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Purvamimamsa Citrapatah with Laghunyayasudhatika of Uttamaslokatirtha

$46
Item Code: NZD803
Publisher: Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Tirupati
Language: Sanskrit
Edition: 1993
Pages: 487
Cover: Hardcover
Other Details 10.0 inch X 7.0 inch
Weight 1 kg
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Book Description

Introduction

I am very happy to associate myself by way of this brief introduction with the publication of a valuable Purvamimamsa work viz., Laghuvartika also known as Chitrapata with its commentary Laghunyayasudha of Uttamasloka tirtha edited by Sri Devanatha Tatacharya.

At the outset, I congratulate Sri Devanatha Tatacharya on his very ably editing this small but very valuable Purvamimamsa work. His edition is based on the manuscript deposited at the Tanjore Sarsvati Mahal Library. He has consulted the manuscript deposited at Madras Govt. oriental Manusrripts Library and also the earlier printed editions viz., edited by Dr. Chintamani of Madras University and Dr. Kamalanayana Sharma of Ganganatha Jha Institute of Alhabad. The text of Laghuvartika is printed seperately and also along with the commentary Laghunyayasudha. This helps the students to go through the Text without interruption and also consult the commentary when necessary. The Adhyayas and padas are mentioned. The Purvapaksha and Siddhanta are neatly arranged in separate paras. This arrangement is slightly disturbed by the Printer here and there. However its broad structure remains.

At a time when the traditional Scholarship was strong no such arrangement was necessary. The manuscripts consulted by the Editor were not arranged in this way. Sri Devanatha Tatacharya has taken pains to arrange his edition in such a systematic way. A Scholar of his eminence could do it with comparatively less effort. He has also added some very useful indices. The index of Visayavakyas and the index giving the differences of views of major writers are very helpful to the research scholars.

In his detailed introduction in Sanskrit, he discusses the problem of the authorship of the Text and the commentary. So far as the commentary viz., Laghunyayasudha is cocerned there is no difficulty about the authorship, The manuscripts mention Uttamaslokatirtha as the author of the commentary and there is no other claimant. In respect of the Text viz., Laghuvartika also called Chitrapata, the two earlier editors have expressed different opinion. Dr. Chintamani has assigned this work to Appaya Dixita and Dr Kamalanayana Sharma to Kumarila Bhatta. The present editor Sri Devanatha Tatacharya has argued that both these are not likely to be the authors of this Text. He assigns the authorship of the Text to Uttamaslokatirtha the commentator of this work. A careful perusal of the reasons given by Sri Devanatha Tatacharya will convince that he is right. His main ground for not assigning it to Kumarila Bhatta is that nearly in half a dozen places the differences of opinion between the Sabarabhashya and Vartika are referred to in this work and Vartika is mentioned by name. This makes it clear that a different writer than Kumarila is drawing the attention of the readers to these differences. The title Laghuvartika need not be taken to mean an abridged edition of Kumarila’s Vartika by Kumarila himself. In that case some key verses of Vartika would have been certainly incorporated into it. The phrases, key expressions and the style of this Text are quite different from that of Kumarila. Further apart from summarizing the Bhashya and Vartika this work closely follows Sastradipika of Parthasarathi Misra. This also indicates that this is a later work.

The assignment of the authorship of this work to Appayya Dixit seems to have been based on two considerations. (1) The list of 108 works of Appayya Dixit contains the name of a work called Chitrapata. (2) One or two manuscripts of this work carry the title Chitrapata. However, no manuscript mentions Appayya Dixit as its Author. Almost all manuscripts of Appayya Dixit’s other works mention his name. Therefore, the absence of his name in the manuscripts of this work makes his authorship doubtful. Sankara Bhatta who was quite familiar with Sri Appayya Dixita’s works who has in fact refuted one of his works., viz., Vidhirasayana by his Dushana has also written a summary of Purvamimasa viz., Purvamimamsasara Sangraha in verses. If he was aware of this work, he would not have repeated a same type of work. Therefore, this work is not the work of Sri Appayya Dixit. Sri Devanatha Tatacharya has given many more reasons io reject the authorship of both Kumarila and Appayya Dixit in his Sanskrit introduction. Sri Devanatha Tatacharya has suggested that Uttamaslokatirtha himself is the author of both the Text and the commentary. Since he is the author of both, his name occurs at the end of the commentary. Its absence at the end of Text does not disprove his authorship.

As far the name Chitrapata, the manner in which the topics are presented in this work seems to be reason. The topics are unfolded in the manner of pictures on a canvass. One can observe them in a sequence as seeing pictures on a canvass.

As regard this title being found in the list of Appayya Dixita’s works, it has to be checked whether another work of the same title was written by him or the title of this work inadvertently got into the list of his works.

