M A GA D H AN L ITERA TU RE

BE ING

A COURSE OF SIX LECTURES

DELIVERED AT PATNA UNIVERSITY

D ECEM BER 1920 A ND A PR IL 1921

MAHAM AHOPADHYAY HARAPRASA D SASI‘RI,MA

,C . I .E

P rofessor of Sansk rit , Dacca Un ivers i ty .

CALCUTTA

PR INTED AT TH E H ARE PRESS AND PUBL I SH EDEY TH E PATNA UNI V ERS I TY

,PATNA

PR INTED BY U P END R A NA TE BH AT ’I ‘A CH A RY Y A ,

H ARE PRESS46 , BECKU CH ATTER J EE STR EE T , CA L CU TTA .

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LECTURE I .

The Orig inal Inhabi tant s of M agadha.

LECTURE II .

PataIiputra— The In tel l ectual Capi tal of Ind ia.

LECTURE III .

H i s tori cal Lessons from the A rthasfistra of

Kautilya.

LECTURE IV .

Vatsyfiyana Kamasfi tra.

LECTURE V .

Vatsyayana t’

i sya .

LECTURE VI .

Banabhatta and Aryabhatta.

MAGADHAN LITERATURE .

Lecture I .

Original I nhabi tants of Magadha.

The vast te rri tory to the Sou th o f the Ganges andNorth o f the Vindhya ranges ex tend ing from M udgag iri

( M onghyr ) in the Eas t to the Charanadri ( Ch una r ) in

the West i s cal led M agadha. The trac t ly i ng be tween

lx'

armanasa and Chunar , howe ve r , i s often j o ined to Kasf

on the opposi te s i de o f the ri ve r .

The w ord Kikata occurs once only in the lfig -Veda.

III . 53 14,and as the word Kikata in la ter l i tera ture mean t

Magadha or a part o f i t f rom Chunar to Itajg ir ( Visva

Kosa,from Sakti Sangama-Tantra ). M any a re d i sposed to

th ink that the word Kikuta in Bg-Veda means Magadha.

The references to Ki kata in Iater li terature are the fol

lowing

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These certa inly re fe r to Magadha, bu t the scene of the

hymn in the Rg -Veda in which the word occur s,i s la i d

in the v ic ini ty of the Indu s ( Sindhu ) . It i s a far cry

from Indus to Magadha. In the whol e of the Bg-Veda,the

easternmos t points ment i oned are,Ganga and Yamuna

1 San avrata Vo l. I I I . p . 273 2 Bhagavat I 3 . 24 .

2

(Jumna), most p robably thei r sou thern cou rses from the

mountains . The word Ki kata i s expl ained once as a

p roper name by Sayaua

flatfi faaifig 51711121 3

and a second t ime as Nast ikas (Athei s ts) , who have no

fa i th in rel igious ceremon i es . The only th ing wh ich the

Rg-Veda ment ions about the Ki katas i s the i r k ine , whi ch ,

the hymni s t regretful ly ment i ons,a re of no u se in Soma

sacrifice . Ye t he cove ts them"

to use th e i r m i l k for sacri

fic ial pu rposes . I t i s a wel l-known fac t th a t the bes t k ine

in Ind ia are to be found with in a few scores of m i le s fromthe Indus i n the d is tr i c ts o f Hi ssar

,Si rsa

,Bhaw alpore

and Bi kane r and i t i s mos t probable th a t these places are

ment ioned as Ix i kata and no t Magadha. The theory

that Pramaganda was the founde r of the k ingdom of

Magadha and t ha t the word M agadha i s anothe r form

o f M aganda in Pramaganda occu ring in the same rk

i s to say the least o f i t , rid i cul ous .

The country i s cal led M agadha in the Kausi tak i

Eranyakaland that the Kaus itak l

's had a close connec ~

ti on wi th th i s country wi l l b e explained l ater . The

A tharva-Veda has M agadhas , the plural d enoting a tribe .

2

This tribe was no t very fri endly to the Ved i c Aryans asthe A tharva-Veda thinks tha t M alar ial Fever shou ld bed ri ven away to Magadhas as beyond the pale of Vecl icC i v i l i zation . One Sakha of the Veda j oins the Angas wi ththe Magadhas and th e other Sakba j oins the Kasi s wi th

them. I t i s from th i s t ri be,that in the Kaus i tak i A ranyaka

we get the name of the coun try,as M agadha. Some th ink

that Bagadha men ti oned Wm) Banga and Chera in the

A i tareya Aranyaka3 i s only

“ another form of Magadha.

1 VI I . 13 .

2 V . H .

But th is does no t seem to be tenable . For,be tween

Banga and Chera or the Dravid i an people in Chu ti a

Nagpur , the whole country now Burdwan Divi s ion— hasin i t a pow e rful e thn i cal race s t ill called Bagd is

,which

i s another form of Bagadha. They form al toge ther an

e thnoso w i th pecul ia r feature s and pecul ia r colour . They

are tall,s tout

,robus t and war- l ik e . They had a govern

ment of the i r ow n and I have reason to think tha t they had

a l anguage o f thei r own ,too . So

,from the tri be Magadhas ,

the count ry recei ved the name Magadha . The word

Magadha means an inhabi tan t o f Magadha, no t necessa ri ly

belonging to the t ribe o f Magadhas . The Magad has are

nei the r Il rahmauas no r Sudras (Vaj a . Sam. and

they are to be sac ri fi ced in the I’urusamedha to the god

A tik rust 1 (“lo ud The humour o f the th ing li es

in the fac t that the Magadhas made loud noi se in thei r

song s. T he w ord Magadha la te r meant m ins trels,who

l i ved by s inging loud ly the p rai se o f kings and the Bhfit s

o f Raj pu tana an d othe r p rovinces who cl aimed thei r

descent from the Magadhas make a huge noi se w hen they

sing the prai ses o f the donors of gi fts . The noi se is

often intole rable .

In the V i atya chap ter o f the A tharra-Veda‘

i the

Magadha i s sa i d to be a fri end and ad vi se r,a crony and a

thunde r o f the Vratya (mi tra ,U ta/

“

u rn,hasa and stanay i tnu )

and th is i s the character which the Bhatas and Charanas

are s t il l main ta in ing in Raj pu tana . t en the Vrz‘

rtyas

and Magadhas are so intima tely connected and when

Vrz‘

i tyas are enj o ined to gi ve away all thei r p roper ty to

Brain i dhu in some of the Sfi tras,i t

becomes necessary to who the Vratyas were. The

1 w sumx x x . 5 21 .

4

word is often explained as Sa'vitri -pati ta’t‘— those who do

no t utter Gayatri . Those who expla in the word in thi s

way seem to have i n the back o f th ei r m ind , the noti on

that the word i s de ri ved from vrata. But i t canno t be

deri ved from the word vrata . There i s no rul e by wh ich a

negat ive can be asser ted by a Taddhi ta suffix . So , 11 th ink ,i t should be d eri ved from the word Vrata, a horde .

The word Vrata i s eigh t times used in the Itg¢\7eda,

th rice in the fami ly mandalas— the oldest port ions of the

Rg-Veda,

—thr i ce i n the ten th mand ala , the mos t recen t ,once in the fi rs t and once in the n inth ,

in the sense of a horde ,some times figurat i vely

,as in the case of d i ce

,bu t often in

the sense of a collec ti on o f men in an indefin i te number .

The w o rd i s thri ce cont ras ted,

" so to say,wi th Gana conno t

ing a defini te number and once wi t h Sardha, an assembly .

In the s ixth mandalag,the word i s undoubted ly u sed in

the sense of an in imical horde . In descr ib ing th e

a rmoury in the chario t , the poe t says , i t should be o ratasaha

, capable o f res i s ting the horde and the si xth

mandala i s a t tri buted to the fami ly of Rs i Bharadvaja.

In the th i rd ‘ attributed to VisVami tra and i n th e fi fth“

a ttri bu ted to Atreya, the w ord undoubted ly means a

horde , but may mean an enemy horde also . In the fi rs tmandala ,

6 the horse is sa id to be followed by chari o ts,

men,

w omen , and o ratas as opposed to men . Then inth

7 Speaks of li ve hordes . In t wo passages i n the

ten th 8 i t is figurat ively u sed for d i ce and the o ther con

ta ins a sentence —“we wi l l j oin the The olde stuse o f o rata i s in the sense of an in imi cal hord e . O ther

passages a re no t opposed to th i s sense . In the A tharva

l M anu 11. at! an d X . 20 .

2 111 . 211. s V . 53 . 1 | x 34. 12‘ 1113 30 . 15. 1 1 .

6 1 .

i x . 14, z .

8 x . 34 . s ; x 34 , 12 X . 57. 6

5

Veda ‘ too,the word i s used in the same sense . In the

Vaj asaneya and Tai t tiri ya Samhi tas , in the chap ter on

I—tudra, Vratapat i i s used along wi th vrd ta.

’

European

scholars th ink tha t Vratapati there means the head

of a ro bber band . Th is also means an inimi cal horde .

So the w ord means a horde and an in imi cal horde . They

had the i r tempora ry se t t lements , for in the PafichavimSaBrahmana

,they are said to soj ourn i n w an/a (w att/ (t ut

p ravasantafz,

‘ where p ra- vas means a soj ourn ) and they

had the i r patria rchs (G rhapat i ) , and one of thei r U rhapat is

when puri fied became the founde r of a Sakha of the

Big - Veda . But o f th is la te r o n . They had no li rahman ic

cul ture (Brahmacharya) , no agric ul ture and no t rad e .

‘

A ll th i s s tamps them as nomad hou les . Those w ho form

the vrata,those who j oin the vrata and those who are

s tolen to the vrata are al l rratgas. The Negadhe s are

fri end s,i ntima tes

,c ronie s and loud praise i s of the

Vratyas .So they mus t be l i v ing in the same country or

in cl ose p roxim i ty .

To what s tock d i d the Vratyas belong ? The answe r

i s gi ven in the Panchav imS‘a Brahmana .

” They were Dai va

praja,w orshippers and favouri tes of god s— the same god s

as were worshipped by the Ved ic A ryans . Wha t w as the

di lference then ? The gods of the Vratyas w en t to Heaven

and Vratyas became d i sp i r i ted . They l i ved in the i r

temporary soj ourn . They came to the place w hence the

gods wen t to heaven . But they d id no t know the Chan t

and the metre by which they cou l d be un i ted w i th thei r

gods . M aru ts gave them th e Chan t and the me tre and so

they rej oi ned the i r god s .

r

Th is sh ows that they worshi pped

v.ij x v1. Tan 5 i 1‘

5 x vu .

6 A v . x v. x vn 1 .

f 1

kb

the same gods as the Ved i c Aryans d id and on pu r ificat ionthey were admi t ted i n the Ved i c soci e ty on equal

terms .

But the pecul ia r ceremony of the purificat ion o f the

Vratyas i s performed by a large number of the Vratyas‘ as

yajmauas . The man among them who suppl ied the yapaand aft/ari a and u ttere l t he Rtuy aj ya was said to havebeen the i r G rhap t t i or pat riarch .

2 Be fore pur ifica t ion

the Vratyas we re s in ful,inasmuch as they forc i bl y ate

the foo l p repare d i n fi xed A ryan se t tl emen ts fo r th e

use o f sac ri fi ce rs . They found rau l t wi th refined speech,

they puni shed wi th dea th innocen t peopl e,

and though

un ini t iated they talked l i ke the ini t i ated . These were

the four s ins to the i r c red i t and al l these could be

d isp ell ed only b y four t imes repeat ing the s ixteen stomas ,

One o f the SE nans in these stomas i s the Dyau tana

S'

aman" in honour of the M aru ts . Thi s i s the mos t

ausp icious saman as Dyu tana, the worsh ipper of the

M aruts was the Crrhapat i of the Vratyas , and he i t w as

w ho saw th is Sat n an .

The Pafichavim‘

ar Brahmana names another Crrhapati

of the Vratyas . He w as no other than Kausi taka,6 the

son of Samaé ravah . He w as an o ld Vratya who los t h is

v i ri li ty . He perfo rmed the Vratyas toma wi th others , bu t

there was some d e fec t in the arrangement o f the s toma s

and so Lusakap i , the son o f Khargala cursed him saying

that Kausi tak i s wi l l no t prosper Sayana says the

l i ausi taka i s the seer o f one o f the Sakhas o f fi g -Veda .

I f a Vratya imperfectly purified could be the founder of

1 Tandya \'I . i t. 2 1 and XVI I l . 7. (Juunu .

2 1 7. L'n nnn X V I I . X V I I .

5 X I I l . 7.

6 Tandya I7, 4 , d .i nd Comm .

a Sakha o f the E gg -Veda,the Vratyas coul d no t poss i b ly

belong to any other s tock than the Ved ic A ryans .

Now the ques ti on ari ses , Are the Vratyas the earl i e r

s tock or a re they secede rs from the Ved i c s tock ? o f

course , the re were some seceders as the nomad s are

notori ously Ch ild - l i fte rs and man- l i fters . But probably

they were the earl ie r s tock , the people of the firs t m igra

t ion ,as S ir George Gri erson wi ll say ,— those who overran

the greate r par t o f the Aryavarta and le ft the i r s tamp on

the languages o f Bengal and Wes te rn Punj ab al ike,bu t

not in the centre o f th is vas t te rri to ry , which was occup i edby the second and subsequent m igrat ion .

This i s evi denced by the fact tha t the Vi atya

Chapte r i e,the 15 th Chapter of the A tharva Veda Speak s

of an A ntardeSa from wh ich the Vratya goes to the Eas t ,to the Wes t , to the North , to the Sou th and to the Upper

Regions and to the Fixed Regions . H e also goes to the

AntardeSa. So he i s everywhere . The quarters protectedh im and gave h im serv i tors . The Eas t gave h im

Bhava,

the Sou th Sart o, the IVest P asupat i , the

North Ugra ,Dhruva ( the fixed region R udra . the Upper

Mahadeva,and the A ntardeéa ,

f samr, H e was h imsel f

Ekavratya ,rlIaIu

‘

tdeva and fart ua. Now al l these Devas

ment i oned here are dai ly worsh ipped by every Brahmana

as d i fferent forms of S i va . I f th i s Ekavratya be our Siva,

he would no t be admi t ted into the Ved i c Pantheon wi thou ta s truggle and tha t s truggl e would be the struggle of

B aksa—Yajna . Thi s i s also to some exten t foreshadowed

in one of the sta tements in th i s Chapter,vi z

,that i f the

Vratya goes as a gues t to a Brahman ’s house when the

1 S i nce w rit i ng th is I rece ived S ir G . G i ierson’

s I n dex of language nam esand I fi nd t hat the Braj abhasa i s st i ll cal led A ntardesrp . 36. Th is l eav es no

doub t as regards the pos i t ion O f A ntmdeéa.

Brahmana i s engaged in a sac rifice , he should at once ri se

up and ask the Vratya to pe rfo rm the sacri fice h imsel f .

On h is decl in ing ,he should ask the Vratya

’

s permi ss ion toperform i t himsel f ; i f he perm i ts the sacri fi ce should befin i shed ; i f no t, i t should no t be performed and i f per

formed wi thou t hi s permi ss i on, the performer instead of

acqu i r ing v i r tue shall incur sin. Thi s i s a d igression,

but I could no t resi st the temptati on o f the d igress ion ,

i t i s so fascinating .

So the Vratyas were everyw here ,—on all s ides of the

Antardega and also wi thin the Antardes’

a. Bu t the east

seems to be thei r p rinc ipal resor t, fo r in the P afi chavims‘a

Brahmana there i s an obscu re passage , made sti l l more

obscu re by Sayana’

s inte rp re ta ti on— Kaltubham prach'z 'm

antw yachalat (“w ent to the Eas te rn In the

A tharva Veda the order of the quarte rs begins always

with Prach i and th e quar ters have the i r hearing from

AntardeSa .

The Vratyas d i ffe red in many ways from the Ved i cAryans . Thei r headd ress was worn in a slant ing fashion l

whi le that of the Aryans w as no t so . They had a bow

wi thou t s t ring ; incapable , as Katyayana explains,of

throwing arr ows . The how was perhaps u sed as a club

as some peopl e s ti l l do . In the A tharva-Veda the ra in

bow is the bow of the Ekavrc‘

t tya wi thou t s tr ing . I ts

concave s id e was red and i ts convex si d e blue wi th the

red s id e he covered h i s enem i es and wi th the b lue s idehe pierced h is an tagoni s t . Bu t no t so the how of the

Ved i c Aryans . It had a s tring and i t threw arrows .

The Vratyas used rough carts,covered wi th loose planks

,

which often went ou t of the road ; while the Ved i c

Tz‘

i ndya XVI I , 1 . 14 . 15 . Katya XXI I . 13'2f’f. Latyvayana VI I I . Gfi’,

\ ryan had chariots furni shed wi th a strong armoury

capable of hold ing a number of arrows,and the d raught

animal,horse o r b ul lock

,res tra ined by re ins . The horses

and mules o f the Vratyas d rawing chariots were kampral i t . “ shaky

,

”unres tra ined whi le the Ved i c Aryans

restrained thei r horses wi th reins . The animals of the

Vratyas wen t ou t of the road . The Ved ic Aryans hadreins bu t the V1atyas had p

'ratoda a sti ck wi th a s tring

of leathe r a ttached,s ti l l u sed in dri ving bu l lock - car ts) .

The cloth used by the Vratyas bad black borde r crosswise ,while B rahmins are st i ll p roh ibi ted to use such borders .

They,had two pieces of sheep - sk in bord ered wi th w hi te

embroid ery,wh i le the re was no such bord er w i th the

others . These had si l ve r ornaments wh ile the other had

ornaments of gold .

The above menti oned art icles were used by the higher

classes of the Vratyas , the i r Grhapat is (Pat ria rchs) , whi le

the ord inary people used cloth w ith re d borders and w i th

s trings a t the othe r end . They u sed two sandal s of blacksk in wi th ears and two sheep sk ins . This d iffers greatly

from the d ress of the Ved i c A ryans .

After purification the possess ions of the Vratyas were

to be given away to the Vratyas, those who sti l l remain in

thei r vratyas o r to the so - called Brahmins of the Magadhacount ry . Katyayana says the lat te r are to be preferred .

After the fees are pa id to the Btv i ks , the pu rified Vratya

may acqu i re knowledge of the three Vedas and may beadm i tted to socie ty . H is food may be taken and he

may be taught the sacred lore .

The long d isqu i si t i on has some bearing on our subj ect.

The vipatha or “ rough cart” of the Vratya i s cal led byLatyayana Prachyaratha or

‘Eastern Chariot’

and thei r

property i s to be given to the Brahmanas of Magadha.

So the Vratyas are in many ways connected wi th Magadha.

10

They were the Aryans of the first. migrati on in nomad i chordes . They were s impl e r and more pr imi t i ve in the i r

habi ts and mode o f l i ving and wi th a short p uri fi catory

ce remony they were fully admi t ted in to the Ved i csociety .

The Vratyas were certainly no t confined to the East

but they were in every d i rec ti on , as the A tharva-Veda

d i stinctly says . But in the nor th,thei r expans ion w as

l im i ted by the H imalayas,in the sou th by the Vindhyas

and in the West by the pressure of o ther t ri bes , wh ile in

the East they had almost unl imi ted scope for expansion .

They mad e the original inhab i tants , or the upper c l asses

among them,thei r f ri end s and advi sers

,and l i ved on

patches of plains cl ea red of j ungles i n thei r temporary

hab i tat ions wi th thei r horses and cattl e . Loot al so they

indulged in and man-l i ft ing and cattle- l i fting .

There were another people,the Vratinas

,the p ri es ts

for the cruel ri te of Syena- Yaga Thi s word Vrc‘ t'tina i sundoubtedly de r ived from the same word Vrata a nomadhord e in imi cal to the Aryans . They had thei r learn ing

and they had thei r warr i ors . If the warri or ’s son i s a

learned man,he shou ld be preferred as a pri est for th i s

cruel r i te . H ere the commenta tor ra i se s a questi on and a

v i tal questi on too H ow can a man no t born in the fami ly

o f a Rs i perform a sacrifice ? and comes to the conclus ion

tha t for th i s par t i cular ceremony a descen t from a Rsi i s

no t absolu tely necessary . Bu t he shoul d have l earn i ng,

though no t the l earn ing of a Ved i c A ryan . The place forthe ceremony i s a recen t cl earance in the m i d s t o f a jungle .

Thick trees and trunks shoul d be cu t for the purpose .

The planks for the purpose of pressing j ui ce shou ld bethe planks o f ambu lance carts for carry ing away d eadbod i es . The pri es t should wear a red h ead - d ress and redcloth , l ook fierce and have h is bow st rung . One of the

'1 1

authors , Sand ilya, says that Arhats should be made p ri es tsin th is cruel ri te . Now the word Arhat i s s ignificant .

The word was in use i n Pre -B uddhis t i c days I D the senseof worthy , wise men , med i c ine men , wi z ard s , e tc as in al l

primi ti ve soc i t ies . So i t was adopted by the Buddhi s tsand the J a inas , and i t came to mean monks of thei r

sects .

So there were Vrc‘

t tyas and Vrat inas,both nomad

hordes no t wi thin the pale o f the Ved ic Aryan Soci e ty,

cla iming no desce nt from Itsis , hav ing priest s of the i ro w n

,performing p rimi t ive r i te s acco rd ing to thei r ow n

i deas . These,the Ved ic A ryans were anx ious to bring to

thei r o w n fol d . There a re va riou s ind icat ions tha t the

maj ori ty of the nomad s were roaming in the East,

— eas t

o f the Aryan land of the Vedas .

Thus we have in the Ved i c l i terature the M agadhas

the name o f a tr ibe , M agadha, the name of the count ry

i nhabi ted by Magadhas , Magadhas , inhabi tants o f the

M ag-adha count ry no t belonging to the M agadha tr ibe .

The count ry w as no t in good repu te w i th the Ved ic people .

A Brahm in l i v ing in the M agadha country was cal led a

Brahmabandh t t — a so -cal le d Brahmin — a bad Brahmin .

Even in th e Puranas , the S iSunagas were cal led Ksattrw

band/ms or bad Ksat triyas . The Kaus‘

i tak is alone were

favourably d isposed to the co unt ry and say in thei r

Aranyaka that Madhyamaprat ifz od/t z'

putra l i ved in Magadha

count ry ,but was a very respec table Brahmin So the

country was a nonaAryan country , then came the Vratyas ,the A ryans o f the fi rs t m igrat ion ,

and they c ame to stay .

They made friends wi th the Magadhas and became very

i nfluent i al ; and the Ved i c A ryans , the A ryans of the

second m igration tri e d hard to bring them to thei r ow n

fol d. This i s al l that we can glean from the scanty

i nformation vouchsa fed to us by the Ved i c l i tera ture .

12

Magadha is bet ter known in the class ical l i teratu re .

Bu t before en ter ing into tha t l i tera ture i t i s necessary

to know w hat t ime elapsed between the close of the

Ved i c and the commencemen t of the Class ical l i tera~

ture . Max M ul l er in h is H i s tory of Anc ien t Sanskri t

Li terature wri t ten in 1859 l imi ted th e Sat ra l i terature

between 600-200 B . C . But Buhler in page x x i i of h is

Introducti on to his transla t ion of the Manava- D harmw

Sastra in the S . B E . Series ( 1886) says ,“ I t seems no

l onger advi sable to l imi t the prod ucti on of Sutras to so

short and so late a peri od as 600 -200 B C .

”But works

have been d i scovered,facts brought to l igh t and inter

pre tation put on old mater ial s w hich seem to j us ti fy the

in fe rence tha t the S ti tr-

a ac ti v i ty of the Ved i c C'haraz z asclosed somet ime before the adven t of Buddha and h is

contemporary re formers,i . s .

,the h igher l im i t of Max

M ii ller may be the low er l imi t of these acti vi t ies . For he

seems to have included the ac t i vi ty of the spec ial school sw i th in th i s per iod w hi ch Biihler p ronounced to b e s hort

and late . The Sutras of the Ved i c School seem to have been

followed by a long period in which many comprehen s i veSfitra works o f special schools were w ri t ten . The ephori ~

s tic form of wri t ing cont inued,but no t of the Ved i c

Schools . The fal l o f Taxi la in to the hand s of the Persiansseems to have deal t a death blow to the Ved i c Sti tra

acti vi t ies, and the transfe rence of the intel lec tual cap i tal

o f Ind ia from Tax i la to Patal ipu tra gave an impetus to the

S fi tra acti v i ty of ano ther sor t . Al ready the tendency i n

Taxila seems to have been to w ri te comprehens i ve works

in Sfi tra form ,but a t Patal ipu tra,

the rulers of wh ich were

aiming at Imperial domlmon,tha t tend ency w as encourag

~

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14

no Brahmani cal d i sc ip l ine , no agri cul ture and no commerceduring the Ved i c period : But wi thin a shor t t ime a fter

thei r convers ion,they had w onderful ly developed thei r

trade and thei r nat ional weal th . They had fre edom to

develop thei r ow n ins t i tu ti ons,ci v i l and m i l i tary

,and

they had al so caugh t someth ing l ike Imperial i s ti c,idea .

The Sakyas and M allas in Nor thern Oudh,L ichhavis

and Videhas in North B ihar,the Angas in the East , the

Kasi s on the Wes t and the Barli adrathas in the centre ,

i s,l\Iagadha,

— all became prosperous s tates wi th ci ti es

teeming wi th b usy popu lat ion,coun try si tes roll ing in

plen ty , ri vers covered ove r wi th cra fts ful l of merchand i s e ,wi th Assembly -halls ringing wi th speeches , songs , play s ,d i scussi ons and d i spu tations , wi th horses and elephants i nplenty

,wi th sp lend id process i ons and impos ing pagean ts .

Brahmins were thei r teachers,keepers of thei r consci ence

the pri es ts in thei r temples and rtv iks in thei r sacrifices .

But the young v igorous people soon ou tgrew the influence

of thei r teachers and began to th ink for themselves . The

m igh ty upheaval of i ntellec tual , moral and pol i t i cal l i fe

in the 6th and 7th centu ri es b efore Chri s t was the resu l t

of thei r comparat i ve freed om from the thra ldom of the

Brahmins,of the ri se of monasti c l i fe in the ir

i

m idst

and of the transfe rence of the intell ectual cap i tal from

Tax illa to Patal ipu tra The system of the fou r cas tes .

with thei r numerous c rosses sa t ra the r loose on them.

The A ntardes‘

a however,show ed a d i fferent spectacl e

Vari ous fore ign races , fly ing from invad ing hordes,sought

refuge amongst them and d i s turbed the qu i e t p rosperi ty ofthei r land . The Subcras d ri ven away from Chaldea by

the Semi te s se ttled a t Sindh . The M edés d ri ven f rom

thei r home by the Pers ians came to se ttle in the i r country .

A nd las t o f all,the Persi ans came and occupied i ts mos t

prosperous parts . The A ntar/ leSa wh ich w as al ready

15

much weakened by in te rnal d i ssens i ons as revealed in

the P uranas contrasted very unfavou rably wi th the

prosperous east , which the d ispo i led we ste rners sough t fora safe re fuge . This greatly added to the prosperi ty of

that count ry .

