51. The Identification of Gosvami Nrsimhashrama

51. The Identification of Gosvami Nrsimhashrama of Dara Shukoh's Sanskrit Letter with Brahmendra Sarasvati of the Kavindra Candrodaya - Between A. D. 1628 & 1658 Dr. C. Kunhan Raja' published in 1940 an interesting Sanskrit letter of Mohamed Dara Shukoh, the son of Shah Jahan and halfbrother of Aurangzeb. The particulars of this letter as given by Dr. Raja may be noted below: " (1) The letter is written to Gosvami Nrsimha Sarasvati as noticed in lines eleven to thirteen of Section (24). (2) It is " " more an address than a letter. " (3) Its MS is in the Adyar Library (No. XI. D. 4) [ Vide p. 2 (b) of Adyar Cata. II, 1928 and MS No. 3111 of R.A.S.B. Cata. IV, as also Kavindracarya Suci, G.O.S. Baroda, No. XVII, preface. See also Ind. Office Cata. VII, (1904) MS No. 3947 on p. 499 and Mitra's Notices X, MS No. 4028]. (4) The MS bears the date Samvat 1805 (1748 A. D.) "mitirasvina sukutrtiyayam samvat 1805 astadasasatottarapancamabde " " This cannot be the date of the letter. It must be the date of transcription or more probably the date given should be Samvat 1705 (1648 A. D.) if it is Dara Shukoh's date. " (5) The letter of Dara Shukoh must have ended with Section (24) iti astaksara mantrapurvaka namaskarah ,, - " 128. The remainder (Sections 25 to 31 ) must be another letter by one d and it men- * Adyar Library Bulletin, Vol. VI, Part 3, pp. 172-177. 1. Vide pp. 87 to 94 of Adyar Library Bulletin, Vol. IV, Pt. 3, October 1940. 2. The text of Dara Shukoh's letter reads "I" (447)

tions a letter from sahajika, who may be sahaji of Tanjore (1684-1711 A. D.) or Shah Jahan (1628- 1658 A. D.) (6) Both the letters are found in the same MS. ,, (7) There is no need to alter the date "Samvat Samvat 1805 as it is reasonable to take it as the date of transcription. I am concerned here with the first of these letters which gives the name of Dara Shukoh and the addressee Nrsimha- srama at the end of Section 24, which reads as follows:- "" ......saccidanandasvarupesu mahayativarabhupesu parikalpitanirvikalpasamadhi- vidhvasta samsaramahasramesu srigosvaminrsimhasramesu prakatitaparamanandasamdoha tatvajnana- durikrtamaha mohasamavagata saptabhumikasamaroha mahammada dara sikoha krta onnamonara- yanayetyastaksaramantrapurvaka namaskarah samti || 24 || " I propose to identify "gosvaminrsimhasrama " with brahmendrasarasvati who was a resident of Benares and a contemporary of Shah Jahan (1628-1658 A. D.). My evidence for the proposed identification is as follows:- (1) There is a cc' dated Saka 1579 ( = A. D. 1657) endorsed by about 75 learned Brahmins of Benares who had assembled to settle the Caste dispute about the a Brahmins. This c of A. D. 1657 contains the following endorsements:- " sammatartho'yam purnendrasarasvatiyateh ' (1) (22) "9 " sammatascartho'yam brahmendrasarasvatyakhyayaternrsimhasramasya | " It is clear from the second endorsement quoted above that there lived at at Benares in A. D. 1657 a Sanyasin called who was more popularly known as "at." brahmendrasarasvati . He was also contemporary of another Sanyasin "qoraat" whose endorse- purnendrasarasvati 1. Vide p. 78 of fc by R. S. Pimputkar, Bombay, 1926, "muktimamdapamtila nirnaya, saka 1579, sana 1657 . " 2. This nrsimhahsrama is different from nrsimhasrama, the Guru of Bhattoji Diksita, who composed works in A. D. 1547 and 1558 (Vide my paper on Bhattoji's date in Annals (Tirupati ), Vol. I, (1940), pp. 117-124.

