41. Vishvadarsha and its Commentary Vivarana by Kavikanta Sarasvati

I propose in this paper to record and describe a new Ms of the dharmasastra work, Vishvadarsha and its commentary called the Vivarana by Kavikantasarasvati and also to decide the date of this author on the strength of new evidence discovered by me since (1) the description of Mss of this work by Prof. H. D. Velankar in 1928, (2) the notice of this work by Prof. P. V. Kane in his History of Dharmasastra in 1930 and (3) the publication of a critical edition of the Text of this work by Mr. Tenk she in 1938. In the Introduction to the text of the Visvadarsa' of Kavikantasarasvati published by Mr. S. A. Tenkshe in the Journal of the Bombay University 3 he has made use of seven Mss six of which belong to the University of Bombay and one to the B. B. R. A. Society, Townhall, Bombay. All these Mss have been described I Annals (Tirupati Ori. Institute), Vol. I, pp. 129-139. 1. Vide p. 229 of H. D. Velankar's Cat. of B. B. R. A. S. Mss, Part II. 2. According to Prof. Velankar Kavikantasarasvati flourished towards the close of the 12 th or the beginning of the 13 th century. - 3. Vol. VII (New Series) (Part 2) - Sept. 1938 pp. 65-98. 4. Aufrecht (CC, I, 586) makes the following entry in his Catalogue re. the Visvadarsa: :- visvadarsa dh by Kavikantasarasvati. Divided into acarakanda, vyavaharakanda, prayascittakanda Khn. 80. B. 3. 120 ( and comm.) Oudh 1876, 12, p. 11. Lahore, 1882, 5. Quoted by Hemadri in qc, 2, 112, by Nrsimha in prayogaparijata, by Raghunandana in ekadasitattvam by Kamalakara in nirnaya simdhu . Visvadarsavivarana (jy?) by Adityakavikranta (?) K. 242. (Continued on next page) 255

by Mr. Tenkshe under The Critical Apparatus (pp. 65-70 of Introduction.) The first two of these Mss viz. I-A and II-B belonging to the Bhadkambkar Collection of the University also contain the Commentary written by the author. Mr. Tenkshe states "This Commentary was of immense use to me in fixing up the readings of the Text. Naturally as a rule, I have followed the readings adopted in the Commentary. ,, In view of the importance of the commentary as indicated above it is necessary that the commentary should be edited critically and for this purpose efforts should be made to gather Mss of the Vishvadarsha containing this commentary in addition to the two rare Mss.' in the Bombay University Collection. I propose, (Continued from previous page) Visvadarsoktanaksatravidhana, W. p. 352. fa B. 3, 120. Most likely identical with the Visvadarsa. CC, II, 139" fa dh. by Kavikantasarasvati, Stein 102." CC, III, 123, - "visvadarsa dh. Divided into acarakanda, vyavaharakanda, prayascittakanda ; jnanakanda By Kavikantasarasvati, CS 2, 488. Whether CS, 2, 132 belongs to this work is doubtful. Visvadarsa Pravaranirnayah, CS 2, 476. The Cat. of Oriental Mss, Ujjain (1936) pp. 30-31 records one Ms of the (No. 771-1090) dated Saka 1778=A. D. 1856. The Punjab University Mss Cat. Vol. 1 (1932) p. 101 records one Ms of the work viz. No. 577 ("4"). It may be noted here that the Jammu Ms of the f (Stein 102) is dated Samvat 1641 = A. D. 1585. It contains 19 leaves (leaves 1 and 2 missing). It is older by 140 years than the best Ms used by Mr. Tenk she which is dated A. D. 1720 (MS - IA). 1. A brief descripition of these Mss as given by Mr. Tenkshe may be noted here:I. A-72 folios. Size:-11" x 5", 12 to 13 lines to a page and about 38 letters to a line. Contains first three Kandas with the commentary. As the Ms contains the commentary it has the St. jayati etc., in the beginning. The 1 st Kanda contains 41 stanzas and though it contains the 42 nd St. as in the prepared edition it is (:Continued on next: page)

