Indian Antiquary Vol 47

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

Page 273

OCTOBER. 1918)
VÅRTTA-THE ANCIENT HINDU ECONOMICS
257
divided among themselves the whole field of human knowledge, and may, from this standpoint, be considered as standing on the same level of importance; but from the other view-point, from which Kautilya looks at them, viz., the creation of conditions that make the pursuit of learning possible, Dandaniti (Polity) is given the first place on account of the peace and order it brings about in the State and thereby makes it possible for the people to pursue the other branches of learning. 17
Epigraphic confirmation of the existence of Vârttà as a branch of learning and its teaching by professors in & college comes from a South Indian Inscription 18 which records that in the Sthângundūru agrahara “ were professors skilled in medicine, in sorcery (or magic), in logic, in the art of distorting people by incantation, in poetry, in the use of weapons, in sacrificing, ..... and in the art of cookery to prepare the meals. While its groves put to shame the groves of Nandana, such was the glory of that great agrahara that all the surrounding country prayed to be taught in the four Vedas, their six vedangás, the three rival divisions of mamamsd, the tarka and other connected sciences, the eighteen great puranas, the making of numerous verses of praise, the art of architecture, the arts of music and dancing, and in the knowledge of all the four divisions of learning which were possessed by the Brahmans of the Sthânagundûru agrahara.” The four divisions of learning mentioned in the passage imply vârtta as one of them, and some of the arts that have already been classed under rartid have also been separately mentioned as being taught in the agrahara. The inscription belongs probably to the 12th century A.D. and testifies to the fact that up to that time at least, vârttà as a branch of learning did not yet become in India the unfamiliar or obsolete subject of later years.
•NOTE.-Some of the important Catalogues of manuscripts have been consulted firsthand instead of through Aufrecht's Catalogus Catalogorum in view of the definitive and descriptive details that such consultation can furnish.
There are chapters in the Puranas and other Sanskrit works like the Vishnudharmottara devoted to various topics of Vartta. As these chapters do not require any special mention, they have been omitted in the Lists.
There are a good many MSS. on minerals and their chemical actions mentioned in Dr. P. C. Roy's History of Hindu Chemistry and Dr. B. N. Seal's Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus. Only those portions, if any, of the MSS. that treat of the processes by which they can be reduced into raw materials for the production of articles of commercial value can come within the scope of Vartta.
It is not possible to discuss the dates of the various works mentioned here. Apart from the difficulty of the task itself, # good many of the works are out of reach and perhaps not available for copying or consultation. It cannot be denied that some of them are of recent composition but even these may be the lineal descendants of the older onek in which latter, however, the treatment of their respective subjecta might be seen in greater freedom from influences which, multiplied by the lapse of time, tend to put it away from its ancient orthodox line. ]
11 Soe Kauf illya, Bk, I, Vidyd-Samuddcia, p. 7. # Sillana at Taldagundy, No. 103 (L. Rice's Mysore Inscriptions, o. 197).