________________
106
Ashok Aklajar
Prologue and Epilogue Verses of Vacaspati-mifra!
107
are prepared, the editors will seek answers to some of the questions ! raise, explicitly and implicitly.
$1.2 For the sake of convenience in later discussion, I will take up Vacaspati's verses in the sequence in which Vacaspati is thought to have completed or undertaken his works. First, I will offer observations, mainly text critical in nature, on specific verses. These will be followed by general observations regarding Vacaspati's life as a scholar.
S2.la Nyaya-kanika beginning: parāmrstah klesai katham api na yo jät bhagavan na dharmadharmabbyart, tribbir api dipakair na ca tayoh / parant vacanh tattvam yam adhigamayaty om iti padari Hamasydmo viswanie tam amara-gurinam api gurun //// bhuvana-bhavana-sthema-dhuaritsa-prabandba-vidhāyine bbava-bhayabbide tubbyan bbettre purānietis an api / kesiti-bulavaboksetrajñāmbbab.prabhatjana-candrannas. tapana-vryadity asta märtir namo bhava bibbrate //2/1 ajana-tiwira-Samanin para-damanin waya-marjari rucir prasavitre prabhavitre vidya-tarave namo gurave //3/1 derya-kepti-nivefanam apy avadhátane vaco 'smadadid / ratbyodakam iva ganga-pravdha-patah pavitrayati //4//
match the content of the mangala verse with the content of the work or darśana to follow (cf. $2.44, 2.5a, 2.6a, S2.7a, four out of five cases). The present verse, if at all it is authored by him, would then be appropriate for the beginn ing of his commentary on the Yoga-bhäsya. Its details are reminiscent of the Yoga-sútras 1.24-27: klesa-karma-vipakalayair apardmrstah purusa višesa is varah, tatra niratifayani sarvajna-bijani, sa parvesām api guruh .... and tasya vd. cakah pranavah. It has a partial similarity of content with the mangala verse at present found at the beginning of the Tattva-vaisäradr (52.6a below) and also with the mangala verses and the first epilogue verse of the Patañjala-yoga-Sastra-vivarana ascribed to Samkara (note words in boldface type)': yasmin na stah karma-vipäkau yata astāsts kleša pasmai nálam alangbyd nikbilānām / návacchinnah kāla-drsa yah kalayantyd lokesas tani kaitabba-fatrum [= Vispu) pranamimi // yah sarvavit sarva-vibbati-faktir vibina-doşopabita-kriyd-phala) → so vibita-kriya-phalab?] vifodbhavanta-stbiti-betur išo namo 'stu tasmai gurave guror api // ... orikāro yasya vakta samacarata phalaih karma yasmad aseşan niskarma-klesa-pako gbatayati sakalam yah phalena kriyanām /
/
$2.1b The first verse is unlike most of Vacaspati's other verses in that it praises Vişnu, principally and exclusively. Given the liberal attitude toward various deities expressed in Tattva-bindu verse 1 and Bhimati verse 4, it is not impossible that Vacaspati wrote the verse. However, it seems improbable from the pattern seen in his other verses collected here that he would write such a verse without any reference to Siva or that he would place it ahead of a verse praising Siva.
Secondly, in almost every commentary prologue, Vācaspati has tried to
I leave out the prologue of the Nyaya sücf-nibandha also for the reasons indicated in 53.1-2.
(b) I further confine myself to mangala verses, because the content of the other type of prologue verses in any Sanskrit commentary will be determined by considerations such as who the author of the commentandum is, what the commentator's sources of knowledge or inspiration are, and so on. These non-mangala verses, therefore, will not give us a specific enough pattern suitable for use in authorship issues.
(c) The preceding clarifications leave only verse 2 of the Nyaya kagiklas a possible oddity. While that verse may not contain any clear indications of affinity with the Mimasi, it probably comes as close as a theist author can come in writing a mangala for a text discussing issues in an atheist system. Vacas pati's verse is not unlike Kumkrila's at the beginning of the Slokavintika (
sudden debat iddigw.cukruse / freyab pripti simili mama sordbedrige I in that it to speaks of objects associated with the ritualistic side of Vedic life. Its tenor is also like that of the naar verse of the Abhijina-takuntala, the work of an author to whom the Brahmanical way of life, including its rituals, was very dear.
(d) Rsi putra Paramesvara I wrote two commentaries, Jusadhvanh-karapr (brick and earlier) and Svaditah-karaor longer and later), to the Nyaya-kaniki. Dr. Stem, who has edited the two commenta ries very competently but is yet to publish them, obliged me by providing the following information: In Svaditech-karaol. Paramefvars I fint interprets the second verses connected to Yoga-stra, then adds a sherative explanation according to Nyaya sastra. Finally, he says that the first and second verses praise the two deities in accord with Sruti, Smrti, libise and Purkos.
Some readings in the verses which follow are problematic. I do not pretend to understand the citations fully. I hope that a critical edition being prepared by Mr. Kengo Harimolo will give us intelligible readings.
(b) Dr. Stern has brought another parallel to my attention, the first mangala verse of the Mitakari commentary to Yajñavalkya dharma-Liste dharaddharma tad-pubis trayo'pi blesa para prinde hamme / பாப்பா, thair To Mrilurya to her ten made பாசமா amaruipum |
For the recurrence of verse 4 in the prologue of the Bhimat, see $3.3.4 below. For the absence of an epilogue in the Nyaya-kanika, se note 19 of Aklujkar 1998
Al qualify with commentary here because I wish to leave out the prologues of two noncom mentrial works the Nyky-scfnibandha and the Tattva-bindu. The relationship through thought ele ments or theme of an opening verse with the main text to follow, if perceived, can lead us to examine il such relationships exist in the case of the other works of the same author. If they are found to exist, we may speak of a pattern. But the detected pattern can become a better piece of evidence in deciding thorship if we can establish inclination. It is possible do so if the nature of the text to follow is already set for the prologue author - if he has no freedom with respect to the text which follows. Then we have a wricter ascertainment of the pattern and a good reason to consider it probable that the wuthor likes to meet certain challenges or to sim at achieving subuler results.