therefore, to bring to the notice of Mr. Tenk she the following Ms of the commentary which was acquired by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in 1938 :- This Ms belongs to the Limaye Collection' of the Institute. According to the folio numbers the Ms consists of leaves one to ninety-one serially numbered but these numbers are entered apparently by a later hand as the commentary for the first thirty- (Continued from previous page) not marked. The 2 nd Kanda contains all the stanzas in the edition printed. It makes only first 40 stanzas and the 44 th St. followed by an index of the 1 st and 3 rd chapters. This Ms is one of the best Mss used by the editor. It was copied by the scribe R. B. Devasthali in Saka 1642=A. D. 1720. II. B. 101 folios. size:-12" x 4." Each page has 9 lines and each line contains about 44 letters, carefully written. The Ms has 3 Kandas of the Text and Commentary and ends with a short summary of the Acara-kanda. The extent of the Text in the edition may be indicated here:- 1. Sadacara-kanda 2. Vyavahara-kanda 3. Prayascitta-kanda 4. Jnana-kanda 42 stanzas. 45 " 49 ,, 53 ,, 189 stanzas. 1. This collection consists of about 450 Mss which were mainly collected by Sakhopant Anant Limaye Phadnis of Aste (Satara District) between A. D. 1800 and 1840 (vide: Annals of the B. O. R. Institute, Vol. XX, p. 39, footnotes 1 and 2). Sakho Anant was the patron of Vanchesvarayajvan alias Kuttikavi, the author of the Bhattacintamani. His family hailed originally from the village SomeSvara in the Ratnagiri District of the Bombay Presidency. The Limayes are Chitpavan Brahmins of Kapi gotra and belong to the Hiranyakesi-sakha. Kuttikavi composed his commentary on the Hiranyakesisutra (between A. D. 1816 and 1828) by the order of Sakho Anant Limaye who was in the employ of Sardar Mahadevabhatta Patvardhan, the son of the celebrated Parasurambhau, Patvardhan, the ancestor of the present Raja of Sangli (S. M. C.). Parasurambhau was killed in A. D. 1799 in a battle with the then Maharaja of Kolhapur. 8.I.L.H.17

two verses of Kanda I appears to have been lost. Folio No. 1 begins:- nepala kambalasya tu saristaphalaih || asatitantumayasya gaurasarsapasahitaih suddhih gaumutrodakaih iti sarvathanuvartate etc. Text : - reto vinmutramajjasthibhiriha yaduktam ghasitam taijasam tad ... ksepanena 34 asyarthah etc. " Folio 9 contains verse 42 of Kanda I and also its commentary which ends on folio 11 as follows :- " iti srigitarthapravina sribhattacaryadityasutakavikantasarasvatiritavisvadarsa- khyadharmasastravivarane sadacarakamdah prathamah samaptah " Folio 36 - Colophon of Kanda II- vivarane vyavaharakamde dvitiyodhyayah samaptah " iti sri gitarthapravina Folio 64 contains a quotation from smrtyarthasara as follows :- " smrtyarthasarah || ' prarambhadurdhvamasauce vivahah karya eva tu | prarambho varanam yajne samkalpo vratasatrayoh || nandisraddha vivahadau sraddhe palaparikriya | nimantranam va sraddhesu prarambhah syaditi smrteh || " Folio 70 - Colophon of Kanda III- 66 iti gitarthapravina ... vivarane prayascittakandam trtiyam ' " 1. The smrtyarthasara mentioned and quoted by our author in his vivarana is not included in the list of smrtis on which he has based his work. This list as recorded by Prof. Velankar (p. 230 of the Catalogue of the B. B. R. A. S. Mss, Vol. II) is as follows :- " angirah, apastamba, asvalayana, usanah, rsyasrnga, katyayana, kausika, gobhila, gautama, jatukarnya, daksa, devala, narada, paithinasi, paingaya, pracetas, brhaspati, baudhayana, manu, marici, markandeya, yama, yajnavalkya, yogayajnavalkya, laugaksi, vatsa, vasista, visnu, vrddha- vasistha, vyaghrapada, vyasa, sankha, satatapa, sattrimsanmata and harita . "" The Puranas and Nibandhakaras referred to in the Visvadarsa are :- bhavisya, markandeya, vayu, visnu and skanda, dharesvara, bhattacarya, medhatithi, vijnanesvara, visvarupa and sarirakabhasya .

