51. Date of Vyavaharanirnaya of Varadaraja

51. Date of Vyavaharanirnaya of Varadaraja - Between 1100 and 1350 A. D. I Rao Bahadur K. V. Rangaswamy Aiyangar in his Preliminary Note to the Edition of the Vyavaharanirnaya² of Varadaraja which is being published by instalments in the Brahma-Vidya states that this digest of Hindu Law is "usually named third among the four digests (Nibandha) recognized by the Courts as forming the special authorities of the South Indian 'school' of Hindu Law. In view of the importance of this work for administrative purposes it has engaged the attention of South Indian scholars and of historians of the Dharmasastra and evidence has been gathered by them with a view to fixing the limits of the date to which the work can be assigned. Rao Bahadur Aiyangar in his elaborate Preliminary Note³ to the Adyar edition of the Varadarajiya records the following dated references to this work :A. D. 1515 Sarasvativilasa quotes from the Varadarajiya. " C. " d, ww - 1612 1600- Nirnayasindhu quotes from the Varadarajiya Smrtimuktaphala also quotes from the Varadarajiya. On the strength of these references Rao Bahadur Aiyangar arrives at the following conclusion with regard to the date of the Vyavaharanirnaya alias Varadarajiya." Mimamsa Prakasa (Poona ), Vol. III, pp. 15-18. 1. Brahmavidya, Adyar, Vol. I, Part 3 (October 1937) p. i. 2. The Adyar Edition is based on eight Mss of the work procured from Madras, Baroda, Mysore and Lahore. Aufrecht records many MSS of this work (Vide Cata. Catalo. I. p. 617; II, 147; III, 129.). The work is often styled Varadarajiya - Abridged under the title Vyavaharadarpana in Telugu characters by V. Parabrahma Shastri and published at Madras in 1851 - Burnell translated the Section on Dayabhaga and published it in 1872 (Mangalore). 3. Brahmavidya (October 1937) p. vi of the Preliminary Note to the Varadarajiya. 4. Ibid. 334

"It is not easy to determine the date of the Vyavaharanirnaya. It is cited by the Sarasvativilasa and so far no quotation from it or reference to it in any work of earlier date has been traced. But it quotes no writer later than Vijnanesvara, the author of the Mitaksara." Rao Bahadur Aiyangar further mentions Prof. P. V. Kane's view about the date of the Varadarajiya as follows:- "Mr. P. V. Kane would place Varadaraja, the author of the Vyavaharanirnaya between A. D. 1450 and 1500.' His grounds are these. It is not referred to in the Madhaviyam and the Smrticandrika which are South Indian digests; and it must, therefore, have been composed after these works. " « Rao Bahadur Aiyangar does not view with favour the argument of silence adopted by Prof. Kane but hopes that within the limits furnished by the citation of Vijnanesvara by Varadaraja and of the Vyavaharanirnaya by Prataparudra² in the Sarasvativilasa (i. e. 1100 to 1500 ), a close approximation may perhaps be reached from an examination of the opinions and the substance of the work itself and the discovery of its relations to other works. The above view-point adopted by Rao Bahadur Aiyangar appears to me to be the correct one especially in matters of chronology, which is the back-bone of history. As however, Rao Bahadur Aiyangar has not given us any closer approximation to Varadaraja's date within the limits of A. D. 1160 to 1500, I propose to do so in this paper on the strength of evidence not hitherto recorded by any Indian or European scholar,³ 1. Vide History of Dharmasastra, I, p. 263, and p. 413 note 1014. 2. Vide my article on the authorship of Sarasvativilasa (Cal. Ori. Journal, Vol. II, p. 233-4.) - 3. Sir Thomas Strange in his Elements of Hindu Law, 1825, II, 189 quotes from the Varadarajiya F. W. Ellis intended to prepare a digest of Hindu Law as followed in Madras and for that purpose he wanted to use the Varadarajiya ( Transactions of the Madras Literary Society I) Rao Bahadur Aiyangar observes (pp. ix-x of Preliminary Note)-" The old opinions of Ellis and Burnell on which the references to the date and provenance of the Vyavaharanirnaya in modern books on Hindu Law and in Judicial pronouncements are based must now be given up. It is a matter for regret that Jolly only - (Continued on next page)

