Bhattoji Diksita On Sphota

Author(s): Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst

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JOHANNES BRONKHORST
Hindustan (to which) crowds of people flock from the most distant parts for the purpose of instruction ..."93
A particularly valuable source of information is the letter which the French traveler François Bernier wrote to the poet Chapelain in October 1667 and in which he describes, among other things, his visit to Benares which apparently had taken place the year before. Bernier characterizes Benares as the school for all Hindus and compares it to Athens. Brahmins and religious people who dedicate themselves to study go to Benares. However, there are no regular colleges and classes as in Europe, he writes. The teachers are scattered over the city, in their houses, or in the gardens of the suburbs, where they have been accepted by rich merchants. The number of students which each teacher has is small, ranging from four until a maximum of 15 in the case of the most famous ones. These students stay with their teacher for 10 or 12 years. Bernier is not impressed with the diligence of the students, pointing out that they do not torment themselves and eat the khichri which they are provided with by the rich merchants. 94
Bernier's account becomes more personal where he relates that he went to see the chief of the pandits, who lives there. This scholar, he tells us, was so famous for his knowledge that the emperor Shah Jahan granted him a pension of Rs. 2000, both to honor his science and to please the Rajas. Bernier describes the appearance of this famous scholar in some detail, and adds that he had already known him in Delhi. In fact, this chief of pandits had often visited Bernier's boss (whom he calls his Agah, i.e., Daneshmend Khan) in the hope of regaining his pension which Aurangzeb, once he had acceded to the throne, had taken away from him. When Bernier visited him in Benares, the chief of pandits received him warmly, and offered him refreshments in the library of his university along with the six most famous pandits of the city.”
Gode has argued in two publications (1941; 1969) that the chief of pandits known to Bernier must have been a Sanskrit author known by the name Kavīndrācārya Sarasvati." However, Gode's arguments are circumstantial and not totally compelling (as he himself admits). It is also clear that Bernier's expression chef des Pandits is close to the Sanskrit title panditarāja which Jagannātha is reported to have received from the emperor (see above); the title vidyānidhāna “repository of learning' which Kavīndrācārya supposedly received from Shah Jahan does not correspond to this French expression.98 Chronologically both scholars fit. Jagannātha is believed to have