Jus t a t th is psychological moment , the Barbadrathas

were over thrown by a new and v igorou s race,the

S isti nagas who were characteri sed as Ksatrabandhacah

i . s,

“so -called Ksat triyas ,

”mean ing no d oubt. that they

were Vratyas , on whom the l l rahmiu ic ins ti tu ti ons d i d

no t si t very tigh t . Bu t they conformed to al l that the

Brahmins sa id . They were mostly conver ted into Ix'satriyas ,

and had to give up some of th ei r nomad i c habi ts.The

d ress of the S iSunaga s ta tues conforms wonderfully to

the dress d escr ibed by Latyayana, lx'

atyavana and o thers

as proper for a Vratya.

I t wou l d no t be out of place to ment i on here thats ince Ved ic t imes

,the concep ti on of Vratyas consi derably

changed . In the Ved ic l i tera ture they were a nomad

hord e wi th ou t Brahm ins , wi thou t a cas te system ,wi thou t

a fixed residence and w i thou t a set tled Government .They were a patria rchal people

,moving wi th thei r !looks

from o ne place to ano ther . Bu t in the clas s ical li tera tu re

the Vratyas were regarded as a Brahmin i c peopl e d i vi d edi nto the fi rs t th ree castes

,bu t wi thou t Brahmini cal

sacraments . I t was though t. by some tha t they were

descended from men o f these t hree cas tes 0 11 thei r ow n

cas te women, bu t that the r d id no t take thei r sacraments .

Another au thori ty says tha t sons begot ten by peoplewi thou t sacraments on thei r ow n caste women

,were the

Vratyas So the Brahmins seem to have imposed some

sort of cas te system on them dur ing the interval . In the

Ved as the Vratyas formed only one class,wh i l e in the

clas s i cal period there were Brahmin Vratyas , Ksattriya

l ti

Vratyas and Vai sya Vratyas . Curi ously enough,the Brah

m in Vratyas were to be found on all s id es o f AnlardeSa ,

but the eas t , where the re w ere only Ksattriya Vratyas .

Thi s i s as i t shoul d be . Because the number of the Vratyas

w as very very large on t he east as I had shown before .

In th i s matter I wi ll adduce the ev idence of three works,

the earl i es t being that of the Lal i ta Vi stara,wh i ch though

reduced to i ts present shape in l ate r cen tu ri es,embod ies

the tra d i ti ons of the 5 th or 6th cen turi e s B . C . Then of

the A rthasastra wri t ten in thel

latter end o f the 4th

cen tury,and o f the rlf c

'

tnava-Dharma-Sr‘

tstra reduced in i ts

present shape d uring the ascendency o f the Brahmins of

the Sunga Dynasty .

The Buddha when su rvey ing thi s world from the

Tus ita-Bhuvana for h i s las t bi rth,passed i n revi ew al l the

countri es then known .

1 The bord er coun tri es were no t

accep tab le to h im . The M adhyama, th e M i dd le countryof Yuan Chwang— had then six teen s ta tes . Of these eight

were described and rej ected (Uj j ain),

(2) (3 ) H astinapura, (4) l'

an isa (perhaps I’atsn) ,

(5) KoSala, (6) Viacha, (7) M ir/1276 and (8 ) l’

aiSa'li . The

last w as rej ected becau se there was no k ing , and everyone

thought he was supreme . Hast ina w as rej ec ted for the

same reason Others were rej ected for other reasons . I t

was at las t se ttled tha t he shoul d be born in a Ksattriyafami ly ; for the. world i s no l onger governed by the

Bralnn ins bu t by lx'

sat triyas , and at la s t , the Sakya fami ly

was selec ted for h i s b i rth .

‘

In the A rthasastra" of Kaut ilya we find tha t Kamboj a

and Sanrastrawere inhabi ted by tri bes (Sreni ) of Ksattriyaswho l ived by agri cul ture

,trade and by the p rofessi on of

1 Lali tav istara Bib l e,Ind . Ed . p . 22 IT

2 A rth a Sash a M rsm c Ed . I p .

17

arms . The Licc havis, the Vrj j is , the Mallas , the M ad ras ,

the Kukuras , the Kurus and the Panchalas l i ved by

the t i tle of Raja. Living by the ti tle of Rajamay seemto be s trange . But there i s a d i scuss i on in the SavaraBhasya on the word Raja which i s l ikely to throw much

l ight on i ts meaning . The word Raja there i s sai d tomean anyone engaged in the wor k of a Raja

,royal officer

,

or engaged in the work of Government . I t may or may

no t necessari ly mean a Ksattriya,for the Bhasya says that

i n the Andhra country the Raj i s or the governing Classes

a re no t alw ays Ksattriyas . So the L ic chavi s and othe rsment ioned in the A rthasastramay or may no t be Ix

'

sat triyas,

fo r Vai j ayant i , a Buddhis t work d i s t inctly says that the

L ic chavis were Vratya-Ksattriyas .

M anava-Dharma- Sastra on the othe r hand classified

the Vratyas i n th ree Varnas,Brahmins

,lx'

sattriyas and

Vaisyas For i t says tha t the Vratya B rahmins were

Avantyas l i ving in the south -west,Batadhanas in the

north-w es t , the Bhrijyakantakas and the PuspaSekharas .

The abode of these lat ter i s no t known . Bu t Buhler

says,they were spi es and sorcerers . The Vratya

Ksattriyas were the J hallas,the M allas , the Lic chavis ,

the Natas,the Karanas

,the Khasas and the Dravi das . Of

them,the M allas and L icchavis cer ta inly belong to

the eas t . The Vratyas Vaisya were Sudhanva, Ach i ryya,

Karusa, Vijanma,M a

'

tra and Satata . We know nothing

about the place Of abode and the occupation of the

Vratya Vaisyas .

Though the commentators of the M anava-Dharma

Sastra say that there were someth ing l ike castes , somel i ving by e sp ionage , some by worsh ipping images of god s ,some as temple pri ests

,some by drawing w ater and

some by other means , Bi ihler th inks tha t “ i t i s very

probable that all these names originally denoted nations”

3

18

and he seems to be righ t as they all seem to have been

outs ide the pale of Ved i c A ryan Socie ty . I know

that Acharyyas are s ti l l temple -pries ts to the lower

order of Hind us in Nepal . Karusas , i t i s wel l -known

gave thei r name to the country between KoSala and

Videha.

From the statemen ts o f these three great au thori t ies

i t seems that the coun try east of the Aryan land was

inhabi ted by Vratyas , nati ons w ho were imperfectly

Brahmini z ed . They were all fighting races,or races

engaged in subdu ing and keeping under control the abori

g inal people , Magadhas , Magadhas and others ; and they

l ived l ike princes on the produce of the land cul t i vatedby the i r subj ect people . They were al l rajas and so

were admi tted into the cas te system by Ved i c B rahminsin thei r works . They were most p robably the Rajanyas

who l ike the modern Raj puts were called Ksattriyas by

Brahmin wri ters from interest ed or pol i t i cal mot i ves .

M ali (Igor-inda -Sntra ,

the most anci ent au thori ty on

the Buddhis t s i d e,on the pol i t i cal geography of Ind i a ,

both in i ts Pal i versi on and in the m i xed S anskri t version

( i . e . Mahavastu) s ta tes that Magadha was a d epend ent o ft he Anga country and that R osala w as depend ent on

Kasi . But we find in Buddha ’s t ime Anga w as a state

d ependent on M agadha, and East on KoSala. Thi s change

o f s ta tus was brought abou t mos t l i kely by the advento f the S iSunagas , Ksat trabandhavas or Vratya race , one or

two gene ra t ions be fore the bi rth of Buddha. during whose

l i fe- t ime the k ings of Magadha and KoSala were fighting

fo r the supremacy in the eas t , wi th the confederacy of

the Sakyas , M allas , Licchavis , Vrj j is , Videhas and others

occupying the terri tory nor th o f M agadha and east o f

Kos’

ala The Kurus,the Panchalas , the M ad ras were also

a t th i s t ime c on fede rae i es and there i s a book and an

19

enti re book in the Arthasas tra deal ing wi th these confederate people ent i tled Samyiw Vri ttam.

Some centuri es before the Buddha appeared on the

scene , Taxila was the cen tre of Ved i c c iv i l i za ti on .I t

was here tha t J anamej aya performed h is famou s Serpent~sacrifice i t was here that Mahabhara ta was fi rs t reci te d

i t was here that a beg inn ing was made of the cla ssi cal

l i terature ; i t was here that peop le flocked from all parts

of c i vi li zed Ind ia to fini sh thei r educa ti on ; and i t w ashere that all Ind ian sc i ences had the i r origin , J i vaka,

the earl ies t med i cal man know n belo ngs to Taxi la.The

earl ies t grammari an known belongs to tha t ci ty . The

earl i es t wri te r o f M im’

ansa too,belongs to that c i ty

.The

earl i es t wri ter on Vete rinary sci ence on horse,belongs to

i ts vicini ty In fact , al l works in class ical Sanskri t apartfrom works wri tten i n the interes t o f Ved ic School s in

thei r Parisads,all seem to have thei r orig in in Tax ila .

But a great calami ty overtook Taxila during the l i fet ime of B uddha . I t was conquered by Dari us , the

Persian monarch who d est royed the dynasty founded byCyrus , and kep t a cons iderable portion of the North

Western Ind ia for a c entury under h is control . Taxila

lost i ts h igh posi tion as the centre of l ea rn ing,compell ing

eminen t scholars l i ke Pan ini , Varsa and Upavarsa to

seek the eastern region as a field o f work . Patalipu tra

was then fast r i s ing into fame as the cap i tal of the mos t

powerful k ingdom in the east ; and they came there and

w ere honoured by the k ing in the i r qu inquenni al assem

bl i es in a manner befitt ing thei r learn ing and the i r pos i

t ion i n socie ty.Thus began the l i tera ture of Magadha,

long after Ved ic Sanskri t had ceased to be the language

of the Brahmins . I t was obsolescent , bu t no t yet abso

lutely obsolete . At Tax ila , Ind ian learning had very

nearly shaken off the narrow groove in whi ch the Ved ie

r 9 0

school s moved , but a t Patalipu tra i t assumed a uni ve rs al ,

nay even an Imperi al is t ic charac t e r .

When the Ved i c Li te rature came to an end and the ar t

o f wri t ing was ei ther invented or introd uced , the languageof the Aryans was in chaos . Some s tood for the d i c ti onari esand id ioms of the Ved i c schools , others for phone ticallysoftened expre ssions of the vernaculars . Di a lec ts vary in

every d i s tri c t— the d ial ects both of the higher classes , andthe lower pu tting very great obs tacl es to free and nu

restri c ted intercourse be tween one d i s tri c t and another .

The d isadvantages were great , speci al ly of the h igher

classes who had a good d eal o f travel to under take . Th i s

led to the origin of class ical Sanskr i t or s imply Sansk ri t

language— the language purified from all vernacular

taints and i rregulari t ies . Thi s necess i tate d wri t ing of

grammars o ther than Ved i c school grammars . There were

fi fteen or S i xteen such grammars o f class i cal language

be fore Panin i undertook to survey the whole field of the

language o f the cul tured classes and his two successors

gave i t such a Characte r and immu tab il i ty that i t las ts

even to the present day . The vernaculars aga in,developed

,

each in i t s own d is tri c t and the rel igious re formers of the

6th cen tury B . C . gave many of them,a shape and a

l i te ratu re . Some aga in, wanted to inte rpre t the classi ca li d eas to the common folk and used a mi xed language

,

which i s ne i ther Sanskri t nor ve rnacular,but a mix ture of

both . I bel ieve that the d ramas were originally wri t ten

in th i s mixed language , in order tha t they m igh t be enj oyed both by the higher and the lower classes al ike .

The

reason formy bel ie f i s a s ta tement in Dand in’ s Ifa z wddaréa ,

‘

that the re a re four varie tie s o f the language o f Ind ia,

namely Sar’

nsk ri ta,I ’rakri ta, Apabhrams

’ a and M i s ra . For

1 lx'an

'

u-larsa l

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THE SEVEN GREAT WRITERS .

Lecture II .

In my first lecture some idea has been given as to w ho

the inhab i tants of Magadha were , and as to the languages

tha t were current there at the commencemen t of the ru l e

of the S isunagas. Now i t i s t ime,that i ts l i teratu re should

be deal t wi th . Time has no t ye t come , re searches in

l i terature have not yet su ffic i ently advanced , for wri ting

a complete and comprehens i ve l i terary h i story of the

Magadha empi re . But the subj ect is so interesting and

so fascinating that any attempt however parti al and

imperfect , i s l ikely to be welcome to schola rs . When the

materi al s are admi t tedly so scanty , i t would be rash to

at tempt a chronological statemen t . So the fol lowing

pages w il l be d evoted to an endeavour to p iece together,

from such information as are avai l abl e,material s w hich

are l i kely to throw some l igh t on th e l i t erary h i s tory of

M agadha, and a t the same time to be a ttract i ve to the

general reader .

The Barhadratha Dynasty ended , and S isunaga becamethe k ing o f Magadha in the beginn ing of the 7th century

B . C . The Sisunagas are described as Ksattriyabandhus

Le. so called Ksattriyas . Buddha w as born in the reign

of B imb i sara. H is son Ajatasatru founded the ci ty of

Patalipu tra. U day i , h i s grand son transferred the capi tal

from Raj agriha to Pataliputra. Jus t a t thi s time Taxi la ,the cent re of Brahman i c l earn ing

,l angu i shed under

foreign domin ion and the great scholars t here began to

resort to the eastern capi tal . Thus w e have a trad i t i on

24

in Raj aSekhara’

s Kavya M imamsa in the fol lowing

word s

arkafi a mz fagame ant afiar

aa’

tuafim‘

ifas mfaf‘

afiinmfas ants : l

aw faafiaw‘t as ufi fiaar: enfitgaam

vz u

‘

The trad i t i on of the examinat ion o f the authors o f

Sastras at Patal iputra runs thus z— Here Upavarsa and

Varsa, here Pan in i and Pingala,here Vyad i and he re

Bararuc i and Patafij al i having been examined rose to

fame .

”

The most noteworthy word in th i s t rad i t i on i s

Sastrakara. A ll th rough anci ent l i terature,Hindu or

Budh ist,the d i s t inct ion be tween the Sutra and Sas tra i s

,

though no t ve ry r igid ly , always maintained . So the l i tera

ture of Magadha begins not wi th Sutra, bu t w i th Sastrathat show s that the old Sutra peri od was a t an end ,

the

Sutras of Ved i c School were now out of fash ion,and tha t

thei r place had been taken by compreh ens i ve works

called Sast ras though sti l l wri t ten in Sutra sty le— the

curren t s tyl e of the l i te rature of the t ime . In the above

l i st of scholars the name of Upavarsa s tand s firs t andforemos t

,and I bel ieve

,firs t al so in chronological order .

Upavarsa was a M imamsawri ter . His work s have al l

been los t . He i s sometimes cal led a Sutrakara or somet imes a Vri t ti k

'

ara. Krishnadeva in h i s Tantra Chfida

mani,a M imamsawork says tha t a Vri tti w as composed

on the M i tnamsa Sutras by Upavarsa. The Catalogus

Catalogorum on the othe r hand s ta tes , on the authori ty of

Bhaskara -M isra , that the re w as a Sutrakara namedU pavarsa. Whoever he migh t have been , a Sutrakara or

1 li t—i vy?! tnl ntaxpéft p . 55 .

2 l lall’

s emi t t ibnt ions lnln iaméa

25

a Vri tti kara, he came to Patal ipu tra and was honoured byi ts K ing . The M imamsaas a system of interpretation of

the Ved i c injunct ions , found in the Brahman l s, and syste !

mati z ed for practi cal purposes in the Kalpa-Suti as , exi stedfrom remote anti qu i ty . I t went bv a vari e ty of names

M i l itani sa, Nyaya , Naya and others . GautamaDharma

Sas tra one of the oldes t Sutras on Dharma speaks of

Manama In th e Pratima-

r

’

ataka,Havana speaks to Sita

of h is s tudy of M imamsa (N3ayfa-Sastra) from M edhfi ti th i .

I t may be ask ed'

here w hy i s i t that while Pan ini ’s

G rammar and P ingala’

s Chanda suppressed all ol d

grammars and Chanda works attached to d ifferent Sakhae ,M imamsad id no t succeed in supp ress ing the olde r KalpaSutras of the Ved ic Schools . The Sutras served a prac t i

cal purpose . They settl ed the deta ils o f sacrifi ces , whi le

the M imamsa d eal t only wi th the general principles

thereo f,as wel l as the laws o f interpre tati on . The

M imamsa se rved as a corrector o f the Kalpa -Sutras and

the ir p rac tices , and so i t could no t suppress them.

There i s a long quotati on in the fi rst chapter o f the

firs t pada of the Savara -Bhasya wri tten i n an anci en t sty l e

which Krsnadeva attri buted to Upavarsa. Savara-Bhasya

mus t have been wri t ten a fter the r i se of M ahayana. For

i t d is t inctly says

was new? uvm fi m: va n: t

Thus are refuted the argumen ts of the Mabaya

n iets . The ed i tor o f th e Bhasya, 50 years ago , not

knowing the word Mahayanika changed i t into M aha

jani ka , der i ving i t from M ahaj ana,though all h i s manus

c ri pts read ‘Mahayanika.

’ So Upavarsa must have been

regarded as an anci ent au thori ty w hen Savara w rote .

But Savara only says Vri ttikara and not Upavarsa. It is

26

extremely d i ffi cul t to d ecid e what work w as wri tten by

Upavarsa, a Sast ra in Sutra fo rm,or a Vrtti

,mos t p ro

bably the forme r, for h is compan i ons in th e trad i t i onalverse , are al l Sastrakaras , original w r i ter s .

There is reason to bel ieve tha t the l i s t is chronologi cal .

For i t wil l be shown l a ter on , that the people of M agadha,w i th w hom evidently the trad i t i on ori gina ted

,had a good

h i s tori cal sense,and a sound chronological id ea . There

is a grammatical reason t oo , for bel i ev ing the l i s t to be

chronological . Ord inari ly the copul at i'

ve compound shouldbe Vai sopavarsau ,

the shorter word coming first . Bu t herei t i s Upavarsavai sau for the spec ial reason of Upavarsa

’

s

be ing or more venerab le i . e ,

,more ancien t .

M oreover , th e names wh ich fol low , are al l in s t ri c tly

chronological ord er . The second name i s tha t of Varsa,

the teacher of Panini . Thi rd Panin i h imsel f . The four th

i s Pingala,a contemporary of Chand rag

‘

upta and Bindusara . The fi fth i s Vyadi who wrote a Sarhgraha or a

comprehens i ve w ork on all about word s . The s i x th

and seventh are the wri ters of Tarttika and Bhasya on

Panini .

Of . Va 1 sa we know nothing excep t a trad i t i on in

Katha-Sari ts‘

agara that he was the Guru . of Pan ini,

and so he mus t have come from Taxi la or i ts suburbs

as Pan ini h imsel f .

Pan ini w as an inhabi tant of. Salatura, a suburb of

Taxila . His s tatue i s referred to by Yuan Chwang as

hav ing been in exi stence at Salatura long before h i s t ime .

His age was a subj ec t o f fi erce controversy for nearly a

century . Professor Goldst i ick er would place him imme

d iately a fter the compi lat ion of the Bk , Yaj us and Sama

Vedas and the composi ti on of Yaska’

s Niruk ta. Buhl erw i th great caution has placed h im in 375 B . C .

on the evidence Katha-Sari tsagara, Pand i t Satyavrata

( 27

samasrami would l i ke to place h im before Ya'

ska .

‘ But

none of them seem to have been aw are of the t rad i t ionin Kavya M imatnsa. I t is a curious ‘ th ing

,howeve r

,

as wil l be shown l ater on,that Kaut ilya seems not to know

Panin i . Kaut ilya w hen speak ing of Grammar , speak s of63 le tters and four par ts o f speech ; whi l e the number

o f le tters in Pan in i i s 64 and hi s par ts of speech are

only two . Panin i cl assifies al l the words in the language

into Subanta and Tinanta. He i s so very anxious for a

non-overlapp ing complete d i vi s ion by d i chotomy tha t he

incl udes th e A vyayas or indecl inable part icles wh ich takeno grammatical termination

,into Subanta and m akes

them d rop th ei r case end ings . Some one may say tha t that

i s ul tra - sc ien t ific,but i t i s s tri ctly logical , al though unpr

'

ac

t i cal and d ifficul t for beginne rs to comprehend . The

old er school had a fourfold d i vi son of word s , namely ,

Naman (noun), Akhyata (verb) , Upasarga (prefixes) and

N ipata (par ti cles) . To th is later 'on , perhaps in the

seven th century,Helaraj a, the commenta tor of Bhartrhari

’

s

Vakyapad iya, added a fi fth,Karma-

pravacaniya-or

“post

pos i t ions ” g overn ing cases . some th ing l ike Engl ish

preposi tions . Raj asekhara fol lowed H elaraj a. Sayana

i n his commenta ry on Taitt iriya Brahmana says that thefour fold d i vi s ion i s Srau ta, though opposed to Panini ;and the fact that Yaska adop ts the fou r- fold d i vi s i on l end ssupport to Sayana

’

s vi ews . The non-adoption of Panineansys tem by Kautilya argues that Panini had not yet taken

deep root, and that he was no t regarded as an anci ent

and sacred au thor i ty .

Pan ini is d i vided into eight books of four sect ions

each,there be ing

’

al toge ther-

SQSS sutras .‘

Accord ing toBhattoj i D i ksita

’

s calculat ion,they are 3978 ; and accord ing

to Professor Goldstt‘

tck er’

s they are 3993 . In th e handyed i t ion of Siddhanta-Kaumudi , publi she d in Bombay

'

in

( 98 )

Saka 1815 by Kasinatha Parava , is given a Sfi trapatha of

Pan ini . A t the end of each pada o f the ed i t ion are giventhe prati ka of groups of 20 sutras and the prat i kas of the

last group which falls short o f 20 . I t i s by counting these

that I have arr i ved a t the figure 3983 and I have check edi t by J i vananda

’

s ed i t ion of Sutrapatha ; and I find

Burnell also arri ved at the same figure . Arrangement of

sutras in comparat i vely mode rn Sansk ri t grammars is

mad e to serve a practical purpose,n amely , to teach the

forms of l anguage , so that s tudents may learn some th ing

of the language as they p roceed . But such is the

arrangement o f Pan in i tha t nobody can apply his w ork to

the language w i thou t study ing the whole o f the sutras .

O ther grammars , so t o say , are school-book s ; wh i l e

Panini ’s i s a sci ent ific w ork on Phi lology of the highest

value . H is work i s based on a number of previous

w orks on the subj ec t . The au thors to w hom he i s in

deb ted are z —Apisali , Kasyapa , Gargya, Galava , Chakra~

ve rman,Bharadvaja, Sakatayana Sakalya, Senaka and

Spho tayana. There are o ther grammari ans w ho are

quot ed by h im as northe rn and eas te rn . Some times he

re fe rs to Acharyya in the plural,mean ing perhaps h is

own Guru,Varsa .

A s regard s the age o f Panini , Goldstuck er says ,“We

have seen that wi th in the whole range o f Sansk ri t Li te ratu re

so far as i s known to us , the Samhi tas of Bk , Saman and

B lack Yaj ur-Veda and among ind i v idual authors the

exegete Yaska p receded Pan ini— tha t the w ho le bulk of

the rema in ing l i terature i s pos te rior to the eigh t gramma

tical books .

”There fo re

,Pan ini mus t b e very anc ient .

The enti re B rahmana li te rature was wri t ten afte r h im ;

al l the Aranyakas, Upau is i ds and Kalpa-S t‘

t tras are postI’an incan . But Goldstt

‘

tck er’

s premi ses ar e no t all correc t .

Panin i wri tes sutras for the B rahmana Li terature . I n l l ,

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( 30 )

di ed at Sametag iri , modern Paresn‘

ath Hills in Hazari bagh)and Vardhamana (who w as born a t Vaisali and d i ed at

Pavanear Raj gi r) . I t is generally understood tha t two

cen turi es elapsed between the two . Vardhamana after

renouncing the w orld j oined a J aina monastery a t Vaisall’ .

Sakatayana seems to have been . a Srutak evali th rough

Parsvanatha. For he is quoted no t only by Pan ini but

also by Yaska,w ho mus t have preceded Pan in i by several

generat ions; because Yaska’

s idea of an Upasarga is crudewhile Pan ini

’s is very much ad vanced and refined I t i s

not a techn i cal term i nvented by Pan ini who takes i t f romh is predecessors and so does no t d efine i t , Yaska

’

s i deao f an Upasarga is s imply th i s —That Upasargas express

a vari e ty of senses. But Pan in i says they are Nipatas or

part i cles ; they are Upasargas w hen j oined to verbal actionsgati s

,i f the verbal roots to wh ich they are at tached become

nouns ; and Karmapravachaniyas when they are de tachedand govern nouns . Sakatayana on the other hand says

that when d etached from nouns or verbs they do no t

d i s t inctly express a sense . So Yaska i s in advance o f

Shkatayana and Pan in i in ad vance of Yaska ; and th is

advance mus t have taken a few -

genera tions to develop .

Now ,i f Sékatayana is really a S rutakevali of Vardha

mana and Panini , the thi rd Sastrakara w ho came to

Patalipu tra for h i s reward , there would be no interven ing

space for Yaska and no sufficient t ime for develop ing thei dea of Upasargas. Therefore I should th ink that he w as

a Srutak evali to Parsvanatha. For he i s here not only

called a Srutak evali,but Srutakevali d esiyacharyya i . e , an

Acharyya next only to a Sru tak evali . In that case there

would be suffici en t space of t ime for the d evelopmen t ofthe grammati cal ideas .

I need no t ente r here into the d i scussion as to the

genuineness of sakatayana’

s grammar as e have i t . I t

3 1

is su f fici ent for my purpose to-know that the quotations in

Pan ini from Sakatayana are to be found in th i s work and

even Burnell , who tr ies to show i t t o be a forgery and a

clumsy forgery too , i s constra ined to admi t , These coin

c idences prove that ou r exist ing t reat ise is real ly based on

the original Thi s i s al l that I requi re for my present

purpose . I may say in passing that i n grammer the room

for interpolat ion and forgery is very l imi ted .

Pan in i w as really a gi fted man. His predecessors hada not ion that all nouns could be deri ved from verbal roots .

These were called the Vyutpatt ivadins , and Sakatayana

headed the l i s t of Vyu tpattivadins . But Panini was

opposed to i t. He was not a Vyutpattivadin . If the modernsys tem o f comparati ve grammar has taught us any th ing ,

i t has taught that word s borrow ed from older stages of alanguage

,cannot be deri ved f rom the ac tual roots in

the language i tsel f. Vyutpattivad ins have gone so far as to

deri ve from Sanskri t roots even word s ev idently borrowedfrom foreign l anguages .

