39. Date of the Gunapataka

38. Gunapataka, an unknown Sanskrit work and its Date Before A. D. 1200 # No work of the name Gunapataka has been recorded by Aufrecht in his Catalogus Catalogorum. In the list of Plays recorded by Prof. D. R. Mankad in his Types of Sanskrit Drama' he records a work called "Gunamala" mentioned by Abhinavagupta in his commentary on the Natyasastra but its connection with gunapataka remains doubtful at present. present. I propose, therefore, to record in this paper some references to a work called dcand indicate as far as possible the chronology of these references which may prove the existence of this work for a period of at least 500 years, if not more. Narayana Diksita² in his commentary on the Vasavadatta of I Indian Historical Quarterly, Vol. XVII, pp. 82-86. - 1. Published by Urmi Prakashan Mandir, Karachi, 1936, Apppendix, p. 172 " Abh. 177." On p. 177 of the G. O. S. Edition of the Natyasastra, Vol. I (1926) we find the following quotation from the gunamala in the abhinavabharati commentary :- gunamalayam 'jami harardhatum giyapunnam cisami ' tyadau, tatra sa nrtyati dombika etc." I cannot say if I mentioned by Abhinavagupta is identical with c or otherwise. Prof. Kane also makes no remark against P in his Gleanings from Abhinavabharati [ K. B. Pathak Comm. Vol. (B. O. R. Institute, Poona, 1934), p. 389 ]. In the indices to the Sanskrit Drama by Keith no work of the name gunamala or gunapataka is recorded. In the same manner no reference to these works is found in the Index of Titles given by Prof. M. Dillon, on pp. 145-6 of his edition of the Natakalaksanaratnakosa, Oxford, 1937. Krishnamachariar (Classical Sans. Literature, 1937, p. 548 ) mentions as an upanataka of which gunamala and cudamani are examples. See also p. 820 where he calls II and as "lyrical plays." Keith and Winternitz record no work of the name gunamala or gunapataka . 2. Vide my paper on Narayana Diksita and other commentators of the Vasavadatta ( Annals of B. O. R. Institute, Vol. XXI, pp. 128-144). 239

Subandhu, which is later than about 1250 A. D., mentions and quotes from the gunapataka as follows :Folio 21 of Ms No. 567 of 1891-95 (B. O. R. Institute ). 66 bala syapodasabda tadupari taruni trimsatam ya tadurdhvam praudha syatpamcapamcasadavadhiparato vrddhatameti nari | uktam ca gunapatakayam - va (ba )la tambula va (bha )la phalarasasurasaharasammanaharya muktalamkaraharapramukhavitaranai rajyate yauvanastha | sadbhavaranthagadhodbharatasukhita madhyama ragalubdha mrdva ( dva ) lapaih prahrsta bhavati gata (bha?) ya gauravenatiduram || evambhutanam malatinam yuvatinam mala anadhigataparimalapi anasvaditaratopamardavika- sadeharagadi saurabhapi drsam dvaram vikaratvaddharati | " As a result of my inquiry with some of my friends I have succeeded in locating some more references to gunapataka . They are as follows :Sesa Krsna in his work called the prakrtacandraka mentions gunapataka and quotes a Prakrit verse' from it as follows:- Ms. 2 No. 243 of 1895-98 (B.O.R. Institute, Poona ) Folio 4 b - 88 gunapatakayamapi samsaro kamao kamo nisvahai yuvairaanao jam tammi tena saram bhaniam bahujagurana phudam || " 1. Supplied by Prof. R. D. Laddu of the S. P. College, Poona. 2. There is another MS. of the Prakrta-Candrika at the B. O. R. Institute (No. 255 of 1884-86). This MS is a late copy made at Bombay by Ganesh Parashuram Godbole in Saka 1807 ( = A.D. 1885). The third MS of the work is found in the India Office Library (MS. 945, p. 267 of I. O. Cata., II, 1889 ). Dr. Eggeling describes this MS as fairly written in Devanagari, about A. D. 1550." If this description is correct the MS appears to be a contem porary copy and hence extremely valuable for a critical edition of this text. "

