Prologue And Epilogue Verses Of Vacaspati Misra I

Author(s): Ashok Aklujkar
Publisher: Ashok Aklujkar

Page 11

124
Ashok Aklujkar
(20)
(21)
Prologue and Epilogue Verses of Vacaspati-misra!
125
$3.4 If Vācaspati has indeed redeployed the verse, the redeployment could be indicative of a significant feature of his life as a philosopher or of an important development in it. The reflection of reverence in dcărya-koti- ... is unlike any other expression of reverence we find for temporally distant authors in Va. caspati's prologues. It has a tone of humility and submission which is found only in the verse ajñana-timira-famanin etc. that he has written in reference to his guru (and most probably father; cf. $2.1e)". Thus, it is very likely that Man. dana and Samkara touched him in some personal way in addition to the intellectual way in which they engaged his mind. While it does not seem plausible that he knew them through a direct personal encounter, he very much seems to have felt personally close to them, definitely in terms of the views they put forward and probably in terms of the kind of lives they led. It is likely (a) that he had information that they both led extraordinarily dedicated scholarly or spiri. tual lives and (b) that he trusted that information. While this cannot be con vincingly proved, especially in the case of Mandana, Vacaspati's references to Sarnkara with the adjectives vifuddha-vijñāna and karunanidhi, particularly the latter, would be hard to account for unless it is presumed that a very positive image of Sarkara's life had registered itself on Vācaspati's mind. Thus, when Vācaspati transfers to Sarkara's bhāşya the tribute he had written for Man. dana's Vidhi-viveka, he is very probably telling his readers that they should view him as having the same respect for both Mandana and Sankara - as one who, in Advaita, will reconcile the views of both without finding fault with ei. ther". Another possibility which I consider less likely, given Vācaspati's total personality as a writer, is that his re-application of the tribute to Sarkara is to be viewed as a signal to his readers to the effect that a change has taken place in his attitude toward Mandana.
(cf. Thakur 1948, Solomon 1986). Vācaspati was obviously so close and so much indebted to him that he has paid him homage even in the context of a Mi. mänsä work, namely the Nyāya-kanikā. Yet, Vacaspati is silent about him in the prologues of later works, including that of the Nyāya-värttika-titparya-tika, a work in the Nyaya system, although he remembers him once in the body of the work directly and probably many times implicitly as the association of Trilocana with several significant views in Nyaya by Udayana, Jñana-fri-mitra, Ratna-kirti etc. indicates. This situation suggests that Tri-locana was no longer there to receive Vacaspati's expression of gratitude when Vācaspati's later works such as the Tattva-bindu were composed. The death of Tri-locana must have occurred not long after the Nyāya-kanika was composed.
(b) The references to attempts to spoil Vacaspati's good name appear in a proportionately large number of verses: (i) Nyaya-virttikatātparya-ţikā: krurah, kpto 'rjalir ayan, balir esa dattah kdyo mayd. prabaratitra yarbabbilasam / abbyartbaye, vitatha-värmaya-parfu-varşair ma mävili-kurula kirti-nadih pare. sdm // (ii) Bhämati: ... svārtbesu ko matsarah. In addition, we have the following verse, bearing the stamp of Vacaspati's style, at the beginning of the Bhamation the fourth adhyāya: nabbyartbya iba santah svayani pravpttd, na cetare Sakyah / matsara-pitta nibandhanam acikitsyarh arocakar yeşām // Possibly to be added to these passages is the verse spbutábbidbeyd ... in note 2, if it indeed comes from the Tattva-samīkņā as I have conjectured. The number of these statements, as well as the strong tone of two of them, gives the impression that a personal hurt is being expressed and that the author has faced hostile reactions, entirely undeserved in his view, for a considerable period".
(c) Corresponding to the dismissive gesture contained in the last but one "jealousy verse näbbyarthyd... is the expression by Vicaspati of increasing con fidence in the soundness and depth of his own scholarship. This is clearly felt if one reads the first epilogue verse of the Tattva-bindu, then the third epilogue verse of the Nyāya-vārttika-tatparya-tīkā and then the first two epilogue verses of the Bhāmati"
(d) Sankaranarayanan (1985:44-45 fn. 2) informs us that according to Lakşmi-n-simha, author of the Abhoga subcommentary on the Bhamati, the latter work was completed in 40 days. The precise sense of this statement would depend on which activities Lakşmi-nr-sinha included in the meaning of the term vyakhyana that he employs. However, even if he meant that the whole
$3.5 Other interesting features of Vacaspati's scholarly life that a cumulative consideration of his prologue and epilogue verses reveals are these:
(a) Expression of homage to the guru is absent in the post-Nyaya-kanika works. Vācaspati's guru was Tri-locana (S2.le). References collected by schol ars establish that this guru was primarily known for his contribution to Nyaya
17 Note particularly the expression probbapitre
In the Advaita Vedanta tradition, one overall impression of Vacaspati's position is conveyed by the remark odcarpatis tu mandono prsthe suf (Anubhti-sa-rupaciya, Praktärtha-vivarana on Sark na's Brahma-stra-bhagya 3447, According to Subrahmanya Sestri 1955:xxx, Upodghata p. 14). How. ever, Vicaspati does not seem to be an uncritical follower of Mandana (as he probably was not of any other thinker on whom he has commented). For instance, he paris company with Mandana in the Tattva-bindu, probably written not long after he wrote on the Vidhi viveka and the Brahma-siddhi, rejects sphofa-vida and accepts abhihitanvaya-vida. Note also the discussion in Subrahmanya Sastri 1955: xxvili-xxx, Upodghita pp. 13-14 pertaining to differences of views between Sankara and Vācas
" In Lakamf-ng-simha's remack quoted in note 33b, a suggestion of belated appreciation of Vacaspati's scholarship may be implicit, but I do not think one can prove that the suggestion is indeed there.
As discussed above, the other potentially relevant verses either come from works that are not truly independent, or are not epilogue verses in the real sense of the term, or were probably not written by Vacaspati.
pati