Indian Antiquary Vol 41

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 17

JANUARY, 1912.)
MISCELLANEA
13
The seven Dakshiņi families that swayed the Hindu Society at Benares during the last four hundred years are :
(i) The Sesha family-though they came from the Tailanga country they are to all intents and purposes now Mahârâşbțra Brahmaņas.
(ii) The Dharmadhikari family which appears from the genealogy given by Mandalik to have come to Benares about the same time as the Gadbis.
(iii) The Gadhi or Bhatta family, of which Rameśvara came to Benares in 1522 and about whom and whose family something has been said in the first part of the paper.
(iv) The Bharadvaja family.--The founder of this family was Mahadeva, the son-in-law of Nilakantha Bhatte, son of Sankara Bhatta. He was the author of Dinalari, the commentary on Siddhanta-Muktavali. It is not known when they came to Benares, but since Mahadeva's time they always held a high position among the Pandits of Benares, the last representatives being Mahamahopadhyâya Damodara Sastri of the Benares and Mahamahopadhyâya Govinda Sastri of the Calcutta Sanskrit College.
(v) The Payagunde family, of which Vaidyanatha was the most prominent figure.
(vi) Chaturdhara or Chowdhuri family, which did much in advancing the cause of Hinduim at Benares. Nilakantha Chaturdhara wrote a commentary on the whole of the Mahdbhdrata.
(vii) The Puntamkar family.-Mahadeva of this family wrote a large commentary on Bhavaanda Siddhanta-vågišas, commentary on the Didhiti.
It would be interesting to collect all the Sanskrit works written by different members of these six families for the last four hundred years.
They will be an extensive library-they will show the direction in which Hindu Society moved, And they will also incidentally give us much information about the political history of India from Hindu sources, which is not much available at the present day.
D. R. B.]
MISCELLANEA. THE ORIGIN OF THE BHAKTI SCHOOL. such other atheistic systems setting forth mere
The following is a very brief summary of the moral elevation or righteousness as the goal to lecture delivered by Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar in be attained. The second part was taken up by the July last at the Literary and Philosophical Club, Bhakti or Bhagavata School. We have epiPoona. The views herein expressed have been
graphical evidence of the existence of the school set forth at full length and with all the necessary
during tbe three or four centuries before Christ. vidence in the introductory part of the Vaishnava
The age of inscriptions is determined by the form section of his work on the Bhaktimdirga, which he has recently contributed to the Grundriss der
of the characters in which they are engraved. Indo-Arischen Philologie und Altertumekunde.- The earliest inscriptions known to us are those of
Asoka, who ascended the tbrode about 258 B.C., The ancient Vedic hymns containing prayers to as is determined by the occurrence of the names the different gods were in later times succeeded of five contemporaneous Greek princes. The first by others in which the poets endeavoured to i of the inscriptions indicative of the existence of Grapple with the problems about man, the world, the Bhakti Sohool must have been engraved about und god. Speculation of this kind was continued the beginning of the second century before in the times of the Upanishads and the main Christ. It speaks of a puja stone wall (biladoctrines arrived at concerned the freedom of the prdkara) for the worship of Bhagavat Sariakarhuman heart from passion and the existence of shana and Vasudeva. Another, a few years the supreme Lord of all possessing personality later, mentions the erection of a flagstaff with and of Brahma which was the impersonal essence an image of Garada at the top in honour of of all things. The first part in later times Vasudeva, the god of gods, by Heliodora (Heliodeveloped itself into Buddhism, Jainism, and doros) a resident of Takshasila, an ambassador of
The stone is now in the Victoria Hall, Udaipur. But it was found at Ghosandt, to which place it was Tomoved from Nagarl, where it is believed to have been originally lying (Jour.. Beng. As. Soc., Vollvi, Part I, p. 17 f.).