A bou t the personal h is tory of Pan ini , we know only

th i s much that he belonged to Salatura a suburb of Tax ila,

that h i s mother ’s name was Daksi , tha t he w as a pupi l of

Varsa ( and th i s we know from Katha-Sari t-Sagara

and i t s hou ld be accepted wi th caut ion) and tha t be

d i stingu i shed h imsel f in a qu inquenn ial assembly held a tPataliputra. There is another p iece of information given

to us by Patafij al i , tha t h e w as famous s ince a boy . This

gives a d i rec t l i e to the s tory of Katha-Sari t -Sagara that

he was a dunce in the beginn ing and that Si va came to

h i s rescue in hi s d i spu ta t ion wi th Katyayana. Patafijali .also says tha t he had a pup i l named Kau tsa.

As to other works by Pan ini there i s a verse,handed

down from remote ant i qui ty , whi ch runs thus —7

( 32

as ? mamas H igvismi‘

iaa

fantas ies fai nmfifi mmil we re u

A stakam is A stadhy‘

ay i i .e. , the Sutrapatha. In a large

number of sutras , Ganas are men ti oned . Gana means a

l i s t of word s undergoing a common grammati cal change .

There i s a book w here al l these ganas are put togethe r

and i t i s a tt ri buted to Pan ini . But trad i tion has i t that.even Sakatayana had a ( ianapatha. The Ganas were not

made in a d ay . At the la tte r end of th e Ved i c age , pro

fessors of various Sakhas care ful ly ind exed all sorts ofgrammat ical pecul i ari ti es in thei r S

'

akhas . We have

a few o f these ind i ce s such as Padagadha, Ohaturj fiana,Lak sanaratna and so on. These are commonly known as

Lak sanagran thas . That these ind i ces helped a grea t dealin the format ion o f the sutras which are s imply gene ral i

sat ions from these ind i ces , goes wi thout say ing . I t w as

from these that the l ists called Ganas were d rawn ; andevery grammari an had to make h is ow n l i s ts b efore com

p il ing h i s book in Sutra form. So Pan in i had al so a com

p ilation of Ganas .

Simi l arly every grammari an had to mak e h is ow n l i s t

of verbal roots . Pan ini ’s Dhatupatha cons is ts o f

roots,plus 20 Saut tra dhatus which have to be p i cked up

from the Sutras of Pan ini . Hi s Linganusasana cons i s ts

of 183 s i'

t tras and d eal s wi th genders of word s . Unl i ke

modern l anguages Sansk ri t has a gender for every noun,

no t necessari ly dete rm ined by the'

sex . The L inganusa

saua gives‘

rules for determ ining the genders of nouns .Pan iniya S ik saconsi s ts of 59 verses in a vari e ty of

met res . I t give s rul es fo r p ronunci ati on of words , rules

for reci ting the Vedas and rule s for elocuti on . I t begins

wi th a salutat ion to Panini and Panin i i s often ment i oned

in the verses . But in anc ient works , authors often

33

speak in the 3rd person as we know from'

Kaut ilya. The

saluta tions at the beginn ing and a t the end are a late r

add i tion. It enumerates let te rs of the alphabet as 61 .

I t says,

— The sou l j oins intel l igence and employ s the

mind to express obj ects . The m ind s tr i kes the fi re

i n the body and th at fi re se ts the wind in motion . The

w ind blowing in the ches t , produces a deep sound : ! that

in the throa t a m iddl ing sound tha t i n the head a shri l lsound . That w ind s tri king the head comes to the mou th

and produces d i s tinc t le tters . These le tters are d iv idedi nto five classes ( i) accord ing to p i tch

, (i i) accord ing to

t ime, ( i i i) accord ing to the vocal organs , ( i v) accord ing to

effor t and (v) accord ing to touch . The p i tches are th ree,

h igh,lo w and m iddl ing . The t ime taken may be also

shor t,long or prolonged . Vocal organs are eigh t

,nose

,

ches t , throat , head ,root o f the tongue

,tee th , l ips and

palate . The efforts are,open ing the mou th

,shu tt ing ,

hal f opening and sl igh t opening . The touch i s of vari ou s

k ind s ; the l ips touch each o ther in pronouncing pa, pha,

etc .

,the tip of the tongue to uches the teeth i n pronouncing

ta,tha , e tc ,

the tip of the tongue touches th e hard palatein pronouncing ta, tha etc .

,the m i d d le of the tongue

touches the soft palate in p ronounc ing ca,cha

,e tc and

the root of the tongue touches the throa t in p ronouncing

k a, kha . etc In vowels there i s no touch , The semi

vowels are p rod uced by sl igh t touch . The s ib i lants are

p roduced by half touch .

I t i s no t my obj ec t here to give the de ta i l s o f th e

analysi s o f sound as g i ven in th i s book . I t i s d is tinc tly

sta ted tha t Daksi’

s son Pan in i made th i s analysi s known

al l over the world .

”

Three more works have to be consi d ered in th i s

connec tion . These are Unadi Sutras , (3) Phi t

Sutras and (3) Paribhasa Sutras . The Unadi - Sutras

5

31

are attr i buted to - Sakatayana bv Nago j i B hat ta . For

i t i s wel l-known tha t Sakatayana he ld tha t al l word sare d eri vable from ve rbal roots . Vimala

,the au thor of

Rupamala attr i butes i s to Vararuc i-Katyayana. But

Goldstt‘

i ck er says that though the Unadi Sutras are no t by

Pan ini,ye t the l i s t of the Unadi suffixes i s h is .

P lai t Selma - Everybody agrees that these sntras were

the work of Santanavacharyya. The entras are d i videdint o four sections and numbe r 87 in all . M ax M ul le r

would place these sutras be fore Pan ini and assign them to

the Eas tern School . But Goldstfick er on the authori ty of

Ind ian commentators , th ink s tha t they are pos teri or to

Pan ini,and that there i s no datum to connec t them wi th the

Eas tern School . One o f the Ind ian commenta tors says,

But,on the other hand , these Phi t Sutras when consi

dered wi th reference to Pan in i a re as i f made to - day .

”

And Goldstuck er th inks tha t they were made to cri t i c i sePan ini . The Phi t- sutras men ti on the fol lowing geogra

phi cal names — Sankasya,Kampilya,

Nasikya,Darn and

Aghata. Some of these seem to be more mode rn thanPan ini .

There are 134 sutras in the Paribhasa-Patha,a t the

end o f wh i ch i t i s s ta ted tha t every au thor of grammar

cons i de rs shortening h is sutra even by hal f a mat i a

to be as pleasing as the b i r th of. a son . These are

axioms or rules of in terpre tat ion . Such rule s mus t ex i s t

f rom the beginning of the Sutra l i tera ture . Whereve r

there are sutras the re mus t b e rules for i nte rpre ta tion o f

these sutras. The present Pari bhasaPatha i s a collec ti on

mad e in la te r t imes by some unknown author , and thei r

u sefulness being apparent,they have been repeated ly

commen ted upon. E ven be fore Pan in i there ex is ted Par ibhasas . Panin i cn

'

i bodied some Paribhasas in h is sutras .

Katyayana added some , and a large number was add ed

by Patafi j al i . Some o f the Paribhasas supplement ia

fo rmations gi ven i n sutras ,— these are called t apakas ;

o thers cal l ed Nyaya are appl i cable to wri tings other than

grammar .

H e re end s ou r b rie f survey of Pan ini ’s As ta'lhyayi , theworks a tt ri bute d to h im,

and w orks bel onging to h is

school . I th ink that th i s i s the proper place to d i scuss the

question of the Vedangas .

The word Vedanga and i ts d i vi s ion into s ix were

k nown to Kaut ilya and to o ther , ol d authors . The theory

i s that e very Sakha of the Vedas had i ts s ix l imbs c om~

p le te . We find that i n the matter o f Kalpas many Sakhas

o f the Vedas have p reserved thei r Kalpa works . Bu t o f

Vyakarana, we get no Ved ic treat ises . Thei r p lace hasbeen ent i rely taken up by Pan ini . Pan ini

’

s predecessor

Sakatayana, w hose g ramme r has come d own to us,was a

J aina as shown above and the ed i tor says that he has norule for Sm ra So i t cannot be regarded as a

Vedanga. Apisi li i s quoted b o th by Yaska and Pan ini ,and the only in format ion about h i s w ork i s that i t cons i s ted

of eigh t books . As regards S iksa,there are met ri cal

works on th i s subj ect,a large number of which

'

i s a t tri bute

ed to ve ry ve ry old wri ters, and they are d i s tri bu ted over

many Sakh'

as of the Vedas The gene ral Op inion i s that

the Pratisakhyas are S iksa work s and are very ol d . But

G olds tLi c k er say s that they are no t Vedangas and a re late r

than Panini,whi le M ax M uller says that the Prat isakhyas

are older works and the metri cal S i k sas are later . Bu t

Pan in i’

s great work , by i nclud ing the mos t important

p r i nc i ples of S iksa in h is e ight books,has cast both the

me tri cal S iksas and the Prat isakhyas into shade . A t the

p resent day , these works are very l i ttl e s tud ied .

P ingala,the fourth S ct strat'ct ra .

— After Panin i comes

Pingala . He d id for prosody what Pan in i d i d for Vyaka

( 35 )

"rana . He embod ied i n h is work all the rul es of me tre and

made the Chanda work s of d iffe rent Sakhas go ou t of

currency .

D ivyavadanamala i s a collec t ion of Avadana s tori es ,made in the 8 th or the 9 th cen tury A D . Bu t some of the

A vadanas in thi s collec t ion are old . One of these A vadanas

i s Pansapradanamalari a,which means tha t in one o f h is

previous b irths Asoka helped the Buddha of the peri od bygiving h im a hand ful o f d us t ; and the Buddh i gran tedh im a boon that in one of h i s future l ives he would be the

paramoun t sove reign o f the world . This work i s otherwi se

call ed Asokavadana. I t gives the legendary h i s tory no t

onl y o f Asfaka but also o f the whole o f the M aurya

Dynas ty . A soka w as very naughty in hi s ea rly you th .

So hi s fa ther Bindusara . thought of send ing h im to the

Asrama of Pingala Naga . P ingala gave h im a fini sheded ucation and p red i cte d hi s fu ture greatness . The au then

t ic i ty of the book w r i tten many many centuri es a fte r

A soka i s very doubtful . Th is i s the only work wh i ch call s

A sok a , a Ksattriya. I t i s no t know n whe re and by whom

the D ivvavad-anamalaw as comp iled or the Asokavadana w as

w ri t ten . But the trad i ti on embod ied in Kavya -M imamsa

temp ts us to id ent i fy the Gu ru o f A s’

ok a as Pingala,

the fou rth Sastrakara who d i s tingu i shed h imsel f a t

Patal iputra.

l it/Fuj i , f/z a /ift/t Sash a /arc —Pan ini’

s mother was Daksi ,the d aughter of Daksa. Dak sa

’

s son would be Dat st and

Daksa’

s descendants more remote than hi s grand son wou ldbe Daksayana. And Vyadi w as a Daksayana and a near

re la t ion of Panini , possi bly the grea t -grand son or the

g reat great-grand son of hi s maternal uncl e . Thi s Vyad i

w ro te a Samgraha extend ing over‘

s‘ lokas . But

i t i s not known w hether th i s work was wri tten i n prose orin verse , for prose works are often measured by the

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

sft tra. In Nagoj i Bhat ta’

s words agaig‘

u‘

atfaifltai t féiai fsiac

—ci I

Thei r number i s 5032. No Varttikapatha of Katyayana

has as yet come down to us. These Vartti kas have b een all

picked up from Patafi jal i’

s M ahabhasya. Kaiyata in

commenting upon the Mahabhasya quotes 34moreVartt ikas .

So the number of the Vart ti kas known to us i s 5060 in all .But in the absence of a manuscrip t of the Vartti kapathai tsel f i t i s imposs i bl e to say pos i t ively which are vartti kas

and which are no t,and also whether there were o ther

vartt ikas or no t . These vart tikas are a ttached to d ifferentsfltras of Pan ini . Katyayana takes up a entra of Panin i and

adds vartt ikas to i t , to suppl emen t the informati on g i ven i n

Panini , and also to mod i fy tha t in fo rmation accord ing to

h i s own l igh t. In thi s way he cri ti ci ses abou t 1500 sutras

o f Panini . The res t go uncri t ic i sed .

Now the questi on i s why were so many vartti kas

necessary . Pan ini himsel f w as a very careful man H e

d id eve ry th ing to the bes t o f h i s ab i l i ty . Why was then somuch mod ifi cat ion necessary The reasons are— (i) Pan ini

belonged to the Wes t and fili atyayana to the Eas t . The

Katha- Sari t- sagara says that Vararuc i-Katyayana was born

a t Kausamb i which i s only 30 m i l es to the wes t o f the

place where the Ganges and the J umna mee t, and i s on

the southern bank of J umna . ( i i ) Seve ra l generat ions

in te rvened be tween the two . Some of Pairini’

s rules had

become obsole te i n Katyayana’

s t ime new forms of

express ion had come i nto vogue .

Goldst i ick er thinks tha t the Vajasaneya Pratisakhya i s

the work of the same li atyayana who wrote the Varttika on

l ’anini and li e i s pos i ti ve that Katyayana wrote the Prati

akhya fi rs t and then the vartt ika. For he thinks that the

obj ec t o f both these work s i s th e same,vi z . , to cri ti ci se

Pan ini , to th ink of what i s e nable and what i s d uruk ta.

,39

That i s p erhaps one of the reasons why so many rules o f

Panin i go wi thou t cri ti c ism in the varttika. A s I have

sai d before, Goldstt

‘

i ck er does no t think tha t Prat isakhyasare included among the Vedai

'

i gas .

The Katyayanas were a powerful family in t he Eas t

and there were pro fessors of all the Vedas among them.

The Sarvanuk ramani of the fi g -Veda i s by a Katyayana.

There i s a Kalpasn‘

i tra by a Katyayana there i s a Grhya

S i‘

i tra by a Katyayana, though thi s has been superseded by Paraskara-Grhya

-S i‘

i tra so much so,that in

the t rad i t ion o f the pand i ts Paraskara i s sa id to be anothername o f Katvayana. In the Asiat i c Soci e ty ’ s Library

,

how ever,there ar e manuscrip ts based on Katiya Grhya

Sutra which i s d i s tinc t from Paraskara. There i s al so a

trad i t ion among the pand i ts that Katyayana was the las tof the sutrakaras. They regard h i s sutra as the parisistato al l the su tras . Bes ides these

,there a re 18 paris

‘

istas to

Katyayana’

s Kalpasfi tra,all attr ibu ted to Katyayana

h imsel f Some oth er Parisista sutras are al so attri buted

to h im ; these a re cal led Ksepakas , tha t i s,th rown into

the Katyayana Parisista. A l l these belong to th eI

ajasaneya sec tion o f the Yaj urved a , They are au thori ta

t ive both to the Madhvamd inas and th e Kauvas . Chandaga

parisista o f the Samaveda too,i s often attri bu ted to

Katyayana.

I f wha t Goldstuck er says i s correc t , tha t i s , i f Vaj a

saneya Samhi tawas not known t o Pan ini,the whole fam ily

of Katyayana ex cep t perhaps the wri ter of Sarvanuk raman i

woul d come wi th in the peri od under rev i ew i n thi s

chap ter .

The rel at ion be tween Katyayana and Pan in i i s often

m i sunderstood both in Ind ia and in E urope .

fi

This

m i sconcep t i on i n Ind i a has gi ven r ise to the t rad i ti on thatPan ini and Katyayana had a d i sputa tion in the cou rt of

Nanda, in which Katyayana had always the bet te r of

Pan in i but tha t the med ia t ion of God S i va made Panin i

h is Su trakara and Katyayana his Varttikakara. European

cri t ics say that Katyayana was a captions c ri t ic , a hos ti le

c ri ti c and so on. But the real fac t s eems to be tha t Panini

col lec ted al l the fac ts o f the language exi st ing i n hi s t ime

and evol ved sntras for the i r explanat ion . Katya‘

yana also

d id the same . But ins tead o f w ri ting an independ entwork

,he

,as a matter o f conven i ence

,appended h i s cri t i c i sm

to Pan ini’

s rules . Both are mas te r mind s and have la idthe whole world unde r grea t obl igat i on by col lec ting all

the fac ts of a progress i ve language in the i r t ime .

Patanjal i . The seven th and las t Sastrakara menti onedin Kavya-M imamsa i s Patafij al i . A ll that w e know abou t

h is personal h i story i s tha t he was the son of Gon ik'

a'. and

tha t he belonged to the count ry o f Gonarda w h ich the

Vrhat samhi taplaces along wi th Ched i and Kukura in one

ins tance , and wi th Dasapura and Kerala in another . But

he seems to ha ve been very fami l ia r wi th Uj j a in i and

Mahismat i . Set ting from one a t sunri se,one could go to

the other a t sun set . I t i s wel l known that in h i s t ime the

Greek s under M enander bes i eged the ci ty of Saketa and

the country o f Madhyamika, which may mean , as suggested ,

the country round the Udayapura terr i to ry . He d id no t see

i t h imsel f, but could have seen i t i f he l iked . I t i s al so

wel l-known that he was an officia ting pries t in one of the

grea t sacrifices held a t Patalipu tra by Pusyami tra, the

B rahmin general w ho de throned the M aurya dynas ty early

in the 2nd century B . C . and rose to power . He w as in

Kasmi r for some t ime where he ate rice . His habi tual

res idence appears to have been a t some d i s tance from

Patal iputra.

H e l i ved a t a t ime when Asoka’

s ant i -Brahman i c

measures were bea ring mos t d i sas trous frui t s . Asoka

4 1

p roh ibi ted the slaugh ter of animal s even in sacrifices

throughou t h is vast empi re . Th i s w as gall ing to the

Brahmins , especial ly Brahmins professing the Sama -Veda

who were the special prie s ts,so to say , in Somayaga. The

Sungas were the Acharyyas of the Samaveda and they aresta ted in the gotra treati ses to be the product of a Niyogabetween the Gotras of Bharadvaja and Vi s

’

vami tra both

wel l ° known as fighting Brahmins . So there is no doubtthat Sunga Pusyami tra who ki l led Vrhadratha, the last

Rajaof the M aurya dynas ty and assumed supreme power,

was a Brahmin and a Samaved i Brahmin I t i s no t

improbable that on assuming au thori ty he shou ld s ignal i zethe event by the per formance of a horse - sac rific e by

k i ll ing hund reds and thou sands of an imals,

no t only in

the capi tal c i ty,but perhaps in the very pal ace of Asoka ,

from which the firs t Rock Ed i ct prohi b i ting th e slaughter

of an imals was i ssued . There are some who th ink that

the Brahmins were averse to k i ll ing an imals becau se in

some of the Upani sad s there are such statements a s“m f’s

’

enae at trad?” “

stfs’m un it w in

”etc .

, e tc . Against

one or two such s tray expre ssi ons of the Upani sad s , the

au thori ty of the Brahmanas and the Kalpasutras , nay the

whole Sanskri t l i terature prev i ou s to Pusyam i tra may be

cited .

Patafij ah s work i s cal led the Mahabhasya or the Great

Commentary , bu t on whi ch work i t i s d iffi cul t to say . They

are not on the sutras of Pan in i alone If the vartt ikas are

attached only to the sutras of Pan ini , then the vartti kas

g i ven i n the first two ahnikas of the fir st pada of the firs t

adhyaya of the Mahabhasya shou ld not have been included

in the Varttikas of Katyayana I t may be argued that thesecond ahnika treats of the S ivasutras and therefore they

may be regarded as a part and parcel of the Sutrapatha of

Panini . But tha t argumen t does not apply to .

’

the firs t

6

Et hn ika which treats of the ph ilosophy of Sab da and

Ar tha . In one place (ahn ika 1 ) the que s ti on i s rai se d

whe ther Sabda i s eternal or produced by a cause . Paten

j al i says that th is has been princ ipal ly examined in theSar

‘

ngraha and the p ros and con s have al l been

given,and the conclus ion has been, that whether i t b e

ete rnal or produced by a cause , the rul es are appl i cable

all the same . In another place too, ( ahni ka 1) the word

S iddha i s,on the au thori ty of the Sarngraha, interpre ted as

eternal . In another place , while inte rpre t ing some th ing

l ike a Vartt ika ( um s

’

firfi afifigag) Patafij al i mak es an

u ncal led-tor remark u -fimarsar: s traw s ": amas 32 airs£1665 5 ! Hatfi ffi fliafafifiarfl was?“

“The people of the

south a re very fond of Taddh i ta,there fo re ins tead o f

saying ‘loke’

and‘

vede ’ they say , wi th Taddhi ta,

‘

lauk ika’

and‘Vaid ika

’

Now,who i s the Daks inatya referred to

He cannot be Pan ini,a Wes te rner cannot b e Katyayana,

an Easterne r May i t no t be Vyad i M ay no t the whole

of the firs t A hnika be an expos i t ion of the fi rs t porti on o f

the work o f Vy'

ad i,and the whole of the M ahabhasya, an

expos i t ion o f Pan in i wi th Vyadi and Katyayana and

many of the 5066 Vartt ikas be proved to be the d ic ta of

Vyad i There i s one such d i c tum (varttika 3 on Pan in i

I II, i v , 37) in which a vartti ka i s c i ted and cri t ic i sed .

In the fi rs t Ahnika there i s much wh ich Pan ini and

Katyayana would rej ec t as no t fall ing wi th in the prov ince

o f Vyakarana. The S ivasi‘

i tras too,are beyond i ts

province . They properly belong to S i ks z'

i They are no t

included in Panini’

s Sntrapatha. They are the re , s imp ly

because Pan in i wanted to use them i n tha t fo rm. In th eA indra School too

,which i s mos t anc ient and real ly Srau ta,

Sarvavarman begins alfrqmmaz”. He tookas se ttl ed the alphabe t as i t was then used by the p eople .

Sakatayana d id no t take the alphabe t as ac tua ll y used

43

by the people,but took i t in a Sivasr

‘

i tra form. H is

S ivasfi tras are thi rteen and he is more anci ent thanPan in i and wri tes s ti tras for Lauk ika only

,omi t ting (a! )

al togethe r .

In the second ahnika there are many d i c ta in the formof a varttika to which Patafij al i appends elaborate exegesi s .

I t i s suspected that these d ic ta also belong to Vyad i. H e

w as better fi tted than Katyayana to interp re t the S ivasfi traas framed for the benefit o f Pan ini

,being a relati ve .

These d ic ta are couched i n a ve ry respec tful l anguage

From the thi rd ahni ka begin Pan ini ’s sut ras and thevartt ikas of Katyayana m i xed up wi th the d ic ta , apparentlyfrom the samgraha o f Vyad i . For here also we fi nd the

same d ic ta repeated — HEN E'

fififii figrz ag I

A s regard s the s tyle o f M ahabhasya, I may here quotethe words o f D r. Mahabhasya may be

said to be composed in the form of a seri es of d i alogues,

and there can be no doub t that i t s meaning i s best b rough t

o ut by oral d i scuss ions among scholars versed in the

science of grammar .”

The same example,the same principle , and the same

exp lanation are found repea ted seve ral time s in the book ,

The princ i ple of a Vaiyakarana attempting to red uce thesr

‘

i tra i n as few syl lables as poss ible , has no pl ace i n the

Mahabhasya . Though i t i s so,the Mahabhasya i s far from

being d iffuse . The au thor had a large number of au thori

t i es before him and h is obj ec t was to reconci le their v i ews

and to give a sys temat ic trea t ise of Sanskri t grammar,

after the fall o f the empi re of A s’

oka , who systematical ly

encou raged the vernacul a rs . Patafi jal i had before h im no t

only Pan ini ,Vyad i andYaska and al l the au thori ti es quoted

by them , bu t also late r authors l i ke Saunaga and the au thor

o f the numerous Karikas, often quoted in hi s work . H is

pr incipal aim w as tru th , and in find ing out truth h e d id

44

not spare any authori ty , however anci ent and venerable .

I n one place he says— “Thus Bharadvaj a is completely

sen t out o f cour t The theo ry that Pan in i wro te entras ,Katyayana made a hos ti le cri ti ci sm on them and Patafijal i

a ttempted to defend the former i s too neat to be true ,

These were al l seekers of truth and all doing thei r level

bes t to find i t out . There we re others also,cont r i bu ting

their mi te to the solu ti on of l ingui s t i c p roblems Pan ini

rig id ly excluded al l fore ign matte r from h is sfi tras and

made h is work purely grammat ical , that i s , e tymological .In his t ime there w as the obsole te o r obsolescent Ved i cspeech

,the current Sanskri t speech which had some

v igorous exponents , notably,Sakatayana, and the ve rna

onlar speech ment ioned in h is S iksaas opposed to boththe above forms o f speech . But vernacu l ars of Pan ini

’ s

t ime had very l i t tl e l i te rature . A change how ever , came

over the sp ir i t o f these languages in centuri e s subsequen t

to Pan in i . The great upheaval o f the fi fth and the si x th

centur ies p roduced a large and pow erful l i tera tu re and

Patafijali was very anxious to keep the Brahmini c tongue

free from the contamination of the vernacula rs . Perhaps

he w as reques ted to undertake the pur i tani c work by

Pusyami tra himsel f , wi th whom he w as so closely asso

c iated . A ll the Sastrakaras rece i ved encou ragement fromthe S isunagas , Mauryas and Nandas but Patafi jal i seems

to have been speci al ly patroni z ed by the Imperi al revi ver

of Brahmin ism,Pusyami tra.

In his time Patal iputra was a grea t ci ty along the banks

of the Sona . I ts w alls were intac t and so were i ts palaces .

There were men to teach Patal iputra, that i s , there were

gu i des to Patalipu tra . Road s emanated f rom Pataliputra

in vari ous d i rec tions on some o f these there were wel l s

here and there . I t was more splend id than Sanka-

i sya,

but M athura was s ti l l more splend id than Pataliputra.

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t i t

accepting N i x/trimm e d i s obl iga tory , but in (”

tinaft tm na.

the person inv i ted may come or may not .

The usage of the s’

istas i s often appealed to i n theMahabhasya as a s tandard o f puri ty . But who i s a sista“In thi s Aryan set tlement (the Aryavarta) , the B rahminswho lay by one year

’s g ra in-provi s i on,who are no t avari

c ious, who are d i s in teres ted ,who are profici ent to some

extent in any one o f the b ranches o f knowledge— these

vene rable ones are Sietes . These should s tudy the

A stadhyay i , the e igh t books o f Pan ini , but there are some

S istas , w ho even wi thout s tudy ing Astadhyay i at ta in , by

intu i t ion or by the g race of God , the correc t speech .

The Aryavarta of Patafij al i is not the Aryavarta of

Mann . I t i s no t so extens i ve as to incl ude the wholecountry be tween the Himalayas and the Vindhya .

