Jain Journal 1998 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 38

BANERJEE RESEARCH IN SANSKRIT AND JAINA LITERATURE
of the poets. Mallinatha has adduced reasons why he has undertaken a project of explaining the works of the poets. First, he has given his background where he has paraded his learning, so that the readers might have some confidence in the genuineness of his interpretation. In the preamble to his commentary he mentions the subjects he has studied. He says
vāṇīm kāṇabhujim ajīgaṇad avāsāsīcca vāiyāsīkim antas tantram aramsta pannaga-gavi-gumpheṣu cājāgarit/ vācām ākalayad rahasyam akhilam yaścākṣa-pāda-sphurām loke'bhud yad upajñam eva viduṣām saujanya-janyam yaśaḥ//
"Who had measured the words of Kaṇabhuk (i.e. mastered the philosophy of Kaṇāda, viz, the Vaiseṣika sūtras) and reached the end of the words of Vyasa (i.e. the Mahabharata, the Purānas, the Bhāṣyas on Vedanta and Yoga-sūtras) and revelled in the Tantras and had been awake in the collection of the words of the serpent (i.e. the incarnation of the Seṣanaga, Patanjali-the celebrated author of Yogasūtras and the Mahābhāṣya on Pāņini), who had fathomed the whole mystery of the words of Akṣapada (the author of the Nyāya-sūtras, also called Gotama) and with whom began the fame of courteousness among the learned."
Mallinatha was quite aware of the commentators before him, as he says
tathāpi dakṣiṇāvarta-nāthādyāiḥ kṣuṛṇa-vatmasu/ vayam ca Kalidāsoktiṣva vakasam labhemahi//
69
"Nevertheless, we are also entitled to an access to Kalidasa's works following the path marked by Dakṣiṇāvarta, Natha and others."
After that he has stated the reasons for his endeavour :
bhārati Kālidāsasya durvyākhyā-viṣa-mūrchitā/ eṣā sanjivani ṭīkā tām adyojjivayiṣyati//
"Kalidasa's muse lies under a swoon caused by the poison of wrong interpretation. This commentary, the Sanjivani, will revive her now."
At the end he has stated his method of interpretation, in other words, his methodology of interpreting the śāstras :
ihānvaya-mukḥenaiva sarvam vyākhyāyate mayā/. nāmūlam likhyate kiñcin nanapekṣitam ucyate//
"Here everything will be explained by me in accordance with the prose-order. Neither anything unauthorised will be written, nor anything irrelevant will be said."