Varahamihira and Bhadrabahu

Author(s): Ajay Mitra Shastri
Publisher: Z_Anandrushi_Abhinandan_Granth_012013.pdf

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Varāhamihira and Bhadrabāhu
61
is met with repeatedly through out the work.62 Secondly, the Cheda-sütras attributable to Bhardrabāhu I and the niryuk tis and the Uvasagga-hara-Pasa of a later Bhadrabāhu are all in Prakrit, and it is reasonable to assume that even if any of these Bhadrabābus really composed a Samhita it should also have been in the same language whereas the extant Bhadrabahu-samhita is in Sanskrit.
Thirdly, Merutunga and Rājasekharasūri represent Bhadrabāhu as a superior rival of Varāhamihira, and we shall not be unjustified in expecting Bhadrabāhu's Samhita, intended to complete with his rival Varāhamihira's Brhatsamhita, 53 to excel the latter work in point of contents and presentation. The case is, however, just the opposite. The Bhadrabahu-samhita Jacks unity of authorship. A majority of chapters begin with a verse stating that the author would delineate such and such a subject.54 No such statement is, however, found at the commencement of some chapters.55 In the introductory portion the author promises to deal with every topic in brief (samasatah) as well as in detail (vyasatahi, 56 but he keeps this promise only in a few cases. 67 Then, at the beginning of the Svapnādhyāya (Ch. xxvi) there is a fresh mangalacarana58 which shows that originally it did not form part of the work and was added to it in later times, probably because the topic is mentioned in the list of contents given in the opening chapter (i. 17). The same is the case with ch. xxx called parisiştādhyāya.58 The chapters are not arranged in a scientific manner. To give only a few instances. No intelligible system is adopted in the delineation of planetary movements (graha-cara) which form the subjectmatter of chapters xv-xxii. The movements of Venus, which receive the most elaborate treatment, claim the first place (ch. xv) and are followed by those of Saturn (ch. xvi). One would naturally expect it to be followed by the treatment of the ramaining planets from Sun to Jupiter in their fixed serial order. But such is not the case, and an arbitrary order is adopted. After Saturn comes Jupiter (ch. xvii) to be followed by Mercury, Mars, Rahu, Ketus, the Sun and the Moon (chs. xviii-xxiii). The case is not very different regarding the arrangement of other chapters.59 In some cases, part of one topic is dealt with in one chapter while another part of the same subject is reserved for treatment in a stanza of a subsequent chapter intervened by a large number of verses. To cite only one example, the quantum of the effects of two of the five kinds of ulka, viz., Tärā and Dhişnya, is described in verse 9 of chapter 2, while that of the three remaining kinds, viz., Asani, Vidyut and Ulkā, is specified in verse 12 of the following chapter. Then, there are numerous repititions not only of ideas but even of words, sometimes in one and the same chapser. Verse 7 of chapter 13 is, for instance, repeated once again after an interval of just sixteen verses (xiii. 23).60 Although minor defects of language, metres and grammar are not uncommon in texts dealing
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