Patafijal i’

s A ryavarta i s l im i ted . I t i s from the eas t

of A darsa (wh i ch I bel i eve,means the place where

the Sarasvat i d i sappears i n the d eser t), to the wes t o f

Kalakavana and from the nor th of Paripatra (a chain o f

mountains j oining the A ravalli H i ll s wi th the V indhya)to the sou th of the Himalayas . A ll people l iv ing outs id ethi s a rea are Sfi dras. So Sakas and Yavavas

,the Sauryas

and Kraunchas,the Kisk indhyas and Gandh ikas are all

sadras . So are Chandalas and M rtapas . So are the

carpenters and smi ths . So are washermen and weaversAmong these those are regarde l as outs ide rs who conta

mina te plates by eating,and the con tam ination i s no t

removed by p uri fi cat ion (samskara) .To exhaus t al l th e informat ion which can be gleaned

from the M ahabhasya i s no t wi thin the scope of the se

lec tures . In the next lec ture yo u wi l l hea r tha t i n

Kant ilya’

s t ime the re were only th ree sys tems of phi l o

sophy Sai i i't hya,Yoga an d I i okayata. Kau t ilya does no t

g ive auv information beyond th i s . But Patafijal i tel ls us

47

that Bhaguri was the l ight of Lokayata . This i s perhaps

fo r the fi rs t t ime that we have a really h istori cal name

among the wri ters of the Lokayata School . Patan'

j ali

al so speak s of anoth er system of Hindu Phi losophy,the

M imamsa and Kasak ritsni w as an em inent Acharyya of

th i s sys tem wi th a large following. A Kasakri tsna was

quoted by Badarayana in hi s Brahmasfi tra and Kasak ri tsn ii s

,accord ing to grammar a son of Kasak ri tsna. Patafi j ali

quotes also the often quoted ve rse of the M ahabharata“Kalah pachat i bh i

’

i tani etc . He speaks of Yudhisthi ra,

Bh ima ,Arj una

,Nak ula

,Sahadeva

,Vasudeva , Satyabhama,

the Kur ti s and Ug rasena. H e names some poems such asVasw adatta, Bhaimaratha, Vararucha

-kavya .

The services of Patafijali in Sansk ri t grammar are

uni versally acknowledged,bu t hi s servi ces as a hi stori an

correc tly record ing contemporary facts are no t to be over

looked . The care ful study of hi s book may lead to moreimportant resul ts and correct many of the theori es

regard ing anc ient Ind ia . One th ing may be sai d here

that the trad i t ion embod i ed in the verse quoted from the

Kavya -M imamsa comple tely re futes the theory of Max

Mul le r that Sansk ri t went to sleep for seven centurie s from

the death o f Buddha to the ri se of the Gupta power in

the 4th century A . D . I t may be s t id that th i s trad i t ion iso f as much wor th as other Ind i an t rad i t i ons

,and that so

much rel iance should no t be placed on i t . I do not th inkthat Indi i n t rad it ions are so a bsolu t ely wor thless and

when th i s trad i t ion i s borne ou t by wel l- au thenti cated

fac ts, Ind ians have every righ t to place absolu te rel iance

upon i t .

The encouragement afforded by the powerful dynasti esof Magadha, n amely the Sisunagas , Nandas , M auryas and

Sungas , enabled the Brahmins to per fect a grammat i

cal system of thei r language in a way whi ch has ex torted

the admi ra ti on o f the phi lologi s ts al l over the world.

The Brahmins worked upon th i s theme from generat i on to

gene ration , from century to century ,ti l l Patafij ali put

the key-s tone on thei r triumphal arch . Every one who has

Stud i ed Sansk ri t gramm tr know s how pat i ent the i r

researches were , how"

ex tensive and ye t how accurate . If

these dynasti es d id nothing else but only encouraged theseB rahmin s , they d id no t ri se into power in vain .

L ecture III .

Chanakya’

s A rthaéd etra .

The d i scovery of Chanak ya’

s A rthasastra i s a very

great event , much g reater than the d i scovery of Yuan

Chw ang’

s Travel s in Western Coun tr i es . Yuan Chwangcame to Ind ia in 629 A . D . and remained here for six teenyears . Kauti lya was a nati ve of Ind i a

,bred up and born

here ; and he flouri shed abou t a thousand years before

Yuan Chwang . Yuan Chwang was a mere t ra veller . a t

best a devou t p i lgrim. But Kautilya w as a pol i t i c ian of

pervading gen iu s and he was the Prime-M in ister of a

great Empi re . Yuan Chwang w as inte rested in Bud.

dhi sm only, and that in i ts higher phases . But Kauti lya

was intere sted in everything Ind i an,Yuan Chw ang w as

a rel igi ous man and looked at Ind ian soci ety from the

rel igiou s po in t o f v i ew . Kauti lya w as an administrator anda man of the world . H is in terest in Ind ia w as that of an

admin i s trator and a patri ot . Yuan Chw ang’

s account of

Ind i a w as part ial and one- s i ded , that of Kauti lya thoroughand many- s ided .

Yet when Yuan Chw ang’

s book w as translated and

publ i shed i t revealed a stratum of soci ety w hich w as very

l i ttl e thought of . It w as read , stud i ed and almost devou red by all student s of Ind ian History ; and i t opened§§favi sta o f research whi ch was enthusi ast i cal ly pursued bymaster -minds of past generati ons , both in Ind ia and

Eu rope . Kautilya’

s A rthasastra has not yet aroused that7

50

en thus iasm for i ts s tudy . Thi s i s,becau se i ts d i scovery

i s very recen t,no t yet twelve years o ld and i ts s tudy i s

no t so easy . The Daéak umarachari ta ju s tly says“H? (as!

and H EQ

I‘IHW FH salsa amuz i afafz ar a sautsfaz imfi”“ That sas tra , they say

,i s dependen t on all sas tras .

W i thou t knowing the whole l i teratu re wri t ten or oral ,i t can not be mastered .

”

That i s the reason why i t has fai led to arouse so far

tha t sort of enthusiasm which Yuan Chw ang’

s charming

narrat i ve d id . Bu t i t d eserves close study for years , be

cause i t w i ll reveal a p i c ture of ancien t Ind i a as i t w as

2300 years ago in every walk of l i fe . Dharma - Sastrasteach us what the soci ety should be— they gi ve the id ealo f a soci ety ; but thi s gi ves the p i cture of socie ty as i t

actually was . There are many th ings in the Artha Sast raw hich we do not see anywhere e lse . There i s much that

i s d i sgus ting,much that i s

,accord ing to our standard

,

immoral . But i t is a t rue p icture , and a tru e p i ctu re has

always a great value , and that value has in th i s case become

enhanced because i t is well d raw n by a master-hand .

W i th th i s preface le t us beg in to examine the work .

It has fi fteen books, 150 Chap ters and 180 top ics ; and

i ts exten t is 6000 sl okas . The books are — (i) On the

Training of K ings ( i i ) On Du t i e s of Governmen t Superintendents

, (i i i) On Ci v i l Laws, ( i v) On Crim inal Law

,

(v ) On conduct of Admin i s t ra t ion , (v i ) On the Sou rces of

st rength of Sovereign States, (vi i ) On Sixfold Pol i ci es , (vi i i )

On Vices and Calami ti e s, (i x ) On Invasion

, (x) On War,

(xi ) On Corporation , (xi i ) On Powerfu l Enemy , (xi i i ) On

Cap tu re of Forts, (xi v) On Secret M eans o f In j u r ing an

Enemy , (xv ) On Techn i cal Terms . In deal ing wi th th ese

subj ec ts the au thor d i splays a wonderful knowledge

of the worl d , of the pas t h i story of the country ,o f the sas tras stud i ed in his time , of the character and

conduct of vari ous races l i ving in the coun try and

around i t,of the s trategi es of war , of the mi l i tary

qual i t i es of the vari ous fighting races and of the minu te

de tai ls of everything connected wi th the admin i s tra tion

of a country . Kaut i lya has a great name even now as an

organ i se r and as an adm ini s t rator . Every clever man is

called a Chanakya whi ch i s the pa t ronym i c of Kauti lya.

H e is often compared to M ach iavelly and Bi smark . What

ever means he m ight employ , scrupulou s and unscrupul~

ous,v i r tuous o r vic ious

,cruel or benevolen t

,his sole aim i s

the peace and prosperi ty of the Empi re ; and in h is m ind

the interests c f the count ry and of the k ing and of the

p rime m ini s ter ar e iden t i cal .It i s a p i ty that we do no t know much abou t the

personal h i s to ry of such a great master of Pol i t i cs . Some

represent h im as a very black and ugly person . But his

d i sciple Kamandak a descri bes h im as Sudars‘a,a handsome

presence . Ind ian t rad i t ion represents h im as very

revengefu l . He i s represented as attempting to destroy thewhole speci es of Kusa grass

,because one of. the Kusa need le

pri cked h im and thus d i squal ified h im for the momen t for

h is ancestra l aradh . He is also sai d to have destroyed thedynasty of the Nandas , becau se the last o f the Nandas

\/insul ted h im on the occasi on of h is father ’s Sradh cere

mony . The present work gives some evidence to the tru thof that t rad i t i ons

,when

,i t says that he uprooted the

Nandas to avenge himsel f . The Mu draRaksasa representsh im as a poor Brahmin always m ind ful to the detai l s ofVed i c Ceremonie s , l i v ing in thatched hut

,on the roof

of which cakes of cow-dung were drie d for ceremon i al use .

As a Brahmin he l i ved by teach ing hi s pup il s tak ing no

advantage of h is posi t ion as Prime-M in i s ter of a great

empi re . He w as proud of hi s b i rth as a Brahmin and

addressed h i s Emperor as Vrsala or Sudra . He i s re

52

presented as always anxious to ret i re to pri vate li fe and

employ all the great ene rgy of hi s m ind to the dut i es of aBrahmin . But hi s Emperor was grateful to him for his

eminent services , appreci ated the great qual i t i es of

his head and heart and always treated h im as h is precep

tor. Taranath tel ls us that Kautilya ret i red from Premi er

ship on Bindusara’

s attaining maj ori ty and assuming

! the reins of Governmen t .

Thi s i s in exact consonance wi th the teach ings of our

book in Adhyaya 5 , Chapter v i , PrakaranaN

-x v : In th i s

Prakarana Kauti lya speaks of the common interest of

the king and the Prime-M ini s ter . His teach ing in th i s

connect i on is that when the king i s on h is death -bed,the

Prime-M in ister shou ld gi ve ou t that the k ing i s engaged insome rel igi ous ceremony for the prosper i ty of h is ki ngdom,

for the defeat of hi s enemy , for hi s longev i ty or for the

b i r th of a son, He should al low somebody el se accompan i edw i th al l the paraphernal i a o f royal ty to s i t in the cour t after

cons iderable intervals and make h im spea k to the cour ti ersthrough h is ow n sel f ; or i f there i s an hei r-apparent , he

shou ld gradually del egate powers o f admini s tration to himand then d i sclose the news of the k ing’ s death . Kaut i lya

th inks that the in terest of the king and of the Pr ime

M in i s ter shou l d be ab solutely id ent i cal .“No

,

” says Bharadvaja, an old er au thori ty,when the

king i s on h i s death-bed , the Prime-M ini s te r shou ld set upthe princes and ch i e fs aga ins t one another and then have

them mu rd ered by rousing the subj ects aga ins t th em or

by assass inating them, he should se i z e the re ins of Government . For the sake of Government sons r i se against the i r

fa ther and fathers agains t the i r sons . Why shou ld th e

Prime-M in i s te r , the p i lo t of the k ingdom should m i s s th eoppor tun i ty wh ich has presen ted i tsel f to h im The common

saying is . A woman mak ing love of he r ow n accord,

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( 54

protec t his fami ly and weal th . If the k ing falls under theev i l influence of (intrigu ing ) chi efs , he shou ld

, as he i s

an expert in pol i ti cal economy , enl i gh ten the prince by

means of h is tory and legend s in a way agreeabl e to him

or assuming the garb of a sain t he shou ld try to bring thep rince und er his influ ence by showing h im mi racles

, and

doing so,shou l d take coersive measu res against the

sed i t i ous .

Kauti lya’

s d i sagreemen t wi th Bharadvaja and th e sta tement of Prime -M in i s ter

’

s du t i es at a cr i t i cal t ime when

the king i s on h is'

death-bed , shows how d eeply loyal hewas to the Empi re , to the good of whi ch he does nothesi tate to sacrifice h imsel f . He asks the Prime -m in i ster

to be of unswerv ing loyal ty to the king under all c ircums

tanc es , even though he is d i scarded . He ask s h im to be

absolute ly selfless in serv ing the Emp i re , denying himse l fal l the g ood th ings of the world , when he i s vi rtually the

master of the empi re . Even in h is ret i remen t when he i s

engaged in sacr ifices and in Yoga practi ce , his sole thoughti s the good of the Empi re he has reared up . Such a Pr ime

M in i s ter i s rare and such w as Kaut ilya alone . Ind ian

trad i t ion,fragmentary though i t i s, remembers h im in

thi s selfless character

At the end of th e Chap ter X of the second book

Kau ti lya says

uaimtamaam m anual: i t i P”M a fla i r

”

firfid z era: u

Having fol low ed all sc i ences and having observed prac ti ceal so

,the ru l es of d rawing up wri ts are framed by Kautilya

for the benefit of Narend ra (Lord ofThi s ascr i bes the au thorsh ip to Kautilya, bu t i t d oe s

not name the k i ng for whom i t was intended . That pi ece

55

o f in formati on i s afforded by the Dasakumarcha'

ri ta of

Dand in in the 8 th Chapter,in the following words

mire araq m fitfirm w fixz fi‘

fiq W W

Rea d Dandani t i . Thi s h as ju st now been presen ted inan ab r i dged form extending to 6000 slokas by fi charyyaVisnugupta for the benefi t of M au rya . Th i s leaves

li t tl e d oub t as t o the name of the k ing . He w as Chandra

gupta M au rya,whose Pr ime -M in ister Kaut ilya w as

,

accord ing to all Indian trad i t i ons . Th e A rtbasatra says

the au thor w as Kauti lya, whi le Daaak umara says , he w as

Visnugupta. But they were no t two d ifferen t personsBecause at the end , th e au thor h imsel f says

w fivfsufi f agar mé g m aximum

W e faw an gara um'

a u

Having seen d i screpanci es in many ways on the part

of the wri ters of Bhasyas on the Sas tras,Visnugupta

has h imsel f wri tten both the Sutra and the Bhasya. If

the au thor desc ri bes h imsel f at one place as Kauti lya and

at another place as Visnugup ta, Kauti lya and Visnugupta

must be one and the same pe rson . But w as the au thor

really the Prime-M ins ter of Chand ragupta in the 4th

century B . C . ? An answe r to thi s i s afforded by ano ther

verse at the end of the last chapter

afl mw ufi'

a m m amu

mémm fia wmfnz m n

Thi s Sastra has been mad e by h im who under provoca

t i on qu i ck ly rescued from chaos the sci ence of pol it ics

and o f w ar, as well as the earth from the bands oef thNandas .

”

56

Kamandaka,an anci en t au thor i ty on pol i t i cs i s more

ex p l ic i t in g i ving us an a ccoun t of the A rthasastra and

i ts author. He says

Q ififi fim ean a: sum afamfmnz Ii ns ert W e: W W fifafiq

afimaeimwusl z fi z u

eggs? am ?! fw gmu it s?! u

mfififaq 3 02m : t rafimfa’ z i us

Salu tat i on to Visnugupta, the ve ri tabl e Prov idence,

pow erful l ik e thunde rou s fire , by whose thunder - l i ke ri t es ,fe l l root and b ranch the moun ta in- l i ke Nanda Dynas ty

,

firm in all i ts pol i t i cal s t ra ta ; who , l ik e Kar tt ik eya invalour , s ingle -handed , procu red by d in t of h i s s tatesman

ship the w hole earth for Chand ragupta ; who , from the oceanl i ke sci ence of pol i t ics churned out

,so to say

,th e nectar

of pol i ty . From the ob servat i on of that hand some p resencewho has seen the end of sc i ences

,I shal l teach something

that has been accepted by the experts o f pol i ti cal sc i ence .

”

Ki mandaka speaks of Visnugup ta as one , who des t royed

the Nanda Dynasty and in s talled Chand ragup ta on the

throne . The age of Kamandaka i s no t known . Bu t beM s u

'~a l ‘

anvaw .n «fifi fl

does no t seenr

'z t

'

g’ fbefi ar“

dist an t'

in t ime from h is great

master . A p erusal of h i s Ni tisara creates an impres

si on that he was Visn ugup ta’

s d i rec t d i sc ip le . All the

pu ranas which give an account of th e dynas ti es o f the

Kal i Era speak of Chanakya as the des tro yer o f the

Nandas and helper o f the cau se of Chand ragupta . Visnu

p urana,whose acco unt of t he dynasti es i s ve rr short ,

gi ves the same accou nt more expl ic i tly .

The personal n i me o f the a uthor i s Visnug up taf The.

name Chanakya ,he d eri ved fr om h is fa th er ’ s name,(

‘hana

ka,and the name Kaut i lva , from h i s gotra H emachandra

confound s h im wi th Vats i vaua . But H emachandra i s

evident ly wrong,as o ne canno t b ear two gotra names

i e . Vatsayana and Kaut i lva. H e i s o ften confounded

wi th Vatsavana,the a uth o r o f t he Bhasva comm en tary

o n the Gau tama Sut ra Bu t thi s also i s untenable . For ,

Vatsayanaquotes a verse which runs thus

naa: s éfimfli s um: 113mm I

mam: mis shmt fw fifi i nahffiu: n

Now,

the re i s a ve rse in th e A rthasas tra at t he end o f th e

firs t chap te r called V irlyasamudde éa, or Vidd vod de Sa

wh i ch runs thu s

Hahn: W ants : assassinate I9

up“ : uésflinmt m fi fi afi m u u

Evidently i t i s Vatsayana w ho quo te s .

Thus fa r a bou t the a uthor , h is book , hi s king ,and h is

enemy .I proc e ed ne w to give a fe w lessons w e c an

ga ther from the book. ( i ) The fi rs t lesson we learn 18 tha t in Chanak va

’

s

t ime 'i .e .

the lat ter hal f of the 4th century B C . th e

A tharva-Veda had no t ye t acqu i red the same hol d on the

mind of th e Brahm ins as the same , Rik or the Yaj us . It

ha d ano ther associate ,the l t i hasa’Veda. The line runs

thus

tmmiyg'

i’

mm l aafi éfasmé i‘ m item

The Vedas , Sama , Rik and Yajus , these three consti tu te

58

Trayi There are two more , A tha i'va-Veda and It ihasa

Veda . These are the Vedas .

”

So i t seems that in Chanakya’

s t ime there w as a taste

for History— and that h i story i s not the H i s tory in i t s

narrow sense,

o f the mere s tatemen t of facts and

chronology,but hi story in i ts widest sense as accep ted in

modern times . He g i ves the defin i t ion of Hi story in these

word s

W ufasflurc-mfuafit z i sw Winnie mini? fifi‘

lfas m: i

I t ihasa means and includes old trad i ti on,reco rd s of

e vents,stori es , i llus tra ti ve anecdo tes

,religiou s and

civ i c law and pol i ti cal sci ence and th i s h i s tory ranked

as one of the Vedas,equal i n au thori ty w i th the

A tharva—Veda.

( i i) A nother lesson we learn i s tha t Sel ma-Veda o ccu

pi es the first pos i t i on l n t he Tray i , whi le Ri k -Veda has

be en g i ven that posi ti on all through the Ved i c peri od.

That i s ra the r cu ri ou s . O ther Vedas , i n Sayane’s word

,

l i v ed on the Rig -Veda . In the Yaj ur-Veda there a re

so many Ri k s from the Rig-Veda and the Sama-Veda i sreal ly the Rik s se t to mu s ic . Then why shoul d Chanakya

go ou t of the way and gi ve the fi rs t place to Sama Veda ?

Curiously enough . Sri -Krishna i n h i s Bhagavat-Gi ta doesthe same . He i dent ifies himself wi th the Sfima-Ved ’a

(Vedanam Sama-Vedosm i ) The reason i s no t far to seek.

In the Brahmana li tera ture and in the Sutras,Pasu-Yajna

and Soma-Yajna are more elaborately treated of than Havi r

Yajna which does no t d eri ve much assi s tance from theSamans . A ll the sac rifici al ri tes d escri bed in the Pal i Buddhi st Li te rature requ i red immolati on of an imal s

,i t appea

rs

that in the E as t , originally t he coun try of the Vratyas ,Saman was held in greater reverence ; and Sama -Ved ing

were more influent ial . I t is a w el l-known fact tha t i t

was a S i mavedi Brainh in ,Pushyam i tra of the Sunga Gotra,

who destroyed the M au ry a Emp i re Probably Chfinakya

w as also a S z'

i ni aved i Brahm in

( i i i ) Chanakya’

s Arthasas tra i s based on works of

previous wri ters on the subj ect ; and i n the very firs t

chapter,cal led V idyasamuddesa ,

he names tou r school s,

which mu s t have taken many cen tu r ies to deve lop . The

rudes t and the c rudes t of these School s i s a t tr i bu ted to

Usanas or Suk racharyya who is for tha t reason known as

the p recepto r of the A suras , the demons . H e te aches

tha t the k ing ’ s only d u ty i s coe rt io n,condine pun i shmen t ,

assass inati on and massacre,in o ther words frigh tfu lness .

The next School a tt r i bu ted to Vrhaspat i , the preceptor ofthe Gods , add s Van s to Danda or c oert i on . Vart

‘

a is

agri cu l ture,commerce and pastu re . Thi s is certainly

more h umane than mere c o ert io n . The next Sc hoo l .

at tribu ted to the Manavas,add s I’ ray i or the Three Vedas ,

which had a much more soften i ng influence than Vartaand

Danda . The last School repre sen ted by (Thanakya add sA i i v i ksh ik i or Phi losophy ,

and in cludes in i t th e A tharva~

Veda and the It ihasa too . The developmen t of poli t ica li deas from mere coe rt ion to H i s tory Phi losophy and the

Vedas mus t have taken cen tu ri es . The idea of govern

ment i n al l p rim i ti ve soc i e t i es i s mere protecti on of person and proper ty . In the nex t s tage the encouragem en t

of trad e,agri cul tu re

,commerce and indu s try i s added .

Next comes encou ragemen t of educati on of a reli giou s

and social charac ter . Last of all , comes secu lar edu cati on

of al l sorts . Thi s i s the h i s tory of the development ofpol i t i cal i d eas in Eu rope from th e M i dd l e A ges to modernt imes . Chanakya

’

s i dea o f g overnmen t appears to be

the same as tha t of the modern age ; and i t i s easy

to infer how many cen tu ri es elapsed from Usanas to

Kautilya.

(i v) - The A rtha‘

s'

astra says that AnVJ ksiki means and

i ncludes samk hva,Y oga and I iokayata. From thi s i t i s

apparent that Nyaya Vai s’

esi ka and the tw o M imamsas

w ere no t then regarded as schools of thought . Thi s i s

somet imes mi sunderstood For the word An vi ksik i in

modern Sansk ri t means only Nyaya-Sas tra , Logic . What

the Samkhya and Yoga doc trines were in the four th

centu ry B C . ,we have no means to ascer ta i n . For , the

books extant are much later . The only au th en t i c Samk hya w ork i s the 70 Kari kas o f Is

’

vara-Krishna , composed

i n the 5 th cen tury A . D . or earl i er and the Yoga -Sutras

are cer ta inly no t old er . But these systems were old . The

success ion of teachers in the Samkhya School i s long,and quotat ions from many of them have be en found in

anci en t Sanskr i t p h i losoph i cal l i teratu re . Th e G i ta, the

Kathopan isad and othe r works con ta in a sy s tem of“

S imk hya philosophy di ffering grea tly from that of Isvara

Krishna . So the system took many centu ri es to develop .

That Vaisesika, Nyaya and Uttara cam e l ater

has been proved . Bu t the same th ing canno t be sai d"

abou t the Purva -M imamsa, which is a d i rec t ou tcome o fthe Bi ahmna and th e Sutra l i tera ture of

'

th e Ved i c school s .

Bu t Chanak ya seems to h ave omi t ted i t,becau se i t w as

no part of the Raj avi dya. Bu t the same cannot be true

of the Nyaya and the Vaisesika, which every prince

shou ld s tud y even in preference to Samkhya and Yoga'

(J hanakya d i d no t men t i on them becau se they d id no t

exi s t at h is t ime . There are certain techn i cal terms of

Nyaya and Vais’

esika whi ch are no t expla ine d in the

techn i cal sense by Chanakya . They seem not to have

assumed that techn i cal sense in hi s t ime .

(v) Chanakya e i i j oins to the Sud ras servi ce of the threeh igher cas tes , Var ta (or sk i ll ed labour) and

,

profession of

actors . So he makes actors Sud ra s. But they always

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62

in the same pos i t i on at Chanak ya’

s t ime as i t i s now . So

wri ting mus t have been evolved some time be tween the

Grh y a S i‘

i tras and Chanakya ; how long before Chanakya

i t i s d ifficul t to say . I t mu s t have been very early . For

there a re i nscrip t i ons o f Bud dha ’s t ime or even earl i er .

A nd Vasistha’

s D harina- Sut ra which i s P i e -Buddhi s t speak sof Lc/t hya or wri t ten documen ts as the bes t evid ence in a

law - su i t . But wri t ing was very gene ral in Chanak ya’

s t ime .

Fo r King ’s Ed ic ts used to be wri tten . There w as an

officer called Lek hak a close by th e k ing . The accoun tan t s

used to send the i r accounts i n the Aud i t office in sealed

books,the word u sed be ing Pu staka . In cou r ts o f law

there were w ri ters,and they u se d to be fined for no t

wri t ing what was sta ted by witnesses o r wr i t ing what was

no t sta ted . So in the 4 th cen tu ry wri t ing was no t onlygeneral ly bu t very extensi vely used i n all affa i rs of l i fe

and boys u sed to be taught wri t ing from the 4 th or 5 th

year of thei r l i fe,j us t as now .

The chapter on wri t ing ed i c ts speaks of penmansh i pan d d i scou rages bad wri ting . The Sutra runs thu s

as mauamuaivfiaufatmia t aumifin: l

Akanti o r bad handwri t ing i s wr i ti ng on black leaves‘

l ll ( l w ri t i ng no t good to look at , wi th th e l e tte rs o f'

unequal

s i ze and care lesslv d rawn . Th is i s j us t th e Opposi te o fwhat g o od penmanship should be . Tha t i s d efined inlate r l i t era tu re in these word s

su lfa s s xfiuifu sulfa fan c iful a

The le t te rs shoul d be of equal s i z e wi th thei r tops in the

same s traigh t l i ne and shoul d be cl osely set tog ether eachl e t ter bei ng d i s t inc t .”

As to the wri ting materials , they w ere evi d en tly leaves

63

becau se Kaut ilya uses the word P e tra i . e . leaf , — leat'

of

what he d oes no t say . But i t i s most p robabl e th at palml eaves w ere used . They were of two kinds , narrow and

b road calle d Tala and Tede t . Both these k inds of palms

are i nd igeno us in the M alabar Coas t and d o no t grow in

No rthe rn Ind ia wi thou t cul tu re . Palm- trees are to befound in Nor the rn Ind ia on ly in the vi cin i ty of inhab i tedlocali t ies and no t elsew here . It may be tha t the cu l tureof palm—t re e fol lowed th e i nt roduct ion of the ar t of wri ting

in No rthern Ind i a .

( v i i ) A t Kaut ilya’

s t ime hi s to ry was extensi vely cu l ti

vated and ,as has been s tated be fore , i t was regard ed as

the Fi fth Veda . Bu t very l i t tle of that ex tensi ve l i teratu rehas come down to us . The only remnant is to be found in

the hi s tor ical chap ters of some of the Puranas,v i z M atsya

,

Vayu ,Brahmanda , Garuda , Visnu and Bhagavata . Bu t

they al l re ferred to one Purana,th e Bhavisya Puran . M r.