who has dealt with the problem so far Katayavema,' the commentator of the three dramas of Kalidasa was the minister of Kumaragiri, king of Kondavidu. Though Katayavema often speaks of Kumaragiri as his patron he was in fact the brother-in-law of Kumaragiri, being the husband of Mallambika, daughter of Pota Reddy.² Katayavema was a powerful personality and Kumaragiri being aware of his power appointed him as minister and gave him Rajahmundry portion for the help rendered by him in establishing peace and order in his kingdom.' " " 3 It is natural that a minister and literateur of Katayavema's reputation should study and quote from a work like the Varadarajiya which had attained some reputation as a work on Vyavahara in his (Continued from previous page) repeated such unverified statement." (J. D. Mayne - Hindu Law and Usage, 1922, p. 28; J. Jolly Hindu Law and Custom, 1928, p. 86; West and Buhler - Digest of Hindu Law, 1919, p. 51.). The above references have been recorded here from Rao Bahadur Aiyangar's Preliminary Note for the guidance of those who want to go into the question of Varadaraja's date in detail. 1. Vide Madras Triennial Cata. 1910-1913 Vo. I. Part I. pp. 402 ff. Here in describing a Ms of Katayavema's Commentary on the Sakuntala the compilers of the Catalogue observe "Kataya Vemabhupati, son of Katayabhupati by his wife Doddamba, who was the daughter of Vemabhupati. The commentary was named after the author's wife's brother, Kumaragiriraja, who was the son of Annapota, son of the above-said Vemabhupati and under whom the author served as a minister. This king is called Vasantaraja and ruled over Kumaragiri. He is said to have conquered a number of hill-forts whose names are given in a stanza in the extracts. The author belongs to the Reddi caste (Sudra) and appears to have lived about the close of the 14 th and the beginning of the 15 th century. The stanzas giving the author's genealogy given in the extracts below do not seem to be contained in the MSS described in the India Office Library Catalogue and the Tanjore Palace Library Catalogue. dw 2. Vide Pathak Commemoration Volume B. O. R. Institute, 1934 pp. 401 407. Article on Vasantarajiya by N. Venkatarao. 3. Ibid, p. 404.

time. Accordingly we find him in his commentary' on the Vikramorvasiya mentioning this work and quoting from it as follows:- tatha ca uktam varadarajiye rajadharmesu 8 - divasasyastamam bhagam muktva bhagatrayam ca yat | sa kalo vyavaharanam sastradrstah parah smrtah divasamastabhagam krtva prathamabhagamagnihotrartham brahmanatarpanartham ca muktva anantaram bhagatrayam vyavaharakala ' iti 99 If the above passage could be identified in the text of the Vyavaharanirnaya (or Varadarajiya) that is now extant we can definitely say that Katayavema is quoting from the Varadarajiya, the importance of which has been pointed out by Rao Bahadur Rangaswamy Aiyangar and which he is editing by instalments in the Brahmavidya journal. Luckily for us the passage quoted by Katayavema can be found on p. 4 of the portion of the text published in the Brahmavidya Journal ( issue for October 1937 ) and reads as follows:-- 66 ( vyavaharaparikara kandam ) 'divasasyastamam bhagam muktva kalatrayam tu yat sa kalo vyavaharanam sastradrstah parah smrtah 1. divasamastadha krtva prathamamagnihotrartham brahmanatrptyartham ca muktva anantaram bhaga- trayam vyavaharakala iti " (Variants - 1. divasamastabhagam krtva prathamabhagam agnihotrartham brahmanatrptyartham mukkha ka MS ). - 2. dharmam uktva - ca MS ; brahmanasantarpananantaram ca krtva - cha MS ). 1. Vide p. 23 of Vikramorvasiya edited with Katayavema's commentary by Prof. Charudeva Shastri, Lahore, 1929. Besides his commentaries on the three dramas of Kalidasa Katayavema commented on the Amarusataka. A Ms of this commentary is available in the D. A. V. College Library, Lahore. On p. 5 of the edition of the commentary of Katayavema on Vikramorvasiya we his commentary find Katayavema referring to on the Sakuntala "uktam sakuntalavyakhyane | " Katayavema dedicates his commentary to his patron Kumaragiri by calling it Vasantarajiya. Vasantaraja was the popular name of Kumaragiri on account of his love for Vasanta festivals. A merchant by name Avachi Tippaya Setti had the monopoly of supplying all the articles necessary for the Vasanta festivals of Kumaragiri ( Vide p. 57 of Sources of Vijayanagara History, 1919, by S. K. Aiyangar ). " 8.I.L.H. 22

