Notes On Manuscript Transmission Of Vaisesika Sutra And Its Earliest Commentaries

Author(s): Harunaga Issacson
Publisher: Harunaga Issacson

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commentaries, but it is not made completely clear whether also manuscripts containing only the sutrapaṭha were collated. Nor can it be excluded that the manuscripts Thakur referred to included some of the VS together with Śankara Miśra's commentary.
Earlier, in the introduction to his edition of V, Thakur had stated that "[t]he known manuscripts of the Vaiseṣikasūtras are not numerous. They generally represent the Maithila version just mentioned." Here too, Thakur unfortunately gives no information as to the exceptions the existence of which he implies, and once more the possibility cannot perhaps be excluded that Thakur had in mind manuscripts giving the text of the VS together with commentaries (for instance those of Candranada-at the time known of but not published-and Bhaṭṭa Vādīndra) as well as manuscripts of the sutrapāṭha alone.10 In short, Thakur's publications hardly give us any concrete information as to manuscripts which give a sutrapatha alone and differ from the text followed by Sankara Miśra. The hope need not yet be given up that Thakur one day will do so, or even publish the critical edition he had been planning, or else collations of all the manuscripts he has examined, but as the years pass, the chance of this happening becomes ever slimmer.
II
My examination of manuscripts containing the sütrapaṭha without a commentary has confirmed Thakur's remark as to the prevalence of the version commented on by Sankara Miśra, but two manuscripts I have been able to collate have proved highly interesting exceptions. Both contain texts which differ from the known recensions of the VS, as well as being mutually quite different. The publication of a complete 'edition' of these two MSS is envisaged in the near future; this section and the following one aim at briefly introducing them and demonstrating, by means of quotes, their independence from the known commentaries.
The first manuscript I shall deal with is a 'Sammelhandschrift' in the L.D. Institute, Ahmedabad, hereafter designated as A. The first text in the manuscript is that of the Nyāyasutra, without a commentary. This is
This remark is found on p. 11 of the English introduction. The corresponding passage in the Sanskrit bhumikā reads upalabhyamānāḥ sūtramātṛkāst prayaso maithilapāṭhānusärinyaḥ (p. 24).
10In another article we again find the statement that '[o]ld manuscripts of these sutras are rare and those available generally follow the Vaiseṣikasūtropaskära of Sankaramiśra (15th cent. A.D.)' (Thakur 1963b, 78). But here too, no details are given after this general statement.
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