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Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c32.s1: The Commentators On Ruyyaka

Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c32.s1

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The Commentators On Ruyyaka

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ALAKA ( OR ALAṬA ? )

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This commentator is referred to by Ratnakaṇṭha in his own commentary on Mammaṭa¹, the name given being Rājānaka Alaka. We have seen that the identification of Mammaṭa's continuator Alaka, Alaṭa or Allaṭa with this commentator is open to doubt², and nothing more can be said on the subject until his commentary is recovered.

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¹ Peterson ii p. 17 and f.

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² See above p. 164.

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JAYARATHA

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His commentary is called *Alaṃkāra-vimarśinī*. He informs us that his father's name was Śṛṅgāra and his parton was king Rājarāja. From his commentary *Viveka* on the *Tantrāloka*, we learn that the full name of his father was Śṛṅgāraratha, who had two sons, named Jayaratha and Jayadratha³.

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³ The Kashmiri MSS of the *Alaṃkāra-vimarśinī* examined by Bühler vacillate between these two names as the name of our author ; and Peterson's MS of Ratnakaṇṭha's *Sāra-samuccaya* reads Jayadratha (ii p. 17), which is accepted by Aufrecht, although the published texts of the

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He also tells us that he was a pupil of Śaṅkhadhara and Śiva. Jayaratha’s pedigree is given at some length in his *Viveka*, and we learn that his great-grandfather’s brother was Śivaratha¹, who was a minister of king Ucchala of Kashmir (1101-1111 A.D.). As four generations intervene between the minister of Ucchala and Jayaratha, Bühler thinks that the latter lived in the beginning of the 13th century. Jacobi supports this conclusion and attempts to arrive at a greater precision by identifying Jayaratha’s (and father’s) patron king Rājarāja with Rājadeva who is mentioned by Jonarāja in 2 Rāja-taraṅgiṇī v 79-91, and who lived in 1203-1226 A.D.²

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¹ v. 22 ; see the extract given in Bühler *op. cit.* App. pp. cli f. This Śivaratha is mentioned in *Rāja-taraṅgiṇī* viii 111.

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² Jacob (*JRAS*, 1897, p. 283) came to the conclusion that Jayaratha must be placed later than the end of the 12th century, for he quotes from the *Pṛthvīrāja-vijaya*, a poem dealing with Pṛthvīrāja of Delhi who fell in 1193 A. D. (cf Bühler, *op. cit.* p. 62).

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The citations in Jayaratha are numerous, and include the names of Bhāmaha, Daṇḍin, Udbhaṭa Vāmana, Rudraṭa, the Dhvanikāra (=Ānandavardhana), the Vakrôkti-jīvita-kāra, Abhinavagupta, the Vyaktiviveka-kāra, Bhoja and Mammaṭa. Besides citing his own author’s other works and Rājanaka Tilaka’s work on Udbhaṭa, Jayaratha also *Vimarśinī*, as well as the *Viveka*, have Jayaratha, which Bühler himself considers (*op. cit.* p. 68) to be the correct name of the author of the two commentaries, the other being that of his brother.

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mentions two other works on Alaṃkāra unknown to us, viz. Alaṃkāra-bhāṣya (pp. 35, 83, 173) and Alaṃkāra-sāra (pp. 171, 172, 184). The Alaṃkāra-bhāṣya is also cited by Jagannātha (pp. 239, 365); while a work bearing the name Alaṃkāra-sāra is mentioned in Kielhorn's list¹, and in Peterson iii App. p. 393; but this is probably a later work attributed to Bālakṛṣṇa Pāyaguṇḍa who also wrote a commentary on Appayya's Citra-mīmāṃsā (q. v.) and was thus later than the end of the 16th century². The ºVimarśinī is, in its turn, cited extensively by Jagannātha, chiefly because Appayya, against whom Jagannātha's attacks are primarily directed, follows Ruyyaka and Jayaratha pretty slavishly.

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¹ Kielhorn's List 18; see also Aufrecht i 32b.

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² But see Pischel in GgA, 1885, p. 765, contra Jacobi in ZDMG xlii 293.

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Jayaratha appears also to have written another work on Poetics called Alaṃkārōdāharaṇa, in the concluding verse of which he refers to his ºVimarśinī. It appears from the resumé of the work given in Mitra 2442 that it was chiefly meant to adduce illustrations to Ruyyaka's text, which the limited scope of his ºVimarśinī did not allow him to do properly.

Cites (5)