Gahakoso Part 2

Author(s): Madhav Vasudev Patvardhan, Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani
Publisher: B L Institute of Indology

Page 12

Introduction
I. General Remarks :
Gābākosa is the name of the version of Hāla's Gāthāsaptašati (Gāhāsatta sai or Saptaśatakam) as presented by Bhuvanapāla (B), a Jaina commentator belonging to a period after that of Kuntaka (author of Vakroktijivita) (11th century A. D. ), whom he quotes frequently in his commentary. The word kosa (=kośa) means an anthology or collection of stanzas unconnected with one another so far as their subject matter is concerned. Visvanātha (Sāhityadarpana, VI, 329-330) defines kośa as a collection of stray stanzas'. Such mutually unconnected stanzas are called muktaka (isolates). If the stanzas are arranged in the form of subject-wise groups, the groups are called Vajja ( = Vrajyā). Jayavallabha, the compiler of Vajjālagga, says that vajjā means paddhati, a particular way of stanza-arrangement in which the stanzas are grouped subjectwise. Several anthologies in Sanskrit are found arranged in the Vrajyā or Paddhati form, e. g, the Subhāṣitāvali of Vallabhadeva, the Sarngadharapaddhati of Sārngadhara, the Subhāșitaratnakośa of Vidyākara, etc. The Nitisataka of Bharthari also is arranged in the paddhati form. The Dhvanyaloka III (p. 323) and the Locana III (p.326) use the word paryayabandha in the sense of vrajyābandha. Hemacandra (Kavyanušāsana Alamkāracüdā mani, p. 466, Bombay edition, 1964) uses the word paryā in the sense of vrajya. The traditional form of the Gathāsaptasari (barring a few exceptions) is not arranged in the vrajyā form. It was Sadhāraṇadeva who subseqnently appears to have given this form to it. (See foot-note 4). The Gā hākosa too is not altogether free from occasional small topic-wise groupings of stanzas.
The Aryāsaptaśati of Govardhana ( 11th century A. D. ) is an anthology of 700 Sanskrit stanzas in the Aryā metre, the stanzas being arranged not in the form of subjectwise groups, but in the order of the Devanāgari alphabet, each group containing stanzas beginning with a prticular letter from a to hand called akaravrajyā, akaravrajyā, ikäravrajya,
(1) 1T: TREFL FUTEFUTFUTTAT : 1 (2) See Abhinavagupta, Locana III, pp. 323, 326, Kashi Sanskrit Series, Varanasi, 1940. (3) See Vajjālagga, st. 4, Prakrit Text Series Edition Ahmedabad, 1969. (4) See Vajjalagga, Introduction, pp. x-xi ; also Sahityadarpaņa, VI. 330, Vștti :
ATH 77 at UT I TETT H autfa: 1 Muktavali is the name of Sadhāranadeva's version of Gathāsaptaśati, in which the stanzas are grouped subject-wise.
This version is not however available in printed form, so far as I know. (5) E. g. Abhisàrikā, st. 18-19; Vindhya, st. 126-128; Sujana, st. 258-260; Kāmabāņa, st.
264-266; Stana, st. 426-428; Nakhapada, st. 434-436; Revā (Narmadā), st. 566-567, Varşā, st. 601-605; Sarad, st. 610-615; Gaja, st. 664-666, etc.