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BHARTRHARI'S VERSES
133
Punyarāja prefaced to the verse.31 Again a Jain writer, Simhasūrigani, who may be assigned to the beginning of the sixth century A. D., in his unpublished work, Nayacakraţikā, a commentary on the Nayacakra of Mallavādin the senior,32 which is not now extant, mentions, twice in his work, Vasurāta the Upadhyāya of Bharthari.33 This confirms the statement of Punyarāja and establishes that Vasurāta was a great grammarian of the day under whom Bharthari studied and that Bhartshari often held views quite different from those of his master.
According to Paramārtha, Vasurāta was a Brahmin and brother-in-law of Balāditya, a pupil of Vasubandhu.34 He was well-versed in grammar. He defeated Vasubandhu, through the intervention of Chandra, another great grammarian. This means that Vasurāta, Chandra, and Vasubandhu should be regarded as contemporaries and Bhartshari, the pupil of Vasurāta, assigned to the fifth century A. D.”
Another piece of evidence of much more importance was discovered by him. In the fifth chapter of Dignāga's Pramāņa-samuccaya, which is devoted to the exposition of the Apoha theory, the following two Kārikās are found :
thigs pa dan ni tshogs pa yi / chu sogs rnams la rjod byed ni / grans dan tshad dan dbyibs rnams la/ Itos pa med par hjug par byed // dbyibs dan kha dog yan lag rnams/ khyad par can la gan hjug pa! de yi yan lag la sgra ni / rab tu hjug la dun asma yi //
(The above-mentioned Tibetan verses have been cited from Mr. Iyengar's article. According to the Sde-dge edition of the Tibetan Buddhist Canons kept by Tōhoku University, Sendai, the sentences run as follows:
:
la lar dnos su rjod par byed de dper na /
grans dan mtshan ñid dan ni dbyibs / Itos pa med par rab tu hjug / chu la sogs pahi thigs pa dan / ḥdus pa la yan rjod par byed //
31 Cf. ibid.: atha kadācit yogato vicārya tatra bhagavatä Vasurătaguruņā mamāyam agamah samjñāya vätsalyāt pranita iti svaracitasya granthasya gurupūrvakam abhidhātum aha.
39 This Mallavādin should be distinguished from another Jain writer of the same name who is the author of Nyāyabinduțippani.
33 Cf. Nayacakrafika, folio 272 a: ... so 'bhijalpo 'bhidheyārthaparigrāhi bāhyac chabdád anya iti Bhartpharyadimatam / Vasuratasya Bhartpharyupadhyāyasya matam tu.... Cf. ibid., folio 277a : ...evam tāvat Bhartpharyādidarśanam uktam / Vasurataḥ Bhartsharer upadhyāyaḥ
34 Cf. “A study of Paramärtha's life of Vasubandhu and the Date of Vasubandhu" by J. Takakusu FRAS, 1905, pp. 33 ff.