ment appears first on the above nirnaya patra, which is endorsed by such worthies as gagabhatta, khandadeva etc. ( 2 ) Ramasrama quotes Bhattoji Diksita' in his Durjanaended about mukha-Capetika. Bhattoji's career A. D. 1620. Ramasrama' is, therefore, later than Bhattoji. He is also later than purnendrasarasvati and brahmendra- sarasvati as these persons are mentioned by him in his durjanamukhacapetika ( B.OR. Institute MS No. 139 of 1891-95, folio 2 - purnendra brahmendrasarasvatyadibhih " ) He may have been a junior contemporary of quand brahmendrasarasvati quoted by him as authorities. (3) The Kavindra-Candrodaya, Poona, 1939 (between A. D. 1628 and 1658) contains the following tribute to kavindracarya sarasvati from his contemporary of Benares :P. 29 - " svasti srimatsamastagunaratnakaresu . - - • 30 sarvabhaumaprabhrtisakalamahi- palasamtosavahasakalakalavirajamanesu 4 mahodaramahasayaparamaptasrisarvavidya- nidhanakavindracarya sarasvatiprabhuvaresu 5 || brahmendrasarasvatinam || " P. 2 - srikrsna upadhyaya refers to purnendra and brahmendra in his description of kavindracarya which reads : P. 24 66 - " vikhyatakirtih purnendra brahmendradyabhinanditah | Purnendra and Brahmendra are again mentioned as leaders of the Sanyasins of Benares in the following line in the kavindracandrodaya - brahmendra purnendra yatindravrnda mukhyairasesairabhinandyamanah " We_may_compare the epithet ' yatindravrnda mukhya ' as applied to brahmendrayati here with the epithet " mahayativarabhupa " used by Dara Shukoh in his address to nrsimhasrama . 1. Folio 2 of B.OR. Institute MS No. 139 of 1891-95. diksitaih bhagavatam svikrtam . " 66 bhattoji- 2. One ramasrama composed a work tattvacandrika (Ms No. 2906 des cribed by R. Mitra, Notices, X, Calcutta, 1888 ). He was a pupil of one nrsimhasrama (colophon - " iti paramahamsaparivrajakacarya bhagavannrsimhasramapujyapada- sisya sriramasramaviracita tatvacandrika sampurna | sakabdah 1678 " ) who is earlier than 1756 A. D. Is this nrsimhasrama identical with nrsimhasrama (A.D. 1547, 1558 ) or with nrsimha-ashrama ( alias brahmendrasarasvati ) endorsing a nirnayapatra in A. D. 1657 at muktimamdapa in Benares ? S.I.L.H.29

The foregoing evidence may now be briefly recorded as follows:A. D. 1628-1658- Brahmendra Sarasvati was a pre-eminent Sanyasin of Benares, highly respected by his contemporaries as shown by references to him in the kavindracandodaya ' (Ms of A. D. 1678) a contemporary record of Shah Jahan's time. A.D. 1620-1660- Ramasrama, the author of who was possibly a junior contemporary of brahmendrasarasvati refers to him in this work. A. D. 1628-1658-Dara Shukoh in his address to calls him fa, an expression similar to the expression "yatindravrndamukhyaih " applied to brahmendra in the kavindracandrodaya in which the contact of kavindracarya with Shah Jahan and Dara Shukoh is expressly stated on p. 23 as follows:- " yena sri sahijaham narapatitilakah svasya vasyah krto'bhut | kim cavasyam prapannah punarapi vihitah sahidarasakohah || " A. D. 1657 The fc of A. D. 1657 drawn up at - mandapa in Benares discloses for the first time that brahmendrasarasvati is identical with nrsimhasrama ( " brahmendrasarasvatyakhyayateh nrsimha- sramasya " ). In view of the above contemporary evidence of the Kavindra Candrodaya, the Durajanamukha-Capetika of one Ramasrama, Dara Shukoh's Sanskrit Address and the Nirnayapatra³ drawn up at Muktimandapa in Benares, I am inclined to believe that a- 1. The Calcutta MS of the (Mitra's Notices, II, MS No. 815) is dated A. D. 1678 (Samvat 1734). Vide p. 1 of Intro. by H. D. Sharma and M. M. Patkar to 2. Vide my paper on 66 Bernier and Kavindracarya Sarasvati at the Mughal Court" - Annals (Tirupati ), Vol. I, pt. 4, pp. 1-16. 3. This is a valuable document as it contains the endorsements of about 75 learned men of Benares who lived in the middle of the 17 th century. Though this document is published in the Marathi book"" by R. S. Pimputkar in 1926 I propose to edit it again as an appendix to one of my projected papers with historical notes on the identification of at least some of these learned men. It may be noted here that some of the contributors to Kavindra Candrodaya are signatories to this of A. D. 1657.

a to whom Dara Shukoh sent his Sanskrit address is no other than at referred to in contemporary documents by this popular name. Dr. Hara Datta Sharma and Mr. M. M. Patkar' make the following remarks regarding of the Kavindra Candrodaya :- "51 Brahmendra Sarasvati, pupil of Devendra and the author of the Vedantaparibhasa (CC I, 385 a) and Advaitamrta² (CC II, 88ª).' These remarks need to be examined in the light of the evidence brought forth in this paper. 1. Kavindra.Candrodaya, Poona, 1939, Intro., p. ix. 2. The India Office MS of a indicates writing of the "17 th century" (Vide p. 771 of I. O. Cata., IV, 1894-MS No. 2405).