Pe rg i tar has worked up these chap ters in h is now classi cal

work “ Dynas ti e s of th e Kal i yuga Era One pecul iari tyof the se chap ters i s that whil e in othe r dynas ti es th e names

only of the k ing s are gi ven,the dynasti es of M agadha

con tai n the dura t i on of the reigns of the kings also . That

shows that. the art of wri t ing h i s to ry w as a pe c u li ar featu reof Magadha. In Kaut i lya

’

s book we get mu ch in forma

ti on abou t. his tor i cal facts , w hi ch are not known from

other sou rces . When he speaks of the even ts s tated in theRamayana and in the M ahabharata we a re bound to inferthat the s tor i es were recorded in some chap ter or other

of these books . But there are many facts no t to be found

in them . H ere 1 8 a li s t of some of these facts

Dandak ya,a pr ince of Bhoj a , d i shonou ring a Brahm in

gi rl throug h pass ion ,peri shed wi th his emp i re and. rela

t i ons th is i s found i n some recens i ons of the Ramayana .

So d i d Karala of the Vai deha tri be J anamej ay came to

gr i ef by h is vi ol ence to Brahmins in a fit of anger. So

64

d id 'l’

alajar'

i gha by h i s viol ence to Bhrigu . A i l n peri shed

on accoun t o f rob bing the fou r castes through avari ce

So d id A j abindu . the Sau v ira. Arj una , a Haihaya prince

puffed up wi th p r id e d i sgraced mankind and peri shedIn toxi ca ted wi th p rosperi ty Vatap i t reated Agas tya w i th

c o ntu inely and was ru ined . So were the Vran ie by thei r

contemp tuou s treatment of Dv,aipayana ( I , 6 ,p l l ) .

A b ro the r ki ll ed Bhadrase na conceal ing himsel f in

the room. o f the qu een a son k il led Karusa,hid ing h imsel f

in the bed of h is mo ther ; the queen ki l led Kasnaj a byfri ed g ra in s teeped i n poi son ins tead of honey wi th anklet.

smea red w i th poi son the qu een ki ll ed Vairatnya wi th

poi so ned gem o n he r w ai s tband ,the queen ki lled Sau vi ra ;

w i th a poi soned looking -glass J alud ha w as ki ll ed by h is

queen ; Viduratha w as k i ll ed by h is qu een wi th weaponsconceal ed i n her h ai r

”

These are fac ts remote both in time and in place,and

the fact of s tr inging them toge the r shows an extens i ve

knowledge of h i s tory .

(vi i i ) Sculptu re se ems to have -made when progress when

thi s w ork w as wri tt en . For in every fort,at the centre ,

there u sed to be temples of the fol lowing g od s z — Aparaj i ta,

Aprat i hata,J ayan ta,

Vaij ayanta , Si va , Vaiéravana,the

A svins,S ri and Mad i ra. orthese si va i s s ti l l worsh ipped

,

but mo re in hi s phal l i c emblem than i n h is image .

Vaisravana a fter many v i ss ic i tude s has become Kuvera .

The A svins w e re we ll -know n Ved ic d ei ti es . Sri i s Laksmi .

O th e rs are no t at p re se n t wo rs h ipped . In the corners are

ins ta lled the Vas tude vatas i . e . th e Vasus . Last come the

g uard ian d e i t i e s o f the qua rte rs ,these are certainly images .

The p rincipal g ates were named a fte r Brahma,Indra,

Yam -a and Senapa ti , M os t p ro ba b ly th ere were images of

th e se god s near them .

(i f)

.I ust preced ing the se , conta in ing the names of d ei t i esthere i s a passage wh ich runs thu s

which has been thus rendered by the translator Tothe North ,

the royal tu telary dei ty of the ci ty.i ronsmi ths

,

art isans w or k ing on preci ou s s tones as wel l as Brahmi ns

shal l res id e”

. The t ranslat ion need s some mod ificati on .

The w ord‘

devata’

be ing in the mi ds t of a Samasa shou ldmore fitly be taken wi th Karu i . e . arti sans

,meani ng the

makers o f images of god s for the ci ty and for the roval

house Thus i t w oul d imply the exi s tence of image -makersi . e . sculp tors .

In anothe r part of the book images o f Nagas have beenment i -med . These are certa inly no t wooden images ;because wooden images are separately ment i oned in

conne c t ion wi th the bed - chamber of the k i ng in the palace,

where they are carved on wooden door- frame s . If theyw ere no t wooden , they mu st be of s tone . But s tone

im ages a re of two sor ts,in has - rel i e f o r i n the round .

In one case i t i s express ly stated that i t was i n the round .

Nara -p ratima, t he image of serpen ts descri bed in page252lis sai d to have a hole in i t and that hole i s no t poserble

‘

i n has- rel i e f .

The de i t ies ment ioned are no t all of them,Ved ic

d e i t ies . They are mos tly Pauran i ka. In the Vadas we

do no t hear of images . Image-worship i s a pos t-Ved icdeve lOp inent and t he less the n umber of Ved ic de i ti es

,

the greate r the d is tance from Ved ic age . Siva w ou ld bethe most conspi cuou s because he i s Iéana,

he i s M ahadeva

he i s Eka-Vratva and he got Sarv va,Bhava and other five

servi tors from the qu arters,as we know from the Vratya

chapter of the A tharva Veda . He is the great dei ty of the

9

66

V i atyas .We are to i nfe r from th i s that gi va -wo rsh ip in

images developed du ri ng the inte rval be tween the Ved i <

age and the 4 th cen tury 8 . O . Indra , Brahma and

Vaiéravana were held in great reverence in Buddha’

s

t ime . In dra was the Lord of the Trayatrirh sa heaven

wi thin the Kamavac aralo ka or the worl d of d esi re .

Brahma, Sahampat i , had a heaven ass igned to him

in the world of form,beyond the world of d es i re s ;

and Vaiéravana i s one of the l ’Iaharajas w ho s tand as a

connect ing l i nk be tw een the earth and heave n .

Sri is ment i oned in one of the Khil as of the Bg-Veda,and

she alw ays he ld a place of mode rat e reverence th rough all

th e ages . A évini k umaras have now d i sappeared from the

Pan theon and i s know n on ly as the or iginator of M ed i cal

sci ence of the Hindus . They were . the model s o f beau ty,

bu t in that character they are no longer remembered .

Senapati i s no t know n in the vedas . His w orsh ip developed after the gi va legend . Cu riou sly enough , Visnu does

no t appear at al l in the Arthast'

i st ra. So is Ganesvara

(i x) Kaut i lva d id no t know Panin i There are many

express i on in hi s work w h i ch are no t app roved byPan in i . He w ri tes Krivam for Ku rvyam . When u s ing

grammat i cal techni cal te rm s he uses the terms of the ol d

g rammari ans , fo r ins tance , whe n speak ing of par ts of

speech,he uses Namak hyatopasarganipatah an d no t

Pan in i ’s te rms Suvan ta and'

l‘

rfian ta Pan i n i ’s book was

certain ly w ri t ten before Chanak va bu t i t had no t then

the cu rrency i t acqu i red a cen tu ry or two l ate r,when

Katyayana w rote hi s Vart t i ka,Vyad i , hi s Samgrah a and

Patafijal i h is Bhasya. I t i s a fte r Patafi j al i that Pan i nio b tained un i ve rsal cu rrency .

( X) It has been alre ad y s ta ted that the re w ere fou r

schools of pol i ty . But w e have | 8 d itl e re n t au tho rs

q uo te d in t he work be s i d es Ac harvva wh ich M r . Sham

Sastry j us tly consi ders as hi s own teacher . H e i s more

often at vari ance wi th hi s ow n teacher than wi th others,

and that in many of the books . He i s a t variance wi thM anu ,

Vrhaspat i and Usanas in the book of Vinaya or

tra in ing of kings and in the book of ci v i l law. He does

no t quote any other wri te r on c i vi l law excep t hi sAcharyya . C uriously enough

,these very three are the

propounders of d ifferen t schools of Ar thasastra. The

quotat i ons are no t f rom me trical Smrti but from Sut ra

works . They are gene rally named in the plural .There i s another body of names i n the singu l ar on pu rely

pol i t i cal matter . They are I-j haradvaia,Risalak sa

,Para

sara , Pis’

una and Vatabyadh i and Bahudant i . In several

con trovers i es they are quoted in the same ord er . In one

p lace Ambh i ya i s ad ded in the p lural a t the end . The

orde r seems to be chronological . One seems to improve

upon the i d eas of the other . For ins tance,Bharadvaj a

say s that class - friends shoul d be made m in i ste rs . No,

says Bisalaksa they may no t obey h im. Those w ho are

i nt imates and know each othe r’

s secrets shou ld beappoin ted No

,says Paras

’

ara,the secre ts are mu tual .

The k i ng also wil l h e i n the i r ha nds as they in his .

A ppoi nt those w h o are tri ed in d ifficu l t i es . No,says

Pis’

nna, thi s i s d evotion and no t in tellect . A ppoint thosewho c an show e ffic i ent work in admi ni s tra ti ve matters .

No,says Kaunapadan ta for they may no t have other qual i

ficatio ns of m in i s te rs . Appoin t d escendants o f old m in i sters No

,says Vatabyadh i , they may dom ineer . A ppoin t

new men . They wi ll be i n con st an t d read of thei r

mas ter .No

,say s Bahudant i , they may make b lunders .

Appoint men of the best fam i ly and wi th highes t ac c om

pl ishmen t s . Kauti lya says , every one i s right . Appointthose

'

men who are fi t .

There i s another set of names gi ven once only ,

68

Katyayana, Kan i ka , Bharadvaj a,D i rgha

-Oharayana,

G ho tamuk ha,Kifij i lka, I’ isuna and son of P i s

’

una. But

Kaut i lya does no t exhaus t the l i s t . These men al l speak

o f the consequences o f the d i sp leasu re of k ings but

they speak in en igmat i c language . Thei r s tatemen ts are

only u nderstood by those who know moral s tor ie s as gi ven

in t he Naod i -Sutra of the Jainas and the Budd h i s t Jataka

s tor i es Of these , G hotamukha has a mum in hi s name in

the Di gha -Ni kaya and Digha-Karayana i s ment i oned in a

Pal i Cano l i ical work as my fri end BimalaOharan Law has

in formed me . They are regarded as pol i t i c ians and

wise men .

Kaut i lya has no mercy for the sed i ti ous . They a re to

be d es troyed anyhow and as i t i s hard to pun i sh them

openly,they are secre tly to be puni shed by assass inati on

,

and for thi s purpose spi es are to be emp l oyed in any

n umber . In every depar tment of the s tate there were

sp ie s to watch ove r the proceed ings of the officers

sp i e s wi th amp le power . Spies are to be i n every ci tyand everywhere . Kaut i lya

’

s spy - sys tem was wonde rfu l .To the las t moment

,Raksasa in M ad ra—Raksasa d id no t

know that hi s mos t confid ent i al fr i end Bhag urayana was

al so a spy of Kaut ilya He bel i eved in cruel ri tes p resc ribed in the A tharva-Veda and has de vo ted an en t i r e

bo o k on these . He uses M an tras o the r than Ved i c

These M ant ras d iffe r cons i d e rab ly from the modern

Tantri c man tras . They have no mono svllabic form such

as ‘ h urh ’ ‘

phat’ e tc These man tras

,the r i tes and

ceremon ies correc ted wi th them and numerous med ic inal

substances are pu t toge the r fo r the pu rpose o f p ro d ucingevi l c onsequence s on the enemy

,in one book

,th e 14th

(and i t i s ca l led the Upan isad . )Bu t t he mos t inte res ti ng pa rt o f the work i s the 2ud

book cons i s ting of 36 chap ters It opens wi th the colon i za

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an armou ry and a j ai l There shou ld be a m in t no t

only to coin money bu t also for the purpose of manufac

tur ing ornamen ts of gold and s i l ver under the control

of royal superintenden ts . Stri c t regu la ti ons were

mad e that the gold sm i ths may no t ch ea t the i r

cus tomers . No p rec ious me tal was to be purchased a t

the m ine . Wi d ows,cripp led women

,gi rl s

,female

mend ican ts , w omen w ork ing in defau l t o f fines,mothers

of pros ti tutes,ol d mai d - servant s o f the k ing

,temp le -gi rl s

who have left the templ e sho ul d be empl oy ed to c ut wool,

fibres,cot ton

,hemp and s i lk . They may be mad e to

work on hol iday s on extra w ages . Those women who do

no t st i r ou t o f the i r houses , those whose hu sbands have

gone abroad,those who are c rippl ed or mere gi rl s

,may ,

when ob l iged to w ork for b re ad , be p rov i d ed wi th su i tablej obs through the med ium of ma i d s ervants . Those

w omen who can presen t themsel ves at the weaving-h ou se

shal l a t dawn be enab led to exchange the i r sp innings for

w ages . Light j us t enough to exam ine the thread shall

be k ep t . If the supe rintendent look s a t the face of su ch

w omen o r talks abou t any othe r w o rk,he shal l be fi ned

heavi ly,and more heav i ly i f he d e lays paymen t or pay s

for work no t yet d one . A n e s tabl isl‘

nnen t l i ke thi s may

be immensely u seful in these days o f h igh p ri ce o f cloths,

as s ugge s ted by the h i g h p ri ces Comm i t tee of Bengal .The sk i ll o f anci ent Ind ian agricu l tu ri st s i s ev idenced

by the following statement From th e Sun,the sp rou t

ing o f seed s c an be tol d from the J up i ter , the bu nchi ngof crops

,from Venu s the ra in fal l i s for e told

A bo u t l iquor- shops .

" ‘ Liquo r - shops shou ld con tain

m any ro oms,p rovi d ed wi th beds and seats . The b ed

room sho ul d con tain flower , water and o the r thi ng s as

su i t the season . Sp i es s tati oned at the shops shal l

asc ertain whethe r the expend i ture incurred by the auv

71

cus tomers i n the shop i s ord inary or e x tm o rd i narv and al so

whether there are any s trangers . They shal l a lso asoer

tain the valu e of the d ress , ornamen ts and gold of

the cus tome r,ly ing there insens i ble under the in

fluence o f w ine . If they lose anything , the shop - keepers hall have to make i t g oo d and pay an ad d i ti ona l fine .

M erchants seated in half - c losed room s shou l d observe theappearance o f local and fo re ign cus tomers who in real or

false gui se o f Aryas s lee p th e re, wi th thei r m i s tresses .

S laughter- Hou se z such as cal f, bull or m i lch

co w s ha ll no t be sl a ughtered . He w ho slaughters or

tortures them to death s ha ll be fined 50 pane s .

Muni cipal Regula t i o ns of Chari tableIns t i tu t i o ns shal l send i n fo rmarm o to the. S than ika or Gopa

as to any here tics or Pasandas and t rave l lers arr i ving to

res i de there in .

Whoeve r th rows d i rt in the stree t shall be pun i shedwith lgth of a papa . Whoever causes m i re or water to

collec t i n t h e s t reet sha ll be fine d Ji th o f a papa . Whoever

comm i ts the abo ve offences o n t he k i ng’

s road shal l t he

pu ni shed w i th doub le the a bove fi nes . Whoever comm i ts

nu i sance 1 11 places o f p i lg rimag e ,reservo i rs of water

,

temples and roya l b u i ld i ng s s ha ll be pun i shed wi th

fines from o ne pana upw ard s i n accordance wi th the

gravi ty of t he offe nces . Bu t when they do so on accoun t

of the use o f any med i c i ne o r o n account of any d i seaseor from fr ight , no fine shall be imposed . Whoever

throw s i nsi de the c itv the carcasses of an imals such

as cats,dogs

,mongooses and snakes shal l be pun i shed

wi th a fiue o f 8 panas ; of an imals such as ass,camel

,

mu le and ca ttl e , 6 panas t o e ver th ro ws co rpses shall

be pun i shed w i th a fine of 50 panas .

The Budd hi s t s and Aj i vakas are men t ioned by name

only once i n p. 199 ,He who enter tains in worship or

72

érarldha,gud ra mend i cant s such as a Buddhi s t or an

A j i vaka shal l pay a fine o f 100 panas .” Kaut ilya i s veryhard upon Pasand i s or p rofessors of oth er rel igi ons ,

H e says in p . 242 that act i ve spi es shoul d con s i d er the

p roperty of congregati ons of p ri est s as a trus t in the

hands of a dead man and the p roperty of gods no t

enj oyabl e by the éro ttriyas as belong ing to one whose

house has been burnt (and i s homel ess ).

Lecture IV .

The Vatsyayanas w ere se t tled in M agadha from veryremote ant iqui ty . They were descendan ts of Cyavana and

l i ved i n the hol ies t of holy places in Magadha,namely

,

the hermi tage of Cyavana s i tuated five m i l es to the east

of the gona . Cyavana w as the son of Bhrgu ,son of

Brahma. bv Pau lomi , the daughter of Paloma Raksasa.

Cyavana marri ed t he daughter of garyata and had a son

by her,n amed Dadh i ca. Dfidh i ca was b red up and born

at the cap i tal of Saryé ta w ho was so fond of him that he

never al lowed him to g o to h is fa ther at the herm i tage . H e

rece ived a fini shed educati on at the cap i tal and was

regard ed as the mom accomp l i shed you ng Bsi of his time .

The king then allowed h im to go and see h i s father .

Wi th a su i t able escort,he reached the west bank of gona

,

otherwi se called H iranyavaha. He heard of two celest i al

damsel s pract i s ing au steri t ies close by , and thought i t hi s

du ty to pay homage to them . The younger gi rl fel l in

love wi th h im at firs t sigh t and the young Bsi lovedher in re tu rn . The cel estial damsel s were no other than

Sarasvati and Savi tri . The first'

w as cu rsed to l i ve on the

earth by D urvasaat the cou rt of Brahma and the second

accompani ed he r ou t of affecti on . The hermi tage was

only five m i l e s from the place w h ere Sarasvati l i ved and

10

74

the lovers had thei r ow n w ay . The consequence w as tha t

a son was born to them . Sarasvati gave h im all the know

ledge she possessed . Bu t as the curse ended w i th the

b i r th of a son ,she had to re turn to heaven , entrus ting her

son to the care o f A ksamal i k’

a, the w i fe of he r hu sband

’

s

brothe r . Dadhi ca renounced the world and the son,too

,

fol low ed su i t , w hen he came o f age . Bu t be fo re he d id so,

he imparted all hi s know ledge , recei ved from his mother,

to hi s cous in Vatsa . And from Vatsa p roceeded the

eminent fam i ly of t he Vatsy z’

i yanas noted fo r the i r learn i ng .

They sett led at Pri tikfi ta w i th in the bounda r i es of the

herm i tage .

Banabhatta,a Vatsyayana gives th i s account of the

origin of hi s Gotra and fami ly in the firs t chap ter of h i s

H arsacar i ta in the beginn ing of the 7th Cen tury A .D

That the account i s very ancrent i s p roved by two c ircums

tanc es z— ( l ) The advent of t w o celes ti al be ings in the i r

celest i al forms to e ar th and leav ing a progeny behind i s ofa p i ece wi th the s tory of Pururavas and U rvasi

,the story

of éakun tala, and the s tory of celes tia l nymphs coming

down to earth under Nahusa . In more modern t imes

they do no t come i n the i r 0 les tial forms,but are born as

human be ings and l i ve ti ll the te rm inati on of the curse .

(2) l t record s the origin of a gotra . As yet, no account of

the local or igin o f a Gotra has been found anywhere .

Th < accoun t of t he local orig i n ‘of the Vatsyayana Gotra

i s,therefore

,a pi ece of informat ion of l he h ighes t value .

That the Vatsyayanas were se ttl ed at the herm i tage of

Cyavana from a very remote an tiqui ty i s p roved by thefact that Patafij al i i s fu l l of Vatsyayanas , as he i s full of

Pataliputra,l i v ing as he d i d

,ve ry near t he grea t ci ty 0 1

old,w hen engaged i n wri ting the Mahfibhfisya .

It may appear curi ous that Magadha which was

regard ed wi th so m uch aversion by the Ved i c A ryans

1 75

shou ld be the home and settlement ofBsis such as Cyavana,

Dadh i ca and Vatsa . The reason i s no t far to seek . These

most probably belonged to the converted Vratyas , who had

a special at traction for Magadha at the later stage of the

Ved i c era .

It may be u rged that there were two Go tras under the

name of Vatsyéyana,one ment i oned in Baudhayana

’s

M ahdpm varadhydya as descendants of Bhrgu . Cyavana,

Apnavat , Aurva and J amadagnya and the other ment i oned

in M atsya Purana as descendan ts of Kas’ yapa . But in

his chart of G'ro trapravara hM r. P . Chentsal

says that many descendants of oth er Rs is were affil ia ted

to the fami ly of Bhrgu and so the Vat-syayanas , descendedfrom Bhrgu and those descendan ts from Kasyapa may be

one and the same fam i ly .

In the M atsya Pu rana again , the Vatsyayanas were

closely all i ed to Kausi taka who were undoub ted ly Vratyas ,as we know from Tandya M ahabrahmana. Thi s i s fu rther

borne o u t by the fact that “Mahapravaradhyaya

” pu ts theVatsyayanas in the l i s t o f Gotras who are regarded as

KevaZa-Bhrgus , that i s , no t attached to any of the eigh t

Gotra-

pravartakas : J amadagni , Bharadvaj a,Vi svami tra

,

Atri,Gotama

,Kasyapa

,Vasistha, and Agastya . Of these

J amadagni i s a descendant of Bhrgu . The other

descendan ts a re known as Kevala- Bhrgus . They d iffer

from other Brahmanas in that they can marry in any

Gotra excep t those,the maj ori ty of whose Pravaras agrees

wi th the i rs while o ther B rahmanas cannot intermarry,i f

they have a s ing l e Pravara Bsi i n common . My con ten

ti on,therefore , i s that these Kevalas came to the fold of the

Ved i c A ryans at the lat ter end of the Ved i c Peri od from

ng the Vratya Aryans , abou t wh om I have sai d so

11 mv firs t lectu re .

i est work of the Vatsyayanas i s perhaps the

76

Kai /tasatra .The commen ta tor says tha t the au thor

’

s

personal name was Mallanaga and tha t h is Gotra name

was Vatsyayana. The work follows in the foots teps of

Kautilya,the author of A rthasastra . I t has seven

A dhikaranas or books , 36 chap ters , and 64 Prakaranas or

top i cs.Its extent in

‘

s’

lokas i s a thou sand and a quarter .

But unl ike Kautilya,i t gi ves the t rad i t ion of the

”

s'

es im

fi rs t,and then gi ves i ts con tents . Kautilya does not gi ve

the trad i tion at all . They are to be in ferred from h is

quotat ions .

The trad i t i on of the Kamasutra i s exceed ingly interest

ing . It says that Prajapat i after the creati on , del i vereda work in one hundred thousand chapters on the three

a ims of human l i fe . These three a ims are z— Dharma,

Artha and Kama ( Law,Econom i cs and E roti cs ) M ann

separated the portion ass igned to Law ; and Vrhaspat i

that to Econom i cs ; Nand i the fol lower o f Mahadeva“ separated” Eroti cs in one thou sand chapters . A uddalak i

éve tak etu ab ridged Eroti cs in five hundred chapters .

Pamela Babhravya ab ri dged gvetak e tu’

s work in one

hund red and fi fty chapters d i v id ed in to seven A dhikaranasor book s

,namely

, ( i ) Sadharana ( prel im inary) , ( i i)Si mprayog ika (un i on), (i i i) Kanyasamprayuk taka (induc

ing of girls), (i v) Bharyyadhi karan ika (secti on about a'

wi fe) (v) Paradarika (adu l tery) (vi) Vaisika (abou t publ i cwomen) (vi i ) Aupanisad ika (secre ts ).

Later on,a t the requ es t of the publ i c- women of Patal i

put ra , Dattaka wrote an independen t and exhaus t i ve

treat i se on the 6th subj ect,that i s

, on publi c-w omen,

namely Vaisika. The commen ta tor notes the fol lowing

trad i tion abou t the au thor Dattaka. A Brahmin fromMathurfi m igra ted to Patal iputra. A son was born to h im

at hi s old age . The mothe r d ied at ch i ld bed,and the

fathe r gave the chi ld to a B rahmani,who named him

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78

Kamasutra of Vi tsyayana and in the Pal i Li terature are

i d en ti cal . Bu t that seems to be impossi bl e For the

father of Dattak a came from M athu ra to Patal ipu tra. H e

or h is son Dattak a woul d . be a contemporary of Kaut ilya.

For,Patal ipu tra was mad e capi tal in th e 4 th year of

Uday i and the Brahmana who came there seem to have

been att racted by the fact that i t was the capi tal of a b ig

monarchy . Supposing that the removal of capi tal from

Rajagrha had taken place i n 440 B . C and Kaut ilya had

been there in 325 B.C .

,the Brahmana or h i s son Dattaka

wou ld be con temporari es to Kautilya w ho was then

advanced in years . Di gha -Carayana and Ghotamukha

wrote on eroti cs after Dattaka So Kaut ilya cou ld no t

have quoted from them . So Carayana and Ghotamuk ha,

whom Kaut ilya quotes cannot be the same who are

quoted by Vatsyayana . Those quoted by Kaut ilya were

story- tel lers . Those in th e Pal i Li teratu re were rel igiou s

men and pol i ti cians . And those quoted bvVatsyayana wereau thors of erot i cs . To iden t i fy these wou ld be rather

au daci ous . A Suvarnanabha has been men t i oned by

Raj asek hara in hi s Kc‘

wya-M Zmdmsa} as an au thor ofpoet ic s

I t woul d be very bold to attemp t to iden ti fy h im wi th

our Suvarnanabha,becau se Poe ti cs i s a much y ounger

science .

Sve tak e tu i s a wel l -known fi gu re in Ved i c Li terature .

He was a con temporary of Pravahana J aivala and al so of

. lanaka of V ideha. He belonged to the latter end of theVed i c per iod . But he i s bette r known as the Bs i w ho

ins ti tu ted marriage and w ho is l ikely to have wri tten an

extens i ve work on eroti cs . Some of h is i d eas are very

p rimi t ive and crud e . But he seem s to be a h i s tori cal

person and there i s noth ing to preven t our th ink ing that

he was the original p ropounder of the sci ence, as he was

the founder of the ma rriage sy stem .

79

The next au thor i s Pancela H i s book

was st ud ied by Vatsyavana . For Vatsyayana d i s tinctlysays

,

Babh rabyi’

yamsca sutrarthan agamayya v imrsya ca .

VatsyayanascakaredamKam i sfi tramyathav i dhi .

