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59
and the other two are unknown; but the name before Bhartṛhari's in
the text is that of Jñanananda, followed by a variant of 470, and five others
that are not found in any Bhartrhari MS. Quite clearly, the compiler did
not know any version of Bhartṛhari familiar to us; he had heard the poot's
name independently of his stanzas. Much the same phenomenon is
observed in the well-known Bengali Sanskrit anthology Saduktikarnāmṛtu
[A. D. 1205]. This assigns to Bhartrhari many stanzas found in the Santiśataka
which generally passes for the work of Silhana or Silhaṇamisra, who himself
seems to have written in Bengal; conversely the SDK. ascribes quite genuine
Bhartrhari ślokas to others.
INTRODUCTION
Wherever Bhartrhari versions have root, the MSS are generally
the commonest secular find. The paucity of MSS north of Rajasthan would
by itself be surprising, while the rest of the evidence justifies the conclusion
that Bhartrhari reached the north-east and the north-west at a very
late period.
The actual mechanism of transmission may also be considered for
a moment. The fact that so many copies exist but none is reported any.
where earlier than the 15th century shows that Bhartrhari has been in
increasing demand for the last four hundred years, copies being read to
pieces. The demand for the parallel and undoubtedly later Amaruśataka,
for example, cannot have been as great because much older MSS of that
work are still to be had. Even the oldest dated MS used for my collations
our Fa [dated 1547, though may be 135 years later if the saka era was
used for samvat] is obviously a compilation involving general use of two
different copies, while lacunae in the exemplar before the scribe are
indicated by a string of dashes, as in many other old MSS of Bhartṛhari.
Copies were (as shown by colophons) often made by dictation. This has certainly
given many false readings. Finally, the work is small enough to be trans-
ported either in memory or as a written copy by an itinerant scholar, no
matter how light he travelled, so that centres like Benares would certainly
give opportunities for comparison (as seen by a second set of variant
numbers for ślokas in SVP 159), inflation, emendation, and contamination.
All of these would also result from the general use of Bhartrhari as a
school text in the period considered, for the scribe or the reader who had
not crammed a few stanzas at least in boyhood would be ignorant indeed.
The comparative scarcity of paper, and memory transmission, are perhaps
responsible for the many extra stanzas indicated on margins, cover folios,
or inserted bodily into the text of
text of MSS belonging to well-marked
versions-quite apart from the changing of individual readings. Copies to
everyone's taste were not forthcoming very easily. As the (rather careless)
scribe of Benares 59-10 says : भमपृष्ठिकटिग्रीवा मूर्धमुष्टीरधोमुखं । कष्टेन लिखितं ग्रंथ
कामं शीर्ण पलाशसंह तिकृतां कंथां वसानो वने कुर्यामम्बुभिरप्ययाचितसुखैः प्राणावबन्धस्थितिम् ।
सामग्लानि सवेपितं सचकितं सान्तर्निदाघज्वरं वक्तुं न त्वहमुत्सहेय कृपणं देहीत्यवद्यं वचः ॥ ३ ॥
-SRB. p. 74. 47.
शिशुत्वं तारुण्यं तद्नु च दधानाः परिणती: सभा: पांशुक्रीडां विषयपरिपाटीनुपगमन् ।
sq-atsì alg: gazqzai goyukai Mafra cazor; *zo¶chen: ghida: 114 11
and the other two are unknown; but the name before Bhartṛhari's in
the text is that of Jñanananda, followed by a variant of 470, and five others
that are not found in any Bhartrhari MS. Quite clearly, the compiler did
not know any version of Bhartṛhari familiar to us; he had heard the poot's
name independently of his stanzas. Much the same phenomenon is
observed in the well-known Bengali Sanskrit anthology Saduktikarnāmṛtu
[A. D. 1205]. This assigns to Bhartrhari many stanzas found in the Santiśataka
which generally passes for the work of Silhana or Silhaṇamisra, who himself
seems to have written in Bengal; conversely the SDK. ascribes quite genuine
Bhartrhari ślokas to others.
INTRODUCTION
Wherever Bhartrhari versions have root, the MSS are generally
the commonest secular find. The paucity of MSS north of Rajasthan would
by itself be surprising, while the rest of the evidence justifies the conclusion
that Bhartrhari reached the north-east and the north-west at a very
late period.
The actual mechanism of transmission may also be considered for
a moment. The fact that so many copies exist but none is reported any.
where earlier than the 15th century shows that Bhartrhari has been in
increasing demand for the last four hundred years, copies being read to
pieces. The demand for the parallel and undoubtedly later Amaruśataka,
for example, cannot have been as great because much older MSS of that
work are still to be had. Even the oldest dated MS used for my collations
our Fa [dated 1547, though may be 135 years later if the saka era was
used for samvat] is obviously a compilation involving general use of two
different copies, while lacunae in the exemplar before the scribe are
indicated by a string of dashes, as in many other old MSS of Bhartṛhari.
Copies were (as shown by colophons) often made by dictation. This has certainly
given many false readings. Finally, the work is small enough to be trans-
ported either in memory or as a written copy by an itinerant scholar, no
matter how light he travelled, so that centres like Benares would certainly
give opportunities for comparison (as seen by a second set of variant
numbers for ślokas in SVP 159), inflation, emendation, and contamination.
All of these would also result from the general use of Bhartrhari as a
school text in the period considered, for the scribe or the reader who had
not crammed a few stanzas at least in boyhood would be ignorant indeed.
The comparative scarcity of paper, and memory transmission, are perhaps
responsible for the many extra stanzas indicated on margins, cover folios,
or inserted bodily into the text of
text of MSS belonging to well-marked
versions-quite apart from the changing of individual readings. Copies to
everyone's taste were not forthcoming very easily. As the (rather careless)
scribe of Benares 59-10 says : भमपृष्ठिकटिग्रीवा मूर्धमुष्टीरधोमुखं । कष्टेन लिखितं ग्रंथ
कामं शीर्ण पलाशसंह तिकृतां कंथां वसानो वने कुर्यामम्बुभिरप्ययाचितसुखैः प्राणावबन्धस्थितिम् ।
सामग्लानि सवेपितं सचकितं सान्तर्निदाघज्वरं वक्तुं न त्वहमुत्सहेय कृपणं देहीत्यवद्यं वचः ॥ ३ ॥
-SRB. p. 74. 47.
शिशुत्वं तारुण्यं तद्नु च दधानाः परिणती: सभा: पांशुक्रीडां विषयपरिपाटीनुपगमन् ।
sq-atsì alg: gazqzai goyukai Mafra cazor; *zo¶chen: ghida: 114 11