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On the Date of Hargakirti's RMST
Both pathaka and upadhyaya being nothing but synonymous exprog8100s for the "teacher", whose task within the order it is to transmit the sacred texts,12 it stands to reason that Harsakirti's commentary and Virapala's dedication are more or less contemporaneous.
Wbile samvat 1635 (1578/79 A. D), on the one hand, Is thus approxlmately established as the time of composition of the Vyakhyalosa, samvat 1668 (1611/12 A. D), on the other, can be excluded as such with absolute certainty Wo have seen that on his own showing Harşakirti was still a pathaka under Candrakorti Sari when writing the Kalyanamandirastotraţika. Now from a codex in the Sanskrit College, Calcutta, of Jinadatta's Vivekavilasa 18 it appears that as early as samvat 1649 (1592 A, D.) he had already succeeded his teacher in the rule of the Nagapuriya Tapagaccha:
सम्बत् १६४९ वर्षे भाद्रपदमासे कृष्णपक्षे नवम्या तिथौ सोमदिने लिखितोऽयं ग्रन्थः ।।।। श्री + + नागपुरीयतपागच्छादिरागभ० ॥ श्रीश्रीहर्पकीर्तिसूरी आचार्यः श्रीश्री३अमरकीर्तिविजयराज्ये । पंश्रीश्री ३ राजकीर्तिः तत्शिष्यलिखितं मुनिरामकीर्तिः श्रीअहिपुरमध्ये ॥ अकब्बरTI
"In the year gaqvat 1649, in the month of Bhadrapada, in the dark half, on the ninth lunar day, a Monday, this book (was ) copied. Under the triumphal relga of Bhattaraka Śn Sri Sri Harşakırtı Surl, first fordi of the Sri(man) Nagapuriya Tapagaccha, aod Acarya Śn Śrs Śrı Amarakirti,18 (the manuscript16 was) written by a pupil of Pandita Sri Sri Śr Rajakirti Muni Ramakirti, at Sri Abipura 17 Under the relgn of Akabbarale."
This accords with two other testimonies In the colophon to his Dhatutarangint, 19 which-We are told-was written in samvat 1663 (1606/07
12. Cf. H Jacobi in Archiv fuer Religionswissenschaft, vol. 18, Leipzig, 1915, p 270. 13. Soe Hrishikeka Sastri and Nilamani Cakravarttı, 4 Descriptive Catalogue of
Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Library of the Calcutta Sanskrit College, vol. 10, pt. 3, Calcutta, 1909, p 332 The date corresponds to 21 August 1592 A. D (not to 18 September 1592 AD as PK Gode has it in his Studios In Indian
Literary History, vol 1, Bombay, 1953, p 73 sq) 14 Road TEST 15. The next pontiff of the Nágapurlya Tapkgaccha, who commented upon, inter alta,
Kalidasa's Rtusamhára, Ratnabekhara's Chandakoga, and Ratnabekhara'. Samboharattarl. His Rtuyarpapavfttı, styled Vyakhyaleka, is being critically editod by
the present writer, 16. Scll. Teine 17. A synonym of Nägapura. 18. Akbar, Emperor of Delhi from 1556 to 1605 A D. 19. Soo R. G. Bhandarkar, Report on the Search for Sanskr! MSS in the Bombay
Presidency during the Year 1882-83, Bombay, 1884, p 227; Pugyanjayall and A P. Shah, Catalogue of Sanskrit and Prakrit Manuscripts, pt. 2, Ahmedabad. 1965, Appendix, p. 387.
