59. Chronology of the Commentators of the Mahabharata

59. New Light on the Chronology of the Commentators of the Mahabharata—A In the list of Mss of the commentaries on the Mahabharata prepared by Dr. V. S. Sukthankar, the Mss of the Vidyasagara's commentary are recorded as follows:- vidyasagara ratnavali (on sabhaparvan ) - Comm. on ma santiparvan ni iodius ratnavali (on bhismaparvan ) - anandapurna munandri - vyakhyanaratnavali ( on anusasanaparvan ) In view of the above Mss of Vidyasagara's or Anandapurna's commentary on the Sabha, Santi, Bhisma and the Anusasana parvans we must thank Prof. Dinesh Chandra Bhattacharya for drawing our attention to a fragment of Vidyasagara's commentary on the recently acquired by the Varendra Research Museum of Rajashahi, Bengal (Ms No. 1898). We are further thankful to the Professor for his close study and analysis of this fragment of 67 folios containing Vidyasagara's commen- jayakaumudi tary on the upto chap. 69 or so. With regard to the date of this fragment we are informed by the Professor that it is "about 150 years old." We are further told by the Professor that. this is "the most extensive commentary ever written on the Maha- ,, bharata" and that and that "the author had an access to almost a bewildering mass of Mahabharata literature and indulges from the very start with learned discussions on textual variations from a large number of texts and commentaries collected from different parts of Eastern India. According to Vidyasagara's computation the Mahabharata contains 1,02,555 verses. Speaking of the chronology of the commentary Prof. Bhattacharya states:-"We would tentatively place the author about 1700 A. D." In this connection I have to draw the attention of my friend to the following papers on Vidyasagara published by Dr. Raghayan and myself:-belosib 127 ya bone sodius lo feil si o alimia at diod 21214 Annals (B. O. R. Institute), Vol. XXV, pages 103-108. -: enoisstio to atall 525 417 L.H.1.8.27

(I) In 1939 I published my paper on "Date of Anandapurna alias Vidyasagara, the commentator of the Mahabharata - Between A. D. 1200 and 1350" in the Bharata Itihasa Mandal Quarterly, Poona, Vol. XX, Part 1, pp. 29-36. I have proved in this paper that Vidyasagara is definitely earlier than A. D. 1400 as we have Mss of his works dated A. D. 1405, 1435 and 1568. (2) Dr. V. Raghavan immediately wrote a paper corroborating my findings and published his paper on "The Date and Works of Anandapurna Vidyasagara" in the Annals of Oriental Research (Madras University), pp. 1-5 of the offprint sent to me. In this paper Dr. Raghavan has pointed out that our author in his Prakriya-manjari states that he wrote it when King Kamadeva, a devotee of Siva, was ruling: " srikamadeve jagatim prasasati srisailakanyapatibhaktidharini | vidyodadhe rusthitametadarat tikamrtam bhusuraharsavardhanam || " King Kamadeva mentioned in this stanza has been identified with Kamadeva, the Kadamba ruler of Goa, whose inscription of Saka 1315 or A. D. 1393 describes him as a devotee of Siva at Gokarna. Dr. Raghavan, therefore, concluded: "We may, therefore, place King Kamadeva and Vidyasagara safely about A. D. 1350." It would thus be seen that Vidyasagara flourished about A. D. 1350 and not" about A. D. 1700" as suggested by Prof. Bhattacharya. Dr. Raghavan's account of Vidyasagara's Works shows clearly the erudition and abilities of this great scholiast. This conclusion is in harmony with the list of authorities quoted by Vidyasagara in the 67 folios of his commentary on the Adiparvan now disclosed to us for the first time by Prof. Bhattacharya. This list is similar to the list of authorities mentioned by Vidyasagara in his Vedantic work Nyaya-Candrika ( Madras Govt. Mss Library MS R No. 2931). I note below in brief for ready reference both these lists of citations:-

MS of Adiparvan Comm. at Rajashahi (1) arjuna, (2) anupadakara ( grammarian ), ( 3 ) upadhyaya ( grammarian ), (4) uvata ( c. 1044 A. D. ), (5) kokata, ( 6 ) ksirasvamin, (7) caturbhuja misra, (8) candrah, ( 9 ) jayamangala ( sakhya tika ), (10) jagaddhara ( Comm. on mahabharata ), ( 11 ) janardana Ibid--, (12) tarapala, - (13) durga ( grammarian ), (14) devabodha, devasvamin, ( 15 ) namanusasana ( Lexicon ), MS of Nyayacandrika at Madras bhusanakara ( bhasarvajna ), (c. 950 A. D.) nyayamuktavali and nyayamuktavalikara vadindra ( author of mahavidyavida- mbana on which vidyasagara has commented - c. 1225 A. D. bauddhadhikara, udayana, kusumanjali, kiranavalikara . nyayamanjari, jayanta, ( 10 th cent. A. D.) nyayalilavati vallabhacarya, (c. 12 th cent. A. D. vasudeva misra (possible commentator of nyayasara ), vyomasivacarya ( comm. on prasasta- pada ), bhavanatha, bhavanaviveka, sphotasiddhi, sphotasiddhikara . salikanatha, kandalikara ( sridhara ) about 991 A. D. ( 16 ) narayana sarvajna, sarvajna, ( 17 ) nirghanta, ( 18 ) nyayatikakrtah, ( 19 ) nyasa, ( 20 ) bhagavrtti, ( 21 ) mandana, ( 22 ) mahavrtti (i.e. kasika ), timirari, ( 23 ) misra ( neither caturbhuja sambhu, nor arjuna ), (24) muni, (25) rasarnava, (26) laksmana ( comm. on maha- bharata ), manamanoharakara, vadivagisvara, tavavirbhavakara, sivaditya ( a. of saptapadarthi ), bhaskariyah,

