Paris. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Sanscrit 915
- Source
- Gallica (Bibliothèque nationale de France)
- Library
- Paris. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits
- Shelfmark
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- Sanscrit 915
- Biblissima authority file
- Date
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- No internal date. Before 1733, as it is part of a group of manuscripts sent by Jesuits from Chandernagor in 1729-1735, and is listed by J-F. Pons in 1733.
- Language
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- Sanskrit
- Title
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- Dravyaprakāśikā, by Bhagīratha Ṭhakkūr.
- Agent
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- Role
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- Author
- Original form
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- Bhagīratha Ṭhakkūr
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- Description
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Contents:
The Dravyaprakāśikā "Light on Substance" is a commentary on the first section (on substance, dravya) of Vardhamāna Upādhyāya’s Kiraṇāvaliprakāśa, itself a commentary on Udayana’s Kiraṇāvalī, a major work of the Vaiśeṣika system. The author of the sub-commentary, Bhagīratha Ṭhakkūr (active around 1500), belonged to the Mithilā school of Navya-Nyāya, and was a pupil of Jayadeva, a contemporary of Raghunātha Śiromaṇi and "a celebrated logician of Mithilā" (Bhattacharya, D.C. 1958: 172).
The work is still unpublished, and this is one of the rare complete copies that have come to light. Another old manuscript of the work, also from Eastern India but incomplete, is kept in the Cambridge University Library (images and description here). Other copies of the work are listed in the NCC vol. 4, p.155.
There are two introductory stanzas: one is an invocation to Kṛṣṇa, and in the other the author introduces himself as the brother of one Mahādeva Śarmā, a jurist (dharmācārya), and his work as a sub-commentary on Vardhamāna’s Kiraṇāvalīprakāśa. He refers to himself by his usual nickname megha, ‘The Cloud’. Rucidatta Miśra, the author of an earlier sub-commentary on Vardhamāna’s work, is mentioned in the first lines of the text by the name ‘Miśra’.
In the final stanza, Bhagīratha mentions the name of his parents, Śrīcandra and Śrīdhīrā, as well as of two younger brothers, Maheśa, no doubt identical with Maheśa Ṭhakkūr, the famous commentator on Jayadeva’s Tattvacintāmaṇyāloka, and Dāmodara.
The very simple rubric found at the end of the manuscript gives the author’s name as Bhagīratha Ṭhakkūr, and the title of the work as Prakāśikā.
Excerpts
Beginning
(f[1]v, 1-2) [1v1] oṃ namaḥ śivāya || kaiśoraṃ kalayantaṃ māyākāyaṃ purātanaṃ puruṣaṃ | nandālindaniketaṃ nigamarahasyan namasyāmi || yaḥ kaiśore viśvavikhyātakarmmā dharmmācāryyaḥ śrīmahādevaśarmmā || tatsodaryyo varddhamānasya sūktau bhāvaṃ meghaḥ samyag āviṣkaroti || [1v2] mūrddhnipuradviṣa iti pūrvvānvayi tenānyad api bījaṃ jalasambandhenāṅkuratīti dhvanir llabhyate || vidyāvidyayor iti nanv atra vyākhyāne viparīto rūpyarūpakabhava iti cet - atra vibhaktivipariṇāmena tathaivānvaya iti miśrāḥ |
End
(f.[172]r, l 4-6) [172r4] adṛṣṭeti | vipakṣavādhaketi - mūle vakṣyamāṇavipakṣavādhakety arthaḥ | paratvāparatve iti -| yady api yatra tṛtīyakṣaṇa eva dravyanāśas tatra paratvāparatvotpattir dvitīyakṣaṇekālādisaṃyogasyāsamavāyikāraṇasyotpattes tṛtīyakṣaṇe ca dra[172r5]vyasyaivanāśād iti vyabhicāro bhavaty eva tathāpi svarūpayogyatāmātram iha sādhyaṃ | tatsiddhau ca nityatvasamānādhikaraṇāyās tasyāḥ phalopadhānavyāpyatayāparatvādisiddhir iti bhāvaḥ | śeṣaṃ subodhaṃ || viṃśābdejayadevapaṇḍitakaves ta[172r6]rkkābdhipāraṃgataḥ śrīmān eṣa bhagīrathaḥsamajani śrīcandrapatyātmajaḥ | śrīdhīrātanayena tena racito śrīmanmaheśāgrajaśrīdāmodarapūrvajena jayatād ācandram eṣā kṛtiḥ ||
Final rubric
(f.[172]r, l. 6) mahāmahopādhyāyaṭhakkūraśrībhagīrathaviracitā prakāśikā samāptā - || la saṃ 431 rām ||
Physical Description:
India, Bengal. Palm-leaf. 172 folios. Recto of f. 1 and verso of f. 172 are left blank. 6 lines per page. Running invocation "Śrī", found along with folio numbers in the mid-left margin on the verso of every folio. 365 X 45 mm (Cabaton 1907). Old Bengali script. Scriptio continua. Black ink. One hand. 2 woodcovers.Custodial History:
This is part of a collection of 168 manuscripts in Indian languages acquired in Bengal and South India in the early 18th century by the Bibliothèque du Roi, sent by the Jesuits between 1729 and 1735 (see the list established in 1733 by J-F. Pons - BNF, ms. Nouvelles Acquisitions 5442, reproduced in Omont 1902: 1179-1192).
The manuscript likely to corresponds to no. 138 in Pons’s list ("Baguirata, sur la nature et la distinction des êtres"), but could also correspond to no. 128 ("Explication de l’ouvrage de Bardhamana sur Dribbi-Kiranabali"). It is not recorded in Hamilton and Langles’ catalogue (1807). Brief description in Cabaton (1907:151).
- Place
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- Preferred form
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- Bengal
- Original form
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- India, Bengal.
- Other form
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- Bengal
- Biblissima portal
- Biblissima authority file
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- Rights
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- Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits
- Digitisation
- Biblissima portal
