1. Oldest dated Manuscript of Sayana’s Commentary on the Samaveda

While examining the manuscripts in the Limaye collection' acquired by the B. O. R. Institute, Poona, in 1938, I found in it a Ms of the Samavedarthaprakasa by the celebrated Sayanacarya. It consists of about 235 folios (size-11 in. x 5 in.) and is written on thick country paper, which though old is well preserved. I was particularly interested in this Ms² because of its early date of copying which is recorded on the last folio 235 in the following colophon:- " ' iti srimadrajadhirajaparamesvaravaidikamargapravarttakasrivirabukkabhupalasamrajyadhuramdharena sayanacaryena viracite madhaviye samavedarthaprakase uttara gramthe ekavimsodhyayah || || cha || samvat 1520 varse caitra su 1 ga (gu )rau likhitam | subham bhavata || cha || " * Annals (B. O. R. Institute ), XX, pp. 145-152. 1. This collection was presented to the Institute by Mr. Shambhurao Govind Limaye of Aste (Satara Dist. ). It contains about 450 Mss. An ancestor of Mr. Limaye of the name Sakho Anant Limaye, who flourished between A. D. 1800 and 1840 had a passion for collecting Mss. He was in the employ of Mahadevabhat Patvardhan, the son of Parashurambhau Patvardhan, the renowned ancestor of the Raja of Sangli. He appears to have been a Phadanis or Finance Secretary of Mahadevabhat Patvardhan as he is called in the colophons of some of the Mss in the Limaye collection as "Sakhopant Limay Astekar Phadanis." Vanchesvara alias Kutti Kavi composed his commentary on the Hiranyakesisutra at the desire of Sakhopant Limaye between A. D. 1816 and 1828 (Vide my article on Kutti Kavi, Annals Vol. XX, pp. 9-20). It is remarkable that Sakhopant Limaye maintained his interest in Sanskrit learning in tact inspite of the demolition of the Maratha Empire that was then taking place between 1800 and 1840 A. D. 2. This Ms contains Sayana's commentary on the Uttararci of the Samaveda (21 chapters). The colophons of the several adhyayas will be found on folios 13, 24, 34, 50, 63, 75, 89, 99, 112, 126, 134, 147, 158, 165, 172, 182, 188, 196, 210, 228, 235. The date (Continued on next page) (1)

The above colophon agrees with the colophons in the edition of this work published in the Bibliotheca Indica.' The Mss used for this edition are briefly mentioned by the editor in his Sanskrit Introduction to Vol. V of this Edition. He does not, however, record any dates of the Mss used by him. I have no means of examining the Ms material used for the other editions of this work referred to in the British Museum Catalogue. It appears, however, that the Mss of Sayana's commentary on the Samaveda are not numerous. Aufrecht records about 16 Mss in his Catalogus Catalogorum viz. Part 1, p. 709-I.O. 1283, 3004, 30054 Khn. 2, Ben. 16,17, (Continued from the previous page) of this Ms as found recorded in the colophon quoted above would be equivalent to Thursday, 31 st March 1463 A.D. (Vide Indian Ephemeris, V, p. 128). The tithi and the week day recorded " in the Ms read "su 1 garau " which ought to read " su 11 gurau " as " su 1 " would give us Monday 21 st March 1463, while "99" gives us Thursday, 31 st March 1463. Evidently the writing of "q" for " and " garau " for " gurau is due to scribal error. 11 " 1. Bib. Ind. New Series Vol. I, 1874 ( Calcutta, A. S. B. ) ed. by Satyavrata Samasrami (vide p. 936); Vol. II, (1876); Vol. III. (1876), Vol. IV, (1877); Vol. V (1878). 2. Out of the 4 Mss used by Samasrami one belonged to Pandit Ramasastri of Benares, another belonged to Gaudasvami, the guru of the Editor (at Benares) and the remaining two Mss belonged to the Editor himself. No details of these Mss have been recorded by the Editor. 3. Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit Mss (Supplement for 1906-1928) by L. D. Barnett, London, 1928, pp. 1197-1198. These editions may be briefly indicated here:-(1) 1912-Edn. by Rajakumar Vedatirtha with notes and Bengali Translation. (2) 1919 ed. by Durgadasa Lahiri with Beng. Trans. and notes, (3) 1906 - Reprint of Rev. J. Stevenson's Eng. Tran. of the text pub. at London (1842); (4) 1907 Griffith's Trans. 2 Edn. Benares; (5)-1914 Ed. by V. V. De, Jagatpur, Text, Commentary and Beng. Tran. (6) 1917 - Ed. by Surendranatha and Revatikanta, Text, comm. and Beng. Tran. etc. 4. Vide India Office Mss Catalogue, Part I (Vedic Mss), 1887, p. 16-No. 1283 b is styled as "modern" while Nos. 3004 and 3005 are also modern, being "copied for Bombay Government. "