So Vatsyfiyana stud i ed Babhravya’

s w ork wi th hi s

Guru . M r. J ayasw al t hinks that the book may yet be

found by a carefu l search,for i t i s quoted in su ch a late

w ork as Pafi casayaka. The arrangeme n t o f the 500

chapters in Auddalak i’

s w ork i s no t known I t was no t

d ivi ded into seven A dh ikaranas . For,the cred i t of

mak ing that d i v i si on i s gi ven by Vatsyayana to BabhravyaPancala M ost l ikely A uddalak i wrote more on un i on or

Samprayoga than on other su b j ects He d i v i d ed tha t

subj ect into ten maj or heads . So h i s work was called

Dasatay i . At the firs t in troducti on of marri age system

i t is jus t in the fi tness of things that he shou l d abstain

from dwell ing upon the du ti es of a chas te wi fe,of a gi rl

wi fe and of a pub l i c -women ,nay upon adu l tery ,

there being

no marr iage at or before hi s time . It i s in fact in a soci e tywhich regards marr i age as an anci en t and sacred inst i tu

tion,that Babh ravya

’

s book in seven A dh ikaranas i s

possi ble . Babhravya d i vi d ed the t en maj or h ead s

of un ion into si xty- fou r parts or Kalas . H e d i d no t

Subad iv ide each d iv i s i on in to eigh t,bu t the sum - total of

the sub-d iv i s i ons was s ix ty four .

Bgveda w as originally d iv i d ed in to ten M andalas .

Therefore i t u sed to be called Dasatayi Bu t in the

Pancala coun try i t w as d i v i ded into A stakas and each

Astak a in to eight Adhyayas and i t i s therefore calle d

Oatuhsast i . The en ti re Kamasastra,too

,cons i s ting of

un i on only,w as origi nal ly d ivi ded in to ten parts and

Babh i 'avva Pancala reduced i t in to s i xty - fou r Prakaranas

Q r topic s . He also reduced the subj ect of un i on deal t

80

wi th in the second A dh i karana into eight se c ti ons and

abou t S i xty- fou r sub - secti ons Therefore the Bahvrcas

or Bgved i Brahmins u sed p lay fu lly and wicked ly to cal l

Kamasas tra s ixty- fo ur .

”

Kamasas t i a ,say s Vatsyayana, i s app ropria te ; becau se

l ike the Bgveda i t has i ts ten par ts a s wel l as si xty—fou r .

And the au thor of the change in both cases was a Pancala.

“Pfificfila-sambandhacca .

"

Imp roving upon thi s the commen ta tor says,Pancalena

M aharsina Rg

- Ved e catuhsastir-n igad i ta Babhravy enapi

Pancalena svak rte Samprayog ik e adh i karane alinganadaya

nk tah : ta ta§ca dvayorekago tran im i ttasamakhvena Panca

l ena n'

igadanat sambandho’

s teva

The term s ixty- four appl i ed to

The word Pancala does no t seem to denbte a coun trybut a Gotra . A nd there i s a Pamela Gotra among the

descendants o f Kasyapa . The Gotra m ight have derived

i ts name from the coun try of Pancela,i ts or iginal home

But there i s no certa in ind i cati on that the work s were re

arranged in the Pamela coun try . The information,that

a Esi of the Pascala Gotra re -arranged the Bgveda, i s

however , of the highes t importance , in as much as,thi s

Gotra belonged to the later Ved i c Peri od and that i t had

some thing to do wi th the Pancala count ry.Nothing up to

thi s t ime was posi t i vely known abou t the au thor of the

re arrangement of the Bgveda from M andala to Aetek a .

That Paficfila i s not a coun try bu t a Gotra i s cl early

s ta ted in the commen tary quoted above.So Babhravya

here , i s a mere patronym i c and no t a Go tra,though a

Babhravya Gotra i s enumerated amongst the descendantsof V isvam i tra.

Kaut i lya classifies all sci ences under fou r head s,

Anv i k s ik i,

Tray i , Vans and

ll andan i ti, that. i s

,Phi losophy

,

Rel igion , Econom i cs and Pol i ti cs . Bu t he i s concerned

C las s i fi c at i o n s o f the Sé s tras .

8 1

only wi th the Raj av i dya or Royal S tud ies they are

no t in fact a classification of all the sciences known i n

hi s t ime . Vatsyayana i s more exp l i c i t and comprehensi ve .

He classifies all human s tud i es under Trivarga,— Dharma ,Artha and Kama . M okea he men t ions in one o f h is Sutras ,but after that he d rops i t al together . He says that Dharma

i s to be learned e i ther from S rut i (which i ncludes Smr i t i )or from the learned . A rtha or Economi cs i s to be learned

from the conduc t of Royal officers or from experts . Kama

he d efines generally as the enj oyment o f the obj ects of

al l the senses bu t then restri cts to i ts ord inary sense . It

i s to be learnt from the Kamasutra and from Nagarak as .

A r tha,says Vatsy

’

ayana, i s more important than Kama and

Dharma i s more impor tan t than Ar tha.

Comparing class ificat ions of the Sas t ras by Kaut ilya

and Vatsyayana i t appears that Dharma i s a more compre

hens ive te rm than Tray i and i ncludes Anvi ks i k i too .

Artha i s more comprehens i ve than Vane. Kamasastra

i s no t at all incl uded by Kaut ilya e i ther in i ts general or

in restricted sense . So Vatsyayana rep resen ts a more

advanced thought than Kaut ilya.

There were men inI

atsyayana’

s t ime who d id no t

be l ieve in the u t il i ty of these s tud ies wh ich t hey s trema

ously o pposed .

v

atsyayana i s a t great pains in meet

ing the i r argumen ts . In the ma tter o f the s tudy of

Dharma , hi s principal opponents we re the Lokayatikas .

Kautilya’

s A rthasast ra ment ions them as a schoo l

of ph ilosophy . Patafij al i says that one of the i r princi pal

w ri ters w as Bhag uri . But Vatsyayana q uote s a S fi tra

from thei r Phi losophy

( 1) Varamsém’

s‘

ay i kat niskat asamcay i k ah karsapanah.

This i s the fi rs t undoubted quotat ion that has been

found from thei r original Sutras . But I th ink that the

w hole section of the Kamasastra opposing the u t i l i ty ! o f t he

82

study of Dharma consi st ing of five Sutras i s d i rected

agains t the Sutras of Lokayati ka . These are

(1) Na dharmamscare t - lfisyatphalatvat samsayikatvatca , (2) Kobyavaliso has tagatam paragatam kuryyat

(3) Varamadya kapo tah svo mayui at .

It may be sai d in th i s connect ion that at the presen t

moment the knowledge o f the doctrine of the Carvaka or

the Lokayatika School i s confined to two quotations . One

in the seven teenth canto of Naisadha—Cari tamand the other

in the fi rs t chapter of Sarvadars’

anasamgraha . Both are

in verse and no t in prose or Sutra form . The name of the

Sutrakara i s given in one place as Vrhaspat i

A gnihotram trayo yedah t i idandnmbhasmapundrakamPraj fiapaurusahi nanam j iv ik e t i Vrhaspati h.

In one p lace the four th pad-

a read s J iv ika t trni r

mi ta,

”

Another account of the i r Sutra has been found in the

Saddat sana- Samuccaya of Haribhad ra w ho d i e d in Samvat

585 . Here the au thor d evotes several Kat ikas to i l lus trate

the Lokayatika doc trines . The commen ta to r Gunaratna

quotes a verse from Vacaspat i which i s only anothe r name

of Vrahaspat i

Prth ivyap tej ovayuri ti tat tvani ta t samudaye . Srendriyasarpjna tebhyascai tanyam.

(Page 307of Saddat s i na Samuc caya. Bi hl . Ind . Ed . )This agrees comple tely wi th the op in ion of A j it ak esakam

bala as quoted by M r. U l i n hi s In t rod uct ion to th e Vaisesika

Philosophy,p . 19 -20. ! gi ve the whole passages in full .

A j i tak esakambala contend s tha t a human body i s bu i l t

up o f t he four elements wh en he

d ies,the ear th i n h im re lap ses to the ear th and the fl uid s

to the water,the hea t to t h e fi re , the wind s to the a i r and

h is facul ti es ( lndriyani , the five sen ses and the

m ind as the. . Si x th ) pass in to spac e (ALz’

i sa)i

On this

Mr. UI remarks , Th e op in i on is real and rad ical M aterialism; There i s no sou l

,nor any other mental factor

bu t only the five sor ts of mate rial s . Body i s th e comb ination of five el emen ts and the soul i s noth ing but the body .

Aj i tak esak ambala i s probab ly a Oarvaka.

”

Kau t ilya in hi s A rthasastra says tha t Vrahaspat i and

hi s followers said that Royal S tud i e s shoul d be confined

to Econom i cs and Pol i ti cs,exclud ing Phi losophy and

Vedas al together . There i s an Ind ian trad i t i on that

Vrahaspat i was a Nas t i ka,and I have often been asked

to search for a Vrahaspat i Sutra of th e Carvaka School .

May no t the Sutras as quot ed here from part of Vrahaspati ’s w ork ‘

9

Vatsyayana quotes two more Schools closely relatedto the Lokayat i lz as . They are cal led Kalat aran ikas and

the other A rthac intak as . The commen ta tor speak s of

ano ther school , Isvaraltaran ik a . Three Sutras are quotedas from the A rthac in taka School . They are

BahavascaKamavas‘

ag fth saganaeva v inastah srt‘

iyante .

TathaDandak yo nani a Bhoj ah Lamar Brahmana-kany53mabh imanyamanah saban dhurastro v inanasa. D evart

‘

i j as~

cfihalyamat ivalas- ca Ki cak o D raupadim Ravanas- ca Si lam

apare canye ca vahavo drsran te kamavasaga v inasta

i tyarthac in takah .

Of these three th e second i s to be found ad eerbatim

and ad li teratim in the A rthasast i a of Kaut ilya. The tw o

other Sutras may also have come from the Arthac intakas .

Kaut ilya has many more ex ampl e s , because h e had to showev i l consequences of all th e six d ifferen t pass ion s w h ile the

present au thor has to show the con sequ ences of lu s t alone.

The time of Vatsyayana can be determined by the agesof au thors w hom he quotes and

authors w ho quote him or by theThe t ime of Vat syéyana.

age of even ts recorded in h is book . He quotes f rom

”

84

Auddalak i , Babhravya-Paficala,

D attaka,Carayana, Ghota

mukha , Suvarnanabha,Kuc umara

, Gonard i ya Goni ka

pu ttra. But the exact date of none of these au thors is known

So these afford us no clue t o h i s date . The only thing that

is known for cer tain i s that Dattaka belonged to Patal ipu tra.

The upper l imi t of his age i s tha t he m igh t be a contem

porary of Kauti lya Bu t the lower l im i t of h i s age i s no t

known Vatsyayanamen t i ons one event , a pa thet i c scandalin the palace of Kuntala Satak arn i Satavahana . He w as

the 13 th k ing of the Andh ra dynas ty andmay be placed

in the 1st cen tury B C . A nd Vatsyayana flou ri shed at atime when the memory of the scandal was fresh So he

may be placed in th e fi rs t cen tu ry AD . for,the publ i c

memory i s very shor t and in one or two generati ons,

people forge t these scandals . There are other events al so

recorded in the Kamasutra . Naradeva w hom the com

mentator speak s of as a Gen era] of the Pandya k ings ,ki lled a d ancing gi rl and Co lar'aja k i l led a publ ic-woman ,

Oi trasenfi by name . Bu t the names of the k ings of Pandyaand Cola are no t men t i o ned and we are at sea as t o the i r

chronology . Vatsyayana men ti ons Ahh i re Kottaraj a w ho

was k i l led by a washerman empl oyed by h is brother whenthe Rajaentered anothe r man ’s hou se to find ou t h is lady

love . The commen tator has en l igh tened us only so fa r as

tha t Kot ta w as the name of a place in Guj arata But we

k now nothing of Ko t ta , and Guj arat a i s a very later name ,no t so old as Vatsyayana. The country w as so named

after the advent o f th e Gurj aras . The commenta tor al so

tell s us that Abh i ra is the name of a Raja and no t of a

tri be . Vatsyayana al so says that J ayatsena,k ing of Kasi

w as ki ll ed by the commander o f hi s horses . That al so

does no t he lp us i n find ing any clue to the date of our

author . I am no t in a posi t i on from the meagre facts

k now n ui p to date of Ind ian H istory , to hazard a con

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86

purvena, Kalingah Gaudavisayaddaksinena (p . 295 Benares

Ed i ti on).I do do th ink the Benares Ed i ti on improves matters

much .

Vatsagulmakah Daksinapathe sadaryyau Raj putrau

Vatsag ulmau tabhyamadhyavasi to deso Vatsagulmaka i ti

prat i tah (p . 295,Bombay Ed i ti on ). Vaidarbhah Kalah

j araddaks inena Vidarbho nani a desas- ta'

tra bhavanam(p . 288

,Benares Ed i ti on). Pas

’

c imasamudra-sami pe Apa '

rantadesah (p . 130 , Bombe r Ed i ti on). Latah A para -Mala

vatpas'c imena Lfitav isayah ( p . 130 i bid ) Vaj ravan tadesfit

pas’

c ime i i a S tri iaj yam (p . 130 M id ) . Benares Ed i tion

read s Vai'

i garak ta i n th e p lace of Vuj i'avanta. (p . 126

,

Benarc s Ed i t ion). Andhra i t i Narmadaya daksinena deso

Daksinapathah tatra Karnata-v isayat purvena Andhra

v is i yah (p . 130 , Bombay Ed i ti on ) . M aharastraka i ti

NarmadaKarnat i v is i yayo r—mad li ye Maharastravisayah (p .

131 , i bid). Nagarika i t i Pfital ipu trakah (p 13 1 i bi d) .

D ravi d a i ti Karh at i -v is ttyaddaks inena Drav idavisayah

(p 13 1 i bid). Vanarasah Ko l'

i kanav isayat purvena Vana

vasav is tyah (p . 13 1 i bi d) . A bh i radesah S i i kantha

Kuruks et i al ibhfi n ih (p . 130 !bid }. Malavya i t i p i’

i rva'

Malavahhava’

i . Avan t ika‘

i U j j ay ini desabhavah ta eva

Apara -M ft lavy zi h .

M os t o f these coun tr i es are known in an ci ent works

l ike the B i a‘nn anas,the Sutras

,Kaut i ly

’

s A rthasas tra, th e

M ahabharata , and in A soka ’s i nscr i p t i ons . Vanavasi

seems to be ra ther modern. The anci en t name of the

d i s tri c t S imoga in M y so re w as Jayant i or Vaij ayanti

It became known as Vanav i‘

i si abou t a cen tury or two

be fo re the Trine tras rose to power. The Trine tras weresupers eded af ter four or five genera tions by the Kadambas ,who became Ksatriyas from Brahmanas

,and who seem

to have come to power in the early thi rd centu ry A. D .

87

The fif th k ing of th is dynas ty ,Kak uts th avarma declares

that he was a fri end of the Guptas in the sou th . Lewi s

Ri ce in hi s work ent i tled , Mysore and Coorg from

Inscri pt ions th inks tha t the Gupta k ing ment ioned by

Kaku ts thavarma i s no other than Samudrag up ta who in

his Digvij aya came to the sou th in the m idd le of the

four th century A .D . (See R i ce , Chap . on th e Kadambas) .

Vaij ayant i , therefore,became Vanav z

‘

i s i abou t the

begin ing of the Chr i s tian Era .

The country named Sau rastra i s known to Kaut ilya.

The whole o f Sau rast ra or a par t of i t to the wes t ofA para -Malava was known to P to lemv i n the m i d dl e of

the second century A . D . as Lai ia. The country seems

to have acqu i red tha t name,a centu ry or so earl ie r than

Ptol emy . Laria i n Sansk ri t w ould be Data,and Lat e i s

know n to Vatsyayana. T here fore , Vas yayana can be

eas ily placed i n the fi rs t cen tury A . D .

The Epigraphical remains in A hi c chatra range from

the second centu ry B . C . to the th i rd cen tury A . D . So

in t he fi rst centu ry A . D , A h ic chatra was a we ll -known

pl ace and Vatsyayana says that t he p eopl e o f A h ic chatra

were rathe r pu ri tan i c i n the i r d eal ing s wi th p ub li c women .

From these cons idera ti ons,I plac e Vars i ai ana i n the fi rs t

cen tury A . D . As 1 have sai d be fore,t he k nowle lgs of

Ind ian Chronology has not ad vanced much s o as to enable

s tudents to fi x t h e d ate and y ea r o f the composi t i on ofany grea t Sansk ri t wo rk o f ol d . I t i s enough ,

i f we are

appro x imate ly wi th in a cen tury i n th i s ma tte r .

The above , how eve r, i s a d ry and rathe r unengaging

account of h i s tori cal facts tha t may be gleaned from the

Kamasast ra. But there i s anothe r aspec t o f the work

w h i ch i s much more engaging and much more a ttrac ti ve ,mean th e p i c tu res of th e soc ie ty a t the t ime— p i c tu res

of a l i v ing soci e ty as seen and exper ienced by the au thor

88

round about him. I wi ll now attemp t to present to yousome of these pi c tures . In the very firs t book

,Vatsyayana

g ives the p icture of a Nagaraka. I am at a loss how to

translate the w ord in Engl i sh . Li terally i t means the“ C it i z en . But Ci ti z en wi ll not convey al l the

mean ings of Nagaraka. The word Dandy"

has a badodour abou t i t . “ Gallant does no t. express th e soci al

aspects of Nagaraka. I,the re fore

,in my poverty of

Engl i sh , shou l d l ik e to translate i t as a fash i onable

man .

”i

H is fi rs t qual ifica ti on i s tha t he shou l d be well

read . His second qual ification i s that he shou ld be a

marr i ed man. His thi rd qual ificat ion i s tha t he shou ld

have competence , e i ther by inheri ting a fortune from his

ancestors,or by acqu i ring i t by h i s ow n exerti ons . He

may be a Brahmana,a Ksatriya, a Vai

'

s‘

ya or a Sfidra.

He shou ld l i ve e i ther in a great c i ty,or i n a smal l town ,

or i n the subu rbs,or in a place inhabi ted by good peopl e .

He shou ld have a house , big or small,accord ing to h is

means bu t a s a fash ionabl e man he should have a housein tw o compar tmen ts

,inner and ou ter , the inner for h is

fami ly and th e ou ter for hi s fri ends . I t shoul d be closeto a shee t of water and hav e a garden a ttached . The

compartmen ts sho u ld have many rooms . In th e d raw ingroom of the oute r compartment

,there should be a

beds tead and a sofa , a p ol i shed bed wi th tw o p il lows , one

at the head and the o ther at the foot . The si d e p i llo w s

of the Bengal is were no t in use in anc ient t imes.

The bed shoul d be concave in th e mi dd le , coveredwi th a clean whi te shee t . Alongsid e th e beds tead ,

there should be another , a l i ttle low e r , s imi larly j fur

nished . Jus t ab ove the head ,perhaps in a n i che , the re

should be spread,a sea t fo r the god of th e Nagari ka ;

and a plat form,something l i ke a rack proj ec ting from

the w all, w here to keep the res idue of the oin tmen t

89

u sed at night,the garland , a small box contain ing w ax

and another wi th scen ts , lemon'sk in and betel . On the

. ground there should be a spi toon . On the wall,there

shou ld be hanging from a bracke t,a Vina

,a pain ting

canvas , paint box , some favou ri te book ,and a garland of

Amaran th (J hinti) . On the floor,no t ve ry far from the

bed stead the re shou l d be spread a coverle t wi th bols ters.

There shou ld be b oard s for chess and d i ce pu t against

the wall . Ou ts i de th e room shou ld be cages for b i rd s . In

a corne r there shou ld be a sp inn ing wheel and tool s for

carpen try as playthings . In a shady grove of trees,

there shoul d be an ord inary sw ing and another swinging

round,and also seats covered ove r wi th flowers .

H e shou l d ri se early,perform hi s daily function s

,

The dai ly dut ies o f a Nagari karinse h is tee th

,thin ly smear hi s

person w 1 th O i n tmen t,perfume i t

wi th bu rn ing incense , wear garlands , pain t h is l i ps wi th

w ax and red -paint,ch ew pan w i th scent

,stand before the

mi rror,then go abou t h i s bus iness .

H is other dut i es are bathing every day,clean ing h is

body wi th perfumes every second day,soften ing hi s legs

wi th Phenaka (someth ing l ike soaps) , shave the upperpart of the body every fou rth day and the lower par tevery fi fth or tenth day . All th i s shou l d be done w i th

p e rfecti on . H e shou l d so behave that hi s armp i ts do no tsw eat . H e shou ld have two meal s , one at forenoon and

another in the afternoon . Bu t Carayana, the au thor of“samanyadhi karana

”says , he shou l d have one in the even ing

instead of in the afternoon . In “M rchhakati ka, we find

there i s a t i ffin early in th e morn ing called Kalyavarta.

That i s nei ther in Carayana nor in Vatsyayana. A nd

Cai ayana wrote on ly a Samanyadh ik arna. Thi s may be

an argumen t that M rc chak at ika was composed even before

Carayana w ro te .After hi s meal he shou l d make h is parrots

12

'90

talk . Then he sees cock-figh t and the bu t t ing of rams and

engages him in other d i vers ions men t i oned in the l is t of

fine -arts . Then come hi s love-agen ts and associ ates in hi s

intrigues . After d i smi ss ing them he takes a short nap .

After the nap he d resses himsel f and goes to company .

Then comes mus i c at dusk . A l i tt le later he wai t s for

hi s lady - loves in hi s well - furni shed room,scented wi th

burning incense , or send s out messengers to them or goes

to meet them h imself . When the lad i es come,they are

enter tained wi th pleasan t and flattering talk . I f thei r

dress es are d renched in ra in,they are to be re-d ressed

wi th his ow n hands .

The Nagarika is to organ i se al l so rts of fest i v i t i es a t

al l the d ifferent seasons and all the year round . There are

festi ve days for parti cular dei t ie sin the Hindu Calendar . A nd

the fashionable men are to go to temples and organ i zefes t ivi t i es there . If wand er ing theatr i cal compan i es come

,

he i s no t only to look after thei r com for ts but also to see

that they are pu t to no di fficu l ty,to help in th ei r d i seases

and d i stress and also to see that they get reward for thei rsk il l in the art . The templ e of Sarasvati u suallys i tuated at a conven i ent d i stance from th e inhabi ted quarters of the c i ty , was general ly the resort of the fashionable

men on the fi fth d ay of the waxing moon in the month o f

Magha . The day i s s t i l l celeb ra ted throughou t Ind i a asVasanta-Paficami , and in Bengal as Sa rasvati -Pfi ja.

The organi zation of these and other pleasure parti es u sedto be called Ghats.

There were conversaz i onnes in which people of thesame age and of the same p rofessi on j oined wi th fash ionab l e women and talked of art , poe try etc .

Th ese may be

held in thei r ow n hou ses , in the assembly - hall s or al soin the houses of the fash ionable women .

Occasional D ut ies .

“There were carousals in w hich drinks of al l sortsw i th all kinds of appeti sers were u sed These were

generally held in the houses of the fashionable men byrotat ion , the women d rinking and making other peopl ed rink .

Picn i c A number of Nagari kas wou ld go on horse ba ck ,gorgeously dressed

,wi th women to gardens in the morn

ing . There they wou l d eat and d rink,amuse and d i vert

themselves wi th cock -figh t , gam bling,acting and other

pl easan t occupations,and then retu rn home wi th troph ies .

In summer , they may sport in wate r afte r d ri ving away

dangerous aquati c an imal s .

Sports There were three occasi ons for hold ing sports,

the new moon of the month of Kart ika , the full moon of

month of Kartika the ful l moon of the mon th of Asvina

and the adven t o f the spr ing i s also regarded as one . Peop le

u sed to be wi ldly fes t i ve on these three occasions . They

sang,they danced ,

they sw ung , they gambled , they playedthei r musi cal instruments , and they sported themselves to

thei r hear ts ’ conten t . They had al so thei r coun try sports,

such as , pound ing mangoes , bu rn ing corn and eating th e

grain,eating lotu s - tendri l s

,running abou t on soft grass at

the adven t of the rains , a procession in the form u sed in the

Pancala country ,spor ting wi th flowers und er a silk cotton

treu,

fighting wi th the Kadamba flow ers at th e adven t

of the rains . There are other sports too numerous to

d escri be .

Thi s i s th e p i c tu re of the l i fe of a fashionable man in

the firs t centu ry A . D in all parts of Ind i a , especially in

Magadha,where the book was wri t ten . Times were not

so hard as now . A ny man wi th energy cou l d acqu i recompetence after a few years

’ labou r and then give reins

to the enj oyment of th e good things of the world . Thei r

days were passed in a p leasan t rout ine and the years in

( 92

a round of fest i vi t i es . What wonder i s there , that they

shou ld under take to wri te a book l ike Kamasas tra on the

physi cal and men tal enj oymen t s .

I shall give you another p ictu re of what a w i fe shou l d

be,from the four th book in which Vatsyayana has abri dged

the work of Gonardi ya. A wi fe shoul d have a single

m inded devot ion to her hu sband,sh e shoul d keep her

hu sband ’s secrets and shou ld al ways serve h im l ike a god .

She shou l d take upon hersel f the managemen t of the hou se

hold wi th the taci t consen t of her husband . She shou l d

keep the house,sweep i t clean , decorate i t w i th flowers

,

make i t b r ight and pol i shed , pleasing to the eye,wi th

offerings for t hree sacr ifices,morn ing

,noon and evening

and wi th a neat and clean shrine for gods . Nothing,says

Gonarda,i s more charm ing for a hou seholder than th is .

She shou ld behave toward s her superi ors toward s her

servan ts,toward s thei r hu sband ’ s s i s ters and the i r

husband s as befit s her and as befi ts them . She i s to

p repare on clean ground,beds for green vegetables

,for

sugarcanes,for cumin seeds

,for mu stard

,Jcyan

(Yavani ) . In the gard en she shou l d plan t al l sorts

of flowers used in worship,plan ts tha t flower in all

seasons and U sira, the fragran t grass . She shou l d al so

p repare beau t i fu l seats here and there . She shoul d

excavate w el l s,tanks and ponds . She shou l d avoid the

company of beggar women,B uddhi s t and Jaina nuns

,

women of ind ifferent characte r , j uggleresses , femal e

for tune- tel lers and wi tch es . She shou ld know wha t food

i s l iked by her hu sband and what i s not ; what i s good tohi s heal th and what i s no t . \Vhen the husband i s com ing

she shou ld,on hearing hi s voi ce from o u ts id e , remain ready

a t home reflect ing on what was to be done . She should

wash the feet of her husband hersel f,send ing away the

ma i d- servan t She shou l d never appear before her hu sband

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( 94 )

thu s z— M ulaka-luka -palenk i damanakamra-taka i r Var-ukas

trapusa-‘

vartaka-k usmandalabu - su rana-s’

ukanasah svayamgup t 'a t i laparn ikagniman tha-las

’

una-

palanduprabhrt'

i uamsarvausadh i nam ca v i j agrahanam kale vapas-ca.

She should no t speak abou t her husband ’s treasure,

no r abou t hi s secre ts to others . She shoul d excel her

equals in her sk ill in fine-arts,in her h igh-m indedness

and i n her d evo ted se rvi ce to her husband and in cook

ing . She should make an es timate of he r hu sband ’s

income and spend accordingly . W i th the su rplus of

mi lk she shou l d p repare ghee . From mus tard seeds and

sugarcane she shou ld prepare oi l and molasses . She i s to

learn spinn ing and weaving . She shou l d col lect bark s

for the preparation of var ious kinds of s tr ings She i s to

learn husk ing ,clean ing. and how to superin tend . She

should ut i l i z e the gruel s , hu sk s , part icles and scums of

ri ce and charcoal . She shoul d know the wages of the

servants and thei r feed ing . She shou ld know al l th e

processes of agricul ture and the b reed ing of cat tle and

should look after the horses and other conveyances . She

shoul d look after the tend ing of sheep,cocks

,fighting

b ird s,she -parro ts , cuckoos , peacocks , monk evs and deer .

