Operation In Search of Sanskrit Manuscripts in Mumbai Circle 1

Author(s): P Piterson
Publisher: Royal Asiatic Society

Page 64

IN THE BOMBAY CIRCLE.
soul to fresh study of the sacred word. With the reading jita, the whole word must be taken as an adjective qualifying. Virabhadra. In either case it is intended to be intimated that the work of which this is the last gâtha is the composition of Virabhadra, who was one of the 14,000 sådhus taught by Mabâvîra himself, the author's name being samasagarbham, hid in a compound word. And we may learn from this, according to the commentator, that each of the sådhas attached to the various Jinas wrote a prakîrņakam, little as they themselves needed any such aids. This manuscript was written in Samvat 1645 = A.D. 1589.
The existence of a commentary on Mahendrasuri's commen tary on Hemachandra's Ane. Hemachandra's Anekarthasamgrah karthasargraha, called Ane. tributed in the opening lines to Hemakärthakairavakarakaumudi.
11. chandra himself, has been known for some time; and my shastri informs me that Dr. Bühler, wha procured a copy in Kashmir,* was disposed to attribute the composition of the commentary, not to Hemachandra himself, but to some unknown pupil of his. My copy of the book, No. 234, shows that Dr. Bühler's inference from internal evidence was justified. The common theory on the subject is of course founded on the first verse
परमात्मानमानम्य निजानेकार्थसंग्रहे।
वक्ष्ये टीकामनेकार्थकैरवाकरकौमुदीम् ।। in which the speaker appears plainly to say that he is about to compose a commentary on his own Anekarthasangraha. This ascription is continued in the colophon ityâchårybemachandrasûrivirachitâyâm anekarthkairavakarakaumudityabhidhânâyâm anekårthasaṁgrabaţikâyâm anekarthasesho 'vyayakáņdah samâptah. But the words that follow set the matter in its true light. I give here the first three verses, which seem to me to be fragrant still of the love and reverence first breathed into them :
श्रीहेमसरिशिष्येण श्रीमन्महेंद्रसूरिणा। भक्तिनिष्ठेन टीकेयं तन्नाम्नैव प्रतिष्ठिता ||
*I have not been able to ascertain whether this copy contains the verses to which I am calling attention. In Dr. Bühler's list the Anekårthakairavakau. mudi is ascribed to Hemachandra; but in the report, which was evidently printed after the List, it is correctly ascribed to a "pupil of Hemachandra," p. 76.