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The Quotations in the Nítivákyāmrta Commentary
is quoted under Vyāsa's name in the Smsticandrikă p. 208 ( ed. Bibliotheca Sanskrita, Mysore, No. 45 )1 with the readings: aig for AndYT, fari for tisti and 'rait for 'geret.
Thus at least in three verses the authorship of Vyása is asserted also by other works than the Commentary so that there exists a relation of traced verses to untraced as 10. 34%: 89. 56%.
This result from a few comparisons of the quotations with other sources cannot be definitive. Further researches will have to take place on a broad line. This question is not only important for the critical text of the Nitivtkyāmsta by Somadeva; it will help to reconstruct perhaps the survivals of an interesting literature, otherwise lost. That the date of the Commentary, his truthworthiness will be ascertained is possible; but also the way in which Somadeva has written his treatise, the relation between his work and his sources, finally that of the prose text and that of the verses will become clearer. But also the literature on Nīti. will gain by such an inquiry into the sources of the Commentary which will serve again as a valuable contribution to the study of the Anthologies.
That doubts are sometimes justified in the genuity of Niti-works at least, has been shown just some time ago. Still in the year 1921 scholars believed the Arhannīti to be a work written by Hemachandra for his patron, the Gurjara king Kumarapala (1143-1172 A. D.)? But the doubts nourished about the authorship of Hemachandra became justified when in the last year the real author of the Arhanniti was revealed to be the Late Balchandra Süri of Benares who lived in the 19th cent. A. D.3
1 An attempt to reconstruct the Vyasasmrti has been made by Balakrishna Ghosh (Studia Iudo-Iranica, Festschrift w. Geiger, Leipzig 1931); the verse above is found there on p. 121, Verse III.
2 See H. Jacobi, Sanatkuinaracharitam (Abhandi. Bayer. Akad. d. Wissensch Philos.. philolog. u. histor. Kl. XXXI, 2, 1921) p. VIII. But of Winternitz, Gesch d. ini. Litter. III p. 530 who pointed out that the original work is lost.
3 C. R. Jain, The Gazette vol. XXXII, 1, 1935, p. 9ff.
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[ Shree Atmaramji
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