The Fourth Kanda - Commentary begins at the end of folio 70-6 and ends on folio 91-6 covering twenty-one leaves. The beginning of this commentary for the fourth Kanda is as follows :- 66 " sriganesaya namah | srikalikayai namah | sripandurangaya namah || uktam trtiyakande prayascittam hi cittasuddhaya m brahmacaryam vaset | asyarthah " Folio 91 66 The commentary ends as follows:- iti srigitarthapravinavivarane jnanakandascaturthah samaptah | samvat 1892 " (letters indistinct). From the description of the Manuscript recorded above it is clear that the Manuscript contains the commentary Vivarana (by the author) for all the four Kandas, except the commentary on the first thirty-two verses of Kanda I. In particular the commentary on the fourth Kanda is complete' in the Baroda Oriental Research Institute Manuscript while it is absent in the only two Manuscripts of the commentary at the Bombay University which contain commentary for the first three Kandas only. The best Manuscript of the Text with the commentary used by Mr. Tenkshe viz. I-A is dated A.D. 1720 while the Baroda Oriental Research Institute Manuscript containing the fourth Kanda also is dated Samvat 1812 = A.D. 1756 i.e., later by about thirty-six years than the Manuscript I-A of Mr. Tenkshe's edition of the Vishvadarsha. We have, therefore, to record the following dated Manuscripts of the Visvadarsa and its commentary:Source Text =T Commentary Date of Ms =C Portion 1. Bombay University Library (Bhad. Collection.) T C A. D. 1720. Kandas I, II, III. 66 1. Speaking of the incomplete Mss of the Visvadarsa, Prof. Velankar observes:- Two of these Mss contain all the four Kandas while the third contains only three like the Mss noticed at at CC I, p. 586. The fourth Kanda was not usually copied out as it treats of Philosophy rather than Dharma." (Vide p. 229 of Catalogue of B. B. R. A. S. Mss, 1928).

ComText Source. =T mentary Date of Ms =C Portion 2. B. O. R. Institute (Limaye Collection.) 3. Jammu Mss (Stein 10-2.) C A. D. 1756 Kandas I (frag.), II, III, IV. T A. D. 1555 Any scholar interested in the editing of the Visvadarsavivarana would find his work facilitated if he makes use of the three Manuscripts of this commentary now available. He may also profit by the use of the Jammu Manuscript of the Text of the Visvadarsa, not utilized by Mr. Tenkshe in his edition. I now turn to the question of the exact date of the Visvadarsa and its commentary and record below the earlier views of scholars on this question:- ... (1) According to Prof. H. D. Velankar' "Our author alludes to Vijnanesvara, author of the Mitaksara." "The earliest author is Hemadri in Caturvargacintamani, who quotes our author "Visvadarsa was also used in Parisesakhanda, pt. 2, p. 112" the composition of his Kaladarsa by Adityabhatta. Kaladarsa again is quoted in Kalamadhava (See I. O. No. 1655). The manner in which our author refers to Vijnanesvara shows that he was separated from him at least by a hundred years. Our author, therefore, must have flourished towards the close of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth century. d, (2) According to Prof. P. V. Kane,2 our author is "later than 1100 A. D. and earlier than 1200. " " a 1. Cat. of B. B. R. A. S. Mss, 1928, p. 229. Kavikanta was follower of the Advaita School of Vedanta and a pious devotee of Rama and Visvesvara of Benares." He was patronized by a prince called Dhanyaraja, son of Nagarjuna. Prof. Velankar thinks that "Dhanyaraja was very probably a ruling prince of Benares." " 2. History of Dharmasastra, Vol. I ( 1930, B. O.R.I.), pp. 624-5. (Continued on next page)

