Bhattoji Diksita On Sphota

Author(s): Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst

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JOHANNES BRONKHORST
29 Kaiyata, I p. 117: vyavahāranit yalayā tu varnapadavāk yasphotānām (nityat vam). jātisphotasya vā. The word nityat vam has been added on the authority of another edition (Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi etc., 1967). Bhattoji was apparently acquainted with a reading: vyavahāranityatā tu varnapadavāk yasphotānām, nityat vam tu jätisphotasya. 30 Bhattoji Dīksita, Sabda kaustubha (ed. Nene et al.) I p. 8 1.32 - p. 91.1: yadā tu avidyaiva jātir iti paksas tadabhiprāyena jātisphotasyäpi vyavahāranit yateti 'aksaram na kşaram vidyāt' ity, asya kaiyatiye pathāntaram. 3 Bhattoji Dīksita, Sabda kaustubha (ed. Nene et al.) I p. 9 1.1-4: 'adyantau takitau' iti sūtre ca bhäsya eva varnasphotapadasphotāvuktau / asat yam eva prakrtipratyayavibhāgam tadartham cāśritya rekhāgavayanyāyena satyasya padasphotasya vyut padanam abhipretam iti tatraiva kaiyatah /. 32 Cp. Kaiyata on P. 1.1.46 (on athavaitayānupūrvyāyain sabdāntaram upadišati), 1 p. 349: ... arthavattām asrityāsat yaprakrtipratyayopadešena satyasya padasya vyut pādanam kriyate, rekhāgavayeneva satyagavayas ya. 33 Bhattoji Dīksita, Sabdakaustubha (ed. Nene et al.) I p. 91.4-6: 'arthavad adhātuh' 'svam rūpam sabdasya' 'raparas tatkālasya' ityādisūtres api spastam idam bhāsyakaiyatādāv ity alam bahunā. 34 Mahā-bh I p. 181 1.19-24 (on P. 1.1.70 vt. 5); Kaiyata on P. 1.1.70, 1 p. 539: 'evam tarhi iti / vyaktisphoto 'tra vivaksitah / sa ca nityah / etac ca 'yenoccăritena' ity atra paspaśāyām vicaritam iti tata eve boddhavyam/. 38 Judging by the summary by G.B. Palsule in the Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies of the Sphotatattvanirūpana which may have been composed by Sesa Krsna (Coward and Kunjunni Raja, 1990: 215 f.), Bhattoji's teacher had not dealt with these eight positions about the sphota either. The text summarized was not available to me. ,50 There are many historical records from the time of Bhattoji (see Sharma, 1938). Most of these do not however concern themselves with Sanskrit scholars; information about them has to be culled from colophons, introductory stanzas, stories that have somehow survived, etc. 37 This is a debated issue. The first reliable census of the population of Benares was published by James Prinsep in the Asiatic Researches in 1832. According to Dalmia, 1997: 94, “Prinsep's figures provide statistical evidence that there were indeed large communities of Brahmans in the city; they constituted 12% of the population, and here again the Maharastrian Brahmans outnumbered the rest. They constituted, in their turn, 30% of the total Brahman population." It is to be kept in mind that Prinsep's census came after a period, during the 18th century, during which Maharashtrians, both Brahmin and Maratha, had been investing heavily in Benares, and grants to Brahmins had greatly increased, especially under the direct patronage of the Peshwa (Gordon, 1993: 146). According to another tradition Bhattoji was of Andhra origin; see e.g. Upadhyāya, 1994: 60. 38 Gode (194la: 322) reports a tradition according to which Bhattoji Dīksita built in Benares a house for himself at Kedār-Ghāta (Sanskrit perhaps Kedāreśvara-Ghatta) and settled there permanently. 39 See note 43, below. 40 Appayya Dīksita is saluted in Bhattoji's Tattvakaustubha; see Mīmāmsaka, sam. 2030: 1: 487. EIP V p. 240 (s.v. Appayya Dīksita) tells the following story: "One of Appayya Dīksita's important pupils was Bhattoji Dīksita, the author of the Siddhāntakaumudī, who came from the north to study Vedānta and Mīmānisa and wrote Sabdakaustubha as a commemoration of his discipleship under Appayya. A story is told that Bhattoji found Appayya living unostentatiously in a village, belying widespread fame and royal patronage." None of the claims in this passage are supported by evidence.