Authorship Of Vakya Kanda Tika

Author(s): Ashok Aklujkar
Publisher: Ashok Aklujkar

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The Authorship of the Vakya-Kanda-Tikā
tary on the first book by studying his commentary on the second book. These features seem to me to be the following: (a) The Sabda-prabha could not have been like Vṛṣabha's commentary in that it must have principally explained only the kärikäs, whereas Vṛṣabha's commentary explains both the kārikās and the Vṛtti. (b) Although primarily concerned with explaining only those verses which are intended by Bhartṛ-hari to form the karika-text of the Brahma-kinda, the Sabdaprabha, in all probability, briefly commented also on those verses which are quoted by Bhartṛ-hari in his Vṛtti from such works as the Samgraha (e. g. pp. 102, 142, 153, 185, 194-195, 202-203, 209, 217-220); cf. BSS pp. 193, 239. (c) Besides the desire to explain the kāriki text, the motivation in writing the Sabda-prabha must have been to supplement the Vṛtti wherever possible. Such a supplementation must have been achieved in the following respects: (i) Specification of Bhartṛhari's own view when a multitude of views is presented in his work; cf. e. g. BSS pp. 67.9-11, 71.7, 164.11-15; note siddhāntārthasatattvataḥ in the second introductory verse of the Prakirnaka-Prakāśa. (ii) Setting Bhartṛ-hari's views in relation to the views of others; cf. e. g. BSS pp. 66.5-15, 71.2-9. (iii) Justification of Bhartṛ-hari's views wherever additional arguments favouring them could be offered; cf. e. g. BSS p. 76.8-12; note the expression nirrita, nirnaya, etc. in Prakirṛaka-prakāśa 3.137 pp. 44.23-45. 3, 3.1.46 p. 54.8-9, 3.2 14 pp. 116.7-117.14, 3.9.62 pp. 72.26-73. 1, 3.9.70 p. 76.19-22. (iv) Elaboration of points that were not fully elaborated in the Vṛtti; cf. lesataḥ in BSS p. 104. 4-6. (v) Clarification of the mutual connections of the kārikās and of the order followed in the discussion of various topics; cf. BSS pp, 64.1-17, 75.6-8, 76.16, 77.6-7, 81.14-17, 85.17-18, 86.22-87.2, 89.15-16, 90.18-91.1, 93.24-94.3, 130.23-131.4, 143.19-21, 152.1-4, 156.19-157.3, 162.18-19, 167.15.168.5, 173.4-5, 177.5-7, 186.8-16, 205.9-10, 212.9-19, 221.11-13, 234.9-15, 242.19-20, 269.21-22, 271.2-4, 271.22-23, 275.10-12, 216.10-17.
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4.2 It seems that Helā-rāja completed his Prakirṇaka-prakasa long after he had completed the commentaries on the first two books. This is what one would expect in view of the impressive size of the Prakirṇaka and in view of the difficulty involved in explaining it due to the absence of a Vrtti by Bhartṛ-hari. The guess is supported also by the absence of references to the Prakiraaka-prakāśa in the Vakya-kanda-tika (references to the Prakiraaka itself are found on BSS pp. 67, 141, 264-265), by the fact that the Prakirṇaka-prakāśa and the Vakya-kaṇḍa-tika are not