Bhattoji Diksita On Sphota

Author(s): Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst

Page 15

BHATTOJI DIKSITA ON SPHOTA
17
the word (or: gem which is the word, sabdakaustubha) from the ocean which is the Bhāsya pronounced by Patañjali" (st. 3cd: phanibhāsitabhāsyābdheh sabdakaustubham uddhare).74 The text follows throughout the division into Ahnikas which characterizes the Mahābhāsya, and closely follows the text of that work. References to the Bhāsya, moreover, often use the future, 76 which only makes sense in a text which presents itself as a commentary on it. It is not surprising that Bal Shastri's edition of the Mahābhāsya with commentaries states, on its title page, that it contains the Mahabhashya of Patanjali ... with the commentaries Bhattoji Deekshita's 'Shabdakaustubh” etc." Baladeva Upādhyāya calls it a commentary on the Astādhyāyī which is also considered a work that critically evaluates the Mahābhāsya. 78
These considerations make it likely that Sesa Nārāyana was acquainted with Bhattoji's Sabdakaustubha. It is remarkable that this author, who regularly cites Kaiyata, never cites Bhattoji." He does however refer to him in other ways. Towards the end of his long discussion of sphota, for example, Sesa Nārāyana attributes to 'someone' certain views in which we recognize without difficulty Bhattoji's points of view. Sesa Nārāyana says here (p. 281.28 - p. 291.2):
tad evam sakhandākhandabhedena padavāk yavyakrisphoraś caturdhā, sakhandayos tayor jātirūpatāpīti dvau jātisphotāv iti şodhā, jātivyaktibhedena varnasphoto 'py apara ity api kaścit. "Someone furthermore (holds] that the padavyaktisphota and the vāk yavyaktisphota, because [both of them) are divided into two:) sakhanda- and akhanda-, are of four kinds, that moreover the two (of these) that are sakhanda- can take the form of a jāti, so that there are two jatisphotas (and one arrives at six kinds, and that there is also a different varnasphota that can be jāti or vyakti.'
The Sanskrit is ambiguous, and it is not impossible that the following translation is to be preferred:
"The padavyaktisphota and the vāk yavyak tisphota are therefore in this way of four kinds, because (both of them) are divided into two:) sakhanda- and akhanda-; the two sof these) that are sakhanda- can moreover take the form of a jāti, so that there are two jātisphotas (and one arrives at six kinds. Someone furthermore (holds] that there is also a varnasphota that can be jāti or vyakti."
Either way, Sesa Nārāyana here clearly enumerates eight kinds of sphota, which can be specified as follows: (i) sakhandapadavyaktisphota, (ii) sakhandavāk yavyaktisphota, (iii) akhandapadavyaktisphota, (iv) akhandavākyavyaktisphota, (v) padajātisphota, (vi) vākyajātisphota, (vii) varnajātisphota, (viii) varnavyaktisphota. He does