Nyayakusumanjali

Author(s): Padmaprasad Upadhyay, Dhundiraj Shastri
Publisher: Chaukhamba Sanskrit Series Office

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FOREWORD I congratulate the Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series authorities of Banaras on the publicationo f a new edition of Udayana's Lyava Kusumanjali with five commentaries and sub-commentaries, including those of Vardhamana and Ruchidatta which accompanied its first edition. The text of Kusumanjali consists of a number of mnemonic verses ( karikas ) arranged into five groups and furnished with the author's own commentary in prose. The work has come down to us in two forms, as (i) a complete work ( called Prakarana ) containing both the verses and the authors comentary and (ii) as a smaller hand-book containing the verses only with the prose portion left out. UDAYANA'S language, a faithful reflection of his abstruse ideas, is generally stiff and terse. An illuminating commentary bringing out the implications of each line and the hidden significance of the context is often felt to be a necessity. Vardhamana's commentary, inspite of the great learning displayed in its pages, is not of much help in this respect, as it does not follow Udayana line by line and phrase by phrase. Varadaraja's Bodhani however is more useful from this point of view, as it is a running commentary on the whole work. In view of this fact I had it published more than 35 years ago, from the Government Sanskrit College Banaras, as the first work of the Saraswati thavana Texts Series. Unfortunately the work was incomplete, being based on an old manuscript of the College which did not extend beyond the third chapter. This edition is not now available. The inclusion of Varadaraja's commentary in the present edition is therefore welcome. Now that the last two chapters of Bodhani are also available, itis expected that the publishers