Bhatrhari And Dinnaga

Author(s): H R Rangaswamy Iyengar
Publisher: H R Rangaswamy Iyengar

Page 1

BHATĶHARI AND DINNĀGA *
By H. R. RANGASWAMY IYENGAR.
The date of the great grammarian Bhartshari, author of the Vākyapadiya, which is regarded as a landmark in the literary history of India in as much as it forms the basis for determining the dates of several sanckrit authors, has been determined so far on the statements of Itsing in his, "Record of Buddhist religion". The Chinese traveller has recorded that Bharthari was a great grammarian, whose fame had spread all over India, that he was the author of the three works Vákyapadiya, the-commentary on the Mahābhāștya and another work, Peina, (which may perhaps be the Prakirna Kanda or the third and last chapter of the Vākyapadiya), and that he died in about 650 A.D. i.e., forty years before the date of his record. The accuracy with which Itsing has reported other contemporary events as well as about the extent of the Vākypadiya itself has led scholars to assign Bhartphari to the seventh century A.D.
. But new evidences which have come to licht, completely falsify the statement of Itsing and push back the date of Bhartshari to the 5th century A.D.'
In the second Kānda of the Vākyapadiya, while describing how the science of grammar, which had been almost extinct, was restored and propagated by the great grammarians, Chandra and Vasurāta, Punyarāja, the commentator of the Vakyapadiya, mentions several times Vasurăta as the teacher of Bhartphari. In the Karika 490 of the Vākyapadiya Bhartshari himself seems to refer to his teacher Vasurāta by, 'Guruņā' as is evident from the words
1. Cf. "A Record of the Buddhist Religion,” by I-tsing translated into English by J. Takakusu. p. xv
"The most important of all the dates given by I-tsing are those of Bhartphari, Jayaditya, and their contemporaries. They serve as a rallying-point for a number of literary men belonging to what I called the 'Renaissance period of Sańskrit literature."
• Ibid pp. LVII and pp. 178-180.
3 See.--I-tsing and Bhartshari's Väkyapadiya ; By Dr. C. Kunhan Raja contributed to the Krishnaswamy Iyengar Memorial Volume. (pp. 285-298).
See the comment of Punyarāja on Kārikā 486 of Kānda II :- A TEHETTIFT Taalal matgru : fafc outufahameg fyri afar I See Ibid II. 489 :
केनचिच्च ब्रह्मरक्षसानीय चन्द्राचार्यवसुरातगुरुप्रभृतीनां दत्त इति। तै: खलु यथावत् व्याकरणस्य स्वरुपं तत उपलभ्य सततं च शिष्याणां व्याख्याय बहुशाखित्वं नीती विस्तरं प्रापित इत्यनुश्रूय
5 cf. II. 4900:- at TSUITERTHYATTE: 1 * Read at the 15th Session of the All India Oriental Conference.
पित इत्यनुश्रूयते ।