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VASTURÂTNAKOŚA
INTRODUCTION - .., į po I Ratnakośa or Vasturatnakosa -?!
Aufrecht in his Catalogus Catalogrum has several entries referring to Ratnakosa. In the entry on page 490 he describes a ms. thus "Ratnakośa or Vastuvijñānaratnakośa-enumeration of things supposed to exist in a definite number, written by a Jain' author." This description exactly applies to the contents of our work.
There are, however, at least three other kinds of Ratnakośas mentioned by Aufrecht from which this Ratnakośa is to be distinguished. One Ratnakośa is a work of Vaiseşıka philosophy, an'dther is a work 'oh Advaita philosophy bearing the name Advaita-Ratnakosa and there is a third Ratnakośa which is a lexicon. H is is
Ratnakośa literally means a treasure of jewels. In fact it is a short treatise on various subjects which a cultured man was supposed to know in the Indian society of old times. The larger variety of such works is represented by treatises like Yuktikalpataru of Bhoja, Caturvargacintāmaņī of Hemādri and also Abhilaśitārtbacintāmaņīki of Someśvara. Brhatsamhitā of Varāhamıhira though predominently an astronomical work also discusses many miscellaneous topics. . .
Our Ratnakośa consists of two parts. The first part.consists of Sūtras containing the topics with their aggregate numbers, while, the second, Vivarana mentioning each item of the topics by name. The total number of Sūtras in different mss. varies from 100 to 104.
The subject-matter of these topics is mostly secular giving general knowledge about social and political matters If we classify these according to the four Purusārthas, we would find that most of them fall under Artha and Kama; while some are of a general literary nature. Thus, for example the following topics would come under Arthanu suti, siis
त्रीणि भुवनानि, त्रिविधं लोकस्थानं, त्रिविधा भूमिः, सप्तामा राज्यं, पण्णवती राज्ञां गुणाः, पत्रिंशद 375797511 for etc
The following fall under Kāma - in
द्वाविंशति कामिनीना विकारेशितानि, अष्टौ नार्योऽगम्या, दशमि कारणे स्त्रियो विरज्यन्ते, त्रिभिः कारणैः कामिन्य सवध्यन्ते, सप्तविधा कामुकानां सुरतारम्भा , अष्टविघं विदग्धाना' सुरतम् , नवविधं STATA etc
