Tibetan Citations Of Bhartrharis Verses And Problem Of His Date

SR No.: 269718
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hajime Nakamura
Publisher: Hajime Nakamura
Total Pages: 15
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 8

BHARTRHARI'S VERSES
129 (paramata) in the verses beginning with v. 144. As an instance of the latter, he writes as follows:
yathoktam...
yatha viśuddham ākāśam timiropapluto janah / samkirnam iva mātrābhiś citräbhir abhimanyate // tathedam amftam brahma nirvikäram avidyayā /
kaluşatvam iväpannam bhedarūpam vivartafa // ji skad du/
ji Itar nam mkhah dag pa la/ rab rib kyis bslad skye bo yin/ rab rib sna tshogs dag dan ni/ Idan pa bshin du mon par rlom // de Itar bdud rtsi hgyur med paḥi/ tshans pa hdi ni ma rig pas/ rñog pa bshin du hgyur ba ste /
tha dad no bor rnamn par hgyur // shes bśad pa Ita buḥo / 10 (In the Sanskrit original of the foregoing Tibetan version, the final word seems to have been vioartate instead of vivartatah.) Ganganatha Jha's translation: ...
"This has been thus declared :: ..
'Even though Ākāśa (Space) is pure, yet obsessed by darkness, people come to regard it as limited and made up of diversified parts; in the same manner, though Brahman is immortal and unmodifiable, yet It appears to be sullied by Nescience and hence diversely modified'.11
The foregoing verses, moreover, nearly completely correspond to two verses of the Brhadaranyakopani şad-bhāsyal2 by Sureśvara, a disciple of Sankara. (In the latter, amalan occurs instead of amytam, prakāšate instead of vivartatah upalakşayet instead of abhimanyale ; otherwise the passages completely the same.) These two verses are also cited by Prabhācandra, the Jain scholar, in a passage of the Prameyakamala-mārtanda where he criticized 13 the doctrine of the sabdabrahmavādins. (In this text, amalam occurs instead of amstam, bhedarupam prapaśyati instead of bhedarūpam vivartalan). Once again, the same verse is cited by Abhayadeva, the Jain scholar, in his work Tattvabodhavidhāyini (p. 388), as a doctrine of the sabdabrahmavādins. (amalam instead of amplam, vivar
10 The Der-ge edition, Bstan-hgyur, vol. 293, 187b.
1 The Tattvasangraha of Santaraksita with the Commentary of Kamalasila, tr. into English by Ganganatha Jha, vol. I, Baroda 1937, p. 126. * 12 Ad III, 5, 43; 41. p. 1246, Anss. 13 p. 12b, NSP.