The foregoing extract together with its variants shows the identity of Katayavema's quotation with the passage as found in the extant text of the Varadarajiyam and hence the date of Katayavema gives us a definite limit to the date of the Varadarajiyam, the subject of this paper. Now the date of Katayavema has already been fixed by scholars because it is dependent on and associated with the date of his patron King Kumaragiri alias Vasantaraja. The Reddi King Ana Pota died in A. D. 1366 and his son Kumaragiri, being a minor, the kingdom passed to Ana Vema, who was also known as Dharma Vema. Anavema reigned till 1383 and was succeeded by Kumaragiri, who reigned for a short period. Kumaragiri was a contemporary of Harihararaya of Vizianagar dynasty. Of the three Harihararayas, Harihara II, who ruled from 1377-1404 A. D., seems to be the contemporary of Kumaragiri. Pandit Prabhakar Sastri assigns Kumaragiri a period of nearly nine years from 1391-1400 A. D. while the late Rao Bahadur K. Veeresalingam Pantulu states in his Lives of Poets (Vol. I- revised 1917, p. 430) that Kumaragiri reigned from 1383 to 1400. Dr. N. Venkatarao from whose article we have taken the foregoing information states that Kumaragiri lived between 1305 and 1400 and that he reigned for a period of 7 years. As Kumaragiri's date is confined to the last quarter of the 14 th century and as Katayavema was his minister, we can safely say that Katayavema flourished about 1385 A. D. We have also seen that Katayavema has quoted from the Vyavaharanirnaya and mentioned it by its popular title Varadarajiya. This quotation has further been identified by us in the extant text of the Varadarajiya, thus proving the genuineness of the quotation. It would, therefore, be reasonable to conclude that the Varadarajiya had become an authoritative work in Katyavema's time (i. e. 1385 A. D. ). If this position is accepted we can definitely fix A.D. 1350 as a new later limit for the date of Varadarajiya, the earlier limit being A. D. 1100 as fixed by Rao Bahadur Aiyangar on the strength of the reference to Mitaksara in the Varadarajiya. It will thus be seen that the present paper pushes back the date of the Varadarajiya from A. D. 1500 to about 1350 A. D. a period of about 150 years. The new limits for this date, would, therefore, be 1100 to 1350 A. D. and not 1100 to 1500 as fixed by Rao Bahadur Aiyangar. In view of Katayavema's reference to the Varadarajiya the view of Prof. P. V. Kane about the date of the Varadarajiya becomes untenable. According to this view as stated by Rao Bahadur Aiyangar, Pro. P. V. Kane would place Varadaraja between 1450 and

A. D. for the reason that Varadaraja is not referred to in the Madhaviya and Smrticandrika. Rao Bahadur Aiyangar has already expressed his suspicion about the argument of silence on which Prof. Kane has based his view. The present paper not only fully justifies this attitude of Rao Bahadur Aiyangar but also establishes new limits for the date of Varadaraja viz. A. D. 1100-1350. In the present paper I have relied for the date of Katayavema on the studies of other scholars. It would, however, be useful to conclude this paper by recording some epigraphic references to Katayavema in support of the dates assigned to him already. The inscriptional references to Katayavema and his family as recorded by Mr. Rangacharya in his Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency' are as follows:- (1) A grant of Katayavema of Rajahmundry dated Saka 1333 (= A. D. 1411) Khara, Karttika Paurnami. This grant was made by Katayavema, the minister of Kumaragiri of Kondavidu who received from his master the eastern country of Rajahmundry for his distinguished services. The genealogies of both Kumaragiri and Katayavema are given and the inscription is thus of great value in connecting the two Reddi lines. The object of the grant was the village of Mallavaram (named after his wife Mallambika, who was sister of Kumaragiri). (The genealogies are the same as in Katayavema's commentary on the Sakuntala called Kumaragirirajiyam) See Ep. Ind. Vol. IV, pp. 318-27 where Mr. Ramayya Pantulu edits the inscription. (2) Record³ dated Saka 1332 (= A. D. 1410) containing the gift of a village by Katama-Reddi Vema Reddi. The names of the wives of Katama Reddi viz. Tallasanammangaru and Mallasanammangaru are registered. The record says that Katama had also a son named Kumaragiri, who is called a reincarnation of the earlier Kumaragiri. (3) A record dated Saka 1308 ( = A. D. 1386) containing a gift of gold by the Reddi King Katamareddi Vemireddi for providing 1. A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency by V. Rangacharya in 3 vols. 2. Ibid, Vol. II 1919, pp. 713-714. 3. Ibid, pp. 975-6.

the temple at Simhachalam with garlands for the merit of Katamareddi and his wife Doddasani. (4) A record of the time of Reddi King Virabhadra (of the Rajahmundry branch) by the King who was the son of Allada, son-in-law of Kataya-Vema and husband of Anitalli. The foregoing epigraphic references to Katayavema ranging from A. D. 1386 to A. D. 1411, covering a period of his life in which he attained some power and celebrity, leave no doubt about his date arrived at by other scholars and referred to by me already in this paper. In view of these epigraphic references the later limit of A. D. 1350 fixed by me for the date of the Varadarajiya, which is quoted by Katayavema, stands amply confirmed.