She should keep an eye on dai ly income and expend i tu re .She shou ld keep togethe r all ol d and new cloth ings

,dye

them in a varie ty of colours and gran t them as rewards to

servants for thei r good work or as presents to others .

She shoul d keep j ars of wine and of l i quor concealed ,use

them in t ime , l ook after purchases and sal es, incomes and

pend i ture .

She should en tertain and honou r accord ing to thei r

posi t ion,her husband

’

s fri end s wi th be tel s,garland s and

unguen ts p A t te ndance to he r husband’

s pa ren ts , ent i redependence o n them

,no t bandy ing word s wi th them

,

speaking low and sparingly ,no t laughing loud , d eport ing

95

hersel f to the i r fri ends and enem i es as her ow n fr i end s

and enemi es , not to be pu ffed up with weal th,l iberal i ty

to her subord inates— these are the quali t i es wh ich mak e

a woman the ornamen t of her hou se . She shou l d no t give

anything to anybody wi thou t the knowledge of her

husband . She shou l d employ the servants in the i r ow n

work and reward them at the t ime of festi vals .

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98

revi s ions and inte rpolat i ons i s no t always the ad vancement

of the sc i ence,bu t the interes t o f part i es . A nd Vatsyayana

had be fore him the d i fficul t task of reducing thi s heterogenous mass into a harmon ious sy s tem . That i s th e reason

why he is o ften obscure and i t cannot be asser ted thath i s Bhasya, too , has no t been tampered wi th in party

interes t .

But to unders tand hi s d ifficul t i es and to apprecia te h i sservi ces , i t is necessary to gi ve a hi s tory of the compi la

ti on of the sutras in gene ral,and of the Nyaya sutras in

parti cul ar . The Ved i c sutras,the Srau ta, the Grhya the

Dharmasutras were ov er in the sixth century B . O . The

Siksa, Vyakarana and other Sutras of the Angas endedwi th Pan in i

,Pingala and thei r fol lowers . The sutras on

subj ects o f ord inary concern in human affai rs ended per

haps wi th the Kamasutras of Vatsyayana Then came

the philosoph ical sutras . Bu t sti tra or no sutra , the

philosophi cal specul at i ons we re there from seventh and

s ixth centuri es B . O . or earl i e r .

There was a grea t upheaval of Ind i an mi nd in theseventh and s ixth centuri es B . O . and perhaps earl i e r.

There seem to have been no inte rnal or external war to

d i s turb the peace of Ind i a . A nd the highe r classes ,especi al ly the Brahmanas

,d evoted the en ti re energy

of thei r m ind to t he advancement of though t , moral ,sp ir i tual

,soc ial

,economi c and so on . I t was in fact an

all round advancemen t . Every one asp i red to say some

th ing new ,to sol ve some d i fficul t p roblem , to add some

thing to the extent of human knowl edge , to al levi a te and

assuage some suffering and to do some th ing to make l i fetolerable and pleasan t . Everyone ran wi th some new

idea and there was so much of preaching and so much of

propaganda work . If we look in to the Upanisad s , the lates teffusions of the Ved i c age and the wri t ings of the early

1 99

Buddhi sts and Jainas one th ing that s tri kes us, as strange ,i s the enormous number of names of au thors or teachers .

Each of them had to say something,

— a new idea , a d ogma ,a precept

,a concep t , - something to add to our knowledge ,

someth ing made more systemati c,more clear and more

refined . In th e early Upani sad s (Ved i c) even the five

organs of percept i on and five organs of work were no t

wel l known,for we o ften meet wi th such expressi on s in

Tai ttiriya and other older Upan isad s as— Oaksuh ,

sro tram,manah ,

vak,tvak , and Annam,

pranab,caksuh

“

s‘

ro tram.

I t i s from these prim i t i ve noti ons that we reach in the

ph isoph ical sutras to refined class ificati ons and subtle

d i s tinc tions . The process i s long,ted iou s and ful l of

d i ffi cul t i es and had taken many cen tu ri e s . Scholars are

ap t to say that the seeds o f the ph i losoph i cal sutras were

to be found in the l i teratu re of the upheaval . Bu t thi s

i s rather mi sl ead ing . The accu rate way of saying wou ldbe that the vari ous tOp i c s deal t wi th in th e sutras are to

be found in a prim i t i ve form in a germinal stage in the

l i teratu re of those days . Some of these top i cs have’r

been

traced wi th cons i d erable ab i l i ty by the Japanese scholar

M r. U l , i n the in t rodu cti on to the Vaisesika Ph i losophy

accord ing to the Dasapadarth i Sutra . Fou r elements

in the Upan isads were , M ahabhfi tas and as su ch not

atomi c . Pakuda Kaccayana, one of the six heri

t i ca l teachers of the Budh is ts , says tha t Ear th ,Fi re

,Water

and A i r ; pl easure , pain and sou l are nei ther mad e,nor

cau sed to be mad e and that they are barren . Thi s i s not

yet atomi c . Bu t he hel d body and th ings have the same

quant i ty of el ements bu t they are not same in appearanceto reconci l e thi s d i st inct con trad i cti on an atomi c theory

may su i t b e t ter than any other , and i t also appears

as a natural consequence Ja inas main tain that everything

in thi s world except the sou l and mere space is producedf rom matter (pudgala) and that all matter consi sts of

atoms or Paramdnus . M atte r,however

,may be in a

gross state or in a sub tle state , innumerab le atoms occupy

the space of one gross atom . Atoms are eternal as regard sthe i r substances , each atom has one k ind of taste

,smell

and colour and two k ind s of touch . The quali t ies how

ever,are not permanen t and fixed for several a toms but

they may be changed and d eveloped in them . The

Vaisesika system of a toms i s more advanced than th i s .

It has d ifferent k inds of atoms cor responding to the

four elements , whi le in the Jaina system th e atoms are

only of one k ind . Thu s M r . UI has carefully collectedfrom the Ind i an and Chinese sou rces the cond i t i ons andmod ifications of the atom i c theory in all i ts various

stages from the Upanisad s to the Vai sesika sutras . I t is

a very interest ing investigati on and repays peru sal . It

i s possi ble s imi larly to trace the developmen t of everytheory from i ts inception in 6th and 7th centu ri es BC . to

the peri od of the ph i losophi c sutras .A s I have already sa id , we wou ld look in vain for the

origin of the sut ras in the peri od of the upheaval . But i f

w e l ook for the origin of the vari ou s topi cs treated of in

the sutras , we are l ikely to mee t wi th bette r success

These variou s topi cs were s tar te d early and c ri t i ci sedremodel led and refined . E ach school took such top i csas i t wan ted and in such form as i t wanted . Variou s

schools were formed,some were short- l i ved l i k e the

Kalaharan i kas , Isvarakaran ikas,A rthac in taka

‘

s,others

remained for cen turi es to i nfluence human thought

and then d i sappeared,such as Aj i vakas , Celak as

,

Parivraj akas and others .Some Ebave come down to us

and thei r t rad i ti onal number i s s ix . Bu t the number si x i s

var iou sly cou nted Bauddha,Arhats

,Vaisesika,

Samkhya,

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102

Brahmani c c i rcle . The d i s tinc tion betw een J nanakanda

and Karmakanda came in very late . So the phi losophy

of the Upan isad s remained , so to say , in abeyance an d d idno t develop t il l the sixth cen tury A . D . In th e seven th

we hear in Harsacari ta of a school o f Aupan isadas , i . e,

who s tud ied Upanisad s as a school o f Philosophy , givingri se in l ater centu ri es to the Vedant ins . So the oldest

thought in Ind ia developed the lates t .Next to Vedan ta comes Samkhya , the enumerat ive

phi losophy,the attempt to fix ideas by numbers and i n

fact in the Kapi la Sut ras , 22 in number,almos t every

sutra contains a number,thu s showing that t he word

Samkhya i s s ignificant . But the age o f these 22 sut ras i s

not certa in . They show mu ch ad vanced id eas,such as

Tripramana, which may be late r than that of Nyaya

Scholars are unan imous in th ink ing that the earl i es t work

of Samkhya extant i s the 70 Karikas of Isvarak rsna. There

are three more Karikas giving the successi on of teachers

and o ther hi sto ri cal informat i on abou t th e school . These saythat there was a work ent i tled Sast itan tra, one chapter of

which treated of the op ini ons of o ther schools and another

of the s tor ies . Now there i s a work in s ix chap ters known

as Samkhya Pravacana one chapter of whi ch contains

refutat i on of the d octr ines of the other schools f rom a

Samkhya point of vi ew and another chap te r t reats of

s tori es o f votari es who at tained Siddhi eas i ly by Samkhyapract ice s . But scholars are agai n unanimous in rej ecti ng

the cla im o f the Samkhya Pravacana as an o ld body of

sutras . They say that the w ork i s ful l of Vedanta i d eas

and w as composed by Vij fiana-Bhiksu ,the a uthor o f the

Bhasya w ho belonged to the l l th or 12th centu ry and was

a fol low er of Samkara . I have found a sfi tra from the

1 Bum San s Serv ie s H ursacari ta p 3 16i ] . 9 .

103

Sasti tantra in Gaudapada’

s Bhasya on the 70 karikas I

bu t

un fortunately that sutra is no t to be found in the SamkhyaPravacana Sutras . The Pravacana m ight have been based

on t he Sast i - tantra but i t has been so much al tered blater modifications as to be beyond recogn i t ion .

So the old est w ork on Samkhya extan t i s the collectionof 70 Kari kas by Isvarak rsna wri tten in the 5th cen tu ry of

the Chris t ian Era or earl i er . But there were collect ions of

sutras , the exis tence of one of w hich called the Sasti tantrai s vouched by theKarikas themselves . The mean ing of the

word Sast itantra i s involved in obscuri ty bu t a moderncommentator

,Narayana , has boldly cu t the Gordi an knot

by declaring that the work con tained si xty top i cs and bygiving the names of the topics . Bu t w e know of another

school of Samkhya which the Bhagavat -Gi ta and the

Kathopanisad explain ; i t bel i eves in Mahat tat tva coming

between A vyak ta and Buddhi . A svaghosa in hi s Budha

cari taspeaks of the Buddhist idea of Ni rvana as an advanceon the Samkhya doct rines and hi s system is the same as

that of Bhagavat G i t-a and KathOpanisad . Going to

certa in grounds,we find Samkhya being named as a

school of thought by Kautilya in the 4th cen tu ry BC . Thi s

is all that i s known of the ancient Samkhya l i teratu re

before I9varak rsna. The Parivrfij akas were the ol des t

school of wandering ascet i cs in Ind ia mu ch older than the

Bud dhis ts and the Jainas . Gunaratna in h i s commentary

o n Hari bhadra’

s SaddarSana Samuccaya says that these

were the . followers of Samkhya . (P . 95 , Bi bl . Ind .

Ed i ti on) .

The re i s no doub t that the Samkhya System got i ts

name from Samkhyaor number . It appears to have been

1afi hw

’

flfsds" “

gw fiflfs ri “117i sari-

Ft”

Comm : Gaud : Ki ri k i 17.

( 104 )

older even than Buddhi sm which i t has profound ly influenced . Some think that Buddhi sm is a d irect ou tcomeof Samkhya and early Buddhi sm is fu ll of Samkhya;Four Noble Truths , Tw elve Ayatanas , F ive Skandhas andso on . Buddhi sm

,for a long t ime s tuck to enumerat ion

,

so much so , that they taught l i ttl e boys,numbers by

concepts .

A s I have told you the earl i est method of controll inghigher thought was by fixing the concepts by number .

The thoughts were fleeting , van i sh ing and d i fficu l t to fixin the mind and sti l l more d i ffi cul t to impar t and the

best way to deal wi th them w as to number them . But

when they became too many and when the sphere of

thought expanded i t b ecame necessary to invent another

method and that method w as compari son to find simi lari t ies

and d i ss imi lar i t i es among concepts fixed by number for the

pu rpose of class ification and th i s is afforded by the Vai sesikSut ras in which Sadharmya and Vaidharmya

’

w as the key

note .Throughou t the work the idea i s s imi lari ty and dis

s imi lar i ty . In fact the speci al characteri s ti cs of the system

are Samanya and Visesa, General i sat i on and particulari

sa tion or d ifferen t i at i on . I t has got i ts name Vaisesika from

parti cu lar i sat ion . Take a number of th ings, go on find ingsimi lari t i es or Sadharmaya t i l l you come to something

whi ch you can pred i cate to all the th ings . This is the

highest s imi lar i ty . Then again ,find d i s s imi lari t i es and

come to the u l t ima te analysi s to ind i v idual i ti es , the lowes tof d i ss imi lari t ies . In thi s way class i fy ing and analysing

all the numenon and phenomenon of the world , Kanadacomes to the u l timate general i sat i on Pura-Samanya i . e

exis tence Satta and the u l t imate d i fferen t i at i on that is

Visesa. Between these u l t imates l i e all ph enomena to

which both sim i lari ty and d i ss imi lar i ty can be pred i cated .

The H i s tory of the Vai l esika Sutras al so have a

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106

province of Logic . Our forefathers u sed to call th e Nyaya

sutras,Tarkasastra. That shou l d be i ts proper name , — the

art of descussion . Exam ine the six teen categori es of Nyaya

All of them relate to d i scuss ion . ( I ) Pramana, the means

by which we can d iscr im inate wh ich i s t ru e, (2) Prameya,

that whi ch i s ascertained by true knowledge, (3) Samsaya,

doubt, (4) Prayojana, obj ect , (5) D rstanta, examples ,

(6) Siddhanta , doctr ine , (7) Avayava, syllogi sm , (8) Tarka ,attempt to find the tru th in unknown subj ects by argu

men t , (9) Nirnaya, find ing the tru th, (10 ) Vada , find ing

out truth honestly by hearing both s ides, (1 1) Jalpa ,

establ i shing one ’s ow n posi ti on by defeat ing the adversary ,

(12) Vi tanda, defea ting the adversary w i thou t es tabl i sh ingone ’s ow n posi ti on

, (13) H etvabhasa,false reason ing

Chala,qu i bbl ing

, (15) Jati , fu t i l i ty , (16) Nigrahas

thana,poin ts o f defeat . All these relate to one obj ect ,

namely d i scuss ion . There were Parsads al l over the Aryan

world . The learned men of the local i ty formed the

Parsad . They had to decid e al l sorts o f cases,civ i l and

criminal . They had to in terpre t Sastras . They had to

decide between th e vari ou s schools of thought . The

Tarkasastra i s real ly a gu i d e book to the Parsads . The

Pri vy Counc i l of the k ing u sed to be called the M an tri

Parisad . So wherever i t w as necessary to d ecide betweenman and man

,the re w as a Parisad or Parsad and

there were some ru les . The las t Chapter of Kaut i lya,named Tantrayuk t i gives some of the rul es . If the

Nyayasfitra was logi c pu re and simp l e,the point s of

de feat , Nigrahasthana, wou ld have no place in i t . One

rul e i s , i f a party remains s i len t after he i s called upon to

reply by the Parisad th ree times he i s d efeated . Thi s isno par t of logic . Bu t the rul e i s necessary in a work for

the gui dance of d i scu ssi on . There were other gu i d e book s

before these Sutras w ere composed ,for

,in the Kathavatthu

107

c omposed in the Thi rd Counci l of the Buddhi sts held atPatalipu tra in the 17th year of Asoka , the system of con

ducting con troversy w as qu i te d ifferen t . In that work,called

in Engli sh , Poin ts of Con troversy , the fi rst point i s givenin ful l detai l . Bu t in that detai led descrip tion of a con tro~

versy there i s no t a word abou t syl logi sm . The M imamsa

method of condu ct ing controversy also was d ifferen t .Visayo V isayaScai va pfirvapaksastatho ttarah .

Nirnayasc et i pancangam S i stre dh i karanam Smrtam.

The Sap tabhangi Nyaya of the J ainas and the Catusk otl , sat ,asat , sadasat and nasat-na- sat of the Bud dhis ts are d ifferentmethod s of d i scuss ion. A s I hav e sai d before

,thi s sut ra i s

a book for the gu i d ance of Parsads . Phi losophy has but a

secondary impor tance in i t . In fact in the firs t sutra gi ving

the tOp ics to be treated of there , not a word of metaphys ical or epi stemological or of e th i cal importance , i s to b e

found . They have been introduced under the head of

Prameya. But Prameya i s a subj ect absolu tely necessary

in a book for the gu i d ance of j udges . The me taphysi cal

and other top i cs,i f expunged , i t wou ld not in the least ,

detract f rom i ts value as a book on Tarkasastra. In fact ,I think

,all these top ics are int erpolat i ons and I wi ll now

try to show how these i n terpolat ions came in .

Originally i t was an unsectarian work which cou ld beused by all classes of men l i ke the Au ther of the A rthasastra

and that of the Kamasutra bu t i t was a very smal l

work,the Fi rs t Book wi th a few Sutras om i tted . The

commen tators say that al l phi losophical Sutras have three

parts,U dd esa

,Laksana , and Pari ksa, enumerati on ,

defini

t ion and exam inati on or cr i t i ci sm . The enumeration of

top i cs i s gi ven i n the fi rs t sut ra , the defin i t ions are

spread over the first chap ter . Bu t the examinat ion i s

ne i ther systemati c nor exhausti ve . If systemati c , one

wou l d expect that Pramana wou ld be examined first , bu t

108

no ; the first top i c examined i s Samsaya. Then come th e

Pramanas,fou r in number and then Pramey as The las t

two heads J am and Nigrahasthana occupy the whol e ofthe Fi fth Book .

The Fi fth Chaper has two A hni kas,one gives the names

of Jati s or fu ti l i t i es in argumen t and the othe r Nigrahas

thabas,points of defeat Ye t they do no t seem to be

wri tten by one man . For M atanuj fia i s descr ibed as a sub

d ivi sion o f Jati in the fi rs t Ahni ka, and th e same M a ta

nuj fia i s also d escr i bed as one o f the poin ts of defeat . I f

one man wrote both,he

,cou l d no t have gi ven th e same

techni cal name in a philosophi cal sutra to two ob j ec ts sod i ss imi lar in nature . These l i s ts seem to have been oldl i s ts coming down from generat i on to generation and

having therefore acqu i red a t rad i t i onal venerati on . These

are l ike append i ces to the Fi rs t Chapte r of Nyaya Sti trafor whi le defining J at i and Nigrahasthana, in the Fi rs t

Chapter the au tho r seem to have done wi th them

For he gave all the sub-d i v i sions of H e tvabhasa and Chalain book I , bu t in the case of Jat i and Nigrahasthana, he

simply sai d that they are many . So he really fin i shedwi th them . If you say

,in the Fi fth Chapter , the wri ter

simply expanded the mean ing of the word ‘

many ’ th ere

wi l l be another ser iou s d i ffi cul ty . The term Prakarana

sama i s one of the H e tvabhasas . The same Prakaranasama

i s again one of the J atis . The wri ter w ho can use the

same techn i cal te rm for two things in the same ph i loso

ph ical work i s no t deserv ing of cred i t . Bu t i f h e does so

again and aga in,h e i s s ti l l more undeserving of cred i t .

Therefore,to save the repu tati on of the au thor of the

Nyayasutra i t i s bet ter to cal l the two A hn ikas of the Fi fth

Chap ter as append i ces i n whi ch old l i s ts have been

incorporat ed .

In all other ph i loscrph ical Sutras the enumerati on of

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( 110 )

Vififianafii,Vififianappaccayonamarfi pam,

namarupappa

c cayasadayatanani , sadayatanappac caya phamso , pbamsa

ppaccayavedana, vedunappaccuya tanha, tanhappac cayo

bhabo ,bhavappaccayo jat i , j atippac caya jaramaran-soka

pari deva- dukkha - domanassapayad i bhavan ti .

I wi ll now explain how the introduc ti on of that sutra

has changed the whole aspect of the work . The top i csthere cannot be included in any one of the topi cs of the

fi rst sutra except prameya and in the laksana or descript i on of prameya these have b een pu t in a t the end . See

the 9 th sutra

A tma-Sari r- endriya- budd h i manah pravrtt i

- dosa-

pre tya-phala- duhk hé

pavargah Prameyam.

”

The firs t s i x a re acknow ledged as prameyas by almos t

al l the sects . The las t s ix came from the second sutra

wi th a sl ight change of names in one or two cases . The

Sutras 17, 18 , I9 , 20 ,2 l and 22 d efine the obj ects men

t ioned in that sutra .

Now,le t u s come to the examinat ion o r pariksa of

these sutras . The examinati on of sam‘

saya, pramana and

the firs t six i tems of prameya take up the second and the

th i rd adhyayas . The other six i tems occupy the fi rs t

ahni ka of the fou r th chap ter end ing wi th metaphysi caltat tvajfiana and emancipat ion . The other ahnik a

improves tat tvaj fiana. So thi s whole chapte r has nothing

to do wi th logi c or a gu i d e to d i scuss i on . I f , however ,

the second sutra and i ts appendages are removed the

whole work w il l b e rul es for d i scussi on and I think , th i s

convers ion of a book on l ogi c to a book on metaphysics w e

owe to a Buddhi s t savan t . Tattvaj fiaan i s no t a category ,no t one of the s ixteen

,then why i t shou ld be exam ined a t

all and why at such length ? As I have sa id before , the

orthodox people were no t much in favou r of Tarkasastra.

M anu hates He tusas tra which i s another name of

1 1 1

Tark asastra ; so thi s w as at one t ime the pecu l iar property

of the heret i cs,Budd hi s ts and others .

Nagarj una bel i eved in fou r pramanas . Thi s sas tra,

too , bel i eves in fou r pramanas . The four pramanas are

defined in four sutras 4,5,6 . and 7. Then uncalled for

comes another sutra 8 . Sa (sabdah) d i v i dhah drstadrsta’

r

thatvat . The obj ect of introdu cing th i s sut ra appears

expanded in the exam ination of pramanas where there i s

a long discussion on the au thenti ci ty of the Vedas But

in thi s mat ter the in terpolator,whoever he is

,opposes the

M imamsakas who bel i eve in the etern i ty of sound . Thu s

the work was made no t only metaphysi cal bu t brahman i c,

and therefore,orthodox .

In the beginn ing of the lectu re , I called the Nyaya

sfi tra a patch -work,and I have now proved that the

two ahnikas of the Fi fth Chapter are by two men,and that

they are d ifferen t from th e wri ter of the Fi rs t Chapter and

that in the Fi rs t Chapter there are at least two interpola

t ions made by two au thors wi th two di st inct obj ects . The

second ahn i ka of the Four th Chap ter,too

,appears to be

strange , for i t treats of tattvajfiana which i s no t a

category and stranger st il l i t treats of the increase of

tat tvajfiana. I th ink,I am j ust ified in call ing i t a patch

work . Bu t i f the sfi tras are a patch-work,the task of mak

ing the patch -work a homogenous whole i s a very difli cult

work and let u s now see how Vatsyayana has done h i s

work

Vatsyayana was consciou s of what he w as doing— thathe was in troducing a spi ri tual significance in to some thingwhich i s no t exactly sp i r i tual . But he has no hesi ta tion ,

no prevaricati on ; he goes straight to say that i t i s a spi r i tual

sci ence,bu t not pu rely sp iri tual . He says— Seyam ah

vi ksik i pramanad ibh ih padarthair vi bhajyamana,Pradipah sarvvavidyanamupayah sarvakarmanfim.

1 12

A srayah sarvadharmanam Vidyoddese prak i rti ta.

Tadidam tat tvajfianam nihsreyasadh igamai tham yathavidyam vedi tavyam . Ihato adhyatmav idyayam atmadi tat

tvajfianam,nihSreyasadh igamopavarga-

prap tih .

Thi s science,ank sik i , d i vi d ed into categori es

pramfina and others becomes the lamp of al l sci ences,the

means of all undertak ings , and the re fuge of all law as

sai d in the Chapter ent i tled Vidy oddesa”

(or Vidyfi

samuddesa in the A rthasastra of Kauti lya) . Therefore,

thi s t rue knowl edge is,accord ing to the Sas tra (you study)

for the pu rpose of the highest good . Bu t here in th i s

spi ri tual sci ence,the true knowledge i s that A tms etc .

and the highes t good i s emancipati on .

He bold ly dec lares the sole obj ect of the sas tra to be

attainment of spi ri tual excel lence,bu t at the same t ime he

says that the porfessors of other s ci ences may also benefi t

by i t . (Commen tary on the Fi rs t Su tra,a t the end) .

In another place he says “ That the Nyaya-vi dya hass truck a new path inasmu ch as i t has tak en doub t etcas categori es . Un less they were separately spoken of

,

th i s wou ld be a mere sp i ri tual sci ence l i ke the Upanisad s .

(P 4,J i vananda

’

s Ed i ti on) . The doubt and the rest of

th e categories,i f not separately enumerated , bu t includ ed

as they ought to have been ,in the second category ,

prameya, the sci ence w ou l d be mere Adhyatmya-v idya.

Tat tvajfiana, he defines— Sat sat i t i grhyamanamyathabhfi tam av ipari tam tattvam bhavat i . Asat ca asat

i li grhyamanamyathabhfi tam avipari tamtattvambhavati .When ent i ty is taken as ent i ty

,as i t i s, and not

con trad i c ted,i t i s thatness Tattva and w hen non-ent i ty i s

taken as non - en ti ty,as i t is , and no t con trad ic te d that also

is Tattva .

” Thi s i s so l i ke the Buddhis t Tathata. The

next quo tat ion,too

,smell s of Buddhi sm— I-Ieyam tasya

nivart takam hanam fityay i tikam tasyop t’

iyo dhigantavyah

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1 14

composi t i on . I t is su ffic i en t to say tha t the whole book

w as comp i led between 200 B C . and 300 A .D .

And therefore I now prepose to dwel l upon the

serv ices of Vatsyayana to the ph i losophi c l i teratu re of

Ind i a . He has made the heterogenous mass of Sutrascompi led from the vas t quan t i ty of floa t ing phi losophi calspecu l at ions of the peri od in to a homogenous whole and

gi ven i t a character and cons i stency whi ch has laste d nearly

1600 years On the one hand,he d e fended the sy stem

agains t the advocates of extreme i d eal i sm of the M ahayana

Buddhi sts,l i ke Nagarj una and Deva and on the other hand

he defended i t agains t the advoca tes of the extreme or thodoxschools of the Brahm ins . H i s common sen se rebelled

against the theory that the worl d w as p roduced from void,

and that what we see ou ts i d e has no real i ty beyond the

impressi ons l eft in our mind , as wel l a s agains t th e theory

that sound was eternal , the Vedas were ete rnal and that

the world was ei th er e te rnal o r al l non-e te rnal and so on .

He s tood man ful ly in the m i d s t of extrem i sts,kept the

evtremis ts of both sides at arm ’ s length and vind icatedcommon sense H e proved the au then ti ci ty of the Ve das

,

no t by declaring tha t sound was e ternal but in th e ord inaryway

,becau se

,t he seers and speakers were reli able men .

