Bhattoji Diksita On Sphota

Author(s): Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst

Page 27

BHATTOJI DIKSITA ON SPHOTA
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. The Manorama is mentioned in Kaunda Bhatta's Vaiyakaraṇabhūsana, an abbreviation of which is the Vaiyakaranabhūsa nasära; a manuscript of this abbreviation has been preserved which dates from 1650 C.E. (Gode, 1954: 207 f.), another one that dates from 1637 C.E. according to Biswal (1995: 56). A manuscript of the Sabdakaustubha dating from 1633 C. E. has equally been preserved (Gode, 1940: 73).
Deshpande, 1992: 74 contains the remark that Kaunda Bhatta studied grammar under Sesa Krsna. (The same point of view is found in the Hindi introduction to the edition of the Vaiyākaraṇabhūsaņasāra by Prabhākara Miśra, p. (16).) By way of justification Deshpande refers to the introduction to S. D. Joshi's Ph.D. dissertation of 1960 (Harvard University). This dissertation has meanwhile been published (Joshi, 1993, 1995, 1997). I do not find in its introduction any statement to the effect that Kaunda Bhatta studied with Sesa Krsna. Moreover, Joshi (1967: 59) speaks about "Sesakrsna, the teacher of Bhattoji Diksita" in a context where a mention of Kaunda Bhatta would have been appropriate, if indeed Joshi was of the opinion that Sesa Krsna was his teacher. See further note 62, below. 00 Bhattoji's use of the plural to express respect is confirmed by his use of the plural in passages of his Vedabhāsyasāra where he agrees with Madhava the author of the Vedabhāsya, and of the singular where he disagrees with that same author; see Gode, 1941b: 76 n. 2. 61 Bhattoji Dīksita, Praudha Manoramā I p. 1: dhyāyam dhyāyam param brahma, smāram smāram guror girah / siddhantakaumudivyākhyām kurmah praudhamanoramām //. Neither Hari Dīksita's Brhat Sabdaratna nor Nägeśa's Laghu Sabdaratna on this passage give the name of Bhattoji's teacher, but both contain the enigmatic specification that the singular guroh indicates that Bhattoji obtained all his knowledge from one single teacher. 62 See the bibliography under Cakrapāņidatta. Bali, 1976: 15 claims that Vīreśvara himself wrote a Praudha Manoramā Khandana, and supports this with a reference to Yudhisthira Mīmāmsaka's Itihāsa. This is incorrect. Mīmāmsaka (sam. 2030: I: 540541), basing himself on the passage cited in note 43 above, correctly states that Vireśvara's son wrote such a criticism. This son appears to have been Cakrapani or Cakrapānidatta. Sitaram Shastri's introduction to his edition of the Praudha Manoramā (p. (14)) states, on the basis of the two introductory verses it cites from this author's Praudhamanoramākhandana, that Cakrapāņi was Vīreśvara's pupil; this may not exclude that he was his son. (Sitaram Shastri reads vīreśvaragurum sesavamšottamam where the edition available to me has vateśvaram gurum sesavamsottamsam.) See also EIP V p. 223: "We know of no works authored by Sesa Vīreśvara)." If it is true that both Kaunda Bhatta and Hari Diksita refer to this same Vireśvara as the "ornament of the Sesa lineage" (Das, 1990: 326 n. 14), we may have to conclude that Vīreśvara somehow managed to stay out of the conflict opposing his lineage to that of Bhattoji. Alternatively - since Hari Dīksita's presumed reference to Vīreśvara is ambiguous - one may be tempted to think that Kaunda Bhatta's commentaries were composed before the conflict arose. Note that śesabhūsana in one of the introductory verses of the Bhūsana(-sāra) refers to Sesa Krsna according to Prabhākara Miśra (see his edition of the Vaiyakaranabhūsana sāra, pp. (16)-(17), 10). See further my forthcoming article "Bhattoji Dīksita and the revival of the philosophy of grammar."
Cakrapāni also continued Sesa Krsna's tradition by composing a commentary (called Prakriyapradīpa) on the Prakriyākaumudī; see Mimämsaka, sam: 1: 532 and Cakrapāni, Praudhamanoramākhandana p. 16 1.8; p. 18 1.12-13; etc. 63 Part of Jagannatha's Manoramākhandanarūpā Kucamardini ("She who crushes the nipple (of the lovely woman (manorumā)]") has been edited; see the bibliography.