Note On Class Of Ascetics Called Unmajjaka

Author(s): A Wezler
Publisher: A Wezler

Page 14

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Albrecht WEZLER
As noted already by Böhtlingk", Bāṇabhatta mentions in his Kādambari, viz. in the description of lake Pampā, udavāsatāpasas - who use the flowers of the trees on its banks for paying homage to deities - but it is by no means sure that he himself still knew such vānaprasthas; this may well be just the skilful use of a knowledge acquired from 'classical texts"82.
The reference to still another relevant expression I owe to my friend Oberlies83, viz. to antarudakavāsin as it is used at Arthaśāstra 13.2.16. The whole chapter deals with "Drawing out (the Enemy) by means of Stratagems" (yogavämana), and among these are various allegedly miraculous events that are calculated to persuade a king to stay for seven nights at a particular place outside his fort and thus to offer an opportunity to assassinate him84. The sentence reads:
jațilavyanjanam antarudakaväsinam vā sarvasvetam tatasurungābhūmigrhāpasaranam varuņam nāgarājam vā sattrinah kramabhinitam rājñaḥ kathayeyuḥ //;
it has been translated by R.P. Kangle® thus: "Or, as an agent appearing as an ascetic with matted locks, all white, is staying in water, with the means of getting away to an underground tunnel or chamber under the bank, secret agents should tell the king, after gradually making him believe, that he is Varuņa or the King of Nāgas." This certainly already contains elements of interpretation, but in my view it is acceptable by and large,
79. Smaller Petrograd Dictionary (s.v. udavāsin); cf. also Oberlies, 0.c., 1.c. (see note 32); as for his interpretation of the word, I should like to just note in passing 1) that it could also be a kyt-formation (cf. Wackernagel-Debrunner, Altindische Grammatik, II,2, Göttingen 1954, p. 346 ($ 217 c)) and 2) that the taddhita suffix -in does not in each and every case have the meaning analysed and described by P. Thieme (cf. Kleine Schriften, ed. by G. Buddruss, Wiesbaden 1971, p. 670ff.).
80. The reference given in the smaller P.D. viz. 24.23, I for one could not identify even with the help of the concordances in A.A.M. Scharpe's Bāna's Kadambari, Leuven 1937 (see p. 407 and p. 484) as the NSP-ed. used by him is that published in 1932, and the edition of 1948 (which I have in my own collection) has a different pagination. The expression is found there on p. 49 1. 6 (= p. 23.1 in Peterson's ed., etc., see Scharpé, p. 484).
81. The relevant part of the long sentence reads: ...udavāsitäpasänām devatārcanopayuktakusumabhir ... van arājibhir uparuddhafiram ... pampābhidhānam padmasarah /.
82. In any case the explanation of the commentator Bhānucandra, viz. udavāsinām tatra sthitijuşām (tāpasānām) is not apt to dispel such doubts. What M.R. Kale (see note 63] says in his Sanskrit commentary (udake vastum Silam yesām te udavāsinas te tāpasāś ca, teşām / 'pesamvāsavāhanadhişu ca' (Pān. 6.3.58) ity udādeśah /atra Manuh - apsu vāsas tu hemante kramaso vardhayet tapah' iti /) and in his 'Notes' (p. [42]:"udavāsi - (practising penance by) standing in water; (this is an approved kind of penance during winter). Cf. nināya ... / Kum. V.26"), is clearly different, viz. the outcome of modern scholarship.
83. O.c., 1.c. (see note 32).
84. Cf. H. Scharfe, Untersuchungen zur Staatsrechtslehre des Kausalya, Wiesbaden 1968, p. 206. - On surungā see idem, p. 316f.
85. The Kaufiliya Arthaśāstra, Pt. I, Bombay 1960, p. 259 and Pt. II, Bombay 1963, p. 555.