Brl. 40, Burnell' 11 b, Rice. 62, Peters² 2. 178, W. 1424;³ Part II, p. 283-Ulwar 223, 226. Out of the above Mss I have examined about ten as described in Catalogues and find that no dates for them are recorded in their descriptions. The Berlin Ms. represented by Aufrecht's entry "W. 1424" is dated Saka 1772 = A. D. 1850 and hence has no chronological value. The remaining four Mss viz. Khn. 2. Ben. 16. 17, Brl. 40 and Rice 62 are not available to me and hence I am unable to say if any of them bear any dates. Judging, however, by the paucity of the Mss of Sayana's commentary on the Samaveda and also the paucity of early dates. for these Mss I am inclined to think that the Ms of the Limaye collection bearing the date Samvat 1520 or A. D. 1463 is the oldest dated Ms of the Samavedarthaprakasa of Sayana and as such should be extremely useful to scholars interested in a critical edition of this commentary.5 It would now be useful to record the dates of Mss of Sayana's commentary on the Rgveda. Fortunately my friend Mr. N. S. Sontakke, the Editor of the Poona Edition of the Rgveda has done this work to some extent. He gives us a detailed account of the Mss procured by him for his edition. The following tabular statement will show clearly the chronology of the dated Mss used by Mr. Sontakke :- 1. Vide Burnell's Cata. of Tanjore Mss, Part I, London, 1879, p. 11 b No date recorded. - 2. Report II (1884) by Peterson, p. 178 - No date recorded. This Ms is from the list of Ulwar Mss. 3. Weber's Cata. of Berlin Mss, 1886, p. 16-Ms No. 1424, dated Saka 1772 = A. D. 1850. - 4. Cata. of Ulwar Mss by Peterson, Bombay 1892, p. 9, No. 223 2 copies (No dates recorded). No. 226 (No date recorded, though No. 225, the text of Samavedasamhita, is dated Samvat 1675 = A. D. 1619). 5. Mr. M. M. Patkar of the B. O. R. Institute has prepared a specimen list of variants (Vide Appendix ) as found in this Ms after comparing it with the text of Sayana's commentary on the Samaveda as published in the Bibliotheca Indica edition of 1874-78. From these variants collected by him from this Ms for Chap. I, of Uttararci commentary it appears that they materially differ from those in the Bib Ind. Edition.... 1 6. Rgveda with Sayana's commentary (Vaidika Samshodhan Mandal, Poona, Vol. I, 1933) Introduction, pp. 1-3.

