out of a commentary are known.33 All we can do in the remainder of this article is briefly consider two points which, to say the least, do not contradict the assumption that our versions of the Vaiśeşika Sutra do indeed derive from the Katandi. A close study of the available evidence may further support, or disprove, the above assumption. Such a study is however beyond the scope of the present article.
VS 1. 1, 4, in the version of the Vaiśeşika Sütra commented upon by Sankara Miśra, reads:
4. dharmaviśesaprasütad dravyaguṇakarmasāmanyaviseṣasamavāyānām padarthänām sädharmyavaidharmyābhyām tattvajñānān niḥśreyasam
An enumeration of the six categories at the beginning of the Sutra-text seems, as Frauwallner (1984: 37 n. 5) observed, essential. Yet this fourth sutra' is absent from the other two surviving versions of the text. How to explain this? The easiest solution seems to be that it was there, but was not recognized as a sutra. This, of course, is only possible if the sutras were extracted from a work that contained more than only sütras, most probably from a commentary. The fact that 'sutra 4' is much longer than sutras 1-3 may explain that it was not so easily recognized as such.
Supposing now that the sutras were all taken from a commentary on the Vaiseşika Sutra, is there any reason to think that this commentary was the Kaṭandi? The resemblance of sutra 4 to a portion of the Padarthadharmasangraha may constitute such a reason. The following passage from the Padarthadharmasangraha expresses almost the same contents in but slightly differing words (N p. 6-7: Ki p. 4):
30 See Bronkhorst, 1988: 121 f., where it is shown that the first two Kandas of Bhartṛhari's Vakyapadiya were peeled out of the Vṛtti, a commentary whose author - different from Bhartṛhari - is not known. It seems, moreover, that the Yoga sutras were collected by their first commentator, the author of the Yoga Bhaṣya; see Bronkhorst, 1985a.