J u st as you’

rely upon you r physi ci ans and doctors so

you rely on the Rsis They have seen th e law and th ey

are mos t competen t to ad v i se and ins truct in what to do andwhat no t to do

,But hi s greatest service i s the es tabl i sh

ment of God as a Pe rsonal God and as a M oral Governor .

H e i s no t an angry God nor a benevolen t God bu t impartsj u s ti ce tempered wi th mercy and d i spenses reward saccord ing to Karma . Thi s i s Vatsyayana

’

s ow n

work,for th e sutra d oes no t b el ieve in a God and the

secti on on rew ards i f r ead alone wil l produce an impre s

sion that the Nyayasutra i s Niri svara i .e ., God less ; but

he exp la ins the satrae in a d ifferent way . There i s no

Isvara in the ca tegori es . Bu t he says there i s A tma,one

of these A tmas i s Isvara,the possessor of eight superna

tu ral powers,fu l l of righteou sness

,fu l l of t rue know

ledge and ful l of concen tra t i on of m ind . He can dowhatever he wi lls

,he se ts in mot ion the inner wo rk ings

of man and elemen ts in the i r ow n work . He i s fa ther

to the crea tures,he i s the see r , the Omnipotent and

Omn i sc ient . H e i s beyond comp rehens ion of all creatures .

In la ter l i terature he is S i va and so Haribhadra says“A ksapadanaye Devo srsti samharakrt Sivah .

V i bhu rn ityai kasarvaj fio n i tyabuddh isamasrayah .

A nd S iva has remaine d the obj ec t o f venerat i on of theNaiyay i kas even to the p resent d ay .

The se rvices of Vatsyayana are certain ly great i n

M e taphysics and in Rel igion and h is iservi ces are no l ess

valuable in the matte r of regul a t ing the rules of d iscuss ion

or vicara . The proceed ings se ttl ed by h im in hi s Bhasya

are s t i ll fol low ed in all Hindu cou rts and controvers i es .

The Madhyastha s i ts i n t he place of the Parsad and hears

both s i des , weighs the arguments on both sid es accord ingto rules la i d dow n by h im and deci d es . The ru les are

also the same . The mos t important th ing in an Anu s

mana i s syllogism and the Nyaya Sutra lays down thati t should have five l imbs . But there are some who

d iscard two of them and re duce the number to thre e .

Hence some peopl e th ink tha t the H indu s have der i ved

the i r form of sy l logi sm from A ri s toltle who belonged to

the four th cen tu ry B.C . But th i s i s no t cor rect . For

the l imbs or pa rts o f syl logi sm were at one t ime ten,

for so says Vatsyayana in h i s commentary on the A vayavaSutra ( I, i , 32) and he gi ves thei r names and funct ions

and says that laterly they were consi dered superfluou s andM r. U I has shown in a note on p . 83 of his preface that

( 116 )

Bhadrabahu who d i ed in 293 B.C . e l abora tes a form o f

syl logism wi th ten members . These ten by late r cr i t i c i sm

were reduced to five So the Ind i ans d eveloped the i r

syl logi sm independen tly of the Greeks . Vatsyayana has

been vehemen tly cri t i c i se d by D innaga in the m i d d le of

the 5 th century A D . and so he mu s t have l i ved some t imebefore Dinnaga.

So the servi ces of Vatsyayana to Logic,M e taphys i cs

and Rel ig ion of the Hindus a re invaluabl e .

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( 1 18 )

Once upon aand Smarta and in many of the fine -arts .

t ime when after the day ’ s work he w as enj oy ing the cool

bree ze of the Sena, a man came gallopp ing on horseback

and al ighting from h i s horse was introduced to h im by hi slow- caste brother Candrasena

,unfold ed h is turban

,

2 handed

h im a le tte r . He read i t wi th intense a t ten t ion,as i t w as

from Krsnagupta, the Prime -M in i s ter of Harsavardhana

of Thanesvara. Krsnagupta poin ted ou t to h im that th i s

was a fine opportun i ty to seek an in te rv i ew wi th the great

Emperor .

3 Next morn ing Vana prepared for the j ourney

and in a few days came to where t he emperor w as in4camp . The encampmen t w as of a vas t d imens ion and

Vana descri bes i t wi th a v ivid i ty and m inu teness which

wou ld do honour to any poet of any country and of any

age .

On entering the Imperi al Cour t Krsnagupta beckoned toh im to si t qu i e tly close by , whi le he w as conferring wi th

the Emperor on s ta te affa i rs . The confe rence was long

and in whispers , which i r ri tated Vana very much . How

ever , at the end of the confe rence Krsnagupta in troducedVana to the Emperor who s imply remarked “

Mahdnayambhuj afigalz .

” 5 The remark i rri ta ted Vana most . The

word means no t only a serpen t but also a “dandy a“ lad i es ’ man Vana thought tha t the k ing rai led at h im

for h i s behavi ou r during hi s tour,but Krsnagupta soon

found an oppor tuni ty to soo the h i s i rri ta tion and in a

shor t t ime H arsaand Vana were fri end s . Vana’

s posi ti on

in the Imperi al Cou rt was very high and he w as very

happyfi

After prolonged s tay at the camp wi th the Emperor

1 I b id II,para, 1 .

9 I b id I I,paras 6 8: 7.

3 I bi d 11, para. 7. I b id I I , 10 .

I bi d 11,18 .

3 I bi d I I , 19 .

119

Vana became anxiou s to be in th e mid st of his fam i ly

and secured perm i ss ion to vi si t h i s nati ve place .

1 At home

he found the whole fami ly engaged in l i sten ing every

even ing to the reci tal of a P ravamdna-

prokta ZPurana?

A reci ter of the Pu rana came every evening , opened a

palm -leaf manuscri pt,read ou t long passages from i t and

wen t away j us t before du sk to say hi s even ing prayer .

Among the atten t i ve l i steners were the fou r cou sins of

Vana . One of them remarked after hearing the hi story

of ancient k ings in the Purana These k ings of anti qu i ty

had but small terri tori es,yet the Purana record s so

much o f th ei r ach i evemen ts and of th e i r V i rtu e . Our

Emperor Harsa has vas t te rri tori es and he i s so v i r tu

ous and popul ar . Why do yo u not,0 Vana

,wri te a

Purana embodying an accoun t of h i s work ” Vana

nodded consent and began to wri te the Harsacari ta .

3

Thu s began in the early years of the Seventh Centurya h i stori cal l i teratu re i n Ind i a

,whi ch though no t very

fru i t fu l in the beginn ing i s now pu tt ing forth the bestresu l ts One of the reasons why i t was no t fru i t fu l in

the beginn ing is the unfor tunate fact that Vana d i d not

l i ve to fin i sh hi s w ork . If he cou ld have fini shed i t,in

h is vigorou s and in imi table style,others wou ld certainly

have followed in hi s wake . Becau se Vana cou ld not

fini sh i t,peopl e thought that h i s tory was an inau spi ciou s

subj ect and by all means avoided i t . The same was the

case wi th the KathaLi te ra tu re which Vana began wi th

hi s Kadambar i,bu t which he coul d not fini sh . The

KathaLitera tu re,therefore

,did no t flour i sh

,though h is

worthy son Bhfisana completed h is work .

Vana ’s Harsacari ta i s the firs t h i stori cal w ork wri tten

in Sansk ri t . In anci en t Ind ia the re were hi s tor i es and

1 I I I,1 .

2 I b i d I I I,4 .

3 I bi d III, 7.

120

I have already told you that hi s to ry rank ed as a Fi fthVeda . But we ge t no h i s tor i cal work s of tha t time . The

only th ing we get i s the l i s t o f k ings of the various

dynast i es tha t rul ed in Ind ia , and in M agadha only we

get al ong wi th the names the du ra ti on of each reign.

M r. Parg iter who has inve s tigated the subj ect carefu l ly,

says that the l i s ts w ere kep t in Prak i t . Be that as i t

may ,there is no doub t that the men who promp ted Vana

to wri te the Harsacari ta thought they were ask ing him

to do some th ing new . They were ask ing h im to do for a

modern king what the Puranas d i d for the anci en t k ingsand Vana d id hi s work in the Sp iri t of a modern Nine

teen th or Twent i e th cen tu ry hi storian . H e gi ves a hi s tory

of h is Gotra,then of h is? immed i ate ancestors to the

5 th generat ion , and an au tob iography of h imsel f , and also

the occasion whi ch induced h im to wri te the h i s to ry of the

k ing he served . In wri t ing an accoun t of h i s ow n l i fe he

d id no t paint himsel f as an immacu late person but paintedhimsel f as he w as

,wi thou t h id ing any of h is fau l ts . He

w as an arden t adm i re r of the king but he has no t sparedhi s fau l ts . In the t rue spi ri t of a hi s tori an he gi ves the

h i s tory of the dynasty to which the king bel onged . What

he say s abou t Pravakaravardhana,Raj yavardhana and

Harsavardhana i s well known from the h i s tori es o f Ind i a

which have al l exploi ted what h istori cal informati on

he has given . The book throws a flood of l igh t on

Ind ian l i fe a t the beginning of the 7th cen tury AD .

Vana ’s Kadambari is a tale,but i t i s a wonderful

tale . I t extend s over three b i r ths of a number of i ts

characters,there are words which are three fou r l ines long

and sen tences,which run over four or five pages . One

of my professors measured a sen tence by a s tring in theold ed i t ion of the Kadambar i in very small type and the

str ing w as 36 ft . long . The story i s a wonder ful‘

mix tu re

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( 122 )

have been a physi c ian of the fami ly of Vatsyayana as the

Gotra was a learned and an extens i ve one , and the per iodof thei r influence i n Magadha extended over many c en

tari es . The au thor of the Paficatantra which w as

transl ated into Pehlevi under orde rs of Khu sru Nauservanin the 6th cen tu ry A D knew more of the Vatsyayana

fami ly than we in the 20 th century and even Vana in the

7th cen tury . Madhusfidana Sarasvati ’s inclusi on of

Kamasastra in Ayu rveda seems to have the resul t of

modern neglect of the s tudy of the Sas t ra . In modernt imes Kamasastra meant only the sas tra of un i on

,and of

aphrod i siac md ic ines . But in anci en t t imes i t meant

much more . It included five hund red and eighteen fine

arts,in fact all that cont ri bu ted to make human l i fe

tolerable and pl easan t . It included al so domest i c and

soci al regula ti ons of the best kind .

The ancien tKamasastra was one of the four recogn i z ed

d i vi s ions of the sas tras and ranked wi th D harmasastra ,A rthasastra and M okssas tra. The author of the Pah oa

tan t ra in ancient t imes woul d no t ventu re to make i t as

Madhusudana Sarasvat i d i d , a b ranch of Ayurveda whichi s but an Upaveda to the Artharva-Veda which goes

under the head of Dharmasas tra .

Subandhu .

Subandhu, I bel i eve , belonged to Magadha under the

Gupta emperors . All the specula t ions abou t h i s date

by Fi t z edw ard Hal l and M r. Grey of the ColumbianUn i vers i ty seem to be of no t much avai l . In the new ser i es

of the Journal and Proceed ings of the A si ati c Socie ty of

Bengal Vol . I , I wrote in pag e 253In d i scoursing on the excel lences of s tyle Vamana

w ho belongs to the 9th cen tury A .D . in h is Kavya

( 123 )

lamkarasutravrtt i quotes a verse as an exampl e of the

excel lence named significance (sabhiprayatva) .The verse or rather hemi s ti ch runs thu s

Soyam samprat i Candragup tatanayafi CandraprakaSo

yuba.

Jato bhfi pat iras'

rayah k i'tadh iyam d iatya krtarthaaramah .

The son of Candrag upta,the young raja Candra

p rakasa has no w become the re fuge of learned men and

fortunately h i s endeavou rs are success ful .

Commen t ing o n th is , the au thor says that the word sthe re fuge of learned men are significan t because

they b ring to m ind the fact that Subandhu was one Of

hi s m in i s ters Now there were two Cand raguptas in the

Gup ta Line . Both were cal le d Vik ramad i tya. The first

was the founder of the empi re and the second hi s grandson . The second Candragup ta was a patron of l earned

men Is i t no t l i kely that Subandhu served under one ofh i s sons . Candraprakasa

A cont roversy was rai sed in the Ind i an An t iquary in

late r years in which an a ttempt w as made to make the

word s “ ca Subandhu into Vasu bandhu . Bu t M r. Nara

simha Cari ar a fter cons ul t ing many manu scrip ts poin tedou t that i t was ca Subandhu and no t Vasubandhu . So

my theory s tands tha t Subandhu belonged to the reign

of Candragup ta I I and the su bsequen t re igns . The only

argumen t that can be u rged agains t thi s theory i s that

Subandhu in one p lace w r i tes Ngdyasth i tiriva Uddyotaka

rasarvasvdland so Subandhu knew Uddyo takara, the

au thor of Nyayavartt ika, who , Vacaspat i M isra says,

defended Vatsyayana agains t the at tacks of Dinnagaz.

Bu t the facts so far known make the dates of D innaga and

1 7 Be l l . Inded . p . 235 .

1 ‘ Nyayavarttika‘

124

U ddyo takara late r than that of Candragup ta 11. Bu t I

think these ques ti ons shou ld be left open . One cannot

ge t over the fac t tha t S ubandhu se rved under Cand raprakasa who was the son o f Candragupta I I and Subandhu

in hi s preface to h is Vasavadat ta lamen ts that a fte r th e

death of Virk ramad i tyal

(Candragupta II ) the world i s

going to rack and ru in . H e i s very b i tte r agains t khalas

or envious peop le " , who,I bel ieve

,brough t abou t the

ru in of hi s pa tron CandraprakaSa and o f himsel f .

The plot interes t of h i s work i s ni l and the au thor

seems no t to care much for i t . A ll he cared for

were h i s puns and in tha t he has shown a mas tery never

su rpassed . He was conscious of h i s superi or i ty and as

prefaces are alw ay s wri t ten after the works themselves

to which they are prefixed , he gi ves a cri t i c i sm on his

own work which i s endorsed by all subsequen t cr i ti csSarasvati dattavaraprasadah cak re Subandhuh suj anai

kabandhuh

Pratyaksaraslesamayaprabar’

i dhavinyasavaidagdhyani

dh irni bandhamB

.

There is a pun in every let ter as he says . The story-is easi ly told .

Kandarpake tu ,the son of Cin taman i , a k ing , dreams

in the morn ing of a damsel of exqu i s i te b eau ty and goes

in ques t of h er. He sleeps und er the spread ing arms of

a m ighty tree in the Vindhyas and awaken ing at m i dn ight

hears the quarrel of a parrot and h i s consor t . She w as

angry for h is com ing la te and he fal ters forth an apology“ I had been to Patalipu tra. There Vasavadatta, the

daughter of the k ing had a Svayambara bu t she rej ec ted

Lll the assembled p rinces and in a d ream saw a you th of

1 Pre face V ase 10 2 I bid verses 7 8 .

1 I bid 13 .

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r 126

that i s , 499 A . D .

1He w as a student o f Greek As tro

nomy and the uni que notat ion whi ch goes in h i s name

and which he gi ves in h is Dasagi t i ka seems to be an

adap tat i on of the Greek system The consonan ts from ka

to ma are valued at I to 25 and the e igh t vowels i,u

,r,e,

l , ai , 0 ,cu represent mu l t iple s of IOO each . Thu s ka i s I , k i

i s 100 , ku i s k r i s k l i s k e

i s kai i s Thi s i s a

mod ified form of the Greek System .

One of Aryabhata’

s w orks i s cal led D asagz tikd from the

fact that i t cons is ts of ten verses in the Gi t ikametre which

i s a mod ification o f the Arya. H is other work,the Aryasid

dhanti ka,consi s ts o f 108 verses and is d i v i d ed in three sec

t ions Kalak riyapada, Golapada and Gan i tapada In these

two works the extent of wh ich does no t j ointly go beyond1 18 verses , Aryabhata has explained the whole system of

Hindu Astronomy . He is even more conci se than the

phi losoph ical Sutras and is in s trange cont ras t wi th the

astronomi cal Siddhantas whi ch seem to have been wri tten

in prose and are ve ry d i ffu se .

There seem to have been a confli c t of Eras at the

t ime when Aryabhata flou ri s hed . There w as the Malava

Era in Wes tern M alw a , the Gupta Era know n in the

Gupta Emp i re,th e Saka E ra

,the Kalacuri Era and so

on - al l local and t ri bal e ras Not know ing in which to

date hi s works wh ich was mean t for un i versal use among

the Hindus he took up the Kali yuga Era known to al l .

Bu t in subsequen t ages the Saka E ra was adopted by allastronomers in Ind i a . The reason is no t fa r to seek for

in Ind ia astronomy and astrology were , i f no t exclus i vely ,very generally stud ied and professed by the Sakadvi p i

Brahm ins or Scythi an pr i esthood— the old H agi i— settled

1 Kil lak rlyapada verse 10 .

127

in Ind ia from remo te ages , for ne i ther the Brahmins or

the Bud dhi s ts favoured astrologers . Buddha has express

ly excluded Astrology from Samyak Aj i va or proper

l ivel i hood .

Aryabhata i s sai d to have d i scovered the d iu rnalmotion of the earth 1 which he thought to be spheri cal .

I leave the exp lanation of the se sci en t ific matters to those

who are making sci ent ific inves tigati ons of Hindu

Astronomy . But one th ing i s cer ta in that i t w as abou t

thi s time tha t the old Krtt ika seri es of asteri sms was

d i s carded and the new seri es commencing from the 1st

poin t of A svini was adopted . The firs t poin t of A SVini

recedes one degree or by one day in 73 years and i t has

receded twen ty day s now giving a total of twen ty into

seventy- three (20 x 73) that i s , 1460 years . The pointwas on the equ inoc ti al c i rcl e on the firs t day of Vaisakhaand now i t i s on the l 0 th of Chai tra . So the poin t w as

seen there 1460 years ago,that i s

,1921 - 1460 that i s 461

A .D . Thi s i s only an approximate cal culat i on . If

accu rate calcu l at i on i s made i t wi ll fal l wi thin the acti ve

per i od of Aryabhata’

s l i fe .

Aryabhata had many studen ts and hi s next successor

Lal la was one of h i s pupi ls and some say Varahami h ira,too

,was hi s pupi l . 2

A ryabhata had another celebrated astronomer as h is

con temporary . Thi s was Varahamihira. In hi s Vrhaj j fitaka in the 26th chapter

,he says that he was son of

Ad i tyadasa, that he was an Avantaka,that he rece ived

hi s knowledge from h i s fa the r and that he obtained a

book from the Sun-God at Kampi llaka or Kapi tthaka.

Bhatto tpala tell s us that he w as a M Sgadha dvij a. Somesay that he was a M agadvi j a, i .a

,one of the Mag ii long

1 Pafica-Siddhant ika preface , page, LVI I .2 Ganakataranginl Lal la and Varaba.

128

se ttled in Ind i a . From all thi s the late Pand i t SudhakaraD vivedi in hi s Ganakatarang ini infe rs (p . 12) that i t i snot impossi ble that Varaha was a Magadha Brahmin . H e

mig ht have gone to Uj j ain for l i vel i hood He stud i ed withh i s father at h is ow n hou se in Magadha and also stud i edthe works of Aryabhata there , he travel led to make h im

sel f known ,he worsh ipped Sun-God a t Kampillaka (Kalp i )

and ob tained a book from h im . I acqu i red a man u scrip t

of h is son’s work Prthuyasah-Sas tra a t Samk hu the

north ernmost par t of the Nepal valley,the open ing verse of

whi ch says that the son Varahamih ira asked h is fath er

some questions whi l e he w as resi d ing at the beau t i fu l c i ty

ofKanyakubja on the Ganges .

Varaha might h ave reti red to Kanyak ubja in h i s old

age to be on the Ganges and there imparted h is know

ledge to his son Prthuyasah .

Amaraja, the commen tator of Khandanakhanda

khadya says tha t Varahamih ira d i ed in the Saka year 509that i s 587A .D . Some people th ink tha t Varaha wrote

hi s Panca-Siddhantika in 505 A .D . that i s Saka 427.

But thi s is impossible i f we a re to bel i eve Amaraj a.

Varaba would then be only 18 . Therefore Dr Thi bau t

afte r carefu l ly cons idering all the facts of the case th inks

that 427 Saka was the date when Lalla rev i s ed the

Bomaka-Siddhanta and that the Panca -Si d dhanta w as

composed abou t 550 A .D . So Varahamih ira w as a later

contemporary and perhaps a studen t of Aryabhata.

The Ganakatarangini has given a l i s t of Varaba s

w orks and th inks that th e Vrhat -Samh i ta is h is las t work .

It i s an Encyc lopoed ic work . It t reats no t only of Astronomy

and Astrology bu t of such subj ects as gard en ing , agri cu l

tu re,scu lp tu re , stri laksana, purusalaksana and so on . H is

great work i s the Pafica-Sidhanta in which he give s a

summary of all the Sidhantas curren t in hi s t ime . They

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130

rendered . the Sansk ri t p ros e in to 4000 verse s in Ind ra

Vaj ra metre . The translat i on was done in the 9 1st year

of an unknown era and versificat ions in l 9 l st year of

the same era . Here is one ind ependen t ev idence of

the t ranslati on of Greek works in Sansk ri t . Varaba

mih ira wrote a work on J ataka or Horoscopy call ed

Vrhaj jataka. Accord ing to Ganakatarangini , in that work

Varaba quotes from th ree work s of the Greek s,M aya

,

Yavana aud Mani t tha (M ene tho) and he u sed many Greek

word s . All th i s shows the influence of Greek Astronomy

on Ind ian Jyot isa. There is a say ing in Gargya that

M lechbahi Yavanastesu samyak sastram- i dam sth i tamBsivat tepi pfi j yante k im punar Vedaviddv ij ah .

3

The next important book that w as wri tten in Magadhaand a t Patal ipu tra was the D esavalivivri t ih in th e 17th

cen tury . Bu t from Varahamih ira in the 6th to the Desa

val i in the 17th cen tu ry i s a great jump . Bu t Magadha

was not id l e al l these thou sand years,rather i ts act i vi ty

w as in tense . Bu t unfor tunately I cannot includ e thatperiod of in tense act iv i ty wi th in the l imi ted scope of mycourse of six lectu res . So I have confined mysel f to

strictly Brahman i cal l i teratu re . The act iv i ty of the

greater portion of these in tervening 1000 years was c onfined to Buddhi s t l i terature . The ri se of Nalanda in

the 6th centu ry i s a great even t in Ind ian hi story.

Nalanda con tinued to command the at tent i on o f theworl d for more than fi ve centu ries when Vikramasi la

rose und er the Palas of Bengal and after Vi kramafii la w e

come to J agaddala in Bengal . Nal anda u sed to send i tslearned monks all over the world and i t d rew s tudents fromall par t s of the world speci ally the east . Y uan Chwang

received hi s educatio n here and on hi s re turn became the

3 Ganait page 12 .

131

second founder of Bud dhi sm in China and hi s students

carried the learn ing and rel ig i on of Indi a to Japan,Korea ,

M ongoli a and Si ber ia . When the Chinese ceased to come,

came the Ti betans and Nalanda was the p lace where theybegan the translat i on of Sanskr i t works in Tibe tan whi ch

have preserved ten thousand of work s from destru cti on

and obl i vion . Then the centre of Ti be tan translat i on

sh i fted to Vik ramasi la and thence to Jagaddala. The

l i terature of Nalanda was in the beg inn ing M ahayani s tand phi losophical . It began Tant ra which flouri shed

in all i ts luxuriance a t Vik ramasi la,the philosophy of

wh ich was more scholas ti c than t hat of Nalanda . In spi te

of Vik ramasi la and i n sp i te o f J agaddala,Naland a c on

tinued to flouri sh and we have manusc rip ts wri tten there

e ven in the eleventh cen tu ry . I have got manuscrip tscop i ed at Badgaon i n Bengal i character which professorBendall thought belonged to the 14th centu ry

,bu t which

I think w as cop i ed before the M uhammadan conquest .

Badgaon i s we ll known to be an integral par t of Nalanda .

The Bud d h i s t li te ratu re of th is period i s most interest ing

and mos t ed i fy ing bu t un for tu nately i t d o es no t exi st

ei ther in Sanskri t or in any Ind ian language . M ost of

the works exi s t only in the Ti betan and Chinese

translations , some of them in o riginal Sanskri t or

Bengal i have been found in Nepal and the wes tern and

even Sou thern Ind ia are con tri bu ting thei r quota o f these

Sanskri t works . Japan i s doing much in contri bu ting to

the hi story of the l i terature of thi s period from Chinese

tran slati ons and Tibet also i s showing acti vi ty in that

d i recti on . A small body of very learned men wi th

cen tres in London ,Pari s and Berl in are acti vely engaged

in reconstructing a hi s tory of thi s peri od and I hope Ind iaspecially th i s province which i s most in terested in i t wi ll

no t be lagging behind .

132

The last work whi ch I wish to descr ibe i s the Desa

val i -vivrti , a gazet teer of E aste rn Ind ia composed in the17th cen tu ry at M og u ltuly in Patna under the patronage ofa Chauhan Z am indar n amed Vi j j ala Bbfipat i by hi s Pand i t ,Pand i t J agamohan . One may th ink that the comp i la t iono f the work w as i nsp i re d by the Ain i Akbar-i

,bu t I th ink

that the insp i ra ti on came from a d iff eren t quar ter and th e

inspi rat ion i s ab solutely indigenous . M i th i la’

s great p oet

Vidyapati was a greatman ,he w as the firs t to wri te a

gazetteer under the name of Bhuparik rama. H e was

fol lowed by a Z am indar named Vik rama and hi s work is

called Vik ramasagara Vij j ala Bhupat i appears to havebeen one of the d escendents of Vik rama. So Vi j j ala

’

s

insp i rati ons need no t have come from Delh i . Bu t unfor

tunately good manuscri pts of the Gazetteer Li tera tu re are

no t yet for thcoming . H orace Hymen Wi lson collecteda mass of fragmen ts and i t i s now deposi ted in the

Sansk ri t College Library , Calcu t ta and I acqu ired some

fragments from Bankura which are now deposi ted in theAsiati c Soci ety of Bengal A study of these fragments

have gi ven us a mass of in formati on abou t the Hindu s

three hundred years ago in Bihar , Bengal and the adj oin

ing di s tri cts , the i r templ es,thei r places of p ilgrimage

,

thei r admin i s t rat i on,the i r t rade

,th e i r manu factures

,

the i r fortificati ons,

thei r manners,

the i r cu s toms,

th ei r foibles and thei r habi ts . V ij j ala was fol lowed in

in th is depar tmen t of work by the Raja of Paficak o t

whose poe t'

Ramakavi wrote a work under the name of

Pandavad igvi j aya.

Here I bring my cou rse of s ix lectu res on the Magadha

Li teratu re to a c lose . When I undertook to d el i ver mylectu res I thought I wou ld have to fi l l up mos t of mypages wi th the h i story of Budd hi s t and Jaina l i tera ture

of Magadha for I thought i t woul d be d i fficu l t , nay

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