Source of Ms Reference Sam. Saka A. D. Remarks 1. B. O. R. Institute, No. 18 b of (Govt. Mss Library) 1870-71 1609 1553 No. 5 of 1916-18 1739 1817 " No. 18 of 1870-71 1609 1553 2. Oriental Institute, No. 12233 1879 1823 Baroda No. 12232 1879 1823 " No. 12231 1877 1821 " Sanskrit College, nil 1851 1795 Benares ( Ms) Chidambar Dikshit na Ms 1596 1674 of Badli (Dist. Belgaum) nil sa Ms 1606 1684 vide p. 8 Palace Library, Mysore sa Ms 1895 1849 " Sanskrit Introduction It would be seen that the earliest dated Ms of Sayana's commentary on the Rgveda bears the date Samvat 1609=A. D. 1553. These two Mss belong to the B. O. R. Institute (Govt. Mss. Library) and were copied 90 years later than the Ms of Sayana's commentary on the Samaveda in the Limaye collection. The Oriental Institute Baroda, possesses some dated Mss' of Sayana's commentaries in addition to those recorded in the above statement. These are as follows:Commentary on Reference Samvat Saka A. D. Reference Adhanamantra No. 11085 1802 1880 Rgvedasamhita No. 110226 1796 1874 06 1. G. O. S. XXVII, Vol. 1 Vedic Mss (Baroda, 1925), pp. 1-20

Commentary on Reference Sam. Saka A. D, Reference Rgvedasamhita No. 236 1816 1760 Astaka I Aitareyabrahmana KusmandahomaNo. 10989 1795 1873 Adhy. 1-20 No. 11421 1902 1846 mantra Rudra No. 4516 1819 1763 Satapathabrahmana No. 10412 1578 1522 Kanda 11 Do No. 10413 1666 1610 Do Do No. 12071 1586 1530 Kanda 2 Saurasukta No. 2261 1702 1780 From Rv. Do No. 4524 1698 1776 1707 1785 Aitareyopanisadbha- No. 284 syartharatnamala In the above statement the Ms of Sayana's commentary on the Satapathabrahmana (No. 10412) is dated A. D. 1522. This copy was written 59 years later than the copy of Sayana's Samavedarthaprakasa (dated A. D. 1463) in the Limaye collection. I close this note on the oldest dated Ms of the Samavedarthaprakasa with a request to scholars for reporting to me any Mss of Sayana's commentary on the Samaveda or the Rgveda copied earlier than A. D. 1463. APPENDIX' The following specimen list shows the variants of the text of the Samavedaprakasa as found in the Bibliotheca Indica Edition of 1874-78 and the oldest dated Ms of the work in the Limaye collection of the B. O. R. Institute copied in A. D. 1463. 1. Prepared by Mr. M. M. Patkar of the B. O. R. Institute.

Page Line Reading 6 STUDIES IN INDIAN LITERARY HISTORY Bibliotheca Edition Limaye coll. MS of Samvat 1520 = A. D, 1463 Fol. Line Reading -22222227 1 11 adisat 1 3 adidisat 1 stomasadvenotpattisu 1 b 6 stomasabdena jyotistomadisu 3 katamavava tani 1 b 7 katamani tani 2 7 'rupopetah jb 9 'bhedairupetah 2 11 catustrimsat 1 b 11 2 om. trimsat 13 nanvatha ye 2 a 1 nanvadyatha 17 asastrivrdbhantah 2 a 3 'trivrdvatah 21 trimso'bhi0 2 a 5 trimso'pi strotriyam 14 457 45 77 :7 7 7 7 10 asmai abhyasisrayan da vidyutatya ruca atisayadistya 2 b " gavasirah " gavasirah 2 b 22 28 bhavanti stotraih smaryamanah 2 b 8 stotraih preryamano 12 1 rtasya yonim 11 omits yonim adhyaya 1 khanda 2 14 5 anganadigunavisistam tvam 3 b 3 b 26 2 a 8 stotram prathamo'dhyayah 2 b +22 2 b 225 56 asma abhyasrinan adds sukra ujvala before dyutaya dyota- manaya ruca om. atisaya gavasiro bhavanti 15 8 brhadana suviryam 8 51 13 tanno gnimayetyevaitadaheti 3 b 10 16 8 madhurena surasena 4 a 16 14 yadvatra brahacchamsah 4 a 25 17 2 laksanabhiyukto 4 a 6 18 3 sado mama 4 b 1 18 6 tvadartham 46 2 18 6 yamidam 4 D 2 19 6 sutavantah 4 b 7 19 7 abhisutaih 4 b 7 20 12 svargadiksalanapraptau 5 a 4 20 13 sahayabhutau yajnah 58 4 21 2220 15 yuvamabhigacchati 5 a 5 10 somayagena trmpatam 5 b 1 'gunavisistatvam adds amgarasupava before amgirasah putra va etc. brhadane suviryam tanno gamayetyevaitadaheti madhurena susvarasena yadva uru brahacchamsah laksanabhirvagabhiryukto samo mama tadartham madiyamidam sutavantah abhisutaisca •laksanaphalapraptau sahayabhutah yajnah yuvamatigacchati samapanena trmpatam

