Authorship Of Vakya Kanda Tika

Author(s): Ashok Aklujkar
Publisher: Ashok Aklujkar

Page 18

182
Charu Deva Shastri Felicitation Volume
belongs to 1534:1535 A. D. (Rau 1971:32). Therefore, until a manuscript containing the summary verses and written before 1475 A. D. is found, one cannot reject the thesis of possible identity at least on the basis of manuscript evidence. However, there are other serious difficulties in identifying Punya-rāja. In the first place, no manuscript of the Vakya-kānda-ţika, as far as I am aware, gives Puñja-rāja as the form of the name of the author. Secondly, nowhere in the fairly extensive information about Puñja-rāja, the Sārasvata grammarian, (see Haraprasāda Shăstri 1931 and Gode 1941, 1953) do we find any mention of his association with either Saśānka-sisya or Śūravarman as we find in the case of Punya-rāja (2.2 above). Nor does Puñja-rāja claim in the list of his works that he wrote a work concerning Bhartr-hari or the Trikāndi. I am, therefore, at present disposed to conclude that Punya-raja, the author of the summary verses, is older than Puñjarāja. This is all the more likely to be the case, if. taking our cue from Charu Deva Shastri (1930: 653-654), we identify Sasankaśisya, from whom Punya-rāja 'heard' the Vākya-kānda, with Sahadeva, the earliest known commentator of Vāmana's Kavyalankārasūtra-vịtti. 1 In fact, the hypothesis that Punya-rāja was a direct disciple of Saha-deva is strongly supported by the verses with which Saha-deva introduces and concludes his work: akarnya bhavatas tasmad dayitasya vidhiyate) vivrtih Saha-devena Vamaniyasya samprati|/...caturdaśānāma pi yah prasiddho vidyā-sthitināṁ para-pāradssva/Saśānka-pūrvam Dhara2 ity udaraṁ yan-nāma loke nitarāṁ prasiddham||tadiya-sisyah Saha. deva-nāmā kule prasūtah (or kule 'bhijatah) khalu Tomarānām) vyākhyām imām kavya-vicāra-śāstre vyadhatta laghvim iha Vāmaniyel| Kāśmiradeśad apasarpato me sabdanuśuddhim tri-muni nisamyal avāpta-siddhet varunātmajasya prayojako 'bhūd iha Padma-nabhaḥ // A comparison of these verses with the concluding verses of Punya-rāja quoted in 2.2 above will reveal the following points of similarity: akarnya tasmāt, nisamya Saśānka-sisyāt śrutvā; Saśānka-......-sis yah+Sasankafisyat; Saha-deva-nima Śūra-varma-namnā; laghuimt laghvi; apasar
1. Raghvan Pillai (1971: xvii) draws our attention to the possibility that
Sasanka-sisya may mean a disciple of Candra-gomin, the grammarian.' But there is little, if any, likelihood that this could be the case. If we take Sasanka-sişya to mean 'a disciple of Candra-gomin,' then Punya-raja would be a disciple of the disciple of Candra-gomin. In that case he would be probably older than even Bhartr-hari, a part of whose work he is said to have summarized ! Moreover, Raghavan Pillai has not pointed out any
references to Candra-gomin with the word Sasanka. 2. According to Yudhisthira Mimāṁsaka (samvat 2019:84-85), Kșira-svāmin
(circa 1058-1108 A.D.) refers to Bhasta Saśānka-dhara on p. 7 of his Kșiratarangini on Panini's Dhätu-patha.
ari-hari, wasomin. In that clunya-rāja would