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Author:
There is no doubt about the authorship of Sukti-Ratna-Koşa. The Ms. from Patan clearly ascribes the authorship to Laksmana and that from Khambhata confirms it, in the concluding verses. In the last eight verses, Lakşmaņa has given some information, of course, not satisfactory, about himself. Our author's great grandfather was Sarvadeva, a brahmin belonging to Udicya family. He was prominent among the brahmins and was accomplished in all arts. His son Hamsa was the grandfather of Lakşmaņa. Hamsa's son Atyuttama was Lakşmana's father. The name of his mother was Nyāyinl. She was a very chaste woman. In this verses, the author claims that he collected these verses with a view to make the readers or the listeners smile i. e. brighten them by their strikingness, of course, the verses have several other sentiments besides humour, e.g cerain sections, of the anthology are such as would arouse scorn, compassion etc; as the section on śānta or the one on Virahi or that on 'Virahiņi'. Some other sections are purely descriptive.
Nowhere in the history cf Sanskrit literature, do we find any reference to Lakşmaņa, the son of Hamsa, as the author of Sūkti-Ratna-Koşa. Shri Krishnamachariar (History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 390) has recorded one Laksmana of the eighteenth century as the author of Sūktavali. But he seems to be different from our Lakşmana.
In Subhasitavali (SV) and Saduktikarņāmsta (SKM) verse no 216 is ascribed to Lakşmaņa. Of course, we have no means to ascertain whether he was this Lakşmaņa or other. This anthology pays homage to Jina in the opening verses. The Section on Jinastuti con.prises seven verses. There fore it is quite evident that the compiler is a Jaina by faith, but he follows compilations by non-Jaina authors.
The Text :
The work here presented is an anthology of Sanskrit Saktis compiled by Lakşmaņa. This work by Lakşmaņa is mentioned in P. Peterson's Third Report (A. p. 54) under the name of SūktaSangraha,
This anthology is divided into 68 sections and contains 651 Subhāşitas. The section on Niti is the longest and it comprises 66 verses. The sections on Virahî' and 'Virahini' taken together cover 70 verses, while the sections on 'Nspa' and 'Santa' have 39 verses each. The rest of the sections are rather short.
Out of these 651 suktis, the compiler attributes only the following 20 verses to their authors. Verse 88 is attributed to Vidyāpati, verses 110-112
hort.
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