Unlike the Sanskrit quotation from Gunapataka recorded above from Narayana Diksita's commentary on the Vasavadatta we have in the above extract a Prakrit verse from gunapataka . " " It remains to be seen if the work dca was a lyrical play of the type of cc referred to by Abhinavagupta (A. D. 990- 1020 ).1 If the quotation from the ddca from Sesa Krsna's Prakrta-candrika is genuine, it may enable us to infer that Sesa Krsna who fiourished towards the end of the 16 th century 2 had before him. a Ms of the dc or that he had taken this quotation from some other Sanskrit or Prakrit work as an illustration borrowed secondhand. Even if we suppose that the quotation does not form part of the Prakrta-candrika, it must retain its value as we know of no other quotation from ca in Prakrit recorded in a Ms. References to the dc by Narayana Diksita and by Sesa Krsna being somewhat of a later date do not give us any idea about the antiquity of this work. It is, therefore, necessary to see if there is any evidence to suggest or warrant an inference that this work, whatever be its exact nature or contents, is earlier than A.D. 1200. Such evidence is fortunately forthcoming from a commentator on the Malati- 1. P. V. Kane: Sahityadarpana, 1923; Index of authors, p. clx. Aufrecht: CC, I, 117. Sesa Krsna flourished during the reign of Emperor Akbar. 2. 3. While commenting " on navavadhuvisrambhanopayajnata " (Malatimadhava, Act VII, p. 192 of Bhandarkar's edition) Harihara says (p. 82) :- " navavadhuvisrambhanopayastu | bala tambulamala phalarasasurasaharasammanahayetyadi laukikah kanyavarjanopayah " Jagaddhara (p. 292 of Bhandarkar's edn.) who has at times borrowed verbatim says;- " navavadhavisrambhanopayastambuladidanam | yadaha | bala tambulamalaphalarasasurasa- harasammanaharyetyadikah suprasiddha eva | " Ir will be seen from Harihara's quotation given above that he is quoting the stanza" etc." which Narayana Diksita quotes as from a work called gunapataka . How the name gunapataka came to be applied to the work under reference may perhaps be explained by the following referenee to made by Harihara in commenting on the Malatimadhava verse 3 (Act V of Bhand. edn. p. 232). Harihara says:- " tvaya ca malatyamasamanjasam prakramamanena samsara evasarah kartum prakrantah | samsare kim saramiti gunapatakaya prsto muladevah saram nihitapadeti " - (p. 65 of transcript of Harihara's commentary on Malatimadhava). I am indebted to Prof. N. A. Gore for the above references. S.I.L.H. 16

madhava of Bhavabhuti, who is no other than Harihara who composed his commentary during the reign of Arimalladeva, the founder of the Malla dynasty of Nepal. In fact Harihara records the date of composition of his commentary which corresponds to A.D. 1216.' Harihara appears to have flourished between A.D. 1150 and 1225. The suggestion made by me in the foregoing lines to the effect that Gunapataka was a definite work of that title gets further strengthened by the mention of the work by Prthvidhara, the commentator of the Mycchakatika,2 who quotes from it in his commentary on Act IV while explaining the term "for": ganikadarikah [ " ganikadarikah vesyavisesa " iti gunapatakayamuktam ] The approximate chronology of the references to Gunapataka recorded so far is as follows: A.D. 1216 Harihara in his commentary on the Malatimadhava quotes a verse which is quoted by Narayana Diksita as from a work called Gunapataka. Harihara also refers to a female character of the name Gunapataka at one place in his commentary. Between 1250 and 1550 Between 1300 and 1500 c. 1500 pp. } Narayana Diksita mentions and quotes from a work called Gunapataka in his commentary on the Vasavadatta. Jagaddhara copying Harihara, quotes the verse which is already quoted by Harihara as mentioned above. - Prthvidhara, in his commentary on the Mrcchakatika mentions and quotes from the Gunapataka. 1. Vide Descriptive Cata. of Kavya MSS., Vol. VII (1934), 242-243. The date of composition as recorded in MS No. 5299 is Newari Samvat 336 = A. D. 1216, which I take to be the date of composition. Even if this is the date of the copy the date of Harihara lies between A. D. 1150 and 1225 as he quotes from Mammata's Kavyaprakasa (about A. D. 1100 ). 2. Vide p. 103 of Mycchakatika, ed. H. M. Sarma, N. S. Press, Bombay, 1910. Vidusaka": ..." Prthvidhara appears to belong to the end of the 15 th century A. D. I propose to deal with his date in a separate paper.

C. GUNAPATAKA, AN UNKNOWN SANSKRIT WORK 243 1600 Sesa Krsna mentions and quotes from the Gunapataka (a Prakrta verse in his Prakrta-candrika). It will be seen from the above table that a work of the name Gunapataka known to Sanskrit writers from say A. D. 1200 to 1600 i.e. period of 400 years has apparently been lost and consequently not even its name is recorded by Aufrecht in his Catalogus Catalogorum or by other compilers of Catalogues. I shall feel thankful if any close students of Sanskrit literature throw more light on this work viz, the Gunapataka by recording any references. to it found by them during the course of their studies.