Prologue And Epilogue Verses Of Vacaspati Misra I

Author(s): Ashok Aklujkar
Publisher: Ashok Aklujkar

Page 12

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Ashok Aklujkar
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Prologue and Epilogue Verses of Vacaspati-mifra!
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kind I have suggested very probably exists at the end of the Vākyapadiya or the second kända of the Trikände (Aklujkar 1978). Its existence between the two halves of Bāņa's Kädambark is well-known and beyond doubt. A reconstruction based on its acceptance would also be in agreement with the information in (d), namely that the Bhämatt was completed in a very short time and the memory of its having been completed in a race with time was preserved (see note 41).
text of the Bhämat was composed and finalized in 40 days, I do not see that as an adequate reason to declare his statement as untrustworthy. To write a work like the Bhamatlin 40 days is not easy, but it is not impossible either if one has the prior preparation as a scholar and thinker that Vacaspati had and if one has studied Sarnkara's commentary on the Sariraka-mimasa or Brahma-sūtras for many years as a personal favourite as Vacaspati probably had. Thus, Lakşmi-nrsimha's statement may be thought of as giving us a piece of historical knowledge that was handed down in the Advaita tradition without any significant distortion. Also, the fact that -40 is not a sacred, conventional or "fabled' number increases the probability of the statement's being in accord with historical reality
(e) As in (d), the piece of traditional information contained in note 28a need not be rejected. However, while not ruling out the possibility expressed in Amalānanda's statement, namely that Vacaspati allowed an (extravagant) praise of himself to be included in the Bhämati just to humour his student Sanatana, wish to suggest another possibility. Sanatana might have prepared the final copy of the Bhämati on the fourth adhyāya after Vacaspati's death or incapaci. tation. It is conceivable that Vācaspati finished the final version up to the end of the third adhyāya and finished the semi-final draft (or a draft very close to that stage), including the epilogue verses, of the fourth adhyāya but the respon sibility of putting the text of the fourth adhyāya together for public availability fell upon Sanātana. While carrying out that responsibility, he placed a verse of Vācaspati followed by his own verse at the beginning of the fourth adhyāya as a kind of mark. Väcaspati's verse stated that he (Vacaspati) could not hope to attract to his work those who suffered from an incurable case of arocaka (a disease in which one does not relish what one eats or drinks) caused by jealousy. Sanatana's verse was a eulogy of the teacher. Introduction of a marker of the
$4.1 Summary of results with some further speculation:
Biographical: (a) Vacaspati was a liberal Saiva. The philosopher Tri-locana was not only his teacher but very probably, also father. While Vacaspati's be longing to Mithila or Bihar has not been disproved, one needs to keep an open mind regarding where he was born and lived. He might have spent some time in Karnata(ka), possibly as a scholar highly honoured by Sriman-nega or Nga. He completed the Nyāya-suci-nibandha in vatsara 898 after completing the Nyaya-vārttika-tätparya-tika. He writes about Mandana and Sankara with warmth and knowledge about their personal lives. He seems to have encountered much jealousy. The fourth adhyāya Bhamati is likely to have been given final shape by Santana, a student of his as he completed the whole comm. a few days before his death. (b) Tri-locana probably died within a few years after Vacaspati's Nyāya-kanika was completed. (c) Lakşmi-ne-simha, author of Abhoga subcommentary on Sarkara's Säriraka-mimashsd-bhäsya, seems to have come from an area spreading diagonally from Paithan to Tanjore.
Text-critical: (a) The first mangala verse, parāmsta klesaih... of the Nyaya-kanika is unlikely to have been authored by Vacaspati. It could have come from an ancestor of Parameśvara-I, who lived at Porkulam, Kerala, in the fourteenth century A.D. and to a member of whose family the authorship of the Yoga-Šāstra-vivarana is probably to be attributed; cf. M. Ramakrishna Kavi, 1927, «Literary Gleanings, Journal of Andhra Historical Research Society 2.2:130-145. (b) The first concluding verse of the Tattva-bindu should read pustā våg-buddbio. (c) While moderate scepticism may be maintained about the authenticity of the second concluding verse of the Tattva-bindu, the Tattvakaumudi's concluding verse mandr kumudaniwa... is almost certainly not com. posed by Vacaspati. (d) The possibility that the older name of Vicaspati's commentary on the Yoga-sūtra-bhāsya is Tattva-Sáradr, not Tattva-vaišao, deserves to be explored. (e) In the first epilogue verse of the Bhamati, nayapatba should be corrected to naya-mata and, in the fifth verse, tartha-sdotorartbi-sd". ( The compound karpatika-karnia-rafita in effect means 'statements that do not make sense'.
4 Laksming-simha's perspective in giving the information he has given us is not that of a histo rian. The context in which he makes his remark is created, on the one hand, by his summary of some Sarkans vijay account mentioning a number of miraculous events in Sankara's life and, on the other, by an expression of similare with respect to Vacaspati. However, this need not mean that all the de tails in the remark are to be distrusted.
The details are water api dig-wijab, carwriter and disabfraccharirake-ww. d-bbiye wydby nam, cumbite prakriyankalpanena hil wareneina tregontba karung, wechar dyrna per loka gaman, iyuddin An d roid sail rundpylocritum alokacii.... Here, I do not know what the scumbita prakriyil is and how it is provided how its par kalpana occurs. The last detail wicchandyena para loka gamana "going to another world according to one's own wish could refer to miraculous capability to move to a higher world. But it probably refers to Vicmp's concluding that what he wanted to accomplish in his life had been accomplished and the time to leave for another world had come to Vicaspati's willing his own death. The application of this will could have come about through samadhi or prayopavedana. See $3.5e. Sometimes, however, a person's being able to predict beforehand the time of his death may also be mistaken for sicchandyena maraga or para loka gamana. Stories are occasionally heard about individuals who could ascertain when the course of their life would run out. They are supposed to be able to ascertain thus because their power of mental Concentration enables them to notice subtle changes in the behaviour of their pulse etc.
ASHOK AKLUJKAR