Bhartuhari Shataka Trayam

Author(s): Bhartuhari, Dharmanand Kosambi
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 17

BHARTRHARI'S SATAKATRAYAM
This codex confirmed the text that had been painfully determined from the above MSS, and seems to offer a solution to the riddle of the extra slokas. That is, Dhanasära's commentary become immediately popular, and he himself must have written the final additions to the main text, for the stanzas are found in that order in other MSS, like a after the colophone, but without a gloss. They must have been taken as genuine in the days of Dhanasāra, who then added to his commentary. The “tyaktakāvayāni” given after the encomium (prašasti] seem to be commented by another hand, if one may judge from the style. However, the original style is not greatly different, being also fatally easy to imitate; cannot exclude the possibility of Dhanasāra himself having still later additions, in a style changed by increasing age. I offer my opinion of a different authorship for what it is worth.
The commentary is the oldest known on Bhartrhari, and though not so imposing as that of Rāmacandra Budhendra for the sourthern type, nor so meticulous as that of Rāmarşi for a much closer version to that of Dhanasāra, is still of considerable interest. The Coloquial Jain Sanskrit used, some original interpretations, and the age make a close study of this version indispehsable to any student of Bharthari. One may venture upon the guess that the gloss was certainly supplemented by further oral comment, the text before us being in the nature of lecture-notes.
The present edition is really due to Muni Jinavijayaji. I prepared a text with variants in 1947, but at his request; my task ended when a press copy was handed over to him. Dhanasāra, like every other commentator known to me, shows some divergence between the Bharthari text as set forth on the MS, and the actual reading upon which the gloss has been made. Whether this was due to the commentator's having learned in his own school days from a slightly different main text, or is to be attributed entirely to the carelessness of later scribes must be decided before the particular version is printed. The decision has been taken by Muniji, who re-edited the script I left with him twelve years ago, according to his own canon. He selected the reading of the stanzas, of the commentary (for the various MSS again diverge), and the variants to be presented. He also read all the proofs without troubling anyone else. So, the responsibility and all the credit is his, and his alone. May he continue to add to the Singhi Jain Series and also the Rajasthan old text Series (Rājasthān Purātana Granthamālā) which has been founded, organized and edited under his most inspiring and able guidance, for many more years to come.
Poona, August 3, 1959,
D. D. Kosambi,