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The Quotations in the Nitiväkyämrta Commentary
some close relation between text and Commentary, be it that the former has-in such cases of close agreement of the wording only, of course-borrowed from the same source as the latter, be it that the Commentator has versified on these passages the prose text.
On the other hand, however, it must be confessed that the Commentator has been well versed in literature. He knows the kàkatàliya-story, alluded to by Somadeva p. 133 (10, 92 ): gradi di ar यन्मूर्खमंत्रात्कार्यसिद्धि: । on which the Tīkākara quotes the Guru :
अन्धवर्तयमेवैतत् काकतालीयमेव च । यन्मूर्खमंत्रतः सिद्धिः कथंचिदपि जायते ॥
Somadeva refers p. 148 (10, 140) to a story which occupied the scholars on account of its shortness, age and wide circulation, that of the goat and the knife, 1 by the words: तदजाकृपाणीयं यः परेषु विश्वासः । The Commentator explains the story: A wanderer saw, while stopping on his way in a forest, as he was worried by hunger, a flock of goats which was, attended by guards and herds, strolling about. Then this man took many tender shoots and put them little by little into the mouth of one ram. Also the ram, leaning upon the man, ate them by his eagerness for them. Throwing them before the ram the man also began to look for something like a cudgel or stone, as he was without any weapon, with the intention to kill the ram. Thus the ram, eating the tender shoots, digged in his joy the soil. Then there appeared, while he was digging, a sword which has been concealed before by somebody on that place; the wanderer, being without any weapon, took this sword and killed the ram and ate him; that is the saying of "The goat and the knife." For the knowledge of classical literature the mentioning of Kalidasa on 32, 7 (p. 382), Bharavi, Magha may be referred to. The Commentator characterizes each author by his respective poetic skilfulness. Kalidasa is quoted p. 42 (Kumāras.
1 Cf. A. Ludwig, Sitzungsber. Bohm, Ges. d. Wissensch (Classe. fur Philosophie etc.) 1891, Abh. VI; 1895, Abh. VII; v. Boehtlingk, Verh. Saechs. Ges. d. Wiss. 1895, 2. Feb.; Pischel, ZDMG 47, 1893, 86 ff. Guentert, Buddha in dérabendi Lezende ? 49.
2 This quotation is missing in the index as some others.
158.
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