of Adiparvan Comm. at Rajashahi MS of Nyayacandrika at Madras (27) varnadesana, brhadvarttika of sampradayavid, (28) varnaviveka, vacaspatimisra, (S) ( 29 ) vamanacarya, istasiddhi, ( 30 ) vikramadityakosa Reference to his own gloss on ( 31 ) vidyanidhibhatta (comm. khandana, on mahabharata ), ( 32 ) vimalabodha (comm. on mahabharata ), ( 33 ) visnuhrdaya, ( 34 ) vedabhasya, ( 35 ) vaisampayana ( commentator ), (36) samkaracarya, ( 37 ) samkarabhasya, ( 38 ) sabdarnava (Lexicon ), (39) sarakasvami ( pratisakhya- tikayam ), ( 40 ) sandilya, () ( 41 ) *(8) sabara, ( ( 42 ) sivananda, (4) (43) sarvajna ( harivamsatikayam ), (IS) ( 44 ) sahasanka ( Lexicographer ), ( 45 ) subhuti, (46) srstidhara ( comm. on mahabharata ), ( 47 ) srstidhara common bhasa- vrtti ( bhasatikayam srstih ), FI (24) ( 1)(8)

The foregoing citations In Vidyasagara's works of c. A. D. 1350 are very important for the chronolgy of Sanskrit literature. I am concerned here with the chronology of the commentaries on the Mahabharata mentioned by Vidyasagara in the Adiparvan commentary before us. With reference to these commentaries and their authors I have to observe as follows:- (1) arjuna He may bo (1) be different from a Mbh commentator. in his comm. on Mbh possibly refers to this arjuna " bodho vimalabodho'tra vacaniyo'rjune'rjunah (Vangiya Sahitya Parisat Ms). 1- " (7) caturbhujamisra - This author quotes medini lexicon. I have proved the date of f to lie between c. A. D. 1200 and 1275 in a special paper to be published shortly. As faurum of c. A. D. 1350 quotes we may fix up this commentator between A. D. 1275 and 1350. (10) jagaddhura - There is no commentator on the Mbh of this name in Dr. Sukthankar's list. (11) janardana Do- - (14) devabodha, devasvamin - The earliest commentator on the Mbh possibly before A. D. 1150. His faqat has been edited by Dr. R. N. Dandekar (B. O. R. I. edition) and the has been edited by Dr. S. K. De, in the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Series, Bombay. 1 - (16) narayanasarvajna, sarvajna- also called sarvajnanarayana . He is considered to be identical with his namesake the author of a Comm. on who according to Mm. Prof. Kane flourished between A. D. 1100 and 1300 (vide p. 267 of Sukthankar Memorial Edition Vol. I (1944) edited by P. K. Gode.) This chronology harmonizes with Vidyasagara's reference to in c. A. D. 1350. - (24) This commentator is not found in Sukthankar's list. possibly refers to him in the following line :ash 16 fmi " devo madhumunirvacyo misro vacyascaturbhuje | "mmind RaByLIV vd lo seu obsm asianom was a definite commentator of the Mbh as appears from the expression "fa" used by Vidyasagara. laksmana - (26) Sukthankar's list shows the Mss of the commentary of on and fare Parvans of the Mbh. The comm. is called visamoddharini (on virataparvan ). Q

422 list. STUDIES IN INDIAN LITERARY HISTORY (31) farm - He is not mentioned in Sukthankar's vidyanidhibhatta vimalabodha (32) fa- Sukthankar's list shows his commentary on all the 18 Parvans of the Mbh. I have proved that far is later than A. D. 1150 (vide pp. 394- 397 of Annals B. O. R. I. XVII). Now that Vidyasagara mentions him (c. A. D. 1350) the date of facara may be taken to lie between A. D. 1150 and 1300 or so. vaisampayana - (33) Sukthankar's list shows his commentary on the santiparvan (moksadharma ). vimalabodha refers to this commentator in the following lines :- nighantubhasya nigama niruktani visesatah | vaisampayanatikadi devasvamimatani ca | viksya vyakhya viracita durghatarthaprakasini || " [Vide p. 270 of Sukthankar Memo. Edition, Vol. I (1944)] (46) He is not mentioned in Sukthankar's list of Mss of Mbh commentaries. In his article on the Mbh commentators (Annals, B. O. R. I. Vol. XVII, p. 185) fg is mentioned. Prof. Bhattacharya states that fare mentions another srstidhara and his commentary called bhasavrtti and further points out that "takes the two guys as identical." This identity needs to be investigated. It will be seen from the above notes that all the commentaries on the Mahabharata, numbering about a dozen, mentioned by Vidyasagara are prior to A. D. 1350. It is for the first time that we are able to put a definite limit to the dates of these commentaries on the strength of the Adiparvan-tika fragment so carefully analysed by Prof. Bhattacharya. It is worthwhile analysing Vidyasagara's commentary on the Sabha, Santi, Bhisma and Anusasana parvans referred to by me already in this paper. I hope that the information recorded and discussed by me in this paper will clarify the problem of the chronology of the Mahabharata commentaries to a considerable extent as all the commentaries made use of by Vidyasagara are earlier in point of date than A. D. 1350.