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A. M. SHASTRI
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work, some manuscripts whereof have come down to us and form the basis of the published editions.49 A cursory examination of the relevant evidence would not be out of context.
In the colophons of its various chapters, the work is variously called Bhadrabāhukaniinitta, Bhadrabāhunimittaśāstra, Bhadrabāhukanaimitta, Bhadrabāhu-viracita-nimittaśāstra, Bhadrabāhu-viracita-Mahānisor nai)mittaśāstra and Bhadrubāhusamhitā. Taken at their face value, these names will lead one to the conclusion that it emanates from Bhadrabāhu which is quite in conformity with the late Jain tradition. But this claim is belied by the internal evidence of the work itself. It begins in the Paurānic fashion and we are told that once upon a time when Bhadrabāhu, the possessor of the knowledge of the twelve Angas, was seated on the Pāņdugiri hill near Rājagļha in Magadha during the reign of king Senajit, he was requested by his pupils to impart in brief the knowledge of astrological phenomena for the benefit of kings, lay followers and particularly asectics. Bhadrabāhu thereupon agreed to explain to them everything both in brief and in detail.50 This statement is vitiated by some grave anachronisms. It is well known that during the time of Bhadrabāhu, well-versed in the twelve Angas, Candragupta Maurya was the ruler of practically the whole of India including Magadha whereas no ruler of Magadha named Senajit is known from any other source.51. Then again, Pāțaliputra, not Rājagpha, was the
49. A Gujarati translation by Pandit Hiralal Hamsaraj was published from Bombay in Vikrama 1959 and the text was published a few years later by the same Pandit from Jamnagar. The text critically edited from four manuscripts and with an enlightening indroduction by Amritlal S. Gopani and a foreword by Muni Jinavijaya was published in the Singhi Jain Series, No. 26, Bombay, 1949. Later, Nemichandra Shastri edited it from two manuscripts with an introduction and Hindi translation (Varanasi, 1959). Gopani's edition contains twenty-six chapters and that of Shastri twentyseven chapters and an additional chapter called Parisişt-adhyāya. Unless otherwise stated, references in the present piper periain to Gopani's edition.
50 Bhadrabāhusarhitā, 1.1-20 ; 11.1-2,
51 Unless, of course, he is ideatified with Sepiya Bimbisāra. Prasenajit of Kosala is out of question.
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