It is well known that a new era in Purvamimamsa commences with Khandadeva. Since this Text or its commentary which carefully records the differences between Bhashya and Vartika and closely follows Shastradipika, does not mention the differences between Khandadeva and the earlier writers even in respect of very important differences, this work has to be assigned a date before Khandadeva. As this summary of Purvamimamsa topics is more refined than that of Sankara bhatta’s sangraha, the author seems to belong to a period between Sankarabhatta and Khandadeva. His reference to Visvesvara at the end of his commentary indicates that either he belonged to Varanasi or lived in that City for quite some time.

Another important point to be noted in settling the authorship of this work is that the author of this work is also credited with the authorship of Vedanta work viz, Vyasasutra Laghuvartika and its commentary. Kumarila never dabbed in Vedanta while Appayya Dixita is not known to have written any short commentary on Vedanta sutra. Therefore, the authorship of the summary of these twin sutras cannot be assigned to them.

 

II

The literature of Purvamimamsa is very vast. Among the Sutras of different branches of Indian philosophy and religion, the Jaimini Sutra of Purvmimamsa is the largest. It contains 2745 Sutras arranged into twelve chapters. Sabara’s Bhashya, Kumarila’s Vartika, Sastradipika of Parthasarathi are also quite extensive. There are about a thousand topics that are dealt with. It is imposible even for those who have great capacity to memorise to remember the Purvapaksha and Siddhanta of these topics. Therefore, the practice of writing summaries of these topics developed in Purvamimamsa. The present work is one such summary. Though the Jaimini sutras and the commentaries thereon, are large works and contain nearly a thousand topics as stated above these are well planned. The first chapter deals with the Pramanas and the remaining eleven chapters deal with the origanisation of ritual programmes. That is why this system is called Karmamimamsa. The discussion of the organization of ritual programmes needs the interpretation of Bramhana passages, these Bramhana passages have to be interpreted to determine the precise nature and the details of these rituals. For this purpose, Purvamimamsa has evolved a set of rules of interpretation. Therefore, this system is also called Vakya Shastra. To discuss as to what are the sources and the authority for Dharma ie., ritual programmes, and to point out that Sabda Pramana, i.e., Veda is the only source and the authority for Dharma, this system probes into the epistemology also. Thus, Purvamimamsa has three dimensions viz., i) Programme organization ii) Linguistics and iii) Epistemology. Purvamimama has made distinct contribution to the Indian though in these three areas.

 

III

In evolving a methodology for ritual organization, Purvamimamsa has evolved such wel organized and detailed guidelines that these are useful for any programme organization. To substantiate this observation, I will only mention the plan of Jaimini sutras in this respect spread over the chapters from II to XII. First, Karmasvarupa and karmabheda i.e., identifying a programme and distinguishing different programmes are discussed. Then Sesa and Sesin or anga and Pradhana that is to say the guidelines to determine the main programmes or items and subordinate programmes or items are discussed. Next follows the discussion of Kratvartha and Purusartha i.e., the items that are meant for the programme and the items that are meant for the person undertaking the programme in connection with the programme. Then, the Krama or sequence, and eligibility i.e., Adhikara are discussed. These items are discussed in the chapters II to VI. These chapters are called Upadesa Section. The seventh and eighth chapters discuss Atidesa in a general way and in respect of particular programmes and items. Purvamimamsa classifies the ritual programmes into two types Prakriti i.e., independently set programmes and Vikriti derived programmes. It is in the case of derived programmes that Atidesa or borrowing concurrent items from Prakriti is necessary. The provision for such Atidesa or borrowing needs two consequential adjustments. These are Uha and Badha, Uha is substitution. For instance, if the deities in the Prakriti and Vikriti are different, the name of the deity in Prakriti has to be substituted by the name of the deity in vikriti in the hymn. Such Uha or substitution will be in respect of Mantra, Saman and Sanskara. Badha is withdrawing or nonperformance of certain items of Prakriti in Vikriti. Every item serves certain purpose in the ritual. If the purpose served in Prakriti by an item is not to be served in Vikriti that item has to be withdrawn. After discussing these consequential items of ritual organization in the case of vikriti, two important techniques of ritual organization to effect the economy of effort are discussed. These are Tantra and Prasanga. Tantra is a technique of single performance with reference to many, while Prasanga is the technique of one item serving the purpose of another also. These two are intended to avoid repetition and economise the effort. These guidelines of ritual programme organization are formulated to efficiently organize the rituals and illustrated with ritual items. However, many of these could be applied to any other programme organization. The underlying principles of these guidelines are discussed in detail in large works like Bhasya, Vartika and Sastradipika. However, as these long discussions involve references to many ritual details, the comprehension of the emerging guideline and the driving point becomes difficult. This difficulty is solved by the short summaries like the present work which presents the emerging point of each Adhikarana lucidly and clearly. We may note a couple of instances from the present work.

 






















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