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INTRODUCTION
XV
the Okeśa Gaccha. From stanza 4 at the commencement of the Ms it appears that Dhanasāra lived under a certain king called Aśvasena, since he pays his homage to that king. From stanza 2 of the colophon it appears that the commentary was written by Dhanasāra in the year 1552 (probably of the Samvat era), corresponding to 1496 A.D.
Ms.C shows many peculiarities regarding the sequence of the various sections in it, the additional stanzas inserted here and there and the commentary on them.All these peculiarities will be discussed later on (pp. lvi-lix) in the section dealing with the manuscript material consulted for the present edition of the VL. One can understand the motive behind the insertion of additional stanzas in the vulgate and even behind the improvisation of a Sanskrit gloss on the same. But one is at a loss to know who was responsible for changing the name of the commentator from Ratnadeva to Dhanasāra with a different age, patronage and spiritual ancestry or what was the motive in doing so. The various peculiarities shown by Ms C (to be discussed in the sequel) are such as to raise a doubt in one's mind regarding the statements made in it about the name, age, patronage and spiritual ancestry of the commentator. The only point in favour of Ms C is that it gene. rally follows the order as given in the ligtak stanzas in respect of those sections which are cominon to the vulgate and the TIETOIT stanzas.
(iv) Extent of the Vajjālagga:
The VL is a compilation of Prākrit stanzas, prepared after the model of Hāla's Gathāsaptaśatī, with this difference that whereas Hāla's Saptaśati is free from the topic-wise arrangement of the stanzas, the VL, as its name shows, is marked by topical arrangement of the stanzas.' It must have originally contained 700 stanzas just like Hāla's Saptaśatī. The last of the Gāhādāra stanzas quoted at the end of Ratnadeva's commentary on st. 8, (p. 5), speaks of the present anthology as FARU, i.e. a collection of 700 stanzas. This means that the author of the Gāhā dāra stanzas had before him only 700 stanzas in the VL. Laber (loc
1. See st. 3 (particularly the word afgm) and st. 4, and the remarks made earlier in the present introduction regarding the significance of the title Vajjālagga (supra pp. ix-x )
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