Nav Smarana

Author(s): Vinod Kapashi
Publisher: Vinod Kapashi

Page 93

strongly believe that the Bhaktämara Stotra has 48 verses but the Shvetämbaras have removed four verses from the original text to make it a poem of forty-four verses.
Some Shvetämbaras believe that the four verses not found in the Shvetämbara version were too sacred and they were not meant for ordinary people. Some unknown ächärya had, therefore, hidden the four verses in question to make it a stotra of forty-four verses. However, most Shvetämbaras maintain that they have not removed any verse from the Bhaktämara Stotra but the original one had forty-four verses only. The Digambaras have merely added extra four verses so that the narration of the Pratihärya would look complete.
These are the two main points. If Shvetämbaras have removed four verses from the original text, the first question is:
Why would the Shvetämbaras remove some of the verses? The religious practice is not to remove or deduct anything from the original text. No one would dare do that. The practice is actually the other way round. In a stotra like the Namiuna Stotra. verses have been added to put more weight on certain divine or magical aspects of the stotra. If the Shvetämbaras wanted to remove the four pratihäryas from the Bhaktämara Stotra, they would have done same in case of the Kalyan Mandir Stotra. Whereas the Kalyan Mandir has all the eight pratihäryas in it. The Shvetämbaras would not alter just one poem. For them the Kalyan Mandir is also very important but this one has verses describing all the eight pratihäryas.
If the Shvetämbaras have removed four verses, why have most of the old manuscripts not included these four 'removed' verses? Manuscripts discovered from different areas and written at different times have only the same forty-four verses'.
The Shvetämbaras have said that the 'extra four verses' found in the Digambara version are not uniform everywhere. Some scholars have found the four verses, which are different from those normally seen in today's texts. Which four are the authentic ones, and why are they different?
The Authors of the "Mäntungächärya or Unke Stotra" state that "When the Digambaras saw forty-four verses, they thought it to be more appropriate to add four verses describing the remaining four pratihäryas. Thus four more verses were added. This makes the Bhaktämara Stotra complete with all eight pratihäryas. The effort to make it complete' was made by different people at different times."
Pandit Dhirajläl Shäh in his book the "Bhaktämara Rahasya" states that poets do take liberty in composition. The poet of the Bhaktämara Stotra has mentioned the first four pratihäryas but this means that all eight are automatically assumed'. Even if one is mentioned all eight would have been assumed as present. There was simply no need to compose different verses for each of the pratihäryas.
The Digambaras on the other hand have maintained that the Bhaktämara Stotra did have forty-eight verses describing all eight pratihäryas, but the Shvetämbaras have
See list of manuscripts checked in Part-1 2 Bhaktamara Rahasya Page 48
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