I shall now record my evidence on the question of Kavikanta's date. In my description of the Baroda Oriental Research Institute Manuscripts of the Visvadarsa with Vivarana I have reproduced an extract from the Vivarana (fol. 64) which consists of two verses from a work c as mentioned by the author. Prof. Kane mentions three different works' of the name I have succeeded in identifying the two verses from the mentioned as such and quoted by Kavikanta. They are with the following verses in sradhira 's smrtyarthasara ' :- " prarambhadurdhvamasauce vivahah karya ( v. 1. kaya ) eva tu | prarambho varanam yajne samkalpo vratasatrayoh (v. 1. yo ) || nandisraddham (ddhau v. 1 ) vivahadau sraddhe pakaparikriya | nimantranam va sraddhe tu ( su v. 1. ) prarambhah syaditi smrtih . GAAIT identical (a: v. 1.) || " It is, therefore, certain that Kavikanta used Sridhara's Smrtyarthasara and no other work of the same name. Now as regards the date of Sridhara, Prof. Kane³ observes as follows:- "the Smrtyarthasara must have been composed between 1150 and 1200 A. D." (Continued from previous page) Prof. Kane states that the visvadarsa is referred to in his smrticandrika by (Mysore ed. p. 164 ). E flourished after A. D. 1150 and before A. D. 1225 (Kane, ibid, p. 346). - 1. Ibid, p. 674, (1) by (C. P. Cat. No. 6733 ), ( 2 ) smrtyarthasara by mukundalala and (3) smrtyarthasara by sridhara ( Section 81 of Prof. Kane's History of Dharmasastra.) 2. Vide p. 17 of Smrtyarthasara of Sridharacarya, Ed. by Vaidya Ranganatha Sastri ( Anandasrama Sans. Series, No. 70 ), Poona, 1912 . The variants in the brackets pointed out by me are more or less scribal errors in the B. O. R. I. Ms. " The date of the 3. History of Dharmasastra, Vol I, p. 337 Smrtyarthasara can be fixed within approximate limits. As it names the Mitaksara, the Kamadhenu, the Kalpataru and Govindaraja it is later than 1150 A. D. The Smrticandrika and Hemadri both quote it as an authority."

In view of the above date assigned by Prof. Kane to the Smrtyarthasara of Sridhara and in view of the fact that Kavikantasarasvati quotes from and mentions this work in his commentary of the self-composed Visvadarsa, I am inclined to hold the view that he flourished between A. D. 1200 and 1230. This view agrees with one of the alternatives suggested by Prof. Velankar that our " If an author belongs to "the beginning of the 13 th Century. author quotes a work composed between A. D. 1150 and 1200 and is quoted by a subsequent author in his work (Caturvargacintamani) "composed between 1260 and 1270 A. D." according to Prof. Kane, the period -1200 to 1230 A. D. assigned for him by me would be considered reasonable. This view also harmonizes with Devanabhatta's reference to the Visvadarsa as pointed out by Prof. Kane. If Devanabhatta flourished between 1150 and 1225 A. D. according to Prof. Kane his reference to the Visvadarsa ( 1200 to 1230 A. D.) may warrant an inference that the author of the Visvadarsa was a senior contemporary of the author of the Smrticandrika. The three views regarding the date of the Visvadarsa and its Vivarana may now be tabulated as follows:Prof. Velankar' sview Prof. Kane's view My view "Close of the 12 th "Later than 1100 "Between 1200 and 1230 A. D. " or the beginning of and earlier than 1200." the 13 th century. P.S. Since the above paper was sent to the press I noticed the following entry about a manuscript of the Visvadarsa with the Vivarana on p. 141 of the Census of Indic Manuscripts in the United States of America and Canada by H. I. Poleman, New Haven, Conn. 1938:- "2833. Visvadarsa with the Commentary. 95 ff. 11. 25. x 5.25. 8-12 lines, UP 1632.". This manuscript is available in the University of Pennsylvania Library (Philadelphia, U. S. A.). It is difficult to say on the basis of the above catalogue entry if the commentary covers up all the four Kandas of the Text of the Vishvadarsha of Kavikanta Sarasvati. Scholars interested in a critical edition of this commentary may inquire of the Librarian of the above Library and elicit the required information.