Bibliotheca Edition Ms of Samvat 1520 = A. D. 1463 Page Line Reading Fol. Line Reading adhyaya 1 khanda 3 23 10 aryah abhigacchantah 5 b ayabhigacchanto 41 7 ca rtasya 6 a 2 tvam rtasya 42 9 annavan san 6 a 8 42 10 datumatigacchasi 6 a 42 11 dhotah 64 43 3 nrbhirghota 68 78 6 prakarsenagaccha 60 80 4 apicyam 66 10 82620 annavane san ? datumabhigacchasi 9 dhautah 10 nrbhiddhata prakarsena gaccha apicyam adhyaya 1 khanda 4 ** 84 84 89 906 svavan " na jatah 78 9 " tvavananyo na jayate 10 tvadasah 7 a 78 10 tvatsadrsah 88 'jaritrnam " avita 7 7 jaritrnam stotrna- mavita 92 92 2222 92 619 ga 7 vajam diptimantam nivasasthanam 84 acchaditam After acchaditam and before punah kidrsam the Ms adds the following:- avarane drstantah | girim na | tavisibhirbala yuktai mem gheravrtam parvatamiva sthitam | 6 vajam 6 diptinam nivasa0 92 10 92 101 102 102 32815 " purumajasam tu ksu ksaye badhasahitah sobhanahanukam somalaksanasyannasya " ga 7 ga purubhojasam 9 86 tu ksu sabde 2 gb 6 8 b 8 adhyaya 1 khanda 5 badhayuktah sahitah sobhanahanum somalaksanannasya hiranyena hatam 106 5 hiranyena hate 9 a 2 115 13 116 7 66 mahi " mahaniyah ga 9 mahi mahan mahaniyah va vrsabhah gb 1 122 10 " "" bharaya 2 b 6 122 11 " indrartham "" pavate vrsah ayam bharaya " gb 6 122 13 132 132 5 apabadha 5 caturthyatha sasthi omitted in the edition 9 b sva BE 167 1 mukhatvena 167 7 ubhayoh indraya indrartham pavate gb 7 caturthyarthe bahulamiti sasthi 9 10ª 4 a anamtara mindrah apabadhadhvam 10ª 4 a 10 b 6 mukhyatvena omits ubhayoh "

Bibliotheca Edition Ms of Samvat 1520 = A. D. 1463 Fol. Line Reading adhyaya 1 khanda 6 Page Line Reading 175 11 176 2 - candasoluka nighata pratisedhah 11 b 2 11 b 176 10 prasamsa 176 13 11 b 11 b 183 11 184 6 purakam vartamane omitted in the edition 12" 2 12" 12 b 1589 chandasolud nighatipratisedhah prasamse after dadyama and before utapi ca the Ms adds the following 66 - sa cagnirvajesu avi- tasmakam raksita bhuva- dbhavatu vrdhe vardhakasca- smakam bhuvadbhavatu | purakah omits vartamane before adhahi adds the following :- he 190 13 varnatvaya girvano garbhirvrnaniyendra 13 R 2 varnavvaya