Bhattoji Diksita On Sphota

Author(s): Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst

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JOHANNES BRONKHORST
different from studying early Sanskrit authors. We know next to nothing about Bharthari and most other Sanskrit authors of his time. About Bhattoji we know a fair amount. If we take the bits of information collected in the secondary literature (all of which I have not been able to verify) we get the following picture. Bhattoji came from the South (perhaps Mahārāstra") and ended up in Benares where he became the student of a well-known grammarian, Sesa Krsna.39 Sesa Krsna was not his only teacher - also Appayya Dīksita 40, Sankara Bhatta and Nộsimhāśrama2 are sometimes stated to have been his teachers -, but Sesa Krsna plays an important role in what follows. Sesa Krsna himself is known for his commentary on Rāmacandra's Prakriyākaumudī, called Prakāśa, and we may assume that Bhattoji was trained by Sesa Krsna in the Prakriyākaumudī. This work was going to be the source of inspiration for his own Siddhāntakaumudī.
However, the relationship between Bhattoji and the descendants of his teacher turned sour after the death of the latter. Many of the details remain obscure, but a variety of facts and sources allow us to get a reasonably clear picture of the situation. They are as follows.
Bhattoji did not only compose the Siddhāntakaumudī, which follows the model of the Prakriyākaumudī and improves upon it, but also a commentary on it, known by the name Praudha Manoramā. In this commentary he criticizes the Prakriyākaumudī as well as the commentary composed by his own teacher, Sesa Krsna.45
Sesa Krsna had not been the first to write a commentary on the Prakriyākaumudī. The grandson of its author, called Vitthala, had composed one called Prasāda. Sesa Krsna often critically refers to this commentary, and calls its author prāc 'the former one'. 44 (Rāmacandra the author of the Prakriyākaumudī is referred to as ācārya, even though Sesa Krsna does not always agree with him.) This word prāc, it appears, often designates preceding authors of similar works. Sesa Krsna's Prakriyāprakāśa therefore refers in this way to the preceding commentator on the Prakriyākaumudī, viz. Vitthala. Bhattoji's Praudha Manoramā uses the term, similarly, to refer to the author of the preceding Prakriyāgrantha, viz. Rāmacandra.45 Bhattoji's Sabdakaustubha, which is a commentary on the Mahābhāsya (see below), uses prāc to refer to the preceding commentator of the Mahābhāsya, viz. Kaiyata. The use of this word is not pejorative, as is shown by the fact that Panditarāja Jagannātha's Kucamardinī, which was composed to defend the Prakriyākaumudī and its commentator Sesa Krsna, refers to the